When does one leave a depleted state and move on? This happens when a person feels all the bitterness of separation from the Creator in one’s current state. This gives rise to the next state.

All our states are the steps that we descended along from above to this world, and within it to the lowest level. Now we are starting the return journey, and are passing through the same steps, with the only change being how and at what pace we go through them. This, in essence, is our choice.

Everything is already laid within my soul, all the steps, my entire journey back. The only thing that is not predetermined is my attitude toward the path, that is, how I will build it: by freewill or by compulsion, by the path of light or by the path of suffering. This does not mean there are two paths to the upper because the path is my attitude toward the ascent.

Therefore, at each step, as soon as I sense how far I am from the Creator, how opposite to Him, and I want to correct this, the stage has been passed. Then I rise to the next level to experience even greater bitterness from being distant from the Creator and opposed to Him. Just imagine how much spiritual strength it takes to withstand this constant feeling of lack!

But if I understand the goal and receive the support of a group that helps me constantly keep the grandeur of the goal in mind, then all this suffering becomes sweet because I see the Creator in it. By introducing the Creator into the picture of my world, I “sweeten” it and completely transform it.

It is like how we cannot eat without salt. We absolutely need some kind of internal “twist,” some sharpness, in every taste we experience; otherwise, we will not feel anything. We do not distinguish between good and bad, only one relative to the other.

If I am very hungry, I feel the taste precisely on the border between the lack (hunger) and the pleasure (food) when I take the very first bite. This is how our entire sensory system operates. Therefore, I need the strength each time to reveal the lack at the border with pleasure, and this sensation is always acute and unpleasant, so only the environment can help here.
[352942]
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: If I am not getting advancement from the group, what is the problem?

Answer: If you are not receiving from the group what you think you should receive, then one of the following may be happening: either the group is not paying enough attention to you, or generally it is inattentive to its duty to constantly awaken each and every person.

Perhaps the members of the group are not putting in enough energy and effort into the common thought, into the shared desire; perhaps they are not sufficiently attentive to the fact that an inner flame should truly blaze between the friends, something that must be felt in the air, not merely in words, text messages, or other external things.

It must be as internal as possible, but in such a way that no one can rest and everyone is compelled to rush into the whirlwind. In other words, the individual is to blame for not awakening the group, and the entire group is also at fault since it includes everyone. After all, the group is a collection of all our desires, all our hopes.

Question: Where do we begin in correcting such a situation?

Answer: By gathering together and deciding what we want. And as soon as we feel ourselves slipping, each person immediately begins to “wake up” the group so as not to descend from the level we have established. The same applies to external actions.

Although external actions are only a means toward inner connection and inner burning, I am inspired by each person’s willingness to make efforts within the group to advance with it.
[352859]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/26, Rabash, “And There Was Evening and There Was Morning”

Question: The driving force before the Machsom is the intention “for oneself.” Beyond the Machsom, in the sensation of the Creator, does my driving force remain the question: “What will I gain from the next level?”

Answer: Always! My fuel is always: “What will I gain from this? But before the Machsom, this question sounds like “What will happen to me?” It is the fear of not receiving benefit, the fear of dying and not having time to receive everything, the fear of suffering, etc.

Beyond the Machsom, there is the same question, only in a different form: “What will happen to me so that I can give to Him?” The question is the same, the meaning is the opposite.

This is called “Lishma.” Everything we feel, we sense and evaluate through our desire to receive; we have no other measuring system.

Otherwise, how can we act? If I do not get pleasure, I have nothing to give Him! My pleasure, in fact, is what I give to Him, He enjoys that I am enjoying.
[352949]
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 one increase one’s power of overcoming when an even greater egoistic desire is revealed?

Answer: All of a person’s qualities, no matter how they may seem to him, from good to the very worst, are revealed within the framework of a general system of souls moving toward unity according to the program of creation. Therefore we cannot attribute any of a person’s personal manifestations to the person himself. Like a cogwheel, like an integral part of the system, one is obliged to reveal in oneself a certain set of inclinations, impulses, and states.

Whatever happens in a person, one does not need to make any calculation about it. After all, it is not they themselves, but the general system, in a given state, that determines what happens to him now.

Thus, you do not need to worry about the current state; there is nothing you can do about it. It is woven from thousands of factors external to you. As for the future state, there is nothing to think about it either, because that too does not depend on you; it is determined by the needs of the system that must make a step forward.

In essence, all I have to think about is how I am going to take this step. What is it that depends on me?
Here too there are things that are carried out not by me, but by the upper force, revealed not by me, but by the upper light. A person conducts an analysis and reaches the point where they can truly realize themselves. And they see a very clear and precise action, like pressing a button.

This is the task of a person: to identify only the action required of him or her every moment and to carry it out. In the course of this analysis, one reveals many other things as well, and as a result, by pressing the button, one activates the system and begins to perceive it, accept it, and integrate into it.

In other words, a person begins to attain the system as a whole. One is by no means a guinea pig that finds the button for the feeder in the maze. On the contrary, through one’s efforts in various states, a person attains the conditions, causes, and essence of what is happening.

Once one reaches the button, a person will undoubtedly press it. The whole matter here is in analysis, and it is the real treasure.
[32602]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/12/11, Rabash, “What Is the Meaning of ‘Reply unto Your Heart’?”