Morning Lesson March 29, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2
Baal HaSulam. The Love of God and the Love of Man (Love Your Friend as Yourself)
1. R. (00:18) Meaning Baal HaSulam says that even though this sentence, love your friend as yourself is so well know and famous for everyone, no one really knows its content, what it's really about, this is what he wants to do a little bit explain here, so let's go let's flow.
Reading: (01:10) ?Love Your Friend As Yourself. “We should also examine…”
2. S. (05:09) From the point of view of the Kelim, what happens with the friend gives another when he is self is lacking, deficient?
R. I don’t understand what you are saying. You are asking about things that are not written here. Love your friend as yourself means that you need according to the simple explanation, what we understand here, it means that you love others like you love yourself. How can you reach that? Under the condition that you're connected together in a way that you don't distinguish between yourself and others, it's very simple, you can't tell between the two, it's like someone who's inside someone else's body, like a mother and her baby, the embryo, something like that. There are many options here to talk about connections and what love your friend as yourself means, “as, as yourself,” this word “as yourself” it really confuses us, what does it mean, “as yourself” like I love myself? How can I love someone else? Should I love him even more than I love myself? I don't know it's a question, a big question to scrutinize this thing. These are nice words but keeping them is impossible for us, even to understand what they mean.
3. S. (07:13) I can accustom myself to give all of my pillows, but it has nothing to do with my heart, I can still not feel love in my heart.
R. The Torah tells us how much we're connected together in the system of the general reality. If we want it or not, that's how we're connected, that's it. That's something you should accept a-priori, which means that's the way it is. it's obvious that this is how nature is, still, vegetative animate, speaking, we're all interconnected even though we don't discover this connection, we're all combining, intermingling between ourselves, that each one determines the others state, we don't see it, we can't tell, it's concealed from us, this system is concealed, and so I can do something bad to someone else and it seems to me someone else, it’s not me, and we’re bringing ourselves back to a state where I feel the other just as I feel myself this means to come back to the real consciousness, awareness of reality, in other words it’s to reach the degree of the Creator, including the entire reality, to bring myself to a degree of disconnection, lack of awareness, to complete awareness.
That is basically our state in the meantime of course we are completely unaware, completely. It is like we see that a person is given a shot, anesthesia shot, then he can take a saw and cut off his foot for instance, if he's sick and he can’t be healed, cut it off and throw it away, that is what they do. When they do it on the person after he was given anesthesia, he doesn't feel it. That's how we are in the connection between us, we all have been given anesthesia, the distance from the Creator which is the one force that connects us all is gone, is vanished before our eyes and that's why no one feels the other. They are an integral part, it is as the whole world is my body, it’s part of me, I don't feel it, what can I do. That is how it is with everyone, but the wisdom of Kabbalah says, it invites us to come back to the true awareness, to build a connection real connection between us, accordingly we discover the force that works in all of us, the Creator, the upper force, the force of bestowal, the force of connection, the force of love, of the force of a complete association between all our parts like the cells of a body. This is what we need to do. To the extent that we come closer to this real picture, the revelation of this true system, we discover ourselves and in real way connected to each other, we discover the Creator working in the system flowing in us like blood flowing in the body or nervous system or lymphatic system, all kinds of systems that are also in the corporeal body in the biologic body.
So the wisdom of Kabbalah brings us back to the true whole reality this whole reality the law of connection between all the parts of the body in all the different levels is the law of love. What is that? It short it is the complete connection, don't call it love because this word may really confuse us. It is the whole connection, when each one feels the others and each one wants to help and to do, to function instead of everyone else. In this integral connection we reach the final correction. Why must we go through the whole process from the shattering, total shattering to the total connection? It is because by that we obtain the difference between us and the Creator and along with that we attain ourselves in the degree of the Creator. Then it turns out that we here two actions together on the one hand, we elevate ourselves towards the Creator however how are we doing this when on the other hand we discover we are further away from him we collect, we accumulate more and more of the will to receive, so turns out from the initial point when we were born we go in different directions one opposite the other one direction is to bestow the other direction is to receive and both connect in order to discover the Creator, the common force that includes begets them, bestowal and reception, and advances us to adhesion with him. I don't want to talk too much, we just have to understand that all in all we attain the Creator upon actions of connection what each and every action is revealed upon action of distance, and so when we are speaking about growing we understand what Pharaoh tells Moses, “Come on to Pharaoh,” what the Creator tells Moses, “Come on to Pharaoh for I have hardened his heart,” this means we're coming down from the initial point where we started below, that’s called the hardening of the heart of Pharaoh, accordingly, “come on to me, come on to Pharaoh and through that he will reach me”. This is how we advance, and this is why each one when he is bigger than his friend he is growing because that’s because his inclination is greater, is bigger. This is how we advance and so we must not forget that and cry that for seventeen years I've been learning what is going on, nothing is going on until you understand what is upon you to do and you will do it, and seventeen more years will pass by and more and so what? You want to check already; this is how it happens.
