Question: Do feelings such as envy, desire, and ambition arise in me when I see that I lack what my friend has in relation to the Creator?

Answer: No! There are negative and positive envy, lust, and glory. If I see something good in another, I might think that it would have been better if I hadn’t seen it so that I would not suffer. After all, when I see some good quality in him, it makes me feel bad.

Or I see something good, and it awakens in me the desire to also attain it. Then I must be grateful to the one who gave me the opportunity to see these special pleasures that can be achieved. Before I did not even think such things existed in the world. This is good envy.

Bad envy is when I see people who are doing well, but I, say, do not sufficiently desire to be like them. That is, I weigh that the effort I must exert greatly exceeds the pleasure I would gain. The goal does not justify the means.

In other words, I am lazy. This is called laziness. And to avoid suffering, I would just like that not to exist for them either. Or I become annoyed that I saw it, and now I am envious. Everything is reversed. Instead of striving to reach a higher level, I wish to see these people at a level lower than mine. “The suffering of many is half the consolation.” They have less, and I have more, immediately my mood improves.

It all depends on the person’s goal—how he wants to use qualities like envy, lust, and honor. Either he wants to rise with their help because the importance of the goal obliges him, and then he uses these qualities in a useful, effective, constructive form.

Or it can be otherwise, when he wants to destroy everything he sees in another because comfort is more important to him than advancement. The suffering is not yet strong enough for him to want to leave the current state. It all depends on the calculation and what we expect from the state we are in.

Imagine the situation. We see that half of those here are asleep, and the rest do not care. Inside them, there is no burning desire to break free from this state, where “better death than this life.” Ask them: “Do you wish that your next state will reveal that there is no possibility of stagnation?” They will answer: “Well… we can try, maybe it is better.”

But there are also those who will say that they are waiting for it and are ready for anything because without it there is no advancement. So it all depends on prior preparation. In the group there must be some idea, some goal, for which it would be worthwhile to exist.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Creator Does Not Tolerate the Proud,’ in the Work?”

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The Zohar says about the verse, “And there was evening and there was morning” (Genesis 3, p 96, and Item 151 in the Sulam Commentary), “‘And there was evening,’ which the text writes, means that it extends from the side of darkness, meaning Malchut. ‘And there was morning’ means that it extends from the side of the light, which is ZA.

This is why it writes about them, “One day,” indicating that the evening and morning are as one body, and both make the day (Rabash, “And There Was Evening and There Was Morning”).

The Torah begins with the words “In the beginning” (“Bereshit”). By “beginning” we mean the beginning of a person’s advancement, when he can already distinguish between his ascents and descents. He begins to define more correctly what a descent is in relation to an ascent, what is good in relation to evil, light in relation to darkness.

If he sees that his thoughts are drawing closer to the thoughts of the masses, he defines this as darkness, as evil, even though in his feelings it may seem pleasant or good. Yet he understands that remaining within the thoughts of the masses distances him from spirituality and from the purpose of creation.

Conversely, when he turns inward and finds even some small closeness to the upper force, to the Creator, to a recognition of the value of bestowal, within himself, he defines this as an ascent. But here, too, there are various degrees. A person does not always know which state he is in and remains in it almost unconsciously without the ability to measure it.

Each state begins when a person seemingly observes it from the side and perceives it from an objective perspective that does not depend on him.

In other words, when he acquires the ability to understand his state, and the word “understanding” (Heb. “Havana”) comes from Bina, that is, when there is Bina within Malchut, and he receives some sensation of something higher than ordinary animate life, then two points appear within him. From the difference between them, he examines his state. Now he can discern where good is and where evil is, where truth is and where falsehood is.

If he rises above the sensations of good and evil and is ready to proceed according to the definition of truth and falsehood, then one can say with certainty that he is consciously in states of ascent and descent. Then he may conclude that going within reason may be correct at his present degree, but if he wishes to rise to a higher degree, he must go in faith above reason.

