Morning Lesson October 21, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
On the Verge of Lishma - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #13
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, let's read.
Reading 13 (00:44) “Our Sages said from Lo Lishma...”
2. R. (02:27) Yes, this is our path, we all begin from the will to receive in order to receive and we think only about that and this is the only thing managing and directing us in every turn and in every moment that we live here until we begin to realize that in such a way we are locked in this world. And we cannot in any manner feel who we truly are, what do we exist for, what purpose and so on. In order to understand this we have to know the Creator, how can we get to know Him, how to understand Him, It is very simple. We take on his quality in order to feel Him, the feeling and the intellect, the mind with which to understand Him so then we begin to see how impossible this is.
Time goes by and we feel more and more how impossible it is and then we begin to hear more and more and we truly begin to hear, after many years, what the Kabbalists are telling us. That there has to be a prayer here, a request that only through the right request we can awaken the Creator to help us and to what measure we can ask from Him to the extent we feel that we are in darkness and helplessness. According to this our request will become more truthful. This is why we have to bestow to each other to awaken the truth of our state where we are here and now and also to awaken where we have to reach and to see the gap between the two states. Out of that to begin to ask the Creator to elevate us from Lo Lishma to Lishma, that is to take us over to the other side of reality, to His side. In this way by overcoming together, to ask together to depict to ourselves what does it mean Lishma in that we come closer to Him, we awaken Him more and more until we persuade Him to take care of us and to correct us. Then we shift to the world of bestowal and the upper reality.
3. S. (06:31) It says here that then it becomes dark, how does that come and be expressed in our state?
R. Why do you begin with a half a sentence, when does it mean that it becomes dark for him?
S. This means that all of his work will be only in order to bestow and then it becomes dark for him he feels that the world has grown dark for him?
R. Why, because he is in order to receive the light that the Torah speaks about and what the Creator intends for is the light of bestowal while he is still in the quality of reception. If so he has to undergo a mitigation, meaning that the Creator would give him new qualities, corrections and forces and then he will know how to work in order to bestow.
S. Is it his feeling?
R. Yes, that his body only works in a state of reception to reach the quality of bestowal and therefore he is now distinguishing, and earlier he did not feel it but now he is feeling it that he is in darkness. This is considered that world has grown dark in him. What does he write next, ‘Since the body gives strength to work only in the form of reception and not in the form of bestowal and in that state he has only a single choice, to pray.’
He sees where he is and he has no chance to come out of it and the Creator can help him but on the condition that he would ask. Meaning he will truly need it. It is not that I cry out louder or somebody is crying not so loud but as much as I have a greater requirement I can wake up the Creator to help me, and when will that be, a person does not know. There is no particular boundary or measure or some sign that I have to reach thus far, there isn't but rather with all of your forces. He has only one no choice but to pray to the Creator to open his eyes that he would be able to work in the manner of bestowal, this is considered that the Creator saves him. That he wants to reach bestowal that he will not be thinking in all directions and in all the different corners how to receive but instead he would only think about how to bestow. How to bestow, to whom to bestow, how to bestow, so only about this will he think. He will grow in all of his desire to bestow more and more and more, this is what he's asking for. Then he goes through this passageway, this transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma.
4. S. (10:21) It seems that I'm not going to give up my will to receive without suffering, how to give up my desire to receive without suffering?
R. If I am in a group and we decide that we have to go together in connection between us and acquire mutual bestowal to each other, then already we do not feel in it any pain, any loss because each learns from his friend and each one grows stronger through the ten. Therefore we together connect between us and ask the Creator. We cry out to Him and ask from Him that He will organize the help for us. That he will take us up to a higher degree and then an even higher degree more and more and this is how we will reach the goal. That we will be able to bestow to each other and from within us to the Creator and He will be among us and this is how it is. Everything is in the ten, nothing comes out of the ten besides connecting between us and attaching ourselves more and more, we have nothing else to do, so please go ahead. It is even written the minimum of many is two, that even two people can make such a connection between them. But it is better if it is a bit more five or six up to ten not more.
There is no problem here but just to realize that our ten is now thinking only about myself and this is my structure, my house my home this is how I am thinking about the ten. That this is mine and I care about them and I want to connect them more and more and in such a way we reach a state where this is what I'm asking the Creator for and egotistically I care for them, I want that all of us will be connected. Shifting from a single me to the whole world, that I cannot do, but to the ten, that I can. Later on these tens expand and connect between them already and I learn from it how to do it. This is how we will reach a state where the whole world will seem to us as one ten.
5. S. (13:50) When we already exhausted all the powers in the will to receive in order to help the friends, to serve the friends, and I understand that I found myself further and further from the Creator and there is contact in me, is this the correct moment for the correct prayer?
