Morning Lesson October 4, 2023

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

Part 1:

Baal HaSulam. “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/eKY6PhmO

1. Rav Introduction: (00:45) Well, the article is one of the fundamental articles in the wisdom of Kabbalah because it speaks about changing our nature in order to enter the upper world, the spiritual world. We have to replace ourselves from the will to receive to the will to bestow. This is the whole matter of the wisdom of Kabbalah that it explains to us and pushes us to replace our nature. This is impossible to do by any means but only through connection between people in a way that they invest specifically in that power, interest, attention, and effort until in return for our exertion we receive a force from above because it is a force of the upper world, the force of bestowal. We exist in a force of reception, the opposite of it. Then it turns out that through our study, through the work we do between us and the tens and more than tens in our whole group, we are a great International group. When we support each other we reach a state where in return for our efforts the upper light, the upper force shines on us. This is a force of bestowal, a force of the Creator, which is above our nature because it is all in the will to bestow. Then in return for our effort, we receive the will to bestow and we begin to be like the Creator.

It happens gradually through our effort and we learn many articles about it and many texts but all of it is in order to persuade ourselves that it is worthwhile for us to think only about that and about nothing besides the will to bestow that we have to think about. All of the other desires will come to us on their own. Only the beginning of the will to bestow is called the point in the heart. The heart is that place where we feel our desire, that point in the heart begins to grow, it begins to show itself, and to show its operation. Then by that, we begin to change to connect and reach a structure of the spiritual system where everyone is connected. We also begin to feel the spiritual forces the forces that operate according to the laws of bestowal, and the laws of connection. This is how we then grow until all of the nature within us will be transformed from a will to receive to a will to bestow. This will already be called the Gmar Tikkun, the end of correction that we need to reach, and the beginning should already be in our reality here in this world. As it is written, ‘Each one shall help his friend’ in attaining the power of bestowal, that's one thing. The second thing is 'love your friend as yourself”. This is the upper nature this is how we rise and get better.

Accordingly, we begin to learn the nature of the upper world to the extent that we feel this nature. This is how we advance, we grow. How much? Until our whole nature of the will to receive that the Creator created, as it is written, the Creator created an evil inclination that becomes inverted, transformed according to our exertion, our efforts into a good inclination, into our will to bestow, from reception to giving, and from hatred to love. This is how we will grow. 

This is why these two opposite forms, the form of reception and the form of bestowal, are standing before us. The form of reception, we are born in it, and we develop within it, the entire human society is like that. It all works according to the force of reception and we gradually need to shift ourselves until we will get from above special forces, forces of bestowal. This is how we will reach the correction of the world. Until then, we will revolve in this life and we will always be in the vessels of reception, in the nature of receiving and we will only suffer. All of this suffering comes down to each and every one of us, every moment in order to give a person the possibility to try to emerge from the bad that he feels in himself and in others until he will feel the good, in that he can replace the nature of receiving with the nature of bestowing.

This is our work, accordingly, we build our groups, and as the Kabbalists who have already gone through this path, wrote about it, they understood the entire method of correction of human nature. They explain to us, what we exist for in this world, and what is it that we have to do, in order to reach the purpose. As you also certainly read about it from the words of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, we have to reach bestowal to others, and by these efforts, we will reach the opening up of the eyes in the Torah. The Torah means that the upper force, the upper light comes down to us and shines on us, bit by bit. In order to accelerate our development we have the recommendation of the Kabbalists who felt the structure of the upper world and according to their recommendation, we divide ourselves into tens, and by the power of each one will help his friend and by love of friends, we need to try to reach a state where indeed already here in this life, in this world, we try to build such relations that resemble the relations of the upper forces, the spiritual forces. This is how we begin to feel that we can get help from above and also each one shall help his friend. In this way, we can get help from both, from above and also from the friends and thus reach the correction. That's it. This is an introduction. Are there any questions?

2. S. (12:15) Sounds like, on one hand, the quality of bestowal is so close and so natural to us and on the other hand, it's the goal of all the generations and all of humanity. The attainment is the quality that's the end of correction and there's no reason to reincarnate as you said. Only to get closer to this, how do I manage myself when I bestow and love? How to desire this state a bit more each moment so that the Creator can help us reach it?

R. For that we have examples. Let's say, we have a family in which we love each other. We love our children, we have a group in which even though people by their nature are not close to each other, they do want to get closer to each other. This is how they complete their correction and then it has to expand up to the boundaries of the whole world. This mutual bestowal between the groups, between the Nations, and between all the parts of the global society. We don't know them but they are very strong. Now we will have to take that too in consideration, in our work.

