Morning Lesson July 10, 2023

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

Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 1 (1985), Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend - 1

1. Rav’s Introduction: Well, this article is well known and it's very good, very nice, and also, this phrase, ‘Make for yourself a rav, and buy yourself a friend, and judge every person favorably,’ it is taken from Mishnah Avot, which is a very special source that we have. So let's read.

Reading Article 1. (00:00:33 ) “In the Mishnah, Yehoshua Ben Perachia says,..”

2. R. (00:30:31) Okay, I would like to hear a few questions, if there are any from the friends?

3. S. (00:30:45) He writes in the article make for yourself a Rav and he explains we need to take the friend to make them arrive above reason to make them great above reason. How to do such an action, like something with our hands and legs which we can do. It's possible but to feel how to do that emotionally to feel the friend Is greater?

R. Try to depict the friend that he is truly great that he is truly great and then through him you can receive from the Creator of course, because they create the managers, the whole thing so you can receive through him from the Creator and from all of the friends that the Creator will influence you, bestow upon you what we call the Torah, meaning they upper light full of forces and opportunities and possibilities, so that by that you will be able to correct yourself.

S. How do you recommend it? How to succeed to see this in my senses so how do I convince myself in my mind?

R. Well, depict this to yourself that the Creator rules the whole of reality the entire world. He fills everything and surrounds everything and of course he watches over each and every person and when he puts together the group and who else is gathered us besides the Creator there is none else besides him so each one of us can learn from the friends the behavior about the behavior of The Creator what is it that he wants what is it that he demands and so on.

S. The only way I think such a thing can happen is that the Ten uplift that same friend that there's some spirit in the ten that uplifts the friend and then it's easier to see the friends is?

R. Yes of course, this is how it is, this is how we need to relate each one of us to the friend’s from the group that each one is special.

4. S. (00:33:53) He writes that first of all, every person needs to acquire the greatness of The Creator and we know that our entire connection is through the friends so how does this work out so that I can acquire the greatness of the Creator without the friends?

R. You cannot, you can't even be impressed by the Creator if you are not connected to the friends. This is a matter of from the love of people to the love of the Creator this is how we reach it. The whole thing is that first of all we have to determine this between us such relations where each one with respect to the friend will be as small ready to serve them in any possible way for the sake of each and every friend.

5. S. (00:35:10) He advises us that in order to buy a friend you have to concede many things. What do we need to concede for the friends?

R. First of all one has to concede to himself that the Creator fills everything, He manages everything, He does everything however, to whom should I be connected, who should I value and elevate and respect besides the creator who is the source of everything it is only the friends. The friends are that same system of connection between me and the Creator. If I don't have this connection, then I cannot emerge and reach contact with the Creator, I cannot reach contact with the Creator.

S. For one friend, I am willing to concede for myself let's say 50 grams and for a second friend let's say 100 grams I am willing to concede how do we do this?

R. What can I do about it? This is how the Creator arranges the Importance for you. What to do? To raise the importance of the entire society your Ten. Let's say but not the whole of humanity but rather the Ten right? Try to support them and help them do everything because you raised their greatness in your eyes.

S. He touches, like calling it, like a business,a partnership so what in the Ten do we want to see that each friend invests the same thing not more not less?

R. No, each one can not invest the same first of all each one invests as much as he can and in a way that he's capable of and we understand that whatever each one gives it according to his nature according to his character according to how the Creator arranges for him all of his foundations this is how he serves himself to the society and this is how we need to accept it.

6. S. (00:38:43) It says engaging in love of friends is not enough so how do we understand here the love of friends? What should be done more? Concerning, let's say this article, let's say according to the greatness and judging favorably Is this love of friends already, so what is needed extra here in love of friends?

R. In principle we need to judge everyone favorably, each and every person and to relate in this way to each and everyone. This is truly correct from that same assumption that the Creator manages everything. There is nothing that we need to do except to bow down and diminish ourselves towards everyone, everyone and then I can learn from everyone and receive from everyone or through everyone the influence of the Creator over me.

