Question: Is it possible to discover spirituality when working with friends in a professional setting?

Answer: At work, there are no friends, whereas in the group, everyone is a friend. I don’t understand where the difficulty lies. If you are honest with yourself and with your friend, you will not experience any difficulties. Remove all the external coverings from yourself and from your friend, and imagine that everything is completely pure and that nothing exists except the goal.

So what is the problem? There are working relationships, and there are relationships between friends. For example, I may shout several times a day, to the point where I am ready to kill someone over work-related matters. But does that affect my attitude toward that person as a student in any way? The more someone does, the more criticism he receives; that is clear. What connection is there between the two? Naturally, when people work together, there are more opportunities for friction at work, but it is precisely on this foundation that the other relationships are built.

People do not understand that the revelation of deficiencies, Hisaronot, is the best thing that can happen, because without them, there is nothing through which to advance! If you have no Hisaron (deficiency), you have no possibility of taking even a single step forward. In the process of correction, if a deficiency has not been revealed, if the wound has not been exposed, and you have not discovered how bad you are, how can you become good? After all, we do not create anything new within ourselves in this world; we only correct ourselves.

All our work, as a whole, is called correction. Therefore, we must first reveal the evil and correct it, then reveal more evil and correct it again. If nothing has been revealed, there is nothing to do! After all, correction and advancement are possible only to the extent that something has been revealed. Therefore, the more evil that is revealed, the better!

It does not bother me when someone shouts, as long as he is not shouting against our common direction of advancement. And if he also criticizes along the way, that is welcome. Such criticism, if it is truly genuine, profound, and examines matters from every angle, can never be destructive. After all, it is an analysis through which we begin to clarify who is right, who is wrong, why things are the way they are, and how we should act.

If everything is connected to the goal, only good can come from it, and there is nothing to fear. On the contrary, dig deeper. Just do not remain in this state all the time and begin to derive pleasure from suffering. That happens too. But the revelation itself is a very good thing.

It is known from medicine and psychology that pain and pleasure are essentially the same; that is, suffering and joy are experienced by the body in the same way, and one cannot exist without the other.

There is a reason for the popular saying that if you never quarrel with your wife, you do not, so to speak, renew the love between you. These are not merely words; there is truth in them. Everything can be understood only through its opposite. If there were no criticism of the work, it would continue in the same manner. But after criticism, you realize that you need to work through the issues and approach the work more professionally.
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From Daily the Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/26, Rabash, “Who Testifies to a Person”

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The ten must be in the synagogue at once, and not come one at a time, since all ten are as organs of one body, in which the Shechina resides (Rabash, “A Congregation Is No Less than Ten”).

All of reality includes the Creator and the creation. The creation must independently reveal the perfection and eternity of the Creator; otherwise, it will not have a Kli through which to enjoy this state.

Revealing the Kli is what we need, because the state already exists and we are in it. As Baal HaSulam writes, we are like a person sitting in a dark basement where all the treasures and all the pleasures he needs and even more than he could expect are present, but there is not enough light, not enough of a Kli, for him to see the state he is in.

This Kli can be revealed only on the condition that there is a Hisaron for it, a need for precisely this state. If the desire is for other things, a person will not be able to reveal the state that, in the Creator’s view, is “good and does good,” and fill himself with it. Therefore, in Kabbalah, a person who has attained equivalence of form with the Creator is called “one who does not follow the counsel of the wicked.” What does this mean?

“Wicked ones” and “evildoers” constantly come to a person; that is, his uncorrected desires awaken within him, and each time he examines, analyzes, and sorts them, and “does not follow their counsel.” His ego burns within him all the time, and it is precisely thanks to this “help against him” that he continually renews his state in relation to the Creator and thus grows.

This continues until he gathers all his desires into one great desire directed toward a single thing. Once he reaches the innermost part of all his desires and directs them toward acquiring Kelim of bestowal, he arrives at the prayer “from the depths of the heart.”

At that point, he already has a complete, perfect desire, which is called Beit Knesset (synagogue; literally, “house of assembly”). A “house” is a place of reception, while an “assembly” is a state in which he gathers all his desires into one, directed toward a single goal.

