It is very important for us to know all of our qualities, and the path we must travel in order to use our one true freedom of choice for spiritual advancement. After all, if a person does not strive to advance, they are not moved forward.

You have a very narrow path before you, long, but narrow. Imagine that it lies in a desert where you cannot see it. Or, as if you are walking on water, your next step is unknown and invisible. With all the strength you possess, you must choose “north,” hold on to it, and direct yourself toward the goal with every step you take. Then you will make the right step.

Otherwise, it will only seem to you that you are moving forward, when in fact those are not real steps at all; they are merely what you perceive with your ordinary, animal senses. You may remain standing in one place, going around in circles for a thousand years. Therefore the method of reaching the goal, of taking one step after another toward it, of knowing whether you are truly advancing, or only imagining that you are running while you are actually running in place, is the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

A person must be able to see the path, and this is accomplished quite simply: his eyes must be opened so that he truly sees the desert before him, where there is no other road except the one unique path. Moreover, each person has his own individual path; this ensures they do not lose their way, allows them to see both the final goal and themselves, and enables them to know how to take each step only after first examining it.

If a person fails to do this, the soul will undergo incarnation after incarnation as time slips away. We exist beneath the plane of spiritual life, and therefore we can continue spinning in circles for another million years; that is not the issue. From the perspective of spirituality, there is no account for this earthly life because by itself it brings no spiritual benefit.

Kabbalists write in their articles about the forces within our soul, and explain how, by using the many opposing qualities that exist within us, we can choose the correct path and realize our freedom of choice.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

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Comment: You said that a person attains the names of the Creator to the extent of their correction.

My Response: I usually give the following example: to catch a radio wave, you must create the same frequency inside the radio receiver. This is called the resonance effect. Otherwise, you cannot pick up the external waves. There are millions of waves across all possible ranges outside the receiver. How do you catch something specific?

Each receiver acts like a transmitter in a sense; it does not merely receive. First of all, it has to generate the wave you want to pick up from the outside, i.e., the same oscillation frequency. Then, from what is outside, according to the law of similarity of form—in this case, the matching frequency—you catch the corresponding external wave and perceive it as sound. Thus, you need to match the qualities with what you want to experience.

Our eyes and ears are designed to detect a certain range of external influences because inside us there is a mechanism capable of producing the same frequencies that are outside.

This mechanism consists of nerve fibers, at the ends of which there are receptors, sensors, specific to each type of frequency. Heat, cold, and pressure are, in general, different frequencies of wave vibrations that I perceive according to the similarity of form in my vessel with what is outside.

How can I claim that the Creator is just and merciful if I do not first acquire the property by which I can find out what “just” and “merciful” are? That is, first of all, I must make a correction, and in accordance with this, I will be able to feel that the Creator really is like that.

Sometimes we say that a person doesn’t have a heart. It is just that his feelings are so undeveloped that when he sees someone crying and suffering, he does not feel bad or even understand it.

For example, an infant, even if someone is crying next to him, has no idea what this means. His sensory perception is not yet developed enough to understand that something very serious has happened to an adult, which has led him to such intense distress.

Later when the child grows up and develops the inner vessels capable of feeling sorrow or joy, he will be able to perceive what is happening in the world around him.

This is what happens with everything. We perceive everything only according to similarity of form.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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Question: Can we say that the period of preparation is necessary so that we can come to feel the need for a connection with the Creator?

Answer: Of course. First and foremost, a person must feel the need for it. This is called the recognition of the evil of egoism. How else can I know that something good is being concealed from me?

In the article “What Is, ‘There Is None Holy as the Creator, for There Is None Besides You’ in the Work?,” Rabash illustrates this with the following example: the son of a wealthy man is kept in a basement. He has nothing, lives in misery, and receives only a small amount of food that is lowered down to him from above.

The son curses his father for his cruelty and for the life he has prepared for him. But when he is finally brought out and shown that there is another way of life, you can imagine the confusion he experiences.

We go through similar states as well. A person does not understand at all what is happening to him. He feels lost and unhappy until he begins to study and draw conclusions from the state he is in.

What does it mean to study? After lamenting his twenty years of imprisonment, a ray of light penetrates the basement, and he begins to see that everything had been done for his own benefit.

Why then did he have to suffer for twenty long years? Because only in this way could he appreciate and accept the goodness that was prepared for him. The Kli must be ready for the revelation of spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,’ in the Work?”

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Question: In the greatest state of Lo Lishma does a person begin to desire the next stage, Lishma?

Answer: No, at the peak of Lo Lishma a person does not want Lishma, because he does not understand what it is. The greatest Lo Lishma is when I want to bestow to the Creator, to be with Him, I love Him to such an extent that I do not feel myself. It is like in love, the sensation of it fills a person so completely that it suppresses their will to receive. There is a lot of egoism there and even aggression, but it is extinguished by the feeling of the necessity of connection with the beloved.

How do I use my study? Each time I want something, I understand that I can realize it by means of study, in the course of which I receive the forces to realize what I want. At the same time, I must come to study with some desire. Suppose today I want by means of study to change this or that.

Study is about the specific payment you want, or power you seek in order to bring about a change within you?

But if you arrive without a precise definition of what you want to change in yourself, the study is futile. What is the purpose of the light’s arrival? You and your friends awaken it, and it simply circles around you and leaves.

By the effort that you apply during study, you draw the upper light upon yourself, which brings life, health, strength, and all that is best. And if you just sit and study, and you have no demand for these forces, then why did you come to the lesson?

When you come to a lesson, even if you do not yet know why, just as your friends do not know what they are awakening the forces around for, then the light itself builds the desire in you. Gradually you begin to feel what exactly you must desire. But in order to use study more quickly and effectively, you need to come prepared with a specific desire in mind.

When one of my students calls me and asks how to play a role in the theater because he is struggling, frustrated, and torn apart, I give him some advice. But the best advice is that when you have problems, something hurts, or things are not working out, come here, study, and that very light that comes will give you the answer to everything, including how to play the role.

Just think how down‑to‑earth this example is, yet you already believe that from your study of the Torah you gain the strength to improve something. The only power that exists in this world is the light that comes from the upper world. In other words, this is the only possibility to change something in your state.

There is no other means: You will not find such a screwdriver, fork, or pliers with which you could tighten something in yourself and thus change. Only the light can do this.

And although it has a general influence on the soul and advances it, I must define what I want from it, so that I catch this surrounding light and, using it like a screwdriver, tighten something in myself in order to change. This must be more or less clear to you, and you need to know this before you come to study.

In principle, we understand this: We gather in groups, discuss and clarify what our desire is, and begin to study, knowing exactly what we want from the surrounding light. And if nothing changes in me, then I must voice my discontent as to why it did not change anything in me: “Where are Your promises? Show me where I am at fault and why You did not do this for me.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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