Question: Why do we undergo such a long, tangled, and unclear process that contradicts our logic and common sense?

Answer: The point is that ultimately, to the created being made by the Creator, we have to add our own desire, our need to experience Him, to receive the upper Light and spiritual fulfillment. I have to come with an eagerness, hunger, and desire of my own.

And in order to obtain a desire of my own, I need to start at the opposite end, from not wanting any of this! Only by coming to this desire from its opposite end can I say that it’s mine! Otherwise, it is not.

Suppose I want something right now. Where does this desire come from? If I dig into the depth of it, I will understand that it’s not actually mine, but rather derives from some internal causes: genes, hormones, information accumulated in my memory, the environment, and the needs of my body and nature. That means I am being awakened from within, but it isn’t my desire whatsoever; instead, it’s the call of my nature. And, a slave to my natural instinct, I start running to get what I want.

What I presently want is food, sex, family, wealth, power, honor, and knowledge. But do I really want it? No, I don’t! I was either born this way or the environment influenced me every minute by instilling in me these sorts of desires. But it isn’t the “Self” that I am.

So, it looks like I am a puppet and not even aware of it. I think that I am the master of my life and, like a hero, fight to get out of it what I want. But it turns out that it isn’t what I want at all. Who am I then if I act like a robot? I cry, strive, and labor, if only to realize that I am fulfilling someone else’s desires and don’t even know that I am a slave. I am totally dependent on the strings by which I’m pulled and controlled every moment.

If we had a chance to see ourselves from aside, we would see exactly this: We are puppets that have nothing of their own, no personal desires or chances to fulfill them. We are not the ones to define our purpose, and apparently, we aren’t even humans, but rather some dolls made of fabric and tied to the strings that are moving us up and down.

However, when I feel a desire within, isn’t it I who does? It is also a big question since a feeling arises in the matter provided for me. A certain internal disturbance inside the puppet occurs, certain electrical impulses pass through it, and it starts reacting and acting.

If we examine ourselves in such depth, we will see that there isn’t a creature here! This is when we begin to understand what the Creator’s task was: How to create basic, primary desire that didn’t derive from Him. How can He make a doll that, despite it being plastic, would obtain life and start thinking and desiring on its own? Moreover, how to make its desires, thoughts, and actions its own? Otherwise, the whole creation is a mere toy, a total hoax.

We don’t even realize how difficult it is to create us so that we would build something within ourselves independently, something that could be called “man” (Adam), meaning “similar” (Domeh) to the Creator, autonomous and independent in one’s choices, actions, and desires, and not merely a drone.

Therefore, we are destined to pass through strange and unusual states, until we obtain desire of our own. And only when that moment is reached will we be called “human,” Israel. Those who are still controlled from Above are regarded as the “nations of the world.” But those who have already evolved and have their own desire that moves them toward the Creator are regarded as Israel (Yashar El, “straight to the Creator”).

So, the purpose of the created being is to obtain such a desire and utilize it, and that is what the upper Light is leading us to. It can bring us only to the awareness of how necessary this purpose is, whereas to earn this desire is our job. Here, we cannot receive anything ready-made since otherwise, it won’t be our own merit.

Hence, the Creator awakens us once with delight and another time with suffering, using these two particular reins to drive us to creating something new within ourselves.
[42446]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2011, “Explanation of the Article, ‘Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah’”

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Question: If the general and the particular are equal, then the group, as well as an individual, should fear a possibility that we won’t transcend our ego?

Answer: If it is really a “group,” it transforms from the general into the particular, into “one whole” in relation to the Creator. And in the degree that the group becomes one particular “individual,” reaches unity and guarantee, one common consideration, this “individual” turns increasingly rich and exceptional, by unifying various states of all its participants within itself.

The Creator is described as “One, Unique, and Unified (singular).” So is the group, if it acts as “one” but unites in itself actions of many people, it is regarded as “singular,” “unique in its right.” And this is what determines the power of “one.”

