The ladder of spiritual attainment is within us, whereas my present degree exists externally. In addition, inside me are layers, much like those of an onion that represent increasingly inner states. Each such sphere constitutes a world, a new state, and a higher degree.

Starting from the outermost sphere (which is currently revealed to me and constitutes my present state), all the spheres are nested one within another, ever deeper and deeper, up to the innermost central point, the state of my final correction.

Therefore the Torah recounts the story of the ladder that appeared to Jacob in a dream that depicted its specific form. It is described precisely as a ladder, not as some spheres or other form, although it could have been described that way too. The sages chose to represent this specific state because it corresponds to the relationship between the branch and the root.

Jacob lies on the ground, falls asleep, disconnects from his current reality, and then he sees, the entire ladder rising to the very heavens beginning from the lowest rung. Who is Jacob? He is Abraham, who acquired the Aviut of Isaac and now is able to work with it in the middle line.

This simple picture can be given to everyone; it explains that the only way to transcend one’s present state it to rise to a higher degree. The higher you rise, the better it will be for you. This applies both to us personally and to the entire nation. By what means can this be done? This is what Baal HaSulam explains at the end of the “Preface to The Book of Zohar.” The means is one and the same for the individual, for the entire people, and for the whole world.

And we should not be resent that the Creator placed us in such harsh conditions. Terrible reports are broadcast on television, but has this stirred anyone from their place? No.

One can say, of course, that these unfortunate people simply do not know that there is such a solution to the problem, that no one has explained it to them. First of all we must accept that these Kelim, these states, come to us from above, that they are sent to us by the Creator. And then, in light of this knowledge, a person gradually begins to reveal a possible way out and to understand that, apparently, since the cause lies with Him, then the solution must also be in Him.

In the days of King David there were wars. At that time, they battled hand‑to‑hand, with spears, swords, and bows and arrows, and up to 100,000 people could die in a single day! War is war. Everything depends on how one looks at it.

Of course, for us in this world every killing is a tragedy. But we must understand that above they do not take bodies into account the way we do. From above, the reckoning centers on the intensity of the inner experience one undergoes through that body. If we lose 40 people in a week and this does not shifte our consciousness, then it is as if we have not lost anyone at all.

For what is measured is the degree of your grief, how it awakens you, what the results are; and if it has not awakened you, then it is as though you have lost nothing, as though you have felt nothing. The real system of evaluation is very strict.
[355141]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection Between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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What is the difference between wanting to receive something good right now in the state I am in and believing it would be better for me if I were to rise to a higher state, to a higher degree? How does the awareness of this difference arise in me at all?

The most essential difference is whether I understand that only by drawing closer to the Creator will I feel good. It is precisely this that we must acquire now.

A person needs to picture a spiritual ladder that raises him from this world to the final correction and to understand that all the rungs are in a constant, stable state. Each rung has its own conditions.

The conditions in which a person is now are bad only because such is the nature of this rung. And accordingly, nothing good can be for him now. Rising to the next rung means being saved from the bad that exists on the previous one.

Then he will already be thinking about how to rise from rung to rung, how to draw the surrounding light, and for this he needs to study and believe that it will help him, and at the same time, seek the support of the group.

Therefore we must diligently study the method of Kabbalah. Without it we might be tempted to define the spiritual ladder merely as a series of inner states within a person rather some structure that rests on this earth and reaches heaven. We must conclude that it consists entirely of my own inner states.

But if I think like this, I can lose all the necessary vital prerequisites: the necessity of drawing the surrounding light, the indispensable need for a group, and the imperative to strive upward in order to draw closer to the Creator. I would no longer have a sharp, clear understanding; instead everything would become vague and indistinct.
[355138]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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Comment: When someone asks you a question via Skype or in person, that is one kind of energy. But when a crowd is sitting in front of you and they ask you a question, it is a completely different energy, as if piercing needles or a crushing weight.

My Response: Of course, because it is an enormous force, an enormous desire. How can the egoism of one small, insignificant little person be compared with the egoism of such a vast, base, egoistic mass as my students at the lesson?

On one hand, they are coarser, more disillusioned, more empty, and on the other hand, are intensely directed toward the goal. Ultimately these forces combine and reinforce each other.

And most importantly, the questions are asked collectively; all the vectors of desires converge and intertwine.

Naturally, this is a completely different kind of clarification. How can one person be compared with the masses? Next to them, you are an angel.
[354397]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Questions in a Lesson” 9/29/10

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We cannot rise above what we feel. If we feel a world full of suffering, it means that we ourselves are actually like that. And inside, we do not really want to see the world differently. We actually want it to stay that way.

Question: So do we want this suffering?

