Entries in the 'Spiritual Work' Category

Why the Creator Acts in Concealment

592.01In the article “On the Night of the Bride” (Introduction of The Book of Zohar), it is said that the law (a condition of the spiritual order) is such that the creature cannot perceive the Creator openly if it is in a state or quality opposite to Him.

Therefore, only in equivalence of qualities with the Creator can we perceive Him, in those qualities in which we are similar to Him in quantity and quality. For it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, and the created being would no longer be able to remain connected with Him.

For this reason, the Creator acts in concealment. He must awaken negative states within us, yet we do not feel that they come from Him. Although naturally, “there is none else besides Him,” and only He does this. As it is said: “Who makes darkness and creates light.”

We must feel the darkness more and more. It must constantly be revealed within us so that we can correct it and reveal the light, the Creator, in its place.

Thus, our work always consists of concealment and revelation, concealment and revelation. The concealment of the Creator produces darkness; revelation produces light. These two states must necessarily alternate. Our awareness must be directed toward the understanding that both states are good, that they come from love and are directed precisely toward us so that we may attain perfection.

If a person is not prepared, then the state of the Creator’s concealment is felt by him as darkness and evil, as if the Creator is hiding from him. This is the greatest punishment in the world.

Thus, His guidance of good and evil has been prescribed for us, with guidance of reward and punishment. One who makes efforts not to lose faith in the Creator, that is, in every situation, whatever may happen, if I try to constantly direct myself to the thought that everything happening now with me, within me, outside me, and in the whole world is the Creator’s governance, and I try to remain in this awareness despite feeling unpleasant states, then I attain the reward: eventually the Creator is revealed to me.

But if I do not wish to constantly hold myself in the thought that everything comes from the Creator, that everything around me is only the Creator, who through friends, through strangers, through those close to me, through anyone and in any way, through billions of different influences upon me, is playing with me, then in the end He disappears from my feelings, and I part with faith in the Creator, with the feeling of Him.

Only the ten can keep each of us in constant faith in the Creator, in a constant direction toward Him, in constant connection with Him, in the constant thought that everything comes from the Creator: He does everything, He governs me, and even my thoughts about Him are also from Him.

That is, whether I want or do not want to be connected with Him, this too comes from Him. And it does not matter whether my thoughts are good or bad, whether my actions are good or bad. The main thing is that I attribute them to Him. This is the most important thing.
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From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/7/19, Moldova, Lesson 4

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Not Masochism But a Law of Nature

594We were given the path of faith, which is above reason (Rabash, “The Meaning of Truth and Faith”).

Reason is what we feel and understand, whereas faith is what we must rise to and accept above reason. Namely not to take our sensations and reason into account when we sense whether something is good or bad for us, but instead accept that the Creator knows better what is good for us and what is not.

For example, in our world we go to a doctor. Personally, I am very afraid of injections. I have undergone many operations and have been cut many times, yet I am still afraid. Any form of correction or healing is done upon living flesh. We must strive to reach a state in which we can endure any changes, any corrections, joyfully and without pain.

When the Creator begins to heal us, it will be pleasant, joyful, and sweet for us that this is happening to us, provided that we perceive the importance of the goal as greater than the importance of our animal body.

This has been absolutely verified; it is completely certain!

If a person connects to the goal, then it does not matter what sufferings pass through the body because he will not feel them as suffering at all, but only as joy. This is not masochism; it is simply a law of nature, because thought is higher than desire, higher than the flesh.
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From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/7/19, Moldova, Lesson 4

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Adhesion with the Creator Every Second

232.01Question: When should I analyze whether my actions are correct or not?

Answer: The correct analysis is made in the case when every second of your life you “attach” yourself to the Creator. “Life” means awareness. I am alive; I feel myself and I have some mission. As the song says: “There is only a moment between the past and the future; it is this moment that is called life.” In this moment you must merge with the Creator. This is what He allows you to do.

In this way you analyze the Reshimo (the spiritual informational gene). There is no other work here. If you concentrate only on this, it is very good. For the past and the future are like Klipot since they come to us from invented things. They generate various calculations and fears in us that have no relation to reality.

Comment: But a person has to deal with a combination of many factors.

My Response: I am not speaking about what you do at your work. There you work with the inanimate level: with people, with plans, and so on; there you must know how to work. I am speaking about your inner definitions, spiritual qualities, about what is connected with the Creator.

And with the Creator you have a simple calculation: I have no power over the past, the present, or the future. My work is only with what I have now. Whatever Reshimo He gives me, that I must now realize. And my realization of this Reshimo is adhesion with the Creator in the given second. Period! That is all.

I am not saying that this is how one should relate to life in general, this is how one should relate to our spiritual states. And in the material, I can plan my work a month ahead, a year ahead. One is not connected with the other. At work I deal with the inanimate level.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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The Third Force

232.09Question: You once said that a Jew and a Roman are simply two forces trying to clarify the third force. That is, they develop not without purpose. Is the third force born independently or from these two?

