Question: I’ve been studying Kabbalah for a few years, and it’s clear to me that what matters most is my internal work. However, it still seems to me that I don’t really understand what it is. Will you explain in greater detail what our internal work is?

Answer: My internal work is to try as hard as I can to join the collective internal work of creating the vessel for the reception of the Light. The end of an action is in its initial thought. First, I yearn for the state in which I reveal the Creator. What is that state? It’s the state in which several points in the heart join together. If I create the right unified system with these points in which the power of bestowal resides, I will discover the force called the “Creator” in it. I will discover Him according to the level of our unity.

So our internal work is about unity, mutual guarantee. It is said: “Love thy neighbor as thyself is the great rule of the Torah.” A rule (Klal) is the vessel (Kli) that contains all the Light. This is the only thing I need, and this is why I stay focused on it.

I try to do different things that will lead to the internal unity of the points in our hearts. I look for opportunities to unite and to awaken the friends towards it. I am concerned about all of us being in one intention, thought, about being inspired and connected so that the fire among us will burn. Then we will reveal the Creator there.

His revelation is the only thing we need. The essence of the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is the revelation of the Creator to the created being in this world.
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From Lesson 2 at Arava Convention 10/28/2011

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Question: At one of your recent lectures you said that we have to act. What do you mean?

Answer: As the world becomes more interconnected and integral, for our well-being in it, our interconnection must assume the same form. Experience shows that we are already lagging behind the interconnected world, and that is why our actions become more and more erroneous. We need to learn the new structure of the world and correspond to it. This is a guarantee of success in life.

Question: Is it possible to prepare teenagers for the convention? They have a good desire to join the Mutual Guarantee (Arvut) movement in the future. Today, it is difficult with these children. I want my second son to be able to participate in the preparation for the convention, not with adults, but with children like him.

Answer: You have to call and solve this matter with the organizers; I am sure that your son will find his place and activity during the preparation for and at the convention.

Question: It is difficult to gather in one place in such large countries like Mexico. How important is it to get together physically in one place at least once a year?

Answer: It is desirable, as much as it is reasonably possible, to gather in groups, and as large as possible.
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The world is standing at the threshold of a dramatic rise in unemployment. Millions will be thrown to the curb without the slightest opportunity to find a job so they could put bread on the table. A new source of income has to be made available to them—integral study.

We must understand that by attracting the Light that reforms, by acting for the sake of common unity, by studying the laws of the new world and the principles of life in it, a person deserves to have the minimum conditions for a respectable existence provided for him. This enables him to become a positive and necessary part of society.

We have already contacted people who make decisions, offering them this path. A person who was laid off cannot be left to his own devices at home or thrown to the whim of fate. This will make him cruel, besides turning him into a bum who will never be able to go back to work. Having no other choice, he will resort to drugs, criminal activity, and so on. If we don’t keep people busy, things will escalate to a social collapse.

In this regard we have to understand that the new activity, studying, will be the correction. It is simply necessary for us to have people sit down at the desk to study. This is not a pittance by any means nor a chance to “kill time,” but a social function that is necessary to all. In essence, the people who are studying will already begin working on society’s rehabilitation, and that is exactly how we will treat them as well.

And those who keep their jobs should also be involved in the study. Maybe they will split their working hours with the people who were laid off, and then everyone will be able to study for half a day. This routine has to be instituted lawfully. After all, we are all a single society and we all want social justice. That means we have to distribute our time justly: Work is divided among everyone, and so is the study, and on average, everyone receives similar salaries.

Life itself is dictating this approach to us. It is impossible to continue chasing the “American dream.” It has already come crashing down and it’s time for us to wake up.

Question: Is this kind of study enough to solve all the problems?

Answer: Yes. After all, it’s not simply a study, but various types of training, as well as a connection to the current events and phenomena, an explanation of the single world and the need for a good interconnection. A person learns to unite with others and starts to understand that by virtue of that, we awaken the forces concealed within us. They are already contained in the integral society and they will bring the necessary order to it. With their help, we will obtain the same qualities as nature and will stop being a faulty, antagonistic appendage in it. We will go from being a cancerous tumor to an integral part, thereby attaining unity and rehabilitation of the whole world.

Unity is our salvation. Only by uniting will we attain results. Today we are discovering the fact that human society is a single whole, and we must consciously go along with this tendency from our own desire. It’s time to understand that there is no other way to go.

Baal HaSulam says that this does not involve anything more than a psychological difficulty. A person is unable to change himself from within: It’s easy to turn this lever, but hard to reach it. However, as soon as he grabs hold of it, the world will change to the opposite with one movement.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: It is written, “Do not do to another what you hate.” Who is “the neighbor”?

