Morning Lesson December 3, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. The Arvut [Mutual Guarantee]. #21

Reading Item #21. (00:13) “These are the words of Rabbi Elazar,..”

1. S. (04:22) He's speaking about the role of the Israeli nation here to qualify the work for a certain measure of purity. They say that the Israeli nation is not in corporeality but people who follow Yashar El, straight to the Creator, the group that’s going for the Creator. Still, assuming it did its work this nation, why would the rest of the world make the leap as well, how will it happen to them?

R. Since part of humanity called the Israeli nation is doing it, it awakens all of humanity to also reach that determination.

S. Those several thousand people who are studying today, they do this? The world will already necessarily follow them?

R. That's what he writes more or less. I don't know if it's a few thousand or it should be more in this generation or the next one but that's what it sounds like.

2. S. (05:43) In the second paragraph he that if the side of merit which is the sublime understanding of the quality of loving others transcends and rises above the filthy scale of sin they become qualified for the attainment of “We will do and we will hear.” So there is a condition here, that first of all there has to be a full scale of merit.

R. There are a lot of conditions, he doesn't write about all of them but we need to understand that there has to be a general agreement more or less and a preparation on behalf of that nation somehow and that will change the balance in the world.

S. He says here explicitly as you said that there are conditions, so the condition is that if the side of merit is full we can say “We will do and we will hear,” before that we can’t say it.

R. I don't know what to say, I think that whatever our mind won’t do time will take care of. That we’re coming close to a state that eventually humanity will start understanding that there's no choice and we must demand the complete correction.

S. How do we come to meet this condition, to have this agreement, to really do and hear?

R. We’ll do and then, then we’ll see how we get to it, yes or no. Maybe we’ll fall from it and agree again and come closer to one another again.

S. Doing is acts of connection between us above everything?

R. Yes.

3. S. (08:00) In this excerpt he ends by saying they became qualified to say “We will do and we will hear,” so he’s talking about the world itself. Is there a difference between the work of Israel as opposed to the nations of the world in terms of this love of others as some sort of distinguishment, different work?

He's talking about the nations of the world, how they’re supposed to follow Israel and he says that the side of merit is to reach love of others and then they’ll be able to say like Israel, “We will do and we will hear” but we know that Israel’s work is different, it’s to love your neighbor as yourself which is more to love others. There's a difference here, the question is what is love of others that the world has to reach, that’s the question.

R. That we imagine to ourselves that the future of humanity is to be as one man with one heart in one desire and that we need to make efforts to reach it.

S. We see today that outside everyone is talking about loving others, loving the different but in each of these groups they all have their own kind of love, they want to force the love that they love, to make other people love the way I do. How do we come to a state where we bring the whole world to that fine tuning of as one man with one heart, that precise line?

R. I don't know, that's the light that reforms. We need to do what we're supposed to and to expect that the Creator will do what depends on Him.

4. S. (10:22) Given that every person has a point in the heart, what does it mean the Israeli nation, what's the difference between this part and that part if everyone has a point in the heart?

R. I don't know what to tell you. Obviously eventually every heart has a point in the heart that is connected to the Creator, that He actually created and established those states but I don't know what to say. Eventually all of humanity as it’s written, “They will all know me from small to great and my home will be a house of prayer for all the nations.” So, I guess for everybody but there's a difference, what comes first and what comes afterwards.

S. It is written somewhere that Israel will spread all over the world. What does it mean that first the Israeli nation? Either it’s supposed to spread in everyone or there are some sort of gradations or there are no gradations.

R. Yes, gradations of course, it’s written in a lot of places.

S. What does it mean the Israeli nation first? That first the Israeli nation has to realize it and then it will spread?

R. That comes from the central point of reality, the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

S. I’m trying to grasp what is this gradation where first you have Israel and then you have the nations of the world, that it spreads to them?

R. That to begin with it’s not a matter of something morphic, that everyone has the same thing but there's a difference, from the center and the sides let's say and towards all the nations of the world this group called Yashar El, Israel got such a name because they have the will to receive that yearns more to connect and adhere to the Creator.

