Spiritual Independence

276.02What does personal freedom mean? Freedom from whom? Freedom from the Creator! Whether it is egoism or altruism does not matter; it is freedom from the Creator. He alone governs everything. So, this means freedom from Him.

What distinguishes a small spiritual level from a greater one, or an even higher one, and so on? It is the degree of independence from the Creator—from the Creator! It is when a person becomes equivalent to Him, autonomous, on par with Him.

When the Creator pulls us back and forth, up and down, gives us good and bad states, and drains all our life force from us, He is showing us how dependent we are on Him, suspended like a ball on a string that children play with.

In this way, He shows us the boundaries between our higher and lower states within which we should already be able to exist freely and independently of Him. In other words, He can drain all my energy, yet I can still rise independently to the highest level already allotted to me, that specific delta, those parameters. At the next level will be even higher, and so on.

In fact, there cannot be a state in which a person is completely under the Creator’s control. This is possible only as an example on the Creator’s side or as an uncorrected state on the person’s side. Therefore, there should be no room for gloom or any kind of defeatist attitude. The group must demand that each of its members deal with these states more quickly, because by remaining in them, he pulls the entire group backward.

The group must always kindle such a fire within itself that none of its members can calmly remain somewhere below and sink into spiritual depression.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/1/26

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A Commandment: Protection Against the Desire to Receive

294.2From the perspective of the desire to receive, all commandments seem unimportant to us because a commandment is defined as an action for the sake of bestowal, where the entire intention is directed toward the benefit of the Creator or the benefit of another, someone external to what exists or will exist within the desire to receive.

Therefore, it does not matter whether it is directed for the sake of the Creator or for the sake of the group, a friend, or anyone else outside me. I do not sense any of this, and therefore, it is called unimportant. What is not felt within the desire to receive cannot be performed by a person, because a person is the desire to receive.

Therefore, naturally, a person is incapable of performing a commandment, an act directed toward bestowal. But if they acquire the power of Bina, the force of bestowal, the light of Hassadim, faith, the ability to act above reason, then to the extent of their correction, they can perform a commandment.

All 620 commandments are found on all 620 degrees. The difference between them is which part of the common desire to receive a person can perform an action upon for the sake of bestowal. In order to come to the performance of any commandment, one must first make a restriction upon themself so that they have no calculation connected with themself.

Rabash writes that if we gather all the pleasures that exist in this world, throughout all times, in all souls, in everything, they would amount to a mere dim illumination compared with the smallest spiritual pleasure. From this, we can understand the magnitude of the protective power against the desire to receive a person must acquire from above in order to perform an action not for the sake of the desire to receive, after having made a restriction upon it.

Of course, they have no such capabilities on their own, and they are not even capable of asking for this. It is simply that a calculation similar to the one that exists between parents and a child operates here. When the child cries, they give it everything it needs because they are inherently obligated to care for him.

Therefore, a small overcoming in the right direction is enough for us to receive help in response: the strength and the opportunity to advance toward the goal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/26, Rabash, “What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet”

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When Energy Is Taken Away from Above

961.2Our greatest problem is failing to work when we have energy, when we are filled with inspiration and the upper light, and when the Creator gives us a good feeling. We wake up in the morning, everything around us is shining, we are in a good mood, and ready for anything.

It is not me doing this; rather, it is how I have been elevated and how my inner conditions have been shaped. If I act with the help of these conditions, the effort does not come by my own expense, but stems from an awakening from above, when the light descends and raises a person. The state is good, easy, and pleasant, but it is not the processing of Reshimot.

When you are in such states, you can quickly open books, find the most difficult passages, delve into them, and reveal new, deeper knowledge and connections between the elements of creation, between the inanimate, vegetative, animate, and human levels. You may finally understand something Baal HaSulam, or I say in the most complicated passages of certain books.

If you have such inspiration, you can understand how to relate to the friends. Just try not to merely float within these states; instead, inject your mind, your critical analysis, and your mental, rather than remaining only with a sensory experience, and make sure to write down these states.

Then observe what happens to you when this is taken away from you from above, and everything becomes gray, dull, and there is no energy. Sometimes there is so little energy that you simply lie there and cannot move. When the spiritual light moves away, a person is left completely lifeless, unable to move a finger. Therefore, it is useful to record these states from time to time and observe and monitor yourself: Who am I?

