Writings of Rabash, ““What Is He Who Does Not Have Children In The Work”: A tree that does not bear fruit is like a childless man who does not give birth to anyone. A person and the Torah are called barren if they do not have children.

Question: How can we refine the common intention that is aimed at help from above?

Answer: Help comes only in response to a desire to unite. That is why we study together to attract the Light of correction. All of us together must discern the desire to unite (the common prayer) because otherwise not one of us will have the right request or the strength to continue on the path.

A person has a basic desire: to feel good. Sometimes in addition to it the question about the meaning of life arises in him, which is a desire to acquire Light. That is when he begins studying the science of Kabbalah. Before he had this additional desire, he developed like an animal following the orders of his earthly desire. We take a person into account only from the moment when he aspires to something higher.

How does a person use all of the inclinations that are given to him? After all, development is only possible by virtue of a desire being added to him from the common Kli . But a person must include himself in it, similar to a tree that receives all the forces from the surrounding environment, such as the earth, air, sun, and so on. If a person knows how to accept everything for the benefit of his spiritual growth, then he will absorb this need from the environment and with it will request the Light that Reforms during the study.

This Light constructs one’s inner process whereby one’s inner qualities, objectives, and notions grow. That is how a person advances. He continuously thinks about how to receive an ascent from the environment. To do this, he has to lower his head before the friends and elevate them in his eyes as the best people of the generation. At the lesson he has to not forget why he studies. In the end, a person only receives an additional awakening from the group, but then the Light has to come and aim him correctly.

Thus, with the help of all of these factors, a person provides himself with the forces for growth. He has to check: Do these forces produce any fruits? On one hand, he advances in the left line, continuously revealing the evil inclination that the Creator made. Alternating with this, he reveals the Torah as a spice: He understands what to do with the evil inclination and how to discern the Torah with its help, which is the Light, the quality of bestowal.

Thus, as a person carries out the advice of Kabbalists, he reaches a certain sensation. Even if it is not a real vestment of Lights into vessels yet, nevertheless new details of perception emerge in him—specks of Light that clothe into Kelim. True, for now it is not felt as fulfillment, but as Surrounding Light—the Light that Reforms. A person is still on the path to the Source. He still hasn’t reached goodness, even to a small degree. Yet, he is moving forward.

Therefore, the most important thing is to fear that he will not have children, that he will remain without a strong desire, will stop halfway and wither by a dried up source. If you have a desire, it is necessary to discern the evil inclination in it, which is formless and opposite to spiritual advancement. Then one has to add the Torah as a spice, the Light that Reforms to this. If the Torah brings fruits, then it is no longer childless.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: We know from experience that there are ascents and descents on the spiritual path. What can help me avoid running away from the “battlefield”?

Answer: “Running away” does not mean falling off the face of the earth. Instead, you continue to sit at the lessons, you are friendly and good-natured toward your friends, you carry out all the rules of the group, take part in the duties, and pay Maaser, but in essence you have escaped to another place a long time ago with your thoughts and feelings. Or maybe the habit of being in the group has become second nature for you. This is running away.

You are in the right place physically, yet we don’t assess things by bodies, but by desires and intentions, which may have withdrawn far, far away a long time ago. And that means you are not here. In other words, you do not apply your mind and feeling, desires and thoughts during the study in order to merit the Light that Reforms. So it turns out that you have escaped.

You sit here for several years wearing out your pants, and later you ask, “So where’s my reward?” That means your egoistic notions about reward have not changed one bit.

Therefore, a person has to check: Is he escaping or not? This work has to be done ceaselessly, every moment. As Baal HaSulam writes in Item 18 of the “Introduction to Talmud Eser Sefirot,” it’s important not to get distracted from the most important thing: the Light that Reforms, which is concealed in the Torah.

First and foremost, this has to be done during the study. Even if a person has prepared, he might be running away from the goal in his thoughts at the lesson. If you kept the intention for five minutes and then lost it, then all three hours were wasted.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/11, Writings of Rabash

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We have to carry out several actions in order to ascend to a new level of existence. First of all we have to start feeling ourselves as more dependent on one another. And we really do feel that our world is becoming like that now. Besides, we have to learn the laws existing in this integral system. That is how we realize the science of Kabbalah and its advice.

On one hand, we maintain a virtual connection with one another, and sometimes we even meet physically. On the other hand, we study this new level of existence that is now being revealed to us—the global and integral world that is being revealed more and more from one day to the next as the right connection between all people and the entire human society.

Clearly, by knowing how to connect all of this together the right way, we will be able to build the family, society, all countries, and the whole world in a more corrected form. This mutual dependence between us will help us! It will work to our benefit because we will find out how to use every part for everyone’s benefit.

