Comment: Almost everyone who studies Kabbalah with us came from secular rather than religious backgrounds.

My Response: We should not confuse the two paths—what is incumbent upon me and what the Creator will do. I am not in control of what comes from above, but I do know what I must do from below. So from below I prefer to be Jewish. What does “Jewish” mean? In one way or another, to belong to the Jewish people in the national sense.

I am not saying that a person must look like someone from an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Jerusalem, and adopt that specific attitude to the country, the army, and his responsibilities to the state. However, one still needs to live within the same framework as the people, and our people have no other framework apart from what is called “heritage.” In one form or another, this is necessary.

Suppose someone comes here who has no idea what Passover, Sukkot, or the other holidays are, who knows nothing at all. We need a little more than that. This is what I am talking about, and not about becoming ultra-Orthodox.

Question: To be “traditional”?

Answer: “Traditional,” but genuinely so. The problem with being “traditional” is that the parents are traditional, while the person himself has absolutely no understanding of it. He only does his parents a favor by coming for the holidays. And then the third generation is completely lost.

In short, a person is a “beast.” If he wants to become a human being, fine; we will help him become one. But as a “beast,” it is better for him to be in a good “herd,” in an enclosed place and under good protection. Then he will be well. You can see what happens to people when an entire generation has no boundaries. Look at what is happening.

Do you really think that through their “free development” they have achieved something? Nothing. They think they have brought about a flourishing. What flourishing? There is nothing there. They think that thanks to this they can bring something new to humanity. Nothing will come of it. What else can a person extract from his own skull? What kind of development is this? Nothing is actually happening to them. Ultimately, it leads to prostitution and drugs.

If you could only show me some other solution, but there isn’t one. According to Kabbalah, there isn’t one either. There is nothing for a person to seek in a secular way of life. Nor is there anything to seek in a religious way of life. Rather, a person simply needs to be kept within certain boundaries. You will see how entire nations maintain such boundaries. We are simply unable to do so because our desire to receive is greater.

Do you think anything goes in America? You have no idea what the system is like there. Compare Israeli and American films. American films are full of pride, ideals, and the glorification of America above everything else. Look at the extent to which they are committed to this. Their films are similar to Soviet films, except that they present it in such a form that you do not notice it.

Go to Europe. Do you think you can do whatever you want there? The moral doctrines governing everything are very strict.

With us, however, it is the worst because everyone’s desire to receive is a thousand times greater than that of some gentile abroad. Therefore, an evil arises that can no longer be contained.

In short, a person is a “beast,” and it needs protection for its own benefit. Previous generations have already become convinced of this. I am not saying anything new. In my time there was the generation of the Beatles and the hippies, and what remains of them? What did they accomplish? Nothing. People remained hippies until the age of 30 to 35, and what happened to them? Those who succeeded eventually turned to drugs, while the others suddenly discovered that they had neither a home nor a job, while the rest of the world had moved forward. The same thing is happening with those we are helping break free from drugs.

I am not saying that religious frameworks are necessarily a good thing. I am saying that people nevertheless need some kind of boundaries and some kind of structure. That is essential. After all, we have already been down that road before.
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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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Question: Can we expect a mass awakening at the still level of holiness now?

Answer: On a mass scale, this is impossible neither among the secular nor among the religious. What does “mass” mean? A million people, just like that? I do not think so.

It does not depend on us, but it will happen. At each stage there will be more in quantitative terms. For example, if this year a hundred people awaken, then next year there will be a thousand.

Question: So, we cannot do anything directly?

Answer: A direct transition to the masses is impossible. In any case, it will involve individuals, but thousands will emerge from these individuals. For example, out of half a million religious people in Israel, five percent may suddenly feel the need to engage in the inner part of the Torah, making it their primary focus. That is possible.

But these 25,000 people will be acting individually. Hasidism won’t come to you looking for a new path; that simply cannot happen. It is a matter of individual work. A specific religious group may seem to you as a unified whole, but the people within it are at different levels of spiritual development.

It will come; there will be a major crisis in the coming years.
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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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Comment: In religious societies, things are coming to light that are no less bad than those found in secular society.

