Morning Lesson September 01, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Lowliness and Subjugation - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #12
1.Rav’s Introduction: We spoke many times of how it is not a coincidence that we are in our will to receive in order to receive. We care only about ourselves and this exists, in us naturally and our will to receive constantly demands that we take care of ourselves and make the calculations about ourselves and subconsciously the more we enter into our nature we see that this is how we think and make decisions and compare between things only relative to our own sake our own benefit. We're not even aware of how much we are in it, so our work is if we wish to see the Creator and to feel Him, to attain Him, to rise to spiritual existence we have to fight against our will to receive and instead of considering our own opinion, we need to consider the opinion of Torah, as we call it “the opinion of the Creator”. Therefore, our work and subjugation, subduing, submitting our will to receive relative or before the will of the Creator has to be an ongoing work. It's only about establishing it more correctly relative to all the points on the path in our heart and our desire, too. This is how we can advance and build the upper world above this world. That's actually our entire work.
This is called above reason, where we build the will of the Creator above our own desire. This is also called faith because we raised ourselves to the forces of reception on top of the forces of bestow on top of reception and this is the meaning of yearning for connection because above all of our desires to separate ourselves from others, we need to humiliate ourselves and lower ourselves before the friends and by that we are building the qualities of the Creator in us where according to equivalence of form, we can feel Him in that. Meaning the work is becoming clearer and clearer before our eyes, more concentrated, more pinpointed. it's not like we don't know what it is talking about rather we are constantly go back to our will to receive and we wish to format it to arrange it such that inside the will to receive, where we feel all of reality, this world, this universe, anything we can imagine, it is all clarified in us in our will to receive. So, in place of that we need to turn this will to receive to in order to bestow, meaning to replace our desire with the Creator's desire and then we'll see in place of this world the upper world, the spiritual world, the true eternal world. This in fact is our work.
These verses we are learning with you, especially verse number 11, described accurately the transition from reason to faith above reason. Why is it called faith above reason and not simply the reason of the upper one? Because we constantly construct the quality of the Creator the quality of bestowal on top of our will to receive the quality of reception. So, it's not simply called faith or bestowal or the reason of the Creator but faith above reason. Bina ruling dominating Malchut and only this way can we rise more and more until we come out of the feeling of this world to the feeling of the upper world and we continue until we acquire the quality of Bina in full. When we disconnect from Malchut and enter into Bina.
Afterwards Malchut is also incorporated in Bina and according to that we reach the Keter. This is the work and we need to reveal the Creator, the upper world each time more and more. We have to check ourselves throughout the day and from day to day because ultimately whatever we say, however we study the wisdom of Kabbalah it's all about that. Either we learn it through the study of 10 Sefirot where it is discussing discernment in measuring the vessels and the lights in the screens, restrictions, and different measures more or less numbers, or we can speak about emotions which are the same except they are not as precise relative to one another just like in our world. Because we are using after all, words from this world called a language of branches and we are coming out more onto the paved road that has to bring us to a greater understanding of creation, to how humanity is constructed, how this entire universe is set up nature, the worlds, how everything has to fit our path.
We have greater and greater understanding of the connection between the parts and we scrutinize for us more and more the connection between them. More and more we feel ourselves as existing inside of creation. We understand it more, we feel it more. Together with the occasional falling from it and confusion because it's not necessary if we are going from one state to another, from one degree to another. Then whatever we had before was erased and we suddenly cannot feel anything. We begin to acquire a new degree. Why, where is it from? It's from how we grasp reality, in ten Sefirot where we get and when they are replaced when we get a new desire and these 10 Sefirot get clarified on top of this new desire. We are here going through a fundamental change of our vessel where we feel reality. We are always disconnected from the previous state in our perception and our spiritual feeling hence we are moving towards the next state. We have to get used to that as well. It is called day and night in the work of the Creator. Where you can't get to a new day without night. Since we are in fact revealing the new vessels which are still in correction and that's why when new vessels come, we don't understand where we are, we are confused, this is called night in the spiritual work. We need to get used to that and see how we need to work on those nights and feel how to work from the feeling of the night, this lack of filling from this disorientation.
We understand these states are necessary to reach a new degree and that's how we can answer all the questions and problems that make beginners fall or fail in that but there is no other way because the work at night is highly respected for a Kabbalist because specifically when you don't understand and you can't feel and you're broken, they are able to see there what else they are missing in order to reach a state where night and day are equal. The darkness will be as light, and to reach a state that is all day. We have to gradually understand how to do it but definitely, certainly this is possible. This has to be properly stabilized in us these things more and more. Everything that we're going through all the stages, from here from the starting point until the end of the path, it's all through subjugation. Submitting our will to receive more and more until we begin to discover not simply the ability to subjugate it but also the ability to work with it more and more. Meaning until we work Bina from Malchut, when we acquire the quality of Bina the quality of bestowal, we awaken the will to receive as a matter of fact and to reach character from Bina.
