The group is my mirror. To the extent that I build it, it builds me. Both my attitude toward it and its attitude toward me are detached from my desire to receive, which helps me build relationships of bestowal rather than expand and fulfill vessels of reception.

If I were working directly with the Creator, I would certainly use the vessels of reception. Baal HaSulam writes that if the Creator were revealed, I would rush toward Him shouting, “Stop the thief!” The desire to receive itself would tell me how wonderful it is to work for the Creator; I would want to be close to Him, to do something for Him.

After all, if He fills me with a sense of confidence and pleasures, then why not work? Why not perceive Him as good and great? We always want to be near greatness.

Thus, the desire to receive would strive toward the Creator for personal benefit. But if instead of the Creator I have a group in which I do not find great personal benefit, power, confidence, or a strong influence on me, then within it, there are conditions that allow me to work not with my desire to receive, but in the direction of bestowal. I want to grow vessels of bestowal within myself, and therefore, I turn to the group.

It turns out that the shattering of the vessels is the opportunity to work with the desire to receive of others, those external to me, as though with the Creator. That the Creator placed before me someone else, someone “other,” aside from Himself is truly my salvation.

In this case, I can genuinely practice how to be a giver and not a receiver. I can determine whether I am giving or receiving. I can perform exercises that later will allow me to enter into a relationship with the Creator in which my attitude toward Him will truly be one of bestowal.

The group helps me exit my desire to receive because it is not a supplier of pleasures for me. Whereas, if I were working with the Creator, I would only work with Him as the source of pleasures and would never be able to exit my desire to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,’ in the Work?”

So far the world has been busy figuring out how to dodge the next blow from nature to protect itself. But one way or another, the blow comes. The question is how to resist this blow within ourselves. We have the opportunity to make it so that we do not even feel that we were hit or that there was a tsunami.

If we succeed in controlling our inner world, we will see a completely different reality, one that supposedly exists outside of us. Then we will understand that in fact nothing changes on the outside. All tsunamis and earthquakes occur only within us, in our perception.

The future is a law that exists within us, and is realized through the general force of nature within which we find ourselves. This force is constant and unchanging, and we are constantly changing within it. That is why it seems to us that the world is changing. But in reality, it is not. The only ones who change are us.

In that case we can turn to our own changes, and try to take control of them in order to determine our future, not only whether there will be a tsunami or not, but ultimately life and death.

We can make our lives beautiful and comfortable. We will not need air conditioning or heating; we will feel what we want to feel. There will be no sense of the slightest inconvenience or discomfort. One can create a truly heavenly life for oneself.

Question: What is “time” anyway?

Answer: In order to bring us to the correct perception of reality and teach us to manage the concept of time, that is, our own changes, we are placed in two systems: giving and receiving. We find ourselves sometimes in one system and sometimes in the other, one good and one bad, an altruistic system of giving and love and an egoistic system of receiving and hatred.

This alternating transition from the rule of one system to the rule of the other is what we feel as the flow of time. This is what gives rise to the concept of time in this world.

Time is our sensation, not the rotation of the sun, the moon, or the Earth, which also take place within us.

Question: Does the solar system also exist within us?

Answer: Of course, because nothing exists except the human being who imagines the universe this way.

One moment I fall under the governance of the altruistic system of giving, and at another under the governance of the egoistic system of receiving. And these oscillations between the two systems, like a pendulum—tick-tock, tick-tock—create the sensation of time.
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From KabTV’s  New Life 934 – What Is “The Future?”, 12/19/17

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Question: When should we work on recognizing the greatness of the group and when should we work on recognizing the greatness of the Creator?

Answer: In essence, I should work on recognizing the greatness of the Creator. After all, I have business precisely with the Creator. He is my beginning, He is the provider of strength, and He is my goal.

However, I travel this path against the backdrop of my desire to receive. I must recognize and cultivate the Creator within myself starting from the opposite state. Therefore, in order to turn off my “I,” my ego, my interest in Him when I appear as the one who receives, uses, and enjoys, I obviously set Him as my goal, but I cannot use Him.

