Question: Is knowledge different from sensation?

Answer: Knowledge is defined as clear attainment in the vessels of reception. Faith above reason means that I am not going to attain in my vessels of reception; that is not my goal. The goal is to attain equivalence of form, adherence to faith above reason, above the vessels of reception.

Question: Is egoism a part of the process of correction?

Answer: The ego is not a part of the process and not the process itself; it is the force by which I build my process of correction. I can remain on the level of desiring to be in the Creator’s place, to rule instead of Him, or I can come to the understanding that I must be similar to the Creator, acquire His qualities, and then rule instead of Him. But “instead of Him” does not mean “against Him.”

Question: What should be the measure of faith above reason?

Answer: The measure of faith above reason must apply to the entirety of a person’s reason. All the vessels of reception must be covered by the vessels of bestowal, by the quality of bestowal, by Bina.

Question: What does “love the Lord your God” mean?

Answer: Attaining the state of “love the Lord your God” means that I have carried out the correction of all my knowledge and all my vessels of reception to the point where I have attained complete equivalence with the Creator. That is, by faith above reason, I have acquired vessels and am now in the state of “love the Lord your God.”

Question: What is complete faith and how can one attain it?

Answer: There is faith, and there is complete faith. What does this mean? Faith is called the quality of bestowal, which a person acquires from Bina. If one attains the small state of GE (Galgalta veEnaiym, bestowal for the sake of bestowal, this means that he has acquired the force of faith. If he can add AHP to GE, to receive for the sake of bestowal, this is called complete faith, when inside the light of Hassadim there is the light of Hochma.
[357860]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

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Question: What is almsgiving (Tzedakah) in the spiritual sense? Is it the same as in the material world?

Answer: I don’t know what charity is in the material world. Twenty times a day someone knocks on my door asking for charity. Should I give? It is unpleasant and embarrassing not to give since everyone gives.

There are various calculations. A person thinks: perhaps it is worthwhile, because I will receive satisfaction from the fact that I gave. And sometimes it is done without any such calculation, simply because I received an upbringing that obligates me to act this way, and so I give. This too is a kind of calculation: If I do not act as I was educated to act, I will feel bad. In other words, it is a habit. That is what almsgiving in the material world.

In spirituality, charity is when you are able to give something that belongs to you without any payment whatsoever. That is, if you make all the possible calculations and it is clear to you that you will receive absolutely nothing from it, will you still have the strength to give? Where would that strength come from? We know that any action performed by the desire to receive requires “fuel.” And this “fuel” makes it possible to perform the action. Such is the nature of our desire to receive.

Imagine a machine that will not budge unless you insert a token. Here we are talking about a scenario where I give it absolutely nothing, and yet it can move. This is a completely imaginary thing, impossible to realize.

Yet we are told that it can be done. And the fact that you cannot receive anything in return means that the desire that performs this action truly receives nothing; otherwise, it would not be charity, but buying and selling.

I give a beggar five shekels in charity so that I will be healthy, so that I will attain the future world, so that things will go well for me, and so that I will feel satisfaction from having made a donation today. People get onto a bus and put a shekel into a charity box so that the bus will not explode.

Is that called charity? It is simply payment to the upper force so that it will protect me, as though I were saying to the Creator: “Look, I made a donation, and now, while I am riding this bus, make sure that nothing happens.” That is a contract, not a donation.

Of course, the vessels of reception receive nothing; only the vessels of bestowal receive. In other words, I must acquire a special correction called the “desire to bestow” within which I receive a return, compensation, for having given charity. And this must serve as the “fuel,” because without it I would not be able to give charity.

That is, in reality there is no action that I can perform without receiving some form of return or reward. Only compensation that enters the desire to receive is called animalistic, material, for the sake of reception, and not spiritual.

But if I am able to give and receive compensation within the desire to bestow, then it is considered that I am performing an act for the sake of bestowal, giving charity, that is, receiving nothing in return.

Nevertheless, I do receive strength a form of strength, a return, within the desire to bestow. But the “fuel” that I receive there serves the very same purpose for which I gave the charity. This “fuel” provided me with the strength to give charity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 7 “What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven?” (1988) (2.22.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah” (3.22.2001)

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When the upper governance influences us in a form that is unpleasant for us, bad from the perspective of our feelings, we do not feel spirituality and do not remember that the Creator exists. We think that this happens because pain clouds the mind, and we therefore forget that everything comes from the Creator. But this understanding is incorrect.

The fact that the Creator conceals Himself, when He seemingly does bad things to us, is not so that we will curse Him, forget about Him, and simply suffer. Why does He act this way?

