Morning Lesson November 23, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 67. Depart from Evil
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, I am very happy that we have a good connection both spiritual and corporeal virtual and also the article is a very special one as it unlocks a lot of questions, practical questions that arise from our work in the groups, in the tens. So we should clarify them and whatever else you want to hear from me as much as I am capable of replying to anything that you want to know and advance towards connection between us and from that to connect with the Creator. So let's go to the article. Maybe I will read.
Article 67 in Shamati Depart from Evil - This what Rabash wrote based on the words of Baal HaSulam.
We must take caution with “depart from evil” to keep the four covenants.
We must take caution with depart from evil to keep the four covenants. Meaning that there are four limitations, he says, that we must keep if we want to achieve the Covenant with the Creator.
The first condition for connection with the Creator is the Covenant of the eyes which is caution from looking at women and the prohibition on looking is not necessarily because it might lead to a thought. The evidence of this is that the prohibition applies also to a 100-year-old man. Meaning it doesn't come from one's corporeal nature, rather the real reason is that it extends from a very high root. This caution is because if one is not careful, he might come to look at Shechina (divinity).
Meaning, basically it is not even connected to hormones if we are talking about a 100-hundred-year-old man and it doesn't belong to anything corporeal but it comes from a spiritual root. All of the covenants are about the spirituality of the matter not the corporeality and he says the evidence is that it applies to 100-hundred-year-old man as it extends from a very high root, it comes from a completely different place. That if a person is cautious then this caution helps him advance to the revelation of the Creator and getting into one of the connections with the Creator called Covenant.
There are four such covenants or degrees of grasping the Creator, connecting with the Creator and by that a person comes closer to complete adhesion. If he is not careful, he might come to look at the Shechina and here there are already a few things. Meaning, let's say that a 100-hundred-year-old man doesn’t need any more strength to overcome looking at women, it means looking at the holy Divinity, Shechina. Meaning that one has to keep himself from connecting to in order to receive, receiving whatever is related to the covenant of the eyes, that one always has to be in a state where he raises himself above any interest in something for himself.
That is the first degree of the limitation that we need to take upon ourselves. Of course, it includes the greatest natural instinct that exists in each and every person which is looking at women, which is instinctively happening within us and it corresponds to a desire to approach fulfillment, that it is the greatest instinctive fulfillment for the human species which is sex. This is why it is called the 'Covenant of the eyes' which means that if you allow yourself to see in order to receive, meaning to be in contact with your desire, that you are opening up your desire for in order to receive and then of course from there you can't go on to the rest of the 4 covenants. We can say these covenants follow the template of YKVK, this is how they are built.
The second "covenant of the tongue" is to be vigilant with truth and falsehood. The scrutiny that exists now after the sin of Adam HaRishon has shown our scrutiny of true and false however prior to the sin of the tree of knowledge the scrutinies were about bitter and sweet. Meaning For Adam HaRishon it was sufficient to feel bitter and sweet and then that feeling of bitter or sweet assisted him, helped him indicate to him whether he is in truth or false.
Truth was sweet and false was bitter, however prior to this sin of the tree of knowledge the scrutinies were about bitter and sweet yet when the scrutiny is about truth and falsehood it is completely different. At times it begins sweet and ends bitter which means that there is a reality of bitter which is nonetheless true.
There is truth and falsehood with the matter to the eyes that we spoke about before and now there is truth and falsehood in regard to the covenant, that as before it says that it is prohibited to look at women, that is the first interpretation and so the second is with regards to truth and false. That has to be a work of the mind, meaning one has to know more deeply what he is thinking about and what he wants, what is his view and how much he agrees with himself or not.
Rav Continues to read.
Therefore for this reason we must be careful with changing our words although one thinks that one is only lying to one's friend, we should know that the body is like a machine as it is accustomed to walk, so it continues to walk. Therefore when it is accustomed to falsehood and deceit, it is impossible for it to walk by another way and this forces man to proceed with falsehood and deceit when one is alone too.
Meaning when a person lies to others, to the same extent he is deceiving himself and he cannot then distinguish between truth and false in what he sees and what he feels, what he thinks and what he decides. Because if he lies to others, he will certainly lie to himself as well.
Therefore, one must be careful with changing one's words even though one thinks he's only lying to his friend, we must know the body is like a machine as it is a custom to walk so it continues to walk. Therefore when it is a custom to falsehood and deceit it is impossible for it to walk by another way and this forces man to proceed with falsehood and deceit when one is alone also.
