Aside from obtaining the full measure of the will to receive, giving one all the material one needs for one’s work, this is the degree that brings one to Lishma [for Her sake]. It is as our sages said (Pesachim 50b): “One should always engage in Torah and Mitzvot Lo Lishma [not for Her sake], as from Lo Lishma, one comes to Lishma.”

One should take every measure suited to come to Lishma, for if one does not strain for this and does not achieve Lishma, he will fall into the trap of the impure maid (Baal HaSulam, Introduction to the Book of Zohar).

If a person wishes to move from his current state (1) to the next state (2), he must understand what he is striving for. In the first state, he must be able to feel the second state and desire it above all other possible states that may present themselves to him. If he truly desires the second state more than anything else, he evokes a force called the light that reforms, which transfers him from the first state to the second.

This transition does not mean that the fulfillment within me changes: “Previously, I knew one thing, and now I know another. Previously, I felt one way, and now I feel differently.” No. The action of the light produces a different result: previously, I thought according to one system, and now my system of thinking has changed. Previously, I felt according to one system, and now my system of feeling has changed. Through the light that reforms, it is not the content of the mind and feeling that changes, but the mind and feeling themselves. That is how I pass into the next state.

Therefore, already in the first state, a person does not really want to change the fulfillment. That is not what matters. What matters is that the feeling and the mind themselves change. He wants them to become bestowing rather than receiving.

Question: How can one imagine this new pattern?

Answer: It comes through effort and contemplation. Time also plays its role. But if you do not want the process to take a long time, hasten it!

There are two states: the current first state and the next second state. In each state I have both feeling and mind. In both states there is fulfillment, but in the first state the fulfillment is bad, while in the second it is good. I rise above both of them and ask for a new vessel, a new feeling, and a new mind. I ask not for a different fulfillment, but for a different heart and brain.

This is how we advance by faith above reason, from separation to adhesion. What matters to me is not whether the fulfillment within the vessel is good or bad, but what I do above it by raising Ohr Hozer (reflected light).

Question: What is the difference between asking for fulfillment and asking for a new feeling and mind?

Answer: The intention. I change my intentions.

Question: But by nature, the desire wants fulfillment. How can it switch to a different request?

Answer: Through the Ohr Makif (surrounding light), which returns to the source. Through the Torah.

Question: Do I know what I am striving for, or do I simply want something new?

Answer: I know. After all, I am working with my desire. I must at least have some understanding of what bestowal is.

Question: What is the actual process of moving from the first state to the second?

Answer: A change in attitude from oneself to the Creator.

Question: What exactly happens to my mind and feeling during this transition?

Answer: It all depends on what is more important to me. The mind and the feeling are me. The light acts upon me and changes my priorities.

I cannot change myself on my own because I will truly know myself only at the end of correction. For now, I am only somewhat familiar with the “animal” in which I live but not with my true self. I must come out of that “animal,” separate myself from it so that it stands beside me, and only then begin to work on myself. Only then will I begin to know who I really am.

Question: According to what Baal HaSulam writes here, does that mean not everyone will attain the intention of Lishma?

Answer: Anyone who has a genuine attraction to the wisdom of Kabbalah already wants, at least inwardly, to change himself. He may not yet realize it or understand it, but he is already prepared for it. Such a person possesses an inner demand and is not willing to remain as he is. He seeks a true transformation.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/13, Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Book of Zohar”

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During our studies we also have to include the current situation around us in our prayer. We want equivalence of form with the Creator and for the upper force to come and correct us and to make the necessary transformation within us.

I need this transformation not for myself and not even to bestow contentment to the Creator from myself, which is also egoistic, in a slightly different way, but it is still egoistic.

I want that all creations would come to such a level of consciousness where they would understand the goal and would grow closer to Him. Why should the desire be like this? This is the result of caring for the whole world, for all of reality.

A person who includes not only the group, but all of humanity, finds within oneself and activates additional forces of one’s soul for this request. After all, each of us contains all the forces that exist in the world; therefore, the more we expand our request, the more powerfully we activate our soul toward the Creator.

We must consider why it is necessary to do that. This is because we have received the privilege to advance, to ask and demand the Creator to help us fulfill what is entrusted upon us: to be a light unto the nations of the world and to bring the idea of the purpose of creation and how to reach it, to our people and to the whole world. A person has to feel that the blame for the world still not being corrected lies with them. Therefore they must ask for correction.

During the Lebanon War, in the early 80s, Rabash and I went for a walk in park as we usually did. He would listen to the radio every five minutes. At that time, people in Bnei-Brak did not listen to the radio. I was surprised. After all, nobody is interested in this! To which he replied: “They are not interested because they do not feel that their own children are there now.” Rabash felt it!

Therefore we have to understand, even if just intellectually for now, as Baal HaSulam writes at the end of the Introduction to The Book of Zohar, that if something bad is happening with us, with our people, it is happening because those who have received the information from above about how to correct the world and how to draw the whole humanity to the Creator, they are still not realizing this; are not doing their work in its fullness.

