Afternoon Lesson January 2, 2023 Transcription

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Part 1:

Love - Selected Excerpts from Zohar for All

1.Rav’s Introduction. (00:20) The topic seems to be easy but it is actually the most difficult because it is the most central one in perceiving the Creator and coming closer to Him and understanding the root of the world. And we are very confused from the egoistic love which is in us, and we understand how to use it in a natural way, like a baby that's always crying and demanding love from the very first day that it is born. Basically, this is how a person is until the very last day and we don't take into account, we don't relate to love in a true way, in a correct way. We think that it is an easy thing, that it is something that is understood easily and here is the problem: why do so few people attain spirituality, meaning love in order to bestow love, in order to give to the world, the love of friends through which we come out to spiritual love.

Here we have a great problem in that we don't understand that our whole life, the whole path, the whole spiritual development, it is all in order to acquire the love of the other, and this is a problem. In a natural way that we understand love as self-love and we receive everything out of this self-love and a love of the world and the love of The Creator. And only in this way can we come closer to Him and start to feel Him. We don't understand that, we don't feel it, we disregard it. Each and every one can simply feel in his heart how much he disregards love which is not the egoistic self-love but what’s called the love of the world, and therefore, basically we enter into a different form of our attitude to the Creator into truth. That we think that then we will know how the world's cascade and the spiritual Sefirot and what happens there. Meaning we learn technically and we think that this is the goal, that as much as we will know more, then like this we will advance more, and this is completely, completely incorrect.

The truth is how we develop within us, in our heart, the sense of loving others such that we will relate to everyone, to all the people in the whole world, to the whole world: to the speaking level and animate and vegetative and still from above to below in a way of love, and so all in all, this attitude of love is how we can relate to the Creator who created us and gave it to us so that by this we would refine ourselves in the correct sense, in all the four levels of our will to receive and to make a restriction of our regular will to receive in order to receive and to invert it into the love of the world as it is called the love for everything that is outside of us which is all the Creator created.

Therefore, I must love everything that’s created in order to come close to Him and this is our work and we need to convince ourselves that we don't have anything else to do in our lives but only to invert the hatred or at least the indifference towards the whole world specifically towards closeness and love which is called the love of the world, and then only then, we will be able to that extent, to start to feel out of our efforts of loving the others to distinguish what it means to love the Creator. Meaning to enter into Him or to come closer to Him and to love Him. Of course whoever is greater than his friend his desire, his inclination is greater, meaning that he is more of an egoist and as much as a person has an ego then to invert the ego into love, by that we attain the whole true, spiritual reality. Therefore, we don't criticize or clarify what we are learning as if we are learning things that are not so important but the opposite.

This topic that we are in right now which is called love, this is the most important, the most central and deepest and truly by this we meet with the Creator there. So let's try to remove ourselves from self-love and relate to all of our friends those that are distant, good, bad, it doesn't matter what, but those that are somehow with us on the path that they have a special desire to reach love, although they are not aware of it and the Creator never-the-less gave us this tendency, this inner one, which is in the meantime concealed and we will start to work, to dig into this love that we have until we reach love for the world, meaning for all of creation and it's inner force the Creator, and we connect to it, love it, come closer to it. Let's try. 

Let's read these excerpts and we will understand that this is basically the center, the nucleus of our spiritual work. We cannot know in all sorts of things, what they are called, that we will feel this through love and then this feeling will be a true feeling from attainment and not only through the intellect.

2. S. (09:35) On the one hand I feel when I come to the lesson and I want to get fulfilled and receive as much as I want and on the other hand you said that lately we need to develop this sense of love.

R. This is the purpose of the lesson.

S. How do we use this time right now to develop our sense of love and not to just come and be fulfilled with knowledge more than feeling?

