Morning Lesson December 31, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 26, 1987. What Is a Light Commandment?
Reading Article. (00:33) “It is written, ‘And it shall come to pass…’”
1. Rav intro (28:35): What is the impression, questions?
2. S. (28:54) What does it mean that the Creator gives us a sign to observe a Mitzva? What is this sign?
R. It is a sign that we see that we have an opportunity at some moment in some state to perform an act of bestowal, that is the sign.
S. What is to hear, to hear the Mitzva? It says, on the one hand, we need to hear the Mitzva, and on the other, to accept the sign in it. What does it mean to hear it?
R. To hear is to understand the meaning of the act itself, with what intention as much as possible, with what action, and through what action we can perform in order to make room for the Creator’s answer.
S. This is the end of the action in the initial thought. Can we say it like that?
R. Yes.
3. S. (30:17) He says that each person defines for himself what is a light Mitzva, it's a personal matter. What is the light in a great Mitzva?
R. Yes, how a person interprets. It may be according to the action, it may be according to the intention, as much as he understands it, by what does he sort the commandments.
S. We're living in the Ten, we have to come to something common, so one defines one thing as light or grave, the others as something else.
R. Over time it connects. There are views, and desires, and thoughts that pass from one to the other and in this way, everyone begins to think, understand, feel the same.
S. Then everyone will begin to define what is the light or great Mitzvah the same way?
R. Yes, well not to the same extent but more or less in the same way.
4. S. (32:15) Why did our sages even define that there are light and grave commands if we should ignore it?
R. Why ignore?
S. That’s what it says. You have to keep the light ones as much just like the grave ones.
R. According to our nature we relate differently to these and to those and we have to relate to each and every commandment seemingly as if it is the Creator's will and therefore it does not matter if it's great or small, grave or light.
S. Why do they say that some are grave, some are light, what for?
R. So that we would see to it that we want to elevate ourselves to a level where all the actions of the Creator will be for us important.
5. S. (33:16) Is what we should do is to let the Creator decide what I need to do in the end?
R. No, I need to come to a state where I show the Creator that I will decide this or that and then I hear His response from Him.
S. I'm trying to get to a state where I am willing to do this and that doesn't matter what, and then I tell him, decide, I'm ready for both scenarios.
R. Well, let's put it this way. In the beginning, it's like that, afterwards we will see what is a more correct way to do it.
6. S. (34:25) From the moment we get up in the morning until the end of the day there are many opportunities, light or grave commandments are according to what the person decides and we don't always get to do everything. So naturally I do what seems to be more important for the Ten or for my advancement, so how to decide what is important and what is not?
R. If you are incorporated with a group then whether you want to or not you sort out which is important.
S. Should I give more importance to those commandments that I take lightly, those Mitzvot that I consider light?
R. No, what is more important is to what extent you, through scrutinizing the actions, you scrutinize them with the friends.
7. S. (35:25) Where can a person tell, where is the choice and where is the commandment, the Mitzva? I'm asking because I can sit and live in a feeling attained, the feeling that There's None Else Besides Him, and just dwell in it, but I cannot actually add more effort, and more effort, and more effort. The question is where does a person decide that up to here is a commandment or a Mitzva, from this point on there is a choice and how does he arrange himself in what effort to be in?
R. It is to the extent that he, through the friends, adheres to the Creator. There is no other way to scrutinize.
S. Are those actions of rising to bestow in order to bestow and to receive in order to bestow is the meaning of observing the commandments, the Mitzvot? Those actions, are they Mitzvot?
R. Yes, you decide to bestow in order to bestow or receive in order to bestow, you decide what to do.
S. Is there a choice here or is it a commandment?
R. You weigh, so of course there's a choice, which action, for whom is the action, etc.
S. In the environment, where we are in the environment these actions become something that a person does more willingly. It flows better. How does he turn the action into more than that?
R. It is organizing these actions so they are all, how should I put it, toward connection with the friends in order to bestow. The Ten should be in front of him and behind it the Creator.
S. These actions, we truly need to reach a state where we are always in these actions every minute, that's what we have to get to? That is what we have to get to?
