Question: What should we think about while reading The Book of Zohar? Should we focus on some specific, simple thought?

Answer: During the whole day you must discern what you want to ask for. Suppose you have 20 requests. Choose one of them, the most important one, and check whether all the others are included in it. Don’t just choose one of the 20, leaving all the other ones behind. After all, that’s not how one comes to the King, who is able to carry out all of our requests.

There has to be one request, but it has to include all of your wishes. You have to be confident that if you address Him with this request and receive what you wish for, then you won’t need anything ever again. You come to the King once with one request, and if you receive an answer, then you are completely satisfied. Otherwise you would be belittling the King’s dignity and perfection.

But if you come with many requests, it means they don’t include a single real one and you are like a little child who came into a toy store and lost his head, not knowing what to grab because he wants everything. If you are in this state for now, then you won’t receive permission to come to the King as you don’t have a serious request. You are allowed to enter only with one request.

However, it shouldn’t be one request that temporarily emerged in you right now, but it has to be such that you probably won’t ever ask for anything else ever again. You discerned the most important thing that you need and this won’t change anymore.

This is the request you should write down and check – you have 24 hours to do so, until the next reading of The Book of Zohar tomorrow! And then check it for several days – whether it’s the correct request or not.

It’s desirable to check yourself and change this way your entire life, if necessary… Then you will see how your desires change and will learn who you are. All of the science of Kabbalah is a study of ourselves, the attainment of reality, the Creator through self-attainment.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/24/12, The Zohar

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Suppose I wanted to steal something and I suffered because I didn’t know how to do it: “Why don’t I succeed? Where can I learn the art of stealing?” Then, under the influence of a good environment, I realize that my desire is bad. Thus, I find myself in a state of concealment; I don’t agree with my own attribute. My good image as a corrected “good guy” is concealed from me. “How can I be respected by others and myself, and not berate myself all the time?”

So, I progress and learn about the forms of concealment. As soon as I can see my perfect image, even though in a first approximation, my longing creates a prayer. Whether I want it to or not, the prayer emerges from my heart and I acquire the desired form. “Here it is; I don’t want to steal anymore! I don’t need anything.” And then I am fulfilled.

And it is the Light. So far, it is the Light of Hassadim, and even though it is much lower than the Light of Hochma, I prefer it now because it has another quality: I enjoy resembling the Creator.

Then comes the next phase of the correction: If I don’t need anything, can I bestow upon others? Then I get to work. It is divided into several parts. First I find out who I stole from in order to pay back the “debt.” Then I discover that I stole from everyone.

But on the whole, I begin to enjoy the fact that I am becoming equivalent to the Creator. I fill everyone with the Light of Hochma and that is the level of my resemblance to the Creator.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/19/12, “The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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Question: Is the Creator waiting for the right kind of prayer from us?

Answer: You can’t call this waiting. The upper Light exists in a state of absolute rest. This is an unalterable law, like the laws of physics. Movement at a steady pace is the same as being in a state of rest.

The Light doesn’t stop, it’s either revealed or concealed, but its nature remains unchanged. Take for example the nature of physical light, which in a vacuum moves at the constant speed of 300 thousand kilometers per second. Everything depends upon the surroundings where the light is dispersed because we reveal it as a result of matter with which it comes into contact. The degree of similarity between the matter and the light determines the light’s speed because we don’t see the dispersion of light; we only see the way matter reacts to it.

If some action is constant, then in relation to us it’s considered still. That is, the upper Light’s influence is constant and no changes occur in its influence. Everything depends on the desires and how they reveal this influence. If changes occur within the desires, then that determines the speed of the Light’s influence; however, the Light itself remains totally unchanged and its influence is constant!

We say that we have to try to attract the Light. But in reality it’s the opposite of what we imagine. The Light’s influence is constant and we are the result of that influence.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/17/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does it mean” half of the half” with regards to the work we have to do?

Answer: A person has to prepare his “half” and the Creator completes the other half. But how can you do that, after all, even in preparing my desire I cannot manage without Him?

To prepare my half means to try and find the deficiency and the right aspiration. But I don’t have that at all. I have to look for the right deficiency instead of the black false bubble I am in where I imagine this false life that doesn’t exist at all that will later seem like a dream.

How can I want and try to wake up from this deep sleep and to feel willingness for it by myself, because this is the only thing I need! But without this willingness, I will not be able to receive the upper world that is revealed at the end of this dream because I have to develop a deficiency for it.

People with a great coarse egoism come to study Kabbalah in order to attain the upper world . It isn’t enlightened “spiritual” people for whom meditations are enough who come here . The people who come here want to receive and to gain big time, to discover the spiritual world. Here it depends on whether a person can hear what he is told and bear all the conditions.

