Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/1/26

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Impressed by the Game

938.03Comment: We say that the group is the most significant factor that drives a person forward.

My Response: The group gives a person an understanding of many different things, both positive and negative. Perhaps you are asking whether I can buy friends with money.

Let us say that I am a rich and have a lot of money. Then I can buy ten, or even better, a million people who will constantly tell me about the importance of the goal.

Will this work or not? Yes, it will. After all, right now I am in my desire to receive, in a state of animalistic urgency, and that is what gets impressed by what it hears and sees. If I could buy a million people with money, people who would tell me about the importance of working for the Creator, and perform in front of me as if they were one with the Creator, and so on…

That is, I direct a grand production, and I immerse myself in the action. And even though I myself paid for it and gave the order to act, and I know that all the actors are acting for the sake of earning money (the desire to receive), nevertheless, a minute later I am already under their influence. They give me strength, impressions, and elevation, and I advance and gain spiritual value. And they receive their salary.

This is because I must be under their influence, based on my desire to receive. And there is nothing wrong with this desire. It receives from this impression. This is exactly what we demand from the group. Otherwise, I will need a different kind of society, people like Rabbi Shimon, Baal HaSulam, and others like them.

And here they say: “No, be in a group with ordinary people just like you, people who just want to move toward their goal, and make efforts in the game together.”
[359958]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/24/26, Rabash, “What ‘Israel Do the Creator’s Will’ Means in the Work”

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When it is Impossible to Overcome Pleasure…

557Question: What does it meant when it is written about the notion of sin?

Answer: Sin or transgression is when a person uses his desire to receive in order to receive. A person is given some pleasure, but cannot overcome it. It could be a pleasure in something that is a transgression, and yielding to it.

So, it is written, “He committed a transgression and repeated it, it became something permitted to him.” What does “permitted” mean? It means the person has already descended to this degree where this sin is, and he is there.

This could happen not only toward the Mitzvot of “You shall not do,” but also towards the Mitzvot that “You shall do.” Let’s say you are in a state where you put on the Tefillin every day, and one day you receive a state of such laziness and indifference, such a descent that you cannot put Tefillin on. So, you do not do it one day. The second day you also do not do it. Then you have descended to the degree in which you are under the pleasure of the rest, where you are resting from not doing this work.

This could happen towards animalistic, beastly pleasures that are in this world. It can also be unrelated to pleasures, but rather as a result of laziness. Meaning, both, towards doing, where you should do and should benefit and also in relation to “do not do” and you will benefit.

Meaning, either you deter from good deeds, or you are going to go and do bad deeds. Both of them lead a person to descent if he does not overcome them.

If it happened for the first time, it is not necessarily considered that you committed a transgression, because the first time this obstacle comes from above. This is what happened to Adam when he first tasted the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and then a second time. We need to learn this example.

The first time, you are played with, and what needs to be done upon you from above is done. But the second time, what is demanded of you is preparation and ability to face the given situation and to balance your mind (Mocha) and heart (Liba).
[360031]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/4/26, Rabash, “The Klipa [Shell/Peel] that Precedes the Fruit”

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According to Kabbalists’ Advice

214Question: A person goes through various states where he is literally consumed by desires. Can this be controlled?

Answer: Who talks about controlling anything? How many times have I reiterated that you have no control over anything except one thing: accelerating your development, following the principle of “do whatever is in your power to do!”

Do you see what the Kabbalists advise? “You are foolish; you do not see or understand anything, so do everything faster.” That is all. The great, rich science of Kabbalah and the wise Kabbalists who see from one end of the world to the other, what do they advise you to do?

Question: How is this acceleration expressed? In my attitude or in my physical actions?

Answer: No, this is the wrong question. Perhaps it is more correct to ask: “What am I achieving through my thoughtless actions, with no understanding or awareness? Who can really rely on their own reason? What does it mean to ‘Do everything in your power?’”

At every moment, as far as your current awareness and understanding of what needs to be done for your development based on the Kabbalists’ advice, act accordingly. That is all. That is how it works.

Question: Let us say I am sitting at a set table; I want to make a restriction not to receive for myself, but to give to the Creator. But to calm myself down, I use an even greater egoism. So how can I find peace?

Answer: You are saying the following: “I am sitting at the table, I want to eat and I am suffering. To avoid suffering, I am already using egoism not for the sake of getting pleasure, but a stronger egoism: the desire to stop suffering. That is, I use greater egoism.” That is correct. Stage Bet (2) is more egoistic than stage Aleph (1), with greater Aviut. You are right.

So, you have calmed yourself down from the perspective of the desire to receive by feeling the Creator. If you had another opportunity to calm yourself down, you would never have reached stage Dalet.

All development comes from the development of the desire to receive. Naturally, out of a desire to calm down, it discovers that the Creator is there within itself. I do not have enough words. This is a rather subtle question. How do the light and Kli interact? How do they become really close partners?
[361406]
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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What Actions Are Available to Us

938.01Question: I do not have a button I can press to start this process. I must go through all the stages you described. When I examine myself and see that everything I do is not for bestowal but for my own sake, what comes next? Awareness of evil does not arise through the intellect.

Answer: The practical awareness of evil, that is, awareness of whether one’s intention is aimed at receiving or at bestowal—arises mainly through efforts in the group, study, and dissemination. The more a person invests in these activities while simultaneously wanting to perceive his intention, the more clearly one begins to see it thanks to those efforts. Without such an investment, one would have no way to recognize one’s intention.

After the shattering of the Kelim, fragments of the shattered screens remained within us. We need to feel them. How is this possible?

