A person goes through various stages in their spiritual development. Initially they are like something lifeless; they join a group that begins to influence him and develop them,  but they are not yet capable of independent actions and do not understand where they actually are.

Several years pass this way, until they realize that there is work to be done and they need to act actively, and constantly clarify which direction they are looking. From that moment, they cease to be inanimate and turns into a plant. They begin to grow on their own, through self-care, thanks to connection with others, following the teacher’s advice, and attentiveness to the path.

They try by themselves to put themselves under the influence of the environment, as they have realized that this group is not merely a gathering of people, but that it possesses a special inner force that is necessary for their development. Thus, they become a “plant,” and they begin to draw forces from the group, like from soil, in order to integrate with them even more strongly. They understand that fruit appears on a mature tree, and the tree grows only on the condition that a person integrates into the group.

And as they grow, they desire to receive the fruits, which are connection, love, mutual bestowal, and the revelation of the common force of bestowal in which the Creator is revealed. All of this is still on the vegetative level.

But then there is also the animate level, when they are already able to govern and take on part of the responsibility for the connection among all. This is no longer a “tree” rooted in one place and passive relative to the person who tends it.

The human degree within a person is the one who tends the tree. Yet the animate degree within a person is already not just a tree, but one that itself strives to grow and tries to actively participate in the entire system. A person sees the common flaws and tries to correct them. He sees not only how to correct himself and passively integrate into the system, but also how to help others, through which he becomes included in the general connections and corrections. This can be attributed to the animate degree.

And then there is the human degree, when, according to his actions, he already adheres to the Creator. It turns out that the foundation of all our development is the tending of the “tree.”

To begin with, this is enough to divide life into the material and the spiritual. To the material world one should give what is necessary—no more and no less. And to spiritual work—all the rest, without limitation.
[69196]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/12, Rabash, Letter 46

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 28, “What Is, His Guidance Is Concealed and Revealed? (1988) (5.8.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 5, Item 4

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 3, “Love of Friends – 1” (1984)

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Everything is determined solely by the degree of my connection with the other souls at the level on which I was before we fell into a state of separation from one another.

If I somehow jump over this separation, then I seemingly return myself to the spiritual state that we essentially want to reach.

If I try to do this, then whatever comes out of it, whether it succeeds well or perhaps not very successfully, if I make the effort, it turns out that this is the only action by which I can push myself toward a spiritual state.

I am a Kli (vessel), and from my side, there is only one action: to increase the Hisaron (lack), and then a greater light will enter this Hisaron. And I can increase the Hisaron only by jumping over the screens between the 600,000 parts of the soul despite the screen separating us that arose as a result of the breaking of the Kli when the state that connected the desires, the parts of Adam HaRishon, broke and the connecting screen turned into a separating screen.

This is the only action that I can perform, because I am a small Kli that becomes a large Kli due to this.

Aside from this, I have no other possibility to fix anything in my development, on my path.
[351875]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/26, Rabash, Article No. 17, 1986 “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2”

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I must create a Kli so that the Creator can fill it. If I receive inspiration from the Creator, that is not my merit but His. If I receive inspiration from the friends, that too is not my merit but theirs.

I take inspiration from the friends. I, the insignificant one who has nothing and is incapable of uniting with them or desiring the Creator, take this inspiration from them and act with it. I myself have acquired this inspiration.

Here, there must necessarily be two points: I am completely nullified, a zero, the lowest of the low; yet, I received inspiration from them because I exalted them in my eyes to a great height. Then the inspiration I received from them through my work in relation to them becomes like Keter for me, while I myself am like Malchut. Here I have as if a Reshimo deHitlabshut and a Reshimo deAviut. This is how I act. There is no other way.

If I simply take inspiration from the Creator, it is His inspiration. And if I simply take inspiration from a friend, it is the friend’s inspiration. How, then, does it become mine? There must be two points here: I, who am not inspired either by the Creator or by anything else, have now acquired inspiration from a friend.

