Morning Lesson October 8, 2022 Transcription

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

Part 1:

Sukkot - Selected Excerpts from the sources

1. Rav’s Introduction: We have arrived finally at Sukkot, building of the screen the Masach, the S’chach. That is something that we already build a place for the soul and from our desire to receive, that we restrict and arrange it and above it we build a screen, a thatch and that this is how the separate ourselves from the Creator, there has to be a separation, a barrier here so we wont receive from him directly and also we agree to receive the upper light but only through this screen, through this thatch. We will learn what is this thatch, what are the walls of this Sukkah, the measurements of it of the Sukkah, these are the details of our soul. How to build it and how shall we relate to each and every part and all the parts together.

These are very important things because the stories were told by Kabbalists, from those we can understand a bit more about where the soul is made of and how we need to relate to it. I am happy that we came to this. It is the part of the holidays we just been through and it is the happiest and the most joyful which ends with the Simcha, the joy of the Torah meaning when we receive the Torah from above at the end of Sukkot and the light of it comes to us and fills us, our soul, meaning the connection between us which is so correct and so good that the upper light can fill us just like the light is one so the vessel is also going to be one although it is made of many broken pieces, many different and separate the pieces. So let's see from these excerpts what should we add to what we already know.

Excerpt : (03:16 - 03:40) "Article No. 284, “I Have a Minor Mitzva [commandment], Whose Name Is Sukkah”

2. R. I am in a state where I have intellect and feeling and everything the person has and more than that because I have already studied much and he is connected to the friends but what is characteristic of this Sukkah, of the thatch, that I go above my reason where my connection with the friends is raising me to a degree above my rationality and my thoughts and desires, the facts I know and instead we need to specifically conceal ourselves from our intellect. We want to be in this Sukkah disconnected from the direct light and receiving it only through rejecting it from ourselves according to the measure by which we can relate to it the way it relates to us which is only to bestow.

To the extent that we can be in order to bestow, which is a tiny percentage of the upper light that comes to us, to that extent we can make way for it and then it will shine on us. The connection between us and the Creator has to be through this screen, that screen that conceals and this is why it is the screen that connects. We need to know and care about it and measure always; are we in this mutual connection with the Creator: I for my beloved and my beloved for me, like the guest and the host where according to the power of the guest resists all the pleasures for himself and turn it into pleasures for the sake of the host then of course here we have to start from concealment, from restriction, from general and total concealment and gradually we try and open ourselves up as much as we can to become under the influence of the upper light in order to bestow back to the host and this should be our concern. We will talk about it more.

3. S. (06:41) What does it mean that we hide from ourselves the directed light which is under the thatch?

R. The sunlight which is symbolizing the direct light that bestows to everybody equally, there is no barrier between us and the sun. Sukkot, this Sukkah we build it from four poles and walls but the main thing is the thatch the sunlight will not come to me directly when I am sitting inside the Sukkah so only in this way I am certain that I am impervious to the direct light and then I am protected from the direct light sitting under the thatch in this Sukkah this is the whole point of the Sukkah, the building of our general vessel so we have four poles and then the thatch and this thatch is made of leaves and waste as we call it from the barn and the vine yard so we can take it from the field and the trees and the thatch is the roof so the light of the sun would not be able to shine through it directly into the Sukkah because we resist the reception of the direct light in order to bestow and this is how we exist inside the Sukkah inside there is the person or the group let's make it that it is the group.

S. You said that the sun that he hides from in this thatch is this the general guidance over us?

R. Yes that is the screen, the Masach and that the sun is the Creator and we are under the screen under the roof under the thatch so this is why we construct together this Sukkah and we are together in this Sukkah and specifically we sit together there we have a small meals such symbols for our pleasure that we feel mutually when we connect and hide ourselves from the light of the sun that is the direct light which cannot come to us because we are building a screen and that's it.

S. This screen, is it the sensation of the connection between us?

R. Yes then we try to be between us in in such a way that each one is holding the others and all of us need to be entered, protected from the pleasures that can come to us directly into our desire to receive and this is why we conceal of ourselves under the thatch made of waste and we want to feel how much in our connection each is helping his friend and thus we can deal with all sorts of pleasures and confusions that wake up in each of us in each and every moment and this is how we save ourselves from the desire to receive. Everything revolves around a single idea and principle the one that we spoke about more than once.

4. S. (12:24) The screen does it appear on the first level before we start receiving in order to bestow?

R. We have to care about the screen long before we feel that we need it but simply because we learn about it we study and we begin with the connection between us that it still does not exist but from the connection between us we have to build a screen.

5. S. (13:04) e build the screen through the nullification?

R. Yes. We build the screen when each one of us is nullifying the desire to receive for oneself.

6. S. (13:32) I wanted to ask in regards to the drawing that you just made. We are building in the group a vessel to reveal the Creator so why should the group hide itself from the Creator?