I cannot maintain connection with Him if my desire to receive reveals pleasure, support, and fulfillment in Him. Then instead of Him, I need someone to work with and to be able to use this work to advance my intention for the sake of bestowal. In essence this means a group instead of the Creator.

Why? A group can provide criticism of my work. By itself it does not initially satisfy my desire to receive. As I get to know the group, I do not feel pleasure, confidence, eternity, or perfection. But if I work on this and want to reveal these properties within the group, then I begin to sense them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,’ in the Work?”

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Question: I still don’t understand where our world is, where the spiritual, higher world is in relation to it, and where the Creator is.

Answer: It’s all very simple! Everything that was created is a desire to be fulfilled, to enjoy. It senses everything it can sense within itself, through its own sensations. As long as the desire is egoistic, what it senses is called “this world.” When it becomes altruistic, what it senses is called “the upper or spiritual world.”

The desire consists of five parts, 0-1-2-3-4 levels, the magnitude of the desire, by quantity and quality. Moreover, the greater the quality, the lesser the quantity, just as in our world there are many ordinary stones but few precious ones. Within these four types of desires, a person perceives the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels. The zero part is “me,” the point of reference.

At the very center of the desire is the “I,” from which a person senses the world, their own desire, but it is perceived as existing outside of that “I.” Ordinary perception of the world is called egoistic (consumeristic).

Where is the Creator? Wherever the “I” makes room for Him!
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Question: What if the same obstacle returns again and again, constantly intensifying?

Answer: The same obstacle cannot return each time anew. It only seems to us that it is the same obstacle.

For example, a court case may last two or three years, and a person feels as though he is constantly trapped in the same closed circle. But it is not the same obstacle. It is the same external circumstance, yet each time the size of the desires and their form are changed; it is just that we do not perceive it.

In fact, it is very good when it comes this way. It is a very clear sign from the Creator, who wishes to strengthen His connection with the created being. He sends him fear of seemingly terrible things and even intensifies it.

It is similar to a small child who becomes frightened when told, “There is a bear behind the door, be careful!” A person looks at the whole world with fear, thinking, “What will happen?” And although intellectually he understands, he can do nothing with his feelings. He is very afraid.

Only connection with the Creator can sweeten this animal sensation of fear and shift it onto different rails. But this is still not at the human level, not yet for true scrutiny of the connection.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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Question: Are there different feelings of evil with respect to the Creator and with respect to the friend?

Answer: For our will to receive it makes no difference whether it is dealing with the Creator or with a friend. There is no distinction because it always forms its attitude from its own uncorrected vessels.

If a person directs his attention to something outside his will to receive, whether it is the Creator or the friend, the measure of correction and the magnitude and quality of the will to receive, determine his attitude toward that object. There is no difference.

Therefore, we can use the group and according to our reaction to it and according to our mutual relations with it, examine and critically analyze our will to receive, demand correction, and carry them out. After all, if something has a direction aimed outside the will to receive and stands beyond it, then it is the same with respect to the group and with respect to the Creator.

However, when it concerns my attitude toward myself, then of course it matters whether we are speaking about the group or about the Creator. What pleasures can the group give me compared to the Creator?

Everything depends on the degree on which I stand. It may be that I perform a restriction with respect to the Creator and say, “What is the Creator to me? What matters to me is the respect of the group.” Or, on the contrary, I may already restrict my attitude toward the group: “What do I need the group for? I want the divine.” But it is me who wants.

When a person tries to work without turning to himself at all, he discovers that if it is not for himself, but outside himself, then it does not matter to him for whose sake it is done or to whom exactly it will bring benefit. If it is outside of me, if neither at the beginning, nor during the action, nor afterward do I receive any response within myself, then what difference does it make which of a thousand possible factors I am now bestowing to if the results remain there and do not return to me?

What difference does it make what these factors are? From the perspective of the will to receive, I cannot analyze them; I have no connection with them. It turns out as though I throw something out of myself into space, and that is all.

But how do I evaluate my bestowal? Is it great or small? Of high quality? The fact is that I measure only the extent to which it is detached from me. As Rabash writes, there is an awareness of the greatness of the Creator before a person disconnects from himself, and there is an awareness of the greatness of the Creator after he disconnects from himself.

