Question: How do we know that we have attained the state of the spiritual Ibur (conception)?

Answer: I suggest that you do the following: In spite of everything that happens, try to awaken yourself with the help of the environment, keep the same daily schedule, annul yourself, and accept that all the problems come from Above in order to help you annul yourself before the upper force, through the group.

The sign of the correct self-annulment is joy. Don’t ask for anything else, only to remain in this state in order to advance by the annulment of the ego. This already means that I am in state of Ibur.

I don’t care what I get from it. The only thing I want and what is important for me is to remain as strongly adhered as possible—that is, in the lowest point of annulment, in the smallest state. And because I want to see and feel different spiritual phenomena, I still have to work on myself. In other words, I have to annul my ego to the zero level, and this is called adhesion with the upper one.

Then I increasingly annul myself beyond that point and adhere more strongly, although my ego awakens. Thus the nine months of pregnancy go by. The most difficult part is the first three days of the absorption of the semen. Most of the problems occur at this phase, both in spiritual life and in corporeal life.

Even problems like miscarriages, which occur in the more advanced stages of pregnancy, happen because of different malfunctions and defects that occurred in the first three days of the absorption of the semen.
[106431]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/1/13, Writings of Rabash

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Question: Who is entitled to cut threads that connect us with this world so that we can be born into spirituality?

Answer: Only you! It has to be done voluntarily!

We need a preparation period only to disconnect from our previous step, exit the “uterus,” and then, without having solid ground under our feet, start measuring ourselves, our actions, and our further steps using a qualitatively different tool that doesn’t include such parameters as “time” (now-then, today-tomorrow, etc.), “accumulation of goods,” “superiority over others,” or “security.”

All properties that define egoism (time, space, past, future, present, fulfillment, emptiness, and so on) disappear. They simply cease to exist. We enter a different space, another matrix, a different dimension that carries completely different values, absolutely divergent definitions, where everything is weighed on a different type of scale. Our attitude to everything around changes dramatically.

We don’t see any parallels in this world since our observations of the still, vegetative, and animate nature allow us to watch only  different levels of egoism that outline each of these layers. Animals are more egoistic than other levels of nature, and that’s why they move faster, provide nourishment, reproduce, and so on. Plants have less egoism, while the still nature is even less egoistic. And yet all of them are constructed to consume, absorb, gain, captivate, and retain.

But here everything is directed towards the opposite. And we can’t grasp this “opposite.” This is not just the same absolute value, but actually a minus sign.

After all, we build the world in our sensations, in our values and definitions: This is bigger, this is smaller, this influences me better, and this affects me worse. This is how the world is reflected in my egoism while, in reality, the world doesn’t exist. All these spaces, objects, visions, sensations, relations that something is closer, farther, better, or worse—all of it is formed in my egoism in particular.

If it disappears for me, I begin to define everything in relation to another property: the property of bestowal. That is, I start drawing within myself a new world out of absence.
[105767]
From KabTV’s “Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 2/18/13

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The Writings of the Maggid of Koznitz, “The Work of Israel”: The sages said: “Dispersion is good for the wicked and convention is good for the righteous.” That’s because a wicked man separates himself from the Creator, thinks that he manages himself according to his own desire, and thus says “I will rule,” which is the source of the shattering.

Thus the wicked, each feels that “I will rule” and so they are in the world of separation and cannot connect like the circles because they cannot sit together, and so the dispersion is good for them. However, although the righteous each work the Creator in a different style, they all still aim at one thing: at their Father in Heaven, and they gather and assemble as one man with one heart.

When each one lowers himself and praises the work of the Creator, it gives him power and the mind to work for Him and so he doesn’t feel superior to his friend, and in the world of truth they unite with one another.

A person must convince himself as quickly as he can and not let time go by until he finally listens and believes that the spiritual world is not beyond some distant galaxies or in some faraway dimension. He is indeed in a different dimension, but this dimension is in his heart, in the desires and thoughts of his heart. Everything is in a man’s heart, in his desires: “the heart understands,” the heart thinks.