R. Excellent, it’s not yet prayer but it is a correct feeling, and through that you've worked you felt how much you are truly far away from connection, now you also have an understanding, a thought, and the hearing, that you hear that you have to turn to the Creator, so turn to him tell him about everything with your own words and ask him that you would want to be connected to the ten in a way that there is no gap, no space between you all of you, but you all become as one man with one heart. Try, and then you will see how much you change through the prayer, you will see it on the very same day how much you are undergoing changes and improvements and getting results and how much you are getting closer, that it all comes, everything comes out of the connection, out of the connection, out of bonding and incorporation, incorporation with each other, this is how it needs to be.
6. S. (15:57) What is the sweetening of Malchut?
R. That mitigation or sweetening of Malchut through Bina means is the will to receive or the quality of judgment, Din, which is very sharp, crude, it is just the will to receive and that's it is judgment and to mitigate judgment is possible through the quality of Hassadim, Rachamim, Bina so our whole correction is that we connect Malchut to Bina and then we take a part from Bina and a part from Malchut and the two of them work together and that through the association of the quality of mercy with judgment this is how we correct Malchut.
7. S. (17:00) How important is the objective in the request for the friends because there is one thing that I feel and the other that I think?
R. It is true but even in your interpretation that this is how you understand him and feel him that too is nevertheless enough, it is efficient, because you with all of your forces in this interpretation in your understanding and feeling, in your connection, as much as you want to join him in that you are already helping him and no more is needed. The rest of it, the true connection that happens the Creator does that. About this it is written the Lord, meaning the Creator, will finish it for me, and this is now we are starting to speak about the practical wisdom of Kabbalah, how to shift from Lo Lishma, the beast, to Lishma to be Adam, human.
8. S. (18:25) Is yearning a prayer and if so how to bring it into the ten strongly, powerfuly?
R. The yearning itself is an internal feeling it is not yet a prayer the person has to translate it and shift it to a prayer, to the request to the Creator for the friends, and then it becomes a prayer, so try to take your yearning, you're a distress, whatever you feel, to transfer it through the group through the friends to the Creator then it will be called a prayer. The prayer has to come at least from a few people together, from at least two people together preferably from a ten, from the Minyan and then the Creator will surely hear it and answer it.
9. S. (19:34) What is a prayer from the ten?
R. The prayer from the ten that we all of us feel the deficiency certainly in each one the deficiency is felt in a way that is different we cannot even measure it those differences between us but we want, we understand that we want to reach a connection between us because in the connection between us we attain the quality of Lishma and in the connection between us we discover the Creator, and from the connection between us we also connect with him and so into the connection between us he can give us what we need, the force of unity, the force of connection, the feeling of connection and unity with him and then we attain all of this out of the connection, so is why unity, connection that the word one in Hebrew should be for us as a lighthouse.
S. Each has his own prayer and his own state?
R. For sure because none of us is similar to each other.
S. So where do all of our prayers connect, where is the point of unity?
R. In the Creator. The Creator is our origin, of all of us and this is why he understands us and he connects us and fills us and he unites us, it's all him. This is his work. This is why in whatever we are engaging in we are engaging in the work of the Creator.
S. What turns our prayer into one? Each one raises his own prayer from his own place, what turns it suddenly into the prayer of the ten?
R. That we realize that none of us will attain anything except for what we have to attain as connection between us through the Creator. We turn to him, that he will connect us, we turn to him that he will fill us on the degree that we want to be like him to bestow through everyone to reach our complete bestowal which is then passed on to him.
10. S. (22:33) We all asked the same thing, we all ask for connection?
R. Yes, but all from each one from his own vessel which one of us knows whatever he feels and he’s asking for connection and the friend next to him and another friend and another friend but we don’t know but in the Creator this is our origin, this is where we all connect but about this they say our heart will rejoice in him.
11. S. (23:02) Continuing the previous question, if each is praying from his own point, should we feel that ten is an individual or the friends praying from the same place?
R. Yes, we will reach that, we will feel how much we are far away and coming closer and coming closer and far away again like waves. We are going to feel this.
S. And we will feel this in the ten relative to all of Bnei Baruch or the whole world? What is that unit?
R. That unit is where you are in your ten, this is your foundation, and from this foundation you will begin to feel how you have many other such systems around you and all of us want to connect also between them like in a Galaxy, you have systems like the sun and planets and you have others like it and they all join into a Galaxy and the Galaxies all join into multi-galaxies I don't know how to say it and this is how we go and connect more and more each time. They also discover deeper into each individual and also broader into the more general broader into the more collective, and this is how we discover the work of the Creator in the particular, in the individual, in which we go deeper, and it his essence and the greatness in the general and in the collective where we feel how much he fills everything and does everything.
S. The feeling of the system you are describing we can’t pray, we can’t emanate a prayer from the ten a complete prayer any prayer, I would feel like a group without feeling this system
R. That’s true
S. So our first, the prayer is in order to reach this system? Our yearning should be on that, that I want to feel that system?
R. You are searching for connection and you are depicting it in all kinds of different forms and this is what you are praying for, that you want to come closer to you embracing everyone, you want to include everyone, that you feel and understand everyone, that you have a mutual connection with everyone, then through that you are starting to feel that you are truly filling the entire universe all-in-all you are attaining the general Malchut a little bit a you begin through such actions.
