Morning Lesson December 22, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 113. The Eighteen Prayer
1. Rav’s Introduction: The 18 Prayer is a well-known ancient prayer, very ancient, very old. Why is it called 18? Because all together the Creator's influence or bestowing towards the person goes from Keter to Malchut, those are nine Sefirot, not including the Keter of course, and the bestowing from the person back to the Creator these are called the nine Sefirot of Ohr Hozer from Malchut to Keter with the 9 of direct light and 9 of reflected light that created being and the Creator connect and become incorporated together and they bestow and operate together this is why the desire of the created being to reach equivalence of form with the Creator, that is to bestow to the Creator as he bestows to Him, this is expressed in that prayer. Let's hope that we will also do that, of course as much as we understand. All of this can be done on the condition that the person to begin with is connected with his ten, that is he has left his in order to receive and he spreads himself among the friends with the desire to bestow through them to the Creator through them as he prepares himself for bestowing and in that way, he reaches them. Therefore this is how we should look at this prayer in general. So let's see what Baal HaSulam writes about it, about the 18 Prayer, a lot is written, many things. We just need to understand its principle.
Shamati 113: (03:03) The Eighteen Prayer
2. R. (10:47) Yes, this is what Baal HaSulam said about the 'Eighteen Prayer', how should we reach the true request in what form and what relations between us and the Creator need to be, that is with mercy, with a request, with every mouth, meaning together. This is how we are able to do it, the 'Eighteen Prayer' can only be prayed in a Minyan, a quorum, meaning 10 people, only 10 people can pray not less because 10 is the complete number for the expression of connection between people and then they can turn from themselves to the Creator and the Creator hears it. Meaning from the love of people to connection between people we reach connection with the Creator, if we don't have connection between us then we have nothing with which to approach the Creator. Maybe with what we call a prayer before the prayer that he will help us to see in our friends true partners on the path and ask the Creator that he will connect us in such a way that we will be able to bestow to him out of our connection and he will be able to bestow to us.
3. S. (12:25) What are the conditions for the prayer to be received?
R. The condition is to ask together in that we are asking for mercy, that it is certain that we understand the Creator is not connected with us according to our qualities, that we are opposite to him. We asked him to connect to us even though we are opposite, and to take care of us, to correct us as we are identifying with him. Then according to the correction that we will be connected with him. To that extent that it appears to him that he is one and we are as one and then he can bestow to us and he can bestow to us the forces of bestowal, the forces of the connection and in this way, we will connect into a correct vessel in which to reveal him. The revelation of the Creator gradually inside our desires, our connected desires, this is called the revelation of the upper world. To the extent the Creator appears in us, we reveal the upper world, the upper reality, and we raise ourselves to the degrees of the next world.
4. S. (14:09) We for the most part find ourselves in conditions where we can pray but we feel no answer is coming, nevertheless the Creator might answer but we don't understand his answer so the question is, how can we discern the Creator’s response?
R. I saw Rabash the way he was getting up from sleep, getting off the bed, and beginning to move a little bit, sitting down next to the table, thinking a little bit, taking a cup of coffee and bit by bit coming back to life. There was a big difference between how he was sleeping and how he was awake. It is a process that he went through inside until he would wake up and come back to life reality, becoming revived. We need to check how much there is a difference between how we get up and prepare ourselves for the lesson and come to the lesson and become incorporated together. We start to feel this awakening that we are being shown before the lesson towards the lesson, I also come with you a half hour before the lesson. I already sit and wait for when we will start the preparation and together with that well, even before that I work on my own, but when I begin the preparation, I feel that I am getting up, I'm getting excited by become incorporated in this whole Kli which is also preparing itself for the lesson and this greatly excites me. According to that, I even measure how much my state today is different from my state yesterday. How much today I am in a better state, that I feel a gap between how I was before the preparation for the lesson and following the preparation for the lesson and how this influences me. This depends only on my connection, on my annulment towards the world group and this is how I see that I am improving, changing. Accordingly, I later on have an excitement towards Lishma, that I for her sake that I need to acquire through my annulment in the society. This is how I truly advance. This is clear?
5. S. (18:19) How can we aim the desire to receive pleasure in the lesson towards bestowal?
R. This is man's inner work. In the beginning, maybe he enjoys being in a group, and he values the group and the friends. Such guidance usually comes to him from the heavens and this is what he feels. Later on, more advanced discernment arrives that he is being rejected and he has to come closer; he has to search how he can be excited from society. He has to elevate the importance of the society in himself because without that he sees that he has no connection with spirituality whatsoever. It is totally different to study by himself compared to studying in the group. When he studies by himself, he can study wisdom, but if he connects to the ten, and all the more so to the great Kli, he studies Torah. The difference is that in the study of the wisdom, he attained wisdom. He can study better, he can arrange things in his mind. The true spiritual vessel is the emotion and not the intellect. The intellect was given to us only in order to help us put together vessels of emotion and feeling. Most important is to what extent the vessels of the will to receive are aimed in the right direction and even though they are different, even opposite vessels, their direction, their intention will be to a single place. This is how we also connect between us in the group. Even though we are different and we discover how much we are in contradiction and in conflict, like the hatred in the students of Rabbi Shimon, but along with that we rise above the will to receive that is always opposite towards each other and connect with our intentions and reach from the mutual bestowal between us to bestowal to the Creator. This is our primary work during the lesson and in general throughout the day.
