On the spiritual path, there are guidelines that lead us to final correction. This path is divided into corrections, the first of which is called Ira—fear or awe.

In The Book of Zohar, a question is asked: where can this awe come from if the Creator is good and does good, if He is perfect and above all calculations for Himself? Why then should a person fear Him? It does not befit the Creator, who abides in absolute perfection, to act in a way that causes fear. How can this be?

The Zohar explains that there is a kind of fear called fear on the level of our world, when a person fears punishments for himself and for his family in this world. Moreover, he fears what will happen to him in the world to come, although this is already a higher concept. Nevertheless, it is still fear of punishment.

But when a person corrects his Kelim into Kelim of bestowal and acquires a screen (Masach), then he ceases to fear the Creator altogether, because he sees that He is good and does good. The Creator is revealed to him, and he begins to understand that even before he felt fear not because the Creator exists and can punish him, but because within his uncorrected Kelim he feared receiving punishment. In truth, there is no such thing as punishment from above. Separation from the Creator is itself the punishment.

And so, a person comes to another kind of fear—to awe that he may be unable to bestow. This essentially is correction itself; it is the thing that gives him the ability to build the Kelim of bestowal of his soul. In the revelation of this awe, a person receives the filling called love. Thus, love is the result of awe.

To the extent that he fears being unable to bestow, the light fills him and conveys a sensation of love to him, a feeling of similarity to the Creator, equivalence with Him in qualities, unity and adhesion with the Creator. Therefore, the concept of awe is correction. Because initially we are created with a desire to receive, and it must be for the sake of bestowal; otherwise, we will not feel delight.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/26, Rabash, “Concerning Fear and Joy”

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Question: How can I check whether I am applying effort correctly?

Answer: How to check whether your effort is correct? There are many ways to check this. First of all is whether you want it or not. Usually, what you do not want may be the correct thing. Secondly, whether it is respected in the eyes of the friends. Check it in relation to what is written in the primary sources and to what the teacher says.

Before the Machsom, we have no clear system by which we can examine and evaluate ourselves. Essentially you are asking where that standard is against which you could check yourself and see how much, more or less, you correspond to it, or on the contrary, do not correspond.

Before you enter the spiritual world, this is not revealed to you. This is why it is called “concealment.”

But you can evaluate yourself in relation to your will to receive, in relation to the group and the teacher; at least in this way you can test yourself. It is not for nothing that it is said: “Do not trust yourself until the day of your death.” As long as your egoism has not died, you can make mistakes—terrible, foolish mistakes, and even the simplest ones. And here is what is interesting.

You keep making mistakes again and again, as if in the same situations, which seem simple. How can this be? You went through such big things, you did not get confused, you managed them somehow, and suddenly you fall into some foolishness again?

That is how it is. We do not know the degrees. It seems to us that each degree is like this. No. They can appear to you in a very simple, natural form. You suddenly become like an infant who stands and cries from having lost his mother.

All periods before the Machsom are like this. After it, everything depends on the screen, on the degree to which you are merged with the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 1/8/26, Rabash, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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Question: How can I confirm I am on the right path if I still do not feel the spiritual world?

Answer: Whether you are advancing correctly can be determined according to how much the Creator helps you by hindering you. A person sees how he is constantly being knocked down by various obstacles that disconnect him from the sense that he is under control of a single upper force besides which there is nothing.

I am below, the Creator is above, and between us is the reality of this world. It turns out that I have to reveal the Creator through this world, and also through it, the Creator influences me.

Our entire job is to transform this world from an obstacle into a connection with the Creator. Otherwise, it is impossible to reveal the Creator. We are in complete negative, in our egoism, and the Creator is entirely in positive. How can we reveal each other?

That is why the Creator created this world (Olam), from the word “concealment” (Alama), so that I could work in spite of all the obstacles He creates. Someone attacks me, shouts, hinders me, my body is sick, but I attribute all these external and internal hindrances only to the Creator, saying they all come from Him. In this case, I turn only to Him to eliminate these obstacles. After all, I want to be connected only to Him and not give any importance to the obstacles He deliberately sends me. Then I realize that all obstacles become an opportunity to connect with the Creator.

I have nothing to catch the Creator with, but if I work with an obstacle and relate it to the Creator, it becomes the place where I can cling to Him. After all, He is creating this interference to confuse me. And I relate this interference to Him.