Therefore, we must not love ourselves in the small group and even in the larger group. We should also dedicate some time to dissemination as well. Meaning in principle, the times are changing. As it is written, 'Whatever a man doesn't do, time does." This is what we are reaching now because our time is a time of correction, in which humanity will reach the stage of maturity. It is already prepared for the transition from an egoistic society, a consumer society, to an altruistic society, a society of bestowal. This must happen already in our time. Bit by bit, it changes and we will be able to see it throughout all the events that are happening to us. With wars, different changes, and natural disasters, we will be forced to change. In this way to get closer to a new state.

Now we're in a state where no one understands where we're going. Why do we even have to exist? What is it that we have to do? We have all kinds of different goals ahead of us, diverse goals, trying to do something with ourselves, to fly somewhere, maybe to space or something, but in general humanity is losing the coordinates that it had in the past since all of these landmarks, these coordinates, were based on a beastly foundation. Each one was just caring for himself. Now bit by bit, our nature, our nature has changed, the records that appear, that exist in us are beginning to push us to a more collective evolution and this is why we will change soon. We will see more that the social change in our society has to be by changing our attitude towards each other. As a result of that, we will discover a new world. Not through technology but specifically through changing our relations. This will be the essence of the special transition of humanity from the will to receive to the will to bestow. We will all exist together, each one with respect to his friend according to the will to bestow. This has to happen, maybe even in our generation.

3. S. (19:31) What kind of demand should one raise to the Creator so that his friend can rise above the evil inclination?

R. Give an example. The most important with respect to the others who do not yet feel and they're not in this process means that we have to give them an example. That is it. We should look at ourselves, and how we grow. The little one looks at the grown-up, right, and does it so he sees that daddy takes a hammer and knocks on something so the child takes some toy or maybe a wooden hammer and he does the same thing. This is how we always do it. This is called monkey learning. We are built only on our instincts, but we learn from the grown-ups okay?

4. S. (21:04) With what you just said, you spoke about a crisis and how humanity needs to learn from these things. In 2008, we had a financial crisis and recently we had Covid, despite those things, humanity still doesn't want to listen, so what will make them listen this time, what will make them change?

R. We don't need to go through a particular crisis by which we get closer to the upper force, to the Creator. We undergo a change from the nature of reception to the nature of bestowal. We need to make this change within us. It's not by bombs falling on us or that there's a fall in the stock market that manifests. Rather we have to understand that we have to put in an inner effort and the revolution has to be internal within a person inside each and everyone.

S. The most important thing is our actions obviously, and our actions to unite are the most important that will cause people to listen rather than disseminate?

R. No, dissemination is nevertheless necessary to do it. If you are in a nature to love others then as much as you can do it you need to bring this good nature closer to others, you have to do it. It's by your nature. This is why we have to do these things even though our nature is not yet pressuring us to correct the world.

Reading: (23:54) Baal HaSulam. “The Love of God and the Love of Man”

5. R. (26:00) This is the question, how can it be that all we need to do when we are the highest of all the created beings from the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, how can it be that all that we have to do is to reach love your friend as yourself. This is the question. Do you have anything to ask about that? No, but this is what the Torah, the Creator of the general force of reality demands of us, from humanity. Meaning from the will to receive that exists in the highest level of development in His world.

6. S. (26:52) How can you demand that a person, love your friend. Where does a person press on himself and activate love for someone who is not him? He is created with the nature of self-love and he's told to love your friend.

R. This is why Baal HaSulam says, we hear this statement, everyone hears it. This statement, this phrase is quoted in many sources in many places. However, it remains as something we don't need. It's not some nice phrase that each one wishes for everyone, but no one relates to it seriously because we don't feel within us the forces that we can activate and attain this state.

Also, we don't understand what happens if we reach love. What will we have out of that? What will happen? How would I relate to everyone with love? How will everyone relate to me? How will we live in such a world is completely unnatural. Our nature is the opposite.

Reading Continued (28:27) “That which you hate, do not do to your friend...."

7. R. (31:10) This means that here Baal HaSulam goes further. There are all kinds of laws and examples that are written in the Torah about how we should relate to ourselves, to the Creator, and to the world. There are all kinds of things, there are hundreds, hundreds of laws about how we should manage ourselves and conduct ourselves. How can it be that instead of all this there is only one rule, love your friend as yourself which is seemingly simple, clear, and human. How can it be that we reach, in the end, something that is so simple and human? This is the question, meaning, how do we seemingly replace all of the laws of the Torah, the conditions, and the Mitzvot, both of the commandments that the Torah requires of us? How do we replace all those with the rule love your friend as yourself so seemingly you don't need to do anything except love your friend as yourself? How can such a thing be? Is such a question clear? No more questions?

8. S. (32:43) We hear the statement all the time, we pray to feel this, we want to know how to feel it, we pray together to feel it, but what can we do today, now, to tip the scales to make that big jump forward and change?

