A person on the spiritual path goes through various states, both good and bad. At times he feels closer to the Creator, sometimes further away from Him. Despite the fact that love for the Creator sometimes awakens in him that allows him to sense his connection with Him and those sensations subsequently fade away, the Creator nonetheless keeps a tally only of the good states. He gathers them all together into a single cumulative measure. Once this measure is attained, the individual becomes eligible to receive a permanent, uninterrupted connection with Him.

This is called “Pesach.” It is when the Creator, in His reckoning, takes into account only the good deeds of a person and skips (“Poseach“) the bad ones.

Why is it said that He does not take into account bad deeds when it would seem that the person is culpable for them? The individual is not to blame. The Creator intentionally hardens one’s heart and confuses the person so one can reveal the light from the depths of the darkness.

Therefore, the reckoning does not hinge on how strong or successful a person is. The only thing that counts is whether one has undergone enough to experience states of love, connection with the Creator, and adhesion with Him.

The speed at which we achieve this measure depends on our efforts. The Creator does everything, but we can only speed up time. If I invested a lot of energy and effort, came to lessons every morning, and did everything possible in my studies and work for the group (this is especially effective during the period of Passover), I would accelerate and shorten the time.

The states of ascents and descents rush through me with greater speed, I quickly reach my required measure, and a calculation called “Pesach” is made upon me.

When is the final calculation done? After seven years of plenty, after seven years of famine, and after ten blows, the ten plagues, then, suddenly, all at once, the final reckoning takes place. Why suddenly? Because the required measure is achieved in the darkness, in the middle of the night. A person knows nothing in advance. It happens unexpectedly, in a flash, and then the person breaks through.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/26, Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Question: If I must strive to rise to a higher degree because I want to find a better state there, am I simply running away from suffering?

Answer: Why do you think the exodus from Egypt did not happen through suffering? You ask why I must advance by the path of suffering. It is because you are in the will to receive for your own sake and do not even know it; you must gradually begin to become aware of it and become acquainted with your egoism.

In the will to receive itself there is nothing bad; it is bad only relative to the Creator; relative to this world it is ordinary. We see how in people with great egoistic desires succeed our world.

They earn a lot of money and rule over those whose will to receive is not so great. As a result, those who do not need more than to earn a livelihood somewhere work for the one in whom the will to receive is great. He becomes the boss, the owner, and they become his workers.

It turns out that for our world the will to receive is a good, useful thing. And only if the Creator is revealed a little and He wants to advance the person and humanity, then to that extent He reveals the evil inherent in this state. And if we did not compare it with the Creator, we would not find anything bad in the will to receive itself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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In spirituality, desire determines everything. Therefore, a created being is not capable of willingly desiring suffering in order to subsequently, after a few steps, delight the Creator with an altruistic intention. This is impossible. This entire process must begin from above. The Creator is always the initiator.

Question: In the corporeal world, a small child learning how to walk does not see how helpless his state is because his mother is before his eyes and he knows she will help him. What about spirituality?

Answer: If we were standing and crying like a child, but while crying, looking toward the Creator, this state would be different from when He is concealed. If you see the Creator, it means He has not left you; He has not concealed Himself.

In the corporeal world, connection can be felt through sight, touch, an embrace, and so on. In spirituality as well, there are various degrees of connection: an embrace, a kiss, and so forth. If you have drawn closer to the Creator (no matter to what degree you are connected with Him), this cannot be called a state of darkness because you remain in connection with Him. He does not abandon you.

We must understand that states of darkness are sent to us from above according to how much effort we must apply at a given degree. Perhaps they are sent to you with the initial intention that you will not succeed. Perhaps this is meant to give you the opportunity to accumulate Reshimot and to clarify your failures, so that you will exert certain efforts in this situation.

You do not know this, but you are given exactly what you need at this moment for your spiritual advancement. The accounting is done from above. You do not know why or for what purpose—just as a child does not understand why his mother has stepped away from him, why she seems so harsh.

He was always in her arms and suddenly she places him in the middle of the room and steps back. The child is completely helpless, while the mother rejoices; she is teaching him to walk, teaching him independence.

