Morning Lesson March 8, 2021 Transcription
is made from simultaneous translation which leaves possibility for differences from audio
Raising MAN - Selected Excerpts from the Sources
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we can't let go of this topic yet it is a very important and primary topic. We see in this world I'm hungry, so I start eating, and the hunger diminishes, the appetite diminishes in pleasure also gradually diminishes and then I remain empty in a state of zero, this is how it is with each and everything. We hear a lot of complaints from one to the other that connection yearning, the love they disappear. At first let's say that when a guy and a girl meet they have some attraction between them and later on it becomes routine and it goes away, becomes a habit which becomes second nature but it is not the same longing, the same desire in the same pleasure. It's not the same pleasure with which you can enjoy from one another and it's the same here with everything from taking in food and each and every everything. The habit and the fulfillment truly take the taste away. The taste disappears, the feeling of the connection disappears, there is no need for it anymore and this is what happens to us in corporeality and eventually causes death. The spiritual life is eternal and complete because even before we enter spiritual actions we learn how to keep them so that they will be eternal and whole so that our desire will not go away but rather it will only grow.
That we will understand how important it is and specifically concerned through the desire to make it as great as possible and as complex as possible, this is what we must constantly stand on. Therefore, the advancement in spirituality is according to how much we are able to assemble a more intricate, fine, complex desire so that it will include within it more and more discernments which the Creator has prepared for us through the shattering of Adam HaRishon. That way we can hold this desire which we assemble and that we don't want to lose any part of it and specifically, out of concern for all of the desires that they would all exist, that they would all sustain each other. That they would actually grow in the discernments in between them, by this we reach the true complete NRNHY at the end of correction that is the entire difference between corporeality and spirituality is that in corporeality meaning in order to receive when we perform actions, then the fulfillment quenches the desire the deficiency. In spirituality we learn of the pleasure we only increase the deficiency more and more. Therefore, one who is greater than his friend's inclination is greater.
This year, in spirituality already takes on a new form, new importance, a new degree, and we begin to look at the deficiency as the most important thing not that the fulfillment is the most important but rather the lack. Because by increasing the lack, by arranging it correctly also depends the fulfillment. Therefore, it's not necessary that I will receive fulfillment into the deficiency but rather I enjoy the deficiency itself as it grows and it remains and I have a longing for it, and I go forward and increase it more and more. This is why the work is different. I'm not concerned about the feeling that exists infinitely in the upper light that fills up the whole of reality I'm concerned only with the lack that each time we'll have a correct deficiency and that it will be as great as possible and keep growing. Therefore the prayers they request the gratitude to the Creator, whatever we can aim to him and raise to him that is what is important to us and by that we measure our state, our fulfillment that indeed I enjoy the deficiency that I have. In our corporeal world when we were young and we would get all excited from love to someone, so we enjoy having this love, this inclination, this lack. It's not that it's not the fulfillment, the fulfillment, it comes and goes and afterwards an empty place remains but rather specifically the longing can fill the vessel, and that is what we remember later.
If we see all the compositions that we have in painting and music and everything in literature it all speaks about the lack, about the yearning, about the prayer, really in short. This is why we have to pay attention that even though we together are still in a state where maybe we are longing for fulfillment however the true fulfillment comes out of us being drawn to the one that we love. Specifically this attraction, this inclination, that I'm longing for it, this is actually a true fulfillment and it's written in many places we will find them, what is he write that to begin with they were thinking that later on they see that specifically in the letters ... that's it so we're not done yet with the matter of the prayer and raising MAN and that everything is obtained only through the force of prayer that we have to establish correctly our attitude to the fulfillment, what kind of fulfillment it is so that this fulfillment won't quench the deficiency otherwise we'll remain empty. But rather, specifically the fulfillment that comes in the deficiency and it only amplifies it more and more and this is a sign that we are in spirituality. That is only through bestowal from me outwardly with that inclination do I not quench the fulfillment but rather I built yet more place to increase it, to amplify it.
There are many things in that, we will learn them gradually, we will establish our correct lack and then according to that we will discover that he had prepared for us those vessels in order to reach spiritual fulfillment. Spirituality does not go away, it is eternal therefore we need to prepare desire that will also be eternal. In order to receive the eternal fulfillment you must have an eternal deficiency and eternal deficiency means it only remains and it only grows in longing for the fulfillment and the fulfillment also cannot be egoistic because you wouldn't be able to quench the deficiency the desire. Rather it has to be according to the deficiency, that the fulfillment and deficiency will go hand-in-hand and amplify each other. Therefore spirituality is eternal. It's not like in this world like all of those things quench each other off and disappear and the deficiency is quenched by the fulfillment and disappears and that disappears and nothing remains out of the fulfillment or of the deficiency, nothing remains. We will learn how we can reach eternal deficiency and eternal fulfillment and eternal life.
2. S. (12:18) How can we reach this eternal desire and keep it inside the 10?
R. We are going to learn that.
Excerpt Letter 19 Baal HaSulam Reader (12:42 - 12:34)
“…Grace is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman that fears the Lord, she shall be praised.” This means that during the preparation, beauty and grace appear as the essence of perfection for which one yearns and longs. However, at the time of correction, when the earth is “full of the knowledge of the Lord,” “I shall see an opposite world,” as only fear and longing are the desired perfection. Then one feels that during the time of preparation they were lying to themselves.”
3. R. (13:35) Meaning that this is the primary thing the person enjoys gradually we are searching for a state for how I can feel myself up gradually through our work and through the reforming light especially we undergo a change of direction and I begin to think about the Creator. How can I specifically fulfill him and not to feel myself, and gradually it happens from the reforming light and then it turns out that at first I was constantly chasing after fulfilling myself yearning for all kinds of fulfillment, understanding, feeling, that it will clothe in me and it will be inside of me. Then bit by bit, I begin to change the direction of my yearning to how do I fill the Creator, how do I get how do I give him the contentment. Then in such a way I reach a state where this actually is my purpose, my intention, my pleasure, then we reach a state where indeed bestowal is the fulfillment, what I'm capable of causing the other. Of course it is through the 10 and later on through the whole of humanity as much as we are able to bring out of ourselves and to see how the entire world Kli and even the Creator enjoys it actually the one standing behind the world vessel, this becomes my pleasure. Therefore, this pleasure only grows and it depends on me and on no one else because the upper light is in utter rest, the entire vessel is broken and it is ready for my action. Then only longing to cause pleasure outside of me is what I see as my fulfillment and besides that nothing else is needed, then a person who reaches that causes that he reaches eternity out of himself.
