The Incubator Of Immortality

Rabash, “A Prayer of Many”: With that, we can interpret the words of the holy Zohar, which advises those people with an inner demand, who cannot accept the state they are in because they do not see any progress in the work of God, and believe what is written (Deuteronomy 30:20), “To love the Lord your God, to listen to His voice, and to cleave unto Him; for this is your life and the length of your days.” They see that they lack love and Dvekut[adhesion/cleaving] and they do not feel the life in the Torah or know how to find counsel for their souls to come to feel in their organs that which the text tells us.

The advice is to ask for the whole collective. In other words, everything that one feels that he is lacking and asks fulfillment for, he should not say that he is an exception, meaning that he deserves more than what the collective has. Rather, “I dwell among my own people,” meaning I am asking for the entire collective because I wish to come to a state where I will have no care for myself whatsoever, but only for the Creator to have contentment. Therefore, it makes no difference to me if the Creator takes pleasure in me or can receive the pleasure from others.

In other words, he asks of the Creator to give us such an understanding, which is called, “entirely for the Creator.” It means that he will be certain that he is not deceiving himself that he wants to bestow upon the Creator, that perhaps he is really thinking only of his own self-love, meaning that he will feel the delight and pleasure. Therefore, he prays for the collective.

A person begins to search for the meaning of life above the ordinary, earthly interests: food, sex, family, money, fame, knowledge. He does not even wait until the final outcome of his earthly quest to become aware of its worthlessness, but believes the opinion of the environment under which influence he develops. And if society has already verified these values and become disenchanted in them, then a person does not need to check them; he immediately switches from these earthly goals to the next, higher goals.

So, he begins to question, “What’s the meaning of life? For what do we live? Is there any reason to continue living except for the animal fear of death? Will this life came to nothing, or might it be an opportunity to continue to exist for some eternal purpose?”

All these questions lead him to the wisdom of Kabbalah if he is lucky. Besides it, nothing can give him the answer, and if humanity keeps on developing and judging itself, then its condition will not be enviable. It will not find an answer anywhere else. This is why the use of drugs is on the rise. What can those millions who are unemployed do while at the same time are wondering about the meaning of life? They are pushed on both sides, despairing because life leaves them no opportunities to enjoy it and because they refuse in advance to look for those opportunities that according to general opinion bring no contentment.

But the person in whom this true question about the meaning of life has been awakened, which is related to the spiritual quest that is beyond the usual householder’s interests in food, sex, family, money, fame, and knowledge, he must find the answer to this question. That is, he wants to look beyond this life into its root to understand where it comes from, who controls it, where it flows, and to what form of existence it is intended to lead us.

These people who are involved in finding the root of this life gather into a special “active” society. They not only develop due to their environment, but also develop it themselves. That is, they join the environment to do mutual work, becoming an incubator that accelerates a person’s development and points him in a certain direction. A human being seemingly does not want to rely on what nature allows him to harvest in a natural way (eggs, chicken, meat, grains, fruits, and vegetables) but creates favorable conditions artificially, meaning he builds an artificial environment. And then he can approximately know what produce he will get.

He can adjust the temperature in the incubator to get more eggs and the humidity in a greenhouse to get a larger harvest. In the same way, he can create a favorable environment in which to grow himself. Affecting the environment, he can regulate the direction of his development and its final goals. For many generations, we have taken the Kabbalists’ advice to speed up our development through a specific environment, without waiting until all of humanity comes to the same understanding albeit by the path of earthly suffering.

In this specific society there are principles, “Each shall help the other” and “God dwells among His people.” This means that it’s possible to establish a connection with theCreator only through connection with the environment that will direct us to the Creator. This society is built on the basis of equality and unity, mutual guarantee, as one man with one heart. And then within that unified heart, we will reveal the Creator.

That is why, all our work is to adjust ourselves correctly, like a musical instrument, so that it’s not out of tune but seeks the Creator truly. If we come together with this goal and there is the Reflected Light between us, meaning an altruistic attitude, mutual guarantee, concern for each other building to love, then inside it we reveal the force of the Creator to the extent of the strength of this connection. Thus, we go through 125 degrees from the very first, initial connection to complete unity with each other.

Thus, we adjust our vessel to the sensation of the Creator and begin to feel Him inside ourselves. The Direct Light is revealed in the Surrounding Light, giving us a sensation of life in the upper world: in the field of the force of bestowal instead of the force of reception. And the only thing that is required is to correct one’s vessel that will lead us to corrected relations.
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From the Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/31/13

The Power To Stand Against The Whole World’s Opinion

The group needs to be so strong that it can support a person and help him stand against the different opinions of the entire world, which inevitably reach him by penetrating him from everywhere, by all possible means, even by just being in the air.Therefore, he has to be under the influence of his group 24 hours a day, and it should be at least a bit stronger than the influence of the rest of the world. This is essential in order to nullify the corporeal influence of this world and its corporeal goals.

