Question: Is joy a criterion of advancement?

Answer: When I merge with the Creator and place myself under His influence, I feel that I make Him happy.

Question cont’d: But don’t we come from despair? Should I be happy myself or just know that He is happy?

Answer: Sometimes a person feels despair, but this does not bring about progress. I cannot come closer to the Creator in this state. It’s best to do everything possible to avoid immersing in despair. It is written, “A fool sits with his hands folded and eats himself up.” It is Klipa to think that we advance out of despair.

When I grievingly revel in my evil hoping to advance, the Klipa obstructs the truth from me. I do not see the Light, the Creator, the world full of corrections, joy, and fulfillment. I am in the evil like a worm in a radish and there is no way for me to move forward from here.

We never advance out of evil. Imagine a child immersed in evil. How will he grow? He will be barely able to, or won’t grow at all.

We grow only out of joy, fulfillment, and good influence. Therefore, we have to put all our energy to coming out of despair and running forward, away from it. An extra moment spent in despair is already bad. You’re better off going to take a nap; anything but to get used to being in despair.

Question cont’d: What does it mean to greet the Creator first and then to greet people?

Answer: This means that first of all you have to make contact in your thoughts with the goal of your life, the reason you were created, and why are you doing, thinking, and deciding this? And of course, it’s in order to reveal the Creator inside of you. This means that you have greeted Him. After that you already turn the person inside of you and greet him in order to bring him to the Creator’s level.
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/23/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: You said that inner discernments begin even before the Machsom. But what should I discern if I still haven’t acquired the quality of bestowal and am entirely immersed in my will to enjoy?

Answer: It is precisely before the Machsom that you must discern just how much you desire everything in life only for your own good. However, these discernments are made with the help of the Light.

I constantly check: Am I doing this for myself or for the sake of others? I do this in relation to everyone and in all directions. I constantly discern what my thoughts and calculations are: “I hate him, but I have to ascend above this because my hatred comes from my ego, my will to enjoy. But if I ascend above my ego in the intention of bestowal, then I will start to love this person and act for his good. Even though this will evoke negative sensations inside the will to enjoy, in my intention I will feel that I have ascended to holiness and bestowal.” These discernments take place constantly before the Machsom.

Try to enjoy the fact that you are trampling your ego. One might think that this is masochism, a psychological disorder. But it’s not a disorder because at the same time you are united with your future inner quality of bestowal, which is good. You identify yourself with this new quality.

This does not mean that you like suffering. No! You like being inside this new quality of bestowal, and therefore you try to ascend above your will to enjoy. Even though you suffer inside it, you still enjoy in the quality of bestowal. And after making the discernment, you suddenly feel, “There’s absolutely no reason for me to suffer! On the contrary, I have turned my will to enjoy to the will to bestow, and this enabled me to ascend even more!”

This is not simple. But by virtue of several such actions, it happens. In any case pleasure is a sign that an action has reached completion: either in reception, Klipa, or in bestowal, holiness. Either way, pleasure has to happen as the completion. We enjoy in any case because the goal of creation is to enjoy.
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/11, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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We exist in the one and only reality created by the Creator, but we uncover it only to the degree that we correspond to it and are similar to it in our properties. Reality itself is constant and unchanging, and it is called the world of Infinity.

Meanwhile, we exist in the desire to enjoy, the property opposite to the world of Infinity: the intention to receive instead of to bestow. We can correct ourselves by performing consecutive corrections time after time, 125 times. Our every correction translates within us into a new attainment, and this is how we advance.

This is a step-by-step advancement that abides by the law of the equivalence of form, and there is no place for a compromise here: We are situated in a system that operates like a living organism. If you correspond to it, you receive accordingly, and if you don’t, you will receive according to this lack of correspondence. You constantly interact with nature to the measure of the similarity and strength of the forces with which you approach it.

If nothing changed in us, we would always stay in the same state. But since the Reshimot (informational genes, data) are constantly growing and changing in us, we are becoming increasingly opposite to nature and differ from it more and more. This is exactly what we feel as the accumulation and manifestation of various unfulfilled desires and problems.

This is how we feel the forces which are pressuring us increasingly stronger from the side of the evil. These forces will inevitably compel us to move toward good, meaning to search how to reach similarity to nature.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/2011, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Question: Why can’t changes for the better happen without suffering?

Answer: Suffering is any sensation that takes me out of the present state into the next. Suppose that right now I am in an absolutely comfortable state. If my matter and essence is the will to enjoy and all my desires are fulfilled, then I don’t have any opportunity to move forward. Only the sensation of lack moves me toward the source of fulfillment. When I want to drink, I move closer to the bottle. When I want to sleep, I move closer to the bed, and so on. If I don’t have any desires, it means there is no movement or development.

So what kind of suffering should I feel in order to advance? For a smart or energetic person a very small suffering suffices for him to start moving forward in order to solve the problem. Lazy people will keep suffering, but it will still be difficult for them to move from where they are. Fools feel pain, but don’t understand where it comes from and why. They sit there and cry, but cannot move from where they are.

