Question: Kabbalah is an experimental science. Can we relate to the current convention as to an experiment?

Answer: Each of us is a Kabbalist and a scientist in a sense that he carries out an experiment on himself and experiences the application of Kabbalah, its conclusions and correctness personally.

Some 30 years ago I was reading the well-known book Shamati (I Heard) and I understood, perhaps, one one-hundredth of a percent from it. Then, with each year, re-reading it and feeling its result on myself, I compared what was going on with me to what was written in the book and was astonished to discover that this book really described everything that was happening with me. And so I keep re-reading Shamati over the course of 30 years (I received it in 1979), and each time I discover that this book talks about me.

Even after ten years this book will reveal itself to me as a source that describes everything about me. Everything! This is because the person who wrote it began from the bottom, as do all people, and then ascended spiritually and wrote it from a spiritual level which I am not able to reach yet.

And if I were to rise higher, then I would suddenly discover that this book no longer speaks of the states I am going though. It would become clear to me; I would clearly see that the author reaches only up to a particular level and no further.

We see this with some of the Kabbalistic book authors, although it does not depreciate them in any way! They wrote up to the level which they had attained, and it is the same with each one of us.

On the other hand, what right do we have to interpret, write, and add to the writings of the great Kabbalists of the past? The truth of the matter is that we write what is correct at our levels. It is precisely because we are small that we can write all of this through this level. This way, it is easier for the people who come to Kabbalah to find contact with our material, rather than with the great works of the past because those Kabbalists wrote them from a great spiritual height.

But, ultimately, today we are truly carrying out an experiment on ourselves, and we will keep carrying out this experiment throughout our whole life until we reach the very end of correction. That is why Kabbalah, as compared to the rest of the sciences, does not work outside the person. You are not studying something that is outside of yourself, but rather on yourself, within yourself. So, let’s experiment!
[34489]
From Lesson 3 Berlin Convention 1/28/2011

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “VaYera (And the Lord Appeared),” Item 167: When the Creator loves a person, He sends him a gift. And what is the gift? Poor, so as to be rewarded by it.

The world we live in is opposite to the spiritual world. A reward in the upper world is considered a punishment in our world and vice versa. For this reason it is said regarding the upper reality: “I saw an inverted world.”

A gift from Above is an awakening through a desire. We all originate from the still level, from “ashes.” In other words, we come from such a low degree of desires, where a person doesn’t feel his or her spiritual existence or his desire for the spiritual, doesn’t know where he came from or why, and is unaware of the purpose or the meaning of life. He doesn’t feel anything. This is our starting point.

Everything else comes only through strengthening and elevating the desire. It is said in regard to this: “I created the evil inclination.” But it’s up to the person to feel and distinguish this creation within himself. Time after time this inclination is aroused in him more, and the person has to determine that it is really evil.

The Creator arouses a desire, however, one must discern that this desire is wicked and turn it from reception to bestowal, from evil to similarity to Him. This is entirely up to the person. It is said: “I am the First and I am the Last.” The Creator gives the desire, and then the person must conduct an analysis and rejoice in the received desire. He is happy to receive the opportunity to recognize the evil within the desire through the teacher, the group, and the books. He realizes that the wicked desire came from the Creator, according to the principle: “I created the evil inclination.”

Then a person develops a proper attitude toward his desire: He wants to change it into good, into correspondence to the Creator, aspiration for bestowal. When a person comes to this decision, he begins to demand that the Creator transforms his desire.

A person then appeals to the Creator with this demand. This action is called: “My sons have defeated Me.” And the Creator grants him the strength, the screen, which transforms the evil inclination into goodness. This is the meaning of “I am the Last.” After giving a person the desire, the Creator now transforms it.

In the intermediate state a person independently determines what he received, what he wants, and what he demands of the Creator, and by means of these stages of development, he advances toward total similarity to the Creator.

Time after time a person gains more knowledge, awareness, understanding, attainment, and love for the Creator who gave him the evil inclination, thereby presenting him with the opportunity to realize how he differs from the Creator and how he can become similar to Him. Thanks to this a person can ask the Creator for the transformation and closer contact, as well as gain independence, perfection, involvement, and adhesion to Him.

A person who understands this process justifies the Creator whenever he receives a wicked desire from Him. In this case I don’t see evil in it, but rather a gift that can be turned into my new reality. I understand that the Creator acts out of love for me, in order to make me independent and similar to Him.
[34422]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How do I know that my request to the Creator comes from the right place? Am I really there, where it is permitted to ask?

