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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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A Leap of Faith Is Needed

Dr. Michael LaitmanQuestion: The people of Israel were afraid to leap into the Red Sea (Yam Suf – Final Sea) until Nachshon decided to do this. It seems that it was not easy to do.

Answer: Indeed it is not easy. We see that difficulties arose in all stages of the spiritual process. There are always those who were ready to turn back. Our ego is so multi-layered that it does not immediately give us the opportunity to escape from it or at least to define it as bad.

It is difficult for a person to nullify himself before others. If I do not act first, it means I would prefer someone else to. Is this a desire for love and unity? At the moment, this has not been clarified yet. And we see that after that the “golden calf” and many other problems were to appear.

Question: What does “Nachshon’s leap” symbolize?

Answer: There is a quality in a person that can go above reason: “Better death than such a life.” So the person leaps into the sea, come what may. Of course this is not our present state. The act called “Nachshon’s leap” requires preparation.

It is required to pass to the next stage, but are we prepared to carry it out? In the meantime, we are far from realizing it, even though this moment is quickly approaching. There is no doubt that we are in the stages of redemption. Peace and perfection are achieved in the connection of hearts. This is our salvation; this must replace the current state of Egypt. Therefore all of our work, study, and dissemination are aimed at connection and unity. Only with the help of connection and a good mutual relationship can we be saved.
[R103820]
From KabTV’s “Kabbalists Write: The Night of Passover Seder” 3/4/13

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Nachshon—A Property of Complete Faithfulness

laitman_232_09Question: What property does Nachshon ben Amminadab, who was the first to jump into the Red Sea, symbolize in a man?

Answer: The Gematria (numerical) value of the name Nachshon ben Amminadab indicates the height of his spiritual condition is a property of pure Bina.

It is this quality that enables him to withstand the wall of water. On one hand water is a soft quality that is the basis of life, and on the other hand it is a hard property since it is manifested as Gvurot, the force of judgment.

The hard and soft forces hidden in water can only be moved by rising above egoism. Nachshon is able to do this because everything moves aside for a person who breaks away from egoism since he completely adheres to the Creator.

There is no empty space in the world: it is either reception (egoism) or bestowal  (the property of the Creator). After rising above the ego, you do not enter a vacuum, you enter but the property of the Creator, as Noah did when he entered the ark. So it is here, you enter the property of bestowal, as if in a cocoon, and exist in it. This is the effect of Nachshon. The sea harms someone, as in the story of the flood, and someone else gets to be saved.

Thus the actions of Noah and Nachshon are the same actions that occur at different levels of egoism and return to their original place in the four stages of development. This takes place at each stage. This is what spiritual advancement consists of.
[R152607]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/30/14

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How Can I Find Part of the Creator within Me?

237Question: How can I find the part of the Creator within me?

Answer: The quality of bestowal that arises in you in relation to others is the quality of the Creator within you.

Question: How do I discover this quality? How can I recognize it? I might just be fooling myself.

Answer: Try it out with others, and you will see whether it is there or not and to what extent. When it truly appears, you will feel the Creator.

Question: Is it only at that moment that one can find the Creator within oneself? Is there nothing before that?

Answer: Nothing.
[342935]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Creator Within Me” 8/2/10

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 115

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 115

Is an Embryo Male or Female?

In our corporeal world, an embryo can be either male or female. In spirituality, a person goes through various states: still, vegetative, animate, speaking, angelic, and resembling the Creator. Each of these states contains thousands of stages.

This means that every soul undergoes development, first as Nekeva and then as Zachar, and again Nekeva and then Zachar. However, in our world, these alternating states take on a fixed physical form, either male or female, because, relative to spirituality, our world is still, meaning it does not change.

Thus, every stage in spirituality, every action, every quality, everything that exists and constantly changes there, assumes a fixed and unchanging form in our world, as it happens with an embryo.

Beyond this, there is also variation in the types of souls. It depends on which part of Adam HaRishon the desire originates from. The soul is an individual desire within the general soul called Adam HaRishon, and its nature depends on which part of this spiritual body it comes from.

Within the body of Adam HaRishon, there are numerous distinctions, right side, left side, above, below, above the chest, below the chest, and so on.

Likewise, cells within the human body differ from one another. Each cell contains something unique, functions and behaves differently, and connects with other cells in various ways that are characteristic of it.