6. S. (22:00) What does it mean to pray for the sufferings and why do we need to pray for them?
R. We get bodily suffering and spiritual suffering. Bodily suffering means that we feel bad in all kinds of different forms; spiritual suffering means that we are not reaching the goal. Within spiritual sufferings there is corrupted, uncorrected suffering that we want the goal, we want to achieve spirituality and receive fulfillment in our egoistic desires. We want it. On one hand, we come closer in this form, but on the other hand we move away from the true goal. That, too, is good because it nevertheless enlarges our desire for the goal even though it brings us closer, it also pushes us away because we want to receive the goal. Not in order to bestow, but to receive. Here we have a problem. How do we invert our relation to the goal so it will not be in order for me to receive reception, fulfillment, revelation and understanding to fill my vessels of the mind and the heart, but rather that I will regret the fact that I don't have equivalence of form with the Creator. I then pay attention to the friends and how much I can bestow to them. This is considered that I am bestowing to the Creator. I need to think how I can reach bestowal to the friends. We truly begin to search how to connect between us in the ten. We have a place for prayer as much as we understand that we need to be connected more and more in the ten and we feel that we are not reaching this. We discover that there is no choice, we have to connect between us in order to activate our prayer to the Creator because otherwise we will not connect between us and without connecting between us, we will have nothing with which to bestow to the Creator and will not receive from Him. It turns out that all of these scrutinies bring us again to the same principle, ‘from the love of people to the love of the Creator.’ This is how we advance. There is a lot to talk about but this is the direction.
7. S. (26:08) Do we have to pray for the suffering?
R. The fact that we pray for the suffering means that we want to replace the suffering, not that we consider and appreciate it. When the Creator bestows to us, it passes through our egoistic will to receive and it is felt in our egoistic will to receive how much this will to receive is the opposite of receiving the fulfillment. Therefore we pray that the Creator will replace the suffering and give us the ability to reveal the prayer. It's not that we want to run away from the suffering but we simply want to activate our prayer because it corrects us in a way that is more beautiful, more accepted, more desirable and preferable in the eyes of the Creator than suffering. I don’t ask to be rid of the suffering, but rather to actually understand that for the time being, the suffering is what awakens, directs, and aims me. I have no other way to wake up, I cannot awaken the will to bestow within me without suffering. I ask to be given an opportunity to rise to a degree where I activate myself through prayer instead of suffering. I elevate myself to prayer above the suffering.
8. S. (28:45) Is every ten a quorum even if we don’t have ten friends? Can we awaken this prayer with the whole world Kli so it can be accepted with less than ten friends?
R. Yes, even two is a minyan, a quorum if they are connected correctly, even though it is preferable to have up to ten. This is how we are built, ten is a complete vessel.
9. S. (29:45) Please explain who is the ‘unwanted person’?
R. A person who is ‘unwanted 'is one who hasn't found his connection with the ten. He has nothing to do in his relation to the Creator because he has no vessel. That's what it's about. A person cannot correctly aim himself correctly to the Creator by himself, but only in the form of annulment inside of the others. He aims himself, prepares himself, he arranges and calibrates himself towards connection with the Creator. Before that? No. It seems to him that he wants it and he is able but it will not happen at all. Maybe two or three is not so good but if it is ten then for sure he'll be able to annul before them according to the nature of creation. This is how it is built and then he can have a way that is straight towards connection with the Creator.
10. S. (31:20) What does it mean to be humble?
R. He doesn't want anything for himself besides existing in order to attain spirituality, in order to attain the quality of bestowal. This is actually what we need because according to our body we exist on the animal level. It's not that we have to eat grass or hunt someone like animals. Give the body whatever it needs in order to exist and not to have all kinds of diets but rather a balanced form. We need to invest all the rest only in the connection with the ten, and in prayer for the ten and for the world. This actually is the right direction and this is what the Creator, the upper light, is pushing us towards and wants us to reach. We will reach it. However, the question is how much we will have to suffer along the way until we understand and start to come closer towards that. I don't need anything but only to exist with my body and to develop my soul as much as possible.
11. S. (33:24) What is special about a prayer so that it relieves suffering?
R. Prayer corrects a person more than suffering because it takes a lot of time for suffering to bring the person to the recognition of good and evil. When a person prays and tries to understand why he feels bad and why he is given the bad feelings and how to rise above the bad to resemble the Creator and not in order to get rid of the bad, that is called ‘good.’ Prayer corrects the person from one end to the other because he doesn't turn to his evil inclination but rather, he turns to the Creator and asks and depends on the Creator and becomes mutually connected to Him. It is a different kind of connection with the source of his life and not that he simply prays. He doesn't connect with the source of his life through the egoistic system, the Sitra Achra, the other side, but rather he turns to the Creator and tries to aim himself towards Him and only change his life from there. This is why the prayer corrects the person quickly and more easily.
