The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity] (Maor VaShemesh. Parashat VaYechi).

When we gather in the ten, we must care about the Kli (vessel) in which the Creator is revealed and not about His revelation itself. Attaining the Creator consists of building a state within ourselves in which He is bound to be revealed, since He fills everything. All we need is the basis upon which He can manifest, nothing more.

For example, in the blackness of outer space there appears to be no light. But if you place some barrier there, you see that the entire space is flooded with light, because now the light has something to strike against, something from which to reflect. So it is in our state: we must ask for the creation of the Kli (vessel), not for the revelation of the Creator.

We must pay attention to this, because then we will be more precisely directed toward what is required of us, what depends on us, and what we must accomplish, and the Creator will be revealed immediately, automatically. This is a law of nature.

To the extent that we create suitable conditions for His revelation, the property of the Creator will manifest according to the law of equivalence of form. That is, if together with the friends I create a mutual property of bestowal, then by this we create the condition for the revelation of the Creator within us, between us

The essence of the assembly is for everyone to be in one unity and for all to seek but one purpose: to find the Creator. In every ten there is the Shechina [Divinity]. Clearly, if there are more than ten then there is more revelation of the Shechina…

“More” is incorrect. HaVaYaH includes no more than ten. It is simply divided into fractional, particular tens. By “increase” a numerical quantity is not meant, but the power of unity.

It is very important to know that any ten ascends upward only through ever-stronger unity. Our dream, our goal, is to be in a complete ten, one that truly consists of ten individuals, which constantly develops and thus rises higher and higher.
[252656]
From the International Kabbalah Convention 9/5/19, Moldova, Lesson 0

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One can come to the recognition of evil only within a group, which serves as a spiritual laboratory, because it is there that you engage with your soul. The soul is perfect and whole, as it was in Adam HaRishon.

However, you see only a tiny part of it. That is, you see everything, but merely as a single point, and within this point lies the entire structure of the soul.

If you take the light and shine it into this point, then, instead of that point, you begin to perceive a distinct world, the world of your own soul, and you begin to live within it. Here everything depends on how much light you draw to illuminate all of your qualities.

It is said that if you attract the light with the help of the group, then your friends become representatives of all the other souls of Adam HaRishon. Then you draw light of great magnitude that is enriched by the other souls with its many nuances, that it shines upon you in accordance with all the sensations you have accumulated, and thereby brings you to an awareness of evil.

In short, everything depends on attracting the surrounding light. This is the ultimate destination.
[353157]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah? – 1”

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What is advancement? It is the attainment of the Creator’s degree, and it is not without reason is it called revelation. We must not merely receive an impression, not merely enjoy, but we must discover His degree, which we reveal gradually until we fully reach His state.

There is no path of suffering in advancement. The path of suffering consists of those states in which I still do not wish to advance, have not found the strength to move forward, and have not realized the group as the only place where I have free choice in order to advance correctly. Thus, I remain in suffering.

These sufferings gradually accumulate until they compel me to seek a way out of them. And when I search, I find this path. Then I agree to enter a group that will obligate me to advance, and I am even ready to pay for it, because otherwise I will again feel suffering.

This process continues until I begin to understand that the problem is not the suffering itself, until I desire to have my own inner aspiration, and that will become my suffering, rather than the animal suffering from blows received. Accordingly, I will work to transform the group so that it ensures my advancement, not from fear of blows, but because the goal is great.

In other words, I cannot advance by means of suffering. Each time, suffering is given only to compel me to change my state. If I am not capable of doing so on my own, then from that point onward I can begin to think, examine, and invest my efforts in the group so that it will awaken me. Then I replace the quality of suffering myself and rise from degree to degree. If I do not do this, suffering comes as though on its own. That is the only difference.

Therefore, free choice lies in choosing the group, in choosing the force that will come to me instead of blows and which will reveal to me how I must change.