Only by controlling the desire is it possible to reach the upper dimension in which the upper one dwells, where He is the one who bestows with regard to the lower one, the one who receives in his thoughts, desires, and intentions.

One can have thoughts that are aimed at and operate for unity only by self-annulment and submission; that is, the thought of the righteous can unite since they are all aimed at one source, towards their unification with the Creator. The thoughts of the wicked, however, are each for his self-benefit, and so they all are separated and cannot attain anything.

Therefore, we should discover as quickly as possible in a true and decisive manner that the first spiritual level stands for self-annulment, connection with others in any way possible. We shouldn’t fear that it’s too honest and that someone may get scared and run away. The Creator gives us an example by showing us that the entire world is in a terrible crisis that spikes despair and helplessness in people’s hearts.

Thus, as a result of all our efforts to connect egoistically and to find spirituality not where it actually is, we must discover this helplessness. Then, out of helplessness, as it is written, “and the children of Israel sighed from the work,” we will be forced to turn to the upper force and demand that He save us.

The faster and more correctly we discover the fact that it isn’t in our power to reach self-annulment, the faster we will be able to reach the truth. This is possible only through connection, unity, and the strive for one root.
[105708]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13

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We receive all the spiritual information from Above through a chain of Kabbalists’ souls. The order of these levels does not change. It begins from Adam HaRishon (the First Man), who was the first to discover the upper force. This chain begins from him and descends from the top down like a cone until all of humanity joins it and reveals the Creator.

This is the way the upper Light, the upper wisdom, the Light that Reforms, the raising of prayer, MAN, and the response for them, MAD, come from. Everything is transmitted and descends only through this chain since we are connected to one system.

So, we must cleave to the spiritual legacy that the great Kabbalists have left us and to respect them as we respect the Creator—to the same extent and even more. Most important is to reach adhesion with the writers and the books (the writers are the sources of the Light of Hochma, and the books are the means of communication that they have left us).

If a person tries to develop in himself a sensation of the importance and the value of these sources then, naturally, he will become attracted to them and will get closer to them. He will begin to respect these great Kabbalists and will connect to their writings and, with their help he will reach adhesion with the Creator.
[106176]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/13, Shamati #25

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In order not to fall, not to descend in the work, I need to search for deficiencies in it myself even during an ascent. As the sages said: “An old man walks around bent over, always looking at the ground as if he is looking for something and is afraid of losing something in advance.” Further advice about this is to fill our time with the order of the day, to bind oneself to additional commitments: to do dissemination work, translate, write articles, work on texts, work in the kitchen, and so forth.

If a person is constantly involved in some kind of mandatory work, no matter what that work is, it will prevent him from falling because he will be obliged to do something related to spiritual advancement regardless of his state. Otherwise, he will be occupied with this only when he feels an ascent.

Then a descent comes, which he doesn’t feel at first even though he has already begun to descend. It is very easy to descend, and it seems to a person that he is still in ascent. It is the same in corporeal life when you come down a hill, which is always easy. You still feel that you are above, but essentially, you have started to descend. And when you are descending, you no longer have a desire to open a book, read something, hear, or learn. The state of apathy descends upon and dominates you, and then it’s very difficult to come out of it.

Therefore, it’s necessary to come up with a precise schedule that will protect a person for sure. And any other advice is certainly correct but just about impossible to realize practically. This is the law, but in order to keep the law, we must organize a strict daily schedule for ourselves where we commit ourselves to be occupied with spiritual work all of the time. This is what I recommend to you from my experience.
[106173]
From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/28/13

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Question: Can we expect to cross the Machsom at the New Jersey convention May 10^th – 12^th?

Answer: If you know exactly what it means to cross the Machsom and you want to do it, then you will surely succeed. To cross the Machsom means to enter into the group and to be born into the spiritual world.

