Question: Why are we always running from the rod that will hit us? Why doesn’t the Creator rule us in a gentler, more encouraging way? The way reality is set up, it makes a person feel not that He is the good that does good, but rather the bad that does bad. Why not teach us by guiding us instead of by the rod?

Answer: Otherwise we will not renounce our egoism.

Question: Why does the Creator have the need to give? Why does He want to give?

Answer: This is His nature!

Question: My perception is that the goal of drawing closer to the Creator so that one may become spiritually one with Him could be construed as the temptation of Eve. The promise of becoming like G-d was a powerful persuasion, and in religious teaching, not something we should desire. Is there truly a conflict here, and if so, is there an explanation for it?

Answer: It’s not to become G-d, but be similar to G-d in the property of love and bestowal.
[55467]

Related Material:
How Can We Justify The Creator?
The Program Of Creation
Revealing The Creator’s Goodness

Filed under: Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: I want us to carry out the work at the Convention in the Arava desert in the best possible way. How should we act on the inside to attain success?

Answer: This is difficult. I must constantly conduct an analysis, ask questions and look for answers to them, fall and rise. And I must solve all problems only by uniting with the friends. In this way, I want to show an example for everyone.

Success is impossible for one person. It must be achieved for everyone together. And that means I only care about the common desire. What’s important is not what I feel, but what we feel. It’s not me who rises above something and reveals something, but we rise and reveal it. It’s always we, while I do not exist at all. I want to live in this “soup.” The word “I” and the sensation of oneself must be left behind at home.

Moreover, we is not just a gathering of friends or a “special forces unit.” All of that are toys, while in reality, “we” is a soul. It does not have any parts that join with one another; everyone in it are fused together into one. And this bears no relation to what we are today. This is a new creation that has just been created.

After all, the spiritual essence that we want to form did not exist before. Previously there was only a broken Reshimo leading to it. And today, with our efforts we are trying to form a soul from the world of Nikudim, which was supposed to be corrected at this phase, but was deliberately broken for our sake.
[69209]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/12, “Introduction to the Study of Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Attack With A Song
Spiritual Vessel: It Is Not A Pocket
We’ll Meet Tomorrow In The Desert

Filed under: Body and Soul, Collective Soul, Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Inner Work, Q&A, Spirituality, Unity - No Comments →

Question: Would it benefit a person in his spiritual work to incorporate the process of correction and his work as a hobby (in his spare time)? Say for instance, if this man was a computer programmer and he applied the diagrams of the wisdom to a biomimicry program, which would build a need for a certain aspect of reality and then apply the process of correction to that need through this program design, would this help him better sense the spiritual aim?

Answer: No, you should relate to correction as to the main thing in life, while to computer programming as to a necessity. You lack the importance of the goal.

Question: Can we meet or have contact with those who are already in spiritual world?

Answer: You can meet all those who are there, regardless of whether or not they exist in this world, provided you are at their level.

Question: Is this an error: Yod–Key–Vav–Key? I have only heard of Yod–Hey–Vav–Hey.

Answer: This is to keep the commandment of “do not take the name of the Lord in vain.” It’s just as we do not call our parents by name.
[47941]

Related Material:
Blows In One Point
Accept Us In Your Assembly
Honor Your Father

Filed under: Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →

We are in a state where precisely the “prayer of the pauper” can save us. This means that a person has nothing and he does not need anything, besides one thing – to revive his soul. He does not ask for anything beyond this.

We are going out to the desert, which reflects our inner state, because the desert is poverty. And we don’t desire anything, other than to acquire the point of contact with the Creator, to revive our soul.
In return we can receive all the benefits of our current level, instead of the drop of unity with the higher level, which is always called the Creator for the lower level, creation.

We lack desire for the higher level, a desire just to unite with the upper one, to feel that we are inside of Him like a drop of semen that begins to develop.

This should be our intention while reading The Book of Zohar.
[68865]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/6/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
“I Seek My Brothers”
The Prayer Of The Poor
A Request That Does Not Need An Answer

Filed under: Conventions, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Spirituality, Zohar - No Comments →

Hate is inseparable from love. This principle should be engrained in me so that it becomes my program in relation to the world, through which I look at everything. In this form, I always will be in the middle line, in the middle third of Tifferet, Klipat Noga, in the point of my free choice.

Otherwise, I cannot orient myself and do not know where I am: in the area of bestowal or reception, or in a complete fog. Until I form two opposite lines, I am not in the world, which can be a reality.

So we go through so many ups and downs until we begin to understand the weakness of being only in the right or only in the left line. To be just in the right or just in the left is an egoistic state, Klipah Ishmael or Esau.

And if I am in the right and in the left line in order to connect them and rise above them so that the right line is always a bit higher than the left one (as there is always an inclination to the right), then I build the middle line.

But they both are present and support each other. Through this system of two lines, it is possible to see the importance of bestowal, in comparison to reception. And if there is no reception, how can we check?

Therefore, hatred and rejection must exist. A person, who is not in close contact with his friends, does not want to connect, and stays on the sidelines, might have excellent relations with others, might be a good friend, quiet, and calm, but not be involved in the work.

On the other hand, someone, who is argumentative and volatile and who cannot get along with anyone, may be able to establish inner contact with friends. Not only do we need to consider this criterion check judged by such outward appearances, but everyone needs to examine oneself inside.
[68195]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/31/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
Democracy Or A Trick Of Egoism
An Elevator To The Spiritual World
Freedom Is Born From Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Love, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: You said that instead of aspiring for fulfillment, we should aspire to desire, necessity. What does it mean to aspire to a desire? What does it mean to get fulfillment from a desire?

Answer: A young man is walking down the street and glowing with happiness. Why? He loves a girl.

Tell me, what does he get from this love? Why does this feeling fill him so much? What does he receive? He doesn’t receive, but is ready to bestow. He wants to unite with her, to love. I am not talking about love between adults, about sexual relations, but about a higher feeling, even though it is also based upon reception.

You love a person and want to do something pleasant for him. You want him to be happy and aspire to unite with him.

Besides hormonal attraction, which even animals experience, we received such an exalted feeling so that we would learn something from it. After all, nothing was created in vain. That is why in our biological organism, in this protein body, there is a certain inspiration from this kind of feeling for the neighbor, called love of one person for another.

Why does this fulfill me? Feelings fill us. Love is filled by the fact that I exist in bestowal rather than reception. And if I receive something from someone who loves me, then it’s only to awaken me to respond to the Light. But in essence, if love lives inside of me, then I enjoy by bestowing to the person I love, without receiving from him.

This is a law of nature and nothing can be done about it.
[68030]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/30/12, The Book of Zohar

Related Material:
Fulfillment From The Feeling Of Love
How To Build A Passageway Into The Upper World
Sweet Suffering Of Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Love, Q&A, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Question: Is one’s proximity to spirituality measured by the love that is felt in one’s heart? And if we don’t feel love, does that mean we are not in spirituality?

Answer: Spirituality begins when a person feels that it is inside of his mutual connection with the friends whom he sets apart from the entire rest of the world for this reason. There he feels his new, different existence, which is different from the previous—inside of this connection, in which there are no calculations besides connection and mutuality, where they all embrace the Creator together.

They embrace the very quality of bestowal that reigns in them, which they desire to reveal. They want to feel such joy from it as if they are immersing in cool water on a grueling, hot day. In the same way, we want to feel the quality of bestowal filling us.
[67940]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/29/12, Writings of Rabash

Related Material:
The Eternal Engine That Runs On Love
Good And Benevolent
The Lens Through Which You Can See The Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Q&A, Spirituality - 1 Comment →

Question: What makes us create “idols” and assign spiritual properties to material things and actions?

Answer: We are like infants: each of us carries around a baby’s pacifier, a doll, or a toy. Those who haven’t grown up yet need something that they can hold onto. They require something that they are used to, that is intertwined with their parents’ house, something familiar and comforting.

