Morning Lesson December 17, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 44, 1991. What Is the Reason for which Israel Were Rewarded with Inheritance of the Land, in the Work?
Reading Article. (00:53) “The verse says, ‘It is not for your righteousness or…’”
1. S. (35:11) Revealing the land comes through the Reforming Light, right? In other words, there are two things I detect. One is that I detect the bad in others. The other thing is that I detect the bad in others and I attribute it to myself, and then I ask for correction. What is the difference between these two states?
R. Again?
S. The reforming light shows us the bad; at one point, I reveal the bad in others and from what I heard I still attribute it to them. I ask for I don't know what, but the second stage, is when I see that side of me, I relate it to the bad in me and I ask for correction.
R. Yes.
S. Is it possible to be stuck in identifying it in others outside of me?
R. Yes. You see that in people who are willing to see that in others.
S. This is not our work. What do we do in order to move forward we have a deficiency to reveal it, to awaken it, to ask for correction.
R. The Torah teaches us that we have to get closer to each other in love, in connection, in bestowal, and be together, and from that, we discover an opposite tendency on top of that and then we have to work against that.
S. How in the ten can we help each other come to the desirable state?
R. We have to relate to each other as though we're in a single body and in mutual aid as between the pieces of a single body and thus we reach a state where in our connection we begin to reveal the upper force.
2. S. (38:08) In the article he writes that we have to reveal a deficiency during the ascent how do we do this?
R. I have to discover what prevents me from further becoming incorporated in the Creator and that's what’s facing me. Who is the enemy, the hater that doesn't let me get close to the Creator, feel the Creator, reveal the Creator. Then we connect between us as much as possible in order to reveal this force against us.
S. The ascent is a kind of gratitude. I have no need for it during a descent. It's clear I have this need, everything is bad, and the will to receive demands better, it’s kind of elusive, it doesn't allow me to.
R. During the ascent you need to connect with the friends, and you should see yourselves as a single body.
3. S. (39:49) How can we keep the nearing that a person is given?
R. By realizing it between the friends.
S. What is the realization?
R. That’s his storage, he's completely invested in the relationship between the friends.
S. Should we keep the nearing that a person gets?
R. What other work does he have?
S. To continue onward in the states.
R. What other states if not to continue getting closer between everyone?
S. It doesn't fall and grip on the situation and start enjoying it?
R. That too, yes.
4. S. (40:45) Maybe it's a continuation of the same question. If a person wants to keep himself so he doesn't have the road accident he has to keep himself, so he doesn't collide with the car of the will to receive. By this, he knows that he will not lose what is given. I don't understand how not to collide with the will to receive, like a truck runs me over.
R. That depends on what you hold on to, where are you at. If you advance towards connection and you're always looking for, how can you be more connected, then it turns out that you won't go into an accident.
S. What does it mean an accident because I thought that descents were necessary but disconnections and the fact that the will to receive?
R. Accident means that you're really going off track. The descents you’re talking about are really only for the purpose of ascent. Where you're driving, you're moving forward, and you accept the descents as an invitation to an ascent.
S. What does it mean to lose or not to lose what we received?
R. Losing what we've received means that all that we receive we transform that to a means for the ascent.
5. S. (42:34) He writes all the nations of the world with all their evil attributes want to govern the people of Israel.
R. Yes.
S. Why does the will to receive want to govern the will to bestow, what does it get out of it?
R. That's its nature. It cannot receive pleasure and fulfillment by itself only through the will to bestow.
S. What is the connection to the will to bestow, it's not even on its radar because we learned that the will to bestow if you succeed in realizing the will to bestow somehow, it's like a box where the will to receive has no approach to it or is that incorrect?
R. What's the question, again.
S. The question is how do we create such a box or such a desire that has the inclination to bestow so that the will to receive has no touch, there's no contact with it? Because we understand from what you said that the will to receive by nature wants to control the will to bestow. How do we create a situation where it has no contact, so it doesn't obstruct?
R. That's only within the person can these qualities, the will to receive and the will to bestow, get closer or further.
S. How does a Ten create like a box where the will to receive cannot obstruct it?
R. The Ten shapes such a relationship so that never will the will to receive be able to control it. Now of course there's some less, some more, but ultimately everyone is guarding this boat to make sure that it doesn't turn over.
S. We learned that only through example is it possible to awaken the friends. So, what is the advice to someone who gives an example, and in his perception, he sees that it's not working because he also writes here a person cannot rise, ascend the rungs of holiness if he does not feel a deficiency in a state he's in. Even if he does receive an example, if he has no lack the example will kind of go by him.
R. Correct.
S. What is the advice for someone who gives an example but feels this example is going by the friend, passes by?
R. Nothing to do, you either have to look for a different example or let that be for a while. How can you work with the friends if they still don't have a need for it?
S. Maybe you need to ask that they will have a deficiency.
R. That's your work.
6. S. (46:38) He says here that the evil when a person learns the light influences him and then he discovers two things: 1) how good the quality of the bad meaning how much a person loses by receiving for himself and 2) how much the body resists the work of bestowal. First of all, how do those two feelings cause a desire to come out of it?