Meaning then he no longer knows what falsehood or deceit in himself is or in speaking to others. There is no more such diplomacy in the person, to the same extent that he wants to deceive his friends, he is also deceiving himself even though he doesn't feel it and that is also the problem, that he doesn't feel it.
Rav reading: It turns out that one must deceive oneself and cannot tell himself the truth at all since he does not find any special preference to the truth as he has no way to identify whether he's telling the truth or not.
Therefore he is already connecting to the friends and not mentioning the world, that he connects in a way where he cannot account for it, he has no way, no option or indication to check where the truth is and where is falsehood.
This is called the Covenant of the tongue. We might say one who is deceiving his friend is really deceiving the Creator since besides man's body there is only the Creator and this is because it is the essence of creation that man is called creature only with respect to himself, the Creator wants man to feel that he is a separate reality from him. Other than this that he feels as a separate reality it is that the whole earth is full of his glory.
This is what the Creator does to the person, giving him such a sensation. When lying to one's friend one is lying to the Creator it is identical. It is at the same moment from the beginning of the lie to the end of it and it doesn't matter here how much a person feels like he is lying or not. If he felt that he is lying and he understood that he is also lying to the Creator that would also be fine because he can still do something about it, he can correct it. If he enters such an incorporation, such a connection with the Creator, there he already has no control. On the other hand, specifically because of that there is the severity of this Covenant that one must not lie to his friend
Hence when one lies to the friend he is lying to the Creator and when saddening one's friend one is saddening the Creator. For this reason if one is accustomed to say the truth it will help him with respect to the Creator. That is if he promised something to the Creator, he will try to keep his promise since he is not used to changing his word with respect to the friend as well and by this, he will be rewarded with the Lord is your shade.
If a person becomes the shade of the Creator and he begins to feel that what is happening to him in all of his 248 organs, meaning in all of his thoughts senses and desire is that it all comes from him as a replica of the Creator, meaning a result of the complete adhesion and by that one will merit the Lord is your shade. If one keeps and does what he says the Creator also will keep, as we say one's mouth and heart are equal that he has no difference between speaking, thinking or doing and the Creator also will keep what is called blessed is he who says and does in return. What he says and what he does there is no difference and even the speaking becomes doing, this is another degree of adhesion.
There is a sign in the Covenant of the tongue not to say all that can be said since by speaking one reveals what is in one's heart and this gives a hold to the external ones since whether one likes it or not, he speaks about such states, inner states where there shouldn't be a revelation of it and there is a difference. There is a difference between speaking and thinking and this gives a hold to the external ones because as long as one is not perfectly clean, meaning that he is literally adhered to the Creator in his thoughts, when he reveals something of his interior, the Sitra Achra has the power to slander above and mock his work. Meaning there in the system of Providence and guidance it can mock his work, she says what kind of work is he giving upward since his whole intention in this work is only downward? This answers a great question, it is known that a Mitzva induces a Mitzvah, so why do we often see that one falls from one's work? As we have said above, the Sitra Achra descends and slanders his work and descends and takes his soul. not only she doesn't let him enter Holiness but even what he had before disappears, it is deleted.
Since she has already defamed above and said his work is not clean but that he works in the form of reception for oneself, she descends and takes the spirit of life by asking what is this work? The person agrees that this work has no importance therefore even when one is awarded some illumination of the spirit of life, he loses it again.
So you understand that these ups and downs exist in such a way that it disappears from you to further tease you and stimulate you to rise higher, that is an ordinary beginning of the next step but there is also a situation where you are taken, you are devoid of what you have achieved and you descend as if twofold. The advice for this is to walk humbly so she does not know about his work, by the Sitra Achra, his will to receive doesn't know what the person is doing. So we have to ask what kind of game this is, but the will to receive accompanies me knowing whatever is happening to me that I can't shut it off and put it somewhere, lock it up and put it in some corner of my heart. It is there and it is in control of me from within.
So he says no, the advice for this is to walk humbly so she doesn't know about his work, how can that be, he is completely inside of me, no, there is a matter that what we reveal in the heart we cannot allow it to rob a person, a person who receives a weakening of his egoistic desire he can stop it at several levels. That is why it is talking about the covenants here, the degrees, Root 1 2 3 4. We have to know how we are working with our will to receive in that we detain it, more like to contain it, to envelop it so that it doesn't erupt, that we control it from all directions.
