Question: What does it mean to engage in Torah and commandments?

Answer: Engaging in Torah and commandments (Mitzvot) with the help of the reforming light means doing everything described by Kabbalists who have attained Lishma. They advise us which actions can help us attain Lishma. For the time being, we call these actions Torah and commandments.

Lishma is the work with Masachim (screens) for the sake of bestowing upon the Creator, for the sake of His Name. Once I enter into work with Masachim, it becomes clear to me what Torah and commandments are. I already know which actions I can perform in my desire to receive that bring me closer to the Creator, that is, increase my intention to bestow. Then these actions are called commandments.

By correcting my desire to receive through the intention to bestow, I fill it with the light called Torah.

And now, while I am below the Machsom (barrier), my intention, although not yet very clear, is directed toward my desire to reach the beginning of true spiritual work, a genuine relation with the Creator, to bestow upon Him, to cross the Machsom, and acquire a Masach. I do not yet know exactly what this means, but I can somehow imagine it. Therefore, if I perform any action that the Kabbalists advise me to perform, this is called Torah and commandments.

And the actions that I perform with my body (with my feet, hands, or various objects) are the ones we must do within the framework of our corporeal world. They have nothing to do with spiritual work whatsoever. Therefore, I keep saying that they do not advance a person toward the Creator. They merely keep a person within the framework of the inanimate spiritual level (Domem de Kedusha).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born With Bad Qualities?”

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1. A person is a new Kli, called the soul, which can be formed within us through study when the illumination that comes returns one to the source. That is, it builds the sixth sense within us, the desire for the Creator with the intention of bringing Him contentment through a screen.

There is no place here for the desires of other animalistic passions, upon which a screen cannot be built, regardless of what calculations one might make regarding their use. All this does not belong to the work of the Creator.

Therefore there are two opposite forms of Torah. One Torah teaches how to exist in this world, below the Machsom. This is called the general Torah, through which the masses are taught how to live better, how to be a good Jew, that is, what is commonly called being religious. Accordingly, one is taught to govern one’s qualities, to be kind and decent, to love the created beings, to guard one’s speech, and so on.

I do not reject this in any way. Those who have not yet crossed the Machsom and who do not yet have the intention to cross it, should indeed observe this. Such is the Torah for the masses, which prepares them to pass on to the individual Torah.

The individual Torah is intended for one who wishes to develop individually, that is, for a human being (“You are called ‘man’…”) above the Machsom, one who already possesses a new Kli.

The desire for the Creator is called a new desire, a new Kli with the intention for the sake of bestowal. Within it various disturbances that are directed against the Creator are awakened, called Klipot. Then all of one’s connection and all of one’s work are directed solely toward the Creator. And whatever is directed toward the Creator is called spiritual, and is called “man” (Adam).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Question: What should one expect from the commandments of the Torah?

Answer: A “commandment of the Torah” consists of extracting the concept of the “Torah of life” from the Torah, attaining life itself. Baal HaSulam writes about this in TES (The Study of the Ten Sefirot). He refers not to the study itself, but to its result.

Question: Suppose a person is sweeping the floor in our building or working in the kitchen. Is this considered that he is studying Torah?

Answer: If I do something in our kitchen and intend thereby to attain something in my life, then the desire that arose in me at that moment, multiplied by the good, beneficial thing that I contributed to the group, that is, multiplied by the group’s collective desire to attain spirituality, becomes my own desire.

By serving my friends, I thereby acquire their desires, include myself in them, and then those desires influence me, and direct my own desire into the proper course.

As a result, during the lesson I intend to draw the light of the Torah that reforms from what I study, not to become a great sage or anything else.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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Question: We learned that if a person who studies the Torah directs the proper intention toward their study, they come from the state of Lo Lishma to Lishma (for the sake of the Creator). How does this happen?

Answer: It is said that one does not truly engage in the Torah while in the state of Lo Lishma. If a person remains an egoist, why should they study the Torah? If you are an “animal,” then live like an animal. But if a person uses the light in the Torah to correct themself and return to the source, then they truly can engage in the Torah.

However, for one who studies without such an aim, everything happens in the opposite way. Their eyes become blind, light becomes darkness, and darkness becomes light.

Question: If a person strives only for the Creator, is it called Lishma?

Answer: What does it mean to say, “I want the Creator”? What do I want to gain from that? What is it that you want from the Creator? Do you want to bring Him contentment? If a person desires to bestow upon the Creator, this is called Lishma, for the sake of the Creator.

This is determined according to the opening of one’s eyes in the Torah. If the Creator is revealed to you, and as a result of your aspiration toward Him you are in adhesion with Him, and if, in accordance with your desire to bestow upon Him, He fills you with His presence and His light, then it means that, through the equivalence of form, your desire truly has the intention to bestow upon Him.

