Question: In the article “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”, Rabash writes about awe before the Creator. Should we fear Him?

Answer: Who does not feel fear? Only those with no reason have no fear or those who have never really encountered life, who have not received blows, experienced suffering, or felt any limitations placed on their desires. But anyone who has already felt a boundary and knows there is a limitation feel a certain sense of fear.

We have a Kli, the desire to receive, and accordingly, there is pleasure. A Kli is created by pleasure, light, and corresponds exactly to the light in quantity and quality.

The Kli is the desire to enjoy. If the desire to receive feels it cannot enjoy because something restricts its ability to fill itself, fear and awe arise from this, from the faintest sense of some boundary to the greatest fear.

Fear results from the emptiness of the Kli. The feeling of an empty Kli can go in two directions: fear of an empty Kli either in receiving for my own sake or in my intention to give.

Therefore, there are two types of awe. A trembling directed at myself, at all the pleasures of this world, whether I have them or not (such as family, health, money, honor, and so on). And fear for the world to come, whether I will attain it. Sometimes fear for this world outweighs fear for the world to come, and then fear for the world to come is discarded.

Sometimes a person develops such fear for the next world that they are ready to give up this whole world to ensure the next. So, he goes to a monastery and subjects himself to various forms of suffering.

Ultimately, a person always seeks to overcome a certain fear, whether it is fear of this world or the next world. But both are sensations of this world experienced in the present. It only seems to the person that they are thinking about the next world. In reality, they are not. What they must overcome is their current negative sensation, a sensation they perceive to be linked to the future.

There is also awe about whether I bestow, how do I bestow, and how I fill my Kli of bestowal. In other words, am I filling the Creator’s Kli? Although it is completely unclear to me what His Kli is, because I can only gauge it through the sensation of my own Kli. To the extent I understand what bestowal is, to the extent I realize and feel what I am doing in relation to the Creator, to this extent I have a Kli of bestowal, and I fill it.

That is, this is also my Kli, my inner feeling. As for what is going on outside, I know nothing. All these feelings are inside us, and they all exist in the present, not in the past or the future.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

Question: Sometimes a desire is called Makom (place) and sometimes Ish (person). What is the difference between the two?

Answer: We can speak about this in terms of the internal and external. Sometimes we speak about an entire world (which, in essence, is a single person); at other times, we refer to things that are more internal or more external. For example, when one passage speaks about a Beit Knesset (synagogue), and another speaks about a person in a Beit Knesset, it is clear that these refer to states of the point in the heart in relation to all the other desires.

The point in the heart works in such a way that all the other desires gather around it, whether animalistic or human, and eventually even the desires of the Klipot. All of them become like one bundle directed toward a single goal, like the point of Moses that gathers all the other desires toward one goal and leads them forward.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/26, Rabash, “A Congregation Is No Less than Ten”

Question: What does “a clear decision” mean? Aren’t a decision and a desire the same thing?

Answer: A decision is in the heart. It is not simply words written on paper and stuck to a wall. It is said: “Write them upon the tablets of your heart.”

Question: But each person has a different character. How, then, can a unified desire be created?

Answer: What does this have to do with character? Suppose that we, 80 people, want to build a house. Does it matter what character each person has and what problems each one has? We are all focused together on one goal.

Comment: But one imagines a palace and another imagines something else.

My Response: It does not matter what each person imagines and what each envisions. We, of course, cannot compare the states, intentions, and internal analysis made by each of us. And in general, it is not the group that should do this; it is each person’s personal matter. But we want each of us to participate in this to the extent that they can.

Certainly, no more is demanded of a person than what was initially given to them from above from birth. One person can, for now, think only for one moment a day; another, after a month of study is entirely immersed in it; a third might engage in yet another way.

One perceives more with the mind, another with the heart. For some it may feel like an act of self-coercion, while others feel a sense of inspiration. We are not discussing the specific, personal states of each one; we are talking about a collective effort without delving into particulars; it does not matter in what state each of us is.

Perhaps for one person, the greatest investment they can make, the greatest sacrifice they are capable of, is that today they will sit for ten minutes and listen to me attentively, while for the rest of the time they will be as if dead. For them, this will be a great effort. Whereas for another, studying all day might require only a standard, routine level of effort.

