Morning Lesson July 19, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 19 (1990). Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work?-2

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we will learn what is the middle line, why the Torah is given in the middle line and what is the middle line itself. Why is it so important in our work. Go ahead.

Reading (00:52) Why is the Torah called the “ Middle Line”.

2. S. (35:12) We read this article with the ten last evening and I came back home and read it again in deed it is something like an entire Torah standing on one foot. I want to ask a question about our work in the ten because he touches here precisely this issue of how should a friend relate to the study at some stage that change would burn him if he doesn't come to the lessons to our gatherings and to reach the synagogue as Rabash explains this. How can we influence our friends so that the synagogue will be full? So the friend will feel full that this is his place that Rabash is waiting for him here the Rav is waiting for him here the friends are waiting for him.

R. We have to work on this.

S. How?

R. To speak to the friends that aren’t coming in some way to bestow the importance to them that other than these times we don't have any other time when we meet between us and the Creator and in these hours we are determining how much he will relate to us and bestow upon us his light his Torah. And those who don't come, they're not using this gift they were given, so certainly they shouldn't expect anything, they should know that that’s obvious. Now first of all we have to explain it to him, and to the extent that he trusts what we say then he will somehow get closer to the Creator and receive an explanation from there too.

S. I would like to continue. There is in the ten also there's such a state where you will start putting a bit of pressure, it annoys the friend he moves away so?

R. No, this doesn't need to come from one person in the ten, this needs to be the general atmosphere in ten, the surrounding atmosphere which warms the air in the ten and draws everyone to be deeper and deeper in the center of the ten and go under the influence of the friends desire and this desire will draw the Creator with them and that is how they should work.

3. S. (38:35) This principle that Rabash writes about here about yours is yours mine is yours we learned that this is between two friends, can we build this principle also between man and the Creator?

R. For now between the friends, towards the Creator I wouldn't say it is worthwhile to activate that.

S. But we should make a restriction on our desires?

R. Yes.

S. The desire to enjoy should also be in respect to the Creator, it’s supposed to be towards the Creator as well, right? This is a simple explanation.

R. Yes.

4. S. (39:45) I came out feeling a bit confused from this article.

R. Fine, that's actually good, there is room to clarify things.

S. Maybe you can explain the flow of the article? It starts with the Torah being on the right and on the left and it comes to there is None Else Besides Him and if I'm not for myself who is for me? I didn’t understand how all these things are connected.

R. We have to read it again. What does he want to say there?

5. S. (40:34) When he says many times you have to believe he doesn't mean to attain like we usually say in Kabbalah, right? He doesn’t mean that, right? It says to believe just like we think in this world that we should believe something. That’s how we use the word believe.

R. Let's say.

S. The ability to believe, it is a result of the light or somebody can believe by his own force, he can believe in the Creator?

R. Yes.

S. Is it this or that? Does it come from…

R. The ability to have faith comes from the force of the Creator that shines on us and then we can use the power of faith.

S. Right, so we should constantly make efforts to believe. How can we do it correctly above everything that happens to us?

R. To nullify one's will to receive and join the friends and together with them to the extent that man devotes himself to the general work of the group, he enters Hassidim and gets closer to the Creator.

6. S. (42:04) I want to follow the example of Rabash. Let's say I invested in the friends in the society and when I didn't wake up the friend came and woke me up. There I say okay, it wasn't the friend it was the Creator, that’s one case. In another case, I invested money, I bought an alarm clock, it woke me up. After I woke up, I said it wasn't the alarm clock, it was the Creator. So what's the difference between the two?

R. No difference.

S. So the question is doesn't it diminish the value of the friends, what we always try to say appreciate the friends?

R. With regards to the alarm clock what’s the relationship to the environment?

S. The alarm clock is also the Creator who woke me up because if the alarm clock didn’t run then I wouldn't wake up. So in one case, the Creator woke me up and in the second case the Creator woke up. The question is doesn't it diminish the value that we give to the friends because we say the society is the only thing from which we can discover the Creator and we have to work and invest only in the friends all the time?