R. Let's learn, the question is proper, let's learn what he writes to us, Baal HaSulam, please.

9. S. (33:42) “Don't do to your friend what is hated by you”, right, Hillel, says, “Teach me everything on one foot”. This thing, what is ‘don't do to your friend’ as compared to ‘love your friend’, which is a more emotional demand. Not to do to someone else that’s hated by me, it sounds something more external compared to the emotional demand, ‘love your friend’.

R. That's right.

S. So where do we begin with our change of nature?

R. Certainly ‘Don't do to your friend that which you hate’, that comes first, then ‘love your friend’.

S. How does love enter the heart?

R. That's a different question, I don't know yet, we will learn and we will see, maybe he will answer it. 

10. S. (34:52) He writes you're about the conversion, what is this matter of conversion?

R. It's when a person shifts from in order to receive in order to bestow.

Reading Continued: (35:17) “Love Your Friend as Yourself”

11. R. (36:13) Because you have an example, as much as you love yourself you need to love the friends

Reading Continued: (36:21) “To love my friend as much as I love myself….”

12. R. (37:44) This is the question, is this question clear, that the Torah seemingly obligates us, you were created entirely it will in order to receive, you only think about yourself each and every moment in all the directions possible; however, the Torah obligates you to invert your nature in which “I created you in such a way”  to the opposite, that you will love others at least as much as you love yourself. This is the demand of the Torah, meaning humanity has to reach this rule as much as it is unrealistic, fantastic, not doable, it doesn't matter. You have to reach it whether you want to or not, nature's organized in such a way that it will pressure us, it will do all kinds of exercises with us until, eventually, through many actions, generations, people, disasters, however, we will reach a state where we will have no choice. We will understand that we must keep ‘love your friends as yourself’ and only in such a way will we reach the correct true existence.

13. S. (39:31) The Torah wasn't given to one man, when one looks inside of himself he sees that he can't fulfill this, first the Torah, right, was given only when a whole nation was ready in some connection?

R. True?

S. So how do we now read this article where each one looks at himself and see if he can fulfill this and he’s struggling with it, and then you start thinking, So how can the general do this?

R. The Torah explains to us that we were born in a beastly form and bit by bit we developed from the levels of the still, vegetative, animate, and to the speaking degree. And when we are already in the speaking degree when we have relations between us that belong to the speaking degree, then we begin to feel how much our nature is bad, evil, and how much we must, we ourselves, would have liked to have turned into a better nature, into good relations between us. Along the way, the Creator, the upper force, explains to us how we should keep such relations between us, and correct ourselves, as we see already in our world. We give birth to children, we educate them, we help them grow and when they reach a certain age accordingly, meaning a state when they can already listen and understand what we're telling them, then our words to them should come more practical, more to the point and pertain to the correction.

S. In our world, we look from a certain angle, right, we see that in our world we are maintaining one another, right? Each one works, relatively in enjoyment, gives something to society, and receives something.

R. This is on the animate level, to some extent there's such a thing in animals as well as in large groups and packs of animals, but this is still not a correction of man

S. The friend said before that there needs to be some unique intention?

R. That's right, we have to shift on the instinctive intention that exists in us to care only for ourselves, and to that extent also to care for our group, meaning by each one caring for himself he realizes that he also has to exist in some human society that will help him to care for himself and that's what we need.

14. S. (42:50) There is, seemingly, a person who has three options or three modes of operation, maybe it's only two: One is called self-love, and the other one is called, let’s say, love of the Creator and love of others, maybe it's the same thing. But these are two different states in which the intention, the purpose, and the goal are completely opposite.

R. Right.

S. When a person works in order to self-love, he even can bring the Creator in, the Creator will help him, it will be good for him, I’ll ask Him, I'll do, I'll do, I'll do.

R. Correct.

S. But with ‘love of others’ is a bit more difficult because seemingly, I have to concede something, with the Creator I don’t have to give Him anything I just have to ask of Him, with the friends I have to give them an example, I have to bestow to them, there is some calculation here in order to shift that mode. What is difficult for us is to turn the dial, the switch is in this feeling that if we shift from self-love into the love of the Creator, to bestow, and seemingly the ‘I’ is erased, there is no more ‘I’ in that state, it disappears, it explodes, it doesn't disappear, something else exists from my place, I don't have the ability to even fathom what it is?

R. That's all clear, what you are trying to say?

S. From where do we get the power to shift from self-love to …?

R. We'll see, I guess he'll explain it to us after he explains the necessity of going from one to the other.

S. It should be in the feeling that if you don't turn the shift, you will die, you will never, you will stay in this world forever, and you will never reach your goal?

R. Yes, it seems so, it's not emotional love like it is in this world, we just call it love, alright? We told you these are laws of nature, you ever saw that they take you into account?

