Question: What does it mean to be together in one state? What does this togetherness look like?

Answer: What does “together” mean? It means that each person feels truly at home only when they are connected to the goal of attaining the Creator. As for everything else, each person approaches it according to their own emotional makeup, but all feel an equal degree of rejection.

Question: Regardless of their own personal state?

Answer: There are different personal states; there is nothing more to say about that. But all of them are intended to advance us.

You need to awaken in a friend the feeling that you are somehow transmitting to them your own sense of the importance of the Creator and the need to recognize His greatness. You influence them, and they feel certain waves coming from you.

Question: Is this within my power, or does it depend on the friend?

Answer: It is within your power in relation to all the friends. Without a doubt. Start doing it, and you will see what happens. There is enormous power in this; it is a tremendous force. This is a degree entirely different from all the other wandering thoughts and forces around us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

Question: What is the difference between different Kabbalistic authors?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes that there are differences between the books of different authors, both from an inner and an external perspective, including differences in the language in which they wrote their works.

Of course, we are talking about Kabbalistic authors. Each has their own degree, their own character, and their own measure of revelation. Therefore, we should learn only from one special soul: Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, the ARI, and Baal HaSulam (Yehuda Ashlag). It is one and the same soul that manifested in this world in three different eras, using the same method to reveal the method of correction.

As Baal HaSulam writes, there may have been other Kabbalists who were even greater. For example, Rabbi Akiva was a much greater Kabbalist than Rabbi Shimon. However, none of them were sent here to become our teachers. Therefore, we must study the books of our teachers.

That is essentially all there is to it! If this is not enough for someone, and they try to dig up something else with their enlightened intellect, perhaps, thanks to their wisdom, they will find the way, but only several centuries from now.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/26, Rabash, “What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet”

Question: What enables me to exist  between the intention for the sake of receiving and the intention for the sake of bestowal?

Answer: Only a force from above, the surrounding light (Ohr Makif). Within myself, there are no such capabilities.

Question: It is said that one must work against one’s desire, yet crossing the Machsom, requires a strong desire. How can these things reconcile?

Answer: We must not work against the desire. Desires themselves are neither good nor bad. No human action can be called good or bad if we are speaking about the spiritual rather than the human level. I must focus only one thing: is this action being performed for the benefit of the Creator or for the benefit of the person himself?

There is no need to examine the desire. Let us suppose that someone stole something; then perhaps he actually performed a very important and useful deed. Maybe it was an operation for the sake of the state, for the sake of the motherland, for the sake of saving humanity from some evil forces, who knows. We cannot consider an action in itself and declare that it is forbidden.

Baal HaSulam writes that everything should be considered, not in an abstract form, but in a form clothed in matter; that is, to clarify for what purpose it was done. He says that you cannot simply insist on the concept of truth. The Torah forbids this, saying that truth is truth, but there is also a human life.

Therefore, it is necessary to look, not at the action, but at its essence, to examine for whose sake it is being performed. That is precisely why I say that if we constantly think about the concept of bestowing, it will become clear to us that by doing so, we are checking who benefits from it. Bestowal is performed in relation to what is outside of me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/26, Rabash, “The Rosh Hashanah Prayer”

Question: Does a person enter a state of double concealment only when suffering increases, or can an excess of pleasure also lead to this?

Answer: Double concealment is a state in which I do not sense the Creator at all and I attribute everything that happens to fate. In that case, it does not matter whether I enter this state through the sensation of intense pleasure or great sufferings.

Let us consider the state of the Kli (vessel) in the first of the four stages of the direct light. Here the Kli perceives itself as experiencing pleasure, to a greater or lesser degree, or even suffering; that is, it feels fulfillment, and within that fulfillment it senses the root stage included within the first one. It feels its root, the Creator, the one who fills it.

We need to clarify the relationship between myself and the Creator with regard to the Kli: to what extent does the presence or absence of fulfillment affect whether I pay attention to the master or not, or whether He completely disappears from me and I am truly only within my own sensation in the Kli.

Then the relationship between the Kli (the extent to which it feels itself fulfilled or senses the absence of fulfillment) and the master (the extent to which He is felt in a person or not) indicates the level on which the person is.

Of course, when the sensation of either suffering or pleasures prevails over the sensation of the master at a given moment, it disconnects me from the master. I see a million dollars, forget about the Creator, and steal them. Or, conversely, I have lost a million dollars, so I forget about the Creator and cry, because I have nothing in the whole world except the sensation of my loss.

