Entries in the 'Kabbalah Study' Category

What Are We Mistaken About?

231.01There are things that we attain, and there are things that we do not attain, and we speak about them, as scientists do in our world. Among them, are those who harbor hatred for each other.

Do you know what the envy of scientists is like and the depth of the hatred involved? It represents the most highly developed ego in our world. The same thing happens in spirituality at very high degrees, because this does not concern the realm of animal desires, money, or honor, but the realm of knowledge, of my “I.”

It is not that I bought some car, and you bought a bigger one. That is not what we are talking about. Here the envy is in attainment, the most significant thing that can exist in a person. Just look at what they do to one another in this world because of it!

And in spirituality, one who rises higher may see different causes than one who is at a lower degree.

Suppose you were to write down what you have gone through, and part of it might be something you have not yet experienced, but you present it as the underlying causes, as something that merely organizes the state you are in. Just start writing, and you will see that this happens to a person constantly.

What you have personally experienced is the truth, because you cannot argue with one’s own feelings: what has clothed within the Kli is not in question. But if you begin to speak about the causes, about what is above this—and you will undoubtedly speak about that as well, even if you are at a small degree—you can be mistaken in this. Therefore, no one has the right to publish anything, and not only because of the politics in this world, but because he can be mistaken in spirituality in a very fundamental way.

With someone who has not crossed the Machsom, even more so; he should be very careful about what he writes.

But even after the Machsom, you can write only about the degree you are on. And as for what may be above this, someone will come from the next incarnation and shatter all my assertions. In fact, throughout life, this is exactly how it is, and not otherwise. Therefore, there is no certainty; it exists only up to a certain degree.

But we do not need anything more, because in reality, it is not important. What do I care about the higher causes, whether I am mistaken about them or not? We see from our own lives that whether we are mistaken or not, it changes nothing. Ultimately, only the amount of effort matters, not whether you understand it intellectually or not.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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Stages of Soul Development

281.01Comment: As far as I know, ordinary religious people have the greatest desire to receive.

My Response: The Book of Zohar says such a person wants to “swallow” this world to some extent, so he and his children will be happy here. He also wants to be happy in the next world. It is like he is contributing to the “world-to-come fund,” so something is left for afterward.

This is a natural human desire that cannot be considered bad. This is how a person works if he has not come to genuine work for the Creator, and this is how the masses work. People follow the commandments, do everything necessary, and the truth is, this is how it should be; the framework is needed anyway.

Until a person reaches a high stage of soul development, when he needs the upper one, to really approach religion in the middle line, they will be religious at a level below the middle line, which is called Domem de Kedusha (the inanimate level of holiness or the holy still).

Below the middle line, before development begins in it, there is a point called a religious person in the sense of this world. You see such people, for example, in Bnei Brak [Israel]. This is an inanimate level of holiness, and that is good. Such a person fulfills the Torah and the commandments through the material actions of this world and hopes to receive reward in both this world and the world to come. Everything is in order.

They should not be told what true correction is because they are not yet able to come to it. “Do not put obstacles before the blind.” You just need to not interfere with them and protect them, as Kabbalists have done for all generations. After all, all the holy books were written by people who attained spirituality, Kabbalists, who wrote in such a way as not to touch the people, taking care of them, as they say, “wearing gloves.”

What can you do if so many people have not yet reached development as part of the overall advancement of mankind? We must wait. Man has lived on Earth for tens of thousands of years, and you can see how it manifests: from the time of Abraham to the present day, only a few have really sought to come to religion through the middle line. And without desire, nothing can be done.

Once a person starts wondering, “What is the meaning of my life?”—meaning life in this world in general—and is already striving for spirituality to experience real life there, you can already talk to him. Before then, do not touch him because he will not understand you. His desires, his inner part, are not yet ready to accept anything.

Therefore, if a religious person, what is called a “Jew,” wants to fulfill the Torah and commandments as he was taught, and receive reward for it, please, it is very commendable; this maintains him as a part of the people, saves him for the next correction, which will come when the Creator slightly illuminates his point in the heart. Then he will feel it and begin to develop.

The religious unknowingly think that I am against them and that something is wrong here. I am not against them; we do not touch them at all. We only want to gather those who already feel a point in their heart, who are wondering: “What is the meaning of our life in this world?” for whom such a life has no meaning. For them, we have an answer: Each of them has been chosen to begin their own personal correction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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The Essence of the Work for the Creator

263The whole world thinks that the work for the Creator is what the religious people are doing: learning a little bit, observing a few practical commandments.

