Morning Lesson August 31, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Lowliness and Subjugation - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #11
1.Rav’s Introduction: What can you say? The Creator that wanted to create the created being, to exist, to feel what the creation is to the extent that you can enjoy what the Creator does, He created him in the desire to receive. That is why all of our work is in the desire, to the extent that we can open it up and to feel not just ourselves, what is within the desire, but what is outside of the desire. Is it possible? No, it is not possible. We are still within the desire but the desire can feel the phenomena that is in it. These are phenomena of reception and the desire can feel that it has in its phenomena of bestowing. Then it seems to him that he feels something that is outside of him. That is why our work is if we want to reach the degree of the Creator, it is to change our perception and qualities from reception to bestowing. These are actually the possibilities. There is nothing in creation other than the created being and the Creator. The will to receive is the created being. The desire to bestow is the Creator. To the extent the desire to receive can suit itself to the sensation of the Creator and not live within himself that he feels something that takes place in his desire, but he can according to his desire to bestow that awakens in him, to feel the Creator. One of these two things we feel either ourselves or that alone. That is why in every single moment we will need to direct ourselves every time to the feeling of the Creator. Because every moment, as it is written, ‘it will be as new in your eyes.’ Whatever took place in the previous moment is erased and we return back to our evil deed, as it is written, if we don't make an effort to the sensation of the Creator.
What does it mean the feeling of the Creator? To the direction where the desire to bestowal will dominate us. This is called faith above reason. Because we don't have the force of bestowing, we have the use of the force of reception in such a way that we directed in order to bestow. This is why to the extent that we aim ourselves to bestow upon the friends in the 10, in accordance we direct ourselves more and more to such an action, eventually we will feel the flavor in the work. That it is good. That we will rise above the actions of reception. Because in all these actions of bestowing we could feel the presence of the Creator. It shines on us with that. That He adds to us the bestowing from His side, His investment, His joy, from us yearning to adhere to Him. That is how we begin to tie, more and more, the feeling of the created being to the Creator. For that we fight to have a greater sensation of this quality of bestowal. For that we need to insist that we have now been given the desire to receive, anew, and we need to place a correction on it, an inclination for bestowing. We need to remember that it is not that we are going back to the force of reception again, but that every time we reveal a new force a reception to clothe on it a new force of bestowing. This is how we will correct all of the parts of reception in us. These records, as they are called, from the shattering, and upon them we will place the force of bestowing, the intention in order to bestow. Until we complete a certain packet of these corrections and then we discover that we have risen to a certain new degree. Then again, we work and work, and again we feel that we have a new sensation, a new understanding, a new perception. That is considered that we have risen again to a higher state.
All of these ascents are called ascent in the process of rising above reason. That we rise above our desire to receive, which is called reason, to a desire to bestow, to the intention in order to bestow, called faith. Faith and bestowing are the same. That is how we go and correct. For the time being, it is felt only in our actions. We try to do so. Maybe we don't even feel the result of these actions. But habit becomes second nature. The more that we get used to it, get used to placing the Creator from our efforts, placing the group to be above us, bestowing above reception, then we begin to feel more that there is a new perception. By that, we acquire the ability to feel new phenomena in bestowing, in comparison to reception. That if I place the group in some form and the Creator above myself, then with that inclination I begin to feel a different attitude to reality, until I begin to feel that reality which is the reality of bestowing, connection, and love. That is already the beginning of the sensation of the upper world. That is how we reach revelation of the Creator to the creative being. Let's read. Yesterday we didn't read at all. We will advance with them, because after the quantity comes the quality.
Excerpt 11 (9:30)
2. R. (10:15) That is according to our simple desire to receive.
Reader continues: “if he did not, he would not be able to lower himself….”
3. R. (10:44) Meaning a person begins to place conditions from his desire to receive. It is natural and legitimate that I don't agree with what the Creator is doing to me; and therefore, if it is unpleasant for me in my desire to receive what the Creator is doing, then I become distant from Him. Just as we distance ourselves from whatever feels to us as unpleasant.
