Question: Suppose I look at myself from the outside. But if everything has already been determined and planned in advance, do I have the power to change anything? What else do I have besides understanding the situation?

Answer: Your conclusion that it will not help you to look at yourself from the outside, that the game is lost in advance, and that you are just an observer, indicates that this thought comes from impressions of your own Kli (vessel).

If you ever go beyond this point of observation and see yourself as if from the side of the Creator, then you will feel yourself rising above the nature of creation, and this will give you what is called spiritual life.

What is spiritual life? It is that you are no longer under the authority of the Kli itself and its sensations; you are no longer completely immersed in them. What do restriction (Tzimtzum) and intention for the sake of bestowal give us? First of all, freedom from the reactions of the Kli itself.

What does it mean to “cross the Machsom“? It means to rise above the desire to receive, above one’s own Kli, and as if to look at it from the side of the Creator. It is possible to say “as if,” but this gives me an objective vision that cannot be expressed in words. Only then will you be able to say who you are, because you acquire a certain part that is outside of creation itself.

Despite the fact that you are not capable of getting out of your nature, the desire to receive, you receive a thought similar to the thought of the Creator, and from this thought, from the intention for the sake of bestowal, you look at creation, at yourself.

This seems impossible to us. After all, we say, “How can I completely get out of myself, enter someone else’s mind, and look at myself through his body, through his eyes? Is that even possible?”

But this is exactly what you are given. You acquire the quality of the Creator, and as if through His eyes, His thought, through Him, you look at yourself. This is called acquiring another nature. What other nature exists besides ours? Only the nature of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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Question: Does forming an intention affect habits in the material world?

Answer: In the material world, there should be as few different habits as possible. Habit should apply only to the study schedule.

Or one can say the opposite. A habit is beneficial where you act like an animal and establish proper frameworks for yourself in order to advance: getting up at night, studying, going to work, returning from work, continuing your studies, or engaging in dissemination, going home to sleep, and repeating all this again.

By structuring your lives this way, you form a habit. It truly becomes a second nature; a person gradually becomes accustomed to it. But even having this habit, if you do not work with intention, you devolve to the inanimate level.

Only through intention can something be added. Regarding actions in this world, the rule “neither add nor subtract” applies here, and all additions occur with the help of the screen (Masach).

Question: So everything that does not concern intention should become a habit?

Answer: There is no need to worry about matters that have no intention or about any actions performed without it. Intention itself will compel a person to act. In spirituality, intention is the action.

That is why, in books and stories, Kabbalists are often portrayed as simply sitting in a corner, doing nothing, and working with intention. This is how people imagine Kabbalists.

In reality, all the work of a Kabbalist is internal. But even in inner work, we distinguish between action and intention.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,’ in the Work?”

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Question: What is the difference between our method and the method of yoga? They do something similar, don’t they?

Answer: We develop egoism. We develop it! When we speak about restrictions and acquiring the force of bestowal, we are speaking about developing the desire to receive.

Development touches on a question that was already asked: “If instead of receiving pleasure, I want to calm myself, does that mean I am using an even greater desire to receive?” That is correct. Here is the example of a  fool who suffers and weeps about his suffering, while a more developed person seeks a remedy.

We see this in our lives. One person works hard from morning to evening; another comes to the same workplace, watches the first person working, and asks himself: “Will I work like this from morning to evening too?” and searches for a solution. Then he sits down, drinks coffee, smokes, and the machine does the work for him. The desire to receive develops this, and from its development we arrive at the desire to bestow.

In contrast, various other methods are based on suppressing the desire to receive, on using it less and less. Kabbalah, on the contrary, teaches us to use it more and more. You may do anything you wish with your animal qualities, but only the light that returns to the source will help you emerge from this state. No restriction will help here. The fact is that the more you develop, the greater desires you are given.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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Question: If the peak of the development of egoism, the desire to receive, consists of a person ultimately wanting to escape from himself, what difference does it make whether he escapes in the middle of the process or only at the peak of development?

Answer: You have a certain Kli (vessel), and as it develops to its full capacity, you must experience all the pleasures of this world, sensing both the suffering they cause you and simultaneously how much you would want to enjoy them if you could.

But instead of this, you prefer to calm these sufferings, stifle them, and stop feeling them. Every person, within his Kli, must arrive at a definition of this final state. If this sensation does not exist, he will not be able to develop further. This is merely the complete realization of the smallest Reshimo.

Comment: Suppose a person understands the process, agrees with it, and says: The ultimate goal is to eventually escape the suffering.

My Response: But now you cannot decide that you want to escape the suffering because you do not yet want this.

You have no way to trigger a “leap in the path” or accelerate your development through any external, technical means. You can rely only on inner self-discovery, and you can accelerate it only through the environment. Apart from the group you are in, everything else belongs to an inanimate level that is incapable of accelerating your development.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 238

How Should We Relate to the Various States?

First, we accept the state that comes, observe it, and want to examine it within ourselves, without judging whether it has done us good or bad. We examine it from within the recognition that everything the Creator does, He does for good. We give it a place from the knowledge that it has come to correct us, even if it is so difficult that “a sharp sword rests upon my neck.” We must not despair or drown in self-pity. Everything is a correction.

Naturally, it is not always easy to accept states in such a way. But after we have related to them in this manner once, there will be moments when we feel incapable, filled with resistance and a desire for destruction, and then, upon second thought, we will begin to relate to the state correctly. The resistance will disappear the moment we remember that the state is intended to correct us, and from there we must move on to the third state, “There is none else besides Him.” From within that state, through the sorrow and pain, we will begin to discover “There is none else besides Him,” and will immediately arrive at sweetness, i.e., at the sweetening of the judgments.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 237
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 236
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 235

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