Question: Why doesn’t the Creator give us the ability to check whether our actions are correct?

Answer: It is very simple. If I truly see myself as the only one in the world and relate this to the Creator and to the fact that I must work in relation to Him, then I really have no way to know who I am, what I am, who the Creator is, or what He does, because He is concealed.

If He is concealed, then I myself am in concealment. I have nothing against which I could check myself.

If only the Creator and the created being exist, then nothing can be done. Imagine that there is the Creator and there is the creature. And then what? How can you raise the creature to the level of the Creator? If the Creator were revealed, the creature would be completely under His power and would be forced to perform acts of bestowal without knowing why it does so. It would be just like now when we are dominated by the desire to receive.

We must be under the influence of two types of nature. But how can both this happen simultaneously? Whichever one has the greater influence is the one I will choose. Since I myself am made of the desire to enjoy, I take pleasure either from receiving or from giving. I would also perceive the presence of the Creator as pleasure, and then I would either be in impurity or in holiness, because pleasure can be received from both.

In order for a person to be independent, the Creator must conceal Himself. Then there is a question of how a person for whom the Creator is hidden can check oneself? If a person has no reference point by which to measure himself, orient himself, and determine who he is and what he is, how could he possibly advance?

Therefore, the Creator, in concealing Himself so as not to bribe a person with pleasures, gave the group in His place, something a person cannot sell himself to. On one hand, the group does not give him pleasure the way the Creator does, nor does it give him life the way the Creator does. On the other hand, it is an external force, something outside of him.

Therefore, if a person wants to cling to the Creator by connecting himself with the group and giving to it, then in relation to the group he acquires true intention for the sake of bestowal and becomes similar to the Creator in a genuine way. In essence, he uses bestowal to the other in order to become like the Creator.
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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: If there is a group in which I introduce spiritual laws to the extent I understand them, do I check every time to what extent I do not conform to them?

Answer: It turns out that we build the spiritual form of a group by each one imagining it as a society that works with relationships among friends as a means to achieve the Creator. In other words, a group is not just some bodies but a shared concept we construct in our thoughts.

The calculation is simple. There is a certain amount of striving for the Creator awakened in these people. Maybe they do not even feel it yet. They are looking for the meaning of life and so on. This is a hidden yearning for the root from which they receive obstacles, blows, and suffering.

Then they ask the same question: “What is the meaning of my life?” But now it is addressed to the root. They do not know this, but initially, this question is addressed at the Creator, as at the root of suffering, at His reverse side (Achoraim), since He is currently activating concealment through His reverse side.

Then, if they already have a direction toward the Creator, given by Him initially, they must grasp this direction and develop it amidst all the obstacles that come to them, especially in matters concerning building a group.

There are obstacles on the corporeal level: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. And there are obstacles on the human level, which act between friends. Here, I am already reach a state where the obstacles interference as if become “ideological.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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Let’s remind each other and be inspired by the greatness of our spiritual goal, by the environment that aspires to it, and by the unique opportunity of freedom of choice that has been given to us. How many people in the world truly have the possibility to act freely? If all people act according to the dictates of their nature, then there is no one who is truly “acting.”

If I am completely governed from above, then there is no “me.” It is said: “I came, and there was no man.”

There are many people, yet it is as though they do not exist, for not one of them is free in their actions. If there is no human being who possesses freewill, then there are no worlds, nothing at all except the world of infinity (Olam Ein Sof).

With respect to the Creator, nothing else exists. Only the one who performs a free action exists.

Imagine this picture of reality: complete emptiness! And within it, only a few desires are visible, which have risen and are capable of performing free actions.

And you have the opportunity to be just as free and to become Man (Adam)! Therefore, let us realize the greatness of this unique opportunity.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, Baal HaSulam, Preface “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

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We must prioritize the greatness of the friends and the greatness of the group as one. “One” means something whole. It is not a digit followed by two, three, and four, but the collective of all. I perceive myself as zero. Then, according to the number of zeroes that in my sensation separate me from the one, I raise my level.