S. When we speak spiritually it's clear what it means that first of all Israel receives correction and then it spreads to the rest of the desires of a person but when we speak about our world and we’re trying to depict how will it happen gradually because we’re working with people, with individuals. It’s not clear if a person is the nations of the world or Israel or any person in the world, so in corporeality it’s not clear how it will all take shape.

R. I don't know but as it’s written in the Torah, it’s pretty clear how it was in our fathers and the sons and the whole turnaround they did. You’re asking about a connection between corporeality  and spirituality?

S. Yes because when we disseminate and try to think how we are as opposed to the rest of the people the problem awakens here specifically because everyone has a point in the heart. Ostensibly Israel is a spiritual matter and can happen in anyone but when I look at a person I don't know, I can’t say if I should relate to him in this way or that way, if he’s from the nation or not so there’s a confusion here. Even in the Ten it’s the same thing, each of us has both, in the whole world there should also be both this and that.

R. I don't know but whoever comes to study Kabbalah it’s because the point in the heart escorts him.

S. Because it's already awakened?

R. Right.

S. Can we define that the nations of the world in our world are those people whose point in the heart has awakened and they’re searching?

R. Yes.

5. S. (15:23) I have a request about increasing faith. When someone looks at himself and sees himself so small compared to the rest of the world and still each one performs a commandment that determines the merit of the whole world and actually the blows that will come will not come  to humanity first but they will come to us, it's also clear. How can we increase the faith that in each one every act matters?

R. With the Arvut.

S. How do we increase the fear, how do we maintain the sensation we have right now after the reading?

R. Read what Baal HaSulam writes, Arvut, Matan Torah. They are two articles that we need to explain to everyone of what you need to do there.

S. How do we strengthen each other in this feeling?

R. That’s also written in many places.

S. Thank-you, this is the most important for us right now.

R. Next time before you ask, think about what you’re asking, is there an innovation that we need to scrutinize here?

6. S. (17:11) What is our perspective if we are in the beginning of the last generation? Through our correction can we also reach the end of the last generation to the complete correction?

R. I guess so.

Reading Item #22. (17:48) “And this is what Rabbi Elazar,..”

7. S. (21:44) What is the weight of a person's labor in order to achieve the Arvut or achieve Lishma, and what is the weight of the society that should give him Arvut, mutual guarantee, in order to obtain Lishma, the goal?

R. In what years do you weigh it, six hundred twenty times more?

S. On the one hand, he says everything depends on the sesame seed that each individual places. On the other hand, there's a connection between all of the people who are in this process. 

R. Yes.

S. Where one can place the sesame seed, and the other one can remove it, so if you can, if there is even such a thing, it’s clear that there is reciprocity, here between the individual and the society?

R. The main thing is like you’re saying, the mutuality, that we have to reach the state that only with mutual support we can keep the law of Arvut.

S. On the one hand, on the other hand, a person should say everything depends on me, I have to place the sesame seed?

R. Okay, but that doesn't mean anything, when does my sesame seed reach the plate, the scale, on the scales, and join only when everybody accepts this vessel and tries to put the sesames on it.

S. What should a person's attention mainly be, on his own personal labor or..?

R. Connection with everyone.

S. What is this matter of connection?

R. That all of our exertion will support one another until everyone connects, and we’ll ascend to one degree, one heart, one man with one heart, one plate.

S. So should a person take the matter of common labor here into account?

R. Yes.

S. How does he do it, if he, himself, places his part, how does he still take into consideration?

R. I don't think he can put his part without pulling everybody into this.

S. It’s the person's role to pull everyone toward it?

R. Yes.

S. Is that called placing the sesame seed?

R. Yes.

S. And what does it mean to pull everyone?

R. That’s called to pull everyone.

S. What, to make them also place their seeds?

R. Yes.

S. To advance toward the same goal?

R. Otherwise what is the benefit?

8. S. (25:11) In the work in the Ten are three states: the first state is that we all feel those states, ascents and descents; the second state is when I feel that the Ten is an ascent and I mean in a descent; and, the third state is when I feel that I'm in an ascent and they are in a descent. So, in the third state, when we are in Arvut, in mutual responsibility, should a person protect himself from the influence of the Ten? If I’m in an ascent and I feel that the Ten is weakening him, how does it work? Because there are states when you come and you become incorporated and it puts you down, how do we protect ourselves against the influence of the Ten in such a case?

