Morning Lesson November 18, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 64. From Lo Lishma, We Come to Lishma
1.Rav’s Introduction: I remember what Rabash would sometimes like to say, that as much as one might think that the matter of Lishma, for her sake is great, he still doesn't appreciate enough the value of Lo Lishma, not for her sake. Lo Lishma, not for her sake, is a degree before Lishma but it's not a simple degree, not an easy one. We first have to think, how we reach this one. So let's see those two degrees, how from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma. Lo Lishma means he wants to reach and achieve Lishma but he hasn't. He makes efforts to reach it. In that case it is called Lo Lishma, meaning a person is already making an effort to come to spiritual qualities. But he hasn't completed his quota, he hasn't received the answer for everything that he does so his work is called work in Lo Lishma and his goal is called Lishma, that this is what he wants to achieve. So how do we come from Lo Lishma to Lishma?
Shamati 64: (02:28) “from Lo Lishma. we come to Lishma
2. S. (08:55) What does it mean that the Creator clothed in the Mitzva and not in other garments?
R. We are in a reality that both we and reality are governed by one force, except we don't feel it. That's the whole problem or maybe it's not a problem. On the contrary we don't feel it, it does not obligate us and doesn't give us anything. There are such people, parts of desires, who are in the overall desire that the Creator created, who do get some kind of relation, connection to the operating force in the operated being. In them the question awakens who am I with respect to that operating force? Then they come to the question of Lishma, for her sake and Lo Lishma, not for her sake. This is what Rabash is talking about here.
3. S. (10:35) What's the meaning of the Creator gives an individual fear, more fear or more love?
R. The Creator is teaching us how to relate above our thoughts and desires and feelings only according to spiritual discernments, to be above our minds and hearts, our intellect and feelings. Gradually changing our intellect and feeling every time, so that we will be able to rise above them and not be in a scrutiny of good and bad within our will to receive, but within the will to bestow out of learning and searching how to resemble the Creator. This is basically what happens.
S. The end of the article, it says that private providence cannot be attained before attaining the matter of reward and punishment, can you explain that?
R. Providence of reward and punishment, we will see it in the article. The way he said that everything is done by the Creator, we will learn it, we will talk about it.
4. S. (12:35) Please explain, it says that in other words, the Creator wanted to reward him with the Torah as to give him a true cause, he's not worthy of receiving the truth so the Creator gives him a false reason to engage in Torah?
R. Yes, if a person cannot work with the intention that is above his desire, the egoistic desire, then the Creator gives him scrutiny in his egoistic desire. Meaning that what he does, people will like it and this is what will push him to learn Torah. As it says, if guests come over to his house, then he pretends to have sat and learned, that he's got books and that this is what he was engaged in. And so who obligated him? Not the Creator, not the group but the public. They obligate him, they force him to act, to make scrutinies and that's what it means.
5. S. (14:21) It says in the text about guests. That he works in the Torah because of the guests does he work for the friends in the 10 as a guest or something else?
R. It can also be the 10 that he feels them as strangers because their opinion compels him to do this or that action.
S. Also what is “SAM,” we don't know what this word it speaks about?
R. “SAM” is a foreign egoistic force, an alien force. The potion of life, the potion of death, it is a foreign force.
6. S. (15:36) There's an interesting condition at the end of the article he says that Lishma is when I have to choose the action myself not the Creator does it but I myself choose it, what is that condition?
R. It means it's not the Creator who obligates me, but I want to obligate myself to perform an act of bestowal, commandment, love, and we say that there is none else besides Him. The Creator does everything, but here a person puts on himself the restriction. Not the restriction that we spoke about in the will to receive, but he restricts saying I don't want to be obligated by the Creator to do anything. I want to be independent, and we have to fight for this independence. Because the Creator wants to do everything instead of the person, we come to a state where this is what we feel. Then we become like little children who want to do it themselves. But in them, nature pushes them and we want to grow by ourselves and do it this way. This goes into the category “my son's defeated me.”
S. It turns out that if I receive an awakening naturally from the outside then it has to go necessarily Lishma. Do I have to stop myself and try to do it myself?
R. You have to keep working with it and of course in every place where you get the first awakening it's an awakening from the Creator. But it doesn't matter to you, it says if you are born the state is engendered for you but afterwards as you grow you have to try to grow as much as possible and join an independent form.
S. In the beginning you're opening words you said that Lo Lishma is only when a person wants to reach Lishma but he hasn't reached it yet and also from the article says that a person has to study and parallel both in Lo Lishma, and Lishma and hold both and focus, how is it possible?
R. We will advance and see. We will try to put those things together because we are constantly in both, in this, not in that, that's the game until the end of correction. When we shift ourselves more and more towards Lishma.
7. S. (18:58) If we are already in Lishma, why should there be a thought that everything that you do is by our own hands and not the Creator’s?
R. Because we want to attribute everything to in order to bestow, to relate at all in order to bestow, above our will to receive with the restriction, the screen and reflected light. this is why we relate all to ourselves and then we have a question about it, how do we relate everything to the Creator? So I can relate the operation to the Creator on condition that say I am the impregnation, Ibur so my whole work is to cancel my ego and to come to a state where the Creator runs, governs me, manages me in all my thoughts and desires actions completely. Then the more I annul myself and the Creator is felt in me more and more as the one who manages me and all my cells, thoughts and desires, it is regarded by this that I grow like a spiritual embryo, like an Adam, who is similar to the Creator. He does it but along with my participation of course. So here we have a problem all the time, how can we cancel ourselves more, how can we be in more sympathy, similarity with the Creator yet remain independent all the time?
