From a lesson of Rabash: “Israel that are in exile—Divinity is with them.” We learn that the vessels of Malchut descend downwards, when the Upper rises, the lower rises too, but an explanation is needed here, and we should understand this too. We learn from everything both the negative and the positive. We learn about the restriction of Bina and we learn about the sweetening of Malchut. “Israel that are in exile—Divinity is with them.”

When they are in exile, they are tasteless, and they say that their Torah is also tasteless. Do you understand this or not?

So one feels the Upper in the same way he feels himself. This is called “restriction.” On the other hand there is “sweetening,” and this is called “I am the Lord residing with them in their impurity.” Although they are not purified yet, there is still the dressing of the Lights in the form of Surrounding (Lights), which are evoked each time, without inner vessels.

When a person is awakened, he doesn’t say: “I want to wake up now.” It isn’t like pressing a button. He is awakened, it happens by itself. This is called the “Surrounding Light. When it comes to the lower it is called “the Inner Light,” the lower raises MAN. Do you understand the difference?

When the lower does it the lower is the host. The Upper…a house, he wants to re-enter. There is no longevity. The awakening—has no longevity, well!

This is also called the raising of MAN—the lower wakes up by itself.

Listen, there is an attitude and there is a reality. I am speaking about an attitude. The actual reality begins only after a person attains his vessel of receiving. We are only speaking about the attitude and not more than that.”

The Creator always takes care of a person who wants to advance. But sometimes it is revealed as he brings a person closer to Him, and sometimes He exiles him. The exile is felt when the Upper restricts Himself and bestows in a different way, by the “Surrounding Light.”

While getting closer to the Creator and the awakening the “Direct” (Esher) Light is more active and during the time of exile, the “round” (Igulim) Light is more active. But a person is always being taken care of from Above if he exerts himself in his advancement.

Therefore it says: “He who resides with them within their impurity,” (Leviticus 15, 16), which means that the Divinity is in exile together with a person, since he was exiled intentionally and it is meant for the servants of the Lord in order to advance them by another hidden Providence, of the Upper Providence. The desire to reveal Him is the true desire.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12

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The last conventions indicate the beginning of a new era in which we have to practically fulfill everything we’ve learned for so many years, what we’ve read in the letters and the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash: the connection in the group, the unity with friends, and the clarification of the place inside the group where the spiritual world, the Creator, the building of the collective vessel, and the correction and the shattering are revealed.

Actually, all the descriptions refer to one action: the connection of all the shattered, distant, opposite desires that hate each other with the help of the Reforming Light, which we draw by our collective prayer, raising MAN, during the workshops, the different activities, and all the time until we perceive the spiritual goal of our life.

We should see this as a general trend that affects every aspect of our lives: educating children and adults, our groups, and the whole word, everyone, from the individual to all of humanity, and seeing this trend to connect in “circles,” which is the major trend leading to the correction of the shattering and the attainment of the goal of creation.

We can regard the whole way we’ve made so far as the time of preparation, and from now onward we and the whole world must start to build such circles.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/12, “Talk About Past Conventions”

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Question: Do we have to feel the parallel shattering before every new level?

Answer: Of course, otherwise we won’t be able to rise up to it. By receiving corrupt desires, we correct them and build the next corrected level from them.

This new level has never existed before; we are creating something that is totally new. We only receive the material and build new steps from it. This is because we evoke the Light of NRNHY in all the worlds, although to us they only had the faint Light of Nefesh. After all, we bring our desires and clarifications into it. We add our egoistic desire to receive to the desire to bestow, by evoking and correcting it.

The corruption is revealed in us, and we correct it. Now in these desires, which are obtained each time, become 620 times greater than the desire that was created during the descent from the top down, we receive the Reforming Light and then the Light that fills the vessel.

No matter what level I am on, suppose on level 30 from the bottom, I will receive a Light that is 620 times stronger than the level itself because I am adding my desire, the spiritual yearning, my work. This is what happens on every level.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/16/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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Question: How can we be sure that our connection in the group is enough for the work that we want to actualize?

