Question: You often give the example of a person refusing a million dollars to be connection with the Creator. In my environment, the situation is different: People with million dollar debts may fall into a stupor and stare off into space, but they won’t yearn for the Creator.

What can you say to someone in this situation where they have every reason to turn to the Creator, but don’t and instead they try to find a solution “at the bottom of a bottle”?

Answer: Salvation comes by turning to the Creator who drove them into this situation so they would call out to Him.

Question: When “Mordecai was sitting at the king’s gate” (Esther 2:21), where was he in relation to Ibur (conception, the process of spiritual birth)?

Answer: Mordechai and Esther were in a corrected state, in Bina, and everyone else was in an uncorrected state.
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A person does not automatically turn to the Creator as soon as he feels he cannot cope. He just falls into despair, he will either sleep or cry from powerlessness.

Only if there are friends close by who are not in a descent and despair like he is, then their support, together with his desperate state, will form in him a correct appeal to the Creator.

This is the only way it is possible. A person alone will never turn to the Creator, neither in a good nor a bad state. He can either thank or curse the Creator, but it will not be a prayer.

A true prayer must consist of ten Sefirot as a spiritual vessel: the nine higher Sefirot and Malchut. Therefore, he must be impressed by nine friends and attach his empty, suffering, dark Malchut to them, and so an appeal to the Creator will be born in it.

A prayer is a spiritual vessel in which the full HaVaYaH, the ten Sefirot, must act. Therefore, a person cannot pray alone or for himself; it is simply impossible.

The true prayer, which the Creator hears, can arise only when one is included in the group and receives from the friends their intentions, impressions, and support. Then with his lack and with what he receives from the first nine Sefirot of the friends, their support and properties, he can turn to the Creator.

After all, one cannot use just his bad state. But if he connects with his friends, then his prayer is no longer a bad feeling. The Creator does not harm us, but gives us an occasion to unite with friends and with Him. Therefore, prayer can only be within the society and about the society.

It is here that we need Arvut, mutual guarantee. If we achieve it, then everything will continue smoothly.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/18, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 3, Article 877 “Three Prayers”

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Question: What does it mean to seek a solution on the next level if it is hidden? How can we identify the next level of agreement between us?

Answer: You only need to invest effort in your yearning for the next level, and the upper Light will correct everything.

Question: Is “the common intelligence” that is born in a circle limited somehow?

Answer: It is limited only by our ability to approach each other, not in any other way. When we approach each other seriously, we reach the intelligence of the Creator, which is the maximal characteristic of bestowal and love that becomes clothed in us.

Question: How should one react to a participant in a circle who is inclined to doubt the method of the workshop itself, who talks about the uselessness of the people sitting around him, and considers what they say to be foolishness he doesn’t want to hear?

Answer: The wisdom of Kabbalah says that you must “blunt its (egoism’s) teeth.” If a person objects to the general rules that the Kabbalists ordered us to keep, he should leave us. These general rules have already existed for thousands of years; if he doesn’t want to carry them out, he should leave. On this topic, there is nothing to discuss.

Question: What is the principle you use to choose questions for a workshop?

Answer: I know approximately what the shared general level of development of the world group is, and I give the members of the group a task that is one level higher. It is no more than one level because otherwise the question would not be understood and would put them into a state of depression that would not lead to the desired result. The group members need to make an effort to understand the question through their connection, which could even be the answer.

Question: Is the reason I don’t understand the Kabbalistic texts because I have not been investing sufficient work in the group of ten?

Answer: If you don’t understand Kabbalistic texts, you need to read them again and again, many times, and sometimes even copy them, adapting them within you somehow.
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From the Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 10/22/17

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“Don’t swallow maror without chewing it” means that we need to work on our unity with greater perseverance despite our inability to reach it. If we in the group agree with the need to unite, then we have entered Egypt.

Previously, we did not agree or even speak about it. First, the brothers neglect Joseph and throw him out. But then there is a famine and they agree to unite, and then they enter Egypt.

At first, they live well in Egypt, but then they begin to realize that they are unable to connect. “And the children of Israel sighed from the labor” since they could not accomplish anything. It is then that “their cry ascended to God from the labor.”

This is the meaning of “Don’t swallow the Maror without chewing it.” We are obliged to “chew” this work and feel all its bitterness and heaviness, like the bitter and hard horseradish from which Maror is made. From hard work and our failure, we soften and, out of desperation, turn to the Creator.

Only after hard work do we begin to feel our captivity and the need to come out of it, and we begin to feel that there is a force that can help us.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/20/18, Writings of Rabash

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In order to come to redemption, it is necessary to feel the exile, as it was said to Abraham: Torah, Genesis 15:13: You shall surely know that your seed will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them and oppress them, for four hundred years.

