Morning Lesson December 07, 2022, Transcription 

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

Part 1:

Ibur [conception] - Selected Excerpts from the Sources

https://docs.google.com/document/d/13hgsqxIPQhuJWdSfaeoMI6_LIPYUB0CnusieKSmBkOE/edit

1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:22) Yes, Ibur is the first spiritual state that we need to attain. To this state a person raises himself on the condition that he has nothing more important than to annul himself towards everything he has; with respect to everything he has and thus, we see here already in item one that the focal point in the work of the Creator is the first footing. Meaning, to annul oneself as if one does not exist in all elements, conditions, eternally, environmentally it doesn't matter he needs to bring himself to a state that seemingly nothing is operating on him but the opposite, that everything is operating on him but along with this he is not influenced by it, not influenced. This he explains onwards; later on. You will ask and talk and try to measure on yourselves just how much you are suitable, already fetuses or not. Let us read number two.

 Excerpt 2 (02:16) “The beginning of the entrance into the work...” 

2. R. (02:36) Meaning  the first condition is to annul oneself.

Continues Reading (02:40) “As it is written, hear my son your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching…” Twice.

3. S. (05:26) What does it mean to annul himself completely and enter the state of Ibur?

R. Well this is by our work in the society and the group. That each one annuls himself before the friend. Each one wants to adhere to everyone and slowly gradually over time he feels just how much he wants or doesn't want, he can or cannot, but he receives some impression from what stands before him and in this manner he gets closer to realizing this condition.

S. There are friends in the ten for example. How can I enter them, the connection between us through this work? So this work will become Ibur.

R. Exercises, exercises, there is nothing more you can do. That I annul myself more and more and more towards them. I make the effort to truly be as zero and nothing. I make the effort to help them in everything and in such a manner I enter the state of Ibur, that they are for me everything like a mother, like a womb and I exist in them, and only for them and this is my first spiritual work, and it is difficult work, as he writes here in the first sentence, “the focal point in the work of the Creator is the first footing.” The first footing that I should adhere to them like a drop of seed in the wall of the womb, and there begins to be Ibur.

S. In the introduction to the lesson you said, if I got it correctly, that I need to annul, cancel everything in my life for the sake of this point of adhesion with the friends. How to cancel and annul everything?

R. I continue to exist in my family and my work and everything that I have. But the most important thing for me inside is to be in Ibur with the upper one, that's the wife, the woman who is pregnant with the baby that is developing in her. She cares about nothing in the world, absolutely nothing compared to what is developing in her. It is the most important thing that she feels right now. That is it.

4. S. (09:37) Who are we giving pleasure to so it turns out only then can we annul ourselves and our self-love above all this. But it nevertheless comes as a gift, as a result of our group work, of the annulment before the friend, when we look to lean on the Creator when we cannot stand it any longer, but nevertheless it is a gift.

R. I don't know about what function or gift you are talking about.

S. The feeling of who is receiving pleasure in the state, that should be clear? A person can allow himself.

R.  I enjoy from this that I can do all this for the sake of the Creator. 

S. But the feeling should be clear. How to accept it?

R. Think about it all the time; develop it. 

S. As a gift? As a result of the work in the group? 

R. I don't know gift or not a gift. I don't like these extra words because they are just swaying us off and confusing us. You said one word and that’s it. That a person feels and that in him such an attitude is born towards the group, towards the Creator, that this is the main thing for me, the main thing, the most important: nothing is more important than that.

S. What prevents us to seemingly feel this point clearly? There is a feeling as if, well self-love and ego, it's an idea, an opinion about this. This we have to remove. The Creator enjoys this, and we can exchange sensations with him.

R. The main thing that bothers us is that we are thinking about ourselves and not changing that we are thinking about the Creator and how to enter there and how to be in Dvekut with him.

5. S. (12:13) In the article it says when he cancels himself and becomes impregnated in the mother's womb. Is this an action on our part, or is this the birth of a new desire or both?

R. An action from the side of the Creator and from our side, on our parts. That we want to adhere to Him; He wants to accept us and receive us in Him.

6. S. (12:51) We talked in the last weeks about faith above reason. We went to a congress ‘Entering into Lishma and now we are talking about Ibur. Is there any relation between each one of these topics?

R. Yes, of course but we now need to leave everything and to be immersed in the excerpts that we are going through. It is not a lot in sum total but if we will immerse in them, if we want to feel them, if we want to incorporate them in the way that they will format us then we will get closer to Ibur.

7. S. (14:01) During the Congress the question is about Ibur. At what moment do we need to make that Ibur?

R. Now we need to make Ibur: right now we are now in Ibur. Ibur is not one time, it occurs in every correct beginning but now it is truly standing before us. We need to annul ourselves each one towards the others and we need to annul all of us together ourselves towards the Creator. And then we will begin to feel that we are rising from this world to the upper world. Okay?

8. S. (15:28) How can I see each friend as my own son, my own child as a result to annul to the state of Ibur?

R. I think about it all the time to try and fulfill it.

S. I do it forcefully?

R. By force, yes could be, yes.

9. S. (16:26) This excerpt sounds like a direct instruction for how to enter Ibur. What are those two actions and what do they mean for us? About the mother and father?

R. We need to fulfill them as it is written. It doesn't come in one shot, in one discussion, in one lesson. Rather slowly and gradually it goes and happens. If we will open up Talmud Eser Sefirot then we will see there too is the matter of Ibur. That Ibur, Yenika of the first Gadlut, second Gadlut, stages that a person is developing, how he builds his Neshama and so here we are going through it in a short manner, in preparation, that all the rest we can later on learn from practicality, from our development of relations.

