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On the spiritual path there are three states: ascent, descent, and a constant state. In a state of ascent, I receive an awakening from above; whether I want it or not, I “wake up” and begin to work. I am awakened in one way or another: I am given some yearning and shown that there is some goal that can be attained and enjoyed, that it is great and pleasant.

Then I reach out toward it, work, and make efforts, as a result, I attain something. I see something, feel something, and am in contact with something higher. This is called an ascent.

Once the connection has been established, a state ensues that is similar to eating a meal. A person may have been very hungry, but once they begin to eat that’s it, their appetite gradually subsides and accordingly the pleasure disappears. What happens next? One has to add Kelim, that is, appetite, a sensation of lacking enjoyment.

When I begin to receive new Kelim, until I go further and fill them, the sensation I experience is called a descent. In general, it is an addition of appetite, an addition of empty Kelim. Now go and fill them! But following the pleasures I experienced, I feel empty.

If I am inside my Hisaron (feeling of lack) and not in the understanding that I now have new Kelim that I can fill, then I define this state as a descent. But in essence, it is not a descent.

Once I stayed at a health resort. There they fed us five times a day. People deliberately went for walks or engaged in other physical activities before meals specifically to induce hunger and come to the dining room with a hearty appetite so they could savor every nuance of the food’s flavor, to eat more, and to enjoy the meal. They did not regard that walk to increase the appetite as a descent.

If you know that pleasure awaits you and you undertake an action specifically to create a Kli for it, then the Kli itself is part of the pleasure. You are glad that you are hungry now: “I am about to receive such exquisite delights!”

In other words, everything depends on how a person relates to ups and downs, what those state signify for them. All this is highly relative and must be evaluated in relation to the goal.

If my goal is to attain pleasure, and I know that it is impossible to attain them without the prerequisites of hunger and appetite, then hunger and appetite become a source of a joy for me. They are not a descent, but rather an integral part of the ascent, the very Kli that enables that ascent. Therefore, our task is to see the process as a whole, to step back and observe it objectively, to fully comprehend its nature, and to ascribe profound significance to every state in this process, recognizing each one as the necessary cause leading to the next, even finer more exalted state.

If adopt this perspective, I will never experience descents. I will always be able to discern between the two phases: this is the time when I actively cultivate my appetite, and this is the time when I satisfy my appetite, filling myself with pleasures. That is all.

As for the constant state, that is very bad! One cannot remain in such a state for long, because in it I receive neither pleasures nor the Kelim for pleasures. It is a dead state. One must remain in it as little as possible. What does that mean?

If I detach from the intention, from the goal, if I follow the desires of the body and am not in actions aimed at attaining the goal, it means that I am in a dead state. One must try as much as possible to be in the most extreme states, only these are useful.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

Question: You said that if there are no ascents and descents, it is a dead state, and that as much as possible we should try to be in the most extreme states. Does this depend on us, or do we not decide anything here?

Answer: This whole process is predetermined, signed, and stamped in my soul. I cannot change anything. When I will fall and when I will rise, what will happen to me in each state, all this is inside my qualities. With them, I must attain a certain state.

That is, the whole path is clear; all states are known in advance. In my sensation, I can only go through them, feeling joy instead of hunger and suffering, because now I am preparing the Kli for pleasure. You could say that this is a psychological difference, but it is very significant and depends on the degree of closeness to the Creator, whether in all states I know that I am in a process of development, constant ascent, and advancement toward adhesion with the Creator.

If, in addition to the states I go through, I have connection with the goal, then none of them can be bad for me. On the contrary, I see each state as beneficial, since nothing is created “just like that,” not for the sake of attaining the goal.

We cannot change the process of our development, but by changing our attitude toward it, our awareness of it, and its value, we change our impression, our feeling, and the depiction of our state. In this way, I perceive the reality surrounding me differently, as diametrically opposite.

Life, which seemed worse than death and full of enormous sufferings, will look different; I will begin to feel unceasing, indescribable pleasure. I am already connected with the goal, and it shines for me. I already rejoice as if I were there.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

Question: If I am in a state where I cannot do anything, could interactions with me harm my friends?

Answer: If your state really stems from striving for the goal, there is nothing in you that could harm your friends. You are always adding to others because our states are not up to us. In bad states, we can share with others and add to them.

