Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. The Freedom (Habit Becomes a Second Nature)

Reading The Freedom (00:30) “Habit Becomes a Second Nature”

1. S. (03:06) He writes that he has an ability to change from the cause and effect of the environment and he says that he can completely up root a tendency and invert it to its opposite so he says that the environment can actually invert the desire right?

R. Yes.

S. Why do I need the Creator?

R. You don't need the Creator.

S. I only need the environment?

R. Only the environment.

S. I don't get it?

R. What is the problem?

S. We’re saying that in the environment we are giving each other forces but the Creator does action.

R. Put the person in a certain environment and see how much he’ll change by that environment.

S. The force of the Creator is in the environment to begin with?

R. Yes.

S. It all depends on how much I awaken the environment?

R. Yes.

S. Can I give a short inspiration to awaken envy?

R. Envy? Yes.

S. Yesterday in the lesson you said that after the convention we should gather physically and sit and think of the goal in the ten and we implemented it right away, we met physically we had Yemenite soup and cookies and whatnot and I want to waken envy in the friends because to do Rav’s advice, even above reason, even though we made efforts in the congress and we still physically it gave us a lot of forces and it really united and thank you for all the advice you give us.

R. The most important thing is the Yemenite soup.

S. Yes, it was great. Thank you for the female side that prepared a wonderful table.

R. Excellent and you didn't invite me.

S. Next time we promise.

R. Thank you.

2. S. (05:33) He writes here that a habit becomes second nature. What does that mean? How do I reach this habit? That's my problem to reach a habit, to get used to, let’s say, wake up every morning, I can’t. What does it mean to reach a habit and it will become a second nature?

R. There are such actions that even though they are against the desire but you do them forcefully and then a desire absorbs them and cannot continue without them, can’t continue without them. We see that in children or adults, anyone, that’s how it works. This habit becomes second nature.

S. My issue is to reach that habit. I can’t reach the habit. You’re saying that it becomes a second nature that's my problem that I don’t reach it. How do I reach it?

R. There are actions that you have to awaken with habit by which you feel how good that is and there are actions by which you can even make such actions from which you felt harm and yet by habit did you get used to them and then you start feeling them was good, so it all depends on habit.

S. Even relationships between friends can become a habit?

R. Of course there's no doubt.

S. Because I always fall exactly there. Supposedly a habit becomes a nature but I fall again.

R. You haven’t gotten used to it. You fell once or twice, that’s not sufficient.

S. In the end I won’t fall when I get a habit?

R. Maybe you will. Try it more and more and you will see how it will help you stop looking at these things as bad but rather as good.

S. If somebody is in attainment is that his habit or is this something new?

R. One who has attained there are things that he acquired by habit and there are things that he acquired by attainment which hasn’t become habit yet.

S. Attainment becomes a habit you’re saying.

R. Yes, by bit attainment becomes a habit. You open up the world, a new world and that new world becomes a habit for you, yes.

S. Let's say this habit remains a habit or you have to constantly develop this habit?

R. No, you get used to it, you start accepting the habit as your own, it becomes yours, that’s the adhesion of the new qualities in you.

3. S. (09:26) The habit we’re speaking about the second nature that I develop, is approaching society and working through it or the desire to receive changes to bestowal?

R. No no, all kinds of things you can’t stand at first and now you don't just bear with them but rather feel them as your own and get used to not being able to do without them. The body absorbed it, accepted it.

S. The body gets a force in the work for second nature so…

R. Yes.

S. What’s the addition of faith above reason here? How do I keep going in the spiritual work and don't flaunt it as a constant habit in beastliness?

R. You put in the effort in order to make these actions against your habit or in favor of your habit depending on what you’re trying to achieve and these actions bring you closer to new results.

4. S. (11:02) In the corporeal world, like it was said that we got a habit from above and it comes instead of happiness and Kabbalists say that habit is a second nature. How can we relate to both?

R. If we get used to a habit then it becomes a source of pleasure to us. It becomes a source of pleasure, that’s it.

5. S. (11:50) What does it mean that the wheat cannot change but only in its private area compared to a man and that man also changes his private area?

R. Man can't change like the wheat because he is under the influence of a much stronger richer and more demanding environment.

S. He relates to the forefathers, what does it mean I cannot put this on something we are studying, because we learned that to accept man and Creator there is nothing, so what are the forefathers?

