Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

The Game Until the End of Correction

938.02Question: What does it mean to fulfill the law or advice of the Kabbalists: “Love your neighbor as yourself”? How is its inner fulfillment expressed?

Answer: It means that I try to find the importance of the Creator, and I begin precisely with this.

We must always begin with the Creator and end with the Creator. And in between is the group as a means of achieving the goal. Thus, I must have such an awareness of His importance that I am ready to accept upon myself the condition of loving others as a means of drawing closer to Him, of connecting with Him.

Then, as Baal HaSulam writes in “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar,” I am ready to stop thinking about myself, to leave my desire, to pull myself out of my concern for myself and my thoughts about my own existence, and together with all the other similar desires, aspirations, and thoughts, to unite with the Creator.

What is the game? Why did I use this word? The game is that we as if love another and are ready to give up ourselves; we as if are ready for anything, and the Creator is as if important to us. Everything is “as if.”

Nevertheless, we are capable of attaining such a flash of feeling only for moments. Usually, we think about our lives: “Here is food, here is money, here are pleasures, here is rest, here is family; these are the things in which I exist. But what are the Creator, aspiration, and the group? They are something virtual. They exist somewhere, but they constantly disappear and remain unreal.”

Therefore, when I force myself, by faith above reason, nevertheless to enter such an inner state above all this tangible, seemingly existing reality, such a state is very unstable. It resembles a game; it is not solid. I have no sensory organs or evidence for it. It is unreal.

Therefore, it is as though we are playing this game. We have no other conditions, no other foundation on which to do this. The force that I receive in order to enter this as though it were a real world is called the surrounding light. It somehow acts upon me from the outside and gradually brings me there.

How it works, I do not know. Whether it works at all, I do not know. Suddenly, I receive some blows, and then I am told that this is the result of the influence of the surrounding light. Fine. But do people not receive all kinds of ascents and descents even without that?

Thus, we must be sensitive to all our states, meaning that we must give everything its proper weight and evaluation. Engaging in spirituality in our present state in this world is called engaging in something unreal, unclear, perhaps nonexistent. “Maybe it exists, but who knows?” Go and talk to people. For them, it is not even… .

Little by little, you acquire some feelings for it, some awareness of its importance. But when you enter something “imaginary” and see that only this truly exists, then it is precisely all reality below this level that appears to you to be an imaginary world. But everything depends on your realization. And when will this happen?

Therefore, we call all our preparation a game. Then we will see that this game remains and continues until the end of correction, about which it is said: “The Creator plays with Leviathan, which He created.”

All states before or below the highest state in which the creation and the Creator are united with one another are called unreal or games. Because the only state that was truly created and truly exists is the state in which the Creator and the creation are united and exist in one perfection. Everything besides this exists only in relation to the creation, as imagination, as a game.
[362391]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 10/5/26

Related Material:
From “Love Your Neighbor” to “Love the Creator”
Artificial Actions
The Game Of Life

See an Example in Others

937Question: What should I do if the friends in the group just sit there and do not elevate the goal?

Answer: If people do not speak about it and you do not see based on their actions how important the goal is to them, then the question arises: “Did you want to see it?” If you wanted to, you would see it.

Suppose that during Sukkot, the friends built a hut on the roof. Go up there and think: What makes them build it? Something must make them, right? Yes. The Creator gave them a desire for spirituality; they are here, and therefore they are building it.

It is not their desire; they did not attain it and are not in full awareness of the importance of the goal. But the Creator gave this desire precisely to them. Therefore, there is something in them received from Him, and that something acts within them. Therefore, there is already something for which to value a person, and what is in him is already important to you. It turns out that it depends on you whether you see this or not.

Let a person simply come here, sit, and laugh; it doesn’t matter at what. But he came here. It turns out that either he found the fuel himself to come here or the Creator gave him this fuel. But in the end, there is something spiritual within him that pulls him out of bed and brings him here. There is a part of the spiritual from above in him, and that is what you value.

It is impossible to speak about this all the time. Your problem is that you do not want to work on yourself in order to see this with your own eyes even when people do not show it very much. You want to hear about it constantly, but after five minutes you are already tired of it. You must elevate your feelings in order to see this in other people. It was generally not customary to speak about this, only a little here and there.

The main thing is that we must see an example in others and, as it says in the articles of Rabash, speak about the importance of the Creator. I hope we will move from curse to blessing.
[361058]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

Related Material:
Look for Advice Yourself!
How Can One Be Inspired by a Friend?
An Individual or a Group?