R. From the direct light which comes, this is the direct light on the drawing which is coming to us from the Creator and we have to build a screen there as usual, just like when we have a vessel and the direct light is coming to us and we reject this, we repel this direct light and only according to how much we can … ourselves with the direct light, meaning how much the Creator wants to give us and we repel that and out of that we receive into our selves the light in order to bestow.

S. Why is the connection with the Creator through rejection?

R. Because this is our desire to receive, it is our ego so it is our ego within the vessel this is what is pulling the higher light and we have to perform a restriction and don’ t want to receive the light into the ego directly but only in order to bestow back and how can we weigh how much we can perform an action against the ego, opposite to it then we need to examine our strength which is why we have the direct light and the reflected light and then there is the internal light and the screen, restriction and screen.

S. What is the vessel that the group builds and what does the group want?

R. The group is the general desire.

S. There is no way to receive directly from the Creator?

R. How could it be direct? It is in order to receive.

S. Why do we want the revelation of the Creator?

R. We want the revelation of the Creator because according to the degree of revelation that we allow him to reveal against the desire to receive we perform a restriction on the desire to receive, a screen and reflected light to receive in order to bestow. It is exactly how the guest comes to you and even though he wants to give you gifts and everything, you want to turn it back how you are giving gifts and return it to you and then you become equivalent of each other.

S. It turns out that the desire is never fulfilled, it is never satisfied?

R. The desire to receive itself is fulfilled only to the extent of how it has the intention to bestow because by that it fulfills itself against the initial desire that wants to receive everything and enjoy everything for itself and instead he is feeling this desire and fulfilling it because he wants to return everything to the host.

S. What exactly is the screen, what is the quality of the screen that allows the connection with the Creator that enables it?

R. The screen includes in it the restriction and the decision to receive only in order to bestow, checking how much he can receive in order to bestow and by that he opens up the way to receive the light inside the desire.

S. This is translated to the work of the group in respect to the Creator what does it mean that the group has a screen, what does the group want?

R. That group, by nullifying it's individual desires to receive and to connect in the general desire where each nullifies himself in order to reach together the bestowal to the Creator, by that it turns out that they come to a state where they can receive from the Creator a certain measure of pleasure in order to bestow to the Creator because the degree of pleasure that they receive will be felt for them as if they were giving. This is like the guest and the host, the host does not eat because he wants to eat, he has the usual vessels and the hunger but instead he does it only for the sake of giving contentment back to the host this is the meaning of connecting to the host in faith above reason in bestowal above reception.

7. S. (19:55) When we say the Creator is revealed between us what does it mean with respect to this Sukkah?

R. The Creator is revealed inside our vessel that we put together from the will to receive, each one of the friends.

S. Is this the inner light?

R. No, it’s not light, it’s a vessel. What we reveal inside this unified vessel, this is the feeling of the equivalence with the Creator and we call that inner light.

S. What is the connection between the screen and our intention?

R. To the degree you have a screen you have an intention or you can say it the other way around: the the degree or the level of our intention is expressed in the Masach, the screen. We do not wish to receive directly for ourselves but only in order to bestow to the Creator so it would be good to Him. We wish to reach an opposite state seemingly. This is how Baal HaSulamand Kabbalists write in general, that this is seemingly a very bad thing, that we essentially reject what the host wants to give us, to fill us with on the one hand. But on the other hand we desire the equivalence of form.

S. The screen is it common to everybody in the group?

R. This screen ultimately is revealed in each one as a personal screen, and above that we connect in order to bestow together to the Creator. That we’re building a common screen, a common thatch.

S. What is special about this time called Sukkot or is this work of Sukkot continuous all the time?

R. Yes it is continuous, it's ongoing work like all the holidays but we can’t speak of it in this way. Rather there is a certain time of the year where we talk about it and we explain why it is so. Everything revolves around the soul, the correction of the soul and it's fulfillment.

S. What is our work in the Sukkah? The work of each friends in the Sukkah?

R. Connection between us where according to how much we connect, how much we devote ourselves to one another and dedicate ourselves to one another as one man in one heart, we can then be as ten Sefirot of a single Partzuf. Then the upper light shines to us and is called one receives one. And that's it, that’s what Sukkot is all about. There are a few other details, the four species and how to build a Sukkah but those are already details.

8. S. (23:41) We are building something that is above us. So the question is these four poles are these the desires of the friends on top of which we can build?

R. No these four poles are four phases of the vessel, Hochma, Bina, ZA, Malchut.

9. S. (24:13) What is the difference between the vessel that we build on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot?

