Question: When I read your books, I feel the revelation of a new world. However, as soon as I shut them, I remember only myself. How can I keep the sensation which I had while reading the books?

Answer: You don’t need to remember anything, but rather to forget, and it’s wonderful that you do! After all, if you do not forget, you act according to what I wrote in the books, according to my mind and feeling. If you read a lot, repeat what you already read, and still forget, you accumulate your inner sensations. You need to do that, and this is your accomplishment.

The more you forget the better. A person has to come out of the lesson and remember nothing because the wisdom of Kabbalah is not like other sciences of our world that require memorizing. When I study at a university, I have to remember some knowledge and then demonstrate it at the exam. In Kabbalah, the exam tests what I have built within myself as a result of what I read and heard.

Therefore, I strongly recommend that everyone has a full set of our books. Read them at home, while commuting on a bus or train, during a lunch break, every time when you have an opportunity to open a book. Through it you connect with the spiritual root.
[43033]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Question: What forces prevent my prayer from being raised to the Gate of Tears?

Answer: First of all, we have no place to turn to except for the collective force of the group since that is where the Creator is. The “Gate of Tears” means that we break our egoism and unify as one.

This state is regarded as the “Gate of Tears” because when we come to it, we feel neither desire, nor strength, nor ability to unite. And that is when (if we really achieved such a state) we receive the power to plea and cry since we are unified as one vessel with one desire. Our weakness and hopelessness lead to a cry called “tears,” and then the “Gate” finally opens.

This occurs only when unity is achieved, and unification begins at the center of the group. Hence, it doesn’t matter where you are, in Detroit or any other place. The state when you wish to bond together in order to come to love but cannot is regarded as the “Gate of Tears.”
[43036]
From Lesson 8, WE! Convention 4/3/2011

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article “What Is the Foundation on which Kedusha [Holiness] Is Built”: When building a building in corporeality, we see that anyone who wants to build a building must first dig the foundations, and on the foundation he builds the building. In digging the foundation, we see that we should discern between having to build a one-story building—that is, only the ground floor—or a multi-story building. Thus, the digging of the foundation into the ground should be according to the height of the building. The foundation is not dug at once. Rather, each day the foundation is built so that it will be deeper, and then one can build a higher building.

The same order applies in spirituality.… And what is digging in spirituality? It is a deficiency, when a deficiency is dug in the heart, since the heart is called “desire,” a heart is called Malchut, and a heart is called “earth” or “ground.”…In other words, before we go and build a building, we must first dig in the ground, that is, take out whatever there is in the digging site.

For the creature to learn the conditions that would allow it to become similar to the Creator and to realize the purpose of creation, it has to include in itself all the properties of the Creator, one by one. That is why all the properties of the Creator and all the properties of the creature are included into each other and intertwined in such a way that the creature is left with a “record” (impression) of what it means to be similar to the Creator. This is achieved by the breaking that extends from above down to the depth of desire, from the zero to the fourth level.

This is how a complete mutual inclusion of the properties of the Creator and those of the creature in the form opposite to the goal occurs. This form contains all the details that are absolutely opposite to the final, fully corrected state. Here, the real creature, “man,” appears, and he is called to become similar to the Creator in the future. From this state, he begins to ascend by himself and to attain the Creator, the true property of bestowal. In this way, man advances from the beginning of creation to its completion, the end of correction.

Everything is built on the desire to enjoy, on the matter of creation. The more we use it, the more we can build, meaning that primarily, we have to delve into the desire to enjoy and feel how much it’s opposite to the Creator. This means that we dig into it at a great depth and aren’t afraid to reveal its oppositeness. This is an unpleasant feeling and usually brings suffering. After all, we reveal the property opposite to goodness.

Next, we come to the necessity of correction and begin to ask the Light, the property of the Creator, to correct the property of the creature. This is called “to build a building.” However, people are not capable of building it themselves—the Light builds. We have to provide the vessel, the desire, and express our request precisely. If we understand and ask precisely for what is necessary in order to ascend one more step, one more “story,” the Light comes and builds it. Thus, we advance further.

The foundation which is used for building the spiritual structure is the desire to enjoy, the sensation of its oppositeness to the Creator. The deeper we dig, the higher we can ascend.
[42996]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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When we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, we think that it will be easy and will continue to provide extraordinary inspiration one usually feels in the beginning. But with time, we have to start digging deeper, inside our own egoism, and then the experience becomes unpleasant.

The body doesn’t really want to get up for the morning lesson, go study, neglect rest, think and feel that I’m distant from spirituality and unwilling to connect with others, or worry about bestowal and knowing only how to receive.