Reader continues: “it follows that this is called proud, since he wants to understand….”
4. R. (11:37) How can it be that I study, and learn, and engage in all kinds of actions that the Kabbalists recommend us to do. How do I, as a response to what I do, feel my life as more miserable? That I don't succeed, I don't find, I don't feel, I don't become wiser. What will be the end and why do I need to engage in this?
Reader continues: “about such a proud person, the Creator says...”
5. R. (11:22) That is even worse. I feel I am becoming distant from the Creator and I understand less about His behavior and His world. Nothing. To such an extent that I feel that this entire business is not correct. The creator doesn't exist. Why should I even invest myself in this entire method?
Reader continues: “But if he lowers himself and says….”
6. R. (13:15) If a person doesn't agree and doesn't feel conditions in what he reveals, from all of the study and the actions and everything. He doesn't feel that it is opening his eyes, new emotions, opening his mind. Then what can you do?
Reader continues: “And it was about him that the verse….”
7. R. (13:58) And here specifically is the place for annulment and subjugation. Meaning to acquire the qualities of bestowing.
Reader continues: “he is rewarded with the Creator bringing him near Him”
8. R. (14:17) In what? In subjugating him and placing him, and giving him all kinds of difficulties, problems, and confusions. And a person feels himself unsuccessful and he doesn't really have where to place himself. He doesn't have the confidence. And then it turns out that he, in that way, can continue on the path to reach the quality, the force of bestowing. That is called ‘he lays the land in the air.’ It is like he is hanging in the air. If he tries to take a few of these steps, where he has no grounds and no foundation, then he begins to feel this new foundation. This is spirituality. An opposite world. A different world with different laws and principles. By that, again and again, in states that he has no ground, if he continues as if he does, then he eventually begins to find in these new states. He begins to find new grounds and new foundations. In that he already discovers the spiritual world.
9. S. (16:22) We just discussed this paragraph in the 10, in the zoom meeting. You said about all of these things, this is the plain desire to receive. But the plain desire to receive, if it was only to bestow, then what does it relate to here? We didn't understand what was written here. Does it mean just to have it good in life, or if he only wants bestowal. What does the paragraph mean here?
R. Whatever is revealed to a person that always comes from the Creator, there is no other force. If a person tries and everything that he feels in life, that it comes from the Creator and he is trying to tie himself to the group and to tie himself back from the group to the Creator, then slowly he begins to find that he has no foundation. Like in our life, in what we engage in the desire to receive. Then the Kabbalists say what you need to do. Do something simple. Imagine that whatever you have in front of you, and you don't want it and you don’t like it, towards the group and connection, to bestowing and so on. So, know that through these actions, you are giving contentment to the Creator. Even though it doesn't seem and feels this way. In spite of that, do these exercises and you will discover that they are above the current egoistic reality and you will begin to feel an upside-down world. Try to do that and you will see how you are capable of building these actions above reason. You will feel where you need the assistance of the Creator to not fall from them. Then you will begin to act and to work with the 10, and with the Creator, together, in order to rise above the degree of reception to the degree of bestowing.
We need to begin to work here. It is like a baby that starts walking. When he is held, supported, and helped in whatever possible. This takes strength from him. Until he finds even the ability to stand up on two legs, on two feet. It's not simple. It's not easy. How can someone stand up on two legs? Four is okay, like a chair or a table, but on two? There is great wisdom there to stand up on two legs. And we see that we are slowly putting a lot of strength into this. Through the habits that we build in our mind and in our muscles, we begin to already walk and then even not to think about how we are walking. It is the same in spirituality. We want to walk in spirituality. We need to think and to fall and again to stand up. To place ourselves facing the Creator through the group. Only then in such a way, will we acquire a new quality, new feelings of what it means to stand on two legs, where there is a connection here between the legs and the mind, the brain. How to not fear falling and how to place one foot and then to where. This is a system that we need to activate. The system is called bestowing above reception, or faith above reason. So let us try and start working with it, going into the spiritual world. We are already in the opening, only we need to activate our vessels here.
