Question: I made a choice and entered the group, but sometimes disagreements arise. What should we do to stop them?

Answer: First of all, we must be aware of problems in the group. We mustn’t cover them up or pretend they don’t exist. For example, a group has thirty or forty members, and everyone is pulling to their side, or they are creating factions.

It is essential to understand that we are under the upper governance which arranges these factions and disagreements for us. Why? This is so that we rise above our problems to the One who brought them to life. It is He who gives the start to all problems between us. He even admits, “I created the evil inclination.”

But why? It is so that you may use the Torah as a spice, meaning that you would start desiring the Light that Reforms hidden in it. When you demand the Light, you rise above problems to the one Source from whence all evil and good derives.

Question cont.: Yes, but there are more problems after that.

Answer: You need to accumulate the necessary power of desire and the Light that Reforms in order to ascend to the first spiritual degree. Hence, problems grow and will not stop growing.

Leave it to the Creator; He knows what to do. This is why He speaks of having created the evil inclination for you to understand that everything comes from one Source. You just need to make it the basis of your work. We have nothing else.

The key is to adhere to this. Some friends may become rivals, while others don’t take anybody’s side. Let there be a mess in the group, but take it all as a package prepared by the Creator. He set it up, and my job is to always row toward unity, either with friends or despite them, in all sorts of states.

This is what we call being “as one man with one heart.” Otherwise, over what ground will we unify? The foundation of our unity is not the “nice kids,” but bullies and roosters. We fight and hate, but above all that, we unite as one whole. Love for one’s neighbor arises precisely above this, and that is when you come to receive the Torah.

Whether you agree or not, this principle won’t change. While in the group, we have to decide that there is no way out, that we are agreeing with it already, albeit artificially. We stop arguing and start pretending to love one another. We study in hopes that the Light that Reforms will influence us and establish a connection among us. During the lesson, everybody thinks: “I wish He had helped just a little.”

Otherwise, we will bite each other’s head off, unable to complete the exercise the Creator assigned us to do. It is He who “lured” us into this, as if He placed us into a computer game, a polygon restricted by the sides of the screen. We are inside of it. What do we do now?

This is the place where we must establish new relations that we wish to achieve. What do we lack on this playing field where we all hate each other, scattered like dots on the screen? What do we do?

We must reveal the Light that Reforms. Let us learn to demand for it to occur. It is easier said than done. The problem is that we have to wait until the new degree unfolds in all its might, which takes time. After all, the first spiritual degree is especially high; you can’t just jump onto it. Compared to the first, the other degrees are already easier.
[35059]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why am I unable to clearly comprehend the importance of the environment?

Answer: You feel that you do not fully comprehend its importance because you are not finding the corresponding desire within you. You understand the words, but your heart is not responding yet. Sometimes you even get sick and tired of hearing about it.

This is natural. You just need to continue working on the common desire. Everyone has to begin thinking that this is important and that this is exactly what we need. We artificially strive to care for one another: I care for others so they would direct their thoughts towards the goal together with me. I constantly worry about it and then a real fear ripens inside me: Will they be able to keep their thoughts on the goal?

And then the heart of the group appears before me, not their names or faces, but the deep desire that reigns among the friends. Is everyone’s desire ready to unite with others so all of them would aim at the goal? This is what concerns me. If this comes true, then we will attract a little bit of Light to this common desire over a brief period of study, and then we will attain the goal.

The problem is not the Light that influences us. The problem is for all of us to connect our desires to be together on the path to the goal. Primarily, this is the concern that has to settle in everyone’s heart. This is mutual guarantee.

When we have a common desire, it “flows” from one part of the friends to another, and therefore it is always working. When we strive to study in order to realize this desire and we don’t get distracted by any other goals, then we evoke the Light with this common desire that’s aimed at mutual bestowal, the Creator. Then we will be full of desire as we prepare to study and during the study.

There can be nothing beyond this. It is written: “Habakkuk came and reduced everything to one thing: a righteous man will live by his faith.” The greatest effect comes from an action by which you want to attain bestowal. Bestowal is also referred to as “faith.”

At the end, this is a very simple thing. Overall, Kabbalah keeps being revealed in an increasingly simplified manner. And even though the path is difficult and it takes years, we have the opportunity to greatly accelerate our development.
[35370]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: For thousands of years, the method of Kabbalah has been drafted by special people, Kabbalists. Today, we spread it among the masses. Aren’t we thereby losing the depth of this wisdom?

Answer: We definitely are. But we have to do it anyway. We are the ones through whom it flows to the others.

Your parents, for instance (with all due respect), were regular people, not holy saints. They brought you into this world and gave you an education at their level. We do the same.

