The Purpose Of Creating A Group

As man undergoes evolution, all of his development occurs by way of the development of the will to receive pleasure, called self-love or egoism. Therefore, if a person does not feel that he will receive something, he is incapable of making even the smallest action. He feels it within as a lack of motivation or energy, necessary for him to make an inner or physical movement.

But Nature is the quality of altruism, bestowal and love, opposite to egoism. And it drives man to acquire this quality by developing him in ever-greater suffering, which he gradually comes to see as a derivative of his own egoism and the overall egoism of all mankind. In other words, the objective that Nature sets for our development is for man to attain equivalence with it. And this objective is intended expressly for man because egoism is absent on the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, which are governed and exist instinctively, simply obeying their nature.

Since suppressing egoism is contradictory to our nature and our entire being, we therefore need a group of single-minded people to give us a greater force to suppress it. That is why we need a group that unites people who have one desire: to achieve an ascent above egoism and mutual repulsion, and to rise to mutual love.

The result of uniting towards a common goal is that instead of being totally weak and unable to resist our egoism, each of us acquires a great force that helps him rise above his egoism to unity.

This great force emerges as a result of us putting together our small, individual forces, or rather, not even forces, but just wishes. These small forces of ours will combine together and multiply one another, allowing each of us to rise above his small egoism to unity. That is how every person acquires a tremendous desire to rise above his own egoism and attain a single goal.

But in order for this to happen, every group member has to suppress or lower his “I” in relation to others. This can only be done by not noticing the friend’s flaws and paying attention only to his good qualities. If one member of the group considers himself at least slightly better than others, he is no longer able to truly unite with them.

During the group’s engagement in integral upbringing (unification), we must be serious and not deviate from the goal for which we have gathered here, the achievement of a single desire of mutual bestowal and love, as similarity to Nature demands of us.

But with outsiders, we should behave simply, courteously, and politely, taking care not to impose the idea of unity, mutual bestowal, and love upon them. This is because efforts to rise above one’s egoism cannot be made in chance meetings, but only in a constant group of friends under the guidance of an instructor. During their work in the group and generally, in life, members of the group must try to bar light-mindedness from their desires because thoughtless behavior or even thoughts destroy all personal and group efforts to unite.

But if an outsider has accidentally found his way into a session held by the group, it is first necessary to politely eliminate his presence and to continue the studies only after that.
(Based on Rabash’s article “Purpose of Society (2)”

Reminding Each Other Of What’s Important

I don’t correct myself, but rather my incorporation in others.There is nothing to correct in me, except for my connection with others.

Who are the “others?” Here we should understand that the “me” I was yesterday is not the “me” I am today. I have to clarify the relationship between me and others according to the different states I am in. Every day a person starts a new leaf and the corrections are always with regards to the mutual connection between the Partzufim.

It says that the love among people is aimed at the love of the Creator. The love of friends is the same vessel, the same attitude in which I express my bestowal upon Him. After all, the Creator is the general law, the general attribute that I discover in the mutual connection among all of us.

There is nothing except for the general vessel. In my attitude to the friends, in my spirit, in my heart, I create the Creator. Until then He actually doesn’t exist.

Question: We are having an exercise in the group: Everyone should think about everyone worrying about everyone else in their thoughts. We remind each other to think about that and add, “with the help of the Creator.” Does this bring us to true love?

Answer: Yes, if you mean that everything can exist only with the help of the ReformingLight, then you really are creating the necessary conditions for fulfillment.

Love has no limits; it spreads until Ein Sof, (Infinity) and onward. Each time we define it differently—when we exit our present desires and intentions. The current exercise is effecitve against forgetfulness: A friend reminds another friend about three conditions: me, him and the upper force, the Reforming Light. In other words, the Reforming Light brings us back to one another. Once the Light resided in the connection among us and now when it “welds” us anew it fulfills the necessary condition of the correction in order to reside among us again. This is called a Mitzva (commandment) in the language of Kabbalah.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/1/12, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

Using Your Egoism For The Good Of The Other

Question: You are saying that the force of reception will continue to grow as the force of bestowal keeps developing in us? Will it not diminish?

Answer: A new force of reception will grow in you as much as the force of bestowal will develop in you. It is not the force of a little egoist, which you were using on the animate level or on the level of a person of the “old world.” Now two forces are developing in you together, forces of a person of the new world.

Until now you were developing instinctively, like any animal. But unlike an animal, you have developed to such a level of egoism that it has simply become unbearable. And now you are trying to develop the force of bestowal with the help of the environment.

