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Articles on current events, culture, popular science, relationships and more, presented from the unique perspective of the wisdom of Kabbalah
The content is based on talks given by Dr. Michael Laitman and is written and edited by his students.

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Man from the Perspective of Kabbalah

239Connection with the Creator is called faith. The extent to which I am able to connect myself with Him is the measure within me that is called the measure of faith.

What does this mean? My connection with the Creator can exist only on the condition that I wish to bestow upon Him. Otherwise, such a connection is impossible; There is no other kind of connection. It must be in the same direction in which He relates to me.

I will be able to bestow upon Him only if I begin to feel Him, that is, if I perceive His light, which comes to me and corrects me. This is what Rabash writes: when, during the study, I resolve to attain Lishma, that is, when I desire to attain bestowal, the upper force comes to me and changes me, making me into a human being.

What does it mean to be a human being? The measure of bestowal that I attain specifically in relation to the Creator, and not in relation to humanity, is called “man.” Man is the created being, the force that he brings forth and directs toward establishing his connection with the Creator. Only for one who crosses the Machsom does the spiritual degree he attains become the measure of the man within him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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The Condition for Unity

938.03Based on an understanding of our animalistic nature, we begin to realize that no one can ever unite with another. Each person remains separate.

Today we see that the family, as it once existed, is disappearing. The former relationships between parents and children are no longer the same. The reason is that as humanity develops, its ego and its desire to receive continue to grow. As a result, each person becomes increasingly distant from everyone else, and all the bonds that once existed within the family, the extended family, the nation, and society are breaking apart. Egoism destroys every framework and leaves the individual isolated.

After making the necessary discernments, one can come to the conclusion that a connection between people is possible only through the Creator. If we wish to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” it cannot be achieved by force, as was attempted in Soviet Russia. Only through our connection with the Creator will we begin to unite with one another.

Even the smallest group can exist only under this condition, and all the more so the whole world, when it begins to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is because every true connection can exist only on the level of the human. By “human” it means a connection with the Creator.

Everything else we do, apart from establishing a connection with the Creator, belongs to the animate level. These things require no correction, and we should pay them no attention, because it is a waste of time and effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Know Your Character

942All the qualities that exist in a person that extend from the four qualities FWWD [Fire, Wind, Water, and Dust] have nothing to do with the evil inclination (Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”).

It does not matter what kind of character a person is born with, whether irritable, foolish, lazy, or proud. From my own experience, I know that it is not necessary for only one of these qualities to exist within me. I feel that I have all of them, and one does not exclude the other. In other words, all four foundations can exist together within every person.

We say that if someone tries to break or eliminate all these tendencies within a person, then he is engaged in psychology, and nothing will come of it, because these qualities are not subject to change.

A person can be a great Kabbalist and still retain all these qualities without paying any attention to them. In our approach, this is not even the alphabet, it is only the very first letters of the alphabet: not to engage in correcting the animalistic qualities within ourselves, but only to work on our relationship with the Creator.

The “human” within us begins to grow only in relation to the Creator. And only in relation to Him can we weigh the good inclination against the evil inclination, that is, determine everything that needs to be revealed and cultivated, or, on the contrary, uprooted. But all of this is done only in connection with the Creator, and not in relation to my “self,” my natural character.

I should look at the friend in exactly the same way. The problem, however, is that when we work together, my animalistic nature and his animalistic nature may find it difficult to coexist.

But that becomes the second stage of our joint work, after we have come to know our own character well: whether irritable, wasteful, lazy, power-hungry, and so on. Once we know our character, we begin to see how we can work together by combining these qualities in order to understand what exists above: the unique character of each person in relation to the Creator. And here, perhaps, true unity becomes possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Test Yourself

88Question: How do I know if I am taking the right steps now or not?

Answer: Kabbalists explain that when you arrive somewhere to study Kabbalah, you do not know anything at first. You do not even know where you are since you could be in several other places and not just here. There are a lot of people who are now sitting in other places, engaged in other methods, and they are also trying to learn and find something for themselves. There is a difference of place, a difference of method.

