Morning Lesson December 20, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 5, 1988. What Is, “When Israel Are in Exile, the

 Shechina Is with Them,” in the Work?

Reading Article: (00:44) “It is written in the Megillah: ‘Tania Rabbi Shimon Ben Yochai…’”

1. S. (01:06:52) In exile is descent an exile when a person feels the state of descent?

R. That depends on how a person receives it.

S. What does that mean?

R. According to a person's sensation or discernments.

S. In the article, he speaks of the exile in Babylon. According to what I know, when the exile in Babylon took place, first they brought over all the select few of the people, the prophets and all that, and then they exiled the rest, and I noticed that also in the states of exile, the Creator arranges all kinds of conditions so a person would be able to come out of it. The question is how to succeed specifically in these stages to see the help of the Creator in those states of the darkness.

R. I can't explain to you because we're not really in exile in darkness. We disconnect from the Creator and that is why we don’t have anything to talk about here.

S. What is it when friends are going through states where seemingly they're being thrown out of the path they come to a state where they feel that they cannot continue?

R. These are still kid’s games.

S. In our state do we even have a state called exile or not yet?

R. We do not, but let's hope that we will feel it, that we are detached from the Creator, from the spiritual world, and that is considered exile.

2. S. (01:09:21) Is there a difference between the sorrow of the Shechina and the sorrow of the Shochen, the Dweller?

R. The sorrow of the Dweller we associated with the Creator and the sorrow of Shechina we associate with all the Kli, that Israel needs to do it in order to serve it to the Creator.

S. We say that our work is to raise divinity from the dust, can you explain the meaning of that?

R. That the same upper force needs to be revealed in our Kli that we prepare for Him, we need to prepare for Him, that this is a mutual, connected Kli with adhesion between us and all the created beings and in that, we bring back all the vessels that He created and according to equivalence of form and mutual bestowal need to the Creator and Creator to us, by that it adheres and is fulfilled.

S. When we work in the Ten and we look for what to pray for something, doesn't matter what, we wish to create a prayer between us?

R. There's nothing more to pray for only for the Shechina to rise and be revealed between us, and we will raise it, and bring it closer, raise it to the Creator, and that He will accept it because His desire is to be revealed in the corrected Shechina.

S. Why do we say to lift the Creator but instead to raise divinity? We are giving Him an opportunity to be revealed.

R. The Creator has nothing to raise. He is revealed in Shechina according to the need and desire for deficiency that the Shechina feels and that she wants to be fulfilled from Him. We need to ask for the Shechina, it is our mutual will to receive that we raise to the Creator and want to if needed correct it even though we do it for ourselves, we have an inclination towards Him from everyone, from each and everyone together, and we want Him to arrange in such a way that He’ll be able to fulfill it, this Kli.

3. S. (01:12:48) He says that the Creator wants the world to exist, that is why He must clothe Himself in dresses that are not of holiness, meaning that He bestows through the world liveliness and in dresses of corporeality.

R. Yes.

S. What is the existence of the world here? What does He give the world?

R. All of the worlds are clothing’s of the Creator from the smallest particle of an atom to all of reality. All of that becomes the appearance of the Creator towards us and we want all of these things to be connected together through our efforts and to have a place for the relation of the Creator.

S. He's speaking of the existence of the physical world? What kind of world?

R. Physical, chemical, doesn't matter what. Desires, our desires that will be that way connected, that we want to be connected in such a way that the Creator will be able to be revealed in us in full.

S. Because in the next paragraph, it says that the world can receive pleasure only in dresses called envy, lust, and honor. How does that connect?

R. That first, you need to feel our deficiencies in envy, honor, and lust. That if we will direct them too to the revelation of the Creator then we will be able to reveal Him in full.

S. Then what is the correct use of envy, lust, and honor? How do we use them correctly, and ascribe them to the Creator?

R. Yes, we ascribe it to the Creator. We do not want to work with them in a way they are revealed but only in a way that is for the sake of the created being, for the sake of others, for the sake of the Creator.

S. That is the action that takes a person out of the world, that’s what we say?

R. Yes. Envy, lust, and honor are the three manners of our ego.

4. S. (01:15:35) Rabash writes that the Shechina clothes in a form of descent. How can a person recognize the Shechina in a descent?

