When a person begins to perceive their egoistic nature as evil, it is not yet a true recognition of evil in relation to the Creator. They simply see themselves, to some extent, as bad in relation to the surrounding light, in relation to others, or in relation to some image that they regard as an example of goodness.

They still do not think about the harm they cause the Creator; they simply see themselves as being this way. Give them a chance to correct themself and calm down, and everything will fall back into place.

Yet a start has been made: the person sees themself as worse and worse, and this is a sign that they are indeed progressing toward the middle line. Of course, they are in despair and feel powerless; they curse everything and doubt whether the path itself is correct because they constantly see themselves as bad. Yet, precisely for this reason, so that they do not flee the battlefield, they need to build a support system, a system that will pull them forward.

Consider the situation in this world: for every sick person in a hospital, there are three or four people caring for him. There is a huge kitchen, enormous stores of medicines, a blood bank, operating rooms, and treatment rooms with all kinds of equipment. A hospital, suppose, with 100 patients may require 500 people of support staff. But once a person recovers, he no longer needs any of that support.

And so we must also build a society in which there will be mechanisms of caring for those who are “sick.” Each of us is sometimes “sick.” So, these support systems should take care of him, support him, and do everything necessary for him.

I remember being in states in which I could not move, not even go out to the store to buy something. That is what friends are for. Working for the Creator is not an easy path.

A person who is helped by the friends he himself has acquired is, in a sense, acting together with them. After all, he himself paid for and built this “hospital,” and he himself works there when he is healthy. And when he is sick, they take care of him as well.
[360316]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

Related Material:
The Beginning of Recognition of Evil
The Result of the Influence of the Light
The Recognition Of Evil

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

In the state in which a person is already beyond the Machsom, there are several intermediate, semi-egoistic stages. After the people, led by Moses, crossed the Red Sea, they remained for another three days at Mount Sinai. The word “mountain” (Har) comes from “Hirurim” (doubts) that arise in a person.

A person finds themselves with all these doubts and cannot imagine how to adapt to what they see. Where could such states, forces, desires, and inner pressure to unite with the Creator come from?

Ultimately, only one of their points rise to this mountain, above all these doubts and above all their still-egoistic desires. Only there, above them, do they make contact with the Creator. In this way, a person gradually begins asking the Creator to show them how He relates to people. The Creator’s attitude toward people is precisely the Creator’s commandments; therefore, by fulfilling them, we become similar to Him.

The commandments are the correct attitude from within one’s egoism toward the whole of creation. I ask the Creator as though I were already standing beside Him. I am an entirely independent point having already emerged from myself. Before the Machsom, I was not independent; I was immersed in egoism and under its control. Now, having crossed the Machsom, I am an independent point, free from egoistic influences over me. Therefore, I begin asking the Creator: “Show me how You relate to them.”

“Them” means all of humanity, which constitutes a completely homogeneous mass, one Kli consisting of 620 desires. I try to relate to each of these desires as the Creator does. Fulfilling the commandment lies in my correct attitude toward their desires, adopting each one as my own and altruistically desiring its fulfillment.

In this way, I gradually fulfill the 613 commandments. I incorporate every one of these desires within myself and fulfill it so that through myself I can fill all the souls.

This enables me to connect and unite with them and form my enormous Kli, earned through my own efforts, consisting of all the souls and called Adam, human. Thus, to the extent that I incorporate these desires within myself and fulfill them through myself, I become similar to the Creator and unite with Him. This state is my personal Gmar Tikkun (final correction).
[362192]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot on 9/29/26

Related Material:
The Creator Expects Spiritual Actions from Us
Become Equal to the Creator
Kabbalistic Terms: “Gmar Tikkun”

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

The group is a small model of the common soul, Adam, in which we must relate to one another as the Creator relates to all creations. It consists of people who understand my aspirations, and I work together with them, supported by them.

The friends raise the importance of our common goal for me, strengthen me, support me, and understand my aspirations. I learn from them, they learn from me, and we mutually work in the same direction. It is easier, more convenient, more reliable, and more enjoyable for us because of this. In other words, the group helps me in everything.