Bestowal assumes more than a gift; it is giving, mutual participation, closeness, support, mercy, to the point of love. Love includes all the other manifestations of connection and the ability to feel the desires of another. This is called the force of bestowal.

The moment I begin to develop this force within me, a second force begins to grow parallel to it, the force of reception, and it helps me to bestow. Because I do not have anything myself, I am unable to give to others, there is no way for me to establish a connection with them. But by using my entire force of reception, I can bestow to others.

I have only the force of reception by nature, and I have existed with it from the beginning of the universe until now. And now a question arises: How can I learn to bestow to others, to society, which will not accept me otherwise and will think that I am a savage, a nobody. I will feel shame in front of my children, my wife, relatives, all the people I care about, my closest environment, which even an egoist has.

I feel like everyone regrets my existence. And then I begin to understand that I need to begin to bestow. But how can I bestow? I can bestow through the force of reception that I have and connect to bestowal.

I have a big egoism that enabled me to win, to build, and do things. And now I use the same force to benefit others. This is called the force of bestowal. But these are very internal things, which a beginner probably cannot understand. They will not summon an inner response, a reaction, because we are not built this way. From this point on, we already need the force of correction contained in the Light that Reforms.

So, our conclusion is: By acquiring the force of bestowal, I develop an inner ability to see the entire world as if it were transparent, to see through it, to know what happens, to fix myself, my family, my immediate and distant social environments, and to arrange my life in a perfect way.

It enables me to attain the state of absolute happiness. I feel included in the eternal reality, and I rise to the human degree that gives me the feeling that life is worth living, existing, and continuing our species, having children. I feel satisfaction and fulfillment in life.

And all this happens by acquiring the force of bestowal though the proper environment.
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From a “Talk on Integral Education” #12, 12/16/11

What Is Our Life? A Game!

Since the wisdom of Kabbalah raises a person from the “beastly” to the “human” level (“Adam” or “man” comes from the word “Domeh“ or similar to nature, to the attribute of bestowal and love), a person who rises faces the problem of “going into the unknown.” To help us rise into an unknown state again and again, we are offered a game, an exercise, to prepare within ourselves, together with the group, our next, more altruistic state. Moreover, even if we fail, it leads to the right solution: a request for the force of bestowal, an ascent above our egoism.

Today all of humanity should master this method of advancement in everything that it does. We should also be ready for descents, for feeling the mistakes, and from them to understand that only the upper force of nature can provide us with the new attributes in order to investigate, to attain, and to build ourselves, family, society, education, and economy correctly.

Until now the mistakes and failures were not acknowledged by people, but only by Kabbalists because only they rose above the general nature of humanity, egoism, to the attribute of nature, love. But today we must acquire this new attitude regarding ourselves, those around us, and the world and to teach our children to develop by learning from their mistakes.

We must not only learn from our mistakes, but also understand where they stem from: from the appearance of the new level to which we are not adapted. So a mistake (a descent) is the attainment of our lack of correspondence to the new state, and it should make us yearn to implement it internally. This is attained in the group, by yearning for nature’s general force and for similarity to it.

The Patient Is Dead And Feels Good About Himself

The Babylonian Talmud, Treatise Taanit 7: He who engages in the Torah for its sake, the Torah becomes the potion of life for him, and he who engages in the Torah not for its sake, it becomes the potion of death for him.

If there is such great danger concealed in the Torah, perhaps it’s better not to engage in it? After all, if you study correctly, you “rise to heaven,” and if you don’t, “you sink into the ground,” into the abyss.

The problem is that if you don’t study correctly, the Light concealed in the Torah puts you into states that are opposite from the truth, but you don’t even notice that. The Torah doesn’t bring you death, but rather “the potion of death,” when you don’t feel that you are dead. You can study the Torah day and night, memorize page after page by heart, and at the same time be dead, meaning not understand that this is totally opposite from the goal for which the Torah was given.

The Torah was given to us so that we will reach the love of others. It says: “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice because the Light in it reforms.” What does it mean that it reforms? It’s the “great law of the Torah”—”love thy friend as thyself,” or in other words, the general goal of everything that we do according to the Torah.

In every precept we perform, in every detail, we must advance towards the love of others. Only through the love of others will we reach the final goal, the love of the Creator and adhesion with Him, according to the equivalence of form between a person and the Creator.

Therefore, before the study, we have to prepare ourselves and keep all the necessary conditions so that the study of the Torah will bring us the desired goal: adhesion, that is, the correction of our intentions from egoistic to altruistic. This work is clarified only in the group, where we can check ourselves practically.

