There is work during an ascent and work during a descent, and a person must try to find what is relevant to him in each of these two states. But most importantly, a person is required to work during an ascent, because during a descent there is no one from whom to demand anything. He may be in such a state that he neither hears nor is able to move from his place, sometimes not only internally but even physically.

But during an ascent, when he experiences an influx of strength, he should not simply enjoy it, as though he feels good and is in a state of perfection. He must understand that this has been given to him from above, although he does not deserve it. Yet both the state of ascent and the state of descent are given to him solely for the sake of advancing.

There are no reward and punishment in this. It is not that because I suffered before, I am now being rewarded by feeling good. This is a completely mistaken thought and an incorrect approach to the process we are going through.

The state called a descent is given in order to feel our own qualities, while the state called an ascent is given in order to feel the qualities of the Creator. By sensing our own qualities during the descent and the qualities of the Creator during the ascent, we must work with these two states and derive the greatest possible benefit for our advancement from them.

If we go through these states without using them to advance toward the purpose of creation, they simply pass by. We will be given an ascent and a descent once or twice, and then they will stop. Or they will be sent once every six months or once a year. And so, the years will pass.

Everything depends on how purposefully a person relates to each state they find themself in, without thinking that it is given to them as a reward or a punishment, but accepting it simply as a state for work.
[358779]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/26, Rabash, “What Are Holiness and Purity, in the Work?”

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Whatever a person does during the day in relation to the people around him through his body and human desire, simply as a person living in this world, has nothing to do with the Torah. It does not relate to spiritual advancement or to the Creator.

Ten thousand years ago, there were also people in our world who knew nothing about the Torah or Commandments. They had lives, a wife, children, a home, and food. Does this relate to spirituality or not? Similarly, our ordinary life, which is not related to Kabbalah, does not belong to spirituality. This is an animal-like existence in this world.

We cannot say that it is completely disconnected from the spiritual world, as everything here is a branch. However, we are talking about the desire to receive on the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of this world, which gradually progresses toward the final correction at its own pace, in accordance with the general pace of reality.

Then, the general desire to receive of all people reached a state in which parts of the soul began to descend from above. A light began to descend, revealing the desire to receive, clothed in all people.

When light descends from above, a point in the heart appears. This point entered someone named Avram (after which he was given the name Abraham), who marked the beginning of the group. He was the first to reveal the Creator and initiate a chain of disciples. Had it not occurred, all of humanity would have continued living without spiritual revelation, according to the general clock of the universe and reality.

From Abraham onward, a person gains the freedom to choose. As the light descends upon a person, he has the opportunity to take further action on his own. However, this can only be done in connection with other souls.

Therefore, I need someone else by my side. It is not enough to have someone in America or Australia; after all, there were Native Americans at the time of Abraham. I have no connection with them; I need someone near me, a friend from whom I can gain insight and acquire something.

Free choice consists of receiving additional Hisaron (lack or desire) from an equal, both in the time of Abraham and in our time. The Creator told Abraham: “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky,” that is, I gave you the conditions for free choice. Therefore, a close group was required so that one, while receiving perception from another, could acquire that person’s desire.

It does not work for one Kabbalist to be here and another someplace else, a group was required, a group that came to be called the Jews (Yehudim). They were ordinary Iraqis and Persians who began to be called Jews Yehudim and Ivrim (Hebrews from the root “Avru,” meaning those who transitioned to the desire of the Creator). We must distinguish between the soul that clothes itself in a person that requires correction, and the body.
[358684]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work?”

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Question: If I descend to the level of the cause, but cannot discern whether it is positive or negative, what should I do?

Answer: There is no need to discern if the cause is negative or positive, because there are no negative or positive states. It is simply that I perceive “bad” or “good” in my feelings. But this is completely incorrect. Each state has only one purpose: to awaken me to seek a deeper inner state.

Why do we perceive some states as positive and others as negative? This is something that humans cannot understand. Since we are at the beginning of our path, most states are perceived as negative. We are affected by these so-called negative feelings because humans tend to seek a cause: “Why do I feel bad?” No one will ask, “Why do I feel good?”

The fact is that we are made of the desire to receive, so no one asks: “Why do I feel good?” If a person asks such a question, it means he is afraid that he feels too good. Life experience tells him that something this good does not just happen. He fears that he will have to pay for it.

You can awaken a person only through bad states, and only later through good feelings, but this is already a Klipa. This is even more difficult, because one is given many good things but no spirituality. However, this is for more advanced states, so that a person can ask the question “What is the meaning of my life?” from a good state.