After all, I may consist of 613 corrected desires directed toward the Creator, and this would be the smallest complete degree. The point is that here I have the opportunity, not only to correct my desires, but to increase them immeasurably. Then a vessel opens for a person, one that is without limit.

This is what the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” gives.

Thus, through establishing such relations in the group, we receive spiritual forces from the first vessel to the last. Everything is entrusted to the individual according to one’s free choice. And what is interesting is that this implies that the magnitude of the vessel a person develops does not depend on the size of the group or on the greatness of the friends, but only on how many zeroes a person places between himself and the unit, that is, between oneself and the complete image of the group in one’s eyes.

There are many details here to clarify, but the crucial point is how a person annuls oneself and by what one magnifies the group. The greatness of the society in one’s eyes and this entire matter of self-nullification (when a person as if submits to the power of the group) must be determined solely by connection with the Creator and nothing else.

If a person gathers all these factors together, then they direct themself toward the goal.
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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 should I relate to the group correctly? The group must help me understand this and give me the strength to change myself. The group must do everything. It is like the Creator.

But the group must hold one more idea. It demands this from me not so that we would give to one another and live well like in a hobby club.

It must have a clear goal; we do all this not for the convenience of our stay here but in order to become similar to the Creator, to achieve adhesion with Him. Then everything will succeed.

But if we do not have this goal, we will fail as it happened in Soviet Russia and in our Kibbutzim. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the article “The Peace.”

To the extent that we are able to build a group and establish it in the correct form in relation to ourselves, to that extent it will serve us in place of all the means we lack for attaining the goal.
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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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We have a rule that everything comes from one source “to delight the created beings.” In order to attain this, we must use what stands before our eyes, what surrounds us.

And what surrounds us are the friends. Everything you do must be directed toward attaining the purpose of creation, the degree of “to delight the created beings.” For this, you must draw closer to the friends through 125 degrees. If you do so, you will ascend to the Creator through those same 125 degrees.

It is said that the commandments between a person and his friend precede the commandments between a person and the Creator. The Creator is concealed whereas the friend is near. If you perform actions in relation to the friend, this advances you toward the Creator to the same extent that you make efforts with respect to the friends.

A person does not feel toward whom he is performing the action if it is outside of his body: “I want to be connected with the Creator because I have some hope of receiving something from Him. But what can the friend give me?”

With respect to my will to receive, there is a difference between the Creator and the friend. From the Creator, I hope to receive pleasure, but from the friend, what pleasure can I receive? At most, some small corporeal enjoyments.

However, if we are speaking about bestowal, about exiting the will to receive, then with respect to both the friend and the Creator, it is the same.

Only with regard to the friend can I truly see whether I have exited the will to receive and no longer think of myself. With respect to the Creator, I may have illusions. There, I can completely deceive myself because I have no real control.

But in relation to the friend, it can be seen immediately whether I am able to do something or not.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/26, Rabash, “Purpose of Society – 2”

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Every disturbance on the spiritual path is a collection of various means that a person acquires: greater understanding, greater faith (since a person passes through this disturbance by faith), and a greater need for connection to the group, because he sees that only through this can he be saved.

A person comes to value this entire vessel that begins to take shape before his eyes: the true, collective vessel of the soul. He begins to reveal that this collective Kli is called the Shechina, as it is said: “The Shechina will dwell among us.”

Thanks to disturbances, a person becomes wiser. Otherwise, where would wisdom come from? By transforming the force of the disturbance into a useful force, I see the gap between the two: between what I previously understood as a disturbance and what has now become something useful. It becomes clear to me that even then, it was not a disturbance but a benefit, that it turned me exactly in the direction needed, and that earlier, I could not have received this force in any form other than as a disturbance.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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Question: When I lift a friend’s spirits, aren’t I adding satisfaction to his will to receive? And must he then somehow return this work to me?