Besides, the environment has to impress a person with regard to the greatness and the importance of the spiritual goal, as opposed to a person’s own evil inclination. The society should be strong enough for that, and a person should submit himself before it and raise it in order to receive its influence as bestowal. It is only by the power that he receives from the environment that he can ascend.

Thus, it is clear what type of work a person must do and how the society should work on him. Otherwise, a person has no chance of ascending since only through the group does he receive the power to rise.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

An Exercise That Changes A Person

Question: When we speak about the integral network, we are speaking about connections. What are the objects between which this connection is realized?

Answer: First of all, it’s a person since he must attain the state of integrality for himself by striving for it rationally and wisely, by gradually creating it. Together with this, he needs to use the society, even though it still is uncorrected, but is trying to correct itself. Here a very interesting exercise exists. And afterwards, man’s attitude towards the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature is naturally added to the integral society that gradually progresses and corrects itself.

In what way can we get closer to this integral society and use it? Since it doesn’t exist outside of us, we need to create it ourselves.

Thus, when we play in this integral society, when we imagine to ourselves that as if we already exist in it, when we try to unite between us and create a network of mutual relations, then through this game, we invite upon ourselves the general integral force of nature. It operates and influences our attempts: The society or part of it that tries to play in the integral society receives specifically this force. We do this like children who through this try to be grown ups and thus invite upon themselves the bestowal of the upper force, the general integral force of nature. In this way, we invite upon ourselves its influence and change.
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From KabTV’s “ Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/14/13

The Power Of Unity

Question: When the integral network is fully connected and all are 100% included in each other, when it has the support of a higher level of nature, then nobody can influence it negatively. But we are talking about a system. How can there be a complex system that nobody can influence externally?

Answer: Everything depends on the quantity and quality of the people who are linked in integral unity. We are not talking about a forceful, destructive influence or about the physical annihilation of the body that happens during a war, for example, that is something else. We are talking about ideology, about an inner connection between us. In this case, all external influences that aren’t integral cannot influence us. They can only help our integration into a stronger, higher society.

For example, if birds or fish are joined together they can defend themselves from predators. Why won’t any predator attack a school of fish that moves as a unit? How can this be? Is the predator afraid of them? Paradoxically they pass him by or he passes them by, and nothing happens. Try to examine the phenomenon and connect it to human society. I think that there are many historical facts about this subject.

Unity causes the appearance of a new, higher power, and I would say that people who are united even have a particular luck that maintains, helps, and heals them. This is how it’s arranged by nature.

But an aspiration towards unity in every circumstance exists only between us humans, the egoists, and therefore it’s carried out in a very painful way. We are constantly colliding, “exploding” like stars, connecting and dispersing again and again. Ultimately, whether we want it or not, we are creating around us or within us a more and more compact system of connection.

We see that the world has become enormous. All of humanity has scattered throughout the world, and on the other hand, it aspires to connection. Therefore it doesn’t matter how much people want to get away from each other, this is the opposite side of unity among them. This will lead us towards unity anyway. And this is a paradox!

Question: But often we have gotten together to do something bad. What leads to that type of unity?

Answer: There exist two levels of unity: virtual, integral, and nationalistic, individual. Therefore if we explore each case on a nationalistic level, we need to describe how this comes to be reflected on an integral level.

If on a nationalistic level there are clashes between us and we are found in difficult situations of conflict, this is not saying that the integral level is damaged. On the contrary, it could be that this proves its necessity. For example, we come to blows. What is the benefit? And if we unite, perhaps we will attain mutual benefit from this.

That is, what we see with our eyes is not the whole picture. You see, there is evolution and the laws of nature according to which we develop; they lead us towards unity, even though this is to happiness “by the rod.”

Question: So then is it better for us to unite for something bad than to be divided, but not by good deeds?

Answer: The person measures his short life according to its happy parts, and if he speaks about the problems, as is understood they are rejected. Come let’s think about how to reach a good state through a good condition.
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From KabTV’s  “Wisdom of Crowds” 5/14/13

We Need To Think About The Future!

Question: The years 2008 through 2009 showed the world stumbling into a crisis, the like of which had not been seen until now, and it was clear that those practices and methods that had worked in the past don’t work now. Independent observers, economists, speak about this more and more. We are entering a new kind of era. Where are we going and why doesn’t what worked before, work now?

Answer: Ten years ago, there already were some people in the world who understood that a crisis had begun.

If we look at the past from a greater distance, from the second half of the last century, representatives of the Club of Rome began to speak about an end to the egoistic development of humanity. Their view was based on this: The earth had completed its task, all of its resources were no longer being renewed, and this could not continue. We need to think about our children and in addition, about their descendants.

After this, ecologists took the stage to protect the ecological condition of the earth and claiming that it is impossible to continue this kind of contamination. The oceans and the air are polluted, trees are cut down, etc. It follows that we are not just depleting the contents of the earth, but are polluting it with industrial wastes so that for hundreds and even thousands of years this will remain the primary condition. The earth cannot process it, and it will not go away.

