There is no true state in my attitude toward a friend that I can measure with some fixed, objective “ruler.” Everything is measured relative to me.

Who decreed that this is so and that is so? It is always a person who measures. Is there anyone other than a human who could tell me what things are and how they are? The units of measurement are always defined by me.

But when we enter spirituality, as I attain it, I already know what it is that I attain, where I am, what constitutes the place I find myself in, and what it encompasses. That is to say, as I sense, I know exactly what I am sensing. I receive definitions, an understanding of what these things are called. I perceive things that I had never seen before, yet I instantly recognize them: “Oh! This is this, and that is that!” I know what it is because attainment is also understanding.

And then the language of branches is revealed to me. I do not need a translator in the spiritual world to translate my new sensations of that world into the old language of the material world.

Question: Does this mean that I see the true picture of reality?

Answer: Truth is defined as the state in which I measure everything with my correct Kelim (vessels), but they are my own.
[356926]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”

Related Material:
Spiritual Attainment Is the Truth
Spiritual Attainment Is Not Fiction
What Is Attainment in Kabbalah?

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

Question: We constantly say that we must choose the best environment, one that gives us an awareness of the importance of spirituality. But if there are people in the group who come only once a week, what should we do with them? Should we support them? After all, don’t they weaken the group?

Answer: In the group there are people who come every day and give one hundred percent of themselves, and I see this. Naturally, I want to unite specifically with them. But there are also people who make less effort and come only once a week. Should I unite with them? What can I receive from them? Only weakness! Soon I myself will start coming once a week and become like them. Is that so?

What I receive from the friends, from the environment, from this world, and from the Creator depends on my attitude toward them, not on what they themselves are. Suppose I look at a friend who comes once a week, yet I value him for it, because this is what the Creator gives him. After all, he still comes; he has the readiness and the desire to be with us.

And if I value the little that exists in him (though perhaps it is not so little!), if I value everything positive in him and understand that this quality is the result of the Creator’s influence upon him, then I am regarding the part of the Creator that is within him, and I magnify that part.

This may be true even with respect to the weakest friend or a complete newcomer from whom I can still receive an impression. In other words, everything depends not on the person himself, but on my ability to make a correct assessment.

Nevertheless, everything begins with the fact that we see people who are making efforts, and then we naturally attach ourselves specifically to them and want to be closer to them. After all, this is much easier, clearer, and more reliable.

But this depends on the size of my Kli, not on the true greatness of the friend himself. If there is even the slightest spark of the Creator within the friend, if the Creator wishes to bring him closer and acts upon him, that is enough for me to receive an impression and inspiration from him.
[356922]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/19/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”

Related Material:
Exalt the Friends
See Friends as the Greatest
Identify the True Goal

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

Question: How can I unite with an external Kli, one that lies outside of me? What do we experience when we do this?

Answer: We are not able to connect with the Creator because of His concealment. Even if His presence were not concealed from us, we still would not be able to do this because the nature of our will to receive will not allow us to perform actions with an intention for the sake of bestowal.

However, I have the possibility to unite with my friends. We do not even understand how skillfully this world is arranged and adapted precisely for work in society. The structure of our world is such that from the root we are led to this work.

I have the inclinations called envy, lust, and the pursuit of honor. Through these inherent traits I come to a true clarification of desire and intention. That is, the will to receive has three forces: envy, lust, and thirst for honor. With the help of these forces, relationships arise between a person and those around him; he begins to unite with those outside of him, to receive from them.

These same channels allow a person to determine where he himself and his friends are relative to his ego. I strive for the spiritual, and that is precisely why I should place myself into a society of like‑minded people, to remain in close proximity to other people.

This realization penetrates our consciousness very slowly. Years can pass before a person begins to understand that the solution to the problem lies in this, that this is where the stumbling block is. For years I heard and read about the importance of the group, and despite this, I perceived the work in society as something secondary. I simply could not do anything about it. Now I understand that in fact this really is important, that it is precisely the group that is the key to the spiritual.

I can write a thousand times: “The key to the spiritual is the friend; the key to the spiritual is the friend.” It will not help. It simply will not help. Only after many events and states pass will the feeling of the importance of the group begin to manifest not only in the mind, but also in the heart.
[356903]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
Adjusting To The Higher Tuning Fork
A Group Is A Unique Entity
A Tuning Fork Focused On The Creator

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

What motivates us to seek the desire to bestow? It is the surrounding light. There is no other way. We have only two forces: the desire to receive and the light opposite it. Do not look for any additional details.

