Morning Lesson October 31, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam – Shamati 42 - What Is the Acronym Elul in the Work? In order to understand all the above, we must understand the purpose of creation.
1.Rav’s Introduction: It's Elul, the meaning of Elul, Kabbalists say is an acronym for “I to my beloved and my beloved to me”. The longing of man to the Creator and then by that he discovers how much the Creator longs for him. According to the rule, make your desire as his and he'll make his desire yours. The Creator cannot reveal himself to a person more than how much a person reveals His disposition towards the Creator. Because otherwise they would not be in equivalence of form either they will be in restriction or there will be the bread of disgrace. This state is not a day or month, it's a state where the person discovers that he begins to long for the Creator not like before he was going in through different states and he didn't know how to orient himself. But rather when he begins to feel that he can truly rise above his ego and yearn for the Creator, then according to this tendency this disposition he discovers the Creator accordingly longs for him and this meeting where man longs for the Creator and the Creator shows that he longs for man, and they show us to the person that he actually prepared this meeting, This is called the month of Elul Chodesh, month from the word new, This is the revelation of a person's relationship with the Creator. So let us start with an explanation
Shamati 42 (02:57) “what is the acronym Elul in the work starting from all of the above.
2. R. (04:30) Clear if someone doesn't understand what's written here without the philosophy around it, make a sign and I will try to scrutinize it.
Reader continues: (04:47) “this is the meaning of….”
3. R. (05:06) Just like the Creator loves what is outside of him, meaning that's how you relate to all people in order to bring them to the top of their existence adhesion in him. We need to try to respond and to grow in this way towards the Creator.
Reader continues (05:33) “then the Creator can shine within your will….”
4. R. (06:30) Meaning the moment a person relates to the Creator the way the Creator relates to him, in bestowing and giving, to that extent he opens up the valve, the restriction, the prohibition, then the upper light the abundance comes to him and fills him according to how much he opens himself up.
Reader continues: (06:58) “now we can interpret the verse…” twice
5. R. (09:02) This is the important condition we have to highlight, read it again.
Reads again (09:08) “There is a condition….”:
R. (09:41) We have to come to a state where to us personally it is not important if it is revelation or concealed. We have to rise above the restriction and relate only to the Creator, what are we doing to him by that. That this will determine if we open ourselves up and close ourselves up and everything else, we do.
Reader continues (10:11) “however one cannot persist and appreciate…” Twice
6. S. (11:35) The statement that I agree, should I say that within reason within the will to receive he agrees?
R. That he's going for he arranges himself in this way he wants to come to it. It depends on the degree he's in and the states but he understands that he wants to reach a state where it's not important to him what he feels, but it's important with the Creator feels from him
S. But the question is, this agreement, it's within the desire to receive or what?
R. How much can a person check if his heart is whole or not, it changes every moment.
S. Yes to put every moment he has to see that he doesn't want to agree, but that he wants to agree?
R. Yes yes, develop his attitude in this way.
7. S. (12:39) Can you explain what is the expansion of lights into the desire and what are the consequences of it on the desire?
R. The light that expands in the desire meaning the expands in the desire, the desire becomes bigger and more suited for the light. Accordingly, when the light makes such a correction the desire, it fills the desire and then together with the desire it becomes as one although they are two. Since the desire is the created being and the light is the Creator, and then they reach a certain adhesion.
8. S. (13:44) It says in the paragraph that we can't persist unless one works in bestowing, what does it mean in bestowing, when he's not bestowing yet in the direction of bestowing and then?
R. We can't hold on to this, he constantly falls and rises and falls and rises.
9. S. (14:10) We've learned that a person can work in bestowing when the Creator is revealed. I know I'm working to bestow to him, if the Creator is hidden how can it be that the person is in a state?
R. If the Creator is revealed and they did not start to bestow what does it mean that you received that in order to receive, you enjoy his revelation.
