Audio Version Of The Blog – 7/1/26
Posted on July 1st, 2026
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio
Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3Audio
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 156
When Do We Despair of Our Own Strength?
We come to despair of our own strength only after going through all incorrect searches. We aim our “rifle” at various states and things, and only afterward do we arrive at the correct state, where we truly feel this sense of despair. However, this comes only after all other states.
We need to pass through all such states, and there can be thousands of them. We do not know how many thousands, perhaps there could be billions of states, and through their mutual inclusion within one another, they all exist within us.
However, if we receive good support from the environment, we go through them without even sensing the pace at which they are passing.
Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 155
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 154
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 153
Aside from obtaining the full measure of the will to receive, giving one all the material one needs for one’s work, this is the degree that brings one to Lishma [for Her sake]. It is as our sages said (Pesachim 50b): “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], as from Lo Lishma, one comes to Lishma.”
One should take every measure suited to come to Lishma, for if one does not strain for this and does not achieve Lishma, he will fall into the trap of the impure maid (Baal HaSulam, Introduction to the Book of Zohar).
If a person wishes to move from his current state (1) to the next state (2), he must understand what he is striving for. In the first state, he must be able to feel the second state and desire it above all other possible states that may present themselves to him. If he truly desires the second state more than anything else, he evokes a force called the light that reforms, which transfers him from the first state to the second.
This transition does not mean that the fulfillment within me changes: “Previously, I knew one thing, and now I know another. Previously, I felt one way, and now I feel differently.” No. The action of the light produces a different result: previously, I thought according to one system, and now my system of thinking has changed. Previously, I felt according to one system, and now my system of feeling has changed. Through the light that reforms, it is not the content of the mind and feeling that changes, but the mind and feeling themselves. That is how I pass into the next state.
Therefore, already in the first state, a person does not really want to change the fulfillment. That is not what matters. What matters is that the feeling and the mind themselves change. He wants them to become bestowing rather than receiving.
Question: How can one imagine this new pattern?
Answer: It comes through effort and contemplation. Time also plays its role. But if you do not want the process to take a long time, hasten it!
There are two states: the current first state and the next second state. In each state I have both feeling and mind. In both states there is fulfillment, but in the first state the fulfillment is bad, while in the second it is good. I rise above both of them and ask for a new vessel, a new feeling, and a new mind. I ask not for a different fulfillment, but for a different heart and brain.
This is how we advance by faith above reason, from separation to adhesion. What matters to me is not whether the fulfillment within the vessel is good or bad, but what I do above it by raising Ohr Hozer (reflected light).
Question: What is the difference between asking for fulfillment and asking for a new feeling and mind?
Answer: The intention. I change my intentions.
Question: But by nature, the desire wants fulfillment. How can it switch to a different request?
Answer: Through the Ohr Makif (surrounding light), which returns to the source. Through the Torah.
Question: Do I know what I am striving for, or do I simply want something new?
Answer: I know. After all, I am working with my desire. I must at least have some understanding of what bestowal is.
Question: What is the actual process of moving from the first state to the second?
Answer: A change in attitude from oneself to the Creator.
Question: What exactly happens to my mind and feeling during this transition?
Answer: It all depends on what is more important to me. The mind and the feeling are me. The light acts upon me and changes my priorities.
I cannot change myself on my own because I will truly know myself only at the end of correction. For now, I am only somewhat familiar with the “animal” in which I live but not with my true self. I must come out of that “animal,” separate myself from it so that it stands beside me, and only then begin to work on myself. Only then will I begin to know who I really am.
Question: According to what Baal HaSulam writes here, does that mean not everyone will attain the intention of Lishma?
Answer: Anyone who has a genuine attraction to the wisdom of Kabbalah already wants, at least inwardly, to change himself. He may not yet realize it or understand it, but he is already prepared for it. Such a person possesses an inner demand and is not willing to remain as he is. He seeks a true transformation.
[103334]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/13, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”
Related Material:
How Can You Get To Know Yourself?
Chicks Under Their Mother’s Wings
Everything Will Be Clarified In The Thought
Question: Can it be said that as we advance faith above reason becomes faith within reason?
Answer: Faith above reason never becomes faith within reason. We are speaking about a world that we do not feel. It seems to us that what takes place there can be described by concepts familiar to us. Faith above reason, the quality of bestowal, spiritual qualities, all of these have absolutely no connection to what exists within us now.
Faith above reason will never be felt within reason. This work of Bina and Malchut remains forever. Malchut can never change. The desire to receive remains exactly as it was created. It loves to enjoy receiving, and its fulfillment is the Creator, the light. One can change the form in which it is used, but not the desire itself.
Therefore it is forbidden to address the desire to receive, to suppress it, or to try to change it in any way. Do you want to use it differently? Fine. Give it a different direction; determine for what purpose it will be used. But the desire itself remains exactly as it was.
The point is that the difference between Klipa (impurity) and holiness is not in the actions themselves, but in the intention behind the actions. Rabash gives the following example. A person is cut with a knife. If it is for the person’s benefit, it is called an operation performed by a surgeon. But if it is for one’s own benefit, it is called murder. Yet the action itself remains exactly the same.
[357831]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”
Related Material:
How To Rise to Faith Above Reason
Desire And Intention
Intention Is Action
Question: We perform various actions in order to fulfill our desires. How should we relate to these desires?
Answer: We do not focus on the desires themselves; rather, we seek the source of the desires because that is where our correction lies. One who remains within one’s desires remains within their animal nature. One will never find fulfillment, peace, or correction in that state; there is no way out of it. There is nothing within the desire itself; it is empty.
