Question: Wherein lies our wisdom, our maturity? I mean, our growing up seems to be that when we give something to another person, we give them not the best and keep the best for ourselves. Why does this happen?

Answer: Because our egoism inevitably turns everything upside down.

Question: Are we aware of this?

Answer: We are aware of it. I even remember this from my own experience. When I was about two years old, I also behaved this way, I would give away the best. But then I felt compelled to spoil it. Someone gave me two postcards and told me to give one of them to my cousin. I didn’t know which one to give because they were both beautiful, colorful, bright, and attractive. I had to do something to one of them. So, I bent a corner, rubbed it a little, and then gave it to her. I was already wiser.

Question: But did you understand that you were deliberately damaging it so that you could give it away without any problem?

Answer: So that I would know which one to give. Otherwise, I couldn’t choose between the two.

Question: Does it become more frightening as we advance?

Answer: Of course!

Question: When does this feeling arise: “What am I doing?! How can I do this?!”

Answer: You have to study a lot and learn from examples. It isn’t simple.

Question: But does this realization come to a person, or might it never come?

Answer: It depends on the person.

Comment: So perhaps it does come, and then he is horrified to discover that he always wants to give others the worst.

My Response: Yes. You see, I still remember this example to this day.

Question: It really enters the heart, apparently.

When a person understands this and feels, “This is what I am like, and I don’t want to live according to this nature,” what should his actions be? Suppose I realize that I always give others the worst.

Answer: If this is already changing within a person, and he begins to become aware of it, then this is already the road toward correction, toward self-examination, and so on. That is already something significant.

Question: So can I tell myself internally that I have already begun along some kind of path?

Answer: Probably, yes. You are already getting closer to self-examination.

Question: I remember you telling us how you were sitting with your teacher, sorting coffee beans. And it was really getting to you that you had to sort every single bean, every single bean.

Suddenly your teacher said to you: “Think this way: You are sorting this particular bean for your teacher, for the coffee your teacher will drink from this bean.” And so on. And this one, for example, is for the friends.

Tell me, at that moment, does this give a person strength? You essentially regarded your teacher almost like a father. Does that give a person strength?

Answer: To be honest, I don’t think I understood it fully at that moment. But in general, of course, it is a great example.

Question: Did your teacher Rabash, live this way?

Answer: He lived this way. I remember when he told me this, I realized that I was completely missing the point.

Question: So when a person finally understands that he is “not missing the point,” does that mean he has come out onto some kind of straight line, onto the path?

Answer: Yes. It is good for a person to reach this state.
[360798]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 8/19/26

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There is a rule that one cannot do anything unless he feels pleasure in it. While doing it, work without pleasure is called “labor” (Rabash, “What Are ‘Blessing’ and ‘Curse’ in the Work?”).

If, on the one hand, I would like to do something, but on the other hand I am unable to do it because I do not see any reward for that action, then this is what is called effort.

We can imagine a reward for almost anything, except for that one thing that goes against our nature: the intention to bestow. As long as it is a matter of the intention to receive, whatever it may be, I can always see some benefit in it.

I can convince myself and picture things in such a way that I find at least some foothold and feel that it is worthwhile. But if we are talking about an action for the sake of bestowal, there is no corresponding pleasure in my Kelim; it is not felt in them, and therefore I cannot perform it.

Try to imagine an action in which you give away everything you have, absolutely everything. If you perform it correctly, you will not be able to feel any pleasure from it. You could find pleasure in the honor you receive or in something else, but we are talking about performing the action correctly.

Thus, there is only one action in relation to which we can put ourselves in a situation where we have no fuel with which to perform it. This is what is called effort. Effort is my attempt to perform an action for the sake of bestowal and revealing that I am incapable of doing so. This state itself is called effort.

Question: And I perform it?

Answer: What do you mean, “perform it”? You cannot, you are incapable of performing it. But when you establish for yourself that this is truly the case, this is already called effort.

It is written that the person would not do this if he did not know he would be paid for the effort. So what should he do? He must increase his awareness of the importance of the intention to bestow. But how? Why?

Here a person finds himself in a situation where he has nothing more to do. He discovers his own weakness, seeing that no matter what he resorts to, his own strength, his nature, his awareness, he has no connection whatsoever with the intention to bestow.

However, if at the same time, a person gathers all kinds of impressions from outside himself, hearing from others that the intention is more important than anything else, while he himself does not feel any taste in it and is unable to achieve it, then he has two extreme points, two poles. And from between these two poles comes the prayer, to which he receives an answer.

These two factors are connected to one another: If I work on recognizing the importance of the intention to bestow, then I am shown more and more clearly that I do not have it. At the same time, I should not work in order to discover my inability as quickly as possible. It is impossible to work negatively; that would be self-deception.