12. S. (35:34 ) Generally, how do we relate correctly to the results of a prayer in the ten?
R. First of all, technically, I think that you have to connect between you in your ten before the lesson, let's say half an hour before the lesson. Talk a little bit towards awakening and later on to incorporate in the preparation for the lesson that all incorporate. Each and every ten should be connected beforehand inside of itself and later on from within itself to connect with our whole world Kli. It's not possible if someone is not there. You have to truly connect through all the different forms of connection, through the computer and the telephone. Get the phone numbers of people in the family and call them if the person is not able to get up and in this way advance.
S. How do we relate to the result of a prayer if we see that we did not attain what we wanted?
R. This is a sign that we cannot attach everything we need to have to the prayer, meaning friends’ deficiencies and the importance of the goal in turning to the Creator. It's certain that if we demand, we will succeed. Tefilla comes from the Hebrew word ‘Lehitpalel' to pray, to judge oneself. It means that he judges himself and he scrutinizes who he is and what he is lacking to come closer to the Creator so the Creator will hear him. This is called a prayer.
S. So if we don't achieve the desired result, we should keep scrutinizing between us what is missing?
R. What's between us and what is in each and every one.
S. And to not let go until we achieve that result?
R. Where can you go? You can run away for a few years or skip the campaign until the end of this desolate life, but you really can't leave. You are in the vessel of Adam HaRishon and you'll have to correct your part in it. The quicker you do it, the easier it is.
S. If we decide in our ten to pray for something specific that we want to achieve and we haven't achieved it yet, then we have to keep scrutinizing between us what else is missing in our connection and actions in order for us to succeed. Right?
R. Yes.
13. S. (39:43) How can we reach the right prayer if we don't feel suffering?
R. It says, ‘don't depart from the public.’ See how much the world is suffering and how much your friends wish to reach the goal. It's different from what the world wants, but nevertheless we have to attain what each need in order for each one to realize his part in Adam HaRishon, and how distant we are from connecting between us in order to establish the minimal conditions for the vessel of Adam HaRishon. Think about all the problems and all the sufferings of everyone and how everything that we cannot keep in our desire each and every moment comes from the fact that we do not identify with the Creator. It is said that if a person reaches into his pocket and wants to take a dollar out but pulls out two dollars, this is suffering even though he found two dollars because it went against his desire. What you want, you receive on the spot. We wish to correct ourselves so all of our desires will be connected with the Creator; we will receive the exact fulfillment according to the desire. As it is written, ‘Make your desire as His desire’ and by that you can make His desire as yours.
S. How did the great Kabbalists suffer?
R. Typically because they could not bring about the correction for the whole world. They were great and they corrected themselves and brought themselves to Lishma, maybe even to the end of correction, but the fact that they couldn't influence the whole world in practice was their problem. Certainly, they influenced but not in such a way that this world inverted and began to receive the method of adhesion in the Creator.
14. S. (43:35 ) How do we use the “Eighteen Prayer” with the blessings in the ten?
R. It doesn't matter, we're not praying according to the Siddur, the prayer book where all kinds of prayers are arranged and assembled. Rather, we work between us to find our own words and wish to turn to the Creator. We will advance where we will also read certain verses from Psalms. It's not something that is ancient, it's about 2,000 years ago when we had the Great Assembly, the spiritual government in Israel. The people who were in the Great Assembly were all great Kabbalists in high degrees of attainment. They compiled those prayers for us because they saw that soon everything would fall and people would not be able to pray, meaning to turn to the Creator correctly. So at the very least we can speak in such a way that brings us closer to the Creator and that's why they compiled the book called ‘The Siddur ’, order, for us. It is the order of turning to the Creator from the ten, called a ‘quorum.’ We're not using it but let's hope that we will come to read those prayers and understand what they had in mind. The main thing is to not simply read or recite the words in the book but to feel the intention, that plea that the people of the great assembly felt when they wrote those words. They wrote it about 2500 years ago.
S. How can we come closer to those Kabbalists in the prayer that we write every day in our ten?
R. First, for that, you need to reach Lishma, in order to bestow, and then you'll be able to understand their state compared to your state. You'll understand your degree and their degree in the gap between the two, but otherwise you won't be able to see it. They write that you can open up the prayer book but it doesn't look like we can understand it properly. If you want, we can add a few more hours a day to our studies, not in place of our studies. The question is how prepared you are.
15. S. (48:31) Do I have to raise my personal prayer by incorporating with all the friends in the ten?
R. No, you can also do it by yourself.
16. S. (48:51) What prayer should a ten raise from the bottom of their heart?
R. What do you mean by ‘a correct prayer? This prayer has to be from the bottom of the heart from ten people and raised to the Creator; the Creator uses it to clothe His answer and they feel it in the connection between them and Him.