In the second case, I work in a state where I do not feel my acts of bestowal at all. I detach them from my “I” as though casting them into space.

Why do I do this? Because society gives me the sense of the importance of such actions. In other words, I acquire a feeling of the importance of something that is outside my will to receive, a Kli, an unfulfilled desire, and suddenly I feel that I must fill it by bestowing outward from myself. Thus, a certain desire outside of me becomes filled.

If a person works on this, he gradually passes into a state in which he can truly touch what it means to act not for himself, above reason. And this comes gradually.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,’ in the Work?”

Question: Can a person keep the Creator in mind in a state of greatest darkness, in a feeling of falling lower than anything there is?

Answer: One cannot maintain the sensation of the Creator’s presence or the sense of the goal in every state. And not just in every state; you can say in none because we learn from mistakes, From the negative, we come to know the positive.

This means that each time I must try and fail, try again and fail again. But that does not mean that my goal is to fail. My goal is to achieve success, and then a failure is not a failure at all, but a way of showing me another unfulfilled desire that I must fulfill.

Therefore, our path includes two kinds of states, two kinds of sensations, that are constantly in contradiction to one another. A person is always between them like between a hammer and an anvil.

One can hold on only with the help of the environment. I cannot imagine a person who truly perseveres and advances alone. Perhaps he studies. For example, recently, an Israeli man from Oslo called me; he has been living there for seventeen years: “I read your website, I participate in the Hebrew forum.” But he is not advancing! He does not feel that he lacks strength.

Baal HaSulam wrote about this hundreds of times: “A person does not feel a lack of strength when he falls and cannot emerge from the fall, and this means he is not advancing. The true sign of progress is when he begins to need an external force.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work?”

Question: How can we neutralize things that accompany any of our purposeful actions during the preparation period: ego, the desire to receive, the need for self-respect, and pride? How do we choose the force of bestowal, the Creator?

Answer: I have a thousand desires, all sorts of aspirations. I do not even know what is inside of me. If I want to work as a good psychologist, I begin to delve into myself, analyze every factor and its mode of action, and look for an opportunity to influence or correct something.

Perhaps the fruit of these efforts will be a doctorate degree in psychology. Correction will not come from this because I am not correcting myself or seeing or “reading” myself with my mind. Only the light, which brings a change in my desire to receive, explains to me who I am in a different way each time.

Therefore, I do not need to immerse into myself, but to turn outward, that is, to constantly strive toward the Creator or the group. I must acquire these qualities, understanding that greatness lies within them.

To correct the desire to receive, we cannot stay in it. The light builds the vessel, and the light corrects the vessel. If we do not attract it, we will only get entangled in our animal nature and never break free from it. Then we will be scientists dealing with our animal part, like psychologists, and no more.

Even they know nothing about the inner part of a person, especially about those qualities that are a little closer to spirituality. In the field of human-level qualities, they have no understanding, and they admit it.

All our work is not about internal scrutiny: “Who or what am I?” It should be aimed at attaining the giver, the one and only, “there is none else besides Him,” the Good that Does good.

You need to constantly work outside yourself toward Him. That should be my main task. And all my desires to turn inside myself and explore myself are a real Klipa, a hindrance that comes as a result of the Creator enlarging my vessels, and each time they seem more important to me than attaining the Creator as the only one, the benevolent one.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,’ in the Work?”

Question: When a person feels that pain is practically a part of the treatment, he rejoices. And yet, how can he cope with the pain? How can he prevent it from negatively affecting him and how can one avoid impatience and irritability?

Answer: Let us say a person feels pain. When he connects it to the cause, to the Creator, it sweetens his suffering because he sees that there is a cause. Then he already understands that the Creator, of course, has a good intention in sending him this pain.

This is true for the inanimate level of holiness. However, if I do not move on to the next stage, then I am not advancing. I have certainly completed one stage; I have connected the pain to its source.

But now I need to take the next step. Why did He send it to me? Now, I have to sort of bring that pain back and work with it like with an empty vessel that needs to be corrected. Then I already treat it as a sign showing me where I need to change myself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

Work aimed at realizing the greatness of the giver is our only work, as in the example of the guest and the host.

