The Process of Internal Scrutinies

238.02Living in spirituality means living with the intention to bestow. That is, the Creator gives me a Masach (screen), and this is called crossing the Machsom (barrier). Before this, I had no screen and no intention to bestow.

Now I have acquired a minimal correct intention. My will to receive together with this intention is called my first spiritual Kli. This means that I must receive a screen (Masach) from Him.

But then, what is the previous degree before receiving the screen? Obviously, the need for a screen. And since the condition for receiving anything is the existence of a desire (Kli) to receive it, it means that I need a Kli for the screen, a need for a screen.

What should the need for a screen be? Can I now imagine a situation in which I need a screen? Let me take a step back. To have a need for a screen, I need to know what I will get out of it, what I stand to gain through the screen.

What will I receive through the screen when I act for the sake of bestowal? When I see the Creator, that is, not that I see Him and enjoy Him, but I see that I bestow upon Him, while at the same time what I bestow upon Him is not a form of personal gain; otherwise my action would be impure. Acting for the sake of bestowal means bestowing upon Him without even feeling Him, without having any revelation, but simply being aware of myself as bestowing.

There are many more subtleties within this, but in the end, I come to a state in which I need some simple force that is completely absent in me now. The question is, can I have a desire for it?

If I examine what a true desire for a screen is, then I probably will not find such a desire in myself. Perhaps I do not want the screen itself at all, nor what it will give me in the spiritual world: pure bestowal without any connection to me. I still cannot sense these definitions (Avchanot), because they are completely detached from my reality.

I can only speak about it, but this gives me nothing! After all, this is not a prayer from the depth of desire. A deep desire is a desire that exists even before it is recognized and expressed in words. Obviously, I cannot arrive at this, but I can arrive at some states of despair around it.

So let’s proceed in this way. Let us clarify exactly what I can clarify within my will to receive, and do so in such a way that it would be the maximum of what I am capable of before the barrier. This is similar to what precedes the final correction (Gmar Tikun), when we can examine absolutely everything: Galgalta ve Eynaim, GE in AHP, AHP in GE, every property without exception, except for the “stony heart” (Lev HaEven).

It is as if I had a bone with meat on it, and I ate all the meat, leaving a clean, polished bone. In this way I clarify what is “yes” and what is “no”!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/30/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that Oil Is Called ‘Good Deeds’ in the Work?”

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At the Turn of the Century

527.04The fact that the level of the people a hundred years ago differed from today’s illustrates a global regression across generations. For example, in the times of the destruction of the Temple, people were very pure. Even the destruction and hatred we speak of back then were then very subtle and pure.

Subsequently, over the course of two thousand years, the desire to receive has increased in every generation; people become more egoistic, and all this evil has surfaced, especially at the advanced stages, because the process develops, not arithmetically, but geometrically.

A leap occurred at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Educated people emerged. Why did they suddenly stop being religious? How could this happen? A desire to receive was added from above, which led to a new stage in the soul’s development, and the individual saw how hollow the restrictions dictating their actions and speech truly were.

Their inner part strengthened while their outer part weakened; they were unable to restrain themselves.They cast off these constraints. They were no longer content to remain at the still (inanimate) level of holiness. All this stems from the growing will to receive within the souls.

What is respected among ordinary religious people? A person who faithfully attends the synagogue, observes all the commandments, and presents himself to the public as free from any anxieties, as someone whose life consists of nothing but “simple faith.”

In religious circles such a person is deemed good, wonderful, or even holy. Yet we say that they lack the will to receive and are merely acting according to their nature. Add a bit of ego, a will to receive, and you will see them abandon it all. Thus, whether you like it or not, you cannot leave them as they were 500 or 2,000 years ago. The will to receive is growing, and nothing can be done about it.

Consequently each new generation is worse than the previous one, to the point that “the face of the generation will be like the face of a dog” that barks: “Give me! Give me!” It is impossible to resist this; it is bound to happen, and for now a process of searching and struggle is underway.

However, knowing what happened in the 20th century allows you to foresee what will happen in the present one, what inner development will take place in people. You will see how with each year the world focuses increasingly on this direction, while everything else collapses. People will suddenly begin to sense that the entire world depends on their inner state.
[360575]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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The Only Free Action

942Question: It is written that the Creator does not make [false] claims against His creations. What does this mean?