That is really the goal, the will to receive, the evil we can't erase it, we can only contain it and he says the advice for this is to walk humbly, to somehow lock it up so that our ego, the Sitra Achra doesn't know about men's work by way of he does not reveal from the heart to the mouth. Then the Sitra Achra also cannot know of one's work as she only knows what is revealed by word or action. So if a person keeps the Covenant of the tongue and the eyes where she can grasp, by that he is already making, very important to step away from his ego. We should know that pain and suffering, primarily through those who slander, those thoughts and desires that awakened from our ego from within and fuel the person to do all kinds of actions of transgression with regards to the Covenant of the eyes and the tongue. The advice for this is to walk humbly, meaning that she, our Sitra Achra, our ego won't know about his work by way of that he who will not reveal by the way of the heart to the mouth then the other side cannot know about one's work as she only knows by what is revealed by word or action, which means the Covenant of the eyes or the Covenant of the tongue, this is what she can grip.
We should know that pain and suffering comes primarily through those who slander, meaning that this is the main thing that prevents us from advancing to the complete adhesion. We should be as careful as we can with speaking moreover, we should know that even when speaking mundane words, meaning things that are not exactly relevant to our path, to our discussion about our connections to each other and the Creator, even in mundane talks, the interior of the heart is revealed and this is the meaning of my soul went out when he spoke. This is the Covenant of the tongue with which we must take caution and the keeping should be especially during the ascent, he says that about all the Covenants since during the descent it is hard to walk in great degrees and cautions. Man's state is also taken into account and therefore there is a difference between the extent to which he does or doesn't keep these covenants during his ascent and descent.
The article is such that you can read it many times and each time between the words you will see more and more different discernments but as a result of that we should try to limit ourselves, to put an emphasis on our connection and the connection between us and the Creator to lower everything else in importance.
That it doesn't really matter to us, the main thing is the covenants between us and with the Creator which is ultimately through limitation that one has to limit oneself in his will to receive basically. We, the will to receive, we know develops to YKVK the 4 degrees and the first degree is the Covenant of the eyes and the second is the Covenant of the tongue and two other degrees we will discuss that another time.
2. S. (29:46) I don't understand the connection with the eyes and the will to receive, it's more easy to understand the truth and false can you explain please?
R. The eyes even physiologically, a big percentage of our information about the world comes through the eyes, from vision, from the sense of sight. A person is always searching and looking, if you take a camera that tracks a person's eye movement you will see the eyes always moving, even when you're looking at a single thing the eye is always moving. Meaning we can't, it is like a radar like something that identifies the target and you can't identify a target that is not moving so in order to identify something you have to have what you want to identify and then something next to it that is somewhat different from it and then by comparing these things you keep sight on what you are actually looking at. This is something we know from the wisdom of Kabbalah that our whole work is to reach the truth, the Creator, connection with the Creator but we can't aim ourselves to the Creator in adhesion and spirituality unless we also identify something different, something opposite to him.
Also in any kind of navigation system that we build, something that speaks or a radar of sorts, we always have to measure the target based on something outside the target. That is how we always measure as it is like a rocket that is in route towards its goal, it can't aim directly towards the target it has to constantly change and shift its direction to identify where the track is. Similarly that is how it is, it comes from spirituality, that's how it is in our world, we always have to measure ourselves to something that is not accurate, not correct thanks to that we can advance to the Creator. If we can say within the context of time, after the Creator decides that there has to be a created being that achieves the Creator’s degree by his own efforts then what the Creator does is he builds the evil inclination, something that is opposite to himself and so each time by examining how we advance to the Creator and stop, we advanced in one way and not in the other, yes and no. By these various tests, comparisons, we can clarify how we are getting closer to the Creator. Our direction here is how the rocket moves forward. This is what any navigation is about and also any emotions that we have as humans, our relationships, they are always built on one thing and its opposite and if we don't have something outside what we actually want then what we want is also not true. These 4 covenants in each of them also in speaking you have corrected and incorrect, in seeing you also have incorrect and correct. In all of those things we have to see how we aim ourselves and that takes us to complete adhesion.
3. S. (35:35) When a person reaches the Covenant of the eyes and the Covenant of the tongue a very big inner war happens that he can't get out of and he feels like he's about to lose everything, what is the advice to change this state to a great correction?
