During the period of preparation, a person ascends the degrees in order to cross the Machsom, and enter the king’s palace. Each time one goes through states of receiving, a great illumination from above supports, fills, and awakens them.

Then the person falls, and instead of an even greater light, they receive darkness. In the state of darkness, a person is “tested” because no matter how high one has risen, if they haven’t crossed the Machsom yet, as soon as the light stops shining upon them, they immediately fall into an animalistic state. They know nothing, and nothing is important to them except simple animate existence.

They feel they have made no progress. The animalistic nature present during the descents they experienced one or two years ago remain unchanged. Indeed, when the divine spirit departs from him, only the animal soul remains.

In such states, it is possible to measure whether a person is advancing spiritually in the direction of bestowal or not. If they are capable of reading even a few lines, or simply reflect on them without necessarily penetrating deeply, and if they realize the extent to which the state of darkness is becoming increasingly deeper, then it can be said that the rudiments of vessels of bestowal have appeared in them.

They see that they have nothing, no sense of fulfillment. But despite this, they live by the conviction that this state is somehow connected with the spiritual path. Then they are not confused by the pleasures that shine upon them, nor are they confused by the pleasant sensation of receiving fulfillment that might otherwise cause them to “swell.” On the contrary, in such a state they have no calculations for themselves. They cannot justify the Creator since they receives nothing from Him and live only by faith.

What is faith in this case? Faith after crossing the Machsom is the light of Hasadim, and complete faith is the light of Hasadim with the illumination of Hochma. But during the period of preparation, when there is neither one nor the other, faith is the illumination that comes to a person from above, the light that sustains them.

Alternatively, in a state of descent, specifically when this illumination disappears, what remains is only the importance of the goal in its pure form, which is something a person receives from the group, not from above.

That is, they hear or heard in the past from the friends about the importance of the goal, and now this sustains and serves them. Now in a state of darkness, one is sustained by the importance of the goal that they acquired in the past when they were able to hear and were working in the group.

They drew inspiration from what they read, what they were told, and by what they heard from the teacher, that is, by the three sources: the group, the books, and the teacher.

In other words, the greatness of the goal now comes to them not from above, but from the environment. The importance that they feel in the state of darkness, they perceive as an illumination coming from the outside, and this is called the faith that sustains a person.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/26, Rabash, “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”

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Question: Must the importance of the goal and the realization of one’s own lack of strength always advance in parallel? Doesn’t the importance of the goal increase during an ascent, given that it is felt just during an ascent?

Answer: The highest point in recognizing the importance of the goal, and the lowest point in evaluating one’s own strength, are revealed through two processes: ascent and descent.

It cannot be said that only an ascent increases the importance of the goal for me, and a descent brings only disappointment in my own abilities. In reality, the difference between these states generates both. In other words, it is the direction in which you are moving that gives rise both to the importance of the goal and to disappointment in your own strength.

Of course, the feeling of the goal’s importance comes during an ascent. But it never happens that something is born without its opposite appearing alongside it. There is always a contrast between black and white; otherwise, no definition would be possible. Every definition is based on two opposites, just as black letters are perceived only against a white background.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/26, Rabash, “And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre”

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A person acts out of habit, and feels and accepts only what they are accustomed to. Everything unfamiliar passes by us and remains elusive.

We unconsciously disregard everything new before we sense or, become aware of it. That is why it is so difficult for us to encounter spirituality!

We live in a world we select from the world of infinity; we choose the familiar and habitual.

To expand our world with the world of bestowal, we must not push it away, but accept the states of bestowal through “faith above reason,” accept the properties, desires, thoughts, and actions of the “anti-world.”

To do this, you need to combine two opposing levels within yourself: realize your current egoistic state, the lower degree, and from the perspective of the property of bestowal, the highest degree.

One must exist between these levels, rejoice in the sensation of the lower level’s emptiness of the lower and in the opportunity to find the strength to rise above it.

This strength comes to me from the upper light through the group; it holds me above the “earth” as if by a magnet.

Truth and faith (bestowal) should pull me upward more strongly than the sensation of animalistic egoism pulls me down toward the “earth.”

