How Should One Use Study?
Question: In the greatest state of Lo Lishma does a person begin to desire the next stage, Lishma?
Answer: No, at the peak of Lo Lishma a person does not want Lishma, because he does not understand what it is. The greatest Lo Lishma is when I want to bestow to the Creator, to be with Him, I love Him to such an extent that I do not feel myself. It is like in love, the sensation of it fills a person so completely that it suppresses their will to receive. There is a lot of egoism there and even aggression, but it is extinguished by the feeling of the necessity of connection with the beloved.
How do I use my study? Each time I want something, I understand that I can realize it by means of study, in the course of which I receive the forces to realize what I want. At the same time, I must come to study with some desire. Suppose today I want by means of study to change this or that.
Study is about the specific payment you want, or power you seek in order to bring about a change within you?
But if you arrive without a precise definition of what you want to change in yourself, the study is futile. What is the purpose of the light’s arrival? You and your friends awaken it, and it simply circles around you and leaves.
By the effort that you apply during study, you draw the upper light upon yourself, which brings life, health, strength, and all that is best. And if you just sit and study, and you have no demand for these forces, then why did you come to the lesson?
When you come to a lesson, even if you do not yet know why, just as your friends do not know what they are awakening the forces around for, then the light itself builds the desire in you. Gradually you begin to feel what exactly you must desire. But in order to use study more quickly and effectively, you need to come prepared with a specific desire in mind.
When one of my students calls me and asks how to play a role in the theater because he is struggling, frustrated, and torn apart, I give him some advice. But the best advice is that when you have problems, something hurts, or things are not working out, come here, study, and that very light that comes will give you the answer to everything, including how to play the role.
Just think how down‑to‑earth this example is, yet you already believe that from your study of the Torah you gain the strength to improve something. The only power that exists in this world is the light that comes from the upper world. In other words, this is the only possibility to change something in your state.
There is no other means: You will not find such a screwdriver, fork, or pliers with which you could tighten something in yourself and thus change. Only the light can do this.
And although it has a general influence on the soul and advances it, I must define what I want from it, so that I catch this surrounding light and, using it like a screwdriver, tighten something in myself in order to change. This must be more or less clear to you, and you need to know this before you come to study.
In principle, we understand this: We gather in groups, discuss and clarify what our desire is, and begin to study, knowing exactly what we want from the surrounding light. And if nothing changes in me, then I must voice my discontent as to why it did not change anything in me: “Where are Your promises? Show me where I am at fault and why You did not do this for me.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”
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