I do not want to say you should be proud of going through a bad period right now, but if you are connected to a friend at this time, he will not take on your bad state, because there are different types of interconnection.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/26, Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

One who wants to walk on the path of Kedusha is called holy.

A person is named according to what he aspires to be. Why? Perhaps he will never reach it? No. If he aspires, he will certainly reach it because the Creator acts according to a person’s aspiration. The actual action is never in our hands, but the desire to attain the goal is within our power. The realization comes from above.

“Holy” means as it is written, “You will be holy,” which means that they retire from self-reception. For this reason, he is holy, since he intends to reach holiness. This is the meaning of the words, “Israel are holy; there is he who wants but does not have.” And there are also those who have but do not want. This means that he has Mitzvot and good deeds, but he does not want to walk on the path that leads to “in order to bestow.” Instead, he settles for Lo Lishma [not for Her sake]. He, too, is called “holy,” since the act is fine and he has nothing to add in actions (Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”).

Later, together with the actions, intentions will also come. What does this mean? Let’s say I use my group, but I do not yet have the correct intention in the heart. Still, I use the group, the books, the study, everything possible, so that they bring me to the correct intention. Am I called holy then? Am I called “Israel” or not?

Let’s say I have just joined a group. I simply have a desire to reach some goal. My goal is not to be freed from the will to receive and come to bestowal. Certainly not. My goal is to attain something, to receive something more, to acquire something. I am told that this brings eternity and perfection. I am willing, give it to me.

Am I called holy now, according to my thoughts and desires? No. One who is called holy is at least one who desires holiness, and I do not even desire that.

However, I begin with the desire I have, and I use the group. I am told that one must humble oneself before the friends, do something for them, “buy yourself a friend,” and I invest in them. Thus, the whole group begins to invest in me and influence me positively. And by doing something practical, without any intention, without lofty ideas, I begin to act.

What does it mean to act? I know that they have something that I do not have. In any case, I do not simply want to serve them and bring them a cup of coffee, but through that cup of coffee I want to receive something from them. There is something in them that is slightly more elevated. Then, instead of my immediate desire and intention, something higher comes to me from them. Thus, by aspiring to this holy goal, I am already called “Israel” and “holy.”

That is, according to my initial action, even when I did not yet have the thought or intention for it, I am still called “holy.” Why? Because at least through the actions I perform, I am advancing.

We cannot judge a person according to what he has in each state, because whatever he has is given to him from above according to his aspiration. If I aspired to reach the goal but instead received a descent, then I also cannot be judged for that. It was given to me from above; perhaps I needed to fall. I do not know the upper calculations regarding me.

Therefore, one is never judged according to actions, that is, according to the current state, but only according to the direction, the aspiration of a person, because every state is arranged for him from above.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/26, Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

Question: What does it mean “to hear nature”?

Answer: To hear nature means to be close to it.

Question: Close to nature, what is that?

Answer: A person close to nature is one who perceives everything around him as the attitude of the Creator toward him. Therefore, he does not see anything bad in it, right up to his own death. He also does not see anything bad in this: when it comes, it comes, and I go.

Question: Is it possible to live like this, in warmth and calm?

Answer: Yes, why not? Of course. It is an inner voice within oneself that simply has to be revealed.

Comment: But we have been deprived of this hearing, of hearing nature.

My Response: It is our egoism that locks us inside ourselves and does not let us turn anywhere.

Question: So, is it better for it that we do not hear nature?

Answer: It is an evil force that acts in parallel with the good force, but we give preference to this evil force.

Question: And how can we begin to yearn for nature, for this hearing?

Answer: Try to penetrate inside nature; this is a connection with the Creator. We must try to draw closer to Him. And then everything will work out for us.

Question: But this requires clarification. For a person, what is the Creator?

Answer: Everything that is around us.

Question: Is it all the Creator?

Answer: Yes. And even everything that is within us is all the Creator.

To come closer to Him means to reveal your sensations so that there would be no borders, no barriers, between you and Him. And then you will feel that in general, the whole world is filled with a subtle singing. That is how I would put it.

Question: Beautiful! I will not even try to clarify what that is. Let this feeling remain. Tell me, is this necessary for our survival?

Answer: The point is not to survive in this world, but to be in harmony with it. And that is how this harmony comes.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/16/26

If a person feels bad, like an ordinary person from the street, this still does not prompt them to think that there is some special solution. They do not think about where this bad state came from, for what purpose, how it can be avoided, and what one can come to.