R. Yes.
8. S. (38:31) Who are the angels in spirituality and why do they doubt the Creator?
R. These are helping forces that help us be more directed toward the goal.
9. S. (38:49) What does it mean to argue with the angels in the spiritual work?
R. When a person feels where he has freedom of choice, freedom of action and therefore he determines this.
10. S. (39:24) If to speak in the synagogue during the prayer is a transgression, then also speaking and writing between the friends during the lesson is also a transgression?
R. If it's not really urgent that it has to be done it is a transgression because by this, he is deviating himself from the right thoughts and also from the one that he writes to, and maybe the other people as well because he's giving them an example.
11. S. (40:04) What turns one commandment into a light one and another into a grave one?
R. Basically, it is a person's attitude or approach. If for him the light and grave commandments weigh the same, then this is already either he completely neglects them, or he already performs them on a spiritual level.
12. S. (40:44) How can a person be meticulous about keeping and observing the Mitzvot so he will constantly strengthen his friends on the way to the goal and hasten their path and not be a burden?
R. Here the question is, is he doing it in order to receive or in order to bestow? Understand? If it is in order to receive then he needs only to remind himself that he is either losing or gaining. If it is in order to bestow then it is already a different calculation, to what extent he disconnects from his goal, personal goal, and begins to rise to the level of bestowal.
13. S. (41:57) What are the Mitzvot in the group, in the Ten? Do I need to know all of the 613 Mitzvot in order to advance spiritually?
R. No, I should not even think about them or know them by heart. I need only to know one thing, that I have to connect with the friends in desires, in thoughts, in actions and in intentions and goals as one, and If I connect us, all of us, into one as we do for example with the four species on Sukkot when we hold all of the species together of plants, and by this I'm doing something right.
14. S. (43:07) He speaks about increasing the glory of the Creator in the world. What does it mean?
R. Dissemination, simple. Afterwards, there will be spiritual actions but in the meantime, it is dissemination.
15. S. (43:38) He ends the article on the place, the Creator’s place, and it’s not clear if the person that makes the place for the Creator or the Creator makes the place for Himself.
R. The Creator Himself is called the place, Makom and everything exists in Him, and it is not like He is in a place, but everyone is in Him.
16. S. (44:24) I want to say that I truly enjoy the articles by Rabash, they impart great light, and I can search within me where I have to cleanse inside of me. So, what I understood is that the action is not that important whereas the intention, suppose I’m doing this action, right? I’ll give you an example. In the morning, I was scrutinizing with myself if I should come here or not. I thought about the friends, but I said well, what do the friends care, right? Then I said, well maybe Rav can see you and, in the end, I said, you know what, I want to do something good to the Creator and I know, I can feel it, I know that this is the right place where I need to be, to put in the best effort that I can. So, this intention is pure?
R. According to your scrutiny, yes.
S. This is what we have to do all the time to feel the clearest intention we can come to the purest?
R. Yes.
17. S. (46:32) It says here, because of that the Creator cannot give you delight and pleasure and if so you should understand why specifically the light Mitzvot are the reason as if they somehow prevent him from giving the created beings all the delight and pleasure, what does it mean?
R. Reader, can you read what he wants to read?
Reading: (47:21) We cannot say that it means that even light Mitzvot should be observed. It should have said simply that if one Mitzva of the 613 Mitzvot is missing, you will not receive what He has promised to the forefathers. However, the words ‘light Mitzvot’ imply that because they are light Mitzvot, the Creator cannot give the delight and pleasure. Therefore, we should understand why specifically the light Mitzvot are the reason as though they prevent the giving of delight and pleasure to the creatures.
R. So, what is he asking?
S. Why are the light commandments preventing the giving of the pleasure to the creatures?
R. The person slights them, that is the answer.
S. Meaning if I observe the Torah and the Mitzvot then I do something for my friends?
R. If you are performing Torah and Mitzvot, commandments, then of course you are already facing the Creator, you are in front of Him.
18. S. (49:00) Why do the commandments of love your friend as yourself mean that we realize all the 613 Mitzvot?
R. Love your neighbor as yourself includes all the commandments that's the way it is. It is higher and more comprehensive, more inclusive than all of them.
S. In this way you keep the Mitzvot, you observe them?
R. If we do it correctly, love of others, then we are performing all of the commandments because in the end observing all of the commandments makes up the sum of them, makes up that one commandment love your neighbor as yourself.
