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.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 9/29/26

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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.

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The Creator is that which relates to all souls with love. We know nothing else about Him: “Good and doing good to all souls.”

You will not be able to find the Creator (this quality) unless you focus your attention on Him through all the souls as if they were a radar. It will not work otherwise.

Therefore, when we speak of “a person and the Creator,” this necessarily means through the common Kli (vessel). Outside the common Kli, the Creator does not exist. You cannot sense or evaluate Him individually, for yourself alone.

The first sensation that appears before the Machsom, as you pass through it, when you exist in both realms and ask where the Creator is, reveals Him as the one who fills everything, governs all humanity, and dwells within it. By comparing yourself with His attitude toward people, you find yourself there as well. In other words, the meeting place between you and the Creator is within the souls of people. There is no other place.

This is what crossing the Machsom means: you begin to see the souls of people and the Creator there, because you receive forces and qualities from above that enable you to relate to them as He does, although at first only to a minimal degree. Initially it is Ibur (conception), Yenika (nursing), and Mochin (adulthood). That is the only way.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot 9/25/26

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Three books open on Rosh Hashanah [Hebrew New Year’s Eve]: that of complete righteous, that of complete wicked, and that of intermediate. The complete righteous are immediately written to life. The complete wicked are immediately written to death (Zohar for All, Vol. 6, The Four Species and Hoshana Rabbah [Great Supplication, 7th day of Sukkot]).

One who has attained the level where they justify the Creator despite the entire desire to receive is called completely righteous. This means that they already possess the “covering” of Bina over all their receiving Kelim.

One who does not have the correction of Hassadim over the desire to receive is called completely wicked. They simply have not received the correction and are therefore called wicked.

“Wicked” is a degree. To be wicked, one must also be in the upper world. “Righteous,” “wicked,” and “intermediate” are states. When a person crosses the Machsom (barrier) and begins working for the Creator, these three possibilities arise.

We are not talking about people like us, not even when it comes to the “wicked.” We are not wicked. We are simply a zero because we exist below what is called the line of life. No qualities are attributed to us at all: neither “wicked” nor anything else. The Book of Zohar does not say a single word about what is below the Machsom.

The intermediate remain awaiting judgment until Yom Kippur. If they repent, they are sealed to life; and the wicked, who do not repent, are sealed to death.

Why? Because these represent either the completely right line or the completely left line. They are extreme, opposite states that come from the Creator in which either the Kelim or the lights are completely dependent on the upper.

What depends on the person? It is how to unite these two qualities within oneself, the left and the right lines, within oneself. It is finding the optimal combination to unite them, taking the Kelim from the left and the qualities from the right, and forging the middle line from them.

A person can reach a state where some of his Kelim that are undergoing correction, become “righteous,” while others become “wicked.” Some Kelim will be destined for life and filled with lights, while others will go to “death,” becoming increasingly empty until the very end, descend into darkness, and form the Sof (end) of the Partzuf.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on the night of Hoshana Rabbah, 10/2/26

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The night called “Leil Hoshana Rabbah” is known as the night of the “Great Salvation.” What is this night during which the correction of Zeir Anpin is completed? In brief, first a person descends into Egypt, into a negative Kli (vessel), and then receives a positive force, the Torah. Then he builds an idol for himself and destroys everything. This is what we are experiencing now, the destructive connections.

Then, gradually he enters the desert and reaches the building of the Temple, when Malchut and Bina completely unite with one another.

A person builds himself over the course of six days, corresponding to the six Sefirot: Hesed, Gevura, Tiferet, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod. These are the six days of Sukkot, during which the surrounding light influences him. And the seventh day, when the light enters Malchut, is called the holiday of Simchat Torah, “the Joy of the Torah,” the joy of the Light.

What joy can the light have? The joy of being able to enter the Kli. In other words, after the correction of all six qualities during the six days, on the seventh day the light enters the Kli and fills the egoism. But the light that enters is not the full light of Hochma, but VAK of Hochma, a weak illumination. Keter, Hochma, and Bina are still absent; they will join on the holiday of Purim.

Therefore, after celebrating Simchat Torah, we leave the Sukkah, because according to the law we can no longer remain in it, since a person has already moved into the next state. There is no need to regret it and no need to strive to return to it. Only forward and upward!
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson for the holiday of Sukkot, 10/4/26

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There is a well-known article in Shamati that  discusses the meaning of Tzlalim (shadows) and what Tzelem (image or form). It refers to the Masach (screen). If a person shields himself from the Creator and thereby gives Him the opportunity to reveal Himself, then the Creator can be revealed to the extent that the person has concealed themselves. Ultimately, a one-hundred-percent correspondence is always maintained between us and the light.