17. S. (49:40) When does the ten begin to feel a common path rather than an individual one?
R. When each one does his individual work and willingly annuls himself for the sake of connecting with the others, they discover the center of the ten in the connection between them; they begin to discover their connection with the Creator.
18. (50:45) Baal HaSulam writes “Similarly, in the work of the Creator, when one finds himself standing between heaven and earth, he is not asking the Creator for something redundant, but only for the light of faith…” Is this the only condition to raise the right prayer?
R. Right
S. Does everyone need to be in the same state to raise MAN through the ten?
R. No, where are you getting all those questions from? How long have you been studying? You don't understand what we're talking about? Everyone in the same state? How can we all be in the same state? Everyone in the ten or not in the ten? Five or six is not enough? it's not about the numbers. I am sorry. Perhaps you need to listen to previous lessons.
19. S. (51:53) What is the difference between a religious prayer and a spiritual prayer?
R. A religious prayer and a spiritual prayer? I don't know. A spiritual prayer means that I pray in order to receive spiritual qualities of love and bestowal. That's what I know. We have to yearn for that. This is the purpose of our organization and of our studies. I don't know what a religious prayer is, I never studied it.
20. S. (52:43) Can we say that we direct ourselves to the right frequency that the Creator broadcasts through our efforts and this is how He influences and changes us?
R. What's the difference between this and the Creator?
S. If you say ‘the Creator’ we give Him all kinds of human qualities. Perhaps when He wants to do something He's simply broadcasting or transmitting His frequency and it is only in the ten that
we can reach these frequencies.
R. Okay let's say that there's something about this picture that you painted. I'm not canceling it, but let's hope that it will change even more.
21. S. (55:02) He gives the example of a person who didn't eat for three days and does not ask for luxuries. How can we bring ourselves in prayer to such hunger?
R. We need to scrutinize everything between us and ‘each shall help his friend’ and then we will understand what is important. Each one scrutinizes himself relative to the others and checks how much he is aimed in the right direction to understand correctly He checks all of this relative to the ten and accordingly, as much as he can, subjugates before them and clothes in them. He sees that as much as he lowers himself towards them this way, he sees that he truly has the possibility of adapting himself to the Creator. That is our work.
S. How can we understand not asking for luxuries when standing between heaven and earth?
R. We need to constantly try. I may be repeating myself, but we need to try to be connected with the ten because without my connection in the ten I remain on the degree of animals. To the extent that I am incorporated and included in them, I am already on the degree of Adam, one who is similar to the Creator. I annul myself to some extent and connect to others and through that I approach the Creator. Then from that degree when I'm connected to the friends I can start to ask, I can make requests and advance. Our work is not that complicated. Our ego, our will to receive, constantly pulls us back. No more than that.
22. S. (57:40) Is our prayer incorrect because we lack faith? Should we pray to the Creator only to get faith and then we will figure out how to solve everything?
R. Go ahead, of course it's worthwhile if you can turn to the Creator like that, but you have to do it from the ten otherwise He can't hear it. I see that now there are ten friends before you, there's ten of you, so turn now with everything you got because you wish to receive the force of faith, the force of bestowal. It's a force by which you connect together and no one wants anything for himself other than to be connected with others in order to bestow to the Creator. You will immediately connect with Him.
23. S. (58:55) Can you explain what exactly it is to want the quality of bestowal and when we pray do, we get a definite answer?
R. You understand we cannot explain what a quality is unless it resides in a person, there is no such thing especially when that quality is completely absent from us, it's also opposite from what we've got. You have nothing that is opposite from a person distant from a person as the quality of bestowing because everything that we can imagine in terms of what is bestowing belongs to the will to receive, in order to enjoy himself to feel pleasure. So what does it mean to bestow, we don't know we need to get certain energy, a certain attitude, certain something from above that allows a person to see the world as inverted, that's why it's called above reason. Opposite as compared to what a person can imagine and also this opposition, he cannot imagine it properly. Rather we need to be as an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load with their eyes closed, to demand it and keep what the Kabbalists are recommending and keep implemented and this will happen and not to run away from these means, then it will happen. This work is daily. It's not so difficult because we already are arranged in tens, in the groups, we are in the lessons, and the connection to the true material we simply have to take it seriously and want it, want that as much as possible. We all have preparation for it, it's called the point in the heart, each one has it.
24. S. (01:01:43) We pray we're just beginning to do it and I'd like to understand the scrutiny of the ten of the prayer in the ten, how to do it correctly so we're not asking for luxury?
R. I think that if you start and you wish to scrutinize something, the best scrutiny is for you to read, read, read. Read those texts that Kabbalists wrote as much as you scrutinize between you, it will be a great confusion. It's better to read a lot to incorporate yourself with what Kabbalists have written for us, this is especially good for beginners. Not only for beginners I think it's preferred to read some more material and some more material and speak to the friends but little, just a little portion of the time to speak with the friends.
