Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam (Steps of the Ladder), "What is the Feast of the Groom": Forces of separation bring thoughts which make one feel detached from the Creator.

Question: What are these thoughts? Are they thoughts against the spiritual work or any distracting thoughts?

Answer: Simply irrelevant thoughts have nothing to do with the separation. They mean that I am disconnected from the purpose and am in a state of "this world," at the still, vegetative, or animate level of development.

If the thought of becoming like the Creator is completely absent from my mind, it means that I haven’t yet risen to the degree of human (Adam) and am on the preliminary stages together with the rest of the world. Religion, politics, philosophy, science, business, culture, education, or anything that a person occupies himself with in this world belongs to this world; all of it serves it.

However, if I have a point in the heart, the question of why and for what I live, and it has surfaced clearly and distinctly, carrying me upward toward the purpose, then it belongs to the human degree in me. It means that I undergo the period of preparation before entering the spiritual world.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/10/2011, “What is the Feast of the Groom”

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Question: How can I see an example of the Creator’s work? In my everyday life can I tell what He is now trying to show me?

Answer: You will recognize the Creator’s example directly in your sensation. My soul is structured in such a way that inside it begins to feel a certain part of a higher soul that shows it an example. Then I follow its example, looking at it like a child looks at an adult. And when a child receives an example from the adult, he wants to do the same thing.

However, you cannot find such examples in our life because you still don’t have the qualities of bestowal. You will only be able to discern them when you have the Kli that can help you become similar to Him. Then you will see His example according to the equivalence of form.

We have been given just one example. When we experience despair, then on its background we are brought to the group that studies the science of Kabbalah. Then you are told: “Start uniting with the friends and studying Kabbalistic books together.” Only then, with the help of the right study, by building connections with the friends and starting to reject your ego, the Light will come to you and help you overcome your egoistic desire. And only after that will you be able to acquire upper qualities.

However, it is only possible to receive the Creator’s example when you have a Kli in which you can realize it. By proving that you have the opportunity to become similar to Him, you will acquire an image according to which you will build your equivalence with the Creator.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 12/14/10

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Question: What is the purpose of our studying all that incredibly complex system of the worlds of Atzilut and Nekudim described in The Study of the Ten Sefirot?

Answer: We need to learn how to correct the breaking and which spiritual objects (Partzufim) and their parts will help. The world of Nekudim is the broken world, and the world of Atzilut corrects the breaking. We need to know which attribute corrects the corresponding attribute and who is responsible for each act of correction.

Each correction requires accurate knowledge as to what has been damaged, where the flaw is, and how, by what means, it can be corrected. All of it is clarified down to the tiniest detail, and only then is the correction made.

The problem of humanity is that we want to correct the world while lacking the faintest notion of what it really is. The world of Atzilut serves as the correct example for us. Until I know the cause of the breaking, which parts were broken, and how they functioned before, I can’t perform a correction.

The entire correction is based on the knowledge of the flaws. Only then can you build a system of correction. Humanity has no chance of reaching a good life and correcting something if we don’t understand what’s happening to us. Without this knowledge, how can we reach correction?

Therefore, our freedom of will is exercised solely in performing a correction. We study the system of correction which spreads from Above downward and contains the knowledge of the whole process from the beginning until the end.

When we rise from below upward, we cannot define either the beginning, or the process itself, or its end in advance in order to build the system of correction. Thus, we are using an existing system that evolved during the descent of the system from Above downward. However, we can use it only on condition that we are able to enter inside it and activate the entire system.

Therefore, we stand no chance to succeed by feeling our way forward, blindly, the way all of humanity is still does. Only the wisdom of Kabbalah will serve us as the instruction for correction.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/2011, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: I heard you say numerous times that everything that brings me hardships, offends or hurts me is essentially within me. How do I begin to feel and comprehend this?

Answer: When a true reality becomes revealed to me, I realize that I perceive everything within, and there is nothing on the outside. A notion of “outside of me” does not exist at all since everything occurs in my sensations, in my perception. And an apparent reality that I currently observe: the spaciousness of this world, the endless Universe, the Earth with its numerous details, all of it I perceive within. Hence, as I correct my general egoistic desire, this entire picture changes.

