Question: You have said that in order to solve the global crisis it is necessary to reduce consumption. How does minimal consumption differ from vital consumption? For example, can a watch costing a thousand Euros be considered a vital necessity?

Answer: This question is not simple. I would even say there’s a catch to it. Let me explain it by way of a Kabbalistic parable that’s 2000 years old.

Once upon a time there were two friends. One was rich and the other was average, but they were both on the spiritual level. One day the rich man went bankrupt and then his friend started serving him like a servant, wishing to provide him with the necessary level of existence that he was used to. That’s because previously his friend had serrvants, so when he lost them, he felt like he lost something that was necessary.

This is an interesting example, but it is not suitable for out times because nature obligates us otherwise. We have no choice but to restrict our consumption since otherwise we will devastate the planet earth. It’s not just that we have to reduce our necessities, but we have to reach a state where we would be happy to get rid of our necessities, but are obligated to receive them because we have to exist in our bodies in this world.

I have a big desire, which includes the level of my regular life where I have physical necessities as well as social necessities, such as education, culture, vacations, and trips. No one says you have to give them up. You need an apartment, everything necessary for it, a wife, children, and so on.

The problem is our consumption above the norm. If you study the science of Kabbalah, you will involuntarily consume only what is necessary because the most important thing to you is spiritual fulfillment. Therefore, you are happy that you do not reveal these excessive desires inside of you and you would be happy even to get rid of the normal desires, but you need them in order to support your existence. This is called necessity.
[44816]
From the 1st lesson at the Madrid Convention 6/4/11

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Question: As far as I understand, we have to develop the sixth sensory organ that will enable us to understand the unity between us. Does this possibility exist for everyone? Can anyone develop this sense organ?

Answer: There are people who get an aspiration for this development, wonder what they live for and why, what the meaning of life is, where its source is, how everything revolves in this reality, and what happens in it. They cannot calm down without answers to these questions.

These people come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah because they feel that they simply must understand; otherwise it is not worth living. They are not able to live like animals. But there are few people like this in the world.

Man’s desire is divided into six desires. Three desires are related to our body: the desires for food, sex, and family. And three desires are connected with society: the desires for wealth, fame, and knowledge. These are the six basic desires. If people can find themselves and the meaning of life in them, they do and live in this way.

You are asking about a higher desire to know the source of life. This desire comes only to some individuals in the world, and recently, their numbers are growing.

Around forty years ago, when I began to study the wisdom of Kabbalah, there were few such people, very few. As it is written in The Book of Zohar, from the end of the 20th century and beyond, lots of people will suddenly start asking about the essence of life—what they live for, what the meaning of life is—and will come to study the wisdom of Kabbalah. Indeed, within fifteen years, the number of our students has grown to two million. In fact, there are many more; we just do not know about them because we do not keep lists of people who study with us on the Internet.

I think that in any case, there won’t be many people in the world who really wonder about the essence of life. However, the rest will also have to rise above their egos not because they would rush forward, towards the source of life, wishing to know what they live for, but to escape suffering that is pushing them from behind. Thus, they will join us out of helplessness. So, I hope that we all will reach a good life. Nature will force us to come to an integral society.
[44678]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: If we have to rise above our egoism, then the more we strengthen it, the more difficult it is to rise above it. Thus paradoxically, the flourishing of culture deprives us of the opportunity to overcome our ego, doesn’t it?

Answer: Yes, it is true. But why do we develop in the egoistic form and, and what’s more, exponentially so? This is for us to see inside our ego how much it ultimately destroys us, and yet we are able overcome it.

We have no other matter besides our desire! Thus, the wisdom of Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of reception” (“Kabbalah” in Hebrew means “reception”). This wisdom explains how to realize one’s desire rather than destroy it. From our egoistic matter, we are building the form of a human (Adam), “similar” (Domeh) to the upper one, the Creator.

Thus, on one hand, the ego has to grow up to the point when we become disappointed in our real egoistic form which always wants to grab for itself. Then, I will begin to use my ego in its inverse form and each time turn it into bestowal. To the extent I can do this, I will acquire forces for my soul.

Today we have reached a certain “ceiling,” “satiation,” meaning the maximum possible egoism in receiving for ourselves until we consume the last fruit of the Earth. This will lead us to the realization of our evil. Either in a good way or bad, we will understand that we must act in the opposite manner and use our egoism for bestowal.
[44667]
From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: Once a person rises above all his material interests and connects with the upper nature, the Creator, does physical death no longer have meaning for him?