Either I act according to my desire to receive pleasure or my “human” level enters the picture, the point in the heart, the quality of Bina, that I received as a result of the shattering of the vessels. This is a divine spark from above, my soul, opposite which I sense the host. Then I have two elements of perception within me: my natural desire to receive pleasure from the host and the point within me that senses the host Himself as the giver.

Now I conduct two kinds of calculations: with Him as the giver of pleasure and with Him as the giver. I find myself in this separation, and this is where the work begins. What is more important to me? Him, His greatness, or arranging my relationship with Him? Or does it not matter to me who He is and what He is, as long as I receive from Him and fill myself?

Therefore if we want to develop correctly, we must constantly cultivate the awareness of the host, the concept of the host, the giver.

Initially, a person stands before the host and does not see Him. Not seeing the host is very important because it brings a person shame, the feeling that he is a receiver, that he must restrict his desires, and exert all his strength to develop his attitude toward the giver so that the giver becomes increasingly more important than the pleasures that come from Him.

If He is greater than the pleasures that come from Him, then I continually restrict my desire to receive and I do not wish to operate within it. I prefer to remain in connection with the giver, who is great. This gives me greater pleasure, greater confidence, and fills me more. And it fills me for the sake of receiving, which is called “Lo Lishma,” yet I still prefer to be connected with the host rather than simply with the pleasures.

Then a stage comes when even this “consumer” connection with the host, when I “use” Him for my own interests, no longer appears favorable to me. When I prefer connection with the host over pleasures, that connection awakens in me an awareness of the nature of His character.

This is involves attaching importance to the act of bestowal, to the quality of bestowal itself. This is called “the enchantment of holiness.” This quality itself becomes so important to me that I no longer wish to be connected with the host through my vessels of reception. I want to connect with bestowal and to belong to it. This means that a person begins to step out of himself into the quality of the giver.

Then he seeks the means by which he can truly do this. He still needs awareness of the greatness of the host, but now of His greatness as the giver. This is pure Binah, which a person wishes to acquire. As one acquires it, one begins to resemble the host, but only in that one wishes to be like Him. This means that a person, as it were, acquires Galgalta ve Eynaim, the qualities of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,’ in the Work?”

Question: How can we reach a state where we work without experiencing suffering?

Answer: I have often given the example of my condition before undergoing surgery. I was not afraid of the operation; I desired it and was even prepared to pay the doctor for it. I was waiting for it.

But if a person does not see, know, or feel that a certain action is for his salvation, he runs from it, fears it, and does not want it. Everything depends on the degree to which they recognize the need. If the goal is important to you, then you view all the means that lead to its attainment as only good. You look at them as medicine that you are waiting for and are willing to pay a great deal of money for. You do not perceive it as a blow.

Our attitude toward the will to receive and toward the means by which it will be corrected transforms the feeling of suffering into the feeling of pleasure. That is the difference.

I move from the will to receive to the aspiration to bestow. All the blows that this desire experiences, I perceive as means to attain the desire to bestow. They appear sweet, and I feel them 100% that way. I do not evaluate them as blows, because through them, I detach from my will to receive and feel nothing negative in this.

You may call this psychology or something else, but this is what happens with the substance of our will to receive. This applies literally to all kinds of pleasures, both in the spiritual worlds and in this world. If I connect any sensation of mine, good or bad, with bestowal to the Creator, with the goal, then everything that serves this purpose will be felt by me as pleasure.

We must understand that the purpose of creation is to delight the created beings. In bestowal, we will reveal unlimited pleasures.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

Question: What does it mean that a person must build a “head” (Rosh)?

Answer: It is written, “From Your actions we know You.” By resembling the Creator, I begin to perceive His thoughts.

How do we learn in this world? A small child looks at his father or at a teacher and imitates their actions without understanding why. So it is with us: we do not understand, but if we perform the corresponding actions, it gradually becomes clear to us why the upper one chose to act this way.

At first, a person sees only the external form—what the upper one does in relation to him. But as he becomes similar to the upper one, he attains His intention: why He reveals Himself in this manner and what He seeks to achieve in His relationship with the lower one. In this way, he is granted the “head,” as it is witten, “From Your actions we know You.”

