1st part of the Lesson – Writings of Rabash, Article 19 “What Is, “Rise Up, O Lord, and Let Your Enemies Be Scattered, in the Work?” (1991) (5.6.2003)
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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”
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What is an “obstacle”? It is when I am buried beneath it and feel only it. There are moments like this. Then, from above, a person is gradually given the ability to see themselves not completely inside the obstacle, but slightly to the side of it. That is, they are being illuminated a little, and then they see darkness relative to the light.
If we are in complete darkness and there is no memory of the light, we do not perceive darkness. It is perceived only by moving from a deficiency (Hisaron) to the light. Hisaron, desire, gives us a light that influences us from afar. In every state the Creator saves a person by sending him or her changes of states. The illumination changes, and with its help a person sees one’s state differently in relation to this illumination. Then a person begins to analyze one’s state and examine it.
But how can a person get out of a descent when one is at the very bottom of double concealment? Is there a possibility? No. This changes only with a person’s efforts in accordance with the Reshimot (informational records) that must be revealed within one, in accordance with the fact that the general engine has begun to work and is leading all of creation toward correction.
If one waits for change only from the Creator, then it occurs in accordance with the general state and very slowly. But if a person is prepared, if they organize a group, a routine, a framework, and put themselves under some kind of influence (besides the Creator it can only be the influence of the group), thereby they accelerate the process, the illumination that changes it.
Here a person’s actions are taken into account, what one prepares for oneself during an ascent, not during a descent. At the time when the light shines for you, what do you want from that state? Do you want to enjoy it, or do you want to be as close as possible to the Creator? That is, you think not about enjoyment, but about who you are close to, who you have a connection with, and how much you want to be with Him.
Even if the states do not change, your connection with Him is important to you because He is great, the upper one, the determining one, not because you can enjoy the pleasure of adhesion with Him in the vessels of reception.
If during an ascent you strengthen yourself precisely in such thoughts and only in them do you want to be connected with Him, you are as if preparing Kelim for the future in order to come out of a descent more quickly.
In other words, everything is taken into account with us only during our ascent. You received an ascent, now let’s see how you can resist temptations. Will you detach from the giver in order to immerse yourself in the “plate,” or, despite the fact that you are standing at the “plate,” will you, precisely with its help, desire to be connected with the giver?
Thus, a person is constantly existing in a state of struggle between one’s desire and one’s intention.
[353022]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/10/26, Rabash, “What Are the Two Actions During a Descent?”
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When we look at our history, which must occur within every person, the entry into Egypt and the exit from it, the splitting of the Red Sea, approaching Mount Sinai, and standing at its foot, we do not see that a person somehow acts or influences what is happening. The Torah says categorically: “This is how it was.”
Everything is predetermined, and we are already at the end of this development. Now this development that is programmed in potential must be realized in each and everyone without exception and without any possibility of avoiding it.
We see that everything is connected by a chain of cause and effect: the need for a state and its birth, which in turn generates the need for the next state and its birth, and so on. But our role in this is to accelerate the states, to participate in them consciously, and to increase our sensitivity to what is happening. But we can develop sensitivity only with the help of the group.
The group can increase my awareness of evil and good in a wide variety of states and can intensify my sensitivity to them so much that I will feel how they occur within me every split second rather than once every few days, weeks, or months.
Everything depends on the degree of sensitivity. When I acquire it and begin to understand my states, I begin to determine their quality, their essence, and what is good and what is evil.
Thus, gradually, in the light that influences me, I begin to connect good and bad states in relation to the status of the Creator until my nature becomes hateful to me. Then I reach the foot of Mount Sinai, which is called so because I come to hatred (Sina in Hebrew) toward my own nature, and therefore I merit receiving the Torah.
[353033]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”
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Reality does not have to end its development with an explosion. You can end the War of Gog and Magog in a small laboratory, or you can unleash it on the entire world, it doesn’t matter. What matters for you is to recognize evil.
If you have a microscope, you recognize evil before it breaks through and begins to develop. You see in advance that there is an infectious agent that can destroy the entire world! And that’s it. We need to draw as much light as possible so that it will show this to us.
There is no specific external parameter that you could point to and say: “Here it is, Mount Sinai!” This parameter is your tension that is caused by the fact that you can no longer tolerate evil. Baal HaSulam writes that this depends on a person’s level of development.
A developed person who uses Kabbalah, the light that returns to the source, already sees how terrible it is. Nothing more needs to be shown to him.
So there is no point in waiting another hundred years, then it would not be the path of Torah but the path of suffering. The purpose of being given the Torah, Kabbalah, is so that we can go through this development “externally,” without waiting to reach it through natural development. One way or another, we will have to work. The only difference is whether it will be in suffering or in joy.
[353489]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah – 1”
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Question: Where can I receive the correct attitude to any subjective sensation from and how can I establish the correct attitude toward it?
Answer: How can I evaluate each of my sensations? How can I measure it and be sure that I am examining it in the right way? I cannot. It is only in relation to the group. The group is the measuring instrument in place of the Creator.
