Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

The Condition for Unity

938.03Based on an understanding of our animalistic nature, we begin to realize that no one can ever unite with another. Each person remains separate.

Today we see that the family, as it once existed, is disappearing. The former relationships between parents and children are no longer the same. The reason is that as humanity develops, its ego and its desire to receive continue to grow. As a result, each person becomes increasingly distant from everyone else, and all the bonds that once existed within the family, the extended family, the nation, and society are breaking apart. Egoism destroys every framework and leaves the individual isolated.

After making the necessary discernments, one can come to the conclusion that a connection between people is possible only through the Creator. If we wish to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” it cannot be achieved by force, as was attempted in Soviet Russia. Only through our connection with the Creator will we begin to unite with one another.

Even the smallest group can exist only under this condition, and all the more so the whole world, when it begins to fulfill the law, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is because every true connection can exist only on the level of the human. By “human” it means a connection with the Creator.

Everything else we do, apart from establishing a connection with the Creator, belongs to the animate level. These things require no correction, and we should pay them no attention, because it is a waste of time and effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Know Your Character

942All the qualities that exist in a person that extend from the four qualities FWWD [Fire, Wind, Water, and Dust] have nothing to do with the evil inclination (Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”).

It does not matter what kind of character a person is born with, whether irritable, foolish, lazy, or proud. From my own experience, I know that it is not necessary for only one of these qualities to exist within me. I feel that I have all of them, and one does not exclude the other. In other words, all four foundations can exist together within every person.

We say that if someone tries to break or eliminate all these tendencies within a person, then he is engaged in psychology, and nothing will come of it, because these qualities are not subject to change.

A person can be a great Kabbalist and still retain all these qualities without paying any attention to them. In our approach, this is not even the alphabet, it is only the very first letters of the alphabet: not to engage in correcting the animalistic qualities within ourselves, but only to work on our relationship with the Creator.

The “human” within us begins to grow only in relation to the Creator. And only in relation to Him can we weigh the good inclination against the evil inclination, that is, determine everything that needs to be revealed and cultivated, or, on the contrary, uprooted. But all of this is done only in connection with the Creator, and not in relation to my “self,” my natural character.

I should look at the friend in exactly the same way. The problem, however, is that when we work together, my animalistic nature and his animalistic nature may find it difficult to coexist.

But that becomes the second stage of our joint work, after we have come to know our own character well: whether irritable, wasteful, lazy, power-hungry, and so on. Once we know our character, we begin to see how we can work together by combining these qualities in order to understand what exists above: the unique character of each person in relation to the Creator. And here, perhaps, true unity becomes possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born with Bad Qualities?”

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Test Yourself

88Question: How do I know if I am taking the right steps now or not?

Answer: Kabbalists explain that when you arrive somewhere to study Kabbalah, you do not know anything at first. You do not even know where you are since you could be in several other places and not just here. There are a lot of people who are now sitting in other places, engaged in other methods, and they are also trying to learn and find something for themselves. There is a difference of place, a difference of method.

Are they in the right place? There is no answer to that. You basically were not given Kelim to make a choice now. You were let to do this based on what you subconsciously feel. If you feel that you have some doubts, go to another place and check. Check where you feel better—here or there. Perhaps, according to your soul’s development, you still need to be in some other place. Come to Bnei Baruch in some 30 years. Everyone goes through their own cycles.

There is a general law of reality called the law of equivalence of form. It is like a magnetic field: if you put a piece of iron in it, it is drawn to the magnet. In the same way, everything is drawn to its center of equilibrium. The soul works in the same way. If you feel some urge, it is your soul being drawn to its center of equilibrium, to where it feels comfortable and at rest.

Thus, a person who searches ultimately finds what they are looking for precisely due to this. The soul sets your hands and legs in motion, and you arrive somewhere. Ultimately, we all move in this manner and reach the right place according to our level of  development.

There are people whose level of development calls for studying yoga or, for example, Ikebana. This cannot be grasped by the intellect; here  knowledge is an inner sensation. Only then do the eyes open and you see.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/6/26, Rabash, “When Should One Use Pride in the Work?”

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The Point of Choice: Toward the Creator

571.01The states that a person goes through are not so important in and of themselves. Of course, it is possible to say that they are analogous to receiving a blow one moment, candy the next, then a stronger blow, and again a candy. But the “carrot and stick” do not form a Kli (vessel) in a person. Its continuous strengthening on the path toward the goal is exactly what is building the Kli.

