Morning Lesson July 2, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Fear - Selected Excerpts from the sources. #8
1. Rav’s Introduction: Fear is the Kli, that if we have fear already then in this vessel we can discover the presence of the upper light, the Creator. This is why fear is a very important quality, it is something that is very important. Let's see what Baal HaSulam writes about it.
Reading 8 (00:53)
2. R. (02:47) This means that we need to be truly concerned about both, not to just to yearn for love but instead will we have anxiety whether we will attain the love or not, will I have it or not. Where is the deficiency for love? Not only the feeling of love but the feeling of the deficiency for love, this is what I need to feel. When I feel a deficiency for both then I truly attain this phenomenon in wholeness. That both the vessel and the light are felt in me in a complete manner, that they complete each other. if there are no questions then read it again and we’ll continue.
3. S. (03:51) What does it mean that the quality of love is the quality of existence? What is existence?
R. Love means that we attained it, we are already in a connection, in contact with what we love and for that we also need a lack. Do we truly attain it, do we truly keep that state where we were disconnected from what we are in contact with now? That the vessel and the light must not cancel each other but rather they should complete each other, otherwise they cannot exist. This is why in our world there is nothing that exists and advances and grows in wholeness because one comes and cancels out the other. Love seemingly comes and it erupts and later on it cancels itself out. Why? Because there is no deficiency next to it, we’re not concerned about the deficiency. This is how it is with each and every thing, with all the corporeal pleasures this is how it is. We are very hungry, we start to eat, the hunger diminishes, the taste goes away, and we leave it. This is how it is with everything. In spirituality this cannot be because a person cannot reach a filling unless he prepares his vessel so that it will not disappear, so it will develop all the time. This is why our reception is reception in faith above reason with the force of bestowal and everything we want to reach, whatever we want to reach we need to yearn for it, and the craving should grow not in magnitude but in quality. That the yearning will be for to whom am I bestowing? Then when I get pleasure from to whom am I bestowing then we have here two things. We have the pleasure and we have me and we have the one I am bestowing to. When they connect then they keep each other, they support each other, and they develop each other. It turns out that the pleasure can be eternal. These are things that seemingly are not so difficult, and it is possible to understand them, but they don’t exist in our world. In our world this technique does not exist because we don’t feel. We’re made only of the will to receive, and we don’t feel that we have to develop a will to bestow. We only want to feel our will to receive and that's it.
S. What does it mean that suppose we are working in love of friends and starting to feel the love of friends, what does it mean to add fear to that?
R. We need to add to the revelation of the love of connection also the revelation of fear. Am I certain that the friends will love me, that they will accept me, that they will come closer to me, that they will understand that I want to come closer to them? Meaning that here I constantly have concern about the development of my correct relation to them and this is how each one should be towards the others. We are constantly concerned about this and what we fill this fear with in our emotions of love, this is already secondary. The most important is that I am concerned about how can I love the friends and with this concern I can develop my attitude towards them in a way of giving and love and connection, and only in this will I advance. Meaning we’re constantly concerned about our vessel being the vessel of fear. Do I love them enough, am I bestowing to them enough, am I drawn to them? It doesn't have to be such that you see it on the outside, but it has to nevertheless be felt within the person, that this is what he is concerned about.
S. Rabash writes a lot about the work in love of friends for instance, to act out in the group. But how to work with fear, how to care about this?
R. Think about it. That you are concerned about having in you, fear, anxiety, that you are concerned, you don’t want to lose it. That there is constantly concern about how do you come to, how do you approach the friends? How are you concerned about bestowing to them so that this concern will constantly grow?
4. S. (11:01) You said I should have fear of am I bestowing sufficiently enough to the friends. How can I determine if it’s sufficient?
R. You cannot really measure it, you are simply concerned, it’s a matter of feeling. It’s not measurement in gallons or kilograms, it is just do you have concern for it and this concern should be like the desire to connect, to embrace and to love.
S. You said that according to that the fear is determined, that I cannot sufficiently bestow to the friends, and this is the limit of fear.