4. S. (16:24) Where is this fun of living in a constant deficiency because we pray and then we become more deficient, so there must be a sort of deficiency, can you go through this again?
R. That's the purpose the shattering of the vessel of Adam HaRishon was done, the Creator broke this vessel so that we are able do, always be in shattering and in a constant search. We will talk about the end of correction when we connect all of these things together and by this everything might end. Where would be my yearning to connect them and to fulfill them in this rather if everything becomes the concept of one, then something here comes to a stop and I will not have a place to work. I will not have a place for fulfillment because I fulfilled only by causing connection, by causing fulfillment to them and from them to the Creator. This is how I cause pleasure to the Creator because it says what will you give him, he is whole, he only enjoys what each one of us corrects his vessel on his side each one out of his own respect. When he corrects the entire vessel of Adam HaRishon each one of us has a point in the heart and from that point he corrects the vessel so it turns out that each one of us by this, causes pleasure through the Creator to the Creator and if the vessel is complete what happens. We need to understand yet, what does it mean, the complete correction, what is the end of correction. By that we reach a complete Kli, all one light, what are these concepts that are far away from us from our ability to understand it correctly. Just in order for us to nevertheless have it for a question because all of the fulfillments and pleasures that we can attain is only through inclination through the longing, to cause contentment to the others and through them to the Creator. This is why if this possibility ends then what is left for me, this is why we have to understand what really means eternity, wholeness and the end of correction in spirituality, what precisely do we do? Maybe it's actually the opposite, the end of correction is when I receive endless possibilities to fulfill everyone and to constantly cause connection, more special, more intricate, by that we are in the world of heaven, Ein Sof. There are some points here because of which we can't really let go of prayer and also raising MAN what's we also want to come to after this topic, that also pertains to prayer. We will stand on that until we will understand it and we will start to actualize these things in practice.
5. S. (20:55) According to what you said ...
R. It's because you don't know how to cause the right direction connection, this is all of us only later on out of spirituality and psychology, they're not teaching us correctly they don't understand our foundations but in truth if we would teach people they would understand that in order to determine the right relations in corporeality, they must have spirituality. Certainly each and every one of us remembers from childhood the Creator arranged us for us so we would have an impression even in a physical state an inclination towards someone else seemingly a beautiful inclination, they call it love and later on how it disappears, so will you remember the yearning, that this was the fulfillment, the lack that would fill us up. I was lacking someone, contact with them, not even physical contact with them we're not talking about that, we're talking about an inner longing, a yearning,and that's it and this is why we can take an example from that.
S. It happens not only in childhood and in relation to the Creator when we reach some kind of connection with him it turns out that we also have to keep ourselves from receiving some kind of fulfillment?
R. If you reach a state where you begin to understand that the most important is the longing for the Creator, not receiving from him, but causing him contentment then you already begin to enter the true connections, the correct relations with him. So that if earlier we were thinking that only the fulfillment is what we need, later on we see that specifically it is the longing and the lack that is the true fulfillment.
BHS Letter 19 Reader (23:47 - 24:31)
6. R. They were lying to themselves because they were thinking they could fulfill themselves by connecting, actually no they're not connecting this is what he writes in another place, watch out from not touching him, from reaching out your hand in the song and this is what we have to feel to understand to talk about it. This is the true inclination towards the spiritual relation when I enjoy longing for the other and that I fulfill the other in my fulfillment comes as a result of fulfilling the other and I never fulfill myself by myself. That whatever exists in him, this for fulfillment is what fills me, his pleasure is what fills me up.
The Song that Shines from Above Reader (25:43 - 26:30)
7. R. This means that only the longing when we are careful not to touch him but only through our relation to him this is how we fill up the Creator and also each other when we speak about connection fulfillment, mutual love in our Kli, that we wish to establish from the shattering, it is all out of each one enjoying how much he wants to fulfill the other. How much he is establishing the other holding him.
8. S. (27:17) We take examples from our life like the woman but the deficiency that can be fulfilled it's also a kind of tragedy, it's an unfulfilled kind of love, so what is this example of a deficiency that was not fulfilled?
R. This is exactly speaking about if we're speaking about love that remains without response without fulfillment, it is because you're yearning for an incorrect fulfillment. You are longing to be fulfilled, that you will receive the fulfillment from the love itself, you need to receive fulfillment from loving someone without anything coming back to you, this is what it is about, it is about bestowal that I am fulfilled from my bestowal to others. The fact that I have the possibility to bestow, out of me loving him, this is what I'm filled by, that I do demand, even that he will relate to me. I won't demand that he will relate to me, I want to be under concealment, this is called modesty, chastity even in spirituality. We have this special book, Safra Dtzniuta, in the Zohar where we are bestowing and we want to remain under concealment with regard to who we are bestowing to. I don't want him to know about me, to know about it, I hide myself, this is considered that I truly want to bring contentment to him, not to myself in some direct or roundabout way. The fact that we see how we are failing in all kinds of relations in this world it's because we exist in our ego, we want to receive fulfillment, some response and this is why I will remain empty and disappointed. If we learn how to do it in spirituality it will be enough for you, I promise that you want to also keep it in corporeality so much so spirituality will completely fulfil you and it will include within it also all of the corporeal relation.
S. In my work in the 10, you say that I have to fulfill so that others won't know that I did it, in the real world it's one of the forms of the ego, in my work in the 10, should they know that they got the fulfillment through me?
