Question: Even though our world is an imaginary reality, Kabbalists treat it very seriously. Why is that?

Answer: It’s because we grow and act while being inside of it. Even though this reality is definitely imaginary, you have to take it seriously and arrange things in it as if it really exists.

Imagine that you joined a group of children and are playing with them as seriously as possible, making the game real the way they do. The little ones are running around, trying to put something together and arguing over toys, but to them—this is life. And you participate in their life, helping them put its parts together so they would grow quickly and correctly in this “sand-box.”

This requires a serious attitude. It takes great efforts to raise a child in this world, and a person must treat himself in exactly the same way. This is how he should treat the spiritual child that is growing inside of him. You cannot make any compromises in this regard: I take care of myself, my family, children, and parents, and all the material needs. And even though all of this is obviously an illusion, that doesn’t matter.

The pictures of the material world are depicted in my brain by the egoistic desire and I cannot correct that desire because it is on the still level. Even the great Kabbalist Rabbi Shimon had to eat, drink, make a living, and take care of his students. Do you really think they were floating up in the clouds, not worrying about their families and about putting bread on the table?

This world is part of my growth, “including toothaches,” as Rabash used to say. The only difference is that I must aspire upwards over and over again, toward bestowal, toward the spiritual world. Kabbalists have a different problem: How to remain serious inside of this children’s sand-box. And they are obligated to do that. That is why they have such a responsible attitude to upbringing and other areas in the material world. A person has to provide for all of his vital needs.

Corporeality disappears from our sensations only at the end of correction when there is no more need for this game of the imagination.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How does The Book of Zohar teach us the methods of the connection between us?

Answer: Baal HaSulam adds a commentary to The Zohar to stave off the materialization of The Zohar‘s text. It lays ground for the formation of the spiritual state within us, beyond space and time, beyond the images of our world, to make us want to experience it within and not outside of us.

The Sulam commentary, like all the books of Kabbalists, is written for people who have already acquired spiritual attainment to help them understand what they’re already feeling. I am being explained what I am feeling right now; I’m at the level where “a person’s soul teaches him.” Then by reading Kabbalistic texts, I begin to understand what I am feeling.

Before spiritual sensations arise in me, however, the Kabbalistic texts are not a source of knowledge but “Segula” (a miraculous force) for me because while reading them, I am exposed to the influence of the upper Light, washing over me like a stream of living water.

Hence, I don’t want to explain what each phrase in The Zohar means from the standpoint of Sefirot and Partzufim so that a student will not be satisfied with superficial knowledge. I want him or her to search inside, within their feelings, wondering what it is really like. Then they will have a greater yearning for revelation and thereby form a desire, a need, for it.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: What should the world Kli focus on now in order to feel that we are in Egypt and to really desire to come out of it?

Answer: We have to remain in an ascent instead of a descent. Each of us and all of us together should never descend or stray from the established order because this will definitely cast us down.

We must very quickly turn to the week of Passover and prepare ourselves, understanding what the exodus from Egypt means. We must prepare for this inspiration and this surge with all our might. The more powerful our aspiration will be, the more we will be influenced by the Lights of Passover.

We have to actualize this right now. First of all, we must be united. It’s not one person that comes out of Egypt, but everyone without exception: women, men, children, and the elderly. This is the unification toward the common exodus. This is what we have to think about, constantly keeping the intention.

There is less than a week left until the holiday. A “holiday” is an external sign, but by using these seven days we will be able to unite, to create such a connection and form such intentions at the lessons that we will “get a lift” forward.

Some people are experiencing a descent and others—an ascent. Others yet are feverishly undergoing changes. But we need all of these states. A person must value a descent just as an ascent because you can’t have one without the other.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What signs can help us tell whether a person is advancing in the study of The Book of Zohar?

Answer: Which books you study is irrelevant in this regard because besides studying The Book of Zohar we also study Talmud Eser Sefirot as well as articles and letters by Baal HaSulam and Rabash which explain how to advance toward unity among us and toward mutual study. They help us to get organized correctly. After we organize among ourselves into a study group, we begin studying actual Kabbalah.

The purpose of the study group in Kabbalah is not to study the material, but to aspire through reading it to realize the “Segula,” meaning to evoke the influence of the Light upon us from a higher level. If during the study we desire for the Light to become revealed inside our unity, then by this effort we build the higher level and then our effort brings about the emergence of that level.