R. Sukkot symbolizes the building and the final construction of the vessel.

10. S. (24:42) After the restriction there’s a point also in the guest and the host where the created being feels that the plea of the host can turn the reception into bestowal. So after the screen, the restriction there is a feeling that if we yearn to give back we can receive. What is this point where we come to, that from now on we can say that the connection between us is powerful enough to bring contentment to the Creator and we can receive light? What is the point where reception is turning into bestowal? Is there a certain point from which we can receive in order to bestow?

R. That is to the extent I can bestow to the friends. if I can bestow to the friends then I can bestow to the Creator from them. This is why it’s called from love of the created beings to love of the Creator.

S. But there is no yardstick?

R. This is the scale and it’s precise.

S. When I get to the point where I'm certain that I'm not doing it for my own good but only for the friends from here on it’s.

R. Yes this is exactly the way to measure it. Am I present in the friends? Am I doing everything for them and together with them? And each one does it this way and this means that we build a single vessel. Of course it is all done not with our own powers but because the upper light opens itself up more and more and unites us to be so connected.

11. S. (26:32) What is the work above reason in the Sukkah?

R. It’s all bestowal above reception.

S. Everything that you described seems like something rational and I'm supposed to take one step at a time. Where is the work where I have to say thus far my rational mind and brain and now we do this work you just talked about?

R. Bestow to the friends, it will be above reason. Bestow to the Creator, it will be above reason because you cannot see any profit from it, any rational profit.

12. S. (27:22) We said that the thatch is built from materials like branches and waste and leaves. What meaning does it have for our ten? How do we build this screen?

R. By connecting you will discover along the way to connection all the kinds of details of this Sukkah. And the group who sits inside this Sukkah how protected it is in order not to begin to receive in order to receive and all those details, everything will simply be revealed. But we are going to go through a few more excerpts text and we’ll hear about it and learn it.

13. S. (28:30) Why are we building this Masach from waste? Are wastes pleasures that we refuse to receive?

R. Yes. We want by that to mark what we are building as thatch, as a screen which is a great thing because it raises us to the Creator. And we can feel it and bestow to it, feel Him and bestow to Him. So specifically these things we create out of waste, which to our will to receive appears as something insignificant.

S. How can this waste come to the condition of bestowal?

R. Not every drop of the will to receive comes to the desire to bestow. We also have those desires which we cannot turn to in order to bestow. As much as we can we do and later we will talk about how to measure it.

14. S. (30:27) Tell me please why the form of the roof, the thatch is a square, it should be circle. 

R. No, it should simply be thatch, four poles on which you can place leaves, branches, pieces of wood, tree branches typically that will be as protection against the the rays of the sun so they do not penetrate into the Sukkah. This is what the screen symbolises. With Rabash and in general in many places today you do this from thin strips of wood, very thin strips of wood, they shouldn’t be wider than the palm of the person's hand. There are many rules about it but all in all those are simple things.

15. S. (32:04) What makes us change the amount of light that comes to the group? What is the mechanism, what is it that makes the light change? Because they say the barn and winery, the waste will change. So what’s happening there? What do we do to affect the light that everything changes?

R. Of course according to the amount of light, the power of the thatch we can enter deeper into the matter of Sukkot, to receive inner light, to enjoy surrounding light and in general to feel the entire holiday in what makes it special. But we’ll talk about it, we have a whole week ahead of us.

16. S. (33:22) The question is what is the difference between building the thatch, the screen and building the group?

R. This connection could be a direct one because to the extent the group is in the advanced stages of its building then accordingly they seemingly build the Sukkaht. You can envision the Sukkah depicted as not existing around the group, above the group but inside the group itself. That’s where they build it. But we’ll talk about it, the question is correct.

S. Because it is the same process there? Annulment, connection, incorporation, it’s the same as building the screen?

R. Yes and no. You’re right but there are many more details to it.

17. S. (34:46) According to what you drew I tend to think that we are protecting ourselves from reception through the will to receive. Actually we’re placing the will to receive as a shield over us with desires made of the thatch from the waste of barn and winery. We use it as a shield in order to not to receive the light directly on us? Is this correct that it’s actually the will to receive that creates this protection over us?

R. No, the will to receive doesn’t protect us at all. We protect ourselves against the will to receive.

S. From what I understood everything that is above us is are things that we don’t need to appreciate at all.

R. I do not know your philosophy. Above us we have the upper force and the direct light that can shine to us on the condition that we will advance it with the building of the screen, the thatch, restriction. Otherwise we cannot feel that there is anything above us neither the Creator nor light or anything.

S. So what is above us are things that on a day-to-day basis we use but we treat them as if they’re not valuable?

R. Correct.

18. S. (36:27) The corporeal Sukkah symbolizes the spiritual Sukkah, the connection between the person and the Creator. Is it better to build a common Sukkah or does each one need his own Sukkah?