R. You're right, you do have to long for it, you have to reach a state where you are bestowing to the 10 as much as possible in order to push them to the Creator, you as Rabash writes, you want to be a zero in relation to the others. Even to promote them in such a way that they don't even know that it is you which is promoting them otherwise it will be your egoistic fulfillment. You have to arrange these things according to what Rabash writes. In a very special precise manner, we can't even see what you wrote there and if we keep that then for sure we will reach the right connection. We will reach it, don't you worry it will not run away from us, we are actually in an advanced spiritual state, you cannot yet see where you are because that would corrupt you but these are already spiritual actions and processes we are already in.
9. S. (32:09) Turns out that when I aspire for connection with the 10, through the 10 and reveal that I am opposite of the Creator, this is a spiritual deficiency, meaning that the more that I aspire for connections the more I reveal my oppositeness? Is this deficiency endless or maybe because of that the first restriction occurred?
R. I don't like speaking with all kinds of concepts of Kabbalah because it confuses us and who knows how other people want to understand these things. Let's talk only in the framework of what I said if you want to ask about that, go ahead, we talked about the fact that we have to replace our desire to fulfill ourselves with our desire to fulfill the Creator. That pleasure, our pleasure will come not by us being filled and feeling like when I eat, I feel that my belly is being filled and this is my pleasure. Rather that I am filling the Creator and even if I don't feel that I am filling the Creator because that will already be a reward for me and I don't want a reward. I want that bestowal, the fulfillment will be only one way. This is how we need to try to do it, take it slowly, it will come but the most important is the principle point, what am I enjoying? I want to enjoy the fact that I am fulfilling the friends and through the friends I'm fulfilling the Creator and with that I myself want to completely remain under self concealment, restriction. That I have no knowledge, no feeling, that I am truly bestowing because this for the time being might be for me as a compensation. Because of that my entire act of bestowal will be erased, so gradually I reach a state where I can perform this action truly without any relation to myself and later on so much so, that I get the fulfillment in revelation and those too I received in order to bestow. Everything is outside of me, we will learn how to come closer to such actions.
S. What happens is that I'm praying all the time, but I only asked a friend?
R. Yes, this is only for children, the mother only cares for the children, for the babies. This is the only example of this world that we can learn from about spirituality.
10. S. (35:43) You said something very important about when we pray we are asking for the forces to be able to bestow to our beloved one and we are anticipating something in return but here we have to build a prayer so that there will be the fear that the friend will receive and not bestow. Can you explain how the prayer changes when I change the direction from myself to the friends?
R. I can't explain it any better because there are no words that are not suitable for explaining this issue. Try to imagine to yourself as much as you can that you are performing an action and you don't want to be related to the result of it. That your entire results will be only to cause contentment either to the friends or to the Creator, in fact it doesn't matter because everything outside of one's body is not felt in him as even existing. That way you will get used to acquiring vessels of bestowal. To the extent that you will have the results of what you are causing in the vessels of bestowal and then we will talk about it.
S. Many times we hear the friends saying we ask and don't receive anything?
R. What are you saying they're asking and not receiving? The Creator doesn't give that to us in order for us not to ask it in order to receive but rather that we will ask in order to bestow.
S. Where is the mistake then because we are asking for the force of bestowal, love, you have to direct it towards the friends, there's some kind of subtleties here?
R. We need to try to read Rabash’s articles, I am telling you the more we read his articles, the reforming light will come to us and we will understand how to arrange things correctly. The words here will only confuse us, the most important is just to realize that we have to reach a state where I am bestowing and I enjoy bestowal, I enjoy the action that I am giving. What happens later with that, well first of all, I now cut myself off that I don't know, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to get any response out of the action that I gave. I enjoy this and I don't demand anything for that, just the opportunity to give.
11. S. (39:32) In corporeality we say that love feeds the soul and children that don’t get that aren't treated nicely or to get a negative attitude from other children they are flawed, so if you have to all the time get a good attitude from your environment when a person doesn't need it that are in spirituality that a person doesn't need it anymore?
R. Spirituality becomes inverted gradually through the reforming light, not immediately but after a few years a person is rewarded with a state where we begin to appreciate the action of bestowal more than the action of reception and it comes through despair and through all kinds of disappointments. One reaches a state where he doesn't want to receive anything, he values and it comes like that it comes through an illumination from above that is holding him this is what we mean by the reforming light so that one starts to appreciate bestowal as earlier he was valuing reception and now he's valuing bestowal more, in truth he doesn't demand anything in order to exist but everything should be giving more and more.
12. S. (41:11) At first, when there is a deficiency then the natural urges to fulfill that deficiency in when you don't feel that you are losing something. Overtime is the deficiency the Hisaron, something I will see as an opportunity?
R. We need to keep going and the way it will work out is the way it will work out. Don’t start calculating too much, now. Only longing for an act of bestowal and as much as possible, expect the reforming light. It is what creates this inversion in us, that we begin to appreciate bestowal more than reception. We want to feel that we are bestowing, to enjoy being in bestowal. But it's not that it will happen by bestowing in order to receive. Here we still have something to add but it will come later.
13. S. (42:31) How can I be sure if I give contentment to the Creator through my friends?
R. What you do for the friends, you are doing it for the Creator. You simply have no one else to bestow to. It is the same Kli of the friends to which you bestow, and you are promoting them as much as you are capable of and as much as you understand towards connection with the Creator that the same action and is the final action. You don't need beyond it to be concerned about bestowing to the Creator. The Creator is what we call “the totality of these actions,” which you perform for the friends for humanity and therefore this is how we start and also end all of the corrections. We don't have to be concerned about bestowing to the Creator because there cannot be anymore bestowal to the creator than bestowal to the friends. All and all the creator is the totality, all and all he receives everything that you bestow to the friends and if you want to get along with the Creator, get closer to Him, it is only by getting closer to the friends. Only by connecting with them. It is very difficult to persuade oneself, I know it about myself, it was very difficult for me, this thing, it really took me years and I wasn't able to feel, to understand that this and that are actually the same.
14. S. (44:37) I work with my 10, I want to bestow without getting anything in rewards. I pray because I don't have this thing inside of me. When I work with my 10, what is my feedback from this so that I won't deviate from the goal?
