Morning Lesson November 18, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Faith Above Reason - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #21
1. Rav’s Introduction (00:19): Yes, we continue with the same topic and I hope that you have a chance to go over all the texts we are studying because this is the actual essence of all of our work, our entire entry into the spiritual world and certainly without us entering into these passages, feeling them and understanding them and absorbing them from within and the planning and copying them over our soul and over our emotions, we will not be able to feel the higher world in the right way. So please let's accept these passages, these excerpts as they are the things that can format our soul.
Reading 21 (01:32): “Sometimes someone despises this work of assuming…” twice.
2. S. (06:03) So how can we really, without feeling darkness, can we come to pray?
R. Apparently, seemingly, we are not pushing ourselves enough to carry out the adhesion with the Creator and then look I will read it, it is interesting so let me read….
Sometimes, not always, sometimes one despises this work of assuming the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven which is the time of a sensation of darkness that is, that it is black even though this blackness is a sign of a new day that soon will come. As we even see in the early morning, just before morning the darkness is greater than in the middle of the night. When one sees that nobody can save him from the state that he is in, this is called his darkness, not he himself or nobody else can save him meaning the concealment is greater than at any other time, but the Creator, then he has no choice but he remembers the Creator meaning that the person usually when he is running this way or that way in order to save himself from the state when he feels that he is not safe and he's in darkness but here he does not have that but only the Creator.
Then he takes upon himself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven out of lack of choice, as an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load so then neither the donkey or the ox wants to work but they are meant for it so they accept it. One should be glad that now he has something to give the Creator specifically because he does not feel joy and he does not want to work so he does not have any justification for this work but he does it because precisely now under these conditions that are short and narrow, that if he accepts this work then it is entirely aimed at the Creator and one should be glad that he has something to give to the Creator where indeed there is nobody else and he has no other possibility but instead all of the conditions brought him to this state out of lack of choice and also later on willingly he puts himself under the burden and he takes it upon himself, this work, because out of that eventually the Creator will get pleasure, delight and pleasure, and that now he has something to give to the Creator.
The Creator enjoys this but the Creator doesn't always have the strength to say that this is a beautiful work, that this is beautiful work that he is doing it out of lack of choice under the pressure following all of the excuses that he wanted to run away from it so how is it possible this is going to be beautiful that it is called adornment, that it is called adornment if he receives it out of lack of choice like the ox to the burden and the donkey for the load so this is hard work. This is a harsh condition for one to be able to say that he is choosing this work over whiteness meaning that the state where he does not sense a taste of darkness during the work because now he does feel darkness so what is the difference is if he accepts rejection from the work, feels darkness in the work or it actually draws him and now he is in an uplifted spirit.
So he's choosing this work over the work in the state of whiteness when he does not sense a sense of darkness during the work but rather then one feels some taste in the work so then he does not have to work with the will to receive so it would agree to take upon itself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven above reason so which state is preferable the state of white or the state of darkness when he has all kinds of disturbance and he disregard the work and he does not want it and he would gladly get rid of the work or when he accepted as an ox for the burden and the donkey for the load out of lack of choice but he is not always able to say that this is beautiful work called adornment but he is despising this work so this is a harsh condition to say that he is choosing this work over the work of whiteness meaning the state where he does not sense a state of darkness in the work.
Usually we feel and uplifted spirit, whiteness from the word white meaning that it is shining to us and we are happy and we have strength and justification to where we are and what the Creator is giving us and how we can relate back to him, this comes from the state that we are in but from the state that the Creator is giving us we must say that as much as he is giving us darkness he is actually giving us a possibility of in but from the states that the Creator is giving as we must say that as much as he is giving us darkness this is actually giving us the possibility to turn the darkness into whiteness into light meaning the state where the person does not sense a state of darkness in the work but he feels taste in the work which is the state of whiteness meaning then he does not have to work with the will to receive in order to agree to take upon himself the Kingdom of Heaven above reason.
Certainly then the work is easy and with joy however in such a form does he give the Creator a strong and correct response, a powerful response, and if he does overcome himself and can say that this work is pleasant to him that now he is observing the commandment of faith above reason that he accepts this work as beauty and adornment, this is called the joy of commandment that he is enjoying the commandment meaning the correct result of his hard work.
This is what we have to do. Meaning a Mitzvah means that I am commanded to turn the darkness into light and the bitter into sweet and to serve this to the Creator as something that is beautiful which I value that I adorn and I am happy to be as an ox to the burden and donkey to the load because this is how I relate to the animal level inside of me and the degree of Adam, human in me, is rising up and this is the work and now I see that we have a few questions.
3. S. (16:25) It turns out here that everything depends on this force. Baal HaSulam writes that we don’t always have the strength for this work to be right and correct and beautiful so I want to hear about this force. What is influencing this force?
R. When the Creator is giving us a certain difficult state, the burdening of the heart before that He already arranges the remedy, He precedes the remedy to the blows as it is written so we just have to request this remedy, the correction; however, as the learn from the Wisdom of Kabbalah itself that first he created everything in the form where the upper light fills the whole of reality and after that happened and everything was prepared for the future correction and there is light that fills everything and arranges everything then he brought creations to a state, to a state of shattering and out of that shattering we already need to put together the broken vessels with the broken lights and correct them one by one until we have a single vessel with a single light in it that is corrected in the corrected form, that is it, that is the work.