Understand Spiritual Psychology

237To understand ourselves, we must understand spiritual physiology. After all, in principle, we are studying ourselves, our Kli (vessel), and how we act based on it.

Both the Creator and creation exist within this Kli, as do all the worlds. Everything is contained within it. The various perspectives from which you view and perceive your Kli shape the world you experience.

Therefore, if you are able to examine your own sensations within your desire (Hisaron), then you can begin to work on yourself. You begin to understand the cause of feelings and how you might achieve a sense of inner balance.

What is it you lack, what is missing, that causes you not to feel fear of the future? The future refers to your external, empty Kelim (vessels) relative to the present state. Here we can already speak about the second restriction, about how it occurs, about the surrounding and inner lights, about their relationship to one another, and about how they build the present and the future of the Partzuf.

And when a person begins to perceive this in a developed form, it enables them to relate to themselves objectively, from the side, and to connect what is happening with what he is studying.

Simply calling someone a human being is not enough, that does not yet constitute a human being. If he does not relate to himself as a human being, then he is an animal that feels but does not understand what exactly it feels. And if he does not understand, then he cannot do anything with his sensations.

Here we are already entering the domain of spiritual psychology. There is nothing frightening about it; the main thing is not to depart from the thought that we are speaking exclusively about the Kli. The various forms of sensations that the Kli experiences give it our entire vocabulary, from A to Z, solely in the sensation of the Kli itself.
[361166]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

Related Material:
The Psychology Of The Spiritual World
Looking At Ourselves From The Creator’s Level
Transition From Material Psychology To The Spiritual

The Potential Is In Your Hands

619Question: If I am like a charge in an electric field, that is, if my potential relative to the field changes, then my position also changes. Can I change my potential myself?

Answer: Yes, you can. After all, this potential depends on your sensation, which arises from comparing yourself with the field. This potential is in your hands.

If you see that your place in the field is not quite where you would like it to be, not quite what it should be, you can change it. It is as though you change your potential. How?

You attract the light; it changes your potential, and then you move. This is similar to raising MAN; everything works according to the same principle.

Equivalence of qualities is the only general law from which all other laws derive. Who are you? You are a point of choice and nothing more. A point that can choose. And apart from this, there is nothing that is you.
[362620]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”

Related Material:
Fulfilling Spiritual Potential
Reveal Your Spiritual Potential
The Field Of Spiritual Desire

Realize the Greatness of the Creator

610.2Question: Is the realization of the greatness of the Creator that I receive from the group a desire to annul myself before Him? Is this what awareness of His greatness means?

Answer: The environment must provide me with all kinds of forms of connection. The entire spectrum of my connections with the Creator can be described in many words.

The group must convey that without awareness of the greatness of the Creator, I will not attain the goal, and that the greatness of the Creator opens a new Kli for me. It must direct me toward the Creator.

Question: What is the greatness of the Creator?

Answer: First and foremost, it is the fact that He rules over me in everything. Look inside yourself; in every corner, you will find Him. The group should give hints this about this, and subsequently you will discover it yourself. Once you hear this from the group, you will begin to truly realize it.

What does it mean to be great? It is being stronger than I am. I must receive  the impression that He is stronger than me from the group. If He simply strikes me because He is stronger, there is nothing I can do about it. I curse Him, despair, and fall.

By “stronger,” we mean the measure of His greatness.
[360926]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/26, Rabash, “Who Testifies to a Person”

Related Material:
How Does the Greatness of the Creator Become a Reality?
One Devoted to the Perfect Becomes Perfect
Strengthen In The Greatness Of The Creator

What Does a Person Determine?

938.01On the spiritual path, there is a place of work on the part of the Creator and a place of work on the part of creation. We say that “there is none else besides Him,” “everything comes from above,” “everything is in the hands of heaven but the fear of heaven.” The Creator determines everything; nothing happens without a decision from above; this is true.

However, there is an important component here, one of the four parameters that depends on the person: the influence of society. We are talking about the development of an external society that affects a person.

It is as if a seed were to determine the parameters of sunlight, moisture, rainfall, minerals in the soil, fertilizers, and various other factors that affect it in various stages of its development. It is as if the seed itself regulates their quantity and sequence. If the seed could do this, it would constitute free choice in its own development.

It is obvious that a person cannot transform himself into something else; however, he determines what develops. Through this process, they come to understand the forms of their own development and the entire system that controls, corrects, and holds dominion over them, that is, the thoughts, attributes, and actions of the Creator.

