Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/8/26
Posted on August 8th, 2026
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Question: On one hand, it is said that we should begin the work with “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” On the other hand, we say that we should always begin with “There is none else besides Him.” So how should one act correctly?
Answer: When I say, “There is none else besides Him,” I am speaking about my general approach, how I relate to what is happening to me.
Without a doubt, it is sent to me from above, and it means that I agree with the upper governance and accept the burden of the upper Malchut upon myself. This is what distinguishes me from an ordinary person on the street.
After I have said, “There is none else besides Him,” I say, “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” That is, relying on the fact that this has come from the Creator, I now detach myself from His action.
If I were to remain immersed in His action all the time, I would remain at the zero level of Aviut, nullifying myself and nothing more. Therefore, I emerge from this self-nullification and begin, through my own efforts and my own actions, to examine all these states; that is, to act independently.
I make my own corrections, as though everything depends on me.
[359245]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/26, Rabash, “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?”
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Question: Is it possible to escape from evil for a month, or at least for a week?
Answer: I do not think running away from evil for a week or a month would help, because you would very quickly find that you need the disturbances of this world. You have not yet absorbed enough of them.
How can you verify this? Go to some remote village, isolate yourself there, begin studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, study the authentic sources together with your friends, and you will see that after a day or two at the most, boredom will set in, and you will have nothing to do. I am certain that this is exactly what will happen.
Question: Do we not provide one another with enough material for internal work?
Answer: No. You will not even feel the need to work with one another. I must constantly receive the disturbances of this world. Then I will have the need to connect with my friends in order to overcome these disturbances and attain spirituality. Otherwise, I will have no need for society, let alone for studies.
Do you think your studies will become more productive if you isolate yourself by withdrawing from this world? No, they will not improve, and your studies will not become more effective—they will not truly exist at all. The studies will become completely theoretical, with no real necessity for them. We have no possibility of advancing toward spirituality unless we remain connected with everyday life.
I, too, never stayed away from Rabash for long. Sometimes it lasted three days, but only occasionally. Of course, during the day I spent many hours with him, yet I still did not separate myself from ordinary daily life.
[359189]
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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Question: If we say that everything comes from the Creator, does that mean that a person does not really exist at all?
Answer: The fact that everything comes from the Creator does not negate the existence of a person. A person is the sensing element.
As we study, the Kli (vessel) is the desire to receive delight from the Creator. The Creator fills the Kli with His presence.
All fulfillment that comes beyond what is necessary (everything that appears after the first stage of the four phases of the expansion of the direct light) arises from the sensation of the Creator, from the sensation of the Host Himself, rather than from what He has prepared for me to receive.
The Kli is the organ that perceives spiritual reality. Accordingly, the degree of the Creator’s concealment or revelation corresponds to the degree of emptiness (darkness) or fulfillment experienced within the spiritual vessel (Kli).
[358973]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,’ in the Work?”
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This is because in Kabbalah it is known that a person cannot correct themselves. What can correct us is the upper light if it comes to us from a more corrected state and illuminates upon us. Only in such a way does it correct our vessels. Therefore, we should not act on our own to correct the vessels, as if we had an adjustable wrench in our hand with which we open, close, and repair. Instead, we must invite a “repairman” to come and fix the system. This is the kind of light we must invite.
Therefore, we do not perform direct actions for correction. We do not look for where the screen is, bring it, place it over the will to receive, and hammer in a few nails so that it will not come loose, between the will to receive below and the screen above, like in diagrams, so that the will to receive becomes covered by a screen. Instead, we look for the means that will bring us a screen that will bring us correction. This means is not an approach to the correction itself but an approach to the one who corrects. This matter presents a great obstacle to people before they begin to understand that we must seek the corrector and not the corrections themselves. Without the corrector there will simply be no correction. It is exactly like a washing machine that breaks down and you try to fix it yourself without any knowledge of how to do it. It does not work. You will have to invite a specialist who will bring the required part and know how to install it in the proper place. Therefore, we must look for the right “person” who knows how to do this work. This “right person” is the upper light.
Therefore, the actions that must be performed are not actions relating directly to the vessel itself, but actions through which we can draw the lights most beneficial for correction. Kabbalists tell us that the most beneficial surrounding light for correction comes when we read a Kabbalah book during study with the intention of reaching our root, the place where we, our action, the study, and the Creator are in adhesion at a single point. Kabbalists also say that in order to sit and study with the correct intention, intention itself is most important.
How do we reach such an intention? Kabbalists describe several means for building the correct intention. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Freedom” that the society comes before everything. Without society, we cannot unite our desire toward the goal and strengthen it, and our intention will be smaller than what is required to attract the surrounding light.
If we torment ourselves with statements such as “I am not okay,” “I am stingy,” “I am lustful,” “I am ambitious,” or “I am cruel,” then we invest ourselves within our bad desires to receive. A person is where their thoughts are. From that place, nothing is left for us except to get drunk or take drugs in order to dull the terrible pain we feel. Self-flagellation is useless. Therefore, it is written: “The fool sits with folded hands and eats his own flesh.” Such behavior is true foolishness because it does not aim us in the right direction. By looking at the filth within ourselves, we do not clean it. When a part in a car breaks down it must be repaired by a specialist who brings a new part and knows how to install it.