R. So what is the question?
S. If I bestow to the friends and I am hundred percent certain that I sufficiently bestow then there is no fear?
R. Why, you are constantly in that. If you are constantly giving to the friends then you are constantly giving, and in that feeling of giving you feel they are giving to you and in this way you connect between you, each one with his reflected light his direct light.
S. So where is the fear? I am certain that I am bestowing enough.
R. If you are not in such anxiety about if I am giving enough then you are also not in the feeling that you are giving for sure. You cannot stop the anxiety, the fear, you cannot. Otherwise you'll also stop your connection with them. This is how it works, like a mother that gave everything to the baby but still she has concern. What else can I give him, what else can I add to him, etc. This anxiety, it has to be there, it’s our vessel. This is our vessel, our deficiency to feel the other; it’s the anxiety of am I bestowing to him? All of our connection is in order to bestow, and this is why the anxiety has to be there first and this is the vessel, it is our first connection with others. That I want to bestow to him and inside of that, that I want to bestow to him, inside of that I receive a response. Otherwise I have no connection with the other.
S. Meaning the anxiety comes because I am not confident about my strength?
R. No, maybe that too but this is another kind of work, separate work.
5. S. (14:45) Does the fear come from us or is it something that is the result of our work?
R. Fear comes as a result, you are right. It is revealed in us on the condition that we are going to connect in the right way. But here we can begin to participate in the building of the vessel that we awaken the fear on our own side.
S. Awakening because we’re asking to have fear or do we awaken it out of our actions?
R. By our actions, out of the fact that we want to have fear. Am I connected to the other, am I bestowing to the other, am I interested in the other and so on.
S. How can love and fear increase, enhance each other?
R. The fear is the vessel itself and love is already what comes out of the vessel towards the emanator.
S. Yes but it is not static, you always have to increase it to live, to exist.
R. You should be concerned about developing it. You need to be concerned about developing it. These are things that to some extent are in your hand.
S. How not to let go of that, that is the question.
R. As much as you are concerned about the fear, according to that you do not let go of it but rather you advance and also each one helps the other and everyone does it together.
S. Can we encourage fear with each other?
R. Well it depends on what state, and which stages we're in, but it is yes, it’s possible. Don't be afraid, don't be afraid of working with it.
6. S. (17:04) There are days where the preparation is stronger during the day, and you come to the lesson without deficiency of fear and vice versa. Sometimes you don't make a preparation, but you come on fire to the lesson. How does this method of the Creator that sometimes you feel the response of the action and sometimes it is the opposite, the result is the opposite?
R. It is true that there is room for that, and this is how it happens, but I don’t ask about that, I work with whatever I have.
S. We call it a method. What is a method without a direct result?
R. I do not understand what you are saying.
S. We call Kabbalah a method to reveal the Creator. This method, the path is such that the results many times have nothing to do with the action. How can you work in a way that the path, there is no methodology here?
R. I do not see what you're asking about. I truly do not understand it. You are told that the vessel is fear and then according to the magnitude of the fear we discover in the vessel all kinds of stages of connection, up to love. So try to develop the fear, fear of whether I have the right direction and am I connected to the Creator and I need to connect to the Creator between the friends. Am I concerned about having it so that it will not go away but only grow? So go ahead and examine this.
7. S. (19:18) It sounds that we’re talking about the fear of the Creator but a fear about myself that I won’t succeed, and I won’t love, that I won’t be able to bestow.
R. You’re right, maybe for now this is the fear. It’s not the fear that I am not bestowing to the Creator and when will have the forces to bestow to the Creator? Will this not cease for me so that I will not be able to give, to bestow, to think about Him more and more, but rather for the time being it’s out of my fear, my anxiety. That actually I have here concern for my own state. What shall be of me? Will I be afraid? Will I be concerned that I will bestow to the Creator or that will I be able to be concerned that somebody else is bestowing to the Creator? This is what I am concerned about more than I am concerned about myself. So Kabbalists write about that as well. This is the check that your fear is the correct fear or maybe it’s an incorrect fear. Are you concerned about developing the fear in the friends, and this is your work, this is concern? Then in such a way through the friend, you give the Creator even more pleasure, giving Him a place where He can bestow and so on. We will read about that. We will read about it, we will study it, we will truly need to establish this in the connections between us.