Even doctors and physiologists say that in the body’s internal reactions, there is no difference between a person who is crying and one who is laughing. The body performs the same work.

Therefore, we speak of the level of sensations much like an absolute value, as in mathematics, without taking into account whether the sensation is positive or negative. We are speaking about the level of impression, whether it is positive or negative, when the impression within the desire to receive grows so great that it disconnects me from the master and rules over me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/26, Baal HaSulam “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator – 1”

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 263

How Can One Sit Before the Book, Demand Correction from the Creator, and at the Same Time Be in Wholeness?

During the study, we should be in wholeness. The study of Torah is the study of light (Torah = light). If we want the surrounding light to shine upon us with intensity, we must aspire to the greatest possible equivalence of form with it. The light is perfect, whole, high, upper, and in order to bestow, without any concern for itself, absolute giving. We should seemingly detach from ourselves, not think about ourselves, direct ourselves as much as possible toward the light, and accordingly the light will draw closer to us. This is according to the purity of the vessels.

There is another matter as well. How can we attract the light and demand it if we do not think about ourselves, about our trouble, about what we want corrected, or about the state we are in? Here we are discussing the coarseness (Aviut) of the vessel. What should we choose: wholeness or deficiency? We should choose both. In Kabbalah, we learn that in every state there are both coarseness (Aviut) and purity (Zakut), two extremes, Malchut and Keter. Malchut draws the light and Keter receives the light.

Therefore, it is said that we must prepare for this even before we approach the study. We must prepare these two points. We need to know well and examine the question of why we need this at all for ourselves. “What is the meaning of our lives?” That is on one hand. On the other hand, we need to also know the answer to it, which is “Taste and see that the Lord is good,” that is, that the light we can attract through the study will solve all our problems and bring us to the summit.

In other words, before the study, we need to think both about ourselves and about the greatness of the Giver, and then approach the study. Gradually, these two points will become one during the connection between us and the Creator, even though they are opposites. Only when Malchut is used like Keter do they connect, and then there is no inner division, opposition, or polarity within us.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 262
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 261
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 260

What does it mean that a person is in double concealment? Can all people existing in this world say that they are in such a state? No.

The matter is that a person in double concealment has already felt a certain revelation of the Creator and has received definite sensations as a result of the development of his soul. Because once he has Reshimot, and within him are recorded all kinds of memories of various impressions from the Creator, he is thrown into all kinds of states, one of which is double concealment.

Therefore, he is now in a state in which the sensation of the Creator has completely left him, and he remains empty. He does not feel the source and senses only suffering. But if he takes a book or receives some reminder and a thought about his present state suddenly arises in his mind, then he will be able to interpret it correctly and understand that he was in double concealment.

The moment he correctly defines his state, it will no longer be concealment, and he will understand that before this, he was in double concealment, because Reshimot from several states have now been revealed within him: from what was before he entered double concealment, then from the unconscious state of double concealment, and finally from his present state when he, as it were, returns to life.

By recognizing the state familiar to him from past experience to which he is now returning, he determines that before this, he was in an unconscious state.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/26, Baal HaSulam “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator – 1”

Question: When working, are you only in a curse or only in a blessing?

Answer: No. As we rise above the Machsom, we are alternately under a curse and a blessing. After the breaking of the vessels, while under the curse, we can take the Kelim of reception from there, correct them, and transition to a blessing. So every time, we transfer the Kelim from the rule of many to the rule of one.

The rule of the one is the Sabbath (Shabbat); on a weekday, we can use the rule of many when we descend to uncorrected Kelim of reception. The power of many means I think I, too, am in control of the situation and can do something. These are desires in which there is no oneness of the Creator.

What connects these two types of power? What kind of lever helps me move from the left line to the right, from a curse to a blessing? This is Lo Lishma. From Lo Lishma we come to Lishma. Although your own desire to receive is still present in Lo Lishma, you seem to want to act for the sake of the Creator, seemingly with the intention of giving, yet you clearly know you are doing it for the sake of receiving.

In Lo Lishma, you work for the reward. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“: if you clearly see that you will not receive a reward in your Kelim of reception, you cannot act. Therefore, this state is called “Lo Lishma” (for oneself). Moreover, it becomes an indisputable fact on which you base your decisions.

“Yes, I would really like to do something for the sake of giving. It is very important; I got that impression from the environment. I do not see the Creator. If I could see Him, I could act truly for the sake of giving. Seeing Him would give me the strength to act for the sake of giving.” The light that comes corrects the Kli; this is the meaning of seeing the Creator.

