On the spiritual path I ask myself what seems like an insolvable question about how to overcome my evil inclination, egoism. Kabbalists tell you, "You have to try." Understand this: The Creator really is opposite to your nature; the quality of bestowal is extremely hateful to you; you cannot even think about love for the neighbor, not to mention its implementation.

So what should you do? Move gradually. Make actions that will bring you to the prayer. Resort to all possible means and tricks in order to nevertheless feel the importance of the quality of bestowal and to place it above the quality of reception. Even if it’s repulsive to your nature, even if you feel that you don’t want to bestow because you find bestowal very bitter to the taste, then at least with your mind you will nevertheless begin to value this quality for its height and greatness for the fact that it is the quality of the Creator. It governs the world and it is respected by the environment which you have entered.

By using various tricks, you will evoke the Light that Reforms. In other words, by studying, working in the group, and disseminating, you will prepare your intention: “I want the influence of the Light. I want the Light, the force of bestowal that created my desire, meaning the force of reception, to influence me, to influence my desire, and to add the intention of bestowal to it.”

You do not know exactly what you are asking for, but try it anyway. After all, you want to reveal the Creator, meaning the quality of bestowal. You want to feel the upper world, to live in the quality of bestowal. You want to reveal the common Kli, the common soul, meaning to live with the care for all the other desires, which will become revealed to you in the form of the system of the single soul. Gradually, thanks to the intention before and during the study, together with the friends you will reach something called a “miracle” and will begin to feel that more and more, you really do respect and value the quality of bestowal.

Suddenly, it becomes very important to you. It reigns in the whole world because bestowal does not have to be expressed. It is primary; in fact, it is the entire life force in all of reality. This quality supports the still level, raises the vegetative level, gives vital forces to the animate level, and gives man unity and connection with the Creator.

When this “miracle” happens to a person, he suddenly feels love and connection with that quality. A special feeling emerges inside of him in relation to the quality of bestowal. He is ready to receive from it everything that it wants to give, to do anything just to become similar to it and to give it pleasure. A person feels that he is able to do this and that he thereby brings goodness to the quality of bestowal, the Creator.

All of this happens inside of me under the influence of the Light. However, it only happens to the extent of my efforts, in conformity with their quality and quantity. Before studying, I prepare myself by asking: What am I studying for? Why am I opening up the book? The answer is that it’s only in order to acquire the quality of bestowal, to reveal the force of bestowal, to reveal the Creator and merge with Him. In other words, it’s in order to unite with the force of bestowal so it will rule inside of me, so it would turn into my intention above the desire.

That is how a person advances until the entire egoistic desire becomes revealed in him, whereas the force of bestowal will become an intention to him, the bestowing desire above the receiving desire. Then the receiving desire and the intention for the sake of bestowal will be together and a person will reach adhesion with the Creator.

That is how we realize ourselves correctly. It is written about this that “Israel carries out the Creator’s will.”
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If our spiritual advancement does not depend on theoretical knowledge of the structure of the worlds and Partzufim, why then do we discuss it in such detail and ask questions during the TES (Talmud Eser Sefirot) lessons?

Answer: If you understand something about the structure of the world incorrectly, it won’t prevent you from spiritual advancement. But it is necessary to study in order to draw the Light.

Due to your aspiration to understand what it is written in The Study of Ten Sefirot, you will want to reveal this state and experience the spiritual worlds yourself. You will eventually realize that without true revelation, you will not understand anything.

You should use all your eagerness to understand what is written in order to finally realize that understanding comes not in the mind but solely through the revelation. And when you start wishing for this revelation, you will receive correction. In truth, revelation implies authentic sensation and not some theoretical comprehension by way of reason. When you get to know the spiritual world, you will understand it based on your own experience, which is regarded as “the heart understands.”

But at present, you are trying to understand by way of reason where and what Sefira is located geometrically, where it goes up and down along the squares on the paper, instead of thinking how they are connected by their properties, their internal essence.

It is very important to be aware of this; otherwise, you will lose big time. You will lose not some few Sefirot drawn on the chart on the paper—you will lose the Light that Reforms.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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When reading The Zohar we have to focus on the connection between the souls because that is exactly where the breaking occurred. We have to imagine the corrected state in which we attain unity among the souls.

The souls are the aspirations to reveal the Creator. Every person who has this aspiration has to desire to increase it by connecting with others. Then he receives the same aspiration from them, and that way he grows.

It is known that with the help of hatred, passion, and the lust for power, we can be impressed by the friends’ aspiration to unite with the Creator, to reveal Him. This is exactly what we want to “buy” from them.

