Question: How can we tune ourselves to one force, to one Light, and not get off this path?

Answer: This is possible only by mutual adhesion of the friends who want to clarify everything only with regard to the connection between them. All of the Torah is the history of this connection and nothing but that.

Gradually we get to know the desire to receive which at first seems to be good; this is called the “seven years of satiety” in Egypt. Then we discover that our desire is bad. This is evidenced by the cities of Pithom and Ramses. The position of the ego doesn’t change, and if you identify with it, you live a comfortable life. But if you identify with Israel, it is bad, since the point that doesn’t let you rest appears and forces you to detach yourself from the previous attitude. Thus you don’t change the reality, but only divide it and prolong it according to your ego or according to the Light.

First you determine that the desires and the thoughts that cut you off from your property are bad. This approach is called “the opinion of the landlords.” Then the evil becomes something that cuts you off from the Creator and this is called “the opinion of the Torah.” These two opinions are opposite from one another, and the Torah tells us how a person moves from one world into another. If a person determines that everything has to exist within the desire to receive, it is a state called “this world,” which means the current level. From this point a person moves into the “next world,” to the next state in which everything has to exist in the Creator.

The story of the exodus from Egypt is the general story that repeats time after time, each time in a different quality, on a new level of perception that reveals deeper layers and exposes smaller details and a more accurate assessment. In this story we leave Egypt, but we are still quite far from the end point. Egypt returns to us during the wandering in the desert. In other words, it returns to us on a higher level as you see and live the “movie,” but in “higher resolution.” This is in addition to different wars and problems. Everything returns and rediscovers finer details of our clarification.

Everything always revolves in a triangle: “I—the group—the Creator.” We clarify the point of unity, the adhesion between the group and me. I am the vessel and the Creator is the filling. Then we examine what disturbs us and what helps us. We constantly clarify this; we clarify the necessary attributes every second, in order to correct them and to connect them. By that we ascend the spiritual ladder. So if you are looking for the most efficient way, there is only one place you should focus on.
[92232]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You have mentioned several times that Kabbalah is a science. Do such concepts as “individual or personal aspect of God” and “the way through Kabbalah, through devotion” have a place in it?

Answer: The higher power in Kabbalah is called “Nature” or the “Creator.” You can call it “God.” But this higher force is not at all what believers mean. This is a clear physical, absolute, good influence on everything that exists, permanent and unchanging. That is why if believers, no matter what faith, ask God to change, in principle their prayers are aimed at this; the people who study Kabbalah strive to change themselves because in their understanding God is absolute.

If He is absolutely good, if He is absolutely loving, then I cannot ask Him to change because He is already absolutely good and loving. The concept of absolute already means that I have no one to ask. For example, how can you ask, for example, your mother who loves you absolutely already to be kinder towards you?

Therefore, all the aspirations, the entire work, of a person is to change himself, to pull himself, to become like God. That is why a human being is called “Adam” from the word “Domeh – similar.” He has to reach this level, to attain it.

Thus, Kabbalah is not related to any religion in its relation to the world and is called science.
[92247]
From the Georgia Convention 11/05/12, Lesson 1 

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Question: If the Creator is love and endless truth, then how is it possible to connect to His frequency?

Answer: The Torah speaks in the language of people, and therefore we associate the Creator with our own properties.

In reality we live in a world of laws. I am in front of a law. I am in some space where a single force acts, and I can attract its influence on me to a greater or smaller extent. Thus, the force does not change, I am the one who changes.

But, in my mind, I transfer my changes to it, and this leads to confusion. I want the Creator to love me more, despite the fact that His love is already complete. I want Him to bestow to me more, despite the fact that He already bestows on me 100 percent. I ask Him for good, I beg Him to replace His justice with mercy, but how can you plead to the absolute? What changes can be expected from the force of Good that constantly does good to both good and bad people? So imagine that Creator doesn’t hear, doesn’t feel, but just gives all the time, always bestows.