However, when I cannot see Him, when I am in the dark, I can only get a similar impression from my environment. So, no matter how much I pump myself up about the importance of the goal, it still is not the light, nor is it the correction of the Kli through the light. This is, so to speak, a correction through brainwashing. This brainwashing makes me feel like I want to act for the sake of giving, but if I get nothing from it, I cannot do it.

Thus, we are talking about very vague things, in their own way. There is no light here coming and correcting the Kli. On the contrary, man has created a situation where he seems to draw strength from the environment, not from the Creator, and this strength seems enough for him to act for the sake of giving. Everything is conditional, but I ingrained this condition into the situation; I created it.

If a person does everything this way, the Creator responds to him for real, not within the framework of a game a person started.

Lo Lishma is a game: “I wish it were like that.” The same way kids make believe they are building something. But when I tried and did everything I could, as if it were already about spirituality, then the Creator comes and really gives me spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

Throughout the day, I find myself in all kinds of social settings, and I must always position myself and determine the appropriate way of perceiving them so these environments not only do not harm me with regard to my primary goal, but perhaps even help me.

Suppose that, out of necessity, I find myself in a gathering of frivolous people where everyone chats about this and that, talking nonsense. Even from this I can learn how much more important my own environment is to me, and how base the things that occupy the people I am observing at that moment are. I do not feel contempt for them, but such an outing into the world can also help me see how important the things I possess really are, and how important the life I lead is.

After all, everything is understood through comparison. My time at work, at home, and in all sorts of other situations can actually help me appreciate more highly the environment I am in here and recognize how important sublime goals are to the people present here.

Comment: But I am talking about the environment that consists of good people.

My Response: If I am among ordinary people, not thieves or murderers, but people who possess good human qualities, what do I gain from their good qualities? They have simply put on good “makeup,” having received an excellent education in concealing their unappealing qualities and displaying their so-called virtues to others.

Each of them plays their role perfectly, like prim and proper Englishmen. So, what does that give me? Perhaps I should learn to do the same myself? In doing so, I would lead myself into a double deception: not only would I be lying, but I would also believe that it was the truth, and that everything should be exactly that way.

So what is the purpose of such an environment?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

Question: Is the state of double concealment a very advanced state that helps a person return to the sensation of the Creator whenever the opportunity arises?

Answer: This is incorrect. Double concealment is not a more advanced state than single concealment.

The face of the Creator signifies goodness. In this state, I feel the master and feel the goodness that comes from Him. Single concealment means that I believe in the master although I do not see Him clearly. I simply know that He exists, and I feel that all kinds of situations that confuse me come from Him, but I also attribute these situations to Him.

My Kli (vessel) is uncorrected and cannot feel that I have a connection with the Creator and that I receive only goodness from Him. I do not have a screen over my desires, nor do I have an intention for the sake of bestowal over each of them.

In single concealment, I do not see the Creator’s governance clearly, but I understand that what happens comes from Him. This state is called simple concealment.

Throughout the day, we may find ourselves in all kinds of unpleasant situations and still think that the Creator governs us through these situations and carries out various plans concerning us by means of them.

He wants me to detach myself from my desire to receive. Therefore, He sends me all kinds of disturbances so that, with their help, I can rise above these desires, stop wanting to be dependent on them, and so on.

This means that in a state of simple concealment, I do not mentally detach myself, not in my thoughts, although I still do not explicitly feel the Creator, from the awareness that the Master exists and that I receive some kind of suffering from Him.

Sometimes I can say that this suffering is caused by my own uncorrected state. At other times, I can say that it comes to me from the master to confuse me and correct me, and that He has some good intention toward me in these actions. But if I still do not detach myself from the Creator in my thoughts, this is a sign that I think well of Him.

It is a sign that I still justify Him even if I cannot do so in my sensations, because what I feel is bad, and I cannot say that I receive pleasure from Him. Instead, I say that I receive a bad sensation from Him because through this He wants to help me grow. Alternatively, I can say that what comes from Him is good, but it seems bad to me because I am opposite to Him in my properties. All these states are called simple (single) concealment.

But when I completely stop thinking about the Creator while experiencing a bad sensation, this is called double concealment. For example, I was in a state of simple concealment and thought that the Creator was sending me all kinds of troubles and problems in order to educate me, make me wiser and more understanding, and strengthen me.

But if the troubles intensify and I enter a state in which I forget about the Creator, then this state is called double concealment.

