Question: People constantly strive for new sensations; they try one thing, then another, then a third. For example, I did not understand what it meant to get a tattoo, and I decided to try. Obviously, it is a sign of a certain self-expression. But only after I got it did I understand what a tattoo really is.

It is the same with spiritual things. Until you try, you cannot explain. Many people who come to study Kabbalah begin to cultivate a principle of equality among themselves so that everyone becomes similar. To what extent can the environment influence a person positively or negatively in this sense?

Answer: You are speaking about a person who is like the wind in the field. Does he have a goal or not? First he has to find it for himself. What do I want to reach? What is my goal? Does it exist or not? If not, then what? Should I just look around? These people behave like this, those have such-and-such a goal, and others fool around in their own way. So I choose what is closer, better, and easier for me. I follow the masses or some groups, and thus I join them.

But if we are talking about individuality, then I must find my own personal goal. After I find it, I need to clarify how it can be realized: where, with whom, and by what means. Then I will look: if for its sake I need, say, to get the same tattoo, then I will do it; if I need to learn something, I will learn it.

In other words, the goal must justify the means. The final state must determine the path toward it. My present state is meaningless if I do not know the final one, and I am like the wind in the field: wherever it blows me, that is where I go. Meaning, I will act not with my own head, but someone else’s, whatever is advertised to me at the moment becomes important. And so a person spins around his whole life, until he weakens, agrees that “that is it,” and dies.
[351941]
From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Everyone Should Be the Same” 10/1/10

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Spirituality has only the form that you build for it yourself by your desires. From above we are given only an informational record (Reshimo), and we must build the form ourselves. From above, from the upper degree, we are also given strength and mind for realization, but according to our request.

It seems to us that some ready-made world will suddenly fall upon us from above. There is nothing to wait for. I build it myself through my efforts. I myself draw this world against the background of the light.

I draw the image of the upper one, and to the extent of my efforts, it becomes more and more true. I do everything that I am capable of. I draw all kinds of forms. Sometimes it turns out better, sometimes worse, and sometimes I make mistakes. I create them and erase them until I succeed.

And in the process of my work, I suddenly see that the upper one begins to help me! He clothes within me like a hand in a glove, and works. He helps me like a mother who plays together with a child and helps him build a house out of blocks. When I try to do something and it does not work, I suddenly feel that it is He who helps me understand that it should not be this way but the opposite.

But all this comes thanks to my efforts because I tried to build something. And He also awakens the beginning of this effort within me, but I must continue it myself, find its sprout, and begin to work from it. This is what is called: “I, the Creator, am the first and the last.”

We ourselves must build the connection between us, this “house,” the place where the Creator will be revealed, the “picture of the Creator,” using our own material. Without this, He has no image at all. I project Him onto myself, onto my desires, onto that part that I can make similar to Him.

And on this desire, as on a foundation, as on a screen (and in spirituality it is indeed called a screen), I begin to see His picture. It begins to appear on this screen like a photograph lowered into a developing solution. This picture that manifests on my screen is called reflected light. And thus I receive two spiritual forces: the screen and the reflected light.

All of this must come from me myself. This is why the necessary time of preparation for entering the spiritual world—“from three to five years”—is required. The time of concealment is the time of my attempts to build this picture. And afterward the spiritual world is revealed; and what it turns out to be in reality is difficult for us to even imagine.
[4686]

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Question: How do you behave when you realize and feel yourself as worthless?

Answer: You must realize that it comes from the Creator, and thank Him for revealing it, that now, finally, you understand who you are.

From this state, you can advance correctly. It will not allow you to stay in place. Therefore our worst states are actually the most productive.
[255918]
From Lesson No.7 Congress in Moldova, 9/8/19

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We constantly work with our egoistic desire, which acts according to its natural property, the desire to receive fulfillment, our only matter. We await the light of correction to come and add an intention for the sake of bestowal to this desire.

We must separate desire and intention. With the desire to enjoy, I always have the opportunity to work and advance. As it says, “Do everything within your power.” But the intention to give to others or to the Creator comes as a result of the influence of the surrounding light. That is what we need to ask for.

That is, I already have half of the spiritual vessel, the desire to enjoy. I am not neglecting or annulling it, I just want to change its intention. If a person correctly separates his attitude toward action and intention, he will always be able to perform some actions and do work, both when spirituality attracts him and when it does not. But the force of unity that was formed in the past helps him.

He will always be able to raise a prayer, a request, for the right intention, so that it joins his action, and determines his spiritual quality. That is how a person advances.

Once he begins to understand more, feel more, and enter the spiritual world, he sees that there is not much difference between the spiritual and the material. It only takes a psychological change in a person to experience the spiritual.

We are not required to cross out our entire past life or override all our basis. We just need to extract the intention from all this and try to bring it to correction.

