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

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Become Worthy of Receiving the Torah

943Question: How do we make sure that we are worthy of receiving the Torah, that we are ready to be each other’s guarantors?

Answer: If a person is ready to act as a guarantor for others (and we know that it is a condition for receiving the Torah to be “as one man with one heart”), then, of course, what one actually desires is to receive is not the Torah!

If one wants to be ready to become “like one man with one heart,” and is unable to do so, this task looms before the person like a mountain, meaning that the impulse to act “for the sake of receiving” is abhorrent and one wants to act “for the sake of bestowal,” then it is defined as being “like one man with one heart.”

It means uniting the points in the heart. This is the only correction the Torah brings, nothing more.
Our standing at the foot of Mount Sinai, along with all the doubts and all the hatred, serves one purpose: to effect the transformation from acting “for the sake of receiving” into “for the sake of giving.” For the sake of giving means that you unite all hearts and form a common vessel into which you receive the Torah. But if you do not do that, then what you get inside will not be the Torah but something else, some kind of science.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah? – 1”

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Can Effort Be Measured?

281.01Each one of us tries to integrate into the group, and each one might say: “How can I determine the efforts of my friends? One may invest a great deal in the group, but can barely squeeze out a few sentences a week. Another shouts and argues.” It is true. As long as we are in this world, we are not capable of correctly measuring the effort of each person.

Often, we take as an example the one who makes more noise, who leads and helps despite the fact that his inner effort maybe smaller compared to the one who remains silent. And we must agree with this; we have no choice as long as it is this way. After all, as long as we are not corrected and do not feel one another as parts of the soul, it is important for us to be impressed by each other externally.

Therefore, the one who speaks loudly about what is correct, about awakening the group, is more important to me than the one who perhaps exerts a greater effort but whose external expression is calm. Nothing can be done about this, because we are all below the Machsom, in concealment, and this is the way our examination works. When we rise to a spiritual degree, we will judge differently.

Question: But perhaps the one who makes less noise awakens me more?

Answer: Everyone is impressed in their own way, according to the traits of their character. When I see a person who works quietly, although no one pays attention to him, he steadily and precisely does his work, he influences me more strongly than the one who makes a lot of noise. It touches me more deeply; from it, I receive a stronger inner impact. And the same happens with all those who are able to perceive this phenomenon.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

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The Accelerator of Spiritual Development

530Comment: It is written: “I have created the evil inclination.” It is clear that each of us has the same evil inclination.

My Response: No, each of us is different from the others. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “Freedom of Will” that we all came from different points of Adam HaRishon, and we are forbidden to suppress anyone, force them to do something, change them, interfere with the culture of other people, or forcibly bring progress to the so-called primitive peoples.

Everyone should develop in accordance with their personal qualities, because this is the only way they can realize their desire to receive. Everyone is an independent creation, and even if they want to, they cannot change their desire to receive, their starting point.

Baal HaSulam explains what a starting point is and the program by which it develops. There is a predetermined order of influence in society and in the laws of environmental development; a person cannot force their way in and change anything. The only change is in its external form under the group’s influence.

But the modification of the external form does not imply that a person acquires additional desires or properties not found in him from society. He acquires excitement, a desire for the source he must reach. This serves as additional fuel for him to accelerate his development and the correction process. But he does not acquire any new Kelim, new properties or new thoughts by doing so.

It only accelerates the emergence of these inherent qualities and determines the speed of their development. Therefore, it is crucial to relate to the group, to the opinions of our friends and to the very structure of the group with the understanding that everything we acquire from it serves solely as an accelerator, a catalyst, that provides us with the energy to act. But this accelerator has no inherent character of its own; it only provides an additional push in the direction in which I am already moving. I choose where to go, not it. I expect the same from the group. That is, I must come to the group and demand additional forces in the direction I have already chosen, rather than the group coming to me and attempting to brainwash me.

Any “brainwashing” by the group should only be in strengthening my chosen direction. Otherwise, it will not be a free choice. Otherwise, it will be a group that suppresses individuals.

It does not have to bring me new ideas. It should only help me solidify what I already have. Therefore, it is said that each of us should give to the group and receive back according to our investment, only many times more.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/26, Rabash, “What Is the Preparation to Receive the Torah in the Work?-2”

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Invest in the Friends

938.02Question: How can I perceive the desire within a friend?

