It seems like we must pray for fulfillment: “Fill me, fill me!” But the spiritual world is the opposite, the anti-world, because in it the fulfillment is the work itself, the effort, the striving for a goal, the desire to love!

This very desire fills a person. He gets filled with the desire for bestowal, not even from the action itself.

A person is filled with the Creator, and the Creator is the force of bestowal. If we attain the force of bestowal and are filled with the desire to give without even performing the action itself, this is called the stage of Bina. When we realize the act of bestowal, we have reached the stage of Keter, the degree of love. This is the filling.

In our world, it works differently. I perform some action and expect to be paid, so the payment is my fulfillment. But this is not the case in the spiritual world. There, the action itself serves as fulfillment. As it says, “The reward for a mitzvah is the mitzvah itself.”

But there is another addition: “The reward for a commandment is to attain the One who commanded.” That is, we reveal someone inside who is in adhesion with you.…

There is no such thing as requiring payment for the act of giving; otherwise, it is not giving! Therefore, our fulfillment lies in our efforts, in our work, in the very pursuit of spirituality. Like a mother who loves a baby and does not demand his love in return, she is filled with her love for him and her giving alone.

Therefore, we pray only for the desire for bestowal, we need nothing else. If I have such a desire for the Creator, for love, for giving, there is nothing more to ask! This is enough to feel completely fulfilled.

I will be filled with my desires for bestowal, while egoistic desires for enjoyment will never be filled.
They can only be filled with a very weak spark, which is called a “thin candle” (Ner Dakik), a very limited life in this world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/6/11, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Charity to the Poor Makes the Holy Name, in the Work?”

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Question: It is said that the head of the lower Partzuf clothes into the body of the upper Partzuf. What does it mean to clothe into the higher?

Answer: The body of the upper is its actions, its work with desires, and the head is the making of decisions.

The lower can do nothing with its own head, on its own level. It is said: “Through Your actions we know You.” That is, the lower must enter into the body of the upper.

And when he practically learns what the upper does by performing it himself, only then does he begin to understand what the upper meant by it. Until you do what the upper told you to do, you will not understand what he is saying.

And this is not some dull, animal action where you just need to do what he tells you, you must do it and learn! Look at children, how they repeat the actions of adults. They copy our actions without understanding their meaning.

When a child is given a plastic hammer and nails, he does not know what to do with them. But he watches how you hammer nails and does the same, and from that, he begins to understand what it is for.

It is impossible to learn any other way. When building educational programs, we must take into account that one can be taught only by example. We see that the reason is hidden in the spiritual roots and is embedded in the spreading of the Partzufim (the descent of the connection of souls) from above downward.

All the intellect given to the lower is needed only to be able to repeat the actions of the upper. The head of the lower must function only in this way.

If the head of the lower looks upward in order to take an example from the upper and perform actions similar to his, then success awaits the lower. But if the lower believes that he can judge, decide, and do something with his own head, failure awaits him.

He will think that he is on a level where he himself can do something. But all actions are performed in the body of the upper. If the lower has enough wit to annul his own mind, his intellect, then he rises and receives the mind and intellect, of the upper.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/2/11, Baal HaSulam, The Study of the Ten Sefirot

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We must take upon ourselves faith in the sages (RABASH, Article No. 4, “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”).

Suppose I am ready to believe the words of wisdom, but what does that mean? Do I understand the words of the sages? What is their message?

First of all, in the wisdom of Kabbalah we do not deal with bodies. There are no bodies, there are souls. The bodies that appear before us are images of an imaginary world.

I exist within desire, which manifests itself in various forms: still, vegetative, animate, and human. Sages are corrected souls that exist within the shattered system of Adam HaRishon. They can serve as help and support for me; they can be guides and educators for my shattered soul.

Accordingly, this is how we should receive their advice. For example, The Book of Zohar tells us about the ten sages of Rabbi Shimon’s group, as well as about the prophet Elijah, Moses, Aaron, King David, King Solomon, and others.

