Question: When we participate in the morning lessons and workshops should we appeal to the Creator through the group?

Answer: Only through the group! There cannot be any personal appeal to the Creator. All the Shamati articles were written for a person who is engaged in the spiritual work within a group. By the way, there is nothing mentioned in these articles that one has to direct oneself to the Creator through the group because it is a natural and obvious thing.

If I say that I look at the Creator, it means that there is a group in front of me. Otherwise, I do not see Him.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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We constantly need to focus on the fact that “There is none else besides Him—only on this topic as there is nothing else except it. All the other topics are needed to support it to identify different individual states.

Moreover, I delve into this topic because the Creator produces all my feelings in me. Now, He is talking to me through my teacher, who is His conduit, and nothing more. Everything around me is a manifestation of the Creator in me; I myself am His derivative and have to respond to what happens according to this.

The more a person understands and knows the uniqueness of this, not disconnecting from the friends, from the world, or from anything, then the more he will try to feel it in reality.

This is the only force of nature that is manifested to us like that. Every day, we increasingly reveal its integrality, interconnection. Nature is integral, and we should not interfere with it. On the contrary, we must adapt ourselves to it. That is why Kabbalah says that we have to act in the external world: to provide everyone with normal, reasonable consumption, in general, to care about that. Everything else is just seeking unity, and through unity to the One.

Thus, any changes that you would like to see, you can only come to through this topic of the uniqueness of the Creator. It determines everything: why we should be united, why we should react to something in this way and not otherwise, etc. You will always come to the correct answer through it.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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The Writings of Rabash, “Maoz Tzur Yeshuati (The Rock of My Salvation),” Article 13: … but what can a person do when he wants to praise (the Creator) and his heart is sealed, and he feels that he is full of deficiencies, and that he cannot open his mouth and say a song of praise. The advice is to work above reason, and to say that everything is “concealed Hassadim,” which means that he should say that everything is Hesed, but that it is concealed from him, because he isn’t qualified to see the good and the delight that the Creator has prepared for His created beings.

Question: How can one reach the state of praising the Creator?

Answer: Suppose you feel bad, problems follow you, you have unpleasant thoughts, unfulfilled desires are torturing you, and you are upset and mad at everyone around you. Now you have to rise to the level of there is none else besides Him and that the Creator is good and benevolent. You do that by building the corresponding calculation, you make many efforts, search incessantly, and gradually you rise above reason.

At the same time, it’s important to clarify why you are doing that: Is it because you are confused? Or is it because you have an unpleasant feeling? Could it be that it’s because of the fear of punishment? Or is it because you want to bring the Creator contentment?

Eventually you see that everything stems from Him, that He is good and benevolent as He raises you from the previous level to a higher level.

This is how you advance: You thank the Creator for what He has done, and of course, you immediately receive new problems and descents. Time after time you rise and descend, increasingly faster than you can calculate and arrange, in order to stabilize your attitude to what is going on.

Still this process continues. First you operate out of fear, since you are afraid of different troubles and don’t want to feel unpleasantness. But gradually you balance yourself with the Creator and begin to think about bestowal a little. Then He immediately throws you off track and now you try to work together with Him. Next time you already want Him to feel good, and the time after that you really operate for the Creator, by wanting to justify Him, not because you want to save yourself or others from suffering.

Thus you advance, by clinging more tightly to the intention of in order to bestow each time. You constantly understand and assess the situation, but the assessment is always according to one criterion: “To what extent do I think of the Creator?”
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/11/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: The article, “There Is None Else Besides Him,” speaks about the need for making our own efforts in the spiritual work, but all the states come from the Creator. When can we become independent?

Answer: Our independence is expressed in becoming similar to the Creator from within our egoism, thus including in us two opposing forces. If you take away the force of the ego, there will be nothing left of you. You will exist in Him like the starting point that He created as something from nothing, and will have no personal feeling of anything.

Initially, the Creator’s question was how to create an independent created being that is similar and equal to Him. This is what He does in all of creation.

We are committed to constantly try to attain a state of full adhesion with Him with the feelings and the mind that He summons in us.

Adhesion with Him means that both my feelings and my mind come from Him so that, through them, I will ascend above my ego and begin to actually feel His bestowal in me.

It is hard to express. There are no such words in our language.

