Question: How can the group develop the intention to “love your neighbour as yourself” in me?

Answer: How can the group enter your heart and change its intention from receiving for yourself to bestowing so that you want to love your friends? We cannot do this, and you cannot do it either.

Only the upper light can bring about this change and correct you, provided you truly want to be corrected. However, the group can set a chain of causes and conditions in motion that somehow lead to this. That is what the group should do. This is where your free choice lies.

Whether you want it or not, the group adds to your desire because you value it. We are made in such a way that the opinion of society matters to us. In terms of a person’s ego and their sense of existence, there is nothing more important to them than their own “I,” something that has emerged from nothing. This “I” is more important to them than life itself. They are ready to do anything to preserve it. That is how a person is made, and the group must learn to use this correctly.

For example, advertisements tell us that a real man is someone who drinks Coca-Cola or beer. In this way, they are already appealing to something built into our nature. Our group should be structured in the same way: it should use that same power of the “I” that exists in everyone, but instil our values in it. The approach is the same.

In his article “The Freedom,” Baal HaSulam gives very simple examples from everyday life. They are given to us for practical application.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash , “Rosh Hashanah”

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Crossing the Machsom is our next state, our common Kli. Therefore, we need to create a collective desire now.

If, despite the separation between us, we strive to build a connection between us and remove this disconnection, then we will naturally cause the manifestation of the surrounding light in the form of the light of AB-SAG and undergo correction.

Does the crossing of the Machsom necessarily occur when we are together, when we gather for Passover, Sukkot, or some other holidays? Not necessarily.

It can happen at any time: in a week, in a month, it does not matter when. We do not have to sit together, share meals, and dance for this.

Therefore, await it every second. I is said that a person should await the arrival of the Messiah, the redeemer, or the lights of AB-SAG, at every moment. He is called Messiah because he pulls a person out, corrects him, and raises him to the level of the upper world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 10/4/26

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 281

What Is the Connection Between Eating or Even Baser Animate Pleasures and the Purpose of Creation?

If we believe, meaning that we accept and agree in advance, that there is a connection between these phenomena, and we want to discover it, if we are seeking the connection between everything that was created, done, and takes place in order to prove that they are all intended to bring us to the purpose of creation, if this is our goal, we will find a connection between each and every phenomena. We only discover this connection between everything.

If at every moment we connect our state, the reason for it, the state itself, and its outcome to the purpose of creation, this is called: “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah are one.” Then we are on the right path. Other than this, we have no trouble or problem at any given moment. This is what is written.

Of course, there are additional troubles and problems surrounding this central matter, but the question is whether we understand that all the problems are intended to bring us to this unification, or whether we believe that these problems and troubles should be solved without connection to the unification, in which case we are called “those who serve other gods.” It is as though there is someone else governing the world besides the Creator, and it was not He who gave me each and every state in order to create unification through it. This is called “making unifications.”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 38 “What Are Judges and Officers in the Work?” (1989) (10.11.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator – 2” (8.26.2022)

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Selected Highlights

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Question: Everyone has something that gets in their way. Perhaps they do not see it or they choose to ignore it. Why don’t we help them see it? That way, we could all rise one degree higher.

Answer: That won’t help. If it concerns something technical or practical, you can hold a person accountable. But if it concerns spiritual correction, you must not interfere.

You cannot approach a person and say, “You lack love for your friends. Why aren’t you working on love for your neighbor?” or something of that kind. You can ask, “Why didn’t you show up at 3:00 AM? Why didn’t complete your assigned task while on duty?” These matters concern the group’s routine, and we must simply carry these things out like soldiers. Whoever has received an assignment is obligated to fulfill it.

But you must not impose inner demands. First of all, this will not help because everything stems solely from a person’s own awareness, from how he reveals his Hisaron (spiritual lack).  If he hasn’t revealed it yet and you wag your finger at him saying, “Tsk tsk, tsk,” he won’t understand what you want from him. It is like talking to a cat. If a cat has not reached the level at which it can listen and understand, what do you expect from it?

The same applies to a person. Perhaps only a millimeter separates him in his inner development from the stage at which he begins to feel, but he has not yet crossed that millimeter, and he cannot hear you. Once he reaches that stage, he will hear it from within himself. Therefore, it is forbidden to point out to one another what you think you see.