But if you have not yet reached such a state, then you are only saying that you wish to bestow upon the Creator. In reality, you are deceiving yourself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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Question: In the greatest state of Lo Lishma does a person begin to desire the next stage, Lishma?

Answer: No, at the peak of Lo Lishma a person does not want Lishma, because he does not understand what it is. The greatest Lo Lishma is when I want to bestow to the Creator, to be with Him, I love Him to such an extent that I do not feel myself. It is like in love, the sensation of it fills a person so completely that it suppresses their will to receive. There is a lot of egoism there and even aggression, but it is extinguished by the feeling of the necessity of connection with the beloved.

How do I use my study? Each time I want something, I understand that I can realize it by means of study, in the course of which I receive the forces to realize what I want. At the same time, I must come to study with some desire. Suppose today I want by means of study to change this or that.

Study is about the specific payment you want, or power you seek in order to bring about a change within you?

But if you arrive without a precise definition of what you want to change in yourself, the study is futile. What is the purpose of the light’s arrival? You and your friends awaken it, and it simply circles around you and leaves.

By the effort that you apply during study, you draw the upper light upon yourself, which brings life, health, strength, and all that is best. And if you just sit and study, and you have no demand for these forces, then why did you come to the lesson?

When you come to a lesson, even if you do not yet know why, just as your friends do not know what they are awakening the forces around for, then the light itself builds the desire in you. Gradually you begin to feel what exactly you must desire. But in order to use study more quickly and effectively, you need to come prepared with a specific desire in mind.

When one of my students calls me and asks how to play a role in the theater because he is struggling, frustrated, and torn apart, I give him some advice. But the best advice is that when you have problems, something hurts, or things are not working out, come here, study, and that very light that comes will give you the answer to everything, including how to play the role.

Just think how down‑to‑earth this example is, yet you already believe that from your study of the Torah you gain the strength to improve something. The only power that exists in this world is the light that comes from the upper world. In other words, this is the only possibility to change something in your state.

There is no other means: You will not find such a screwdriver, fork, or pliers with which you could tighten something in yourself and thus change. Only the light can do this.

And although it has a general influence on the soul and advances it, I must define what I want from it, so that I catch this surrounding light and, using it like a screwdriver, tighten something in myself in order to change. This must be more or less clear to you, and you need to know this before you come to study.

In principle, we understand this: We gather in groups, discuss and clarify what our desire is, and begin to study, knowing exactly what we want from the surrounding light. And if nothing changes in me, then I must voice my discontent as to why it did not change anything in me: “Where are Your promises? Show me where I am at fault and why You did not do this for me.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Question: How can a person determine that he is standing before a choice?

Answer: A person does not know that he is in a state of choice. He must have faith and constantly remind themselves.

Therefore it is necessary to develop the habit of creating various reminders, notes, and marks inside and around myself that will help me constantly remember what, and in which direction, I can now add from myself. And then, within three to five years, one can attain what the Kabbalists write about.

However, the system must accompany me in such a way that I can constantly awaken, and strive toward the goal. Now this system is becoming denser; time is compressing. For although the Kabbalists wrote long ago, in the times of the Gemara, they had our days in mind.

It is said that everything that has been written is intended for the last generation, for living in the days of the Mashiach because for the previous generations it made no sense to write anything. In the past generations only a few individuals rose to the spiritual, and the Torah they had was different; they were drawn from above. But all the holy books, including those written by Moses, are intended for our generation.

It seems to me that for beginners time is indeed greatly shortened. Today people come who grasp the material very quickly. After two or three years I still did not perceive what today they feel and understand after a month of study.

Comment: With such receptivity one can remain for ten years without advancing at all.

My Response: I am speaking about one specific parameter. That a person can sit here another twenty years, and remain the same as today is true; it all depends on him. And yet for now, his understanding, perception, and connection with the material are such as mine were two years after I began to study Kabbalah. This is a miracle; I am amazed by it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Question: How can I clarify what a particular state is sent to me for?

Answer: You see there are many people in the world who turn to the upper force. I remember a visit to San Francisco where statues of Christian saints, the Madonna and child, etc., stand right on the streets. People worship these statues, they come up right on the street and kiss them. We see pure idolatry in a modern American city. This is a clear example for you.

Or consider Baal HaSulam’s example about the kibbutz members in the Negev desert that suffer from drought and, without realizing it, turn to the Creator with a request for rain. This request comes from the heart. Whether they want it or not, they ask the upper force for help, because it is precisely the Creator who arranges this situation for them, although they do not know it.

That is, people all over the world turn to the Creator for help. Even a little flea that suffers because it has nothing to eat  does; its suffering is also an appeal to the source of its suffering, to the Creator.