R. First of all the friends, if we're talking about the correct solution that can only come from connection to the environment, so connect to the friends and from connection to the friends understand that it is the Creator playing with you and there is nothing truthful about it. It is just to bring you closer to the purpose of development of the group which is the truth and so if he doesn't think about himself but he thinks about the progress of the group then he already can choose the correct kind of development, the correct kind of movement and direction. However if he only thinks about himself then there is really nowhere to direct and navigate him and then all of the covenants of the eyes and the tongue and others are not going to work and not going to give him any direction because he has no device by which he can examine himself and calibrate himself. If one is not in the ten. we have to try to understand our state.
S. There's a moment where all of us need to make a transition in that feeling that he described, we are working for ourselves and then we need to move to giving to the friend, to the group and to the Kli to give the friends as much as possible. So how can we help these friends reach that state that you are describing? I also need that.
R. By example, that is what we need to do as there is no better help that we can give to each other, it is an example to the friend and prayer for the friends towards the Creator.
4. S. (39:29) Baal HaSulam is speaking about two categories about lies and truth and where is the calculating point of using these categories?
R. I don't understand.
S. What is being taken into account when Baal HaSulam is speaking about truth and false?
R. Both truth and false have a relative weight because what used to be true for me today is already false and that is how I rise up the ladder, I go left and right and left and right and there is no right without the basis of the left. When I achieve the right then again, I have to have criticism and a descent, it is actually an ascent on the left we just call it a descent that is how we always have to examine ourselves.
S. Baal HaSulam that whoever deceives his friend deceives the Creator.
R. Yes because outside of man's body is only the Creator and what we see is other people and especially the friends we have to understand that this is an opportunity that the Creator gave us to see this sort of Illusion, this imagination that this is how we see other people but it is in order to gradually correct our senses and come closer to the Creator. This is called from love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.
S. So it works out that I don't need to see if the friend or I shouldn't?
R. Of course not, that is why he says not a person thinks that he is only lying to his friends but he is actually lying to the Creator, he writes that.
S. So here I don't understand, sometimes in parts of the Articles Baal HaSulam writes that we have to act towards the friends a state of greatness and not my true state, am I not allowed to deceive them?
R. But your intention is to awaken the friends by that, to do something for their own good.
S. So the valuation is according to the intention?
R. Of course yes, we always do according to our intentions.
5. S. (42:47) To what extent is this caution to keep us from speaking, can we relate it to an inner dialogue of a person and how much can you put it in discussion with people or with your friends?
R. The Sages have said that I found nothing better for a person than keeping silent, the less you speak the healthier it is even in a corporeal sense we always talking, speak to yourself all the time as you have an internal friends that you want to discover the Creator inside the relations between you, identify the group inside of you is the best way to do it and on the outside where you are talking, you only talking to the point of work and family, things that are necessary and in our corporeal life things that are necessary.
6. S. (44:29) Baal HaSulam speaks about four covenants and I only heard about two so I don't know where the other two are connected and actually the second question is there's a point where he speaks about that even in a state before the sin of the tree of knowledge that he was in the approach of bitter and sweet and I thought the bitter and sweet was a beastly thing after the sin of the tree of knowledge it was a state of perfection?
R. All of our senses and thoughts are all arranged in such a way that if we use them correctly, we reach adhesion with the Creator. That is why to think that this belongs or doesn't, for the time being it is okay, like in most things we are wrong but there is nothing that the Creator created that doesn't have a necessity. This is why from all of our tendencies, and all of our flavors and thoughts and desires we need to always identify to what Covenant they belong. To the extent that we can be cautious with them and use them.
7. S. (46:09) If a friend has a criticism towards the ten, how can we be cautious of this?
R. I can't say in one sentence, we need to see how beneficial it is for the path or not and each has his own opinions. I think the main thing here is to do one examination whether it stops us and destroys us in our connection between us or in the ability to advance, that it helps us, and agree accordingly. Again try to relate to it things that can't be uprooted from a person or from the group but to cover them with love and by certain by that you will advance. We need to try more and more and then there is none wiser than the one with experience.
S. With regards to advancing us or destroying us, how do we decide?
R. Can't hear you well.
S. How do I clarify something as destructive or advancing us in the ten?
R. Whatever the whole ten decides is advancing in whatever is subjugating you before the ten and continuing with then. I understand I can't give you all the answers but you need to use some rules of connection and see how it works as we can't in most cases receive a clear answer for the problem but if we rise above the problem to connection than in it, we will find the answer. In such a circumventing way, I don't solve it in a direct manner but if I use this problem in order to cause more connection then it will lead me to the right solution.
