Question: If it is written, “Buy yourself a friend,” why is one friend not enough for me? Why do I need many friends?

Answer: Because one is not enough. As Baal HaSulam writes in “The Giving of the Torah” and in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” “In the multitude of the people is the King’s glory.” This means that I am not able to be inspired by one person.

I am able to be inspired by many who share the same opinion as I do and who can be my environment. Of course, it may also be one person, but still it will not influence me as much as needed.

I need as large an environment as possible, although within it I see different people. It does not matter; each time I can pay attention to those from whom I will receive inspiration.

I can be inspired by some, while I invest efforts—“buy for yourself a friend”—specifically in others. However, since all are connected into one society, it does not matter. This is how it works. The environment must be as large and as strong as possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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If a person is unable to draw inspiration from their friends, it means that the goal is still not important to them. Perhaps the goal is important to them, but they haven’t figured out what it is yet. The goal is adhesion with the Creator through equivalence of qualities, which I can achieve only if I gather strength from my environment; the Creator gave me the initial impetus.

For such a person, this entire process has not yet been fully understood and they don’t connect their goal with the true goal. They believe it lies in knowing a lot, in seeing the whole world from end to end, in feeling eternity, in being above the world. They haven’t yet deciphered the correct definition of the goal of creation. It isn’t yet completely connected to the giver with the understanding that they too must come to the force of bestowal. Then they replace the true goal with another goal, they dress it in a different garment that is more egoistic, more understandable to them. This is normal. What can they do? It is the result of his state.

Nevertheless, one must increasing focus on seeing the goal as clearly as possible in a form closer to the truth. And then, thanks to this, a person will see that indeed he or she lacks strength, knowledge, and understanding of where to begin, and will feel the need to turn to the group.

If a person truly, reveals time after time, an even more true goal, more directed toward bestowal, more distant from them by virtue of their nature, they will more clearly feel that they are unable to take a step toward it. Then they must remember that the forces for this exist only in the environment. And since they have already entered it, they turn to it out of desperation.

The absence of a way out is the stimulus that compels me to turn to the group, since otherwise I will not be able to find the strength to move forward. It is like the need to maintain life within yourself, and so I come and ask. It is only in this case, the request in itself does not help. You must invest effort and receive strength in return.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/16/26, Rabash, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1”

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The meaning of “forced the mountain on them like a vault” is that the reason that now they must receive the Torah and they have no other choice is the mountain, meaning the information they received in the thought and intellect that they are in a state of descent because they have evil in the hearts. This is like a vault, meaning that it is coercive and they have no choice (Rabash, Article “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”).

The state in which I realize my opposition to the Creator in all my qualities is called “standing at Mount Sinai.” I stand at the foot of the mountain and above me is a mountain of doubts, my bad qualities, that separate me from the Creator who is at the top of the mountain.

How do I know that He is at the top? Because that is where my point in the heart, called Moses, is. When I feel the difference between these two sensations, there is a need for me to receive the reforming light. Moreover, I feel that the Creator is forcing to do this. As it is written, forced the mountain on them like a vault is a sign of coercion.

The Creator descends to the top of the mountain where His qualities are. If I rise above all the doubts, above my nature, then I will meet Him there. It is not by chance that this state is revealed to me: either I accept the corrections and rise above all the doubts or this will be “my burial” place since I will bury myself under all my desires and doubts.

In such a case I truly need the Torah, which stands against the evil inclination, because I reveal that the evil inclination is my nature and I begin to hate Mount Sinai.

What is called hatred, as it is said: “Hatred descended upon the nations of the world”? This is explained as though we received the Torah, and then the nations of the world began to hate us. But it is I who hate the nations of the world within me, and therefore I receive the Torah after I determine that the evil is within me.

As long as I think that my inclination is good, since it is good, I desire it. And if I want to use it, then the Creator, who has a goal, the desire to raise me to the top of the mountain (“everyone must become like Moses”), gives the light, and in this light, I begin to enter the process of ascents and descents.

Thus, by defining my nature as good, I remain in a descent, so that each time I can see it in comparison with the light until I come to the decision that it is evil.

Until these constantly recurring descents accumulate into a mountain, after which I will need the Torah and be ready to receive it, I will not develop the need for the Torah (Hebrew: Torah means teaching, theory; “Horaah”—instruction) as a guide for correction. When I accept the Torah as correction, then I merit the desire for it as a source of fulfillment.

