Question: What does it mean to pass the Machsom?

Answer: To pass the Machsom means to establish the first connection with the Creator regardless of the sensation He gives me. Moreover, I do not measure, nor can I measure what this sensation is.

I need to establish a connection with Him based on my perceiving the quality of bestowal even to the smallest degree, and determining that it is more important to me than any of my sensations. This is because I want to adhere to Him so that bestowal becomes something shared between Him and me and serves as the connection between us.

In other words, I define the upper one as the giver, and I find within myself this measure of the giver, the giver’s intention against the background of the unpleasant sensation that I can perform a Tzimtzum on as though it does not matter to me whether I have it or not.

Instead, I raise the point of bestowal within me above all my AHP. It is called my Galgalta ve Eynaim. The AHP seems not to exist, and I feel that through Galgalta ve Eynaim, this point of bestowal, I am connected to the upper one and exist within Him like an embryo. This is the beginning of my connection with the upper one.

In this way, I enter the “pillar” of degrees through which I will ascend and grow.
[363520]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/26, Rabash, Letter No. 23, 1956

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A person is not capable of making the transition from sensation to intention through their own efforts.  It is beyond  their power. An external auxiliary factor must be present. To the extent that a person has prepared their connection with the group, with the books, and with the teacher, and in proportion to the effort invested in them, they can receive help.

As the saying goes: “A prisoner cannot free himself from prison.” He is incapable, as he is immersed in his own sensation and there is nothing he can do on his own. In such a state, either time passes, meaning, the upper force provides assistance from above, or helps arrives through the books and authors.

The most effective means is the group, where various processes are constantly unfolding, connections are being transformed, and tasks and activities are changing. Through this, members pay attention to each other and are drawn toward one another through cooperation on a physical level. In doing so, they help convey a sense of the importance of bestowal to the individual, and remind them of the goal so that they do not remain trapped within their own, often negative, sensation. And then everything falls in place.

However, this entails a great deal of work. Until a person firmly establishes this state above the Machsom, they remain in what is known as concealment. The Creator conceals Himself behind the negative sensation that He gives a person, but this sensation is caused by the fact that He shows the person a measure of bestowal instead of pleasure.

In this way, He helps us prepare ourselves to be dependent upon and connected with His property of bestowal and not with the pleasures that come from Him.
[363418]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/13/26, Rabash, Letter No. 23, 1956

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In “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah,” Rabash explains the stages a person goes through before reaching the goal. Since we begin with matter, and our matter is the desire to receive, the desire to enjoy, our path is to turn this desire around and work with it against its natural intention.

When we study the descent from above downward, we see how matter, and then the desire to receive, are created through the four phases of the direct light. As this desire descends and reaches the shattering, it still has a property that is not yet the desire to receive as we know it.

Only after the shattering, when sparks of Bina, sparks of bestowal, enter this desire, do they become an intention to receive within it. Although these sparks come from Bina, both Malchut and Bina undergo the shattering. As a result, the intention of the desire becomes to receive for its own sake, for its own pleasure. It becomes completely closed within itself both in its action and in its intention.

Therefore, our work is different from the original state, when the Kli in the world of Ein Sof decided to act in order to bestow. There, we are talking about the matter of the worlds where there is no evil inclination and, initially, no intention to receive for oneself.

This intention appears only later, in the impure worlds of BYA. We, however, begin from the opposite state. Therefore, first of all, we must undergo a correction called the degree of faith, the degree of righteousness, so that our intention changes from receiving for ourselves to bestowing.

We must reach the state called the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph) in which we do not use the desire to receive unless we have an intention to bestow. This concerns our attitude toward the Creator and not corporeal things. Under the influence of the Klipot, a person may start thinking that they are forbidden to eat or drink and must restrict themselves in this world.