Are they in the right place? There is no answer to that. You basically were not given Kelim to make a choice now. You were let to do this based on what you subconsciously feel. If you feel that you have some doubts, go to another place and check. Check where you feel better—here or there. Perhaps, according to your soul’s development, you still need to be in some other place. Come to Bnei Baruch in some 30 years. Everyone goes through their own cycles.

There is a general law of reality called the law of equivalence of form. It is like a magnetic field: if you put a piece of iron in it, it is drawn to the magnet. In the same way, everything is drawn to its center of equilibrium. The soul works in the same way. If you feel some urge, it is your soul being drawn to its center of equilibrium, to where it feels comfortable and at rest.

Thus, a person who searches ultimately finds what they are looking for precisely due to this. The soul sets your hands and legs in motion, and you arrive somewhere. Ultimately, we all move in this manner and reach the right place according to our level of  development.

There are people whose level of development calls for studying yoga or, for example, Ikebana. This cannot be grasped by the intellect; here  knowledge is an inner sensation. Only then do the eyes open and you see.
[358747]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 193

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 193

Does This Law Operate for All Souls, Regardless of the Group?

This law operates for all souls whether they are in a group or not, but a person who belongs to a group draws surrounding light from the end of correction because they are connected with their friends here just as they are connected with them there. According to the same state in which they choose to connect with them here, they draw it to themselves, as if physically pulling that state from there to themselves, because they wish to realize it here and now in this world. This is considered that the upper world descends to this world, and this is indeed how it will be at the end of correction.

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The Point of Choice: Toward the Creator

571.01The states that a person goes through are not so important in and of themselves. Of course, it is possible to say that they are analogous to receiving a blow one moment, candy the next, then a stronger blow, and again a candy. But the “carrot and stick” do not form a Kli (vessel) in a person. Its continuous strengthening on the path toward the goal is exactly what is building the Kli.

The Kli is the intention. Neither the blows, nor Malchut, nor Keter form the Kli. The intention that you define, when you truly decide what it is, is called the Kli. Only in choosing the intention does freedom of choice exist.

Look at how the whole world spins and what it does: We seek peace and we seek happiness, nothing helps because the search is conducted in the wrong direction, and we only become more confused, spend money, and drown in a sea of blood. And so it is all over the world.

Look at what an enormous process of development the world needs to undergo in order to finally come to the conclusion that development must be in only one direction. All the achievements of science, engineering, technology, medicine, culture, and education are simply a mistake.

We made a mistake; we followed our egoistic desires and developed all sorts of things that are absolutely unnecessary. No matter how magnificent, grandiose, and fulfilling all the achievements of civilization may seem to us, it is Klipot.

We could have lived peacefully in caves and, being connected to the Creator, enjoy life. What difference does it make where you live?

The point of choice is in the direction toward the Creator. When this question awakens in me, I must strengthen myself so as not to turn in another direction. It is like a pointer rotating in a circle, at each of the 360 degrees, it seems to point to 360 targets, yet it aligns with the direction toward the Creator only once.

It is precisely here that I must “step on the gas.” This is where I must break out of the vicious circle. If I do not do this, all kinds of desires start spinning inside me again in this circle.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Tricks that Help Achieve the Goal

243.04Question: What are the various tricks that help a person reach the goal of creation?

Answer: Suppose I look at something and become consumed with a strong desire for it. To change my desire, I begin to listen to music. The music awakens a different desire within me, perhaps a subtler, a more elevated one, yet still not truly directed toward the goal.

Then I open a book. From the Kabbalah books that I usually study, I choose the one that can influence me at that moment by awakening a more elevated desire, a more conscious and purposefully directed one. In this way, by using the external means that surround me, I bring about a change in my desire. But by myself, I am unable to change the desire to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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How to Learn to Receive Correctly

253Question: How do we develop sensors that perceive spiritual pleasure?

Answer: The Creator influences us by constantly pouring out absolute goodness and benevolence. We are always under the influence of the Creator who abundantly bestows bliss and delight. Yet, we feel nothing because this sense has not been developed within us. We are like infants who neither understand nor feel what He is giving them.