That is, you must feel very bad in your desire to enjoy. Although it can bring a person a lot of pleasures and fillings, wealth, honor, power, and all the abundance, a person decides that this is exile for him.

After all, he begins to appreciate spirituality, the quality of bestowal, above all corporeal possessions. Therefore, he cannot tolerate this exile. On the contrary, the more pleasant, satisfied, and rich the Creator makes his life during the “seven years of famine,” the more acute is his desire to break out of it.

He has all the benefits in abundance, but he does not agree to live like this, feeling that he is being bought by being given animalistic pleasures, yet spiritual pleasures—bestowal and the upper world—are hidden from him.

When a person begins to feel his state in this way, then it means that he is already worthy of redemption.
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From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/4/18, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Inheritance of the Land”

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If we begin to explain to a little three or four-year-old child our adult problems, obviously according to his mental, psychological, and spiritual development, he will be incapable of understanding them. He is not interested in them and they are not included in his definitions at all.

This is how we read books written by Kabbalists;  we must try to realize that we do not understand what they say at all.

Let’s say we read the article “Concerning Love of Friends,” but we do not know what friends are or what love is. “Friends” in spirituality are parts of my soul; however, I do not feel them in this way. I immediately confuse the word “friends” with usual friendship in this world: with acquaintances, someone it is nice to spend an evening with or travel with, or with childhood friends.

However, here it has a completely different meaning. I want to reveal my soul, the eternal part of reality, but so far I only have a temporary, illusory existence in our imaginary world that really does not exist. Therefore, I must understand that the books speak of my eternal soul, which appears to me in the form of some special people I was brought together with by an upper governance, by the broken network of connections between us.

It is necessary to form a representation of such a system within ourselves, albeit still imaginary, but as close to the spiritual one as possible. Apart from this, we need to accurately define who is “a person” in general and “friends” in particular, and what is “love of friends”? Friends are not those with whom it is nice to hang out with, have a drink, a meal, or to dance or study with.

Friends are a special spiritual connection, which is not for the purpose of bringing pleasure to each other. Pleasure can only be the means. But in fact, the love of friends is when everyone acts instead of the other. This is one of the difficulties of studying Kabbalah.

The second difficulty is that we perceive the Torah as a story about our world: as if there is time, movement, and space, which do not exist in the spiritual world. Therefore, this “story” that we hear from the Torah does not exist as well! There is neither Egypt nor the Egyptian exile.

I should not imagine this has ever happened in our world. The Torah describes not historical events, but the sequence of preparatory states that Kabbalists went through in order to achieve the true and the only existing perception of reality.

So, I too should constantly imagine myself not studying history that occurred in the ancient times with a group of people fleeing from one place to another. It is not about this, but about a person’s sensory impressions, finding oneself in a state that he defines as spiritual exile, exile from the spiritual world. Then it is possible to imagine what the spiritual redemption and development is. It is only about what is happening within a person.

Every day I want to separate myself more and more from the stories, from history and geography, and explain them to myself at the inner, sensory level: mine or someone else’s who wants to develop spiritually. All this applies only to the period of a person’s spiritual development. Therefore, “love of friends” and, in general, the entire Torah should be considered only in the internal form, in relation to our development.
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From the 1^st Part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/18, Lesson on the Topic: “Preparation for the Pesach”

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We are approaching the Pesach (Passover) holiday, which symbolizes the beginning of the correction. Everything begins with exiting Egypt followed by the giving of the Torah.

Corrections are possible only in a person who has already gone through Egyptian exile. The created being starts with the sin of the Tree of Knowledge and the shattering of the soul, and then the process of its correction takes place.

Therefore, it is clear that first the recognition of evil is necessary, the clarification of the state we found ourselves in after the shattering at the Tree of Knowledge, where the soul was divided into many parts that we now need to reassemble. This is along with that egoistic desire to enjoy, which so far rules our relations.

Thus, we attach all the unfolding evil inclination to the soul, which is being restored to us, that is, all the force of the Light that had been filling the soul and led to the rejection of each part from the others. When we reconnect them, working against the force of the Light that was once filling the soul and now became hostile to it, we attain the Creator’s and the corrected created being’s qualities.

However, this all begins from the recognition of evil of the state we are in now, with the revelation of the egoism ruling between us, rejection, hatred, misunderstanding, and the clarification of how deeply each one is immersed only in himself and unable to exit. All this is the very first and necessary stage on the path of studying the Creator.

All the articles about Pesach should be perceived only with reference to our distancing and connection. When we move away from each other, the evil forces rise and reveal a feeling of exile in us.