8. S. (21:14) I can only love the love of the Creator towards me so it seems to me that I cannot love the Creator before I feel his love towards me so even during the concealment, even inside the judgements we are always searching for the Creator being good that does good so actually we are searching for his love towards us and then when we find his love towards us then we will be able to love him. Can we say this this way?
R. You are right to some extent, yes. This is something that we will be concerned about, and we will develop along the way, but you are right.
S. So I would like to add that it is our work, everything depends on the Creator and what can we do in order to feel his embrace, his love towards us?
R. On that it is written that everything is in the hands of Heaven except the fear of Heaven, except the fear of the Creator and everything else depends on him but the fear with respect to the Creator is something you have to develop. What is fear towards the Creator? Will you receive from him all kinds of forces that would help you to be in bestowal towards him?
S. Couple of minutes ago somebody else asked how can we activate this fear and I think that we cannot have fear unless we reach a pain in quality and quantity so it seems to me that this is the only thing that we feel pain and when we feel pain inside reception that we are creating a new reaction to prevent this pain and this is the fear but it is also in the hands of the Creator the quality and quantity of the pain that will take us out of our vessels so how can we related to pain in the right way that will conclude us to build the fear?
R. You are right that everything comes from the Creator and he reveals everything but it is according to your efforts therefore activate your effort and everything will be revealed gradually according to the quantity and quality and whatever needs to be revealed you do not know what it is that will be revealed and in which order it needs to be revealed you also do not know that but whatever is revealed it is revealed and the most important is to keep pressing ahead and sometimes you start with something that you do not know and you go forward in a direction to something you also do not know and this is how it works.
9. S. (25:04) I get an example of fear only from the front so is there a problem with this fear?
R. Do not worry about it, just continue. The most important thing is to continue. You are advancing and everything is correct, it is all correct.
10. S. (25:45) How can there be a place for fear if everything is the Creator? Is the empty place for fear, does it stem from lack of faith in the Creator?
R. Of course there is the lack of faith here, but this place needs to remain and not to be canceled. Instead each time we need to be in a greater and the greater deficiency that is constantly increasing and therefore our whole development is on top of the revelation of greater and greater coarseness, and this is why each and every day we have to be concerned about if we feel a greater and greater necessity for connection between us and this is how we advance.
11. S. (26:53) Just like a child does not fear his mother but does not feel his fear for the mother, what should we do to achieve the right kind of fear?
R. Just like a wise child is concerned about being able to give back to the mother whatever she is giving to him he is concerned about that, so we also need to search for our relations and inclinations to the Creator. Will we be able to relate to him as he relates to us? This is it, be a good child.
12. S. (27:58) If there is no deficiency for connection how can there be a deficiency for love?
R. If we do not have this and we do not have that. We have to start in the ten and bit by bit through envy, lust, and honor but love or anything else but envy, lust, and honor. Are you listening? These three components bring us out of our state to a higher state. It is written that envy, lust, and honor bring the person out of this world to a higher degree.
13. S. (28:48) How can we nurture fear, or does it come from itself?
R. The fear, the spiritual fear, is not exactly a beastly fear. The ordinary fear is about my beastly existence, but the spiritual fear is something that is higher, it is related to the goal of our development, so I need to develop this mostly in the society, in the group and through scrutiny of our relations with the Creator and there the spiritual fear develops.
14. S. (29:38) I have difficulty imagining how fear and love can exist simultaneously. How do these two coincide?
R. When it comes we will see that it is possible for them to be together, specifically together.
15. S. (29:58) Most of the time I am certain that I'm not giving enough to the ten. Sometimes I justify myself that it comes from the Creator; this is what the Creator wants. Sometimes I pray with fear that he would give us the importance of the goal. What can I do in order to ask him to help us connect?