S. For the time being these prayers help change our attitude to reality?
R. Yes.
S. But not the feeling of the connection to the system will that come over time or the always remain on the level of the attitude is changing for your me at that time?
R. No we will starts to feel this whole reality, we will start to feel it and then we will start to feel how much are we are more and more connected to the root of reality which is the Creator and how we are both far away from him but also close to him, meaning we can always move relative to him in our will to receive and will to bestow with all of the actions between us and that all of our actions will be directed so he would be happy with us, this all this we will have to get to know.
12. S. (27:22) About the prayer I wanted to scrutinize something which I am not sure I’m clear on. You said that the prayer is from the ten to the Creator also you said that the smallest group is two so I am not sure how to ask..
R. Go ahead and ask any way you want.
S. So the attainment of the ten so that has to be a physical action that we are sitting together?
R. What do you mean physical ?
S. Physically or it could also be virtually that we are sitting around the screens but that we see one another we hear one another we are doing this action of the prayer or there is an act of prayer than I am sitting at home I do not see the friends but I include the friends, I think of them, think of their benefit, of from that I turn to the Creator or it is forbidden?
R. No. It is possible to sit at home and be far away, we have friends who are in the north or in the south, in all the directions on the globe and they are connected with us and connected strongly, well. There are those who are even in the army or in the prison I get from them let’s call it notes and I know how much they are connected to usand how much every word that we study is important for them so the corporeal distance does not make such a big difference sometimes it is making it more intense and amplifies the connection sometimes it erases the correction as usual, so there are all kinds of conditions, but all in all what it does depend on it depends on how much all-in-all all of us are searching for connection that inside the connection we search for the Creator as much as this picture will become very clear and more felt and the more felt as a deficiency that our primary deficiency this through the is the direction to success.
S. We spoke yesterday about how the act,we spoke about Lo Lishma so the act, if I bestow in the intention is still receiving pleasure it is also good because the action is already the action of bestowal,
R. Yes
S. So what is the value of the intention since for years we said that the intention how the most important than the action is not so important but yesterday something got inverted for me something is not clear?
R. Well, you will find the right relation to it. I don’t want to tell you. It will become clear.
13. S. (30:45) How can we reach as a ten how can we reach adhesion for connection, how can they get to this yearning for connection do we have to speak between ourselves something internal?
R. About this it is written from all my students I have learned, I learned from all of my friends, in the beginning I do not want to connect with anyone, it is natural, later on I look at them and I begin to be envious about them here and there because I start to hear that these are signs of spiritual advancement and so I wants to be like them and I try to perform actions like them and and I see that I am not capableof it, it doesn’t work out for me. It is like a little child that wants to perform such actions and then he it falls out of his hands it doesn't work out for him and this is how in the form of connection I want to connect I want to be more a friend for them and I feel that it’s not working for me maybe I am doing something but inside no it doesn't work inside I remain as I am and I want to hug them but it does not work for me it does not work and this is how I learn more and more and I hear more and more that without the correct embrace between us we will not be established as a ten.
If the ten is made of hard people then we need to put in greater forces and so we try to go out and a hike together, sit down and have a meal, speak between us, study together and more and more things. That maybe nevertheless will bring us closer to each other and this is what we do and most importantly it is that we pray that we pray that the Creator would connect us because certainly on our own, we cannot do this. We can see it or we can sit or stand inner circle we can sing together but the true connection comes through the reforming light because this connection well, there is no such correction which is really the correction of the system of Adam HaRishon however on a small-scale so we need to ask for that and receive the strength from above that he would connect us into a real ten and this is how we will advance.
14. S. (34:47) Yesterday you said that the vessels of bestowal are between us, I do not feel it that way I feel it inside the friends, is it correct?
R. No, it is not correct, nevertheless I would say that the vessels of bestowal exist outside of each one of us. These are the vessels of Bina and we are all parts of Malchut and Bina should glue us to each other above our will to receive, and this is how even though we are all such small circles of Malchut however we are attached between us, glued through the force of Bina and this is how we need to try to connect. This general force of Bina that operates with it's full power this is actually the Creator.
S. You said correctly that all kinds of circles desires, there are desires in this room, this is where bestowal is for me and I do not see the way to join this process and it seems that there is only the connection of the friends and I disappear from this picture more and more the only thing that is left is this point that is asking for the others to support this tiny Malchut so then should I join them and yearn to join them or the other way around to disappear and leave this point?
R. You need to be the one who is passing it on, you are the conduit for the qualities of the Creator, the qualities of love and bestowal for all of the friends this is truly like a thread that ties everybody together you have to become like that.
15. S. (37:57) According to the text what is the sweetness of Malchut in Bina?
R. That it mitigates the quality of reception with the quality of bestowal and then the desire to receive it which are different can connect between them through the quality of bestowal like this thread that moves from one will to receive to another will to receive it can tie them all together and then they all connect between them and they will become able to see that it is possible to bestow to each other and then everybody is filled.