On the whole, we have to yearn for connection with this only root, with this source—every moment, in every parameter, in every section, in the heart and the mind, in our desires and our thoughts.

Then, a new heart and mind will be created in us that work in order to bestow in a different coordinate system, in another dimension.

Only then will we begin to understand from what space this force operates. We will already enter this space, but only through systematic work on ourselves that brings about the recognition that everything in me and around me, everything, comes from Him at any second, at every moment.
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From the Novosibirsk Convention 12/8/12, Lesson 3

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Religions, science, philosophy, everything that man has developed, is intended to bring him closer to the Creator. But this connection is actually fulfilled by the wisdom of Kabbalah.

If I study about the fifth level of “thickness” of my desire and about the processes that take place in it in connection to different periods or values, then it is generally called “science,” “philosophy,” or “psychology.” One way or the other, I study what is happening within my desire to receive.

When do I study that? During the exile. That is the right time and the right situation.

Besides, there are people who yearn to rise above their desire to receive, above the exile. Thus they develop this ability internally—they study about higher levels with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah. On this level they acquire a connection with the Creator, which means that they build their desire to receive so that it will take on the Creator’s form.

It has no form or shape, and in order to stabilize this resemblance I summon the Surrounding Light that reforms me. This Light enters my desire and builds the form of bestowal in me, which is similar to the Creator, the Returning Light.

So science, philosophy, and psychology speak about what is happening within our desire to receive. We develop these disciplines without changing ourselves but in a rational manner. So even the worst person can reach great heights in every scientific field. A philosopher may be a Nazi and indeed anyone. Today it is possible to arrange a philosophical concept that will justify all the evil in the world.

The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, has a different approach: A person changes himself for the good, to bestow, and to this extent, he discovers the Creator. This is a totally different wisdom, and ordinary scientists cannot understand it, since it is based on a person’s transformation.

Today, such change is necessary, as the upper dimension that is being revealed obligates us. This is where the cry of science, philosophy and man stems from. If we don’t start changing ourselves according to Godliness that is being revealed, we will find ourselves opposed to it. The real problem isn’t concealed in this world, but rather in the fact that the Creator “lands” on us, the integral network of the general mutual connection. It is hanging over us, like a giant flying saucer from a science fiction movie, and descends, thus leaving us fewer and fewer options to maneuver. Let’s hope that people will understand this.

So it all depends on a person: whether he changes himself in order to continue his development correctly now, or not.

Let’s get back to science and philosophy: The exile of the Jewish people and its integration with the nations of the world was meant to provide us with science, with information about the desire to receive. The wisdom of Kabbalah, on the other hand, teaches us about the external reality, changing our desire, and it is arranged that way so that the Light will go through the desire and will give it the form of bestowal. Without the passing of the Light, the wisdom of Kabbalah wouldn’t exist. It appeared when people began to explore their desire, its structure, and life, and after having examined it, they began to draw the Light that Reforms upon themselves, which means that they began to reform themselves and to change to the good, to bestowal instead of receiving.

The Light changes my discernments and I collect the data and eventually discover a new science called “the wisdom of Kabbalah.”
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/12, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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We always experience the upper force, the upper impression on us, as something incredibly delightful, pleasurable, fulfilling, and very desirable. We experience it as a gift. It comes unexpectedly, without any preparation on our part.

Although we worked hard and strove to get it, its appearance is always startling. And inside this gift we feel love. This love, manifested in the Light’s effect on us, triggers in us an instinctive effect on the Light in return. Hence, the most important thing is to achieve this gift, the first impact of the Light on us.

This love is much more profound that than the gift itself, since it’s measured by the greatness of the giver rather than by the value of the gift. It’s similar in our world: If I don’t care about the giver, then I focus on the value of the gift. Suppose I receive something from the company where I work, then naturally, I’m indifferent to it. But if such a gift is given to me by a special person, then it doesn’t matter what he is giving me. He may give me a simple pen, but what matters to me is the very sign of his attention, because I measure it not by the value of the gift but by this person’s greatness.

Likewise we define what we feel in the spiritual world. If we are already in spiritual attainment, then when we sense the Light’s impact on us, we instinctively respond to it with love arising within us.