Answer: You can actually discover this if in spite of the friction, you try to connect and work together. Then you work on two levels: Below are arguments, hatred, rejection, and lack of understanding, in other words the ego that separates between us, and above, you are the opposite, connected in love.

In our maintaining both of these levels, you constantly rise in both of them: The ego grows above love, and you hate each other, and then love elevates above the ego, and this happens again and again; similar to how we walk on two legs. The positive and negative constantly substitute each other, like swallowing and regurgitation. The whole life is built on sequence, and it is impossible to advance in any other way.

But if the hatred that grew is depressing love and you agree to this, then the connection between you will be torn, and the group will be destroyed. Thus, one always needs to remember what the Creator says: “I created the evil inclination.” He constantly renews your ego, so that you constantly will rise above it to the good inclination.

In this way you connect to Him again and again. He strengthens your self-love specifically so that you will stretch the connection and ask for help. This process must be as clear to you as the light of the sun. Only in this way, we advance as a group; otherwise, we can expect a collapse.
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From the Brazil Convention 5/06/12, Lesson 5

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Question: How can we treat the group better and work together more efficiently in order to minimize our descents?

Answer: It is impossible to prevent descents. We have to feel them fully, but on condition that we constantly rise above them. This means that I have to feel the descent in the ascent! It means that I don’t feel the “minus” itself, but rather the “minus” to the extent that I have to rise above it to the “plus.”

It is similar to the technique in which we don’t measure the resistor itself, but only its resistance to the electrical current. This is how we measure it. We measure the phenomenon itself and not the essence of the object in which it takes place, because the phenomenon itself is unattainable.

Therefore, we always yearn to rise and in relation to it, we measure our descents. We constantly rise above them. I asked about that in the workshop during the convention in North America: “Where does the good inclination come from?” It doesn’t exist on its own, since the Creator didn’t create two different inclinations. When we correct the evil inclination, it turns into the good inclination. The two inclinations in a person indicate that he has succeeded in turning part of his evil inclination into the good inclination.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I am trying to ask for the Light through the connection with the group, but how exactly should I ask for it?

Answer: Ask for connection. We never know how to ask for the Light, we don’t know how to pray. Every time we turn to the upper, it should be with an accurate request. All a person has to find out is what he wants from the upper. Even if you want the worst things, direct them to the upper. If you direct them to the upper, you begin to gradually correct your request and make it right.

This is called “clarifications,” like the whole ladder of spiritual steps. We begin by wanting to “swallow” everyone. So turn to the upper with that, be consistent, and thanks to the Reforming Light you will understand what is good and everything will change. Don’t think that asking for something already makes you a righteous. But turn to the upper!

This is how we start our life in this world. Look at a baby, how dirty he is when he is born, how he dirties his diapers. But it is said: “The mother will come and clean her son.”

Only do what you can, but persistently and constantly! Then you will advance! The treatment of the upper can be soft and gentle, and it can be strict and tough. But this is the only way changes take place in the lower. The main thing is to go on.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Under what condition can we demand, draw, and reveal the force of the Surrounding Light, the Reforming Light that will connect us in mutual guarantee so that we will reveal the Creator, the spiritual world? How can we demand this force so that it will correct us? What is needed in order to do so?

Answer: Three conditions must be met:

1) the greatness of the goal,
2) despair from one’s own powers,
3) connection with all the friends.

Then, all together, we will reach the feeling called “the payer of many” after having done everything we can in order to connect.

The Light comes and reforms us. What does it mean to reform? It means a true request. It is the Surrounding Light that brings us the true request.

Therefore, according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, there is the clarifying Light called the Light of AB-SAG, and there is the correcting Light. Here, too, everything takes part in two phases.