What determines whether a person is in single or double concealment? The magnitude of the troubles and misfortunes. There is a certain threshold within a person up to which he is prepared to endure suffering and while experiencing it say that it has come to him because he is not equivalent in his properties to the Creator, for the Creator is good and does good. Yet, He wants to bring a person to a state in which he too will be good and do good.

In other words, to some extent, the person justifies not his own state, but the Creator. This is still called single concealment. But if he experiences such immense suffering that it prevents him from remaining connected to any cause of that suffering and he is completely unable to justify the Creator, then his connection with the Creator disappears, and everything becomes dependent on chance, fate, nature, and his surroundings.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/11/26, Baal HaSulam “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator – 1”

Question: When a person is in a group, what is important: only their intention or their actions as well?

Answer: It is impossible for actions not to be important in our world. Who knows a person’s true intentions? Even the person himself does not know his intentions. This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the science of the hidden.

Intentions are the main thing: for what purpose, why, toward what end, and in what direction I am thinking, aspiring, and directing my desire. These intentions are hidden from us so a person can only determine whether an action was correct after it was performed through the reaction it produces.

Therefore, we must take the action itself into account. Naturally, even the worst-looking action can be clothed in another intention. However, in our state, within the group, while we are still below the spiritual level, we do not see what exists beyond the external: intentions, desires, and thoughts.

The spiritual world is a state in which I perceive these as tangible, existing things. I see that there is a field of single thought, a single program, and one desire, called the Creator, which acts and sets everything into motion.

But before I see this field and become included in it, whether by my own volition or not, and before I reach such a level of reality, the external actions of people are very important to me. I am influenced by them.

I see one person sitting at a computer for hours preparing material for others, another hurrying to give lectures, a third doing something else. And I am inspired by this. I still experience reality through the sensation of bodies and do not see thoughts the way I currently see only the body.

When I enter what is called the future world, the next degree, and see thoughts and desires, truly holding and sensing them, and they become more important to me than bodily movements, then, of course, I will no longer need bodies. But for now, within the group, it is very important how we move, act, and present ourselves to one another.

To do the opposite, harboring good intentions while our external actions appear contrary to them, is to exploit another person’s integrity and let them down, which is wrong. For example, I cannot pretend that I have stolen something and expect a friend to force himself to think that I have done something wonderful because he is supposed to judge me favorably and think well of me.

Such things are forbidden. In relation to the group, outwardly, I must appear as a good friend and show the group precisely my good external actions. I must act this way because it increases love.

At first, I see the friend as an egoist. Then I see myself as an egoist while I no longer see him that way. And afterward I feel shame to the point that I cannot look him in the eyes. I truly feel ashamed to look at him and ashamed to see myself wanting to use him for self-gratification, to take advantage of him in various ways; then correction comes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/5/26

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 262

What Determines the Pace of Progress During the Time of Preparation?

Only attention determines the pace of progress during the time of preparation. We can go through these states half asleep, or we can be very sensitive. The pace and depth of progress are determined by the sharpness, direction, and attitude toward the study. We need to view the study as a means. There is no need to know what is written on the page. We should want to know and to interpret what is written in depth so that it will give us more discernments and additions that we can incorporate into the search for spirituality and not search for knowledge.

Why does Baal HaSulam write that we should repeat definitions a thousand times and know them by heart? It is because he wants the student to gradually get it into his head that what he reads must be interpreted differently, in a spiritual manner. For example, if he reads about a “circle,” he should immediately imagine, instead of the word “circle,” the quality called a circle, not the shape itself. Therefore, he writes, “Know the definitions by heart,” so that the student will be pushed toward a more internal and profound interpretation.

Delving into the study in order to reach inner discernments, and demanding that the study brings us to Lishma, paves the way for us.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 261
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 260
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 259

Question: What is nature of the state I am currently in, a state that I perceive as the best possible one? 

Answer: The point is that this is my present state in which I have attained the Creator, and I want it never to be less than that. This state must be constant for me.

What does it mean for this state to become less? I demand to diminish myself; I demand Katnut (from the word “Katan,” small). That is, I ask that at least this state always remains.

If a greater state (Gadlut) comes, that is good. But I am concerned about Katnut so that I remain at least at this degree.

It is just like the world of Atzilut, which, while in a constant state, sometimes rises and sometimes descends. But when it descends, it descends to its constant degree and no lower.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, 1987 “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

Question: On one hand, we say that one’s desire has to be clarified in order to know what to ask for. On the other hand, we do not know what is good or beneficial for us. How should we ask so that it is not according to the desires of the body?

