If a person wants to cross the Machsom, he must leave his “self”: I do not exist; I am outside myself; I am leaving myself. Kabbalists do not speak or write much about this method of drawing closer to the higher degree and becoming similar to it because there is a danger here that people will be carried away into all kinds of fantasies and illusions and begin imagining that they are already floating somewhere out there, though no one knows where or how.

Such imaginings may be practiced only together with actions within the group, through joint actions in relation to the friends. Simply sitting and fantasizing about these matters is not recommended because it would be an action detached from reality, carrying you somewhere unknown, and where you would eventually find yourself would be impossible to know.

But imagining oneself as leaving one’s “self,” I do not exist, I am present in the thoughts and desires of others and act only in accordance with their thoughts and desires—is our very first exercise. As soon as a person becomes capable of performing such an action upon himself, he begins to sense the others rather than himself. He begins clearly to see one single force throughout the world that governs everything.

Why does he begin to sense this? Because he has left himself, become included in this force, adapted himself to it, and united with it, since its principal quality is also the absence of a “self.” Then the person sees that absolutely all people in the world—the wicked and the righteous, the capable and the foolish, the savage and the civilized—all simply carry out one thought.

No one has any personal desire or personal movement; everything is determined by one intention, which simply exists in the world like a field. Everything and everyone move only in accordance with it.

Each person is a mechanism that operates in a state of maximum fulfillment with minimum expenditure. And this mechanism automatically takes its place each time, acting in accordance with this field.

This field is called the Creator. More precisely, it is not yet the Creator, but the manifestation of His governance in relation to all those who are in this world. A person begins to see that everything operates according to one law, one rule, one will. To the extent that, he has shed his “self,” he unites with this thought and this will and wishes to enter further into the Creator’s field, he begins to see how everything in relation to him becomes good.

Naturally, nothing changes in relation to him; he simply begins to see how good it truly is. He sees that everyone else carries out this thought because his thought and the Creator’s thought have merged into one. He sees that everything in the world is done for his sake and for his benefit.

And even if, in his opinion, something harmful is happening, he still understands that it is not bad; it is simply impossible to act otherwise in the states in which people find themselves. Therefore, he approves of and understands them so completely that even if someone were to approach him and threaten his life, he would be unable to oppose him with anything. He loses his “self” to such an extent and feels that everything happening around him is absolutely correct.

I give such extreme examples, which are not yet entirely clear to us, only so that they may give us some understanding of what it means to rise a little above the Machsom. They are intended to let us sense, at least slightly, this boundary crossing from there to here, and back again.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson, 9/29/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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Everything depends only on a person’s state. If he is an egoist, then he absorbs it into himself. But if he is not an egoist, if he bestows,  nothing harms him.

If a person were to ideally reach his absolute state of equilibrium, he could live in space without a spacesuit; he could live in water without a breathing apparatus. He would feel nature, in all its relationships, as benevolent toward him.

I am talking about this as if it were some kind of fantasy. It is not a fantasy. That is, contrary to all kinds of supposed laws.

This is possibly only because he would be in balance with the upper force of nature, and everything else is subordinate to it.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 9/8/26

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Question: How can there be a dispute between Kabbalists?

Answer: A Kabbalist is someone who is in the spiritual world and feels the spiritual. You are asking how they can perceive things differently? In exactly the same way as in our world.

There are so many scholars in this world who have disputes among themselves! One sees reality one way, another sees it another way. It is not that they see reality differently, but rather that their opinions diverge regarding the laws by which this reality behaves. It is a somewhat hidden thing, yet also somewhat revealed.

Let’s say we see some phenomenon. You think that the source of this phenomenon is such-and-such, and that is why it manifests itself in this way before us. However, what manifests itself before our eyes, we see the same way. But neither you nor I see what lies behind it.

These are already higher levels. It is quite possible that this is not even the next level but two hundred levels higher. We see reality as it is in our world, but the reason for what we see may be two hundred levels higher than what we have comprehended. And then we begin to reason: “Is it this way or that way?”

This dispute was between Baal HaSulam and Rashash. Baal HaSulam writes a little about it at the end of the book “The Gates of Intentions.” But what he writes is only a small fraction of the picture. This dispute is very fundamental for them, but not so much for us, because Rashash is truly a saint. What he achieved is holy, divine words for us.

But what he points to as the reasons for what he sees is actually two hundred steps higher. And since he has not yet reached that level, Baal HaSulam does not agree with him, because Baal HaSulam has achieved more and writes from the level he has attained. In his opinion, Rashash is not mistaken in what he presents to him as a fact. The facts are correct, but when he speaks about the reasons for what is happening, he is mistaken.

It is like in our world: there are two physicists whose debates are endless because they are discussing a cause that is hidden and may be very high and very far away. That is why there are many disagreements and differences of opinion among the Kabbalists.

And this is fair, for they are merely researchers. They study the Creator’s actions, and to the extent that they can align themselves with those actions, they comprehend them; to the extent that they cannot align themselves with them, they do not comprehend them. But the causes are always higher than what they comprehend. Moreover, they may also be mistaken in their interpretation of the causes, since it is impossible to give names to what has not been comprehended.
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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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The world remains unchanged; only we change within ourselves. It depends entirely on me, how I experience the Creator: in His “double concealment,” in “single concealment,” or in His direct relationship with me, “face to face.”

