“Israel” and the “Torah” are the same thing. 

[Initially the Torah is an instruction for correcting evil, called 613 pieces of advice for correcting 613 parts of egoism.]

1) The Torah is regarded as 613 counsels, 613 tips for subduing the evil.

[And after the correction, the Torah is the portions of the Creator’s light corresponding to each of the 613 corrected organs of the soul.]

It follows that while performing the Mitzva, one extends to its corresponding organ in his soul and body the degree of light that belongs to that organ and tendon (Rabash, “What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah”).

Question: How can one most simply explain to a person what Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are, and what the meaning of their unity is?

Answer: We exist in an unchanging state, as it is said: “I did not change.”

This single state is called Malchut of the world of infinity. The Creator, who wished to bestow goodness upon the creation, made it in a matching state of benevolence.

But in order to feel this beneficence, creation needs to go through various transformations that develop  desire and appetite, that cause despair, troubles, and agitation within it, in other words, that cause sensations opposite to the sensation of the good who does good. Otherwise, creation would not sense Him.

However, so that the sensations of the good who does good, as well as their opposites, would not strike creation like a double blow, the Creator arranged it so that we gather unpleasant sensations drop by drop, gradually, in small portions. “Ouch!” and that’s enough. Again “Ouch!” and that’s enough. Thus, we move along the path, clarify our desire, and learn what is good and what is bad.

Overall, we must be sensitive and receptive to good and evil. The more sensitive a person is to recognizing evil, the higher their degree and the deeper they penetrate into the substance of creation.

Therefore, in the unchanging state that the Creator made, the desire to delight for the sake of bestowal already exists that is corrected by the proper intention, as well as the light that fills this desire and intention. There they are all united without any distinction. This state is called “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.”

Israel (ישראל) is a vessel, a Kli, with the intention to bestow to the Creator, in other words, “straight to the Creator,” Yashar-El (ישר-אל). The Torah is the entire light that corrects and fills it. And they are one because they have reached a state in which they are completely equal and exist in adhesion.

Equality and adhesion between the Creator and the creation is the only form in which they exist. Each creature gradually reveals this form once the desire to reveal it awakens within.

By revealing emptiness in our current state and in the matters of this world, the Creator gradually leads us to a sense of emptiness, purposelessness, and meaninglessness of our life. At the same time, He awakens the beginning of a spiritual Kli, the seed of recognizing evil, within us. My state is miserable not because it is dull in taste, but because I lack adhesion with the Creator.

I realize this gradually. At first, I do not understand at all what I need, like a child who doesn’t know why he cries. But little by little the details emerge, become clearer, appear within me, and I begin to hear something.

Then I come to a group, to a teacher, and for several years I undergo the influence of the light in various states that I experience together with the teacher, the books, and the group. The process continues, and I become slightly more sensitive to recognizing evil. And the evil lies in the fact that I do not want to connect to the books, the teacher, and the group. When I begin to feel that this is precisely my evil, then I take the correct course toward correction.

At the same time, I understand that I must unite with the friends, receive awakening from them, acquire their mind and feelings, merge into them. I include myself in them, in their desires and intentions directed toward the goal. And for this inclusion, I must draw the light that returns to the source; in other words, I need to study together with them and attract the light.

If this occurs, I accumulate the necessary amount and quality of effort and come to the correction of my vessels.

Naturally, this process consists of a whole series of actions. I cannot withstand major corrections or big leaps all at once. Therefore, there are many degrees, divided into steps and sub-steps through which I reach the state of which it is said: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” I already exist in this state, but it reveals itself within me gradually.

We could not bear everything at once, because this unity is too opposite to our nature.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/21/11, Rabash “What It Means that the World Was Created for the Torah”

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Question: Suppose a person feels that they lack some quality in order to advance. Can it be acquired?

Answer: You have nothing to complain about. A person is structured in such a way that everything within them is ideal for their advancement, no more and no less. Precisely these qualities, even the very worst ones are what help a person.