Answer: I do not know what is beneficial for me and what is not. So how can I ask for anything?

The Creator does not take into account what you ask for. After all, you are like an uncomprehending infant. Rabash wrote in one of his articles about a child walking with his father and crying all the time, while the father does not react at all. They ask him, “What is the matter?” And he answers, “Do you know why my son is crying? He is asking for a pin so that he can clean his eye with it.”

Of course, the example is not entirely realistic. “Sight” and “pin” are all spiritual terms. The point is that the child is asking for something that could harm him. He does not understand what is good for him and what is bad. It seems good to him. So should we give him a pin? No, it is better to let him cry.

What is the benefit of tears? Why does the father not calm him down? Because in this way, through crying, the child will understand that his desires do not coincide with his father’s, and apparently the father knows better what is good for him. Then it is worthwhile to stop crying and start working on making his desires coincide with his father’s desires.

Let us say the father wants to buy him a beautiful book while the son wants a ball. But the father will buy the book anyway. And the child, through crying and tears, will nevertheless understand that his transition to the next state can happen only through the book, and gradually he himself will want it. And he will gradually examine his desire for the ball and come to the conclusion that all it does is make him cry, that it causes him pain.

At first, he will hate both his father and the book, and look for some other father who will give him a ball. But he will see that nothing will come of it until he wants his father as well as the book. Then he will definitely ask for the book because otherwise he will not receive it. And even if he does receive it, he will simply tear it apart. The father wants him to read it, while he would shred it. The book would be harmful to him.

Until the child learns how to use the book, and what benefit can be derived from it, he will not receive it. Look at the path he has to go through from his initial state, where he wants a ball, screams, and bursts into tears, to the desire to receive a book.

We are looking for how to approach people who want nothing but television, sex, food, and entertainment. How can you give them our books, which are so difficult, so that they will become interested and open them? People do not read anything at all.

How can we prepare a desire within humanity so that it will want Kabbalah, so that it will want a book instead of a ball? Two billion people watch football. If two million became interested in Kabbalah, the world would be turned upside down. And against the backdrop of what problems does the world watch these things?! What problems do people find themselves facing as a result?! It is something frightening. This is the power of the Klipa.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Oil Is Called ‘Good Deeds’ in the Work?”

What is the difference between advancing in the work of “love your neighbor as yourself” and the ultimate goal “love the Creator with all your heart and soul”? “Love the Creator” is the final stage when a person’s attitude to the Creator and the Creator’s attitude to man is absolutely equal.

Therefore, we are given work in a group to achieve the stage of love, adhesion with the Creator, and similarity with Him because here we can check ourselves, receive feedback from our friends, invest in them, and have it returned in difficult moments. We go through ups and downs; whenever I can, I do something for the group, and when I cannot, the group helps me.

However, none of these methods work with the Creator. With regard to the Creator, you cross the next degree and make a screen for yourself, which means, to this extent, you are with Him. If you did not, you are not with Him. There are no intermediate states, no possibilities to vary in any way: I feel bad or good, sometimes yes, sometimes no.

There is no “sometimes yes, sometimes no” with the Creator. Everything must be absolute. Every step, every measure of connection with the Creator is perfect in itself. Therefore, we are given the opportunity to model and implement all this in a group, because here, in our state, we can move in different ways.

Although there are two actions of bestowal: between a person and the Creator, and between a person and a friend, actions regarding a friend or a group are more important than actions regarding the Creator.

Why? Because actions toward the Creator will confuse me for now; I cannot relate to Him in any way, because He does not react to me, nor do I to Him. All I can do is create all the prerequisites for a correct attitude toward the Creator through my attitude toward my friend. It is written that relationships with friends can lead us to the last, highest level, because our states are unsteady, uncertain, and are induced by the environment.

That is, the group requires me to treat its members correctly. They demand that I love them and treat them right. This goal is closer to me; I see it; it feels tangible. My states and attitudes toward the group, in various forms, whichever they may be, are controlled and criticized by both me and others. While regarding the Creator, I do not know where I stand or what kind of relationship I have with Him.

This is the difference between an effective short path, when a person correctly accepts a given opportunity and implements it through the group, and a long, ineffective path: I have the Creator, I will figure out this science myself, do not touch me, I myself am smart. The only opportunity we are given to work effectively and accurately is the group. If a person runs away from it, there is nothing you can do.