10. S. (18:06) What kind of preparation do I have to make in order to reach complete annulment before the group?

R. We've talked about this many times. What I need to do in order to completely annul myself before the group and the friends. How I need to depict to myself as a zero, as Rabash writes in the article about the friends. How a person annuls himself towards the group, the ten and to make the effort to carry out these exercises a few times a day, as he writes there. And then in such a manner I slowly gradually get closer to a state as it's written, “my soul shall be as dust to all,” and then the heart is opened up to the Torah to the upper lights and after the Creator, after all these commandments, after Him I begin to chase, after His commandments.

11. S. (19:43) Yesterday the whole ten was revolving around the scrutiny, full of care for the ten. The feeling was that there was no reality but when each one lives and cares only about these scrutinies. Is this the direction of Ibur? 

R. Yes. It’s not yet Ibur but it’s in that direction.

S. What’s the main reason I need to have care and concern for a friend? Why should I care for a friend?

R. That you begin to appreciate the friend as the Creator. That he stands before you and the Creator placed him before you as a goal. Adhere to the friend and receive a connection with the Creator.

S. If I care about the friend, I care about the Creator?

R. No, but it is on the way. That is the path.

12. S. (20:53) You said that on the one hand we can alter ourselves and on the other hand we did everything we can. What is this process?

R. That is the process we need to go through, to annul ourselves, to respect the friend, to annul ourselves, compared to him, respect him, towards him as towards the Creator and that is what we just read here, in excerpt two. Look what he writes here, “The beginning of the entrance into the work of the Creator is regarded as Ibur.” The beginning of the entrance in someone, the upper one, “when he cancels his self and becomes impregnated in the mother’s womb,” meaning that at that same point that’s the self, it is as if it doesn't exist. It is willing to accept upon itself everything that is in the upper one, as it is written, “hear my son your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching.” 

That this comes from the verse for if you call the mother understanding, Bina. Meaning that he cancels self-love called Malchut, he cancels his self-love, whose original essence called the will to receive in order to receive and enters the vessels of bestowal called Bina. And one should believe that before he was born, meaning before the soul descended into the body, that he feels himself as he does now, the soul was adhered to him and now he longs to adhere to him as prior to her descent. This is in the nature of the soul that she yearns to return to the source. This is called Ibur, meaning when he completely annuls himself it allows the soul to come perform this action of ascent back to the source as she wants; do not stop the soul: let it rise to its source. 

13. S. (24:01)  What exactly is the state where the whole group annuls before the Creator? What are the conditions there?

R. The conditions that each one annuls himself before the friend and everyone together if they are in such a form if they can to annul themselves towards the Creator. The Creator does not exist. The Creator is in sum total our General, the General that we all connect each one in annulment towards the others and in this we want to be connected between us. Then we establish as it is written, ‘you have made me.’ Then we establish, we stabilize this form of the Creator.

14. S. (25:02) To return myself to the body it was before in adhesion. Does that mean to connect to the friends? 

R. True connection with the friends we perform this action.

S. What do I have to feel? Do we have to feel that each and every friend is a part of me?

R. Yes, each and every friend represents for you the part of the general soul in which the Creator is concealed. All right?

15. S. (25:55) Is Ibur a stage in the development of our connections where we feel the friend inside of us as if we are carrying a child and we have this absolute caring, love, and sensation we don't care about ourselves we just think about caring for our friends?

R. We think about the friend. I would say more that we think about the generality of our connection, not specifically about the friend especially, but rather about the gathering of the friends which is called the soul.

16. S. (26:52) Does this return mean that we will remind ourselves of what was in the beginning?

R. Well what was in the beginning we do not know. We do not remember it is not in our memory, but we connect to it yes. As if it could seem to you that we are going backwards to the same state that was before we feel ourselves here in this world, we will clarify that. There are few matters here that I will not confuse you with to trip you with that.

17. S. (28:02) How can the fear influence Ibur?

R. I do not know. We do not learn that now. I think we will touch on that later on, on the suitability between true love and fear because true love cannot be without fear.

S. Can it create disturbances if there is a great fear before the Creator, maybe the spiritual work, maybe Ibur itself?

R. We will learn that later on. Could be.

18. S. (28:45) What should we understand from entering the Kelim of bestowal called Bina?

R. Again?

S. What should we understand from entering the Kelim of bestowal called Bina?

R. You begin to become familiar with these Kelim and as such we begin to become familiar with what are called vessels of bestowal, begin to become familiar with the Kelim of bestowal for the first time. What they are, what is opened up before us, how we can exist in them. It is truly a new world. It is not our world, it's an eternal spiritual world that there we exist outside the events of corporeal life and death. This we will need to become familiar with, to live in it, to be born in it and to raise ourselves there and to continue.

19. S. (30:20) If the Creator is concealed inside the ten is there a perception beyond His presence in the ten?

R. No, there is no perception outside of the ten but this perception that is in the ten all the time is formed in higher and higher levels, and we feel the form of the ten that is connected anew and its fulfillment which is already the Creator that fills the ten.

20. S. (31:18) How do we cancel or annul our Kelim of reception? How do we do it?

R. Only by connection between us and prayer to the Creator.

S. But when I pray for connection I have no problem with receiving pleasure or fulfillment. How is this annulment?

R. Slowly, gradually you get rid of these pleasant corporeal goals and get closer to goals that are spiritual for the purpose of the goal.

S. I need to do something active to get rid of the will to receive?

R. It says we learned until now that annulment that's getting closer to the friends. It is all these things, yes of course. Now it is coming to realization.

S. But I need to ask the Creator to take the will to receive from me or the light does it without me asking? 

R. We need to ask for everything.

21. S. (32:46) What am I annulling? The will to receive for myself or the entire desire?

R. We will soon go through the excerpts, and you will understand it from there. That is it. We have read it not once; we have spoken about it not once that we need to annul our will to receive for oneself gradually and not us rather by the influence of the light that reforms. 

