In the article “The Purpose of Society,” Rabash writes that man is born as loving only himself, and hence he can’t make the tiniest move without serving himself. Yet without renouncing egoistical love in us, it is impossible to reach the adhesion with the Creator, the equivalence of His properties.

Therefore, the group is necessary for in it the desires and strengths of each add to one another. Everyone is then able to use this immense common force in order to renounce the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose he is born for. This group must consist of people who have a common purpose. Then together, they will comprise one huge force that enables each of them to struggle with himself.

In order to receive the collective power from the group, everyone must contribute his strength to it and renounce himself, that is, only see his friends’ strengths instead of their weaknesses. If he considers himself just a little higher than them, he cannot unite with them, bring in his force, and receive the collective one.

Plan

1. Human nature – love of self.
2. The purpose of creation – adhesion with the Creator through the equivalence of properties with Him.
3. It is impossible to fulfill the purpose of the creation on one’s own, but only within the group and through its power.
4. In the group, all must be equal in the purpose, means, and one’s own annulment. Annulment is only possible by exalting the friends.
5. The greatness of the environment is reached in words and actions.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of Society”

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Man is born loving only himself. This is our nature, and we can’t do anything about it. We always live inside it and cannot step out of it. All our actions are only for our own sake; otherwise, it is impossible to move forward. Therefore, I need a foreign force which would act against my nature and change it.

All my thinking and energy keep working for the purpose of filling and comforting myself. But there is one point in me that is pushing me to step outside of my nature, rise from the animate level, and reach the Creator, that is, to attain the human level. Only this point in me belongs to the human level, the level of the Creator since “man” is similar to the Creator.

I belong to the material world entirely, but this one point in me belongs to the spiritual one. If it doesn’t awaken, a human being lives solely in this world and doesn’t suspect anything more; he is satisfied with this materialistic life. If, however, this point is awakened in his heart, he feels uncomfortable in this world and strives to rise from it. He is influenced by two forces: One pushes him from behind out of the material world, and the other pulls him from the front, from the spiritual world.

Without renouncing oneself (one’s egoism) and rising above one’s nature, it is impossible to reach adhesion with the Creator. I have to decide which nature I wish to be related to: to the nature of the Creator or that of the creature, that is, to choose bestowal or reception.

Since giving is opposite to our nature, there is only one means to move from the material to the spiritual: a Kabbalistic group. The group has immense power because we work together and everyone annuls the egoistical desire that prevents him from fulfilling the purpose for which man is born. The purpose is to become similar to the Creator. The Creator is the force of bestowal, love, and annulment of self. This is why I need the group as an external foreign force that works as a lever which allows me to turn my nature around.

In order for this force to be great and invigorating, the group must be united and strong within itself and burn with the desire to fulfill the spiritual purpose. Then, everyone in it can use this power and step out of the enslavement of egoistic love.

From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/10, Article “The Purpose of the Association –2”

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A question I received: The whole nation existed in spiritual attainment during the First and the Second Temples. Why wasn’t it possible to go through the destruction of the Temples only in spirituality and to reach the Third Temple without the material manifestation of destruction?

My Answer: All descents and ascents of the souls have to be reflected on the lowest inanimate level – our world. Up until the end of correction, ups and downs of the souls have to go through all layers of the desire to receive, through its entire depth, ending in this material world.

Therefore, we have no possibility to escape events that occur in this world, meaning in our egoistic desire which we feel as “this world.” Our big or not so big successes in the spiritual world, in our relations with the Creator, will always be felt as events happening in this world.

It is impossible to separate occurrences in the spiritual and material worlds because they are the same. A desire to receive with its different layers of Aviut (coarseness) covers the entire depth from this world to the World of Infinity.

A person who is at the bottom of the spiritual ladder raises his MAN to the World of Infinity. Thereby he determines the Light which descends from the uppermost level through all layers (worlds) of the desire to receive pleasure to his rung and further below. When a person exists somewhere in the middle of the spiritual ladder, the entirety of the Aviut of the desire below him is included in his MAN. Then the Light that comes as a response to the prayer goes through a person and spreads out further below to the very end. This is why every person has an impact on the entire thickness of Malchut of the World of Infinity.

From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/10, The Zohar

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What did the Kabbalists of the past prepare for us? They built the system that connects all of the broken souls with the Light of Infinity. They joined their corrected souls with a net that is reminiscent of  a fishnet. Through it, they pass the Light on to us, lowering it to our level.