We are just unwilling to agree with it. We do not understand it because we are only a desire to receive; it is our nature. If we had even a small fraction of the qualities of the Creator, everything would fall into place. We would gain an understanding of the system of spiritual development. Otherwise, it is unclear because we lack the force of bestowal.

Question: How can I strive for spirituality if I have no idea of the upper world? What example should I use?

Answer: You have no example. Only based on proper work in a group, studying, disseminating, and working with friends will you gradually build up some kind of an idea of spirituality, which will constantly undergo changes, improve, and approach the truth.

What is spirituality? With each state, the answer to this question will be ever more accurate. Sometimes, there can be extremely drastic changes in our understanding of spirituality. You will literally feel a turnaround in your understanding of the upper world: “So, this is not it at all! My ideas about spirituality were completely wrong!”

Some people are already familiar with such states. Such is the process.
[356853]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, “If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,” in the Work?”

Related Material:
Building a Genuine Spiritual Need
An Infant Born in Spirituality
When You Do Not Think About Personal Gain

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

Question: How does a person discern the true Hisaron (lack) for which he raises a prayer?

Answer: A person alone is unable to determine this because it is impossible to truly want bestowal while existing separately from others (without a society or group). You simply do not have the necessary conditions for attaining a Hisaron for spirituality, or even a Hisaron for a Hisaron. These conditions simply do not exist within you.

Only by working in a group, with friends, do you begin to see that you have no real concern for them and do not understand what benefit there is in them. Then you say to yourself: “Very well, I will tolerate them. At least the group gives me some framework for work.”

A you progress, you discover that the friends provide you not only with a framework for work but also with various blows. They awaken sensations within you that, at the very least, jolt you, shake you up, and anger you. With time, you realize that if it were not for this treatment, the reaction and the stimulation from the group, you would have remained asleep for several more cycles of incarnations.

Then you begin to appreciate them, at least a little, and you discover that through a friend you can understand and feel something, that he can, in some way, serve as a supportive tool for you.

And so it continues until, somehow, it finally dawns on you that unless you take what exists in the friend from him, you will have no vessel in which to receive spirituality. Because spiritual attainment is received only through inclusion within the friend. Within you, there will never arise a Hisaron in which you can feel spirituality. Your true vessel is in the friend.

If you were to live like a hermit in some cave or jungle, you would not be able to attain spirituality on your own. You need a group for this. How many people? It does not matter; it could be a group of five, ten people.

At first, you hate the fact that your spiritual progress depends on other people. But eventually, you come to understand and accept this condition. Gradually, you even begin to desire it; you even make efforts for it and work within the group.

To the extent of your contribution to the group and your acceptance of dependence on the friends, you see how much you are or are not able to connect with them. It is revealed to you that you are unable to unite with anyone at all. And this is a direct indication that you are unable to achieve closeness and adhesion with the Creator. It is one and the same thing.

Now you understand that the group constitutes the revelation of the Creator in this world; in any other form His manifestation in the material world is impossible. The group is given to us as a compass, a unit of measurement, and a map that allows us to determine our location relative to the Creator and to recognize Him. Society acts as a kind of instrument indicating where you stand in relation to Him.
[356810]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, “If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,” in the Work?”

Related Material:
The Team Of Stage Builders
Thick Klipot That Cover The Spaces
The Compass Pointing To The Creator

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

We are incapable of transcending ourselves, so the group, the Creator, and those around us are indistinguishable in our sensations; to us, they are one and the same. In other words, if we did not work in a group, we would imagine ourselves to be angels.

But by working in it, you see how detestable your friends are to you. You fail to grasp how necessary they truly are, and you would gladly cast them aside.

Young people often come to me and say: “Why do I need a group? I only want to be your student.” Wonderful, this is a good desire. But they do not understand one thing: without the group, the teacher cannot help them in any real way. He can point out the path, assist and support, much like you support a small child, so that you do not fall. But you yourself must walk this path.

The path to spirituality itself consists of your actions with the group. From the side of the Creator, there may be a certain revelation meant to help you in this world. But your vessels of bestowal are located in other souls, which are also parts of Adam HaRishon (the common soul).

