When studying Kabbalah, a person often forgets that he must examine himself, and he can examine himself only with the help of the light of the Creator. He forgets that all his desires at every moment, until they are corrected, are determined not by him but by the Creator or his own egoism.

The only way to change this is not by his own willpower to search for something somewhere, but through the surrounding environment, through the group that will help him reassess his values, elevate the goal, and exalt the Creator.

There is nothing in a person except the initial point of Bina. Therefore, he must look for everything else outside himself: either from the group or from the Creator. This anti-egoistic, unnatural state for us is the greatest obstacle on our path. We are always blaming ourselves, looking for the reason inside us, hoping to find some resources and strength inside us. In fact, all of this is outside of us.

And turning to something external is extremely against egoism, which is why it is very difficult for us to remember this and control ourselves.

I forget about this and begin to imagine myself as supposedly the source of strength, capabilities, and thoughts. I begin to blame myself. “Why am I not like that?” But I cannot be any different. I should blame myself not for that but for forgetting about the external sources of my good thoughts and strength with the help of which I can move forward and realize these thoughts.

But what can I do if I forget? The group should remind me of everything. It should appear to me as a repository of methodology, a repository of my good thoughts, directions, a reserve, a memory that will always support me. Friends should remind me where I am, what I am, and in which direction I should move. They should awaken me, constantly give me strength.

Why? Because I have invested all of this in them in advance. I have agreed with them that we will have such mutual guarantee. Therefore, each of us is now thinking about how to return this most important information to others, and through them, as a result, to ourselves; otherwise, we will completely fall off our spiritual path.

Begin to accept this specific society surrounding us, created by us artificially, deliberately, as your mind, as your memory, as your guide, your instructor, parent, educator, doctor, whatever you like. We should develop a feeling that we are completely dependent on our group.

Consciously or not, we all draw nourishment from the group. Therefore, the understanding that everything necessary is outside of me; all my memory, all my strength are in the group and not in me is, in fact, a true understanding of what exists on our path, and it greatly helps to correctly attune to connection, to a certain style of relating to the environment, to the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/28/26

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