For example, the problem of plastic is an immense problem that doesn’t seem to have any solution. It cannot be so easy to live like this in the present, for although we think that humanity is wise, it is necessary in spite of it all to consider the future!

Why do we behave like this? After all, ultimately nobody will profit from this. We see that this only adds “green paper” to particular bank accounts, but  generally, nobody gets anything.

Gradually, the crisis has passed into a parallel form. It began with the development of a crisis in the family. The number of divorces reached 50%, then there was a crisis in science. People stopped continuing with it, and most space programs have closed. The crisis between fathers and sons began to gain momentum. Humanity is on drugs,depressed, suicidal, and in complete chaos.

Ultimately, we came to a financial and economic crisis. We confuse these two crises, linking them together, but basically, this is not so important. What is important is that all of the crises are crises of mutual relationships between us. The most recent financial crisis particularly revealed the deterioration of the irrational and egoistic relationships between humans, for finance is that system through which we are linked.

If not for the present system of buying and selling, if we didn’t need to profit from each other, people would not be interconnected. Therefore, the financial crisis is the last in a long chain of crises about which we can do nothing except uncover all the defects and flaws of modern society.

Moreover, society had to reach them. Throughout all of the history of humanity, we acted according to our nature. An ego that constantly grew evolved from generation to generation, so humanity developed evolutionarily. This doesn’t exist in the plant world or in the animal world, only in humans.

Therefore, we are found in what is called progress all the time; it is only conditionally called progress. Now, we have finally reached awareness that we are found in a deep crisis, but what else can be done and what is its nature? Humanity has not yet decided definitively. We are standing at that point.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Call The Light

Question: I cannot manage to locate the starting point that doesn’t serve my ego that will enable me to rise above it. Everything that is in me, even this question, is a result of my pride, so what can I do?

Answer: Cry.

Question: But I can’t cry.

Answer: So, you should cry out. Of course, you have no powers and you even feel that you are a bit corrupt, so, you are not really alarmed by it since it doesn’t look so bad. It means that you still are lacking many discernments by which you can be drawn to the goal, by which you are repulsed by the current state and exit it.

So, cry and cry out and ask to do everything that is in your power. If you cannot even do that, then you still have the environment to which you can turn to. Turn to the friends.

If you have no power to do even that, then at least be somewhat incorporated in them. A person must take certain actions and he is given a chance to do so.

Question: The envy I feel toward the friends really works but it doesn’t bring me to the desired point yet. Therefore, no matter how hard I cry out, my cries will only be egoistic.

Answer: It doesn’t matter; they still help. The Surrounding Light responds to egoistic cries. Therefore, it is the Surrounding Light and not the Direct Light and not the Inner Light, and so you operate it even by egoistic cries. So, cry out. Call out and it will awaken in response to that.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/02/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam

Leaders Of The New Century

Question: A charismatic leader always gives direction to and encourages people. As a rule, he is quite authoritarian and in some cases even tyrannical. Will this trend be evident in the leaders of the 21^st century or will their qualities change due to human evolution?

Answer: Leaders will use all the human and superhuman qualities necessary for and according to the new paradigm to which we are heading. But they must change. They will be educators because humanity needs to be re-educated, and this is the main problem of our time. After all, the masses of unemployed will require re-organization, to be placed in open universities, schools, and to be provided with television programs, scholarships, etc.

Human life will be subject to a strict schedule. The perceived need that will arise in people will lead them to the state that all their life they will be engaged in self-improvement:  public, national, and global, and everyone will have to contribute.

Everyone will have his own responsibilities, changing his egoism to collaboration with others in the shared global, integral society. He will have to achieve a sense of a different existence “outside the body” where I don’t live caring about my animal body, but am occupied with “the human being within me.” This requires very serious, great leaders, meaning educators who understand human psychology and aim their leadership precisely at raising people to a new level.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/18/13

Believing “Above Reason” That Bestowal Is Above Receiving

Question: How can we create the right atmosphere in the group of ten so that each of us will feel that everything that happens in life is only for his own good and that this what the Creator wants?

Answer: We need the society’s support in order to accept everything in “faith above reason.” It doesn’t mean you should just say everything is for the best without thinking, like people who feel they are righteous do. We want to accept everything that happens as beneficial and to see everything in the Light of the Creator as a means for the correction of our vessels. We try to reach correction so that we will really see that everything is for the best, that it comes from “there is none else besides Him,” from the good and the benevolent.

Everything that I have at present is good and I have to rise to the next state by the actions that are taking place in me. The environment has to help me feel the Creator’s actions as good and beneficial.

In order to do that I have to rise to “faith above reason.” This is a very confusing concept, since one can just blindly say that everything is for the best even if he feels like he is torn to pieces. But “a judge only knows what his eyes can see.” So “blind faith” is not “faith above reason” even if a person is confused and has received the power to act for a certain idea from the environment.

