Afternoon Lesson October 13, 2023

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

Part 1:

Lesson on the topic of "Fighting the evil inclination" - Selected Excerpts from the sources.

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, this is a new topic and seemingly unassociated with the previous topic. This is the work that we need to be in statically without cessation, so let's see what our teachers tell us. We need to battle with the evil inclination when the Creator says, “I have created the evil inclination, and in it, we get a great Torah as a spice,” meaning we have in our nature two forces: one force called the evil inclination and the other force that we can draw from the Torah, called the Torah as a spice at which point we can through the force of Torah to battle the evil inclination. Let's see. Please. 

Reading Excerpt #1. (01:31) RABASH, Article No. 6 (1989), "What Is Above Reason in the Work?"

2. R. (02:25) Meaning Tzava is actually the force that comes and leaves, enters, and exits, and in such a way, battles and subjugates the evil inclination. Subdue it.

Reading #1 Again. (02:58)

3. R. (03:44) It means that it enters and exits to become the ego it's called Tzava, called army. We have to understand that war is basically never over. Sometimes even when there's no war in spirituality where we are fighting our ego, it's simply temporary and it goes by really fast, so it's important. It's all connected to the army, Tzava, enters and exits, enters, and exits all the time. You have to be constantly ready to enter again, enter the battlefield again. If it’s needed, if not then exit and then enter again.

4. S. (04:52) In this excerpt it talks about the way of ascents and descents. A friend is asking if the ascents and descents in the war are endless or at some point, we find the middle line and they will stop?

R. Only when we reach Gmar Tikkun, the final correction will the forces of war stop and we will enter with a little less strength, with all the forces that we were fighting against, we will enter a stage of beast, until then the war is never-ending.

5. S. (05:46) Every friend has ascents and descents of his own but in the ten itself there's always a few friends that are up and a few friends that are down, how do we use this correctly, these states? 

R. How do we use it? Anyway, we go to work together and we're not really scrutinizing from above or from below how it is changing and how it is constantly changing inside of every one of us, but we're always standing against the evil inclination in order to unite between us. Until that unity between us will be the target we need to reach.

S. We have friends that are also in the army and their inability to be in the lesson, and to really feel they must be thought of for us to be together somewhat. How can those that seemingly are outside of the lesson, the path run right now, all of us seemingly, how can their connection to us in all these states catapult us all forward?

R. If there are people who are interested in the internal work then we, of course, are ready to let them join us, but they need to know that this gives them, that they have to take oblations and only in this way, they can go with us together.

6. S. (07:59) I want to expand the friends’ question, we have a friend in the ten who is now recruited, and he is, heart and soul, with us. We have many friends who are in Petah Tikva and the Israeli Kli who are now in the military, in reserves. I'm going off-topic now, but it is our work as the world Kli, as a group, as a ten in battling, truly battling, for the spiritual and internal environment of those friends. Those were thrown from circumstances that they're not dependent upon distancing them from our environment, at least physically. Sometimes it's also hard to connect virtually, etc.

R. If they're still with us in the tens and they’re inside of our army, so to speak, we have to constantly be thinking of each and every one of them.

S. Meaning just like their physically battling, we're battling spiritually for their environment, to keep them in “None Else Besides Him” and to keep them in our spiritual environment?

R. Yes, all of the time we're thinking of them, we’re praying, and we are holding them. We'll think about them together. 

7. S. (09:25) How is the battle carried out in spirituality? How is the campaign of a battle or war in spirituality?

R. First of all I take myself back to the state where I have to stand against the obstacles that are in front of me and my friends and between us and the friends and the Creator and by this, like this, I start feeling myself constantly in the line in which I fight against all the obstacles, obstacles against the connection, obstacles against foreign thoughts.

S. How do you triumph? How do you overcome these disturbances?

R. First of all through the fact that I'm coming back to it and I understand that these thoughts, they don't have a place inside of me and then I want to be united with the friends and I do certain actions in my studies for me to be connected with them and then when I have accomplished all of those things, then also towards the Creator who's our ultimate goal and we all have to be connected with Him. 

8. S. (11:09) Do we need to see ourselves, those of us who are not recruited, as if we're recruited to the spiritual front and battling the spirituality for the sake of the friends?

R. Yes, yes, obviously, yes.

S. Does this work need to be more in the ten, or the world Kli, or the Israeli Kli?

R. Basically it has to be in the heart of everyone who considers himself a part of the big common group that has to become closer to the Creator, revealing and bringing joy to Him.