R. All the qualities that he received from the previous generations are called for forefathers

S. How are the previous generations connected to me?

R. They are inside of you whether you like it or not. All of the qualities you do not even know which one. You are the outcome of thousands and thousands of incidents and circumstances that existed before you , corporally and spiritually and that is even more.

6. S. (13:24) How not to fall into the convenience of the habit n but to keep scrutinizing the truth besides the habit, where do you get the forces for that?

R. Hold on to your friends, if you do not want to be submerged by your own qualities and that is it but rather to advanced then you have to detach from yourself a little bit more and that is done by connecting to the friends.

S. How in that connection is the truth clarified?

R. In your connection to the friends there you begin to see new discernments that belong to truth. Why the truth? Because you give up your I and you are willing to take on external foreign qualities and that is what you will be going through.

S. I don't need to measure it? I go back to my truth again? I just came out from my friend myself into the friends and that is the truth? There's no way to check it?

R. Yes. Do not be afraid to be detached from yourself which is always impossible.

7. S. (15:04) In the article he speaks about man's tendency to justify himself and it's usually against the ego. Can we aim this for the benefit of our spiritual development?

R. No, the ego will turn you around a thousand times and won't let you turn in the right direction.

Understood?

S. How to resist it?

R. That is what we're studying, that is what we are studying. That you have to try to rise above your ego and connect to others.

8. S. (16:10) What is the essence of the habit? What is the essence of the habit? How is the habit connected to repeating the same actions? How is it connected to the environment that I choose and another one every time?

R. Habits means that I'm now going to acquire a new habit that I didn't have before and then I will be carrying out this new habit and feel satisfaction from it as though I feel satisfied by carrying out my natural desires. That is how habit becomes a second nature. Why does it happen this way? Because that's the matter of the Reshimot, the records, when I make an action records are left and then another record, in another record, time and time again until it begins to work going back to the same records and they remind me of themselves and force me to do that habit and that is how I am already making efforts to carry out those records.

S. How is that connected to the environment that I choose?

R. The environment provides you with these records, these examples of how you should behave.

9. S. (18:33) When has it become a pleasure, how do we prevent it when it becomes an addiction and we just work on working for the pleasure's sake? How do we separate that?

R. Only by the environment, if the environment doesn't support your habits, habits can't be constant. I have to receive support for the habit from the environment.

10. S. (19:16) We learned from this article that the environment gives the person what they have that he received so I once asked about the external environment. It seems that on the outside the environment is becoming knock normal, not rational all kinds of things that through all these years things that were clear. it's not clear a man wants to be a woman. Children want to be related to animals, these weird things are happening in the world. Where is this going? Where is this going? When is it going to smash? Where should this get to?

R. Worse than animals in all aspects because all of the tendencies that man has to go above the animals level will be converted to something. Worse than the animals level because the animals level around instinct habits somewhat. The humans when they descend they go much deeper, much lower. Therefore, how much will we deteriorate? Until we will try to stop it but they won't understand that they are already on the level that is below the animate level.

S. What is the purpose of this cascading? I don't even know how to describe it. What is the purpose that the people go to the low animal level?

R. No, today not you can say that, but yes it can still happen still, vegetative and animate are the levels that exist in nature and the human, the speak in level, can be above them all or below them all depending on how the human operates and it all depends on us.

S. What else that is strange is that the nature of the will to receive is to enjoy but when you start speaking to people you see that they're just suffering more and more and also in lower ages, even children and youth they are not like suffering because everything that happens around and they don't have an answer and what to do with it?

R. They accept the world the way it is, that is all. Nothing bad will come from that until the Kabbalists will come and start explaining to everyone that we have entered a very bad state, a dead end, a state that we need to come out of and how we can do it. Otherwise they won't find the path. They won't find a way.

S. Today humanity is sanctifying something called freedom and this freedom is causing people to do very weird things. When will man understand that freedom, what he is saying that is to his detriment?

R. I don't think people will understand that. There is no limit to this. There are no brakes. Therefore, we have to do our part to disseminate as much as possible and at some point between our degree and the general humanity we will start understanding each other. They will understand that we and only we hold the solution and the key to a happy life and they will understand that happy life means what we are talking about and not on the mere animal level. That is where we will find equivalence and then we will start raising them higher and we will start raising them higher.

