Joy Is the Result of Good Deeds

293.1Question: How can I check whether my effort is not only quantitative but also qualitative?

Answer: What can be an indication that I have made a correct, qualitative effort? It is said: “The result of good deeds is joy.”

If a person comes to joy after making an effort and truly giving everything he has, then the joy he feels comes from the effort itself. Not from what he receives as a result of it, but from the fact that he was given the opportunity to make the effort, that he makes it, and that he knows it is having an effect.

Whether I see it or not, it works. Nothing in creation ever disappears. Baal HaSulam says that even the suffering of a tiny flea struggling to obtain its food also joins the collective suffering that builds the Kli of the final correction. This is because the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels all must become included in one Kli.

But this should bring us to joy: that we are truly on the right track, at least to some degree of awareness of the goal, and that we feel our moments are not passing in vain. And the result of this is joy that we are nevertheless connected with Godliness.
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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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Spiritual Psychology

962.3Question from my blog in English: When you speak about the language of branches, are you referring to an analogy or some kind of metaphorical thinking? If so, does this imply a unique language that cannot be conveyed in words, making it difficult to grasp what those who have internally attained the Creator intended to express? Will we intuitively understand this language once our own attainment coincides with theirs?

Answer: There is an “I” that perceives itself and a certain space around it, wishing to absorb what is necessary and useful from this space and to throw out what is harmful or unnecessary. I learn how to build connections with this space in order to always be in optimal comfort. All my knowledge comes from this kind of interaction with the space surrounding me that is filled with nature and people. Psychology (in the materialistic sense) is the science of the egoistic perception of “self versus the surroundings.”

If I begin to expand my “I” around me in ever-widening circles, gradually accepting the surrounding as part of myself, as something entering into my “I,” and egoistically subordinating it to myself, that constitutes conquest and acquisition.

But if, while continuing to perceive myself as distinct from the surroundings (an “I” versus what is outside me),  I nonetheless strive to relate to the surroundings as I do to myself, or even more so, that is altruism. This is because a sense of alienation or even hatred remains, but above this feeling, contrary to it, a feeling of love arises. It emerges because I stop identifying solely with my “I”; I step outside of it, and as if from an external vantage point, build a new attitude from this “I” toward the surroundings.

By rising above my egoistic “I,” I create a screen through which I relate to the surrounding with love, treating them as myself and even more; this is called the property of bestowal or reflected light. Kabbalah—a spiritual psychology—deals with the perception of “self in relation to the surroundings.”
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What Is Written in Kabbalistic Books

209Question: Why isn’t it stated clearly and categorically that our entire obligation as created beings is to attain complete connection through “Love your neighbor as yourself”?

Answer: All Kabbalistic books speak either about the unfolding of the worlds, Partzufim, and Sefirot from above downward, or about a person’s individual correction from below upward where one must come to hate one’s desire to receive for oneself, aspire for bestowal, realize that it is impossible to attain bestowal on one’s own, and then turn to the Creator so that He will help one rise above reception to achieve bestowal, and in doing so find one’s entire purpose, mission, and fulfillment in bestowing to Him.

This is described in great detail. What is not stated precisely, however, is that this correction is accomplished through connection within the group, through work in the group, bestowal upon one’s neighbor, and the feeling that one has support and mutual guarantee. There are only isolated hints about this in the Torah: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But how is this connected with love for the Creator? “Do not do to another what is hateful to you.” Why do we exist in such an enormous world instead of simply feeling ourselves directly connected with the Creator? Why do we need this entire world?

All of this is not clarified in the books; that is, the connection between a person’s work in relation to the Creator and a person’s work with the group is not clarified. It is written, “From love of the created beings to love of the Creator,” but this is not stated clearly and categorically enough for everyone, religious and secular alike, to understand that the problem lies precisely in “Love your neighbor.”

Today we stand before the need to solve precisely this problem toward which the global crisis is pushing us. This is a social crisis and not an economic one, a crisis resulting from the fact that we all exist within an egoistic society that is devouring itself. Its solution is possible only if we understand that we are obligated to come to unity. Yet, we will not be able to achieve unity unless we discover that there is only one force capable of helping us do so.

Here, we find ourselves between life and death. We will need the Creator in order to be saved from death. This is precisely how He becomes revealed. Therefore, our time is truly the time of the coming of the Messiah (Mashiach), that is, the revelation of the Creator to the created beings, so that, on one hand, we may be saved from death, but in truth, so that we may attain a world filled with goodness and benevolence, a world that exists entirely in bestowal from above, in the revelation of the Creator to the single created being into which everyone unites. Then the Creator is revealed to them.

Therefore, what is especially important is this connection between the present state of the world and the urgent necessity for the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.