There is a very simple rule in the Torah: “O Hevruta, O Mituta,” that is, either you are in a group, or you are spiritually dead; there is no third option. It turns out that those smart guys who refused to do this 5, 10, or 15 years ago (I have such examples) suddenly realized they had spent those years in vain, unable to step on their own little ego and just give themselves to this work.

There is nothing you can do: You have to step on yourself; you have to bend yourself. It is unpleasant; you want to run away from it, but there is no other way. The common soul is purposely broken to give us the opportunity, as we work on our relationships with other souls, to find the Creator’s properties there, feel Him, and adhere to Him. Only there in the general Kli.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 10/1/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

Once a person establishes the Creator as sovereign over everything that occurs and determines that it depends on the upper force, their development proceeds correctly. Then he already connects every quality, every state, every effort, together with its direction and expected result to drawing ever closer to the Creator. At the same time, his perception of the Creator constantly changes and becomes more accurate and moves further from the desire to receive and closer to the true concept of bestowal.

In accordance with this, a person gradually, measure by measure, changes within himself his understanding of what the intention for bestowal is that exists in the Creator, and agrees to this quality, even though he does not possess it. He somehow understands that this is an important and exalted thing, to which it is necessary to get used to, and somehow to gather all the advice and strength to achieve it.

Thus, he must constantly work to ensure that bestowal, no matter how it may appear to him, stands before him as a concept that replaces all other words: the upper world, the Creator, upper force, peace, tranquility, in other words, those words with which he describes something above this world.

After all, we substitute one for another. For us, “upper” is what is good for my ego, what fills it. I can worship anything, as long as my ego receives fulfillment from it.

In essence, this is what is called the golden calf. Here, some kind of image comes into play. Therefore, it is desirable that instead of this image, I build before myself simply an abstract concept called bestowal, and all the time clarify it a little more and more, separating it as much as possible from my desire. This is what the whole work consists of.

And if I constantly hold this at the “head” of the year, that is, of my development, then the study, the books, the teacher, the friends, the group, and all the efforts I make become the means to understand and attain the concept of bestowal. And this, in essence, is the “spiritual,” the “Creator,” whatever you want to call it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/26, Rabash, “The Rosh Hashanah Prayer”

If a person feels a sense of confusion in their mind, feels exhausted,  and struggles to open one ear or one eye a little bit, this is very good, because the small efforts being made in such moments are not based on self-arousal. At this stage a person is already working precisely with the emergence of new sensations; new, unconscious Kelim are being created. You do not yet feel what you have today, but later this will begin to reveal itself.

When a person attains spiritual vision, they come to cherish such states because they are the most fruitful: At this time, the next degree is being formed within him. He feels it as something empty and confused, while he himself feels tired, egoistic, and somewhat lacking interest: “Where is my former life?” All of this is good! You cannot even imagine how good it is!

You should not push such thoughts away. If you push them away, you will not use the Aviut that is now coming to you, and you need to move forward with it.

Try to adapt to it in complete agreement with yourself. It is very easy to detach from this world and fly among the clouds. Or, conversely, to detach from those clouds and descend into this world. You need to live simultaneously in both, that is, with the inner acceptance that this is how it should be. The Creator must clothe Himself in this world. He must descend into your world and fill it in all your states: at work, in the family, and in everything else.

You should not break something within yourself: “Now I am engaged in the spiritual, and afterward I will deal with this world, where everything is more real.” There is no such division. It is one and the same reality; it is simply that we cannot bring the spiritual reality down into the corporeal in such a way that we can see it. But in reality, this is how it should be.

If we detach ourselves from this world, we will remain a point and thereby stop our spiritual development, which is built solely on containing spirituality, the Creator, the perception of the upper, within everything that exists here in our world, from the lowest corporeal states to the highest ones.

In other words, wherever you are and whatever you are engaged in, business, romance, some advancement, some decision, some quarrels, if you do not bring the Creator into it, if you do not make such efforts, then it is not spiritual work. Spiritual work consists of bringing the Creator into our world and into our states, without leaving anything behind, without escaping anywhere, and containing Him within all of it. We need to fill our ordinary life with such spiritual sensations until, and to the extent that, we begin to perceive the Creator through them, the living force that truly gives life to all of this and moves it.

You should not run away into Kabbalah for two hours a day in order to detach yourself from this world. No! You should do this so that afterward, throughout the entire day, during all the remaining 22 hours, you live by combining everything with what you received. All the energy, all the exaltation, all the impressions you received must be placed into all the remaining 22 hours. Only then can it be considered that your life is truly being realized correctly.

