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The content is based on talks given by Dr. Michael Laitman and is written and edited by his students.

Výsledky 1 - 20 44105
Take the Right Step

760.2It is very important for us to know all of our qualities, and the path we must travel in order to use our one true freedom of choice for spiritual advancement. After all, if a person does not strive to advance, they are not moved forward.

You have a very narrow path before you, long, but narrow. Imagine that it lies in a desert where you cannot see it. Or, as if you are walking on water, your next step is unknown and invisible. With all the strength you possess, you must choose “north,” hold on to it, and direct yourself toward the goal with every step you take. Then you will make the right step.

Otherwise, it will only seem to you that you are moving forward, when in fact those are not real steps at all; they are merely what you perceive with your ordinary, animal senses. You may remain standing in one place, going around in circles for a thousand years. Therefore the method of reaching the goal, of taking one step after another toward it, of knowing whether you are truly advancing, or only imagining that you are running while you are actually running in place, is the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

A person must be able to see the path, and this is accomplished quite simply: his eyes must be opened so that he truly sees the desert before him, where there is no other road except the one unique path. Moreover, each person has his own individual path; this ensures they do not lose their way, allows them to see both the final goal and themselves, and enables them to know how to take each step only after first examining it.

If a person fails to do this, the soul will undergo incarnation after incarnation as time slips away. We exist beneath the plane of spiritual life, and therefore we can continue spinning in circles for another million years; that is not the issue. From the perspective of spirituality, there is no account for this earthly life because by itself it brings no spiritual benefit.

Kabbalists write in their articles about the forces within our soul, and explain how, by using the many opposing qualities that exist within us, we can choose the correct path and realize our freedom of choice.
[358744]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

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According to the Similarity of Form

238.01Comment: You said that a person attains the names of the Creator to the extent of their correction.

My Response: I usually give the following example: to catch a radio wave, you must create the same frequency inside the radio receiver. This is called the resonance effect. Otherwise, you cannot pick up the external waves. There are millions of waves across all possible ranges outside the receiver. How do you catch something specific?

Each receiver acts like a transmitter in a sense; it does not merely receive. First of all, it has to generate the wave you want to pick up from the outside, i.e., the same oscillation frequency. Then, from what is outside, according to the law of similarity of form—in this case, the matching frequency—you catch the corresponding external wave and perceive it as sound. Thus, you need to match the qualities with what you want to experience.

Our eyes and ears are designed to detect a certain range of external influences because inside us there is a mechanism capable of producing the same frequencies that are outside.

This mechanism consists of nerve fibers, at the ends of which there are receptors, sensors, specific to each type of frequency. Heat, cold, and pressure are, in general, different frequencies of wave vibrations that I perceive according to the similarity of form in my vessel with what is outside.

How can I claim that the Creator is just and merciful if I do not first acquire the property by which I can find out what “just” and “merciful” are? That is, first of all, I must make a correction, and in accordance with this, I will be able to feel that the Creator really is like that.

Sometimes we say that a person doesn’t have a heart. It is just that his feelings are so undeveloped that when he sees someone crying and suffering, he does not feel bad or even understand it.

For example, an infant, even if someone is crying next to him, has no idea what this means. His sensory perception is not yet developed enough to understand that something very serious has happened to an adult, which has led him to such intense distress.

Later when the child grows up and develops the inner vessels capable of feeling sorrow or joy, he will be able to perceive what is happening in the world around him.

This is what happens with everything. We perceive everything only according to similarity of form.
[359076]
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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The Need for Connection with the Creator

232.1Question: Can we say that the period of preparation is necessary so that we can come to feel the need for a connection with the Creator?

Answer: Of course. First and foremost, a person must feel the need for it. This is called the recognition of the evil of egoism. How else can I know that something good is being concealed from me?

In the article “What Is, ‘There Is None Holy as the Creator, for There Is None Besides You’ in the Work?,” Rabash illustrates this with the following example: the son of a wealthy man is kept in a basement. He has nothing, lives in misery, and receives only a small amount of food that is lowered down to him from above.

The son curses his father for his cruelty and for the life he has prepared for him. But when he is finally brought out and shown that there is another way of life, you can imagine the confusion he experiences.

We go through similar states as well. A person does not understand at all what is happening to him. He feels lost and unhappy until he begins to study and draw conclusions from the state he is in.