8. S. (49:37) We said that the truth is really about connection but if we lie in order to bring about connection does this mean that we are still in truth?
R. We don't know what truth is, we don't know what connection is or isn't, each time for the time being as we are in some state, we need to try and go according to these rules like he tells us in these two Covenants, at least in the Covenant of the eyes and the Covenant of the tongue. Then accordingly we will advance to the goal and after we update these covenants, we will understand the other Covenants.
9. S. (51:13) In regard to not touching the desire and how to look through maybe the matter of the prism of the screen in order to work on how to touch it with my intention, how to work with this through the rules of the society and the ten?
R. We will talk about this and you will see from practical work how we need to work with these Covenants.
10. S. (52:18) According to what kind of perception we see reality?
R. We see reality in our will to receive and here we are talking about how we can calibrate our will to receive so it will receive from the Creator through all of our imaginations which is the group and the society, humanity and the world so that we will receive from the Creator his attitude as much as possible in a real pure manner. This is what he talks about, these four covenants are a certain system of calibration of our relationship with the Creator.
11. S. (53:25) Baal HaSulam writes that the prohibition is not necessarily because it would lead to a thought but because it might lead one to look at the Divinity, so the relationship is what is the connection between the Divinity and the woman?
R. He is talking here about a person that in order to rise to the Creator he needs to rise above his egoistic desires, his bodily desires and then also above his human desires and also above his spiritual desires. Meaning to use all of those desires in a way that they will all be in order to bestow outside of a person, just like the Creator is all bestowing outside of him to man, so we need to feel that the attitude of the Creator to us needs to be also in such a way that we need to be in the same relation to him. That is why we have mostly the Covenant of the eyes, where what is the Covenant of eyes? It is not to a woman or anything else, but to a source from which I receive the most important bestowal, we have Hochma, Bina, ZA Malchut, Hochma is the eyes the highest and most sublime covenant and therefore he gives us an example to not look at women because the drive for sex is the greatest drive in nature because it is in us from this Covenant of eyes as a result of it, as through it, through this drive we develop and have offspring and connect and this tendency, this inclination is the greatest will to receive that is in a developed kind, not in babies or in little children and this attraction gives us the ability to exist as it is written. We have basic desires, food, sex, family, money, honor and knowledge, therefore this is how we also need to try to use all of these inclinations.
12. S. (57:18) It says the Sitra Achra can only grip when there is speech or actions, what is the right response to thinking about your impurities?
R. We need to try to aim our thoughts according to our deeds in the group. You have no possibility of influencing your thoughts, only through the friends and all kinds of external factors can you influence your thoughts but not in a direct way where you erase them. That is impossible, everyone has tried to do this more than once and you see how it returns and it's not beneficial, it is only through the society, through the environment.
13. S. (58:38) In a diary where I put my feelings about work and the ten can this be harmful in the work, does this have to do with the Covenant of the tongue?
R. You do those lists for yourself you don't show it to anyone, it could be later when you read it gives you a certain impression or indication of how much you can advance or repeat it, it might throw you down where once you were in a better state, and it could be that it could be to the contrary that it could actually advance you. I can't say, it seems to me like all that you think that can help you other than leaving the group as it is written, anything but leave you can try.
14. S. (01:00:18) What does it mean to look at the Shechina [divinity]?
R. To look at the Shechina means that we want to reveal the Creator in a direct egotistical way, why is he not revealed to me? The Shechina is the revelation of the Creator to a person so it can't be in a frontal, simple way, but rather only in accordance with the equivalence of form. If we have a device in equivalence of form, we can come closer and enter into contact, if we don't have such a device then no. Just like we learn from the wisdom of Kabbalah there has to be a restriction, a screen and a reflected light and to the extent there is reflected light from me towards the Creator then the direct light from the Creator is received in the reflected light on my behalf. Only in such a way can we connect.
15. S. (01:01:22) What is the meaning of a high root because of which we should take caution in looking at women?
R. That is that we can discover an egoistic will to receive towards the Creator, towards the upper light and to truly perform an act of the biggest transgression, meaning to receive light from the upper light, then He departs completely and you remain in the darkness and we have to start our work all over again.
