Fundamentals Of Kabbalah – 04.07.13
Posted on April 7th, 2013
A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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Rabash, “What is the People’s Shepherd is the Whole Nation in the Work”: But the main difficulty is only the lack of faith. Thus, a person has to devote all his work and perform actions in order to buy the faith in the Creator, which is the only thing that provides him with everything.
It is about a special force that, together with all the troubles, problems, tensions, and internal conflicts, keeps a person in the state of Hafetz Hesed. This means that it doesn’t make his life easier, but that it keeps him above the heaviness of life.
This force doesn’t solve the corporeal problems and doesn’t free a person of them. On the contrary, every spiritual level is built above the unsolved corporeal conflicts of the current level. Otherwise, a person would not be forced to rise above it. Having no choice under the pressure of the ego, he needs the state of Hafetz Hesed. Otherwise, he will simply not be able to live. On the other hand, this is necessary because he will never bring the Creator contentment.
This is the choice between these two discernments, between the two causes according to which a person advances to a spiritual life.
Question: What is his choice exactly?
Answer: You may choose to be in Hafetz Hesed in order to simply walk around in the forest with a flower in your hand and not wanting anything more than that, or you may not be able to stand the pains that this life brings and wish to escape to a place where everything seems good, where everything is for the best, since there is none else besides Him. Indeed, don’t I deserve such a good state?
You either yearn for the state of Hafetz Hesed because it is a higher level that allows you to remain above all the unpleasant feelings in the desire to receive or in order to remain in bestowal and to appreciate it more than receiving. It is quite hard to explain this to ourselves, but it is already the beginning of the real state of Hafetz Hesed.
[104195]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/3/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: Why do we begin to love others only if we invest in them?
Answer: It is no secret that we love only ourselves—not even the people closest to us, not anyone else, but only ourselves. When can we love something or someone outside of ourselves? It is if we invest ourselves in them.
If a mother does not take care of her child, she does not love him, and, if she is given someone else’s child, continuously takes care of him, and raises him, then he will become as her own because she invested herself in him.
It is the same with anything else such as, let’s say, an artist and the picture he has painted, and so on. If I put my work, my effort, and my desire into something, then, to the extent of my effort, this object becomes dear to me because it contains part of me. I myself am in this object.
So, if for many years, we invest in the group, it becomes close to us, dear, and we cannot just leave it (if we truly invest in it).
It is a condition that you must work for the friends all the time. Then, you will begin to feel that they are close to you, and this gives you a chance to feel their desires. After all, it is precisely those desires that you receive from the group that you turn to the upper Light and it begins to shine on you.
There is no point of turning to it with your desire; it will not work. That is why we try so much and in vain. In addition, if we take the group desires and turn them to the Light, we will succeed at once. Try! You need to invest in the group. Then, it will become dear, and we quickly will feel the upper world.
[104107]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 5
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Question: Our work is divided into two types: work within the group and work for the 99% of humanity. Often, the combination of these two orientations creates confusion, and as a result, all kinds of problems emerge in the group. How does one need to work correctly with these two orientations in a group and maintain its integrity?
Answer: Everything relevant to the property of bestowal, to this spiritual property, is the opposite to us; so, it is not grasped directly, simply, and clearly by us.
I am sure that many of you have already passed through similar states. You study and participate in group events; generally, everything is sufficiently understandable and clear to you, and then suddenly, “Boom!” everything is blocked: You don’t know and don’t understand anything; it becomes impermeable, you don’t grasp anything. You can be found in a state like this for days or a week, and it could even be longer.
This is when the upper Light is acting and influencing us. Then suddenly everything begins to become clear, everything becomes much simpler and understandable than it was before; you read the same text and begin to understand it more deeply.
We need to adhere to spiritual laws, to the properties that don’t exist in us. And when our senses are dulled, this is when the upper Light, the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) is influencing us. At this time we are changed.
During this process of changing we don’t know anything; we are found in a state of stupor. After then, when the Light ends its influence, it is as if we wake up; light appears in our eyes, we begin to understand everything in a clear and good form; we begin to see everything better.
