Question: Why is the path to love so difficult and confusing?

Answer: It’s us who are confused.

I am ruled by the egoistic desire and everything I feel and think is only inside of it, for the sake of my own benefit. So how can I make a different calculation—not for my own sake?

Imagine that you “dress” into someone else and begin making a calculation from his perspective. It was a mere 100 years ago that people began to grasp such concepts. It’s not an accident that this period was epitomized by Freud and Einstein, who not only made seminal discoveries, but also had friendly connections with each other.

After hundreds of thousands of years of development, it was a mere century ago that the greatest minds of humanity finally invented psychoanalysis—or in other words, began to analyze man internally on the material level. Only then did they begin to research human perception, “Me and the surrounding world, me and the neighbor.”

This is not simple. It took a very long period of time to approach man’s animate soul, and that’s not even close to spirituality. The entire problem is that we cannot and do not want to dress into others. Society has to ensure that every person will do this, that every person will try to do it and start discerning how he appears in the eyes of the neighbor and what the neighbor wants.

This is very difficult even though it only involves psychological exercises in the plane of our world, which don’t even relate to spirituality yet. Do you want more? Go ahead. Organize an environment that will finally begin to influence you.

The path is long precisely because no one influences you. There is no progress without social influence. Where could a person get the spiritual details of perception? Only from the environment.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Shamati

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Writings of Rabash, “The First Innovation”: All the innovations begin only after a person comes out of self-love. Therefore, the Torah cannot be taught to idolaters. When a person is in Egypt, he cannot be Jewish because he is enslaved to Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. And as long as he is a slave to Pharaoh, he cannot be a slave to the Creator.

It is written concerning this, “The sons of Israel are for Me,” they are My slaves and not slaves of slaves. When a person serves himself, he cannot be the Creator’s slave because it is impossible to serve two kings at the same time. Only after a person comes out of Egypt, meaning egoism, can he be the Creator’s servant. And then he can receive the Torah. It follows that the first innovation is the exit from Egypt.

A person who is inside of his egoistic desire is called a “non-Jew.” A person who rises above his egoistic desire, meaning who comes out of Egypt, is called a “Jew” (Yehudi) because he attains unity (Ihud) with the Light, the Creator.

It is possible to study the Torah, meaning the ways of bestowal, only by ascending, by coming out of Egypt. That is why it is written that the Torah cannot be taught to idolaters, where “cannot” means “it is impossible.” That’s because as long as you remain in the egoistic desire, you do not understand anything about spirituality and you don’t have the smallest chance of reaching it. In your desires and thoughts you cannot grab hold of the end of any thread that extends from the spiritual world.

You need auxiliary means, and only by correctly using them will you attain what you desire. Therefore, all the innovations and spiritual changes are possible only after coming out of Egypt, meaning egoism. Until then, it is impossible to understand anything. Until then, we are in total darkness and can only advance with our eyes closed according to the Kabbalists’ advice.

This is all that remains for us—to understand how opposite our world is to the spiritual world. In order to climb out of the darkness to the Light, it won’t help us to turn 180 degrees around. That’s because our darkness is the darkness of Egypt, which does not have a direction toward the Light. Only gradually, by means of making the right actions do we reach the right desire. Even though it is also egoistic, yet by virtue of the Light’s influence we can then come out of Egypt into the altruistic intention of Lishma.

This is talking about states that are absolutely divided from one another. A person who is in the lower world, meaning in the egoistic state, in the intention “for the sake of reception” is unable to understand the plans and actions of those who are moved by bestowal. One does not have any contact with the other. They are completely different programs that do not intersect with one another in any way.

In relation to the spiritual world, our world does not exist. It is expressed only in a person’s imagination as a preliminary, imaginary reality that is necessary for entering the spiritual reality, which is the only one that exists. Everything we see and imagine here is similar to the visions of a person who lies unconscious.

Therefore, all the innovations, attainments, and true calculations begin with the exit from Egypt.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the key is to draw the Light upon ourselves, why do we so thoroughly discuss the structure of the worlds described in TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) during the lesson?

Answer: It’s not our goal to talk about the structure of the worlds in detail; we simply try to grasp some details in order to tap into what Kabbalists tell us about. But when we study TES, as any other source, we first of all must think of the soul since it is there where all these elements I am reading about reside and where all the phenomena occur.

Kabbalists who revealed within themselves the property of bestowal discern what actions they can perform within it, and they write about it. Besides this, there is nothing else. Either we are in some imaginary reality of this world, which doesn’t really exist and dissolves later on, and live in it as in a dream, or we reach the authentic reality of bestowal, the reality of the Creator.

After all, there is “none else besides Him,” and if something actually exists, it’s only there. And TES describes in what form this authentic reality is being revealed to us within our desires.