If, by reading The Zohar, we attune ourselves to the reception of the Light of Infinity, it descends upon us. If not for the Kabbalists of the past generations, this net of Light we can connect to, would not exist. There would be only simple abstract Upper Light.

However, the Kabbalists performed the corrections by creating the web of connections among their souls. This way, they built the entire system of weakening and adapting the Lights, as well as passing them down toward us, degree after the degree, generation after generation. This makes the Light fit for our souls.

We can help the Kabbalists of the past by raising upward our prayer, MAN, our desire, in response to which the Surrounding Light (Ohr Makif) that Reforms comes to us from Above. The prayer is born as the result of the recognition of evil, as it is said, “I created the evil inclination and Torah (the Light) for its correction.”

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A question I received: Why is it that in spirituality men need to go through circumcision (Brit Mila) even though men embody the quality of bestowal in the spiritual world and not women who correspond to the quality of reception?

My Answer: Indeed, if we’re talking about Malchut’s correction, it follows that it is the female (receiving) part that should be corrected. So, why is it that the correction (circumcision of three impure desires or Klipot) is done in Zeir Anpin which is the symbol of male qualities?

Before the End of Correction, my intention to bestow only applies to the desires above Tzimzum Bet (Second Restriction). These are the desires connected to the qualities of Bina while all the other desires still can’t be corrected. For this reason, they are cut off from use and become usable again only at the End of Correction.

The intention to bestow within me is called “man” and desire is called “woman.” This intention to bestow is called Zeir Anpin, man, or “overcoming.” I see how I need to arrange and cut off this intention and I see which form of bestowal to apply to make it suitable for the Creator. Malchut, the receiving part within me, is without form. However, the “bestowing” part in me must be given form, specifically to the extent of and depending on what I am willing to bestow. Then, I realize that I’m unable to work with my intentions and that my screen doesn’t cover the full depths of Malchut. It follows that I must reduce my intentions to some degree.

The part within my soul called “man” is the intention to bestow in my soul. It is this part that the circumcision applies to. We’re not talking about anything external; this is my inner “bestower” whose form must correspond to the Creator. That’s why I perform this correction of Brit Mila, meaning I restrict myself in the usage of certain parts of Malchut, and thereby advance in the spiritual world. Accordingly, this is why this commandment doesn’t pertain to “women.”

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHukotai (In My Statutes),” Item 24: …This is so because justice is neither corrected nor completed but in righteousness, as it is written, “In righteousness shall you be established.” This is said to the assembly of Israel, Malchut, which is completed only in righteousness, as it is written, “And do them,” which is done by the awakening of the lower one.

What do MAN, appeal, tears, charity, “gates of tears,” and prayer mean? It all means that I want to become like the Creator. It is only under the condition that being like the Creator is the only thing I ask for, that I will awaken Zeir Anpin, so that He influences Malchut.

Only when the lower wants to become like the Upper, can the Upper influence him and lift him to the next degree giving him strength and understanding of what it means to be the Upper. After all, what else can the Upper give? The Creator only has perfection, and He can only pass the degrees of this perfection to us, gradually and according to the state that we are in.

This is why we have nothing to ask of the Creator except for the opportunity to gradually become like Him, where every time our qualities become equal to a greater degree. He has nothing to give us besides our correction. We would really like to become like Him; this is our connection with the Creator.

Therefore, this is why all the other cries and tears that we shed in this world do not lead to anything. Looking back at history we can see that it does not help. The only thing that works immediately is when I attain the “switching point.” Beginning with this point, which is that I want to be like the Creator, when I determine precisely who He is, what He represents, what I lack, what I really need to strive to, and when I make my desire into a desire like the one He has – this is what is called the beggar’s prayer, tears, the gates of tears and charity.

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The Zohar, Chapter “Chayei Sarah (The Life of Sarah),” Item 155: …Every Guf [body] fell under the authority of Sam, Esau’s minister, during the sin of the tree of knowledge, from which the Guf was sentenced to death. This dominion is the filth of the serpent, which is not removed from the Guf before it decays in the grave….

The desire to receive pleasure called “body” is my ego, the enormous desire for pleasures for my own benefit. It has to die before my eyes, be buried, and decay. In my life I have to come to such a state when “death is better than such a life,” when I know for sure that I have nothing and never will have anything from this earthly life. I have everything, but I don’t have any purpose in my life or any goal for which it would make sense to live.