It is not the two hours a day that you spend studying Kabbalah or in dissemination that count. What counts is how, during all the rest of your time, you force yourself to bring into everything what you received during those two hours, how you try to live those two hours throughout all the remaining 22 hours.

Therefore, our daily life is arranged in such a way that we are required to work eight to ten hours. And the Kabbalists obligate a person to work, to participate in the entire life of the surrounding society, under no circumstances to withdraw anywhere, and not to detach himself from the large external world that supposedly frightens him.

We think it would be good to withdraw somewhere from the external world and live there peacefully, creating an artificial world for ourselves. Absolutely not! The Creator did not do anything needlessly: a wife, children, boss, mother-in-law, and so on, all of these are necessary disturbances, into which we need to infuse spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 9/30/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 261

Does the Study Material Change When We Cross the Barrier?

Beyond the barrier, the study material becomes reality itself. What does it mean that beyond the barrier we have a screen of a certain measure? Suppose we have a screen over all our vessels, and while we study and read, our screen works in us according to what we read because we are connected to the book, to the light from the same degree on which the book was written. This light comes to our screen and they operate together. They carry out what we read, and we are present in those very actions.

It is not that we ourselves know how to do this. It simply happens within us, as though we are watching a theatrical performance, or as though we are reading a magic book in which actors appear on the page we are reading and begin to perform in vivid color. We immediately live the reality we are reading about. We attain it immediately.

In our present state, if we intend correctly during the study, we attain surrounding light. We do not actually feel how it shines on us or to what extent it illuminates one particular sentence compared to another. We can go through an entire page of The Study of the Ten Sefirot, and the surrounding light will change in all kinds of ways without us sensing it.

We are like a cat in a room of a musician who is composing a symphony. The cat lies in the corner of the room and does not care about anything, as though it hears nothing; whatever it hears is insignificant to the cat. It is simply on a different degree. The musician performs magnificently while the cat sleeps and feels nothing. That is, when the light comes to the screen no longer as surrounding light but as inner light, the light and the screen perform the action. There is a clear order to these actions: we are provided an example of how to perform, and we do so.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 260
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 259
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 258

There are things that we attain, and there are things that we do not attain, and we speak about them, as scientists do in our world. Among them, are those who harbor hatred for each other.

Do you know what the envy of scientists is like and the depth of the hatred involved? It represents the most highly developed ego in our world. The same thing happens in spirituality at very high degrees, because this does not concern the realm of animal desires, money, or honor, but the realm of knowledge, of my “I.”

It is not that I bought some car, and you bought a bigger one. That is not what we are talking about. Here the envy is in attainment, the most significant thing that can exist in a person. Just look at what they do to one another in this world because of it!

And in spirituality, one who rises higher may see different causes than one who is at a lower degree.

Suppose you were to write down what you have gone through, and part of it might be something you have not yet experienced, but you present it as the underlying causes, as something that merely organizes the state you are in. Just start writing, and you will see that this happens to a person constantly.

What you have personally experienced is the truth, because you cannot argue with one’s own feelings: what has clothed within the Kli is not in question. But if you begin to speak about the causes, about what is above this—and you will undoubtedly speak about that as well, even if you are at a small degree—you can be mistaken in this. Therefore, no one has the right to publish anything, and not only because of the politics in this world, but because he can be mistaken in spirituality in a very fundamental way.

With someone who has not crossed the Machsom, even more so; he should be very careful about what he writes.

But even after the Machsom, you can write only about the degree you are on. And as for what may be above this, someone will come from the next incarnation and shatter all my assertions. In fact, throughout life, this is exactly how it is, and not otherwise. Therefore, there is no certainty; it exists only up to a certain degree.

But we do not need anything more, because in reality, it is not important. What do I care about the higher causes, whether I am mistaken about them or not? We see from our own lives that whether we are mistaken or not, it changes nothing. Ultimately, only the amount of effort matters, not whether you understand it intellectually or not.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

Comment: As far as I know, ordinary religious people have the greatest desire to receive.

My Response: The Book of Zohar says such a person wants to “swallow” this world to some extent, so he and his children will be happy here. He also wants to be happy in the next world. It is like he is contributing to the “world-to-come fund,” so something is left for afterward.

This is a natural human desire that cannot be considered bad. This is how a person works if he has not come to genuine work for the Creator, and this is how the masses work. People follow the commandments, do everything necessary, and the truth is, this is how it should be; the framework is needed anyway.

