Question: How did you find the strength to learn from Rabash Peh el Peh (mouth to mouth)?

Answer: I do not think I was the luckiest or the strongest as was the case with Joshua relative to Moses or with other Kabbalists. I had very big breakdowns.

That is, you come and go along with the teacher and you suddenly break down. And you cannot do anything; there is a contradiction: “Well, how can it be? This is not how he does it! This is not how he thinks! This is not how he acts! I have to do it differently! I… I… I…”

It cannot be fixed. It was probably necessary to go that way. To what has passed, we must say: “This is how it should have happened.”

But it is necessary, of course, to try to make all this happen in an absolute internal fusion. This is called Peh el Peh—spirit to spirit.

The fact is that now we are talking about a relationship that does not exist today between a student and a teacher. First of all, I do not see that this is possible between me and any of the students.

Secondly, the global wave that is rising today is not aimed at merging with the teacher and thus receiving spiritual Peh el Peh from him but in finding spiritual things among them, in scrupulously following all the instructions of the teacher.

Then the teacher becomes not a Teacher with a capital letter, not a spiritual father, but a leader, an instructor on the way; that is, he accompanies a group of students from the side.

We are in a state where we are pioneers. So, it is hard to say how it should actually be. After me, my students will discover further inside them what is inherent in them and will see how to behave further. But still, what is happening now will speak to them and will move them.
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From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: Where is the line where you as a teacher cannot interfere and take away the student’s freedom of choice?

Answer: In our spiritual work there are always these problems where literally every minute we decide how to act correctly and what our thoughts and intentions are. I cannot interfere with this.

I see the state my students are in and sometimes I sympathize with them very much. I worry and it hurts me, just like a mother does for her son when he is seriously ill and she can do nothing to help him except to give him medicine. But in principle he must take even the most bitter pills and survive this disease.

When I brought my problems in spiritual work to Rabash and asked, “What should I do? What can I do?”, he laughed in my face because I had to solve them myself.

Question: A person tries to calm himself by coming to the teacher. Yet the teacher says, “I am sorry, I cannot say anything.” Does the teacher know how to do the right thing for the student, but does not tell him?

Answer: Of course he does. The upper degree is perfectly clothed in the lower one. Everything that exists in the lower degree is felt in the upper one without any problems. It is the upper degree that feels what is happening in the student. The teacher feels the spiritual content of the student, while the student himself does not know and does not understand what is happening to him.

Question: So are we in front of you like naked babies?

Answer: Yes, like a baby in its mother’s arms. In a spiritual sense, yes, of course.

But what can I do? This baby must develop according to its own laws. I can only minimally help him, because all the spiritual development of a person is carried out by his efforts.

I have to make sure that there are suitable conditions for this development like a mother who gives the child food and warmth, washes him, puts him to bed, etc. Everything else is up to him.
[306676]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Manipulating People” 12/30/13

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Question: How did you sense that you had found your teacher? How does it happen?

Answer: It is impossible to describe. I see that people who are with me when I give talks, they too begin to feel something because it is an influence of the upper light.

When it acts on a Kli (vessel) that has not completely opened it causes a person to feel emotional and increases sensitivity within a person. It is called a small state. It is like a child who begins to cry because he is unable to define his state or absorb within himself something that should happen to him. The same is occurring with us.

Question: Does it mean that the sensation that it will certainly happen here with this teacher at this place depends on the influence of the light? Is the future light acting upon the person this way?

Answer: Of course! The surrounding light (Ohr Makif) is the future light. This is why it is called surrounding. After all, it is still unable to come into you. Since you are so little in relation to it, you feel that you have found something! But what, you do not know.

Question: Meaning, as if the light is saying, “Hold on to me, there will be something here”?

Answer: Yes, of course. With that, the person cannot vanish anymore. It is already impossible to break away from this source.
[306336]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: Is the perception of your student’s corporeal life as open to you as the spiritual one?

Answer: No, the corporeal life of my student is not the field in which I have contact with him. Absolutely not. I do not need to know what a person is doing. I feel what is happening to him in his spiritual development but not in the corporeal.

Question: And you may not even know where he is at the moment, for example, on the road or in a certain place?

Answer: I do not know that.