Once there was a screen opposite the light, and the screen and the light were equal. Now the screen and the light are opposites. I must feel this opposition so that it will push me to replace the shattered screen with a corrected one.

How can this be done? I must perform actions that I would carry out using with corrected screens. These actions are study, work in the group, and dissemination. We have no other actions at our disposal that are connected with the screen. I am not speaking about eating more, drinking more, or receiving more pleasures. We still have many stages to pass before reaching those matters; those are actions of reception.

The actions of bestowal that can be connected with screens of bestowal are study, interaction in the group, and dissemination. If, while performing these actions, I think about my attitude toward myself, my friends, or the Creator, I immediately see how far I am from bestowal.

With other actions, I quickly fall into an illusion and can somehow justify myself. But with these actions, I cannot. That is why the sages advise us to act. Otherwise, I too might sit in a corner like some great Kabbalist, going nowhere and doing nothing (although, in reality, they all worked, but let’s suppose otherwise) and perform the Yihudim (“unifications”) associated with Kabbalists.

Yihudim means that, through the screen, a person connects himself with the upper light. Therefore, in this world, only these actions remain for us to perform. I must make sure that every day includes study, dissemination, and work in the group, while simultaneously focusing on the intention, the purpose, behind everything I do.

It is said that even if my desire to draw closer to the Creator through this actions stems from wanting my own well-being, yet I still remember the Creator and recognize that I do not think about Him very much, this constitutes the state known as  Lo Li­shma. From this state, I grow and draw closer to the goal.
[361681]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 9/8/26, Rabash, Article 40, 1989 “What Is, “Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,” in the Work?”

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Everything Is Understood Through Comparison

232.01Comment: When a person reaches the awareness of evil at a certain degree, they do not want the next degree. They want to correct the one.

My Response: At first, a person simply does not want to remain where they are. They see that their state is very bad and want only one thing: to get out of it. Therefore, they ask the Creator, “Do something, anything; it does not matter what!”

He does not need the Torah or a reward, nothing. For the moment, he feels only that he is suffering. He curses Kabbalah, Bnei Baruch, and the day he arrived here; but this is a brief stage that passes in an instant.

Then he nevertheless begins comparing his state with a higher degree and understands that it is worthwhile to strive for something better. His egoism begins working again: “All right, this is evil now, but something better exists. Let’s acquire that.” Egoism continually grows, and this helps a person move from one degree to the next. Thus, the more egoism grows, the more it digs its own grave.

The receiving desire in a seed is smaller than in a sprout. There are two opposing forces here. What helps you escape evil when you feel that egoism is evil? Stronger egoism.

All these processes are above our reason. It is no coincidence that it is written “The Creator places a person’s hand on the good fate and says: ‘Choose good.’” Just make a little effort. The answers to the remaining questions will become clear along the way. I promise you.
[361710]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘He Who Is Without Sons,’ in the Work?”

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What Is the Difference Between Feeling Evil and Recognizing Evil?

It has already been mentioned here how to escape evil, from a bad feeling to a good feeling. We should ask the Creator not to give us evil, but the recognition of evil. What is the difference between the two? They are completely different. In one case, we feel that the Creator is striking us for no reason, and we feel bad due to that. In the other case, we understand intellectually, through reason and understanding, that these blows are not directed at us, because we already identify with a different point. Instead, they are directed at those qualities within us that are opposite to the Creator’s qualities.

When we feel bad because of the blows we have received, we are like a child who has experienced something unpleasant, for example, we did not receive a piece of candy (a blow is not necessarily a physical blow), and we identify with that feeling of evil. We are inside the evil. In Kabbalah, it is said that if we feel evil, we should escape that feeling. We should emerge from that evil and observe it from the outside, from a distant point, which is called “performing a restriction.” That is, the “I” that feels and the “evil” that is felt are two separate and opposing things. And from whom do we receive the evil? From the Creator.

In other words, we place our “I” outside both the Creator and the body that feels evil, and this is called “recognition of evil.” Otherwise, we do not recognize the evil, we merely feel it. Kabbalists emphasize strongly that this is called “recognition of evil,” not the feeling of evil. Also, when we look at that evil from the outside, we already understand why we feel that way, for what purpose it came to us, and what we must do with it. Then the recognition of evil truly brings us to correction. Therefore, when we are in the recognition of evil, we seemingly ask to recognize it even more deeply in order to receive the strength to emerge from it and to ask for corrections. We do not ask to feel more evil. We ask to recognize more of the evil.

It is possible that evil brings with it a pleasant sensation. A person who enjoys smoking, for example, continues to smoke and enjoy it, yet at the same time would like to develop a hatred for smoking. How does one come to recognize the evil in smoking, which gives him pleasure? Gradually, he begins to feel that smoking is bad for him. He coughs, and his health deteriorates. He gains a deeper and deeper view on how harmful it is, until smoking becomes so bad that he fears it, becomes fed up with it, and is ready to escape from it. The recognition of evil is not the feeling of evil. They are two completely different things.

“The feeling of evil” is what an animal feels. “The recognition of evil” is already spiritual work performed by a human being. We begin to discern that something is evil and understand in relation to what it is evil, in relation to advancement, to drawing closer to the Creator. It is not for nothing that we feel the blow but do not know who is giving it to us. We realize that through this blow, the Creator shows us the quality that prevents us from connecting with Him and adhering to Him. It is not evil because we feel pain, but because the quality in which we feel the pain distances us from the Creator. The recognition of evil is the recognition of our distance from the Creator, not the sensation of suffering in a particular bodily organ.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/1/26

1st part of the Lesson — Sukkot 2003, Lesson 10 (10.15.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Mingling/Inclusion” (3.2.2021)

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