Therefore, during the study each of us desires to attach to himself the group’s entire aspiration to reveal the Creator. This is possible only in the unity between us. After all, I cannot steal a friend’s aspiration. But if I connect with him, then each of us already has the common force. And then, once we combine enough forces, each of us can attain the revelation of the Creator.

However, a connection between us cannot emerge only because I want to unite with my friend’s aspiration. I do not have the strength to connect with him. I need the Light to perform this action.

We are in a broken state where there is no connection among us. I want this connection to emerge, and then with the common force, I attain revelation. This is what we have to think about while reading The Book of Zohar. Everything we study in The Zohar are just corrected forms of connection among us.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/11, The Zohar

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We read The Zohar and understand none of it. And it’s true, there is nothing for us to understand there. After all, it is for the people who already attained spirituality and feel the spiritual world.

They are already in the state where the force of bestowal, not the force of the will to receive, defines their internal life. In their case, the mind works differently; they have a different kind of sight; they see the spiritual world, and hence, understand what the Book is describing.

In fact, the Book is written for those who live in spirituality, and therefore, a person who enters it can understand it. And someone who lives only in the material world cannot since it describes a completely different world that I know nothing about, haven’t heard of or seen. And hence, these words don’t tell me anything.

What do I do? I can only desire to enter that world, not to understand it intellectually. If while reading The Zohar I constantly think about how to make it effect me and that is my sole desire, it is enough! It is regarded as “Segula” (a “miraculous remedy”). When after all these efforts I will suddenly receive the force of the Light and start sensing what is happening in the spiritual world, I will read or listen to the Book and understand what it is describing.

Then, I will engage my mind as well since at that point I will sense the spiritual world. Using my awareness, I will start working on the sensation. But if I don’t experience a certain phenomenon, how can I work on it mindfully? After all, awareness results from a feeling. In the mind, we only connect the phenomena that fall into the field of our vision and sensation.

Therefore, before anything else, we must start sensing the spiritual world and only afterward start studying it. As a matter of fact, until then we have nothing to feel. Do we have any idea what stands behind each word of The Zohar and what each of them points to: an “ox,” a “whole ox,” a “throne,” and so on? What ox and what throne? These are spiritual forces that carry such names. But it means nothing to me.

The entire spiritual world is the world of forces. The whole material world is a picture that these forces draw on my material screen. Therefore, we should think solely about how to experience what we are reading about. I must ask to feel rather than to understand. And that is possible only if we are together, create one desire between us, and strive for the Light to affect this desire and project a picture onto it.

The integral desire is like a computer screen, while the Light is like an electromagnetic force that draws an image on this screen. I want it to happen! And this is regarded as revealing the Creator to the created being.

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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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When reading The Zohar we must always think about the connection between us, and based on this constant, powerful thought we should just slightly hear the text, as much as it is possible as an addition, a spice. The thought about unity has to be powerful and unceasing. Only to the extent we are able to do so should we add the text to it, meaning the thought about it and the sensation of it. It has to be done only on the condition that this foundation, the constant thought about unity, does not disappear or grow weaker.

We can easily be in the right intention if only we know that The Zohar, just as all of the Torah, speaks only about the types of connection between us. Therefore, everything we study and everything we now want to see as a result of our work – unification among us, types of our connection, its special characteristics, everything happening between us – this is what The Book of Zohar tells us about.

Therefore, we are talking about the same point – the point of unity between myself and others. This point contains all the possible kinds of connections between me and everyone. This is what the Torah talks about.

Therefore, if I direct myself correctly, then I understand that it is talking only about this: What kinds of connections exist among us? How can I connect? How can I attain this?

In that case we want to attain what we study, even though we do not know it. Out of the aspiration to attain it, to unite into an integral desire or Kli , and to discern all the kinds of connection that the Torah tells us about, the Light that Reforms comes and creates that connection, bringing it to light. Then we reveal it in actuality.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, The Zohar

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It is necessary to constantly remember that we are reading The Zohar only in order for our desires for unity to connect under the influence of the Light. All I can do is aspire toward unity, expecting that by reading The Zohar and Talmud Eser Sefirot, the Light will connect us together. I have to imagine that besides me, everyone is one. And I am the only one who has to become included in everyone.

I am unable to do this alone. This “click,” connecting me with everyone, can only happen as a result of the study. That is how when soldering two wires we place them together and influence the place of contact with high temperature, smelting them with a welding alloy that connects them.

That is why I bring myself to contact with the group and imagine that I connect with them. I expect that the study will solder us in the point of our connection.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, The Zohar

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that before starting to study Kabbalah, it is necessary to understand what it is. How can everyone learn its language if it’s so complicated?

Answer: To understand what the wisdom of Kabbalah is means to acquire the screen in order to rise above one’s egoism and see spiritual actions. Then, you will be able to understand a Kabbalist teacher and learn from him what to do next. You will comprehend and be able to verify all that he will tell you in practice, right here right now, as it is done by regular students in this world.