The group isn’t measured by the number of its participants. It is defined by their unity, the quality of their bond that is characterized by the fact that they unified, having risen above their egoism for the sake of the rest. This is what makes the group powerful since in spirituality, power is determined not by quantity, but rather by quality, and is a result of many ties, specifically due to the fact that they are unifying as one whole.

This is the force with which we discover the spiritual world! If we can reconcile all these meanings together: “One, Unique, and Unified” as pertaining to the connection between us, we will come to the Creator’s revelation.
[42334]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/2011, Shamati No. 56

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Question: What does “There is none else besides Him” mean? And how do people with the point in the heart, without the point in the heart, and the religious masses attain Him?

Answer: People existing in our world can relate to the whole of reality just as to the environment in which they live, similar to all living beings. Besides that, people can have an additional relationship to their life that animals do not have. If a person was taught to believe in the upper force, this relationship can be either good or evil. If you are good, the upper force will be good to you, and if you are bad, it will be evil to you. This force wants you to be good and thus sends challenges to you. It treats you with kindness if you behave well. So, it is worth being good.

What does it mean to be “good” in the eyes of the upper force? Here, people have invented various systems to the point of sacrificing their own children and annihilating infidels in religious wars. Coming from their ego, people created for themselves all kinds of relations to this upper force.

Baal HaSulam explains the origin of religions and beliefs in his article “The Peace.” In essence, religions are a system for the development of humans, advancing them to spirituality. Those layers of desires to enjoy which are not able to aspire to the Creator move ahead with the help of religions. People know one thing only: There is the upper force, and we are in a certain system of relationship with it: If I am good, it is kind; if I am bad, it is evil.

Then, the sole problem is to define the desires of this upper force. Every religion has its own view on this matter, and each considers itself the right one. And here is all the difference between the religions: how to worship this upper force, how to fulfill its desires so we can live comfortably in this world and in the future world. They seem to work in front of this upper force like in front of the lord, the king: “How can we fulfill Him so He is pleased with us?”

Thus, there are three types of people:

1. Entirely secular with an animal’s attitude towards reality
2. Religious who worship the upper force, trying to find the ways to please it
3. Kabbalists

Kabbalists say that this upper force, the Creator, has no relations with you personally. Even if you say that there is none else besides Him, the good who does good, it is an all-embracing power.

Everything depends on me, and He has no personal relationship with me. Everything is determined by the measure of my transformation in simple, constant, unchangeable existing Light, as it is said: “I did not change my HaVaYaH,” “the Law was given and cannot be transgressed.”

This means that the Creator has no personal relationship with me, has no calculations with respect to me, nothing! I simply feel that He does. But I perceive a computer just the same way. Let’s say, I was working on the computer yesterday and got angry with it in earnest, was ready to smash it with a hammer. Was it its fault? It is a gadget made of steel and plastic.

However, since I work with it, I transfer my personal qualities onto it, think of its behavior as good or bad, and fume at it: “Look what it has done to me!” Similarly, I get angry with a car if something happens to it.

These are fundamental things inherent in our nature. This is not funny at all. Our belief in the power of nature, which treats me kindly or unkindly, stems from here. What do we tell a child when he hits himself on a table? “Hit it back; it has hurt you!” And if it is not a table, but something more abstract, large and all-encompassing, we speak in a different way: “Treat Him well, and He will do you good.” Faith starts from here.

We don’t understand yet that if we are not at the point of truth, we don’t work with anything. We merely work against the law of nature, as “the law was given and cannot be transgressed.” The Creator doesn’t change. Thus, whether I am good or bad, it affects only me. I don’t do to the Creator either good or bad; I don’t touch Him.

When I say that He is happy for me or I make Him sad, it is I who says this. I just perceive this in my senses. If so, what or who makes me change? My ego? It means that I do this only with the purpose of feeling good. Nothing else obliges me! Or maybe the environment, threatening me with punishment, forces me to change?

If this is our attitude towards the entire, perfect reality, no one can force me to change. It can happen only by faith above reason! Why do I exist in this broken, false reality? I want to build from it an independent attitude towards this force, “the good who does good,” the only existing one. What does “an independent attitude” mean? It means that I relate to this force without any personal goal, and it doesn’t know, understand, or sense anything from me. What do I base my work on? “He hangs the Earth upon nothing,” which is called “ten Sefirot Blima (concealing).”

