Question: I am a 22 year old American and have been on a spiritual quest for my entire life, but specifically these past few years. I am so confused. I want more than anything to live a spiritually fulfilled life, but do not believe I need to renounce the world as we know it to achieve such. I am highly interested in science and technology and the convergence of such studies with spirituality. I have become increasingly sensitive to the downfalls of our societies, and it is becoming harder and harder for me to function.

I have been living between Israel and the USA for the past four years, and have been looking for a true teacher to guide me on a personal level. It seems that today, there are so many people who claim things, and so many things you can sign up for, but it is so difficult to find a true teacher. Do you have any suggestions of how I can find a teacher that can guide me and help me amidst my confusion?

Answer: If we are nevertheless talking about Kabbalah, then it is definitely against “renouncing the world.” The world is a sensation of the soul felt when it is separated from the Creator. The soul descends to this state, our world, so that after being disappointed in all ways of receiving earthly pleasures and in all “spiritual practices” (more and more people are feeling this disappointment) it would raise this world to the Creator.

Kabbalists have always directed their students toward correspondence to the law of nature, which states that, similarly to man in this world, the soul is also formed and raised by its environment and not by a teacher personally.

Our movement, Bnei Baruch, has made significant progress in creating an environment that helps the souls transcend all doubts and reach their goal: merger with the Creator. Therefore, the best advice to you is to find this kind of environment.
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Question: What should I do if the intention you give us before the lesson is gone the next instant?

Answer: There is nothing you can do; we have to keep renewing intentions! I lay the direction, and you have to stick to it. If you do, it means you are following me.

This is the reason you come to the lesson. It’s not to exercise your mind digging through the text! The essence of your work is not in using your brain but in making an effort to hold the intention.

You have to keep yourself on the course and follow me. I cannot keep reminding you about it each second, which would mean dragging you by force. Write it down for yourself and later try to cling to this thought. And it doesn’t matter how much of the text you will hear; the key is to work on keeping the intention. Intention is that very “magic force” (Segula) that reveals to you what The Zohar is describing.

If your intention reaches the required degree, you can understand The Zohar even in a language you are unfamiliar with; you can reveal it and start living in the Upper World, receive new organs of perception, that is, enter spirituality yourself. And it has nothing to do with intellectual guesses. A new sense has to emerge in you. Therefore, you have to exert your own effort aimed specifically at this and wait for the Light to descend and reform you with a specific action.

I can’t do it for you. I can only help and remind you, but not more. Therefore, it is written in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar” and other texts that one needs to cleave to the teacher. This is exactly what we are talking about.

Hence, you must keep holding on to the guideline I provide in the beginning of the lesson and build it up. This constitutes our common work.

Every day for three hours of the lesson, you must remain in the same intention but make it more precise, sharpening it up bit by bit, day by day. You have to do it so that it won’t disappear but will get more and more clear, brief, and articulate, that is, more discerned.

Write it down; I am giving you a hint that will always bring you back on track. If you got lost, ask yourself: “What will become of me?!” That’s it: If you have an ache, you don’t need anything else.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/25/10, The Zohar

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"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see." This is a very strict law that must be observed very precisely. We cannot follow even the very best advice unless it comes from our own corrections, our similarity to the Light.

Also inside yourself you must ask at all times: "Who am I hearing now? A person who lives inside his own fantasies, or one who looks at things as they really are and knows his exact place, not jumping any higher?"

Then I don’t perceive the things I hear from Kabbalists as laws or even advice, but as "Segula," a miraculous means. I want it to influence me and change me! Once I change, I will then see the truth.

"A judge has nothing more than what his eyes see," meaning that I will actually hold the fulfillment in my "hands," in my Kelim of reception, and I will "see it with my eyes," meaning inside the Light of Hochma. That’s when I will be able to act!

Until that happens, you can memorize the entire Torah by heart and it will do no good; yet the Torah can work as a "miraculous means" or a "spice." You will be able to correct and use your egoism only to the extent you can add this "spice" to your egoism.

Then you will see exactly which desires you can use and to what extent, or how deeply (with which Aviut). This approach, first and foremost, requires correction.

A completely different approach to teaching follows from this, namely, that we have nothing to say to a student. We can only awaken him so he absorbs as much Light that Reforms as possible. It is impossible to give him ready-made behavioral models, but only "miraculous means": the need to unite in the group among friends, and then to wait for him to change on his own.

If this doesn’t affect a student, if he does not change and does not accept the teacher’s advice, then nothing can be done about it. It is impossible to coercively give him exercises that are above his level, but only to the degree he has corrected himself and understood that he has to make the calculation, change, and then start to act.

This greatly restricts the teacher’s possibilities when teaching a student compared to our world, regardless of whether the student is an adult or a child.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/10, "Body and Soul"

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Contact with the teacher and the group provides an opportunity to discern my relationship with the Creator each time. With the group, you work directly, but when it comes to the teacher, you must exalt the importance of his words and his message in your eyes. Otherwise, you won’t be able to stay on course. What matters here is not only theoretical analysis, but also practical realization, which, so far, has been “lagging behind.”

