Question: What is the group? Is it a kind of idea, people, or something else? Why is it so difficult to unite with people who aren’t like me?

Answer: Every person in the world is connected through his soul with the other souls. You need to enter this inner system of interconnected souls as though you’re diving to the ocean floor. And there you will discover the network of connections that binds all people.

Everyone is included in this network: Hitler, Stalin, Ahmadinejad, Moses, Abraham, and you. All the people you know only by their external form, as well as those you know on a deeper level, are all interconnected in the best possible way.

In the external world, every one of them fulfills a precise role in order to awaken the others to draw closer to this network, to dive into it, and find themselves there, bonded with everyone in heart and soul. You need to find the inner contact with them. The group is the inner unification of souls. And you must include yourself together with the rest.

Of course, speaking of the group, I’m primarily referring to those who study with us. But if you enter into this connection, you will see that this network unites everybody, even our greatest enemies.

We must understand that the external shell in which we exist in our world is given to us so that we could compel one another to do inner work. This whole game is necessary for you so that the Creator, the force which connects us internally, would be revealed in its external manifestation as well.

Internally this connection is maintained by Him, but externally it’s up to you do carry it out! And if you manage to erase the chasm between the internality and externality, this will constitute your complete correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Rabash writes that a person must have faith. What does he mean by “faith”?

Answer: We automatically perceive the words we read in Kabbalistic texts in the traditional sense that we are accustomed to. On one hand, it confuses us to no end, while on the other, we have to understand that it’s not accidental: We simply need to clarify the spiritual meaning of these words.

The inconsistency and confusion between the traditional interpretation of the word “faith” generally accepted in this world and its spiritual meaning is caused by the fact that we still lack inner perception. As soon as we begin to experience spirituality, this word doesn’t confuse us any longer.

For instance, I may have heard the word “salty” a thousand times, but until I get a taste of it, I won’t know what it means. My knowledge derives from the sensation. The desire to receive pleasure has to feel the taste of fulfillment, and until then it will keep experiencing nothing but confusion.

Question: Why are there people who can immediately believe what they are told?

Answer: This is the level of development of a person at the still, vegetative, or animate degree. When he or she reaches the “speaking” (human) level, from then on they have to evolve independently.

One’s entire previous state gets cancelled. If in the past he trusted all kinds of tales, beliefs, and religions, today he feels empty. And when he finds a teacher for himself, he doesn’t trust even him. Nor does he trust the group or books. He is told the books were written by the sages, so what?

A person doesn’t accept anything blindly anymore. What does he do then? He has to advance  by faith in the sages—above reason. This means that a person doesn’t take anything “on faith,” but is supposed to verify what Kabbalists described.

In order to do so, however, he has to fulfill a few conditions: open the books, join the group, examine its principles, and clarify how realistic and grounded they are on the forces, properties, and laws of Nature. A person needs to perform this analysis so he may acquire a second nature which at the moment is concealed from him.

Question: But in this case, he is advancing by way of knowledge. Where is “faith above reason” in it?

Answer: True. Above reason is when a person accepts these conditions and implements them within. In other words, he views all the doubts, confusion, and obstacles as a vehicle, a platform for his spiritual growth.

A person’s entire spiritual work lies above reason, but at each new degree, he clarifies these conditions by way of reason. Otherwise, how would we know we advance?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You said that in one’s internal analysis one gets an answer from within. How can I be sure that my egoism does not deceive me, and I receive the right answers instead of just imagining something?

Answer: If you are seeking how to move forward—by the books, the method, you receive the correct answer for a given moment. On the next step, you will receive a more correct answer.

Each successive step relative to the previous one is more correct, and the previous one seems to be erroneous. Thus, we advance. In this way, a child begins to understand that he played with toys, not something real.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Whether we did the job right in “the King’s palace” and the degree to which we corrected our vessels (desires) will determine the “feast” that we will come to and the taste we will find in it: sweet or bitter. We enjoy our similarity to the Creator and delight in its taste, while in our uncorrected desires we experience bitterness.

However, it is not the treats that are bitter; it is our intention, the revelation of our evil, the sensation of the lack of intention to bestow due to which we are unable to reach the King. In other words, coming to the recognition of evil is an entire process.

In my work while I anticipate the royal feast, I need to achieve a state where the work itself will become the feast for me, the reward that makes me so happy that I don’t need anything else. If I am pleasing the King, I am willing to remain in the state regarded as “this world.” I don’t ask anything of Him except one thing: an opportunity to be grateful to Him. I don’t even need to feel that I am delighting Him since this sensation brings the greatest possible pleasure of all. Hence, I don’t wish to feel even that.

I desire to stay in the same place where I am at the moment, without adding to it any understanding, attainment, connection, or taste. If I need anything at all, it is to thank the Creator and nothing more. This is what constitutes my work and my entire reward.

