Question: I am in a certain environment where everyone is having fun and “living.” How can I perform my work when inwardly I differ from my surroundings? How can I avoid dissolving into this environment?

Answer: You cannot avoid dissolving into it. You have no strength against the environment in which you are, unless you are pulled out of it from above. This is like us, for example, with an awakened point in the heart that pushed away our environment. We felt that we did not belong to those surroundings and naturally began to search, in accordance with that point, for where its place was.

But that was help from above; we were moved from place to place. It is like a charge in an electric field. If a charge changes, it must change its place in the field in order to be in similarity of qualities with it, in a state of equal potential.

Thus, your inner potential was changed, and you left one environment and moved to another. In this way, you can view your entire life and all your incarnations—as you are brought toward the final correction, toward the center of this “electric field.” Your own actions have no part in this at all.

Now you ask: “If I am in some environment, what should I do?” When you are in a certain environment, you can remain in it as you are now if you are not helped from above, or you can immediately begin searching.

You are given the thought that you must attain some goal that contradicts this environment, and thereby you are given the chance to change your environment yourself. Do you understand what an opportunity this is? An ordinary person’s inner potential, his spiritual charge, is changed through Reshimot (spiritual records), and he is led through the potential field toward the center, gradually, over all his incarnations.

In one of them, he is given a potential called the “point in the heart,” and then he must change his environment himself and take care of his own advancement. Before that, throughout thousands of incarnations, he could not do this.

Thus, he receives an awakening through the point in the heart, and this potential, called the point in the heart, already relates to a person’s purposeful, conscious advancement, the advancement of the charge toward the center of the field.

In other words, he is placed in some society. This may be people, books, films about Kabbalah, or something of the kind; all of this is called the environment, the surroundings. He is given the opportunity, and then advancement comes only through freedom of choice. Of course, this is on the condition that you yourself want to determine your advancement. If not, then not.

In any place, you can be in one of three states. Either you lose the thought that you can change your environment, or you are given the thought that you really can change your environment, or you are given the opportunity to work in the correct environment. Now choose.

You say: “I understand that, from the standpoint of the goal, I am in a bad environment. What should I do?” This is an excellent state, when you are given the thought that you are in an environment with which you are not on the same path. This is help from above.

Then they will erase this thought from you, and that is it, stay where you are. Several years later, they may give it to you again. Think about it: I have students who left us, and after 10 to 15 years they begin crying out, “What should I do?!” The thought has been renewed in them again. But 15 years of their lives have been wasted.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”

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It therefore follows that both lines are required in spirituality. Precisely by being in contrast, they yield the required result in order to achieve the purpose of creation, which is “to do good to His creations.” We should also know that concerning “right,” which is wholeness, a person can use it only when he can lower himself. But as for the left line, he can use it precisely when he is in a state of pride (Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”).

Indeed, the right line can exist in a person when they humble themselves, annul themselves, and take upon themselves the properties of the Creator. The left line, on the other hand, is present precisely when they engage with their own “I” and draw their ego into spiritual work.

We must become accustomed to the fact that each of these states contains an inner contradiction. This is because, from the very beginning, everything we attain is light from the Kli. In other words, the Kli is opposite to the light, yet it attains the light and all the concepts and properties contained in the light only to the extent that it resembles the light.

Thus, the Kli exists in two opposite states: an inner state that is opposite to the light, and an outer state that resembles the light and perceives it to the extent of that resemblance.

It follows that even within the Kli itself there are two aspects: the Kli itself, with its nature and desire to receive, and its action, the desire to bestow. Through this action, the Kli understands what the Creator, the light, is and compares its desire to bestow with its desire to receive. This is the oppositeness of properties between the Creator and the created being. We do not perceive the Creator Himself; rather, we perceive our corrected properties and say that this is the Creator, because they have been corrected to be like Him.

