Question: Can a person who just got introduced to Kabbalah and arrives at the convention for the first time connect to it?

Answer: It doesn’t matter at what level a person is; he enters the collective field and feels that it is good. He will feel that it brings warmth, confidence, and protection. He will probably get an answer to some of life’s questions, and it will help him to solve problems within himself and at home.

The Upper Light gets revealed in the connection of people, it fills all cavities and flaws. Hence, everyone can feel that it is worthwhile to participate in unification. In the measure of one’s participation, the person will be able to connect to the Light, the wisdom of Kabbalah, and improve his life.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, contrary to religions, doesn’t claim that a person has to suffer. On the contrary, one should connect to the right environment (and he doesn’t even need to exert much effort to do so), and then he will start ascending on the beam of light.

All problems are solely from the lack of the Light in our life! And if we draw it to ourselves, we won’t feel any lack or serious problems: troubles, misfortunes, pain, and wars. Everything depends solely on the impact of the Light on our world.

It takes only a few minutes for a person to feel what a special place he has entered. Suppose he comes to the gathering, a cultural program: People sing, dance, and he may want to participate. If not, he could simply watch. He will feel warmth and lack of any personal pressure. So I don’t think that someone wouldn’t enjoy it.

People like this kind of atmosphere, even if they walked in accidentally, without seeking spirituality. After all, life usually doesn’t spoil us with such good moments, and people truly miss that.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/18/10, “The Teaching of the Kabbalah and Its Essence”

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On the spiritual path, there are two extremely serious obstacles or two questions raised by the Pharaoh himself:

1. “Who is this Creator that I should listen to Him?” In other words, what is so important which is hidden in the property of bestowal for me to bow to it?

In fact, this rebellion of our nature helps us because by overcoming it, we can keep exalting the importance of bestowal over reception in our eyes. The growing egoism continuously denies the importance of bestowal, and we have to keep strengthening our connection with the group so that under its influence, we start aspiring to the realization of the properties of bestowal within ourselves again.

2. "What is there for you in this work?” Egoism shows us that we are weak and incapable of achieving what we desire. “What do you have to do with it? Your goal may be beautiful, but who are you to reach it?”

When we are overtaken by these two weaknesses, it should be understood that a person can’t break free from imprisonment by himself. The only chance to do so is for the friends to come and save him. I will find strength to advance only in the group, in the connection between us. There, I reveal my nature and realize that it lacks bestowal.

Then, I experience distress between the two poles: On one side, there is the importance of bestowal and on the other, my pettiness. And I acquire both these factors thanks to the environment.

Now everything is organized correctly: I am low, the goal is exalted and profound, and I have the means to reach it. At this point, there comes a feeling of certainty that we call the Arvut (mutual guarantee). After all, I know that through the group, I will receive all the necessary strength.

How do I know this? In fact, the correct environment is a structure created by the Creator and infused with His attribute. Therefore, if we draw closer to each other through the bonds of love, then bestowal begins to rule among us.

It turns out that in reality, I am not using the power of the group, but the property of bestowal that is hidden in our interconnection. It doesn’t belong to any one individually for it is the force of the Creator, which becomes revealed between us. This particular force is the one that does all the work.

Hence, the Pharaoh’s heart lies in the hands of the Creator. The Pharaoh is the force of reception created by the Creator for us to build the form of bestowal exactly above it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/20, “He Who Strengthens His Heart”

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The further we advance, the more confusing and unpredictable the world becomes. We see the presence of a process, but we do not understand where it is leading.

Studies show that our reality is situated in one quality: the desire to receive or to enjoy. All the calculations on all levels are conducted only on the basis of personal gain. Even bestowal is used with the goal of receiving. We lack the energy for an action that is not directed at our own benefit. So what should we do?

Kabbalists tell us that there is another, opposite reality which is governed by an all-encompassing force of creation. We can call it Nature or the Creator; it is the same thing. We are talking about an absolute, universal quality of bestowal. We can rise from the degree of reception to the degree of bestowal only with the help of this global all-inclusive force which created all of reality. We can evoke an influence on us through our actions so that this force would change our nature.

These actions are simple: We try to unite, to imagine ourselves in mutual bestowal, and along with this, we study the laws of the reality that is altogether concealed from us. Due to our efforts and the studies, we seemingly draw ourselves closer to the quality of bestowal or, on the contrary, attract it to us so that it influences and changes us.

Thereby, we evoke the joining of qualities while swaying on the waves of altering sensations. Sometimes, we feel good from achieving nearness to bestowal and see that we are moving forward. At other times, to the contrary, we feel poorly from this.