25. S. (01:04:14) There has to be a preparation for the prayer or should the prayer be phrased in some spontaneous manner in the ten?
R. With each passing day we need to try and reach a prayer that's more and more internal, that comes out of the deepest recesses of each one's heart and it connects very internally between us. So we would feel that we are truly building a common beating heart. That's how we advance.
26. S. (01:05:23) Should we reach the gathering of the ten already with the prayer and also after the connection between us we should come with the prayer?
R. It's recommended one should pray all day, a person should be constantly asking to be in the prayer, he will turn to, it's not just asking, it is to be grateful and to appreciate and to sing towards the Creator, creation and the group. Try to add to try to compile, compose a song for your ten, a song of gratitude that raises them above. Do it, write as much as you can and you will see how much you are missing words.
S. When you say that in order to reach bestowing, we don't need to demand anything for ourselves but only for spirituality, I'm not yet in this condition, I have to be managed to accept it so what should I do in order to meet this condition?
R. Ask for it to happen because it happens through the influence of the light from above, when certain influence comes to you from above, meaning above the quality of bestowing of the Creator and then through this bestowing you receive an impression from you and then you also assume the form of bestowing as the Creator’s. This means to accept the Divine part from above then from that start to climb spiritually.
27. S. (01:08:09) In our meetings between us you said to focus on reading the text?
R. Yes, it's better to read and to speak less between you, I think it's more beneficial.
S. Sometimes throughout the day when the friends are occupied in the mass of life and work, it's hard to focus you know if you had 20 minutes of reading, I personally simply noticed that if I don't hear the friends in the meeting, then my heart doesn't start to open up, I have to hear them a little bit.
R. But if only the friends call you not you personally but everyone when he says, friends I found this special line, sentence hear it out it says Rabbi Akiva or a Rabbi Shimon, Baal HaSulam and he reads it to you, that doesn't awaken you?
S. It does awaken us, yes.
R. I prefer those things nevertheless when you're tied to a true source.
28. S. (01:09:34) What does it mean hearing the prayer of every mouth, the people of Israel with mercy?
R. The Creator hears each and every plea and in general all the problems desires, everything he hears, he absorbs, even it doesn't matter he absorbs everything and receives everything, it's the desire from which everything came out, that's why we are in it and none of us and all of us together never leave the Creator. Therefore all the thoughts, all the desires, everything we have between us and each and every one, all of this is in order for us to all be connected to him that's it and when we never leave the Creator, we're always in adhesion with him to bring us to adhesion through equivalence of form, this is our work.
29. S. (01:10:51) What helps the ten to come out against the whole world and not to become annulled, canceled, opposite all the views in the world?
R. I don't think that's in our time, that's difficult, towards what do you wish to annul yourself around the whole world, towards fashion, political opinion? The world is getting so empty with these technical developments, with the armed races, I don't see any difficulty today. We used to have philosophers and music and Opera, it doesn't matter what, some good literature, all kinds of things. All kinds of religions and today it's in such a way that it was left for the people and humanity was emptied of all those things and what does it have, nothing, what do people engage with? Towards what do we need to bend down in order to be closer to humanity? Those things lack any value. So what is left is for us to raise ourselves above our ego since by that we are correcting the human state. General medicine, general demand, the connection between people. All the businesses of man in this world, politics, science, children’s education, whatever you want you can correct everything by changing this man's attitude towards the world. Meaning towards the Creator, so let's do it. What more, what other ways can we get confused and philosophize? There's only one thing left either the wisdom of Kabbalah or drugs. The people who go there and disappear but in addition to that, other than that, show me a serious endeavor. I'm not talking about having to eat in order to survive, but other than that what may draw people today? We see how everything is zero and he only uses it to reveal the oppositeness, the emptiness.
30. S. (01:14:01) What is the difference between the evil inclination that the Creator created and evil, the bad that we have to regret?
R. That's a nice question. The difference is great, the difference between what the Creator awakens in us and how much we feel to what extent we are able to get back to him.
31. S. (01:14:40) I cannot pray for a single friend to the same extent as the others because I don't feel that she participates in a ten?
R. We need to agree in our vessel that we pray for the people in society including those friends of ours who drop out of their group or fall, we pray for them as well because by that we wish to bring those friends back into the connection with us. There's nothing else we can do, we must pray for everyone.
32. S. (01:15:35) What is the difference between praying and self-beating, when I eat myself up?
R. It is a very big difference by eating yourself up, by being sorry, by that you are disconnected from the Creator and you are the opposite of him, truly the opposite. Growing further away when you're eating yourself because by that you're blaming the Creator either in a clear way or in your subconscious. You are blaming the Creator for making a bad world for you but you praying it becomes clear for you more and more that this bad world that he sees depicted in you is the ego, which is opposite the Creator, that is the correct your ego to resemble the Creator and then instead of bad you reach good.
33. S. (01:16:58) Is there a certain exercise that we need to do in the ten in order to rise above the foreign thoughts that come during the time that we pray?