R. Not just through, through that, not just through this society, also we attain in a different way from the Creator. Let's say I don't connect to this society and I feel that I'm being awakened. Is that the society or the Creator? It’s the Creator. Is that the Creator through the society or the society through the Creator? No, I don't feel that.

S. So what is the difference? If I put in a corridor at home some sign, something that reminds me of the Creator and about the greatness of the Creator versus what it says that we should get this greatness of the Creator from the friends? What is the difference in how I'm influenced between these two forms?

R. Through the inanimate or through the society?

S. Yes, I'm asking about the difference of the influence over me.

R. The difference is in your preparation. Either you prepared yourself to get an awakening from the wall or from the living, from the group. You have to connect with them and only to the extent that you can connect for the time being then you receive an awakening from them and that kind of awakening is different.

S. So I'm asking about the difference. What is the extra value when we get an awakening from the Friends relative to anything else that awakens us?

R. Because the friends are that environment in which you reveal the Creator.

S. Well I'm not going to discover the Creator in the wall but what does it mean that I discovered the Creator and the friends I mean it is revealed in the heart of the person write something in still an animate could also awaken me and it's awakened I discovered it in my heart so what does it mean it is revealed in the friends?

R. Because with the friends you work in a mutual way, you can increase their influence over you whereas with the inanimate you can’t really do this so directly.

7. S. (45:54) Why the reality where the Creator hides himself in the clothing of the friends is considered Lo Lishma?

R. That the Creator hides and even though he necessitates the person to continue to be in order to bestow, but he still has no connection to the Creator and therefore he is in the state of Lo Lishma.

S. But why is it considered Lo Lishma? However it's always through the friends, so why is it Lo Lishma?

R. It is not yet at such a level where he is aimed directly at the Creator.

S. But is there an awareness that the Creator stands behind the friends or not yet?

R. Not yet.

S. So he's only working with the friends?

R. Yes.

S. When you begin to detect that the Creator stands behind the friends?

R. When you identify, when you identify it is Him who awakens the friends and pushes them to connect to you then you already emerged to Lishma.

S. What is this addition that you begin to see the Creator operating the friend, He is operating your reality.

R. You receive the force, the Kli through which you bestow to the Creator, and through that he bestows to you.

8. S. (47:42) How is the state of faith above reason manifested between us in the ten?

R. How does the state of faith above reason what, again?

S. How is it manifested between us in the ten?

R. Between us in the ten that we want connection between us only through the system of bestowal, then when we get there we are in Lishma.

9. S. (48:27) How can the person guard himself so his Hochma and Hassidim will be together equaling in his actions towards the ten?

R. You have to try to join the right and left, Hochma and Hassidim together, so that both this and that come from one single upper force and then he will connect to them.

10. S. (49:07) There is something that I don't manage to understand, he writes that Hassidim are considered an action, actions, and the Torah is called Hochma, wisdom. And once wisdom, Hochma can not be greater than his actions like our Sages said, anyone whoes Hochma is greater than his action, his Hochma cannot persist. I don't understand why?

R. Because basically we are forbidden to receive something into our vessels if it's not through the adhesion through the action only to the extent of adhesion we can receive the fulfillment.

S. But doesn't the Hochma, the wisdom proceed the action?

R. There is also where the wisdom comes before the action and during and after.

S. So how come it can't be greater?

R. If we are talking about the actual action then without the action we can't receive anything, we can't call it an action.

S. So what does it mean in action, adhesion with the Creator?

R. The action with the Masach, the screen.

11. S. (50:37) He describes the situation here where a person when the path doesn't shine to him he can't continue to exist on the path, but he works because of shame towards the friends, this is what holds him seemingly he is obligated to them. The question is this a state which we should try to run away from or it's a permanent state because to operate because of shame? Well, a person in this world also operates in order to please, make people happy, until the point of the heart awakens and as a human he feels he has to connect to something higher, he's looking for Truth for the purpose of life, then he puts all other things away and he overcomes this state where he's operating just to please people?

