Question: What is more effective for our advancement: to strive to feel the greatness of the Creator or to feel the suffering of the Shechina?

Answer: First and foremost, we can advance only if we reach ahead. And we can reach ahead only if we feel that there is something positive ahead.

The positive is called the feeling of the greatness of the Creator. He is great, and I naturally reach out to Him. If I feel that there is suffering and darkness ahead, I will not strive to go there. Therefore, I definitely need a vessel of bestowal so I will have the need to find an unfulfilled desire in Him, something that I can give to Him, so I will be able to bestow for His sake. Then, when I feel the suffering of the Shechina, I will truly rejoice that I have found something that I can give to Him.

Therefore, we should not force ourselves to imaging the suffering of the Shechina. This is a very artificial thing we have no preparation for. I do not react to anything external happening outside of me whether it is the Creator or a friend. How then will I be able to receive from this “fuel” for work or forces for advancement?

The only thing we can cling to for now and receive help from is the greatness of the Creator. Let the friends constantly speak to me about the greatness of the Creator so that I will convince myself that only it rules and acts, that only it is important for me.

Later, the desire to work precisely in this direction—for the greatness of the Creator—will come from this. Because whether you want it or not, you submit to a great person, you want to bestow to him, to serve him. And all this is only because he is great. This is already embedded in our nature. You do not even need to make an effort for this.

And as soon as you really get some feeling or some awareness of His greatness in your work on the greatness of the Creator or you even simply imagine it, you will begin to think: “The Creator is great, but what can I give Him? Why does He need me? Perhaps indeed some kind of connection can arise between us?”

This comes naturally as a result of the awareness of the greatness of the Creator.

Therefore, the suffering of the Shechina can be felt only by a person who has already acquired some awareness of the greatness and importance of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/24/26, Rabash, “What Is, “When Israel Are in Exile, the Shechina Is with Them,” in the Work?”

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Question: If a person feels inspired by the books and the group while one studies, is that not a form of pleasure?

Answer: Everything depends on the underlying cause. There are many people who come to this path because they feel bad. They are looking for a place where they will feel good. In general, there are a thousand and one reasons, but ultimately it all boils down to a lack of a sense of the future. They need confidence. And confidence is a result of attaining faith.

Yes, it is true that this sets us in motion, and we act from the fact that we feel bad now and will feel good later. But the real question is: “Do I change my values along the way? Do I remain in the same desire to feel good in the same vessels as before? Or do my vessels continuously improve? Do I begin to strive for something beyond matter? Do I start approaching the charm of holiness?”

If so, then I no longer interpret “good,” as I did at the beginning, to mean filling myself with various corporeal pleasures. For us, “animal pleasures” are essentially honor, power, and knowledge. I begin to see that power and knowledge do not lead me to the goal, and I feel how empty they are in themselves.

If this is process is taking place, a person is developing. If not, he remains as he was, and then he leaves the group. A person who does not change his values cannot remain here. He will feel as though the group is expelling him, pushing him outward.

And so it continues until the only pleasure left for me is attaining connection with the Creator. I am not yet acquainted with Him, I do not know Him precisely, but it is like a kind of “madness.” No one sees Him,and neither do I, but it is something I am drawn to.

This is the result of the influence of the surrounding light that shines from afar and builds a yearning for it within me, until, in the words of Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “it does not let me sleep.” This is called persistence, steadfastness.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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Comment: Our whole life, in essence, is a series of states through which we are being prepared to attain the goal.

My Response: If you find it difficult to connect your animal (material) life with the work of the Creator, do not connect them. Otherwise, you will become like those who see the hand of the Creator in everything around them: “I do this, and He answers me like that. My physical actions are spirituality itself. Angels are fluttering about right here.” By thinking like that, you will only confuse yourself. It is incorrect.

The spiritual realm means “above reason,” “for the sake of bestowal.” It is a nature that does not exist in our material world. If you want to reveal it, you can do so only by working within two distinct spheres that are completely detached from each other. The animal is the animal, and the spiritual is the spiritual.

Otherwise, you will get confused, much like those who merely “appear” to be engaged in spiritual work. They turn their gaze toward the stars, act according to horoscopes, card readings, and facial features, or tie a red string around your wrist. Show a cow a red string, perhaps it will give a little more milk… There are notions that one kind of matter exerts an influence on another.

The psychological aspect is a separate topic: indeed, a person feels some psychological support from this. However, this is not spiritual. Therefore, do not conflate the two by clothing one within the other.

There is no connection between the spiritual and the material. There is a complete disconnect. It is not without reason that I state that no material action can generate a spiritual result—unless you infuse that action with the specific intention to attain spirituality.

If you simply being cultivating love for the friends without any further intent, this may lead you to results opposite to your goal. For an action by itself yields nothing; on the contrary, it merely reveals how futile it is, a process that only serves to shatter you. Therefore, don’t bring the material into the spiritual nor conversely, the spiritual into the material. This is incorrect.

For you now, spirituality is how you imagine your connection with the Creator. That is all. “There is none else besides Him”; He is the good that does good in everything you think or could possibly think about Him.

I understand that this still gives rise to confusion because we cannot distinguish within ourselves our attitude toward our own lives from our attitude toward spirituality. But gradually this understanding will come. Later, when we actually reveal divinity, we will gradually notice how one seems to clothe itself in the other, but not in the way we might imagine it now.
[354180]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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Question: You said that the higher degree closest to us means that we see how the Shechina clothes itself in all our actions. What actions are we talking about?

Answer: The closest degree, and not only the closest, but in general the degree that a person must always see before him, is the revelation of the Shechina, of how it clothes itself in the whole world, in everything that is in it, in the friends; to see that this single and special force unites all actions in the world, and that he himself is under its power.

This is what the article “There is None Else Besides Him” teaches us. We must constantly keep it before our eyes.

But we must not confuse this with material things. This means that I will not interpret all actions in the material without having revealed the true state, that the Shechina is clothed in the whole world.

Without revealing this, I must not interpret each material action as if it occurs for some spiritual reason. I must not attribute spiritual forces to material objects and items as if I know that it is so.

What special force is there in a red string? I have not yet revealed it. Believe me, I really do not know.

This is spoken of in The Book of Zohar. Do we read the Zohar according to the branches, or according to the roots? If you take the red string in its root and begin to do with it what is written there, then it is clear that this is a spiritual action. But what relation does this have to taking a red string here and tying it on the hand, on the leg, on the ear? What will this give you?

This is used in order to strengthen a person, as the Hasidim did. Did our forefathers two thousand years ago walk around in fur hats, robes, high socks [items of the traditional clothing of some Hasidim]? No. I do not deny that this supports the people. But one must not turn this into some sort of sanctity. Yes, it keeps us within bounds, it distinguishes our actions and thoughts, directs a person, but we must not introduce forces of holiness into this.

We must say: “Yes, we are animals, and our psychology is such that in such and such a way the external part influences and strengthens us.” Correct, this is used in all kinds of movements and will always be used. Consider the many examples in the army, all the various insignia, flags, and so on, which exist only in order to bolster the human spirit. Go to psychologists; they have an entire science about how to influence a person. But do not introduce forces of holiness into this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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