Question: What should my prayer, MAN, in the group of ten be?

Answer: A prayer, MAN, depends upon the state that you are in. You may be asking something from them and they may be asking something from you, and you operate mutually in relation to one another. Or you may be already connected and together ask from the upper one who is in the group of ten.

You say: “The Creator is in the connection between us.” This connection between us is the mother’s womb, it’s ZAT (the lower seven) of Bina, our upper one. There is no other upper one but our connected group. But we are not connected yet, and so we turn to our future, connected, and corrected form that is our next, higher level. We turn to it and to the Creator who is concealed in it. This means that the prayer, MAN, can be aimed from each of you to others, or from all of you towards your future upper form.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/13, TES

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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), “The Purpose of Society” (1984 part 1): And this is why we gather here—to establish a society where each of us follows the spirit of bestowing upon the Creator. And to achieve bestowal upon the Creator, we must begin with bestowal upon man, which is called “love of others.”

Thanks to this we will be able to bestow upon the Creator, the general force of bestowal. This is what we call the attribute by which we rise above our ego.

Mutual bestowal is love of others. If I love someone, I want to give him everything and I make sure that he feels good. It is as if I am constantly in him and I see myself only as a means to bestow upon him, which helps me transcend myself.

This is the reason that such a big world with so many people in it was created. It allows us to gather and establish a group where by the mutual connection between us everyone will be able to transcend his ego and see that he has the means to acquire a second nature: bestowal. In fact, this is what we call the exit from the ego, from its limited system.

And on the other hand, be proud that the Creator has given us the chance to be in a society where each of us has but a single goal—for Divinity to dwell among us.

Our goal is that the revelation of the upper world will fill us. This is called “the revelation of Divinity,” which takes place namely among us. Each of us is an egoist, but when we exit our nature and begin to rise above ourselves, a great collective force is created between us, full of mutual bestowal. We make sure that we achieve this mutual force when we mutually bestow upon one another, and our concern is called mutual guarantee.

We all feel the upper world in this general force. There we discover the forces of all the people who lived before us and who live in this world together with us, of all the people who transcend themselves and live in an eternal state.

This general force is one collective soul. There are no separate individual souls, but only one soul for everyone. But in it everyone feels the eternal world in different depth and width, to the extent that he rose above his ego.

We go through ascents and descents along this road that summon different states in which the eternal world seems to be changing. The truth is that it doesn’t change, as it says: “The Light is at absolute rest.” But we feel as if it changes since we are actually changing. Our ego is transforming all the time, we overcome it in different ways, and accordingly, the picture of our world and the feelings we experience are very dynamic.

Thus we advance until everything is totally revealed and this is the end of correction. All the people in this world must reach that. Even if the bodies change, our spiritual parts remain the same. The bodies separate us from the general feeling into individuals, but if we leave the body, we immediately feel one world and ourselves as one. This is precisely where we are headed.

The efforts that we make in the convention depend on us. We may experience this eternal sate for a couple of minutes. It may be temporary and it may disappear, but the actual phenomenon will remain and will draw us forward forcefully helping us overcome the future phases.

If we really make great efforts, then besides this world we will feel the spiritual world and live in two worlds. It is all up to us. If we can initially think about this and are getting ready for this, then whoever comes to the convention will join us and we will all advance together.

So let’s hope for the revelation of the upper world, which we must always see as the goal that is attained by our unity.

And although we have not yet achieved this goal, that is, we have not felt the upper world by exiting our ego, we have the desire to achieve it. And this, too, should be appreciated by us.

It is true that we have just started, but we hope to reach the goal, and it should be appreciated by us. It is up to us and depends on our efforts. It says: “A person can buy his world in one hour.” If people, who are part of a group, really want to transcend themselves, they will really feel this ascent.
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From a Talk On Preparation for the Congress in New Jersey, 5/10/2013

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Question: Why does the Creator send me “thorny” thoughts?

Answer: From Rabash’s article “What is the Lily Among the Thorns in the Work”: The Zohar says “As the lily among the thorns so is my loved one among the girls.” The Creator wanted to make Israel like its form Above, so that there will be one lily on earth like the upper lily which is Malchut, and a lily that has a scent and is selected of all the other lilies in the world is the one that grows among the thorns.

