Question: How do I combine and properly arrange the three types of desires that I experience here at the lesson: 1) the artificial desire caused by the need to ask for correction for the environment, 2) the artificial desire to place myself in a field that will influence me, and 3) my actual desire to rid myself of the small corporeal problems that appear big to me?

Answer: We need to believe the sages who say that when a person works systematically and with determination, his efforts accumulate into great wealth. There is no other choice: Just keep making the effort.

The results that will come as a consequence will explain and show you everything. There is no answer for you on the path when you do not feel, understand, or are unable to connect anything. You just need to continue.

Right now, you are unable to connect your relationship with the world and the group with your success and with everything that happens, and you don’t link the Creator and Kabbalah with your desire to rid yourself of problems and suffering. Moreover, Kabbalists do not go around promising that Kabbalah will help you free yourself from problems and suffering.

In reality, we have nothing to say to a person who studies Kabbalah. We can only bring him to the realization of the importance of the goal with the help of the group. He will only see the goal when the Light comes and corrects him.

This is because one cannot see anything pleasant and good for his egoism in the spiritual world with egoistic eyes. You can keep telling yourself that this will help you become free of all problems and that you will acquire the world, but this is not the way to advance.

Connect yourself as much as you can to the environment every moment of your life so that it will influence you as much as possible and you will have to connect to it even more. You will receive strength through that.
[36736]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/1/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Question: What does it mean to think about unification of the world? Is it unification of spiritual desires, “the points in the hearts,” or all people in general?

Answer: “A person is a small world.” The world, everything I see and feel, is one single reality tied together. The still, vegetative, animate worlds, and the humans I see, all of this is my internal desires and attributes that I am observing within myself.

Try to delve a little bit deeper and you will begin to see how it all works within you and that it is indeed so. After all, this is your internal system. It is as if I am looking at the computer screen and simply view a demonstration, a reflection, a small manifestation of what is occurring within. This is how man is constructed as well.

Hence, we need to exit “this world,” tear away from this super TV set with an enormous, record-number-of-inches widescreen monitor and 3D/stereo display, and get inside our own system: inside the “memory” and “processor,” inside all our programs, everything we have within. And then, you will reach the spiritual, upper world from where everything descends.
[36509]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The Creator wishes for His palace to be filled with guests equal to Him. And this means that they have to include into themselves an enormous desire that has two sides: the good and the evil, the Creator’s nature and the nature opposite to Him.

If the created beings in their desires ascend to His exalted degree, while their nature is egoistic, aimed at their own benefit, and completely opposite to the Creator, they thereby detach from Him and take a position opposite to Him, as it were.

Later on, they correct themselves by clothing their ego, the will to receive pleasure, in an external “garment,” the intention to bestow. It is the Creator, the Light that Reforms, that helps them make this correction. Due to this, they gain the Creator’s force. As a result, the created being already contains two forces: its own internal force, the will to receive pleasure, which is enormous and equal to the Creator, and a force above it, the force of bestowal, as great and equal as the Creator’s.

This is how the creature comes into being. It is opposite to the Creator and dependent on Him by nature, while on the other hand, it is totally equal and similar to Him.

By comparing and distinguishing between these two parallel systems, the internal egoistic one and the external bestowing one, a person learns wisdom and understands creation from end to end. After all, there is nothing else besides these forces acting in all creation.

And then, possessing both these forces, the properties of reception and bestowal, as well as knowing how to employ them, that is, having wisdom, the created being can become similar to the Creator while remaining a creation nevertheless.

When this entire program begins to get actualized in practice and all these forces start participating in it, it overtakes all creation, and no force is able to object to or resist it. In truth, every force has its own role and each one contributes to perfection.

Therefore, at first the angels seemed surprised at why the Creator created such evil and egoistic man and asked: “Why on earth do you need this grief?!” But eventually, they saw that all these forces add to one another to a fully complete, perfect system, and it cannot be achieved otherwise. At that point, they agreed and said: “How great is Your Name in all the earth,” meaning in this whole desire (Earth in Hebrew, Aretz, means desire, Ratzon) created by the Creator.
[36518]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Question: How do we allocate our time correctly? How much time should we devote to family, circulation, and the study?