And if suddenly all the possibilities available to a person were taken away from me, it would turn out that besides the group that supports me, directs me, and presents me with the next level of values that become important and desirable for me to attain, I need nothing else. The group determines the goal and the image of the Creator to which I must become similar at every moment of my being within it.

Every particle of the common soul is under the dominion of all the other particles, whether that dominion is impure or pure. Since the law is the same for all worlds, a person, whether they want it or not, is nevertheless under the influence of society.

Therefore, the choice of the group, the choice of the surrounding society, ultimately constitutes one’s only act of freewill and determines one’s entire path.
[362133]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/28/26

Related Material:
The Group – A Magic Mirror
The Group—the Commonality Between Us
The Group Is the Embodiment of the Connection between Souls

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Group Work, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 253

What Does a Person Go Through Before the Barrier?

The states we go through before the barrier are called the “time of preparation,” the beginning of Lishma. There is no screen to speak of yet, but we already begin to relate to our state from the point in the heart. What does it mean to enter the time of preparation? For thousands of years, we reincarnate in bodies of this world, and suddenly we receive an awakening from above. This is called “the point in the heart entering us.” It is the point in the heart being revealed in us.

In addition to the heart, which is a desire for all kinds of pleasures in this world, we have a desire to enjoy spirituality. Although it is an egoistic desire for spirituality, dressed in the intention to receive, it already belongs to spirituality. Within it there is a certain sensation of the surrounding light that gives the grace of Kedusha (holiness), which means that there is something of the intention to bestow. We are clueless as to what bestowal means, but this gives us a sense of truth and falsehood.

Beforehand, we viewed the world only from our heart and thought about how to grab and enjoy. Now we sometimes look from within our heart and sometimes from within the point in the heart. We are thrown from one to the other, and this brings changes of states and moods. When we look from within the point in the heart, we begin to criticize ourselves and think that we are beasts, and from the point in the heart we begin to understand a little of what it means to be human.

But this is still not birth. Spiritual birth begins with the actual acquisition of a screen, from root coarseness (Aviut de Shoresh). However, for those who study Kabbalah, preparation for birth begins. Even during the time of preparation there are many stages that cannot be clearly divided in succession. This is not yet birth; it is preparation.

What is birth? Even birth that comes after the barrier is not yet birth; it is only the “entrance of the seed into the womb of Ima Ilaa (Upper Mother),” called the “three days of absorption,” and so on. The “nine months of pregnancy” begins, a state in which we feel that we are in the Creator’s world and begin to acquire a screen in order to annul ourselves toward it, so that everything we receive will be in order to bestow and will not touch our will to receive.

Like in spirituality, the states preceding it, which correspond to spirituality, are also given such names. In any case, these are states in the point in the heart’s development that receive a screen at the barrier.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 252
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 251
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 250

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” (5.12.2004)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Concealment and Disclosure of the Face of the Creator – 1”

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 →

Kabbalists have prayers that depict imperfect states using words that seem to be addressed to the Creator to someone who understands nothing. But one who understands sees from this text which of his inner desires and inclinations he should direct to the Creator. The prayer is composed in such a language that, in principle, anyone can adapt it to himself, depending on the level he is in: from zero to the level of the final correction.

Kabbalists have always used the language that Moses received and used to write the Torah, not only to specifically address those who study Kabbalah, but also to address everyone regardless of their spiritual level. If you delve into the prayers, you can see all the interactions and all the levels of every human desire toward the light, toward the Creator.

Moses described everything related to receiving the Torah and the ascent of the soul to Bina. This is his task.

Moses is the force that raises all person’s desires from Malchut to Bina, up to entering the Land of Israel. And afterward the corrections take place without him

Since the quality of “Moses” pulls Malchut to the level of Bina, his mission ends at this point, and he dies. He dies in Jordan, looking from afar at Israel, as it is said in the Torah: “He went up Mount Nebo and died there on the 5^th of Adar.” He was born on the 5^th of Adar and died on the 5^th of Adar. All of this is according to the spiritual roots…

It is not about the person Moses, but about the quality. I cannot imagine a person who would do this, it does not form any kind of picture in me at all. But it can also be understood that way, it does not matter.