Answer: I should not try to see the desire in a friend; rather, I must invest efforts in him, because in return I receive an awareness of the importance of the upper one from the entire environment.

In other words, I can invest efforts in the group through a few specific friends from whom I see absolutely nothing directly, I can suddenly receive an additional feeling that helps me become inspired by an awareness of the importance of the Creator that previously I did not perceive.

The group had a great awareness of the importance of the Creator even before, but I would come there and see none of it at all. I was like a cat walking into room. If the cat were to pass through here, would it be inspired by what we are speaking about? Would it be influenced by it? The same was true for me. I would come, sit in my place, study some science with the friends, look at the drawings on the board, and leave. It had no effect on me.

However, through the efforts that I invest in the society, I receive an additional sensitivity, and then I begin to see: indeed, they truly aspire to the goal, they are so deeply immersed in it, they strive for it so earnestly! Then I begin to experience a genuine response to the group. This depends not on the group, but on the efforts I have invested.

The group may remain exactly the same, yet suddenly I begin to discover within it more and more forces that are beneficial for my advancement, solely in accordance with the efforts I invested in it.

Consequently I no longer need to demand the friends do something for me, that they shout louder —be more vocal, although these expressions have their place. Indeed, we raise toasts for those who have accomplished something praiseworthy, and so on. It is helpful; it gives an example and in one way or another assists everyone. However, my main work is that by investing efforts, I begin to see the society differently and hear what is happening within it differently. And this is something that one does not demand from others.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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The Greatness of the Goal Is the Beginning of All Thoughts and Actions

942A group will never be completely clear or fully corrected. On the contrary, it is said that “the destruction of the elders constitutes construction.” That is, the more clashes occur, provided they are in relation to the spiritual idea, the more this leads to building something, because such disagreements are truly for the sake of heaven.

Disagreements about what? About the way that you, I, and he each think we can help the group ignite more strongly with the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the goal. This does not concern physical work or physical changes in the group, but only the inner effort of a person in relation to the group.

One thinks in one way, another thinks differently, so let each do what he thinks. But our common idea must be heated to the maximum, sharpened, clarified. Besides that, there are a thousand paths to it. Each person feels it in his own way, within his own soul, and in this, there are no disagreements. Here, I cannot help you, and you cannot help me. Each one understands within oneself, but everyone must clearly understand what the idea itself is.

Thus, these are not arguments, but clarifications. An argument can exist only if someone thinks that the main idea is not the most important thing. Because everything we do must be only for its sake. It is not that I place something in a corner behind glass in some special cabinet and call it sacred.

Great means that this idea is the guiding force, the origin of all my thoughts and all my actions.
[353820]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, “What Is, “There Is Nothing that Has No Place,” in the Work?”

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When Will the War End?

79.01Question: Is it really possible that there are wars in spirituality too? I always thought that there was only love there.

Answer: From the beginning of the worlds to the very end, the entire reality, except for the single Creator, the one upper force of love, is built on the struggle of opposites, that is, on war. The Creator is attained by us through the attainment of love as the absolute annulment of hatred, war, and opposition, that is, in the complete annulment of each one before the others. In this way we form the image of the Creator within us. We create Him. As it is said: “You have made Me.”

Question: Are you talking about the war within each person? Is this the spiritual war?

Answer: Yes, the external war exists only on the animate level.

Question: You once said that external wars occur because we haven’t waged our internal wars properly, and therefore the external wars appear. Can you explain this a little more? Does it mean that I did not see my war to its end?

Answer: I should have fought. I should have resisted. I should have stood and led the forces of light against the forces of darkness within me. And thus I should have seen how I was moving the world toward a state of connection, closeness, and love among all its opposite parts. And thus I bring the state of war to the state of true peace.

Peace is Shalom, from Shlemut, complete wholeness, full unification (Hashlama). Somehow I did not complete this work somewhere, and therefore I allowed it to manifest even in the lowest form in this physical world.

Question: So now, in order to stop this external war, must I return again to my internal wars?

Answer: I must do it, and everyone must do it because the external war exists only in order to push us toward internal connection.

Question: So resolving the war by external forces, when someone wins and someone loses, is not a real solution?

Answer: Of course not.