In order to be born, the point in the heart, the drop of spiritual semen, has to be moved upward and turned into a “white drop,” the embryo of your soul that belongs to the Light. Through it you will feel spirituality and in it you will feel self-annulment: first, in regard to the group; next, in regard to the attribute of bestowal; and then, in regard to the Creator. This will be the first feeling of the spiritual world: self-annulment.

Then, from this drop of spiritual semen, the embryo will begin to develop and more and more ego will be added to one’s self-annulment, which you will correct and turn into a matter for connection to the group. Then you will build your vessel, meaning the spiritual body, and will continue to move your entire ego to the other side, beyond the Machsom.
[105806]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/13, Writings of Rabash

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Malchut feels reward or punishment according to its connection or separation from Bina. Generally two states exist: a good state (the corrected Malchut) and a bad state (the corrupted, shattered Malchut). The whole question is whom does it want to please, where does it find reward and punishment: in its own benefit or the benefit of the other?

It’s one of the two; there are no intermediary states: I either care for myself or for the other. The criterion for reward and punishment corresponds to it: “Do I enjoy or not?” or “Does the other enjoy or not?”

It is clear that in the shattered state reward and punishment are felt only within the shattered Malchut, and in the corrected state they are verified by the Creator. This is the entire difference.

Baal HaSulam writes in Talmud Eser Sefirot (The Study of the Ten Sefirot), Part 10, “Inner Reflection,” Item 15: The main correction of the world is through reward and punishment. And all reward of the righteous starts from there, meaning from an ascent, from attaching the AHP to Galgalta ve Eynaim. Certainly, the Creator could have created the world with one saying. However, He caused a shattering. What for? It is the meaning of the inclusion of the property of mercy into the property of judgment. Thanks to the shattering, there appeared multitude forms and ways of connection, joining, between Malchut and Bina.

The “one saying” includes ten complete Sefirot , and that’s it. But instead of this, there is a need for various combinations of properties so as “to increase the reward of the righteous.” Now that the evil shattered, egoists appeared, they are capable of becoming righteous. And their reward will be even higher because they, so to speak, “attained their names” in similarity to the Creator. By joining Bina, Malchut assumes its form, and this is the reward for the righteous.

“To attain the sacred names” is to be clothed in them, to be like the Creator in regard to others in one way or another. Thereby I adhere to Him. It’s because a “name” is a form, a manner of bestowal. It is as if I clothe in these garments, become like Him, and this is my reward.

The shattering gave  a multitude of aspects to the Creator. It is correct that He created the world with “one saying,” but everything is concealed, closed, bound within these ten Sefirot, impenetrably. Ten Sefirot of Malchut of the world of Infinity or the four phases of the Direct Light don’t give anything. The creature doesn’t exist yet; that is, it cannot manifest or attain.

For a person to truly understand something he has to take on the appropriate form internally, “to clothe” in it. If I understand how an engine runs, it is as if I am within it and feel with my “nerves” all that is happening there. This is true knowledge, true attainment.

Therefore, before the shattering everything was wonderful, except for one thing: The creature didn’t exist yet. It remained motionless at the very bottom of the still level, similar to an angel, meaning a simple force, devoid of the evil inclination and feeling, and totally activated from Above, without any independence. The shattering made it possible for it to acquire various “garments,” “letters,” and “names” of the Creator, different forms of behavior, based on inner opposition to the Creator and external similarity to Him.

This is the reason for the creation of the evil inclination—everything begins from this.…
[105872]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/2013, TES

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Question: The great thinker and physician Rambam brought a set of postulates, one of which reads: “To live healthy is a spiritual necessity.” Could you comment on that?

Answer: Our health is one of the conditions of general equilibrium between man and nature, of the balance of the person himself and his adhesion with the Creator. That is why the balance on all the levels—mental, moral, physical, ethical, spiritual, and physiological—is one and the same system of complete equilibrium. There is no doubt that a person who, in the future—together with the entire world—will reach complete correction, will receive from all the sides only positive feedback, and this overall balance will make him absolutely healthy.

We can talk about eternity, infinity, and eternal life, but all this is not for us at the moment. We do not understand all those beautiful changes that may occur in a person since, according to our current notions, the material body cannot exist forever. But that’s not the point.

