Part 2:
Being in Joy – Selected Excerpts from the Sources
Reading Excerpt 1: (00:17) Zohar for All: “VaYechi [Jacob Lived]....” Twice.
1. R. (01:10) Meaning this is what we always have to make sure is between us, that the connection between us will be a place for happiness, a place that isn't lacking anything, that we complete one another, come close to one another and in this way we advance. Then we can feel between us in that place the feeling of the Creator filling the place because He is whole. That's why the place relatively has to be according to his degree also whole, and in that way, we can feel the revelation of the Creator that gradually is revealed between us.
2. S. (02:05) In a state of joy and this wholeness from connection how can we not forget the Creator? If we suddenly feel that everything is good, okay, and everyone’s in some world.
R. So are you completely, completely disconnected from the Creator instead of feeling the Creator between you and from that to be in wholeness and connection and in love? You, instead of that, are moving away.
S. Sometimes we say we should wait for some disturbance so that we'll have some reason to turn to Him so we don’t forget Him.
R. Oh, you're lacking disturbances?
S. I don't think so but there is this fear where we start feeling this wholeness and we’ll forget Him.
R. That's not the way to do it. You yearn as much as you can to come close to one another and if you feel that there's some kind of problem then you pray, you ask, and then together with the Creator you correct that place and can reveal the Creator.
3. S. (03:30) What's the difference between joy in this world and spiritual joy? What's the difference between joy in this world and spiritual joy?
R. Spiritual joy is from the connection between everybody and happiness in this world is because of receiving an individual fulfillment. That’s it.
4. S. (04:18) Joy is the feeling of wholeness according to this excerpt.
R. Could be I don't know.
S. If it's a feeling of wholeness we've learned that as you have a greater deficiency it's more beneficial for progress, so if I'm in a deficiency which is not whole how am I joyful?
R. That I'm advancing. If the deficiency pushes me ahead, I'm happy.
S. It turns out that I'm happy that the deficiencies are revealed because there's some kind of pain in the deficiency and I have to rise above that pain.
R. That pain is that a person feels that he grows.
5. S. (05:15) It seems that there's this deviation here because the Shechina is written in this negative form but the Shechina is present only in a whole place, in a correct place, and in a place of joy. To me, it feels the opposite. That there was a long period where I didn't come to the morning lesson and I listened to it virtually. I had a period that was okay, life is okay, happy, and proper. everything's okay, and apparently, I didn't feel the Shechina, and I had a very bad time in life, depression, emptiness, and I started feeling there's this deficiency, some broken heart, some sadness, and then I thought about the Creator and of the Shechina, and we learn that Shechina is in every place, so what does it mean it is not in a deficient place, what is it?
R. You have never in your life felt the Shechina. Never. It's all your imagination.
S. This whole excerpt is unclear.
R. Right, it's all not clear.
S. Not in joy and also not in sadness?
R. Right. It will be when you enter the essence of the sentence.
S. How can we enter it?
R. Through the connection with the friends, simply, once and for all.
S. We are connected in the ten we make efforts.
R. I guess it's not what the Torah means yet, “in connection”.
S. How will we know if we feel happy or sad or some state which is true even a little?
R. You will know as the result of the connection between the friends.
S. Yesterday we had Sukkot, we sat in a Sukka with friends who invited us and we had this feeling of connection with everyone.
R. The feeling of connection, anyone can have that.
S. When do we know that it's true and it’s on the path?
R. When you truly start connecting.
S. So what do we lack? We always thought that was true.
R. To implement what's written in the articles of Rabash.
S. We had this meeting of a connection with L’Chaims and heard praise for the friends, we did everything that Rabash writes about.
R. You're speaking about corporeal actions. We did, we sat, it’s still corporeal actions that don't aim us in anything to that inner spiritual connection.
S. I’ll give an example of a friend who was here a long time, a few years, and we invited him to the Sukka and he came, and when he spoke I felt, I think we all felt like goosebumps and something very deep that wasn't for this world. Is this also my imagination?
R. Yes.
S. When do we know if it's a millimeter in the right direction?
R. When you will reach more exalted feelings.
S. We thought that we felt that.
R. So you thought.
S. So how do we know? How do we know that this is the correct millimeter?
R. When you connect correctly you will feel it. That's it.
6. S. (09:19) I understand that during the time of joy, we should not lose connection with the Creator, right?
R. Right.
S. How can we connect correctly in order to not lose connection with the Creator?
R. When you will all be as one man with one heart as much as you can, on a certain degree you’re on, and in that you will feel that you are already performing the correct connection for the revelation of the Creator.
