Question: Can we come to a mutual prayer before each Zohar lesson?

Answer: We are learning how to tune ourselves. In reality, the only thing that exists is a person’s desire and how he tunes that desire toward correction, that is, the Light that Reforms.

In order to come closer to the Light, we must unite with each other. Also, if we understand that we must unite despite our egoism, then we ask that the Light unite us. Therein lies the entire method.

The most important thing is to keep the intention. Your appeal to the Light is for the Light to affect you, and that’s the only true prayer. If you study and carry out all actions with only one goal, which is to come to a true prayer, then these will be the most effective actions.

This will mean that either you already possess the correct intention or that you’re preparing yourself for this prayer or appeal. The only formula by which we should act is to ask for the Light that Reforms, which will help us obtain the quality of bestowal and give pleasure to the Creator.

Each person must strive to make a single, homogenous body out of the group, without any distinctions between its parts, and try to feel the friends as a single organism. This will be one’s personal prayer. When these individual prayers connect, they will be on a higher level, a level of connected intentions where a mutual prayer is formed.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/12, The Zohar

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Rabash, “Lishma (For Her Sake) and Lo Lishma (Not for Her Sake)”: There is only one thing we can do and that is to try to attain the greatness of the Creator.

This means that by all our dealings in the Torah and the commandments we want that our reward will be to feel the greatness of the Creator. And all the prayers that we pray should be to “raise the Shechina from the dust,” since the Creator is concealed from us because of the restriction that took place, and we cannot evaluate His importance and His greatness.

…and for this reason a person should try not to forget the goal while studying the Torah, and to constantly keep it before his eyes that he wants to receive this from the studying, that the studying will influence the greatness and the importance of the Creator…that by that he will be able to get closer to the Creator, so that he will be able to bring Him contentment since the Creator is important, and that will be his reward; and he has no desire for another reward for his work.”

This is how the right kind of work is determined: working because of the greatness of the Creator and to bring Him contentment without any account for one’s self, but only in order to be fueled to bestow. This is possible only by bestowal upon others, in preparing the whole general vessel for the revelation of the Creator. It’s impossible to do it directly, since we have no contact with the Light except for one option, to let it be revealed by our help in corrected vessels.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/12

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There is a prayer and there is a plea. A prayer is when man addresses the Creator with his intention, which is already prepared. A plea is when he first asks the Creator to form a prayer for him.

Around two and a half thousand years ago, King David wrote in his Psalms, “Le Maan achai vereai.” It means, “for the sake of my friends, I ask You, and for the sake of the whole of Your creation” (it is called the “home of the Creator” because He later fills it). For the sake of Your home, I ask for You to gather it all together, because Your home must house all nations of the world, as it is said, “For My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.”

We searched for the words with which to address the Creator. However, in reality, we must receive these words from Above. The Light must teach us its language, which is called “the holy language” that is built upon the quality of bestowal and love, contrary to our perceptions and their expressions today. So, in reality, our appeal begins with the plea for correction, a request to change.

In our movement towards the Creator, it’s very important to find and feel reciprocity. There is no Creator without the creation, and there is no creation without the Creator. The Creator is what is being formed inside of us, the quality of bestowal, which manifests into us. It’s a field that is perceived on some matter with that matter being us. That’s why only by having prepared the correct “base,” a place, we begin to manifest, reveal, and perceive what we will be calling the “Creator.” We are talking only about the perception of Him in us. That’s why the Creator is called “Boreh” in Hebrew, from the words “Bo” and “Reh,” meaning “come” and “see.”

Man must control his aspiration to the Creator. If it’s correct, then man feels the aspiration of the Creator towards him. Reciprocity is always there, if that intention is correct, the Light starts to manifest in it immediately. Sometimes it happens to be the opposite, when the Creator corrects us, showing that we are not aspiring towards Him correctly, that it’s necessary to do it from a deeper point in the heart. But we must always aspire to feel reciprocity.