22. S. (30:39) There are people who are in my heart, and I want to ask when the friends enter my heart, when I open the heart, when I lift the friend to my heart, is that the same feeling or is it something else?

R. You will see. You will see yourselves if it is the same sensation or not. I cannot talk to you about your sensations.

23. S. (34:22) What's the difference between hearing the father's morals and not departing from the mother's teachings? Is this the difference between men and women? How is it expressed in the love of the friends? How could we use it?

R. We cannot use it. We do not even know what it is. We will advance and then we will become familiar with all of these things and make an effort to realize them. Also, what is the father and mother and your father's instruction and your mother's teaching. This we will make an effort to realize.

S. For now we are using it like faith above reason?

R. If you know what faith above reason is and you can use faith above reason go ahead.

S. I can't use anything.

R. Why are you saying anything?

S. I'm asking you.

R. But you're asking not to the point because you don’t have it. So, why are you asking?

S. Ask only with what I have?

R. Yes.

24. S. (35:45) Is there a difference between annulling by my own strength or when the upper one gives power to annul?

R. Both, both. When we request for the upper one to perform some action upon us then we are in the work towards the upper one in request and then later on He does it. Always here there is a mingling of our work with the upper one. 

Reading Excerpt 3 Twice. (36:21) “Wanting to exit self-love and begin in the work of bestowal…” 

25. R. (38:05) We enter a completely new state; spirituality. We need to prepare ourselves in order to be in it to receive, to bestow, to exchange some certain qualities to connect just like we do in our world. We adapt ourselves to our world. Nature works on us and adapts us. We grow up, we know more and more things and language, we hear, we talk and so on and so forth. It takes many, many years until a person adapts himself to this reality. So are we relative to spirituality. Okay, so we can try and be patient and pay attention to all of those things that come to us from spiritual to discernments from the connections between us. To try to detect in the  connection between us all kinds of phenomena that does not belong to this world but do belong to spirituality. This is very important. With these things we are going to go and develop. We are at the threshold to the beginning of spiritual development. 

Excerpt 3 Again (40:00)

26. R. (40:50) Meaning he went through a certain preparation and now we need to enter. The next preparation goes through his senses, his mind, his brain, his feeling, his awareness more than the previous one. Now he begins to understand and feel more where he is and adjust himself to this new state. Therefore, he says wanting to exit self-love and beginning to work in bestowal is similar to leaving all of those states in which he lived, is dropping everything and entering an area he has never been to before. Get used to it. How to leave behind the old qualities and acquire new qualities. In this way, slowly, through this back and forth he will advance, little by little, just like we learned about children. How they learn to walk and play or do something. Sometimes they go back to something that they had, suddenly he doesn't feel like playing. He wants to lie down in his crib again with a ragdoll or a pacifier; it calms him down. He goes back to that state. Then again, he takes another step forward, we are the same.

27. S. (42:47) As it's written, “until he has the ability to acquire new qualities, which are foreign to the spirit he has received since birth.” What are these qualities and how do we acquire them?

R. Qualities of bestowal, no more than that and we acquire them gradually in different ways and different methods. These are qualities that belong more to the spiritual world compared to what he had before. We acquired together certain, several qualities that belong to the spiritual world, but these qualities are not yet are not present in us practically either. That we know that this has to be like this, or this has to be like that and the connection has to be spiritual and what is it preparation, the support but it is still it is all quite weak, loose and here we enter states that are more internal, more practical. Clear?

28. S. (44:52) I just came back from the Congress in Georgia, and I cannot find the same world from which I came from, the same action. The Tisch swallowed me up along with filling my mind and feeling and it was felt that there was one world Kli and now I am seemingly dwelling there as it is written in one of the excerpts. How to bring myself to be compatible with this new place ? I do not understand what's going on?

R. For this you need to, the same people, the same ladies, the same women that you are in contact with, you need to come closer to such an extent that what will be created from that is a ten. Try it.

29. S. (46:56) Is annulling myself just a matter of increasing the importance of the goal? Would it be correct for us to just focus on that?

R. Yes, but the goal it's what we attain inside of our connection. It is not simply a goal somewhere. The goal is something we attain concretely. Where? In what Kelim? That is how we need to depict it.

30. S. (47:46) What does it actually mean to exit and enter into it each time like you said about Ibur entering and exiting? What does it mean?

R. Our path is made up of entrances and exits and each time we advance.

S. I am right in two worlds. Here I'm in the spiritual world. I am receiving Kelim through connections of bestowal and our behavior needs to be entirely different right?

R. Outside you have to behave like outside in the ten it is according to the laws of the ten.

31. S. (48:50) How do we awaken newborns in friends that need to be formed when it is something completely new for everyone?

R. We want to be as adhered to each other as possible, connected to one another, dependent on one another because we see that we cannot attain spirituality unless we connect even tighter to each other and then we advance in this way. You cannot advance without getting closer, advancement is in getting closer, moving closer to one another. It has to be like a law to us: we all come to as one man with one heart.

32. S. (50:20) Does Ibur mean to leave all worries that I have in my life, in life and work and just observe what the Creator is doing in me and around me?

R. No, not simply to observe it. You have to have mutual relationships with the Creator, ’I to my Beloved and my Beloved to me.’ not to simply passively observe.

33. S. (51:01) Do we acquire new qualities that are foreign from the spirit that he was given since birth? Does this occur through constant inner observation if our actions, our feelings serve the connection or a renewal in this direction towards this connection

R. Yes, she describes it correctly. 

34. S. (51:51) Me and the friends now are advancing towards faith above reason and are requesting to perform an action. Does this help us acquire new qualities?

