Question: How does the way we treat the words written in TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot) differ from how we relate to your explanation of the text?

Answer: It is difficult to explain why the Creator made it so that we need someone to connect us with the upper reality in our world. It is similar to a mother and father we have in this world, who connect us with life. Indeed, it weren’t for the mother, I wouldn’t be born in the first place and wouldn’t exist until I grew up.

The same goes for the spiritual birth: I need someone who will give birth to me, tend to me till I mature in spirituality! It manifests in the birth of material bodies in our world and also in the birth of the souls, all of which is the derivative of the laws acting in the spiritual world where there is a certain order of spiritual Partzufim, and Aba Ve-Ima (the upper Father and Mother) give birth to ZON and tend to the souls.

But so far, I haven’t linked my broken soul into ZON of the world of Atzilut and cannot cause Aba ve-Ima to work on me; so I need a guide to spirituality! And he, right now, also looks as some material person to me since I cannot see the spiritual world.

The same pertains to the friends: I cannot perceive their spiritual desires and I think I am surrounded by some physical bodies. But later on, I will see that it isn’t so. The teacher and the friends are a spiritual mechanism, spiritual forces with whom I work.

That is how I should treat the teacher and the friends, with an understanding that they are part of the Creator given to me in order to help me connect with Him. In the degree that I value the teacher and the group and lower myself before them, to the same extent I will reach contact with the Creator. I don’t have any other opportunity to connect with Him and no chance to tap into Him in any other way.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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When we read TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), we discuss and clarify meanings that are closer to us, in order to prepare ourselves to understand it. But then we have to read the original, authentic text written by great Kabbalists who channel the upper Light to us.

I don’t possess such upper Light as Rabash and Baal HaSulam do, but I can help you connect to it. In order to teach a child, one doesn’t have to be a professor but just someone who can come down to the child’s level.

Therefore, next to the pupil there is a teacher, the most important person who can help him right now. But besides, there are authentic sources which are very precious to us from which the Light comes down to us. It is impossible to get by without one or the other.

On your own, without such a special person as the teacher, you would never be able to attune yourself to the spiritual source of Rabash or Baal HaSulam. And so it was throughout all generations. We don’t speak about such unique souls as Adam HaRishon and Abraham who discovered the spiritual world on their own. Sometimes, there are moments in life when something gets revealed to a person from Above, for some special predestination of the soul.

But if we speak of Kabbalah as the passing of spiritual knowledge through the chain of Kabbalists from generation to generation (“Kabbalah” means “receiving”), then we always imply a teacher and a disciple. Above everything else, the teacher aims you at the goal; he helps you to get around and gives you direction in life. And its realization is definitely your responsibility—with the help of the great Kabbalists who wrote these holy authentic sources for us.

On one hand, there is a teacher who supports and guides you, and that is why you ought to be loyal to him so that he may “hold you in his arms” like a baby. On the other, you walk along his side in order to connect to the authentic sources.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/12/11, Talmud Eser Sefirot

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Question: I would like to thank you for devoting your life to this science.

Answer: This was not my choice. Just like you, I came to Kabbalah because I felt dissatisfied with life and searched for the most important thing in life.

At first I had hoped to receive answers to my questions in science, and only after numerous disappointments and lengthy searches did I come to Kabbalah. And I have only the Creator to thank for all of that.

However, He has made me in such a way that I won’t feel that I have realized myself until people reach His revelation through me.
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From the 2nd lesson at the WE! Convention, 4/1/11

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A Kabbalist suffers when he sees that the world lags behind in advancement toward unity, the revelation of the Creator, and perfect life. We are capable of doing it, we have all the conditions for it, but we ignore this opportunity and do not fulfill it. Thus, we cause various problems upon ourselves and bring suffering to the Creator.

A Kabbalist is the one who suffers the most exactly because he has reached the revelation of the Creator. After all, in relation to the world he is like a mother in relation to her children. The entire world is his Kelim, parts of his soul. While they are uncorrected, a Kabbalist suffers for them more than they suffer themselves.

Every person feels his personal egoism and suffers because his Kli (vessel, desire) is empty. However, a Kabbalist includes everyone. He wants to treat everyone with love and fill everyone with absolute goodness. However, people do not want it; they do not agree to unite and annul their egoism even a little, in order to create one big desire (Kli) which can be filled with the Light of Infinity.