Answer: My request is valid if I feel that it is against my desire, if I can rise above it and ask from the very depth of my heart, and if I can enjoy the action which is against my initial desire.

Coupling by striking (Zivug de Hakaa) occurs in the state when internally, I feel that I want to please myself, but above it I sense that my action opposes this desire. I enjoy my ability to resist it. Then, this pleasure isn’t for me, as if I refused to steal. What matters here is to what degree I associate myself with the friends and through them, together, with the Creator.

If I am willing to arrange such an internal action, then I am close to the act of bestowal, and this is what brings me satisfaction which, of course, isn’t directed at me.
[34405]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What do I need in order to implement the knowledge of Kabbalah in my daily life? I find a big discrepancy between what I learn and what I feel.

Answer: There is only one solution: accelerate your development. To accomplish this, it will take more study and greater connection with your friends. It doesn’t require wealth, honor, power, or some other effort, only the thought to never forget about it.

The key is our interconnection. Despite one’s unwillingness, a person wants to exert effort and maintain connection with the friends in order to have continual awareness of the importance of the goal. And when he has reached it, he “passes it on,” that is, spreads it to the others.
[34408]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How should I react to sensations that appear as a result of the Creator’s actions?

Answer: They are the outcome of contact with the Upper Light, with the Creator. But again, one should remember that the Creator is unchangeable and only I change, as a result of the Reshimot (informational genes) unfolding in me one after the other.

Therefore, I can only exert effort in having the Reshimot change. By doing so, I expedite their development and see it as desirable. I am not against my development; I am all for it, although I realize that it isn’t easy and requires effort, as in any development. I am willing to do it.

How do I develop then? I do it by engaging in the group. With the help of the group, I start realizing the importance of my development; they give me strength to bear it. This is what we call awareness of the goal. After all, if the goal is great in my eyes, I am ready for it despite my body’s resistance. The importance gives me strength.

If I really incorporate myself into my friends’ desire, then I have no problem accelerating my development. I don’t advance by way of suffering, when because of my disparity with the awakened Reshimo it causes me pain.
[34412]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does the Creator want from me when He “plays” with me?

Answer: The Creator doesn’t want anything. He is good and does good. Based on the plan of creation, to benefit the creature, He performed only one action: created the desire to receive. Moreover, it was created as perfect from the start. As the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” describes, the initial and final states are in unified perfection.

However, in order to know where we are, how and why He initially created us, we gradually return to consciousness and dissolve the state we are in. After all, everything takes place relative to us, in our perception. Nothing changes except my understanding and awareness.

Therefore, the Creator doesn’t want anything from us; He simply gave us an opportunity to consciously know the state in which we were created as perfect, eternal, and similar to Him. That is what we are supposed to accomplish, having undergone several stages. First, we develop unconsciously, on the still, vegetative, and animate level of desires. And at the last stage, the speaking one, we arrive at consciousness and attain our authentic state. We are living in the time when this transition is being made.

Previously, there were people who attained spirituality as well, but only a few individuals. As for today, this process involves all souls which start to sense and realize where they really are.
[34415]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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In our world, all created beings can be divided into three types:

1. Some still remain indifferent; they neither understand, nor feel, nor think about whether they are receiving something from Above.

2. Others, unlike those at the animate level, believe that they receive everything from the Creator. But they, too, don’t know what to do with it. They haven’t grown up enough to realize that they are receiving the evil inclination that has to be transformed into good. Having experienced evil, a person believes that he or she received it from Above and starts crying, appealing, and praying for the Creator to send him or her abundance.

This is how religious folks act, those who assume that the Creator sends them pain either to remind them that He exists or to reward them for it in this or the future world. One way or another, a person believes that his or her prayer will change the Creator and He will have a change of heart.

3. And the rest have evolved even more and realize that the Creator doesn’t change. He is always good, always full of love, and always complete. As a person passes through a chain of internal states, he or she discovers that in the light of the perfect, unchanging, and infinite Creator, they are mutable and opposite. A person defines it as evil and arrives at the need to plea, in accordance with which his or her state is transformed into good.

As a result, a person sees that the Creator is an endless and constant Upper Light, the Infinity, and he or she is the only one who changes. The Reshimot (informational genes) unfold in a person, starting with the broken one that he becomes aware of by exerting effort in the group and studies. He discerns this Reshimo and prays for it, meaning judges it and asks to correct it, wishing for it to get reformed.

Thereby, a person receives a new desire by participating in the life of the group correctly. Then, the immutable Light transforms this corrupted, broken Reshimo into a corrected one. A Zivug (uniting, coupling) of the reformed Reshimo with the Light occurs, and a Partzuf of the soul is formed.