You are built in such a way that you feel your state in the desire to receive. The desire feels what fills it, and this awareness causes certain feelings. We have feelings, and therefore we always talk about our emotional reaction to something. For example, if I will touch you with an electrical wire with a voltage of 100 volts, then you will feel it. The problem here is not in the electrical wire and not in the desire itself, but in the contact between them, in the touch, and that is what gives birth to the sense. In such a way, all the feelings are born inside us, and not in the Creator, but we, as though, ascribe our feelings to Him.

Therefore, it’s best not to imagine the Creator as someone alive. We deal with a law, and to the extent of the changes within us, we rediscover its influence. Here everything depends only on our sensitivity, our perception.
[92043]    
From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/2/12, “Preface to The Book of Zohar”

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Question: How do we turn the vessels of receiving into vessels of bestowal?

Answer: We create a variety of different forms from metals. We make gears, grilles, bars, etc. We also work with the desire to receive according to the same principle, although it will never bestow itself. In Kabbalistic terms “vessels of bestowal” are vessels of receiving that can bestow when they operate in a special way. In other words, they take on a special form. After all, they cannot do anything but receive.

So receiving is improved to such an extent that it will become like bestowal.

Today, whether I like it or not, my intention remains egoistic. In order to correct it I need a special external force. To do this, we study in order to evoke it.

I cannot change anything by myself, and so I don’t worry about my desires; they will develop according to the plan. I don’t have to worry about whether my vessels are full and if they are what there is in them and how much. Here everything is fine, and I am only concerned about the intention, about aiming my thoughts. I differentiate between the action and the intention and only in my intention am I constantly adhered to the goal. As long as I keep the same focus, no matter what I do—I am corrected and everything is fine with me. This is why it says that a person is where his thoughts are.

100% of an intention to bestow ensures me 100% of correction. It is the intention that counts and not the action. So even if I steal and destroy, I steal and destroy parts of my egoistic desire in order to perform acts of bestowal. A person is not responsible for his actions; it is the intention that determines everything.

The problem is that when we look at one another, we see actions and not intentions. But this problem brings us to correction. I have to rise to the height of mutual connection in order to judge others according to their intentions and not their actions. This obligates us to be Kabbalists. There is no other choice; otherwise we cannot connect correctly. The disasters are increasing, so where is my influence on the upper?

Question: If the intention is the same form that is dressed on the matter of the desire, how do we correct it?

Answer: With the help of the Light that Reforms. We try to act in bestowal, we try to connect and our failures reveal the need for the Light.

After all, there is a part of Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) in every person. As a result, some people are drawn to the Light, and this attraction is revealed in them when the question “What is the meaning of life?” arises. They want to know, to discover the secret of life. Such people are especially egoistic. They are very far from being nice and they are even quite disgusting and don’t care about this world at all. They disrespect it and are not satisfied with its “nonsense.” In short, people who are not nice at all reach the wisdom of Kabbalah. After all, a great desire suppresses small desires. Eventually, a person burns because of one thing only; he wants to know why he should go on living.

Other than that he can be worried about high philosophical questions like: “What is the universe? Why does all this exist?” in other words, he feels that it is crowded here and he cannot stand it.

All this is caused by the part of GE that has awakened and is in AHP in the meantime, increasing it and pushing a person to search, forcing him to open himself to everything, trying to “swallow” all of reality, including the Creator.

Then, thanks to his actions in the group and the study, a person begins to appreciate and to sort out all these phenomena correctly and then he comes closer to correction.

In addition, it depends on the root of his soul, on the quality of his GE. Someone may yearn for general, global knowledge according to his Reshimot (informational genes). After all, certain Reshimot were very high once, and fell so deep that they require much work. Such people don’t succeed immediately, but after decades, they ascend accordingly while others don’t.

In any case, “He who is greater than his friend, his desire is even greater.” This is what the number of actions of correction he has to perform depends on.