S. What is this game that we invest our forces for connection and each time we go through some degree we discover that not only he gave us this shattered vessel but he is also giving us the force to connect it.
R. It is like with children who put together some building blocks into a house and they become smarter as a result they realize that it has to be this way or that way and I put this into another form otherwise it will fall and so on, this is our work, this is how we learn. By that we put together the qualities of the Creator and the quality of the created being and out of that we will have a new house.
4. S. (19:17) How can we express in the work of joy with friends when we do not feel that joy?
R. It will come it is just in the beginning later on you will feel how much this work is important and what is that you get in return for your effort each time and this will be ever of joy for you just like you are building out of building blocks a house, like a little girl and you enjoy the fact that it worked out for you.
5. S. (20:16) In the implementation what is an action between friends
R. An action between the friends, is as much possible to be close to in another so the connection between us will be in such a form that it connects us together, that we will come like the building blocks that add ourselves together to each other and eventually we build as structure of the soul. We talked about it, so let us come closer to each other and let's connect with each other and this way we will build a complete soul.
S. How will I know that I am connected with the friends? What is the sign that I am connected?
R. First of all, you feel this and second is that you will begin to discover in whatever you did in joy, that connection,the attainment of a certain goal, of course not the final one but a certain goal and in this way you will advance.
6. S. (22:25) Here it says " he takes upon himself the kingdom of heaven above reason as an 'ox to the burden and as a donkey to the lord' and we are explaining it I heard you say that this is done without choice within the lack of choice and here it says, that this is a harsh conditions for the person to be able to say that he chooses this work over the work of whiteness, so it is saying that we have a choice at the bottom and you said before that we don't a choice. Do we actually have a choice? We need to have a choice in something, is it correct ?
R. In each and every action we have a choice. We can run away from whatever the Creator is demanding from us or against our will we can bend ourselves and carry out his will. Our work is as it is written to make our will as his will. That is our work that we have to perform acts of bestowal where earlier we wanted to perform only the acts of reception.
7. S. (24:12) In these heavy states when there is some overcoming with the help of the Ten yet the states are still becoming heavier and heavier and it is more and more difficult for the overcoming. How can we work for his will and only for his sake without wanting to make a change in the corporeal situation at the same time. How do we overcome these waves of more difficult states?
R. First of all we have no choice, that is one thing. Second it is not more and more difficult each and every time because from one time to the next we connect more between us and we realize more and more that we have no choice. We have to direct ourselves towards bestowal towards putting together all these building blocks for our building. Indeed the word of the Creator is not so hard if we grasp the principle of it, it is actually pleasure in each and every stage of it. Even though it was difficult, it brings pleasure because now I am actually doing something. You will see that it is a blessed work
8. S. (26:13) What does it mean that he beats he kills?
R. The Creator reveals to us the states of our shattering which is what He did. He prepared it for us and this is considered that he strikes those blows, all of those things that have been prepared in advance from the very beginning of creation. He reveals them one by one according to our degree, as much as we are capable of collecting these broken pieces and putting them together. This is it and that will be for us a source of joy.
9. S. (27:24) From the experience in working you know that when you are dealing with a state of darkness you overcome, you turn to the Creator, to the friends, He helps He gives forces in such a stage and you already feel good and advance forward. How to not expect that support and that pleasure that you are about to receive but somewhat kind of navigate it correctly to the greatness of the Creator so it will not become pleasure for the next step?
R. I don’t think that is the good correct it should be a good correct approach,it’s like children they need to feel sweetness we give them candy, we give them something sweet for doing something good a person should receive a reward and therefore there is nothing bad in that. We don’t need to want and to receive and it’s also impossible to want to receive blows for doing a correct work, no, but rather bit by bit by the work itself and the reforming light itself we will wants to feel results from the work that we do in the Creator and not what it brings us individually. So don’t hurry up to be completely in bestowal already but rather feel the degrees also of how much ‘am capable of and how much I am not capable of. Where am I working on this seam line on this boundary between Lishma and Lo Lishma and play with that a little bit.
S. That's exactly what they wanted to ask about. Eventually it needs to bring me to receiving these forces for the sake of the Creator, not just because it will be good for me that I received them.
R. (no answer)
10. S. (29:54) You said that the Creator gives us all the states so that we will adhere to Him and today you are saying that we need to perform His desire. Is adhering to the group and adhering to the Creator and carrying out one’s desire?
R. Carrying out His desire, yes.
11. S. (30:32) It is written here that sometimes it happens where a person is neglectful in the work of the burden of the kingdom of heaven and this brings him to a request from the Creator. So what leads us to the prayer? The fact that we are disregarding it or…?
R. That too. That is, how shall I put it, we discover how far we are from the Creator and this brings us to a prayer.
S. So the fact that we are neglectful, that brings the prayer?
R. Yes, yes, of course because I feel how far I am from the Creator.
12. S. (31:38) Sometimes one feels that is it ……… is it okay to take a smaller step in the same direction to achieve the desired goal?