Question: Then will there be another war?

Answer: Of course! Nothing is solved this way. It is only a step along the road, along the path, about how to continue the next page of the war.

Question: Will the next page of the war come one way or another? And maybe it will be even more terrible?

Answer: Of course, more terrible. The most important thing is that at the beginning of a conflict, we quickly determine what it is about and extinguish it by uniting and complementing the conflicting sides in such a way that they reveal the Creator.

Question: Suppose there are two conflicting sides that hate each other. How can they suddenly stop at the beginning of the conflict?

Answer: By rising above themselves, by rising above one another, and by imagining what the world should be like if they unite together so much that they no longer distinguish between each other, but only sense the connection between them.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/14/22

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Non-Random Encounters

294.2Comment: You say that every man has an inner woman.

My Response: Yes, that is his desire. The point is that in our world, we are divided into different parts: men, women, children, and the elderly. In the spiritual world, all of this exists within a single soul. It has a masculine part, a feminine part, and what they give rise to between them: the screen and the desire, Masach and Aviut. The birth of another Partzuf, another level, is like their children.

In our world, all of this has taken on a final form, which is expressed in various material objects; we need to unite them. That is, we connect with each other in families, while at the same time we are obliged to unite the feminine and masculine parts: the desires, aspirations, and goals.

Question: People often say that we are born for each other, and exist in heaven as a single whole. Does Kabbalah recognize such a concept?

Answer: Of course, people do not meet each other by chance. It is no accident that parents give birth to these particular children, that a man and woman marry, later perhaps separate, and then meet again.

This is all natural, especially today, when people have so many opportunities for contact. They travel, rush madly from one end of the world to the other, and spin everywhere.

On one hand, this connects people on a spiritual level into a single desire. On the other hand, look at their personal relationships. They marry and divorce, come together and part. All of this is aimed at quickly completing the mutual inclusion on the spiritual level that remains to be fulfilled, at transforming it from a corrupt, egoistic level to a spiritual one.

Comment: When a man and woman meet and begin to flirt, that is one level. Once they engage in intimate relations, a deeper connection forms between them, as if another kind of union occurs. They even behave differently because they are closer.

My Response: Yes, naturally, because sexual relations in our world correspond to the spiritual union, Zivug de Hakaa, in the spiritual world. At the animal level, a special type of internal contact arises. But this animal level also defines the spiritual level.

That is why I say that nowadays all kinds of chance encounters have become more frequent. This is the final stage of our earthly egoistic development; it is not moral, spiritual, or psychological development, but the stage of maturation of our desires.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Man and Women” 9/11/10

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Add Up the Opposites

254.01Question: You perceive all the processes taking place differently than how they appear in the picture of this world. You said that you have perceived a crisis for a long time, but it still has not manifested itself physically, that is, in the external world. How is this possible? What is this process and why is there such a delay?

Answer: Baal HaSulam explains this in many of his articles. He says that there is an action called “descending from above” and an action called “receiving from below.”

All sorts of commands, actions, and phenomena descend upon us from above. But while they are realized in our perception and while we are conscious of them, a certain amount of time passes. Therefore, there is a delay between descending from above and receiving from below.

Since a Kabbalist is on a level above our world, he sees forces descending into our world, and therefore believes that something needs to be done quickly. And the rest of the people are still in a drunken stupor; they say: “Everything is fine. Why are you panicking there?”

That is how it turns out that a Kabbalist show up, hurries, an shouts like Baal HaSulam 20 years before the Second World War. He said that Jews should escape from Poland, soon Hitler would conquer it.

Messing and other people even warned about this. But no one listened to them, they were silenced, considered enemies of the people, and so on.

I once talked to a major Israeli figure, a man of great culture, a strong industrialist who is very concerned about the future. At one time, he met with the President of the United States and talked with him about the need to quickly change the world, educate people, and encourage them to be kind and loving to each other. But the President didn’t understand anything.

Such an advanced, well-respected politician completely misunderstood him. It is not that I didn’t understand it, but I thought it would be good to do so. This is not the way to go. That is, people still don’t understand.

And they are right, because they act based on what is in our world. Why would they listen to some kind of “mystics,” even though the environment has been faltering for a long time, and everything else is falling apart.