I have everything except the Creator, but I need only Him, I need nothing except spirituality. It is like a curse: I have a lot of food before me, but no taste or appetite for it.
[358308]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/26, Rabash, “What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven?”

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When a person feels a certain heaviness in the work, the Sitra Achra arrives and starts to toy with them, leading them astray so they do not know whether they should turn to the Creator or not. In truth, it is worthwhile to turn to Him in every state.

But if the request is not genuine, why do I need to turn to the Creator? Am I simply crying out for the Creator to do the work for me? If I do not feel a need for His help but I still cry and ask for it, then this appeal does not come from the bottom of my heart. What should I do?

Baal HaSulam says there is no better state in a person’s life than the moment that he feels despair of his own forces. He feels that he has tried everything, and that nothing can help him. Such a person is truly worthy to raise his prayer to the Creator, and only such a prayer will receive a response from above.

When does the despair of my own forces come? One can try all kinds of things, making efforts for 20 or 30 years, and who knows when it will end and if it ever ends or not?

Perhaps it is not a matter of quantity, but of quality. It does not matter how many years you spend, but rather how you spent them. What matters is your attitude toward your situation. A person might exert just a small amount of effort, but it is sufficient to turn to the Creator with a true appeal, without a doubt that only the Creator can help him and he cannot do it by himself.

How can one figure this out? At the end of the article “What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven?”, Rabash gives a simple answer that a person needs to see these states one stage deeper. Then he will recognize that the Creator gives them this state. After that, they will discover that they must turn to the Creator for help without delay.

This is very important. All the efforts a person makes by himself without turning to the Creator, are all empty. They lack spiritual significance regardless of how much effort was invested in them. Such actions simply do not count. A person does not even have to perform them as they are merely a waste of time and energy.

I only have to discover that every state that go through comes from the Creator in order for me to turn to Him. If there is some delay between my sensing my state and turning to the Creator as a result of that state, that is already the Sitra Achra (the other side or impure force). That is where confusion and bewilderment set in and where extraneous thoughts and calculations creep in when I try to resolve a difficult situation by myself.

This point is very important; it is like the foundation. It is very difficult to have a hold on that point without the pressure and influence of the group.
[358226]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/26, Rabash, “What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven?”

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We view spiritual work as a means to achieve a goal. The goal is described as good, beautiful, and pleasant. The goal is eternal life and eternal rest.

Is everything written by the Kabbalists meant for lazy people? “Work now, and afterward, thank God, you will rest”? There is no end to the interpretations on this topic.

Do I really have to die in order to attain the goal? What exactly must I attain in order to rest? It is like in the joke: a man is lying under a tree, and he is told: “Go work.”

“What for?”

“You will earn a lot of money and you will rest, lying under the tree!”

And he answers: “But I am already lying under the tree!”

It is the same here: What does it mean that now I must work and afterward I will rest, rest will come later? After all, it is said that rest is the goal of creation.

We study that reality is unchanging. The upper light is in absolute rest within His Kli. This state is prepared from the outset, and we are already in it, although for now it is hidden from us.

Baal HaSulam brings many examples of this. For instance, the story about the son of a wealthy man who sits in the basement until he grows up and understands where he is, or about people running to the King’s palace to reach Him. Yet ultimately, as it is said: “And you shall eat that which has long been stored up”; meaning, we are already in this state, but we must prepare the Kelim (vessels) in order to feel it.

The preparation of the vessels is called applying effort or work. After a person has prepared his Kelim, he attains equivalence of form with the light: the light is in absolute rest, and the person also comes to this state. This is a partial explanation of why the goal is called rest.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 28 “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?” (1989) (6.27.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

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What is meant when we speak about rest? Perhaps it is not at all like what I now understand by this word. Relative to what is it rest or not rest? I remember when I was a child and constantly ran after a ball, everyone shouted at me: “Sit down, rest a little!”

But I did not feel that to sit down and stop was rest. On the contrary, for me that was a great effort. To run after the ball was both pleasant and comfortable.

So how can one measure and decide what is rest, repose, and what is exertion and work? This is measured relative to the Kelim. If the Kli feels tension and a mismatch between the desired and the actual, that is, between what ought to be and where the Kli in fact is, this means that the Kli is not in a state of rest. For the difference that it feels pushes it toward spiritual “movement,” and this automatically means that the Kli is not in rest.

And a Kli that has come to equivalence of qualities with the goal feels no difference from it and therefore can even while “in flight,” like a child running after a ball, feel rest.