S. What for? What is extra? Because it is already difficult to do it in your own Ten and if you need to do it to everybody what is needed in this case?

R. Besides diminishing yourself towards the friends, I don't see anything else that we need to do. No, because through them you get the influence of the Creator. The true influence, bit by bit more and more it is revealed and then the friends become as a system around you and the Creator is the one who fills the system and this is how you see the whole of reality.

7. S. (00:41:40) It's written here that the order of the work is in above reason and it's called 'Make for yourself a Rav' because the kingdom of heaven is accepted because he is great and rules all. What does it mean, 'Make for Yourself a Rav' and how is that connected to the kingdom of heaven?

R. Imagine to yourself the upper governance that manages the entire world and that you exist under it and that's all you have an opportunity to adapt yourself to this upper governance. That is,do not bend it according to your desire but rather elevate yourself such that you will be ready and qualified to take upon yourself His desire.

S. To scrutinize the desire, how do we do this each time anew?

R. It means that you need to work only on connection between everyone, only on connection among everyone. That is all of your work should be only for that that the whole world will see itself as a single structure.

S. That’s called 'Make for yourself a Rav'?

R. This is called make for yourself a Rav, meaning when you take the Creator and you place Him above yourself and all of his laws and his requests you take as your commitments, then yes and this is called 'Make for yourself a Rav' that you exist below him.

8. S. (00: 44:34) What kind of awakening does a person who is born in the will to receive, have to give in order to reach the love of friends?

R. A person must give from himself if possible and awakening toward connection with the friends with everyone who is with him in the group,in the Ten. This is what he has to do even if he doesn't know what for and why and what benefit would come of it. He still must accept and do it. There are many people who come and who will hear about it. Well but what’s the benefit? From all of these efforts a person must realize that yes the benefit is there by keeping the Creator's will and as much as this will is higher, greater, more encompassing,should try to understand it to feel it. That's how it works.

9. S. (00:46:23) We need to make a Rav from the friends but this is a continual struggle in the ten. Sometimes I make the friend a Rav then hate towards him awakens and this breaks down and then I have to make him a friend again. How to make a Rav from the friend in an infinite way?

R. This is impossible. You will have to work on that until the end of correction and afterwards but until the entire will to receive will be revealed as a will to bestow and something which is completely foreign to you will be revealed as the force of love and which is incorporated in you 100% in this work. It continues until we reach the quality of the Creator as it says, ‘return O Israel to the Lord your God’.

10. S. (00:48:25) People said only about other people that you only need to judge them favorably. Why does it say so about friends?

R. About the friends.there's no need to even say it the friends it's obvious that you need to relate to them in such a way that when you enter the group make a goal for yourself to reach the degree of the Creator to attain the quality of the Creator then there is nothing else for you to do besides to relate to the friends at least as you relate to yourself. Ok?

11. S. (00:49:27) In the article it talks about an order like make for yourself a Rav by yourself a friend and judge every person favorably. Is this a necessary order to maintain?

R. In principle, yes.

12. S. (00:49:56) We read what is written, to give honor articles to give honor also in Psalms it is written to give honor to you. I think as I understand the intention is the same thing just in different ways of writing it give glory to your people glory to you?

R. Meaning in which way should we relate to the Creator what does it mean glory?

S. Yes, I'm one hand he says, give glory to your people and in Psalms it says give glory to you?

R. Yes, we in our existence want the Creator to free us of our desire so that we will be able to rule it and direct it correctly to the purpose of creation. We want that the Creator will reveal in us a desire to receive so that in this entire will to receive that will be revealed it will all be aimed towards connecting the whole of reality and connection between us first of all. That's how we want to arrange it.

13. S. (00:51:49) Can there be such a work in the Ten, that I only choose part of the friend to buy only part of the friends and everything else I judge to the scale of merit?