Will they really pay attention to some Kabbalists who wag their fingers at them and say that it is necessary to change relationships in society, to change the social environment in the world? They won’t do it. They don’t have the necessary tools, influence, or upbringing for this.

We see what happens to our children. These are the most precious creatures to our hearts, but we leave them to their fate; as the street or school educates them, so it will be. As a result, we get drugs, promiscuity, emptiness, and complete lack of purpose in life. That is why humanity sees its future so bleakly.

But we don’t even need to correct ourselves, the main thing is that if we could correct the children, guide them correctly, then at least the future generation would live well. We, as adults who love them so much, cannot properly and soberly look at what is happening. This is so stupid! The Creator gives us some kind of clouding from above. If you unfold this whole picture, how can parents treat their children’s future like this?!

The whole education system, the whole world community, has launched this. Everyone raises their hands: “Well, my children will be like that too. What can I do?” They have the same answer as the politicians and say we don’t have the means to correct people.

Therefore, we are heading toward states where suffering will accumulate to such an extent that humanity will howl because it will not be able to hide from problems with its “ostrich policies,” and then it will agree to listen to what the science of Kabbalah has to say.

Question: You speak from the point of view of an ordinary person who sees that he is not understood, the whole world does not hear him. But if creation is arranged completely differently, if it is inside you, then what?

Answer: What difference does it make whether it is inside me or outside? I have to fix this. That is why I’ve been given the opportunity to see it from the outside, to make it easier to fix.

Question: So there must be an appeal to the perception that exists as if from the outside?

Answer: Sure. I have to reach out to people, correct them, and promote Kabbalah so that they will come to me and strive for the same goal—unification.

Question: So it is impossible to do this internally with a small group?

Answer: No, it is not possible. I cannot do the work for others, although these others, as you want to say now, are in me.

Otherwise, you take away freewill from every part of you that you think exists outside of you. This part can correct its selfishness only if it feels free from you and does it on its own. This way you will help each other.

And it is not schizophrenia. The fact that we cannot put several opposite things together in our minds is our problem. This is the problem of the narrowness of our world, because we have only the desire to enjoy and nothing else.

But we have other possibilities to experience the existing universe. In order to develop them, we are given so–called “schizophrenia”: although these are my parts that exist outside of me, and everything around me is me; it is mine, but on the other hand, I have to correct it exactly as if it is not mine, helping them to be independent, and then each part will fix itself.

Having corrected ourselves, we will all come together into one single whole, and all our independent corrections will come together. That is, all our desires will add up to one desire, and all our small screens will add up to one screen.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Schizophrenia” 10/7/10

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The Need for a Strong Environment

938.03Question: If it is written, “Buy yourself a friend,” why is one friend not enough for me? Why do I need many friends?

Answer: Because one is not enough. As Baal HaSulam writes in “The Giving of the Torah” and in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” “In the multitude of the people is the King’s glory.” This means that I am not able to be inspired by one person.

I am able to be inspired by many who share the same opinion as I do and who can be my environment. Of course, it may also be one person, but still it will not influence me as much as needed.

I need as large an environment as possible, although within it I see different people. It does not matter; each time I can pay attention to those from whom I will receive inspiration.

I can be inspired by some, while I invest efforts—“buy for yourself a friend”—specifically in others. However, since all are connected into one society, it does not matter. This is how it works. The environment must be as large and as strong as possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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Identify the True Goal

938.01If a person is unable to draw inspiration from their friends, it means that the goal is still not important to them. Perhaps the goal is important to them, but they haven’t figured out what it is yet. The goal is adhesion with the Creator through equivalence of qualities, which I can achieve only if I gather strength from my environment; the Creator gave me the initial impetus.

For such a person, this entire process has not yet been fully understood and they don’t connect their goal with the true goal. They believe it lies in knowing a lot, in seeing the whole world from end to end, in feeling eternity, in being above the world. They haven’t yet deciphered the correct definition of the goal of creation. It isn’t yet completely connected to the giver with the understanding that they too must come to the force of bestowal. Then they replace the true goal with another goal, they dress it in a different garment that is more egoistic, more understandable to them. This is normal. What can they do? It is the result of his state.

Nevertheless, one must increasing focus on seeing the goal as clearly as possible in a form closer to the truth. And then, thanks to this, a person will see that indeed he or she lacks strength, knowledge, and understanding of where to begin, and will feel the need to turn to the group.

