Question: Is it worthwhile to preach “material” altruism to the world as the first stage of correction?

Answer: In the circulation of the wisdom of Kabbalah, we cannot join efforts with “altruists.” In the best case scenario, charitable organizations give out to the poor what they have managed to get from some others: for instance, flour from one factory, textiles from another, shoes from yet another one. Obviously, it’s nice, although very few are doing this. Most of the time, it doesn’t go farther than talking.

However, what is important to understand here is that we are not improving the world by any of this. In fact, egoism that is destroying it doesn’t get corrected by such actions. By satisfying desires of an egoist, you are ruining him. His needs should be met on the condition that he acquires a profession and does something by using his hands or the brain.

A person has to work to produce something in exchange for the sustenance you supply him with. Otherwise, you are breeding parasites, and billions of people don’t wish to work but expect that you will feed them.

And later, they come out into the streets, complaining that you are reducing their welfare. And they are not the ones to blame since it is you who raised them that way; you developed such an attitude in them.

European leadership itself raised the protesters who are rioting against welfare reduction today. They were told clearly: “Do nothing, and we will pay you for it.” In other words, you yourself made a mistake and now you have to pay for it. Indeed, who will refuse charity that has become a norm?

Man shouldn’t be trained to receive things gratuitously. In doing so, we don’t take his egoistic nature into consideration.

The same goes for children. They have to be aware that you always give them something in exchange for what you receive from them. You constantly teach a child to treat life correctly and train him to work with his egoism. Nothing is gained without an effort.

Surely, children need a special approach, but it has to be based on the same laws. You give them a candy not because they are cute but after they have finished solving a math problem or doing an exercise. Otherwise, you are corrupting a child since now he is going to expect to get everything in life for free. As a result, he is going to grow up a miserable individual who doesn’t know how to live.

Payment is always necessary, among adults and among children. Besides, a person has to know who he is paying, with what, and what is expected of him. Only then will he build a correct attitude to the others surrounding him: He not only receives something from outside, but also gives something in return. Thereby, gradually, a person begins to interact with the entire creation correctly. Then, a completely new philosophy emerges and forms in him.
[30812]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, “Peace in the World”

Related Material:
Authentic Altruism And Humanitarian Help
Giving Up Bread While Starving
A New Type Of Humanity In Only 15 Years

Filed under: Children, Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Education, Kabbalah Dissemination, Q&A, Society - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, “What is the Flood Water in the Work”: Faith above reason is the territory belonging to holiness….

Question: How can we reach this territory?

Answer: “Faith above reason” means that I arm myself with the force of bestowal above the egoistic desire, which awakens in me time and time again. This is not just a desire to sleep, eat, or have a good time, but a desire that obstructs me from uniting with others.

We are talking about the single criterion: for unity or against it. All the other desires belong to the animate degree. The true desire for pleasure, belonging to the human level, originates only from the breaking of the souls. Everything else belongs to the lower levels in me: still, vegetative, and animate. I don’t deal with them at all.

Thus, the criterion of my analysis is my attitude to unity. The advice is to check myself in the group because in the wide world confusion is inevitable and there is no one to work with there. If we get together in order to unite and I discover that I am unable to do this and don’t want it, that I hate and reject the very idea, it means I reveal the evil inclination inside myself.

I make efforts, trying to to ascend above them, but discover that I am unable. Then, due to lack of any choice and by feeling how important and necessary it is to attain unity, I cry out, “Save me!” And from Above I receive the force of bestowal which helps me to think about unity, to connect to others at least slightly.

Meanwhile, others do not and should not feel it. We are talking about the inner work of a person who starts to feel the common force of unity inside this aspiration to unity. This force is called “the Creator.”

That is how a person moves forward from one phase to the next. His desire constantly grows, opposing unity more and more. He makes all the efforts, trying to manage with everything alone. But he fails, despairs, and calls out for the force of bestowal. In this force of bestowal, aimed at the heart of the group, he reveals the Creator.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Show That You Love!
Unity Above Hate
Training Under The Creator’s Supervision

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Unity - 1 Comment →

Question: If our world is the lowest of the worlds and if we can start climbing the ladder of spiritual steps with the help of the wisdom of Kabbalah, why then are millions of people walking about this lowest degree never reaching even the starting point of spiritual ascent?