Answer: It’s impossible to determine an exact amount. Everybody allocates their time according to their possibilities and desire.

History gives us an example of a student who studied for one day. This actually was his name, Bar Bi Yoma (a student for one day). He was a peasant and worked in the fields. It took him three months to journey from his home to Jerusalem to study the Torah for one day, and then he walked back home for another three months. In honor of this person, there is a tradition to study the Torah on one special day of the year.

Everything depends on how much time a person has. Our lessons and programs are available on a TV Channel and the Internet site 24 hours a day; moreover, we have study centers all over the country.

A serious study really bears fruit. And if one has a chance, he or she can listen to our lessons during the commute or when other opportunities present themselves. However, only a course of study can arrange the principles of Kabbalah into an orderly system, and there is no substitute for it.
[36434]
From the Introductory Lecture Series 1/4/2011, “What Does the Wisdom of Kabbalah Revolve Around”

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Everything depends on how able we are to endure the desires that become revealed in us. On the spiritual path a person reveals bad, incorrect desires inside of him, showing how far away he is from the goal and how opposite he is to it. But if his environment acts correctly, then he immediately discovers that all of this is for his own good.

This way, my willingness to endure means that I prepare myself to accept any revelation of evil and to turn it into goodness. If, however, I am not ready for this, then every new revelation of evil trips me and I do not want to get back up, falling into despair or simply not knowing what to do. And that’s how the chance I was given gets cut off.

The influence of the environment which maintains a connection with the goal, constantly aims a person at this goal. This is the right preparation, the willingness to endure. If I have prepared this force, then the evil becomes revealed in conformity to it and I see it as the lever for ascending to goodness.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/2/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Can pleasure that one gets from spirituality be egoistic?

Answer: It surely can. Spirituality is love and bestowal. I’m willing to bestow to you and love you if it’s going to benefit me. And if not, then why should I? This is called Klipa (shell), and this is corporeality, not spirituality.

Each one of us is able to love in this way. I love my kids because they are mine. But if they are not mine, I have no regard for them. I can love someone if my well-being depends on them, but if it doesn’t, I don’t need them. In other words, I love and invest because I receive a personal benefit from it. However, this isn’t love and bestowal; this is using others.

Love and bestowal described by the wisdom of Kabbalah has nothing to do with receiving for one’s sake. I simply love in order to benefit the other person. This is even greater than our love for our children because we love our kids instinctively.

I must reach the kind of love of a fellow man that doesn’t benefit my egoism. But if my egoism receives something from this love, it’s not love: I simply love myself and fulfill myself in a round about way. Hence, it is all defined by my intention. But how can I check myself?

I have to rise to the kind of love where I’m only concerned about a fellow human being, not about myself. It’s something we must know because nature will force us to attain this level. According to the program of creation, we must become similar to the Creator. The Creator is good and does good without any regard for Himself. He desires to fulfill us and this is called love.

How can we draw closer to this state? My current intention can only be corrected by the Light that Reforms. It created my egoism and now it can lift me above it, perform a miracle: take me out of Egypt. When I ascend, I begin to correct myself.

This Light can only be sensed by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah. While reading The Book of Zohar, a person begins to notice it acting upon him. The study itself contains a force that transforms him. It is said in this regard: “I created the evil inclination, and I gave the Torah for its correction, the Light that brings one back to the good.” This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is being revealed in our time and is becoming available to everyone.
[36355]
From a TV program “Ask the Kabbalist” 4/4/2010

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The nation of Israel is a collective definition of people whose ancestors inhabited ancient Babylon and received awakening to “the work of the Creator,” to reaching adhesion with Him. Abraham chose such people and organized them into his group. We are joining the same group consisting of people who exist in our world as well as the souls that don’t have material bodies.

In essence, it’s the very same group, the same souls, connecting to each other to reveal the spiritual world, the Creator, to achieve similarity with Him, and to bring Him contentment. All of these souls together are called the group of Abraham.

Part of these souls has fallen from the spiritual degree and is completely lost; nobody knows where they are. It’s said that 22 million people have been discovered in Pakistan, who, allegedly, once belonged to the people of Israel. It’s impossible to know now, and it’s not that important. We are thinking not in terms of “headcount,” but in relation to the souls, desires.