Gradually, I come to such perception of reality that I don’t make any personal calculations, like I make today. I just want to learn from this force its property, become similar to Him. This is my reward. I need no result, neither for the force, nor for myself; I desire only to become like Him, as it is said: “The reward for a commandment is to know the One who commands.”

These are very subtle concepts that are impossible to explain. A person who has no point in the heart will never be impressed by this or understand what is hidden behind. “For whom do I work then? If there is nobody but me who would receive my work and, as a result, treat me differently, it means that I work against the wall, against the void. Then, what do these words mean: “The book is open, and the hand is writing,” “sentences himself and the world to a scale of merit?”

All these words are intended to bring us closer to the ideal, which is called “faith above reason.” There, you don’t have any calculations that you can imagine. You have no one to address. You can make calculations only with the one who has desire, strength, and action. “There is none else besides Him” and “the good who does good” implies that He doesn’t act from the other side. We talk about our actions: changes of states, reactions, but He doesn’t have anything. If so, it’s as if He doesn’t act. He doesn’t seem live if He doesn’t change. This is how it appears to us.
[42107]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No. 1

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Question: The world group contains a great desire that we can work with, but how do we penetrate within?

Answer: We are still lacking mutual guarantee. That’s the problem. Everyone has a desire, but we still don’t feel total interconnection, when any hole in the common boat sinks it to the bottom. Obviously, the Creator is helping us with it since we can’t plug all the holes ourselves. It is written: “Turn to Me, and I will repay.” However, later on, He will pass this work down do us, and we will repay Him the debt.

Hence, we lack the sensation of interdependency, the necessity to care for everyone. I am supposed to feel concerned and worried about everyone staying unified, as a mother cares for her children’s health and well-being. Caring in a person’s heart will help others and return to him amplified manifold.

After all, the group is a very powerful amplifier. In response to my caring, the friends envelop me in it. The more I contribute to the group, the more the group enhances my attitude and returns it to me manifold. I aim my thoughts at the friends yet again, adding my contribution to what I have received from them.

How do I work on this desire? I fall half way. The Creator trips me, and all of the sudden, having the group back me up with such a wonderful and powerful desire, I start ignoring my wealth. After all, I received such a burning inspiration from the friends that there is no more room for my personal effort. Where am I then, if everything comes from them?

Therefore, in order for me to put my share in, I am given a descent. Out of necessity, I start climbing up as if I am trying to get out of a hole; I fall and keep climbing up again until I reach the surface. Once more, I put forth my effort into the friends.

It’s hard to keep trying since it’s all gone as if I hadn’t gotten anything from them in the first place. What has caused this “reboot?” The point is that I have ascended to a new degree. Now I start at a zero on it, but it’s the zero degree of the new level, a higher one than my previous state.

Obviously, it is first presented to me as an even greater darkness. There are even more obstacles and egoism at this new level since I rose higher, to my more powerful, uncorrected desires. Thus, I continue on my spiritual path.
[41137]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Working in the group, I receive from it a strong desire. I crave to break free from egoism, but what can I do? Desire in itself is capable of nothing. Even more than that, such a desire, however powerful, is selfish.

I don’t want bestowal per se, but the profit that it promises. That means that I am under the yoke of Pharaoh. I have a very strong desire to give within the desire to receive: I’m looking forward to profit from bestowal.

As a consequence, the discrepancy, the gap, the polarity, the conflict of interest, inside of me is growing. I want to bestow in order to fill my egoistic desire. After all, bestowal makes me eternal, perfect, boundless, unfettered, immune to any crisis. Forget about tsunamis and stock market crashes; everything is wonderful! Who wouldn’t want it? My ego wants it, voraciously.

Yet, it’s incapable of it. Then the upper force comes and breaks through my "black hole," allowing me to escape. In fact, although you can describe it as an escape, by and large, I am not running anywhere. I stay in the same place, but suddenly, I feel myself free from egoism, from the desire to receive. That’s it.

