Question: Is the middle line I attain not a real state but merely “as if”?

Answer: If now I am “as if” in the right line and move from it to the left, and let’s suppose I arrive at a prayer, at some state in the middle line, is this middle line also considered “as if”? Yes, my middle line will also be “as if.”

But after several of my attempts in this direction, the Creator will reveal Himself to me, and then I will truly feel His importance and greatness. This will give me a real force of faith. And then I will see my qualities as real Klipot, impure forces, completely opposite to the qualities of the Creator.

The more I truly reveal Him for myself, the more I will see my qualities in a true light. This is like the opposition of holiness to impure forces. And then this will be the true middle line, as the force of the soul, the desire to receive for the sake of bestowal, that is, the desire to receive with a screen and reflected light (Ohr Hozer).

One must try many times until we truly merit acquiring this true state, which will no longer be a child’s game. Children also play at something “as if” it were true, and in this game they learn real adult actions.

Before the Machsom, we are as if playing these games. This is called the period of preparation.

Question: Is it possible to build the middle line before the Machsom?

Answer: No, before crossing the Machsom we cannot build a true middle line. Indeed, it cannot yet appear. The true middle line means that I already have properties of reception and properties of bestowal. Before I pass the Machsom, I simply do not have this. My nature is the animal nature, the nature of this world, and it is not my true nature.

Question: What happens when I make many attempts and exercises?

Answer: In this way I gain experience. It is just like in school. First one studies for a long time, and then one can go to work.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/13/26, Rabash, “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?”

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Question: How can I receive the necessary impression from my friends?

Answer: One must be impressed by the environment regarding matters that pertain to the greatness of the Creator. This is possible only if the friends appear great in my eyes, and I view myself as smaller in comparison to them. What my friends do, how they work, what they are occupied with in life in general must truly become a great example for me of people who sacrifice themselves for the sake of spirituality.

Then I will gain an impression of how important spirituality is to them, from what they speak about and what they think. I will recognize how much higher they are than all those who are outside this frameworks and I will be able to compare what fills the lives of people outside my group and those who are inside it.

Thus, one needs to value the friends, lower oneself, listen, and pay attention to how they behave and act. And then I must demand that they openly, and not modestly, perform good deeds and speak about the importance of the group and the importance of the Creator so that I hear it, and not as if each of them were a hidden righteous.

You are able to receive an impression from the environment only on the condition that you place yourself in a position of humility relative to it.

Comment: But this is against nature; it is impossible.

My Response: I do not think that it is impossible. Start thinking about this. It is not against nature. Look at how each one comes at three o’clock in the morning, overcoming all his obstacles. There is an inner intensity within him that sets him apart from anyone on the outside. Consider how special he is given that the Creator chose him to bring here and make an example of for you.

In relation to you, he is an angel bearing a message about the importance of spirituality. He can convey an awareness of the importance of the Creator to you. He has literally descended from heaven and appeared before you in order to tell you that the Creator is important. He is a messenger.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are ‘Blessing’ and ‘Curse’ in the Work?”

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Talks about the Steps of the Ladder, Part 217

What Is the Difference Between a Person Being Close to the Creator and the Creator Being Close to a Person?

A person who advances and draws closer to the Creator discovers that, from the Creator’s perspective, there is no concept of being “close” or “far,” either from him or from other people. A person is within the Creator all the time, and from the Creator’s perspective he is already in the state of final correction (Gmar Tikkun), from which the Creator relates to him. However, the person feels the Creator’s attitude toward him in a negative way according to the extent that he himself is not corrected.

This is exactly how we behave in this life. How much pressure and how many blows does a demanding mother give when she wants her son to become a doctor? Until he is immersed in it one hundred percent. Until he studies and receives the highest possible grade. Nothing less than that. The more he resists, the more she pressures him.

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 39 “What Is, ‘The Torah Speaks Only Against the Evil Inclination,’ in the Work?” (1989) (10.29.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 1, Part 1, “Inner Observation”

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The concept of “prohibition” in Kabbalah implies an “impossibility.” What does it mean that “one must not teach Torah to idol worshippers”? The Torah refers to the lights that fill the vessels of bestowal. Torah consists of acts of bestowal.

An idolator is defined as the will to receive [in Hebrew, the acronym “AKUM” (referring to a pagan or idolator) literally stands for “one who worships stars and fate.”]

