Question: During the preparation for the Moscow convention, many of us focused on the thought that the convention had already started, and we truly felt that we were already there. Should we constantly concentrate on the state of the convention?

Answer: If don’t see ourselves living at the next, higher, spiritual degree, we will never ascend to it. We should do what little children do which, for us, is an example of how to study the spiritual level while being on the physical one. If we don’t yearn to grow up, we won’t. Therefore, visualizing unity as an ongoing, permanent convention is undoubtedly useful.

Concerning the group, we should do the same. In my imagination, the group resides in the corrected state. The only wicked, uncorrected egoist is me. Thus, I am supposed to strive to be with them, visualize that I am already part of them, and clarify what I need in order to be included.

Our entire world is imaginary. However we see it, that’s what it is. Nothing is real. All of this is merely a figment of my imagination.

Put everything in its place. Give everyone, be it a group, person, or quality, a certain value, a specific degree, and you will see that thereby you are tuning the world like a musical instrument to make it fit you.

Everything depends on how you will tune it. What will be higher and lower for you will determine the direction in which you will move: either to evil or good, to stealing and drug abuse or to love and bestowal. It is all up to you as to what kind of world you will create for yourself. The world as it is doesn’t have any form. It all depends on how you attune yourself to it.
[45728]
From the Lesson in Moscow 6/16/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What does it mean to do inner work?

Answer: A person is supposed to do inner work 24 hours a day. It may be that one is so absorbed in it that having come to the lesson, he doesn’t see a word written in the book, but that doesn’t matter. The key is what is happening in him.

You shouldn’t blame yourself. Inner work is when you keep trying to hold yourself in adhesion with the internal essence of the group. As a result, when you open the book, what you see there is not some external knowledge, but rather the information describing the types of unification with the friends in the group and, more than that, in the integral soul.

You begin to realize that The Study of The Ten Sefirot, The Book of Zohar, and other Kabbalists’ writings describe only various types of connection between you and the others. If you honestly desire to have this connection clarified, you are studying the Torah indeed (the word “Torah” in Hebrew derives from the words “Ohr,” Light, and “Oraa,” instruction).

Question: So, my work is in finding this inner network between us, does it? However, how do I utilize the corporeal world for this?

Answer: Our entire world is the same kind of network between the people, but is its most external manifestation. This is why we experience it as corrupted.

As to our internal network of connection, we experience 125 consecutive degrees of greater bond, integral unification between us. Yet, our existing state in the external world is mandatory: This is where we start and exist so that we may delve into this connection deeper and deeper.

We need a foundation that doesn’t pertain to moving inward, and this is what the external network of connection between us is, where we exist in the corporeal world. It’s only now that it becomes revealed how truly corrupted this connection is, while previously we simply didn’t think about it. That is what obligates us to perform corrections.
[45711]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: It is said: “Do good.” But how can we do good if only evil is created, and we still know nothing about good?

Answer: Evil is purposely created in our sensations so that we turn it into good. In reality, there is no evil. Our perception is turned inwards, and because of that everything good that we receive appears to us as evil. Everything that is perceived inside us is felt as evil because we compare ourselves with what exists outside of us. That is, evil is the division between me and others.

Evil does not exist on its own. Namely this paradigm, this method of egoistic fulfillment, this inward direction is evil. As soon as we change it, it immediately disappears and so does our sense of all evil in the world.
[46000]
From the Virtual Lesson on Fundamentals of Kabbalah 6/19/2011

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Question: Life in our world appears as one endless heartache, with small breaks to give a person time to get back up on his feet after a blow, just to receive the next one. This is human history and the life of a separate person. What kind of progress is that and where are the gifts that the Creator gives to creation?

Answer: Imagine that I am in a faraway galaxy where I gaze at infinite reaches of space and look for something in that infinity. I accelerate to the speed of light and slowly move through billions of light years, coming closer to our galaxy, our solar system, and our earth. I land on the earth’s surface, and here I discover people.

It’s difficult to imagine the scale upon which I could compare such different proportions. Analogously, we do not understand what kind of system we are in. We know how to make measurements and to do research on our own scale, according to our proportions. We compare weight to how much we can lift, distance to how far we can see, good and evil—with what is good or bad for us. Our entire spectrum is a tiny fragment of the enormous total scale and our distinctions are miniscule.

However, now we are talking about the spiritual system in which our entire universe is imperceptibly small. We are talking about mechanisms that are enormous due to their qualitative characteristics. Compared to them, our entire world is in one quality—a small egoistic desire that is enlivened by a small spark of Light. The matter of this desire is created as “something from nothing” by the Light that broke through to here, outlining an exact projection of the spiritual creation.

And now, from this state, you are speculating about the suffering of all of humanity. True, that is how we feel. Every person negates things according to this own imperfection and judges according to what his eyes see. But what can you do? That is how we have to advance, and right now we are unable to perceive anything more. There is a gigantic canvas unraveled before you, but you cannot make it out.

We are only able to slightly catch on to the simple fact that there is a lack of desires, a lack of vessels. The questions abound, “Can the unchanging Creator change? Can He create a stone that He can’t lift? Why did He initially make us imperfect?” But all of these riddles are useless.