R. Of course. Every request of yours is leading you forward.

35. S. (52:26) You read and I quote, “in this that he wants to exit self-love and work of bestowal.” The question is what self-love are we talking about here?

R. Self-love is when a person thinks about himself he has a few things very close to him where he cannot think about anything that belongs to others because he is preoccupied with those things.

36. S. (53:03) Ibur and annulment of our self-love: does that allow us to process all of these states that we had beforehand, before the study and now we need to process these anew?

R. I would not say so about what should be.

37. S. (53:44) You said beforehand that the connection needs to be the generality of the connection between friends. What is this thing that is the generality of the connection?

R. There is just the regular connection between the person and the friends and then there is the general connection. The generality of the connection, the totality of it when everyone connects to everyone and then everyone is connected to everyone, has one feeling, in one place, one Kli and they are all of them, they become as it is written, ‘as one man in one heart.’ 

S. When we want to begin to work on this thing called that same one place, the generality of connection, what are we emphasizing?

R. The emphasis is that we wish to be like Adam HaRishon before the shattering. You cannot quite imagine it, you cannot reach it, you cannot even be drawn to it but somehow, more or less we need to think about it in this way.

S. All right but is there some action that we could do in order to be a part of the generality of the connection we build?

R. I did not understand.

S. Each one has an action that he does in order to be a part of this generality of connection?

R.. No, we didn’t get to it where each one feels that his individual work has to be in the totality of Adam HaRishon, but we need to think about it in this way. 

S. That is clear. I am still just trying to translate this into an action. What is the action that we need to perform in order to form this one, mutual place?

R. As it is written in, ‘as one man with one heart.’ We wish to connect to such an extent until we stop feeling spiritually any differences between one another and inside our common heart the Creator is revealed.

S. You said beforehand that we have begun to acquire all sorts of spiritual discernments, qualities and now we are going to go forward to acquire more qualities. Do we need to know precisely what we acquired; how do we work with this?

R. I do not understand.

S. Beforehand you said that lately we began to acquire spiritual qualities and now we are going to begin to acquire additional qualities to become true spiritual work.

R. Well without spiritual work we cannot connect everyone exactly. It is like a little child who sees this and sees that, like that he learns from this but it is still that he's not able to collect it into an image or an understanding that includes something. That is how we are.

S. Clear. Now if we want to take everything that we have acquired until now and take another step forward towards Ibur. What is this action that begins to form the beginning of this Ibur.

R. The beginning of Ibur is a connection between us in which we imagine that we are starting to discover the Creator. Discover as much as discover the common root between us. That’s how we are starting to reveal the Creator from such a feeling. We are starting to feel that there is a common force that can connect us, take care of us and we belong to it like children in kindergarten.

S. The beginning of this Ibur is something that we form? Something that happens to us together or privately to each one?

R. Ibur happens when we begin to feel like something comes to us from everyone, a certain feeling, a certain understanding, common understanding. I don't have quite the words suddenly. We feel this as our common roots.

38. S. (59:52) After the Congress the height of the fall grew a lot. What do we hold on to in this period?

R. Only in the friends. Only in the friends. There is nothing else to hold on to.

39. S. (01:00:30) Before Ibur we learned about the state of Lishma for a few months. How are these states connected? Are we not supposed to connect them?

R. We will connect them but not today.

40. S. (01:00:50) We are now learning the spiritual states of Malchut, and we want entirely to become familiar with this Ibur and what is bothering me is that the quality of Bina which is bestowal and Zeir Anpin is something intermediate? It’s an intermediate state?

R. This is an intermediate state between Bina and Malchut.

S. Is this the narrow bridge?

R. Yes.

41. S. (01:01:49) no translation

R. Yes.

42. S. (01:02:37) Continuing the question of a friend, I noticed that in the spiritual work when there is some sensation of coming near the to the friends I'm beginning to feel that it is something common to everyone and when it’s like this there's a sharpness of thought and scrutiny, but the moment I begin to ascribe it only to myself immediately everything disappears, and I fall and forget everything. All our work during Ibur when I adhere my sensations to our mutual ten then this thought is work?

R. Yes, the main thing is to relate myself to the general ten.

43. S. (01:03:47) It is written I believe in the faith of the sages. Is this, in excerpt four…

R. Repeat the question please.

S. Believe in the work of the Kabbalist that there is private providence for each one. What is private providence?

R. Private providence is not for now, we can scrutinize it later. This is the providence of the Creator over each and every one it’s private providence that’s how we define it for now it’s fine. General providence is when the Creator is looking over all the created beings.

Excerpt 4 (01:04:42) “Ibur means that a person temporarily shifts his selfness and says…”

44. R. (01:08:38) Here everything is written so clearly, so deeply.

45. S. (01:08:49) What is the meaning when it is written here not to use my mind, my intellect for some time? Is this reflux or analysis some scrutiny?

R. These are all scrutinies only scrutinies.

46. S. (01:09:21) What does it mean temporarily, just for the time?

R. A set time.

S. From this set time we become something more permanent?

R. I don’t know but he says that he can do it.

47. S. (01:09:46) In our work we get a lot of the sensation that I don’t understand what’s written or how to perform the actions written here. According to what is written here, this that I don’t understand and I’ll do, is it because my will to receive doesn’t understand the benefit?

R. Typically yes, otherwise you would at least feel clearly that you don’t understand, you don’t want to understand, it disappears from you, it's hard on you, you would have seen a reason why it’s all convoluted and concealed. 

S. The excerpt also says later on that we do not come to a solution from understanding, rather we need to believe that there's an overseer in the world and private providence for each one, and this is the work to exit this state, to just to accept that there's none else besides Him that brings me this sensation or the confusion? Is the correct manner to exit the inability to do any action because I don’t understand, and I can’t do such a work that I don't understand the benefit of?

