Question: During a convention or the friends’ meetings it’s easy to attain the feeling of love towards the friends and the connection. But why does the opposite sometimes happen during the lesson?

Answer: The morning lesson isn’t meant to fill the student. The lesson should shake him strongly and put him in his place, so that afterwards he will be able to choose the direction correctly, to exert himself during the lesson and also afterwards, and to continue living in it the whole day.

The morning lesson is the minimal daily portion that everyone receives and continues to process the whole day. From it he chooses several principles for his internal work and for dissemination. I remember that when I studied, I never missed a lesson except for one time when I was very ill. If you spend the morning without a lesson, you will only feel your corporeal body the whole day and will serve it the whole day.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How do we prepare for the convention in the desert as it says, by “cancelling ourselves completely.”

Answer: First, you have to figure out what it means, “to eliminate oneself.” Does it mean to stop existing? What will happen afterwards?

“I”: This is my reason, emotions, mind, and heart. If I am deprived of them, only my corporeal body would remain. So, what’s next? My intellect and emotions do not depend on me either. This is the way I was born and brought up; I was carved into some form: Is this me? Is this what I really am? What can I eliminate here? Where is the “I” that I am rejecting?

If you don’t sense that you have anything to cancel, but if you are working through the group to cling to the Creator (as it is written: “from love of creatures to love of the Creator”), and if you discover rejection and hatred, then you know what to eliminate. This is what we call “I,” the revealing of its true essence, resistance, and unwillingness to connect with others.

It is the force of shattering that hides in me, the same Reshimo, the information that descended to me after the shattering occurred. Formerly, I used to be connected with others; now I detect my former connection and make sure that it still exists. Depending on whether I feel connection with others or not and whether I still possess a desire to connect or not, I start to elucidate my broken Reshimot (informational genes).

My discovery that I am in opposition to others is the first revelation of the Pharaoh. However, if I don’t apply effort I’ll never discern it. Maybe I haven’t come to Egypt yet, or I am already there but my “seven years of abundance” are not over yet? So, I still enjoy common meals, assemblies of friends, pleasant surroundings, and spending time with my loving friends.

When the seven years of abundance are over, problems, troubles, arguments, and disagreements emerge, but a person realizes that this is given to him on purpose and he doesn’t try to run away from them. He tries hard to overcome his detachment, hatred, and contempt towards his surroundings.

At this point (if the person doesn’t abandon the path,) he starts realizing the importance of such conditions and understands that there is no choice and it is the way it should be.

Now, he finds himself directly across from Pharaoh. It is all about internal work that cannot normally be traced from outside. It’s a whole period of effort and realization of the fact that there is nothing he can do about it because it is the Creator who reveals the force of shattering to him; as it is said: “Let’s approach Pharaoh, since I hardened his heart.”

The Creator shows a person how weak he is and his to love his neighbor.  At this time, a person is ready to do anything to achieve brotherly love. He is ready to go through all “ten Egyptian plagues”, to cross the Red Sea (Yam Sof – Final Sea), and to accept mutual connection and responsibility in order to bring closer the power of the reforming Light called Torah for the sake of self-correction and attainment of love of the created beings, because by doing so he will eventually attain the love of the Creator.

Can you imagine, how much support and care one has to get from his environment and from Above so he doesn’t run way with his egoism that is getting stronger and always pursues him? He has to understand that “the Creator made one against the other”: There is either “a stick or a serpent” (bestowal or egoism) and there is nothing in between—one or the other.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, Shamati #59

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Baal HaSulam, “The Inheritance of the Land”: Indeed it is said in the books that it is impossible for the souls to receive the good reward for which the Creator created them and the world, without the vessel prepared to receive, and a person cannot attain that vessel without exertion and the efforts to keep the Mitzvot; under pressure and war, a person fights with the evil inclination with many obstacles and concerns. The sorrow and exertion in the Torah provides a vessel for the soul so that it is ready to receive all the pleasure and goodness for which He created for the created beings.”

We can’t receive goodness and pleasure without hard work. Why? Because it is the hard work that stabilizes and builds the right desires in us for the fulfillment the Creator has prepared. It is impossible to manage without these desires, without the burden, without hard work and real sufferings. It is said: “You shall eat bread with salt, and drink water sparingly, sleep on the ground, live a life of sorrow, and in the Torah you shall work.” On the whole, all of humanity is going through a path of great sufferings, much worse than death.