R. He feels the descents and he understands that this descent is for him like everything else is for him.

S. In the descent, he is immersed in himself. How from being inside himself he can recognize the Shechina?

R. He needs to rise a little bit above himself unless he is totally infantile and begins to identify that everything that happens around him is for him.

S. He also writes that sorrow is that there's no place for the dweller to dwell and he also has to be sorry for the sorrow of the Divinity, so again when a person is disconnected and immersed in himself, can he even take into consideration the sorrow of the Creator?

R. I do not think in disconnection he is so truly disconnected but rather he is given the feeling, the sensation of disconnection, but at the same time out of this disconnection he can raise himself, answer the Creator, rise.

S. It turns out that a person is not disconnected from the Creator in any state.

R. No, of course.

S. How from the exile a person pray for the benefit of the Creator and not himself?

R. Here is exactly his choice, for whom am I working, for whom am I praying? Of course, for the Creator.

S. Why should he determine for the benefit of the Creator and not himself?

R. For his own benefit? Of course, it is not worthwhile for him, he already decides that by the time he comes to the states we read about. Maybe before that, he thinks for the sake of the friends but for his own sake certainly not, that's already passed.

5. S. (01:18:24) What is the connection between the place to reveal the Creator and HaVaYaH, HaVaYaH, Elohim?

R. HaVaYah is not a revelation it’s not revealing. HaVaYaH is a kind of structure, a construction that is revealed to us in all kinds of ways and brings us closer to the revelation of the Creator, but in itself, Yud Hey Vav Hey is not a revelation it's a slogan, it's a motto.

S. With our revelation of the Creator he says that the Creator is revealed in a place.

R. Yes.

S. The place is deficiencies that is connected to a special intention to give the Creator contentment.

R. Yes.

S.. On the other hand, there's a feeling that the Creator is something being formulated, it's a force that, it's not only a place there’s like an addition. The term HaVaYaH shines but I do not know where to relate it to. What is HaVaYaH?

R. HaVaYaH is an inner place of our existence, our desires, thoughts, everything. We call it HaVaYaH but HaVaYaH itself we do not attain it.

S. Attainment is like he describes that we have to connect the desires?

R. Yes.

6. S. (01:20:28) He writes that there is nothing greater or more important than filling the desire of the Creator not receiving for himself. Then a person has to know what he is lacking in the King's palace so that he can fill that deficiency, meaning what you could say, how could you say that the Creator feels sorrow? Well, when the person wants to check if he's giving the Creator sorrow, so in a simple way, if he causes sorrow to the Ten, he's giving sorrow to the Creator?

R. Of course.

S. In order to check if I'm giving sorrow to the Ten, so in this world, a person can check if he makes a friend sorry, a child sorry, if he’s giving sorrow to his parents, in any system you get feedback, the parents tell the child, the friend tells the friend, look you hurt me. Is there a place in the Ten where the friends can give feedback to each friend? Look if you do this better, if you do that better you will give us more contentment, like an exercise in the Ten, is that accepted?

R. We read it in the articles that Rabash recommends.

S. Is it recommended to sit and the Ten says, tell every friend what they’d expect him to make better?

R. Directly and so deliberately. I do not think so. Because afterward, you will have to be like a slave to act out as if he is doing it but indirectly, yes. Start from further things not overtly.

S. I still have like a tendency for the Ten to pass.

R. The best through example. The best is through example.

S. He writes that the suffering is so great that the whole world became dark, and he cannot find any counsel but to run away from the campaign, and that is called that, he continues by saying that escaping the campaign comes for one reason, that you do not mention the name of the Creator?

R. Yes. We see many friends who sometimes leave us, and they have such a feeling. Either they are not receiving here enough in their vessels of reception, or they see that they have no hope or purpose here, or they simply see that they do not have enough connection with others so that they can use them, and hold on to them. Usually, they are people who are very critical about the environment about others who are also conceited. The truth is it does not matter where a person is, if the Creator brought him to some place and placed his hand on the good fortune, good fate, and said take this, everything else you do the maximum you can in that place and the Creator will see to changing your place if need be, or to elevate you, or move you, this is already, okay?.