It is clear that the desires are diverse, ranging from animalistic and human to the spiritual, but they are all focused on one goal. This is the state described as a person being in a Beit Knesset. The Creator sees that there is someone in the Beit Knesset who is ready for prayer and demands correction from Him. Then the person receives correction for all his desires, and to the extent that they become similar to the Creator, he attains the Creator’s degree.

Where does he obtain the strength to descend into all his inner “wicked ones” and arrive at the decision that, with their help and on their basis, he wishes to attain adhesion and become similar to the Creator? How can he gather all his desires under a single intention for the sake of bestowal?

We learn that a person receives these desires from the upper one, through the surrounding light. But where will he obtain awareness of the importance of correcting them? From the environment. In proportion to the number of “wicked ones” that are revealed to him, which he feels within his body, he must strengthen himself with the help of the group and receive from it an awareness of the importance of the goal. Then he is assured of the ability, with the help of the surrounding light, to purify these “wicked ones” through the intention for the sake of bestowal.

This, in general, is the main idea of the article “There Is No Assembly of Fewer Than Ten.” We understand why it is written that there is no assembly of fewer than ten. This is a state in which the person examines the properties he has acquired from the Creator down to their very depths and directs and aligns them according to his desire to receive correction for them for the sake of bestowal, as in the ten original Sefirot.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/26, Rabash, “A Congregation Is No Less than Ten”

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If I have established that the Creator is bestowal, then I must investigate this concept, understand it, draw closer to it, and attain it, so that it alone governs me instead of my own nature. And I must do all this through my own efforts. So how can I achieve this?

I am told that the quality of bestowal can be revealed to me in a group among a few people who are striving toward the same goal. Through working together, you can explore it from both the positive and negative sides, in different kinds of relationships.

Why should you choose friends who are also genuinely striving for the quality of bestowal, that is, students who study Kabbalah and want to reach the Creator? Because then you can help one another: “Each one shall help his friend.” Everyone can set a positive or negative example for others, as well as provide them with strength and support.

In this world, there is no other way for us to advance than to see our neighbor as the goal. Moreover, your neighbor can help you and become a source of strength and support for you.

Otherwise, you will follow the old path described by Baal HaSulam. In the past, a person seeking to attain the quality of bestowal would be content with bread and salt and water, living in poverty, and suffering so as not to give their desire to receive anything beyond what was essential for survival. Everything else they had, they would give to others in order to break their desire to receive in this way. If you want to follow this path, go ahead.

However, today the desire to receive can no longer be corrected through such actions. Our actions must be carried out with the help of the light that reforms, not by breaking ourselves in this way. If you were at the level of Aviut Shoresh or Aleph, you could work with your desire to receive and correct it in this manner. But given the degree of Aviut we have in our generation, we are no longer capable of doing so.

The sages of the Gemara and those who came before them prepared the surrounding light for us as a force that enables us to recognize evil and correct it.

Therefore, instead of giving everything away for the benefit of humanity, working for others 24 hours a day, living in poverty and suffering, and “toiling in the Torah day and night,” that is, doing what we are incapable of doing, we have been given the light that reforms. It is not that one method replaces the other; the previous method simply does not suit our current state. We cannot act that way.

When the desire to receive is small, people can live in poverty, striving for a kind of “nirvana.” But this does not work when the desire to receive is great. Besides, why did they live that way? Because they had no other option. If they had had more than a cup of rice a day, they would have occupied themselves with something else. All these methods arose from poverty, not from an urgent need to attain the upper one.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/11/26, Rabash, “The Rosh Hashanah Prayer”

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Question: What does “a clear decision” mean? Aren’t a decision and a desire the same thing?

Answer: A decision is in the heart. It is not simply words written on paper and stuck to a wall. It is said: “Write them upon the tablets of your heart.”

Question: But each person has a different character. How, then, can a unified desire be created?

Answer: What does this have to do with character? Suppose that we, 80 people, want to build a house. Does it matter what character each person has and what problems each one has? We are all focused together on one goal.

