Each spiritual degree determines a person’s content (filling): their intellect, feelings, and abilities. What remains unchanged within a person are the ten primordial Sefirot, which are identical for everyone.
Therefore one never needs to worry about preserving what one currently possesses or remaining in a particular state because apart from the constant structure of the soul, all of one’s fulfillments are subject to change.
Regardless of the filling I currently possess, I must strive to advance from degree to degree as quickly as possible because at each higher degree I will receive even greater delight, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
However, in order to move from one degree to another, I must let go of the previous degree, wish to be emptied of it, and become ready to receive a higher fulfillment. And this is precisely where the problem arises. If I am still filled by the degree I presently stand on, how can I desire a higher fulfillment? It appears to me as something different, alien, and even opposite to me, to such an extent that I simply do not agree to it.
It is like a child who wants to play and enjoy what seems good to him, while his parents compel him to change, to work hard, and tell him: “Look, you need to become this way, act this way, this is good for you.”
But the child neither sees nor feels that studying for twenty years, acquiring a profession, and then working is good for him. The parents see this as something good, but they do not understand his life because his life consists of games, that they have no interest in whatsoever.
So it is with us on every degree in relation to the higher one. In fact, it is even more so because in spirituality the difference between degrees is a genuine opposition. Nothing from the lower degree is suitable for the higher one. Everything must be renewed.
The difficulty of spiritual ascent lies precisely in this. Every higher degree is perceived by the lower one as something undesirable, incomprehensible, and contrary to its nature. Therefore, the transition from degree to degree requires a willingness to relinquish what presently feels right, true, and fulfilling, in order to receive something that cannot yet be appreciated from the perspective of the current state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/24/26, Rabash, “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”
Related Material:
Between Two States
How Is a New Degree Revealed?
Accepting the Mind of the Upper Degree