S. The word love confuses us in this world, love is something emotional, it gives you pleasure and …?

R. It's not important, it's called love.

S. Here love is like a mafia verdict: Either you stay in this world and die as a beast or you do something else.

R. Yes.

S. It's not so cute and sweet, this love.

R. It doesn't matter what you call it, it is how it is.

15. S. (45:21) I was thinking about an example: When there is fire and someone jumps to save someone else, it’s against his instinct, he's running away from the fire, if you touch a fire you run away. From the fact that a person jumps, something operates in him that is higher than himself, so I don't understand all of it but I know it exists, that's what is important.

R. Okay, your example doesn't give us any solution.

16. S. (46:03) When we say that the whole of humanity should reach ‘love your friend as yourself’ meaning the whole world will be responsible for each other. The question is when we speak about the whole world, they will all have a point in the heart, they will all do it through efforts or the system will just include it and they just depend on us?

R. Both, let's say, the main thing is that man's nature will change from egoistic to altruistic.

Reading continued: (47:05) “ We should not imagine that this verse....”

17. R. (47:18) “Love your friend as yourself” as if it is an exaggeration.

Reading continued: (47:20) “For we are warned….”

18. R. (47:31) Means we must fulfill the laws of nature in the most precise manner, thus if it's written, “love your friend as yourself”, you must reach love for all the creative beings. That's how we are in a system, whether we want to or not, it moves us forward.

Reading continues: (47:57) “All the interpreters agreed to interpret….”

19. R. (48:26) Meaning first I feel the friend what he wants and after I take for myself.

Reading continues “And leave himself deficient….”

20. R. (49:25) Meaning, that we must reach a state where the needs of one's friends will be preferred, higher in his eyes, than our own needs, of man, himself.

21. S. (49:51) If we could go back a little bit. In the article “The Giving of the Torah”, the convert stands on one leg, why does he stand on one leg? To whom does he send it when he says, “To the rest of it, go study”, he sends him to the Creator? In order to receive the Torah, we have to stand on two legs, did I understand it correctly?

R. Correct.

Reading continued: (51:13) “One Mitzva [Commandment]”

22. R. (52:17) We have questions here in the meantime, that we don't know where we are or what we are fulfilling, from what nature demands of us.  The Creator is nature, Elohim in Gematria is nature, HaTeva. So we need to understand that what we are learning now, we are learning the general law of nature which is above all the rest of the rules, the laws of physics, psychology, and so on.

Reading continued: (52:50) “The issue of the Hebrew slave….”

23. R. (53:44) We're not going to get all of these details. It's written, this is written in the time of the slaves and we didn't have our modern society.

Reading continued: “This is the meaning of one Mitzva….”

24. R. (55:27) Here's the question: Is the law to ‘Love your friend as yourself’, is it a rule that obligates all people of the world, everyone in our world, doesn’t it matter who is, what he is, right? A lady, a man, an American, Israeli, German, or a Frenchman it doesn't matter who and what, rather all, is this rule belong to all human beings?

Reading continued: (56:07) “We must understand that our sages spoke….”

25. R. (56:43) Meaning, that this rule of ‘Love your friend as yourself’ obligates everyone in general, the whole world.

Reading continues (56:50) ”It is by this Mitzvah alone that one....”

26. R. (57:06) Meaning what do we attain by this that we fulfill the love of others, we reach the revelation of the Creator, the understanding of the Creator, and the sensation of the Creator to such an extent that we have adhered to him.

Reading continued: (57:25) “Thus you find that with this one mitzvah”

27. R. (57:32) “Love your friend as yourself.”

Reading continued: (57:32)

28. R. (57:35) Meaning this law. ‘Love your friend is yourself’, if we fulfill it, we will reach an opening for all of nature on all levels, this world, the next world, all directions, whatever may be, everything opens up before us

Reading continued: (57:58) “Now there is no question about the Mitzvot….”

29. R. (58:29) Means that a person entirely identifies with the Creator.

Reading continued: (58:37) “There is a general and a particular….”

30. R. (59:15) Meaning, that we need to learn to begin with what is ‘Love thy friends as thyself’, in all sorts of forms, why it specifically, is up to us, and we have to fulfill it, and how does this rule reach all of humanity to its complete realization? That’s how we must accept this Mitzvah, this commandment.

31. S. (59:47) It is written, “Love your friend as yourself, by this Mitzvah alone will one be rewarded with the true goal which is adhesion with his God”. How are these things related?

R. I don’t know the connection, but I know that if we reach a state where we rise above our egoistic will to receive and instead of loving ourselves, to love to receive, to love to be above others, to love to fulfill our egoistic nature and instead of that we will prefer to be in the force of love, connection, bestowal and giving between us. In this, we acquire a second nature, a nature of the Creator and then we reach a state which is called, “The purpose of creation”.

