From Rabash’s letter (No. 8): …at the end of the day, this is a group of people who have gathered in a certain place, under a certain leader, to be together. With superhuman courage they face up to all those who rise against them.

Indeed, they are brave men with a strong spirit, and they are determined not to retreat one inch. They are first-class fighters, fighting the war against the inclination to their last drop of blood, and their only wish is to win the battle for the glory of His name.

These words are said about the internal war that takes place inside us, as it is written, “There will always be a fight between good and bad inclinations.” The more we kindle this internal battle, the sooner we will understand that we have to exit from our ego, overpower it, escape from it, and rise above the materiality that we now sense.

There is no other way to escape from this world and attain the higher level other than by being under constant pressure, fear, and troubles that lead us to a condition that is defined as the “exodus from Egypt.” We begin revealing these qualities in us, and they make us come “out of our skin,” meaning to leave our bodies.

Only these conditions allow us to rise. It happens by a single circumstance: We should retain and work with our internal properties that are opposite by nature. One doesn’t escape by soaring into spirituality. We can’t do it by floating in the skies or leaving this material world below, nor is it about detaching from this corporeality. At the same time, we shouldn’t submerge into this realm or consider that this world as something that exists on its own.

We have to stay in the middle and realize that both forms are given to us by the Creator and that we are supposed to combine them together. By no means should we run away or hide from the desire to be pleased; rather, above this desire we have to stay confident that it’s the Upper Force that governs everything around us. It’s a unique and complicated approach for which we need an internal inborn readiness that is called “the root of the soul.” As well, we also need a group that is ready to follow this path, as it is written in Rabash’s letter: At the end of the day, this is a group of people who have gathered in a certain place, under a certain leader, to be together.

There are not many such groups. On the contrary, the farther we advance, the more will be the supporters around us and the fewer the people inside the group. The more precious a quality is the less it’s found in nature. Our goal is to rise to a “superhuman level.”

We can achieve it only by leading a merciless war against our egos. This war is called a “Holy War,” meaning the “war for the sake of the Creator.” In order to lead this war, we should connect both worlds with the Creator, agree to live in two parallel realms, and thank Him for everything that He sends to us. We should understand that everything is originated from one place and is given to us to make us grow.

Rabash writes to us about these issues: …at the end of the day, this is a group of people who have gathered in a certain place, under a certain leader, to be together. With superhuman courage they face up to all those who rise against them… This implies our internal problems. Indeed, they are brave men with a strong spirit, and they are determined not to retreat one inch…meaning that they won’t move towards materiality. They are first-class fighters, fighting the war against the inclination to their last drop of blood, and their only wish is to win the battle for the glory of His name.

This explains why we have to strengthen; if we manage to achieve everything that we spoke about and attain the states that we went through during this Passover, there is no doubt that we will end up being at the doorstep that is already in front of us.
[104062]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13

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What did we attain at the European Convention? First of all, we created between us a certain mutual understanding.

We assembled together as one European group. It isn’t important that the languages and in part also the mentality separate between us. It’s Babylon as it was 3800 years ago, when it disintegrated into separate parts. Today, we are that same Babylon and come together again, but it’s not to continue the Babylonian suffering. Rather, it’s in order to unite according to the method revealed to the world back then.

It’s as if we are closing the circle, returning to the same state. It isn’t important that instead of three million Babylonians today we have seven billion. It’s simply a further division of the general soul so that for each one of us it will be easier to correct his small particle. But essentially, we represent the part of Babylon that is ready for this correction. Our entire world Kli (vessel or desire) is specifically the “cream” that rises to the top and needs to be gathered and united, and then the correction of the whole world will take place.

I think we attained here such mutual understanding, and now we have some serious work to do: to realize our mission.

You will see how each of you will come to be in great demand, how each of you can become a teacher, an educator. People will clutch at you like at straws since they don’t understand the situation they are in and in particular, the method of correction that they will suddenly discover: “How can we unite? How do we sit in a circle? What should we talk about? How do we interact between ourselves? How do we discover the contact between us?”

Here we refer to fine details we feel from within because we live them, while to explain it to someone in a scientific or systematic way is difficult and very complex. Everyone understands that if a person feels something inside, that’s one thing, but when he begins to pass it on to someone else and the other person, who doesn’t understand or feel the material, repeats it only in a mechanical way, then that’s something else completely.

Thus, each one of you will be very much in demand. Begin to be involved in integral and virtual education and you will see how people will be drawn to you. Each one of you will be worth your weight in gold.