R. Simply ask. All the time, ask.
16. S. (30:24) If fear is broken in us and if it is so then what is the Creator’s intention in creating a broken system?
R. The fear is, well of course everything that is in us is the result of the shattering, but fear is not a direct result of the shattering. It is revealed in whether I received what I want in the desire to receive or will I ever be able to reach the desire to bestow, would I not be ashamed in respect to the friends, will they disregard me and so on. There are many kinds of fears, but the person has to scrutinize what for him is the most important. This is all our work, scrutinizing the vessel. What is the most important for me and this is how we will advance.
Reading 9 (31:36) Twice
17. S. (34:15) What does it mean to perform actions which are the words of the Torah?
R. It is to perform all the actions that can bring you closer to the Creator to reach adhesion to him so that these actions are called the corrections of the broken vessels.
Reading 10 (34:55)
18. S. (36:39) A very interesting thing was revealed here; it turns out that fear I can bestow to the Creator, it stems from the quality of love of others as through the love of others we reach the love of the Creator, is there a link from love of others to fear?
R. Of course there is a connection, and it is revealed quite quickly that you cannot have one without the other.
19. S. (37:19) The fear, is it about the vessel or it is about the Creator dwelling in the vessel because it seems that the Creator comes and goes and we do not have such control about this, we always have to care about the vessel so what should we be concerned about?
R. We should be concerned about only one thing; will I be able to bestow through the friends to the Creator.
S. So my concern is about the Creator or about the vessel? Because the Creator is like a guest comes and goes, we cannot develop a concern for him. He is a force that is hidden.
R. Will I be able to bestow to the Creator through the friends.
20. S. (38:21) Previously we read as if the fear comes first in order to create the vessel but in this text it is as if the order is reversed. Can you explain it a bit?
R. We need to try to approach these things from all different angles because they are connected to each other and they support each other and that's why the more I am concerned about fear of connection and mutual bestowal and the group, all these things will bring me to some kind of complex of concerns and conditions which is called the spiritual vessel which is Incorporated from many things as we are talking about the nine Sefirot all being that, all must connect and bestow to Malchut and then Malchut receives from them and by them bestowing to Malchut, Malchut it is established and can receive from them in her reflected light and this is what's happening here as well so we see how these things equalize together. The question is right. Soon we will start to establish that.
21. S. (39:55) Can we say that fear is the vessel, and the deficiency and love is the fulfillment that comes through the connection with the friends?
R. Yes, the fear is that vessel and the love is the fulfillment.
22. S. (40:23) If the fear stems from losing what the person loves, how can there be fear without love? Why does fear cancel?
R. Fear comes from the person's concern which starts from will I be able to connect to the friends, will the friends reject me from the connection, can we connect in a way that the Creator will be revealed between us and so on. Of all these various concerns you come to a very constant concern, a high concern; will I be able to bestow to the Creator and not about connecting and being in mutual support, but instead can I bestow to the Creator? This is basically the final goal we have, to give contentment to him and that way from wanting to give him contentment you give back so how should we be connected, be organized, and aim ourselves and by all kinds of such examinations the final vessel is established.
23. S. (42:07) It is mentioned many times that from the love of friends we reach the love of the Creator, but it never says that from the fear of friends, do we reach the fear of the Creator, is there no fear to the friends?
R. No, with respect to the friends there is a fear but is not seemingly a spiritual fear. There is no fear from a friend, there is only fear from the Creator. There is a fear of the friends, but it is incorporated with all our other actions, and we want to establish between us if the friends reject me, if they throw me away, yes, there is such a thing there has to be such a concern because we are as an egoistic matter, we cannot exist above our ego only through fear.
24. S. (43:20) When we get an opportunity to reach here from above it is not the precise fear. How can we be certain that we reach the right fear, that we do not miss out on the opportunity that we receive?