We have to understand one principle from our lives: We have to go through opposite states. Only from these opposites, by recognizing the advantage of the Light from the darkness, do we form the vessels for a higher, more elevated sensation. When I acquire the vessels that are ready for it, the world will open up to me. Nothing is hiding from me behind a stone wall. I must simply build the vessels inside of me in order to see reality.

This development is necessary and the Creator cannot make it happen ahead of time. Why? For now, I do not know why. I can make certain conjectures, but that won’t give me anything. I will brush everything aside, saying, “I don’t believe it! He could do it!” And there are no other facts in front of you.

Yet there is a rule: The advantage of the Light is attained from the darkness. Any thing is evaluated only from its opposite. That is why we must go through these states step by step, forming the vessels for revealing the reality we are in.

We are in the world of Infinity, but you do not feel that. So develop your vessels. You have been given the opportunity to develop them, or stated otherwise, to correct them. You were deliberately given broken desires that are opposite to the corrected ones. What for? So you would grow and collect them, understanding and revealing the world.

There is no other way to go. And later you will justify the creation. The lengthy process, lasting several thousand years throughout which we suffer, is the truth on our scale. However, in reality we do not realize what kind of proportions we are in. Besides this tiny “room,” there is an entire world our there that you have never seen. You are like a worm living in a radish—this is the example Baal HaSulam gives.

Question: But why is this worm told about the Giver and His love?

Answer: In order to aspire to this, in order to let him understand that there is a goal for which it’s worthwhile to climb out of the radish. Moreover, not only do you receive the understanding of this, but also the means to do it. We are all like worms in a radish, but if each one of us starts to push the others toward the outside, we really will come out.

Therefore, there is a solution. As long as you were satisfied by life in this world, no one offered it to you. But now you are being placed in a new, global system and given the solution.
From the 5th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/11, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)”

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Question: What happens “behind the scenes” of my actions when during the reading of The Book of Zohar I make repeated efforts to return to the intention, but they seem futile to me?

Answer: Your efforts determine your qualities of perception, your sensitivity, and then you make the revelation. Everything is in front of you, but your lack of sensitivity does not allow you to reveal the system of connection between the souls that The Zohar tells you about. Your efforts and prayer build the instruments of perception inside of you in order to feel that picture.

Question: I repeatedly keep trying to build my intention anew, but it seems like I make the same efforts and feel the same thing I did a week ago, as if nothing changed….

Answer: Suppose I am among musicians. Looking at them, I see how they listen to every sound and discern the combination of different sounds, and I see how important this is to them. As I look at them, I learn about how to treat sounds. Then, as a result of my efforts, I become more sensitive and begin feeling them.

Then I ask the musicians questions and they explain things to me, but I don’t understand their explanations. “A fourth,” “a fifth,” “glissando, “forte”—these words don’t say anything to me, just like the unintelligible terminology in The Book of Zohar.

But I want to learn them! That is why I try to become a bit more sensitive to them and to feel them. Then, because we are in a special system, according to my efforts, desire, and aspiration, I begin to feel. That is how a child develops as well: He wants to become big and is always running around, never tiring and researching everything around.

We wonder: How can children watch the same cartoon or listen to the same story a thousand times over? However, it’s a thousand times to us because we don’t develop any longer. But a child lives in that story. When he listens to the tale about Little Red Riding Hood today, to him this is a completely new story, not like yesterday. You look at him and think, “Fine, I’ll tell him the story. Let him sit quietly, calm down, and enjoy it….” But he hears this story anew every time! And even though he also knows it by heart, when he repeats it together with you, he relives it all over again. It’s similar to how you have to eat today even though you ate yesterday. That’s what happens to him too!

Therefore, our entire work is to develop the sensitivity to acquire new qualities of perception.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/11, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Chapter “Truma [Donation],” Item 217: The soul of every living thing” is a soul that exits the One who lives forever, Yesod de ZA. And because he is His, for all the blessings come forth from Him and are in Him, and He waters and blesses below, toward Malchut, this soul that comes forth from Him has permission to bless this place, Malchut.

Malchut is the desire that every time takes on new forms in its intention to bestow, and then it feels that it becomes filled by Yesod. This means that Malchut becomes similar to Yesod according to the law of equivalence of form. In reality, it becomes like the first nine Sefirot because Yesod comprises all of the nine Sefirot.

When Malchut resembles the first nine Sefirot, it signifies that the creature becomes similar to the Creator to some degree. To the extent of similarity between them, to the extent to their similar properties, Malchut obtains the same form as the first nine Sefirot and exists in adhesion and oneness with them.
[46008]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/11, The Book of Zohar

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Question: Why didn’t the Creator create the will to enjoy that would be able to bestow right away? Why didn’t He create only bestowal without reception? Why should we reveal this property of bestowal ourselves, exercising our free will? Why do we need this “dual” attitude toward the creature where the matter itself, the will to enjoy, is egoistic and evil, and the form that it should acquire is good?