S. Right, that's why I'm asking.
R. There's no such thing, the Creator cannot be revealed before a person attains a restriction and a concealment. Conceals himself, conceals his will to receive and then from that, he begins the equivalence of form to the Creator
S. So in that state he wants to bestow, it is that state that the Creator is still hidden, why would a person want?
R. A person needs to bestow in the point when the Creator is concealed.
S. What keeps them in that state?
R. We should ask for the forces but he can't receive something before he has the force to bestow. We can sit for a thousand years and wait for the revelation of the Creator. It will not happen. It goes against the law of nature. Only when you begin to bestow, to that extent the Creator opens himself up because he's the bestower, but only to that extent. We should understand what is lacking. What's lacking is the work in bestowing even when we receive nothing and feel nothing we have to put in the work, that's why you are in a 10. Start developing the quality of bestowal relative to the friends.
10. S. (16:29) This is something I keep thinking about, that there is a condition that it's impossible to obtain disclosure, before one receives disclosure of Achoraim, what does it mean I have to pray for Achoraim?
R. Posterior is darkness, you cannot receive revelation unless it's perceived by darkness. Just like it's evening and morning one day, you cannot have morning unless it's night before.
S. Why do I have to hold the darkness first?
R. Because during the time of darkness you can prepare the vessel then there comes the time of day where you'll receive the light in the corrected vessels.
Reader continues (17:29) “However if one still has sparks…. “
11. R. (18:14) Although it symbolizes all the light of Hochma that we will receive for the time being it resembles darkness.
Reader continues: (18:23) “this is the meaning that when one comes to a state where…”
12. R. (18:49) That's what we should not forget and try to remember that everything we do we always advance up the ladder. We raise in Holiness and never demote. Everyone, wherever he is, if he studies Kabbalah or not, if he's successful or not, he advances to the purpose of creation, everyone is like that. We should understand that if we enter the period of darkness, it's a time that precedes the following period which is a period of light. It was evening and it was morning, it's always like that, so do not despair. But try to go through this period of darkness consciously with awareness, with strength, with participation and then what you will receive later when the light shines, you'll receive it with greater connection and understanding with that same source of light.
Reader continues (20:09) “the lowest quality….”
13. R. (20:58) Meaning we enter a time of darkness, let's say because we don't have vessels of bestowing. That's why all the light that shines on us we feel it as darkness. Later gradually we correct our vessels and we feel that this darkness disappeared and was replaced by light. In truth the darkness is not darkness, it all depends on our vessels. The light shines in every state there is none else besides Him, his glory feels the earth, everything is light. But it all depends on us and the reception of the created beings
14. S. (21:59) What preparation should we be in so the Creator reveals the concealment to us, the restriction is necessary, what is it?
R. Typically our preparation is carried out in the group where we try to come closer to the friends. By that we begin to feel our various stops in us, disturbances. We don't even need to talk about it or perform actions, like little kids between them, but this helps to perhaps, it depends on that person's nature. But that's how we should do it. From this we can come to an understanding, what is restriction in us, how closed off we are, how much we are unable to come closer together and what we need to do, what can we do? The heart of everyone will open up and the connection of the hearts will reveal the Creator.
Reader continues (23:41) “it is like the verse for the ways of the Lord….”
15. S. (26:22) It says the Malchut has nothing, what does it mean?
R. The Malchut has only the will to receive and nothing besides that that's it. All the rest of the corrections she receives by annulling to the Keter and accordingly it receives from all the discernments from above all their discernments, it is intermingled with all the Sefirot it builds a Partzuf that's what Malchut does.
16. S. (27:13) The one who receives the burden of the Malchut of Heaven, where does he receive the vessel of Keter from?
R. The Kingdom of Heaven, Malchut is Malchut that connects to Bina, Bina is heaven and Malchut is Malchut, vessels of reception where they connect to vessels of bestowing then we say that they reach the Kingdom of Heaven.
17. S. (28:36) He writes here that there is no place to hide from you, Divinity says.
R. If we are in vessels of reception, meaning to receive we want to receive and we're always in vessels of reception but to want to use them or not. If I am in the vessels of reception then I hide myself. If I make a restriction, then I'm restricting my will to receive for myself. I become neutral relative to the Creator. If I correct my will to receive so it will be in order to bestow, accordingly I come closer to the Creator and to the extent that I'm closer to him, I become a vessel for the reception of the light, because how do I actually come closer? Only when our vessels acquire the intention to bestow, that's it.