It is all right if I don’t know to whom and if I bestow and what will happen next—nothing. I cut myself off from any egoistic comprehension, attainment, or sensation. Thereby, after all the corrections have been made, I begin to experience the true taste of the Torah.

I raise Shechina (Divinity) from the dust, albeit it is only in my eyes that it is so while Shechina herself does not change. It is written, “And you shall eat old store long kept.” I deceive myself that I seemingly live in this world. Nothing changes except for the value that I give it. If I gratefully accept from the Creator my current, worst possible state, there is no better state.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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The difficulty lies in the fact that we have to go through the recognition of evil, confusion, followed by disappointments and corrections. A person will always be tempted to justify himself and feel in the position to decide, as if he understands what to do.

He will find a thousand citations and build an entire theory to support himself. He will whine and act up. This is why it is so difficult for us to find the truth.

It is only if a person has an aspiration for the truth, rejects hypocrisy, and seeks the truth that he will realize with increasing clarity that he has been deceiving himself in each state. Hence, he will regret it and will reform himself.

In fact, it is very challenging to enjoy the work because of its bitter taste and pointlessness from the mind’s perspective. Most importantly, we can’t find any egoistic support for it and always treat it as something silly, like clowns. We are ready to pick anything but cleaving to the Creator, the pure property of bestowal that is beyond any concern for oneself.

The Torah is divided into two parts: “servitude to the creatures” and “servitude to the Creator.” This is another obstacle on our path since we get confused as to what is primary and what is secondary in it. Usually, a person makes a mistake and becomes a slave to the creatures, meaning that he doesn’t serve them in order to come to the servitude to the Creator thereby, but simply gains egoistic fulfillment from them.

These are really simple questions, but they are impossible to explain. A person has to feel on his own how many traps are awaiting us on the path. We may find a certain niche for ourselves, a safe haven, and freeze ourselves within it for the rest of this life.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, Writings of Baal HaSulam

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Question: On one hand, all our work lies in correcting the connection between a person and a fellow human being. On the other, the correction is done through The Book of Zohar. How can I tie it all together?

Answer: Correction results from the Light concealed in the texts written by Kabbalists. Yet it happens on the condition that we desire to perceive and comprehend the reality they describe so that all that is written in these texts would clothe in us and we would be in the same system of relationships between us.

It implies the connection between all souls to such an extent that we reach unity, become a unified system: Malchut of Infinity. If I strive to achieve unity as in “love your neighbor as yourself,” if I desire this, then The Book of Zohar starts talking about me.

As a result, I receive the force of correction from The Book of Zohar and gradually advance by reading it. In fact, the book itself contains nothing, but by reading it and wishing to be in this system, I draw the power of the force field that does reside in Malchut of Infinity—and thereby I reach this system.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, The Zohar

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To be in a state of Lo Lishma (for oneself) means to know what Lishma (bestowal) is. We cannot make judgments about any quality if we have not attained its opposite. That is why we have to feel to some extent what Lo Lishma and Lishma are, in order to assess in which state, relative to these, we are.

All of the Lo Lishma steps begin with the moment a person imagines himself to be in the upper Light, in the absolute quality of bestowal, but he does not feel this quality because his own qualities are not yet corrected and they conceal the true perception from him, meaning that they conceal the Creator from him personally. Then, a person says that he is located in Lo Lishma, in egoism.

He can say which qualities in particular are concealing the Creator from him during each moment, at any given opportunity. He is like a child who is perceiving life on the level of a two-year-old or a ten-year-old.

In other words, we have to imagine what bestowal is. We may not perceive it yet in its true sense, but we already feel that we are located opposite to this quality, besides which there is nothing.

However, in our perception of reality, we see our own dark qualities, opposite to bestowal, that draw us such a picture, all kinds of forms against the white background of the quality of Bina, the property of bestowal. This picture, the level of concealment from us of the quality of bestowal, is called this world. On the other hand, this world “covers” (compensates for) my imperfections and conceals them from me, and I am able to exist behind this concealing screen.

The Creator simultaneously reveals and conceals Himself from us, and we need to take this example from Him and clarify both of His qualities: His revealing Himself to us and His concealing Himself. That is, there always exists some kind of revelation and concealment called the “screen,” “covering,” which conceals and at the same time adds and compensates.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/19/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Does the women’s desire contain the desire to acquire the intention to bestow?

Answer: This intention is absent from the desires of both men and women. How can it just appear inside us? All we want is to receive. How can we acquire the intention to bestow? The Light does this and not us.

I am an absolute egoist; I only think about myself and cannot leave this state. Neither the desires in my heart nor the thoughts in my mind can work differently. This is nature, this is how I was made. So what to do?

Only if we, together, wish correctly for the Light to descend upon us and correct us, will we acquire, apart from our egoism, an intention to work with it correctly. This will be the desire for the Light, for the will to bestow, to love.

