Question: What happens to the animal desires and what should my attitude toward them be?

Answer: Our attitude toward our animalistic desires for food, sex, family should not change. As with all other desires, we should not fight them at all or fixate on them. We should simply acknowledge that they exist.

How much I want or do not want to use them depends on the degree of my correction. I should not lock myself in a monastery or become a hermit in life, go on a strict diet, or anything of the sort.

The truth is that the rule “there is no coercion in spirituality” applies throughout the entire hierarchy from top to bottom. If your mind is focused where it should be, then your heart will follow your thoughts, and your actions follow your heart. For example, there is no need to worry that sometimes you perform actions that do not seem particularly good to you, following the impulses of the body. It is fine; everything will be resolved and corrected.

As the saying goes: “The mother will come and cleanse what her son has done.” That is, correction will come, and either the behavior will cease or it will happen in a different, corrected form. Don’t pay attention to anything else; just keep your mind in the right place, in thoughts shared with the group all directed toward the Creator.

If you begin to ruminate and lament about how bad you are, you will become immersed in these thoughts. But at least after some action or incident—no matter what, you return to the Creator again.

Not regretting the past for even a moment but moving forward is the rule that we must implant into our patterns of behavior. Otherwise, you will sink into despair and devour yourself, as it is said: “The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh”: “Am I really like this? Who am I after all?”

Leave yourself alone, connect with the group in striving toward the Creator. Forget about yourself; you must come out of yourself and not think about “where I am and who I am.” You do not yet know who you are. You will still discover this, and then you will truly tremble. There is nothing to think about here; it is simply bad; it stops your advancement.

In general, one never thinks about the past moment, only forward. One must not turn around and look at something behind oneself. This is done only if the group, or a person sets aside a specific time to examine what happened to him and how he related to it.

Rabash gave his grandmother as an example. When he did some mischief, she would say to him only: “Baruch, be careful.” And two days later, she would call him over: “Baruch, come here. Do you remember your offense? Now I am going to give you a beating.” Try doing the same.

The accounting is done, if it is necessary at all, without the participation of nerves and emotions—in the mind, when you have already completely emerged from the feeling of the past.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 10/5/26

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Question: Where does one acquire a Hisaron, a need, to be in a group?

Answer: A person has no need to be in the group. The need will not arise on its own. It will arise only on condition that the group itself shows the person the extent to which he needs it; otherwise, he will not attain the goal. The group will not provide the person with any other goal; he must know this too. Here, in our group, he cannot attain anything other than one goal. Nothing else.

If he thinks that he will find a cozy place here, delicious food, social gatherings, excursions, and so on, then the atmosphere must be such that only someone striving in the right direction feels good in it.

Everything else may be good or not so good, comfortable or not quite comfortable; that is unimportant. The backrest of the chair should suit only someone who thinks precisely this way.

Even if there are the most delicious meals here… I can show you states in which you receive everything in your life: money, fame, anything you want. However, I will introduce something into this situation that will make you run away from all of it. You will run away because of one single thing, for example, shame. And you will not want any of it; it will be easier for you to die.

The same should be true in the group: a person who is not connected to the goal should feel here that “death is better than this kind of life.” “I do not need this kind of life; I am running away from it.” We had such a case when one of the students suddenly cried out: “What are you doing here?”

It was simply a classic example. He suddenly felt what stood before him, and he ran away in the blink of an eye. That was a genuine revelation. Do you remember that outburst of emotion? He had never experienced anything like it before. In the middle of the lesson, he suddenly cried out and ran away.

In the same way, it must be clear to everyone that they will feel good here and feel that this is their place only in one particular case. There is no place here for anything else.

Question: How can we reach this?

Answer: This is what you must build. That is what it means to “build the group.” The shape of the chair’s backrest, which allows only someone whose head is turned toward the Creator to sit on it; that is what a correct society is. Perhaps I lack the words to express it, but little by little, we are nevertheless beginning to sense these boundaries in some way.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

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Question: What does it mean to be together in one state? What does this togetherness look like?