R. By bestowing to the friends, I come closer to spirituality and the Creator. For me, friends are not important. Bestowing to the friends, still, for me cannot serve as a fulfillment. Therefore, this is how to act as much as I can. Out of envy, lust, and honor and by looking at the friends and I don't want to be inferior in their eyes, I perform actions of bestowal also. In this way, we help each other, that each of us learns from the others what to do because he doesn't want to egotistically be inferior to everyone and this is how we advance until we reach more spiritual discernment that are more in bestowal.
15. S. (46:17) This possibility exists only by changing our matter. I am a will to receive, I want to receive for myself. Until we switch, transition into the back and in the 10 we get this practice but how do we include the whole ten in this? Because it's very homogeneous. We have all kinds of jumps and swings in the 10, how do we take the whole ten through this process of crossing the stage together? I want to receive it for myself. Transitioning into the quality of bestowal where all that matters is fulfilling friends, how do we take the 10 into this process?
R. I'm a 10, and I aspire to keep myself in a distinguished manner that this is how my ego forces me to act. This is how I relate to them. I want to bestow so that they'll see I am bestowing. I reach this state, with the help of the reforming light, it is not something I can do on my own. I'm giving you the next stage, here. We reach a state where we get Illumination from above that holds us a bit closer to bestowal. Then I start appreciating the action of bestowal. I start appreciating the Creator more than myself. Each of us is more important than the Creator, greater than the Creator. When do I think about the Creator? When it's beneficial. Here, we are gradually starting to stop ourselves and think. How do I think about Him, how do I position him above my own head? That He'll be greater, that I’ll be aimed at Him, that I want to be connected with Him, that I want to respect Him and cause Him pleasure, do something for Him. And even though all of those actions are still egoistic, nonetheless, I want to come closer to them and somehow realize them. Gradually I reach a state where I get up in the morning, who do I think about first? Myself or this world, or the Creator? it's very important. If we talked about this before we go to sleep, you read the prayer of Shema for example, or something else before falling to sleep. Then possibly you wake up thinking about the Creator. Try to do it. To start as much as possible to think in His direction. It's not like religious people do. It’s something that we do because we want for our desire to receive to invert and become a desire to bestow. It will happen, it will. Only, again, the main thing is that I want to catch myself, on the Creator being more important to me than anything else. To hold onto that. Where I yearn only to think about Him and to give Him contentment so that he won't be a “foreign god” to you. As it is written. This is actually the direction of our work. The greater the Creator is, the greater He is than our ego, than our Pharaoh, we are coming closer to exiting our will to receive, our Egypt.
BHS Letter 18 Reader (51:53 - 53:20)
16. R. More simply put, we are asking the Creator to give us thoughts of bestowing to Him. That it will be pleasant for us to bestow to Him. Simple. like a mother towards her child. When she gives him, she enjoys it in the same way, we want to feel towards the Creator.
17. S. (53:56) Here, we are coming to the most important scrutiny that the fulfillment we are getting is actually the lack, the need to bestow contentment to the Creator. So, this fulfillment is given to the whole ten, right, not an individual person?
R. We can talk about a single person, too. He is doing his work in the 10, that's correct. But it's not that the 10 can hold him back, it can't. He is working in the ten, then he gets an awakening from above, and he starts awakening towards bestowing contentment to the Creator that for him, becomes the important main thing, then it's not completely necessary for the entire 10 to be in that. He shifts, he communicates his attitude towards the Creator through the 10 but it's not that all of them are in the same action. It's like Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma, he had little students he passed his attitude to the Creator through them. They participated in it and had a say. Let's say they weren't completely, willingly, they weren’t really active so it's not that important. Later we will reach states where each and every one of us will have to be active, will have to work with each other this way, as it says that the Creator says “you have made me” through your different actions. We scrutinize what is this force of bestowal. Through the vessel, we discover the abstract light according to our upper desire. Then through these different actions, we discover the light, that our external expressions are unique, discrete actions of the Creator until we discover Him fully. Wait and see, it will come. Everything will come.
18. S. (56:41) Should I enjoy the lack that I lack the Creator or that the others lack the Creator the 10, Humanity?
R. I don't know exactly what you mean to enjoy but to fulfill is the pleasure. What do I enjoy? I enjoy causing the fulfillment, bringing the fulfillment.
19. S. (57:26) The purpose of creation is to delight His creations, so when I give to the friends, do I become similar to the Creator?
R. When I give to my friends, I give the Creator contentment. . But we're not talking about the giving in and of, itself, but about how I discovered inside myself an inclination towards giving.
20. S. (58:33) What should an action contain so that we could consider it an action of bestowal towards the friends?
R. An act of bestowal towards the friends is according to what I learned from Rabash’s articles and I want to cause them to be connected in such a way that they will be closer and come closer to the Creator. This is my act of bestowal toward the group. To bring the group closer by their inner connection in such a way that all in all they will be closer to the Creator. If I keep this picture in front of my eyes, this is already bestowal.
21. S. (59:32) What kind of lack should we reach in the ten, and with respect to which discernments should we have a lack in our current state?
R. We have to reach a deficiency so that in our connection we will be able to give contentment to the Creator. That's it. Here you have both the action and the intention, period.
Excerpt 15 Reader (1:00:33 - 1:01:52)
22. S. (1:01:54) How can we make this revolution from corporeal thoughts to spiritual actions?
R. Just continue according to what we are learning from Rabash’s writings, only to continue. That’s all there is to it. Because the only action that we can perform through the group is to perform actions and ask for advancement towards bestowal.
23.S. (1:02:35) This whole way of filling our desires in order to reach a feeling that we are chasing after something that is unimportant, or do we need to reach a feeling that we need to empty ourselves in order to give the Creator a possibility to fill us with the desire to help the friends?
R. I gave you an example from childhood, that each of us has this kind of impression for the yearning for a young lady or a young girl. That each of us felt that he yearns to see her, to be with her, to talk to her. Why do we get this feeling? In order for us to learn that we could have been fulfilled by the yearning. That, it, itself, the Hisaron, deficiency, can serve as a fulfillment. And much greater than any kind of fulfillment that will come later on. So, this is what we have to come to. All in all, this is what I want to talk about today, and you're already jumping to other things. Only this, how do I reach a deficiency, a lack which is to bestow to the Creator, and when I'm in this lack to bestow to the Creator, it is felt as a fulfillment. That's it, that's all I need. This is exactly the lack in which, later on, you feel the perfection of this action that is called love. From yearning to bestow, to think, to be connected in such a way -- in this client of inclination yearning.