The principle of relativity speaks of this as well. It is not important at what speed you are moving, but that you are neither accelerating or decelerating. That is, there is no lack “behind” and no lack “ahead” of you, you are balanced in the state you are in. And then this is felt as rest.

How does one reach this? By means of equivalence of form (qualities) with the environment, with the light in which we exist How can one come to equivalence of qualities with the light?

Baal HaSulam says that for this there are the written and the oral Torah. By means of one of them we acquire the intention to bestow, and by means of the other we know what to do with this intention. And when we acquire the ability to perform these two actions: to receive with the intention to bestow, to fulfill the commandments (spiritual actions for the sake of bestowal), then we attain the goal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

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Question: On one hand, it is said that one should not despair, and on the other hand, that one must necessarily come to despair. Is it necessary or not?

Answer: It is both necessary and forbidden at the same time. On the one hand, I myself am not allowed to bring myself into a state of despair. On the other hand, it is necessary to reach a state in which you are weakened from above to such an extent that you despair and feel powerless, disillusioned in your own strength, and then you are able to raise a prayer.

It is difficult to explain this in a few words. In order to describe the states that we go through before the Machsom (spiritual barrier), Rabash wrote five volumes. Our language is incapable of conveying this, and in that sense it is dead. We lack the means to express it. Only the light that fills the Kli can do this; it gives everything.

For us, this filling is divided into mental, emotional, spiritual, and so on. The true filling of the desire to receive, the net amount received from the light, is the ultimate answer. Without this, nothing will help. A person can strive to attain more and more, but there will be no attainment.

It is as though we want to achieve inner fulfillment by multiplying our external clothing’s. However, it does not happen that way. You can tell me endlessly about some delicious dish, but if I have not tasted it, have not enjoyed it, or have not filled myself with it, all the descriptions are worthless.

Later, I can tell someone else about it using your descriptions, and he will pass it on further, and so on. This is precisely what we do in our world. But what is all of that worth?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/26, Rabash, “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”

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We are completely deaf to the lessons of history. This is because a person does not learn from past states unless they connect them to the Creator.

Eighty years ago, European Jewry went through the Holocaust.

Look at the state Germany reached; it was the strongest, most developed, and most progressive nation of its time! Why? Because it had surpassed the other nations in its development and on a subconscious level felt that the Jews were the cause of all the world’s suffering.

This is how the general law of reality operates, and they perceived reality in accordance with that law. Now the entire world is rising to a stage of development similar to the one Germany reached at that time. On a subconscious level, the whole world feels what the Germans of prewar Germany felt. The heads of state of France, the United Kingdom, and others no longer conceal, they openly express their hostility toward Israel.

Baal HaSulam writes that all the nations of the world perceive Israel as a foreign body that has no right to exist, that there is no place for it in reality. This is a very natural feeling. After all, Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) is within AHP in order to correct it. If the people of Israel do not fulfill their mission, then there is no need for them.

We must descend one level, then we will see the cause and discover the solution to the problem. But if you remain on the surface level of reality, you see no solution at all because you do not even know the source of the situation. I have cited a global example, but we must approach every situation in exactly the same way.

This is what is required of us in every situation: descend a little lower and penetrate a little deeper into it, but only a little. And in that “little,” we must reveal the Creator who sends us all these states. As soon as you find the Creator within a given state, you must immediately turn to Him, instantly establish contact with Him, and then you complete the correction of that particular state, which becomes another completed stage on your path.

But if you delve into that state more deeply than necessary, you simply take on unnecessary work, and waste your strength. All you need is the connection between the state you are experiencing, and the cause of that state—the Creator.
[358280]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/26, Rabash, “What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven?”

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Question: According to the order of the work from below up, it follows that the reflected light must come first. In other words, faith must come first, and then the direct light clothes in it?

Answer: We do not feel the pressure from the Creator, who desires to clothe in us, in our desire, because our desire is not corrected. To the extent that you have a screen with the intention to bestow, you will feel the pressure of the upper light, which desires to clothe in the corrected desire called the soul.

Then the question arises: when the light comes and strikes the screen, where are the light of faith, the reflected light, and everything else? They are all present before this, in a state of darkness. The screen is built during the darkness. And when you acquire it, you receive the power to maintain the restriction and the power of faith. This is what is called the screen.

The magnitude of the screen indicates the degree of faith. It is necessary to “stock up, arm oneself, with this in advance.

Naturally, this is done by the light, but the demand for this light to come develops only through efforts from below, which are made by means of the impression received from the books and those who wrote them, as well as from the group, and not from above. Here, an effort made by the person himself is required, so that the Kli precedes the light.
[358461]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/26, Rabash, “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”

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