Every spiritual root must touch our world, clothe itself in matter. Therefore, everything that should happen in the spiritual world must happen in this world with all of us. As of today, everything has been realized except Purim, except Gmar Tikkun (the final correction).
[362267]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/25/26

Related Material:
Moses—Leader of Faith above Reason
The Torah: Changing Yourself In Order To Reveal The Creator
The Higher Desire, “Moses”

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

Question: Should the critical level of the group be such that everyone is ready to give their surrounding light to anyone in the group?

Answer: Yes. What does this mean? I understand absolutely clearly that my spiritual well-being, my advancement, my spiritual degree, my life, and my destiny are in the hands of the group. If I feel that I am in their hands, that means that I have surrendered myself to them.

In reality, I am indeed in this state; I only need to understand that this is so and act accordingly. Therefore, I do not set any conditions, but simply reach the level at which I see that I am in their hands, that I am within them, and then agree for it to be so.

I agree to be dependent on others, and even if there were no such spiritual mutual guarantee, even if I did not have to be dependent, I want it to be so. This means that I approve of the structure of the Creator’s action and desire to be in it. This is precisely what I choose as the only correct and good thing.

In that case, I am considered to have mastered this spiritual degree, and out of all possible states, I choose precisely what takes place on it. I completely agree to be at the disposal of the friends, to be in the common Kli.
[362140]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/28/26

Related Material:
The Influence of the Group upon the Person
Childhood In The Arms Of The Group
Giving In To The Dominion Of The Friends

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

The corporeal world is called “my perception.” It can include all the worlds, all the way to the world of infinity, and yet my perception is still called “my world.” How can I make my perceptions all-encompassing so that I perceive the entire scope of creation, which is called the Creator?

One can perceive unconsciously, in which case a person simply exists through his five natural senses. He did not invent them and does not control them.

They are given to him for a certain period of time so that, by existing through them and perceiving a very small fragment of creation, he will have the opportunity, through his own effort, to attain the perception of upper existence. And not merely to attain it, but to completely master it, to master everything natural and inherent that existed before our birth and will exist after our death in this world.

The perception of our world is also natural, from birth until death. But the simultaneous perception of this world and the upper world is something we must attain through our own efforts. This is what all these states exist for.

But if we existed for a certain period of time in the perception of the upper world, and exist for a certain period in our world, why do we also need to perceive both worlds simultaneously, one through the other, and make special efforts to do so?

We do not experience the two boundary states, this world or the spiritual world, by our own choice. We are simply given one state or the other. The soul exists outside the body, in complete adhesion with the Creator, like a point within Him.

But suddenly this feeling of being a point in the Creator disappears, and the soul finds itself in corporeal perceptions. A person is born with no memories, nothing that would tell him about another existence. So what does the simultaneous attainment of both worlds give us?

The soul was created as a point. Our perception of “I” is a point that feels either the Creator or His opposite, the complete concealment of the Creator. We can attain a state in which we are completely equal to the Creator and perceive the entire creation, eternity, and perfection only if we make efforts to transform this point into a Kli. Moreover, we must create it with complete freedom of choice, that is, under certain circumstances.

All these circumstances, brought together in a particular way, and our existence within them, are called “this world.” Around this point, a special environment has been created that perceives what we perceive and that we call “our world,” because only from such a state, in the most optimal and only possible way, can a Partzuf, that is, a Kli equal to the Creator, be created from the point.
[362169]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/29/26

Related Material:
Why Does Our World Exist?
A Virtual World
An Imaginary World We Cannot Do Without

Filed under: Adam-The Common Soul, Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Perception, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 252

What Does It Mean to Cross the Barrier?

A person who crosses the barrier is a person who has acquired an intention in order to bestow, even if it is the smallest possible intention. This is called “crossing the barrier.” It does not mean reaching some boundary in the middle of the road with a sign stating, “Barrier Ahead,” which can be removed to let someone through. Crossing the barrier in spirituality is the inversion that takes place when we acquire the smallest measure of Lishma from Lo Lishma, the smallest measure of bestowal.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 251
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 250
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 249

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