Question: Why is the authority of the Creator experienced as some heavy burden that must be accepted with effort, as a yoke?

Answer: Because the authority of bestowal is directed against our will, against our ego. That is why we perceive it as a heavy load, as a burden.

First and foremost, I need to organize a routine for myself, one that becomes a framework, a burden so that I work “like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” I must understand that this work is unpleasant to my “donkey” (desire—Homer, donkey—Hamor). I treat my nature like a donkey, over which I, as the master, want to place a burden, a yoke that restrains it and forces this force—the “ox” or “donkey” to work.

I cover its eyes with blinders, give it food, I create both restrictions and fulfillments in order to compel it to perform the actions I need. In this way, I am not killing or punishing it, but working with my natural inclination in a deliberate, goal-oriented manner.

I am not the one who makes the corrections, the light does. I only carry out all the preparations so that my “donkey” will do its job exactly as needed, so that the light can influence it. That is why I bring in my control: reins, a yoke, a bridle. Most importantly, I blind its eyes so that it will not be distracted by anything irrelevant to the straight path, and so it sees only the road ahead.

This is what it means to place a load on the donkey. But I do all this for its own benefit! Because afterward, as it is said: “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s trough.” It is in these desires, corrected with the right intention, that we eventually receive fulfillment.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/11, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]”

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A good environment consists of the Rav and the friends. If a student does not adhere to the teacher like the lower’s GE (Galgalta ve Eynaim) to the upper’s AHP, if one does not annul oneself in one’s most refined point, which one has discovered within oneself, the point in the heart, and does not attach this point to the teacher, meaning to the teacher’s views and spirit, then one has no place from which to receive the spirit of life. The person will lack the force that develops the Reshimo, the spiritual gene.

This matter is very straightforward: either there is such a connection or there isn’t. And much of it depends on help from above and spiritual luck. It is determined, not by external circumstances, but by the internal efforts made by a person, along with various factors related to the root of one’s soul and the judgment that this soul is going through.

If there is no connection with the teacher, then, as it is written in Shamati 25, “Things that Come from the Heart,” As long as he has no power to sentence the world to the side of merit, they subdue him, he mingles with their desires, and he is led like sheep to the slaughter. He has no choice; he is compelled to think, want, crave, and demand everything that the majority demands.

There is nothing a person can do against this. Even if he is physically close to the teacher, who is like the end of a spiritual conduit for him that descends from the world of infinity through the chain of Kabbalists, if he doesn’t connect to this pipeline, he receives no spiritual nourishment and therefore he does not develop.

In the past there were cases where a teacher would raise a single student. But in general, the teacher tends to his students through the group, connecting to its center.

The group, for the teacher, is the lower spiritual entity. The student who can connect to the center of the group, after having fulfilled two essential conditions of annulment in relation to the group and connection with the friends, will be able to connect to the teacher through that center.

The teacher is called Rav (great) because he is the upper Partzuf, the upper degree, in relation to the students. To the extent that a student annuls himself toward the group’s center, he receives, via the connection with the others, a vessel into which he can absorb the teacher’s thought and spiritual attainment.

But this annulment must be total from the depth of the heart and soul in everything that pertains to the spiritual path and authority over one’s egoism.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/10/13, Writings of Baal HaSulam “Things that Come from the Heart”

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Question: Are we capable of performing a clarification between holiness and Klipa? Or is our work to attract the Creator into this clarification?

Answer: We must always involve the Creator; otherwise, we will not be able to feel correctly where we are, what direction we are heading, or what is influencing us.

That is, without the Creator’s force in the midst of our forces, showing us what is better and what is worse, and how to separate one set of Kelim from another, we will not be able to clarify who we are, what we are made of, or what we truly want to attain.
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From the 3^rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/2025, “The Ruin as an Opportunity for Correction”

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If a person wants the Creator to help him come to spiritual revelation, then great persistence is required of him: faith in the sages and faith in the Creator. This is a kind of adhesion in which a person cancels his opinion and joins the opinion of the teacher and follows the teacher’s advice.

The teacher is all the Kabbalists who for thousands of years wrote books for us and explained. The student must rely on them in his progress, like a small child who does not know where he is and does not understand what to do, but obeys adults.