What does it mean to study? After lamenting his twenty years of imprisonment, a ray of light penetrates the basement, and he begins to see that everything had been done for his own benefit.

Why then did he have to suffer for twenty long years? Because only in this way could he appreciate and accept the goodness that was prepared for him. The Kli must be ready for the revelation of spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,’ in the Work?”

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How Should One Use Study?

614Question: In the greatest state of Lo Lishma does a person begin to desire the next stage, Lishma?

Answer: No, at the peak of Lo Lishma a person does not want Lishma, because he does not understand what it is. The greatest Lo Lishma is when I want to bestow to the Creator, to be with Him, I love Him to such an extent that I do not feel myself. It is like in love, the sensation of it fills a person so completely that it suppresses their will to receive. There is a lot of egoism there and even aggression, but it is extinguished by the feeling of the necessity of connection with the beloved.

How do I use my study? Each time I want something, I understand that I can realize it by means of study, in the course of which I receive the forces to realize what I want. At the same time, I must come to study with some desire. Suppose today I want by means of study to change this or that.

Study is about the specific payment you want, or power you seek in order to bring about a change within you?

But if you arrive without a precise definition of what you want to change in yourself, the study is futile. What is the purpose of the light’s arrival? You and your friends awaken it, and it simply circles around you and leaves.

By the effort that you apply during study, you draw the upper light upon yourself, which brings life, health, strength, and all that is best. And if you just sit and study, and you have no demand for these forces, then why did you come to the lesson?

When you come to a lesson, even if you do not yet know why, just as your friends do not know what they are awakening the forces around for, then the light itself builds the desire in you. Gradually you begin to feel what exactly you must desire. But in order to use study more quickly and effectively, you need to come prepared with a specific desire in mind.

When one of my students calls me and asks how to play a role in the theater because he is struggling, frustrated, and torn apart, I give him some advice. But the best advice is that when you have problems, something hurts, or things are not working out, come here, study, and that very light that comes will give you the answer to everything, including how to play the role.

Just think how down‑to‑earth this example is, yet you already believe that from your study of the Torah you gain the strength to improve something. The only power that exists in this world is the light that comes from the upper world. In other words, this is the only possibility to change something in your state.

There is no other means: You will not find such a screwdriver, fork, or pliers with which you could tighten something in yourself and thus change. Only the light can do this.

And although it has a general influence on the soul and advances it, I must define what I want from it, so that I catch this surrounding light and, using it like a screwdriver, tighten something in myself in order to change. This must be more or less clear to you, and you need to know this before you come to study.

In principle, we understand this: We gather in groups, discuss and clarify what our desire is, and begin to study, knowing exactly what we want from the surrounding light. And if nothing changes in me, then I must voice my discontent as to why it did not change anything in me: “Where are Your promises? Show me where I am at fault and why You did not do this for me.”
[359585]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 195

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 195

Chapter 19. Fear and Joy

Fear and joy are opposites. How can they be connected? Baal HaSulam writes in the Introduction to The Book of Zohar that the first action, the first correction, is called “fear.” There are commandments of the Torah, which are commands of the light, commands of correction, and which form the path that ascends from this world to the end of correction. This path is divided into corrections. The first correction we must attain is fear.

The Zohar asks, if the Creator is good, perfect, does good, and exists above any self-consideration, then why should a person fear Him? In this world, fear is usually attained through force. Indeed, it seems unfitting for the Creator, who is absolutely perfect, to demand fear.

The Zohar then explains that there is a type of fear called “fear of this world,” where we are afraid of punishment that could come upon us or our family in this world. Then there is fear of punishment in the next world, a higher level of punishment (and fear), but one that is still punishment. Later, when we correct our vessels into those of bestowal and acquire a screen (Masach), we completely stop fearing the Creator because we see that everything is good and does good. The Creator becomes revealed, and we understand that our previous fear of punishment did not stem from the Creator’s ability to punish, but from our own uncorrected vessels.

In truth, punishment from above is nonexistent. The only punishment is disconnection from the Creator. Then, we reach a different kind of fear, one that is related to bestowal: the fear of not being able to bestow. This fear itself is a correction. It enables us to build vessels of bestowal from our soul. Then, within the revelation of this fear, we receive fulfillment called “love.” Love is a result of fear. The greater our fear of being unable to bestow, the more the upper light fills us and brings the sensation of love, equivalence of form, connection, and adhesion (Dvekut) with the Creator.