We have to organize the whole system correctly so that it will operate on us and help us yearn for bestowal. “Faith above reason,” which means bestowal, should be more important for us than receiving. But a person cannot reach this feeling since he doesn’t have the power to do so and so he shouldn’t just lie to himself.

We have to turn to the group so that it will provide us with an increasingly growing feeling of importance of the advantage of bestowal instead of receiving. I am impressed by the environment as to how important this attribute is just as I copy all its corporeal values. Society is strong in quantity and quality and I submit myself before it and absorb the feeling of the greatness of bestowal from it.

After I am impressed by it, I have to connect with the friends and with them to develop a great deficiency for acquiring a new attribute for self-change. This is already a different type of submission before the society.

First I had to receive the importance of the goal, the importance of the Creator, the importance of the teacher, the importance of the study. These are ordinary things, just as if I want to be a tailor and have to be in the society of tailors in order to learn the profession from them and to be inspired by its importance. But if I want to attain the force of bestowal, I have to be incorporated in a group and to submit myself differently. Self-submission is the inner connection between us following all the conditions that Kabbalists have set, submitting to the friends, the teacher, the study and the way for attaining the goal. I don’t just have to be incorporated in this society but actually submit myself before it and thanks to that to receive the Light that Reforms.

The Light that Reforms influences me, and thus the group, the teacher, the study, the goal of creation, and the concern for all of humanity all become dearer to me. It all becomes more important. This means that I am already in the process of correction.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, Writings of Rabash

A Heroic War Against Weakness

Rabash, “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”: …that a person should make an effort to obtain love of others. And this is called “labor,” since he must exert above reason. Reasonably thinking, how is it possible to judge another to a scale of merit when his reason shows him his friend’s true face, that he hates him?

It turns out that we must exert ourselves when we don’t want to. I don’t feel any urge to work, have no desire for it and no interest in it. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be considered exertion. I am not attracted to love the friend and value him. Perhaps, I actually must look for such states when the friend doesn’t interest me, and I don’t enjoy being with him, and I feel that I am opposite to him. Then, I can see to what extent I can love the other and can check whether it obligates me to exert myself.

Sometimes, during a big convention or a special event I am impressed by the general spirit that is shared by everyone. Then, of course, I feel fine. However, the moment I leave this external influence, I immediately fall. This means that I don’t wake up by myself. I don’t feel like thinking about the love of friends and about connection. The greatness of the goal also disappears, and I pass the time aimlessly until I feel another awakening from above again.

However, it is during this time when we feel lifeless that we must exert ourselves since when I am revived from above, I have nothing to add of my own, and I am totally operated on from above. It seems that I operate myself, but I totally am operated on from Above and am under the domination of the upper. Therefore, everything that I do is not on my account at all.

Only when I don’t feel the spirit of life and I obligate myself to exert myself is it considered on my account. Then, it is called exertion, a prayer, an intervention from below that draws the Light that Reforms. This Light will make me feel attracted to others, to love the friends, and this already will be on my account.

This is all true provided that I have brought about the intervention from below, in response to which there is an intervention from above, which is the Light that Reforms that I have drawn. Thus, my correction also will be mine. When I feel distant from the friends, low and uncaring, I revive the spirit of life. The problem is only in how to exert myself, how to yearn for the love of friends in times when one feels totally lifeless.

Thus, as it is written, “Everything that is within your power to do, do.” You should think about this, discuss it, and consult one another as to what needs to be done. This is actually considered our exertion.
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From the Preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/28/13

We And Time

Question: We live in the flow of time. There are people who waste a lot of energy learning how to plan their time. Does this depend on how much a person has to do?

Answer: It depends on a person’s desire. Essentially, the internal self-organization of the person depends on his psychological setup, and everyone has their own.

There are people who are very organized internally: They consider each step from the start, they are compelled to plan their day, sometimes even long before they materialize their plan, and this is how they operate all the time. This is “in their blood.” But if there is a desire, it’s possible to learn this.

There has to be a clear task set before an individual, the obligation to carry it out, the desire to fulfill it, and the influence of the environment on him or her. All of it has to be organized in a way that it will work within a person.

On the other hand, there is a worldwide trend of evolutionary development, which changes our desires and values. And therefore, even if we obligate a person to work according to the previous values for attaining goals that are no longer important to him today, it will be very difficult for us to get a good work yield out of him.

This also depends on time. A very serious change in man and society is taking place today. Every people, every civilization (today there are  six or seven civilizations in the world) has its own sense of time, and therefore we need to take this into account.

For example, the inhabitants of Africa, China, and South America comprehend time completely differently than the inhabitants of Northern Europe and North America. They have an absolutely different approach, internal sensation of time, and they ascribe different value  to time. For some time is money, like an immense potential they were given and now must realize, while for others time flows calmly and they flow together with it.

Question: If the representatives of various civilizations feel time differently, does it mean that the amount of activity done by them will also differ?