R. Look, as much as a person can take upon himself the governance the leadership of the ten he nevertheless begins to feel that there's a power there that activates and works and operates on all of them together, so we need to pay more attention to our connection in the ten, how interdependent we all are, we wish to belong to everyone and through that gradually a common force will be revealed to us, a force that is wandering between you. Let's try it

48. S. (01:12:12) Does our intellect grow as we study more because in each state I feel that it becomes harder to convince my body to study especially in the Congress times… what to learn here?

R.  Of course the will to receive objects. It is clear you should try and do it like children in kindergarten. You know they stand in the circle; they look at one another and then they do.  So try to do it like that as well and start to see not  from the intellect but from seeing how you are incorporated together with them and begin to discover the upper force.  Whatever is working between you, connecting you, and you will begin to feel it.  We need to try and feel more and more the power that connects everyone.

49. S. (01:13:44)  Is the entrance into Ibur, is it in faith above reason?

R.  Of course.

S.  Why does he write in the excerpts that he needs to make a calculation?

R.  A person calculates. 

50. S. (01:14:17)  In excerpt number three, where it says we want to drop everything off and enter this new area where he has never been. I feel that the women in my ten are so ready for this. I really believe that we are ready, and I feel like I want to have a meltdown or I want to have a tantrum and I want to blast the stereo, turn up the volume. I'm so emotional and ready to do it and I think my whole ten is but I feel sort of paralyzed that is not going to help: I feel angry.

R. What do you want to ask?

S. What to do I guess? What to do? I'm not going to have a meltdown.

R. What to do? Take an example from your friends, take an example from your friends.

51. S. (01:15:40) This process of Ibur it is always very complicated and there are many components. I would be happy to discern, to scrutinize, what factors depend on our success?

R. Success in Ibur is that a person tries to annul himself and to incorporate in the friends and that is actually everything.  But one must try to be between them and annul himself towards them, just like Rabash writes in the first articles about the group. Read the Rabash articles about the group again. In what way you should annul yourself towards the group and you will see how it actually brings you into Ibur.

S. It is not some kind of a miracle but it depends on the work, or regardless the Creator somehow…

R. Without the help of the Creator we will not succeed in Ibur but if we make the efforts we go in.

52. S. (01:17:29) I'm very grateful to you and I want to say thanks to all the friends who prepared the Congress. It was very amazing, especially the Tisch.  My question is it more correct what you said before we had the Congress. You said open the heart, bring the ten inside the heart and take them with you to every place you go.  This really helped me, your advice really helped me, every place that I went I feel the ten is with me. It is the first time that it happened to me with this advice that you gave me. I think the most important thing we need to do is what you said, just to bring them into your heart and just have them locked inside your heart. Then you really start to pray not for yourself but for the ten, everything is for the ten. I just wanted to say thank you for your advice and that it was the greatest patent that there ever has been.

R. Thank you. I will try.

53. S. (01:22:47) It is mentioned here twice in some specific time. What is the emphasis here and how do we compare it to sometimes when he says to sometimes agree to eternity, not for a certain amount of time but to agree for eternity? Here he emphasizes a certain time. What is the deal? What is the difference? 

R. I cannot explain it yet. For a certain time it is clear that it's something that starts and then ends. And eternity, what eternality is, we do not know but we have to understand that it is something more exalted and longer than we can even imagine. That for us, that is eternality.

54. S. (01:23:30) The mind of a person, is it used only for separation unless it is being  used for  a prayer in order to reach a mutual prayer? Is it worthwhile to make some kind of an exercise out of that?

R. We will do some later on.

55. S. (01:24:05) The entrance into Lishma, this is entering into Ibur or birth?

R. Ibur.

S. Our mind it works on the will to receive, on this field of the will to receive and our sages told us in order to reveal the true reality you have to nullify this mind and hear the advice of the sages and then you change your basis, your foundation and you feel different desires and then you can use your mind. The question is: does my mind stay the same mind or are we also just changing this basis?

R. No, the mind does not remain the same because it starts to calculate to different values.

S. But values are not a consequence of…

R. You want to be able to tell the difference between mind and spirituality and you want to say this that even though spirituality can be exchanged but the mind remains the same. So it's not the same thing, no. Let's keep going and you will see. Then you will be able to answer yourself more than what I can.

56. S. (01:26:03) In connection with annulling towards friends the most difficult question I ever asked myself is do I agree? Do I agree to put my entire life towards the progression of the spirituality of the friends and do I agree and maybe I will not attain anything at all? Can you say that until I agree to these conditions that I will not reach Ibur?

R. I will not answer that. Let’s keep going and we’ll see.

57. S. (01:26:45) How can we already feel this common force, this common force that we already  have?

R. We need more and more to develop a sensitivity towards it, sensitivity. Then you will be able to understand and feel also that this is the force that exists between us, and that the Creator is establishing it. And on the other hand we more and more, each and every time, even without still not being aware of it, we are still moving closer and connecting to Him.

58. S. (01:27:47) Whenever I read this article I put it all to the side and I do not recognize anything I recognize within me this kind of nerve that somehow wants to touch this connection. But what happens whenever I put this to the side, put down the training wheels and look at this phenomena within the group and my ego, it immediately wants to attack. Is this the work above reason?

R. Also, here this is a place for work above reason, but you are really given signs where you can activate the force of resistance. Yes.

59. S. (01:28:46) This miracle, this where I want to do everything for the friends. What do I need to ask for the Creator so that it will happen and we can keep holding on to it?

R. That you need, that you want to be concerned about the friends and that the group of friends is the main thing in your life. You want everybody to go into Ibur, into the Creator and you want to grow there more and more until you start connecting to Him in a way with awareness, with understanding, with a mutual feeling more and more until you start saying, ‘I am for my Beloved, and my Beloved is for me.’ Meaning that there is such a mutual communication between you so try. Try and get to that.

