Question: How can I advance if the desire to receive dominates me?

Answer: Indeed, the Creator constantly activates the desire to receive in you to advance you, and then you feel that it dominates you again. It is not even that it dominates you, but that you are that desire to receive.

But to feel its power over you, you need the upper light that gives you the feeling that there is something besides the desire to receive—the desire to bestow. Then you realize that the desire to receive and you are not the same thing. There must be a third party.

If you have this separation between you and the desire to receive and the awareness of its power, this is salvation. Now something is up to you.

You have come out of unconsciousness and can act. You think “I am not my egoism, my hater, the one who prevents me from advancing. I would kill it, but how do I seize it? It is like a cancer in me.” You should start looking for some kind of cure. The cure from egoism can only be the light.

Your problem is that you do not really want this cure. Then you should go to a group that will strengthen your awareness of evil, so that you would see that this disease is killing you and separates you from eternal life to such an extent that you start to scream. It is the real scream that opens the heavens.
[353318]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/13/26, Rabash, “What Is the Preparation to Receive the Torah in the Work?-2”

Related Material:
Under the Control of the Desire to Receive
The Main Choice in Life
The Cure for Egoism

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

When we look at our history, which must occur within every person, the entry into Egypt and the exit from it, the splitting of the Red Sea, approaching Mount Sinai, and standing at its foot, we do not see that a person somehow acts or influences what is happening. The Torah says categorically: “This is how it was.”

Everything is predetermined, and we are already at the end of this development. Now this development that is programmed in potential must be realized in each and everyone without exception and without any possibility of avoiding it.

We see that everything is connected by a chain of cause and effect: the need for a state and its birth, which in turn generates the need for the next state and its birth, and so on. But our role in this is to accelerate the states, to participate in them consciously, and to increase our sensitivity to what is happening. But we can develop sensitivity only with the help of the group.

The group can increase my awareness of evil and good in a wide variety of states and can intensify my sensitivity to them so much that I will feel how they occur within me every split second rather than once every few days, weeks, or months.

Everything depends on the degree of sensitivity. When I acquire it and begin to understand my states, I begin to determine their quality, their essence, and what is good and what is evil.

Thus, gradually, in the light that influences me, I begin to connect good and bad states in relation to the status of the Creator until my nature becomes hateful to me. Then I reach the foot of Mount Sinai, which is called so because I come to hatred (Sina in Hebrew) toward my own nature, and therefore I merit receiving the Torah.
[353033]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”

Related Material:
Beginning Of Spiritual Liberation
From Exiting Egypt To Receiving The Torah
Today We’ve Left Egypt

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

Question: Where can I receive the correct attitude to any subjective sensation from and how can I establish the correct attitude toward it?

Answer: How can I evaluate each of my sensations? How can I measure it and be sure that I am examining it in the right way? I cannot. It is only in relation to the group. The group is the measuring instrument in place of the Creator.

If my attitude toward the group is truly one of bestowal, if the group places the concept of bestowal (what is called the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the Creator) at the highest level and shows me how important it is, while all other qualities and states are low in comparison, then relative to this I can measure myself, my thoughts, intentions, and how I plan my time and my life.

But if I do not have such the standard that the group provides for me, then relative to what will I measure myself? I can invent all kinds of measuring systems on my own, but with them I will always justify myself. I have no ability to verify myself unless I construct some standard outside of myself, such as the group. Otherwise, how would I know how to measure?

Ask people on the street, everyone is a righteous person, everyone is giving. No one considers themselves to be a sinner. A person cannot call himself a sinner, because his “I” would be harmed to such an extent that he wouldn’t be able to tolerate himself. And he cannot allow that because it is a terrible feeling. We immediately cover it with something.

Therefore, if not for the group constantly pressing on me, awakening me, pushing me in the right direction, demanding progress from me, and giving me the correct indication of what I should be, then I would have no possibility to advance.
[353535]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

Related Material:
The Group Is My Spiritual Tuning Fork
A New Focus With The Eyes Of The Group
The Art Of Shooting At An Invisible Target

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

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.
[353526]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

Related Material:
The Creator Is Hidden, But The Group Is Open
A Free Slave
Help The Light Appear

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

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.”
[353340]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

Related Material:
Spiritual Disturbances
Thank The Creator For Disturbances
Shift All Problems To The Spiritual Realm

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

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.
[15977]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/10, Baal HaSulam, Preface “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot”

Related Material:
Free Will: What Is It?
The Opportunity to Gain Freewill
Free Will Is Above Desire

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

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.
[353291]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

Related Material:
Love Your Neighbor As Yourself
You Don’t Buy Spirituality Nor Take It By Force
A Zero And Another Zero, As Many Zeros As Possible

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

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.
[353538]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

Related Material:
What Is a Group?
Friends For A Purpose
The Group As A Spiritual Entity

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

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.
[353499]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/24/26, Rabash, “Purpose of Society – 2”

Related Material:
The Most Important Commandment
Don’t Forget about the Ultimate Goal
The Priority Is Relationships Between Friends

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

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.
[353372]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

Related Material:
What Is Revealed from the Actions of the Creator?
Seeing The Highest Impact In Everything
Obstacles Guide Us On The Way

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