As long as the Creator is not revealed to us, we take the group as the defining factor and use it in place of the Creator. I enter the group and resolve that its opinion will apply to me as if the Creator were revealed.

Then I receive strength from the group, the power of authority over me. Therefore, I deliberately prepare myself for connection with the group in order to dissolve within it, so that it will begin to rule over me and give me a feeling of the greatness of the Creator.

I deliberately enter the group and position it in relation to myself so that the friends will overturn all my thoughts, all my desires, effectively giving me a new mind.

But this work does not end with a single act of closing my eyes and throwing myself into the group, and that is it. It is a meticulous process that continues in every moment. In this lies its difficulty.

Here, there must be a decision that comes from my side. This is called effort. It consists of going against the desire that I have and building this in full awareness, without closing my eyes. The entire success lies in this.

If a person succeeds methodically in allowing his “brain to be washed” regarding this abstract idea that he hates, he will see that the heavens clear up, and together with the growing difficulties he will increasingly enter concealment until he comes to revelation.

Thus, the effort lies in the free choice of the group, and this feels dreadful, no one wants it, but we must choose this each and every moment and use this choice in order to place the group so that it will “wash my brain” precisely with the idea that the Creator is great and must rule over me.

This cannot be done directly with the Creator because we would simply use our will to receive and would never be able to carry this out as we do with the group. In the group, I make efforts against my desire, override my nature, and am ready to annul myself, to lose myself within it.
[353815]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

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The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity] (Maor VaShemesh. Parashat VaYechi).

When we gather in the ten, we must care about the Kli (vessel) in which the Creator is revealed and not about His revelation itself. Attaining the Creator consists of building a state within ourselves in which He is bound to be revealed, since He fills everything. All we need is the basis upon which He can manifest, nothing more.

For example, in the blackness of outer space there appears to be no light. But if you place some barrier there, you see that the entire space is flooded with light, because now the light has something to strike against, something from which to reflect. So it is in our state: we must ask for the creation of the Kli (vessel), not for the revelation of the Creator.

We must pay attention to this, because then we will be more precisely directed toward what is required of us, what depends on us, and what we must accomplish, and the Creator will be revealed immediately, automatically. This is a law of nature.

To the extent that we create suitable conditions for His revelation, the property of the Creator will manifest according to the law of equivalence of form. That is, if together with the friends I create a mutual property of bestowal, then by this we create the condition for the revelation of the Creator within us, between us

The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity]. Clearly, if there are more than ten then there is more revelation of the Shechina…

“More” is incorrect. HaVaYaH includes no more than ten. It is simply divided into fractional, particular tens. By “increase” a numerical quantity is not meant, but the power of unity.

It is very important to know that any ten ascends upward only through ever-stronger unity. Our dream, our goal, is to be in a complete ten, one that truly consists of ten individuals, which constantly develops and thus rises higher and higher.
[252656]
From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/5/19, Moldova, Lesson 0

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One can come to the recognition of evil only within a group, which serves as a spiritual laboratory, because it is there that you engage with your soul. The soul is perfect and whole, as it was in Adam HaRishon.

However, you see only a tiny part of it. That is, you see everything, but merely as a single point, and within this point lies the entire structure of the soul.

If you take the light and shine it into this point, then, instead of that point, you begin to perceive a distinct world, the world of your own soul, and you begin to live within it. Here everything depends on how much light you draw to illuminate all of your qualities.

It is said that if you attract the light with the help of the group, then your friends become representatives of all the other souls of Adam HaRishon. Then you draw light of great magnitude that is enriched by the other souls with its many nuances, that it shines upon you in accordance with all the sensations you have accumulated, and thereby brings you to an awareness of evil.

In short, everything depends on attracting the surrounding light. This is the ultimate destination.
[353157]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah? – 1”

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What is advancement? It is the attainment of the Creator’s degree, and it is not without reason is it called revelation. We must not merely receive an impression, not merely enjoy, but we must discover His degree, which we reveal gradually until we fully reach His state.

There is no path of suffering in advancement. The path of suffering consists of those states in which I still do not wish to advance, have not found the strength to move forward, and have not realized the group as the only place where I have free choice in order to advance correctly. Thus, I remain in suffering.

These sufferings gradually accumulate until they compel me to seek a way out of them. And when I search, I find this path. Then I agree to enter a group that will obligate me to advance, and I am even ready to pay for it, because otherwise I will again feel suffering.

This process continues until I begin to understand that the problem is not the suffering itself, until I desire to have my own inner aspiration, and that will become my suffering, rather than the animal suffering from blows received. Accordingly, I will work to transform the group so that it ensures my advancement, not from fear of blows, but because the goal is great.

In other words, I cannot advance by means of suffering. Each time, suffering is given only to compel me to change my state. If I am not capable of doing so on my own, then from that point onward I can begin to think, examine, and invest my efforts in the group so that it will awaken me. Then I replace the quality of suffering myself and rise from degree to degree. If I do not do this, suffering comes as though on its own. That is the only difference.