The effort is what counts; therefore, in this case, the first contributes more than the second. We cannot check these things, and it is not we who should do so at all. Moreover, we are forbidden to speak with one another about personal states.

We must strive for the unity of desires, not by speaking about how each of us relates to the Creator, but simply speaking about the Creator Himself rather than our individual relationship to Him. In other words, we should speak about the importance of the goal rather than where I am now in relation to it.

Therefore, one must make the friend’s words important to you. Invest as much effort in it as you invest in your child, and you will see how important it will be to you. “Buy yourself a friend.”

Set the goal to be at the lesson as a single group, with a single intention, and a single unified effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/26, Rabash, “A Congregation Is No Less than Ten”

Question: What is Ohr Makif, surrounding light?

Answer: Surrounding light is the light that intends to enter the Guf (body), that is, the Kli (vessel), and clothe itself in it when it is corrected by the screen. The Masach, the screen, is the intention to bestow.

If currently lack the intention to bestow, then the light is outside of me and shines upon me from the place where I should be when I have such an intention. What should I do so that it shines upon me?

Surrounding light exists for everyone in this world, a place is reserved for each person near the Creator, on the highest degree. How can I draw this illumination that is above the Parsa to myself? Only by creating something similar to the state I will eventually be in above the Parsa within myself.

There, above the Parsa, I am connected with that light, with that source that I study, that is, with the other souls, with the Creator, as it is said: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” What can I do here, below the Parsa, so that it will be in some way similar to that state, and I would attract this illumination to myself?

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that one who studies and strives to understand what he is studying, even if he does not understand, thereby attracts the surrounding light. Because knowledge is the inner filling of the surrounding light, that is, the state in which a person is there together with it, for Israel and the Torah are one.

It does not matter that for now I imagine adhesion according to my level; but it, too, pertains to that eternal, great state, and if by means of what I study, I want to come to adhesion with the Creator, through this I attract the surrounding light.

If all the souls are there together as one body, as one man with one heart, then here, below, I must do this together with several friends, and this, too, will be a similarity. That is, one must make the state below as similar as possible to what is above.

So we make an effort and somehow build this similarity. But where will I get the feeling of the importance of this action? The group does not merely exist so that I can sit with the friends and contemplate this state.

The group is meant to give me awareness of the importance of being in this state; that is, first I must hear that this is the most important goal from them, that there is nothing else in life besides it, and that the whole world and all of life are given to me only for this.

This is what I must hear from them instead of conversations about fashion, about football, and a thousand other things. Because the feeling of importance that I have will never be enough. There are, of course, special people who can manage without this; there have been such cases, but we are not among them. We are people who must make this effort with the help of the group and carry out our task, the task that all of humanity begins to undertake from this day onward.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/26, Rabash, “A Congregation Is No Less than Ten”

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 277

How Should We Connect the Examples Given During the Lesson?

If one example cannot be connected to another example, one should simply let go of one of them. During the study, examples from our lives are given to illustrate a particular case. An example cannot be stretched to apply to a thousand and one other forms and states.

Sometimes we speak in one line, sometimes in three lines, and sometimes we speak to a person who is simply within an animate desire and teach him how to come out of the animate desire and observe it from the outside. Such a person needs to have some sensation of Godliness, so that he knows what it means to observe himself from the outside. Psychologists also speak in such terms. On the lower degrees, this is still understandable to every person. Therefore, the same example should not be used in every case, but only in the case to which it was attached.

In order not to become confused, it is always worthwhile to translate examples into the language of Kabbalah. It does not matter which language they are translated from, whether the language of laws and Halachot, the language of Midrash, the language of Aggadah, the language of the Pentateuch, the Tanakh, or any spoken language, all of these should be translated into concepts such as Sefirot, Partzufim, Behinot, Aviut (coarseness), Zakut (purity), and so on. If all these concepts are brought together into one language, it becomes possible to compare them somewhat and turn them into a kind of science or unified approach. Otherwise, confusion arises. There needs to be a common basis for them all.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 276
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 275
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 274

Question: How can we connect the various processes described in The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES) to my own personal need, to what I specifically lack?

Answer: In the actions described in TES, you study what happens within you. For example, Nukva rising to Aba ve Ima is a part of the desire to receive that is being corrected by the forces of bestowal of Binah, the upper force that gives this desire, connecting to it the intention to bestow. This is how you should view every action.