R. I do not think that this is worthwhile to do so, I think that it is worthwhile to do whatever the Creator puts before the person and this is how He draws him.
13. S. (33:30) You said earlier that the person needs to receive a reward for his work. What kind of reward are we to expect when we do tasks within the ten? Do I need to feel this reward or my friends, or do I have to do it so my friends will feel that answer from the Creator?
R. Our reward is that we feel how much we are in adhesion with each other and to that extent the Creator clothes in us, He enters between us. This is the reward.
14. S. (33:35) How can we in the fastest possible way come to the state of the burden of the kingdom of heaven and with joy?
R. Without exiting these states without leaving these states I simply appreciate this state in a different way. For whom am I working, for whom do I want through my work to give to bestow and then it turns out that within these states we start to feel joy .
15. S. (34:22) It is pushing me into darkness like I am drowning in the water. Is my work to receive this darkness and what will remain and bring contentment to the Creator from that?
R. The work is to feel that, in that, I bring contentment to the Creator. That is that I do not think about my work but rather about the result of it and how much by that I awaken the feeling of contentment in the Creator as a result of my actions.
16. S. (35:21) What is this nice work? In our ten we’re doing these workshops about the importance of the goal for two days already to raise the importance between us, and we feel actually that we are trying to raise more the importance it actually is more difficult for us even though we’re giving exertion, it just feels more difficult. So what is it to do this nice work when we are discovering that it’s really for the sake for the Creator if we do so?
R. That you respect the work even though it becomes more difficult you respect it even more and you are happy that you feel it in such a way because this just testifies to how the work is being replaced and becoming more and more serious. Is this clear?
17. S. (35:24) What form of scrutiny enable us to discern how to feel in the work in which we are coming closer or distancing from the Creator in the ten.
R. As much as we all connect between us to this extent we are closer to the Creator.
18. S. (37:00) To continue with the answer that you gave so you said that we should share with each other the feeling of connection that He is giving us in the group if so how can we work when we know that we need to do the work in the group as a ten and there is resistance in the friends who do not manage to reach and get this force in order to connect and to be in this work. How can we encourage these friends?
R. Show them that we love them and it will gradually work. A person is afraid to feel the feeling of love from others, the nearing of others, he feels himself more safe in his own circle because all his life long he lived that way and all of a sudden people want to come closer to him, to hug him, to talk with him. That’s not our life where each of us is kind of in his own cell but slowly, slowly slowly, slowly we break the partitions, the barriers. Okay?.
19. S. (38:41) The question is related to above reason. Reason is a vessel of intellect and emotion, above reason is a spiritual vessel. Does this Kli exist in the person, in the ten, in the world group and what are the components that can be opened up because it seems to be outside of the person at least in the initial stage?
R. That’s how it seems but when you continue you will see that it is inside the person.
20. S. (39:17) I will try to ask if the fact that we need the importance of the work in each and every stage it is clear but here it says actually that this is a difficult and harsh condition should be able to say that he is choosing this words over the work of whiteness. So, if I have the strength to work but nevertheless I value it less than the work in whiteness. So what is this condition?
R. That I choose it this way but even if it is darkness but this darkness for me is worth more than the light I appreciate it more this way and it depends on who I received it from.
21. S. (40:11) You said that we are like little children building a house out of building blocks and they enjoy it. So what exactly is the pleasure from?
R. Children’s pleasure is from building a house from building it together and you can check this the one child is able to build it’s not like several building it because they have a great benefit from that, a great feeling when they are doing it together. It is the same with us we have to come to the state in which we are building together we all build together for the one Creator and therefore what I am not doing now somebody else does in my place and more and more and this way we add all our exertions together into a one building; the building of Shechina which is the place of the Creator.
S. What is the pleasure from exactly? What is our satisfaction, because we are building it together?
R. The satisfaction of coming back to the structure of Adam HaRishon as one man in one heart and the Creator dwells in us.
S. And what is each and every building block that we are put in?
R. The pieces of the shattered soul, that’s what each block is.
22. S. (41:44) Before you answered and you told him that the work should be in joy because the work is becoming more difficult. So the question is, from where does the person take the strength to be in joy despite the work becoming more difficult, more interesting, more sophisticated but more difficult. How does that work?
R. One has to do with the other as much as the work is more complex, complicated and difficult it is also more respectable and higher and exalted and this is how we have to see our advancement. Also in the wisdom of Kabbalah we learn this. We start from Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama then Haya and Yechida from vessels of bestowal that are small and then to the big vessels of reception and that’s the work. That’s how we build our blocks,our house. I hope that soon when we start to feel how between us we are building these blocks and the parts of the home which is that Soul of Adam HaRishon then in such a way we are truly carrying out the actions and the whole of the study of TES is actually how to build this building of Kedusha.
23. S. (47:30) I wanted to ask what determines if the work in the end will be in the form of disgrace or despising the work or in the form of adornment? What determines this?
R. Your question itself decides that.
S. I don't understand.
R. You are asking the Creator.
S. I am asking the Creator.
R. So what are you asking for? What purpose are you asking from the Creator?In order to open h
His revelation to all created beings, in order to bring him contentment? What reason- see exactly what your intention is and that should also appear correct for both the Creator and for others as well.