The question is how to correctly turn to the Creator, starting from the little flea up to the big animals, up to the person worshipping statues, up to the kibbutzniks of the Negev, up to religious Jews on the inanimate level of holiness, and up to those who already truly wish to turn to the source and to know to whom they are turning. Yet the appeal of the latter has a completely different goal.

The request of a flea or of a person who asks for his own good in this world and in the world to come remains within the framework of the material world. But when a person begins to ask not that he should feel good in the future world, because in his request there is already some feeling toward the Creator (meaning it is simultaneously a mix of Lo Lishma and Lishma), then becomes a targeted request.

This is the essential difference between our request and the request of a flea or an idol‑worshipper, because it is truly an appeal to the Creator. After all, we do not ask like the kibbutzniks, who pray because there is no rain and suffer from drought, and we do not cry out to the Creator that we feel bad so that it will become good. We speak of an appeal that is difficult to express in words.

If I ask the Creator for correction so as to become like Him, this too is a request “on my own account,” it is also Lo Lishma. Lishma is a feeling that we are not even able to put into words. How can I turn with such a request that will be as if disconnected from myself and directed exclusively toward the Creator?

Therefore, our entire work passes through various relations with the upper force, in order to finally come to “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah are one.” That is, the steps I take in the process of my clarifications in relation to the Creator are called “Torah”; it is about how I relate to Him so that these steps, instead of being directed toward myself, will be more and more directed toward Him.

Making a reversal in the direction of my actions is the work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,’ in the Work?”

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Our Kabbalistic upbringing and education are completely different from the upbringing of the public. Religion teaches a person simply to be well behaved, to get up and do, do, do.

Kabbalah, on the contrary, develops a person’s ability to analyze. A person begins to disagree with the Creator, to scold and curse the Creator, and wants to rebel against Him. Then he begins to understand where these qualities come from, compares his own qualities with the opposite qualities of the Creator, and gradually realizes what is preferable.

Then, first, he justifies the Creator; afterward, he wishes to be like Him, and finally, through opposite states, he himself becomes similar to Him. This is how a person develops. Therefore, “The view of the Torah is opposite to the view of the masses.” The populace is taught and educated in a way that is opposite to the Torah.

A person who comes here begins to receive an upbringing through which he becomes completely free of any frameworks, of all initial conditions, of everything. You must examine, analyze, and think through every possible state, fear nothing, and from all this choose the truth. Otherwise, you will remain an animal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

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The depth of spiritual attainment is determined by the depth of the corrected desire. With each new generation, increasingly coarser (more egoistic) souls descend into this world.

For this reason, the Kabbalists who lived before the ARI (16^th century) had a small ego and could not reveal the elements of creation in full detail, such concepts as the Masach (Screen), Tzimtzum Aleph, Tzimtzum Bet (the first and second restrictions), and Ohr Hozer (Reflected Light).

They worked with these spiritual forces, but their origin and actions were not yet fully clear to them. Consequently, they could not describe them with complete precision.

It is like seeing a picture and even being able to paint it while not knowing how colors are decomposed into a spectrum, what wavelength each color has, how those wavelengths affect us, and how they are perceived as sensations.

Without sufficient depth of desire, it is impossible to reach the underlying causes and explain how the light connects with the desire.

The ARI was the first to reveal the distinction and connection between the direct light and the reflected light due to the uniqueness of his soul in its full depth.

In addition, the era of the Messiah was beginning and souls requiring correction started to be revealed in the world.

Before that, came the period of exile during which the ego had not yet manifested itself in a form ready for correction.

Therefore, it is said that all the Kabbalists before the ARI explained Kabbalah primarily from the perspective of the direct light (the Kabbalah of the Ramak), whereas the ARI explained Kabbalah from the perspective of the reflected light (the Kabbalah of the ARI).

Baal HaSulam continued the ARI’s method and made it applicable for our generation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/9, Baal HaSulam, Letter 29

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The Study of the Ten Sefirot describes the construction of our soul. By studying it, I will learn exactly what is happening inside me, even though I do not feel it now. But I want to feel and understand it because if I connect with it, I will enter eternal life.

Therefore I must constantly develop the habit of thinking this way and listening—listening, and listening endlessly. Then during my studies I will not merely lack general knowledge, but I will develop the need to find out what is written about me in the book. Now I am reading a book about myself, not about some world separated from me by thousands of partitions.

There are no worlds outside of me; they all exist within me. Among my 620 desires, there are those that relate to one world, another, or a third world; that is how it is divided.

All 620 of my desires represent 620 degrees that I have to surmount, starting from my present state all the way to the final correction.

These 620 degrees are divided into five groups, each of which is hidden in a certain way, revealed by performing a certain action, filled with a certain light, and therefore each one is called a world. All these things are inside me. Outside of me is only Atzmuto, the essence of the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that ‘Law and Ordinance’ Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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