But we are not going to interpret TES in this way, analyzing what this particular desire to receive does in this specific action, what type of desire it is, what correction it receives, and so on. We are not capable of doing that.

When you ascend to this degree, you will experience all this within yourself; you will feel what is happening to you. Then, as you read TES, the actions described in it will arise within you.

Or, conversely, you will discover in TES what is happening within you. This process is called “man’s soul will teach him.” You will feel all these actions within it.

However, for now, you are merely reading about how these actions take place within your soul, while you yourself remain in an unconscious state, unaware of them. And so, without feeling these actions but wishing to attain the sensation of them, you strive toward them and catch a faint illumination from them. This is what is meant by the surrounding light coming to you.

In reality, it neither comes nor goes; it does not go anywhere at all. It is simply your aspiration toward the state in which you will feel a certain action that gives you an illumination from it. It is as though you perceive this state from afar. This is what it means when we say that the surrounding light comes to you. Gradually, this light sanctifies and purifies you and brings you a little closer. And then a little closer still, and a little more.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/26, Rabash, “What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet”

Between the Creator and the creation, there is an action that can be attributed to a person; it is called awe. If a person is rewarded with it, they receive everything else from above.

Everything has already been prepared above and is literally ready to pour down upon a person, but only to the extent that they have awe. Abundance, perfection, eternity, goodness, and pleasure—everything that has been conceived and prepared is waiting for them. All that is missing is the Kli known as awe.

Rabash calls this Kli a blessing (Bracha) through which abundance, reflected light, and the screen (Masach) come from above. Opposite this stands the Sitra Achra (the impure force or Klipa), which present an interesting dynamic. The Sitra Achra is not interested in merely receiving, since this is not its root.

Merely receiving is a desire created by the Creator; yet, an equivalent also exists in holiness opposite it, because one always exists opposite the other. The nature of the Sitra Achra is to steal, to derive pleasure specifically from stealing.

While working in various places, I have often seen someone bring work from home to do during his regular working hours. Then he enjoys himself twice over: he does not do his job and, at the same time, does something for himself. This adds flavor, as the saying goes, “Stolen water is sweeter.” What is the difference, after all? It is the same water. Water is water. But when you transfer it from one domain to another, an additional pleasure appears.

There is a joke about an Italian princess who, sitting on a balcony and eating ice cream, says, “It is a pity this is not a sin. If it were also a sin, the pleasure would be many times greater.”

We see that theft is a special concept. It is a transfer from one domain to another, originating in the upper root, where the shattering and mixing of the Kelim (the desires) took place. Therefore, the work becomes twofold: to leave one domain and enter another. This contains an additional measure of the abundance that the creation must reveal.

If I receive into my Kli in the ordinary way, what enters it is the light of Nefesh. But if I take something out of one domain and forcibly transfer it into another, working against the former domain, this contributes to the expansion of the lights to the level of NRNHY. This is the essence of the difference between a robber, a thief, and someone who simply takes. A great deal is contained in these concepts.

Just as the Sitra Achra derives pleasure from “snatching” something from holiness, there is also a commandment to steal from a gentile. This sounds very strange. If you say this phrase to someone without explaining it, it is unclear how to interpret it.

The commandment to steal from a gentile means transferring something from one domain to another. This works in both directions, because the shattering and mixing of the Kelim, their inclusion in one another, took place.

One could say that the very concept of intention arose from this. What matters is no longer what I want to receive into this Kli, but how I receive it, in what form I transfer, extract, and draw in what I want to have in my Kli. If I truly receive it by taking it out of the Sitra Achra, then there is holiness in this. But if I simply want to fill my Kli, then this is not even the Sitra Achra; it is still within the boundaries of our world. This is not yet called holiness.

In other words, two systems must exist—holiness and Klipa—so that, precisely through opposing one another, each reveals its own spiritual measure. If we attained the lights without extracting them from the Sitra Achra, they would be small lights, NRNHY de Nefesh. But because we extract them from the domain of impurity and forcibly transfer them into holiness, NRNHY de NRNHY is revealed in them.

This is the essence of theft. It is a very important concept in spirituality. Theft corresponds to the sin of Adam. The sin made it possible to enter the NRNHY of the impure forces, and afterward the possibility arose to extract from there and be rewarded with the complete light of NRNHY of holiness.