However, we don’t feel this in our world because we perceive reality in the desire that doesn’t change qualitatively: It only becomes bigger or smaller. Yet, if we transformed its main property, absorption into itself, into bestowal, we would feel our previous perception from aside and could judge what’s going on correctly.

It’s not simple. This is hard to grasp and impossible to feel. The switch occurs suddenly, only due to the Upper Light that gradually, drop by drop, acts upon us.

In addition to his or her regular qualities (Kelim), a person acquires new ones. This world does not disappear, but beside it, he perceives an additional reality, its other part. Only then does he understand where he is situated and truly senses that our world is a mere illusion.
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From the Introductory Lecture in Netanya 12/12/2010

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Question: Is there a difference between a student studying Kabbalah one on one with a Kabbalist teacher and the way we study in a group?

Answer: You also study together with me at the lesson. Of course, it’s different from having a one on one lesson, but I don’t think that today it is possible to pass this science on to anyone individually. In our time this is possible only by studying in a group or through the Internet in the widest possible form, and it makes no difference where a student is. The student will advance, whereas the previous individual method no longer works.

You shouldn’t regret the impossible, but should use everything you have. Every person has a governance from above and the Creator controls the entire process. Any place where you have freedom of choice, you should realize it and that’s all.

I don’t have any students that are closer to or farther from me. The student himself continuously determines how close he is, and that is how much he advances. Whether a student is close to me or far is determined only by how much he desires to accept my inner message, absorb it, and realize it.

This does not depend on whether a person is located right here in the classroom or lives far away and studies over the Internet, or whether it’s a man or a woman. Everything depends on the student and how he uses the means that are given to everyone.

Besides, it’s very important to not forget that it is impossible for the student to respect the teacher while neglecting the group. That’s because a teacher is the innermost part of the group, the message that is inside it. Therefore, it’s impossible for a person to scorn the group while respecting the teacher, the group’s inner charge.

The group is our mutual place with the teacher, the place where we meet. This did not exist in previous times, when the student worked with his teacher face to face. When we meet inside of the group, every student determines for himself whether he unites with the teacher “Peh el Peh” (through a common screen) or “Peh el Awzen” (from the mouth into the ear, like when studying regular science).

At the end of it all, we meet the Creator, because everything is united until the world of Infinity.
From the lesson on 1/7/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: Suppose that we have already reached the state where all seven billion people in the world study and actualize Kabbalah. Now a child is born into this world. What happens to him? Will he have to understand the meaning of evil in order to reach good? But by that time the world will already be corrected, so how will he feel evil?

Answer: In this world there is only a renewal of physical bodies, but not souls. Therefore, the children being born today are old souls that acquire new bodies. That’s why we don’t pay attention to a person’s age. Regardless of whether a physical body has died or has been born to live in this world, the soul continues its reincarnations.

You’re asking: If all the people correct their egos, will it be necessary for more people to be born? No, the souls will no longer need to be born. However, we won’t live forever biologically. We will begin to feel how our world changes, gradually acquiring the qualities of the upper world.

To the degree each of us and all of us together are corrected in the single system, our perception of the world changes as well. When we ascend from the first level of the spiritual world to the second and then the third, we go from one world to the next. And when we attain the state of full correction in the common interconnection, our world will be destroyed.

It is written, “Six thousand years of concealment and one year of destruction.” It will be the seventh millennium. “The world will be destroyed” means that this world will disappear from our sensation because we perceive it in our common egoism. As soon as our egoism turns to bestowal and love, then instead of it we will feel the upper world.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 1/11/11

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Question: Rabash writes that a person “should have faith.” What does this mean?

Answer: First of all, there is a notion of “faith in the sages.” This refers to the Kabbalists who completed the journey and left us the method.

They explain the method in a very logical manner and to the point, but for now we still have to believe their words. Granted, we do have a point in the heart, and we agree with them. Nevertheless, there is a place for faith here: I entrust myself to the insight of the upper one who has already acquired the experience.

Even a real, practical analysis does not eliminate a “spot of weakness,” something not very obvious, and I simply follow the upper one. I literally grab his hand and walk by his side. Baal HaSulam explains that one needs to find a teacher and “cling” to him in order to try to know him from the inside from the actions that he recommends.