S. So specifically where in the state you describe then the thought comes up that it's our doing?
R. Then we have the problem that he talks about here. If we, do it and come to Lishma then we relate the work to ourselves and the result to the Creator and if I say that no in this, I did nothing but the Creator did everything, so where is me here? So it turns out that I have to be in Lishma as in
Lo Lishma. You understand? It turns out that we come to a state where if I don't do anything and the Creator will finish for me, he will totally do everything. By this will become even more adhere to the Creator both in the beginning of the action, the end of the action and we're not owners of the action, we are not owners of the results of the work, we have complete annulment before the Creator. We will get deeper into it and I will read the article again.
8. S. (22:37) How can the prayer be for a prayer? Is there a prayer before a prayer and like that is there an action that proceeds Lo Lishma?
R. Yes, all in all we have to understand here that what we do is something very special but it's in operation that is, that anyone can understand. We want to rise above the force that is in us which has the will to receive and relate ourselves to our root which is in all of reality, at the center of reality, at the center of the universe, which is the desire to bestow. The one force that comes to us from nature. So how do we progress and annul before this force, this higher force? While being while remaining like it ourselves? So then we position ourselves opposite from it, facing it, and how in this way do we maintain our independence? Because the upper force does want us to position ourselves in this way. I still don't have enough words, soon we'll have them
9. S. (24:24) The results of doing each Mitzva is the transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma?
R. Well basically yes. This is the goal of each Mitzva each commandant of each operation that I managed to do in order to bestow. By this I don't do anything in reality except correcting my own relationship, my own attitude but by this the world as a projection of my relation to it becomes different.
10. S. (25:21) The state of Lishma, do we need to ask in a prayer or do we need to bring it on forcefully and coerce the Creator?
R. Both. We need to accept it as is, as it is above reason, we need to come to the Creator and demand of Him to create this state in us. Yes, there is a prayer here for absorption of the message, carrying out of the message and the result of the message and the whole message is
Lishma, absolute bestowal.
11. S. (26:24) Is the work a gift?
R. Each time it comes through foreign thoughts, different thoughts, all kinds of actions, disturbances of all kinds, where we nevertheless try and try and try to relate these things to the Creator, to the 10. I have to bow before it, annul myself. So gradually we come to a state where these concepts of Lo Lishma and Lishma permeate us. We begin to understand, to settle them. This is for Lo Lishma, this is for Lishma, receiving in order to bestow and not receiving a reward. We begin to flow with it, to bring them closer to us.
S. No translation
R. No no no no no. Before the restriction we cannot rise from Lo Lishma to Lishma, of course not
S. Meaning when we receive an answer to our actions, we already receive a bit of Lishma?
R. Right, we cannot emerge from in order to receive from Lo Lishma and come to Lishma to in order to bestow, to the intention to bestow unless by annulling ourselves before the 10, the upper light influences us and, in this way, we rise to the level of Lishma.
12. S. (28:52) Kabbalists write that the Creator enjoys the state of Lo LIshma more than Lishma then why should we reach the state of Lishma, to be in bestowing?
R. He is telling you what is special about the state of Lo Lishma: in a state of Lo Lishma, not for her sake, you're not obligating the Creator, you're not kind of manipulating the Creator so to speak. The Creator does not become indebted to you. We'll talk about it, we'll get back to it. I want to answer in the first round, I want to answer the questions and then we will get back to the article.
13. S. (29:55) It seems like if everything is in the desire, the recognition to see who I am receiving it from and then to even how am I going to serve the Creator. I mean I would have to be in constant prayer if that's the case. So how to manage doing this correctly with the 10?
R. Annul before the 10, that's enough for you. Just annul, but you have to know how to annul, meaning how you come to a state where our annulment before the 10 covers everything. It's like annulment before the Creator, the same 125 degrees where we have to annul ourselves before the Creator passively and then actively, because the degrees from Malchut to Bina are passive annulment and from Bina up to Keter it is active annulment. So in those two stages of our path in the hundred and twenty-five degrees, we do only one thing, annulment before the group in which we discover the upper one, and by this we rise from degree to degree and along the way we come to recognize the Lo Lishma and we rise to Lishma. We reach Lishma in order to bestow and then even Lishma, in order to receive, where even the reception when we receive all the pleasures will be in order to bestow. This is our work
14. S. (32:03) What does it mean to reveal Lo Lishma in the 10?
R. Revealing Lishma in the 10 is when we are aware that we are working in order to receive reward and in order to discover the Creator and we want it and need it and we, we, we. Even though we talked about high degrees where we went to bestow, it is still all for us the same as reception. I'm talking about the will to bestow that I want to achieve. But within me I decipher it as something great in the will to receive. What can you do, that's the way I am for now. As much as you may explain to a person and talk to him, he will still because his vessels are like that, they are all for reception. So even if he talks about giving and the giving within him takes on a transformation, a manner of reception as if he is receiving.
S. Yesterday the 10 did a common act where all veteran students and we strove to be in the right intention but how do we measure that the act was in the right intention in retrospect?
R. We will read the article again and you will see we measure it with respect to the guests as he says that he is studying for the guests who came to him with respect to this we measure.