As to desire, those who are aspiring to attain the spiritual world today as well as those who have attained it in all the generations, together, are considered to be part of the group of Abraham. Besides, those who were once at the spiritual degree and then fell from it, forsaking “the work of the Creator,” are now in a “dormant” state, waiting to re-attain what they have lost. They, too, belong to this group.

It turns out that “Israel” (Yashar-Kel or straight to the Creator “) is a rather numerous group since a lot of people “passed through” it over the past generations. That group needs to constantly strengthen itself. We are all working to attain spirituality while still in this world, and we are joined by all the souls from the upper world, from another dimension, which are assisting us, working together with us in a unified system to pass the Light into the common soul of Adam HaRishon.

By doing so, we are awakening all the souls that have fallen from the spiritual world during the destruction of the First and Second Temples; we are helping them to come back. After all, they have become entangled in other desires and souls, which is called “being in exile.” In addition, we are awakening souls that have never been awakened before.

We are not working alone, but together with the souls of the Patriarchs, of Abraham, of the group from ancient Babylon! It’s an immense system.

But even if the system connects to itself all the souls, all the people in the world, and if all the souls in the spiritual world pass the Light to correct their desires, all that will only be a thin line in the world of Infinity, Nefesh de Nefesh. That’s how enormous Malchut of the world of Infinity is.
[36087]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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What in our development is up to us? We inherited certain attributes; we have been influenced by the environment since childhood. How can we decide what our development should be like from here on? What do we need to do for it?

On His part, the Creator has done what was in His hands: He laid our path through internal and external Kelim (vessels), our own nature and the environment. And now, finally, the upper force is offering us free will. Naturally, this is a very narrow area. After all, our internal development has already brought about numerous details of perception, and moreover, we exist in a specific environment.

As it is written in the article “The Freedom” and in “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” the Creator brings a person to a certain state, a certain group, an environment, and says: “This is for you; take it.” And a person has to strengthen himself in what he takes. And what he takes is a bond with the environment.

So it follows that if a person strengthens this bond, then with its help, he or she receives “supernatural” values. This is the only way a person can adopt principles that on his own he would never choose to respect. The environment has the power to affect him and alter the scale of his priorities to such a degree that he totally replaces his values and is willing to do things that are against his nature.

This is why, while talking about lesson preparation, we primarily speak about the environment. A person prepares himself in the right environment and, by participating in its life, discerns the true values: bestowal, love of others, adherence with the Creator, and altruistic intention Lishma (for Her Name). On the whole, in the eyes of a person, the Creator’s nature must become incomparably more exalted and profound than the nature of the created being.

A person receives awareness of this importance from the group: “It is desirable to make it so.” The group cannot provide more than that; it only elevates the importance of the goal in our eyes. How profound the goal is depends on the level of the group and to what extent a person is willing to lower himself before it.

However, it isn’t realization just yet. A person merely arranges values for himself: “If the Creator is my goal, I go for this goal, which means that I change to fit it.” But who transforms a person? Who performs these changes in him? After all, by nature, from birth, he is immersed in the desire to receive pleasure. Desire itself will always remain as is. Who will reform its intention from wanting to receive to wanting to bestow?

That is what the method of Kabbalah is intended for.
[36267]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can we accelerate the rate of the group’s development?

Answer: An egg, for example, won’t hatch before its time. It relates to the animate nature and obeys strict laws of development. In time, people watched a hen and learned how to simulate these optimal conditions in incubators. In contrast, not only should we take example from nature, but we also can employ natural forces and accelerate our own growth, modifying its quality. In other words, it’s all about how we perceive it.

In truth, our evolution is not limited to one beaten path. It’s not just that I enhance my own properties a few times. It isn’t enough. I must change myself, transform myself into the opposite.

Hence, I need auxiliary forces that first and foremost will let me become aware of these transformations. If we were not supposed to reform ourselves in the process of spiritual growth, who would mind? Who doesn’t want to grow? Even an egg wants to become a duckling, and a duckling wants to be a duck. This is a law.