R. I think that the work, to begin with, has to be in the group, when we awaken each other and hold on to one another and in this way, we advance together.

S. And if you feel that you are being pulled down, that you are in some moment of..?

R. Then you know that if you disconnect from them, even though they’re in a worse state than what you thought, you still, by being disconnected with them, you lose forces, you lose contact and then it's not worth it for you.

9. S. (27:16) Is there even such a state that a person looks and sees that his Ten is ruining it for him, taking him backward, can there be?

R. Could be, there are some that complain.

S. Well, I’m sure there are, but a person's work should be vis-a-vis, the Ten or vis-a-vis, the Creator in terms of how I see the states?

R. The main thing is before the Ten.

S. So what does a person do, let's say I look at the Ten and I see the clowns, the seat of the scornful, what do I do then?

R. If you look at the Ten and decide it’s the seat of the scornful, the clowns, and you toss them away and keep going alone, that's a problem.

S. So the question is when I see this and I know that it’s wrong, my perception is wrong, what is the work with the Ten?

R. Look at Rabash, all kinds of places, what a person, as much as he needs to lower himself and pray that the Creator will help him, that's a problem, that’s a problem.

10. S. (29:00) Can it be said, or can we think that if we correct ourselves, the more we unite, the more we balance what happens around us in the corporeal world?

R. Yes.

11. S. (29:26) We are worried, we want to know how to see and accept the full volume of our work, all the sesame seeds, and turn them into one prayer. It’s the third day, we’ve been following orders, we gathered our hearts into one basket, we’re pressing them together. We want to know what else is missing to reach a real prayer?

R. To reach a true prayer means to turn to the Creator and convince Him, to beg before Him that we see as much as we are connected and dependent on one another. And only He can make the correction in our vessel so all the separated hearts will connect together and will be as one heart. We don't need anything else but that, ask Him for that.

S. What will be the sign of the connection between us that we have advanced in the work?

R. You will feel that you are in one desire towards one goal, in one yearning.

12. S. (31:17) We want to come to connection and to build Arvut but we see it’s only words. We learn that it’s on us but we're not taking the responsibility, when does a person come to a point of breaking so he begins to work as he should?

R. When he reaches despair, when he sees that he cannot reach it on his own, and also the friends, with all due respect, cannot help him but only the Creator, Himself. He connects them and then they can reach that state where we all are connected.

13. S. (32:41) How can we balance all the influences of our environment in a way that I don't miss any influence?

R. Only by holding onto the friends and then when we connect and hug, so it's clear ,it is certain that the Creator will also keep us, guard us and in that way we won't miss anything of the connection.

14. S. (33:30) To feel at the center of the creation, is this when we have mutual responsibility in the Ten so when we attain mutual responsibility in the Ten we will feel the center of creation?

R. Yes, when we attain mutual responsibility in the Ten, we will feel Arvut, yes. That's what it's worth for us to do.

15. S. (34:13) It is written here that by this here waiting to a certain extent of advancement on the ladder of love of others and by that he advances the whole world. How do we make people feel that measure of love of others?

R. It depends on the measure of connection and our efforts. If I know that I'm as one adhesion, also yearning for connection, then we work in that way together, and it will really be like that.

S. But how is it transferred to the whole world, will they be able to fill it?

R. Their desires, their thoughts, it all starts changing.

S. But what channels does it transfer from us to them, we work in the Ten, we don’t tell them anything and will they suddenly feel this?

R. That's what the Creator does, that’s what the Creator does. The main thing is not to reach despair, more and more another day and another day until it comes.

16. S. (35:48) Yesterday we learned that if we correct only the parts of the desires that are in me according to the root of my soul. Can we say that this is my mutual responsibility toward the friends?

R. Yes.

S. So how do I relate to this part within me that others should correct or maybe you don't have any connections to them?

R. No, to the extent that you want to correct the others from within you, to hold them in Arvut, to that extent you force everybody in the world also to check that direction. That’s called to determine, that's how it is. That's it my dearest, the friend will tell us what else we have today.