Since the Kli contains two opposite properties, every degree, every inner definition, and every analysis always involves an inner contradiction. We need to determine where this contradiction comes from so that it does not confuse us or cloud our perception.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”

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Comment: You said that there are three conditions for a request: the Creator has what I want, He has the desire to give it to me, and I have the knowledge of how to ask Him for it.

My Response: Perhaps, in order to “truly call upon the Creator,” as Rabash writes, these three conditions are not enough. Perhaps several more can be listed.

I spoke about the conditions in our world. Imagine that you want to buy some new thing. What does the possibility of fulfilling yourself depend on? It does not matter whether it is for bestowal or for reception, and it does not matter which lights and Kelim we are talking about. The main thing is that you have a Hisaron (a need).

How do you attain the fulfilment of this Hisaron? You need to go to the store. In order to receive this thing in the store, I must pay money. In order for me to have money, I need to receive it. Where will I receive it from? From the owner.

But in order for him to give me money, I must work for him in return. In order for me to be able to work, I need energy, fuel. What is this fuel? My understanding that the shirt I want to buy in the store is important enough to me to obligate me to make an effort at work right now. In all these matters, I am dealing with the owner and the seller. The owner will want to give me money if I do a certain work for him; that is, there must be an equalization of desires and an understanding of the connection.

The same thing happens in every place. In this sense, there is nothing new in spirituality. We need similarity of properties with the Creator. “Know your Creator and serve Him.”

The first knowledge in contact with Him is faith, rising above the desire to receive. Therefore, Baal HaSulam writes that you have no greater commandment than this: to acquire faith, the Kelim of Bina, the properties of Bina.

When Malchut acquires the properties of Bina and rises to the degree of Bina, then everything is open; there are no restrictions. We are confused by the words we use: “faith,” “above knowledge,” “the righteous shall live by his faith,” and other concepts and sayings. But in essence, this action can be understood very well if one studies it. Without the ascent of Malchut into Bina, there can be no action.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?”

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How can we preserve a state we have attained for the future? Can I somehow guarantee what will happen to me? Of course not!

But my desire to guarantee this creates the next Kli (vessel) within me. I offer this Kli, this desire of mine, as a prayer, as MAN, to the Creator, to the higher degree, which preserves this Kli for me and prepares its fulfillment.

Under what conditions, should we establish a covenant between us? Surely it is not enough simply to say some words, asking Him that things not become worse than they are now? What does my signature under this covenant signify? What must I concretely create now in order to obligate the Creator to preserve the relationship between us?

For His part, the Creator adheres to this. He always relates to me well. How can I guarantee that I will always relate well to Him in one of the 620 channels of our connection with Him?

This can be done only by raising MAN, a prayer for what I want to receive in the future. I am very afraid that in the future I may become worse than I am now. Where does this fear come from?

As usual, we look back, and from this fear a Kli arises. I have fallen many times, suffered setbacks, and seen to what extent I suffer, how bad I feel when I have become detached from the Creator. Now this fear, these sufferings, have prepared me to raise MAN, to offer such a prayer that I say: “Let anything happen, only do not let me become distant from You.” As it is said: “Do not cast me away from before You, and take not Your holy spirit from me.”

If I truly have such preparation as a result of past sufferings, then my prayer is correct. Perhaps I suffer and cry pointlessly, like a small child, whereas within me a mature prayer of an adult must grow so that by means of it I sign the covenant. This signature implies the fulfillment of many conditions. It is not simple.

In fact, this is a long path. All the previous sufferings must necessarily be taken into account; they must be gathered and not lost. And we know that all the previous degrees disappear if we have not yet arrived at their final definitions and results.

Only the final definition, which is recorded in Malchut in each state exists, is fixed, and is preserved. All other definitions are erased, because they did not reach the final point of their development.

Therefore, we must constantly add to the work until we have worked through all the particulars. And when we have finished everything, we come to the conclusion that we ourselves are incapable of doing anything and that accepting the agreement is the best thing possible.

In our world, we come to an agreement out of hopelessness. But with the Creator, we must reach such a state that I sign a covenant because I have no better state (and there cannot be one) than the state that has come.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

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