This is the only action by which we can ascend from a lower degree to a higher one. The action at each degree is called the flavors of the Torah. When I attain the flavors of the Torah, reveal the Creator’s actions within me, and make myself similar to Him, then I taste the flavors of the Torah.

Ta’amim (tastes) are the lights that spread into the Guf (body) of the Partzuf when I align my intention with the intention to bestow, and thus I have a body, a Partzuf. From there, I come to the head of the degree, which is called the secrets of the Torah (Sodot Torah), the intentions of the Creator.

Thus, I reveal the flavors of the Torah, and the Creator reveals Himself to me in this action, giving me desires. Then, from the flavors of the Torah, I come to the secrets of the Torah: “From Your actions we know You,” to the head of the Partzuf. And the head of the Partzuf consists of the Creator’s intentions, which I am not permitted to reveal; I must preserve them.

What does it mean “not permitted to reveal”? What is the severity of this prohibition? In spirituality, “not permitted” means “impossible.” These heads accumulate within me each time; they are all arranged from below upward and are based on the rejection of the light.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/26, Rabash, “What Are the Two Actions During a Descent?”

Imagine that you are a parent—perhaps strict, perhaps kind, it doesn’t matter which, but loving—just such a parent relates to their children so should you treat others.

Question: And at the moment when I read this each day and understand that I cannot do it, is that the prayer: “I can’t!”?

Answer: This is not yet a prayer, but a state in which you examine yourself and see how much you need to be corrected. And then you already have some sort of claims or requests for correction. And you lay them out.

You judge yourself; you come and demand that the Creator correct you because you cannot correct yourself. The only one who can is Him. But only in accordance with your demands, requests, and supplications. So hurry!

Question: You began with the instruction to love everyone.

Answer: Yes.

Question: So I want to reach this, but I cannot, and I ask for it?

Answer: Exactly!

Comment: Thank you. Wonderful!

My Response: So prepare yourself.
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From KabTV’s “Conversation with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 2/26/26

Question: How can I be sure that the Creator’s greatness is the sole reason for my annulment to the group?

Answer: How do I verify that only the greatness of the Creator guides me along the path? By remembering it, I trying to remember it, nothing more. We have to build on what we have. I can only be sure that if I remember it, I remember it. It is like a shield before me. I have nothing else. How can I verify this?

Question: But is there a result?

Answer: Being in the dark means that I cannot see even one step ahead. I cannot check by any result whether my action was correct. I just have to imagine the result as much as I can without knowing at all what it is, like some kind of motto.

It is called darkness; you do something and do not know what it is. You stick your hand out not knowing what “out” means. Similarly, when walking around the house in the dark, you grope your way not knowing what you might come across.

So, you “stretch out your hand,” that is, you make some kind of internal movement, you know nothing. You only want what this action will lead you to. But what does “you want” mean? What do you know about what you want to achieve? You have not yet reached the state you will be in. Nevertheless, it is considered enough that you think that way in your state.

The only thing you can be sure of is, “Yes, I think so now. I do not know what I can imagine next.” A child is an example of this. He also does things without knowing what he is doing and arrives at something. He has neither reason nor strength; he is busy with imaginary things, but everything is arranged so that what he does leads to something, and he grows up.

What is the difference between the corporeal and the spiritual? Intention, desire. What is the difference between a corporeal and a spiritual embryo? The corporeal embryo belongs to the corporeal world: whatever he does turns out that way, and that is it. But as a spiritual embryo, I must want to be formed in spiritual forces, just like a corporeal embryo in corporeal ones.

The same here: I want to achieve something. I do not know the essence of the actions, I was just told so. And I do not know what the results will be either. Just the motto: I want it to be so. This is the difference between spiritual and corporeal actions: a person must bring oneself to the action, and then it happens.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself””

Question: How can a person determine for himself that it is not the group that needs correction but himself?

Answer: This feeling is revealed to a person as an assessment of their state when suddenly see it this way.

