Chapter 9. Rav, Disciple and Group
A Genuine Rabbi
Q: What kind of rabbi is a genuine rabbi?
A: A genuine rabbi is one who distances the disciple away from him and directs him toward the goal – the Creator. He does not make a “Rebbe” (a parish leader) of himself, but rather guides and leads without making a holy man of himself.
In Kotzk, a small town in Poland, there lived a well-known group of Kabbalists, headed by the famous Kabbalist, Rabbi Menachem Mendel (the Admor from Kotzk). They realized that their rabbi would have to be something very special, a person who would lead them without thinking highly of himself, precisely because he felt the Creator and left everything for Him.
Questions of the Disciple
Q: Are there bad questions, or redundant ones?
A: No. Any desire is a sign of a need that craves a satisfaction. However, we do encounter certain difficulties with the answers. Teachers cannot give an answer whenever there is a discrepancy between the sensations of the asking disciple and the answering rabbi. Generally speaking, there is no such thing as a response – we must answer our own questions.
Q: If the answer does not exist, is a question the expression of an egoistic desire?
A: A response in Kabbalah is the Light that satisfies the desire. It creates in the vessel a sensation that coincides with the desire, which is called an “answer.” That is why an answer can only dress in the sensation that is in the desire. Thus, there can be an answer only if there is a question, a desire, that precedes it.
That is why each person feels the question within as a vessel and the answer as a Light. It is impossible to transmit the answer to another person, but only to help one go through the degrees of creation of the need within, the question, and the answer within. That is why Kabbalah is called “the wisdom of the hidden” – only one who is ready to feel knows what it’s about. For that person who is not yet ready, it remains hidden.
The Role of the Rabbi
Q: I feel my own nothingness compared to the exaltedness of the rabbi. But that is how I should feel toward the Creator; whereas I cannot feel Him at all. What should I do?
A: The rabbi exists only in order to turn your attention to the Creator. It is natural that you still don’t have contact with the Creator and your attention is focused on the rabbi. But that situation will gradually pass.
Soon you will discover a new and developing egoism in you. Then, you will begin to criticize your rabbi and find more and more flaws in him. I myself went through a similar process with my rabbi.
That process is guided from Above so that you can examine whether you are acting out of egoism, or solely for the sake of giving. But when you encounter spiritual sensations, you will need your rabbi more and more. Only then will you work together, just as a child and an adult do in our world.
In fact, everything we feel in the process of correction is crucial for us, especially toward the end of correction. Any feeling, good or bad, can be accepted in a different way, but we must always understand that any feeling is a necessary result of our way.
We must feel what we feel and remember it (without extending it any longer than necessary to understand it), and then move on.
In the beginning of every act and thought there must be an aim: “There is the purpose of creation and I want to attain it, because that is the contact and the equalization with the Creator. It is the reason I do what I do (sleep, eat, drink, work etc.).” Then the rabbi will not replace the Creator, but will become your guide.
Q: Does disagreeing with the rabbi indicate a lack of respect?
A: Absolutely not! You can always express disagreement. However, I cannot tolerate objections that stem from the earthly logic of a student who does not read the texts. Read and object; be mad and find!
The Attitude of a Disciple toward his Rabbi
Q: In one of your tapes, I heard that there are times when the student might hate his teacher. How can that be? Right now I feel your kindness and your desire to help. Why should that change?
A: Generally speaking, the attitude of disciple toward rabbi is identical to the disciple’s relationship towards the Creator. When the disciple doesn’t feel the Creator and His Dominion completely, the challenges (trials, unpleasant feelings, disturbances, conflicts about the way, and continuous disappointments) that come from Above lead one to protest to the rabbi.
The individual actually thinks that the rabbi is the source of these ordeals. In fact, one becomes so angry with the rabbi that one believes the rabbi’s demise or disappearance would end all the bad feelings, the void and the obstacles on the way to the Creator. You will learn the rest yourself as you continue along the way.
Q: You write: “Soon you will begin to discover a growing egoism within you. You will begin to criticize your rabbi and see more and more shortcomings in him…” If that is the case, how should a student work on the ego in order to get through this phase as quickly as possible?
