Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam, “Article 363”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Kdoshim,” Item 70, Lesson 5
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8, “Ohr Pnimi,” (Starting with: “Here you should know what the Rav writes”), Item 42, Lesson 25
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Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)
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Conversation About the Group
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Kdoshim,” Item 49, Lesson 4
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8 “Ohr Pnimi,” (Starting with: “We shall understand the matters”), Item 42, Lesson 24
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“Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah),” Item 8, Lesson 4
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When reading The Zohar and wanting to imagine the next degree, one should try to join the efforts at this degree and this world, and the internal world, and the group, so that everything is in one structure because there is nothing else besides it.
If one is able to do that and discern “Israel (striving for the Creator), the Torah (the Reforming Light), and the Creator are one,” it is the sign that one has already obtained the right focus, the correct attitude to the true reality, which is correctly represented in it, but not outside of oneself.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/25/12, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar, “Kdoshim,” Item 1: And the Lord spoke to Moses and said: “Speak to the whole congregation of the children of Israel and tell them, you shall be holy because I am holy, your Lord.”
The Creator is called Holy because He has the attribute of bestowal. The commandment of “you shall be holy” indicates that we also have to attain that by the Light that Reforms, the same force that influences us.
Although we are submerged in the attribute of receiving, this force changes us, and we can even use our attribute of receiving in order to bestow. It is a very special thing to turn receiving into bestowal since there is no intermediate stage between them. If there were something neutral, some shapeless raw material like stem cells, then you could do whatever you want from it: receiving, bestowing, Gevurot, Hassadim, Dinim, etc. The desire to receive, however, is not neutral, but rather operates in order to receive, although it is in order to receive small, trivial, false things and in between them we exist.
But when the Light comes, it changes us. The desire to receive remains, but then we can differentiate between the desire to receive and the intention to enjoy. Before, we weren’t able to do so because our desire and our intention were inseparable and in every desire, in every grain of desire, there is an intention to enjoy. Although the desire itself can totally lack any intention, it is possible to “peel” it and take the intention out even though it is a big problem. It all depends on the development of the desire.
Studying the wisdom of Kabbalah we learn that the only created being, the desire to receive, developed according to the four phases of the Direct Light and only in the fourth phase did it begin to feel the special form of the Creator, not like a dog, for example, that feels his owner because a dog is connected to his owner and wants to enjoy him. It is even ready to devote his life to him and all for self-love. So we see that such love within the desire to receive is possible.
In the fourth phase, however, the created being begins to feel the Creator, who bestows upon him, is detached from this bestowal without receiving anything back. He enjoys that fact that He bestows upon the created being; a bestowal that stems from Him, but does not return to Him. When the created being begins to feel the Creator’s action upon him, he feels shame. And from this is the root of shame, from the bestowal that the created being discovers, we receive the “point in the heart,” the root of our soul. From this point we develop. If the point in the heart is revealed in someone, he can certainly realize it.
So “Holy” means that we are detached from ourselves and adhered to bestowal.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/24/12, The Zohar
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Preparation to the Lesson
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Rabash – The Social Writings “The Agenda of the Assembly 2”
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Kdoshim,” Item 34, Lesson 3
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Shamati #3 “The Matter of Spiritual Attainment” (Starting with: “The Upper Light is made of two discernments”)
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Question: You always say that The Book of Zohar can sometimes be a cure and sometimes poison, what does that mean?
Answer: Kabbalists describe this dilemma by using the allegory of choosing between the elixir of life and the potion of death, or by bringing the example of the rooster and the bat. Everything depends on a person’s intention: Is it the urge for the goal that drives him? This doesn’t mean that by opening a Kabbalah book he necessarily has to focus himself on the true goal because otherwise he will receive the potion of death. It is impossible to demand such things. So the Creator gives a person the right intentions, just like a baby who is under the full supervision of a grown up.
Even if a person comes to study without any basic knowledge and thinks about anything he feels like, it isn’t actually he who thinks and who is operating. From Above he is provided with constant supervision and care. If you could see this from the side, you would see that a person is like a newborn baby, that he has nothing of his own. It is simply a system, a “body” that functions according to a plan. He is equipped with everything that he needs, absorbing and emitting what he has to and thus grows. At this point a person has no freewill and no discernments.
Gradually, however, he grows and begins to move independently. At first he doesn’t feel responsible for what is going on, but later he begins to consciously perceive something and to shout intentionally at something, etc. Gradually he begins to understand what is good and what is bad and under which circumstances he feels good or bad. Accordingly he is played with and shown what he does correctly and what he doesn’t.