This is how we walk: sometimes with the right foot, sometimes with the left, sometimes with the growth of bestowal, and other times, with the growth of reception. If we don’t leave the method, the reception is revealed in us to the point of hatred, and love is revealed above it more and more until all the evil that is instilled in us and all the goodness that we can attract from the quality of bestowal are revealed.

Then, we create the right combination of these qualities: the middle line. We unify two worlds within us and exist in them both, constantly elevating the force of bestowal over the force of reception. This is called “receiving for the sake of mutual bestowal.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/19/10, “He Who Strengthens His Heart”

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Question: There are less than two weeks left until the Convention. How can we use this time most efficiently?

Answer: We have to use the days that remain to prepare: See and hear more, including music and songs, work with the article summaries that talk about the unity of souls (“Matan Torah,” “Mutual Guarantee,” “The Peace,” “600,000 Souls,” “One Law,” and so on). Most importantly, we have to try to feel that we are going towards unity.

We are about to make an attack on unity, and if we attain a powerful inner and outer pressure in order to feel how we are coming together, we will thereby awaken the Inner Light inside ourselves. Then we won’t remain with our external desire which is operated by the Surrounding Light, but will put forth all our efforts so the Surrounding Light will turn our vessels or desires from outer to inner, and then the Light will become revealed inside them as Inner Light!

The difference between these two Lights is vast because the Surrounding Light influences the external desires that aren’t yet connected and which are outside of the screen connecting us. The screen is a force enabling us to be above our egoistic desire so I could give to my neighbor and connect to him (“bestow for the sake of bestowal” or “receive for the sake of bestowal”).

If I acquire a screen over my will to enjoy, the desire to unite with everyone into one soul, then I transform from an outer vessel of the soul to an inner one. Instead of receiving an awakening from the Surrounding Light, I will feel the Inner Light inside of me! This is called the first spiritual level. This is the state I expect and plan to receive at the Convention.

Obviously, in the last days before the Convention there are many disturbances awaiting us: Suddenly you will lose the desire or the opportunity to attend, and then it will come back again; suddenly you will have no energy to get up for the lesson, will experience problems at home or at work, bad moods, and anything else. Yet we have to understand that this “burdening of the heart” is necessary! It is like crossing the Red Sea, like running away from Pharaoh, coming to Mount Sinai where we reveal hatred (Sina) and separation between us.

All of this is actually necessary for us. We have to bless these states and accept them with love and understanding! I hope that our friends all over the world will understand this and accept it precisely in this way. After all, it is precisely by virtue of correcting this separation and heaviness (Aviut) of the desire that we ascend.

If we don’t have these obstacles then we won’t have anything to correct! How, then, will we ascend, and what will we step over?
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10, “600,000 Souls”

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A person who is thrown into darkness loses all connection with the previous state of ascent. If the Creator then shows mercy on him and awakens him with Light, this does not mean that the person performed a correction. If, however, he awakens on his own with the help of the group, then he really does become corrected.

During an ascent a person prepared the right way: He put everything he possibly could into the group, using it as an “inspiration fund.” The efforts he made enable him to keep the connection during a descent. Now, by grabbing onto the end of this string, a person can awaken and through the group attract Light, energy, understanding, and faith above knowledge. Thus, he will start coming out of the descent towards a new ascent.

By means of the group a person always has the opportunity to renew the unity. Unlike the unity of the forefathers who were unable to receive the Torah yet, our unity directly connects a person to the group. This is where one’s free choice lies: to start working with the help of the group and equalize the descents with the ascents.

It turns out that at the end of the day, our entire freedom is realized in the group. A person actualizes unity only with the help of the group.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10,  “600,000 Souls”

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The evolution of the will to receive pleasure is a lengthy process. The whole wisdom of Kabbalah tells us about changes in the will to receive (desire). Baal HaSulam explains that in this process, desire (absence) always precedes fulfillment (existence).

First I feel a lack of something, and then I acquire what is missing; thus, one follows the other. At the same time, the lack, or will to receive (desire), is more important than the fulfillment since desire determines fulfillment.

In spirituality, this law acts exactingly, without concessions and favors, and if the creature doesn’t wish to climb the next step, it will not ascend; it won’t even come close to it. Everything depends on the preparation, based on the feeling of lack and absence of fulfillment. This is why “absence precedes existence.”

According to this law, all levels of creation are developing: from still to vegetative, animate, and speaking. Man, too, is born at the animate level, and then evolves and ascends to its designated level. The same is observed in the development of our inner world. As diverse as humanity is, so are its desires, which are also classified by four degrees: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking (within the human).

What then does a speaking level in humanity look like? They are the people or desires aimed at equivalence with the Creator, at the ascension to and adhesion with Him. In order to gain a strong desire, aspiring to this exalted goal, we must exist on both sides: sometimes rejecting the spiritual world, not comprehending, feeling, or agreeing with it, and other times, yearning for it and seeing something profound, good, and vital in it.