R. Only to come closer to each other, only to come closer to each other try to depict yourself embracing, hugging, coming closer, connecting because by this action you become closer to the Creator and there is no other action that will enable you to come closer to him, that is the way it is. All of us are students, children of his and then, only when we connect between ourselves this way, we may come close to him.
34. S. (01:18:03) I heard that you said that suffering and torments do not develop the correct connection of a person with the Creator?
R. There are many people that like torments and they want to remain in them and they think that by taking upon themselves, the torments they have some greatness, some importance with these mortifications. That is the evil inclination, this is the ego, this is a true Angel of Death giving us such a picture of this relation through creation and to the Creator only good comes out of the Creator, all of his intentions, every moment is to be good, to adhere to him and to feel good through equivalence of form, this means we have to rise above our ego then we can cling to Him and live in the world that is all good .that is what is prepared for us and we are all invited.
35. S. (01:19:35) How can I invert or change my prayer for personal things for a prayer to the ten?
R. Importance of the Creator that can only be attained, you can only come closer to him specifically through this vessel called the group, that is why I have no choice. I have to correct my connection with the friends, male or female, in order to be aimed at the Creator. That is for me the main thing. Moreover, as I perform my actions not in order for me to feel good but to give contentment to the Creator, to the extent that I invest myself in the ten, in the friends, to that extent I impart good on him. So I'm not thinking about myself rather I'm thinking about them, how can I do something good for them but not simply that I love them, it is in order to do good to the Creator and the more I annul myself in order to become closer to my friends, to that extent I will be closer to the Creator.
36. S. (01:21:19) Why is the prayer heard in mercy?
R. If we pray together, we are forcing the Creator to accept our prayer with mercy, meaning with good spirit with a good attitude to answer us.
37. S. (01:21:45) What prevents me from accepting the Creator as good that does good?
R. My ego, the Creator is revealed as good that does good only in equivalence of form with him. if I'm not in the equivalence of form then I will not receive this good that does good from him, that is why this is preventing me.
38. S. (01:22:18) Why is a request specifically for change causing him to respond?
R. What other requests can there be, only a request for change, to give a will to bestow instead of a will to receive and accordingly we awaken him to the action.
39. S. (01:22:44) If to pray means to judge yourself than to pray for my friends means to judge myself, how does my distance from them cause me to suffer?
R. As much as I prepare myself for the prayer, for the address for the Creator, in this I need to discover how much I'm opposite of what I should be and that is what I'm asking for, for the Creator to erase the gap between my qualities and his so that I will be completely in bestowal and love and connection and giving.
40. S. (01:23:33) Changing one's attitude to the world is clear, what is the changing of the world's attitude towards the Creator?
R. The world to the Creator, it depends on how much I bestow to the world. I'm not supposed to cry out anything, if we correct ourselves in a correct way in the connection between us in the tens of man the women, we by the force, listen to this word, we will force the world to connect as well Because from GE which is our upper part of the soul, of Adam HaRishon, we will bestow upon our bottom part the AHP and then they will do it. Everything depends on us and that means the ones that are connected to the Creator, if we can make this good a nice connection then from us to the whole world this connection will develop and will force, it will obligate all the people in the world to change. When you hear the news and you see the world how every day it is deteriorating more and more, you have to understand that it is all our negligence, it is us, we are not sufficiently connected to the Creator and we are not sufficiently connected to the people but the main thing is between us and the Creator.
41. S. (01:25:25) Is there true prayer without proceeding it with yearning for the Creator?
R. Is there a real prayer without proceeding it with yearning, ultimately who are we praying to, the Creator, for what, for correction, so we need to organize these two things together that is all.
42. S. (01:25:59) In what frequency do we need to renew the prayer?
R. Non-stop.
43. S. (01:26:13) Is there something else that we need to do other than prayer?
R. No.
44. S. (01:26:21) Often we think those prayers are a game as the Creator hears and sees everything?
R. The fact that he sees and hears everything, does not mean anything, you can say before that everything that we feel is also done by the Creator, since there is None Else Besides Him. He's the one who does, we see, we feel, we hear, it doesn't matter. What is important is our response, what we want, either we are crying because of what he is doing to us or we are asking that upon everything to elevate us to correction. I'm not asking him to be good, I'm asking for him to make me good, this is the difference between an altruistic and egoistic prayer.