Therefore, fear is a correction. Since we are initially made of a will to receive and this will must be aimed in order to bestow, otherwise we cannot feel pleasure, the correction lies in vessels of bestowal, or what is called “fear of the Creator.”

What does it mean that the correction must be fear, vessels of bestowal? If we receive pleasure in the will to receive, the pleasure immediately cancels the desire. For example, when one begins eating while hungry, the food is tasty and enjoyable. But as one continues to eat more and more, the pleasure diminishes, even if the food is the most delicious. Even exquisite delicacies will not add to the pleasure felt in the first bite. This is because the pleasure that enters fills the will to receive and cancels the lack.

Therefore, it is impossible to be both completely full and satisfied, meaning enjoying one hundred percent, and still feel pleasure. Once the vessel reaches saturation, it stops sensing fulfillment. This can also be seen when we yearn for, dream about, and pursue something for a long time, yet soon after we attain it, it loses its taste and feels ordinary. This does not have to do with time. Instead, the pleasure filled the vessel, and the lack, i.e., the hunger and the appetite, disappeared.

For pleasure not to be accidental, temporary, and fleeting, but eternal, it needs to grow along with the fulfillment and not disappear. As fulfillment increases, pleasure must increase as well, so that they support each other’s growth. How can we achieve this? We can achieve this by transforming our vessels into those of bestowal. That is, if we add an intention to bestow to the will to receive, the vessel attains a status above time and space. Then, even when the lack becomes filled, when the “stomach” is full, if the intention is to bestow, the more we become filled, the more we give, and the desire to give continues to grow.

“Above time” means that as we are filled more and more, our lack, appetite, and hunger do not diminish but increase, because we can give more. Therefore, we need to add intention to the will to receive. This intention makes the will to receive eternal. It does not vanish before the light that fills it, but instead it becomes eternal like the light itself when equipped with the intention to bestow.

This is the whole essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah—knowing how to receive. If we learn how to do this correctly, we begin to receive incessant pleasures and ascend from level to level, from strength to strength. We acquire more lack, correct it further with the intention to bestow, fill it more, and again increase the lack, and so on, progressing until we reach unlimited fulfillment, which is called “the end of correction.”

The end of correction does not grant the vessel a fixed capacity. If the vessel had a fixed capacity, it would cease to enjoy, even in order to bestow. Fixed bestowal cannot exist. On the contrary, bestowal must constantly grow, otherwise it is not bestowal. Therefore, we reach a state called “Ein Sof” (“infinity,” or literally, “without end”). In Ein Sof, we can expand our vessels unboundedly, along with intentions and fulfillment.

Then we arrive at true fear, which is the question of whether we can bestow. That is, as more deficiencies are added, can we establish a screen over them in order to bestow and through it receive in order to bestow?

This is the essence of true fear. As a result, we receive fulfillment from above, the light of the Torah. When the light of the Torah fills this fear, together they create a sensation called “the joy of the Torah,” a feeling of joy. By correcting our vessels, we receive fulfillment, the upper light called “Torah,” and reach joy.

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As Though Everything Depends on Me

292Question: On one hand, it is said that we should begin the work with “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” On the other hand, we say that we should always begin with “There is none else besides Him.” So how should one act correctly?

Answer: When I say, “There is none else besides Him,” I am speaking about my general approach, how I relate to what is happening to me.

Without a doubt, it is sent to me from above, and it means that I agree with the upper governance and accept the burden of the upper Malchut upon myself. This is what distinguishes me from an ordinary person on the street.

After I have said, “There is none else besides Him,” I say, “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” That is, relying on the fact that this has come from the Creator, I now detach myself from His action.

If I were to remain immersed in His action all the time, I would remain at the zero level of Aviut, nullifying myself and nothing more. Therefore, I emerge from this self-nullification and begin, through my own efforts and my own actions, to examine all these states; that is, to act independently.

I make my own corrections, as though everything depends on me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/26, Rabash, “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?”

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The Benefit of the Disturbances of This World

424.01Question: Is it possible to escape from evil for a month, or at least for a week?