There are those who hear better and there are those who hear less, it depends on your innate attributes and on your upbringing. Generally speaking, it is about a huge system called Shechina that takes care of every one and brings everyone to the end of correction.
So, I cannot tell you when a Kabbalah book gives life and when it brings death. First a person is taught all this and after several years he understands that only in a group can he fulfill himself and move on from a corporeal connection with the friends to an internal, spiritual connection.
And then it his choice to reach for the opening of the spiritual network between the friends. It may be concealed from them, but he wants to reveal it. This means that he is attracted to life since this network is totally filled with bestowal.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/12, The Zohar
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Question: What should I do when I try to hold on to the intention and then the opposite happens and something draws me to the side?
Answer: This is wonderful. The moment you try to hold on to an intention, it evades you or is extinguished by something so that you will hold on to it more strongly. Then by different interruptions, you will be able to differentiate the corrections that you make by carrying on. The Creator shows them to you.
Today it is as if everything is blurred by different problems, but in fact it isn’t so, it is always a kind of help, and it guides you more accurately towards the goal. You aim at it, and suddenly it seems blurry, so that you will “aim” more sensitively and more accurately. And that’s how it is all the time.
Eventually you will be able to recognize the state of the next level from your current state. By the revelation of the ten Sefirot you see reality from end to end and then you are allowed to ascend higher.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/12, The Zohar
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Sometimes a person is in such a state that he doesn’t want anything. Nothing attracts him: not unity with the friends, not understanding the Kabbalistic texts, no feeling, and no connection to someone important. He doesn’t think about the inner goals that should be fulfilled during the day in the group and at work. It is as if he is “dead.” It isn’t that he feels that he is “dead,” but that he doesn’t feel himself at all, he is asleep.
What can a person ask for in such a case? He can ask for two things:
If he has no clear demand that comes from his deficiencies or his impressions, he needs these two factors: One of them operates from the side of the vessel and the other is operated from the side of the Light.
First I want to belong to the friends so that everything that flows through them will flow through me. The main thing here is to be involved in “spiritual matters.” I come, sit down, and listen to what is going on; I just listen on the spiritual level, by opening all my spiritual “openings” to the currents that flow in the group.
Second, I allow the Light to operate on me, to go through me by filling me and by bringing me back to life
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/23/12, The Zohar
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Preparation to the Lesson
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Writings of Rabash “Dargot HaSulam” Article 71
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The Book of Zohar – Selected Excerpt, Parashat “Kdoshim,” Item 12, Lesson 2
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Volume 3, Part 8, “Ohr Pnimi,” Item 42, Lesson 23
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Writings of Rabash
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Question: What does it mean to draw the Light that Reforms?
Answer: When I read The Zohar, I want to see changes inside me, as if a stream of energy enters my internal system, a light, powers, new discernments, new attributes. Something influences me, and I want to feel what it is that influences me and performs changes in me. I want to know this and to feel the flavors and see how these changes take place in me and where inside me I can imagine everything that I read about in The Zohar so that it will not just be imagination, but that I will really feel it in my attributes. This is what I expect, the changes in my desire to receive.
We have to make collective efforts, in mutual help, and then the Light that Reforms will be much stronger than when it influences a single person. Then it is much easier to achieve something. But this is only if a person works with others, in connection with them. By that, he approaches the Light since his desires for the Light are not egoistic any more, but are similar to it in some way.
Of course it is still for himself, but a person tries to resemble the Light in some way and to seemingly become equal to it. This is called a “game.” Of course, I am asking for myself, but to some extent it is like the real and correct attribute of bestowal.
In what way is it similar? Several thousand egoists come together, all of them want to bestow, although deep in their soul everyone wants for himself and disrespects everyone else, but they make collective efforts, as if connecting, as if yearning, as if for the Creator, for bestowal—this “as if” is called a “game.” They “brainwash” each other’s minds as if it is really something great and important. In fact there is nothing real here, but this is what should be done in order to attain the upper level. This is because there is an abyss between the levels, and you cannot be in an upper level before you ascend to it, and in order to ascend you play it.
So we have to connect more strongly and to want to feel that that Light changes us. In the meantime it just changes us, but later our intention will be more accurate, so that it will change us in our connection, in unity, but this will come later. Now at least we have to aim at the influence of the Light.
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From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/22/12, The Zohar
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