S. If we say that the correct result is joy in the work,first of all until I achieve joy I know that I did not complete my action right that is the indication?
R. Actually, yes.
S.In a different case the Creator showing me that my will to receive is not even interested in bestowal and it rejects it completely so this is the recognition of evil so we need both states so what determines where the lot will fall in this action?
R. One does not bother the other. One does not disturb the other. I turn to the Creator and ask the Creator and together with that I respect Him and together with that I do at once many actions the intentions let's say, altogether they build my spiritual Partzuf. Maybe I didn't understand you?
S. I am trying to scrutinize myself. I am not certain I understand all of these different states.
R. First think and later you will ask.
24. S. (50:00) At the end of this wonderful excerpt it is written that he performs the Mitzvot in faith above reason and accepts this is work as beauty and adornment and this is called the joy of the Mitzvah. So what is this beauty in spirituality? Why does he talk about the Mitzvot like that?
R. This beauty in spirituality is actually the light of Hochma that is revealed within the light of Hassadim; this is adornment or beauty.
S. When the person is in the state of beauty and adornment does it mean that he's in Dvekut?
R. That is a whole and complete connection that is a whole and complete connection when there are no words already but only a common feeling between the Creator and the created being.
S. How to be beautiful in the eyes of the Creator?
R. Speak to the microphone
S. What should I do in order to be beautiful and adorned in the eyes of the Creator?
R. For that we need to be beautiful in the eyes of the Creator:meaning beautiful is one who wants to bestow.
25. S. (52:04) You said we have to put together the pieces of the broken soul. When we unite in the group by that do unite the pieces of the broken soul and because of that the whole engagement should be in searching for how do we unite?
R. Yes.
Reading 22.(52:50) twice
26. S. (56:19) I understand that we have to gather all the states for the sake of the Creator and they accumulate into a certain balance and then the picture will be revealed to us we will start to recognize ourselves already and identify with the final picture?
R. Well let us assume that it is that way for now.
S. Because it takes a lot of time sorry for the egoistic question but it will take a lot of time?
R. It depends on the person.
27. S. (57:07) What kind of state is it where a person is happy with his share? When exactly am I happy with my share?
R. A person that is happy with his heart depends on what he is happy from if we are talking about the correct state and one is happy when he can join his part to all the created beings as much as he is capable and whatever circle he is capable of and to present them to the Creator.
S. This is about him being happy with his share, is this about the G’mar Tikkun?
R. We all are always doing it kind of like a mini G’mar Tikkun every single correction is a part of the G’mar Tikkun.
S. It is not then that a person stops to work?
R. Why?
S. Because I am happy with my share. I am complete thank you very much. I can go to sleep.
R. Nice I didn't know that you had such a Torah where the main thing for you is to finish work and go to sleep.
S. That is what I don't understand from this excerpt because he says that I should aspire to reach there and we constantly learn that we have to advance and keep adding and adding. That’s what I don’t understand. What is this state of happy with his share?
R. He is happy with his share is that I don’t want anymore than what I receive from the Creator except for the forces for correction. I don’t want anything for myself besides the force of correction.
S. So I am happy with the forces I receive but I still want to give everything I can to the Creator? R. Well of course yes.
Excerpt 23 (59:10) “In faith we should make 3 discernments..”
28. S. (01:01:45) Very simple, beautiful example and to the point. Meaning that above reason is considered when I am certain within my reason that this is how it is, but I accept an opposite fact, a different fact, and then it is considered that I am going above my reason.
29. S. (01:02:23) In the third state, it means that you are living in peace with the lack, psychologically, emotionally, you live in peace with this lack and you feel good just like a state of fulfillment, a filling, is that the third state?
R. Yes, I know that it is less than what I'm supposed to receive, but I completely rely, not on my intellect but the intellect of the friend, that he counted and he tells me that there is $1,000 there, and despite the fact that I checked three times and saw that there is not a thousand, but rather I accept his reason, his opinion.
S. Even though you know that you received less than what you should have, it doesn't even matter?
R. Yes yes. You can add to that that if even we counted it in a machine, and we gave it to a few other people to count, and they all say that it's not 999 instead of 1,000, where there is only $1, say there is only $1 there and I accept it as if it is $1,000, just like the friend said.
30. S. (01:03:51) What is the foundation for the fact that he believes that there is there the precise amount even though he sees that he is missing, why is that not below reason if he sees that it is less?
R. It is not below reason because he counted, he counted, if he wouldn’t have counted, that would be different, but he didn't he did count and checked, and by that, put together his reason, that there is really 999 dollars instead of 1,000, but he goes with this not according to his reason, but according to what needs to be done for the friend, which is 1,000.
S. What is the foundation of the truth, why is he not simply lying to himself, where's the foundation of the truth here?
R. The foundation of the truth here is that he wants to go according to the friend.
S. Why, based on what?
R. Based on the fact that he wants to accept the reason of the friend, that is called faith above reason, the reason of the friend is more on than my reason, his opinion is more than my opinion.