Any plea, any correct approach, if we want it to be in the quality of bestowal, it necessarily must begin with gratitude. Otherwise, it’s simply an egoistic appeal. Even if we are thinking about receiving the prayer from Him, or even if we would have liked to approach Him for the sake of our friends, regardless of whether this appeal is correct, it must begin with gratitude. Only then, on the height of this gratitude can one ask and then this request will be directed further towards broadening bestowal. I am often asked, “What to do if I can’t find anything in myself for which I could be thankful for?” Since as a rule, in the state when man actually wants to ask, he feels bad and heavy.

You need to compare yourself with others and see that you are special; you have been chosen by the Creator. You see what’s going on with the rest of the people to whom He has not given the small perception of Himself, called the point in the heart.

It’s simply a point because we are not yet feeling anything inside of it other that it’s something that belongs to the upper one. That’s why it directs us somewhere forward. If it will widen, then a perception, realization, and revelation will be formed inside of it. For now it’s just a point, but it leads us forward. While for the people who do not have it, unfortunately, it’s much worse.

This means that gratefulness is possible here. Not the egoistic one for the fact that the Creator has made me special, but for the fact that by these means, He entrusts me to think of others. He, Himself, is located in His quality of bestowal and can’t get any closer to the creatures because then they would simply get “tied” to Him; they’d be tied to the Light, to the pleasure, and wouldn’t be able to pass into the quality of bestowal. That is why, through people like us, He gives the possibility to get closer to others and to gradually explain to them about contact with the upper force.

However, no matter what may happen, it’s very hard for us to go forward, although we know that everything comes from the Creator and everything is corrected by the Creator, the Light. Yet, our approach to Him must be formulated from us, but it’s also being formulated under the influence of our appeal to Him. That is called a prayer, or the preparation to a prayer: “Give us the possibility to correctly address you and ask correctly. Give us the possibility to ask not for ourselves as much as it is possible, to feel others, in order to ask on their behalf.”
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 6

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Baal HaSulam has an article titled “The Reason for the Difficulty of Annulling Oneself for the Creator.” Basically, this is most important. After all, what stands today between us is our ego, our “I.” If we were to nullify it, we would immediately feel the Creator to the extent of our nullification.

My egoism stretches from me to the world of Infinity. I gradually nullify it; in other words, I correct it in 125 steps, and the Creator keeps manifesting more and more in the corrected egoism.

Let us mark my point in the heart in red. It is I, and my egoism is before me. I rise as much as I am able to cut the “slices” of this egoism, until I correct all of it. And every time I correct it, the Creator becomes revealed in it.

This way, the “I” stands before us, between us and the Creator. This is why the article is called: “The Reason for the Difficulty of Annulling Oneself for the Creator.”

A person experiences difficulty when he wishes to nullify himself for the sake of the Creator, in other words, when he wishes to sacrifice his “I” for the quality of bestowal. After all, nullifying yourself means to completely stop caring for yourself. Moreover, this is just the first stage. And then, once I correct my entire past egoism to “stop caring” for myself, I begin to use it to work for the sake of others.

So, the entire reason it is difficult to nullify yourself is because the person feels like the entire world remains in its place, but he disappears. Then what is he left with? It seems like absolutely nothing. He leaves his family and friends in the name of nullifying himself for the sake of bestowal.

Then what am I, my friends, relatives, the world, everything that is in me and that I have? Other problems and questions arise as well. No matter how much I want to do it, I suddenly feel that something once again holds me from within, does not let me rise or invest myself fully.

Thus the ego, the only evil in the world, is multifaceted. And it keeps revealing itself more and more. I seem to have risen above it, I do not need anything for myself, I am ready to enter others and only exist in them, but as soon as I arrive at this moment, different thoughts that break me immediately appear in me, different desires, multidirectional intentions, and I once again lose the concrete, correct intention.

So, this entire problem, the reason for difficulty is simple, the problem is the lack of perception of the Creator. And the only thing that can help us with all our efforts is only feeling, revealing the Creator. There can be nothing else: Either you always feel yourself, always remain in yourself, and this egoism constantly “wobbles” you in it, taking your thoughts someplace else, or the Creator is revealed to you and only then will you be able to be in the power of the Creator, the power of bestowal, and not your egoism.

And, Baal HaSulam writes that as soon as the person feels the Creator, his soul, his inner desire immediately will want to connect with the root, to be a part of it, to nullify itself without a single thought just doing it naturally. We need to reach this state, in other words, we need to force the Creator to become revealed in us. And then all the problems disappear.

