Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 236

How Can We Understand the States We Undergo?

We do not know why or in what sequence various states are imposed upon us. In fact, we have no idea how we exist at all. We are like babies who are unaware of the purpose of our lives. We want various things, and certain things are given to us. That is, we are given all kinds of desires and impulses from within, changing qualities, environmental conditions that change from time to time, and we thus continue to exist, flowing onward.

This is how each of us rolls along, carried by the current of life, and it only seems to us that we determine or control something. It is simply untrue, an absolute falsehood.

So why were we given intellect and thought? It was in order to seek the one thing worth holding on to, to learn what is happening to us, and this learning should bring us to conclusions that are called “recognition of evil.” There is no need for us to oppose anything. We should not force anything because that would be in vain. We only need to pay a little attention to what the Creator is doing with us, and from this we begin to understand who we are, who the Creator is, what the Creator wants, why He arranges things for us in such a way, and with what subtle cunning He does so.

Through this, we gradually come to know nature. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the study of nature in its broadest form, including the world of causes, where everything that happens here is prepared and made ready. This world of causes subsequently includes our nature, ourselves, and our environment. We learn the overall reality through ourselves, through self-study: “From Your actions we know You”; “From my flesh I shall behold God.”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 27 “What Is the Meaning of Suffering in the Work?” (1989) (9.30.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Building a Spiritual Society

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Question: What is love for the Creator?

Answer: For now, love for the Creator can exist only on the condition that He gives me an opportunity to win the lottery or does something good in my life, then everything is fine.

You have probably seen stickers saying, “Creator, we love You.” As if to say, “Do something for us. You see, we love You, we are asking You.” This is how a person speaks before self-annulment. And indeed, would it hurt anyone if we pray? Let Him help!

In the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot, it is said that love is the final degree. “And you shall love the Lord, your God” is a commandment that can be fulfilled only as a result of fulfilling all the other commandments.

You correct all your desires completely, and above them grows a general, final attitude. This is love.

Before that, love is completely different. It is simply a desire for life to be good, for children to be born, for everything to work out: “You want a prayer? I’ll pray. You want an action? I’ll do it. Commandments? Of course. Just let things be good for me.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘He Who Is Without Sons,’ in the Work?”

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Question: Where does a true attitude toward the Creator begin?

Answer: A true attitude toward the Creator begins with the revelation of oppositeness, pressure, hatred, and the feeling of lacking equivalence of form. Before beginning any action, one must think about the state that should precede that action: “What Kli (vessel) is necessary for this?”

In other words, if I arrive at a state where I love the Creator, then before this I must develop a desire to love Him. And the desire to love the Creator must arise from rejecting the state in which I clearly see that I do not love Him. What does it mean that I do not love Him? I hate Him, I am opposite to Him, and I have absolutely no desire for Him.

How do I reveal this? When the light acts upon my Kli, which is opposite to it in its properties. What effort must I make in order to draw such a great light upon myself? And so on.

In other words, if we go from the end to the beginning and continually move in reverse, we will reveal that the lights enter the Kelim (vessels) and create them, that is how we study. We will go in the opposite direction: the light enters and exits, and from this the Kli is created. This is the path of advancement.

But if I follow the path opposite to that advancement, from the end to the beginning, then each time I must reveal the state through an opposite, reverse action, like moving in reverse. Then I will see what preparation is required for each state that I choose and that I want to reach.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘He Who Is Without Sons,’ in the Work?”

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Question: If a person feels that they do not agree with the Creator, want to rebel against Him, and curse Him, what should they do in such a case? Should they feel ashamed?

Answer: If a person does not agree with the Creator, they might want to erase that thought because they fear they may suffer because of it, or, conversely, they can use it as a means to actually do something.

It all depends on to whom I attribute what is happening within me. If I attribute my thoughts to the Creator, it means that the Creator sent them to me purposefully so that I would do something with them. Then I will treat these thoughts and feelings as a valuable acquisition.

If, however, I believe that these thoughts come from myself, that their cause is not Him, but me, then I will immediately want to erase or obscure them so that they do not cause me anything bad.

That is, it all depends on what we consider to be the cause of what is happening. Ultimately, this determines our attitude to reality. Either I want only to cover it up and paint it pink, or relate to it in a purposeful and effective way.