15. S. (34:21) Is Lishma my permanent state?
R. Never, every time you fall and rise and demand reinforcements.
16. S. (34:54) Is the work in Lishma an expression of fear from the Creator?
R. Work in Lishma is an expression of fear? Well basically yes.
17. S. (35:15) it's not clear who are the guests, are they friends in the 10 or is it set in the article?
R. Just people from the outside. People from the outside before whom he wants to present himself as righteous.
S. That's the reason the Creator wants us to be interested in this study?
R. Yes, because of the shame, because of the ego, we come to a state that the ego forces us to do things as if we are in Lishma. But in truth we are in Lo Lishma but gradually we discover how these actions are not in the right directions. Not towards the upper force. That I am not aiming for the upper force but I am aiming for the evil inclination, for the will to receive.
18. S. (36:18) It says a person does not do any action, put any action in a good deed, what does it mean to invest in a good deed?
R. To exert in good deeds means to want in every action through the relation to the 10, to transfer myself to a state where I am where I totally disappear in my importance. That I have no importance and I measure my importance only according to that external force, the external concept or maybe through the group and this is how I picture it to myself.
19. S. (37:25) What does it mean to want to engage in Torah?
R. Do you want to engage in words of Torah, which means to want to correct oneself each time, be closer to each other, and together with them to the Creator.
20. S. (37:48) What must be the discernment or actions in the 10 in order to go from Lo Lishma to Lishma?
R. The actions are only through connection between us and from us to our center where we discover the common force which is called the Creator. We're the ones who build that for us, we establish it. If we don't connect them to us there will be no Creator, to the extent that we connect among us, we suddenly begin to feel that we are generating this inner force of connection between us and this will be the Creator. From the same point where we were once together, and then the breaking happened and we split into all those pieces, thousands and thousands of pieces. We have to turn to that same point except when we return through our own efforts, we discover our unity, the inner force that we reveal as 620 times stronger than before. That's basically the revelation of the Creator to the created being, right now it's hidden, it's revealed only in order to sustain us so we don't disappear altogether. But in the future at the end of correction we will connect and summon it to appear and we too will reach that state.
21. S. (39:45) If I work for myself then how to demand reward, if it's for the sake of the Creator, why do we need a reward at all? What is the reward if it exists?
R. The reward is that I am creating a connection among everyone in order to please the Creator and that the correction of the entire world is on me.
22. S. (40:12) What's the difference in qualities of Lo Lishma and Lishma when does one replace the other?
R. To the extent that I discover, reveal in order to receive, to that extent I can correct it, to in order to bestow.
23. S. (40:36) What is the principle we take from the article for our practical spiritual work?
R. That everyone are servants of the Creator. The only question is whether it is unwillingly, inadvertently like the rest of the world or consciously the way we want to be. Because the Creator directs everyone through the will to receive, the wicked, the righteous, animals, birds, you name it. Everyone he directs through the will to receive except we want to do the same thing he does, but of our own accord. Through our own consciousness this is why we're called Adam, Domeh, similar to the Creator we want to take from the Creator all the forces of government of reality and govern the way the Creator does. By this we equalize with the Creator.
24. S. (41:44) How to discern when the Creator is working and it's man working?
R. It's impossible that a person will operate, will work, because we don't have the power, we don't have the understanding, we don't have anything. So it turns out that we ask and the Creator does because we are powerless, we don't know the plan, we don't even advance towards governing reality. All the governance of reality if you can put it this way of our reality is only when we know when to ask the Creator and maybe more or less what to ask for. By this, we already come into a mutual reality and to cooperation. But only the Creator has the power, he is the power, he is the brain, he is the source of everything. To the extent that we can sympathize with his plan, we become incorporated in him and even to some extent, we lead him so to speak. But the Creator does everything.
Reader repeats the article (43:30)
25. R. (44:41) This is Lo Lishma but he is doing a good act from beginning to end and the entire act, it simply appears to him that he's doing it and he accompanies it and he reaches the correct, the desired result, so what's happening here? He did not make any mistake in the act, he was successful. So why is it called Lo Lishma? Only because he does not discover the Creator as the operator.
Reader repeats
26. R. (46:51) “SAM” is the will to receive, simply our ego. Meaning because the Creator summoned an opportunity, and the will to receive would obligate him, compel him to do it, you hear what he's saying, read that sentence again.
Reader: Why did he do that good deed only because the Creator provided him with an opportunity?
27. R. (47:34) What kind of opportunity the Creator provided him with the will to receive.
Reader: That this sum would compel him to do it.
Rav: (47:48) It also comes from the Creator but that's how it's done.
Reader continues: (47:56) “for example if people come to one's house…... “
28. R. (49:06) Meaning in this case we see that Lo Lishma is better. It places a person in a state of truth and he does not demand any payment from the Creator or any reward, rather he sees that he does it because he feels shame towards people.
Reader continues: (49:37) “when one preformed self-examination…”
29. R. (50:32) Meaning he begins to turn to the Creator with all kinds of complaints and questions.
Reader continues: (50:43) it follows that the Creator is the operator…….
30. R. (51:12) Meaning he has a greater problem when he feels himself dependent on the Creator and then to turn to him to obligate the Creator to give him payment, to obligate the Creator to help him or not. This is the problem here, although he already read here also elsewhere that in truth, we are all servants of the Creator. Rabash used to say it more than once, we are all workers of the Creator. Meaning like it or not consciously or unconsciously wittingly or unwillingly, you, whether it's through the will to receive or in order to bestow, for in truth we're all in the quality of the Creator. That is clear that's above everything, together with that there's a question. If you give a person awareness of his opposition from the Creator, like it or not, here it is seemingly free choice, you wish to be like him go ahead. You don't want to resemble him it's your business but in truth everybody is working for the Creator everybody is under the force of the will to receive he created under the force of the Creator wishes to shine to us
Reader continues: (52:52) “it follows that the Creator is the operator…”
31. R. (53:39) Everywhere anywhere even when we are drawn to in order to receive for honor and power, the Creator is also the one who arranges it for us and the truth is.
