Only a person who, in sync with the root of his or her soul, desires to find one, unified, upper force that governs reality, is “helped” from Above and sent obstacles. The Creator keeps revealing new desires in him or her, which lure them in various directions. So, one forgets that there is none else besides the Creator and gets entangled again and is unable to assemble the image of the unique upper force within to which one should be turning.

All these difficulties are the help from Above sent in the form of obstacles to someone who possesses an aspiration toward finding the Creator. And a person thinks that the others succeed in keeping this one picture, one sensation that there is none else but the Creator. But for him, this image constantly fades away and gets lost.

It is easy for the world to say it, but he is the only one for whom it’s hard, and he constantly struggles through it as if in a fog and doesn’t understand who acts: himself, the Creator, or both of them together, and what relationship should be formed with Him. Nothing is clear.

It seems unfair that he gets only hardships from the Creator instead of help. Is that how a loving and kind Creator would act? Why then does He use such cunning devices and set man up for such problems in life and from which we don’t know how to escape?

A person thinks that even the most ruthless person wouldn’t do this. After all, where does all the cruelty in the world come from if not from the very same upper force? All of the most brutal and horrible things come from only one force, and moreover, we have to decide that this force is good, endlessly loving, and working solely for the good, is that it?

If we take a look at the world, it’s impossible to acknowledge this. We only get convinced of how easy it is to confuse us and it  makes us doubt the uniqueness of the upper force, when we see the world before us, filled with pain, problems, violence, terror, and hate.

Is it not the same upper force that causes it? Surely so, since there is none else but Him, and we don’t do anything ourselves. I see with my own eyes that the world is ruled by the force of evil not the force of good. And try as I may to hold myself to the thought that there is none else besides the good Creator, I balance as if on the point of  needle and am about to fall. After all, from every direction I receive proof of the very opposite, and it seems quite real to me.

I can’t even close my eyes to what is happening and lie to myself. I see that I simply must get to know the Creator! And then, a true need emerges in me. I am not willing to view Him as an evil force! But for me to experience Him as the good force, I require His help.
[41542]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

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It is necessary to understand that we are before the Creator, the force that is good and does good, and that there is none else besides Him. What will you ask of Him? He treats you 100% well and doesn’t change. What will you ask, that He should treat you 101% well?

Our plea to the Creator is regarded as the development of our sensory organs. Then, by arranging our desire, constantly molding it into a more correct form, we reach a state where we must know the Creator in all His totality, His authentic form. And this is regarded as a prayer, after which we get to know the Creator.

We don’t order any actions of the Creator. After all, He is “one, unique, and unified” and “there is none else besides Him.” It can be said that He acts constantly or not at all, while we reside in Him and that’s it; He does not change. It all depends on how we view the Creator.

Thus, to pray, in Hebrew, means to “judge oneself.” We judge ourselves or change, and due to our internal transformations, feel a new, other reality. Hence, we always speak on behalf of desires (Kelim), whereas the Light, or the Creator, is at absolute rest.

Therefore, a plea to the Creator reflects solely to what extent I have corrected myself and acquired new organs of perception, in which I reach the revelation of “There is none besides Him, the good who does good.” And no action ever derives from the Creator as such.
[41540]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/2011, Shamati No.1

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Question: Ever since we started studying the article “There is none else besides Him,” I feel totally confused about the intention. If the upper Light is constantly at work, doing 100%, then what is the “Light that reforms?” And whom do I ask for it? From whom do I demand it for others? What works here if everything is inside of me?

Answer: Suppose I have a remote control. I press a button and activate some kind of mechanism. Nowadays there are many devices that work this way. However, if you were to show this to a person who lived 100 years ago, he would think that you are simply an angel that performs miracles: You press a button and suddenly the glass turns into a picture….

That is, using the remote control I can activate various systems. For example, I press a button and you, who are looking at a piece of glass (a screen), start to receive all sorts of impressions. You start crying and then laughing, experiencing worry and then joy. It turns out that by simply pressing a button, I made such a powerful impact on you. I influenced a friend.

Kabbalists say that when reading The Book of Zohar, it’s as if you are holding the remote control to all the souls and they depend on you. Think about how you awaken them! This is called “pressing a button.” If you think about this, then you “press the button” and activate an influence that causes them to begin awakening.

Everything depends on how much you desire for this to happen and how many other people also aspire to awaken others. All the efforts must be both qualitative and quantitative.