A: Everything is predetermined for us. Inside us there are all the Reshimot (reminiscence), the instructions on our gradual ascent, from our world to the purpose of creation. Those Reshimot are like a contracted spiral inside us, which opens progressively. Each moment we feel a certain desire, which is an expression of the surfacing Reshimo.
When we enter the right group, the right environment and read the right books, we enhance the influence of the Upper Light on ourselves. That Light illuminates the spiral of Reshimot, thus accelerating their appearance in us. We always discover the weakest Reshimo from the ones we can realize.
Our freedom of choice is only in our choice of environment. All we can do is accelerate our progress. This is only possible with the influence of an appropriate environment. In other words, we are free to choose between accelerating the process and not accelerating it.
If you listen to people who object to Kabbalah, and is urged away from it, you will still come to the purpose, but much later. Baal HaSulam (Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag) writes in his essay, “ The Freedom,” that only by choosing our environment (books, friends and teachers) do we express our freedom to choose our way.
The more correct the choice of the environmental factor is, the greater the acceleration. Indeed, we can make the journey last only a few years instead hundreds of years. This is no exaggeration.
Regarding nullification before the rabbi: when Baal HaSulam was told that unlike other great rabbis, his disciples were not the least bit afraid of him, he answered, “They’d be better off fearing the Creator and not me.”
And when he was told that he had only five or six disciples after decades of work, he replied, “The Creator doesn’t even have that many.”
You cannot direct your thoughts and desires by yourself, as you see fit. Their direction is derived from your inner situation and dictated by the Reshimo that is currently being activated, which leaves the sensation and experience from your current situation.
Look at yourself from the side – it is worthwhile to examine yourself and remember how you were a month ago, or five years ago, and begin conversing with your past and present images. It helps to better understand the changes that occur in you. It helps you to relate to yourself as a factor of changing emotions, and not as an individual who thinks and feels independently.
You have to examine yourself from the outside and see what the Creator does with you. Follow His Work – it is the exact meaning of the words – “the Work of God,” His Work on you.
Freedom of Choice
Q: Does a person who has become a Kabbalist have at least the freedom of choice?
A: There are only two possible situations for us:
1. Surrendering to our nature. We might think that in this case we simply become at peace with ourselves. However, as soon as we begin to feel the Upper World, meaning something spiritual outside us, we will discover that our egoism is not us, but a foreign body that has penetrated us and forces us to serve it. We will find then that we have no freedom of choice in such a state.
2. The other is to obey the nature of the Creator. We might think that this situation implies losing our freedom, but what in fact happens is that the Kabbalist exits his own nature and becomes neutral with respect to the one and only factor that ordinarily controls him completely and without cease. Only then can he take on the attributes of the Creator, and activate his freedom of choice.
Q: Since everything is determined Above, where is the freedom of choice?
A: Man’s only freedom is his environment, the society that influences him. You can read about it in “ The Freedom” by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag. Everyone’s situation is determined from beginning to end. The only way to go is forward. We should want to do it ourselves, consciously, but if we don’t, nature will force us to want to progress. We cannot attain the final situation if we don’t learn how to lead creation.
A Rabbi and Disciple in Spirituality
Q: What does the disciple mean to the rabbi, and what does the rabbi mean to the disciple?
A: We think that a rabbi and his disciple are simply two people, one of them teaching the other, meaning a teacher and a student. But a rabbi and a disciple are really two degrees: the disciple is at a certain level of attainment, and the rabbi is on a higher level. The disciple has a connection and a special relation to that rabbi. Thanks to that connection, the disciple can gradually resemble the rabbi and ultimately become a rabbi on his own.
A disciple is a person who can learn from a higher degree, or “Rabbi,” and be like him. If, for example, you want to learn how to be a construction worker, you’ll turn to a builder to teach you. If man’s primary desire is to learn to be like someone else, you can call him a disciple, and the person from whom he studies is called a “rabbi.”
These things can change because during the spiritual maturing of man, while in the midst of studies, there are spiritual ups and downs. At one time, the student considers self a disciple, another time a friend, and sometimes even a rabbi from whom others should learn.
