Morning Lesson May 22, 2023

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

Part 1:

Baal HaSulam. Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]. #15

1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:32) Yes, so let's continue that same article, the primary article of Baal HaSulam, the 'Giving of the Torah'. Let's see what he wants to tell us in that. Not many people have discovered what the Torah is and have attained what is in it and why the Creator gave the Torah in such a way and under which conditions we can receive the Torah. So, please.

Reading Item 15 (01:14) “Now we can understand the words..”

2. R. (01:54) This means that the whole Torah is only to reach the love of others.

Continuing Reading (02:01) “As our sages said….”

3. S. (04:11) What he is trying to say, that both the method and the goal are one and the same and it doesn't matter if you define it as attaining the Creator or attaining the love of others it is one on the same? Meaning if you cleave to the method you attain the goal with certainty is that what he's trying to tell us?

R. Ok well, anyone else wants to say anything?

4. R. (04:54) He is saying simply that our goal is nevertheless to reach the love of the Creator to that extent we feel Him, we are with Him, even you can say in His place and this is how we reach the purpose of our existence, the purpose of creation, that those people who are in the attainment of this world in the opposite form of the Creator can attain Him and discover Him in a direct manner, in the closest possible way. So a step on the way that the Creator gave us is that He didn't create just one man but rather many people who exist in an opposite desire than love and He gave them a direction towards love of others. That precisely through the contradiction between these two states from hatred and love, they can direct themselves, calibrate ourselves, such that they will reach the feeling of the Creator. Specifically through something and it's opposite, each and every created being can see things that by their, from his little will to receive from which he was born and even developed it a little bit, he cannot reach it but rather it has to be in hatred of others and love of others and if he nevertheless grows to one thing out of the other, from hatred to love, then he develops within himself qualities.

5. S. (07:49) It says here in the excerpt in love of others says that people that demand it, what does it mean that people who demand it, how do we demand it in the ten?

R. We can determine or establish Tens as the Torah explains to us. It gives us examples that Moses divided the entire people of Israel into Tens and they engaged in them, in love, in connection between them. This is what we learn, this is what we have to do.

S. It says here in a very rigid manner to demand, what does it mean what can I demand from the friend?

R. We can talk about the conditions so that if we will keep these conditions, we will come closer to the Creator until we will understand Him and feel Him and adhere to Him, meaning we will reach the purpose of our existence. This is why in such a way the Torah brings us this example.

6. S. (09:45) It is not clear if there is a difference between love of friends or love of the Creator or is it only due to the action of a person who is still in the nature of creation?

R. In truth there is no difference, it only depends on how we interpret the word love because anything that is out of the will to receive is not felt in us, we don't know what it is. You have a whole world relative to our world which is like a speck of grain, a grain of dust, sand, while the upper world is infinite if we are talking about distances, feelings, forces, abilities. This is why we need to try to rise above our little ego which is clothing us in in some small reality, narrow reality and try to discover the love of others through which we shift to the love of the Creator and as he tells us, this transition is immediate to the extent that we attain love of people, we immediately shift to the love of the Creator.

S. Meaning there is a difference between love of others and love of the Creator?

R. Well, you could say that the love of the Creator it's something that is whole and the love of people seems to us as partial love, that we can attain it in pieces, one after the other, step by step and when we reach it, then immediately after that we reach the love of the Creator.

S. What is the practical caution here? Not to aim for love of the Creator but engaging in love of the friend?

R. Because you cannot receive it, grasp it, you have no one to work with, you have no one to work against, you can't have a hold on the Creator, you don't yet have any approach, any grasp, any hold on Him. Whereas with the friends you do have ten friends and you have common qualities with them hearing, seeing, smelling, touching and your holding onto the same world, you have life etc., so it is easier for you to understand and feel and develop together and each one shall help his friend. There are many things here that bring us to connection and we can even measure in what form I was close to the friend yesterday compared to today.

S. How, nevertheless, to imagine the goal of love of friends which is love of the Creator, if he advises us not to aim for the love of the Creator but first of our friends?

R. Yes, because we will be confused about it. What is the love of the Creator, if you talk to someone about it, yes, the Creator, that is something else. I love Him but I can't love the friends. I am not capable of that. This is why we have to realize that, specifically through love of friends we scrutinize all of the details that we have to prepare for the love of the Creator.

S. While engaged in love of friends before we discover what is the Creator what Is love of the Creator, how do we introduce this goal?

R. We don't need to introduce the goal of the love of the Creator before we complete the love of friends.

S. He writes everywhere that only love our friends is the worst thing if he doesn't have the goal of loving the Creator, aiming to give contentment to the Creator and that go from love of the created beings to love of the Creator?

R. Yes, but when we engage in love of friends we are not engaging in love of the Creator, these are two states where one emerges from the other. This is why we of course, our goal is the love of the Creator and to talk about it well for the time being we don't need to, it will confuse us and might deflect us from the support.