16. S. (01:01:10) Why does the power of women have to do with the prohibition of the darkness?
R. That is how it is revealed in our world, that the desire for a woman, the desire for sex is the second desire on the list of desires: food, sex, family. That is how we therefore also feel in a healthy body. First of all the desire for food awakens as it must fill itself and as in the forces of life, and the moment that one is filled with some measure of filling and forced to live, he implements himself first of all in the implementation of sex; this is how it is arranged and. After that we will see how these things are artificial if you could say so, there is nothing in them but that we are programmed in such a way that this is what we want, food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge.
17. S. (01:03:33) Can a person control his egoistic desire?
R. Never, even the smallest of desires we cannot control unless we ask the Creator to perform this work. This is why our whole method is called Avodat HaShem [the Lord's work], where we need each time to locate and to ask him to do it.
18. S. (01:04:18) What does it mean to lie to one's friend in the spiritual work, in the ten?
R. This can be from the smallest to the greatest things. I need to constantly see myself towards the friend as a pure, good and wonderful example of spiritual work. Very simple. Example. A good example towards the friend. Then from all of the friends that will deal in such a way with such examples then certainly I also will be similar to them, and eventually be similar to the Creator.
19. S. (01:05:15) What is the difference between playing and lying?
R. Playing our acting is when we do so on purpose that we know it's not serious, that it's not real but the results of it can be truly spiritual and real, not from our condition but from the condition that it is connected to the upper force. If this is what we want nothing will come out of it, but if this game was established by the Creator and we engage in it, that we play in it with the same intention like the Creator arranged for us, then through this game we reach serious results and it is no longer a game; we like little children play but our play is much more real than it is for little children, these games, and from it we advance to very big and real actions. Playing and acting in spirituality is a very serious thing: I am engaging in states that I want to take place in me but they can't yet exist because I'm not in the spiritual state. But for me doing this game, doing it according to what the Kabbalists tell me to engage in, like Rabash writes in the Social Writings, then it turns out that I am observing what they recommend. This is why this play, this act becomes a serious thing and grows me. Without acting we would remain animals. Truly animals. This play develops, also animals play. But children, we truly need to really be cautious and be concerned that your child will play with the correct things. This is why in our times it is a problem that children are playing with their phones and limiting themselves in every possible way.
20. S. (01:08:17) What is the reason that a person can't make an effort in spirituality is because he's used to lying to himself?
R. Our main problem is that we don't want to act towards one another in the ten. Each must play nicely towards others, to show them only the right and good behavior; not to be afraid or be cautious that he is acting like in the theatre. But rather when he does so the reforming light will come and we'll change all of reality. Whereas if he does not do so, nothing can happen. because the bestowal from the Creator, except for the initial bestowal until a person is brought by the Creator to the group, to the ‘good faith’ and he’s told ‘take,’ that is done by the Creator. But later he needs the person as a partner and to the extent that a person participates with the Creator, through the group, through the 10; then there's a covenant between them. What a person does in the ten, in this he presents to the Creator and then in such a way we advance.
21. S (01:10:11) When do we begin to understand what is: “the whole earth is full of his glory”?
R. From our efforts. To see that I'm also now in such an environment that's established for me in such a way by the Creator. First of all it is the ten. By the way the ten is depicted in me, I need to see that this is how the creators relate to me, and don't correlate it with the friends or ascribe it to them. From this I come to a state in which later I will relate to all of reality this way. I will develop my perception, my reception in such a way that I will truly see the whole world as the theatre of the Creator. And through all of these things I will come closer to Him more and more: To His feelings, to His mind and this is how I will identify with the upper force, according to my qualities, my perception and that is how it will be.
22. S (01:11:55) What happens with one who fell and could not keep the Covenant of the tongue. Who can bring him back?
R. This is a problem in groups, especially with the women's groups. I think that we need to learn this and it is best that we learn it together. By talking about it. Talking about how we cannot hold on to the Covenant of the eyes and the Covenant of the tongue. In the Covenant of the eyes is mostly talking about men. In the tongue Covenant of the tongue it is mostly talking about women. And according to these covenants they are also divided as the covenant of the eyes is Hochma and the covenant of the tongue is Binah. Therefore we have to pay attention to this to the extent in which we are connected or are inclined to closeness towards connection, towards mutual connection between us. I received many addresses from women with all kinds of complaints. I don’t think it’s a healthy state. For the time being there are many things to be sorry about and to change.
23. S. (01:13:47) You talked about food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge, etc. It is not clear how to use all these aspirations?
