Comment: Let’s take a month off, gather together, isolate ourselves in nature, and study The Study of the Ten Sefirot every day for ten hours, The Book of Zohar for six hours, and speak only about what is written in the books so we can draw more and more light each day.

My Response: Why shouldn’t we try such an approach: to escape from this world for a while, though not forever?

By the way, “not forever” already indicates a certain imperfection. After all, if we are speaking about something good, something that leads to spiritual ascent, then you should simply do it. Why compromise?

You are saying that we should withdraw in order to gain strength, acquire the right direction, establish ourselves in it, and then bring this world into the state we have already attained. Let us leave this hectic world, cross the Machsom, and then return to this world and begin drawing it into the spiritual world.

The problem is that this question stems from not seeing that the state in which we now exist is itself the degree called “this world.” It is the lowest, the smallest, and the darkest degree. Yet, it is only one among many degrees. How can I leave it if I do not work with what exists on it?

I have been placed into specific surrounding conditions that are, in essence, my own qualities copied outward. I see the surrounding world according to how I am arranged within. If I were to arrange these qualities differently within me, then instead of “this world” I would see the spiritual world, which would replace the picture of this world as a lower degree, as a lower level of perception compared to the one built above it.

So how can I free myself from “this world” if everything that exists in it now is nothing but my own corrupted qualities? Without correcting them, I cannot rise to a higher degree. How can I run away from that?

One may perform certain actions that seem to separate him from this world in order to strengthen himself a little. However, afterward, I must return to the original degree in order to reconnect with it, receive more and more Aviut (the depth of the desire to receive) from it, and continue studying with this additional Aviut, wishing to purify it.

Then I return once again to work, to my family, spend time with my children and my wife, and deal with all the external concerns of everyday life. After that, I return once again to study for several hours in order to correct what I have absorbed from the surrounding environment.

But if I do not absorb these things which constitute my Aviut in order to correct them, then why should I study? Why should I come to correction? What is the surrounding light supposed to influence and correct? If I were already pure, what would the surrounding ight attach itself to? What would it have to work on?

Therefore, we have no other choice but to immerse ourselves repeatedly in “this world,” bring it to correction, immerse ourselves in it again, and once more bring the desires absorbed from it to correction.

Thus, our work consists, in general, of three main states:

1. This world, with all the “brainwashing” it constantly imposes on me.
2. Then I come to the group, wanting it and not the external society to “brainwash” me instead and thereby help me.
3. Finally, with the Aviut I have acquired from the external society, and with the desire I have received from the group to free myself from it, that is, to purify it, I begin the study.

In the end, we have three states or, I would say, three means. Based on them, we build our daily routine. The fact that you sit here for several hours is your escape from evil in order to study the Torah in a quiet place.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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When the Creator is revealed to us, we are, as it were, in a state of goodness and are able to justify Him. But when He is not revealed, we find ourselves in a state of evil and curse Him. What does it mean to curse Him? We curse the state we find ourselves in.

Then what depends on us? The pace of our advancement. Moreover, the direction we choose also depends on us, and ultimately this is expressed in the pace of our advancement.

It is said: The Creator places a person’s hand upon the good fortune and says, “Choose this for yourself.” Suppose a person does not wish to choose what he has been shown. He was offered the opportunity to come and study, but he did not take it seriously. Besides, he is still young, not even married. “I’ll come to it when I’m at least 30 years old.”

In other words, the person did not strengthen himself in the choice that the Creator had given him. As a result, several years were lost. This is what it means that a person chooses the pace of his advancement: either he strengthens himself in the direction that has been shown to him or he chooses another direction.

One may ask, “But is this really in his power? Is everything not under the Creator’s governance?” One could say that about everything. But here the question is whether a person used the opportunity that was given to him or not.

The Kabbalists say, and this is concealed from us, that throughout your life you exist in a state of apparent freedom. Yet know this: There is only one thing in which you are truly free —the purpose of creation, your connection with the Creator.