S. What, yes in order to not make mistakes. How not to forget that our goal is love of the Creator?

R. It will come by itself if we relate correctly to the friends, to be “as one man with one heart,” the love of the people to help and support and by that we will gradually attain all of the qualities that we should approach the love of the Creator.

S. What to imagine now that the goal is?

R. Only, love of friends.

S. And the Creator?

R. The Creator will wait. Don't you worry, He will wait.

Reading Item 15 again (16:45)

7. R. (17:24) Love your friend as yourself.

Continuing Reading (17:29)

R. (18:02) This means that adhesion with the Creator comes seemingly but itself the moment that we reach love of friends, love of people,one is immediately rewarded with it.

Continuing Reading (18:20) “One must not wonder…”

9. S. (19:47) You explained once that on one leg means there is one principle which is first do no harm. Here we have a question, why do we keep emphasizing love of friends and not first do no harm because that is the first step? We barely speak about it, it is mostly love, which is the next degree? It looks easier to first do no harm, first of all, to understand what does it mean to do no harm? It's not in the usual way Baal HaSulam writes in a way if I don't bestow I don't make them happy, so why not first that?

R. Well, if it's enough for him to explain it.

S. No, I'm asking about ourselves, why is the emphasis on love which is a degree up in the heavens?

R. But if we are talking nevertheless, about connection, about coming closer, participation in the Ten then of course there is no room here for one to harm the other. Well, seemingly we are already above that.

S. We are above that? We are past this stage?

R. Well, this goes into love of friends, no doubt.

10. S. (21:16) Nevertheless the idea is demanding, is not clear because he writes in both cases the goal is equally distant from him both from love of friends and love of the Creator. For him it is the same he cannot distinguish between the two, so if there is no demanding the love of the Creator, no love of friends, there is no demanding, as Rabash explains, love our friend is when I love the friends and other they love me, so if we are all of us in the Ten like no one is demanding the love of the other towards him, so there's no demanding?

R. Well, there's no demand means there is demand because you see from the examples of the friend that they are trying to get closer to each other and by that you get an example and the power to also be like that.

S. Well in love of the Creator there are friends in the Ten who..

R. Well we have no living examples of that, where is the Creator, how do we hold on to Him, how do we get close to Him, some more, some less. We don't have such examples. Whereas towards the friends, yes, we are in the Ten and this is the main thing that the Torah is giving us to be in a quorum, minion and to try to keep in it connection and love.

S. Practically there are friends also in my Ten who put a great deal of emphasis on giving a feeling, setting an example to the friends for love of the Creator. How much do we need to come close to Him and think of Him specifically as the means for advancement and they show that as an example, you can feel their desire?

R. The love of the Creator is not a means for advancement, it is the final goal.

S. But if a person wants to put in the labor and he has love of the Creator or imagines that he

wants to come closer to the upper force then he gives an example in that and he gives him the power to exert more.

R. It won't be straight and correct, without the love of people you cannot come close to the love of the Creator, it will end up being like a religion. All of the religions actually were built on the spaces.

S. I understand, so back to the question, I'm trying to understand, so how do we, where are

those demands in the work in the Ten on the matter of love of others, of love of friends? Where do I feel there are friends that do demand it daily? How can I forget by tomorrow that I have to be in love of friends?

R. Yes, yes, we see this from what is written for us. Whatever one passes on to us we don't want anything except for the love of people and Rabash explains this to us very well each time. That we have to yearn for this, we have to reach this and we have no other goal before us but only to reach the love of people, the love of friends, “love your friend as yourself,” this is the great rule of the Torah. And love the Lord your God that will come later. Even though we understand and learn that this comes out of that but for the time being we are only directed towards connection between us.

S. For the sake of the collective for the people here, I want to insist a little bit more. Love of friends, although in the books you can also come with love of the Creator but only in the friends alone obligate me to remember that I obligate myself for it but how can someone obligate me towards love of others.

R. Your nature, if you want to rise above your nature then you have to reach from hatred of others to love of others and you can do that only by organizing your connection with the group.

S. So because I can arrange physical connections that are closer to me then you can build a true bridge that takes me closer to the Creator?

R. Yes, I don't even have to be myself close to the Creator; the connection with the Creator comes immediately once you close your connection with the group.

S. So it will bring me close to the quality of love?

R. Yes.

11. S. (27:07) What does it mean that love of friends is free of mistakes?

R. Because we see it in actuality, we see it practically before us that I have friends and I have a mutual connection with them and it all exists right before me and I can criticize it, I can speak with them, I can read all kinds of things about it and understand what it is about, it is only inside of my senses, my habits, my life, whereas with respect to the Creator, each one has his own fantasy.