We do not perceive them as people who lived in our world, but as corrected desires, corrected souls. They exist within the shattered system that is gradually beginning to revive. They themselves are already corrected partially or completely, and they participate in the correction of the entire system.

“Rabbi Shimon said… Rabbi Abba said…” I read in The Book of Zohar. For me, these are not people who attained and speak about the upper world; for me, these names are degrees of attainment.

Through these words I study the ladder of spiritual degrees: on one level reality appears one way, on another differently. It is as if the Kabbalists are telling me this, but for me they are forces, vessels of perception.

Each sage embodies a certain spiritual concept, power, force, or quality for me. Before me are not the names of historical figures, but the names of spiritual phenomena and degrees.

“Faith in the sages” means: I want to attain the same bestowal as on the degrees about which I read. “Faith” means bestowal.

During the study, a person must include himself in this and strive to understand how it will influence him. Whatever the book speaks about, I want to penetrate the spiritual essence of every word. This is what it means that I believe the words of the sages.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/29/10, Rabash, “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?”

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When a child feels powerless, it cries, screams, and demands from its superiors, from its parents, that they take care of it and help it grow. The same thing happens with a person in the spiritual realm.

It is a very advanced state of the soul if a person begins to become aware of such states. Gradually, he develops the correct attitude to the upper one, who is called the “Creator,” and turns to Him.

And indeed, we have no other means besides prayer in order to undergo correction and rise to a higher degree. If one simply waits for the conditions to change by themselves, one can wait endlessly, until sufferings come and force us to rise.

Sufferings are the revelation of new Reshimot (the inner program of development) in us. But it is said that Israel (those who aspire straight to the Creator) accelerate time and are above the signs of the zodiac and fate.

One can accelerate one’s development by taking forces from outside the degree where one is now: through Kabbalistic books and the group by receiving awakening from the friends. If you are impressed by how much the friends strive for spirituality, this will serve as fuel for you for advancement.

All humanity develops at a natural slow speed, under the pressure of blows that move it from state to state. But instead of this, there is an opportunity to gather positive impressions from the environment, to absorb them as one’s own desires, and by means of them to rise. With these new Reshimot we turn to the upper one and ask Him to raise us.

The lower part of the higher Partzuf is inside the lower Partzuf. They enter into each other like two cones, and all our awareness is in this common zone. Whether we feel good or bad, whether we strive for spirituality or not, every inner movement of ours happens because the upper one, who is constantly inside us, produces all sorts of changes in us in order to awaken us.

And if we ourselves begin to seek the upper one who is inside us, and to connect with Him, to demand that He raise us, this will happen. We lack only the desire for this, and we will receive it from the environment!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/26, Rabash, “On My Bed at Night”

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The spiritual world and the soul are simply desires in their direct, pure form. But the science of Kabbalah speaks about states where the soul is clothed in a body. Kabbalists do not describe the states of a soul that is not clothed in a body, although of course they know about them and are connected with them.

The soul of a person who rises above the Machsom, above the boundary of the spiritual world, to the extent of the anti-egoistic screen already feels itself free from the body.

During one’s life in this world while a person’s soul is clothed in a body, one must correct all one’s desires so that the body does not present any barrier at all between oneself and other souls that are without bodies. Such a state is called the end of correction (Gmar Tikkun).

A special language is required to describe the states of souls because our entire language is based only on the concepts of this world. So where can words be taken from to describe the states of souls?

Kabbalists saw that although the body is made of completely different material, its structure is analogous to the structure of the soul. And therefore, it is possible to call the parts of the soul and spiritual actions by the same names as the parts of the body and its actions, even though there is no connection between them. Thus the “language of branches” was invented.

It turns out that Kabbalists use ordinary earthly language to describe spiritual phenomena, but if we want to read about what happens with the soul and not with the body, we must seek a spiritual meaning in the words, not a material one. That is, even if we do not yet know the spiritual meaning of the words, we need to remain with this question and must not imagine material images. Otherwise, we will never come out of this world.

Kabbalists gave us the language of branches and obligated us to study Kabbalistic books so that during the study we would strive to understand what is hidden behind these words, which spiritual qualities or phenomena. That is, we try to translate what is written from the earthly, human language into the spiritual one, as if we translate each word from one language into another.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/26, Rabash, “On My Bed at Night”

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In any state our goal is to reach the recognition that there is none else besides the Creator. Whatever happens, I overcome this disturbance and enter into “there is none else besides Him,” but without disconnecting from the reality of this world.

The work consists of accepting the disturbances and, through them, searching for the Creator. And when I finish this work, it means I am done with this world and begin to work with other disturbances, spiritual ones.

Why did the Creator arrange it so that I stumble at every step and discover my total powerlessness? Because this entire process is only a means for me to feel the need for the Creator and to connect with Him. Through this I acquire His qualities.

The Creator wants me to become eternal and perfect like Him, and therefore every time He shows me my weakness, helplessness, hopelessness, and ignorance. He shows me His opposite so that I turn to Him and ask for something opposite to what I feel, that is, for a bit of His qualities, His degree. And thus, from being opposite to the Creator, I come to a perfect state. Each time the deeper I sink into evil, the greater the good I attain.

When I have no choice left, I remember the Creator. But in truth, it is He who reminds me of Himself. On my own I would never think of Him, because the egoistic desire is locked inside itself; it is a closed system. Therefore, the Creator brings a tiny almost imperceptible ray of light into me, and suddenly I remember that there is a Creator and I can turn to Him.

And so it goes each time in order to strengthen the connection with Him because through this I build my inner spiritual system, acquire His qualities. and become like Him. But first, in order to show me who I am and how opposite I am to Him, He has to place me into unpleasant states.

And of course, all the states must occur, and I will definitely stumble at every step. It is already written in advance where I will get a bump and where a bruise, but without these blows I cannot grow. It is said that above each blade of grass stands an angel who strikes it and commands it to grow.

But if you want to avoid suffering, it is possible. The whole question is how to go through them; that is what our study is about. We learn how to pass this path consciously, through our own desire. We want to find out who we are and in what we are opposite to the Creator, that is, to consciously achieve correction. And if we act this way, we do not feel the blows, but go through them with joy.

We feel disappointment, but look at ourselves as if from the outside, as though it is someone else. As if I see my body on the operating table and I myself take part in my correction. This is a completely different sensation.

Instead of suffering under each blow for fifty years, one can pass through it in ten minutes. A person lives many years of life in heavy labor and suffering, and in the end receives tiny corrections in the spiritual, corrections that cannot be compared with what a student corrects while studying Kabbalah. One who participated in a single kayak trip with our group made a correction that would take an ordinary person an entire lifetime, yet the result in the spiritual world is the same.

We do not understand what significance the conscious path of development has. A person goes through dozens of cycles of lives, while he could, in just one life, make a leap.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/6/26, Rabash, “On My Bed at Night”

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Question: How is it possible to hold on so firmly to the goal during a descent that the descent can be used for ascent so that I am the one descending and it is not the Creator casting me down?

Answer: I must govern this descent and decide for myself that I need to descend. I prepare myself in advance for the descent, the way one prepares for a surgical operation.

What will help me not “lose my head” during the descent, not to fall under the power of desires? It is connection with the goal so that I feel the descent without losing myself, but instead rise. By myself, I cannot guarantee this.

Therefore, I need the right environment that will support me when I lose control over myself as a result of excessively strong desires.

When the spiritual embryo reaches the time to be born, that is, to move to the level of nurturing, how can it connect these two states, if at birth it loses its previous level, turning “head downward”?

And how does it manage from this state of complete loss, “head downward,” not to become a miscarriage, but to be born into a new world and adhere to the Creator at a higher level?