Each time we will discover hate among us and will get a chance to rise above it towards love. To do that, we need to organize ourselves correctly: We want to connect in order to reach adhesion and to discover the Creator in it, thereby bringing Him contentment. It’s possible to discover the Creator only in our collective vessel of bestowal. It’s necessary that we prepare ourselves for the lesson in this way so that we’ll approach the study correctly.

Question: If the potion of death doesn’t let me feel that I am dead, does the potion of life enable me to feel death?

Answer: I feel that I am living from the “potion.” It isn’t an ordinary existence anymore. In the intention of in order to bestow, above my nature, I attain life. The potion has the effect of making me lie to my egoistic desire and not to myself. On the other hand, the potion of death drowns me in the lie, which I don’t notice, and then I see myself as “righteous,” although I haven’t even entered the rank of “wicked.”

Question: How can the wisdom of Kabbalah save a person from the potion of death?

Answer: It can do it by the Light that Reforms. If you arrange all the conditions for yourself correctly, if you enter the group and disseminate, which is an inseparable part of the preparation these days, and if you participate in everything that the group experiences in order to reveal the connection, then you are preparing correctly for the study, and your intention during the study is not to read yet another paragraph, but to receive the Light that Reforms. It isn’t by chance that Baal HaSulam wrote in “The Introduction to the Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Item 18: “…that while practicing Torah, they did not set their minds and hearts to draw the Light in the Torah….”

Everything is solved by the preparation. The right study is the study that you have prepared yourself for correctly. Then you read the text correctly, with the right intention, in the right group, with all the necessary conditions. And what do you get from the study? You get the chance to work and to rise: the feeling of hate and rejection of the friends….
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/13/2012, “Introduction to TES”

Only A Miracle Will Melt The Stony Heart

Our correction consists of acquiring a “head.” This is the entire difference between the initial Malchut of the world of Infinity from which all the worlds have expanded, and the Malchut of the world of Infinity in its final, third, state to which we return as we complete the correction.

The entire difference is in this head because Malchut of the world of Infinity is completely filled with the Light both in the first and the third state—only the mind is added. A simple desire, which existed before, now operates with intention and makes a calculation about how much it can receive for the sake of bestowal, how much it can give for the sake of bestowal, and whether to not receive at all or to receive egoistically.

From the Creator’s authority all these decisions are passed on to the creature, to man himself. Then, a person acquires an opportunity to please the Creator in the same way that the Creator pleases him, like a guest who accepts the host’s treats. For this reason, he attains the same position, the same degree, as the Creator.

We need to work on our intention on this path, but sometimes it is necessary to separate from the Light, the Creator, the Host, so that His greatness and absolute power that spreads to the entire universe will remain hidden from us, allowing us to keep our independence. Even when I feel free, like a child left home alone by his parents, I still try to behave well, as if the Host were always with me.

And this is despite the fact that my nature constantly resists, conceals the Host from me, and leads in the opposite direction. Everything is made the way it is so that I imagine the Creator before me and thus, study and reveal Him.

This is why our world is called the revelation in concealment, “Megilat Esther (scrolls of Esther).” We begin this work the very first time we begin to feel the desire to understand the meaning of life. From that moment, I remain confused and unable to understand who I am and why I exist, where I am going.

The first thing I need to do here is to calm down and understand that every moment, I am in the best state for advancement. There is an entire system of Partzufim, worlds,Sefirot, and Reshimot (spiritual genes) operating above, and this entire mechanism is only intended to help me. All the worlds are only created for man to constantly provide him with the best state for advancement toward the goal of creation, his perfect state.

The one who accepts this a priori already has a different attitude toward everything that happens to him. Then, he stops complaining and seeing problems everywhere, disagreeing with his states, and everything that happens to him and the world. This only testified to his foolishness and nearsightedness. Now, he begins to search for how, according to what formula, with what attitude, he will be able to derive the maximum benefit from every state for the attainment of the goal.

There are certain conditions set ahead of time that I do not understand because I am unfamiliar with the entire system. This is why we need to accept as given every current state where I have ended up with my desires and thoughts, my heart and mind, and direct it toward the attainment of the goal.

The goal is adhesion with the Creator, the attainment of similarity to Him. This is why I need to try to imagine the Creator in every state and become like Him, take my example from Him like a guest from the host. As it is written: “I to my Beloved, and my Beloved to me.”

One who understands his state, accepts it as given, and correctly directs himself so that “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one” advances this way. Then, he finds a mentor, books, the group, and the goal. All this is before him; all the roads are open.

This is a gradual, step-by-step process that ends with a great miracle. We can see the end of all the corrections in it because all corrections are intended for revealing the “stony heart,” the point that separates us from the Creator, called “existence from absence.” We are “absence,” while He exists. We want to overcome this difference, which is called the attainment of adhesion.