Answer: This is true. When I asked my teacher about this at the very beginning of my path, he said that a person studying Kabbalah has to reach a state when he starts to treat the life of his material body like a shirt: It’s as if he takes a dirty shirt off at the end of the day and throws it into the laundry and tomorrow puts on a new one. Our body is exactly like this.

These are real things. They stem from the study of “Self” when I exit the perception of my life inside my bodily desires. Right now, we live for our material body! But if I exit this sensation and connect with the upper reality above it, I immediately begin to feel the eternal flow of life.
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From the Lecture in Rome 5/20/2011

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Question: The more I want to unite with my friends, the more I’m repulsed by them. I have nothing to give the friends but negative emotions. I’m feeling an intense feeling of disharmony. The convention is becoming a big obstacle for me. What do I do?

Answer: Very good! That is precisely the kind of people we need! Because the measure of your desire is expressed precisely in your efforts to establish a connection with others in spite of this repulsion. Thanks to the force of this effort you will acquire the force of the quality of bestowal, which may help you to immediately ascend to the first degree.

Question: I have this feeling that everyone around is ready to hear us, but we’re struggling to pass the Light to everyone else. Can the convention help us shift from this point?

Answer: Anything is possible at a convention. Some can cling to the quality of unification and bestowal for the first time. Others can actively participate in the formation of a collective quality of bestowal. Others yet, who have already received this quality of bestowal, exist in it, and perceive the upper world, can help the rest of the people in this. There is a whole spectrum of people at a convention: from those who want spirituality, to those who don’t know what they want yet, to those who are already in attainment and conscious of what they are attaining.
[44603]
From the Virtual Lesson 5/29/2011, Fundamentals of Kabbalah Series

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Question: Lately, you have repeatedly said that the group for a person is like a womb for the embryo, and that one has to nullify himself before the group in order to adhere to the walls of this womb. What does it mean?

Answer: “Three days of the attachment of the sperm to the uterus” means that a person cleaves to his or her environment: the teacher, the group, and the books. These three components carry a certain idea, the source and the force to which the person connects himself. He renounces himself on the right and the left lines and, by employing them both, the right and the left forces, he builds the middle line and thereby merges with it.

The right line is the line of bestowal, along which one moves “blindfolded.” To the left line, he attaches the thick coarseness of his egoistic desire (Aviut), while he himself is willing to cleave to the right line. And the middle line comes in play when he acquires a certain permanent level of connection with his environment and doesn’t fall below it.

And no matter what else may occur, he no longer has the thoughts and desires that would disconnect him from bestowal completely, from “there is none else besides Him,” from “the good who does good.” This signifies that one has attached himself inside the “womb”—his environment.

This is the most complex moment. And the key to the successful accomplishment of this act is to lower oneself before the environment. It is written: “Man’s Pride Shall Bring Him Low.”

Question: What does “lower oneself” mean?

Answer: To lower oneself means that without getting in your own way, you are trying to hear and absorb as much as possible of what the teacher is saying and to exalt the friends, to open yourself for receiving the greatness of the goal from them. This considerably expedites one’s spiritual growth.

And if one succeeds (which isn’t that easy), it is as if he finally gets on the straight road, and in this way shortens his trip. This literally saves him years of work.
[44514]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/25/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If the Creator gives me an opportunity to reveal Him every moment, why don’t I succeed in spite of how much I try to achieve this connection?

Answer: It doesn’t matter whether you reach this revelation or not, but every moment the private upper governance works upon you. You have to look within yourself: What does He want from me, why did He give me this state, what do I have to do?

As the result of such searching, perhaps I will be able to reveal what He demands from me and perhaps I won’t. Maybe, He purposely confuses me so that I need Him to reveal what He wants. But I have to have some sort of “end of the rope” that I can grab onto.

It is said: “Do anything, but just don’t leave!” That is, do everything not to lose the hook by which you can hold on to the Creator. Every moment I search for how to find Him concealed somewhere within me. That is why it is called the internal wisdom, “the inner part of the Torah.” You have nothing to look for on the outside, but only inside yourself.

