Question: When I come to pray out of total despair, do I need to ask that I will change, or do I need to ask that a friend will advance spiritually?

Answer: Prayer is called a desire in the heart, the uncontrolled yearning of the heart. I can say whatever I want, nothing will help, and it’s just all movement of the lips. I could dance, cry, or roll on the ground; this also yields no results. The main thing is what I am feeling in the depths of my heart.

A desire is called heart and the fourth phase of my desire is what is most concealed from me. Sometimes when it is revealed I tremble from what is there. And this aspect is felt by the Light, contacts it, because it’s like the four letter name of the Creator.

The last phase is actually found in contact with the upper phase Keter. A yearning for connection appears in it which is opposite that of “Keter”: It either wants to control it completely (in which case this phase is called “Pharaoh” who wants all the Light held within itself), or the opposite, it wants to resemble “Keter,” the characteristic of bestowal.

We have no control over this phase, in fact we don’t sense it and don’t feel it. Here all kinds of practical actions are required! This is not just sitting and meditating; the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t recognize this! All this doesn’t exist! You can go deeply into yourself, think that you could have all kinds of intentions, but all these are internal investigations that are ultimately determined by preliminary work and work that follows. These investigations are compulsory only to understand what I have attained, how much I can feel who I am at the present moment.

Therefore, if we truly want to summon the surrounding Light onto ourselves, action is required; as a result, the influence of the Light gives form to the right yearning of our desire in its latest aspect. As it is written, “The Creator puts the prayer in my mouth.” Even if the person is not thinking about anything, but mechanically carries out what is necessary, in the end, it will result in his most normal thoughts transforming into the most wondrous thoughts.

And the opposite is also true. The warning exists: “His wisdom exceeds his actions.” This is not allowed! It is believed that when a person’s wisdom exceeds his deeds, he kills himself spiritually. All kinds of philosophies, intentions, thoughts, and studying from morning to night is not good. Our world is a world of action. We are found in the last phase of the world of Assiya, translated as “action.”
[112797]
From the St. Petersburg Convention “Day Two” 7/13/13, Lesson 3

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We should understand that a descent is an indication of the revelation of the illness, the revelation of evil. Evil is when we have no connection with the Creator who is concealed in our environment, in the group of the spiritual commando. Our efforts to return to the previous feeling of unity has to be focused on the Creator and not just on our connection.

The Creator was absent from our intention. We thought that we could simply connect and thus attain everything. We have lost the last link in this chain, the Creator. Now we have to emphasize this most important component according to the formula: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator,” and realize how important it is since without it there is no mutual guarantee and no covenant; without it nothing can exist!

Now we have the chance to feel the one major component that is missing which sustains everything. This is the reason that we have to gradually lose the feeling of unity and to descend further and further down, only in order to realize how much we need the upper force, which is responsible for our connection and which operates everything. If we think about the Creator, we belong to Him and He takes care of everything and will make sure that we will not exit Holiness.

It says: “For my brothers and my friends I shall speak of peace.” On the one hand, I pray that the Creator should help me with my brothers, and on the other hand, I work with my brothers in order to reveal the Creator, to reach Him and to bring Him contentment. This means that I worry both about the vessel and about the filling.
[112808]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/18/13, Writings of Rabash

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You can value yourself only according to the extent that your heart worries about others: your group, our global society, and the whole world too. You may not attain it all at once, but in stages, yet eventually it should all become the most important thing for you.

At first you will see that the group is the most important thing for you, and then our whole global society and finally the whole world. But then everything will turn the other way around: the world will become the most important thing and the global society, the group, and yourself will only be the means for conveying the Upper Light to the whole world.

So you can value your advancement according to how important you consider everyone else and worry that everyone should know and discover the Creator. It turns out that a prayer is the indication of where a person is.
[112388]
From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/13

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Baal HaSulam, Article “A Sage’s Fruit”: The Zohar compares this to two people who were on a boat when and one of them began to drill underneath himself. His friend rebuked him, “Why are you drilling?” And the fool answered him,”What business is it of yours, I am under me, not you?” Truly, one person can ruin everything.

In the physical world, in a case like this all of us will drown, and what happens in spirituality?