Answer: There are five spiritual worlds: Atzilut, Beria, Yetzira, Assiya, and Adam Kadmon. We are at the lowest degree, in the corporeal world. All of the 125 degrees that are above us are levels of transformation of reality.

Do you wish to change reality? If yes, you need a screen. A screen is defined as the measure of connection between me and the Light, the Creator. I must connect myself with the Light, the Creator, with the help of the screen.

Then, by means of various actions I perform with the screen, I will be able to create various forms of reality. Besides, these forms are alive, just like people whom I see right now. Yet, at the moment, I am not the one who is creating this reality; such perception is given to me by nature.

However, when I start ascending in spirituality, I act as the Creator does. I create each degree, all its still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels. I create this reality; I form and support it instead of the Creator. However, who is this “I?” The “I” is the one who possesses a screen.
[25995]
From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Perception of Reality” 10/20/10

Related Material:
The World Of Our Intentions
An Ultimatum To The Creator
Is There Life Without A Screen?

Filed under: Inner Work, Perception, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: To participate at the convention, one has to pay over $200. Isn’t it a bit much? Besides, as a man and a member of the group, I will be working in the kitchen and doing other chores during the three days of the event, as usual. Why should I be paying for participation?

Answer: I have already given instructions to suspend you from all duties. You may attend the convention as a guest and sit with the audience. We view catering to the others as a reward, not a duty, and are happy to receive an assignment.

The friends from the group will also be paying to attend the convention, despite the fact that they will be working serving others. And that’s exactly what they are paying for. By the way, if you ask them about it, you will hear that the real convention takes place in the kitchen, where during the events in Israel, they are cooking for 7000 adults and 1600 children!

They just have a different mindset. For instance, at the convention you might see a “sale” sign saying: “Sale! Special offer! Such and such book that you can usually buy at 10 dollars now sells for 15 dollars!” Everybody knows that our entire world organization has no sponsors and exists solely thanks to the charity of the friends.
[21440]

Related Material:
Who Is Last In Line On Onion Duty?
Pure Benefit

Filed under: Conventions, Q&A - No Comments →

Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What’s the Difference Between ‘The Gate of Tears’ from the Rest of the Gates”: Even if a person weeps shedding bitter tears, but he weeps for excesses, no one will respond to his cries. This person stands before the gate of tears, but the gate is closed and does not allow his prayer to enter. People do not cry over excesses. It is customary to cry only over vital necessities.

Question: What does it mean to cry in spirituality? How does a person know he is really crying? And should the group reach the state of crying?

Answer: Of course, both the group and every individual in it have to reach this state. This is the “prayer of many” where every person prays for everyone, including himself. The prayers in the prayer book are constructed upon this principle.

Crying is the state of smallness (Katnut) when I know that I cannot attain unity by myself; in fact, I cannot even desire it by myself. Even before I reach the certainty that I am unable to make a spiritual action, I have to understand that first of all I need a 100% desire. “Let it happen to me!” And this is a desire I also can’t acquire alone.

For example, I had hoped to get rid of an illness by myself, but gradually I realized that it’s impossible. Having suffered and wasted a ton of efforts, I see that I cannot do anything about it. I discover that I can only get cured by a doctor. So what’s the problem?

The problem is that I have to ask the doctor for it. I have to demand and implore him to perform the surgery. And I have to really desire this, even though I am very afraid of it. Fear stops me, but the futility of the situation pushes me to plea for help.

The same thing happens to us: To the degree we advance, we feel more and more clearly that we have to go through surgery to eliminate egoism, that very egoism that leads us through life and supports us in every way. So how can I ask or even think about coming out of it? It can only be done by means of the Upper Light.

I have to receive the desire from outside, from the group, and I do so unwillingly. It is written about it, “We go from Lo Lishma to Lishma,” meaning from the egoistic intention to the altruistic one. I aspire to that which is opposite to me today: for all of my worries to be about the neighbor, so all the money besides the “vital minimum” I need will go to my neighbor, and so everything will be for my neighbor.

