Morning Lesson October 15, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 9, (1989). What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work?

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, it's really interesting if the calamity comes to the wicked in order to correct them then why does it begin from the righteous? Let's see.

Reading Article. (00:56) “Our sages said, “No calamity comes to the world..”

2. S. (30:28) The quality of bestowal or to delight to His created beings, it seems like something very far away but in every such state to delight the Creator, I think this is accessible to us. We have it in our hands, so through such actions we eventually do build the final state?

R. At the very least, we begin from these actions.

S. But this is truly accessible to us, right, in every given moment, we can avoid shame?

R. To the extent that we are able to get away from ourselves and get closer to the friends, to that extent we can truly bring contentment to the Creator.

S. Such conscious actions are the ones that build in us the quality that we aspire to?

R. Exactly that.

3. S. (31:38) What is the thing that hinders us the most from discovering the evil in us?

R. The thing that prevents us from discovering the evil in us is our ego. It always tells us that we are okay. There is no more.

S. When does the change occur?

R. When you want it to occur and when you persist in that, then it happens.

S. There are many times that I want something, but I don't achieve it. How do I succeed in everything that I want on the path?

R. It depends on what you want and how you insist on it in order to receive what you want. You understand there needs to be a very strong desire here – that you wish to come out of your ego and work for the sake of others.

4. S. (32:52) What does the righteous do with this anger – this evil – that he sees before him? How should we work with it?

R. He tries to destroy this evil, meaning to transform it to good, to overcome it. What else can he do?

S. It also says that he doesn't preach to others?

R. I don't understand what kind of translation you are getting there.

S. He doesn't condemn the wicked. He doesn't see them as lower than himself?

R. Righteous and wicked are in a single person. Therefore, he wants to kill the wicked within him or at least lower it and the opposite with the righteous – raise it, increase it, above the wicked in such a way that he will get closer to the Creator. The righteous and the wicked are within a single person – each and every one of us – and it's up to us how we relate to them.

S. Can we say that if a person changes his perception from reception to bestowal he will also be able to justify the war that he sees?

R. Of course.

S. What is the essence of the war? It brings us to connection?

R. Yes.

5. S. (35:00) What is a calamity exactly?

R. A calamity means the rule of the ego in the world, that's called calamity.

S. Who perceives the calamity?

R. Man, the human, the calamity comes into the world in order for man to think about what can he do, how to correct himself so that the calamity will go away, will disappear from the world.

S. Does everybody perceive the calamity if you are righteous or not righteous?

R. On the way towards correction, it certainly comes and helps man correct himself.

6. S. (36:28) Rabash describes it in the article as a very logical mechanism. The moment that the yearning towards bestowal begins to appear in a person – the quality of the righteous – to the same extent, a person begins to discover how far away he is from the Creator because he discovers within himself all the evil, all the problems, from here comes the question. It is also written that the wicked – the quality of the wicked – is what operates or moves all the evil in the world. As much as a person sees that he's far away, so I am a little bit confused here. It says here that all the time a person tries to be or aspires to be a righteous, and he sees also the evil within him, so what is the matter of wicked here even?

R. Righteous and wicked can't exist on their own they constantly complement each other so that man feels himself as wicked, corrects something in himself, and then opposite those qualities that he corrected, he feels himself as righteous, but in principle, all of this changes from here to there, righteous or wicked, righteous or wicked, and this is how one rises: left, right, left foot, right foot. That’s how we advance.

S. How suddenly the quality of the wicked is replaced by the quality of the righteous?

R. A new egoistic desire is awakened, not corrected yet, and it turns out that it becomes wicked.

S. Where does the quality of the righteous disappear? If I understand correctly, the righteous appears, and then a person starts to work with him all the way to the end. How come suddenly the righteous disappears and is replaced by the wicked?

R. So that man will work and correct all of his qualities. So that all the evil inclination, which the Creator refers to saying in the beginning of creation, “I created the evil inclination,” that it will ultimately become corrected by man, more accurately by the Creator but the request, the demand of man to have the good inclination, thus, all the bad will turn to good.

S. In the article, it turns out that the person works with the quality in the quality of the righteous he begins to discover the evil in him until this evil becomes a high mountain, so it turns out that the moment he becomes wicked then the high mountain becomes a hairsbreadth or did I not understand correctly?