Why doesn’t such awareness arise in them? The reason is that the surrounding light of the higher degree is, for now, illuminating the person’s opposite Kelim, Kelim that wish only to receive, to enjoy without any connection to bestowal, to the Creator, and this state does not change.

However, if these Kelim (even if a person is still completely immersed in egoism, in self-enjoyment) begin to study Kabbalistic books, then, as Baal HaSulam writes, even through a single desire to know (not to purify, but simply to know), they will draw the surrounding light upon themselves, which will attract the “charm of holiness” upon them. Then a person will gradually begin to understand that something called “bestowal” exists and perhaps it is something good.

It is the surrounding light that brings a person to the thought that it is something good. Precisely because this correction already exists within them (the thought that bestowal is something good), a person becomes closer to the surrounding light and to some extent connects with it. Their direction already coincides.

Then a person can receive the forces from the surrounding light that will develop this quality within them, the “charm of holiness,” the quality of bestowal. In this way, by making efforts in the same direction, they ascend.

Therefore no preliminary knowledge is required from us, no special qualities. Any person can open a book and wish to rid themselves of all their troubles by the fact that, without understanding anything, they will read it. And that is all. One can begin from zero.

Gradually, as one advances, their intention is refined, and they begin to better understand where that sharp point is, the point toward which they must direct their thoughts each time more clearly and more precisely. Thus, with each time, they become more and more experienced.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection Between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

The more we reach out to the right goal, the more we shorten the time, as it is said: “Israel sanctifies the times,” and we come to the state we must attain. All sufferings and pleasures revolve around the fact that only with their help can a person direct oneself to the goal.

We must build such an environment, such a group, around us that, with the greatness of the goal, with the awareness of the baseness of our present state in this world, will direct us so that without preliminary sufferings we will strive to this goal even before the forces of nature act upon us and begin to press, forcing us to advance toward it.

Of course, no one can know what is happening in another since each comes from a different point of the soul. Each must pass the degrees in a different form. All 620 corrections on 620 desires, which are called 620 degrees, each of us must pass in a different form.

And here, only the person’s individual work is taken into account: how sensitive one is to his present state in relation to the goal standing before them. Only one’s inner attitude, one’s awareness of the importance gives one motivation to move and work.

That is, in every state, the person himself, or the society that he defines around himself must remind him what is the most important thing in life and accordingly oblige him and give him also the strength to advance.

And then he goes through the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Rabash gives examples: one sits at home with his family, he is still on the still level of development; another already runs around meetings, working for the benefit of society, this is the vegetative level of development; and a third already thinks not only about how to arrange the world together with the people who fill it. He must already move to a degree that is above humanity, to where decisions are made, where actions are truly carried out.

And then he already works not with his family, not with society, not with humanity, but with what is above humanity: with forces and goals that are higher than nature. Naturally, none of them can understand the other.

But, as Rabash says, in whatever state a person may be, he must always reach out to those who are better, greater, more exalted, and in any state place before him the goal of attaining them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

“Righteous,” “sinners,” “teachers,” and “students” are what all man’s states are called. We study that the whole world is inside man. What a person reveals in his sensations is his world. And if so, then he has a connection with the Creator. It follows that both righteous and sinners and teachers and students are his states.

In each state a person goes through, one must learn to investigate and evaluate the states so that they become closer to the goal, to tune oneself to them even if the person is in a descent, to study and find support in the state one reached during an ascent. The main thing is to single out what is essential and, as far as possible, direct oneself to it.

If a person strives for this, one passes through all the states quickly and in the most beneficial form. As Rabash writes, each of us has a point called the root of the soul and in our material reality, by means of the disturbances we receive through this world, we can increase this point 620 times. And then, instead of a point, we will merit to become a soul with a filling that is called the Creator, the light.

Then a state will come in which the soul, its Kli, together with the light, will be in adhesion, in equivalence of form, and this is the final state we must attain.

To strive for this state, to feel ourselves in ascents as close to it as possible, and when in descents nevertheless not to run away and not to fall into despair and inactivity but to constantly reach for it with the help of study and friends, this is our entire goal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

Question: How can a person in descent make use of the group?

Answer: Let us say I am in such a deep fall that the group repulses me, I cannot bear to look at their faces, nor do I believe there is anything special about my friends, and I absolutely have no desire to adopt anything from them at all. I am in despair, I have no strength, and no hope. This state is called “dead.” Where should I turn and from whom should I seek help?