However, if we study trying only to understand the material, then we do not study the Torah. That’s because the Torah refers precisely to our effort and the appearance of a new level in it.

Therefore, progress in studying the primary sources (The Zohar, the books of the Ari, and Talmud Eser Sefirot) is determined by the force of your aspiration to reveal the next level inside of you, instead of the desire just to know the material.

There is no advancement in understanding or accumulating knowledge because prior to the sensation of the upper world, all our notions of it are incorrect.
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, The Zohar

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Question: How does the group oppose Pharaoh and escape from Egypt?

Answer: In the spiritual world all processes arise from each other, by a chain of cause and effect. Therefore, every new stage is a revelation of the preceding one.

However, until the next stage is revealed, it is completely imperceptible, and it is impossible to examine or picture it. A new sensation, thought, revelation, always comes completely unexpectedly, and a person suddenly begins to understand where he is and realizes that he just received some new state from Above.

Therefore, it is impossible to tell you ahead of time about all the stages that you have to go through, except for what the story about the exodus from Egypt relates to us. However, they all are directed at the unification between us by virtue of the upper force. This is all that can be said for the time being.

All the stages will be revealed depending on our effort to realize them, our attempts to unite due to the upper force, the force of bestowal. It is impossible to sensibly imagine these states based on our verbal descriptions until we approach them. You will feel them when you will be practically ready for them. I can only provide an explanation for the mind of what we go through in our sensations so that the mind puts the sensations in order.

However, if the person still lacks such sensations and impressions, my words will seem dry and artificial, devoid of real meaning. He will have nothing to grab onto, nothing to tie these explanations to. First we need to go through and accumulate various impressions in us.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In order to come out of Egypt, I first need to reveal that the Creator is keeping me there….

Answer: The Creator is not keeping you in Egypt. He is teaching you how to come out of it. He does not want you to stay there. However, He teaches you so that you would be ready to come out from Egypt in new qualities (desires or Kelim).

This is like teaching a child to walk. You let him go, and he stands in place and cries out of fear. He cannot make a single step toward you since in order to do this, he needs to raise one foot and hold himself on the other. He is unable to do this. He can just stand on both feet. It’s still hard for him to raise one foot, stand on the other, take a step forward, and then do all this again. We need to teach him. And this does not mean that we wish to keep him in the former state; we are not restraining him.

Question: On one hand, I need to reveal the single force that governs reality: “There is none else besides Him.” On the other, I need to achieve mutual concern in the group. How do I work with these two components? What is the next step that I need to make at this stage, during the days of Passover which we have declared as an attack?

Answer: You should be together! Nothing else. Only together!

For the time being we are still in a state where if we think of “together,” we forget about the Creator. “Together” is we, and the Creator is like something foreign, something additional.

True, for now we still perceive it this way. However, we need to artificially try to remember about Him. And although we constantly think about our unification, we should make an attempt to occasionally have a thought that without the Creator we do not achieve unity, that we need Him. For now, we should do this in order to unite with each other. Crudely speaking, we wish to use Him in order to unite.

Then, as a result of our entire development, we will reach a state where we will want to be connected with each other in order to become similar to the Creator, to serve Him, to become included in Him. However, this occurs gradually, in steps. But now, in our current state, we should be together!

It is written that the Creator is revealed only during the exodus from Egypt. And prior to this a person is unable to imagine these qualities since he is still situated in his ego.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/2011, The Book of Zohar

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Question: What does the group lack in order to exit Egypt (egoistic slavery)?

Answer: We lack mutual care for each other, a feeling that we won’t exit unless we do it together.

Do you remember the conditions under which Pharaoh agreed to let Moses go? First, he gave permission to Moses and a few other people. Then he agreed to free just one tribe of Israel. Afterward he said that only men could go, leaving women and children behind. But Moses did not agree to it. Then Pharaoh said that they could leave but only without the cattle. Moses did not subscribe to this either.

Moses and Pharaoh kept arguing until the people of Israel fled Egypt taking with them all their possessions and even what belonged to the Egyptians. We undergo an entire process before we prepare ourselves to exit Egypt.