He does it so that you will correct your Kelim and bring them to a state where it no longer matters whether you feel good or bad. The main thing is that He does not leave you. You will no longer be concerned with whether you feel something as sweet or bitter but only with truth and false, whether He is concealed from you or revealed, whether you feel His presence within you or not.

Then you begin to judge your state according to the presence of the Creator within you. If you feel a connection with Him, then sweet and bitter no longer matter.

Therefore, we say that the Creator never appears as one who does evil, because when He is revealed, it is impossible for you to feel bad. Even if you experience pain, it is perceived as something purposeful.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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A human being is built of the will to receive and is essentially nothing more than a sensing cell; all intellect, knowledge, and decisions stem from what he feels.

Therefore, one can bring oneself closer to the goal only by means of ascents and descents. That is, drawing closer to the Creator happens through descents, through distancing oneself from Him.

A person is distanced from spirituality, pushed back, and shown how opposite he is to the goal; his own evil is revealed to him. We call this the recognition of evil. A person sees that he cannot do anything on his own, and is unfit for holiness. From all these sensations, a state eventually matures within him where he realizes that he has no choice, he must go above his own reason.

How does he reach such a state? Only after numerous falls, one following another, similar to the example in the Study of the Ten Sefirot of the man who strives to reach the King’s palace with all his strength while guards and sentries push him back, bar his way, and he tumbles down the mountain on which the Creator’s palace stands.

But each time that he is thrown down, he nevertheless rises and returns. He is pushed back even more forcefully, and he rises again and moves forward with patience and persistence. Ultimately through all these clashes and periods of distancing from spirituality, he builds a real desire to attain the goal within himself.

His passionate striving toward the goal is what subsequently triggers a sense of rejection. It always works this way—through opposites. From being rejected, he develops an understanding of the importance of the goal. Each thing gives birth to its opposite.

Therefore, if he does not have deep, sharp, crushing falls that bring disappointment and despair, he would not be able to truly value the goal. On the other hand, if he does not apply enough effort to come to it, even when it seems to him that just a bit more and he will attain the goal, only to fall again and again, he will not find out how far in fact he is from it.
[357866]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/26, Rabash, “And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre”

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If you see that something in the group does not align with the goal, or does not lead to adhesion with the Creator, you should carefully analyze this situation point by point, find quotes, talk to your friends, and bring the matter before the group. If the group sees that this can lead to improvement, it will accept the suggestion.

We must clearly and logically show everyone what needs to be improved and why, and invariably link it to the need to achieve adhesion to the Creator, but in a plain, practical way.

What does practical mean? Rabash writes that abstractions can destroy the whole world. Abstraction is a form not clothed in matter. You cannot say, “You must be altruistic; whoever is not altruistic should be kicked out of the group! There is no place here for the biggest egoist!”

We must follow the path of form clothed in matter and act only in accordance with a reality that can be realized and embodied, and which defines everything for us.

It is written that just as a donkey is blindfolded and walks forward, so must you close your eyes and walk. How can you close your eyes and go? Only if the group pulls you along. Clearly, you cannot walk that way on your own. You still do not know what spiritual forces influence a person.

I know this from my own experience. There were times when I would sit at home, and Rabash would call and shout: “Come over!” But I sat there and sobbed into the phone: “I cannot come! I feel a force stopping me.”

Therefore we must determine in advance how to proceed. A person does not join a group on the condition that he accepts some of the group’s laws but not others, and signs under this condition. He enters the group and signs everything; among the points is one that authorizes him to act according to the group’s rules regarding modifying any points.
[357400]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/26, Rabash, “These Are the Generations of Noah”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 12 “Jacob Dwelled in the Land Where His Father Had Lived” (1985) (2.28.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Question: Is it possible to combine Kabbalah with yoga or any other methods?

Answer: This is impossible because all other methods are opposite to Kabbalah, as they do not use the desire to receive to achieve the goal. All of them are based on the suppression of Kelim (vessels), rather than their development. Just as Kabbalah is a method of receiving, so they are methods of “non-receiving,” all without exception.

Receive as little as possible, eat only vegan food, think less, breathe less, want less, whatever it is, just less. That is, the goal is to lower a person from his level to the level of an animal or plant, or even to an inanimate level.

The source of all this lies in ancient Egypt, where even dead bodies were made into undecaying mummies. These are all Eastern methods. Of course, this has a spiritual root. There is also a justification on a material level.