Rav Reads: (14:07) Lowliness is when a person is called lowliness, why? He lowers his reason, sys his reason is low, it doesn't matter what I think or what I feel. It is all considered my reason and I don't take my reason into consideration because I want to rise and reason on the upper one. In other words, man's reason dictates if the Creator gives him all he needs, we'll give him all that he needs. What the will to receive understands that it deserves than he can love the Creator. Because it satisfies all of his needs. It's clear that's how we treat anyone in this world with our will to receive. If he gives us for fulfillment love and help, we love him we appreciate him accordingly within our will to receive. By understand we need to understand what it means to... so an object such a case where someone satisfies all our needs, we love him that's why we love him and if he did not we would not be able to lower himself and say his reason is worthless rather at that time he would depart from the Creator and say that it is not worthwhile if to serve the Creator if he does not grant him his wishes. He works like an average tiny egoist and this is called proud since he wants to understand the ways of the Creator in what he is regarded as good as doing good. The body does not get what it demands and about such a proud person the Creator says, “he and I cannot dwell in the same abode”, cannot be close, cannot meet, cannot get to know each other or feel one another.
However, if he lowers himself and says and lowers his opinion it doesn't matter what he feels or what he understands rather he takes it upon himself the quality of bestowal which is the creator. He says that I cannot understand the ways of the Creator because I am in the will to receive and he says the person who his reason dictates he is worthless. Meaning he does not take into consideration any thought and any desire which is the entire person. He does not take it into consideration he knows and he feels and it is really felt in him but he says I am not taking into consideration I am going above it, against it, against my reason, against my feelings and it says ae says that what his reason dictates is worthless but he is going above reason. Meaning he wishes to replace his desire with the Creator's desire. This is called lowliness, and it was about him that “the Lord is high and the low will see”.
Meaning as much as we can attach ourselves to the Creator and accept His domination over us, His authority accordingly we arise in the spiritual ladder and he is rewarded with the Creator bringing him near Him. According to how much the person wants to have the Creator do whatever the Creator demands accordingly the Creator will bring him near. This is the process we have to go through so from each and every state in each and every state I have to be in two desires. This is my desire in this is the Creator's desire this is my thought in this is the Creator's thought as much as I can imagine one against the other, I truly peel myself off of my own opinion my own desire and I glued myself to the thought in the desire of the Creator and by that I am climbing. Gradually, time after time I'll perform such actions until I feel that I received permanently the thought in the desires of the Creator and that's how I reach let's say the first degree, Bina Aleph and then more and more.
When I begin to feel and understand the thoughts and desires of the Creator and accordingly, I rise above my will to receive above corporeality and more than that I understand corporeality itself and this is called faith above reason, bestowal above the will to receive, Bina above Malchut. That's in fact not so difficult. We must focus and concentrate on it until it becomes a habit and the habit becomes second nature. Then we will have two kinds of nature, the will to receive that we fall into and the will to bestow. We rise and then this way the gap between the will to receive and the will to bestow, we advance more and more until all of the desires that are inside our soul, our individual soul, those desires will rise above and cleave unto Bina, the quality of bestowal and beyond that. After all, we have to take this process from our intellect, from understanding, from getting it theoretically to practice and to action as much as possible. We can work in it throughout the day. It's simple, this is my reason, this is my opinion, this is my desire and this is the desire of the Creator how do I transfer myself from here to there, that's it. Every such action that we can take, is called a Mitzvah, a commandment. Why? Because this is the commandant of the Creator to each and every one of us. That's it for the time being.
2. S. (22:33) You said before that we have to examine ourselves each and every day. How do you check the changing states and not take the emotion into account? How do you learn from that?
R. We don't learn from what we are in. We learn how, as much as we can in our work, in our inner effort, how much we can go from my desire to the Creator's desire, as much as I can imagine it. Let's say my desire now is to think or do other things and the way I imagine the Creator’s desire is opposite my desire. I raise myself to the Creator's desire, to a different desire. From reception to bestowal, from reason to faith above reason. It doesn't matter what words we are using to express it; the essence is the same. From this world to the upper world, from the created being to the Creator. That's what we need to do.