It is clear that all of this occurs under coercion. As it is said: He forced the mountain on them like a vault. That is, He imposed coercion upon us (“Kfiya” from the verb “kafa“—compelled, and also overturned, turned upside down). We can only become more sensitive to what is happening to us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

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Question: How can I advance if the desire to receive dominates me?

Answer: Indeed, the Creator constantly activates the desire to receive in you to advance you, and then you feel that it dominates you again. It is not even that it dominates you, but that you are that desire to receive.

But to feel its power over you, you need the upper light that gives you the feeling that there is something besides the desire to receive—the desire to bestow. Then you realize that the desire to receive and you are not the same thing. There must be a third party.

If you have this separation between you and the desire to receive and the awareness of its power, this is salvation. Now something is up to you.

You have come out of unconsciousness and can act. You think “I am not my egoism, my hater, the one who prevents me from advancing. I would kill it, but how do I seize it? It is like a cancer in me.” You should start looking for some kind of cure. The cure from egoism can only be the light.

Your problem is that you do not really want this cure. Then you should go to a group that will strengthen your awareness of evil, so that you would see that this disease is killing you and separates you from eternal life to such an extent that you start to scream. It is the real scream that opens the heavens.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/26, Rabash, “What Is the Preparation to Receive the Torah in the Work?-2”

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Question: How can you determine what you must correct and how to correct it?

Answer: How can you determine your state, name it correctly, and measure it so that it becomes the cause for correction? I may be measuring my state, meaning my desire, since I have nothing else, but this does not compel me to make a decision.

I am in the desire to receive, which gives me either pleasure or suffering, and according to this I determine whether it is good or bad. Based on that, I use it or try to replace it (acquire a different desire to receive), and strive to enjoy something else. And if I cannot enjoy it, then let me not have the desire for it, I will suppress it.

A person always chooses what they can enjoy in the most useful and easiest form, so that there is as little effort as possible and as much pleasure as possible. This is our calculation. It is a natural calculation that everyone makes, from functioning on the still, vegetative, and animate levels to functioning on the speaking level within us. This is how it works on all levels of nature.

But if I want to learn how to enjoy more, I seek out systems, join various clubs, and learn from others. I develop the use of my desire to receive to the point where, legally or illegally, I can enjoy as much as society and the world allow. I simply constantly calculate what is beneficial and what is not; the maximum is always my goal.

According to this, we look at people and evaluate them. It is impossible to demand any other calculation because this is our nature.

Then why does a person receive blows from the upper governance, from the Creator? After all, the Creator created them in such a way that this is the only calculation they can make. You can ask scientists (biologists, psychologists, etc.) and they will say that this is our calculation. So why does the Creator, who made us this way, punish us? For what? For creating us like this?

The Creator does not punish us. What comes to us from Him is not in order to punish us, but in accordance with the law that says that there is not only the desire to receive in us. There is also another force that is in us at the preparatory stage—the desire to bestow.

Therefore we must begin to make calculations that take it into account. To do this we must begin to calculate between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow. To the extent that we do not make a calculation in accordance with the level of our development, we experience suffering.

If we would force ourselves to calculate not only about how much I want to enjoy, but also how much I should give enjoyment to others, and if I did this correctly in relation to myself and others according to my development, then I would be in a good state. I would not feel any suffering.

Suppose, according to my development, I should give 20 to 30% and receive 80%, this is my current level. It will increase and I will need to give more and receive less. If I knew this law, if I knew what is demanded of me and carried it out, I would always feel comfortable and good because this is, in essence, the law that affects me.

Why do we not see this law? We would make the calculation in order to feel good.

But the goal is not to feel good in the desire to receive. The calculation (how much for me and how much for others) must come, not only from the desire to receive, but from the desire to adhere to the Creator, to resemble Him. Bestowal itself is also not the goal. The goal is to resemble the Creator, to be like Him, so the law according to which I must bestow is not revealed to me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean That the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

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1st part of the Lesson – Writings of Rabash, Article 19 “What Is, “Rise Up, O Lord, and Let Your Enemies Be Scattered, in the Work?” (1991) (5.6.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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What is an “obstacle”? It is when I am buried beneath it and feel only it. There are moments like this. Then, from above, a person is gradually given the ability to see themselves not completely inside the obstacle, but slightly to the side of it. That is, they are being illuminated a little, and then they see darkness relative to the light.