R. This is established, how can a person establish himself from all kinds of different fears to the real fear, the real fear; would I be able to bestow contentment to the Creator, from which vessel can I bestow contentment to him, how can I cause this vessel to be established, to be stronger and so on. Meaning the building of the vessel of bestowal to the Creator. This is my work, and the fear should be in building this vessel.
Reading 11 (45:01)
25. R. (45:58) In a simple way we can say that it is not love itself that fills us but the yearning for love, what is received through the reflected light and the ones who have tasted all kinds of actions in our life, they can say how much the yearning, the hunger, the appetite. When the person is drawn to something, this is basically what fills him. And later as he starts to be fulfilled it actually extinguishes these feelings of yearning, of fear. It does not bring him that sharpness of the emotions he used to have that’s why “grace is deceitful and beauty is vain” but rather fear, that longing is what fills the vessels to the extent the person yearns. Meaning there is a great will to receive here and a great restriction upon it and accordingly a screen, reflected light, very big yearning. And this yearning that he wants to give, he wants to come to connection, this is basically what fills the person. In our world these things stay only, ultimately, it is only a bitter taste because the vessels of the will to receive still exist but in spirituality, as we come to that, there are great corrections over that of restriction, screen and reflected light that fills everything, that instead of that, a new world of emotion has opened up which certainly comes to be filled with yearning, filled with longing, this is why “grace is deceitful and beauty is vain”, it cannot fill the person. This is why this whole world with all of its pleasures we see that everything vanishes and ultimately as much as we receive from it, ultimately everything dies and is rotten and becomes dust. Whereas the spiritual yearning, which is in bestowal to discover the tendency, the inclination for the true beauty, which is in the form of mutual bestowal, well, that will exist eternally. That is basically the essence of the eternal vessel, this is why he writes “then I shall see the opposite world as only fear and longing are the desired perfection and then one feels that during the time of preparation they were only lying to themselves and understand this”. Meaning attain it, feel it, and understand what Kabbalist are talking about, then you come to eternal discernments.
26. S. (50:03) What should we do in practice so that we turn the fear of not being able to bestow into positive actions in the ten?
R. This fear of not being able to bestow to the Creator is a good thing, it’s a good thing if it stays there in general between us because from here until the final Correction, all the time, it is good if we feel that we nonetheless cannot bestow completely to the Creator because it is truly so. In each and every degree it is more and more but along with that we advance by us acquiring a deficiency to bestow more and more. This is basically the same vessel we need to come to the final correction with. In practice we do not bestow to the Creator except for our desire to bestow, what would you give Him, what can you bestow to Him? Nothing, however, to want to bestow, yes, that all our inclination and everything we can do, our preparation is in the desire to bestow to the Creator, that's it; and this is why when we start to discover Him, so we receive this revelation in order to bestow. Do you understand how it works? That the truth is we have nothing to give Him and what can we receive from Him? We do not want to receive if we are in spirituality, what can we receive, what do we want to receive from Him? Nothing, however, only to want to bestow to Him and in this bestowal we will already discover all the rest of the degrees.
27. S. (53:19) What is the end of correction, is it not a static state?
R. I cannot tell you; I cannot tell you what the final Correction is because I do not feel it, but I can somehow describe it from the books, but it does not matter. We will come close to that; we still do not feel any discernment from the state of the final correction. That's why talking about it is not serious.
28. S. (54:08) It turns out that also there is no opportunity or possibility to bestow to the friends?
R. Why?
S. Without the fear?
R. The more you can strengthen them and cause connection between them and take part in that, by that you are together, and you can advance to connect to the Creator.
S. But if we do not build fear towards the Creator then what can we bestow to the friends?
R. To set an example for them, to embrace, to connect them otherwise I do not understand your question.
S. I will try to ask differently: if all we have towards the Creator is only to make a screen, restriction and reflected light then without performing these actions we do not have the possibility to bestow to the friends, right, to truly bestow to the friends?
R. We need to cause a connection between the friends above the will to receive of each and everybody, when mutual support between us will become our mutual screen with which we come to the Creator in order to give contentment to Him.