Once, we were in the world of infinity, where Malchut decided to restrict herself and never receive the light. Malchut imposed the first restriction upon herself and said: “The light will not come to me. And if it does come, it will be only so that I may bestow through this reception, and in no other way.” Therefore, the light comes to the extent that Malchut can shield herself from the light approaching her.

In other words, the relationship between Malchut, the creation, on the one hand, and Keter (the Creator or the light) on the other, is always as follows: if Malchut is one hundred percent closed, the Creator is one hundred percent revealed; and if Malchut is one hundred percent open, unable to impose a restriction upon herself, the Creator is one hundred percent concealed.

The state may be intermediate where the degree to which I open or close myself determines my spiritual degree, that is, the extent to which the Creator is revealed. This is essentially where the worlds are located; it determines which world I am in: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut, Adam Kadmon, or Ein Sof (infinity).

In Ein Sof I am completely beneath my screen, and then the Creator can be revealed before me. In our world, I am entirely devoid of a screen, and therefore the Creator completely conceals Himself from me. In the interval between these two states, I am on one degree or another of the worlds, which is called concealments and indicates the relative level of revelation and concealment.

It is precisely this relationship between revelation and concealment that is called a shadow (Tzel). On the night of Hoshana Rabbah, we check the integrity of our “shadow.” In other words, has Zeir Anpin (that is, the “body” of a person) become complete as a result of its correction? Does it have a screen over all the parts of the “body” and, consequently, a “shadow” from each part? Has a person acquired a screen for each of his desires?

This is what one must find out at the end of Sukkot, because throughout Sukkot all the surrounding lights were meant to construct the image (Tzelem) of the Creator within the person, meaning a screen sufficient for all their desires. This is known as examining the “shadow.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on the night of Hoshana Rabbah, 10/2/26

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Drush Vav, Drush six, and this is the discourse for the night of Hoshana Rabbah, in which the matter of this night, which is called the night of the seal, is explained. …

And that seal is the principal inner seal made from the NHY of Ima, from the three names EKYEH, with Yuds, and with Heys, and with Alephs, that are in them. And the Gematria is Chotam, seal, for the external ones do not take hold of Ima. Therefore, at that time, the entire world is judged and sealed, either for life or for death, and that is the principal judgment (The ARI, Leil Hosha’ana Raba).

The Partzuf of Zeir Anpin of Atzilut is called the Creator. He gives us all the Light. Opposite Him are His Nukva, Rachel and Leah. Rachel is the small Nukva, from the Chazeh of Zeir Anpin downward, to its ending, the Parsa. Leah is the great Nukva of Zeir Anpin. Above them is Ima, Bina, which lowers its “legs,” meaning the NHY of Ima descend inside Zeir Anpin.

Where the NHY of Ima are present, Ima, meaning Bina, gives the receiving Kelim a covering of her light of Hassadim. If I remain in the desire to receive, but the NHY of Ima have entered me, then I am truly “covered,” “vaccinated,” and have immunity against any possible problem.

I have the desire to receive, but I also have a vaccination, the NHY of Ima, the light of Hassadim that is within me. Because of this, I simply do not want to use my desire to receive; I am free from it. One hundred percent healthy. This is what Bina provides us with.

Indeed, this is how it should always be with us. After all, the desire to receive can never become good. It simply cannot become good on its own. But if the surrounding light or inner light enters it, in one measure or another, with one quality or another, then it becomes vaccinated against itself, because it receives satisfaction from the light that fills it.

Sometimes we fall into a state where we say: “I don’t need anything. I feel good. I want to feel the spiritual, to be in the spiritual world. This world does not interest me; let everything burn, I don’t care about anything.” How is this possible? Simply because a certain spiritual illumination from above shines upon me slightly, and as a result I feel that the spiritual is worth much more than the corporeal, and I feel good. The desire to receive chooses this.

Or, on the contrary, the spiritual recedes upward somewhat, and I am left with the desire to receive, which becomes stronger than the light that has moved away. Then I have no choice, I want fulfillment for it.

Everything depends on the play of the Upper Light, on how close it is to me or how far away it is. This determines my attitude toward the spiritual: Is it worth it or not? What is preferable, the corporeal or the spiritual?

Therefore, all our work consists of bringing the upper lights closer so that they will influence us. And if we reach a state in which the NHY of Ima clothe within us, then we can be completely calm. This provides a covering, an immunity against the entire desire to receive.

It will never be able to seize me and make me, like a madman, follow all kinds of foolishness. The NHY of Ima will give me such satisfaction that no ego of mine, no property, and no disturbance will be able to approach me and confuse me. This is the state before the night of Hoshana Rabbah.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson on the night of Hoshana Rabbah, 10/2/26

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 251

Chapter 22. Kabbalah Before the Barrier

There is a great difference between the work of the general public and the work of the individual. It is the difference between heaven and earth. A beast has no purpose of creation; it does not ascend anywhere, and just as it was born, it dies, with its role amounting to serving man. This is the degree of the beast. The whole world is on this degree, not even on the degree of Lo Lishma. Certainly, on this degree too there are several changes, states, and degrees, and accordingly, in the animal world there are also countless species and ways of life, from tiny lice to large animals, and they are all copies of the qualities and forms that exist in a person who is on the animate degree.

Lo Lishma is on the beastly degree, and so is most of humanity, including those who relate to life out of a self-aimed intention. What determines the difference between the beastly degree and the human degree is a screen (Masach). There is the self-aimed intention, which is called “fear of this world,” “fear of the next world,” and “fear of reward and punishment,” and there is the intention outside of us, which is fear concerning how much and in what way we will be able to bestow upon the Creator. The latter is fear that is not self-aimed, but outwardly directed. Outside of us there is only “None else besides Him,” and then we are born from the beastly degree into the human degree.

They say that the main thing is studying Lishma, but the problem is that we do not know what Lishma is. Our measure of Lishma is our measure of unity with the Creator that we reach through a screen. We then certainly study Lishma.

Only the goal of Lishma or Lo Lishma brings about the importance of the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is because, if we do not attract the upper light during the study, which we attain through the study of Kabbalah, we cannot rise from the degree of Lo Lishma to the degree of Lishma, acquire a screen, and become a human instead of a beast. There is no other means to do so.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 47, “What Does It Mean that the Right and the Left Are in Contrast, in the Work?” (1991) (10.31.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, Item 11-14, (5.14.2006)

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If a person correctly connects the right and left lines, such that they complement each other to the fullest extent with neither suppressing or dominating the other, it is called attaining a true prayer. One must ensure that both lines are in the proper combination and at the maximum intensity they are capable of. Only then is it called a prayer.

For such a prayer, a person already receives what is known as the middle line. I do not know exactly what the middle line is. It represents the birth of something new. That is, while I can compose a prayer within myself, receiving an answer to it means being granted something from above that I never possessed before.

What I receive from above is called the vessel (Kli) of my soul, a desire for spirituality that is now truly mine. It doesn’t belong to not the Creator (the right line) nor to the creation (the left line), that is, the nature from which I originated. It is something absolutely new, a fragment of my true self within the spiritual world. This is the beginning of the soul, a new Kli.

In this way a person begins to grow. This Kli constitutes the person’s “self.” They begin to view these two lines and relate to them as two angels, two parameters, two forces, and two distinct natures—the nature of the Creator and the nature of creation—which are given to them so that they can use them together correctly.

This is necessary so that a person gives birth to a third element. The middle line is that third element, something that never existed before, something that the person brings forth into being. Obviously, the Creator does this through the light, but the demand to fill the Hisaron (lack) must come from the person. The sensation of the Hisaron, the awareness of it, and the preparation for it must come from them. Until these exist within a person, nothing can be born.

The Kli born in the middle line is something completely new, something that never existed in reality before. And here the creation truly feels itself to be independent. The Kli is the screen and reflected light, and this is truly the “self.” I sense within them that this is my “self,” and that my “I” is, in essence, the desire to bestow, the desire to be similar to the Creator.

There is neither shame nor a feeling of baseness or discomfort there. All the negative sensations of a person do not come from their “self,” but from the Hisaron of the left line, which is given to us initially, because the Creator created it as “existence from absence” (Yesh Mi Ayin) only so that we could use it to perceive its complete oppositeness to the Creator.

The only choice a person has is to arrive at the correct combination of the right and left lines, which creates the prayer. What does prayer mean? It means the formation of a Hisaron to which we receive an answer from above. When the light comes to fill a specific desire, the proper Kli , screen (Masach), and reflected light (Ohr Hozer) are formed. The screen and reflected light are the vessel with which creation already begins to work independently.
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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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