For this purpose, different Reshimot of Aviut and Hitlabshut (from desire and from light) (1, 0) are given. As a result, I can always connect to two levels at the same time. This is what helps me to be born.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/7/10, Baal HaSulam, Preface “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot“

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Question: What is the logic in faith above reason?

Answer: In faith above reason, there is the logic of the upper. The logic of the lower is when I look at the world through my own mind and feelings, and thus exist. But in this way, I move along a plane only on my own level, and I can never rise above it.

This is called faith below reason or faith within reason, and faith, the quality of bestowal, is not above reason and does not determine my actions.

In faith above reason, it is as if I remove my glasses from my eyes and see nothing but the upper. I am ready to join the upper in everything He wishes.

I want to acquire His feeling and His knowledge through the force of adhesion with Him. In this action, I am ready to completely annul myself, to part with my own “settings.”

When I attain His degree, I already have His faith (His quality of bestowal) and knowledge that are higher than what I had before.

By the force of greater bestowal, I also acquire upper reason. This is called faith above the previous reason. In this way, I attain a higher degree.

Therefore, those who walk by faith above reason actually add reason, because they acquire new vessels of perception, since reason, attainment, the light of Hochma spreads only within the light of Hassadim (bestowal, faith).

And those who cannot rise above their reason within an animalistic mind cling to the same state in which they are, want nothing more, and are unable to annul their opinion before a higher degree, before the teacher; they attain nothing and remain animals.

They may be clever and intelligent within the limits of their own reason, but they will not even understand that the upper wisdom exists. After all, the upper wisdom always seems as though it has no foundation beneath it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/14/10, Rashbi, Zohar for All, Vol. 4, Shmot, “And a New King Arose – 1,” p.82

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Question: How does a Kabbalist educate himself? How did you do this when you began the spiritual path with your teacher RABASH? What was the biggest problem in self-education?

Answer: The biggest problem is to determine that it is the Creator who is educating you and that you must be in constant contact with Him.

It is very difficult to remain in this thought all the time, to not detach from it. If you grasp it, do not let go of it, and constantly subconsciously feel the connection with the Creator, then this is where the proper education begins from.

Question: Why does the Creator not educate us by example, as is customary in our world?

Answer: Your entire life consists of examples of the Creator’s education. If you are in any state, at every moment in time, begin to tell yourself: “This I receive from the Creator. What does He want from me? How should I react, how should I act?” That will be a great achievement.

Question: But a person cannot understand what the Creator wants from him. I can say that everything is from the Creator, but it is impossible to say for what purpose He did this.

Answer: This is not important. First, say that everything comes from the Creator, constantly ask what He wants from this, until the Creator reveals Himself and shows you what He truly wants. This is precisely the raising of MAN.

You do not have to detach from the Creator; He constantly holds you by the “scruff of the neck.” And you develop your sensitivity. If suddenly He stops holding you, you immediately turn around: “Where did He go, where is He?” This is a pleasant state. Why run away from it?
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From Kabbalah Lesson in Russian 6/3/18

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Right now, the informational genes (Reshimot) are changing within us at infinite speed, but there are so many of them, and all must be realized in sequence, so it seems as if nothing is changing.

But before these inner changes produce an outer change, like a counter suddenly jumping to the next number, billions of actions must spin inside. So give them time to go by!

It is said: “Those who seek the Creator accelerate time.” All of our participation in creation comes down to accelerating our development.

After all, you are at the bottom, in this world, with the data received during the descent from above downward. You are obligated to ascend the same path from below upward; the path is unchangeable. You can only accelerate your development, make the path quick, desirable, and therefore pleasant.

This is the whole difference between the path of suffering against one’s will and the path of light, through desire.

The path of suffering is long, and the forces of nature act upon us to push us forward with blows. And we, like donkeys, stand and refuse to budge. Such is the natural path of development.

And the second path is when you yourself want and seek how to advance. And so you shorten the path for yourself and make it desirable, meaning it becomes comfortable, pleasant, and also fast!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/18/9, Baal HaSulam, Shamati № 13, “A Pomegranate”

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