24. S. (1:05:14) Is the deficiency to bestow what we get in return for our work, or is it a gift from the Creator?
R. Everything comes from above. All the deficiencies, all the inclinations, all the qualities -- everything that comes. Thoughts, actions, desires. It all comes from above. A person does nothing only, bit by bit, that we become aware of what is going on with us. We start being kind of psychologists, scrutinizing exactly what we are going through and then we start seeing how to behave? How do we act? Like puppets that are under operated by strings from above and that's how we learn more and more about the work of the Creator on us. And as a result, we can enter, start identifying with Him and afterwards to even ask Him to control, to govern us more in the direction of bestowal and direction of connection. It's like we're starting to run in front of the carriage. Before the Creator performs the corrections on us, we ask for these corrections to be done on us. This is called “raising MAN,” a deficiency, a lack. And this is called “My sons have defeated Me.” Meaning that, as if it's not the Creator performs these actions according to His plan. But that we are demanding of Him how to more quickly implement His plan. These are very serious corrections that, soon, we will go into. And this is called “My sons have defeated Me.” That actually really, we become the Creator's partners.
25. S. (1:09:30) What do we have to put first: just to bestow with our eyes shut or to give pleasure, and then bestow?
R. We yearn for our connection and only by working on our connection can we learn about what spiritual actions are, that's it. And opposed to our nature as it is, from that, we will learn how opposed it really is. But we have to continue only in that direction.
Excerpt 16 Reader (1:10:25 - 1:12:01)
26. S. (1:12:03) How can I bestow so that I don't get anything out of this because my ego will always want something from this. How can I overcome my ego?
R. The question is clear to everyone, but besides our desire to receive, there is also the upper light that can invert your desire from reception to bestowal. It can give you new qualities. And, certainly, you're also not demanded to -- you can't. You, yourself, cannot climb to a spiritual degree and start enjoying bestowal, you can't. For example, when a woman gives birth to a baby from that moment on, when she becomes pregnant, her only desire, her thoughts are only about the baby, all the time. And when he's born, she is all the time next to him, to hold him. This is how it is, this is how she naturally feels. Now, we can think about bestowal only on the condition that we receive a special force that doesn't exist in us. It is called “an illumination from above,” the reforming light. That sudden we feel that I want to bestow to others. Towards the Creator, towards the friends, this is how it is revealed in a person. And also, it is revealed on and off -- sometimes, sometimes not, more or last. This is how the upper light works on us and brings to a state where we do want to bestow. But still bestowal towards the Creator and the 10, for example, is egoistic. It's an egoistic kind of bestowal that I want to bestow to them like a mother wants to bestow to her baby. There are several more actions, here, that we will have to go through with the help of the reforming light. And more and more until we disconnect from our desire to receive in such a way, our attitude towards others will be complete bestowal. But that's later. Today, we're just talking about the very first action, that we have to search for, ask for, detect inside of us, that I have an inclination to bestow to the Creator, that I enjoy bestowing to Him, that I enjoy bestowing to my friends. And this pleasure is still egoistic, but it is already clothed in bestowal to others. Above my will to receive. That according to my will to receive, I'm not drawn to bestow to the Creator, I'm not drawn to bestow to the friends. And I do ask to have this kind of inclination, and this inclination still kind of awakens in me. Later on, we'll talk about “is it above reason, is it within reason, in favor of desire, is it against it?” We’ll see all of this, later, but in the meantime, I want to have it. And this is called that the Creator should not be foreign to you. The Creator, He becomes desired, more closely desired than before.
27. S. (1:16:32) When we try to make it so there will be no fulfillment for ourselves but only the Creator will be revealed to the friends and bestow to them, is state a correct state?
R. Yes. Still, everything that we are going through, these are correct states. Only that we have to yearn more for connection in the 10, which will cause us to increase the speed at which we shift from state to state. The 10 is in front of us and we can hasten our actions in it by which we cause the hastening with all inner spiritual actions with the 10 also.
28. S. (1:17:48) “Putting oneself to death over it” How can we work if we put the ego to death? Do we have a place to work?
R. I didn't understand anything of what you say.
S. The text says that we have to put ourselves to death over it but if we put the ego to death, we won't have a place to work?
R. No. that we put the ego to death does not mean we won't have a place to work. Ego is called in order to receive. We want to rise from the will to receive from the intention in order to receive to the intention to in order to bestow. This means to put the ego to death. The ego is the intention not to desire itself. The desire of itself is not so bad. The way you want to use it, that is the intention.
Excerpt 17 Rabash Reader (01:22:23 - 01:23:54)
29. R. Asking the Creator to change him, to correct and bring him closer to the truth. A person has to start feeling how the Creator replaces or changes his direction where he no longer sees actions of bestowal as something strange, opposite to his own nature, but something appealing about them egotistically, nonetheless, a kind of inclination toward that.
Excerpt 18 Reader (01:24:45 - 01:26:04)
Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 5, "Lishma Is an Awakening from Above, and Why Do We Need an Awakening from Below?"
One must know, when exerting to attain the Lishma, to take upon himself to want to work entirely to bestow, completely, meaning only to bestow and not to receive anything. Only then does one begin to see that the organs do not agree to this view.
From this one can come to clear awareness that he has no other choice but to pour out his heart to the Creator to help him so the body will agree to enslave itself to the Creator unconditionally, as he sees that he cannot persuade his body to annul itself completely. It turns out that precisely when one sees that there is no hope that his body will agree to work for the Creator by itself, one’s prayer can be from the bottom of the heart, and then his prayer is accepted.
30. R. (01:26:04) Meaning, that he really sees that he’s incapable of anything and depends only on the work that the Creator does on him. he will be in a different spiritual state only on condition that his will to receive will change and this is what he demands of the Creator and the Creator carries it out. It all depends on the prayer.
