We are yet to discover our need for all seven billion people living on Earth. Society serves as an amplifying force because an individual’s own strength is very small. Thus, the more people in society under whose influence we put ourselves, the greater the strength we receive. It determines the height of the degree in our resembling the Creator, as well as the measure of adhesion we attain with Him.

We wouldn’t be able to achieve this alone on our own. A Kabbalistic group is a place where a person attaches himself to the Creator, and this determines how high he’ll climb to Him. The group becomes the house where the Creator and the creature dwell together. And when we dwell together there is no longer “I”; rather, there is only “we,” which now becomes the person’s “I.”

It is said, “A prisoner cannot free himself from the prison.” However, the friends can free him by providing him with their inspiration and strength. Therefore, everyone should think about helping a friend connect each state that occurs to its importance toward the purpose, along with understanding its necessity and rejoicing when the “sinners” are revealed in them.

It’s not important what states, what ups and downs, we go through; most important is that we progress toward the goal. Then we understand that we have to go through all states, like a patient undergoing treatment that might be unpleasant, but the recovery is already anticipated. Therefore, it is necessary to elevate each other’s spirits, not by acting silly or frivolous, but by giving each other the spirit of life, that is, spiritual life, which brings one happiness.

The mood is so important because it gives us the force of life. However, material life, wealth, or power won’t bring us an uplifted mood. If a person lost the power of faith, the force of life,  if he no longer feels the support of the society, the only means of advancement, then he can be helped only by another person. Only the other person can imbue us with the feeling of how important bestowal, confidence, and a fulfilled life are. In this, everyone has to help a friend. Everyone has to set an example of his burning passion toward reaching the goal at any minute.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/25/10, Article, “They Helped Everyone His Friend”

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A question I received: How do I fight the tendency of the daily Kabbalah lesson becoming just a habit?

My Answer: This is a problem. Habit dulls the taste and breeds a frivolous attitude, thereby ruining everything. We should fight this tendency together. Otherwise we won’t be able to accelerate our development and will have to wait for the spiritual breakthrough for years.

It is impossible to change this system for it already exists. You are already connected to it; now you only need to actively participate in it. To the extent of your involvement, you will see that all the friends that you previously considered uncorrected, in fact, constitute a corrected system with you as the only uncorrected part.

You don’t want to connect to this system, and so it displays to you other people that seemingly exist around you, each with their own desires. But they don’t really exist. You will suddenly feel that you exist within a rigid system where only you have freedom of choice: whether or not to awaken to spirituality so as to awaken them and they, in turn, to awaken you. These are the laws of this system, and you are the only one with free will.

However, as you are not yet willing to connect to it, a play is staged especially for you: friends, lots of people, this whole world around you, this whole mess in life…. You were given an opportunity to organize these forces around you, so that they would awaken you to spirituality via external influence. Start making use of your inherent envy, hatred, and ambition; envy others, love them and hate them, awaken yourself with all the means and all the qualities given to you.

This is why the Upper system of Malchut of Infinity appears to you as the world that you presently see around you. What, did you think it existed up in the sky somewhere? It’s not somewhere out there, but right in front of you, only your defective vision twists it to this.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, Article “Concerning Love of Friends”

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A question I received: How does the Upper bring the lower one up the steps of the spiritual ladder?

My Answer: The Upper degree switches into his lesser state (Katnut) and descends to the lower presenting himself to the lower as smaller. We do the same thing when playing with children. We want the children to have success, so we lower ourselves and let them win the game. We lower ourselves to establish a connection with them.

This is like a mentor, who acts among children just as if he is like them; then gradually he begins to change, to model more desirable behavior, so that the children could see him as an example of a corrected child. First, the mentor displays an example as a child, not as an adult, so that the children can relate to him. We know that children learn more readily from other children than from adults.

This is because the environment impacts people only if the people in it are equal. Friends must be on equal terms; then they can serve as an example to each other. If I feel that a friend is greater than I am, he is not my friend anymore. I learn from the same level I am on.