Either blows will force me to change or the group will. Through the group, it happens faster, more successfully, and without suffering. Baal HaSulam explains that in this case we gain twice: I shorten the time, and by striving in every state to resemble the Creator, I already feel that I am in some connection with Him, similar to Him.

In every state, I am to some extent in final correction. But this is only if the group provides me with awareness of the necessity to advance toward attaining the Creator’s status. If it does not provide this, I remain in suffering and will never know on my own how to emerge from it or how to change myself.

Each time I wish to use the group for advancement, I will discover within it possibilities and forces, and readiness to receive bestowal from me and to give me the greatness of the Creator in return.  Then the state I feel will resemble final correction to some degree. The group will give me an “awakening from above,” an awakening that comes from outside me, which I lack.
[353580]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/25/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Creation of the World Was by Largess?”

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Question: Why is the goal hidden?

Answer: “I want to come to the Creator.” Let us say I have some kind of desire of this kind. What this desire is, I do not know. What I should do, I do not know. Who is the Creator? What does it mean to “come to Him”? How can I understand that it is I who comes to Him? If I do not know what state I am going to be in, and what exactly will happen to me, then I am just saying the words. Do I know what they mean?

I imagine now that it is good, like a child who thinks it is good to be, say, a policeman: “The policeman is big; he has a gun.” I will also think that it is good to be in union with the Creator. I do not know what properties He has or what is the similarity of form. If I am the same, what will I be? How is He? And Who Is He? Nothing is clear.

But if I initially approach this idea with the help of a group, then I already find out some detail in it. That is, merging with the Creator becomes clearer to me, and to this extent I comprehend Him. Let us say that I comprehended a hundredth part.

Now some kind of obstacle comes again, and again I perform some actions in the group with the same thought of coming to the Creator. After all, initially “Israel, the Creator and the Torah are one.” And again, I am making a clarification.

So I performed my actions in a group, teamed up with my friends, and I gained strength from them because loving my friends should lead me to love the Creator, and again it became clearer to me what “love the Creator” means because I was engaged in fulfilling the commandment “love your neighbor.” As a result, the totality of fulfilling this commandment leads me to fulfill the commandment “love the Creator.” I am building a Kli.

“Love thy neighbor” is the construction of a vessel of 613 parts. Let us put it this way: I am gluing together all the parts of a common Adam HaRishon (The First Man), like pieces of a broken clay vessel, and the glue between them is precisely the fulfillment of the commandment “love your neighbor as yourself.” In this way, I build a Kli.

And what is revealed inside the Kli is already “love the Creator.” When the Creator fills the vessel, He makes me feel exactly this way. Thus one thing becomes the cause of the other.
[353295]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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When he is “not rewarded,” it is the complete opposite—he has no desire for Torah or prayer.

Anything he does in Kedusha is forced on him, and when he introspects, he says about everything that pertains to Kedusha that it is to him as the potion of death, that he wants to quickly run away from all those things around him (Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”).

Question: What does it mean that “anything he does is forced on him”?

Answer: Rabash shows how much a person can be deluded and not see where he actually is. It seems to him that he is about to build a Kli, but if his work is without the application of effort, then he receives the potion of death. It seems to him that he is advancing, rising, and feeling the fruitfulness of the work.

However, if this elevation comes not because he has the possibility to connect with the Creator and rises above all problems and difficulties, but because, when he feels a lack in his ordinary Kelim, he lives only by the fact that he is connected with the Creator thanks to His greatness and not for any other reason—this is called holiness. But if he enjoys the connection with the Creator, and his will to receive and intellect agree with it, this is opposite to holiness.

This diagnosis must be completely clear to a person. The study and the group must help him in this.

First of all, we need the light that reforms, so that first we will see how much our desires are opposite to the desires of the Creator, how all of reality, except for our limited reality, is built on the basis of the desire to bestow. And we, compared to the spiritual reality, are only a tiny grain of sand in which the law of fulfillment according to the will to receive rules. Yet we see that even in this no one has succeeded.