That is why Kabbalah remained concealed until our time—because there was no need for it. Now, however, it has become absolutely necessary to everyone and we have to disseminate it across the whole world as fast as possible in order for people to start understanding that they are already living a new reality! Our lack of correspondence to this new world is the cause of all our problems. That is why we should learn how to improve our state as quickly as we can.

In the very close future we will see the general crisis envelop the whole world. We won’t be able to make one deal or agreement between us unless we take this global law into consideration. And the problem is that we have never created such integral systems: not in technology, nor in medicine, nor in social networks, and that is because we are individualists by nature. Therefore, we will have to change all the connections that exist between us.

Let us hope that we will learn to do this quickly and will be able to realize it before nature develops to such an extent that it will show us our lack of correspondence to it. We have to forestall it rather than wait for this to become expressed in the form of problems and suffering, revolutions and wars as a result of our imbalance and disharmony with nature on the domestic, human, social, and ecological levels. This is the purpose of the science of Kabbalah.

Many results follow from this: a new perception of reality, a new world that we reveal if we don’t look at it with the personal, egoistic view, but do so through the prism of our connection with everyone else. Let us hope that we will be able to expand the circle of people who are interested in and study this science about the new world, the new dimension. It will be easier for us to reveal it together and we will do it faster, for the good of all humanity.

We hold daily studies within the framework of our open university. These studies are free and available to all and are translated to all of the main languages. Let us hope that the French group will also join these studies more closely, on one hand, and on the other hand, will join in the dissemination of the science of Kabbalah. By virtue of this we will be able to solve many problems existing in every country and every nation.

From the side of nature we can either advance by the path of problems or the path of good cooperation.
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From my lecture in Paris on 2/1/11

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Shamati #1, And only if that person has a true desire will he receive help from Above. And he is constantly shown how he is at fault in his present state.

What is the help from Above? It is that you are constantly pushed into your own inner filth, into your egoism, and are shown your own insignificance. This is what the Creator does: He constantly shows a person a huge, black darkness inside of himself, a garbage dump in his thoughts, desires, intentions, and calculations.

Why? It is only in order for him to come to need the Creator, to bring him to a state where he will no longer be able to stand his own stench. To do this, it is necessary to constantly pull him out of this feeling and to show him a different existence—one that is slightly higher, lighter, and higher than his egoism. Then he once again has to be shoved face-first into his own egoism: Look at yourself, see who you are. And then he once again has to be slightly pulled out of that swamp, and then once again thrust head down.

That is how everything happens until a person comes to feel that he really does not have any “holiness” or spiritual purity, and that everything comes only from his personal, small, egoistic being that was created in him and in which he was created.

Although he occasionally receives awakening from Above, which momentarily revives him, but soon after he falls into the place of baseness.

Of course, all of these are the Creator’s actions. But that doesn’t matter because a person feels them upon himself and inside himself. All we are is the sensation. There is nothing else in us besides sensation and we realize only what we feel. The mind only accompanies the feeling.

However, this is what causes him to come to [finally] realize that only the Creator can help and really bring him closer [to perfection]. This need or demand for perfection gradually ripens inside us precisely from these opposite states.
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From the 4th lesson of the Berlin Convention on 1/29/11

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Shamati #1, “There is none else beside Him” Not only does he not progress in his [spiritual] work [and does not see any clearance ahead], but [it seems to him that] he regresses, that is, he lacks the strength to observe [the Creator’s will] even “for his own sake,” [while it is the Creator who pushes him forward].

We don’t create a real egoistic desire that is able to overcome anything. Instead, we start experiencing weakness, indifference, and our operation by automatic pilot. “Let happen whatever will.” We just go with the flow. Sometimes things are a bit better and sometimes a bit worse.

That only by genuinely overcoming all the obstacles, above reason, can he [advance forward]. What does “genuinely overcoming above reason” mean? It’s when in spite of one’s desire and thoughts, without having any predisposition to do so, a person begins to connect to the teacher, the group, and the books. Altogether this is all called “the environment” or the surroundings.

But even in this case, when he begins to connect to them, he is still thrown about, up and down and in relation to the teacher, the group, and the sources or books. Sometimes he wants to and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he believes it and sometimes he doesn’t. Sometimes he’s sick and tired of it, and sometimes he strives forward, and so on.

As the difficulties mount, a person starts to feel that there is nothing attractive or special on this path, and nothing motivates him to advance. There is no spark, nothing really worth giving up his life, career, and success for.

