Question: Is there any difference between the general concept of faith and faith above reason?

Answer: It is very difficult to explain the concept of “above reason” before the Machsom. But during the preparation period, it can be explained as follows: a person is not merely present in the group, they must make efforts, annul themself before the friends, and accept what exists in the group above reason.

This means that he wants to be under the influence of friends. In other words, he begins to convince himself that what he hears from them is correct. This is truly “brainwashing.” Rabash writes that habit becomes second nature.

I will say it differently. We are in a group in which there is something revealed and concealed. The concealed forces, unknown to us, are who we truly are; this is already a spiritual force. And the force that is revealed to us is what we see as to how imperfect we still are.

For a person who is in a group and who lowers himself before it, it does not matter what level his friends are at. By convincing himself of being “small,” he receives the influence of the hidden force present in the group. The entire group may not be at a high level of spirituality, but through it, he receives forces from its spiritual root that they themselves have not yet received.

It turns out that a group may consist of twenty people, none of whom are particularly special. But suddenly one of them decides that he wants to be 100% under its influence. Then he is influenced by the group’s inner spiritual force, and even such things, the existence of which the others do not even suspect, nor do they know where they come from.

In other words, do not think that if someone lowers himself before the group, he will receive what everyone else has, or will be corrected to the same extent as everyone else. No, it will be much more than that.

He can attain spirituality by using the force of the group, even if the entire group is still in corporeality. One thing is, in essence, not connected to the other, since what is due to them comes according to their personal work, while what is due to him is according to his personal work. Therefore, let us say that for my personal advancement it is not important what is happening with you. As the saying goes, “I learned from all my students.” Students may be small, yet through them it is possible to gain immense wisdom.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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Question: What is faith in spiritual work during the period of preparation?

Answer: We are not talking about ordinary people, the masses. The society from which I can receive influence is our group.

What is faith before the Machsom for us? Rabash writes in his articles that before the Machsom, there is faith in books and in those who wrote them, the sages. These things come to a person only through a group. That is, the group’s “brainwashing” creates knowledge in me that I do not really attain, but since an external force controls me, it brings it to me as a fact.

We see this in the masses, on the outside, and should also take advantage of it here, inside. That is, if we decide to talk about Baal HaSulam, Rabash, ARI, and Rashbi as people who are our teachers, leading us forward, and what they said is sacred to us and above all else, then the group should “brainwash” me with this, so the power I get from this is called faith.

I myself have not yet attained this with my five senses in such a way that it becomes a fact for me. I am not at the end of correction when I can say that everything is for the good and that the Creator does only good. All of this is nothing more than words to me.

But because I have a group, I get it from them in a way that turns words into facts for me. The power that turns this into facts is called faith. Thus, instead of knowledge, instead of attainment, I use the power of faith.

Let us say I have a glass of tea before me, and I am willing to pay ten shekels for it. In the same way, by the power of faith, I can be willing to pay ten shekels for something I do not see or know. For example, they tell me to have a glass of beer, but I know nothing about beer; they tell me it is very good, and I believe them, so I will pay ten shekels for it.

I can believe so much that I will give a million, I will give my whole life just to achieve this. It all depends on the strength of the faith I receive from the group. That is, faith is instead of knowledge.

When I am below Machsom, I have no other force to reach the goal. Although I do not feel this goal, I do not see or hear it, only the power of faith I receive from my friends can help me. Nothing else can serve as a driving force for me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/9/26, Rabash, “Man Is Rewarded with Righteousness and Peace through the Torah”

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Each of us belongs to a group that is governed by various laws and agreements. To which of them am I obliged to annul, and which should I view critically, possibly reject, or demand that they be changed? After all, if I do not relate to them in this way, the group will be unable to influence me.

If I enter a group without any resistance, I will not feel any impact from it. Influence is felt only when a force comes and changes something. Any good product is produced as a result of the action of one force upon another. The greater these forces are and the stronger they oppose one another, the greater the benefit and the yield. So how should I relate to the group now?

First and foremost by fully engaging both mind and heart. The approach here is absolutely clear and precise: under no circumstances may I change anything that has been accepted by the group without obtaining the consent of all the others. I am obligated to participate in everything the group requires of me. Even if I am “emotionally incapable” of doing it and do not agree with it, I must participate together with everyone else; otherwise, it cannot be called being in the group.

At the same time, I am obligated to critically analyze the situation, formulate my proposals, present them to the entire group, and try to convince everyone that I am right. This approach is standard in ordinary society as well: in the Knesset or any parliament, the laws are, in general, self-evident. There is no need here to act “above reason.”

