Question: It is said that Abraham received an instruction from the Creator to perform a commandment. But he was not certain of himself and went to consult with others. Doesn’t he trust the Creator? After all, Abraham already senses Him.
Answer: We are speaking about how a person assesses their own forces. A person lives like an animal for thousands of years, from one incarnation to the next, just like the rest of the world.
We have lived through many cycles of reincarnation, in all kinds of forms and in various places. Throughout these cycles of the soul, we have developed in terms of our desires and demands. We see the nature of this development: the soul evolves and demands more and more.
Why the soul? Because the animalistic part within us does not develop. Our body remains the same body. Were it not for the spiritual part in a person, we would be just like an animal. Do animals evolve and suddenly demand television, automobiles, rockets, or music? Nothing of the sort. An animal remains an animal. As it is born, so it remains. An animal has only one law: to care for its existence.
Therefore, what develops within us is the spiritual aspect, which evolves in two stages. The first stage is material, animalistic, or a kind of animal-spiritual phase. We pursue sex, honor, money, and knowledge. The soul develops in this way, but this development takes place through the pursuit of pleasures found in this world.
After it has developed in this manner over many incarnations, a Hisaron, a lack or yearning for spiritual pleasures, is revealed within it. A person begins to sense the “point in the heart”; they desire something that is beyond this world, beyond the pleasures they can receive in their corporeal senses.
The spiritual pleasure one lacks is called Ohr (light), and the medium through which one can receive and perceive it, is called Neshama (soul)—a spiritual vessel, or Kli.
When a person begins to develop this Kli, even if gradually, through being granted this lack (Hisaron) that emerges within them after all the animalistic development spanning many incarnations, they become similar to Abraham.
They begin to feel an aspiration, a yearning for spirituality. This is akin to the Creator telling them: “Develop yourself, come to a new, special, better state.” And then a person begins to sense various forces, thoughts, and impulses that are either for that state or against it.
Rabash explains that this is like a theatrical play, where each actor portrays a certain quality within the person. Thus, Mamre is one quality within the person, Sarah is another, the whole household of Abraham with all his cattle, his field (in short, all the trappings of a Bedouins lifestyle) represent the forces of their soul that are either for their development or against it.
Why must it be this way? After all, the Creator says: “Lech Lecha!” “Go forth!” The road is laid out, go forward! So why should there be doubts? Why should you oppose it?
Because the intention is for you to become a human being, to develop into a human being, and not remain an animal. A person could be left as a puppet and improved, made into anything desired, without their own awareness or participation.
But in that case the created being would remain on the animate level, whereas the purpose is to delight the created beings by bringing a person up to the Creator’s degree, since delighting them on a lower degree is not considered delight from the Creator’s perspective. If there is something good, it can only exist in its fullest form. That is, to give anything less than the “greatest good” is not truly “to delight.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”
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The Accelerator of Spiritual Development
The Spiritual Root Realized in Material Form
Short Stories: Jacob And The Development of Abraham’s Group
