Question: What is the connection between suffering and a descent? Can suffer but not fall or vice versa?

Answer: Indeed, what does suffering actually mean to me? And what do we call a descent? Is it possible that, while feeling suffering, I am in an ascent at the same time? No, that is a falsehood. In one’s development, in every state and on every degree, a person redefines anew what an ascent is and what sufferings are.

At first, animal pleasures, money, honor, and knowledge are important to a person, and they serve as his criteria for ascents and descents. For example, “earning more” or “achieving greater power” mean an ascent and the opposite state meant a fall.

In the end, a person comes to a state where one becomes indifferent to everything except spiritual ascent, in which he somehow feels spirituality more, senses the presence of the Creator more acutely, and that, apparently, the Creator observes everything and governs everything, including him. From this a person experiences a certain elevation, and this defines the concept of ascent, from which one feels good.

In contrast, in double concealment a person does not feel anything, not even the Creator. Various things happen to them, and they are sure that they occur by themselves and have no relation to the upper force.

In simple concealment one feels unpleasant things: a sense of fear, phobias, various obsessive thoughts, but within them one feels that they are sent by the Creator. The feeling of the Creator sending them sweetens the feeling of suffering for one so much that a person begins to strive for them, just to feel through them that it is the Creator arranging this for them. Then a situation is possible when one supposedly receives suffering, but inside them they feel enjoyment.

If a person comes to a state in which they are not in single or double concealment but resembles an animal, then they prefer to enter simple concealment: “It does not matter, let there be suffering, but with its help I will feel that I am connected with the Creator, let me have at least something from eternity; let there be suffering if there is no other means.”

From the Creator’s side, this is of course an undesirable state, because a person who has truly come to a connection with Him is obliged to receive enjoyment from this connection. Therefore, simple concealment is not the end of the path.

And even then, it is still done at the expense of the person: “It does not matter, let there be sufferings as long as I feel the Creator.” Thus, one’s calculation is that in order to feel the Creator it is worth paying even with sufferings. This is still an egoistic calculation: I strive for pleasure, and the sensation of the Creator is now a great pleasure for me. And until I cross the Machsom, there can be nothing greater.

My state right before the Machsom is called “It does not let me sleep” to such an extent do I strive for spiritual pleasures and prefer them to all the pleasures of this world. I have increased the point in the heart so much compared to all the other desires that they fall away and practically do not present the slightest interest to me.

And only after the Machsom, when I receive a screen and a second nature, do I begin to calculate not what is better than what, not that the pleasure from the Creator is better than an evening well‑spent, but the intention for the sake of bestowal versus the intention for the sake of reception. There the calculations are different.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Before crossing the Machsom, a person does not know where one is. Even immediately after one crosses the Machsom, a person still does not know where they are; they sense the spiritual, but only like an infant, like an embryo in its mother’s womb. They practice self-nullification; but still do not posses a screen, other than the one they received in order to neutralize their ego and remain in spirituality in a passive form, as a spectator.

This is not yet an active form, the stage where they would be able to absorb the lights and from the sensation of the lights in the vessels, feel what the spiritual world is, and gradually begin to grow like an infant in this world.

Only upon entering the spiritual degree do they begin the stage of “9 months of gestation,” but this is something completely different: now they are inside the mother (Ima) and do not need to be concerned with self-preservation in terms of falling from that state.

They must only take care not to spoil their presence in spirituality as an embryo in the mother’s womb. Once they have fully developed as an embryo and have formed a greater screen that allow them to receive the lights internally, it signifies that they have been born.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 3 “Love of Friends – 1” (1984)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“

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What characterizes this world that is distinctive compared to the spiritual world? From the Machsom and above, there is revelation, light. From the Machsom and below, there is the opposite: darkness, concealment. Accordingly, even if I experience a descent above the Machsom, I perceive it differently because this descent takes place within lights, within revelation.

Conversely, in our world, if you are in darkness now, devoid of any spiritual sensation, you can nevertheless be in high spirits and filled with a desire to study and advance, or you can, on the contrary, be in a state of an absence of desires, when everything is bland and you do not want anything.