R. There are all kinds of views. It depends on the corporeal conditions but each one needs to seemingly have a place under the thatch where they can eat. The main thing in the Sukkah is for the person to sit and eat there all 7 days.

S. Is it possible for a person who did not built a Sukkah to participate in someone else's?

R. Yes, we are going to learn about these things if you're still haven't learned it throughout your life. We will learn it if it’s important. The important thing for us is to keep the Sukkah internally in our desires. How will we build this common spiritual vessel and be under the common thatch, the common screen, that’s the main thing.

19. S. (38:01) It seems to me that placing a screen is like an insult to the Creator who wants to give. How does the Creator respond to our refusal to receive?

R. Why didn't you ask previously when we spoke about restriction? When the guest sits in front of the host and receives nothing from the host, refuses to receive anything from him that is even worse. But if we understand that he’s doing it not because he is ashamed, because he has no calculation with his shame or the desire to receive. He is making only one calculation, how can he bestow in return to the host? So the calculation is already different.

20. S. (39:02) You said a general screen, a common screen. So what does it mean? A screen of the ten or a screen of Bnei Baruch?

R. This is the screen of the group.

21. S. (39:29) Building the Sukkah is it connected to the year, to the Sefirot, to the moon? Should we build a Sukkah now? What do we do with the previous Sukkah?

R. There is no previous Sukkah. After 7 days of sitting inside the Sukkah we should not sit in it any longer. We tear it down and we don't use it until the next Sukkot.

22. S. (40:29) When I build a thatch I take the branches, the waste. In the ten when I build a thatch what am I taking?

R. Your friends’ desires to receive and your desire to receive that you wish to combine and connect together and build a common screen between you and the Creator. Where we all wish to bestow to Him together.

S. The will to receive is the thatch? Our desires to receive?

R. No, a thatch is a rejection of the will to receive.

S. I want to build a thatch in the ten. What am I taking? What am I using?

R. You are using the friends’ desires to receive and your desire to receive by connecting them together, combining them together and through this common desire you want to push back everything you receive from he Creator and turn it into in order to bestow.

23. S. (42:01) Where do we start building the screen?

R. Inside the group.

24. S. (42:14) This building we’re talking about, is it a spiritual building in our relationships with the friends?

R. Yes.

25. S. (42:27) Receiving pleasure from the Creator, revealing the Creator, are they the same? If not, what is the difference between them?

R. After the degree of receiving pleasure from the Creator we reveal the Creator.

26. S. (42:45) What are the physical actions and spiritual actions we have to do in the Sukkah?

R. The physical action is our ability to build a Sukkah from wood and branches, this is the building of the material or corporeal Sukkah. And building the spiritual Sukkah is when we connect between us in order to be connected in one vessel with all the details of our desires in order to bestow. So we’ll connect and build such a structure which carries out or expresses our desire to be as one man in one heart.

27. S. (43:44) What does it mean between us, between the friends in the ten to resist, to receive light directly without a thatch?

R. We do not want to reveal the Creator directly like our will to receive, the way it wants to catch it and use it. Rather we want to use it only in order to bestow, in order to learn from it the ways of bestowal.

28. S. (44:21) Faith above reason, is this a result of the screen or a means to build the screen?

R. Faith above reason is a result of properly using the screen.

29. S. (44:42) You said that after 7 days we have to break the Sukkah.

R. I was speaking about the corporeal Sukkah. That if we build it, because we build it in the corporeal world there is a corporeal time for how long it should exist. And after 7 days we are not allowed to sit in the Sukkah.

S. In the spiritual sense if we connect and build a common thatch it’s forever yes?

R. Yes, keep going. But corporeally it says the Sukkaht sit for 7 days.

30. S. (46:05) To build the Sukkah I have to be in a situation where I'm looking for the brothers or did I find them already?

R. Even if you found them or you didn’t find them, if you’re alone somewhere, if you wish to build a Sukkah meaning a corporeal one then you can do it even if you are in the woods all by yourself and you are building it. You build a little tent or something. But again I am saying that we shouldn’t get into this. We should get into the the essence of the matter. We’re building a vessel that has walls, sides, inner light, surrounding light, the sun up above. And then we have to cover ourselves from the sun, protect ourselves. There are many rules for what to do when it rains, can you come out of the Sukkah, we’ll talk about it if it’s so important. But it’s better if we understand this whole thing is a spiritual matter.

31. S. (47:48) If the will to receive in order to receive comes as a result of the direct light from what desires do we build our vessels even before we build a screen?

R. When we connect and ask the Creator to bestow mutually between us, from this we begin to connect in mutual bestowal and build a common Kli, a common vessel. From this common vessel we turn to the Creator and want to bestow upon Him out of our common vessel and that's it.

