It is written (Deuteronomy 4:2), “You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, to keep the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you” (Rabash, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”).
“You shall not add, nor take away” means advancing in the balance between the two lines. This is not a quantitative principle or a matter of the intensity of the work, that is, it does not mean do not hurry too much or do not be lazy. Rather, it means that one must always maintain oneself in a balanced state.
What does it mean to be in a state of balance? It means to facilitate the formation of the middle line, to prepare it so that the Creator can correct you.
How? First of all, try to remain in the right line at all times and not allow the left line to grow stronger and rule over you.
The right line is called “the importance of spirituality.” Spirituality, the goal, the quality of bestowal, the Creator, who possesses the quality of bestowal, and this does not mean simply someone great, but the force of bestowal, all of this must be important to me. And only after all this has truly become important to me can I enter the left line.
The right line, the importance of spirituality, is acquired only through faith above reason, not within reason. Within reason, the importance of spirituality can be attained only after crossing the Machsom. This is called complete, perfect faith: the light of Hassadim with the illumination of the light of Hochma.
Below the Machsom, we have as though the same state, a branch of that same root of faith. We are as though in a state of corrected faith and as though feel the Creator’s presence with our senses. This “as though” is attained through effort, and especially through our investment in the group.
When we complete this work and acquire faith according to our degree through the work in the right line, we then move to the left line and see that within reason we have nothing: our qualities are uncorrected, our thoughts are foreign, and the right line is diminished. It is then that we come to prayer and ask the Creator to help us.
If I have prepared the right line, raised the importance of spirituality, the importance of the goal, and faith that everything has been prepared for me from above, and then see in the left line that I myself am in a completely opposite state, not in perfection, but, on the contrary, in deficiencies and lowly desires, then, as a result of these two lines, the force of prayer arises. And then an answer to the prayer comes from above, the middle line.
In this work, we must constantly remain in balance between the right and left lines so that “his wisdom does not exceed his deeds.” That is, a person should not find himself in a state where he says, “I am incapable of doing anything,” or “I have no strength,” or “everything is in the hands of the Creator,” or, “Just leave me alone and do not tell me that everything depends on me. Nothing depends on me,” and so on.
This means that the left line must not become greater than the right, when I have no strength and think that all of this is impossible, or even that none of it exists at all. Nor should the right line dominate when I think, “Everything is in the hands of Heaven, and everything is decided there. I am nobody here. I do not exist; I am an empty place. Nothing depends on me; I am always entirely under His authority.” This is called the Klipa of the right line.
No! Both of these lines must be balanced. This is what has been given to us, and we must make every effort not to fall into either of the two kinds of Klipa, the right or the left. Rather, we must balance the two lines so that they contribute to the formation of the middle line.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/26, Rabash, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”
Related Material:
Right And Left Lines
Symbiosis of the Right and Left Lines
In Harmony Between Two Lines