Comment: But one imagines a palace and another imagines something else.

My Response: It does not matter what each person imagines and what each envisions. We, of course, cannot compare the states, intentions, and internal analysis made by each of us. And in general, it is not the group that should do this; it is each person’s personal matter. But we want each of us to participate in this to the extent that they can.

Certainly, no more is demanded of a person than what was initially given to them from above from birth. One person can, for now, think only for one moment a day; another, after a month of study is entirely immersed in it; a third might engage in yet another way.

One perceives more with the mind, another with the heart. For some it may feel like an act of self-coercion, while others feel a sense of inspiration. We are not discussing the specific, personal states of each one; we are talking about a collective effort without delving into particulars; it does not matter in what state each of us is.

Perhaps for one person, the greatest investment they can make, the greatest sacrifice they are capable of, is that today they will sit for ten minutes and listen to me attentively, while for the rest of the time they will be as if dead. For them, this will be a great effort. Whereas for another, studying all day might require only a standard, routine level of effort.

The effort is what counts; therefore, in this case, the first contributes more than the second. We cannot check these things, and it is not we who should do so at all. Moreover, we are forbidden to speak with one another about personal states.

We must strive for the unity of desires, not by speaking about how each of us relates to the Creator, but simply speaking about the Creator Himself rather than our individual relationship to Him. In other words, we should speak about the importance of the goal rather than where I am now in relation to it.

Therefore, one must make the friend’s words important to you. Invest as much effort in it as you invest in your child, and you will see how important it will be to you. “Buy yourself a friend.”

Set the goal to be at the lesson as a single group, with a single intention, and a single unified effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/26, Rabash, “A Congregation Is No Less than Ten”

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Question: What is Ohr Makif, surrounding light?

Answer: Surrounding light is the light that intends to enter the Guf (body), that is, the Kli (vessel), and clothe itself in it when it is corrected by the screen. The Masach, the screen, is the intention to bestow.

If currently lack the intention to bestow, then the light is outside of me and shines upon me from the place where I should be when I have such an intention. What should I do so that it shines upon me?

Surrounding light exists for everyone in this world, a place is reserved for each person near the Creator, on the highest degree. How can I draw this illumination that is above the Parsa to myself? Only by creating something similar to the state I will eventually be in above the Parsa within myself.

There, above the Parsa, I am connected with that light, with that source that I study, that is, with the other souls, with the Creator, as it is said: “Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one.” What can I do here, below the Parsa, so that it will be in some way similar to that state, and I would attract this illumination to myself?

Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that one who studies and strives to understand what he is studying, even if he does not understand, thereby attracts the surrounding light. Because knowledge is the inner filling of the surrounding light, that is, the state in which a person is there together with it, for Israel and the Torah are one.

It does not matter that for now I imagine adhesion according to my level; but it, too, pertains to that eternal, great state, and if by means of what I study, I want to come to adhesion with the Creator, through this I attract the surrounding light.

If all the souls are there together as one body, as one man with one heart, then here, below, I must do this together with several friends, and this, too, will be a similarity. That is, one must make the state below as similar as possible to what is above.

So we make an effort and somehow build this similarity. But where will I get the feeling of the importance of this action? The group does not merely exist so that I can sit with the friends and contemplate this state.

The group is meant to give me awareness of the importance of being in this state; that is, first I must hear that this is the most important goal from them, that there is nothing else in life besides it, and that the whole world and all of life are given to me only for this.

This is what I must hear from them instead of conversations about fashion, about football, and a thousand other things. Because the feeling of importance that I have will never be enough. There are, of course, special people who can manage without this; there have been such cases, but we are not among them. We are people who must make this effort with the help of the group and carry out our task, the task that all of humanity begins to undertake from this day onward.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/16/26, Rabash, “A Congregation Is No Less than Ten”

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When I begin to examine my internal system and the external system outside of me, and how I might use the external system to control the inner system, I discover that, apart from the external force acting upon me, I have no other point of contact with my own development.

Then I realize the necessity of a group (a small, limited, united environment) that remains under my influence and control that allows me to analyze my states, my level of development, and the nature of the influences on me.