S. But it is only with a friend in the ten right?
R. Yes, you are already looking for reinforcements here.
S. Because in our state it just seems like you are lying to yourself, my reason cannot be a degree above what it sees.
R. I cannot explain it to you, it is a waste of time.
31. S. In the state where I discover that the dollar is missing, could I ask of the Creator to fill it with love towards the friend and then out of that he completes it, or would that just be an excuse?
R. It’s an excuse.
S. So what should he ask for in order to have the strength to overcome?
R. The force of faith.
S. Which means that he should truly see that it is $1,000?
R. No, I see that it’s 999 and I accept it as 1,000, the papers, the bills do not change from lacking to be full but rather I receive them as 1,000 because my attitude towards the friend raises me to a degree in which I receive his reason, his opinion. It is not simple, let's go through this, you will repeat this a few times, this example is a very real example, you can add to it more and more conditions, so it will appear more refined, and this is how we will advance with it. We will come back to it, not once.
Excerpt 24 (01:07:33) “We must believe in the sages..”
32. R. (01:10:10) Not once you saw or did, or played games with little children, yes, and you could see how, I see a mother plays with him, and does things with him and how she enjoys from this back that he is responding, and he is responding smartly well according to his age. To the extent to which he gives her a good mood and pleasure, the same we need to understand as with the Creator, by playing with us in all kinds of nonsensical games towards us, it is according to our degree in to develop us, and therefore we need to relate to all of these actions seriously, because through this we bring him contentment.
33. S. (01:11:07) By which strength can we shift from working within reason to working above reason?
R. By operating the force of faith above reason. It all depends on the importance of who I am engaged with, to whom I want to come to through this action.
34. S. (01:11:43) We learn in our work and we understand and know how we should operate in this state or at that stage, where in all of that is there room for faith above reason, or this whole knowledge is simply erased suddenly?
R. Faith above reason, meaning we try to be in the measure of bestowal, higher than the measure of reception, that is all. Try and you will see how confusing it is, how difficult it is, how many more questions open up by this, such questions that you didn't expect to be here, and behind all of that, you will start to discover that all this work of faith above a reason is in order to open in us a spiritual sense. So we will start to feel the spiritual world, the upper world and this is how we will advance and it.
35. S. (01:13:25) If I am in true loneliness but I can truly also feel that I can enjoy because this brings contentment to the Creator, does this mean that I am in Lishma?
R. It is on the way but not yet. Lishma truly is received from above, from the Creator, that is the force of Bina, when a person starts receiving and feeling in it that he may be above emotion and intellect, above his calculation, with which it was always with, and he is ready to be in bestowal and to live in bestowal, and to be happy with the ability to bestow after this corporeal calculation, and then gets accustomed to the force of bestowal that fills him, and it is really felt in him as great joy.
36. S. (01:14:59) Can a person ask from the Creator for help to come out of the darkness, to have forces to give the Creator contentment?
R. Yes of course.
S. And does such a thought make us accustomed to receiving in order to bestow?
R. Yes.
37. S. (01:15: 35) What is working in lowliness?
R. Working in lowliness is work that is not accepted, neither on the emotion nor on the mind, but I’ll do it because according to the way I understand it, by that I bring contentment to the Creator.
38. S. (01:16:06) What are those thousand dollars in our work?
R. It doesn't matter, it is a kind of payment, a reward, what we want to receive according to our calculations.
39. S. (01:16:31) The Creator surrounded us with friends in the morning lesson, is there an individual effort in our work?
R. Of course there is an individual effort, I towards the others, towards the group, towards the world, towards the Creator, yes, my effort is in the foundation of my work, it’s only that I have to bind my effort to the bestowal I receive from the surroundings.
40. S. (01:17:04) Eventually do we need to attain the Creator within reason?
R. Yes, faith above reason is the vessel to rise from 1 degree to another, however, the more you rise in the degrees, more and more, you get the result of the ascent within reason, the ascent above reason, the bestowal above reason, is in order to rise from 1 degree to another.
41. S. (01:17:41) Why is the feeling of happiness from the work seem egoistic, is that from the lack of the faith the Creator is enjoying my work?
R. The feeling of happiness is accepted in a vessel that I feel that I have succeeded. I've succeeded above reason or within reason, or below reason, that is something that you have to scrutinize already, but the happiness is happiness. It is a result of the success.
42. S. (01:18:17) So faith above reason has more subjugation than choice?
R. Yes, of course. Choice is an action that comes before subjugation, before faith above reason.
43. S. (01:18:48) Where do I reveal everything, there is a barrier between me and the Creator, is taking care of the friend the place of revelation?
R. When you take care of your friend you are acquiring new vessels from this friend, with which you were not before and in them you can get the additions.
S. In what is the closeness of the friends expressed?
R. The closeness to the friends should be expressed in the common vessels between them, and in them, specifically each one, with what is added to him from his friends, and in there he can feel the ascent in the degree.
44. S. (01:19:43) In our daily lives should we accept in faith above reason that there is only 999 dollars or should we demand what is lacking?
R. No, in the daily life, you live according to what you count, a judge has only what his eyes can see, but in the work in the group, and the spiritual work, there we go as much as we can, to be in a higher degree and there you rise above reason. By the force of Bina above the force of Malchut.