Reader continues: (53:54) “the truth is that the Creator is the cause…”
32. R. (54:48) Meaning we are willing to do all kinds of actions that seem to us that we profit from money, honor and control, power, anything. So through that a person is leading us and this is called Lo Lishma, whereas in Lishma.
Reader continues: (55:15) “however in Lishma,”
33. S. (56:05) The Creator, it is confusing when you think that by the power of connection in the 10, we don't understand anything, can you explain it through the power of the connection, the fact that we have to demand connection?
R. Yes, already now you can say that where are you getting all the direction, the impulse to move forward? It's only from the center of the 10 where the Creator, the upper force dwells in concealment and the more you connect the upper force will be closer to you until he begins to be revealed before you and you will feel it, he fulfills you.
34. S. (57:10) When a person works for others, tries to, what is the boundary where he should say that it will really be for the sake of others and the Lishma will not blemish the cleanest of his work?
R. As much as he annuls, in truth I cannot add words here that I think will not contribute much. As much as we can annul ourselves, annulment is the main thing, annulment towards the ten, try every day to try to feel that you are expanding more and more your annulment towards the 10. Accordingly you will feel how much it adds to you, intellect and feeling, internally, meaning you don't even have to think about it, you simply begin to understand. As it's written the heart understands, the heart is what grows in the center of the 10. You don't have any hearts, this is the stony heart that each and every one has, but when we connect something between us in the center of the 10, by that we establish the heart of the 10 which is called the heart of flesh.
35. S. (58:46) What sounds strange is that is if in Lo Lishma we can't demand a reward from the Creator and in Lishma we can develop demand reward from the Creator although we learned that Lo Lishma is no reward it's pure bestowing and we don't need anything can you explain?
In the article it says seemingly that what is the difference between Lo Lishma and Lishma? In Lo Lishma we can't demand reward from the Creator and in Lishma we seemingly have the opportunity to demand reward from the Creator so it seems strange we learned that Lishma is bestowing, a place where there's no need for any reward, so it's a little strange?
R. You have the possibility of demanding a reward when you are in Lishma because you're doing everything for the sake of the Creator. Whereas before that Lo Lishma but for your own sake this is all how it appears, it's just a lie, both are only in the one direction. The Creator, all of humanity is only working in bestowing but the struggle is only for Lishma. But if we're in Lo Lishma then it's clear we have nothing to demand because we seemingly haven't done anything in giving. What do you mean that we cannot receive in return I didn't do anything for the Creator, why should I demand? However when I come to Lishma, then I think I am working for the sake of the Creator, there's a problem here. Do I demand payment or not. Here my payment should be only to increase my bestowing.
36. S. (01:01:27) What is the real choice in the work of the Creator in serving the Creator?
R. Our choice to serve the Creator is in wanting to annul myself and annul in the friends and until I reach between them amongst them the feeling of the Creator. This is our choice and this is what he explains to us in the article The Freedom and all the other articles. The realization is when I am annulling in the 10 and I wish to be an embryo inside of them and they for me like a womb like the degree of Bina and I am like the Malchut who wishes to incorporate in them. This is what our entire work is all about
37. S. (01:02:35) Can you explain in the beginning of the article it says that the period of Lo Lishma is the more important time, so what does it mean that it's a more important time? That it continues since it's easier to unite also why is it easier to unite with the Creator?
R. Because it's clear to you that you were doing everything in order to receive. How can you come to the Creator and demand any reward from him? You got it? You can't. Already you're in a better state whereas in Lishma, when you do it for the sake of the Creator, then automatically a demand comes up in you. I can ask from the Creator and I can receive in return a certain reward of compensation for Lishma. That's what he explained to us, we have to read the article a few more times and it will be clear to you he says that openly.
S. What makes it easier in the work if you're like in the Lo Lishma, what makes the work easy because if I'm in Lishma, then I'm already working for the Creator so that's easier. Why is Lo Lishma easier?
R. In Lo Lishma it's clear to you that you're doing it to yourself, you did not acquire the vessels of bestowing. In Lishma you're already doing actions for the sake of the Creator in practice. So from here it's clear to you that in Lo Lishma, you can work and the actions you're doing are for your sake, and in Lishma, when you're working those are actions for someone, for the Creator, for the rest of humanity, for the group, then you can come to them and demand, that's what ascents and descents are about, its relative to the reward, the payment. So you demand not in addition, I want to add but rather there are states where you come in demand and say I did an action of bestowing where is my promise to reward?
38. S. (01:05:50) You mentioned earlier that there is active annulment and passive annulment. Can you give an example of that with respect to the 10?
R. I think these things are clear to us. What is annulment, a passive act of annulment. Passive annulment is something we have on the degree of conception, I annul myself more and more towards the 10 and I'm willing to follow them with my eyes shut. This is like an embryo in its mother's womb, where nature arranges for us that he does not determine anything rather it says about it, that an embryo and its mother's womb eats what his mother eats. Meaning she manages his entire growth and he cannot determine anything about. When can he determine something? When he physically comes out of her, when he is born, this is like coming out of the control of the mother, out of the control of the upper one and then he can begin to develop along a new axis of development and we see it in our life. Here we are talking about a personality, the development of a personality he begins to do certain actions, to demand, to participate. We are the same in spirituality. Everything is relative to the 10. So first of all let's take it through the 10 go through the period of Ibur, conception.
