The Book of Zohar and The Study of the Ten Sefirot (TES) are two truly monumental sources of spiritual power. The Book of Zohar with the Sulam (“Ladder”) commentary, and TES, which is a commentary on all the writings of the ARI, are two foundational works.

It should be said that these are not merely books, but sources that present the spiritual system itself. Therefore, when I study them, I draw the light from there and its influence upon myself.

Question: But you study them as a Kabbalist who has already attained spiritual perception?

Answer: Not necessarily. It does not matter.

Even people who understand nothing of what they are reading, by reading these sources, studying the inner system in which they exist, draw upon themselves an illumination of the light that brings them closer to spiritual degrees.

To what extent must they pass through these degrees and understand them? To the extent of their soul’s capacity, until they attain the world of infinity and take their place there, the place from which they descended to the level of our world.
[356830]
From KabTV’s “I Got A Call. Properties of our generation” 9/30/10

Related Material:
Light Streaming from the Sources
The Uniqueness of Kabbalistic Texts
Living through the Sources

Question: What does it mean to choose the best environment when a person is already in spiritual attainment?

Answer: The environment is not the people around you but rather an abstract expression of your friends’ attitude toward the Creator. The environment does not sit at a table like you do; it is not in any particular place.

It is the sum of your intentions, aspirations, inclinations, expectations, all your efforts toward the goal. It is in your interest for these to be as broad and strong as possible, so that you have the strongest possible connection with these intentions.

It is a spiritual force both now and when you are already beyond the Machsom. It is just that now it is relatively hidden from you. You imagine it in some form, and every time you have different doubts and new definitions arise; sometimes you know what a group is and how you are connected to it and at other times you do not. After the Machsom, it takes on a more distinct, conscious, and clear form. Yet the work remains the same.

Therefore, even now, we must imagine as accurately as possible the sense of the environment. It is not one, two, three, twenty, fifty, or a hundred friends I study with, whose names are so-and-so, who look like this or that.

The environment is what stands behind all these people, a kind of spiritual force: an aspiration, a desire for the Creator, and persistence with which friends hold on with their teeth so as not to waste a single moment in their movement toward the goal. If they also want to unite these forces to benefit everyone; this is called a group.

It is about the spirit: that each person supports the other, and that we all drink directly from this common source of the spirit. Otherwise, there may be a billion of us, like the Chinese, but… The main thing is the spirit within the group. This is what we must care about, and evaluate everyone according to their contribution specifically to this.
[357023]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59, 1962

Related Material:
Proper Environment
The Environment Decides What’s Important To Me
The Detector Of Bestowal

Question: How does the environment provide a person with an aspiration toward the goal, toward the quality of bestowal?

Answer: The environment provides a person with such deficiencies (Hisronot) without any words because that is exactly what it is engaged in. A person is connected to the environment, and if it is the right one, he is bound to receive a sense of concern from it, a feeling that he has lost the most important thing.

After all, the disappearance of the light does not yet bring him a Hisaron. He must feel that he has lost equivalence of form with the environment.

If the Creator disappears, if the light disappears, then with respect to the group a person should feel a Hisaron. The group serves as a substitute for the Creator in order to compensate for His concealment.

Choosing the best environment means that a person must constantly care that his group has the strongest, most correct, and most consistent direction toward the goal, and also that he himself maintains the greatest possible connection with the group.

Then one can be certain that even if the light departs from him—and the light must disappear in order to reveal a new Hisaron, a new Reshimo, the reverse side of a new degree—his support, the group, will immediately help him become aware of his state.
[357019]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/22/26, Rabash, Letter 59

Related Material:
The Group: Preparation for Spiritual Birth
The Group—A Compass Pointing the Way to the Creator
The Group Instead of the Creator

In our work, the definition of “necessity” is constantly changing because a person must discern their attitude toward the Creator in each of the soul’s desires.

Theoretically, we can say that our soul consists of 620 desires (organs); in each of them, I must determine that the most important thing for me is to fill each desire with the Creator, His presence, His sensation. Therefore, for every desire, I feel a new obstacle in different situations and circumstances.

We still do not know how to determine which property of mine or which part of my soul these problems and questions have arisen from. Everyone experiences it in their own way.

There are common obstacles for everyone and individual ones for each person. However, this is why the obstacles are constantly changing, transforming, and even returning.
[357011]
From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 5/20/26, Rabash, “The Difference between Charity and Gift”

Related Material:
What Is A Spiritual Necessity?
The Spiritual Principle
Find What We Are Missing