We still lack mutual concern that unless all of us care for each other, we will not escape from Egypt. Each one has to care about everybody, and my desire determines how strong their concern will be. I ignite the hearts of the others with my own heart. I have to worry about each of us rising above their own egoism and connecting above it with the points in the hearts. Let each of us have a big desire; otherwise, he is drilling a hole in our common boat.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Where is the Creator in the entire system of the worlds?

Answer: The Creator is everywhere. This system of the worlds exists only in relation to us. Let’s say I exist in the middle, and all the degrees surround me like the rings of the expansion of the upper force’s field.

The Creator fills this entire universe. For Him there is no big or small, inner or outer. All division exists only in relation to me. I exist in the center point and I have to expand myself, my senses, and my corrections in order to grasp one world, then another one, a third one, and so on. Each time, my ego grows from level zero to the1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th one. I correct my egoism and thereby reach bestowal.

This way I include all the worlds within myself. Before they seemingly existed outside of me, but now I return them to myself, to my inner desires.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: After the WE! Convention how can we maintain ourselves in the same state that we achieved there, since usually a descent always comes afterward?

Answer: We cannot allow ourselves to get into a descent, similar to how a mother cannot say she is sick when she has a baby in her arms. There are situations in life where necessity eclipses everything. Only if the mother is on her death-bed should someone else take care of her baby.

Likewise, in our case we do not have time to take a break, to engage in idle talk, or to get into descents. The world around us is developing very quickly and we are falling behind, but we are obligated to walk along at its rate.

More and more we are starting to feel just how much all of the bad things happening in the world are connected to us because we are falling behind with our correction. Therefore, I don’t even allow myself to have thoughts about a descent after the convention. This is impossible!

Besides, until the summer we will still go through a row of important events, including conventions in Italy, Spain, and Moscow. We have to unite all together and prepare for them. Therefore, we don’t have any breaks to take since everything is very compressed in time. And that’s a good thing because it corresponds to the speed at which changes are happening in the world.
From the lesson on 3/25/11

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The story of the exodus from Egypt and the traditions related to it are intended only to point to our inner states. We are in a notch, in trouble, with blows falling upon us, in the atmosphere of an escape, a rush, and darkness. In essence, this is the process of spiritual birth, comparable to the birth of a physical body.

This is what we have to achieve. But how? After all, we are always running away from suffering. So how can we not run away from the state of coming out of Egypt? In the material world I can find myself in a situation where there is only one way out. But in spirituality everything happens according to my desire. If I don’t want to experience Egyptian plagues, then I don’t experience them. But then I will take the thorny path along with all humanity under pressure from the “developmental press.” However, I want to accelerate the path. So will I really put myself under the blow?

Kabbalists answer: You shouldn’t reveal the blows and problems somewhere out there, but only in the current state. How? Could it really be that in my sensation I have to “turn” reality from good to evil? That’s right! You might say, “But when I feel the evil, I will run away!” Actually, no, you won’t. That’s because you will reveal the evil in relation to the higher goal. You have to assess spirituality as something desirable and truly priceless. Then the current state will seem bad to you. That way you will be able to move forward without abandoning the path.

We awaken the spiritual goal so it would shine for us. Then we desire to attain it, while the current state becomes exile, darkness, Egyptian plagues. This enables us to raise the importance of spirituality in our eyes, to elevate the importance of bestowal, love for the neighbor, and the unity of friends to such a degree that the exile will become unbearable and we will have to run away from it.

Question: If the exit from Egypt happens in such difficult conditions, how should this be combined with the optimism and energy that fill us after the convention?

Answer: We aspire only to goodness, and then the current state seems unbearable to us. On the path of acceleration I reveal good states ahead and compared to them the current situation seems bad to me.

I do not have to suffer in a dead-end at all, not knowing what to do with myself. The latter approach is called “advancing in due time” until the “developmental press” will nevertheless We have to reveal the goodness ahead. This makes all the difference. By comparing the current state with the desired unity, with love for the neighbor and bestowal, I feel that I am in trouble, in darkness. That is how I prepare myself for spiritual perception, already now forming spiritual values within myself. By elevating bestowal in my eyes, I prepare for redemption and accelerate the path.push me forward.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/10/11, Preparation to Going Out From Egypt

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Holidays, Inner Work, Q&A, Suffering, Torah - 1 Comment →