See the Preparation Through to the End

237Question: Does the preparation for the upcoming congress grow according to the same levels of any development in nature: inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human?

Answer: Of course, it takes place in any development, and also in the development of desires. They also go through this process of the four stages of the direct light HaVaYaH (Yod‑Hey‑Vav‑Hey), and it applies to the congress as well.

When a person begins to think about it and to prepare for it, they experience ascents and descents, sometimes wanting to go, sometimes not. If they ultimately make a firm decision to go, they arrive at the congress truly prepared.

They must understand why they are doing this, what they hope to gain from it, and where the rest of the world (work, family, and health) fits into the picture.

They must weigh all these factors and ultimately arrive at the question, “What is the meaning of my life?” This is a question that cannot be answered in any other way.

Experience should show them that all other parts of our lives depend on some unknown factor.

The wisdom of Kabbalah reveals the source of this unknown, the upper force, to us. If a person connects to it, then they gain a tool capable of correcting everything in both this world and the spiritual world.

If they fully scrutinize all of this according to the stages of HaVaYaH, they will undoubtedly come to the congress, and arrive prepared.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/10, Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book of Zohar

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Two Opposite Forms of Torah

  1. 107A person is a new Kli, called the soul, which can be formed within us through study when the illumination that comes returns one to the source. That is, it builds the sixth sense within us, the desire for the Creator with the intention of bringing Him contentment through a screen.

There is no place here for the desires of other animalistic passions, upon which a screen cannot be built, regardless of what calculations one might make regarding their use. All this does not belong to the work of the Creator.

Therefore there are two opposite forms of Torah. One Torah teaches how to exist in this world, below the Machsom. This is called the general Torah, through which the masses are taught how to live better, how to be a good Jew, that is, what is commonly called being religious. Accordingly, one is taught to govern one’s qualities, to be kind and decent, to love the created beings, to guard one’s speech, and so on.

I do not reject this in any way. Those who have not yet crossed the Machsom and who do not yet have the intention to cross it, should indeed observe this. Such is the Torah for the masses, which prepares them to pass on to the individual Torah.

The individual Torah is intended for one who wishes to develop individually, that is, for a human being (“You are called ‘man’…”) above the Machsom, one who already possesses a new Kli.

The desire for the Creator is called a new desire, a new Kli with the intention for the sake of bestowal. Within it various disturbances that are directed against the Creator are awakened, called Klipot. Then all of one’s connection and all of one’s work are directed solely toward the Creator. And whatever is directed toward the Creator is called spiritual, and is called “man” (Adam).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 206

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 206

If the Concept of Punishment Does Not Exist, Why Does the Torah Speak About Punishments?

All the books of the Torah are called “holy books” because they all deal with the spiritual world. Spirituality exists from the level of the screen and above, and we do not feel it. Something separate and distinct is called “holy,” “sacred.” All the holy books describe only the spiritual world. The Torah does not speak about this world. It does not instruct us on how to be good to others, but how to be good to the Creator. Our yearning to resemble the Creator corrects our nature, and then naturally we also become better in this world.

How does the Torah describe ascents? Our ascents take place along two lines: the right line and the left line. From the right line come the qualities of the Creator, the first nine Sefirot, the forces of bestowal, and from the left line comes the will to receive. A person stands in the middle and corrects oneself. Therefore, the Torah presents two things, what will happen if you do not act and what will happen if you do act. Reading the Torah, especially the books of the Prophets, often gives the impression of calamity, and we feel rebuked. But in fact, what is being conveyed is a description of what happens at each and every degree. If you act one way, one outcome follows, and if you act another way, a different outcome follows. This is how the structure of the spiritual degrees is explained. There is no intention to rebuke as one would scold a child.

These stories describe, in a narrative language, conditions in the higher degrees. Therefore, all these books are meant only for those who are in the upper world, because in our world there is nothing to “do” in that sense. What a person does here is a result of what takes place above. For example, the Torah speaks about the ruin of the Temple. Even in the simple interpretation, it is explained that the ruin occurred because we fell from a spiritual degree, and then enemies entered. We ourselves caused this situation by descending from a higher spiritual level. Seventy years before the ruin, it was already foretold. Why? It is because based on the spiritual level of the people, it was possible to foresee what would happen, just as today we can observe the deterioration of human society and feel unable to stop it; some even predict the collapse of countries or of humanity itself.