Answer: Certainly! If I employ a worker from India, with his mentality and with his relationship to time, or I take a person with a Nordic character, they will have completely different requirements for themselves, for those around them, and for everything.

We need to understand that the sensation of time in various modern civilizations is different. In accord with this we have to plan our interrelationships, attitude to general connections, associations, and so on.
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Elevation Above The Differences Between The Sexes

Question: Not long ago they proved the existence of group intelligence scientifically. Several of the leading universities in America arranged an experiment in which they divided people into small groups. It was established that one of the essential factors that influenced the results was the amount of women in the group. Perhaps you can respond to this?

Answer: I have not learned about these experiments, therefore I cannot respond to them. I personally have no data on this subject.

I can say only one thing: Since our society is composed  mostly of women, certainly we need to include them in discussions. Groups could be divided into groups of men, women, and mixed groups.

The idea is that it’s desirable to divide the groups composed of ten people according to sex. In spite of it all, differences between the sexes influences the course of our thinking too significantly; therefore, it’s necessary to try to do this so that the men will not divert their attention from the discussions because they feel obliged to play a particular role regarding the women or the women regarding the men.

We need to accommodate them to this kind of condition, where they won’t pay attention to each other’s sexual character, but will see only friends in front of them in order to form a new level of mutual relationships that doesn’t depend on sexual relationships. By the word “sexes” I am referring to both mental and physical characteristics, everything connected to the terms “man” and “woman.” This is not just external, rather it’s a complete image: a form of thought, approach, everything. We are very different from each other.

Therefore, it’s first necessary to conduct separate workshops for men and for women and only after this, to the degree that they rise above themselves and connect to the importance of the task, will it be possible to have mixed groups. This will happen only after discussing many times questions about education, knowledge, relationships within society, the relationship of the person and nature, or even better, what is uncomfortable to them.

If a woman is facing me, I immediately pass to another level of communication; I try not to hurt her, to relate to her with respect, in some kind of discussion in the meantime, to listen….This is a complete system. Completely different levels of communication are included here, which are not according to the intellect, not according to the essential nature. We are different and a special communication adapter appears between us. We need to rise above this difference so it will not exist in this form so I will look at a person with whom I am conversing as “unisex.” This means that we become equal in everything despite our physical differences.

Sometimes it’s the opposite: Suppose when we are discussing questions like family, we need to “highlight” problems. So we are no longer equal in building something higher, we clarify in what way we still remain unequal on the level of our integral unity: men – women, husband – wife. After all we don’t completely rise without a body! We rise within our nature and this will give us a whole range of problems. We clarify differences between men, women, and children in a format different from the “roundtable” and gradually bring them to where they will rise above their differences and begin to work for the sake of the next goal, integral unity.
[108253]From KabTV’s  “Wisdom of the Crowd” 5/14/13

It Is A Great Honor To Be In The Company Of Such Great People

Question: How can I constantly see the friends as greater than me?

Answer: The friend is great especially because I depend on him! The goal I want to attain depends on him, and therefore he is so important to me. Second, he is great since it’s the Creator who has brought us together, and has given him to me as a means to attain the goal.

Third, I respect the “Godly part from Above” in him, since the Creator is in it, evoking him and leading him towards the goal. So this is what I respect, the Godly part and not his corporeal attributes. We will gradually discover what the concept of a “friend” actually means. When we begin to see the truth, we will see what it is.

I don’t value the friend himself, but the Godly part in him that gives him a great weight and makes him the greatest in our generation. It’s not an exaggeration and not just nice words. Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma undoubtedly saw his students as the greatest in his generation and greater than himself.

In order to not see the deficiencies in the friend, I have to awaken the love in me. Therefore, it says “love will cover all the sins.” You shouldn’t consider who is more clever, you or the friend. Love should come first.

The lesson should start when each of us sees himself sitting among great people. You should feel that you are like a tiny baby who luckily happened to be in the company of great Kabbalists, trembling with excitement before their greatness. This is actually the way it’s felt, and I am not exaggerating.

This is what the inner feeling should be, while externally we can show disrespect and play an opposite game. Just like the Creator conceals His love and shows us the opposite attitude, so can we show him the opposite external attitude. We will later learn this game when we grow stronger, but in the meantime it’s still too early to play this game since we will be attracted by the disrespect.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

An Invitation To A Meeting

The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet reflect the attributes of the 22 spiritual Sefirot by their form, the way they are drawn, and their signs: nine in Bina, nine in Zeir Anpin and four in Malchut. Each letter stands for a certain Sefira and reflects the way it differs from the other letters, so while reading The Zohar, we can be impressed by the text as if we are in these spiritual Sefirot.

This is what our inclination should be while reading, since the letters are like musical notes for our inner strings, for the attributes of the Creator that enter the created being’s desire to receive and summon in him feelings and impressions. The desire begins to calibrate and tune itself, like a musical vessel, according to the spirit of The Zohar and that spirit touches the strings of your soul and plays on it, like on King David’s violin.

