Question: Everyone has something that gets in their way. Perhaps they do not see it or they choose to ignore it. Why don’t we help them see it? That way, we could all rise one degree higher.

Answer: That won’t help. If it concerns something technical or practical, you can hold a person accountable. But if it concerns spiritual correction, you must not interfere.

You cannot approach a person and say, “You lack love for your friends. Why aren’t you working on love for your neighbor?” or something of that kind. You can ask, “Why didn’t you show up at 3:00 AM? Why didn’t complete your assigned task while on duty?” These matters concern the group’s routine, and we must simply carry these things out like soldiers. Whoever has received an assignment is obligated to fulfill it.

But you must not impose inner demands. First of all, this will not help because everything stems solely from a person’s own awareness, from how he reveals his Hisaron (spiritual lack).  If he hasn’t revealed it yet and you wag your finger at him saying, “Tsk tsk, tsk,” he won’t understand what you want from him. It is like talking to a cat. If a cat has not reached the level at which it can listen and understand, what do you expect from it?

The same applies to a person. Perhaps only a millimeter separates him in his inner development from the stage at which he begins to feel, but he has not yet crossed that millimeter, and he cannot hear you. Once he reaches that stage, he will hear it from within himself. Therefore, it is forbidden to point out to one another what you think you see.

Let us say I see flaws in a friend’s external actions, and from my point of view, they are very obvious. However, I have no demands regarding his inner work. A demand can be made of the group: the more strongly it develops its common aspiration, the further each person will advance.

Have you ever heard me belittle someone for their inner spiritual laziness? Perhaps sometimes it looks that way, but that is not how I see it, truly it isn’t. I may shout at someone because of sound problems or various technical glitches. If it were someone else who was paid in that person’s place, I would shout in exactly the same way. It makes no difference to me.

But as for a person’s inner efforts, assuming they are generally striving, to act for the benefit of the group and the goal, I do not interfere. In this regard, he is a righteous person in my eyes. As far as technical matters are concerned, he is a sinner in my eyes. That is just an example.

Therefore, I simply do not understand how we can point things out to one another. Apart from setting an example, we cannot interfere with a friend’s spiritual work in any way. We set an external example from which he will understand that he must examine himself. We do not even examine him; we merely set an example: this is what we are like, and as for you, examine yourself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

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When we begin to ask ourselves what the meaning of our life is, this question touches upon something that is above meaning—the source from which suffering and pleasure originate.

With this question, a person begins to naturally investigate the reality surrounding him. Whether he wants it or not, in various situations of life this question arises before him, and then he begins to ask and sees that he certainly wants to enjoy, understand, and attain the source of pleasure.

However, in this world, he cannot reveal the force of the one. But when he advances in the study of the method of Kabbalah and through directed actions evokes upon himself the surrounding light, then he sees that there is a force that awakens life within him.

And then he feels himself as something opposite to this force and begins to address it with a demand: “Why don’t you give me what I want and what is due to me according to the efforts made, in accordance with my desire?” That is, he feels the uniqueness of his own rule where his “I” governs, and this is already somewhat of the level of Pharaoh, who said: “Who is the Creator, that I should listen to Him?”

Then, gradually, as a result of the influence of the surrounding lights, when a person performs the actions recommended to him by the Kabbalists, he begins to think that this is not his own rule but “our” rule so to speak—me and the Creator.

Based on this, he slowly transitions to the desire to be like the Creator: “Despite the fact that there is me and Him, I already want to be like Him. And if I will be Him, that is, if it is revealed in my Kelim that only the Creator rules, this will be my final correction.”

Thus, he transitions from what is ostensibly his own sole rule to a partnership, and from there, to the rule of the Creator. Such is the path along which, of course, one acquires a multitude of concepts pertaining to each of the states.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/26, Rabash, “The Importance of Recognition of Evil”

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Question: Is the sin of Adam HaRishon not a sin but a correction?

Answer: Sin is not sin at all, as we usually understand it. Adam HaRishon definitely had to go through this state, because it is a punishment. But the punishment is not because he is to blame for something as in our world. Here if I am punished, it means I am guilty of something. It is just that his original nature is the opposite of the Creator’s nature, and in order to correct it, it must mix with the Creator’s nature.

Love and awe are forces, or a process of preparation, or conditions under which a person is able to remain in faith rather than in knowledge, and to stay within the category of faith. But Adam HaRishon fell into the category of knowledge, of acquisition, first in his mind and then in his heart. The state in which he violated faith occurred because he had a flaw in love, and he also lacked sufficient awe.

Why? Because in his natural Kelim he could not hold on to faith above reason, since there was no power of Binah there. Faith is the power of Binah, and it cannot penetrate a point created from nothing, into the stone heart.

Therefore, instead of making the correction right at this point, in the very stony heart, he fell from faith into knowledge. Only by the power of Binah can we rely upon faith above reason, upon the higher force, upon spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/26, Rabash, “When a Person Knows What Is Fear of the Creator”

Related Material:
When There Is No Inner Preparation…
The Difference Between Spiritual Concepts and Corporeal Concepts
What Is a “Transgression”?

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 280

What Does It Mean to Check Whether We Have a Connection with the Creator?

“To check whether we have a connection with the Creator” means, first of all, to check whether we even remember this connection. Also, if we remember this connection, meaning that we have a certain measure of illumination from the surrounding lights, we must check whether we want to belong to these surrounding lights or identify with what we feel in our animate nature.

For example, we might think that perhaps it would be better for us now to disconnect from the purpose of creation and enjoy something, to sit down, have a drink, and tell jokes with the friends. Why should we think about the purpose of creation, when thoughts about the purpose of creation spoil all of our pleasure? If we wish to check whether we have a connection with the Creator, we can use such examples, and even more animate ones, in which we do not want the Creator to stand between us and our pleasures, and consider whether or not we have a connection with the Creator.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 279
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 278
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 277

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