S. It happens in each and every state, what does it mean, can’t hide?
R. Yes, this happens allegorically like that seemingly the Creator hides himself from the created beings and the created beings by correcting themselves they discover the Creator.
18. S. (30:26) Why do we call Malchut, the Kingdom of Heaven?
R. Because we wish to reach Bina, Bina is called heaven, Malchut is called kingship is the land, the ground, so when we want to climb from the land to the heavens, it means that we raise Malchut to Bina because when the Malchut works together with Bina it's called Malchut Shamayim, the Kingdom of Heaven, it is simple.
19. S. (31:18) We read that the righteous walk in it and the wicked shall fail, what path are we talking about?
R. It speaks about each and every person, he's righteous, he advances because he justifies the Creator and he tries to make acts of bestowing on his part. He prays, he asks for restriction, the screen, it helps. If he is wicked, he fails because he cannot advance towards the Creator. Each and every one should do it, in each and every one there's a righteous and there's a wicked and also it can't be that a person will be righteous if he wasn't wicked, before he fails in its first
20. S. (32:43) When I'm in Malchut in total darkness and I aspire to vessels of bestowal that's considered Keter of Malchut?
R. Yes, you may say that later. Later you will scrutinize things more precisely.
21. S. (33:21) What we do advances us to the purpose of Creation the darkness of as well so why are there states Kabbalists refrain from and say God forbid, what should we need to be cautious up on our path?
R. You have to be careful not to get in contact within order to receive in your thoughts, your desires and your actions. That's not clear, why do we need to beware of, there is no other prohibitions only be in contact with the will to receive which is opposite the Creator
S. The state of darkness doesn't mean being in the will to receive?
R. Yes, it's inside the will to receive.
S. Because you said darkness advances us to the purpose of creation as well?
R. Yes, but it depends on the darkness, if it's darkness on the path along the way yes, but if it's not a result of the path, you didn't invite it and it doesn't advance you so well, it advances but not directly.
S. When we guard ourselves from direct reception, the feeling of the will to receive wins, so what's the right intention to not fall?
R. I don't quite understand you, the correct intention not to fall is always towards the connection with the friends and with the Creator and all of it is both according to equivalence. Meaning as much as you annul your desire and you come closer to their desire, either friends or the Creator or one inside the other.
Reader continues (35:30) “meaning that a person himself ….” Twice
22. R. (36:27) This is called the book of the wicked.
23. S. (37:25) He wrote before that the righteous is one who didn't determine, set his heart and also, he says a person should say, what does it mean a person should say or set it in his heart and how to do it?
R. By yearning for and by doing all these actions to receive from above such a force of bestowing that will influence us and bring such discernments to us.
S. So by actions that a person does?
R. With the friends, with a prayer to the Creator we learned that everything is attained by the power of prayer, so you receive corrections from above and you begin to think this way, begin to agree.
S. But there are times when you don't agree at all, you don't want it?
R. Sometimes of course, you will see what kind of ascents and descents you're going to get if you keep going, he who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater. He had a great desire down below until he corrected it and came up and from above, he falls even lower where he never was before and then from there, he does all the work. They drop them down exactly to that place from which he can climb back up again. This is according to the group, according to the study, according to all the preparations he has made, so you don't let him fall lower than that. Rather all according to his preparation then according to the preparation that is in him, he begins to correct the descent, not right away because at first, he is unconscious. Then he advances this way, he rises higher than where he was before and then he falls even lower. To a place he's never been to and that's how it is and then he realizes to a place higher than where he was before and that's our work.
S. So the state where it is set in his heart, where a person has to say that he wants it is a one-time thing or?
R. No each time each and every time.
24. S. (40:16) What's the right answer to the states of darkness when they arrive to respond correctly?
R. We don't have that many means with which to correctly respond. It's the study systematically, daily what we determine as the morning lesson and a couple other things like the meetings. The zoom meetings with the 10 during the day and something else and the study is meetings of connection between us and the prayer, that's what we have. Dissemination is truly helpful. That's it and dissemination you seemingly do a great favor. You give great pleasure to the Creator because you publicize the name of the Creator in the world.
