In the wisdom of Kabbalah, we speak about two types of nature: the nature of the Creator and the nature of the created being. We cannot change our nature, but through the intention to bestow, we can make it similar to the Creator’s nature.

In the Creator, there is no separation between action and intention. There is only action with the intention for the sake of bestowal. Yet, if there were nothing opposite to it, it would be impossible even to say that it is for the sake of bestowal. It is simply an action directed toward the created being without any intention of receiving something in return.

We cannot truly imagine such a state. However, if the created being uses its desire to receive in order to become similar to the Creator—to resemble Him in action, or more precisely, in the final result of the action—then within the created being there will be both action and intention.

Initially, no intention was created in the created being. It possesses only the action of receiving, of enjoying, which is called an animate action. The still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature perform this action without any awareness of intention.

The speaking level (the human being) begins to feel the foreignness of this action. Therefore, envy, lust, and honor develop within him, along with all the other forms of development of the desire to receive.

Most importantly, he develops a sensation of the giver. To the extent that a person feels the giver, intention develops within him. If we did not feel the giver, our intention would simply be to enjoy ourselves, like everyone else in this world. There would only be the desire to enjoy, nothing more.

We call this receiving for the sake of receiving. But in truth, it is not even a genuine intention to receive. Rather, it belongs to the realm of the Klipot, forces that know what bestowal is, yet still desire only to receive.

An intention to bestow or an intention to receive can exist only when there is a sensation of the giver, a sensation of the host. Then it becomes clear to a person what he truly wants: to receive or to bestow. Only then does he have the possibility of using his desire to receive in one way or the other.
[357542]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/6/26, Rabash, “Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work? – 1”

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Question: What is the difference between faith and attainment?

Answer: The difference between faith and attainment is that faith is the light of Hassadim (Mercy) and attainment is the light of Hochma (Wisdom). We do not attain through faith.

We can only attain the Creator, the light. Don’t lose sight of these two things: light and Kli. You might not advance far this way, but you will certainly form a correct conception and avoid confusion.

What are you attaining? To the extent that you are like Him, you see your corrected qualities and call this the Creator. You will never feel more than your corrected properties; according to this, you will form an image of the Creator. As it is said, “Yud-hey-vav-hey” (HaVaYaH), filled with light, is called “The name of the Creator.”

Who is the Creator? This is my soul, Yud-hey-vav-hey, filled with the upper light due to its corrections. The lights, along with the corrected Kelim, which give me the whole set of sensations I call the Creator, are me.

In other words, your soul is the Creator, because in the corrected state, you merge: “He and His Name are One,” “Israel, the Torah, the Creator are One.”
[357729]
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 18 “Concerning the Slanderers” (1985)

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

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Question: What does it mean to choose the best environment when a person is already in spiritual attainment?

Answer: The environment is not the people around you but rather an abstract expression of your friends’ attitude toward the Creator. The environment does not sit at a table like you do; it is not in any particular place.

It is the sum of your intentions, aspirations, inclinations, expectations, all your efforts toward the goal. It is in your interest for these to be as broad and strong as possible, so that you have the strongest possible connection with these intentions.

It is a spiritual force both now and when you are already beyond the Machsom. It is just that now it is relatively hidden from you. You imagine it in some form, and every time you have different doubts and new definitions arise; sometimes you know what a group is and how you are connected to it and at other times you do not. After the Machsom, it takes on a more distinct, conscious, and clear form. Yet the work remains the same.

Therefore, even now, we must imagine as accurately as possible the sense of the environment. It is not one, two, three, twenty, fifty, or a hundred friends I study with, whose names are so-and-so, who look like this or that.

The environment is what stands behind all these people, a kind of spiritual force: an aspiration, a desire for the Creator, and persistence with which friends hold on with their teeth so as not to waste a single moment in their movement toward the goal. If they also want to unite these forces to benefit everyone; this is called a group.

It is about the spirit: that each person supports the other, and that we all drink directly from this common source of the spirit. Otherwise, there may be a billion of us, like the Chinese, but… The main thing is the spirit within the group. This is what we must care about, and evaluate everyone according to their contribution specifically to this.
[357023]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59, 1962

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Question: How does the environment provide a person with an aspiration toward the goal, toward the quality of bestowal?

Answer: The environment provides a person with such deficiencies (Hisronot) without any words because that is exactly what it is engaged in. A person is connected to the environment, and if it is the right one, he is bound to receive a sense of concern from it, a feeling that he has lost the most important thing.

After all, the disappearance of the light does not yet bring him a Hisaron. He must feel that he has lost equivalence of form with the environment.

If the Creator disappears, if the light disappears, then with respect to the group a person should feel a Hisaron. The group serves as a substitute for the Creator in order to compensate for His concealment.

Choosing the best environment means that a person must constantly care that his group has the strongest, most correct, and most consistent direction toward the goal, and also that he himself maintains the greatest possible connection with the group.

Then one can be certain that even if the light departs from him—and the light must disappear in order to reveal a new Hisaron, a new Reshimo, the reverse side of a new degree—his support, the group, will immediately help him become aware of his state.
[357019]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59

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In our work, the definition of “necessity” is constantly changing because a person must discern their attitude toward the Creator in each of the soul’s desires.

Theoretically, we can say that our soul consists of 620 desires (organs); in each of them, I must determine that the most important thing for me is to fill each desire with the Creator, His presence, His sensation. Therefore, for every desire, I feel a new obstacle in different situations and circumstances.

