Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/31/26
Posted on July 31st, 2026
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Question: Can it be said that a person ascends to the Creator from a state of darkness?
Answer: It all depends on what darkness is for me. I can be full of life while in that state.
For example, the World Cup has just started, and people are engrossed with it from morning until night. If I could interest them in the purpose of creation as intensely as they follow the ball, it would be simply wonderful! In other words, it all depends on what I see as darkness.
Suppose I am deeply drawn to this World Cup, yet I realize that all my thoughts and desires connected with it are darkness! But there is nothing I can do about it! And indeed, what is the purpose of creation matter compared to this? This championship contains the entire taste of life for me. But I define it as darkness. In fact, it is light for me, but my state, my attitude toward it is darkness! And then I begin to search.
Of course, my search is artificial, but I hope that someone will eventually change my state. So I force myself, willingly or not, to join a group that will help me, that will “brainwash” me, so that I will acquire different thoughts. Thus, everything depends on what we define as darkness.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, “Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,” Mean in the Work? ”
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The depth of spiritual attainment is determined by the depth of the corrected desire. With each new generation, increasingly coarser (more egoistic) souls descend into this world.
For this reason, the Kabbalists who lived before the ARI (16th century) had a small ego and could not reveal the elements of creation in full detail, such concepts as the Masach (Screen), Tzimtzum Aleph, Tzimtzum Bet (the first and second restrictions), and Ohr Hozer (Reflected Light).
They worked with these spiritual forces, but their origin and actions were not yet fully clear to them. Consequently, they could not describe them with complete precision.
It is like seeing a picture and even being able to paint it while not knowing how colors are decomposed into a spectrum, what wavelength each color has, how those wavelengths affect us, and how they are perceived as sensations.
Without sufficient depth of desire, it is impossible to reach the underlying causes and explain how the light connects with the desire.
The ARI was the first to reveal the distinction and connection between the direct light and the reflected light due to the uniqueness of his soul in its full depth.
In addition, the era of the Messiah was beginning and souls requiring correction started to be revealed in the world.
Before that, came the period of exile during which the ego had not yet manifested itself in a form ready for correction.
Therefore, it is said that all the Kabbalists before the ARI explained Kabbalah primarily from the perspective of the direct light (the Kabbalah of the Ramak), whereas the ARI explained Kabbalah from the perspective of the reflected light (the Kabbalah of the ARI).
Baal HaSulam continued the ARI’s method and made it applicable for our generation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/9, Baal HaSulam, Letter 29
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In spiritual work, a person must constantly choose the right line and turn toward the right. According to many Jewish laws, we are required to give preference to the right over the left: in putting on shoes, clothing, and so on. All of these are hints to spirituality. But how can we choose the right line over the left in our actions?
A person must perform such actions that will lead him to choose the right. He never performs the action itself, for he is the result of a combination of forces descending from above. Therefore, one must try to ensure that, under the influence of these forces, he becomes more connected with the right line.
Rabash gives various pieces of advice on how to achieve this: study more, and during the study ask that this happens; be with the friends and listen to their advice on what the right line is and what the left line is; try to clarify for yourself what this is and exalt the right line within yourself.
So start thinking about it and try to clarify this concept. This is precisely what we study: how to make the right decision. Many things operate according to the same principle: choosing a goal, selecting the means to attain it, making an accurate analysis of the situation, and then trying to connect all these things together.
For example, we want to gather together and decide how to publish books in Hebrew, specifically in what external form. We still do not know the details: what the cover should be, what illustration it should have, and everything else. I must clarify what the issue is, by what means I can solve it, and what questions I need to answer, in other words, how I arrive at the certainty that a particular format is the best possible one.
In this simple way, without unnecessary philosophizing, we choose only what is essential. We do not feel that this relates to our spiritual work, but in fact it does, and it is very closely connected to it. If we know how to present our work in the group correctly, and indeed everything we do in life, then we will never make a mistake.
This is the process of clarification and decision-making. We do not know on what basis to make decisions or how to make them, but the decision is the result of the process of our work, and it will be correct if the process itself is correct. This aligns perfectly with our spiritual laws.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/26, Rabash, “What Is “Do Not Slight the Blessing of a Layperson” in the Work?”
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We should understand for what purpose a person should know that he fears God (Rabash, “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?”).
What does it mean that a person must pass a test? Who is testing him, and for what purpose? And why, at the very beginning, should a person say about everything he encounters: “If I am not for myself, who will help me?” That is, he must begin the action as though he has the ability to accomplish it by his own strength without the intervention of any other force, as though he himself is acting, and not the Creator or His messenger.
Then, after he has completed the work, whether he succeeded or not, but has done everything he intended to do, he must say: “There is none else besides Him.”
What does saying this before the work and after it mean? How does merely saying these words help? Here we are speaking about a person’s spiritual state before performing the action and after completing it.
We know that the light builds the Kli and performs every action within it. The Kli is the result of the light. It is entirely under the influence of the light and is incapable of making any independent decisions. It has no other option than either to agree or disagree with what is happening, according to the depth of its awareness of what the light is doing with it.