But in any case, parts of GE and AHP are initially in everyone, including the nations of the world. After all, we have all been through the shattering including in ancient Babel. Then too the crisis was revealed as it is today, and as a result, only a small group came out of the crowd—the nation of Israel. Now when all the other “Babylonians” are suffering, having no choice, they will have to correct themselves together with this small group in order to finally leave Babel. Then everyone will be called “Israel,” which means “straight to the Creator” (Yashar—El).

It isn’t about a nation but about resembling the Creator. The difference is the order of things: Someone begins the process and someone continues. Each one does his share, and eventually everyone corrects the shattering of Babel.
[92001]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/02/12, The Zohar

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Due to our internal and external work, we go through very rigorous changes due to internal and external work. And one should not interfere with the other. After all the work, we go outside with the speed with which the world is moving, turning to them with what they are ready to hear. As it is written, “Educate the child according to his own ways,” and this “child” is the whole world, and it requires the same attitude on our behalf.

As to our internal work, we should be oriented toward one goal and stick to very rigid definitions. Even when our perception alters, we still must collect all impressions into one general picture that continually acquires visible contours, thus becoming more and more accurate. We must permanently sharpen our focus and see the goal in front of us more precisely.

It’s impossible to change our “profession” and look for other ways to earn a living. Any changes that happen to us must retain similarity with the model of the group and be based on our unity.

One must be consistent in one’s exertions and activities in order to positively accept various images of the world that constantly fluctuate and be ready to consent to obstacles that perpetually show up in our way. One must understand that all of them are sent from one higher source and that there is nothing at all but this source. The purpose of all difficulties that we go through is to direct us toward the goal.

If we have this kind of attitude to everything around us, then we won’t drown in troubles and problems. We will accept them positively, rise above them, and above the problems, we will connect. By doing so, we can check ourselves constantly.
[91530]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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There is nothing more important than prayer, MAN. After all, it sums up all our great efforts in concentrating on the importance of the goal, on the greatness of the Creator, and on the qualities that we strive to obtain in order to overcome and re-shape our ego, the desire to receive.

In order to formulate a prayer, we must work on it. Rabash kept reiterating that it is the kind of exertion where every penny counts and eventually amounts to a large sum. I heard him say this ten to twenty times a day.

It means that, at each given moment in life, a person collects and stores one’s efforts, every moment fine-tuning them to the goal. And that is why we must establish a system of mutual guarantee, a structure of common opinions and sensations that will re-direct us constantly to focusing on the most significant and vital things, instead of concentrating on less important matters.

It should help us come to the conclusion that the most essential thing for us is the greatness of the Creator. And if we consider Him indispensable, He instantaneously gains power over us and perpetually re-shapes our desire to receive, our self-awareness, and attitude.

Now I look at life from this new point of view, and new hindrances emerge in our way, and again I change. This is how we collect pennies. According to Baal HaSulam, in one of his letters (No. 18), “There is no other way to self-correct, except connecting one’s present and future moments in life with His great name.” We should never cease doing it.
[91526]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, “The Giving of the Torah,” Item 8: …This is because there is a natural law that the receiver feels shame and impatience upon receiving gifts from the giver out of compassion and pity. …

And this is the reason He has prepared for us the toil and the labor of Torah and Mitzvot, to produce our exaltedness by ourselves, because then the delight and pleasure that comes to us from Him, meaning everything that is included in the Dvekut with Him, will all be our own possession that has come to us through our own efforts. Then we will feel ourselves as the owners, without which there cannot be a sensation of wholeness.

Shame is a measurement that defines the relationships between us. If one doesn’t feel shame, then one has nothing to correct since he does not see any major differences between himself and the Creator. Therefore, it is better to divulge shame and be embarrassed by a comparison of our receiving properties with His bestowal.

The question is, if one stops receiving, does it mean that he neutralizes shame. For example, I visit a friend of mine and see a generously set table waiting for me, but I refuse the treats, “No, no, thanks. I am full. I am on diet.” Is it possible that we act the same way in spirituality in order to diminish the sense of shame? By acting so, we neglect the Creator as if we don’t care about His indulgences.