R. It doesn't matter you can accept them this way or that way, your friends but in the end you will see that you need everyone. That there's no such thing even if there is a friend whose qualities are not necessary for establishing the general Kli.

14. S. (00:52:40) Rabash writes here that the friends begin to describe people invest equally and those who don't invest equally then the reward is unequal. of course we are talking about my inner perception that everything is inside of me and not really what's truly happening, but this is the picture as I attain it, and I have to work with it, is that correct?

R. Well, let's say so.

S. Meaning I don't need to worry for this that each one will sit nicely in the lesson every day and if they are not present, it's my internal work? That I focus not on the external things; but rather how I grasp the friends and how much they invest and I need to reach a state where I see them all as equal and then they are called friends?

R. I don't think so, I don't think that it is possible in such a way to reach justification and the glory of the work of the Creator. In principle, you need to try to bring everyone closer to everyone; and as for myself I need to subjugate myself to their general desire and to nearing them, and to work on it. We don't have any other work besides gathering the Ten so it is homogeneous such that it will be as one man with one heart. In principle, this is what we need to do.

S. In truth, this is a pretty large nuance. Maybe the most important part of our work is that everyone should be together in the morning lesson and then we feel like we are in the same degree. iIn the meantime we don't see this picture physically. It doesn't matter for what reasons our friends can't participate in the lessons everyday health, work there are all sorts of reasons not to be together in the lessons so we still don't have that. So is it up to me internally to see all of us as equal and to yearn and ask for this from the Creator?

R. I must aspire for that I must try that this will happen, that everyone will physically be present in the lesson well we exist first of all in the physical world and then we rise from it so if we won't have a physical connection, we won't have any other kind of connection up to the highest degree so that we have to keep this. We need to keep all of that.

15. S. (00:56:57) How can we work on honor or glory when the friends let us feel that we are greater than them?

R. I should have another kind of honor of glory for the fact that I have such great friends and therefore, I simply shift from one kind of pride, egoistic pride, for myself to pride which is for the friends whom I am associated with, the group. This is how I look at it.

S. How can we feel this greatness if we have friends who participate let's say once every three months or that they barely reach meetings of the Ten they won't turn on cameras. Friends who are not really that actively participating, they are more passive, how can we awaken greatness to see these friends as great? How can we buy them?

R. I think that we should nevertheless be patient and not give up on the friends and we should not leave the connection with them but rather gradually bit by bit, like with children. You can't run away from it. This is your child no matter how he is, you have to educate him, raise him, he's yours, you have to take care of him, etc. This is how it is with the friends, also even more than with your children. This is how we should connect with each other and check what is happening with everyone and of course we have to help each other. There is nothing that you can do about it really, we don't have the right to give up on the friends.

16. S. (01:00:16) We're talking about this that the Creator is showing us an example through the friends, is it that the Creator is showing us how not to behave through the friend or other external people?

R. Of course, the Creator operates in this way. He shows you through the friends what is it that I need to change within me, what is it that I need to do, what should I correct, what kinds of preferences and priorities I should have of one quality over other qualities. This is how we need to look at it, look at ourselves through the friends.

S. I mean when the friend shows me a bad example and it seems to me that it's not how to behave and that's maybe also a benefit is that an assistance that I could be receiving from the Creator? In this opposite manner that I'm not supposed to be copying the friend but to see the example of something negative and then that's how I'm not supposed to act?

R. Well, we understand it, yes, so we know how to behave in that case.

17. S. (01:02:05) Many times I hear when we gather let's include the friends who are not with us in thought. Are we supposed to focus only on those who have gathered now and the rest we’ll add on later or we always try to hold everyone together in their desires?

R. I should try to add everyone into a single Ten, and feel ourselves together. This is very important.

18. S. (01:02:55) We prepared the preparation for this lesson. We took a quote for the beginning and we saw Baal HaSulam talking about different tactics we can utilize to increase the love between the friends and to banish all the imaginary engagements, but what is he really referring to here?