From this, we can understand what Rabash writes in the article “What Action of a Person in Spiritual Work Is Attributed to the Creator,” that is, which action is attributed to the Creator and which to the person. A person’s intention to bestow upon the Creator despite the struggle with the Sitra Achra is his action.

To know the measure of bestowal, one must first become thoroughly acquainted with the forces opposite to it. Then, through these forces, to the extent that a person extracts from them the ability to bestow, he builds his own bestowal. In other words, there is a double gain here.

This is the central idea: how one thing is acquired at the expense of another. Thanks to the Klipa, we acquire the ability to work independently and ultimately attain the highest NRNHY.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

When I begin to examine my internal system and the external system outside of me, and how I might use the external system to control the inner system, I discover that, apart from the external force acting upon me, I have no other point of contact with my own development.

Then I realize the necessity of a group (a small, limited, united environment) that remains under my influence and control that allows me to analyze my states, my level of development, and the nature of the influences on me.

Then I think about what, in fact, I can determine in this environment. After all, I need to develop from my current state to a more advanced one, to rise a little above my current level. This means I will gain more power, a greater form of giving than I have now.

To imagine a greater form of bestowal, I cannot take an example from myself or my environment; I need an example from what in Kabbalah is termed the AHP of the upper. In other words, the Creator Himself must enter the picture I imagine and show me this form, just as in our world the big one shows the little one what to do.

Then the little one carries out the action, and through this process begins to understand the big one. Thus, we ultimately arrive at an understanding, an intellect, that emerges as a result of action.

So, there must be:

• I,
• the world, or the group, friends, and
• the Creator as the Giver of true form.

It is in accordance with this form that I structure the group. Neither I nor my environment understand or can reason about what our corrected form is. I am beginning to understand what it means to give more than I do now. And this is something new that I did not have.

Here you can ask: “You have received this understanding from above, but you said that your next form, in fact, already exists inside you, encoded in your gene. All you need from the outside is strength.” This next form exists in a broken form in a Reshimo, and to identify this Reshimo, you must see what it should be in its corrected form.

This form exists inside you, in your genes, so you can recognize what the Creator is communicating to you from the outside. We can only perceive from the outside what we have internal prerequisites for. If I have a certain awareness of the meaning of something inside me, and I see a corresponding external phenomenon, then I understand it.

For example, I once got a blow. Now, when I see someone else get a blow, I understand what it means, and I can imagine what they are feeling right now, how it affects them, what accompanies it, and what it leads to. After all, I have already gone through it; it is recorded in me. However, the form in which this happens to him does not necessarily have to be inside me.

Thus, the Reshimot we have inside, in the seed, in the kernel, in the soul, are not yet enough to give me a picture, an image of how I should look in each particular state. This is why I need the Creator to give me what is called a “picture of the Creator” before my eyes, and each time He shows me some semblance of a higher stage than mine.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, “Rosh Hashanah”

Question: What should our approach be toward a friend in the group that seems to be showing disregard for you or others? How can we elevate him, the group, and the goal in our own eyes?

Answer: Our teachers wrote extensively about how we should relate to our environment. I do not think there is a Kabbalist who has not written about this. However, they offered only brief guidelines, either because these matters were self-evident to them or because other writings on the subject already existed.

Moreover, writing was expensive—where could one even get paper? Rabash told me what a challenge that was. Today, of course, we have paper in abundance. Nevertheless, we see that each of the Kabbalists touched on this subject in one way or another.

When we perceive our environment as something indispensable for advancing toward spirituality, many questions arise. We encounter a thousand different situations, and I do not think it is possible to provide a prescription for every single one. However, based on everything the Kabbalists have written and the principles they have established, it should be clear to us how to respond to one phenomenon or another.

You are asking about a friend who shows disregard for others. If this is someone who has always been together with us, but now I suddenly notice that he is acting dismissively, he may be undergoing a crisis.

In that case, I must help him. I should gather several other friends and take care of him as I would care for someone who had fallen from the tenth floor and lost spiritual consciousness. He is sick, he is unconscious, and I must somehow help him continue on his path from this state until he recovers.