R. No, no, wait with that a bit.

7. S. (40:28) Can the righteous cancel the evil decree by his efforts?

R. Yes, the righteous can cancel all the decrees, and then instead of bad, we will see good.

8. S. (41:00) From the article, it seems that faith distinguishes the righteous from the wicked. How can we foster greater faith in our ten?

R. Only by transcending the will to receive. Faith is the quality of bestowal, and if the Creator elevates in us the will to receive, it is so that against it, we will demand the desire to bestow and that is how we rise in degrees of faith further and further.

9. S. (42:15) He writes that the suffering brings the created beings to take upon themselves the matter of bestowal since these are the only true vessels that are capable of receiving the upper abundance which the Creator wants to give them. Can you explain again why suffering brings a person the quality of bestowal?

R. Suffering pushes the person forward to look for instead of the quality of reception where he feels suffering, towards the quality of bestowal and that is how he is advancing.

S. We need to reach a different kind of suffering, right? Torments of love?

R. That’s afterwards. In the meantime, we have no connection to that. After we acquire somewhat of the quality of bestowal, then we come to the quality of love and correspondingly begin to receive suffering of love.

S. It means that, in the time being, we shouldn't be in some illusion that we actually enjoy suffering. Suffering is something bad, unpleasant?

R. Yes.

10. S. (44:00) It says because it is against nature, therefore it is difficult to perform this act and this is the labor. This is between man and the Creator. Likewise, the same correction exists between man and his friend so that there will not be shame. It says here that there's labor between man and the Creator and between man and man, and with his friend, it's clear, but what is the labor – the exertion – between man and the Creator?

R. That he always raises the Creator in his eyes to a higher and higher degree.

11. S. (44:50) It says that all of the work is to be with the intention that with this act he wants to give contentment to his Maker. What gives contentment to the Creator?

R. It’s that we connect between us and ask Him in a common prayer to raise us to Him, closer to Him.

S. This is in the actions that we do in the ten – efforts that we make in the ten. What about the things that we do outside of the ten? What gives Him contentment?

R. If you are not in the ten, you don't bring Him contentment.

S. I mean our corporeal actions in the moments that we’re not really in the connection, in the lesson, or in the daily meetings but rather in those other moments?

R. Still, you have to imagine yourself that you are connected with them. You can't reach the Creator if you don't reach connection with the friends. Between you and the Creator: on the way stands the group, if you connect to it, then you open your path towards the Creator because the Creator hides Himself behind the friends.

S. This is when we meet in the lesson or in meetings but then I go to work, I go shopping, and I am with the kids. How do I give contentment to the Creator then?

R. So you're always maintaining connection with Him anyway. It doesn't matter where you are – buying food or at work, whatever.

S. But, then I'm seemingly without the ten?

R. You need to be physically with the ten or emotionally?

S. That's my question?

R. That's not a question.

S. What’s the answer?

R. It doesn't matter if you're sitting next to them or like now you are each sitting in your homes. You still have to envision yourselves being together “as one man in one heart.”

S. It says I have always seen the Creator before me. I should only think that I have seen the ten with me everywhere I am?

R. Of course because the Creator becomes revealed only in a ten.

12. S. (47:44) What does it mean that a person walks on the path of truth which means to serve the King?

R. That he always wants to get closer and closer to his friends and through his friends get closer to the Creator and thus, go together with them – he, the ten, and the Creator as one. By that, he comes closer to the purpose of creation – that we’ll all be together as one.

S. How can a person shift from being wicked to being righteous?

R. That all depends on how much he appreciates the spiritual work as opposed to all kinds of corporeal states.

13. S. (49:05) Is it correct to say that the difference between wicked and righteous is that the righteous is aware that he is wicked?

R. Yes, it is all in a single person – both the righteous and the wicked.

S. So the difference is the awareness?

R. Yes.

S. If I understand correctly, this is the reason that the righteous, who knows there’s another option, is more harmful – he causes greater calamity than the wicked himself? Is that correct?

R. It’s not two people – it's a single person.

S. Yes, I understand but let's say the righteous one is aware that he's wicked and the wicked is not aware of it. Why do they say that the righteous one – that calamity begins with the righteous? It comes because of the wicked, but it begins with the righteous because the righteous, they know there is another option and they don't choose the right option still?

