When the Creator is revealed to us, we are, as it were, in a state of goodness and are able to justify Him. But when He is not revealed, we find ourselves in a state of evil and curse Him. What does it mean to curse Him? We curse the state we find ourselves in.

Then what depends on us? The pace of our advancement. Moreover, the direction we choose also depends on us, and ultimately this is expressed in the pace of our advancement.

It is said: The Creator places a person’s hand upon the good fortune and says, “Choose this for yourself.” Suppose a person does not wish to choose what he has been shown. He was offered the opportunity to come and study, but he did not take it seriously. Besides, he is still young, not even married. “I’ll come to it when I’m at least 30 years old.”

In other words, the person did not strengthen himself in the choice that the Creator had given him. As a result, several years were lost. This is what it means that a person chooses the pace of his advancement: either he strengthens himself in the direction that has been shown to him or he chooses another direction.

One may ask, “But is this really in his power? Is everything not under the Creator’s governance?” One could say that about everything. But here the question is whether a person used the opportunity that was given to him or not.

The Kabbalists say, and this is concealed from us, that throughout your life you exist in a state of apparent freedom. Yet know this: There is only one thing in which you are truly free —the purpose of creation, your connection with the Creator.

Free choice exists only in making use of the opportunity to connect with the Creator. The Creator calls to you: “Draw near to Me.” If you do not do so, that is your choice. In everything else, whether to eat ice cream or chew gum, watch football or go to sleep, it makes no difference. Nor does it matter who I am: a criminal, a thief, or an upright person. In all these things, we choose nothing.

There is only one point of free choice: whether you desire a connection with the Creator or not.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Question: By what can a person determine his state?

Answer: A person cannot assign a definition to his own state. He is not the master of his states. He is only capable of discerning the state he is in, measuring it, and evaluating it.

He can evaluate his state according to the degree to which the Creator is revealed to him. For example, I feel bad. I am immersed in evil, completely absorbed in it. I have nothing in my life. Who am I? What am I? I do not know. I simply feel bad.

Then, suddenly, I remember that although I truly feel bad, this state is necessary because I am going through a certain process, and there is a purpose in my being in it.

Having passed through this bad state, I take a lesson from it, and through that I become worthy of knowing the good. It is precisely in this bad state, in this evil, that I begin to understand more and discern more.

Then, when I enter a good state, I will be able to understand that evil and speak about it from an entirely different perspective. The greater the contrast between the bad and the good states, the more I come to know. The greater the confusion, the greater the understanding and attainment that follow.

So what determines the state I am in? It is determined by the extent to which the Creator is revealed to me within that state. If He is revealed to me just a little more, then, despite the fact that I still feel bad, I open the book Shamati and begin to understand that this is not such a terrible state after all. It is simply a stage on the path that I must go through. Then the state is no longer so bad. It is unpleasant in sensation, but favorable for spiritual advancement.

For example, I am building a house. A shipment of concrete blocks has arrived, and I have to carry them up to the second floor. What do you focus on, the hard work itself or what will ultimately come from it? If you see the goal, then carrying the blocks is not so difficult. But if you look only at the state that you are in now, as an ordinary laborer rather than the owner of the future house, then, naturally, carrying the blocks feels like hard labor.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Question: What if you suddenly realize that you were mistaken? And you have already put all your cards into this one thing. You found what seemed to be your life’s work, and suddenly it turns out that you were wrong.

Answer: Then you must invest yourself beyond all limits into that one and only thing that remains for you, in which you now feel and discover that you were mistaken, that it is not the main thing and besides it, nothing else remains. Otherwise, you will be lost.

Question: You just said something that is not simple. You said: “You already understand, you now feel that this is a mistake, and yet invest yourself in it completely.” Above reason?

Answer: Of course. But that is only if you are certain that you have nothing else left, that you have given this matter everything, your whole life.

Question: And what will happen then? Here I am, walking into this black hole.

Answer: Then the Creator will help you. Then He must help you. In principle, this is exactly how it happens in Kabbalah.

Comment: There are all kinds of states.

My Response: There are many states, but in the end, we all arrive at just one.

Question: So that the Creator will help?

Answer: In a state of absolute disappointment in yourself, in the Creator, in the matter itself, in the goal—in everything!

Comment: After having invested your whole life into it.

My Response: Yes, and when you reach such disappointment, then you can let go of everything, and you will see success.

Question: Kabbalists write that when you have passed through all the gates, only one gate remains: the “Gate of Tears.” Is this what you are referring to?

Answer: This is beyond tears.

Question: You have already passed the “Gate of Tears”? So, your advice is to keep striking at that point until the very end?

Answer: If you can still keep striking and striking, then these are not yet the final gates.