There are states you go through simply by inertia, but even in these instances, we must rely on the group. There is a commandment to bury the dead. In other words, your friends should come and help you. “A prisoner cannot free himself from imprisonment.” It is impossible. This is a group task.

First of all, the group should have a schedule, a fixed routine. We must establish rotations in tasks, roles, work, in all kinds of activities.

If, for example, a meal is held twice a week or some other event is held once a week that gives everyone a spiritual jolt, it helps to change a friend’s state where it is not feasible to approach him directly, but it is clear he has fallen.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 4/11/26, Rabash, Article 10, 1988 “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

Question: How should one deal with the evil inclination if a person sits idly and does nothing?

Answer: If a person sits and does nothing, then the evil inclination, by awakening Hisaronot (unfulfilled desires) within them, begins to push them toward various actions. And if they carry out these actions together with the evil inclination, they come to such a state where they feel bad, that is, to such negative results that intensify and unite to such an extent that a person cannot endure them.

At that point they do not agree with such a trajectory and they carry out a kind of inner revolution, taking action to change themselves. However, afterward, gain and again, they continue along the path alongside the evil inclination.

And so it continues until we reveal in our present day that we are approaching a critical threshold: if we continue to develop in this way together with the evil inclination, then our life will become worse than death.

Despair and drugs are flooding the world. A person sinks either into despair or into drugs; there is no escape.

From this, we begin to understand that we must, through hatred toward the state in which we find ourselves, change our attitude to life, to reality, to ourselves. Then an inner revolution takes place in our perception of our entire system of calculation, of our entire nature, of how we develop.

We discover that already since the times of the destruction of the First and Second Temples, we have been developing incorrectly, that a flaw arose then, but it is only being revealed now; that we must not follow the advice of the evil inclination but act in the opposite way. We must take the form from it but in the precisely opposite direction: not in the direction of the desire to receive but in the direction of the Creator.

The evil inclination gives you advice on how to give pleasure to the desire to receive. And you must invert everything so that through this same form, you bring pleasure to the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing From a Bad Person”

Being a giver is very difficult. First of all, we need to see who we are giving to and discover whether they have a desire to receive, to accept what you want to give them. Then you will really see whether you are giving and whether a person is receiving and enjoying your giving.

Furthermore, do you give because his pleasure gives you pleasure, or does your pleasure come from enjoying it yourself? In that case, you are not bestowing. The action may consist of giving, but for the purpose of self-gratification.

So there is a lot going on here. Being a giver is a status that needs to be gradually built along with all its bases and components.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing From a Bad Person”

Question: If I see flaws in my group, for example a lack of unity, and I want to correct this, should I raise these issues?

Answer: The rule is that it a person is forbidden to talk about anything that could bring down the entire group or any individual friend, or even the speaker himself.

One must not even awaken such thoughts internally or say things out loud that could cause the person himself or his friend, or the group, or the entire world to descend from the level they are at. No matter what state you are in, as it is said, “I will come to you and bless you.” You must strive only upward.

Therefore, if you are contemplating saying a few critical words, and before that you truly were in a good state for 23.5 hours a day and worked with inspiration, in ascent, did not descent from your level, but were constantly in tension, in striving forward, without allowing yourself to relax, then for half an hour you can engage in criticism.

You can express your comments to everyone else, since this criticism is based on the foundation laid by your elevated state, and you identify flaws only in order to rise even higher.

Then it is not criticism, but the revelation of a lack of fulfillment together with the light, together with the Kli. Being inside the right line, you turn to the left in order to return to the right. But this return to the right will already build the middle line.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

In Baal HaSulam’s article “The Concealment and Revelation of the Creator,” he describes the extent a person’s attitude toward reality alters the entire picture, from hell to heaven. He explains that in truth nothing actually changes. You are in Malchut of the world of infinity, in the final state. You are merely being guided through various impressions so that you may change your attitude toward them.

Nothing changes! You must change your attitude within the very reality in you currently exist. You cannot accomplish this in one go; therefore, you are led through various states, one after another, so that each time you will be able to deliberately change your attitude toward them, until you reach the final state in which you understand with absolute clarity that you have always been in it, you simply failed to perceive it due to your attitude, you did not realize where you were.