Two natural spiritual laws operate here, which you cannot change in favor of your egoism. We are told that we have to do “half of the half,” but this doesn’t mean that there is some concession here. A person must perform his half, and then he will receive the other half from Above. The other half will change him and will turn him into something that is totally different.

When he is 100 percent ready to change, it means that he has done his half of the work. Then 100 percent of this change is performed from Above; this is the half that the Creator is responsible for.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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We do not understand what it means to enjoy bestowal. The goal of creation is to bring pleasure to the creatures. And they will really enjoy: The only question is how?

We do not understand that the desire that we feel today is foreign and distant from us. To enjoy bestowal is not the pleasure of what the other enjoys. That would just be an arrangement that is beneficial for both of us.

And if I enjoy the fact that he feels good even if I feel bad, but I overcome myself, as parents do sacrificing everything for their children, this is not bestowal either. We can hardly imagine the desires that emerge in the spiritual world. It is possible only to give some approximate examples, like physical branches in relation to the roots.

Therefore, we must try to imagine as much as possible how special this concept is, separate from the familiar and requiring a psychological revolution. The entire world inverts in our consciousness, and then we discover something entirely new.

This requires internal effort and detachment from the old environment, the willingness to: escape from the current state, jump in the Red Sea (Yam Sof – the Sea of the End),  loose one’s head, abandon everything that one has, and be left totally naked and defenseless, accepting everything no matter what it is, only if it comes from Above.

We need to prepare ourselves for the convention in Arava in this way, and if we are able to hold ourselves in this state, we will achieve a breakthrough—in this darkness, to the waters of the Red Sea, and we will overcome everything no matter what is revealed.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/16/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In our dissemination, do we have to evoke the feeling of shame in people by showing them how far they are from mutual guarantee?

Answer: No. We only explain to a person that he can be saved from troubles: Under no circumstances do we tell him that he is bad.

There is nothing bad in a person. We discover the evil in us only if we connect with others and want to care about others.

I have different physical attributes: good and bad, fine and coarse, but the evil isn’t revealed in me until I reach the group, until I begin to actually connect, until I hear about mutual guarantee, and until I see how reluctant I am to have it. This lack of desire—is the evil inclination.

Everything below that is on the beastly level and has nothing to do with the correction. The correction is realized only in the mutuality among people in order to reach adhesion, connection, and mutual guarantee. Only according to this criterion can you be good or bad.

So when we bring the message of mutual guarantee to people, we don’t tell them that they are bad. In what way is a person bad? After all, he was born that way. The Creator has placed him in these conditions.

A person has to discover the evil by himself and become his own judge. No one knows how this works internally when he makes an effort to join the friends in order to form a collective vessel together with them for the revelation of the attribute of bestowal.

It is only with regard to that, that evil is measured. When a person doesn’t want to be incorporated in the general vessel, this is where his evil inclination is hidden. If the vessel corrects itself, it is filled with the attribute of bestowal, meaning the Creator.

The more a person discovers his reluctance, the evil inclination, the more he will feel the need to do something. After all, he feels bad, and this is the salvation. There is nothing better or more important. So through the evil inclination a person reaches a prayer called “raising MAN,” and then he receives the answer and is incorporated in everyone.

So there is nothing bad in anyone. Every one is given his own traits from Above. Until a person enters a group and starts to develop himself on the level of the speaking, he doesn’t exist, and so there is no one we can talk about. A person doesn’t exist on the beastly level.

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Question: What does it mean to proceed by the path of bestowal?

Answer: If the goal of creation is to bring pleasure to the creatures and the Creator is a positive force that does good, and only this is the essence of His treatment of us, then why do we need to pray for Him to do good to us?

Everyone screams out to the Creator, “Do something good to us!” But that is ridiculous! Why beg a kind person to perform an act of kindness toward me? He is already doing good; He cannot do anything else. After all, it is written that the Creator is benevolent to the good and the bad alike. He never changes His attitude, as it is written, “I did not change My HaVaYaH” and “the Light exists in absolute rest.”

That goes to show us that it is not worthwhile to ask Him for good. Yet all prayers, all requests, and psalms are composed by Kabbalists, people who exist in spiritual attainment. Then why did they pray, “Help me, save me, do for me”?

These are pleas to form the desire “Help me correct my perception!” That is called “the work of the Creator,” while for the Creator bestowing to us is not work, it’s pleasure.

My work is to ask for the right desire or vessel, and His work is to create this vessel. In other words, it is request for readiness to accept the fulfillment due to which we achieve adhesion rather than a request for a pleasant change.