This is how we want to feel The Book of Zohar, so that the Light that comes from it will reach us, fill us, and vibrate our desires. These letters are an invitation to a meeting, to a mutual impression with the Creator. So let’s try it!
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, The Zohar

To Be Divested Of All Problems

Question: After the Integral Education lessons, people sit in circles and begin to discuss problems. How is this done?

Answer: Generally a lesson with the presentation of clips, pictures, and even breaks goes on for a maximum of one hour, more than this would be difficult for people to keep up with it. After that they must internalize the material that they have learned.

After the talk, comes the workshop, which must include those questions that were touched upon during the talk in perhaps a slightly different form. So everyone will internalize them, people need to talk about them with friends in the circles. They need to be discussed, felt in the form of questions, in the form of doubts, in the form of some direction, intention, so that the people can reach that opinion to which we wanted to bring them to from the beginning, but now through discussions with others.

From the start we can say to a person that even if he doesn’t agree with something, now he must give a secondary importance to his disagreement. Suppose that he has pre-existing prejudices from the society in which he has been educated and has lived. He must put these prejudices to the side and try, on the contrary, to be an advocate for our opinion and to convince everyone else that the future for which we are now yearning is the only correct and possible one from the present condition in which we now exist. We give him time for this, some advice, and carry on a discussion in this spirit.

That is, we are not trying to lead students into a discussion, but rather to put them into a state where they will imagine the next world, the coming state, play with it, protect it, and convince others that it is correct. Through discussion a person will begin to see that he gradually truly agrees with it. Therefore we always direct the student not to be defensive and resistant, not to argue; rather, we direct him with positive influences to rise to the state to which we want to bring him.

Question: Is it possible to use the integral method to solve specific problems?

Answer: When we begin to use the integral method, then specific problems will be solved on their own. If I reach a collective where there are differences of opinion and problems, I don’t talk about them at all, I don’t touch upon them. In no way am I going to awaken the “beast” who sits in every one of them; for one “match” can set fire to the whole world. This would be the wrong approach. Only by divesting (shedding) ourselves of all problems will we direct ourselves towards our connection.
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From KabTV’s “Wisdom of Crowds” 5/14/13

A Payment That Cannot Even Be Counted!

Question: Why do some groups succeed in providing their friends with strong support and protection from external influences, while some groups find it very hard to do so? What should we focus on in order to strengthen the group?

Answer: The main thing that kills us is the routine. A person likes to calculate what he has earned at the end of every day when he comes back from work. We must understand what our profit adds up to, whether I can add things up and be glad although I don’t see any payment in my vessels of receiving.

However, I can value and praise the profit I have made, the work that was done, and the efforts that were made during the day. I didn’t get any corporeal profit as a result, but I helped to correct the world, and, through the world, I helped the Creator. This is the profit I should praise constantly, and this is where the environment should support me.

If a person doesn’t understand that he needs a strong group for that and doesn’t demand such support from it, he cannot advance since he has no fuel. We should check this and accordingly see if we feel enough energy and motivation.

We should establish the environment by our collective powers and not wait for someone else to do it for us. We are lucky to have the chance to study, to have books, the right intention, and a teacher. We should use all that as quickly as possible!
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

What Kind Of Friends Do I Need?

Question: What is the most important criterion I can use to check what kind of friends I should adhere to?

Answer: You should get closer to those who constantly attend the lessons, engage in dissemination, and take part in the duties. These people can be a role model for me even by their external behavior and by their corporeal earthly actions. Therefore, I want to adhere to them.

It makes no difference what a person’s character is and exactly what kind of work he does in the group. What’s important is that he comes everyday and takes part in everything. It is best to adhere to such people who don’t stand out in the group because of their special attributes, but are loyal to it and give it all their powers.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/30/13, Writings of Rabash

With The Friends Under The “Sukkah Of Peace”

Question: What is so special about the love of friends that allows me to cover all sins?

Answer: Love of friends covers all sins. After all, if we work on connecting our sparks in the group, then all the other desires surrender to the Light of love despite the fact that they are so opposite from one another to such an extent that they actually hate one another. This Light operates on us from above, from the upper level, when it covers us with one blanket, one umbrella, a Sukkah of peace, and obligates all of us to unite, although internally we remain very different.

Question: Do I choose the friend once or anew every day?

Answer: I don’t choose according to corporeal criteria. In the meantime we don’t know why we have been brought into one group from above, he and I. It depends on the root of the soul, on the sentence of the souls, which we will learn about later. But because we are in a group we have to fulfill our freewill and to connect into one system, one group.