R. Feelings are good, feelings of love and connection are good, that I don't look at people as anything that can disturb me from entering into this feeling in a person everyone who's here, everything is concealed from us, we need to try and connect in the heart with them and out of our heart to feel the heart of the other man, woman, it doesn't matter, without any difference to gender and any other differences and try to connect. Specifically in the connection, when I cancel my ego and want to connect with everyone, specifically what's in one's heart by that I go from our world, of in order to receive, to a spiritual one in order to bestow. There are a lot of words here but until a person directs his heart, he does not attain the essence of creation which is all entirely, all opposite of what we think from the start, it's all love.

S. So what is this man, this heart, what does it depend on when the head is opposite and just wants for itself?

R.Of course that is how it is the intention of the heart the direction that we need in order to calibrate ourselves is only to let our heart feel reality, and through the reality to feel the Creator. Otherwise, we don't reach the goal. We can feel the Creator in our sense of love towards all of the created beings, towards all of creation. Let's see what The Zohar writes about this please.

Reading Excerpt 9 Twice. (12:22) “Even my spirit within me seeks You..”

3. S. (14:25) Egoistic desires that are injected into us by the Creator, how do we transform this ego and hatred, what is lacking here?

R. That we want to connect to everyone and to the world to the whole still, vegetative, animate and speaking and of the love, love that comes from the Creator to us that we will relate to this in love. And then we see how much we are incapable of tolerating anything in the world but only what’s according to us, that we see what is fitting for us and therefore, we must change our attitude towards reality in such a way we will also come closer to the Creator and start to feel him.

4. S. (15:34) The first sentence that a person can cling to the Creator to great love in the night, this implies faith above reason?

R. Yes, yes. Yes, in the darkness you're right. This is in faith above reason that we reject everything that our egoistic heart does not want and here we need to do the opposite. Therefore this state is called night. That we feel that we lack feelings and desire but we will work on it to such an extent until we reach the light of the dawn when the day comes. Meaning that we start to feel in our attitude, in our egoistic attitude, that we can start to feel the beginning of our altruistic attitude. That we understand a bit and feel a bit, what is called love of the world and in this way we start to develop it.

S. The last sentence is about the true righteous. I don't even know where to start asking but it says the world exists because of the righteous and they govern all the harsh degrees. I thought that everything was done by the Creator but what does this mean that the righteous had such an influence?

R. The world is a special system of laws that works from in order to bestow to in order to receive. These two forces act in the world and as much as we make the desire to bestow greater than the desire to receive in the person, by this we change not just our perception of reality but also we change the laws of the world. We start to bring a person closer to the correction and in this way we hope that we will reach the final correction. The path is not so difficult or so long but it all depends on the person's desire and also not just a desire of all people which are on the level of still, vegetative, animate and speaking but specifically within the speaking, these are the people that have the point in the heart and they are capable of changing themselves from reception to bestowal, from hatred to love.

5. S. (18:48) How can the righteous direct everything from out of love?

R. Through the good force they move the world from the bad to the good. This is how the world's start to exist from the prayers and through their efforts and this way we reach the final correction, and gradually the whole world needs to invert to the good direction. Let's hope that we will feel that in our time, in our days, how much the world gets a new direction.

6. S. (19:55) In the text it is speaking about serving. In the ten when we have to do a certain task we come into it and we don't want to do it. What are the consequences?

R. It doesn't matter about our states nonetheless, they accumulate. There is no absence in spirituality. This is the law in all of our efforts, even the smallest one, in the smallest second it remains. The internality, as these moments accumulate and gradually in collecting all of these moments we reach a state where we begin to feel this, understand more and to carry out more in this way until we reach the final correction.

7. S. (21:03) It is written so beautifully here that so the morning rises and the Creator draws upon the thread of grace until the morning rises. Is this the person's work, that he's doing it for the Creator, bringing out this love into the world, and what is this grace, Hesed?

R. This thread of grace, until we ask the Creator to shine for us from his force of love that we want it to develop in us, this thread of love, this thread of grace, this is how we pull the world to the good direction.

8. S. (22:02) I wanted to ask why is joy a good state? Why does it cause hatred towards the environment? Why does the good state bring us to hatred in the environment?

