Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 272

Why Is Intention Key?

Intention determines the quality of the action. However, intention without action, RABASH says, is like an angel and not a person. An intention without action leads to no change, improvement, or progress. What is an intention? It is when we have found the connection with the Creator in our heart and have brought the Creator into our heart. That is called “carrying out the intention.” What comes next? If we do not receive disturbances to this, we will not strengthen the intention, and then we will not progress toward the Creator so that He fills our entire heart and not only the innermost point.

What should we do? Once we bring the Creator into our heart, we must face life (work, family, friends, the study, and various matters) and deal with it together with this point. The point proceeds to receive disturbances, and if we overcome them, if we deal with these disturbances while still maintaining that same point of connection with the Creator, then the point grows into ten Sefirot. The growth of the point is considered us performing an action.

This is called intention and action, and we learn about it in a spiritual Partzuf. First there is the Rosh (head), where we connect with the Creator, scrutinize how much we can receive, bestow, and so on, and afterward comes the action, where we also add other desires to this and examine how we can work with them. All of these become ten Sefirot, a Partzuf.

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We see the extent to which a person is dependent on society in everything that society defines. Therefore, our choice lies in finding a suitable environment. I must not be satisfied with just any environment.

In one of his letters, Rabash gives the example of a tailor who finds himself among tailors who are not particularly skilled. If you want to become a true professional, you must be among the best craftsmen.

Suppose you have sewn some item of clothing. If you have done it well, they will tell you so; if you have done it poorly, they will explain in the finest detail what is wrong. In other words, they respect work done perfectly. Among such people, you too will become a specialist and will not tolerate any shortcomings. Everything depends on the environment.

Therefore, if you want to become a skilled craftsman, you need a society that demands precisely this in every respect, and then it will not be difficult for you. All our difficulties, all the problems that arise when we are incapable, lose our way, fight with one another and with our own desire to receive, are caused by the fact that we do not build the environment.

We should not feel any effort in our work if our environment is corrected accordingly, because, by my nature, I will want to do what is accepted in the group. Therefore, being concerned with one’s own spiritual advancement is nonsense, real foolishness. A person must be concerned with establishing the concept of advancement in the group to the degree he needs, and then he will realize it.

We are the direct result of all the desires, thoughts, goals, and the importance that prevail in the group. Therefore, if we are already speaking about correcting the Reshimo, this is accomplished only through working with the environment.

Here we see how correctly all these things are connected within a single topic that you are working on. You work on your attitude toward the group, which is, in essence, your attitude toward the Creator. In response, the environment influences you and awakens you once again to the same work.

In other words, you see that all the beginnings, all the forces, all the prerequisites, and everything that must be revealed at the end are contained in a single topic, and you do not need to scatter your efforts across numerous factors. You have only one factor in which you begin and complete all the work, all the efforts, all the corrections and the fulfillment of the Kelim.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, Notes 882 “Rosh Hashanah”

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Question: In what form can I give to the group when I feel that I am becoming detached from it and that I have no common denominator with it? How can I annul myself before the group?

Answer: If you feel that you have no common denominator with the group, examine yourself. Perhaps the group’s goal does not coincide with your goal, and you are in a position to make some correction. Perhaps you should turn to the group and say, “Friends, I think you are getting it wrong.”

You must shape the group: “Buy yourself a friend.” You are obligated to invest effort and build them up so that they influence you. You yourself must awaken this in the group.

Perhaps your friends are not doing the right things; perhaps everyone acts quietly rather than openly, and this does not awaken you. You do not receive a sufficient impression from it. Or perhaps you do not want to be impressed by these things at all but need to be impressed by something else.

If I want to lose weight, I join a weight-loss group. There, they motivate me through all kinds of means of influence: lectures, discussions, films, anything to ensure that I retain a sense of the importance of the idea. And we must do the same thing. For any society outside our framework, this principle is clear. At any company, in any private business, the main question is: How do we inform the whole world that our product is the most necessary and the most important?

If I produce crackers, I want the whole world to eat only my crackers, not meat or fish, only these crackers. And I want everyone to think that they need nothing else. That is, essentially, what occupies the thoughts of a factory manager. And it should be the same for us. This is called external dissemination, as well as internal dissemination within the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

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Question: How can we build a group that will obligate us to advance in the right direction?

Answer: We see that everything depends on the effort a person invests, not in the people he has artificially surrounded himself with, but in that with which he truly integrates.

Sometimes it helps him to choose a few people with whom it is somewhat easier for him to speak and establish a closer connection. However, as we advance and pass through various states, we begin to understand that it is wrong to close ourselves off in some small circle.

The group has no clear boundaries separating what is within it. The group is a spiritual concept, and perhaps I am not even able to see and outline for myself precisely what it consists of.

Ultimately, all the aspirations, desires, understandings, connections with the higher force, and all the joint efforts we make together constitute the concept of the group. Only one thing is missing: for the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the goal to burn within it so strongly that they obligate everyone, and no one would have any difficulty thinking about this and living by it constantly.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, “Rosh Hashana”

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Question: Should we be, in a sense, completely open with one another in the group?

Answer: No, we should not reveal ourselves to one another. Everything depends on how a person internally attunes himself in relation to the group. Externally, the group should only take the qualities we want to attain and cultivate them as something most important.

Then a person who has not acquired them will feel ashamed and afraid of harming the group. He will see that he is lower than the other friends and will want to attain these qualities.

The greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the goal, aspiration toward the goal, contribution to the group, love for one’s neighbor, interest in others—if we cultivate these as the highest values, it will turn out that I will be afraid that these qualities are absent in me, because then the group will despise me.