19. S. (50:25) At the end of the article it says that alms giving is greater than charity, what is the difference between alms giving and charity?
R. All these are tough things we need to learn about it more and we will surely read about it in a few more Rabash articles but for now there's no room for me to explain this. There are many discernments in this, we need to look it up where it is written about it.
20. S. (51:40) If we work in receiving in order to bestow, in that state it follows that if we are working on our great coarseness, on a big coarseness it seems more important.
R. The greater the coarseness and you wish to receive in order to bestow that we are making a greater reflected light and we're bringing more contentment.
S. Exactly, so in that state the person feels that with great coarseness it’s more important, he feels more importance in what he does.
R. Yes, if it is in order to bestow then the greater the coarseness the reflected light is greater as well.
S. In that state it turns out that the importance is inverted when we are working in receiving in order to bestow?
R. Yes that's why it is called reflected light.
21. S. (53:01) What should we talk about in the Ten so we can come to something common, to a discernment, what is a light and grave commandment?
R. I cannot say now but it's clear that the commandment of love is the hardest and the final one and before that all the other Mitzvot.
22. S. (53:44) It seems like in the work we are constantly in the state of expectation, expectations from the friends, expectations from the Creator, that state seems like it makes us want to receive all the time. How can we come out of that state of constantly expecting from the Creator and the friends?
R. Another question. This question I'm not prepared to answer right now.
23. S. (55:08) How can I feel vessels of bestowal so that I myself will want it?
R. I didn’t understand, again.
S. How can I feel vessels of bestowal by myself so that I myself can want it?
S. I think he's asking about the last paragraph, it says that a person gives this place to the Creator, so he’s asking how to feel that there is such a place of vessels of bestowal and then invite the Creator over there.
R. I do not know. I don't know.
24. S. (56:42) The Creator wants many guests because his tower is filled with a lot of abundance, and he wants us to be there. What does it mean for us, what do we need to do to get invited, let's say, to be His guests? How can we help each other to be His guests to receive all of this abundance?
R. Prepare vessels that are in order to bestow otherwise you won’t be able to enter this tower.
S. We need to be prepared to do it only for His sake?
R. Yes, certainly.
S. Only then we can receive this abundance?
R. Yes.
S. How can we prepare such an action in our Ten to receive all this abundance to get invited by the Creator in this place, in this tower?
R. Through the connection between us, by this we're building such vessels that can receive in order to bestow, in the connection between us.
S. Only through prayer to each other?
R. Yes, yes.
25. S. (58:43) We had a very special preparation with a very special time of silence where we tried to make a connection in the hearts, and you are answering us now that we need to make connection. How can we add something to this realm where our hearts are one because we now have this practical exercise at the start of the lesson, how can we use this in such a way that we truly become more connected?
R. Delve into the exercise and talk between you. That will bring you the foundation into which you’ll need to dig and as you go deeper, you’ll understand it more.
26. S. (01:00:21) We scrutinize how to perform light or grave commandments and here it says a person has to come to a degree where he can respond with complete confidence that the Creator created us for His glory. How as a result of all these actions do we come to that state?
R. When we connect all of us, we feel the vessel, the common vessel, and then in this common vessel we truly feel that we are boundless, we are in a round vessel, the circle of a vessel, and the Creator is with us and we are with Him and there are no limitations on anything.
27. S. (01:01:23) By observing commandments will we gradually acquire vessels of bestowal?
R. Yes.
S. If in the Ten we decide that each one cares for the other are we performing an act of bestowal by this and building a place for the Creator?
R. Yes.
28. S. (01:01:52) To continue the question about love your friend as yourself. Loving is not expecting anything in return? Is this a light commandment and a grave commandment therefore is to express my love through actions, is this correct?
R. Yes, we need to understand that love is the action of the Creator, it’s one-way giving. Therefore, it’s the highest commandment, Mitzva.
29. S. (01:02:47) Why is the commandment of loving your neighbor as yourself the highest because basically it’s a means to come to love the Creator or do they connect?
R. They connect. Both love the Lord your God and love your friend as yourself, all of it is done as love of others, in this we connect.
30. S. (01:03:30) All the other commandments up to the commandment of love your neighbor as yourself, are they preparation?