Question: So, your student can deceive you by saying: “I was there just now,” but in reality…

Answer: Physically? Of course he can! After all, it is not his lowest spiritual level, which is in me. Only his spiritual stage is in me.

Question: By committing some kind of deception in relation to the teacher, does the student thereby affect his spirituality?

Answer: Undoubtedly, he does.

Question: And do you feel how it is changing?

Answer: I do not know why, but the fact that his fall is happening, I see it, I feel it.

Question: And what is deception in itself?

Answer: Deception is a purposeful discrepancy between the lower and the higher or between you and a friend when you can get closer and deliberately do not go for it. This is a very bad action because it causes double distancing.

That is, you put the connection that you could make between yourself and others, not just at a distance, but in opposition to each other. This is the cunning of the serpent.

Question: But how can a person protect himself so as not to carry out this deception?

Answer: Only by the greatness of the goal.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Deceive the Teacher” 12/21/13

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Question: Once Rabash undertook to teach young, non-religious people. What did he prove by this? That Kabbalah is not a religion? Or did he need a breakthrough?

Answer: I think he saw from my example that the next step is possible here and he could not restrain himself. He made a spiritual revolution.

Of course, Baal HaSulam could have done the same. He would do anything! This man was ready to break all boundaries. Rabash, however, could not afford it. He did not feel that high. He has always been under his father. Even in the photographs, Baal HaSulam’s gaze is directed upward, while standing next to him Rabash has his head lowered. It looks very symbolic.

But from working with me, he saw that there is something to invest in if I bring other students, and therefore he agreed.

Comment: It is probably difficult for many to understand what it means for Rabash, who lived all his life in a religious environment, to suddenly decide and accept as students those who had nothing to do with this at all.

My Response: Yes and no. On the one hand, the spiritual path puts a person in a state of constant fear, because he is lowered to the very bottom, and on the other hand, he is raised to the very top.

You are between two poles, and you have no other choice. You are literally shaking from every speck of dust, from every leaf, like a bunny under a bush, and at the same time you understand that there is no solution, you are obliged to act.

I felt it later. I think that my students also are gradually beginning to understand the gap that exists in the approach to the world in every soul.

Thus, we must consist of fear, as they say, trembling before the Creator, and of greatness and strength. These two opposites must be in each of us. The more they differ, the more powerful the person is.

I am sure Rabash had both. This constantly accompanies you; you cannot get away from this.

Moreover, both opposites must merge—both fear and strength, which makes it possible to move forward, constantly doubting and still realizing oneself. That is why he went for it.

It was necessary to urgently change the situation and bring it to a common denominator. I had a big job. But I quickly moved away from it, because I realized that if I got stuck in this, then I would not be myself. Therefore, we continued our personal line of communication with him.
[306757]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book“2/12/10

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Question: Did Rabash feel when he should answer your questions and when he should not? Did you also feel this?

Answer: Of course! He was candid. First of all, he wanted to make it clear why he was giving an answer or not. After all, when you explain to a student how to answer and how to ask, you prepare a future teacher.

This is the art of communication between a teacher and students where he must teach them to ask questions correctly so that there is some kind of communication.

Question: Did he know that he was training you to be a methodologist?

Answer: I think everyone knew that. Once I visited my friend from the past, and he told me: “I remember one time I went to the beach with Rabash instead of you because you did not want to go. You were in such a state you did not want to and could not go. Rabash said: ‘Let’s call Michael.’ I called you and said: ‘Rav wants to talk to you.’ You answered: ‘I do not want to talk to him!’ I conveyed your words to Rabash and said: ‘How can this be?!’ Rabash replied: ‘You do not know what his condition is, and, in general, what kind of soul he has.’”

I am saying this to confirm that, of course, he was preparing me for teaching.
[306263]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: There are times when someone asks you a question and you answer it very briefly, and sometimes you do not even want to give an answer. It also happens that we ask the same question, and you pour out your soul and open wide spaces before us. How do we catch this moment when you can say something?

Answer: If I cannot answer a question directly, but have the opportunity to answer it in a different way, then I answer.

Kabbalists have large limitations in what they can say and what they cannot. In addition, it is possible that by the time you ask the question for the second or third time, the state of the group has already changed. This is why I can talk about the topic that interests you. That is, there are many different conditions. The difference may even be in several days.

