On its own, what is the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah? Everything seems simple; people that want to study come and there is an expert that teaches. He sits and he talks, and whoever wants to hear comes and listens. There are many places like this in the world where people are studying all kinds of things.

But when a man comes to the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah, quickly he reveals that the students need to be connected to each other. So, ok good, there are even quite a few examples of this. People connect in frames of a group; it could be a class or a group, etc.

It is only that here, we tell them, ”You need to connect between yourselves in love.”

Already this looks like mysticism. Something similar to it exists in the wisdoms of the East and also religion is preaching about connection between people, “Love your friend as yourself.”

Later, the quality of this connection is spoken about. So it becomes understood that the issue is not only in studying and all the other things that accompany it, but the main thing is the connection.

How could it be? I came to study some kind of wisdom. I’m willing to do it together with others; I’m willing to join them in order that the connection between us will be in accord with the study. But no, I’m being told another thing, “You need to connect with them to such a measure that you will stop feeling your existence, only they will exist for you.” This I do not understand, but they demand this from me in order to understand the material, which on its own is not important in the meantime.

In this matter, a reversal of 180 degrees awaits me: Before the material of the study was important to me, I wanted to know something new, to receive wisdom, and now it is clear that the material is not important at all, rather the connection is. I hadn’t even thought about something like that.

So what has to be done? How can one understand that everything is attained in connection, that we will never understand the sources if we don’t begin to connect, because the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks only about the manners of connection and not about anything else?

We stumble on this problem. And that’s why the Rabash began his articles from this: love of friends, the purpose of society, the order of the gathering of friends, etc. Without this, we simply have nowhere to go, but we dismiss what doesn’t fit our desire and public opinion.

Even though it is hard for me to receive the importance of the love of friends, I need to convince myself that I am here only for one goal, to connect with the friends in such a way as to annul myself before them, to lose self-existence and to exist only in such a measure that I can bestow to them, only according to their desire.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/13, Writings of Rabash, “Love of Friends”

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Question: It is said that it is not the smart one who learns in Kabbalah. Then, why do you always ask whether we understand anything we learn in The Study of the Ten Sefirot? Isn’t The Book of Zohar enough for those who only have to feel? Can smart people really study?

Answer: Interestingly, spiritual advancement doesn’t depend on the knowledge we accumulate. This is clear and certain. The point is that apprehension and comprehension, knowing, comes when I put effort into unity, into the desire to connect with our neighbors, and getting outside ourselves, when we convince ourselves that the visible picture around us is in fact my world, part of my soul, and my enemies and adversaries are the most useful and closest to me.

In turns out that the opposite is true. On one hand, our advancement depends on it.

But on the other hand, we see that the Ari started to explain Kabbalah as if it were science in the contemporary meaning of the word. It was the Ari who opened the era of correction to us; it starts with him. In the 16th century, he added a scientific nature to Kabbalah; he started to present materials in a scientific way and for the first time ever he accurately described the structure of spiritual worlds, Partzufim, Sefirot, Lights, vessels, laws, degrees, etc.

After the Ari, several Kabbalists wrote such books, then, Baal HaSulam appeared and continued the same trend; based on the Ari’s books, he wrote The Study of the Ten Sefirot. It is a full tutorial with precise definitions and responses to numerous questions. In addition, he wrote a commentary to The Book of Zohar using scientific terminology.

Why do we need this? Maybe, it’s indeed enough to read the Torah with all those stories of exiting Babylon and Egypt and other events of ancient history? Yet, it is obvious that we have no clue about what exactly is described in them. When materials are presented in a scientific way, it becomes very clear to us that we are dealing with the process of approaching the Creator; whereas, when reading the Torah, we simply cannot locate our place in all these stories, nor can we sense the need for our internal changes or determine the means to do so.

This way of presenting materials was very good for the period when people were seeking the Creator through affliction. We should keep in mind that in the era of the Torah, the Prophets and Holy Scriptures, the Creator could be attained as a result of pretty simple efforts, as it is said: “Eat bread and salt, drink water, sleep on the ground, suffer, and engage in the Torah.” If one read the source, the Tanakh, following the above conditions, wanting to come to the Creator through the reading, one attained Him.