Being a disciple is harder than being a rabbi because the disciple is at a lower degree. The disciple must realize who the rabbi is and what should be learned from him. If the information is already known, the student has already grasped the higher degree and has nothing to learn. If the student understands what the rabbi has that the student lacks, that is fine, for after some time the student will acquire it, too.
To be a disciple means to see external vessels that are in the possession of the rabbi, realize that one does not have them, and reach the conclusion that those attributes can be acquired only through cleaving to that higher degree.
The disciple needs to cleave in the full sense of the word: physically – to become a part of the body, to be a supporting organ – and spiritually – to try to think, experience, and aspire to live as the rabbi does.
If the disciple cleaves like that to the rabbi, then only through the desires and ideas that they have in common can that person attain the inner attainment of the rabbi.
Q: If “rabbi” and “disciple” designate spiritual degrees, how are the Sefirot of the disciple linked with those of his teacher?
A: When the vessels of bestowal ( GE – Galgalta v e Eynaim) of the student are ready, the rabbi brings his vessels of reception ( AHP – Awzen, Hotem, Peh) down to him. We can always use the vessels of AHP of the rabbi because it is impossible to use the vessels of reception of the disciple.
Then the disciple builds ten complete Sefirot from his own GE and the AHP of the rabbi, and begins to attain the Upper Degree through the AHP of the rabbi, provided that his GE correspond to their attributes.
In this process, the disciple nullifies his vessels of reception at first, as though he does not exist. Once the AHP of the rabbi links with that of the disciple, he sees how the AHP of the Upper One relates to his GE, and becomes a disciple. Thus, to be a disciple is a state that one attains after a certain amount of inclusion.
Q: And what happens once the student has become a disciple?
A: After the disciple has grown accustomed to working with his GE, he begins to get used to working with his AHP. His AHP should resemble that of the rabbi, meaning that he should give to the rabbi just as the rabbi gives to him. Then he will climb to the higher degree through the AHP of the rabbi, and ask of him the strength to raise his AHP to that degree, and become as great as he is.
As soon as the disciple rises to the degree of the rabbi, he sees that the rabbi is above him. And why did he not see it before? Because he was incapable of estimating the rabbi as higher than his own GE. Only once he has corrected his AHP to the higher degree is he capable of seeing the rabbi and appreciating him, and so the process goes, higher and higher.
You have to believe that the rabbi exists, and that his AHP is always in your GE. As soon as your GE are fixed, you will feel how he transcends you and how his AHP works like an elevator for his disciples. Everyone is linked to the Upper One independently. You only have to nourish the desire to rise.
Rabbi and Disciple – Physically and Spiritually
Q: When a disciple physically helps his rabbi and serves him, can he acquire spiritual attributes faster than through his studies? If so, how is that possible, if we learn that physical actions bear no spiritual results?!
A: It is indeed possible because both teacher and student are in the same world. The student is only in this world; he has only the attributes of his will to receive for himself, while the rabbi is in both, maintaining contact with the will to receive of the disciple through his own body.
When the student is in contact with the rabbi only on the physical level and gives to him on that level, he begins to make contact with him on the spiritual level as well (provided the student really wants that contact), without even noticing it. He begins to subconsciously receive spiritual ideas from his rabbi that seemingly flow to him from his teacher.
How is that possible? After all, the disciple doesn’t have the vessel for it, he doesn’t have sensations of loving others and he doesn’t have the aim for the Creator in which to receive those ideas. Regarding this question, see “ A Speech for the Completion of the Zohar” by Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag.
By the way, I tried that principle on myself. I received a lot of ideas about spirituality like a child receives the picture of our world, when he doesn’t understand the essence of what is going on, the root of the phenomena, and his insights are superficial and external. That situation is possible, and that is how man attains the Upper World.
Generally speaking, it is possible to understand the spiritual world only to the extent we attain it and acquire knowledge about it, and by the strength of our screen. But that relates to ordinary spiritual attainment. To the extent that we have an opportunity to come close to our rabbi through service and help, we also attain some of the spiritual conceptions of the rabbi.
In fact, I do not give my students that chance, because the group is large and I should not make any single person more prominent than the others. I do not want to raise just one disciple, but many. Besides, there are other means and ways to acquire the rabbi’s spiritual conceptions. Some of them were used by Rabbi Shimon Bar-Yochai, such as collective meals, sports activities, trips, weddings, and so on.