After all, what, in fact, can we receive? Is it the Light of NRNHY? To be honest, it doesn’t fill us with pleasure. NRNHY is the Light that stems out of our comprehension of the Giver’s magnitude.

All we ever receive from it is a tiny spark from which originated a desire to receive pleasure. A desire to receive is comprised of a black point, the tip of the letter Yod, and in the Light lies a spark that created the black point.

The rest is triggered by our awareness of the Creator’s greatness, when we appreciate it, it elevates it in our eyes. That is why we constantly should remind ourselves that we must aspire to His greatness.

If somebody is really important to us, we are ready to “carry his suitcase.” The greater this person is in our eyes, the heavier the suitcase we are ready to carry. At first, the suitcase seems too heavy to us, “Why do I carry it in the first place? Why am I doing this?”

However, if we realize how indispensable the owner of the suitcase is, we lift it with ease. It’s such an honor and good fortune to serve this important person! We even are ready to pay for the right to carry his suitcase.

As a result, we devote our entire lives to the Creator. What do we get in return? Nothing. After all, a spark and a black point constitute the basis for everything there is.

Question: Is there any analogy to the genuine shame in the work we do?

Answer: Yes, it can be applied to various types of shame that we experience in front of our friends. We are afraid that they will figure out that we are ignorant or that we still are being egoists.

It’s a primitive, self-centered shame. There also is a spiritual shame caused by our inability to contribute our share by acknowledging that we are not supporting our friends the way we should and do we elevate them. They depend on us, so we feel embarrassed that we are unable to cope with the task.

Question: Must the group instigate this kind of shame in its members?

Answer: The group must evoke us and promote our growth by teaching us how to respect shame since it demonstrates a deficiency in the desire to receive. If pleasures and affliction are conditioned by either fulfillment or emptiness within our desire, then bad or good states reflect in the sense of shame or, on the contrary, the realization of the Creator’s greatness.
[91407]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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We can rise to the spiritual level only after we accept the condition that we don’t expect any reward. But how can I reach such a decision? How can I ask for power from Above? How can I do that if I only have a corporeal mind, corporeal feelings, and can only act egoistically since I don’t know anything else? Where can I find the right forms and the right discernments from which I could form the right request: to receive only the power to bestow and not to ask for a reward? This is called the level of Bina, Hafetz Hesed, Noah’s Ark.

If a person advances persistently being careful to keep all the conditions, he is not required to have any special attributes other than the ones he was born with or to belong to special people. Everyone is given the right conditions for his work by being sent doubts: “What is this work?” and “Who is the Lord that should listen to Him?” This happens when he is thrown once into the “flood waters” and once into “clean waters,” and then into “water of discord” and the “peaceful waters,” into different discernments of Bina that are revealed to us.

A person should clarify whether he accepts them in the right line, the left line, or the middle line, and in each of these lines there are his own lines: In the right line, there are three lines, and in the left line, there are three lines, and it’s the same in the middle line, and they are all incorporated in each other.

The main point here is not to stop and to stubbornly advance in the simplest way, not to be clever and try to solve these problems with our corporeal mind. This whole philosophy is worthless and only the purity of the heart can help. A person who succeeds is not necessarily clever and may even be a bit foolish, but is dedicated to the goal and stubbornly advancing straight towards it, by trying to do his job. Of course, the evil inclination constantly grows in him by evoking thoughts of criticism and doubts, but this attitude will eventually lead a person to success.

All the clarifications start from the well-known questions of Pharaoh: “Who?” and “What?” Then different types of waters are revealed. “Who?” and “What?” are questions about the Creator’s greatness, about whether I need Him or not and about what kind of a reward I expect. In the meantime these are simple clarifications as to who is in control and how.

Later I encounter different kinds of waters and am forced to clarify: Whom do I want to hide from? What am I hiding for? What kind of waters are the floods for me, and what kinds aren’t?” A person draws this whole picture, but there is no flood in that! The flood is for me; it’s a result of my malicious thoughts, bad influences, etc.