Why does that happen? Why is it only in this way that we can clarify the deficiency that is aimed at the goal? Indeed, without acquiring this deficiency first, we will not feel the goal, and will not be incorporated in it. Perhaps we have already reached the goal but can’t feel it because we lack the experience.

So a lot of hard work is needed until we finally reach the leap, and it is revealed to us as the proper yearning. As we work, we make more and more efforts, and it becomes constantly harder to justify the way until we finally do not escape from Egypt. And the next step isn’t simple.

Kabbalists don’t hide this from us. On the contrary, they want to explain to us that our work is hard and that it is constantly growing harder. Don’t wait for everything to happen tomorrow, unless you are really able to add the wonderful tomorrow to the present. Here everything depends on you.

So we have to “keep the Torah and the Mitzvot,” which means to correct ourselves by drawing the reforming Light, whose influence connects us. The method of Kabbalah is meant to connect us. It is said: “I’ve created the evil inclination and I’ve created the Torah as a spice.” The Torah corrects the evil inclination, meaning the separation, and it corrects it by unity and love. So “Love thy neighbor as thyself” is the great rule of the Torah. We have to discover the hatred among us and the unity to correct it. We cannot escape it; we must unite as one.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/12, Baal HaSulam, “The Inheritance of the Land”

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Question: What does a group that enters spirituality look like?

Answer: On the outside there are no special signs. Everyone seems like ordinary people. Inside will be everything we read about in the Kabbalah books. You will see the same faces, but you will treat them differently.

You will feel the internal network of connections among you. This is what creates the place where the spiritual world is revealed. It is as if you’ve received a flashlight, you turn it on, and in that light you begin to see stones, trees, animals, and people: a whole world.

This shining flashlight is your good attitude towards all the others, the mutual guarantee that you feel towards them. In the mutual guarantee that stems from you, you begin to discover the upper system and to see that in it, right there before you, there are trees, animals and people, which you didn’t see before.

But all the inanimate objects, plants, animals and people are not corporeal like in our world, but are spiritual. This is the picture that is revealed to you. They are the same familiar faces, but you discover the internal connection among them.

Many years ago I saw a movie about a diamond theft. The robbers sprayed a special spray and in this mist they began to see the laser beams that activate the alarm if someone crossed the room.

So it is as if you are also spraying a special spray around you, like a cloud of emotional attitude, of sharing, of a sense of connection and mutual guarantee, and in it you discover the laser beams that connect us to one another and see how they pass and tie everyone.

You discover this relationship, and see how it operates and manages everything. You understand what really motivates everyone.

Now, you see that everyone is moving, but you don’t understand which forces are moving them. Then you suddenly begin to feel, both physically and internally, how a hand enters the puppet and begins to move it from one place to another. This is revealing the governance and upper Providence.

Accordingly you learn how to adapt yourself to the system of this Providence, just as the movement of a good horse is adapted to the desires of the rider.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/12, Shamati #174

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Baal Hasualm, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)” (abridged version): The Lord hath spoken “Now therefore, if ye will hearken unto My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples; and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.” And all the people answered together, and said: “All that, we will do.” These words do not seem to fit their role, because common sense dictates that if one offers one’s friend to do some work, and he wants him to agree, he should give him an example of the nature of that work and its reward. Only then can the receiver examine it, whether to decline or to accept.”

When we begin to work with the vessels, they are not round yet, because they are divided into three parts: head, internality, and end. As a whole, our reality is in the form of a pyramid that is made of five layers of coarseness: root, one, two, three, and four. This is all of reality.

The point in the heart (*) awakens in the purer vessels and they can fulfill the correction on the levels of root, one, and two. Together they make up the part called “Galgalta ve Eynaim,” (GE), or “Israel” which comes from the Hebrew words “Yasher Kel” meaning “straight to the Creator.” By their nature, they are the vessels of bestowal.

Of course, the lighter vessels of Israel are the first that awaken to correction. The correction itself is performed by the upper Light, which influence the points in their hearts so that they awaken. In these vessels there is the level of the forefathers that don’t need any preparation, and there is also the level of the sons who already have to work in a group or as a people, to go through the heaviness of the heart or to discover the “Egyptian bondage” in order to unite and to make a covenant among them around Mt. Sinai, and then to rise to the levels of the first and second temples.

And so the vessel of Galgalta ve Eynaim reaches its end of correction Gmar Tikkun, and then it is shattered and falls into the vessels of receiving, to a state of exile. Then there is the mixture, the mutual incorporation of the vessels.

