Question: What is the Surrounding Light that we are trying to attract?

Answer: The Light is the upper force, the one, single, and only existing force in the universe. Besides this Force there is only desire, which becomes revealed to us as a receiving desire. Yet by using the force of the Light we can change it to bestowal.

There is nothing besides Light (the Creator) and desire. We simply call Him by different names (such as Surrounding Light, Inner Light, or the Light that Reforms) in order to provide more precise definitions.

The Surrounding Light influences me if I aspire to my next form. Even though I don’t know exactly what that form is like, I study it through a book that describes all sorts of Partzufim, worlds, and Sefirot. That is how I express my desire to ascend there and attain, and that is how I attract this state that I want to attain to myself. It begins to influence me to the extent I aspire to it.

I open myself up and become more sensitive to this influence, to the next state that I must reach. I simply accelerate my development, adding a little bit of my own desire to the natural force that develops me.

I receive this additional desire from the environment. That is how I realize my free choice and receive from them the sensation that it is important to advance to the next state. After all, being in the next state means being more connected with others, canceling myself more, and bestowing more.

I receive this inspiration from the group and then I take it with me when coming to study and aspiring to attain the future form that is more bestowing. Then I am influenced by Light from there because it has the same nature of bestowal that I want to acquire. We have the same desire, the same tendency, and therefore we are close according to the law of equivalence of form.

By myself I do not have any desire for bestowal or spiritual progress. I have zero desire. But then I turn to the group and from them I take "10 pounds” of desire to advance to bestowal and unity among us, and with that desire I come to study. I want to attain the next state with the same force of 10 pounds. My similarity to the Light is measured by this force of 10 pounds, and to that degree it influences my desire, making it similar to the Light.

This is the same Light that fills my next state because it already exists. When I aspire to that future state, the Light begins to shine on me. For now it is called “surrounding” because it must first correct me and only then clothe into me. It works in two stages, performing two actions.

The same phenomena exist in physics: If I come closer to a magnet, then I enter the field of its attraction and influence. Even you and I influence one another. There is a certain field around every person. In fact, there is not one physical body that isn’t surrounded by a field—not even any stone.

Everything operates by the same principle. The closest state you aspire to (your next state) is what influences you. However, there are many fields around you that you do not even relate to yet. You do not yet aspire to them or know anything about them. When you reveal the spiritual world later on, you will see how many different things are happening in it and how many different dimensions exist in it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why do we have to study to attract the upper Light? Why can’t the Light influence us while working in the group the way it influences a child while he’s playing? Why isn’t it enough for us to play the game of “love for friends” in order to attain that love?

Answer: During the study we try to unite together and we definitely need the Light to develop us. This Light does not come by us just trying to unite together. It has to come to us from the upper world, from the higher state or level.

We do not grow like animals, meaning, we do not grow on the same level. A small child that wants to get older only grows inside his ego, without transforming it “for the sake of bestowal.” He just becomes a more grown-up animal.

But in our spiritual work, at every level we turn our ego to bestowal and that is why we need the Light that Reforms. Therefore, it’s not enough for us to “play” in the group in order to attain love for friends because this love is opposite to our nature. I play love, but by doing that I won’t reach it.

If people wish to unite in order to attain the egoistic goal that our ego understands, such as to win or earn, then they don’t have any problem uniting. But if we have to change our nature, then our ego doesn’t understand why it’s necessary to unite with others, and that’s why we are unable to do so. I hear many complaints. People come to us and perplexedly ask, “These are the relationships that you, Kabbalists have?! But there has to be infinite love here! And instead, look at what’s happening here!” People from outside don’t get it.

If you enter any external society that has a clear egoistic goal, you will see that they are united together because they understand that together they can attain the goal, such as succeeding at some business or building a house. But we cannot unite because unity between us is possible only by breaking the ego, while in the external society it happens by increasing the ego.

That is why we have to additionally evoke the Light that Reforms. Only the Light’s influence can unite us. We can only reveal hatred among us. In the external society, which is united by the egoistic goal, people reveal love among them, whereas we reveal hatred. This is called “Mount Sinai”—the mountain of hatred. Then we will need the Torah—the Light that Reforms because we can only unite with its help.

That is why only hatred becomes revealed in a real group of Kabbalists, and then they have to study in order to attract the Light that will unite them. But the Light unites them only for a moment, and then they reveal hatred once again in order for them to advance further by attracting the Light to them. And that is how they constantly have to attract the Light since otherwise they become immersed in hatred. Hatred is their ego, “help against them,” helping them to advance in this way.