16. S. (38:34) Why do we feel darkness why later on do we get the feeling darkness?
R. We feel the darkness because there is still no vessels of bestowal the light can clothe in the vessel and appear in the vessel according to equivalence of form. If we do not have yet vessels of bestowal meaning intention to bestow, then the light still cannot shine in it.
S. So is this actually good state to feel the darkness? Is this the right direction?
R. It is the right direction if you feel the darkness it pushes you to reach the light. Additionally the darkness puts you on two, on one hand you see the bad state you are in the darkness on the other hand you are, you need to go towards the light of bestowal and not to the light of reception therefore this darkness keeps you from reaching a state that you want the light because the darkness is holding you in place it is giving you an opportunity to check who you are and where you are to understand that you need to want vessels of bestowal.
17. S. (40:28) About prayer in the ten let's say there is a friend who has a great difficulty to come to the morning lesson if the whole ten is feeling sorrow that the friend is not with us is that a prayer?
R. Yes, it is a prayer, except that I do not know if it is in the right place. If he cannot come for whatever reason then the prayer might end with you feeling sorry and asking for a solution from the Creator either for him to recover to come closer to have transportation or something.
18. S. (41:33) What does it mean from spiritual perspective that we reach for Lishma?
R. When we come to Lishma we come to bestowal, very simply.We come to a state where we can bestow.
19. S. (41:53) Can we say that our only desire is to give him contentment from the connection between us and this is done by searching for the Creator but not in order to find him but in order to give him delight by searching for him that if we have this relation between us this that this is making him happy?
R. Correct.
20. S. (42:17) Why is it that only when we begin to work in order to bestow it only then it becomes dark?
R. Because according to our nature we do not get any pleasure from bestowal.
21. S. (42:46) When we are in Lo Lishma there is still egoistic fuel that moves you to perform actions but what happens exactly at the transition point where you no longer have this fuel?
R. Friends, it is the connection with the friends more and more to learn what is Lishma, what does it mean how to go from working for the sake for ourselves, working for the sake of somebody that is a stranger. We can imagine these things, we have spoken about this in the past several lessons. If you go back three or four lessons we can see that we have been speaking about it. We are closer to the state of Lishma.
22. S. (43:48) I have intention to give contentment to the Creator and I wants to reach Lishma but in fact I see that I only received the pleasure that he wants to give me so I feel a great shame that this is blocking me and it takes away from me that hope that I can ever attach to him so what can I do to cope with this shame?
R. Shame is something good, try to feel more and more that you are a thief and then you will feel shame in order to rid of this tendency to steal and then after a short while it will bring you to a certain understanding of bestowal, you want to bestow seemingly you will want to bestow. You are asking the Creator to give you the power to bestow. These days you need to start to feel that you have a tendency towards bestowal that you want to taste what it means to bestow, to have a desire to bestow, what does it mean to bestow, how to understand what this bestowal, is so be connected to it somehow, think about it as much as possible.
Reading excerpt # 14: (45:38) “Baal HaSulam said that to be rewarded with Lishma ...” Twice
23. R. (49:26) Meaning that we must do everything possible until we come to the feeling of a lie in our actions, falsehood, and we demand to pass through the truth from Lo Lishma to Lishma and this is possible only by performing multiple actions.
24. S. (49:50) I would like to be precise, how is it possible to depict to ourselves that it is possible to build the greatest Lo Lishma?
R. When you deal with everything that you have in your will to receive and you think to turn to the Creator from unity and do everything that we are reading about and then you keep trying and all those things, you do them all and then it seems to you that you have been doing everything, all these actions you have been doing and what is lacking, but what’s lacking is that nevertheless as much as you do, you do everything because you are afraid that you are doing certain transgressions or the Creator will punish you for the next world or the friends will see how small and limited you are and so on, and from these actions you come to a state where you nevertheless want to get rid of your state, and then you turn to the Creator, and then you ask from the Creator to change your nature, you want to be in bestowal.
S. And from the great Lo Lishma, how does the transition happen that is out of my self concern, this still out of my selfish intention, where do I exactly move my adhesion to?
R. You want is at least the same force that you worked in Lo Lishma to work with it in Lishma.
S. What does it mean, that I am willing to work in Lishma with the same force?
R. Let's say that we are in a restaurant, and you order food and you serve everybody who came in and you saw them at lunch, let's say, and now now you want to do the same but without receiving any payment for it, only in order to serve them, so you are taking exactly the same things you have done before, you order the food, you serve them you share it between them but only in order to bestow to them, without receiving anything.
S. But here some additional love has to appear towards the friends?
R. When you feel you have no love for them, let's say you had love for money, and now you want to work without any reward, any payment, how can you do that, you need the Creator to give you the power to work without a reward, why, because without a reward, completely without a reward, you cannot do that, rather we say there is no reward in the vessels of reception, but in the vessels of bestowal you can receive a reward, so you wish to resemble the Creator and to bring him contentment and feel how much, to what extent you are giving him contentment and this for you will become the reward, and this is called in order to bestow, that's it.