Without a doubt, the Creator performs everything. Yet a person must come to the perception that everything he does, everything that happens to him, is the Creator’s action. This is the essence of our correction: to heal the blindness of our senses, of our perception.
Therefore, when a person utters a blessing or offers a prayer, it does not mean that something will happen afterward because of it. On the contrary, both the blessing and prayer are felt only in relation to the result that the person has already attained through the light’s influence upon him.
The light influences the Kli, and the Kli begins to feel what the light is doing to it. From Aviut Aleph to Aviut Dalet, it receives impressions from the lights of NRNHY, according to the order of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida.
This continues until the person attains the full depth of the Creator’s intention toward him and understands everything that the Creator wishes to accomplish. Accordingly, the Kli truly reaches a state in which it shares the same action and the same awareness as the Creator. Then either a genuine prayer or genuine gratitude arises within him.
What does this mean? It means that the person has truly reached a state in which he understands what the Creator is doing with him, as it is written: “From Your actions we know You.” He then knows precisely which actions have passed over him, who brought them about, for what purpose, and what they accomplished within him. To the extent permitted by his spiritual structure, he has completed his work: he has examined and felt the Creator’s influence.
As a result of fully feeling and understanding the Creator’s action upon him, he becomes similar to the Creator in that very action and accepts it completely. This means that he justifies the action and brings himself into equivalence with it, that is, he becomes similar to the Creator through His actions. And through this awareness, correction comes. Thus, he completes that stage.
Then the Creator acts upon him once again, and again he must say: “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” This means that he must personally examine everything and carry it through. In this way, he comes to know the Creator’s action upon him. Then after reaching a state where he has understood everything, he says: “There is none else besides Him.”
He truly sees and knows that only the Creator acts. And now, having understood each of His actions completely, that is, having reached the state in which he feels within that action that the Creator is “Good and does good,” he himself acquires the intention to be good and to do good.
This is what is meant by: “From Your actions we know You.” Through the actions that reveal what the Creator does, a person comes to know Him with his own senses. Based on this knowledge, he transforms his own feelings so that they become like the Creator’s. This is called adhesion, equivalence of qualities and intentions. The fact that, at the end of his work, he gives thanks means that he has completed that degree, examined it, corrected himself, become similar to the Creator, and is ready for the next action.
Therefore, everything begins with: “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” This is the entire work of the “spies,” the work of examination and scrutiny. A person regrets, agrees, struggles, and continues searching until he understands the essence of the Creator’s action. When he finally accepts it as good, he justifies it, brings himself into equivalence with it, and ultimately becomes like the action itself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/26, Rabash, “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?”
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What Is the Root of Hatred?
The root of hatred is the breaking of the screen; there is no unity, each one feels only their own will to receive, and we feel alienation toward a will to receive that is different from our own. There are many degrees. We love ourselves and care only about ourselves because our nature compels us to do so. As RABASH writes in an article: a wolf that devours a deer does not do harm to the deer; the wolf’s nature demands that it fill itself, and the Creator created it so that the deer is its fulfillment. The wolf eating the deer is a correction for both the wolf and the deer. To us it seems terrible, but it is not. It is nature.
He also continues and writes that there are animals that harm other animals, not because they need to, but out of an ancient habit that was necessary for survival in the past and now is no longer necessary. Therefore, even though the need for its actions is not understood, the ancient habit seems to exempt it from punishment because it is not to blame for having become accustomed in this way, since nature accustomed it to act in such a way. Here we are speaking only about the animal degree, the degree of the still, vegetative, and animate. Therefore, these degrees have neither good deeds nor transgressions, and they are not judged as good or evil according to their behavior. They only have nature.
Human beings are required to deal with their relationships. The question of what we need for survival and for the fulfillment of our basic needs is not asked. Usually the state ensures that each person has a secure piece of ground under their feet. The more corrected the society is, the more it cares for its members. Our self-examination begins at the degree above survival.
Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Last Generation” that at the end of correction, in the last generation, there will be a universal religion for all the nations. What will that religion be? It will be to not receive more than the least unsuccessful person receives from society. He calls this “religion.” The rest of the nations, he says, can maintain their religions, customs, and traditions, and will not interfere. This indicates Baal HaSulam’s attitude toward the entire animal degree. In other words, I make an account of what is necessary for me according to the last unsuccessful person, the one who truly receives less than everyone else. If I receive more than that person, then I receive luxuries. This is what Baal HaSulam says. This is the ideal, the religion of the last generation.
However, necessity has many degrees. There is a degree in which we relate only to ourselves and our needs, and there is a degree in which we already begin to take others into account.
What does it mean “to take others into account”? We have animal desires that animals also have: food, sex, shelter, family, which are all necessities. “Necessary” is what we do only for the needs of our body. When we already begin to look at what others have, it means we no longer consider only what our body needs, but we think about how we will appear in the eyes of others. Suddenly we need a five-story house, which means that we begin to calculate our needs, not according to our body, but according to the eyes of others.