There is only one thing that must be done above reason: to intend to bring yourself into alignment with the upper force This cannot be deviated from. Adhesion with the Creator is the primary principle. Anything else, before being added to it, must be examined for compliance with this fundamental principle, and based on the results, it should it be decided whether it is beneficial for us or not.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/1/26, Rabash, “These Are the Generations of Noah”

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Question: What does it mean to not work on awareness of the Creator’s greatness during an ascent”?

Answer: Rabash writes that an action by which a person causes a break in contact with the Creator is called a transgression. Even if it concerns the smallest state, the smallest degree of the contact with the Creator, if this state disappears, we say that it disappears because of a transgression.

On the other hand, this is necessary, because without a descent there can be no new ascent to a higher degree. There are no ascents without descents. Just as we say that Adam HaRishon committed a sin and caused a transgression, so it is here.

The reason for a descent is always that during an ascent, at some point a person ceases to enjoy adhesion with the Creator and begins to enjoy what he receives as a result of that adhesion: a feeling of perfection, eternity, and belonging to spirituality.

In other words, the person is already enjoying what is felt in the Kelim rather than the sensation of the Creator caused by adhesion with Him. The moment he ceases to experience this state in his connection with the Creator and turns it toward himself is called a transgression.

Although he enjoys spirituality, the feeling of belonging to eternity and bestowal to the Creator, these pleasures should be for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake. Therefore, this leads to the loss of the degree; the light departs, as though the person has once again returned to his desire to receive. The light, sensing a desire to receive in front of it, withdraws as a result of the restriction that has existed since the first restriction (Tzimtzum Aleph).

Therefore a state of forgetfulness is induced in such a way that not the entire degree is lost, but only the light on that degree. The degree itself remains, and only the light of Mochin disappears. The person becomes dull and continues to drift unconsciously, as though his head has descended to the level of the body, like an animal.

He may continue to observe the Torah, study, and participate in the activities of the group, but without any goal, like an animal. Therefore, we term the aimless life of people whose heads are not higher than their bodies the animate level; their minds serve only the body. This means that the force responsible for governing forgetfulness is not acting with the person in its intended way. After all, the Creator wants a person to complete a degree in such a state that his descent is immediately connected to the feeling of a new Hisaron and to a new ascent.

Can it be done differently? In truth, no. We speak of Adam HaRishon as having committed a transgression, a sinner who sinned. Yet just as this was beyond his control, it also beyond ours. At the final stage of realizing a Reshimo (spiritual record), at its highest point, we pause for a single moment to think of ourselves; it is a mandatory state. Then we fall, and that too is a mandatory state.

However, the real question is not about the person himself and not about the fact that he stopped thinking about the Creator and began to think about himself and thereby loses awareness of the Creator’s greatness. The issue is that he lacks a crucial preparatory foundation: the foundation of the environment.

If a person has the proper environment, one immediately senses that they cannot continue to relate to the group in an ordinary way, as one relates to their family, the world at large, or as a religious person might. If a person has prepared the right environment (a group working for the Creator), they instantly perceive that their descent represents a shift from the direction toward the Creator to the direction of the self. This, in essence, is what is called sin.

Thus, the sin lies not in a person falls, but in failing to prepare oneself and being unable to rise immediately after descending.

As Baal HaSulam writes, the Creator puts a person’s hand on a good fate: He brings him to a group, to the correct state, and says: “Take this for yourself.”

“Take” means: “Now choose a stronger group,” so that you will be surrounded by an environment that will obligate you to constantly develop an intention for bestowal and to strive for adhesion with the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59

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A correct Hisaron (deficiency, lack) is a purposeful aspiration to acquire the power of bestowal.

Suppose I have a healthy desire to receive all kinds of pleasures of this world, and in addition, I have received a point in the heart, that is, a desire to enjoy the future world. I do not know what the future world is, but I feel a need for additional pleasures, I need more than what this world can offer. Then a question arises: how can I give this desire for the future world the correct form?

If I simply increase this desire, then what emerges is a “Pharaoh,” enlarged egoism: “I want spirituality!!!” How can such an egoistic aspiration give rise to a desire of Lishma, that is, a desire directed toward the Creator?

The state of Lo Lishma implies that two desires exist within me simultaneously: I want spirituality, I want to acquire the power to bestow upon the Creator, and at the same time I want to receive for my own sake. In other words, in the state of Lo Lishma I consist of two desires—one toward the Creator and one toward myself.