Answer: I do not think running away from evil for a week or a month would help, because you would very quickly find that you need the disturbances of this world. You have not yet absorbed enough of them.

How can you verify this? Go to some remote village, isolate yourself there, begin studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, study the authentic sources together with your friends, and you will see that after a day or two at the most, boredom will set in, and you will have nothing to do. I am certain that this is exactly what will happen.

Question: Do we not provide one another with enough material for internal work?

Answer: No. You will not even feel the need to work with one another. I must constantly receive the disturbances of this world. Then I will have the need to connect with my friends in order to overcome these disturbances and attain spirituality. Otherwise, I will have no need for society, let alone for studies.

Do you think your studies will become more productive if you isolate yourself by withdrawing from this world? No, they will not improve, and your studies will not become more effective—they will not truly exist at all. The studies will become completely theoretical, with no real necessity for them. We have no possibility of advancing toward spirituality unless we remain connected with everyday life.

I, too, never stayed away from Rabash for long. Sometimes it lasted three days, but only occasionally. Of course, during the day I spent many hours with him, yet I still did not separate myself from ordinary daily life.
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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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Man Is the Sensing Element

278.03Question: If we say that everything comes from the Creator, does that mean that a person does not really exist at all?

Answer: The fact that everything comes from the Creator does not negate the existence of a person. A person is the sensing element.

As we study, the Kli (vessel) is the desire to receive delight from the Creator. The Creator fills the Kli with His presence.

All fulfillment that comes beyond what is necessary (everything that appears after the first stage of the four phases of the expansion of the direct light) arises from the sensation of the Creator, from the sensation of the Host Himself, rather than from what He has prepared for me to receive.

The Kli is the organ that perceives spiritual reality. Accordingly, the degree of the Creator’s concealment or revelation corresponds to the degree of emptiness (darkness) or fulfillment experienced within the spiritual vessel (Kli).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,’ in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 194

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Why Is Love of Friends Considered the Most Important Action, Even More Than Actions Such as Being Content With Little and Other Corrections?

This is because in Kabbalah it is known that a person cannot correct themselves. What can correct us is the upper light if it comes to us from a more corrected state and illuminates upon us. Only in such a way does it correct our vessels. Therefore, we should not act on our own to correct the vessels, as if we had an adjustable wrench in our hand with which we open, close, and repair. Instead, we must invite a “repairman” to come and fix the system. This is the kind of light we must invite.

Therefore, we do not perform direct actions for correction. We do not look for where the screen is, bring it, place it over the will to receive, and hammer in a few nails so that it will not come loose, between the will to receive below and the screen above, like in diagrams, so that the will to receive becomes covered by a screen. Instead, we look for the means that will bring us a screen that will bring us correction. This means is not an approach to the correction itself but an approach to the one who corrects. This matter presents a great obstacle to people before they begin to understand that we must seek the corrector and not the corrections themselves. Without the corrector there will simply be no correction. It is exactly like a washing machine that breaks down and you try to fix it yourself without any knowledge of how to do it. It does not work. You will have to invite a specialist who will bring the required part and know how to install it in the proper place. Therefore, we must look for the right “person” who knows how to do this work. This “right person” is the upper light.

Therefore, the actions that must be performed are not actions relating directly to the vessel itself, but actions through which we can draw the lights most beneficial for correction. Kabbalists tell us that the most beneficial surrounding light for correction comes when we read a Kabbalah book during study with the intention of reaching our root, the place where we, our action, the study, and the Creator are in adhesion at a single point. Kabbalists also say that in order to sit and study with the correct intention, intention itself is most important.

How do we reach such an intention? Kabbalists describe several means for building the correct intention. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom” that the society comes before everything. Without society, we cannot unite our desire toward the goal and strengthen it, and our intention will be smaller than what is required to attract the surrounding light.

If we torment ourselves with statements such as “I am not okay,” “I am stingy,” “I am lustful,” “I am ambitious,” or “I am cruel,” then we invest ourselves within our bad desires to receive. A person is where their thoughts are. From that place, nothing is left for us except to get drunk or take drugs in order to dull the terrible pain we feel. Self-flagellation is useless. Therefore, it is written: “The fool sits with folded hands and eats his own flesh.” Such behavior is true foolishness because it does not aim us in the right direction. By looking at the filth within ourselves, we do not clean it. When a part in a car breaks down it must be repaired by a specialist who brings a new part and knows how to install it.