R. Where way I use all these aspiration foods, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge, only in a way and a measure that brings me closer to connection with the ten and with the Creator. Otherwise, what do I need this life for? That is it. But, in a balanced way. Not that I'm now throwing everything and doing everything that appears to me now. I also need to make a calculation, and I am also talking to men. That what I am measuring now, I am doing according to my intellect and my feeling, and therefore don't make any haste full steps, rushed steps. Slowly, slowly, step after step, mostly if I check myself in the society.
24. S. (01:15:32) Is being humble an act of above reason?
R. Yes.
S. We learned that a person is encompassed, closed, in his will to receive. Is there an opening to come out to faith above reason? Because otherwise or something else?
R. Again.
S. We learned that a person is completely closed in his will to receive. In that will to receive is there an opening to go above reason? Or do we search above reason somewhere else?
R. No, no, no. Only in the will to receive. Above the will to receive, if you go in contradiction to it, you are already coming closer to above reason.
S. How do we search for that breaking point to go above reason from a closed will to receive?
R. What is this closed place? I don't know.
S. He is tied inside his will to receive, it is the wrapping.
R. So try to do the opposite of it. You have a group, and opposite you is a called to adhere to the group, to awaken it, to think about them, to really be adhered to them, be completely in them. That is called above reason, you already begin to be in that.
25. S. (01:17:43) Can you give us a simple example of how to actually keep those two covenants in the ten?
R. The covenant of the eyes is considered that I don't want to reach out to my will to receive which is also referred to as a woman. I try not to reach out to it, not to play with it. Even if I do something in my will to receive, that is all I can do, I am only a desire. So when I engage in my desire, then I know why I am doing it for.
26. S. (01:19:13) I am like a baby, I am still stuck, I want an answer. When you ask about what the truth is, you give it back to keeping the truth - that principle. I am in the loop. I don't know how to come out of it. If you give me like a cross hairs that I can aim through, that I can shoot towards the truth?
R. Do you see a group in front of you? If you do not see a group, then there's nothing to talk about. If you see a group, you need to direct yourself straight to them. That is it. Straight to them, to be immersed in them, to try to agree with them. If not, then check why and so on. So calibrate yourself directly to the group until you to such an extent that you are included from them. That is it.
27. S. (01:20:37) Baal HaSulam writes about being humble. There are two approaches here, one that I raise the greatness of the friends or I lower myself towards the friends. What is more beneficial of those approaches?
R. To raise the importance of the friends. That is the main thing.
28. S. (01:21:17) The main criteria is concern of the friends before I do anything., that is what I have to think about. Can you explain it more? Towards what Baal HaSulam writes here, at the covenant of the tongue is not to speak of what you shouldn't, because by speaking in deeds?
R. It should be as least as possible. And if so, about the things that are important in life. Meaning, constantly examine the purpose of life and also what is beyond it. Because when we are talking about life, we are talking about living, passing these years. That is it. But mainly, it is what we can attain beyond life.
S. Towards the Creator the prayers are also limitations? Or you completely can open before the Creator? When we pray towards the Creator the prayer should also be least egoistic maybe, or there are complaints in the heart that you can’t hold yourself before the Creator?
R. Of course that we with the Creator have no need to talk, that the Creator will know. We are in Him, and everything that we can think of, we imagine for ourselves comes from Him, to start with. So there isn't even any place to reach out to the Creator. Before I even do that, He is the one that brings all of my thoughts, all of my intentions. That is why there is no question here. If it is me speaking to the Creator, or if it is Him awakening me to speak to Him. We need to examine ourselves after all kinds of desires awakening in us, inclinations to the Creator, so to the extent that we can criticize that and aim ourselves correctly. By reaching out to the Creator, I need to reach out not just in a way how I feel like it, if I'm crying or being grateful to the Creator, that is the Creator who did it to me - there is nothing new here, what did You to me for. So the thing is that by feeling this desire to speak to the Creator, I need to criticize and make a decision of what I truly want to say to Him. Because what I want to say to Him just without any examination or any check, it comes from Him, from the desire that He awakens in me. That is why the dialogue with the Creator can be only on the condition that I go through the group. There is no other choice, through the group that is where I check what I have got from the Creator, because from the Creator I always get something against the group that is called ‘’I created the evil inclination.’’ Then, in my effort in the group I begin to measure myself, my will to receive that the Creator has created with a will to bestow that is in front of me in a group, as He wants to depict it to me. Then, I am already in these two systems, and within these two systems it all depends to the extent that I annul to the group. From that, I bring myself closer to the group.