S. And then how can we feel this, how does he let you feel that he is enjoying?
R. If you are truly doing it for the Creator you’ll start to feel him and how much he is enjoying you.
25. S. (54:32) When does the point come when the person feels that he wants to go on the path of Lishma, for her name?
R. When? I do not know whe,n it all depends on the Creator. When the Creator, I can say, when the Creator sees that you have the correct conditions in order to reach the first degree of Lishma, for her name meaning you have a group, you have study schedule and you are organized, you are capable and this is why you can be given a point of connection to Lishma, for her name.
S. So the desire is not enough but rather we also have to arrange the right conditions?
R. Of course what is a desire? These conditions that you arrange around you, they point to the desire being the right desire.
26. S. (55:35) About the example of the restaurant it is not clear, what does it mean not to receive a reward for preparing a meal for the others?
R. You receive a reward, you enjoy from pleasuring everybody and through them pleasuring the Creator.
S. Yes, but it’s without receiving the payment that is customary in the restaurant? It seems unreal, it feels like a lie.
R. Why a lie? Let's say that all those who come to visit you are relatives of the Creator and by feeding them you are giving Him content because He himself cannot receive anything.
S. Yes it is like I’m cheating that I do not want to receive payment because I want to bestow to the Creator, it does not sound…
R. Why is it considered cheating? Do you really want to bestow to Him or not?
S. I want to bestow to Him but can I know for certain that I am bestowing to Him if I'm not receiving? Specifically upon receiving the payment I could say that I am actually working in bestowing to Him.
R. No.
S. If the nature of the will to receive is canceled, where is the resistance, the overcoming, the effort above it? .
R. The overcoming is by doing the same hard work in order to feed everybody and you do not demand any payment for yourself because the work itself becomes the payment.
S. So I am not just shifting the nature of the will to receive to actually receive payment by my connection to the Creator?
R. I don't understand.
S. If I receive money I would say ok, fine, this money is now going to the will to receive but I'm doing it so the relatives of the Creator would now enjoy it. If I'm not receiving the money, then I want the connection with the Creator to receive that actually?
R. Why is that wrong? You acquire a connection with the Creator, you want adhesion with Him.
S. But I want to draw pleasure from it? I want to receive a reward?
R. The pleasure is something else, pleasure is something else. I want to receive pleasure from the Creator's enjoyment of me. I want to bring him pleasure and contentment.
S. And He only enjoys if I operate without any other reward?
R. Like the host and the guest.
S. Here it feels different because here I am the one who is operating, I am the one who is preparing, it's not like He prepared.
R. Ok, so this is a way you can truly give, contribute, you can give it away to the Creator, you have something in your hands to give Him and if you do not give anything but only receive then in what are you exactly bestowing?
S. How can I know that for certain I'm doing it for Him? That I’m not receiving any reward?
R. According to his reaction. Did you do the correct reaction or not? This is according to His reaction.
S. And his response is expressed in these vessels that are external to me?
R. It is expressed in your feeling, in your adhesion to Him.
27. S. (59:20) To continue your answers, can we sum it all up in the following way? That we first feel the deficiency of the friends and then the response from nature, from the Creator and in the next stage it's already reflected light from the hearts of the friends, is this something that we can discern which heart of the friend it is and then we discerned the light from the entire ten?
R. There is something in what you're saying, it has to fall into the right place but you're on the right path, in the right direction
28. S. (01:00:20) I would like to be precise according to the quote here Rabash here gives some example of the big lie versus the small lie, that in the small lie we work in the ten with full confidence that we are advancing on the path of truth so how does this happen in the ten this transition from the small lie to the great lie? Where is that great lie in the ten from which we can already discover the work in bestowal?
R. There is a lie that appears to us as either big or small, and according to our attitude towards it, our sensitivity towards it, we can identify it properly. With a small lie we can remain but if it's a big lie we wish to disconnect from it, this what it's all about. Be a bit more flexible, you'll see how everything changes, it's like in our lives.
29. S. (01:01:46) This knowledge that you're telling us that we are working in the ten and suddenly we are notified that all that we do is actually a lie, can this move us and motivate us, accelerate us?
R. Of course. If we feel that we are in a lie and this lie is on the way, on the path and through this lie, this lie number one, number two, number three, we can reach the purpose of life, so we go and we accept these things each time as a good things, as it appears to us more and more and more, more and more revealed. There is no other choice, we are coming out of the will to receive that is opposite of the Creator and now we finally discover just how opposite we are and through which states we can come close to Him. So there is progress here, there is joy.
30. S. (01:03:14) By the lie we will know what the lie is and perform some action in the ten to see the lie even better, is that correct?
R. Only through tighter connection between us can we see a more powerful lie. Only by that.
31. S. (01:04:05) It turns out that the person has to work and aligns himself in working Lo Lishma, not for her sake, in order for him to later be able to invest forces?