Many times, we constantly turn our gaze inward to our vessels and make ourselves miserable. Our inner state is spread before our eyes and we do not know how to detach ourselves from this sight, and we sit, grieve, and mourn over ourselves. Society must influence each and every person to come out quickly from this bad state, because from it we develop the “speech of the spies” about the Creator.

From a Talk on the Article “What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It?” – Part 2, 6/13/2002

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Man from the Perspective of Kabbalah

239Connection with the Creator is called faith. The extent to which I am able to connect myself with Him is the measure within me that is called the measure of faith.

What does this mean? My connection with the Creator can exist only on the condition that I wish to bestow upon Him. Otherwise, such a connection is impossible; There is no other kind of connection. It must be in the same direction in which He relates to me.

I will be able to bestow upon Him only if I begin to feel Him, that is, if I perceive His light, which comes to me and corrects me. This is what Rabash writes: when, during the study, I resolve to attain Lishma, that is, when I desire to attain bestowal, the upper force comes to me and changes me, making me into a human being.

What does it mean to be a human being? The measure of bestowal that I attain specifically in relation to the Creator, and not in relation to humanity, is called “man.” Man is the created being, the force that he brings forth and directs toward establishing his connection with the Creator. Only for one who crosses the Machsom does the spiritual degree he attains become the measure of the man within him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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The Condition for Unity

938.03Based on an understanding of our animalistic nature, we begin to realize that no one can ever unite with another. Each person remains separate.

Today we see that the family, as it once existed, is disappearing. The former relationships between parents and children are no longer the same. The reason is that as humanity develops, its ego and its desire to receive continue to grow. As a result, each person becomes increasingly distant from everyone else, and all the bonds that once existed within the family, the extended family, the nation, and society are breaking apart. Egoism destroys every framework and leaves the individual isolated.

After making the necessary discernments, one can come to the conclusion that a connection between people is possible only through the Creator. If we wish to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” it cannot be achieved by force, as was attempted in Soviet Russia. Only through our connection with the Creator will we begin to unite with one another.

Even the smallest group can exist only under this condition, and all the more so the whole world, when it begins to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is because every true connection can exist only on the level of the human. By “human” it means a connection with the Creator.

Everything else we do, apart from establishing a connection with the Creator, belongs to the animate level. These things require no correction, and we should pay them no attention, because it is a waste of time and effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Know Your Character

942All the qualities that exist in a person that extend from the four qualities FWWD [Fire, Wind, Water, and Dust] have nothing to do with the evil inclination (Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”).

It does not matter what kind of character a person is born with, whether irritable, foolish, lazy, or proud. From my own experience, I know that it is not necessary for only one of these qualities to exist within me. I feel that I have all of them, and one does not exclude the other. In other words, all four foundations can exist together within every person.

We say that if someone tries to break or eliminate all these tendencies within a person, then he is engaged in psychology, and nothing will come of it, because these qualities are not subject to change.

A person can be a great Kabbalist and still retain all these qualities without paying any attention to them. In our approach, this is not even the alphabet, it is only the very first letters of the alphabet: not to engage in correcting the animalistic qualities within ourselves, but only to work on our relationship with the Creator.

The “human” within us begins to grow only in relation to the Creator. And only in relation to Him can we weigh the good inclination against the evil inclination, that is, determine everything that needs to be revealed and cultivated, or, on the contrary, uprooted. But all of this is done only in connection with the Creator, and not in relation to my “self,” my natural character.

I should look at the friend in exactly the same way. The problem, however, is that when we work together, my animalistic nature and his animalistic nature may find it difficult to coexist.

But that becomes the second stage of our joint work, after we have come to know our own character well: whether irritable, wasteful, lazy, power-hungry, and so on. Once we know our character, we begin to see how we can work together by combining these qualities in order to understand what exists above: the unique character of each person in relation to the Creator. And here, perhaps, true unity becomes possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Test Yourself

88Question: How do I know if I am taking the right steps now or not?

Answer: Kabbalists explain that when you arrive somewhere to study Kabbalah, you do not know anything at first. You do not even know where you are since you could be in several other places and not just here. There are a lot of people who are now sitting in other places, engaged in other methods, and they are also trying to learn and find something for themselves. There is a difference of place, a difference of method.