This is also true in spirituality. Souls interconnect in the same way. Our physical cells are merely a result, a copy, a physical manifestation of what takes place in spirituality.

From this, we can understand how vastly different we are from one another, yet at the same time, how we are all interconnected as parts of a single body.

Get out from under the Control of Pharaoh

278.03And Israel saw the Egyptians dead upon the sea­shore… and the people feared the Lord… (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 151, “And Israel Saw the Egyptians”).

Question: The process of leaving Egypt was accomplished by a leap of faith above reason.

The Creator miraculously demonstrated His full support to the people. Why were they afraid?

Now in fact, there is also a miraculous occurrence: thousands of people around the world are doing the same act of unification. Why are we afraid and not happy with anything?

Answer: Because after having shown our desire to leave Egypt, we fell under the power of Pharaoh, who would not let us go.
[343199]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/25, “Nachshon’s Jump and the Parting of the Red Sea”

527.03Question: It is written that a person can discover love in a good way or with harsh judgments. How is this related to the feeling that I stand before the King and can reveal this love in two ways?

Answer: This is a feeling; therefore, I cannot convey it to you. Either you desire to increase good within yourself and thus come closer to the Creator or you demand something to come closer to the Creator.

That is what we do in life. You can ask, cry, and thus draw closer, or make a demand.

In principle, a person should reach such love for the Creator with which the Creator loves him. But this is practically an unattainable degree. That is the end of all corrections.
[R328310]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”

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This Is the Creator’s Plan

204Question: They say that everything depends on the intention. We see actions, and they can be the most benevolent, but intentions are not visible. If we could see a person’s intentions, what would we see?

Answer: Today, if our intentions were to be realized in the world, then the world would cease to exist.

Question: Are these our intentions?

Answer: Yes, of course.

Question: So today our intentions are to destroy?

Answer: Absolutely!

Question: Selfish, terrible?

Answer: The destruction of others, everyone, and everything.

Question: Is that why they don’t manifest?

Answer: Yes, we are not given strength.

Question: Are they not given strength precisely because they would be destructive?

Answer: Of course.

Question: And at what point will we be given strength? And then what will we see?

Answer: When we have the right intentions in accordance with the plan of nature, then we will begin to receive the strength to realize it.

Question: Tell me, what intentions should we have?

Answer: To come closer, to unite, to connect, to comprehend the highest level of nature, to reveal mutual connection, love.

Question: If this intention were revealed, what would have been revealed to us, what would we have seen?

Answer: That we are initially in a single system and all our attempts to exist up to now have been only in the opposite direction—to break this system.

Question: And what should be done to reveal these intentions of ours?

Answer: To try with all our might to break through the wall of this egoism, which does not give us the opportunity to either realize, make any movement, connect somehow, or ask.

Question: Is it important to ask?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And at what point will I ask?

Answer: When you see that you really want to, but you can’t.

Question: What prevents the Creator from just giving us this and that’s it? Why does He need our work?

Answer: If you don’t want it, how can I give it to you? That would be forced. There is no such thing in the spiritual world.

Question: So the conclusion is this: He must bring us to the state that we ask for: “Give us the opportunity to break out of our selfishness”?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: So the conclusion is this: He has to show us that our selfishness is destructive, murderous.

My Response: But if He shows us, then we simply will not be able to exist. We need to strive for this ourselves, and then, as we strive, we will realize that we are in the opposite state, and we will ask.

Question: So our whole task is to strive for connection, for unity, as you say, for kind thoughts?

Answer: Yes.

Question: You use such simple words all the time. Good thoughts? And then we will see that we can’t do it and ask: “Give us this opportunity!” Is that the plan?

Answer: Yes.
[342907]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 4/8/25

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 114

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 114

What in the State of Ibur (Impregnation) Is Called “Male” and “Female”?

“Male” (Zachar) and “female” (Nekeva) in the embryo are states. They represent vessels of bestowal and vessels of reception, where bestowing in order to bestow and receiving in order to bestow correspond to different levels of correction.

If we work with vessels of reception, this is a deficiency called “female” (Nekeva). Conversely, when these deficiencies are corrected, they are called “male” (Zachar).

The word “Nekeva” comes from “Nekev” (hole), meaning a deficiency, an empty place that still requires correction. Zachar, on the other hand, represents the opposite, bestowal. These terms describe corrected or uncorrected states within the same person, within the same soul, present at every spiritual level.