RABASH recounts that in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20th century his family had one room. In the corner of the room there were mattresses, and at night each person would spread out a mattress and sleep on it. The wealthy parents of his daughter-in-law had two rooms. The entire family lived in one room, and they rented out the second room. This was normal and this was how everyone lived. Today, necessity is that each person has their own room, their own private corner.
When we begin to take society into account and to measure what they should receive from it according to what we see around us, this also affects essential needs such as food and a house. We choose our food and our house according to the variety offered in the supermarket and according to the houses that others build. These all turn from a basic bodily need into a need to have what our neighbors have. This is no longer a necessity but a relationship to the environment. When these needs are compared with what society consumes, they already receive another character and are no longer called necessities but luxuries belonging to human desires: money, honor, and knowledge. These are desires influenced by society, even though they are seemingly connected to the body. In fact, the body does not need them.
In human desires, desires that relate only to society, there is a thought about what we want to contribute to society, opposite to the thought about what we want to receive. However, we want to receive: do we want others not to have what we have, or that they will have it, and perhaps together we can make it good for everyone? In human desires, there is an entire spectrum of shades, from a good attitude toward others to hatred of others.
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Preparation to the Lesson
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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 28 “The Spies” (1985) (7.19.2002)
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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”
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It is impossible to compel a person to perform any action because in spirituality an action is defined as the movement of the soul, a desire brought about by an inner spiritual effort. A person is incapable of producing this effort on their own. It is an action that arises within them according to their own nature and the measure of the light that comes to them from above.
We never say that a vessel (Kli)—operating according to its Aviut (thickness of desire), Reshimot (spiritual records), and the incoming light—suddenly wants to change or become something different. You cannot decide anything on your own; everything is predetermined for each particular moment. If you wish to change your future, only one opportunity has been given to you: studying within a group through which you acquire an additional desire that is not merely your own but an addition acquired from the group, a desire for the upper one.
This is precisely why the shattering into many parts occurred. The soul, as a single vessel filled with light, can become uncorrected and causes the light to depart and the soul to fall. One might ask why are 613 parts needed instead of a single whole? It is written that this was done so that correction would be easier. Through a multitude of souls, incarnations, and small actions, the work of correction will become easier to perform. That is the whole point. Had the soul not been shattered, I would have had no possibility to determine anything at all.
The vessel, together with all its Reshimot and desires, is filled with light and receives it from above; this is already predetermined. Everything comes from above, both the desire and the light. The same would hold true even in the absence of both desire and light. Only subsequently does the light arrive and awaken the vessel (Kli) that begins to move in response.
The division of the collective soul into many parts gives me the opportunity, on my own level—without appealing to above, which I am incapable of doing—to perform the only action that is not predetermined. This is possible precisely because it takes place on my level where I can receive an addition to my desire from the other parts, or more accurately, an addition to my perception.
Thus, I do not determine who I am, what I am, or what the Creator bestows me. Imagine a Kli: whatever is in it is what it has; whatever light comes to it is the light that comes. It cannot change any of this. This determines its state, its thoughts, its desires—everything. The only free choice is to receive an additional perception from a neighboring Kli because the two are connected through their common root. Had they not been connected, such a possibility would not have existed.
Two Kelim (vessels), which were united at their common root, descend into this world and become separated from one another. By striving to connect with another person, by taking something from them, you are, in effect, performing the same act of connection that exists at the root. Instead of the triangle (Kli–root–Kli), you “bond” the two vessels directly, as though merging their desires into one. You receive from your friend an aspiration for spirituality, for the Creator, regardless of whether that aspiration has already been corrected to some extent or not.
In this way, it is as though you unite the two vessels above, and this is the only action you are capable of performing through your own free choice—the only one. Then it is as though you possess two vessels: the one that was originally yours and the desire you received from your friend. And once you have taken your friend’s desire, you thereby evoke from above—where the multitude of souls is united—at least the light that belongs to both souls. As a result, both your own light and your friend’s light begin to pour upon you; and this is a wonderful addition.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work?”
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The Study of the Ten Sefirot describes the construction of our soul. By studying it, I will learn exactly what is happening inside me, even though I do not feel it now. But I want to feel and understand it because if I connect with it, I will enter eternal life.
Therefore I must constantly develop the habit of thinking this way and listening—listening, and listening endlessly. Then during my studies I will not merely lack general knowledge, but I will develop the need to find out what is written about me in the book. Now I am reading a book about myself, not about some world separated from me by thousands of partitions.
There are no worlds outside of me; they all exist within me. Among my 620 desires, there are those that relate to one world, another, or a third world; that is how it is divided.
All 620 of my desires represent 620 degrees that I have to surmount, starting from my present state all the way to the final correction.
These 620 degrees are divided into five groups, each of which is hidden in a certain way, revealed by performing a certain action, filled with a certain light, and therefore each one is called a world. All these things are inside me. Outside of me is only Atzmuto, the essence of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”
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