Writings of Rabash, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”: We have to take it upon ourselves to believe in the sages….

Suppose I am ready to believe the words of wisdom, but what does that mean? Do I understand the words of the sages? What is their message?

First of all, we do not work on bodies in the science of Kabbalah. There are no bodies, but only souls. The bodies that appear before us are images of an illusory world.

I am in a desire that manifests as different forms: still, vegetative, animate, and human. “The sages” are the corrected souls that are in the broken system of Adam HaRishon. They can help me and give me support; they can be my mentors and instructors for my broken soul.

Accordingly, that is how we should accept their advice. For example, The Book of Zohar tells us about ten sages of Rabbi Shimon’s group, as well as the prophet Eliyahu, Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon, and so on. We shouldn’t perceive them as people living in our world, but as corrected desires or souls. They are in a broken system, which is gradually starting to be restored back to life. These souls are already corrected, partially or in full, and they participate in the correction of the entire system.

In The Book of Zohar I read things like, “Rabbi Shimon said…Rabbi Abba said….” For me they aren’t people who attain the upper world and tell me about it, but rather, these are names of levels of attainment. Through these words I study the ladder of the spiritual degrees: on one degree reality appears this way and another degree that way. It seems as if Kabbalists are telling me about this, but for me they are actually forces or vessels of perception.

For me every sage represents a spiritual notion, might, force, or quality. I don’t look at the names of historical protagonists, but names of spiritual phenomena and levels. That is the “faith in the sages”: I want to attain the same bestowal as the one that’s present on the degrees that I read about. “Faith” is bestowal.

At the lesson a person has to tune into this and aspire to understand how this will influence him. No matter what the book narrates about, I want to penetrate inside the spiritual essence of every word. This means that I believe the words of the sages.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

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Just reading The Zohar brings many results; it evokes various phenomena and changes in a person. A person does not understand what he reads, but he tries to understand it, driven by his nature, even though from the point of view of Kabbalah this is not necessary at all. He may read it with the right intention or one that is not so correct.

In any case, the book works on him, influencing him so he advances. He cannot avoid feeling the changes inside. He should only keep returning to this book as often as possible, read it every chance he gets, and stay connected to it in some way.

Then he will see that this book is built in such a way that it creates for him a picture of reality parallel to his current reality, and he starts to slightly shift between them. Instead of the superficial story he imagines something beyond this reality. That is how The Zohar works inside a person, creating new qualities of perception inside him.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, The Zohar

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Question: Is it worth reading Kabbalistic texts in Hebrew even if I don’t understand it?

Answer: Here, above all, it’s important how a person gets inspired by the whole idea. Therefore, he or she should read the book in a language he understands. He should be with us emotionally, not grammatically.

Geometric forms of written letters exist only in our world. At a slightly higher, spiritual level, it’s not geometry anymore, but attributes which have nothing to do with the forms that we are seeing now. There, the outlines of letters appear in sensation. Therefore, if a person doesn’t know Hebrew, let him listen to a lesson in any language that would allow him to feel the essence, the idea.

In general, these letters don’t belong to the Hebrew language. They symbolize two forces, Hassadim (Mercy) and Hochma (Wisdom), reception and bestowal, interconnecting between themselves in one way or another.

A Hebrew letter (Ot, אות) is also a symbol. What we see is not the Hebrew letters, but geometric shapes that represent different interactions, combinations of the two properties.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/22/10, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Letters of Rabbi Amnon Saba”

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Reading The Zohar is a very special kind of reading. We are the will to receive pleasure. The Creator cultivates this desire in us and leads us to the group. We are talking about people who, according to their inner evolution, are now expected to start uncovering spirituality.

From the group, I receive additional desire called “aspiration” which I obtain thanks to my work in the group while making efforts to unify with the friends. Despite my unwillingness to become one with them, I work on it by employing all possible means to receive awakening from them.

Thereby, I receive from the group the following: 1) additional awakening or the yearning for spirituality; 2) awareness of evil, my egoistic nature, and unwillingness to unite with the others; and 3) the value of the goal of becoming identical to the Creator, achieving bestowal.

Knowing all these conditions, I undertake reading The Book of Zohar. Now, while reading The Zohar with the desire to attain bestowal, with the awareness of my existing in the will to receive pleasure, employing additional desire that I obtained from the group, I demand transformation.

However, what does it mean to “demand transformation?” If I already reside in these desires and the forces are already working on me, I will be transformed for certain since The Zohar, per se, is the Light.