S. You said you wanted to convey one Central message of how to reach a deficiency to bestow to the Creator so how?
R. By thinking about it and searching for are there certain means through which I can reach the desire to bestow to the Creator. It is like a mother and her baby, we don't have a more natural example, she has a desire, she doesn't have a desire, suddenly it appears in her. It’s like you knew this young lady, this woman that she only has wind in her head and suddenly she gets pregnant and the only thing that she thinks about is her baby, the embryo. When he's born the only thing, she thinks about is him.
S. So if I'm not pregnant or I don't have a child yet where does this constant concern come for bestowal?
R. From above, from the Creator as there is nothing inside of us and if there is nothing, I can't be concerned with having the desire to bestow, of wanting to bestow that I will feel a special pleasure in bestowal. I am doing it not for the sake of the pleasure itself as something we will talk about later. That I'm not working for the sake of the pleasure but because I want to perform an act of bestowal and there are many other things here but what we want is for this desire to be born in us. It all depends on the measure of light that works on us. In the meantime, working on us is a light that belongs to the animal degree, that we are animals living inside our own anime body concerned with her own physical existence and that is it. How will we reach a different level of desire? Only by the reforming light working on us differently we're not under the light that's controlling us all the time, but it's the same light that belongs to the degrees of still vegetative and animal. I need the light from a speaking level that will advance me towards the Creator bringing me closer to the Creator. Look what we started a year ago from the pandemic until this day that we have gone through and completed all of these stages and now we are actually in the final stage which is on the border between corporeality and spirituality. As much as we can realize it this is a different question, but we have actually gone through all of the stages and now before us is only actively making an effort to exit from Egypt. We are entering Passover and to reach a state where we are exchanging the desire from self-love to the desire to love others, which is precisely the passage, the transition from self to others. This is precisely the exit from Egypt. We will learn about it in an open manner immediately after we complete this topic.
31. S. (01:31:04) In the previous excerpt he writes that one must completely annul one's desire before the Creator?
R. Look at the mother with respect to her baby how much she's wearing about how to take care of him, to give him contentment that everything is for his benefit. She has no life for herself but only for the baby. This is called the exchanging of one desire to another, within the will to receive even, I'm not even talking about the will to bestow.
S. The Creator gives more desires to overcome?
R. He grows and raises in us the will to receive, the bigger one and upon it if we request, he also gives us a desire to bestow. Each and every time we need to rise to a greater will to receive and then from within this, we will also receive a will to bestow that is greater. Certainly, how can it be that without thickness you will reach the reflected light and the building of Partzuf. Only in this manner.
32. S. (01:33:07) The mother she's not thinking about her body when she's taking care of the baby, is this the same way when I have to come to a state where I'm not concerned with my body?
R. No, we need to be concerned for ourselves, existence and families to the extent that it is necessary for advancement in spirituality. In total our existence in this world is in order that we will reach spirituality and within spirituality also to reach the end of Correction. Truly so.
S. What is it that is getting in the way, what do I have to put aside and not be concerned about?
R. You need to be concerned for everything, first you pass it through your attitude to the Creator, through the group, that you want to arrange the ten, and from within it that you are bestowing to the Creator. You are preparing for Him a vessel within here from which He can receive contentment. You all the time now need to feel how you can be directed toward Him, that this is how you are always enjoying His thought.
33. S. (01:35:08) To change the pleasure from reception to bestowal is that the correction?
R. no
S. Is it the end of correction?
R. No, I need to change my desire to receive to a desire to bestow and afterwards to a desire to receive with the intent to bestow to reach the level of Bina to bestow with the intent to bestow then afterwards to the level of Keter, to receive in order to bestow, that is the final correction. This I need to do upon the entire world Kli, that I am part of the broken vessel, that I can correct myself by connecting to the entire broken vessel of Adam, to the entire reality that I connect in such a way that I caused them fulfillment, their connection with the creator. Meaning that I am connecting between all of humanity with all of the souls with the Creator and in sum total I am completing my correction and with such each and everyone.
34. S. (01:36:38) When the friend bestows in the ten how does his bestowal, how is it felt in the friends?
R. I cannot say. I don't know on what level he is, what is it called that he bestows, how can he truly arrange bestowal through the Creator to the 10 or through the 10 to the Creator, these are things that depend upon his state and his degree. There is no answer for this question. It is like in our world that how can we say each one influences the other, according to the state that they're in, according to what means they are in, and how it influences others.
35. S. (01:38:25) How do I turn the pleasure into bestowal when it’s egoistical?
R. You have an attitude to the Creator that you want to bestow to him. You have a desire to bestow to Him like a mother to her child, of course it is egoistic. It's still not spiritual but with respect to the Creator what was not there before, as beforehand he did not exist. Now gradually he has opened up for you a connection to Him, like a rope of connection to him. This connection is still egoistic but slowly already you can correct it.
S. How does this work? How do you slowly correct it? What do we have to do to turn this flaw that is still egoistical to turn it into true bestowal?
R. Only by that same light that reforms as now it gives you the sensation of the connection to the Creator which he has made for you as was previously non-existent and completely not felt. Now you have some sensation, and this sensation is still very vague, and foggy. You still can't locate it, can't stabilize it, somehow before you but already this desire that is directed to the Creator in this direction, the desired self gives you some sensation. Upon this we will begin to work more now, gradually. There is a program here. We can't jump a few steps forward. We've been a year in this process and now we're truly reaching the entrance, first exiting the ego and then entrance into spirituality. It is precisely Passover.
36. S. (01:41:45) In this work when I desire to give the Creator contentment either I lose him or I increase Him, so there is a matter of subtleness?
R. I don't know, play with it and see as much as it is good this way or that way.
Excerpt 19 Reader (01:43:25 - 01:44:25)
37. R. We must always make the effort to pray and not to leave it. The appeal to the Creator must be all the time because he is the only source of all changes.
Excerpt 20 Reader (01:44:43 - 01:46:09)
38. R. Despair, don't leave. Rather all the time press on the Creator to help and advance.
39. S. (01:46:29) The prayer is always for the 10 in general correct?
R. Prayer is usually for the 10, for the Creator.
S. How can we incorporate the prayer so that in the prayer before the prayer we justify the friends who are not connected to them?