As a Kabbalist, I can describe to what extent I enter this reality and discover that it does indeed operate in me, how well I connect and begin to identify myself with it. And other Kabbalists do the same. In other words, we all write about the same unification with the eternal upper Light and what we find in it from our black point of creation, the “point of absence.”

When I come in contact with the Light and achieve equivalence with it, I feel how within me various phenomena start occurring, dressing into me from Above downward (the Light of Hochma) or breadth-wise (the Light of Hassadim). These phenomena produce various sensations in me, and I describe them,as I have obtained the opportunity to express them in words and sounds.

But all the impressions we have derive from the encounter of this black point with the Light, where the former becomes similar to the latter. And this is the essence of the wisdom of Kabblah: to find the Light within the black point of creation.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Even though our world is an imaginary reality, Kabbalists treat it very seriously. Why is that?

Answer: It’s because we grow and act while being inside of it. Even though this reality is definitely imaginary, you have to take it seriously and arrange things in it as if it really exists.

Imagine that you joined a group of children and are playing with them as seriously as possible, making the game real the way they do. The little ones are running around, trying to put something together and arguing over toys, but to them—this is life. And you participate in their life, helping them put its parts together so they would grow quickly and correctly in this “sand-box.”

This requires a serious attitude. It takes great efforts to raise a child in this world, and a person must treat himself in exactly the same way. This is how he should treat the spiritual child that is growing inside of him. You cannot make any compromises in this regard: I take care of myself, my family, children, and parents, and all the material needs. And even though all of this is obviously an illusion, that doesn’t matter.

The pictures of the material world are depicted in my brain by the egoistic desire and I cannot correct that desire because it is on the still level. Even the great Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon had to eat, drink, make a living, and take care of his students. Do you really think they were floating up in the clouds, not worrying about their families and about putting bread on the table?

This world is part of my growth, “including toothaches,” as Rabash used to say. The only difference is that I must aspire upwards over and over again, toward bestowal, toward the spiritual world. Kabbalists have a different problem: How to remain serious inside of this children’s sand-box. And they are obligated to do that. That is why they have such a responsible attitude to upbringing and other areas in the material world. A person has to provide for all of his vital needs.

Corporeality disappears from our sensations only at the end of correction when there is no more need for this game of the imagination.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Where is the Creator in the entire system of the worlds?

Answer: The Creator is everywhere. This system of the worlds exists only in relation to us. Let’s say I exist in the middle, and all the degrees surround me like the rings of the expansion of the upper force’s field.

The Creator fills this entire universe. For Him there is no big or small, inner or outer. All division exists only in relation to me. I exist in the center point and I have to expand myself, my senses, and my corrections in order to grasp one world, then another one, a third one, and so on. Each time, my ego grows from level zero to the1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th one. I correct my egoism and thereby reach bestowal.

This way I include all the worlds within myself. Before they seemingly existed outside of me, but now I return them to myself, to my inner desires.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, Writings of Rabash

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We cannot say anything about the Creator as such, but Kabbalists who attain Him say that “There is none else beside Him, who is good that does good” and that there is no change in His attitude towards us. In other words, they reach the attainment of the upper force which contains everything.

Hence, our entire path is the same. And today, when we don’t feel anything but our world, we need to understand that it is an instrument given to us now in order to attain. We feel the Creator even now but only according to our current organs of perception!

Our present perception is opposite to the authentic one since we don’t perceive the Creator as He is in His properties, even in the smallest degree, but rather we sense Him in an absolutely opposite way. And we can’t attain even this reverse side of Him.

In other words, the reality we see right now is the Creator indeed. And I myself, you, and the whole world is the Creator as well, but perceived in corrupted, broken organs of perception. When, however, we correct our desires, the organs of perception, then we discover the upper force, the Creator, more and more, until we uncover Him completely in His real form.

Besides the degree of “this world” that we receive as the initial state, we are unable to attain anything without achieving equivalence to the Creator, without equalizing our properties. The flawed vessel must correct itself by acquiring the form of the Creator and having come closer to Him.

The property of the Creator is bestowal and love. Hence, we are given an opportunity from Above to work in the group, and in our relationships reach equivalence with the Creator. The group must be perceived by everyone as the Creator in relation to oneself.

The attitude toward the friends should be treated as the attitude toward the Creator. And then, even though the Creator is concealed, we will be able to attain Him by His actions and continue approaching Him by placing before ourselves, instead of Him, the correct environment, one that yearns for the Creator.

Know that by deceiving the friend, you deceive the Creator; by treating the friend poorly, you treat the Creator likewise! This is the order of our work. Hence, when within the group evil and hatred unfold, this is the revelation of the broken state, and we understand that we are broken and opposite to the Creator.

