When the upper governance influences us in a form that is unpleasant for us, bad from the perspective of our feelings, we do not feel spirituality and do not remember that the Creator exists. We think that this happens because pain clouds the mind, and we therefore forget that everything comes from the Creator. But this understanding is incorrect.

The fact that the Creator conceals Himself, when He seemingly does bad things to us, is not so that we will curse Him, forget about Him, and simply suffer. Why does He act this way?

He does it so that you will correct your Kelim and bring them to a state where it no longer matters whether you feel good or bad. The main thing is that He does not leave you. You will no longer be concerned with whether you feel something as sweet or bitter but only with truth and false, whether He is concealed from you or revealed, whether you feel His presence within you or not.

Then you begin to judge your state according to the presence of the Creator within you. If you feel a connection with Him, then sweet and bitter no longer matter.

Therefore, we say that the Creator never appears as one who does evil, because when He is revealed, it is impossible for you to feel bad. Even if you experience pain, it is perceived as something purposeful.
[357779]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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A human being is built of the will to receive and is essentially nothing more than a sensing cell; all intellect, knowledge, and decisions stem from what he feels.

Therefore, one can bring oneself closer to the goal only by means of ascents and descents. That is, drawing closer to the Creator happens through descents, through distancing oneself from Him.

A person is distanced from spirituality, pushed back, and shown how opposite he is to the goal; his own evil is revealed to him. We call this the recognition of evil. A person sees that he cannot do anything on his own, and is unfit for holiness. From all these sensations, a state eventually matures within him where he realizes that he has no choice, he must go above his own reason.

How does he reach such a state? Only after numerous falls, one following another, similar to the example in the Study of the Ten Sefirot of the man who strives to reach the King’s palace with all his strength while guards and sentries push him back, bar his way, and he tumbles down the mountain on which the Creator’s palace stands.

But each time that he is thrown down, he nevertheless rises and returns. He is pushed back even more forcefully, and he rises again and moves forward with patience and persistence. Ultimately through all these clashes and periods of distancing from spirituality, he builds a real desire to attain the goal within himself.

His passionate striving toward the goal is what subsequently triggers a sense of rejection. It always works this way—through opposites. From being rejected, he develops an understanding of the importance of the goal. Each thing gives birth to its opposite.

Therefore, if he does not have deep, sharp, crushing falls that bring disappointment and despair, he would not be able to truly value the goal. On the other hand, if he does not apply enough effort to come to it, even when it seems to him that just a bit more and he will attain the goal, only to fall again and again, he will not find out how far in fact he is from it.
[357866]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/26, Rabash, “And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre”

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If you see that something in the group does not align with the goal, or does not lead to adhesion with the Creator, you should carefully analyze this situation point by point, find quotes, talk to your friends, and bring the matter before the group. If the group sees that this can lead to improvement, it will accept the suggestion.

We must clearly and logically show everyone what needs to be improved and why, and invariably link it to the need to achieve adhesion to the Creator, but in a plain, practical way.

What does practical mean? Rabash writes that abstractions can destroy the whole world. Abstraction is a form not clothed in matter. You cannot say, “You must be altruistic; whoever is not altruistic should be kicked out of the group! There is no place here for the biggest egoist!”

We must follow the path of form clothed in matter and act only in accordance with a reality that can be realized and embodied, and which defines everything for us.

It is written that just as a donkey is blindfolded and walks forward, so must you close your eyes and walk. How can you close your eyes and go? Only if the group pulls you along. Clearly, you cannot walk that way on your own. You still do not know what spiritual forces influence a person.

I know this from my own experience. There were times when I would sit at home, and Rabash would call and shout: “Come over!” But I sat there and sobbed into the phone: “I cannot come! I feel a force stopping me.”

Therefore we must determine in advance how to proceed. A person does not join a group on the condition that he accepts some of the group’s laws but not others, and signs under this condition. He enters the group and signs everything; among the points is one that authorizes him to act according to the group’s rules regarding modifying any points.
[357400]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/26, Rabash, “These Are the Generations of Noah”

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Don’t look at others! Not at all. You have a different soul; you cannot be Like them and they cannot be like you. So pay less attention to everyone else. Would Einstein have achieved anything if he had kept looking at others? It is impossible! You should only listen to yourself. Even if I make a mistake, this is me.