If we are in complete darkness and there is no memory of the light, we do not perceive darkness. It is perceived only by moving from a deficiency (Hisaron) to the light. Hisaron, desire, gives us a light that influences us from afar. In every state the Creator saves a person by sending him or her changes of states. The illumination changes, and with its help a person sees one’s state differently in relation to this illumination. Then a person begins to analyze one’s state and examine it.

But how can a person get out of a descent when one is at the very bottom of double concealment? Is there a possibility? No. This changes only with a person’s efforts in accordance with the Reshimot (informational records) that must be revealed within one, in accordance with the fact that the general engine has begun to work and is leading all of creation toward correction.

If one waits for change only from the Creator, then it occurs in accordance with the general state and very slowly. But if a person is prepared, if they organize a group, a routine, a framework, and put themselves under some kind of influence (besides the Creator it can only be the influence of the group), thereby they accelerate the process, the illumination that changes it.

Here a person’s actions are taken into account, what one prepares for oneself during an ascent, not during a descent. At the time when the light shines for you, what do you want from that state? Do you want to enjoy it, or do you want to be as close as possible to the Creator? That is, you think not about enjoyment, but about who you are close to, who you have a connection with, and how much you want to be with Him.

Even if the states do not change, your connection with Him is important to you because He is great, the upper one, the determining one, not because you can enjoy the pleasure of adhesion with Him in the vessels of reception.

If during an ascent you strengthen yourself precisely in such thoughts and only in them do you want to be connected with Him, you are as if preparing Kelim for the future in order to come out of a descent more quickly.

In other words, everything is taken into account with us only during our ascent. You received an ascent, now let’s see how you can resist temptations. Will you detach from the giver in order to immerse yourself in the “plate,” or, despite the fact that you are standing at the “plate,” will you, precisely with its help, desire to be connected with the giver?

Thus, a person is constantly existing in a state of struggle between one’s desire and one’s intention.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/26, Rabash, “What Are the Two Actions During a Descent?”

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When we look at our history, which must occur within every person, the entry into Egypt and the exit from it, the splitting of the Red Sea, approaching Mount Sinai, and standing at its foot, we do not see that a person somehow acts or influences what is happening. The Torah says categorically: “This is how it was.”

Everything is predetermined, and we are already at the end of this development. Now this development that is programmed in potential must be realized in each and everyone without exception and without any possibility of avoiding it.

We see that everything is connected by a chain of cause and effect: the need for a state and its birth, which in turn generates the need for the next state and its birth, and so on. But our role in this is to accelerate the states, to participate in them consciously, and to increase our sensitivity to what is happening. But we can develop sensitivity only with the help of the group.

The group can increase my awareness of evil and good in a wide variety of states and can intensify my sensitivity to them so much that I will feel how they occur within me every split second rather than once every few days, weeks, or months.

Everything depends on the degree of sensitivity. When I acquire it and begin to understand my states, I begin to determine their quality, their essence, and what is good and what is evil.

Thus, gradually, in the light that influences me, I begin to connect good and bad states in relation to the status of the Creator until my nature becomes hateful to me. Then I reach the foot of Mount Sinai, which is called so because I come to hatred (Sina in Hebrew) toward my own nature, and therefore I merit receiving the Torah.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

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Reality does not have to end its development with an explosion. You can end the War of Gog and Magog in a small laboratory, or you can unleash it on the entire world, it doesn’t matter. What matters for you is to recognize evil.

If you have a microscope, you recognize evil before it breaks through and begins to develop. You see in advance that there is an infectious agent that can destroy the entire world! And that’s it. We need to draw as much light as possible so that it will show this to us.

There is no specific external parameter that you could point to and say: “Here it is, Mount Sinai!” This parameter is your tension that is caused by the fact that you can no longer tolerate evil. Baal HaSulam writes that this depends on a person’s level of development.

A developed person who uses Kabbalah, the light that returns to the source, already sees how terrible it is. Nothing more needs to be shown to him.

So there is no point in waiting another hundred years, then it would not be the path of Torah but the path of suffering. The purpose of being given the Torah, Kabbalah, is so that we can go through this development “externally,” without waiting to reach it through natural development. One way or another, we will have to work. The only difference is whether it will be in suffering or in joy.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

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