Writings of Rabash, Dargot HaSulam “The Still and the Vegetative”
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The Book of Zohar – Selections, Chapter “Seventh Commandment,” Item 225, Lesson 1
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag “The Freedom,” Lesson 14
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The Zohar, “Ki Tissa [When You Take],” Item 31: “As a lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.” The Creator wished to make Israel similar to what is above, so there would be one lily in the earth [in Israel] that is like the lily above, Malchut. And the fragrant lily, better than all the lilies in the world is only one who has grown among the thorns. This one smells as it should.
Thorns become revealed to a person to the degree he is able to overcome them. If he correctly prepares all of the inclinations, all the forces present and operating between him and the environment, if he can continually awaken and raise the importance of the Creator, unity, and love for the neighbor as himself above everything that surfaces in his thoughts and desires, then he makes the right analysis and “blunts the teeth” of the evil inclination.
Rabash writes, “When you answer egoism, ‘blunt its teeth.’” This means that you shouldn’t argue with it, but should use force and overcome it. I reveal the environment, which lies between myself and others, egoistically, looking for a chance to use my connection with it, to get as much as I can out of them.
Looking at reality from a material perspective, I see everything outside of me, instead of inside myself. I do not think that I am the one responsible for the distance, the hatred, and the repulsion that become revealed. All of this appears external to me and not my own. I don’t think that these are my Kelim, my perception of realty, my vision, or the revelation of the upper reality inside of me.
Therefore, I must give myself “a blow to the teeth” over and over again in order to correct my attitude to the picture that is depicted before my eyes. In this picture I am separated from the neighbor by a distance that does not seem like my own corrupted desires (Kelim) to me. Instead if seems like something foreign, something I have to reject.
But I act on the contrary: I blunt the force of this illusion with my analysis since I understand that everything becoming revealed to me is myself. And I do not correct my soul unless I attribute to myself the whole world, all of reality, all of the people, all of the souls, and all the levels in general—the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking degrees. I have to treat them all as an inseparable part of me.
Then I see that the perception of reality, love for the creatures, and the revelation of the Creator lie in the same thoughts and desires that determine my attitude to the neighbor, to that which is outside. In reality there is nothing beyond desire. And when I feel that this desire comes out of me toward others, I have to “strike it in the teeth” the right way. That is how I turn it into a connecting link between myself and the other part of me. The neighbor will become a part of me and the Creator will become mine. That is how I will include all of reality inside of me, and thereby the breaking will be corrected.
Then, in that same place, in the same desires and thoughts that stood between myself and the neighbor, I will begin to feel the Light’s presence, the quality of bestowal and love.
[35497]
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, Writings of Rabash
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The initial picture that appears before a beginner who reads The Book of Zohar is very disorderly. He gets confused, not understanding what kind of language it is using exactly—the language of Kabbalah, or talking through the Lights, Kelim, and Partzufim, or in the language of stories.
Often the same paragraph in The Zohar uses a mixture of languages. For example, on one hand it is talking about Adam, Eve, the snake and so on. On the other hand it is talking about Malchut and Zeir Anpin and how they unite, attaining ZAT or GAR of Bina. That’s because the same sin and its correction which is described in the Torah can be described in four languages—those of Tanach, Halachot, Hagadot (stories), and Kabbalah. However, a person does not connect all of this together yet.
Nevertheless, to the degree he advances, inside his more corrected Kli or desire, he will understand how to translate things from one language to another. He can then use the language of Tanach or Halachot to explain the things written in the language of Sefirot. The language of stories is deeper, and therefore it is more difficult to explain things in it.
He can go from one language to another, from one expression to another. That’s because in essence he expresses his inner sensations or how thoughts and desires which used to be opposite now unite inside of him.
This is the only thing we express. I don’t need a language, letters, or anything! I have feelings (sensations in the desire) and the mind. Previously they were driven by hatred, whereas now I transfer them to unity and love. We do not have anything more than that. All that we do is reveal the disunity and the breaking, and by correcting them we attain the implementation of love.
However, it is possible to talk about this using words of four languages, and besides, instead of explaining it with words, it’s also possible to just feel it inside. That is why a person who attains spirituality doesn’t care what language it is written in. He shifts between languages since for him this is all the same thing.
It’s the same as how an experienced musician looking at notes hears the melody that these notes play inside of him, or how a professional chef looks at a recipe and already experiences the taste of the dish.
[35511]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, The Zohar
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Question: All of reality is the Light and the Kli, the Creator and the creation, myself and the neighbor. Then why does The Zohar seem so complicated and confusing?
Answer: The Zohar seems complicated and confusing to us because we haven’t attained the unified picture. To us, “myself” and “the world,” my desires and thoughts, the forces operating in this entire reality, and all the things filling it seem separated from one another, broken. Therefore, this force of the breaking gives me an extremely complicated and confusing picture. It’s all because I do not see it in unity and the division brings me confusion.
To the extent we can see all of these details of perception united together, not in our mind since that won’t help, but rather in our feelings, and to the degree we desire to connect all of these things together—me, the neighbor, the Creator, the studies, the group, the environment, and everything that exists—that is how much Light these efforts will bring me. The Light will in turn cause me to see a more unified picture, all of whose elements will start to slightly unite.