Answer: In principle, “the neighbor” is every person in the world. But for us that is too much. For now we do not yet know how to treat our enemies and opponents correctly. This has to be learned separately.

Therefore, for me the “neighbor” is my friend in the group, a person who wants to unite with me to attain the spiritual goal. This is the condition we have to carry out in the group. We might think badly of our friends and look at them critically, but if we nevertheless try to create the right network of interconnection among us in our spiritual work, if we don’t want to hold grudges against others in any of our thoughts, desires, aspirations, or intentions, by that we already extend threads toward each other.

Until then, this network will only bring us troubles and bad sensations. But as soon as we breathe life into it with our attitude, devoid of criticism and mutual blame, we will immediately feel the electricity flowing between us, will feel how the air in the group grows thicker and turns into “jelly,” connecting us all into one whole.

That is exactly the feeling one gets: The air gets denser around us, turning into a liquid and then into a viscous substance, becoming a gradually solidifying “dough” until we see that we are like raisins embedded into our common “pie.”
[59218]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/30/11, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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A Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah
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Question: How does one bestow upon the world?

Answer: You take the desires of everyone and fill them as much as you can. That is called love. That is the act of love.

Question: Which desires do I take?

Answer: If you love them, you fill only their necessary desires. You won’t buy unhealthy food for your child. You buy him something tasty, but the main thing is that it is healthy.

Question: But what if he specifically wants fast food?

Answer: If you love, you can’t fill the desires that are bad for him. After all, you wouldn’t give your son a knife to play with if he asked for one. Isn’t that the same thing as fast food?

A true relationship, a real love, hardens you. The pity you feel now is actually egoistic pity; you feel sorry for yourself, not him. If you really had pity for him, you would give only what is healthy for him, only that which benefits his development and nothing else.

The child will get used to this very quickly. If you behave this way from the beginning, he won’t even ask you for things that are harmful.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/2011, “The Love for the Creator and Love for the Created Beings”

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Question: How can you explain to people that it’s worthwhile to connect with others if they don’t see any practical results yet? It’s madness to work without seeing any results.

Answer: Of course, the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t say that we should act without any fuel and disregard the results. We have to create such an environment, such a society, which would provide a person with fuel for his bestowal. The environment should impress me so that I would want to join it and enjoy bestowing to it. It’s the society that should provide me with the necessary strength for that.

So how do you create such a society? It’s our job. We, the one per cent of humanity, should create an environment for us and for the whole world and set such values within it that would make a person want to serve others and to be satisfied by doing so. It isn’t difficult to do; on the contrary, a person will want to bestow, will like it, and everyone will respect him for that. This is a much greater reward than grants or other bonuses. After all, this reward is conveyed spiritually, out of the respect and appreciation of the environment.

Thus, a person receives fuel, which makes him enjoy every moment of bestowal much more that he enjoys receiving today. Furthermore, it encourages him to invest in society even more. It is worthwhile; one immediately feels how good it is. The spiritual Light is the Light of pleasure that spreads inside a giver when he bestows. Thus the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn’t leave you empty, but rather fills you with pleasure while you act.

You may ask about the intention, but with regard to the masses this question is irrelevant at the moment. In the meantime it’s about an egoistic intention of Lo Lishma (for oneself). Society can actually oblige a person to bestow, not by force but rather by the general spirit.

We do many things in life to gain the respect of others. I make great efforts and waste a lot of money for this. Take my wardrobe for example: Who needs all that? I don’t, but it’s my tribute to generally accepted norms. Couldn’t I just buy a simple cheap car that doesn’t require years of work in order to pay for it? But I choose a prestigious brand to make my neighbors jealous.

It is the same in everything we do, it may be buying an apartment, getting married, having children, or any other detail in our lives. If only we knew the real calculations… I always concede to the environment’s values. I am enslaved to others. See how TV influences us: It forces me to concede to whoever wishes to make a profit at my expense.

But do I bestow by buying their products and services? They simply ruin me. I always think about how to invest my money, but what do I invest it in? If I knew how to bestow upon society and upon the general system, I would enjoy that just as I enjoy when I fulfill the egoistic desire of the trickster who makes a profit at my expense. I would invest in the environment, and it would repay me by supporting me when I feel weak and providing my family with all that it needs….