But then the egoistic desire “jumped” to the next level, and from this stage on, the former method of revealing the Creator became impossible. That’s why Kabbalists started to search for a different form of presenting materials—in the form of Mishnah and Talmud. These books speak of the same things that are described in the Tanakh, but this time in the context of laws. Things that the Torah explains in the form of morality were framed in the Talmud as a rigid structure: We take and give; if we take something, we owe the same thing back, thus, we either go through afflictions or are entitled to a reward.

In principle, the wisdom of Kabbalah talks about the laws of interconnection between the vessels and the Lights. The power of the Light of Infinity (Ein Sof – ES) is unchanging, although there are five spiritual steps. At the first stage, the Light goes through without any filters (directly) and is called Yechida. At the second level, the Light goes through a specific “filter” that lowers it to the level of Haya. At the third step, two filters lessen the Light to the level of Neshama, and so on and so forth until it reaches the level of the Light of Nefesh.

Many other laws act in this system, but the main thing is the relationship of the Lights and vessels. This is what the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is about; there is nothing else to it. It can be described in various ways. The authors of The Book of Zohar use their own method of presenting the material, the language of morals. From the time of the Ari, a rapid development of science and technology began; new generations required different scientific languages. But, in fact, the Ari wrote about the same things—about the relationship between the Lights and the vessels, about the laws that act in this system. We also study the worlds, Partzufim, the steps, in other words, the desires that have the screens and the corresponding Lights. There is nothing besides them anyway.

Thus, on our way to correction, we become more meticulous with the laws. For example, if my TV set doesn’t work, I explain what’s wrong with it using my sensations. I say, the colors are wrong: There is too much red, not enough green, and no blue at all. Yet, when a specialist steps in, he says: We need a special lamp that has certain characteristics in watts and lumens; we also have to solder this relay to that part.

When we go deeper inside, we start “playing with numbers,” with technical specifications. If one wants to talk about spiritual steps, he has to explain in detail what state he is talking about, what level, what desires, what screens, what Light. One has to use numbers that show me what he is talking about.

Vague definitions do not work. The same applies to modern day technologies; it requires ever greater accuracy in measurements settings. So, whether we like it or not, the scientific language of Kabbalah is closer to us, although we still cannot tell what’s behind it.

Let’s say, yesterday you were in one state, and today in another.

-“What is the difference between these states?” I ask.

-“Yesterday I felt a little better, although not quite well.”

– “I don’t understand. Give me more details, exact figures and more precise characteristics, the encoding that I can translate inside myself and feel the same. Give me the exact data instead of vague impressions.”

We have to unite with the general system, but how? How can we unite if there is no channel of connection that works at the ultimate frequency and that provides an ideal exchange of information?

Consequently, we have to become experts and know our “TV sets” properly, then we begin understanding the entire system. The system is ours. It is us!

The question is: What are the methods of acquiring this knowledge?
The way of achieving it is to nullify our personal understanding. This is called “faith above reason.”

Question: The school teacher told me that one plus one is two. I believe him, but then start checking it out. Do we apply the same method here?

Answer: No. In Kabbalah, a person acquires new properties and “weighs” everything on a new “scale”; we have to use a different type of intellect than previously. By changing internally, we transition to another sphere, into a different space, a new dimension; we have to use a spiritual arithmetic. Now, one measures and compares everything by its quality, rather than quantity; one plus one does not always equal two. It is an opposite world with a totally different “system of calculation.”

We begin acting in a completely different plane of reality that is still hidden from us. Why is it hidden? It is because it doesn’t correspond to our current sensations or intellect. It makes it impossible to apply conventional mathematics to the spiritual world.

It means that the one who is prone to changing one’s own properties is able to study, as opposed to the one who is smart and clever. As a result, our modified qualities “dress” into a new type of intellect. A person changes his desire and receives the “revelation” into it. This is an intellect of a higher level.

One shouldn’t be “smart.” On the contrary, a person has to cancel his current understanding and go against it in order to receive a new type of consciousness. One has to be smart enough to cancel one’s present understanding.

How do we do that? We have to understand only one thing: We need to depend on the correct environment and over and over again continue receiving its integral mind instead of having a mind of our own.

In this world, this approach looks totally unacceptable, whereas in spirituality, everything is exactly as it is described above: We unite with our very special group. The Creator brought us here and told us: “Unite with your friends.” We neutralize our mind and sensations and start uniting. How possibly can we agree to this? It is so hard to bow our heads and “loose ourselves” in the group.