25. S. (41:59) What to do about the shame that awakens following the descent?
R. Don't pay attention to it, that's it.
26. S. (42:53) How to obtain these states that were described in the article, what should we do practically to enter vessels of bestowal?
R. We need to start from organizing, correcting the relationship between us, between us. Since that's how we need to come closer between us, each and every one, each and every woman especially, needs to try to imagine in their heart, in their mind what is the corrected world. Let's say we are in the end of correction, the end of the action is the initial thought and we need to imagine, to portray the corrected state. We could somehow take the first step in the right direction. How can we do it? That's why that's how we need to advance and let's do it meaning, imagine to yourself the good and beautiful state at the end of correction and how little by little, each day each time we can resemble it. Don't leave it on the level of thinking or speaking between us. Rather, try from within to correct ourselves.
27. S. (44:59) How do I know what to give to my friends? How can I not make a mistake between what I think they need and what they actually need?
R. That's a problem. That’s a question we have to scrutinize it gradually, what do I have to do for the friends, if I don't know what they need, if I don't feel what they need there's not much to do only to participate in various actions in the group. If I will later feel what each one truly wants and desires and longs for, then you'll have some individual work. Until we begin to feel how we work between us like in this Sefirot, the connection in the couplings of the Sefirot as we call it, when we begin to incorporate into one another.
28. S. (46:15) According to the article, the righteous means those who have set and is heart that they need to merit vessels of bestowing but they don't have the ability yet and afterwards it says righteous at once to life, so the question, how does the vessels of bestowal appear and give life?
R. As a result of our efforts we truly want to come to a state where something will open up from the upper world. We want it egotistically, we begin also, with egoistic actions. We want to reveal the whole world over all of reality in such a way that only this is what I want for myself, nothing else. Later what to do? Later gradually by the reforming light, the upper light, when it shines from a distance because I'm not close to it according to my quality. Nevertheless, by this light I begin to feel changes in me. It takes a long time but in this way I change. If I have a heavy, difficult soul because it has to be higher later, and I find myself in states of darkness for many years until gradually I add up all my efforts and finally the light breaks through my efforts and shines on me and I get up. I'm resurrected as we say.
29. S. (48:29) Can you be in a state when you have no grasp, in the posterior and be happy about it?
R. First of all when I'm in posterior I'm in a state where I'm connected to the Creator because everyone is connected to the Creator, there is no one, no part of reality that's not connected to the Creator. But I'm connected to the Creator because I understand the small extent that I'm connected to him and I can bestow to him and can reach him. So, if I have some connection, even how should I put it, the most uncorrected but nevertheless this connection exists, I have to use it and if I am using it all the time, all the time as much as possible and then I awaken, awaken the connection and the Creator and I begin to feel that he is replying to me. That our connection is becoming mutual “I to my beloved and my beloved is mine.” It all depends on how much we constantly try to connect and it's recommended that we do it through the group and to the Creator. But even without a group I understand that it is difficult to do it throughout the group, for many women especially. You have to do as much as you can even if it means alone, on your own but constantly be in prayer.
30. S. (50:33) Is there a distinction between the righteous and the wicked it says the righteous will walk and the wicked will fail and sometimes it says wicked sometimes it says the villains, transgressors
R. No, it's the same for us, it's not important
31. S. (50:58) Some direction, what should we think when we read the articles of Shamati?
R. That depends on a person. I think that the main thing is to think that we are in it together supporting each other because it helps greatly. Anyone who connects to the others she is helping them and they help her and there's thousands of you already so it's a shame for us to lose this power of many women together. Try to be in connection within yourself with a demand from the Creator, a request of gratitude to the Creator. This will advance you significantly.
Reader continues (52:33) “However in the book of the righteous….”
32. R. (53:57) Clear. It's all in one person, one has to make the choice and like it says here unreservedly knows what he wants.
Reader continues: (54:48) “hence one must know if he wants……”
33. R. (55:14) Do we want that, disconnecting from ourselves and to be devoted to the Creator only? Yes.
Reader continues (55:29) “in addition if he wishes….”