Where do I, through working with my point in the heart, acquire the desire to bestow to the Creator? The desire to bestow appears within me even before the Machsom; it begins to manifest itself and grow within me.

But where does this desire come from? How is it born within me? That is the question.

I begin my spiritual development from the point in the heart, and gradually, two desires develop from this initial state: 1) A desire directed toward myself; that is, I enlarge my point in the heart and desire spirituality for my own sake. 2) A desire directed toward the Creator.

How does this happen? The reason is that the development of the point in the heart occurs under the influence of the surrounding light (Ohr Makif), which brings us the “charm of holiness” (Chen deKedusha).

Without the influence of the surrounding light, the point in the heart would simply grow in size while remaining at the level of a desire to absorb the entire spiritual world:

“I want the upper world! Give it to me, and that is all!” And its development would stop at this point. How does an aspiration toward the Creator arise within this egoistic desire for spirituality?

It is the result of the influence of the surrounding light. But under what conditions does the surrounding light actually influence me? Only if I seek ways to return to the source, to the root of bestowal. And the aspiration to return to the source arises within me as a result of working in the group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/14/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘If a Woman Inseminates First, She Delivers a Male Child,’ in the Work?”

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A person’s actions in spiritual work are called: “Demand, and you shall receive reward.”

This is because a person does not actively participate in the correction itself; he does not correct anything on his own. Rather, he only brings about a state in which the Reshimo that is felt within him as having just been born, and the light that is meant to correct this Reshimo (spiritual record) can perform their work through him so that he becomes the one who evokes and initiates the correction.

To “demand” means to strive to reach correction so that the light will prevail over the Reshimo, and correct it to an intention for the sake of bestowal. And to “receive reward” means that a person aspires only to this state. What helps him, of course, is not the action itself, but solely his intention.

Thus, everything we do is aimed at attaining the receiving of the Torah in a small state (Katnut), which is called the counting of the Omer, in the animate state, when we eat “barley,” until we come to the “food of man.” The “food of man” is “bread,” faith, the degree of Shavuot. “And they went both of them together” refers to Bina and Malchut.

Therefore our work takes place even before the state of “demand and receive reward.” It is work above reason, work of drawing the light that performs within us the wondrous property of correction.

This is work against the “minister of forgetfulness,” who, as an effective force, helps us forget the previous state, and awaken a deficiency (Hisaron) for the next one.

These are the actions of preparation for the receiving of the Torah, for the festival of Shavuot.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59

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The unification of people is always a spiritual force, even on the material level. If we are talking about such a group, be it a sports team, kibbutz members, or anyone else, they also use a spiritual force by uniting for some goal.

This gives rise to a problem. If they use this force for the sake of the Creator, then they win, move forward, prosper, and everything ends wonderfully. If, however, they take this force and use it for self-gratification, as they wanted to do in Soviet Russia or in the kibbutzim, then they get exactly what they eventually ended up with.

Why? Because, as Baal HaSulam explains in the article “The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]“, they use the unification of souls, which is supposed to be a Kli for the Creator, for the light, as a Kli for achieving animalistic goals. If you unite several people and want something to come from it, then from their unification there must flow an intention for the sake of bestowal to the Creator and not for the sake of bestowal to oneself. Bestowal “for one’s own sake” brings about darkness, suffering, and misfortunes.

Let us say people unite to launch an enterprise, to get rich, to achieve something in this world. We see that all this is done precisely by means of unification. This also relates to the era of industrial development that began from the time of the Ari to the subsequent period of enlightenment. Such is the nature of development.

But all these steps in development were essentially not made out of a desire to draw closer to the Creator, but by creating groups of people in which one helps another. And all these groups, societies, or enterprises, whatever they may be, ultimately led to suffering. Through this, we come more quickly to the recognition of evil.

What does modern industry mean for us now that the whole world has become like a single village? Ultimately, through our pursuit of money, honor, and base pleasures, we reveal the flawed nature of our connection with one another.

We are tempted by trivialities like money and honors, supposedly a better life, but essentially, without our awareness, a higher force intends to show us that by uniting for reasons other than the sake of the Creator, humanity suffers a catastrophic loss. This realization dawns on us very quickly.

Rabash gives as an example a person who is given a desire for money and opens a restaurant to make a profit; however, in reality, this setup compels him to give to others. The money serves only as a lure. In essence, the Creator uses this to facilitate bestowal in the world prompting everyone to begin giving to others sooner. Consequently, Reshimot (spiritual records) multiply and combine in various ways, which causes an acceleration in our development toward correction.