32. S. (01:01:03) Can you explain the principle of the work that from the particular we come to the general because generally is what brings us to the ultimate goal? It makes no difference from what side we begin, from the particular or from the general.

R. Yes, sometimes we come from particular to general and sometimes general to particular.

S. What is the general, and what is the particular?

R. ‘Love thy friend as thyself’ and love of the Creator.

S. The particular is ‘Love your friend as yourself’ and the general is the love of the Creator?

R. Yes.

S. These are means towards the goal?

R. Correct.

S. What does the principle say here, that it makes no difference if we start on the particular to the general or vice versa?

R. This depends on the state of the world.

S. I did not understand that.

R. You will learn.

S. If possible because this is something that practically when a person wants to get closer to the goal, should he now, because there are many tips about love of others, annulment, greatness of the friends, lowliness of myself, giving gifts, so what should a person look at in order to advance correctly? Look at these details, particulars, that now I'm engaging in annulment, now I’m engaging in giving to the friends, now I’m engaging in seeing their greatness.

R. No, we are now learning how to fulfill love thy friend, we're not learning to fulfill in action, but in general.

S. I'm asking about this principle, he says we can go from the particular to the general from general to the particular, what does it mean?

R I don't know yet.

33. S. (01:03:01) Is love your friend as yourself the action or the result?

R. ‘Love thy friend as thyself’ is the result of my efforts and fulfilling this rule love thy friend as thyself.

.

34. S. (01:03:25) I want to ask about “as yourself”. We see that today the world is actually losing its direction because “as yourself” means I only love those who are like me.

R. I don't know what you have in your world, I don't know. I just know what is written here, not the details, why you love this and not that and not that, I don't know.

S. How do we keep this “as yourself”? How do I start relating to people, and treating people?

R. I don't know, he did not explain it yet. Just like you love yourself, such you should love the others. He is talking about the extent of the love, it must be to the same extent as the same measure when I love my friend because he loves ice cream that I love or the other, that he does not like the ice cream, that is not it.

35. S. (01:04:29) I want to have a small scrutiny, who is your friend that the Torah commands us about?

R. I guess the circle expands until it reaches all the people of the world.

S. If he is my friend then, like he said, he is close to me, it's not a problem to love him. Is the commandment to love only those that are close to me?

R. We will talk about that too, what your friend means. Accept what’s written in the meantime, that’s it, and adhere to Him.

36. S. (01:05:16) What does it mean to adhere to the Creator completely, in full?

R. I guess at the end of corrections we must entirely resemble the Creator.

37. S. (01:05:46) In our ten we gain from the actions of the friends, like men and women. Why should we feel shame about it?

R. We will see, these are already private matters. We are not getting into that yet, just wait with it. She is asking about the topic, but we have not entered the matter of fulfilling this Mitzva. This Mitzva, this commandment to love thy friend as thyself includes all the laws, all the rules of the Torah, all of our relations, our attitudes, to inanimate, vegetative, animate, speaking, all of nature, that all of it, all of it is included in this term, this concept, Elokim, in such we must determine our attitude to Godliness, in all the details, whatever they may be, and in this we change ourselves and also reach a resembling of Godliness as our name Adam the word Do-me, similar to the Creator.

38. S. (01:07:37) It is written that the most important is to begin and not to stay in the middle. What does it mean not to walk in the middle or leave in the middle?

R. Not to fulfill and yes to fulfill, this way and that, but rather to decide that as much as we understand, capable, and feel to go in the direction of loving others.

S. It is not so clear. How to understand? What does it mean not to walk in the middle in the ten?

R. Meaning that I love in a bit and I don't love in a bit, rather we must love each other in a complete manner. Being here now, later on, we will clarify all the details in this rule of love of others.

39. S. (01:09:08) You said now that in this general rule of ‘Love your friend as yourself’, it also includes men's relations to all of the still, vegetative, and animate. How is it related?

R. Because it includes all of nature. These are the degrees of love, of still, vegetative, animate. It is like a child, how does he love something? Like a little animal, like a baby, a child, yes, that is how it is.

40. S. (01:09:44) This commandment, Mitzva exists on all levels of development?

R. No, this Mitzva is fulfilled gradually, we must fulfill it gradually to the extent that we are mature and ready for it.

S. When does it exist in its full measure?

R. End of correction.

S. Yesterday we read in the article, at least that is how I understood it, that when we put aside all of our imaginary engagements the only thing that remains for us is to see that our friends lack nothing. When we keep the Mitzva of ‘Love your friend as yourself’ in full measure, when 600,000 souls keep this Mitzva what lack can the friend have?