The same thing is happening to us now (I feel this in regard to all the groups) with integral education. In our minds this is still not working. We already understand that we need to move forward, to change ourselves, to place ourselves under the influence of the Light, but we don’t know what to do to introduce integral education, how to turn to the 99%.
This is a process that we need to begin to feel within us. It will slowly sink into us. We still think and talk about this and understanding will disappear for us again and again. Two or three months will pass. Look at how long we wait until a baby grows up, twenty years. The same thing here too, we must wait.
Today we are undergoing huge changes. Some of them pass quickly and some slowly.
I am sure that within two or three months, you will begin to describe to yourselves clearly where integral education is found, where the group that studies Kabbalah is found, how we need to relate to the 99% of the population, and how to relate to our friends, how to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah and how to disseminate integral education.
All of this will work out over time. It seems to us that we are talking about simple things that do not have anything complicated about them. Many of us graduated from college, studied for many years, but this doesn’t matter. The intellect will not help here. Anyway, it is necessary to continue to learn and be involved in integral education as well as the wisdom of Kabbalah.
First, you will have great confusion in your mind, then everything will begin to become clear. If you want to speed up this process, you need to be seriously occupied with both of them. If you are not occupied with this, nothing will work out. You will not attract the Surrounding Light onto yourselves.
It could be that you don’t have the possibility of being occupied with dissemination through the Internet, virtual networks, the blog, and so forth. So, begin to be involved with the translation of books; do something, get published, print and distribute flyers. But it’s best to work with the Internet, it is free. And if you produce something interesting, millions of people will see it.
[104110]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 5
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Question: Why at the end of the Passover holidays does one feel heaviness of the heart, and how is it possible to help your friends who feel it harder than you?
Answer: I didn’t think that you would already reach heaviness of the heart. I thought the opposite, that during the holidays we felt the need to advance in two lines: right and left, in order to connect them at each moment to the middle line, to the Creator, to “There is none else besides Him” Who directs us. We are incorporated within Him and adhere to Him in that we all connect to one man with one heart and merge with Him into one whole.
And in this way we remain adhered and happy in the most difficult heaviness of the heart since we are able to connect it to the same state of unity, rise even higher, and be even more dependent on the Creator. And that is a wonderful action that is given us, and one needs to give the effort in order to execute it.
[104117]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/2/13, Writings of Rabash
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Question: How is it possible to remain loyal to the most important thing and not forget about the connection in all possible situations?
Answer: We constantly need to remind each other about that. This is called Arvut, mutual guarantee.
We must create a network that doesn’t allow us, even for one moment, to forget about the connection: read parts of the lessons or articles several times a day, talk, think, listen to our songs, and study, which means do whatever is possible in order to live within it. And in parallel with our daily business, work, and care of the family, within us there always needs to be the yearning for connection.
[104043]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 5
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Question: The current period is very difficult. We feel the pressure put on us; the Creator is very strict with us. In what way, here in Europe, can we rise above all our fears to respond appropriately to what the Creator wants from us?
Answer: Our main goal is connection, unity. Even if we don’t disseminate the method of integral education, our connection will influence the world anyway. It will seemingly spread under the ground and influence everyone.
Everyone will begin talking about this. Everyone will begin to think and to understand since the entire world is interconnected anyway. This is known from scientific research, and people already feel this: Something that I think about in one country in the world suddenly begins to be discovered in thoughts and actions in another country, and so forth.
So, first and foremost, we need unity. Especially, if we begin to connect beyond the borders of Europe! And the moment we begin to do this, we will feel that the relationships between nations, between people, will become completely different. The media are beginning to present information in a slightly different form: in a softer, mutual form, with the understanding that there is no other choice, it is necessary to campaign for good relations with one another. Therefore, we need to go towards this.
And then, from our connection, we already disseminate the method of integral education itself. This is not complicated at all. You can’t imagine how quickly this will be realized; we simply need to take on the right form and to act; this is the main thing in the wisdom of Kabbalah. For you can invest immense amounts of energy, years of toil, squeeze out of yourselves everything that is possible, but if this doesn’t progress in the right direction, deviating a little to the side, then nothing will come of this!