For this reason, the main thing that a person needs to reach is the perception of the Creator in order to feel that it is this quality, this force that fills the entire world and controls everything, and that there is none else beside Him. No emptiness of egoism will remain unfilled. All of it becomes filled with the Creator and becomes His absolutely obedient “operational device” doing everything according to the quality of bestowal, and connects to it without a single problem.

The upper Light created this desire, broke it, and shaped it into the form we perceive. The Light has specifically made the desire in this way and completely changes it by filling it. This is why the main thing a person needs to reach is the perception of the Creator, to feel that this quality fills the entire world and controls and governs absolutely everything.

This is also happening now, but it is concealed from us in order to obligate us to reveal Him, to desire His revelation. We must reach such degree of despair where we understand that only revelation of the Creator can save us. No other appeal will work: Coming together, giving us the right intentions, giving us strength, understanding what is happening, even uniting—all these things will be consequences of the revelation of the Creator.

And, Baal HaSulam writes that a person’s entire effort in his spiritual work must manifest in the attainment of this sensation, in other words, the realization of the fact that in reality, the only thing that he lacks and which solves absolutely all the problems is the perception of the Creator. He must not think about anything else but the main reward he would want to receive for all his efforts: to feel filled by the Creator.

There are no questions in this state. Everything is clear. But do we lose the freedom of will in this case? Do we become some “holy puppets?” The Creator rules in us and this obligates us to only operate through bestowal. Does this mean that we turn into “angels?”

It does not. This is because the quality of bestowal, which we receive from the perception of the Creator, does not nullify the egoism. It only fills it, and together they become like two categories, two forces, two qualities, which mutually complement one another. A person only acquires the true freedom of will when he has these two forces in equal proportion. The Creator does not suppress egoism and does not nullify it; He balances it in such a way that the person acquires the ability to be between these two qualities, these two forces of nature.

And then we begin to grow our point in the heart, connecting these two forces to it. It grows like a drop of semen in the mother’s womb.

Baal HaSulam continues that it is necessary to know that there is no difference between a big light and a small illumination, which a person attains. After all, there are no changes in the Light. All the changes only happen in perception.

In other words, we are always in the full, enormous volume of Light, but we feel it only to the extent of our correspondence, the similarity of our qualities to its qualities. And only our efforts in revealing the Creator create the higher qualities in us. If a person is able to increase his desires directed towards the quality to bestow, the right appeal, to the same extent he increases the quantity of Light that enters them.

What can he do to increase his desires, to expand them, and to prepare them for closeness with Light? Baal HaSulam’s response to this: by praising and exalting the Creator, the qualities of love and bestowal, the qualities of relating to your neighbor and others outside of yourself.

When a person acts this way, he feels grateful to the Creator for having brought him closer to Him, for giving him at least some foundation, some starting point, which allows him to begin to act this way, to rise above our world, our egoistic state. The person acquires the ability to at least slightly feel the Creator, the quality of bestowal, to somewhat understand what we speak about in the group, trying to find its center—the feeling that arises between us.

These are already certain preliminary flashes of Light, greater and greater radiance. Though, we feel like these are our desires, our thoughts, as if we are moved and found something in us. In reality, we are not able to find anything in us. When we develop certain feelings, all of them come only from the vibrations of Light, which is sometimes closer and sometimes further from us. When a feeling of warmth appears between us, when we express a greater connection, a wider net of relationships, it is only because the upper Light is beginning to gradually manifest.

And the main thing is that in addition to the importance of all this, I always need to be conscious and constantly try to verbalize inside myself how important the connection with the Creator is for me, this power to bestow, this universal force, which today is concealed from me; how the revelation of these two forces will give me the opportunity to act freely, to be like the Creator in relation to everyone else, in the same intention, love and bestowal.

This is no accident, it was the Creator who gave man the point in the heart, attracted him, and gave him the opportunity to advance spiritually. He is with us, with all the friends around the world. And the more importantly, the person deems this to be, the more he expands his Kelim, the place where Light, the Creator, will eventually manifest.

Gratitude to the Creator must always be greater than the request; the appeal must follow gratitude so that my attitude towards the quality to bestow would really come from my movement in its direction. And this only happens when I attune myself to gratitude, appreciation.