60. S. (01:30:10) At the end of the fourth excerpt, it says that I believe above reason in the faith of the sages, believe that there's an overseer that is watching each and every one in private Providence. The question is: how is that different than blind faith?

R. Blind faith is that you cannot see at all what is really happening, and you have no knowledge about it and here you do have knowledge about it and some kind of feeling, just you do not want to determine anything but only through the upper force. It is a difference from one end to the other.

61. S. (01:31:12) Why is it important to believe that there is private Providence on each and everyone of us?

R. Because by this a person becomes free; he becomes ‘Adam’. He really comes close to being ‘Adam’,to being independent.

62. S. (01:31:51) How do we enter into this common force that rules between us? How do we bring it into our own sensation?

R. This is according to your desire and your intention and that you help each other not to disconnect from it. Where everyone is only thinking about this force between you. By this you are building the Creator. This is called that the Creator says, ‘you have made me.’ 

63. S. (01:32:30) What is recommended for a person to do if he feels like he is coming to absorb spirituality by himself?

R. Again?

S. What is recommended for a person to do if he feels like he wants to absorb spirituality for himself?

R. What do you mean for himself?  What is recommended to do? Just dissolve into the friends.

64. S. (01:33:15) Each time I have an opportunity to annul myself, is this an opportunity to enter into Ibur? To make a correction?

R. Yes. Everything starts from Ibur.

65. S. (01:33:35) If the power of the thought is too weak for me to make some kind of extreme change. Who do I trust more? My Rabbi or my friends?

R. The friends. Adhering to the friends is like adhering to the Creator.

https://kabbalahmedia.info/lessons/cu/QRW2nC5w

Morning Lesson December 07, 2022, Transcription 

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

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. The Freedom (External Factors)

https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/4AtF9tGS

1. R. (00:03) In order to see all the forces working on us, also developing us and also limiting us because all of our advancement is through it has to include two contradicting forces. One is that establishes, something stabilizes, limits something and the other that  increases it.  In this way we advance, so that there are any external factors and in each one of them there is supposedly its own engine. Now we reach external factors. What does it mean? That they are supposedly not within the created beings nature. They are not from the inside; they don't develop from the inside but they develop on the outside. Supposedly they are outside the created beings and here it brings a lot of questions. Does he invite these factors to work on him? Is this on purpose?  These reasons are working on him and so on so let's see.

Reading: The Freedom (01:42) “External Factors: The fourth reason ...” Twice 

2. S. (06:10) He says here that even if a person sits and thinks all day he will not be able to add anything to what these four factors give him, what does he want to tell us here?

R. Except for these four factors there are no others that work on us.

S. But he says that a person doesn't have anything to do with these, it doesn't matter  whether he can affect it or not. Is he talking about a corporeal state?

R. I do not think that he is taking that into account, the corporal state. He is observing the forces that work on the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

S. There's nothing spiritual here that he wants to tell me.

R. No.

S. What does it  mean that externality affects the environment?

R. Of course, the environment.

S. We need to choose the environment.

R. Even if you choose the environment still, he mentions it later in the freedom of choice, the  environment. You will see, he will relate to it.

3. S. (08:15) It turns out that there's some kind of circle of magic at least that is how I understand it. He says here that I have set up the natural factors that each thought and each idea that appears and it is but their  fruits.

R. Right

S. What does it mean? That the thought or the change of quality only comes from these four factors? The thought wants to change the source?

R. What source?

S. The spiritual source, meaning the desire to reach the next degree.

R. Do you think it's not something natural, that it is not a result of  those qualities of previous causes?

S. That is exactly my question. Does that also come from?

R. Of course, we have nothing to do. We have to develop gradually until that moment that we will want it.  Part Of the same order that we will want to reach the spiritual realm and we will not be able to work in any other way. This is exactly what was determined when we were born.

S. This is the whole thing about speeding up the process.

R. Right, speeding it up as much as you are willing and agreeing to this but as at the principle the path is constant, you cannot run away from it, this is evolution.

4. S. (10:13) If despite these external influences each friend annuls himself in the ten, what should we demand as a ten from the Creator to do his work on us?

R.  What can we ask for the Creator from the ten? Only connection, as much as we will be more and more connected and united as one man in one heart, we will incorporate in the Creator more. That's it.

5. S. (11:08) In relation to spirituality there is the same kind of process that whenever you process the work there's some kind of cause and you begin to change maybe the 3rd and 4th?

R. What next?

S. Can we somehow be an aid to that?

R. Look, you understand everything that happens is according to a plan, and everything we can do is just to speed up or slow down our development.

 Reading : Free Choice (12:12) “However when we examine these four factors…”

6. R. (13:02) Well that's clear. That there's something like that so let's say he'll explain about it now. 

Reading (13:13) The Environment As a Factor. “This Protection Means That...” 

7. S. (17:52) He's actually telling us here that one thing that we see is that the soil and in the sentence it  says that you can always choose the environment , the friends, the books, etcetera so tell me how do I know if I got to the right environment? I see all kinds of different stories around me. How do I know I got  to the right environment and it's good for me?

R. If you won't hear anything but yourself you'll be able to answer that.

S. What does that mean? I didn't get what you said.

R. You can always find thousands of causes that speak badly about the environment you're in or good about the environment you're in. It will always be like that. The question is it your choice.

S. You said that you need to feel it and you need to develop some kind of sensitivity about the environment so you know the feedback that you get from the environment so what if I don't have enough sensitivity you can't buy at the supermarket so how do I get it?