Thus, we have what to pray for and a reason to ask for strength in addition to what we usually ask and demand. We have to sense that we are responsible for what is happening.

Therefore, when we try to formulate our request from myself though the group to the Creator, we have to include these things in it as well. They are now coming at us directly, and it is not by accident that we see and feel our life precisely this way. We are obliged to react to this.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/7/26, Rabash, “What Are the Times of Prayer and Gratitude in the Work?”

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Question: Is turning to the Creator the strongest effort a person makes?

Answer: One must seek how to turn to the Creator; it is not done just like that. No one can simply turn to Him.

The moment the Creator reveals Himself to me, either openly or in a concealed form, it means that He is inviting me to turn to Him. It is not simply that I go and search for Him. Where will I search for Him in order to cry out to Him or ask Him for something?

In fact, turning to the Creator, once one has merited His revelation, comes suddenly, as it is said: “The salvation of the Lord is in the blink of an eye.” This happens completely unexpectedly as a result of all the effort that the person has previously made. However, all the work done beforehand is essential. Without it, it would be impossible to experience this state.

Even now we are already in the state of final correction, but does anyone feel it?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/13/26, Rabash, “And the Lord Appeared to Him at the Oaks of Mamre”

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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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Question: How does one gather all their aspirations toward the Creator?

Answer: A person cannot gather all their aspirations toward the Creator alone. If we have a certain reservoir of constantly replenished efforts and we make sure that it is constantly preserved and grows, then we can do this.

Take an ordinary prayer book and you will see that it is arranged as though one among many is addressing the Creator. Everywhere it says “we,” “we,” “we”… This is how the Kabbalists, members of the Sanhedrin (Great Assembly) composed it for us before the exile. It sets forth the correct attitude, in the correct form, and according to these stages, an appeal to the Creator.

Thus, all of this is the work of a person from the collective toward the Creator. Otherwise it is impossible. There are certain very specific prayers in which a person addresses the Creator alone. But even in this case, he addresses Him as a representative of society as, what is called, a messenger of the society. It cannot be so that he makes an address entirely on his own.

There is no other nation so unified by its animalistic nature as the Jews. Any other nation can live separately, one part here, another part there. But this nation, by its very nature, even when scattered throughout the world, preserves the ties between its parts.

The same applies to the matter of their own country and of unification. There are many nations whose countries barely manage to sustain their existence, nations who do not feel connection to all the institutions of the state. But for us, this is ingrained in our nature.

We simply cannot do without it: without organization, without unity, without being bound together into a certain mechanism, truly as a nation. And all this is because, at the very core, lies a spiritual nature.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59

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Question: What do we call a prayer for the friend, for society?

Answer: A prayer for the friend is defined as all my thoughts and desires directed toward what is outside of me. It does not matter to me what is outside of me—the Creator, or all of humanity.

Only in truly advanced states, those preceding the crossing of the Machsom (the barrier) and the formation of a proper prayer, do we begin to feel that the Creator and the surrounding world are one and the same. This is because we are unable to feel anything outside our vessels (Kelim).

So how can I nevertheless step outside of my own vessel (Kli) in my sensations and see who I am and who the Creator is? That which is sensed in the Kelim of the whole world and that which is revealed there to me therein, is essentially the manifestation of the Creator relative to me.

The Creator is revealed within the Kelim. If I reveal Him within my own Kli, this is called “this world.” But if I reveal Him in the Kelim of all the other souls, this is called the future world, the spiritual world, or the Creator.
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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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What is prayer? My desire must become included in the upper one. But for now, I am not yet within Him. I can be heard by Him if I raise my Hisaron to Him. The raising of one’s need to the Creator is called performing an action in faith above reason.

I take my desire from the degree I presently stand on and raise it to the higher degree. How is this action performed? It is completely opposite to how we imagine it.

To the extent that my state appears absolutely hopeless to me, I must see only one conclusion in it —that only the Creator can help me.

This is not a logical transition. Through logic, our intellect cannot transfer us from the corporeal world into the spiritual world.

There is a gap between these two worlds. Only when we receive a Masach (screen), a spiritual vessel, an intention for the sake of bestowal, and complete detachment from our own feelings and reason, can my desire become included in the higher degree as a prayer.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/4/26, Rabash, “What Is Heaviness of the Head in the Work?”

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Question: Can we enter spirituality without correct prayer?

Answer: Until the proper prayer is formed, nothing can take place. People cry out, “Save me!” because their desire for spirituality is not genuine. It is an animalistic desire. “Give it me! Why won’t You give it me?! After all, You gave me the need, so where is the fulfillment?”

The Creator has endowed you with Hisaron, but His plans do not include filling this need. The Creator has provided you with Hisaron that is not aimed at spirituality. You must shape this desire correctly yourself and build a true spiritual need on its basis.