34. R. (56:45) Or intermittently one time this, one time that.
35. S. (56:55) If everything comes from the Creator, why do we have free choice in being righteous or wicked?
R. It's clear everything comes from the Creator but the Creator wants you to be like Him, to know good and to know bad and to know how to distinguish things and to discern things, to be above creation, not to be like an animal that receives and lives and knows where it's a little better for it and a little worse and then it never makes mistakes. It follows its own qualities and it finds the best possible place but never makes mistakes. Whereas a person, man specifically by making mistakes and not knowing and having doubts, where does it come from? It's because he keeps climbing to a higher degree each time and he doesn't have any vessels there. In order for him to develop his vessels to higher states then he goes through states above reason, good and bad, unknown and disconnected from reality. The Creator is seemingly inside the beast and it governs it, manages it one hundred percent. There's no difference between his governance and what the animal does. It's precise, it's like when you activate a toy that you've built.
Whereas man who is built in a state of freedom of choice, the Creator created a certain toy and gave this toy an opportunity of free choice. To be more or less like Him or not at all like Him or completely to be like Him. And this toy has to look and teach himself which states are better and which states are worse. That's according to one's feeling and also to develop with the understanding which states are better to be in and which are less. So how? By starting to develop a special idea in it, an exalted upper idea, it's called a point in the heart. That toy is saying I wish to be connected to the upper force. Why? I don't feel any pleasure from it, right, correct. The scrutiny is not in the vessels of pleasure and suffering, rather it's in the vessels of understanding, intelligence. I'm yearning for that and everyone actually has such discernments that are pulling them towards higher things.
Look how much power and energy and time and pain people spend in order to develop all those things that have nothing to do with the beastly body. Music, literature, religions, belief systems, science, all kinds of things. What's in it? There's a higher form of fulfillment compared to the body, it's higher, more elevated, where the animate degree cannot enjoy it. We need to understand that there's more in us and we have to develop that part. In order to develop it, in order to push us towards it the Creator activates all sorts of torments in the corporeal level so you would also develop an appreciation, an impression of spirituality. We see it all over the world, and in all the nations in our times, there is such a mix between corporeal life and seemingly spiritual life even to a small degree. Look, what's happening in the world. That's why our work is to distinguish between the degree of man and the degree of animal in us and try to allow our human to develop.
36. S. (01:02:18) It's right here in that point in the article that the will to receive really resists this transition. I wanted to ask whether here the vessels invert from reception to bestowal at this point?
R. The will to receive will never desire acts of bestowal, never. But we can bring it to a state where the upper light will influence it, and we bring it there through deception, by lying to it. We join a group, we join all these studies that raise our ego. I'm not simply one of those people who are running around from work and shopping and back to work and back to shopping again. I want to feel, understand, do something about my life, and understand how life is organized. That's why the will to receive supports it, it supports this specific way of attaining spirituality. We have to constantly go against the will to receive, but the way we travel at sea against the wind, we attack against the wind, that's how it is.
S. So we have to kind of caress the will to receive, take it on a journey and then gradually bring it into the 10, into the friends?
R. Yes and this way gently, don't pressure it, don't break it, don’t obligate it. Otherwise, it will try to get back at us. Rather do it using the same means Kabbalists are writing about.
Starting again from the paragraph (01:04:55) “yet sometimes one is doubtful ….”
37. S. (01:09:15) He writes that the body does not agree with this view to annul the will to receive at once, so what is correct here? Should I at once do that and?
R. You can't do it, but if you'll check how much you can and how much you can't, you'll see that you are willing, to a small extent, to let your desire to receive change to bestowal. But not completely, not entirely. But to what extent? To the extent you're certain you’re going to gain something from it and not more.
S. What does it mean that I allow the desire to receive to change?
R. This is the meaning that I am changing the will to receive. I will let it work with the intention to bestow to some extent.
S. Each time during a prayer or work in the 10 I have to completely detach my will to receive?
R. Yes, they are just a condition in spirituality, there's nothing partial in spirituality. If you go for a certain action you have to go all the way. it might be a small action that works short term but you have to accept it as if this is the most important thing, and you’re going for it full steam, otherwise it will not work. This is the law, there is no partial act in spirituality. This comes to us from the fact that we are using the Sefirot, these discernments of ours, and these discernments are discreet. So, if you're taking them, if you're going to use them you have to use them completely.
Reader continues (01:11:27) “accordingly we should interpret what is written….”