I am not writing this off, but the work for the Creator consists of imitating the Creator and acting like Him, much like a son emulating his father, “You are children to the Lord your God.”

Question: What does” like Him” mean?

Answer: A son looks at you and imitates you, like a little monkey. Later as he matures, he performs these actions with understanding. This is, in essence, our path as well. Initially, at the embryonic stage (Ibur) we act without understanding; we simply nullify ourselves. Then at the stage of suckling (Yenika), we bring more desire and understanding into it, followed by that stage of greatness, adulthood, Mochin (Gadlut).

The Creator wants us to resemble Him completely. Resembling Him means acquiring a screen over the will to receive, whereby we become like the Nukva to Him. We enter continuous, face-to-face union with Him. This means we reach the complete work of the Creator.

When we correct ourselves and reach a state where we are just like Him, standing opposite Him, following the end of correction, we will begin to work differently. These are the secrets of Torah. We will find out eventually what it is, but it is for this purpose that we do everything. The goal is not to reach the end of correction (Gmar Tikun), but the goal is to reach the end of correction in order to prosper later with Him together.

What I want to say is that the work of the Creator does not consist of performing some corporeal actions. Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator does not care if you slaughter the beast from the neck or from the throat. All the commandments were given to purify Israel, or to bind them to the desire of the Creator. The commandment without an intention is like a body without a soul. All the work of the Creator is the intention, which is ultimately just the means to mimic the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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When the Awareness of Lishma Vanished

294.2Baal HaSulam clearly distinguishes between the general and the particular Torah. “The opinion of the Torah is opposite to the opinion of the masses,” and the two should not touch each other or interfere in each other’s affairs. We are talking about a completely different Torah, a different approach, a different spirit. The entire course of life for us differs from that of the masses.

Within ourselves, within our thoughts, within our intention, we are constantly tormented by questions: “At what stage am I? What is happening to me?” And so on. Everything for us is internalized. For them, the external part rules: a constant intensification of external actions. And this is good; it is necessary. As long as there is no inner part, we engage in the external. This form of education was introduced by the Kabbalists.

Baal HaSulam writes that the destruction of the First Temple did not have such an profound impact, but after the destruction of the Second Temple, the very concept of Lishma (for the sake of the Creator) vanished without a trace. The surrounding light withdrew, and the Temple was destroyed. The destruction of the Temple means that this illumination was no longer present among the people.

It is the same with us. Sometimes, from the material you absorb, you experience a spiritual ascent, when it seems to you that you sense the Creator, that you have, as if, come back to life and are floating in the heavens.

And then suddenly you feel like a complete fool who has nothing and does not understand a single word. And yet, you have a distant illumination showing you that, compared with a good state, your present state is bad. But what will happen if even this illumination is taken away from you?

That is what happened during the destruction of the Temple. With the destruction of the First Temple, the illumination that had existed among the people, that allowed people to feel they were in spirituality and gave them a sense of inspiration and connection, departed. This illumination disappeared but left them its reverse side, which gave them a feeling of at least some connection with spirituality, a feeling that spirituality exists.

By proceeding from the opposite, people at least knew what Lishma was. Instead of the light of Mochin de Haya, which shone from afar during the time of the First Temple, now, during the time of the Second Temple, the light of Mochin de Neshama came to them. It also shone from afar, but nevertheless, it shone.

And after the destruction of the Second Temple, people lost the feeling that their state was bad compared with the light, and awareness of the meaning of Lishma disappeared. They found themselves in the state of a donkey that knows nothing. Baal HaSulam writes about this in the book A Sages Fruit, in the article “The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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Endless Questions Until the End of Correction

231.02Question: Were there Kabbalists who violated the rule against touching the secrets of the Torah prematurely, before they had completed their own corrections?

Answer: I do not want to go into this because we are not yet capable of discussing such topics. Questions will immediately arise: “How did they do it? For what reason? Why did the Creator allow this? Where was the general and individual governance? Was it a mistake or to the contrary?” There are many stories, and it is not for us from our degree to analyze them.

Why do we go above reason in order to ascend from degree to degree? Because the mind of the higher degree is literally opposite to my mind. I am simply incapable of discussing such degrees. We can only, so to speak, console ourselves with the formulations, and make some understanding in order to continue on the path.

