Writings of Rabash, Article 29, “Marrying a Virgin”: Every time a person receives a wife, he will receive a virgin who has never had a husband. In other words, he has never used this Malchut and she must always be a new wife. In spiritual work Malchut is called “the kingdom of heaven” which a person must take upon himself every day anew. He has to imagine that he is now starting spiritual work and does not care about anything that came before.

The Creator created creation and exists in adhesion and unity with it. We call this the first state or the world of Infinity. However, creation does not perceive itself in this state. It was simply created this way, but it is not permeated by any details of perception besides one sensation. Therefore, it is like the still degree, a drop of semen which does not have any self-perception.

The Creator’s desire is to bring creation to the realization of who He is so it would become similar and equal to Him. Therefore the true state is concealed from creation and it instead begins to perceive itself in the opposite state. This phase, in turn, divides into several: creation perceives itself as existing at the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels.

You and I feel our existence on the human degree of this world. Yet we don’t feel that we developed from the still level. We do not feel our past life cycles on the human level, but simply experience ourselves as existing here and now.

The matter is that every analysis has to happen by itself. A person in this world discerns adhesion, connection with the Creator, and develops to a level where he begins to express his part in creation, his attitude to the Creator.

The Creator brings him to this, giving him the sensation of emptiness in life, but on the other hand motivating him to connect to Him and become similar to Him. Thereby the Creator awakens a person’s desire in the first spiritual point. If a person properly realizes this desire by means of the method of correction, meaning the science of Kabbalah, if he increases his small desire with the help of the group, raising the importance of becoming similar to the Creator and uniting with Him, if he eventually makes his desire similar to the Creator, then he acquires a new degree. The initial point in him grows to become Malchut.

In Hebrew Malchut means kingdom. It is also called “the kingdom of heaven” because a person makes it similar to Bina, the heavens. That is how the first connection between Malchut and Bina, between creation and the Creator, is made.

Then, in order to give a person the opportunity to develop further, everything he had before becomes erased and he receives the next part of the egoistic desire that has to be corrected and made similar to the Creator. This part has to be brought to adhesion so he would become a person on a higher degree. Then no trace of the previous state is left.

Thus, if a person works correctly, then he continuously receives “a virgin for a wife.” Then he once against corrects his desire for the sake of bestowal, making it similar to the Creator and acquiring greater equivalence and closeness with Him. When he completes this phase, the adhesion once again disappears in him and a person again receives a new, corrupted desire that he once again has to work with by means of the group, raising the importance of the goal, increasing his desire, and uniting it with other souls. That is how a person advances.

He continuously receives a new part of Malchut, a “new wife.” If he works for the sake of bestowal, wishing to become similar to the Creator, then in the new state everything that occurred before becomes erased completely and he does not have anything to rely on from past experience. This is indeed a new degree, “virginity.”
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/20/11, Writings of Rabash

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We never reveal true reality; everything happens in our desires. The Creator created the desire which essentially is the entire material of creation. We feel whatever is happening within it.

Sensations in the desire divide into internal and external, in other words, perception of oneself and the environment. In turn, these segments of perception also divide into a multitude of layers, degrees, parts, and forms.

However, all of this is inside the desire that was created by the Creator. We are not able to imagine anything that exists outside of this desire even hypothetically. There is no other “place” that exists somewhere outside; the entire “space” is confined within the desire.

And this is why everything we perceive depends upon the changes in the desire. All of Kabbalah speaks about the nature of the created desire, the changes it can acquire, and the things it will feel in accordance with these changes. The formula is simple: You enter certain changes into the initial desire and receive a certain sensation in it as a consequence.

The general spectrum consists of a multitude of shades. Different impulses can be revealed at the same time in one desire; we perceive different events, actions in every private desire. Man’s desire divides into 613 parts where he experiences all the different impressions and reactions. And all of them add up to form his image of the world.

The parts of the receiving desire that pertain to the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels shape the contours of reality for us. We can keep opening the desire wider and wider as we keep revealing new parts in it, and then our common world expands.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/17/2011, Writings of Rabash

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The Zohar, “Ki Tissa [When You Take],” Item 31: “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The Creator wished to make Israel similar to what is above, so there would be one lily in the earth [in Israel] that is like the lily above, Malchut. And the fragrant lily, better than all the lilies in the world is only one who has grown among the thorns. This one smells as it should.