45. R. (01:27:54) Rav reading: In the Shemoneh Esrei Prayer, for you hear the prayer of every mouth of your people Israel with mercy, there are a few things here. The Creator hears every mouth, every one that belongs to Israel aimed at correction with mercy. It seems perplexing as first we say, for you hear the prayer of every mouth, even an unworthy mouth as it is written every mouth. Afterward it says, your people Israel with mercy, specifically a prayer in mercy or it is not heard. We must know all the heaviness in the work of the Creator is because of the oppositeness in every step. For example there is a rule man must be humble, if we follow this rule as the sages said we must be very very humble, this still does not mean it must be a rule. It is not enough for us to be only humble as it is known one must go against the whole world and not be canceled by the many views that abound. As it is written and his heart was high in the ways of the Lord, what does it mean, I should be proud. What does it mean to be proud, to be higher in the ways than everyone else? I don’t want to accept any view only to scrutinize myself with the Creator. Hence this rule is not a rule that is called complete” so we have to be both proud and humble“ and if we go to the other which is pride, that too is wrong since anyone who is proud, says the Creator he and I cannot dwell in the same abode. Meaning we are not together, I am not together with a proud man “ and we can also see oppositeness in the matter of our suffering. That is if the Creator sends suffering to some person and we should believe the Creator is good and does good and the suffering He sent is necessarily to that person's benefit. Thus why do we pray for the Creator to remove the suffering from us, how can we ask for something to become better because whatever comes from him is for corrections and concerning suffering, we should know that suffering only comes to correct us, to be qualified to receive the light of the Creator, the upper light that is what all the sufferings come for.” The role of the suffering is only to cleanse the body, to make it softer, closer to the light. As the sages said, as salt sweetens meat, suffering cleanses the body. “In the matter of the prayer they constituted that it would be instead of suffering, as it is written that by prayer, we would replace the sufferings the prayer too cleanses the body. However the prayer is called the path of Torah, this is why prayer is more effective in sweetening the body than suffering.
Therefore it is a Mitzvah to pray for the suffering since additional benefits stem from that to the individual and to the whole". Meaning we should pray and not be on these sufferings because that is the best response in the eyes of the Creator and in the eyes of man. “For this reason, the oppositeness causes one heaviness and cessations in the work of the Creator.” When you feel heavy and it disconnects us, distances us from all spiritual thoughts and intentions. “And he cannot continue to work and feels bad, that it seems to him that he is unworthy of assuming the burden of Kingdom of Heaven as an ox to the burden and the donkey to the load. At that time he's called unwanted however since one’s sole intention is to extend faith, called a force of bestowal called Malchut, to raise Shechina, Divinity from the dust. Meaning that his aim is to glorify his name in the world,” the quality of bestowal to rise to the infinite height and that is basically the quality of the Creator. “His greatness so the Divinity will not take the form of meagerness and poverty. So the Creator hears the prayer of every month even one who is not so worthy, who feels that he is still far from the work of the Creator.” This is considered one because we are always talking with respect to the person if he understands that he is unwanted and this makes him sorry, He becomes wanted.“ This is the meaning of you hear the prayer every month, when does he hear the prayer of every month when your people Israel pray with mercy. Meaning simple mercy when one prays to raise the Divinity from the dust to receive faith” he wants to receive the force of faith, receive faith that is what he wants, to be given the force of faith, he wants to shift from the will to receive to the will to bestow, to finish with his whole life. “It is similar to the one that was not eaten in three days then when he asks for another to be given something to eat, he is not asking for any luxuries or extras, he is simply asking to be given something to revive his soul. Similarly in the work of the Creator when one finds himself standing himself standing between Heaven and the Earth, he's not asking for the Creator for something redundant but only for the light of faith” that is the only thing he wants, he doesn't want the change anything, he's not liking anything except for being the one who bestows to the friends, to the Creator, to everyone he only wants to bestow and for it not to touch him at all. It's not that he wants to get rid of his trouble, it doesn't matter to him this is called luxuries but what he wants is to be the one who bestows and that is all.
One should examine himself, his intention, what is he getting from this, if it is clear to him that he's getting nothing and he's willing to pay whatever is required more and more and everything that he has only to be in bestowal, that is a sign that he's truly spring for the force of bestowal. “Asking for the Creator to open his eyes so you can take upon himself the quality of faith, this is called raising Divinity from the dust, this prayer is accepted from every mouth. That it is whatever state a person is in, if he asks the revived soul with faith” all he wants is to bestow, by that he wants to fill himself, by that he wants to relate to everyone this way, his prayer will be answered. “This is called with mercy when one’s prayer is only to be pitied from above so he can sustain his vitality.” Meaning the greatest gift that can be even if they put before him every good thing in the world it will not draw him at all only the ability to bestow. “This is the meaning of what is written in the Zohar, that a prayer for the poor” when he feels that he needs nothing, doesn't matter “is immediately accepted, that is when it is for the Divinity, it is immediately accepted.”
46. S. (01:38:47) How can a person want to bestow if he has no suffering, no bodily suffering or any other suffering?
R. In the beginning he is learning with us and he wants to reach bestowal in order to come out of his torments, the ones that he has in reception later he is asking to be more and more in bestowal because he starts feeling under the influence of the upper light that still does shine to us a little even in lo Lishma [not for her sake]. He starts feeling that he's drawn to knowing what being in bestowal means, what it needs to be in the spiritual, in the upper world, to feel the Creator and to rise above what he has here for various reasons that are also egoistic but still until through the light that reforms that bestows upon him all the time, even when he is in his ego but still the light shines a little, with small bits it goes through the ego and still it does effect and by that, bit by bit, by dedication a person has to stand on his own, and to nag like a child asking for something and then he starts seeing that he really comes closer to a need for bestowal and this is considered a true savior that comes to us through the Creator when the Creator makes a shape within a shape, a shape of bestowal that comes to us within the shape of reception.