And this is the secret of the prayer of many, it is forbidden for an individual to leave the collective. And it is forbidden for him to ask only for himself, about himself, even if it is to give satisfaction to his Maker, rather he must ask only for the entire collective.

First it is necessary to reach love of others. And from this state one will reach love of the Creator. Which is to say, first of all we must connect and only then can we go on to the next step. There can be no spiritual action if it doesn’t come from connection.

Spirituality doesn’t exist by itself rather we build it from our Kelim, vessels, we form a picture of the spiritual world on a background of white Light. Certainly we are not allowed to portray just what comes to us, we are limited by the picture that potentially exists already within the Light.

We need to gradually adapt ourselves to the Light, approaching it by the 125 levels that we construct. It’s specifically we who build these states within our Kelim. And therefore we don’t have anything to build without connection. And someone who is not directed toward this goal is not directed towards a spiritual action. Every other action besides this brings us to “another way,” the way of “Beito,” to the way of suffering, to the long and difficult way that is designed to return us to the recognition of the need for connection.
[111925]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, Writings of Rabash

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A person has no right to cut himself off from society and ask only for himself, even if he has the best intention to bring contentment to the Creator. By a private prayer or by crying alone, we don’t help in any way, but only harm ourselves and others.

Now, imagine how many corruptions we have caused during exile. Everything was in order to discover our evil and understand that correction is only possible by connection. Exile was necessary in order to find out where the place of correction is and to advance from an individual prayer to the prayer of many.

Every desire in the heart is called a prayer. A prayer is the work in the heart. If every request went through society, it would be accepted. We already would be in a totally different state, in absolute rest and abundance. However, because our requests—all the desires a person feels, as well as those he doesn’t feel—don’t go through the connection between us, they harm us, and they first harm the one who makes the request.

We should understand how serious the situation is since we all are connected by one network that now is being revealed in the world as the one, connected, integral system. In this state, we clearly see that we cannot break free of this system and that we must be part of it. The time that was allocated for the recognition of evil is over. From now on, we will get to know evil by blows on different levels or by starting to act according to the network that is revealed between us.

A person should picture this very clearly and as a very serious caution, we mustn’t ask by ourselves, although we really feel like it! It is our evil inclination that is opposite from the Creator. The ego is our desire to attain the Creator but in order to rule by ourselves.

The desire, “I will rule,” is not aimed against the Creator, but against society, against the group. The evil inclination is our desire to turn to the Creator by ourselves and ask for our personal success. We all have this desire. We are ready to pray, to ask, to recognize the power of the upper, to recognize His domination over us, but the entire problem of the exile in Egypt is that each one begins to feel that he is detached from others.

This is the sin of the sons of Jacob, the reason for their hatred toward their younger brother Joseph. Joseph wanted to collect all the brothers together and connect them, but they wanted to remain separate. They didn’t understand that there must be a middle line, connection, and so they had to enter the exile in Egypt and by the path of suffering discover the need for brotherly connection.

Only after they had recognized evil, after long years of exile, were they rewarded with receiving the Torah. This was the entire purpose for the round they made in exile in Egypt.

The entire process of evolution in the upper worlds and in our world, the whole game, is only about connection. So, I am very happy that today we already can speak about that, and understand the need for it and feel this issue closely.
[111963]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/13, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam, Pri Hacham (The Sages Fruit): A person who is an exception and pleads for his soul doesn’t build but rather destroys his soul. It says “he who is proud,” since one cannot be an exception if it isn’t for the attire of pride, and woe to the one who brings destruction upon his soul.

If a person doesn’t aspire to dissolve and to disappear into the general, then from a spiritual point of view, it means that he is immersed in pride. It isn’t the pride we know in our world that compels a person to feel higher and more successful than others. If he doesn’t want to connect with others and to enter them, it is called spiritual pride. He destroys his soul if he doesn’t pray in order to be incorporated in the general and to operate through the general, which means for the good of the general, as he annuls himself and disappears there.

The moment we begin to cry and pray in order to connect, we receive the power to exit Egypt and to hide from our own ego. The exodus from Egypt is an escape from my own ego thanks to the recognition of the necessity of connection.