Through exercises that we are doing on ourselves, we are starting to feel more and more what it means to be in faith above reason, on the degree of Bina above Malchut. We move away from this world in this way and it stays with us. We understand even more and more things but we are looking at it from above, from the degree of the Creator, from the degree of Bina. That's why we understand this world more fundamentally, more realistically, and more essentially. We are advancing by learning about the gap between the degree of where ‘I want’ to the degree of what the Creator wants. We are constantly moving between these two degrees. The more we fall into our will to receive we have to raise ourselves to the degree of the Creator, to the desire to bestow. Each time, more and more, we seemingly transfer all of the fragments of Malchut from Malchut to Bina, meaning to attach every desire that is revealed in us to being in order to bestow.
S. How do I know what the Creator wants?
R. That's why He gave you a group. That's why we're learning about bestowal. Don't say you have no clue. You will never know exactly what the Creator's desire is, of course. Where is His desire revealed? Where is it manifested? His desire is Bina, bestowal.
S. Is the Creator's desire supposed to be a state where I feel the opposite to my will to receive?
R. Exactly. Our work is always to build these actions above our will to receive. This is called ‘faith above reason’, Bina above Malchut.
S. It seems somewhat humorous when we see the will to receive from states that the Creator sets up.
R. It's not laughter, it's not a joke. It's something serious. Laughter is actually something serious. Those are very high degrees when we begin to discover the difficulty that we have in our work, how much it costs us in energy, blood, extreme efforts, and tears. Later I come to a state where the Creator has played a joke on me or made me laugh as Sarah says. Just wait. There are many surprises along the way
3. S. (27:36) Do we choose the desires or do the desires choose us?
R. We don't choose anything. We do not choose anything except for wanting to subjugate ourselves before the Creator's desire. This is establishing Bina above Malchut, faith above reason. We then acquire the correct view, the correct attitude towards reality. We begin to see the spiritual reality from this world. In truth, everything is one reality where Bina dominates Malchut. We are disconnected from this reality so we have to constantly try and establish our view of how it is to be in the force of bestowal. I don't know what it is but I can say it is opposite to me. So, if it is opposite to me, it means that every time I have a certain attitude towards the group and towards reality, I invert it and do the opposite. It is possible that you are establishing a spiritual action precisely.
4. S. (29:27) How do we change our pride from something bad to something good?
R. It depends on how you're using pride. Pride is merely a quality, a value of something relative to something else. I am proud about replacing my natural desire, Malchut, with the Creator’s desire to bestow which is higher, more eternal, more exalted, more whole, more general. I'm proud about that. This is the meaning of his heart grew higher in the ways of the Creator. I am correcting my heart by that. It’s not like I am a criminal. It's the other way around: the more he steals, the worse he is, the prouder he feels. So, it depends on how you're using your pride. Who is greater in your eyes? The Creator, the force of bestowal, the force of Bina? Or is it you, the force of reception, the force of Malchut? That's what's written: who is the head, the Creator or the created beings?
5. S. (31:22) During the day when I examine my desire, I see that I'm stuck in my own desire. How can I be above my desire?
R. Excellent. You feel that you're stuck in your desire. You have a very clear foundation. Now do the opposite. According to my desire, where I desire such-and-such or so, can I imagine an opposite state? Where do I want or I don't want? It doesn't matter. How do I satisfy an opposite desire instead of wanting to satisfy my desire? This is called faith above reason and we rise above to a desire that is opposite to my will to receive. By that I raise myself from the degree of Malchut to the degree of Bina, from the degree of rejection to the degree of connection. That's how it needs to exist in our scrutiny.
S. But what is the device that enables you to be above yourself?
R. What helped me is that whenever I had a free moment, I was reading those articles. Rabash would ask me all the time, “did you read an article?” because he would write a new article once a week. He would ask if I read the article and if I said, ‘yes I read it, I got it”, he understood that I may have read it. But did I understand it? No way. Nevertheless, day in, day out, I would immerse myself in his articles because the Torah, our entire path until the end of correction, is in them. He arranged this in such a way that there's nothing really more to add. Maybe we can add a few explanations and stories for beginners but anyone who enters these corrections who is on the path to the Creator has nothing to do but to take those articles and you will feel more and more how everything can be found in them.
There is no one closer to me than Rabash, he is very near and dear to me. Although I am trying to remain objective, nevertheless, I don’t think there is a greater teacher than him in all of humanity. There was never a greater teacher for the spiritual path, the way he explains it and the way he gave it. Our problem is to understand and to incorporate ourselves in his language. Perhaps I am accustomed to it because I would spend at least 12 to 15 hours a day with him. Sometimes days and nights. Go over his articles again and again. We have volume 1 of Rabash, volume 2 to volume 3. Everything is translated and, in our archive, I think in most languages and if not, we need to ensure we translate it and prepare it for all people. This is really the source of everything.