In other words, everything depends on the inner state, which is reflected and expressed in physical form. The Torah speaks about these inner states. It does not describe what a person should do with their hands and feet, or physical objects. Our world is a world of consequences. If we perform corrections in the spiritual degrees, everything in this world will accordingly be arranged.

This world must rise to the final degree. We must reach the state of the end of correction, not only with the point in the heart, but with the entire heart, with all of our desires. In other words, we are required to elevate even our most corporeal desires to the highest level. Kabbalists say that a person must reach the state of the end of correction while still living in this world.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 8/20/26

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 27 “What Is, ‘Every Blade of Grass Has an Appointee Above, Who Strikes It and Tells It, Grow!’ in the Work?” (1990) (5.9.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 1, Chapter 2

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/19/26

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Spirituality Is a Desire in the Heart

249.02When I reach the state of “I am lovesick,” it means that I have prepared my Kli (vessel) as much as I could below the Machsom (barrier). This Kli lacks only one thing: the Masach (screen). I cannot produce the Masach myself because it is a product of the light.

If I possess a great desire to receive with the intention to receive, then I am given a Masach, and I become the smallest spiritual Kli. This is because my great desire, which drew the surrounding light below the Machsom, is the Achoraim (posterior side) of the first degree above the Machsom. The Achoraim of that degree descends into this world.

There is already a certain work there with the intention to bestow, above reason, as I have described. Nevertheless, this will become clearer later.

This does not mean that we are not allowed to see more. Rather, we can see only through the Kelim that we have already corrected. It seems to us that we are capable of seeing more than we actually do. But that is not so. There is no magic or illusion here like the tricks performed by magicians. They, of course, have techniques for creating illusions. But in reality, there is no magic at all. A person sees according to their corrections.

Suppose you say that you want to move from here to another star. It seems as though you desire it. But if you truly desired it, if that desire were genuine and fully prepared, you would receive the correction for it and accomplish it. In reality, however, you are merely talking about it, you do not truly desire it. They are only words.

Therefore, we must distinguish one thing from another. Spirituality is called a desire in the heart. In accordance with that desire, a person works and truly receives, not merely imagines that they have received something. That is why we always experience a certain disappointment: there is what we imagine to be the case and there is what actually exists.

All this is because we do not understand our own heart. If we truly felt our genuine desire, there would be no disappointment. We would know exactly where we are, what truly belongs to us, what we must do, and so on.

In truth, all of our study is a process of self-discovery. When I come to know myself and begin to feel my Kli and what is within it, it is revealed to me that there is only one thing in my Kli: the Creator. Only the Creator can be revealed within the Kli.

To the extent that I do not feel my Kli, instead of the Creator, I perceive entirely different phenomena, imaginary pictures. But when I enter spirituality, then, according to the degree of my corrections, those pictures are replaced by the sensation that the Creator fills my Kli, my soul. Only then do I begin to see that this entire world is merely an illusory, imaginary world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/26, Rabash, “The Klipa [Shell/Peel] that Precedes the Fruit”

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What Was Created First: The World or Man?

738Question: We say that in reality everything is within us. But wasn’t the world created first, and we were created only afterward?

Answer: Indeed, we say that everything a person feels, he perceives through his five sense organs. These sense organs present him with a picture of the world, although in reality there is no such thing as a picture of the world in itself. We can speak about form only in relation to the one who perceives it.

There are entire articles on this subject. Rabash writes that it is impossible to speak about the attained without the one who attains. Therefore, we cannot speak about the existence of anything outside a person. And we attain the person himself as existing because we base ourselves on our own sensations.

Let us suppose that we accept this as a fact: We do not know what exists around us, and we perceive the picture of the world through the internal reaction of our sense organs. We are so incapable of distinguishing between reality and its perception that what we perceive, what appears to us, seems to us to exist in reality: “If I perceive an object as existing through my sense organs, then it truly exists.”

It is very difficult for me; I cannot step outside my body and see that outside of it this object has no form and no existence. Well, then, let us take the sages at their word.

But, on the other hand, the sages say that in spirituality, the world was created first, and only afterward man was created. It is the same in this world: first the universe was created, then the Earth began to form and cool, and only afterward did man appear upon it. So how can we speak about the existence and gradual development of external nature even before the emergence of man, who perceives this nature through his sense organs?