Although Kabbalah sources do not explicitly detail this (offering only scattered references), we must produce articles and explanatory materials and describe the process of transition from the “I” to the group, from the group to the world, and from the world to spirituality—to the Creator and the force of bestowal that will connect everything and fill the whole of reality, all created beings, and the entire vast desire.
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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/7/26

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, Shamati 1, “There Is None Else Besides Him” (4.26.2011)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 1, Part 2, Chapter 2, Item 5 (11.25.2007)

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/6/26

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What Our Chosenness Consists Of

947Question: During Sukkot, we must strengthen our strength of purpose and focus on it. Does this mean that the exchange of Reshimot (spiritual records) must reach its peak during this period?

Answer: We still have to go through many states. In principle, these states should serve only to connect us for the sake of one goal. In other words, we need only think: “We are all together—toward the Creator!” That is all. This is the only thing. That is why we chose our slogan: “We are all one Kli!”

If we constantly think about this and focus on it, then I hope that many will feel it clearly, while the rest will feel it subtly. This will be a sensation of being “above the Machsom.” It will create the conditions within us that will enable us to advance further, at least during the coming months until Passover. Or perhaps at Passover we will add something more (some now and others later), but it will be a group on an entirely different level.

Everything has been given to us for this purpose. We see how all of it comes to us from above. We even feel how we are being pulled. Whether we want it or not, today we are already being regarded above as people fulfilling their duty. And if we speak about what it means to be the chosen people, we can say that we are the chosen people. We have been chosen today (and this is what “being chosen” means) in order to raise ourselves and then raise everyone else.

There are people who, practically speaking, are capable and ready today, have exerted sufficient effort, and can at least sense these states, pass through them, and then, after some time, actually realize them.

There can be no leaps. Everything depends on how much you accelerate the events. In any case, you must pass through everything; otherwise, you will not have a Kli. You must scrutinize everything, feel it, and live through it inwardly. Of course, it is possible to live through this in a second. There are states in which a single second already gives you an impression.

But you must pass through all these states. Therefore, those who have more or less passed through them are ready today, while the others will sense them from a distance and imagine them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

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Sukkot: Seven Days of Correction

213After Yom Kippur and before the beginning of Sukkot, there is a preparation for correction that begins on the first day of the holiday of Sukkot. During Sukkot, we build a special, unique, somewhat auxiliary Kli (vessel) for ourselves. That is why we sit in a hut, a Sukkah, which we build from specific natural materials.

The walls do not matter much, because we erect them artificially. But the roof must be made from what is called “Psolet, Goren ve Yekev,” the refuse of vineyards, fields, and plantations: straw, hay, palm branches, or similar vegetation.

This is not merely a custom. All of this is based on spiritual roots. A person builds a temporary dwelling for seven days because at this point only the ZAT, only the VAK, only part of our soul, the egoistic desire, is being corrected. The correction of the remaining three higher Sefirot, Keter, Hochma, and Bina, will be added on Purim, when we arrive at Purim through Hanukkah.

What is Purim? It is the reception of the entire light into a completely corrected Kli. It corresponds to Gmar Tikkun, the final correction and fulfillment. In contrast to this, when the Kli is completely empty but ready for correction, there is a state “like Purim,” “Ki Purim,” which is Kippur, Yom Kippur.

During Sukkot, for seven days we gather in the shack, which is made according to special rules and specifications. In the Talmud, which was written in the third century CE, there is an entire tractate devoted to this subject, aptly named Sukkah. When the Temple was destroyed, in order that people would not forget how to observe the laws, everything was recorded by the sages of the Great Assembly (Anshei Knesset HaGedolah).

There was such an assembly consisting of seventy great Kabbalists. It was a kind of supreme institution called Knesset HaGedola. “Knesset” means an assembly, while “Gedola” comes from the word “great,” from the word “Hochma”. This means “great” not in width, which corresponds to Bina, but in height, which corresponds to Hochma.

They wrote down and specified what the Sukkah should be like and the internal state it corresponds to. The tractate says that the distance between the walls must not exceed three handbreadths (Shlosha Tefachim).

Why? Because when Reshimot emerge from the Kli, when the Kli receives and then the light exits it, this light ascends to the upper and manifests in the lower. Then it rises even higher and manifests again in the lower, but the third time it is no longer felt at all. In other words, when passing to the third level, the connection between the lower and the upper completely disappears. Therefore, a distance greater than three Tefachim is forbidden.

Thus, in our world we have a reflection of how a person prepares such a Kli within himself in which there is no interruption of more than three levels between the exiting and entering lights. In other words, a person wants by every possible means to remain connected with the light. Under these conditions, he builds his inner Kli and begins to receive the surrounding light (Ohr Makif) into it.

This Ohr Makif shines upon him throughout seven stages, while it purifies within him the seven Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, and Malchut. Therefore, each evening, while sitting in the Sukkah, we say: “Today we invite Abraham into our Sukkah,” because Abraham corresponds to Hesed, this is his quality. “Today we invite Moses into the Sukkah, Joseph… David.”

In other words, each day corresponds to a particular spiritual degree, a particular spiritual quality that we are correcting in our soul. This is what each day of the holiday of Sukkot symbolizes.