R. They use that shame except not in an ordinary way, but in a way that he transcends it meaning the shame helps him ascend.

S. Yes, but it's like doing something similarly with the incorrect intention because one can live for many years here with his families and happy friends, it's a pleasant place, there's air conditioning, there's food, he has this routine, but the path doesn't shine to him and the person can get stuck like this for many years. Then when he leaves the path he says I’ve been here for many years and nothing shines to me, I operated only because of shame towards the friend. Is this a state the person should be watchful for and try to get out of it, or can he feel comfortable being like that, that's what I'm trying to ask.

R. No, it's good to feel that you have shame towards the friends, the question is what's the outcome, what's the result, the decision, certainly in many cases, we catch ourselves respecting our feeling fear of shame because it is a very strong hurt in the will to receive and that's why a person needs to do the calculation.

S. But it turns out that this calculation is with the will to receive?

R. With the will to receive can he transcend it and make it a different calculation?

S. What moves him to start to make other calculations which are not of the will to receive?

R. Truth, truth he wants to go near to the truth whatever happens.

S. No, it's not clear to me?

R. It's not clear, what's not clear?

S. How can you get out of this mode where automatically shame compels you?

R. Don't work automatically.

S. If the light doesn't come or is some force that Inverts you that pulls you?

R. Only according to your decision.

S. I'll try to scrutinize it.

R. You are rejecting this discernment, you don't want to understand it.

S. Seemingly the ego doesn't let me be envious of the friends and there are many ways in which we can use the ego?

R. To the end I don't know what that is who knows what that is. What I know is one thing if I won't breakthrough now through this boundary that my ego positions before me then I won't get to anything.

S. That's right that's what I'm saying maybe this state of leaning on this where my motive of power is shame with respect to the friends it's not a good state. The person should feel bad in that state, he should search for something else that will pull him, and shine to him.

R. All right he doesn't feel good, it forces him to set boundaries and to guard himself so he doesn't feel shamed and so on that's clear, but what is next?

S. I guess we should pray that the light will work and change the person?

R. That's it, but the moment he doesn't feel fear of shame he won't do any step forward. This is the work, this is how we build ourselves.

12. S. (55:42) How does the Torah spice the evil inclination?

R. Spice? The Torah spices the evil inclination and that it comes from the Creator and then the evil inclination receives support, support in that it can already begin to search within for the middle line.

13. S. (56:36) Keeping silent and dissolving in the friends is that bestowal to the Creator already?

R. Well that's a means, yes.

S. How is the middle line expressed in our work?

R. The middle line is that I already demand the Torah, the light. I anticipate it.

14. S. (57:06) What does it mean to incorporate the right in the left?

R. To incorporate the right and the left is what we do only in order to discover the Aviut in the degrees, so as to then use it afterward.

15. S. (57:46) There is a feeling in the recent articles that the Kabbalist seems to follow a very thin line, he walks on a thin line. On the one hand he either reaches a dead end or he discovers evil, and it's if he is going to fall or he rises. Seemingly, it is always at the junction, at a crossroads. Does he want to be at that crossroads every moment? Or?

R. He doesn't have a choice, he has to always be at the boundary.

S. Meaning this crossroads, this is the life of the Kabbalist, every moment he searches for ..?

R. Yes.

S. Because there is a state where the Kabbalist feels let's say that he's the worst and he doesn't even belong to the path, so either he will come out or he will take it and turn it into leverage to rise up?

R. True.

S. What is this point, this point of scrutiny where he's in?

R. The point of the scrutiny, is that from point to point he advances.

16. S. (59:15) In the state where he comes to the lesson because he is afraid of the shame towards the friends or fear towards the Creator this is Lo Lishma and in that state, there's enough light eventually to bring him to Lishma?