Q: When the rabbi attains the end of correction, will the disciple have to remain on earth in order to live and be corrected?
A: If the disciple is linked to his teacher, it does not matter what their situation is. It does not matter if one of them is still dressed in the dresses of this world, or if he has already taken them off, because the inner link, the spiritual one, is already there.
Therefore, do not despair because there are no spaces in the spiritual realm, everything is near, if you are indeed “near” spirituality. Distance is determined by the compatibility between attributes, desires and aspirations – by the compatibility of the screen. That is what you must acquire, as the summit still lies ahead of you.
Q: When I receive the soul that leads me past the barrier, does that mean I don’t need my rabbi anymore?
A: On the contrary, only after the entrance to the Upper World will you, as a disciple, begin to really understand who your rabbi is, and begin to make the most of your connection with him. It is then that you will realize how much you need your rabbi.
Rabbis cooperate with us in our spiritual work and bond with us, on the level called “mouth to mouth,” but we’ll talk some more about it once you cross the barrier.
Working with a Rabbi
Q: There is a notion of “work with a rabbi.” How can a group reach a state in which its relations with the rabbi would turn into “work” and what does this notion actually mean?
A: Baal HaSulam wrote about this type of work in his article, “ A Speech for the Completion of the Zohar.” He writes there about a disciple and a rabbi, but a group and a rabbi relates to a similar situation. If it is a real group, then it is like one student. At first, the “mouth to ear” condition for relations and learning is applied, and afterwards, if the group merits it, “mouth to mouth” is also applied.
Surpassing the Teacher
Q: While reading the materials on the site, I stumbled across something that aroused my interest. It concerns whether a disciple can surpass one’s teacher in one’s spiritual quest, and the answer was “yes.” But how can it be? A teacher is always at a higher level, and what the disciple “imagines“ comes from one’s egoism, like in a growing child who feels superior in achievement to its parents. But isn’t this just self-deception?
A:
A disciple can surpass one’s teacher. Baal HaSulam discovered that he had “grown out” of his rabbi’s (the rabbi from Pursov) spiritual level. Hence he left for the land of Israel.
If teacher and disciple work with full cooperation, they can be either as teacher and disciple, or as two friends. They can switch places. The difference is rather insignificant.
Take for example, the rabbi that Baal HaSulam began to study Kabbalah with – the rabbi from Porsov (a small town near Warsaw). My rabbi told me that once, when Baal HaSulam came to bid farewell to his rabbi, before he came to Israel, he clearly saw that he had risen higher than the degree of his teacher in his attainment. He spoke about this with his eldest son, who was fifteen at the time.
Thus, it doesn’t matter if you are a teacher or a student. But teachers, just like at school, guide the students, show them how to enter the spiritual world and give them the skills necessary for the spiritual work. A brilliant student can become greater than one’s teacher, yet a teacher remains a teacher.
Between a student and a teacher there remains a spiritual contact, through common attributes and vessels. Thus, in the spiritual world, the two individuals are not considered as two separate bodies, but one collective vessel.
That is why, if I give something to a student of mine who rises higher than I, based on all I have offered, that student retains what I gave, and yet that something bonds the student with me as well.
There is common work that takes place even if my student performs it and not I. At the end of correction, all our common efforts will unite into one.
Searching the Way to People
Q: Why do you spend so much time on people of my level, which is ZERO? Doesn’t it interfere with your spiritual mission? Why, then, didn’t all Kabbalists reveal themselves to the masses?
A:
First of all, Kabbalists have not revealed themselves publicly mainly because the masses prevented them from doing so, as in the case of Baal HaSulam with his Kabbalistic newspaper (the texts from the book “ Matan Torah”). At that time, the majority of people didn’t wish to know the reason for their existence.
Secondly, the environment in which Kabbalists lived often threatened them (for example, Ramchal in the 16th century).
Finally, I spend a lot of time publicizing Kabbalah because my great teacher – the last Kabbalist who received this spiritual enlightenment from Above-- commanded me to do so. Today, the egoism of the masses has developed and the events of life make one see the futility of such life.