You must work toward actually attaining the spiritual action, toward performing it. Then, in contrast to this, you will be shown that you are incapable of doing it. We must always work positively.
[360630]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are ‘Blessing’ and ‘Curse’ in the Work?”

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Comment: During the preparation period, a person feels that the Creator is acting on them in a negative way and they cannot justify Him.

My Response: To bring about spiritual corrections, there is work that depends on me, as it is said: “If I am not myself, then who is for me.” If I sit back and think that I feel so bad about what He did to me, and how I suffer, then I am just eating myself! Nothing will come of it unless I figure out all the details myself.

The problem is that I have to change, not His actions, but my impression of His actions from one extreme to the other, from an uncorrected desire to a corrected one.

You can say, “If I am in an uncorrected desire, then I feel evil, and if I am in a corrected desire, then I feel good based on how He affects me. But I cannot correct the desire myself.”

Yes, you cannot correct it on your own, but you can want your desire to change and acquire the intention to bestow In accordance with this intention, you will feel that He is acting on you for the good. Thus, you have to come to the need for it.

Naturally, He performs action, but you must constantly examine where you are and where you would like to be. This means you must arrive at a state of prayer: what you want to experience from the way He acts on you.

Let us say He is giving me something unpleasant now; I must examine the situation and desire that He do something so that I feel good.

What does it mean to feel good? So I can feel something good from His actions, first of all, within the framework of our world. This is called Lo Lishma (for the sake of oneself).

And then I come to the point where I feel evil from His actions, not because I feel bad, but because through this very sensation, I am cursing Him. Then replace this sensation with a good one, but not so I would feel good. I do not care about that. What matters to me is that I want to bless Him. This is already called Lishma.

That is how a person goes through these things all the time. The whole system is one of self–discovery. A person studies himself. We know that outside the Kli (desire) there is Atzmuto (His essence), but I study who I am, how I receive, get impressed by Atzmuto, and what I would like to feel from His influence, and how much I want to admire Him.

In the end, this is a very simple thing, but we are confused in our desires (Kelim). In fact, there is nothing simpler and more natural.
[359677]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/17/26, Rabash, “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test? ”

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Question: What one should constantly think about and ask for?

Answer: After all contemplation, a person sees that the only Hisaron (lack, desire) worth worrying about is the desire to realize the greatness of the Creator. Only the realization of His importance, sensing the Creator, the realization of His presence, whatever it may be, the impression received from Him, can change me.

Right now I am a slave to my desire to receive, but I will become a slave to His desire to give and bestow pleasure. A person should work precisely on this Hisaron, that is, strive for the desire for light to come from above and change them.

In short, first there must be an awareness that I want to change, to the extent I am capable of desiring this, and for this I turn to the Creator so that He will change me.

Why should I turn to the Creator? Is it not enough that I want to change and He will simply do it Himself? Change is not my goal in itself. The goal is that by turning to Him with a request, I cling to Him. My transformation, in a sense, is merely a means to that end.

It turns out that we are constantly working on the same Hisaron: how to merge with Him more strongly, cling to Him, and draw closer. From this, I get strength to merge with Him and the need for it. Everything really comes from one source.
[360781]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/26, Rabash, “Who Testifies to a Person”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 223

What Is the True Picture of the Creator?

We never speak about how things appear from the Creator’s side, what He feels, or what He is. We speak about what the created being feels from Him, or about how the created being imagines the Creator’s state, but not about His state outside the created being. At times we think all sorts of things about a friend that do not truly reflect who he is. We speculate about his thoughts, feelings, and troubles, and when we come a little closer to him, we discover that none of it was true. It was all merely a picture we had drawn in our imagination.

There is the matter of knowing something from within ourselves, from imagining that something is one way or another, and there is the true picture. We never see or know the true picture of the Creator. We can only know the Creator through ourselves, what we think about the Creator, how we understand the Creator, and so on. The truest picture that we are capable of attaining, without our vessels distorting what the Creator wishes us to feel from Him, is the state of final correction. The Host wishes to serve a five-course meal, each course perfect in every respect. We receive it and feel the Host’s attitude toward us through it. Beyond that is beyond our ability.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 31 “What Does It Mean that Charity to the Poor Makes the Holy Name, in the Work?” (1991) (6.26.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam“Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 6, Item 39

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Arvut (Mutual Guarantee)”

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Question: What does it mean: “The Creator helps a person with a holy soul”

Answer: It means that after a person makes every possible effort, it is revealed to them that it is necessary to perform an action that is beyond human strength, above this world. They discover that what they are striving for, what they are touching, belongs, not to our reality, but to the one that is beyond the Machsom (barrier).

