Question: In the post “It Takes Preparation To Tune Into The Book Of Zohar” you wrote that “The Zohar is not revealed unless studied in a group. It’s impossible to study The Zohar alone because The Zohar was written by a group of Kabbalists who formed a complete Kli. All of the ten authors of The Zohar formed a complete Kli, the ten fundamental Sefirot. Each one of them represents a specific Sefira, a unique force that the Creator created as a complete Kli.”

Does listening to and reading The Zohar alone also attract the Surrounding Light?

Answer: Any contact with the text, even if you simply read it not knowing how to attract upon yourself its influence (see “Introduction to TES,” Item 154), nevertheless works on you but to a lesser extent. We always strive for the maximum effect of correction, and this is achieved either virtually or in a physical group.

Question: I live in the desert of California. There are no Kabbalah groups to study with out here. I do not want to give up the study of Kabbalah. It found me when I was empty and deeply yearning for answers and God. So much has been given so far, but what am I to do? It is said I must study with a group. I only have my books, the web, and this bothersome yearning inside. What can I do? To stop my study is as to say to a thirsty man, you have had a cup of water, now forget drinking here; go back into the desert and die. Please help.

Answer: I assure you that a virtual connection with us during the lessons and a physical presence at the conventions in the U.S. will suffice for your spiritual progress!
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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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The Zohar, Chapter “VaYakhel (And Moses Assembled),” Item 217: The meaning of the book of Torah on this day. It is written, “And they read in the book, the Law [Heb: Torah] of God, distinctly, and they sensed and understood the reading.”

The secret of the book of Torah becomes revealed only between us. If we manage to create a space between us, which on one hand will be determined by the level of hate between us, separating us from each other, and on the other hand above the hatred, will create a connection between us, the hatred will give us the power of resistance, “a resistor,” while the connection between us will provide us with the current to operate this resistor.

Then, the work becomes revealed based on the current running through the resistor: We can operate an engine, heat or cool it down—anything can be done. These two opposite forces can benefit us when each one acts against the other.

Everything depends on the type of resistance that becomes revealed. The ego is constantly exploding, showing many opposite forms, detachment, hate, and the rejection between us. We want to remain in the same connection and love, but since our ego is constantly changing, our relationships also experience transformations.

The Light is at absolute rest, but our desire to receive pleasure is constantly changing, manifesting itself in various forms without any break. Therefore, we are constantly revealing new states called Partzufim. Thus, if we want to reveal the secrets of The Book of Zohar or the book of the Torah, they are only revealed in the connection between us.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/31/2011, The Zohar

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Question: I first became familiar with Kabbalah through the Kabbalah Centre. I have a set of The Zohar translated into English by Michael Berg. I really enjoy your site and receive your email, but recently I saw a video on your site that says, “no red strings.” Do you stand apart from the Kabbalah Centre in Los Angeles (the Bergs) and if so, what is the difference between your information and theirs? Also The Zohar I have, do you feel Michael Berg’s interpretations are accurate?

Answer: There are many organizations that study Kabbalah. If you study authentic materials of Baal HaSulam with the intent to rise above your ego, not for the sake of health, business success, or prediction of the future, but to achieve a modest existence in this corporeal life and come to the complete bestowal of everything to people, you’re in the right place.

Nowhere in Kabbalah will you find information about amulets being a method of egoism’s correction, and the ARI criticizes them. How can money buy the future, if all of Kabbalah is the method of correcting egoism?
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Question: You are saying that the masses do not have to study the science of Kabbalah as we study it. But can a person change internally if he does not use the primary sources? All the changes originate from them.

Answer: You came to Kabbalah because you have the desire to advance. Thus, the point in a person’s heart pulls him forward. He does not feel right; he wants to see tomorrow, to achieve something, to open up heaven for himself, and that’s why he comes to study.

It doesn’t matter how big his bank account is and whether he is successful at work or in his personal life. He has another problem: He must find the meaning of his life, discover its purpose.

This is not how things stand with those who are pushed forward by corporeal circumstances, such as a lack of money, inequality, envy of others, and so on. These negative conditions push a person from behind by causing him to suffer.

When people are driven by suffering rather than an inner calling or a desire for development, you cannot promise them that learning will solve all their problems because a person does not associate his pain with a good goal ahead, with the revelation of the Good Who Does Good. And he will not feel this connection before he exits evil.

To do this, he must become attracted to the good ahead. The only good for him is called “unity,” “mutual guarantee.”

And thus, you are telling him, “If we unite and agree with this integral, global Nature, then it will be good for us.” But instead of referring to the science of Kabbalah, you send him to scientists, politicians, economists, and other experts. You present him with the facts that are already accepted and articulated by people who are significant in his eyes. He is not about to sit down and study together with you; he has different plans for his life. He believes that you should give him an appropriate answer and the means available for its realization.