R. Let's say.

S. What does it mean that calamity comes because of the wicked but it begins with the righteous?

R. Because still in the connection between the created beings, there is evil inclination, so they discover that the Creator allows them to reveal that.

S. Who are they?

R. The people who are at the moment are considered wicked.

S. They do discover that they’re wicked? I don't understand?

R. Because you're not listening.

14. S. (50:55) Can we draw the evil that we see in the world into the ten and correct it?

R. We don't need to reveal the evil in the world and attract them to us. We have to first correct ourselves, meaning all of the lack of connection between us in the ten, that is what we have to correct first, otherwise how will we correct what's happening in the world?

S. Maybe I can ask from the opposite direction. The connection that we discover that we reveal in the ten, can it cover the evil that we see in the world, even if we ourselves do not experience it?

R. No, no. There is evil in the ten and there's evil that we see in the world. Of course they’re interdependent, but it's not that one covers the other.

S. How do we correct such high levels of evil?

R. Gradually.

15. S. (52:22) It says that the wicked one in the person lectures his friends so that they will correct themselves while the righteous doesn't lecture others but rather he asks for faith in the Creator. Why is that so?

R. Because we usually don't tell each other what you need to do. Rather, we set an example. We give an example of what we do, and to the extent that it influences the other, that's how it passes from one to the other.

16. S. (53:10) It says that you have no greater wicked than those who see simply that they lack faith in the Creator. All of that, when the wicked ones are revealed in the person is specifically when they want to be righteous, so according to the article, the calculation within spirituality is not with the exit you're doing in corporeality but with the intentions of wicked versus righteous in the person. Still, what about the calculation with everything we do between us in corporeality in order to come closer to each other and all the way to evil deeds of a person who harms other people?

R. To the extent that it enters a spiritual calculation, it enters it. We still don't feel where that boundary is.

S. Is there any calculation with ordinary people who do not study Kabbalah and they do such harsh things that we see?

R. No, it's not a spiritual calculation there.

17. S. (54:28) Ultimately it sounds that the righteous always discovers that he's wicked, so what is he asking for faith? What is that faith he's asking for?

R. By discovering that he is wicked, he's giving the possibility more and more to rise and get closer to the Creator, and through the revelation of the wicked in him he becomes more righteous.

S. But that request, ultimately, you see how much you're only asking for yourself. How do you change the request from yourself to the ten, to the others as a whole?

R. This depends on what happened before. Where you discover that you're wicked. You see.

S. How do I scrutinize where I am wicked?

R. Check what is revealed to you.

18. S. (55:42) What is the high mountain that the righteous reveal?

R. It is those same qualities that they still did not transform to in order to bestow.

S. How do the righteous cope with this high mountain that seems so great to them?

R. They try to climb on top of this high mountain, meaning they try to acquire all the qualities – the bad qualities – in order to transform them to good qualities.

19. S. (56:44) Who is the righteous that will change the decree?

R. It is a person who sees how much he is in the evil inclination and how much he wants to invert it to the good inclination, and he asks – he turns to the Creator through all of the friends and he truly compels the Creator to correct him. This is called “My sons have defeated Me.”

S. Is there such a person among us?

R. We will see.

20. S. (57:33) Is there a difference between what the righteous feels – the sense of burden as what the righteous feels and what the wicked one feels?

R. There is a difference of course in quality and also in quantity. We need to feel both this and that and then we can compare.

21. S. (58:12) It says here at the end that there is a correction that man will not see the evil more than what is worthy of correcting. When it happens to the individual, it's quite fast, but when we come to revealing the evil in the ten, it becomes a big mountain and it seems different from individual work.

R. Yes, so what is the question?

S. How can we make it so that the correction we do in the ten of lack of connection, that it won't take us months – that we will focus on this work together immediately?

R. It depends on you. Why are you asking me? Let's hope that you will realize that everything depends on the connection between you, as much as you are bonded, and then it will happen.

22. S. (59:40) You answer everyone's question before us. You leave us to the last, and I'm sure it's our fault, but we feel it. You ask everyone before us – everyone, everyone in the world, so here’s my question. Rabash says that the Creator wants us to have the most pleasure and the most delight and yet we suffer a lot and we blame ourselves. We blame ourselves and then we learn that it is the Creator sending us this. It's the Creator making us feel this way. My question is: Why is the Creator so cruel to us? Why is it so difficult? Why does He torture us so much?