Are they in the right place? There is no answer to that. You basically were not given Kelim to make a choice now. You were let to do this based on what you subconsciously feel. If you feel that you have some doubts, go to another place and check. Check where you feel better—here or there. Perhaps, according to your soul’s development, you still need to be in some other place. Come to Bnei Baruch in some 30 years. Everyone goes through their own cycles.

There is a general law of reality called the law of equivalence of form. It is like a magnetic field: if you put a piece of iron in it, it is drawn to the magnet. In the same way, everything is drawn to its center of equilibrium. The soul works in the same way. If you feel some urge, it is your soul being drawn to its center of equilibrium, to where it feels comfortable and at rest.

Thus, a person who searches ultimately finds what they are looking for precisely due to this. The soul sets your hands and legs in motion, and you arrive somewhere. Ultimately, we all move in this manner and reach the right place according to our level of  development.

There are people whose level of development calls for studying yoga or, for example, Ikebana. This cannot be grasped by the intellect; here  knowledge is an inner sensation. Only then do the eyes open and you see.
[358747]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 193

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Does This Law Operate for All Souls, Regardless of the Group?

This law operates for all souls whether they are in a group or not, but a person who belongs to a group draws surrounding light from the end of correction because they are connected with their friends here just as they are connected with them there. According to the same state in which they choose to connect with them here, they draw it to themselves, as if physically pulling that state from there to themselves, because they wish to realize it here and now in this world. This is considered that the upper world descends to this world, and this is indeed how it will be at the end of correction.

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The Point of Choice: Toward the Creator

571.01The states that a person goes through are not so important in and of themselves. Of course, it is possible to say that they are analogous to receiving a blow one moment, candy the next, then a stronger blow, and again a candy. But the “carrot and stick” do not form a Kli (vessel) in a person. Its continuous strengthening on the path toward the goal is exactly what is building the Kli.

The Kli is the intention. Neither the blows, nor Malchut, nor Keter form the Kli. The intention that you define, when you truly decide what it is, is called the Kli. Only in choosing the intention does freedom of choice exist.

Look at how the whole world spins and what it does: We seek peace and we seek happiness, nothing helps because the search is conducted in the wrong direction, and we only become more confused, spend money, and drown in a sea of blood. And so it is all over the world.

Look at what an enormous process of development the world needs to undergo in order to finally come to the conclusion that development must be in only one direction. All the achievements of science, engineering, technology, medicine, culture, and education are simply a mistake.

We made a mistake; we followed our egoistic desires and developed all sorts of things that are absolutely unnecessary. No matter how magnificent, grandiose, and fulfilling all the achievements of civilization may seem to us, it is Klipot.

We could have lived peacefully in caves and, being connected to the Creator, enjoy life. What difference does it make where you live?

The point of choice is in the direction toward the Creator. When this question awakens in me, I must strengthen myself so as not to turn in another direction. It is like a pointer rotating in a circle, at each of the 360 degrees, it seems to point to 360 targets, yet it aligns with the direction toward the Creator only once.

It is precisely here that I must “step on the gas.” This is where I must break out of the vicious circle. If I do not do this, all kinds of desires start spinning inside me again in this circle.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Tricks that Help Achieve the Goal

243.04Question: What are the various tricks that help a person reach the goal of creation?

Answer: Suppose I look at something and become consumed with a strong desire for it. To change my desire, I begin to listen to music. The music awakens a different desire within me, perhaps a subtler, a more elevated one, yet still not truly directed toward the goal.

Then I open a book. From the Kabbalah books that I usually study, I choose the one that can influence me at that moment by awakening a more elevated desire, a more conscious and purposefully directed one. In this way, by using the external means that surround me, I bring about a change in my desire. But by myself, I am unable to change the desire to receive.
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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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How to Learn to Receive Correctly

253Question: How do we develop sensors that perceive spiritual pleasure?

Answer: The Creator influences us by constantly pouring out absolute goodness and benevolence. We are always under the influence of the Creator who abundantly bestows bliss and delight. Yet, we feel nothing because this sense has not been developed within us. We are like infants who neither understand nor feel what He is giving them.

This is called concealment. In other words, the concealment exists within us, in the sixth sense that has not yet been developed. The method for developing the sixth sense is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the science of receiving what the Creator gives us. As of now, however, we still do not know how to receive.