The Creator will turn to us only when we have a passageway to the external world, and not otherwise. This is written about in every Kabbalah book. This is how nature is created: by an open, complete dissemination system. And if through us there will be an open channel to the external world, then through it, the upper Light will pass and shine upon the world. It won’t stop in any place, only circulate and become revealed. If we don’t hinder but allow for an open channel, the Light will flow through us.
[104360]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/24/13, Lesson 6

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Writings of Rabash, Volume 1, Essay 30: “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”: For this reason, it makes no difference if the friend is slandering him and must certainly hate him. Instead, a person who wishes to acquire love of others, that person needs the correction of loving the other.

Therefore, when a person makes the effort and judges him to a scale of merit, it is a Segula [remedy/power/virtue], where by the toil that a person makes, which is called “an awakening from below,” he is given strength from above to be able to love all the friends without exception.

A person doesn’t ask for the friends to love him. Instead, he asks for the power to love the friends even though he feels coldness, rejection, and hatred from their side. He only needs a power that makes it possible for him to love—above all failures and problems that he discovers on all sides.

It is written: “They have eyes and see not,” and everyone rejects according to his own flaws. The Creator arranges all the conditions, and indeed, everyone except me has already reached the end of correction. It means that I must correct myself, and only to that the degree will the true picture appear before me time after time. Even now the true picture appears before me, but only according to the degree of my corruption. After that, when I partially correct myself, I will see something else.

The entire world will be transformed before my eyes. After all, the world doesn’t depend on anyone or anything other than my vessels (desires). The world itself is the abstract, formless Light, and it is me in particular who imparts certain forms to it.

Hence, if I see a bad relationship from a friend, I need to make the right request. Indeed, I feel a lack of something, and this “something” is in the hands of the Creator who is good and benevolent and ready to give me the desired. And all the conditions are arranged so that I will ask correctly.

This is so even when I still don’t have a true desire to love the friend who hates me, I feel that I depend on him in my relationship toward him. So, I ask to see the reason, to see the truth.

Everyone needs to reach a request like this by himself. If I don’t work on changing my relationship in regard to the friends, then in general, what am I doing? Whom do I want to change: them or myself?

One needs to answer this question inside and make the decision. Whoever changes himself “serves the Creator,” and he truly realizes the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah. And whoever wants to correct others and not himself should join the government and other organizations.

In the wisdom of Kabbalah I cannot demand another relationship toward myself. The goal of people who have gathered here is to correct themselves. Accordingly, this is how we relate to the friends: We understand that all of us together are moving  toward correction, toward love, supporting each other and helping each other to change, until we truly begin to love.
[104443]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash

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As Baal HaSulam and other great Kabbalists write, the most important thing is that every day be as new. The “day” means a moment, not daytime. That is why your every moment should be new! And this is the main thing.

Wake up, get up, and shake yourself at any time of the day and night as if you are reborn. Cross out all that was before: all our old problems and relationships. No past problems! No emotional baggage!

Forget all the bad things that were in each group and between the groups, between all the groups and me as well. Reset, restart!
[104355]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/24/13, Lesson 6

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Question: In the workshops we speak a lot about love. But you often give an example of how great Kabbalists hated each other. I am afraid. Do all of us need to go through this?

Answer: In order to feel hatred, you need to love very strongly, you need to yearn for love. We talk about this a lot in our lessons. All that happens to us, including even the worst things, is all for the good. All is given to us just so that we will rise above all that happens.

If we want to advance, we must advance towards love.

Let’s suppose that now I try to approach someone with love and as a result I feel mutual hatred from him towards me. But my love is only a formal one, and his hatred is, as if, real.

I begin to ask from the upper Light to build real love within me above this hatred. It is said, “Love covers all sins,” all the hatred.

The huge inner hatred is called “Mount Sinai” (sina – hatred in Hebrew). And the love that I acquire is already real love. In this way we advance forward.

Question: How is it possible to acquire real love all at once, bypassing hatred?

Answer: My yearning is only for love and whatever happens on the way is not important. The hatred will appear only so that you will rise above it and love others even more. But due to that, your love will increase and grow, thanks to the hatred that is constantly growing underneath it. It can’t be any other way, because the upper world was created by two contradictory and opposite attributes that connect to one complete whole.
[104184]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 5

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Spiritual vessels are made of the desire to receive and its restriction, the Masach (screen), and the shame that is contained within it. The shame is for not being able to turn myself to bestowal and of being afraid to tie every state that I go through to the One who bestows.

When I rise after a descent from the sensation of evil and from that height examine the previous state, I see that it wasn’t bad. I understand that the descent was the preparation for the current ascent. I begin to love and to value the previous state and to be grateful for it since without that descent, I wouldn’t be able to ascend now.

This allows me to value my ascent even more since it comes to correct the previous flaws. So, I correct this ascent by my new attitude toward it and learn from this experience for the future. Now, I know that I must prepare myself for the next state, for the next descent, so that I will be able to control it as much as I can and to work above reason.

There are very few chances to work above reason in a state of ascent, but the descent helps us here. The descents are actually the most helpful states, not the ascents.