S. But until we build the common screen these actions are only external actions, in our ego, no?
R. Corporeal?
S. Yes, corporeal.
R. So what? It’s a preparation, you cannot have it without it.
29. S. (56:23) Creation started with the Creator wanting to create and bestow to the created beings and our desire is also to bestow to Him. Is this the place for the meeting, rendezvous between the created being and the Creator?
R. Yes.
30. S. (56:47) I think that I heard you say that reflected light is yearning, can you please explain this?
R. What can I explain to you: what is the reflected light and what is yearning?
S. I thought I heard you say that reflected light is yearning?
R. I do not know what that was about, you are not asking a complete question.
S. That actually through the yearning this is how the love is felt, so you said that yearning is actually the reflected light, and I did not quite understand this.
R. By yearning you feel love because the yearning is the deficiency, yes, and according to this deficiency love is revealed.
31. S. (57:57) How is fear manifested in Achishena, hastening?
R. Along with the revelation.
32. S. (58:16) The Kabbalists speak about ‘a narrow bridge’, when we feel fear towards the Creator, to what degree are we in danger of falling off or exiting this connection?
R. I didn't understand the question.
S. There is the concept of ‘a narrow bridge’ so the question is: to what extent when we feel some fear we are in danger of falling off this bridge?
R. If we have a great fear, the right kind of fear, we have nothing to be afraid about. We will cross this very narrow bridge even if it is very, very, very narrow, we'll come to the other side. “Narrow” is from ‘mercy’, Hassadim, so you have nothing to be afraid of. If we are together we will cross this narrow bridge between corporeality and spirituality every time from in order to receive to in order to bestow we pass on one part and another part until we pass all the different parts of the broken will to receive to a safe heaven and to the corrected state.
33. S. (01:00:03) It is written that “the land should be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and I will see an opposite world”, what does this mean?
R. The “land” is the desire, that all the desire will be corrected and then as it’s corrected it will be filled with the upper light, and that’s considered that “I have seen the opposite world”, then all of spirituality will be completely revealed to me.
S. What does it mean that it’s opposite, why is it opposite?
R. Because it is opposite from the will to receive to in order to bestow.
34. S. (01:01:01) What is the spiritual root of fear?
R. The will to receive; when this will to receive stands before the will to bestow, it’s afraid. Will it stay in the will to receive, or can it be able to reach in order to bestow?
35. S. (01:01:33) We learn to awaken love in the ten, that is more clear to us. How do we awaken fear in the ten?
R. It is enough if you awaken love and connection in the ten, out of that you will start feeling how much you have it or not, then the fear will be evoked on its own.
36. S. (01:02:02) What does it mean to be afraid not to be capable of bestowing? Is it measured in my relation to others or in myself?
R. It is measured from a person to the society because with the respect of the society you can measure how much he is in the form of bestowal with respect to the Creator. When we say that the Creator is seemingly He’s in the center of the ten, this is how we speak, that's why that's ‘from the love of others to love of the Creator’, that's how it's called. That's how we should develop these things.
37. S. (01:02:53) What is more important to be concerned about: fear in relation to my ability to bestow to the Creator or fear about in the ten and the possibility to bestow to the Friends?
R. Care for your ten all the time, be concerned about your ten. It’s more important, much more important than that concern about myself.
S. Can I develop a fear of my own without having to help my friends develop fear?
R. If I develop fear, connection, all the qualities toward my friends, I don't need to care about myself, it is redundant.
38. S. (01:03:48) The fear that we are talking about, should I keep us in a state of constant lack?
R. Yes, yes.
39. S. (01:04:05) What is the meaning of the correct fear, is there incorrect fear?
R. There are all kinds of fears, the right kind of fear is ‘can I bestow to my group’, to strengthen so from all of us together we will be able to bestow to the Creator and to give Him contentment from us.
