Rabash, “What does it Mean, The Torah is Called the Middle Line in Work”: A person sees faces of people, but he should trust that the Creator stands and acts behind them.

Question: So is this how I should treat people whom I encounter during the day?

Answer: No, you should treat people as your society, time, and generation dictate so as to not look strange. In your outer behavior, you have to be like everybody else and act as is accepted in the society.

But if you are asking about the internality, if you wish to reveal the Creator, then behind every internal or external action you should see that everything comes from “there is none else beside Him.” However, this analysis is for your internal discernments and not for your open reaction.

There are two dimensions of our behavior: the material world and the inner, spiritual world. In the internal, spiritual dimension, I wish to uncover the inner force of nature, “there is none else beside Him” for it governs everything, myself included.

I will keep seeing this picture as I do until I complete my correction, until I truly see that there is no one but Him. And then, this world will ascend and enter the point called the Malchut of the World of Infinity.
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From Kabbalah for Beginners, “There is None Else Beside Him” 7/29/10

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Rabash, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”: And Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and cried out to the Creator.

First of all, we need to strive to correct the collective Kli, and then everything else will fall into place. Every day the Shechina once again becomes a virgin, and once again we need to turn her into a vessel. It is written in the Tractate Sanhedrin: “A woman enters a union only with the one who has made a vessel.”

Every day we rise again deprived of a connection to bestowal, the group, Shechina, the Creator. This is a natural and proper way: We keep discovering vessels, and this is why every new day begins with a blank sheet of paper. We need to continue by raising faith above reason, never expecting that the property of bestowal will become important for us on its own. Of course it loses its value, and it is a good thing.

I need to be prepared and rejoice in it, rejoice in the fact that I have not forgotten that I have the strength. After all, this is a sign of the influence of the group, which immediately gives me the ability to react to my state in a proper manner.

Reception is important to me, but I realize that I should value bestowal instead, which means that I must go above reason in order to increase the importance of bestowal. So I look for the force to rise above the egoistic calculations in the external means, not inside of me.

One must not wait until egoism realizes the importance of bestowal since it will never happen. Every day and every moment a person can resume the prayer turned towards the “wall” or Shechina, the group, and advance this way. If he were to test himself and evaluate his state according to the constant search for the true direction instead of his sensations within the egoistic desire, then his joy would be purposeful and would help him advance quickly.

Everything depends on how fast a person awakens for the proper prayer every coming moment. And this is determined only by how he has built his environment.

If the group gives him strength every time he falls, he adequately sees what is happening. The egoistic desire is boiling within him, but the Surrounding Lights that come through the group are influencing him from the outside.

Due to this, man always sees the importance of the goal and raises the proper prayer.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/13/10, “Hezekiah Turned His Face to the Wall”

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Question: How can I pass the Light of life to all parts of the system?

Answer: Do as Rabash instructs in his writings. Give everybody a feeling of joy, the greatness of the goal, connection between us, and be a model in work, that is, do all that we read about in the articles.

We should understand that the instructions that the Kabbalists put in the form of advice or recommendation are the strict laws of nature of which these great sages tell us as they would to little children, in a nice form. A child grows, turns into a teenager, matures, and enters adulthood where there aren’t any more compromises since the law is the law.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/10, "The Arvut"

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Rabash’s article “They Helped Everyone His Friend,” 1984 (the text in bold)

I am unable to advance without the help of the others since only through unity with them can I discover that the spiritual world is revealed in the connection between us. In our world, sometimes I need assistance from someone who is strong, rich, kind, or intelligent. Likewise, I need the help of a person equal and similar to me regarding the purpose of life.

We must understand how one can help his friend. Is this where there are rich and poor, wise and fools, weak and strong?

In our world, help is needed when there are disparities between people; that is where we discover an opportunity to help. If, however, people are equal, then there is no place for assistance. Help in our world extends from a whole person to the one who lacks.

When all are rich, smart, or strong, etc.? How can one help another?

Generally speaking, we are not excited if we have to turn to someone for help. We feel shame, pride, and envy. We don’t want to admit that we need something or depend on someone, and we strive for separation.

We see that there is one thing that is common to all: the spirit. It is said, “A concern in one’s heart, let him speak of it with others.” This is because with regard to feeling high-spirited, neither wealth nor erudition can be of assistance.

An uplifted mood is the result of confidence in the benevolent future. But if a person knows that he has to save himself and can’t do it alone, he falls into depression.

Rather, it is one person who can help another by seeing that one’s friend is low. It is written, “One does not deliver oneself from imprisonment.”

If the prison is our world, then only a friend who shares the same goal can free me from this prison and help me enter the Upper World.

Rather, it is one’s friend who can uplift his spirit (meaning, to give him confidence in reaching the goal). This means that one’s friend uplifts him from his state into a state of livelihood. Then one begins to acquire confidence and wealth once more in life, and he begins as though his goal is now near him.