Then immediately we can talk about connection and correction, and redemption begins. That is, we must see everything in light of exile and redemption, distancing and rapprochement, revelation of the breaking and its correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/18, Writings of Rabash

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Baal HaSulam writes that the advantage a person has over an animal is that the desire for spirituality awakens in a person. If not for this, a person would lead an animalistic existence. Spiritual aspiration is what makes a human (Adam) out of a person.

“Egyptian slavery” is a state preceding spirituality, like a corridor we must pass in order to enter the spiritual world. Therefore, first we enter Egypt. Once there, we begin to clarify our desires and prepare ourselves for the spiritual degree.

Egypt is characterized by an immense increase in egoism until a person wants to swallow the whole world. The person then begins to ask, “What is the meaning of my life?” and to search for the answer. In the end, he sees that egoism completely dominates him, making him a slave of Pharaoh. He does not agree with this and wants to work for the Creator instead.

But he discovers that he cannot do this. Therefore, he screams and makes demands until he is in complete despair that his efforts do not bring any result, as it is written, “And the children of Israel sighed from the work.”

The person feels blows because he is striving for spiritual work, but sees that nothing comes from it, and a cry bursts out of him. That is, the right desire, the request, arises in him and he then comes out of Egypt.

How many times during the years of our work have we tried to bestow, to unite, to think well of others, and to care, but so far, we have seen no results? Where do all our efforts go? After all, nothing disappears without a trace. We are in a closed system where the law of conservation of energy operates. But where is the fruit of my work, my desires, cares, successes, and misses— does it all really just disappear?

No. It all accumulates: my, yours and humanity’s work throughout all times. Therefore, there are people who receive such burdening of the heart that leads them to the exodus from Egypt. Others continue the Egyptian slavery for now, but nevertheless, from generation to generation, they accumulate their efforts. This applies to all of humanity, without exception.

Even a tiny louse that makes efforts to eat and survive also contributes to the common piggy bank, because it also belongs to the common desire created by the Creator.
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From the 1^st Part of the Kabbalah Daily Lesson 3/11/18, “Preparation for Pesach,” Part 1

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The work of the sons of Israel in Egypt is the work on unification in the ten. However, this unification is impossible in Egypt; therefore, they flee from there. After all, they wanted to unite in the desire to enjoy. All the problems in Egypt are the realization that we are unable to unite, no matter how hard we try.

Thus, seven years of satiation and seven years of famine pass in our unsuccessful attempts. However, each time we gain increasingly subtle and sublime definitions and eventually come to the need for exiting Egypt. Moses understands that it is necessary to separate from Pharaoh; he goes to Pharaoh and demands the people be let go.

But previously there was no such awareness and it was unclear that the desire to enjoy completely dominates a person. Even now it seems to us that it is enough to make an effort and we will unite. So we try again and again and 400 years pass in these attempts, that is, in all four stages.

There can be no unification in Egypt; after all, we are in our egoism! And even if we reach some kind of unity, then at the next degree we discover that it was egoistic and not for the sake of bestowal, the way it seemed to us.

The years of exile are degrees. If we are in 250^th year of exile, it means that we managed to unite at the 250^th degree. But suddenly the left line is revealed showing me that there is no unity and I hate everyone. It means that now, at the 251^st degree I discovered a much greater desire to enjoy than before. So we climb up the degrees, stepping with the left foot and then with the right one.

There is unity in Egypt, but it is egoistic. After all, all of Egypt is arranged for us to understand that we will not have life in egoism.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/18, Writings of Rabash, The Rungs of the Ladder, “What Are the Two Discernments Before Lishma“

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Desires were originally created by the Creator and nothing new appears, but everything depends on a person’s awareness: how he recognizes, distinguishes, and connects them. In the state of descent, one reveals that he is in exile, and according to the depth of this awareness he can achieve liberation.

Everything is determined by consciousness. A baby and an adult live in the same world, but does a baby see much compared to the adult? That’s why awareness, suffered in exile, helps us reach liberation. After all, it occurs in the same organs of perception, only turned upside down and grown through our efforts by 620 times.

If we felt exile on the same level in which we feel liberation, we would never be able to get out of it. But thanks to the work in the group and the reforming Light, we achieve an ascent 620 times more powerful than a fall. We do not need to feel the fall to minus infinity in order to feel the rise to plus infinity.

The Creator made it so that we will feel the rise 620 times more than the fall. This is the meaning of the shattering. In a descent, we find out that we cannot connect, and everyone feels this state in their personal petty egoism. While in ascent, uniting, we reveal our common desire, in which all our efforts, desires, and prayers take shape. And then their power increases 620-fold.

That is, it is impossible even to compare the fall and the rise. Although falls seem very strong, unpleasant, and deep to us, they are nothing compared to the rise, which is 620 times more powerful.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/8/18, Writings of Rabash

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