We are brought to this state from Above, although we are still concerned whether we are capable of self-annulment. That is the question. Do we accept the destiny that is offered to us by the Creator? Do we run away from it? Do we continue using our energy in spite of everything that goes on with us and manage to put our mind aside?

Kabbalah is a difficult labor. It’s an exertion that influences our nerves, habits, and desires. It has nothing to do with the amount of knowledge.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

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We have to respect the feeling of confusion, darkness, blurriness, and powerlessness. It says “respect the sons of the poor since the Torah will come from them.” It is these poor who have nothing, who feel a growing emptiness in their hearts and minds, who are unable to concentrate and find their way around in these states, who are thus preparing their vessels in which they will receive the Torah, the Light that reveals to them all the spiritual discernments.

So the main thing is to get used to studying in darkness and in the light. This is symbolized in the Kabbalists’ tradition of beginning their studies at midnight. This is what Kabbalists did throughout the ages, and even King David used to get up at midnight in order to “awaken the dawn.” It is because at midnight the Zivug (coupling) of the upper Aba and Ima begins in order to awaken the vessels to receive the Light.

If a person wants to attain the Light, the state is called “day.” He has to try and awaken the vessels to receive the Light in their lowest and darkest state, when he is “asleep” and doesn’t feel himself.

We don’t notice these discernments yet, but we will soon learn how to discern them in order to see everything in the darkness and in the light, and to know how to use every state in the clearest and most conscious manner. The main point now, after the ascent we attained in the convention, is not to leave the work in such times, which are not really understood, are not pleasant, and which do not fill us.

Such times come along so that we will face them, and despite the heavy feeling in our egoistic desires, which don’t understand the darkness, we will remain in connection and rise, and thus build the vessels for the next ascent.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/22/13

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Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 141:I am found nowhere but in the Torah. Therefore, keep the Torah and look for Me there, and the Light in it will reform you and you will find Me,” as it is written, “Those that seek Me shall find Me.”

This is what we try to do, striving to connect as one man in one heart, attaining mutual guarantee and “love your neighbor as yourself” by showing our readiness for such a connection during the study. And then in each moment, we reveal how much we are incapable of this, and then again we try, despite everything, to think about unity and connection.

We hope that our study and connection will help us reveal the Creator in order to bring Him pleasure. This becomes the prayer during the study, an action of correction, and it draws us nearer to the goal. If the friends try to connect in the right way, raise their points in the heart above their ego, free from its control, and connect them, which takes place during the lesson, which tells about such states, then in this we attract the Reforming Light. And this is actually our exertion.

There will always be disturbances, more and more. Therefore, we need to strengthen each other, and precisely then, when the despair comes and big obstacles appear in the path, a person is helpless before them, doesn’t know what to do, wants to escape, gets tired and falls, falls asleep or the opposite, becomes angry and cannot bear this state. But precisely these states are the most beneficial for adding one more drop of work, another ounce of effort, by which we attract the Light on us.

One who does not despair and give up is the one who succeeds. Here neither wisdom nor force will help, only patience. Time will do it.

“Time” symbolizes numerous efforts that a person does in each moment, even the smallest ones. These efforts accumulate, connect, and in the end, bring a solution.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/13, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: During the Arava convention our group received a huge new level. Now we have to cling to it and keep it, and this requires repulsions. But on the other hand, according to the example that Baal HaSulam brings, in order to jump on the table you need to jump above it. So what is the next point “above the table” that we should focus our efforts on?

Answer: This week everyone will go home and we will return to our daily routine. For me, personally, the daily routine is the main thing; the conventions are a result of that routine. Day after day, we will work on ourselves increasingly more strongly, opening what we attained now and getting ready for the new revelation. This is all our work.

The convention itself is not work. We made such great preparations and so we succeeded. Part of that success was the women’s convention. In addition to that, collecting money for our new home and uniting around this problem created a surprisingly powerful force. Of course, we mustn’t forget the congresses in Kharkov and Novosibirsk.

Eventually we see that we have matured. The world is advancing faster downhill while we are rising accordingly. Here we have to keep clear frameworks: attend the daily lessons, read my blog selectively, participate in the workshops, and disseminate.