There must necessarily be two points. Where is the point of my “I”? How will I reveal it if I do not act according to the rule love your neighbor as yourself?

You show the friends greatness so that they will show you this greatness in return.

Question: Why is it that when I show them greatness, I see even more that I myself am incapable of it?

Answer: You can come to see that you are incapable only if you try this with the friends and, in practice, see that you are unable to do anything. With regard to the Creator, you cannot see this. It follows that you must receive both the point of Malchut and the point of Keter from the friends, from the group.
[351871]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/26, Rabash, “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2”

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Question: It is said that even a commandment without an intention is called a commandment of the Creator. Yet we study that a commandment without an intention is like a body without a soul. How can these be reconciled?

Answer: When Kabbalists write about commandments without intention, they do not mean ordinary people. Ask a child who learned at the age of 13 to put on Tefillin why he does it, and he will say: “That is how I was taught.” Another, a bit wiser, will answer: “It is the Creator’s will, and so I do it.” A third will say: “I want to gain something good for myself through this.” There are many different reasons.

The Kabbalists who wrote the books never meant the physical actions of our bodies. When they say that a person performs an action without intention, it means that I am making every possible effort, yet I still do not have the intention for the sake of bestowal. Perhaps I am trying to act for the sake of bestowal, perhaps I do not yet understand, but I am already engaged in this and investing some effort.

In our community, there are many people who do not know what the intention for the sake of bestowal is, not even what spirituality is. Yet they made an effort and came at three in the morning to study. I do not think that many of them clearly understand why they are here, analyze their intention, clarify it, and are now implementing that intention.

No, for many, this is still an initial state. But they are making inner efforts, performing various actions, as it is written: “Whatever is in your power and ability to do, do.” They make different attempts to attain something to which they are being pushed from above. This is called actions without intention.

That is, the Kabbalists do not mean people who were taught to mechanically observe commandments and therefore do so. They mean those who sit here with the desire to attain the correct intention, but in whom it has not yet been revealed.

This is a transitional period in which a person gradually begins to see various states and what to do with them.
[351735]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/26, Rabash, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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What does it mean that the correction should be in the form of awe, Kelim of bestowal? The fact is that if we get pleasure in the desire to receive, this pleasure instantly cancels the desire.

For example, when we are hungry and start eating, we experience pleasure from food. But gradually, as we become satiated, the pleasure fades, and even from more delicious things, we no longer feel the same pleasure as from the very first bite.

This is all because the pleasure, filling the desire to receive, cancels out the lack (Hisaron) to the same extent. As soon as the Kli reaches saturation, it ceases to feel that it is filled.

We feel the same way when, for example, we chase after a purchase or strive for something, dream about it for a year or two, achieve it, and, after a week or two, it becomes ordinary. The pleasure filled the Kli, and the Hisaron, the hunger, disappears.

In order for the pleasure to be not accidental, temporary, fleeting, but eternal, it must grow with the fulfillment and not decrease or disappear altogether.

On the contrary, the greater the filling, the more the enjoyment, and they will literally be able to help each other by increasing each other. How can we do it? If the intention, which is added to the desire to receive, becomes for the sake of giving, the Kli will receive a state above time, place, and space.

What does it mean? Even if my place, my Hisaron, my “stomach,” is filled, but my intention as I fill it is to give, then I will have even more appetite to give.

Above time means that the more I get filled, my Hisaron, my appetite, my hunger, will not decrease but only grow as I am able to give more.

Therefore, in addition to the desire to receive, we must add the concept of intention, since intentions make the desire to receive something eternal, something that does not cancel out before the light that fills it but, on the contrary, turns it into a semblance of light. This is the teaching of the science of Kabbalah, the science that teaches how to receive for the sake of giving.
[351672]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/26, Rabash, “Concerning Fear and Joy”

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On the spiritual path, there are guidelines that lead us to final correction. This path is divided into corrections, the first of which is called Ira—fear or awe.

In The Book of Zohar, a question is asked: where can this awe come from if the Creator is good and does good, if He is perfect and above all calculations for Himself? Why then should a person fear Him? It does not befit the Creator, who abides in absolute perfection, to act in a way that causes fear. How can this be?

The Zohar explains that there is a kind of fear called fear on the level of our world, when a person fears punishments for himself and for his family in this world. Moreover, he fears what will happen to him in the world to come, although this is already a higher concept. Nevertheless, it is still fear of punishment.

But when a person corrects his Kelim into Kelim of bestowal and acquires a screen (Masach), then he ceases to fear the Creator altogether, because he sees that He is good and does good. The Creator is revealed to him, and he begins to understand that even before he felt fear not because the Creator exists and can punish him, but because within his uncorrected Kelim he feared receiving punishment. In truth, there is no such thing as punishment from above. Separation from the Creator is itself the punishment.

And so, a person comes to another kind of fear—to awe that he may be unable to bestow. This essentially is correction itself; it is the thing that gives him the ability to build the Kelim of bestowal of his soul. In the revelation of this awe, a person receives the filling called love. Thus, love is the result of awe.

To the extent that he fears being unable to bestow, the light fills him and conveys a sensation of love to him, a feeling of similarity to the Creator, equivalence with Him in qualities, unity and adhesion with the Creator. Therefore, the concept of awe is correction. Because initially we are created with a desire to receive, and it must be for the sake of bestowal; otherwise, we will not feel delight.
[351669]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/26, Rabash, “Concerning Fear and Joy”

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Question: How can I check whether I am applying effort correctly?

Answer: How to check whether your effort is correct? There are many ways to check this. First of all is whether you want it or not. Usually, what you do not want may be the correct thing. Secondly, whether it is respected in the eyes of the friends. Check it in relation to what is written in the primary sources and to what the teacher says.

Before the Machsom, we have no clear system by which we can examine and evaluate ourselves. Essentially you are asking where that standard is against which you could check yourself and see how much, more or less, you correspond to it, or on the contrary, do not correspond.

Before you enter the spiritual world, this is not revealed to you. This is why it is called “concealment.”

But you can evaluate yourself in relation to your will to receive, in relation to the group and the teacher; at least in this way you can test yourself. It is not for nothing that it is said: “Do not trust yourself until the day of your death.” As long as your egoism has not died, you can make mistakes—terrible, foolish mistakes, and even the simplest ones. And here is what is interesting.

You keep making mistakes again and again, as if in the same situations, which seem simple. How can this be? You went through such big things, you did not get confused, you managed them somehow, and suddenly you fall into some foolishness again?

That is how it is. We do not know the degrees. It seems to us that each degree is like this. No. They can appear to you in a very simple, natural form. You suddenly become like an infant who stands and cries from having lost his mother.

All periods before the Machsom are like this. After it, everything depends on the screen, on the degree to which you are merged with the Creator.
[351788]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 1/8/26, Rabash, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 10, “What Is the Degree One Should Achieve in Order Not to Have to Reincarnate?” (1984) (4.30.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 4, “Table of Answers for Topics,” Item 117

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3rd part of the Lesson — Preparation for the Congress, “Connecting in the Ten, Adhering to the Creator,” Lesson 2″

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The Creator has no image, no form, I can love. His form is his law, the law of giving pleasure. The way this form of giving clothes itself is what I need to love, and what I need to identify myself with. This is called loving the Creator. How can I do this?

They say that you can come to love the Creator by executing various Segulot, using miraculous powers. What is a Segula? It involves exerting effort without a direct connection to the final outcome; the result is love for the quality of bestowal.

These actions will result in something that can be accomplished only by the upper force. That is, if you carry them out, they gradually grow into a great force in both quantity and quality. Then, in accordance with this law, the desire to give is born in you, and you begin to love this state. This is love for the Creator.
[351732]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/26, Rabash, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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