39. S. (01:08:01) What does it mean to attain personal providence after reward and punishment?
R. After coming to attaining reward and punishment we come to attaining Eternal Providence where there's no reward and there's no punishment but the Creator’s always good who does good to everyone. That's his Providence. But relative to us, it is on the ladder that comes down to us and we are climbing more and more up the levels of the ladder until we attain its true providence in love, for the good, for the bad there's no reward, there's no punishment, everyone is equal and beloved.
40. S. (01:09:20) What is the connection between Lishma and Lo Lishma, and There's None Else Besides Him and ‘if I'm not for me who is for me’?
R. It's all connected and you have to obtain it by yourself. Everything you said is correct and we have to put those things together.
S. It's not very clear. It seems like the article explains that I do what I can for the Creator, but in the end my work is to come to realize that There is None Else Besides Him.
R. It's all your work and everything is done by the Creator and in the end, you attain There's None Else Besides Him. There are no words to express those things. You simply have to think about it more and more and arrange it inside of you, inside your heart and with the friends. You expand your perception in this way and then you begin to understand the realm they're speaking of such forces and desires that are wider and more expansive than where we are right now.
S. Can we say that Lishma is a precise concept of There's None Else Besides Him and ‘if I'm not for me who is for me’?
R. Yes, you can say that. It's so you would begin to understand that you can do nothing and eventually be as if you've done everything. Now choose what you want to do or not. The ending is the same for all, but do you wish to resemble the Creator with your forces and efforts or do you come to it in some other way? It all depends on a person's soul and development, and how much he wants to be a man. He writes in the last line, “But the truth is that it was all done by the Creator, but private Providence cannot be attained prior to attaining the matter of reward and punishment.” Private Providence is when the Creator does everything and He needs no one to help Him with it. It's the end of correction for Him already, we're all there except we haven’t discovered it so we'll have the opportunity of wishing to come to it or not. We then advance towards the attainment, meaning that we attain the opportunity to participate. Although at the end of the day it doesn't do anything but a person who did it says ‘I don't need the reward. I need it only so I'll have the opportunity to work against my evil inclination, to come to resemble the Creator. Others can resemble Him from the beginning. I wish to gain the image of man in me, I want to do it. He's going to do it for me anyway, but I want to do it by myself.’ There are more things we can say about it but I hope that we will develop these new senses in us and then will understand what he is talking about, the differences between Private Providence and collective or general Providence.
41. S. (01:14:46) I work with my ten but I only say what is written in the article but I want to feel it.
R. You should put in more efforts and you will see that you are able to do it. We need efforts, no more than that. Don’t yearn for the result, yearn for the efforts and to put in as much effort as possible. The Creator does not consider our results, He has enough results. He considers the exertion. We seemingly want to put in the efforts and then see the results, the payment. The Creator doesn't do it that way, it is not important for Him. It is important to Him for us to put in the effort without any calculations. As he explains in the article, the Creator is not going to be obligated to us.
42. S. (01:16:12) Please explain what it means that a commandment can come from separation.
R. It seems to a person that what he is doing now he is doing it to obtain an egoistic goal. The egoistic force is now pushing him to perform an action.
43. S. (01:17:12) Does the Creator clothe in different clothing inside a person so by this the person can work in opposite conditions?
R. Yes, correct.
44. S. (01:17:50) Are my actions in bestowal if I do it for reward in the ten?
R. No, this is exactly the example he gives you here. A person learns and he wants to show that he is learning because guests have come to him.
S. There are states that man cannot.
R. Correct, so do it this way even if you do it because friends see it and you do not feel comfortable about it. Still, from Lo Lishma you reach Lishma.
45. S. (01:18:52) Do we realize the end of correction when a person comes to the final connection in the ten?
R. Everything is realized in the ten. All the different steps are realized in the ten.
S. And incorporating with the world Kli?
R. Yes, that is how we should do it as well, until the whole world will be as ten Sefirot.
46. S. (01:20:06) It is written that in Lishma he is the one who is doing the deed, and then we read that everything is in the hands of heaven except for the fear of heaven. What is the difference between Lishma and fear?
R. He explains to us in The Introduction to the Book of Zohar that there are three degrees in fear. He explains in a simple way that the first Mitzva, the first commandment, is fear. Maybe we should even read this. When I'm travelling you should read this. The fear we have in order to get a reward, or Lo Lishma or it is Lishma because of the light and the ruler. This is something that we should learn.
47. S. (01:20:27) What does it mean that man has to go through this whole process in awareness?
R. All the still, vegetative, and animate, including the humans, are all aimed and directed by one force. We are in the level of the animate. They are trying and according to their mind, emotions, and their qualities, they choose their life for better or for worse, every time to gain as much as they can and to harm themselves as little as possible. That is completely normal behavior for everyone. This is clear for animals; for humans it is more or more or less clear if we can better know the rules of nature. I'm talking about ordinary humans. If we could make such a network of relations between us by the police, by the judicial system, that is completely organized by laws we would be above the animals and we can live in the peaceful way. But we cannot because our evil inclination grows all the time in everyone and in everyone together. Each one feels he is the right one and his evil inclination is growing and no one feels the other, each one feels only himself and his righteousness. That is why we are in this state. We have to understand that there's a degree that is called the animate level and we exist in this degree. We have all kinds of motivations and we can organize ourselves. There is a degree above that connects with the Creator called Lo Lishma, meaning we work our will to receive in order to reach the Creator, with what I have. There are religions, faiths, fortune tellers, philosophers and mysticisms, etc., in this degree. The highest degree of them is when a person starts yearning for the Creator. The degree when he starts yearning for the Creator divides into a corporeal beastly level and the degree called Lo Lishma, not for Her sake. He already knows that in order to reach the Creator one must be in the force of bestowal; however, he can’t. That is a good degree because it connects him to the Creator to ask Him to elevate him to such a degree that he will resemble the Creator and not demand anything for himself. This is what we call the first restriction and from that moment on he develops more in bestowal and resembling the Creator. that is it. This is how we intend to come out.