S. I don't want to say fantasy but if I assume with faith that beyond each friend stands the Creator?

R. No, these are just stories.

12. S. (28:12) It says that the commandment of love for your friend as yourself is the whole of the Torah: what does it mean?

R. Why love your friend as yourself is the essence of the whole Torah because through it we can get closer to the Creator and reach our correction, come close to and adhere to the Creator, meaning the first contact with the Creator comes after we reach love of others. All in all, the Creator is let's say there's a sum total of all of the created beings.

S. [No translation]

R. Well then we begin to discover the Creator truly through equivalence of form with Him gradually as much as love towards others develops in me, so love towards the Creator develops in me.

S. What does it mean that now in the lesson I begin to feel the love of the friend? I did not feel it earlier but now I do?

R. When it will happen, you will know what it is. How can I explain to you about love? Even in this world, we don't know how to explain this precisely but only how to write endless books about it.

13. S. (30:30) We mostly talk about “love thy friend as they self” and we also say the article says 612 Mitzvot that is a preparation to come to this state of “love thy friend as thyself.” It is as if those 612 we have to work with those, but they're not mentioned specifically, so how do we interpret this if we only talk about “love thy friend as myself” and the 612 we don't mention?

R. The Mitzvot, [commandments] that are written in the Torah are all in order to soften the heart, to bring the hearts closer together between us. This is why we have to keep them. All of them are about “love your friend as yourself,” as much as we will understand from the nearing between us, what does it mean to keep these Mitzvot then we will keep them.

14. S. (31:51) Who is this insolent proselyte, what is this degree?

R. He appears in us, and he is against people coming closer, he is against love, this is what we call a foreigner, a proselyte.

15. S. (32:23) It says that love your friend as yourself is the essence of the Torah before the giving of the Torah of the people of Israel didn't know about?

R. There was no Israel before the giving of the Torah,there was no Israel, there was no nation of Israel. There was a group from all of the nations that existed back in Babylon and they came out of Babylon, some of them and they went towards the land of Canaan, so Babylon wasn't in Israel, in Babylon and it wasn't Israel. When they reached the land of Canaan where we are today the land of Israel that had nothing to do with Israel. It's all pertained only to those nations of the world or the seven nations that lived here in Israel.

S. It looks like the Torah is open before us, we know this general rule, we have the sources, we have guidance. What's so special about what happened before Mount Sinai, what did they receive there?

R. When they were next to Mount Sinai well, it's not that it has to do with the mountain or the desert of Sinai but rather it's a symbol and indication that they attained these conditions that have to be in, “we shall do and we shall hear,” we will learn more about that. That they got to know the severity of the reception of the Torah, what was given and what is it that they have to do with it etc.. These are rigid, tough things.

16. S. (34:54) How can we express the love of friends in the Ten in spite of the repulsion that we can feel from some of the friends?

R. Again how is it possible to express love of friends?

S. To express the love of friends in the Ten despite the rejection and repulsion we can feel from some of the friends?

R. We have to overcome this and try each time to show the others even though we don't yet have in our heart the quality of love but to show everyone that seemingly yes, we have love in our heart or at least that we are going towards that, that we want it to happen. We should show this to all of the friends. This is the main work in the Ten, that everyone in the Ten will feel that you do want to reach that.

17. S. (36:22) To reach love of friends without receiving the Torah before that?

R. What do you mean without receiving the Torah?

S. Without that state, where the light comes?

R. How will you reach it?

S. To reach love of friends I need to receive the Torah. I need to reach that occasion, that event.

R. Yes.

18. S. (36:54) You say at this point to put the love of the Creator off to the side and focus on the love of the friends.

R. I understand. This would be right.

S. We learned that the end of the act is in the initial thought. So what is the intention with which I enter each action like our study?

R. Well for me now the most important thing in the ten is that we have determined according to what Baal HaSulam and Rabash write that we have to keep in our tens the law of love.

S. Toward what goal? What is my aim, my intention?

R. The aim is to later reach the love of the Creator.

S. Can we reach love of others without having the Creator as the goal?

R. I don't think so. I don't think it is possible, because what for?

S. That is the question. At what point do you introduce the Creator to your intention?

R. Well, I know that I have to reach that - the love of the Creator, adhesion with the Creator. But now, I am still not engaging in that because I don't have the vessels for it.

S. What will give me the power to love the other?

R. Just like loving the Creator. The Creator gives us the forces. But, it is not considered that I'm not thinking about it or I don't want to know about it. I simply know that now I don't have the vessels with which I can be in the love of the Creator, in attaining love of the Creator.

S. What guarantees that I won't deviate from the path and I'm only engaging in love of friends and at some point that will come?

R. It could be that this is exactly the same root from which socialism or communism can spring. I don't know. All kinds of such things.