How can this be done? Only with the help of the light that reforms. During the lessons, we awaken the surrounding lights that purify a person. What does “purify” mean? They make one’s perception pure and refined. A person becomes far more sensitive, and then one truly begins to feel spirituality.

As the surrounding light purifies me, it gradually enriches me with ever new and diverse states, sensations, and understanding. It teaches me little by little, just as infants are taught. The only difference is that I want to go through this process quickly rather than wait.

It takes twenty years to raise a child, and the development of a human being sometimes takes thousands of years before they reach perfection. But if I want this to happen quickly, I must awaken the surrounding light upon myself so that it performs this work on me as rapidly as possible rather than at the pace at which human history has developed over thousands of years. I want to go through this path in five to ten years. Perhaps even faster, although for now it is not yet possible. It is too difficult.

Thus, all I really want is to accelerate the development of my sixth sense, and the greatest thing required of me is to draw the surrounding light upon myself. That is all my work.

The faster the light teaches me, the more rapidly all kinds of states change within me, the sooner I will complete my learning. The expansion of the light and its departure form the vessel (Kli) that is fit for its purpose.

This means that I must pass as quickly as possible from one state to another, from one change to the next, ascents and descents, every kind of sensation and impression received from the group, from the books, from everything. Then I will more quickly reach the state in which enough different discernments have accumulated within me, and I will accordingly begin to feel and perceive what exists outside of me.
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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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“Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem”

421.01Our sages said (Taanit, p 30b), “Anyone who mourns for Jerusalem is rewarded with seeing its joy” (Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”).

We must prepare our work not only on the spiritual plane, but also on the plane of this corporeal world, whose levels were also shattered. When a person works with the Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet levels with the intention of correction, it means that he uses his life in its corporeal form, and in its human level only insofar as it is necessary to sustain his existence. All his other actions are directed solely toward drawing closer to the Creator.

As for animalistic pleasures, we understand what the human body requires. With regard to the pleasures of wealth, honor, and knowledge, our work lies in relation to society. This is the work through which a person must properly arrange his attitude toward these pleasures.

For example, regarding money, at first, he may give only one tenth of his earnings, but later he keeps for himself only what is essential. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Giving of the Torah,” he uses the rest in order to bring the world to a corrected state, to bring it closer to the Creator, that is, for the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

With regard to honor, he realizes this within the group by lowering himself and elevating the image of the group in his eyes, so as to receive from it the greatness of the Creator. As for knowledge, he strives to attain the spiritual world, the upper world, the Creator, and His nature. He arranges this desire so that he wishes to engage in it in order to truly come to bestowal upon the Creator through the upper light, which is awakened as a result of the study.

Thus, a person’s spirituality becomes clothed in this world, in everything that surrounds him, either through his animate level, by giving the animal within him only what it truly requires and paying no attention to its other demands, or through the human within him, through his relationship with the environment, where he seeks to use everything around him in order to direct all his powers and qualities toward attaining a two-way connection with the Creator.

This means that the result of the shattering that exists within him in the form of “for one’s own sake” is transformed into “for the sake of bestowal.” This is what is meant by: “Whoever mourns the destruction of Jerusalem.”

Jerusalem means “the perfect city” and “perfect awe,” when Malchut rises to the height of Binah, undergoes shattering, and the connection between Binah and Malchut acquires the opposite intention: for one’s own sake. But through his sorrow and through his work, a person attains the joy of Jerusalem, when he corrects the Kelim and fills them with the lights.

A Kli with the intention to bestow, filled with the light, is bestowal to the Creator. This is the “joy of Jerusalem,” the perfect city, the perfect Kli, in perfect awe and faith: the quality of Binah spread throughout the whole of Malchut.

All these discernments: the destroyed Jerusalem and the rebuilt Jerusalem, are, in essence, two opposite extremes that a person must pass through on his path while still living in this world, in this lifetime, clothed in his corporeal body.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 192

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 192

Why Is It Not Always Possible to Understand an Action or a Thought?

We never know why we acted one way or another, why we are tossed from thought to thought, from state to state, because these all depend on the inner structure of the soul. We must scrutinize this desire now, afterward another desire, following the structure of their soul. We do not know with which souls and in which matters we are connected within the structure of Adam HaRishon. We do not know ourselves, all the more so we do not know the souls with which we are connected or the type of connection. There is no way for us to know this based on the physical bodies of the people connected to us.