R. I can't work in Lishma unless I'm connected to the group.
S. So what does it mean that he engages in the Torah night and day?
R. It means that each time as much as possible he wants to activate his actions of bestowal towards his group, maybe even towards the whole world. The essence of the Torah is love your friend as yourself.
32. S. (01:05:12) In this excerpt he talks about discerning and increasing the Lo Lishma, not for her sake, all the efforts are Lishma, for her sake and the friends now he suddenly talks about the opposite of that, how does it settle? What are we supposed to do, ask for it or does it happen on its own?
R. I didn't hear a question.
S. In this excerpt 14 he actually speaks about increasing the Lo Lishma, for her sake, by making it greater and all of our efforts are always in Lishma, for her sake and asking for the friends, suddenly he says continue in Lo Lishma, not for her sake and make this state even bigger.
R. No, you always need to try to walk towards bestowal and connection but along the way you see just how much you are in reception and in lack of connection and that's not bad. Continue as best as you can and you will reach such states of lack of connection and lack of bestowal that you won't be able to tolerate them and this will then directly aim you correctly.
S. Meaning not to try to forcefully make it greater; it happens on its own like a fall, a descent?
R. If you're doing it correctly each time in the connection in the group even if the connection isn't correct nevertheless it will bring you to the correct point.
33. S. (01:07:01) What do we have to do in order to make the lie greater but we need to do it together so should we feel that there is something bad between us? This like should be something that is hard or difficult between us?
R. No, the more we advance the more we will be able to distinguish the lie more easily and more beneficially.
34. S. (01:07:44) When a person feels sorrow from hearing Rav speaking about bestowal and he's not there, he's very far away from it but he doesn't yet have the prayer, what is this person missing?
R. He should connect with the friends as much as possible, he should disconnect himself from himself as if he is incorporated in them and in this way he will advance quickly.
S. The sorrow, it comes in moments should it be permanent in order to have a prayer or it just comes and goes, comes and goes?
R. It comes and goes.
35. S. (01:08:29) When a ten makes deeds and actions it meets, gets together, it has meals and all kinds. Can it take this excerpt that Rabash has here and take it as a measurement of their work and if so how do they do it and what is considered a lie and what is considered truth?
R. I cannot say, you have to see it according to the state. What does it mean that this is towards the truth and towards the lie, this is towards the truth sometimes the lie that you feel is the truth and the truth that you feel it's a lie, so we constantly have to be connected with the friends as we're looking for the North star, as we say the right direction and we check accordingly not where I think I am but how correctly can I position it according to the group.
S. Rabash writes here that is that the commandments and good deeds are few, it turns out he has a small Lo Lishma and so he cannot see the truth, this is why in that state he says that he is walking on the good and true path meaning he is working in for her sake so this is actually a false point in a person. Here the will to receive is lying to him he's not really walking in for her sake so how do we now, when we have zoom meetings three times a day or we meet or perform certain actions between us, how do we know that we're actually performing acts in Lishma, for her sake and we're not lying to ourselves?
R. You won't be able to tell, you can’t tell still, that's why you have this question but soon a few more days and you will begin to identify it more clearly.
36. S. (01:10:39) The question is when we are in Lo Lishma, not for her sake, the moment that we are in Lishma, for her sake, how can we increase our adhesion with the Creator?
R. Through the friends, adhesion is only through unity with the friends.
37. S. (01:11:15) You answered the friends that the great lie is such a lie that you cannot agree with, when I look at my friends I constantly feel my superiority towards them and I cannot succeed in imagining to myself what should happen in order for me to hate my feeling of superiority so much that I will begin to cry out. What should happen? What should transpire for that to happen?
R. What has to happen is for you to feel how the friends disrespect you and they look down at you and how unsuccessful you and how distant you are and then everything will work out.
38. S. (01:12:29) As I see it the lie is an additional vessel, an additional tool in our work. Where do we use this tool towards the ego or something else, so that I can be beneficial to the ten?
R. Everything is only in relation to my egoism.
Reading excerpt #15 (01:13:16) “The Impression that Comes to a Person...”
39. R. (01:14:12) What's he trying to say, that there's no difference between love the created beings and love of the Creator. We can do actions towards love of the created beings and love people and gradually become love to the Creator through them, because the Creator is absolute. Relative to Him our qualities have to be corrected in a final stable manner, whereas towards the friends we can be in different states.
Reading excerpt #16 (01:14:56) “Our Sages said, One Should Always Engage...” Twice
40. S. (01:16:52) Towards other people towards the world is there a difference between actions in Lo Lishma and Lishma and when it comes to the benefit of those actions?
R. Of course there is, if I perform actions according to what the Creator extends to the whole world or opposite that of course there is a difference. If I do it along with the Creator and I extend this line in order to give contentment to everyone, to bring them more to connection more to the truth then the whole world advances this way. I even act in the same places, the same areas where the Creator cannot act and I can.