We divide people into the following three basic types:

1. Those who are not fit for correction yet;
2. Those who are religious and pray for the Creator to change;
3.  the Kabbalists who understand that it is they who must change.

Therefore, spiritual work is for the Kabbalists; praying without receiving an answer is for the religious believers; and life without any connection with the Creator is for the rest.
[34419]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, Writings of Rabash

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With the appearance of the screen (Masach), the order of desires, actions, thoughts, and intentions completely changes. The Direct Light and the Reflected Light, everything becomes completely different; everything follows another design, another purpose, another scale of priorities.

Now, I am no longer concerned with my own “stomach” that I used to fill by consuming everything around me. I value something else: how to bestow, how much to give, and to whom I bestow. Previously, I felt fulfillment in me, and now I do so in the other. And that is what governs my actions.

Let’s take an example: I am preparing a feast for a friend who is flying from overseas. For myself, I would make something totally different, but suppose my guest is Chinese or American. So, I cook what he or she likes although it doesn’t match my tastes at all. All my desires and abilities, all that I am, I focus on my guest, with love and from the bottom of my heart.

Imagine to what extent I have to sacrifice what I like and am accustomed to so as to do it all for my friend, to please him, “insert” myself in him, and settle there. Instead of each of my taste buds, I have to acquire those of my guest’s, and instead of my habits I have to assume his. I need to transform myself into him or her.

Try to sense what a Reshimo (informational gene) which used to be my own and with which I now must work for the sake of another is. It isn’t easy at all: I need to get to know a person, study him, and come to love him so that by faith above reason, without liking his tastes, I still do it. I rise above my desire and enter his. I live in him, in his throat and stomach, everywhere where my cooking will echo in him. That’s where I settle in and verify the result of my action.

So, a Reshimo is an extremely important thing. The previous state left in me a Reshimo which is deprived of image, contours, and isn’t clothed in any particular form. And this is precisely why I can add a new direction to it, a new form that derives from me. Before, I enjoyed to please myself whereas now, in the new form, new connection and new direction, I wish to please the other person.

Everything is aligned with him, in his direction; everything is experienced within him. And the previous Reshimo is a mere basis to get to understand how I used to please myself and now I wish to please him.

This will require much multifaceted work before it can be accomplished.
[34429]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, Explanation of the Article “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: This is what worries me: Can it be so that ascending in spirituality higher and higher, we will feel such a strong hatred toward each other that we will fall into the state of exile once more, as occurred when the Temple fell? It seems we don’t learn from mistakes of the past, do we?

Answer: Since we keep entering greater egoism, we cannot learn from the past. Always keep this in mind. Baal HaSulam writes that there is a possibility for the third and fourth world wars to occur.

Question cont.: But how can we prevent it?

Answer: Only by spreading the wisdom of Kabbalah so that everybody learns it as necessary. Only then can one stop making tragic mistakes.

Question cont.: Why can’t we learn from the past mistakes? After all, we already fell into exile before.

Answer: Humanity doesn’t learn from the past since time after time, greater desire to enjoy unfolds in it. We can’t learn from the events that used to take place in a lesser desire, just like a grown up can’t learn from a child.

If at a new degree, you have a greater will to receive, greater egoism, you are unable to take a lesser ego into account, the one you used to have yesterday or the day before. It can’t serve you as a model that would oblige you to treat life accordingly. It simply can’t! It’s because the current, much greater ego is telling you: “Tear this world into pieces! Do whatever you please!”
[34433]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, “The Study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Until recently we have been developing in our egoism under the influence of the informational genes (Reshimot)—everyone on his own. Now we are beginning to develop under the influence of common Reshimot—all together. And we can see that the entire world is connected like one single system.

In the past everyone could open his own “window” (like on the computer) where he was building his life without any connection with the rest of people, and he was able to do whatever he wanted. But today it does not work this way. And the problem is that we are unaware of the connection between us and everyone’s place in the common system where he or she is connected with everybody else.

It is a tragedy that we are now facing the system which is becoming revealed to us as a unified, global network, while we do not fit it and do not know what to do with it. After all, internally, every one of us still has remained an individual egoist who wants to act as he wishes.

However, a completely different system already acts upon us. The previous epoch has ended, and a new time has come. The new forces have started influencing us, which work with all of us together.

Therefore, we have no other choice but to study this common, integral system. We have to learn its structure, how it acts upon us, and how we should adjust ourselves to it. We simply cannot survive without such a study. This is why everyone is obliged to study Kabbalah.
[34447]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/4/2011, “The Study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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