What do we get from the tycoons who suck our blood today? Nothing! Open your eyes and see what’s happening in the world. Ninety-nine percent of your efforts are wasted on the egoistic desires for the environment. In the society of mutual guarantee, however, you would serve the environment that is built on the idea of equality. You would feel security and peace, and you would get a warm and friendly response from it.

It is hard to imagine in our heart and mind how destructive the present situation is. We are in the worst kind of slavery. It’s as if we are hypnotized, programmed to be in endless competition: I haven’t bought everything yet, not everyone is behind me yet. Society is constantly pressuring you. You think that you are working for your family, your children, and yourself, but it isn’t so! It is only one big illusion.

If we look at what is among us from the side, we will discover horrible things. All these systems are based only on the egoistic exploitation of others.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/2011, “Peace in the World”

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Question: What kind of contract do we form that allows us to continue when our desire disappears?

Answer: A contract formed for the sake of the future is like an athlete training for a future competitive performance. I am training now because I want to attain great results later.

These are artificial exercises in the same way as when I lift a bar-bell, jump to get stronger, and then perform what I am now training for. I do exercises that imitate the future state so that I can better withstand it when it comes.

This is done in the army and anywhere else where the purpose is to educate a person and prepare him or her for special actions. The real-life situation is imitated with the use of imagination. The person knows that he is participating in training maneuvers that are directly related to reality and are close to the situations he will encounter in real combat.

In forming a contract, we are working for the future. The only difference is that in our contract, we want to connect with the upper force that we feel close to now. This is why we do exercises that teach us to not detach from it even in states of separation that will come at some later time.

There is no past, present, or future. I do not attract anything from the past; everything exists in me now, in the present. However, today, when I prepare myself for a state of descent, I receive an opportunity to better withstand it.

After all, I have already built the model of this state and did the exercises ahead of time to prepare for what will happen if the Light that Reforms does not come to me, and the strength that supports me will not be there. Otherwise, how could I demand it and act as it was with me.

I form this contract with my friends and the Creator, the force that gives me life and supports me, the force of spiritual life. Right now, this force holds me and gives me the opportunity to listen and learn, but a day could come when I could not come to the lesson, participate in it, advance, or ask questions. Then, I will want the force, which now is close to me and inspires me to study, to stay with me and help me once again.

I train for the future in the exact same way as any sportsman or person who thinks about tomorrow and prepares himself for future action. This is not a written contract, but you can replay this situation within you as if you were going somewhere with somebody else. Come to certain arrangements with another person and do certain things. For this reason, you plan ahead of time how you will be going, what you will say, and how you present yourself. You place yourself in a similar situation ahead of time.

However, what is special about a spiritual contract is that you form it when you are full of strength and plan for a future state of complete hopelessness, trying to become accustomed to it.
[58781]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If I know that I am searching for eternal happiness contained in bestowal, but I am not yet feeling it, what should my artificial appeal be like?

Answer: We need to talk more about the qualities we don’t yet possess but are playing with like children. Except that a child perceives his game to be the most serious and real thing, and he grows due to this fact. While when I am playing, I know that this is not serious and not real. Herein lies the whole problem.

If I were able to invest more of the heart and mind into this game, I would be receiving more benefit from it. Although however it may be, the game works nevertheless. The Light is influencing me and I am changing.

Most importantly, one needs to continue. As it is written: “Let anything happen, whatever may come, only do not leave,” and then you will come to it. The Light will keep influencing you ever stronger each time. And even though it may require years, in the end you begin to notice changes inside of you, to value the quality of bestowal, and to move forward with it.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why is so much time and effort spent on these questions regarding corporeal life, that is, economic and world crises? As a beginner to the study of Kabbalah, this seems like a contradiction to what we are being told in the beginner classes regarding the “spiritual” and “corporeal” life. Can you provide some clarification, please?

Answer: The single purpose of our existence in this world of imaginary reality felt in the property “to receive” is to discover a true reality felt in the property of love and bestowal. To achieve this we are brought to the teacher and the group so that we, in the effort to unite with them into a single whole, would attract upon ourselves the influence of the upper Light and would reveal the world of bestowal.

Today, in addition to the group, the entire world is being revealed as another group. It discovers the harmful egoism within and gradually realizes that egoism is so evil that it wishes to get itself rid of it. Our task is to tell that it’s possible, to explain how it can be done—not by studying Kabbalah, but our world as a global, integral, and closed system, which is becoming a single whole more and more, as well as to instruct them on how we can build a society of mutual guarantee that would correspond to it.

If we assist them, we grow because we do not have any other mission. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the articles “The Giving of the Torah,” “Mutual Guarantee,” and others.
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