In principle, what we feel and call our world is not where we are, but rather where our attitude is. Our attitude reveals a specific segment of reality to us, presenting a picture of it solely in accordance with our attitude toward it. It is this perception that we designate as “worlds.”

There are no distinct worlds, no separate degrees, and no discrete states; rather, my ever-changing attitude toward the environment in which I am immersed is what alters this picture for me. It is this shifting picture that I refer to as degrees or worlds.

Therefore, if we try to relate to reality in a more correct way, we will return to the true reality and discover it as it really is. What follows from this? If we do not work on improving our attitude to the state we are in, the state remains inert, it is dead. This implies that I am failing to consciously define my attitude to my world and my state. However, the moment I begin to define my attitude, seeking to evaluate it differently, from a new perspective, I embark on the process of inner development.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

Question: Who is the Hasid about whom it is said that he “goes and does”?

Answer: In Kabbalah, the word “Hasid” is not someone who belongs to a religious community, but to the quality of Bina, specifically Hesed (loving kindness) or the light of Hassadim. From this the word “Hasidism” originated.

If a person performs actions in order to advance himself toward the quality of bestowal and to acquire it through his own efforts, he is called a “Hasid.” This applies both to the intention and to the action.

Question: Is there any connection here with the washing of the hands with water, “Netilat Yadayim”? In Rabash’s article “What Do the Four Types Who Go to the House of Study Mean in the Spiritual Work” it is said that the Hasid has no hands. And since water symbolizes the quality of Hassadim, can this be connected with the washing of the hands?

Answer: “Hands” (Yadayim) here are called the vessel (Kli) of reception. A person does not want his vessels to be received for his own sake. He wishes to correct them so that they will be holy. This correction, called “washing of the hands” (Netilat Yadayim), is carried out by the fact that he takes the light of Hassadim, corrects the receiving Kelim with its help, and then he is ready to receive for the sake of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/26, Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

Question: What does it mean that if I change my attitude to reality, the world is revealed to me? How does this happen?

Answer: The world being revealed to you means that you have succeeded in perceiving the picture you are in with a different understanding of the connections between things. You suddenly see that people and laws that exist in the world have different connections, different intentions, different goals. You manage to discover a more inner layer of reality. This means that your attitude to all of reality has changed and you see another world.

To do this you must constantly strive for an ever more inner perception, try to see what is behind the outer facade. What does “beyond the Machsom,” the spiritual world, mean? It means that beyond this world you begin to reveal the connections between things, the plan of creation, which connects all the details in this world.

Then you see that there is a completely different intention there, not the one that seems to you from this side. And the connections are determined by completely different formulas, not at all what appeared to you before. You see that everyone bestows to one another, everyone loves one another, and there is nothing bad in the world, provided you look at it from the other side, in accordance with the true connections between things.

Rabash gives the following example: a person is given a desire for money. Suppose you see that a taxi driver whom you perceive as dull-witted as his car’s engine, as someone who is driven only to earn as much money as possible, who never turns on the meter, who overcharges you double the fare, and so on.

And suddenly, from the other side, you see that this person wants to bestow and to help his neighbor. He is constantly thinking about whom to take where and how to make it so that everyone will be as comfortable as possible. It only seems to him that he wants to earn money. In fact, he simply “reads” his state in the wrong way. His attitude is incorrect. But you already see this picture from the other side, from beyond the Machsom.

It is like looking at embroidery. On the reverse side there are always various knots and connections in which it is impossible to make sense. A person sees the front side, but he does not see all the true connections on the reverse. And when he is given the possibility to see the reverse side of the embroidery, he discovers the correct relations between things.

This is what we lack. But we acquire it by rising along the degrees and reaching the best possible state. This means that you see this world, which does not change (“the world continues to live by its own laws”), and at the same time the second side, all the connections that exist between the parts of reality. And then you can justify the Creator, see that it was always so from the outset, it is just that your vision was not ready to see it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

From between man and man one learns how to behave between man and the Creator.

…you have to keep awakening the love of the Creator in this way, that you must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day or feel a state of night.

We say to the Creator, “Yours is the day, and Yours is also the night.” Thus, the night, too, the darkness of night, comes from the Creator… (Rabash, Letter 24).

We have all already felt what “day” and “night” mean. “Night” means that suddenly the desire disappears, indifference comes, and the taste is lost. It becomes difficult for us to listen about a person’s work on their correction; we grow tired of repeatedly speaking about love of friends and connection.

