Question: When a person checks his desires, do they refrain from using them?

Answer: A person who uses their desires discerns which of them they can use and which they cannot. This distinction is referred to as commandments or instructions on how to carry out a correction within each specific desire.

There are desires you can perform corrections in; these are the performative commandments, positive commandments. There are desires that pertain to the fourth phase; these are the prohibitive commandments, negative commandments. Regarding the latter, only one action is possible: not to use them.

There are 248 performative commandments and 365 prohibitive commandments. The 248 primary desires of the soul are desires with which it is possible to work for the sake of bestowal in various forms. And the 365 desires that belong to AHP, to the structure of the soul from the Tabur and below, can only be restricted. These commandments are called prohibitive.

“Prohibited” means “do not use.” These desires must only undergo restriction. That is, you decide that they cannot be applied since the manner of their use cannot connect you with the Creator, because there is not even a spark of bestowal in them. They cannot grasp the qualities of Bina. From the sparks that are in them you understand that there cannot be anything in them more than your decision not to use them.

By carrying out this investigation you determine the difference between the second and the fourth phases and see that the fourth phase is opposite to Bina. Then you decide that you will not use these desires. And for more than that you are not capable. The true Bina cannot unite with the true Malchut.

We must understand that two such qualities cannot unite, they are so opposite. This can never happen. Between them there can be a connection which gives you the possibility to decide how opposite they are and how to separate from them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/26, Rabash, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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A covenant (“Brit”) is a correction that consists in distinguishing the vessels of bestowal from the vessels of reception and utilizing vessels of bestowal, to the greatest extent possible, according to the level and state. It is a form of work in all states, on all degrees, not a one‑time correction granted once and for all.

Each time I extract the vessels of bestowal from this mixture of vessels and each time I join to them the vessels of AHP deAliyah, all these corrections, in principle, are what are called the covenant.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/26, Rabash, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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Before we enter the spiritual world and before it becomes clear to us exactly which desires we are able to work with at the present moment and what the direction of work with each of them is, we can only follow what the Kabbalists say; at this stage there is no other work than this general work. I cannot engage in any actions that I might imagine (erroneously) that I am already in the spiritual world.

I am obligated to follow the method precisely: through the group and through the study, I must draw the surrounding light in a sufficient and effective measure to begin perceiving the true reality, the reality where I actually exist. This is not merely within the material world because the spiritual world also surrounds me; I live in two worlds simultaneously.

The in accordance with what is revealed to me, I will begin to practically clarify my attitude to the spiritual and the material, to both worlds. This constitutes the work of clarification.

But before a person attains such inner vision, one, undoubtedly, has no possibility of knowing what they are doing and where they are.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/26, Rabash, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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Question: How can one logically explain what it is about bestowal that causes one to value it more than reception?

Answer: How does it come about that the will to receive suddenly begins to value what is opposite to it? The will to receive wants to enjoy. If it understands from the influence of the upper light that one can enjoy from bestowal more than from reception, it begins to perceive this.

There is no trickery here, no supernatural act. It only appears to be supernatural to us.

In fact, this is not the case, because the will to receive at this stage preparing to operate in what is termed “Lo Lishma” (for one’s own sake): I want the spiritual because it contains pleasure.

Yet, by doing so, it draws the surrounding light. This surrounding light gradually exerts its influence upon the desire to receive through its very nature, a nature that comes from the giver. Consequently, a person begins to value the giver as a higher, more exalted degree.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/26, Rabash, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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Question: What should I do if a terrorist wants to kill me?

Answer: It is said in the Torah that if someone comes to kill you, you must kill him first. The Torah speaks a lot about how people came out of Egypt and how many enemies they killed. How many did King David, who was constantly at war, kill? Warfare back then was not what it is today.

In those days tens of thousands of people were killed in face to face combat. This is not like modern warfare where a few bombs are dropped merely to pave the way for peace negotiations. Back then, how many men actually returned from the battlefield? In those times when there was a battle, it was a real battle!

Yet, even in those times, there were individuals who had attained high spiritual degrees, and a profound and accurate perception of reality. This was especially true in the times of the First Temple, and to some extent during the era of the Second Temple.

Did they not fight, did they not kill? What did the Maccabees do? They were Kabbalists of the highest caliber; they certainly perceived the spiritual dimension, the reverse side of our world.

The source of confusion lies in the fact that we do not see the spiritual world, and are merely attempting to imagine what it looks like from the reverse side.
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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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In order to come to the state of “Israel,” we pass through several levels.

At first, a person who wants to be “Israel” does not understand or think about it. It is precisely because he is completely disconnected from the Creator that he begins to feel his lack of desire.