The Light spreads and dwells in the vessels of receiving of the general when we all unite above each one’s ego and are filled with the Light of Hassadim. At the same time each one annuls himself before the general, giving up his desire to receive, uniting into one desire, into one vessel, that is filled by the upper Light.

The preparation is actually in the connection, which means in bringing ourselves to the form of the Light that is one. Then one vessel receives one Light. The moment we reach even the slightest level of adaptation to the Light, we immediately discover that we are in it, connected in unity with the Creator.

This is revealed only through the connection. Everyone who thinks and hopes to reach something independently and not through the group perceives reality the wrong way and thus draws himself further away from the goal and destroys the group. What’s more, it refers to absolutely every action, even in our personal life, since corporeality has to disappear into spirituality. This is a very serious condition and the more we advance, the tougher become the conditions.

It says that the giving of the Torah occurs every day, which means that the spiritual state already exists and is before us and everything depends only on our preparation for the receiving of the Torah, when we will manifest a great deficiency to reach the first connection be revealed in us. Then we will immediately exit Egypt, receive the Torah, and be incorporated in the process of the spiritual work.
[111922]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/05/13, Writings of Rabash “Igrot,” Letter 33

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Exerting yourself like “an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load” means working without feeling any taste in the work. I read The Book of Zohar because the doctor says that it works like a drug that will help me recover. Usually it is unpleasant and quite difficult. It is in contrast to my bodily desires and it isn’t to my taste, but the doctor has prescribed it and so I do it.

I don’t wish to feel pleasure in my mind and heart by reading The Zohar. Although reading The Zohar brings me joy, I am not glad because I seem to understand, to feel, and to follow the plot like in an adventure book, following the journeys of the great sages like following the great explorers of new lands and continents. I am glad only because I accept this reading as a medicine.

It isn’t the reading itself that brings me joy but the process I go through. First, I follow the orders of the sages, which means that I bow before them. Second, I have heard that it brings the Creator joy and pleasure. Finally, I correct myself that way and come closer to the Creator!

If you delve into the text, it means that you operate in your desire to receive by trying to fill it somehow by your egoistic heart and mind. Thus, you rob the intensity of your study, the intensity of the state. However, eventually, things will turn the other way and there will come a time when you suddenly understand that you have nothing. This egoistic sorrow will make you understand that you have been studying the wrong way.

This approach isn’t 100% accurate since how can I try to understand what The Book of Zohar is about with my corporeal mind? If you are a scientist, you study this world with the tools that you have, with your emotions and your mind, trying to understand it in your mind. This is how science operates in this world and it is called “reason.”

However, the spiritual world is on a different level. It is in a dimension where your emotions and your mind have no control of anything. You cannot even imagine what it is like. It is on a totally different frequency. It is as if you receive a frequency of 100 kilo hertz while someone else works on a frequency of 100 mega hertz. These are totally different frequencies; one is long, and the other is short. They cannot communicate and cannot generate any common forms.

How can you speak about a world that you cannot perceive? What can you hold onto? Nothing! However, you were given books that you don’t understand at all and cannot understand. You will not understand anything unless you reach the level of the book. This level of quality is achieved by changing all of your senses and your mind. Everything is changed in you, and you receive new emotions and mind, instead of the old ones. Before that you have no connection with the book called “Torah,” except for its unique quality.
[111650]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/02/13, The Zohar

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Question: What should the correct intention be when we read The Book of Zohar? Should it be permanent or variable?

Answer: As a rule, it is desirable to maintain a permanent intention when one envisages oneself as being united with others, having one common desire and sharing one joint aspiration. Within this integrated desire, aspiration, one reveals the entirety of internal attributes of one’s relationships with others to the extent of the level of their connectedness and their chance to divulge all possible forms of the connection through the mutual bestowal that The Book of Zohar writes about.

After all, with the help of various metaphors and through the Kabbalistic terminology (such as “Havakuk, Atik, Hamnuna-Saba…”) The Zohar explains to us the details of attainment that are associated with our connection. There is nothing besides it.

At some point, there was one spiritual vessel, kli, a solid ten Sefirot that had no dissimilarities among them. After shattering, we began distinguishing among various alien parts that now are separated and distanced from one another and that try to reconnect. We discover numerous types of connection. The Zohar tells us about the types of connection. There is not a single word in The Book that describes anything but this.