Such a broken state, the hatred, is regarded as “this world.” And prior to that, there is just animate existence. The human degree begins with the revelation of hatred.

If a person realizes that he has to correct himself, the desires in which one begins perceiving the Creator, there is an opportunity to do it in the group, to attain the Creator by His actions: to start getting to know Him even more, feeling Him in the degree of being reformed.

We must constantly walk along this line where Israel (a person aimed directly to the Creator), the Torah (the Light that Reforms), and the Creator unify into one whole. A person adjusts himself to the group and in it reveals the Creator.

The group becomes one’s spiritual vessel for revealing the Creator. If a person relates to the friends with bestowal, he will discover the force of bestowal that fills his relations, which is regarded as the Creator. This is why the Creator is named Boreh, “come and see” (Bo and Reh), since He is attained through His actions.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The worldwide WE! Convention that was held in New Jersey was the first convention where we already felt that it doesn’t matter where we are. People felt the same thing no matter where they were.

And it wasn’t because we learned to do this in some way, but because we ascended above the net of our material, virtual connection, and through the virtuality that connects us, above it, we started feeling the spiritual net of connection.

Now we continue this convention further from the same degree that we attained. We attach all the difficulties and problems that become revealed to us to the same ascent. There cannot be an ascent without difficulties because it is always difficult to ascend, just like climbing up a mountain. That is why we are now revealing various problems, depression, confusion, various questions that demand to be resolved, and work among us that has to rise to a qualitatively new level.

We are about to have a large convention in Moscow, and before that two meetings with our groups in Italy and Spain. It is necessary to prepare for this convention. Otherwise, why have it at all? We have to develop a great, powerful desire and at the next convention to already see ourselves on a completely different qualitative level compared to the previous.

What we attained at the convention in America is good. But the next convention has to give us the sensation that we are in one place, rather than in different places in our sensation. This is our goal.

At the previous convention we sat by our computer screens, slightly ascending above this virtual connection. Almost all of us felt how in every corner of the world, at all the mirror conventions, people had the same feeling of joy and inspiration, and the same thoughts. But nevertheless, people felt that they were in different places—in Israel, in New Jersey, in Toronto, in Moscow, in Sao-Paulo, and other cities and countries, as if they were all together.

Now we have to attain the sensation that we aren’t located in different places, but in one spiritual space, where we are connected together. We have to turn off the “as if,” the virtual illusion, and attain the state of being all together. There are no boundaries or distances for sensations and this is what we have to achieve.

This is our goal at the next convention: We have to completely separate from the geographic locations and from the virtual connection. True, all of this does exist. But above all of this, we will very quickly attain the sensation that we are in one spiritual place, rather than in any material location. This is what we should attain at the next convention.

And now we have to work on this. If this is the goal we have placed before us, then we must form a common desire, the need to attain it. We have to talk about this, work in this direction, and maybe write several songs and organize several events and friends’ assemblies.

Everything has to be done for the sake of this goal: to be in one place, meaning in one desire, because “place” in spirituality means “desire.” This is already called “as one man with one heart.” This is what we have to reach, and it happens gradually, step by step, from one convention to the next. This is the goal.
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From the lesson on 4/8/11, “Preface to Pticha”

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Kabbalists begin telling us about creation by saying that “before the creatures were created, the simple upper Light filled the whole existence” (beginning words of the ARI’s book, The Tree of Life). In other words, reality had already existed, which is the desire of the creature to feel pleasure that was filled with Light.

The plan of creation is to delight the created beings. And this gift that the Creator wishes to bestow can be accepted only by having met two conditions: the creature must become like the Creator and at the same be independent of Him.

The best state of existence is feeling the presence of the Creator. It is the greatest delight, and it must be felt regardless of anyone else. The created being must be completely autonomous and equal to the Creator.

Therefore, the upper force is concealed. At this moment we are surrounded by various radio waves, yet the only person aware of them is the one possessing a radio capable of receiving something that can be recreated within, in one’s properties. We are surrounded by white light, but we perceive it as blue, red, and all other colors. While the light itself has no color, the color is created by the one receiving it, absorbing only certain waves through one’s own prism.

Hence, light seems to us as yellow, blue, and red. Actually the reason for this is the glass which stops and reflects these waves that thereby seem as colors. But there are no shades in the light itself.

And in the same way we perceive the Creator. To the degree that we can equalize ourselves with Him, His property of bestowal, in each of our 613 desires, in that very desire and degree, we will perceive the Creator. So we gradually get to know Him in small portions.

In man, there are always 613 desires acting, which are the foundation of our perception. Yet, we can strengthen the power of this spiritual vessel, having risen on the 125 steps of equivalence to the Creator, until all of our 613 desires have become completely identical to Him. Thus we attain the Creator, and this is regarded as “know Him by His actions.”
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, Writings of Rabash

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