Part 2:
Follow the Creator in the Desert - Selected Excerpt from the Sources
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NPOqKuxcNAWQoUxqSnTgleODCPEUsceQTe15gW5YL7g/edit
Reading #1 (00:31) “Thus says the Lord, I remember in your favor the kindness..” twice
1. S. (02:13) What does it mean that the Malchut goes in the desert with Israel?
R. Malchut are the vessels that want to be corrected and reach the degree of Keter. The desert is the road between Malchut and Keter that they have to walk through, ascent along the way, connection between them as they connect and when they reach the Keter they become as one. This is called He is one and His Name is one and that’s the path that we need to cross on the way between Malchut and Keter we have all of these events all these instances that we read about and we understand that we have to go through. We have to cover them.
2. S. (03:27) What is the meaning to follow me in the desert in the land that is not sewn. What does it mean not sewn?
R. The land is not sewn, you understand, it’s apparent land, that no one walked it, no one sewed it, no one succeeded there and you are going there. Why? Because you wish to reach the house of the Lord as He says follow Me. The Creator is telling you “follow Me” and you follow Him but where are you walking? In the land that is not sewn there are no signs there, there is nothing to make a living from, no food, no water, there is nothing, nevertheless you keep going you have no Hochma no Hassadim. No Hochma means no food no Hassadim means no water but nevertheless you walk there, why, because that is the command of the Creator because He wants you to reach Him in this way.
S. He actually wants me to come through the force of faith?
R. Maybe, I don’t know, let’s say faith. I don't want to add words as if I know what’s written. It’s preferred to use what’s written in the text, okay?
3. S. (05:05) What is the meaning of I remember in your favor the kindness of your youth?
R. Simple meaning is just like I loved you from birth as you developed when you were little in Katnut the same way I wish to continue with you. Let's hope that we can continue like this with you in your greatness, adulthood, because we go out to the desert after you have preparation for it. It’s not simple, it is not like a person is born and he sets out to the desert. He is born he grows up and when he becomes, in his development, an adult when he matures and then he goes out into the desert.
4. S. (06:35) I read this excerpt a year ago and now we are reading it again and I feel that I am changing, why is that?
R. That is how it should be you are growing up you are growing up.
5. S. (07:01) In the desert, does it mean all of our spiritual path or only a step on our spiritual path?
R. It's a big part of the process that we have to undergo.
S. If we don’t get Hassadim or Hochma then what is the driving force at this point?
R. Only the prayer, the prayer to keep going to follow in the footsteps of the Creator with everything you’ve got, but you have no strength left, no food, no water, no nothing, keep going keep going. That is what is ahead of you. If you wait for all the conditions that you wish to get then it won’t do you any good. You have to accept what the Creator is giving you and continue under those conditions.
6. S. (08:25) What is the degree of a Keter that the Malchut needs to attain?
R. That is complete adhesion in the Creator from the Malchut, from the Malchut side. That is the level of the Keter.
7. S. (09:01) It seems that in this text there is immense yearning for the Creator? How can we reach such yearning?
R. We go along the way through all kinds of ups and downs, disconnections, burdening of the heart, confusion of the brain. Our success depends only on the person's ability to keep going. There is no intellect, no feeling, there is no star, a sign or any luck that can help him but only as an ox to the burden and the donkey to the load. He keeps going. He keeps going, he does not want to do it, he keeps going, he wants to do it. He keeps going. This is my life; however sure they are confused nevertheless I keep going. What is happening? I didn't know. I don't know, only know that under this way. I'm under the control of the upper one. Let him do what he needs to do to me involve as much of my intellect on this path and in this way we approach the corporal ending for everyone's. It is the same we know the body is buried and what is left of it the point in the heart the soul rises and has a different calculation. We have no choice except to continue.
S. How could the will to receive continue to a place that does not have fulfillment?
R. With the point in the heart, without the point in the heart we would be like animals, like beasts. That is clear but because we have a point in the heart we awaken it, and we continue with it.
S. You give strength to a person to continue in darkness.
R. without strength simply I continue, even when I'm liking the desert I've fallen into the sand, I get dehydrated and rot away. It doesn't matter, that's what I have done.
S. What do we need the state for?
R. Soul devotion, this is devoting your soul to the Creator more than that I cannot in any other way. I cannot, I try to realize and actualize what you gave me in the point in the heart, although my entire life is one big mistake and I've reached nothing, and I have nothing, nothing with which to continue but that's what I have at the end of my life.
S. We say throughout the year the many points of the heart came in on fire and then they fell off throughout the path.
R. Yes.
S. Why is that? They should have strength in their heart. Do you continue without strength?
R. There are two things here that at the end of the day it's the calculation always, they cannot lower them above their pride they can't lower themselves above their pride. In other words I want nothing except for one thing to lower my head before everyone, so everyone will step on me. That I will come to nothing, I don't want to have any calculation at the end of my life. I want only one thing, to lower myself to zero. That is all. Anyone who is searching for more and looking for more it's a sign that you still didn't begin the work against his ego.