Therefore, various situations and states are brought to us that appear to us as coincidences, because if we were to see the structure of the entire Adam HaRishon, from within it we would know what we must do now, what we will do in the next moment, and what will be given to us in the future.

For this reason, Kabbalists give us simple advice on this matter, in every situation we find ourselves in, do not calculate with the other souls how to act. We are in a body, and even the body does not need to think about how all the cells in the body operate at every moment, how each cell is planned and functions in order to know how it should act. In the end, the body indeed operates as it was designed, as a closed system with all its parts, even the smallest one, but we are not at the degree where we can recognize this. In our present state we are completely incapable of comprehending it. Only later, at the end of correction, when we are included in this system without any disturbances, does the entire structure with all its functions become revealed.

Therefore, the most correct and simple general advice given to us is that we, our action, and our goal must be one. We descended from the root where we were adhered to the Creator. Who is the Creator? The Creator is all the other souls we are incorporated in, and all together they receive the upper light within them. This sensation within us is called “the Creator.” We do not know what is outside us. Outside us is His essence. What we receive in connection with all the other souls in the corrected state at the end of correction in our root, is called “the Creator.” “From Your actions we know You.” We know Him through our sensation. We need to long for this from within the action we now perform. If we constantly push ourselves in this way, pressing only on this point, then in the end we will reach it in a precise manner.

It is impossible to give someone this entire great program so that before performing even the smallest action they would understand it fully and wisely in complete control, that they would understand it from beginning to end. How could we know the entire system in advance before we are adhered to all the souls, with all the parts of the system, as one structure? Therefore, we are given a solution. If we wish to be included in this system as good and active parts, we must intend that we, our action, and our state of adhesion with the Creator will all be one. We must already now want to be at the end of correction as we imagine it, to want to realize and create the state of the end of correction.

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If I Have No Taste for the Creator

938.03Question: A person is governed by desires. How can we make the desire for the Creator the greatest desire?

Answer: Suppose I have to choose what I am going to drink. The doctor has told me that it is good for me to drink a medicinal tea. If I believe him, then I will drink the tea. Besides, the Torah says that a doctor has permission to heal. Perhaps this tea is not tasty. I may not like it and feel no “taste of life” in it at all. Yet I drink it and enjoy it because I feel the light of my future health, for I believe it will come! In other words, I myself determine what is pleasant for me and what is not. This medicinal tea becomes more enjoyable to me than ordinary tea, even the finest variety.

From this example we see that all we need to do is ascribe importance to the Creator. We are capable of giving importance either to ourselves or to the Creator. This is the only thing we can do.

Question: But what if I have no taste for the Creator?

Answer: That does not matter at all! Enter a certain society and constantly listen to what the people there are talking about. Disconnect yourself from everything else! Turn off the television, do not watch football. Listen to what is being said in the group.

Of course, this alone is still not enough. You must work together with the group and make your own efforts so that the opinion of the friends becomes important to you. You need to unite with them in such a way that their thoughts will carry weight for you.

After all, you listen to what your children say. It is important for you to know what they think of you. I know this from my own experience. For example, the day before yesterday my daughter told me that she wanted to start driving lessons. I answered that I did not have the money for it. The very next day she booked the lesson! So yesterday, after the night lesson, I rushed home so that I could give her the money in time. It was so important to me that she would be able to pay for the lesson.

Would I have done that for someone else? I do not know. Just for anyone? Of course not. That person would have to be just as important to me as my daughter. But for that to happen, I would have to work on it. It does not come by itself. For this, I would have to invest in that person as much as I have invested in my daughter over the past twenty years. For twenty years I have been giving, giving, and giving to her. And now I see that everything I have invested is within her, it all came from me.

If a baby were taken away from its mother immediately after birth, then despite everything, in the end she would forget about the child. Everything depends on how much has been invested.

As for my daughter, yesterday I simply could not calm down. I kept thinking that she had already booked the lesson and how uncomfortable it would be for her to tell the instructor that she did not have the money and would pay later. That is why it was so important for me to get the money to her in time. And when she thanked me, what great pleasure I felt from it! Can I relate to my friend in the same way? It is not so simple.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

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