Thus we begin to experience the “foundation pit” being dug in our hearts. And later on everything is determined by how far we can reach into our ego. It can be done with the help of the environment since a person cannot do it alone. No matter how unpleasant it is and how much egoism hurts, the person will be willing to find out how opposite he or she is to bestowal, having none of its properties. And from one’s despair, from all the descents and lack of inspiration, he will advance.

This means that the foundation upon which we build the spiritual structure is not that pleasant. It is an empty “abyss” dug in the heart; it is our digging into the “earth,” our own desire, the darkness, the realization of our egoism and opposition to bestowal. And only someone who is able to bear it and is willing to work so methodically, by having built the supportive environment around oneself, will have the required strength and won’t fear digging deeper into himself and moving forth.

Thereby, he will establish a foundation upon which he will be able to erect his building, meaning that through the group, he will demand the Light that Reforms that will construct it for him. The deeper he will be digging within, the taller the house he will be able to erect. After all, it is written that “the Creator made one against the other.”

We start with the state regarded as “zero” and first, we take one step down, in order to later rise one step up. We take two steps down and ascend them again. Thus, we go through them all: 0-1-2-3-4, until, finally, we arrive at the end of correction having undergone four “exiles” and four “redemptions.”

We have reached the last state of exile now; therefore, what lies ahead of us is the last, total redemption.

[42993]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why did we need all these thousands of years of development, incarnations, and suffering if the major change is occurring only today?

Answer: The will to receive pleasure is supposed to undergo all these stages and at each of them, no matter how small, to make a conscious conclusion that its current state is bad and it needs to continue the journey, add another gram of desire, and ascend one millimeter higher toward a new quality.

At each new degree, everything seems just fine, but a few moments later you lack something again, and something is wrong. Another evil unfolds, to such an extent that you can’t bear it anymore. First, everything was so great, and now it is killing me, and I have to ascend to the next step.

Thus, we climb a whole lot of steps, delighted in the beginning of each and squirming in pain in the end. Without these impressions, I don’t experience the contrast between the Light and the darkness and don’t acquire a vessel built from these opposite aspects of perception. Without the vessel, I will have nothing to turn to the Light of Infinity with.

Hence, I have to walk this entire path, climb thousands of steps, having absorbed the delight and horror of each of them. Thus we arrive at the last step on the ladder, and even now, in the state of love and bestowal, we still fall, just as Rabbi Shimon did, who turned into a “market merchant” before reaching the final correction.

What kind of state is that? Where did he fall to? At the 124th rung that precedes the last one, he discovered that it is the worst step of all, where he felt like “Shimon from the market.” And then, once he had experienced the difference with the next rung, he ascended to the final perfection.

The higher you have ascended, the worse your current degree makes you feel since it becomes a stepping stone for the next. This current degree feels so bad that you can’t bear it any longer. In the end, having gathered all your positive and negative impressions, you raise them upward. The negative makes the depth of your vessel, while the positive becomes your response to bestowal, and thereby you acquire a complete vessel.

We hope for a certain “leap,” while there aren’t any. A one-year-old child cannot make a leap and become a five-year-old. Can he really skip a slow, gradual process of growth? He would lack those lost years all his life. His perception in all areas of life would be distorted. Preparation of the vessel is necessary, and it cannot be avoided.
[42961]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: How can the “evil inclination” exist if there is only the Creator and none else besides Him?

Answer: And who created this “evil inclination” if there is nothing else besides the Creator? The Creator made this evil. And it lives under the Creator’s thumb. The Creator controls it; He begot it; it is His son, as it is written: “I created the evil inclination.”

Question: But the Creator is good that does good, so how can evil derive from Him?

Answer: The good who does good created this “evil inclination,” as it is said: “The end result is in its initial thought.” In fact, if you decided to create someone else besides you, so that your creation could reach your level, and if you wanted to assist it with all your heart and soul, with all that you have, then you wouldn’t have a choice: You must create a vessel in it, a desire that will be exactly as your own in quantity, quality, understanding, attainment, and everything else, but with a reverse imprint. And that is exactly what the Creator did.

Therefore, the “evil inclination” is the entire creation; nothing else is required. We don’t understand it. We think that there are material objects, for example, a pencil. Why not? After all, you see that it exists. It has color, shape, and weight. But in spirituality it doesn’t exist. In spirituality, one exists only if he has an individual essence, something of his own, instead of existing only because someone created him or her.

Let’s say a pencil doesn’t exist in spirituality since there is no action coming from it, no desire to be similar to the Creator. Therefore, it doesn’t exist in the spiritual dimension. All that we see in our world doesn’t exist in spirituality. This world doesn’t exist because this world is a reality which doesn’t have any personal motion toward equivalence to the Creator, in any object or any desire.