R. These are partial commandments that connect, combine, and are included in this general commandment.
S. If a person decides which is light and which is grave where’s the Creator and how do we come to the connection?
R. Later, later.
S. He writes here, the truth is that a person has to come to a state where he has the ability to say wholeheartedly blessed our God who created us for His glory. To be able to say that He created us for his glory, why does he say wholeheartedly? It makes me think that you can do it half-heartedly. What are these two states wholeheartedly and half-heartedly?
R. Peh Melek, the Hebrew for wholeheartedly. Peh, mouth is Malchut, that's when a person wants it to exist, to be.
S. We learn that in every state there’s the opposite state so what does it mean about Malchut when it's not with all his heart? Maybe the question altogether is incorrect.
R. I’m not sure I understand what is your difficulty.
S. He could have said that he’s just saying that it’s the same about this state of wholeheartedly in Hebrew saying it’s with a full mouth, so we know that there’s an opposite to everything, so is there an opposite to wholeheartedly or with a full mouth?
R. I don't know, I did not investigate it, I did not see it.
31. S. (01:05:43) Can we say that a person needs to distinguish between the light Mitzvot and the grave Mitzvot? Nevertheless, ultimately both light and grave Mitzvot should be equally important to him because he is doing it to bring contentment to the King and not for his reward?
R. I can't hear you.
S. It says that the commandments have to be equally important for him because, with both of them, he needs to bring contentment to the Creator.
R. Correct, correct.
32. S. (01:06:41) It says in the article that the goal of the created beings is to reach adhesion, that the created being has to adhere to the qualities of the Creator. The created being receives from the Creator all the abundance that's created by the Creator, it receives all the states and all the laws in the Torah, and it has to choose to adhere specifically to His qualities. Does this always happen in the connection between the upper one and the lower one?
R. If the lower one wants to adhere to the upper one then certainly.
S. Let's say now in the lesson, how does the student search in everything we learn, in all the questions, and in the connection with the friends, how does he search for that point of adhering to the upper one, what is it to adhere to the qualities of the Creator?
R. To adhere to the qualities of the teacher? No, he can adhere to the qualities of the teacher Rabash. We're learning his articles, we all wish to adhere to him, and in his interpretations of the Torah, on the writings of Baal HaSulam, he gives us the material on top of which we can be in adhesion.
S. How can we create like a filter in search for the qualities of the upper one to which we should adhere?
R. It depends on the purity or the cleanliness of the heart. As much as you cleanse your heart of the Klipot, the shells, you’ll be able to cleave to Rabash whose writings we study, you’ll be able to adhere to him, to cleave to him more.
S. Can I just add a little bit? How can we use the connection that we make between us in order to strengthen specifically this, the ability to adhere to the qualities of the teacher?
R. All of us are reading the writings of Rabash. All of us want to reach him, to adhere to him, and if we don't let go of this intention then throughout our reading, and in our discussion, we wish to enter it more and more.
33. S. (01:10:01) Are the light commandments always light?
R. That depends on how a person discerns them as light or grave.
34. S. (01:10:23) A while back you said that we will come to a state where we cannot hear each other or talk to each other unless it is connected to connection. It was in general about people.
R. It’s truly so because if we are drawn to the goal, for us the main thing is the connection as the means to get there, and it’s the action that brings us to the purpose of creation, so we’ll only want to hear about that and do everything about that.
S. Right, so that's what I want to ask about. There's a situation where on one hand, I feel like it’s difficult to hear opinions, all kinds of opinions, in the Ten and in general. It’s become too much on the one hand, on the other hand, you come to a state where you do want to appreciate everything, every word a friend says, every point in the work, so you come to a state where on the one hand, you can't and you don't want to, on the other hand, you do want to appreciate things that are important. Where is the point that we do have to appreciate, to value it?
R. I don't know exactly what you're asking. We need to feel how with each passing day we are becoming more and more connected together inside each Ten and in between the Tens. These things are natural, these things happen in nature as well, molecules and atoms and all kinds of particles and substances, so we need to hold ourselves this way.
S. Besides this happening naturally there are many other views, each one has his own opinion, what is connection, what is the correct thing to do?