S. So I'm asking again, where is the Creator here? Why aren't we holding onto these two intentions together?

R. Because we have no grasp, no hold on, the Creator. With the friends we do have a grasp. Even though we understand that later on we are going to go onwards to the love of the Creator. But now we can't. We don't have the means to engage in the love of the Creator.

S. So if I'll continue to engage in love of friends in the ten?

R. By this I establish the means to reach connection with the Creator.

S. What ensures that I reach connection with the Creator and that I won’t get confused by the love of friends and this new Torah that I will establish?

R. In that also in love of friends I am managed by the Creator. It's just that I do not put this - the love of the Creator - as the goal for the time being. I do not have the vessels for it. The Creator is what we discover in the ten and for the time being we don't have a ten. It's just that I, with my friends, are building the ten inside of which it will be possible to discover the Creator; to be in His direction, to aim towards Him.

S. If I summarize: the Creator is always the goal but right now we are dealing with the love of friends?

R. Yes.

19. S. (40:50) I don't have anything to give to the friends except the love of the Creator. What else can I bring them?

R. No, you can't give them this and they don’t need this.

S. What do I do in love of friends besides bringing them the greatness of the Creator.

R. You bring them love of friends.

S. What is that?

R. That is what you are going to scrutinize now. You can't skip over new degrees.

20. S. (41:26) In the present stage where we need to focus on love of friends, do you bring the Creator into the picture somehow? Or do you only focus on love of friends?

R. The Creator is the first to obligate and the final obligator as well. But, along the way I have to be connected to the means that are on the way. And, that is only my attitude towards the friends in the ten.

S. This is clear. So, this result that there is a Creator in reality, it comes immediately the moment that we are implementing love of friends? Do we immediately reach the love of the Creator? Or is this a different kind of work?

R. Just as he writes, yes.

S. How does it happen immediately?

R. Because it is the vessel that you built. You built a vessel of the love of friends and in it you reveal your connection with the Creator.

S. What does it mean that our love, our work, brings us closer to love our friends? If we check each and every day the work of connection, how exactly can we see that we have come closer to the friend? That we are coming close to each other?

R. “As one man in one heart.” Demand of ourselves to be in one heart.

S. Okay and in the work that we do on love of friends, the force that corrects us and connects us is the Creator, right?

R. Yes.

S. So we are still trying to obligate Him?

R. Yes, of course.

S. Each and every step we take with the help of the upper force? It just sounded like we needed to take Him out of the picture and only look at the friends.

R. Yes.

21. S. (43:45) There is some kind of balance. If we only work on love of friends we can fall into socialism, which is unrelated, but if we bring the Creator in too early we will fall into something which is a fantasy?

R. Not a fantasy, but religion.

S. So how will we find this balance? It looks like all of the questions are about what is the right balance in the ten where we have enough Creator so we don't fall into socialism but not too much that we don't fall into religion.

R. That's along the way with help from above. Direction from above. That's one thing. The other thing is we simply wish to come closer to one another, but together with the sources that we are learning from. We don't forget about the final goal. Although, we are not engaged in it practically because we lack the vessels. Then, we advance correctly. We protect ourselves from deviating from the path by getting closer in the tens and we don't sanctify other actions.

S. Do you see it sometimes happening in the tens? Can you give an example of when you see and feel that the ten is going too much in the direction of bringing the Creator in too early? Because we are trying to understand how to be precise about it?

R. I don't see such examples in practice right now in tens as you say. If we have such people, individuals here and there, they typically fall off. They leave.

22. S. (46:20) Can we imagine that the Creator is not a separate entity? There are the friends and there is the Creator. But, when we get closer to love of friends or achieve love of friends, then suddenly we feel a new emotion, some new force which is the Creator. So, it's all-inclusive and they reach the love of friends?

R. Yes, we shouldn't forget that the Creator as it's written is Boreh, “come and see.” It's a special force and a special power that's revealed in our connection. We need only this way to try to come closer to him and identify him - the power that's revealed in the center of our connection.

23. S. (47:50) Can we have the goal of attaining the creator while we ask of him that he will give us love of friends?

R. Yes, that too can happen.

24. S. (48:30) I would like to continue this scrutiny that the friends started about what you said about attaining the love of the Creator and attaining the love of friends. The expression of love of friends is that we demand for them and we ask for them the greatness of the Creator, the revelation of the quality of the Creator, and the revelation of the quality of bestowal. So the Creator anyway enters into this thing called love of friends, so what do we do about that and how to arrange it correctly?

R. We just talked about how for the time being we are working on the connection between us in order to scrutinize all the details that belong to being “as one man in one heart” When we have some attainment in it and approach into this form of connection then we can approach the Creator and we have with what to do it. Because we have, “as one man in one heart” to incorporate into the Creator. As it's called, then “one receives one.”