S. The articles of Rabash that we read, are they deterministic? Meaning, we must go through everything that he writes, we have to go through all of these stops?
R. Yes. If we understand them correctly and if we read the appropriate articles to our state, then whatever he writes, he writes practically and only that way.
10. S. (22:13) We always work with the intention to bestow but we don't always have the power to implement it and the question is will we ever have the strength to bestow or to always be in the Creator’s hands?
R. No we will acquire the strength to bestow and then we will ourselves be able to be still on the Creator.
11. S. (22:28) I heard you say that the only thing we need to do is activate our vessels. What exactly is this to activate our vessel? When I hear you describe the action of going above reason it feels like this is already above the wire where I cannot do anything so what is activating our vessels?
R. We don't need to think if it is above embryo or it is after I am born, it will be clarified later. What is important for me is that I am now standing on my will to receive and seeing how to build the degree that is higher than me which is the degree of bestowal. How do I build it? What is the difference between my will to receive, now, to all of creation as the will to receive that we can't escape. That with this will to receive that I am working towards and with it like with the force of bestowing. How can Malchut become Bina? Bina is the force of bestowal and considered the next world, how can this be? That Malchut will turn into Bina? It says she can't do it, you are correct as this is impossible. How do I turn the desire to receive the Malchut, that I work with it like the will to bestow?
It is possible as the Kabbalists say, so that if you work on your desire, on your will to receive and you act that way because you have a Will to receive and a large desire to receive. Now try within your will to receive whatever you want to rise above and do this in a way that you want to do good to the Creator. Instead of having a desire to yourself, invert and rise above with the inclination to the Creator and you will see how you build this on that. You stay in your will to receive and alongside of that, you rise with your inclination to the Creator. By that even though you are in this world, in the will to receive you still on that build a new degree. Try to do that as it is faith above reason, the force of Bina that determines the quality of the action, dominates the Malchut, will to receive, and then in such a way that even though you want to receive but you are doing something that the Creator wants and not you. By that, you begin to advance towards bestowal and your actions that you do this way, you place yourself instead of to receive, to bestow this is called a Mitzvah, from the word for Commandment. That the Creator commands us to do and then by that we suit ourselves more and more to Him
12. S. (27:34) Is there a contradiction between nullifying before the upper one and building a new quality towards the upper one?
R. I know there are great differences here, if I simply cancel myself to the other one in what to do I annul myself, I restrict myself and this is the action. It is not exactly felt as my own but it is felt as annulment, as my annulment. That I don't want to work with my will to receive and I still don't see myself what I want. Still the voice of bestowal with respect to who and what, isn't felt. I only annul my will to receive and after that I need to stabilize myself in a way in what am I giving? Who do I learn how to give from the Creator and who do I give to, in what way in what am I give and how would you feel this action of giving? Meaning faith above reason -- that I place myself above the course of reception and this is a new state called the upper world, the spiritual world or the next world. Why the next world? Because it is called the next world in Hebrew, Olam HaBa - Ba means come, it's coming as a result of my effort, that we come closer to bestowing the quality of Bina. By that, through equivalence to form we begin to feel the Creator that is clothed in us, and saying, where are you? I've been waiting for you for so long".
S. As I think about what you have said, let's think about the embryo, the embryo is passing through the mother, the womb, and actually the embryo is not the one who is building that, so the Creator maybe is building that, not us?
R. Correct but according to our desire and our invitation and our requests. He does not do anything; he doesn't build anything without us needing it and asking for it. He doesn't do anything forcefully.
S. How do I grow my desire in order to activate Him?
R. That is in the group, if you will do it through the group, it will be clear to you what to do. Not that the group is smarter but that the Creator takes care of the entire group, of everyone and when he does this then you will feel in the connection in the consideration of the group you will feel what is corrected in order to generate bestowal from the Creator to that.