The intention of an idolator is directed not toward the Creator, but toward various other forces, those that are within the will to receive, because there is nothing besides the Creator and the will to receive.

An idol worshipper is one who worships the will to receive. It is impossible to teach him Torah, simply because he has a different intention. He does not perceive the concept of “the intention for the sake of bestowal,” and therefore it is impossible for the upper light to reside in him. But the term “impossible” is expressed in our language by the word “forbidden” or “must not.”

But why “must not”? Why not call the impossible “impossible”?

Because the sages are speaking about the path of correction, they mean the following: “Do not do this because nothing will come of it. It will not succeed.” In short, it comes out as “It must not be done.” “Must not” serves as advice: “Do not do it because it cannot be accomplished.”
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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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Question: In the context of the shattering of the Kelim (vessels), we speak about the Kelim of the “stony heart” (Lev HaEven), AHP of AHP, which we cannot correct.

It is only by concealing them that we achieve their correction, so that subsequently we can truly receive a Masach (screen) for them, and work with them for the sake of bestowal.

Can we say that it is precisely into these Kelim of the “heart of stone” that we acquire the lights of the three first Sefirot (Ohr de GAR), by arriving at the secrets of the Torah and the intention of the Creator?

Answer: Yes, and that is not all. We can put it this way. The eighth, ninth, and tenth millennia are the descent of the world of Atzilut into the place of the worlds of Beria, Yetzira, and Assiya. This marks the beginning of the work and correction of the heart of stone. This is not the whole story, but let us say that this is the case.

Your question is the following: if I do not work with the heart of stone at each of the degrees, does this mean that by doing so, I conceal the secrets of the Torah, and do not touch them? The answer is: also this.
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From Daily Kabbalah Lesson on 8/16/26, Rabash, Article 2, 1991 “What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work?”

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The upper one reveals His lower part, Malchut, to us as empty and black; it promises us nothing good.

The spiritual world, the upper world, is specially presented to us in this unattractive way. Yet in this world, perceived within Keter of the lower one, there is at least some pleasure.

I am in a state where even this world holds no attraction for me, yet the state of the upper one seems even worse.

After all, I lack fulfillment in my egoistic desire to receive, and the upper adds even more heaviness to me, by suggesting, “But you wanted to be in a state of bestowal!” I have nothing to eat, and yet I am told: “Go ahead, share with others!”

Therefore, the conditions set by the upper can be accepted only without reason, without any conditions, and not by one’s own strength, but by the strength of the light, without plans and without hope of filling one’s egoism and gaining profit in this world.

The main thing is to attain the state of bestowal, and then you will have everything, but only after you have renounced everything! You will receive fulfillment (satisfaction), not from receiving, but from bestowing.

This is how we should perceive the month of Elul before the beginning of the new year, the beginning of the spiritual path. “ELUL” stands for: “I am to my Beloved, and my Beloved to me.”

The upper one present me with these hopeless conditions that promise no fulfillment, so that precisely through them I will be able to free myself from my egoistic state.

If He had promised me something good, I would never have been able to tear myself out of my egoism, chained as I am to pleasures.

As it is said: “The Creator places a person’s hand upon a good fate, ”immerses his life in darkness and emptiness, and on the other hand, reveals a small ray of light to them that shows the person where they can turn to escape from the darkness.

The ray of light is not about egoistic, material gains. The Creator assists me on the spiritual path by bringing me to a Kabbalistic group, the place where I can freely choose the right environment, and by illuminating the way for me; that is, He gives me the sensation that bestowal is the light. Light is rising above one’s egoism when it does not matter to you whether it is empty or filled, but the important thing is with whom you are connected.

The Creator makes it clear: if you are suffering in your corporeal state, do not seek material fulfillment; instead, look upward from that state and consider the possibility of a different life, based on other values, on bestowal, and on another dimension (of happiness).

This means that a ray shines for me through the slits in the wall that separates me from the upper world, a world of tranquility (free from egoism and the endless pursuit of fulfillment) and perfection (found in the aspiration of bestowal and love).
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/6/10, Baal HaSulam, “What Is the Acronym Elul (I am for My Beloved, and My Beloved Is for Me) in the Work?”

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In our world, an intermediate stage exists between a curse and a blessing. Our world is defined as al menat lekabel (for the sake of receiving) and the future world al menat lehashpia (for the sake of bestowing).