Comment: Sometimes you say that it is impossible to talk about something at all, and at other times you address this topic and develop it widely.

My Response: It is because the time has come. It does not depend on me. I am just a transmitter here.
[306365]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Ask a Kabbalist a Question” 3/6/13

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Rabash made a revolution by agreeing to teach people who were non-believers, absolutely alien in spirit, that did not have the mentality of Polish Jews of sitting separately somewhere in a corner, in a small community, and studying.

Suddenly forty students come to you from Tel Aviv, who are totally non-believers, and you accept them and give them your heart. All this happens in Bnei Brak, in a closed [Orthodox] community.

It was something incomprehensible: “What? Has Ashlag started teaching non-religious people?! And they are young and not married?! How can this be?!”

It was believed that Kabbalah was only for people over forty. I brought twenty-five-year-olds to him! It was believed that Kabbalah was only for the religious, those who already know the Talmud. I brought guys who never opened these books, did not know, and despised them to him! They only wore the kippah at funerals or if something happened.

He accepted such people to study Kabbalah against all customs—under forty, not married, not filled themselves with the Torah! How can this be? But he went for it. A different time had come.
[306720]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: A spiritual teacher waits for his students and prepares himself for him. Is this his life?

Answer: Yes, of course! This is what Baal HaSulam writes! The teacher is preparing for the student to come to him, and he will pass the method to him.

When I studied with Rabash, it was absolutely clear to me that I had to prepare to teach. I immediately began to record lessons on a tape recorder, draw, and write down what Rabash told me when we were walking in the park. I began to systematize these materials and put them in order.

I knew for sure that I would have to take the method from him and pass it on. I had a clear feeling that I existed in order to receive it from him.

I did not know how many years I would stay with him because he was a 70-year-old man when I came to him, but I was sure that after all my ordeals and searches for a teacher, I should receive the method precisely from him.

I just did not see anyone else, although I knew many and was searching. Rabash was completely directed toward spirituality—in spirit, in approach, in terms of source, in character, in desire, and in readiness. Therefore, I knew that I was receiving this media package from him, which I would have to pass on. He also knew it. Thus, his entire archive, his entire legacy, was passed on to me.

After the death of Rabash, I immediately revealed the entire archive to everyone. If someone else had the archive, he might have kept it and not given it away, or would have given it out one serving at a time for personal reasons, perhaps to feel that he has it and therefore is special.

But I immediately gave all his students a chance to make copies of the originals for their use. After that, I felt calm. The works of Rabash were not lying on my desk. I fulfilled my duty to my friends. I gave them everything.
[306467]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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Question: Why didn’t Rabash engage in dissemination before your arrival, like Baal HaSulam was?

Answer: He couldn’t do it.

Comment: You come, and suddenly a breakthrough begins!

My Response: First, I forced him to write articles. He published one article every week.

I brought new students to him, and he said, “Now teach. Tell them how to get organized together.” I replied: “What does it mean to get organized together? I don’t know.”

Was I trained to do this? I knew personal spiritual work, what I had gone through, or what I studied theoretically, a little, but how to organize a spiritual team of ten people like Rabbi Shimon?

Therefore, I asked him to write me a few words, theses. And while sitting on a park bench, he wrote his first article on a piece of paper from a pack of cigarettes that I gave him: “We have gathered here to lay the foundation of our new society, which will move toward the Creator according to the method of Baal HaSulam, so as not to remain at the level of animals, but rise to the level of “man.”

When the guys came, I read it to them right from that piece of paper. And then added what else could be said. We talked among ourselves on this topic, and in general, that was it.

A week later, we had to gather again. I asked Rabash, “What am I going to talk to them about this week?” He replied: “We need to think about it,” and wrote the theses on a piece of paper. Etc.

And then we bought him a typewriter. He gradually adapted to it and articles began to form. Every Thursday morning, I took another article, made 50 copies, and distributed them to my friends in the evening. One of them read the article aloud, and we discussed it.

And so, it went. Therefore, over the course of five to six years, starting from the year 1984, he wrote many articles, from which we subsequently published the five-volume Kitvey Rabash (Writings of Rabash).

In addition, we also published his works from which such books as Shamati were assembled, what he heard from his father, and all sorts of sketches, separate drafts of articles, and so on.
[306646]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 2/12/10

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