The fact is that this is possible only when the human being will be included in the general system, when all the people in the world will be interconnected correctly, will mutually complement and balance one another to such an extent that everyone’s health will be determined by the correct health of everyone else.

Question: When Rambam says that physical health is a spiritual necessity, what is meant by the word “spiritual”?

Answer: The world spiritual means the future spiritual state of a person, when he ascends above his animal part and begins to make his spiritual part healthier, the part which, at the moment, is not felt by anyone but Kabbalists. Every person has it in some kind of internal latent, embryonic state, similar to how a small child potentially incorporates his future child; that is, a person’s spiritual part is not manifested in any way.
[106151]
From KabTV’s “The Medicine of the Future” 4/7/13

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Question: What do I need to do with the thoughts that come to me?

Answer: I need to become an independent, objective judge about what happens to me, without any craftiness or emotion, like an external, unbiased observer. This means that I try to be within my point in the heart, outside my body, outside of my present “self.” Every desire or thought that is awakened in me I accept as coming from the Creator, from “there is none else besides Him,” as a game that He plays with me. On the other hand, I need to decide what to do with this and begin to work accordingly.

Everything that happens is given to me as obstacles. It simply cannot be otherwise since as a rule, before the Machsom there are no good sensations. So, first of all, I need to be thankful for all that comes and accept that all this is for my own good and given to me for the work. And then, I need to start working and to try to build something practical above this obstacle.

While the obstacle remains, I rise above it and build an opposite relationship with it. In this manner, through the group, I search for the source from which I received such thought or desire. I want to unite this thought or desire with its source so that “Israel, Torah, and the Creator will be one.” Israel is myself, acting with my thoughts and desires to transform everything that I receive from the Creator, both good and bad, into material, an area, for our adhesion, connection.

This is called acting according to the condition of “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” And then I wait, being ready to receive a new obstacle. Someone screams at me, or something happens, or even without an external event my soul feels bad—that’s the Creator is acting on me directly or indirectly. Again, I have to work on this. That is, I search for every opportunity to combine all that happens to me, all the states, with the Creator so as to ultimately accept any state with my heart and soul and to see in it only one thing: His desire to embrace me.

Success depends on whether I see it in this particular way, do I thank the Creator, and do I hurry to embrace Him? To embrace means to come to complete agreement, up to self-sacrifice.
[105864]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/22/13, Writings of Rabash

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The Torah, Exodus, “Jethro’s Advice,” 18:21 – 18:23: …Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens. And let them judge the people at all times.

Every great matter they shall bring to you, but any small matter they shall decide themselves. So it will be easier for you, and they will bear the burden with you. If you do this, God will direct you, you will be able to endure, and all these people also will go to their place in peace.

We are talking about human properties. A person starts recognizing what qualities in him get corrected under the influence of the upper Light (the property of bestowal). Some desires become closer to the property of bestowal, some become even more distanced. One studies their progression, systematizes them into a pyramid. There are only a few special properties that are “adjacent” to bestowal, whereas the number of more distant, more egoistic qualities is enormous.

Since the property that is called “Jethro” derives from egoism, it’s interlaced with the desires per se and their hierarchy. After all, the ego consists of five (5) levels of desires. When the desire named “Moshe” makes an attempt to correct a human ego, the property called “Jethro” helps him.

This mass is similar to the entire human mass, only that it’s inside a person. Using the language of Kabbalah, it is AHP of Galgalta ve Eynaim. Galgalta ve Eynaim is the property of “Moshe,” whereas AHP is the people of Israel that yet has to be corrected. It stands for egoism, and for that reason Jethro knows how to work with it.

According to the property named Hassadim, Moshe with his “generous hand and open heart” is not suitable for the process of correction. Egoism has to be corrected gradually, step by step. Thus, the property of Jethro shows up and puts everything in order.
[104732]
From KabTV’s “The Mysteries of the Eternal Book,” 2/18/13

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