Then, after some time, he begins to feel that although it is important, he has no strength. Then he is called Nekeva (female aspect). And if he follows the advice of the Kabbalists, he joins a group that can provide him with the strength to go above reason and fortify the awareness of the importance of the goal above that desire which he had in him.

Desires begin to accumulate in a person to truly attain adhesion with the Creator, unification, and making a covenant with Him. Then instead of Nekeva, he is called Zachar (male aspect).

On this path, it happens that he again falls from the level of Zachar to the level of Nekeva where once more he has no strength. But time passes, the group influences him, and he returns to the level of Zachar.

Sometimes this happens thanks to his own efforts and sometimes due to “What the mind does not do, time does.” And so, he advances.

That person, who advances through his own efforts, who always takes care that the importance of the goal leads him forward, is called “Israel”—Yashar‑El (straight to the Creator). He defines this direction as a way of life, as a process that he must realize over the course of his life.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/23/26, Rabash, “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World”

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In creation, there is only the Creator and the creation. When the shattering occurred, the Creator, as it were, shattered Himself, and took on the negative qualities of the creation.

It is as though He contracted Himself, placed veils of concealments over His governance, and hid that it is good and does only good; He as if corrupted Himself in order to correspond to the future creation, which is destined to grow from a state of zero until it attains His level.

The Creator diminished Himself, His light; this is what is referred to as the entry of Malchut into the first nine Sefirot. This was only a preparatory stage. Subsequently Adam HaRishon emerges; he undergoes a shattering and a descent, and at this point the process of discernment and correction begins. This process must originate from us, from below upward.

Adam HaRishon, by correcting himself, thereby builds the correct governance with respect to himself.

Question: Why was Adam HaRishon not able to clarify this immediately? Why must we discern something that already exists?

Answer: We are discerning it because we are Adam HaRishon!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/26, Rabash, “Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 39 “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns forJerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?” (1990) (2.6.2003)

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

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

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There is a science concerning how a Kli (spiritual vessel) senses the upper force acting on it. If this study involves perception at the lowest level, it is referred to as the knowledge of this world, the sciences that exist in this world.

However, everything we study within these sciences is merely the impact of the upper force on the Kli without any change whatsoever in the properties of the Kli itself.

Yet, there is a method that enables one to change the properties of the Kli and bring them into correspondence with the upper force, and consequently the Kli will begin to reveal and perceive the upper force with greater intensity. This method is called the science of Kabbalah, a discipline in which the Kli, by transforming itself, studies what it feels and explores its sensations.

The difference between the science of Kabbalah and the sciences of this world is that the sciences of this world, while indeed studying the sensations resulting from the influence of the upper force on us, do not change the properties of the Kli to align with the upper force; that is, they do not engage in what we term “attainment of equivalence of qualities.”

If, however, the Kli begins to change its qualities, assimilating them to those of the upper force, then the entirety of this process, encompassing both the internal transformation itself and what the Kli perceives and receives from the upper force, is collectively what is known as the science of Kabbalah. This constitutes its fundamental difference from other sciences.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/27/26, Rabash, “Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All”

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Question: What is bestowal?

Answer: Bestowal is a likeness to the upper force. The upper one gives to me and I to Him. I always learn from what He does for me, and from this I find out what I must do for Him. I do not know what this should be. I am in complete emptiness. I understand nothing, and I feel nothing.

I need to receive an example because in fact I do not know what is bitter and what is sweet, what is truth and what is false. Now everything is completely new for me. Nothing remains in me from what was before. I have risen above this world; that is, all my animal sense organs no longer operate at such a height.

I have gone out somewhere into a void, an empty space, where I possess absolutely nothing. I must acquire entirely new internal definitions and discernible qualities. It is like an uncalibrated instrument. Now it is necessary to input all the parameters to establish the foundation of its operation. I derive this data from the upper force. The upper one teaches me what is right and left, up and down, bitter and  sweet,  high and low, etc.

I begin to adopt His qualities, His understanding, His intellect; I acquire everything from Him, and in accordance with this, I exercise dominion and govern the desire that resides within me. The desire itself is merely raw, unrefined material.

Those qualities that remain unchanged in a person relate to the animate level, to my physical body, within which I must continue to function in a manner consistent with its nature. My human qualities, as it were, seem to completely disappear. Now I begin to relate to everything from the animal level upward as a true Human (Adam).

On the material level I remain simply an animal like everyone else. Just like everyone, I must receive medical treatment, go to the doctor, and fulfill a host of other requirements to sustain my body. But above the animate level, where I already begin to be as Adam (human), my calculations naturally shift in accordance with the degree of my similarity to the upper force.

These calculations may seem strange to those around me. Therefore Kabbalists know how to conceal them, or they separate themselves and hide from society.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/26/26, Rabash, “Peace after a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All”

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