This is called simple faith, without which no development is possible. Little puppies look at their mother and run after her; this is always how they begin.

Everything begins with such simple, mechanical actions that the student performs even because he has no other choice, and he also following the example of others. And with these actions we attract the light that reforms.

The Creator arranges all sorts of situations for applying efforts for us, and so we advance, starting this path. There is no other way to move forward. It is not for nothing that it is said: “Like an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load.” Therefore, one must learn not to pay attention to one’s feelings. On the one hand, I am full of pleasant and unpleasant experiences, become more and more sensitive, and at the same time, I continue to move forward despite any of my states. This is very important.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/18/18, Writings of Rabash “Come unto Pharaoh – 1”

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Baal HaSulam made it so that if an ordinary person follows his way, he can achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator just like a dedicated wise disciple. Before him, one had to be a great wise disciple in order to be rewarded with Dvekut with the Creator (RABASH, Assorted Notes 75, “The Work of the Greatest in the Nation“).

We received this opportunity thanks to Baal HaSulam, who revealed the wisdom of Kabbalah to us and brought it closer. And we see that by following his method, we are indeed advancing and gradually drawing nearer to the Creator. Only small steps remain to reach the first contact with Him.

The actions of the Kabbalists are multifaceted. The Kabbalists worked to develop the wisdom of Kabbalah itself, its methodology, and also to make themselves a channel for conveying the upper light to us. That is, they tried in every possible way to bring the Creator closer to us, both from His side to us and from our side to Him.

And Baal HaSulam acted specifically for the last generation, so that “even an ordinary person, following his path, could be rewarded with adhesion to the Creator.” We hope that we too will be able to merit this.

Know for certain that since the time of the ARI to this day, there has not been anyone who understood the method of the ARI to the fullest…as they are in their upper root… .

And now, by the Creator’s will, I have been rewarded with a conception [impregnation] of the soul of the ARI, not because of my good deeds but by a higher will. It is beyond me, too, why I have been chosen for this wonderful soul, with which no one has been granted since his passing until today (Baal HaSulam, Letter 39).

The whole difficulty of the wisdom of Kabbalah lies in the fact that although all Kabbalistic books are available for reading, it is impossible to understand them without the detailed explanations of a teacher who constantly works on the student to develop his mind and arrange his soul. Kabbalah cannot be studied independently, and even studying with a true teacher takes many years.

A student needs a recognized teacher who is in spirituality, who will serve as a channel of connection to the upper light, and organize each step of his spiritual work just as one cares for an infant in our world. Without this, growth is impossible, as if an infant were left alone in the forest.

There are many people who passionately wish to attain spirituality and begin to study. But if they have no teacher, they may extract purely mechanical knowledge from the books, which in no way brings them closer to the Creator.

After all, this work is extraordinarily difficult and can only be done under the condition of continuous care of the student by the teacher and participation in a proper group. It is painful to see how people get entangled in all kinds of methods of their own invention.

Baal HaSulam separated the wisdom of Kabbalah from all fabrications, so that a person who wishes to engage in the work of the Creator would clearly know whether he is on the right path or not. And therefore, there are forces that try to distance people from Baal HaSulam.

We hope that despite everything, we will succeed in spreading his method in the widest possible way and to give every person the opportunity to attain the realization and revelation of their soul.

RABASH writes about Baal HaSulam in the “Introduction to the Book Pri Haham”: “Such a soul descends into the world once in ten generations.” In truth, it is impossible for us to comprehend the true height of his soul, just as small children cannot understand who their father and mother are or appreciate the home in which they are growing up—for that, one must first grow up.

We hope that we will grow and understand who our teacher truly is, he who even today serves as the connecting link between us and the upper force. We will try to realize his method; it is the very same method of ARI and RASHBI. There is no other method; one only needs to know how to correctly implement it. And it is truly possible to feel that within Baal HaSulam an inclusion of the soul of the ARI occurred.

Baal HaSulam gave all his strength to slightly bring down the wisdom of Kabbalah from the heavens and bring it closer to us. He thought only about how to write books that are accessible to the modern generation and to spread them. We do not understand how much this man sacrificed so that we, 60 to 70 years later, could take these books and extract from them all the principles of spiritual work.
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From a conversation at a meal on the day of remembrance of Baal HaSulam, 9/30/2017

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How does one come to the “gate of tears?” I feel the Creator is hidden from me, is not present in my life, is not getting closer, and is not revealing Himself. I thought there were ways to get closer to the Creator and to enter the spiritual world, but now I find out nothing is being revealed, everything is closed.

