Question: We speak a lot about Lights and vessels but rarely examine the point of one’s own “I” that lies between them. What does it represent?

Answer: The “I” merely exists as my point of choice and no more than that. Everything else connects to it when it receives the desires of the others and fulfillment from the Creator. This point is like a pointer on a scale, the moment of choice, the section, the middle third of Tifferet. It doesn’t pertain to anything: neither reception nor bestowal.

The upper third of Tifferet pertains to the upper one, the qualities of the Creator, and the lower third pertains to the receiving desire, the creature. And there is literally nothing in the middle; it is a no man’s land.

Question: So what is there? After all, isn’t the choice realized according to certain criteria?

Answer: Once you get there, you will understand that this point is literally “hanging in the air.” You grow into a spiritual person out of this point; it is the initial point which exists in the middle, between the Light (existence from existence) and the desire (existence from absence). It is the miracle of creation.

We reach this point when we begin to connect to it all the desires and the Lights. Then as I act above these Lights and desires, I attain the point from which I act. It does not come from the Light or the vessel, but from the Creator’s essence.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Is it possible to define in two sentences the concept of unity to which people can aspire?

Answer: Unity is an action that turns all of humanity into an integral part of nature. Thus, we reassure nature—inside and outside us—and all together abide in peace and balance with all the forces.

Everything becomes calm in a psychological sense, in mechanical, biological, zoological, and other interactions. At every level, all the forces come to equilibrium. There is nothing better than the state of equilibrium. It is a harmony between all the parts which finally feel a real life instead of a struggle between them.

There are plenty of such examples in nature. It is a fact accepted by nearly all natural scientists, as well as sociologists and psychologists. We do not need to try too hard because today, many people are already thinking in that direction.

However, because of everyone’s individual egoism, they cannot unite to make it public, to confirm their vision in front of everyone. Even if they tried, their words would be completely powerless due to the lack of spirit in them.

The public explanation is entrusted solely to us, and no one can intercept this prerogative. They do understand, but are not able to organize and reach people. This task is assigned to us.

Question: Exactly what allows us to explain what is happening to humanity?

Answer: It is the internal connection with the source of good, with the source that performs correction. This is what no one but us has.

We cannot pass this task to anybody else. We do not hold it to ourselves; it’s simply that no one else can realize it. The explanation has to come from the connection with the upper one.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: What should be my role in the group: Zeir Anpin or Malchut? Or both of them?

Answer: You need to fulfill your friends with all your strength. This is the main commandment of the Torah: “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” I am not Malchut, I am Zeir Anpin. My only wish is to receive desires from everyone and fulfill them.

Then who represents Malchut? I play the role of Malchut before my friends in order to receive from them the strength for bestowal. This is a different channel of interconnection. I receive from them the strength to be the giver, and then I rise above them to bestow to them. The cells in the body interact the same way: Every cell receives from others and bestows to them.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: How do I avoid misleading myself into thinking that I’m advancing, but also assess my advancement accurately?

Answer: You cannot assess your advancement properly since you don’t have any means of measuring it. Until you’ve reached the spiritual world, you are unable to fathom what is in your possession, just as a child cannot differentiate between playing with toys and reality.

Similarly, an adult who works in a big company, a science lab, or a vast social system, who considers himself big, important, and involved in serious work doesn’t sense that he lives on a tiny planet near the border of a small galaxy, lost in the universe. Everyone feels his place in accordance with his degree.

But how do we receive a portion of the Light so that we can measure ourselves against it at our degree? It doesn’t have to be a complete assessment relative to our final, fully corrected state (this cannot be done until the end of correction), but we will gradually move toward it along the “right” and “left” lines. And we will use the “right” and “left” impressions to correctly balance ourselves along the “middle line.”
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From the 1st part of the DailyKabbalah Lesson 4/28/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What lesson for my work can I take away from the fact that reality is relative?

Answer: Reality is relative with respect to the one who attains it. Presently, I’m revealing some kind of reality, which appears to me in my desire and is called “my world.”

In my world there is a concealment “from above downward,” which I reveal, and my attainment “from below upward.” This division forces me to achieve a state where my movement “from above downward” merges with the movement “from below upward” into a single whole to the greatest possible depth.

In other words, I must aspire to make my attitude toward the Creator from below equivalent to the Creator’s attitude to me from Above. This is portrayed in the example with the guest and the host. If we equalize completely, that means we’ve achieved the deepest kind of connection, Malchut of the world of Infinity.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/2011, Shamati #166

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Question: I address the Creator to help me with bestowal to a fellow human being. Could you please describe this in more scientific language because, essentially, the Creator is the law of nature?

Answer: As we know, Malchut should cancel itself before Zeir Anpin (ZA). Then, ZA accepts its desire, and their desires rise together to the mother, to Bina. In response, Bina has to give Zeir Anpin an adult state (so that ZA grows up) as well as the Light for Malchut.

This is what the giver attains. If you ever really want to give to your friend, you will get twice as much. What you give him will create an adult state in you, a higher status, so that you produce your friend’s degree and give it to him.

For him, you will be great spiritually; you will be the giver. In this role, you receive new desires from him, and from Above, you get fulfillment. Thus, you constantly “expand” by receiving desires from others and the Light from Above.

This is what it means to be the giver. However, you “expand” in your vessels of bestowal. Here, a psychological transformation is hidden. How can you grow bigger in bestowal? Where is the profit? How do I fulfill myself? What fills me up?

Our problem is that we do not feel much gain in the vessels of bestowal. But this is obvious from the graph.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Is it true that we can become aware of evil only after the Machsom (barrier to spirituality)? What can I do until then?

Answer: Every degree has its measurement, its standards, and its criteria. Identically, I had different views of myself at the age of four, five, six, or seven.

