Question: It is written that a person must become convinced that he is incapable of doing anything about their state, and then turn to the Creator. Where does the stage of restriction (Tzimtzum) come into this?

Answer: Restriction occurs after a person has fully realized their state. This is described in the story of the exodus from Egypt. Restriction occurs when a person receives strength from above, after he himself, through his own efforts, has come to recognize the evil.

As it is written in the Torah, he experiences the “seven years of plenty,” followed by the “seven years of famine.” Initially, he believes that by receiving, he will fill himself and achieve all kinds of success, seeing some benefit in this. But then he sees that the spiritual development of his desire to receive leads, on the contrary, to this desire becoming empty. This is manifested as weakness, an inability to do anything, a lack of desire, apathy toward this world, and it seems we do not succeed in it. Naturally, a person resists this state because otherwise he would simply leave the path.

And then he reaches the state of “Pharaoh,” when the “plagues” overtake him. In other words, we do not despair in our work; rather, we enter a period of blows. If it were not for these blows, we would in any case be prepared, so to speak, to quietly die. However, these blows come in order to clarify the point of “Moses” in relation to the point of “Pharaoh” within us. Both begin to grow from the state called the “seven years of famine.”

But this is only on the condition that, during these seven years, a person “builds Pithom and Ramses”; that is, he sweats and labors, even though he feels that he is in a bad state. And then, upon completing this entire process of opposition between Moses and Pharaoh, a person reaches the point where he “flees from Pharaoh.”

At that point, he already goes, to some extent, above reason: He agrees to flee from his desire to receive “in the middle of the night,” simply so as not to touch it to the extent that he has recognized it as his ruler. And all of this is still before the Machsom! A person has discovered how much evil his desire to receive causes him.

Then, according to the principle “I labored and found,” he receives the strength of restriction from above. But one must always understand to which degree the particular strength of restriction that he receives corresponds. When leaving his Egypt, he receives this strength at the very lowest degree: it corresponds to the desire to receive that he developed in “Egypt” during the “seven years of plenty” and to the evil that he recognized during the “seven years of famine.”

In other words, this is still a very small desire to receive’ you could say, one corresponding to this world. As Baal Sulam says, if we take all the desires of this world, they will be like a spark, a “faint illumination,” in comparison with spiritual desires.

Therefore, a person still lacks the degree that would enable him to hold himself in spirituality even at the smallest level. This is the “crossing of the Final Sea,” the “three days in the desert.” Nevertheless, the exodus from Egypt is already birth, the birth of the screen.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/26, Rabash, “What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet”

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Question: On one hand, it is considered that in spiritual work one needs to have a great Hisaron (deficiency, desire), and on the other hand, faith. What are these two poles?

Answer: These are two opposites. The point in the heart is neutral. It is the beginning of the middle line and it is positioned in relation to the light, which always comes into the middle line. And the two opposites, the two extremes, are the qualities of the Creator on the right and, as it were, the qualities of the creation on the left.

These two forces, receiving and bestowing, have been given to you so that you can begin to use them within yourself in the proper proportion. To the extent that you are able to take from the right line, you should take the same from the left line and correctly combine them so as not to be dependent on either one, while constantly being aware that these forces within you are needed in order to attain the goal.

We should use them only in this way. Otherwise, I have no need for them—neither the quality of receiving nor the quality of bestowing. If I use them without a purposeful intention, then I am simply in a Klipa (shell. impurity), either on the right or on the left one. Their proper use occurs when I am between them and want to attain the middle line.

The middle line means that I, and the action I am performing at this moment in order to combine the right and left lines, and the Creator whom I want to attain are all connected together at a single point. In this way, I truly perform the correct action and build the middle line.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/26, Rabash, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”

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Question: Let’s say a person reaches a point where he condemns the Creator because he is suffering. The Creator sent him this state, and he does not agree with it. What does it mean that he must now find a reason to justify the Creator?

Answer: No! If I have received something from above, first of all, I notice that I feel something. Then I suddenly remember that what is happening to me came from the Creator. Then I analyze if what I received from the Creator is good or bad? And then, once it has already happened, do I feel that it came specifically from Him?

Perhaps the phenomenon itself is felt as bad by me, but when I remember that I received it from the Creator, it changes for the better, because I begin to see a purpose in it, and there is some justification for it.

Now the question is: What do I think in this situation? I can think that I am receiving blows from the Creator, but then He will somehow compensate for it later. Is such an attitude toward the Creator justified? Is His governance considered good? Or should I reach a state where I truly feel this governance as good, since in His world there is no evil?

In other words, I have to come to a state where I do not perceive evil at all, because if I feel bad, consciously or unconsciously, I blame Him. The bad feeling itself implies that the one who causes it is bad.

Now I must make a calculation: Do I want to feel good for the sake of feeling good, or to avoid not labeling Him bad? And so on. There is something to analyze here. Here, a person goes through a Tzimtzum, a restriction.

What is restriction? It means that how I feel it does not matter to me. The main thing is that my attitude toward Him is good. And then a transformation takes place; no matter how much adversity I face, I feel good.

Otherwise, how can a person enter a state of perfection and eternity? How can one reach the state that Rabbi Akiva was in, when his skin was being flayed alive while he was reciting “Shema Yisrael” (“Hear, O Israel” ) at that time?

Was he under anesthesia? How could he recite the prayer, meaning, be at such a level of adhesion with the Creator, of eternal love and perfection, while enduring such pain? He attained such a degree where his skin, the final degree of Malchut, was being torn away, yet he united that act with “Shema Yisrael,” with the intention for the sake of bestowal. The skin being flayed from his face represents  GAR de Hochma, the highest levels of the light of wisdom. That was the correction he achieved!
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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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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 260

Why Do We Study Kabbalah Before the Barrier?

Before the barrier, we study Kabbalah because through it we can acquire a screen, an intention of Lishma. This is the only reason for studying. Of utmost importance is that such study should bring us to Lishma. The means itself is unimportant. A means is required in order to reach Lishma, and Kabbalah is the single appropriate means.

Baal HaSulam explains that studying Kabbalah books, of all the holy books, awakens the greatest surrounding light. It is possible to awaken surrounding lights by reading any of the holy books because all these books were written from a spiritual degree, and those who connect to them with the intention of reaching Lishma, spirituality, receive surrounding light through them from that same place. Of all the holy books, including the Tanakh, Gemara, books of laws and Halachot, legends, Prophets, and so on, the language of Kabbalah and the books of Kabbalah awaken the greatest surrounding light, and therefore we use such means.

We need Kabbalah because we need a means for attracting the surrounding light. Why? This is because the surrounding light brings about a screen, or in other words, an intention of Lishma. While many understand that we need to reach Lishma, the problem is in the interpretation of Lishma and Lo Lishma.

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 259
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 258
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 257

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