The main thing is self-examination and self-report: a person must constantly check oneself and one’s connection with the group.

In this context, during the lessons and the workshops, we are expecting new states and increasingly deeper issues. Today during the lesson and the workshop we will already continue what we have started during the Arava convention.

In this type of work, we fill the vessel drop by drop, until we “leap” to the next level, and thus over and over again. Don’t neglect these daily additions that are accumulating “penny by penny.” There is no other way. By that we discover many vessels, desires, internally. Even if it seems that nothing happens, the outcome of these efforts will, in fact, be discovered later on.

It is the same with a child who has to go through different states in the human environment. If he doesn’t have such an environment during the first years of his life, then nothing will help afterward: No matter how much you invest in him, he will never be a human being. The different examples of Mowgli–children prove that. How could that be? The thing is that he did not develop his desires in time.

We are also dealing with things that are essential on the current level of our development, and so we have to dedicate the time to study and to internal changes by trying to value every moment in this work.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/13, Shamati #26

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah

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During our studies of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we shouldn’t pay attention to how much we understand in the books of Kabbalah. The Sefirot, Olamot (worlds), and Partzufim aren’t important because we still haven’t attained the spiritual worlds and don’t know what is going on there. We are just juggling words.

However, the work in the group is first and foremost; the connection between us leads to the correct studies in which we, like children, want to rise to the next level. Some kind of mutual desire for the next level attracts the upper Light onto us, the force that develops us.

It develops us to the same extent that we yearn to be above. That is the only law of nature. Thus, we need to operate within this law and not forget that we unite and connect in order to discover within us the connection between us and the upper world, the Creator, in at least at the initial, minimal manifestation.

The great students of Rashbi, before they began to describe their feelings and the discoveries in The Book of the Zohar, felt such a great hatred between them that they were even prepared to burn each other. This means that they were at such a high level of attainment where the left line, their ego, manifested in such a terrible way. We need to grow a lot in order to reach this.

Thus, before us there lie many more great trials, and if we aren’t ready for them in the correct manner, then we simply will leave this way. Some of our friends have already left the way, and more are likely to drop out. Thus, we must always remind each other that we are involved with the Creator who gives us all kinds of states and determines all the relationships between us, along with the hatred, and if we ask, also the love.

The main thing is that the group must take upon itself the commitment to remind each friend before the lesson about what to concentrate on. What was discovered today in our relations concerning one another? Apathy? That’s good, and tomorrow it can be that we will reach such a state where we will begin to feel rejection for each other. This means that we understand that everything comes from the Creator, that purposefully He reveals our ego and the intellect within us! Just a small person is given small opportunities so that he won’t deviate from his path.

If people, leave the group anyway, it’s a sign that it didn’t work enough, that we didn’t explain to others the method of advancing in two lines: “We must advance in spite of the growing ego. In the end, we will rise together with it and transform, on the one hand, from being completely opposite to the Creator according to our developing ego, and on the other hand, to receive His same attributes.”

This means that there will be seemingly two states within us: one that is opposite to the Creator and the second that is similar to the Creator, and together they will stand facing each other, to be more precise, one under the other. Below, there will be the vessel, the Kli, that is completely under Tzimtzum Aleph (the first restriction), and above it, we will build the second vessel, Kli, the attribute of bestowal, and in this way, we will work with it.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 4

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During the preparation phase, a person who studies Kabbalah cannot use it as an exact science and operate according to facts yet. In this phase, I realize myself in the group, in the study, in the connection with the teacher, in the connection with the Creator, and through the sources. I study authentic Kabbalistic sources that are beyond the Machsom (barrier), although I haven’t transcended it yet. The group in my eyes is also beyond the Machsom, and especially the teacher as well as all the other Kabbalists and the Creator, the universal upper force.

Only I, miserably, am standing here below wanting to be incorporated in them all. I am incorporated in them through the group that has a guide. He doesn’t guide anyone personally; he belongs to everyone. He teaches the group according to Kabbalistic books, which were also written in a group, and all the friends together want to discover the Creator in the general unity.

This is the difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and other wisdoms: Now I am just like a child trying to behave like a grownup, with the help of different “toys” that his parents have given him. If I do this, I grow correctly; I have a group, books, and a teacher—everything that I need. If I use them the way I should, I will advance.

