Writings of Rabash, Preparation for the Lesson, “What Is Torah in the Work of the Creator”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “General Explanations for All Fourteen Commandments and How They Divide Into the Seven Days of ‘Creation’,” Item 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 92, Lesson 54
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 10
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Question: Is “Segula” (the “miraculous force”) a foundation for the integral upbringing?

Answer: Segula is the basis to start with since the spiritual world is opposite to our world, and thus, is completely detached from it. The spiritual world has no connection with anything corporeal. There is nothing you can do with the spiritual world: neither draw forces from it, nor affect it. Neither cards, nor “miracles,” nor red strings will help you bridge the total gap between the worlds.

A contact by way of which you can evoke spiritual impact upon yourself is formed only by tying yourself correctly to the teacher, the Kabbalistic text, and the group on the condition that you are using them to develop in yourself the intention, the vital need, and the understanding of what exactly you desire to receive from the studies.

And then, by studying with a true teacher, the right group, and authentic Kabbalistic books, you actualize your intention. And if it isn’t for that, nothing will help you. If there were no Segula in this world for us, man would remain a beast.

That is why it is so important for us to assess what these three components should be: the teacher, the books, and the group and how they must affect me together in a mutual guarantee. All of this is focused on the necessity to attain spirituality. And spirituality can be attained due to the study which contains a hidden force. This force has to work on me if I appeal to it.
[36185]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/2011, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is Peace in the Work”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Fourteenth Commandment” Item 250
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 92, Lesson 53
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 9
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We must change in order to attain the Creator since we attain Him in new vessels of perception, in new desires. Obviously, the desires themselves are not new, but they connect within us in a new way.

We have the desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow. In order to reveal the Creator, we must create such a connection between these desires within ourselves that would enable us to recognize Him. The Creator has 125 consecutive forms of revelation, when He reveals Himself to us closer and closer, sharper and sharper. It is 125 degrees, along which we ascend and become able to see and feel Him more and more.

How do we find the Creator? As soon as we create a connection between our desire to receive pleasure and the desire to bestow, where the will to bestow would rule over the will to receive at the first spiritual degree by giving it a form similar to the Creator, we instantly see the Creator through these desires and their unity.

In other words, I must create within me a common property between the desire to enjoy and the desire to bestow so that it becomes identical, equal, and adequate to the Creator at the first, the smallest degree of His revelation. In that case, I will see, understand, and feel Him.

In our world, there are various phenomena as well. To understand them, I have to become more intelligent, acquire additional sense, and study some more. Then, I will start sensing what is going on, in what way, and what these phenomena are.

The same happens in the wisdom of Kabbalah. In order to arouse a merger, a mutual permeation of the desire to receive and the desire to bestow in each of us at the first spiritual degree and further on, at all 125 degrees, I need the Light which would make this change in me. I, myself, am unable to perform it since while I am at the lowest degree; I do not have the slightest idea of what I must become at the next one, like a baby that doesn’t know how it will look when it is one year old.

This is why we are given the studies. We must sit and learn from the authentic sources, and the most powerful source from which to draw the Light is The Book of Zohar. When we study this book together, it is regarded as “faith above reason” if while doing so, everyone thinks about how he will unify with the others. This is because in the connection between us, we create the Creator’s form, the correct pairing between the will to receive and the will to bestow so that the desire to bestow rules over the desire to receive, thereby giving it the right form.

If I wish for it to occur during the studies, it is sufficient. There isn’t a greater commandment, and there is nothing more vital. In that case, I draw the Light so that it would align these desires for me.

It is the Light that performs it. I don’t need to know anything else. So does a small child wish to grow, and that’s why he runs, plays, and does whatever he may. So do I, like a child, do whatever it takes only to get the Light to come, reform me, and bring me back to the source, to the Creator.
[35681]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is Torah and Work in the Path of the Creator”
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Twelfth – Fourteenth Commandments,” Item 245, Lesson 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 92, Lesson 52
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 8
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Question: You say that The Book of Zohar is the only means that can help us attain correction and unite. But it’s unclear how the world will be able to use it since it’s impossible to understand anything in this book!

Answer: But we correct ourselves in our world using the same unclear means! I come to a doctor without understanding anything about the treatment or the means. This person sticks needles into my body and pumps out blood with a tube, and I even pay him money and say "Thank you"!

Then he prescribes some kind of chemicals for me to take that contain nothing but poison. Surely, you must know that every medicine is poison; in fact, the very symbol of medicine is a serpent with a cup of poison. We pay a lot of money for this medicine and we don’t understand how it works, and there is no doubt that it is based on poison. But I swallow it and it helps me! I get better!