For His part, He is always present in the Kli (vessel), in a direct relationship with me. I perceive this according to the level of my correction. If all my qualities are corrected and I sense the Creator’s complete manifestation, then we are “face to face.” This state is called “adhesion,” (Dvekut) the “end of correction” (Gmar Tikkun), or the “world of infinity,” (Ein Sof) where no limitations exist.

To the extent that my 620 senses, sensations, desires, and qualities are uncorrected (they may be partially corrected and partially uncorrected, forming a spectrum of all 620 desires), each must be raised to the full height of all its ten particular Sefirot. Only then will all 620 desires reach their maximum height.

They may also be at different levels, one lower and another higher, like a spectral image or like the visual representation of sound on an equalizer, organized by frequencies. Suppose there are twenty selected frequencies, and we see how high or low each one is.

Similarly, we have 620 qualities, and each reaches a height of up to ten Sefirot. The height of each one determines the picture of the world presented to us. Our qualities are precisely those sensors into which the Creator enters. The more corrected they are, the more the Creator enters them; the less corrected they are, the less He enters them.

These degrees of the Creator’s manifestation in the 620 qualities draw the picture of the world for us. In the part of the 620 desires that is corrected, the Creator is present; this is called the “measure of the revelation of the Creator.” In the lower, still uncorrected part of the 620 desires, the Creator is not manifested; this is called the “measure of the concealment of the Creator.”

Thus, the word “world” (Olam) comes from the word “concealment.” It is the measure of the revelation and concealment of the Creator. Our lowest world is the complete concealment of the Creator. All the spiritual worlds exist according to a certain measure of the Creator’s revelation: in a particular combination and arrangement of my 620 desires, I already sense the Creator.

Why are these desires not all corrected equally? Because they differ both in quality and in their Aviut (egoism). This is why there is a world called Assiya.

The world of Assiya, characterized by the quality of Malchut, differs from the world of Yetzira, whose quality is Zeir Anpin; from the world of Beria, the quality of Bina; from the world of Atzilut, the quality of Hochma; and from Adam Kadmon, the quality of Keter. In addition to each world being a greater sensation and reception of the Creator, the quality of each of the 620 desires rises to one degree or another.

In other words, when ascending from degree to degree, not all 620 of my desires improve by, say, 10 percent: one may improve by only 1 percent, while another may improve by 8 percent.

Moreover, attainment changes not only through the general intensification of the sensation of the force in which I exist, but also in quality, in the way it affects me. It is the same in our world. We experience it not only as stronger or weaker in its manifestation toward us, but also by the character of that manifestation as more pleasant or unpleasant.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/24/26, Sitrin Convention, Sukkot 2003

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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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Question from my blog in English: When you speak about the language of branches, are you referring to an analogy or some kind of metaphorical thinking? If so, does this imply a unique language that cannot be conveyed in words, making it difficult to grasp what those who have internally attained the Creator intended to express? Will we intuitively understand this language once our own attainment coincides with theirs?

Answer: There is an “I” that perceives itself and a certain space around it, wishing to absorb what is necessary and useful from this space and to throw out what is harmful or unnecessary. I learn how to build connections with this space in order to always be in optimal comfort. All my knowledge comes from this kind of interaction with the space surrounding me that is filled with nature and people. Psychology (in the materialistic sense) is the science of the egoistic perception of “self versus the surroundings.”

If I begin to expand my “I” around me in ever-widening circles, gradually accepting the surrounding as part of myself, as something entering into my “I,” and egoistically subordinating it to myself, that constitutes conquest and acquisition.

But if, while continuing to perceive myself as distinct from the surroundings (an “I” versus what is outside me),  I nonetheless strive to relate to the surroundings as I do to myself, or even more so, that is altruism. This is because a sense of alienation or even hatred remains, but above this feeling, contrary to it, a feeling of love arises. It emerges because I stop identifying solely with my “I”; I step outside of it, and as if from an external vantage point, build a new attitude from this “I” toward the surroundings.

By rising above my egoistic “I,” I create a screen through which I relate to the surrounding with love, treating them as myself and even more; this is called the property of bestowal or reflected light. Kabbalah—a spiritual psychology—deals with the perception of “self in relation to the surroundings.”
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Question: How does fear of the future allow you to add something extra, that is, to look at this fear from the outside?

Answer: I can view my fear from the outside only if I acquire some quality of Creator. We are not talking about animalistic fears, although there is a certain reflection of it even there. I need different Kelim to see and determine my state.

Had the shattering of the Kelim not occurred and had new foreign qualities not entered the soul (the desire to receive), we would never have been able to react, think, or look at ourselves at least somewhat objectively. But now, a person can see himself a little bit, as if from the outside.

This is a consequence of the shattering of the Kelim. Animals do not have this, but humans do. The more developed people are (I am referring to the animal level), the more they can see themselves from the outside and analyze. Psychology and other sciences are based on this. You do not have to study Kabbalah for this.