8. S. (14:53) How can we lower ourselves to be zero to let them walk on me?
R. To annul myself to zero. That means not to take into consideration anything that has to do with my future completely and utterly, I have no present, I have no future, and I need nothing from that. I need only one thing, at least be like this in the state the Creator gave me that's it.
S. If I don't want anything from the future what can I cling to? Because you can't even cling to the Creator all the time.
R. The zero, hold on to the zero, the annulment.
S. Without the Creator?
R. Then, work on behind the Creator. We are called behind the zero you can hold on to the Creator that there is a Creator that you can hold on to because you disconnect from your ego.
S. Into the friends, can you cling on to them?
R. If you have such a possibility.
9. S. (16:42) What does it mean preparing for the desert?
R. Preparing for the desert means that I am ready to go with my group, with my teacher and follow them no matter how hard it is going to be or I'm not clear and I'm also in the dark. This is the path of the desert. In the desert there's darkness, there's all kinds of such descriptions when you are walking and you don't know where and where to, and it's all with his help.
10. S. (17:52) Even if we don't come physically to the desert to the conditions of the desert, will the forces of nature lead us to those conditions? Can we escape the path of suffering that way?
R. If I wish to reach connection to the upper force with the Creator, I don't ask how I need to approach him, using what I'm drawn to Him, I simply advance more and more in spite of all the difficulties that awaken before me.
11. S. (18:54) What is the meaning of the favor of the kindness of your youth, bridal love?
R. The Creator assembled us out of his kindness that He's thinking about bringing us into correction to the next world.
12. S. (19:33) Do we completely accept what the creator gives us without expecting anything back, we just accept it. Is that an act of bestowal?
R. Yes, this is a pure act of bestowal, but we need to keep going beyond it.
13. S. (20:09) When I don't see any other path other than Bnei Baruch and I have no desire to, my desire is like burnt isn't that also a kind of calculation meaning this hope to reveal the Creator because that way I always remain in my will to receive and I'm not able to come out towards bestowal?
R. I can tell you only one thing, if you were to be with us and all of our lessons and if at home you will be able to repeat the lesson, then you will certainly without a doubt reach the purpose of your life.
14. S. (21:09) In the desert there is no food, there's no water and I understand that that represents the fact that there is nothing to sow. If we compare it to spirituality there is no light of wisdom and throughout the day there is this burning sun. What is the role of the sun? How can we survive it in the desert?
R. I'm not sure how to explain all those things. The desert means you have nothing with which to revive your soul, neither food nor water. Of course there is sun and moon and heat and cold and all those unpleasant conditions, but there's also life in the desert. You see that many people live in the desert and live correctly and live well, so we just need to take those same discernments that Kabbalists are telling us about what are the deserts relative to us. Continuing in despite these conditions these conditions are coming down on us in order to help us and discover the quality of bestow and resemble the creator.
15. S. (23:17) Unfortunately I cannot attend physically in the desert but how can we successfully experience the desert internally?
R. I think that if you'll be connected to us all these couple days you'll be together with us. do not worry. simply cleave to your computer and I will try to pass to you, personally whatever you need.
16. S. (24:12) Is the desert a place of sanctity and the correction of intention?
R. Yes.
17. S. (24:40) How to relate to the final correction. On the one hand it's a state that we yearn for, on the other hand spirituality takes place in a point of nothingness and where we have no future?
R. I don't know what you're talking about.
S. You're constantly describing this point. There's no past or future, only present. On the other hand there's the final correction and the state that we're advancing to so how should we yearn for it?
R. The end of desires all of our desires are corrected in order to bestow and then we are complete adhesion of the Creator and then we need nothing except for that except that we made it all the way to the end. it feels us completely, completely. the end of correction of our egoistic desires and their fulfillment, that's it.
S. How does this relate to this point of nothingness that you talked about, what is that point and how is that connected to what you described?
R. What did I say about the zero?
S. You said in that point of zero I have no future I have no past I have only the current moment.
R. That's what you need to have, there's no past no future only the present and in this present with all of my strength I am cleaved to the Creator.
18. S. (26:26) If I remember correctly some lessons ago you mentioned that even in the preparation we will reach new degrees of connection at the highest connection before we will reach, how do we make sure because we speak a lot about the future about the congress, how do we make sure that we are connecting towards one man and one heart in this preparation?