S. How do you develop this vessel of above reason?
R. You take another step forward every day. Sometimes we rise a bit higher above the place we are in and see further ahead but later we come back down to our path and we continue to walk on it. I can't see any other way to advance except through these articles. These verses that are prepared for us is the path. Be persistent in it, it takes a few years. What can you do? It is the correction of the soul and the heavier the soul the greater the correction and the longer the time it takes. What can you do? They are trying to teach us to be happy about even being in the state of preparation. Of course, a person yearns to feel the Creator, to feel the path, and to see what you are getting out of all of this work you put into it, but earnestly, this is the will to receive. So here too, we need to teach ourselves to shut our eyes. When we shut our eyes, the eyes of reception, and we turn to the eyes of bestowal we will be able to see the path and how to advance in it. The most important thing is to yearn for corrections.
S. I can't extract liveliness on the path, as I see I am always immersed in the self.
R. This is good. You are revealing deeper and deeper layers of the will to receive in your soul and you see more and more how it is distant from you. What you had yesterday is not too bad but today it is much worse. You have no strength; you are tired and exhausted. What can you do? We need to understand that all of these exercises the Creator is doing with us each and every second are necessary and essential or we will not disconnect from our will to receive. We can't help it, it takes years. Baal HaSulam writes that it might take 10 or 20 years. Not in our time. I see how those young people, the beginners, advance quite quickly. However, you see it, the sum total of exertion in quality and quantity is something everyone has to put in and realize.
S. You said that there is my desire to receive and then there is the opposite desire and that I need to rise to it. Is there an active force when I try to ascend?
R. I don't understand. I have a certain desire, what I want. I need to imagine what the Creator wants from the state He depicted for me. it's certain that it came to me from the Creator. How can I establish the correct desire, the desire to bestow, the desire to be above myself, in the desire I am in right now? How do I go from Malchut to Bina? From the will to receive to the will to bestow? From my desire to the Creator's desire? This action is called a Mitzvah because it's what the Creator commands us to do.
S. What helps stabilize my desire towards His desire?
R. By thinking about it and constantly catching myself. Which desire am I in? Is it my desire? Where is the Creator's desire? How can I rise from my desire to bestowing to the group, to the Creator, to humanity? Outside of me. Malchut wants everything for itself so it works in this introverted way. Bina works in bestowal, meaning it is extroverted. So, there are two states, either within reason or above reason. That's what I am checking.
S. Does my thought raise me when I catch my state of being opposite to the desired state and want to be in it?
R. The thought and the actions. You may need to connect to the society, read an article, and make all kinds of actions in efforts physically, mentally, or emotionally. Try to imagine what the Creator’s desire is within these efforts. from the state I am in, what is the Creator’s desire that corresponds or is against the state I am in? You begin to feel and understand how you need to arrange yourself in order to be according to the Creator's desire.
S. How do I identify the Creator's desire?
R. Bestowal, love, of coming closer to the friends, consideration for others, and for the world. In short, bestowal.
S. It's as if I am always in my desire and the Creator’s desire doesn’t exist and I have to make it. Is this called “you have made Me’?
R. Exactly. Bina doesn’t exist in us. We are making it; we are building it.
S. How can I give help to the friend so he has liveliness in the work?
R. Set an example. There's not much more you can do. Each one, according to his nature, can set a good example. There are those who make a lot of noise, and those who work more quietly. There are different ways but it is felt in the society that you are setting a good example. You are reinforcing the connection between everyone and are awakening everyone.
6. S. (45:26) We have set times to meet and connect with the group during the day and question our desires for ourselves or the Creator. How do we do this practically when we are working and not with the friends?
R. You have to work with clients as if you have nothing to do with spirituality. Very simple. This is for the time being. You have to try all the rest of the time to be in constant scrutiny, critical thinking, and analysis of what desire you are in. Is it your desire or the Creator's desire? When you are at work you have to have the desire of your boss because he bought you, he pays you money so you will satisfy his desire, but the rest of the time when you're not at work under the desire of your boss, you have to check your desire. Are you in the Creator's desire or your desire? Try to see how to go from your desire to His desire. As it is written, make your desire as His desire so He will make His desire as your desire. Then you and the Creator will be connected.
7. S. (47:51) How do we help the 10 every day to prepare the desire to bestow?
R. We come to the lessons ahead of time and we try to connect between us. There are veteran friends, dedicated, knowledgeable friends, with great hearts and that's how we learn how to be connected to one another. How to be connected, devoted to the path, to the spiritual work, and each one helps his friend. A person by himself if he leaves the group, he loses his bearing. He can wander for a long time before he comes back and re-establishes contact and he comes back again. The important thing is to never leave. That's why we set up several connections between us throughout the day.
