It is written: “Work for the Creator in joy.” If there is no joy, it is a sign that we are not in spirituality. Bestowal is impossible without joy.

It is written in the The Book of Zohar that the Shechina dwells only in a perfect place: not in a place of lack, not in a place of defect, not in a place of sadness, but in the proper place, in a place of joy. In a corrected place there is an illumination from the presence of the Creator, and this brings joy to a person.

By this criterion, one can always determine whether a person is in spirituality or not. When a person first begins to study, for a long time one does not yet sense the corrections taking place within them, or they may perceive them in an inverted form; therefore, they may experience despondency or irritation and find themselves at odds with the changes happening within them.

Here joy is a very clear indicator. If a person does not feel joy, it means that his desires do not correspond to the Creator but oppose Him. As the desire is corrected, joy is revealed within a person. And the stronger and deeper the joy, the more the upper light is revealed, the presence of the Creator, the Shechina.

If the upper force is preparing to reveal itself within a person, then first joy is revealed and only afterward the Creator. Joy is an illumination from above, a special force of the light that appears in response to prayer, to a request to the Creator from below. When we turn to the Creator with questions and requests and want to connect with Him, in response we receive light from above that corrects our desires and fills them.

This light first brings joy, and only afterward all the other revelations. Therefore, the Shechina (the presence of the Creator) is revealed only in joy, which appears first.

If I want to attain bestowal, I must always be in joy. And if it is absent, I must examine myself to see where uncorrected egoism remains within me that prevents me from revealing the Creator. We do not know whether we are approaching the revelation of the Creator, and therefore Kabbalists give us a criterion for checking: Am I approaching joy, or, on the contrary, moving away from it with each day?

By these movements toward greater or lesser joy, one can judge how much one is approaching the revelation of the upper force or distancing from it because joy is the result of “good deeds,” that is, corrections.

In any state one must hold on to joy, because “there is none else besides the Creator”; everything comes from Him. No one can do something bad to us without the Creator’s knowledge or consent. That never happens; everything comes from above. Behind every person stands the Creator exerting His influence on us through this theater of “reality.”

If I do not have an egoistic intention to receive, I will always be in joy. It does not matter to me what the Creator gives me; the main thing is that He constantly takes care of me. I do not weigh what is more pleasant or beneficial for me in my egoism; therefore, I accept everything with joy.

By this criterion, we can evaluate ourselves: Are advancing as a group toward correction and the revelation of the Creator? Are we setting an example to the friends that we must always be in joy in order to bring the revelation of the upper force ever closer?

Joy is a consequence of my act of bestowal, of bestowing to the friends, to the Creator, and to humanity. Joy is the result of bestowal because by bestowing I become similar to the Creator. Therefore, through this action I receive an illumination that is called “joy.”

Spiritual joy comes from the fact that through my actions I help the Creator fill all of creation. Joy is the result of the fact that, with the help of the Creator, I fill all of creation and thereby bring Him pleasure.
[246546]
From the International Kabbalah Convention 5/18/19, Mexico, Lesson 5

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 17 “Concerning the Importance of Friends – 1,” (1984) (12.27.2002)

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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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Comment: While working within a group, a person feels a certain satisfaction from having submitted himself to the group and doing what the friends want from him.

My Response: It is true. If a person has performed a specific task and succeeded, then he feels satisfaction, pride, and vanity. But this is not important. Let him do everything for the sake of that, and then, as it is written, from “Lo Lishma” he will come to “Lishma.” Then he will see whether it is worth doing it for the sake of praise and whether he needs this praise at all.

The main thing is to make an effort as much as possible. But if you begin to consider that after all, you are doing it out of your desire to receive, and not yet for the sake of bestowal, you will never do anything at all. These are indeed the correct questions that Pharaoh asks: “Who are you, what are you, and why are you striving so intensely?” But if you do not strive in this way, you will never break free from your current state.

Imagine a child. If he does not learn anything smart or useful, he will remain stuck in his childish games and will not grow up. One should not be overly clever; one simply needs to act.