My Response: Ultimately, the will to receive bursts forth and grows unchecked. Then both religious and secular boundaries lose their significance for the person; they become unrestrained and frenzied.

Nothing can be done about this. Such things, of course, happen both here and there. But it is better to maintain at least something. Perhaps in ten years the conditions will change, but in our time, I think, it is worth it. The main thing is to minimize the damage.

Comment: But Baal HaSulam writes in several places that one who engages in the Torah in its external form causes the greatest damage. He warned about this before the Holocaust.

My Response: Baal HaSulam indeed writes at the end of the “Introduction to The Book of Zohar” that one who engages in the external Torah and does not want to engage in the internal—not that he is unable, but precisely that he does not want to, neglects it, or hates it—causes all the damage, and brings about the worst things in the world. That is correct. But this does not mean that a person must distance themselves from the external Torah. He must engage in both the external Torah and Kabbalah.

Moreover, whether you like it or not, Baal HaSulam writes there as well that those who engage in the external Torah must begin to engage in the internal. He is not speaking about you, not about your guilt, not that you are causing the worst things in the world, not that you must begin to engage in the internal Torah. He is not speaking about you, but about them. Why?

You want to say the following: if they cannot engage in the internal part, then let them abandon the external as well, let them simply be secular; at least in this way we will harm no one. This will not help you. Already today, what they engage in cannot be called the external part in the true sense. Therefore the damage lies not in this, but precisely in the fact that they do not engage in the internal part.

Of course, it is easier to approach a completely secular person with a proposal to study Kabbalah. This will not work with a religious person. However, the problem lies in education, in millions of young people. If you completely free them from studying the Torah or from frameworks suitable for the people, nothing good will come of it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, Article 14, 1984 “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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The root of the soul each of us possessed in Adam HaRishon lost its screen after the shattering, yet it continued to exist without it. In any case, even without the screen, it consists of Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey, the four stages of direct light, that must be present in every element of creation, in every desire.

Neither the individual stages nor their combination can be changed. This is impossible because this root represents my origin in Adam HaRishon—the essence of my “self,” my foundation. Anyone who attempts to fight this merely suppresses these elements. The most I can do is not use them.

All philosophies and other ancient methods that persist to this day teach a person how to forcibly master their natural properties so they might feel heroic in their own eyes. But this does not make them a true human being, because they are suppressing their natural qualities rather than transforming them.

These traits cannot be changed, as they lie beyond our control and are embedded in the very foundation of creation. In the past, people tried to change our natural qualities through upbringing, but now they are coming to the conclusion that upbringing should be free of excessive pressure and coercion. Although they proper application of this approach remains elusive, there is a growing understanding that force is ineffective.

When we observe negative traits in a young adult such as outbursts against society or hostility toward everyone and everything, it is often the result of their being pressured at an early age. Now all the “experts” recognize this, but they still have no method for dealing with it.
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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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When a person begins to study in a group, to listen, and to engage in dissemination, they must receive more surrounding light and begin to change. But Rabash said that this is extremely difficult.

That is why we need only people who possess a point in the heart. We do not need the whole world, only those specific points that we must draw out from across the world. Why should our network span the whole world? It is solely to reach all those special individuals scattered across the globe. Once the desire emerges, that is it, the person is ready to realize the Creator. If not, then not.

There are people who do not understand that a different kind of Torah can exist, unlike Rabbi Fisher who once said that I should be left alone and given the opportunity to search for what I was looking for since I could not be satisfied with what they were giving me.

If it had not been for Rabbi Fisher, I would have abandoned religion. As Elimelech said many years ago, were it not for Kabbalah, he would have become secular, for he found life utterly tedious without the attainment of spirituality. Religious people do not understand that if a person has a true desire for the attainment of spirituality, it is something much stronger than all other desires. They do not understand that the person simply cannot be otherwise. They want to confine him in a framework so that he remains at the same level.

I remember that I was given the Gemara and told, “Study this from morning until evening; this is the desire of the Creator.” I could not! I went to study for several months in Kfar Chabad, and read several tractates, but it is completely impossible to study them without some reaction from above.

Baal HaSulam and Agra wrote that one who hopes precisely for this, who awaits it, can be satisfied only by the wisdom of Kabbalah. In the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” it is written that one who feels that the Torah is dry for him should leave it, and try his luck in the wisdom of Kabbalah.