First, we do everything that we can. We hold conventions, work in a group, and try to connect, thus summoning the Light that clarifies where we actually are. It lets us feel the greatness of the goal.

At the same time, it shows us how low we are, in a state where we don’t take even one step toward it. However, these two points, the greatness of the goal and the despair from our own powers, create two poles between which there are ten Sefirot.

Then, the potential between them activates the Light of correction. This state is called “prayer” since, in a prayer, there are the two points, the greatness of the goal and the recognition of our lowliness. This internal cry brings us the Light of correction that connects these two points through the ten Sefirot and presents us with the whole vessel.
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From the One Convention in New Jersey 5/12/12, Workshop 3

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Question: The Creator made the evil inclination and the good one. It is written, “I created the evil inclination.” So where does the good inclination come from?

Answer: In reality, there is no good inclination. There is just the evil inclination, which was initially created by the Creator. That is why He informs us that He created the evil inclination. But we correct it with the help of the Torah and turn it into the good inclination.

“Inclination” is desire. The desire remains. But “evil” means that I constantly want to receive for my own sake, and then it harms me because I close myself off in this world like a small animal, living out the years I have to live. This is the most miserable kind of life that is possible in reality.

The good inclination means that we try to unite in the group and see that we are incapable of it, and begin to scream in a common prayer. Then the Light that reforms comes and creates unity between us, and inside of that unity the intention to bestow, the Light becomes revealed. Then, instead of the evil inclination, we have the good one, the same desire, but with the intention to unite with the neighbor.
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From the 3rd seminar at the New Jersey Convention, 5/12/12

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“Joseph” stands for a point within a person that can grow only when it’s positioned in the Pharaoh’s kingdom (egoistic desire). The tiny spark of Light is called a “ thin candle” (Ner Dakik). The “thin candle” deliberately places itself inside the ego since it grows within the ego and eventually transforms it into bestowal. Thus, Joseph got to Egypt, grew (expanded) there (meaning that his brothers joined him). He represents a spark that develops only inside a human ego.

Egoism is built in a way that it can only value something that it regards as “lucrative” (beneficial). It identifies “profits” only in the type of fulfillment, which is called “women’s work” as opposed to overpowering fulfillment which is called “men’s work.” This is why it’s said that Pharaoh ordered every single Jewish boy killed and left the girls alive.

We give birth to “sons” and then kill them because we have no idea how to work with intentions for the sake of bestowal. Then, they are re-born through our attempts to bestow at least minimally, but our ego yet again kills those efforts. Our intellect recognizes that that we have to bestow and we even manage to generate such intentions, but then again nullify them with our ego.

Our work is to recognize through our desires that we happen to give birth to our “sons” and then destroy them again. We are terrified by what we did, and by the fact that we have nothing else left. After going through torture and realizing that we are incapable of doing anything about the state of affairs, step by step, we acquire a new desire: a new informational Reshimo that is called “Moshe” (Moses).

“Moshe” begins to grow and develop in the Pharaoh’s house. It looks as if he comes from Pharaoh’s side. Pharaoh develops and elevates him, teaches him wisdom, empowers him. After 40 years spent in Pharaoh’s palace, Moshe got everything except that he wasn’t exposed to knowledge about the Creator.

Moshe continued to grow within his desires, which underwent correction and felt that in spite of all his efforts, he cannot convert them into bestowal. At this point gradually his desires acquired the “point of Moshe” meaning the spark that at first was hidden to the extent that it was totally elusive. However, the spark continued to grow. Because of it we carry on giving birth to our “sons” meaning intentions to bestow. We believe that we are able to give and again-and-again we “kill” our efforts.