In such a case, you may perhaps wait until enough time passes for some help to come from above, so that you will be pulled back up and granted an awakening. But this is undesirable, because it can drag out and lengthen the path m any times over.

It is possible that a person is sent a descent not so that he will wait until it ends, but so that he will by force subject himself to the influence of the society that is on a higher level, and then the work will quickly be done on him, and he will come out of the descent. Society will save him.

So, here, in the darkness, we have two states: double concealment and single concealment.

While in single concealment, we feel that there is something above us. Apparently, there is the Creator who is the cause of everything. Even misfortunes are sent to me by Him, and this supports me: I depend on something and, one way or another, still justify reality. I, in some way, justify the blows: if someone sends them, it means someone is arranging all this.

In contrast, when in double concealment, I feel nothing but nature. There is no master, and there is no justification for my existence. I am not permitted the simple oblivion of an animal that does not reflect on life. I do reflect on life, and therefore, I am in double concealment.

Single or double concealment is a person’s inner sensation, not a natural phenomenon. Therefore, the descents and ascents in our states while we are “in Egypt,” prior to the Machsom, and “sighing from the work” because the burden is indeed hard for us do not persist in the same form once we have crossed the Machsom.

There, even while in darkness, in the Klipot, a person knows and perceives that these are indeed Klipot standing in opposition to holiness, and that it is through them that one goes to the upper. Through the Klipot one constantly establishes contact with the Creator by using them as auxiliary means.

There the Klipot are intentions, thoughts for the sake of reception, whereas holiness is the intention for the sake of bestowal. Between these two polar states, there is a constant war. Here, before the Machsom, we are all in the will to receive for our own sake.

After the Machsom, everything is different. But until then do everything that you are capable of doing. And everything that we organize here stems from simple necessity: alone, without including oneself in others, a person can fall, and no one will save him. Therefore, a person must immediately submit himself to the influence of the group. Otherwise, the journey will stretch not for years, but for incarnations.

Therefore, it is necessary to quickly drive yourself into the group, into a certain schedule, into some obligations, to resort to all kinds of tricks, so that in case of a fall, they will put pressure on me and oblige me to continue the path. This is a duty.

A spiritual descent that might otherwise last several months can, with the help of society, be reduced to several hours or minutes. Moreover, it is not only a question of time, because when you come out of a fall with the help of the group, you acquire such qualities and internal attributes that will allow you to bypass several more falls.

If, however, you come out on your own, you still do not acquire the necessary experience and will have to go down again and again. Emerging with the help of the collective adds the experience of your friends to you since you unite with them, and it replaces many additional falls. This is a very great saving in terms of time and the number of falls.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Question: What is this state called Moses? It seems to be present in this world and at the same time connected to the upper world.

Answer: Indeed, Moses is present in this world while simultaneously being connected to the Creator, as if existing in the upper world. We learn that as a result of the shattering of the vessels, all our souls fell to the material level, into this world.

But how do we extract the Kli from this state? If everything here stemmed only from the will to receive, we would not feel the surrounding light within our Kli, which is a desire to receive for oneself. However, within the Kli there is a point in the heart. It is this point that senses the light because it does not belong to the will to receive, to the vessel.

The point in the heart is a part of the screen that once existed before the shattering of the vessels, before the sin of the Tree of Knowledge. At one time, the vessel had a screen. After the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, the screen shattered. A part of this screen remained within our will to receive, and it is precisely this part that perceives the surrounding light because there was once a connection between the screen and the light.

Now the light has become surrounding light, coming from afar, and from the screen only a spark remains within the Kli. However, a distant connection between them is preserved through the Machsom, and this point, this spark that remained from the screen, is called Moses, from the word “Limshoch,” to pull.

