Audio Version Of The Blog – 9/8/26

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Everything Depends on Effort

258Comment: We say that the surrounding lights cause all kinds of clarifications in us.

My Response: The light awakens the Kli (vessel). The light corrects the Kli. We only have to give it a reason to do so.

Comment: We say that only the light can correct me because on one hand, it will not do anything until I want it to, and on the other hand, only it can awaken this desire in me.

My Response: You can continue further, and it will be the same. These are precisely our states: ascents, descents, and all kinds of relationships. This is exactly what happens! Either the Kli or the light is revealed, either this or that. That is all! There is nothing else.

The only question is whether we need to be so clever as to know the details of the process we are going through, and if I suddenly do not know some detail of this process, then, God forbid, will I not be able to go through it? That is the question!

Does our knowledge push us to go through this process, while our lack of knowledge stops us? No! Suppose some psychologist or philosopher sits here. They might quickly grasp what we are talking about, and after just a few lessons they could explain it and juggle the terminology so skillfully, like a veritable Elijah the Prophet, that you would be spellbound.

Meanwhile, next to him might be someone who has difficulty understanding what we are talking about, and is himself so internally crude and emotionally undeveloped that he simply cannot feel what is being said in the lesson. So what?! This is completely unimportant!

Two such people can sit next to each other. One is literally Shimon from the marketplace, not Rabbi Shimon as he was. And this poor Shimon from the market can barely grasp what is written in the article, and is in some kind of fog. And the second, let us say, is a finely sensitive intellectual, who understands everything, and who easily plays with words on any subject.

There is absolutely no connection between this and their advancement because everything depends on the effort! If this crude, uneducated person gives his all, and completely devotes himself to the work, then only his efforts are counted! While that clever, refined person who grasps everything on the fly may not put in enough effort, and he does not need to. It is difficult for him to invest himself because he does not feel that there is anything here to invest in.

It is not that he is uninterested or that he feels disdain. He simply does not see the challenges or the scope for action. But in fact, everything proceeds according to the calculation of effort and nothing else.

It turns out that a philosopher with a sensitive nature is actually unhappy because he was not given sufficient Aviut (desire, need) from above, and a lot of time will pass until he begins to receive it.

If he remains steadfast in his studies, he will, of course, come to the state of Shimon from the marketplace, and begin from there. We often see this among us. This is why Kabbalah is in demand in our very materialistic, crude, egoistic generation, and not in previous generations, who felt the divine presence in everything. For them, this was clear and natural. It was very easy for them to establish a correspondence between the material and spiritual worlds.

They performed all the commandments. Do you know how to perform the commandments connected with the land? It is something frightening: some 300 to 400 commandments. And the commandments connected with the Temple? They had pure inner sensations, and therefore they did not need Kabbalah; they did not make efforts. But with us, it is the opposite.
[359833]
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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252Until the final correction, we do not touch the “stony heart.” We only build a readiness for its correction in the form of negation.

Let’s imagine that the same process occurs even before the Machsom (barrier). We build a readiness to correct the Masach (screen) over our desire to receive through a form of negation. What qualities do we need to examine so that later we will be able to receive the light of Messiah from above, the light that will pull us out of this world into the spiritual world?

Later at the final correction, we receive the light of Messiah, which pulls us from the second restriction to the first restriction. That is it! Go figure it out! What do you need? What conditions are required? It takes many years of effort to bring you to this. It is as though you are “chewing over” the same articles and letters again and again.

In my time, none of this existed. When Rabash began writing his articles, it was already 1983 – 1984. His first articles were published in 1984. Before that, there was only the book Sefer HaHakdamot (The Book of Introductions), and that was it, nothing else. Moreover, we did not study it. We studied only The Study of the Ten Sefirot. If you wanted to, you could read the introductions on your own!

The fact that we “chew over” all these texts is very beneficial for making clarifications. However, we must try to bring them into the heart, that is, to read in such a way that they touch our revealed, exposed desires. As Rabash said: “They give you medicine, a bottle of medicine. But instead of drinking it, you rub it on your leg. You did not understand what the doctor told you, and you get the corresponding result.”

We need to perceive all these things as closely as possible in relation to our desires. While we are reading and listening, we should try to connect what we are reading with what is happening inside us. Then, gradually, it penetrates the heart.
[359830]
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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How to Increase the Importance of the Creator

276.02Question: Our task is to increase the awareness of the importance of the Creator in others. I am obliged to do this toward the friends. But what about myself?

Answer: You are obliged to increase the awareness of the importance of the Creator in others. But you cannot do this for yourself, only in relation to others.

And the friends, in turn, will do the same for you. You are not the master of your desire. We are not speaking about whether you want to, but about your performing such actions in relation to the friends, even if feigned or reluctantly, since in relation to them you are able to do this.

You might ask sharp questions concerning us and our path here, and while conducting lessons in your external group be full of enthusiasm. These are two poles, but this is possible. This is how each of us must act. I too sometimes have states that are not noticeable from the outside.

Comment: When you are in front of a group, it is easier.