Answer: The third force is intermediary between them, which we must now restore and bring into existence.

Everything that has happened up to this moment has only been preparation for what we must do now: correct the world. Not the Jews and not the other nations, but specifically us, which we do by taking Kabbalah as the source of correction.

Question: Does this third force already exist or do we simply not perceive it?

Answer: We must create this third force together because it does not exist; it does not descend from above. Only two forces come from above: the force of the Creator and the force of creation, the property of bestowal and the property of reception.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. The Truth About Reality” 10/8/10

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It’s Hard to Be Human

224A human must choose between truth and falsehood. There is nothing to choose between sweet and bitter; it is clear that I will always choose what is good and sweet for me and not what is evil and bitter. I am not capable of preferring a bad state to a good one.

However, if I see truth and falsehood in opposition to sweet and bitter, then it is possible that I will choose the bitter truth, a bad feeling, because truth is more important to me.

These represent two different levels: the animate level (analysis according to sweet and bitter) and the human level (analysis according to truth and falsehood) where a person works with faith above reason.

If you rise to the single calculation of truth, within which all other forces and possibilities are included, it means that you have attained adhesion with the Creator.

But if you evaluate only sweet and bitter, then this is an animalistic analysis (choice). And an animal never makes mistakes on its level; it always chooses what is good for it, but it does not advance to the level of human.

However, nature does not allow us to remain at the animate level; it compels us to develop.

At the still, vegetative, and animate levels of nature, the analysis of behavior is reduced only to the analysis of sweet and bitter, with a preference for the sweet. However, for the human, there is a difference between the animate level within him, with the analysis of sweet and bitter, and the human level within him, with the analysis of truth and falsehood.

Therefore, a human is in constant confusion between the animate and the human within him, searching for what to choose and looking for a compromise, he wants the sweet, yet sees that the benefit lies in the truth.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/17/10, Baal HaSulam “Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot”

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Enjoy Bestowal

4Question: How can a person (who is “something from nothing”) attain the Creator’s plan if he did not exist at that stage?

Answer: It is said: “From Your actions we shall know You.”

What does the second stage of the development of the desire say? “I want to be like You,” that is, like Keter. When it reveals the action of Keter from within Hochma, it says: “I do not want to be like Hochma, I do not want to enjoy its light, but I want to be like the root, like Keter, who gives pleasure to Hochma.”

And then Bina wishes to attain the same action as Keter and carries out this action in Zeir Anpin, and by bestowing like Keter, comes to an understanding of what pleasures exist in Keter and wants to enjoy precisely them. Therefore, Malchut desires to enjoy the degree of the Creator, the degree of Keter, that He is the giver.

Let us put it this way: a child enjoys what the mother gives him. Now he thinks: “I want to give my pleasure to my mother so that she will feel good.” And he does something for his mother. Through this he comes to understand how much the mother enjoys giving to him.

The mother’s pleasure in giving the child some candy is not his pleasure from the candy and not the pleasure that he then passes on to the mother. He understands that in the mother this pleasure is measured as a million candies. And then he wants to enjoy exactly such pleasure.

This means that in Malchut, in the fourth stage, an additional desire arises that did not exist before. The created being has attained this desire. Therefore, the fourth stage is called “Malchut” (kingdom); it is a stage that does not proceed directly from the Creator and is the root of created beings. It is still connected to the Creator, still filled with light, not separated from it, but the desire that is in it did not come directly.

The child has realized: “Mother enjoys a million times more from that candy she gives me because she loves me, she wants to bestow, she has a colossal measure of bestowal. Then I want to enjoy as Mother does.”

Therefore, for this additional desire, which does not come directly from the root stage, the creation cannot place a screen. It cannot now say: “But I want to bestow, I want to be like Him.” It cannot, it is unable.

It now wants to enjoy bestowal just as the Creator enjoys it, but wants to experience this pleasure in its desire to receive. And therefore, the created being is only capable of making a restriction.

Here a serious question arises: from where can it take the strength for the restriction? In other words, here the gap between it and the Creator, called “shame,” is revealed, and then the created being makes the restriction.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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How Does the Torah of the Masses Differ from the Torah of the Individual?

239The Torah of the masses means that people engage in actions without demanding a result. The action itself constitutes the result: “Thank God, I am doing what has been placed upon us. And the reward, that belongs to the future world.”

Or one may not even demand a reward at all. One who demands no reward, neither here nor there, is called a complete righteous person. Thus, the actions themselves are considered to be all that is required.

Those of the second type perceive themselves to be growing ever worse. Their actions bring them nothing. A person exerts effort, studies, wants to attain something, and as a result feels himself in unfulfilled desires. Where is the perfection in this? And that which he wishes to attain does not reveal itself in his attainment. This is the Torah of the individual. As it is said: “The view of the Torah is opposite to the view of the masses.”

And yet, when it comes to the examination, it is made according to the result. Therefore, one must understand that all errors (Shgagot) and all transgressions (Zdonot) that a person goes through at the beginning of his path later become the true vessel (Kli), called commandments, merits.