Nobody knows how to behave, what to say, and what to expect when they get to a new and unknown place. One feels discomfort, can’t relax, and gets nervous. It’s quite different at home where everything is familiar, clear, and easy. We speak one language with our friends and family.

We are built similarly to the spiritual realm, which is the origin of such order of things. How can we abide with the situation that is opposite to us in phase? In order to familiarize oneself with the surroundings, a person needs some kind of foundation that is usually made of simple symbols. The farther people are from spirituality, the weaker they are and the more they depend on external objects. The general public is in more need of relying on them, whereas individuals depend on them less.

All external traditions of Judaism started at the time of the destruction of the temple. Prior to that period of time, material symbols were not necessary since people lived in spirituality.
[67149]
From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/15/12, “Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Do Not Create An Idol
Ruled by Idols
A Good Habit: Desire To Bestow

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spirituality - No Comments →

Question: It’s difficult to put all of one’s energy into the request for correction and to come out “empty-handed” again and again. How can we keep from getting disillusioned in the path?

Answer: What are you asking for? To have the true request, or for something else? You don’t need anything besides this. If I turn to Him with a request, I must constantly check to make sure that my request is the best, most correct and precise one, that it hits the goal right on target and I don’t demand anything from it. Why would I need anything else? After all, any answer to it would already be a payment, and I don’t desire payment.

What do we aspire to?
– I aspire to unity, togetherness, bestowal, to give pleasure to the Creator!
– Please, go ahead, you’re doing it.
– I just want to know whether He likes it or not…
But if you find out that you are doing something pleasant for the Creator, that will be the greatest pleasure for you, and you will receive it for your own sake.

By going through all these states, where you don’t receive anything and keep going, and you do it over and over again, you thereby build a screen with which you receive a reaction from the Creator that you give Him pleasure, and this won’t enter your receiving desires, but will be above them.

But for now, if you received a reaction in return right now, this would give you enormous satisfaction. Say you wrote a letter to someone very great, and that person received it and responded to you, saying, “I got your letter.” That would be enough, you would already be happy.

Therefore, as long as you aren’t protected from this kind of pleasure, you won’t receive any reaction in return.
[67577]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/25/12, The Zohar

Related Material:
Give Me What You Wish For Me!
I Don’t Know What I Want, But I Want It!
The Most Important “Toy” In Life

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Inner Work, Prayer and Intention, Q&A, Spirituality, Zohar - No Comments →

Question: Sometimes we go through very unusual, powerful states. It’s good if you’re in the group, next to the teacher and friends, but what should a person do in this case if he studies alone at home, virtually?

Answer: It is written that “The Creator heals all broken hearts.” I am not the master of your states. Rather, the Light that comes to a person precisely considers his level, state, personality, the root of his soul, and all parameters. We are unable to calculate all of this and to say how this should all be in every case.

But if we do everything that is necessary, then our progress will always be optimal. A person is influenced from above in a way that was precisely calculated according to millions of parameters in order to elevate him from the current state to the next one.

It is not your concern to assess and check all of this. You cannot understand it – all of this is seen only from attaining the general system from above downwards. When you rise to the World of Atzilut, to its uppermost part (GAR) and connect with Partzufim Aba ve Ima (the upper Father and Mother), which are very high levels, then you begin to see how the plan of creation works. This is the greatest pleasure of all possible ones.

This is called the illumination of the Shechina – the sensation of how the goal of creation, the upper mind, the upper force, the plan of creation, which is all Love, fills all of Malchut of the world of Infinity and brings it to correction in all of its details. This is a person’s absolutely perfect state.

But don’t be afraid that the states a person goes through in the meantime can bring him any harm. They are, in fact, phases of the soul’s healing. It’s like a person who was sick for a long time and suddenly feels a sudden improvement and becomes healthier. Suddenly his sensations sharpen, his eyes open, and he gains forces inside, and thus the illness gradually passes. That is how we gradually get better…
[67340]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/12, Shamati

Related Material:
How Many Light Years?
Don’t Ask For The Death To The Wicked
Overcoming A Potential Obstacle

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Q&A, Spirituality - No Comments →