S. What to do with this sorrow that you feel towards the ones around you. I am not talking about those who study with us. I have family, friends, and you just this.

R. But they live. What do you want from them? You can't just come up to them and start telling them that they are leaving incorrectly, why?

S. Because they're suffering.

R. No they're not suffering. FIrst of all we cannot put an obstacle in front of a blind person or one who beats up a corporeal soul . How are you going to compensate by revealing the evil in their life? Are you giving them the goodness right away?

S. Just to look at them trying to disseminate and let them take their path?

R. Yes. That's right. You have to step down towards them and show them in life that this and this and that's but a few simple things are doing harm to you and I'm recommending that you do things differently to be better off and more and more and bit by bit. That is the only way.

11. S. (25:44) If I could ask about when nature becomes a habit, I guess that he means that his thoughts and desires, his internality is already in the group in the center of the Ten. That is actually the second nature that we're demanding to be in contact with the Creator and not only the external framework right?

R. Of course, yes.

S. Now here it is always like war. To get in more focused to be in it more , is never a habit.

R. I don't understand what you're saying at the moment. We have to explain to some of the public, first of all, not all of them, that is worthwhile to carry out some new habit by which we get closer to the good. We then try and try and build it into them.

S. I'm not asking about the public, it's the BB group, when we say habits become second nature so there is always something that we make efforts on and we want to reach and then there's even more effort so where is the habit here? It's not coming to the morning lesson, not sitting on the chair. We don't even count that as I have it anymore right?

R. No, the habit is that you screwed into your life and then they really become a habit and an Inseparable part of your life.

S. The second nature is on the inside. That's where our thoughts and desires are. That's where we want second nature but there is no second habit here. There is always a war you always have to focus and make efforts on it.

R. Now you're talking about corrections you're not just second nature plainly. Then gradually you have to explain, bit by bit, that it is good for us to introduce new habits into her life because by these new habits we will get out our troubles.

S. But it is new every time it's not a habit. Where is the second nature?

R. Second nature is bestowal,connection, love, mutual help, and so forth that is second nature. We have to gradually explain to them that we should do that because we will all be better off, that is second nature. You're talking to common people, you're talking to the public, you are not telling them that we are going to attain the upper force by that and to get to know and feel the upper force. You are talking about having a good life and a better life. That is what you need.

S. I'm asking about us, the group that we're working for, how to explain it?

R. For us it's only the matter of connection that we will connect.

S. Then is there a habit?

R. There is a habit of course, if we're working against the will to receive that is always having more and more and more until the will to receive begins to realize that by this new habit it receives some new fulfillment.

12. S. (30:23) It turns out like this, we first need to replace the mirror of bad habits to that of good habits and then we need to also cancel that?

R. We will learn about that.

13. S. (30:55) When we require from man, you have to develop new habits. Is this what we are required to do? It's basically new habits?

R. Yes of course, new habits that bring us all good states.

14. S. (31:35 ) Is Baal HaSulam trying to tell us here that the root of our soul always remains clean despite all the garments on it that we can get even detect it under the garments, but the habit that become the second nature doesn't become nature it becomes the second nature, meaning another garment on the essence?

R. This garment is called reflected light. This is what we need except upon ourselves then everything will work out. That all our actions will be in order to bestow, in other words.

15. S. (32:23) This second nature that we develop does it cover all the bad tendencies or do we have to be aware of certain bad tendencies?

R. No, only towards one another. Nothing but that.

16. S. (33:58) Are we ever going to get to this point where all the bad habits disappear that we have to always be conscious, and I tell you why I ask this because I find myself detaching completely from my environments in the past because I feel that every time I attend event I just behave differently and wonder why I behave like that when I'm with them so I just detach myself from them as a result of that. Would I ever get to a point where I could go there and I behave like I behave now here, or would I always be like that whenever I go there my behavior will change?

R. No. When you correct, you correct everything in its final form.

17. S. (35:16) There are a few people in the world that seem like they lead the world with certain tendencies and then there are people like Bnei Baruch that guide people to do good things, good deeds. How do these two worlds meet?

R. In receiving in order to bestow. The force of reception is in the whole world meaning the intention to bestow comes from us. Meaning from above to us and from us to the rest of the world and then the rest of the world will get the force of reception and the force of bestowal. Then we will be connected “as one man in one heart”.