However, if this state has become permanent for him, and he prefers various social circles that are completely contrary to our spirit; if he comes here with different opinions and wants to instill ideas in us that are not found in the books we consider holy (primarily the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash), then that is the end of it!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

A person arrives to the desire to become like the Creator through their own inner development. But if the group discusses this and begins to value it, they thereby evoke a collective surrounding light. This influences everyone, and makes each individual more sensitive.

There is no need to actively exert force from within the group. If the group focuses its attention on these details of perception, the individual, through the general illumination from above that the group evokes, naturally gains heightened sensitivity to them.

For instance, suppose we decide to raise the level of awareness of the importance of a particular matter within the group, for example, the idea that everyone, without exception, start a family. We would not pressure the bachelors; we would simply discuss the topic in a positive, light, framing it as an essential standard for everyone, something absolutely necessary, and so on.

You don’t address them directly or pressure them, nothing of the sort. You will find that they will not be able to remain here; they will either leave or get married.

I am not suggesting we actually do this; it is only a neutral example. They will not be able to remain here because the opinion of the group, combine with the light from above that we have drawn upon us in by focusing on this specific aspect, would exert such an influence that they will immediately see everything clearly.

Or, suppose we elevate a certain property relating to the group or to the Creator to the greatest height possible for us. You will see how the entire group’s sensitivity to that quality intensifies. No punishments are needed here. A person will feel an internal fear of being left behind. The group exerts pressure.

Unfortunately, for now, we have yet to establish and demand adherence to some of the most crucial principles that ought to be literally burning within the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 276

Is This Connected to the Concept of “Self-Sacrifice in the Work”?

Yes, this is called self-sacrifice. What is self-sacrifice? We give up our “self,” which is called “the animate soul,” the person’s Nefesh. That is, we perform a restriction over it. All these verses should be translated into the concepts that we study in the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah or in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, and then we do not become confused. For example, “The Torah is sustained only in one who…” The word for “who” (Hebrew, “Mi”), means “Bina,” which means Malchut that rose to Bina. That is, there is a deeper inner interpretation to this.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 275
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 274
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 273

Comment: Our problem is that we always lack something. We cannot break through toward the goal.

My Response: You will always feel weak and incapable of doing anything. Even if people shout at you and pressure you, you disregard it. For months, some standard, a certain demand, will stand before you, and you will be unable to approach it and change yourself in accordance with it. Such is the path.

This will continue until this feeling intensifies to such an extent that you will hate your state and be compelled to change it. This is how we work against each of our properties. One can disregard something for years, not want it, be incapable, remain in evil, and not find the strength to eradicate it. It is clear that you are not doing what is required; everyone demands it of you, and you cannot.

How can one ensure that it will not take so much time, that I force myself to act instead of sitting all the time under the rule of this evil without touching it? This will happen only if we increase the pressure of the group, raise the standard, and elevate the importance of this property in the eyes of the environment.

I can sit for months over some bad property that I must work on and do nothing. I know about it and cannot force myself to do anything. Only if the group elevates the importance of this will I find the endurance and do it. Otherwise, a very long time will pass until this suffering accumulates in me to such an extent that I begin to act.

A person is unfortunate if they are in an environment that does not awaken a desire to overcome various properties, to correct what they must correct, and to perform the necessary actions. Such a group truly brings no benefit.

A group ought to evoke a sense of pain in a person whenever they neglect something, even for a moment, and does not engage with it. This is, in essence, the main help we need from the group if we speak of the form of negation and criticism, and in the positive sense—to realize love.

Here, each of us faces a particular problem. We know what we must correct, improve, and do, even in a practical sense, in action and not in intention, and we cannot. This can continue for years if the group does not insist on it. Moreover, one must distinguish whether this relates to a person’s character or to their advancement toward the goal. Here, one must learn to draw the line: is it character or an increased desire?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

We should understand what it means when we say, “We have no other king but You.” It implies that when we praise the Creator that “We have no other king but You,” then we are not like the nations of the world, who have many gods, while we have only You as our king (Rabash, “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?”).

Question: What does it mean, “We have no other king but You”? Does this mean that, in reality, there are other kings besides the Creator, and that we choose Him rather than the others? But isn’t it written, “There is none else besides Him”?

Answer: The point is that a person can only turn to the Creator, establish a connection, contact, and relationship with Him only through similarity of qualities. If a person acquires even one of the many qualities that belong to the Creator, they immediately enter into connection with the Creator through that single quality, through this similarity to Him. This is called “Emet”—truth.