R. That he will develop onwards he only came to the lesson so that he will not feel shame, now he has to ask himself why does he feel shame, who gives him the shame, what should it lead him to, and so forth he needs to take it further, what is his attitude towards the situation.

17. S. (01:00:02) I wanted to continue the question about this point of scrutiny that the Kabbalists is in. I feel that I run away from the scrutiny. I’m not there for enough time let’s say and I want to ask, what is the difference between a Kabbalist who always brings himself to this place of scrutiny and me, where I missed this scrutiny many times.

R. You are guarding yourself, you do not want to feel the fall, the confusion, the lack of orientation perhaps and a Kabbalist is not afraid of that. What is important for him is to clarify is how can he get closer to the Creator.

S. If I want to be similar to a Kabbalist, how can I not be afraid of it?

R. Cling, adhere to the society, I think, better cling to the society. We do not have many means, the means are such that they are always next to us, that’s the study, the group, and connection.

18. S. (01:01:27) You told the friend that what could compel a person to perform another higher calculation is an inclination towards the truth so I want to ask about that. What is this truth? Is it something that we should know what it is or is it just our inclination? We want to prepare ourselves to receive it, to get there.

R. This is an inner inclination in a person, sometimes more sometimes less, that he is willing for the attainment of truth to step over himself a bit.

S. Do we know the truth is or is it revealed each time?

R. Of course we don't know otherwise, that's what we want to discover.

19. S. (01:02:21) The force of shame. In our day-to-day life this thing almost disappeared in my interaction with the other people it feels that there is nothing like shame, people are not ashamed of anything, they don’t even take anything anyone into account. You can see what is  happening here, the government or in general. Who is ashamed towards and whom? Nobody cares, so how do we awaken shame? How do we between us awaken this shame? It is something that is so subtle.

R. That’s true. This depends on the subtlety of the soul but don‘t say that we don't feel shame. We are always acting towards each other, each one towards the others.

S. What should I feel shame about?

R. I do not know but try to make a list and then you will see how many conditions there are that bring you shame.

S. Between us, between the friends, we reach such a state where I’m not ashamed. In my character I’m hot tempered. If somebody upsets me I just stop him, I yell at him, you know there are all kinds of different states. That’s it. I turn off the microphone, I leave the conversation, I just disconnect. Am I ashamed? I'm not ashamed of anything?.

R. You are ashamed of what you're doing.

S. That comes out of shame?

R. Yes, but if you close the microphone or yell and so forth all that doesn’t bring you shame?

S. Anger maybe.

R. That’s for now, in the meantime, and then no shame there’s no shame at all?

S. I'm not sure.

R. You don't even feel shame about doing that? Afterwards, not at the same moment.

S. I don't know.

R. So tell the group that you want them to speak about it in front of you and then you can understand what is their attitude to you.

20. S. (01:05:06) Sometimes it seems as though that the state that the friend described that the person that has no shame, his scrutiny later is stronger. I noticed that when something like this happens when a person is angry etc., he loses control over himself. The scrutiny later is not about am I ashamed or what is the Creator commanding me to do and did I keep what I had to do, you know because of the connection, due to connection.

R. Yes.

S. Here he discovered that he did not do what you should have done, he doesn’t live with the right goal, and the scrutiny comes from this direction. Is this scrutiny healthier for us? It’s more correct in order for us to advance in the work than just a simple feeling of shame, that a… ?

R. The shame pushes you backwards and you're not making any scrutiny, that’s the maximum you’ve done is finding there’s a boundary of where the shame stops you and then what? How to rise above that boundary.

S. The friend asked before. He said, there is the matter of shame but the friends cannot advance from this state because they have no scrutiny, they simply regress, they shut they lock themselves in, and here if I didn’t have this shame as it was as the friend described it so now I have new discernments that I can work with that are more true, not out of the ego but out of the goal of, what do I need all of this for, so there already there is a scrutiny towards the Torah towards the Creator?