Answer: Yes, we are used to it, we are in it. And this is the problem.

Comment: But this is actually an anti-life.

My Response: That is where we are.

Question: We are not living, are we?

Answer: We are not.

Comment: This is a total revolution—us wanting suffering.

My Response: Our whole history, of all people in general, is just a continuous
stream of suffering.

Comment: But we think we have been led into this. It is even written in the Torah: “Go and suffer.” By and large, it says that you will suffer. That is, we do not attribute it to ourselves; it is not us who want it, we have been launched into this cycle of suffering. It is not our fault. But you say that it lives in us.

My Response: I think it is our fault. We do not wish to rise from this level. We do not want to!

Question: So the whole task is to want to?

Answer: To want to turn it all around, to get out of this knot of suffering.

Question: What should one do to achieve this?

Answer: To achieve this, a person must stop hating others and bring himself closer to them. Then everything will change. I think we just need to forbid people from suffering, because doing so causes suffering in the world. Wake up and sing!

Question: “Wake up and sing.” That is, if it hurts you, wake up and sing. That very song: “Wake up and sing, try it for once in your life…”?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What should we figure out? What is in front of us? What is it?

Answer: The Creator! Nothing else! He makes such scenes and visions for us all the time so that we are constantly afraid and so that we would gradually come to understand these mirages.

Question: So, my desire for suffering should transition into the fact that before me is a…?

Answer: A mirage.

Question: And I have no right to suffer, you say?

Answer: No! As soon as you start suffering, it turns into some kind of corporeal actions or scenes.

Comment: Wars, and so on.

My Response: Yes. But if you do not allow suffering, everything gets better.

Question: And then I slowly begin to see the Creator?

Answer: Yes.

Question: When you say “the Creator,” what do you mean? What is before me, before us?

Answer: The force that controls the world, us, that wants to bring us to the realization of the right state of nature and ourselves.

Question: What is it?

Answer: Joy!
[354510]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 3/13/26

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We are constantly advancing. In reality there is no turning back and no descents on the spiritual path. Ascent is taking place all the time, although it can be either in the Kelim or in the lights. This is how we should think, and this is what is really happening.

If it seems to us that we are falling, this is not a descent, but rather an accumulation of empty Kelim that later will receive their fulfillment. In this constant forward movement, a person needs absolutely everything they have. It may seem to you that something is hindering you on your way, but in reality, you are unable to advance without your “Pharaoh,” without egoism.

Pharaoh is all your Kelim. If they are not corrected by you, then what are you going to use for your advancement? Every time you take from him, correct it and advance. All the obstacles that exist in your head, along with the sense of powerlessness you feel, occur precisely when you are obtaining new, empty Kelim. However, this is an acquisition, and you must remember this,  you must believe in this, even if you feel that it is literally death: They can kill me, but I am unable to move.

Do you think that someone is going through this path in a different way? I used to have states when Rabash would call me and say “you should come.” But I was sitting home and crying because I was unable to move a bit and leave the house. I was not capable of getting up, getting in the car, coming to him, and taking him for a walk to the park.

Different things happen to a person, he goes through a great variety of states. We have to believe, just believe, that difficulties help because we are unable to see or know. Later on, you reveal that this is what happens, after all, you can justify everything only later.
[354498]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/26, Rabash, “What Is the ‘Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man’ in the Work?”

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Question: In the process of evolution, many species have simply disappeared. The Earth has gone through different periods: sometimes development proceeded very slowly with almost no changes for long stretches of time, then suddenly rapid changes occurred, and many species vanished from the face of the Earth.

If evolution is embedded in nature as a gradual movement toward a goal, why do entire species suddenly disappear while processes of development and destruction occur simultaneously?

Answer: One cannot exist without the other; there is no life without death. We are in a process of evolution that includes both development and destruction. In nature, everything operates according to a precise, deterministic law that advances it toward its final goal of development, as it is said: “The final goal is already embedded in the initial design.”

Without this, development would be impossible because it is necessary from the outset to determine where this development is heading and what defines each subsequent form. Each new form must already be potentially embedded in the previous one and only realized from it in practice. Everything is far more complex than it appears in our world where it seems that a man and a woman simply meet and produce offspring.

But where did they come from? What caused them to meet and give birth to exactly such children? All of this was originally embedded in potential, but this information is hidden from us. Although there are “psychics” who claim to reveal it and predict future events.

Future forms already exist and, in principle, can be revealed. But they are hidden from people so as not to deprive us of free choice. Knowledge of the future would turn us into robots. To prevent us from acting automatically, the future is concealed from us.