At the end of this process, after 2000 years, comes the year 1995, the point from which the clarification and the correction begin.

It is said: “And you shall keep My covenant and ye shall be mine own treasure from among all peoples.” This means that the vessels of GE will have to correct themselves after the 2000 years of mixing. “A kingdom of priests” means that everyone works in bestowal and a “holy nation” is the nation that works for the world. Thus they serve the Creator and the other people and they don’t belong to themselves at all.

They have a choice only in the middle third of Tifferet, in which they come to the decision to devote the upper part to the Creator and to devote the lower part to serving the other nations so that they will also be corrected for the sake of the Creator.

The people of Israel agreed to that when they took upon themselves the correction of all the desires, in mutual guarantee and in unity. It is the desires that are revealed against unity, against the covenant, against mutual guarantee, that belong to the correction.

On the other hand, all the desires that do not belong to the connection, as “high” as they may be, are called “beastly” because they belong to our beastly body. In our world there are the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate, while on the level of speaking, we are all connected to each other. This is why only the desires that yearn for connection or are against it belong to it.

Therefore, the desires on the levels of the inanimate, vegetative, and animate belong to this world and we don’t see them as part of the correction. For example, if you wish to eat ten meals a day, you don’t have to overcome this desire in order to reach the spiritual goal. Just focus on the desires that are aimed at bestowal upon others or those that are against bestowal upon others. They are the only spiritual desires, and only they are called Adam (Man).

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Question: The people who demand social justice want to get an immediate answer. What can we tell them?

Answer: You can’t achieve social justice and fair distribution of resources that will satisfy everyone without first building society as a family.

We are all different, each one has his own needs, and each one deserves to receive his share that is different than the others. So, how is it possible to satisfy everyone?

It can only be done if we are connected by ties of love that provide fulfillment when I have a lack due to someone else having more. A person tears something from himself and gives to another.

For example, a father giving his favorite dish to his son is totally different from ordering another portion for his son. Sacrificing something is better than simply giving something. After all, this “piece of the pie” fills you with love, enjoyment on a completely different level, higher and more abstract.

So, equality and fair distribution can only be relative and consistent with real differences between people. In order to learn to live as in a family and negotiate as a family, we need to build the right mutual relationships among us, and that requires the integral education of society.

We need to explain integral education to people in every possible way, with the help of videos, songs, and dramas. We can show how a person understands his own bitter experience. For example, suppose he wants all the good, and in response he receives contempt. He gives everyone cottage cheese because people were protesting its cost, and the next day he sees lots of unused cottage cheese containers thrown in the dump.

Then, he gives everyone a thousand dollars. There are some who use the money to buy alcohol and drugs. For others, the one thousand dollars isn’t enough to make ends meet, and they come complaining to him. [Read more →]

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In the whole world there are calls for social justice. We, on our part, should explain to people that it is impossible to enforce social justice artificially. A standard division of resources, like they do in social security, won’t help. For example, it is impossible to compare a millionaire who receives a thousand dollars for the third child with a poor family that receives one thousand dollars for the third child. Is this justice?

As Baal HaSulam explains, the measure of truth doesn’t allow us to attain justice. If you divide things equally among everyone, there will be no equality. So how can we solve this problem?

In order to do that, we need to be as one family. In the family there isn’t equality, but everyone receives his share because we treat everyone with love. When I love everyone, I can help one at the expense of another. Thus I operate according to the principle of mutual guarantee, and so I operate fairly. There is simply no other way.

This is what we have to gradually convey to people. After all, today society is more sensitive than ever to inequality, including sectors that not long ago were very far from that. In every country there are plenty of reasons for dissatisfaction, and the only way to succeed is to educate people about unity. According to the level of connection, people will come to social agreement about how to divide the resources, thanks to their sympathy for the sufferings of others.

Can you demand cheap housing for yourself when others have nothing to eat? After all, we have a common “pie,” which isn’t enough to supply all the demands. So if we don’t unite people into one family, we won’t reach anything.

Then we will be able to explain that the current evil is actually for the better: It enables us to correct ourselves and to advance towards the good. After all, thanks to mutual cooperation we will change and will start to share the resources the same way it is done in the family. Then we won’t need to turn to the government, which will not help with its imaginary crumbs anyway. There is only one solution: unity of the people.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: In our dissemination, do we have to evoke the feeling of shame in people by showing them how far they are from mutual guarantee?

Answer: No. We only explain to a person that he can be saved from troubles: Under no circumstances do we tell him that he is bad.