We need to express gratitude for everything, even the most unpleasant sensations. This way a person begins to understand the uniqueness of the Creator’s governance over him. He understands and realizes that all, even the most negative influences that he experiences in this world, are also designed for his sake, for his benefit. And the Creator Himself suffers from it a billion times more than him, just like we suffer in relation to our children.

This is why we must not blame Him for anything, be mad at Him, or be unhappy with something. When a person understands that he is under the influence of one, single, constant, eternal Force, then, of course, this state cannot exist. He always, first experiences the sensation of enormous gratitude as if he were melting in it, and then his appeal follows in the same direction.

But, Baal HaSulam writes that since a person only experiences everything inside his desires, he is never able to precisely evaluate the actual degree of connection between him and the Creator. This is because our egoistic desires, until corrected, always “deafen” the evaluation of our connection with the Creator. No matter how I perceive Him, even if it is in the best possible way, I still have a feeling about it, and I evaluate it. And my evaluation is always lower. This is because it is made in my egoistic, still-uncorrected desires, and this is why I always remain unhappy about something. Egoism removes an enormous amount of “overtones,” “higher harmonics,” from the perception of the Creator, and leaves only a poor light.

Imagine: Instead of my beloved appearing before me to embrace me and cover me in kisses, I was mailed a tiny package, and that is it. Similarly, my egoism in the end removes absolutely everything: I receive some package, which looks absolutely insignificant.

We must complete this on our own: these “harmonics,” “overtones,” the things filtered out by egoism, all the higher things it “cuts off,” the special attitude, pleasure, and sensation. We must add the things that were filtered out by egoism by using gratitude and exalting the Creator.

If I am able to do this, then I begin to perceive the manifestation of the Creator precisely in these additional “harmonics.” The filter removes Him and leaves me with nothing but a small, insignificant gift, a small glow, and I must restore it. And I restore it by addressing Him with admiration and being grateful. Then, in my address, the Creator reveals Himself.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 6

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In the article “One’s Future Depends On and Is Tied to His Gratitude for the Past,” it is written: The praise and gratitude that one gives to the Creator for the past expand the feelings, the Kelim, his properties, and his abilities to feel and appreciate in heart and mind the Creator’s influence upon him. And one is elated by every single point of the interaction between them, begins to feel and understand, attaining to Whom he is presenting the result of his labors, and in accordance with that, by expanding his properties, he soars ever higher to new sensations.

This means that gratitude is necessary for us. We do not influence the Creator, the Light, in any way. We don’t understand what happens within Him further. We speak of these sensations only from our own attainment, from our feelings, from what are, through human language and within our experiences. When we speak about something or someone, we speak of how we envision this object. This is why Creator is called “Boreh” (“Bo” – “Reh”),  “Come” and “See.” It is because when you come to these properties, you discover Him within them, and based on these properties, you render your opinion.

Therefore, gratitude is necessary in order to expand our Kelim and to change their properties.

Each of us has a point in the heart, and right now we are feeling something inside this point. But we cannot sense any picture inside it, since everything is compressed into a single point. We need to expand and unfurl it. How can we do this? On the one hand, we do it through the gratitude to the Creator. But in order for this method to affect us, we need to broaden this point by gathering within ourselves the points of our friends.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Workshop 7

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Question: What does it mean that the upper one lowers Himself with regard to the lower one?

Answer: It means that the lower one doesn’t feel it as the upper any more. Now he has a choice: either to remain under the impression that the upper one has lost all meaning for him or to work in faith above reason in order to reinforce the greatness of the upper one in his eyes. This is where our freewill is.

Freewill is only when there is concealment. This is how the Creator treats us, and this is how we have to see all the friends by understanding that they are under concealment with regard to us. It’s only me who sees the deficiencies in them, since “one judges according to his own flaws.”

So I have freewill here: Do I treat them as the greatest in our generation? If I do, I fulfill my free will. If I acknowledge them as great, the upper one will raise His AHP and me together with them. Thus I will ascend!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/29/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In the process of studying, everything is changing: There are both physical and virtual workshops. At what point is the individual work with oneself, with a book, with the source?