R. First of all a person has to try and be in a mutual desire to bestow towards the friends so what's so difficult about it?
S. Then the light influences him and then he discovers two things: 1) how much he loses because of egoism and 2) the body resists it so much that it doesn’t let him.
R. The body resists, yes.
S. Yes so, how do these two discernments create the request?
R. The resistance of the body that works against him, these forces become an increase, they amplify the will to bestow because he's working against the desire.
S. How does it create a demand specifically for the quality of bestowal because ostensibly it should create the opposite?
R. No, he understands that otherwise it's not going to work, that he has no choice, that he has to resemble the friends, and for lack of any other choice he has to do it.
S. I'll ask it differently, how does the power we built together in the Ten succeed in overcoming these two types of despair?
R. The Ten awakens the person to be above the despair because by that he merits the closeness to the friends, otherwise, I have no way to get closer to them.
S. We have a common despair here?
R. Both common despair and common success yes.
S. It's still a little. I couldn't hear the answer.
R. Start another question then.
S. I'll try again, he sees two things, the losses that the evil, the ego that controls us causes; the ego blocks us and doesn't let us see the Creator and how much the body resists bestowing, the body doesn't want it. These are good and healthy discernments that a person gets. Now, if he's alone he will fall for sure so opposite that you have the power of the Ten. How does the power of the Ten succeed in bringing the right demand immediately after and not fall deeper into it?
R. Through example, if the Ten gives a person an example as much as possible to overcome the ego with connection, then he can accept this example.
S. We just have to surrender to it?
R. There's no other choice, no other choice.
7. S. (51:21) I feel like a complete stranger in my thoughts and desires, I can't succeed in thinking about love, bestowal, or connection moreover, you feel like you're interfering when you hear you’re obstructing certain people. I can't even listen to the article so what's the solution?
R. “What the mind doesn't do, time does.” That's what the sages said, meaning even though you see you have no success and you're not entering the texts; you can't learn from them, you can't put it all together, it doesn't matter. You continue as “an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load,” you just keep going. Why? That's what I have to do. Why? Because I'm a human being, the Creator set up this work for me, even put me in a group, a certain group. So, he puts my hand on this faith and says take it, and that's why I keep going. Until He transitions me to a different state, a different place I stay here.
S. You don't control what runs through your mind and bad things run through it, you don't control it, you're not the owner, the egoism is not some pill that you take, it's the king of this world.
R. Alright, so?
S. It's not so, it's the king of this world.
R. Is the Creator higher or not?
S. This is the Creator in this world, this ego, you can't get out of it in short.
R. In the meantime you don't get out of it, you don't discover the force within you or even see the thought of how to escape it that's correct, but after all this, it gives you power to decide that you've already come out of it.
S. No it dries you out.
R. Okay so dry out, dry out so do that then. Do what the Creator does with you. Tell Him you're in His hands.
S. He does the opposite of what is written in the book.
R. Your mind that is.
S. It says one you do for, is this fine, should I continue?
R. Yes.
S. Even when you feel that when you're sitting here, you’re harming certain people?
R. You don’t harm anyone, that's the way in which you help them. Being in this big group you're actually helping everyone.
S. You just said that helping means giving an example so they will receive this light, this is the correction that you want them to receive it, no?
R. You don't take this away from them, everyone has their source of light.
S. Not taking but I have to ask for them, pray for them, you just said example and all.
R. Ask, pray, everything is open to you.
S. I don't have the strength to do this what you just said, it's impossible to do it, I can't do it, no matter what I do it's not going to help, it's not going to work, it's pray I'm telling you, I'm being dried up.
R. Why do you each time come up with a complaint?
S. I'm not getting where I am aiming.
R. Don't aim anywhere, just relieve yourself from complaints and from your goals.
S. You gave me the goals of what’s written in the book and all that. These are the goals, no?
R. No, it's not the smart one who learns.
S. It's not, because I have nothing to do with wisdom, I'm not some genius, the simple things that are written even this I can’t succeed.
R. That's a sign of progress that soon you'll have nothing left besides crying to the Creator for help.
S. The fact that your thoughts, they're all toxic, it's just toxic, it's not going to help, it doesn't matter you know loving and all that, it's not working.
R. That too is good, that's the inner struggle and you're clarifying who your nature is. It's good, in such a way you get rid of the ego.
S. Is there hope, tell me there's hope.
R. There's not hope, but it's certainty. We're certain to reach success, for sure, and there's no one who's going to lose.
S. How do you do this? You're the only one who can tell me that going diagonally is a straight line, you're the only one in the world that can do it.
R. Keep going.
S. You're going sideways, you're not going like the friends are telling you, you're not going in this direction.
R. I am going and wherever I go is what for now seems to me the right way. Certainly, I try to examine myself every day opposite the words of Rabash and Baal HaSulam. So, we are continuing and we're aiming to reach the goal and we don't pay attention to what our mood is like, because we are egoistic and certainly the more, we advance the more difficult states we’ll go through in terms of our mood.