Answer: What does “together” mean? It means that each person feels truly at home only when they are connected to the goal of attaining the Creator. As for everything else, each person approaches it according to their own emotional makeup, but all feel an equal degree of rejection.

Question: Regardless of their own personal state?

Answer: There are different personal states; there is nothing more to say about that. But all of them are intended to advance us.

You need to awaken in a friend the feeling that you are somehow transmitting to them your own sense of the importance of the Creator and the need to recognize His greatness. You influence them, and they feel certain waves coming from you.

Question: Is this within my power, or does it depend on the friend?

Answer: It is within your power in relation to all the friends. Without a doubt. Start doing it, and you will see what happens. There is enormous power in this; it is a tremendous force. This is a degree entirely different from all the other wandering thoughts and forces around us.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,’ in the Work?”

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Question: When working, are you only in a curse or only in a blessing?

Answer: No. As we rise above the Machsom, we are alternately under a curse and a blessing. After the breaking of the vessels, while under the curse, we can take the Kelim of reception from there, correct them, and transition to a blessing. So every time, we transfer the Kelim from the rule of many to the rule of one.

The rule of the one is the Sabbath (Shabbat); on a weekday, we can use the rule of many when we descend to uncorrected Kelim of reception. The power of many means I think I, too, am in control of the situation and can do something. These are desires in which there is no oneness of the Creator.

What connects these two types of power? What kind of lever helps me move from the left line to the right, from a curse to a blessing? This is Lo Lishma. From Lo Lishma we come to Lishma. Although your own desire to receive is still present in Lo Lishma, you seem to want to act for the sake of the Creator, seemingly with the intention of giving, yet you clearly know you are doing it for the sake of receiving.

In Lo Lishma, you work for the reward. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot“: if you clearly see that you will not receive a reward in your Kelim of reception, you cannot act. Therefore, this state is called “Lo Lishma” (for oneself). Moreover, it becomes an indisputable fact on which you base your decisions.

“Yes, I would really like to do something for the sake of giving. It is very important; I got that impression from the environment. I do not see the Creator. If I could see Him, I could act truly for the sake of giving. Seeing Him would give me the strength to act for the sake of giving.” The light that comes corrects the Kli; this is the meaning of seeing the Creator.

However, when I cannot see Him, when I am in the dark, I can only get a similar impression from my environment. So, no matter how much I pump myself up about the importance of the goal, it still is not the light, nor is it the correction of the Kli through the light. This is, so to speak, a correction through brainwashing. This brainwashing makes me feel like I want to act for the sake of giving, but if I get nothing from it, I cannot do it.

Thus, we are talking about very vague things, in their own way. There is no light here coming and correcting the Kli. On the contrary, man has created a situation where he seems to draw strength from the environment, not from the Creator, and this strength seems enough for him to act for the sake of giving. Everything is conditional, but I ingrained this condition into the situation; I created it.

If a person does everything this way, the Creator responds to him for real, not within the framework of a game a person started.

Lo Lishma is a game: “I wish it were like that.” The same way kids make believe they are building something. But when I tried and did everything I could, as if it were already about spirituality, then the Creator comes and really gives me spirituality.
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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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Throughout the day, I find myself in all kinds of social settings, and I must always position myself and determine the appropriate way of perceiving them so these environments not only do not harm me with regard to my primary goal, but perhaps even help me.

Suppose that, out of necessity, I find myself in a gathering of frivolous people where everyone chats about this and that, talking nonsense. Even from this I can learn how much more important my own environment is to me, and how base the things that occupy the people I am observing at that moment are. I do not feel contempt for them, but such an outing into the world can also help me see how important the things I possess really are, and how important the life I lead is.

After all, everything is understood through comparison. My time at work, at home, and in all sorts of other situations can actually help me appreciate more highly the environment I am in here and recognize how important sublime goals are to the people present here.