This is what: “You shall see My back” (Achoraim) is. That is, from a state of darkness, you begin to see the light. It does not mean that through the Achoraim you directly see the light. In the state of Achoraim, you build the Kli. And through the Kli, you then reveal the face of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/31/26, Rabash, “Show Me Your Glory”

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Question: How can I ask a friend for help?

Answer: The help you can request from a friend should consist of his telling you something good. What else could there be?

When you turn to a friend, you should not tell him about all your misfortunes because this will bring him down.

Whether you want to or not, you are negatively affecting the other person, which is forbidden to do; it is called evil speech. If a person tells someone else something bad, no matter the form, it is slander.

What is slander? Anything one hears that brings him down and weakens him. Even just frivolity or any mockery weakens a person because his thoughts and intentions disappear the moment he hears it.

But the slander that is openly directed against the Creator is especially serious: “Who is the Creator that I should listen to Him?” This is the root cause of slander, because it cuts off any opportunity for a person to turn to the Creator, and in it lies his salvation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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In order for a person to have equivalence of form with the Creator, he must try to have fear in everything he does, as it is written (there), “Fear means that he is afraid lest he will diminish in bringing contentment to his Maker.” (Rabash, “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”)

It is impossible to begin any relationship between a person and anyone else without the condition of awe. Awe is what the desire to receive feels as it strives for fulfillment, for life, for pleasure. However, opposite this, it also feels fear.

An unfulfilled desire to receive experiences fear that this state will remain or that it will come to such a state. This is animalistic fear—awe (Ira).

If we acquire a screen over this animalistic awe, which is directed inward toward the desire to receive, then from the desire to receive this awe turns toward the Creator and becomes something else entirely. Instead of thinking about myself and fearing for my own state, I tremble and think about His state. This means that I begin to feel the “suffering of the Shechina.”

Just as the desire to receive is the foundation for developing a system of relationships directed toward bestowal, so too, awe is the foundation for developing a system of relationships directed toward love. There can be no love without awe.

Even in the highest love, there must be awe. What if I could have given one gram more and I did not? And this is not any kind of deficiency on the part of the Creator, nor any natural deficiency on the part of the created being.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/26, Rabash, “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 26 “What Is the Difference between Law and Judgment in the Work?” (1988) (2.28.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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The name “Pesach” comes from the word “Pasach” (to skip over, to pass over, to leap over). This means that from all the great work a person performs, with all the ascents and descents he goes through, when at times he strives toward spirituality and at other times sinks back into the pursuit of pleasures of this world, when sometimes he thinks only of himself, and at other times is capable of thinking of someone else (although, of course, all his thoughts about others are still egoistic); and all these calculations are still within the bounds of this world, out of all this work, only the ascents are taken into account, while the descents are not considered; they are “skipped over.”

Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator counts all of a person’s attempts to rise toward Him, gathers them all together so that they accumulate into the necessary critical measure sufficient to give a person the light that takes them out of Egypt and allows them to unite with the Creator, to reveal spirituality, to open the “future world.”

Therefore, all the actions a person performs countless times, all the states one goes through day by day during study, during the preparation, and when working for the group all gradually accumulate into a state called “Pesach,” when everything positive is added up and the negative is not taken into account.

Here, descents, when a person was submerged and under the rule of the Egyptians, are not considered. This is what is alluded in the Torah, that the Creator has one calculation for the “houses of the Egyptians,” upon which He brings judgment, and another calculation for the “houses of the sons of Israel,” which He saves.

For each soul there is a unique calculation, a specific measure, that enables a person to reach this very state. But when, with respect to that soul, the necessary critical measure of the “houses of Israel” relative to the “houses of the Egyptians” is reached (the “houses” are called Kelim), then the Creator gathers them all together, performs “Pesach” (collects the good while skipping over and passing over the bad), and takes them out of Egypt.

After He gathers the good Kelim, He gives them the light, correction, and a person, within these Kelim, feels that he has come out of Egypt. Meanwhile, the Egyptians (the receiving Kelim) remain in Egypt, they still cannot be given redemption; only Galgalta ve Eynaim can be redeemed. Therefore, the people of Israel came out from there and later merited receiving the Torah. However, in Gmar Tikkun (the end of correction), the Egyptians, too, will receive their correction.