R. He needs to adapt that to what’s written in the book and the writings of Rabash, otherwise he's not studying in the right place.
S. How can each one nevertheless make everything important? He puts what's not important aside and says everything that happens in the Ten is important.
R. Not everything that happens in the Ten is important. He needs to place before him the writings of Rabash or the writings of Baal HaSulam, the Torah, it's clear, writings of Rabash, but he needs to try to constantly absorb from them his Torah. That’s like many opinions and all those things I don’t understand, you should just leave it outside if you can’t leave it outside then leave yourself outside as well.
S. Okay, so we have the writings of Rabash and Baal HaSulam. By reading them together can we come to a state where we understand what’s important?
R. We scrutinize what is important to us and how to correctly absorb what’s important.
S. How do we scrutinize this?
R. By reading, by discussing and that is how we advance from one article to another.
S. In the Ten we said yesterday that during the day we don't have time to talk about the article we read in the morning, we can't find the time. What should we do?
R. I don’t know. There may be time perhaps before the lesson, after the lesson, half an hour, or some other time during the day.
S. We really need to read the article again and talk.
R. I don't know, whatever you decide, whatever you decide. You need to participate together and discuss it and think about it, how you understand the things and according to that advance but not that each one pulls in a different direction. You need to be more as one man with one heart.
35. S. (01:16:15) You can really feel that if I'm talking to a friend and it's not related to connection or something like that, it's like I'm stealing his thoughts, stealing the Creator from him. How to be in such a readiness that we will be focused only on that and only to increase the connection between us, because if not there's this pressure from the Creator and it conquers everything?
R. From morning to night I have to chew and absorb and swallow the article that we're reading in the morning and I’m only thinking about it. Read it again, and again, and in this way, I can go into Rabash entirely.
S. Like that, through the daily article that way?
R. Yes.
36. S. (01:17:37) He says a light Mitzva or a harsh Mitzva a person decides. Does The Ten also decide?
R. Also can decide.
S. How do we come to that because one says it’s light and one says it’s heavy?
R. I don’t know, read what he writes, and you might find it.
S. It seems easier if a person judges himself, if he starts thinking about the friends, he starts getting confused.
R. Not to get confused, he doesn't know how to decide. It’s not confusion it’s lack of a decision, lack of an inability to decide.
37. S. (01:18:32) It speaks of the 613 Mitzvot in the Ten. If I understand correctly all the Mitzvot help us build a Kli in the Ten.
R. Right.
S. The only thing we can do is to bestow, connect, and build one common intention.
R. Right.
S. I heard that we are already in the Creator, and we can receive His abundance. Can we say that the only thing we need to do is to build one common intention in one heart?
R. Correct, that's the only thing we're lacking and then all the filling, all the light that is in the Creator will be felt in us.
38. S. (01:19:34) I wanted to ask for some time, what is to adhere to his Rav? You were always with Rabash. Can we as virtual students come to the same level of connection that you had with Rabash?
R. Absolutely, you can attain the same connection and even more, completely, a complete correction.
S. Does it impact our questions that we’re asking, or does it not matter?
R. We need to ask questions as close as possible to the topic of the lesson.
39. S. (01:20:21) The biggest commandment is love thy friend as thyself, it’s seemingly the collection of all our efforts. When we come to that, is it the final correction?
R. Yes.
40. S. (01:20:39) Please help me understand a light commandment and a hard one. For example, I think that the lesson is important I must come every day and the meal no, so that's already becoming a light commandment for me, but if I decide that I with this action of the meal want to bring contentment to the Creator despite the fact that it’s not important to me and I for the sake of the intention nevertheless come to the meal, that is called the right work?
R. Right.
41. S. (01:21:33) If the Creator is just the quality of giving and we can give Him?
R. We can give Him an ability to give, a possibility to bestow.
S. He does it all the time.
R. No, it depends on our vessels. Do we want to receive in order to bestow? By this, we're giving Him vessels that are ready for His bestowal.
S. To receive in the right way, we have nothing to give to Him?
R. Right.
42. S. (01:22:21) I wanted to ask about the feelings of the other. I feel myself now because of what happened in Israel. I also feel a lot of all of the country feels what I feel that which is being felt in Israel. Is that called the feelings of others?
R. Yes.