R. We want to stop thinking about ourselves and see ourselves not that I feel myself rather I feel myself as included and Incorporated in all the desires of the friends because it certain that what's revealed before me is the kingdom of infinity the Shechina and I wish to be drawn into it, and I want to reach such a state, with this inclination I have reached the congress this congress could be at home it could be in the desert it could be anywhere else. The important thing is to disconnect from the externality from this world and I wish to be in the same atmosphere, the connection of all the hearts that participate in the congress, and I wish to be inside of their hearts. That needs to radiate to me the force of love, the force of bestowal so that I would feel how much I love them, and I wish to bestow to them and I wish to be connected with them.
19. S. (28:48) Why do we say that we are going out to the desert and not using other expressions like going down or going up or something similar?
R. That's what's written in the Torah in the Bible. I don't invent additional things like you, rather I follow what's written and I recommend for you to also do it and stop being so smart. That's what's written and that's what we do.
20. S. (29:44) In the desert in a land that is not so, is there a spiritual State before entering the spiritual state before or after absolute wear does this state begin?
R. The desert begins from the state where a person has no other way out. He doesn't know how to reach life's purpose and then he's ready for the desert. He's ready to be thrown into it.
21. S. (30:20) You answered very nicely to many questions, and I wanted to ask about this excerpt in the Zohar that speaks of the high state and we are talking about the desert which is a point of nothingness, Did I understand correctly that inclusion in the desire of the friends and connections to them the mutual prayer that is what raises us above this point of zero? Then we are in an uplifted state which the Zohar speaks about even though we are at a point of zero?
R. I didn't understand what you're asking.
S. In the first part that we read, it's so sublime that it's like it lifts up from the ground and alongside that the second half of the lesson we're talking about this point of zero we have no past no present, the person has nothing to cling on to, you said that it's important to be included with the thoughts of the friends the desires of the friends does that help us come to a higher state?
R. It doesn't matter if it's an exalted state or not what's important to me is to be included and incorporated in the friends I don't care if it's exalted or to ascend or to rise above I have friends before me I wish to be incorporated in them I see my advancement towards the purpose of creation in that.
22. S. (32:19) It says here that there are two different entities in the desert Israel and the Assembly of Israel as if they are separate. What's the difference?
R. It doesn't matter Israel and the Assembly of Israel it's the same.
23. S. (32:44) I understood that we need to go to the desert to feel the Exile of the Creator, the Exile from the connection between us is that correct?
R. Yes on the one hand. On the other hand if we won't feel the desert we will have no place and no area inside we will not be able to feel what we received from Mount Sinai we have it but we have nothing to do with it.
S. In that case my question is how to feel exiled in a convention because everyone is together, a thousand two thousand men together, anywhere in all the gatherings there is a lot of togetherness. Where is the sense of exile in the country it feels like a sense of great connection?
R. No, the exile is something you feel specifically when you are connected but the Creator is missing, we wanted to grasp him in the connection between us but he's not present.
S. In that case, how can we not fall asleep and how can we not miss the thought of the Creator and all this connection we have there?
R. That's exactly what we want, we're leaving our place of comfort into the desert. People are flying, people are going to a group somewhere they're sitting with friends somewhere and nevertheless it's not that those things are not entirely comfortable and convenient and we wish to reveal to the Creator we have nothing else. Let it be in a desert or it doesn't matter where but it reveals the Creator, and we see that we cannot do it and then we cry, we cry out we rise and that's how it is.
S. In this gathering in this convention we want to form one world Kli, the men's Ten the women's Ten, one world Kli, so in that case is there any room for actions of Tens in the convention like doing Duty together as a 10 or being on guard as a ten.
R. It doesn't matter if it's a permanent ten or a random ten that now assembles to peel potatoes or do something in the kitchen, there's no difference. rather each and every group that is working and the service of bb, it's also included in everyone.
S. Because some of the tens have a desire to do specific actions of the ten, of the original tens in the convention is that okay or so we mix it up all the time.
R. You need to see that it's worthwhile you can't bring people into a certain duty if they don't all know how to do it you need to do something that's going to be effective.
S. But if a ten wants to be held on this connection to the convention and for that she wants to do some duty together like kitchen duty together as a ten is that okay?
R. That's okay of course there's nothing I'm not against, but they should check and see how the tens that were on duty before them how they did it.
24. S. (37:36) Regarding the point of zero Kabbalists gave us love of friends, and in this work of Love of friends, the more you work on love of friends the more you discover that you are nothing you are zero so why do we work in love with friends to discover the nothingness?
R. Of course. certainly there's nothing more important than that.
S. What's the end?
R. The end is when you would truly feel has nothing, as zero and then you have no way of succeeding in anything except to cry out to the Creator to help you to save you.
S. When you reach a state that you truly raise a prayer, and you get some kind of sting does that mean you didn't work enough and love your friends?
R. Yes.
S. What else can you add where can you discover that you're nothing?
R. That's not enough you still didn't reach the conclusion of your work which is when you have to turn to the Creator and ask for his mercy. Ask him for help if for him to teach you to place a few more friends so that they will support you and so on.