Choosing a friend means being loyal to him despite the repulsion and the doubts. I shouldn’t feel any difference between him and me. Every moment the thought and the desire change in me, I have to choose him in the exact same manner, I examine myself and him.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/13, Writings of Rabash

If I Get Sick I Will Turn To The Friends

Rabash, “Make Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend- 2″: It was written in the book, Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah, p 143), that one is not impressed by the society or takes their appreciation of something, unless he regards the society as greater than himself. This is the reason why each one must feel that he is the smallest of them all, since one who is great cannot receive from one who is smaller than himself, much less be impressed by his words. Rather, it is only the smaller one who is impressed through appreciating the greater one.

This is one of the recommendations as to how a person has to organize his thoughts, his desires, and his attitudes in order to reach the goal. The ultimate goal of course is in the initial thought, but in order to reach that a person has to build from the endpoint to the to the very beginning.

The advice can be general and individual. The general advice is from the foundation for the individual’s advice, and it’s our obligation to follow the spirit of the general advice. The individual advice refers to specific thoughts that suddenly come to a person, but the foundation has to be solid and common to everyone.

This is why it is necessary to feel the importance of the group and it has to be as strong and great as possible, which means great in quantity and quality. It’s because a person is a desire to receive. Everything begins from the ego that must be corrected. So we have to think about what works most effectively on my ego, on my desire to receive, which members of the society.

Some can influence me, and someone cannot. I need to be like an objective doctor, an outsider who is taking care of this patient, of my desire to receive, which I have to cure. So I need to check which society I need for that and which people impress me, and which actions, and what bestowal I should ask from the friends. When I am sick I am allowed to ask the friends for help, since it says: “They shall help one another.”

When we gather, we have to praise the society and speak of its greatness and then speak about the necessary measures by which we reach the love of friends, and from the love of the created beings we reach the love of the Creator. So I can advise them and ask them to perform such actions that I believe will affect my desire to receive most efficiently.

We must hope, wait, expect, and check, whether our feeling towards the love of friends and towards getting closer to one another is constantly growing, and whether I feel help from above by that, meaning the bestowal of the Light that Reforms. We must constantly check ourselves: which changes occur from one day to the next, from one week to the next, and  whether we feel the changes as we get closer to the friends, the growing importance, necessity, and the strengthening of our connections. I check my ascents and descents according to these criteria and not according to my mood. Thus we advance.
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From the Preparation of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/13

I Live In A World That Lives In Me

Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”, Item 25: …about the reason why the Torah was not given to our fathers, because the Mitzva, “Love thy friend as thyself,” the axis of the whole Torah and around which all the Mitzvot revolve, so as to clarify and interpret it, cannot be observed by an individual, but only through the consent of an entire nation.

And this is why it took until they came out of Egypt, when they became worthy of observing it. And then they were first asked if each and every one of the nation agreed to take that Mitzva upon himself. And once they agreed to it, they were given the Torah.

I cannot reach anything in a group of ten if all the other friends don’t support me and don’t cooperate with me. In fact, we must be “as one man in one heart.” My personal efforts will be ineffective if the others don’t participate in the efforts.

This may seem like a very big obstacle, but in fact, it isn’t an obstacle. If I cannot incorporate in a framework called a “corrected group of ten,” it means that I have not reached my personal correction yet and have not become the one who bestows, adhered to the Creator, at least to a certain extent.

The perception of the spiritual reality already operates here. I mustn’t see anything on the outside as an external factor. The pattern of the ten is inside me as a replica of my inner world that is meant only so that I can work with my attributes that seem to be on the outside, in the friends. This helps me approach the correction in a more practical manner.

The Creator is not revealed to an individual created being, but only in a group of ten. This matches the structure of the nation and of the entire world. Therefore, I must work on the whole wide dimension of reality.

It is because all this is actually me. I see my inner attributes on the outside, like radiography, in the still, vegetative, and animate nature and in human beings. It is as if everything is spread from me outward.

So, I must see how all the others are advancing to correction and to what extent I can help advance every part that is external to me. In one place, I introduce integral education, and in another place, I present introductory material for integral education. However, one way or the other, it stems only from me, from the same source, and is aimed only in one direction, toward actual integral education and onward to more internal circles, which means the desires that are closer to my point in the heart. Here, I can engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah and work in a group of ten, which means in an environment that is closer to the spiritual spark in my point in the heart.

This is how I should see the general picture. Through this perception, I understand that if I restrict my perception and don’t worry about the entire world, it will lead to nothing.

However, a person advances along this path by the Light that Reforms that gradually helps him perceive things correctly. So, we must do only what we are obliged to do, and eventually we will change. The Light will come and illuminate, and then I will see and understand that my approach and my perception should be general. The Light will let me feel and understand what the attribute of bestowal is, and I will accept it and continue.
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From the 2^nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/23/13, “The Mutual Guarantee”

Buying The World Of Infinity At The Price Of A Match Box

Question: What should we do so that the Light that Reforms will convince us that only through connection can we reach the attribute of bestowal?

Answer: This recognition may come by the path of suffering, “in its time,” when a person feels a big disappointment that he has devoted much energy and has reached nothing. This happens after many years.

