Question: If it is written, “Buy yourself a friend,” why is one friend not enough for me? Why do I need many friends?

Answer: Because one is not enough. As Baal HaSulam writes in “The Giving of the Torah” and in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” “In the multitude of the people is the King’s glory.” This means that I am not able to be inspired by one person.

I am able to be inspired by many who share the same opinion as I do and who can be my environment. Of course, it may also be one person, but still it will not influence me as much as needed.

I need as large an environment as possible, although within it I see different people. It does not matter; each time I can pay attention to those from whom I will receive inspiration.

I can be inspired by some, while I invest efforts—“buy for yourself a friend”—specifically in others. However, since all are connected into one society, it does not matter. This is how it works. The environment must be as large and as strong as possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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If a person is unable to draw inspiration from their friends, it means that the goal is still not important to them. Perhaps the goal is important to them, but they haven’t figured out what it is yet. The goal is adhesion with the Creator through equivalence of qualities, which I can achieve only if I gather strength from my environment; the Creator gave me the initial impetus.

For such a person, this entire process has not yet been fully understood and they don’t connect their goal with the true goal. They believe it lies in knowing a lot, in seeing the whole world from end to end, in feeling eternity, in being above the world. They haven’t yet deciphered the correct definition of the goal of creation. It isn’t yet completely connected to the giver with the understanding that they too must come to the force of bestowal. Then they replace the true goal with another goal, they dress it in a different garment that is more egoistic, more understandable to them. This is normal. What can they do? It is the result of his state.

Nevertheless, one must increasing focus on seeing the goal as clearly as possible in a form closer to the truth. And then, thanks to this, a person will see that indeed he or she lacks strength, knowledge, and understanding of where to begin, and will feel the need to turn to the group.

If a person truly, reveals time after time, an even more true goal, more directed toward bestowal, more distant from them by virtue of their nature, they will more clearly feel that they are unable to take a step toward it. Then they must remember that the forces for this exist only in the environment. And since they have already entered it, they turn to it out of desperation.

The absence of a way out is the stimulus that compels me to turn to the group, since otherwise I will not be able to find the strength to move forward. It is like the need to maintain life within yourself, and so I come and ask. It is only in this case, the request in itself does not help. You must invest effort and receive strength in return.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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The meaning of “forced the mountain on them like a vault” is that the reason that now they must receive the Torah and they have no other choice is the mountain, meaning the information they received in the thought and intellect that they are in a state of descent because they have evil in the hearts. This is like a vault, meaning that it is coercive and they have no choice (Rabash, Article “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”).

The state in which I realize my opposition to the Creator in all my qualities is called “standing at Mount Sinai.” I stand at the foot of the mountain and above me is a mountain of doubts, my bad qualities, that separate me from the Creator who is at the top of the mountain.

How do I know that He is at the top? Because that is where my point in the heart, called Moses, is. When I feel the difference between these two sensations, there is a need for me to receive the reforming light. Moreover, I feel that the Creator is forcing to do this. As it is written, forced the mountain on them like a vault is a sign of coercion.

The Creator descends to the top of the mountain where His qualities are. If I rise above all the doubts, above my nature, then I will meet Him there. It is not by chance that this state is revealed to me: either I accept the corrections and rise above all the doubts or this will be “my burial” place since I will bury myself under all my desires and doubts.

In such a case I truly need the Torah, which stands against the evil inclination, because I reveal that the evil inclination is my nature and I begin to hate Mount Sinai.

What is called hatred, as it is said: “Hatred descended upon the nations of the world”? This is explained as though we received the Torah, and then the nations of the world began to hate us. But it is I who hate the nations of the world within me, and therefore I receive the Torah after I determine that the evil is within me.

As long as I think that my inclination is good, since it is good, I desire it. And if I want to use it, then the Creator, who has a goal, the desire to raise me to the top of the mountain (“everyone must become like Moses”), gives the light, and in this light, I begin to enter the process of ascents and descents.

Thus, by defining my nature as good, I remain in a descent, so that each time I can see it in comparison with the light until I come to the decision that it is evil.

Until these constantly recurring descents accumulate into a mountain, after which I will need the Torah and be ready to receive it, I will not develop the need for the Torah (Hebrew: Torah means teaching, theory; “Horaah”—instruction) as a guide for correction. When I accept the Torah as correction, then I merit the desire for it as a source of fulfillment.

It is clear that all of this occurs under coercion. As it is said: He forced the mountain on them like a vault. That is, He imposed coercion upon us (“Kfiya” from the verb “kafa“—compelled, and also overturned, turned upside down). We can only become more sensitive to what is happening to us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

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Question: How can I advance if the desire to receive dominates me?

Answer: Indeed, the Creator constantly activates the desire to receive in you to advance you, and then you feel that it dominates you again. It is not even that it dominates you, but that you are that desire to receive.

But to feel its power over you, you need the upper light that gives you the feeling that there is something besides the desire to receive—the desire to bestow. Then you realize that the desire to receive and you are not the same thing. There must be a third party.

If you have this separation between you and the desire to receive and the awareness of its power, this is salvation. Now something is up to you.

You have come out of unconsciousness and can act. You think “I am not my egoism, my hater, the one who prevents me from advancing. I would kill it, but how do I seize it? It is like a cancer in me.” You should start looking for some kind of cure. The cure from egoism can only be the light.

Your problem is that you do not really want this cure. Then you should go to a group that will strengthen your awareness of evil, so that you would see that this disease is killing you and separates you from eternal life to such an extent that you start to scream. It is the real scream that opens the heavens.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/26, Rabash, “What Is the Preparation to Receive the Torah in the Work?-2”

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