However, we discover that it is an abyss that cannot be stepped over, just as one born a woman cannot become a man, and one born black cannot become white or red. We cannot change the qualities we have received from nature.

The biggest difference of all the possible differences is the one between “existence” and “absence.” We reveal this difference in the form of the stony heart, which is corrected through a miracle called Purim.
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From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/9/2012, Writings of Rabash

The Goal Of The Group

We have gathered to lay the foundation of the group for those interested in learning the laws of nature and following them. Our development represents a path that allows us to rise from unconscious development under the pressure of the forces of nature at the animate level and reach the level of conscious development appropriate to the human level. The difference between animate development and development at the level of human is in the understanding of the process of our natural development and its conscious realization.

The essence of the human level is that instead of developing under the compelling forces of nature, a person studies the laws of nature and follows them consciously. Thus, he wins twofold: He moves on his own accord and quickly, without suffering blows and gladly accepting all the changes within himself. He penetrates the laws of nature and becomes the master of his destiny.

It should be made clear that the cause of all our suffering is our lack of understanding of the laws of nature with respect to the individual and society. We study and are able to understand nature at its still, vegetative, and animate levels, but since we are at the level of human, we cannot comprehend this level, that is, the attitude of nature toward us. We can study only what is at the level below us.

Nature is integral, whole, and it gradually develops all its parts, including us, to this state. Until our time, we were developing in a simple, linear, egoistic progression, instinctively obeying the orders of nature within us. However, recently, we have completed the phase of our linear, egoistic development and further must become, individually and all together, similar to integral nature. The objective of our natural development is to learn the essence of nature, its program and purpose.

By studying the laws of integral, analog systems, we recognize that it means our complete unity in a single society, mutual bestowal and love. We realize that this is completely opposite to our egoism, the nature in which we were created. We wish to fulfill only our personal desires. This is opposite to that level of full interconnectedness that we have to achieve according to the plan of nature.

By uniting in spite of everyone’s egoistic desire through our actions of mutual bestowal, we are building a model that is similar to nature, to its quality to give to and to fulfill its parts. Through our efforts of mutual bestowal and love, we leave behind the impact of the harsh driving forces of development and advance toward the goal: complete integration and similarity to nature.

We can be proud that we evolve consciously, not running away from the blows like an animal, but by attaining the force that governs us. This raises us to the highest level of nature, to its complete attainment, toward being fulfilled by its upper force and goodness.

Although we have not reached the goal, we have the desire to achieve it. This also should be important for us, although we are still at the beginning of the path. However, we hope that we will reach this exalted goal.
(On the basis of Rabash’s article “Purpose of Society (1)”

Passing On The Materials Of Our Teachers To The Masses

In general, we don’t use adapted materials. The only exception is the text of Zohar L’Am (The Zohar for All), which we prepared not for ourselves but rather for the people. We see that it does help to create a close contact with the source. So as part of the help that we have to offer humanity that is sinking in the crisis, we must turn to the masses.

Baal HaSulam even went to Poland in order to become acquainted with the workers’ uprising movements. In general, he made great efforts to create a dialogue with the world: He published a newspaper, wrote The Writings of the Last Generation, tried to get closer to the people, spoke with Ben Gurion about the necessary changes in society, in education, and so on. Therefore, we, who are following Baal HaSulam’s footsteps, must promote and bring the masses even closer to the method that Baal HaSulam and Rabash left us.

Of course, we can’t write the right materials by ourselves. After all, we are not on a level that will enable us to fill them with the Light that Reforms. We have no connection with the upper Lights as did our teachers. But in order to serve as the link, the pipe that passes the Light to the people, we should try to be “Israel,” which means with the help of our teachers, to yearn as much as we can straight to the Creator (Yashar – El) and also to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” with regards to the world.

Therefore, we should try to adapt a bit the materials, written by our holy teachers, for the public—to adapt them externally, changing the inner content as little as possible, to the extent that we understand it. This will certainly be a corruption, but by that at least we start correcting something. Eventually, the world may begin to read the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash in their original form.

Therefore, we adapt the articles that appeal to a person and talk about his internal work, about his connection with the group and about getting closer to nature, to the Creator. After all, the Gematria (numerical value) of the word “God” (אלה-ים) is the same as “nature” (הטבע). We hope that this will help people come closer to the method of correction.

Let’s hope that the public will use these texts. They don’t repel the reader because they have been adapted so there is nothing that may seem religious, related to some sect or nationality. It’s about the balance between man and nature in our days, which is an essential precondition for saving humanity from the crisis and total collapse.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/2012