When an error or a transgression is revealed in a person, it signifies that one’s Aviut (intensity of desire) is growing “thicker,” and it is revealed in the form of failures. A person wants to perform some act of bestowal that seems spiritual to him and discovers that he cannot, is unable, does not want to, that he is completely opposed to it.

When such qualities are revealed to him, and he truly sees how opposite he is to it, that he ibears the blame for everything, that he is the worst, and that because of him all have suffered and continue to suffer, then he truly comes to the recognition of errors and transgressions. Time after time, he stumbles, reveals his failures, and then, as he gathers himself, they turn into merits.

It is not upon a person to correct his nature. And if he points an accusing finger at the Creator, that is also incorrect. A person must understand that all errors and transgressions are signs revealing a fracture upon which he must build a correct prayer, a correct request, a correct demand.

Proceeding from this, he no longer wishes for these qualities to disappear. Now they appear opposite to the qualities of the Creator, but they must be transformed into similarity with the Creator. If a person rises above these qualities and sees them as useful, as perfect from the side of the Creator, then undoubtedly, his prayer will be correct, and he will come to the right need: to correct all his flaws into an intention for the sake of bestowal to the Creator.

At the same time, he does not regret that he harms himself and others, that he is inherently flawed. There is no evil; every revelation of evil is only in order to see one’s opposition to the Creator.

Thus, all our work from this point onward must be arranged according to how we build our appeal, the message I send to the Creator. One must formulate it correctly and express that I am ready to receive correction from Him.

If I build my appeal correctly, it means that I know myself, know what in me must be transformed, and am truly ready for it from the Creator’s perspective. Then He performs it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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How Can We Check the Pace of Spiritual Advancement?

213During the preparation period, when we have not yet attained the revelation of our actions, how can we check the result? By the signs that our teachers give us. They say that if a person is in a group that constantly pressures him, guards him so that he does not run away, and he constantly feels that he needs additional forces in order to remain in the group in the desire and in the intention, this means that he is advancing. This is the first, external check.

The second, internal check is a person’s examination of himself; how quickly his inner states change, at what pace these changes occur. He must go through them during the day.

I remember how once I went with my teacher, Rabash, to Tel Aviv. We set out in the morning as usual, and that day, so many events happened to us! We had many different things to do, and on top of everything, I parked the car incorrectly, the police towed it to the impound lot, and we had to take a taxi to retrieve it.

We returned home in the evening, just before the lesson began. Five minutes after the lesson started, Rabash asked me: “Do you remember what happened to us today?” And my mind was completely empty, as if nothing had happened.

At that time, I had just begun to study Kabbalah, and for me. it was a real wonder; how could this be, so much had happened during the day, and I remember nothing, neither what happened, nor when, nor in what sequence! Erased, gone! It passed, and you constantly live in the present. I remember, the first sensation is always like that, it leaves a Reshimo.

The more a person feels the changes that have occurred with him during the day, the better. A million changes can take place, but you do not feel them, they fall and pass, fall and pass. They must pass through you, so let them pass! According to this, the pace is measured.

This happens because you are striving toward one goal. Then all the disturbances that come, you take into account for a moment, they replace one another, and you pass through them quickly.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,’ in the Work?”

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Like a Small One Next to a Great One

963.5Comment: It sometimes happens that a person at the initial stage of studying Kabbalah has questions for you, and even though he does not ask them, he feels that he is receiving answers from you.

My Response: Of course. In general, people who are near me say: “Our questions disappear.” This is natural. Because when they are near, they include themselves in me like a small one beside the great, and then they feel safe, as if in some kind of shelter, and no questions arise for them. Indeed, that is so.

Question: Do you fulfill the person?

Answer: I do not fulfill them. Rather, they fill themselves with the fact that they are attached to me and feel me. Thus, he slightly feels that inner balance, calmness, and fullness that exist in me.

And although I myself am in a certain internal restlessness, on his level and even a few levels above, I am in a completely resolved, calm state.

He does not perceive my higher level but the one at which he interacts with me, like a child with parents. Parents have problems and concerns, but next to them, the child feels calm. He does not feel the level of their restlessness, but feels on an animate level that they are guarantors of his balance and security.

Comment: And then he goes out into the world and is surprised that it is not at all as he thought.

My Response: Yes, naturally. But still, this is good for advancement. I remember my states next to my teacher when you are in a state of absolute perfection and utter tranquility, yet you are compelled to  cultivate needs and desires for spiritual development within yourself.
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From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Difficulties of Translation” 9/12/10

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Don’t Dwell on the Past

272Question: How can you always strive forward and not well on the past?

Answer: You should never dwell on the past! If you do that, you are simply consuming yourself. The past does not belong to you, and neither does the future.

Things that are not manifested in your body right now, you do not work with; they simply do not exist. The past is gone and you know nothing about the future. You cannot depict any images from the future in advance to await their actual happening. So why deal with it?
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, “The Good Deeds of the Righteous Are the Generations,” in the Work?”

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