If a person truly, reveals time after time, an even more true goal, more directed toward bestowal, more distant from them by virtue of their nature, they will more clearly feel that they are unable to take a step toward it. Then they must remember that the forces for this exist only in the environment. And since they have already entered it, they turn to it out of desperation.

The absence of a way out is the stimulus that compels me to turn to the group, since otherwise I will not be able to find the strength to move forward. It is like the need to maintain life within yourself, and so I come and ask. It is only in this case, the request in itself does not help. You must invest effort and receive strength in return.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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“The Mountain on Them like a Vault” Is a Sign of Coercion

 281.01The meaning of “forced the mountain on them like a vault” is that the reason that now they must receive the Torah and they have no other choice is the mountain, meaning the information they received in the thought and intellect that they are in a state of descent because they have evil in the hearts. This is like a vault, meaning that it is coercive and they have no choice (Rabash, Article “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”).

The state in which I realize my opposition to the Creator in all my qualities is called “standing at Mount Sinai.” I stand at the foot of the mountain and above me is a mountain of doubts, my bad qualities, that separate me from the Creator who is at the top of the mountain.

How do I know that He is at the top? Because that is where my point in the heart, called Moses, is. When I feel the difference between these two sensations, there is a need for me to receive the reforming light. Moreover, I feel that the Creator is forcing to do this. As it is written, forced the mountain on them like a vault is a sign of coercion.

The Creator descends to the top of the mountain where His qualities are. If I rise above all the doubts, above my nature, then I will meet Him there. It is not by chance that this state is revealed to me: either I accept the corrections and rise above all the doubts or this will be “my burial” place since I will bury myself under all my desires and doubts.

In such a case I truly need the Torah, which stands against the evil inclination, because I reveal that the evil inclination is my nature and I begin to hate Mount Sinai.

What is called hatred, as it is said: “Hatred descended upon the nations of the world”? This is explained as though we received the Torah, and then the nations of the world began to hate us. But it is I who hate the nations of the world within me, and therefore I receive the Torah after I determine that the evil is within me.

As long as I think that my inclination is good, since it is good, I desire it. And if I want to use it, then the Creator, who has a goal, the desire to raise me to the top of the mountain (“everyone must become like Moses”), gives the light, and in this light, I begin to enter the process of ascents and descents.

Thus, by defining my nature as good, I remain in a descent, so that each time I can see it in comparison with the light until I come to the decision that it is evil.

Until these constantly recurring descents accumulate into a mountain, after which I will need the Torah and be ready to receive it, I will not develop the need for the Torah (Hebrew: Torah means teaching, theory; “Horaah”—instruction) as a guide for correction. When I accept the Torah as correction, then I merit the desire for it as a source of fulfillment.

It is clear that all of this occurs under coercion. As it is said: He forced the mountain on them like a vault. That is, He imposed coercion upon us (“Kfiya” from the verb “kafa“—compelled, and also overturned, turned upside down). We can only become more sensitive to what is happening to us.
[353027]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

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Find a Cure for Egoism

231.03Question: How can I advance if the desire to receive dominates me?

Answer: Indeed, the Creator constantly activates the desire to receive in you to advance you, and then you feel that it dominates you again. It is not even that it dominates you, but that you are that desire to receive.

But to feel its power over you, you need the upper light that gives you the feeling that there is something besides the desire to receive—the desire to bestow. Then you realize that the desire to receive and you are not the same thing. There must be a third party.

If you have this separation between you and the desire to receive and the awareness of its power, this is salvation. Now something is up to you.

You have come out of unconsciousness and can act. You think “I am not my egoism, my hater, the one who prevents me from advancing. I would kill it, but how do I seize it? It is like a cancer in me.” You should start looking for some kind of cure. The cure from egoism can only be the light.

Your problem is that you do not really want this cure. Then you should go to a group that will strengthen your awareness of evil, so that you would see that this disease is killing you and separates you from eternal life to such an extent that you start to scream. It is the real scream that opens the heavens.
[353318]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/26, Rabash, “What Is the Preparation to Receive the Torah in the Work?-2”

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Calculation Based on Bestowal

571.08Question: How can you determine what you must correct and how to correct it?