This means that the human truly takes the place of the Creator in creation. By learning and subsequently intervening in the parameters of their environment, they determine what unfolds. Thus, by choosing their environment, a choice made in accordance with their understanding of the Creator, His qualities and actions, His thoughts and purpose, the human attains the level of the Creator.

However, the foundations, that is, a person’s inherent qualities, do not change and cannot change. After all, a person does not understand what their foundation is just as they do not understand what Atzmuto (the essence of the Creator), or the unattainable essence of anything is. Only matter and form clothed in matter are accessible to him, but not abstract form and essence.

But by giving him the opportunity to perform the same actions upon himself as the Creator would perform, he is allowed to know the Creator, His attitude toward creation, His plans and thoughts, that is, to come to the Rosh (the head).
[361873]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/12/26, Rabash, “Rosh Hashanah”

Related Material:
The Only Free Action
The Only Free Choice
What Is Free Choice?

What Should One Be Concerned with In Spiritual Work?

276.01After a person receives from above the “charm of holiness” (Chen de Kedusha) through study and investing effort in various actions, as it is written, “Whatever is in your power to do, do,” they begin to understand that actions of bestowal are apparently indeed the most exalted and the best, but they themselves are unable to perform them.

To perform them, he lacks the sensation of the greatness of the Creator, that is, faith, that grants the heart strength to overcome the intention to receive and to acquire the intention to bestow. The sensation of the Creator shifts a person from thoughts about oneself to thoughts about the Creator.

Where can one obtain this faith? Rabash says that only the environment can help a person in this. According to what we have studied and what is written in the articles, this is the only thing that truly depends on a person. If he engages in this, he receives the strength of faith through work in the group and is then rewarded with acquiring the intention for the sake of bestowal. This is called crossing the Machsom.

At every stage, in every state that a person goes through, it is necessary to distinguish between lights and Kelim. If a person is in a certain state, it must contain both a Hissaron (desire) and fulfillment. He wants to attain the next state, which also contains both a Hissaron and fulfillment.

But one should be concerned not with the fulfillment, but with the desire. This is our entire work: to be concerned about the Kli and to think about it, because it is precisely the Kli that determines the state we are in.
[360778]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/24/26, Rabash, “Who Testifies to a Person”

Related Material:
I Am Not the Master of My Desire
The Result of the Influence of the Surrounding Light
The Need For Spirituality

Why Does the Creator Need a Covenant of Unity?

276.02What does it mean to make a covenant? What is its purpose? A covenant means that from now on, we will be connected. It will be a high-quality connection based on certain conditions, because without conditions, why would we need to draw up a covenant of unity?

That is, from the very beginning of the ascent up the spiritual ladder to its last steps, when we reach the final correction and no boundaries hold us back, a covenant exists between the Creator and us at each step. But each time, it has a different form, a different measure, different conditions.

There are no restrictions on the part of the Creator. He is Good that does good, and agrees with whatever a person desires as long as it is in connection with Him. It turns out, the person sets the conditions of the covenant with the Creator: he wants a connection with the Creator no more than he can withstand and no less than he has determined for himself.

It follows that everything depends on the person: both the terms of the agreement and the desire to make it. The Creator accepts everything. Why is a covenant necessary? If I am strong enough and confident enough, then I set the limits for myself. I will do as I want. Why do I need to sign an agreement with the Creator? What do I need it for anyway?

For example, I do not want any agreement with someone weaker. I will always do as I see fit and as I want; why do I need a contract? An agreement is drawn up when they depend on each other in some way. That is, each of us yields to the other in some way and gives something to the other.

The contract is drawn due to weakness. When does it manifest itself between the Creator and me? The Creator, for His part, shows us that He is very weak because He needs our love for Him, our attitude toward Him, and 100% attention to Him.
[362551]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

Related Material:
Merit Connection with the Creator
Spiritual Union: Likeness To The Creator
Making A Covenant With The Creator

Restriction Means Refraining from Using the Desire to Receive

565.01Restriction is the “crossing of the final sea (Yam Suf),” meaning the transition from the desire to receive to the desire to bestow without yet establishing a specific level within the desire to bestow. This is what is termed a restriction.

In other words, it is the ability not to turn toward oneself and not to make internal calculations.

At present, we are not aware of this, but every time we do something, even the slightest movement, it is only because our desire to receive decides that by acting this way, it will express itself in the best possible manner and that in this way it will better control the situation.

In short, everything is determined by the desire to receive. And a restriction at each degree indicates the depth to which I become aware of this desire and, accordingly, the extent to which I have control over myself and do not take into consideration my own benefit from the action I am about to perform.

