One who wants to walk on the path of Kedusha is called holy.

A person is named according to what he aspires to be. Why? Perhaps he will never reach it? No. If he aspires, he will certainly reach it because the Creator acts according to a person’s aspiration. The actual action is never in our hands, but the desire to attain the goal is within our power. The realization comes from above.

“Holy” means as it is written, “You will be holy,” which means that they retire from self-reception. For this reason, he is holy, since he intends to reach holiness. This is the meaning of the words, “Israel are holy; there is he who wants but does not have.” And there are also those who have but do not want. This means that he has Mitzvot and good deeds, but he does not want to walk on the path that leads to “in order to bestow.” Instead, he settles for Lo Lishma [not for Her sake]. He, too, is called “holy,” since the act is fine and he has nothing to add in actions (Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”).

Later, together with the actions, intentions will also come. What does this mean? Let’s say I use my group, but I do not yet have the correct intention in the heart. Still, I use the group, the books, the study, everything possible, so that they bring me to the correct intention. Am I called holy then? Am I called “Israel” or not?

Let’s say I have just joined a group. I simply have a desire to reach some goal. My goal is not to be freed from the will to receive and come to bestowal. Certainly not. My goal is to attain something, to receive something more, to acquire something. I am told that this brings eternity and perfection. I am willing, give it to me.

Am I called holy now, according to my thoughts and desires? No. One who is called holy is at least one who desires holiness, and I do not even desire that.

However, I begin with the desire I have, and I use the group. I am told that one must humble oneself before the friends, do something for them, “buy yourself a friend,” and I invest in them. Thus, the whole group begins to invest in me and influence me positively. And by doing something practical, without any intention, without lofty ideas, I begin to act.

What does it mean to act? I know that they have something that I do not have. In any case, I do not simply want to serve them and bring them a cup of coffee, but through that cup of coffee I want to receive something from them. There is something in them that is slightly more elevated. Then, instead of my immediate desire and intention, something higher comes to me from them. Thus, by aspiring to this holy goal, I am already called “Israel” and “holy.”

That is, according to my initial action, even when I did not yet have the thought or intention for it, I am still called “holy.” Why? Because at least through the actions I perform, I am advancing.

We cannot judge a person according to what he has in each state, because whatever he has is given to him from above according to his aspiration. If I aspired to reach the goal but instead received a descent, then I also cannot be judged for that. It was given to me from above; perhaps I needed to fall. I do not know the upper calculations regarding me.

Therefore, one is never judged according to actions, that is, according to the current state, but only according to the direction, the aspiration of a person, because every state is arranged for him from above.
[355393]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/26, Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 10 “Concerning Prayer” (1986) (2.5.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Conversations of a Kabbalist with His Students During the Day

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”

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If a person feels bad, like an ordinary person from the street, this still does not prompt them to think that there is some special solution. They do not think about where this bad state came from, for what purpose, how it can be avoided, and what one can come to.

Why doesn’t such awareness arise in them? The reason is that the surrounding light of the higher degree is, for now, illuminating the person’s opposite Kelim, Kelim that wish only to receive, to enjoy without any connection to bestowal, to the Creator, and this state does not change.

However, if these Kelim (even if a person is still completely immersed in egoism, in self-enjoyment) begin to study Kabbalistic books, then, as Baal HaSulam writes, even through a single desire to know (not to purify, but simply to know), they will draw the surrounding light upon themselves, which will attract the “charm of holiness” upon them. Then a person will gradually begin to understand that something called “bestowal” exists and perhaps it is something good.

It is the surrounding light that brings a person to the thought that it is something good. Precisely because this correction already exists within them (the thought that bestowal is something good), a person becomes closer to the surrounding light and to some extent connects with it. Their direction already coincides.

Then a person can receive the forces from the surrounding light that will develop this quality within them, the “charm of holiness,” the quality of bestowal.  In this way, by making efforts in the same direction, they ascend.

Therefore no preliminary knowledge is required from us, no special qualities. Any person can open a book and wish to rid themselves of all their troubles by the fact that, without understanding anything, they will read it. And that is all. One can begin from zero.

Gradually, as one advances, their intention is refined, and they begin to better understand where that sharp point is, the point toward which they must direct their thoughts each time more clearly and more precisely. Thus, with each time, they become more and more experienced.
[355109]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection Between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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The more we reach out to the right goal, the more we shorten the time, as it is said: “Israel sanctifies the times,” and we come to the state we must attain. All sufferings and pleasures revolve around the fact that only with their help can a person direct oneself to the goal.

We must build such an environment, such a group, around us that, with the greatness of the goal, with the awareness of the baseness of our present state in this world, will direct us so that without preliminary sufferings we will strive to this goal even before the forces of nature act upon us and begin to press, forcing us to advance toward it.

Of course, no one can know what is happening in another since each comes from a different point of the soul. Each must pass the degrees in a different form. All 620 corrections on 620 desires, which are called 620 degrees, each of us must pass in a different form.

And here, only the person’s individual work is taken into account: how sensitive one is to his present state in relation to the goal standing before them. Only one’s inner attitude, one’s awareness of the importance gives one motivation to move and work.

That is, in every state, the person himself, or the society that he defines around himself must remind him what is the most important thing in life and accordingly oblige him and give him also the strength to advance.

And then he goes through the still, vegetative, and animate levels. Rabash gives examples: one sits at home with his family, he is still on the still level of development; another already runs around meetings, working for the benefit of society, this is the vegetative level of development; and a third already thinks not only about how to arrange the world together with the people who fill it. He must already move to a degree that is above humanity, to where decisions are made, where actions are truly carried out.