There is nothing bad in a person. We discover the evil in us only if we connect with others and want to care about others.

I have different physical attributes: good and bad, fine and coarse, but the evil isn’t revealed in me until I reach the group, until I begin to actually connect, until I hear about mutual guarantee, and until I see how reluctant I am to have it. This lack of desire—is the evil inclination.

Everything below that is on the beastly level and has nothing to do with the correction. The correction is realized only in the mutuality among people in order to reach adhesion, connection, and mutual guarantee. Only according to this criterion can you be good or bad.

So when we bring the message of mutual guarantee to people, we don’t tell them that they are bad. In what way is a person bad? After all, he was born that way. The Creator has placed him in these conditions.

A person has to discover the evil by himself and become his own judge. No one knows how this works internally when he makes an effort to join the friends in order to form a collective vessel together with them for the revelation of the attribute of bestowal.

It is only with regard to that, that evil is measured. When a person doesn’t want to be incorporated in the general vessel, this is where his evil inclination is hidden. If the vessel corrects itself, it is filled with the attribute of bestowal, meaning the Creator.

The more a person discovers his reluctance, the evil inclination, the more he will feel the need to do something. After all, he feels bad, and this is the salvation. There is nothing better or more important. So through the evil inclination a person reaches a prayer called “raising MAN,” and then he receives the answer and is incorporated in everyone.

So there is nothing bad in anyone. Every one is given his own traits from Above. Until a person enters a group and starts to develop himself on the level of the speaking, he doesn’t exist, and so there is no one we can talk about. A person doesn’t exist on the beastly level.

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Question: Does creativity depend on the right contact with the environment?

Answer: Power and creativity depend on how much a person identifies more advanced forms of development on his way and discovers the means by which to raise to them.

Every instant, like a small child, he looks for new forms in order to discover the world, not this prosaic world, but the hidden mysterious world.

After all, in the eyes of a child everything seems mysterious and he looks for new opportunities to discover the world more and more. For him the world is divided into the revealed and the hidden: He sees something and something else he doesn’t notice, he hears something and something else just passes by his ears. Sometimes he catches just a few words of what is being said, sometimes he focuses on something and everything else remains outside his sight. He constantly tries to discover what is hidden from him.

This is what we lack…we provide kids with games and the necessary means, and we have to take care of ourselves by ourselves. Our means is the environment, and thanks to it we advance. The environment should be the image of the next level for me. I don’t agree with what I see, but I am incorporated in the group and oblige all the friends to take on newer and more advanced forms. This is all our work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/12, “The Freedom”

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Everything depends on intention. This is like the valve in the internal combustion engine, which opens if I have the right intention. And as soon as the intention is gone, the valve closes. That is how I work all the time: I open the valve and close it. Let us hope that we will be able to start up this engine.

The size of the intention is determined by which desires it can rule over. Maybe my intention is only enough for the still level of my desires, or for the vegetative or animate, or for the human level. And clearly, the strongest, most efficient and powerful intentions also influence the small, lower desires.

Therefore, the most important thing for us is to think about group unity, mutual guarantee, because by virtue of that we can undoubtedly rule over all the other, lower desires we have. That is why the condition of mutual guarantee is so necessary.

I think that the friends are also outside of me, and the whole world, all of humanity, and the Creator are also outside of me. But I have to try to attach all of that to me in mutual guarantee, in the right connection, mutual dependence so these desires would unite: me and the Creator inside of me, and all the external systems will also become mine. I should not see anything else besides this, but just the image of one person, who I assemble and take care of.

And if I come out of this inner perception and speak to other people, I live in this world, so naturally, there is a collision between this inner perception and the external world, which appears to me in my senses. But I will have to accept this duality for now, which is no more than a psychological problem. And gradually, I will begin to see a more internal picture.

It’s similar to how there is the perception of an adult and of a child. A child sees only the external side, whereas an adult understands things deeper and sees the inner reasons for what is happening. Even though this is aimed in one direction, but just penetrates deeper into matter since both our intentions and external behavior are egoistic.

However, by developing a habit and making efforts, we can attain a new, true perception of reality.

Therefore, all discernments of intentions, my entire work is to try to change my vision by means of this inner perception, the inner wisdom called the science of Kabbalah, the inner part of the Torah. Then I will see the whole world as one organism in which everything belongs to me and there is nothing besides me.

Let us try to reach this sensation, and especially while reading The Book of Zohar.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/12, The Zohar

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