8. S. (49:54) You said that the Creator commands are the same for all of us. Do we feel these commands differently at each stage?
R. Certainly every one of us feels it very specifically and personally just like we feel this world in general. In this world where we exist, we each feel the world in our own unique way. We can't even compare that. In spirituality we will afterwards learn how we can understand our friend by clothing in him and him in me, and so on. But there is a special spiritual technique with regards to qualities of bestow in our world, however which exists however in qualities of reception we have no way in order to feel the other and as much as I can imagine the friend in my eyes I am definitely in the wrong here. So only by rising to bestowal, we rise to a state where we have more opportunities to feel and understand the friend in the right way to the extent that each of us requires a spiritual quality.
9. S. (51:19) When I come to these tiny moments when I can simply hold on to the Creator's desire, how can I stay in it? Can I tie myself to it because the will to receive is constantly beating me up with a stick like a dog so how can I attach myself to those states?
R. Specifically thanks to that stick you will advance. You should try to be connected to the group and to the study of these quotes that we are studying as much as possible and by that you will see the path you will suddenly start understanding the inner essence that these quotes are talking about. The quotes we are reading and you'll see that each and every quote is telling you about the path just each time from a different angle.
10. S. (52:41) You said that if you sell yourself to your boss at work you have to be in that desire and later it will be corrected?
R. At work you have to do what your boss demands you to
11. S. (53:06) That work that we are discussing now I noticed that when I have heavy thoughts like what I'm thinking heavily everything is felt clearly but it is those states that are grayer and more in between how do we discern things there?
R. You have to raise the sensitivity to the states that you are in. Most of our states are not extremely good or extremely bad. It is kind of in the middle kind of gray, not exactly this or that. And here we have to increase sensitivity and then see in those gray states both good and bad states and work accordingly. So, each and every time we have to raise the sensitivity, right? The sensitivity meter for where we are so then a little bit of detachment from spiritual work for a moment will seem to us that we've been disconnected for a year. You have to work on that.
S. What does it mean exactly, that when you say you have to raise your sensitivity?
R. This is by being in connection with the friends and reading the sources and by that I raise my sensitivity to my states on the path. We have no other means to raise the sensitivity to the stages that we are in now, studying and connecting. In the study, we connect to the Kabbalist in connection, we connect with our Kli, nothing else to do.
12. S. (55:28) What is the difference between subjugation and annulment?
R. These are close issues or aspects but when a person nullifies himself or lowers himself these are broader things that are not as accurate however annulment nullifying oneself is something that is more specific and local. Meaning I'm in a certain state and then I nullify myself. So, there's a difference but on the way, we need both of them.
13. S. (56:30) What changes inside of us when we get into spiritual attainment?
R. What changes in us? We draw the light that reforms and it awakens qualities of bestowal in us which awaken and correct our vessels so they are in order to bestow. Then in the vessels that rise from the will to receive to the will to bestow, we begin to sense what is the quality of bestowal. The quality of Bina and then we even correct our vessels of reception to receive an order to bestow and that will be truly similar to the Creator in the Avuit, Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, coarseness, root, 1, and 2, we raise ourselves from Malchut to Bina and then working with Avuit Gimel and Dalet, coarseness 3 and 4, we rise from Bina to Keter.
14. S. (57:47) In excerpt 11, Rabash writes in such a way that there are a different number of thoughts and scrutinies. What is the best way to do in the 10 to be truly incorporated into excerpt 11?
R. To try to nullify before the friends as you do before the Creator, because the Creator stands behind them then by that you'll already raised yourself to faith above reason, that in a practical way it is in the practical annulment between you and the friends.
S. If we meet during the day, we should get more deeper into the article and talk about the article and raise questions on it so we will have it on this topic?
R. Of course, look at what is better for you to do, you know one only learns where his heart desires so I can't tell you. You have to see for yourselves what's worthwhile. Sometimes there are days when you don't want to read anything just to discuss things each from his own perspective or maybe even to just to sit in front of your screens and have a meal, a virtual meal.
15. S. (59:48) Yesterday in the lesson you said we don't reach Hochma and Keter and now you are saying that if we work with Reshimot of Gimel and Dalet, we can reach Hochma and Keter? I'm confused. Can you explain this?