It is the same way in the spiritual world. The Upper descends to the lower and becomes identical to the lower in everything, and by doing so, he unites with the lower. The lower doesn’t annul himself before the higher one since they are seemingly equal; hence, they unite on equal terms. After this, the Upper one can ascend and bring the lower one up with him.

In order to ascend with the Upper one, the lower one must annul his receiving desires (AHP), but remain united with the Upper one as an equal, in the bestowing desires (Galgalta ve-Eynaim). Thus, when the Upper one descends to me, I will not perceive him as higher because he has become the same as me. If a 7 foot tall adult plays with a child while matching the child’s emotions and behaviors, the child won’t perceive him as a tall adult. The child thinks that the adult is just like him. Without this similarity from the child’s perspective, there wouldn’t be any contact between them!

The truth is that I cannot unite with anyone if he isn’t on the same step with me, at the same level, in the same qualities, no more, no less. Then there can be a connection between us, but not before!

This is like in high frequency waves, if you step slightly beyond the limits of the frequency, the connection disappears. It is the same for the spiritual connection: We have to attain absolutely precise congruence, not more, not less, at the same level. Otherwise, there will be no contact; one will not penetrate the other.

From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/25/10, “Preface to the Sulam Commentary”

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Since we are created from the will to receive pleasure, all our spiritual work is done at night. Without feeling pleasure (in the dark of night), we can test ourselves: Are we able to do something moved by some other “fuel” so that it isn’t the reward that defines how much work we do, but rather the work itself does? Can we work without attainment of the Creator, but just with our faith that we will bring Him delight?

To work for the sake of delighting Him and not ourselves can only be done during the night, in the states where we don’t feel pleasure. Therefore, layers of uncorrected desires that demand filling with rewards for ourselves are purposefully and continuously awakened in our will to receive pleasure.

This gives us the opportunity to work on this uncorrected will to receive for ourselves. The struggle to work in the will to receive appears so that we can work not for the sake of a reward, but in order to delight the Creator; not to work for the reward of attaining the Creator, but just to be working for Him. Success results from our ability to acknowledge the greatness of the Creator.

When a person discovers that he is not able to do this, he demands assistance from Above. The strength from Above comes to him through the group since a person doesn’t have a connection with Above. As he starts seeking this “Above,” after numerous failed attempts to grasp something, he reaches a point of desperation and begins to understand that “Above” means “through the group.”

At this point, if he enters the group, then through it, he will be able to receive the very force that will change his nature from receiving to giving. Then he will be able to work during the nights while blessing the Creator. Then, a person works not for the sake of fulfilling his demanding egoistic desires; with the aid of the night he ascends to bestowal.

We don’t demand for the night to go away since “day” consists of working for the sake of bestowal. When we don’t feel “light” in our desires and we work above this, not for the sake of filling our desires, then we perceive day. Therefore, in the perception of our receiving desires, we exist in the night, but in the perception of our bestowing desires, the “light” shines.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/10, The Zohar

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If you don’t see a strong yearning for spirituality in your friends, if you don’t get impressed by the environment, or get inspired to bestow, it means that you don’t invest yourself into the environment. Start investing into the friends and you will see how they influence you in return.

The formula is very simple: I connect to a group and together with everybody achieve the state whereby we start influencing each other. Our circle turns into the spiritual vessel (Kli). All of our desires for spirituality, our points in the heart, unite in it, and above them, we build an anti-egoistic screen, our mutual bestowal.

Now that we influence each other, we have to examine whether or not we do so for the sake of bestowing to the Creator. If yes, then we have a screen and the Reflected Light. The Upper Force becomes immediately revealed to us, according to the equivalence of form. The formula is very simple: “I” –> group –> soul!

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, Article “Concerning Love of Friends”

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A question I received: How can I express my love of friends if I don’t yet exist in the spiritual world?

My Answer: You have to show everybody how keenly you perceive everything, how firm you are in your aspiration to attain spirituality, how willingly you participate in the work and Kabbalah dissemination, how ready you are to unite with the friends and love them, that is, how much effort you put into it.

You have you set an example openly, and this will awaken the others. This is how we behave with our children in this world: We constantly set an example for them, and it prompts them to act. If we want an infant to smile at us, we smile at him.