Those Kelim that the Israelites took out of Egypt are gradually corrected; this includes their shattering and the building and destruction of the First and Second Temples. We are now at the very final stage of correction, just before the final correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/26, Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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The Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust is a special, very sorrowful day in the history of the Jewish people and of all humanity, since we are all connected with one another. On such a day we must speak about the causes of this tragedy and its lessons, so that “the deeds of the fathers may serve as a sign for the sons.”

There is nothing but the upper force, good and doing good, which governs us all the time. There is not a single action that goes beyond this good governance.

Therefore, if in our scrutiny we do not rise above our egoistic nature and begin to judge the Creator, doubting His good guidance, then we will deceive ourselves. Then all our investigation will bring no benefit and will lead us into the same bitter reality we are forced to speak about today.

The Creator feels our sensations. If we are united and rejoice in this, then the Creator rejoices. He has no sensations of His own; He resides within us, much like a mother who lives through her beloved infant. Through our connection with one another, we create a place for the Creator, a place where He can exist.

And if we are not connected, then there is no place for the Creator; consequently, we feel His actions in a distorted, inverted form, as if they do not come from Him. Every action is experienced in us in direct proportion to the degree of our unity or disunity.

The Creator resides within our connection with one another. This connection must be in a constant state of development, beginning from the initial shattering performed by the Creator up to the final correction, complete adhesion. As long as we do not lag behind in our advancement from the stages of correction we are destined to traverse, all is well with us. But if we fall behind, then we find ourselves in a dire state, one that we ourselves have brought about.

If at every moment we do not correct the connection between us, then we feel the difference between the desired state and the actual one. Suppose that today I must be corrected by 20% in my connection with all humanity and I have reached only 15% connection.

Consequently the missing 5% are revealed to me as pressure, problems. In essence, these are the forces that are meant to speed up my advancement, to make up for the delay, to extinguish the gap between the desired and the actual.

These forces do not testify to the goodness or evil of the Creator, but are simply a natural consequence of the work of the system, as it is said: “A law has been given and cannot be transgressed.” That is, one must evaluate not by how painful or pleasant it is for us, but by how much these forces, which are revealed to us as good or evil, help us to advance correctly.

The Creator does not wish us evil, but there is a law of nature, and in fulfilling it we feel our connection, whereas in violating it we feel pain, to such an extent that today we are forced to recall the Holocaust, the most sorrowful event in the history of the Jewish people.

And of course, it was not caused by the Creator, but by people who were obliged to correct the connection between them and did not correct it. The delay in correction was so enormous that it poured out into terrible suffering.

What lessons can we draw from this? Throughout the journey from ancient Babylon until today many tragic events have occurred, and all for a single reason. Since the Creator represents the general law of nature, the system shows us the necessity of connection. But we do not listen to it and do not hasten to rectify the delay, we consequently receive the corresponding consequences. In fact, we ourselves have caused them and cannot blame the Creator.

We are aware of the requisite conditions, but we do not fulfill them; in doing so, we summon forces that push us toward our ultimate goal with greater severity and resolve.  Throughout history tension and troubles have pursued us: exiles, enslavement in Egypt, wandering in the desert, and the destruction of the Temple. But the Holocaust is a state of an entirely unique nature.

In the course of its historical development, the people of Israel had already reached the point where the fourth degree of connection within the soul of Adam HaRishon became a necessity, but failed to realize it. Even today we are not fulfilling this goal, so what can we expect? Only states even worse than those that we have already endured. We must learn from history in order not to repeat the same states.

After Babylon and Egypt, blows pursue us one after another at every moment when we do not create the connection between us in the required measure. The punishment will be collective for the entire people of Israel. And today we are responsible not only for ourselves, but for the whole world.

At one time it was possible to carry out the correction in a limited group, within the European Jewry. The Nazis themselves wanted to help the Jews revive the State of Israel. At first, they acted as forces helping the correction. But if we do not use the chance given to us, these forces turn into negative ones.