A Kabbalist cannot correct the world; he can only suffer for it and wait until people will express some minimal readiness to advance. Certainly, most of all he feels for his students since their suffering is directed toward the goal. He cannot advance them artificially since it will harm them and hinder their development. Therefore, he talks with them at the level corresponding to theirs.

We study the authentic sources, and our connection with them determines how much we can receive from them. This is exactly what I reveal and not what I understand in my desire. I work with the collective need which arises in order to be revealed to everyone.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners 12/13/2010, “Who Is a Kabbalist”

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that before starting to study Kabbalah, it is necessary to understand what it is. How can everyone learn its language if it’s so complicated?

Answer: To understand what the wisdom of Kabbalah is means to acquire the screen in order to rise above one’s egoism and see spiritual actions. Then, you will be able to understand a Kabbalist teacher and learn from him what to do next. You will comprehend and be able to verify all that he will tell you in practice, right here right now, as it is done by regular students in this world.

But until you are born in spirituality, how can I explain anything to you? It is as if I would be telling about this world to an unborn child that is still in the mother’s womb. So do Kabbalists speak to us from another world. We reside in this world, within its sphere, like in a bubble, while we are being told what is taking place outside of it.

Therefore, Kabbalistic texts work for us only as “miraculous remedy” (Segula). The articles are written for the beginners, but The Study of the Ten Sefirot is written for those who have been born in spirituality, who are already "spiritual babies" that can be told about the upper world. Thanks to it, they will advance and will start exploring the new world they were born into.

As for those who are still inside the mother’s womb, it is only a stimulus, motivation to be born as soon as possible.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Where do the words of this world come from? Why did some peasant who once lived near Jerusalem look at the Mount of Olives and name it this way? It’s because he thought that this name suits it. This desire arose in him from nature, and nature comes from Above.

That is, there is nothing accidental in the words of our world; they all came from Above. This is why Kabbalists can use them for describing the spiritual roots, which is called “the language of branches.” And when we take the names of this world and explain what hides behind them according to their spiritual roots, we see the difference between the worlds. This is how we discover what stands between us and the spiritual world.

A stone of this world and a stone of the spiritual world, a tree of this world and a tree of the spiritual world, a man, a woman, a child, fire, water, this is how I study the difference between the worlds and the form I have to reach.

However, the language of branches is not intended for an ordinary person, but for those who sense the spiritual world. Only they can comprehend what is taking place between the branch and the root, and they pass to each other knowledge using this language. When one Kabbalist describes a certain connection between the roots in the spiritual world and wants to pass this knowledge to another, he relates it in the language of branches.

For the time being, we do not speak this language, but rather use a spoken one. When you will sense spirituality, then by listening to the words of your teacher who is telling you about the spiritual world, you will understand what he means. Or, he will teach you like a little child who is being taught words.

Imagine that you are at the spiritual level together with your teacher, and he points at a certain phenomenon and tells how it is called. Seeing the spiritual phenomenon and hearing its name, you can connect them together, attach the word of this world to the spiritual object. This is called learning the language of branches. A newborn in the spiritual world learns the language of branches much like a newborn in this world learns to speak an earthly language.

And later you will be able to converse with the teacher; you will have an active vocabulary.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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We are using the Kabbalistic method to correct the part of “Israel” as well as the part of the “nations of the worlds” in us. They help one another through disturbances as well as support, and thus, they work together.

People have to understand that everything that happens is for their good. Everything that becomes revealed along the path must be revealed in that exact manner and a person should only arrange himself the right way in relation to all the elements: the teacher, the books, the group, and the Creator. That is how one should advance.

We have to understand that the realization of the goal happens when all the components come together. People must not deviate from this unification by increasing the importance of one component over another.

Some people prefer to only strive towards the Creator, which is where religion comes from. For religious people, the Creator is on top. All their prayers and hopes are directed towards Him, while love for the neighbor is secondary.

Others concentrate on the teacher and fall into Hassidut, worship. For them, the teacher is more important than the friends and the Creator. Others yet concentrate only on the friends—a good society is the most important thing for them. As a rule, this is impossible in our groups because we study the Force that awakens hatred between us so we would strive toward the true correction. And this is why we cannot just be good friends the way other communities do.