It’s determined by where I feel myself and not by physical disasters like the storms and floods that we encounter now. We actually create the flood inside us. Although there are natural storms and floods like the one in North America, they are also created by humans, by their attitude to life, which summons such a response from nature.

After asking the “Who?” or “What?” questions several times, I begin to clarify the different types of waters, and I am approaching the right prayer. This means that I have to clarify the deficiency that I have to reach in order to get the power that will raise me above my desire to receive and enable me to truly bestow. After the flood retreats I will come out of Noah’s ark and will begin to work with my desires to receive in bestowal. It says that Noah understood that the flood was over when the dove brought him a branch from an olive tree, which is a sign that there is not only Hassadim (water) but also Hochma within the Hassadim.
[91805]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12, Writings of Rabash

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The Creator’s greatness is a very complicated issue. Of course we cannot move without feeling His greatness, but we don’t want it to be like in our world when it is part of our nature to respect an important person.

The importance depends on the environment. If people around me respect someone, I will also respect him. But if people around me disrespect someone, I will undoubtedly disrespect him too, it only depends on the society that impresses me. I decide according to the opinion of society who is important and who is not.

Naturally I am always ready to serve an important person. It only depends on how important a person is in my eyes if I agree to carry his suitcase that weighs 10kg or 100kg, to work for him for one day or for a whole lifetime. But these are purely egoistic motives. If the Creator reveals his greatness to us, we will gladly work for Him, just as for a very important person because of the egoistic desire. It would not be faith above reason and the intention of in order to bestow but ordinary ego, since I will work for the pleasure that I receive from belonging to a great personality.

It is a pleasure to serve a great person; this is our nature and so in such a case our machine works on ordinary fuel and doesn’t perform any spiritual work. This is because spiritual work is above any payment that the desire to receive gets as compensation.

So the Creator cannot reveal His greatness to us if we ask Him for it so we can use it to work putting the Creator’s greatness as a condition for our work. Because then we would get the same situation as in our world. I underestimated someone and disrespected him and suddenly the society says to me: “Didn’t you know what a great man this is? How clever, rich and influential he is?” Then I would immediately begin to respect him and would be ready to serve him.

The Creator is concealed and doesn’t reveal His greatness to us unless we, with the help of the group, the teacher, and the study, prepare ourselves in order to truly want bestowal, and only if we need the Creator’s force, His greatness, only in order to attain bestowal, do we receive it.

This means, that bestowal should be in first place, and only for the sake of bestowing should we want to feel the Creator’s greatness. Only in this case will we reveal the greatness of the Creator, based on what is important to us, the importance of bestowal.

A person needs to prepare a very special deficiency called the three lines. We will find out more about this very important point, but it is good that we have moved closer to it. It is a very subtle but fundamental condition of knowing how to separate where the egoistic motives are concealed and where the true bestowal regarding the Creator’s greatness is.
[91654]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/12

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It says that the Creator created the evil inclination, but actually the point is that I have to discover my inclination by myself, discover that that my initial desire is evil and opposite from the Creator.

It isn’t that easy. Even if the Creator gives and I receive, what’s so bad about that? The point is not the desire; it stays the same, neither good nor bad. I determine evil by myself, by attaining it.

A person reaches the giving of the Torah when he needs correction, when he discovers within his desire an evil intention: for himself and against others, which means against other people and against the Creator. This is what he calls evil. It requires serious preparation in order to feel such shame when you feel “I would rather die than live.”

We imagine the giving of the Torah as a necessity, as compelling as the mountain of hatred looming over us that leaves us no choice. But a person has to feel a need since there is no coercion in spirituality. So how can this problem be solved? On the one hand, the Creator “pushes me to the wall,” and on the other hand, I need to feel a deficiency.

In fact, what the Creator dictates is only a condition, and if I fulfill it, I receive the Torah, which means the method of correction, but I have to stabilize this condition by myself and to agree to it: “If I don’t accept it, then I would rather die than live.” This is the preparation required of a person.
[91644]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/28/12, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)

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