Question: Are the differences between men and women really so enormous that they are unable to understand each other?

Answer: I don’t think that there is another science other than Kabbalah which can explain how much we differ. In spirituality the power of bestowal is a male force, whereas the power of receiving is a female force. However, in contrast to our world, receiving in spirituality is positive and vital.

Until we reach the end of correction, these two parts of nature are equal and absolutely opposite to one another in every detail and quality. Even at the stage of final correction nature remains intact and both parts remain opposite to each other.

However, as a result of the correction that is performed by each part (male and female), they are brought so much closer together that they become like one whole. It doesn’t mean that the differences between them disappear; the basic differences still remain, and the detachment that was created at the beginning of creation doesn’t “fade away” completely. But the process of correction brings them to equality, unity, and even to adhesion.

With the help of the method of correction called “the wisdom of Kabbalah” both male and female parts improve, and we are able to build new types of family relationships, arrange our lives in a correct way, not to mention the ultimate reward which we sense in the revelation of the Creator between us.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “Men and Women” 10/14/10

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Question: What exactly is the Light that Kabbalists talk about?

Answer: There is a special force in our reality called “Light.” This force is concealed, and you cannot feel it. But if you study the wisdom of Kabbalah, then you will be able to awaken this Light, and it will start working on you.

What does it mean “to study the wisdom of Kabbalah?” There are people who have already attained the Creator, equivalence of properties with Him, and described the various states of existence ,which they have uncovered in their relationship with the Upper Force in the Upper World.

Obviously, while reading their books, you are unable to understand anything written there because you are not in the same world and don’t know anything about it. You hear only what you can imagine in your own world even if the text speaks about the spiritual world, which is totally different from this world.

If, while you are reading the texts of the Kabbalists, you desire to be in the Upper World with everything you have within you, then through your aspiration you evoke a special force from the Upper World. This force is regarded as “the Light.”

You can awaken it because you have a spark from the Upper World, which was planted in you at birth. Then the Light that comes from the Upper World shines upon it.

Therefore, if you wish to awaken the Light and get it to act on the spark, read Kabbalah texts and concentrate on this. Nothing else is needed. You don’t need to understand what is written in the book, have a sharp mind, or be especially lucky. You just need to be an ordinary person with a desire for the world that the Kabbalists describe to you to constantly work on your spark. Then, the spark will gradually grow until you suddenly start feeling what they are talking about.

This is exactly what we need while studying The Book of Zohar. But the force of this Light only comes to a person if he strives to be in the Upper World, that is, aspires to be in bestowal.

But how do I know what it means to be in bestowal? Kabbalists say: If you read The Book of Zohar in a group and visualize that you are connected with the others as one organism, without any difference between you, and if you possess one desire, one intention, one aspiration toward the force that illuminates you, then this one singular, undivided force will act on your united desire, and you will indeed reveal this Upper Force that is working on you and promoting you. This is what is called the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.

Hence, we are reading The Zohar in the group, with an intention that we are coming together in our desires to reveal the Light so that it would act on us, correct us, and manifest within us.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/10, The Zohar

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Question: How can I keep being joyful when I am in a descent?

Answer: Everything depends on what your goal is. I remember how when I was a kid in winter we used to climb up a hill and then slide down on a sled. We weren’t happy on the way going up, but only on the way down. Therefore, everything depends on the goal. If you know that the descent reveals new matter to you which you can use to build your next level, then doesn’t it make you happy?

When mess and confusion come to me, when everything becomes “smeared” before my very eyes, I am happy. That’s because I will acquire new knowledge, new feeling, new closeness, and new revelation after the darkness. Inside the darkness that falls upon me, inside the clouded feelings, inside the fog in my consciousness, I look at myself from aside, detaching from the confusion and sadness, and using them to assess the upcoming ascent.

That is how Rabbi Shimon understood that he was standing before the ascent to the final correction when he felt that he was “Shimon from the market.” Even though we haven’t reached such high levels yet, nevertheless when you are overcome by weakness, when the sun is veiled away, you have to see that this is preparation. That is how the material of the following degree is revealed when it is not yet realized, when it still hasn’t taken on the necessary form.

When this happens, you shouldn’t sit there and wait for whatever comes; don’t stay in the same place, gathering up your strength, but on the contrary, start working. Try to immediately overcome the obstacle and pull yourself out of the darkness, even if it is very slight. Thanks to this, all of the matter that has to join the process will start to participate more quickly.