As a result, a person falls. His fall is serious, real, deep, and pretty lengthy. Thus, he reaches the final decision that not the group, nor the teacher, nor the books, nor exertion—nothing will help him in the world besides the only governing force, the Creator.

All the times that a person fell and rose, all the states that passed over him were all in order for him to feel total and absolute dependence on no one but the Creator. Imagine how much a person has to be beaten from all sides, shaken up, pushed away and attracted, and shown the existence of a great number of forces and various causes for his states so that in the end he would become convinced that there is nothing besides the one, single Force. If it doesn’t help me, then no one will. Only it will come to my rescue if I demand it.

That is when the following need arises in a person: for the Creator to definitely help him. The formation of this demand is also very not simple. It does not happen in one moment, but it gradually surges up in a person, becoming vividly expressed, fierce, and persistent. Like a child who demands what he wants no matter what—just give him what he wants, and you can’t convince him any other way. That is the kind of state we must reach. And in this state the Creator really does help us.

Only those people who truly want to draw near the Creator, so they will not settle for little, meaning remain as senseless children, they are therefore given help from Above, so they will not be able to say that I have everything and what else do I need?
From the 4th lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/29/11

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Question: You have said on numerous occasions that the ideas of Kabbalah should be brought into psychology and to scientific minds. I teach psychology in a university and I noticed that like all other scientists, even psychologists have very narrow opinions. So how can we approach psychologists? How can we bring elements of Kabbalah into psychology?

Answer: In principle, I myself came from the scientific world. But I left it. Yet, I respect people who nevertheless try to find something out about nature, themselves, and the surroundings. Of course, they are driven by egoistic qualities, but that’s how man is and you cannot do anything about it.

Psychologists, philosophers, and other people who study what seems like man’s inner world and the theory of knowledge, as well as scientists in the field of various closed systems—all of their research is based on our nature and the previous developments in all of science. Science develops in our five senses and is built out of these sensations.

Naturally, this entire science is absolutely egoistic because it comes from the sensation inside egoism, our main quality. And naturally, psychologists, psychiatrists, and philosophers are unable to understand Kabbalah because it works with opposite qualities. These people are no closer to attaining Kabbalah than all others.

That’s because in order to attain Kabbalah, one must have a point in the heart. If it is present, if a person has a need to know “Why do I exist?” that is not coming from smart philosophic reckoning, but from his personal, inner necessity, then he reaches the sensation and understanding of what Kabbalah talks about. This does not happen immediately, but over the course of a great amount of serious study.

At first he does not understand what it is talking about at all. He sits at the lessons for many months, listening and nodding his head, but he still does not have the inner sensations that emerge under the influence of the Light, which are adequate to the realm that the science of Kabbalah talks about. However, gradually this happens. We have to wait.

That is how children grow. Over the course of 20 years a person is brought up and grows, and only later does he become suitable for living in our world. Even though he was born in this world and his entire environment is also in this world, it still takes him 20 years to become more or less independent. And even then he is next to his mom all the time…. Still, suppose this is so. However, in our case we are talking about the spiritual world, a completely unexplored territory. How can I prepare for it if I am not in it? How can I adapt to it if I don’t feel it? I am told about this in these books and I don’t understand what they are talking about. So everything comes down only to the influence of the Surrounding Light.

We simply have to take these people and place them under the influence of the Surrounding Light if they agree to it. Meaning, we have to place them in the right environment, evoke the Surrounding Light through the study, and over the course of several months or years, we will see the result. This is the only thing we can do. If a person agrees to it, this will happen to him, and if he doesn’t agree to it, it won’t happen.

How much knowledge he has acquired in this world does not have any relation to Kabbalah because the knowledge he has acquired is about our world, this realm, “inside the aquarium.” So how will this help him find out what is outside? After all, everything is structured in a completely different way over there.

Even if he is a great scientist in our world, even if he is Einstein himself, he will suddenly find himself completely imperceptive to what is being said here. It is written that it is not the smart person who will master the spiritual world. That is never a criterion! It can only be done by a person with a point in the heart, who properly places himself under the external influence of the group and the inner influence of the Light. From inside the point in the heart is influenced by the Light, and from outside it is influenced by the group.

Under the influence of these two sides, this point swells up and a person begins to feel the first ten Sefirot inside of it as he rises from one degree to the next. And suddenly—Kabang! This sensation becomes revealed inside of him. Then he begins to understand what he heard about, what he read, and what others talked about. “Oh, now I get it!”
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From the 1st lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Kabbalah, the method of attaining the upper world, includes two parts:

1. The first part tells us about how to unite with each other, or how to try to connect and unite;
2. The second part tells us about how to evoke the influence or effect of the upper Light upon us.