The word “prayer” is translated as “self-judgment”; it is the creature’s request to be changed. When I ask, “Why have You forsaken me?” has He really left me? Or do I say this only in regard to my own perception within which I feel that He has left me and I realize this myself? In essence, I ask for Him to correct my sensation so that I would feel that He did not leave or become distant from me.

A prayer is a request for correction of our desires, and all this is called work for the Creator rather than fulfillment itself.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/12, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What can I do if a large part of my thoughts is devoted to material matters: how to earn money, my family, and  my position in the eyes of people, and I hardly think about spirituality?

Answer: This is great if you already know that all your thoughts are only about yourself and you do not agree with this, but cannot do anything. At this point you already have the opportunity to discover that there is one additional force besides yourself, the teacher, the group, and the whole world.

There is a hidden force, which creates this egoistic relationship between you and the others, and only it can change this relationship to the correct one.

You lack only a thought, a scrutiny: Is it necessary to change this relationship? Why do you need it? You do not have enough awareness of how much you want to win it and cannot think about anyone else but yourself, and that you cannot stand that you cannot overcome these thoughts. Then, from this inner feeling that has reached a huge tension, a cry is born, to which the reforming Light responds.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/12, Shamati #153

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There are many ways we can check our desire in which all the clarifications take place: “What for? Why? Where does it come from and where is it leading to? By what means can I advance? How can I check whether my goal is the right one? What are my true intentions? Could it be that it is simply my egoistic desire and personal interests that naturally attract me, and that everything that is against them repels me?”

A very close and thorough examination is needed here. At the same time we should be careful not to be too absorbed in these clarifications because it is part of my work, only half of the “half a Shekel” that is my part. The other half should be expressed in action. The action is studying together with the group, feeling the friends, and the examination during the study: Is it in the same line of thought with everyone else, in contact with the teacher and the group?

The second half of the “half a Shekel” ends when a person receives the change from Above. All our efforts should end in attaining an open deficiency that waits for salvation from Above, like Nukva, the female desire that opens herself to receive the correction.

This is how we should prepare ourselves for the lesson. Here a lot depends on the greatness of the source from which we receive this bestowal, from the immense height of The Book of Zohar and its authors. The mechanism that operates in The Book of Zohar is the world of Ein Sof because it passes the upper Light from the head of Zeir Anpin, the Light of Ein Sof.

If a person works on all the levels: in his feelings, his connection with the group, with the teacher, with the state of the world, with the systems of the worlds, with the upper force, and connects it all to the one mechanism that he operates now, then there is hope that his awakening and his action will evoke an awakening from Above. And his prayer (MAN) will draw the response (MAD) from Above.

The prayer (MAN) (Mei Nukvin – female waters) is the desire, the deficiency. The response that comes from Above is MAD (Mei Dhurin – male waters), the power to overcome. We have to feel that we turn the weak, meaningless, painful, and defective state into bestowal, power, and correction, and feel inside us how our MAN turns into MAD
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/12, The Zohar

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Hastening time, meaning hastening our actions regarding the “past,” “present” and “future,” gives us the feeling of life, the force of vitality. The more we stop and do not exert ourselves in the work on the part of the created being, there is more pressure put on us by the Creator’s work. This is similar to the way a hybrid car is built: if the battery is empty, the engine runs on fuel.

So we have to organize an environment for ourselves that will spur us to advance by our powers and not to wallow in time, which passes leaving no traces, as we lie to ourselves that everything is fine. If a person is not under pressure put on him by the environment and teacher, if he doesn’t feel that he lacks spiritual life, he cannot advance.

This pressure can be felt as good or bad. But we must clarify it for ourselves; we need to gladly accept any pressure that leads to clarification, connection, and more efficient work, and not be managed by pleasant or unpleasant feelings in our egoism.

If we want to advance, be a little more mature, and not remain tiny babies, we need to wake up. The awakening toward the goal isn’t perceived as pleasant, and we should accept this in faith above reason.

Unfortunately we are not kids who have a natural desire to grow, who passionately work building things with blocks, and who do not give up when everything falls down and is destroyed. We have to receive the same force that pushes a child to develop: We obtain it from the environment and studying.

If I feel that I lack this power, I have to come to the lesson with the desire, with the negative charge, with the feeling of everything I didn’t manage to do, and to ask for strength. If you don’t feel enough pressure on you to connect and to advance or to make the demand for this to the teacher and the group, you have a reason to come to the lesson. You have to come with the right demand, with a full list of everything you didn’t manage to do yesterday, and now you come with a broken heart demanding the powers for correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/12, Shamati #35

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