Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Unite with Other Souls

938.03Question: What is the difference between turning to the Creator and turning to the souls?

Answer: Does a person understand that the Creator’s desire is to bestow to His creations? Until a person understands that they must come to love of the Creator, to adhesion with Him, and that it is impossible without a person preparing their Kli (vessel), which is called unification with other souls, they will not begin to do anything.

We must understand that we can act in the spiritual world only to the extent that we are connected with one another in the material world. Suppose there is some heavy object lying in front of you that you have to move. But you see that you cannot do it alone. Then you turn to someone else or to several people, until there are enough people to move it.

So, imagine that you are down below, in this world, and in order to reach the 125th degree, you need to move something heavy that becomes heavier and heavier every time. The more degrees you want to overcome, the more souls you need to connect with so that they help you move this weight. And so you continue until you connect with everyone, otherwise you will not reach the goal.

To ascend to the first degree, it is enough for you to annul your ego, let us say, before ten others, that is, to connect with ten souls. For the second degree with a hundred souls, for the next with a thousand, and so on.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Oil Is Called ‘Good Deeds’ in the Work?”

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Strive for the Correct Kelim

608.02In our world, we assume there is a desire, and within the desire a pleasure; that they are two separate things. Indeed, this is how it works in the desire to receive. But in the desire to bestow, it is not so.

The desire to bestow is itself the pleasure. But since a person builds it upon the desire to receive, we are dealing with degrees of correction: the extent to which a part of the desire to receive participates in the aspiration to be like the giver.

The Kelim (vessels) are what matter most, while the upper light is at absolute rest. Therefore a person must strive for the correct Kelim, for the correct sensation that he should have all the time in relation to the Creator.

The beginning of correction is called “Everyone who mourns for Jerusalem.” It is when a person understands what the nature of their grief, what it concerns, what the concept “Jerusalem” means, what the destruction of Jerusalem is, and what this spiritual concept is that they must mourn for and that must become realized within them in the correct form.

If a person builds such a Kli, then of course nothing more is required of them and they are rewarded with this Kli being corrected according to the measure of their mourning since their mourning is directed toward their ego, against their desire to receive, against all the qualities called “the ruined Jerusalem.”

And when they regret this (this regret is called raising MAN), they are rewarded with the correction of this MAN from above. The light brings the correction, that is, a screen over those Kelim that mourn because they are in the state of the ruined Jerusalem, in the desire to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”

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What Should We Ask the Creator For?

294.4Question: What should we ask the Creator for? Should we ask to have the correct desire?

Answer: We need two things. First, to mourn the fact that we are in the shattered Kelim, in other words, that we think only about ourselves and want to fulfill only ourselves.

Second, we need an awareness of the greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the quality of bestowal, which should bring us to an aspiration for the “rebuilt Jerusalem.” In other words, it is not enough to regret being in a state of evil; we must also aspire to a state of goodness.

This work takes place in accordance with two kinds of Reshimot (spiritual records) that must exist within us: Reshimo de Aviut, and Reshimo de Hitlabshut—a Reshimo from the Kli, and a Reshimo from the light.

The Reshimo from the Kli shows the state that the Kli is in compared to the state that it should be in. The Reshimo from the light shows what the nature of my attitude toward the Creator should be so as to bring me to the realization that the Creator is the ideal, perfection.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns forJerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”

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How Does One Merit Receiving the First Screen?

232.031Over which pleasures should a person ask for a screen in order to acquire it as the first spiritual degree? It is impossible to exist without desire, pleasure, or the aspiration to enjoy. So what should a person ask for a screen (Masach)?

Spiritual pleasures are concealed, whereas material pleasures are revealed. Therefore if a person asks for a screen above all the material pleasures so that he can nevertheless somehow become similar to the Creator, aspire to Him, and unite with Him, this is called acquiring the first spiritual degree.

That is, one reaches a state in which, on the one hand, they derive no pleasure from this world; nothing attracts them except the Creator. They feel despair because there is nothing in this world that can fill them; they nothing with which to nourish their soul (“Nefesh,” a person’ s receiving Kelim or vessels), and nothing from which to derive pleasure. Without this, they simply cannot exist; they are completely immobilized and powerless.

On the other hand, they must have an attraction toward something because otherwise for what would they ask for a screen and correction? Therefore there must be a very strong yearning for the Creator, and if a person completely acquires these two states, commensurate with their current state, they receive the first screen from above.

In other words, on one hand, “Better death than such a life; I have nothing in this world, I do not need it, and I am lovesick for spirituality.” On the other hand, there must be confidence that they can compel the Creator to provide them with a screen.