Therefore, by attempting to connect with the group, the Creator, and spirituality, we tend to reveal what particular forms of connection there are, how they manifest themselves, and what they represent. Maybe, we’ll manage to disclose at least some of these connections… This is what is called “the intention.”

In other words, in our effort to unite, we tend to reveal what the right forms of connection among us are. Then, we figure out their names—“Havakuk, Rabbi Hamnuna-Saba…” —it doesn’t matter which ones. Besides, it’s not that important what particular words or letters we look at since behind them we should be distinguishing just the attributes, the ways they connect with each other, why exactly these particular letters, words, or titles are used.

We won’t look at words or letters, but rather at the properties and internal aspects of their connection. Why are these connections so important to us? The answer is: Connections among detached parts allow us to attain spirituality (the Creator.) Through them, we start revealing one force. This is what gives us the ultimate delight: the attainment.
[111369]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/13, The Book of Zohar – “Introduction” 

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All the Kabbalah books are called the books of the Torah since they were written by people who attained spirituality and are beyond the Machsom (barrier) that separates us from the spiritual world. The only thing you need from these books is the unique quality in them.

A unique quality means that all your current attributes, your emotions, your mind, your quickness, and your intelligence, all your human attributes, have nothing to do with spiritual attainment and, therefore, are useless here. You can be the most foolish or most clever, but it is totally irrelevant. You can study all day like a fool, not understanding a word and not even knowing the language they were written in, but it makes no difference, and it is just like knowing the whole book by heart.

There is only one thing that can help you: if you use this book as a unique quality. A unique quality is the special connection that you can establish with these pages. However, how do you operate any forces through these pages? You don’t know. It is because you don’t know yourself. You don’t know what these pages are. You don’t know the upper system. However, the moment you perceive the text as a unique quality, you operate a certain system that you don’t know.

Then, the system begins to operate on you! However, it has nothing to do with your emotions or your mind. You can cry or laugh as you read and it means nothing. All you must do is operate the unique quality that is in this book. It is a special condition that connects you to some upper force.

You don’t know what this force is, where it is concealed, or how it operates on you and influences you. You simply use it as a unique quality. You don’t have to know anything except for the term “unique quality.”

Even if you study everything that is written here by heart, it will not bring you any closer to spirituality. On the contrary, it only will push you backward. As it is written, “The view of landlords is opposite from the view of Torah.” Wisdom without intention doesn’t help a person advance in spirituality since it has no unique quality. This is the reason that we don’t judge by the quantity of knowledge, but rather operate “above reason” by trying to draw the force that is above our emotions and our mind.
[111647]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 7/02/13, The Zohar

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Question: Is it necessary in the remaining days before the convention to focus on the thought that it is forbidden to ask for oneself because then you damage your soul or to come there to raise our collective prayer?.

Answer: Before the convention it is necessary to focus on the thought that a prayer can be only collective, as well as on the simple principle that we will eat there what we have prepared for the convention. As it is said, “One who did not toil on the eve of Shabbat (the Sabbath), what will he eat on Shabbat?”

You should not place your hopes on me—not a single percent! It all depends only on your vessel, your desire.

Question: Do I have to imagine now how I am connected with the friends there?

Answer: Start doing it right now, why wait for the beginning of the convention! Preparation does not mean that you are ready to cry out there, but that you are crying right now and that during this cry you are better discerning your desires. If you leave this for tomorrow, what will happen to you today? We should aspire to unity right now!

Preparation for the convention means that you are already now with all your strength striving to unite all our desires, vessels. Then, you will arrive at the convention more consciously and will ascertain the desires. And if so, then why do we need to start thinking about this today, a month in advance? We would have thought it over in advance, and that is enough.

The task is not to wait for the desired moment, counting down the remaining days on the calendar. Preparation is that at every moment, the entire time before the convention, every day, to advance in unification, understanding, feeling, care, inspiring the friends more and be inspired by them. Tension is building and building inside you with each day so you will come to the convention and explode there! Or maybe we will achieve everything what we desire on the way.
[111792]
From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/8/13, The Zohar

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