45. S. (01:20:25) If all the disturbances are prepared in the beginning of creation by the Creator, is the force to overcome them also prepared or is it man's efforts?
R. Both. We are in the general vessel of Adam HaRishon and we are dependent on all its aspects.
46. S. (01:20:52) What are those blocks in our state, you said like the little kids that build the building from blocks, what are those blocks?
R. Desires and discernments each and everyone has, and we collect them together until you let go, for the sake of the friend and that is how we build this big building called Temple. Kodesh, holiness, is the degree of Bina which later rises to Keter and that is how we want to build it. And house is Malchut, Malchut rising through Bina to Keter, that is what we want built.
47. S. (01:21:45) How is the effort to go above reason expressed in the lesson?
R. In the lesson and I want to be attached to the teacher and the friends and the texts that we are going through, and not to think about anything else, just to be immersed in that, to flow within it, it’s very important, that if in the middle of the lesson someone is calling me I suddenly do not know what is going on, where is this from, I am so into the lesson that I am disconnected from the world. Try it, try to be in it.
48. S. (01:22:37) Example, my friend only chooses to go with reason and and if anything does not fit his reason, he puts it aside and does not want to go above reason, especially in the group and in his corporeal life too. What is the right approach to these kinds of friends, should I still remind him about the Baal HaSulam and Rabash texts, or leave him alone?
R. Hold on, is he in the group?
S. Yes.
R. If he is in a group, then he will get examples from here and there and all kinds of things. You do not have to bring him back all the time back on track, he will get it as a general result of the group. The main thing is to hold him within the group. Do not let him run away and then through this general bestowal, the general atmosphere he will advance on the path.
49. S. (01:24:13) [missing translation]
R. Yes.
50. S. (01:24:35) How do we go from the state of little kids that want to give contentment to the Creator to really giving Him contentment from connection in the ten?
R. The more we connect in the ten, that is the main thing, that is our foundation. Accordingly we grow, just as a child grows every day more and more and more, that is how we are in the connection in the ten. If we care about the connection, we can grow in the spiritual vessel more and more and more. That is something we have to not forget and just to carry it out.
S. So it is a matter of degrees in the connection?
R. Yes.
51. S. (01:25:45) How important is the framework, that we know when a friend comes to the lesson or not in order to build those blocks and reach Lishma?
R. Very important, it is very important that we all know what we are coming for, and we all should be this way, it is very important.
S. And if we know a friend comes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so we know he's coming right?
R. If a friend comes even if he goes against, we respect him.
S. No not against, the thing is to accept every friend whenever he can come, and enter the room to say thank you.
R. Yes, yes, yes.
52. S. (01:26:52) I hope I can explain myself correctly. On one hand we see that there is an opposite fact between reason and above reason. In reason, we see $999 and above reason we have to believe it’s $1000. On the other hand, we also have to believe in the faith of the sages that The Creator is enjoying. It is like a model here. How by believing that the creators enjoying us, it develops spiritual qualities?
R. That is faith in the Sages. The Creator enjoys this work of ours.
S. Why does that develop a spiritual sense by believing that he is enjoying?
R. Because by that we are adhered to the sages and by them we develop our spiritual vessel.
53. S. (01:27:59) Can I ask about a few excerpts ago? If a person goes through a difficult state when I am in such a state a lot of times my sarcasm gives me forces.
R. That is because of your character, you are upset and you do not want to agree with what others are saying, think about that.
54. S. (01:29:16) We see that there is something special in working above reason, whoever gives fuel to a person, to work. The question is: How not to fall off from this fuel and just keep working correctly?
R. Ask again I didn't get you.
S. We see that in the work with the friends and annul so we really go above reason. We put all of our mind and feelings on the side and suddenly a force to work does awaken in a person and he works. Now there's like a flavor that awakens in you. How not to fall from this flavor but to keep going above reason?
R. Think about the Creator that you are doing it in order to bring contentment to him and then you will see. Am I really bestowing contentment or am I working on this fuel I have that I feel good and that's why you are continuing?
S. To think of the Creator that is actually completing that $1000? That I'm working with the Creator and not with the friends.
R. No you should not be confused there. It is simply that what you yearn now during it’s in order to bestow contentment to the Creator and you are sending your joy from the work to him you. You compensate it for him.
S. I understand. Thank you.
55. S. These examples we just read about faith above reason, we are constantly completing that deficiency with faith, with the force of bestowal. What is the answer when a person receives more? Let’s say instead of $1000 he gets $1001. So what should be the work then? I know in this world it is something else but..
R. It is always this way for him. It is because he did not value the upper force sufficiently.
S. I do not understand.
R. He has a feeling that he got above what he expected. That is because he did not weigh properly his connection with the Creator.
S. So we have to feel sorry? What is the work here?
R. No, he learned from that. That in truth he didn't have the ability and vessels of bestowal to appreciate the greatness of the Creator beyond what he appreciated before. Now he understands that it is much more than it was and then he has to pass on this impression from the vessels of his to the vessels of the bestowal and then next time it will be possible to work with them.
56. S. (01:33:08) You said that faith above reason comes in order to open a spiritual sense in us to feel the upper world. So what will happen when we break the barriers between us? How will we feel each other?