That is why it is written that a person must know whom they are calling upon and must cry out in truth because contact is possible only through a quality that is shared by both.

In other words, I must somehow discover what qualities the Creator has, deeply desire them, and acquire them, starting from those that are easier to implement within my desire to receive, moving to qualities that are more distant, greater, and more difficult to realize. I must continue until I become like the Creator in all my qualities. This state is described as, “The name of the Creator is proclaimed upon you.”

This is what we learn in relation to raising MAN, a prayer. What is MAN? It is a need (Hisaron) for correction so that my qualities become like His: “Make your desire like His desire,” and so on. If my desire to become like Him has not been corrected, if it is fundamentally flawed, in other words, if I am still hold a mistaken conception in my understanding of who He is and what He is like, then I am not calling upon Him truthfully. In that case, this Hisaron is not called MAN and is not perceived by the upper one.

It is like the example given by Rabash: a child is ill, and the doctor says that he may be given certain things but not others. The child cries, screams, and demands only what he wants. If something the child asks for is among the things prescribed by the doctor, the mother gives it to him; if not, she does not. The same applies to our MAN. It is a request to which there can be a response only if my desire corresponds to His desire. “Make your desire like His desire,” that is, make His desire your own.

This general correction, so that our requests are for things that are true, is called faith. My request to the Creator cannot be genuine or correct if it is for my own personal benefit. It must be for His benefit, for the sake of bestowal. It doesn’t even matter what particular form this bestowal takes. The main thing is that, first of all, my request and my direction must rise above my desire to receive and above thoughts about myself.

Our requests must be for the acquisition of desires directed outward, toward bestowal upon another. The quality we acquire that allows us to think, not about ourselves, but beyond ourselves, that is, ultimately about the Creator, is called faith.

As a rule, the strength of faith comes from above and gives a person the ability to rise above their desires and stop thinking about them. But until a person acquires the ability to believe, that is, to rise above the demands of their body, they do not truly turn to the Creator at all. They turn only to themselves.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?”

Question: What should a person do when feeling distressed, realizing that this state comes from the Creator, and feels even worse because of this?

Answer: We experience various sensation, each accompanied by a wide array of intentions, all mixed together like a salad, without understanding the sequence or the connections through which they arrive. Whatever is meant to come will come, regardless of how, when, or in what forms. The key is to pay attention to your attitude toward the Creator in light of what you feel, and to observe how you relate to Him based on that feeling.

This is your action. Scrutinizing and defining one’s state; that itself is the action. There is nothing else. All other actions can also be performed by an animal, but this is what a human being does. You constantly want to clarify the relationship between you and the Creator.

This is the whole of a human being! All your other dealings with the entire world and with yourself, apart from clarifying your relationship with Him, have nothing to do with eternity or spirituality. But by using them, you can build a relationship with Him.

All the work is concentrated at one point. If a person constantly remains in it, he begins to enter the path described in the book A Sages Fruit: I, the Creator, and my present action, which I determine to be either for my own sake or for His sake, as well as the relationship between us is precisely my direction toward the goal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,’ in the Work?”

The group’s work should be directed at each of its members ensuring that each member feels that they are under constant control and persistent spiritual pressure, compelling them to conduct themselves properly.

One should be ashamed to look into the eyes of one’s friends if one lets them down by “drilling a hole in the common boat,” risking the lives of everyone on board. Therefore, it helps a lot when everyone in the group reminds one another of how dependent they are on each other.

If I am sitting here dejected, struggling, feeling disappointed, detached, or exhausted, I have to understand that by doing so, I am effectively cutting off the oxygen supply to my friends, and I should feel ashamed before them. We need to constantly develop a sense of responsibility within ourselves. Now we are given the opportunity to experience this feeling. That is why I consider our current state to be very good. Let us try to feel it together, and you will see how simple it is.

In fact, there is no fatigue. What does Gmar Tikkun (final correction) entail? Does it mean a person no longer sleeps, eats, or drinks, or perhaps is in some kind of euphoria, as if floating? What happens in this state? Does one experience fatigue? Does one ever feel a need to take a break from spirituality? After all, when nothing changes, it is also not a very good state either: it can be an unhealthy, hyperactive, or overstimulated state.