A lily can grow and bloom only if it grows among the thorns. It’s impossible to grow without the thorns. The thorns are the forces that help us advance. Otherwise we would peacefully fall to sleep in our desire to receive and would never want to rise above it.

The thorns are the forces of motion that push us forward and help us advance while we aspire towards rest, fulfillment, and pleasure. They appear when there is no choice, when a person disrespects the option to advance by his own efforts and tries to rest all the time, justifying himself, feeling that he does enough and that everything is fine.

Then his stubbornness and his laziness gradually accumulate until a serious thorn appears. Then he begins to cry out and to advance. Everyone will agree judging by his own experience and say that this is exactly what happens, sometimes more and sometimes less. This is how a person is taught that he should find the power to advance by himself and not wait for the thorns. But there will still be thorns since it’s impossible to totally manage without them.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does it mean that a person should only present his “half a shekel” in the work and the Creator adds the other half?

Answer: My “half a shekel” means that I have to bring a vessel, a deficiency, while the filling comes from Above. This deficiency is necessary in order to acquire the force of bestowal. If my deficiency is right, I will receive the other half.

But usually we prepare the desire to receive for our own sake and cry out: “Give me, Give me!” Then we say: “The Creator doesn’t give us anything! He must be wrong and this whole method doesn’t work.”

We are not aware of the fact that our vessel is actually aimed at what the Creator doesn’t give. He only gives us a vessel of bestowal, the Light that Reforms, which is the only thing for which you may ask. If you really ask for that, you receive it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 52, “Transgression does not Put Out a Mitzva“: One must know that one does not need to uproot the evil, as this thing is impossible. Rather, one must only hate the evil, as it is written, “Ye that love the Lord, hate evil.”

It is about our choice. There is a plan that leads to the purpose of creation that must be fulfilled. We cannot change this plan because the contrast between the Light and the vessel has existed since the beginning of creation, and it must come to an end so that at the end of the process, they will not oppose one another, but will merge into one whole.

Therefore, this process should include the three following states: the initial state of the created being, the process of correction, and the state of the end of correction. The only thing we can do is to hasten time, to perceive all the states correctly—that is, to manage to justify them and want them in advance. Thanks to this, we acquire the understanding and the feeling of who the Creator is, and how we can connect to Him and become similar to Him.

We learn about the choice from different examples. However, the basis of the choice is in the following: If I want to get closer to the future states that are expected along the way, to hasten my development, I must get away from the past and come closer to the future according to the timeline of the plan of my development. This means that I draw further away from my egoistic desire and come closer to the desire to bestow.

This coming closer depends on my hate of reception and my attraction to bestowal. On nature’s part, the Creator pushes me to it by the force of the Light when it reveals to me more and more blows from my ego each time. Therefore, I feel suffering, evil, and thus I hate my ego. In contrast to this bad feeling, I begin to love the acts of bestowal, the connection in which I believe that I will feel better. Thus, nature, the Creator, the force of the Light, advances me.

This is where my freewill lies: to what extent I can increase my recognition of evil that is expressed in my hate of evil. I can do that with the help of the environment. If the environment begins telling me about evil more, which I have attained by my personal blows, I will draw away from my egoistic desire much faster and yearn for bestowal. Therefore, I have to receive endless examples from everything that surrounds me which prove to me how evil the ego is and how good bestowal is.

Those around me have to let me see and feel this, to brainwash me. Eventually, the hate of evil will burn in me and I will advance much faster to what is opposite to it, to the good. Therefore, as it is written, “O ye that love the Lord, hate evil.” By that, I will know what I must do: How I can turn my desires, which do not disappear, to their opposite form by using them in a new way.

I want to feel good! And if I have to bestow in order to feel that way, I am ready to do so. If I have to treat others more nicely, I have no choice and I agree to treat them more nicely so that we all will feel good. Just as in times of war or in other difficult times when people get closer to one another since they feel that it will be best for everyone, a person feels that, eventually, he will be better off.

So, from Lo Lishma (not for Her Name) we arrive at Lishma (for Her Name). First, a person acknowledges the advantage of a good attitude egoistically when he understands that we have no choice but to connect, to be compatible with nature, and to stop harming one another. Eventually, he begins to feel that there is a special power in connection, a special new state that he has never experienced before.