In the definition of restrictions in The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES), it is written: “One who restrains himself and does not receive, despite passionately desiring to receive, is called one who restricts himself.”

We cannot eradicate the desire; it remains. But I control it and restrain it; that is, I refrain from using it.

What does “refraining from using it” mean? It means not basing any calculation on it. Or to put it differently, according to what takes place in the Rosh (head) of the Partzuf, I make a calculation concerning the desire to receive pleasure for my self. That is, to the extent that the desire to receive is revealed to me, I clearly see how much personal benefit I intend to derive from it, and I perform a restriction on this basis. On this foundation, I begin to make the calculation for the sake of the Creator and to turn to Him. This is the action.

At each subsequent degree, ever greater depths of the desire to receive are revealed to me both quantitatively and qualitatively. Then I see how deeply my thoughts are entangled in this desire, how deeply my calculations are immersed in it, although previously I could not see this. I see how much I am still thinking about myself in every thought, and so it goes, deeper and deeper. Ultimately, the entire volume of the soul is revealed to me in this way.

Therefore, each degree is a particular area within the volume of the soul where I see that I am thinking only about myself, and that all my calculations are connected solely with myself. In addition, there are four stages of Aviut, for example, how much all the organs of my body, every cell of it, think only about themselves, if we draw an analogy with our physical body.

Thus, a restriction takes place after a person becomes aware of how strongly he strives to fill every cell, every desire within himself, based on his desire to receive. Yet, despite this aspiration, he rises above it and turns toward the Creator in order to work with His desires, with His Kelim (vessels).
[360490]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/26, Rabash, “What Are Commandments that a Person Tramples with His Feet”

Related Material:
The Essence of Restriction
How Can You Be under Restriction?
Restriction On Egoistic Desires

Realize the Importance of Spirituality

938.03Question: Must we look for strength to counter the desire to receive?

Answer: If I make any corporeal, material action, it means I have found a justification for it in my desire to receive. Otherwise, I would not be able to carry it out.

By material action, I mean an action within the desire to receive. It is considered material not because it is connected to matter, to substances the five senses perceive, but because I can realize or “materialize” it. It is material in the sense that I can feel it inside my desire to receive.

To any such action, I can attach some reward or advantage, which gives me the ability to do it. But if I am really facing a spiritual action, I cannot do it. “And the children of Israel sighed from the work,” that is, I cannot stand it, I am unable to do anything about it because it is against my nature.

What should I do? Since I am unable to act with the intent to bestow within my nature, I must convince myself through various means, mainly by engaging with my environment, books, and authors, that nothing is more important than taking such an action. In return, I will have a connection with the upper force.

Two opposing conclusions are necessary. On one hand, I am not capable of acting for the sake of bestowing, and on the other hand, that it is of the utmost importance. If I come to this, then, because of the tension between them, an inner cry is born in me: “Why can I not have this?” If this cry is genuine, I get the opportunity to perform such an action, and through it feel the Creator and establish a connection with Him.

This happens through the action itself. Without doing it, I will not have the Kli (vessel) to experience the Creator, spirituality.

Spirituality comes into the Kli I have built; that is, it is revealed inside the action I performed for the sake of bestowal.

Consider how much I have to internalize the importance of spirituality. I cannot find it anywhere else; a little in books, but even more in the environment. After several years of reading books, we can already see they do not really help us: this stage is over, we no longer react to books. But we react to the environment all the time whether we want to or not. This means we must form it at work, at home, and here [during the lesson], so in the end we only feel the importance of spirituality.

Of course, nobody talks about spirituality at work. This means that at work I have to “plug my ears” in a certain sense, to talk with colleagues only about professional topics, not about politics, fashion, etc. At home, I have to discuss only what is relevant and important for the family so that there are no problems. But most importantly, here—the only place where I can hear about the importance of the upper one—I have to “prick up my ears” while demanding that the group talks about what I need.

If that is the case, then when I hear words about the importance of spirituality, it feels like I should do some kind of spiritual action, and I see that I am not capable of it. Otherwise, we cannot see it; we do not know what real effort is when a person is stuck in an action and unable to perform it.

We do not know this because we have no drive for it; we do not have the awareness of importance to think about such an action. However, without reaching such a state, we simply do not move from curse to blessing and remain in the curse without even realizing it.
[360634]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

Related Material:
How Can I Feel the Importance of Spiritual Work?
Against One’s Will
Life Under a Spiritual Umbrella