Answer: It means that He does not deceive them or intentionally cause them harm. He is not a source of evil for you. So where do bad sensations come from if not from Him? You feel that way solely due to the disparity of form between your qualities and His. It is a mark of great wisdom to realize that all heaviness is caused by the disparity of qualities.

We are prepared to overcome obstacles, dissent, and fight to the death—anything to achieve a what we desire. You see how people burn through their lives trying to achieve something. But here a person can be seized by such weakness that they cannot budge, even under the threat of death.

There are states where others can do whatever they want to me, but I am powerless to lift a finger. This is a spiritual matter. Such a state is caused by the disparity between the lights and Kelim (vessels), where the Kli is unable to make any movement whatsoever in relation to the light.

There are even worse states. A person must gather these experiences and use them to build the correct attitude toward the Creator. Only then do they establish a connection. However, one has to understand that in all these states we do not have any free choice other than to use the group.

Above the Machsom (barrier) we have free choice: lights, vessels, states, Klipa (impurity), and holiness, everything is in front of the person. When a person acquires the screen, they become free of the desire to receive, and they gain power. Let’s say that he has acquired a screen of ten kilograms, then he is free from at least ten kilograms of the desire to receive, and no longer feels the heaviness.

The sensation of heaviness arises from the fact that the desire to receive that has control over us, and at the same time we can compare it with the light. If it were not for the light, we would not sense this dominion and we would live like everybody else. However, now that we are under the power of the desire to receive, we feel it as intolerable coercion since the light has shone upon it. We have no choice; we need either the light or the desire to receive to disappear. It is impossible to exist with both.

Such a state is worse than death. When a person comes out of it with faith above reason, gets rid of his ego, and stops thinking about himself, he becomes free. Then he really has an ability to act freely, and instead of a burden, he feels lightness, and everything becomes open in front of him.

However, in our state, below the Machsom where there is no screen that gives us freedom, we have only one freedom. As Rabash writes, from all the actions that you can do in your life, you have only one free action.

You exist at the center of a sphere of your own possibilities, of all the things that you want to do; there is only one line, one direction that allows you to really determine something; it is not dictated by others, by society, by your education, or by your nature. There is one thing that depends on you: to experience the influence of the good society that advances you to the goal or not. There is no reality in everything else; it only seems to you that you decide something there.

Why does it only seem to you? This is because you act only according to your desire to receive. Its Reshimot constantly float to the surface from inside, and push you toward certain things. At one point I want something. After that I want something different. I do it, and it seems to me that I act according to my own program, and for my own goals.

When I look at people from the side, I see that every one of them is programmed, and has nothing that is called “human being” (Adam). All are like animals that run around and bustle about. And what is the result? Nothing. But one cannot observe this in himself.

That is why our teachers who show us the way tell us that it is futile. Do you want to perform the only real action in your life, an act that defines you as you rather than merely a programmed executor? Then choose a society that will help you become closer to the goal, to the Creator.

When you choose such a society, you act in a unprogrammed way. However, if you cannot do this, it means that in this life you have not done anything outside of the animalistic nature. Whether you exist or do not exist, there is no use or difference. You simply are executing a program, but you are not truly yourself.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/28/26, Rabash, “What Is the Prohibition to Teach Torah to Idol-Worshippers in the Work?”

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When a New Desire Is Born

232.09Question: What does “spending half an hour in the left line” mean?

Answer: Spending half an hour in the left line (and the rest of the time in the right line) demonstrates how challenging it is for us to connect with the right line, that is, to absorb and gain an impression of the greatness of the Creator, the importance of the goal and of His work because He is good that does good, and He truly wants us to know this. There are many different nuances here. Yet everything is clear—half an hour versus 23.5 hours.

Question: What if a person is unable to maintain that connection?

Answer: If a person cannot properly work on maintaining themselves between two lines—right and left—it means that they do not have sufficient control over themselves and are under the influence of their own nature. This is called “kaf ha kela” (the sling), where you are abruptly thrown from one state to another. One moment you are thrown to the right: “How amazing and grand everything is!” The next moment, you are in complete despair—who or what am I, everything is worthless, and so on.