Thorns become revealed to a person to the degree he is able to overcome them. If he correctly prepares all of the inclinations, all the forces present and operating between him and the environment, if he can continually awaken and raise the importance of the Creator, unity, and love for the neighbor as himself above everything that surfaces in his thoughts and desires, then he makes the right analysis and “blunts the teeth” of the evil inclination.

Rabash writes, “When you answer egoism, ‘blunt its teeth.’” This means that you shouldn’t argue with it, but should use force and overcome it. I reveal the environment, which lies between myself and others, egoistically, looking for a chance to use my connection with it, to get as much as I can out of them.

Looking at reality from a material perspective, I see everything outside of me, instead of inside myself. I do not think that I am the one responsible for the distance, the hatred, and the repulsion that become revealed. All of this appears external to me and not my own. I don’t think that these are my Kelim, my perception of realty, my vision, or the revelation of the upper reality inside of me.

Therefore, I must give myself “a blow to the teeth” over and over again in order to correct my attitude to the picture that is depicted before my eyes. In this picture I am separated from the neighbor by a distance that does not seem like my own corrupted desires (Kelim) to me. Instead if seems like something foreign, something I have to reject.

But I act on the contrary: I blunt the force of this illusion with my analysis since I understand that everything becoming revealed to me is myself. And I do not correct my soul unless I attribute to myself the whole world, all of reality, all of the people, all of the souls, and all the levels in general—the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking degrees. I have to treat them all as an inseparable part of me.

Then I see that the perception of reality, love for the creatures, and the revelation of the Creator lie in the same thoughts and desires that determine my attitude to the neighbor, to that which is outside. In reality there is nothing beyond desire. And when I feel that this desire comes out of me toward others, I have to “strike it in the teeth” the right way. That is how I turn it into a connecting link between myself and the other part of me. The neighbor will become a part of me and the Creator will become mine. That is how I will include all of reality inside of me, and thereby the breaking will be corrected.

Then, in that same place, in the same desires and thoughts that stood between myself and the neighbor, I will begin to feel the Light’s presence, the quality of bestowal and love.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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The question that just won’t be silenced and has to be answered with a “blow to the jaw” is the question of who’s more important: me or the Creator? Me or the neighbor? The force of bestowal or the force of reception?

If this question stands clearly before me and I understand that whether I will progress or get into a fiasco depends on my getting a clear answer, then the need for the constant support of the environment becomes obvious to me. But on the other hand, what is that environment? And what kind of support does it give me? In essence I receive my own Kelim, desires, to the degree I want to bring them closer to me. After all, all of reality is me.

By working with the environment, I raise it in my eyes and in it I find the importance of the Creator. In essence I have been given the force of the breaking so it would help me work on myself in this way.

My “I,” which includes all of reality, divides into two parts:

1. the part that I experience as myself
2. the part that I experience as the world, other people, and everything that is outside of me.

Why did the creator break me in two? It was in order to make it easier for me to correct the part that is outside. I raise its importance in my eyes by awakening the importance of the friends and motivating them to work on me as if they have freedom of choice or more independence than I attribute to them.

We have to understand that the force of the breaking acts for our own good. The part called “the neighbor,” meaning everything that is outside of me, will be corrected by me if I treat it precisely as the neighbor. I correct these desires which seem foreign to me by placing myself in front of them and wishing to unite with them.

My “self” is just the point in the heart, while “the neighbor” is my entire Kli, the entire vessel of the soul. If I weren’t divided into these two parts, then I would not have the opportunity to correct the “external” desires. I would never be able to analyze, check, and sort them, or to demand the forces to work with them.

However, I am located outside of them and correct my attitude to them. This is the illusion I get—as if I correct my attitude to the neighbor by the principle of “love your neighbor as yourself.” And I do not yet perceive, understand, or feel that in essence, this is my soul. I was given the force of the breaking, which depicts a deceptive picture of “others” in my eyes. But that is exactly how I can start correcting my Kelim, working against the force of repulsion by striking it, blow by blow.

