How can we preserve a state we have attained for the future? Can I somehow guarantee what will happen to me? Of course not!

But my desire to guarantee this creates the next Kli (vessel) within me. I offer this Kli, this desire of mine, as a prayer, as MAN, to the Creator, to the higher degree, which preserves this Kli for me and prepares its fulfillment.

Under what conditions, should we establish a covenant between us? Surely it is not enough simply to say some words, asking Him that things not become worse than they are now? What does my signature under this covenant signify? What must I concretely create now in order to obligate the Creator to preserve the relationship between us?

For His part, the Creator adheres to this. He always relates to me well. How can I guarantee that I will always relate well to Him in one of the 620 channels of our connection with Him?

This can be done only by raising MAN, a prayer for what I want to receive in the future. I am very afraid that in the future I may become worse than I am now. Where does this fear come from?

As usual, we look back, and from this fear a Kli arises. I have fallen many times, suffered setbacks, and seen to what extent I suffer, how bad I feel when I have become detached from the Creator. Now this fear, these sufferings, have prepared me to raise MAN, to offer such a prayer that I say: “Let anything happen, only do not let me become distant from You.” As it is said: “Do not cast me away from before You, and take not Your holy spirit from me.”

If I truly have such preparation as a result of past sufferings, then my prayer is correct. Perhaps I suffer and cry pointlessly, like a small child, whereas within me a mature prayer of an adult must grow so that by means of it I sign the covenant. This signature implies the fulfillment of many conditions. It is not simple.

In fact, this is a long path. All the previous sufferings must necessarily be taken into account; they must be gathered and not lost. And we know that all the previous degrees disappear if we have not yet arrived at their final definitions and results.

Only the final definition, which is recorded in Malchut in each state exists, is fixed, and is preserved. All other definitions are erased, because they did not reach the final point of their development.

Therefore, we must constantly add to the work until we have worked through all the particulars. And when we have finished everything, we come to the conclusion that we ourselves are incapable of doing anything and that accepting the agreement is the best thing possible.

In our world, we come to an agreement out of hopelessness. But with the Creator, we must reach such a state that I sign a covenant because I have no better state (and there cannot be one) than the state that has come.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

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Both before the Machsom and after it, we experience the same states. Some of us already feel various changes within ourselves. Through our study of the articles, we can somehow, though not yet in a clear form, find various qualities within us and give them inner definitions. We must find these concepts within us because they truly exist.

In other words, we can find various details of the relationship we presently have with the Creator. My present state is good, at least in some respects.

Of course, this cannot be 100% true in all manifestations of my connection with Him. I am not yet capable of simultaneously feeling that He is great in my eyes, that I tremble before Him, that I am grateful to Him, that I am ready to give Him everything, and that I need Him to give to me.

But if I feel a connection with the Creator in at least one channel out of all 620 channels through which every organ of my soul is connected with Him. If in this single channel I feel a clear, precise connection, then, with regard to this kind of connection, I can already say that I am ready to enter into a covenant with Him so that this connection will remain forever and can never become less.

I ask the Creator to help me preserve it, to guard this connection. And even when I am in the worst states, He would remind me of it and constantly renew it for me. In this way, I work for the future.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 269

What Is Intention?

If a friend comes to you and begins flattering you, telling you how beautiful and good you are, and says that he has never met anyone as wonderful as you, while secretly acting against you, this is called an intention to harm. There is an action and there is an intention. The action is that the friend comes and speaks to you with flattering words, while the intention is to harm you. Everything depends on the intention, not on the action. It does not matter how the action appears outwardly. Intention is key. A person who sticks a knife into another person’s back can be a surgeon or a murderer. What is the difference between them? The action appears to be the same action, that is, the surgeon and the murderer both thrust a knife into a body, but their intentions are different. One intends to give life, and the other intends to take life. Everything depends on the intention.

Action and intention coincide only in animals and beasts, the still, vegetative, and animate. The speaking degree has an intention and an action, even on the corporeal-animate degree in our lives. Although certain animals pretend to be asleep in order to catch prey, such an action comes from the force of nature and is not conscious or planned in advance. In human beings, intention and action are two completely separate things. Intention is the weapon of one who serves the Creator. There is nothing other than intention. We can begin working in the society, for instance in the kitchen or in dissemination, and excel at what we do while our intention is to become a manager. We might get what we want because we excelled in our work, but we will gain nothing from it in spirituality. We will be able to advance spiritually only when our intention changes, and it will change because we are incorporated in a society that will influence and change us. Advancement takes place only in the intention, and not in anything else. Intention is an inner attitude toward someone or something, from the innermost point in the heart. Intention is an attitude.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 4 “What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?” (1989)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Preparation for Opening the Heart at the Congress

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Selected Highlights

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Question: How can one believe in the Creator if we do not know who He is? Moreover, we have no faith.

Answer: It is true, we have nothing. Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot” that there can be no development until you acquire the ability to disconnect from your desire to receive. This is called the force of faith. In other words, you rise to Bina, to the state of Hafetz Hesed, and do not think about yourself.