7. S. (10:03) About spiritual joy. We had a lot of joy in the meals, in the congress, and after. Is that spiritual joy? Is that joy from connection?
R. Yes, it's still something, but it's not what you think, that it's already a spiritual illumination dwelling between you, it's still not a connection in that form.
S. What did we miss in the intention that we had this joy for giving contentment to our Maker? What is the difference between just having that joy of the meal or adding that intention? Is it in a higher level of spirituality? How to treat that?
R. We have to keep going and we will understand it but we're already close to it, that's why you're getting confused.
8. S. (11:40) We have a lot of corporeal meetings. You also said it's very important to have a lot of corporeal meetings, and meals, we go to Yeshivat Haverim, everything, corporeal, corporeal, corporeal. How do we come from these corporeal of being together with the friends? I know it's all about connection, connection, connection, so what sort of connection do we need in these corporeal meetings to transform it to let's say a spiritual joy? What is needed there, that push, that difference? How do we change all our corporeal meetings to a spiritual one that comes from joy?
R. Just keep going, there's nothing else to do. Now after the convention we're going to try to enter the next stage and from this convention until the next one we will try to enter a spiritual connection, actual, that we will feel where we are and each and every day to feel the degree we rise upon, and according to that the revelation of the Creator is revealed in more intensity. I really hope that we will relate to these steps very seriously and that it will be revealed.
S. A direction that we can practically do to make this transition possible as soon as possible?
R. The direction is we will find it in the connection as close as we can to one another even though there are distances between us. It's not a matter of sitting close or each one in the distance of thousands of kilometers of one another. We need to connect our hearts between us in a way that through all those strings of connection that the Creator gave us in this world, we are in that connection between us.
9. S. (15:27) Yesterday during the afternoon lesson you had a talk with a woman in Kab-U about the opportunity to do a convention in North America. There is great joy from the pain here because recently it's felt that this continent is under some kind of ocean of love that is here in Bnei Baruch and the question is, is it also felt that in our dissemination, in that area, there is no presence because we have no connection of love? Is that correct? Does it work that way?
R. It's correct. You can see it according to the friends here that are in North America, even compared to South America, that it's much more difficult for them to come compared to Russia, and Europe, that for them a ticket is relatively more difficult than it is for you to buy. North Americans are, that's how it is, snobs.
S. But there is this deep importance, there are a lot of people there.
R. Many people it doesn't matter. Obviously, there are millions there, but how painful is it for them that they can't even gather between themselves, between them, for some gathering in order to awaken importance in the connection between them in order to reveal the Creator.
S. What is demanded of us so that your words will materialize? That there will be something there that will awaken this area?
R. I don't know. A few friends came from North America. I don't feel what else we could do. I don't feel anything. I understand it is not simple, it is difficult but what can you do? I used to go twice a year to North America for conventions. Today it is like a dream. Not only for you but also in Canada very few people are present. I thought that maybe the reason was me, that maybe I was not awakening them, but how much could I? You tell me how many years can you awaken? Still, all of the books are there for everyone. The people have been studying for many years until they left until they left, and the wisdom of Kabbalah it does not attract people. Whoever wants to come to it comes and whoever doesn't, doesn't. What can you do? I do not know. You give me advice on what to do. You know that even if you start gathering people there for the congress not many will come, even from both coasts, that is how it is, America.
S. We are from the Toronto group and from the whole of North America we very much want this to happen and we very much want to and expect you.
R. What do you need me for?
S. For that in which there will be this force of love in this region so that people will come and study the wisdom of Kabbalah.
R. Try to gather people to aim them to perform some gathering between everybody. It could be. I'm willing to come, I am even willing to come to East and West.
10. S. (21:16) Sorry for my Chutzpah, but sometimes I think that on the same topic, we lack connection with the friends in America. I feel that under a different influence, there is a very strange influence over there and they sometimes see us here and we can see them but usually we don't say wow, how great, how nice. We see that, but maybe they do not feel our feedback towards them, so these are some of the things that I wanted to say. Also maybe we could help them feel us, that coming here it is very important to give that to them here. Over a long time, we have the next convention that will be in Turkey but I am telling them that they need more time to prepare to come here, so we could give them, for example, set dates for example six months in advance for here. These are times that you can come here and that is how we can awaken their heart to come here and then they can feel all the time more and more together with us and I think that that is something important to us. Because in South America for instance they do not know if they can come or not come. Once there was with the big conventions that we had six months in advance where we said that is the time, and you can come and they did all the preparation to come here. Now it is like something and thin air.