S. Is awareness knowledge? Is it in our reason?
R. We can never establish awareness in our reason, the state has to be realized in the feeling. I'll give you an example. I learned the wisdom of Kabbalah can't be approached with my brains or intellect, it won't be perceived. The wisdom of Kabbalah is in the dimension that our intellect does not perceive, doesn't fit in it. We cannot say why this is so but the moment we add some quality of bestowal to our intellect, even if it's the smallest one, when it comes by the light that reforms that shines on us, it becomes clear. Meaning first I feel and then I understand. The spiritual attainment comes only this way because the will to receive has to be programmed and organized in all kinds of different internal connections. We suddenly see that the wisdom of Kabbalah is talking about reasonable things through this internal microchip, not nonsense. There is nothing strange here. The main thing for us is to find the connections between the desires of ours and these connections should be in order to bestow, to move a little bit from their place and to divert them in the direction of bestowal. I start to understand to the extent that they are turned towards bestowal. Meaning, first comes the feeling. We read, and we read, and we read an article five or ten times until there is this ‘click.’ It is not that I become wiser, it is because my emotions are suddenly connecting in a new way. There is a kind of connection that now I feel and I also understand. That is how it works.
S. Thank you, but I do not get it yet.
R. What do you mean you don't get it? Don’t you feel how you perceive material?
S. Theoretically I understand it but a person has to go through it.
R. That is correct. If something is not clear to you, read the article ten times, twenty times. Read only that, patiently, read, read every time. Maybe you should try to read it in a different style. Beginning with a pencil and paper; later on the computer. Organize the words, all kinds of things. This is how I also work with text. For me I ruin the source, until I go back to it by a long detour.
S. Is that the correction we have to go through?
R. This is what you call ‘exertion.’ I want to connect to the one who wrote the text, to feel him, to understand him, to go into his intellect and emotion. That’s what I want. I remember that’s how Rabash used to sit before me and say, ‘look what he writes’: “whereas when he is in Lo Lishma, his good action is not done for the sake of the Creator.’ Again, “Whereas when he is in Lo Lishma his good action is not for the sake of the Creator.” Meaning he performs an action, a good action, according to what Kabbalists tell us, but he doesn't do it for the Creator, for the sake of the Creator, this is called Lo Lishma. Meaning, I took this sentence and I turned it around, I read it the other way around. I started from the middle: “a good action is not done for the sake of the Creator and this is considered Lo Lishma, and when he engages in such actions it's called Lo Lishma.,” etc. Meaning turn things around in the text, try to live it, to chew on it and you will see how beneficial this is. You have to bring it closer, it has to enter inside you. When you really chew it, then chew it and swallow. You will see how it works. It is best that you read it a hundred and a hundred and one times, as it is written “One who reads one hundred times is not the same as one who reads it a hundred and one times.” This way you will see what is going on. May you succeed.
48. S. (01:32:50) The degree of Lo Lishma is very exalted, is it right to say that? If we aim at one point, we will reach Lishma.
R. Yes that is what Kabbalists tell us, that is how Rabash used to say: As much as we think that the degree of Lishma is a great degree, well the degree of Lo Lishma that precedes the degree of Lishma is even greater than what we can imagine.
49. S. (01:33:44) To reach Lishma is that the same thing as seen that it is all Him or is it two different states?
R. No, when we try to reach Lo Lishma and Lishma, what we intend is to reach a contract with the upper force, there is none else besides Him, the Good that does good; and that is only Him we want to reach because there's no one else, only Him. That is why even in Lo Lishma or in the meantime, and also Lishma, what we want to come to, still the goal is the Creator, the One and only unified force.
50. S. (01:34:50) We just described a state where someone works meticulously with an article. What is the difference between that state and the work in the ten?
R. Even better. The work in the ten, when you start going over the articles this way and each one will say something, what is important for him or not important for him, etc.; but when you scrutinize to the point of the contents of the article, it will work on you in the strongest way, in the optimal way. Because together, all of us, all of you, are scrutinizing, you are activating one force. When you are sitting on an article together; the Creator is between you, and you, in this study, in this scrutiny; you awaken Him.
51. S. (01:35:55) So it turns out that it is more important to ascribe something to the Creator than actually bestowing to Him, how is it possible? That in Lo Lishma is more important to ascribe the actions of the Creator, not me, than actually truly bestowing to Him with a screen and reflected light?
R. Read the article a few more times. He does say what you are saying but later he explains why Lo Lishma is only a degree for Lishma. What you should add to Lo Lishma, not in order to ruin the Lo Lishma, but in order to reach the degree of Lishma as well. Your question is correct but from that you should ask, how can I add to Lo Lishma some additions, and reach Lishma when I do not ruin what I had in Lo Lishma? Ask this and try to find an answer.
S. Should we expect Lishma?
R. You have to reach Lishma. It is our obligation to reach Lishma. Lo Lishma is not in order to bestow; true bestowal is Lishma.