For this reason, if we are to create a being, we must program in it an ability to move autonomously, independently. What kind of creature did the Creator create? It was the “evil inclination.” But does this “evil inclination” have its own ability to move? Is it really that independent and respectable? Yes, it is.

The evil inclination is the left line in spirituality, where it counters the Creator, understands Him, and desires to be opposite. That’s where it all begins. The evil inclination doesn’t start with my wanting to gobble up food or sleep.

After we undergo preparation in this world and cross the Machsom, then from one side, we receive the “evil inclination,” the left line, reception, and from the other, “the good inclination,” the right line, bestowal. And it’s our job to restore the middle line in between.

On the left side, there is the “evil inclination,” Pharaoh, who claims: “I rule!” and it is only after the Machsom. And right against it, there is the upper force, bestowal. As to us, we are in the middle line.

This is the very “evil inclination” created by the Creator, while all we have during our preparation in this world is a mere animate existence, neither good nor bad. It’s not what we are talking about. And hence, this world doesn’t exist; it is imaginary and has neither good nor bad in it.

The “good” and “evil” inclinations exist only in spirituality. They are the two angels, two forces, two servants. Whom do they serve? They serve man who is building himself, meaning his own desire, his “Self,” from both of them. That is what the Creator desires.

Hence, how can my “Self” be realized if I don’t have these two forces from which I will construct myself in the middle, between “pro” and “con,” by making my own choice? Therefore, the Creator intentionally created the “evil inclination” as a force that opposes Him. After all, bestowal, the “good inclination,” is the Creator Himself. Then, between these two forces, in the middle part of Tifferet, between its upper and lower thirds, there is space for man.

This is the only way you can build a free space or the point of free will. Freedom lies only between two strictly defined states that press on you from both directions, and you must choose between them.

The point of freedom, the point of choice, free choice, is the choice you make in the narrow, contracting space between the blades of the scissors. Imagine this: Two walls suddenly start moving and squeezing us in between them… This is what freedom is. And the higher you rise on the steps of the spiritual ladder, the narrower the space in between them gets and the harder they press on you. But it is from this very pressure, from the horrible tension between them, you find your expression of Self.
[42860]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, The Zohar

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Question: In the material world, we have no power over our desires. In bestowal, desires are much greater, so how will we be able to manage them?

Answer: In bestowal, I face a fellow man. By connecting to him, it is I who determines the degree, the power, and the kind of desire from which I form the vessel of the soul. I am the one who makes all the decisions.

On second thought, this is where another question arises: Who am “I”? After all, I have certain predispositions and properties that define what I am. True, certain parameters are not up to me since in the end, I am just a cogwheel in the integral system and can function solely in this capacity. It can’t be argued with, but it is still you who decides how to build a relationship with the others, how to act in a common mechanism, and how to form it in your own view.

Thus, by unifying with others, you take over the entire “machine.” If you stop, the whole system will stop with you. Do you want to switch the engine off? Go ahead! So, it turns out that when you start to move, you feel the entire reality and see which part and what side of it you can connect with.

Despite the fact that you are just a tiny cogwheel, the entire enormous machine depends on you, and you acquire the collective desire, the whole system with all that is in it. You, a mere minuscule cogwheel, become totally identical to the Creator because the entire system hinges upon you.

The integral system possesses a remarkable property we can’t comprehend: Everyone is just as vital in it as the whole. This pertains even to those whose points in the hearts haven’t awakened yet. Such a person may take his or her place at the last moment, to patch a tiny little hole in the common boat, but without them, the system simply won’t function right. And in the end, they too will receive the collective reward.

Why then is he or she the last to arrive? That is so because they were the most corrupted. Only after all the others have been reformed, this last person’s time has come to contribute their part to the collective.

We may have a tendency to despise the “people on the street.” And yet, it is they who will do the most meaningful work. Baal HaSulam explains it to us in “Introduction to The Book of Zohar”: Our forefathers have done tremendous work, but it is we, the lower elements of the integral structure, who carry the Lights to their vessels.
[42971]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: There many groups and communities in the world which pursue all kinds of goals. Does a connection without the points in the hearts help people rise above egoistic desire?

Answer: The point in the heart is a desire to reveal the root; it is a part of the Creator from Above. I have a black point, the need for something that I can’t even define. In this life, I lack a sensation, an understanding: What is this life for? Why does it exist? Where is it from? What is its purpose ? Who is controlling me?

I start having questions about the purpose of life. It’s as if from Above, there is a thread wired to me, a channel of forces and the upper management, and I wish to attain it, to know the reason to live. I ask questions which a regular person is scared to ask, embarrassed to raise.

