Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 22 “What Is ‘A Lily Among the Thorns,’ in the Work?” (1991) (5.23.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 10 (4.14.2016)

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Selected Highlights

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All the errors of our world across all its systems and religions lie in the fact that people bring the spiritual into the material, they drag spirituality down, and believe there is some part of holiness in certain forms, objects, artifacts, and bodies. They kiss a hand, kiss a tree, some picture, some doll. Therein lies all the confusion that has taken hold of humanity.

And no matter how much Judaism has fought against this (of course, not outwardly but within itself), it has not been very successful with the people either. People resort to amulets, red strings, “living water,” they change names and engage in all sorts of “miraculous” things.

They think that in this way they draw a benevolent radiance and abundance from above to themselves. By what means? By means of the fact that from today we will call you, say, not Misha but Grisha? So, what of it? “But just like that, it brings luck.” People use human psychology and forces of nature and think that it is spiritual.

Of course, within the realm of this world we can do a lot through the power of a person, even by the power of thought, the power of desire. Naturally, in our world there are still many laws. We do not understand why this or that happens and think that it comes from the spiritual. This is another problem. It is hard to reveal and distinguish.

Even those who engage in the Torah think that their study is something spiritual. What is spiritual in this? Since the destruction of the Temple, spirituality has remained above, detached from us. “No, we study, and this is called spiritual.” But life proves that there is nothing in this. Look at what is happening with the whole nation. Thus, the confusion is very deep.
[354185]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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Question: How can a person (who is “something from nothing”) attain the Creator’s plan if he did not exist at that stage?

Answer: It is said: “From Your actions we shall know You.”

What does the second stage of the development of the desire say? “I want to be like You,” that is, like Keter. When it reveals the action of Keter from within Hochma, it says: “I do not want to be like Hochma, I do not want to enjoy its light, but I want to be like the root, like Keter, who gives pleasure to Hochma.”

And then Bina wishes to attain the same action as Keter and carries out this action in Zeir Anpin, and by bestowing like Keter, comes to an understanding of what pleasures exist in Keter and wants to enjoy precisely them. Therefore, Malchut desires to enjoy the degree of the Creator, the degree of Keter, that He is the giver.

Let us put it this way: a child enjoys what the mother gives him. Now he thinks: “I want to give my pleasure to my mother so that she will feel good.” And he does something for his mother. Through this he comes to understand how much the mother enjoys giving to him.

The mother’s pleasure in giving the child some candy is not his pleasure from the candy and not the pleasure that he then passes on to the mother. He understands that in the mother this pleasure is measured as a million candies. And then he wants to enjoy exactly such pleasure.

This means that in Malchut, in the fourth stage, an additional desire arises that did not exist before. The created being has attained this desire. Therefore, the fourth stage is called “Malchut” (kingdom); it is a stage that does not proceed directly from the Creator and is the root of created beings. It is still connected to the Creator, still filled with light, not separated from it, but the desire that is in it did not come directly.

The child has realized: “Mother enjoys a million times more from that candy she gives me because she loves me, she wants to bestow, she has a colossal measure of bestowal. Then I want to enjoy as Mother does.”

Therefore, for this additional desire, which does not come directly from the root stage, the creation cannot place a screen. It cannot now say: “But I want to bestow, I want to be like Him.” It cannot, it is unable.

It now wants to enjoy bestowal just as the Creator enjoys it, but wants to experience this pleasure in its desire to receive. And therefore, the created being is only capable of making a restriction.

Here a serious question arises: from where can it take the strength for the restriction? In other words, here the gap between it and the Creator, called “shame,” is revealed, and then the created being makes the restriction.
[354327]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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The Torah of the masses means that people engage in actions without demanding a result. The action itself constitutes the result: “Thank God, I am doing what has been placed upon us. And the reward, that belongs to the future world.”

Or one may not even demand a reward at all. One who demands no reward, neither here nor there, is called a complete righteous person. Thus, the actions themselves are considered to be all that is required.