Obviously, by spreading Kabbalah among the masses, we “corrupt” it. It is what we call lowering the spiritual degrees which descend from the world of Infinity. Nevertheless, we have no choice. Can a child receive an entire science all at once? No, we have to give him a simplified version, well adjusted to his level. No matter what I may explain, show, or feed him, everything has to fit his present state.

The model for it is the text of The Zohar for All. We took Baal HaSulam’s commentary on The Book of Zohar and removed all supplementary materials from it which are not related to the main idea. However, in fact, they are necessary as well. Baal HaSulam didn’t do anything in vain. Yet, at the present stage, it prevents us and, even more so, our vast audience from approaching The Zohar.

When I opened the first book in my life, I saw the words written in huge letters, “MOTHER, HOME, SUN.” So, we have to provide people with information they are able to digest. Later on, as they learn, they will ascend to the higher degrees.

The spiritual ladder does “corrupt” the upper Light which gets greatly reduced as it descends to the lower degrees. This is its nature since; otherwise, the lower ones wouldn’t be able to absorb even a drop of Light.
[35063]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: In regular science I study its terminology and formulas, and gradually I start to understand the laws by which reality operates. But why is it that I don’t understand anything when studying the science of Kabbalah?

Answer: First of all, you can study and somehow discuss what is written, and imagine the laws of Kabbalah even though it does not talk about our world and you do not really see them. But you do not need anything more than that. If you aspire to this form of bestowal, this is enough in order for you to start changing yourself.

The science of Kabbalah is used completely differently than the sciences of our world. When you study a triangle in geometry, you do not become a triangle! But in Kabbalah when you study Partzuf ZON, you turn into Partzuf ZON. You aspire to it and from it you attract that Light that changes you. This is the entire difference! You take on the same form that you read about.

You develop and advance along the line connecting you with your root of the soul in the world of Infinity, and all your future forms and states are already fixed. You attract Light upon yourself from these future states, and that Light influences you, making you advance.
[35414]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What is the Surrounding Light that we are trying to attract?

Answer: The Light is the upper force, the one, single, and only existing force in the universe. Besides this Force there is only desire, which becomes revealed to us as a receiving desire. Yet by using the force of the Light we can change it to bestowal.

There is nothing besides Light (the Creator) and desire. We simply call Him by different names (such as Surrounding Light, Inner Light, or the Light that Reforms) in order to provide more precise definitions.

The Surrounding Light influences me if I aspire to my next form. Even though I don’t know exactly what that form is like, I study it through a book that describes all sorts of Partzufim, worlds, and Sefirot. That is how I express my desire to ascend there and attain, and that is how I attract this state that I want to attain to myself. It begins to influence me to the extent I aspire to it.

I open myself up and become more sensitive to this influence, to the next state that I must reach. I simply accelerate my development, adding a little bit of my own desire to the natural force that develops me.

I receive this additional desire from the environment. That is how I realize my free choice and receive from them the sensation that it is important to advance to the next state. After all, being in the next state means being more connected with others, canceling myself more, and bestowing more.

I receive this inspiration from the group and then I take it with me when coming to study and aspiring to attain the future form that is more bestowing. Then I am influenced by Light from there because it has the same nature of bestowal that I want to acquire. We have the same desire, the same tendency, and therefore we are close according to the law of equivalence of form.

By myself I do not have any desire for bestowal or spiritual progress. I have zero desire. But then I turn to the group and from them I take "10 pounds” of desire to advance to bestowal and unity among us, and with that desire I come to study. I want to attain the next state with the same force of 10 pounds. My similarity to the Light is measured by this force of 10 pounds, and to that degree it influences my desire, making it similar to the Light.

This is the same Light that fills my next state because it already exists. When I aspire to that future state, the Light begins to shine on me. For now it is called “surrounding” because it must first correct me and only then clothe into me. It works in two stages, performing two actions.

The same phenomena exist in physics: If I come closer to a magnet, then I enter the field of its attraction and influence. Even you and I influence one another. There is a certain field around every person. In fact, there is not one physical body that isn’t surrounded by a field—not even any stone.

Everything operates by the same principle. The closest state you aspire to (your next state) is what influences you. However, there are many fields around you that you do not even relate to yet. You do not yet aspire to them or know anything about them. When you reveal the spiritual world later on, you will see how many different things are happening in it and how many different dimensions exist in it.
[35411]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: My spiritual desire emerged and I came to the group. I study and understand that a single law accompanies me during the entire course of the path. However, on the other hand, the Creator wants me to be autonomous. What does my independence entail?