This is also a problem. There are many seemingly contradictory pieces of advice. On one hand, it is said that one should not be too clever, and on the other hand, that one must act and think. And a person rushes about and does not know what to answer his own doubts because his mind is cluttered with a host of counsels, resolutions, and sayings from the sages.

But after all that, if you cast aside all these intellectual subtleties, you are left with only one choice: to invest your efforts in the group.
[354539]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/26, Rabash, “What Is the ‘Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man’ in the Work?”

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Question: You said that breaking free from the power of the Klipot is a significant challenge; a person can remain in such a state for a long time. What could be done to disconnect from it?

Answer: Klipot are any thought and any disturbances that disconnect me from the Creator. What can I do about it? There is only one thing: remember that the Creator sends this to me. Without Him, I have no ability to fight them. I must arrange matters so that the Creator, who resides within me, fights with the Klipot that are in me. Regarding this, it is written: “Come unto Pharaoh!”

Pharaoh is the entire concentration of the Klipot. The Egyptians were so wise, even in the material world, that they made the body eternal by embalming it. They got to the point where they made living material inanimate, and in this form, as if eternal. To such an extent is this a Klipa.

In the Torah, it is not said that Moses has to fight on his own. He should only be present, be impressed by the actions of the Creator, and by this awaken all his desires, called the people of Israel, to follow Him. And that is all. “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, for with a mighty hand he will send them.’”

By yourself, you are not capable of fighting the Klipot. What forces will you use to do this? A Klipa is the reverse side, the Achoraim, of the Creator. He enlivens it and brings it to you to be revealed precisely with the help of the Kipa.
[354483]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/26, Rabash, “We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work”

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Question: Why is the addition of egoism not felt as a great desire in the preparation stage?

Answer: A greater will to receive that comes to you lowers you from your degree. But you do not feel it as greater egoism, you feel it as additional pleasure.

The new will to receive that arrives gives you this opportunity; it obliges you to act. You don’t feel that the desire itself has grown; rather, you feel that your pleasure could be more intense if you were to indulge in it since you are thinking only about the pleasure itself and not about the One who gives it.

What spoils your connection with the Creator? The new desire! It does not erase the pleasure; it erases your connection with the Creator. If it had erased the pleasure, you would suddenly feel emptiness and immediately awaken. Instead, you feel that you are immersed in pleasures; it only that the Creator has vanished from your perception of reality.

Furthermore, the sensation of pleasure bribes you. Gradually, a person becomes accustomed to this state of affairs: he enjoys for himself, naturally not for the sake of the Creator, since he is still in “Lo Lishma,” yet at the same time he does not want to lose the connection with the Creator under any circumstances and constantly seeks it.

He wants to feel that he is in the Creator’s world, in some kind of sphere filled by the Creator, and he continuously tries to hold onto this state. These are the efforts. He tries to carry them out by all possible means, and as a result, the sum of his efforts fills his “cup,” and he crosses the Machsom.

As for the descents along the way, nothing can be done about them. How many will there be? No one knows. It is impossible to say how much time will pass between ascents and descents, because this depends on the person; in this lies his effort and his choice.
[354551]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/23/26, Rabash, “The Measure of Practicing Mitzvot [Commandments]”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 3 “All of Israel Have a Part in the Next World. (1987) (10.28.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 5, Item 43

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3rd part of the Lesson — Principles of Spiritual Work in the Ten

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 5 “Go Forth From Your Land” (1985)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 5, Item 33

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3rd part of the Lesson — Preparation for the Convention

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The people of Israel are not formed simply by ordinary individuals connecting with one another. They become a people because together they attach themselves to Moses.

Moses is called the “faithful shepherd,” that is, the emissary of the Creator within the people. And the concept “people of Israel” means that they are connected with Moses.

Moses is the quality of Israel (“Yashar El” – straight to the Creator), the one who points the way. The others, like a flock, simply follow him, and he leads them out of Egypt.

But if each one of the three million Jews who were in Egypt at the time had connected individually with Moses, would that not have sufficed? Why did they have to unite among themselves in order to be able to connect to Moses and, through him, to the Creator? Why was their unification a necessary condition?