The soul, in relation to the Creator, is always female relative to the male, because all corrections come from Him. There is the raising of MAN as a request for the correction of desires and the raising of MAN for the fulfillment of desires. In both cases, the Creator acts as the male aspect, and the soul acts as the Nukva (female) toward Him, the receiver.

In Kabbalah, this is described as ZON of Atzilut, Zeir Anpin and Nukva of the world of Atzilut. Zeir Anpin of Atzilut is called the Creator—the bestower, the giver, the corrector, the fulfiller. Malchut of Atzilut, Nukva of Atzilut, is the collective of all souls. All deficiencies exist within her, and each of us is an individual will, a personal part of her.

The Light of Faith Is a Feeling of Connection

294.1The one who seeks the truth is the one who needs the light of faith. (Baal HaSulam, Shamati 41, “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”).

Faith is a condition when I act as if I am in front of the Creator in absolute attainment, connection, love, and mutual understanding with Him.

Then I am in complete faith.

Question: Can the light of faith be felt as something I can share?

Answer: The light of faith is a feeling of connection with the Creator. Of course, it is always lacking, so we must constantly ask for it.
[R328305]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”

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Freedom in the Lack of Freedom from Love

938.05Comment: Most people perceive Passover as a week of celebration. Yet suddenly you are saying that this is a state one can be in every day.

My Response: The moment I discover within myself that I am under the control of Pharaoh (egoism) and that I somehow need to rise above it, to exit it, I immediately try to make every possible effort to overcome it.

But on my own, I cannot conquer the ego; I don’t fight it; I even love it. This is the most important thing a person must understand! After all, egoism helps me rise. It is said that one must thank for the bad just as for the good. Great is the one who can turn their enemy into a beloved one.

If you look at egoism the right way, then we need this force. That is why it is said that Pharaoh brought the people of Israel closer to the Creator. If we did not have an evil inclination, if we did not experience suffering, we would never feel the need for connection with the upper force, with the Creator.

But we are now considering this question on a practical, corporeal level. If we are in a state of constant egoistic growth, then Passover is an example of rising above the ego for us. It is not for nothing that it is said: in every generation, a person must see himself as if he was coming out of Egypt.

“Generation” here means every moment in time, because every change within me is considered a new generation. I must always feel as if I am coming out of Egypt even though immediately I fall into a new Egypt, and again I come out, and again I fall. In this way, I quickly complete all my corrections and reach the goal.

How is this achieved? The wisdom of Kabbalah gives a very simple explanation: through connection! The final goal we must reach is “Love your neighbor as yourself,” and this can be attained only through all possible efforts to draw closer to one another.

Kabbalah explains which efforts exactly. After all, our world is full of various ideas, theories, and practices. Everything people have come up with has been drawn from different philosophies, religions, beliefs, and psychological tricks as a substitute for the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Humanity has been searching for a way to tame its egoism because it tears us apart. It prevents us from living in families, from communicating with friends, and from interacting correctly with one another. What can be done with nature itself? Why is it set against us? And it is not just nature, man himself is set against himself!

People do not have the correct method of education. Therefore, they introduced laws that suppress, constrain, and diminish egoism in attempts to subdue it. Suppression is the foundation of all religions. But what we need is a method that would balance egoism so that each person could use it correctly and not suppress it!

The revolutionary aspect of the wisdom of Kabbalah lies in the free development of egoism and in rising above it afterward.

Kabbalah brings a person to a state of freedom. You are not ashamed, you do not scold yourself, you do not blame others. You simply must constantly strive to reveal the method of complementing egoism with its opposite force so they would work together correctly.

Egoism would raise the altruistic force, the force of love, and together they would work in a harmonious symbiosis, rolling back and forth: pe-sach, pe-sach.

It is impossible to do without the exile from the good quality of love into the qualities that Egypt embodies: cruelty, hatred, and control. But suddenly, when these qualities are covered with love, you no longer feel them as such, and you carry them out from love even though it might seem that you are strictly constrained.

In order to love your neighbor as yourself, you must care for everyone! So where is your freedom in that? On the contrary! You constantly think only about what others lack and how you could help them. In the end, where is the “I”?

It is a paradox, but through love, you forget about yourself, and then you are completely free. You are in constant motion, in constant care, yet it is sweet, and there is nothing more joyful. It is like a mother caring for her baby, and it gives her immense pleasure.