The Creator is within a person, within our desires. Usually, we imagine that we ascend a ladder in space, but this merely shows that we move to higher, greater spiritual states, bestowal. In essence, our entire search is internal.
[44429]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: During the studies, sometimes I think about how I can attract the Light, and sometimes I try to understand the inner meaning with all my might. Do I have to try and regulate these states, or should I just accept them as they come?

Answer: We have to study the upper system the way it is explained in “The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (Pticha) and The Study of the Ten Sefirot. Without this, we will not acquire the language of Kabbalah, and we will not have anything in which we can clothe our sensations, to express them in any way, or give them names.

That is why we have to know the definitions. In every science that we begin to study, we first of all learn the definitions and terms in order to understand its language. Having learned the definitions, we can start linking them together and come to know more complex concepts. However, for now, I’m just learning the terms and not the qualities I would be feeling. For now, I’m just playing with them like a child with toy blocks.

Hence, we need to study, and this is study in the mind. Yet, you shouldn’t immerse yourself in it too deeply. This system has to gradually become clearer in a purely mechanical form without your trying to attract your sensations or spirituality into it. Otherwise, these examinations will harm the inner work.

However, after you have learned the system, you have to look into how it can relate to you. That is why when reading The Study of the Ten Sefirot, you are sometimes thinking about your inner states without any connection with the text. But in some states you understand that all this is happening inside you, and you try to look for these states.

Sometimes you even start feeling that with every word you read, something is happening inside you; you already have inner, sensory reactions. Furthermore, you start to react in your sensations just by recognizing familiar words.

This means that the Light is spreading inside you and coming closer and closer to the degree of Malchut, organizing the inner HaVaYaH inside you, taking it to the first spiritual step on which the revelation occurs. That is why you start feeling and reacting to different qualities.

Of course, during the studies, you not only have to look deeply into yourself in an inner search, but also align yourself with how you are connected with the group and how you want to reveal the quality of bestowal between you.

You have to align yourself as follows: me, the group, and the Creator whom I reveal in the connection between us, and that’s what I’m reading about right now. Now you only need to start studying, trying to reveal this common network in which you will reveal the state you are reading about.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: During the reading of The Zohar, I feel very strong disturbances and hardly feel the text itself. How can I overcome this obstacle?

Answer: Everything depends on the persistence in one’s thoughts. During my life, I have talked to many people suffering from serious illnesses. They fathom their illnesses in great details and are familiar with all the medical terms known only to the specialists in this area. Why? Their lives depend on that. The desire to survive forced people to learn the causes of their illnesses and to seek remedies and various methods of treatment.

We don’t fully realize that we are dependent on our understanding of the “disease,” on the search for its cure. I shouldn’t rely on anyone else; I have to invest all of my effort into finding the cause of my illness, the remedy appropriate for my condition so that finally this remedy takes effect.

If people really feel danger, this forces them to learn how to save themselves. You are saying: “I hardly feel anything…” True, you do not feel the “disease.” Thus, the group has to work harder on you, and you should try to be persistent in your thoughts and pray that you will be shown from Above that we are talking about you.

The abyss between the world of Infinity and your current state can be seen in this obvious demonstration that The Zohar is now showing within you. Imagine this: If you were corrected now, you would feel the world of Infinity, the entire Zohar would be revealed within you, and you would see everything. To sense this, you lack only the vessels of perception, the corrected desires. At least realize what is happening.
[44510]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/2011, The Zohar

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Question: How can women include themselves in the common desire during the convention? What should they do?

Answer: They should do the same as the men. I do not understand why women always separate themselves. When you tell them that they are like everyone else, it doesn’t make them happy.

A man procures actively, just like in our world. He is a hunter. He works on an active connection, coming out of himself, becoming closer with others, while a woman stands behind him and takes a more passive role.

However, everything a man procures then passes through a woman. A new degree is produced in the woman both for her and the man due to the fact that whatever the man attains goes through her. This happens in the exact same way that they, together, produce the new generation in our world. It is the woman who continues the development, the human race.

Question: My husband and I study Kabbalah. My husband attended the conventions, but now he is proposing that I go. Should I use this opportunity or send my husband instead?

Answer: Of course, it is best to send your husband to the convention because a man attracts the Light, while a woman receives and realizes it. This is why between the two of you, your husband’s presence at the convention is more important.
[44534]
From the Virtual Lesson, Fundamentals of Kabbalah 5/29/2011

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