In the same way, children are told fairy tales and fables so that they will grow. And when they become adults, they see that everything is somewhat different. However, they cannot yet grasp with their minds the full complexity of human relationships and world processes, and that is why they are presented with these things in a simple form corresponding to their understanding, and thanks to this they grow.

It is the same for us. It is impossible to take such questions seriously. It is good that they exist, but we must understand that every question is a Hisaron, the fulfillment of which can be seen not at our degree, but many degrees higher. Therefore, the question is different: how can a Hisaron (lack) arise in me, the fulfillment of which lies, say, ten degrees higher? What does its present revelation mean?

Actually, this is not even a question, because from this I must derive the understanding that I actually need to possess a yearning to reach the highest degree—even if an unconscious need.

I will put it differently. There must be a Hisaron, a need for a state of infinity within the limits of my current level, but a need for the state of infinity. Because at every degree it is precisely infinity that is revealed, only to a different extent, first a little, then a little more, then even more.

It is perfectly normal that I have questions about the highest degree because I must strive for infinity. In essence, I am already in it now, but only a very, very small measure of infinity is revealed to me, although it is revealed in every detail. In every detail, but in a very, very limited way. Limited, but equally present in all those details.

And if the smallest degree of infinity is revealed to me, then it will be revealed in all the details that exist in infinity. However, in my eyes it will appear so unclear that it will seem very small, very vague, but infinite to me.

Therefore questions will arise throughout the entire path up to the final goal, even at the smallest degree.
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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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The Creator Expects Spiritual Actions from Us

543.02Question: We learn that the Creator gives us a point in the heart, gives us Kelim (vessels), and does everything for us, but why don’t we receive vessels of bestowal?

Answer: We study that the Creator is good and does good. His goal is to bring a person to final correction (Gmar Tikkun). A person’s Gmar Tikkun occurs when they develop their desire to receive to the point that in its actions, it becomes similar to the actions of the Creator.

But the Creator does not put on Tefillin the way you do; He does so spiritually. It is a state where Zeir Anpin of the world of Atzilut becomes great, rises to Arik Anpin, and performs actions called “putting on of Tefillin”: a powerful connection with the upper force (Zivug de Hakaa) at a particular degree, when the lights emerge from above, from the front and from the back, from the side of the forehead (Metzach) and from the side of the back of the head (Oref).

The Creator wants you to put on Tefillin in the same way He does; this is called becoming similar to Him. In other words, it is not merely putting a box on your head or arm. At the same time, you must perform the true action—the spiritual one.

You already understand that this is performed both spiritually and corporeally. But why does the Creator not give those who perform it corporeally the desire to perform it spiritually as well? Because there is no connection between the two. That is the answer. There is no connection between them.

A person can spend two hundred years, reincarnation after reincarnation, performing the commandment of “putting on Tefillin,” but this does not develop his desire to receive—his desire for spirituality does not grow as a result.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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The Point in the Heart Is Not Inherited

273.01The desire for spirituality begins with the point in the heart which the Creator places within a person. This can happen to someone who is religious as well as to someone who is completely secular. As a rule, it happens to a secular person because he is searching for something more, since religion no longer satisfies him.

But observing the Torah and commandments on the material level will not lead you to spirituality; it does not expand the desire to receive. The desire to receive is an entirely different Kli (vessel). It begins with the point in the heart and continues onward toward spirituality.

There is a Machsom—a line below which there is a person on his animate level who has corporeal desires for money, honor, and knowledge. And if, after this, the point in his heart —the desire for spirituality—appears, then this is a “part of the Creator from Above,” which has nothing to do with his other desires.

A religious person observes the commandments within the framework of life in this world without this point. The point in the heart is something else—it is a desire for spirituality. People with a point in the heart can be found among both the religious and the secular, among both Jews and the nations of the world, as Rabbi Elazar and Rabbi Shimon wrote about. We can see this in Rabbi Akiva and Onkelos.

These calculations are the Creator’s calculations from above. It does not necessarily happen that all the righteous father’s sons are also righteous. Who remembers the names of all of Moses’ sons? We know that he passed the Torah on to Joshua. The point in the heart is not inherited; it is placed within a person, and that is how the process continues. It is not my fault that I was given such a desire, and I act according to it.

If the point in the heart awakens in a person, then it is there; if it does not, then it is not there because we ourselves cannot cause it to reveal itself. As RABASH wrote that you take a person and place them in a group that strives for spirituality, then you are, so to speak, accelerating their development, and the Creator reveals the point in the heart within them.