41. S. (01:17:57) Is it possible to say that all the religions in the world?
R. I didn't find in any religion anything that brings a person closer to the truth, meaning to in order to bestow to everyone. On the contrary all religions, they all serve egoists and governments and ministers and messengers and not the truth, not to bestowal, not love of others. All of them are just the same, and the ones who are governing those religions they are also they are managing them and all the people only out of an egoistic relation.
42. S. (01:19:35) I wanted to ask about the previous excerpt, the excerpt we just read is it possible from habits that we do to acquire the quality of bestowal?
R. Out of habits you cannot acquire the quality of bestowal because you have nothing of bestowal.
S. He writes that starting with fear and that we are small ones,maybe we can read the excerpt and we gradually get accustomed and we attain the quality of bestowal if I understood that correctly?
R. No, you will nonetheless have to go through a crisis because you're entirely made out of the quality of reception and the Creator, the goal of your life is on the other side the quality of bestowal and you need help from above here, to do this inner revolution.
S.The whole process that you're depicting now, let's say I obligate to come to the morning lessons, to participate in the actions in the ten as much as possible and to give myself for the sake of the group without any intention or anything?
R. There is no such a thing to do anything without any intention or anything. Why do you continue this falsehood,all these actions you do are in order to receive a reward.
S. Every person does these actions.
R. Why are you talking about any person, why are you hiding?
S. From all these actions I do in order to receive the reward, I accustom myself to doing certain actions that creates this process that you described?
R. No, because you're doing it in order to get a reward.
S. Well then it's clear that I'm doing it for the sake of the reward, can I do something that's not for the sake of the reward?
R. I don't know what you're asking, why are you trying to manipulate?
S. You are pressuring me, I can't even concentrate.
R. I'm getting angry because I never understand what you want to ask.
S. I will try harder later.
R. Try.
S. If I accustom myself to do those actions anyway, in order to receive, where is the approach pr all together, the nearing towards Lishma?
R. There is none, only if he does that with the friends and with everyone then there's an action of the light that reforms here. Then he comes close to that but still, when he comes close he will need to understand how opposite he is, and then he will have a crisis and still he will try to turn around and to ask the quality of bestowal, the quality of connection from the Creator otherwise it won't work.
S. Meaning the only hope is to operate through the friends and it doesn't matter what?
R. That's not the only hope.
S. Then what?
R. It's true it is the correct action but he'll have to understand that he is the opposite of what is desired.
S. What's the difference in understanding?
R. You wanted to ask, can you reach Lishma out of habit?
S. I understood that from habit we won't reach Lishma, so if we are nevertheless doing this habit what does it give us?
R. That one day you will feel that you are doing the wrong thing, but the main thing is for you to change your intention, that all your actions are falsehood.
S. And that's what you receive through being accustomed to being in the environment?
R. If the environment is correct then through the environment you get the light that reforms, that will get you this feeling of falsehood, otherwise everyone could reach Lishma. Why can't you do it in any society or there was a question previously about religions.
43. S. (01:24:30) What is the crisis that the person has to go through and within him before Lishma?
R. When all his actions and his thoughts and everything he has is in order to receive and if he will continue this way he will die without wisdom.
S. How does he survive this crisis?
R. Each one in his own way. From above there is a set-up in a way that he will continue if he has preparation and he has a group and he has strength and his soul is high he will go forward. Because he has no choice.
44. S. (01:25:18) In this process of transition towards Lishma what is the role of dissemination?
R. It really helps a person because by disseminating a person adds more and more broken souls to correction.
45. S. (01:25:55) I heard you say just before this article to a friend, that when you feel that friends are lower and see that things will work out, is that correct that I heard that?
R. No no no, these are a few words from the sentence I wanted to say but it's not the content.
S. Because my question would be if you feel it like this, is this actually what protects you against the hope for self-love?
R. No, we cannot yet say what the Creator does for the person’s self-love. That's something that we have to learn more systems still.
S. It says like when you have no hope for self-love or any reward which sounds to me really as a total restriction, then it says this exalted point where the love of the Creator and the love of his friends unite and become one. It appears to me that something is missing here, that it needs to have something additional that cannot be only restriction and then this unification is there. Is there something missing? Do we need something additional above this restriction here to make this unification come through, to reveal this unification?
R. I don't understand what you're asking, can you say it in your words?
S. When I read the article it's really clear for me that there is this point of total restriction of self-love and reward and it's actually a constant battle inside a person that he understands where he is. Because he feels that he is lacking in this will to receive but he doesn't want to be that it fulfills because he feels and understands that this will distance further so he restricts this feeling?
R. What's the question?
S. This excerpt speaks really clearly about this point and then it says here at this exalted point the love of Creator and the love of his friends unite to one?
R. Yes.
S. I feel like something is missing here in the sentence, like I need something additional to be able to reveal this love, this one point, this exalted point. What exactly is this exalted point?