S. In that same point you fall to yourself and you want for yourself and so on
R. But of course I wish to reach the end of Correction, you cannot get rid of the eye, rather from this point you continue.
S. What is this point of zero that I need to reach where I said okay everything that's enough because you always reach that point where you say nothing I'm despaired?
R. Then what?
S. Then you hear and then you say okay you said to pray the friend said to connect?
R. If the teacher says and the friends say it's not yet you need to feel from within yourself that you now have a cry to the Creator that is awakening in you.
25. S. (39:55) In order to reach a state that we are connected and we have no Creator and we don't agree and we suffer from that. What atmosphere should there be in the convention or is it something gradual and we start from joy that meeting and from the beginning do we build it up that we lack the Creator and that we speak of that and emphasize that.
R. Already before the Congress you need to start connecting like in the Congress and when you get there you feel yourself already connected, as if each and every one has his own little square and you will all take your place, and you build the one vessel.
S. The atmosphere of joy of connecting that we haven't gotten together for 3 years and we here we have an opportunity and we talk about the greatness of this get together it's an atmosphere of joy?
R. The gladness has to be a result of good deeds and not simply that we arrived and we flew and we drove and now we're jumping like little kids and we feel good.
S. Everyone comes and everyone serious?
R. I didn't say serious or somber.
S. What atmosphere should there be?
R. the atmosphere should be that we are happy, we are glad that we came to realize what we were aiming for several months that we prepared ourselves for.
26. S. (43:15) I think I heard you say that we need to come together. We have come together, many times together and we've come to levels of connection that they feel good, and they feel that we are connecting but you just heard you say that we have to come to this level of connection where we realize that we can't do it and then we cry out, is this a level of connection that we haven't come to yet?
R. If we truly want to connect in a real way, we invest everything we've got in it and then we feel that we are unable to do it, but we cannot because it says if the Creator will not build a house then all the work that we put into it was in vain. We have to come to a state where we truly wish to build the connection between us. This is called a temple, and we are unable to build it and then we cry out and then weep to the Creator and he builds the connection between us.
S. What are we going to do in this Congress to come to that?
R. to get to it to want to connect to such an extent that we will feel between us that web of connection a network of connection that we can sustain our intention to bestow to one another.
27. S. (45:14) Continuing what the friend started, what is this role of being in this point of discomfort so-called the desert because you have a physical desert, but you also have a spiritual desert. What is the role of being in the desert, there in the Negev to bring us into an environment to want to be in a spiritual desert? We have this feeling of discomfort to actually finding the point of discomfort and trying to connect and that we find out that we cannot connect. What is this? What are we trying to do here?
R. We want to feel also in the physical desert some support for our discomfort of being in the spiritual desert. In truth, it's not important because if next year or some other time you will find for us a luxurious hotel somewhere, then we will go there and we will do it in the hotel without leaving we can also have the same Congress, and I think that if we prepare ourselves correctly we would feel how much how between us there is a desert in the connection between us, sand and wind, discomfort. Each and every one cannot find himself there although their friends around him are friends that he knows, but nevertheless it's not that connection it's not the same Connection in which the Creator can be revealed.
S. It sounds more like a distraction if we go to the desert because it distracts us from the discomfort with the friends and now we have the discomfort of the desert, isn't it distracting us? To focus on the connection between us?
R. Maybe to some small extent it will be a disturbance and maybe not we will see this will be our last time to see. I think after that, we will have such Congress and maybe in a different way, maybe in a different way.
S. Another question? What you said before about the spiritual disconnection, is this actually to aim ourselves towards the Shechina is in the dust?
R. I cannot say, if it will be revealed as Shechina in the dust then that will be how it will be revealed but it could be revealed as something opposite to that, it all depends on what's happening inside of a person.
S. Like the focus or the aim of the prayer should truly be to only want to bestow.
R. Correct, to the friends and through them to the creator.
28. S. (49:49) What do we bestow in a state of nothingness? What can we have to give the friends in that state?
R. Support, just like I cannot reach the revelation of the Creator by myself alone, seemingly none of them can come to the revelation of the Creator on their own. This is how we help one another. We will grab one another; we will connect and embrace, and we'll come closer and this way we will be as a vessel of the revelation of the Creator. Whatever form it will take, it is not important.
S. In the desert we don't have any feeling that we have something to give?
R. We might discover the connection between us not the desert but actually heaven or paradise, The Garden of Eden, it all depends on how we wish to embrace.
30. S. (51:10) We feel that we have no other place to go. We're continuing along the path and we are dedicated. We are loyal to the past. There are points that we are sorry for states that we are in the will to receive. Is that a way to improve our spiritual work? Is that correct or not correct?
R. We need to keep going as you say there's no other way but whatever opens us up before you that's where you need to go.