The suffering also comes in different forms. For example, an uncomfortable position makes me sit differently, which is also a kind of suffering. “Suffering” is the absence of total, absolute comfort. If suffering—meaning additional empty desire—is not evoked in a person, then he won’t move or develop.

The Upper Force created us absolutely opposite to it so we would gradually desire to become equal to it. This is impossible until we feel that we are opposite to this force in some way. We are always moving only in relation to the Creator, only in relation to this force. No matter what we do or feel in life, in the end we only feel our attitude to Him or our oppositeness to Him.

If only we realize this and stay constantly sensitive to it, then we will advance forward by small steps without any breaks, always staying inspired and experiencing a pleasant adventure. We must only understand that everything inside me is awakened by the Creator. At every second, constantly, no matter what I feel, I must connect everything to Him. This will move me toward Him ceaselessly and nothing else will be necessary!

In the end my entire life will be the right movement toward the eternal, perfect goal, toward unity which really exists. Let us be stupid or lazy; after all, we were deliberately created that way. Each one of us “simmers” inside his own problems which were deliberately created by the Creator in order for us to solve them together.

If we create the right environment or society around us which will hold us together, then at every second we will feel comfortable in very small doses, sufficient for us to advance.
From the lesson in Moscow on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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The problem with feeling the spiritual world, meaning the total volume in which we exist today, is the problem of its perception. Now we are also inside this volume, along with our nature, which is still concealed from us. However, we feel only a small part of it with our earthly, bodily senses.

We have to attune ourselves so we would feel not only what enters our small egoistic desire. After all, it’s enough for egoism to desire something and we suddenly perceive what we did not notice earlier.

For example, when I start a new job, I start working with new materials and new phenomena, and some time later I start to feel what I am working with. We are attuning ourselves to a finer perception, creating inner models of phenomena and objects that we are dealing with. For example, a metalworker feels a metal by its sound and by the motion of the chisel. Likewise, people connected to nature understand it through signs that we are unfamiliar with.

We are created so that the surrounding world is depicted for us in a three-dimensional coordinate system. But is this really so? Other creatures perceive the world in a completely different way: through smells, temperature waves, ultrasound waves, and so on. However, no matter how much we expand the range of perception in this world, we always come across the same restriction: ourselves, our capability to receive or absorb inside.

In this way we limit our perception and do not feel the huge world that is around us. Gradually we begin coming closer to understanding these phenomena, or at least to the sensation that this is really so. However, it is difficult for us to cope with this and to work with this difficult problem because that is how our bodies are built.

Thus, as a result of our earthly development, it becomes clear to us that we are simply blind. We do not see where we are or how to live. This brings us to feel enormous suffering, which accumulates more and more. On one hand we develop, while on the other hand we do not know where and how, or what to do with ourselves.

As a result it becomes simply necessary for us to break down the barrier separating us from the real world. It is necessary for us to understand it because we cannot continue to exist this way. We already see that there is a certain psychological barrier here. Whether it is inside us or outside of us, we have to overcome it.
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 1/16/11, Writings of Rabash

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Question: How can a person follow the advice of “being joyful” if he feels “the taste of waste” in his spiritual work?

Answer: This is a phase where you still do not understand the importance of waste. Yet, can anything grow without waste, manure, or fertilizer? There is nothing useless in the world; everything depends only on your attitude. We have to go through all of the states and feel each of them. In these states death seems sweeter than life, but you aren’t able to avoid them because you have to understand what the “will to enjoy” is.

I am speaking frankly, without exaggerating: Unless you experience this, you won’t be able to come out of the power of the will to enjoy, even though this also doesn’t help a great deal. This is the revelation of the “angel of death.” Without the group’s support, without a strict daily routine, and without taking on obligations, it is impossible to cope with this feeling.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to take on obligations that compel you to carry out a certain task today. It has to put pressure on you like a yoke on a bull. There is nothing worse than feeling free. Despite the fact that you do not see, feel, understand, or remember anything, you start to work because you have to, and gradually you come out of the state of descent and continue your path.

We are controlled by two forces, and the only opportunity we are given is to shift from the rule of one force to the influence of the other. Besides the rule of two forces, there is an intermediate state where you choose what influence to be under. You have to try to control these two forces from the intermediate state, the middle line, as if these are two reins that you hold in your hands.

That is why you have to stick to the daily routine: Go to the lesson, go over the lesson, sing, dance in your room when no one can see you, laugh—do anything you can to come out of a bad state! You have to disagree with and oppose the control of this force! The worst thing you can do is despair.
From the lesson on Rabash’s article on 11/7/11

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Coming closer to others means bringing their desires and thoughts closer to you so you will feel them as the desires of your own children. In the same way, the whole world has to become important to me as if they are all my family.

Then I will feel this “familial” connection more and more until I start to feel that they are parts of me, and even more than that—that they are actually me! This is a purely psychological problem.

To the degree I come closer to others, I feel the force that fills the space between us. That is where the Creator becomes revealed. The more concerned I am about every person in the world, the closer I come to the Creator and the more chances I have to reveal Him.