Comment: But I am talking about the environment that consists of good people.

My Response: If I am among ordinary people, not thieves or murderers, but people who possess good human qualities, what do I gain from their good qualities? They have simply put on good “makeup,” having received an excellent education in concealing their unappealing qualities and displaying their so-called virtues to others.

Each of them plays their role perfectly, like prim and proper Englishmen. So, what does that give me? Perhaps I should learn to do the same myself? In doing so, I would lead myself into a double deception: not only would I be lying, but I would also believe that it was the truth, and that everything should be exactly that way.

So what is the purpose of such an environment?
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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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Question: When a person is in a group, what is important: only their intention or their actions as well?

Answer: It is impossible for actions not to be important in our world. Who knows a person’s true intentions? Even the person himself does not know his intentions. This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the science of the hidden.

Intentions are the main thing: for what purpose, why, toward what end, and in what direction I am thinking, aspiring, and directing my desire. These intentions are hidden from us so a person can only determine whether an action was correct after it was performed through the reaction it produces.

Therefore, we must take the action itself into account. Naturally, even the worst-looking action can be clothed in another intention. However, in our state, within the group, while we are still below the spiritual level, we do not see what exists beyond the external: intentions, desires, and thoughts.

The spiritual world is a state in which I perceive these as tangible, existing things. I see that there is a field of single thought, a single program, and one desire, called the Creator, which acts and sets everything into motion.

But before I see this field and become included in it, whether by my own volition or not, and before I reach such a level of reality, the external actions of people are very important to me. I am influenced by them.

I see one person sitting at a computer for hours preparing material for others, another hurrying to give lectures, a third doing something else. And I am inspired by this. I still experience reality through the sensation of bodies and do not see thoughts the way I currently see only the body.

When I enter what is called the future world, the next degree, and see thoughts and desires, truly holding and sensing them, and they become more important to me than bodily movements, then, of course, I will no longer need bodies. But for now, within the group, it is very important how we move, act, and present ourselves to one another.

To do the opposite, harboring good intentions while our external actions appear contrary to them, is to exploit another person’s integrity and let them down, which is wrong. For example, I cannot pretend that I have stolen something and expect a friend to force himself to think that I have done something wonderful because he is supposed to judge me favorably and think well of me.

Such things are forbidden. In relation to the group, outwardly, I must appear as a good friend and show the group precisely my good external actions. I must act this way because it increases love.

At first, I see the friend as an egoist. Then I see myself as an egoist while I no longer see him that way. And afterward I feel shame to the point that I cannot look him in the eyes. I truly feel ashamed to look at him and ashamed to see myself wanting to use him for self-gratification, to take advantage of him in various ways; then correction comes.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/5/26

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What is the difference between advancing in the work of “love your neighbor as yourself” and the ultimate goal “love the Creator with all your heart and soul”? “Love the Creator” is the final stage when a person’s attitude to the Creator and the Creator’s attitude to man is absolutely equal.

Therefore, we are given work in a group to achieve the stage of love, adhesion with the Creator, and similarity with Him because here we can check ourselves, receive feedback from our friends, invest in them, and have it returned in difficult moments. We go through ups and downs; whenever I can, I do something for the group, and when I cannot, the group helps me.

However, none of these methods work with the Creator. With regard to the Creator, you cross the next degree and make a screen for yourself, which means, to this extent, you are with Him. If you did not, you are not with Him. There are no intermediate states, no possibilities to vary in any way: I feel bad or good, sometimes yes, sometimes no.

There is no “sometimes yes, sometimes no” with the Creator. Everything must be absolute. Every step, every measure of connection with the Creator is perfect in itself. Therefore, we are given the opportunity to model and implement all this in a group, because here, in our state, we can move in different ways.

Although there are two actions of bestowal: between a person and the Creator, and between a person and a friend, actions regarding a friend or a group are more important than actions regarding the Creator.