52. S. (01:37:30) What is the difference between doing the right thing but without the right intention or doing the right thing without the intention, but with the intention to be in Lishma, it's a different degree isn't it?
R. What nonsense are you speaking? If your intention is to reach Lishma then you are in the right attention.
S. Right.
R. It’s a contradiction.
S. I read the article and it’s as if he says Lo Lishma with the intention of Lishma, how is that contradicting?
R. No, read it again and you will organize this. Of course you are in a state in Lo Lishma and you want to reach Lishma, and then you fall again to Lo Lishma and rise again to Lishma, and every time with different discernments. ok?
S. But we can't be in Lo Lishma if it’s not with the intention of Lishma?
R. You can't be in Lishma with the intentions of Lo Lishma.
53. S. (01:38:38) Yesterday you answered very nicely that when you study together and can you elaborate on this point, how to get the maximum forces from the mutual work upon the sources?
R. You should be in the connection. How about the article and to feel that you hold the Creator to the extent that you are connected and certainly there will be opposite states just like it is written to us in the Zohar. Did they want to kill each other and to curse each other and that is intentionally the Creator has to increase the degree of your ego. On the other hand you have to work in order to connect more. The best is while studying articles. Shamati is the key.
S. So decide on time that we read and as we said to explain it a bit, to be in this process?
R. Yes yes. This is why I could not leave it only for myself. Although you can be certain that as long as Rabash lived and if he would have lived more, he would not let me publicize it, he would not advise it. But after he passed away then I thought that was me I am going to publish it. That is it.
54. S. (01:40:58) If I do not overcome my exertion in the ten, is that a sign that there is no work at all?
R. Keep going as much as you can more and more, the main thing is not to stop and then the results will come.
S. From this we need to overcome our nature, meaning above?
R. We should exert that is what is upon us and whatever which one comes to that is already.
S. Action always has to be in overcoming?
R. In extra overcoming.
S. We rise above our mind and faith, above reason we also have to depict the Creator fills all?
R. Why are you explaining this to me?
S. I am asking.
R. You're not asking, you're reading, just do what I told you, you start changing my words and you're confused by them. You have to listen to what we're saying and do it and make as little changes as possible.
55. (01:42:49) Reader “we need to know that the degree of Lo Lishma is a very important degree and we do not have the mind to appreciate the importance of the Torah and commitments of Lo Lishma and my father said as much as a person understands to see the work in Lishma, that it is important work, you must know that even Lo Lishma is even more important than Lishma, that a person gave it importance because a person cannot appreciate the importance of keeping the Commandments and even in Lo Lishma but the completion of keeping the Torah and Commandments has to be in Lishma.
56. R. (01:43:54) Where is this fellow, the last one I talk to?
S. I meant that man's work is constant exertion and overcoming in every deed that he doesn't attain?
R. Yes that is right for sure, so excuse me maybe I didn't understand you. Yes, for sure, you I didn't understand you. It's my bad.
57. S. (01:44:45) You said to make efforts and to read the articles many times so if I like reading and working with them is that still considered exertion?
R. Yes, this is considered exertion of course. I recommend reading every article at least five times and not just from the screen here, you can also print it and read it from the book and try to make all sorts of changes, maybe the words you can hide or erase, something, meaning try to work with its seemingly as though you are chewing it. But ultimately you go back to the original.
58. S. (01:45:47) Is the work of above reason also in Lishma?
R. Above reason and Lishma are truly the same.
59. S. (01:46:12) What is the right prayer in Lo Lishma and Lishma, is there a difference?
R. In the prayer there is a difference to the extent the prayer is from the lower degree, from the smaller Katnut, is more beneficial. Let's say this world if a baby cries out, we immediately go to it, what is going on, what is wrong? If a child is crying it's not so much, okay, you are crying, okay you are missing something. But if a grown up starts crying we all will all pay attention to what is going on meaning it depends. Even the smallest child and when you are an adult there is a lot of scrutiny, when it is a child, the scrutiny is more for the parents, when you are an adult scrutiny is more for the Creator or about the Creator.
60. S. (01:51:05) How to force the Creator to make him the one who owes?
R. I think it has to be otherwise, I think you have to make it otherwise, the Creator is not the one that owes you, that man owes the Creator.
61. S. (01:51:40) There is a parable that the guests come, and why is he doing it for them and it obligates them?
R. We do not want to make the Creator obligated than it will not be for bestowal, it will be in order to receive
62. S. (01:52:00) The article ends with the words that in truth the Creator does everything but you cannot attain for the personal providence before attaining the matter of the rewards and punishment, can you explain what private providence is?
R. Private providence is that the Creator is taking care of the person, I guess let's do it according to our mind, that the Creator is taking care of the person personally, individually that he is leading him to adhesion.
63. S. (01:52:42) What is the meaning of the reward and punishment?
R. That it is actually to our matter, altogether that according to the exertion you get a result.
64. S. (01:53:04) How is it possible that one can be both in partnership with the Creator and also be completely dependent on the Creator and also be completely opposite of the Creator?
R. I want to be connected to the Creator, constantly all the time and then I want only one thing. That in each and every way whatever it will be, only want to be, only know how to connect to the Creator, that every time I will be able to supervise and change it.
65. S. (01:53:45) It is not clear what turns Lishma into a choice, how can a person be the one who caused Lishma if the Creator causes all the action?