All of this gradually accumulates within a person, and when the person and their actions toward the Creator converge at one point, they merit receiving the first screen. Then they feel the presence of the Creator; their first spiritual desire merges with the screen, and they become an embryo (“Ubar”).

This is the gift that a person must ask from the Creator. These things cannot be conveyed in words; they can only be conveyed to one who is ready for this, and then the Creator allows them to ask.
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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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How Can We Perceive the Greatness of the Intention?

237Question: Is the correction of the shattering only a means to attain an even greater greatness of the Creator?

Answer: The entire shattering lies in the lack of awareness of that greatness, and all the correction lies in realizing that greatness, since the Masach (screen), which we call the intention for the sake of bestowal, is built within us as a result of respect we hold for the Creator, the extent to which I value Him more than my will to receive, the extent to which I value Him more than myself. Everything depends on my attitude toward this.

Question: How can we see the greatness of the intention?

Answer: The greatness of the intention is a result of the greatness of the Creator. We cannot measure the greatness of intentions themselves. You ask how it is possible to measure the light, to measure how great or small it is? After all, the intention is light.

I can measure this only according to the Kelim (vessels); I have no other possibility. To what extent the Kelim can join the intention for the sake of bestowal, to what extent the left line can be included in the right line, in essence, is my ability to remain in the intention.

I measure everything according to the Kelim. I do not know at all what the light is. There is some phenomenon in my Kelim, and this is what I call light. Therefore, all our work is through the Kelim.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,” in the Work?

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The Gift a Person Asks the Creator For

294.2The desire to receive that the Creator created is unchanging. But if a person uses it correctly, that is, by employing it to align themselves with an act of bestowal, then the Creator helps them.

The Creator conceals the person’s Kelim of reception from them, and through the surrounding light, He gives them the opportunity to acquire a screen (Masach), an intention for the sake of bestowal. As the person acquires the desire to bestow, the Creator reveals the Kelim of reception to them.

In proportion to the person’s acquisition of the intention to bestow, the Creator adds to their desire to receive, allowing the person to receive in order to bestow, which is an act that precisely mirrors the Creator’s action. This, in essence, is the help that comes to us from above.

On one hand, there is concealment regarding the desire to receive, and corresponding to it, concealment of the Creator. On the other hand, the method of Kabbalah offers the possibility of learning how to receive correctly: to acquire a Masach, and using it, through the intention to bestow, to use the desire to receive in the proper way.

This relates to the concept that initially the lights preceded the Kelim (vessels), when the Creator created the Kli, the desire to receive. But when a person wants to change the desire to receive to be in order to bestow, then the Kelim precede the lights. First we acquire a screen, and then we add the desire to receive to it. Therefore, darkness precedes light.

Thus, two things come from the Creator: one comes directly and another comes indirectly. Our task is to work on the desire to acquire a screen. Accordingly, the Creator reveals to us a part of our desire to receive so that afterward we can use it correctly.

This, in essence, is the gift that a person asks the Creator for. Not the receiving Kelim, which exist in abundance and which the Creator Himself is interested in a person receiving, since this is the purpose of creation, to delight the created beings. Rather, it is specifically the intention, the screen, that we need to receive from the Creator, that is, to come to the intention to bestow.

It does not matter how you imagine the screen, but the desire must be complete: “Better death than such a life.” If I do not acquire a screen, a connection with the Creator, I do not agree to continue this life in any other form; I want only to receive the ability to bestow upon the Creator. If a person reaches this state, they receive what they ask for.

Of course, this requires a very great effort because, although the Creator conceals the desire to receive, He does so with respect to the aspiration to feel Him. However, He does not conceal the corporeal pleasures of this world, not the animalistic pleasures nor those that belong specifically to the human level. And this is the lowest degree from which a person can begin to ascend.
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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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When Intention Governs Action

541Question: We see actions, but we do not see intentions. Is it possible to ever see the magnitude of the intention is, and how great versus the magnitude of the action?

Answer: A Kli can sense how great the intention is according to the principle, “From Your actions we know You.” How can I appreciate a mother who gives and gives if I only receive and receive, and have no quality of bestowal?

When I begin to learn what it means to bestow or when I grow up and the same desires that my mother had arise in me on the animate level, then I remember what my mother did for me, I understand how much she loves me, and I understand her intentions. I can discern someone’s intentions only if I have the same intentions myself.

There can be no adhesion (Dvekut) in the will to receive. Everyone constantly remains in their will to receive, which does not change. But the desire to bestow, called the intention above the will to receive, does change. By changing my intention, which means changing the desire to bestow, I can understand another person and their intentions.