What does it mean that “I draw the Light, attracting it?” My attitude toward the studies must be such that right now, while reading The Zohar, I tap into the force of Light so it may affect, transform, and correct me.

In itself, the Light doesn’t do anything. Desire grows and changes due to the constant Light that remains at absolute rest. Therefore, when I demand transformation from the Light, I don’t really ask it from the Light. I ask for my desire to change and become more powerful in demanding the Light.

While reading The Zohar, we should think in the above manner. As a result, we will realize that it is all up to us, and we stand across from the unchangeable force that is willing to assist and reform us to the better.

Therefore, I begin reading The Zohar with all my demands for correction, a greater egoistic desire that opposes the Light, the desire to be reformed, and equalize myself with the Light at least somewhat. I must feel this central demand to be reformed in my will to receive like a thorn that keeps bothering me.

This is what my approach to reading The Zohar must be. I have to feel this “thorn.” After all, if I had a splinter in my finger, then, try as I might, I wouldn’t be able to focus on studying, reading, and listening because a powerful, sharp pain would distract me.

We should feel this “sharp pain” within us while reading The Zohar such that it won’t go away. The moment I stop feeling it, I’m not studying the Torah, but some fancy science, as it is written: “Believe that the nations possess wisdom.”

“The nations” are those who don’t wish to change. If a person desires to change, it means that he is “studying the Torah” since the Light contained in it reforms and returns us to the source, the Creator. That’s where the difference is.

The very same person can be “the nations” at one moment and “Israel” (aspiring to the Creator) the next. As soon as he doesn’t wish to change, he is regarded as the “nations of the world.” Then, he is studying fancy knowledge. The moment when he wishes to change and become similar to the Creator, he is “studying the Torah,” that is, demanding the Light that Reforms.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/17/10, The Zohar

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Kabbalists write about various states of the souls, which are states they have actually gone through. What matters is the extent to which we want to imagine these states and identify ourselves with them. They are all indications of how we give pleasure back to the Creator, and by virtue of this aspiration we reveal the same action from His end. That is how we enter unity with the Creator: He gives to a person and a person gives to Him.

These are the states that Kabbalists tell us about. The more we aspire to them, the more the force or Light from there influences us, bringing us closer to the states of unity and leading us into them.

This continues along the whole path. It doesn’t only happen now, when we are just getting ready for actually entering these states of interconnection, but also later on, when we will feel the spiritual actions better. One way or another, only our aspiration, only our raising MAN, a prayer for higher states of mutual bestowal and revelation of love, will help us ascend to newer levels each time.

This is the approach that the soul must follow until the end of correction. Only this kind of work will enable us to move forward.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/21/10, The Zohar

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Before I start studying, “engaging in the Torah,” the key is to know what and why I am studying and what I will get from it. The Torah is the only medium that can help us reach the goal. There are probably multiple conditions to that, but all of them are necessary solely in order to form a correct connection with the Torah for us.

“The Torah” is the Upper Light that affects and reforms us so that we get to know the Creator, the Upper Force, and appreciate Him as the Giver, as love itself, which lies above our essence: the will to receive pleasure.

This is why the prayer book opens with special blessings that we bring before the study: We give thanks for the opportunity to study the Torah. A person feels that it is worthwhile to study the Torah which is designated solely for the correction of the evil inclination. This is described as: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice for it.”

If it weren’t for the evil inclination, the Creator wouldn’t have created this special Light, the unique system of reforming us. And now, seeing the inner evil unfold, a person truly needs the Torah. And if it isn’t the case, a person doesn’t study the Torah since he isn’t connected with the system that teaches him about inner changes.

I need to become aware of my evil and wish to get rid of it; I need to understand that there is no way out of it and only the Upper Light will reform me. Then, I will turn to the Creator in the correct manner.

The journey may be long. Most don’t have a clue about it, while others think they practice the Torah although it isn’t really so; for them, the Torah is not the instrument of correction and ascent to the Creator.

First of all, a person has to find out what inner part of him needs to get corrected. I think not about what I will get from the Torah but what must be reformed in me. After all, the Torah is a “spice” which conceals the Light that Reforms. What then is corrupted in me? What requires correction?

I must visualize both these forms, the corrupted and the corrected ones, as clearly as possible and expect liberation, the force that will help me to transit from the first to the second spiritual degree. Having constructed this crystal clear, accurate system, I anticipate and demand assistance from Above so that it all comes true.