Through this, he acquires intellect, attainment, and closeness to the upper, to a higher degree. At that point, it can truly be said that his path begins to be defined as “In the beginning”: He now has a beginning, he has a head (Rosh), he has a goal, and he is moving toward advancement.

He always sees his present state as darkness, as evening, and strives toward morning, so that there will be one day, and another day, and yet another. Each of his states begins with evening, and whatever it may be, he comes to realize that there is a higher state, one closer to the Creator. Therefore, he defines his current state as evening, and from this he arrives at morning, at the first day, the second, and the third.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/26, Rabash, “And There Was Evening and There Was Morning”

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When a person is proud and has no desire to annul his authority before the Creator, and says that he has no lowliness in him, but he rather does what he wants, from this come to him all the bad qualities. The light of pleasure, which comes from above, illuminates as a slim light in order to sustain the world. As is known, it dresses in three qualities, called “envy,” “lust,” and “honor,” and all three qualities are included in the quality of pride (Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Creator Does Not Tolerate the Proud,’ in the Work?”).

Pride is a common term for a human personality, a sense of one’s own “I.” There is a correction for this feeling: bringing a person to realize that he is not capable of anything. Rather, he is capable of many things in this life, but he cannot come to spiritual correction on his own.

How is one led to understand he cannot correct himself, to come to Lishma? It is with the help of three qualities: envy, lust, and honor.

Because the human desire to receive has all three qualities, it develops. As a person develops, he sees that every time he is unable to control the desire to receive, he cannot combine it with the intention to give and use it within the framework of eternity. Then he gives up and asks the Creator for help.

Our progress, in fact, includes many such states when we try and fail, try again and again in vain. And every time a prayer appears in our hearts, an appeal to the Creator, that I am unable, I cannot. So far, this request, that I am really disappointed in myself and want to achieve an intention to bestow, has not fully formed as addressed specifically to the Creator.

But gradually, a person begins to learn more and more about these details within his desire to receive, within his environment, and becomes convinced of the importance of this goal. He sees that otherwise, his life will be temporary, random, and meaningless.

This happens until he begins to understand that this appeal is not a natural request due to accidental disappointment, but a certain approach to various life situations in order to find the right attitude to all cases of life, to see how much he is able or not to dominate the desire to receive, and based on this, turn to the Creator with true prayer.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Creator Does Not Tolerate the Proud,’ in the Work?”

A person should not work for the vessels of receiving, but for the importance of the Creator, which are called vessels of bestowal. Into the same vessels of reception that experience only pleasure or suffering, bitter-sweet, I introduce my own value system called true-false, closer or further from the Creator.

I bring the Creator into them! Then I always measure the vessel by the degree of proximity to Him, and not by what is felt inside the vessel. This is called the Creator filling the vessels.

How can I do this more efficiently, faster, and more precisely? Even though I do not want to see this and will naturally run from this work, how do I put myself in a state that allows me to see clearly so that, despite my desire to receive, I can stay in this work and not run away?

To do this, I will organize an environment for myself. It gives me a sense of the importance of spirituality, of stepping on myself, and following the true-false system instead of the bitter-sweet system even if I do not want to. It lets me see which value system I am in.

That is, the environment, the group, helps me go against the ego and endure states I would not have endured otherwise, subconsciously running away from them and spending time calming myself down, as they say, everything is fine, it is okay, I am advancing. I would be deceiving myself, unknowingly, uncontrollably.

Question: How do I know what the truth is?

Answer: I receive information about the truth from the surrounding light. But I receive it to the extent of my desire to reveal it.

If I follow books alone, I will still have this desire, but in a group, it unfolds much faster. A group is something alive, while books, in all their importance, are on a different level.

In the group, I constantly receive criticism from my friends, changes in my states toward them and their states toward me. In addition, a group has a teacher who influences me through it, and my studies in the group take a different form. That is, everything must pass through other souls, for I am interconnected with them, linked with them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/26, Rabash, “And There Was Evening and There Was Morning”