Question: If a person feels inspired by the books and the group while one studies, is that not a form of pleasure?

Answer: Everything depends on the underlying cause. There are many people who come to this path because they feel bad. They are looking for a place where they will feel good. In general, there are a thousand and one reasons, but ultimately it all boils down to a lack of a sense of the future. They need confidence. And confidence is a result of attaining faith.

Yes, it is true that this sets us in motion, and we act from the fact that we feel bad now and will feel good later. But the real question is: “Do I change my values along the way? Do I remain in the same desire to feel good in the same vessels as before? Or do my vessels continuously improve? Do I begin to strive for something beyond matter? Do I start approaching the charm of holiness?”

If so, then I no longer interpret “good,” as I did at the beginning, to mean filling myself with various corporeal pleasures. For us, “animal pleasures” are essentially honor, power, and knowledge. I begin to see that power and knowledge do not lead me to the goal, and I feel how empty they are in themselves.

If this is process is taking place, a person is developing. If not, he remains as he was, and then he leaves the group. A person who does not change his values cannot remain here. He will feel as though the group is expelling him, pushing him outward.

And so it continues until the only pleasure left for me is attaining connection with the Creator. I am not yet acquainted with Him, I do not know Him precisely, but it is like a kind of “madness.” No one sees Him,and neither do I, but it is something I am drawn to.

This is the result of the influence of the surrounding light that shines from afar and builds a yearning for it within me, until, in the words of Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam), “it does not let me sleep.” This is called persistence, steadfastness.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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