Question: It is written that the Creator does not make [false] claims against His creations. What does this mean?

Answer: It means that He does not deceive them or intentionally cause them harm. He is not a source of evil for you. So where do bad sensations come from if not from Him? You feel that way solely due to the disparity of form between your qualities and His. It is a mark of great wisdom to realize that all heaviness is caused by the disparity of qualities.

We are prepared to overcome obstacles, dissent, and fight to the death—anything to achieve a what we desire. You see how people burn through their lives trying to achieve something. But here a person can be seized by such weakness that they cannot budge, even under the threat of death.

There are states where others can do whatever they want to me, but I am powerless to lift a finger. This is a spiritual matter. Such a state is caused by the disparity between the lights and Kelim (vessels), where the Kli is unable to make any movement whatsoever in relation to the light.

There are even worse states. A person must gather these experiences and use them to build the correct attitude toward the Creator. Only then do they establish a connection. However, one has to understand that in all these states we do not have any free choice other than to use the group.

Above the Machsom (barrier) we have free choice: lights, vessels, states, Klipa (impurity), and holiness, everything is in front of the person. When a person acquires the screen, they become free of the desire to receive, and they gain power. Let’s say that he has acquired a screen of ten kilograms, then he is free from at least ten kilograms of the desire to receive, and no longer feels the heaviness.

The sensation of heaviness arises from the fact that the desire to receive that has control over us, and at the same time we can compare it with the light. If it were not for the light, we would not sense this dominion and we would live like everybody else. However, now that we are under the power of the desire to receive, we feel it as intolerable coercion since the light has shone upon it. We have no choice; we need either the light or the desire to receive to disappear. It is impossible to exist with both.

Such a state is worse than death. When a person comes out of it with faith above reason, gets rid of his ego, and stops thinking about himself, he becomes free. Then he really has an ability to act freely, and instead of a burden, he feels lightness, and everything becomes open in front of him.

However, in our state, below the Machsom where there is no screen that gives us freedom, we have only one freedom. As Rabash writes, from all the actions that you can do in your life, you have only one free action.

You exist at the center of a sphere of your own possibilities, of all the things that you want to do; there is only one line, one direction that allows you to really determine something; it is not dictated by others, by society, by your education, or by your nature. There is one thing that depends on you: to experience the influence of the good society that advances you to the goal or not. There is no reality in everything else; it only seems to you that you decide something there.

Why does it only seem to you? This is because you act only according to your desire to receive. Its Reshimot constantly float to the surface from inside, and push you toward certain things. At one point I want something. After that I want something different. I do it, and it seems to me that I act according to my own program, and for my own goals.

When I look at people from the side, I see that every one of them is programmed, and has nothing that is called “human being” (Adam). All are like animals that run around and bustle about. And what is the result? Nothing. But one cannot observe this in himself.

That is why our teachers who show us the way tell us that it is futile. Do you want to perform the only real action in your life, an act that defines you as you rather than merely a programmed executor? Then choose a society that will help you become closer to the goal, to the Creator.

When you choose such a society, you act in a unprogrammed way. However, if you cannot do this, it means that in this life you have not done anything outside of the animalistic nature. Whether you exist or do not exist, there is no use or difference. You simply are executing a program, but you are not truly yourself.
[360020]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work?”

Related Material:
In Preparation for Free Choice
The Only Free Choice
What Is Free Choice?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The Kabbalists tell us about free choice. They do not conceal the fact that we are animals. What does “animals” mean? It means having no free choice and acting according to a predetermined program. They say that our free choice lies only in the choice of environment. But even this choice, although concealed from us, is the result of our internal and external conditions.

Nevertheless, it seems to us that we choose for ourselves, and we must make use of this. You cannot simply take a law of a higher degree and say that there is no free choice, that nothing matters and that you live like an animal, so come what may.

But if it is  truly “come what may,” then do not breathe, do not eat, and do not do anything at all. Are you capable of that? No. Therefore you must conduct yourself according to the concept of free choice according to the degree at which you are. Previously, nothing was said to you about free choice. Now you are told that you have no other choice except the choice of environment. Live within this contradiction!

This is what is meant by “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” on the one hand, and “There is none else besides Him” on the other. If “There is none else besides Him,” then is there no free choice? But if “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” there is free choice, is there something that I do?

Use them both! The Kabbalists do not hide this from you. They are preparing you for the true free choice, which you do not yet know. It will come.

But do not be a philosopher. Do not say that now everything is already clear, that you know “There is none else besides Him,” and that is the end of it. Have you attained this? What does it mean that you know? You have not attained it; you have simply read about it. The Kabbalists are there, not you.

Therefore a person must conduct himself according to the state in which he finds himself. And if he does not make use of it, then he is not making use of his Kelim. About this it is written: “His wisdom is greater than his deeds,” and because of this he becomes a fool, for he takes some slogan that he heard somewhere, and steps outside reality. Such things do not come from wisdom.
[359869]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/26, Rabash, “What Are ‘A Layperson’s Vessels,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
What Is Free Choice?
Born Free
As Though Everything Depends on Me

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: The Creator created the will to receive, and then withdrew from it. Is this an action of the Creator or of the Kli, the desire?

Answer: When we speak about actions in spirituality, it appears as though the Kli is performing them. But does the Kli actually do anything? Actions are never performed by the Kli. We say that the light comes, the screen repels it, and then decides how much to receive and how much not to.

Imagine a biologist studying the functioning of a  cell. He adds an acid or something else to it, and the cell begins to behave in a certain way. Or something happens with a computer, and we say: “Look what it suddenly did to me!” What does “suddenly did” mean? You simply do not know how the computer is supposed to behave. Maybe it has a virus or something else, and that is why it behaves this way. But what does it mean that it “behaves”? Does it have a choice?

If you knew the whole system, you would of course not doubt how it would behave; you would know it in advance! Why is a specialist needed? Because he knows the system, and the causes of its behavior. He does not know the “character” of the computer; he simply approaches it or some system and says that here there must be such and such an input, and such and such a reaction.

Any system is a black box, and I do not care what is happening inside. But I know the inputs and outputs. Or let us say that there is some malfunction. I input something, and nothing comes out, or something comes out that should not. Then it needs repair. This is called a disease or malfunction.

That is how it is in any body—biological, mechanical, or electrical, it does not matter which. If you know its internal system precisely, its inputs and outputs, there is no difficulty in understanding how it will behave.

For example, yesterday I had a blood test. It was checked against 30 parameters, and from them I could see what in my body is in order and what not. That is, based on the system’s outputs one can determine that it is malfunctioning. But does the system itself possess any free choice regarding its behavior? Does the body choose how to behave?! No!

Therefore when we speak about all the Partzufim, worlds, and even souls, which supposedly have freedom of choice, this is not freedom of behavior, because there is a system of light, Kli (vessel), and what happens between them, and there is no mystery to it. Everything is clear beforehand; the game is fixed in advance. The input parameters are set on a higher level. Their cause is the sensation of the Creator, and that too is something predetermined from above.

Therefore we are speaking only about the attitude toward what is happening. But it turns out that the attitude too must be governed by law. So where is there any place for choice at all? This is what we do not know, and this is called “above reason.” If we investigate our actions and everything that influences us, we will not find any degree of freedom. According to logic, it cannot exist. It simply cannot!

This degree of freedom acts only in the spiritual realm. When the will to receive, situated in a particular set of circumstances, decides it wants to rise above itself, that specific intention can truly be free! Not in relation to the Creator, but in relation to the creation itself.

This is called “above reason,” and exists only in the spiritual. In our world, there is nothing of the kind. In our world, whether you will laugh in a minute or cry is the result of what is done to you. Whether you will run toward the goal or not is also set up for you. We are only in the stage of preparation for free choice.

We are gradually being taught how this is even possible in reality. But now, before the Machsom, we are all like animals. And beyond the Machsom, to the extent that the soul can create an intention for actions “above reason,” it is called “Israel.” This is already the measure of a human being, not an animal, and it is called “above reason.” This is creation.
[359865]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/26, Rabash, “What Are ‘A Layperson’s Vessels,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
The Creature’s Free Choice
A System With One Degree Of Freedom
The Focal Point Of Freedom

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

When the Creator is revealed to us, we are, as it were, in a state of goodness and are able to justify Him. But when He is not revealed, we find ourselves in a state of evil and curse Him. What does it mean to curse Him? We curse the state we find ourselves in.

Then what depends on us? The pace of our advancement. Moreover, the direction we choose also depends on us, and ultimately this is expressed in the pace of our advancement.

It is said: The Creator places a person’s hand upon the good fortune and says, “Choose this for yourself.” Suppose a person does not wish to choose what he has been shown. He was offered the opportunity to come and study, but he did not take it seriously. Besides, he is still young, not even married. “I’ll come to it when I’m at least 30 years old.”

In other words, the person did not strengthen himself in the choice that the Creator had given him. As a result, several years were lost. This is what it means that a person chooses the pace of his advancement: either he strengthens himself in the direction that has been shown to him or he chooses another direction.

One may ask, “But is this really in his power? Is everything not under the Creator’s governance?” One could say that about everything. But here the question is whether a person used the opportunity that was given to him or not.

The Kabbalists say, and this is concealed from us, that throughout your life you exist in a state of apparent freedom. Yet know this: There is only one thing in which you are truly free —the purpose of creation, your connection with the Creator.

Free choice exists only in making use of the opportunity to connect with the Creator. The Creator calls to you: “Draw near to Me.” If you do not do so, that is your choice. In everything else, whether to eat ice cream or chew gum, watch football or go to sleep, it makes no difference. Nor does it matter who I am: a criminal, a thief, or an upright person. In all these things, we choose nothing.

There is only one point of free choice: whether you desire a connection with the Creator or not.
[359387]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

Related Material:
The Point of Choice: Toward the Creator
When Time Compresses
The Only Opportunity for Free Choice

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

The states that a person goes through are not so important in and of themselves. Of course, it is possible to say that they are analogous to receiving a blow one moment, candy the next, then a stronger blow, and again a candy. But the “carrot and stick” do not form a Kli (vessel) in a person. Its continuous strengthening on the path toward the goal is exactly what is building the Kli.

The Kli is the intention. Neither the blows, nor Malchut, nor Keter form the Kli. The intention that you define, when you truly decide what it is, is called the Kli. Only in choosing the intention does freedom of choice exist.

Look at how the whole world spins and what it does: We seek peace and we seek happiness, nothing helps because the search is conducted in the wrong direction, and we only become more confused, spend money, and drown in a sea of blood. And so it is all over the world.

Look at what an enormous process of development the world needs to undergo in order to finally come to the conclusion that development must be in only one direction. All the achievements of science, engineering, technology, medicine, culture, and education are simply a mistake.

We made a mistake; we followed our egoistic desires and developed all sorts of things that are absolutely unnecessary. No matter how magnificent, grandiose, and fulfilling all the achievements of civilization may seem to us, it is Klipot.

We could have lived peacefully in caves and, being connected to the Creator, enjoy life. What difference does it make where you live?

The point of choice is in the direction toward the Creator. When this question awakens in me, I must strengthen myself so as not to turn in another direction. It is like a pointer rotating in a circle, at each of the 360 degrees, it seems to point to 360 targets, yet it aligns with the direction toward the Creator only once.

It is precisely here that I must “step on the gas.” This is where I must break out of the vicious circle. If I do not do this, all kinds of desires start spinning inside me again in this circle.
[359439]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

Related Material:
Please Put It down to the Creator
Put the General Mosaic in the Right Order
The Era Of Change

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Egoism, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: How can a person determine that he is standing before a choice?

Answer: A person does not know that he is in a state of choice. He must have faith and constantly remind themselves.

Therefore it is necessary to develop the habit of creating various reminders, notes, and marks inside and around myself that will help me constantly remember what, and in which direction, I can now add from myself. And then, within three to five years, one can attain what the Kabbalists write about.

However, the system must accompany me in such a way that I can constantly awaken, and strive toward the goal. Now this system is becoming denser; time is compressing. For although the Kabbalists wrote long ago, in the times of the Gemara, they had our days in mind.

It is said that everything that has been written is intended for the last generation, for living in the days of the Mashiach because for the previous generations it made no sense to write anything. In the past generations only a few individuals rose to the spiritual, and the Torah they had was different; they were drawn from above. But all the holy books, including those written by Moses, are intended for our generation.

It seems to me that for beginners time is indeed greatly shortened. Today people come who grasp the material very quickly. After two or three years I still did not perceive what today they feel and understand after a month of study.

Comment: With such receptivity one can remain for ten years without advancing at all.

My Response: I am speaking about one specific parameter. That a person can sit here another twenty years, and remain the same as today is true; it all depends on him. And yet for now, his understanding, perception, and connection with the material are such as mine were two years after I began to study Kabbalah. This is a miracle; I am amazed by it.
[359443]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

Related Material:
How Many Years Does It Take Before We Enter Spirituality?
Your Choice: 3-5 Or 35 Years
The Path Will Be Revealed Gradually

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Kabbalah Study, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: Is freedom of choice the sixth sense?

Answer: Yes, but you must realize that freedom of choice is something you must learn. You cannot simply tell a person, “You are free to choose, go ahead and choose!” First, you must teach them what that freedom actually entails. You face a thousand roads, but you cannot distinguish between them, or you may not even see them at all or see how they relate to one another. Yet you must choose the one path that truly leads to progress.

Choice involves selecting both the path and the method of advancing along it. It requires extensive knowledge and a precise method:, specifically the forces you must draw upon to move forward even though you are not yet connected to them.

Indeed, how can I move forward when all I see before me is a desert? There is an inner contradiction here. I must take the right step in this desert, but in which direction out of 360 degrees? How can I know? If I could see clearly, there would be no choice. That is why I have been placed in a state where I cannot see.

But if I cannot see, how can I choose? This situation seems illogical and nonsensical when viewed from the lens of our ordinary intellect. Yet through spiritual understanding, we immediately perceive that there is no contradiction at all. So how do I actually advance?

Here I must learn how to draw higher forces and use them, even though I do not yet sense them. Therefore, we must receive this method from an external source; it does not originate with us.

There are many people who say, “I will advance according to what my soul tells me; it will be fine; it will be the authentic me.” But if you follow only what you call your “soul,” you will remain on the level of an animal. You must acquire something new, something you do not yet have.

Thus, without receiving this wisdom (Hochma) from above, from an external source, from the spiritual world, it is impossible to advance. Even our study serves only one purpose: to draw these higher forces upon ourselves so that they influence us, help us make the right choice, and nothing more.

When this force comes from above, it creates what is called Chen de Kedusha (the charm or grace of holiness) within me. I do not know how it acts within me, nor do I know exactly what it does there. I know only the final, desired outcome I wish to attain through my study.

While studying, the surrounding light (Ohr Makif) shines upon the point in the heart, the root of the soul. Then I begin to feel a subtle attraction in the right direction, toward the very source from which that light emanated. It is this attraction, this small inner impulse, that determines my choice.

It appears as though something is hidden here. Without a doubt, I must summon the upper force. But how do I attract it? How do I acquire it? By what instrument can I measure it? In volts or kilograms? None of this can be known.

Yet a person is told that if, under specific conditions and after proper preparation, one reads the right book knowing exactly what they wish to demand from it and precisely what one desires to attain through it, and if this desire has been born of genuine effort, then the force that comes to the person is indeed the true spiritual force.

There are many additional subtleties involved, but the outcome of all our study and all our actions must be the arrival of a force from above that pulls us out. That is the choice.
[358847]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

Related Material:
How Many Roads Lie Before Us?
The Meaning Of Life Is Here And Now
Close To The Point Of Choice

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Question: I understand that even if the Creator addresses someone and tells him, “Act,” he still has free choice whether to do it or not?

Answer: What does it mean that the Creator speaks to a person? Has anyone heard this?

The Creator speaking to a person means that the person feels an inner impulse; he wants to do something, to carry something out. If this is an impulse toward spirituality, then one can say that it is as though the Creator is speaking to him. It is as if someone else were speaking all the other things. But is there anyone else? He plans and pushes you toward everything—both the bad and the good.

If this general force called the Creator pushes all of reality in this way without giving any part of that reality free choice or the ability to feel it, then His attitude toward reality is as toward the still, vegetative, and animate. But His attitude toward the speaking level is such that a person feels what he wants. In addition to sensing what he wants like an animal, he can also evaluate and analyze this desire, and begin to change it.

In order to make a human being out of the created being (Adam, from Edameh le-Elyon, “similar to the Creator”), He must give him all the states opposite to Himself, so that the person will choose from among them, and prefer to be similar to the Creator.

This is the whole of free choice, the entire right of choice that we have. If a person simply carried out every command from above, he would be a puppet. It is the same as the still, vegetative, and animate levels, which carry out the commands of nature. There is nothing special or unique in that.

Of course, this does not mean that the still, vegetative, and animate are separate from the Creator; they are connected with Him one hundred percent. They carry out whatever nature (Teva) determines, the Creator (Elokim, whose Gematria is equal to HaTeva) without any problem, without any questions, without any choice. This is not a degree; it is the zero level.

A person is called a human being because, in accordance with his own choice and awareness, he understands that this is how he should act; he justifies the Creator, and from all the qualities opposite to the Creator, chooses to be like Him. By doing so, he builds himself into a human being.
[358750]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work? ”

Related Material:
Choosing The Hard Way
The Need To Be Human
I Choose You, Brothers!

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

If my thoughts, states, and actions come from the Creator—both whatever I might desire and think, as well as what I thought and desired in the past, then the question arises again: Who and what am I?

This is discussed in the article “The Freedom,” in which Baal HaSulam explains that a person is indeed a machine. On the physiological and biological levels, we can understand this.

But if both a person’s thoughts and desires are not his own, and the person himself is the result of society and the influence from above, then what remains? Baal HaSulam says in this article that in our world a person has free choice in only one thing: receiving an impression of the greatness of the goal in order to attain it from the group.

I have already explained that everyone is interconnected above, and from there, through the friends, one can draw the necessary force to oneself. Only this depends on the person. Nothing else in this world depends on him.

We do not realize the extent to which—in deciding upon any action, in everything we may wish to do at any given moment, to sit down or stand up, to drink or eat, to sleep or go somewhere, to get on a bus or not, and so on—we are unable to introduce even the slightest foreign desire, some external cause that is not already within us.

It is only because the course of this inner process is unknown and incomprehensible to me that it seems to me that I am deciding, searching, thinking, calculating, and making plans. All of this is only because of this uncertainty; it is only because of this uncertainty that I do not understand how all of this actually happens.

It is similar to the way we look at an infant, and know what he will do the next moment. The same applies to us. Only it will become many times clearer when we rise to a higher degree.

Therefore there is no point in engaging in nonsense. Rather we should use this tiny point, this very small opening through which we can bring into ourselves, into our Kli, an external force for advancement. And that force is the greatness of the Creator received from the friends. If a person cares for this point, and constantly strives to draw more and more through it, he will succeed.

I would like to add that the friends are not only like-minded people in the group, but also the sources and their authors. A person may simply sit and listen to Kabbalistic music, or to recordings of what the Kabbalists say, even without understanding the language that they are speaking. This is called an external force. And this is the only thing that depends on us. Everything else is nothing more than imagination and fantasy.
[358918]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work? ”

Related Material:
If Not for the Group
Build Without Ruining The Foundation
Above The Logic Of This World

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

Whatever a person does during the day in relation to the people around him through his body and human desire, simply as a person living in this world, has nothing to do with the Torah. It does not relate to spiritual advancement or to the Creator.

Ten thousand years ago, there were also people in our world who knew nothing about the Torah or Commandments. They had lives, a wife, children, a home, and food. Does this relate to spirituality or not? Similarly, our ordinary life, which is not related to Kabbalah, does not belong to spirituality. This is an animal-like existence in this world.

We cannot say that it is completely disconnected from the spiritual world, as everything here is a branch. However, we are talking about the desire to receive on the still, vegetative, animate, and human levels of this world, which gradually progresses toward the final correction at its own pace, in accordance with the general pace of reality.

Then, the general desire to receive of all people reached a state in which parts of the soul began to descend from above. A light began to descend, revealing the desire to receive, clothed in all people.

When light descends from above, a point in the heart appears. This point entered someone named Avram (after which he was given the name Abraham), who marked the beginning of the group. He was the first to reveal the Creator and initiate a chain of disciples. Had it not occurred, all of humanity would have continued living without spiritual revelation, according to the general clock of the universe and reality.

From Abraham onward, a person gains the freedom to choose. As the light descends upon a person, he has the opportunity to take further action on his own. However, this can only be done in connection with other souls.

Therefore, I need someone else by my side. It is not enough to have someone in America or Australia; after all, there were Native Americans at the time of Abraham. I have no connection with them; I need someone near me, a friend from whom I can gain insight and acquire something.

Free choice consists of receiving additional Hisaron (lack or desire) from an equal, both in the time of Abraham and in our time. The Creator told Abraham: “I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky,” that is, I gave you the conditions for free choice. Therefore, a close group was required so that one, while receiving perception from another, could acquire that person’s desire.

It does not work for one Kabbalist to be here and another someplace else, a group was required, a group that came to be called the Jews (Yehudim). They were ordinary Iraqis and Persians who began to be called Jews Yehudim and Ivrim (Hebrews from the root “Avru,” meaning those who transitioned to the desire of the Creator). We must distinguish between the soul that clothes itself in a person that requires correction, and the body.
[358684]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work?”

Related Material:
Prerequisites for Searching for the Creator
When Did the Point in the Heart Originate?
How Can We Keep The Family United?

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Free Will, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work - No Comments →