You have the opportunity to carry out systematic preparation on a daily basis with the help of the studies and the group. Stay connected all throughout the day and don’t let go of the spiritual thread even if it comes to you through the headphones of an mp3. And let others remind you about the goal since you disconnect from it when you are in a descent.

If you constantly stay under the influence of the right environment, then even when the negative side gets stronger, you will be able to see your state from aside and analyze it. This will enable you to relate to what is happening in a different way. Joy comes when you build the next state.

The only thing that can deprive you of the ability to work is a total break with the spiritual connection, caused by insufficient preparation. You should prepare for every moment of your life in such a way that you will never come out of the right influence. If you really value the group, then joy will never abandon you.
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From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 11/19/10

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Question: How does the science of Kabbalah say I should relate to the things that threaten my life, such as war, a terrorist attack, falling rockets, or just a regular criminal attack?

Answer: While we are still uncorrected, we have to live in this corresponding, uncorrected world of ours while correcting ourselves and thereby correcting the world. In the meantime every person should behave according to what is accepted in society and the world.

At the same time, each of us must correct himself and thereby reveal the Upper Force, the quality of bestowal and love inside him and in the world. To the degree he makes this revelation, our enemies will gradually become our friends and all the bad things will disappear.

However, for now we have to behave in accordance with our uncorrected qualities. All my haters and enemies are the evil that’s inside me, which becomes revealed on the outside in this manner. I project them to the outside and that is why they exist.

However, if instead of them I see the Creator standing behind them, then they suddenly become inseparable parts of me. Therefore, we shouldn’t be afraid. What we have to do is perform corrections.

I am certain that nothing bad can happen to a person if he is always aimed at “there is none else besides Him.”
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From Lesson 7, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

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Question: What do we need to do in order to aspire towards the high state of unity that exists in The Zohar?

Answer: This comes from disappointment. No matter what I tell you now, it will not help until you develop an urgent need, aspiration, a vital necessity. Only then will you turn to the group.

When you know that you have a big problem, your life is at risk, or you are ill, then you run for help. But when you do not feel ill, do not see that there is a problem, or do not believe that anything will help, you remain still. This is why we need a deficiency. Either the Creator gives us a deficiency as He pushes us from behind with suffering, or we make a connection with the environment without waiting for suffering and try to receive an opposite reaction from it.

I come to my environment without experiencing a need for it; I simply follow the advice of the Kabbalists. They are wise, and I listen to them. This means that the Creator places man’s hand on a good faith and says: “Take it! Take it! Why should you suffer?”

Then we receive additional desire from the group. This is how it works. Those who are lucky will hear, turn to the group, arrange for this booster of desire, and come to the Creator though the group.

Ultimately, the group needs to direct a person towards the Creator. The connection with the group and our entire work is the preparation of the desire, the Kli. And then we come to the Creator.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, The Zohar

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Question: Is there a method in Kabbalah that enables a person to switch from the path of suffering in this life towards the good and kind path?

Answer: Yes, this method exists. Through the group, the environment, the friends, and the mutual guarantee, you can organize specific conditions where the environment, and not suffering, pulls you towards the goal in a careful, wonderful, and loving manner. You will have it replace the blows you receive from behind that are constantly sent to you by the Creator as He pushes you, like a donkey, with a sharp stick.

Instead of the “donkey driver,” the special angel from Above that stabs your desire to receive pleasure, your “donkey” (“Hamor” in Hebrew, which comes from the word “Homer” or matter), forcing you to advance, you receive a good angel that pushes you forward and shows you the way.

This angel is called the “force of the group,” and you are the one who builds it. The only way to advance down the good path without problems, suffering, illnesses, and wars is through a strong environment which pulls you along, like an adult pulls a child by the hand regardless of whether he wants it or not.

A person knows that there is no choice and he needs to run in order to save himself from the tsunami or the Pharaoh’s army that follows him. The group will pull you against your desire because, naturally, you do not want it. This is exactly why you need the group to work this way with you.

For this, you need to connect to the environment and ask them to do anything they want with you as long as they take you with them. I am ready for anything, let them bind my arms and legs, I will pay for it. I will do anything for the group! Nobody can bring me to the goal or drag me there by force beside them.

If it weren’t for them, the increasing blows would catch up with me from behind since the Creator will not abandon His plan. This is the only way to save yourself from the blows. Nature does not compromise.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/17/10, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Question: Does the mutual guarantee pertain to women as well?