The Kli is the intention. Neither the blows, nor Malchut, nor Keter form the Kli. The intention that you define, when you truly decide what it is, is called the Kli. Only in choosing the intention does freedom of choice exist.

Look at how the whole world spins and what it does: We seek peace and we seek happiness, nothing helps because the search is conducted in the wrong direction, and we only become more confused, spend money, and drown in a sea of blood. And so it is all over the world.

Look at what an enormous process of development the world needs to undergo in order to finally come to the conclusion that development must be in only one direction. All the achievements of science, engineering, technology, medicine, culture, and education are simply a mistake.

We made a mistake; we followed our egoistic desires and developed all sorts of things that are absolutely unnecessary. No matter how magnificent, grandiose, and fulfilling all the achievements of civilization may seem to us, it is Klipot.

We could have lived peacefully in caves and, being connected to the Creator, enjoy life. What difference does it make where you live?

The point of choice is in the direction toward the Creator. When this question awakens in me, I must strengthen myself so as not to turn in another direction. It is like a pointer rotating in a circle, at each of the 360 degrees, it seems to point to 360 targets, yet it aligns with the direction toward the Creator only once.

It is precisely here that I must “step on the gas.” This is where I must break out of the vicious circle. If I do not do this, all kinds of desires start spinning inside me again in this circle.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/20/26, Rabash, “The Creator and Israel Went into Exile”

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Tricks that Help Achieve the Goal

243.04Question: What are the various tricks that help a person reach the goal of creation?

Answer: Suppose I look at something and become consumed with a strong desire for it. To change my desire, I begin to listen to music. The music awakens a different desire within me, perhaps a subtler, a more elevated one, yet still not truly directed toward the goal.

Then I open a book. From the Kabbalah books that I usually study, I choose the one that can influence me at that moment by awakening a more elevated desire, a more conscious and purposefully directed one. In this way, by using the external means that surround me, I bring about a change in my desire. But by myself, I am unable to change the desire to receive.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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How to Learn to Receive Correctly

253Question: How do we develop sensors that perceive spiritual pleasure?

Answer: The Creator influences us by constantly pouring out absolute goodness and benevolence. We are always under the influence of the Creator who abundantly bestows bliss and delight. Yet, we feel nothing because this sense has not been developed within us. We are like infants who neither understand nor feel what He is giving them.

This is called concealment. In other words, the concealment exists within us, in the sixth sense that has not yet been developed. The method for developing the sixth sense is called the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the science of receiving what the Creator gives us. As of now, however, we still do not know how to receive.

How can this be done? Only with the help of the light that reforms. During the lessons, we awaken the surrounding lights that purify a person. What does “purify” mean? They make one’s perception pure and refined. A person becomes far more sensitive, and then one truly begins to feel spirituality.

As the surrounding light purifies me, it gradually enriches me with ever new and diverse states, sensations, and understanding. It teaches me little by little, just as infants are taught. The only difference is that I want to go through this process quickly rather than wait.

It takes twenty years to raise a child, and the development of a human being sometimes takes thousands of years before they reach perfection. But if I want this to happen quickly, I must awaken the surrounding light upon myself so that it performs this work on me as rapidly as possible rather than at the pace at which human history has developed over thousands of years. I want to go through this path in five to ten years. Perhaps even faster, although for now it is not yet possible. It is too difficult.

Thus, all I really want is to accelerate the development of my sixth sense, and the greatest thing required of me is to draw the surrounding light upon myself. That is all my work.

The faster the light teaches me, the more rapidly all kinds of states change within me, the sooner I will complete my learning. The expansion of the light and its departure form the vessel (Kli) that is fit for its purpose.

This means that I must pass as quickly as possible from one state to another, from one change to the next, ascents and descents, every kind of sensation and impression received from the group, from the books, from everything. Then I will more quickly reach the state in which enough different discernments have accumulated within me, and I will accordingly begin to feel and perceive what exists outside of me.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/14/26, Rabash, “What It Means that “Law and Ordinance” Is the Name of the Creator in the Work”

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“Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem”

421.01Our sages said (Taanit, p 30b), “Anyone who mourns for Jerusalem is rewarded with seeing its joy” (Rabash, “What Is, ‘Anyone Who Mourns for Jerusalem Is Rewarded with Seeing Its Joy,’ in the Work?”).