That is why we need the group and we have to try to unite together even though it is clear to us that we won’t attain it on our own. Yet we must try not to hang our heads in the face of this game. And we have to study together in order to attract the Light that Reforms because it has to perform this revolution inside us, since we won’t unite without acquiring the quality of bestowal.

External societies unite egoistically, whereas we unite only by virtue of mutual spiritual bestowal. If the Light influences us and unites us with one another, then in the common Kli between us, we will immediately reveal the Creator. The common force that will become revealed among us is the Creator. Then our desire to enjoy will turn into the desire to bestow.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is it possible to reach the realization of evil in the relationships between us through the virtual group and the computer screen?

Answer: Of course it is. We are in a common desire, so it makes no difference whether we are sitting next to each other. I might be sitting next to you without knowing what your name is or looking at your face. It doesn’t matter whether we are in one building or in different places.

Unity happens through feeling and does not require physical contact. Our world is becoming entirely connected through virtual connections. And that is exactly how our desire will be.

I do not have to sit together with everyone in one room. The sensation of unity is not connected to physical distance, and someone close is not someone who is close physically, but spiritually. Physical distance does not affect desires and sensations. This is true even in our world, in the relationships between people, and moreover in spiritual connection. It is not related to physical distance at all.

Try working in a virtual group and you will see that it makes no difference whether you are sitting together around one table or by your screens.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If it is impossible to attract the Light that Reforms without studying the science of Kabbalah, does that mean everyone is obligated to study?

Answer: Of course! That is why Baal HaSulam says that everyone has to “sit at the desks.” But what does it mean “to study”? Studying does not happen through the mind. You don’t have to know anything. You have to study only for the sake of the intention to attract the Light so it would influence you and transform your ego to love, unity.

What’s important isn’t the study, but the result. This is called “the Torah,” as it is written, “I created the ego and I gave the Torah for its correction because the Light contained in it returns one to the Source.” The Light transforms your ego, your hatred for the friends, into bestowal, love, and unity.

This is the entire essence of the Torah. You don’t have to understand anything, but only to change hatred to love.

Question: And the whole world has to do this?

Answer: That’s right. But what does “studying” mean for them? It can even mean watching our broadcasts absentmindedly for half an hour a day. That’s enough. They don’t have to understand anything. Of course, it is necessary to give them a general explanation about freedom of choice and unification since they can understand that. But they do not need real study.

Besides, since the souls are connected with one another, our study will influence them. But they will have to make efforts too.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is it impossible to attain spirituality naturally, just by doing my work? Why is it that we definitely have to reach despair first, crying and asking the Creator?

Answer: You don’t have to cry artificially. You just reach this state naturally. You reveal it and then your inner affliction is called prayer. You don’t have to say any words out-loud or make any artificial actions. With your work you will simply achieve a state that you will no longer be able to tolerate. And that means that you will burst with prayer.

You shouldn’t try to reach it artificially or simply scream. You should concentrate on your work, and then the request will come naturally, the way thirst does. You don’t think about the fact that at sometime in the future you will want to drink. But the time will come when you definitely will want it. Thus, if you study and advance together with the group, then at some point you will reach the state of spiritual thirst. You will definitely want it!

This is talking about strictly determined qualities and set laws that develop by a clear chain of cause and effect. You advance according to the root of your soul from your initial state to the final correction along a clear line that has already extended to you from the world of Infinity. Now you are going back along the same line. The only thing up for discussion is the acceleration of time and development.

In order to speed up this movement we have to participate in it ourselves, get organized into a group, and start attracting the Light with our study. If you have been given this desire, then realize it! You want to shift to the next level faster, so imagine it and start building it artificially as if you already are on that level. Attract it to you in order to ascend to it faster.

In essence we are building a certain image of the upper level, our next state, which is defined by the fact that 1) I am more connected with others, and 2) that our connection is filled by Light which unites us. To do this I have to connect with others the way I am able to today, and by studying to attract the Light that will connect us. What I study are the kinds of connections between us on a higher level, in a more corrected form.

I read about the world to come, about the corrected, wonderful state, and from there I attract Light to myself, and I also aspire to it. This is the simplest physics. There is nothing artificial or imaginary about it.

However, in it, what operates is desires, and desires are force. If I aspire to some state with my own forces, then I thereby evoke its illumination upon myself, receiving an influence to the degree that I aspire.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Kabbalah does not talk about our imaginary world, but about the soul’s correction and how to attain the true reality. The true reality is the Kli in which the Creator is perceived by virtue of a certain degree of adhesion with Him.