18. S. (36:36) If my habit is operated from the ego and I want to make, turn it in order to bestow, so if i use my habit with the group does it turn into a habit of bestowal, does it turn to second nature?

R. Yes. Yes.

19. S. (37:29) So you basically answered but I want to see I got it right, the bad habit meaning in order to receive?

R. Yes.

20. S. (37:47) Can the group of friends let's say ten acquire as a group a second habit?

R. Of course, that's the best.

S. Could it be that this habit is the wrong one?

R. I did not understand.

S. Is it possible that the habit they acquire as a ten is wrong?
R. Yes it could be, it could be.

S. What can we do when it happens?

R. The Creator will correct it. The Creator will show them what they are planning to do and He will take them through that state where they learn what they should do. I went through those states and it is a good learning experience.

21. S. (39:24) The habit turns into a dependency in the group and the feeling of confidence and fear develops in a person. How can one overcome this feeling called fear?

R. Only through closeness with the friends, I don't see any other way and through the friends to the Creator; and then there's nothing to be afraid of. What could happen to me if I'm connected to the friends and even more connected to the Creator? There is no other reason for any fear.

22. S. (40:30) We in the work of the ten come to habits of meeting three times a day for instance sharing the study material, beyond the connections that we have each of the friends has their own habits, some use to waking up and reading a text and now the one prayers a different way, is it okay in the ten that we start sharing those personal habits let's say that will prepare us in our work during the day?

R. Please do. Try anything possible, anything that can help you and see as much as that helps compared to this or that or doesn't help? Or on the contrary maybe this corrupts you. Try it. In this you're speeding up the time; you are shortening the times of correction.

23. S. (41:55) Say if I enjoy the lesson, the questions of the friends, your answers, the sources, for that to not be egoistic i'm thinking about gratitude to the friends and the Creator?

R. Yes. Think that all of your joy you’re sending to the Creator; you want the Creator to enjoy you, by you enjoying the lesson.

24. S. (42:38) Why does it happen that it is very easy to lose the habit to come to the lesson but the habit of smoking is very hard to detach from, even though both are habits?

R. The habit of going to the lesson is not a habit, it is an obligation and you go because you got used to the fact that if you don't come if you feel unpleasant, you invest calories in this of course it's against your desire. But once you get used to it; it becomes second nature meaning you don't feel good by not going by not going away, you got used to it that much. Other habits, it could be like smoking. It is a completely different kind of habit, you receive a pleasure out of it, that is why the pleasure that draws you to the habit and not the habit itself. In each one of those cases there are a lot of different combinations between the o habit and the pleasure and so on.

S. But I also enjoy the lesson.

R. Yes right, in that regard yes, but you don't have to wake up at night and warm yourself up and think, force yourself to make an effort, and smoking is pleasant. I understand you, I smoke myself.

25. S. (45:11) Please say we once learned that the actions we do in spirituality if this action is without effort without exertion it doesn’t advance the person, meaning in spirituality the action has to come from effort and habit is something that happens without effort, it's automatic, so what are those good habits that advances the person in spiritually?

R. When you love these actions that make you put effort, force yourself, that you feel that by that you are advancing. And advancement for you becomes a gain, more than the loss of the effort itself; and that is why you count the reward in the effort, that is the result of you getting something greater, more positive than the force you invested.

S. Did I hear correctly that a good correct habit in spirituality is the habit of making an effort?

R. Yes, yes, in spirituality the habit is to make efforts, also in this world they're all kinds of results, a habit of exerting that which brings you not suffering but some kind of happiness. And the body lives, it gets used to it.

26. S. (47:18 ) First question about the model of the scrutiny, it turns out that the Creator turns to the person it's like a joke like a mother calls a child outside to come home and the child ask why am I hungry or cold, do I want to eat, why would it come back? Same here, the Creator turns to you and you try to make up what he wants. How to make it so that we will be able to discover to show towards the Creator our awakening before He calls us, like the child who knows that his mother will be happy that he comes back?

R. What invites this emotion in the person? The pain that the Creator feels so.

S. The pain comes from effort from inability to achieve it on his own.

R. So where does it come from?

S. I think it needs to be a common feeling from the connection with the friends.

R. So, you are already developing a whole method here. The friends, the group that they have to remember that they affect him.