Many times, we constantly turn our gaze inward to our vessels and make ourselves miserable. Our inner state is spread before our eyes and we do not know how to detach ourselves from this sight, and we sit, grieve, and mourn over ourselves. Society must influence each and every person to come out quickly from this bad state, because from it we develop the “speech of the spies” about the Creator.
From a Talk on the Article “What Is the Substance of Slander and Against Whom Is It?” – Part 2, 6/13/2002
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Connection with the Creator is called faith. The extent to which I am able to connect myself with Him is the measure within me that is called the measure of faith.
What does this mean? My connection with the Creator can exist only on the condition that I wish to bestow upon Him. Otherwise, such a connection is impossible; There is no other kind of connection. It must be in the same direction in which He relates to me.
I will be able to bestow upon Him only if I begin to feel Him, that is, if I perceive His light, which comes to me and corrects me. This is what Rabash writes: when, during the study, I resolve to attain Lishma, that is, when I desire to attain bestowal, the upper force comes to me and changes me, making me into a human being.
What does it mean to be a human being? The measure of bestowal that I attain specifically in relation to the Creator, and not in relation to humanity, is called “man.” Man is the created being, the force that he brings forth and directs toward establishing his connection with the Creator. Only for one who crosses the Machsom does the spiritual degree he attains become the measure of the man within him.
[359199]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”
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Based on an understanding of our animalistic nature, we begin to realize that no one can ever unite with another. Each person remains separate.
Today we see that the family, as it once existed, is disappearing. The former relationships between parents and children are no longer the same. The reason is that as humanity develops, its ego and its desire to receive continue to grow. As a result, each person becomes increasingly distant from everyone else, and all the bonds that once existed within the family, the extended family, the nation, and society are breaking apart. Egoism destroys every framework and leaves the individual isolated.
After making the necessary discernments, one can come to the conclusion that a connection between people is possible only through the Creator. If we wish to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” it cannot be achieved by force, as was attempted in Soviet Russia. Only through our connection with the Creator will we begin to unite with one another.
Even the smallest group can exist only under this condition, and all the more so the whole world, when it begins to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is because every true connection can exist only on the level of the human. By “human” it means a connection with the Creator.
Everything else we do, apart from establishing a connection with the Creator, belongs to the animate level. These things require no correction, and we should pay them no attention, because it is a waste of time and effort.
[359196]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”
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All the qualities that exist in a person that extend from the four qualities FWWD [Fire, Wind, Water, and Dust] have nothing to do with the evil inclination (Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”).
It does not matter what kind of character a person is born with, whether irritable, foolish, lazy, or proud. From my own experience, I know that it is not necessary for only one of these qualities to exist within me. I feel that I have all of them, and one does not exclude the other. In other words, all four foundations can exist together within every person.
We say that if someone tries to break or eliminate all these tendencies within a person, then he is engaged in psychology, and nothing will come of it, because these qualities are not subject to change.
A person can be a great Kabbalist and still retain all these qualities without paying any attention to them. In our approach, this is not even the alphabet, it is only the very first letters of the alphabet: not to engage in correcting the animalistic qualities within ourselves, but only to work on our relationship with the Creator.
The “human” within us begins to grow only in relation to the Creator. And only in relation to Him can we weigh the good inclination against the evil inclination, that is, determine everything that needs to be revealed and cultivated, or, on the contrary, uprooted. But all of this is done only in connection with the Creator, and not in relation to my “self,” my natural character.
I should look at the friend in exactly the same way. The problem, however, is that when we work together, my animalistic nature and his animalistic nature may find it difficult to coexist.
But that becomes the second stage of our joint work, after we have come to know our own character well: whether irritable, wasteful, lazy, power-hungry, and so on. Once we know our character, we begin to see how we can work together by combining these qualities in order to understand what exists above: the unique character of each person in relation to the Creator. And here, perhaps, true unity becomes possible.
[359192]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”
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Question: How do I know if I am taking the right steps now or not?
Answer: Kabbalists explain that when you arrive somewhere to study Kabbalah, you do not know anything at first. You do not even know where you are since you could be in several other places and not just here. There are a lot of people who are now sitting in other places, engaged in other methods, and they are also trying to learn and find something for themselves. There is a difference of place, a difference of method.
Are they in the right place? There is no answer to that. You basically were not given Kelim to make a choice now. You were let to do this based on what you subconsciously feel. If you feel that you have some doubts, go to another place and check. Check where you feel better—here or there. Perhaps, according to your soul’s development, you still need to be in some other place. Come to Bnei Baruch in some 30 years. Everyone goes through their own cycles.
There is a general law of reality called the law of equivalence of form. It is like a magnetic field: if you put a piece of iron in it, it is drawn to the magnet. In the same way, everything is drawn to its center of equilibrium. The soul works in the same way. If you feel some urge, it is your soul being drawn to its center of equilibrium, to where it feels comfortable and at rest.
Thus, a person who searches ultimately finds what they are looking for precisely due to this. The soul sets your hands and legs in motion, and you arrive somewhere. Ultimately, we all move in this manner and reach the right place according to our level of development.
There are people whose level of development calls for studying yoga or, for example, Ikebana. This cannot be grasped by the intellect; here knowledge is an inner sensation. Only then do the eyes open and you see.
[358747]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”
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