Therefore a person is happy that he came out of Egypt and brought with him many vessels, desires, and much strength. On the other hand, he is full of selfish intentions, and feels that they are the opposite of the truth. That is what he is starting to work on now. From this state, work begins. Therefore it is considered the point of spiritual birth.

We feel as “You Stand Today, All of You” before the Creator, with our corrupt desires, which we can present to Him as ready for correction.
[58790]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 10/26/11, Rabash, “You Stand Today, All of You”

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Today, we have come to a state in which millions of people around the world have begun to ask questions: “Why are we suffering? Why do we live? What is the purpose of our life? Does nature have some kind of program in regard to us?”

That is why the science of Kabbalah is now being revealed; it is precisely this science that can provide answers to these questions. Overall, all these answers come down to one thing: Kabbalah reveals a different reality to us.

The science of Kabbalah is a method of revealing the upper reality, i.e., a reality beyond ourselves, beyond what we currently sense. From this, each of us needs to pass through a certain inner barrier that obscures that second half of reality from us in which we already exist even now.

It is as if a light suddenly turns on, and we see that there is something else here. And this is indeed so. Only it is not the light we are used to that turns on, but the upper light, and in it we begin to see another reality that was previously dark, invisible, and imperceptible, namely, the reality of the upper world.

Only then will we understand what is happening in it and all the reasons for what is happening, that is, what our essence is. And already here, in the upper world, we will see that we are souls, not physical bodies, not the animate part that exists in us. We are the part of the human in us that is eternal, perfect and is a divine particle from above.

We are eternal, perfect creations, living in a different reality and in a different form of existence. Our purpose is to ascend and live in the upper, spiritual, eternal world, beyond the limitations of time, movement, and space, as well as of our perception of reality.

And what will happen to this world? For some time, this world will also continue to exist, until we attain the upper reality. And according to the measure of the attainment of the higher degree of the spiritual world, the reality of the lower degree will fade and become less and less discernible until it disappears completely.

Kabbalists say that we must come to this here and now, in this life, in our world. At the same time, nothing should change except the revelation of the upper world for us.
[38523]
From a lecture “Kabbalah for the People”  1/4/11

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A person goes through various stages in their spiritual development. Initially they are like something lifeless; they join a group that begins to influence him and develop them,  but they are not yet capable of independent actions and do not understand where they actually are.

Several years pass this way, until they realize that there is work to be done and they need to act actively, and constantly clarify which direction they are looking. From that moment, they cease to be inanimate and turns into a plant. They begin to grow on their own, through self-care, thanks to connection with others, following the teacher’s advice, and attentiveness to the path.

They try by themselves to put themselves under the influence of the environment, as they have realized that this group is not merely a gathering of people, but that it possesses a special inner force that is necessary for their development. Thus, they become a “plant,” and they begin to draw forces from the group, like from soil, in order to integrate with them even more strongly. They understand that fruit appears on a mature tree, and the tree grows only on the condition that a person integrates into the group.

And as they grow, they desire to receive the fruits, which are connection, love, mutual bestowal, and the revelation of the common force of bestowal in which the Creator is revealed. All of this is still on the vegetative level.

But then there is also the animate level, when they are already able to govern and take on part of the responsibility for the connection among all. This is no longer a “tree” rooted in one place and passive relative to the person who tends it.

The human degree within a person is the one who tends the tree. Yet the animate degree within a person is already not just a tree, but one that itself strives to grow and tries to actively participate in the entire system. A person sees the common flaws and tries to correct them. He sees not only how to correct himself and passively integrate into the system, but also how to help others, through which he becomes included in the general connections and corrections. This can be attributed to the animate degree.

And then there is the human degree, when, according to his actions, he already adheres to the Creator. It turns out that the foundation of all our development is the tending of the “tree.”

To begin with, this is enough to divide life into the material and the spiritual. To the material world one should give what is necessary—no more and no less. And to spiritual work—all the rest, without limitation.
[69196]
From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/8/12, Rabash, Letter 46

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Everything is determined solely by the degree of my connection with the other souls at the level on which I was before we fell into a state of separation from one another.

If I somehow jump over this separation, then I seemingly return myself to the spiritual state that we essentially want to reach.

If I try to do this, then whatever comes out of it, whether it succeeds well or perhaps not very successfully, if I make the effort, it turns out that this is the only action by which I can push myself toward a spiritual state.

I am a Kli (vessel), and from my side, there is only one action: to increase the Hisaron (lack), and then a greater light will enter this Hisaron. And I can increase the Hisaron only by jumping over the screens between the 600,000 parts of the soul despite the screen separating us that arose as a result of the breaking of the Kli when the state that connected the desires, the parts of Adam HaRishon, broke and the connecting screen turned into a separating screen.

This is the only action that I can perform, because I am a small Kli that becomes a large Kli due to this.