R. No, I don't know why I said that yesterday, if I actually had. Our work in faith above reason is the degree of bestowal above the degree of reception. In the degree of bestowal, we can be in a state of Katnut (infancy), working on our desires on the levels of Avuit Shoresh, Aleph, bet coarseness of root 1 and 2, meaning Malchut, Zeir Anpin and Bina and after that we can work on desires Gimel and Dalet. Meaning, when we receive an order to bestow. Because in the work of Shoresh, Aleph, bet we work only bestow in order to bestow and in the work on levels of Gimel and Dalet, we can then receive in order to bestow. There are states of Gadlut, adulthood, that's it. The states where we develop on the level of the root is called Ibur, impregnation. Then on level Aleph, one is called Yenika, suckling, and then Bet is youth. But Gimel and Dalet are already receiving in order to bestow. It's when we are adults, when we are similar to the Creator because in states of infancy, you cannot give anything. We are only trying to resemble, to be similar, to take an example. Like the little one tries to be as the adult and be like the adult and do something similar. But he can't actually make corrections on his own. On the levels of Gimel and Dalet of coarseness, however, we can then receive an order to bestow and that's the real work.
16. S. (1:02:23) The question is: is it correct to raise the importance towards the final state with the Creator, and all the other states we will accept as along the path and not to go too deep into it?
R. I don't understand what you're saying, to go deeper or not to go deeper. If you are playing around with your states this way, I'm not sure that you're doing things correctly. We talked about what we need to do with all the states that we are in. I have to see whether I am fulfilling my desire or the Creator's desire. If I'm not clear on what is the Creator's desire, then what is the desire of the group. Then move from my desire to the desire of the group where the Creator is. That's it. All those philosophies you're talking about, I don't think it's something clear.
17. S. (1:03:43) In what way this work against the desire should be against the desire or against my thoughts, the way I ascribe myself to myself or for the sake of the Creator, the intention as we say?
R. To the extent that you rise higher on the ladder, it means that you have to rise higher than your egoistic desire towards bestowal and love. With that, you also rise each time on top of the egoistic desire. It's like the students of Rabbi Shimon, that they discovered themselves as wanting to kill each other and then on the other hand love each other. So, both the coarseness and the purity or refinement, the Masach, it is all there.
S. I'm looking for a practical example. Let's say a person is at work and he has a break. Five minutes to smoke a cigarette. He turns on the phone, to read something. Some nonsense on the internet or I can read a Rabash article. Here it is clear. I’m working against the desire. What about the cigarette, that I am smoking or am I saying that it is pleasant for my will to receive and I’m not going to smoke it because it is pleasant to my will to receive?
R. This is going under me. I don't know what to tell you, I sat for 8 or 9 hours in front of Rabash when we went to Tiberias. We would smoke cigarettes, drink coffee and study. Usually it wouldn't be a problem, it wasn't a problem. Now, then in the last six months he stopped smoking. He used to smoke Nelson cigarettes. So, he stopped smoking and I then stopped smoking next to him and we didn't have a problem with that. The truth is many kabbalists throughout the years, hundreds of years, since tobacco was discovered, they would also say that tobacco helps concentration. In principle it doesn't harm Kabbalah studies. Probably, it is harmful to your health in general.
S. The question is not about health. I was trying to give an example. Because we had a discussion in the 10 following something you said a few weeks ago. That I have to learn how to say ‘no’ to what is pleasant in my will to receive and say ‘yes’ to what is unpleasant. So how do we make the scrutiny, what resolution do you come down to?
R. I don't think you need to go to this, that detail and resolution. What is important for you is not to try to cope with all kinds of disturbances and see what is disturbing you. No. But how much you can acquire forces that are positive and in favor and you can cling to them. That is what is worthwhile. Otherwise, you'll be preoccupied with all kinds of disturbances instead of moving away from them.
S. So it turns out that the work is more in the thought?
R. In the thought, desire for connection and love. Don't think about the shells or incorporate them. The opposite, incorporate with connection as much as possible.
S. And there's no business of working with desire, so it remains empty?
R. No desire.
S. The desire to fill myself with things I need to do in this world. Not to relate to it at all.
R. No. Don't relate to that. You need to move from one desire to another desire. From one engagement to another engagement. You also need to watch the news. To know some things that are not just the wisdom of kabbalah. If you need to understand something or explain something. But these are the things that just, kind of, accompany our life and our studies.
18.S. (1:09:10) Is it some then surely, they are disturbances from my friends so I should think of them so they will connect instead of dealing with my desires?
R. It's clear you don't need to engage in your own desire.
S. So if we
R. But you always move from your own desires to the group's desires. That's what we should always be concerned about.
19. S. (01:09:49) After the scrutiny is all the common actions, we're doing together we're trying to scrutinize about, what is the next state. Can we say that this is the desire of the Creator?
R. No, I can't say that. We need to always be scrutinizing and then it will appear and will become clearer and clearer. What is important is that you always examine what is within reason and what is above reason.