R. If joy comes out of the egoistic force and causes hatred and distance up until the point of wars and one overcoming over the other. We need to try first to have an open hand and an open heart one towards the other. If we do this in our group in our international big group then this will already be a huge change in the whole world, really in the whole world and we need to advance towards that.

S. How do we continue in this state of balance in the ten, how do we continue this?

R. Try to open the heart to all of the friends in the ten to such an extent that there won't be any difference between my heart and the friend’s heart. That we will feel that we are truly in one heart. We are not speaking about families and work and all sorts of things that are in this world, we are talking about the attitude towards all of reality, towards the Creator.

9. S. (24:02) The world that the Creator created and the world that we see now they seem to be two different things, two very different things. Which world should I love as you say the Creator and which world should I save? It seems like there is nothing worth saving. What is good in this world?

R. Absolutely wrong. Nothing is spoken about our world at all. What is spoken about is that our ego that is currently reigning in us and through this ego we see all of reality. If we want to see the true world then to invert ourselves meaning to begin to invert the way that it seems to us in our ego. But the way that the Creator wishes to see it, meaning through the quality of bestowal, love and connection. Then you will feel the true world and not our world that is called the imaginary world.

S. So we need to relate to the world not to the miseries and the hardships that we see in this world right?

R. Of course not that is only what our ego perceives, as soon as we rise above our ego, we stop seeing all of these horrors that we feel and see in our world.

10. S. (26:09) It's not a question, I wanted to tell you that we are very proud. That one of your students got sick but it's not about that. For many months the families of Bnei Baruch, the group, have been really holding onto me. They are going through this freezing rain in order to help me we are changing the world without a doubt I am very lucky to be among you and you Michael Laitman, we are proud as your students, we thank you.

R. Thank you as well.

11. S. (27:00) I wanted to ask a question in connection to the commands in theTorah. For example, what is the reason that the Creator connects these two topics together, these different commandments that a person and a beast?

R. The person and the beast, the Creator gives blows to them. Meaning even those two degrees when they still haven't reached the level of a person. We nonetheless bless them for wanting to reach the degree of a person, similar to the Creator, person is from the word Domeh, similar to the Creator and this is how we advance.

12. S. (28:09) In the matter of love, it says here if there is a tactic to add in love and we don't add this is also a flaw. How do we truly add in love, the feelings between us and if we are truly capable and not everyone but that there is envy in those that are able to open the heart to others and those that are not capable?

R. It is impossible to develop love but only within a small society where you look at the others and even if you don't see in them any attitude of love or any desire to develop the connections of love you understand that you must do this, and to show to everyone, to what extent you are in love. And not to see yourself as rigid, and I'm not working in this but specifically the opposite. Even if you don't have a tendency to develop an attitude of love to the friends, you still must against your will show them that you are making efforts to relate to everyone out of love.

S. I want to tell you that I really love you.

R. Thank you.

13. S. (29:52) When I look at something not pleasant in this world, even hateful and I recognize it, I know that from the teachings of Kabbalah that only through connection, love and bestowal I should look at the world so what do I do with that focus that my focus and my whole perception says that this is horrible. So what do I do in that moment of perception? How do I transform this, my perception to another perception that I really want to acquire, I want to attain?

R. We then need to stop ourselves and to get included with the Kabbalists tell us as much as they spoke about love, connection and people coming closer. That with all this that is opposite to our nature and the Creator did this on purpose, that out of the darkness we reach the light, and in this way we attain reality in this oppositeness of form, in this contrast between reception and bestowal, and then in this way we reach the revelation of the Creator and the correction of the world.

Reading Excerpt 10. (31:50) “Place me as a seal over your heart..”

14. S. (34:23) Why does it say that love is as harsh as death and why does it say it comes to the left side shouldn’t it be from the right, from the Creator?