S. It's more on an individual level, kind of?

R. Yes.

9. S. (12:05) Why is our path both a path of war and triumph? Why do we come to bestowal that way?

R. Because we have to fight our nature and wage war against our nature and its completely evil inclination, something opposite to the Creator, so we're left with no choice basically except for looking for this desire that's opposite to the Creator inside of us and try and fight against it, this is it.

S. How is war expressed in us in battle? On the outside we see the pictures that we are seeing, but how do we express war inside of us?

R. In that, we want to be in adhesion with each other and we don't want to disconnect through each hour of day and night and all the time strengthen each other in unity between us. In unity between us when we understand that is right and it's constant, more, or less. Then we can address the Creator and we request from Him to embody, to get dressed, into this unity of ours. Because we are basically doing it for Him.

S. Is there no cruelty on our path?

R. Yes, but towards ourselves, not against anyone from the outside. Only against ourselves. All the forces that are against unity, we have to register them, locate them as our own internal qualities, and literally destroy them.

10. S. (14:11) I would like to know the corrections that await us. Is it always like the current state meaning for there to be corrections on both sides, always?

R. Yes.

S. It's like all of our savings need to be corrected from all sides in order to be connected to one another, so to bring all the parts back to the same place?

R. Correct, correct.

S. I feel like the channel where the Creator is truly open right now and we could truly succeed in concentrating and thinking only about the situation and then use it and take advantage correctly of this state that we're feeling close in order not to raise thoughts like the friend said, cruelty, but thoughts of peace.

R. We have to try to be as close as possible to each other and even imagine ourselves embracing each other and by this to be as close as possible to each other and advance this way, from one degree to another. 

11. S. (16:00) I wanted to share a certain practical example that I see on the networks. The Israelis continue with the mentality of separation, and today I saw with my family even though for years I’ve been talking to them about the importance of connection. I feel within, how the anger in me, the truly inner fire is overwhelming me and is conquering my inclination to take it to the work in the ten. Is that really what will make the change in reality?

R. Yes, the work in the ten is what will change reality and not the work with our relatives, even though they are close to you, but they are far from spiritual work. Therefore, maybe you should invest in where you are in the group.

12. S. (17:04) Why is it easier to identify the enemy, the external enemy, and more difficult to identify the internal forces?

R. Because the enemy is our ego and therefore, we cannot so easily locate it. We live our ego, it’s mine. Therefore, it's really hard for me to act against myself to say that I'm wrong, that I'm bad. Still, by this, I basically lower myself, I cancel myself. This work is very hard, and more than that we're not able to accomplish that only the Creator can do that, execute that.

S. What is the action to actually identify the enemy?

R. To locate the enemy we can only do that thanks to the group work between us, when we talk about this enemy, about our ego that is dividing us, it doesn't let us see the good that is in the friends and just see the evil that is in ourselves and that's a problem. We have to be constant in it and not let this go. 

13. S. (18:50) If they have not merited being saved from the evil inclination why do they enter the control of the evil inclination again and what are they battling?

R. Because the same way that we have day and night, day and night, the change of states in nature also, the same way we have it inside of ourselves, the changes between bad and evil, the ego in the opposite to love in this way, we are constantly changing inside so that we have this opportunity to correct all of our desires, all of our inclinations.

14. S. (19:51) By what are we destroying the forces that arise in us against connection? 

R. With the help of our ego, it destroys them. It cannot tolerate the fact that we're gathering together, that we come closer to each other, that we want from this state to come closer to the Creator. Our ego is created on purpose in such a way that it won't let us achieve that, why? Because it was created by the Creator specifically to show us our distance from the Creator.

S. Can we look at our ego from the side and not identify ourselves with it?

R. So ask the Creator to change it in you, to correct, to remove. 

15. S. (21:08) The struggle, the true war happens inside of us but how do you come to the internality, how do you approach it in the true reality?

R. Only together when we talk, when we converse between ourselves and we find this evil between us that doesn't let us stay united and then we understand it deeper, what qualities each and every one of us can inquire correction from the Creator for. This is all we need. 

16. S. (22:10) Why do I feel that I am the one who causes the friend to enter into a descent, that I'm the one to blame?

R. If I don't hold my ten with force, with the force of unity from my end, then I bring the whole ten and each one in the ten to a descent. Therefore, I have to constantly try to correct myself and lead the ten to ascend.

17. S. (23:09) When a person feels the evil that is dormant inside the friends and feels it in his heart and the friends don't agree that there's something bad in them, what then can a person do in his internal work?

R. Ask, ask for this evil to turn into good. That's it. 

18. S. (23:44) The ego is strong. Spiritually we are children that pray to the Father. Is the internal struggle always… the struggle as we think?