Even now, I have a possibility to recognize evil. Physically, I am present in the group, but am I there with my soul? No, I am not. What will this state lead me to? What will happen to me? I cannot reach spirituality like this. It’s too bad. I feel sorry for lost time, a wasted life, from which I did not gain anything.

Then, I start hating what prevents me from connecting with the friends: my difference from them. Of course, all this occurs in egoism, in the receiving desire that wants to obtain spirituality so as to not miss anything in life. However, this puts me in the correct egoistic condition of Lo Lishma (for oneself), and then the influence of the Light turns it into the altruistic state of Lishma (for the sake of the Creator).

Anyway, shame is present here as well. First, I am ashamed of the possibility of being caught for theft, then I notice that it is not worthwhile stealing, at least not always. As a result, I change internally so that I do not want anything from anybody. All I want is to bestow. This is my aspiration, and I am happy with it.

Wonderfully, this is Lo Lishma, and the will to bestow, the act of bestowal, is already embedded in it. Although, there is compensation: a good feeling. In this way, we connect with good and do not demand anything for the time being.

At the next stage, the Light Reforms a person even without his awareness, and he really connects with to the Good Who does Good. Thus first, I connect with good that makes me feel good, and then, I switch to real bestowal to the Creator.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/26/2011, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: Is it possible not to make any mistakes on the spiritual path?

Answer: To tell you the truth, we do not make mistakes. We reveal the uncorrected desire, which in reality is also not impaired, but is intended to provide us with a contrast, a difference between two opposite states. Otherwise we wouldn’t feel any state.

Therefore, we never have mistakes or any kind of mishaps. The opposite state has to become revealed. We are creatures, and are unable to perceive any phenomenon by itself. We can only feel it my measuring, evaluating, and perceiving it in relation to something else. There has to be “me” and “what I feel,” one object compared to another.

It is impossible to feel any phenomenon by itself because that would be the Creator before He made the creation, when it is even impossible to say about Him that He is good and does good. For whom is He good? For whom does He do goodness? After all, goodness can only be evaluated compared to evil that already exists.

Therefore, we cannot even talk about the essence of the Creator the way philosophers try to reason because we do not have the capability to perceive it, nor the words to describe it. Creation starts with being opposite to the Creator, at least slightly removed from Him. This “slightly” gives creation its own status, the sensation of one thing opposite another—black against white, “the advantage of the Light is from the darkness.” Then there is something to talk about.

We don’t even know how a phenomenon can exist by itself. Can you possibly create some kind of form that does not have any distinctions, boundaries, characteristics, and shades of color—anything? You are unable to perceive that kind of thing. This is something we don’t perceive. If there are no shades or distinctions present, then we do not perceive.

After all, all of our senses, like the five earthly senses, are built on the fact that a certain influence hits my nerve endings, and then I receive some kind of impression: visual, auditory, tactile, taste, or smell. I need nerve endings, there has to be a collision, a striking, and mutual interaction between two opposites—and then I perceive. If there is no striking, then there is no sensation. When do I begin feeling the Creator? From the striking (Hakaa), the collision between the desire and the Light.
From the lesson on 6/24/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: When you simplify The Book of Zohar, aren’t you afraid of ruining it?

Answer: No, I’m not afraid because I know for sure that I’m ruining it! The text of Zohar for the People is compiled from the original text of The Book of Zohar and the Sulam Commentary, weaved together and simplified.

Therefore, it is definitely ruined compared to the source. Many words (such as Behina and others) that underline precision, were removed from the sentences in order to make the text easier. The resulting text is coarser, less precise, but more concrete.

We had to take this plunge in order to bring The Zohar’s text closer to an average person’s level of reading and understanding. Of course, this kind of text does not replace the source under any circumstances. It is intended for mass reading of The Book of Zohar.

Some study Kabbalah as mechanics, some study Kabbalah as a wisdom, some study Kabbalah to memorize things, some study Kabbalah to write books, some study Kabbalah to teach—but some study Kabbalah in order to change. Under the influence of the upper Light that descends upon a person in the process of reading The Book of Zohar, one starts feeling the upper world, and then, from the sensations, he begins to understand it. This is the real study of Kabbalah. And the book Zohar for the People is intended for these kinds of people.
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Question: The Rambam says that the truth should be revealed gradually to those who are small. When working with children, we do not impose unification on them directly, but try to weave this message into games and studies. Can an overly direct message harm and repel a child?

Answer: As we develop we go through four levels: still, vegetative, animate, and human. As a rule, on the still level objects usually take on whatever form you give them if you have enough energy to do that. By exerting the right amount of energy, you can destroy the structure of a metal and rebuild it through heating, pressure, and other such influences.

On the vegetative level the situation is different: In order to give a plant a different form, you have to understand its nature. Say, a tree requires specific types of cultivation and care, and if you are an expert at what you do, then you will receive the necessary form by accompanying the tree in the process of its growth.

Stated differently, you have to grow to a level where you can take care of the tree, which involves bringing it inside of yourself and getting to know it. Then, based on this inner image, you can carry out work with the external form and receive a result.

In order to deal with the animate level of development, it is again necessary to learn its nature, to ascend above it, and include it inside of you. Then you can tame and train animals. Of course, it has to happen within specific boundaries, but you can train them to carry out certain forms of behavior which they are able to learn. And a children’s instructor works analogously.

These levels of development—still, vegetative, and animate—are small, “childish” states compared to an adult, and they end at the degree of “age 13.” From “age 13″ on, you are dealing with the human being in a person, and accordingly, you treat him completely differently. You accept him into your group, treat him as a friend, and raise him through examples of mutual partnership, offering him a place for work.

These are the phases of work with children’s groups.
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From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/27/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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