However, if I repel others and the opportunity to come closer to them, surrounding myself with my egoistic interests, I thereby shut myself and everyone else off from the Creator, from goodness and abundance. Thus, I evoke all of the evil and suffering in the world.

If people don’t start using the science of Kabbalah, then they will start separating from each other, and that includes separate individuals as well as entire nations. Then darkness will close in on people, being much more powerful than it is now. The Creator will distance Himself from us more and more, and when He reaches the critical mark, that is when a world war will begin. Everything depends only how close or far this upper force is. Its distancing will evoke all the explosions, catastrophes, epidemics, and wars, including a world war.

For now we are simply in “exile” (the loss of the sensation of the Creator). He is pretty close to us and is deliberately coming even closer in order to reveal the world’s global connection to us. It is still not too late. We have to understand that we are responsible for bringing this knowledge to everyone, and in this regard everything depends on our desire.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/13/11, “The Quality of the Hidden Wisdom – in General”

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Question: What’s the use of my growing egoistic desires?

Answer: Their task is to bring you to failure, to let you feel that you are worthless, that your life is awful, your desires despicable, and generally speaking, nothing around you is worth a thing.

Therefore, the only thing you now need is for the Light to awaken you. It will awaken you to the same desires, showing you that they are worse than they seemed before. Then you really will desire to ascend above them and will start revealing the opposite side of reality above these desires. However, before that, you have to start studying in the group because lectures and live communication cannot be substituted by anything else.
From the lecture in “Kabbalah L’Am” Hall on 1/4/11

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Question: There are several dozen of us in Holland getting ready to take part in the European Convention that will be held in Berlin. For most of us this will be the first time attending a Kabbalah convention, and some of the students still don’t realize what the point is of the convention and why is it so necessary to attend. How can we prepare them for it?

Answer: Europeans have to understand that their continent is in a very dangerous state compared to all others. Out of the whole world, Europe faces the greatest and most serious problem, which, if they explode, can escalate to a third World War.

The Europeans are in a very unstable situation precisely because they decided to unite, but on the other hand their union is egoistic. If one egoist separates from another with a boundary, then they are still able to maintain a connection through that boundary according to set rules. But if there are no formal connections and everyone comes to the common market with a common economy, and with the huge problematic reserves that Europe possesses, then I don’t see it having any opportunity to exist and thrive in the world.

After all, how would that be possible? It would go against the laws of nature. Therefore, Europe will face increasingly more serious problems unless Europeans recognize that it is necessary to correct their ego. They have placed themselves in a situation where they simply have no other choice.

Europe is precisely the place that now serves as the practical laboratory for actualizing the method of Kabbalah because it desired to unite, but did so based on egoistic profit. Now from one day to the next, it is bound to reveal that this is the most horrible evil there can be and the worst possibility of all.

That is why Europeans have to attend the convention where we will all unite together, attracting the Upper Force and desiring for it to influence this part of the world in order to correct it. Otherwise Europe might bring suffering upon the whole world and that will become our common problem. I am turning to you on behalf of our entire world Kli: We have to do this.

Europe is the most problematic place in the world, along with all of its disintegrating nations and common currency. I do not see any symptoms there of a good future. Even though Europe has a very good foundation, yet the relationships between all of the countries make that powerful potential precisely the factor that can lead to a huge explosion.

Moreover, besides the social problems, there are also natural disasters awaiting us, and we are completely powerless before them. The climate problems are growing worse and Europe is entirely dependent on the Atlantic Ocean, making it vulnerable from all sides. This is a very grave problem. Humanity does not have the powers or methods to withstand the situations that are now starting to arise in Europe, other than to follow the method of Kabbalah.

Our task comes down to one thing: To bring the knowledge of this method to all until it is implemented. Therefore, I am waiting to see all of you at the convention in Berlin! I have nothing else to add.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/11, “The Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy”

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Question: What do we have to do so The Zohar will find its way into the deepest recesses of the heart, into our desires and thoughts?

Answer: Open your heart. Nothing else is needed. The most important thing is not to despair and not to relax, and to make efforts precisely when the going gets rough. The article “Donkey Driver” in the Introduction of The Zohar is exactly the place where it explains that when you are walking along and your “donkey” (in Hebrew “donkey” is “Hamor,” originating from the word “Homer,” matter, the will to enjoy) can no longer carry its burden, you are sent a “donkey driver” that helps your “donkey” to ascend.

This driver stings the “donkey” with a sharp stick and it’s unpleasant. However, it makes you move forward. Therefore, if you agree to have a driver like that, you will receive him. But you have to ask for these “stings.”

Question: I know how to ask for good things, but how can I ask for the “stings” of the donkey driver?

Answer: If I don’t identify myself with my ego and want to be liberated from it, then I think the opposite: The more “stings” it receives, the more able I am to distance myself from it, to run away from it and ascend above it.

These “stings” do not wound me, but my ego. If I separate and detach from it, then we are separated by a distance and I therefore do not feel the “sting” that passes over it. The sting comes only in order for me to part with my ego. Then I don’t perceive these blows as happening to me, but to my “Pharaoh,” and in the meantime I ascend.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/11, The Zohar

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