Just as when two people connect, trying not to harm one another at the beginning and to bring each other pleasure, and then they suddenly begin to feel that there is something greater between them—a feeling that they have never experienced before—so, from Lo Lishma we arrive at Lishma. It is all thanks to our increasing the hate for the egoistic desire to enjoy and to separation.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/3/13 

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Rabash, “You Have Chosen Us”: “This is the point that it is forbidden to teach the Torah to pagans, which means the nations of the world that are within a person himself should be taught.

And Baal HaSulam said that wherever the sages say that it is forbidden, it means that it is impossible. Since “the Torah only exists in those who kill themselves for it,” which means that a person annuls his “self” and wants to annul before the Creator, and then the Creator gives him the Torah as a present.

Therefore, a person should know that the Creator has chosen only the phase of Israel in a person, and it is only with regard to this phase that it is written, “You have loved us and wanted us.” Thus, a person who says, “You have chosen us,” must respect and regard the phase of Israel in him and annul all the other desires of the nations of the world in which he is incorporated.

We must make sure that the qualities which bring a person closer to spirituality are always prominent and speak within him, whereas all the other qualities should be repressed. Then, a person’s inner structure becomes similar to the spiritual Partzuf in the attributes that he receives from the environment. It is only in them that he can receive the Torah since they are the desires that were made as a result of the connection, the bestowing desires that stem from unity.

However, if these are a person’s own attributes, then they certainly will be egoistic. He never will be able to feel the truth in them and, so, it is impossible to advance by them.

If a person makes a decision that only the desires that he receives from the environment are the desires of his soul, he understands that it is impossible to advance any other way and that everything in him except for that spark is crooked (in Hebrew “crooked” sounds like “idol worshiper”) and not straight. This way a person arrive at the formation of the right vessel in him by understanding that all his personal desires are flawed.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/13

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Question: Looking from the outside, it seems that we are engaged in a mad chase after unification, love, and bestowal. What do we actually expect in return? How can we picture the rewards?

Answer: I will receive a soul for these efforts.

I either live or die like an animal, just don’t end up as prey for wild beasts, but rot in the ground, or I acquire a soul and live an eternal life. It is not after the animate body is gone but actually now, while living in this world.

Plants, for example, don’t feel what animals feel. Animals live a much richer life than plants. It is exactly for this reason that a “two-legged animal” doesn’t understand that eventually, it lives a physical life although it could acquire eternity.

It is impossible to explain that eternal life is unlimited: I am not limited by my physical body, not by my desires, not by time, and not by motion—not by anything at all. I transcend all these limitations and exit my boundaries.

How? It is very simple. Everything is prepared for me. A whole was broken to pieces. Each of these parts feels its boundaries and limitations. However, if it wants to come out of it, it can do so. This exit of one’s boundaries is the connection with others.

I work against my animal desire and, above it, I acquire a human, a higher desire; that is, I acquire a new vessel. I live in it and feel the unlimited life in it. It has no boundary that is determined by time and space, and there is no current “self.” It is because the spiritual world is not my “self” at all. There, the competition is over the greater connection, over the greater bestowal that leads to unlimited, infinite dimensions.

Everyone must reach that. It is impossible to settle for less. The goal of creation, its plan, the current crisis, and our entire life obligate us to do so. The only problem is how to organize this. All the necessary forces for that are ready, so use them. However, we don’t want to draw them to fulfill this goal.

Still, whatever the mind doesn’t do, time does. So, it isn’t a hopeless situation and a Human can emerge from every “animal.”
[106809]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/5/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

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There can be three states in the exercise of the “tens” (connecting in groups of tens): At one time, I am below everyone else, another time, I am the upper one, the one who bestows, and the third time, we are all equal. Equality is a result of the first two states, and it is the middle line.

We cannot stand equality nor measure it. We actually don’t have it. We understand what it means to be above or below others, but we lose sensation where equality begins. Even a missile cannot focus straight on target and constantly must feel a certain degree of deviation. We have to feel a certain degree of deviation in everything.

So, we are given the balance from Above as the middle line, which comes together with the revelation of the Creator. The vessel and the Light, the middle line and the Creator, come together as a sign that you have exerted yourself enough and have attained a certain level of accuracy in different measurements that now enable you to feel the middle line and the Creator to a certain extent. For example, you have measured 10 pounds of the vessel and 10 pounds of the Light, and the fact that there is a deviation of 10 ounces in these 10 pounds is ignored from Above.