S. What is the right thing to do then?

R. How to do it correctly? Just as we do it ? Gradually we give to one another.

S. A second question: If I made the scrutiny and chose correctly and I annul myself towards the Creator trying to do this by faith of reason but after that I have to do something. What to do I don't know so again I have to nullify so The Creator will give me a reason how to act?

R. Of course, that the Creator is the one doing the actions above reason and not you.

S. It is clear that He does it. What I mean is without this address to Him to do the work is like half of work?

R. Yes, yes.

27. S. (49:53) I want to ask about the habit of coming to the lessons. We always had for a long time knowing that framework is something let us first and foremost for the Kabbalists and today in the group and other groups perhaps there's a new reality of participating in the lesson at home and participating in the lesson in the hall, meeting virtually or physically and there are times not all of them that there is a question there, that as long as I am in the lesson that doesn't matter where doesn't matter if it's always set in advance or based how I feel one's a physical the other day virtual I wanted to ask really if it is so where there is importance of deciding in advance what is my habit what is my framework?

R. I see that you need a kindergarten teacher. Right? She should organize you and gather you and maybe clean your nose and organize each one at their place I don't know what to tell you I understand that you change place place changes its fortune and its difference whether to sit at home and you get used to it during the covid or you come here to study but I think that's still to come here that is to actually come to to the lesson and that is how it has to be to get out of bed to put your clothes on to come here to the center and here sit down and study together we have thank God we have enough space here and that is what you should do. That is it. I am for that.

Whoever stays at home it doesn't count but he came to the group and came to study with a friend. The study always has to be together in the group. I don't know so I understand what the issues that come from home to the lesson come to the lesson, What it is a few hundred yards I'm not speaking about those who live far away but in Petah Tikvah. I don't think it's difficult for women if they are free and they want to come study so they should have a place here to study. Do they have a place okay? Great that is it.

28. S. (53:21) I meant to ask a different question but following what was just said in your answer, if my Ten is in the last in there are many friends here with closed cameras, should have come with friends that are available like you were recommended or be in the 10 in the last?

R. Better to be here in the center with all the Tens that can join and study from here. That is the most correct thing.

S. I wanted to ask something about habit becoming second nature. There is a point that is not clear to me, that person gets himself used to good actions and he acquires good habits so what comes out is a beast with good habits?

R. Why beast?

S. I don't understand where the resemblance to the Creator is. Where does the quality of bestowal enter him?

R. What actions and what states?

S. If the person sees the friend investing in the group, dissemination and requires good habits from that so that is what I needed just?

R. Part of these things become habit and part of them still remain under the influence of the forces and we constantly have to add and add forces until the Creator starts revealing himself more and more in all of our corrections and from that we will truly surrender towards the revelation of the Creator. We become with him as one man and one heart between us and him.

S. If there is such a model in the Ten, what would be the best recommendation of habit to always have in the Ten?

R. We need day after day to have someone on duty but he will be responsible for us gathering in one place all of us together and that we start the lesson on time.

S. Thank you.

R. That is a must that has to happen. There are more or other things that each one can prepare coffee for everybody, or organize a place for studying for everyone but obviously there are a lot of things in this. To come here into the starting area and organize a constant place to study.

S. When we come to the center and enter the study hall, do you recommend sitting in random Tens or that each will sit with the same women?

R. If possible every day with the same women, it's better and sometimes it can switch it out. But still when you are together in the permanent time that is better.

S. Then I go home and during the day I am on my resume with my ten which maybe are not the same people I was in the lesson?

R. No, it's better to have the same women in the morning and you are in contact with them all the time.

S. But It's not the situation at the moment that all the women are available to come to the center?

R. I understand, the women have problems while the men have less of them, so you have to think of them. For the women it's not so important, for the man it is a law.

29. S. (58:10) If a person erases a prayer for the Ten has a habit, how does it help us acquire new flavors and how will that express itself?

R. I did not understand.

S. She's asking about prayer as a habit prayer for the Ten. Can it be a habit and then if we change that how will it manifest in the work?

R. I don't think our prayer can become a habit because we are constantly changing and even though I read the same words and they go over the same excerpt I feel that one day that's not resemble the other. Try it, try doing it and you will see as much as it changes you.