But until you are born in spirituality, how can I explain anything to you? It is as if I would be telling about this world to an unborn child that is still in the mother’s womb. So do Kabbalists speak to us from another world. We reside in this world, within its sphere, like in a bubble, while we are being told what is taking place outside of it.

Therefore, Kabbalistic texts work for us only as “miraculous remedy” (Segula). The articles are written for the beginners, but The Study of the Ten Sefirot is written for those who have been born in spirituality, who are already "spiritual babies" that can be told about the upper world. Thanks to it, they will advance and will start exploring the new world they were born into.

As for those who are still inside the mother’s womb, it is only a stimulus, motivation to be born as soon as possible.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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How do we advance in a group? Together we know that our goal is to attain love and bestowal. And the force of correction only comes to us through studying the corrected system. This is the wisdom of Kabbalah.

This is why we unite and study together as we build the maximum intention for unity. Along the path we discover real hatred (Sinnah), Mount Sinai, between us, but at the same time we discover the need to attain love and bestowal. After all, there is no other solution—this is the goal. And that is how we gradually advance.

A person strives toward love of friends, checking his efforts and successes, and to him this is no different than being close to the Creator. Even though the Creator is concealed, these two corrections—work with the neighbor and work with the Creator—are similar, in fact, identical.

This is because a “neighbor” is everything that exists outside of a person’s desire, be it the Creator or a friend. Both of them are as one since they are both foreign to man. Thus, if he is able to entrust himself in relation to a friend, he needs to know that by doing this he entrusts himself in relation to the Creator.

Besides, in the group he receives help from friends because they expect work from him and they motivate him to do it. That is why he can definitely succeed here.

We unite with the friends as must as possible in order to correct the quality of our unity through the study. This is the method. And when we do this with the purpose of attaining bestowal and love for the Creator, we structure ourselves according to the principle of “Israel, Torah, and the Creator are one.” When we unite with the friends through the study of Kabbalah, we evoke the Light that Reforms, the inner force in us, the Creator. Then we reach unity with Him through the unity between us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabaah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why am I unable to clearly comprehend the importance of the environment?

Answer: You feel that you do not fully comprehend its importance because you are not finding the corresponding desire within you. You understand the words, but your heart is not responding yet. Sometimes you even get sick and tired of hearing about it.

This is natural. You just need to continue working on the common desire. Everyone has to begin thinking that this is important and that this is exactly what we need. We artificially strive to care for one another: I care for others so they would direct their thoughts towards the goal together with me. I constantly worry about it and then a real fear ripens inside me: Will they be able to keep their thoughts on the goal?

And then the heart of the group appears before me, not their names or faces, but the deep desire that reigns among the friends. Is everyone’s desire ready to unite with others so all of them would aim at the goal? This is what concerns me. If this comes true, then we will attract a little bit of Light to this common desire over a brief period of study, and then we will attain the goal.

The problem is not the Light that influences us. The problem is for all of us to connect our desires to be together on the path to the goal. Primarily, this is the concern that has to settle in everyone’s heart. This is mutual guarantee.

When we have a common desire, it “flows” from one part of the friends to another, and therefore it is always working. When we strive to study in order to realize this desire and we don’t get distracted by any other goals, then we evoke the Light with this common desire that’s aimed at mutual bestowal, the Creator. Then we will be full of desire as we prepare to study and during the study.

There can be nothing beyond this. It is written: “Habakkuk came and reduced everything to one thing: a righteous man will live by his faith.” The greatest effect comes from an action by which you want to attain bestowal. Bestowal is also referred to as “faith.”

At the end, this is a very simple thing. Overall, Kabbalah keeps being revealed in an increasingly simplified manner. And even though the path is difficult and it takes years, we have the opportunity to greatly accelerate our development.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In regular science I study its terminology and formulas, and gradually I start to understand the laws by which reality operates. But why is it that I don’t understand anything when studying the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: First of all, you can study and somehow discuss what is written, and imagine the laws of Kabbalah even though it does not talk about our world and you do not really see them. But you do not need anything more than that. If you aspire to this form of bestowal, this is enough in order for you to start changing yourself.

The science of Kabbalah is used completely differently than the sciences of our world. When you study a triangle in geometry, you do not become a triangle! But in Kabbalah when you study Partzuf ZON, you turn into Partzuf ZON. You aspire to it and from it you attract that Light that changes you. This is the entire difference! You take on the same form that you read about.

You develop and advance along the line connecting you with your root of the soul in the world of Infinity, and all your future forms and states are already fixed. You attract Light upon yourself from these future states, and that Light influences you, making you advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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