13. S. (31:29) When my desire becomes the desire for the revelation of the Creator it is basically to feel good. Is this still the will to receive and what can I do with the fact that I feel pleasure to be here, with Bnei Baruch, how do I find the bestowal in it?
R. You don't need to want to suffer and think of the action itself but of the quality of the action, reception is this world and bestowing is the upper world. All of reality that is outside of us, outside meaning from our will to receive it is in the quality and in the forces bestowal. This is why I want this force of bestowal to be clarified and to be born in me and by this I will be able to feel this upper reality that exists, but he doesn't feel it because it's in a different dimension. I live in the corporeal dimension, this world, and besides this there is a whole wide world filled with things and they are in such conditions not in three axes like we are in, but in places that they are here but we do not feel them. That we go through them and they go through us and there's no connection between us. How can we feel them? We need to rise above our perception. Our perception is in the will to receive, placing us in these three dimensions, in these three axes and by this we feel our existence and we need to rise above them. Rising above them is acquiring a new dimension and level which is the force of bestowal. Meaning working not according to the will to receive but the will to bestow and by that we need to push ourselves and it will be revealed more and more We will find out how simple it was, that we didn't feel it, we didn't know it We will find how we can enter the new world, it's like going through some border and this this barrier is in our sensations that we can't cross because this barrier is the quality of bestowal. That to the extent that we place it in ourselves that we will be able to feel it and we will be able to transform to the quality of Bina, to the quality of bestowal.
14. S. (35:14) We want to wish you a happy birthday!
R. In the Torah, a birthday was mentioned only one time, a birthday for Pharaoh.
S. How do we feel the Creator every moment if we don't actually know what the Creator is?
R. We don't see and we don’t feel; we need to build it within our qualities because whatever we feel and locate is from our senses. So how do we build the Creator in our sense? I learned that anything I can feel I feel according to the equivalence of form with my God, which is everything in my will to receive to whatever is outside. That there is something outside. I then need to find vessels in the quality of bestowal, in the quality of Bina, in my will to receive. Then in these vessels I begin to find, according to bestowal, I begin to feel the Creator and by that I correct my will to receive that besides it being able to identify actions and phenomena of the will to receive it will also be begin to able to develop discernment of the will to bestow.
My vessels of Malchut will then get the qualities of Bina. Malchut and Bina together build a new infrastructure where I feel the upper world, the world of bestowal and also the upper force which is called the Creator. All of our work is about how to obtain the forces of bestowal. We understand that the Creator broke the Kli of Adam HaRishon so that through the connection between us, we want to connect in order to bestow upon Him otherwise we won't connect. If we connect in order to bestow upon the Creator, we build the correct connection of the shattered Malchut through the forces of Bina. Bina helps us glue together the different shattered parts of Malchut in order for it to be one. Bina and Malchut together. This place will then be worthy to feel the quality of bestowal in the will to receive and this place will be called Shechina. We reveal the Creator called the Dweller, in the Shechina. That’s how we need to work.
S. Can we see ourselves practically as Malchut and the group as Bina?
R. There will be many additions to that but you can imagine that for the time being.
15. S. (39:51) Rabash gives the example of the owner of the restaurant who gives pleasure to the guests but receives money and honor for this. When we change will we see the world through the perspective of love?
R. We need to do actions which are called ‘faith above reason’. I need to depict actions of bestowal instead of actions of reception. I need to do exercises like we spoke about when children start walking or doing something. They don't know how but they try. We push them and give them examples. You place your child’s foot and then the next foot, and then he gradually begins to understand what he needs to do and he starts to walk. We do the same. For every action, for every state that you are in, ask is it for my benefit or the benefit of the group and the Creator? If I ask myself then I already have an opportunity to scrutinize either for myself or to the group and the Creator. If it is to the group and the Creator, it is considered that I am in bestowal in the force of faith, and if it is in contrast to what I am, this is called ‘faith above reason’, the force of bestowing above reason. Bina above Malchut. Slowly we need to think about these things and they will be clarified.