S. What does it mean to connect between us? To connect between us is to ask of the Creator for the friends. To want for them to do what is best. The Creator is there. He's part of the force of bestowal that we ask for. All the friends are asking for it for the friends.It's there.

R. Of course it is so, but the goal is not Him. Rather it is the connection between us, for now. We ask him to help us with that, to do it for us.

25. S. (50:30) You answered the friend before me and this is what I wanted to ask. Because indeed they say, “I wish you would pray all day long.” So all day long we pray for the friends, we pray to the Creator.

R. If you do it like that then I have nothing to add. Keep going.

26. S. (51:08) What does it mean in the cleansing or the refinement of the body until it requires a second nature?

R. Until he comes to the form of bestowal.

S. What is the cleansing or the refinement of the body?

R. He’s cleansed of the will to receive. So he will have everything in order to bestow.

27. S. (51:38) It's possible to overcome terrible things in this world through faith above reason only if it is for the friends. If it's only for myself, I can't agree that He is good and doing good with all of my desire to justify Him. But if I want it for the friends then I can succeed. And then it is possible to accept him as good and doing good because then there is only love. And this is equal to all the good in the world.

R. We need to read precisely what is written and do what is written. Try with the support of the friends. We will have no doubt that we will attain everything that we need to attain along the way, that is the answer.

Reading item number 16 (52:47) “In the above words we find..”

28. S. (57:00) It’s completely unclear. In the ten or a small group you can actually pay attention to every one. You can hone your sensitivity to each other. What does it mean that 600,000 people care for each individual?

R. This is indeed hard to explain and hard to understand. I also can't quite convey it. I think this is a qualitative issue, not quantitative. Where do you even see such a number (600,000)? Maybe in the marches in Tel Aviv.

S. It depends on who you ask.

R. I know I heard over there you have all the people in Israel. I think it's a qualitative matter. I also cannot imagine such a group was then - when they are talking about quantity. Coming out of Egypt, crossing the Dead Sea, and approaching Mount Sinai - all those things seem to me like things that don't happen on the face of planet earth but rather internally - about the few dozens of people who are connected.

S. Let’s try to understand it this way - what is a nation? And what's the difference between how they enter Egypt and how do they come out of Egypt?

R. When they entered Egypt they were not a nation or anything like that. No. They felt themselves as coming from one tribe. But by coming out of Egypt, after all the wearing in Egypt and the desire to escape it, now you can say that there's a nation. We have to understand - what's the difference between a nation and a ten? It's possible it's not measured according to how you can count on your fingers or anything like tha. No. It's not about the quantity here.

S. (01:00:33) Indeed in this dualism of internality and externality, are they a nation or not a nation, the mountain of Sinai or not the mountain of Sinai - Baal HaSulam is, it seems to me, constantly shifting from one to the other, he could have written this is about a small group or a ten.

R. No, no, they wouldn't get it. They wouldn’t accept it. If you would write it truthfully, spiritually, what would he write? That there are a few people who lived in this world while they continue to live in Babylon. They didn't get down to Egypt, to the Nile, to Pharaoh, all of those things. But instead it all happened inside of them. Inside their feeling. That's how they go through all the stages of all the wearing. And they detect the ego is opposite from the upper force. And it brings them into such internal states of which it's written about in the book of Torah with the exile into Egypt. I don't think it's possible to give it to the entire nation and that the entire nation would be raised on it and advance until today.

S. This is with respect to the external ones, it's clear. But maybe also for us, he's doing it gradually. Meaning first there's this story that we're all familiar with and somehow it works out for us. But we see how long it takes us also until we digest that this is actually about us inside of the ten and about the inner work and not the external here. So, if we want to relate to this article correctly, if we want to correctly approach the article of Matan Torah, it's actually about the inner work in the ten. Everywhere where it mentions any images or characters it's all inner desires. The occasion of Mount Sinai is internal. 600,000 is a qualitative term. They have nothing else to do except to stand guard to take care of the friends in the ten. Is this the correct approach to this process?

R. True. So, for a ten the smallest group is two. You have someone before you and that's enough.

29. S. (01:03:33) He describes a state where each one should care for the existence of the friends and then everything will be resolved by itself. Then he writes that once they all agreed they received the Torah. Then he speaks about the 600,000 and it sounds to me like 600,000 is a certain intensity of the deficiency. It could be two people which reached the state of 600,000 people. They had such a great deficiency and then they received the Torah.

R. Yes.

S. It turns out that all we have to do is increase the deficiency.

R. That's clear.

S. How do we do it?

R. That’s not clear.

S. On the way here I was thinking about that. I also called a few people and I talked to them about the 'Giving of the Torah'. I noticed that there are a few people, or some of the people, who don't see this day as an important day, a great day.

R. Also true.

S. I remembered a few things about this great day. It is written about the Holy Ari, who can help me here, it is written about the day of his arrival that it is almost like the day when we received the Torah and we know how great the Holy Ari was.

R. Yes.

S. In the Gematria, even though we don’t engage in it, in the Gemara it is written that on this day a bird did not chirp - it was so important. What else is written? That all the nations of the world were in the presence of the people of Israel when they received the Torah. What else can we do to make this day great? We wear white shirts which symbolizes bestowal. We have the night of the bride, a wedding with the Creator, and we eat special dishes. What else can we do in order to increase our deficiency for the special day, the day of the Lord, the day of the light.

R. Open your heart to the friend. It has nothing to do with what you will eat, what you will drink, and how you will dress.

30. S. (01:05:56) In the beginning he tells us that the whole goal is to engage in love of friends, 'love your friend as yourself', this is what we have to attain then he also gives us an explanation of what is love of friends,that I have to give my pillow or the chair does it mean if I don't give it to the friend but now he rides it if we don't have 600,000 friends who give this confidence, I will not be able to implement this advice.I won't be able to realize love your friend as yourself so what comes first? The love of the friend or the Arvut between us? There's something here that seemingly is missing between this and that in order to stitch things together.

R. We come to the love of the Creator in the end and that's our goal which lies ahead. In order to reach love of the Creator we need to be in love with others. In order to reach the love of others we come to the love of friends, in which we build and expand the matter of the connection between us, in order to understand to feel and attain what is connection? What is love?

S. When I started the article I had a question, where do we have the conference to engage in this? I heard you say that it's through the Arvut and the Arvut is the power that we get from above. This power, this force, how do we demand it from our connection because without this force it's impossible to realize the love between us.

R. You can't without Arvut, without Mutual Guarantee, you cannot come to any correct decision.

S. How do we demand Arvut?

R. By connecting between us as much as we can and demanding that the connection will be complete and whole and this is the way you advance from one degree to the next.

S. What is Arvutt then

R. Arvut, mutual guarantee is when each one can stand in the place of another.

S. It's not so clear.

R. That has to do with the condition of being as one man in one heart.

S. These words are felt in the heart truly but in the work I don't manage to get hold of it. For example, with a friend yesterday we talked and we read an excerpt and we tried to connect just a small example. How do I know and get into him and I take his place and how do I support him?

R. You can't be in his place, rather you can be next to him and help with every possible thing that he needs. This is called Arvut, Arvut is not adhesion where you enter under someone's skin. You connect with him in order to be together in that same work that he's doing.

S. My first step is to give him the feeling that he will get support from me each and every step of the way?

R. This is your interpretation.

S. I'm trying to understand how to practically work with my friends. We call each other and we perform actions but there's something that's always missing.

R. It's always missing because it's only through prayer, to receive explanation power fulfillment only in this way you will advance.

S. What do weI do about the Arvut with our friends?

R. Attainment through prayer. That's a problem when you think about reaching it in your own way so keep going. Don't you see the weak point and the place where you remain in your own opinion.

31. S. (01:11:15) This division between love of others and love for the Creator, isn't this about the four phases of coarseness?

R. It happens like that, yes.

S. If I acquire the quality of love it doesn't matter who I bestow to the Creator or to the friends but if I don't get it from the love of friends, I get from the Creator.

R. What?

S. I get everything from Him, but what about my corrections? I get everything from the Creator?

R. That's a question.

32. S. (01:11:54) A friend mentioned that Shavuot is a wedding, agreeing to receive the Torah and mutual guarantee, Arvut is our agreement to a wedding with the Creator?

R. I don't use such words.

33. S. (01:12:20) You once gave an example that might help us clarify some of this confusion that we now feel. Let's say I have a Ten, which could be two or six friends like you said, and we reach unity and we discover a little bit the Creator between us at this central point. We immediately discover the ego awakens in a collective ego in our Ten and if we in this time try to connect with another Ten who is in the same state then we awaken incorrect desires awakened and we try to do the same work and we rise to a higher degree. Let's say we reach the connection of 100 and then and again we reach the whole of humanity and actually the very last stage is the Creator when we reach Him, is that correct?

R. Let's try to climb up these degrees and see, typically yes, logically you're speaking correctly.

34. S. (01:13:58) How do we overcome the external limitations we had between us in order to discover true love?

R. With prayer, there's nothing we can overcome or correct but only by prayer, only through the upper force

35. S. (01:14:30) He writes once all the members of the nation agreed they were immediately given the Torah. If they received the Torah where does the force to agree come from? Can we agree without the force of the Torah?

R. Yes, that's a known question. We get forces before we receive the Torah and through those forces we can receive the Torah, meaning there is no earlier or later in the Torah but those forces come when we need them.

36. S. (01:15:17) You advise the friends to open up the heart even more towards the friends, from what we do we open up our heart to the friends through prayer? Does the Creator somehow open up the heart to the friends?