If the evil inclination is evil for me indeed, if I understand what correction is exactly and am determined to come to it, then I draw the force of the Torah, the Light that descends and reforms me. And that is when I truly do “engage in the Torah.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, "Introduction of The Book of Zohar," Article “The Letters by Rabbi Amnon Saba”

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Question: You have explained that each word and letter we read in the Kabbalistic texts contains the force of correction. It is my job to draw this force and feel how it enters me and reforms my flaws into perfections.

Is it correct to assume that when you speak and explain the content of the Kabbalists’ writings, I must also apply this process regardless of the fact that in one case, I am dealing with a word written in the book and in another, I hear it from you?

Answer: No, it works in a different fashion. You hear from the other what has already passed through him, his own experience of spiritual revelation; therefore, you adhere to him and, together, you act as one system. Meanwhile, when you read the text yourself, you perform corrections differently. In short, there are different ways to do correction, depending on whether you listen to or actually read the text.

When you read it yourself, you become one with the author and belong to his system, whereas when you listen to someone, you join him and together with him or through him you perform correction.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/16/10, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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The Upper Governance is extremely complex. Reshimot (spiritual records, genes) are constantly changing. However, we don’t feel that everything changes inside us, not outside us. We are not aware of that; we just feel the ever-changing world, its different attitude toward us.

Of course, it’s all been set up for us by the Creator through all the kinds of coverings of this world. However, we attribute the variable attitude to other people, or to the Creator, or sometimes to ourselves; it all depends on the level of a person. If a person links the changes only to the Creator, it’s the beginning of correction, as it is written, “There is none else besides Him,” “The Good who Does Good.”

In any case, there are general Lights which work as the Surrounding Light, and there also are particular Lights which stir the Kelim (vessels or desires), encouraging them to develop. If we are not advancing on our own, then the Light comes to us in the form of ruthless, obstructive forces (Gevurot, valor or strength) that advance us harshly. However, we need to understand that we ourselves cause the Light to work in such a manner.

The Lights come in a constant form. Their permanent objective is to benefit us, to bring us to similarity of attributes with the Creator. After all, they emanate from the Source of our final, perfect state in the world of Infinity.

However, the Kli which develops in us under the influence of the Light goes through various stages of development. That’s why we feel that there is slow, sequential development, and there’s a quick, leap-like advancement in agreement with the Light or against it, seemingly good or bad.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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It’s a problem that a person can only study what is below the speaking level: the still, vegetative, and animate levels of the will to receive (desire). He is unable to separate and study the desire of the human level because he is not similar to the Creator.

The human level is regarded as the “divine part from Above.” And this part is invisible to you right now; hence, you are unable to study it.

The desire of the human level is called a soul; it is the matter of the soul. The matter is the will to enjoy, and its form is its equivalence to the Creator. This is exactly what Kabbalists study: where He and I are similar, in what way, on what levels, and in what combinations of conditions?

The wisdom of Kabbalah studies how the matter of the desire to enjoy acquires the Creator’s form; this is when it may be called a soul. It’s called a “soul” (Neshama) because it is the highest degree of similarity to the Creator which we are able to reach before the final correction (Nefesh-Ruach-Neshama).

This limitation exists in this science until all people engage in it, but eventually, we will all be able to study it at a much higher level.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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Question: When studying Kabbalah, how can I can be sure that I don’t “philosophize” about concepts that I have not actually attained, such as love, adhesion, unity, and bestowal?

Answer: If a person studies the wisdom of Kabbalah from authentic sources, receives proper instructions, and clings to the teacher, a true Kabbalist, then he can’t fantasize. He can only compare himself with the Light that Reforms.

He is already developing the correct approach and knows that it is the only source of life. He learns in order to attain the desire to bestow, thereby attracting the Light. Although he hasn’t come to study the genuine spiritual world yet, he is working with the group as in a laboratory.

In a group you’ll discover what an egoist you are. On the other side, you will attract the Upper Light which will begin to shine on you from afar, making you see your properties against the Light. You’ll suffer because you’ll want to be like the Light, but you’ll realize that you cannot. This tension, the gap between the desired and actual, will bring you to an outburst, and then you’ll pray to the Creator for help. That’s when you will receive the force of bestowal.

From that moment, you will become a Kabbalist and begin to explore the spiritual world. Then you will be able to taste, to a small extent, what differentiates the receiving and bestowing forces.

You’ll become a research scientist, exploring yourself and the Creator, which is actually the same. It will be possible since you will both share a common “area” that will be within your reach. Thus, you’ll have the opportunity to explore the spiritual, the “human” degree.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/15/10, “A Handmaid that is Heir to Her Mistress”

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