R. I am willing to go to North and South America, I have no problem with that. I was there way more than once. Also, we were traveling inside there on buses to all kinds of places. We met those South American Indians and they came to visit us. It was very nice. I am willing to go to North and South America. I will fly there. I'll go today if you want, Canada and Mexico wherever I was in the Americas from North to South and back.
S. I don't think that it is important that you go there, but I think it is very important that we hear and can tell them this is a time that you can come here.
R. It is difficult. Every ticket is.
S. They can. I know that they can. There were three years that they didn't come and I really feel that what would help them would be something consistent. Let us say six months from now, this is how they can prepare themselves but they do not have that. They do not have these constant dates.
R. Well let us do it, please. You find the connection with more people that belong to South America and that is what we will do. Set the dates that are best for everyone and that is what we will do. I'm willing.
S. The friends here are also ready to receive us?
R. The friends will come, you'll see.
11. S. (25:50) Saying about connection with North America, I remember you used to come to our virtual meetings through a friend and they were very meaningful to us. Maybe we could renew those meetings, it would be very important to us to form that more personal connection.
R. I am ready for everything. Call our managers and tell them the time and the connection and we will do it.
12. S. (26:33) How can we ascend to that new degree? How do we enter the spiritual connection? It is very easy to connect hearts at the convention we got two weeks off. How not lose this intensity and ask the Creator to help us?
R. Ask, to constantly ask, and to encourage that in these writings that you do among yourselves.
13. S. (27:22) What is spiritual joy?
R. Spiritual joy is that I connect with the friends, and inside them, I connect to the Creator and that is what brings me joy.
S. Why is it so hard to hold it?
R. Because we do not feel in the meantime neither friends nor the Creator in an internal way.
14. S. (27:56) I have a feeling we are speaking about two kinds of happiness. Does spiritual joy come with corporeal joy or is it two different states?
R. Usually usual joy joins in.
15. S. (28:38) What could help a person stay in happiness and joy throughout the whole path?
R. Connection with the friends, that is all. What are you asking?
S. It sounds very simple, what connection?
R. Reach connection with the friends which is constant, that it will hold you on the path toward the purpose of creation and then we will see what you think.
Reading Excerpt 2: (29:22) Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 58, "Joy Is a “Reflection” of Good Deeds"
16. S. (30:32) How can I bring the point of my will to receive into the morning lesson in other actions in happiness?
R. Prepare yourself before the morning lesson of how you will come, how you can make the friends happy, how you can embrace them and bring them joy from heart to heart.
S. The will to receive does not want that?
R. You prepare the will to receive so that it will want that because with that you are overcoming the will to receive and connect with the friend you won't reach the Creator. You have no choice, it is simply the condition, you want to connect with the Creator, you first need to connect with the friend, that is all, that is a necessary condition.
17. S. (32:07) He writes that there is corporeal happiness like a friend said, we meet together, Yeshivat Haverim, and we all feel good. What is the scrutiny because he writes that there is an addition of reason in the correct happiness?
R. In the correct joy, you have this addition of awareness, consciousness understanding with higher qualities than before, that is called the upper reason.
S. What do you feel?
R. Feel, we need to reach that and then we will feel.
S. He says you need to observe the words of the Torah but it is not clear what it means?
R. The Torah is called all-in-all the system that includes the whole of reality together.
S. I'm asking practically, we gathered we felt happiness and we want to make sure we feel the right happiness, so what is the scrutiny for us?
R. Correct joy is in how much you are ready to give yourself for the general connection, and that you will have joy from that, and you do that.
S. I thought I felt happiness from the gathering.
R. That is egoistic joy.
S. Right, and now I check again, so what happiness can you feel in that which you are devoted to everyone?
R. Then I have to check that maybe it is not happiness, and that it is happiness but even a greater one but that is that you spread out among everyone.
18. S. (33:56) Baal HaSulam writes “I'm happy of the wicked that are revealed in me”, even in the revealed states where I discover that evil inclination I cannot say I'm so happy.