R. What will happen when we break the barriers between us and we feel each other? We will feel a broader vessel, more complicated and also stronger and we will be happy to work with it. We will suddenly see how much all of the actions that I always thought that they come to me for me to do this and that and that, I see that no?
Now it all goes between all the friends and we are all together doing it with our own hands gladly and with upliftment and how much all of us together, it's much easier and much more simple than being alone. How much the confidence rises, confidence in the Creator because when we are connected, it is the Creator between us and he gives us the force of faith and the force of confidence and security. It really adds a lot. You will feel this, these are things that come in the emotion. That is why there is no, no replacement here.
57. S. Can you explain what the $1,000 are?
R. $1,000 is the fulfillment of my vessel that should be and then I will feel myself that I am completely, completely content.
S. So what is it my efforts?
R. Yes. It is the efforts that seem to you that you need to invest in order to receive, I guess that, for that $1,000, the right payment.
S. So when I open the envelope and want to receive the $1000 back…
R. It’s not that you want to receive it back, you think that what you deserve is a thousand.
S. Why because what it is completely not bestowal?
R. I do not know what is your example. Either you give or you receive I don’t know what, what decide what you want.
S. I can see that it is work in the 10 and I invest efforts for the 10 for the connection and I want something in return. So first I do not understand why I need to receive something?
R. So you are not in the clear example. Scrutinize what are these thousand dollars and then I can answer you.
58. S. (01:36:55) To accept it as a fact that I got $1,000 and not $999, I guess we are lacking the importance of the friends or the greatness of the friends?
R. Yes.
S. It is like children, right?, when they want to play with someone and he give him all of his toys?
R. Yes.
59. S. (01:37:31) In faith above reason, I take it as $1,000 even though it is less? Why? Is that the way that I express myself to the bestower?
R. Suppose you got from your son or from your grandson an envelope and there he brings back a debt he has to you. Let us say a month ago you gave him 1000 Ruble and now he returns them. Now, you open the envelope and count it and you see that there is less than what you gave him. So now you have three options. Either, you go according to what you see and that is called with faith within reason.
When your faith is according to the data before you, or you can go above it or below what you counted. Usually it goes like this, I receive it, I count, I see that it was not what I was supposed to receive. So, what goes on in spirituality? It may be that I receive something and even if it seems to me that it is lesst I can accept it as if I received it all. I got the whole amount and then the account is closed. I got exactly what I was supposed to receive.
S. But it is expressed in relationships.
R. It has nothing to do with the way you relate, or your relationship with your son. It is the relationship with the Creator. However, if I accept it as if I got the whole amount, then when I am receiving is the complete relation from the Creator to me: wholeness. And what I see in my hand, I see something as unwhole, if that is the way I see things, then that is a problem.
Practically, I have less money in my hand but I accept it as a greater sum. In our world can we do this? We cannot. It is wrong to do it in our world but in the spiritual world it is because I receive it from above, from the Creator. And every time I should expand the boundaries of my vessel more and more to become broader, meaning by the light of Mercy (Hassadim). And then it turns out that if I receive less from the Creator, then I have an option to depict it as if I got more. Let’s say in this envelope you did not have $999, you have only $1. So how do I imagine it? I imagine it to be $1,000. I depict it as if it is $1,000 and this is how I keep on living. What is happening in spirituality?
The Creator compliments these nine hundred and ninety-nine dollars from above and then I rise to this degree because I raised, I elevated Hassadim, the light of Mercy.. Bina to this $999 and accordingly I received the light of Hochma wisdom, in this light of Bina. This is how it turns out that I have a vessel that has the whole light of Hassadim mercy and the whole light of Hochma wisdom. It is a bit confusing. I understand it is not clear yet but that is how we advance in spirituality. Well, we are going to have a problem now.
60. S. (01:42:44) Is it because our five senses are limited to understanding the truth that we work above reason even though we see that it is incomplete, the money is missing?
R. No. No it is not because of that. I do not work in my spiritual work with foreigners that can say this. With respect to them, in my spirituality I do not touch with them. New paragraph.
61. S. When we accept that it is $1,000 even though we do not feel we are doing what it says. Do we achieve the greatness of the Creator? Is the greatness of the Creator that we are achieving when we do that work?
R. Yes. Yes. I would like to take this opportunity as I answer you, Sheila, thank you very much for your work in dissemination. Thank you.
62. S. (01:44:33) Can a person determine in spirituality how much he should receive or less and if so how is it express?
R. How much he receives less than what he wanted. I think the question is not the right question because our work should be, it should seem to us that we always receive more and more and more and more and if we receive less it is only for us to be able to expand our vessels of bestowal.
63. S (01:45:35) These examples that we are talking about now. Is this like the example of the Bina when it’s: Be Happy With Your Lot accepted from the Creator.
R. Yes.
64. R (01:46:01) Look, what I see from this part called faith above reason is that some of the people are understanding this already and advancing towards it and some do not yet feel what we are talking about and this is why we have to advance with smaller steps so what we are going to do now is, we are going to ask a few more people but, still you will have to understand that if you are not reading all of these excerpts and you are not in all of our conversations, you will not advance properly. You are going to miss something and in this subject you have to connect to all the different parts, all the lessons.