Next time, you will attain the middle line in those 10 pounds, and then you will value it as 100 pounds, and the accuracy will not be in the range of 10 ounces, but of 1 ounce. Thus, each time, you value your adhesion with the Creator more and thereby expand your vessel. The accuracy grows, that is, the middle line becomes increasingly thinner and thus more qualitative.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/13, TES 

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You will attain everything within the “ten,” which is a group made of ten friends that works on the connection between them (an exercise that we conduct at present), and not just by studying The Zohar or Talmud Eser Sefirot. You don’t know how it will all be revealed, but it will be revealed.

Question: How should I act with regards to my “ten?”

Answer: Sometimes, I have to check myself with regards to that ten, this Minyan (a quorum of ten). Sometimes I have to see this Minyan as one person, sometimes I have to see myself above the ten and to bestow upon others, and sometimes I have to see that I am lower than them and to be under their influence.

Sometimes we feel that we are together, as one force field, in which we are equally incorporated in one another and each one is made of all the ten. When each of us is already made of all the ten and is incorporated in all the ten again, it becomes 10×10, that is, 100. The 100 are incorporated in the ten again and become 1,000, and so on. Eventually we fill this area in our mutual incorporation so densely that it becomes a whole, solid surface upon which we reveal the Creator.

I can imagine that it is I who brings the deficiency to the ten and the others worry about me like ZAT (the lower seven Sefirot) of Bina. I am in them like in a mother’s womb and compel them to draw the Light that Reforms upon me so that I will adhere to them more strongly and will bestow upon them and help.

I can also discover this attitude in the ten when we all connect into one whole. After I bestow upon them and receive from them, I attain this unity with them, feeling that not only do we share everything but I also expect to reveal the Creator as a result of this unity and this partnership. The moment the “ten” attains the concept of Minyan (a connection of ten people), I reveal the Creator in it.

It says: “I came and there was no man,” which means that the wholeness in which the Creator is revealed was missing. Therefore, the Creator says: “I came and there was no man.” “Man” is the image in which the Creator can dress.
[106913]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/6/13, TES

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Rabash, Shlavei Hasulam (Steps of the Ladder), Article 38, “What is a Glass of Blessing Should be Full, in the Work”: Since it is hard work to constantly overcome one’s self and annul before the upper one, so that the upper will make what the upper wants of it. This is called Ibur, which is the state of smallness that is most restricted.

On one hand, it’s a state of smallness (Katnut), a state of an “embryo,” the lowest possible level, and on the other hand, it’s a state of greatness (Gadlut). The point here is at what level I remain as an embryo. It’s because the phase of Ibur (conception) includes all the states and all the levels. Only later do I move on to the levels of Yenika (suckling) and Mochin (mind), when I already work with my desire in order to bestow, by continuing the same direction of self-annulment that is on the embryo level. Then, however, I already annul myself not only by restricting myself, by limiting my desire, but also in using it in order to bestow, in the same direction that I started using it initially.

Thus, the level of embryo, which is the basis for everything, is great and unique. On this basis the future human being continues his embryonic phase, but he already uses it differently. One way or the other, we constantly annul ourselves before the Creator, before the upper Light, so that it will show us our nature and will give us more strength.

To annul myself before the upper one means to rise above my current self and to take on its form. An “embryo” (Ubar – עֻבָּר) is a static state of someone who passes (Over – עוֹבֵר) from one state to another. What’s more, he moves feeling rage, and against his natural desires since he constantly clarifies and overcomes himself under pressure.

At first this path looks very difficult and unattainable. Is it possible to live this way? Of course it’s impossible if we had to act alone. But the Creator has created the shattering of the vessels for us, and we can work in a state of an embryo with the help of the environment, and not by ourselves. We are surrounded by friends and work with them. Thus our work is divided into many parts according to our efforts, and each part joins the others. So eventually we collect the right efforts for the state of Ibur, and we finally accept it.

We should thus understand that the difficult part is not self-annulment, but the unity and connection in the group. If I join the friends, I will have the power to become an embryo.
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From the Men’s Convention “The Next Step” 4/26/13, Lesson 2 

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