This is called concealment. In other words, the concealment exists within us, in the sixth sense that has not yet been developed. The method for developing the sixth sense is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the science of receiving what the Creator gives us. As of now, however, we still do not know how to receive.

How can this be done? Only with the help of the light that reforms. During the lessons, we awaken the surrounding lights that purify a person. What does “purify” mean? They make one’s perception pure and refined. A person becomes far more sensitive, and then one truly begins to feel spirituality.

As the surrounding light purifies me, it gradually enriches me with ever new and diverse states, sensations, and understanding. It teaches me little by little, just as infants are taught. The only difference is that I want to go through this process quickly rather than wait.

It takes twenty years to raise a child, and the development of a human being sometimes takes thousands of years before they reach perfection. But if I want this to happen quickly, I must awaken the surrounding light upon myself so that it performs this work on me as rapidly as possible rather than at the pace at which human history has developed over thousands of years. I want to go through this path in five to ten years. Perhaps even faster, although for now it is not yet possible. It is too difficult.

Thus, all I really want is to accelerate the development of my sixth sense, and the greatest thing required of me is to draw the surrounding light upon myself. That is all my work.

The faster the light teaches me, the more rapidly all kinds of states change within me, the sooner I will complete my learning. The expansion of the light and its departure form the vessel (Kli) that is fit for its purpose.

This means that I must pass as quickly as possible from one state to another, from one change to the next, ascents and descents, every kind of sensation and impression received from the group, from the books, from everything. Then I will more quickly reach the state in which enough different discernments have accumulated within me, and I will accordingly begin to feel and perceive what exists outside of me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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“Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem”

421.01Our sages said (Taanit, p 30b), “Anyone who mourns for Jerusalem is rewarded with seeing its joy” (Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”).

We must prepare our work not only on the spiritual plane, but also on the plane of this corporeal world, whose levels were also shattered. When a person works with the Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet levels with the intention of correction, it means that he uses his life in its corporeal form, and in its human level only insofar as it is necessary to sustain his existence. All his other actions are directed solely toward drawing closer to the Creator.

As for animalistic pleasures, we understand what the human body requires. With regard to the pleasures of wealth, honor, and knowledge, our work lies in relation to society. This is the work through which a person must properly arrange his attitude toward these pleasures.

For example, regarding money, at first, he may give only one tenth of his earnings, but later he keeps for himself only what is essential. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Giving of the Torah,” he uses the rest in order to bring the world to a corrected state, to bring it closer to the Creator, that is, for the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

With regard to honor, he realizes this within the group by lowering himself and elevating the image of the group in his eyes, so as to receive from it the greatness of the Creator. As for knowledge, he strives to attain the spiritual world, the upper world, the Creator, and His nature. He arranges this desire so that he wishes to engage in it in order to truly come to bestowal upon the Creator through the upper light, which is awakened as a result of the study.

Thus, a person’s spirituality becomes clothed in this world, in everything that surrounds him, either through his animate level, by giving the animal within him only what it truly requires and paying no attention to its other demands, or through the human within him, through his relationship with the environment, where he seeks to use everything around him in order to direct all his powers and qualities toward attaining a two-way connection with the Creator.

This means that the result of the shattering that exists within him in the form of “for one’s own sake” is transformed into “for the sake of bestowal.” This is what is meant by: “Whoever mourns the destruction of Jerusalem.”

Jerusalem means “the perfect city” and “perfect awe,” when Malchut rises to the height of Binah, undergoes shattering, and the connection between Binah and Malchut acquires the opposite intention: for one’s own sake. But through his sorrow and through his work, a person attains the joy of Jerusalem, when he corrects the Kelim and fills them with the lights.

A Kli with the intention to bestow, filled with the light, is bestowal to the Creator. This is the “joy of Jerusalem,” the perfect city, the perfect Kli, in perfect awe and faith: the quality of Binah spread throughout the whole of Malchut.

All these discernments: the destroyed Jerusalem and the rebuilt Jerusalem, are, in essence, two opposite extremes that a person must pass through on his path while still living in this world, in this lifetime, clothed in his corporeal body.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 192

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 192

Why Is It Not Always Possible to Understand an Action or a Thought?