We still do not know how to determine which property of mine or which part of my soul these problems and questions have arisen from. Everyone experiences it in their own way.

There are common obstacles for everyone and individual ones for each person. However, this is why the obstacles are constantly changing, transforming, and even returning.
[357011]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 40 “What Are Truth and Falsehood in the Work?” (1991) (4.11.2003)

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

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In the article “What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work?,” Rabash gives examples of desires that arise from states opposite to holiness intended to lead us to the highest holiness. Therefore we should not be surprised by any extreme states that arise within us.

A person rises higher and higher, and then suddenly falls into an abyss. Once again, evil seems to descend upon him from all sides. Unexpected things happen that seem completely out of place. “I am working for the Creator, so how can this be happening?” Yet it appears everywhere—at home, at work, in the country, everywhere.

We must accept all these states as the most suitable conditions for advancement. Especially now, as we begin to work with the understanding of what true effort is, even more difficult questions and doubts will arise. They come so that we may clarify what genuine intention is, how to demand the light that reforms, and what it means to be in equivalence of form with the Creator.

All these concepts are acquired gradually. A person refines and polishes them until he extracts a pearl from an enormous heap of waste, because at first he cannot distinguish one thing from another. Therefore there is no need to fear. The higher we rise, the more terrible and more lowly things are revealed within us.

Of course, it is impossible not to be afraid. Each new degree is higher than the previous one, and the “bear” appears even larger, while a person feels like an even smaller child standing before it.

But then the degree gradually passes. The person grows to the measure of that degree, begins to train the bear, and turns it into a “bear cub,” a useful and effective force. And so it happens every time.

Baal HaSulam writes in “The Giving of the Torah” that the greater a person becomes, the more he cares about things that are distant from his own body. At first he cares only about himself. Then he begins to care about things outside of himself: his children, his family, his friends, society, his city, his country, the world, and eventually all of reality.
[357558]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/26, Rabash, “What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work? ”

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Question: Is there any difference between the general concept of faith and faith above reason?

Answer: It is very difficult to explain the concept of “above reason” before the Machsom. But during the preparation period, it can be explained as follows: a person is not merely present in the group, they must make efforts, annul themself before the friends, and accept what exists in the group above reason.

This means that he wants to be under the influence of friends. In other words, he begins to convince himself that what he hears from them is correct. This is truly “brainwashing.” Rabash writes that habit becomes second nature.

I will say it differently. We are in a group in which there is something revealed and concealed. The concealed forces, unknown to us, are who we truly are; this is already a spiritual force. And the force that is revealed to us is what we see as to how imperfect we still are.

For a person who is in a group and who lowers himself before it, it does not matter what level his friends are at. By convincing himself of being “small,” he receives the influence of the hidden force present in the group. The entire group may not be at a high level of spirituality, but through it, he receives forces from its spiritual root that they themselves have not yet received.

It turns out that a group may consist of twenty people, none of whom are particularly special. But suddenly one of them decides that he wants to be 100% under its influence. Then he is influenced by the group’s inner spiritual force, and even such things, the existence of which the others do not even suspect, nor do they know where they come from.

In other words, do not think that if someone lowers himself before the group, he will receive what everyone else has, or will be corrected to the same extent as everyone else. No, it will be much more than that.

He can attain spirituality by using the force of the group, even if the entire group is still in corporeality. One thing is, in essence, not connected to the other, since what is due to them comes according to their personal work, while what is due to him is according to his personal work. Therefore, let us say that for my personal advancement it is not important what is happening with you. As the saying goes, “I learned from all my students.” Students may be small, yet through them it is possible to gain immense wisdom.
[357736]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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Israel (a person directed “straight to the Creator“), the Creator, and the Torah (the Light that reforms) must unite into one whole. This is also called the “middle column,” the “middle line.”

The work in three lines (the right, left, and middle) stems from the fact that the created being cannot do anything by its own powers. For it is created from an inanimate substance—the desire to enjoy—which by itself cannot move (change) in spirituality since it lacks the desire to bestow. Only the desire to bestow can move in the spiritual world, which is built from forms of bestowal, intentions of bestowal, something that wishes to give to another, to come out of itself.

But if the created being acts in a different form, then it is as though it does not exist in spirituality. It exists only in our imagination! The Creator has created such an imaginary picture within our perception so that we may somehow exist before attaining the qualities of bestowal.

Spiritual movement and spiritual reality, are possible only in bestowal. One can exist in spirituality only if one moves within this bestowal. It is impossible in spirituality to stand still, to stop and do nothing, as happens in this world. Spiritual space is above time; that is, it is constantly in motion through bestowal, which continuously intensifies.

And since the created being initially has no ability to bestow, and does not even know what it is, a restriction (Tzimtzum) is first made on its desire to enjoy. Then a connection is established between the created being’s desire to enjoy and the Creator’s desire to bestow through the second restriction (Tzimtzum Bet), through special actions that prepare our reality while still in the spiritual worlds.

Afterward, the shattering takes place. The boundary between the desire to receive and the desire to bestow is broken in order to connect them with one another. And from this connection there emerge worlds standing opposite one another: the worlds of holiness and impurity. Between them there appears a “neutral place,” from which an independent created being can grow.
[39284]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/11, “Preparation for the New Jersey Convention”

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