I’m desperate because I can’t reach the spiritual goal without external help. I cannot force anyone, but I found a friend who is willing to help me. And he will be able to help me not by way of his knowledge or wealth, but by his desire to reach the common goal.

It turns out that each and every one must pay attention and think, how he can help his friend, uplift his spirit, because regarding one’s spirit, anyone can find a needy place in one’s friend, which he can fulfill.

It doesn’t mean that you have to entertain your friend. We must evoke in each friend a feeling that the goal is reachable. Then he will be filled with the spirit of life and rise above this corporeal life, above this world which looks like a prison to him. When a person has such a friend, he feels certain that he is able to break free from this prison.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/26/10, "“They Helped Everyone His Friend”

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Rabash, Article 37, 1984/85 "Who Testifies For Man":  In the degree that a man stepped out of self love he may be rewarded with absolute faith.

Question: What is absolute faith?

Answer: This passage talks about a very high spiritual degree or the process of building the middle line. After the preparation period, we arrive at the state of partial faith (Hafetz Hesed). During this stage, I focus solely on rising above a constantly growing mountain of egoistic desire. Time after time, ascending over it, I turn the transgressions and mistakes of the previous step into the mistakes and merits, accordingly. In doing so, I become an incomplete righteous.

Afterward, I ascend to the degree of love and turn everything into merits. This is what we call absolute or perfect faith, which is divided into degrees as well. “Faith” is the Light of Hassadim, which expands into the Kli, and “perfect faith” is Hassadim with the illumination of Hochma. Perfection is attained solely due to the Light of Hochma when it is able to fill the Light of Hassadim.

At this stage, I work in two lines and realize the third line by receiving for bestowal. When I fill the will to receive and the will to bestow, the perfect faith emerges in me: Hochma in Hassadim.

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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/21/10, “Who Testifies for Man”

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Question: Why is having a group so important for the study of Kabbalah?

Answer: The role of the Kabbalistic group is similar to that of family, friends, relatives, social security, and medical insurance in our life. If I’m in a tough situation, fall ill, or lose my job, there is a system that helps me in that weak moment.

This system of mutual support in spiritual development is called "mutual guarantee" (Arvut). The speed and ease of our advancement toward the goal – the revelation of the Creator – depend upon the strength of this system. It influences everyone, and its strength accumulates as a result of our common efforts.

Rabash writes: “We have gathered here to establish a society for all who wish to climb the degrees of man (Adam), and not remain as a beast.” When we make a joint decision to follow the method of Baal HaSulam, rise above our egoism, and reveal the Creator in the connection between us, we are already making an agreement.

We have to help each other to value the greatness of the goal and the Creator, seeing all the friends as the greatest in the generation, inspiring them with the greatness of the spiritual goal, and realizing our own insignificance. I guarantee to the friends that I will help with this, regardless of what state I am in. These are conditions of our agreement.

Following this, there can be two states:
1. Either I support the group in inspiration, power, unity, and the greatness of the Creator,
2. Or as soon as I become weak, they begin caring for me.

It’s like two communicating vessels. The moment a drop of water is removed from one of them, the water immediately flows into it from the other one, and the water levels always even out in them. The width or volume of each vessel does not matter: If they are connected, the water level will be the same in both.

This is how we are connected in the group. They give me strength, and I give strength to them. It’s impossible to advance without such a mutual guarantee.
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From the Lesson on Rabash’s Article, 9/17/10

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Question: How was Rabash able to describe the states that a person goes through?

Answer: This is the path of every soul. It’s just that the soul of Rabash was granted the ability to write about this.

In the past, souls went through the same states and attained even higher levels. In the Torah, Moses described the entire path with all of its details, you just don’t see them.

Then Rabash came and brought the explanations to a lower level, expressing them in a language we understand – the language of feelings. Baal HaSulam also describes the same states, but using the language of Light and desire, two forces.

The human body reacts to different substances. One of them makes me excited, another calms me down, and yet another makes me feel happy. Here, too, we are talking about spiritual components that awaken you. First and foremost, it is feelings, which are then ordered, measured, and systematized according to the laws of interaction between the Lights and vessels.

Rabash writes about the things present in spiritual life, similar to how you would describe your breakfast: half a tomato, a quarter of a cucumber, bread, cheese, butter, coffee with sugar, and so on. When people hear about this, they feel the same thing you felt.

The difference is that the spiritual description is experienced much more deeply and in more detail: exactly what kind of cheese, what kind of milk was it produced from, what kind of cow did it come from, who made it, who sold it, what kind of knife was used to cut it, what kind of knife was used to spread it onto the bread, and so on. You understand all of this.

But most importantly, inside all of this, you reveal the importance of the Giver. All of these components help you to attain Him. This is the revelation of the Creator to creation.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/20/10, “The Greatness of a Person Depends on His Faith in the Future”

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Question: Rabash writes that the Creator “hears the prayer of every mouth.” But you say that the prayer has to be internal. So what prayer does He hear?