29. S. (01:26:46) We were born and we grew in a system that formulates our perception and our habits. We see an uncorrected world. That is why we think that we are actually really living, really speaking. How can we get rid of that lie in order to do good with the ten?
R. Simply incorporate into the group, as much as possible, just as Rabash writes that it is very beneficial to annul oneself towards the friends, that it is very beneficial to speak good things about the friends even though I do not think that - this habit becomes second nature, and to advance that way. People that have a large will to receive, meaning that they will be great people in the future, they have a serious problem to enter the group. That is why we see that according to human development. To the extent humans are evolved, they have greater difficulty being connected to others.
30. S. (1:28:52) What is this matter of the covenant? I do not get it. What does it mean to decide something?
R. Connection with the Creator that can exist on four levels of the will to receive - first, second, third and fourth. So we learned two. The covenant of the eyes and the covenant of the tongue.
S. A covenant is something that I decide and then I also perform it, keep it?
R. Yes. Of course.
S. So what is the stage of this decision and keeping this connection with the friends, with the Creator? When does a person reach such a decision?
R. Will learned this, even in the article of The Freedom, the article of Arvut, the writings of Rabash on Society. What are you asking?
S. What does it mean to say something and then to do it? What is that state?
R. At least to say. If it is related to connection, then talk and talk about it. Gradually it will draw the light that reforms from Lo Lishma to Lishma and then it will work.
31. S. (1:30:25) In the article says that the Sitra Achra doesn't have to know about the person's spiritual work. You said that we have to close our will to receive. So my question is how practically in the ten, how can we close off our will to receive? How do we work with it? What does it mean to do it in the ten
R. In the ten we only speak about bestowal and not about reception. That is it.
S. Can I focus the question? You said that we have to speak in the group about how we can hold that covenant of the eyes and the tongue. How do we practice?
R. We spoke about this the whole time. I don't know what you really want. The covenant of the eyes is that I'm making an effort not to look at anything that can divert me from the Creator. And the example is given through women. Whether a person wants to or doesn't, he is constantly directing his eyes towards a woman and constantly examining her. Checking to see to what extent he has fondness of her. He searches for positive or negative things in her. Then he says that in searching in such a way, by looking in the woman her positive or negative traits in her, he needs to stop doing this. Because he's following his heart and if he begins that way with the Creator, then he will also for the Creator will look for positive and negative things. That is why it is prohibited to look at women. It is called the women, but in fact he's looking at his heart’s desire. What is his greatest desire is drawing him into. That is it. That is considered the covenant of the eyes. The most internal because the eyes are the degree of Hochma, the inner light that is in Bina. In fact, what we are searching for in Bina, we are searching for the light of Hochma. If we crave for Bina, it is because we want to find in it the light of Hochma. There's a lot here. There is also the fact that the woman raises the red and the man brings down the white, and how they connect. There are all kinds of things.
32. S. (1:34:01) If we commit to something, towards friends and we do not keep their commitment, does that mean we're lying to the Creator?
R. No. It just happens. Not that we are lying. If you didn't want to lie, then you are not lying.
S. If I can do something for the friends but I'm lazy about it, does that mean that I'm lying too?
R. It is the same question. Did you want to do something, then you couldn't? It is not considered lying. You wanted to do good but eventually bad came out. You are not responsible for the bad. You wanted to do good.
S. It says that the Sitra Achra slanders his work and then she takes his soul. Then he writes that he took the illumination that he already attained. The question is why is the price you pay for falling so high?
R. Because he himself was attracted to this.
33. S. (1:35:32) You said before, you give an answer to a friend, about the four basic desires. You said that the desire for sex, the men want to be filled by it in some way. Then you said that it is things that do not have benefits in them. Can you explain that?
R. I don’t understand.
S. About that the covenant of the eyes, that the desire for sex it is an artificial desire. You explained that it is not beneficial. That there is no benefit in it. Can you explain that?
R. No. I'm not going to explain that now. There's no meaning to it. That is how it is.
34. S. (1:37:15) When a friend hurts you directly, is it an opportunity for me to come closer to the friend and check if I'm coming closer to him with giving? Or do I need to stay hurt from what happened?
R. Definitely not to stay hurt. You need to come out as quickly as possible and to reach connection. Of course.