We in our generation are pioneers in the quest for the Higher World from down up, the first ones for whom Kabbalah was given.
Q: Excuse me for offering advice in a field I know nothing about. However, I suggest that if you attract a dozen new students annually, as well as a few thousand supporters worldwide, Wouldn’t it be better to focus all efforts and time on the disciples of only the highest quality? If they can change the state of the universe and attract the Light, then perhaps after a while everyone will be rewarded.
A:
In the past, Kabbalists used to sit quietly and cultivate their connection with the Creator, but, upon Baal HaSulam’s instruction and according to the demands of our time, we will plunge into a third world war unless we succeed in spreading these ideas.
All we think of is how to avoid our petty troubles, but a problem of colossal proportions is approaching. Baal HaSulam writes about this as a very real possibility. I write this because he did so.
Besides, unlike previous generations, when Kabbalists took the correction of the world upon themselves, today we all must attain the Higher World and establish schools for that purpose.
It’s not easy, since we use the method designed for those few whose desire for the spiritual has awakened, and not for the unaware masses. As a result, we search for the way to reach people. We try to spread something quite opposite to ideas of this world, though these are most valuable. I seek your advice. But we have to keep doing what we are doing.
A Rabbi and a Group
Q: What is the connection between the rabbi and his group of disciples?
A: A group is a spiritual term that is always linked to a rabbi. We have all decided that we want, to a certain degree, to cleave to the Creator. That small desire of each and every one of us unites to form a collective desire, and that is called a “group.” It doesn’t matter if one of us is imbued with the idea this very minute, because we constantly change within. If that decision was taken once, it exists forever, because nothing is lost in the spiritual world. We may rise or fall with respect to our decision, but the decision itself remains intact.
A group is like a partnership. You can fall and have nothing left of the previous spiritual situation, but the group will continue to exist, and so will your share in it, regardless of your present state.
If one makes room for the other, then the group exists in a spiritual realm. You’ve invested your aspirations, your strength and your goal in the group, but how will you be able to receive help from the group when you need it?
You will receive help only if you are able to nullify your ego and submit to the opinion of the group in everything: the goal, the idea, the way to attain the idea, in all the values and the order of importance. Only then will you make your mark on the group and become like it, meaning as you have created it.
Rabbi Yehuda Ashlag writes about it in his article, “ A Speech for the Completion of the Zohar.” He says, “I ndeed the sufficient attainment of His Exaltedness that is enough to turn the bestowal to reception, as was mentioned above regarding the important personality, is not at all difficult, for everyone knows the greatness of the Creator who created every thing and outworns every thing without beginning or an end, whose sublimity is endless.
But the difficulty is in the fact that the value of the sublimity depends not on the individual, but on the environment. For example: even if we are filled with good qualities, if our environment does not regard us as such, we will always remain low-spirited and will not be able to take pride in our virtues, although we are well aware of their validity.
And to the contrary, if we are without any good qualities and were appreciated by those around us as having a great many fine qualities, we would be filled with pride, for the importance and the glorification is given entirely to the hands of the environment.
And when we see that our environment slights His Work and does not appreciate His Greatness, as it should, we cannot overpower the environment. Consequently, we, too, become unable to attain His Greatness, and we slight His worship as they do.
And since we have no basis for the attainment of His Greatness, it is obvious that we will not be able to work in order to bring contentment to our Maker, rather than for ourselves. That is because we haven’t the fuel for the effort, and for “You laboured yet did not find, do not believe.”
Thus, we have no choice but to either work for ourselves, or not at all, for bringing contentment to our Maker will not serve as fuel for us under these conditions.
Now you can understand the words, “In the multitude of people is the king's glory, ” for the value of the glory comes from the environment under two conditions:
1. Appreciation from the environment.
2. The size of the environment. Hence, “In the multitude of people is the king's glory. ”
And because of the great difficulty in this matter, our sages advised us to ”Make for yourself a rabbi and buy for yourself a friend.” This means that we should choose for ourselves an important and famous person and make him our rabbi, from which we can come to the practice of Torah and Mitzvot in order to bring contentment to our Maker. For here, there are two easements to our rabbi:
1. Since we think our rabbi is an important personality, we can bring him contentment, based on his greatness. That is because the bestowal has not been turned into reception, which is a natural fuel that can produce further acts of bestowal every time. And after we grow accustomed to giving to our rabbi, we can transfer this bestowal to the practice of Torah and Mitzvot for Her name, meaning toward the Creator, for the habit will have become second nature to us.
