Question: Let’s say a person reaches a point where he condemns the Creator because he is suffering. The Creator sent him this state, and he does not agree with it. What does it mean that he must now find a reason to justify the Creator?

Answer: No! If I have received something from above, first of all, I notice that I feel something. Then I suddenly remember that what is happening to me came from the Creator. Then I analyze if what I received from the Creator is good or bad? And then, once it has already happened, do I feel that it came specifically from Him?

Perhaps the phenomenon itself is felt as bad by me, but when I remember that I received it from the Creator, it changes for the better, because I begin to see a purpose in it, and there is some justification for it.

Now the question is: What do I think in this situation? I can think that I am receiving blows from the Creator, but then He will somehow compensate for it later. Is such an attitude toward the Creator justified? Is His governance considered good? Or should I reach a state where I truly feel this governance as good, since in His world there is no evil?

In other words, I have to come to a state where I do not perceive evil at all, because if I feel bad, consciously or unconsciously, I blame Him. The bad feeling itself implies that the one who causes it is bad.

Now I must make a calculation: Do I want to feel good for the sake of feeling good, or to avoid not labeling Him bad? And so on. There is something to analyze here. Here, a person goes through a Tzimtzum, a restriction.

What is restriction? It means that how I feel it does not matter to me. The main thing is that my attitude toward Him is good. And then a transformation takes place; no matter how much adversity I face, I feel good.

Otherwise, how can a person enter a state of perfection and eternity? How can one reach the state that Rabbi Akiva was in, when his skin was being flayed alive while he was reciting “Shema Yisrael” (“Hear, O Israel” ) at that time?

Was he under anesthesia? How could he recite the prayer, meaning, be at such a level of adhesion with the Creator, of eternal love and perfection, while enduring such pain? He attained such a degree where his skin, the final degree of Malchut, was being torn away, yet he united that act with “Shema Yisrael,” with the intention for the sake of bestowal. The skin being flayed from his face represents  GAR de Hochma, the highest levels of the light of wisdom. That was the correction he achieved!
[361945]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/8/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘Every Day They Will Be as New in Your Eyes,’ in the Work?”

Related Material:
Justifying Everything that Happens to Us
If a Person Does Not Agree with the Creator
Avoid Illusions in Your Relationship with the Creator

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 260

Why Do We Study Kabbalah Before the Barrier?

Before the barrier, we study Kabbalah because through it we can acquire a screen, an intention of Lishma. This is the only reason for studying. Of utmost importance is that such study should bring us to Lishma. The means itself is unimportant. A means is required in order to reach Lishma, and Kabbalah is the single appropriate means.

Baal HaSulam explains that studying Kabbalah books, of all the holy books, awakens the greatest surrounding light. It is possible to awaken surrounding lights by reading any of the holy books because all these books were written from a spiritual degree, and those who connect to them with the intention of reaching Lishma, spirituality, receive surrounding light through them from that same place. Of all the holy books, including the Tanakh, Gemara, books of laws and Halachot, legends, Prophets, and so on, the language of Kabbalah and the books of Kabbalah awaken the greatest surrounding light, and therefore we use such means.

We need Kabbalah because we need a means for attracting the surrounding light. Why? This is because the surrounding light brings about a screen, or in other words, an intention of Lishma. While many understand that we need to reach Lishma, the problem is in the interpretation of Lishma and Lo Lishma.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 259
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 258
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 257

Filed under: Talks about the Steps of the Ladder | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Preparation to the Lesson

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator – 1 (5.13.2004)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Studying with Friends

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Selected Highlights

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3AudioAudio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

What is the state in which a person finds himself in the boundary layer at the crossing of the Machsom? We need to know what states arise so that we can monitor ourselves and understand whether we are already there or still here.

We are not speaking about the heavens suddenly opening, or about certain forces, lightning, angels, and so on appearing. We are speaking only about an inner sensation: whether a deeper vision of the universe is being revealed to us, a vision beyond its boundaries—the forces that govern it, the general thought, plan, and will, and about how this is sensed by us.

All this arises within a person, subjectively, while outwardly nothing changes. The world remains the same and has no idea that one of its inhabitants has entered a degree of direct connection with the Creator.

As Maimonides writes, the world continues to exist just as it does now. Moreover, he writes this about Gmar Tikkun, the very last point of correction, when not only one person but all people attain the highest point of existence—eternal and perfect.

Our world seems so defective, insignificant, dirty, incredibly small, and suffocating. But, in fact, we will see that this is not so at all; our perception will change.

Thus, nothing changes around a person; his worldview and sensation change. The crossing of the Machsom itself consists of several stages. This transition fluctuates: a person is sometimes above his egoism and sometimes below it. This happens several times, alternately. Then the final and complete breakthrough occurs.