No! What is meant is that in everything related to the Creator, in all our thoughts and actions connected with our spiritual development, we must maintain the intention to bestow. We must strive to achieve equivalence of form with the Creator, equivalence of intention, because in our actions we can never be like Him. We can either receive or not receive, whereas the Creator only gives.

But if we attain that very intention: not for ourselves but solely for the benefit of the Creator, we become equal to Him in form. This correction is called faith. Then our action of bestowal is called righteousness. In other words, when a person reaches a state in which they expect no reward for their thoughts or actions, this is called performing an act of charity (Tzedakah).

If a person truly tries to act in this way without expecting anything in return, they begin to discover that they are incapable of doing so. They do not want to do it and cannot even come close to this degree.

Then a state called “stiff-necked” becomes revealed in them. They strongly reject spirituality, blame the Creator, and do not want to attain righteousness, or the next degree called peace (Shalom).

That is why Baal HaSulam speaks about four angels, as though they were four fundamental qualities through which the Creator wishes to bring a person, meaning their desire to receive, to correction. At the final degree, called peace, the desire to receive is revealed as being entirely filled with conflict and unwilling to be at peace.

Thus, the desire to receive truly cannot bring itself to want to receive in order to bestow. But the means to achieve this is not found within the person or within these four qualities, these four degrees. It comes from above and is called the light that reforms (the surrounding light). This light corrects the desire to receive and enables it to attain what is required.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/14/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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Question: In the article “Understanding What Is Discussed in the Shulchan Aruch,” Baal HaSulam speaks about a transitional stage where as soon as something is revealed to a person, he rebels against it and begins to regret it. What does it mean that his mouth and heart are one?

Answer: Is it possible for a person not to feel regret, not to run away, but to move toward the goal? He himself has no strength at all. He can influence himself only through the group. There is only one answer here. Of the four factors that Baal HaSulam speaks of (the foundation, the development of the foundation, the environment, and the development of the environment), we are not capable of changing anything except the influence of the environment upon us.

If I want to change something in me, I must find the place that will influence me. If I want to change something else, I need to find another place that will influence me. I must choose whether I should speak with you or not, whether I should ask another person or not, whether I should listen to this or not. I must constantly choose what will influence me. This means that I perform a restriction upon myself and then choose the means through which I will develop.

In other words, I choose the goal, I choose the means, and I understand that I can I influence myself only in this way. I effectively act upon myself in the same manner that the Creator acts on me; I possess a vessel akin to that of the Creator; I look at myself from the side as a doctor looks at a patient; I treat myself as a third party, as something external. This grants me the opportunity to do something with this “I,” called, for example, Michael.

I know that I encompass certain desires, aspirations, and thoughts. How can I organize each parameter so that it is closer to the truth, to what I now understand as bestowal, the purpose of creation, and equivalence to the Creator? How can I myself change these properties and values?

For this, I must examine by what means I can do this. Certainly, these are external means, specifically through the group and the influence it exerts upon me from the outside. There is no other possibility. But if I know what I must become and what I am now, then I can more or less imagine what the external factor must be in order to move me from point A to point B.

Then I seek such a factor, such an environment, such a force that will change my direction and give importance to something else. Thus, I can more or less imagine what the group must be like, whether I need precisely these people or somewhat different ones, what inspires me in this group, and so on. It is as if I choose before entering the group, and upon entering, these calculations cease.

Thus, I am able to make a certain restriction, draw a boundary, and say: now I decide what will influence me. Then I make a decision and truly fix this influence. In this way, I as if choose my future form; that is, I create and shape myself. Then my work truly consists in using the forces of creation. It is similar to the work of the Creator, and on the basis of this, I study Him.

I have all the data; I need only to internalize, within both my mind and heart the understanding that I cannot influence myself by some frantic, inner exertion. No inner effort alone will help me; rather, only the effort made through the group will help. Why? Because through this, I acquire the property of bestowal. I do not simply want to change myself and become someone else. That other into whom I transform myself, by way of the group, will certainly exist in a state of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, “Rosh Hashanah”

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