When you give the masses an ideology based on the assertion that you must lower your desires and then everything will be fine, it immediately bears fruit. It is accepted because it makes sense to everyone. But if, in addition to ideology, we add a spiritual component to this, if we connect it with what is beyond our life and death, and assert that a person will receive eternal reward for this, it will become a religion. This is a great force.

But over thousands of years, the human ego has continually evolved from generation to generation. Whether we like it or not, we realize our egoism, which leads to the so-called development of humanity. As a result of the new desires that manifest in each of us from cycle to cycle, we are constantly striving for something new. Therefore even those nations that were committed to the ideology of reducing desire come to a state where they can no longer restrain it.

Nothing will be left of these methodologies over the course of a century. People who are going to India today are just traveling. No one is really able to engage their methodology. Those who manage to achieve this make themselves into a primitive animal. I do not want to talk much about it, but this is a kind of last Klipa against development. We are unable to resist the process of development of the desire to receive. In 10 to 20 years, all this will pass.

Those who today are able to escape from their suffering into such techniques—to turn off part of their mind, to lower themselves to a very low level, and to really be satisfied with it—such people are not for us. This is a primitive, undeveloped form.

However, the world is developing very fast. After all, all of this is against nature. This is not a correction, but an escape from correction. We will not achieve anything this way, just some kind of temporary artificial consolation.
[357818]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/10/26, Rabash, “What Is Above Reason in the Work?”

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The rules of the group change according to the group’s advancement. If a group establishes artificial laws and rules for itself, then either it delays its development for some time, or sooner or later it discovers that it cannot keep them. The rule may remain written somewhere, but who actually follows it?

Suppose we define something, write it down, and everything looks wonderful, but no one really needs it. I constantly say that examining our internal laws is the most important thing, because through this a person examines himself. He must relate to the group’s rules as to his own inner rules, be in harmony with them, and advance together with them.

This does not determine my relationship to the members of the group; rather, it determines the relationship among all my inner forces, feelings, and desires. Therefore, first of all, I must see it as a model of how I want to see myself internally. We are not talking about my relationships with the friends; we naturally adjust to one another in any case. The charter must first and foremost be internal. There should be no difference between the external charter and the internal one.

In our world, after a country establishes its laws, it also establishes penalties for violating them. What is the purpose of these penalties? To compel a person to obey the laws.

In our case, it is what happens to a person if he fails to fulfill something in his personal account with the Creator. We cannot even imagine to what extent the rules that we establish within the group are accepted “Above.”

Baal HaSulam writes about this in “The Giving of the Torah”: The governance established by the people and the governance of the Creator naturally correspond to one another. What a large group of people determines becomes, in a certain sense, a law of the upper governance for them.

Do not take this too literally, we will speak about it more. I only want to say that by trying to fulfill some of your rules, even if they may seem foolish or unimportant, you will clarify the charter more quickly. You will discover what is relevant to us and what is not, what is more important and what is less important.

Ultimately, whether working with the internal or the external charter, your goal is to analyze it and thereby advance. How does a person advance? He examines the degree on which he stands: whether it is good or bad, useful or harmful, whether it is for his own sake or for the sake of bestowal. Through this examination, he acquires a clearer understanding of his state and of the direction in which he must move forward.
[357404]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/26, Rabash, “These Are the Generations of Noah”

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Question: Is Aviut the maximum degree of pleasure that I can receive?

Answer: Aviut is the degree of sensation of pleasure within the desire to receive. If I am sitting next to food but do not want it, then my Aviut is zero. But if I suddenly desire it, then I have a certain measure of Aviut according to how hungry I am.

How can this be measured? You can either measure it by the amount of food you are capable of consuming or, if possible, by the magnitude of the pleasure you receive. But all of this pertains to desires. We are not speaking about the physical size of the stomach.

Question: Why does Aviut change? Why can it decrease?

Answer: Aviut, meaning the measure of the sensation of pleasure, can change constantly, and indeed it changes all the time according to the types of connection with the host that I am able to reveal through this Aviut. Everything is arranged in order to bring me to a connection with the host.

Therefore, I should not pay attention to what is being revealed to me at any given moment: whether I want to eat more or less or whether I wish to enjoy this or that in one way or another. I should not concern myself with these things; they are not my problem.

They are revealed to me according to a higher calculation, while my task is to continuously orient myself in the correct direction. But why am I now given a descent, then a brief ascent, or some other state through one desire or another? That I, of course, cannot know. As long as I remain on a given degree, I can never know its causes, because those causes can only be revealed from a higher degree.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/26, Rabash, “Why Is the Torah Called ‘Middle Line’ in the Work? – 1”

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