Entries in the 'Group Work' Category

The Only Action that Exists in Nature

424.01Inclusion in one another is the only action that we are constantly performing, whether we want it or not.

Everything in our world is based on mutual inclusion: the processes of absorption and assimilation, the processes of excretion that take place in the body, various kinds of chemical reactions, the attraction or repulsion of bodies, their behavior in a magnetic or electric field, and so on. All of these are examples of mutual inclusion, which are based on the actions of the spiritual vessel and the light.

When we look for a way to measure the quality of our actions, we must always evaluate the degree of our inclusion in others; in other words, to what extent I can include myself in as many souls as possible—not in children, not in adults, not in the actions of the still, vegetative, animate nature, or man—but in souls.

Souls are points in the heart. Therefore, when I come to such a large congress, where thousands of points in the heart gather into which I intend to include myself, this is the most effective action for my spiritual advancement. It is the strongest action that can possibly take place in reality, in all the worlds.
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From KabTV’s “Kabbalah for Beginners,” 10/27/10

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The Result of the Influence of the Light

504Question: It is clear that I need a group that will increase the importance of the goal for me. But what if most of the work is in the recognition of evil?

Answer: If I were to shout at you and tell you that you are bad, you would not feel it. The recognition of evil must be the result of the influence of the surrounding light. The group only pushes and prompts you to become more sensitive to it, to attract it, and to reveal it more. And you must feel the result in your state in relation to the light.

Having people constantly shout at you that you are bad will not help. On a human level, this sometimes helps. But our advancement should not be from the negative, but only from the positive. When I reach out toward the goal, then according to the degree of its importance, the light influences me, and then I see the evil within me. And from the friends, I need to receive only the awareness of the importance of the Creator.

I must advance through the light, and not because people shout at me that I am bad. This will never lead to love of the friends and to the correct result.

If a person advances toward spirituality, then the awareness, measurement, and examination must be in spiritual Kelim (vessels), according to spiritual principles.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/26, Rabash, “What “Israel Do the Creator’s Will” Means in the Work”

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The Importance of the Group

938.05Question: How can the group attract a person from outside or foster a deeper connection with those already within it?

Answer: The most important thing is to help a person feel the importance of the group. The group must answer the questions that he raises. The problem is that we are not certain that we will find the answers to our questions within the group, in our connection with it, and therefore we tend to treat it dismissively. The group must help a person see and understand this.

The main thing is to demonstrate that the group has the answers to the questions that concern a person, that it can show him the goal, and how the group is moving toward it. Then he will feel how much he lacks it, and will become convinced that the group stands far above him.

Therefore we must strengthen the group, increase our love for the friends, and not be ashamed of it. Our group should be above everything else. It is the very best one, and we can receive everything from it.

But we should not present life in the group through rose-colored glasses. The main emphasis should be on the group’s ability to give a person spiritual life, and draw him forward toward the goal. The group itself cannot do this. The force comes from the Creator, but it passes through the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson’ in the Work?”

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Break Out of the Closed Circle

760.4There is only one path open to us leading to the Creator. If you wish, you may advance toward Him; if not,   you do not have to. The pace of your advancement depends on you, but only if you choose the single path, out of all 360 directions, that leads straight to Him.

But if you decide to go in one of the other 359 directions, paths that seem to be an alternative, then you are not free to choose. In that case, you will be tossed from side to side, through various directions and all kinds of states, so that by becoming confused, doing various things, and struggling your way out of them, you will once again come to this point of choice.

If you do not wish to make that choice, then continue revolving in the closed circle. You are given the opportunity to break out of it: if you wish, you can exit in the designated direction; if not wish, then, like the hand of a clock, you will complete another rotation until you return to the same starting point.

Later, on higher degrees, but not now, it becomes evident that free choice truly exists and consists only in choosing this one direction.

The whole of reality was created solely for the sake of this point of choice. Otherwise, if nothing depended on a person, then why would it be necessary to lead him through countless different states until the final correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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The Choice of Environment Is in a Person’s Hands

938.03The choice of environment is in a person’s hands. He can place himself under the influence of the group, try to influence it himself so that this influence returns to him many times stronger, or simply elevate the group.

If he has chosen a teacher, then all that remains is to elevate the teacher as much as possible in his own eyes. The only work he can do with respect to the teacher is to place himself under the teacher’s influence as much as possible.

The lower he places himself, the higher the teacher will be in his eyes. With respect to the friends, however, there are several possibilities. He can try to change them, he can try to change himself, or he can try to change his relationship with the group.

But once the group has been chosen, a person will be under the influence of the environment that he himself has chosen. The only thing he can influence is his connection with the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson’ in the Work?”