The inanimate level cannot align with the vegetative. A plant is something that I cannot control; it slips through my fingers because it grows. It can not be held in the ground or kept close; it escapes.

Every movement of growth occurs because a person rejects, destroys, and cancels the previous state. Therefore the next degree comes. You will not be able to become a plant until you completely cancel the inanimate within you. And from there you begin to rise. The inanimate is your foundation, but on the other hand, you must constantly step over it.
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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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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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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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Question: Why is the connection of religious people with the Creator imperfect?

Answer: Baal HaSulam writes at the end of Introduction to The Book of Zohar that the people of Israel do not belong to this world, and the Germans once felt this. Jews are not a nationality, not a people, but something irrational.

In the Torah, it is said that the Creator wanted to give the Torah to the other nations, but they did not want to accept it. Then He gave the Torah to the people of Israel, scattered us throughout the world, and sent us into four exiles so that we would intermix with other nations.

In exile, we fell to the level of the “nations of the world.” Now, we must correct ourselves so that the Galgalta Eynaim (GE) are corrected, and only then can we elevate the AHP to GE.

Baal HaSulam says that the entire nation of Israel is guilty of not fulfilling its mission in the world, of not realizing itself as a spiritual guide. But there are those who are more guilty and those who are less guilty.

And it is those who study only the outer part of the Torah, neglecting the inner part, who cause the greatest harm to the entire nation of Israel and to the world as a whole.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/26, Rabash, “What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven?”

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In our world there are people who engage only in external actions. No illumination from above reaches them, and they do not perform any inner actions. So, what is the difference between those who engage in inner actions and those who engage in external actions? The difference is very simple; it is their correspondence to Abraham.

Question: But where can you find a point of connection between our external and inner actions so that there is some logic to it?

Answer: If you perform actions with your body without any connection to spiritual corrections, like a good Jew who does what he was taught, then you establish correspondence on your own level: Domem deKedusha (the still level of holiness). You perform corrections, but since it is the still level of Kedusha, it does not give you the opportunity to grow. Nevertheless, they are corrections.

The light came from above, clothed in matter, and within this matter the spiritual replicated. Thus, in this world there are still, vegetative, animate, and speaking levels, and on the speaking level there are people who are descendants of Abraham or Gerim (converts), whom we will discuss later.

Those who are on the still level possess sparks of Abraham that they do not develop; for example, the illumination from above that awakens one to spirituality has not yet come to them, and so, they perform correction on the still level of holiness.

It is still a correction; you cannot deny it. But neither can you live by it, that is, you cannot add anything to it, because the still level is characterized by the absence of spiritual life.

If you desire something more, then you must begin to add your own effort: take deficiencies as though from outside yourself, add your own contribution through the single point of free choice available to you, and thereby evoke an additional illumination from above, or absorb more of the illumination that comes to you. Then you begin to carry out the spiritual commandments, to work for the Creator.

You must distinguish between these two aspects, because Kabbalah is, in essence, work for the Creator. Otherwise, you observe the commandments simply as a person who was taught to do so. One does not contradict the other; both approaches are necessary.

However, to one who exists on the still level of holiness, it appears that you are negating that level, because for him only the first aspect matters; if something else is deemed important, then the first loses its significance.

We observe that those who truly begin to study the inner part begin to neglect the external part—to the point that a person who meticulously observed all the commandments, upon beginning the study of Kabbalah, suddenly forgets that he has anything at all that he must do. He still does certain things out of habit, but his thoughts are floating in the clouds, above. We see how much the material action becomes weakened—in work, in the family, in everything. A person who is completely attached to spirituality greatly neglects the material.

Those who say that one who studies Kabbalah does not observe the commandments in practice with the meticulousness required in this world, are seemingly right. We ourselves see that this is so; let us not hide what, in the end, actually happens.

It is necessary to clarify the reasons for this phenomenon: either, God forbid, we are studying something incorrect; or we are mistaken and are not studying as we should; or this is natural and perhaps it will later return in another form, on another degree, in another existence—together, both in the spiritual and in the material.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/2/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Torah Was Given Out of the Darkness in the Work?”

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