Question: Is there a difference between the unification work I do with the friends in the group and with my wife to find the Creator between us?

Answer: Yes, there is a difference. If two people can unite so that the Creator is revealed inside their connection, even if it’s just in their imagination for now, then they will arrive at the spiritual attainment faster. The Creator is always present, but the question is whether we take this into consideration or not. If we are able to feel the Creator in our mutual connection, then He becomes revealed. If His revelation might disturb our development and confuse us, then He remains concealed, yet He always governs us from “behind the scenes.”

The Creator is present behind a person’s desires, thoughts, and actions since “there is none else besides Him.” However, I cannot work with Him directly since am unable to resist Him; I would immediately surrender and nullify my freedom and independence. This is why He is concealed. In this case, I see only a person in relation to whom I can act freely.

However, if we can manage to purposefully see the Creator behind each person by using our desire with the correct intention, we will very quickly uncover the true reality. When we do this work with the friends, various calculations and problems arise, but with a spouse, it is possible. If husband and wife decide to see the Creator behind their relationship (as it is written, “Husband and wife and Shechina (the Creator) between them”), then their connection becomes purposeful and exalted. And since it contains various forms and possibilities within itself, the couple advances rapidly.

The root of all problems in marital relationships is the Creator’s absence between husband and wife, although in fact, He is always secretly present there.
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From the "Weekly Torah Portion" on 10/29/10

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On one hand we say that we are ready for the Convention, but on the other hand we may be thinking that we are not ready. This is the right state. The Torah talks about this when describing the preparation to the passage and the exodus.

It doesn’t happen smoothly and predictably. The exodus from Egypt is rushed as the people burst forth toward the Red Sea. A person does not understand the mechanisms behind what is taking place and as a result it seems like a miracle to him.

When standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, we say, “We will do and we will hear!” As if we know exactly what to do ahead of time. The only thing that’s needed is to agree to it in principle: We are willing to put forth every effort we have, as much as we are able to understand the demands of the Upper World while in the lower world. This effort opens up the doors to us.

The mind is powerless here. No matter how much wiser we become, trying to find out and understand more things in order to react to the situation more correctly and precisely, it won’t help. We need a simple inner aspiration to become as one, and thereby to become similar to the Creator, the general quality of bestowal and love. Only our heart can understand that this is our salvation.

I hope that we are standing at the threshold of a spiritual breakthrough which has never yet happened in human history. Let’s try, and we will succeed!

From the lesson on 11/6/10, Writings of Rabash

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Toldot,” Selected Excerpts
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Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “Which Degree Should One Achieve so He Will Not Have to Reincarnate?”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 298
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Baal HaSulam, “Beit Shaar HaKavanot,” Lesson 13
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Exile and Redemption,” Lesson 1
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Question: Why is the term of “Sodom” associated with bad relationships between people?

Answer: If we look at this quality per se, it is seemingly meant to protect the society by establishing a strict order in it: Everyone takes care of oneself and their family without stepping out of the acceptable norms. There is something quite rational in this, and it’s not easy to achieve this state.

The rules of life in Sodom are very simple: “Mine is mine, yours is yours,” “Don’t touch me, and I won’t hurt you.” It is prohibited to lend, and it is not allowed to borrow. Everyone lives according to the effort they exert: What you earned is all yours.

We will kill the thieves, destroy the liars; anyone who helps another spoils him since charity leads to laziness and lies as a person now always wants to receive and stops working. In this sense, our world is worse than Sodom!

The property of Sodom means that I don’t envy anybody: I have what I am entitled to, and you have what you deserve. This life philosophy is unique and complex! We use this word to scold, but we haven’t even come close to it.

The attribute of Sodom is negative not per se but in relation to the Land of Israel, the desire to attain love of others, the quality of Abraham. On this path, Sodom halts a person, but in itself, this approach is quite useful for the will to receive.

If we don’t transition to the desire to bestow, then the level of Sodom represents the most favorable relations in the society: Don’t give anything to anyone and don’t receive anything from them! This is a healthy attitude to the will to receive: If you are entitled to something, live, and if not, die. After all, anything received beyond necessity harms our will to receive since through luxuries it gets accustomed to using others, which harms it.

