Question: It is said that a person should pray to the Creator to help him be above reason, and his work should be in joy as if he had been awarded spiritual reason.

But when I am in joy there is some fear that I will start to receive for myself.

How can I overcome the fear of being in joy?

Answer: Why are you afraid to be in joy? On the contrary, it is a huge commandment. It is necessary to be in this state all the time and not fall from the level of joy that the Creator created you. It brings you closer to Him, and gives you a feeling of coming closer and connecting with Him.
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From the 1^st psrt of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/13/23, Writings of Rabash “These Candles Are Sacred”

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Question: What is the Torah from the point of view of Kabbalah, and what actions are called commandments?

Answer: In the wisdom of Kabbalah, which explains the structure of the whole universe, the qualities of the Creator and His attitude toward us, there is a section called the Commandments of the Torah.

The commandments are not the mechanical implementation of the laws of the Torah at the level of our world, but the laws of the upper world that we must implement if we want to correspond to them.

The point is, in our world, if we want to feel the positive reaction of nature to our actions, we must know how to behave with it, not to lead it to destruction, burnout, flooding, and other cataclysms. That is, do what is beneficial for nature, and then it will be good for us.

The same applies to the laws explained in the Torah called commandments. These are laws of the higher level. They are about our inner attitude to the spiritual nature: how I should treat people, inanimate, animate, vegetative nature, myself, my loved ones, and so on.

That is, the Torah in principle, explains to us the entire code of laws and rules of behavior in the world around us so that we can influence it properly, and then accordingly, the world too will be tuned to us correctly.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Question: The Book of Zohar says: “A commandment without intention is like a body without a soul.” What does this mean?

Answer: This means that the most important thing is the intention: what do you want to get out of fulfilling the commandment?

Either you want to get closer to the Creator, make things pleasant for Him, or somehow put the forces of the world in order, into which you are incorporated. That is very important! Therefore, the most important thing is understanding the commandment’s inner meaning.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Question: The great Kabbalist of the 20^th century, Baal HaSulam, writes that there is only one commandment: “Love thy neighbor.” On the other hand, in the article “The Peace” he says that there are two more commandments: reception and bestowal. Then he writes that there are 10 commandments in the Torah, seven commandments of Noah, 620 commandments that the sages talk about. So, how many of these commandments are there in total? How can one understand this gradation?

Answer: I would say that 620 commandments are indeed a lot. The main one among them is “Love thy neighbor as yourself.” As Rabbi Akiva said: “This is the whole Torah.”

And the rest of the commandments are just its explanation. Strangely enough, the commandment “Love thy neighbor as yourself” includes absolutely all the laws of the world, light, nature, and the Creator.

Question: Strange indeed. Let’s say, if we take the commandments of Kashrut, how are they related to love for one’s neighbor, or how can they help us attain this love?

Answer: There is nothing strange about it; it can be understood. Ultimately, we will come to a state where it becomes clear to us that all the commandments were as if dictated to a person by the upper force, and if he fulfills them, he will begin to approach the Creator.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Comment: There are commandments relating to the Creator, to one’s neighbor, or a person himself that we can understand. And there are commandments that relate, for example, to the Temple, the land of Israel, and to inanimate nature.

My Response: That is right. We must have a certain intention, purpose, and a specific attitude toward nature, home, animals, in general—to everything. Through our relationships, we can get closer or move away from each other. Therefore, it is very important to keep the commandments.

Question: The sources say the purpose of all commandments is to unite creation. How, for example, is the commandment about cultivating land related to the uniting creation?

Answer: You need to know how to treat the land, nature, water, air, everything to keep nature as healthy, whole, and holistic as possible. That is in the commandments.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Question: Some commandments can be explained logically, for example, washing hands helps maintain a person’s health. Observing the Sabbath commandment is also understandable, people need to rest.

But some commandments are completely inexplicable; they are just some actions to perform. How can this be understood?

Answer: The fact is we do not understand everything in nature.

In principle, commandments are a little irrational from our perspective; they lack common sense.

