Question: Refusing corporeal pleasures is very easy especially when you no longer feel any taste in them. But the pleasure from spirituality is so great that I cannot imagine how one could renounce it. How can one properly restrict spiritual pleasures so they are not for oneself but are for the Creator?

Answer: We have studied many times how to refuse pleasures for oneself and how to direct one’s desires only for the Creator. Work in that order as I have outlined.

Question: What needs to be built in the middle line to maintain balance? After all, if we are given an extra twenty grams of desire, we will not be able to resist it.

Answer: To maintain what is called balance, you must think only about bestowal.

Question: A meal is a spiritual act in the moment of receiving reflected light. How can we calculate the amount of light necessary for existence?

Answer: There is no such measure.

Question: You said we need to connect to the Creator. How can this be done?

Answer: Demand from the Creator a connection so strong that you will never be separated from Him.

Question: I am always confused: should we enjoy the meal or not? When we prepare the meal and thank the Creator for bringing us all together, should we enjoy this food?

Answer: Absolutely.
[337952]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/5/24, Writings of Rabash “The Meal of a Wicked One”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “Hanukkah“

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Selected Highlights

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Question: Everything surrounding us is the Creator. Why is it necessary in spiritual work to first reveal Him and then conceal Him?

Answer: Our spiritual attainments are built precisely on these actions: concealment and revelation, revelation and concealment. That is how we move forward and come to understand what the Creator desires from us.

Everything must be directed toward love to distinguish genuine fear, connected to the Creator’s revelation, from fear awakened by egoistic motives. Then you will not fear concealment or revelation, but will simply feel drawn to the Creator.

Question: How can one overcome concealment if there is a complete lack of feeling the Creator?

Answer: Try to move toward the Creator, regardless of any feelings He gives you. That is the most reliable approach.
[337836]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/1/24, Writings of Rabash “And Behold, the Lord Stood Over Him”

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Question: The need to change intention depends on the number of bestowing actions performed by a person. How can one work on both action and intention simultaneously if everything is determined by quantity?

Answer: No, quantity is not measured. Both quantity and quality are always considered together.

Question: Suppose I can “fire away” actions in the ten or in dissemination like a machine gun, thinking that the intention will come on its own. Alternatively, I could check each action, ensure the intention is incorrect, and ask the Creator for help. Which approach is correct?

Answer: The second one.
[337759]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/29/24, Writings of Rabash “Discernments in States”

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Question: When we say, “We are building a home for the Creator,” what is the measure of personal responsibility in this action and the measure of responsibility of everyone in the ten? Are they equivalent, or is everything based on personal responsibility?

Answer: It all depends on the quality of the ten. We must accept our states as revealed in us by the Creator for which we must rise and account to Him, that is, address Him at the level of these states.

Question: What determines the quality of the ten?

Answer: The quality of the ten depends only on the following components: how seriously the friends take their work, how much they strive to get closer to the Creator through it, how much they want to join the Creator to help Him. And He will help them, and together they jointly create a tremendous spiritual structure, one for all.
[337994]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/6/24, Writings of Rabash “Delight Them with a Complete Building – 2”

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Question: Can we relate the morning and afternoon lessons to the morning and afternoon prayers?

Answer: No, the lesson is a completely separate action.

Question: How can we accept the pleasures of this world and direct them toward love for the Creator? I am losing interest in the corporeal world and only derive enjoyment from morning lessons and connection. What does this state indicate?

Answer: It indicates that you are being directed to discern what the Creator gives you. In reality, you are receiving everything; you just lack the revelation of it.

Question: What is the true overcoming that ends in prayer?

Answer: True overcoming will always conclude with prayer and the realization that the Creator is giving you everything good.

Question: Darkness is the foundation for light. Can we say that the magnitude of the light is proportional to the depth of the darkness a person goes through?

Answer: Yes, we can. However, a person does not need to wait for darkness to experience greater light afterward. It doesn’t work that way.
[337859]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/3/24, Writings of Rabash “The Way of the Land Preceded the Torah”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam “The Acting Mind”

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2nd part of the Lesson — Lesson on the Topic “VaYeshev (And Jacob Dwelt)”

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Selected Highlights

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Accordingly, we should ask, “Why did He create the worlds, restriction after restriction down to this murky world, and clothed the souls in the murky bodies of this world? (Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah“)

Question: Was our reality, with our murky bodies, part of the initial plan of the Creator?

Answer: When creating our reality, the Creator envisioned our corrected state, not the form in which we initially exist.

Therefore we must understand the work before us, what we need to do, and what we must achieve.

Question: How is the quality of Adam manifested, which the whole ten should strive to hold onto?

Answer: That quality is only revealed in the world of Atzilut.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/4/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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How is it that the degree of revelation in a spiritual vessel (Kli) is determined precisely by the degree of concealment within it?

The fact is that revelation and concealment are revealed together. It is as if you enter a dark cave with a torch and begin to reveal what is inside. The more light your torch provides, the more things you discover, finer and previously unseen details.

However, this also raises questions within you. Revelation is entirely built upon uncovering what is concealed. Only when we can rise above concealment do we reach a state where we can attract the reflected light that enables us to ascend the spiritual ladder.
[338074]
From the 1^st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/9/24, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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It follows from all the above that we must always consider the goal, which is to “do good to His creations.” If the evil inclination comes to a person and asks him all of Pharaoh’s questions, he should not reply with lame excuses, but say, “Now, with your questions, I can begin with the work of bestowal.”

This means that we should not say about the questions of the evil inclination that it came to us in order to lower us from our degree. On the contrary, now it is giving us a place to work (Rabash, Article 22, “The Whole of the Torah Is One Holy Name“).

We rise above the desire to receive, but still work with it because it is the only material we have. What we receive within our desire is the energy that enables us to move, think, and act. Everything happens within desire.

The goal is to transform creation’s desire to receive into the Creator’s desire to bestow. To the extent that we achieve this, we become similar to Him and begin to feel Him.

However, our desire to receive, even when functioning as a desire to bestow, will never become pure bestowal because bestowal is the Creator Himself. But if our desire to receive externally manifests as the Creator’s desire, then it becomes for the sake of bestowal and makes us similar to Him. This is the essence of the process.

Our desire to receive remains intact and continues to grow. We do not resist its growth, but focus solely on how to use it correctly.

This is why our study is called the “wisdom of Kabbalah” and not just “Kabbalah” (receiving). Everyone desires to receive, every element of nature, every atom, and even its particles strive to receive.

Everything moves and exists from a sense of deficiency, a desire to fulfill, sustain, and realize itself.

Kabbalah provides the opportunity to exist in a reversed mode, to live not because we fulfill our desire, but because we bestow through it. This is the essence of the wisdom. It is not simple. We must acquire a special energy, the upper light, to redirect our desire toward bestowal. For this, we need a group, books, and a teacher.
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From Preparation to the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 9/3/19

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