But where does it come from? As a result of the breakage in us, our animalistic Kelim acquired qualities that make us human rather than animals.

We feel the past and future from the present, and we can look at ourselves, examine ourselves, as if objectively, from the outside, much like psychologists do. For example, Freud wrote about himself, as if observing from the outside, exploring his own behavior from childhood to the moment he became a psychologist.

This approach can be developed for the entire creation and for all humankind from a spiritual perspective, from the perspective of the Creator. When one crosses the Machsom and acquires a spiritual Kli, in which he separates himself from his desires, from caring for himself, from attributing everything to his own “I,” and instead accepts the Creator’s view of himself, this is the most objective form possible.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 8/27/26, Rabash, “What Is the Work of Man, in the Work that Is Attributed to the Creator?”

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The difference between the present world and the future world lies in shift of a person’s inner intention regarding reality. Reality is everything that a person perceives. When you begin to see it in reflected light, that reality appears completely different to you.

However, this sensation is subjective. It does not mean that a person sees, for example, a house as something else entirely. Simply, its essence is seen differently in the intention and in the goal of creation. When you look at something, it seems to you that it simply exists. You do not even know why and for what purpose. But here you reveal a purposeful cause within each thing as well as how you can contribute to it. Every object has both a cause and a purpose.

A change in intention alters the sense of perception, ultimately, it is precisely the intention that changes, not what lies outside of the person. You might say, “But we learn that aside from the person there is only the upper light, and all the rest is simply illusion.”

So what does a Kabbalist in this world actually see? Do they see only the upper light, or do they also see houses, cars, women, children, and the group? Or do they still see only the surrounding light filling all of reality and themselves enveloped within that light?

When we say that the upper light fills all of reality, we are not referring to what we see and feel. We are speaking about the upper governance. It is what fills all of reality and is entirely benevolent. But at the same time, nothing disappears: not houses, children, nor the universe. The illusion lies not in whether something exists or not, but precisely in the intention for the sake of which it exists.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/26, Rabash, “What Is ‘The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord, and the Revealed Things Belong to Us,’ in the Work?”

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We have five organs of sensation through which we perceive our surroundings. If we had different organs, we would perceive reality differently.

What are “different organs”? What other organs might we have? Perhaps different desires? Do our desires change? We have five primary desires. If these organs of sensation exist, then we experience sensations; if they do not, we do not experience them.

You might ask: when a person dies, parts with their material body, and remains only in spirituality, how do they perceive reality? Can they perceive the material world using a spiritual body? Since their physical senses vanish, they no longer see houses or people. What do they see and feel? What vanishes and what remains?

Therefore, we must say that everything is related to the sensing organs. Now when you look at the world, you see the outer shell, the material garments, because your senses are material. If you were to add spiritual sense organs to this, you would also see the spiritual garments that actually exist, i.e., the spiritual Kelim (vessels), corresponding to your spiritual level and those below it.

Anything above your degree would simply appear to you as light. As you ascend, this light coalesces into Kelim and their fillings. For example, each head (Rosh) of a Partzuf is called infinity, but this is infinity relative to that specific Partzuf.

If, however, I am above its Rosh, then for me, this is no longer infinity but a Rosh that I understand and perceive. What the Partzuf does not attain within its own Rosh, I grasp within mine. Thus, everything is determined by the sense organs.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 9/2/26, Rabash, “What Is “The Concealed Things Belong to the Lord, and the Revealed Things Belong to Us,” in the Work?”

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I cannot directly change anything within myself. I cannot “touch” myself at all. I have no access to my will to receive.

For example our vision. Scientists traced the path from the eyeball to the optic nerve, from there to other more complex systems of the organism, and discovered along the way what we see, how we see, and how vision can be corrected.

Eventually they arrived at what is called the pleasure center. If you begin to examine this center, you will quickly discover that it is a specific structure in the brain that operates through biochemical reactions.

But behind it, beyond the reach of a scalpel, lies a part of us known as the “feeling” self; this is the spiritual Kli. There is no way to reach it. It is a desire! Everything else is merely the material garments of the desire, the means through which it operates and expresses itself. But we cannot reach the desire itself.

So what do my eyes perceive? Sparks of light clothed, let us say, in a beautiful painting. I look at a beautiful picture and enjoy it. What does this mean? There is no pleasure in the picture itself. There is a spark of light in it that corresponds precisely to my Kli. Someone else may look at the same picture with indifference, or even disgust. But it fills me with pleasure.

In other words, the spiritual spark that is clothed in the picture is perceived by me through my eyes, passes through all the systems until it is finally released at the end of the material, biological chain, and enters the source of my spiritual pleasure: the spiritual desire.

The entire path that it travels—from the picture, to the eyes, and through all the systems of the organism—is merely a channel of transmission. At the beginning there is a spark of light and at the end the will to receive. That is all! All our sense organs are merely transmission channels.

This is how we live in this world: the same lights and Kelim, only with an intermediary between them. From this we see that we have no power over the light and the Kli. They are completely separate from us and exist outside our bodies, and we can change them only by drawing the surrounding light.
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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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