4. S. (16:23) When we feel as one body this love seems possible but isn't this also considered a selfish love?
R. There is nothing against that. We have reached a complete connection, so we have nothing else to do. We feel ourselves as a complete body that keeps on being connected made of many different alien parts with all their coarseness, coarseness that is between them with all the rejections and different directions all together but all these start getting one direction and love covers all crimes. The more crimes the more darkness the more hatred and rejection everything is covered with love and then you feel between these two forces you feel the wholeness, perfection that you as a created being you have only one way to attain this wholeness it is through unholiness. This is how we attain things, and this is why the will to receive will always be there as the foundation of creation and upon it we will rise and reach the recognition of the Creator.
5. S. (18:15) I just want to continue the question from before. If he sees that this condition that you just spoke about is very hard to reach, to want to feel the other just like me but at least could we enter the approach where we understand the sadness in accepting the form of craziness that we live in, in relation to what could be the real form of the reality.
R. Yes. We need to incorporate in the friend. We have to try to feel his pain his desire, his desire that is unrealized what yields pain and then by me incorporating in the friend then I can help him by helping him rise above this broken desire that he feels and discovers and I by that, when I am not even aware of that, I'm doing the Creator's work by that. When I do with this friend what I'm basically expecting the Creator to do with me then it turns out that the more we help the friends by that we are adapting ourselves we're making ourselves similar to the Creator and you don't need more than that. You need nothing more than that this is why until complete final correction our whole work is in connection and mutual help to each other. If we don't do it in the meantime, we're also doing it because the Creator is the one who scrutinizes the whole system. He's connecting it and He is letting everyone feel the flaws that are in the connections between us.
S. Within those days we can't overcome the states that appear in the ten because we do not connect enough, and those things are in contrast to one another. How can we connect them?
R. You should keep on going and try to be in connection as much as you can with all kinds of means. You should hear the lesson we just went through again and to bring out of there, from this lesson all kinds of summaries and then you can keep on going you'll see that you can go more and more, everyone. Everyone can. We are really advancing nicely. The fact that I can talk about these things is already an indication, a sign that we are advancing. Yes. So even though this lesson may be difficult, hard, confusing, heavy but it is absorbed. It is absorbed.
6. S. (22:48) When is the other person the other person and when is the other person me?
R. This depends on you. It's not that someone from above determines that. Coming closer to the other is all up to you to the extent that you are able to give it importance that it is essential for the correction of the world, the correction of reality, the correction of myself to that extent we will advance.
S. On the one hand I have to feel the other person as myself but in order to feel the other person I also need to feel the other person as the other person in order to feel them outside of myself. So the question is where am I supposed to feel them outside of myself and when do I have to feel them inside myself?
R. Do not worry when you bring the other closer to you that he will go into you, that he will disappear, that nothing will be left of him to identify him as the other. There's no such a thing but rather you are connecting him he is connecting to you, but you feel him that you have connected him to yourself. Yes. We reach the system of Adam HaRishon. It's not that everyone disappears so I’m alone but rather everyone joins me by my efforts and the Creator is revealed in these connections between us. The system stays, it becomes as one man in one heart, as.
7. S. (25:01) They're friends in the ten that seem to feel the sorrow of the public much stronger than I do and I see that it pains them. How can I help them? Get into that sorrow with them? Encourage them? What is my work here?
R. Our work is to understand where it stems from, this sorrow. Either it stems from connection with the family or connection with the nation or other kinds of human connections of this world or it stems from me wanting to bestow contentment to the Creator which is something completely disconnected from all kinds of connections negative or positive we have in this world. So first of all we have to calibrate ourselves to zero in, in the right way.
S. Am I supposed to calibrate myself or how?
R. Each one should do it on themselves.
S. After I scrutinized why in my opinion I feel that that is how the friend feels, what am I supposed to do then?
R. You should try to come closer to the friend even if all of his emotions, even if all of his emotions are corporeal mundane still we should help him feel your participation because it causes you to come closer and then shift your proximity to a more spiritual degree.