38. R. (01:15:06) So it turns out that in states of black he awakens to the Creator, to ask because he has got something to ask for, and he’s glad that he has a reason to ask. And he’s glad that he has contact with the Creator because he has a real deficiency. And then it turns out that he is happy about the descents if you can call them descents, even more than with the ascents, because in descents are when he feels the real passion for the Creator.
Reader continues: (01:15:50) “Hence, those people who want to work…”
39. R. (01:16:42) In other words precisely in the black states although there we don't feel the connection in practice, but we are actually in a state of yearning and in the direction toward the Creator, this is called making light and creating darkness. That precisely out of creation of darkness we get ahold of Him. This is why those black states, if we change our attitude to them, we will really succeed in everything, we will understand the Creator and how He works.
Reader continues: (01:17:25) “This means that if one can be in gladness….”
40. R. (01:17:52) If he wants to bestow then there's no difference if he's in the darkness or in the light, or in the darkness even more than in the light because in the darkness he has a reason to connect, to demand, to approach the Creator. He's not asking for fulfillment, he's asking for a vessel.
Reader continues: “Since one must be glad and believe….”
41. S. (01:20:27) When a person sees black, he needs to depict something against it, he can't do something only because it's black right?
R. When a person feels black it depends on the preparation, what he went through. Out of this you can say whether he has something or not.
S. How can a person check if he really puts the condition of whiteness or he's willing to work only if it is black?
R. It all depends on the preparation. How does he know in advance? He should always yearn to be as much as possible toward bestowal, from himself to the group and from the group to the Creator. In this way he will not be wrong in his approach.
S. Then comes the state where everything is black and then what?
R. Precisely in a state where he doesn't see anything. This is why we are in the corporeal world where we can in this world, to build all kinds of connections, corporeal connections.
S. So the connection takes him out of it?
R. Only the corporeal connection. From this you begin to work. This is why it is written either company or death, society or death.
42. S. (01:22:10) How can a person reach a decision that he only wants to bestow, and not sometimes to receive and sometimes bestow?
R. Only through help from above, that the Creator helps the person to the extent that a person shows that he really needs it.
43. S. (01:22:43) Can you explain a bit more what is the shofar?
R. No, the shofar, the horn we will learn another time. These are names, signs and symbols.
S. Shofar de Ima
R. That is the greatness of Ima. How much a person respects the greatness of Bina, that’s the shofar. It is how much we respect the degree of Bina, the essence of Bina, what she does toward Malchut, that all the corrections come from her.
44. S. (01:23:49) In the state of blackness or darkness when we overcome and ask for connection, why does that give greater contentment to the Creator?
R. Because you awaken from the dark, from the state where you are completely in the will to receive in order to receive, and you have only one spark, it is the point of Keter, by which you can begin to emerge from your state to the light. Therefore, to the extent that you grow in this way and the more you try to grow, to come out of that state, by this you bring contentment to the Creator because you can only emerge on the condition that you obtain the greatness of the spiritual state. And to that extent you will have the strength to come out of the darkness, and by this you try with all of your means to obtain the greatness of the Creator over the greatness of the created being. By this your bring contentment to the Creator.
45. S. (01:25:16) So he says if the state of darkness that he can be happy so his work is in purity and if I don't feel happiness?
R. if you feel no gladness, it is as if you are rejecting that state, slighting it, disrespecting it, you don't want it. Joy is a kind of proof, it’s a sign that you are respecting the situation.
S. You said we have to change our state toward the darkness. How do we do this, what do you mean to relate differently to the darkness? I don’t feel good.
R. If you don't feel good that means nothing. What if you don't feel good? You should be happy that you are given this burdening of the heart because on top of this burdening of the heart you can overcome it and turn correctly to the Creator, direct yourself correctly to the Creator. Because He is the one who is giving you the burdening of the heart, so you already have contact with Him, and you see this connection as darkness. Turn it into light, from back to the face, it all depends on you.
S. How do I make my darkness? I feel bad right now, how do I turn it, you say change my attitude, what does it mean to change my attitude? How do I do it?
R. Tell yourself they have eyes and they do not see, that’s it, because we are in reception, not in bestowal. Try to be a little more in bestowal and don't run away from that state but rather turn it into light. Stay in it and turn it into light.