R. Yes, we have to, all of the time, ask. This is like a child that wants something really bad, he is always nagging his mother and he won't leave her until she gives him what he wants.

S. What can help us, with a stronger desire and confidence?

R. Well of course, of course, yes. And then we can, we will be able to demand it constantly and this is what is said in the sources, “Let him pray all day.”

19. S. (25:18) [No translation]

R. It will normalize. 

20. S. (26:03) In the written Torah they’re constantly talking about the armies of the Lord, what are the Lord's armies?

R. It's all those souls that want to correct themselves and the others. 

21. S. (26:31) Please tell me whether now at this period of time we in the tens need to build a certain Masach, a screen just like the soldiers are putting on their guards, their shields, that reject the evil forces and protect those that are within?

R. Correct. You're right. That is a very good example.

22. S. (26:57) Our work is actually to identify the evil in us and to ask the Creator with the help of the group for corrections so that we can connect to the group and that the Creator would love, right? To agree and expect this correction with the help from the forces of the ten?

R. Yes. 

23. S. (27:47) The more I try to justify the Creator in lieu of the latest events, I find myself that the Creator is trying to show me what could awaken in me at the time of separation and hatred. Is this the help of the Creator to help to suppress the war in my inclination?

R. Yes.

24. S. (28:22) Our friend who has been recruited to the military right now is asking: are we fighting for the Creator or is He battling for us? What's the right attitude, what's our part and what's the part of the Creator?

R. We have to connect between us and between us address the Creator and the Creator will fight for us. This is how it works, and it is also written. 

25. S. (28:58) [No translation]

R. You only think good about the friends, and everything will be good and all the negative emotions, l let them be against your enemies. This is how it has to be.

S. Yes, we have to target it towards this.

R. Aim for this, yes.

26. S. (29:38) How much does the pride, I don’t have another word, but the right pride of being part of this group of Bnei Baruch, help us in this war against our evil inclination?

R. Yes, pride also has to be there in order for us not to fall under the control of the evil inclination and to feel ourselves and we have to be above it. 

27. S. (30:31) It is written, “I am first, and I am last and There's Nothing Else Besides Him,” so what is the war between these two lines between I am first, and I am last and between None Else Besides Him, where is my battle? 

R. This is actually how the Creator is acting but it's not that we will feel it this way, so the war is there to raise him above our head. He is one in single force the Good That Does Good and There's Nothing Else Besides Him, this is what we need to establish in our hearts, in the tens. 

S. We have come from a congress where we had great ascents, then what came after the congress we have some descents. How can we rise again in these conditions?

R. The Creator does this to us on purpose so that we will be able to enter into the battle with our evil inclination and try each time to raise the Creator above the evil inclination and this way, we will succeed in the current war between us and with the Creator. Okay?

28. S. (32:40) How do we find the balance and where is the balance between the suffering of the society and the opposite to be strong on our path, how do we accomplish this correctly?

R. We need to constantly be connected between us and come closer to the Creator as much as possible.

S. Suffering of the society, what about the society?

R. By what I said you will also heal somewhat of the sorrow of the society, of the public. 

S. Can we communicate with them directly?

R. No.

29. S. (33:42) I feel a lack of some of the friends, and different forces, not at the same time, is the Creator leading us and we need a base through different desires or am I not doing enough work?

R. Do you feel that you're with the friends in one heart?

S. As far as I understand the friend does feel, not one heart, but feels separate, separate lacks of the friends with different powers, one by one and she cannot manage to come to one heart.

R. That's a problem. Think about how you will be able to come to one heart: desire, intention, goal. For that to be for you all one and then you will win.

30. S. (34:52) If I understood it right, in the article it says that we are called an army and, in each ascent, each descent we have to feel that we're together despite the fact that each and every one of us feels individually.

R. We need to feel that we are going together and are together in all the descents and in all the ascents, yes. 

31. S. (35:40) When I try to switch strengthen in the work in the ten externally or not externally, I expect higher attendance in the lessons in the meetings and the scrutiny’s and now strengthening in these actions we can measure it by time, how often does a person here do we have to measure it in external actions as well? 

R. Yes, the increase needs to be more correct in our intentions in how much I yearn to be together in one heart with the friends.

S. Maybe there's a descent in the intensity of the actions, in the external attendance, but internal strengthening, is a state like this possible? 

R. We need to see. 

32. S. (36:58) I noticed that if we do not succeed in overcoming, the war between us the work comes to externality and it manifests itself externally, so the question is if we really want, will we be able to put this war back from externality to internality or do we have to fight both internally and externally?