R. Yes, they are both good. Also if we all pray and also by connecting meaning that each one of us will turn to the Creator and ask.

37. S. (01:16:07) A question about the inner part of the Arvut. I am willing to receive from the Creator things that if they were from me I would not agree because I don't have the forces if they are me but for the friends I can.

R. Correct correct, to work in order to bestow to the others we see that we have more possibilities and forces than for ourselves.

38. S. (01:16:54) In order to adhere to the Creator, I have to reach 'love your friend as yourself. He explains this to us before because we have no grasp on the Creator, we cannot hold on to Him. Now in order to love your friend as yourself I have to pray. To whom do I pray if I have no grasp of the Creator?

R. You're praying to the Creator to have the forces to reach connection with your friends, with everyone actually and you will have a vessel that you can present that vessel to the Creator to fill it and rejoice in it.

S. He doesn't exist as long as I'm not connected to the friends as long as I don't have Arvut with the friends. As long as I'm not trying to love them somehow.. Where's the Creator?

R. Still you do have some closeness to Him, it's not that your first day walking towards the correction.

S. That's true, that's why there's a huge gap when we reach the Ten and we try to connect around something, then I have measurement and I have my relation to the friends and I can check each and every moment how opposite I am from them, how far I am and what I need to ask for, but when I come to us it's like I'm throwing it into space I have no one to ask from?

R. Who are you asking for?

S. I'm asking for them, I try to ask for them but from whom? Where? It's like open space, outer space. I don't have the criticism, the measurement that I have in the Ten.

R. You want the Creator to be revealed to you before that?

S. No, but who do I ask from?

R. You're asking for the upper force, that to begin with is sustaining all of creation and everyone is in Him. The fact that you cannot feel it or don't know how to turn to Him, it doesn't fault HIm that He doesn't exist and conducts everything.

S. Is it okay then that I have such an appeal? That I have no idea where He is?

R. Of course that's how it's going to be until Gmar Tikkun every time you turn to him you actually turn to Ein Sof, Baal HaSulam writes about that.

39. S. (01:19:26) How do we reach inner agreement to the reception of the Torah?

R. Are you speaking about man or the group?

S. Maybe both but first each one has to agree to it and then maybe the group has to agree how?

R. What to do?

S. How to reach an inner agreement to the reception of the Torah?

R. We study about it and we do all kinds of actions towards it. It's been a while that we've been in the process so we try to reach that inner agreement. We learn that only in that inner agreement can we ascend from one degree to the next, that's it. We try to do that. I don't have to convince the others. They also have to see how they convince themselves. Whoever doesn't agree has to be concerned about why he doesn't agree. Maybe he doesn't have a place here, maybe he doesn't understand what he's doing.

40. S. (01:20:51) The Arvut that each friend feels, that the whole Ten cares for him and give some confidence, he's now free to think about the friends, is this a  state that already exists in the Ten or we have to achieve it?

R. Arvut?

S. Yes.

R. Ask again.

S. A person should feel that the whole Ten cares for him and gives him confidence and by that he can be free to engage in spirituality, is this a state that exists in the Ten already or do we have to discover or is it something that we have to attain to achieve as a goal?

R. A person in order to attain must make efforts. What do you think, that it exists and everybody can come and take it? No, he has to annul himself towards the Ten and he needs to connect to them, to really subdue himself towards them and then he can attain the Arvut that they can supply him with.

S. It depends on him? On his exertion towards the friends?

R. It depends on him, yes.

41. S. (01:22:15) The state of the occasion of Mount Sinai is a state that always appears when there's a certain closeness in the Ten?

R. Not a certain closeness,it's really a specific closeness yeah, that what they reveal is that between them there is such an appreciation to their ego and also an appreciation for the force of the Creator that they can ascend above them, ascend above it, that's called Mount Sinai.

S. We can reach a few times in our meetings, can we reach the status?

R. Let go of it and then come back.

42. S. (01:23:16) What is this qualification? It says here that 612 Mitzvot are a preparation for the Mitzvah of love for your friends. What is this preparation?

R. That we have a desire to receive that is included from many different parts that are in a very special connection, like a complex system and for that reason we gradually need to train them all those desires, to be connected correctly and together create that force of a demand.

43. S. (01:24:16) If we know that it's hard to understand and explain this path, is it possible that growing spiritually will be through the study and personal correction when we overcome our doubts and when we overcome all kinds of corporeal actions, are we our own teachers in fact?

R. Yes, of course.

44. S. (01 23:45) Is there a rule for a vessel of faith in the Ten and towards the reception of the Torah?

R. I didn't understand, repeat.

S. If we are speaking that the Creator exists in the connection between us and then where is the vessel of faith isn't the Creator?

R. Faith above reason is something that we can have in us after we get the upper light from above.Then we can perform a restriction, a screen, reflected light and organize all our desires our inner qualities in a way like a Partzuf and then whatever happens in the Partzuf is the force of faith above reason.