If my attitude toward the group is truly one of bestowal, if the group places the concept of bestowal (what is called the greatness of the goal, the greatness of the Creator) at the highest level and shows me how important it is, while all other qualities and states are low in comparison, then relative to this I can measure myself, my thoughts, intentions, and how I plan my time and my life.
But if I do not have such the standard that the group provides for me, then relative to what will I measure myself? I can invent all kinds of measuring systems on my own, but with them I will always justify myself. I have no ability to verify myself unless I construct some standard outside of myself, such as the group. Otherwise, how would I know how to measure?
Ask people on the street, everyone is a righteous person, everyone is giving. No one considers themselves to be a sinner. A person cannot call himself a sinner, because his “I” would be harmed to such an extent that he wouldn’t be able to tolerate himself. And he cannot allow that because it is a terrible feeling. We immediately cover it with something.
Therefore, if not for the group constantly pressing on me, awakening me, pushing me in the right direction, demanding progress from me, and giving me the correct indication of what I should be, then I would have no possibility to advance.
[353535]
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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Our desire to receive certainly grows as we acquire the ability to determine its form. If we were advancing along the ideal path of development, that is, had we emerged from caves and gradually received an ever-growing desire to receive and turned it into a desire with the intention to bestow to the Creator, we would never feel the evil contained within us.
Thus, the entire path of development that we are now going through must bring us to a state worse than any other, but in which we will have the awareness of Moses standing at the top of the mountain. We will understand that there is the Creator and there is the purpose of creation, and they stand above us like a message from above, like something great, and only with their help can we save ourselves.
When we reach such a state, then we will have the true recognition of evil, which is called the War of Gog and Magog. Only then will we truly wish to merit the receiving of the Torah, become fit to receive it, and attain hatred toward our entire nature because we will see that if the Creator does not give us the Torah, then this place will be our burial ground.
It is said in the Torah that this must occur to each individual, then with our nation individually as a single people, and then to all of humanity in the general form, collectively, as all of humanity in relation to the Creator. In other words, it must be revealed both in the particular and in the general.
This is the program, and there is nowhere to escape from it. The more sensitive we are to our states, the sooner we will come to the recognition of evil and overcome it—each individual, the nation, and the entire world.
[353261]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/12/26, Rabash, “What Is Preparation for Reception of the Torah? – 1”
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Question: Why doesn’t the Creator give us the ability to check whether our actions are correct?
Answer: It is very simple. If I truly see myself as the only one in the world and relate this to the Creator and to the fact that I must work in relation to Him, then I really have no way to know who I am, what I am, who the Creator is, or what He does, because He is concealed.
If He is concealed, then I myself am in concealment. I have nothing against which I could check myself.
If only the Creator and the created being exist, then nothing can be done. Imagine that there is the Creator and there is the creature. And then what? How can you raise the creature to the level of the Creator? If the Creator were revealed, the creature would be completely under His power and would be forced to perform acts of bestowal without knowing why it does so. It would be just like now when we are dominated by the desire to receive.
We must be under the influence of two types of nature. But how can both this happen simultaneously? Whichever one has the greater influence is the one I will choose. Since I myself am made of the desire to enjoy, I take pleasure either from receiving or from giving. I would also perceive the presence of the Creator as pleasure, and then I would either be in impurity or in holiness, because pleasure can be received from both.
In order for a person to be independent, the Creator must conceal Himself. Then there is a question of how a person for whom the Creator is hidden can check oneself? If a person has no reference point by which to measure himself, orient himself, and determine who he is and what he is, how could he possibly advance?
Therefore, the Creator, in concealing Himself so as not to bribe a person with pleasures, gave the group in His place, something a person cannot sell himself to. On one hand, the group does not give him pleasure the way the Creator does, nor does it give him life the way the Creator does. On the other hand, it is an external force, something outside of him.
Therefore, if a person wants to cling to the Creator by connecting himself with the group and giving to it, then in relation to the group he acquires true intention for the sake of bestowal and becomes similar to the Creator in a genuine way. In essence, he uses bestowal to the other in order to become like the Creator.
[353526]
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: If there is a group in which I introduce spiritual laws to the extent I understand them, do I check every time to what extent I do not conform to them?
Answer: It turns out that we build the spiritual form of a group by each one imagining it as a society that works with relationships among friends as a means to achieve the Creator. In other words, a group is not just some bodies but a shared concept we construct in our thoughts.
The calculation is simple. There is a certain amount of striving for the Creator awakened in these people. Maybe they do not even feel it yet. They are looking for the meaning of life and so on. This is a hidden yearning for the root from which they receive obstacles, blows, and suffering.
Then they ask the same question: “What is the meaning of my life?” But now it is addressed to the root. They do not know this, but initially, this question is addressed at the Creator, as at the root of suffering, at His reverse side (Achoraim), since He is currently activating concealment through His reverse side.
Then, if they already have a direction toward the Creator, given by Him initially, they must grasp this direction and develop it amidst all the obstacles that come to them, especially in matters concerning building a group.
There are obstacles on the corporeal level: inanimate, vegetative, and animate. And there are obstacles on the human level, which act between friends. Here, I am already reach a state where the obstacles interference as if become “ideological.”
[353340]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 2/18/26, Rabash, “According to What Is Explained Concerning ‘Love Thy Friend as Thyself’”
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