But the desire for spirituality does not disappear; the desire is huge, but there is no opportunity. There are no ways to achieve spirituality, to touch the quality of bestowal.

And then I discover there is a way to acquire the quality of bestowal! You need to connect with the Creator. Now I understand that to reveal the Creator and to connect with Him means to connect with the quality of bestowal and love, to unite with everyone, and to care about everyone as the Creator cares for everyone. This is called connecting with the Creator.

This is not what I thought before. I hoped that by connecting with the Creator, I would see more, feel more, and understand more—that it was me who would be filled. Now I see that to reveal the Creator and connect with Him means to have the opportunity to give to everyone, to take care of everyone. I want to love everyone so much, give everything to everyone, that I burst into tears! This means that I am standing “before the gates of tears.”

This is a very good state. After all, I do not want to think about myself at all, but I want to give to everyone and I suffer from my inability to do good to people. The whole world and my life seem like darkness to me if I cannot benefit others.

The gate of tears is the entrance to the world of love and bestowal, the way out of oneself into faith above reason. This is how we enter the world of truth, the true reality. In fact, we exist in it, but now we are locked in some cramped capsule in which we feel our world and live inside ourselves.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/10/21, Writings of Baal HaSulam “My Soul Shall Weep in Secret – 1”

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Question: Do you remember the time when you wanted to go to a meeting of friends with RABASH’s students, but he was against it? You were eager to get there, you wanted to be in the group, you arrived, and you didn’t like the picture you saw.

Answer: Yes, I understood why he didn’t want me to go there. Because basically there was no friendship, no love.

I had been communicating with them for many months and I saw that they didn’t even talk to each other, they shied away from each other, they didn’t like each other, they condemned each other, and they had a false opinion about each other. And suddenly I saw that they were sitting together, singing, talking about friendship, about love for one’s neighbor.

It was a blatant lie! It could be so in some other place, either in the theater, or in politics, or somewhere else. I understand when politicians say one thing and think another, because that is our world.

But here, when everything has to be turned inside out, when you have to “rip your heart out,” “to get out of yourself,” and really try to achieve unity with your comrades…! You have no other way out, no other means to reach the higher world, because you reveal it only in unification! And suddenly such blatant hypocrisy, such lies! It just infuriated me!

When I returned to Rabash, he smiled and said: “I told you not to go there.” And that was it, I never showed up there again.

Question: But as far as I understand, this is the essence of the whole job, when you have to justify all these people, whatever they may be?

Answer: No! Absolutely not! After all, they did not initially strive for unity!

I can justify the people on the street because they have nothing to do with it. They are in a state where their nature forces them to act one way and not another.

I fully justify them because the Creator, through His actions, causes certain reactions in this egoistic desire, which is a person that we observe in our world. Therefore, there is no Hitler, Stalin, Rabindranath Tagore or anyone else here; all of them, both good and bad, are puppets, and there is no reckoning with them.

The only calculation is that the Creator does good through one person and evil through another. But by and large, the person himself has absolutely nothing to do with it; he is given such a desire, an aspiration, and he fulfills it.

But here, when people hear, see, feel, and understand, they inherited their spiritual aspirations from their fathers who were students of Baal HaSulam and are now close to such a great, last Kabbalist as Rabash… .

We are already in a completely different era, in a different time, cut off from all the previous great Kabbalists, who represent the chain from the first Kabbalist Adam to the last RABASH. We are in a completely different era, the era of universal correction.

And therefore, if those people who heard, saw, and understood all this acted in such a way that they did not even treat each other as friends, and suddenly they were sitting together, singing songs about love, about how to reveal the Creator because through this a person penetrates into the higher world, it is obviously a blatant lie. I don’t understand!

Of course, when I returned from there, I realized that I had nothing more to do with them, absolutely nothing! And then I asked Rabash: “What’s next?” He replied that maybe I needed another community.