Suddenly, it turns out that the black hole no longer contains the light inside; it becomes transparent. Everything flows through it now, and it channels all sorts of influences from other dimensions, which I call by different names: the Light of Nefesh, the Light of Ruach, and so on. Thus, we advance.

What’s essential for us is to cross the boundary, to begin the renewal (Hidush). In Hebrew, it’s called Rosh Hódesh, the beginning of the month. Our renewal is to attain our first attribute of bestowal with the help of the upper force.

To do it, however, we need to invite action from the upper force, and for that, we first need to unite. Let it be an egoistic unity; it doesn’t matter whether it’s successful or not. Only when we build the right environment, the wind of spiritual change will blow among us.
[41143]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is joy in the work?

Answer: I constantly experience certain obstacles, pricks, and thoughts that are sent to me, and I am still happy receiving them! After all, I am constantly studying myself with this help from the Creator, the Light, who evokes these sensations in me. He seems to be pricking me in one point here, another point there, with a thought, a desire, an attitude, and demonstrates to me what is wrong in me.

Question: But how do we bring the “earned income home,” to our source of existence, unless we know where we are supposed to go? A ship on the sea can navigate by stars, a car on the road by the road signs, but in spirituality, there aren’t any signs. So how do we find our way to it?

Answer: In the instant when you prepare the correct desire within yourself, you will suddenly feel that you already are in the right place! You will suddenly reveal that you don’t need to go anywhere. Just find the right desire and you will see that you are already home.
[42355]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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While reading The Book of Zohar, one has to understand that The Zohar is not supposed to be processed by the mind. And if a person wishes to figure it out by way of the intellect, he will get tangled in every word since no word in The Book of Zohar points to anything familiar to us.

All of them hint at the spiritual states and properties. If a person is in the same spiritual state or world, he reveals what they are talking about. So, he knows what spiritual properties and definitions are being described; he feels, recognizes within himself this inner, spiritual world. After all, a person reveals the spiritual world inside, rather than outside of himself, as he perceives the entire reality only within.

As to someone who doesn’t possess spiritual perception yet, he is simply reading an unusual text. What are we reading The Zohar for then? We do so in order to add to it an aspiration to reach a state when we will understand, feel, recognize, and even experience all the spiritual states and properties The Zohar is telling about. All that I presently read as an incomprehensible story, I wish to experience inside myself and live in it.

We must cultivate this desire in us. In order to see the spiritual world, we only lack a desire, a yearning for it, and not more. Therefore, now, as we read The Zohar, we must, all together, to the best of our ability strive to reveal this hidden world.

Even though we don’t have a special need for it (since we don’t know what we are reading), we are still reading this text together. Hence, from this very same concealed state, we draw upon ourselves the illumination regarded as “the Light that Reforms,” “the Surrounding Light,” which affects us.

It doesn’t reveal the concealed world, but rather it awakens in us the needs, desires, and properties of perception, new sensory organs, after which the revelation occurs. The Light functions so as to create in us the capacity for sensing the concealed. Hence, we yearn for the Surrounding Light to enable us to feel the hidden world.
[42345]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: Are we going to suffer till the end of correction?

Answer: Suffering is sensing uncorrected areas within. As soon as I start viewing them correctly, I won’t take it as suffering any longer; instead, I will feel immense gratitude to the Light for showing me something I can correct in myself.

Pain is a calling for action. If I have a wound that doesn’t hurt, it is quite dangerous since I will let the disease settle in. But if it does hurt, this illness (not the wound itself) obligates me to start looking for treatment.

Well then, is pain good or bad? It is possible to switch off a certain nerve center in your brain and you will stop feeling pain altogether. If you leg catches fire, you won’t even feel that you are burning. If your arm is stuck in a machine, you won’t notice it. Pain is the help that points out the flaw to us! Hence, we need to view it as the means of correction.
[42366]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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A beginner is prone to fighting with obstacles and trying to move them out of the way. He is unable to connect to the Creator through these obstacles yet and can’t see that all that is happening in his life comes from Him.