R. It means that we should value more and more the conditions of our connection.

19. S. (01:03:43) You spoke about this that we need to relate to our friends as your close ones, as your children, to be patient with them. So I wanted to ask, what about my desire to awaken the friends on one hand to give them inspiration on the other hand to see the greatness in them and how to see them as greater than me?

R. This is how we need to operate. It's like parents towards their children. The children don't understand anything, they don't know anything, they could be foolish or small but we love them and we try to value and love all their qualities.

S. We see our children as greater than us?

R. It turns out that they are greater than us because if the child asks for something then I offer according to how he asks, it means that he is greater than me, his desire is now managing me.

S. He's greater than me in this?

R. Of course, in what else?

S. That's all clear now, thank you so much.

20. S. (01:05:15) To make yourself a teacher and make your friends really great in importance, so what does it mean to make a bond with this Rav but we also have to fear in order to have fear of the Creator, the fear of the greatness. How can you bond with someone who is very great?

R. Truly, truly great, that is the Creator. If you are talking about some person, he cannot be truly truly great, that's it but as much as you work in reciprocity on connecting with the teacher, let's say and you appreciate him more accordingly you have the possibility to make additional ascents and the Creator in return for this work, He elevates you.

S. How do you bond and really make a connection with somebody who is really great? Bonding with the Rav?

R. It's the same law as with the Creator, there's nothing new here. It's the same with a friend because also, the friend, we don't know who it is really. It all depends on our appreciation, if I appreciate every person as the greatest of the generation, then I’m in a society where they are all the greatest in the generation and this is how I format myself.

21. S. (01:08:09) How can I yearn for the Creator and for the greatness of the friends and at the same time also glorify the friends?

R. Why is there some sort of a competition here between the Creator and the friends? It could be that it just seems to me this way, with the help of the friends inside of the friends through the connection with them I reach the Creator, I connect with Him. He reveals Himself precisely in the connection with the friends. The more the friends are greater, I can attain the greatness of the Creator, that the Creator is actually the result of the connection of the friends.

22. S. (01:09:35) This danger of becoming corporeal friends scares me and sometimes friends in my Ten are scared of this as well. What actually distinguishes between corporeal and spiritual friends in the Ten and what to do to ensure that we do not become corporeal friends ?

R. Your goal, why do you gather, why do you help each other, what are you doing? According to that, you can say that the goal is this or that and we're such and such and it is all measured according to the goal.

23. S. (01:10:42) Sometime ago we learned an article, 'You stand here today before me, all of you' and it says there how you're all equal and in this you have no complaints towards one another here too we can utilize this principle, what's different?

R. It turns out that there are such states where you can operate in this way, you can imagine to yourselves that we are like this but in principle we have to advance, and the advancement is built only on using lack of equivalence, lack of equality, this is what we correct we correct it from this side. and the other side. and this way and that way, we try to invert ourselves as much as possible in order to adapt ourselves to the Ten and then we are like a worm that is crawling forward.

24. S. (01:12:06) How to support friends who have kids and they have states of great confusion and disconnection in our prayers. How do we make a plea with our hearts and not with our hands and feet?

R. We need to learn from other friends, we need to organize our connection such that the children will not hinder us but rather to the opposite, we will see also through the children how the Creator pacifies us and directs us even more precisely to the desirable state.

25. S.(01:13:25) One of the conditions says here that every friend is obligated to feel himself the smallest of all of his friends. What exactly is he the smallest at, in what sense?

R. Preferably in everything. That I don't understand them, that I don't feel like them, I cannot arrange any connection between us,I truly am not capable of what they are doing and so on. Precisely, according to how much we connect and advance we feel ourselves more and more as lowly, despicable. This was clear with Moses, this quality.

26. S. (01:14:54:) If there is not enough greatness of the Rav, it's written here also that we have to see the friends truly greater than ourselves being of course that to see everyone equal. That too is an effort. Why is that not enough?