Answer: How can you determine your state, name it correctly, and measure it so that it becomes the cause for correction? I may be measuring my state, meaning my desire, since I have nothing else, but this does not compel me to make a decision.

I am in the desire to receive, which gives me either pleasure or suffering, and according to this I determine whether it is good or bad. Based on that, I use it or try to replace it (acquire a different desire to receive), and strive to enjoy something else. And if I cannot enjoy it, then let me not have the desire for it, I will suppress it.

A person always chooses what they can enjoy in the most useful and easiest form, so that there is as little effort as possible and as much pleasure as possible. This is our calculation. It is a natural calculation that everyone makes, from functioning on the still, vegetative, and animate levels to functioning on the speaking level within us. This is how it works on all levels of nature.

But if I want to learn how to enjoy more, I seek out systems, join various clubs, and learn from others. I develop the use of my desire to receive to the point where, legally or illegally, I can enjoy as much as society and the world allow. I simply constantly calculate what is beneficial and what is not; the maximum is always my goal.

According to this, we look at people and evaluate them. It is impossible to demand any other calculation because this is our nature.

Then why does a person receive blows from the upper governance, from the Creator? After all, the Creator created them in such a way that this is the only calculation they can make. You can ask scientists (biologists, psychologists, etc.) and they will say that this is our calculation. So why does the Creator, who made us this way, punish us? For what? For creating us like this?

The Creator does not punish us. What comes to us from Him is not in order to punish us, but in accordance with the law that says that there is not only the desire to receive in us. There is also another force that is in us at the preparatory stage—the desire to bestow.

Therefore we must begin to make calculations that take it into account. To do this we must begin to calculate between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. To the extent that we do not make a calculation in accordance with the level of our development, we experience suffering.

If we would force ourselves to calculate not only about how much I want to enjoy, but also how much I should give enjoyment to others, and if I did this correctly in relation to myself and others according to my development, then I would be in a good state. I would not feel any suffering.

Suppose, according to my development, I should give 20 to 30% and receive 80%, this is my current level. It will increase and I will need to give more and receive less. If I knew this law, if I knew what is demanded of me and carried it out, I would always feel comfortable and good because this is, in essence, the law that affects me.

Why do we not see this law? We would make the calculation in order to feel good.

But the goal is not to feel good in the desire to receive. The calculation (how much for me and how much for others) must come, not only from the desire to receive, but from the desire to adhere to the Creator, to resemble Him. Bestowal itself is also not the goal. The goal is to resemble the Creator, to be like Him, so the law according to which I must bestow is not revealed to me.
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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?”

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Try to Correct Everything

When the Importance of Connection with the Creator Prevails

276.02What is an “obstacle”? It is when I am buried beneath it and feel only it. There are moments like this. Then, from above, a person is gradually given the ability to see themselves not completely inside the obstacle, but slightly to the side of it. That is, they are being illuminated a little, and then they see darkness relative to the light.

If we are in complete darkness and there is no memory of the light, we do not perceive darkness. It is perceived only by moving from a deficiency (Hisaron) to the light. Hisaron, desire, gives us a light that influences us from afar. In every state the Creator saves a person by sending him or her changes of states. The illumination changes, and with its help a person sees one’s state differently in relation to this illumination. Then a person begins to analyze one’s state and examine it.

But how can a person get out of a descent when one is at the very bottom of double concealment? Is there a possibility? No. This changes only with a person’s efforts in accordance with the Reshimot (informational records) that must be revealed within one, in accordance with the fact that the general engine has begun to work and is leading all of creation toward correction.

If one waits for change only from the Creator, then it occurs in accordance with the general state and very slowly. But if a person is prepared, if they organize a group, a routine, a framework, and put themselves under some kind of influence (besides the Creator it can only be the influence of the group), thereby they accelerate the process, the illumination that changes it.

Here a person’s actions are taken into account, what one prepares for oneself during an ascent, not during a descent. At the time when the light shines for you, what do you want from that state? Do you want to enjoy it, or do you want to be as close as possible to the Creator? That is, you think not about enjoyment, but about who you are close to, who you have a connection with, and how much you want to be with Him.

Even if the states do not change, your connection with Him is important to you because He is great, the upper one, the determining one, not because you can enjoy the pleasure of adhesion with Him in the vessels of reception.