Then I think about what, in fact, I can determine in this environment. After all, I need to develop from my current state to a more advanced one, to rise a little above my current level. This means I will gain more power, a greater form of giving than I have now.

To imagine a greater form of bestowal, I cannot take an example from myself or my environment; I need an example from what in Kabbalah is termed the AHP of the upper. In other words, the Creator Himself must enter the picture I imagine and show me this form, just as in our world the big one shows the little one what to do.

Then the little one carries out the action, and through this process begins to understand the big one. Thus, we ultimately arrive at an understanding, an intellect, that emerges as a result of action.

So, there must be:

• I,
• the world, or the group, friends, and
• the Creator as the Giver of true form.

It is in accordance with this form that I structure the group. Neither I nor my environment understand or can reason about what our corrected form is. I am beginning to understand what it means to give more than I do now. And this is something new that I did not have.

Here you can ask: “You have received this understanding from above, but you said that your next form, in fact, already exists inside you, encoded in your gene. All you need from the outside is strength.” This next form exists in a broken form in a Reshimo, and to identify this Reshimo, you must see what it should be in its corrected form.

This form exists inside you, in your genes, so you can recognize what the Creator is communicating to you from the outside. We can only perceive from the outside what we have internal prerequisites for. If I have a certain awareness of the meaning of something inside me, and I see a corresponding external phenomenon, then I understand it.

For example, I once got a blow. Now, when I see someone else get a blow, I understand what it means, and I can imagine what they are feeling right now, how it affects them, what accompanies it, and what it leads to. After all, I have already gone through it; it is recorded in me. However, the form in which this happens to him does not necessarily have to be inside me.

Thus, the Reshimot we have inside, in the seed, in the kernel, in the soul, are not yet enough to give me a picture, an image of how I should look in each particular state. This is why I need the Creator to give me what is called a “picture of the Creator” before my eyes, and each time He shows me some semblance of a higher stage than mine.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, “Rosh Hashanah”

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Question: What should our approach be toward a friend in the group that seems to be showing disregard for you or others? How can we elevate him, the group, and the goal in our own eyes?

Answer: Our teachers wrote extensively about how we should relate to our environment. I do not think there is a Kabbalist who has not written about this. However, they offered only brief guidelines, either because these matters were self-evident to them or because other writings on the subject already existed.

Moreover, writing was expensive—where could one even get paper? Rabash told me what a challenge that was. Today, of course, we have paper in abundance. Nevertheless, we see that each of the Kabbalists touched on this subject in one way or another.

When we perceive our environment as something indispensable for advancing toward spirituality, many questions arise. We encounter a thousand different situations, and I do not think it is possible to provide a prescription for every single one. However, based on everything the Kabbalists have written and the principles they have established, it should be clear to us how to respond to one phenomenon or another.

You are asking about a friend who shows disregard for others. If this is someone who has always been together with us, but now I suddenly notice that he is acting dismissively, he may be undergoing a crisis.

In that case, I must help him. I should gather several other friends and take care of him as I would care for someone who had fallen from the tenth floor and lost spiritual consciousness. He is sick, he is unconscious, and I must somehow help him continue on his path from this state until he recovers.

However, if this state has become permanent for him, and he prefers various social circles that are completely contrary to our spirit; if he comes here with different opinions and wants to instill ideas in us that are not found in the books we consider holy (primarily the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash), then that is the end of it!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

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A person arrives to the desire to become like the Creator through their own inner development. But if the group discusses this and begins to value it, they thereby evoke a collective surrounding light. This influences everyone, and makes each individual more sensitive.

There is no need to actively exert force from within the group. If the group focuses its attention on these details of perception, the individual, through the general illumination from above that the group evokes, naturally gains heightened sensitivity to them.

For instance, suppose we decide to raise the level of awareness of the importance of a particular matter within the group, for example, the idea that everyone, without exception, start a family. We would not pressure the bachelors; we would simply discuss the topic in a positive, light, framing it as an essential standard for everyone, something absolutely necessary, and so on.