We never know why we acted one way or another, why we are tossed from thought to thought, from state to state, because these all depend on the inner structure of the soul. We must scrutinize this desire now, afterward another desire, following the structure of their soul. We do not know with which souls and in which matters we are connected within the structure of Adam HaRishon. We do not know ourselves, all the more so we do not know the souls with which we are connected or the type of connection. There is no way for us to know this based on the physical bodies of the people connected to us.

Therefore, various situations and states are brought to us that appear to us as coincidences, because if we were to see the structure of the entire Adam HaRishon, from within it we would know what we must do now, what we will do in the next moment, and what will be given to us in the future.

For this reason, Kabbalists give us simple advice on this matter, in every situation we find ourselves in, do not calculate with the other souls how to act. We are in a body, and even the body does not need to think about how all the cells in the body operate at every moment, how each cell is planned and functions in order to know how it should act. In the end, the body indeed operates as it was designed, as a closed system with all its parts, even the smallest one, but we are not at the degree where we can recognize this. In our present state we are completely incapable of comprehending it. Only later, at the end of correction, when we are included in this system without any disturbances, does the entire structure with all its functions become revealed.

Therefore, the most correct and simple general advice given to us is that we, our action, and our goal must be one. We descended from the root where we were adhered to the Creator. Who is the Creator? The Creator is all the other souls we are incorporated in, and all together they receive the upper light within them. This sensation within us is called “the Creator.” We do not know what is outside us. Outside us is His essence. What we receive in connection with all the other souls in the corrected state at the end of correction in our root, is called “the Creator.” “From Your actions we know You.” We know Him through our sensation. We need to long for this from within the action we now perform. If we constantly push ourselves in this way, pressing only on this point, then in the end we will reach it in a precise manner.

It is impossible to give someone this entire great program so that before performing even the smallest action they would understand it fully and wisely in complete control, that they would understand it from beginning to end. How could we know the entire system in advance before we are adhered to all the souls, with all the parts of the system, as one structure? Therefore, we are given a solution. If we wish to be included in this system as good and active parts, we must intend that we, our action, and our state of adhesion with the Creator will all be one. We must already now want to be at the end of correction as we imagine it, to want to realize and create the state of the end of correction.

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If I Have No Taste for the Creator

938.03Question: A person is governed by desires. How can we make the desire for the Creator the greatest desire?

Answer: Suppose I have to choose what I am going to drink. The doctor has told me that it is good for me to drink a medicinal tea. If I believe him, then I will drink the tea. Besides, the Torah says that a doctor has permission to heal. Perhaps this tea is not tasty. I may not like it and feel no “taste of life” in it at all. Yet I drink it and enjoy it because I feel the light of my future health, for I believe it will come! In other words, I myself determine what is pleasant for me and what is not. This medicinal tea becomes more enjoyable to me than ordinary tea, even the finest variety.

From this example we see that all we need to do is ascribe importance to the Creator. We are capable of giving importance either to ourselves or to the Creator. This is the only thing we can do.

Question: But what if I have no taste for the Creator?

Answer: That does not matter at all! Enter a certain society and constantly listen to what the people there are talking about. Disconnect yourself from everything else! Turn off the television, do not watch football. Listen to what is being said in the group.

Of course, this alone is still not enough. You must work together with the group and make your own efforts so that the opinion of the friends becomes important to you. You need to unite with them in such a way that their thoughts will carry weight for you.

After all, you listen to what your children say. It is important for you to know what they think of you. I know this from my own experience. For example, the day before yesterday my daughter told me that she wanted to start driving lessons. I answered that I did not have the money for it. The very next day she booked the lesson! So yesterday, after the night lesson, I rushed home so that I could give her the money in time. It was so important to me that she would be able to pay for the lesson.

Would I have done that for someone else? I do not know. Just for anyone? Of course not. That person would have to be just as important to me as my daughter. But for that to happen, I would have to work on it. It does not come by itself. For this, I would have to invest in that person as much as I have invested in my daughter over the past twenty years. For twenty years I have been giving, giving, and giving to her. And now I see that everything I have invested is within her, it all came from me.

If a baby were taken away from its mother immediately after birth, then despite everything, in the end she would forget about the child. Everything depends on how much has been invested.