These two factors do not touch one another; the only transition from one to the other exists within a person, who seems to be able of alternating between being in one state and the other. I say “seems” because this does not yet occur in reality, but rather at a level below Kedusha (holiness) and the Klipa (impure forces).

From above downward, down to the Machsom (barrier), there are two lines: true holiness and the true impure force, true blessing and curse. Below the Machsom, the roles of the true concepts of “curse” and “blessing” is played by what may be called a “set of exercises,” this world, given to us to prepare ourselves a little, exert an effort, and begin the real work.

Thus, here we do not have holiness (the intention for the sake of bestowal), and strictly speaking, nor do we have the impure force (the intention for the sake of receiving), the curse. We have neither one nor the other. Therefore, what we do can be done. We do nothing inherently bad and nothing inherently good here. Everything is allowed to us, much like to small children, so that we might learn something from the experience.

If a person truly wants to approach genuine actions that one determines and performs themselves, and wishes to leave infancy, like the adults of this world, then one must go through stages of learning, preparation, understanding, and a certain level of awareness.

This process is called from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma (from the intention for one’s own sake to the intention for the sake of the Creator). This is the state before the Machsom that we must attain. No matter the circumstances, a person must seek ascent and awakening, a desire to do something for the Creator, for the higher force, even while in a state of concealment (both double or ordinary).

A person can acquire this desire only from the group. There is nowhere else to get it from, because when in concealment, one does not see the Creator. By working with the environment, annulling oneself, and realizing the importance of the Creator, understanding that it is worthwhile for him to annul themself before the group in order to realize the importance of the Creator, a person thereby shows how important and necessary this is for him.

For this, a person is ready to sacrifice himself and is truly capable of constantly finding the drive to act and be impressed by the environment so that one’s efforts invested in the group with the aim of receiving the awareness of the importance of the Creator from it, become a sign of how important it is for one to come to the Creator, to spirituality.

In the action that one performs toward the group, annulling oneself in order to attain the Creator, all the actions against one’s own desire toward the Creator and toward the group are present. Everything in one action.

The awareness of the importance of the Creator is similar to one’s attitude toward a great Rabbi whom a crowd of admirers meets at the airport, when a person finds enough energy within himself to carry his suitcases. But if an ordinary person gets off the plane, it would never occur to anyone to do such a “foolish” thing as help him with his luggage.

Therefore, there is nothing else for us to work on except the awareness of importance through which we move from curse to blessing.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/18/26, Rabash, “What Are “Blessing” and “Curse” in the Work?”

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Question: What is the danger inherent in the secrets of the Torah?

Answer: If there is a prohibition to engage in the secrets of the Torah, then, apparently, I could do it. And if I can, then how? After all, we are talking about the vessels (Kelim) and the lights (Orot) of the first three Sefirot with which I don’t have the slightest connection.

The point is that a prohibition signifies an impossibility. But if it is impossible, why is it forbidden?

Suppose a dangerous object is located at a height of two meters. I cannot reach it because I am only 1.7 meters tall. So I ask someone to get it for me. In spirituality, it doesn’t work that way. There, if I cannot reach it, I simply cannot reach it. So, what does it mean that it is impossible to reach, yet still is forbidden?

The prohibition applies to the intention: do not intend to reach it or touch it. Even though you cannot reach it, and know this, you might still strive for it or desire it. You are told, “No! You must not touch this, you must not desire this. Even those who are advance must conceal these vessels and lights.”

Therefore, there is an obligation to correct one’s attitude toward the secrets of the Torah by intentionally concealing them. We do not yet know exactly what is being discussed here. This correction takes place above reason.

So, “prohibited” means “impossible.” And “impossible” means that you perform an action that confirms this impossibility. Despite your desire, you perform an action defined as “impossible.” In spirituality, every word denotes an action—building my internal spiritual attitude toward a subject. Hence the prohibition, which also implies that I will perform the corresponding action. Thereby my vessel will become perfect.

There are desires in me in which this prohibition must be enacted, in which I must establish an attitude specifically toward the first three Sefirot: I do not touch nor desire them. Even if I do feel the urge, I structure my attitude as if I do not want to or intend to, and effectively conceal the first three Sefirot from these desires.

This constitutes the correction. This does not mean that I pay no attention to the matter, such a thing does not happen in spirituality.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/16/26, Rabash, “What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work?”

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