You don’t address them directly or pressure them, nothing of the sort. You will find that they will not be able to remain here; they will either leave or get married.

I am not suggesting we actually do this; it is only a neutral example. They will not be able to remain here because the opinion of the group, combine with the light from above that we have drawn upon us in by focusing on this specific aspect, would exert such an influence that they will immediately see everything clearly.

Or, suppose we elevate a certain property relating to the group or to the Creator to the greatest height possible for us. You will see how the entire group’s sensitivity to that quality intensifies. No punishments are needed here. A person will feel an internal fear of being left behind. The group exerts pressure.

Unfortunately, for now, we have yet to establish and demand adherence to some of the most crucial principles that ought to be literally burning within the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

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Comment: Our problem is that we always lack something. We cannot break through toward the goal.

My Response: You will always feel weak and incapable of doing anything. Even if people shout at you and pressure you, you disregard it. For months, some standard, a certain demand, will stand before you, and you will be unable to approach it and change yourself in accordance with it. Such is the path.

This will continue until this feeling intensifies to such an extent that you will hate your state and be compelled to change it. This is how we work against each of our properties. One can disregard something for years, not want it, be incapable, remain in evil, and not find the strength to eradicate it. It is clear that you are not doing what is required; everyone demands it of you, and you cannot.

How can one ensure that it will not take so much time, that I force myself to act instead of sitting all the time under the rule of this evil without touching it? This will happen only if we increase the pressure of the group, raise the standard, and elevate the importance of this property in the eyes of the environment.

I can sit for months over some bad property that I must work on and do nothing. I know about it and cannot force myself to do anything. Only if the group elevates the importance of this will I find the endurance and do it. Otherwise, a very long time will pass until this suffering accumulates in me to such an extent that I begin to act.

A person is unfortunate if they are in an environment that does not awaken a desire to overcome various properties, to correct what they must correct, and to perform the necessary actions. Such a group truly brings no benefit.

A group ought to evoke a sense of pain in a person whenever they neglect something, even for a moment, and does not engage with it. This is, in essence, the main help we need from the group if we speak of the form of negation and criticism, and in the positive sense—to realize love.

Here, each of us faces a particular problem. We know what we must correct, improve, and do, even in a practical sense, in action and not in intention, and we cannot. This can continue for years if the group does not insist on it. Moreover, one must distinguish whether this relates to a person’s character or to their advancement toward the goal. Here, one must learn to draw the line: is it character or an increased desire?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/9/26, Rabash, “Go Forth from Your Land”

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The group’s work should be directed at each of its members ensuring that each member feels that they are under constant control and persistent spiritual pressure, compelling them to conduct themselves properly.

One should be ashamed to look into the eyes of one’s friends if one lets them down by “drilling a hole in the common boat,” risking the lives of everyone on board. Therefore, it helps a lot when everyone in the group reminds one another of how dependent they are on each other.

If I am sitting here dejected, struggling, feeling disappointed, detached, or exhausted, I have to understand that by doing so, I am effectively cutting off the oxygen supply to my friends, and I should feel ashamed before them. We need to constantly develop a sense of responsibility within ourselves. Now we are given the opportunity to experience this feeling. That is why I consider our current state to be very good. Let us try to feel it together, and you will see how simple it is.

In fact, there is no fatigue. What does Gmar Tikkun (final correction) entail? Does it mean a person no longer sleeps, eats, or drinks, or perhaps is in some kind of euphoria, as if floating? What happens in this state? Does one experience fatigue? Does one ever feel a need to take a break from spirituality? After all, when nothing changes, it is also not a very good state either: it can be an unhealthy, hyperactive, or overstimulated state.

Gmar Tikkun is a benevolent state of inner balance between you and the Creator, because it is only through this balance that a state of peace is achieved. At each degree, balance is felt for a moment. And then, when egoism grows again, and correction grows accordingly, and they merge, peace is felt again for a certain period of time. And so on, until we reach eternal peace.

Therefore, we must attain a state in which constant striving forward will be felt by us as the most absolute peace.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/30/26

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