S. It is a person's responsibility, it sounds.

R. A person must cling to the place where the Creator brought him.

S. Society does not need to do a calculation, why a certain person ran away, what we missed out on?

R. Yes, but I do not know to what extent we can introspect that correctly. We need to give, to make room for everyone but especially to give examples to each and every one about the right work in the group, in the society.

S. We have a friend who really now just left. He decided, went through a long process, and decided to disconnect at least from our What's App and we wanted to scrutinize what to do in such a state. Can we do any calculations? Maybe we did not give a good example.

R. Could be, I do not know, I don’t know what What's App is. Do I have What's App? I do, who is running it?

S. It’s like a virtual group on your phone that you can send messages to one another. It’s not one person managing it. It’s like a message.

S. Let's say there's a connection between the friends and one friend technically left that connection, so should the group think that maybe we did not give a good example?

R. The group needs to do what it decides, this is a matter for the group. You need to speak about it together and give him a chance to be connected to you one way or the other. Each one has his own obstacles.

7. S. (01:27:40) On the same topic we have a friend in the Ten, maybe 20 years on the path, and two months ago he disconnected from us. Until when should we continue to pray for him? First of all, we physically tried everything, but he just ignored us, at least technically, to turn to him. Until when internality do we still see him as a friend and pray for him to come back?

R. I don't know maybe for a month.

S. Okay, thank you.

R. But the place remains. Maybe in two or three months, he will wake up again to return so accept him.

S. For us he did not leave that group The WhatsApp, but he doesn’t talk, we just leave him in there.

R. Yes.

S. In the article, he says that once a person feels light, or seeing, or a thought, it's not a sin but only afterward when he keeps going that is a sin. 

R. Yes.

S. When seeing you understand but how in thought to understand it and flow with his negative thought that takes me down?

R. Try, as you read but here, we need to be again connected in a group and to understand that such a thing that is now happening by this you may be determining for yourself a new path for your entire short life, and the loss can be truly great. Exiting the group is something very, very, grave. The group is like a boat, it nevertheless takes you when you are in it but if you get out of it you are on your own. Moving from group to group is also not a children's game, not a game.

8. S. (01:30:48) All the articles that we learned lately go good into the head and the heart, but they are not carved on the heart. When I go out of the lesson it is like an old memory. How can I really carve these things on my heart?

R. You can't constantly keep them in your memory because you will not be able to learn new things therefore, we need to be impressed by the articles in a way that is more shorter, more concrete. Try, for every article that you learn, try to write a few lines but as few as possible but these lines should truly be the essence of the article.

S. Yesterday you gave me advice during the day to be in the hug with all the friends, to actually feel it within.

R. Yes.

S. It was a very strong exercise but somehow a fear awakened all the time as if I was enjoying something now and I could not do anything with it. The actual action, does that draw the light and it corrects, or beyond that is there an addition that I have to add?

R. Alone you cannot add more than connection. You need to reveal in the connection between you that place where you connect into one point, the center of the connection. It could be galaxies. It does not matter what distances or quantities, but you want to feel their center and to be attached to it.

S. In that feeling of adhesion, what do you do with it? It's scary.

R. When you come to that point and you want to cling to it you want to truly cling to it forever as if with the strongest possible glue, we want not to think about ever wanting to disconnect but only to be more and more attached. By this, we will begin to feel the internality of our connection.

9. S. (01:34:03) He writes that the dweller can be revealed in the place where there is the intention to bestow. 

R. Yes.

S. I understand this is not my own personal inner intention but only the whole Ten, so how do we format that intention between us from in our vessel?

R. By wanting to be connected among you and from your connection to turn to the Creator.

S. I’ve created the evil inclination and the Torah as a spice, so it feels in our inner work that it is not so bad, you have to give the evil inclination a lot of respect. How to develop an attitude of love in order to use it correctly for spiritual advancement?

R. We do not need to love it, the evil inclination, we need to be careful from it. It is our constant leader you cannot run away from, it walks next to us and we constantly have to feel its constant work on us. This is how we will advance if we feel it all the time next to us then our way can succeed.