Evolution cannot advance correctly if the next form is unknown to it. Evolution is not guided by temporary conditions of what is better or worse in a given situation, as scientists assume. Science can reveal only mechanical and biological changes, that is, those already materialized, but not the potential causes that brought about these changes.

Kabbalah, however, reveals these potential causes and explains where development is heading and what its future form will be. Therefore, to understand the inner mechanisms of evolution, it is necessary to study the wisdom of Kabbalah.

Then we will learn why the matter of this world was created and what forms it must go through as it materializes from its initially embedded potential. Kabbalah allows us to understand everything that happens with our world and with us: everything that was and everything that will be.

The disappearance of species is not destruction but a change of forms. Some forms are born and exist for a certain time in order to give rise to more advanced forms. Then the previous form continues to live within the more advanced form that emerged from it.

And within us, too, there are small “dinosaurs.” It does not matter that they became extinct 66 million years ago, because our memory carries information from the very beginning of the universe, billions of years before our time.
[218905]
From KabTV’s conversation “New Life 931 – Evolution: The Next Stage,” 12/12/17

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Question: If the spiritual leadership cannot replace you as the Kabbalah teacher, then who can do it?

Answer: The Creator, who will be revealed between you if you remain together. But if you do not remain together, you will fall apart. That is all.

The role of the spiritual leadership is to call for unity. It cannot issue commands; it can only determine and say: “We must unite, we must unite.”

If you heed its words, the Creator will reveal Himself within your unity and you will learn from Him and from no one else.

There is not a single one of my students who can replace me. Only together, as equals.
[353931]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. In the union” 9/11/10

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It is written: “Work for the Creator in joy.” If there is no joy, it is a sign that we are not in spirituality. Bestowal is impossible without joy.

It is written in the The Book of Zohar that the Shechina dwells only in a perfect place: not in a place of lack, not in a place of defect, not in a place of sadness, but in the proper place, in a place of joy. In a corrected place there is an illumination from the presence of the Creator, and this brings joy to a person.

By this criterion, one can always determine whether a person is in spirituality or not. When a person first begins to study, for a long time one does not yet sense the corrections taking place within them, or they may perceive them in an inverted form; therefore, they may experience despondency or irritation and find themselves at odds with the changes happening within them.

Here joy is a very clear indicator. If a person does not feel joy, it means that his desires do not correspond to the Creator but oppose Him. As the desire is corrected, joy is revealed within a person. And the stronger and deeper the joy, the more the upper light is revealed, the presence of the Creator, the Shechina.

If the upper force is preparing to reveal itself within a person, then first joy is revealed and only afterward the Creator. Joy is an illumination from above, a special force of the light that appears in response to prayer, to a request to the Creator from below. When we turn to the Creator with questions and requests and want to connect with Him, in response we receive light from above that corrects our desires and fills them.

This light first brings joy, and only afterward all the other revelations. Therefore, the Shechina (the presence of the Creator) is revealed only in joy, which appears first.

If I want to attain bestowal, I must always be in joy. And if it is absent, I must examine myself to see where uncorrected egoism remains within me that prevents me from revealing the Creator. We do not know whether we are approaching the revelation of the Creator, and therefore Kabbalists give us a criterion for checking: Am I approaching joy, or, on the contrary, moving away from it with each day?

By these movements toward greater or lesser joy, one can judge how much one is approaching the revelation of the upper force or distancing from it because joy is the result of “good deeds,” that is, corrections.

In any state one must hold on to joy, because “there is none else besides the Creator”; everything comes from Him. No one can do something bad to us without the Creator’s knowledge or consent. That never happens; everything comes from above. Behind every person stands the Creator exerting His influence on us through this theater of “reality.”

If I do not have an egoistic intention to receive, I will always be in joy. It does not matter to me what the Creator gives me; the main thing is that He constantly takes care of me. I do not weigh what is more pleasant or beneficial for me in my egoism; therefore, I accept everything with joy.

By this criterion, we can evaluate ourselves: Are advancing as a group toward correction and the revelation of the Creator? Are we setting an example to the friends that we must always be in joy in order to bring the revelation of the upper force ever closer?

Joy is a consequence of my act of bestowal, of bestowing to the friends, to the Creator, and to humanity. Joy is the result of bestowal because by bestowing I become similar to the Creator. Therefore, through this action I receive an illumination that is called “joy.”

Spiritual joy comes from the fact that through my actions I help the Creator fill all of creation. Joy is the result of the fact that, with the help of the Creator, I fill all of creation and thereby bring Him pleasure.
[246546]
From the International Kabbalah Convention 5/18/19, Mexico, Lesson 5

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 17 “Concerning the Importance of Friends – 1,” (1984) (12.27.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Conversations of a Kabbalist with His Students During the Day

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“

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