R. Yes, but we were given by changing our attitude from in order to receive to in order to bestow every time, a bit more every time. To come closer to the Creator and bring that we are actually inviting changes in the Creator's Providence upon us. This is what is given for us to do, we do not change the upper force. We do not change any action of Genesis or anything, just our attitude towards the Upper Providence, that is what we change and that is what actually happens. I revealed reality for myself but reality is actually constant.
66. S. (01:55:03) Why is it easier to describe our actions to the Creator specifically in Lo Lishma?
R In the state of Lo Lishma you are supposedly not obligated, whatever happens you say it's the Creator for the good, for the bad. It is as if everything is working in the same direction but in Lishma you supposedly become responsible that to this extent you are obligating the Creator, obligating him.
67. S. (01:55:52) Do I understand correctly that when I say, myself, that the judgment is only with respect to me but on the other hand I do not control anything, I do nothing?
R. On all the questions that were up to now I just say one thing, no question cannot be solved in the right way unless you connect into the 10. That is why everything you were asking, as if you think you can actually implement this in your life, nothing will work, nothing. It is a lie. I do not know how to say it. It is a big confusion for now is what I'm hearing in the question, you think that you can do this each one on their own and it will not happen. Do not waste your efforts. If you do not connect, if you do not scrutinize it in the connection between you, how you have to relate to one another to between you in order to build the image of the Creator, what is the image of the Creator. Can you imagine what, who the Creator is? Build such relationships between you, then you will see that what you have built does it bring livelihood, does it shine, does illuminate what you build. Suddenly from it, from what you build, there is illumination, the beginning of a new life, if you do not do it in such a way, so don't waste your time. Nothing will work, only by building the Creator between you. Very simple. Then you will succeed. The wisdom of Kabbalah is a practical wisdom. It entirely takes place in the right connection between people.
68. S. (01:58:34) I heard that you said the Creator only takes the efforts into account not the results, is this enough for the Creator if a person tries everything to annul himself to the group but he still can't?
R. We need to count our efforts and exertion, not the results. The results depend on the Creator exertion depends on us, we are from below given exertion, raising MAN, as we say and the Creator from above downward against that gives his light. Then I do not need to think about his answer, I only need his answer to know how to aim myself at the connection between us and to establish his image between us even more. Trying to think how we in the connection between us establish the image of the Creator. It is something very special. It is very interesting. It is very creative. In it, everybody can participate in this and then when we establish the Creator between us, we will truly start learning what practical Kabbalah means, that we in practice, we are doing what is written, what the Creator told us, you have made me, because the Creator does not exist. That is called come and see. Can we do this from our desires, from our thoughts and passions and rejections. From all this can we build the image of the Creator and if we are engaging in this and even if it doesn't work for us, even if it does not work out, that is also called sacred work. This is what we need to work on, just do not make idols. It is all the connection between our desires that are all aimed in order to bestow for one another. This is called from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.
69. S. (02:01:33) What is the meaning of the false reason to the Creator organized like the guests?
R. This is for us to see that as much as we are not under the bestowing of the light, that we are not spiritual yet so we see that instead of the Creator, instead of the friends we are aimed at the guests or what the people would say about us and so on. If we want to actually go into the wisdom of Kabbalah, we need to put aside all of those complaints that come to us from the external world. That is the external world, don't pay attention to it. Yes, there are our children, family but it is completely personal for me, I do not touch it. I'm telling you, like I decided many years ago till this day and as much as I've left this only in one direction.
70. S. (02:03:08) If I do work and demand a reward and I demand for the friends to receive this reward, is this for Lishma or not?
R. Not the friends, for the group that it won’t be like this friend ye and that friend no, the group, yes.
71. S. (02:03:33) You talked about Rabash Shamati previously, why would Rabash object to you publishing articles of Shamati?
R. He didn't want to publish them at all. Rabash never published anything, he just wrote articles and throughout his last 10 years when I was bringing people to study so he started writing. I took what he wrote, first it was in handwriting then he started typing on the mechanical typewriter then it was electrical. Then I used to copy what he wrote and printed and to give it out to all the students and no more than that. I have a lot of writings from him to this day we have some that we haven't published yet. Only the Shamati articles I published because I saw as much as it was close to him that he wrote it from his father's words. That is why after he passed away, I decided that I cannot leave this as if I'm burying them, I cannot do it, I have to publish this to the world and then I gave it to all the students to study with Rabash, the original I gave them, I let them copy it. Then in that way they will also study it, I did not feel I could be responsible for it to go out into the world. Rabash was still part of the previous generation and you are part of this generation that is why I had to be a bridge from the previous generation to this one.
S. So why did he resist the article?
R. He didn't want to publish his own articles before the students, not like making a book out of it, he had a lot of writings that never were published.
S. But why?
R. Look, a Kabbalist sees the state of the world and he sees that it's not good, that everybody knows everything because they will not accept it, they will not understand it, they will get confused.
72. S. (02:06:44) What is the difference between asking and demanding of the Creator?
R. It depends on the relationship, the closeness that we have with the Creator.
73. S. (02:07:04) During the day the women get a workshop question and excerpt from the words of the Rav, would it be correct to change it and chew on the articles of Shamati as you've been recommending in the past few weeks?
R. Why not, I think it's worth it, yes, do this and do that as much as we can. The main thing is to keep living it. Chewing it and swallowing it.
74. S. (02:07:39) When is a person worthy of receiving the truth and in this word, Adam, the meaning is to connect to the 10.
R. Yes, Adam isn’t one, it means people connected between them to be as one man with one heart. Then they come back to the image of the one man.
S. So when are they worthy of receiving the truth?
R. When they connect in such a way when the inner part that is within them is revealed, that is called the truth