S. When a person is under suffering, all kinds of suffering and he just wants to get rid of them, and it’s right that beyond that there is also a desire to connect and to think about the ten but still, nature is such that you just don't want to suffer and I think even Baal HaSulam writes in his prophecy that, “Only so I won’t have such suffering that I would condemn the Creator.” It is more powerful than anything else so how can you…?
R. No, we only have one vessel, the will to receive and in this will to receive everything connects both bestowal and reception, everything connects within the will to receive and we reach a form that we can yearn for bestowal not out of sufferings but out of values. Let’s say it this way, if there are people around you and all of them value the quality of bestowal, really value it and you're impressed by them, whether you want it or not, because it entangles you, seemingly within them inside their importance, the value that they project on you. Then, whether you want it or not you will start respecting the form of bestowal even though it may be a lie for them, they lie to you and play with you but still you will start yearning for bestowal. This is considered “one man helps his friend,” each man helps his friend but when we play or act out this way between us it turns out that everyone starts being affected by everyone no one has anything but ultimately everyone will have everything.
S. That is the real work that we have to constantly engage in but what do we do with the fear that some kind of suffering will come that will take you out of that, then, what do you do there?
R. That also depends on the environment. The environment can force you to do everything, it can convince, confuse you, no matter what you call it, it can instill values upon you that you would never look at and this is because we come out of the vessel of Adam, the general that is why we have to understand that if there is this position for that vessel especially for that vessel if it's all kinds of different goals it is like we're replacing a cow with a donkey, it's the same ego but if now we are talking us wanting to come closer to bestowal then out of our work even if we do not want it and we are talking and we're doing some actions as though we are in bestowal we do nonetheless awaken some upper illumination that bestows upon us and changes us, no matter what. Whoever is in that, as much as it comes, it comes and that is his prophet and he still ends his life for the time being in a way that is much better than all the different forms of humans. This is why it is best and desirable for all of our students to develop and understand and feel and come closer as much as possible to the quality of bestowal meaning the upper force, the Creator and that is how we will advance.
47. S. (01:45:44) We are always talking about the fact that we need to first address the friends and with them to the upper force, we are here so what is the problem?
R. I don't know where you have a problem. It seems to me that your problem is that you do not write your question so that you can read it in a clear way.
S. Should I continue?
R. Continue but in a specific and nice way so it will become clear to us all.
S. We first of all need to turn to the friends and together with them to the Creator?
R. Yes.
S. Meaning my appeal is supposed to be built from ten deficiencies?
R. Yes.
S. I will feel myself in such a way that every friend is actually going to do the same action and with that we address the Creator, and in that kind of way we must turn to the upper force?
R. No, because no one can be like others and you cannot compare yourself in the way that everybody will have the same. Everyone thinks differently, depicts differently. Each one should add a depiction between you to bring a deficiency for the connection between you and this deficiency together, with all the deficiencies together you turn to the Creator. That is all that should occur, try to do that.
48. S. (01:48:18) It is written here that the quality of faith is the quality of Malchut but we always talked about faith above reason and that faith is bestowal, so I am confused here.
R. That is correct. Faith is the quality of Bina and reception is the quality of Malchut and Malchut wanting to rise with an intention to bestowal means that Malchut rises to Bina acting from the degree of Bina even though in itself it is Malchut the will to receive, and it restricts itself wanting to be the will to bestow like Bina that is the right action of Malchut.
49. S. (01:49:17) If the suffering and evil is something that we feel, and the Creator is just love and bestowal, then why do we feel this all so differently than Him?
R. We are opposite in qualities from Him. If you make your desire like His then you will see how good He is, that “He is the good that does good.”
50. S. (01:50:04) What does it mean that we are together in the ten when we start to put together the prayer we will come to the state where we will be able to raise our general Malchut to Bina?
R. None of you is equal to the other, everyone is different but we have to reach a state that the intention of each and every one will be to reach bestow and that is considered that the Malchut of each one is raised to Bina and this way you reach the right request to the Creator. The Creator is in an even higher degree or the entire will to receive of yours becomes the will to bestow and even more in order to receive in order to bestow. This means it is not only raising the degree of the will to receive, only from Malchut to Bina but also from Bina to Keter that is what the Creator is doing with us and that is how we reach the final correction. Our minimal correction is Bina, the force of bestowal but later when we start working with this force of bestowal in order to overcome our force of reception, to use the force of reception as well in order to bestow, these degrees are Bina to Keter, and that is how we grow. So, first of all, the restriction over Malchut, not using the apparent will to receive then to acquire the force of Bina that is the first half of the way, reaching from Malchut to Bina that means reaching the first half of the way, the Festival of Hanukkah, then we reach the correction of the vessels of reception which is from Hanukkah to Purim.