16. S. (42:08) Is subjugation and faith above reason the same?
R. You are asking in what way do I reach this action of faith above reason. The action is relatively simple. I am in a certain state and I need to check: am I doing this for my own benefit or for the benefit of the group? If I see this is for my own benefit, then I have to try to change the direction of my intention within me to benefit the group. That means that I make an action with the power of faith. Faith means bestowal above reception. Meaning if I first thought about how I benefit, now I think about how the group benefits or how the Creator benefits. Then I shift from myself to the group and then the Creator. How do I do this? Like it is written, ‘make your will as His will’ and then you will see that the Creator is making His will as your will. He approaches you; He helps you, and you feel that you have some kind of contact and closeness to Him.
17. S. (44:10) What does it mean to love the Creator? How to prove to Him that I love Him even when I am in lowliness and not to fall in my will to receive?
R. It is like what I just said. I need to see where I am directing the result of what I am in in each and every state, in each and every moment. Do I want it to be better for the group and through that to the Creator? The Creator generally doesn't exist. It is the totality of the group that needs to appear to me as the Creator because through the group I receive the feedback of the Creator. I need to discover the Creator as the collective influence of the group towards me. Like the group is the screen I am looking at and the more that we can position the group, to align it with the Creator, through that I receive the projection of the Creator. Don't be afraid that the group can fool, trick, or confuse you. If that happens, it is the Creator. Look what Rabash writes. The Creator stands behind the friends. Look into these articles. We will discover, in practice, without a lot of introductions and philosophies and theories, that the Creator stands behind the group and becomes revealed through the group.
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The Zohar writes about this everywhere. The group of Rabbi Shimon discovered this method. It wasn't clear before them what was happening because they came later after all of the groups of Kabbalists that were established following Abraham in ancient Babylon, the exile in Egypt and coming back to the land of Israel, the First temple, the Second Temple. The group of Rabbi Shimon was established in the second century, if we look at the historical time. They felt the power of a group after all of these shatterings, and so the main thing they talk about is how through the group we discover the force of the Creator. This is the whole wisdom of Kabbalah. All the Kabbalists keep reinforcing and developing this method from the Book of Zohar on until our time, most importantly in our time. Soon you will see, for better or worse, that the whole world will have to achieve global connection.
18. S. (48:25) How can we shift from a psychological level to the heart level?
R. Only by the light that reforms. He understands his heart does not agree but according to his mind, he understands what needs to happen. He then has a dilemma: is he working with his mind or with his heart? In His heart he stays where he is and he can't do otherwise; in his mind, he can confuse himself and think differently. Many thoughts run through a person's mind. That’s why you are told you need to heed what the kabbalists say and try. You are not losing anything here. You’re trying, you are making attempts, and the Creator gives us these opportunities. We have to make an attempt. As I am now thinking what could be for my benefit, how would I do something for my desire to receive? How would I do it if I would want to bring contentment to the Creator in this present state? How do I align myself to the group? The ten and the Creator are on the same line. This is called ‘Israel, the light and the Creator are one’.
How do I do this? When I align everything up this way, I discover I am in a force of bestowal in a direction of giving, of connecting, and all of it is built on the basis of instead of thinking of doing good to myself I am thinking of doing good to the Creator through the group. Where does this manifest toward the Creator? In the group because the Creator, Himself, has no deficiency so when I do that, I start seeing a difference between me and the group. I push myself, pull myself, into the group until we become one body and from this single body, I feel that there I unite with the Creator. It is not such a complicated action. Try and you will see that it is possible to rise from Malchut to Bina, and then the whole wisdom of Kabbalah will seem simple. What's in it? Five phases, five discernments: Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and Malchut. We will travel through them, install all of them, and you will see what it is.
19. S. (52:16) Let's say I do an action for the benefit of the ten but I also know I profit from it. Should I still do the action?