This means that in their animalistic development, a person reaches a level at which this point manifests itself within them, that is, the time remaining before they sense the point in the heart is shortened.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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Don’t Suppress, Develop

213Question: What is the difference between our method and the method of yoga? They do something similar, don’t they?

Answer: We develop egoism. We develop it! When we speak about restrictions and acquiring the force of bestowal, we are speaking about developing the desire to receive.

Development touches on a question that was already asked: “If instead of receiving pleasure, I want to calm myself, does that mean I am using an even greater desire to receive?” That is correct. Here is the example of a  fool who suffers and weeps about his suffering, while a more developed person seeks a remedy.

We see this in our lives. One person works hard from morning to evening; another comes to the same workplace, watches the first person working, and asks himself: “Will I work like this from morning to evening too?” and searches for a solution. Then he sits down, drinks coffee, smokes, and the machine does the work for him. The desire to receive develops this, and from its development we arrive at the desire to bestow.

In contrast, various other methods are based on suppressing the desire to receive, on using it less and less. Kabbalah, on the contrary, teaches us to use it more and more. You may do anything you wish with your animal qualities, but only the light that returns to the source will help you emerge from this state. No restriction will help here. The fact is that the more you develop, the greater desires you are given.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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The Torah that Produces No Results Is Barren

278.01Question: What does “the Torah is barren” mean?

Answer: If the Creator created the Torah as a spice for the desire to receive, but it is not corrected with the help of the Torah, then it produces no results.

Such a state is called “the barrenness of the Torah.” All the results produced by the Torah are first of all correction and afterward fulfillment.

This is precisely what The Book of Zohar states: those who do not wish to engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah make the Torah barren. They simply do not use the Torah as a force that corrects the desire to receive.

The Torah is both fulfillments and holy names that are revealed in the intention for the sake of bestowal. But we are not speaking about that yet, since these are already more advanced degrees. Initially, when you first encounter the true Torah, it acts precisely as a force of correction.

If you do not accept it in this form, then all your engagement around it is not called Torah.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/30/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘He Who Is Without Sons,’ in the Work?”

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Two Levels of Observing the Torah

294.2If we look a little deeper in, and thoroughly examine those who observe Torah and Mitzvot, whether they want to be given vessels of bestowal and to give in return the will to receive, the vast majority of the workers will say that they pass on this. Instead, they want to observe Torah and Mitzvot in order to receive. It follows that they have no need for vessels of bestowal. For this reason, how can they say that the Torah and Mitzvot they labor in should give them a reward for which they have no need? On the contrary, they are afraid lest they will lose the vessel of reception called “self-love” (Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”).

Rabash writes that there are people who observe the Torah and commandments as though they were “perfect” and “righteous.” Nevertheless, their practical observance says nothing about their intention, and they do not understand at all what the Creator requires of them.

Most people in the world observe the Torah and commandments only in order to receive a reward in this world or in the future world. The exception is those who wish to acquire the intention for the sake of bestowal, the screen, something that is completely impossible to achieve except through the wisdom of Kabbalah. Working for the sake of the Creator is precisely what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about. It means becoming similar to Him.

I in no way reject the observance of the Torah and commandments by those who observe them mechanically. This is called the initial, minimal degree, the spiritually inanimate level; it is where people have been taught to observe the commandments practically, but have not been taught about the intention, because their teachers do not know what it is.

The intention is the screen and reflected light, which can be acquired only after many years of great effort, while being under the influence of the surrounding light that comes to a person through studying the wisdom of Kabbalah.

We are speaking about two levels: the level of the masses, which is called the path of the ordinary person, and the path of Torah, the path of the influence of the surrounding light, through which a person acquires a screen. The first is one thing and the second is another. But for me there is no contradiction between them, nor do I oppose this. I reject nothing, there is simply Torah for those who are not yet spiritually developed and Torah for those who are already spiritually developed.

I lived in Rehovot and began searching and making efforts, as though I had returned to religion. I was looking for something internal and saw that there was nothing there. I began demanding more from those who had brought me back to religion and continued searching.

Among them was Rabbi Fischer from Holland, who told the others, “Leave him alone. There are people who need something more internal. Help him.” That is how I came to Rabbi Zilberman from Jerusalem. He quickly understood that I was one of those who needed something more. But even what I received in Jerusalem was not enough for me, so I continued searching until I found Rabash.

There are such people and there are others. You cannot say anything more than that.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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