Comment: I keep getting confused between desire, intention, and action.  I cannot properly tune myself to any one of them, nor to all of them together.

My Response: I will try to explain it sequentially and concisely.

The Goal: The most important thing in a person’s life is to attain the purpose of life (of creation), which is complete adhesion with the Creator. This must become the result of all one’s efforts in life.

The Means to Achieve the Goal: Adhesion with the Creator is achieved by similarity of form. But the Creator is the desire to bestow and a human being is the desire to receive. Therefore, similarity is not achieved through similarity of desires, but through similarity of intention—with what intention I use my desire.

We will always remain opposite in our desires: The Creator desires to give, and we desire to receive. Otherwise, we would not exist as entities distinct from Him.

Since we are created from the desire to enjoy, we can attain similarity with the Creator only by changing, not the desire itself, but the intention—the purpose for which we use the desire.

Thus, our work is only on the intention, and we join the desire to it to the extent that the correct intention “for the sake of the Creator” allows.

Restriction of Desire (Tzimtzum): Therefore, we must acquire the inner strength to use the desire from zero and upward, only in proportion to the correct intention “for the sake of the Creator” (in bestowal and love).

This means that initially, we must gain control over all desires, impose a restriction on them (Tzimtzum, Tzimtzum Aleph, the first restriction), and then use each desire only partially to the extent that we possess the proper intention.

Recognition of Evil (Hakarat HaRa): Similarity with the Creator is attained through similarity of intention.
As we strive for the intention to bestow, we begin to uncover more and more of the intention to receive (the Klipa) within ourselves.

The revelation of this corrupt intention is called exile—the Egyptian Exile (Galut Mitzrayim).

If we persist in trying to change the intention from “everything for myself” to “everything for the Creator,” we arrive at the sense of our slavery to egoism—the intention “for my own sake” (for Pharaoh’s sake).

Revelation of Evil: In this state, we gradually and fully realize that our nature, not the desire to receive, which is constant, but the intention “for myself”—is our true enemy.

By trying to break free from the intention “for myself” and acquire the intention “for the Creator,” we discover our absolute powerlessness against this enemy.

Revelation of the Means of Correction: At the end of this realization, we discover that only the Creator, the light of correction (the light of Torah, the surrounding light) can correct our intention. Then we exit the slavery of the evil intention into the intention of bestowal (similarity with the Creator). Meaning: only the Creator (the upper light) can take us out of the egoistic state—the Egyptian bondage, the state of thinking only about ourselves.

Therefore, the main thing is this: Think about the light, the Creator, who can, and only He can, correct you (your intention) from “for myself” to “for the Creator”, make the Tzimtzum, and use the desire only to the extent that the intention “for the Creator” is present.

Thus align yourself in all your actions in this world toward the correcting light so that it may give you the intention “for the Creator.”

If anything is unclear, write to me, and I will clarify.
[118539]

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Question: Suppose that right now I am about to draw the surrounding light. What is this thought that I must have:? It is “to become similar to Him”? Do I rely soley on thought?

Answer: How can one know what they must correspond to? On the lower degree you will never know what the upper one is; this is impossible. If you knew, then that knowledge would hold you on the higher degree. Such is the nature of the spiritual realm, wherever you are capable of existing, is where you are.

The spiritual world does not operate like our world where I might conceptually “be” in some place even though I have not physically arrived there yet, where I simply buy a ticket and go. In the upper world there is no such thing! Even as you ascend spiritual degrees, you will never be able to know with certainty what the next higher degree is, because you must rise to it “in faith above reason.”

To be similar to the upper one means becoming more spiritual, more bestowing, more perfect, thinking less about yourself and striving to correspond more fully to the upper one. In accordance with this, picture any images and forms.

If this is not enough, ask that you be given an understanding of the upper one for the sake of becoming similar to Him. This is called “the light that returns to the source” when you ask for the revelation of the Creator, not in order to enjoy it, but in order to correct yourself by means of it.

It is permitted to ask this, that is, to demand correction instead of pleasures, so that the corrections themselves will be our fulfillment, will lead to connection, to adhesion. “The reward for a commandment is to know the one who commanded.”
[354425]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/21/26, Rabash, “We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work”

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Question: How can one convince the friends to advance?

Answer: I simply convey my joy and energy to them in an artificial way. I come and see that everyone is sitting there dejected, myself included, but, let’s say, I turn on the radio, and it starts playing; after all, it doesn’t care, it is at the inanimate level.

Even though the friends are at the animate level, this inanimate level can set them in motion. We see that this is indeed how it works.
[354369]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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Why is a point of bestowal, called Israel, the desire to receive, added to our heart? Is it added in order to increase it from its minimal magnitude to one hundred percent? It grows only on the “flesh” called the will to receive.

This is a point of Bina, and the whole heart is Malchut. You must connect the heart to Bina in order to attain reception for the sake of bestowal.

All the degrees are built on that “flesh” that you receive from the Klipot, from your desires. Obstacles come to you from these desires, subsequently you re-enter the realization of the greatness of the Creator and restrict your will to receive. For this, you elevate the realization of the greatness of the Creator above that desire, and build it like a head (Rosh) above the will to receive. Excellent, you have successfully performed an “entry.” And immediately you fall and forget; this is called an “exit.” Our entire spiritual path consists of such “entries” and “exits.”

What does it mean that you “fall”? It means you receive the next desire to receive. And once again, upon this new desire you must build the realization that “Israel, the Creator, and the Torah are one” again; this aspiration toward the greatness of the Creator must rise above your desire to receive.