45. S. (01:26:52) Tell me, internality then, what is for the sake of our fathers and the 600,00?

R. It's not about numbers, we're talking about the quality of our forces.

S. Then what is the quality of a whole nation?

R. Our forefathers are that minimum group of people that can connect between them, and bring the actions of the Creator out and a whole nation is all created beings that are connected between them and they perform the Creator's actions in a complete way.

S. Now you've confused me completely because he said it's the quality of matter.

R. Well what can I say, I don't want to go into an explanation how everything works in one person, that happens in one person and we're not speaking about the number of people and this whole world is an imaginary, it will really confuse us, but the time will come for that too, soon we'll get there too.

46. S. (01:28:40) How does a person clarify his agreement to loving a friend as yourself? Is it only after the agreement that they received it but this agreement came after a long process of exiting Egypt the desert? How does a person know that he agrees?

R. It's all in us, it's all in us and if we want we can already be ready for the final actions.

S. When we gather in the Ten, we need to clarify this agreement?

R. Yes, when we agree on something in the Ten so all the degrees before that already appear in the Ten.

47. S. (01:29:47) It is not clear what it is to be concerned,to be concerned for a friend?

R. Do you have children?

S. I have one.

R. Oh I hope there will be more, are you concerned about them?

S. Yes.

R. Well that's it, what else do I have to explain?

S. But towards the friend in the Ten, I need to speak to him, I need to ask for wellness?

R. No, you need to pay attention to how you can help him with his purpose, you know what his purpose is and what his goal is. It is to connect with everybody, to be together with everybody in one heart and one feeling, in one action and try and be with him that way,

S. If he doesn't want to give me this help?

R. You need to do it in a wiser way. Also take into consideration each one that is greater than his friend his inclination is greater too, that the people that gather here have a character with a very difficult evil inclination.

S. He writes in the article that a moment the person feels that every Ten he is faced away from all of their dealings to focus on the person the person also is capable to fulfill loving others as himself, it seems that a friend has to just sit down and wait until everyone cares for him and until he feels it then.

R. That's what you learned here?

S. No, of course not.

R. What are you asking?

S. It says that 600,000 people will sit and care for all of his needs.

R. Okay so you need to scrutinize what 600,000 is, maybe it's quality, maybe it's quantity. I don't know when that can even happen, but for now, start being concerned about them too, at least try and feel what concern is. Concern in a person's heart he should share it with others.

48. S. (01:32:35) How is it that the means comes from the goal itself?

R. If from above downward it's given to us so there's no problem that the intermediate is the result of the purpose itself. That first there is a goal it's revealed in reality and afterwards all of the intermediate forms in between.

S. What is in the thought that it itself, and the coveted reward?

R. It includes everything.

49. S. (01:33:54) I noticed that you mentioned a concern in a friend's heart. Let him tell others, do I need to tell that in the Ten?

R. You don't have to tell, we're all connected from heart to heart. What I think in my heart without someone also affects all the hearts.

S. I'm talking more in line of Arvut, when I'm concerned I should tell it to a friend?

R. Yes, yes.

Reading item number 17 (01:34:36) “ from all the above we can understand..”

50. R. (01:37:37) That's difficult, it's written in a very determined manner, cold ,rash. It's hard, you can't soften it in any way. What can we do? You have a way to run away, you want to tell us about it?

51. S. (01:38:21) I just started reading and I read the article of Arvut and Matan Torah (the Giving of the Torah) that it needs to have it in such an all-inclusive way and I couldn't see how this can happen in the feeling that this is very far from reality.

R. Right, good.

S. It was painful because I understood that this could be far from realizing and I looked at the feeling and I said that as we progress along the path the faith that this will come and this will happen, in good that this is so comes and strengthens how much time the light shines and gives the feeling that this is obligated,this is an obligation and good that it is so.

R. Yes, this is the plan of creation that this way it has to come out and be revealed before us that is true.

52. S. (01:39:50) I feel that as the years pass and I am here over twenty years, that as they say a mountain or he is precise with them as the width of hair. It feels like such a great responsibility that it is so opposite and we are so far away from it that there is so much responsibility over each and everyone and how can this feeling, this egoistic feeling that is in the heart.

R. Good, that's a good thing, so we're coming closer to Mount Sinai that we see that to climb on love your friend as yourself is impossible and we have no other choice that we're really in the lowest point, in an opposite form of us.

S. How do we feel that we are together in this that we need one another?

R. If we connect together and cry out so that the Creator that's on the peak of the mountain will hear us.

S. You scream this is the thing?

R. Yes, scream or cry. What a baby or child does or person that has no other choice and has nothing to hold on to, he  only cries out.

S. We are grown people

R. Adults, huh?