Those of the second type perceive themselves to be growing ever worse. Their actions bring them nothing. A person exerts effort, studies, wants to attain something, and as a result feels himself in unfulfilled desires. Where is the perfection in this? And that which he wishes to attain does not reveal itself in his attainment. This is the Torah of the individual. As it is said: “The view of the Torah is opposite to the view of the masses.”

And yet, when it comes to the examination, it is made according to the result. Therefore, one must understand that all errors (Shgagot) and all transgressions (Zdonot) that a person goes through at the beginning of his path later become the true vessel (Kli), called commandments, merits.

When an error or a transgression is revealed in a person, it signifies that one’s Aviut (intensity of desire) is growing “thicker,” and it is revealed in the form of failures. A person wants to perform some act of bestowal that seems spiritual to him and discovers that he cannot, is unable, does not want to, that he is completely opposed to it.

When such qualities are revealed to him, and he truly sees how opposite he is to it, that he ibears the blame for everything, that he is the worst, and that because of him all have suffered and continue to suffer, then he truly comes to the recognition of errors and transgressions. Time after time, he stumbles, reveals his failures, and then, as he gathers himself, they turn into merits.

It is not upon a person to correct his nature. And if he points an accusing finger at the Creator, that is also incorrect. A person must understand that all errors and transgressions are signs revealing a fracture upon which he must build a correct prayer, a correct request, a correct demand.

Proceeding from this, he no longer wishes for these qualities to disappear. Now they appear opposite to the qualities of the Creator, but they must be transformed into similarity with the Creator. If a person rises above these qualities and sees them as useful, as perfect from the side of the Creator, then undoubtedly, his prayer will be correct, and he will come to the right need: to correct all his flaws into an intention for the sake of bestowal to the Creator.

At the same time, he does not regret that he harms himself and others, that he is inherently flawed. There is no evil; every revelation of evil is only in order to see one’s opposition to the Creator.

Thus, all our work from this point onward must be arranged according to how we build our appeal, the message I send to the Creator. One must formulate it correctly and express that I am ready to receive correction from Him.

If I build my appeal correctly, it means that I know myself, know what in me must be transformed, and am truly ready for it from the Creator’s perspective. Then He performs it.
[354164]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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During the preparation period, when we have not yet attained the revelation of our actions, how can we check the result? By the signs that our teachers give us. They say that if a person is in a group that constantly pressures him, guards him so that he does not run away, and he constantly feels that he needs additional forces in order to remain in the group in the desire and in the intention, this means that he is advancing. This is the first, external check.

The second, internal check is a person’s examination of himself; how quickly his inner states change, at what pace these changes occur. He must go through them during the day.

I remember how once I went with my teacher, Rabash, to Tel Aviv. We set out in the morning as usual, and that day, so many events happened to us! We had many different things to do, and on top of everything, I parked the car incorrectly, the police towed it to the impound lot, and we had to take a taxi to retrieve it.

We returned home in the evening, just before the lesson began. Five minutes after the lesson started, Rabash asked me: “Do you remember what happened to us today?” And my mind was completely empty, as if nothing had happened.

At that time, I had just begun to study Kabbalah, and for me. it was a real wonder; how could this be, so much had happened during the day, and I remember nothing, neither what happened, nor when, nor in what sequence! Erased, gone! It passed, and you constantly live in the present. I remember, the first sensation is always like that, it leaves a Reshimo.

The more a person feels the changes that have occurred with him during the day, the better. A million changes can take place, but you do not feel them, they fall and pass, fall and pass. They must pass through you, so let them pass! According to this, the pace is measured.

This happens because you are striving toward one goal. Then all the disturbances that come, you take into account for a moment, they replace one another, and you pass through them quickly.
[354169]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 17 “What Is the Assistance that He who Comes to Purify Receives in the Work? (1990) (4.18.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: How can you always strive forward and not well on the past?

Answer: You should never dwell on the past! If you do that, you are simply consuming yourself. The past does not belong to you, and neither does the future.

Things that are not manifested in your body right now, you do not work with; they simply do not exist. The past is gone and you know nothing about the future. You cannot depict any images from the future in advance to await their actual happening. So why deal with it?
[354173]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, “The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,” in the Work?”