R. The thing is we have to be as we are discussing now not relative to something specific, but like an image it has to be like a circle and only the connection in the group can give this to us and we are the ones who wish to lower our heads relative to the desire of the group.

27. S. (01:15:34) Three things he says here make yourself a teacher and buy yourself a friend and judge your friend to the scale of merit, so make yourself a Rav is the things that we do in the group between us and the third one of judging your friend to the scale of merit is towards people like external people what kind of attitude am I supposed to be giving to that sentence? What is its importance?

R. To be kind, be kind, that's it. You don't have to run and serve each and every person that you see; rather, you need to try and be good to everyone, normally.

28. S. (01:17:05) It is written here and we don't have the true importance of the matter of make yourself a Rav; therefore at the Rosh Hashanah which is the time to accept upon ourselves the burden of the kingdom of heaven, we ask the Creator to give us the glory of the Creator for your people of Israel so the people can feel the greatness of the Creator and we will be able to receive Torah and Mitzvot in wholeness. What exactly is this to feel the glory of the Creator for the people of Israel?

R. He explains this in the article, he explains it in the article.

29. S. (01:17:58) He writes at the beginning of the article make yourself a Rav in relation to the Creator and why because he is great and he is the ruler and then about the friends make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend, and then he writes that a student can learn from the Rav good measures and mindfulness, why is it a great friend and why do we need to learn from the friend? Or in what way is the friend great?

R. It is written, ‘I learned a lot from my elders’, meaning my teachers, and even more from my friends and I learned the most from my students. In other words, a person can learn from the degrees that are above him, those that are seemingly equal to him and those that are below him, he can learn from all those degrees, specifically those that he doesn't appreciate right now, they specifically they, can illuminate the light and power to him.

S. It's clear that we need to move through all those degrees in our attitude towards the friend being great. He's writing here with good measures and intellect. It's not clear where, what can you take from the friend and say that that's what I learned from him?

R. Qualities, the main thing are the qualities, the good measures.

30. S. (01:19:57) The question is, whether our attitude towards the friend is actually the correction in our attitude towards the Creator or is it more about creating a Kli that has got a common deficiency between us and Him?

R. It's both, it's both.

31. S. (01:20:33) If the Creator shows me through the friends all kinds of behaviors that are not nice and I feel that it comes from Him, but it doesn't calm me down this knowledge that comes from Him, how should I respond to this correctly? How to not just justify Him but truly rise with this more?

R. Do what the Creator wants you to do, and then you will seeHis desire and your future good state are the same.

S. How specifically through things I don't, that don't seem okay in friends, how can I respond correctly to this?

R. You can respond correctly by relating to them like to corrected people, loyal friends, servants of the Creator, who are connected,who can attain and can be an example to the whole world.

S. What does He also show this to us in an opposite manner in order to awaken us?

R. Yes.

32. S. (01:22:22) He writes before a person made himself a teacher meaning the Malchut of heaven, can we explain what the Malchut of heaven is?

R. It's the control or the authority of the heaven on us, it's called Malchut Shamayim, the kingdom of heaven.

33. S. (01:22:52) In the last paragraph, it's written judge every friend to the scale of merit where God forbid, he has no complaints of their behavior, just all the people who are outside our friends, it turns out that the general attitude towards all of reality is that a person should have no complaints about any circle. How important is that part that we have to observe in order to succeed on our path? That third part of judging each friend to the scale of merit and condemn the friends and the rest of the people. How important is it to do that?

R. No, no, we have to justify the behavior of the Creator in the world and that He rules all the created beings and dwells there correctly and what appears to us as incorrect, as negative, as bad is because we are still incorrectly perceiving things.

S. In practice how meticulous we have to be here because it requires efforts to see all kinds of things that are happening on the outside and not to condemn that there will be something. What kind of efforts between to invest in this?

R. Let's sing something and then we'll go back to the lesson.