“If Someone Comes to Kill You, Kill Him First”

294.2Question: What should I do if a terrorist wants to kill me?

Answer: It is said in the Torah that if someone comes to kill you, you must kill him first. The Torah speaks a lot about how people came out of Egypt and how many enemies they killed. How many did King David, who was constantly at war, kill? Warfare back then was not what it is today.

In those days tens of thousands of people were killed in face to face combat. This is not like modern warfare where a few bombs are dropped merely to pave the way for peace negotiations. Back then, how many men actually returned from the battlefield? In those times when there was a battle, it was a real battle!

Yet, even in those times, there were individuals who had attained high spiritual degrees, and a profound and accurate perception of reality. This was especially true in the times of the First Temple, and to some extent during the era of the Second Temple.

Did they not fight, did they not kill? What did the Maccabees do? They were Kabbalists of the highest caliber; they certainly perceived the spiritual dimension, the reverse side of our world.

The source of confusion lies in the fact that we do not see the spiritual world, and are merely attempting to imagine what it looks like from the reverse side.
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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”

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Movement toward the State of “Israel”

231.04In order to come to the state of “Israel,” we pass through several levels.

At first, a person who wants to be “Israel” does not understand or think about it. It is precisely because he is completely disconnected from the Creator that he begins to feel his lack of desire.

Then, after some time, he begins to feel that although it is important, he has no strength. Then he is called Nekeva (female aspect). And if he follows the advice of the Kabbalists, he joins a group that can provide him with the strength to go above reason and fortify the awareness of the importance of the goal above that desire which he had in him.

Desires begin to accumulate in a person to truly attain adhesion with the Creator, unification, and making a covenant with Him. Then instead of Nekeva, he is called Zachar (male aspect).

On this path, it happens that he again falls from the level of Zachar to the level of Nekeva where once more he has no strength. But time passes, the group influences him, and he returns to the level of Zachar.

Sometimes this happens thanks to his own efforts and sometimes due to “What the mind does not do, time does.” And so, he advances.

That person, who advances through his own efforts, who always takes care that the importance of the goal leads him forward, is called “Israel”—Yashar‑El (straight to the Creator). He defines this direction as a way of life, as a process that he must realize over the course of his life.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/26, Rabash, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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We Are Adam HaRishon!

929In creation, there is only the Creator and the creation. When the shattering occurred, the Creator, as it were, shattered Himself, and took on the negative qualities of the creation.

It is as though He contracted Himself, placed veils of concealments over His governance, and hid that it is good and does only good; He as if corrupted Himself in order to correspond to the future creation, which is destined to grow from a state of zero until it attains His level.

The Creator diminished Himself, His light; this is what is referred to as the entry of Malchut into the first nine Sefirot. This was only a preparatory stage. Subsequently Adam HaRishon emerges; he undergoes a shattering and a descent, and at this point the process of discernment and correction begins. This process must originate from us, from below upward.

Adam HaRishon, by correcting himself, thereby builds the correct governance with respect to himself.

Question: Why was Adam HaRishon not able to clarify this immediately? Why must we discern something that already exists?

Answer: We are discerning it because we are Adam HaRishon!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/26, Rabash, “Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All”

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 5/15/26

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 39 “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns forJerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?” (1990) (2.6.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Conversations of a Kabbalist with His Students

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 5/14/26

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The Difference Between the Science of Kabbalah and the Sciences of Our World

269There is a science concerning how a Kli (spiritual vessel) senses the upper force acting on it. If this study involves perception at the lowest level, it is referred to as the knowledge of this world, the sciences that exist in this world.

However, everything we study within these sciences is merely the impact of the upper force on the Kli without any change whatsoever in the properties of the Kli itself.

Yet, there is a method that enables one to change the properties of the Kli and bring them into correspondence with the upper force, and consequently the Kli will begin to reveal and perceive the upper force with greater intensity. This method is called the science of Kabbalah, a discipline in which the Kli, by transforming itself, studies what it feels and explores its sensations.

The difference between the science of Kabbalah and the sciences of this world is that the sciences of this world, while indeed studying the sensations resulting from the influence of the upper force on us, do not change the properties of the Kli to align with the upper force; that is, they do not engage in what we term “attainment of equivalence of qualities.”