S. In all the articles, also today, yesterday, all of them, in the end, we need the Creator, a plea. 

R. Yes.

S. Sometimes there is a feeling that you want to raise a prayer. We talk about the prayer about the connection, about how good He is but not really asking from Him, there’s like an embarrassment in this attempt to ask.

R. In other words, it’s not me who is asking but we who are asking.

S. Exactly.

R. On the other hand, it’s good when a person feels that he is in society and the whole society awakens along with him.

S. In this common request, each one of us has to relinquish his own ego for that center and raise that common prayer.

R. Yes, of course. We will do exercises soon on turning the Creator, okay.

10. S. (01:38:05) How should we prepare vessels in order to invite the dweller and not to let the light escape?

R. To invite the dweller? What does it mean? Who is this referring to?

S. He means the Creator, the dweller that clothes in the Shechina.

R. How to invite the dweller and not let the light run away, get out?

S. How to prepare vessels in order to invite the dweller and not let the light escape?

R. Invite the vessels, ask. What is the problem, don't you have a mouth? Ask, it doesn't matter in what language. The Creator understands your feelings even if you speak, doesn't matter what language or in what way.

11. S. (01:39:06) How to awaken the importance of the goal in the Ten in order to lift the spirits in the work?

R. This should be a series of exercises. Let them make an effort.

S. How is the sorrow of the Divinity expressed when she is in the dust?

R. It is expressed in feeling that the Shechina is in the dust, the Shechina is in the dust, that we want to raise the throne of the Creator. In Hebrew the word throne, Kise, also comes from the word Keesui, covering, so we want to raise it up and then we discover more and more how much it is in the dust.

12. S. (01:40:17) In a state where a student surrenders for the complaints of the spies and does not want to turn to the Creator, what should he do?

R. Quit. Let him live like that next to us. Each one has his own time, and each one grasps in his own particular way therefore I am not impressed by people who seemingly are lagging behind or rushing forward. We should not pay too much attention to either.

13. S. (01:41:04) What does it mean that the Creator is in exile suffering, how can we use that for spiritual advancement?

R. Try to do everything in order to bring Him out of Exile, and then we will discover that He is happy with our actions.

14. S. (01:41:30) Should a person always check himself if he is working in those three components of EHTE, faith, prayer, and exertion, or should it be in an order of one after the other?

R. No, faith, prayer, and labor, the acronym is EHTE, which is like, with me. Actually, it is correct that we want to reveal it.

15. S. (01:42:11) Something interesting in the text, it was written how a person reaches a descent and he describes that that the “I” wants, and the heart covets, that it starts from the thought and it says that if he repents on what he sees he will not reach that coveting and it will not create a sin. How, in the first state when you think of something to right away reach an awareness and repentance and not develop?

R. Very simple, we encounter it on a daily basis. First, you look at something, you don't understand what it is, then you kind of photograph it and try to understand what it is within you, and then you begin to relate to it emotionally, and here is where you need to disconnect yourself.

S. What does it mean to cut myself off of it?

R. Not to go into the feeling, not to go into the feeling.

S. You cannot be in emptiness, you probably need to connect to the friends?

R. Yes, but simply switch to something else internally.

16. S. (01:43:47) If a person is in a state that the light isn’t clothed in the person and I'm in the state of Divinity in the dust, how can a person give the light back in order to reach equivalence of form with the Creator?

R. If he does not feel the Creator's relation to him so that he can give back the same relation from him to the Creator then there's nothing to talk about there is no connection. He should keep studying and soon it will come.

17. S. (01:44:50) In what way can wisdom or nonsense be revealed in a person before they actually are realized so we can either use them or limit them?

R. It is only through experience, only through experience, both the spirit of folly and the spirit of wisdom can be revealed in a person and the person should already have the sensitivity, the great sensitivity in order to detect them in advance according to even the first illumination, and this way shot himself out.

18. S. (01:46:13) It says in the article that those five percent that can reach wholeness to bring them into the King's palace they are tested, so how does the Creator test us?

R. In different ways. We will learn it through the process of our lives. 

19. S. (01:46:51) It is written that we need to make all the efforts to reach a complete prayer. How to silence that inner voice that says that there's much more we can do even though the part of my soul says that I did everything possible, and we should turn to the Creator?