And then I started looking for people in Tel Aviv who are interested in Kabbalah, and I brought them to him. However, among them too, no matter how hard we tried to create a community of friends, nothing worked. The thing is, I wasn’t ready, and they weren’t ready. They tried to unite with each other, to build something, but it didn’t work out.

The only thing that can be said is that apart from our group, nowhere else can we seriously and normally, not only study Kabbalah (a person can sit and study alone), but namely, unite. Unfortunately, not to my happiness and not to my joy.

I would like to see the whole world dotted with groups of people studying Kabbalah, each independently, even independently of others, no matter what method. The main thing is that there should be unification, because in unification the Creator is revealed.

But we see that this is not happening. We hope that this will happen in our group, because we feel from congress to congress, from lesson to lesson, how we are moving toward unity.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Kabbalist’s Failed Experiment,” 9/19/10

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Comment: When we talk in the group about loving one another, everyone clearly understands that they are working against their will, lying to each other, and deceiving. But through this, they attract the upper light.

My Response: Why do you say deceiving?! It’s not deception! I know that I’m in my egoistic desire and want to get out of it. I show others my enthusiasm for the desire to exit my egoism, in order to receive their inspiration in return. We are not deceiving each other! Knowing our nature, we act completely openly.

It’s not a game where I lie, where I’m one person inside and another on the outside. I deliberately act this way precisely in order to transition from our world into the upper world.

If you have two natures, egoistic and altruistic, then you have no other way to rise above the egoistic one except to play in the altruistic nature, like a child playing at being an adult. Gradually, under the influence of the upper light, it becomes real within you. Here we act absolutely logically, rationally, and in no way are we deceiving anyone.

Comment: It’s not exactly deception. Many people do these things through force.

My Response: That is exactly right, through force! So what?! In our world, we do everything through force. That’s natural.

If I’m facing a task that I don’t desire according to my natural inclinations, something I can agree with intellectually, but not emotionally, how else am I supposed to act? Come up with another method.

Comment: I’m not even talking about the method.

My Response: Kabbalah is the method, the method of rising from our world into the upper world, the way to transform one’s nature using the tools we have.

Give me the layout! I know it well, and that’s why it’s absolutely clear to me that all of this is very straightforward and it simply can’t work any other way. This is science! A method! A psychological, physiological, mental, and spiritual methodology for elevating a person to a new way of thinking and acting.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. To Deceive Myself,” 6/7/11

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Question: What is the state when you see the friends as fully corrected? In that state there is strength to work in order to become like them, to be near them. What kind of work is required here?

Answer: The most important thing we need is to reveal that everything happening to us occurs because we are distant from one another and are unable to be together and support each other.

We have no other way to draw closer to the corrected state except by awakening the need for correction within ourselves, that is, for closeness between us. Then we will succeed.

Question: But when we see the friends as already corrected, what kind of work is required from us then?

Answer: It only seems to us that we are corrected. We must determine to what extent we are still uncorrected in relation to our root, the Creator. Then we will gain a clear understanding of what exactly we need to correct.
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From the 4^th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/15/2025, “The Ruin as an Opportunity for Correction”

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Question: RABASH writes that after a gathering of friends, everyone should feel that they are in a state of perfection. But what if I do not feel that?

Answer: If you do not feel perfection after the gathering of friends, it means you did not achieve the proper result, because connection should bring the sensation of the Creator. The Creator is the sum of the shared aspirations toward one common center.

Question: How often should one meet with friends?

Answer: Rabash defined it as once a week. Before I brought him new students, the meetings were held once a month during meals in honor of the new moon. His students would come together from all over the country. Usually, we would gather for no more than half an hour.

Question: In the times of Baal HaSulam were such gatherings also held?

Answer: Back then, it was a bit different, because people lived in small towns very close to one another. There were not same problems as today.

Question: As a rule, does a gathering of friends take place without the teacher?

Answer: Yes, of course. The ones gathering are the friends who need to unite among them. The teacher, practically speaking, has no right to step between them, but may participate in the gathering as a friend, if they agree to it.

Question: What does it mean “as a friend”?

Answer: He can lower himself to the level of a friend. The problem is whether the students are capable of perceiving him in that role.

Remark: Now as a friend, then as a teacher, of course, that is not easy for a person.

Answer: Indeed, that can be difficult.
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From KabTV’s 3/11/19, “Basics of Kabbalah”

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