Thus, it is possible to imagine our work this way: A person initially receives all of creation in the capacity of his soul and understands that all the forces of disunity are a fantasy intended to confuse him. In actuality, reality is not cut off from him at all. That is why a person strikes and “blunts the teeth” of this force of the breaking, this illusion. He should see this as the entire work that he has to carry out.

And he keeps going until he knocks out all the teeth, plucks out all the weeds so the rose growing among them, so Malchut would bloom in its real form, full force. This is the Shechina, the common soul.

It is in this light that I have to see the environment, the friends, and the Creator. Everything that seems external to me is an inseparable part of me. The force separating me from the only thought and desire, from the Only One, is the force of disunity that I must break.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I make efforts to make a connection with the friends in the group, but I see that they reject my efforts. If all of reality is me, then who rejects whom in reality?

Answer: You’re rejecting yourself. In the words of Baal HaSulam, however you see the group, that is how you see the Creator. That is because besides you, He is the only thing that exists. However, He is concealed and you cannot work in relation to Him. That is why you have been made to see your reflection—the environment. To the degree of your own corruption, you see others around you as corrupted, not united, and not wishing to connect to you.

Obviously, a person himself is expressed through everything. But at the same time, since a person exists inside of the forces of disunity, he has to work with the environment in a sophisticated manner in order to use it as a means to build himself.

That is exactly how I really can work on myself. That is why I have to find the right environment, “form” it correctly, relate to it properly, and from it receive the right influence. This will enable me to advance.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: All of reality is the Light and the Kli, the Creator and the creation, myself and the neighbor. Then why does The Zohar seem so complicated and confusing?

Answer: The Zohar seems complicated and confusing to us because we haven’t attained the unified picture. To us, “myself” and “the world,” my desires and thoughts, the forces operating in this entire reality, and all the things filling it seem separated from one another, broken. Therefore, this force of the breaking gives me an extremely complicated and confusing picture. It’s all because I do not see it in unity and the division brings me confusion.

To the extent we can see all of these details of perception united together, not in our mind since that won’t help, but rather in our feelings, and to the degree we desire to connect all of these things together—me, the neighbor, the Creator, the studies, the group, the environment, and everything that exists—that is how much Light these efforts will bring me. The Light will in turn cause me to see a more unified picture, all of whose elements will start to slightly unite.

All wisdom comes from the unification of all these opposites which begin to support each other and be interconnected. The more distant and opposite all of these details of the picture of reality used to be, which I now see as united together, supporting and complementing one another, the deeper I attain the plan of creation, the program of creation, the process we go through.

From all these opposites I begin to live, to feel this incredible wisdom, to unite the upper governance into one, and to relate it to the single force. All of this happens as a result of the Light’s influence on my broken desires and thoughts when I want for the Light to connect them into one.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, The Zohar

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Question: If the world is integral and global and is governed by the Creator through the plan of creation that permeates it, then why can’t we be in direct correspondence and harmony with it?

Answer: We exist “in concealment,” meaning that we don’t sense the actual connections between us. The fictitious picture which we currently sense, with the distorted connections between people, is called “this world.” As soon as we discover the real picture of the connection between us, we will feel as though we exist in a new world. It will be a global, spiritual world which doesn’t depend on our physical bodies, in which birth and death do not exist since we are not tied to the body.

Instead of sensing one’s tiny part in the enormous system, each of us will feel this huge system in full. And for this reason, everyone will feel eternal.

We will feel the force that connects us with each other. It is called “the Creator,” “Boreh” in Hebrew, which comes from the words “come and see” (Bo–Reh). That is, one simply needs to come and see!

Above the animate level in which a person exists in his or her physical, animalistic body, he has an additional, upper level of consciousness, thought, desire, understanding, and knowledge. This is the degree we have to reach.

Beside this system, we also reveal the general life force that drives it. It’s similar to how in addition to a biological body, a person also has a human personality. This is exactly what we reveal in the general system: An additional force that enlivens it, which we call “the Creator.” When we reveal Him, we become like Him.
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From my lecture in Paris 2/1/2011

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Kabbalah does not talk about our imaginary world, but about the soul’s correction and how to attain the true reality. The true reality is the Kli in which the Creator is perceived by virtue of a certain degree of adhesion with Him.