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Question: Rabash writes that when friends gather, they should talk about the benefits of gathering. What does he mean by that?

Answer: The benefits are an abstract concept. It can exist only in relation to my desire. Accordingly, I envision a future fulfillment, which I can earn, with less effort than the pleasure I will receive. Then it is called a benefit—you invest 99, you get 100.

But my desire must be greater than the invested effort, otherwise the desire to receive will not allow me to exert. Therefore, every time we calculate what kind of pleasure we will receive, what the disadvantages are, and how much effort we need to expend.

The benefits we want to get from the process we are going through, I cannot relate to someone else. If a person is still in pursuit of benefits from animal pleasures (food, rest, family, sex) or the pleasures of money, honors, knowledge, then I cannot give him other pleasures instead because abstract ones are not clothed in what he understands. He does not feel them. There has to be a different Kli for this.

The Kelim we initially have are Kelim in which we feel pleasure clothed in something of this world: power, knowledge, education. The closer the pleasure, the more palpable and greater in magnitude it is.

These are animal pleasures; the greatest of these are the pleasures felt through touch and sight. They are followed by more abstract ones, pleasures brought by money, honors, which are things that require a certain level of development.

But it still comes clothed in something: I am honored, respected, more knowledgeable than others, which is a kind of power (knowledge is, in the end, power, albeit a little more abstract).

But if the pleasures are even more abstract, they are not perceived by the Kelim of receiving. They relate to Bina, which is inside Malchut. Even the Klipot are the pleasures Bina feels inside Malchut, and not Malchut itself.

You cannot explain it to people who do not have it. This requires preliminary development. So when they asked me on American radio: “What is special about Kabbalah? Why did it suddenly become open? What do you want?”

I replied that we are in a state where we do not see what will happen tomorrow. The life we live is no good, people are using drugs more and more, there is no family, children have no connection with parents, we do not even know what will happen to us in a second, we are increasingly immersed in such life problems that it becomes necessary to know about reality, how to control fate, how to see which of my actions will lead to enjoyment, confidence, and a good life.

You cannot talk to people in more abstract terms because they will not understand them. They ask, “How do I do this?” Come and learn. If we want to do something in this life in a logical way, we must study it, in any profession, even a shoemaker. Even there, you will find many professional secrets you must master before you start working, and even more so with us.
[354341]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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Question: Suppose that right now I am about to draw the surrounding light. What is this thought that I must have:? It is “to become similar to Him”? Do I rely soley on thought?

Answer: How can one know what they must correspond to? On the lower degree you will never know what the upper one is; this is impossible. If you knew, then that knowledge would hold you on the higher degree. Such is the nature of the spiritual realm, wherever you are capable of existing, is where you are.

The spiritual world does not operate like our world where I might conceptually “be” in some place even though I have not physically arrived there yet, where I simply buy a ticket and go. In the upper world there is no such thing! Even as you ascend spiritual degrees, you will never be able to know with certainty what the next higher degree is, because you must rise to it “in faith above reason.”

To be similar to the upper one means becoming more spiritual, more bestowing, more perfect, thinking less about yourself and striving to correspond more fully to the upper one. In accordance with this, picture any images and forms.

If this is not enough, ask that you be given an understanding of the upper one for the sake of becoming similar to Him. This is called “the light that returns to the source” when you ask for the revelation of the Creator, not in order to enjoy it, but in order to correct yourself by means of it.

It is permitted to ask this, that is, to demand correction instead of pleasures, so that the corrections themselves will be our fulfillment, will lead to connection, to adhesion. “The reward for a commandment is to know the one who commanded.”
[354425]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/26, Rabash, “We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work”

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Question: How can one convince the friends to advance?

Answer: I simply convey my joy and energy to them in an artificial way. I come and see that everyone is sitting there dejected, myself included, but, let’s say, I turn on the radio, and it starts playing; after all, it doesn’t care, it is at the inanimate level.

Even though the friends are at the animate level, this inanimate level can set them in motion. We see that this is indeed how it works.
[354369]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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