Only an equal attitude towards the teacher, the study, the friends, and the Creator enables us to attain the goal.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/15/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: If it is impossible to comprehend what Kabbalists talk about until one enters the spiritual world and sees the roots, then why are you trying to explain everything "more clearly" to us?

Answer: I attempt to awaken in you the desire to reach spiritual attainment, and then you will understand what I was relating. Baal HaSulam writes about it in the article "The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah":

And once he has thoroughly attained the upper roots with his own mind, he may examine the tangible branches in this world and know how each branch relates to its root in the upper world, in all its orders, in quantity and quality.

When one knows and thoroughly comprehends all that, there is a common language between him and his teacher, namely the Language of the Branches. Using it, the Kabbalist sage may convey the studies in the wisdom, conducted in the upper, spiritual worlds….

However, when a disciple is not wise and comprehends the language on his own, meaning how the branches indicate to their roots, naturally, the teacher cannot convey even a single word of this spiritual wisdom, much less negotiate with him in the scrutiny of the wisdom. This is so because they have no common language they can use, and they become like mute.

In Kabbalah, "forbidden" means "impossible." In our world certain actions are prohibited because if one wants to, he can nonetheless do even what’s forbidden. But such behavior can only occur "in the fall of man" and below it. In the spiritual world, if something is forbidden, it means that it’s absolutely impossible to do it.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: It is said that when Rabbi Shimon and his disciples were creating The Book of Zohar, they were sitting in a cave, Rabbi Shimon was talking, Rabbi Abba was writing it down, the son of Rabbi Shimon, Rabbi Elazar, was listening to him "from mouth to mouth," while the rest were listening through the heart. What do these different levels of connection mean?

Answer: Beside the external language that Kabbalists can use for communication, "the language of branches," there is also an internal connection called "Peh El Awzen" (from mouth to ears) at the level of Bina, when the teacher and the student are united in a state of Katnut (a small state), as well as the connection called "Peh El Peh" (from mouth to mouth) at the level of Keter, in the state of Gadlut (a big state). Such connection requires no language: One understands the other without words, through the inner adhesion, union.

In other words, we can understand each other in one of the following ways:

• After long conversations, or
• by taking the hint, or
• we start understanding each other without words, or
• we become so united into one whole that it becomes impossible to say that you understand me and I understand you since we are inseparable, and we don’t need to pass anything to each other.

These are the levels of the spiritual connection.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: How can a person know that his teacher is a real Kabbalist?

Answer: How can you know that he is a true Kabbalist? He cannot show you any specific diploma or perform miraculous acts that would look spiritual to you since how do you know what spirituality is anyway? Hence, you can only listen to your heart and examine whether what you hear resonates with you, connects you to the root of your soul.

I studied in five or six places before I found Rabash. And I used to leave them not because I would find something better; I just saw that there was nothing else to do there, nothing else to learn. And it isn’t because their intent was to deceive me; it’s just that each of them had their own method, ideas, and delusions.

But I was seeking a place where I could study Kabbalah as a science. And when I met Rabash, I immediately saw that his students studied authentic primary sources: The Zohar, the works of the ARI and Baal HaSulam, which are the most fundamental Kabbalistic texts, and that he attached deep meaning to the concepts in a logical form, without external religious acts or meditation.

In other words, he used a strictly scientific approach without shifting to one or the other side. By then, I had already realized that everything else has nothing to do with truth. I had a sense that wherever they talk about some actions related to the corporeal body or fantasies, it doesn’t have anything to do with spirituality.

I had a very clear feeling that here there was some entrance into a more internal world that doesn’t depend on the body or imagination, on all those attributes I have at the moment. It is required that a person reveals a certain internal layer within, and I was searching: How do I do that? And when I came to Rabash and started to study, I saw that that’s exactly about what he was speaking.

Baal HaSulam writes that anyone who wishes to receive spiritual knowledge must find himself a teacher, an authentic sage-Kabbalist who seems to be right for the job. But if he feels that he is in a place which doesn’t suit him, he shouldn’t stop looking. After all, time is running out.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/2011, “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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