R. It is difficult to do, and I don't know if it's the most important, the most important is to bestow through the friends to the Creator as the Creator is the goal and not the friends. Only to the Creator must I be ultimately directed in order to aim ourselves to the Creator we need the friends. We need to understand what the goal is and what is the means because ultimately to the Creator we must reach bestowal, He is the sole source that bestows upon us and we must reach that same point of bestowal to Him. If we are talking already about the group and taking care of the group that is something else. Then I pray for the group and for the friends that they shall come and be present in the lesson but if we are talking like we speak today that's the main thing for us is to request of the Creator, to change in us the direction that we will begin to feel that we are thinking about him, to bestow to him and from this that we have contentment, to us yes, that we are thinking about him. We are taking care of this we cannot be already in a few actions together. Today we are talking about the prayer that we are requesting of the Creator to give us a desire, the taste to turn to Him. .
40. S. (01:49:12) Following a couple of the friend's questions and going back to the article from Shamati. There is kind of a fear or hesitancy to want to get into this new degree of bestowal because you fear you're going to lose yourself, a fear of the unknown. I know this is what holds me back many times and I think some of the friends were asking this as well. How can we ask the Creator to give us an indication of what we can expect, what we will gain, what we will achieve if we try to move into bestowal to come out of our ego?
R. I cannot tell you what you will be rewarded with. I can tell you I think we need to be more engaged in the articles, in our materials in Baal Hasulam and Rabash as much as possible in each and every moment so that you are connected to these texts that they will influence and change you. This is what we need. Now the question is are we today reading these texts about prayer that all is attained through prayer. Are you going through these texts each day or are you looking for something additional in this text. There is a group of people who are working to bring us these passages and it is very important for us because through them, through these passages we will receive the light that reforms. Are you truly tied into these texts? Then we will see what occurs to you but if you only heard the morning lesson with one ear with one impression and you don't review it, plowing through them with a pencil, your mouse, I don't know how it influences. According to what I see we have yet an opportunity to advance faster and that depends upon your exertion as much as you will be connected to those same passages that we are going through. Pay attention to how you are feeling your time over the course of the day from all of these passages. Get them in audio in English and have them on your phone and you can just tie into the material and you will see how much you will reveal in between these words more things.
S. (01:53:28) The excerpts themselves and also chosen excerpts are in Kabbalah Media in the archive. One question that repeats itself from the friends is how would you recommend to spend our time during the lesson. You're telling us to review the lesson, to read the articles, to review the excerpt sent to build a prayer. How do you see the schedule for friends during the day?
R. The most important thing is to go over the material of the lesson because then you will understand what we are doing in general. I continue the next lesson from this one that I am certain that you have gone through and soaked up the last lesson that it is a lot more important than just reading an article from Rabash, the most important thing is to go over there lessons
S. Meaning to go over the excerpts from the lessons or to go over your words or to combine the two?
R. I'm talking about if a person isn't next to a computer but at least to hear it using headphones.
S. With the friends that meet twice a day, what should they do?
R. In the common meeting everyone should talk shortly about each excerpt. Let's say we're reading 21 now then in this passage everyone gets half a minute or a minute the ability to say or express something. I'm turning not to the meeting between them but to the time that a person has, that he goes every place walking around doing some work, to make an effort to be all of the time with the headphones. To listen and listen to these excerpts and through this the light that reforms enters him.
41. S. (01:56:10) How to evoke envy with the friends if we bestow in secret?
R. To bestow truly you need to awaken envy so things of mine, with respect to the ten, I do in concealment and on the other hand I do such things that there will be jealous of me and from this advance. It's not a matter of how they will receive it it's a matter of how I am relating to it. There are things that I do concealed in concealment, and there are things that I specifically do that are revealed.
Excerpt 21 Reader (01:57:38 - 01:59:33)
42. R. A person must receive confidence from the environment, from what we learn as the environment is the ten. From what we request surely the Creator arranges everything in the manner that is correct for the person, but we can hasten our development only by request, by prayer.
Excerpt 22 Reader (02:00:02 - 02:01:44)
Excerpt 23 Reader (02:01:49 - 02:03:21)
43. R. Meaning, he needs to give a lot of exertion to turn to the Creator to desire to request the force of bestow that the Creator will give him to have patience to wait until the Creator will give it to him. Meaning to pray and pray until he receives what he is requesting.
Excerpt 24 Reader (02:03:53 - 02:04:45 )
44. R. As a person feels that he is worse than the friends he is closer to receiving an answer from the Creator.
Excerpt 25 Reader (02:04:58 - 02:05:19)
45. R. They want to run away but they understand there is nowhere to run to. Here they have nothing and also in the whole world they have nothing. Meaning entirely they have no direction, no hope, nothing, they have lost their hope to receive fulfillment egotistically in the meantime, still in the will to receive. There is no opportunity to receive egoistic fulfillment from any place.
Continues “Although they have ups and downs....”(02:05:55 - 02:46:41)
Excerpt 26 Reader (02:06:46 - 02:07:31)
46. R. What I am requesting for your benefit, that you read over the course of the day again all of these excerpts and one short sentence you need for each excerpt to explain what it is talking about. Instead of the excerpt of 50 or a hundred words you write it in one sentence, five six or seven words what that excerpt is speaking about.
Excerpt 27 Reader (02:08:34 - 02:10:00)
47. S. (02:10:26) What is the difference between the force of thought and the force of Prayer?
R. Thought is thought. The prayer is an appeal to the creator of what you want to tell him to say thank you or request. Thought depends on whom it is directed at, always clarified in thought, usually that we are returning to and arranging the appeal through.
S. How important is the annulment and showing love to other friends?
R. What do you mean other friends?
S. Other friends in the 10?
R. If I don't nullify myself to them I don't bestow to them.
S. How does a whole 10 develop a deficiency for bestowal?
R. If it doesn't it is whole, then when is it whole? That each one who connects to the others in order to receive mutual bestowal. This is called love of the creative things
to the love of the creator.