If you want to fulfill a desire, you must turn to its source and not remain immersed in the desire. “The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.” This is what those do who constantly look inward at their desires. The Creator gives us a sense of emptiness within our desires that leads us to ask: “What is the source of pleasure? Where is fulfillment?”
Accordingly, we should strive toward fulfillment by thinking about Him, not about our emptiness. We should not suppress our desires, dwell on them, or remain attached to them. Rather, we should rise above them and establish a connection with the source from which they can be fulfilled.
I cling to the upper one. By doing so, I do not detach myself from reality or from the desire to receive; I simply understand that the answer is not found within reality itself. This is a very logical, precise, and scientific method. It is not without reason that it is said that the wisdom of Kabbalah encompasses all sciences; those are not empty words.
[357834]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”
Related Material:
Escaping The Rule Of Our Desire
Living In Intention Instead Of Desire
The Physics of Our Desires
Question: The dialogue I conduct with myself, trying to understand why I suffer, takes place within my ordinary Kelim. Can I really investigate the source of suffering within them?
Answer: Your dialogue with yourself does indeed take place within ordinary Kelim (vessels). However, because you are working according to the system described by people who have already corrected themselves and attained the state of Gmar Tikun (final correction), you receive from them a force called Ohr Makif (surrounding light).
Naturally, without help from above, you would continue revolving around the same questions with your own intellect and desires and never rise above them. All your investigations would remain on the same plane, as happens with philosophers.
What is the difference between us and them? They use the intellect, but they do not draw the surrounding light upon themselves.
If you study the correct books, the authentic sources, with the intention of attracting the surrounding light, then you begin to utilize a force, a height, that exists above your nature. This is the difference.
If, in your investigations, you rely solely on your own intellect, as philosophers do, then you remain on the same plane. In such a case, there is no correction through the surrounding light. You simply become more intelligent within the framework of this world. But this does not give you the ability to free yourself from suffering or to attain its source.
All that you possess are conclusions reached through reasoning. This is called philosophy; one does not draw the upper force in order to be corrected by it. Drawing the upper force not to dwell with suffering or to fill it, but to attain its source is the work of a human being.
Comment: But a person must know what to ask for.
My Response: There are many subtleties here. When the surrounding light begins to influence us, our request changes. We stop asking for fulfillment and begin asking for correction. We begin to desire to become similar to the light itself, initially without understanding what is happening to us and later with awareness.
The first phase (Behina Aleph) of the four phases of direct light desires to receive and enjoy the light. Yet after some time, it suddenly begins to desire to bestow, just as the light bestows. This is the result of the influence of the upper light upon us.
Without this wondrous property, we would never be able to attain anything.
The difference between the wisdom of Kabbalah and philosophy (as well as all other methods) is that Kabbalah utilizes the surrounding light. From my corrected state, I draw this force, this light, into my present state, because I want to be corrected, because I want to be there.
[357795]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”
Related Material:
What Is The Difference Between Philosophy And Kabbalah?
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah And Philosophy: Who Has The Last Word?
The Wisdom Of Kabbalah Is Not Philosophy
During our studies we also have to include the current situation around us in our prayer. We want equivalence of form with the Creator and for the upper force to come and correct us and to make the necessary transformation within us.
I need this transformation not for myself and not even to bestow contentment to the Creator from myself, which is also egoistic, in a slightly different way, but it is still egoistic.
I want that all creations would come to such a level of consciousness where they would understand the goal and would grow closer to Him. Why should the desire be like this? This is the result of caring for the whole world, for all of reality.
A person who includes not only the group, but all of humanity, finds within oneself and activates additional forces of one’s soul for this request. After all, each of us contains all the forces that exist in the world; therefore, the more we expand our request, the more powerfully we activate our soul toward the Creator.
We must consider why it is necessary to do that. This is because we have received the privilege to advance, to ask and demand the Creator to help us fulfill what is entrusted upon us: to be a light unto the nations of the world and to bring the idea of the purpose of creation and how to reach it, to our people and to the whole world. A person has to feel that the blame for the world still not being corrected lies with them. Therefore they must ask for correction.
During the Lebanon War, in the early 80s, Rabash and I went for a walk in park as we usually did. He would listen to the radio every five minutes. At that time, people in Bnei-Brak did not listen to the radio. I was surprised. After all, nobody is interested in this! To which he replied: “They are not interested because they do not feel that their own children are there now.” Rabash felt it!
Therefore we have to understand, even if just intellectually for now, as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the Introduction to The Book of Zohar, that if something bad is happening with us, with our people, it is happening because those who have received the information from above about how to correct the world and how to draw the whole humanity to the Creator, they are still not realizing this; are not doing their work in its fullness.
Thus, we have what to pray for and a reason to ask for strength in addition to what we usually ask and demand. We have to sense that we are responsible for what is happening.
Therefore, when we try to formulate our request from myself though the group to the Creator, we have to include these things in it as well. They are now coming at us directly, and it is not by accident that we see and feel our life precisely this way. We are obliged to react to this.
[357563]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/26, Rabash, “What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work?”
Related Material:
A Kabbalist’s Concern For The World
Awaken Care For The World Within You
The Whole World On My Shoulders
Preparation to the Lesson
 Video: Play Now | Download |
 Audio: Play Now | Download |
1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 30 “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends” (1988) (3.28.2003)
| Video: Play Now | Download |
Audio: Play Now | Download |
2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (4.19.2001)
| Video: Play Now | Download |
Audio: Play Now | Download |
Daily Audio Version-MP3
Get the Weekly eNewsletter
Follow on Twitter