Let us say I see flaws in a friend’s external actions, and from my point of view, they are very obvious. However, I have no demands regarding his inner work. A demand can be made of the group: the more strongly it develops its common aspiration, the further each person will advance.

Have you ever heard me belittle someone for their inner spiritual laziness? Perhaps sometimes it looks that way, but that is not how I see it, truly it isn’t. I may shout at someone because of sound problems or various technical glitches. If it were someone else who was paid in that person’s place, I would shout in exactly the same way. It makes no difference to me.

But as for a person’s inner efforts, assuming they are generally striving, to act for the benefit of the group and the goal, I do not interfere. In this regard, he is a righteous person in my eyes. As far as technical matters are concerned, he is a sinner in my eyes. That is just an example.

Therefore, I simply do not understand how we can point things out to one another. Apart from setting an example, we cannot interfere with a friend’s spiritual work in any way. We set an external example from which he will understand that he must examine himself. We do not even examine him; we merely set an example: this is what we are like, and as for you, examine yourself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

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When we begin to ask ourselves what the meaning of our life is, this question touches upon something that is above meaning—the source from which suffering and pleasure originate.

With this question, a person begins to naturally investigate the reality surrounding him. Whether he wants it or not, in various situations of life this question arises before him, and then he begins to ask and sees that he certainly wants to enjoy, understand, and attain the source of pleasure.

However, in this world, he cannot reveal the force of the one. But when he advances in the study of the method of Kabbalah and through directed actions evokes upon himself the surrounding light, then he sees that there is a force that awakens life within him.

And then he feels himself as something opposite to this force and begins to address it with a demand: “Why don’t you give me what I want and what is due to me according to the efforts made, in accordance with my desire?” That is, he feels the uniqueness of his own rule where his “I” governs, and this is already somewhat of the level of Pharaoh, who said: “Who is the Creator, that I should listen to Him?”

Then, gradually, as a result of the influence of the surrounding lights, when a person performs the actions recommended to him by the Kabbalists, he begins to think that this is not his own rule but “our” rule so to speak—me and the Creator.

Based on this, he slowly transitions to the desire to be like the Creator: “Despite the fact that there is me and Him, I already want to be like Him. And if I will be Him, that is, if it is revealed in my Kelim that only the Creator rules, this will be my final correction.”

Thus, he transitions from what is ostensibly his own sole rule to a partnership, and from there, to the rule of the Creator. Such is the path along which, of course, one acquires a multitude of concepts pertaining to each of the states.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/26/26, Rabash, “The Importance of Recognition of Evil”

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Question: Is the sin of Adam HaRishon not a sin but a correction?

Answer: Sin is not sin at all, as we usually understand it. Adam HaRishon definitely had to go through this state, because it is a punishment. But the punishment is not because he is to blame for something as in our world. Here if I am punished, it means I am guilty of something. It is just that his original nature is the opposite of the Creator’s nature, and in order to correct it, it must mix with the Creator’s nature.

Love and awe are forces, or a process of preparation, or conditions under which a person is able to remain in faith rather than in knowledge, and to stay within the category of faith. But Adam HaRishon fell into the category of knowledge, of acquisition, first in his mind and then in his heart. The state in which he violated faith occurred because he had a flaw in love, and he also lacked sufficient awe.

Why? Because in his natural Kelim he could not hold on to faith above reason, since there was no power of Binah there. Faith is the power of Binah, and it cannot penetrate a point created from nothing, into the stone heart.

Therefore, instead of making the correction right at this point, in the very stony heart, he fell from faith into knowledge. Only by the power of Binah can we rely upon faith above reason, upon the higher force, upon spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/25/26, Rabash, “When a Person Knows What Is Fear of the Creator”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 280

What Does It Mean to Check Whether We Have a Connection with the Creator?

“To check whether we have a connection with the Creator” means, first of all, to check whether we even remember this connection. Also, if we remember this connection, meaning that we have a certain measure of illumination from the surrounding lights, we must check whether we want to belong to these surrounding lights or identify with what we feel in our animate nature.

For example, we might think that perhaps it would be better for us now to disconnect from the purpose of creation and enjoy something, to sit down, have a drink, and tell jokes with the friends. Why should we think about the purpose of creation, when thoughts about the purpose of creation spoil all of our pleasure? If we wish to check whether we have a connection with the Creator, we can use such examples, and even more animate ones, in which we do not want the Creator to stand between us and our pleasures, and consider whether or not we have a connection with the Creator.

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