S. But from which desires do we build this vessel if we’re still not in order to receive, if we still don’t have direct work with the light? So in which desires do we build?

R. I do not understand where you are, what work with the light you are in. When you haven't come to work in order to receive? You are born in order to receive.

S. In order to receive, I receive the light directly?

R. No, you cannot receive but it teaches you that you have to change, to have a restriction and screen and reflected light.

S. Before I have a screen, restriction, reflected light I can receive in order to receive?

R. You can receive,in order to receive several corporeal pleasures in order to exist, sustain yourself.

S. In order to receive.

R. In order to receive the way you live today. You eat, drink and enjoy sleep, these things, part of the corporeal world.

S. We say that necessity is not in order to receive, it’s necessity.

R. Yes, this is why it’s neither praised or condemned, you have to receive it in order to exist. But beyond that you can’t receive, only on the condition that it’s in order to bestow, according to the equivalence of form with the Creator.

S. I’ll try to ask differently. Let's say we are starting the process of building the screen in the Sukkah in the ten and then we have some desires to receive in order to receive that enter. What do we do in that case?

R. We’ll learn it. You’re not letting me start teaching. Let us follow the excerpts and you will see how it all falls nicely into place

Excerpt 2: (51:30) RABASH, Letter No. 36

32. R. (51:54) The shadow of faith, this is called the thatch.

Excerpt 2 (53:13) RABASH, Letter No. 36

Again (53:13)

33. S. (54:35) During yesterday's lesson you mentioned that the light that comes through the thatch is perceived as surrounding light. But since it comes into the Sukkah wouldn't that be inner light instead of surrounding light?

R. I do not know, he didn’t talk about it here. I have no choice, I answer only what we are reading. And your philosophies come in, the questions are correct but they’re not appropriate.

34. S. (55:33) If I understand, the thatch is a shadow against the sun. If I do not feel that there is a sun why do I need the thatch?

R. You don’t need a thatch.

S. How to come to a state where I feel the sun and I need the thatch? What does it mean to feel the sun?

R. You feel that the Creator comes to you and wants to bestow to you.

35. S. (56:15) It means he creates a sitting out of all the lowest things and it's done by the ways of Sukkah. In corporeality to build out of waste something good it’s clear. How is it that we're building something good out of the worst things in spirituality?

R. When from discernments that I disrespected which are faith, bestowal, connection, love, out of all these things I built the Sukkah. And in the Sukkah I hide myself from the Creator and precisely by hiding myself in the Sukkah I begin to receive from Him through the surrounding light, all the discernments from the Creator.

36. S. (57:29) He talks about the joy of commandant. What is so joyous about this action of restricting himself? How does it become so joyous this action?

R. It is written about it, in his shade I delighted to sit and his fruit was sweet to my palate. What does it mean? It means that there is no greater commandment which brings us closer to the Creator then to be in a Sukkah and receive there each day greater and greater revelations which are called guests from the Creator. It symbolizes building of the soul. That I receive into the soul more and more and more upper light and it fills me and advances me.

37. S. (58:43) Many times we use the word here waste of barn and winery. But it's waste that comes from all kinds of seeds meaning it is the same knowledge that we try to use to obtain the Creator but as a result eventually what we try didn't work out and becomes waste. Also the vineyard, the grapes they symbolize our desire meaning we took out, extracted all the desires we could. So it turns out that we are we already turned to the Creator with prayer for Him to help us, meaning the Sukkah is not something we just build but it's with the help of the Creator who gives us the screen?

R. Not quite, we will learn all this. We need to realize it.

38. S. (01:00:22) In the Sukkah, the physical Sukkah how do we identify what are leaves, what is the framework? In our corporeal Sukkah it seems like we need a certain power in order to detect the branches, the thatch, the structure. Do we need the help of the friends among us to come to the correct preparation, in order to be ready, forcefully and ask the Creator to reveal to us the waste we are collecting in order to build the Sukkah eternally?

R. Everything you are asking will be written in the coming excerpts so we shouldn’t put the carriage in front of the horses.

Excerpt 3: (01:01:46) RABASH, Letter No. 36 ( twice)

39. S. (01:03:22) Why is there rain and torrent and water signifies Bina but negatively it harms you?

R. The Sukkah goes against the sun rays and if rain comes then the Sukkah can't really help. So this is why we relate to the Sukkah as to a shield from the sunlight.

40. S. (01:04:04) It says that faith is built on waste. Can we receive an example how waste in our life?

R. From all the things that are not important to us if we pay attention to them we’re building a Masach, a screen. The screen is built out of something that is not important to your ego and if you elevate it in its importance above your head then you're building a thatch, a screen.