In essence, He gave you a corrupted Hisaron, a desire for something more than the pleasures of this world. Through your work, you attract the light from above. We call this the surrounding light, the light descending from the Sefirot Netzach, Hod, and Yesod of Partzuf Atik of the world of Atzilut. You attract an illumination to yourself, which gradually builds the right Hisaron in you, and to the extent of your efforts spent on finding the right Hisaron, you feel this illumination.

Otherwise, you will feel other illuminations that shine on you in a non-selective form, just unsorted pleasures from the upper world. But you want to attract a special illumination, a light that returns to the source. To do this, you must want to return to its source (the Creator), i.e., a person must develop his own Hisaron. As it is written: “the woman who conceived first will give birth to a boy.” For this, we have been given a group.

Gradually, this will be revealed to us; there is no other way. You look at the faces of people at the lesson, and see only the outer shell; you do not understand what you have in common, what binds you. But if you penetrate deep within each of them, you will see the souls that are your Kelim. In essence, the souls of your friends are the organs of your spiritual body.

Our initial desire for spirituality is called a point in the heart. We must build a new Kli around this point: instead of a stony heart (Lev haEven), a heart made of flesh (Lev Basar). It is built by joining the other Kelim, the Kelim of your friends, to your black point. As it is written, “I will take away your heart of stone, and create a heart of flesh in you.”
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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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Prayer is the desire to acquire the correct Hisaron (deficiency). There are many inner discernments here.

Our entire path—from the moment we receive the point in the heart until crossing the Machsom, when we work in double and then single concealment and while committing intentional transgressions and then errors—all these states are traversed in order to form a desire, a need, for vessels of bestowal within us.

In the article “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Baal HaSulam describes the state of “not for the sake of the Creator” (Lo Lishma) where I passionately desire to attain spirituality for my own sake and at the same time, I want to bestow upon the Creator.

Both these desires must exist within me simultaneously, and this state is called Lo Lishma. Consequently, by having the desire to bestow upon the Creator within me,  I feel that all my other desires are simply egoistic, for my own benefit. Existing within these two desires simultaneously allows me to see the difference between bestowal and reception.

Baal HaSulam writes that a person must realize that if they were to discover that they would receive only vessels of bestowal and absolutely nothing for oneself, such a state would not satisfy them, they are simply incapable of it. This is the true state of Lo Lishma, and from it, one comes to the state “for the sake of the Creator” (Lishma). In the book A Sages Fruit, it is stated that we must attune ourselves only toward striving to reach the state of Lishma day and night.

Our initial Hisaron, the point in the heart, signifies the state wherein “the Creator inseminates first, she gives birth to a female (Nekeva).” This primary Hisaron (Nekeva) implanted within us must be increased to its greatest possible measure in this world.

In other words, despite the earthly desires within me, which I seek to fulfill and realize, I want even more to have the desire to bestow upon the Creator. It is precisely this state that is represented by the sages’ saying: “A woman (Nekeva) who conceives first gives birth to a male (Zachar).” Zachar represents the first screen, the force of bestowal. This state may rightfully be called an infant born in spirituality.
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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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Question: Do you feel absolutely all the stages that your students go through?

Answer: How could it be otherwise? When a child does something, does an adult not understand exactly what he is doing? Of course, I feel and understand it all. Everything below me on the earthly level is absolutely clear to me, except for the animalistic psychology, which can be concealed. And in the spiritual world, all the degrees, are mine.

Comment: When a child asks for something, let’s say, a toy car or a little airplane, he has some prerequisites for it, meaning certain internal things have already formed in him. He is not simply crying, “Wah-wah,” he is still reaching for something. And we are drawn to some abstract form that we cannot perceive at all.

My Response: Yes, that is why you have to turn to the Creator. While striving to attain the abstract form, you should ask Him to take a step toward you. You only need to reach that “wah-wah,” as you say, “bursting out of yourself.”

Very good! This is where the request, which is called “the gate of tears” appears, that I cannot do this myself! And that is all; the Creator will do it. He will give you this quality. No one is saying that you have to attain Him. You must give quantity and quality to the effort required.

Question: What exactly is this request to the Creator? Where does this cry come from?

Answer: From the heart. There is no need to say anything.

After you make many different attempts, a feeling will emerge inside that cannot be expressed in words. It exists in the form of the Psalms of King David. Rabash writes about this in his articles.

The thing is that until you attain this, you let these words pass by you. You have to come to them yourself. And suddenly, you will find yourself speaking in psalms. I am speaking completely seriously. A person who attains this level says exactly what is written.

He suddenly discovers these words within himself. Where did they come from? And where did they come from for King David? He ascended to this level and discovered the combination of vessels and lights in a state that forms precisely these words, such a matrix expressed through his vocal apparatus, through the brain, in such sounds.

Question: Is it like a code on a certain degree?

Answer: Of course. That is, the light acts within the desire. In The Book of Zohar, this is described beautifully! Through the device called the human of our world with his anatomical structure, the feeling is expressed in the form of such images of letters, such sounds. As a result, the person expresses what King David said.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Gate of Tears” 10/11/10

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