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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In its research, science relies on our bodily senses. However, if we change our inner properties and come out of our ordinary five senses, we will be able to see a different world, research it, and discover a new science.

Therefore, the wisdom of Kabbalah is an addition to all sciences of the world because it includes precisely what we will see if we change our properties.

Kabbalah brings the entire creation to a single form. As a science it is based on one simple principle: desire, matter, and the Light, the form clothed in matter.

If you study them you will understand the entire nature and all manifestations, as in the particular so it is in the general, as in our world so it is on all levels of the upper worlds. One principle acts everywhere. Kabbalah is a universal science. If you follow it, you can always determine where you exist and what manifestations and effects you observe.

With its help, you can research the macro and micro worlds where you have only one principle: ten Sefirot. You can delve into them at the level of the finest details, or you can study them in general. The same laws will act everywhere!

In our world all sciences drastically differ from one another: biology, botany, astronomy, etc. We have a hard time drawing a parallel between them. However, if we take a single basis: the vessel and the Light, then only one law remains. The difference is only in the depth of the desire (the level of Aviut).

The same events always happen in it, but they will differ based on the thickness/coarseness of the matter, and as a result they demonstrate the same phenomena in parallel sciences like physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, etc.

The sciences concern matter at different levels (2, 3, 4), biology, zoology, geography, etc. The same forms appear in the inanimate nature, in animals, and in plants. The process is the same everywhere and the Light is imprinted in matter the same way. However, we perceive the same form differently because the matter is different.

Therefore Kabbalah is the most universal science. We have to destroy the stereotypes of ignorance which states that Kabbalah is not a science, but rather mysticism and meditation full of secrets.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/21/10, “The Wisdom of Israel in Comparison to Science”

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Question: If everything that exists in this world is an imprint of the spiritual world based on love, then how can there be murder in our world?

Answer: Everything comes to us from the world of Infinity, from the constant and perfect state, the complete adhesion with the Creator. But in the creature, all these perfect roots manifest in accord with its imperfection, exposing the degree of disparity between us and the upper perfection.

In the upper world, there acts a program which helps you discover yourself and realize what you need to complete so as to rise to the root. There, everything occurs in the most pure, corrected, and perfect form. But in our world, due to the difference between the degrees, the worlds, everything manifests in the opposite form.

We reveal the spiritual action, but see how non-spiritual it is according to our own dissimilarity to the upper degree. This is called: "Everyone judges according to his flaws." I see or perform certain unseemly actions because I myself am corrupted. If I correct myself, I will see that these actions are good.

But didn’t I see yesterday that people were killing each other? Today I observe how they are giving each other presents! At the root, the action remained the same, but I completed myself to the root and, hence, changed my vision. I could see how the egoistic intention got killed in the spiritual world, but instead I see how in our world, real murders occur.

The upper and the lower worlds consist of the same elements, but in the upper world, there is love between them, whereas in the lower one hatred. In the lower world, everything is inverted! Only the details remain, while all the types of connections between them change because in our world, these connections are totally broken, and we are separated by hate, rejection, and neglect. Meanwhile, in the spiritual world, we are all connected and totally committed to each other.

As you and I exist in this world, so do the spiritual you and I exist in the spiritual dimension, only in spirituality we are connected and love each other, while here we are separated and hateful. The difference between the worlds turns into the difference between the way you and I treat each other.

The upper roots establish that something has to happen between us. However, by our correction or lack thereof, we determine what will occur and how: Will we hate and kill or love and embrace each other.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbbalah Lesson 2/9/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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By descending to our world, the spiritual roots turn into their opposite forms, and egoism of our world carries out the upper commandment of love according to its understanding—it goes to kill. But decide what do you prefer: to remain in the corporeal branches or to ascend to the spiritual root?

If you want to rise, work in the group and participate in its game of mutual, brotherly love. Then you will discover that you are unable to love this way, that it is all a lie, and you will ask for correction. The force will come from Above and grant you love and the connection with others.

This connection does not exist at the level of our world, but only at the higher degree. Look at the souls, not the bodies! It is as though there is a computer screen before me on which I can see the corporeal or spiritual actions. If I see with the spiritual eyes, I see love, and if I use my material eyes, murder.

But if someone attacks and wants to kill me, it does not mean that he does it with love: He acts driven by his egoism. That’s why it is said that if someone comes to kill you, you should preempt him and kill him first. By this you correct him since he came to kill you, which means that his egoism is greater than yours. For this reason, by killing him you perform a correction, acting with a smaller egoism than the person who attacked you.

Here everything is logical and not based on blind faith. After all, I did not want to kill him; he attacked me first in order to murder me. And when it is totally evident, killing a bigger egoism with a smaller one will be a correction. This is my duty, an upper commandment: "Kill the one who comes to kill you."

There are nothing but corrections. Either they occur at the still, vegetative, and animate level while we are neither aware of nor understand them, or they are true corrections while we work with the group at the speaking level.

All murders in our world occur because egoism demands such sacrifices for its correction. But if we want, we can elevate this correction to the spiritual level. We can raise all these actions to a higher level, and then we won’t feel or see any evil in this world.

But this can occur only under the condition that we elevate the entire egoistic desire, which performs these heinous crimes, to a higher level. There, all of its actions will be beautiful, opposite to what we see today. People will suddenly begin to unite, embrace each other, and feel close.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbbalah Lesson 2/9/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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There are four stages by which the direct Light expands to us from Above downward: the “world-year-soul” and the existence of reality. And everything we have artificially built as an addition to it is needed to attain a higher degree.

We are building this addition to the upper one in the still, vegetative, and animate forms. At the still level, we create various objects; at the vegetative and animate ones, we alter nature; and at the speaking degree, we perform corrections in ourselves. It is all done so that later on, we will connect all this with the correct intention and reach a higher degree.

At that degree, we will feel less numerous than we do at present, meaning more unified and bonded. Today, we experience the world filled with infinite details, the enormous universe, billions of people, and countless products and trash. But when we ascend to the next degree, we will begin to see how the world is contracting, decreasing in the number of details since we are all linking into one man with one heart.

At each degree, we need to add our effort at the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. Look how much we have already done, even in our world: How many plants we had to grow to survive, how much we had to alter in the animate world, and how many cities and what surroundings we built for ourselves at the speaking level.

All of these are corrections, regardless of how these alterations look to us: bad or good. We add them at our degree below. We need all this metal and trash because we lack internal correction. As long as we are internally unreformed, we have to perform external corrections until we reach the state when they will no longer be necessary.

Starting with our generation and forward, we will see that as we evolve, we will be contracting. All our immense activities and enormous enterprises will start to decrease, acquire a more “subtle” forms, and disappear. It’s getting simpler, more compact, yet more powerful, meaning more “spiritual” and less based on matter and more on energy.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/7/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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