R. It comes and it's revealed specifically out of the oppositeness of form and therefore it is revealed as working over the great will to receive, where there it can be clarified like when we develop a movie let's say or a certain photo that we photograph then we make it out of something that doesn't exist it needs to invert itself from the negative to the positive and then we will know in the connection between them the intensity, all of the colors and all of the different qualities that are there. It is impossible to reveal anything but only one thing out of the opposite and therefore this is also how we relate to love. It cannot sprout but only out of hatred so also in our world we see the will to receive that develops more and more, to such an extent that we don't know already what to do with it, and then gradually we start to understand that instead of it there must, instead of it, must come love that from people hating each other, they don't have a choice but only to bring themselves to a second side, to love. And then they will be able to establish hatred and love together and the final correction is that both hatred and love are working in one direction to connection above the two of them.

15. S. (36:33) Is the work of love only for our friends in the group or for others as well? If so, how can I love dictators and racists in the world etc.

R. First of all we need to reach the quality of connection of love within the ten. After, we attain the connection in the ten like it needs to be, accordingly, we can then speak about these qualities love and hatred. Before this we don't feel what this is. We are not aware of this. We need through the ten to enter the spiritual world, into the spiritual framework. And then it will be clear for us what we are in. And in this way we will reach the development, of developing more qualities of hatred and love until the two of them support one another and through the two of them, we will reach the love for the world, that the right will rule the left.

16. S. (38:15) Thank you for everything you have done for us. According to the last piece, when you said that love is called eternal love and jealousy or hatred is the opposing element of it, do we eventually put hatred and jealousy to death when we attain complete love?

R. No. Nothing that the Creator created was created as something bad but everything just needs to be arranged correctly, one relative to the other and this force that one relative to the other the Creator made, we use all of nature, even in those things that seem to us as completely, that's completely not towards correction and are not good but the opposite, we invert all of the bad into good and then the bad is specifically what highlights the right connection that needs to be. Specifically out of this, we attain the depth of our work and the intention of the Creator in creation.

17. S. (39:58) I also want to say on behalf of the ten, we love you very much and we want to ask: this line that may our form be engraved in Your heart as Your form is engraved in ours. What does this line mean?

R. We need to understand this from the inside.

18. S. (41:20) I feel that in the ten, the Creator is giving us a lot of states of hatred, specifically from the connection between us. The question is: how can we know that this is the time to make all of the efforts in true love and it doesn't always work out and it comes and goes in hatred. How do we build this love above the hatred?

R.We need to divide it into two and see that here is the hatred and here is the love and why are they opposing one another and what can I do with this. How can love rule over the hatred and through the hatred where we specifically cover the love and raise the love. Without hatred we cannot feel the need to clarify and to search how more and more we reveal love. We need to play with the two of them.

19. S. (42:23) I feel this great love for my friends, for the whole world and to the Creator. The need to express love arises but doing these actions does not satisfy, so I pray for opportunities to spread this love in physical actions. Is it okay to seek for a physical expression of love or should I transform this need to an inner expression? If yes, how do I try to do this?

R If this is in the group then it is good to do it both externally and internally, but in the group.

20. S. (43:28) Is this a positive process that the Creator will get revealed? That He reveals our suffering in order for us to come to love the other?

R. We need to enter into a struggle and all the time to cover with love everything that we have in love to the other. Try to be like this and then more and more opportunities will open up for you to come closer to the Creator.

21. S. (44:22) I hope this question will be translated. The true love that is as strong as hate, how would one react to the feelings of hatred from his brothers and sisters that reject him? Can he avoid them out of his love for them in order for them to feel this hatred from associating with them?

R. Try to show them an example, a good attitude towards them and that's it that is enough. To show an example as much as possible in a balanced way, in how much you relate to them in a good way, not too much, but in a good way.

22. S. (43:34) From the connection between us we should come to see that there is no bad and no good in the world. That there is a balance in the world in which we are able to see the love of friends of the Creator?

R. Yes, continue and this will work out.

23. (46:22) What's the advice to a person where the hate is so strong that he can't go back to love, it can't remember what the love feels like and go back to it?

R. To act, he needs to act love, act love.

S. If he's outside of that state where he can act, that environment, how can he still maintain that feeling of love?

R. He does not need an external environment outside of the group to show himself as someone who loves, he needs to be neutral and indifferent.