The residents of Sodom understood that they shouldn’t indulge in the will to receive. You receive according to the exerted effort, as it is said, “The measure of suffering determines the measure of reward.” So, what is wrong with that?

Hence, it is difficult for Abraham to part with Lot, and their relationship lasts a long time. And only when Abraham sees the need to advance so as to turn Sodom (the land of Canaan) into the Land of Israel in the future, he revolts and switches the positions of the will to receive and the will to bestow in terms of their importance. This is described as an earthquake in Sodom.

It is a very serious decision of a person who feels the need to change his attitude to egoism. Having made this decision, a person truly becomes free.
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From the Lesson on Weekly Torah Portion 10/15/10

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (And Pharaoh Sent)” Item 37:  Because of the mixed multitude, they were not called “the children of Israel,” or “Israel,” or “My people,” but simply, “the people.” When they rose from Egypt and the mixed multitude had not bonded with them, He called them “the children of Israel.” When the mixed multitude bonded with them, He called them “the people.”

Speaking of what occurs in a person, the “mixed multitude” (Erev Rav) are the desires that seem to be walking a spiritual path and choose it, thinking that it is the way to advance. However, every time they decide to advance, they intend to use the Creator, the Upper Light, for themselves, for reception.

This is the most treacherous, impure force (Klipa, shell). They wish to use the Torah to satisfy various demands of egoism in their corporeal life. All the problems of the nation occur because of this Klipa regarded as the “mixed multitude.”

It is easy to discern them on the spiritual path if you recognize that it is an egoistic form that has no relation to spirituality. If I desire any pleasures of this world (food, sex, family, money, fame, power, or knowledge), such desires are regarded as the “nations of the world” in me. They want only this kind of fulfillment.

But when I start studying the Torah and want to receive earthly, egoistic fulfillment (the very same money, fame, power, and so forth) with its help, this is called the “mixed multitude.” I engage the Torah, the force of advancement and Light, in order to use it for my egoism.

All this must take place in every person on the spiritual path. After all, everybody consists of everybody else as it is written, “There is no righteous man on earth who has done good and did not sin first.” Everyone will have periods (if they haven’t occurred yet) when, amidst his spiritual advancement, there will arise a desire to make money, have power, and so on. The only question is how quickly and how correctly he will exit this state.

Similar divisions exists in the corporeal world as well. There are “nations of the world,” those who desire to receive all that there is in this world. Their desires are simple, without any yearning for spirituality, for the wisdom of Kabbalah.

There are also people who strive for spirituality and yearn to attain it to the best of their capacity. And there are those who engage in spirituality as well, but not to uncover their “evil inclination,” correct it, and thereby get closer to the Creator, meaning to use the Torah as it was intended. Rather, they study the Torah in order to get all possible wealth, fame, and power from it. Hence, it is written that all problems after the exodus from Egypt took place because they brought with them the “mixed multitude.”

So it is in our generation: There are those in the nation who study the Torah in order to gain from it the Light that Reforms and correct themselves, and there are those who engage in the Torah in order to obtain power and wealth for their earthly life.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/20/10, The Zohar

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The Book of Zohar, Weekly Torah Portion “Chayei Sarah,” Selected Excerpts
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The Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 180: For the crossing of Yam Suf [the Red Sea] and the drowning of the Egyptians, their high root in holiness, in AA, had to be cancelled first. This was not possible except by the great light of Atik, which is the root of everything.

The Upper Governance comes to us from Partzuf Arich Anpin (AA) where everything is ordered according to Tzimtzum Bet, the three lines and Bina which has come out of the bounds of Rosh of AA. That is why we are governed in such a way that we have to go by faith above reason, along three lines, acquiring the screens of Bina under the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet).

Partzuf Atik is already the First Restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) and therefore it is called Atik, which comes from the word “Neetak” – separated and detached from the World of Atzilut and all the lower worlds. Atik really is infinity. Therefore the action it performs is above the system we are in. The Light of Atik does not submit to our laws; it is above them and above our nature.