And again, this helps you build a degree where the realization of the group is above everything. You humble yourself before the group in order to establish the correct attitude and not deviate from this line. And each time, it is work.
[353909]
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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Awe before the Creator is not an animalistic fear for oneself, for one’s corporeal life. It is directed in the opposite direction; it arises when a person stands in solidarity with the program of creation and the purpose of creation, and wishes to bring them to fruition, regardless under what conditions.

The main thing is that one becomes imbued with this idea; consequently, it becomes the most important thing in one’s life, despite any disturbances.

The fact is that it is upon this sense of awe that we build our relationship to the spiritual world. After all, we are created beings, which in Hebrew means “those who are outside the spiritual world”; meaning, we do not yet reside in the true spiritual world.

Precisely because we are outside the upper world, by revealing it we are able to completely attain it, and at the same time remain created beings who achieve equivalence with the Creator. It turns out that we consist, as it were, of two opposing element drawn from all that exists.

Therefore the awe that subsequently arises in us is no longer the fear for ourselves that existed at the beginning, but awe about how I can truly realize the program of creation and exist within it in such a way that it bears absolutely no relation to my self-interest. This concept is so sublime and beautiful that it must be in absolute detachment from everything and exist by itself.

Question: Why is there such a large number of animalistic fears, about 800 types?

Answer: The fact is that within us there are only 613 desires, and this means 613 kinds of fear, according to the number of our desires that may remain unfulfilled. And of course, there are also derivatives of them when several desires together and separately divide and connect with each other.

A person is a being who constantly fears that he will not be fulfilled. The more he fears, the more dangerous he becomes. All the actions of gangsters, villains, thieves, and murderers stem from fear, not from self-confidence. Their confidence is only a facade, a means to mask their underlying fear; otherwise they would be calm.

A person who is confident in himself does not move. It does not matter to him what happens somewhere, somehow, with someone; he is absolutely self-sufficient. But any active person acts out of fear.

Kabbalah, the only wisdom that speaks about this, says that fear is useful and good, but only when you redirect it from yourself to others, so that you have fear that you will not be able to fulfill them, to bestow to them.

Thus, 613 fears turn into 613 forms of awe, into 613 commandments (Mitzvot). Otherwise one cannot escape fear because everything is based on the desire to be fulfilled, on the desire to receive, since desire is the entire matter of creation.

Therefore, when you look at all the so-called heroes, you understand that subconsciously they are driven by fear.
[193931]
From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 6/1/16

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Question: How many forces exist and can interact with each other?

Answer: An infinite number. What we divide into 125 degrees can be subdivided further and further, endlessly.

We see that all of humanity, having gone through its cycles for, say, one hundred thousand years of existence, has not even yet reached the corridor leading to the spiritual world. And how many different states such a huge mass of people has gone through during these hundred thousand years—every minute, every second?

We cannot even imagine what we are actually dealing with. But in spirituality, it is simpler, because the lower degree, with all its diversity, enters the higher degree as a single element.

That is, all of inanimate nature is considered one unit relative to the vegetative, all vegetative nature is considered as one unit relative to the animate, and all animate nature is considered as one unit relative to the human.

And all of humanity is considered as one unit relative to the divine. Therefore, there is no complexity. On the contrary, everything becomes more and more simplified.

Question: Why is there specifically such a gradation of inanimate, vegetative, and animate levels?

Answer: This comes from the four stages of the expansion of the direct light. The beginning of the light’s influence on the desire, when the desire still does not feel itself as existing, is called the letter “Yod” or the first stage of the development of desire. Then comes the second stage, when the desire already begins to feel itself. After that come the third and fourth stages. In the fourth stage, the desire begins to feel the Creator. This fourth stage is called man (in Hebrew, Adam, from the word “Domeh,” meaning similar to the Creator). That is, the desire in the fourth stage feels the Creator and thereby gains the possibility to become similar to Him.

From the first perception of the Creator until today, 5,786 years have passed, that is, from the moment when Adam first sensed the Creator. This moment is called the Jewish New Year (Rosh HaShanah) and is considered the date of the first contact of a human being in this world with the Creator.
[353709]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. The Truth About Reality” 10/8/10

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 11 “What Are the Two Discernments before Lishma? (1988) (4.15.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 6, Part 15, Item 7 (4.13.2016)

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3rd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar“

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Comment: There are cases when you really do not feel a person. They ask you a question, and everything seems clear, but there is a feeling that you are not actually connecting to the verbal aspect of what they are asking.

My Response: Yes, it happens that a question is clear to you, but not to me, either because I do not find all four screens that connect the verbal question with the person’s inner spiritual state, or because the state they are describing does not exist. In other words, what they are asking is not yet a true question; it is fundamentally flawed in itself.

But if this question passes through another or a third listener, when I ask them to retell it to me, then it may lose the original sharpness that it had for the one who asked it, but it already becomes the correct question. That is, it reveals the real emptiness that has a place in the universe, and with which one must work.

Question: What are these four screens?

Answer: The four screens are what are called “Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey,” that is, the fundamental name of the Creator or the four-layer structure of our soul, which we must feel in order to correctly perceive the influence of the light upon us, which builds a question within us, and accordingly from the question to attain this light, which is the answer.

Comment: Very often someone asks a question through the Internet, and during translation the meaning of the question is radically lost.

My Response: That is natural because people are not in the same states. One person asks a question, and another feels it in a completely different way.

Question: So translation cannot convey the feeling of the person who asks the question?

Answer: Both yes and no. I would not go so far as to say that the translators significantly distort the meaning. In fact, even if a person phrased it differently than intended, I often can sense the question exactly as it was conceived.

If it is a strong, correct question coming from one’s heart or from the emptiness of his desire, then I will feel it even if the translation is not very good. In principle, when a person has great pain or inner emptiness, we feel it even without much external expression.
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From KabTV’s “I Got a Call. Difficulties of Translation” 9/12/10

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