In the same way, humanity is given a desire for money and various achievements, and groups of people unite among themselves in order to reveal the negative side in this. Everything that we see on the outside is the temptations given to us so that from our will to receive we perform various incorrect actions, and then come to the recognition of evil and, after correctly summing up the results, move onto the right tracks.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59

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Question: What should I be concerned about: ensuring that the spirit, intention, and aspiration exist within me, within the friends, or in the group as a whole?

Answer: I must ensure that all three of these factors exist as a single indivisible whole. Then, in whatever state I happen to be, my preparation will help me sense if I am somehow falling out of that unity.

I must not separate my work in the group, the group itself, its direction, and the work of the friends into “me,” “them,” and “our common goal.” Just as we must unite the person, their actions, and the Creator from a single point, so here too we must be as one person with one heart, one task, and one goal. This must truly be one.

We do this together, united as a single vessel, within the one Creator, with one fulfillment. What division can be made here? In the point of general unity, everything connects. So why should I divide this now when I am going to correctly realize my state? How can I separate these things?

It is a different matter when working in this way and I fall out of the “I–Creator–action” system, which is the group, the general Kli, then I immediately sense that I have fallen out. Otherwise, the Creator disappears, and I do not feel it; the group drifts away, and I do not feel that; I am absent from the entire process, and I do not feel that either.

Question: Can this be likened to the way an organ of the body cares for the whole body?

Answer: An organ of the body cares about its connection to the whole body so life, the spirit of life, may exist within it. Such is the concern of an individual regarding the group and the Creator. In other words, one must look at the group as a general Kli that is coming into connection with the Creator. Period.

Can one receive the Torah and receive the light if we are not fused together in such a desire? It is impossible. This will be revealed in a simple form. If we do not go through some critical state, critical mass, that is, unless I step outside myself to some definite measure, I will not begin to sense the revelation of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59, 1962

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Question: What does the process of acquiring a Kli mean?

Answer: Acquiring a Kli is the process in which you determine the correct attitude toward spirituality: how I imagine it to myself, how I am tuned to the spiritual wavelength, how ready I am to disconnect from this world in order to fully devote myself to spirituality.

This is what is called “building a Kli for spirituality.” A Kli is a desire.

Question: So we must fight with every new obstacle?

Answer: No, we cannot fight with every obstacle. If now I am in a state of despair, how can I rejoice? I cannot. Well, I can if I force myself, for example, to dance. However, this will produce only a short-term effect. Therefore, true advancement can only be through the group. Working in it, I acquire and attach additional Kelim to myself.

Question: So when the next obstacle manifests, must I tell myself that this manifestation of force from above is an angel?

Answer: It is desirable to imagine that it is an angel hindering you, and not you yourself. Then we will be able to force ourselves to work against this foreign force. Later, we will still forget about it. After all, this angel is smarter than us, it confuses us, and we simply forget. In the end, nothing will remain for you except working in the group. Listen! That is exactly how it will be!

Question: But what if this state lasts for an unlimited time?

Answer: Imagine the best state in which you would like to be, and work for the group so that it also wishes this. Very simple. There is no need to be too smart!

Question: But why can a person not go through all these states?

Answer: Because these states are him. He cannot overcome himself. For this, he needs a force from outside that will change him. And the force from outside can be either the Creator or the group. The group is the Creator, but only this force is in our dimension.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”

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Question: How should a person prepare and direct themselves during prayer?

Answer: In the Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot  (TES), Baal HaSulam writes that during prayer, a person should focus on only one thing—to desire that what he studies in the Kabbalistic books be revealed within him, to strive to know and connect with the material being studied.

But if the subject is so distant that a person cannot see how it relates to what is taking place in his soul, then he should regard it as a remedy.

As it is written: “I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice.” And it is also said it: “Heals every illness.” It will give me what is necessary for my advancement; it will come as a remedy, as help from Above.

Question: How can one avoid forgetting this during the lessons?

Answer: If you suffer from an illness, you do not forget about it. Sometimes cancer patients come to see me; they do not forget their illness for a single moment. They are ready to follow any instruction from morning to evening in order to be healed. Without a doubt, they are willing, and they do not forget.

Therefore, everything depends on the recognition of the importance of the goal and the degree of pain. And the importance comes, once again, from the group. Only the group can increase  the importance of the goal, the importance of spirituality, within you.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”

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