If during an ascent you strengthen yourself precisely in such thoughts and only in them do you want to be connected with Him, you are as if preparing Kelim for the future in order to come out of a descent more quickly.

In other words, everything is taken into account with us only during our ascent. You received an ascent, now let’s see how you can resist temptations. Will you detach from the giver in order to immerse yourself in the “plate,” or, despite the fact that you are standing at the “plate,” will you, precisely with its help, desire to be connected with the giver?

Thus, a person is constantly existing in a state of struggle between one’s desire and one’s intention.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/26, Rabash, “What Are the Two Actions During a Descent?”

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Everything Depends on the Degree of Sensitivity

938.01When we look at our history, which must occur within every person, the entry into Egypt and the exit from it, the splitting of the Red Sea, approaching Mount Sinai, and standing at its foot, we do not see that a person somehow acts or influences what is happening. The Torah says categorically: “This is how it was.”

Everything is predetermined, and we are already at the end of this development. Now this development that is programmed in potential must be realized in each and everyone without exception and without any possibility of avoiding it.

We see that everything is connected by a chain of cause and effect: the need for a state and its birth, which in turn generates the need for the next state and its birth, and so on. But our role in this is to accelerate the states, to participate in them consciously, and to increase our sensitivity to what is happening. But we can develop sensitivity only with the help of the group.

The group can increase my awareness of evil and good in a wide variety of states and can intensify my sensitivity to them so much that I will feel how they occur within me every split second rather than once every few days, weeks, or months.

Everything depends on the degree of sensitivity. When I acquire it and begin to understand my states, I begin to determine their quality, their essence, and what is good and what is evil.

Thus, gradually, in the light that influences me, I begin to connect good and bad states in relation to the status of the Creator until my nature becomes hateful to me. Then I reach the foot of Mount Sinai, which is called so because I come to hatred (Sina in Hebrew) toward my own nature, and therefore I merit receiving the Torah.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

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There Is No Point in Waiting Hundreds of Years

 961.1Reality does not have to end its development with an explosion. You can end the War of Gog and Magog in a small laboratory, or you can unleash it on the entire world, it doesn’t matter. What matters for you is to recognize evil.

If you have a microscope, you recognize evil before it breaks through and begins to develop. You see in advance that there is an infectious agent that can destroy the entire world! And that’s it. We need to draw as much light as possible so that it will show this to us.

There is no specific external parameter that you could point to and say: “Here it is, Mount Sinai!” This parameter is your tension that is caused by the fact that you can no longer tolerate evil. Baal HaSulam writes that this depends on a person’s level of development.

A developed person who uses Kabbalah, the light that returns to the source, already sees how terrible it is. Nothing more needs to be shown to him.

So there is no point in waiting another hundred years, then it would not be the path of Torah but the path of suffering. The purpose of being given the Torah, Kabbalah, is so that we can go through this development “externally,” without waiting to reach it through natural development. One way or another, we will have to work. The only difference is whether it will be in suffering or in joy.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

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The Group Is a Measuring Device for Advancement

938.05Question: Where can I receive the correct attitude to any subjective sensation from and how can I establish the correct attitude toward it?

Answer: How can I evaluate each of my sensations? How can I measure it and be sure that I am examining it in the right way? I cannot. It is only in relation to the group. The group is the measuring instrument in place of the Creator.

If my attitude toward the group is truly one of bestowal, if the group places the concept of bestowal (what is called the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the Creator) at the highest level and shows me how important it is, while all other qualities and states are low in comparison, then relative to this I can measure myself, my thoughts, intentions, and how I plan my time and my life.

But if I do not have such the standard that the group provides for me, then relative to what will I measure myself? I can invent all kinds of measuring systems on my own, but with them I will always justify myself. I have no ability to verify myself unless I construct some standard outside of myself, such as the group. Otherwise, how would I know how to measure?

Ask people on the street, everyone is a righteous person, everyone is giving. No one considers themselves to be a sinner. A person cannot call himself a sinner, because his “I” would be harmed to such an extent that he wouldn’t be able to tolerate himself. And he cannot allow that because it is a terrible feeling. We immediately cover it with something.

Therefore, if not for the group constantly pressing on me, awakening me, pushing me in the right direction, demanding progress from me, and giving me the correct indication of what I should be, then I would have no possibility to advance.
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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?”