The Creator has neither intentions nor actions. It is only in relation to us that His actions may appear bad, only to be revealed later as good. This is because we attain Him through our own Kelim (vessels). Our sensation is divided into Kli and intention. An action may be one of reception, while the intention, the form of the action, is one of bestowal. Therefore we can have parts within us that are opposite to one another. But there is nothing like this in the Creator.

Since we receive from Him into our Kelim, we also divide what we receive into two parts: how it is felt in our Kelim and how it is felt in our consciousness, in our perception of the intention. We might think that the Creator is acting badly, even though His intention is good. But from His side there is only one direct action.

When can I receive directly what emanates from Him? When I attain the same intention as He has, and my Kli immediately perceives its correct, direct expression. Then I decipher it not through my receiving Kelim, but only according to my intentions to bestow.

I remember before an operation in the hospital, a doctor approached me, a man two meters tall who weighed 120 kilograms. He said I was about to feel some discomfort, then he sat on top of me and nearly crushed the life out of me. My rib cage was shattered, and he said he was going to make an opening in it. He took something resembling a drill and drove it into my chest. This was done without anesthesia because I was in a condition that could not wait.

I drifted in and out of consciousness, yet I felt no hatred toward him. Later, we spoke about it, and he was surprised that I remembered everything that had happened. Usually people lose consciousness completely. But I remembered it, and for me, it was a very valuable lesson. A person inflicts such pain upon you that you want to die to escape the sensation, yet you feel no hatred toward him. This demonstrates that the intention holds absolute dominion over action, even within our world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/23/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”

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Connection with Infinity

253Question: Are the Reshimot  (informational records)separate from one another, or is there some connecting factor between them that determines the continuity of development?

Answer: The Reshimot are connected by cause-and-effect relationships that close their cycle through infinity. This is why there is an ascent to infinity. In our world, in our present state, or on the spiritual degrees, these states are not connected in any way. There is always a gap between the Malchut of the upper one, and the Keter of the lower one.

It is as though I gradually slice pieces from a sausage, and work little by little, time after time, with the desire to receive. When I reach Malchut and complete this particular Avchana (inner discernment), I move on to the next Avchana, which begins in Keter, and start the work anew.

Therefore although the Malchut of the upper one stands upon the Keter of the lower one, and passes everything to it, this does not mean that there is a connection between them. There can be no connection between Keter and Malchut. Such a connection is possible only where all the Keters and all the Malchuts are truly connected together, that is, in infinity. There, at the end of correction, in the state of “He and His Name are One,” they are united.

But when they descend to us, there are no points of contact between them. Our state is not yet corrected. However, when it is corrected, all the Keters and all the Malchuts will be together, everything will be united, and Malchut will attain Keter through the reflected light. In fact, it is from there that every action comes to me.

A person must perform each of his actions in such a way that he, the Creator, and the action are one. This is written in Baal HaSulam’s letter on page 64. This is precisely the concept whereby you, as it were, establish a connection with infinity, and having established it, return to your present state in order to perform the action.

Then the gap between your actions will be genuine. On the one hand, you perceive it precisely as a gap, while on the other hand, you build a bridge across it through the true point in infinity.

Question: But where is the cause-and-effect connection here?

Answer: These Reshimot exist in infinity. Imagine a point. Within this point are all your Reshimot, all your Avchanot (discernments), and all the states you must go through, that is, essentially, the realization of these Reshimot. And everything exists together with the Creator in the state of “He and His Name are One.”

Draw a million rays downward from this point, representing a million states. Each one is a particular, partial realization of that same point of connection, “He and His Name are One.” And when you complete the realization of a particular action, you as it were return to infinity, take from this totality the next Reshimo in sequence, and once again realize it.

The only thing is that infinity is within you, and the gaps between the Reshimot exist only in your perception.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work?”

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A Desire Revealing Itself

109Question: What is the value of human development over millions of years as an animal, up to the moment when he received a soul?

Answer: Biological bodies develop according to the same laws by which the Earth and the entire universe were formed: through the stages of “inanimate–vegetative–animate–human.”

Question: At some point, was a soul imprinted in this animal?

Answer: No. The Kelim, the desires, having begun to grow from zero, build the external material according to the inner desire.

You ask what the difference is between ancient man and us. It is in the revealing desire. A million years ago, the spiritual gene was practically imperceptible. There was a need only for animate things: food, sex, family, shelter. The lower the level of development, the more time it requires, while at the higher stages development takes place much faster.

This process resembles a pyramid. Therefore, the development of ancient man took many thousands of years, say half a million, it does not matter. Then the desires reached more advanced states: from animalistic pleasures to money, honor, and knowledge.