However, if we had a deeper understanding of nature, we would grasp where these instructions, which we call commandments, originate.

The point is that everything in them stems from an understanding of the higher nature. And if we delve deeper into the environment around us, we will see that all commandments are as rational and necessary as those we can comprehend and analyze.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Question: Why are there commandments that can be performed as external actions, like putting on tefillin, etc. and others that can only be performed internally, such as, “do not make an idol,” “exalt the Creator,” and so on?

Answer: This suggests that there are commandments under which we must internally adjust ourselves to a certain attitude toward a person or some action. The most important thing in fulfilling these commandments is our attitude.

There are commandments in which the main thing is not the attitude toward someone or something but the physical fulfillment itself. Therefore, the commandments differ from each other. But this does not mean that each of them is more or less important relative to the other; rather, it is that they can be sorted according to such criteria.

Question: Why does Baal HaSulam say that there are only two commandments in the world: reception and bestowal?

Answer: It refers to a person’s actions. That is why Baal HaSulam calls them commandments of reception and commandments of bestowal. That is, we must learn how to receive from any person, from the world, and from nature, and bestow in accordance with this. We practically do nothing else.

Question: Does this have something to do with the division of the 613 commandments into commandments to perform an act or to abstain from an act?

Answer: No. This is a completely separate division.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Question: What does it mean that there are commandments that could previously be fulfilled, for example, those related to the Temple, but now cannot?

Answer: There is no Temple, and there are no such commandments.

In past centuries during the time of the Temples, we kept the commandments concerning them. But today, there is no need for this. That is why the Temples disappeared. Now, we can do something else that was not necessary in those days.

Question: It seems to me that there may be confusion here between internal action and physical action. As explained in Kabbalah, the internal action of the commandment is a change of intention from reception to bestowal, right?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes in one of his letters that when the Jews received the Torah as one man with one heart, they first observed the most important commandment: Love your neighbor. But their egoism constantly grew and they were unable to stay in this state; they replaced it with external manifestations.

But the fact is that without physical actions, the intention is dead. Therefore, we must understand that we need to fulfill the commandments physically and internally in our attitude.
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From KabTV’s “Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Question: Baal HaSulam writes that there is one commandment: “Love your neighbor.” Why does the Creator require us to fulfill this particular commandment?

Answer: The commandment “Love thy neighbor as thyself” includes all human corrections. If a person starts treating others the same way he treats himself, he will transform his egoistic nature into the property of bestowal and love.

In principle, this is all that the Torah should lead us to. It is in this action that we reveal the Creator.

Question: Can we say there are more important and less important commandments, or are they all equally important?

Answer: It is difficult to say which commandments are more important and which are less. But it follows from Rabbi Akiva’s explanation that “Love thy neighbor” is the most important, general commandment.
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From KabTV’s”Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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Question: The Torah describes the laws of communication with the upper force. Do these laws manifest themselves in our world as a root and branch?

Answer: Some do because the Creator is the whole of nature around us, Elokim, in gematria is the same as Teva (nature). And if we treat it correctly, then, naturally, we will influence correctly the upper force called the Creator, and by this, it will influence us correctly.

Comment: That is what is confusing. On one hand in The Book of Zohar, which in principle comments on the Torah and decodes it, it is written that the Torah does not say a single word about our world but only about states outside of time and space.

My Response: It is about the forces that are above our world.

Question: Yes. On the other hand we see some manifestations of things in the Torah in our world also. There are some well-established traditions. How can one figure it out?

Answer: Very little is said about our world because our world is a world of consequences. If we begin to correctly impact the upper force, the Creator, according to the fact that we will become more and more correctly like Him, then naturally, His influence on our world will be positive for us.

In other words, a commandment is an action to change an intention for oneself to an intention for the sake of bestowal, for the sake of the Creator.

Such an action is possible only when a person is in direct contact with the Creator. And before that he performs simply mechanical actions in our world, which are, as it were, preparation for spiritual ones.
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From KabTV’s”Spiritual States” 11/21/23

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