R. You need to do exercises: this way and that way, for my benefit, the benefit of the Creator, the group. How can I be together with the group? The Creator? Is it the same? I am not the same yet. What does it mean to be for their benefit or for my benefit? Play with that. Play and you will see how suddenly you feel that you can be there. I'm asked many times what is ‘faith above reason’? It is very simple: if I want to do something for myself but I am thinking of how to do good to my friend and even though I am not attuned to that but I try to do good to him instead of doing good to myself, replacing my desire but his desire as the goal of my action, that’s why I do my action, that means I am making an action of bestowal. My action is then called ‘faith above reason’, bestowal above the force of reception, above my desire to receive. There are more interpretations, details, and levels of this. The whole spiritual ladder is built this way until the final correction but at least with this we can begin to get ourselves used to making spiritual actions, actions of Bina, actions of faith.
20. S. (55:25) We learned we feel the exact opposite the more we advance on the spiritual path. We don't feel it, we don’t feel that we advance in spirituality.
R. Right.
S. The feelings are feelings of rejection and everything that comes along with that. Where does this continue? When does it change?
R. That is exactly what we are talking about now, how to make our actions from receiving for ourselves where we feel rejection towards spirituality, toward actions of bestowal. Spirituality is actions of bestowing, thoughts of bestowal. It is all bestowal, all the nature of the Creator. We learn exactly how we can move from the force of reception to the force of bestowal and work on that. I don't have the force of bestowing. Just like all of you, I am completely made up of a will to enjoy, to receive for myself. So how do we make ourselves into a force of bestowal? In truth we cannot. The only force of bestowal is the Creator and we are only a force of reception. However, if I replace my intention when I make actions for the benefit of someone, that can appear as a force of bestowal.
What does that mean? If I now make an action for the benefit of the group and by that I relinquish my desire to receive, I examine what the group wants. I shift my intentions to them: how to help them, benefit them, nurture and connect them. I essentially replace my will to receive with their will to receive, and this means to me that I am going with a force of bestowal. According to my nature, this means that I am working with the force of bestowal above the force of reception. I build two levels in me: the lower level is my desire to receive, and the upper level is the group's desire to receive. I work toward the will to receive of the group.
I position these two levels in my mind and my heart so that I am on the level of faith. The degree of bestowal is what is important to me now, of Bina above the degree of Malchut, the degree of reception. This is called ‘faith above reason’. I have built these two levels in me. I start working between these levels towards the group. Bina and Malchut, Malchut and Bina. This is how I build a Partzuf in me between these two levels. In between the difference of the force of reception and the force of bestowal, the gap between Malchut and Bina, is where I begin to sense the spiritual world, the Creator. In my will to receive, in Malchut, all I feel is this world on its most superficial level.
This is the system, the template by which we begin to enter the spiritual world. Try to think about this more and more. Children don’t feel, hear, or see anything at first. Their five senses develop and they don't sense anything at the very beginning, but then they begin to respond to stimuli and make actions and through the actions they develop and evolve. I hope that from these activities between us that we will achieve that. I really am expecting that and anticipating that. There is a lot of action and work that is awaiting us in this realm between Bina and Malchut., That's where we truly need to be to acquire this realm, between these desires that we have of reception and bestowal. This is where we begin to work, where we begin to feel all of the upper world and everything that is written in all the books of Kabbalah about all of the different forces and discernments. You will then see the whole of reality from one end of the world to the other. You won't be able to explain this to others, of course, because they won't have the same vessels of perception or sensation that you have. You won't have a common language with them but we will have a common language.
21. S. (01:02:24) Why is the upper World revealed between Malchut and Bina? Why isn't it Bina, the quality of bestowing itself what is between?
R. That is a good question. It is because there are no discernments in Bina if Malchut is not included in Bina. We can't approach a quality of bestowal. You can't approach it. It is the Creator; we don't see Him or discover Him or sense Him. If we are included in the Creator, in the force of bestowal in our force of reception then the difference between these two forces of reception and bestowal is where we can differentiate and measure and compare to discover what exists because as created beings we can't be in a single quality. That means we can't feel anything, if someone puts you in some single quality you won't discover anything. We always exist between some discernments, like black and white and then in the contrast, the difference between them we can feel and this is in anyway sense and any discernment we make. Anything that we sense, in any discernment that we make. Anything that there is, is not a single quality. There is a zero and then there is something opposite, and something different from that zero. That's how we count, that is where the numbers come from. That's where everything comes from. There has to be a difference, this is how the created being perceives.