Baal HaSulam writes in his book Shamati, that Israel is someone who is directed straight towards the Creator; the Torah is the system that connects people because it acts to implement the general rule “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” This is to say, if you direct yourself towards love, towards the connection between you, directly towards the Creator, then you will reach the Creator. But if you distort this way slightly, then you veer to the side. This angular distance can be very small, but when you advance, the distance grows.
We need to pay attention to this, and then it will not be complicated and difficult at all. Very quickly, really immediately, you will feel the right reaction from the world. People will suddenly begin to find you, to turn to you and ask: “Where were you up to now?”
[103915]
From the European Convention in Germany 3/23/13, Lesson 4
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Question: How can I become an example for the group?
Answer: You simply have to be it. Let’s say that starting today, I become an example for the group. I smile to everyone, love, help, remind about the importance of the goal, and do what is written in Rabash’s articles about the group. This is all.
[104214]
From Lesson 5, European Convention 3/22/13
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Question: How is it possible to check whose servant you are: a servant of Pharaoh or a servant of the Creator? How is this examination realized, intellectually or emotionally?
Answer: We check with the mind what we feel in our heart. A heart is all the desires of a person, and I need to check who controls my desires: the will to receive with an intention in order to receive or with an intention in order to bestow. The will to receive is always there; it is the substance of creation, but I must examine for what I am working.
This examination is done only through the group. In our physical world we cannot measure anything without a scale of measurement. We require some unit of measurement: a meter, a kilogram, Hertz, a measurement scale with which I will be able to measure and weigh some phenomenon.
How can I weigh a desire and my intention that controls it? This is only possible depending on how I adhere to the group and associate myself with the whole. Through this I can measure myself and change something within me. Otherwise, I will always be mistaken.
Therefore, “And you shall love your neighbor as yourself” is called the fundamental rule in the Torah for it controls everything. If I do not place myself correctly relative to society, I will not be able to see where I am at all. With my measurements, I will not be able to discern any error, neither the smallest nor the largest.
[103981]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13
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Question: What is the meaning of adhering to the group?
Answer: To adhere to the group is to be with the friends in the entire process through which they are passing, to perform the tasks, to participate in all the events: in studies, dissemination, duties, gatherings of friends, workshops, and paying maaser. I need to try to be a useful and active participant in all this. These are mechanical actions of joining a group, which are visible.
Besides this, within myself, I wholeheartedly try to be included in this image called a “group,” to disappear, to melt there. I want to be absorbed within this concept of the “group,” the “society,” so that nothing of me remains.
If I try to do this according to my egoistic motives, to the extent of my efforts, I become closer to the Light, and It brings me thoughts about this and shows how appropriate I am to it or not. So, I begin to demand that the Light correct me more. I begin to relate to my inclusion in a group in a more practical way, connecting this inclusion with the Light that influences me and helps me to enter a group.
It follows that the more I am included in it, the more states I begin to discern: greater or smaller inclusion, how much I forget about myself, how much more I belong to the friends, how much more or less I love them. Only according to this do I evaluate my ascents and descents, since no other ascents and descents exist.
And so together with everyone, I turn to the upper Light that makes of us one whole. And here the work begins. All measurements and evaluations take place only in regard to the group because without this there is no correct measuring scale, there is no correction with which I would be able to examine myself.
I have no indication and evaluation of my emotions, not in relation to the Creator and not in relation to myself, if we don’t do this within the group. The group is the place where I feel, measure, and carry out all spiritual actions.
There is no other place outside of it! There, in the group, I need to discover hatred and my ego, all of my characteristics. All that is discovered outside the group doesn’t require any correction. Only what is discovered in the relationships between the friends, this is the only thing that we need to correct. Pharaoh, the ego is the force of mutual rejection and of hatred that is discovered in a group. And outside the group, this is all the physical life of the animal body.
[103976]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/13
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