It is written, “Raise a lad in his own way.” We have to address people in a manner that they can hear and understand. We talk from the position of nature itself and prove that the crisis is the consequence of the global, integral world. We collect the opinions of professionals and the results of scientific research and combine them into a picture of the crisis and its solution.

The problem is that humanity is not aware of the modern world and therefore cannot get used to it. We can only enter the correct path once we begin to unite. Tens of thousands of bright heads, the best minds of humanity already talk about this. And we should show their words to the world because maybe the world will believe them. They state that change for the better is impossible without the correction of man. And this message will be heard by at least part of the audience.
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Rather than existing in this tiny part of reality, when a person wishes to break through to its second part, the eternal and perfect part, then he has several means to do it: teacher, group, and books. The teacher explains that such an opportunity exists. He explains that it can be realized with the help of a group where everyone strives toward the perception of the true, perfect reality, and with the books that speak of the same perfect reality.

When we try to be together, it’s as though every person comes out of himself, out of his ego, because he must feel that he exists in the others. Then, when he tries to be above himself, in the others, connected with them, and he reads about the perception of reality in bestowal, this is the way he makes himself similar to the future state, as if he were already there.

To the extent of his aspiration, he evokes the second force from there that exists in reality, the force of bestowal, besides the small force of reception given to him from nature. Then, the force of bestowal comes and makes the changes in him.

A person can perceive these changes as an additional force of reception that comes to him, instead of the force of bestowal that changes him, and this type of perception is also correct. However, besides that, he attains the same force of bestowal. In this way, man advances, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left, but driven by the same force of bestowal.

He must attain this force of bestowal together with the force of reception. These two forces begin to be revealed to man as two lines, the right and the left. Then, man advances, sometimes in a state of descent and sometimes in a state of ascent. He does not know yet what descent and ascent are exactly, and so far, he identifies them by his current sensations.

However, as time goes by, he begins to feel that he needs to use these two lines by being between them. In this way, he takes control of them and begins to combine them in the middle line.

Essentially, our entire work consists of studying together, wishing to connect with one another in our hearts, and aspiring toward unity above all the disagreements and differences because all of these things only concern our animate existence, which stays here in this world. We want to connect together in our desires, our points in the heart, above these things.

When we read The Zohar with this intention, the book speaks of our corrected states, about the way we reveal the quality of bestowal in the connection between us which is the same as the Creator, the Light, the spiritual world, the upper world. For this reason, every person must imagine this state when reading The Zohar.
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From the lesson on 8/12/11, The Zohar

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Question: What is “practical Kabbalah”?

Answer: “Practical Kabbalah” is when you act in practice and not just inside of yourself. However, inner work is also called practical Kabbalah, when you create an intention, adhesion (Zivug), and reception of Light for the sake of bestowal. It’s when you don’t just read about it in a book, but attain the instrument of bestowal called “a screen” and can use it to perform practical actions.

You have matter which you have to work on. And this work is only possible with the help of a screen. You receive a screen by virtue of the Light that reforms. All of this is called practical Kabbalah. There are no other practical actions besides giving matter the form of bestowal. The will to enjoy has to acquire the intention for the sake of bestowal. This is the only action operating in the world.

Besides the science of Kabbalah, nothing can bring this about because this science talks about how the general system operates and how we have to operate inside of it. If I take this entire science and start realizing it, this is called “practical Kabbalah.”

It’s similar to how there is theoretical physics and practical, applied physics. In the theoretical part of it, you can think about things and you may understand them or not, but then you come to the practical realization where you stage all kinds of experiments, study and measure things, and check whether they’re one way or another. It’s similar to children who play in order to grow, and once they become adults, they perform these actions correctly in real life. This is what the scientific experiment is intended for.

The actual practice is already the realization of the scientific achievements in life. And the same thing is true in the science of Kabbalah. If you study in order to realize it in practice, that means you are already at the threshold of practical Kabbalah, even though it might take you a lot more time to acquire a screen and start carrying out these actions. Still, according to your direction and goal, you are already considered to be dealing with practical Kabbalah.

The only practical action that exists in reality is adhesion with the Light (Zivug de Hakaa), the degree of equivalence of form that we attain.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/11, “The Nation”

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Question: Can a point in the heart be lost? And can I feel it again after that? I’ve been studying Kabbalah for a few months. I suddenly felt changes and I guess a little Light, which I never felt before that. My views changed, I felt more secure and I really felt nature’s perfection. My burning desire for spirituality changed my relation to everything.

But this great state of mind lasted just a few days and now it seems to me that it’s gone. I continue to read and listen, but it feels harder although I want it very much. What can I do? I’m scared and feel like the point in the heart is lost. Can I attain it again?

Answer: You are going through the regular stages of your development. You were shown the minimal spiritual sensation, and now you have to attain it on your own, through unification with others like you who also aspire to this goal.