R. We can do everything, each and every state we can invert to another state if we would know how to do it, we will know how to ask the Creator to do this.

S. Maybe we can switch the state that seems external? If we ask?

R. Yes.

33. S. (37:57) How can we distinguish in the evil what happens to us what you must fight from what you must…?

R. We have to connect everything to the Creator and then in accordance to that we have to fight against the evil inclination, etc. Put everything into There Is None Else Besides Him. 

34. S. (38:58) You just said that we are together in all of the ascents and descents, so the question is: are we together fighting against my evil inclination or against our common inclination?

R. Against our evil inclination.

S. Always going to the point where it's our common inclination? Also, dear Rav, I want to express my support for the love that you are addressing toward my family, I want to direct and send back and make sure that the whole world Kli, the Moscow group, the men and women are praying for you and all of the love that you're aiming towards us to give back to you with the same strength. We love you very much and we pray for you.

R. Yes, I also want everything to be good for you, especially in your family and let's hope that like this very quickly it will all happen. 

35. S. (40:29) I can feel in the spirit that it's very special, it’s very intensive between aggressive external situation and along with that we have put a strong emphasis on the internal work, work in the ten, the whole world Kli is in the work, literally I can feel, and just for the whole day I am covered with friends who are at work. What are two or three main principles that we have to all together, work through, so that we will be doing it together?

R. The first principle is together, as one. The second principle is with the Creator together as one. That's it. Nothing besides that we don't need. Not to think of anything besides that. Together all of us with the Creator.

36. S. (41:43) Can we say that an act of bestowal and Arvut from this side of the world Kli, towards the Israeli Kli is for us to share the weight of this state?

R. That won't help. We need to pray to the Creator. He is actually managing everything; He does everything, and it all just depends on Him. Hence, pray to the Creator, that's what we have to ask from Him for corrections. Correction for each and every one, correction for all of us to be together, correction for all of humanity that we all need to be together. That's what we're asking Him to do. Besides that, we don't need anything.

37. S. (43:09) Why can’t I pray together, raise my prayer with the friends, I'm feeling that something is fighting against me, something is resisting me, how do I overcome it?

R. Only with the connection with the friends, before that there's nothing else to do, first of all, a connection between us.

38. S. (43:58) We all feel the pain of the society, and women specifically are in constant prayer, how do we change the state towards the care of the pain of Shechina, so that in that state “He doesn't let me sleep” and only care about Shechina?

R. We can’t come to that before we have the proper concern for the connection between us. Therefore, don’t jump, we don't know what the Shechina is, the correct connection between us is the Shechina. We need first of all to think about the connection between us; otherwise, it will be some sort of fantasy. So pray for the whole connection between us.

S. And each one in his ten?

R. Yes.

39. S. (45:30) What is the tactic in the spiritual work?

R. To be connected between us and be connected with the Creator and demand from the Creator to connect between us to Him. For us to come to the highest degree of connection possible which is called the end of correction, the final correction. 

S. And this prayer is a tool, is a weapon?

R. The prayer is the weapon and the means; prayer is everything. 

40. S. (46:25) We talked about the intentions and the actions, we are a young ten with a point in the heart and we decided together two times a day in this connection and this decision to physically meet, it makes us closer. We're not discussing the situation in the country, we simply read Psalms, everything that makes us closer to the spiritual work and this special state. Does this action bring us to the right intention?

R. Yes, of course. Therefore, actions lead to the right intentions. Good luck.

41. S. (47:14) War raises very hard feelings and suffering when we're talking about the war against, does the spiritual war bring us also such strong feelings?

R. You'll feel and you'll see.

42. S. (47:56) Do we share the experience of the ten, the experience of the internal work?

R. It's preferred that you don't and if so, only in a very general manner. 

43. S. (48:22) How not to be afraid of the shattering that reveals from the efforts that we put into unity and does the Creator correct the suffering of the public by this? 

R. The shattering exists already. The whole shattering already happened. What we need to do is identify the shattering and raise it to correction to the Creator. That's all. 

S. Despite all of this, despite the fact that it brings a lot of suffering, we still have to work in unity?

R. I don't understand what you're asking.

S. Do we have to come to such an internal unity against, to counterbalance the suffering that is externally there? How do we come to this force so that it produces the correction?

R. Yes, through prayer.

44. S. (49:50) Maybe we should, the whole world Kli, take one prayer from Rav’s words, from words of the sages instead of each ten raising their own ten?