2. The equivalence of form with the Creator does not do us any good if it is not forever, meaning until “He who knows all mysteries will testify that he shall not turn back to folly.” But since our rabbi is in this world and within the boundaries of time, the equivalence of form helps even if it is only temporary and afterwards we return to folly. Thus, every time we equalize our form with our rabbi, we temporarily cleave to him. Thus, we attain his knowledge and thoughts, depending on his attainment, as we have shown in the parable about the organ that was severed from the body and then put back on.
Hence, the disciple can use the rabbi’s attainment of the greatness of the Creator, which turns bestowal into reception and sufficient fuel for great devotion. Then the disciple, too, would be able to practice Torah and Mitzvot for Her name with his heart and soul, which is the remedy for the attainment of eternal adhesion with the Creator.
Now you can understand what our sages said: “The practice of Torah is preferred to the study of Torah.” As it is said, “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah.” It does not say “learned,” but “poured.” That seems perplexing, for how can such simple acts be greater than the study of the wisdom and the knowledge?
However, the above makes it clear that serving the rabbi in the flesh with great devotion to bring him contentment brings us adhesion with our rabbi, meaning equivalence of form. And thus we receive the knowledge and thoughts of our rabbi, “mouth to mouth,” which is the adhesion of one spirit with another.
In this way, we attain our greatness sufficiently to turn bestowal to reception, and become a sufficient fuel for complete devotion, until we attain adhesion with the Creator.
Because studying Torah from our rabbi must be for ourselves, it does not induce adhesion and is considered “mouth to ear.” And the service of the rabbi induces in the disciple the thoughts of the rabbi, and the study is only the words of the rabbi. The service is better than the study, as the thought of the rabbi is greater than his words, and “mouth to mouth” excels over “mouth to ear.”
But all this is true if the service is in order to bring contentment to the rabbi. If, however, the service is for self, such a service cannot bring us to adhesion with our rabbi, and then studying with our rabbi is more important than serving him.
But just as we have said about the attainment of His Greatness (that the environment that does not regard Him highly weakens us and prevents us from attaining His Greatness), this is certainly also true regarding our rabbi: The environment that does not regard the rabbi highly prevents the disciple from attaining the greatness of one’s rabbi, as on should.
Hence our sages said, “Make for yourself a rabbi and buy for yourself a friend.” This means that we should make for ourselves a new environment that would help us attain the greatness of our rabbi, through the love of friends who value our rabbi. That is because the words of the friends who praise the rabbi give each of them the sensation of his greatness. Thus, bestowal to the rabbi becomes reception and a fuel that is sufficient to bring us to study Torah and Mitzvot for Her name.
And it is said about that, that the Torah is obtained in 48 virtues, and in the service and precision of our friends. For besides serving the rabbi, we also need the precision of our friends, meaning their influence to work on us to attain the greatness of our rabbi, as the attainment of the greatness depends solely on the environment, and a single person cannot in any way have any bearing on it, as we explained above.
Thus, there are two conditions for the attainment of the greatness:
1. That we always listen to and accept the appreciation of the environment as they praise the Creator .
2 . That the environment will consist of many people, as it is written: “In the multitude of people is the king's glory. ”
In order for the first condition to be accepted, each disciple must feel that he is the least powerful among all the friends. Then, the disciple will be able to be influenced by everyone’s appreciation of the greatness, for the great cannot receive from the small, much less be impressed with his words. Only the small is impressed with the appreciation of the great.
In order for the second condition to be accepted, every disciple must appraise the virtue of every friend and appreciate that person as though he were the greatest in the generation. Then the environment will have the impact that a great environment should, for the quality is more important than the quantity.
Inner Connection – Only Above the Barrier
Q: We speak a lot about the work in groups, about connections between the group members, and about the means for cohesion. Should there be some inner bond among the group members and, if possible, how can it be achieved before crossing the barrier? Can one rely on a teacher’s help to attain such an inner bond?