Question: So this disappointment must be there? It must?

Answer: Absolutely! Because it goes against human nature itself, against the way the Creator created us. Therefore, it must be absolute disappointment.

Question: Where is the upper mercy in all of this?

Answer: It is beyond this. When the Creator leads a person through all these trials, then beyond them, the person reveals the Creator’s upper mercy.

Comment: One would have to be a very strong person.

My Response: No. I think no one is strong. Everyone is very weak. The Creator will do everything.
[359158]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/1/26

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 200

What Does the Upper One Give Us?

The upper one gives everything. It gives the vessels, the lights, and the forces needed for us to build a screen (Masach) so that the lights can enter the vessels corrected by that screen.

What is required from us is only to discern, feel, ask, and desire these things. In other words, we do not perform the action itself. Instead, like a small child, we only need to understand, demand, taste, and discern, which is to carry out the inner work of scrutiny and prayer.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 35 “What Is the Meaning of ‘Spies,’ in the Work?” (1991) (7.21.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

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Question: How can I hold on to “There is none else besides Him” when I am engaged in various things that distract and confuse me by bringing either pleasure or suffering?

Answer: First of all, one must believe that all these things are given to me so that through them I will gradually determine that “There is none else besides Him.” This must be the goal.

You should make reminders for yourself, create a system, strict frameworks, so that all of this compels you every 15 or 30 minutes to return to the same state. Everything should mechanically remind you of the Creator. After that, you will already be able to work independently.

Naturally, at first there is no taste in this, but over time it comes. Through these actions, which seem to have “no benefit,” you draw the surrounding light, and it influences you in a general way, so that you remember and constantly remain in this awareness.

Gradually, you come to a state where you feel that you are, at least, no longer in double concealment but in simple, single concealment, where the Creator is constantly present in the background, yet you feel that He is concealed.

With my teacher, Rabash, one could feel that he was never disconnected from the Creator, and this made a very powerful impression.
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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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The purpose of creation is to bring a person to a state of absolute goodness and eternal bliss. This is, without question, the Creator’s degree. In order to attain such a state, a person must first of all desire it.

But in order to desire it, while still existing in the opposite state, he must gradually reveal that very opposition within himself, feel more and more deeply how bad it is, and how good it is to possess a desire for spirituality.

All the work on the desire is performed by the light, by the Creator, not by the person himself. Therefore, all he has to do is reveal his true state each time, the state in which he presently exists, from there strive toward the next state, and draw one degree closer to the Creator.

Everything that is required of a person is to determine the direction of his desire, the aim of his aspiration. This is what is called intention (Kavana). The word “Kavana” comes from the Hebrew “Lechaven” (to direct), that is, to determine the direction in which I want to advance.

What does it mean to ask, “What is your intention?” It means: Where are you striving to advance? What do you want to attain? What is your goal? A person needs to determine only this. Everything else is done by the Creator.

The light corrects the Kelim. If necessary, it first spoils them, then corrects them, fills them, and empties them. Through its expansion and departure, the light builds the Kli. The light does everything.

The Kli, however, possesses a kind of point of awareness that enables it to determine and discern the state in which it exists, recognize the evil of its present condition and the state it wishes to attain: what its direction is, what its intention is, in other words, what the next desired place is.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Question: Which criterion can we use to constantly check whether we are in the right environment?

Answer: The right environment is an environment that guides a person’s thoughts and desires to connect with the Creator with maximal force.

The right environment is all my inner qualities relative to my point in the heart, which connects me with the Creator. Everything else in me must contribute to this point of connection with the Creator.

My properties, desires, and aspirations are called my environment. My “I,” which is called “Moses” in me, that is, the point where the formation of the soul begins, can grow only in the right environment.

Rabash writes that there must be an initial state, stages of development of this state, the environment, and stages of development of this environment. If all this works together for the connection with the Creator, optimal conditions are created for the development of the soul.

I have to check which of these four parameters I can influence and which I cannot. It is a pity to waste time, for this is our work. There are many people who waste their breath, unable to see that their pursuits are empty. Of course, they will understand this over time, but it is a shame to make an effort only to realize the mistakes.
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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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Question: Why is it necessary to put pressure on the group so that it is more precisely directed toward the goal? What does it mean to put pressure? It seems as though the group is constantly resisting this.

Answer: No, the group simply consists of people just like you. Putting pressure on them is also part of your free choice.

By placing yourself under the influence of your friends, as if standing under a shower so that they may influence you and cleanse you, you must also examine exactly how they are influencing you. Maybe they are being frivolous; maybe you are sitting in the “company of mockers.”

You must constantly demand that the group improve.
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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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