S. The created being that is looking from an objective perspective from the quality of bestowal, the quality of reception. There he finds new discernments which are called the spiritual world?
R. Yes.
22. S. (01:04:49) Almost every lesson, at least once, you use the word ‘confusion’. Sometimes you say get confused like little kids do and sometimes you say I'm afraid that you will get confused. Should we get confused or not?
R. I’ll tell you, I’ll explain. It is said that the contradiction of the elderly is construction and the contradiction of the younger ones is destruction, meaning it depends on who does what. Getting confused is good, it is impossible that we moved from one degree to the next, from one state to the next if we don't go through confusion, a little bit of shattering because you replace the data, you discover a new observation on reality and so you have to as if erase what you had before, blur it out. Then you come to a connection, a new connection between all of the components of the picture and then you can see something new. That’s also what we see in our life whether we like it or not, we have day and night that keeps happening. There is a time of peace and a time of war, so to speak, there are times of being closer and times of being farther. It’s something that is needed, it’s required whether it is in the family, in the workplace, in your intimate life. You need to go through changes and these changes result from the shattering. Because without the shattering, without feeling differences between states, we can't sense and research and attain any of the states themselves, that’s how it is.
23. S. (01:07:17) When the ten is like annulled and subjugated as one, how should we direct ourselves to this flavor in the work?
R. To the extent that we can, as Malchut, that’s what we are, to the extent that we can resemble Bina, connect to Bina, connect ourselves to Bina, connect between us on the level of Bina, of bestowal, that’s where we feel differences between us and Bina, and then we learn what is Bina. Bina is called Elokim, God or the Creator, because Keter and Hochma, we don't attain them, we attain everything in Bina. And so, then, if we try to incorporate with it, by that we study the upper force, we study ourselves, we go into eternity and wholeness, the degree of Bina is everything. That’s what we work on and when we are already on the level of Bina, then besides the force of bestowal, we can also work with the will to receive in order to bestow as if we raise the Malchut elevated to the level of Bina and then, from the level of Bina we start working towards the level of Keter, that’s already receiving in order to bestow. That’s very lofty work.
S. It’s not clear. What does it mean, at the same time to include Malchut into Bina and to be subjugated or annulled at the same time?
R. If we nullify the Malchut, we are included in Bina. There is no other way, this is the matter of restriction, annulment, shifting the Malchut itself to the level of Bina or including it in Bina. That’s called that ‘’the darkness shines as light’’, meaning that with the will to receive, with the coarseness, thickness, we want to work in order to bestow and so on.
24. S. (01:10:23) It is difficult work when you try and rise above yourself and connect to the desires of the friends. But when you succeed doing that, then you’re in a state of annulment. What is the work there? What do you do when you already include yourself in the friend's desires?
R. Try to connect everyone according to your own strength, not in physical activities. This is something that you should be cautious of, that you won’t start to try to bring them together like some kindergarten nanny. So, try to become included in them and if you enter them, and you want to live and feel them within, there you discover the Creator that exists in them because the Creator resides inside creation, He sustains creation, He enlivens everyone and then you will start feeling that you have the ability to somewhat connect with the Creator insides the friends.
S. What does it mean to connect to the Creator within the friends?
R. It’s that you want to go with faith above reason, meaning with the force of bestowal against your force of reception, your force of reception is Malchut, the force of bestowal is Malchut. You want to position the will to bestow as higher, more appreciated, more important than your force of receiving, and then this is called by faith above reason by appreciating bestowal more than reception, that’s how you aim yourself to a certain action. Let's say that you want to do something now and then you stop yourself, and you say ‘wait’, what if it’s for my benefit or for the benefit of the group, or the Creator? If it’s clear to you, for the benefit of the Creator you would do something opposite, something else, this means you would do differently, this means that you make an action of bestowal instead of reception, but you prefer the desire of the Creator which manifests typically in bestowing and connecting, you prefer that as opposed to your force of reception. Let's say you have to wake up for the lesson and be together with everyone or to continue hanging out or sleeping, what do you prefer? So, let's say that's an action that you want to keep sleeping but you still wake up because you make a calculation that you are doing it by faith above reason for the benefit of the Creator.