And today, if we do not use the forces serving to awaken us, forces that are already manifesting as negative, they will turn into something far more terrible ones than anything we witnessed before. Today’s Holocaust would be on a different scale entirely, not confined to Europe, but would encompass the whole world. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand this reality and hasten to undertake the necessary corrections before it is too late.

If we unite, then the upper force flows through us to all the nations of the world, to all of reality, and gradually the whole world attains a state of unity. At that point, all turmoil subsides, the Creator begins to reveal Himself to the created beings, and the world attains its destined correction.

If, however, we, the people of Israel, do not unite among ourselves, at least within Israel, where there are the best conditions for connection, if we do not become as one man with one heart, do not love our neighbor as ourselves, do not become a light for the nations of the world by demonstrating an example of unity to the world, then we will pass through such terrible states that the horrors of the Holocaust will pale in comparison.

Merits can turn into faults and faults into merits. Therefore, we must believe that we currently have the opportunity, the time, the place, and all the necessary means to avoid repeating the mistake made by the Jewish people almost a hundred years ago.

We must not squander the opportunity to unite among ourselves in order to connect with the upper force that is inherently good and the source of all goodness. Through us this force, which wants to be revealed to all the inhabitants of this world, will be able to manifest. We must help it in this and become a conduit between it and humanity.

Let us not repeat past mistakes. The wisdom of Kabbalah describes the laws of nature, laws that operate independently of whether we find them pleasant or unpleasant, laws that do not take into account anyone’s partisan or economic interests. There is no doubt that had the Jewish people behaved differently back then, the world today would look completely different.

Everything lies in our hands; we determine our fate and the fate of the whole world. The law of nature is an immutable law that must be fulfilled. The Creator does not pity us and does not punish us, He simply carries out this universal law. The Creator is nature, and according to nature’s program we are obliged to unite in one desire, in one intention, according to a single formula of mutual bestowal. We must bring this unity to the world—this is our mission.

Let us not repeat the bitter mistakes of the past; instead, on this solemn day, let us resolve to take upon ourselves the sacred duty of leading the world toward true unity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/9/19 on the topic “Holocaust Remembrance Day”

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It is written in Shaar Hakavanot [Gate of Intentions], “This is the meaning of the Maror [bitter herb], which is ‘death,’ in Gematria. This is also why he must taste bitterness, and if he swallows it, he does not do his duty… (Rabash, “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”)

There are three states in the universe. The first state is the stage of infinity (Ein Sof) that includes souls before they leave the direct control of the Creator. This stage is as He created it; He gives everything the qualities of perfection and eternity. As He is, so are they.

However, this is done on by Him. Therefore, souls that sense the Creator experience what is called “shame.”

They need to be freed from shame, and thereby be brought to a state in which they will no longer simply receive from Him, like a fetus in the womb, in perfection due to His efforts, but would acquire their own level, their own feeling, their own awareness, that they will really rise to the level of the Creator, become similar to Him in properties, and not be compelled by Him.

Then the second state arises, the state of work and effort, during which we go through the process of correcting and installing Kelim in order to experience the first state in its entirety. We ourselves desire it, and acquire it; it is ours. When this happens, the second state turns into the third.

Therefore, Maror (bitter herbs) should not be swallowed but chewed. According to our Passover laws, a certain amount of time, a certain measure, is allotted for this.

And then, if we “chewed” it well, if we went through all the attributes of the properties in the desire to receive relative to the Creator’s desire to give, understood what our nature is, and then achieved the use of the intention for the sake of giving, i.e., as they say, “swallowed” Maror, then we really come out through the work of acquiring new vessels, and we merit “getting out of Egypt.”

In the work itself, there are three special stages: faith, prayer, efforts (in Hebrew: “Emuna,” “Tefila,” “Igiya,” the acronym of the first letters of which is “Iti“, which means “with Me”).

The “place,” the state we have to reach, is called “with Me” (“Iti“): “Here is the place [next to] Me.” This is the place of the Creator, and you can come to this state “with Me” through faith, prayer, and effort.

These stages are present at every stage of our work, in every state. Accordingly, the overall process of our advancement is divided primarily into these three parts: faith, prayer, and effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/26, Rabash, “What Is, If He Swallows the Bitter Herb, He Will Not Come Out, in the Work?”

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