Therefore, before you reach the Machsom, you must complete this entire process and acquire the correct Hisaron through the group. The Egyptian exile, Moses, Pharaoh, the plagues, and all the other states symbolize our work in the group.

Bestowal to the Creator and bestowal to the group are one and the same. Work in the group is divided in stages in which a person builds his Kli: to bestow to the group, to exalt the Creator, and to lower oneself before the group as before the Creator.

By working in the group, a person goes through processes symbolizing various spiritual states: bestowing Keter, receiving Malchut, and so on. A person literally builds his spiritual vessel; there is no other foundation for this.

It is impossible to build one’s Hisaron through one’s attitude toward the Creator, toward oneself, or even toward the teacher. The only means available to us is the group. It is like a laboratory where we learn and prepare ourselves for true spiritual birth, that is, for acquiring the desire to pray for the external Kli, the vessel of bestowal.
[356817]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, “If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,” in the Work?”

Related Material:
The Group Instead of the Creator
The Group Is My Spiritual Tuning Fork
A Change in Inner Definitions

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

Question: Can we enter spirituality without correct prayer?

Answer: Until the proper prayer is formed, nothing can take place. People cry out, “Save me!” because their desire for spirituality is not genuine. It is an animalistic desire. “Give it me! Why won’t You give it me?! After all, You gave me the need, so where is the fulfillment?”

The Creator has endowed you with Hisaron, but His plans do not include filling this need. The Creator has provided you with Hisaron that is not aimed at spirituality. You must shape this desire correctly yourself and build a true spiritual need on its basis.

In essence, He gave you a corrupted Hisaron, a desire for something more than the pleasures of this world. Through your work, you attract the light from above. We call this the surrounding light, the light descending from the Sefirot Netzach, Hod, and Yesod of Partzuf Atik of the world of Atzilut. You attract an illumination to yourself, which gradually builds the right Hisaron in you, and to the extent of your efforts spent on finding the right Hisaron, you feel this illumination.

Otherwise, you will feel other illuminations that shine on you in a non-selective form, just unsorted pleasures from the upper world. But you want to attract a special illumination, a light that returns to the source. To do this, you must want to return to its source (the Creator), i.e., a person must develop his own Hisaron. As it is written: “the woman who conceived first will give birth to a boy.” For this, we have been given a group.

Gradually, this will be revealed to us; there is no other way. You look at the faces of people at the lesson, and see only the outer shell; you do not understand what you have in common, what binds you. But if you penetrate deep within each of them, you will see the souls that are your Kelim. In essence, the souls of your friends are the organs of your spiritual body.

Our initial desire for spirituality is called a point in the heart. We must build a new Kli around this point: instead of a stony heart (Lev haEven), a heart made of flesh (Lev Basar). It is built by joining the other Kelim, the Kelim of your friends, to your black point. As it is written, “I will take away your heart of stone, and create a heart of flesh in you.”
[356821]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
The Birth of a Hisaron
True or Imaginary?
How to Heal Ourselves

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Prayer and Intention, Spiritual Work - No Comments →

How can I unite with a friend if he strikes me as somewhat foolish and constantly cheerful, which I perceive as frivolity? Inside him a fire may be burning, yet outwardly there are just jokes and silliness.

Moreover, the issue isn’t how I can be impressed by this, but simply that he lowers me from my level of appreciating the importance of the goal, and I too begin speaking nonsense. Can a group really bring me to something serious this way?

Rabash writes that, on the one hand, outwardly there should even be jokes, something light but not frivolous, while on the other hand, inside you everything should be burning. How can these be combined? These are very fundamental questions!

Of course, outwardly the group may say all kinds of things, but I am impressed by external expressions, not by what is internal. How do I know what is inside them? If I am influenced by the external, then I too begin speaking nonsense, willingly or unwillingly falling under its influence. On the animate level, this is exactly what happens. So, what should be done? Let us think about it!

Question: But how does a person clarify this? After all, only one thing matters: how the group can increase our desire.

Answer: Yes, that is the answer to the question! Increase the speed. Again, you are not paying attention to Baal HaSulam’s words. He writes two words, and that is all. There is no need to look for additions here. Pace!! That is all! You have no other possibility. Do not think that for every bad or good situation there is some special solution. Bad and good are all a matter of the same pace.
[356667]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/26, Rabash, “The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah”

Related Material:
Two Factors in Choosing Friends
When External Levity Helps and When It Harms
Don’t Slander, Help

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

Question: How can one immediately understand that one is doing evil and causing harm? How can one shorten the time spent going through this process? One could remain in this delusion for years.