R. Why?
S. I understand in my mind that it helps me advance and it is a sense on the left, but to actually say that I am in my heart I’m happy from it, I can’t really say that. How to really be happy in a state where you reveal your evil inclination?
R. In any case, it is a step forward to your spiritual healing.
S. Even though I don't feel it in the heart?
R. There needs to be a feeling. I remember how I was happy when the doctors finally discovered where my problem was and then they immediately took me to an operation.
S. Along with revealing the evil inclination I need to reach a feeling of happiness in the heart, right?
R. Yes, right.
S. What am I lacking?
R. You lack suffering from your will to receive where then you reveal and develop from it.
19. S. (35:19) ….With the experience I had, this experience was just every time I say with my mouth open you cannot even speak. I went through it and it was just amazing. I'm not trying to flatter, I was looking at it from the side and it was just like what happened there. It is amazing.
R. I agree.
S. And also to see you in that way, to see the way you're working it was amazing.
R. Because you weren't here.
S. You're amazing, we love you and you did the biggest show actually.
R. Performance, yes?
S. Yes, performing the Creator, the electricity, the light.
R. In my view to the convention it was incredibly successful and we got deeper into things even though it was not felt by everyone, but we got deeper into the hearts of each and everyone and we made a sign in each and one's heart that there we need to continue receiving us and accepting us in his heart.
S. It was felt very strong, also for people that came for the first time they felt it very strongly and they didn't even understand what was going on. That's the beauty of it and a big L'Chaim to the friends and organizers, to the people who prepared this, all the guys. Thank you to all the great friends. They were terrific and really deserve recognition for their tremendous efforts.
R. We need to make a round of applause for the other special organizers who contributed selflessly for our successful Congress. (Applause) Great friends indeed.
S. Also for others that we did not mention. (Applause) In my opinion, the Creator did everything, even the fact that I came by mistake that morning, He organized it beautifully.
R. The Creator is our Director! (Applause)
S. Thank you the Creator, thank you to the friends, and thank you to everyone around the world, just to see this is unbelievable. I told you 30 years ago that I saw this, 20 people, 20 people from all of Israel were here. It is unbelievable and you see how we are advancing and it is a fantastic period.
R. Okay so the question.
S. Baal HaSulam writes that in order to know if it is in Holiness the scrutiny is in reason, and in Holiness there is reason. What does that mean? In my reason, I don't see everything. How does he say that?
R. You already have more awareness of closeness to spirituality. You scrutinize more of what is spirituality.
S. Help me understand, we are sitting in the Congress that is within our reason, it is not above reason, it is in reason?
R. You connect with others and you connect with the upper force which prepares you gradually for the reception of Him.
S. We actually attained happiness in reason and not above reason?
R. Yes.
S. We felt the happiness?
R. Yes.
S. A big L’Chaim to All of us.
R. Yes, A big L’Chaim to the friends.
20. S. (42:22) What are tears of joy, and could there be true joy if it does not include sorrow with it?
R. Our lives include two states: darkness and light or tears and joy, two opposite states, that is all. If we can incorporate with the two of them then we come to the source of life.
S. Joy is a full, whole feeling?
R. Yes.
S. There cannot be two states of sadness and joy?
R. You need one with the other, you cannot have one without the other darkness and light, light and day, that is how it has always been.
21. S. (43:41) I wanted to update in the atmosphere that there were 60 people from North America which is a lot. 20 of them are new from Kab-U and in the morning lessons, we have more than 300 connections from North America, which after Russia is the biggest continent in participation. Even though the times are very difficult. Also about the convention, after Turkey, we have already started thinking that in May 2024 a Congress in North and South America.
R. It has always been that way, some kind of Independence Day there.
S. We always had it in May and it is further away for one in September in Israel, but we are not announcing it yet because until we do not sign all the agreements, so we started searching for places.
R. You are talking about North and South America.
S. Yes, if we have the forces we will go to both.
R. I have no problem with that. On the contrary, I receive forces from going there.
22. S. (45:10) You talked about happiness and devoting yourself to everyone's happiness from devoting yourself to the connection. What does it mean to devote myself to everybody?
R. How many people were at the convention?
S. Physically in Israel there were over 2,150 that registered physically, virtually we had 2,800 registered. At any given moment we were about 6,000 connected to the lessons. In Israel, people from abroad came 450 people from over 30 countries. That is the information.