As for my daughter, yesterday I simply could not calm down. I kept thinking that she had already booked the lesson and how uncomfortable it would be for her to tell the instructor that she did not have the money and would pay later. That is why it was so important for me to get the money to her in time. And when she thanked me, what great pleasure I felt from it! Can I relate to my friend in the same way? It is not so simple.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

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How to Hold Two Different Sensations Within Oneself

232.03Question: How can I not see the greatness of the Creator and feel the Shechina in the dust and at the same time understand that the Creator must be great when I’m in a state of caring only for myself?

Answer: How can these two sensations exist simultaneously? Why not?

You ask how you can have such a state when you look at what is happening inside you and see that, on one hand, you hate the Creator, do not love Him, despise Him, He is nothing for you, and you think only about yourself, but on the other hand you already begin to realize that this is a state of shattering and ruin and that the Creator is great, real, awe‑inspiring and everything else, yet in you it is the opposite.

How can one hold these two sensations inside? Together they build the feeling in us that is called the recognition of evil; it is when I see who He really is and how I perceive Him in the opposite form. This is possible because we receive this sensation by means of the light descending from above, which shines in the form of surrounding light.

It can shine for me even though I am not in equivalence of form with it. Then I see my Kli: how it thinks only about itself, nothing nothing in this life concerns it other than its own self-interest, and I see the light, as it were, opposite this Kli. There the Creator is great, eternal, and perfect, and I do not care. This state, resulting from the two opposite states of the Creator and the creation, is built in me because the surrounding light shines from afar into my egoistic Kli.

In our world you do not encounter such a state; we are not opposite to some phenomenon. I can think that a person is bad, and a moment later that he is good. But when I now think well of him, I can only remember that a second ago I thought otherwise. Yet to think at the same time that he is bad and that in truth he is good ,that does not happen because everything takes place in one Kli, in one awareness.

In relation to the Creator, this does not occur in one awareness, in one Kli, because we are in a process where the Kli has not yet been corrected, and from the Creator the surrounding light comes to us. The result is a state of oppositeness,” two distinct forms (reception and bestowal [reception in me, bestowal in Him]), existing as if on two sides of the Machsom (barrier).

It is only because of the Machsom the surrounding light shines for me and provides this awareness, within which MAN is built. MAN is, essentially, the tension that exists in me between how I relate to myself and how I relate to the Creator, according to what I am and what the Creator actually is. It is the critical examination of these perceptions that generates MAN within me.

This constitutes a request for correction, a desire for my will to receive to be directed to the Creator to the extent that the surrounding light gives me this understanding. The will to receive by itself will never want this, no matter who stands opposite it. It is like Pharaoh, opposite whom the Creator can stand, but he says: “Who is the Creator that I should obey His voice?”

Here there must be an awareness that serves as an intermediary between the two: whether it is a person’s state of Lo Lishma or the group (it does not matter in what form we speak of this) that connects these two sides.
[359522]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”

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Sharpen Our Senses

232.01Question: How do you prepare for sensing spirituality?

Answer: According to the correction of the Kelim, we receive a filling that gives us a sense of the Creator. The Creator fills a person and “clothes” Himself within them; this is what a person feels. Preparation for this is the preparation of one’s senses, one’s Kelim.

For example, I do not hear well, so I have to buy a hearing aid. I cannot see well, so I need to buy glasses. If I cannot distinguish taste, maybe I should rinse my mouth. To taste sour, I need to rinse away the taste of sweet.

We need to sharpen our senses somehow. If I feel sleepy, maybe I should have a cup of coffee to perk myself up. I want to be sensitive and expand my range of sensations.

It may be worth listening to a certain melody. Sometimes you shed tears before me, but I laugh at you, and sometimes I cry from what I hear from you. It all depends on the preparation of one’s feelings.

We are in the highest corrected state, the final correction. But due to the blurriness of our Kelim, we feel only a small part of this state, even its opposite, and curse our lives. All we need is to correct our sensory organs. This is our work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,’ in the Work?”