8. S. (59:23) How do we connect all of reality to a single frequency of love that is Yud, Hey, Vav, Hey, HaVaYah, becoming Adam? How, please?
R. I don't know, I don't know, you're asking me about the state I guess of the end of correction.
9. S. (59:56) Rabash gives us the advice to prevent ourselves from crashing into the will to receive, he explains that. What advice do we need to follow to not crash with the will to receive?
R. We have to unite between us and in the will to bestow we create between us, according to this to advance, to drive according to this line.
10. S. (01:00:50) I want to ask an unusual question about the article. Rabash wrote this article and Rabash relates here to the words of Rambam, other times he says this is what my father Baal HaSulam says, why does he always rely on someone? Didn’t he, himself, attain that state?
R. Those great ones that he mentions, he can rely on them, and so can we. But regarding those you would like him to write about, for example himself, he brings those arguments, thoughts, and foundations from greater ones than him.
S. He already went through these states.
R. This is in your eyes not in his eyes. In his eyes, there is still a difference between Maimonides and others, between himself and others, these are different degrees of attainment.
S. Meaning we should study and learn the people that he mentions here, Maimonides, and so forth?
R. In principle yes, what we read from his compositions is enough for us.
11. S. (01:03:04) How can a person draw the light of Torah during the work of Lo Lishma?
R. In Lo Lishma he also can if he wants to reach, to understand the Torah, to advance, to be close to the one who wrote it, the text that he’s studying then he can. He awakens his desire to understand those who wrote for him and in this way, he advances.
12. S. (01:04:08) In the Ten how can we feel the pain in this deficiency, what is that pain, how do we feel it?
R. That we still haven't reached adhesion with the Creator, the sensation to feel the Creator, to reveal Him, to do something that is pleasant or tasty for Him, we can't.
13. S. (01:04:49) Rabash describes the car accident here like a car in the corporeal world and a person has to prevent himself from the car accident and then he will be sure that he doesn't lose what he's given, the ascent is given. How do we guard ourselves each time from these accidents?
R. Only by being in one desire with the friends, that’s the only thing that will guard them.
S. How to be in a single desire with the friends?
R. Get closer to each other, place the nearing between them above all else.
S. Still, this car of the corporeal thoughts collides with you one way or another.
R. What does it mean collides with you? The thing is you have to somehow gain control over it, you have to connect with the friends and together control this car. It's like a ship when the sea is very stormy, two or three people have to hold onto the mast, and in this way, they can survive. They hold the wheel together and keep it in the right direction against the waves.
14. S. (01:07:17) What is the thing we have to maintain throughout the path, throughout the work?
R. The main thing is to be together as one man with one heart, constantly aim yourselves for this. You don't see anything on the way other than this where there is a center, a connection of all the hearts and to that place, to that point, we too in our hearts yearn to reach.
15. S. (01:08:10) Rabash explains in this article that there’s the matter of ascents and descents which we learn is necessary, on the other hand, he says a person can find himself in a car accident due to these descents and falls. My question is, is it possible to avoid it?
R. If we are connected to each other well we cannot fall under the influence of any foreign power. On the contrary, any foreign power that wants to hurt us will only strengthen us and will only make us stronger.
S. Another question: what’s the difference between ups and downs that he explains and the car accident, is it the same, or is it different?
R. No, ascents and descents are as you are advancing on the way, you're not turning yourself into some different direction, but a car accident, road accident is when you have a problem, you need to fix your vehicle, yourself, your connection, and maybe only then you’ll be able to advance.
16. S. (01:10:15) In the article: “Then as it is written the children of Israel sighed from the work and their cry went up to God from the work then the Creator gives them the required help and that is that each time they will merit the holy soul and for that reason, the children of Israel will receive the inheritance of the land since they’ll receive it out of necessity to save themselves from the control of the nations of the world.” My question is, all the nations of the world, all the seventy desires the nations represent for each of that we have to ask for the awakening from below to receive the holy soul?
R. First, not every nation represents seventy desires and second yes, we have to get a direction specifically through the nations of the world. You see what is happening now, look what we have been through throughout history, thousands of years we’ve always evolved through the negative relation of the nations of the world toward us. Now we already have the Torah, the wisdom of Kabbalah, a society that can follow the method of Baal HaSulam which incorporates all the Kabbalists until him, and so now we can advance correctly, and we will walk in this. As much as you think about yourselves that you are nothing and nobody, we can specifically, in our generation, succeed in what the Creator places before us in order to achieve everything until the end of correction. We just need to understand the ways of the Creator and how capable we actually are. We should not gauge ourselves according to the sages or others, no, we are under our own conditions.
17. S. (01:14:05) We say that everyone has to reach a single heart, a heart is emotion, not intellect but emotion meaning we have to reach a shared feeling that is to love each other, to love that point in the heart that aims for the Creator. We even gathered here because of that point in the heart that aims us, and we wish to love the Creator. I'm assuming we have to have one prayer to love that point in each and every one, to collect it into our hearts, to ask the Creator to give us this emotion towards Him, to love the Creator, and then we will have no accidents.
R. Yes, we understood, thank you so much.