So when we speak about nature that existed before the emergence of man, we mean precisely how we imagine it through our sense organs. Otherwise, we would not be able to speak about it.

Everything in the world is an expression of desires, but the one who can later tell us about it according to his attainment tells us about it using our words.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work?”

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Desire Is a Consequence of the Light

284.01Question: If I ask the Creator for what is good for me from His point of view, but at the same time I feel bad in my Kelim, what should I do? Should I ask for something else so that I, too, will feel good?

Answer: If a person asks the Creator to make him feel good while he is still not in adhesion with the Creator, that is, while his desires have not yet been corrected, then what he thinks is good for him is actually the opposite of what is truly good for him. So how can I simply ask for something good?

You can ask the question differently. At this moment I am in a certain state. In every moment, every second of this state, I am turned toward the Creator.

Why? My body, from the simplest cell to all the systems of the organism, the brain, desires, psychological and psychosomatic systems, hormones, and feelings, is constantly at work. The desire that sustains life exists in every cell of the body and, in general, throughout the whole body. All these desires are already directed toward the Creator even before I have “become clever” and imagine that I can control them or direct them in a certain way.

Just because I have read or heard somewhere that it would be better if I thought differently from what my body demands, does that change my body? Will my cells suddenly begin to function differently? No! Will my thoughts suddenly work differently? No. It changes nothing! Everything I read about how wonderful it would be to act “for the sake of bestowal” and so on, all of that is outside of me. I cannot control my desires!

When I read something and learn all kinds of wisdom, I am merely filling my mind with information. It does not touch my desires at all. My desires are the direct consequence of the light, which forms them. This is precisely what we study: The light, through the four phases of direct light, creates the desire, and when it enters the desire, it impels it to go through the entire process of development.

In other words, I have absolutely no ability to control my desires. The only way I can influence them is by turning to the Creator. Then, in response to my request, or His command, the Creator changes my desire. He sends a particular Light, and through its action and development it builds the desire that I seem to be asking for within me. Only through Him can I change my desires. This is why He is called the Creator (Maatzil).

It is not that He created me once and then finished His work, leaving me to govern myself. Nothing could be further from the truth! I never govern myself. Only if I can turn to Him and ask Him, only through Him can I bring about any change within myself. Only in this way! So what does it matter whether I have read something in a book or not? That, in itself, does not change me inwardly at all.

We must understand that all these things are completely artificial and external. There is nothing in them that can bring about change by itself. Their only purpose is to increase the intensity of the surrounding illumination so that, through study, dissemination, and work in the group, we attract the surrounding light, which alone brings about the changes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Oil Is Called ‘Good Deeds’ in the Work?”

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The Center of Pleasure

572.02Question: Are there fundamental differences between material and spiritual pleasures?

Answer: There is only one center of pleasure. The difference lies solely in its magnitude. And it does not matter what one derives pleasure from.

Everything enters the same center, the same sensation of pleasure, provided we are speaking about pleasure with the intention to receive.

If, however, we are speaking about pleasure with the intention to bestow, then it is also felt in this center of pleasure, yet it is experienced in connection with the Giver of the pleasure.

This is called reflected light.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/26, Rabash, “The Klipa [Shell/Peel] that Precedes the Fruit”

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The Result of the Influence of the Light

504Question: It is clear that I need a group that will increase the importance of the goal for me. But what if most of the work is in the recognition of evil?

Answer: If I were to shout at you and tell you that you are bad, you would not feel it. The recognition of evil must be the result of the influence of the surrounding light. The group only pushes and prompts you to become more sensitive to it, to attract it, and to reveal it more. And you must feel the result in your state in relation to the light.

Having people constantly shout at you that you are bad will not help. On a human level, this sometimes helps. But our advancement should not be from the negative, but only from the positive. When I reach out toward the goal, then according to the degree of its importance, the light influences me, and then I see the evil within me. And from the friends, I need to receive only the awareness of the importance of the Creator.

I must advance through the light, and not because people shout at me that I am bad. This will never lead to love of the friends and to the correct result.

If a person advances toward spirituality, then the awareness, measurement, and examination must be in spiritual Kelim (vessels), according to spiritual principles.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/26, Rabash, “What “Israel Do the Creator’s Will” Means in the Work”

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