Why can they play with me in this way from above? Because from above I am being shown how I must independently manage my inner states, from the lowest parameter to the highest, with the help of the environment surrounding me.

Alone, I will never be able to do this. But with the environment, I can manage my inner states regardless of how the Creator deals with me. He will continually pull me out of good states, deliberately adding egoism, while I, in turn, must attain a state of independence.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/1/26

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 256

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 256

How Do We Transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma?

“I labored and found.” No one knows how. A special upper light comes and performs that transition on us from Lo Lishma to Lishma. Everything depends on the light. Until now, surrounding lights have come, and now the first inner light comes, together with the screen, with everything. It gives us a screen and the strength to withstand it. Everything happens at once.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 10/14/26

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 33, “What Is the Difference between General and Individual in the Work of the Creator?” (1988) (3.25.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Awakening from Below

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 10/13/26

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Maaser—A Contribution to Spiritual Correction

234Our spiritual advancement must proceed according to the law of the spiritual world in which one-tenth is given outward rather than spent on oneself.

The Torah states this very simply: every person, even a poor person, regardless of who they are, must set aside Maaser, one-tenth of their net income; no more and no less. There is no getting around it. This is a rule of the upper world.

Therefore, we must give one-tenth of our income to the dissemination of Kabbalah, which is called giving to the Creator, because this portion belongs to Him: He corrects our Malchut; not we ourselves.

We correct the first nine Sefirot ourselves, and therefore, in our world, we keep 90% for us with regard to them. According to the correspondence between root and branch, I can properly use 90% of my resources for the sake of spirituality.

But I cannot correct the tenth part in the spiritual world in any way; the Creator corrects it. Accordingly, in this world, if I do not use this tenth part for myself but give it to dissemination. The Creator corrects it.

Moreover, a person who does not engage in spiritual work but sets aside Maaser is included in the spiritual work, because this is truly his contribution to spirituality according to the correspondence between root and branch. Conversely, whoever withholds this tenth from the dissemination of Kabbalah in any way, spiritually robs himself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/1/26

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A Dispute Between Kabbalists

232.031Question: How can there be a dispute between Kabbalists?

Answer: A Kabbalist is someone who is in the spiritual world and feels the spiritual. You are asking how they can perceive things differently? In exactly the same way as in our world.

There are so many scholars in this world who have disputes among themselves! One sees reality one way, another sees it another way. It is not that they see reality differently, but rather that their opinions diverge regarding the laws by which this reality behaves. It is a somewhat hidden thing, yet also somewhat revealed.

Let’s say we see some phenomenon. You think that the source of this phenomenon is such-and-such, and that is why it manifests itself in this way before us. However, what manifests itself before our eyes, we see the same way. But neither you nor I see what lies behind it.

These are already higher levels. It is quite possible that this is not even the next level but two hundred levels higher. We see reality as it is in our world, but the reason for what we see may be two hundred levels higher than what we have comprehended. And then we begin to reason: “Is it this way or that way?”

This dispute was between Baal HaSulam and Rashash. Baal HaSulam writes a little about it at the end of the book “The Gates of Intentions.” But what he writes is only a small fraction of the picture. This dispute is very fundamental for them, but not so much for us, because Rashash is truly a saint. What he achieved is holy, divine words for us.

But what he points to as the reasons for what he sees is actually two hundred steps higher. And since he has not yet reached that level, Baal HaSulam does not agree with him, because Baal HaSulam has achieved more and writes from the level he has attained. In his opinion, Rashash is not mistaken in what he presents to him as a fact. The facts are correct, but when he speaks about the reasons for what is happening, he is mistaken.

It is like in our world: there are two physicists whose debates are endless because they are discussing a cause that is hidden and may be very high and very far away. That is why there are many disagreements and differences of opinion among the Kabbalists.

And this is fair, for they are merely researchers. They study the Creator’s actions, and to the extent that they can align themselves with those actions, they comprehend them; to the extent that they cannot align themselves with them, they do not comprehend them. But the causes are always higher than what they comprehend. Moreover, they may also be mistaken in their interpretation of the causes, since it is impossible to give names to what has not been comprehended.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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The Sensors into Which the Creator Enters

115.05The world remains unchanged; only we change within ourselves. It depends entirely on me, how I experience the Creator: in His “double concealment,” in “single concealment,” or in His direct relationship with me, “face to face.”