Can I really desire this, as if there is nothing more important in life? Can I ask for these thoughts not to leave me for a second? Can I cry for it?

Suppose someone shows me a petition for bestowal: “I request to be provided with an altruistic desire so I will take care of others with everything I have besides what I need to survive.” Sign it! Go ahead! Want it! But how can I want it? After all, I can’t create a new desire inside myself.

That’s true, but if you agree to it in principle, and then start working in the group, the necessary desire will come to you from the friends. The environment contains a spiritual force, the force of the Creator. Nothing depends on the friends themselves, and it was arranged that way initially. If I turn to the environment, to our inner interconnection, there I find everything. There I reveal all the levels, forces, and states until the very end of correction.

Suddenly I discover that we are united and in our unity I feel all the spiritual phenomena, down to total unity. I reveal everything that the science of Kabbalah talks about there, in our interconnection.

The forces of bestowal between us is the connection between the souls. The soul is the force of bestowal in a person, a part of the Creator from Above.
[31006]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Group Beyond The External Veil
This Is All We Need!
True Lie

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: In order to receive strength from the friends, I have to value them. But how can I value them if I’m an egoist?

Answer: You value the unity of people, or in other words, of souls. Externally the only thing there can be between people is hatred, envy, and the like. However, behind the external facade, every person contains the inner him – the force of bestowal that is concealed inside him.

It’s like there are two screens in front of you: external and internal. On the external screen you see this world, whereas on the internal screen everyone is united by the forces of mutual bestowal. After all, the soul is the force of bestowal that’s concealed inside us. This is the picture you turn to, wishing to reveal it, to be included in it, and to dissolve in it. You do not deal with the external forms.

What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself? When you turn to the inner picture, you will see that there is no breaking there, but all the friends are united with each other. This is the Shechina. It contains mutuality, unity, mutual guarantee, and in a word, everything besides you. You want to become part of it, demanding it, asking, and pleading for it.

That is the meaning of building the right environment. Otherwise you look at the friends on the outside and do not find anything there. The Creator deliberately drew this picture in front of us so that by tearing down the veil and looking deep into our unity, you will discover the exact environment that Baal HaSulam talks about in “The Freedom.”

This is the environment you have to turn to and from which you have to demand everything. There, everyone is corrected; by becoming included in the friends, you will discover the Creator among them, meaning the common, all-inclusive force of bestowal.

In Kabbalah, besides the simple sum there is a notion of all-inclusion (Koalel), which is the integral force of everyone. For example, the common force of 100 people equals 100. But inside their unity the Creator is present, being an additional force that is deeper, spiritual, and all-inclusive.

That is why the friends are capable of anything due to having rejected their egoism in order to reveal the Creator, to reveal the root and unite with Him. They do not attain the four degrees of still, vegetative, animate, and human, but the Creator. They do not attain Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, and Haya, but the addition, the Light of Yechida that was not there previously; Keter, the point of the letter Yod.

If a person desires to work with the environment, then the environment is ready for him. Then he sees all the friends as the greatest people of the generation. And in truth, inside each of them there is a giant. After all, if they have an inner spiritual aspiration, then inside they are already united. In principle, on the inside all of humanity is united, but you have to turn to those who also externally express the spiritual desire at least slightly. Then you have an environment.

After that, to the extent you lower yourself before the environment and value it, you will receive strength from the friends until finally reaching the gate of tears. Spirituality will become the most vital thing in your life, but at the same time you won’t have any possibility of obtaining it. That is when you will cry out.

You will then be crying out to the reality that you reveal as mutual bestowal, to the common force that lies there called “mutual guarantee.” It is from there that you will receive what you need, the desire or need to become a part of the friends. Having discerned many details of unification, you will enter the inner picture.
[31003]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/28/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Let Your Heart Knock On The Creator’s Door
Ask The Creator To Do It!
Unification With The Group Leads Us To The Creator

Filed under: Collective Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Unity - No Comments →

Question: Who are these friends that The Zohar writes about all the time? How can I identify them within me?