One of the most effective means is our workshops. We make the most not from the wisdom but through connection; a workshop is an act of connection.

I hear what the friends say, and in my heart and soul I yearn to be with them, to participate in their unity, to feel what they feel, to think what they think. I am incorporated in them, and in that I begin to accept the necessary conditions for the upper Light.

We are ten people sitting together and in between them I find a warm common feeling. Even if I am viewing them on a TV or a computer screen, I am, in fact, looking at the connection, at the mutual cooperation between them. I observe and want to be inside.

Then I begin to perceive the Light that Reforms, the Surrounding Light, that develops my soul.

This is why it is so important to see the group and to feel that I am in its center. I unite with the friends; I want to tie them together, to hug them all, and to feel one inner desire, one inner thought, mind, and heart.

After several such exercises, I start to feel much closer to the friends, to such an extent that through them I perceive spirituality.

Don’t underestimate the workshops because they are very near unity. It will come sometimes, more and more, and not just in the form of inspiration but as a spiritual experience from which the illumination of the Surrounding Light will become the real Light.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/1/13, “Body and Soul”

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Spiritual qualities are given different names: Nefesh (soul), Ruach (spirit), Neshama (soul). We begin to join the spiritual world by receiving the level of Ruach.

Nefesh, is the level of the inanimate of Holiness, when a person cannot move by himself. He comes to the lesson and thinks that everything is fine, that nothing more is required of him: today is the same as yesterday and tomorrow will be the same as today. He doesn’t explode and doesn’t feel sorry that he remains in the same state, but is rather happy that another day has gone by and that everything is fine. He accepts the daily routine.

But it is also an achievement if a person is in the group, trying not to interfere with its advancement, ready to join everyone, and to support it. He supports what the others are doing. But doesn’t show any special initiative; he doesn’t have the level of Ruach. There is no new force growing in him. And so he is called Nefesh de Kedusha (of Holiness).

But he still comes to the lessons and studies. I wish the whole world were on the level of Nefesh of Holiness. Nevertheless, this is called “spirituality” of the level of Ruach. Ruach means that a person already has something he can add. He doesn’t agree to remain on the level of the still nature. If he sees that nothing has changed since yesterday and that it won’t change tomorrow, then for him it is like being dead.

It isn’t just a state of motionless still nature, but a feeling of death, which means that it is the worst state. And so he asks himself, what else he can add. In the meantime, the only thing he can add is his actions. Baal HaSulam says in the article “The Freedom” that a person has no other means to change his state but by choosing the right environment.

A person who chooses a stronger influence of the environment is praiseworthy. It is through this that he can advance and not thanks to good deeds. He cannot do any good deeds, since we are not the masters of our actions. But thanks to having chosen a good environment that can influence him strongly, he begins to move.

In order to start moving by yourself and turning from the inanimate into the vegetative level, to rise from the level of Nefesh to the level of Ruach, to become a spiritual person, I have to constantly evoke those around me and to choose an increasingly stronger environment that will influence me more and more strongly and help me become more spiritual.

By such actions I constantly add from myself to the group and it constantly influences me and I yearn for spirituality, for bestowal, more and more. It turns out that I add to bestowal and finally I attain the next level that is called Neshama.

I act towards all the others and am influenced by them through the group that influences me. Thus, with its help, I constantly influence myself and raise myself. The environment serves as a lever to raise me higher and higher.

I rise through the environment and I want to start evoking myself, to connect to it in the most efficient and practical way. I want to increase my hold on spirituality so as not to be passive under its influence and wait for it to change me, but I want to bestow upon the environment myself, to make it stronger, so that it will influence me more strongly. Then we connect with the environment and raise one another to the spiritual world, this means that I attain the level of Neshama.

The main thing here is not to relax so that “each day is like the other.” There must be constant renewal, every moment, if not, then you will immediately fall to a state of death. It isn’t so easy to rise from the state of death. It is impossible to do it by one leap in order to return to the previous state. It is impossible to return to the same state. We have to make a correction: a new birth and new growth, everything anew.

But if a person doesn’t feel that he has to rise anew, it means that he doesn’t even feel his death, but that he has actually lost his consciousness.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/13, Writings of Rabash

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