R. That gives forces and it develops us. Every drop of the Creator's quality even if it goes among millions of people it penetrates into them without any division between them. Because the spiritual and this is how Baal HaSulam writes it is not divided into parts. We still have not revealed that, in nature, there are no divisions to this division in the eyes of the upper one so everything that comes from the upper one is distributed among everyone. Even if it felt that we dealt with simple topics life topics at the convention Arvut, Mutual Guarantee, but we truly did great spiritual work.
S. Every time we come to Bnei Baruch instead of happiness, I see I did this because the friends asked, I did this because they gave an example, here they gave me forces and here concern.
R. That is how it should be.
S. You see that you did not exist anywhere. The friends below, the friends above the Creator and you don’t exist?
R. You don’t exist, you dissolve into them.
S. Why should they give me happiness?
R. There is no such thing that you do not exist, you don't exist because you are among everyone. And joy needs to be out of that because there is no, you are the biggest egoist but you dissolve into everyone, so it is very significant. It is already a spiritual structure so I am already happy you said that. Despite that, if you do not understand the feeling of the structure you cannot agree with it but you are already in that. All those who participated in the convention to a certain extent they were all in everyone and everyone was in everyone. After the convention, we are completely different even if tomorrow we can forget about it all because it's simply including the next degree but we are all in connection between us and that is already spirituality.
S. Are you in happiness?
R. Yes, I am very happy. I'm not joking. I'm not dancing but I have these spiritual vibrations that constantly elevate us higher and higher.
23. S. (50:54) What can you do with the happiness of the teacher? You just said that you are in vibrations from happiness, that we are happy to see you happy, and that you are projecting it. What should we do with it in order to not to lose it and not to steal from it?
R. We cannot lose that, we have that with us and it is beyond time and place. Before we continue with that from one lesson to the next, from one convention to the next, and for another 3 months all in all we will be in the Turkey convention. Try to connect with that as much as possible correctly and as confidently as possible and from there we will continue.
24. S. (52:26) In the name of all the French Kli, especially the French women, we want to thank you for awakening us. More than a month ago you said that we were sleepy and it really affected the whole group and we were able to come here, we were about 20 friends and it was an amazing experience in the connection between us. We want to thank you and the whole world Kli for this reception. The question is how to continue in this direction and ascend to the next degree as a group?
R. I'm incapable of connecting you French into a group. It is complex, but we very much hope that you will connect and come together at the next convention in Turkey. It is quite close and we will meet there.
25. S. (54:13) In the excerpt Baal HaSulam comes from happiness and joy and then he talks about the quality of the Klipot, the shell. Can you explain how it is related?
R. What is the connection?
S. He says that if the deeds are of holiness, so the happiness is revealed, but we also have to know that it is the Klipa. Why does he suddenly start talking about the Klipa?
R. You cannot have one without the other, you cannot have one without the other, everything that is revealed you need to reveal it with its two opposites.
S. The yearning for knowledge for a reason, he writes that we need to see that there is reason in holiness? Isn't it a quality of the Klipa?
R. A part of that is the quality of the Klipa.
S. Meaning there is some structure here, that the Klipa helps us?
R. Certainly yes, in the meantime I think we live only from the Klipa and we cannot reach everything but that.
S. We are speaking that we have to do scrutiny?
R. Without negative qualities we would not be able to exist at all. We exist only by rising above negative qualities, therefore we need to thank the Creator, and at the same time also our bitter egoistic quality. We cannot live without the Klipa.
26. S. (57:14) There's a reason of Holiness meaning also from the Creator having happiness and that Klipa will not know of it?
R. Yes, that is correct.
27. S. (57:47) Yesterday we were with friends in the hospital who is an example for me as I saw how the friend is in joy and he has a question: What do we have to do in order to be worthy to be your students?
R. To hold on to each other, embrace each other to hold with all of your strength one another, and send him a hello for me. I sent it to him but I don't know if he received it and I hope that he'll be healthy and happy and back with us very soon.
S. He also sends his regards and he says he is asking and demanding that the Rav will have health.
R. Until you need me everything will be okay. We are coming close to the end of the lesson.
28. S. (59:57) We read about the reason of the Torah. What is the reason of the Torah?
R. The reason of the Torah is the reason from a higher degree. There is Hochma, Bina, and Daat-reason. There is the upper Daat-the upper reason, and the lower Daat-the lower reason, so the upper reason is the Daat of the Torah, the reason of the Torah.