Answer: If you identify your friends as really belonging to you and being within you, then you will see that they are parts of your soul. With their help, you are building your spiritual world now, and you reveal the Messiah in it.

It’s simple: The present picture disappears, and you feel only the internal structure of the soul. “Friend” (Haver) comes from the word “connection” (Hibur). If you are able to attach to you someone who seems a stranger to you now so as to feel him within yourself, he is called your friend.

Friends are the same attributes you used to feel outside of yourself as strangers. You’ve worked on them to attach them to you, and, of course you failed to do it alone. Then, you asked for the Light to do it for you. It influenced you and attached them to you.

It created in you such an attitude toward the friends on the same path as if they were part of you. Then, you feel them as your “assembly.” An assembly means a common desire, a union of individual desires, each of which previously existed on its own, or so it seemed to me in my pride, in my egoism.

I lowered myself from the state of “standing,” reaching the state of “sitting” (Yeshiva). Then, sitting together, everyone can connect with each other as in the verse from the song: “How wonderful and pleasant it is to sit together as brothers” (Heene Matov uManaim Shevet Achim Gam Yahad). That’s why it is called “assembly” (Yeshiva), a small state (Katnut).
[30793]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, “Introduction from The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Vision of Rabbi Hiya”

Related Material:
A Dual Reality
“Bugs” Of An Imperfect Perception

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: What should I do when I am in a state where I have no strength, don’t feel anything affecting me, and don’t know what to do?

Answer: This is described in the weekly chapter of the Torah: “And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage.” After a person comes to the realization that he has no power, all that he can do is beg.

Before, he thought himself big, smart, and understanding, thinking he could advance on his own, constantly gaining knowledge by adding effort and action. However, if up to this point he has performed a sufficient number of actions, he gets to see that nothing has been achieved therewith.

Why then does a person needs to perform all these actions? In order to realize that he won’t achieve anything. To reach the state of emptiness, a person has to exert a tremendous amount of effort.

I work and think that by doing so, I am building the beautiful “store-cities of Pithom and Ramses,” gaining knowledge, and that soon I will unveil, see, and feel everything. I exert more and more effort, immerse myself in the studies deeper, only to suddenly realize: “How much have I put into it, and what have I achieved? I have nothing. What do I do next? What will become of me?” I don’t know, but I am willing to fall into a deadly sleep. Just give me a sleeping pill so I may sleep and never get up.

This is how a person feels at that moment, exhausted and powerless. In fact, he begins to understand that he will achieve nothing like this. At first, he doesn’t even know it and only feels that he has no desire for anything. Then, he wakes up and still goes on. However, at some point, he begins to understand that, on his own, he will merit nothing, and he needs the Upper Force: “If the Creator doesn’t come and help me, I, myself, can do nothing.”

He starts thinking this way only after 15 to 20 times, or maybe even 30 to 40 times that he has tried to advance on his own only to face disappointment and fall into despair. This is called the years of Egyptian exile, until they have “sighed by reason of the bondage.” For my ego, I build the “store-cities, Pithom and Ramses,” but for the human in me who desires to attain spirituality, these cities are poor and miserable, empty, and can give me nothing.

I start dividing myself in two. So what if I have knowledge, intellect, can discuss the wisdom of Kabbalah beautifully, and even seem to understand everything? It serves nothing. In truth, I don’t have spirituality. I can talk about it all day and all night, but am I attaining it or just talking about it? I am just talking.

Then, a person understands that at this point, he needs only the help from Above, some upper revelation, the Upper Force, something different which is not up to him. He understands that with what he has, it is impossible to reach spirituality. Finally, he really cries out, as it is written: “And the children of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage.”

It is a challenging path. A person has to undergo such states many times. Only the environment can help him in this and nothing else. The environment can support and protect him as well as promote his development.

Otherwise, who knows when he will wake up again? If not with the help of the environment, it will be by way of a changing Reshimo (spiritual information record) that he will be granted mercy from Above and given a new state. However, nobody knows when that will happen.