This is exactly what is happening now. People have everything compared to those who lived a thousand years ago. They have a place to live, food, and prosperity. Who lived in such conditions in the past? Perhaps, just kings.

Today we have everything, yet we have to take antidepressants and visit our personal therapists twice a week. This is telling us that people are revealing the inability to fulfill themselves. Apparently our body is satisfied at the material or animal level while at the same time, the human being within us is revealing himself, and he is empty. This is indicative of “the body decaying in the grave.”

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Kabbalists tell us that man is an integral part of nature and is entirely governed by it. Hence, within the parameters of our world, we should not place emphasis on people’s outer actions or regard them as “causes” because all the actions in this world are actually effects or consequences of the forces that govern our lives.

The only true independence for a person is found in spiritual ascent, which occurs through the process of acquiring the quality of bestowal and love. This means acquiring similarity to the Creator, which is achieved through the Kabbalistic methodology of attracting the Upper Ruling Force, also called the “Surrounding Light.”  In other words, we do not have the power to achieve it on our own, but only with the Creator’s help and His Light.

Historic examples demonstrate how nature governs a human being and society as a whole by modifying the environment. For example, during the last glacial period (the minor ice age, 1650 – 1720 CE) when as a result of diminished solar activity all of Europe was seized by ice, multiple revolutions and riots resulted. This phenomenon took place in many parts of the world simultaneously. Yet, the truth of the matter is that only the human desire for self-improvement is capable of causing such a strong response from nature on the physical, earthly level, thereby creating adequate conditions to further our personal and social development.

Hence, only our inner progress and outer dissemination of Kabbalah (the method of correction) is capable of making society realize that not only does worldly self-improvement not work, but true improvement becomes possible only by means of involving the forces of the nature – the  Creator and His Surrounding Light.

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The Zohar, Chapter “BeHaalotcha (When You Mount the Candles),” Item 13: How pleasant are the words of Torah, for in each and every word are sublime secrets, and the whole Torah is called “superior.” We learned that the thirteen qualities in the Torah, meaning everything that was a part and then stopped being a part, did not stop so as to point to itself. Rather, it parted so as to teach about the whole….

In our world, we can utilize analysis and synthesis to divide the whole into separate parts and study each part separately. However, the spiritual world is like a holographic picture where each part contains the entire universe, acting as a single part only with respect to the individual. Therefore, we must always strive for the general.

Even when we attain a small part, we must understand that it contains everything. Spiritual attainment always alludes to the general, to the place of the quality studied in the general system. Without studying the general, it is impossible to study the particular.

In his article, “The Future Generation,” Baal HaSulam writes that we must create first a virtual state of Kabbalah and then a material one, which would contain all the parts of the future structure of the world – a miniature whole. Accordingly, even our internet site must be structured like a complete, whole state of Kabbalah, including everything necessary for the generation of the era of correction to communicate with one another.

This will be a small part of a new reality, but it will be absolutely whole, without a single detail forgotten. Indeed, it will only be a part of reality with respect to us while we remain uncorrected. But as we correct ourselves, this part will swallow up the entire world and all of reality, and the whole universe will come inside of it. We will have nothing left to add to it. After all, in the spiritual world every part includes the general, and only our incorrect view regards it as a part, for we are incapable of grasping the whole. But we must always understand that before us lies infinity.

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Inside of me I wish to see the Creator and all the parts of my soul: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Daat, Hesed, Gevurah, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod, Malchut, and their connections with each other. These qualities can also be called Abraham, Isaac, Esau, Ishmael, Jacob and the 12 brothers (Jacob’s sons), Josef, David, and Solomon. And from all sides, they are clothed by good and evil forces such as Job, Pharaoh, and so on.

We need to imagine this spiritual body not just as three lines, but as multidimensional. It’s similar to how the human body contains a multitude of various systems: the lymphatic system, the nervous system, the circulatory system, and many others which we don’t even know about. And in addition, there are energies, liquids, and chemical substances flowing through them. The spiritual body contains even more components and connections because each of its sections has different qualities, different kinds of connections, and different forms on all the various levels.

We are incapable of learning this until we actually feel it. Anyone who thinks he can learn it is a fool. We only need to desire to exist inside this integral system, all of which works for the sake of bestowal. In that system, we will find the Creator and the creation; in fact, everything is within it. We must look at it according to the principle, “A human being is a small world.”

However, we are not talking about our world and the physical bodies. A “human being” is me, and “a small world” is The Book of Zohar and its story.

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