Answer: The Creator lets you be independent in the point of choice and nothing besides that. In the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Baal HaSulam says that the Creator Himself “places one’s hand on the good fate and says to him, ‘Choose this for yourself.’” In other words, you can choose what will influence you: the education you have received, your internal qualities, or the environment.

How do you choose, then? Try to take everything that occurs in the group, all its values, with the minimal inner obstacles coming from you, as you are in the present state. Currently, you view life based on past experiences. Until now, nothing was up to you, but now you are told: Try to neutralize everything you have absorbed and built yourself from and instead, receive the influence of the new environment.

Imagine you are a child who looks at the world with wide open eyes and wants to know everything, learn everything, and re-create everything he sees. Try to look at the new environment exactly like that, if you indeed made up your mind to walk with them to the goal. In that case, you don’t have any other choice but to become a child who is hungry for the influence the environment provides.

Until now, you evolved at the animate level and now, you wish to evolve spiritually, which is a totally new degree. Therefore, try to be the least in the group. After all, a younger child automatically learns from the older ones. This kind of attitude toward the group is what your choice entails. Now, choose!
[35067]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If I bring children up according to the method of Kabbalah, could it be that I am taking away their free will?

Answer: What does it mean to bring children up according to the method of Kabbalah? It implies that you strive to introduce them into the environment, to prepare them for Kabbalistic texts, to lead them to the point of free choice so that they realize that man is brought up by the Light that Reforms. It is precisely what they have to evoke.

Initially, “man” (Adam) is the root of the soul, and he is supposed to draw everything else to himself with the Light that develops him. This is what our free will is about. We are either led by Nature, or we evoke a special force that lies above it. It isn’t easy. This requires a person to overcome, to struggle against the impact of the ordinary environment, and toil in order to attract the influence of the Light. If I lead my children to this, do I take their free will away? No, I don’t.

First of all, they may ignore not only traditional “baby food,” but also what you are teaching them yourself. There is no difference between them.

A person receives free will only when a point of a new desire emerges in him which craves personal development that will allow him (and not you with your notions of "education") to make his decisions. So, by teaching him what you, yourself, adhere to, you still don’t go beyond tradition, although this tradition is closer to the point that has to unfold.

We see that this is how it happens in the world today. But previously, humanity had to develop by way of religion. It is written about Abraham that he sent out to the world the sons of his concubines and ordered them to enforce various religions.

Judaism was also founded after the wisdom of Kabbalah disappeared from the people’s view during the fall of the Temple when we fell from the degree of bestowal and love into hatred and egoism. Since then, the Jewish people act only on the external, corporeal level. Instead of working internally on transforming the soul, purifying desire with the Light that Reforms, we are carrying out physical actions mechanically, without correcting the heart.

This is what religion is about, unlike the wisdom of Kabbalah; it is externality instead of internality. For this reason, Kabbalah is regarded as the inner essence of the Torah.

However, exile is coming to an end since it was allotted a certain time. Changes have begun, and the point of free will is hatching in human hearts. They wish to get out of the enforced education and test themselves: “Whom do I wish to be? How can I be my own guide?”

Then, a person makes a choice: He needs a new type of upbringing. It’s not the kind that society is providing for him—he wants to receive it directly from the Creator. Let the Creator give it to him so that he may be called “man” (Adam) who is similar (Domeh) to the Supreme.

Usually, our upbringing is based on us receiving examples from those who surround us and becoming similar to them. Now, I wish to receive an example from the Creator so I may become like Him.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Why do we have to study to attract the upper Light? Why can’t the Light influence us while working in the group the way it influences a child while he’s playing? Why isn’t it enough for us to play the game of “love for friends” in order to attain that love?

Answer: During the study we try to unite together and we definitely need the Light to develop us. This Light does not come by us just trying to unite together. It has to come to us from the upper world, from the higher state or level.

We do not grow like animals, meaning, we do not grow on the same level. A small child that wants to get older only grows inside his ego, without transforming it “for the sake of bestowal.” He just becomes a more grown-up animal.

But in our spiritual work, at every level we turn our ego to bestowal and that is why we need the Light that Reforms. Therefore, it’s not enough for us to “play” in the group in order to attain love for friends because this love is opposite to our nature. I play love, but by doing that I won’t reach it.

If people wish to unite in order to attain the egoistic goal that our ego understands, such as to win or earn, then they don’t have any problem uniting. But if we have to change our nature, then our ego doesn’t understand why it’s necessary to unite with others, and that’s why we are unable to do so. I hear many complaints. People come to us and perplexedly ask, “These are the relationships that you, Kabbalists have?! But there has to be infinite love here! And instead, look at what’s happening here!” People from outside don’t get it.