Answer: If I treat these two opposite forms properly, it is thanks to them that I set a correct attitude toward the Host. The correct attitude cannot appear if I do not contrast one against the other, meaning the desire to bestow that I can develop within myself against the desire to receive that is embedded in me in the negative form opposite to bestowal.

Thus, I give thanks for the negative quality as for the positive one, for the bad state as for the good one. After all, the negative form is necessary and correct, and together they combine into one form and lead to one goal.

We see in the corporeal world that atoms are built with a combination of two opposite charges, the minus and the plus, and with neutral particles. Thus, connections occur between different, opposite elements.

Then, atoms combine in various structures, molecules, and crystals. Chemical elements become connected according to their valence, that is, the number of electrons (the negative particles) existing on the orbit that are free to make a connection.

All life is based on unification and separation, on connection to all kinds of forms. All these are manifestations of the desire to enjoy. If a molecule has two electrons that are free to make a connection with others, that indicates its ability to connect. We always talk about desire which we measure either by the number of free electrons or relative to forces or some other qualities, such as the forces of attraction and repulsion.

As a result, it is always about desire. Yellow and green lights, different sounds, water, and the sky are various kinds of desires. We are inside this desire. Nothing but desire was created.

However, inside this desire, I have a sensation of self and the outside world: the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, or in terms of the spiritual qualities: “root, soul, body, clothes, palace,” which are also desires. I have to unite and manage all of them so that I can bestow with their help.

The entire picture of reality, the billions of people, the universe, and the spiritual worlds revealed in the connection between us are forms of desire. I cannot do anything besides revealing more and more of what is inside this system, this sphere. It is revealed to me depending on how much I am able to bestow with the help of all these forms of desire.

We live in our sensations, and that is why we do not understand what desire itself is. Rather, we understand: “I feel, I want.” Desire does not exist separately, but only as I sense it. The perceived desire is already “I.”
[46023]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/21/11, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: What is the group? Is it a kind of idea, people, or something else? Why is it so difficult to unite with people who aren’t like me?

Answer: Every person in the world is connected through his soul with the other souls. You need to enter this inner system of interconnected souls as though you’re diving to the ocean floor. And there you will discover the network of connections that binds all people.

Everyone is included in this network: Hitler, Stalin, Ahmadinejad, Moses, Abraham, and you. All the people you know only by their external form, as well as those you know on a deeper level, are all interconnected in the best possible way.

In the external world, every one of them fulfills a precise role in order to awaken the others to draw closer to this network, to dive into it, and find themselves there, bonded with everyone in heart and soul. You need to find the inner contact with them. The group is the inner unification of souls. And you must include yourself together with the rest.

Of course, speaking of the group, I’m primarily referring to those who study with us. But if you enter into this connection, you will see that this network unites everybody, even our greatest enemies.

We must understand that the external shell in which we exist in our world is given to us so that we could compel one another to do inner work. This whole game is necessary for you so that the Creator, the force which connects us internally, would be revealed in its external manifestation as well.

Internally this connection is maintained by Him, but externally it’s up to you do carry it out! And if you manage to erase the chasm between the internality and externality, this will constitute your complete correction.
[45715]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Rabash writes that a person must have faith. What does he mean by “faith”?

Answer: We automatically perceive the words we read in Kabbalistic texts in the traditional sense that we are accustomed to. On one hand, it confuses us to no end, while on the other, we have to understand that it’s not accidental: We simply need to clarify the spiritual meaning of these words.

The inconsistency and confusion between the traditional interpretation of the word “faith” generally accepted in this world and its spiritual meaning is caused by the fact that we still lack inner perception. As soon as we begin to experience spirituality, this word doesn’t confuse us any longer.

For instance, I may have heard the word “salty” a thousand times, but until I get a taste of it, I won’t know what it means. My knowledge derives from the sensation. The desire to receive pleasure has to feel the taste of fulfillment, and until then it will keep experiencing nothing but confusion.

Question: Why are there people who can immediately believe what they are told?

Answer: This is the level of development of a person at the still, vegetative, or animate degree. When he or she reaches the “speaking” (human) level, from then on they have to evolve independently.

One’s entire previous state gets cancelled. If in the past he trusted all kinds of tales, beliefs, and religions, today he feels empty. And when he finds a teacher for himself, he doesn’t trust even him. Nor does he trust the group or books. He is told the books were written by the sages, so what?

A person doesn’t accept anything blindly anymore. What does he do then? He has to advance  by faith in the sages—above reason. This means that a person doesn’t take anything “on faith,” but is supposed to verify what Kabbalists described.

In order to do so, however, he has to fulfill a few conditions: open the books, join the group, examine its principles, and clarify how realistic and grounded they are on the forces, properties, and laws of Nature. A person needs to perform this analysis so he may acquire a second nature which at the moment is concealed from him.

Question: But in this case, he is advancing by way of knowledge. Where is “faith above reason” in it?

Answer: True. Above reason is when a person accepts these conditions and implements them within. In other words, he views all the doubts, confusion, and obstacles as a vehicle, a platform for his spiritual growth.

A person’s entire spiritual work lies above reason, but at each new degree, he clarifies these conditions by way of reason. Otherwise, how would we know we advance?
[45718]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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