R. It depends on destiny, your destiny.

S. It doesn't depend on me?

R. Also a bit depends on you but actually it's destiny it's an angel that leads you to the right places. It depends on above? Yes.

8. S. (19:45) It seems like each day that choosing the right environment is a result, it's a consequence, say I'm running away from suffering towards pleasures, and I don't really feel within that any kind of freedom of choice, so does it  exist or not?

R. We will discover that but not yet.

S. According to how it's written here, how it's depicted here this is the impression that I get?

R. Look, we'll think about it together.

S. It kind of happens in parallel like a thing at its opposite in each and every step it's confusing.

R. We need that too.

9. S. (20:50) I'm born, and I have a family and I need all kinds of people when I'm small and I go to school, and I have all kinds of people around me and here there's no freedom of choice. Meaning I’m brought to this environment to Kabbalah or other paths, and I don't see here any freedom of choice. Why does he say here that there is freedom of choice in the choosing of the environment? I see that the choosing of the environment is actually what brings me to all these things?

R. Yes but you reach a certain state that you can already choose the environment and then also that same environment you were in before it also wasn't a coincidence.

S. What's this state?

R. That we every time whether we want it or not we change our environment. Every time. We're not speaking about the ten, we're speaking about you turning on your radio or TV and talking to your neighbors and reading a newspaper.

S. Can I choose this environment only whenever I am in the framework of the Wisdom of Kabbalah or something else?

R. No, each and every one brings himself closer to the truth, one incarnation after the next, each person in the world this is how we develop.

10. S. (22:53) If choosing the right environment speeds up our development, does that also change the records?

R. It also speeds it up and also changes it and accelerates.

11. S. (23:28)  What does it mean to improve the environment of conditions in practice and how it's done. I mean, do I have to make changes in my group in my environment in order to improve?

R. Maybe yes, he says that it depends on your development.

12. S. (24:03) On one hand whereas it is clay in the hands of the potter, on the other hand we can speed up this process that we are in. We are not talking about a person who exits the ten and forgets about it but a regular person who comes to the regular meetings on a constant basis but someone who can add more to the time that he's inside or underneath the ten. How can I increase the time that I'm on this path, how can I speed up time, maybe how important it is that how can a Kabbalist and what kind of concentration and  focus is he in all day? Someone who left the iron on without thinking about it throughout his daily activities, how does he stay in this focus?

R. He doesn't go crazy because he only thinks about one thing, and he doesn't move his attention to 1000 details he only thinks about one thing. How can he be connected to the Creator, that's why he doesn't go crazy.

S. How much is this time between lessons and how is that important in order to establish the environment within me more?

R. Think for yourself what you are doing between the lessons.

13. S. (25:52) Can you say that the choosing of the environment is a choice of the same goal that we want to reach through the environment?

R. Yes.

14. S. (26:22) The Creator brought us to the good environment already, so what does it mean that each time in our work and our society we choose a better environment each time?

R. We need every day to scrutinize our ten, and to appreciate it each time more and more and according to that we ascend by raising our ten we actually raise ourselves.

15. S. (27:07) You said that an angel brings us always to the right place, so what is this angel exactly and should we pray to this angel and not to the Creator?

R. No, of course to the Creator but an angel means a force that pulls us ahead.

16. S. (27:42) Freedom of choice in the environment if so I'm continuing the question from earlier, if the only thing that we can do is request and ask for us to always stay in this environment of Bnei Baruch so we can continue to receive strength to nourish ourselves and grow ourselves so that we can be a light to the nations?

R. Yes and we will talk about it more.

17. S. (28:39) It says make for yourself a Rav and buy for yourself a friend, but at the end of the day, the Rav is this guide, but I need to make my ten as a Rav, my whole ten that I am small, and they are bigger than I am and is this the correct perspective?

R. Correct.

18. S. (29:36) Good and evil is a result of qualitative or quantitative changes?

R. Good and bad? Usually it is in quality.

S. What does Baal HaSulam mean here that everything is either that you can't really change? You can change the quantity and you can't change the quality?

R. Where is it written?

S. The last paragraph of external factors. He writes "Even if one were to sit and contemplate something all day long, he will not be able to add or to alter what those four factors give him. Any addition he can add is in the quantity. In the end he says,  here to if he has a good mind but he can't add something of quality but only a quantity and then at the end he says his entire mind depends on the environment where he here we can ask her and determine whether it's good or bad, so we have the ability of change something in our quality or to actually only good or bad?

R.  We inside of us can change everything. It all depends on the demand. We can change everything.

S. But it's not a change in our material  in our matter, it's an expression?

R. There is something about what you're saying but still there's a connection between quality and quantity and there is a connection between well let's say this, in our feelings and good and bad do I raise the good or do I lower the bad? What's the difference? You see there are things here that we cannot scrutinize yet, it depends on the spheres and the Sefirot and the way that they couple together.

S. What's the connection between quality and quantity we heard once but really what is it?

R. The connection between quality and quantity is what's important is quality but quantity affects it, in the end the quality forces us to change the quality.

S. This means not in wheat but for people, means you can take someone from any place in the world. It doesn't matter  where, with the point of the heart, not in the point of the heart and put them in the right environment and from the quantity with the right amount of quantity you can have the correct amount of quality?

R. Of course, there is no doubt that we can change each and every person, a normal person.

19. S. (32:56) This angel of faith that brings a person is as part of the source?

R. Yes, it's a part that's implanted in man and it leads him.

S. We see that in the still there's no ability to move from one environment to the other?

R. Correct.

S. In the vegetative there's a little bit more you can move a little bit. What does it mean for a person who says that he's above his fate that he can determine his destiny, how is it expressed here in the four factors?