It turns out that we connect to Him precisely within this obstacle. He does so from His end by putting up this obstacle, and I, from my end, by neutralizing this obstacle that was confusing me. Now it ceases to be a hindrance, and from a barrier separating me from the Creator, it becomes a link connecting me to Him.

That is how I work with obstacles, one after another. It could be a court case, any problems or troubles. And I must work with them on the plane of this world, because I am in it. But regarding the Creator, I do my job by relating everything that happens to Him as the one who does it all.

I correct the obstacle in me (1), and correct the obstacle in the world (2), and then the Creator reveals Himself. That is the entire work.

Question: What does it mean to attribute the obstacle to the Creator?

Answer: It means deciding that there is none else besides Him, and He is sending me all the obstacles so that I think they came about on their own, i.e., someone simply yelled at me or conversely praised me. Any attitude toward you that you consider as coming from the inanimate, vegetative, or animate world, and especially from people rather than from the Creator, is an obstacle. You think there is something else besides Him.

Even if you think your body, your mind, your feelings, and the whole world exist, then this is an obstacle. And if you attribute all this to the Creator, realizing that He created this whole illusion for you so you would make an effort to connect everything only to Him, and that, in fact there is none of this but only the Creator, this allows you to reveal Him.

This whole world will turn into a spiritual world, into vessels in which you reveal the presence of the Creator besides whom there is nothing.

Question: What should I do if I try to perform such an action but get no confirmation of its correctness, and feel nothing?

Answer: That is correct. We do not yet have feelings, reason, or relation, we have nothing. However, that does not mean we cannot begin the work. We begin with a lack of reason and feeling, because this makes us independent. After all, from a complete separation, from absolute zero, we begin to acquire a sense of the upper.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/16, Selected Passages from the Writing of Baal HaSulam

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The Creator has no image, no form, I can love. His form is his law, the law of giving pleasure. The way this form of giving clothes itself is what I need to love, and what I need to identify myself with. This is called loving the Creator. How can I do this?

They say that you can come to love the Creator by executing various Segulot, using miraculous powers. What is a Segula? It involves exerting effort without a direct connection to the final outcome; the result is love for the quality of bestowal.

These actions will result in something that can be accomplished only by the upper force. That is, if you carry them out, they gradually grow into a great force in both quantity and quality. Then, in accordance with this law, the desire to give is born in you, and you begin to love this state. This is love for the Creator.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/26, Rabash, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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Question: What does it mean to connect with a friend?

Answer: To unite with a friend means that I want to come to adhesion with the Creator. But unfortunately, I cannot attain this without connecting with you. And you must also come to the same realization that if you do not connect with me, you will never attain the Creator.

The Creator, adhesion with Him and attaining similarity of qualities with Him is our goal, both yours and mine. No one will attain it without connecting with another, but only through another—yes.

Union means that the Kli (vessel) for attaining the Creator is located within your friend. A Kli is the impression, the yearning, the exaltation of the goal, the greatness of the Creator.

When you feel that you are praising the Creator, that you are exalting Him, then know that it is not you, but your friend who brought this into you. But you can receive inspiration only in exchange for your own contribution into him. If you carry this out, then through this a Kli will be created, in which you will strive toward the Creator.

And until you connect with a friend and absorb the greatness of the Creator from him and know that it is the Creator who has given you the yearning for Himself. It is He who has expressed His desire toward you, and not you toward Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/11/26, Rabash,”The Agenda of the Assembly – 2″

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My work with a friend is to receive awakening, upliftment, a sense of the importance of the goal, the greatness of the Creator, and praise of the Creator from him. To the extent that he can give this to me, I exalt the connection with Him. This means that I exalt the connection in the group, and then one thing triggers another.

But everything that I check, analyze, and evaluate in a friend, my entire attitude toward him, must be only in accordance with his attitude toward the Creator. No matter how differently it may seem to me, it is so.

I must not climb into his soul, nor force him to speak about his relationship with the Creator. But the external form in which he expresses his yearning for the Creator gives me the understanding that he passionately desires the Creator.

I am obligated to be under the influence of the friends, to increase my desires through the connection with them, and to be in interaction with them, which operates in two directions: from me to them and the opposite.

If you see that they are here and truly ready for this, it is called that the Creator brought them to you, and in accordance with this you must relate to them in a special way. You have no choice, but He has a choice, and He chose precisely them. From this point begin to develop your attitude toward the entire group.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 1/11/26, Rabash, “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2”

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The relations among friends in a group are external, but they should become internal.