R. We have to live normally in all the manners of life but within, deep within the heart we need to have a desire to reveal the Creator and be able to connect, to unite with Him. Try to direct your heart this way to the Creator and you will gradually feel His nearing.

20. S. (01:48:19) The Shechina, the Divinity is our common correction?

R. Yes, the Shechina is the common desire of all that exists.

21. S. (01:48:51) Is HaVaYaH the structure in the Ten of the Divinity in the Ten?

R. The structure of the Shechina in the Ten, well let's say yes, not right now but in the future when we discover it we will discover it this way. It is called “and the name of the Lord will be upon you.”

22. S. (01:49:37) How can we feel the taste of life that is in holiness?

R. In holiness, there is no sorrow of life.

S. The taste, the flavor of life?

R. The taste of life, how to feel the taste of life in holiness? Connect among you then connect with the Creator and at the center of the connection between you, you will feel the taste, the flavor. You'll feel such a feeling that covers everything. That will be the taste of holiness.

23. S. (01:50:37) As much as we could absorb the text, the question is of the exile is a state that is in awareness, the work and the exiles is awareness?

R. I understand he is excited, but he still needs to take into consideration where he is.

24. S. (01:51:08) The article says one does not see unless the foolish king enters their heart. Is our prayers the shield that protects us against the foolish king entering our heart?

R. Yes.

S. (01:51:43) I heard you answer a friend that we are not in exile, we don't know exile yet. What are these feelings or tastes of exile that we get when we try to connect and realize we can’t? Is this the ego trying to play tricks with us, what is it if it's not exile?

R. Well let's say that all your children, smaller or bigger boys and girls, everyone left home and you remain alone and there are no children left at home, that you were so connected to them, your children, so what would you do now? That's actually, well at least the feeling of the exile even though it's much more than that but one of the types of exile.

S. Is there a possibility that we can experience this exile?

R. Yes, we need to feel that our disconnection from the Creator is called exile.

25. S. (01:53:56) If the Creator takes out the taste in this work, I understand we have to change the intention, where do I begin? Should I go through to a different direction where there is flavor in the work or do I continue in the same situation?

R. No, you can go to that, you can go to that and search where the opportunity or the ability to bestow in the connection with the friends where it grabs you more and then get into that place. 

26. S. (01:54:54) Concerning the good example, I really want to set a good example to the Ten. What's the gauge and how do I check if I am really giving a good example in the Ten?

R. I don't understand the question.

S. Concerning good examples, how can I check that I really am giving good examples to the Ten?

R. You have to try and see a response in them that they are using a good example and by that advancing.

S. How do I check that the example is really good, that I'm really doing good to them?

R. That's something the friends need to tell you not you.

27. S. (01:55:52) Is there a way to bring the Shechina, the Divinity out of exile through daily activities or is it something only for the final correction?

R. No, it's your daily actions, your daily actions that we do need to bring the Divinity out of the exile.

S. It goes in and out and in and out according to our work as a Ten, as a person, as what?

R. It could be, we will see, first we have to feel it.

28. S. (01:56:45) Sometimes it seems like even if we give a certain person an example, he doesn't get it, he doesn't see it. Is it something because of our, is it something in our example not clear enough, or maybe he’s just not getting it?  Also, regarding children's education, we hardly need to speak but set examples but there too sometimes it doesn't seem like the child understood the example that the grown-up gave him.

R. Right, that could be too.

29. S. (01:57:28) It is written here in the article that during a descent a person should thank the Creator for giving him an opportunity to see his real state, that He gave an opportunity to acquire a holy soul and a person should be happy with the state of descent, with the state of sorrow. The question is, usually we yearn to come out of descents because we feel bad there. Here it says I don't need to feel bad I need to be happy. How do I use the happiness in the descent to shift into an ascent?

R. Try to be closer to the Creator no matter what state of ascent or descent you are in, try to grab onto it and hold onto it.

S. In a state of descent can I use the fact that I feel bad?

R. Use whatever you want, the main thing is to hold on to the Creator.

S. The group or the Creator?

R. The group, yes, the group.