During 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.
[354169]
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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Question: You gave someone a hand, helped an elderly woman get off the bus; in your opinion, these are not good deeds?

Answer: And you live with the feeling that you are accumulating good deeds for the future.

Question: Still, these are good deeds, are they not?

Answer: No, you do this only for yourself. Remove your personal benefit from it, and you will disregard it all and do nothing.

Question: Then how should I live? By what should I measure my steps?

Answer: If you do not overcome your egoism and do not perform actions against it, then you will not perform a good deed. It will be sold in advance.

Question: Does it mean that I am bribed all the time?

Answer: Yes. If a person imagines that he is performing the very best deeds from which he will later receive some benefit, then it is all a failure in advance.

Question: Then with what intention should I act?

Answer: Expect absolutely nothing in return.

Question: That I will receive nothing for it, no benefit?

Answer: No benefit at all. There will be benefits for the world and for people, but nothing for me. As if no one knows about it, and no one will ever know.

Comment: That is, my name is nowhere; it is not carved in stone, nor mentioned in captions. It is nowhere.

My Response: No.

Question: So, I did something, and that is all?

Answer: Yes.

Comment: Now people in the arts (and not only in the arts) will collapse when they hear this. Do you understand? The entire copyright system is built on “this is my music, this is my creation; if you use it, you must pay,” and so on. The whole world is built on this! And we are going against the world.

My Response: Yes. You may write it down in a notebook only for yourself and then burn it. But even in such actions, when a person thinks about what he will gain from it, as if saving up for a rainy day, it is still good if he acts this way.

In fact, it does not give him any real benefit, but it is still good. There will be less evil in the world because of it. And good deeds will begin from a higher threshold, from a higher degree.

Comment: And these deeds, when a person truly says to himself, “Did I do a good deed? No matter whether I will get to heaven because of it or not, I simply do a good deed”.

My Response: He raises himself to a higher level, and from there he must begin to work.

Question: You know, we have now saved the world. Because the world looked at this and said: “This is impossible to achieve—faith above reason.” But you have now added such a step: do these deeds anyway. They will not yet be good deeds, but will they be a step toward good deeds?

Answer: Yes. And then a person must get used to performing such actions not for himself, but for the world. And here his soul begins to reveal itself to the world.

Question: What is this space called “the soul”? You said “reveals itself.” What kind of space is that?

Answer: It is an absolutely empty space that a person must fill with his desire.

Question: Toward the world? From himself? And nothing for himself?

Answer: Nothing.

Question: Is this the degree to which humanity is heading?

Answer: Yes.

Question: And can it reach it?

Answer: Of course.
[353174]
From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 2/12/26

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Comment: 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.
[353763]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Difficulties of Translation” 9/12/10

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 17 “What Is the Assistance that He who Comes to Purify Receives in the Work? (1990) (4.18.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose”

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Selected Highlights

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Question: 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?
[354173]
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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Question: Rabash writes that when friends gather, they should talk about the benefits of gathering. What does he mean by that?

Answer: The benefits are an abstract concept. It can exist only in relation to my desire. Accordingly, I envision a future fulfillment, which I can earn, with less effort than the pleasure I will receive. Then it is called a benefit—you invest 99, you get 100.

But my desire must be greater than the invested effort, otherwise the desire to receive will not allow me to exert. Therefore, every time we calculate what kind of pleasure we will receive, what the disadvantages are, and how much effort we need to expend.

The benefits we want to get from the process we are going through, I cannot relate to someone else. If a person is still in pursuit of benefits from animal pleasures (food, rest, family, sex) or the pleasures of money, honors, knowledge, then I cannot give him other pleasures instead because abstract ones are not clothed in what he understands. He does not feel them. There has to be a different Kli for this.

The Kelim we initially have are Kelim in which we feel pleasure clothed in something of this world: power, knowledge, education. The closer the pleasure, the more palpable and greater in magnitude it is.

These are animal pleasures; the greatest of these are the pleasures felt through touch and sight. They are followed by more abstract ones, pleasures brought by money, honors, which are things that require a certain level of development.

But it still comes clothed in something: I am honored, respected, more knowledgeable than others, which is a kind of power (knowledge is, in the end, power, albeit a little more abstract).

But if the pleasures are even more abstract, they are not perceived by the Kelim of receiving. They relate to Bina, which is inside Malchut. Even the Klipot are the pleasures Bina feels inside Malchut, and not Malchut itself.

You cannot explain it to people who do not have it. This requires preliminary development. So when they asked me on American radio: “What is special about Kabbalah? Why did it suddenly become open? What do you want?”

I replied that we are in a state where we do not see what will happen tomorrow. The life we live is no good, people are using drugs more and more, there is no family, children have no connection with parents, we do not even know what will happen to us in a second, we are increasingly immersed in such life problems that it becomes necessary to know about reality, how to control fate, how to see which of my actions will lead to enjoyment, confidence, and a good life.

You cannot talk to people in more abstract terms because they will not understand them. They ask, “How do I do this?” Come and learn. If we want to do something in this life in a logical way, we must study it, in any profession, even a shoemaker. Even there, you will find many professional secrets you must master before you start working, and even more so with us.
[354341]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/19/26, Rabash, “Concerning Hesed [Mercy]”

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Question: What is a group from the point of view of Kabbalah?

Answer: A group is an assembly of egoistic forces that are ready to suppress their egoism in order to create a network of forces between them that are similar to the Creator.

Comment: The group must direct a person toward the goal. If the goal is to acquire the properties of the Creator (the property of the Creator is bestowal), then it cannot manifest itself in relation to the inanimate and vegetative nature. I cannot bestow to stones or plants.

My Response: It is quite natural. The property of bestowal can manifest itself only in a group.

Question: A very important element is the growth of the desire in the group. How does this happen?

Answer: When I come to the realization that I must attain the Creator and there is only complete egoism within me, then at the same time, I accept the condition that my development must take place in a group.

Therefore, I must enter it, become equal with the friends and even lower than them, and I must annul myself so that through them I can begin to receive the influence of the Creator, the upper light.
[257556]
From KabTV’s “The Basics of Kabbalah” 3/4/19

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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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