R. No lack.

S. What is my work?

R. It doesn’t remain, everyone's at the end of correction.

S. What does Rabash mean in the article when he says that the only thing that remains is to see that the friends have no lack?

R. I don't know what he means there because if we’re at the end of correction nothing else can be there.

Reading continued: (01:12:04) “And to Adhere to Him”

41. R. (01:14:15) Clear up to here? If we do everything with the intention to bestow then we do not feel ourselves that we receive from the Creator rather truly are with him in partnership. Then we go from this article to the ‘Love of the Creator to the Love of Man’.

Reading continued: (01:14:50) “However we must still understand the source…."

42. R. (01:18:57) This is how we are all born, simple egoists like animals.

Reading continued: (01:19:02 ) “In that state one is in the farthest point….”

43. S. (01:20:07) ‘Love your friend as yourself’ is this regarded as a weakness?

R. I do not know where love is taken as a weakness. I think that if one person can love another person by that he shows his strength. You think of the other, you care of the other, he is not afraid of the other, he shows his affection. I think that is not at all a sign of weakness but of strength loving the others.

S. What I mean when we show our love to other people, when you give something to another he accepts it as a weakness and then becomes more egoistic.

R. Don't give, don't give, you need to know who you're dealing with so that through your actions he will not fall deeper into the loneliness of his ego. It turns out that from what we read now we can see how with these two laws of egoism and altruism you can divide and categorize all of human society 

44. S. (01:22:36) Loving oneself is an egoistic thing, but loving others goes against nature. My question is, if one loves others does it mean that I love myself through them?

R. This we will need to clarify but certainly there is spiritual love where you truly love others and there is corporal love, where you love others because that is good for you, not because you want to do good, some good to the other but because you want to do good to yourself. that is the difference

45. S. (01:23:49) Baal HaSulam writes that through the natural remedy of engaging in Torah and Mitzvot, Lishma, you reach a degree of bestowal to others, what does it mean that this is a remedy, this natural remedy?

R. That is nature, there is a force, and that if a person tries to achieve bestowal upon others then he absorbs, he receives this force from nature and he changes

S. This nature, is not related to the nature that we are born in?

R. No, of course, it is the opposite, it is the Creator.

S. When we explain this to people can we say that in nature there is a special force?

R. You can read this article and explain whatever you want.

46. S. (01:24:50) The essence of the development is to adhere to Him, to be in adhesion to reach a state more and more, that the reality is there and that ‘There's None Else Besides Him’ and the ‘Good That Does Good’. The more a person develops he discovers more and more, meaning every time the absolute control of the upper force. He did, he does, he will do everything. On the other hand, one has to be a partner, a partner who is not under complete control?

R. Of course not.

S. How does it coincide?

R. He works together because one asks and the other gives. When the person asks for the forces to realize the law of the bestowal, the law of the general connection, and the Creator helps and provides the forces for that.

S. The practical lessons of the work are only to reach the state that is only to request it myself. Is this where I discovered my partnership?

R. Yes.

47. S. (01:26:10) Loving is only possible through discovering evil between us and rising above it?

R. Yes.

S. When we disseminate you can’t start from that.

R. Of course, you gradually, you can’t come to that right away.

48. S. (01:26:39 ) The 613 commandments are the details that come before the general?

R. Yes.

S. We do not distinguish these details in our work?

R. No.

49. S. (01:27:08) If a person advances on the path and understands that self-love is what he hates, what stops him from advancing on the path? In this sentence, don't do to your friends what you hate is when one understands that he should not behave toward others with self-love.

R. Yes.

50. S. (01:27:40) At least for me when we enter a new kind of Arvut as we felt here observing the commandment of ‘Love your friend as yourself’ with your friend clearly it's a long path. Where is it possible to ask the Creator for some guidance, and help? I don't even know how to say it.

R. It doesn't matter just ask. Like a baby asks and the parents understand even though he's just crying, they know what he's crying for.

51. S. (01:28:44) The ten is the Creator, one's relation to them determines his relation to the Creator, should one reach a general feeling of the ten above all the individuals and from that when this feeling is born within him, he seemingly is keeping the Mitzvah, ‘Love your friend as yourself’, in the general, in the ten?

R. Yes

Reading continues: (01:29:32) “By this the creature develops in the degrees....”

52. R. (01:30:25) That is understood? If a person follows these guidelines wanting to get closer to the love of others, then the steps that he makes lead him to a state where he truly becomes incorporated in the others and the others are incorporating him and he feels the Creator within the whole of the created beings.

53. S. (01:31:31) I feel there is a problem when we read this article. Academically this can be understood but emotionally connected to it we need to feel what ‘Love your friend as yourself’ is.