S. Should a person want to feel that the Creator enjoys, or should it be in faith above reason?
R. That is truly a question. Not that we want to feel that the Creator enjoys but we want to be sure that we are awakening in him the pleasure from our actions from our work and this we do from something that we bestow to friends, as much as I see in the friends that my bestowal, our general bestowal between us awakens love connection. Awakening is a sign from within this we begin bestow to the Creator so that before we get to the sensation that we are bestowing one to the other, together in the 10 and revealing from within the 10 the warmth in connection that we have from nowhere to bestow to the Creator is not from within the 10 it is egoistic.
S. What should I ask from above, the illumination to change us, for a place to do work?
R. It depends on the state you are in, the place for exertion. I don't think one needs a request for the Creator but to identify this place with the friends. The place for exertion is the group that you all make an effort to reach connection between you such that truly you are helping one another to incorporate one of the other and from within this already you have prayer towards the Creator.
48. S. (02:14:29) And how do we discern which actions in the ten should we do in concealment and which ones should we reveal to the friend?
R. Usually we need to reveal to the ten love, connection, the tendency towards the goal in the Creator. All these things we need to reveal that I am increasing love and connection. I need to reveal these things to give them a good example. Not to do this in a concealed manner as we're not in such states where we are trying to be modest like the Hassadim of Kotz that are trying to show one another how much they were less than another, we are not looking at each other from the state of a righteous.
49. S. (02:16:28) Can we return to the Creator with a specific request to get an answer and that all of us will get an answer with respect to the friend's question?
R. Yes.
50. S. (02:17:00) You told us it is very important to work with the excerpts to plow through them and to mark with the pencil or the mouse should each person do this whenever they can or all together?
R. Whenever that they can, not in the meetings but each one of themselves to do this work on the text of the lesson.
51. S. (02:17:42) We're reading and we met a few times that I'd better be dead than alive. What does this mean?
R. The desire to receive must die, that I won't feel in it my life.
S. More than once you said you must not kill yourself as you must live so this is a terrible thing?
R. I am expecting each moment that my will to receive will die.
R. Completely this is called a restriction that I don't use it that I am reposting and rejecting it, that I hate it. That is what I need to reveal in my will to receive that it hates me and to this extent I hate it.
S. In the ten can we realize such a thing, such an excerpt?
R. Of course King Solomon called the will to receive the hater.
S. What are the implications and how do we work with that in the 10 say I'm better off dead than alive?
R. No
52. S. (02:19:08) You said that we have to be certain that we are giving contentment to the Creator, meaning that this concerns the Arvut as well and I must be certain that I can be responsible for a friend so what does it mean?
R. Here to the Creator to this extent that you can be certain of yourself.
53. S. (02:19:44) A second condition of the prayer is that you did whatever you can do and that there is no salvation yet where is the point of despair of our own actions?
R. You see that you have no response to your expectations then you are getting to despair. This despair must be a place that we go through because of these despairs, a deep hurt, a harm to my will to receive, my ego in front this week in advance. Despair is an especially important thing to move you onward. You are in despair from your ego, from your qualities and then from no choice you have an urge to change it.
Excerpt 28 Reader (02:21:25 - 02:23:25)
54. S. (02:23:27) Through all of the exercises and searching for the prayer every day it seems that it's first in the thought to clarify the prayer that the creator of rules everything and only later the light will give so emotion is that correct?
R. Yes, all is clarified in the thought that is how it is written and after the thought that we arrange the connection with the Creator this already comes to us the sensation, first the thought and then the sensation. The sensation is already the desire that is directed and connected with the source, with the Creator. In the meantime, we are only in the search of how do we enter the connection with him and where is the creator here that I am getting into connection with him. During the day how do I enjoy this that begins to be by me some attitude toward the Creator, meaning I want to bestow to him, I want to connect to him and already from this I have pleasure. The pleasure is still egoistic of course with intent to receive but it is already an attitude toward the Creator that I want to connect with him that I want to bestow to him. Like a mother toward her baby who gets pleasure from this otherwise she would not bestow. The Creator awakens within the mother the desire to bestow to the baby that she has from displeasure and so she bestows, so it's on the intent to receive it is the same thing with us but this is how we begin from lo Lishma not for her sake. In the meantime, we have no connection with the Creator as we are not directed toward him and we can now begin to be directed toward him with our will to receive that it will be good for me, that I want to be connected, that I feel a pleasure from this that I want to bestow to him, that I feel pleasure. For the sake of this pleasure, I bestow. That is the beginning of the connection.
55. S. (02:26:23) The feeling of deficiency that we are talking about seems to us as the only point of bestowal which is and when this point appears, I look for a way to fill this deficiency and all the actions I want in order to feel this point
R. Spoken with respect to the Creator that we are searching how to be in a tendency to bestow to him still is an egoistic manner, from within the ego as I don't rise above the ego. I know operate according to the rule of you shall not have a foreign creator, that their Creator shall not be for you that he doesn't exist but rather he belongs to you and you belong to him and in between there is some connection that in this connection we will want to determine between us. Afterwards we will talk about the quality of the connection that is afterwards but now only from within this do we want to be connected with him.
S. This deficiency looks like a new value and this new value is bigger than anything else then I suddenly have a feeling that I want to work for the value that motivates all my actions. Is this the prayer?
R. That is already a correct prayer that you are searching for a connection with the Creator and in this connection, you are still in the intent to receive an egoistic desire and it is like the baby, like the embryo that gradually this connection will change that it will stabilize and you will be able to already relate to him differently. And to the friends accordingly you will see as a means to approach the Creator and then they also will rise in your eyes to a higher more important degree and you will relate to them otherwise. Because now we're only speaking with words but it is important, the 10, but when you begin to see how to approach the Creator that only if you go through them and according to this you will raise them in importance. They cannot be the importance of according to what you ..... the importance of the Creator cannot be greater than the importance of the 10, we will yet clarify all these things but in the meantime for now let it stabilize between us correctly.
WSQ: What have we spoken, what is a main topic that we spoke about now and how did we over the course of the day, learn that same topic what we received from this lesson. All is attained in the power of prayer.