Why? Because actions toward the Creator will confuse me for now; I cannot relate to Him in any way, because He does not react to me, nor do I to Him. All I can do is create all the prerequisites for a correct attitude toward the Creator through my attitude toward my friend. It is written that relationships with friends can lead us to the last, highest level, because our states are unsteady, uncertain, and are induced by the environment.

That is, the group requires me to treat its members correctly. They demand that I love them and treat them right. This goal is closer to me; I see it; it feels tangible. My states and attitudes toward the group, in various forms, whichever they may be, are controlled and criticized by both me and others. While regarding the Creator, I do not know where I stand or what kind of relationship I have with Him.

This is the difference between an effective short path, when a person correctly accepts a given opportunity and implements it through the group, and a long, ineffective path: I have the Creator, I will figure out this science myself, do not touch me, I myself am smart. The only opportunity we are given to work effectively and accurately is the group. If a person runs away from it, there is nothing you can do.

There is a very simple rule in the Torah: “O Hevruta, O Mituta,” that is, either you are in a group, or you are spiritually dead; there is no third option. It turns out that those smart guys who refused to do this 5, 10, or 15 years ago (I have such examples) suddenly realized they had spent those years in vain, unable to step on their own little ego and just give themselves to this work.

There is nothing you can do: You have to step on yourself; you have to bend yourself. It is unpleasant; you want to run away from it, but there is no other way. The common soul is purposely broken to give us the opportunity, as we work on our relationships with other souls, to find the Creator’s properties there, feel Him, and adhere to Him. Only there in the general Kli.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 10/1/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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If a person wants to cross the Machsom, he must leave his “self”: I do not exist; I am outside myself; I am leaving myself. Kabbalists do not speak or write much about this method of drawing closer to the higher degree and becoming similar to it because there is a danger here that people will be carried away into all kinds of fantasies and illusions and begin imagining that they are already floating somewhere out there, though no one knows where or how.

Such imaginings may be practiced only together with actions within the group, through joint actions in relation to the friends. Simply sitting and fantasizing about these matters is not recommended because it would be an action detached from reality, carrying you somewhere unknown, and where you would eventually find yourself would be impossible to know.

But imagining oneself as leaving one’s “self,” I do not exist, I am present in the thoughts and desires of others and act only in accordance with their thoughts and desires—is our very first exercise. As soon as a person becomes capable of performing such an action upon himself, he begins to sense the others rather than himself. He begins clearly to see one single force throughout the world that governs everything.

Why does he begin to sense this? Because he has left himself, become included in this force, adapted himself to it, and united with it, since its principal quality is also the absence of a “self.” Then the person sees that absolutely all people in the world—the wicked and the righteous, the capable and the foolish, the savage and the civilized—all simply carry out one thought.

No one has any personal desire or personal movement; everything is determined by one intention, which simply exists in the world like a field. Everything and everyone move only in accordance with it.

Each person is a mechanism that operates in a state of maximum fulfillment with minimum expenditure. And this mechanism automatically takes its place each time, acting in accordance with this field.

This field is called the Creator. More precisely, it is not yet the Creator, but the manifestation of His governance in relation to all those who are in this world. A person begins to see that everything operates according to one law, one rule, one will. To the extent that, he has shed his “self,” he unites with this thought and this will and wishes to enter further into the Creator’s field, he begins to see how everything in relation to him becomes good.

Naturally, nothing changes in relation to him; he simply begins to see how good it truly is. He sees that everyone else carries out this thought because his thought and the Creator’s thought have merged into one. He sees that everything in the world is done for his sake and for his benefit.

And even if, in his opinion, something harmful is happening, he still understands that it is not bad; it is simply impossible to act otherwise in the states in which people find themselves. Therefore, he approves of and understands them so completely that even if someone were to approach him and threaten his life, he would be unable to oppose him with anything. He loses his “self” to such an extent and feels that everything happening around him is absolutely correct.

I give such extreme examples, which are not yet entirely clear to us, only so that they may give us some understanding of what it means to rise a little above the Machsom. They are intended to let us sense, at least slightly, this boundary crossing from there to here, and back again.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 9/29/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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There comes before us a second saying, even more conspicuous, about a convert who came to Hillel (Shabbat 31a) and told him, “Teach me the whole of the Torah while I am standing on one leg.”And he replied, “Anything that you hate, do not do to your friend” (the translation of “love your friend as yourself”), “and the rest is its commentary; go study” (Baal HaSulam, Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]).

If I already fulfill the rule “love your neighbor as yourself,” do I need to add anything else to it? Perhaps some kind of springboard, an intermediate degree between my corrections and my relationship with the Creator?

“No,” I am told. “You do not have to do anything regarding the Creator. On the contrary, leave Him alone, completely leave Him alone; do not begin correcting your relationship with Him. You want to become closer to Him, to become better? This will not help you. You cannot do anything with regard to Him.

But you have your neighbor, and if in relation to him you carry out all the corrections and reach such a degree of love that it no longer matters to you whether it is you or your neighbor, then by this you will completely correct your relationship with the Creator and rise to His degree.”

Thus, it is not only that the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself” is the general law of all reality according to which the Creator relates to the created beings.

We say about Him: the Creator is good and does good to the bad and the good. This is how He relates to the created beings.

Therefore, for me to become similar to His love for the created beings is contained within this statement, within this law of “love your neighbor as yourself.” In other words, they are one and the same.

It is the same motto, the same law, so much so that once I fulfill this correction, I no longer need any additions in order to attain equivalence with the Creator. In this, I completely correspond to Him, am equal to Him, and become similar to Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 10/3/26

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The wisdom of Kabbalah explains how a Kli (vessel) equal to the Creator is formed and what we must do in the process. In general, we must tune ourselves to perceive the upper world before we enter it.

We do this in various ways: through study, work in the group, and all kinds of actions in our world. If we add the intention to draw closer to the sensation of spirituality, we evoke that state upon us from there, as if drawing ourselves toward it through our desire.

This process is known as attracting the surrounding light, which purifies us and pulls us toward the higher state. These actions are performed unconsciously; a person carries them out simply because they trust the recommendations of the Kabbalists and do what they advise.

If I am supposed to study, I study even though I do not want to, even though I do not understand or see any connection. But during the study, I begin to think about Kabbalah and imagine it as a science separate from me, one that does not require me to perform any internal actions.

In addition, there are actions in the group, with the friends. For example, I am told to do something I do not want to do at all, but I know it is necessary. So, I try to do something mechanically together with the others even though it is clear to us that each of us is an individualist.

Yet, here I have to gather together with the others and create a pleasant atmosphere; after all, there isn’t much interest in everyday life. But why are we gathering in the first place? Is it to enjoy ourselves or to perform actions that elevate us?

In short, there are many issues here: how to relate to everything and how precisely to tune oneself to attract the upper one, that is, the surrounding light. But ultimately, all these actions draw the surrounding light upon us.

There is also another kind of work where a person begins, as it were, to raise oneself from within to a higher degree. Rather than drawing the upper light from above, he himself is drawn toward the higher degree. This work is called attempts to resemble the higher degree, to resemble the spiritual state.

Where can we obtain examples of this? From what the Kabbalists write to us. They say that spirituality entails a complete exit from one’s self, much like a person, upon death, leaves his body, which has nothing to do with the soul. The body turns into earthly dust, while the soul continues to exist.

Likewise, we must completely leave our “self,” transfer ourselves into everyone else, and exist only within them—in their desires, aspirations, and thoughts—without thinking about ourselves at all. Baal HaSulam writes in the article “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar”: “Just as the Creator does not think about Himself or whether He exists, so should our intention be.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 9/29/26

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