This is how we should act in relation to a friend as well. If I do something for him, the next moment I get inspired by his reaction. Even if I faked my inspiration by spirituality, it set him on fire, and he awakened. Meanwhile, his inspiration awakens me in truth.

I started with deception and through it became truly inspired. I build the environment for myself precisely in order to assume its desires as a law for myself. I influence the environment all the time, demonstrating my love of friends, the importance of the goal, and readiness to annul myself. In response, I receive from it all the components that help me achieve the Creator. I receive as many times more of these components as there are people in the group. The group supplies me with the corrected forces that I myself lack.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, Article “Concerning Love of Friends”

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Article, “Concerning Love of Friends:”

1. Why do I need love of friends?

Love of friends is the connection among souls.

“I” is my soul, a “friend” is a different soul, but love is the kind of connection between us whereby he becomes more important to me than I am to myself, and, accordingly, I’m more important to him than he is to himself. I have to feel his desires as closer than my own. This is called loving the other as you love yourself.

However, loving the other does not mean feeling the material desires of our world and serving them; rather, it means uniting our desires to attain the Creator. I am building a totally new spiritual construction, the common soul of Adam HaRishon, which has never existed before and which is above all corporeality.

2. Why did I choose these particular friends, and why did they choose me?

Did I really pick these friends? The force from Above has led me to this group. So where does my free will begin? We build our free choice every day, constantly checking why we need to unite with friends:

a.) Do I see in them, and they in me, the point in the heart, that is, the desire to unite and achieve adhesion with the Creator?

b.) What connection should be established in order to discover Him among us according to the law of the equivalence of form?

3. Should each friend openly express his love or it is enough that it is concealed in his heart?

Every one must openly express his love for the group. By doing so, he will increase the love in his friends’ hearts and will be impressed by them. If previously he had only his individual power of love for friends, now he will receive the powers from all the friends in the group.

One must always remember the purpose of the group which is to merge with the Creator.

A Kabbalistic group is founded on love of friends because it is the springboard for attaining the love of the Creator. That is why we must show each other examples of love of another.

4. Is it necessary to know what each friend lacks in order to fill him, or is it enough to love friends in general?

It is enough to love friends in general so as to assure that a friend does not lack motivation, support on the path, inspiration, and the feeling of how important the Creator and the group are, and to provide him with all this to the best of one’s ability.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/10, Article “Concerning Love of Friends”

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In order for me to cancel myself before the group, I need to see my friend’s merits and not his flaws. I need to see the spiritual, divine point in him:

1. Indeed, the Creator wants him!

2. He is special and great because there is a part of the Creator within him.

3. He has been chosen to be my partner on the spiritual path. When the Creator created him, He knew that I would be able to attain Him only with this friend.

Everyone’s flaws are the “donkey” (matter) that remains down below. But my friend’s flaws don’t matter to me because he works on canceling his evil inclination in the same way as I cancel mine. Only his point in the heart matters to him. All the other corporeal qualities were made by the Creator, and we want to rise with our point in the heart above the desires of the entire heart, our entire “donkey.”

All other qualities of my friend don’t interest me and seem to not exist; I only see this spiritual point within him. It is specifically with this point that I need to unite and not with his “donkey.” It is the same for him with respect to me. This is why we can’t have any problems with each others’ egoism; we simply don’t take it into consideration nor do we work with it. We are building a net using only our points in the heart.

Those who see themselves above others will not be able to unite with them. And how can it be that someone is above others, when everyone only has a point in the heart and nothing else? Our “donkeys” can differ from one another, for example, one is stronger, another is weaker. But the points can’t have any differences; all the elements are equally important in the spiritual because perfection can’t exist without each and every one of them.

I am looking at my friend and I see his corporeal body, his “donkey,” but there is a point in the heart within him. It is not an internal organ; it is a divine part from Above! There is a part of the Creator in you, and I strive towards Him with such might I want to grab on to Him and feel Him!  And all of this is within you. There is no single other place where I could meet with the Creator. Only through creating a connection with these points inside my friends can I meet with the Creator.