Therefore, free choice lies in choosing the group, in choosing the force that will come to me instead of blows and which will reveal to me how I must change.

Either blows will force me to change or the group will. Through the group, it happens faster, more successfully, and without suffering. Baal HaSulam explains that in this case we gain twice: I shorten the time, and by striving in every state to resemble the Creator, I already feel that I am in some connection with Him, similar to Him.

In every state, I am to some extent in final correction. But this is only if the group provides me with awareness of the necessity to advance toward attaining the Creator’s status. If it does not provide this, I remain in suffering and will never know on my own how to emerge from it or how to change myself.

Each time I wish to use the group for advancement, I will discover within it possibilities and forces, and readiness to receive bestowal from me and to give me the greatness of the Creator in return.  Then the state I feel will resemble final correction to some degree. The group will give me an “awakening from above,” an awakening that comes from outside me, which I lack.
[353580]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

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Question: Why is the goal hidden?

Answer: “I want to come to the Creator.” Let us say I have some kind of desire of this kind. What this desire is, I do not know. What I should do, I do not know. Who is the Creator? What does it mean to “come to Him”? How can I understand that it is I who comes to Him? If I do not know what state I am going to be in, and what exactly will happen to me, then I am just saying the words. Do I know what they mean?

I imagine now that it is good, like a child who thinks it is good to be, say, a policeman: “The policeman is big; he has a gun.” I will also think that it is good to be in union with the Creator. I do not know what properties He has or what is the similarity of form. If I am the same, what will I be? How is He? And Who Is He? Nothing is clear.

But if I initially approach this idea with the help of a group, then I already find out some detail in it. That is, merging with the Creator becomes clearer to me, and to this extent I comprehend Him. Let us say that I comprehended a hundredth part.

Now some kind of obstacle comes again, and again I perform some actions in the group with the same thought of coming to the Creator. After all, initially “Israel, the Creator and the Torah are one.” And again, I am making a clarification.

So I performed my actions in a group, teamed up with my friends, and I gained strength from them because loving my friends should lead me to love the Creator, and again it became clearer to me what “love the Creator” means because I was engaged in fulfilling the commandment “love your neighbor.” As a result, the totality of fulfilling this commandment leads me to fulfill the commandment “love the Creator.” I am building a Kli.

“Love thy neighbor” is the construction of a vessel of 613 parts. Let us put it this way: I am gluing together all the parts of a common Adam HaRishon (The First Man), like pieces of a broken clay vessel, and the glue between them is precisely the fulfillment of the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself.” In this way, I build a Kli.

And what is revealed inside the Kli is already “love the Creator.” When the Creator fills the vessel, He makes me feel exactly this way. Thus one thing becomes the cause of the other.
[353295]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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When he is “not rewarded,” it is the complete opposite—he has no desire for Torah or prayer.

Anything he does in Kedusha is forced on him, and when he introspects, he says about everything that pertains to Kedusha that it is to him as the potion of death, that he wants to quickly run away from all those things around him (Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”).

Question: What does it mean that “anything he does is forced on him”?

Answer: Rabash shows how much a person can be deluded and not see where he actually is. It seems to him that he is about to build a Kli, but if his work is without the application of effort, then he receives the potion of death. It seems to him that he is advancing, rising, and feeling the fruitfulness of the work.

However, if this elevation comes not because he has the possibility to connect with the Creator and rises above all problems and difficulties, but because, when he feels a lack in his ordinary Kelim, he lives only by the fact that he is connected with the Creator thanks to His greatness and not for any other reason—this is called holiness. But if he enjoys the connection with the Creator, and his will to receive and intellect agree with it, this is opposite to holiness.

This diagnosis must be completely clear to a person. The study and the group must help him in this.

First of all, we need the light that reforms, so that first we will see how much our desires are opposite to the desires of the Creator, how all of reality, except for our limited reality, is built on the basis of the desire to bestow. And we, compared to the spiritual reality, are only a tiny grain of sand in which the law of fulfillment according to the will to receive rules. Yet we see that even in this no one has succeeded.

For us this law is not fulfilled. It operates only as preparation so that we will come to the conclusion that this thing is impossible, and we begin to build something opposite to it that is above it. Above it means that we must invert it. A person must prepare many means and examinations for himself that would help him, and that remind him of his advancement. Otherwise there will be no advancement.

Everything with which we agree is rejected in spirituality. It is important to understand what this opposition is because it is not about going against one’s desire, but about the Creator ruling within it.
[353809]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

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Question: If the group is “on fire,” it is easy to follow its lead, but what if it is not?

Answer: If you do not feel that the group is “on fire,” then ignite it. What is stopping you? How? It does not matter how. Shout, shake them up, buy them gifts; do something! Search for a way! Sit with them and talk. Tell them that this is not life, that this is not why we are here. Let us start doing something; begin to awaken them.