Thus, you are neither here nor there; you can neither be under the force of the Creator’s nature, nor under the dominion of the nature of creation. These are simply two angels that rule over you. You yourself become such an angel.

The moment that you sit and cry, you are an angel. The left line rules over you, and you are sitting immersed in it, stuck in it. Or conversely, there is the right line, where you are just missing wings or you would already be flying. Neither of these is what we need.

You can only be at the intersection of these two lines to advance and create something completely new. You take part from the animal nature (the desire to receive) and part from the nature of the Creator (the desire to bestow), and you want to build something else, something new, something that has never existed before.

The desire that exists in spirituality is the desire to receive that was created by the Creator. But here, a completely new desire is born; it originates from the merging of the two previous ones, yet it is itself new. It turns out that you are, in effect, giving birth to your own soul, your new state. You are the master of the action.

Naturally, the Creator gives you the strength and all the components of this new Kli (vessel), but you build it yourself. After that, you no longer feel shame because you initiated the process, acted, and brought it to fruition.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/26, Rabash, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”

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Is the Degree of Receiving in Order to Bestow Higher Than the Degree of the Creator?

The Creator has no problem with bestowal. He bestows according to His nature. We, however, must be those who bestow in order to bestow, which is a rather strange combination of words. The created being is a desire to enjoy, and if together with the pleasure it feels, it intends to give pleasure to the Giver of that pleasure, to the Creator, then it is bestowing. This is the sum total of the nature and essence of the action. However, in practice, it always receives; it has no other possibility. We always use our desire to receive, our appetite, and the foods set before us in order to connect with the Host. We have no connection with the Host except through the foods and through his hunger. These are the means of connection.

We cannot speak about the Creator, who bestows according to His nature. Certainly, He makes no effort to bestow. Bestowal is His desire, and it is what He carries out. We do not speak about the upper force or about the degree of His separation from us. We cannot say what He is, only what we receive and feel from Him, whether they be good or bad things, shame or pleasures. We cannot imagine what the Creator is, what the desire to bestow is in itself, even if we were a created being on the highest degree. Although on such a degree we receive certain kinds of gifts from the Creator, hints that somehow make it possible to understand what the desire to bestow is.

What we understand, we understand within our vessels of reception, and then through the act of reception we can describe our understanding. We cannot understand beyond what our vessels allow. We can never step outside our vessels. Stepping outside the vessels means abstract light, which is something that has not been created. Nor do we perceive this abstract light. If we perceive abstract light, it is simply because we have reached a state in which we feel that the light is abstract, and even this takes place in our vessels of reception.

Therefore, we do not engage in what exists above the created being, because that is merely philosophy. No one has any experience of it, nor is it possible for the created being to attain it. The sole kind of attainment possible takes place when the Creator grants a kind of understanding that is above the vessels of the created being, on very high spiritual degrees. But Kabbalists do not even write about this. It has no significance.

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Daily Kabbalah Lesson – 8/28/26

Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 31 “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator? (1988)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Introduction to the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah”

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Audio Version Of The Blog – 8/27/26

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Emulate the Creator

243.05People do not understand that working for the Creator is Kabbalah. There is talk about working for the Creator everywhere. Both religious and secular people know that a religious person engages in work for the Creator. Yet no one knows what this actually entails.

For most people, it means observing the Torah and Mitzvot every day, and nothing more. No one understands that in reality working for the Creator is Kabbalah. Kabbalah is considered something superfluous. “Kabbalah is pursued by people who cannot do otherwise, who have a different mindset, people who are slightly “off,” in short, not normal people.”

In reality, genuine work for the Creator, in its purest form, is Kabbalah. Whoever wants to work for the Creator strives to gradually fulfill what the Creator desires; they imitate the Creator.

In Pri Hacham (A Sage’s Fruit), Baal HaSulam states: “The scrutiny of the educated in creation, in the first concept, is defined as emulating the work of the Creator.” Those who are “educated in creation” are those who truly want to understand creation, to acquire the wisdom of Kabbalah and the wisdom in general.

“The work of the Creator is called “providence,” or “the nature of creation.” By emulating Him, we become those who work for the Creator. As it is written: “Know the God of your father and worship Him.”