That is why we simply need to understand how egoism begins to work together with the quality of love in such a harmony that we no longer feel it as egoism. We need it; without it, we would not feel any positive sensations.

I can feel another precisely because I do not want it, but by inversely turning it into a new object, I receive new feelings. In other words, the greater the hatred, the greater the love.

It is written in The Book of Zohar that the students of Rabbi Shimon, who wrote it, felt deep hatred toward each other before each lesson, and then, as they began to unite, they created love. Only in this way were they able to attain this spiritual quality and describe it in The Book of Zohar.

They had to feel a burning hatred in order to then rise above it and reveal, in place of the consuming fire of hatred, the fire of love. Only from the contrast of these two qualities were they able to describe the immense illumination they attained.
[156504]
From KabTV’s “Conversations about Passover”, Episode #2

Corrected Desire

962.3Question: Why is the desire to receive considered one-tenth of the desire?

Answer: Because that is how it how it feels.

Question: How can I feel that I am exiting my desire to receive and that this is the Sof of the Parzuf that I am leaving, that I am unable to work with?

Answer: It does not work that way. You feel one hundred percent of the attainment of the Creator and do not wish to divide it into one-tenth and nine-tenths. You want to act just as the Creator acts upon you. That is what corrected desire is.
[343052]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”

Perfect Faith

945Question: How do we add faith? Is this something we do ourselves?

Answer: The Creator does it, but it is thanks to the fact that we constantly, all together want to increase faith. Each does so in their our way, but, in principle, together. We want to be in perfect faith.

Perfect faith is faith that completely replaces knowledge, sensation, and everything we can receive from the Creator.

Question: How can we help each other achieve a constant lack of faith that will ultimately replace our knowledge and feelings?

Answer: Friends can show an example and support, and then you will see what you lack to gain complete faith.
[328340]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 113

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 113

Can We Determine What Desires We Are in During the Stage of Preparation?

During the stage of preparation, we cannot determine what desires we are in. We do not know where reception or bestowal are. We do not know or understand exactly what we are working on.

The key to correct work during the preparation stage is to attribute everything to the upper one. This is because the lowest spiritual state that we enter and are included in, after crossing the barrier (Machsom), is called “embryo” (Ubar). It is a state where we annul ourselves before the upper one and let the upper one act on us as it wills. This is called attributing everything to the upper one and recognizing the greatness of the Creator, that He is the one acting and that He does everything within and around us.

This is the truth, yet we must exercise it because we cannot fully attribute everything to the upper one. It repeatedly slips away from us, and we must return to this truth again and again, wash our minds with it, and convince ourselves that it is indeed the case. But we simply cannot do it on our own because only by seeing the Creator, by experiencing this reality firsthand, can we be convinced.

The will to receive is very pragmatic. “Show me and that’s it.” “Let me taste it.” Why do the sources write that “Taste and see that the Lord is good”? Why is tasting necessary? Why is seeing not enough? It is because only by tasting do we receive a clear sensory picture of what we have experienced, just as young children and infants experience objects and perceive them through their sense of taste. This is the most reliable sense. That is why infants do not settle for just seeing, but they put everything in their mouths to taste.

Similarly, until we taste the Creator as inner light (Ohr Pnimi), we have no clear knowledge of what He is. That is why we cannot attain true knowledge before the barrier is opened for us, before light enters our vessels.

We must long for the first spiritual state that is closest to us. If we desire all the opportunities given to us from above, if we exhaust all of our possibilities, then we truly enter that state because we have made all the necessary effort.

When does effort come to an end? We do not know this in advance. It depends on the structure of each individual soul. What is the sign that the work is complete? It is when the heavens open. Until then, we must simply continue to act.

The entire Torah, for beginners as well as for those who will later ascend the steps to the end of correction, is contained in the first article of Shamati entitled “There Is None Else Besides Him.” Beyond the barrier, the work assumes a different form. However, the task is always, in every state, to reach the feeling that “There is none else besides Him” regardless of what happens and no matter what will happen.

We must overcome resistance and reach this feeling without disconnecting from the reality of this world. It is unwise to live in an isolated place. We need to live in the whole of reality, through which all kinds of disturbances influence us, engage with us, and through them find “There is none else besides Him.”