For His part, He is always present in the Kli (vessel), in a direct relationship with me. I perceive this according to the level of my correction. If all my qualities are corrected and I sense the Creator’s complete manifestation, then we are “face to face.” This state is called “adhesion,” (Dvekut) the “end of correction” (Gmar Tikkun), or the “world of infinity,” (Ein Sof) where no limitations exist.

To the extent that my 620 senses, sensations, desires, and qualities are uncorrected (they may be partially corrected and partially uncorrected, forming a spectrum of all 620 desires), each must be raised to the full height of all its ten particular Sefirot. Only then will all 620 desires reach their maximum height.

They may also be at different levels, one lower and another higher, like a spectral image or like the visual representation of sound on an equalizer, organized by frequencies. Suppose there are twenty selected frequencies, and we see how high or low each one is.

Similarly, we have 620 qualities, and each reaches a height of up to ten Sefirot. The height of each one determines the picture of the world presented to us. Our qualities are precisely those sensors into which the Creator enters. The more corrected they are, the more the Creator enters them; the less corrected they are, the less He enters them.

These degrees of the Creator’s manifestation in the 620 qualities draw the picture of the world for us. In the part of the 620 desires that is corrected, the Creator is present; this is called the “measure of the revelation of the Creator.” In the lower, still uncorrected part of the 620 desires, the Creator is not manifested; this is called the “measure of the concealment of the Creator.”

Thus, the word “world” (Olam) comes from the word “concealment.” It is the measure of the revelation and concealment of the Creator. Our lowest world is the complete concealment of the Creator. All the spiritual worlds exist according to a certain measure of the Creator’s revelation: in a particular combination and arrangement of my 620 desires, I already sense the Creator.

Why are these desires not all corrected equally? Because they differ both in quality and in their Aviut (egoism). This is why there is a world called Assiya.

The world of Assiya, characterized by the quality of Malchut, differs from the world of Yetzira, whose quality is Zeir Anpin; from the world of Beria, the quality of Bina; from the world of Atzilut, the quality of Hochma; and from Adam Kadmon, the quality of Keter. In addition to each world being a greater sensation and reception of the Creator, the quality of each of the 620 desires rises to one degree or another.

In other words, when ascending from degree to degree, not all 620 of my desires improve by, say, 10 percent: one may improve by only 1 percent, while another may improve by 8 percent.

Moreover, attainment changes not only through the general intensification of the sensation of the force in which I exist, but also in quality, in the way it affects me. It is the same in our world. We experience it not only as stronger or weaker in its manifestation toward us, but also by the character of that manifestation as more pleasant or unpleasant.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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The Desire for the World to Come

232.01Question: In the article “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter,” Rabash writes: “It is said in The [Book of] Zohar about the verse, ‘The leech has two daughters’—who cry out like dogs, saying: ‘Give, Hav, us the happiness of this world; give, Hav, us the happiness of the world to come.’”

That is, there are two daughters who cry out like dogs: “Give us the happiness of this world; give us the happiness of the world to come.” Does a person want both this world and the world to come?

Answer: There is not a single state that a person does not go through on the path toward the goal. The Creator created everything in one Kli, and every vessel consists of all the desires. Regardless of a person’s character, his natural disposition, or which part of Adam HaRishon his soul belongs to, he must nevertheless pass through all the obstacles.

Of course, each person goes through them in his own way, but everyone must pass through all these desires, including the state described in The Book of Zohar: two daughters who cry out like dogs, “Give us the happiness of this world; give us the happiness of the world to come.” This means wanting only to receive rather than to bestow.

When there is a desire for both this world and the world to come, that is good. At the next stage, a person comes to desire only the world to come, and this is a true Klipa.

Sometimes Rabash uses “this world” to mean the intention to receive for oneself, and “the world to come” to mean the intention to bestow. When speaking about “dogs,” he means that even regarding the world to come there is an intention to receive for oneself, that is, Klipot.

One must look at the context to understand what is being discussed, because in different cases the same words can have different meanings.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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