A person continues to exterminate his “sons” until with a huge regret he starts to realize that all attempts to bestow do not lead anywhere. We give birth to a “son” (intention to bestow), which is in fact our next level that directs us to “depart” from Egypt. This step is a result of our effort in the group work; it stems from our actual deeds. At some point, we really acquire a desire to bestow, but later on we cool down and act egoistically once again. It means that Pharaoh “swallows” our newborn children.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/12, Writings of Rabash

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We have to understand that there are only two states in our life, in our reality: a state of darkness, a shade, or a state of Light, connection, the revelation of the good and the benevolent. There is nothing in between. If by hearing about it a person constantly tries to clarify the states he goes through, whether it is a shade or the revelation of the Creator, he will advance by the middle line.

Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 8: “What is the Difference Between the Shade of Kedusha and the Shade of Sitra Achra“: “Instead, all the changes are in the receivers. We must observe two discernments in this shade…”

The first is when a person can still unite with the friends, by overcoming the thoughts about separation and the “blurring” of the senses. He can still overcome the darkness and the concealment; he still understands that he has lost the goal, the way to the Creator.

But on the whole, no one conducts actual self-criticism, “Why do I feel this way? Where is this feeling coming from?” I am not my own psychologist, I simply feel good or bad, like a child. I don’t calculate who sends me these thoughts and these feelings. I “stew” in them, and sink into my body, like a small child.

Yet a person must know and examine himself: “What has summoned my feelings and my thoughts? How can I ascend above myself, above the current state? How can I get out of this swamp by pulling myself by my hair?” A person always looks at himself from the side, “Yes, I am deep in my egoistic desire. Yes, it controls me. True, it doesn’t allow me to connect, it doesn’t let me get up for the lesson, it forces me to disconnect, it makes the daily life with all its dealings seem more important. But I see that I am in this state and that it is opposite from the goal.”

How can I understand and recognize this? When I am still connected to something external, to the group. Here comes the moment of truth, I can check whether I was really connected to the group or not. If I wasn’t connected, I only feel myself: I feel bad, I don’t want anything, etc. Furthermore, I don’t even try to account for this and simply flow along without any special thoughts or desires.

But if I were connected to the group, if I had an alliance with the friends, according to which they have to help me even if I fall and turn in anther direction, the inner connections is kept, I would care about how they see me, and I wouldn’t totally forget about my commitment. They would support me and I would be able to see myself from the side and to clarify my feelings.

Thus I will be divided into two: my own self and my attitude towards the group. Only then, by holding on to the connection with the friends, will I be able to clarify and check myself and by that to start the ascent that follows the descent. Otherwise, I have no chance; I simply fall and leave. So a person can overcome the first type of shade, by justifying the current state and understanding that it was sent to him by the Creator. Then he can call the Creator for help.

Why do I turn to Him? Not in order to feel better, because then I would be asking to annul my evil inclination, which He has created, by adding the Torah as a spice for it. So I should ask for the spice, so that the power of love and bestowal, the power of connection, will come from Above and enable me to advance towards the other line.

“When one still has the ability to overcome the darkness and the concealment that one feels, justify the Creator and pray to the Creator that the Creator will open his eyes to see that all the concealments that one feels come from the Creator.”

When a person is left helpless and sees no way out, when he curses the Creator, the friends and life, he is still looking at himself from the side and suddenly sees a chance for a breakthrough, he can demand that the Creator will save him. Why? Because he does not accept the state when the Creator’s providence seems bad, and he cannot justify Him. A person feels bad because he thinks badly of the good and the benevolent, by being opposite from Him. If life seems bad, it is a sign that I am opposite from the Creator.

We have to build a Masach (screen) and the Returning Light above all the hard situations. Even in the worst situations I must see the Creator as their source, as the Light that is full of all the infinite abundance, but that is broken inside me and turns into a bad feeling, into a shade, into darkness, since my attributes are opposite from the good and the benevolent, opposite from the attribute of bestowal and love.

Thus we advance each time we clarify things correctly. The main thing is to constantly discover this point, “What do I feel? Who is sending me this feeling? Why am I experiencing this feeling?” This is the whole principle of our work and this is what divides humanity into the 1% and the 99%.
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From the Lesson from Brazil 5/03/12, Shamati #8

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