Question: What if we apply it to an ordinary, everyday person?

Answer: What does ordinary mean? Everyone can be extraordinary. Let them listen to themselves, heed their own inner voice. This is what I can do, this is what I want, and this is what I believe. It is not contrary to others, but it is coming from inside of me.

I have to pull my “me” out of myself. Then you will feel very comfortable with it, even in mistakes.

Comment: I am trying to apply this to myself now, but this is not so easy!

My Response: Just close your eyes, and you are alone! But you are with yourself; you are still not running away from yourself. This is all.

Question: And should I live this way?

Answer: Yes

Question: Is this your advice?

Answer: This is my advice. Then in order to realize it you will have to create a special environment for yourself, and so on. But this is still you alone.

Comment: I am thinking about my own experience. If I feel that “this is mine,” you say I have to grasp it and that is all. Now I have felt once: “this is mine,” for sure I have felt…

My Response: This is what I am realizing.

Comment: And do I go this way? That is it! And on the way there will be squalls and waves…

My Response: It does not matter; it will make me even closer to myself.
[357096]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 4/24/26

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 12 “Jacob Dwelled in the Land Where His Father Had Lived” (1985) (2.28.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: Is it possible to combine Kabbalah with yoga or any other methods?

Answer: This is impossible because all other methods are opposite to Kabbalah, as they do not use the desire to receive to achieve the goal. All of them are based on the suppression of Kelim (vessels), rather than their development. Just as Kabbalah is a method of receiving, so they are methods of “non-receiving,” all without exception.

Receive as little as possible, eat only vegan food, think less, breathe less, want less, whatever it is, just less. That is, the goal is to lower a person from his level to the level of an animal or plant, or even to an inanimate level.

The source of all this lies in ancient Egypt, where even dead bodies were made into undecaying mummies. These are all Eastern methods. Of course, this has a spiritual root. There is also a justification on a material level.

When you give the masses an ideology based on the assertion that you must lower your desires and then everything will be fine, it immediately bears fruit. It is accepted because it makes sense to everyone. But if, in addition to ideology, we add a spiritual component to this, if we connect it with what is beyond our life and death, and assert that a person will receive eternal reward for this, it will become a religion. This is a great force.

But over thousands of years, the human ego has continually evolved from generation to generation. Whether we like it or not, we realize our egoism, which leads to the so-called development of humanity. As a result of the new desires that manifest in each of us from cycle to cycle, we are constantly striving for something new. Therefore even those nations that were committed to the ideology of reducing desire come to a state where they can no longer restrain it.

Nothing will be left of these methodologies over the course of a century. People who are going to India today are just traveling. No one is really able to engage their methodology. Those who manage to achieve this make themselves into a primitive animal. I do not want to talk much about it, but this is a kind of last Klipa against development. We are unable to resist the process of development of the desire to receive. In 10 to 20 years, all this will pass.

Those who today are able to escape from their suffering into such techniques—to turn off part of their mind, to lower themselves to a very low level, and to really be satisfied with it—such people are not for us. This is a primitive, undeveloped form.

However, the world is developing very fast. After all, all of this is against nature. This is not a correction, but an escape from correction. We will not achieve anything this way, just some kind of temporary artificial consolation.
[357818]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

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The rules of the group change according to the group’s advancement. If a group establishes artificial laws and rules for itself, then either it delays its development for some time, or sooner or later it discovers that it cannot keep them. The rule may remain written somewhere, but who actually follows it?

Suppose we define something, write it down, and everything looks wonderful, but no one really needs it. I constantly say that examining our internal laws is the most important thing, because through this a person examines himself. He must relate to the group’s rules as to his own inner rules, be in harmony with them, and advance together with them.