Then “day” returns: enthusiasm, upliftment of spirit, and a person absorbs every word under a powerful impression, moved to tears. He burns with desire and rushes forward ready to move mountains.

All of this depends on some tiny measure of the light that influences us a little more or a little less. Our whole life and death, our entire mood, good or bad, depends on this small measure of light.

These states come to us so that we will understand that we must rise above them and not take them into account at all. Just imagine, is such a thing possible? Notice how much you fall under the control of these states when they take hold of you, and you can do nothing: neither in a good state nor in a bad one, you cannot cope with your joy nor with your sorrow.

So how is it possible to rise above them? Does it mean being above the influence of the light? Of course, I cannot be above the light, but I can be above my reaction to it. After all, this reaction arises in my egoistic desires. I must hold myself above this pleasant or unpleasant sensation.

At times, I am drawn to spirituality and am ready to do anything for it, dreaming of attaining bestowal. And at other times, nothing moves me, I am as if dead and want only to fall asleep and forget everything. How can I rise above such states?

I must ask the light for help. But not to ask for a pleasant sensation, we are always ready for that, even in the most difficult situation. Although there are such difficult states when we can no longer even ask, and only want to disconnect from the state and distract ourselves with some corporeal goals, just to forget and not feel the suffering.

But if it is not such a completely suppressed state, then we are able to ask. And usually, we ask the light to correct the problems and make us feel good. We expect a pleasant state, a sensation, but this is not correct. We need to seek a force that will allow us to remain above the bad state. We must ask the light for correction, so that these states will not influence us and we will perceive the bad states as good.

We must feel that the bad state comes in order to advance us, and no less, but even more than the good state. This means that a person must bless the Creator for the bad just as for the good. Then we will rejoice at every change of states, because we will be able to be impressed by them and ask the light to give us a screen that allows us to be above the reaction of our will to receive. I will always remain above the impression of good and evil, adhering to the Creator and striving to bring Him contentment.

Then all these unpleasant and pleasant states will determine the height, the level above which I can rise and establish contact with the Creator with a request for love and connection. It follows that the stronger the darkness and the light, and I do not react to them within my egoism, but only determine the height of my screen above them, the more it will grow. There will come ever brighter “days” and ever darker “nights,” ever higher states, and thus I will ascend.

Therefore, always, both in light and in darkness, we must strengthen the love between the friends with all our might, so that neither darkness nor light will influence us or change our attitude toward our constant duty: to strive only for unity and love.
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From preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13, Baal HaSulam, Letter 13

Rabash, in the article “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing from a Bad Person,” writes that if you observe that the advice you have accepted promises to increase your efforts, then the direction is correct; conversely, if it serves to reduce your effort, then it is incorrect.

Accordingly, if the action before you requires effort, then, apparently it comes from a good side and is aimed in a good direction. And if it does not require effort, then, it seems, it is directed in a bad direction.
What are “efforts”? A person might plan a bank robbery with the sweat of his brow. This is no easy task. Several people work on it, they prepare everything, and try their best. Desire obliges.

So what exactly constitutes “effort”? Relative to what are they evaluated? If an effort is added to a desire in order to realize it and enjoy it without any connection with the Creator, this is the effort of the evil inclination.

You can sweat your whole life trying to earn what you have set as your life’s goal, but that does not count as effort. Efforts in spirituality is that which leads you to adhesion with the Creator, that which improves you in some ways so that you become like Him. Everything else is not effort.
[355308]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing from a Bad Person”

The evil inclination is our faithful guide, through which we will undoubtedly reach the goal of creation. What depends on us is how we perceive it. Either I perceive it within my desire to receive, or, in the opposite way, I analyze it correctly and understand that it tells me how not to proceed.

If it works together with the desire to receive, if it comes to me in its natural form, then it places all the pitfalls along the path into which I fall. But if I analyze it correctly and understand that, by enticing me toward something, it only draws me to bad things so that I may overcome them and instead prefer to adhere to the Creator, then from this I correctly reveal its help.

How else can I build independence? Abraham said: “If you go to the left, then I will go to the right; and if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.” I am sitting here now, and the evil inclination pulls me to the right.