And then he already works not with his family, not with society, not with humanity, but with what is above humanity: with forces and goals that are higher than nature. Naturally, none of them can understand the other.

But, as Rabash says, in whatever state a person may be, he must always reach out to those who are better, greater, more exalted, and in any state place before him the goal of attaining them.
[355491]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

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“Righteous,” “sinners,” “teachers,” and “students” are what all man’s states are called. We study that the whole world is inside man. What a person reveals in his sensations is his world. And if so, then he has a connection with the Creator. It follows that both righteous and sinners and teachers and students are his states.

In each state a person goes through, one must learn to investigate and evaluate the states so that they become closer to the goal, to tune oneself to them even if the person is in a descent, to study and find support in the state one reached during an ascent. The main thing is to single out what is essential and, as far as possible, direct oneself to it.

If a person strives for this, one passes through all the states quickly and in the most beneficial form. As Rabash writes, each of us has a point called the root of the soul and in our material reality, by means of the disturbances we receive through this world, we can increase this point 620 times. And then, instead of a point, we will merit to become a soul with a filling that is called the Creator, the light.

Then a state will come in which the soul, its Kli, together with the light, will be in adhesion, in equivalence of form, and this is the final state we must attain.

To strive for this state, to feel ourselves in ascents as close to it as possible, and when in descents nevertheless not to run away and not to fall into despair and inactivity but to constantly reach for it with the help of study and friends, this is our entire goal.
[355488]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 45 “What Is, ‘The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord Our God,’ in the Work?” (1990) (9.8.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot, Vol. 2, Part 5, Item 46

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3rd part of the Lesson — Studying with Friends

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Question: How can a person in descent make use of the group?

Answer: Let us say I am in such a deep fall that the group repulses me, I cannot bear to look at their faces, nor do I believe there is anything special about my friends, and I absolutely have no desire to adopt anything from them at all. I am in despair, I have no strength, and no hope. This state is called “dead.” Where should I turn and from whom should I seek help?

There are states you go through simply by inertia, but even in these instances, we must rely on the group. There is a commandment to bury the dead. In other words, your friends should come and help you. “A prisoner cannot free himself from imprisonment.” It is impossible. This is a group task.

First of all, the group should have a schedule, a fixed routine. We must establish rotations in tasks, roles, work, in all kinds of activities.

If, for example, a meal is held twice a week or some other event is held once a week that gives everyone a spiritual jolt, it helps to change a friend’s state where it is not feasible to approach him directly, but it is clear he has fallen.
[355430]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 4/11/26, Rabash, Article 10, 1988 “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

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Question: How should one deal with the evil inclination if a person sits idly and does nothing?

Answer: If a person sits and does nothing, then the evil inclination, by awakening Hisaronot (unfulfilled desires) within them, begins to push them toward various actions. And if they carry out these actions together with the evil inclination, they come to such a state where they feel bad, that is, to such negative results that intensify and unite to such an extent that a person cannot endure them.

At that point they do not agree with such a trajectory and they carry out a kind of inner revolution, taking action to change themselves. However, afterward, gain and again, they continue along the path alongside the evil inclination.

And so it continues until we reveal in our present day that we are approaching a critical threshold: if we continue to develop in this way together with the evil inclination, then our life will become worse than death.

Despair and drugs are flooding the world. A person sinks either into despair or into drugs; there is no escape.

From this, we begin to understand that we must, through hatred toward the state in which we find ourselves, change our attitude to life, to reality, to ourselves. Then an inner revolution takes place in our perception of our entire system of calculation, of our entire nature, of how we develop.

We discover that already since the times of the destruction of the First and Second Temples, we have been developing incorrectly, that a flaw arose then, but it is only being revealed now; that we must not follow the advice of the evil inclination but act in the opposite way. We must take the form from it but in the precisely opposite direction: not in the direction of the desire to receive but in the direction of the Creator.

The evil inclination gives you advice on how to give pleasure to the desire to receive. And you must invert everything so that through this same form, you bring pleasure to the Creator.
[355334]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing From a Bad Person”

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Being a giver is very difficult. First of all, we need to see who we are giving to and discover whether they have a desire to receive, to accept what you want to give them. Then you will really see whether you are giving and whether a person is receiving and enjoying your giving.

Furthermore, do you give because his pleasure gives you pleasure, or does your pleasure come from enjoying it yourself? In that case, you are not bestowing. The action may consist of giving, but for the purpose of self-gratification.

So there is a lot going on here. Being a giver is a status that needs to be gradually built along with all its bases and components.
[355327]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing From a Bad Person”

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Question: If I see flaws in my group, for example a lack of unity, and I want to correct this, should I raise these issues?

Answer: The rule is that it a person is forbidden to talk about anything that could bring down the entire group or any individual friend, or even the speaker himself.

One must not even awaken such thoughts internally or say things out loud that could cause the person himself or his friend, or the group, or the entire world to descend from the level they are at. No matter what state you are in, as it is said, “I will come to you and bless you.” You must strive only upward.

Therefore, if you are contemplating saying a few critical words, and before that you truly were in a good state for 23.5 hours a day and worked with inspiration, in ascent, did not descent from your level, but were constantly in tension, in striving forward, without allowing yourself to relax, then for half an hour you can engage in criticism.

You can express your comments to everyone else, since this criticism is based on the foundation laid by your elevated state, and you identify flaws only in order to rise even higher.

Then it is not criticism, but the revelation of a lack of fulfillment together with the light, together with the Kli. Being inside the right line, you turn to the left in order to return to the right. But this return to the right will already build the middle line.
[355213]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/7/26, Rabash, “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror”

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