Gmar Tikkun is a benevolent state of inner balance between you and the Creator, because it is only through this balance that a state of peace is achieved. At each degree, balance is felt for a moment. And then, when egoism grows again, and correction grows accordingly, and they merge, peace is felt again for a certain period of time. And so on, until we reach eternal peace.

Therefore, we must attain a state in which constant striving forward will be felt by us as the most absolute peace.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/30/26

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that a person derives no benefit from engaging in Torah if unless they acquire faith. That is, one must reach a state of rising above the desire to receive, and this is precisely what one must demand. Demanding faith is essentially the foundation of our studies.

In other words, during our studies, as we read our books, our sole passionate desire should be to receive from above a special force that will help us break free from egoism and live with a focus on bestowing upon the Creator so that this will be the primary concern in my mind.

These things come to a person before they even know what they are. Rabash, in the article “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?,” says that the right and left lines come as two angels; they exist within a person and are governed from above. The middle line emerges when the Creator gives a soul (Neshama). A soul is called “a part of the Creator from above.”

But before a person receives this “part of the Creator from above,” how can he know what it is? Each time he receives a new soul, that is, when the middle line is added to him, he does not know what part he will receive this time. Therefore, the work is carried out without regard for the outcome, until the person receives that result.

The two lines, the right and the left, with which a person works, are only a condition for receiving the soul, not the soul itself. This occurs according to the rule, “I labored and found”; that is, make an effort in the two lines, in the properties of the Creator and in the properties of creation as they appear to you, perform all kinds of actions with them, and then, as a result of correct work and the combination of the lines in the correct form, you will receive from above what is called a soul (Neshama).

What is it? You do not know! And it is as if there is no connection between your work in these two lines and what you receive from above, the soul, except for a cause-and-effect connection. While you work in the two lines, you do not know what the soul is, which you will then receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?”

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 275

What Does “The Torah Is Sustained Only in One Who Puts Himself to Death Over It” Mean?

The meaning of this statement is that the light of the Torah, which is generally inner light, enters the spiritual Partzuf. “It is sustained in one who puts himself to death over it,” that is, one who has put to death his desire to receive in order to receive “for it,” that is, “for the Torah.” In other words, in accordance with the Torah, we have made our desire into a desire to bestow, like the light. Then the Torah is sustained within us, and we ourselves become light. This is called “death,” that is, death of the intention to receive.

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Question: What does it mean to look at everything with the goal in mind? What should we look for from the perspective of the goal?

Answer: The problem is that until certain concepts take shape within us, we will not understand what we are talking about. That is why Kabbalah is called the hidden wisdom. Sometimes I feel sweetness, sometimes pain, moisture, cold, trouble, or sadness.

Through my own sensations, I already acquire Reshimot, and I can understand another person when they act in a certain way, explain something to me, play music, or show me something. Based on my own experience, I understand them. But if I had never felt any of these things myself, I would never understand what they were talking about. That is the difference.

The essence of the hidden wisdom is that, first of all, we need to equip ourselves with various concepts, all kinds of impressions and sensations that do not simply exist within a person naturally. They come to a person during the period of preparation, before the Machsom, through work in the group, study, dissemination, and other activities.

We go through different states and experience inner explosions. In this way, we gradually begin to make sense of our impressions in the realm of spiritual sensations. Although this is only an approximation, it is already something resembling the beginning of a person’s spiritual development. The more of these states you experience, the better you will understand what is being discussed. Without them, it is very difficult to explain.

The fewer concepts you have, both in terms of their depth and their number, the harder it is for you to picture what is being described. Do you know how an image is formed on a screen, for example, from pixels or dots? If some of the dots are missing from your screen, if the screen is insensitive and has only two or three dots, then I can give you only two or three concepts corresponding to those dots, and you will say that you do not understand me.

Add another six hundred, six hundred thousand, six million, or a billion dots, and you will see a huge number of additional details in my picture. Then a single word will be enough to explain everything to you. One symbol can give you an understanding of the entire screen with its billions of pixels, and you will be able to construct a colorful picture, a vast, beautiful, eternal, and perfect one.

This depends not on me, but on you. That is what we are talking about: everything depends on the Kelim, while the light is in absolute rest.

Everything changes within a person, too. Sometimes there are a few pixels on your “screen,” but even so, you can grasp something. At other times, this is concealed from you. Why? An update is taking place: the previous picture is erased, and a new one is being created.