I don’t have another opportunity to contact Him. He will only reveal Himself if I grab on to your point in the heart, and his, and his, and…. When I hang on to these points in the heart and cancel myself before them, it means that I am canceling myself before the Creator.

It doesn’t matter that you yourself have not yet been corrected and that you are an egoist. When I cancel myself before your point in the heart, I unite with the element of bestowal, the authentic part of the Creator within you. Thus I unite with the Creator.

The spiritual is right here, between us, and not in some other place, some other world. I can clearly feel this spiritual Kli; the fact that we don’t feel it is our psychological problem.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article, “Purpose of Society”

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Article “Purpose of Society”

In the article “Purpose of Society,” Rabash writes that man is born as loving only himself, and hence he can’t make the tiniest move without serving himself. Yet without renouncing egoistical love in us, it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator, the equivalence of His properties.

Therefore, the group is necessary for in it the desires and strengths of each add to one another. Everyone is then able to use this immense common force in order to renounce the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose he is born for.

The Window Into the New World

The Creator is the force of bestowal, love, and annulment of self. This is why I need the group as an external foreign force that works as a lever which allows me to turn my nature around.

The Kabbalistic Group is a Spiritual Booster

The group is the spiritual model before you. It is given to you in a corporeal form, but we turn it into a spiritual form by relating to it as to a collection of souls and not a group of bodies.

Leave Your Donkeys to Graze Below

In order for me to cancel myself before the group, I need to see my friend’s merits, and not the flaws. I need to see the spiritual, divine point in him:

1. Indeed, the Creator wants him!
2. He is special and great, because there is a part of the Creator in him.
3. He has been chosen to be my partner on the spiritual path. When the Creator created him, He knew that I would be able to attain Him only together with this friend.

The Entry Point into Spirituality

The point in the heart is the Creator in each of us. The Creator exists within every person in the world. However, He manifests openly among the friends of a Kabbalah group since He is the One who brought these spiritual points together so they will unite and come to Him. Therefore, you have to be grateful that this means was given to you.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article, “Purpose of Society”

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By studying Kabbalah, we come into contact with the Light itself. By uniting with others who desire the same goal and studying together, we actively tune into Malchut of the World of Infinity where all people exist in their inner oneness, as one whole. As we desire to exist in this state actively, we draw the concealed Light to ourselves from this perfect state, thereby hastening our spiritual development. This is called becoming Isra-El, aspiring “directly to the Creator,” one who “hastens time,” who draws the Light to himself on his own through his studies and forces Him to be revealed. It also means one who “illuminates time,” meaning one who wants the Light to direct him to bestowal (Sanctity is the quality of bestowal).

It turns out that studying in a Kabbalistic group gives us the “reins” or the “steering wheel” through which we can control ourselves – our forms of development and its speed – as we become independent of the Light. However, on the other hand, the Light is very powerful and it has a program of development for each of us, as well as for all of us together. Therefore, when we try to hasten our development on our own, suddenly we begin to feel how dependent we are on this Light, on its awakening. Only with its help can we advance.

The Light raises and lowers me, which rouses within me the desire to develop in order to make myself “similar to the Creator,” a human being, by rising above this animate level and this whole material life. I wait for the Light to begin to influence me. I prepare myself to surrender to it completely, to attune as much as possible to the studies, the group, dissemination, and to solve all the questions that have accumulated during the darkness and the concealment.

I am like that “rooster” from the parable about the rooster and the bat that waits for the dawn. I am waiting for the Light to come and illuminate the path for me, and I rejoice when the Light comes. However, the “bat,” who does not prepare himself for the coming of the Light, perceives the awakening from Above as darkness.

Although we exist in one common system, only those who await the coming of the Light perceive it as something desirable; for them it is truly Light. On the contrary, those who do not wish to draw closer to the Light, to bestowal, and to love one’s neighbor, will feel continuously greater crises and problems in this world.

We all exist in the World of Infinity, but everything depends on our preparation. We can either feel infinite Light or infinite darkness there, or we can feel nothing at all as though we are unconscious and merely carrying out an animate existence. Everything depends on our desire to become human, meaning “similar” to the Creator in His love and bestowal.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/21/10, Shamati #241

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