That is why he pushes the obstacles out of the way in his egoism and gets angry at others, while wanting to make a nice, easy life for himself, as it is customary among all those people in the world who don’t yet feel the connection with the Creator. These are the initial steps in our work.

But after a person has exerted effort in order to enter the group, connect with the teacher and the books, the Light starts affecting him stronger. And even though he doesn’t feel it, he does see how he changes internally. In fact, he starts noticing his connection with the governing force, the cause of all that is going on around, the force that exists somewhere in nature, inside of him, and evokes his desires and thoughts.

There is some inner governing factor in him, and a person begins to establish a connection with it, while trying to understand why He is doing all this, for what purpose, and how he is supposed to respond to it? A person lives for a very long time until he arrives at the sensation that everything around is triggered by some internal causes instilled by the Creator. And then, he understands that he must put quite an effort into the group, dissemination, and studying, in order to pass through this stage of concealment sooner.

And when he no longer forgets that everything comes from the internal force that awakens and guides him through, his work becomes more conscious, precise, and practical. Thereby, he gradually accumulates the necessary desire to reveal Him, who arranges the world around us, so that this hidden connection is finally revealed.

But there is more work after this, which continues till the very end of correction by way of obstacles. The only question is: How quickly will a person begin to recognize and use them as help to achieve a connection, adhesion, with the Creator?

After all, the Light illuminates our uncorrected desire, revealing its deeper and more inner layers with each new degree. This is the only thing that causes us to feel pain. But pain is the symptom of a disease, the unfolding egoism, corruption! Only then do we receive an opportunity to correct and sentence ourselves and the world to a scale of merit.

Therefore, it is necessary to work on oneself in order to justify any states that we start feeling deeper, stronger, and more irritating. The more a person advances, bigger and deeper obstacles are presented to him, and the more powerful the blows are. But at the same time, he begins to understand what is going on, even though the righteous one also falls and becomes a “sinner” so he may rise and become righteous yet again.
[42359]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Kabbalists advise us to practice in our little “game room,” in the “bubble” of this world, until we figure out that nothing works. Who will give us a sensation of it? It is the upper force residing outside of our perception, beyond our world.

That’s what “trips” us. That’s what leads us to failure instead of success. Why? It’s in order to vex, to awaken us. The Creator flirts with us so that we start to want Him even more and develop, to the best of our ability, a real need for bestowal that lies outside of our nature.

While forming this desire to step out of the familiar, egoistic corner, we begin to realize how small and finite it is. It’s similar to a black hole that doesn’t allow the light to break free due to the impassable force of gravity. We, too, reside in a “black hole,” unable to get out. On the other hand, we can cultivate the need to break free, “to desire without a desire.” That, we can do.

How so? That is because if we arrange it correctly, the group binds everyone. This is how it is in daily life. Everywhere I go, all sorts of things are offered to me that I would never choose to want. I’m told that headache pills are what I really need, but what if I feel good, and everything is okay in my life? Then I am told, “How come? You lack the most essential things! Look, your neighbor has already bought them. We have an assortment you won’t believe!”

Indeed, I have never thought of such pleasures, but I am relentlessly pushed to try them and see for myself. In other words, they form a desire in me, aimed at what I have no desire for. So it is, over and over again. Such is the impact of society.

We, too, should create an advertising agency of the spiritual world that would constantly work on us, forming a need for what we don’t need. In this agency, my work should be based on knowing that thereby, by way of external actions, I work on myself.

It doesn’t matter that I want to manipulate myself into buying the spiritual product. I put this desire through the group, through their desires, and it returns to me in an unrecognizable form. As a result, I become inspired and, literally out of necessity, strive toward spiritual fulfillment.

What is passed through the others is no longer mine. My initial message became saturated by the friends’ desire, and now the entire group gets hooked on this lie: “You know, it’s so cool there, in spirituality! Compared to our world, it’s like heaven on earth!”

They brainwash me with messages they don’t believe. They want to sell me a product and make a profit on being the advertisers for it, while I take their words seriously and exert great effort to purchase the spiritual world for myself.
[41149]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/21/2011, Writings of Rabash

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