These questions eventually merge into one: “What is the meaning of life?” Without answering it, I don’t see why I should live at all. I need to break the lock on this “jewelry box.” And if my question digs into the very essence, the source of life, it means that I do have the point in the heart.

A person with the point in the heart comes to the group that studies this specific question: “How do I find the purpose of life, its source? How do I uncover the upper governance and join it with all that I am?” A person cannot quit half way on this path for his desire is toward the very essence of creation, and nothing will stop him now. He is ready to face the Creator and doesn’t succumb to any limitations. No matter how hard others may try to hold him or her back, no matter what they may say, the person just doesn’t care.

Such people come to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There is another kind as well, those who are still thinking. Their point in the heart has also woken up, but it is still “wrapped” in all sorts of covers. So, they are satisfied by mysticism, holistic practices, eastern philosophies, meditation, vegetarianism, naturalism, and so on. All of these trends start with the same question, and this is why they are so popular in our times. On the subconscious level, man feels that it’s time to transcend somewhat, it is time to change…

Thus, gradually, we do advance. We have to wait until people check these directions. In the meantime, their desire grows, so little by little, they will quit their quests and come to the source, to the method that can reveal it to them. Such is the path.
[42964]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, “The Freedom”

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Question: How does the reading of The Book of Zohar help me to feel our collective desire?

Answer: The Zohar tells us about the corrected system of the connection between us. If I feel my connection with the others as uncorrected and desire to have it reformed, I study The Book of Zohar and in so doing wish to get elevated to its level, the level of the corrected connection.

I don’t know what the corrected state is and how I can ascend to it. I only know that I must reach the state The Zohar describes. I don’t understand what is written there; I don’t even have to know the language, it doesn’t matter.

What does matter is that I strive to be corrected. To be corrected means to unite with the group, the society, the others, and come to loving the others as I love myself. After all, love means oneness between us, when desires of the others and my own are one and the same. Then, we are unified.

It is written that if you have one pillow, you have to reach a state when you give it to the other. Why? It is because his desire has become more important to you than your own. Why is this regarded as loving the other as you love yourself? Since previously you loved yourself more than him and now you must love him just as you used to love yourself, it is more than yourself. And this is what we call the property of bestowal that dwells in man.

It seems unrealistic, appalling, and undesired. I have no idea what we are studying it for. And that’s how everybody thinks. But there is no choice. Gradually, the importance of the property of bestowal sinks deeper and deeper in us. We start seeing the highest and unique value in it and gradually, agree to live in it. This is how the Light affects us, especially when we are reading The Zohar. It descends and reforms our attitude to bestowal.
[42941]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/13/2011, The Zohar

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Question: Can the “evil inclination” make any autonomous movement?

Answer: The “evil inclination” and the Light work in unison since the “evil inclination” is the other side of the Light. It isn’t some desire that does whatever it pleases. It doesn’t exist in reality.

On the contrary, the Creator, with the help of the Light, awakes in a person all sorts of sensations or the dark states, which are regarded as the “evil inclination.” What personal desire can possibly be there in the world?! Who can possibly have it?! Nobody moves because they wish so!

Only in the degree of a person’s ability to recognize the “evil” and the “good” inclinations and stay in the state of faith above reason does he start to reveal some possibility to be free in that state. Free from what, the Creator? From the “good” or “evil” inclination? To be free means that a person voluntarily agrees to carry out the action that the Creator will perform anyway.

There is no reality that would be occurring on its own volition. The Light works upon everything decidedly and irrevocably, and it can’t be reasoned with. The additional element regarded as “man” is nothing but the fact that a person understands, feels, and agrees with the Creator’s actions. All we add is our agreement, so much so that the Creator demonstrates to us: “Do this instead of me!” and we do what He does. This depends on the level of one’s understanding, the height of his attainment.

What other option do you really have? Everything is predetermined, as it is written: “He that is banished be not an outcast from Him.” Everything is under His total control. Nothing works but the Light. We add our equivalence with the Light, with the Creator. And hence, in order to bring us to this awareness, the “evil inclination” was created so that we had a counter desire to speak against it: “I don’t want to!”

It is intentionally so, in order to give us an opportunity to examine and comprehend this—from the struggle between good and evil, from our unwillingness and disagreement, like a stubborn child who rebels against his parents.

But gradually, we search, agree, and realize how perfect everything is. And then, even if the Creator didn’t exist and neither did His power, I still wish for everything to be done the way He did it. This is regarded as a “complete righteous” who totally justifies the Creator. Let’s hope we will come to it one day.
[42857]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/12/2011, The Zohar

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