Answer: Both men and women, regardless of their gender, must reach the state of the mutual guarantee. When we say that the men stood at Mount Sinai and the women surrounded them, this reflects the inner spiritual properties of each one of us.

The “woman” represents the desire to receive pleasure, while the “man” is the symbol of overcoming this desire. “Man” is “Gever” in Hebrew, which comes from the word “Hitgabrut” or overcoming. He is the desire to bestow, which discovers the opposite property of Mount Sinai, “the mountain of hatred” inside him.

But unity and the mutual guarantee pertain to everyone. Women need to try to connect with everyone internally, just like the men. But the men also need to express it externally, while the women experience it within.

Moreover, the women must “pressure” the men. This is because according to his nature, a man tends to listen to a woman, his wife. His wife is a mother to him; this is how he perceives her.

The prototype of a man is Zeir Anpin who is located between two women, two Nukvas: Malchut and Bina. His mother is Bina, and his wife is Malchut. He receives the desires from Malchut, and he turns to Bina for its fulfillment.

In other words, he is unable to turn to Bina without Malchut, and once he has turned to her, he is left with no other choice but to pass everything he has received from Bina to Malchut. This is the way a man operates. And this is why his wife replaces his mother subconsciously in many ways.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/12/10, Shamati #1

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Question: Can one ask for the point of the heart to become revealed in a dear one?

Answer: Our development is similar to that of an embryo in a mother’s womb. Every part develops with a certain speed and in a certain order. We do not understand why this happens, but as we study the Sefirot and the three lines – KHB, HGT, and NHY – this development becomes more clear to us (this is explained in detail in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Parts 11 and 12).

I cannot speak to the individual beginning of development as this depends upon the root of the individual’s soul. My children or grandchildren may have nothing to do with Kabbalah and may be indifferent towards the spiritual, while a person awakens somewhere in Alaska and cannot live without it.

This depends on whether the soul has reached its development. This is why I should not pray for the Creator to change this common “embryo’s” order of development. I should only work within the group as much as possible. Our main objective is to attain unity between us!

Through this we will pour a fresh, fast, and strong flow of blood into this developing fetus. We will accelerate the common development, and everyone will develop faster as they keep their proper order. This is why we must accelerate our development and through this accelerate the general development .

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From Lesson 8, World Kabbalah Convention 2010, 11/11/10

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Question: How does the story of David and Bat-Sheva become expressed in group work?

Answer: The question is correct. We don’t work just on a person’s individual desire, but on the desire that is between us. That is precisely what was broken and it is what has to be corrected.

In the general desire for correction every person is present with his own particular egoism, which is not taken into account at all. Inside of me there are desires of the animate, vegetative, and still levels, which are not subject to correction directly. They will be corrected to the degree I work on the human level.

What needs to be corrected is the relationships between us, the threads of connection between us. This general desire is evil in relation to you – the intention for the sake of bestowal.

Leave everything else alone and work only on the human being in you, Adam, the one who has to be similar (Dommeh) to the Creator. All the other desires will automatically follow him.

That is why all of our work is done in the group. Malchut, Bat-Sheva, is the common broken Kli for which we have to find correction, unity. The discerning Upper Light AB-SAG comes and takes a part of the Light from us. That is how Uriah passes away, the Light Yod-Hey. Only Vav-Hey remain with which we can work.

Then David takes a part of Zeir Anpin, which is intended for correcting Malchut, and starts to work. Being a screen (Masach) with the intention “for the sake of bestowal,” he corrects Bat-Sheva and reaches the right Zivug, unity with her, in order to give pleasure to the Creator.

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Question: How can I check that I am going in the right direction?

Answer: You will never be able to find this out. To do that you would have to know where the final goal is and where you are. Then you could draw a straight line between the two points and discern the right direction.

But if you do not know these two points, then what can you do? And the fact is that you will never find out what they are!

That is why we have the group, which is the only opportunity to move toward the goal. You have to become included in it, and the more you join it, the more it will mean that you are moving in the right direction.

How can you check this? The moment you really start to unite with them, inside that unity among all of you, you will reveal the Creator. He will be your witness that right now you are going in the right direction, and that is no fantasy!

This evidence is the first supporting fact, and only then can you be sure that you went in the right direction. Before that, it is written, "One made efforts and found."

Efforts should be made during the study of the primary sources in the group. Everything else is auxiliary work.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/18/10, "The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose"

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