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Both in the Particular and the General

115.06Our desire to receive certainly grows as we acquire the ability to determine its form. If we were advancing along the ideal path of development, that is, had we emerged from caves and gradually received an ever-growing desire to receive and turned it into a desire with the intention to bestow to the Creator, we would never feel the evil contained within us.

Thus, the entire path of development that we are now going through must bring us to a state worse than any other, but in which we will have the awareness of Moses standing at the top of the mountain. We will understand that there is the Creator and there is the purpose of creation, and they stand above us like a message from above, like something great, and only with their help can we save ourselves.

When we reach such a state, then we will have the true recognition of evil, which is called the War of Gog and Magog. Only then will we truly wish to merit the receiving of the Torah, become fit to receive it, and attain hatred toward our entire nature because we will see that if the Creator does not give us the Torah, then this place will be our burial ground.

It is said in the Torah that this must occur to each individual, then with our nation individually as a single people, and then to all of humanity in the general form, collectively, as all of humanity in relation to the Creator. In other words, it must be revealed both in the particular and in the general.

This is the program, and there is nowhere to escape from it. The more sensitive we are to our states, the sooner we will come to the recognition of evil and overcome it—each individual, the nation, and the entire world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah? – 1”

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The Independence Given to Us by the Creator

938.04Question: Why doesn’t the Creator give us the ability to check whether our actions are correct?

Answer: It is very simple. If I truly see myself as the only one in the world and relate this to the Creator and to the fact that I must work in relation to Him, then I really have no way to know who I am, what I am, who the Creator is, or what He does, because He is concealed.

If He is concealed, then I myself am in concealment. I have nothing against which I could check myself.

If only the Creator and the created being exist, then nothing can be done. Imagine that there is the Creator and there is the creature. And then what? How can you raise the creature to the level of the Creator? If the Creator were revealed, the creature would be completely under His power and would be forced to perform acts of bestowal without knowing why it does so. It would be just like now when we are dominated by the desire to receive.

We must be under the influence of two types of nature. But how can both this happen simultaneously? Whichever one has the greater influence is the one I will choose. Since I myself am made of the desire to enjoy, I take pleasure either from receiving or from giving. I would also perceive the presence of the Creator as pleasure, and then I would either be in impurity or in holiness, because pleasure can be received from both.

In order for a person to be independent, the Creator must conceal Himself. Then there is a question of how a person for whom the Creator is hidden can check oneself? If a person has no reference point by which to measure himself, orient himself, and determine who he is and what he is, how could he possibly advance?

Therefore, the Creator, in concealing Himself so as not to bribe a person with pleasures, gave the group in His place, something a person cannot sell himself to. On one hand, the group does not give him pleasure the way the Creator does, nor does it give him life the way the Creator does. On the other hand, it is an external force, something outside of him.

Therefore, if a person wants to cling to the Creator by connecting himself with the group and giving to it, then in relation to the group he acquires true intention for the sake of bestowal and becomes similar to the Creator in a genuine way. In essence, he uses bestowal to the other in order to become like the Creator.
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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?”

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Ideological Obstacles

224Question: If there is a group in which I introduce spiritual laws to the extent I understand them, do I check every time to what extent I do not conform to them?

Answer: It turns out that we build the spiritual form of a group by each one imagining it as a society that works with relationships among friends as a means to achieve the Creator. In other words, a group is not just some bodies but a shared concept we construct in our thoughts.

The calculation is simple. There is a certain amount of striving for the Creator awakened in these people. Maybe they do not even feel it yet. They are looking for the meaning of life and so on. This is a hidden yearning for the root from which they receive obstacles, blows, and suffering.

Then they ask the same question: “What is the meaning of my life?” But now it is addressed to the root. They do not know this, but initially, this question is addressed at the Creator, as at the root of suffering, at His reverse side (Achoraim), since He is currently activating concealment through His reverse side.

Then, if they already have a direction toward the Creator, given by Him initially, they must grasp this direction and develop it amidst all the obstacles that come to them, especially in matters concerning building a group.

There are obstacles on the corporeal level: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. And there are obstacles on the human level, which act between friends. Here, I am already reach a state where the obstacles interference as if become “ideological.”
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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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