S. Let's say I prefer the desire of their friends, I’m in their desire, incorporated and I feel one desire of the ten. What does it mean that I am bestowing to the Creator?
R. You can't give anything to the Creator, He doesn't have the force of reception. If you want to annul yourself, to bestow from yourself to the Creator, you express it, you do it in the society. That’s why the Creator shattered the vessel, the general vessel, so that you will be able by collecting this vessel and bestowing to it, you are presenting it to the Creator to fill it. By that you’re bringing Him contentment, you’re doing a favor to Him, bestowing to Him. But we don't have the possibility of expressing ourselves towards the Creator unless we do so through bestowing to others, that’s why it is written ‘’from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator’’. To the extent in which you love the created beings, you bestow to them and advance them towards connection and correction, by that you are leading them towards the Creator for Him to correct them, for Him to connect them, fill them. By that you are doing benefit to the Creator because He enjoys bestowing and you’re giving Him the possibility to bestow. You are doing it in equivalence of form with Him because you're bestowing to them, those created beings, and you're bestowing to the Creator by this as well, meaning our common work with the Creator is in people, within the group, the ten, and then humanity.
25. S. (01:16:17) The will to receive that has this tendency to want to steal for itself, so it is so magnetized to do this, so do the exercises that you mentioned offset or better yet form some kind of ability to steal from the ego as opposed to the ego always trying to steal from our intention?
R. I will tell you, a child that is born a baby even by existing he already gives pleasure to his mother, she enjoys from him existing but later she checks whether he is healthy, whether he does something, is he progressing in some way. Let's say maybe he speaks or turns to her, smiles at her, responds and so on, meaning she already demands from him some response. Later more and more until he grows accordingly and more is demanded of him until he is punished if he doesn't progress enough, sufficiently and correctly. That is how we need to understand that from this example what we need to do with ourselves in spirituality, we need to know what the Creator actually needs to do with us and how we accordingly respond correctly to Him.
26. S (01:18:19) Yesterday we had two cases in the 10 that friends got an unpleasant state in their family and it caused the whole ten to connect even more and necessity was felt, so how can we in the 10 create such a necessity for connection without going through such states?
R. Try to do this without sorrowful states but if this happens nevertheless, we need to accept this coming from the Creator and that we really need all the states in order to advance more and more in the unification between us, in the connection between us and just to make more and more efforts of connection. But in the whole process of connection where we connect together and this is very, very good that we are now not so capable of being so together physically, because being physical confuses us. When we are in the same area and the same place but rather, we need more and more to connect our desires and thoughts, our mind and heart as it is written. If we connect this from ourselves, each one of us then there's the ability to come closer to the revelation of the Creator, the forces of reception to force of bestowal, the sources of all that is happening to us, the reason and then more and more intensively we will advance from one stage to another.
S. What is the correct way to look at it as the Creator pressure for us to advance?
R. Certainly, what is happening to us all from the Creator and we need to accept everything as a call where He is drawing us to Him, but to him it is considered to be a connection.
27. S. (01:20:48) I want to try and scrutinize and thank you for these amazing lessons and the whole lesson you are speaking about, the actions of the bestowal against action of reception, it is not clear you said that from bestowal we will reach a stage we are expecting you to give someone an example when a person wakes up it is the physical actions are deeds
R. So what?
S. In this case it is clear but how can we practice actions of bestowal when you don't have anything physical to do? During the day you are away and working, what does it mean to practice?
R. Listen to the lesson, hear the lesson and again and again in one ear listen to the lesson and you will see to the extent to the degree you are engaged in something else it works.