65. S (01:47:30) In this example where we talked about Faith Above Reason, is that a condition to perfect the connections in the 10 and is there a similarity with love your friends as you love yourself.
R. Faith Above Reason is after this condition of love your friend as yourself. When we start keeping love your friend as yourself, it would be more clear to us what Faith Above Reason means.
66. S. (01:48:58) Can I say that if I do not look in the envelope, it is like giving bestowing in order to give bestow and when I see that there's less and complete it with faith it is receiving in order to give bestow.
R. We can say that. We will make sure to interpret it ina more accurate way.
67. S. (01:49:39) Is Faith Above Reason the ability to measure how much the connection with your friends is more important than your own thoughts and reason?
R. Yes, yes, yes that is correct, correct yes.
S. On the scale of $1,000, so the closer I come to the thousand you have more Faith Above Reason?
R. Yes, yes I told you already.
68. S. (01:50:19) You used to tell us that the corporeality of the friend is my spirituality. Is that like the story of the $1,000?
R. You can say that this is so but it is not accurate.
69. S. (01:50:54) In one of the excerpts he says that a person should be sufficient with the bit in his mind and feeling, but if he doesn't have mind and feeling how can he bestow to the Creator and the friend
R. What does it mean that he doesn't have a mind and feelings, how can that b? He's not a human?
S. He writes that he should be satisfied with whatever he has and be happy to be happy with what he has. So how can you be happy with a bit you have if you want to bestow to the Creator and the friends but we don't have a mind and feeling for it.
R. So we cannot yet bestow what is the question. If a person does not have a mind and emotion for others, he cannot yet reach Faith Above Reason.
S. So why does he say to be satisfied with the bit in such a state.
R. Because from that they nevertheless develop the vessels of giving. They come closer to that but they are still outside of it.
S. What is not clear is if a person is in a state that he has no mind and feeling of bestowal, so he has to want it and ask for it.
R. He cannot want and ask because he does not have the feeling of what he is missing.
S. So again. What should he be happy with the bit he has and what does he have to keep wanting?
R. He has to hear what he is told to do and do it and not to think about himself, that he is clever.
70. S. (01:52:41) Is that friend who gives me less than what he got from me, doesn’t he harm the Arvut and drill a hole in the boat?
R. We are not making this calculation about a friend who is bringing less back to you. Who knows if he is bringing back less, to him it seems that he's returning exactly.
S. But I gave him all the attention, all the attitude. We have a covenant, we have mutual guarantee.
R. That is according to your vessels and he is returning to you according to his vessels exactly the same. Maybe he adds a bit more to that.
S. How can I feel that he gave me his vessel? Can I feel it and justify him?
R. Make his desire yours. That is how we complete. When we go back to the system as one man in one heart, the system of Adam HaRishon, all of us, then none of us receives anything from anyone else, but rather everyone just compliments each other. All these $1,000 each one gives it to one another.
71. R. (01:54:04) Clear, good. I see that we are okay with the subject. We are ok. That’s the way it should be. We’ll have a lot of work there.
72. S. (01:54:18) There's this feeling inside that we receive everything as a loan that everything we receive from the Creator we can’t pay for, we can’t pay it back, all these connections in spirituality are as a loan, and we are in debt. I don't know if this is the right feeling and I don't understand how I can repay it, it seems that I cannot, so what should I do with it?
R. You are thinking correctly really, our whole world is like a store, we go in there and we open the car and we start a debt that and so on, it is written in a lot of articles about, you can read it and then you’ll see how they take back that debt, the fine you have to pay as much as you have to add you took it and pay in the first place. It is interesting and we will learn about it. You should just take into account that the upper justice is in the foundation of that calculation.
S. no translation
R. It is a small degree you can't. You need to perform your work.
S. In connection Rav?
R. Yes the general connection, in the general connection, mutual help and so on.
73. S. (01:56:24) In the lesson we are in adhesion with the teacher with the excerpts and we want to pass it on to the tent but there's always this feeling that it is not accepted no matter how much you give, there's no feeling that it is accepted, nothing is moving and of course after that there's annulment to the ten and indifference, I understand everything comes from the ego but how to make it work in the ten, how can we at least in the ten do that?
R. I think that all of these things we are still scrutinizing them in the connection between us and the groups. Maximum you can write to me and I will answer you.
74. S. (01:58:05) There is this feeling that I am one of those people that I never take and never borrow and suddenly you say that we are all in debt to the Creator and I felt, I don’t want to return anything to anyone, and I don’t owe to anyone.
R. That is your attitude that you feel you do not owe anything to anybody anything but you will discover how much you owe way above your head.
S. What should I do with this?
R. What to do with that state? You have to correct it, you have ears, it is way above those ears that you have.
S. Yes, I heard that of course. I'll try
R. I will help, everybody needs help.
75. S. (01:59:53) Even worse than what you said before, I feel that I don’t want to borrow, I understand this loan but I can't do anything about it, and I know that without taking this loan I can not advance, I feel that too. How can I correct that?
R. Lower yourself, subjugate yourself before the friends, you do not anything but that, subjugate yourself before the friends.