Our egoism will stay. But working on it correctly, we increase and intensify the Light. This is the essence of our historical path.

From the world of Infinity, our first state, where we begin, we pass through our present, second state, and reach the world of Infinity, the third state, once again. This third state is said to be 620 times greater than the first state. 620 is just a name, in reality it is billions of billions of times greater. The key is that in the third state, we know where we are.

In the first state we were a drop of semen, and in the third state we become completely like the Creator, gaining his status. This is what we achieve thanks to this amplification, when our egoism stays, slowly developing in us as a huge ego, while we can use it to intensify the weak Light of Nefesh that filled us in the first state.

Nefesh is a very small Light, in which life barely exists. And in the third state we achieve a degree that’s called NRNHY, a huge Light that fills all the worlds.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Moscow Convention 6/10/11

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Question: What is closeness to the teacher and what is study “mouth to mouth”?

Answer: Closeness to the teacher does not mean that a person is physically close to him—this does not matter at all. A person is close to the teacher when he feels that the teacher can transfer everything he has to him and desires to do so, but to the extent that the person opens himself to it. This is because when it comes to contact and communication, the one who transfers and the one who receives have to connect.

So first of all, one should believe that the teacher constantly transfers and there are things that can be taken from him. This depends on the student. Second, the student needs to understand that he can receive whatever comes from the teacher only to the extent of his sensitivity to it.

Of course, in general everything depends on the student. Only on the student! Practically nothing depends on the teacher. On the other hand, the student must completely attune himself to receiving. What does it mean to receive? It means to connect. In other words, he needs to have thoughts, feelings, and directions somewhat like his teacher’s, even if it is only in one percent similarity. He must desire to perceive from him, he must be tuned to the same current. And then he will succeed.

The study consists of two levels:

1. “From mouth to ears,” which is verbal communication, when I speak with my mouth, and the student perceives with his ear.
2. “From mouth to mouth,” where the mouth refers to the common screen, which is in the mouth of the spiritual Partzuf.

So when we communicate in such a way that the student does not want or is not yet able to be on the same level as his teacher, then he listens. He can listen without a desire, without much effort; he can even be against his teacher and still hear him in a way.

This is not yet one screen, one aspiration, some kind of a mutual connection, when they are connected at least by one percent. When they are connected, the student will be able to receive information from mouth to mouth to the extent of this connection, that is, to the extent of this shared screen, shared aspiration. This is something to strive for. This is difficult work with one’s egoism, but it is possible, and then everything the teacher has flows into the student.

Question: Do you have the opportunity to choose who will be close to you?

Answer: Whoever will be close to the teacher does not depend on him. Whoever puts himself in the place of a student, will be a student. Sometimes the teacher really wants for certain people to be his students because these people have certain special attributes, and it might be easier to convey the ideas to humanity in a faster and more vivid way through them, but these people might be incapable of it, neglect the opportunity, and miss the chance.
[45684]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson from Moscow 6/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: My body consists of multiple cells that are programmed to constantly “think” about the entire organism instead of themselves. Each cell works as if it is certain that the latter will provide it with all that it needs, as in the mutual guarantee.

How does this mass of cells ultimately produce my “self” that is completely opposite to them and desires to receive for its own gratification? When does this switch occur?

Answer: In other words, there is a system that includes the still, vegetative, and animate degrees governed by nature from Above, and it remains in harmony and mutual guarantee. What happens with the speaking degree? It seems as if you can do whatever you please and get away with it, answering to no one, that it’s all up to you.

Nowadays, in our world, we begin to understand and become aware of the fact that the speaking level requires correction just like all the other levels preceding it, which are operated by nature in the correct way. The still, vegetative, and animate degrees within us and nature that surrounds us indeed exist in the mutual guarantee. You don’t need to correct anything else but the intention at the speaking degree.

Question: So, does it mean that my body is spiritual while only my “self” is corporeal?

Answer: Your body is spiritual, and you must not correct it. At its level, it acts as a spiritual one. In phases one, two, and three of the expansion of the Direct Light, there isn’t a vessel yet. There is no desire; therefore, there is no separation from spirituality.

It could be compared to the degrees of our bodies for which correction is not necessary. They have flaws that we project onto them from the fourth, speaking level and thereby impair them. However, that doesn’t mean that they are uncorrected.

We damaged nature, and we view it as damaged afterward. However, it is we who did it! As to nature itself, it always stays in balance, in equilibrium. We observe how one beast consumes another, and in our mind, it is an evil act. However, it is not. If we would take the time to thoroughly examine it all, we would see that this is their way of taking care of each other, cleaning nature, and ultimately living in peace since everything derives from the balance of forces.

Thus, only the fourth phase, human within human, needs to be corrected. The first three degrees are corrected in Him, and if the fourth phase becomes reformed, we will see the world as perfect, including man’s body and all that exists.
[45902]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/20/2011, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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