So absence and existence give way to one another, Light and darkness, and only thanks to both of them, the correct, wholesome desire are formed. For this reason, we enter the group with the understanding that there is no other way but in unification. Only among the friends do I grow a new desire to become equivalent to the Creator, and not just appeal to Him egoistically. In the group I absorb the value of bestowal, and at the same time, I discover how intensely I hate it.

If I am not afraid, and am willing to bear the revelation of my own evil, then this is called absence which precedes existence, the preparation to liberation. Having found himself at the mountain of his own hatred, a person demands existence, equivalence to the Creator. And then the reforming Light comes to bring him back to the Source.
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From the lesson on 10/22/10, Rabash’s Articles

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Question: How should we feel when we rise to “attack“?

Answer: We have to feel that this is our “last and definitive battle.” We are going “va banque,” all out till the very end, not leaving anything behind “for later.”

A person has to become part of this with his entire heart and soul. It’s a shame if he leaves anything inside, not finding use for it because what we have is a real chance.

Baal HaSulam writes that we are living in the days of the coming of the Messiah, in the last generation. All that’s left is to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah because the generation is ready for it. The decisive action depends only on us.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/10, “The Matter of the Will to Receive”

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Question: What should I do to acquire strength and demand correction?

Answer: For this a person needs to have the correct idea about a network of interconnected desires or sparks, realize that they must work together and find between themselves the force regarded as “the Creator.” This force has left that place because in the connection of sparks there is no reciprocity, unity. But a person paints the picture of interconnection again and again, thereby summoning the Light from the corrected system.

It is just a game as of yet; a person is not expected to do spiritual work but to exert effort. He may even break things but at the same time, learn from it. A child doesn’t learn unless he breaks something. He has to take a toy apart in order to find out what’s inside it.

It is the same on the spiritual path, although in this case, we should aim at creation, at ascent. We deal with the broken system of ties between the souls more and more. In fact, we uncover nothing but that.

Within this network, we will see the mechanism that acts from Above downward. It unfolds and comes closer to me in my understanding and awareness from its central point, Malchut of the World of Infinity. This is the system of the worlds. After the breaking, it corrected itself and lined up before me so that I, with its help, undergo all the stages of correction that are programmed in it.

Thus, the system is already within me, we are all interconnected and unified in the state of the final correction (Gmar Tikkun). I only need to find myself in the correct unification and discover the force that is called “the Light” or “the Creator” between us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/20/10, “The Matter of the Slanders”

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Question: If a person is rational by nature, does this mean that he will need more efforts to understand that he can’t attain bestowal without the Creator’s help?

Answer: Some intelligent people find it difficult to make decisions by ascending above their reason, whereas others are intelligent and able to understand that their wisdom is not worth a thing. That is why it is easy for them to renounce it.

It all depends on how a person uses his wisdom. Intelligence is not a flaw. Every quality depends on how a person uses it: usefully or not.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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In the beginning of the spiritual path people aren’t yet able to distinguish what is happening to them. The current sensation is the truth for them. They are unable to look at themselves from aside and discern the external influence that comes from the Creator. They don’t yet see the walls of the “laboratory” they are in.

When a person is on the side of the will to enjoy, he automatically reacts to what is happening: He jumps from joy or vice versa, falls into melancholy. He is buried under the states of his egoism.

However, as he works on himself inside unity with the group, he grows estranged from his own desires and acquires the opportunity to analyze: What are the causes of his states, and how does he relate to the group, the study, and the Creator? Instead of feeling like a test animal, he shifts to the side of the Creator who shows him what He is doing to him.

This enables a person to become human, to rise above the animate degree of his desire to the human degree. Now he understands that the purpose of the unpleasant states where he is devoid of energy, Light, and inspiration is to attract his attention to the Source, the Creator.

Why does the Creator send him these states? It’s in order for him to draw closer to the Creator with a request. That is the only way He can awaken me. The pleasant sensations force me to forget about Him, while emptiness does the contrary: gives rise to questions. When I am treated badly, I want to know why, but when I am treated well I have no care in the world about why it is so.

That is why I am awakened through troubles, and at that time I have to understand that these are appeals from the Creator. It is His way of showing me that I depend on Him; He calls me to Him in order for us to come forward against Pharaoh together.

That is when I begin to realize that there is no evil and I am grateful for the “evil” just as for the good and even more so because precisely it helps me to advance, to come closer to the Upper One and to demand corrections from Him. If a person takes the right position for evaluating his state, if he uses the sensation as an object for analysis, then he acquires faith above reason, which always enables him to move forward.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/10, “Show Me Your Honor”

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