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Advance to Become Similar to the Creator

252The Creator, the upper force that plans to bring creation to a good state, intends to elevate it to His own degree, to the very best, highest level, that is, to make the created being into a Creator.

The difference between them lies in the awareness of one’s state. A person is required to become consciously aware of the state in which he or she exists, and to rise from a complete lack of awareness of spirituality, which is entirely concealed from us.

What does it mean that it is concealed? At present, we think that spirituality probably exists, but we simply do not perceive it, and this seems to mean that we are in a kind of unconscious state.

However, we do not even perceive that yet because one can feel unconscious only when one knows what it means to be conscious. We do not yet have that awareness, but somehow we are beginning to sense that something like this does exist.

A person must independently reveal this deficiency, what is missing between themselves and the Creator. If they reveal it on their own, it means that they have built their own Kli and understand what it means to exist on the Creator’s degree instead of remaining on our animate degree, which in spirituality is called “below existence.” There is the Machsom (barrier), and what is below the Machsom is considered as though it does not exist at all.

Therefore a person has been given every kind of force (both for and against) and free choice that is solely for advancing in this one direction. If you knew all the qualities of your soul, all the laws of nature surrounding you, who you truly are, and what true reality is, you would see that you are an absolute robot. There is nothing you can determine for yourself except one thing: to advance toward becoming similar to the Creator.

Apart from this, everything else has been planned and predetermined in advance; there is no choice involved, nothing left to chance; everything operates like clockwork. But advancing in order to become similar to the Creator is precisely where free choice exists—only there. If you deviate even slightly toward connection with anything else, there is no free choice anymore. It exists only for this purpose.
[358739]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 191

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 191

Why Is It Not Always Possible to Understand an Action or a Thought?

We never know why we acted one way or another, why we are tossed from thought to thought, from state to state, because these all depend on the inner structure of the soul. We must scrutinize this desire now, afterward another desire, following the structure of their soul. We do not know with which souls and in which matters we are connected within the structure of Adam HaRishon. We do not know ourselves, all the more so we do not know the souls with which we are connected or the type of connection. There is no way for us to know this based on the physical bodies of the people connected to us.

Therefore, various situations and states are brought to us that appear to us as coincidences, because if we were to see the structure of the entire Adam HaRishon, from within it we would know what we must do now, what we will do in the next moment, and what will be given to us in the future.

For this reason, Kabbalists give us simple advice on this matter, in every situation we find ourselves in, do not calculate with the other souls how to act. We are in a body, and even the body does not need to think about how all the cells in the body operate at every moment, how each cell is planned and functions in order to know how it should act. In the end, the body indeed operates as it was designed, as a closed system with all its parts, even the smallest one, but we are not at the degree where we can recognize this. In our present state we are completely incapable of comprehending it. Only later, at the end of correction, when we are included in this system without any disturbances, does the entire structure with all its functions become revealed.

Therefore, the most correct and simple general advice given to us is that we, our action, and our goal must be one. We descended from the root where we were adhered to the Creator. Who is the Creator? The Creator is all the other souls we are incorporated in, and all together they receive the upper light within them. This sensation within us is called “the Creator.” We do not know what is outside us. Outside us is His essence. What we receive in connection with all the other souls in the corrected state at the end of correction in our root, is called “the Creator.” “From Your actions we know You.” We know Him through our sensation. We need to long for this from within the action we now perform. If we constantly push ourselves in this way, pressing only on this point, then in the end we will reach it in a precise manner.

It is impossible to give someone this entire great program so that before performing even the smallest action they would understand it fully and wisely in complete control, that they would understand it from beginning to end. How could we know the entire system in advance before we are adhered to all the souls, with all the parts of the system, as one structure? Therefore, we are given a solution. If we wish to be included in this system as good and active parts, we must intend that we, our action, and our state of adhesion with the Creator will all be one. We must already now want to be at the end of correction as we imagine it, to want to realize and create the state of the end of correction.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 188

Verify Your Attitude Toward the Creator

283.02Question: Do I examine my attitude toward the Creator each time I make a scrutiny?

Answer: Only the attitude. It is easy for me to imagine that I exist. And my desire for spirituality is also not much of a problem, despite the fact that this desire constantly slips away and vanishes.