R. I don't know what to tell you but apparently you need to connect between you and turn to Him and try to receive an answer. You have complaints – both about me and about Bnei Baruch and about why you're not getting permission to ask for earlier and also towards the Creator. Well, what am I to do? You need to learn more and more to know what pertains to the Creator, what pertains to the created being, what kind of the connection they have between them, how to awaken this connection, what does it depend on, and then you will see that it doesn't depend on the management of Bnei Baruch or me but rather only on you and the Creator and then you will turn to Him with these complaints.

23. S. (01:02:12) A person who studies true sources with a true teacher always reveals more and more that the picture of the world he sees is only a reflection of inner states inside of him.

R. Yes.

S. Good and bad and so forth. But each one is individually different from others. How is it possible that all of us, including those who are not studying, are seeing the same picture?

R. Are you trying to take me to physics, to the perception of reality?

S. It’s part of it.

R. We, all of us, exist in qualities and emotions and perceptions that are similar. Nevertheless there are differences between each and everyone but there's also something which is common between everyone. This is why we see the world before us. We feel ourselves also as similar to each other and we have what to talk about because each one, behind each and every word, there is a special concept that awakens and we can talk about these concepts.

S. Can we say that for me, for instance, the picture that I see is also true. It shows me who I am basically?

R. Relatively, relatively. What is your present state with respect to the correction?

24. S. (01:04:35) You said to Tel Aviv that the connection in the ten doesn't correct the evil that is revealed in the world – that the evil we see in the world is gradually becoming corrected. What can we do nevertheless so that the evil that becomes revealed now in Israel, at least with respect to people on the outside, would be more in mercy?

R. That we will relate to each other more closely with Hassadim. That is all, that is all.

25. S. (01:05:41) Do I understand correctly that these definitions of righteous and wicked become real only after the crossing of the barrier and until then we're just sort of establishing some images of that but..?

R. Yes, possibly.

S. Sorry, but I don't clothe it onto myself, it’s something abstract. I'm talking about some future states.

R. Yes.

26. S. (01:06:35) How will we turn any bad and harmful to good and useful as Baal HaSulam writes?

R. By overcoming, growing stronger in the connection between us.

27. S. (01:07:01) How do we reach a corrected reality?

R. Be closer to your friends. That’s it.

28. S. (01:07:33) What is the direct attitude to establish or to remember between the external evils that unfold and the inner evils at work with regards to this work?

R. We will learn that.

29. S. (01:08:11) This article states that he feels he is far in faith from the Creator and therefore far from receiving the delight and pleasure that He wishes to impart upon His creations. The question is, is this distance a feeling that we should pray for to know how much correction we need to do?

R. I didn't understand.

S. Should a person want to have a feeling of his distance from faith so he knows how much more work he has to do?

R. No, he can't know that. He should only overcome what he sees before him.

30. S. (01:09:15) He says here that the work begins when the person moves from the work of the whole, the majority, to the work of the individual. What is this with regards to us, to our work – to move from the majority to the work of the individual?

R. We constantly work this way and then the opposite way because we constantly need to see how do we connect more and more in the form of the general public and then in the form of the individual. Soon we will have more complex work between the entire world vessel and the individual vessel and a person will have to operate both in this and in that.

S. Just about that point based according to what he says, when a person is still working on the work of the majority, it's like a hairsbreadth. He doesn't even feel the wicked and certainly not the righteous part. But when he comes to the decision to work in order to bestow, which is the goal, then the big gap begins to appear, the evil within the wicked and he also begins to be called a righteous because he wants to be called a righteous. So where is that stage in our work?

R. It is still ahead of us, we don't feel it yet, we don't feel it yet. You're asking about a stage which is way ahead of us.

31. S. (01:11:19) When we have complaints about the Creator, when we have complaints about the teacher, Bnei Baruch, it seems to me like this is a great revelation of the evil that has appeared. What do we do to turn this evil into good, could you explain it to us?

R. It is only through connection that we draw, invite the reforming light from above and then when it shines we invert from bad to good.

S. Yes, because sometimes, especially new students sometimes get confused about this and it's always important for us to pray when this type of evil states appear - because it’s actually for connection and the only way to pray about it is to actually connect to the friends and then use it as a means for connection and for correction.

R. Yes, yes, I agree with you.

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