20. S. (01:10:37) You said that we are working from Malchut towards Bina through different coarseness.
R. Shoresh, Aleph, Bet. root, one and two.
S, so this zero one and two what does it mean towards our work? This desire as expressed in the 10.
R. The fact that we can be in a good mutual connection between us, in small desires because root, one and two are not yet my vessels of reception where I want to receive. It's my desire for bestowal. We will gradually begin to identify them better and better and learn how to work with them.
21. S. (01:11;48) In this whole process of scrutiny and raising our sensitivity, what are the key elements that trigger us in raising our MAN?
R. Hisaron deficiency, deficiency and it should be a deficiency that is common between us not that one person raises the MAN. But raising the MAN is to our root to our Keter and it shines to everyone equally and so it is desired that all of us as much as we can together, we raise our request to Him, requests for connection and to resemble him.
22. S. (01:12:55) If we look at this excerpt it says that eventually the Creator brings him closer what does it mean?
R. When a person feels that he is more similar to The Creator and according to the equivalence of form he is closer.
Excerpt 12 (01:13:27 -) twice
23. S. (01:16:24) What is the difference between fulfilment which is important and a different fulfillment since both are felt as pleasure but what is the difference between them?
R. I can't tell you what is felt as pleasure, of course fulfillment is always pleasure. We'll always feel it as pleasure but there are many matters in this. It depends on what the vessel expects there to be because it is all filled with respect to the lack.
S. What is the difference in the vessel and what changes in it?
R. The vessel each time changes the values upon the degrees of its coarseness. We do not feel the coarseness itself, we do not have a vessel, that we are constantly checking and weighing our coarseness, our will to receive rather, instead of this we feel the will to receive, it is a feeling so we feel the importance, the greatness all sorts of impressions of the desire and accordingly we work. We give numbers. What is a more important lesson, what is less important and it works out accordingly.
S. It turns out the importance can cover all the emptiness of the vessel?
R. Importance can cover everything because ultimately you cover everything with the greatness of the Creator in your eyes.
24. S (01:18:45) We have two questions about the perception of reality from the perspective of Bina, the degree of Bina. Do we understand correctly that this level of Bina is where everything is in bestowal
R. Yes yes.
S. Even if the intellect does not show this to me realistically?
R. Yes
S. You teach us on one hand there is the Creator of the world Kli and on the other hand there are small students that rise from below upwards. How do you feel about them both?
R. There is no problem. For me, it is the same thing the Creator already sees in upper degrees in connection. He is with you. He has no problem to take care of you. Although by your sensation you are in the opposite form of him, there is a difference between how he sees you and how you see yourselves. He sees you already at the end of correction and you see Him as you see yourselves. In your state as you see it and thus gradually these things come closer and closer.
25. S. (01:20:20) There are a couple of phrases here that I find a bit confusing and I would like some clarity on it. They asked the Creator to give them the power to go above reason and later they do not want the Creator to let them attain this, is this saying that I want power to reach faith above every reason but I just don't want it to be given to me?
R. I want to rise in faith above reason because I want to be in qualities like the Creator and in this, I bestow contentment to Him. That's it. After this I receive the quality of Bina bestowal faith doesn't matter what you call it. Then with this sensation of Bina, this force of bestowal I already cleanses my desire to receive as much as is possible and work with Him on the intention in order to bestow. That is all our work.
S. They don't want the Creator to let them attain this is what I find confusing. Does it sound contradicting?
R. To attain, you mean you cannot attain the degree of Bina you can only attain how you work with the degree of Bina and in this you resemble yourself with the Creator. The force of bestowal is the force of Keter, and the force of Bina is the force of the Keter both in the will to receive. This Is what we attain.
S. Clarifying the question, the question is about whether it sounds as if the Creator doesn't want them to attain?
R. No no, we only need to yearn only for bestowal and if with the force of bestowal, we begin to receive something from the Creator than this to what we receive, we receive in order to bestow. Because first of all for this sake, only for this sake we are given the entire wisdom of Kabbalah in order that we should enlarge the force of bestowal above everything. That is the quality of the Creator and in order to adhere to Him, that is how I need to work. The intention to bestow is also given in order to raise the force of bestowal that even to receive the will to receive I stand it in order to make out of it actions of bestowal.
26. S. (01:24:37) The truth is this is exactly what I wanted to ask. I will be just happy to scrutinize this a bit more because they are asking for the Creator to give them strength above reason and they don't want the Creator to let them attain it. Now if I feel the greatness of the Creator this is attainment. How can you solve this contradiction? So how do I turn it into not attaining?