For us this law is not fulfilled. It operates only as preparation so that we will come to the conclusion that this thing is impossible, and we begin to build something opposite to it that is above it. Above it means that we must invert it. A person must prepare many means and examinations for himself that would help him, and that remind him of his advancement. Otherwise there will be no advancement.

Everything with which we agree is rejected in spirituality. It is important to understand what this opposition is because it is not about going against one’s desire, but about the Creator ruling within it.
[353809]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place,’ in the Work?”

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Question: If the group is “on fire,” it is easy to follow its lead, but what if it is not?

Answer: If you do not feel that the group is “on fire,” then ignite it. What is stopping you? How? It does not matter how. Shout, shake them up, buy them gifts; do something! Search for a way! Sit with them and talk. Tell them that this is not life, that this is not why we are here. Let us start doing something; begin to awaken them.

The group is an external mechanism in relation to me that will constantly press on me, and force me to change. Yet the moment I feel I am in need of change, I must invest myself into the group. Then the group will return this to me, and many times more than what I invest in it.

The group includes many desires to receive: separate, uncorrected desires that exist in various relations with one another. Each of the friends goes through ascents and descents, and because of this the group is always in its own internal movement.

Internal changes take place within it by its very nature because it includes many forces that are foreign to one another. One rises, another descends, and due to this the group is constantly changing.
[354008]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/11/26, Rabash, “What Are Day and Night in the Work?”

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The difference between weekdays and the Sabbath (Shabbat) is that weekdays represent the work of correcting souls, which is a process through which a person gradually reaches the state of the goal of creation called Shabbat, the state of final correction. This attainment is contingent on the work performed throughout the week, as it is written: “He who has not exerted himself on the eve of the Sabbath, what shall he eat on the Sabbath?”

Spiritual advancement means that a person, at any given moment of his life, weighs his actions to determine the extent to which they are directed toward the goal of creation. This is the difference between a person’s material and spiritual levels.

We exist in this world, and it seems to us that actions control and determine everything. Indeed, to maintain life in our animal body, actions are indispensable. We must plow the earth, sow seeds, and harvest crops; that is, we must perform all 39 types of work to produce bread, which constitutes the staple food of man.

Unlike animals that merely gather ready-to-eat fruits and do not need to cook their own food, humans must actively engage in the preparation of their food because nothing in nature exists in a ready-to-consume state except for water, salt, and herbs.

Everything we procure to sustain our existence requires processing. We must labor “by the sweat of your brow.” Therefore it seems to us that the primary element is physical action. Indeed, for everything related to material life in this world, intention is not important. For example, we can bring workers from Thailand, and they will work, while we simply enjoy the fruits of their labor.

The same principle applies to the physical observance of the Torah and the commandments: one who performs them is called a “righteous man,” and the one who does not do this is called a “sinner.” These definitions are correct regarding existence in this world. This degree is called the “holy still” (Domem deKedusha); that is, the assessment of one being righteous or a sinner based on his actions.

However, there is also a spiritual aspect of man, and here we must fulfill the commandments, not with the help of the body, but in accordance with the “point in the heart.” When a person has this point, he can fulfill the Torah and commandments in a spiritual way, but when he lacks it, he cannot.

If one were to approach any individual and tell them that it is a necessity, that the Creator has commanded us so, that it will for their own good, then he would do everything strictly at the level of material action, in the heart (in his egoistic desire), but not in the point in the heart (the embryonic seed of a spiritual Kli). This is called being a “proper Jew.”

However, in order to work with intention, a connection with the Creator is needed, which does not come from the ordinary “heart” but from the “point in the heart.” In it, we evaluate a person’s actions according to their intention, since relative to the point in the heart, the Creator does not take our actions into account at all, but only intentions. Intention is action.

This means, as it is said, “He has done, is doing, and will do all actions; there is none else besides Him.” Everything comes from the Creator, both in actions and intentions. The question here is only about a person’s attitude to what comes to him.