Everything depends on how the group organizes itself and how a person attunes himself in relation to it. Moreover, he should not do this openly. The group, on the contrary, should speak about the fact that we have such a standard: the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the group, the greatness of bestowal, the greatness of love.

A person is not obligated to reveal himself to the group: “I am bad, I am uncorrected.” He must feel this within himself, and against this background immediately give the group what it demands of him: the greatness of the goal, and so on.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

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Question: What is this stage of bestowing for the sake of bestowal?

Answer: What kind of pleasure does the desire to receive receive from bestowing? What does bestowal mean to it? How can we attach the intention for the sake of bestowal to the desire to receive?

For this, I must connect myself to someone outside myself, someone external, which, in fact, does not exist for us at all, and we do not understand what it is. In other words, I must connect my desire to receive with someone else’s desire to receive. This someone could be a friend, the group, or the Creator. Then for me, the Creator is as though a desire to receive, because I care about His well-being, which means that He has a desire to receive.

This is how I imagine it, and I take care that this desire to receive experiences pleasure. After all, this is the only way I can understand it! I want Him to enjoy! Then I connect my desire to receive with some external desire, an external need, and live within this external desire. It has become important to me.

It is as though I detach myself from myself to the point that I care only about what is there. Here, we return to the example of a mother and her infant: the infant occupies all her attention. She works to meet its needs and is not concerned about herself at all.

So, what does bestowing for the sake of bestowal mean? It means doing everything that He desires. At the same time, the pleasure I experience is in Him. I bestow, and bestow, while my pleasure is in Him. Receiving for the sake of bestowal, on the other hand, means discovering that I can give Him pleasure only to the extent that I myself experience pleasure! I enjoy, and only then does He enjoy! This is double connection.

When I bestow for the sake of bestowal, I do not experience the pleasures that pass through me; I am simply present within Him. I am constantly working with His need, and this is my pleasure: what is felt there. But when I work with the desire to receive for the sake of bestowal, I must experience pleasure myself, and only to that extent can I feel that He is enjoying Himself. Now our pleasures work together: our needs operate together as one unified need.

Therefore, in Kabbalah, we say that when bestowing for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Aviut of Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet, whereas when receiving for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Aviut of Gimel and Dalet. In other words, when receiving for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Kelim of reception; when bestowing for the sake of bestowal, I work with the Kelim of bestowal, whose Aviut is relatively small.

In fact, the Kelim with Aviut Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet are also Kelim of reception, but in them I do not feel pleasure from bestowing upon Him. More precisely, of course, I do feel pleasure, but it does not depend on my bestowal upon Him.

It is just like the example of a mother who gives to her child: she does not have to experience pleasure herself in order to care for the child; she only needs to feel whether he is enjoying himself. Whereas when receiving for the sake of bestowal, I must feel my own pleasure, and my sensation of His enjoyment also depends on this feeling. It is as though I unite both our desires to receive—mine and His—so that one depends on the other. This gives a person an unlimited Kli!

When receiving for the sake of bestowal, the receiving Kli is unlimited. When bestowing for the sake of bestowal, you simply bestow; there is no limitation, but the Kelim, the desires, are not revealed. My Kli, my desire, does not participate in this process. It participates only in my concern for Him, and my degree of Bina depends on the Aviut He has; that is, on the extent to which I reveal Him as the recipient of my bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/12/26, Rabash, “His Law He Contemplates”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 271

What Attitude Is Required in Order to Advance?

The entire intention should be aimed at the Creator. An intention toward anything outside the Creator does not matter and is not taken into account. First of all, we need to connect our inner point to the Creator, so that our attitude is aimed at the Creator, and the innermost point in our heart is connected to the Creator. It is as though we bring the Creator into our heart, and then, with our heart, turn toward the other things around us, such as the society, life, family, work, and so on.

This is how our attitude toward the Creator determines our entire life course, and we are certain that we are on the right path. We know that everything we have in our life in this world will come to us as a means. The more various factors in life interfere with our holding the Creator in our heart and the more we resist this, the stronger this connection in our heart will become in the sense of “the whole world is worthwhile for me.” This is advancement, and we need nothing else. This is “the whole Torah on one foot” from which the connection with the Creator will be determined according to our attitude toward Him.

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Our entire path consists of descents and ascents. There is nothing in a person that does not break and subsequently get restored. Only by comparing each supposedly bad and supposedly good quality, at the junction between them can we build something, do something, somehow prepare, create an inner Kli, and then fill it.

Therefore, a person must never think: “What state am I in?” This is the wrong attitude. One should not pay attention to the state. A person must always think, “What am I aspiring toward?” rather than “Where am I starting from?” He should never think, “How am I doing?” but rather, “What must I aspire toward?” That is, he must see the quality, the image, the characteristic toward which he must aspire.

Never think about yourself. As soon as you begin thinking about yourself, a descent occurs immediately, and an enormous number of obstacles appear that pull you inward and to the sides. Do not focus on yourself, but think from yourself outward. Then we will quickly pass through all the necessary, obligatory states.

We will understand that all of them come so that, despite what passes through us, we constantly aspire toward the one. This is what must be revealed, clarified, and concluded from reviewing the entire chain of states that we must pass through.

And there are very many of them. Each one is further divided into many others, and a person can pass through an enormous number of all kinds of states every second. This depends only on the aspiration forward. The more I aspire forward and constantly and more clearly and strongly direct myself toward the goal, the faster the little motor turns, which spins these states within me, and the greater the speed of their passage within me is.

This depends on me. If I am not directed toward anything, then this wheel, this chain of Reshimot within me, stands still. If I begin to aspire forward a little, it begins to spin more and more. If I stop and occupy myself with myself, everything stops; everything is dead. Therefore, one must think only moving outward from oneself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

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