Audio Version Of The Blog – 5/26/26
Posted on May 26th, 2026
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Question: Is annulment before the upper a path of coercion?
Answer: It is said that there is no coercion in spirituality. Yet, it seems that annulment before the upper is coercion from the upper toward us. If we look at it through the lens of the Passover Haggadah, the Creator adds the evil inclination to Pharaoh and then strikes Pharaoh.
The poor Pharaoh does not know where to escape. He cannot go anywhere, because he is 100% made of opposite qualities. So, where can he run?
Thus, it appears that there is no more miserable or terrible state than the way the Creator treats Pharaoh. Is it fitting for the Creator to relate this way to His creation with all its qualities?
Question: I am asking not from the side of the Creator but from the side of the created being. Is choosing the opinion of the upper an act of coercion, opposite to my own opinion? After all, with that tiny force I draw from the group, I force myself to go against myself.
Answer: From the side of the person, it is exactly the same. Pharaoh is everything within us, our entire nature. Can I do anything with it if it is 100% this way? You say: “My so-called choice of the Creator is not really my choice. It is simply an action I take out of helplessness.”
When I receive blows, and as a result begin to see even slightly that if I move into another state, perhaps even acquire another nature, I will be able to escape these blows, then it is precisely this that compels me to make a certain choice. But is this called free choice?
That is, the desire to receive seemingly “chooses”: it would rather die than continue to feel the blows, to the point that they are worse than death. Better not to feel myself at all, as if I do not exist, just not to feel this suffering.
A feeling of such despair is created within us that it becomes easier not to feel anything than to endure the blows. Can this be called choosing connection with the Creator, with spirituality, with eternity? Who says that this is free choice, that there is freedom of action without any coercion?
On the contrary, it is said: “You have not a blade of grass below that does not have an angel that strikes and tells it, ‘Grow!’” or “He is forced until he says: ‘I want.’” There are many such expressions describing states where only through blows and suffering does the desire to receive agree to renounce itself, to annul itself. In this, there is no free choice.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/26, Rabash, “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work? ”
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In Rabash article, “The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah” it is stated that “it is forbidden to teach Torah to idol worshippers.” This is not very clear. After all, the Creator created creatures some of whom are smart, some stupid, some of bad character, some of good character, some are lazy, and some are energetic.
Is it man’s fault that he was created with bad or good qualities? Before the Creator, everyone is the same. What difference could there be? We know that the laws of the Creator are straight and just. He had to have given everyone equal opportunities to advance toward Him because no one is superior to another.
However, we see a wide variety of creations. Why are idolaters forbidden to study the Torah?
There is Israel and there are idolaters. Israel is “Yashar El,” one who is aimed straight to the Creator, wants to be connected to Him, does not run away from this connection, and wants to see the Creator constantly as a goal before him, as the most important and the greatest.
An idolater (Ovdei Kohavim uMazalot) is someone who worships the stars and fate, looking for reasons for everything that happens in all sorts of places and things around him. But you cannot blame a person for that. It depends on what stage of development he is at.
So why is there a strict prohibition on idolaters to study the Torah? It is because the Torah can be both the elixir of life and the potion of death. After all, if a person takes this force and uses it in the wrong direction, he moves away from the goal. But the main thing is that he strays from the path. The more he moves away, the more confused he becomes, the more troubles and obstacles come his way.
Of course, these setbacks and obstacles are designed to bring him back. But he no longer understands what is happening since he is moving in the opposite direction with a large deviation from the right path.
It is simply salvation from above that he is brought back to the path, given an awakening in the right direction again, but in any case, this is a path of great suffering. It may take a long time for him to come to his senses again, return to the right path, and discover once again that there is a goal to strive for.
But until he has built the right intention toward the Creator, toward the goal of creation, until this is fully clarified, he is forbidden to use the force of the Torah for advancement. It is like an aiming device that lets you accurately aim a gun at a target to avoid causing harm instead of helping.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/26, Rabash, “The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah”
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We have one single Kli (vessel), called Malchut. This Kli is incapable of receiving in the form of bestowal. One may use it in a manner resembling a vessel (Kli) of bestowal, but in order to truly transform the Kli into one that receives for the sake of bestowal, an enormous amount of preliminary work must first be done. This preparatory work is called the general correction of the Kli.
For this purpose, a screen is built over it so that all the desires within Malchut operate in the mode of not receiving for one’s own sake. In each desire, the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the goal must become so significant that none of the desires would wish to remain in a state opposite to connection with the Creator.
When you feel within all your desires that not a single one wants to detach from the Creator, then in each of them, you sense that separation lies in receiving for oneself. The moment you take for yourself, you instantly become separated from the Creator. Then a fear appears within you, like a burning fire, and this is called being under the power of the restriction.
After you are equipped with such a shield, it becomes possible to begin giving each desire the form of bestowal. What does this mean? You ask the Creator to learn the manner in which He bestows upon you from Him. You learn, not what He gives you, but precisely how, in what way. And the Creator explains this to you through His actions. This is called: “From Your actions we shall know You.”
How does an infant behave? He only wishes to receive milk from his mother without knowing how it happens, what is done for it, or how it is fed; it makes no difference to the infant: “This is simply what I deserve.” Later, the baby begins to understand where all this comes from and how it is carried out. If a child wants to resemble its parents, he or she first examines exactly how they act and what they do.
Likewise, you must study the actions of the Creator. It is not simply that the light comes to me from the Sefirah of Yesod; before that, there are many different actions through which the Creator influences me. Then, from my former desire (when I wished only to receive the light) a new desire develops: to use my natural desire to receive in order to build a system like the one the Creator possesses when delighting me.