And now you see how the development of desires is accelerating in our days, and what increasingly extreme forms they are taking. The world is reaching its extremes, and this is happening because all its parts are becoming connected. Look at what this leads to: one becomes part of another, suffers and enjoys through it.

We will see that every day this will take on such unprecedented forms that it will be unclear how it will all end. This will happen throughout the entire world, not just to you personally. You will begin getting up in the morning without knowing what will happen by evening: Will we all blow up or will we live, and if we live, then how? And so it will be throughout the entire world, every day. It will be “fun.” We see that our existence will soon become like this.

And what is surprising is that we will get used to all of it. You will still be able to endure anything, accepting it as something ordinary. Even to the point where, remaining alive at this very moment, you will no longer think about the next one. You will not think.

People say: “Why think about tomorrow?” Well, tomorrow will become the next moment, and everyone will live this way until time disappears. This will be the correct inner definition of time: through it we will truly feel that it is possible to rid ourselves of the will to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work?”

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Angels—Forces Acting Upon Creation

096Question: What are “angels”?

Answer: Angels are auxiliary forces under whose influence the desire becomes correct and whole: it asks for the forces, correction, and fulfillment.

The desire itself is incapable of performing any action other than feeling and sensing itself. This is similar to the way our sense organs work. They react according to similarity of properties, perceiving something that acts upon them from outside. Apart from this reaction to a change in state, the desire is capable of nothing else; yet, the sensation within the desire itself constitutes the action.

What is action? In each of its states, the desire reaches a certain limit of sensation (i.e., attainment) by feeling that state in all its aspects, and the Reshimot (informational records) of the next state are revealed to it. Then the desire passes into it and begins to feel its influence, until it realizes that it has reached the limit and has fully experienced this state, and then it moves on.

It follows that the desire itself is capable only of feeling what is happening to it. And if so, what, in fact, changes? Reshimot are revealed to the desire. Through the interaction of a Reshimo with the surrounding light, it awakens a certain phenomenon, a feeling or sensation, within the desire.

Sensation is a phenomenon that arises through the interaction of a Reshimo and the light within the general desire. This is not yet creation, but rather a certain material created by the Creator, into which He placed Reshimot—stages or states of development—and the light acting upon these states develops them. There is still nothing here that could be called creation.

And although this material is capable of sensation, it cannot be called creation, because it remains under the authority of the Creator and does not even sense His presence. It perceives only the presence or absence of pleasure on the basis of its Reshimot.

A Reshimo is a memory of a state of absence of fulfillment, emptiness (Hisaron), and of fulfillment, pleasure. When the Reshimot are realized, pleasure is felt upon the Hisaron.

The creation that can emerge in such a situation is a specific relationship of the desire—involving its Reshimot and the light acting upon it—directed not merely toward the pleasure itself, but toward the source of the pleasure. This too comes from above; otherwise, where could such an attitude suddenly arise in the desire? How could it create something fundamentally new within itself that had not previously existed? This happens because together with the light, its source is revealed.

On the other hand, the material developing under the influence of the Reshimot is given the ability to determine for itself that, first and foremost, it wants to develop in order to know the source, to feel the giver of the fulfillment, rather than the fulfillment itself, and also to determine the pace of its development.

In the spiritual world, there is no concept of time; time is a function of desire. Therefore, the intensity of the desire to feel the one who fills it, what is called the host, accelerates the development of the desire as it increasingly reveals itself before the Creator.

In other words, there is a desire upon which another desire is built, and upon that, in turn, another desire is created. First comes the primary desire for pleasures; then the desire to attain the Giver, and finally the desire to be similar to the giver. Only the third desire can be called an independent creation.

The use of the two previous natural desires, namely, the desire for fulfillment and the desire to feel the host (which are both included within the general desire), to determine the degree of equivalence with the Giver, is what is known as “angels,” the means of achieving Devekut, adhesion.

There are angels that seem to act against adhesion, and there are those that promote adhesion, because every state is felt and brought into action only through two opposite forms of attitude toward it; otherwise, it is impossible to act.

Since these forces cannot control the state independently of one another, there are what are called good and evil angels, opposing forces, through which it becomes possible to precisely determine the direction toward the goal.

Angels are not a separate creation, something created outside the desire to receive and the light. They are simply the purposeful use of the desire to receive and the light. That is, they are particular, temporary forces that are used in various states for the purpose of advancement.

In other words, in any state in which creation might find itself, these forces act upon it so that it will receive whatever it needs for that state, to perceive its own condition and be able to advance. Broadly speaking, it can be said that everything that exerts an influence upon creation—both its internal and external environment—is referred to as “angels.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/22/26, Rabash, “What Are ‘A Layperson’s Vessels,’ in the Work?”

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