Before we begin to study we have to be perforated by the aspiration to unite our desires. Then every person will have a much greater desire than his own. He will begin to be permeated by thoughts, qualities, and desires of other people who also aspire to the same result and the same goal as he. This should be our main intention before the study.

A person who hasn’t prepared for the study in this way misses practically everything because the influence of the upper Light does not come upon the desire of each person, but upon the aspiration that each of us has toward others, meaning on our mutual aspirations to unite with one another, with everyone all together into one common desire.

If I imagine this one common desire and wish to be included in it “as one man,”as before the breaking of Adam into separate souls, then my aspiration receives the influence of the upper Light. Then I really gain spiritual attainment as a result of these efforts.

However, if I come there and listen without these efforts, without making attempts to be included in the common desire, then the upper Light does not have anything it can influence inside of me. I did not provide a surface or basis that it can influence and therefore all of my actions will only elicit purely formal knowledge. That is, I will hear and memorize what is written in the book, but no more.

Therefore, it must be crystal clear to us that the upper Light comes only to our mutual efforts. They have to be mutual! Therefore, the condition for attracting the Light to us is the same condition as was required during the reception of the Torah: “To be as one man with one heart.” Only in this case does the Light come.

So let us try to think this way.
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From the 3rd lesson of the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: What role does asceticism play in human development?

Answer: Kabbalah has a very negative opinion of various restrictions. It does not demand anything from a person with regard to his earthly life. In principle, you can do anything you want.

It’s a different matter when you become engrossed in all sorts of fetishes in this earthly life by introducing some kind of special customs, habits, and exercises to it. Live normally. If you like doing yoga, then do it. If you like running in the morning, then run. If there’s a certain diet that is healthier for you and another that’s less healthy, then eat accordingly. None of this matters. The most important thing is not to turn anything into a cult.

Kabbalah treats every person absolutely normally. It doesn’t care about how a person lives, what habits he has, and what his customs, religious convictions, and inclinations are. Who he is in the earthly life doesn’t matter one bit.

We are once again returning to the essence: Egoism rises in us in order for us to compensate for it above ourselves. That is why it doesn’t matter one bit what I am like. Limiting yourself in food or applying any kind of methods—none of this will help. Nothing will help.

On the contrary, a person who does some kind of physical exercises or keeps some kind of strict boundaries thinks that he has already advanced forward, has achieved some kind of level, that he is righteous and so on.

This can only confuse people. Therefore, live normally, calmly, eat well, and think about your health and profession. Take part in all the things that your surrounding society does.

And together with this, study Kabbalah. This balance or normal state is the most preferable one. Fate has placed you in this environment so go with its flow. Then you will see that in reality, everything around you is in the ideal state, besides yourself.

A minus is compensated by the right plus.
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From the 2nd lesson at the Berlin Convention on 1/28/11

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Question: As long as we don’t actually attain every word that the science of Kabbalah talks about according to that word’s degree in spirituality, we won’t be able to understand it. Before that happens, we are simply playing around with the words, with abstract forms not clothed in matter. But if Kabbalah is being revealed as the method for correcting the world, then why does it come in a form that’s so abstract and unclear to a regular person?

Answer: Kabbalah is not an artificial or abstract method of correction, but the most natural one. If it is being revealed in this form, that means that this is precisely the form in which we have to receive it and it is the most suitable medicine for us.

That means I have to “take it” without resisting it or complaining that it is bitter, unclear, or that I don’t like the rules regarding how to take it. I must treat this means as absolutely perfect. This “garment” was tailored especially for me.

However, I am perplexed as to how it was intended for me since I can’t see where to insert my arm or head, and how to put on this garment! But I am told: Don’t worry, it’s tailored exactly to your size, no bigger and no smaller!

Therefore, I must only advance toward it, research and look for how I can dress into this garment. After all, it was tailored especially for me and has been laid out before me.

It is possible to slightly adapt the explanation, bringing it closer to people in order to make it easier for them to perceive this science. But in essence, it has already been presented to us in the most perfect form. We can complain that we don’t understand it since it contains many unsuccessful examples (as they appear to us), abstract names (as they seem to us), and The Book of Zohar is full of allegories that confuse us.

But despite this, if a person accepts all of this as salvational medicine sent to him from Above, then he has to take it as the perfect, most effective means that was selected especially for him.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/26/11, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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On January 27, 2011, I will hold a public lecture in Berlin. The lecture starts at 7 P.M. local time and takes place in Logenhaus, Emser Str. 12-13, 10719 Berlin-Wilmersdorf. During the lecture, you will be able to ask your innermost questions and take a fresh look at our life and the world around you.
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