Therefore, when a person remains in a good state, when he is illuminated by the Light and has power, he has to bond with the environment as much as possible in order to receive the strength put into it when he gets weak again. Then, he will experience a descent as if by inertia and will start ascending again since he had accelerated the speed before he fell.
[30876]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/24/10, “Perfection in Life”

Related Material:
Know What You Want Precisely
Learning To Operate According To A New Program
At The Threshold Of Revelation

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Every person wants to be unique and realize the unique root of his soul. That’s why he is frightened by the explanation that he is a mere cogwheel in the common mechanism. He is afraid to lose his individuality in the society.

Answer: But why should you get lost in the society? On the contrary, you can become a righteous one who is regarded as the “salt of the earth”: to bestow to all and pull the entire world forward. Who is stopping you? There is no restriction on bestowal. Please, do bestow!

You are complaining that you are prevented or not permitted to use all the others. Obviously, nobody wants to let you take advantage of them. On the other hand, if you become great not at reception, but at bestowal, nobody will stand in your way.

One can be unique in the positive sense of the word, in bestowal. Why, then, do you insist on being different in the negative form, in egoism? Everybody wants to be special, so, please, do let them. Realize yourself in spirituality.

A person may be frightened by the very look of the linked cogwheels. He imagines being a robot or a screw, but it is a fact of reality, a picture that does exist in Nature. In Nature, nothing can be bad or good; it is simply a fact.

You may agree or disagree with it; it won’t change reality. You will only evoke blows upon yourself if you don’t comply with it. You may claim that you disagree with the law of gravity and deny its existence. Go ahead; we will see later how you will be falling off the roof.

It’s the same case here. We don’t understand how strictly we are connected with each other and we are still trying to do as we please. Everybody is pulling the blanket over their eyes. Later, we witness how everybody suffers, time after time, for thousands of years.

Now, we are entering such a state where our ego has grown to its maximum in all our earthly desires and tied us all to one another all over the globe. Nonetheless, we still don’t wish to admit it and we keep trying to deceive and use each other. However, we don’t understand that by doing so, everyone brings the very same pain onto himself that he brings to others.

We don’t see it, but if it were clearly revealed to me and I got an immediate, reciprocal blow at the moment when I harm someone, I would act like an animal that doesn’t have free will. I would keep swinging between blows and pleasures, working like a machine, if the law of mutual connection affected me openly.

Therefore, this law is concealed in order to give me an opportunity to add to it by using my free will. The law does exist, albeit  hidden, and I can make up for concealment myself as if it were revealed. After all, I wish it to work this way: I want bestowal to be enormous and powerful and prevail over receiving. It may be a law written out in every book, but I wish it to become revealed in practice. This is where my free will lies.

I was given one white spot which means that the Creator is concealed. I can bring Him out of concealment and fill this white spot with His presence. It will be my own presence since I will be exactly like Him. I will come to the place where He is hiding and replace Him. It will be as if He and I are partners, and I pledge that I will do His work for Him where He is hidden.
[30828]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/26/10, “Peace in the World”

Related Material:
Nowhere To Hide
There Is Nothing Easier!
Understanding Each Other

Filed under: Crisis, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Inner Work, Q&A - No Comments →

Question: Is there a phase in spiritual work when a person can tell exactly whether or not he is similar to the Light through his qualities?

Answer: On various phases we feel closer or farther, but the most correct example is a person’s attitude to the group: How much does he feel that the group’s inner essence is the place where he wants to tune in, where he wants to “dissolve” like an embryo in a mother’s womb, like a child in his mother’s hands, to disappear and lose himself?

If a person still has something that hasn’t disappeared, that he hasn’t lost, it means his egoism is still alive. But as soon as a person dissolves in the group, from that moment on he begins to grow spiritually. Inside his sensation, desire, intentions, and effort a person can measure where he is: in which Reshimot, in which Sefirot, in what state, and how many Lights enter his Kelim.

He measures everything exclusively by his relationship with the right environment. After all, a person cannot measure anything in relation to the Light. The Light is a phenomenon inside the vessel, but not a notion in and of itself. According to Baal HaSulam’s definition, everything that enters the vessels is called “Light.”
[30928]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/27/10, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Inner Group
Trust Your Friends, Not Yourself
You Chose The Land Where You Will Grow Up!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Group Work, Q&A - No Comments →