The Kli or soul is divided into two parts: Israel, the part that aspires toward unity with the Creator, toward the goal, and the nations of the world, which is the part that’s unable to do so. We feel a certain yearning to reveal the Creator. The science of Kabbalah is by definition the method of revealing the Creator to creation. In other words, it is talking about revealing the quality of bestowal and love in creation itself.

In order for us to have the opportunity to attain this goal, the people who have the suitable desire unite in the common field of the Creator. They feel attracted to one another without knowing why and they come together like electrical charges or metal shavings in a magnetic field. That’s when they acquire the opportunity to realize the method of correction.

At first they do not know that they have to correct themselves. They simply feel a calling to the most important thing: “What am I living for? What is the meaning of my life?” Eventually they start to understand that all of these questions lead to the revelation of the Creator, the upper force that builds, supports, forms, and controls all of reality. There is nothing besides this force.

That is how a person goes from the question about the meaning of life to the question about how to reveal the Creator. After all, the revelation of the Creator gives him the answer to everything. Thus, in order to come closer to revealing the Creator, these people unite.

The Creator is concealed, and in order to reveal Him rather than anything else, meaning to reveal the quality of bestowal and love that lies outside of our nature of reception and hate, to rise above it, I am brought to a certain gathering of people.

Together with them I begin to understand that the question about the meaning of life shifts to the need to reveal the Creator as the answer to all questions that I have asked and will ask. Revealing the Creator means revealing the force of bestowal and love. It can be understood only to the degree of one’s similarity to it, only if I will also attain this quality, which is Him.

I have to acquire this quality, and in order to ensure this acquisition I am among people similar to me. This was arranged for me deliberately. The Creator is concealed because the quality of bestowal is opposite to me. Due to their fundamental difference, these qualities do not feel one another and therefore I do not feel the Creator. And it is impossible to work in relation to someone I do not feel. I will definitely be mistaken and will fall into self-deception.

Therefore, instead of giving me work with Himself, the Creator gave me work with my neighbor. This enables me to perform authentic verifications, to receive forces from the friends, and to check myself in relation to them: How much do I advance from hatred to love?
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can a person know that his teacher is a real Kabbalist?

Answer: How can you know that he is a true Kabbalist? He cannot show you any specific diploma or perform miraculous acts that would look spiritual to you since how do you know what spirituality is anyway? Hence, you can only listen to your heart and examine whether what you hear resonates with you, connects you to the root of your soul.

I studied in five or six places before I found Rabash. And I used to leave them not because I would find something better; I just saw that there was nothing else to do there, nothing else to learn. And it isn’t because their intent was to deceive me; it’s just that each of them had their own method, ideas, and delusions.

But I was seeking a place where I could study Kabbalah as a science. And when I met Rabash, I immediately saw that his students studied authentic primary sources: The Zohar, the works of the ARI and Baal HaSulam, which are the most fundamental Kabbalistic texts, and that he attached deep meaning to the concepts in a logical form, without external religious acts or meditation.

In other words, he used a strictly scientific approach without shifting to one or the other side. By then, I had already realized that everything else has nothing to do with truth. I had a sense that wherever they talk about some actions related to the corporeal body or fantasies, it doesn’t have anything to do with spirituality.

I had a very clear feeling that here there was some entrance into a more internal world that doesn’t depend on the body or imagination, on all those attributes I have at the moment. It is required that a person reveals a certain internal layer within, and I was searching: How do I do that? And when I came to Rabash and started to study, I saw that that’s exactly about what he was speaking.

Baal HaSulam writes that anyone who wishes to receive spiritual knowledge must find himself a teacher, an authentic sage-Kabbalist who seems to be right for the job. But if he feels that he is in a place which doesn’t suit him, he shouldn’t stop looking. After all, time is running out.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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We always experience extreme difficulty when studying anything relative to Partzuf Adam HaRishon (“the First Man”), which consists of two parts, the male and female ones, Adam and Eve (Zachar and Nukva). It could be the simplest of things, but since our structures are different (it has the spiritual structure while we have the material one), in our case 1+1=2, and in its, 1+1=3 (as it is written, “Husband and wife, the Creator, Shechina (Divinity), between them”). And we are incapable of understanding this.

We don’t need all these infinite details that are described in Talmud Eser Sefirot; we study them only in order to draw the Light that Reforms. And inside the entire content that we discuss, there is our intention, the expectation that the Light will come. That’s all we are talking about.

But we have to keep in mind that it talks about me, the structure of my soul, the various spiritual states it undergoes. I don’t feel them just yet, but all of them are given to me for one reason: to live through each state, from start to end. I can’t escape any single state described in the book.