At the beginning of the crossing of the Machsom, a person’s state can be compared to being in water. Sometimes he is above the surface and sometimes below it; he seems to plunge into the desires and thoughts of only this world, into thoughts about himself, for himself, and using others for his own sake.

In other words, this is what we think: “I should work for the group, connect with the friends, study…” But why should I do it? So that I can advance. This state is called “below the Machsom,” and this is where we are. The second state is when a person is, as it were, above the surface of the water.

Then he understands that all egoists are like children, because they were created this way by the Creator. They are not to blame for acting as they do. Therefore, the Creator is completely lenient toward them, because He is the one who created them this way.

And one who rises above the Machsom, as above the surface of the water, begins to feel within himself that he wishes everyone well and wants to help them. He feels the need to relate to everyone as the Creator relates to them, because rising above the Machsom means adhesion and becoming similar to the Creator’s thoughts.

Then he begins asking the Creator to show him how He relates to humanity so that he may become increasingly similar to Him. He does not want to rise merely for the sake of rising, but in order to justify the Creator’s plan concerning all humanity.

He begins to feel the need for this justification. He is afraid that he does not yet understand or recognize how the Creator relates to everyone and that, somewhere, perhaps, he even disagrees with Him.

The state after the Machsom is when a person already desires a greater revelation of the Creator, not so that it will be pleasant for him to see how everything in the world moves according to one system, but in order to justify the Creator. Although he cannot truly justify Him, he desires to do so because, by this, he brings Him contentment.
[362187]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 9/29/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

Related Material:
See the World from Beyond the Machsom
Perceiving from the Outside In
Breaking Through The Machsom

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

If a person wants to cross the Machsom, he must leave his “self”: I do not exist; I am outside myself; I am leaving myself. Kabbalists do not speak or write much about this method of drawing closer to the higher degree and becoming similar to it because there is a danger here that people will be carried away into all kinds of fantasies and illusions and begin imagining that they are already floating somewhere out there, though no one knows where or how.

Such imaginings may be practiced only together with actions within the group, through joint actions in relation to the friends. Simply sitting and fantasizing about these matters is not recommended because it would be an action detached from reality, carrying you somewhere unknown, and where you would eventually find yourself would be impossible to know.

But imagining oneself as leaving one’s “self,” I do not exist, I am present in the thoughts and desires of others and act only in accordance with their thoughts and desires—is our very first exercise. As soon as a person becomes capable of performing such an action upon himself, he begins to sense the others rather than himself. He begins clearly to see one single force throughout the world that governs everything.

Why does he begin to sense this? Because he has left himself, become included in this force, adapted himself to it, and united with it, since its principal quality is also the absence of a “self.” Then the person sees that absolutely all people in the world—the wicked and the righteous, the capable and the foolish, the savage and the civilized—all simply carry out one thought.

No one has any personal desire or personal movement; everything is determined by one intention, which simply exists in the world like a field. Everything and everyone move only in accordance with it.

Each person is a mechanism that operates in a state of maximum fulfillment with minimum expenditure. And this mechanism automatically takes its place each time, acting in accordance with this field.

This field is called the Creator. More precisely, it is not yet the Creator, but the manifestation of His governance in relation to all those who are in this world. A person begins to see that everything operates according to one law, one rule, one will. To the extent that, he has shed his “self,” he unites with this thought and this will and wishes to enter further into the Creator’s field, he begins to see how everything in relation to him becomes good.

Naturally, nothing changes in relation to him; he simply begins to see how good it truly is. He sees that everyone else carries out this thought because his thought and the Creator’s thought have merged into one. He sees that everything in the world is done for his sake and for his benefit.

And even if, in his opinion, something harmful is happening, he still understands that it is not bad; it is simply impossible to act otherwise in the states in which people find themselves. Therefore, he approves of and understands them so completely that even if someone were to approach him and threaten his life, he would be unable to oppose him with anything. He loses his “self” to such an extent and feels that everything happening around him is absolutely correct.

I give such extreme examples, which are not yet entirely clear to us, only so that they may give us some understanding of what it means to rise a little above the Machsom. They are intended to let us sense, at least slightly, this boundary crossing from there to here, and back again.
[362183]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 9/29/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

Related Material:
Spiritual Surprise
Finding My Spiritual Self
Crossing Machsom

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Perception, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Each of us possesses all kinds of qualities. Some seem good to us, others bad; we agree with some and disagree with others.

Many of our traits are unknown even to us. We discover them within ourselves and are horrified, or, on the contrary, perhaps we feel pleased by what we uncover. We have qualities that we conceal from ourselves; we are ashamed that they exist in us, so we hide them deep inside.