A:
Unity is achieved only by attaining necessary properties; nothing can ever be gained forcefully or artificially in the inner (spiritual) world. Hence, as we enter the Higher World and attain the Creator’s properties, we should unite with our friends (and with our teacher).
Meanwhile, we should perform everything artificially, knowing that none of our “good” relationships are genuine and exist merely for the sake of reaching their true form upon entering the Higher World.
Disturbances
Q: How should I relate to various disturbances?
A: We normally only discuss a person when Reshimot (reminiscence) of the Upper World begin to surface in that individual. One begins to feel the point in the heart – the desire for something that is not yet understood, something not from this world, but above it. A yearning arises for the purpose of creation, the discovery of the Creator during the course of one’s life in this world.
We want all the worlds, including the one that is concealed from us -- the Upper World -- to appear before us. Then we will be able to see the eternal spiritual degree and unite with it, when there is no difference between good and evil, and life and death. Everything will be united in a state of endless wholeness.
That is the purpose all of mankind should reach, as in the verse: “He is One, and His name One.”
He-meaning the Creator; His name-meaning creation. The creature gives names according to its feelings about the Creator, if a creature has been fully corrected, it unites with the Creator. That unification is the goal, the final state of the universe. We can reach that goal today.
Any phenomenon that collides with our intention to reach the goal is regarded as a disturbance, an obstacle. Because we believe there is no force other than the Creator, and we advance to the goal according to His Plan, we have to be creative about the disturbances that come to us from that Source, the Creator, which keeps pushing toward the goal.
We must understand that any disturbance is, in fact, not an obstacle on our way to the goal, but we feel it as such, because our attributes are as yet not like the Creator’s. In other words, the sensation of an obstacle indicates inner disturbances and lack of correction. The Creator relates to the entire creation with benevolence, without any preconditions. If we cannot feel the providence of the Creator as good, and feel resistant, it is because we have an inner barrier, not an external disturbance.
Thus, there are no obstacles apart from our own corrupted attributes. Outside our souls, there is only the Creator, drawing us toward Him, to the most perfect situation. That is why we need to relate to any disturbance that we feel as a sign from Above, indicating which attribute is next in line to be corrected. And if we can correct it, it will be yet another step toward the goal.
In fact, our freedom of will is expressed in our ability to see in that situation a possibility to face the situation, to turn to the Creator, to ask for help and learn what needs to be corrected and how.
The feeling of disturbances is called “the concealment of the Creator.” It is natural that the minute we feel the disturbance, we cannot assess the situation correctly. All we see is that there is a barrier, but we cannot see the source, the reason for the appearance of the barrier. We must relate to those disturbances with the existence of the Creator in mind, understand that it is the Creator who sends us these disturbances, in order to help and show us precisely where we have to concentrate our efforts in order to discover Him.
By sending us the obstacle, the Creator indicates precisely what we have to focus on in our spiritual efforts in order to find Him. In fact, it is intended to help us, because only after a spiritual effort to confront the disturbance can we discover the Creator.
In order to successfully confront a disturbance (we will leave that word, although we see that it is, in fact, help), we must be spiritually prepared. If we are aware that all the disturbances are intended to correct our spiritual state and bring us yet another step closer to the Creator, and if we are basically positive about those disturbances, then when we stumble upon them, we will know how to handle them.
Let’s take an example from a frequent situation in a group: I (a student) learn that someone said something bad about me. I am naturally frustrated; I begin to justify and defend myself; and I see that person as an enemy. I even think of taking revenge on him. Thus, instead of relating to that disturbance in a positive manner and working with it, I want to eliminate it, along with the person, who, I think, caused it.
It doesn’t matter whether what he said was true or false. I have to learn to understand not the meaning of things, but rather the manner in which I must relate to what has been sent to me by the Creator, via a third party. I must do this in order to see and correct my flaw, and, in the process, discover the Creator through my spiritual work.
In fact, the Creator made me face that disturbance to help me advance spiritually. Such opportunities can come in the least pleasant form, as a feeling of guilt, or by learning something good that dazzles my mind. In any case, it is not about the phenomenon itself, but about its origin and the One who sent it - the Creator. Afterwards, when I aim for the Creator, I can begin to wonder why He sent it to me this way and not another?