R. What can I do for you?

S. That is what I'm feeling, that all the questions are arranged with understanding this, without this, we can't understand. The question and the essence of the article the way Baal HaSulam presents it, it's hard to relate to this article and to work with it. That is how I feel for me and my environment. We need to emotionally connect to this Mitzvah to understand what this means and why this is the essence rather than coming to the Creator. We have to have emotion for that too. Meaning this article requires a great a very deep preparation to go with it with, with Baal HaSulam.

R. Look first time, second, or third we have no other choice. We go through it the way we do and later, let's hope, we will get closer to realizing this rule and then we will understand both the direct way and the opposite way and thus we will better understand. What can we do? What do you suggest?

S. What I suggest is if it is possible to go a bit deeper into this commandment. What does it mean with respect to the Torah and the background of it?

R. I do not know what to say. What does it mean to love your neighbor as yourself, loving the others as you love yourself? You can interpret that and write to me until tomorrow, at least a page or two about how you understand the love of others.

S. That is what I'm saying maybe theoretically a person has to read all the details, of all the Mitzvot of the Torah

R. No, no not at all, you will just get confused.

S. I'm asking myself, why Baal HaSulam writes, that he's approaching someone who feels this and understands? He is debating how to work with this commandment. How can we relate to this emotionally, with the article?

R. We need to connect between us emotionally and reach a feeling of what loving others means. How much I lack that, how much I don't have love for others, how much I have to achieve that. Accordingly, how do I get closer to that? I do not have more possibilities to explain.

54. S. (01:35:09) I understand the Mitzvah is a law that stands above all. We have to do everything in order to realize this law.

R. According to your desire and the data in you. You have to try to realize this law.

S. I wanted to ask, what is the way a Kabbalist relates to a law?

R. A law to him is mandatory. He has to try to carry it out to portray to himself as a goal to achieve throughout his life.

S. Because the law is something above you.

R. But to realize it is in your hands.

S. Then your relation to the law changes the law becomes…?

R. The law stays the law except that now it is in your hands so you carry it out in your desire in adhesion and love.

S. This means that you want to keep it. You reach an agreement and you want this law to live?

R. Yes.

S. Is that the right relationship?

R. Yes, of course.

Reading continued: (01:36:50) “Two parts to the Torah: Between men and the Creator….”

55. R. (01:41:27) This means to ‘Love your friend as yourself’, as a person loves himself, which is undoubtedly true that he loves himself. As much as he will try to turn it around this way, that way, his self-love remains. Similarly, he has to achieve the love of others and there is nothing here to erase or hide but just to carry out 100%. This is what the Torah requires of us and whether we want it or not that is the final correction of the human being which brings us back to the system of the first Adam HaRishon.

56. S. (01:42:33) Why is there this division that from the love of friends, you reached the love of the Creator? Here it is written they are one. Is it because it is outside of himself?

R. If the love of others truly happens in a person and he can achieve it, then he feels to the same extent he is getting closer to the Creator. Because to him, loving others or loving the Creator is one and the same. Specifically, here, we understand how much our ego helps us reach the love of the Creator and the love of others differentiate between them, and connect the two.

S. You said to distinguish between them and to connect them. So there is a division?

R. If a person still does not achieve carrying out love the friend as thyself, in full, then, of course, there is a difference between how he relates to the others and how he relates to the Creator, but if he achieves complete correction in his relation to others then there is no difference between his attitude toward all of humanity and to the Creator.

S. Why is the main command of the Torah not to love the Creator as himself?

R. You cannot approach that, you cannot access it, and that is why it is written that way, but in truth, there is no difference. Anything that exists outside of one's body, meaning outside of one's desire, is not in his nature.

57. S. (01:45:15) A soul, a heart, and his whole essence, what is this division?

R. Heart is the heart, it is where you feel, it's not just your plain heart, it's not the pump that exists here, no. So that's the feeling of the heart and the soul we feel outside of us. These are three points through which we feel that our relation to what's outside of us.

S. The heart is the desire and the soul is between us, but what is all this essence all his might?

R. You don't need to classify it that way, no need. We will talk about it once it becomes clearer then we will start sorting out our definitions.

58. S. (01:46:45) What does it mean that the children, the women, and the rest of the people there are taught by fear, by the ease they teach them?

R. These are degrees of desire to receive that exist in every person, children, women, men, it doesn't matter, it's the degrees of desire to receive in the person. They grow over years and life cycles, and therefore, that's how they fall into their place.

S. What does it mean to accustom them with the ease until they know and they can know by love?

R. To go with them slowly, bit by bit, there's no other choice like with us.

S. Is there any other way besides doing it bit by bit? In ease?

R. No, if there was we would read about it and hear about it, there is none.

S. The path we're going through it now in the study, with you, and the tens, every day at noon, that's with ease bit by bit?

R. Yes, we do not dictate anything to anyone in terms of what to do, we only explain as much as it's possible to explain more and more to each and every person what we should do, and then the person from what he does he will begin to understand what it's about. That's it.