If, however, the Kli begins to change its qualities, assimilating them to those of the upper force, then the entirety of this process, encompassing both the internal transformation itself and what the Kli perceives and receives from the upper force, is collectively what is known as the science of Kabbalah. This constitutes its fundamental difference from other sciences.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/26, Rabash, “Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All”

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Learn from the Upper One

263Question: What is bestowal?

Answer: Bestowal is a likeness to the upper force. The upper one gives to me and I to Him. I always learn from what He does for me, and from this I find out what I must do for Him. I do not know what this should be. I am in complete emptiness. I understand nothing, and I feel nothing.

I need to receive an example because in fact I do not know what is bitter and what is sweet, what is truth and what is false. Now everything is completely new for me. Nothing remains in me from what was before. I have risen above this world; that is, all my animal sense organs no longer operate at such a height.

I have gone out somewhere into a void, an empty space, where I possess absolutely nothing. I must acquire entirely new internal definitions and discernible qualities. It is like an uncalibrated instrument. Now it is necessary to input all the parameters to establish the foundation of its operation. I derive this data from the upper force. The upper one teaches me what is right and left, up and down, bitter and  sweet,  high and low, etc.

I begin to adopt His qualities, His understanding, His intellect; I acquire everything from Him, and in accordance with this, I exercise dominion and govern the desire that resides within me. The desire itself is merely raw, unrefined material.

Those qualities that remain unchanged in a person relate to the animate level, to my physical body, within which I must continue to function in a manner consistent with its nature. My human qualities, as it were, seem to completely disappear. Now I begin to relate to everything from the animal level upward as a true Human (Adam).

On the material level I remain simply an animal like everyone else. Just like everyone, I must receive medical treatment, go to the doctor, and fulfill a host of other requirements to sustain my body. But above the animate level, where I already begin to be as Adam (human), my calculations naturally shift in accordance with the degree of my similarity to the upper force.

These calculations may seem strange to those around me. Therefore Kabbalists know how to conceal them, or they separate themselves and hide from society.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/26, Rabash, “Peace after a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All”

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Analysis of Truth and False

251How can one determine what is really true and what is false? What, exactly constitutes  truth and falsehood? Perhaps the true is something soft and gentle, and the false is something hard and rigid? Or perhaps the truth is defined by whether something feels heavy or light?

I do not know what truth and falsehood are. These are completely relative things. You can simply give them some names, for example call one “A” and the other “B.” But I call truth and falsehood two distinct directions. The direction toward the upper force, toward bestowal, I call truth, and that natural, innate direction that existed within me, aimed inward toward my own desire, I call falsehood.

It is very simple. We just give two names to these two notions. You can refrain from calling them truth and falsehood and simply give them numbers: “one” and “two.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/26, Rabash, “Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes at All”

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The Kabbalists’ Calculations

608.02A Kabbalist must make calculations at every moment, and these calculations are above his sensations. Therefore, the head of the Partzuf is above its body.

First and foremost, he performs a calculation with the help of the screen by pushing his own sensations aside and deciding solely in favor of equivalence and unity with the upper force, in order to become similar to the upper one.

To the extent that he is able to do this, he begins to carry out this action.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/26, Rabash, “Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes at All”

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What Do the Nations of the World Expect from Israel?

962.2Do the nations of the world (AHP) agree to correction? Yes, but this consent emerges under the influence of the upper light on them. The AHP itself cannot draw down the light. Therefore, it is said that Israel serves as the light unto the nations of the world.

If Israel (Galgalta veEinaim) draws down the light and examines itself, then accordingly those parts that cannot be corrected in this form feel how they can really be corrected.

There are parts that attract light and there are parts that will be corrected when these lights come together. The GE, Israel, attract the lights, and when these lights assemble, they will correct the AHP.

Is there a place for mutual work here? I think so. What does mutual work mean? Perhaps it is the work of overcoming the resistance of the desire to receive to the process that is taking place inside us.

We see it from the outside, in the material world. The peoples of the world are opposed to the existence of Israel; they do not desire it. They perceive the GE as a superfluous element that dominates them, and does nothing to benefit them. This necessitates analysis.

Since the most crude Kelim require correction, vessels of reception, they feel the need for correction more than Israel does. Of course, the pressure comes from them.

What is the fundamental problem of our world? It lies in understanding and internalizing what is really taking place, in perceiving reality correctly and participating in the process in the proper manner, specifically by compelling the people of Israel to do what they are charged with. In essence, the nations of the world are already engaged in doing this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/26, Rabash, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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