But if we are still in our world, beyond the sensation of the upper one, then here we must cultivate this quality artificially. In other words, we should make an effort and try to express gratitude, exalt the Giver in our eyes, even though we don’t feel Him and instead, we just feel His working on us: Suddenly we begin comprehending more, feeling more, and experiencing new internal sensations.

This connects me with the Giver. As soon as I feel that I receive a small positive effect in the form of feelings or wisdom, I must immediately start developing gratitude within myself. It expands my sense of the gift. And then, even if the gift is small, I will start feeling it as much bigger, and inside it I might even sense the very Giver.

Therefore, being in our world, in our states, we must immediately respond to various positive spiritual changes in us correctly; although they may not be quite spiritual just yet, but something is already emerging in our senses and mind. We should respond to it with gratitude and exalt the Giver, bestowal, in our eyes. Then, it develops and expands our organs of perception, our sensors.

Moving forward in such a manner, we start to gradually attain the Creator, and that’s why His gifts are valuable only to the extent that we can follow them with a deeper experience of Him after all. That is, the gift is sort of a mediator, a communication between Him and me.
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From the Virtual Lesson 12/2/12

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There can be different fears: for my condition in this world, for my relatives, and for the whole the world. But all these are corporeal fears that stem from the fact that a person isn’t connected to the Creator in the right way at the moment so that he could realize that everything is in His hands and that “there is none else besides Him.”

A person doesn’t understand that he is totally under the Creator’s control, and so he fears for himself in this world. Since he has no contact with the Creator, he feels that he and this world are detached from the upper force. He thinks that this world exists on its own.

Then there is another stage when a person begins to worry about the way things are in the next world: about himself, about his relatives, and about the world. This means that he separates himself and the world from the Creator, as if all these things exist separately from one another, and he looks for a connection between them that can ensure the best existence for him.

All this fear stems from concealment, so nothing can help except for advancing towards true fear, the fear of the Creator.

This is already a different kind of fear; it isn’t regarding this world and not the next world, and not about the reward and punishment in it. There is simply fear that remains in a person for now; he hasn’t totally discovered that the Creator controls all of His good creation and that he has nothing to ask for and nothing to worry about, not in the present and not in the future.

When he looks back at the past he is ashamed of his bad deeds. This means that he still hasn’t adhered to the upper Providence so that he can understand that there is none else besides Him, except the only Providence.

It turns out that the cause of all the fears is the concealment. Everything is determined only by our transition from concealment to revelation. There is no other criterion to assess our states. Concealment, an insufficient feeling of the Creator, and incomplete faith above reason, all lead to fear and worry.

This level is called “repentance of fear” and it is the intermediate level before wholeness. It must exist. On this level a person clarifies how many desires in which he feels this world are still disconnected from the only good, infinite Providence of the Creator.

He can arrange his desires faster if he connects more strongly to the group. Inside it he will always find the upper Light and himself operating, and he will process all his fears correctly so that every fear will advance towards wholeness as much as possible.

Complete fear is called the Light of Hassadim in the illumination of Hochma. He should approach such a fear gradually by his examinations. If he demands it correctly, he demands to know about all the interruptions, which means about all his desires and discernments in which he doesn’t yet resemble the Creator and in which there is no whole fear.

In the meantime a person is not in a state of whole fear, worrying whether he has the intention of in order to bestow, above all his vessels of knowledge, his vessels of receiving, but actually this is what makes up the complete fear. At the same time, worrying about this, about how great his bestowal is, which means above what thickness of the vessel that was revealed, he can rise and be in bestowal. This is how we reach complete fear.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Introduction to the Study of the The Sefirot” 

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Malchut is called a prayer because it is a deficiency that one cannot get along without. After the first three phases of Direct Light, comes the fourth, final stage, Malchut, deficiency. If a man doesn’t have a deficiency, this is a sign that he has no Malchut, meaning he doesn’t have the beginning of the degree of Adam, human; he doesn’t have anything to start his spiritual structure with.

All the spiritual work is in order to develop our deficiency (Hissaron), our Malchut, so it becomes Malchut Shamaim “(Kingdom of Heaven),” meaning Malchut that is connected with heaven totally exists under the Providence of Bina. This is to say, to make your desire exactly as the desire of the Creator.