If we complete this work, we have finished our work in this world and will encounter other, spiritual disturbances. Through these, we continue to progress, drawing closer and closer to fully realizing “There is none else besides Him.”

What does “There is none else besides Him” mean? It is the absolute knowledge that, in the end, the Creator, ourselves, and the entire path we have traversed—the actions, the disturbances, the uncorrected and corrected desires—are one.

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Two Qualities in Man

276.01Question: If I understand correctly, in the article “Three Prayers – 2,” Rabash describes two states. The first is when man thinks that he has good deeds, Torah, and enjoys this.

The second state is when he moves toward Lishma (for Her sake). And here, the Pharaoh awakens, who is against this, and Moses, who goes against the Pharaoh. In those states when a man thinks he is in Lishma, does he accumulate efforts that lead to the birth of the quality of Moses in man?

Answer: Yes, this is necessary. There is not a single state that we go through, whether in ascents or descents, that is not useful to us.

Question: Then if I understand correctly, Pharaoh is the desire to receive. He also prays to the Creator but on an animate level. And the new point, which relates to the Creator, is of a higher level but still weak?

Answer: Correct.
[343086]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/25, “Passover”

In Contact with the Creator

278.03Question: You advise us to engage in inner dialogue with the Creator and to annul ourselves before our friends. What should we pay special attention to? After all, we cannot focus on everything at once.

Answer: You do not need to focus on everything; there is no need to scatter yourself. On the contrary, it is important to gather yourself and clearly understand what you are aiming for. The goal should be very simple: to direct yourself toward the Creator with a completely open heart and to merge with Him.

This is your personal inner work, your thoughts and intentions. Imagine that you are constantly in contact with the Creator and see what comes from that.
[343049]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/25, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”

236.01Question: I feel that every word my friend says separates me from adhesion with the Creator. Can we say that my flaws that I feel are the Hisaronot (deficiencies) that  I accept upon myself?

Answer: You don’t want to feel them, so it can’t be said that you’re truly accepting them.

Question: In that case, what is the turning point when I begin to want to take them on?

Answer: Ask. Just ask!
[343114]
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 4/17/25, “Passover”

Hidden Kabbalists

533.02Question: You said that Kabbalists can hide themselves from one another. Can it really be that one Kabbalist cannot feel another?

Answer: If one closes himself off, then yes.

Question: What does it mean to close oneself off? How can one do that if there is a common system and common sensations?

Answer: It doesn’t matter. He closes himself off personally. It happens just like in our world. Suppose you and I are both scientists and we are talking about common topics, exchanging opinions and so on, but there are certain things that I don’t reveal. For example, I have some special developments that you are very interested in, but I delicately avoid the topic, I don’t give myself away. What can you do?

Question: So the analogy is more or less the same as in ordinary perception in this world? That is, a Kabbalist is not omnipresent, not able to feel everything through and through?

Answer: No, he feels only what he is allowed to. That is how it will be until the final correction. When all of us are fully corrected and the entire system is revealed to us, then there will be no limitations: “And they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest,” absolutely everyone.
[342939]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Hidden Kabbalists” 8/8/10

Balance between Good and Evil

591Question: How do you keep a balance between good and evil?

Answer: We cannot maintain such a balance. We do not need this at all since these calculations are inherently egoistic. We must try to surrender fully to the Creator.

Live in a state where you feel completely open to the Creator. Gradually, these feelings will settle in you and take their place.
[R328380]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/19/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “What Is Greatness and Smallness in Faith?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 112

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 112

Chapter 12 On My Bed at Night

What does “And through the Torah, the person was created” mean? Human (Adam) comes from the expression Adameh leElyon (“I will be like the upper one”), and it is written: “You are called Adam, but the nations of the world are not called Adam.” This means that if the will to receive undergoes a correction called “for the sake of bestowal,” the corrected part is called “human.” How is this done? It is done through the Torah. How is it done through the Torah? We are given various opportunities to perform different actions in this world, and through our successes and failures, our will to receive develops.

After the development of the beastly desires for food, sex, and family, and the development of social desires for wealth, honor, and knowledge, we reach the development of the spiritual will. The development of the spiritual will is not a further expansion of desire. Rather it is the desire’s direction toward the Creator, and accordingly, its growth. If before the development of the point in the heart, which is this new desire for spirituality, we work on developing our desire, usually unconsciously, without knowing why or how, impulses and cravings surface within us, we simply run after them and fulfill them. Such work is not even considered a single line, and certainly not two or three lines. But the spiritual desire can only be developed, expanded, and corrected in the form of lines.