In other words, then it is revealed to them what the Machsom is. It is an inversion, a complete reversal in approach, in thinking, as it is said: “I saw the upside-down world.” Then a person sees that only the upper force, the Creator, can perform this action. By what means? By means of a “holy soul,” that is, by giving them completely different powers, thoughts, and abilities that they did not have before.

This is what is called the new soul—a “holy soul”: instead of the nature directed toward working for the sake of receiving with which He created man, the Creator now gives him a second nature that works for the sake of bestowal. This is the “holy soul,” when a person receives the strength to work for the sake of bestowal.

Question: Is this somehow connected to the group?

Answer: No, here we are talking about the relationship between a person and the Creator. Neither the teacher nor the group has anything to do with it. Both the teacher and the group are merely means for bringing a person into contact with the Creator.

Of course, he must constantly rely on them, be connected with them, but the essence lies in the relationship between the Kli of a person’s soul and the light, that is, the Creator. There is nothing else.
[360668]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/26, Rabash, “What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet”

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Work without pleasure is called “labor.” That is, the person would not do this if he did not know he would be paid for the effort. (Rabash, Article 27 (1987), “What Are ‘Blessing’ and ‘Curse’ in the Work?”)

Before performing any action, a person always asks: “What will I get out of it?” Peace, money, honor, something that he needs. This can even be seen from the enormous variety of hobbies that exist in the world.

Nothing forces a person to pursue his hobby except pleasure. One person enjoys fishing, catching fish on a hook; another, on the contrary, enjoys feeding fish, and breeding them in an aquarium; a third collects a herbarium of leaves. We find nothing in this for ourselves, whereas for him it is exactly the opposite. And so everyone has his own way. Some collect things that we can understand: money, experiences, honor, knowledge, and so on.

Thus, pleasure can be clothed in the most diverse forms, but it must be there. If I do not see any pleasure, I cannot perform an action. I have to see some pleasure ahead. It may come in a month, at the end of my life, or even after my life is over. Many people are willing to work hard throughout their entire lives so that they will be remembered after their death. We see that human pleasures can even transcend the boundaries of time.

However, the very feeling of the pleasure that lies ahead already belongs to the present. This feeling, when I experience future pleasure now, provides me with the energy and the fuel to perform the action. I look at what will happen to me; I bring that pleasure closer to myself, as though filling my fuel tank with gasoline, and with that I can work.

But if I see absolutely no pleasure ahead, then I have no energy, not a drop of fuel to perform any action. The car stops, and that is it. Sometimes we feel exactly like this: “No matter what, I cannot even move.” Such feelings are given to a person who begins spiritual work.

Then the question arises: Which goal will be important to me? This depends on the surrounding society, where I grew up, what I did, and what kind of education I received. This is how my attitude toward everything is formed, and according to it—as well as, of course, according to my nature—I choose certain goals in life.

Goals are forms of pleasure that I wish to enjoy in the future, while I already enjoy them now through my connection with them.
[360592]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are ‘Blessing’ and ‘Curse’ in the Work?”

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Our work before the Machsom and after the Machsom differs each time. After the Machsom, where there are Kelim [vessels, plural of Kli] of bestowal and Kelim of reception, everything is different. After I have attained awareness of the greatness of the Creator, the action itself is already performed differently. Before that, there is nothing to discuss, for I am striving in the wrong direction. First I must direct myself, and only then do I fly there. This must be done before everything else.

I worked with airplanes for several years in the Israeli Air Force. Imagine an airplane sitting on the ground completely unoriented regarding the cardinal directions; the pilot in the cockpit does not know where he is, the directions are unknown to him. He exists within a three-dimensional sphere, knowing nothing about it.

Should he fly? No; in this situation, it is better for him to remain in place because moving even a millimeter could lan him who knows where. So, first of all, he must check the location of the goal toward which he needs to head.

And so we direct ourselves: this is our goal, in the direction of it we now apply effort, and only then do we begin to move.

However, this goal is concealed; the Creator is hidden. I don’t have the slightest notion of similarity of form; it does not attract me; the issue doesn’t even exist for me. The group must provide me with this Hisaron, this need. My point in the heart only feels that something is missing.

The first nine Sefirot must reveal what is lacking in my point in the heart. They must tell Malchut: “This is what you lack.” And these first nine Sefirot, in relation to me, are embodied by the group. Nothing else will help me.

If my friends do not provide me with this, I must seek another group. Either I organize them so that they give me the importance of the goal, or I must leave them and seek another group where the importance of the goal already exists; and if not, then I will bring it there. And the group will hear that this is important and that work must be done on it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

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