Everyone has something of their own that seems negative, but in the end, you will see how this very quality, and even what appears as a deviation, is the most useful thing. After all, it is the result of the forces of the soul, and without this quality, one would not be able to correct it.

It does not matter what you feel along the way, all these things are useful. You are not required to figure out whether you have stopped advancing or not, you do not know that. Only one thing is required of you: to realize your freedom of choice. to draw from the group forces for advancement that are greater than those given to you by the Creator.

At first, we do not have such forces. We are given an initial push, the rest we must obtain from the group ourselves. If we can do this, we advance; if not, we do not advance. The problem is that we acquire various kinds of knowledge and sensations, and it seems to us that this is an advancement. But it is not. One can continue like this for 20 to 30 years, and there will be no advancement at all if we do not receive additional forces from the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18-19/26, Rabash “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”

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The Creator made only one state, a desire filled with light, the world of infinity. We are in this infinity, but we do not feel our true state because our desires were intentionally corrupted, and now we feel this malfunction. We feel a corrupted world of infinity, whose entire immense desire was divided into an infinite number of parts, and each part into another 613 desires.

The whole problem lies in the fact that instead of the intention to bestow, an egoistic intention arose, one for oneself, to fill oneself, and to care for oneself, instead of uniting.

To correct these 613 individual desires means “to hear His instructions,” all “613 counsels” on how to attain the corrected state. And when we achieve correction and replace today’s egoistic intention with the intention to bestow, we reveal the light that fills our corrected desire in the world of infinity.

It is as if we return to infinity, regain consciousness, and receive the entire light that fills our corrected desires in which it was always present in the form of a hidden, secret deposit! We return to the good state in which we always existed, only we did not notice the delight that filled us because it was delight from bestowal!

We were tuned and directed only to the range of reception; therefore, instead of the vast pleasure, we sensed only a tiny force that sustains life, which was given to us so we could return to the corrected state!

Thus, we follow the 613 counsels in order to correct our 613 desires, receive in them the 613 lights, and thereby reach the end of correction. But this final state already exists and is waiting for us to feel it within our intentions of bestowal! Therefore, these 613 commandments are called “Pkudin” from the word “Pikadon” (deposit),  a deposit originally placed by the Creator into our account, awaiting our correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/12/10, Rabash “The Importance of a Prayer of Many”

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Question: Is it even possible to “buy a friend“? Or will we need to work with each person individually?

Answer: I do not think you need to treat someone or something individually, or choose three or four people for yourself. Let us say I work with several people here. There are several colleagues at work from my department, for example.

I know them better since I am in the same group, but that does not mean I relate to them as if they were spiritual friends.

My spiritual friends may be completely different, those from whom I draw more inspiration, those who can influence me in their own way, by how they relate to spirituality, how they influence me, and how devoted they are to the work. Maybe this individual is different from the people I work with although they do the same things; it depends on the character. It depends on the way the person does it.

Let us say one of them works here from morning to night, does everything, and I am in constant contact with him, but I admire the other more. One has nothing to do with the other.

The form in which he does this seems to affect me; it depends on my character, on certain qualities I have. He influences me more than anyone else. What can I do? This is how it is.

In general, you should not focus on any one person but only on the group. This will give you more opportunities to give to it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/26, Rabash, “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”

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What is included in the concept of the “Torah“? There are only two things in the universe: the Creator and creation. But suddenly, we discover so many names, characteristics, and connections that we get confused.

Creation is the desire to receive, and the Creator is the desire to give, to bestow pleasure. The manifestation of the Creator to creation is, in essence, everything that happens. The Creator either reveals Himself to creation or hides from it, and thus causes various phenomena in creation. We are talking about these phenomena; they are our whole lives, all our worries. This is the vessel (Kli) in relation to the light, and there is nothing more to add here.

The manifestation of the Creator to the creatures has thousands of names because they relate not only to the desire to receive, but also to what this desire expects from the Creator who reveals Himself to it.