R. I’ll read excerpt 15.
Rav reading: “The impression that comes to a person when engaging in Mitzvot between man and the Creator is completely the same as the impression that he gets when engaging in Mitzvot between man and man. Since one is obliged to perform all the Mitzvot Lishma outside of himself without any hope for self-love, meaning coming back to him meaning that no light or hope returns to him for his trouble in the form of reward or honor. If he does that outside of him that's it, inside the Creator or the friends it doesn't matter who but it goes outside of him he doesn't feel the reception in him inside of him here at this exalted point where everything is in order to bestow the love of the Creator and the love of his friend unite and actually become one.” Because it's outside of a person, it's done.
S. I think you always need to feel this restriction to be able to understand that you are outside yourself.
R. Okay, fine.
Reading excerpt #17 (01:31:36) “Rabbi Meir Says Whenever...”
46. S. (01:33:09) It's a general question about the work of Lishma from everything we read. We read the ten Shamati 20 and Shamati 5 and there's the matter of the great correction that he says, that you moved to working in faith above reason and you actually don't receive flavor from that. My question is, it sounds like this narrow passage of working in dust working without bestowal without flavor, is it true that there is such a transition without flavor we have to go through?
R. There is this thing when we stop feeling in our vessels of reception that we're used to get flavors in them and we shift to the vessels of bestowal. Let's say it this way, it's as if you have two children before you one of them is your beloved child and the other is the child of a neighbor. You have no emotion and no connection to him and you have one candy. How can you give this candy to your child or you give it to the neighbor's child, there is a difference. Are you supposed to overcome that to divide it into two halves or to give it to the neighbor's child? That's something we have to understand, how we should behave. What was the question?
S. In that transition of the candy, all these scrutinies and all these processes from moving to vessels and bestowal, I don't have vessels of bestowal. The prayer that helps in that stage is?
R. What you should do before that is pray to the Creator that He will give you an equal attitude to your beloved child just like the child of the neighbor and that you'll have truly the same relation to both of them and then you will know what to do. Let's say you can't divide the candy.
S. Yes but it's kind of like in that stage I have no flavor, I can't enjoy, I can't give to my child and I can't give to the neighbor?
R. The solutions come later, first you need to understand the situation.
47. S. (01:36:30) It's not clear why in the last except that he learns but he doesn't observe, he engages in Torah but he does not observe?
R. Why does that bother you so much?
S. No, it's theoretical.
R. No, the study includes all actions usually, especially when you're talking about the Mishna. Do you know when they wrote this Mishna, a long time ago.
48. S. (01:37:13) I have many questions but they felt that they stem from my ego, but one remained. What exactly is the purpose of these bodies that are here next to me in this process of Lishma?
R. I didn't understand the question.
S. What is the purpose of the bodies around him if the goal is to Lishma
R. He doesn't realize he is with other people, what's the role to reach Lishma?
S. Yes, that's the question.
R. I have nothing to say. We have to go to articles by Rabash, to read all these things more a few times and then he'll understand why a person wasn't born alone and that there are billions of people and the purpose of creation is attainment to connect all these billions to one.
S. it's not like that exactly, I can be alone and I would come to the feeling that I really need to come to Lishma so that's my prayer, so why do we have all the things like meetings and all these efforts that were making?
R. Kabbalists wrote these things for us, Kabbalists wrote that this is how we should behave and this is how we behave. Don't put all our intellect into that because our intellect has no value, so what they wrote that's what we are trying to do.
49. S. (01:38:49) I want to bestow to my friends but I am falling into the awareness that I am in the will to receive, what to do. Do I need to come to the feeling that I want to stop receiving for myself?
R. Yes and out of that you can bestow to your friends.
50. S. (01:40:27) When we understand that we are lying, what action should we take in order to come to the truth?
R. Only for connection, we need nothing, just connection.
51. S. (01:40:50) In the three conditions of prayer it was written that a person must believe that the Creator wants and can give him what he asks for, why don't I believe that I can come to Lishma and build the correct prayer?
R. Try it and you'll see if you can or cannot and if you cannot you can turn to your friends so they will help you. Whenever the person cannot do he has to turn to the group and the group can help him to bring him out of any bad state.
52. S. (01:41:33) If we cannot include more than ten in our mind and heart so what does it mean that we have to incorporate in the complete world Kli, how can we include the whole world Kli in the prayer?
R. Their incorporation is different from our ten to other tens, so we already have a structure of a complete vessel and that's why there are no limitations there of how to connect.
53. S. (01:42:11) What causes me to see the Creator in my friends, is The Godly spark that lives inside of me?
R. It doesn't live inside of you it lives inside of them inside your friends. That's where the Creator is and when you want to connect to them the truth is you want to connect to the Creator, that's why it's written from love of others to the love of the Creator.
54. S. (01:42:46) In excerpt number 14, the expression that all day and all night, does it mean verbatim or is it about a change in states?
R. It's about a change of states.
55 S. (01:43:06) In excerpt 13 it's written, and then he has no other counsel but to pray to the Creator to illuminate his eyes so he'll be able to work in bestowal. What does it mean to open his eyes or illuminate his eyes?
R. That a person will see where he is and what state.
56. S. (01:43:30) What is the examination that a person needs to do to check if he is connected correctly to the friends?
R. Only to be in connection with them.