Answer: A prayer is a desire that actually reaches the Creator. There are only two forces in the world: the forces of reception (attraction) and bestowal (rejection). And there is a law of the equivalence of form: In the degree of their similarity, the forces (objects) grow closer, and in the degree of their difference, they grow apart.

Since the Creator is an absolute will to bestow, He “expects” from us equivalence with Him, where the will to receive would desire to become similar to Him and also become the force of bestowal. To ensure this, He placed His spark, “the point in the heart,” the initial point of the quality of bestowal, into the will to receive, our nature. And we must cultivate it.

The Creator responds only to a prayer for this. All other kinds of prayers don’t reach Him. The Creator hears the prayer of everybody who is asking for the force of bestowal. The Creator is the law of bestowal, so he reacts to no pleas but those asking for the ability to bestow. And if we don’t ask for it, He sends us even greater suffering so that we may realize for what we should be asking.
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From the Lesson on Rabash’s Article, 9/17/10

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Question: Please tell us, how can we advance by the path and method of Baal HaSulam in order to attain the goal as quickly as possible?

Answer: Overall we have already studied Baal HaSulam’s method and everything he wrote. We just have to actualize it. We have merited to be acquainted with this person, this soul, and his life’s work. We live with his thoughts, inside the "building" he has built. The science of Kabbalah develops because the souls develop. More and more souls are reaching the final stage of correction and are coming closer to realizing themselves.

The final exile is over and we are now the first to go from the final exile to the full redemption, the revelation of the Creator. To do this, we really need support, help, a great Light, and the teaching that Baal HaSulam left to us. We see how much it helps us to use it, and when we follow his method to the letter, we achieve success and awaken the Light that Reforms.

For now the Light influences us in a concealed manner and the results are not very visible on the outside. However, day by day this force grows, becoming more noticeable and perceptible. I really hope that we will soon start to feel what we read and to feel the same forms, qualities, and images inside us.

All of the pictures we read about in The Book of Zohar and Talmud Eser Sefirot will enter us and we will see that it is all a movie! Right now our desires depict the picture of this world for us, and likewise, later on our desires (which will be desires of bestowal) will depict the picture of a second nature, the Upper World. Then we will understand what Baal HaSulam did for us!

He writes that in reality people begin studying the Torah only after they reveal spiritual attainment. When you reveal pictures of the world to come, you have to know what all of this is for! It’s like a baby who needs adults. Then you will feel that Baal HaSulam and Rabash take care of you, like a baby, by explaining this entire world to you.

With their help you start going deeper and deeper into it, understanding it better and making some independent actions. You are more inspired each time, while these great teachers are by your side, always taking care of you and supporting you at every moment through every step of the way.

We have yet to see how great the enterprise that Baal HaSulam created is and to realize how great the preparations he made are. He built the "kindergarten," the "school," and the whole "university" of spiritual life. He prepared all of this for us. If not for him, no Kabbalistic school could help us. Others can only add something to the revelation that we make by the method of Baal HaSulam as we attain the spiritual world.

I really hope that we will reach this revelation and then we will begin to attain how truly great he is and his love for us. After that, we will be able to communicate on another level and understand each other. I really hope to meet you in the world of truth, where we will be able to discuss everything taking place, look at things from a true perspective, and understand each other.

We are doing all of this together with Rabash and Baal HaSulam. They are helping us, and you will feel how they always support us, surrounding us with care. Let’s try to be worthy of them!

From the talk at the meal in honor of Baal HaSulam’s Passing Day 9/18/10

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Baal HaSulam says that only by uniting in the group is it possible to unite with the Light. Otherwise, the Light does not "perceive" us since we need to become similar to it. And when we unite together, we are like a plug that enters an outlet due to the exact opposite equivalence of form. The Light can already influence us in all the empty spaces within us and correct them by making them similar to it according to our desire during the studies.

In order to organize the right form of studying the articles of Baal HaSulam, his elder son, Rabash, created a method of connection to the writings of his father. If we use it, we can be sure that we will realize everything correctly.

We shouldn’t forget that all the Kabbalists talk about the need for a group in which we implement this method and make ourselves similar to the Light. A person is unable to do this alone. Even if one exists at a great spiritual height, he will be unable to rise further or even remain at the degree that he achieved without unification. Even if he has already reached the 124th degree, he will be unable to rise to the final, 125th degree if he works alone.

Remember the story of Rabbi Yosi Ben Kisma who said that if he were to leave his students, he would be unable to advance and would lose the level that he already possessed. The fact that they were small and he was their teacher was irrelevant; what was important is that they were together.

If there is unification, there is equivalence to the Light. Without unification, there is no equivalence. This is a completely mandatory condition.

From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/16/10, Lesson for Commemoration of Baal HaSulam’s Passing Day

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