Answer: What for? Where do I solve the problem of creating within me a sense of the spiritual world? It’s only in the group! What is the use if I sit down and study on my own?

Sometimes, it is necessary to better understand what happens to me in the end. In such cases, I must admit that I need to study on my own, reread at home, not only such serious materials as The Study of the Ten Sefirot diagrams, but also the articles, the letters of Rabash and Baal HaSulam.

If individual studies are needed to better understand correctly what you have to do for the group, then study and if not, then why do you need other studies? They may even discourage you.

You will begin to understand a lot, to think that you are a wise person and that you don’t need anything else. As a result, you get the poison of death instead of the elixir of life. There is a symbol in medicine, a bowl with snake venom that can be a poison and can be the basis for drugs. So here; you need to be very careful when it comes to studying. The main thing is intention!
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Lesson 7

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The sum of our gratitude for the past gives us the total vessel (Kli) for the disclosure of the Creator, total sensitivity, power, intensity, suffering, movement forward. Why is gratitude so important? Because in this way a person already has a positive attitude to the Creator, to the Light; he sees It positively, and the Light shines on him as It is ready to shine the Light.

When we give thanks for the past, and everyone makes such an effort connecting with the friends in the group to gain the strength to relate to the past correctly, then we unite and form the common desire to understand and reveal the Creator. This is on the one hand.

On the other hand, this desire is filled with gratitude, awareness, and appreciation of the past because we begin to feel that it was absolutely necessary in order to come to this current state where we start to enter the upper world. Why is this state that we obtain by nullifying the negative past a means to reveal the Creator? Because it gives us absolute confidence that the world is ruled by only one positive force. Thus, we can feel like a baby in its mother’s arms. Nothing else is necessary; everything is in complete order. A baby can smell his mother, and he feels safe in her arms.

Once we reach this state of security and confidence, the world becomes infinite; it simply gives way. A person feels that he is unlimited. Nothing constricts us; we are under no authority, pressure, or constraints, neither conscious nor subconscious! And that is why the upper world is revealed, the total, true universe in which we live which has been compressed to the level, the size, of this world by our constant, alarming, apprehension of something unpleasant, and by lacking the proper characteristic of the Creator who rules and dominates everything. Thus revelation occurs. It is possible to bring yourself to the full revelation of the upper governance only by working on yourself, your past, present, and future. By this, we completely eliminate time, the most limiting factor of our world. Completely! If I think that I am in one constant force that controls everything and keeps everything in an absolutely positive state, then there is no time. What changes? There is no motion or movement, no top, bottom, no coordinates, just one simple space, the world of Infinity.

Of course, we need to grow to this state. I also don’t know what it is yet. But at least, the expansion of the sphere in which we exist by obtaining guarantees, security, the feeling of oneself in the mercy of the quality of bestowal which gives us this movement outwards to the expansion of the sphere.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/19/12, Workshop 7

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Question: Do I act correctly by praying for everybody and wanting that each of us will also ask the Creator for the Light for all? I want that everyone will find themselves in this society, in this Light, and that the Creator will help each of us to acquire it.

Answer: Why for “each of us” and not all of us? Isn’t it better if it’s everybody together?

Why do we talk about unification, about aspiring towards unity? It’s because in spirituality there is no such state like “I,” “he,” “you,” and so on. It’s better to ask in the name of “we.”

Try and you will see that life will instantly become clearer, better for everybody. In this “we,” you will discover the only state that exists. And the current state will gradually move away from you and will indeed be felt as illusory—it’s just that we had been aimed like that before.
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From the Kharkov Convention “Uniting to Ascend” 8/18/12, Lesson 5 

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The more you value the upper one, the closer you become to the Light. When you justify the Creator, revere Him, from that height, you get an additional desire (Aviut), the fall. The closer you come to the Light, the greater the intensity with which It works on you.

The effect of the Light is amplified with your approach, by your attempt to get closer, and that is why informational genes (Reshimot) are manifested at a higher rate and have a character closer to the Light, according to your desire.

And on the way, the depth of your desire and negative feelings are revealed to you, but all this is within the same positive trend, although the state may seem quite the opposite. That is why you perform correction even in the darkness.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot    

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