Aside from this, I have no other possibility to fix anything in my development, on my path.
[351875]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/26, Rabash, Article No. 17, 1986 “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2”

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I must create a Kli so that the Creator can fill it. If I receive inspiration from the Creator, that is not my merit but His. If I receive inspiration from the friends, that too is not my merit but theirs.

I take inspiration from the friends. I, the insignificant one who has nothing and is incapable of uniting with them or desiring the Creator, take this inspiration from them and act with it. I myself have acquired this inspiration.

Here, there must necessarily be two points: I am completely nullified, a zero, the lowest of the low; yet, I received inspiration from them because I exalted them in my eyes to a great height. Then the inspiration I received from them through my work in relation to them becomes like Keter for me, while I myself am like Malchut. Here I have as if a Reshimo deHitlabshut and a Reshimo deAviut. This is how I act. There is no other way.

If I simply take inspiration from the Creator, it is His inspiration. And if I simply take inspiration from a friend, it is the friend’s inspiration. How, then, does it become mine? There must be two points here: I, who am not inspired either by the Creator or by anything else, have now acquired inspiration from a friend.

There must necessarily be two points. Where is the point of my “I”? How will I reveal it if I do not act according to the rule love your neighbor as yourself?

You show the friends greatness so that they will show you this greatness in return.

Question: Why is it that when I show them greatness, I see even more that I myself am incapable of it?

Answer: You can come to see that you are incapable only if you try this with the friends and, in practice, see that you are unable to do anything. With regard to the Creator, you cannot see this. It follows that you must receive both the point of Malchut and the point of Keter from the friends, from the group.
[351871]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/26, Rabash, “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2”

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Question: It is said that even a commandment without an intention is called a commandment of the Creator. Yet we study that a commandment without an intention is like a body without a soul. How can these be reconciled?

Answer: When Kabbalists write about commandments without intention, they do not mean ordinary people. Ask a child who learned at the age of 13 to put on Tefillin why he does it, and he will say: “That is how I was taught.” Another, a bit wiser, will answer: “It is the Creator’s will, and so I do it.” A third will say: “I want to gain something good for myself through this.” There are many different reasons.

The Kabbalists who wrote the books never meant the physical actions of our bodies. When they say that a person performs an action without intention, it means that I am making every possible effort, yet I still do not have the intention for the sake of bestowal. Perhaps I am trying to act for the sake of bestowal, perhaps I do not yet understand, but I am already engaged in this and investing some effort.

In our community, there are many people who do not know what the intention for the sake of bestowal is, not even what spirituality is. Yet they made an effort and came at three in the morning to study. I do not think that many of them clearly understand why they are here, analyze their intention, clarify it, and are now implementing that intention.

No, for many, this is still an initial state. But they are making inner efforts, performing various actions, as it is written: “Whatever is in your power and ability to do, do.” They make different attempts to attain something to which they are being pushed from above. This is called actions without intention.

That is, the Kabbalists do not mean people who were taught to mechanically observe commandments and therefore do so. They mean those who sit here with the desire to attain the correct intention, but in whom it has not yet been revealed.

This is a transitional period in which a person gradually begins to see various states and what to do with them.
[351735]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/26, Rabash, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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What does it mean that the correction should be in the form of awe, Kelim of bestowal? The fact is that if we get pleasure in the desire to receive, this pleasure instantly cancels the desire.

For example, when we are hungry and start eating, we experience pleasure from food. But gradually, as we become satiated, the pleasure fades, and even from more delicious things, we no longer feel the same pleasure as from the very first bite.

This is all because the pleasure, filling the desire to receive, cancels out the lack (Hisaron) to the same extent. As soon as the Kli reaches saturation, it ceases to feel that it is filled.

We feel the same way when, for example, we chase after a purchase or strive for something, dream about it for a year or two, achieve it, and, after a week or two, it becomes ordinary. The pleasure filled the Kli, and the Hisaron, the hunger, disappears.

In order for the pleasure to be not accidental, temporary, fleeting, but eternal, it must grow with the fulfillment and not decrease or disappear altogether.

On the contrary, the greater the filling, the more the enjoyment, and they will literally be able to help each other by increasing each other. How can we do it? If the intention, which is added to the desire to receive, becomes for the sake of giving, the Kli will receive a state above time, place, and space.

What does it mean? Even if my place, my Hisaron, my “stomach,” is filled, but my intention as I fill it is to give, then I will have even more appetite to give.

Above time means that the more I get filled, my Hisaron, my appetite, my hunger, will not decrease but only grow as I am able to give more.

Therefore, in addition to the desire to receive, we must add the concept of intention, since intentions make the desire to receive something eternal, something that does not cancel out before the light that fills it but, on the contrary, turns it into a semblance of light. This is the teaching of the science of Kabbalah, the science that teaches how to receive for the sake of giving.
[351672]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/26, Rabash, “Concerning Fear and Joy”

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