40. S. (01:04:30) If I am concerned that my friends will seem in my eyes greater and greater, is this a correct fear?
R. This is also good, it is on the way.
41. S. (01:04:49) If a person constantly thinks of how is he favored. Liked by his friends, how can he really connect with them?
R. He should try to bestow on and on he’ll come to that from all the states we are in and every time the states are changing. We come to the right kind of state under the condition that we want to keep these states in the ten. It doesn't matter what state I’m in, it doesn't matter to me where I'm yearning, what I want and in general I don't even understand what is going on. However if I want to be connected with all the friends and to be together with them, even though by that maybe I'm losing myself and I'm stopping to think what I used to think about, maybe I'm losing my degree; however if this is the way I think that I want to be mixed with them, truly annulled in them then this is the most correct and spiritual to state.
42. S. (01:06:38) The difference between the fear that I don’t love the friends enough and the fear that the friends will not love me enough?
R. That is, ‘One clothes on the other as the vessel and light’, as direct light and reflected light, you should have these two fears together.
43. S. (01:07:05) We always learned that it doesn't matter that the friend loves me, the most important is that I love the friends and today the topic of fear is actually that I need to be fearful that maybe the friends do not love me. How to relate to that?
R. I’m concerned about my friends loving me. How can I be liked by them; how can I be good to them? I am willing to give them everything so they will accept me, I want them to embrace me, I want to embrace them. Yes, yes, yes, such states we have to establish between us.
44. S. (01:07:55) I am concerned about them embracing me, it’s an egoistic concern, it’s different…?
R. It doesn’t matter, let it be egoistic, the main thing is it’s forward toward the connection between us.
45. S. (01:08:14) Is fear a transition from fear of others to the love of the Creator?
R. Yes.
46. S. (01:08:24) When does the period of preparation end and how do we know about it?
R. Whenever we acquired the first degree of connection between us and with the Creator then that's the end of the preparation time. Everything depends on the connection between us, first of all.
Reading Item #12 “The Lord is my light and my salvation…” (01:09:11)
47. S. (01:10:07) From the fear not to fall from the path, how do we strengthen a friend who grew weaker, what kind of fear should we develop towards that state?
R. An example, try to set an example from the relations between you, not in such a broad, crude way but each should understand that you are in connected states aimed at the goal and you are advancing so you will have envy as a result, ‘why am I not this way?’.
48. S. (01:10:56) Is there a way to define differently what is reflected light in a more emotional way where, maybe some synonyms, some other word, what is reflected light?
R. Reflected light: all my attitude, my relations to the Creator from getting life from Him, connection to the group that’s learning how to connect to the Creator, from me receiving from the environment all kinds of signs that developed me and I have many emotions and all kind of systems that I can connect to Him, all that, everything I relate, basically all my existence that I relate to the Creator is the beginning of the reflected light. As much as I’ve received from Him, my corporeal life with everything I have in it, everything comes from Him. I thank Him for that, that's the beginning of the reflected light.
49. S. (01:12:18) Thank you for a beautiful lesson about fear. Fear has, in this world, like a negative connotation because fear stops us from fulfilling our will to receive but shouldn't fear have a permanent place inside a person like it resides permanently, the same as confidence and faith, like they are the main things that we need to build this connection on the upper force?
R. Yes, that too. We don’t need, we should see here how all these qualities, the good ones, the bad ones, the way it seems to us, all kinds. In short, everything is included in the vessel and there's nothing besides that, that's why as it is written, “the Creator created nothing redundant”. Both bad and good, all you need is to combine the two together correctly and you'll see that all the deficiencies will be complemented by what should be and a complete thing will come. You cannot have one without the other, that's why you shouldn’t curse any situation you get, accept anything that’s coming only as something complete, to compliment. But there's nothing bad in the world, everything is here for the correction, even the worst, the biggest shells, everything. That's why whoever curses something in creation is cursing the Creator because there's nothing else besides Him. So let’s just patiently discover the state, the opposite state, and this is how we compliment creation.