However, if we shift from the property of reception to the property of bestowal, then receiving won’t help me achieve bestowal; it will only form a negative attitude within me toward myself. In that case, I will feel evil in receiving, start hating it, and wish to transform into its opposite.

It turns out that in order to evolve, I have to build an environment for myself. I have to create conditions that will assist me in being constantly aware of my current internal state as harmful for me so that I may wish to step out of it, to change.

My development is not that I simply grow, but that I become transformed. I don’t need to become big from being small. Rather, I must become similar to the Creator, assume an opposite form to my own. That is why I learn from the Creator to have qualities that must become mine. Then, I arrange the environment that will help me view these qualities as desirable, while viewing my current attributes as undesirable, evil, and harmful. Acting thereby, I do create a “green house” that will raise me correctly.

Thus, I am working with two opposite forms of nature: the nature to receive that characterizes this world and the nature to bestow, the force of the Light that characterizes the future world. I form an environment that will help me replace my values and realize that my current values are evil as compared to the spiritual ones that I will assume tomorrow. This is the only way I can advance.

What is necessary is not just to “warm” the current condition up. It must constantly stand before me in contrast to today’s and tomorrow’s qualities, showing me the direction I need to take to change and enhancing the importance of these changes. Then I will want to become “great” not in receiving but in bestowal. Knowing that my current state is evil and harmful, I will be happy to leave it behind.

In brief, you must arrange all the necessary conditions for yourself. We must work not on ourselves, but rather on the environment, on the “green house,” the “incubator,” and it will accelerate our growth. Then, we will reach a desired state not at the end of the allotted time period of 6,000 years, having gone through suffering under Nature’s hand, but we will come to it earlier, in a nice, easy, and pleasant way and in the shortest time.
[36461]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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While reading The Zohar, you mustn’t forget that it talks solely about relationships between us. The wicked and the righteous, a Saturday eve and weekdays, night and day, the still, vegetative, and animate nature, man, a Temple, a field and a tree, all these words describe only the types of relationships between souls, their connection at the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels.

They speak of nothing else beside this because nothing else exists. Within this connection, in the types of it, we experience the world. Combinations of forces tying the souls together draw the pictures of our world on a screen for us. Thus, we perceive reality.

Kabbalistic books describe only the connections between us since there is nothing else to write about. There is nothing else, and the worlds are descriptions of the levels of connection between souls.

There is a formless desire to feel pleasure, and what is described are the stages of its transformation in order to connect with others. By unifying with others, making efforts, and drawing the Light that reforms, discerns, and fulfills, the created being reveals the web of connections between all parts of one integral soul, Malchut of Infinity. That is what we are reading about.

Kabbalists do not perceive anything more. The created being experiences the reality detached from connection with others and calls it “this world,” or it feels ties with others in the forces of bestowal that give it life, and in that case, the upper world becomes revealed to it.

The upper world is relationships with others and all that I find in them. What do I find? It’s the property of bestowal. This is regarded as “to bestow in order to bestow.” Relationships of this type are described as “Do not do to others what you hate.” Later on, these relationships become stronger, and we feel love in them, which is regarded as “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The relationships of bestowal conducted by the principle of “Do not do to others what you hate” are regarded as the Second Temple, the level of Bina, Mochin de Neshama. The relationships of “Love your neighbor as yourself” are the First Temple, the level of Mochin de Haya.

Everything speaks solely of ties between people. All of the words that we can use, the entire reality that we can reveal, everything is still nothing more than the connection between people.

The lack of connection in which we are presently living appears as this world to us. My vision, my perception in the egoistic net between all, in its minimal degree, is regarded as “this world.” Consequently, I reveal the real, powerful, egoistic connection between us all as the left line, a Klipa (shell, impure force).

However, we don’t have another perception or understanding, another reality and existence, except in the connection between us, no matter whether it’s good or bad. The Book of Zohar speaks solely about the types of this connection.

What else can Kabbalists write about? There is nothing else in reality. Everything that seems to me as the still, vegetative, animate, and human realms, various objects, acts, thoughts, decisions, buildings, furniture, and vehicles, all that we can imagine is human relationships in their correct or incorrect form.
[36483]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/27/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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