We must prepare our work not only on the spiritual plane, but also on the plane of this corporeal world, whose levels were also shattered. When a person works with the Shoresh, Aleph, and Bet levels with the intention of correction, it means that he uses his life in its corporeal form, and in its human level only insofar as it is necessary to sustain his existence. All his other actions are directed solely toward drawing closer to the Creator.

As for animalistic pleasures, we understand what the human body requires. With regard to the pleasures of wealth, honor, and knowledge, our work lies in relation to society. This is the work through which a person must properly arrange his attitude toward these pleasures.

For example, regarding money, at first, he may give only one tenth of his earnings, but later he keeps for himself only what is essential. As Baal HaSulam writes in the article “The Giving of the Torah,” he uses the rest in order to bring the world to a corrected state, to bring it closer to the Creator, that is, for the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

With regard to honor, he realizes this within the group by lowering himself and elevating the image of the group in his eyes, so as to receive from it the greatness of the Creator. As for knowledge, he strives to attain the spiritual world, the upper world, the Creator, and His nature. He arranges this desire so that he wishes to engage in it in order to truly come to bestowal upon the Creator through the upper light, which is awakened as a result of the study.

Thus, a person’s spirituality becomes clothed in this world, in everything that surrounds him, either through his animate level, by giving the animal within him only what it truly requires and paying no attention to its other demands, or through the human within him, through his relationship with the environment, where he seeks to use everything around him in order to direct all his powers and qualities toward attaining a two-way connection with the Creator.

This means that the result of the shattering that exists within him in the form of “for one’s own sake” is transformed into “for the sake of bestowal.” This is what is meant by: “Whoever mourns the destruction of Jerusalem.”

Jerusalem means “the perfect city” and “perfect awe,” when Malchut rises to the height of Bina, undergoes shattering, and the connection between Bina and Malchut acquires the opposite intention: for one’s own sake. But through his sorrow and through his work, a person attains the joy of Jerusalem, when he corrects the Kelim and fills them with the lights.

A Kli with the intention to bestow, filled with the light, is bestowal to the Creator. This is the “joy of Jerusalem,” the perfect city, the perfect Kli, in perfect awe and faith: the quality of Bina spread throughout the whole of Malchut.

All these discernments: the destroyed Jerusalem and the rebuilt Jerusalem, are, in essence, two opposite extremes that a person must pass through on his path while still living in this world, in this lifetime, clothed in his corporeal body.
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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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If I Have No Taste for the Creator

938.03Question: A person is governed by desires. How can we make the desire for the Creator the greatest desire?

Answer: Suppose I have to choose what I am going to drink. The doctor has told me that it is good for me to drink a medicinal tea. If I believe him, then I will drink the tea. Besides, the Torah says that a doctor has permission to heal. Perhaps this tea is not tasty. I may not like it and feel no “taste of life” in it at all. Yet I drink it and enjoy it because I feel the light of my future health, for I believe it will come! In other words, I myself determine what is pleasant for me and what is not. This medicinal tea becomes more enjoyable to me than ordinary tea, even the finest variety.

From this example we see that all we need to do is ascribe importance to the Creator. We are capable of giving importance either to ourselves or to the Creator. This is the only thing we can do.

Question: But what if I have no taste for the Creator?

Answer: That does not matter at all! Enter a certain society and constantly listen to what the people there are talking about. Disconnect yourself from everything else! Turn off the television, do not watch football. Listen to what is being said in the group.

Of course, this alone is still not enough. You must work together with the group and make your own efforts so that the opinion of the friends becomes important to you. You need to unite with them in such a way that their thoughts will carry weight for you.

After all, you listen to what your children say. It is important for you to know what they think of you. I know this from my own experience. For example, the day before yesterday my daughter told me that she wanted to start driving lessons. I answered that I did not have the money for it. The very next day she booked the lesson! So yesterday, after the night lesson, I rushed home so that I could give her the money in time. It was so important to me that she would be able to pay for the lesson.

Would I have done that for someone else? I do not know. Just for anyone? Of course not. That person would have to be just as important to me as my daughter. But for that to happen, I would have to work on it. It does not come by itself. For this, I would have to invest in that person as much as I have invested in my daughter over the past twenty years. For twenty years I have been giving, giving, and giving to her. And now I see that everything I have invested is within her, it all came from me.