The Kli or soul is divided into two parts: Israel, the part that aspires toward unity with the Creator, toward the goal, and the nations of the world, which is the part that’s unable to do so. We feel a certain yearning to reveal the Creator. The science of Kabbalah is by definition the method of revealing the Creator to creation. In other words, it is talking about revealing the quality of bestowal and love in creation itself.

In order for us to have the opportunity to attain this goal, the people who have the suitable desire unite in the common field of the Creator. They feel attracted to one another without knowing why and they come together like electrical charges or metal shavings in a magnetic field. That’s when they acquire the opportunity to realize the method of correction.

At first they do not know that they have to correct themselves. They simply feel a calling to the most important thing: “What am I living for? What is the meaning of my life?” Eventually they start to understand that all of these questions lead to the revelation of the Creator, the upper force that builds, supports, forms, and controls all of reality. There is nothing besides this force.

That is how a person goes from the question about the meaning of life to the question about how to reveal the Creator. After all, the revelation of the Creator gives him the answer to everything. Thus, in order to come closer to revealing the Creator, these people unite.

The Creator is concealed, and in order to reveal Him rather than anything else, meaning to reveal the quality of bestowal and love that lies outside of our nature of reception and hate, to rise above it, I am brought to a certain gathering of people.

Together with them I begin to understand that the question about the meaning of life shifts to the need to reveal the Creator as the answer to all questions that I have asked and will ask. Revealing the Creator means revealing the force of bestowal and love. It can be understood only to the degree of one’s similarity to it, only if I will also attain this quality, which is Him.

I have to acquire this quality, and in order to ensure this acquisition I am among people similar to me. This was arranged for me deliberately. The Creator is concealed because the quality of bestowal is opposite to me. Due to their fundamental difference, these qualities do not feel one another and therefore I do not feel the Creator. And it is impossible to work in relation to someone I do not feel. I will definitely be mistaken and will fall into self-deception.

Therefore, instead of giving me work with Himself, the Creator gave me work with my neighbor. This enables me to perform authentic verifications, to receive forces from the friends, and to check myself in relation to them: How much do I advance from hatred to love?
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I am quite convinced by what Baal HaSulam says about the fact that there is no chance for us to comprehend spirituality with our corporeal mind because if somebody wanted to lure me into it, they would promise me exactly the opposite. But it is still painful to realize that I am unable to understand anything. Why is it so?

Answer: It is because you don’t have spiritual organs of perception, awareness, or sense.

I always bring up a memory of a very vivid example I received when we were working on a musical adaptation of one of Baal HaSulam’s melodies .The home owners’ fat cat was always near us while we worked. We cried and were overwhelmed with feelings, while the cat just lay there totally undisturbed; only his ear would occasionally twitch when the music was getting too loud.

Both of us live in corporeal bodies, in the very same world, but a cat cannot understand me. It lacks the ability to feel. How can you explain to a cat what emotions we wish to express through music?

But trust me, to teach a cat to comprehend a symphony is a less complicated task than for us to comprehend spirituality. After all, the animal is at the same level in this world, while we need a much stronger impact of the upper Light in order to bring us to sense the spiritual world.

And then, according to this sense, you will immediately begin to understand what every word a Kabbalist says means. You will hear some words with external hearing, but the internal sensations will start unfolding in you. Imagine yourself speaking with a cat, when it suddenly starts understanding you….
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How can a simple, ordinary person use the law of root and branch in his daily life?

Answer: His life will turn upside down whether he wants it to or not. And it’s better that a person knows what is going to happen with him so that he could participate in this inevitable revolution himself. If he does participate in it, he will feel good, and if he doesn’t, he will feel bad.

A person needs to understand that perception of reality is relative and depends on the point of reference which can be changed. Through this, reality changes as well since it exists only relative to a person who perceives it.

Hence, if one wants to change his life, it implies changing his reality. He can do it even today: from the present moment and on, and from this world to the world of Infinity.

Question: Do all human inventions (planes, machines, and so on) point to man’s unconscious aspiration to oneness?

Answer: Surely, they do. They are man’s aspiration to merge with the Creator, his desire to attain the upper degree. Every single action a person performs is aimed only at this goal.

And even when he is busy with something completely opposite, when he eats, drinks, or is having a good time, all of it is merely a preparation; it is all included in his movement toward his root.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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