The Group: The Addition Of Hue And Volume

Writings of Rabash, “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”: It makes no difference if the friend is slandering him and must certainly hate him. Instead, a person who wishes to acquire love of others, that person needs the correction of loving the other.

Therefore, when a person makes the effort and judges him to a scale of merit, it is aSegula [remedy/power/virtue], where by the toil that a person makes, which is called “an awakening from below,” he is given strength from above to be able to love all the friends without exception.

Question: In our reality we always need to cooperate, to help each other. Say, if I want to buy a car from someone, that person needs to agree to this. But here it turns out that if a friend hates me, I don’t need his participation, his work—I can nevertheless reach love of the other if I myself want it….

Answer: That is all correct since my shattered vessel is entirely in the hands of the Creator. In our world we close the deal between us. But if I want to change myself regarding the Creator, then I am having my business with Him and not the world. So for me the world is an indicator, a criterion, of the situation and nothing beyond that. I depend on the Creator who gives me a particular picture by allowing me to understand and feel that the world changes if I change myself and that everything depends on the “observer.” Therefore, it’s up to me to turn to the Creator: He helps me by pouring a bit more of the upper Light, and then I change.

It may be that I ask for something from the friends, but only if I understand that they are also under the control of the Creator. In this case, when I turn to them, I am also turning to Him.

After all, turning directly to the Creator is still an abstraction to me, which I cannot hold on to, even though when working with the friends I need to hold Him within, inside my heart, as well. On the other hand, within the group I am overwhelmed with thoughts, desires, and emotions. Here I pass through an infinite chain of states; I feel anger, hatred, jealousy, craving, honor, control, and ecstasy…. Relative to this diversity, the relationship with the Creator seems pointless, pale, and colorless, and still evokes no sensations.

It’s logical that thanks to the group I acquire the possibility of working on the corporeal level of this world, that I have a multitude of sensations and hues of perception, which assemble into different forms and images. The “physical world” is just a concept, while essentially, we are talking about the same spiritual forces, it’s just that here they acquire volume and intensity in my eyes, being arranged on the scale from the monstrous to the beautiful.

All of it influences me instead of the direct spiritual influence, and for this reason I am able to work with the friends mutually, understanding that these are actually the Creator’s powers. Kabbalists teach us to see Him behind each friend and also behind the entire world. As a result of the cooperation I calibrate and correct myself, turning for help. There is someone whom I love and someone else whom I hate, someone whom I see this way or another. Why? Is this because it’s good for my ego? Or that by changing my relationship to the friends I can bestow to them and through them to the Creator, since truly there is none else besides Him.

Therefore here, in the framework of this picture, I have the possibility of utilizing myself correctly—so as to be in the process of correction all the time. While doing so, I correct myself, and for the others I can only provide explanations as a teacher or recommendations as a friend, no more than this. Our main work is self-correction.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/13, Writings of Rabash