Besides, a student must be cautioned against despising the group and the teacher. In fact, it undoubtedly prevents him from an opportunity to advance and throws him years back. I feel very sad when I witness such cases.

Despising others is natural in itself, but when a person doesn’t resist it, it is a big problem. Herein lies an opportunity for self-analysis since the measure of contempt for the teacher and the group is the degree of one’s contempt for the Creator. The only difference is that in the case of the Creator, it is concealed.

If a person doesn’t fight his contemptuous attitude and doesn’t overcome it, he is “bounced” back to such an extent that it is sad to see him here at all. In truth, he thinks that he is advancing, although without the group, he would realize sooner that he has strayed off the path. Then, he would be able to recognize what is happening and recover the course.

Contempt is the worst that may occur. I feel sorry for those who are taken off course by it.

We are interconnected in such way that all the abundance reaches you only through me. This is the structure of the spiritual world: I receive from my teacher, and you receive from me.

We must not allow ourselves to despise the source. On the contrary, we should cling to it tighter with all our heart and soul. I am saying this solely because we will not reach what we desire otherwise. In this, mutual work and growing unity are needed.

This will become increasingly evident. In the past years, we were not knitted together so strongly and didn’t realize that we have to bond in souls. However, our present conditions force us to do it more. As expected, issues, hardships, coldness, and arrogance will arise. We have to work on and rise above this “matter.”

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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/19/10, “All Who Suffer for the Public”

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Question: How should a group, which strives to achieve the mutual guarantee, relate to its teacher? After all, the teacher is the one who connects us with the general system of the souls.

Answer: A teacher is a mentor, a guide; he is called Rav, which means “great.” Generally, I should relate to each of the friends as a Rav, and the Creator is also Rav, of course, since He is great.

The same is true with a mentor. In what sense are they great? If a person does not elevate the importance of the Creator, a friend, and a mentor in his eyes, then he cannot connect to them, receive something from them. He is unable to bow down before them, and only a small one can learn from a great one.

Certainly, we have to perceive the teacher as “great”. If he is greater than me, it means that whatever he says is more important than what I am currently thinking. It is important that the method of correction is taught by a mentor who has come to the end of that path and speaks from experience. Who else can I learn from if I want to follow the same path?

That is why I bow my head and accept the method from the teacher; I take his advice above my reason. Otherwise, I would be stuck wandering, unable to find the road. The spiritual path can’t be seen, and therefore one should rely on the teacher more than the books, which everyone understands differently, based on one’s own logic.

Actually, everyone hears the teacher differently too, but common work in the group increases the chances that the teacher’s words will seep inside. There is no guarantee either, but it is possible. Therefore, I have to fully annul my ego before the teacher, otherwise I won’t hear anything, and there is no other real source. The measurement of which is its implementation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/10, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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Every person has the right to examine whether the place he chooses to study is good for him. However, after a short test, he should make up his mind and enter the study process at the selected place without any further doubts. Otherwise, he won’t be able to reveal the Creator and His world.

There are groups who claim that they study according to their own method. But how can there be a method that was not passed down through the chain of Kabbalists from master to disciple?

It is impossible to receive such a method on one’s own. Only Adam HaRishon received this method “from Heaven,” as it were, and discovered it on “his own.” However, all the others, including Abraham, obtained it through the chain of Kabbalists. At first, Abraham was “an idol worshiper,” meaning that he was engaged in a special spiritual work, only in its reverse form, after which he realized its inadequacy. Twenty generations past Adam HaRishon, Kabbalah was passed on to Abraham.

The method of attainment can be acquired solely through clinging to a teacher. This is the way it expands from Above downward through the chain of souls, from soul to soul. Can you really connect to the root if you are not Adam HaRishon himself? Only Adam HaRishon is tied to the Creator directly. All the other souls must receive from him through the chain of Kabbalists, depending on the soul’s place in it. Everybody receives from the one who stands before him, and is connected by a linked chain with one root.

It is a hierarchic system similar to a tree. I am positioned in it at a specific place and can receive only from the person nearest to me and above me. For this, I need to annul myself before him in the same way a lower Partzuf annuls itself before the Upper One in the spiritual world.

Therefore, when people claim that they receive “Light or enlightenment” from Above or while in sleep, they are not being serious. A spiritual contact can be attained solely by staying close to a Kabbalist while he is alive. If you manage to reach at least one such point of contact, from that point on, you can develop everything else.

However, without this initial point, you won’t have anything from which to advance further: You are cut away from the whole tree, from the entire system of souls. This is why people always ask, “Who was your teacher? Where did you come from?”

For this reason, out of all diplomas, the most precious piece of paper that I possess is a tiny newspaper article where I am named as a loyal student and the right hand of Rabash. It testifies, to the very least, how connected I was with my teacher.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, “Letter 38”

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Question: What is learning “from mouth to mouth” by which Baal HaSulam passed the teaching to Rabash?

Answer: Learning “from mouth to mouth” means sharing the screen because “mouth” (Peh) is the location of the screen. Such connection is regarded as “Rucha Be-Rucha” (at the level of Ruach), and this is the type of communication a student should attain with his teacher.