Answer: Let’s assume I am doing something. How can I tell if it is good or bad or if it is to my detriment or benefit? How can I shorten the time required to verify and understand? One could remain in this delusion for years, and until you realize this, you will keep circling around various paths  before finally returning to the straight one.

Comment: A person can turn to friends whom he sees as big because sometimes you can annul before them.

My Response: And what would you ask of them? Advice? It might, on the contrary, only confuse you. They might offer a thousand tips, but instead of getting help from the group, a person could become even more confused and weakened. Where does it say to do this?

Comment: We know that only a group changes a person; it shows him where he stands in relation to the goal and what is wrong with him.

My Response: Or maybe, on the contrary, it is he who is fine? But how does the group enable a person to check? By hearing different things? No, it is with its help that he realizes the greatness of the Creator, and that is all! A person gathers an unlimited supply of force from his friends, much like fuel.

For example, instead of 70 octane gasoline, they fill me with 90 octane gasoline, and then I can do everything much faster. Nothing more! The group does not give me their concepts and definitions. It gives me an awareness of the Creator’s greatness, an understanding of who I should be with in my desire to receive, within my difficulties and obstacles.

I am not going to share my personal issues with my friends (nor will they share theirs with me). I have to take only a common force from them—a pull toward the goal. I seek to ensure that the goal, which feels like it occupies only 10% of my field of vision, would capture 50%, 70%, or even 100% of it. This is exactly what I want the group to do for me.

Beyond that, how exactly am I to move toward this great and big goal is entirely my task; I do it. This is my personal individual work; no one should meddle in it. Similarly, the teacher is forbidden to interfere, otherwise you will not have the right concepts of your own, the properties that allow you to feel the Creator. Therefore, it is necessary to protect everyone’s individuality.

All else should be very open. But my personal connection with the Creator—what I clarify with Him, the kind of relationship we have—is between Him and me, while the group provides me only with common energy on the way to Him, and no more.

In addition, we can share knowledge when we study, that this should be one way and that another. But it is forbidden to share what lies within me, within my personal scrutiny.
[356663]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/11/26, Rabash, “The Meaning of the Strict Prohibition to Teach Idol Worshippers the Torah”

Related Material:
The Group Instead of the Creator
The Group Is the Means for Attaining the Creator
The Creator Is the Goal and the Group Is the Helper

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

Question: If I see negative qualities in my friend and detest them, can I redirect this hatred toward my own recognition of evil?

Answer: We have two ways to look at our states: ourselves in relation to the Creator and ourselves in relation to others. These “others” are none other than the Creator, the group, or the friend. I have no other object against which I can examine myself.

Instead of the Creator, we have been given the group. Through it, we can subsequently transition to a relationship with the Creator. Ultimately, we must come to a state where both the Creator and the group exist within a single dimension for us.

In short, it does not matter who is outside of my egoistic vessels. If this distinction matters to me, it means that I am approaching my state with an intention for myself and making various calculations about whom I should treat better and whom worse. By doing this, I am simply deceiving myself.

If I truly want to examine my status as a Kli—to what extent it is corrected or corrupted—then first of all I must regard both the group and the Creator as one and the same in relation to myself. Then I completely nullify my desire to receive, and from that level I can begin measurement. In this way, I can avoid distortion in my inner measurement.

My instrument is an instrument correctly directed from within me outward. Then I will be able to see how to continue developing, and where my true attitude actually lies. And from this point, I begin to work.

It is self-deception to think that something outside differs in relation to my desire to receive. Such deception must not blind me because then I will be unable to remain in the correct position at all.

Of course, this does not mean that I should run around serving everyone now or forcing myself to be good to all. People usually think that this is what should happen and expect a Kabbalist to solve their problems.

I must relate to everyone outside of me in such a way as to nullify my Kelim. I am not supposed to serve the whole world, nor to cater to the egoistic qualities of my friend.
[356312]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/26, Rabash, “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?”

Related Material:
The Group Is My Spiritual Tuning Fork
All The Measurements Are Done In The Group
A Clear Criterion

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