To catch the Creator? I catch some kind of “inner image of the Creator,” and I am guided by this inner image. It does not matter that it is constantly undergoing changes.

We do not know how we will sense the Creator at the end of correction, but I can already somehow establish two sensory points: me and Him. These two points are present in every one of my states.

The problem in any state is to determine and verify how much the attitude is directed at me, and how to make it so that it is directed at the Creator. As soon as I complete the next verification and scrutiny, I am given the following state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, “There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None besides You,’ in the Work?”

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Becoming Sensitive to Every State

237We learn that all our present and future states, including the final correction (Gmar Tikkun) and even the states that follow, already exist, and we are already in them.

We only have to move from state to state.  We can go through each of them only through a driving force called “the light,” which corrects and fills us at every stage of spiritual ascent. This is how we move up the spiritual ladder.

The light affects us without our intervention, and the request for the light to come and correct us forms as a unique request within us; we cannot form it ourselves. After all, we do not know what this light is all about, what it is, what to strive for, or what we will achieve.

All a person needs to do is pay attention to what is happening to him, reveal what the Creator wants from them, and what actions the Creator performs on them in this state.

One must be sensitive to the contact with the divine because as soon as they feel a certain state, it is replaced by a new one. A person senses, grasps, and absorbs this state (takes it upon oneself), and it becomes theirs. Immediately, however, one must again sharpen all one’s senses in order to achieve similarity of form and thus experience the next state.

Yet the Creator’s work is present in this action as well. Only one thing depends on the person: strengthening their focused desire for spirituality. I would say realizing the desire for spirituality given to us by the Creator, or to realize that one receives their desire for spirituality from above.

We study that the states of Ibur, Yenika, and Mochin are produced by the upper. A person’s entire preparation consists of being sensitive to these states and being ready for the actions that the Creator performs on us. This is what is meant by the principle that “opposite the holiness from above, a person must prepare their holiness from below.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None besides You,’ in the Work?”

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The Difference Between Female and Male Nature

571.01Question: If we speak about the Kli that needs correction in the feminine gender, does it mean women should primarily be the ones to engage with Kabbalah rather than men?

Answer: Why not seat the women in front of the books instead of us, while we go home to watch a football match?

A woman is the desire for spirituality (Hisaron). The feminine in Hebrew is Nekeva, from the word “Nekev” (a hole, an empty space). One who feels a Hisaron for the divine, specifically for the Creator, and wishes to become similar to Him in qualities, is called “Nekeva.”

Nekeva is a Kli that must be corrected and receive the filling of the light. These Kelim, as we previously discussed regarding our forefather Abraham, are passed on to his descendants. And this inheritance is transmitted specifically through the male line. It is the men, and not the women, who receive the Kelim.

Here too there are two degrees. A woman is more connected with reality, with nature. It is precisely this factor that determines a woman’s function in our world and her desires. It is difficult for her to rise above her nature.

Whereas it is much easier for a man to disconnect from reality. He is not as connected with nature, and therefore makes mistakes in this world far more frequently than women. Women behave much more rationally than men. They are realists by nature, more resilient and stable. We see this in everyday life.

But the desire for spirituality has no connection with one’s biological sex. It depends directly on a person’s ability to rise above their nature and aspire to the divine. Women, according to their nature, are not capable of this in the same way as men. In accordance with their qualities, men have far greater potential to rise above their nature.

Therefore the Hisaron (lack or yearning) for spirituality does not come according to one’s biological sex, but according to the extent to which a person is more worthy of rising above nature, and aspiring to divinity.

Thus, it is specifically the man who is obligated to study the inner part of the Torah, to engage in spiritual work. A woman, however, is not obligated. Only to the extent that a genuine need for spirituality appears in her does she also need to undergo the process of correcting the Kelim. But how many women have a true desire for spirituality?

Therefore she needs to examine how genuine her desire for spirituality is. If she has the basic things corresponding to her nature—a home, a husband, a family, children—and after that she continues to aspire to the divine, then her desire is genuine, and she has the “correct spark.” But if she seems to aspire to spirituality while lacking these basic things, then it can be said that she is simply seeking fulfillment as compensation for her unfulfilled material desires.