This does not determine my relationship to the members of the group; rather, it determines the relationship among all my inner forces, feelings, and desires. Therefore, first of all, I must see it as a model of how I want to see myself internally. We are not talking about my relationships with the friends; we naturally adjust to one another in any case. The charter must first and foremost be internal. There should be no difference between the external charter and the internal one.

In our world, after a country establishes its laws, it also establishes penalties for violating them. What is the purpose of these penalties? To compel a person to obey the laws.

In our case, it is what happens to a person if he fails to fulfill something in his personal account with the Creator. We cannot even imagine to what extent the rules that we establish within the group are accepted “Above.”

Baal HaSulam writes about this in “The Giving of the Torah”: The governance established by the people and the governance of the Creator naturally correspond to one another. What a large group of people determines becomes, in a certain sense, a law of the upper governance for them.

Do not take this too literally, we will speak about it more. I only want to say that by trying to fulfill some of your rules, even if they may seem foolish or unimportant, you will clarify the charter more quickly. You will discover what is relevant to us and what is not, what is more important and what is less important.

Ultimately, whether working with the internal or the external charter, your goal is to analyze it and thereby advance. How does a person advance? He examines the degree on which he stands: whether it is good or bad, useful or harmful, whether it is for his own sake or for the sake of bestowal. Through this examination, he acquires a clearer understanding of his state and of the direction in which he must move forward.
[357404]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/26, Rabash, “These Are the Generations of Noah”

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Question: Is Aviut the maximum degree of pleasure that I can receive?

Answer: Aviut is the degree of sensation of pleasure within the desire to receive. If I am sitting next to food but do not want it, then my Aviut is zero. But if I suddenly desire it, then I have a certain measure of Aviut according to how hungry I am.

How can this be measured? You can either measure it by the amount of food you are capable of consuming or, if possible, by the magnitude of the pleasure you receive. But all of this pertains to desires. We are not speaking about the physical size of the stomach.

Question: Why does Aviut change? Why can it decrease?

Answer: Aviut, meaning the measure of the sensation of pleasure, can change constantly, and indeed it changes all the time according to the types of connection with the host that I am able to reveal through this Aviut. Everything is arranged in order to bring me to a connection with the host.

Therefore, I should not pay attention to what is being revealed to me at any given moment: whether I want to eat more or less or whether I wish to enjoy this or that in one way or another. I should not concern myself with these things; they are not my problem.

They are revealed to me according to a higher calculation, while my task is to continuously orient myself in the correct direction. But why am I now given a descent, then a brief ascent, or some other state through one desire or another? That I, of course, cannot know. As long as I remain on a given degree, I can never know its causes, because those causes can only be revealed from a higher degree.
[357641]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/26, Rabash, “Why Is the Torah Called ‘Middle Line’ in the Work? – 1”

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Question: How can we determine what is “truth” and what is “falsehood” if we ourselves create both?

Answer: Today we take various values, such as “truth” and “falsehood,” as standards or benchmarks. Yet all these things are relative. What appears to us as false today may seem to be truth tomorrow, and what seems to be truth today may appear as a falsehood tomorrow.

Everything depends on our egoistic development. The further we advance, the deeper we look into the surrounding nature and into ourselves. Therefore, there is no absolute standard either in nature as we perceive it or within ourselves; everything depends on the degree of our development. In that case, it is impossible to determine what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false. All of it is highly relative.

However, if we were to discover the general law of nature—an absolute law that exists independently of man, not relative to him, not conditioned by the egoistic human being who undergoes development, but existing objectively in the surrounding reality—then, in accordance with that law, we would also come to know what truth is and what absolute falsehood is.

Then, through this, we would no longer be mistaken. On the contrary, we would be able to develop our attitude and our approach according to these standards. As a result, our development would truly become beneficial, desirable, and directed toward the good of the entire world.

Thus, the knowledge of the general law of nature and its implementation—not from the ego of man, but from the desire to come into balance and harmony with that universal law—is, in essence, the source of everything good. Through this we will come to a good life and truly discover what truth is and what falsehood is.
[236605]
From the Round Table of Independent Opinions, Berlin, 2006

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