What is an extra effort? It is applying an effort that is sufficient for you to be given a greater Kli and then it becomes possible to receive fulfillment. But how can I know that? That is why it is called work above reason.

I have no ability to work with any kind of control over this. Moreover, what does it mean that I can evaluate my work? After all, I am supposed to work without any reward, without any criticism, without anything.

If I want to rise to a higher degree, then I must now exert efforts without asking for any payment for it, simply give everything to everyone. Why? Because I want to ascend to a higher spiritual degree. So, ascend, do it. But it is impossible.

The surrounding light corrects me to some extent now. It holds me by giving me a certain illumination at a particular spiritual level of life. Now I want to awaken it so that it will send me an even greater force. But first of all, why would I even want this? After all, on a higher degree, I must renounce many things, want less for myself, and give more. How can I do this?

This means that I must once again take some of my egoistic desires and correct them. With what force can I do this? The surrounding light does not yet shine upon me and does not give me these forces. I must first make an effort.

And of course, my efforts are in Lo Lishma. That is, I awaken upon myself an unnatural action that is not embedded in my nature, and I awaken it indirectly. I cannot do it directly. If I could slightly open the tap of the surrounding light so that more of it would come to me, if that were in my power, I would already have acquired bestowing Kelim. But I am not capable of doing that.

So how can I still influence the turning of this tap so that it opens and corrects me more? For this, there are indirect actions that I perform without understanding. I do not even understand what I am doing. I can never cut myself off from my desires.

How can I do this if I am within this nature? Therefore, the work takes place when one “walks through the desert.” There is the concept of “banners” (under which banner one stands), and the Torah portion itself is called Bamidbar (In the Desert). We work in Lo Lishma, and through this, we come to Lishma.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/26, Rabash, “What Are Banners in the Work?”

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Question: On the spiritual path, a person discovers, time and again that when they ask for something specific, they receive something completely different.

Answer: Even if I am engaged in spiritual work, say, on degree “X,” then for me, “X + 1” equals infinity. I am not capable of doing, thinking, or feeling anything that belongs to that degree. I have no screen; my desire at the degree X + 1 is a Klipa. How can I take those desires and want the opposite within them? It seems unnatural to me; it does not correspond to my nature.

Suppose that now you live, you have a room and some clothes. To renounce all of this now means that you would relinquish everything, give up your room, your clothes, and be content with just one pair of trousers and one shirt. There are people who live this way. You wouldn’t even need the room anymore. You would be capable of giving it all up.

Now, let’s say you have made this correction, and instead of one room you are given a good apartment, full of all kinds of comforts and nice things. Your car is parked outside of the building. But you are told, “All you need is a shirt and pair of trousers. Why do you need all this? Why do you  need such a large apartment? There is plenty of space in the yard. Give it up.”

In other words, time and again, you find yourself in a state where you have no strength to carry out corrections, and no possibility to ask for these corrections to come to you.

Question: But couldn’t you say: “I gave up the apartment, and now I received a palace in return”?

Answer: No. The fact that you gave up the apartment is true. Subsequently, you do receive a palace. But since you receive it in the left line (uncorrected desires), you feel that this palace is bad for you. If you were simply to enjoy the palace, you would descend into the Klipot, you would forget about Kabbalah and forget about the purpose of creation.

Within the surrounding light you reveal what this palace really is. It does not come to you as even greater pleasure. Otherwise, everyone would give up something small in order to receive something greater.

Spiritual work is never a direct path to correction. We have absolutely no direct approach to it. In our work, everything happens indirectly.

I am given the possibility to evoke this, to be its cause. But the work itself is done from above. That is why it is such a complex matter. I do not feel that I am working because I am not working on the correction directly. I do not feel that the Creator relates to me in a straightforward way but always through such unpleasant, difficult revelations. Sometimes there are pleasant ones, but only to give me strength.

A person who works correctly and truly advances feels revelation and some small illumination only for a very short time. These illuminations that show them something are revealed for very brief moments, say, five minutes a day. All the rest of the time they work through effort. And this brings benefit until the effort itself turns into light.

If the effort is truly for the sake of bestowal, then there is light, there is pleasure from the effort itself. In such a case, this effort becomes clothed in the light of Hochma.

Just consider how opposite we are to bestowal, in our Kelim, in our preparation, in our sensations, and in our thoughts. See how, through the Klipot, we are pulled toward correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/2/26, Rabash, “What Are Banners in the Work?”

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A person striving for spirituality sees to what extent they are opposite to the Creator, and that they have no possibility to change themselves on their own to acquire the opposite form. Only help from above can bring about this transformation.

And then, from these painful reflections, he turns to the Creator. Afterward, one understands that this opposite form and the true form that he must receive if the Creator helps him, were revealed in him intentionally so that he could feel them in himself. This is not simply so that he would feel bad in one and good in the other and would feel these states as good and evil, but so that as a result of this clarification, he would want to adhere to the Creator Himself.

Both of these forms, which seem so opposite to a person and are perceived in this way by his senses, are in fact only a means to merge with the Creator.

The truth lies above these two forms. In contrast to the status of the Creator, who exists above these qualities, if a person casts aside his attitude toward his own state either because of frivolity or due to the heaviness of thoughts, then he as if disappears from spirituality altogether.

There is no intermediate state between frivolity and seriousness. This is the state of an ordinary person from the street who in no way correlates his qualities with the qualities of the Creator. In spirituality, this concept does not exist.

From here, the conclusion is that our most important work is to come to a prayer, which is called work in the heart. But it is carried out precisely with seriousness, because seriousness is not that I see my qualities as the opposite of the Creator and wish to correct them, but a level above that. Because I see it this way, understand it, and strive to correct my qualities, I submit to the Creator and accept His advice to go and correct them by faith above reason.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/26, Rabash, “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?

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Pharaoh (Paro) stands opposed to the Creator, he resists Him. Moses, the point in the heart within us, stands between them. The dispute between Pharaoh and the Creator is conducted through the point in the heart. All our other desires should simply obey it. In the same way, a person must obey the group.

Therefore it is said that on the day of the exodus from Egypt, “You became My people.” And before that, there was no such thing as the people of Israel.

This outcome, the acquisition of a screen, occurs inside a person when he receives correction due to the influence of the upper light on him. During the exodus from Egypt, the light GAR deHochma comes.

Only with such a strong light can the Kelim be prepared to exit from the desire to receive, which is called the passage of the Final Sea (Red Sea).

This can only be done through unity. Many friends come together, unite, become a “people,” that is, one single vessel, a Kli, and then the light comes from above that can lead us out of Egypt.

Therefore, love between friends, unity, and the capacity to yield to each other are absolutely necessary. The indispensable condition is that the desire of each individual must merge with the desires of all the others to create a common desire that corresponds to the state of Passover (Pesach).

We belittle and subdue our material egoistic desires; we cast aside all our petty calculations with each other, single out, and we isolate and connect only our desire for spirituality. We unite all our points in the hearts so that they form one common Kli, which will be sufficient to truly pull us out of the bondage of selfishness and to merit the light of correction coming from above.

When leaving Egypt, all the work that a person has done over the many years of the preparation period comes together, and its results are summed up. Therefore, we must unite and achieve the necessary measure. And if we can do this, then the lights of Passover, both materially and spiritually, will influence us so that we will actually be worthy to approach spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/26, Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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