The group is an external mechanism in relation to me that will constantly press on me, and force me to change. Yet the moment I feel I am in need of change, I must invest myself into the group. Then the group will return this to me, and many times more than what I invest in it.

The group includes many desires to receive: separate, uncorrected desires that exist in various relations with one another. Each of the friends goes through ascents and descents, and because of this the group is always in its own internal movement.

Internal changes take place within it by its very nature because it includes many forces that are foreign to one another. One rises, another descends, and due to this the group is constantly changing.
[354008]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/26, Rabash, “What Are Day and Night in the Work?”

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Question: What causes failure when we try to awaken a spiritual idea?

Answer: Failures occur because we cannot awaken the group by simply shouting about it because our cry instantly dissipates. Instead it requires the work of each individual making a demand of everyone else. Each person should catch themselves: if they disagree that the greatness of the Creator should be the main thing in the group, they should pull out this point of disagreement and stick to the group’s opinion without hesitation.

This is called going by faith above reason. This will not be considered fanaticism, because with each step a person reveals a greater degree of reason. And each time, one is compelled to subject the matter to a rational analysis. Nothing can be done.

The group’s opinion is that the goal of adhesion with the Creator is the only thing we have, and there is nothing else in our lives besides it.

This should be the general attitude. For example, as it happens during Passover, there is a general excitement. It may not be very clear to us that it relates to the greatness of the Creator; the goal is not entirely clear, but there is a sense of upliftment. Everyone seems to be floating slightly above the ground.

The same atmosphere should prevail in the group, and you should not let yourselves fall. This must determine how and what I do in my life.
[353863]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place’ in the Work?”

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Question: How can I tell whether or not I have succeeded in attributing everything to the Creator? And if I have not succeeded, what should I do next?

Answer: Success means that right now, I feel that I am taking a step forward and clarifying my state more deeply. This does not mean that I gain clear vision against the disturbances. I gain clarity in the sense of the saying: “You shall see your world in your lifetime,“ but this is not yet the true attainment of the goal.

However, when causes and consequences become revealed to me as the governance of the Creator, I begin to understand that through this action, I have united my attitude, His work upon me, and the state to which I have arrived. That is, His governance becomes clarified to me in some form, but it becomes clarified only so that I will immediately fall into an even greater disturbance and clarify it in an even greater darkness.

Thus, each time I am given additional strength and knowledge, or one could say, the strength of knowledge, so that I will be ready for the next disturbance.
[353309]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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How can one come from Lo Lishma to Lishma? It is written: “When teaching children, women, and uneducated people, they are taught to work only out of fear and in order to receive reward. Until they gain knowledge and acquire much wisdom, they are taught that secret little by little”. This means that within us, there are certain qualities called “women, children, and uneducated people.” And if I begin to study the method of advancing toward the Creator, even if I have nothing except these qualities, I can still advance from them and reach their correction, reach the goal.

In essence, this is how everyone begins. No one is born a great Kabbalist. Of course, everyone has a different level of preparation according to what a person has gone through in previous incarnations, but no one is born with qualities that are ready to feel the upper one and to live in the upper world.

You yourself must create the desires to feel the spiritual world within you; you create them out of sufferings, one after another! Otherwise, you will not feel the thirst for knowledge and will not feel its fulfillment.

There is no other way but to go step by step, desire after desire. It cannot be acquired in any other way. Everyone must go through the entire path. Therefore, you are given the opportunity to choose whether to shorten the path, to pass it quickly and joyfully, or to stretch it out and receiving blows and suffering.

What is the purpose of suffering and prolonging time? How do they help, what do they prevent? In any case, you go through the same degrees, but at each of them, until you acquire mind and reason, you suffer and receive blows that return you to the previous state.

For example, you are standing before a difficult problem, before an obstacle: “I am tired of all this. I do not want it anymore. The goal is far away; maybe they are right, but in just a few months I have already heard everything they talk about here. In short, I do not feel that I can stay here. I will go home.”

And so your life returns to its usual track. Blows and sufferings begin, but you still do not connect them with anything: “Everyone in this world suffers.” You spin around, burn your life, you are born again, and so it continues until you return to the thought that it is impossible to live like this, and the same question arises again: “What is the meaning of my life?” Then you will come again to Kabbalah, and again you will find yourself in a state in which you will need the support of the environment.

In other words, if in the previous state (when you left everything and went away) you had turned to the environment and received support, desires, impressions, excitement, and inspiration of the feeling of the greatness of the goal from it, you could have advanced successfully. But instead, you drop out for dozens of years only to return to the same place, being more ready to listen to the environment. That is all that has changed.

All our study is intended only for this: at every degree, at every step, to protect us from such dropouts that last dozens of years, and to move forward without deviating to the side. This is our entire choice.
[352953]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Before the Egyptian Minister Fell, Their Outcry Was Not Answered, in the Work?”

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