Why don’t we examine a man in the same way? Because a man does not have the same intense need for a family, a home, a wife, and children as a woman does. He is detached from these animal desires, and therefore such a test is unnecessary. Of course, we do examine men. He should be married, have a family, be connected with his home, and be obligated to work.

A woman is not obligated to work. The home is the place of her work according to the female nature. Do you understand how different her orientation is from that of a man? According to the laws of every state, a man is obligated to provide for the family and a woman to manage the household. Such is the attitude toward them even now in the twenty-first century. And this is not subject to change; it is a law of nature. Therefore women and men are evaluated differently in accordance with their inner structure.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None besides You,’ in the Work?”

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Double the Strength of Your Aspirations

938.04When a person connects with others in physical work and invests their efforts in a fellow student, they achieve a state where their own yearning for the Creator is supplemented by that of their friend, effectively doubling it. If the friend shares the same desire for the Creator, then the person’s own strength is doubled.

You double the power of your positive desires and strivings, despite the many obstacles that exist. One can give the example of a rocket that, while maintaining the same weight, gains what is essentially double the propulsive force. With the same “weight,” with the same will to receive, a person’s strength doubles, thereby cutting their path to the Creator in half. For example, instead of ten years he will need only five.

If a person chooses a group of friends and is confident that they are true like‑minded companions who provide the additional forces needed to advance, then there is nothing better.

But if, after constantly checking the connection, they become convinced that there is nothing more to add, they can of course stop there. However, if it is possible to “press on the gas” or switch from  a “dirt road” to a “wide highway,” then they should look for the means to do so.

Possibly, by improving their connection with his friends or by changing groups, they will be able to advance further. This is precisely what is meant by choosing the right environment.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson’ in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 190

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 190

If Love of Friends Is a Means to Reach the Creator, How Do We Check That the Goal Has Not Been Replaced by the Means?

In a case where we forget that we acquired love of friends in order to draw closer to the Creator, but our general thinking is still directed at the goal, the goal can be recalled through simple means such as shouting the word “goal” or through some reminder from another person. Even at our degree this works.

Forgetting the goal is a result of concealment. Of course, we need to rely on others in order to remember, and whoever remembers should remind everyone. However, in principle it is impossible to remember spirituality if it is not illuminating for you. In such a case, even if you write reminders on all the walls, you will not see what you have written. If our will to receive is not directed at it, we will not see it. This is how we are built. How is it that we do not see spirituality? Our will to receive cannot feel it when it is not directed at it. The same applies to every feeling and every other thing in life.

Therefore, even in such a state, when we do not remember the purpose of creation, various actions that we perform will later combine with thoughts and intentions that we carry out at another time. This is why we exist in this world, which is a degree in which the reality of time exists. In spirituality, the moment we do something, if we are in adhesion and act according to it, that is considered an action. If we are not in adhesion at that moment, it is not called “spirituality” and not considered an action. However, in this world every effort can later connect with every thought and operate together. This is the special wonder that exists in this low degree called “this world.”

Baal HaSulam writes about this in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: a student who is with their teacher is not constantly in adhesion with him, but if they serve him a cup of tea and only later think that by serving the tea they wished to connect to spirituality, the thought and the action will work together as if they had indeed served the teacher the cup of tea for the sake of connection. That is, time works in our favor. Time connects all the efforts, everything that we are not able to connect. Through this, we ascend the degrees.

When we are constantly in the company of a great person, very close to them, it is very difficult to maintain a correct attitude. Naturally, we will suddenly feel contempt, a lack of desire, we do not feel like it, and we grow tired of learning from them. This is natural because since we see a body, that is, we see no difference between ourselves and the great person, while the inner essence is concealed. Therefore, Baal HaSulam says that even if we do things because we feel some necessity, human obligation, or discomfort if we do not do them, and afterward attach spiritual reasons to our actions, such as the desire to reach spirituality through them, even later, when we are no longer close to the teacher and it becomes easier to think about it, the thought and the action join together. The same is true with friends. Of utmost importance is to act, so that the future thought will have something to dress itself in.

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