My Response: Of course, in relation to others you can do anything, for here your pride and honor come into play. Your ego works; the desire to receive helps you. And so, you are told: use the desire to receive in such a form; give society your “lie” and society will give you its own, and then you react to the falsehood of society as though it were true. You will accept it as the truth.

Question: And still, is it possible to establish some laws?

Answer: It is possible. Do what you want. The main thing is—do. Let us introduce the position of a duty head of the group, and let them change every day. Throughout today’s day, you take care to determine for us the importance of the Creator, how we must think and act. Begin; today you are responsible. Try it.

In fact, this is how everyone must act, and every day.
[360954]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

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To Give the Creator Your Soul

938.01Each one believes that it is impossible to be a perfect human being, so in general, he thinks that he is complete, and when he looks at his friends he sees their faults, that they are not all right.

He, on the other hand, is fine (Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”).

Whatever we do here is still part of the corporeal world, and there is only one path by which a person rises into spirituality: love of friends. Many articles have been written and many words have been spoken about the love of friends. What, in the current state of our group, should a person focus on now as something that will actually be beneficial?

I need only one thing. Not now and not later, but always, because even a month from now nothing will have changed compared with today. The work will be the same: recognizing the greatness of the goal, the greatness of connection with the Creator, the only thing worth living for and worth paying any price for.

On Saturday, when you made a toast at the meal, you said: “There is nothing left to give to the Creator, only my soul. I have already given everything and have seen that none of it is worth anything, that it has not even reached its destination. The only thing I have left is my soul. It is mine, and I give it.”

This is the awareness that the group must instill in me. Everything begins and ends with awareness of the importance of the Creator, because our entire path is directed toward Him. If He is not important to me, I will begin to turn in every direction—through 359 of the 360 degrees, excluding that one true direction.

Only one direction leads to Him. All the other directions are my “domain of the many,” where I turn toward fulfilling my own desires, cravings, passions, and deficiencies. Therefore, if I want to leave the central point, the “stony heart,” my point in the heart, and move toward Him and attain Him, then from the very beginning I must set the goal in my sights. And I will be able to keep it in my awareness, my attention, and my focus only if it is important to me.

How can it become important to me? It can become important only if the group tells me that it is important, tells me a thousand times over, because I do not see its importance. I will never start looking for it, because how can I search for something that I do not see, do not feel, and cannot perceive?

The group must give this to me. Here are both the beginning and the end of the work. Nothing changes: one must constantly raise the importance of the Creator through all the degrees, in this world and in the future. There is nothing besides this.
[360714]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

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What Kabbalists Call Prayer

595.03From initially saying “there is none else besides Him,” and then striving to become similar to this through “if I am not for myself, who is for me,” when I examine and see how opposite I am to the Creator, then a demand toward Him comes to me: a prayer. But prayer does not mean that I ask or give thanks. A request and gratitude merely signifies that I have reached a definition of the true state, that I have completed the analysis of my current place. Nothing more is needed.

The moment I truly discern my state may be termed a request, a prayer, or repentance; what it is called doesn’t matter. But when I reach this final sensation, then it changes, and I do not need to say anything.

Prayer is defined as the deepest sensation in the heart. After many thoughts, clarifications, and changes, I arrive at the final decision: who I am and what I am.

Kabbalists call this a prayer—the point where I affix my seal concluding the clarification and analysis.
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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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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 225

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What Is New About This? After All, We Already Had a Connection with the Host Before…

No. From our side, we never had a connection with the Host, nor did we feel Him as we are destined to feel Him. This is because the final correction that the Creator created is at the Creator’s expense, not at the expense of the created being. In Kabbalah, we learn that the expansion of the Light and its departure make the vessel fit for its role. In other words, only then does a deficiency arise, and from that deficiency comes the connection between the created being and the Creator. Before that, there was no connection.

The most the Creator can do is create a desire to receive, fill it, and give it a feeling of shame, so that through all these things it will restrict itself, undergo various incarnations, and spill over to the opposite end. The Creator cannot bring it closer without this process, because then the desire does not develop and we do not draw closer to the Creator. The Creator can do everything except give us the feeling that we ourselves accomplished it. Baal HaSulam illustrates this with a short story:

Two friends meet after twenty years without seeing one another. One has become wealthy and the other has become poor. The wealthy friend takes the poor friend into his home and says, “Everything I have is yours.” They spend time together, enjoy themselves, and everything is wonderful. Indeed, the wealthy friend gives his companion every good thing wholeheartedly. He makes no calculations and is completely willing to place everything before the poor man. After a week, the poor man, who understands that his friend is giving to him exactly as he would give to himself, and even more so, without any calculations, says to him: “There is a problem here. There is only one flaw: it was not I who did this; it was you. And there is nothing you can do to change that fact. There is only one thing you can do if you truly want to do me a favor: give me the opportunity to achieve what you have on my own.” That is what the Creator does for us. When we arrive, we truly arrive at an equal level with Him.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 9/8/26

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 40 “What Is, ‘Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,’ in the Work?” (1989)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 1, Item 4 (11/13/2007)

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