Excerpt 4: (01:04:57) RABASH, Letter No. 36 ( twice)

41. S. (01:08:05) What does it mean to get support from reason?

R. I don't know what to tell you here, it's each according to how he understands what is written, he should interpret it for himself. They took a very complicated exerpt here.

S. you said that the thatch doesn't really protect us from rain. From what rain?

R. Rain is water from the sky, where when a person's sits in the Sukkah it's something that is not good. And a person has to get out of the Sukkah their temporary residence and go back to their permanent residence where there is above him a proper ceiling that doesn't let the rain through. And there are also rules about that how long you should sit and wait, maybe the rain will stop and only afterwards he should walk in to his home. There are many things here.

42. S. (01:09:45) Please explain I got a little confused about the concept of the waste of barn that's will take us down to hell. What kind of situation is that?

R. Where did you find this?

Reader: He immediately suffers a descent and a fall to the bottom of hell.

S. He ascribes it to waste, it says like a torrent in the text.

R. I don't know your philosophies, I want something very simple, written in the simplest way without adding all kinds of hell and whatnot.

S. The question is on the previous text, the waste of the barn and winery. What is the meaning of the waste of barn and winery?

R. These are things we don't use in our regular life but we can use them in order to build specifically out of things that have no benefit. You can build from them the thatch, the screen. Meaning that in our world there is no value to bestowal but we can build through our relation towards each other and towards the Creator this force in order to bestow, and we don't need to pay for it with all kinds of valuable things in our life.

43. S. (01:12:21) So what is the reason that will support their work?

R. The reason that supports their work is that they are going with faith above reason.

44. S. (01:12:44) A question from the ten: we built the screen in the ten by working above reason for connection between us and we pray for the friends. The question is in those actions do we draw more light that will reveal the evil in each one of us and can it be a good additional way to measure the screen?

R. Yes. If we connect to one another in order to intensify the power of our connection and in order to bestow then along the way we also discover how much we are in the intention to receive and how much our intentions are all in order to receive.

S. So the more the friends reveal the evil it means we are on the right path to build this screen? That’s the direction, to feel more the revelation of the evil?

R. Yes. Anyone who is greater than his friend's inclination is greater than him.

Excerpt 5: (01:14:07) RABASH, Letter No. 12b (twice)

45. R. (01:15:38) In other words we are receiving in order to bestow so we have no shame.

46. S. (01:15:50) In the simplest way, how do we gather the waste first of all?

R. Collecting the waste, we examine ourselves in the relationship between us and we see how much we disregard each other and are sloppy, lazy, those kind of things. And then we see we haven't used many powers and conditions that the Creator put in us, designed in us and we didn't even pay attention to them. And we see that we treat in all of that as waste, unimportant things. From these so unimportant things 99% of our life is built. So turns out that we then pay attention to it and we want to correct and join, when we do that way bit by bit we begin to rise.

S. That collecting them actually built the screen and above it now I have to completely just ignore all those questions and problems I gathered and just adhere to connection? Put that on the side and go that way?

R. Yes yes.

47. S. (01:17:32) What is the connection between working without feeling vitality or taste and not blemishing the gift? How are they connected?

R. Because it all has to be in order to bestow, both this and that.

S. But the fact that I blemish the gift afterwards, it’s an ability you get from above to not do it. So what is the connection between that and us working without feeling any vitality?

R. That too we receive from above, all the forces are received from above.

S. What does it mean to work without feeling vitality or taste in the work?

R. It doesn't matter to me what taste I feel because it's the waste of barn and winery and I raise it in importance above my head.

S. How is that connected to the shame he mentions later on?

R. I don't have shame. On the contrary I working with the lowest things and I want to raise them above my head.

Excerpt 6: (01:19:42) RABASH, Letter No. 36

48. R. (01:20:36) Meaning that the hiding screen will be greater than the light that shines from above. That we are always under the hiding screen and then certainly we can receive in order to bestow.

Excerpt 6: (01:20:58) RABASH, Letter No. 36 (Twice)

49. S. (01:21:52) Usually with say that the Creator builds the Sukkah and here it says that we build the Sukkah. What is the reason we get an ability to built it ourselves?

R. We want the Sukkah to be built in spirituality, we ask the Creator for this to give us strength for restriction, screen, reflected light, to get organized and connected and so forth. We get it all from above. The Creator is the builder but we have to ask for each and every step of it, that's it. That’s how it happens.

50. S. (01:22:41) He writes that there is a remedy in the thatch. What remedy is that?

R. The thatch is the screen. If we acquire the screen then under the screen as it says in his shade I sat. So when we’re already under the shade this is called the shadow of faith so then we can receive the surrounding lights. And the surrounding lights are very great and by that we can feel the presence of the Creator.