I know that if I overcome its pull toward some pleasure, to do something, and instead of being drawn there, I adhere to the Creator, then this is adhesion with the Creator that I have earned through my effort. Now the ego pulls me to the left: “Let’s go enjoy there.” I must overcome this as well, but not in such a way as to withdraw into a monastery and destroy the desire to receive.

While the evil inclination is pulling me somewhere, I want to place the Creator before it—His greatness, His eternity, His perfection—as something that surpasses this attraction. I must ask Him to be reveal Himself, to give me strength, and to give me a group that will impart the awareness of His greatness. Then I will not be dragged either to the left or to the right, and with all these inclinations I will nonetheless maintain the direction toward the Creator, toward adhesion with Him.

Thus, we can see that when the evil inclination pulls me toward all kinds of pleasures of various kinds, it actually awakens precisely those directions and methods of work in me through which I build the form of my inclinations toward the Creator. Through this, I build my Partzuf in all its forms, my “Partzuf of holiness.”

That is, the evil inclination does precisely the correct work, both in quantity and in quality, in sequence, in causal order, and in the various forms of its revelation within me. It gives me exactly those temptations which, by inverting them and striving toward the Creator against their background, I thereby add more and more to my “Partzuf of holiness.”
[355298]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing from a Bad Person”

Question: Why did some things happen in the material world first and only subsequently happen in the spiritual world, whereas in other cases it is the other way around?

Answer: Everything that belongs to the “preparatoration phase,” prior to entering the spiritual world, first takes material form and then the time comes for its inner fulfillment.

A person goes through two stages. He is born as an animal, and from the moment the “point in the heart” is implanted in him, we start counting his “human” life; the word “man – Adam” is from the word “Adameh,” which means “I shall become like the upper.” It is a striving that stems from the point in the heart.

If, throughout the course of all his previous incarnations, he existed in this world merely as matter, without a point in the heart, acquiring desires for money, honor, and knowledge, it is completely normal and natural. But none of this counts. There is a certain “accounting” for this, but it has nothing to do with a person’s individual spiritual advancement.

Personal advancement begins the moment he feels his “point in the heart.” From this moment on, his work is called “the time of preparation for entering spirituality.”

The preparatoration stage can last 10, 15, or even 20 years, or it could take 5 years, and even, as Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” as little as 3 years. It depends on the person’s efforts. It may be that he will achieve some advancement, and then die until the next reincarnation. And who knows what will happen in this new incarnation. It all depends on his efforts. If he is lucky, he will join the group and increase his pace; if he is not, he will not.

It is said that everything depends on “luck” (Mazal). “Mazal” is from the word “Nozel – flowing.” The faster these drops “flow” into a person, the more his Kli is filled. If they “drip” slowly, a person will have to wait several lifetimes.

So we count the first stage from the appearance of a point in the heart to the entrance into the spiritual world, and the second stage is working in the spiritual world. This process corresponds to manifesting in matter in our world. All these things that correspond to the spiritual roots of the preparatory phase, have already occurred and nothing more is needed. The material realization here precedes the spiritual one.

When we talk about the stages of spiritual work: the correction of the Kli, the construction of the Temple, that is, about the second stage, from the Machsom onward, then spiritual work is required there first, and as a result of this, a person builds the material aspects of his life here, including the Land of Israel, which he develops to the degree he is in the Land of Israel internally.

In the same way the nation is formed according to their spiritual attainment, and finally, a Third Temple is built after a person reaches a state called a Temple.

Thus, the states corresponding to the preparation phase, starting from the point in the heart and up to crossing the Machsom, first occur in the material world, and then in a person, in his inner world. Whereas everything that has to do with the second phase, from the Machsom to the final correction (Gmar Tikun), first occur as spiritual stages within a person, society, and then in the material world.
[355281]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/26, Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

Question: What is the difference between the states “goes” and “does”?

Answer: “Goes” means that a person has some urge to advance, when he thinks that in the next state, he will be closer to the Creator, closer to the possibility of bestowing. This means that he has an intention to come to bestowal in some form.

Here there are two states: the present one and the next one, and he is already moving between them, passing from one to the other. Therefore, he is called “one who goes.”

And another sits and appears to be he doing something. This means that he was given the opportunity to come here and sit with us. And still this is also called an “action.”

He has no aspiration to come to something. “Bestowal, adhesion, Creator”; these words can be pronounced just like that, but they do not come from the person’s inner feeling.
[355443]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/26, Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

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

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