Until a person reaches a high stage of soul development, when he needs the upper one, to really approach religion in the middle line, they will be religious at a level below the middle line, which is called Domem de Kedusha (the inanimate level of holiness or the holy still).

Below the middle line, before development begins in it, there is a point called a religious person in the sense of this world. You see such people, for example, in Bnei Brak [Israel]. This is an inanimate level of holiness, and that is good. Such a person fulfills the Torah and the commandments through the material actions of this world and hopes to receive reward in both this world and the world to come. Everything is in order.

They should not be told what true correction is because they are not yet able to come to it. “Do not put obstacles before the blind.” You just need to not interfere with them and protect them, as Kabbalists have done for all generations. After all, all the holy books were written by people who attained spirituality, Kabbalists, who wrote in such a way as not to touch the people, taking care of them, as they say, “wearing gloves.”

What can you do if so many people have not yet reached development as part of the overall advancement of mankind? We must wait. Man has lived on Earth for tens of thousands of years, and you can see how it manifests: from the time of Abraham to the present day, only a few have really sought to come to religion through the middle line. And without desire, nothing can be done.

Once a person starts wondering, “What is the meaning of my life?”—meaning life in this world in general—and is already striving for spirituality to experience real life there, you can already talk to him. Before then, do not touch him because he will not understand you. His desires, his inner part, are not yet ready to accept anything.

Therefore, if a religious person, what is called a “Jew,” wants to fulfill the Torah and commandments as he was taught, and receive reward for it, please, it is very commendable; this maintains him as a part of the people, saves him for the next correction, which will come when the Creator slightly illuminates his point in the heart. Then he will feel it and begin to develop.

The religious unknowingly think that I am against them and that something is wrong here. I am not against them; we do not touch them at all. We only want to gather those who already feel a point in their heart, who are wondering: “What is the meaning of our life in this world?” for whom such a life has no meaning. For them, we have an answer: Each of them has been chosen to begin their own personal correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

Question: It is written that a person must become convinced that he is incapable of doing anything about their state, and then turn to the Creator. Where does the stage of restriction (Tzimtzum) come into this?

Answer: Restriction occurs after a person has fully realized their state. This is described in the story of the exodus from Egypt. Restriction occurs when a person receives strength from above, after he himself, through his own efforts, has come to recognize the evil.

As it is written in the Torah, he experiences the “seven years of plenty,” followed by the “seven years of famine.” Initially, he believes that by receiving, he will fill himself and achieve all kinds of success, seeing some benefit in this. But then he sees that the spiritual development of his desire to receive leads, on the contrary, to this desire becoming empty. This is manifested as weakness, an inability to do anything, a lack of desire, apathy toward this world, and it seems we do not succeed in it. Naturally, a person resists this state because otherwise he would simply leave the path.

And then he reaches the state of “Pharaoh,” when the “plagues” overtake him. In other words, we do not despair in our work; rather, we enter a period of blows. If it were not for these blows, we would in any case be prepared, so to speak, to quietly die. However, these blows come in order to clarify the point of “Moses” in relation to the point of “Pharaoh” within us. Both begin to grow from the state called the “seven years of famine.”

But this is only on the condition that, during these seven years, a person “builds Pithom and Ramses”; that is, he sweats and labors, even though he feels that he is in a bad state. And then, upon completing this entire process of opposition between Moses and Pharaoh, a person reaches the point where he “flees from Pharaoh.”

At that point, he already goes, to some extent, above reason: He agrees to flee from his desire to receive “in the middle of the night,” simply so as not to touch it to the extent that he has recognized it as his ruler. And all of this is still before the Machsom! A person has discovered how much evil his desire to receive causes him.

Then, according to the principle “I labored and found,” he receives the strength of restriction from above. But one must always understand to which degree the particular strength of restriction that he receives corresponds. When leaving his Egypt, he receives this strength at the very lowest degree: it corresponds to the desire to receive that he developed in “Egypt” during the “seven years of plenty” and to the evil that he recognized during the “seven years of famine.”

In other words, this is still a very small desire to receive’ you could say, one corresponding to this world. As Baal Sulam says, if we take all the desires of this world, they will be like a spark, a “faint illumination,” in comparison with spiritual desires.

Therefore, a person still lacks the degree that would enable him to hold himself in spirituality even at the smallest level. This is the “crossing of the Final Sea,” the “three days in the desert.” Nevertheless, the exodus from Egypt is already birth, the birth of the screen.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/26, Rabash, “What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet”

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Be Prepared To Escape
The Miracle Of “Coming Out Of Egypt”