S. I remember you said Rabash didn't feel good and he started jumping on one foot. What do I need to do? I don't understand how I can invert my attitude toward the state.
R. Everything is written about it, there is only one thing,
46. S. (01:28:25) Lately the frequency of the ups and downs are very high, and you told the friend that everything depends on the preparation. How can you prepare yourself for descents? What is the right way for these strong ascents and descents, how do we prepare ourselves so we don't forget to take everything and happiness?
R. First of all you receive the next day's article in advance, correct?
S. Yes, it is sent in the afternoon.
R. You get it at noon, maybe even before I do, so you should read it together in the group – prepare the group for the next day's article. Talk about it and write down questions, if there are any, and they should be as serious and as deep as possible based on the article. The next day when we study it you can ask if there's really a question from the group that you don't understand I will be happy to hear it. In this way, we will scrutinize these articles because in them we should really feel how Baal HaSulam and Rabash detailed for us all of the parts of our soul, and how we should work with each and every state. The Creator is before us and it all joins together into one picture. First, we have to put all kinds of pieces together into one picture. Archaeologists collect the broken pieces, out of let's say a broken vessel that they found in the ground that was there for maybe thousands of years. We, too, have been waiting for thousands of years for what is going to happen to us now and we have to try to turn it into a complete vessel. And then we constantly see what is correct or what is incorrect, we need this or we don't need that, and in this way, we assemble all of the pieces into one vessel. This is really our work and our vessel is the 10, in it we join afterwards all of humanity. You have to prepare these things from the day before and be ready for the lesson. And then in the lesson, we will read the article and get into it and see all of the corners in it to get an explanation and a feeling that everything will be complete.
47. S. (01:32:14) Rav, it’s not quite clear: so far, we always prepared during the day about the materials that we got in the morning lesson. We study the portion of the day and now we start studying the portion for the next day. Is there a transition somewhere during the day because that's a change for us?
R. Yes, it’s an appropriate question. Should we repeat the article we started now in the morning or should we study the next day's article? We want to manage to do both, and it’ll cause confusion for you. We need to take one thing, we need to scrutinize it. It is a question, which is better: to study during the day while we learn, now in the lesson or to prepare an article for the next day? I don't know, it depends on the students, what they feel. There are states, if we repeat the morning lesson’s article and we kind of chewed it and processed it, then it doesn't really feel that there is a great deficiency to get into it as it's already clear, basically. Then you should study the new article, or on the other hand, when we study a new article then we have a problem and it's good if we prepare it for the next day with all kinds of problems, with the words – maybe abbreviations, to be prepared with the article in a way where we don't go through the lesson with technical scrutinies. I think it's better if we prepare, today, the article for the next day.
48. S. (01:34:56) What is the right way to overcome the concealment to work in subjugation?
R. We have to accept every situation as coming to us from the Creator, from the good who does good and there's none else besides Him. And through the states that we go through, the actions we go through, we need to see one thing, how we become more adhered to Him through darkness or light, it doesn't matter which state, but each time more and more.
49. S. (01:35:42) I heard that you said we need to be more in bestowal and not run from it. I don't understand – if a person reaches such a degree of bestowal, why would he want to run from it?
R. Because his will to receive is increased compared to what he had before, meaning from the corrections that he already attained, and now he has an additional will to receive that is greater and not corrected. This is why he feels disconnected and in a descent.
50. S. (01:36:37) About what to learn during the day, we have two meetings – afternoon and evening, so maybe at noon we can do the same day's article and, in the evening, we can do the next day's article?
R. I don't know, you decide. But you'll have to be ready for the next day's article, meaning to read and open up all of the acronyms and things that are not clear, technically. You need to be ready to understand the text clearly and technically, verbally. And in the lesson, we will go inside.
51. S. (01:37:23) The principle he explains, to take the state of darkness in happiness, in gladness. We learn that a person should not agree to be in a certain state, that we have to resist it and say the Creator is the good who does good?
R. But you have to turn the darkness into light; and you will always get darkness from the Creator and you will always have to position yourself before Him and turn the darkness to light.