According to this attitude, that is, according to the intention of a person, we evaluate him as a righteous or a sinner. Either his intention is directed at the Creator, which is called “for the sake of giving” (al Menat Lehashpia), or it is not yet directed at the Creator and is called “for the sake of receiving” (al Menat Lekabel).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/14/26, Rabash, “Why the Speech of Shabbat Must Not Be as the Speech of a Weekday, in the Work”

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Every morning before the lesson we rise to our feet anew and open a fresh page. The same can happen during the day as well.

It is said: “Let the old things you have already heard appear in your eyes as new every day.” Each time a person must feel like a new creation, again and again entering into contact, beginning the spiritual work, and drawing closer to the Creator.

With each such renewal, he realizes Reshimot until a sufficient number of them accumulate. This number is not known in advance, but the counter keeps ticking, the gears keep turning, and the digits after the decimal point change; at some moment the main wheel on the left will click over from one number to another.

So it is with us. Therefore, should be glad to renew our contact, our intention, and our striving toward the goal.

It is said: “The end of the action lies in the initial thought.” Already now I must hold in my mind the goal that I hope to reach in the end. Where am I heading? What exactly do I want? Each time I must imagine this anew more precisely, more clearly, more understandably, more tangibly.

In the final goal all my thoughts and efforts, desires and disappointments converge, fuse together, and become complete. My work ends at the point of the final contact, and this point is called the “drop of unity.”

In it, I myself, the entire reality that I feel, and the Creator, that is, the quality of bestowal, the upper force, all become one whole. This is the state I must already imagine now.

Yehuda Ashlag (Baal HaSulam) offers another formulation: A person must direct himself toward the unity of Israel, the Torah, and the Creator. Call it whatever is convenient for you. The main thing is that we think about the final point of unity.

And the more clearly that I imagine it in feeling and in mind, the greater joy it should give me. Because then I undoubtedly realize the current Reshimo and consistently advance toward the end of the action.
[29527]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 12/12/10, Preface to The Book of Zohar

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Question: What causes failure when we try to awaken a spiritual idea?

Answer: Failures occur because we cannot awaken the group by simply shouting about it because our cry instantly dissipates. Instead it requires the work of each individual making a demand of everyone else. Each person should catch themselves: if they disagree that the greatness of the Creator should be the main thing in the group, they should pull out this point of disagreement and stick to the group’s opinion without hesitation.

This is called going by faith above reason. This will not be considered fanaticism, because with each step a person reveals a greater degree of reason. And each time, one is compelled to subject the matter to a rational analysis. Nothing can be done.

The group’s opinion is that the goal of adhesion with the Creator is the only thing we have, and there is nothing else in our lives besides it.

This should be the general attitude. For example, as it happens during Passover, there is a general excitement. It may not be very clear to us that it relates to the greatness of the Creator; the goal is not entirely clear, but there is a sense of upliftment. Everyone seems to be floating slightly above the ground.

The same atmosphere should prevail in the group, and you should not let yourselves fall. This must determine how and what I do in my life.
[353863]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/7/26, Rabash, What Is, ‘There Is Nothing that Has No Place’ in the Work?”

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Question: How can I tell whether or not I have succeeded in attributing everything to the Creator? And if I have not succeeded, what should I do next?

Answer: Success means that right now, I feel that I am taking a step forward and clarifying my state more deeply. This does not mean that I gain clear vision against the disturbances. I gain clarity in the sense of the saying: “You shall see your world in your lifetime,“ but this is not yet the true attainment of the goal.

However, when causes and consequences become revealed to me as the governance of the Creator, I begin to understand that through this action, I have united my attitude, His work upon me, and the state to which I have arrived. That is, His governance becomes clarified to me in some form, but it becomes clarified only so that I will immediately fall into an even greater disturbance and clarify it in an even greater darkness.

Thus, each time I am given additional strength and knowledge, or one could say, the strength of knowledge, so that I will be ready for the next disturbance.
[353309]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”

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