51. S. (01:23:23) Is the waste the same thing we're asking forgiveness for on Yom Kippur?

R. I wouldn't link these two things now.

52. S. (01:23:40) The work between us is always very serious. There's the feeling that in order to be concentrated we have to constantly be focussed and restrained. What should we do in order to find happiness in the work?

R. Joy or gladness is a result of good deeds. If you're making actions of bestowal then it doesn't matter how much you receive in your vessels of reception but from the actions themselves you have joy.

53. S. (01:24:36) What is the mutual screen in the ten?

R. The common screen in the ten is the screen between everyone, everyone and their friends.  And with that common screen the group turns to the Creator.

54. S. (01:24:57) What does it mean to sit in the Sukkah and eat spiritually?

R. That we are together connected under the common screen and we are protected against the direct light. What does it mean? Against all these pleasures that can appear in us in order to receive we want to be with them in order to bestow to the Creator.

55. S. (01:25:39) In the Sukkah should all the friends be in complete annulment?

R. Yes, certainly if we want to be as one man and one heart that we will be as one vessel one soul then we have each to nullify ourselves towards the other.

56. S. (01:26:03) In order to build the screen in the ten should it start from the decision not to enjoy our connection?

R. I just want to add to it which we said before that we each have to nullify ourselves towards the others, it's not that we just achieve that and that's it and then there is no more problems. On the contrary we reach a states where we are each time in struggles and fights and we want to kill each other and yet we scrutinize everything alongside. So that there is no calmness all of a sudden, that constant permanent state that we’ve become connected and that's it, we are inseparable. On the contrary we become more and more hostile towards each other at times, for certain times and so our work doesn’t end. We always, always have to strengthen the connection between us.

57. S. (01:27:13) In order to build a screen in the ten do we start from a decision to not enjoy our own connection?

R. Yes.

58. S. (01:27:31) How do we build a common deficiency from an individual deficiency?

R. By connecting, working together, discussing, studying together, knowing that we cannot do anything on our own. Desireably we should have ten people maybe a little less than that but it still has to be a group that realizes that only in the connection between them that gradually forms they can feel the Creator. Like you build a net, a fish net and thus you form the Kli to perceive the Creator.

59. S. (01:28:28) Before the screen there is a restriction. Is working on the restriction the same as building the screen?

R. The work on the restriction is similar to working on building the screen, yes.

60. S. (01:28:44) What's the connection between faith and the waste of barn and winery?

R. From the waste of barn and winery we build the vessel of faith. That our will to receive, it doesn’t find the waste of barn and winery important at all. But in order to assemble the vessel of faith from it, it becomes highly important. We raise it above our heads as a thatch.

61. S. (01:29:21) What does it mean that faith saves a person from all destructors?

R. Because it's a force that is against nature, it is in order to bestow and therefore it’s a force that raises us above the will to receive, above this world and therefore it saves us.

62. S. (01:29:53) How does Sukkah protect us?

R. It protects us in that it gives us a spiritual vessel. That we can enter it and hide in it from all of the harmdoers because there is surrounding light on it that doesn’t allow any will to receive enter the Sukkah.

63. S. (01:30:23) Why is faith built with waste?

R. Faith is built from waste because it's built with what’s unimportant to our ego.

64. S. (01:30:39) What are the desires we can't turn into bestowal yet? Are those necessary bodily needs or something else?

R. That there is no screen on them yet.

65. S. (01:31:06) What is the waste that the ten uses in order to build the screen?

R. Where they disregard the connection between them, they should pay attention for that disregard and then gave these discernments high importance and specifically use them to build their correct spiritual connection. And from that they build the spiritual vessel.

66. S. (01:31:39) What does it mean to hide from the Creator? How do we do that?

R. Under the thatch. The Creator is like the sun and we are under the thatch.

67. S. (01:31:55) What is the connection between the waste and reason?

R. The reason is what appears in the will to receive by covering ourselves with the waste and so we then raise ourselves above reason. We will talk about that more.

68. S. (01:32:31) What is the force we can activate against this disregarding because the ego does that to everything?

R. This is true, the most important is connection between us and prayer.

69. S. (01:32:45) Are the guests that come to the Sukkah different states we have to go through?

R. Yes.

Excerpt 7: (01:32:57) RABASH, Letter No. 36 "And if one is rewarded and does not

70. S. (01:35:11) There is an opinion in our ten that we decide on something and then we say well, it will be okay, let's flow, the Creator will organize things. And then there is a different opinion saying that we have to go through the states and speak about him and organize them between us and solve everything. Can you give us advice how to set things right?

R. I'm not going into that and this is not what we are talking about right now. So I really don't understand why you're asking and if it's even a question to me.