We learn from His actions toward creation, from the way He watches over and governs everything. We take this entire system of supervision and governance from Him, and begin to govern ourselves instead of Him. After all, what does He govern, if not us and our desire? Creation is us, “something from nothing.”

Thus, through all the ascents and descents, through everything He does, we gradually learn from the way that He treats us, and aspire to become masters of ourselves instead of Him. To the extent that we become capable of doing this, we acquire a screen, and truly become this way.

This is what the question of the work of the Creator is about. There is nothing else. And whoever thinks that there is something more simply does not understand what this is about.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/12/26, Rabash, “One Should Always Sell Everything He Has and Marry a Wise Disciple’s Daughter”

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If I Don’t Want to Get Up for the Lesson…

255Question: What should I do if laziness prevents me get up in the morning to go to the lesson?

Answer: If I don’t want to get up in the morning, it is a sign that the time has come to think about why I am doing this.

All our animalistic qualities are given to us, not without reason, but for the purpose of spiritual advancement. We must use them in relation to the Creator, not toward other people, and not in order to change them, but in order to connect with the Creator through them.

When I am lying in bed at three in the morning, and it is time to get up, here I must activate different calculations. Is it worth getting up? What for? If I direct them toward spiritual advancement, then it means I am using them correctly.

But if I apply them to the world around me, what will I gain from it? These properties were not given to me simply to sit in a desk drawer somewhere. They are mine, and through them, I must build my connection with the Creator. And after they become spiritual properties, that becomes a different kind of work.

But for now, I exist within them with my extravagance, pride, and impatience, and I advance through all these qualities. I direct them toward the Creator without factoring them into my dealings or directing them toward other people. I should have no calculation regarding that aspect.

Question: On one hand, we say that there should be no calculation regarding them, and on the other hand that we use them?

Answer: Of course, we use them in relation to the Creator, in relation to spiritual work. How could I not use them when they exist and operate within me? I cannot ignore them. Both in relation to the Creator and in relation to the environment, I can only determine in what form, to what extent, in what relation, and in what direction I use them.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/16/26, Rabash, “What Should One Do If He Was Born With Bad Qualities?”

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Hasten TIme

712.03Question: Why does spiritual work take so much time? If it originates from infinity, shouldn’t it continue infinitely?

Answer: Everything has an end. Scientists say that this world has existed for twenty billion years. How long has man existed? Let us say a million years.

How long has the point in the heart that is in a person’s body existed? It first manifested in man more than 5,700 years ago, and counting from Abraham, it has been more than 3,700 years. You can see that development is very slow. But the closer to the end of correction, the faster the pace of development grows; it increases exponentially.

We can see how over the course of 120 years, the world has advanced more  in a than it did in the preceding thousand years. And in our time, a decade will bring as much advancement as in the previous 2,000 years. But in any case, it takes a long time because our collective structure is incredibly complex, and we do not know it.

We do not realize that we are all included in the infinite Kli (vessel), each of us. Within it, there is only one point—mine. All the others are not mine but originate from the rest of the Malchut of the world of infinity. I need to connect all these points to myself for the sake of bestowal to the Creator, incorporate them in myself, and get to know them, because I do not even know my own point. I have to annul it and connect it with all the other points, build a Kli from this, turn with it to the Creator, and begin to merge with Him (Zivug) for the sake of bestowal to Him.

In short, these are very slow actions. Not because they are slow in themselves. The corrections are very fast—billions of actions per second, so to speak. There is no way to count the movements, and there does not apply; I am simply citing specific numbers as an example.

But even though we are talking about billions of operations per second, it is like a computer: despite performing countless operations per second, we sometimes have to wait and wait to retrieve some information from it. Sometimes we have to wait half an hour for data to travel along a thin wire from a massive storage system.

It is the same with us. That is why it seems to us that we are standing still. We are advancing at a very fast pace; much faster than in the material world. No matter how swift the changes in the material world may be, in the spiritual world, they are even faster. Compared to the millions and billions of years of our development at different levels (inanimate, vegetative, animate, and speaking), our current rate of progress in the spiritual is accelerating tremendously.

You will soon see how the world will change over the course of a year or two.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/10/26, Rabash, “What Is the Gift that a Person Asks of the Creator?”

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