R. Fate or destiny he explained in a few places but it's still not clear anyway Fate is like a choice that happens above man, it's like you cannot determine where you're going to be born, who you will be born to and so on, so that's fate, but it's not blind fate, it's all planned that you must be born in such a way and be raised in such a way, it's all planned.

S. Another scrutiny here, this force that compels a person the source to realize itself, is the force that's also part of the source but it's also above?

R. I don't understand.

S. The fact that I am compelled to attain some goal?

R. Everybody must because the starting point and the ending point already exists for each and every one and we're just in the middle between them. We are there and we are affected by all kinds of forces In order to implement our choice.

S. In this process we have some kind of choice?

R. Where who?

S. Does a person have some kind of choice because he's drawn to an environment, and he has to feel that he can't do it and he has to change the environment in order to grow him?

R. Yes.

S. It seems like he doesn't have any choice from this internal inertia and from nature to find the right place, so where does man’s choice still expressed?

R. Just by strengthening in the group that the Creator brings a person to the good fate and says take this for yourself and man's choice it's just to strengthen himself in that environment.

S. Whenever we're sitting and working, say we're coming to a group. I, for example cannot sit, I cannot be calm until I feel that I am realizing something. I have this kind of force where I have to go forward and I have to attain something. Also here I don't have a choice, I cannot stay as still. I feel like I have some kind of force that's obligating me even though it's difficult and everything else. Also here I do not have a choice, I cannot sit and not do something I have to act?

R. Right but we're not speaking about whether you have a choice or not, the choice is adding exertion from yourself, that if you're given a place to exert then you can add there.

20. S. (37:12) Does constant investment in my environment mean that I'm constantly choosing the correct environment?

R. Yes because the environment changes all the time but so does your investment and then your calculation change is too.

21. S. (37:47) Speeding up time, it depends on me or on my fate?

R. To speed up depends on you.

S. It's already not part of my fate.

R. You are given an opportunity and if you use it you can speed up your destiny, your fate.

22. S. (38:11) What's the difference between choosing the environment and acquiring the environment?

R. Choosing an environment and inquiring about an environment? It's a big difference. The choice is that you choose it and acquiring an environment means that you incorporate it and acquire the friends you buy them. That's actually doing it in practice.

S. Why does he say each day you have to choose a new environment and not that you have to acquire a new environment and not that you have to choose a new environment. The Creator brought us to this place here and you say thank you and now you're supposed to invest in it more and more even though it's anew.

R. Yes, because you need to ask yourself, do you really need it and you need to check if you are really investing in the right place.

S. How do you not deviate from these questions?

R. It's not deviating, it's also connected to the environment and society. You criticize them and receive feedback from them that this is exactly the right environment that I need in order to reach the goal.

S. Can I somehow protect myself within this? I won't fall from the sky, won't run away from it to be different.

R. This is what Rabash writes about in his initial articles about the society that you have to be invested in them and delve into them and adhere to them and help them with everything and then you'll see how they are really around you.

23. S. (40:09) According to what you said now, to make yourself a Rav, what does it mean to make yourself a Rav?

R. To make a Rav it's for there to be some great person. Rav means great that he can determine through this development for a person that a person that he acquires for himself a Rav means that he has a teacher, that he has a path, he has an anchor and that's how he reaches the goal. Without a Rav it's impossible. That's why it's written, 'make for yourself a Rav and buy for yourself a friend that without this you will not realize your life.

S. The fact that I do have a Rav, a teacher that helps me go beyond my faith if I follow your suggestions?

R. It's Included all together. We don't know how but this comes to us in a complete package. Everything's together also the society also the teacher also the teacher also the friends, all kinds of events this comes to us in a in a complete package. Everything is together, the society, also the Rav, also teacher, the friends, all kinds of events. This comes in a way that we can  arrange it in some kind of package where we come with it, to the purpose of life.

24. S. (42:44) To choose the right environment does that include books and a teacher or what is it relate to?

R. To choose a good environment it means to choose a group, choose a Rav and for both of them to influence me or activate me.

25. S. (43:36) If I can't change anything external, how can I absorb the friends in order to advance correctly? What is the correct perception of reality towards the friend that I can advance correctly?

R. The right perception of friends is that they are the components of my soul. That they are the components of my soul. That in my soul there are parts that are separated by the shattering of the initial Kli from the beginning of creation as a result of the sin of the tree of knowledge. I, together with the friends want to gather together as one soul and then we will feel ourselves as much as we can connect more and more and more revealing ourselves as existing within this soul, that is how we reach the final correction.

26. S. (45:27) Does investing in the group increase my freedom of choice? Does the investment in the group increase my freedom of choice?

R. Yes.

S. In what way? What is this mechanism that increases the choice by me investing in the group?

R. Because I connect more and more with the friends, and then I can work with them with greater possibility to nourish the Ten and to bring it to correction.

27. S. (46:27) I heard in your answer to him that we must criticize the environment. Can you explain exactly how to do it? How can it help in building a better environment?

R. We need to speak between us and the Ten and scrutinize how much we are suitable to be a correct Ten, and from that we will see what else  we have to do in order to reach a correction.

28. S. (47:17) Is choosing the right environment similar to strengthening the connections in our ten? Is the work of making the connection stronger equivalent to choosing the right environment?

R. Yes, each time that we change the connection of the ten it's as if we are choosing a new environment. Correct.

29. S. (48:06) I heard that you said that choice can be done when you are given such an opportunity. What is that opportunity and how to recognize it?

R. As much as we are on a shorter path to correction to connection. That's it.

30. S. (48:37) What should be our attitude towards fate and how higher providence in working in the ten I mean?

R. Attitude to providence and fate  needs to be that it comes from the Creator, and  we want to be included in that in order to move towards the direction of correction.

S. Can we define it as working above reason and receiving it the way it is?

R. Yes as usual.