71. S. (01:36:04) What does it mean that we add the shade on our own in the connection between us?

R. We ourselves have to make the shade. It’s like creating the thatch for the Sukkah that we 1 to hide from ourselves the revelation of the Creator we want to connect to the Creator through the shade, the shadow, so that He won't be revealed and then even though He’s not revealed we relate to Him as if he is.

S. What does it mean that we’re disregarding each other, that is adding the shade in connection?

R. No, no we will talk about this more, you took a few sentences from here and there, and you think you can play with it, it does not work that way, it has to be correctly linked.

72. S. (01:37:19) What does it mean that we have to connect to the Creator through the shade?

R. In concealment, through the screen, not in a direct way, I like the host and the guests. So the guest rejects what he receives from the host until he builds the right attitude to the host, right relationship, then he is not receiving anything. And then he starts receiving from the host it's not called reception, it is actually called bestowal.

73. S. (01:38:12) Without the prayer we can’t attain anything on our own, not in reason, not in mind, not in knowledge. How to bring the whole group to the right prayer?

R. We're always talking about that, how we connect ourselves between us and in the correct attitude so that we will truly be connected from heart to heart. The moment our hearts connect together we’ll immediately feel in the common heart, the Creator. So we have to envision this state to us and how we perceive the Creator in our common vessel.

74. S. (01:39:28) What does it mean that the ‘sun is covered for the person’, and why is he angry about it?

R. Because he wants reason and not faith.

75. S. (01:39:51) Dear friends, beloved friends we are going through the holidays of the month of Tishrei.

R. We aren’t, okay, fine, speak.

S. We are the tens on duty, PT 21 and PT 9, we are asking right now, let's please, a moment before Sukkot starts, let's do everything in order to lift the importance, what isn't high in importance right now, which is the quality of love and bestowal, the connection between us and let's bring lights to the world.

Excerpt 8: (01:40:45 - 01:42:08) “We must exert excessively to receive the shade …” twice

76. S. (01:42:11) In this excerpt and the one before it's written that a person is given shade, that he can’t do it himself. But there is a difference between we building the shade on our own, like the screen or the quality of connection, that should be more important for us than anything else. Or shade that was given from above as a feeling of a deficiency and suffering, that is a big difference between these two types?

R. Right, yes, yes so what are you asking?

S. It is just a bit confusing that it’s, they’re using the same name for the both.

R. Well, because the difference is in the reason, the difference is the reason.

S. In a state where the sun is concealed from us and the shade is given from above, so that's felt as suffering?

R. Yes and no, possibly no, perhaps you see it as an opportunity to live in the shade of faith. I don't see, I don't feel, I don't understand, but because I do receive these things from the Creator, then I try to see through what I received from the Creator through darkness, lack of understanding, lack of knowledge, bad mood. I actually want to feel through that connection with the Creator, I divide myself in two parts. My will to receive certainly is not happy but the will to bestow, which yearns for spirituality, is happy because now it can exercise getting closer to the Creator. Meaning I receive an opportunity from the Creator to get closer to Him.

S. And afterwards the Rabash writes that “if you built the shade so you get the sun” or it's added to you.

R. Yes, yes, yes in order for you to increase the shade until you come to the true degree of Bina.

77. S. (01:45:42) You said that without feeling, without understanding, you still and get it from the Creator. How to receive something from the Creator when you don't feel anything?

R. Yes I don't feel anything, but I believe that I received from the Creator.

78. S. (01:46:09) Can we say that on the spiritual path, every deficiency we have is a shade?

R. Yes.

79. S. (01:46:27) Let's say a person tries to understand something, even in corporeality, and suddenly he got some understanding and he's excited by it, so in that state what does it mean to add shade?

R. If he enjoys the stated that he understands then he has a problem. By that he ruins the vessel of faith, he first has to open the vessel of faith through faith, achieve the power of faith, the degree of faith, the degree of Bina. Then in the degree of faith, of Bina, to receive the light of Hochma and then you will have both light of Hassadim and light of Hochma in order to truly understand and acquire the spiritual degree.

S. What is with that state that he tries to add and then tries to understand?

R. If he wants to understand you should go to the university, we're not talking about the desire to understand, we're talking about the desire to attain the upper force. And in order to attain Him we first have to nullify our will to receive.

S. So it has nothing to do with corporeality?

R. Nope.

Reading (01:48:48 - 01:49:16) “Sukkot is considered gladness, considered "rejoicing Gevurot," which is repentance from love,...” twice

80. R. (01:49:18) Meaning that Sukkot actually symbolizes to us the end of the spiritual path, where all the Gevurot, all the resistances, problems we had on the path, so now they come to repentance from love, repentance from love. The sins become as merits, they flip, all the vessels of receptions with all the transgressions they had in them, they have been corrected and transformed to Mitzvot, as merits. This is what Sukkot symbolizes to us so ‘the waste from barn and winery’, we truly raise it above our heads.