Answer: The point is that everything depends on what your words are clothed in right now, on your intention when you praise a friend. I am not exalting him personally. I am exalting the idea of bestowal toward one another that exists in our group. By doing this, I educate the whole group and myself about how special and spiritual the act of bestowal is.

With the intention to praise a friend, by thanking him in front of the group, I must evoke a certain attitude toward the act of bestowal, not toward him personally. This should elevate all of us to the level of appreciating the importance of bestowal.

This is a problem we can observe in our ordinary daily life. I can give you something, and you will accept it with love because it feels good to you. But I can give you the same gift in such a form or with such an attitude that you will want to get rid of it at all costs. You will feel very bad. In other words, I can evoke all kinds of sensations in you through the very fact that I give you something.

We must clothe the praise of a friend in such an intention that I am elevating, not the friend, but the Creator who has given us the strength to act. Because if you had not received these forces from the Creator, you would not be able to do even something insignificant that is good toward me.

It turns out that for the sake of good relations between us, we turn, not to one another, but to the higher force that gives us the ability to do this.

First, the fuel, the intention within each of us directed toward bestowal, can be given only from above if we are worthy of it. By this we glorify the higher force, not ourselves.

Second, it becomes arranged in such a way that no matter how much you praise someone in the group, we cannot become proud of it, because the overall atmosphere is such that this simply cannot happen. We are occupied with advancement, not with looking at one another.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/26, Rabash, “Purpose of Society – 2”

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There is an action called bestowal, and the Creator’s position as the giver. By performing acts of bestowal within the group and thus building one’s Kli, perfecting oneself in this action, and becoming similar to the Creator in this action, a person attains the status of the Creator.

In one of his letters, Baal HaSulam gives the example of a king who wished to elevate a servant, so he  subjected the servant to various trials so that, through all these actions, the servant would learn what it means to be a king; and then, in his attained state he would become like a king. Bestowal as such is not the goal either. Bestowal is a form of external equivalence to the Creator.

Therefore, if we work in the group in order to bestow, because this form is the Creator’s external form in relation to us, then we merit becoming like Him in our inner qualities. And what those inner qualities are, we cannot even express, but one eventually reaches them. If the Creator were revealed, we would not be able to perform this, because in that case, He would have dominion over us.

But here we are in a state where there are no pleasures, bestowal does not attract, it repels. To counter this, we must intensify the greatness of the Creator, this ideal of becoming equal to Him. In order to carry out an act of bestowal within the group, we need the revelation of the Creator, not in the form where He is revealed as pleasure, but in the form where He is great as a goal. Then we gain strength to work with the group; it gives us fuel for bestowal.
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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: In the process of building the group, each of its members and the group as a whole receives obstacles. Is the purpose of these obstacles to increase the aspiration toward the Creator and the feeling of the need for Him?

Answer: You must imagine that a certain vessel is suspended in the air, and this vessel is the most important thing for us. Wie will reveal the Creator in it, at first as if it is outside of us and later perhaps in a more internal form when we feel that all our hearts together are building this vessel. Why do I speak about an external form? Because one must direct attention outward, beyond oneself. Under no circumstances should we relate to one another as to a closed society that needs no purpose beyond itself.

Question: I am asking about the tool called the group. In building it, a person receives obstacles. What is their purpose?

Answer: The purpose of the obstacles a person receives while building the group or while shaping his attitude toward it, is precisely so that he will establish the correct attitude. How do I know what that attitude should be? In other words, what should the final vessel look like? I attain this through the obstacles that I constantly receive and correct.

To overcome obstacles means to acquire them and integrate them within oneself as a beneficial force. Through this, I become wiser and more experienced, and next time, I will receive a greater obstacle. Each obstacle, once corrected, becomes within me an effective operating force.

Our problem is that we hardly feel that next time we will be stronger, because the next time we fall even deeper. And yet, every detail joins the whole. That is why I fall more deeply.

Without these obstacles, how would I build myself? It is the same in our corporeal life: another exam, another test, another assignment, and so on. Through this, a person grows.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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