By using it correctly, I draw out all my other qualities, myself, my entire inner being through the Machsom upward, bringing them out of Egypt. Thus, Moses, the point in the heart, gains strength and pulls the entire Kli out of darkness.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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In this world, our nature is egoism, which we either manage to cope with or not. But when we ascend and cross the Machsom, our work divides into three lines, and we proceed along the middle one. We enter spirituality with our small ego, although it may have grown, it is still insufficient. At each degree, we begin to receive vessels (Kelim) from the Klipot.

In other words, when leaving Egypt, one must take vessels along, so we flee from the Egyptians with “possessions” (vessels). Lights arrive at every degree, and our work is to create the correct combination between the vessel and the light, through which we rise to the next degree, where again we establish the correct combination, ascend once more, and so on.

At each degree there are Klipot: Amalek, the seven nations in the land of Israel, the desert, and so forth, as well as what suddenly appears within Israel itself, for example, the mixed multitude (Erev Rav).

All of this comes from the side of the Klipa and represents our inner vessels that are constantly being awakened. We correct them with the help of the surrounding light and thereby acquire a higher degree each time. And of course, our war does not cease until the end of correction.

We must constantly resist the Klipa, that is, our uncorrected vessels, because the Klipa exists within the person. This does not stop even upon entering the Land of Israel; there is still much to be done and corrected there. And a person must go through all of this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Question: What does it mean that the point in the heart is not part of the Kli? Does the Kli feel it? It seems that this point has a connection with the upper, yet creation cannot attain the upper until it crosses the Machsom. How can this be?

Answer: How is it that you are sitting here and striving toward the upper world? This is by no means attainment of the upper world. Among all your qualities there is one quality, among all your desires there is one specific desire that senses it will receive fulfillment from the upper world.

Your other desires can receive fulfillment from this world, and over the course of reincarnations you have exhausted them all: desires for honor, money, corporeal pleasures, and knowledge have already more or less developed.

Now a desire for the spiritual awakens in you, a desire that can be filled only by the light, and it is precisely this desire that forces you to work now, to come here, and so on. Now you are working with this point; you feel it as the greatest lack of fulfillment, or at least a lack more pressing than the need for sleep, rest, and the like.

We are tasked with developing this point through the means of the surrounding light, not by suffering. If you take the will to receive for your own sake and give it suffering, then it begins to look for a way out, and, in its search, it turns to the point in the heart, which appears to it as the only thing that sufferings have not touched. Then it identifies itself with this point and wants, as if under its protection, to escape from suffering into the spiritual world.

The path of suffering is very long and painful. If, however, I myself develop this point so that it becomes greater and more important than all the other desires, then I will not need suffering. This, essentially, is what actually happens with us, with the whole nation.

If we resort to the approach called “the path of Torah” and develop this point in the heart, then we will not need all the sufferings that the Creator sends us.

On His part there is no other intention besides the plan of creation: to bring us to perfection and eternity. If we ourselves want to do this, then the need for blows disappears.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/1/26, Rabash, “Why the Festival of Matzot Is Called Passover”

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Question: Do we have to accept suffering and continue working?

Answer: You must not accept suffering. You need to figure out with whom you are currently identifying right now. If you agree with suffering, it means that you remain in the Klipa since now suffering is separating you from the Creator. That is, the sensation of suffering is a sign of connection with the Klipa.

Question: It seems like a vicious cycle. How can we break it?

Answer: Go and search. You have to seek the Creator’s greatness above the Klipa. This is called raising the Creator above Pharaoh and seeing that He is the winner. The entire war, the ten plagues within ten properties, in ten Sefirot, takes place inside a person because there is no Klipa (evil inclination) or Kedusha (holiness) outside of man. It is the result of his internal analysis.

A person who wants to follow the path of Baal HaSulam but does not try to realize it for the sake of others, does not try his best to sustain the group, even in the most artificial form, does not seek to give as much as possible to others or to expand the circle, if he does not do all this, even if he has no inner drive, he must do so simply to survive, he has no choice.

Those who do not engage in dissemination disappear from the sphere of Kabbalah, deteriorate with nothing left of them. It is hard for us to understand this; we are not privy to the upper calculations, and why this is happening. We must fulfill our mission.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/26, Rabash, “We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work”

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