My body was sick so I added more poison to it, and it suddenly became healthy. Can you explain that?! But that’s how it works! Is this logical in any shape or form?

In the same way, we have to inject “poison” inside of us because the upper Light is the most real poison there is for us. We have to take it inside of us and then we will get better! We need something completely opposite to our nature and this seems completely illogical.

But even in our world, taking medicine is an illogical action, and it is more so if we are talking about spiritual correction. Tell me, do I really need the upper Light that will teach me to bestow and love the neighbor? I feel nauseous even thinking about it. I don’t want to see anyone and I hate everyone, cursing this entire life and the Creator. But I am told that you have to add a bit more poison and bring the Light, the Creator, closer to you.

But what am I bringing closer? The force of bestowal, the Light that seems to bring me more of what I hate! And this is exactly what I do not want! This works as a double negative, an opposite over an opposite—and that is the entire meaning and logic! It’s just hard for us to understand it.
[36177]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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The only thing we can take from our study is to turn it into a “miraculous quality” (Segula), to attract “the Light that Reforms” to us. That is why we choose to study the books recommended to us by Kabbalists, the people who have already realized their correction, have attained the revelation of the Creator, adhesion with Him, the upper attainment, and have returned to the root of their soul.

That is to say, they carried out their task, which is incumbent on every person in this world, and attained their finally corrected state, Gmar Tikkun, the world of Infinity, unity with the Creator. That is why we listen to their instructions, and what they advise us is to study only the Kabbalistic books because they contain the Light that Reforms.

The Light contained in other books that also speak about the spiritual world (such as Torah, Mishnah, and Talmud) is insufficiently powerful to return our souls to the source. That does not mean they do not have spirituality! They were all written by great Kabbalists who had spiritual attainment, but these books are not intended to give us the force of correction. That is why we use them only as a small addition, while the entire study is based on The Book of Zohar with Baal HaSulam’s commentaries, as well as Talmud Eser Sefirot.

These are precisely the books that bring us the surrounding Light that is most suitable for the souls of our generation and have the force to correct us. A person who studies these books is called a sage or “a student of a sage” (Talmid Hacham) because he learns from the Creator (a sage) about the quality of bestowal. That person is “wise of heart” because he wants to correct his “heart,” his will to enjoy in order to turn it into a vessel for the Light of Hochma.

That is how we regard our study, group, teacher, dissemination, and our entire lives, so all of it will turn into a means to acquire this “miraculous force” (Segula), the Light that Reforms. This is the only thing we should think about from morning to night and from night to morning! After all, a person’s entire success in life depends on this Light.
[36181]
From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/23/11, “Introduction to the book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Writings of Rabash, Shlavei HaSulam, “What Is Israel Who Do the Desire of the Creator in the Work,” Lesson 2
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Tenth Commandment,” Item 242, Lesson 3, “The Eleventh Commandment,” Item 244, Lesson 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 91, Lesson 51
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 7
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Question: I understand that my intentions while reading The Book of Zohar are very important, but I don’t feel that it helps me. What should I do?

Answer: You have to continue. This does not happen in one instant. Kabbalists say that it takes three to five years to reveal spirituality if a person’s intentions are correct in quality and quantity. But if they are not so perfect qualitatively and quantitatively, then it takes even more time.

We don’t lie to people when saying that it will happen any day now. If a person has a true desire, let him come. And whoever doesn’t have it yet— we will wait for it to emerge.
[36062]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/11, The Zohar

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When reading The Zohar we have to focus on the connection between the souls because that is exactly where the breaking occurred. We have to imagine the corrected state in which we attain unity among the souls.

The souls are the aspirations to reveal the Creator. Every person who has this aspiration has to desire to increase it by connecting with others. Then he receives the same aspiration from them, and that way he grows.

It is known that with the help of hatred, passion, and the lust for power, we can be impressed by the friends’ aspiration to unite with the Creator, to reveal Him. This is exactly what we want to “buy” from them.

Therefore, during the study each of us desires to attach to himself the group’s entire aspiration to reveal the Creator. This is possible only in the unity between us. After all, I cannot steal a friend’s aspiration. But if I connect with him, then each of us already has the common force. And then, once we combine enough forces, each of us can attain the revelation of the Creator.

However, a connection between us cannot emerge only because I want to unite with my friend’s aspiration. I do not have the strength to connect with him. I need the Light to perform this action.

We are in a broken state where there is no connection among us. I want this connection to emerge, and then with the common force, I attain revelation. This is what we have to think about while reading The Book of Zohar. Everything we study in The Zohar are just corrected forms of connection among us.
[36068]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/22/11, The Zohar

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