They see that despite their actions, they all stem from their intention to be fulfilled, to receive. And although others may also be in a similar state, it does not matter. A person judges oneself relative to the light descending upon him and then determines that he is in the intention for the sake of receiving.

One may sink into despair, or one may say: “What is now being revealed to me is a sign of the revelation of something new, something real. And now, I must find the strength. The one who reveals this state to me will also reveal to me how I can come out of it.”

It all depends on the preparation of the person and the group: on how it supports him, and on how ready he is to receive its support.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/26/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,’ in the Work?”

Question: Since ancient times people have wanted to know what awaits them in the future. There were prophets, seers, and oracles. And even today, people are very concerned about their future. What is “the future”?

Answer: The future is what we build in the present. The concepts of past, present, and future exist only in our perception. It is very difficult to explain the concept of time to an ordinary person in our world because to do so he must rise above time, movement, and space.

Everything must be examined with respect to the person, meaning we must understand that we are not studying what happens in the world, but in our sensation of the world. A person senses changes only because he himself changes, not because something outside of him changes. If I see a hurricane, rain, drought, winter, or summer, it means that I feel such states within myself.

I perceive this entire world within myself: stones, plants, animals, and people; those that were, are, and will be, all exist only in my perception.

Therefore I need to investigate why my sensation is divided into these three categories: past, present, and future. Once I understand this, I will be able to relate correctly to reality. Reality does not exist independently outside of me, but it is determined by my perception.

The wisdom of Kabbalah says that nothing outside of me changes. Everything happens only within me, in my perception, which changes day by day, moment by moment.

This completely changes the whole picture because if the world were outside of us, our ability to influence it would be very limited. Clearly predicting droughts, floods, and earthquakes helps us protect ourselves from an external threat by building dams or leaving the dangerous area. Yet this does not prevent the blow itself. If I understand that a flood does not occur externally, but in my inner sensation, then I can arrange myself internally so that the tsunami will not come at all. I can create a completely different world for myself where the sun shines and everything is wonderful.

Or perhaps I will even feel like I am in an entirely different dimension, in another world. After all, if everything depends on my perception, then I simply need to know how to manage my sensations in order to build a good external world within them. In other words, I divide the world into external and internal and say that I can change only the internal world, my sensation of the world, but not the external world.

The most important thing here is what to consider a constant and what is a variable that is subject to change. Either we consider ourselves constant and the external world changing, in which case we must protect ourselves from it.

Or we accept the external world as constant and unchanging, as the science of Kabbalah says, that the upper light is in absolute rest, and all changes and corrections occur within the person. In that case I can change myself and get the reality I want.
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From KabTV’s “New Life 934 – What Is ‘The Future?’” 12/19/17

Nothing prevents us from constantly maintaining the best feeling that we have ever had in our lives, the one we experienced at the congress when we felt unity, the connection between us and the Creator, spiritual revelation. If I descend from this state, it means that it is my own fault because I did not add my own efforts.

We received an awakening from above, from the Creator, and it should not disappear. The upper one gives us an example of what we should be like, and we must continue it. The awakening should not depend on the physical location of the congress. If there is no awakening, it means that the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the group is lacking, and this can be further developed precisely after the congress, during the normal times.

The breaks between congresses should be perceived as opportunities organized for us by the Creator to invest our own efforts in this world. The construction of the spiritual vessel takes place precisely in darkness, at night. We need to see all the events of our life as connected by this very principle, so that “There was evening and there was morning one day.” This is the only way to perceive our lives.

From above, we are given moments of unification and closeness to the spiritual so that we can continue them when the awakening from above disappears. We must preserve this inner feeling by ourselves, at least with the same strength that was given from above, as if we had not left the congress.

The Creator raised us to a certain degree and left us, and we must continue on it. It is not good if we fall because we already have an example of how to continue. And then the Creator will raise us to the next degree, and even higher, and so every time.

When the Creator leaves us, He reveals which places need to be filled with His greatness. The only thing that is missing is the greatness of the Creator.

The main thing is to make an effort to remain constantly connected with the others, like at the congress, and to not let this feeling cool down, to continue it by all means. And then we will see that all the events of our lives—our return to work and all ordinary activities—are organized by the Creator for this very purpose: to fill all these daily empty spaces with awakening, inspiration from the spiritual, and the importance of the Creator.