Question: In the post “How Spiritual Life Is Born,” it says, “I have restricted your desires because I was unable to satisfy them.” Does it mean we help each other do the restriction? Or that just one of both can do the work?

Answer: Each person does it inside of himself.
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In order for the study to become an “elixir of life” rather than a “deadly poison,” it has to start with the intention to attract the Light that reforms. We have to study and open the book only for the sake of our correction.

Kabbalah and all the other holy books, regardless of what language they are written in (for example, the Talmud and Mishna use the language of hints and allegories) are descriptions of our connection with the Light, our spiritual states. All of these books, written by sages, Kabbalists, over the course of our entire history, talk about the spiritual world, our higher states.

If a person studies with the aim of attaining the states and spiritual degrees that the Kabbalists tell us about, like a child who wants to grow up, then first he reaches the revelation of his own evil. It is written, “I created the evil inclination and in addition, the Torah, the means for its correction.”

As long as we were “in exile,” all of that was concealed, but now we are starting to come out of the final exile. And just like during the exodus from Egypt, today we are again standing before the reception of the Torah if we desire to become “as one man with one heart,” to attain mutual guarantee just like by Mount Sinai.

A mountain of hatred is being revealed in front of us (Mount Sinai comes from the word Sinnah – hatred). But even despite that, we unite with the help of our points in the heart, the upper quality, the Moses in us who pulls us upwards and leads us through the desert, through the “preparation period” towards entering the “land of Israel,” meaning the desire for the sake of bestowal.

That is how all of humanity is standing before the mountain of hatred today. It is becoming revealed to us as one for all and is called the global crisis. We are all in the same state, but not everyone understands it fully yet, similar to how that crowd of people included different people as well—men, women, the elderly, and children who barely understood what was happening.

Yet, everyone is already starting to feel this state. It’s just that some already understand that the cause of all of it is our ego and the hatred that divides us, whereas others still experience it as a bad financial situation. Every person feels some kind of lacking depending on his qualities, his environment and needs: one person lacks an apartment, another cottage cheese, a third something else, and so on in all of humanity, every person.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/11/11, Writings of Rabash

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People come out to the demonstrations because they don’t have anything. But all of the corrections can only come from the Light. Today we are already in a global, worldwide process where correction is impossible with the help of any government. They just don’t have any instruments to accomplish that.

The instruments of the new, global world come only with the Light that reforms. It is in our world that we have to realize all of the changes that Kabbalah talks about, and the world will feel and understand in practice how the upper Light influences it through us.

Without that Light, we won’t find a single solution to our problems. We will only draw ourselves into wars so that eventually this path would bring us to reveal the need for the Light. The first thing that the people holding strikes on the streets should be shouting is, “We demand the forces for our own correction!” That’s because uniting with one another is the only way we will receive everything we desire—whether you’re a mother with young children, a senior citizen, or a doctor.

The world has entered a crisis of such proportions that it has nothing to give you! For example, the demonstrators in Greece began with threats. But the government had nothing to give them, and it wasn’t hiding anything. The fact of the matter is that the developmental process is unfolding in order to convince people of the need to start the correction. That is why it is revealing the evil of our existence in this world to us. This is the essence of what is happening today.

The entire world must now understand several new principles. Firstly, we are all connected, and the crisis we are experiencing today is global. The world itself has become global, and we can only come out of the crisis by virtue of unity.

And there is nothing for us to demand from the government. We will receive everything only on the condition that we unite with one another. Just like being in a group, I can only receive its force if I lead it to unity.

The crisis has a higher cause: It is the Light influencing us and revealing the breaking between us. Therefore, not one person in our world has a solution to this crisis.

We solved all of the previous crises by finding a greater means to humor our growing egoistic desire. But today a completely different era has set in. Today the Light is revealing the lack of connection among us. And only be taking certain steps toward establishing that kind of connection will we be able to improve our state. Then every person will receive what he wished—but it will only happen through the attainment of connection, unification, integration, and mutuality.

Therefore, all of the forces that aspire to protectionism, division, and isolation, are aimed against correction, and there is nothing worse than that because by that they move humanity closer to war.

The only thing we need is the Light that reforms. A person who studies Kabbalah attracts the Light with his studies and work in the group, whereas a person who does not study has to attain some kind of understanding and awareness of the situation, the need for unity, mutual guarantee, and brotherhood. That is how we will bring ourselves to goodness.

Everyone has to achieve at least some kind of small understanding of this. But the primary work is incumbent upon those who actively attract the Light because the world receives it through them. Therefore, all of our students have to become even stronger and correct themselves even more so the Light we attract would influence everyone.

This is the predestination of a person called “Israel”—both those living in the state of Israel and all of our students all over the world. Every person whose point in the heart has awakened and who has joined our group, is obligated to think about this.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/9/11, Writings of Rabash

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