We are under Tzimtzum Bet and are a result of the World of Nekudim, the breaking and the corrections in the Worlds of Atzilut and BYA (Beria, Yetzira, Assiya). We submit to many restrictions, but they are all organized so we must first of all be on the level of Bina and only then slightly attach the receiving desires (Kelim), thereby evoking the glow of Hochma inside of the bestowing Kelim.

That is why we don’t understand how it is possible for such a tremendous correction to happen that will enable us to separate from the “Egyptians,” to come out of the will to enjoy and rise above it. We perceive only very weak Lights that come from Above gradually, step by step, as “drops of luck” (Mazalot).

That’s why our entire passage across the Machsom seems impossible until the great Light GAR de Hochma comes, which is above all of our qualities and the laws of Tzimtzum Bet. This is called the crossing of the Red Sea (Kriyat Yam Suf), the action of the Light GAR de Hochma.

Therefore, the state we will have to go through is called Egyptian darkness. When GAR de Hochma shines inside desires that aren’t yet ready, it brings them darkness so great, we cannot even fathom it. The Light standing across an uncorrected desire evokes these phenomena in it.

However, the glow of the Light GAR de Hochma that comes to us from Atik opens up this difference or this “iron wall” called “the Red Sea.” There is no Red Sea, there is no end. Rather, it is canceled by the Light that comes and then we can go through it.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/10, The Zohar

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The exodus from Egypt happens like a miracle because the Light of GAR de Hochma which comes from Partzuf Atik works above the nature of the Second Restriction. That’s why it allows us to go from the state of “Egypt,” which is ruled by the will to enjoy, to the state where we can decide for ourselves that we desire to be under the rule of Bina. This is already the beginning of the “Sinai desert.”

In essence, this is the sign that we have come out of Egypt. On our own, we are unable to come out from the rule of our ego; only this enormous Light creates a passageway for us, raising us above the will to enjoy. It helps a person to separate from certain qualities of his egoistic desire, and from that moment on, a person runs away from “Egypt,” from the qualities that hold him inside the intention of “for his own sake,” which deprive him of the opportunity to attain “for the sake of bestowal.” And that is impossible in Egypt itself.

When GAR de Hochma appears, it works like a projector that illuminates a person’s desires so he sees which of them are really so bad that he cannot avoid touching them. This is called an “escape;” a person rises above them and is already protected from using them.

The Light of GAR de Hochma severs these desires like a knife and they no longer come in a person’s way since they are buried inside of him. Of course, later on they will reawaken in order to be corrected, and then a person will reveal all sorts of problems until he comes out of “Egypt” completely.

However, all of this happens by virtue of the Light of GAR de Hochma, which illuminates and clarifies our desires, allowing us to rise above them, to correct them or to use them partially.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/10, The Zohar

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeShalach (When Pharaoh Sent),” Item 181: Then everything shone together because even though the light of Atik is covered in Hassadim, it contains Hochma, as well, since the Hochma in AA is necessarily received from him. Hence, the Hassadim of Atik are more important than the Hochma de AA and are regarded as containing it, and that Hochma and Hassadim shine in him together. This is why the sea made the upper laws, to drown the Egyptians and to save Israel, since the upper and lower were given into his hands. …since the crossing of the Red Sea depends on Atik.

The Upper Light comes and severs the coarse desires in us called “Egyptians” from the desires called “Isra-El” (straight to the Creator), which are ready to be corrected. This happens by the conditions of the Second Restriction (Tzimtzum Bet).

“The nations of the world” in us are all the desires that cannot be corrected until the very End of Correction (Gmar Tikkun). This includes the Klipot and all the desires that are directly connected with the Light of Hochma.

The desires of “Israel” (Yashar-Kel) include all the qualities of Bina and by their nature they belong to Galgalta Einaym. Therefore, the Light of Hochma that comes makes a split in the entire depth of the desire or vessel, separating the desires that can be corrected (the ones belonging to Galgalta Einaym that are able to become AHP de Aliya) from the desires that are completely incapable of correction. That is why the “splitting of the Red Sea” took place: to separate “Israel” from the “Egyptians.”

From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/27/10, The Zohar

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