That is how we awaken one another. No one can awaken himself. Every person can attain this spiritual community called “the group” only in order to awaken others. Otherwise, he does not even come in contact with the group. That’s because the group is like Malchut of the world of Atzilut.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/11, The Zohar

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The upper Light leads a person through many ascents and descents, continuously giving him the sensation that only the Creator can help him. After all, He’s the one who sent me all of the troubles in order to finally teach me to pray for redemption.

The redemption is the revelation of the Creator; I ask precisely in order to live under His single power, which is the only thing that exists. I don’t want to get confused any longer or to feel any other forces. Even though I understand that all forces come from Him, yet I want to be controlled just by this single force—the force of bestowal and love for the neighbor.

I want to reveal Him because this is the truth! All my other states are a lie. Only then a demand and outcry is born in a person to which the upper force brings him. This force had always played with him, confusing him to increase his self-assurance, creating difficulties for him so he would become stronger.

That is how a person reaches a prayer and reveals the Creator. Now he does not search for the Creator in order to get rid of all his troubles and searches, but wants to be under the power of “There is none else besides Him.” This means
coming out of Pharaoh’s slavery and becoming a slave of the Creator.
[41546]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/11, Shamati #1

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Whether we like it or not, in each state we must always come to feel the lack, that is, to imagine the future state out of our present one. If I construct it correctly, then despite of all my efforts to do so, I will feel how distant I really am from it. In other words, I really want it, and yet I am unable to attain it.

This is called a “lack,” preparation for the future state, which is always revealed before passing into a new state. This feeling of lack is very multidimensional and unpleasant.

The next state shines on me, and because of this luminescence, I begin to value it more, while perceiving my present state as defective and insufficient. I feel the extent to which I lack the strength to ascend and the extent to which I desire it.

As a result, I come to a convergence of my passionate desire to ascend and my realization that I have no chance of making it happen, and that is when I erupt into a prayer, a scream, and the upper Light comes to my aid. After all, this scream (prayer) shows my great desire, which draws the right kind of Light, helping me to ascend to the next degree.

I must come to a scream which comprises two components: 1) my great desire to achieve bestowal, and 2) the realization that I can never achieve it. It is only when I’m about to explode from this pressure caused by my desire and my powerlessness to actualize it, that the Light reacts to the pain and influences me.

Waiting for the Light to come by itself is pointless. It comes in response to my desire for bestowal and draws me with the force sufficient to raise me to a higher degree.
[41023]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/18/2011, “This Is for Judah”

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Question: When a person tries to come out of Egypt, meaning self-love, he receives blows which he can overcome only by asking the Creator for help. But besides that there is also the material, earthly egoism which receives blows at its level, such as problems with one’s family, health, income, and so on. How should we relate to these problems?

Answer: No matter what kind of problem emerges in my life, first and foremost I must see it as a disturbance that came from the Creator. Even if I am in pain, I must still rise above that disturbance through faith above reason. Despite it all, I know that I have to make calculations above the disturbance and not under its weight. I must stay in touch with its “sender,” the Creator.

As for responsible actions, in the realm of this world I have to resolve all the problems by the commonly accepted methods. When it comes to the bank, work, family, and health, I have to take care of everything just like any person in our world.

Thus, you build up a two-sided attitude to the problems:

– First of all, they come from the Creator and you are dealing only with Him. You want to have these disturbances because they give you the opportunity to rise above knowledge and stay in touch with the Creator. Then you are correctly treating the disturbances and you even begin to love and respect them. After all, no matter how much they bother you, no matter how much salt they put on your wounds, and no matter how nerve-wracking they are, this is exactly what helps you rise above them.

– Secondly, you resolve the incoming problems the way it’s customary in the material world.

Both of these dimensions must be present in your attitude. You attribute the problems to the Creator, and at the same time you want to work with them. We do not throw Pharaoh out of our lives, but we enjoy his troubles. After all, only through them can we reject him and separate from him, and thus ascend higher and higher.

Pharaoh is my most precious flesh, my core, my most sensitive point, my child, the most important and finest string inside of me.

Question: But Pharaoh resists the unity of friends. What do the material troubles have to do with it?

Answer: They also distract you from the inner work. It’s not accidental that so many Kabbalists experienced material problems. The Creator deliberately caused them to be sick and despised by the people around them. It was in order to give them a place where they could overcome.

At the end of the day, all of this is a result of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart. The desire gradually becomes revealed inside of you and in conformity to it you experience various problems, both in others and in yourself.