We also present ourselves to ourselves in a certain way. A complete revelation of ourselves could cause such suffering that a person simply would not be able to continue existing. Therefore, we constantly maintain ourselves in a false but comfortable state.

But suppose we imagine what our nature truly means; we are horrified; what next? Are we even capable of correcting ourselves?

An ancient prayer says: “God, grant me the strength to change what I can in my life. Grant me the courage to accept what is beyond my power to change. And grant me the wisdom to distinguish one from the other.”

This is a proper, practical way of addressing life. It concerns an ordinary person: show me what I can do and I will know where I can apply my efforts; show me what I cannot do—why should I keep banging my head against a wall if I cannot change anything anyway?

In other words, let me see this, and give me the strength to work on what I can change. If only I knew correctly what I can change and what I cannot, and could relate wisely to the difference, life would already become much easier.

But this prayer speaks not merely about a peaceful, everyday level of life. It speaks about the fact that, despite everything, we must completely correct ourselves. How can we complete this?

I can say one thing: until a person begins to sense the Creator, before the Machsom, not yet in an explicit form, but as an implicit manifestation of the general plan, the common field of love permeating and guiding everything, there is no hope or possibility that anything within him will change.

But how can we correct ourselves? We cannot! Only the manifestation of the Creator can help us: the revelation of the light, the sensation of the world in which we live, and the realization that behind everything we currently perceive stands one, unique, constant, and benevolent governing force. Until we sense this, we will not want to become like it. But as soon as we do, we begin to correct ourselves to that extent.

Here we can draw a very important conclusion: A person must never think that he has to correct himself, because this is impossible. No one expects us to pull ourselves out by our own hair from the swamp in which we are trapped. Only to the extent that the Creator is revealed to us and draws us toward Him do we become corrected.

Therefore, this is the only thing we should think about and strive toward. But we should not strive toward it because “it will be good.” We should strive because we want to resemble Him, because we desire to be like Him in relation to humanity and to creation.
[361978]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 9/24/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

Related Material:
Is Acquiring New Qualities Worthwhile?
Correct Flaws in a Timely Manner
Little By Little The Creator Will Correct Us

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 259

What Is the Reward of the Next World?

Does every person know what the reward of the next world is? What do we labor for in this world? This world is like a corridor, and when we enter the next world through it, we receive everything there that we earn in this world. Prepare yourself now, receive later. In this world, it is impossible to receive any reward. There is no reward in this world; it is only in the next world, as it is written, “There is no reward for a Mitzva in this world.”

The problem is in the interpretation of “this world” and “the next world.” “This world” means that we hold intentions to receive. “The next world” means that we hold intentions to bestow. Baal HaSulam writes in one of his letters that we attain both this world and the next world while we are alive, during our lifetime in this world. They are simply two states. One is without a screen, and the other is with a screen.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 258
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 257
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 256

Filed under: Talks about the Steps of the Ladder | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Listen to an Audio Version of the Blog
Download:MP3AudioAudio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: What is “awe of heaven”?

Answer: Awe of heaven is the fear that I will not fill His Kli (vessel). What is “His Kli“?

To the extent that I understand who the Creator is and how important He is to me, then in accordance with His importance, I build Hisaron (a lack), the need to fill His Kli, to bestow to Him. I am afraid that this Kli will remain empty; I have a fear of not filling it. This is called trepidation before heaven.

Everything is inside the Kli, in the desire to receive, only in different forms and in different attitudes toward fulfillment. Both receiving and bestowing, the past, the present, the future, the feeling of time, and all kinds of pleasures: money, honor, knowledge, spiritual or material, no matter what, everything refers to the Kli, to the feeling within it.

As a result, all that remains is the feeling of how full or empty it is. And we call our attitude to this state fear, awe, trepidation, or, on the contrary, pleasure and other feelings. Everything depends only on the degree of the filling of the Kli.

Maybe the Kli itself does not even exist. For example, fish are not afraid of what will happen to them tomorrow, whereas you think about it. Fish do not have a Kli in which there can be a sensation of the future. In fact, we do not have a sense of tomorrow either, but we are now, in the present, feeling fear of a possible tomorrow.

Let us say that tomorrow you will not be able to pay for your apartment, and you will be evicted. You are already afraid; you are already worried about it today. Fish do not have such a concern.

Animals have no worries about this at all. Their Kli is not developed in this form, they do not feel the past and the future. But even when you feel the past and the future, you feel it in the present.
[361112]
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:
Fear of Heaven
Fear for the sake of Bestowal
Awe and Love

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →