We view spiritual work as a means to achieve a goal. The goal is described as good, beautiful, and pleasant. The goal is eternal life and eternal rest.

Is everything written by the Kabbalists meant for lazy people? “Work now, and afterward, thank God, you will rest”? There is no end to the interpretations on this topic.

Do I really have to die in order to attain the goal? What exactly must I attain in order to rest? It is like in the joke: a man is lying under a tree, and he is told: “Go work.”

“What for?”

“You will earn a lot of money and you will rest, lying under the tree!”

And he answers: “But I am already lying under the tree!”

It is the same here: What does it mean that now I must work and afterward I will rest, rest will come later? After all, it is said that rest is the goal of creation.

We study that reality is unchanging. The upper light is in absolute rest within His Kli. This state is prepared from the outset, and we are already in it, although for now it is hidden from us.

Baal HaSulam brings many examples of this. For instance, the story about the son of a wealthy man who sits in the basement until he grows up and understands where he is, or about people running to the King’s palace to reach Him. Yet ultimately, as it is said: “And you shall eat that which has long been stored up”; meaning, we are already in this state, but we must prepare the Kelim (vessels) in order to feel it.

The preparation of the vessels is called applying effort or work. After a person has prepared his Kelim, he attains equivalence of form with the light: the light is in absolute rest, and the person also comes to this state. This is a partial explanation of why the goal is called rest.
[358699]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

Related Material:
What Governs the King’s Guards?
What Is Absolute Rest?
Guards That Live Inside Me

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

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 172

What Is the Meaning of “The Good and Delight That the Creator Wished to Bestow Upon His Created Beings”?

This refers to the level of the Creator. There is no good and delight other than the Creator Himself, that is, His state and degree. This is what the Creator wanted the created being to reach. Anything less than this cannot be called “to do good to His created beings.” Anything less would simply be mercy toward the created being. This is because “the Good” is the Creator Himself, whom we call “the Good who does good,” and He wants us to arrive at that goodness.

We need to reach the state of the Creator, which is certainly more than merely to receive from Him or to feel Him. It means actually reaching His state.

This is what is meant by equivalence of form, which is called “adhesion” (Dvekut). “By Your actions we know You” means that we recognize His actions, become equal to them, and by doing so, we exist on the same level, on the same degree. When we complete this state, it is not that we receive from Him, but we become like Zeir Anpin and Nukva (ZON), which exist in an unceasing coupling (Zivug de lo Pasik) at equal stature, and then there is no deficiency of the created being relative to the degree of the Creator. This is called “the Good who does good.”

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 171
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 170
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 169

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 Rabash, Article 28 “Who Needs to Know that a Person Withstood the Test?” (1989) (6.27.2002)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Peace in the World”

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:MP3Audio

Filed under: Audio Version of the Blog | Add Comment / Ask Question →

What is meant when we speak about rest? Perhaps it is not at all like what I now understand by this word. Relative to what is it rest or not rest? I remember when I was a child and constantly ran after a ball, everyone shouted at me: “Sit down, rest a little!”

But I did not feel that to sit down and stop was rest. On the contrary, for me that was a great effort. To run after the ball was both pleasant and comfortable.

So how can one measure and decide what is rest, repose, and what is exertion and work? This is measured relative to the Kelim. If the Kli feels tension and a mismatch between the desired and the actual, that is, between what ought to be and where the Kli in fact is, this means that the Kli is not in a state of rest. For the difference that it feels pushes it toward spiritual “movement,” and this automatically means that the Kli is not in rest.

And a Kli that has come to equivalence of qualities with the goal feels no difference from it and therefore can even while “in flight,” like a child running after a ball, feel rest.

The principle of relativity speaks of this as well. It is not important at what speed you are moving, but that you are neither accelerating or decelerating. That is, there is no lack “behind” and no lack “ahead” of you, you are balanced in the state you are in. And then this is felt as rest.

How does one reach this? By means of equivalence of form (qualities) with the environment, with the light in which we exist How can one come to equivalence of qualities with the light?

Baal HaSulam says that for this there are the written and the oral Torah. By means of one of them we acquire the intention to bestow, and by means of the other we know what to do with this intention. And when we acquire the ability to perform these two actions: to receive with the intention to bestow, to fulfill the commandments (spiritual actions for the sake of bestowal), then we attain the goal.
[358703]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 7/5/26, Rabash, “What Does, ‘Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,’ Mean in the Work?”

Related Material:
Absolute Rest in Infinite Motion
What Is Absolute Rest?
The Yearning For Rest

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

Question: On one hand, it is said that one should not despair, and on the other hand, that one must necessarily come to despair. Is it necessary or not?

Answer: It is both necessary and forbidden at the same time. On the one hand, I myself am not allowed to bring myself into a state of despair. On the other hand, it is necessary to reach a state in which you are weakened from above to such an extent that you despair and feel powerless, disillusioned in your own strength, and then you are able to raise a prayer.

It is difficult to explain this in a few words. In order to describe the states that we go through before the Machsom (spiritual barrier), Rabash wrote five volumes. Our language is incapable of conveying this, and in that sense it is dead. We lack the means to express it. Only the light that fills the Kli can do this; it gives everything.

For us, this filling is divided into mental, emotional, spiritual, and so on. The true filling of the desire to receive, the net amount received from the light, is the ultimate answer. Without this, nothing will help. A person can strive to attain more and more, but there will be no attainment.

It is as though we want to achieve inner fulfillment by multiplying our external clothing’s. However, it does not happen that way. You can tell me endlessly about some delicious dish, but if I have not tasted it, have not enjoyed it, or have not filled myself with it, all the descriptions are worthless.

Later, I can tell someone else about it using your descriptions, and he will pass it on further, and so on. This is precisely what we do in our world. But what is all of that worth?
[358503]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/26, Rabash, “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”

Related Material:
The Moment of Despair Leads to Breakthrough
Do Not Despair from the Revelation of Egoism
There Is No Room For Despair And Disappointment

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

We are completely deaf to the lessons of history. This is because a person does not learn from past states unless they connect them to the Creator.

Eighty years ago, European Jewry went through the Holocaust.

Look at the state Germany reached; it was the strongest, most developed, and most progressive nation of its time! Why? Because it had surpassed the other nations in its development and on a subconscious level felt that the Jews were the cause of all the world’s suffering.

This is how the general law of reality operates, and they perceived reality in accordance with that law. Now the entire world is rising to a stage of development similar to the one Germany reached at that time. On a subconscious level, the whole world feels what the Germans of prewar Germany felt. The heads of state of France, the United Kingdom, and others no longer conceal, they openly express their hostility toward Israel.

Baal HaSulam writes that all the nations of the world perceive Israel as a foreign body that has no right to exist, that there is no place for it in reality. This is a very natural feeling. After all, Galgalta ve Eynaim (GE) is within AHP in order to correct it. If the people of Israel do not fulfill their mission, then there is no need for them.

We must descend one level, then we will see the cause and discover the solution to the problem. But if you remain on the surface level of reality, you see no solution at all because you do not even know the source of the situation. I have cited a global example, but we must approach every situation in exactly the same way.

This is what is required of us in every situation: descend a little lower and penetrate a little deeper into it, but only a little. And in that “little,” we must reveal the Creator who sends us all these states. As soon as you find the Creator within a given state, you must immediately turn to Him, instantly establish contact with Him, and then you complete the correction of that particular state, which becomes another completed stage on your path.

But if you delve into that state more deeply than necessary, you simply take on unnecessary work, and waste your strength. All you need is the connection between the state you are experiencing, and the cause of that state—the Creator.
[358280]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/23/26, Rabash, “What Is the Importance of the Groom, that His Iniquities Are Forgiven?”

Related Material:
Prevent the Holocaust All Over the World
They Do Not Like Us Jews
We Need A Third Force

Filed under: Daily Kabbalah Lesson, Israel, Nations of the World, Spiritual Work | Add Comment / Ask Question →

Question: According to the order of the work from below up, it follows that the reflected light must come first. In other words, faith must come first, and then the direct light clothes in it?

Answer: We do not feel the pressure from the Creator, who desires to clothe in us, in our desire, because our desire is not corrected. To the extent that you have a screen with the intention to bestow, you will feel the pressure of the upper light, which desires to clothe in the corrected desire called the soul.

Then the question arises: when the light comes and strikes the screen, where are the light of faith, the reflected light, and everything else? They are all present before this, in a state of darkness. The screen is built during the darkness. And when you acquire it, you receive the power to maintain the restriction and the power of faith. This is what is called the screen.

The magnitude of the screen indicates the degree of faith. It is necessary to “stock up, arm oneself, with this in advance.

Naturally, this is done by the light, but the demand for this light to come develops only through efforts from below, which are made by means of the impression received from the books and those who wrote them, as well as from the group, and not from above. Here, an effort made by the person himself is required, so that the Kli precedes the light.
[358461]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 6/29/26, Rabash, “One’s Greatness Depends on the Measure of One’s Faith in the Future”

Related Material:
How Is the Connection with the Creator Formed?
Acquire the Light of Faith
The Light of Faith

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

Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 171

What Is the Grace of Kedusha?

The grace of Kedusha, as its name suggests, is simply a “grace of Kedusha.” It is a kind of attraction to something pleasant and good. It is not a desire because there is no deficiency in the grace of Kedusha. The feeling is more like, “This is nice for me.” There is no natural necessity in it, but instead an attraction, a sense of “I like this,” “There is beauty in it.”

“Grace” is the precise word. It is remarkable how the Kabbalists gave an exact name to every phenomenon. They felt it down to its roots and then dressed it into the accurate word.

Related Material:
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 170
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 169
Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 168

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 Rabash, Article 41 “What Should One Do If He Was Born With Bad Qualities?” (1991)

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

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

Video: Play Now | Download

Audio: Play Now | Download

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