50. S. (01:14:39) In the article it says, “Adam gazed upon the upper light”, and I felt as that the lust, the spiritual lust blinds me somehow because so deeply, so inside I want the divide pleasures, all that fulfillment and all the huge satisfaction that I want to swallow the Creator, like to swallow each part of the Creator. So in this deep yearning for myself, I cannot look out for others, and you say that we shouldn’t curse anything, so if I don't want to curse this, what should I do?
R. Together with the friends you can reach a state where everything that happens to you, you see it as happening for the good.
51. S. (01:16:00) From the beginning of this topic of fear we have a question: in Hebrew it’s fear, Yirah, but in Hebrew, Yirah, fear is two different things?
R. Later you will understand the difference between them and that truly they are two different things. Yirah, Fear and trepidation, there are different words in Hebrew and there are many more words to express this state, there are many modes in it. If you want to talk about semantics and everything, there are not so many words to express any other human feeling like fear, there are about seven hundred words in order to express different types of fears that exist in a person. Because it corresponds to our ego, to our will to receive, that's why there are so many modes of expression, and there are many more but we’re talking only about corporeality where they distinguish seven hundred types of fear. In spirituality there are many more, we will rise above them and thanks to these fears, we are going to rise to their spiritual roots so in place of fear we’ll come to spiritual fear for the Creator, and this will give us our spiritual vessel.
52. S. (01:18:04) In the previous excerpt you said how the “beauty and grace become like dust and what you’re left with is spiritual longing”. So from that angle how should we relate to beauty or grace that we see and really want it?
R. It is you from your life’s experience, understand that you shouldn't look only at beauty but the essence of the matter: who's giving, what is he giving, what for, what are the reasons a person discloses his attitude and so on? Today you might be choosing differently between, let’s say one woman who is beautiful and one woman who is good. And it is clear that this is so that one is beautiful, and this is one is good, what would you choose then? So you are perplexed, that’s why it is written, “the lie of grace the folly of beauty” but you have to choose fear, spiritual fear, Hassadim. Can we do this? Now we are not like little kids anymore and still we see how difficult it is, how our ego, the egoistic will to receive constantly ensures that we don't run away from it, and we’ll always choose to fill ourselves with beauty although it is vain.
S. If I choose a beautiful woman and I thank the Creator for what He gave me, and I want to use the pleasure for Him?
R. This is already a high degree, if you choose the beautiful woman only in order to give thanks to the Creator otherwise you wouldn't have chosen her because she influences your will to receive, she disconnects you from the Creator. But if you take her in order to specifically through her to connect to the Creator, to bestow to Him so you don't consider her, you consider the Creator and how much you can bestow to Him. You don’t feel that you are using her, the woman, that you are deriving pleasure for her at all; rather you are restricting yourself and all the pleasures that you received from her through her beauty, you ascribed it to the Creator. Meaning the woman here stops being in the middle here, you simply received an opportunity to connect to the Creator through her and you ascribe the beauty to the Creator and the ability to bestow to Him, meaning you enter the Creator with all of that and these corporeal things they stop existing relative to you. Good luck to you, if you can do it, it’s a great correction.
53. S. (01:22:22) About what you said about the choice between a beautiful woman and a good one. In the end I choose to love our friends, is this the right choice?
R. Choosing love of friends is choosing a direction, a vessel and then later inside the love of friends we need to process there, all the phenomena that we meet in life.
S. How can I process all this through love of friends?
R. Think about it, think: if I connect to the friends and I want to be inside of them and I want to connect myself to them and in that I am directed to the Creator, I bestow to the Creator. Then in this way I seemingly don’t need anything else. So everything we have and everything that is revealed between the friends after we connect and on top of that, we begin to reveal spiritual discernments.
S. So it turns out that as a principle the pleasure itself stops being important, right? When love of friends compared to the Creator, the pleasure in itself is unimportant, right?
R. Yes, correct, meaning, what is important to us is whom are we connected to, to the Creator all the rest is included in this feeling of connection. I see we have filled ourselves with this topic, now we have to get to the second part.