The true state lies in sensing both degrees simultaneously while each one in isolation is a lie. Even if I am entirely in spirituality, that alone is a lie.

The true state is always found between two degrees that simultaneously bring a sense of both perfection and lack, gratitude and prayer.

I must rejoice that I experience both sensations at once and constantly remain in a transitional state sensing obstacles yet holding myself above them by force of will, like a climber scaling a mountain who feels that if they were to relax their tension for even a moment they would immediately fall.

This is the only true state; we need to train ourselves to remain in it all the time, and to find joy in it.

This is how we can test ourselves. Are we capable, despite all our discontent, eternal struggle, and constantly vacillation between inspiration and utter despair, of remaining in joyful nevertheless?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/2/10, Rabash, “The Meaning of Truth and Faith”

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Comment: In 2019 the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to scientists for their work in lithium-ion batteries and were recognized for “laying the foundation of a wireless, fossil-fuel free society” (New York Times, 10/9/2019).

Until now, humanity was always tied to an electrical outlet and lived from the outlet. And here they have created a line of such batteries with which a person can move freely around the world.

My Response: In our time, of course, it means a lot if a person becomes freer from the outlet. But what comes next?

I do not think this discovery will free humanity. It will simply enslave it in another way. Everything is moving toward showing a person that happiness is not in the battery.

We see that humanity is not becoming happier. On the contrary, the more toys, technology, and all sorts of things it has, the more it becomes confused in its life.

Question: You often emphasize that no invention on our earthly level means anything to you?

Answer: It will give nothing. Absolutely nothing! But these inventions will lead humanity to the recognition of evil. Everything we invent, supposedly for the benefit of our egoism, ultimately leads us to evil and to the recognition of this evil.

Comment: So if humanity were to stop and invent nothing at all..

My Response: We cannot stop, because the same egoism drives us toward progress so that we will understand that we have no choice but to correct the ego itself.

Question: Why does humanity constantly invent more and more things?

Answer: It wants to achieve a calm, good life. But the result is the opposite.

Comment: Indeed: nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, and immediately nuclear energy that wipes everything out.

My Response: Yes, and it is the same with everything. People cannot invent anything good or benevolent. Nothing at all!

Question: What invention would you call eternal, beneficial to humanity, and capable of leading it to happiness?

Answer: The correction of man’s evil nature—that alone. There is nothing else.

Comment: But first people must realize that they live with an evil nature.

My Response: That is precisely what drives them toward that realization. The world is in a state where it no longer knows what to do with itself.

At one time we thought that socialism, communism, or capitalism would save us, or something else, some form of freedom, liberalism, and so on. But everything very quickly leads to the realization of evil.

Comment: You used to say that humanity’s development was once a linear progression of egoism with the thinking things would get better and then communism would eventually arrive. But now egoism seems to have closed in on itself.

In other words, we have become interconnected, like a single village, yet the same old pursuits continue, and humanity still fails to grasp the evil nature within itself.

My Response: I think we will reach a point where humanity will say: “It would have been better if we had not invented this!” As for the atom, it can already say this today. And they will say the same about everything else.

And what was wrong with living in caves? What exactly?! Absolutely nothing. When people know what they have, they realize that it is enough for them.

Question: So huddled together around a fire, people were happier than those who today run around with electric batteries?

Answer: Of course! Without a doubt. There were more opportunities to be happy there.

Well, what can you do? It is written about this: “One who increases knowledge increases sorrow,” or “One who increases wealth increases suffering.”

Question: Do you think these sayings are still relevant today?

Answer: More than ever!

Question: We cannot help but increase our knowledge, can we? Egoism drives us.

Answer: We cannot. We cannot help but increase both wealth and knowledge. Egoism will constantly push us to do so.

The goal is to bring us to the recognition of evil, specifically that the evil lies in our very nature and evil lies in the fact that we believe the world we live in is what needs improving. But it cannot be improved; we must rise above it.

Question: In other words, we must change ourselves. Will we reach that point within our lifetime? I would love to see the truth of your words come to pass.

Answer: I do not believe that this will happen that quickly. But personally, that does not concern me. What difference does it make when it happens? Regardless of the state we are, it will happen to all of us eventually.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/15/19

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