The necessity to joining oneself to Moses means the annulment of egoism, of self‑love. And the result of this is love of the neighbor. Therefore, first the people unite among themselves, that is, they nullify their egoism, their love of self, and only then are they able to receive the message of love for the Creator from Moses, and through Moses, to connect with the Creator.

Not every person must attain the level of Moses, but everyone must accept the work “to love one’s neighbor” on the level appropriate to the ordinary people of Israel.
[355247]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/26, Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Question: If the people of Israel already came out of Egypt once, then why must we repeat this again now?

Answer: In the historical process of its development, the people of Israel carried out the exodus from Egypt about 4,000 years ago; therefore, we do not need to go through this again on the material level now.

We do not need to journey to Ur of the Chaldeans and then relocate to Israel, descend from Israel into Egypt, return from there to the Land of Israel again, build the First and Second Temples, and go through this entire process once more.

The material bodies in past incarnations did what they were required to fulfill at the level of the spiritual roots; they realized it within matter. However, nothing was accomplished in spirituality since the soul had not yet attained that level.

At the time when all these events took place on the material level, the people, in the spiritual sense, were at their usual degree, at the level of the masses. Both the exodus from Egypt and the entry into the Land of Israel occurred solely on the material level.

All that they possessed on the spiritual level at that time was merely a glimmer of the level of Nefesh, that is, a sensation that they were close to spirituality, to the Creator, and a sense of the importance of their actions, like a person who is under the influence of the spiritual.

But since a specific spiritual root exists, it must necessarily extend into the material world and be realized here. This is precisely why we went through this entire path on the earthly level once with the exception of the final correction.

We have already been in Egypt, exited it, conquered the Land of Israel, built the First Temple at the level of Mochin deHaya, only to see it destroyed, then built the Second Temple at the level of Mochin deNeshama,” and it too was destroyed. We went into exiles. We passed through several exiles and have now returned from the last one.

And now we must build the Third Temple, one in which Mochin deHaya and Mochin deNeshama will be present together as Mochin deYechida, so that the Third Temple encompasses the essence of both it predecessors combined.

This signifies that in the material world we have already traversed the entire path up to the very end of correction. But in spirituality we have not yet accomplished anything. We have only just arrived at our current state, the preparation period. Now we must carry out the exodus from Egypt, enter spirituality, and then go through this entire path in spirituality.

Our present era is the time when, in the near future, all souls are destined to complete their preparatory stage and enter the upper world; they will begin to ascend the spiritual ladder and, pass all 125 degrees, and reach the end of correction.

In the material we have practically nothing left to realize except what must still be done before the building of the Third Temple. The outcome, whether we encounter further suffering or goodness will be revealed to us so that we may come to our final correction, depends on our inner work, on our deeds.
[355253]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/26, Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Question: What does it mean to build a better environment each time?

Answer: Building a better environment means that I devote myself to it with the intention that it will become stronger and support me when I need it. I invest myself in it to the extent that I have something to invest. And by helping others, I essentially express love for the friends.

The group can present you with a new, stronger desire for the Creator each time, and if you nullify yourself before it, you can receive from it.

You change the group by constantly investing in it, making it stronger; and you nullify yourself before it to an ever-greater extent, and it becomes increasingly bestowing toward you. This is called “each time, a different environment.”

Sometimes I hear people say they want to move from one group to another. There is no need for this, why do it? On the contrary, if you feel uncomfortable in your group, it means there is a place there where you should invest your efforts. In fact, it does not matter which group you are in. If a person is ready to bestow and to humble himself before it, the group can even consist of beginners.

When a new person arrives, they are burning with desire, wanting constantly to sit right next to me, even fighting for it. But after some time passes, they move farther away and “call” me from a distance, as if with a remote control. I was better off with them when they were just beginners, their desire ignited me. And now where is it? It seems to them that they already know everything, understand everything. And so, it is with each of you.
[354495]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/22/26, Rabash, “What Is the ‘Bread of an Evil-Eyed Man’ in the Work?”

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