All wisdom comes from the unification of all these opposites which begin to support each other and be interconnected. The more distant and opposite all of these details of the picture of reality used to be, which I now see as united together, supporting and complementing one another, the deeper I attain the plan of creation, the program of creation, the process we go through.
From all these opposites I begin to live, to feel this incredible wisdom, to unite the upper governance into one, and to relate it to the single force. All of this happens as a result of the Light’s influence on my broken desires and thoughts when I want for the Light to connect them into one.
[35514]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/11, The Zohar
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Sixth Commandment,” Item 219, Lesson 1
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 80, Lesson 47
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 3
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Question: For thousands of years, the method of Kabbalah has been drafted by special people, Kabbalists. Today, we spread it among the masses. Aren’t we thereby losing the depth of this wisdom?
Answer: We definitely are. But we have to do it anyway. We are the ones through whom it flows to the others.
Your parents, for instance (with all due respect), were regular people, not holy saints. They brought you into this world and gave you an education at their level. We do the same.
Obviously, by spreading Kabbalah among the masses, we “corrupt” it. It is what we call lowering the spiritual degrees which descend from the world of Infinity. Nevertheless, we have no choice. Can a child receive an entire science all at once? No, we have to give him a simplified version, well adjusted to his level. No matter what I may explain, show, or feed him, everything has to fit his present state.
The model for it is the text of The Zohar for All. We took Baal HaSulam’s commentary on The Book of Zohar and removed all supplementary materials from it which are not related to the main idea. However, in fact, they are necessary as well. Baal HaSulam didn’t do anything in vain. Yet, at the present stage, it prevents us and, even more so, our vast audience from approaching The Zohar.
When I opened the first book in my life, I saw the words written in huge letters, “MOTHER, HOME, SUN.” So, we have to provide people with information they are able to digest. Later on, as they learn, they will ascend to the higher degrees.
The spiritual ladder does “corrupt” the upper Light which gets greatly reduced as it descends to the lower degrees. This is its nature since; otherwise, the lower ones wouldn’t be able to absorb even a drop of Light.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/11/2011, Writings of Rabash
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The Book of Zohar — Introduction: “The Fourth Commandment,” Item 213, Lesson 3
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Talmud Eser Sefirot 3, Part 8, Item 79, Lesson 46
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 2
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“Introduction of The Book of Zohar,” Article “The Fourth Commandment,” Item 212: It is written, “And let them be Me’orot [lights],” with the letters of Ohr [light] Mavet [death], since the Klipa follows the brain. The brain is light, and the other side is death….
When this light departs from there, the letters of separation, Mavet, unite. When not making the unification in the place of AVI, but in the place of ZON below, the light departs from there because AVI are promptly separated from their Zivug and the light stops. Then the word Ohr comes out of the word Me’orot and the letters of Mavet join. This is so because after the elicitation of the light from the word Me’orot, the word death remains there because the letters of Ohr have already departed from the word and they no longer separate the letters of Mavet.
This implies to the sin of that primordial serpent, which connected below in the place of ZON, and hence separated above for AVI because their Zivug stopped because of it and has brought death to the world.
From this we see how short the distance between life and death is, how instantly it turns life into death. Everything depends on whether or not a person discerns within himself the presence of the Creator. If the Creator is present and He is above, it is life, and if not, death.
[35298]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/2011, “Introduction of The Book of Zohar”
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Rav Yehuda Ashlag, “Introduction to the Book, Panim Meirot uMasbirot,” Lesson 1
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Question: How can we attain unity?
Answer: Unity means that according to all the desires of the Giver and the receiver, the two unite with one another like the guest and the Host in Baal HaSulam’s famous example.
The guest has nothing to give to the Host besides his attitude, provided that he develops the same attitude to the Host as the Host has to him. Meaning, we don’t take into consideration the fact that the guest uses his appetite, and the Host—his power. They are initially this way: one is the Creator, and the other is creation.
But if we remove these initial conditions, the fact that one is the Creator and the other is creation, since they have to attain total equality, then by what criterion can they be equal? According to their attitude, which they build without any connection to what existed before.
That is, we must ascend in the relationships between us so it wouldn’t matter that He is the Creator, He is primary, and He created me in the desire to enjoy and does anything He wants with me because all of this initially comes from Him, being the upper root. And it doesn’t matter that I, the creation, am unable to do anything more than that.
However, if He and I attain this state where we have absolutely equal opportunities, then out of our equal opportunities we desire to attain adhesion and unity. First of all, the Creator and creation have to attain the state where they are both completely equal and independent from one another—the creation from the Creator and the Creator from the creation.
Once we are equal and we have the opportunity to create any connection between us that each of us freely desires, we attain the state where we desire only love, unity, and adhesion between us.
As Baal HaSulam explains, the guest and the Host reach a state where they depend on one another in equal measure: the Host on the guest and the guest on the Host, like children and parents. Then the will to enjoy contained in creation and the will to bestow that the Creator has both harness one another and obligate each other. And even though on one hand the Creator is able to do anything, this does not indicate anything because He feels love for creation and this love limits Him, enabling Him to do only what love dictates, rather than everything He can do.
That means that the force of love is the force of restriction, the reverse force operating in the Creator. It does not let you do anything. You cannot destroy the person you love. Love rules.
Therefore, the condition of unity is equality—in opportunities, forces, abilities, and freedom of expression. Once the equality is there, then out of all of these opportunities we activate precisely the force of love and attain unity.
[35301]
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/11, The Zohar
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