In “The Article for the Completion of The Zohar,” he writes that if a person thinks about himself, there is no greater separation between him and the Creator. It is as if he is cut off from the Creator, and there is no connection between them. Thus, this gap must be overcome; a person must begin to think about what is outside of him. This is called faith.

Question: Is attaining faith a condition or a goal?

Answer: Acquiring faith is the first stage on our path from which one can only begin to speak about spiritual actions. Spirituality is “for the sake of bestowal.” Faith is the force of Bina within you, which gives you the ability to begin to bestow.

Since we are the result of the breaking of the vessels, we have Kelim of reception for the sake of reception and Kelim of bestowal for the sake of reception. We also use the Kelim of Bina in order to enjoy ourselves. Correction begins, first of all, with the Kelim of bestowal, the Kelim of Bina. Bina herself is corrupted only because she is within Malchut.

How does one begin to correct Bina? One must make a restriction on the Kelim of Malchut, and then the Kelim of Bina within Malchut will begin to receive correction. The Kelim of Malchut will no longer be able to influence the Kelim of Bina, and then their correction will occur. In other words, AHP is not used, and correction begins only with GE.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?”

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Question: It is said that, on one hand, a person is distant from the Creator, and on the other hand, he must say that the Creator is close to him. What does “must say” mean if one feels distant?

Answer: We are a desire to receive. When it comes to a desire, then how can you tell someone: “Now you need to rejoice, and now you must weep”? A desire perceives fulfillment, and if someone external says something to this desire, it does not hear and does not understand.

We hear with the mind, but our desire remains unaffected by it. In other words, when books state that one needs to feel, act, or perform a certain deed, it means that one must bring oneself to such a state in which I will feel and begin to act. How else could it be?

Suppose I am dealing with someone and want him to want something. Can I immediately reach his desire directly? No, I must perform some actions toward him so that through theses actions, so he in some special way brings himself into action, and as a result, the desire I wish to see would be born in him.

The same applies to me. My desire to receive is not at all within my power; I can engage it through the Creator. It is written: “Make your desire similar to His desire,” but can I do so right now? How many actions must I perform through the Creator so that He will take care of me and change my desire? I have no power over myself; I am capable of nothing. This is possible only through Him.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/15/26, Rabash, “What Is, ‘We Have No Other King But You,’ in the Work?”

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Comment: You said that a person makes a covenant in order to preserve a specific  perception of the Creator—for example, as a formidable force—yet, a week or two later, reaches an even greater depth of attainment.

My Response: When the Creator is revealed to you at a greater depth, you are already in a different state. I would even say that this can happen, not in a week or two, but in a second.

In spirituality, there is no difference between what happens in a second and what happens in a hundred years. If it is the next state, then the same processes take place within it, from zero to one hundred percent, as you experienced on the previous degree.

It is better if this happens in an instant rather than in a hundred years, because the difference between them can be years on the level of the material world, whereas in the spiritual world, it is effectively zero.

So why should one simply live through these hundred years here in order to reach the next spiritual degree? Reach it as quickly as possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

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By making a covenant with one another, we promise to maintain our relationship at the level it is at now. To do this we must examine ourselves.

This analysis proceeds through all the states that may arise in accordance with the present degree and not at a higher level. We make sure that our covenant will remain valid at this stage and will not be interrupted under any circumstances.

After we have analyzed the present degree and see that the covenant holds throughout its entire depth, we can advance further in our relationship with one another. And so the next degree arrives. New conditions arise on it, which we accept.

At first, we feel that we hate one another. This happens because the right and left lines exist within creation. Then we begin to connect; that is, the left line, which absorbs the qualities of creation, passes into the middle line.

And in the middle line, we come to awareness, connection, knowledge, and connection with one another. This is called signing an agreement. We want the level of this degree to remain forever and never decrease. Then, in addition to the agreement, we conclude and sign a covenant.

These states arise constantly on every degree. In other words, the act of establishing a covenant is an action we must inevitably encounter each time we define our attitude toward the Creator. This is, in essence, the establishment of a covenant with the Creator.
[362558]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/8/26, Rabash, “What Is Making a Covenant in the Work”

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Question: What is my involvement in everything that happens to me?

Answer: As a beginner, you are now 100% dependent on what you choose to receive from the environment. If you decide that this is your environment, that you want to become similar to it and receive its main idea from it, then you must nullify yourself before it. After all, the smaller you are, the more you will receive from that which is greater.

You must regard everyone as great, listen to everyone with your mouth open, and truly wish to absorb everything that happens here. This does not mean simply telling yourself: “I am small, insignificant, and they are great!”

You will be able to receive from the group to the extent that you are able to invest in it. Perform all the actions that the Kabbalists advise us to perform, and you will see how it works!

Of course, you can come here and sit here as if at a university, thinking: “I am studying, and they are also involved here. I should gradually study this science, receive an education, and then we shall see.” In that case, you will receive nothing from the group, and no inner change will occur within you.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 10/9/26, Rabash, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?”

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