S. How?
R. How? You are already close to him so try to show him higher manners of connection between yourselves that there is a reason to be together, closer together higher than what you are.
S. To tell a friend or even to insinuate about none else besides him when he's suffering…
R. No, no, not that way you have to learn how to do it.
S. So I don't say it because of that but I'm asking how to approach it. That is the advice I'm looking for.
R. Until your heart softens and you will feel the answer, don’t go. How to soften your heart? You should go and bow down to your friends and learn from them what you can. Until you diminish yourself you will not learn that.
8. S. (28:40) Previously you said that dispute is a kind of opportunity to reach greater connection and connect with the quality of the Creator. What are the red lines? What can't you concede? You know there's a story where the father stops his little child from scratching his eye with a pin. What are those things where you cannot concede in a dispute?
R. You're not to let go of that, to conceive if it's for the sake of the friend and for the sake of the Creator together otherwise you will be mistaken otherwise we have to talk about the rules that we understand. So when we understand them that is how they seem. When the good of the Creator and the good of the friend are the same.
9. S. (29:50) Will there ever come a state where everyone will love each other or will there always be …
R. Did you read any books of Kabbalah? Anything? It seems to me by your questions that you do not know our fundamentals. You're asking questions as if you have never heard what Kabbalah is about. Will there ever be a correction? You should open the books. You know Russian, you have it all in Russian. That's it. I have no answer. Everything is written in the books, and you will understand this quickly.
S. I could not find it there.
R. There is no such a thing you don't find it. It's written from the first page that there is a final correction everyone has to reach it, what is the way you reach it. What are you talking about? I have nothing to say anymore, open the book seriously and read then you will understand it all. I'm sorry to say it this way but it's not the first time. I see your questions indicate that you did not learn the books of Kabbalah, that you don't know them at all.
10. S. (31:40) It is forbidden to concede when it is to the benefit of the friend and the Creator. To the benefit of the Creator being what?
R. Benefit of the Creator meaning to the benefit of the general final correction. Who is the Creator? It is the general system that takes care of us to draw us to it, to integrate in the final form.
S. They're two different thoughts in a ten each sees that their direction is to the benefit of the friends, to the benefit of the Creator but they cannot coincide, they cannot exist together. What do you do?
R. You don't do anything, don't do anything. If both of them understand that they are correct each one understands that he is correct, and he does not want to concede to the other so let them both leave the group. Do whatever they want, what do you want to take one of the sides?
S. Of course not but suppose both sides they might see that according to what you say they are right.
R. Of course they are right. I'm not saying any one of them is lying but this way no one can concede to the other because he's right, you cannot understand that above reason there is no such a thing.
11. S. (33:44) What is the measure of Sodom in the work in the ten?
R. I did not understand the question.
S. She is asking about the measure of Sodom where it is written that if you have a pillow and you don't use it and don't give it to your slave that is the measure of Sodom. What is Sodom in the ten?
R. We talked about it in one of the previous lessons that the Sodomite rule is when I am not to give the other. I’m not allowed to give the other.
12. S. (34:40) Eventually do we need to bestow to Pharaoh in order to reach wholeness and perfection?
R. We are working with Pharaoh in a way that to the extent that Pharaoh can aid us on the path, we work with him and to the extent that we can distance ourselves from him we also work with him in this distance. Growing further away.
S. Pharaoh, is he actually the desire to receive without a screen?
R. Pharaoh is the will to receive without a screen, yes but to the extent that I can’t with Pharaoh then I work with Pharaoh but with the Pharaoh I work, I reach recognition of evil and even though I'm in this evil, but I acknowledge, I am in this evil.
13. S. (35:32) So what do you feel when the will to receive is completely in the wrong direction and it awakens anger, what do you do?
R. Only in our connection in the ten can we scrutinize who is right. These scrutinies we have to do between ourselves.
14. S. (35:54) A few days ago we heard you say that the corrected Malchut acts for justice. What is its role in the realization of love the other as yourself?
R. The role of justice is the main thing. The city of Shushan was perplexed, it didn't know who was just, Achashverosh, Abraham, Haman, or Mordechai. That doesn’t matter they are the same forces.
15. R. I will ask the friends to be more connected during the day because then we can wake up tomorrow morning in a stronger manner together. All the best.