We must maintain this state and not allow ourselves to descend. This is precisely where all the work ilies. There is not much to work on during the congress. The awakening given from above is working there, and everything happens by itself. But today, through our own efforts, prayer, and all possible means, we must not allow this awakening to cool off. Now is the time for work.

Therefore, at the congress we did not “achieve” success, but “received” it. Today we need to achieve success. It is possible to say that the congress, that is, the gathering and unification, begins right now!

If we correctly understand how to use the time of the congress and the time between congresses, then we will correctly realize the unity we have achieved. Everything is tested precisely by everyday states where all the work lies. So let us continue!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/8/18, “The Greatness of the Creator”

Comment: It is easy to be inspired by a friend who treats me well. But it is difficult to be inspired by a friend who occaisionally treats me badly.

My Response: There are friends whom I tolerate with difficulty or perhaps cannot tolerate at all. There are those whom I barely notice; they neither anger nor delight me. And finally, there are those with whom I feel wonderful and joyful, among whom it is pleasant for me to be. So which of them should I see as the target of acquisition? After all, it is said: “Buy for yourself a friend.”

It is impossible to give a universal answer to this. I would say it this way: each time you will see what you are capable of, and that is what you should do. No one will tell you that you must specifically focus on the one you hate, with whom you cannot be together, even though he is in the group. That is incorrect. Rather, each time you should be with those friends through whom, as you feel, you are able to invest effort.

But this is not based on “pouncing” on someone, on beginning to bestow to him, to unite with him, and immediately go to drink beer together in order to become closer. No. To invest effort in acquiring a friend is a general investment in the group.

It is not about some personal connection with a specific individual upon whom I am constantly focused. In accordance with the state a person is going through at any given moment, those around him appear differently each time. Sometimes you are in a good state, as though elevated in the spiritual sense, and then suddenly you find yourself ready to embrace and kiss the very one you usually hate.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

Question: What is the correct form of self-annulment?

Answer: If you want to attain adhesion with the Creator, then you come to the group and use its forces in order to develop the intention for the sake of bestowal. Then the group becomes very important to you; you annul yourself before it in order to come to the recognition of the Creator’s greatness, and correcting the disturbances that arise on your path toward self-annulment becomes additional strength.

Question: How can I convince myself to annul myself before the friends?

Answer: I am not capable of convincing myself. It happens only if I feel that it is necessary. Reaching a state where I have nothing else to rely on and only the group can help me on the path does not come solely from my own efforts.

I can work in the group, be close to my friends, and do a thousand things, but if I do not keep in mind (even slightly) that I am doing this in order to attain the goal, that the group must help me, and that I am working in it only for this, then I will not receive a single thought, not a single clarification. This will happen only when I bring a bit of my intention, my desire. Then it will begin to work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning “Love Thy Friend as Thyself””

There are three conditions for spiritual work in a group.

First, “make yourself a Rav.” A Rav (teacher) is someone greater than me who gives me direction. What he says defines my path. While giving directions, he must always give a student a certain amount of freedom, appear weak, sometimes confused, and sometimes contradict himself. This provides the student with obstacles, various doubts and thoughts about whether the teacher is right; this leaves the student room to perform the action “make for yourself a Rav.”

Second is “buy yourself a friend.” I have to find people who, just like me, go through the same process along with me, and through my investment in them, I will gain strength from them. Because I invested efforts into my friends, these forces become mine—I bought them; I acquired them.

And the third is “judge everyone to the scale of merit.” This means that when I see obstacles from various people, I must interpret it as coming from representatives of the Creator, who are meant to confuse me with various situations that are optimal for the gradual development of my soul toward the Creator.

Thus, there is a teacher before me, toward whom I must act according to the principle of “make yourself a Rav,” there are friends with whom I do work according to the principle of “buy yourself a friend,” and there is the external environment, the whole world, all the others, whom I judge to the scale of merit, to the fact that they themselves do not perform any action at all, but the Creator influences me through them. Thus, I see them only as puppets rather than as characters who are either guilty or righteous in their actions.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”