To the extent that these relationships take on the form of bestowal, to that extent they will transform into a spiritual vessel in which the Creator will be present.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/26, Rabash, “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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In the article “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers,” Rabash writes that there are prohibited things; permitted things that cannot be received for the sake of bestowal but are necessary; and also, things received through the fulfillment of commandments that cannot be received for the sake of bestowal.

In addition, there are permitted things and things received through commandments that can be received for the sake of bestowal. According to the level of performance, a person receives a reward.

And what is this reward? Reward means performing the action in the most optimal way, through which a person attains equivalence of form. Why, then, do they not say that equivalence of form is the goal, but rather say that the goal is reception for the sake of bestowal? Because the result does not depend on us. The result comes from the law of the Creator, whereas the action depends on us.

This is similar to how Rabash explains the question of love: How can one force oneself to love the Creator, or to “love your neighbor as yourself,” when we cannot interfere in this? How can I force my heart to love someone?

In our world, this can be achieved through effort—when I invest myself in someone, give to them, care for them. This is clearly seen in the example of people who take a child to raise, and the child becomes completely their own, because they invest in him.

Before they invested in him, they felt no love for him at all—neither natural, instinctive love, nor love above nature. But after they invested a part of themselves in him, he becomes very important to them, because it is that part of themselves in him that they love, and from this love for the child is born.

So, it is with us as well: When we are in the desire to receive and transfer it to someone else, a connection is created between us. And in spirituality, when we want to love someone who is completely foreign to us, for the sake of bestowal (not for the sake of receiving, for then we are speaking of an animal feeling), this is a different law, as it is said: “Love the Lord your God.”
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/26, Rabash “Concerning the Reward of the Receivers”

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Our correction in relation to bestowal should be directed not toward our neighbor, but toward correcting our connection with the Creator. That is then it will become truly good for your neighbor, because in fact, what exists in the world comes from the Creator.

But if you want to change the state of this world, you must change what comes to them from the Creator. And that can be done only if you bestow to Him. And to the extent that you bestow better, He will not have to affect the world in a worse way.

You can come to this through society, when you bestow to your friends, and they bestow to you, you create a group, and just as at the end of correction on the spiritual level you unite in souls, so you try to unite here, in the spiritual task, that is, actually rise to that level.

By this you evoke the surrounding light into our world and thereby oblige the Creator to give more light to this world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/26, Rabash, “Concerning Fear and Joy”

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The ordinary understanding of joy and awe stems from our natural qualities, those with which we are born. We are born with the quality of the desire to receive; that is, all our thoughts, intentions, desires, and passions are directed toward how to fill ourselves.

This is the very first form of the desire to receive. The true desire to receive that exists in each of us is far greater than what we currently feel. It has been reduced to a minimal level, called “our world,” or “this world” (Olam HaZeh), so that we may, by our own efforts, add a screen (Masach) to it, an intention for the sake of bestowal.

As soon as we are able to add a screen for the sake of bestowal to this small desire, greater desires will come. Therefore, each time we ascend from degree to degree, we find ourselves within a desire to receive for the sake of receiving. Then we discern the evil within it, wish to correct it for the sake of bestowal, ask for strength from above, add an intention for the sake of bestowal to it, and receive fulfillment.

There is no other path. Of course, one may ask why we weren’t born with an intention for the sake of bestowal? Why must we ourselves search for the way to attain it, and how to add it to the desire to receive? Why must we do this independently?

The answer is simple. Intention cannot come from above, because it concerns our attitude toward the giver; otherwise, it would not be for the sake of bestowal. It must originate from us.

Therefore, we are given only the desire to receive and, alongside it, the opposite intention, to fill ourselves. First, we must neutralize them, not use them at all, and then transform this into bestowal.

The correction in which I neutralize my desires and reach a state where I do not want to use them at all is called “correction by restriction” (Tzimtzum). After that, I begin to work truly, for the sake of bestowal to the Creator. And if I had not done this independently, it would not be called bestowal and I would not feel it. Then the pleasure received would remain merely the smallest pleasure, the one that in our world is called a tiny candle (Ner Dakik), which can be received for the sake of receiving.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/7/26, Rabash, “Concerning Fear and Joy”

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