Free choice exists only in making use of the opportunity to connect with the Creator. The Creator calls to you: “Draw near to Me.” If you do not do so, that is your choice. In everything else, whether to eat ice cream or chew gum, watch football or go to sleep, it makes no difference. Nor does it matter who I am: a criminal, a thief, or an upright person. In all these things, we choose nothing.

There is only one point of free choice: whether you desire a connection with the Creator or not.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Question: By what can a person determine his state?

Answer: A person cannot assign a definition to his own state. He is not the master of his states. He is only capable of discerning the state he is in, measuring it, and evaluating it.

He can evaluate his state according to the degree to which the Creator is revealed to him. For example, I feel bad. I am immersed in evil, completely absorbed in it. I have nothing in my life. Who am I? What am I? I do not know. I simply feel bad.

Then, suddenly, I remember that although I truly feel bad, this state is necessary because I am going through a certain process, and there is a purpose in my being in it.

Having passed through this bad state, I take a lesson from it, and through that I become worthy of knowing the good. It is precisely in this bad state, in this evil, that I begin to understand more and discern more.

Then, when I enter a good state, I will be able to understand that evil and speak about it from an entirely different perspective. The greater the contrast between the bad and the good states, the more I come to know. The greater the confusion, the greater the understanding and attainment that follow.

So what determines the state I am in? It is determined by the extent to which the Creator is revealed to me within that state. If He is revealed to me just a little more, then, despite the fact that I still feel bad, I open the book Shamati and begin to understand that this is not such a terrible state after all. It is simply a stage on the path that I must go through. Then the state is no longer so bad. It is unpleasant in sensation, but favorable for spiritual advancement.

For example, I am building a house. A shipment of concrete blocks has arrived, and I have to carry them up to the second floor. What do you focus on, the hard work itself or what will ultimately come from it? If you see the goal, then carrying the blocks is not so difficult. But if you look only at the state that you are in now, as an ordinary laborer rather than the owner of the future house, then, naturally, carrying the blocks feels like hard labor.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Question: What if you suddenly realize that you were mistaken? And you have already put all your cards into this one thing. You found what seemed to be your life’s work, and suddenly it turns out that you were wrong.

Answer: Then you must invest yourself beyond all limits into that one and only thing that remains for you, in which you now feel and discover that you were mistaken, that it is not the main thing and besides it, nothing else remains. Otherwise, you will be lost.

Question: You just said something that is not simple. You said: “You already understand, you now feel that this is a mistake, and yet invest yourself in it completely.” Above reason?

Answer: Of course. But that is only if you are certain that you have nothing else left, that you have given this matter everything, your whole life.

Question: And what will happen then? Here I am, walking into this black hole.

Answer: Then the Creator will help you. Then He must help you. In principle, this is exactly how it happens in Kabbalah.

Comment: There are all kinds of states.

My Response: There are many states, but in the end, we all arrive at just one.

Question: So that the Creator will help?

Answer: In a state of absolute disappointment in yourself, in the Creator, in the matter itself, in the goal—in everything!

Comment: After having invested your whole life into it.

My Response: Yes, and when you reach such disappointment, then you can let go of everything, and you will see success.

Question: Kabbalists write that when you have passed through all the gates, only one gate remains: the “Gate of Tears.” Is this what you are referring to?

Answer: This is beyond tears.

Question: You have already passed the “Gate of Tears”? So, your advice is to keep striking at that point until the very end?

Answer: If you can still keep striking and striking, then these are not yet the final gates.

Question: So this disappointment must be there? It must?

Answer: Absolutely! Because it goes against human nature itself, against the way the Creator created us. Therefore, it must be absolute disappointment.

Question: Where is the upper mercy in all of this?

Answer: It is beyond this. When the Creator leads a person through all these trials, then beyond them, the person reveals the Creator’s upper mercy.

Comment: One would have to be a very strong person.

My Response: No. I think no one is strong. Everyone is very weak. The Creator will do everything.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/1/26

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