A person’s work is to be grateful for the past and thereby prepare for the future. We should always say that everything that has happened up until now, whether a conflict with the friends or whatever it may be, was done by the Creator and that there is none else besides Him. You must add all these states toward the revelation of the Creator to you whether it is in the form of His “posterior” if it is a descent or in the form of His “face” if it is an ascent.

In the future, we must be prepared for whatever happens. This is called total devotion. This is what we prepare ourselves for in the group through investing our efforts in it in mutual guarantee and mutual help, which eventually return to the person himself.

Everything depends on our preparation. If we sit idly and do nothing, we hardly will feel any descents and ascents, but only mild changes in our mood. However, if we prepare ourselves in the connection with the friends, then we will be able to manage the pace of our advancement and see all our advanced states positively: both the ascents and the descents.

It is harder to relate decisively to an ascent than to a descent. In fact, when we are in an ascent, we are under the influence of the pleasure that totally fills us and doesn’t allow us to clarify the state we are in and to control the desires.

During a descent, however, it is your desire that forces you to look for help and even for salvation. Therefore, as it is written, “Pharaoh has brought the sons of Israel closer to our Father in Heaven.” The desires that are revealed during a descent—in exile, in suffering and in feeling bad—are those that bring a person closer to the goal, while the ascents don’t really help us advance.
[104233]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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Rabash, Shlavei Hasulam, 1984/1985, Essay 19, “Come to Pharaoh – A”: The Secret of the Pursuit of the Evil Inclination and the Other Side Is to Cause the Tzadikim to Err and to Adhere to the Sacred.

The evil inclination is an “angel” that rightly carries out its work. It constantly shows us how weak we are and not ready for anything and thus obliges us to turn to the Light that Reforms. And then we receive a power from above that carries out what is necessary. So, if the ego were not to show us our complete failure, we would agree with what is and would never turn to the Light.

The evil inclination is not the sum of evil tendencies; it awakens in me not despair from failure in these or other things because I am an egoist. The evil inclination is a unique force that stands against the Light and points at It by its opposition: “Here this is what you need.” So, darkness awakens us to search for Light, to awaken the dawn. This is not just the ego with its constant lusts and desires: jealousy, lust, honor, control, and so forth. No, instead, the evil inclination is the “bad” tendencies thanks to which we feel the need for help from Above. So this is saying that it is essentially also good.

Question: But you sometimes talk as if we have the power to advance…

Answer: Without wasting these powers, you would not realize that you need to ask for help. It is not enough here to know only that you are powerless—you must also have the experience. Look at a toddler: No matter how many times you explain something to him, he needs to try everything himself, and not just once. He doesn’t believe your words: “What do you need to do this for if you don’t ever succeed?” No, he must go through everything on his own.

Question: But in spite of all this, isn’t it terrible that we have to waste all that time?

Answer: This is exactly why we need it. You see, by trying to act independently you are correcting the Kelim, your desires. From time to time, when you reach despair, you are gradually purifying and arranging them. Understandably, you want to jump immediately to the final correction, but you must learn a little first.

All the Lights and all the Kelim, vessels, descended from the perfect world of Infinity to an absolutely imperfect and shattered state. Thus a system was created—from opposition between the Light and the vessel—you cannot improve upon the already established sequence. After all, there is nothing superfluous or peripheral here. The Light bestows in an absolute form and the vessel receives in an absolute form, and we build the appropriate connection between them. This is not something arbitrary or someone’s whim; this is the inevitable consequence of conditions that were originally set.

Between the two desires—bestowal and reception—another system of relationships cannot be created different from what is in the worlds of Adam Kadmon and ABYA. There simply cannot be. Absolute laws are at work here; so there is no reason to be sorry about “wasting time.” You cannot skip to Infinity in one leap. You need to pass through all the stages; otherwise, the will to receive will not succeed in acquiring the intention to bestow.

On the way to final correction, you require the Creator, the Light, more and more. Call Him whatever you want, but there is only one force that acts in reality. And within your great will to receive there is a small point. It needs to understand where it is found, to identify its desire and turn to the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif – OM) with a request that all parts of this desire will be corrected. There is nothing other than this. All of our work relies on this: that from this point in our desire we turn to the Light.

Yet for this many tests and attempts are required. You see you are working with the ego, a force that wants to establish its dominance and won’t allow turning to the Creator. On the contrary, the Creator is concealed to the degree that you establish yourself; we must decide: “It’s either me or Him.”

And therefore, (1) we first need to make the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph – TA) on our ego. This doesn’t say that we destroy it; we only recognize that with its help one is not allowed to reach bestowal. You don’t want to use the ego, even if you want to. So you cause it to “atrophy.”