If a baby were taken away from its mother immediately after birth, then despite everything, in the end she would forget about the child. Everything depends on how much has been invested.

As for my daughter, yesterday I simply could not calm down. I kept thinking that she had already booked the lesson and how uncomfortable it would be for her to tell the instructor that she did not have the money and would pay later. That is why it was so important for me to get the money to her in time. And when she thanked me, what great pleasure I felt from it! Can I relate to my friend in the same way? It is not so simple.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

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How to Hold Two Different Sensations Within Oneself

232.03Question: How can I not see the greatness of the Creator and feel the Shechina in the dust and at the same time understand that the Creator must be great when I’m in a state of caring only for myself?

Answer: How can these two sensations exist simultaneously? Why not?

You ask how you can have such a state when you look at what is happening inside you and see that, on one hand, you hate the Creator, do not love Him, despise Him, He is nothing for you, and you think only about yourself, but on the other hand you already begin to realize that this is a state of shattering and ruin and that the Creator is great, real, awe‑inspiring and everything else, yet in you it is the opposite.

How can one hold these two sensations inside? Together they build the feeling in us that is called the recognition of evil; it is when I see who He really is and how I perceive Him in the opposite form. This is possible because we receive this sensation by means of the light descending from above, which shines in the form of surrounding light.

It can shine for me even though I am not in equivalence of form with it. Then I see my Kli: how it thinks only about itself, nothing nothing in this life concerns it other than its own self-interest, and I see the light, as it were, opposite this Kli. There the Creator is great, eternal, and perfect, and I do not care. This state, resulting from the two opposite states of the Creator and the creation, is built in me because the surrounding light shines from afar into my egoistic Kli.

In our world you do not encounter such a state; we are not opposite to some phenomenon. I can think that a person is bad, and a moment later that he is good. But when I now think well of him, I can only remember that a second ago I thought otherwise. Yet to think at the same time that he is bad and that in truth he is good ,that does not happen because everything takes place in one Kli, in one awareness.

In relation to the Creator, this does not occur in one awareness, in one Kli, because we are in a process where the Kli has not yet been corrected, and from the Creator the surrounding light comes to us. The result is a state of oppositeness,” two distinct forms (reception and bestowal [reception in me, bestowal in Him]), existing as if on two sides of the Machsom (barrier).

It is only because of the Machsom the surrounding light shines for me and provides this awareness, within which MAN is built. MAN is, essentially, the tension that exists in me between how I relate to myself and how I relate to the Creator, according to what I am and what the Creator actually is. It is the critical examination of these perceptions that generates MAN within me.

This constitutes a request for correction, a desire for my will to receive to be directed to the Creator to the extent that the surrounding light gives me this understanding. The will to receive by itself will never want this, no matter who stands opposite it. It is like Pharaoh, opposite whom the Creator can stand, but he says: “Who is the Creator that I should obey His voice?”

Here there must be an awareness that serves as an intermediary between the two: whether it is a person’s state of Lo Lishma or the group (it does not matter in what form we speak of this) that connects these two sides.
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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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Sharpen Our Senses

232.01Question: How do you prepare for sensing spirituality?

Answer: According to the correction of the Kelim, we receive a filling that gives us a sense of the Creator. The Creator fills a person and “clothes” Himself within them; this is what a person feels. Preparation for this is the preparation of one’s senses, one’s Kelim.

For example, I do not hear well, so I have to buy a hearing aid. I cannot see well, so I need to buy glasses. If I cannot distinguish taste, maybe I should rinse my mouth. To taste sour, I need to rinse away the taste of sweet.

We need to sharpen our senses somehow. If I feel sleepy, maybe I should have a cup of coffee to perk myself up. I want to be sensitive and expand my range of sensations.

It may be worth listening to a certain melody. Sometimes you shed tears before me, but I laugh at you, and sometimes I cry from what I hear from you. It all depends on the preparation of one’s feelings.

We are in the highest corrected state, the final correction. But due to the blurriness of our Kelim, we feel only a small part of this state, even its opposite, and curse our lives. All we need is to correct our sensory organs. This is our work.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/3/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is None as Holy as the Lord, for There Is None Besides You,’ in the Work?”

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