Question: You said that a sign of advancement is the sense of helplessness in the desire to receive. Yet, there are so many people in the world who feel bad without any connection to striving toward a higher goal.

Answer: You are saying that there are many people in the world who day after day increasingly feel worthless. I am not sure that is so. The surest sign of advancement is that this feeling of worthlessness comes first as a result of applied efforts, and second, if I do not despair, but continue the work.

How do I know that disappointment, helplessness, bitterness, or a state in which I feel as though I am dying yet at the same time hate the Creator for it is the result of my purposeful efforts? Only if my despair is purposeful, when despite everything I continue to exert efforts, to break through forward, toward the Creator, and along with that, I increasingly feel what spirituality is and to what extent my nature is in opposition to it.

In other words, any state we experience includes two factors in itself: a Kli and the light. And if in bad states I perceive them correctly, it means that I am on the right path, that my despair is not merely laziness. It does not come because I have failed to receive something from the pleasures of this world nor because I lack power or honor; but rather, it is a direct consequence of the fact that I have not yet attained the goal.

My goal is the intention for the sake of bestowal, yet I have discovered that I am even further from it, that the nature of the Creator is an even greater bestowal than I had imagined.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”

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