“Lines” mean that the small desire is not simply inflated into an ever-greater one without direction, which would make its form a circle, but it is straightened so that it aims at a specific goal and that it is intended for a specific use. The desire is aimed not at the person themselves, who is the central point within the circles, but at the Creator, outward from the central point to the source of light.

Therefore, in the spiritual desire’s development, there are several forces, conditions, and states that influence it so that the process of the desire’s correction does not follow the laws of other desires. It operates in a very complex and precise way, so that the desire grows only according to the degree of its correction toward proper use, toward the Creator. Suppose, for example, someone is inspired with the desire to build a house, a desire that is already connected to spirituality. They need to relate every detail of the construction process, the planning, the ordering of materials, the actual building, the selection of workers, and even themselves, to the purpose of creation. They must constantly remember that this house is meant for a use related to the purpose of creation.

That person becomes so immersed in the work that they forget the direction, the meaning behind each and every action. Then the work seemingly stops and various disturbances begin to arise. These disturbances are not real obstacles, but signals, signs, that they have forgotten something very important: the intention, the reason for each action. Since spiritual progress happens step by step, sometimes we get stuck at a certain stage stubbornly trying to find a solution on our own, insisting on continuing construction at all costs. But we see that we cannot move forward until we remember that the problem is that we forgot the intention.

This means that instead of moving from the left line to the right line, we thought that we could complete the work by our own strength alone. Then we remember the right line, the Creator, alignment with Him. That is, we remember that we must be connected to Him with all of our heart and soul while performing the action. Only then can we progress again until we forget once more, and the cycle repeats.

In all of our work in this world, we constantly forget the goal. We forget that the goal is not to work according to the way that we think in this world, but the work itself is an effort to remain connected to the one who gave us the work, and to use it as a means to hold onto the thought and, most importantly, as a means to increase the intention. The work itself is merely a tool only to the extent that it is meant to build and develop the intention. We think we are building a house, as if the house itself is what matters. But in reality, we are supposed to build a structure of intention rather than a structure of bricks.

Since we are made of both material and spirit, intention, we are given material tasks so that we can construct a spiritual structure alongside the physical one. It is true that we cannot build a purely spiritual structure, even though, ultimately, that is the only structure we truly need. This means that we must establish only the intention, the screen (Masach), and the reflected light (Ohr Hozer), while the will to receive, the “bricks,” will always be available to use properly, according to the intention of bestowal.

This is how we build a house, and this is how we build ourselves into a human (Adam). How? Through the 248 organs and 365 tendons, which are 613 components or desires within us, which we must construct. We want to use these desires as much as the corresponding spiritual form allows. We need to arrange our desires according to bestowing intentions so that these two aspects—the use of all desires, on one hand, and the alignment of those desires with the intention to bestow, on the other—are in harmony and work together.

When the Path Becomes Difficult

120In the beginning, the spiritual path seems pleasant, attractive, and inviting; it promises extraordinary attainments, revelations, and spiritual elevation. But then we begin to understand the price we must pay for all this and what is required of us to bring ourselves in line with the spiritual level. Thus, the path becomes increasingly difficult, no longer so appealing, but rather repelling, confusing, and even humiliating.

This is the period symbolized by Maror (bitter herbs). And in truth, it is not easy to go through it because it is like searching for a goal in complete darkness, struggling through dangerous paths and narrow bridges, and climbing a mountain toward the King’s palace. Reaching it seems as likely as shooting a tiny coin from a great distance.

That is why we must sharpen our perception and get used to a new state by rising through faith above reason to a new sense. The only thing that can help here is strengthening the greatness of the goal and the greatness of the Creator.

Otherwise, the spiritual goal loses its significance for our egoistic desire. We see how many who are unable to cultivate and develop the sense of the importance of the spiritual goal above all the darkness and hardship leave this path.

“Only heroes,” as Baal HaSulam writes, attain the goal by seeing no other choice before them and thanks to Arvut (mutual guarantee). This is the time of bitter Maror. Only those who establish themselves correctly will develop a new system called “faith” inside them and will begin to work in bestowal, detached from their egoism. They will escape from exile and step into the land flowing with milk and honey.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 3/22/18, Writings of Rabash “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”