59. R. (01:49:22) That already begins to be about the relationship between the Torah, this method, and how to reveal the Creator, how to copy it onto oneself and where is the matter of the group and all of humanity and how we do it, it's more practical. We can stop here for now, but all in all the matter of the topic in general is clear, yes?

60. S. (01:50:03) The best thing I understood is the filth of self-love and self-reception, that a person is born a beast, the furthest from the root as possible, the complete opposite. What I didn’t understand is what should one do to start moving from that? The Rambam says there's a method from Lo Lishma to Lishma, easy, bit by bit. What should one do from this beastliness to reach God? How can this beast start rising and what should it do?

R. What to do? To connect to the friends that are like him and together with them, through one shall help his friend, begin to push themselves towards correction, towards the complete common correction.

61. S. (01:51:22) Previously I heard you say that partnership is when one asks and the other gives.

R. Yes.

S. It’s as if it seems our whole problem is that we think we need to do something of our own accord.

R. Yes.

S. On the other hand, we should always try to do actions so that the light will come and bestow upon us to connect, to be an example.

R. We have to try. So these are our actions.

S. Our attempts should always be accompanied by a request?

R. We have to turn to the Creator, yes, if you do then go ahead.

S. This partnership is when we are always wanting to be in a request with every action and to feel that we are basically we want only the Creator to act on us?

R. Yes.

62. S. (01:52:50) In the beginning of the work we understand that there's some force we call an upper force and in order to resemble to it we have to work with our friends to reach love for them. Bit by bit when you discover that through the friends the Creator is working on me so what I want to ask is, should a person studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah develop this quality to talk through the friends to the Creator to have a dialogue with him?

R. Certainly of course what's the question, who else will he speak through, is there anyone else to speak to?

S. That's what I'm asking how to do it?

R. We learn that behind every friend there lies the Creator, that's how a person should try to see it and turn to the Creator, there's no friend to turn to there's no friend, look at how Rabash writes about it.

S. It ultimately turns out that through this Mitzva doing it through my friends I build the vessel towards the Creator.

R. Of course yes.

63. S. (01:54:15) Why are we not focusing on what one of our sages said, that what you hate don't do to your friend is clear for you people comparing to love?

R. Yes but I think it's clear to us that we are forbidden to do something that is not for the benefit of others, that is clear we are talking beyond that.

64. S. (01:54:56) I think the desire is awakened at least for me to talk about the practice here of this work and what I connected more is to the Hebrew slave. I have a pillow, I have to decide if I'm sleeping with it or giving it to a friend.

R. This we don't know how to solve yet.

S. But such examples, how can a person do actions that move him?

R. He has to at least practically carry out the Mitzva of love thy neighbor.

S. How to advance with this Mitzva to a place of thinking and how to do actions?

R. I don't know, start giving what you have to others. I don't know what to tell you. To your question practically I don't have an answer; we are not doing these sorts of things between us.

S. I'm not talking about the practical actions, I'm asking what can I do with my friends to move myself from the point where I'm a complete egoist?

R. Check where you can help them, very simple, in terms of the study and preparing the place to study, the meals, preparing the meals, during the meals and things like that, look at what you can do.

S. But in practice, I have maybe a few hours a day when I'm in the lesson or a meal where I can do physical things. Most of the day I'm alone, where there, can I do?

R. Think about it. There are Mitzvot in action and there are Mitzvot in intention.

65. S. (01:56:36) Baal HaSulam writes that there is a law, that because our root is in the Creator that He is bestowal so we get sorrow and baseness with every reception from another.

R. Yes.

S. Why doesn't the whole world feel this baseness and sorrow? Rather the purpose of this whole world is to make a profit on account of others.

R. They don't want (human beings) don't want to change the essence of the action but only the result of the action.

S. But why is it that as a result of her harming others, they don't feel the sorrow he's talking about here?

R. They don't feel the others so therefore they don't feel their sorrow.

66. S. (01:57:36) About the realization of this rule, ‘Love your friend is yourself’. What is the order when realizing this? Is it first Bnei Baruch that has to reach it and then the world?

R. Yes, of course.

S. Since you said at the beginning of the lesson that the world is ready.

R. The world is not ready for anything. The world is only ready to the extent that we are capable of relating to it and no more, we still have work to do.

S. When you say we, do you mean Bnei Baruch?

R. Yes.

S. How many steps have we done in this congress, and in these days that have passed which are also…?

R. We have advanced quite a bit, we've advanced quite a bit. I think that in the winter as we approach the winter with our studies and make a connection there with the Creator's help in the Turkey Congress, so we will already be prepared to feeling the outcome of the connection between us, the beginning of the outcome from the connection.