When they want to give you a new picture, that is, additional sensitivity, greater “resolution,” it is impossible to add it on top of the previous one. It is like the state of acquiring ten new Sefirot, when the entire previous picture must be erased. This is the state in which you find yourself in complete confusion, unable to understand what is happening to you.

Then a new foundation comes to you, with several new points of sensitivity, and you can see a clearer picture. But in the interval between these processes, you are completely confused.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,’ in the Work?”

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Question: After entering into a covenant, can a desire arise to break it?

Answer: No, after a covenant has been established, such a desire cannot arise. This state is preserved forever. In the spiritual world, every state remains forever; the Creator safeguards it. The upper light is already present at that degree and gives it life. It can never become less than this.

There is an expression: “In holiness, one ascends but never descends.” It may seem to you that you have violated the covenant, but this is only how things appear as a result of your descent before ascending to the next degree. In other words, you fall more deeply into the left line than you did at the previous degree. But this is not considered a violation of the covenant.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

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Question: How can one avoid sinking into asceticism or reclusive behavior on the path toward bestowal for the sake of bestowal?

Answer: We will not fall into all of this, and we will not confuse our path with reclusiveness, various fasts and diets (which are mistakenly believed to be connected with Kabbalah), wearing white clothes, and other such things.

After all, we are speaking not even about our sensory organs nor about the electrochemical reactions and processes taking place in our brain. Behind all of this stands a desire! We do not know at all what it is. It is a spiritual object. There is a certain transition from electrochemical processes to the desire to the sensation within this desire. One might wonder, what connection is there between the soul, the desire, and the body?

But the more we talk about these things, the more we feel how abstract they are and how unrelated they are to the body. You ask: how can one avoid falling into asceticism on the path toward attaining faith, toward the ability to bestow for the sake of bestowal, that is, avoid beginning to restrict oneself in food, drink, and so on? But these things are simply unrelated! Eat a double portion, drink as much as you like, sleep, this has nothing whatsoever to do with acquiring the intention to bestow for the sake of bestowal.

There are people who, by nature, need to eat much more than others (incidentally, Kabbalists consume a great deal of food!). Does this mean that someone who eats less is more righteous? By what do you measure righteousness? By the amount of food eaten? Suppose a person goes on a diet because his doctors advised him to, and he himself also believes it is the right thing to do. Do his properties become better?

This is a very common mistake. Many people believe that there are certain external actions connected with the body that can “purify” the body, make it more “righteous” and pure, and kill the desire to receive. This does not happen!

Through external actions, you can improve or worsen the condition of the body, but with the desire to receive, everything is completely different. Through such actions, you can make, if one may put it this way, “corrections” to the desire to receive only at the animate level, through habit. For example, I train myself not to consume sugar because I have diabetes. I train myself to such an extent that I no longer perceive sweetness! If I eat something sweet, it is unpleasant to me—the habit becomes second nature.

But does this make me more righteous? Of course not. After all, I have not stopped enjoying. By not putting sweets in my mouth, in accordance with my new habit, I do not even feel that I am depriving myself of anything. Moreover, since I do not eat sweets and know that by doing so I am not harming myself, I feel that I am gaining, that I am receiving more. What kind of correction is that?

If I now persuade myself that it is worth studying the wisdom of Kabbalah because through it I will become healthier, learn the future, change my fate, find the meaning of life, and attain goodness what am I thinking about: a loss or a gain? Of course, a gain.

Then all I have to do is convince my desire to receive to do this by means of the group’s opinion, various proofs, and my inner reaction to people who have already attained something and raise the future world in my eyes. Then I will rush toward this goal like a thief who runs ahead of everyone else and shouts, “Stop the thief!”

That is why this is not correction. In this way, we advance toward correcting the desire to receive, while the correction itself is performed upon us automatically, without our participation, through the light that reforms.

It is as though I move forward with the desire to receive and attract the light, which changes me into my opposite.

Therefore, we are speaking about a single system that can turn a person into the opposite of what he was before, because it attracts the light that reforms, which transforms the first of the four phases of direct light into the second, its opposite. Only the light can do this; I am powerless here. I need only to bring about the arrival of the light to me, and that is all.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/26, Rabash, “His Law He Contemplates”

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