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The Group’s Help in Turning to the Creator

938.01In the book Pri Haham, Rabash calls the property of pride the force of destruction. What can I do? On one hand, I must preserve this force; on the other hand, I cannot turn to the Creator until this force is under my full control, because only after overcoming it can I ask Him for something.

I have to suppress myself, reach a state of lowering my “I” and exalting the Creator, but I am unable to do so. Therefore, the stony heart cannot be corrected until the final correction (Gmar Tikun).

You can correct this with the additional force you receive from the group. In this case, the force of the group is something special, as if it is outside the relationship between man and the Creator.

This is an additional force that I can use as an external help. It belongs neither to “existence from absence” nor to “existence from existence,” neither to man nor the Creator, but as if to something third that exists in nature.

Since pride puts me, like Pharaoh, against the Creator, there is nothing to be done about it. It is only from the outside that I can receive additional force, which will give me the opportunity to suppress my “I” and turn to the Creator. Otherwise, Pharaoh will shout, “Who is the Creator that I should listen to Him?” No matter how many plagues are thrown at me, nothing will help.

Therefore, Rabash emphasizes that only the force of the group can help us. Baal HaSulam writes that our happy future depends on it. Without the help of the group, I stand like a wall against the Creator, unable to do anything. The Creator does not want to be the first to reveal Himself to me, because by doing so, He would suppress my “I,” and I would simply annul before Him.

Can I ask the Creator to reveal Himself to me so that my “I” is suppressed through my own efforts, and His actions are a response to my actions? This can only be achieved by getting outside help.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is “Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson” in the Work?”

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In the Right Environment

939.02Question: Which criterion can we use to constantly check whether we are in the right environment?

Answer: The right environment is an environment that guides a person’s thoughts and desires to connect with the Creator with maximal force.

The right environment is all my inner qualities relative to my point in the heart, which connects me with the Creator. Everything else in me must contribute to this point of connection with the Creator.

My properties, desires, and aspirations are called my environment. My “I,” which is called “Moses” in me, that is, the point where the formation of the soul begins, can grow only in the right environment.

Rabash writes that there must be an initial state, stages of development of this state, the environment, and stages of development of this environment. If all this works together for the connection with the Creator, optimal conditions are created for the development of the soul.

I have to check which of these four parameters I can influence and which I cannot. It is a pity to waste time, for this is our work. There are many people who waste their breath, unable to see that their pursuits are empty. Of course, they will understand this over time, but it is a shame to make an effort only to realize the mistakes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson’ in the Work?”

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Demand the Group’s Improvement

938.05Question: Why is it necessary to put pressure on the group so that it is more precisely directed toward the goal? What does it mean to put pressure? It seems as though the group is constantly resisting this.

Answer: No, the group simply consists of people just like you. Putting pressure on them is also part of your free choice.

By placing yourself under the influence of your friends, as if standing under a shower so that they may influence you and cleanse you, you must also examine exactly how they are influencing you. Maybe they are being frivolous; maybe you are sitting in the “company of mockers.”

You must constantly demand that the group improve.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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Draw Strength from Your Root

938.07Question: How is the group related to “existence from absence” (Yesh mi Ayin)? Why should it provide me with forces that it has no connection to?

Answer: The group does not belong to Yesh mi Ayin, and therefore, it can give you additional strength. The strength of the group lies in its connection to our root where all souls are united together.

Therefore, here in our world, through my external actions, I can awaken those upper forces in which the power of my ‘”I” is not merely an individual force, as it is in the corporeal world, but is inseparably connected with another 599,999 such forces.

At our root, I and all the other souls exist on the level of Adam HaRishon. Therefore, while living in our world, I can draw strength from my root.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson’ in the Work?”

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What Should One Expect from the Commandments of the Torah?

533.01Question: What should one expect from the commandments of the Torah?

Answer: A “commandment of the Torah” consists of extracting the concept of the “Torah of life” from the Torah, attaining life itself. Baal HaSulam writes about this in TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). He refers not to the study itself, but to its result.

Question: Suppose a person is sweeping the floor in our building or working in the kitchen. Is this considered that he is studying Torah?

Answer: If I do something in our kitchen and intend thereby to attain something in my life, then the desire that arose in me at that moment, multiplied by the good, beneficial thing that I contributed to the group, that is, multiplied by the group’s collective desire to attain spirituality, becomes my own desire.

By serving my friends, I thereby acquire their desires, include myself in them, and then those desires influence me, and direct my own desire into the proper course.

As a result, during the lesson I intend to draw the light of the Torah that reforms from what I study, not to become a great sage or anything else.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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