If you enter any external society that has a clear egoistic goal, you will see that they are united together because they understand that together they can attain the goal, such as succeeding at some business or building a house. But we cannot unite because unity between us is possible only by breaking the ego, while in the external society it happens by increasing the ego.

That is why we have to additionally evoke the Light that Reforms. Only the Light’s influence can unite us. We can only reveal hatred among us. In the external society, which is united by the egoistic goal, people reveal love among them, whereas we reveal hatred. This is called “Mount Sinai”—the mountain of hatred. Then we will need the Torah—the Light that Reforms because we can only unite with its help.

That is why only hatred becomes revealed in a real group of Kabbalists, and then they have to study in order to attract the Light that will unite them. But the Light unites them only for a moment, and then they reveal hatred once again in order for them to advance further by attracting the Light to them. And that is how they constantly have to attract the Light since otherwise they become immersed in hatred. Hatred is their ego, “help against them,” helping them to advance in this way.

That is why we need the group and we have to try to unite together even though it is clear to us that we won’t attain it on our own. Yet we must try not to hang our heads in the face of this game. And we have to study together in order to attract the Light that Reforms because it has to perform this revolution inside us, since we won’t unite without acquiring the quality of bestowal.

External societies unite egoistically, whereas we unite only by virtue of mutual spiritual bestowal. If the Light influences us and unites us with one another, then in the common Kli between us, we will immediately reveal the Creator. The common force that will become revealed among us is the Creator. Then our desire to enjoy will turn into the desire to bestow.
[35407]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Is it possible to reach the realization of evil in the relationships between us through the virtual group and the computer screen?

Answer: Of course it is. We are in a common desire, so it makes no difference whether we are sitting next to each other. I might be sitting next to you without knowing what your name is or looking at your face. It doesn’t matter whether we are in one building or in different places.

Unity happens through feeling and does not require physical contact. Our world is becoming entirely connected through virtual connections. And that is exactly how our desire will be.

I do not have to sit together with everyone in one room. The sensation of unity is not connected to physical distance, and someone close is not someone who is close physically, but spiritually. Physical distance does not affect desires and sensations. This is true even in our world, in the relationships between people, and moreover in spiritual connection. It is not related to physical distance at all.

Try working in a virtual group and you will see that it makes no difference whether you are sitting together around one table or by your screens.
[35422]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: I understand the explanation that the world is becoming global and we all need to unite. This is a very scientific conclusion. But I don’t understand where the force that actualizes the unity comes from, what is the surrounding Light? This already sounds like mysticism.

Answer: Books explaining the structure of the upper world (Talmud Eser Sefirot) are not mysticism, but a strict science in which there are two operating forces: Light and desire, or bestowal and reception. All the formulas are derived from these two forces, just like in math which has a dual conception: from 0 and 1, or like in physics which always examines two forces and their interaction.

The science of Kabbalah is the same and it provides a foundation for the entire attainment of reality and for all other sciences that describe this reality. I do not see anything mystical about it.

I agree that it is written in a language that is not very customary or clear to the modern person, yet its conclusions are clear, scientific, and logical. We are confused by the text because we do not know how to interpret it correctly. But in essence it is talking only about the will to enjoy which takes on the form of bestowal, and then it is called a spiritual “body,” Partzuf.

Desire is matter. For example, in our world there are different kinds of matter: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. All of them are also the desire to enjoy, which takes on different external forms depending on its type, and as a result we see many kinds of plants and animals.

The same desire to enjoy operates in the spiritual world. However, in our world it takes on all sorts of egoistic forms, whereas in the spiritual world it assumes the forms of bestowal rather than reception. That is why we cannot recognize them right now since we do not have the kind of vision to see in the Light of bestowal. Thus, we do not discern these images.

You now attain yourself and others through the desire to absorb inside of yourself, to receive. All of your vision is based on this. That is why you see precisely this kind of world around you—all sorts of forms of reception in the desire to enjoy. We reveal all of these forms, study them, and based on that we build science.

However, there exists a different form of desire—bestowal, when you radiate outside of yourself. When the desire begins working this way, it also takes on different forms: still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, which are all the possible levels of bestowal, the combination of different forces of bestowal operating on it.

The science of Kabbalah studies precisely these forms. Kabbalists who have attained the quality of bestowal, each according to his level, write to us about their observations just like other scientists write about the forms of reception in this world. So there are the sciences of this world, which are about our earthly nature, and there is the science about the nature of bestowal called “Kabbalah.”
[35419]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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