As for the feeling of shame, if I simply feel shame because I am opposite to the Creator, then this shame is based on the fact that the Master gave me something. Then I want to either erase the Master from my field of vision, or give it all up, just to avoid feeling shame. If, however, I feel that the Creator sends me the feeling of shame for a specific purpose, then it becomes a springboard for me to leap forward.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord, and the Revealed Things Belong to Us,’ in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 235

How Can We Remember the Correct Thought During the Study?

This requires preparation. During the study itself, we certainly cannot suddenly remember the correct thought unless we had already intended it beforehand. This is because we already know, from trying and failing several times, that during the study we are unable to direct ourselves properly.

Then we begin to worry: “Today as well as tomorrow I will sit here without benefit, so what will come of it?” Before the study, we already begin thinking about what will happen to us during the study. This concern before the study prepares us to think correctly during the study.

This is possible if we simply train ourselves to do so. It does not happen quickly. We need to do many things in a very unsophisticated way, simply, like “an ox to the load and a donkey to the burden.”

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Question: What is the difference between a view from the side from within the Kli (vessel) and a view from the Creator’s perspective?

Answer: You begin to look at yourself as a created being. Before this, you cannot do such a thing. You acquire some measure of perfection and eternity relative to that which is not in the creation. I do not know how to say it. There are no words.

Question: What is the difference in the approaches or measurements of these categories?

Answer: The difference is that then you receive an enduring, eternal frame of reference. You exit the framework of time. Lack is no longer felt in you. You do not feel the limitations of time, place, fulfillment. All the limitations of the Kli disappear. This is a different way of thinking, beyond the boundaries of time, motion, and place. Rabash explains this with the concepts of “world,” “year,” “soul,” that is, place, time, motion.

But what do I want to say? Despite the fact that you, as it were, exit and look at yourself from the Creator’s side, you still do not exit from your own Kli. And this sensation is within your Kli.

So what does it mean “to look from the Creator’s perspective”? You never leave your Kli. You have simply acquired His properties inside the desire to receive, and from these properties of His you look at the rest, as yet uncorrected part of the desire to receive. Then, as it were, within your Kli a part of the Creator and a part of the creation exist. But never actually step out of our Kli.

That is, everything is within the desire to receive: both the sensation of the Creator and the thoughts of the Creator, insofar as we perceive them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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Question: If a person wants to ascend from one degree to another, he seeks the possibility of greater bestowal, opposite to reception. On the other hand, he must paint a picture for himself as though there are great enjoyments there. How is this combined?

Answer: How can a person, by means of the picture he presents to himself in the right line, withstand the left line?

Therefore, we do not stand before the Creator as one person; rather, we have an environment that can pull us either to the left or to the right. It is said that one who constantly chooses the better environment—that is, one that would be “on the right side”—by his free choice shortens the path.

Two weeks ago I returned from North America. If you ask me whether I was there at all and what I did there, I already do not remember. So much has happened since then. Every day is so saturated: before the holidays, after the holidays… Do you see what a contraction of time is occurring for us?

For a person from outside, everything is completely different. For him, several years pass almost identically. But for us, the contraction of time is not simply a mechanical compression, but a contraction of spiritual time, the time of development.

People do not understand this. Some sit here for five years and think that they have gained nothing from it. They do not know that during this time they may have passed through seven or eight cycles. I speak without exaggeration. We simply do not feel what is happening to us. In fact, the correct clarification is what will help me build something that will pull me from the left line into the right line.

In fact, I am constantly in the left line; I dwell in passions, desires, and various thoughts. Everything belongs to the left line. How can I build such a magnet on the right side so that it is always stronger than the attraction from the left pulls me, and I would be given something even greater in the left line so that I constantly jump back and forth? It is precisely the frequency of these transitions that determines advancement.

There is a story: A student tells his rav that before prayer he had a fall. And the rav answers him that within ten minutes he had four hundred such falls. Do you understand at what tempo a person works? How many states he passes through and analyzes? But for some this happens once in several generations or once in several years. There is such a slow swinging back and forth.

And even for us there are periods when suddenly you feel that for two or three months you are as if dead; nothing changes. It is as if you are traveling somewhere, but along the way nothing happens.

When I came to Rabash, I was very nervous compared to what I am now. I asked him questions similar to yours, but not so gently. So, he told me: “On our path, enormous patience is necessary, and I hope that you will endure it.”

I thought: How will I endure it if even more patience is needed? For I am already exploding, practically foaming at the ears. This is impossible to describe. Rationally, it is impossible to imagine how this can be endured. Patience is necessary. But this too is given from above.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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