This is the degree of annulment of the lower one’s self, thanks to which he attains connection with the upper one. This spiritual state is not easy to achieve, but at least a student must do what he can in this world, by following his teacher’s advice as if it were a law for him. It is a simple practical recommendation that anyone can use, and it is regarded as the minimal degree of self-annulment before the upper one, which we are willing to perform due to our egoistic interests.

If I desire to gain spirituality from the teacher, I have to annul myself before him like in the army: If an order is given, it’s carried out. The teacher talks about building a correct intention, annulling oneself, exerting effort, participating in dissemination, and everything else that is required of a student. The student, in his turn, must listen. As a result, through the point of connection that emerges, he will receive the Light that Reforms and comprehend what he is told.

In the degree that a student annuls his egoism, he automatically transforms into a form where this understanding occurs through receiving an imprint of spirituality. And through this imprint, we begin to comprehend the teaching. If the lower one annuls himself, the upper one imprints his structure, his 10 Sefirot in the lower one.

Let’s hope that we will earn the reward of Rabash becoming our Teacher.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/10, “Letter 38”

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A question I received: How much longer will you remain our guide?

My Answer: At any given moment, a student needs to be prepared to be without a teacher, and know that he will have all that he needs. He who advances is one who constantly demands and is independent, in and of, himself. He has the Creator, the method, and the group. All that is necessary has been provided.

However, does one rise to the next level without a leader? The next state is a closer connection among the friends. Therefore, a collective decision is necessary. There could be no recognized leader appointed by the former teacher, or someone declaring himself to be the leader. No one can take the leadership by force, intelligence, or guile.

It’s safer if the group jointly continues on the path and carries out collective decisions by a “spiritual board.” This board doesn’t consist of great minds or recognized experts; it consists of the people who are able to make joint, collective decisions.

Anyone unable to be responsive to the process of the group’s development has no place on this spiritual leadership board. This includes: those that are still blinded by personal interests, those who are unable to subjugate themselves to the group, those who haven’t yet been imbued by the spirit of the path to a sufficient degree, those who make mistakes because they haven’t grasped or tuned into the common direction, those who are subject to outside influence, or those who might be unsuitable for other reasons.

The spiritual governing board needs to consist of people who don’t make mistakes with collective decisions, who aren’t subject to pressure from others in the group, and, more importantly, who aren’t influenced by anyone on the outside. The group has the right and the obligation to immediately expel anyone who interferes with the work or who asserts his own superiority. These are the spiritual laws according to which we need to grow.

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A question I received: If a group loses its teacher, can it advance?

My Answer: Everything that’s necessary for the group’s advancement and your spiritual progress is already contained in the tens of thousands of lessons that are stored in our archives. The stronger you unite, the more degrees you will reveal in those lessons. Everything depends on the Kli (the vessel), rather than one who fills it.

As you attain greater unity, you’ll continually reveal new things in all the lessons.  In ten years from now, you will reveal greater degrees in lessons that are ten years old today. Everything depends on the “user,” his sensitivity and openness. You’ll progressively discover new layers in the same materials. Inner changes will allow you to perform continuously deeper revelations. Greater unity will enable you to reveal all the subsequent states in those previous lessons.

The passing of a teacher is not the end. Life continues, a new form of governance comes from Above, and the group continues to move ahead. This is the way it should be in the process of growth.

For example, according to the same principle, we change our attitude to a child as he gets older. With time, he, himself, begins to feel a need to separate. In the same way, a person is given a teacher for a time, and then the teacher is taken away. The teacher receives another mission and the student does too. We need to relate to these changes as an infinite flow of interconnections between Kelim.

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A question I received: How can someone without spiritual attainment find a true Kabbalist in order to study with him?

My Answer: How can you find a true Kabbalist? Well, what is a true Kabbalist? Baal HaSulam writes that a true Kabbalist is someone who strives only toward the Creator and toward nothing else, such as anything related to this world or himself.

The only means that makes it possible to reveal the Creator, the Upper World, and the quality of bestowal is a Kabbalistic group. The group is a connection among people’s aspirations to reveal the quality of bestowal among them. This quality is called “the Creator.”

You aren’t trying to learn a Kabbalist’s earthly habits from him. What you learn from him is how to cancel yourself, where “cancelling yourself” means to cancel your egoism in relation to the goal – the attainment of the quality of bestowal. You have to accept this goal without any resistance to it, with full trust and no criticism, as if you were a baby.

Criticism and verification have to take place before you accept the teacher as your instructor. However, if you have a point in the heart, then you have nowhere to run from an instructor who is showing you the truth.

But what is “the truth”? It is the force of bestowal, deemed the Creator, and it becomes revealed inside your love for friends and then for the whole world. If you see that the other students and the teacher are trying to accomplish this, without considering anything besides the Creator important, this means you have found the right place to study.

Yet, this still doesn’t give you any guarantee that you will attain the goal. From here on, everything depends on you; this is where your freedom of will starts. But at the very least you have found a teacher and a group, which is the place where the Creator can be revealed.

A teacher is not the flesh and blood person you see in front of you, but attainment of the Creator and experience along this path. What you should be absorbing from him is not the earthly things, but his connection with the Creator.

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