In this goal, a man always is conducting a dialog: He raises his deficiency, checks it, and requests to reveal what his real desire is, what does he want at this current moment and in general.  He always turns to the Creator with this deficiency in order to organize it, to fit it to the fulfillment, to the reaction from above, and to keep a constant connection with the Creator.

That is why it says: “Let it be that he will pray all day,” because this is creating our mutual connection with the Creator.  We only need to constantly direct our Malchut, our heart, to the new deficiency. And if we do not do that, then nature, as always, will push us to correction together with all the creatures by the general Light, the general pressure, that if we feel as growing tension and as the global crisis.

But if a man wants to be in personal connection with the Creator, he must always turn to Him with the correct deficiency, to reformat it, to organize it and to be constantly concerned that this deficiency would fit the stages of the progress.

It is impossible to finish this work and to relax, because by that a man feels that his heart connects more and more strongly with the Creator, in a direct and shortest connection. The levels of this connection determine the levels of the worlds. Man feels that he is shortening more and more the way to and understands better and better the Creator. And the group is the mechanism that connects them together; this is the collection of the foreign deficiencies. Because it guarantees that a person will relate correctly to the Creator.

And this is how he progresses; each new fulfillment better organizes his desire. He wants precisely a fulfillment like this because to bring contentment to the Creator is possible by bringing Him the whole deficiency for fulfillment.
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Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12

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Question: Why does the desire, the fire in the heart, which was felt earlier, disappear? How do we support this desire? How can we keep ourselves in the desire to reveal the upper force, taking into account that we do not feel it?

Answer: The Creator gives us our primary aspiration to attain Him, pushing us forward with all kinds of troubles in this life, a feeling of emptiness, and pulling us with the expectation of revealing the truth, meaning. But we have to go further by ourselves. This initial push from behind and pull forward are temporary; do not expect that they will propel you forward all the time.

You have to cultivate this thrust forward yourself, and it can only come from the environment. You must build your group, your environment, so that it excites you, pulls forward, teases, so that you see friends who succeed and strive forward more than you do, so that you become jealous, envy them, so that they give you the importance of the goal, and you feel support in that from them.

In order to be impressed by them, you have to annul yourself. If you consider them greater, then even a small drive towards the goal that you see in them will seem great to you.

This is the basis of all Rabash’s articles about the group. The Creator gives us only the initial impulse and nothing more: the negative force from behind and a small attracting force forward, and only for a certain time. And then He begins to give us more and more egoism, the hindering force, so that we develop our own pull towards Him on this hindering force. You can get it only from the environment. That is why freewill is only in the creation of the environment suitable for us.

So, if we do this seriously, we will definitely reach the goal, but this is the most important thing, this is a guarantee of our advancement. So, I am very happy about our unity at the Siberian Convention where we will try to unite to feel our next state there, on the spot. It is before us; this is our next step. Let’s make it together, and it will bring success. “Let’s join our hands, friends, so not to be lost one by one.”
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From a Virtual Lesson 12/2/12

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Question: Will everyone have to exert himself on the spiritual path?

Answer: Everyone. After all, it is even impossible to go through the path of suffering without exertion, without making efforts, without building a vessel, without the necessary investment in developing my deficiency and my yearning. How can I feel spirituality without all this? How can I feel the spiritual world? How can I discover the Creator if I am not adapted to Him, if I don’t acquire an equivalence of form with Him?

I must attain this, but the question is by what means? Through more or less troubles and sufferings, or by yearning that I develop in me. It too brings about blows, but in an opposite form.

One way or another, I have to feel and to go through a certain amount of pain and suffering, detachment, urge, and yearning. There is a desire and there is a yearning. So the yearning is my exertion. I am given the desire, but I have to add acceleration to it. And how? By sufferings or with the help of the group, this is already my business.

We can advance under the pressure of very unpleasant things: wars, disasters, bankruptcies, plagues, etc. And it is also possible to advance differently, under the influence of the right environment. Still the obstacles remain and I still have to discover the thickness of my desire, but I sweeten the path by my yearning for the Creator, by needing Him—pangs of love instead of pangs of hate.

Eventually, no one can escape God’s work, but it is possible to advance under the blows, under the load of “Pharaoh,” and it is possible to yearn for the goal by the help of the environment. According to the absolute value, it is the same thing, but according to the content, these are two totally different things.
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From the 4^th part the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/12, “Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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