By correcting all these seven Sefirot during the holiday of Sukkot, we receive only VAK, a small illumination of the light of Hochma. This is the light that can exist in a Kli that is not yet completely corrected.

Then, after Sukkot, on the eighth day, the remaining light enters us. This is called Simchat Torah , “Rejoicing of the Torah.” It is called rejoicing because when one drinks wine (Ohr Hochma), the light of Hochma enters. “Torah” comes from the word “Ohr,” “light,” or Ora, “illumination,” the general light that fills the Kli.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

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Justifying Everything that Happens to Us

232.1Question: We have said that a person’s work for the Creator is something imagined. Then what does the article “There is None Else Besides Him” mean when it says that everything that happens to a person comes from the Creator?

Answer: When talking about spiritual work, we say that at best we raise MAN upwards. But even in corporeal work, all our desires rise upward.

For example, I am thirsty. This desire is sensed above. If something hurts, even the unconscious desire for it to stop hurting rises up too.

What does “rises up” mean? It is connected to the Creator, since in essence, all desires, all pains, and all causes of something good or bad come from Him. Even before something happens to me, He sends it. Therefore, He automatically feels my reaction. He caused it, and He knows in advance how I will react.

As a result of my reaction, a mechanism activates that affects me again and causes a new response to the previous one. I get different signals from Him all the time, and I always react to them somehow, whether consciously or not, whether I think it came from Him or not. I am constantly receiving some kind of influences from Him that pass through me. That is how I grow and advance.

I feel some things intensely and others less so. There are things I directly attribute to the Creator and there are things I am unsure if they came from Him, or I simply do not think about them. I begin to add intention to some influences and perceive them as coming from Him for my benefit, but sometimes I cannot justify Him and think He is bad.

When do I think He is bad? When I disagree with what is happening and start shouting back, “Why are You doing this to me?” The righteous agrees with everything that comes from above. He has been corrected so much that he is similar in form to what comes from the Creator and always feels goodness.

It is known that “There is None Else Besides Him,” and everything happening to me now comes from Him; whether I react or not does not matter. Everything that happens to me now and until the end of correction (Gmar Tikun), the entire system works automatically.

We say that nothing changes in the actual events. “The world follows its course.” You have a path, and you must go through all the actions from this moment to the end of correction because your Kelim (vessels) are broken and must be gradually corrected until everything is completely corrected. The only thing up to you is the intention you add to what is happening, how you feel about what you are going through.

This is precisely our work: to be righteous and justify everything that happens to us. To the extent you can justify these actions, you move past them. But if you cannot justify something, you linger in that state until you gradually understand it more deeply, with all the causes and effects. But as soon as you can justify it, you will immediately move on to the next action, to the next state.
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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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Spirituality Is a Constantly Changing Substance

234A person is constantly influenced by society and reality as a whole, the universe and their surroundings. At the same time, one must constantly strive to connect the three points together: I, the Creator, and my actions (my present state), as if they form a unified whole.

The balance between the right and left lines needs to be reestablished every minute, renewed at every moment. In fact, you can never simply be in a state of balance. Spirituality is a constantly changing substance.

There are no moment in spirituality where you can reach a point and say to yourself, “Ah! That is it, I’m done!” There is no such thing. If you utter that “Ah!”, then you are already no longer in the state that you had attained. In order to find the strength to remain in balance, you need a group.
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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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We Still Need Mausoleums

231.01Towers, pyramids, mausoleums—all of these are necessary; people need them.

Question: Even though they all deteriorate and will inevitably fall apart?

Answer: Yes, but in the meantime, we keep building them.

Question: Why is this urge within us?

Answer: We need this symbol. We are building a home for our egoism.

Question: So we need a symbol that we can constantly worship. Is this what is meant by “worshipping other gods”?

Answer: Yes. They may be temples; they may be pyramids; it doesn’t matter what form they take.

Question: When will we stop building them? When will we reach that stage?

Answer: Only when the Creator is revealed to us.

Comment: Lately you keep coming back to this very point, again and again.

My Response: What else could there be?!

Comment: At the same time, we don’t know when He will be revealed.

My Response: We don’t know, but this is the only way it can happen. It will completely encompass all our dreams, plans, our future—everything! In other words, when He is revealed to us, we will understand that all of this was complete nonsense and that we built all these things for nothing.

Question: You said that the Creator is mercy, that He is always goodness, love, and so on. Why, then, is this mercy so harsh? Why does it take so long? Why has blood been shed for centuries? Wars have continued for centuries, yet He still does not reveal Himself. Why?

Answer: He reveals Himself under certain conditions! What do you want from Him?! He must be revealed in a state of absolute unity between Him and humanity. But that unity does not exist. And so far, there has not even been any real movement toward it.

Question: Do you mean absolute unity among people themselves?

Answer: No, with people, the Creator’s unity with people.

Question: The unity of the Creator with people? Under what conditions can that happen?

Answer: If we become similar to Him in our qualities. In other words, if we become like Him, He will be revealed.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 7/31/26

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