The Creator has nine systems through which He delights me with pleasures suited to me. And my system, the tenth point called Malchut, receives these pleasures and enjoys them. Now, based on the fact that I enjoy them, I want to build a system that functions exactly like the system of the Creator.
Thus, I must acquire this entire system from Him, only in reverse form, reverse relative to my desire to receive.
How does Malchut, after having received one of the many pleasures corresponding to a specific desire and using it, perform an act of bestowal? It literally acquires the first nine Sefirot. But what does “acquires” mean?
It is not as though the first nine Sefirot are simply attached to Malchut and then used together, as we usually depict. All these first nine Sefirot must become integrated into the system of the desire to receive, which must absorb this form within itself. In other words, the desire to receive adopts the inner form of the system of the Creator.
We are not speaking about Atzmuto (His Essence), but about the Creator (Boreh), meaning His relation toward me. Thus, I truly absorb all His systems into myself and, according to my desire to receive, transform them so that they operate for the sake of bestowal from within it rather than from within the desire to bestow.
The desire to bestow begins from Keter deYesod. But I begin from Malchut and invert these first nine Sefirot into reversed nine Sefirot, and thus, there are now direct and reflected light. Now I possess ten Sefirot of reflected light. This corresponds to Malchut becoming Keter, while Hochma turns into Yesod, which now influences Keter that has become Malchut for it.
When a person completes all this work, they truly become like the Creator, not only in their actions but also in spiritual status.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/17/26, Rabash, “What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work?”
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Comment: Sometimes a person’s perception becomes so sharpened that it seems to them that they have adhered to the upper one and truly feel it. But they do not know whether they have actually adhered to the upper one or simply has “closed their eyes.”
My Response: Until the Creator is revealed, we will always have doubts. And if someone else resolves these doubts for you, you will only lose from it. Therefore, let everyone remain with their own disturbances, while we should give each person the opportunity to resolve their problems more effectively and more quickly, so that they will have more strength and energy.
But in truth, everyone must resolve their own problems. This is precisely the reason why we are in darkness.
I understand that you want me to answer all your questions. Do you know how many years I came to Rabash and asked him questions, and he answered: “I am sorry, but I cannot help you”? I would feel like tearing him to pieces! I thought: “What is this?! Don’t you see how I am suffering?! Is this what it means that I am your student, that you love me?!”
But as it is said: “Salvation comes from the Creator in the blink of an eye.” I heard this phrase for years. Wait for it every single moment, and it will come.
I remember that once, when I had some first illumination, I came to M., who lived not far from our old location, and I asked him: “Well? What do I do now?” He answered me: “Just wait, everything will be fine, now everything is open before you.” But after some time, everything closed again, disappeared, and for a long time nothing happened.
I came to him again. He said: “Well what did you expect? That is exactly how it happens.” It was so difficult to speak with those elders. Nothing helped. There was no choice! Alongside Rabash there were two others who, of course, could not be compared to him in greatness, but they also had spiritual attainment. None of them gave any answers.
Simply, nothing can be done. A student must personally go through all the vicissitudes and receive their own impressions from them. Otherwise, if you were to tell them everything, they would perceive it only with the intellect, through knowledge. But with knowledge it is here today and tomorrow it is gone. That is not spirituality. The intellect is merely a machine.
Everything must pass through a person’s feelings, in which, according to their desires, there will be attainments, failures, disappointments, and discoveries. But all this must happen specifically within their desires. It is forbidden to replace feelings and sensations with intellect and knowledge.
[356542]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/26, Rabash, “The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah”
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Question: What metamorphoses occur between descents and ascents? What the does the transition from one state to another change?
Answer: Such transitions are possible only within a group.
You cannot possibly analyze, perceive, or measure this process, unless it is in relation to a group in which you, together with your friends, strive to unite as one and nullify yourselves relative to your common connection. Within this connection, you reveal the source, the upper force, that can transform you all and bring you to this connection.
In this way you truly are striving to reveal the picture, the state that actually exists. It is the only thing that exists.
All other notions, which are disconnected from this reality, such as: tell me, show me, explain it to me, are all mere philosophy detached from matter, and will invariably be misunderstood. Moreover, such thinking will lead you to believe that you can achieve this by yourself. Therefore, it is impossible to study Kabbalah without realizing the group connection with those who share this aspiration.
A person must traverse a vast number of stages, undergoing countess realizations, definitions, and analyses before becoming ready for this specific kind of uniting and transformation in order to simply stop perceiving oneself and to perceive the collective instead. At that point one will reveal that this collective is, in fact, one’s soul.
Question: How can we use our ascents and descents in a collective manner? How can we tune to that specific wavelength where everyone is striving in the same direction?
Answer: I have spoken about this at length, and now I do not want to repeat myself.
Question: Perhaps there is some subtle nuance that we are still missing?
Answer: Nothing is missing. Everything has been said thousands of times. You have it all. If you use it, you will find the correct model and yourself in it. If not, then no.
Comment: In essence, you have explained this system in great detail many times, but your students still constantly ask about the same thing. You give some explanations and uncover finer gradations.
My Response: It depends on their advancement. I cannot scrutinize it now with you. You do not understand that a Kabbalist can scrutinize only those things that he really senses in the course of a conversation.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Practical Kabbalah” 9/28/10
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Preparation to the Lesson
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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 9 “Jacob Went Out” (1985) (1.30.2002)
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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”
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