R. The question is, how do I work with what I receive from the Creator. I make an effort to increase my force of bestowal or do I want to know more and remain in this reason. I want to be all the time in faith above reason, that the force of Bina, the force of bestowal and with the force of bestowal even more will be revealed then I use it to be more in the ascents, in the force of bestowal.
S. This means, this is the meaning of entering and exiting all the time, you feel that this is attainment and this is reception and again I want to turn it into the importance of the greatness of the Creator which is more in the degree that will cover it?
R. Yes.
27. S (01:26:32) Those who wish to reach the qualities of bestowal feel emptiness, is this positive?
R. Of course it is good, it awakens us. It shows us that we still have not revealed or received the vessels and in which we can be in the spiritual aspect. That still our desires are empty out of lack of corrections, lack of our intentions to receive and thus they are empty. The moment to the extent the will to bestow will be revealed in them the intention to give the desires to the Creator himself, the moment the intention to bestow is revealed in them, then immediately we will feel in them the spiritual discernments.
28. S (01;27:46) The feelings of emptiness with commandments can you explain this?
R. When I take my desires to receive and make an effort to work with them with intention to bestow. A mitzvah, a commandant means that I take the will to receive that is revealed to me and work with it in bestowal to transfer from reception to bestowal, the will to receive that is called to perform a Mitzvah, commandment. We are now in something and we revealed what it's called our desire, we want to raise it from reception to bestow this is called ' to rise in faith above reason'. In this we are performing the Mitzvah commandment. it is called the commandant of the Creator that we will perform them thus. Because we have 613 desires, thus we need to perform corrections on each and every desire meaning to perform 613 commandments, Mitzvot. It is not something with our hands and legs, it is only within our desire. Mainly it is to correct the heart of man. meaning the desires of man writes Eben Ezra.
29. S. (01:29:49) How come we increase the importance of the Creator and bestowal in the 10?
R. Only by, each shall help his friend that we learn together, that we think together. That we begin to process that only to the extent that the Creator will be important in our eyes. To this extent we can rise in spirituality in spiritual degrees, that from Him we have all the forces, the discernments, the desires, the restrictions, the screens everything is from Him. As much as he will be important in our eyes accordingly, we will ascend.
30. S (01:30:51) After you gave us the advice we met as a 10 yesterday and we prepare for today’s study material and we have a question, he writes the dose that want to go into the will to bestow they feel the emptiness, so if we do not feel the emptiness does that mean we do not want to go in bestowal?
R. Maybe you want to go but you are still not going because that is called, did you prepare yourself to take a step forward. You continue to learn and incorporate in the friends and then you reveal the emptiness and you make a step forward. Meaning there are actions upon which we can reveal a lack, a desire, a vessel, a fall seemingly and then actions in which we advance forward, we fill the vessel. That is called progressing on two feet, two legs, or night and day.
32. S (01:32;08) How do I identify our desire in a state of emptiness?
R. How can we feel the emptiness? In this I reveal that I want something or not want something. I have a sensation of emptiness that I feel myself empty. I have no draw to spiritually. I'm not drawn to it. I revealed that I am empty and I have nothing to do with it. And here we need only help from the environment and the society. If a person reveals such a state, it's a sorry thing to remain alone with it just to incorporate in the society and receive an awakening.
33. S (01:33:28) Tell us please can we work with these 613 Mitzvot Commandments?
R. It will be revealed in you, do not worry. According to your will to receive their will to receive will be revealed in you such and such. There are 248 actions to bestow and 365 actions of reception, so to reach the actions of reception, 365 in sum total actions on the intention to bestow in sum total that is very far from us. To reach actions of bestowal with the intention to bestow Malchut to Bina as we spoke to do simply on everything that is revealed in us, we need to request only a spiritual ascent above what is revealed. Very simple.
S. Should we read and learn these Mitzvot?
R. No, that will only confuse you and what they wrote, the style that they wrote in, the Kabbalists, that we need to make blessings before we eat and all these things, different things. This will not be understood by you. In other words, to the extent that we will reach such desires then we will talk about how to perform the things, to carry them out but now they will just confuse us, do not do anything. Just these articles that we read, where they are from, that you can read and go ahead. The Mitzvot will be revealed to us from books that you cannot read, books of Kabbalah that talk about the Mitzvot. it is not what you can find in your regular literature.
34. S (01:36:10) Can we say that all the desires that are revealed in a person he has no connection to them and by fulfilling himself then he becomes a servant of the Creator?
R. I do know what you're saying, simply do what we spoke about. Do it without philosophizing. We clarified what to do and what not to do and nothing we do after; we perform it and we understand what we read. From your actions we get to know you. That's only from your actions, we will know you. It does not seem to me that you're willing to send anything you will just confuse yourself.