This faith is essential. This is how a child believes an adult. Moreover, you only accept on faith the actions that he recommends, and you see that he is right thanks to this small and quick step.

It is not blind faith: You continuously lower your head in order to use his, to rise slightly and immediately confirm that he is right. In reality, it is not as much faith but study, an exercise, which can be immediately verified.

Overall, in Kabbalah, the notion of “faith” stands for the force of bestowal, whereas “knowledge” is the force of reception. We advance through these two forces.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/2011, Writings of Rabash

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Question: What clarifications do I need to perform in order to advance spiritually?

Answer: Clarifications that we perform on our spiritual path come down to a single question: What exactly do I wish to reveal? All these clarifications occur when we listen to or study the material that describes the spiritual reality to us.

Thus, when I open the book in order to reveal the form, the picture of the spiritual reality and see myself in it, I perform the clarification by examining the following: Who am I relative to what becomes revealed to me?
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From the Introductory Lecture in Netanya 12/12/2010

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Question: The purpose of creation is basically clear to me. What I don’t understand is why did the Creator do it? What does He need me for? Why did He make it all this way?

Answer: He did it for two reasons: First, His nature is good who does good, meaning that He wished to give us infinite fulfillment above time, motion, space, and all limitations. Second, this fulfillment must be of the same degree as the Creator’s so that we would enjoy a status equal to His and be as He is. Yet we have to achieve this ourselves by having received independence and increasing our “self” to His level.

We still don’t comprehend how we can grow to such a status, but we will reach a position equal to the Creator’s and become equal to Him in everything. The force of love and good, which in fact is the Creator, obliges Him to create a being and lead it to perfection. In truth, however, we already are in this state of completeness since He initially created us as such.

He didn’t create us in this despicable form we find ourselves at the moment so that we would have to reconstruct ourselves anew. No, all we have to do is unveil our true condition. As to the Creator, we are still perfect in relation to Him.

If we don’t achieve this status independently, we won’t be able to experience the world of and life in Infinity. We could experience it right now, but since our Kelim (vessels, desires) are not developed, we perceive this world instead.
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From the Introductory Lecture “Why The Creator is Hidden” 12/14/2010

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Question: I have been studying at the “Kabbalah L’Am” (Kabbalah for All) campus for some time already, and now I am in such state that I don’t understand or feel anything.

Answer: The more a person studies, the more he enters a state when he feels and understands nothing. And then he overcomes this barrier.

It is a very interesting experience. It is written that at some point, Rabbi Shimon felt as a mere merchant, "Shimon from the market." That is, he felt as if all knowledge, perceptions, and impressions related to the wisdom of Kabbalah disappeared in him.

However, in correspondence with the darkness that enveloped him, he also felt the spiritual degree he was about to attain. After all, when a person is evolving spiritually, the gap between what he has achieved during the ascent and the place where he “falls” having lost everything is enormous.

Therefore, when you are surrounded by darkness, study it thoroughly and understand how it manifests; only this will help you. Examine what is happening, what feelings it instills in you, what you are desperate for, where you have no more emotional resources, and where you still do have some. This is what you have to clarify at the time of spiritual darkness. It is so-called “work in the night,” a period greatly valued by the sages of Kabbalah, as it is said: “To proclaim Thy mercy in the morning and Thy Truth in the night” (Psalm 92).

In other words, in the darkness, a person starts discerning what is going to be revealed to him since darkness is the reverse side of the Light. And when you don’t just sit and “eat” yourself but study the darkness correctly, the “morning” arrives and the Light illuminates everything. Hence, inside this darkness, a person has to see the Light, examine what it is he has to attain, and while still being in the dark, to feel that he is coming closer to it.

To be in the dark is a very rewarding job! It is a special state. This is how we are shown that we are unable to do anything ourselves. A person finally gets to know his true nature and realizes that without help from Above he is nothing.

If you are illuminated by the upper Light, you rise like a flower stretching up to the sun. And if there is no Light, you immediately fall.
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From the Introductory Lecture in North Tel Aviv 12/19/2010

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