It also can be by the ordinary initial connection with the group when a person begins to understand and feel that only the Light that Reforms can summon the change in him. It isn’t enough just to hear that; a person needs to already feel it in his heart, his heart has to hear.

When the heart perceives this information, we accept it as a fact that it is impossible to manage without the help of the Light. We don’t have to look up where it says so since this wisdom already will live in us, in our feelings and not in our mind. We need the mind only to support and help clarify the feeling.

In order for the heart to listen, we have to subdue ourselves before the environment. Our heart is deaf and cannot hear! We cannot do anything with it. We hear something through our ears, but it doesn’t penetrate the heart. It hits the “the stony heart” and bounces, like when hitting a wall, without penetrating it. Therefore, we must work on submitting ourselves—as it is written, “Buy yourself a friend and make yourself a Teacher”—submitting ourselves forcefully.

We do not control our desires, but we live in the world of actions, and so our physical actions also help, even if they are against the desires of our heart. Try to bring the friend a small gift everyday—anything. Buy a matchbox and give him a match everyday as a present. You will see how hard it is since you will have to constantly think about that. It doesn’t matter what the gift is worth, as it is written: “until many pennies accumulate into a great sum.”

Try it and see! You will have to think about the friend, to remember it, to justify your actions, and to value their benefit. Do you have the money to buy a matchbox? So you have nothing to worry about. You have the means to enter spirituality.
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From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/27/13, Writings of Rabash

The Acceleration Of Time

Question: Today most people think that in the subjective reality, time is beginning to advance much faster. In the past it seemed to them that time was stretched and smeared, so now the weeks go by so fast that people don’t pay attention to them. Why is this happening like this?

Answer: The life expectancy of the person who lived two or three hundred years ago was not more than 36 – 40 years on average. For them time flowed slowly, evenly, even though for them a lifetime was two times less than it is for us. Whereas for us there isn’t enough time for anything, time “runs” and suddenly we are old and then we die.

We feel time differently because the value of time is different. The number of activities that we can include in every moment in time has changed. Therefore time is also very saturated, dense.

This is not connected to fears, tension, or some kind of expectation that a person has; this is a much more complex problem. The more we develop, more and more we become detached from the animal world.

An animal can live calmly. It has no concept of time: If it needs to lie down, it lies down, if it needs to hunt, it hunts, and so forth. That is, for the animal everything is determined, everything is according to the seasons of the year, everything has been considered. Nature shows it exactly what to do, and it has no problem with time. The animal is never late.

But the more that we have become humans in our development, the more we have problems with time. This is essentially because we want to renounce the concept of the “sensation of time.”
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From KabTV’s “Through Time” 3/17/13

Very Helpful Imaginary Friends

Question: Yesterday, you spoke about Abraham who discovered thewisdom of Kabbalah by introspection. What is that?

Answer: All of reality is in a person. What is more, reality doesn’t actually exist, there is a picture of it that I develop inside me. It is felt in the vessels, in my desires, by a certain sensor, by inner frames of a photographic film that reflect the reactions to the upper Light that depict my lack of equivalence of form with it.

A “flashlight” of the simple white Light is directed at me, but I am made of 613 different desires, different attributes that form a colorful, three dimensional picture of the world filled with sounds, scents and things I can touch on the background of the white Light. In other words, I actually “draw” or design the world in which I live.

However, according to my perception of reality, everything depends on my attributes and not on anyone else. It turns out that, if I change, the world will change. This is what we can do by introspection when I understand that I can change the world by the changes I make in me.

So, how can I change? I cannot do that by myself. I only have an unpleasant feeling in the current reality, and I cannot pull myself up by the hair out of the swamp. After all, even the thoughts about a change are part of this swamp.

This is exactly where the force of the shattering helps me. In my fictitious reality, there are people around me who tell me, “You know, we also think about that.” I see that the other parts of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking nature are managed by one general mechanism, but my imagination draws people who have the exact same vector as I do, and this enables me to practice and to exercise. Now, I can see myself from the side. I can work with them just as I work with myself, like with an external reflection of myself.

When I work with them, I discover that this game is very creative. The relationship with the images of the friends helps me advance by acquiring a new perception, a new feeling. They don’t develop my old attributes and don’t add to the previous mind and previous feelings, but rather develop new qualitative attributes in me, attributes that I didn’t have before.

For example, a multi-dimensional perception or rising above the concept of time: Before, I could see the past, present, and the future, and now I stop feeling time. The external movements disappear and I perceive everything internally and connect it with the inner movements. I change, and as a result I feel changes on the background of the white Light.

If I work with the images of the friends that I see this way, I understand that it is true that they are depicted by my imagination, but the right attitude toward them allows me to acquire a special means for inner changes. Through the mutual efforts with these images, I attribute a certain independence to them—to the extent that I want to be independent. Eventually, when I play with them this way, I acquire the perception that takes me out of the current picture that is drawn on the screen of my consciousness to a new reality.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/29/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam