Question: I am in a certain environment where everyone is having fun and “living.” How can I perform my work when inwardly I differ from my surroundings? How can I avoid dissolving into this environment?

Answer: You cannot avoid dissolving into it. You have no strength against the environment in which you are, unless you are pulled out of it from above. This is like us, for example, with an awakened point in the heart that pushed away our environment. We felt that we did not belong to those surroundings and naturally began to search, in accordance with that point, for where its place was.

But that was help from above; we were moved from place to place. It is like a charge in an electric field. If a charge changes, it must change its place in the field in order to be in similarity of qualities with it, in a state of equal potential.

Thus, your inner potential was changed, and you left one environment and moved to another. In this way, you can view your entire life and all your incarnations—as you are brought toward the final correction, toward the center of this “electric field.” Your own actions have no part in this at all.

Now you ask: “If I am in some environment, what should I do?” When you are in a certain environment, you can remain in it as you are now if you are not helped from above, or you can immediately begin searching.

You are given the thought that you must attain some goal that contradicts this environment, and thereby you are given the chance to change your environment yourself. Do you understand what an opportunity this is? An ordinary person’s inner potential, his spiritual charge, is changed through Reshimot (spiritual records), and he is led through the potential field toward the center, gradually, over all his incarnations.

In one of them, he is given a potential called the “point in the heart,” and then he must change his environment himself and take care of his own advancement. Before that, throughout thousands of incarnations, he could not do this.

Thus, he receives an awakening through the point in the heart, and this potential, called the point in the heart, already relates to a person’s purposeful, conscious advancement, the advancement of the charge toward the center of the field.

In other words, he is placed in some society. This may be people, books, films about Kabbalah, or something of the kind; all of this is called the environment, the surroundings. He is given the opportunity, and then advancement comes only through freedom of choice. Of course, this is on the condition that you yourself want to determine your advancement. If not, then not.

In any place, you can be in one of three states. Either you lose the thought that you can change your environment, or you are given the thought that you really can change your environment, or you are given the opportunity to work in the correct environment. Now choose.

You say: “I understand that, from the standpoint of the goal, I am in a bad environment. What should I do?” This is an excellent state, when you are given the thought that you are in an environment with which you are not on the same path. This is help from above.

Then they will erase this thought from you, and that is it, stay where you are. Several years later, they may give it to you again. Think about it: I have students who left us, and after 10 to 15 years they begin crying out, “What should I do?!” The thought has been renewed in them again. But 15 years of their lives have been wasted.
[362612]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”

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Question: If I am like a charge in an electric field, that is, if my potential relative to the field changes, then my position also changes. Can I change my potential myself?

Answer: Yes, you can. After all, this potential depends on your sensation, which arises from comparing yourself with the field. This potential is in your hands.

If you see that your place in the field is not quite where you would like it to be, not quite what it should be, you can change it. It is as though you change your potential. How?

You attract the light; it changes your potential, and then you move. This is similar to raising MAN; everything works according to the same principle.

Equivalence of qualities is the only general law from which all other laws derive. Who are you? You are a point of choice and nothing more. A point that can choose. And apart from this, there is nothing that is you.
[362620]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”

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On the spiritual path, there is a place of work on the part of the Creator and a place of work on the part of creation. We say that “there is none else besides Him,” “everything comes from above,” “everything is in the hands of heaven but the fear of heaven.” The Creator determines everything; nothing happens without a decision from above; this is true.

However, there is an important component here, one of the four parameters that depends on the person: the influence of society. We are talking about the development of an external society that affects a person.

It is as if a seed were to determine the parameters of sunlight, moisture, rainfall, minerals in the soil, fertilizers, and various other factors that affect it in various stages of its development. It is as if the seed itself regulates their quantity and sequence. If the seed could do this, it would constitute free choice in its own development.

It is obvious that a person cannot transform himself into something else; however, he determines what develops. Through this process, they come to understand the forms of their own development and the entire system that controls, corrects, and holds dominion over them, that is, the thoughts, attributes, and actions of the Creator.

This means that the human truly takes the place of the Creator in creation. By learning and subsequently intervening in the parameters of their environment, they determine what unfolds. Thus, by choosing their environment, a choice made in accordance with their understanding of the Creator, His qualities and actions, His thoughts and purpose, the human attains the level of the Creator.

However, the foundations, that is, a person’s inherent qualities, do not change and cannot change. After all, a person does not understand what their foundation is just as they do not understand what Atzmuto (the essence of the Creator), or the unattainable essence of anything is. Only matter and form clothed in matter are accessible to him, but not abstract form and essence.

But by giving him the opportunity to perform the same actions upon himself as the Creator would perform, he is allowed to know the Creator, His attitude toward creation, His plans and thoughts, that is, to come to the Rosh (the head).
[361873]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, “Rosh Hashanah”

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What does personal freedom mean? Freedom from whom? Freedom from the Creator! Whether it is egoism or altruism does not matter; it is freedom from the Creator. He alone governs everything. So, this means freedom from Him.

What distinguishes a small spiritual level from a greater one, or an even higher one, and so on? It is the degree of independence from the Creator—from the Creator! It is when a person becomes equivalent to Him, autonomous, on par with Him.

When the Creator pulls us back and forth, up and down, gives us good and bad states, and drains all our life force from us, He is showing us how dependent we are on Him, suspended like a ball on a string that children play with.

In this way, He shows us the boundaries between our higher and lower states within which we should already be able to exist freely and independently of Him. In other words, He can drain all my energy, yet I can still rise independently to the highest level already allotted to me, that specific delta, those parameters. At the next level will be even higher, and so on.

In fact, there cannot be a state in which a person is completely under the Creator’s control. This is possible only as an example on the Creator’s side or as an uncorrected state on the person’s side. Therefore, there should be no room for gloom or any kind of defeatist attitude. The group must demand that each of its members deal with these states more quickly, because by remaining in them, he pulls the entire group backward.

The group must always kindle such a fire within itself that none of its members can calmly remain somewhere below and sink into spiritual depression.
[362261]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/1/26

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Question: Where can I find the strength to work before the Machsom?

Answer: Only in the group. The group should give each of us an example of what should be. Therefore, we need to find a group that will transform us.

We cannot change ourselves on our own, but since we were once a collective Kli, despite the fact that we have become individualistic egoists, our root lies precisely in it. Therefore, whether we want it or not, whether we resist it or not, we will ultimately desire what this common Kli dictates to us.

No matter what kind of person you are, advertising, persuasion, and the opinion of the crowd will influence you, because our root is where we are connected to each other. Therefore, no matter how much of an egoist I am or how much I place myself above everyone else, I depend on the collective opinion. Every one of us does. We should make use of this fact.

This is the only aspect of free will that we possess. I now realize that the environment, through its opinion, can change any values in me, dictate my views regarding my entire life, the universe, convince me that dying is good and living is bad, or the opposite, or shape my perception of all of existence.

Therefore, I must organize society in such a way that it will dictate spiritual values to me, values that will be imprinted in me. The friends will convey this information in such a way that I will change, and nothing else will remain in me.

I will change in such a way that I will want to approach Machsom, I will want this Creator, who is now completely opposite to me, I will want to live in the upper world, although that life is completely opposite to the present, egoistic one. Such a re-evaluation of values can take place in me if the group I am in cultivates spiritual values within itself.

Therefore, the most important thing for us is to create such a group.
[361982]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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We must create a group in which each of us will inevitably become impressed by the laws of the upper world. We need to brainwash ourselves, so to speak, completely artificially, understanding that we do not want this, but doing it nevertheless, like a child who repeats everything after an adult.

This is called going above reason, above oneself. It is impossible to cross the Machsom with our egoistic qualities. Only by artificially becoming similar to the spiritual world can we create an environment in which it is as though we are already there.

When on this side of the Machsom we create this environment through playing, to the same extent we draw the surrounding light upon ourselves and it pulls us into the spiritual world. There, we attain the revelation of the Creator. As soon as we feel the upper one, we immediately want to be included in Him and become completely similar to Him.

In other words, all our freewill consists of placing ourselves under the influence of the surrounding light. And this is what we must do each time.

After the Machsom, at every spiritual degree, we will have to evoke the illumination from the higher spiritual degree upon ourselves, from the AHP of the upper one, which will act upon us as the surrounding light and pull us upward.

The light as if draws us into the next, more advanced state in which the Creator is revealed. And there, we are already under His authority and become like Him.

In other words, the light builds the Kli, corrects it, and carries out absolutely all the changes within the Kli. We only need, like a child, to adjust ourselves so that the light can pull us inside. But this is our action: it is artificial, acted out, directed against our egoism, and we must understand this and act accordingly.
[362017]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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Question: What does a person’s choice actually consist of? After all, if one acts from the desire to receive for oneself, will he be able to make a real choice?

Answer: A person’s choice is not in calculating something and choosing between various options; rather, it lies in constantly forcing oneself to continue the spiritual work. Nothing more. You do not choose the path. You choose where to get more strength for the effort, in order to push yourself a little more, to advance just a little further. Choice is in accelerating time.

What path could you possibly choose? Do you understand anything about the corrections? Do you know what your next state is or what your present state is? How do you move from one to the other? What will come of it? Of course, we are not the ones who do this. If we try to proceed based solely on our own understanding, it is simply foolishness.

Yesterday I met a professor (a very intelligent, insightful person, a specialist in his field, and a senior executive and project manager in a large company. He kept saying, “I have to see, I have to understand…” This is very difficult to grasp. In general, theoretically, we might be able to see something, but regarding oneself, one’s next state, a person never sees anything in advance. After all, the most difficult thing is the recognition of one’s own evil.

We can only apply pressure in order to advance and catch a glimpse of the past. Truly seeing the present is impossible right now. Only after crossing  the Machsom can one see the degree that has been passed. But as long as we have not crossed the Machsom, we have not yet passed even the first degree. After all, everything we are going through now is merely a single degree of our world.
[361354]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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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?”

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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?”

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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?”

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