After that, (2) you turn to Bina; you want the force of bestowal to rule in you. This brings you to a particular discovery (3). It is true that you only discover the Light of Hassadim, but this is already something. Thus gradually you remove the coverings, the concealment, from yourself…

Imagine this from an example. There are two people in front of you: me and a young man who is energetic, smart, handsome, and whose accomplishments are obvious. Next to him it is as if I dissipate, fade from your field of vision. So, all of your work now is to move the focus from one to the other. He conceals, covers, and hides me. This means that you need to “nullify” him from your eyes. So you “restrict” him and then start replacing him with me. It turns out that I am worth something; I am important to you, and so you are ready to enter under my authority instead of his authority….

Thus, many actions are required, steps on the way to bring you to revelation. Nothing is done by itself. From the start, you are under the authority of the egoistic desire and need to pass to the authority of the altruistic desire. You see, your desire cannot remain “not associated with anything”; either the intention to receive or the intention to bestow must dominate it. And this transition requires some time.
[103986]
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the created being was created in order to please it, then why must a person work in order to attain bestowal upon the Creator and cannot simply enjoy life, only goodness?

Answer: A person sometimes can enjoy the corporeal life, but not all his life and not all the time. Even very rich people who really have everything cannot feel pleasure every moment of their life since it wasn’t the goal of creation.

Looking closely, we will see that even a king’s life isn’t easy. The Creator arranges a role for everyone and forces a person to advance according to the goal of creation, in a good or a bad way. People usually advance by the path of suffering, which is called “in its time.” But if a person’s soul has a special root, he is given a chance to hasten his development, to “sanctify time,” which means that he actually can participate in the Creator’s work. In order to do so, he must hold onto two forces internally, not operate according to one force like ordinary people do.

It is impossible to advance only by pleasures in the corporeal world. We see that the world is sinking into greater suffering, despite the technological advancement that seemingly allows full prosperity. The Creator disrupts all our attempts to organize our corporeal life and doesn’t let us enjoy it. The evil inclination that He created constantly controls us, thus destroying all our good beginnings.

If our attempts didn’t contradict the goal of creation, then undoubtedly, everything  would work out somehow. We would live like animals according to our instincts and the plan of nature, and everyone would find his place in the general symbiosis. However, we cannot do that since we must reach a special state.

This refers especially to those in whom the point in the heart has awakened, but all people suffer since they feel the forces that compel them to develop. This happens “below reason,” unconsciously, without understanding where, why, and how they should develop, and what forces manage them and push them forward. A person instinctively tries to avoid an unpleasant, evil influence and is drawn to goodness. All his calculations are based only on where there is less suffering and more good.

However, for the special souls the Creator prepared a special of path of development by the good. They must summon the forces that develop them by themselves: the upper Surrounding Light that Reforms. These people are happy about the bad feeling just as they are about the good feeling, knowing and understanding that it all comes only from the Creator, that there is none else besides Him, and that He plays with us.

This entire life is a game since the upper one develops the lower one through a game, and we only need to accept the rules of this game, despite its complexity, the confusion, and its difficulty. We must exert ourselves greatly in order to identify the Creator’s game and to stay connected to the One who plays with us. In this case, we find ourselves between two forces, Pharaoh and the Creator, and are happy about the chance to advance. Then we really can advance only by the good way!

People who can hold onto these two forces and manage them by themselves like reins or who can become like a horse that advances by itself by guessing the desires of the rider, these people feel that they are happy. They have many problems. The entire world, for which they are responsible, is on their shoulders, but they are happy about their role, about the connection with the Creator whose commands they fulfill.
[104239]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13, Writings of Rabash

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Rabash, “What is that the People’s Shepherd is the Whole Nation in the Work”: All the heaviness in the  service of the Creator is only due to the lack of faith. Since when a person is rewarded with whole faith, he yearns to annul himself before the Creator like a candle before a torch. And indeed all the organs, which means, all his thoughts and desires do what the force of faith obligates them to do.

We can purchase this force of faith only according to the hardening of the heart and all the problems that Moses went through in his time. He was educated in the home of Pharaoh and received everything from his adoptive grandfather and mother. This means that, thanks to his ego, a person goes through a special phase in his development. This ego is very big, and, so, the Israeli nation is called a “stiff necked,” “stubborn” nation because Pharaoh resides in it. So, the ego educates a person in his own territory, but a person still wants to follow his way so that the property of Moses can grow in him.

One must be a great egoist, closed inside his ego. It isn’t by chance that it is written, “He who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him.” What is more, the attributes that a person develops, both in the “house of Pharaoh” and in the “house of Jethro,” are necessary for his spiritual development. Later, the attribute of Bina comes only through a difficult inner struggle between the spark that is revealed (the point in the heart) and the great egoistic desire to receive that is so cruel and hard that it is not ready to and cannot listen to anyone.
[104199]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/13, Writings of Rabash

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