S. I'm not talking about showing outsiders that love. I'm talking about when I'm around the outsiders as to keep the love to the Creator and to the friends.

R. I am also speaking about external people, how you need to relate to them in a calm way that we are speaking about the ten and the group. Where we come together in order to reveal the wisdom of Kabbalah. We are talking about the implementation of the wisdom of Kabbalah.

24. S. (48:18) Why is love like that? Love is something eternal. Why is a comparison made between something eternal and something material?

R. And this is why we see it like this in our world. Can we understand what love is? Although it is a beastly love, an egoistic one but nonetheless we still have where to take an example from. Because it truly comes to us it brings us either to life or death.

25. S. (50:10) Today I am in charge of connection. How should I relate to the group today?

R. In love, show everyone that you want to see love in the group. Okay.

26. S. (50:12) Regarding the love of the friends, what is the difference between wanting to find myself within the friend or within myself I want to find the friend from the point of view of the work?

R. The deeper that you want to find the friend, the better.

S. And how?

R. It's not for now.

27. S. (51:10) Eternal of jealousy is as harsh as a Sheol. What is jealousy?

R. Jealousy: you don’t know what jealousy is?

S. No, we don't know what it is we are talking about in this context.

R. It's when I cannot stand and cannot endure a certain quality.

28. (51:45) Thank you for this chance to ask. When we listen to you we are really hear and we really feel that you possess unbelievable strength and faith that everything will be okay once we connect within the ten, within our groups. Can you give us advice so we can get that strength of faith for each one of us and each member of our world vessel?

R. Just to open up the heart to everyone, to everyone, to open the heart to all of the friends, don't be afraid. With an open heart you then come closer to feel the Creator.

S. Because this opening the heart, it's very abstract to open the heart. So what does it mean to open the heart? Can we just go into that a little bit deeper?

R. To open the heart means to open the heart, that's it. To open the heart I don't have anything else to say, search by yourself how to reach this.

29. S. (53:20) Can we say that to love in the group becomes the one who is love and there is a transformation, there is a cancellation in becoming the one who is loved?

R. Yes, this as well.

S. So also we will engage in love of friends until we fall in love with love itself?

R. Yes, yes we all the time need to try to want more and more and more to get included in one another.

S. But how do you feel because when there's love there's fear too and how to keep the love and connect at the same time when you have fear of losing?

R. Everything must be together, everything must be together.

Reading Excerpt 10. (55:05) “Place me as a seal over your heart..”

30. R. (57:48) They take such excerpts that it's very difficult to speak about them. So if you have questions here let’s enter them a bit.

31. S. (57:57) Love and jealousy, what is this jealousy? Is the Creator jealous and I am jealous?

R. Both the person and the Creator, they are both jealous and it is written about the Creator not just once, that many times that he is a jealous God. That's correct, the Creator is really jealous for us to be dedicated to Him and not to anyone else. Although there is None Else Besides Him and when we depict to ourselves as if there is some other force, some other ruler, He does not forgive. He really relates to us in a way that He spins us until we reach the right attitude.

32. S. (59:18) I wanted to ask about physical love and spiritual love, if they follow one another?

R. No, there's no connection to one or the other. Corporeal love is egoistic, beastly and only that. Spiritual love is all in order to bestow that a person feels this not truly in his heart, but in the heart of the other.

32. S. (59:58) How can I understand my heart in order to understand a prayer that is in a friend's heart?

R. Open up your heart and try to feel it in the heart all of your friends. Try again and again and again until you truly will start to feel that they are all in your heart. And then you will reach this eternal love, love of the world. I really hope that this lesson, that through it you will change your attitude a bit to the connection between us and that we will advance to opening up a place for the Creator within our heart together. It cannot be in any one heart but only in the heart that is connected to a few hearts and then we will feel in them the Creator. So let's try to think in this direction how to connect the hearts so that in it, in this common heart, the Creator can get revealed. Good luck to you. All the best.

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