Question: Do I have to ask for help in these cases? After all, the Creator helps us in only one respect—unification.

Answer: That’s right, and the problems obstruct you from doing this. When you are sick, it’s difficult for you to focus on love for friends. Most likely, you forget all about it. And that means you have to ask for help. There is none else besides Him. Everything comes from the Creator, but it happens through different channels.

You have to attain the goal, but your body, your “little donkey” is sick and cannot carry you. So what should you do? Leave him to die? But you need him on the path.

Why do you perceive this world separately from the spiritual work? Even small disturbances can be helpful if you work with them correctly. No matter what happens to us, it’s important to remember that this comes from a single Source, until we really come to feel that we are in spiritual exile.
[40571]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/13/11, Shamati

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Writings of Rabash, “The First Innovation”: All the innovations begin only after a person comes out of self-love. Therefore, the Torah cannot be taught to idolaters. When a person is in Egypt, he cannot be Jewish because he is enslaved to Pharaoh, the Egyptian king. And as long as he is a slave to Pharaoh, he cannot be a slave to the Creator.

It is written concerning this, “The sons of Israel are for Me,” they are My slaves and not slaves of slaves. When a person serves himself, he cannot be the Creator’s slave because it is impossible to serve two kings at the same time. Only after a person comes out of Egypt, meaning egoism, can he be the Creator’s servant. And then he can receive the Torah. It follows that the first innovation is the exit from Egypt.

A person who is inside of his egoistic desire is called a “non-Jew.” A person who rises above his egoistic desire, meaning who comes out of Egypt, is called a “Jew” (Yehudi) because he attains unity (Ihud) with the Light, the Creator.

It is possible to study the Torah, meaning the ways of bestowal, only by ascending, by coming out of Egypt. That is why it is written that the Torah cannot be taught to idolaters, where “cannot” means “it is impossible.” That’s because as long as you remain in the egoistic desire, you do not understand anything about spirituality and you don’t have the smallest chance of reaching it. In your desires and thoughts you cannot grab hold of the end of any thread that extends from the spiritual world.

You need auxiliary means, and only by correctly using them will you attain what you desire. Therefore, all the innovations and spiritual changes are possible only after coming out of Egypt, meaning egoism. Until then, it is impossible to understand anything. Until then, we are in total darkness and can only advance with our eyes closed according to the Kabbalists’ advice.

This is all that remains for us—to understand how opposite our world is to the spiritual world. In order to climb out of the darkness to the Light, it won’t help us to turn 180 degrees around. That’s because our darkness is the darkness of Egypt, which does not have a direction toward the Light. Only gradually, by means of making the right actions do we reach the right desire. Even though it is also egoistic, yet by virtue of the Light’s influence we can then come out of Egypt into the altruistic intention of Lishma.

This is talking about states that are absolutely divided from one another. A person who is in the lower world, meaning in the egoistic state, in the intention “for the sake of reception” is unable to understand the plans and actions of those who are moved by bestowal. One does not have any contact with the other. They are completely different programs that do not intersect with one another in any way.

In relation to the spiritual world, our world does not exist. It is expressed only in a person’s imagination as a preliminary, imaginary reality that is necessary for entering the spiritual reality, which is the only one that exists. Everything we see and imagine here is similar to the visions of a person who lies unconscious.

Therefore, all the innovations, attainments, and true calculations begin with the exit from Egypt.
[40487]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What should the world Kli focus on now in order to feel that we are in Egypt and to really desire to come out of it?

Answer: We have to remain in an ascent instead of a descent. Each of us and all of us together should never descend or stray from the established order because this will definitely cast us down.

We must very quickly turn to the week of Passover and prepare ourselves, understanding what the exodus from Egypt means. We must prepare for this inspiration and this surge with all our might. The more powerful our aspiration will be, the more we will be influenced by the Lights of Passover.

We have to actualize this right now. First of all, we must be united. It’s not one person that comes out of Egypt, but everyone without exception: women, men, children, and the elderly. This is the unification toward the common exodus. This is what we have to think about, constantly keeping the intention.

There is less than a week left until the holiday. A “holiday” is an external sign, but by using these seven days we will be able to unite, to create such a connection and form such intentions at the lessons that we will “get a lift” forward.

Some people are experiencing a descent and others—an ascent. Others yet are feverishly undergoing changes. But we need all of these states. A person must value a descent just as an ascent because you can’t have one without the other.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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