If I were willing to take anything that comes to me as something that a-priori comes from the Creator, I would take any criticism with love and understanding, because I would know where it comes from, and that the Creator is bringing me closer to Him.
Every time I hear something bad, I am in a debate. Does this news come from the Creator, or is it just that person who brought it to me. I gradually force myself to relate to that spiritual disturbance as something that I can use in order to come closer to the Creator, and feel Him even more.
There is no better feeling than when I cross the barrier and discover the sensation of complete attainment, unification with the Creator. Confronting a disturbance means working on it, accepting it as a message from the Creator to correct the attribute.
The one correct solution, regardless of how I am informed, whether more pleasantly or less, or more justly or less, is to accept it without argument, as something given, as the Will of the Creator. That is why I relate to it as a call to come to the Creator. These are the Creator’s instructions to me, as He marks the points that delay my approach to Him.
Group Work
Q: How can I accept the disturbances in the group?
A: Accepting another’s opinion means to live in it, to accept his ideas above your own, and agree that everything that happens is for your own good because a friend recommends it.
Here is a question for you: if a friend criticizes you, should he take into account the possible ramifications, your possible reaction to his criticism? Why can’t you relate to his criticism in the same way that he criticizes you? Why can’t you counter-accuse him? Why do you need to relate to the opinion of a friend as a “voice from Heaven?” Doesn’t he stop being your friend then, and become a representative of the Creator?
We are dealing here with the wisdom of the Kabbalah, the only system of attaining the Creator, of entering the spiritual world. We have become a group in order to shorten the way as much as possible. We must treat everything that happens in the group as signs, instructions from the Creator. We have no right to think that what happens between us is merely a number of routine, everyday problems.
It is not that we calculate whether it is more profitable for us to deal with our petty strife or advance together toward the sublime goal. In fact, if the aim and the reason for the formation of the group is the attainment and revelation of the Creator, then everything we get today should be treated as a message that the Creator sends us in order to approach Him.
What this implies is that we have friends who go along with us on our spiritual path, and if they mistreat us, we should not focus on that. Rather, we should try to build a warm and friendly relationship, and correct ourselves according to the problems that arise. By such action, we go “above our own reason” and thus attain the goal.
Based on the purpose of the group, all the disturbances and the friction that arise in the group are in fact thrusts forward, not disturbances. They are a call from the Creator to the group to spiritually advance toward Him. They are His signs as to what the group should focus its effort on.
It is precisely within a group that problems are vital. Only through a correct spiritual response of all the members of the group, with help and mutual understanding, can the group advance spiritually that much faster than would a single individual.
As the group advances, the disappointments and the strife will increase, but they should be handled with the slogan, “the goal above all.” We know that everything comes to us from the Creator, and we must constantly increase our spiritual efforts in order to strengthen our faith in this knowledge. We must believe that He sends us pain precisely in the right amounts for each member of the group, and that the group as a whole, can handle what it receives.
Moreover, it is inadvisable to rejoice at the absence of problems. It may well be a sign that the group is not making spiritual progress, and will not be able to handle problems. We should be glad or disappointed not at the presence or the absence of problems, but at our progress toward the goal.
Generally speaking, we should be glad when we are faced with problems, because they testify to yet more of our attributes that need correction. Before we enter the Upper World and the sensation of the Creator, these problems navigate us while the Creator is concealed from us.
He leads us in the spiritual darkness through the problems that He sends, and uses them to indicate precisely where we should concentrate our efforts in our spiritual journeys. If we succeed in correcting these attributes, we will be able to feel the Creator.
Each of us is faced with problems in our daily lives. The difference is in how we relate to those problems. Are we aware that the Creator is the Source, or do we blame our surroundings? Do we treat our problems as ordinary people do, or as something from which we want to benefit, for the purpose of nearing Him, as Kabbalists do?
The minute we are faced with a dispute, we must not abandon the post and immediately accept our friends’ position. Rather, we must review and analyze all the circumstances. And most important, we have to stay focused and aware that we are performing spiritual work, and not descend to the level of “keeping score” with friends.