Each of us passes through the same states on this path. Therefore, a student’s job is to cleave to the upper one, to the teacher. After all, the upper one has already gone through these states, and by clinging to him, you will pass through them as well. We draw the Light namely by studying what is written about your soul.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The Kabbalistic “language of branches” is the language of those who attain spirituality. It is incomprehensible for a person who hasn’t attained the connection of the branches with the spiritual roots.

First, I have to start sensing the upper world. And then, hearing the words that belong to the lower world, I will clearly understand what phenomena of the spiritual world, in which I exist together with the authors of Kabbalistic books, they point to. I will acquire a common language with Rabbi Shimon and Baal HaSulam since I, too, will be at the same level or place, that they are telling about.

Since I exist in this world in my physical body, I know what the words of this world mean: “sun,” “earth,” “vegetation,” “donkey.” First, I become familiar with the terms themselves, and then I hear their names: words, language. I ascribe this real, perceptible object, the “sun,” a name in any language. This is how we name all phenomena of this world, thereby creating a language, and it allows us to comprehend what is being described.

If I exist in the spiritual world as well, I attain an additional reality called “sun,” “earth,” “vegetation,” “donkey.” I sense these properties and find out their names. Now the author of the Kabbalistic book starts explaining to me the connection between all these phenomena of the spiritual world by using the words of this world.

Since I exist in attainment of the connection between the material branches and the spiritual roots, it’s clear to me what he points to in the spiritual world. This “language of branches” turns into my language; it explains everything to me.

When we teach a child to talk, we show him objects and name them. This is how we can explain everything to a “child” in the spiritual world as well. For this, he needs to sense the spiritual reality and discover how it is called. That is, he needs help in understanding the connection between branch and root as well as the connection between parts of the spiritual reality.

Kabbalists teach us to find our bearings in the spiritual world with the help of the “language of branches.” But first we need to sense what the spiritual flowers, grass, or sun are….

There are spiritual terms which a person does not yet sense, while a Kabbalist helps him perceive them. This language advances, builds us. The connections inside the language explain to us the meaning of words or why the words are composed out of particular letters. This is because in Hebrew, the form of the letters and their order in a word indicate the properties of a spiritual object that has this particular name. This is how the spiritual information is passed down to us.

This language is already prepared for us because all the worlds, from Above downward, are interconnected. We are born into this world, feel it, and get to know the connection between the words. Now we must rise from the lower world to the upper one, and we take everything that there is in this world, the knowledge of all branches and all their names, and start ascending equipped with this.

The connection directed at the root has extended upward till Infinity. Each level contains everything that exists in our world, but each time it becomes revealed to us in more qualitative terms, meaning that they are more strongly connected with one and unified root.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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It’s all about efforts: A person has to believe in the principle of “I labored and I found.” That is why Baal HaSulam writes in Item 17 of “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that “the student pledges, prior to the study, to strengthen himself in faith,” as it is said in “Ethics of the Fathers”: “Faithful is your employer who shall pay you the reward of your labor.” And this reward will be the passing from egoistic intention, Lo Lishma (not for Her Name), into the altruistic one, Lishma (for Her Name).

Before and during the studies, a person must see himself as looking forward to this change in himself. This is where all the efforts lie. In the same “Introduction,” Baal HaSulam explains that one must not display negligence, neither in the quantity nor the quality of efforts.

As we begin to study, we, probably, want to change by way of the study and the Light present in it, but then we forget about it and get distracted, meaning we do not exert enough in the quality of efforts. The quantity may be enough, but the most important is the quality: To what degree I experience pain and, thus, cannot leave the goal, as a sick person who constantly thinks only of healing. Whatever he does, everything is meant to help him get better.

One cannot attain such a need alone. This can only be done with the help of the environment. It will oblige a person through the importance of the goal, and only in this way will he be able to move forward.

Summing up all of the means we have, we see that both the group with its traditions, and I, myself, as well as the Creator, the teacher, the lessons, and the dissemination, all of it is necessary in order to create in a person a strong need for changes, prompted by way of the study. We must arrive at precisely this point; it must be the result of all our efforts.

Then, during the lesson, a true need for the Light will arise in us, and nothing else. It will neither be a need for knowledge, nor for wisdom, nor for distinction in anything—only for inner changes. And the strength of this need will be so great that it will really bring about transformation. This will allow a person to start relating to the Torah as to a “spice” and later, as to the Torah of life, instead of the “deadly poison” which he was using before.

We discover our evil inclination with the help of the Light. This Light is called the “angel of death.” On one hand, it shows a person that he is spiritually dead, and on the other, it then helps to kill his egoistic desire. This is how we advance.
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From the 1st part part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/2011, Writings of Rabash

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