S. How to also receive in happiness, on one hand?
R. It is an opportunity for an ascent, otherwise you won't go through the way, or as we said about half a wheel going forward and the other half goes backwards, without these turns, the revolving, you can't advance.
52. S. (01:38:39) Happiness is an indication if a person is in reception, meaning if he is not happy about it, meaning being in reception if he is happy, he is in the direction of bestowing. From all of our feelings it is felt in the vessel of reception so how can we organize it correctly that the happiness will truly be in the direction of bestowing if it is felt in the vessel of reception?
R. Our vessels don't change, they are always the will to receive, the desire to bestow is the Creator and the desire to receive is man but the correction is in the intention, how we use the desire to receive in this is really the correction.
S. I still don't understand it exactly because if I feel in my vessel of reception.
R. It all depends on intention, you're constantly in the vessels of reception, what changes is the intention, how you use the vessels of reception as with the example of the guest and the host, that I receive in order to please myself or am I receiving in order to please the host. But I am using my vessels of reception, only the intention changes, meaning why I do it. If I restrict the reception for myself and then to the extent that I appreciate the host then I receive into me to please him. I can do this exercise within me where I really do it for him, for me I would not receive even though I want to. The greatness and the respect of the host in my eyes is more important than satisfying myself and, in this way, I elevate myself to the level of bestowal, to equivalence of form with the host. Try to imagine these things, maybe even write a story as there is no choice, we have to make efforts here. It won't come just like that because we are building the man, Adam, the one who is similar to the Creator, it won't come by itself and the Creator has time, another thousand years but you will still have to build these things.
53. S. (01:41:51) It's written he doesn't want anything for himself and that the will to receive won't enjoy the work and this is what he should get happiness from, so what in what vessel does he feel the happiness?
R. Our vessels are the vessels of reception but we'll use them in order to receive or in order to bestow, that's what it's all about. This we can control and we don't control it by ourselves but by turning to the Creator so the Creator will do the corrections for us.
54. S. (01:42:42) To annul your desire, what does it mean the Creator will annul his desire towards man's desire?
R. The Creator created the will to receive so you will give to the person the intention to bestow, this is what we asked for. You gave us a desire to receive, a will to receive and now give us on top of the will to receive that you gave us, that you created in us, which is called creation, outside from you, now give us the intention to bestow so we will be similar to you. This is the only thing we are asking except we have no desire to ask but this is what we really ask for. You created us outside of the degree, outside of you now allow us to be like you, to be Adam, to be similar to the Creator.
55. S. (01:43:57) One time all these sparks of reception will die, what will we know what desires we can annul and what desires to keep using for now?
R. We don't know that the upper light will come, the awakening from the Creator and in part it will cancel our will to receive and part it will keep for the time being, this work of scrutiny is in the upper light.
56. S. (01:44:43) What do we do in the state where a person has no fuel to advance in the prayer doesn't come out, the person is dragged behind the 10?
R. This can be a very good state because you feel like you are dead, that the friends take you to the cemetery to bury you as is done in our world and then you will be resurrected, revived. There's no choice, we have to feel like we are going to die in our will to receive, to ask of the friends and the Creator to help us to be resurrected. There is the matter of the revival of the dead.
57. S. (01:45:38) Can we also in dissemination work for the state “me for my beloved and my beloved for me”?
R. We can picture these relationships in every situation so I hope the women heard how we should advance during the day to the next day's lesson, the next day's article. What is the article we're going to have tomorrow?
S. Concerning truth and faith, Shamati 43.
R. It is a short article, okay.
58. S. (01:46:53) If we meet twice a day, the 10 has to decide?
R. I would continue the same article, it is a long article and we need to really process and chew it,
S. In the first meeting to continue Article 42 what we read today
R. Yes.
S. Then in the second meeting we should read 43?
R. I don't think that in the first meeting you will be able to go over the article that we studied now, they should focus on tomorrow's article in both meetings.
S. Tomorrow's article, not todays?
R. Don't repeat today's article. We don't have the time, if you can by all means, but if today we have a long article and tomorrow, we have a short one, what are you going to do? Let us take a break and think what you recommend we should do. Either one article in the morning meeting and another article in the afternoon meeting or one article in both.