Then the creation begins to desire several things from the Creator. Basically, it wants the Creator to either fill it and give it pleasure, or to give it the strength to receive this pleasure so it feels that by doing so it is giving pleasure to the Creator. There can be only such a relationship between them.

The desire to receive in creation is constant; the Creator’s desire to give is also constant. The sensation of the Creator within creation is called “pleasure.” But since the creation, in addition to the manifestation of the Creator in it as pleasure, also feels the “personality” of the Creator (His essence, what He is, the giver), then the creation begins relating not only to the pleasure but also to the Creator himself, to the giver.

Thus the attitude to pleasure is the desire to receive. I want to receive pleasure from You, from seeing You. It is like a man who loves a woman, and enjoys the sight of her. Regarding the attitude toward the essence of the Creator, the giver, two movements arise in the desire to receive: either to use the giver for the purpose of enjoyment (not simply to enjoy, but to enjoy one’s own relationship with the Creator: I want to enjoy You) or to desire to please Him. Thus, there is a desire and there is an intention, either for oneself or for the sake of the Creator.

Accordingly, all relations between creation and the Creator come down to what the intention of creation is, what it is aimed at. If creation has the intention for its own benefit, but suddenly it is prompted by some impulse to move to the intention for the sake of giving to the Creator, that is, to receive and enjoy, but for His sake, then the creation demands—again from the Creator—the opportunity to do so. Its demand is always directed to the Creator: either it is a demand for enjoyment, or for the nature of using that enjoyment.

Everything a person receives from the Creator is called light (Ohr) or Torah. It follows that, in this light, in the revelation of the Creator to the creatures, we find two main manifestations. The Creator reveals Himself either as a giver of the power to change, to correct the intention, or He reveals Himself as enjoyment. Therefore, there is the Torah, the light that returns to the source, and there is the Torah, the names of the Creator, the revelations of lights in the corrected Kelim with the intention of giving.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lessons, 1/18/26 and 1/19/26, Rabash, “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator??

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Question: What is the correction called “The Torah and Israel and the Creator Are One”?

Answer: The Torah is the Torah, the Creator is the Creator, and Israel is the soul, the vessel. “Are one” means that this state is the only one that exists in reality. “He and His name are one” means that the Creator, who created the creation, is present within it in complete fullness.

We do not feel ourselves in this state, but we must reveal it for ourselves. Why is it one? Because the vessel (Kli) has received all the corrections through the Torah, and the Creator is already present in this Kli and fills it boundlessly, infinitely.

Question: How do we begin to feel this in our state?

Answer: Very simply. We begin in accordance with what is written for us, with what Rabash offers you. He gives you all the advice; he tells you what to do and where to begin.

How do I attain that “the Torah, the Creator, and Israel are one”? It is very good that I wish to reveal this, because I truly am in such a state; nothing else exists. The Creator did not create something halfway or by a quarter; He created perfection.

How do I reveal it? I need to find who this “I” is, whether there is a point called “Israel” within me,  whether I aspire to the Creator, and whether I can reveal Him in my aspiration. Who is the Creator? He is the giver. And do I have anything “in order to bestow” like Him within my desires? Only then can there be a common point between us. This point must exist through a common action, a common intention, which is called “Torah.”

Question: And in the end, must one see all of this as one?

Answer: Not in the end! One must constantly see it as one whole, every moment. By the Torah, you may understand the action that you perform in order to be together with the Creator, to feel your intentions and His intentions, and so on.

The Torah can be as a force, and it can be as the revelation of the names of the Creator, that is, the qualities of His revelation with respect to you. One time I reveal Him in one way, another time I think of Him differently. All these ways of my perception of the Creator, all of this together, is called Torah. The Torah is the revelation of the Creator to the created beings in all possible forms, and all of it together is called the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/18-19/26, Rabash “What Are Torah and Work in the Way of the Creator?”

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Question: The basic principle of the Soviet Union was that everyone should be the same. What is good about all people being alike? What does that give?