R. No, every ten must build its own prayer and at least once a week, renew these prayers.

S. There is no danger in that we are not asking wrong?

R. No, there cannot be bad things happening because we are not asking correctly.

45. S. (50:45) I agree with the friends that the gates to the Creator are open, and it has never been like this before. I understand the state that it's hard to be next to him. The donkey is resisting with all its force. How do we become the brave man in all this? 

R. We need to think only about mutual help, mutual support, and about the request to the Creator for connection. About nothing else besides that. Mutual help, mutual connection, and only with the Creator. That I think you can remember.

S. Is there a place for joy here?

R. Of course there is. The fact that the Creator puts you in such a lowly state, a corrupt state in which you have no possibility of doing anything else besides asking Him for correction, from that there should be great joy.

46. S. (52:10) You said in the morning that to an extent to which a person corrects himself to the same extent he corrects the world and on the contrary. What does it mean if a person is uncorrected?

R. One who only thinks about himself and that's it. 

47. S. (52:40) Everyone perceives unity in a different way. How can we come to the same understanding of what unity is to common feeling or maybe it's normal that everyone feels it differently?

R. When we connect these things gradually, by the upper Light become as one. 

48. S. (53:13) You said in the morning “That you women, need to organize an organization here and in Latin America.” What is the goal of this organization?

R. To advertise what the purpose of creation is and how to come to it.

49. S. (53:45) You said that the public actions, don't have force and we don't need to dive into the news, but how do we take this society's suffering?

R. From hearing it's enough for us, besides we have plenty to pray for from what the Kabbalist wrote for us and we should be immersed in that, and not what we're being told what the broadcasters on the radio are telling us.

S. What's our minimum requirement from our end in order to get the impression of the society’s suffering and not forget about it, but take something that will help us in our spiritual work?

R. No more than a minute a day, like Rabash did.

S. In the day, meaning one minute a day, not an hour?

R. Yes, a day.

S. These Kabbalists are the suffering. The suffering of the society, without connecting to society, without getting in touch with the society just feeling the Hisaron without feeling their lack?

R. Yes.

50. S. (55:16) Up until this moment we have received blows and not as strong as now, and our heavenly father is bringing us blows to us as children in order for us to grow and he bestows these blows upon us, but we're still in first grade, what do we have to do?

R. We are probably in the university and what's being made of us is like what are you in first grade, leave us, come on mommy is mad, etc., etc. No, we are already mature and we're adults and we need to understand where we are and to accept reality in a serious manner. This is the work before us and we need to explain it to the world, to the entire humanity; otherwise, we will have it much worse.

S. Does it depend on our dissemination?

R. Not on dissemination, first of all, in our understanding and then in our dissemination.

51. S. (56:44) The Creator is sending us all the states and feelings. How do we work with the feeling of hatred that he sends, hatred towards the hate that's revealing itself inside of me and manifested externally?

R. Well, that's very good, if we hate the quality of hatred in us it means that we can distance ourselves from it, we can ask for its correction. That is wonderful. That is excellent. 

52. S. (57:25) The pain that we feel for the losses, for the sorrow of war, does it help us in the prayer, or does it give us when we dive into this pain it's as if as rejecting the management from above that is Good That Does Good, and it pulls us into the opposite direction?

R. Don't worry the Creator makes the calculations in what direction to draw us and it's not so dependent on us, it's dependent on the manner in which He completely manages us from before us and behind us.

S. I really, this pain that we feel, do we need to rise above it or as if it is included in our prayer? 

R. Include it in the prayer. Include it in the prayer and everything will be okay, friend. Don't worry, just concentrate. 

53. S. (58:54) If I don't feel the lack of the friends does it mean that I also don't have it?

R. You may have a very big deficiency and it could be that it's so much so that you don't feel the lack of the friends, so that's a problem. That's a problem. You need to connect with them in order for you to have the deficiency of the friends so that you know what they're suffering from, what they want, and what they're missing in order to advance in the spiritual path. 

54. S. (59:41) Today during the Morning Lesson you just said straight to my heart that we are to blame everything that's happening in Israel, and Ukraine, and the prayer came out really confused and it just brought me to tears, is it a proper prayer or is it this idiotic egoism of mine that's blurring it all?

R. Your ego is hiding everything there because in truth we are the only ones to blame. We need to ask for the correction, for our correction around the clock. 

55. S. (01:00:36) There's a feeling that war is, it's a way of the Creator to awaken the national love above which Baal HaSulam has been writing, what is the true correct national law that needs to awaken in all of us towards the nation?

R. We need to love one another, just like we love ourselves. In this, we will conclude. All the best and thank you to our reader.