Answer: Kabbalah does not speak about that. Kabbalah says that everyone must be equal, but each in their own way, in the full realization of their soul, and souls are absolutely different.

If we take the 613 desires and depict them linearly, we will see that together they form a kind of spectrum, and when all 613 desires are arranged according to their level along a line, each desire has a different curve.

That is, each person has their own desires. But when everyone fully expresses themselves, they do so in bestowal toward the entire system, toward everyone else. And in that, all are equal. In other words, no one is similar to another either in the quantity or in the quality of their quality of bestowal, yet all are equal in that each acts to the maximum, from their own unique self.

Therefore, the incorrect interpretation of equality is to make everyone the same so that one cannot be distinguished from another. On the contrary, by realizing our souls as fully as possible, we will differ from one another as much as possible.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Everyone should be the same” 10/1/10

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Question: How can one imagine eternal pleasure?

Answer: From the Creator, we receive desires and fulfillments. Desires are felt as hunger and suffering, while pleasures are felt as the attainment of perfection precisely to the extent of the desire for it.

In our everyday life, we cannot receive continuous fulfillment because desires and fulfillments are not revealed in us simultaneously. But if a person correctly prepares himself to receive fulfillment with an intention to bestow, he receives the desire from the Creator simultaneously with the fulfillment. This is similar to someone who eats food and feels an undiminished sense of hunger together with an unceasing sense of satiation. And so it is in all of one’s desires.
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Question: Who benefits more in spiritual advancement: someone who is close
to you and can communicate with you or someone far away?

Answer: The biggest benefit can be attained by those who are internally close to me. Baal HaSulam, in an article dedicated to the completion of The Book of Zohar and in several letters, writes that true spiritual attainment comes only from the student’s inner connection to the teacher.

Nowadays, this happens not directly but through a group. And still, this principle remains. In Kabbalah, it is called mouth to mouth (Peh el Peh), that is, according to the common screen between the student and the teacher.

This technique is generally known, when a student annuls before the teacher and devotes himself to connecting with the teacher in such a way that the inner content flows from the teacher to the student.

Although Kabbalah, on one hand, is a science, it talks about how to receive the upper light through the similarity of form. It is precisely the similarity of properties that is called the mouth to mouth contact (Peh el Peh).
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call.” 9/11/10

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When we get together, the agenda should be defined from the outset. In other words, everyone, to the best of his ability, should speak about the importance of the group, about what benefit the group gives him. In accordance with his expectations that the group will give him something important, something that he himself cannot achieve, to that extent he listens to the group.

And the reason for this is to initially build the greatness of the group, the goals of nature, and the necessity of achieving it. For it is precisely to the extent of the greatness of the goal that he will be able to make efforts above his ego, cancel his opinion before the opinion of the group, and act not only for the sake of the group but also for the sake of nature, its wholeness. With such direction of his thoughts, he will feel the help of all the forces of nature.

The same applies to love of friends. Before we gather, it is necessary to build the importance of the friends, the importance of each of them. And to the extent that he appreciates the greatness of the group, he can treat the group with respect. And after that, check himself to see how much effort he is making for the benefit of the group. And if he finds out that he has no strength to do anything for the benefit of the group, then there is a place to turn to the group with a request for strength and desire to work toward achieving love for one’s neighbor.

And if he turned to the group even in thoughts, he must be sure that he will receive the strength to unite and check himself whether he is in joy, as an indicator that he believes in the power of the group and the willingness to help him to achieve correction.

And, since in this case all the friends represent one desire, he wants to see everyone in enjoyment. Therefore, after all the calculations, the time comes for the joy of love of friends. And each one should feel happy as if he has just done a good deed and by this earned a lot of money. And now, as is customary in this world, he treats his friends.

Similarly, it is here as well: each one should make sure that his friend is being cared for, because now he is happy and wants his friends to feel good. Therefore, the conclusion of the meeting should take place on a joyful note and in inspiration. And then everyone will feel perfection.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Rabash, Article 17 (1984), “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2”

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