R. Okay but basically for now you have here what 400 people sitting let's say and they’re all they seem to me like they have an armor, each one, and then how do you take that off them.

S. That is one of the big heavy questions today, how do we remove these boundaries in the right way, you can't just throw it away because there won't be any discernments there so one needs this armor to certain extent?

R. Let's say gradually.

S. Right, gradually, okay thanks.

21. S. (01:07:53) What does it mean to aim the evil inclination and perform actions Lishma?

R. Meaning to achieve to reach Lishma?

S. Right.

R. What does it mean to reach Lishma? That all of my actions will be aimed towards the Creator through the friends.

S. Meaning that moment that it passes through the friends is the correction already of a …. In the beginning of the article he says, well we have many questions on the path that’s true, and he says that if I work above reason and if I praise the Creator these questions, well what happens to them? He doesn’t tell me. What happens with these questions if I praise the Creator all the time? What about these questions?

R. What is all the time? Between the descents you raise Him and extol Him.

S. So I'm asking what happens to these questions?

R. Then the questions they are solved.

S. What does it mean they are resolved? They no longer exist?

R. You get an answer for them.

S. In what way does the answer come? That I see the friends as closer to me, more connected or what?

R. If that were the question then perhaps yes.

S. So it’s according to the state that I am in?

R. Yes.

22. S. (01:09:57) It sounds as though the Creator wants to have a connection with us all the time. It also sounds like He dresses in the garments of friends and he lets us use the whole of reality actually in order to reach the lesson, we use the means that we have before us, so there's a question, he says that after one uses the means to reach the lesson, he takes strength from that, he should believe above reason that the Creator is the one who was the Commander. not the friends, not the external garment that He was using. What is this action of believing that the Creator is the one who was the Commander?

R. To relate all of reality and all actions and changes that happen to a single source the Creator.

S. You ascribe it to a single source this means that in the mind he understands that the Creator stands behind this whole thing?

R. Yes, but emotionally we should attain it.

S. About the first part of the article he writes, if I see correctly, that again the Creator searches for the connection from being in the right He wants us to feel a little bit of the left, when He’s on the left He wants a response from us to pull it to the right. can we say that?

R. That we will clarify.

S. The thing is that he writes that the light of Hochma must to be clothed in Hassadim, meaning that he has already reached Lo Lishma and he has already reached Hassadim, and then the secrets of the Torah are revealed, the light of Hochma which is already the strong will to receive the left side and here he has to clothe it on the right, that is clear. What is not clear to me when he is on the right, in Hesed, when he feels wholeness already why should he on his own awaken the left? Isn't that the role of the Creator to awaken the left?

R. No, the person should awaken both the right and the left and also reach the middle line and do everything on his own.

23. S. (01:12:47) What kind of actions can we perform to increase the importance of the friends for us in the ten? It is written that there's none else besides Him, so what can one do to feel what is written in these articles?

R. To feel that there's none else besides Him? To the extent one feels the group, inside it he feels that one force is operating the system and that is the Creator and there's nothing else besides Him..

24. S. (01:14:00) The question is so in the right when a person feels the mercy and when a person feels that he is surrounded by the mercy and everything he sees is only love, but in the left when a person falls into judgment and when he feels that when he thinks everything is evil as he is, but in the article it said that the whole person is on the middle of line, it is Jacob, but I look at myself and I revealed that I am left, I think that everyone is evil because I am evil, not because they are evil and then I want to come to a demand, to mean that this left, right, with mercy and you said that this is the middle line, this is the demand for the light. How can I be in wholeness when I'm in demand?

R. You have to reach the middle line and from there start researching and demanding.

25. S. (01:15:57) All of our work is in the right and is a constant going on faith above reason with what we receive on the left line? In the left line do we need only to accept and go with the right line with faith? Practically do we work only with the right line?

R. That is correct. Yes, the left comes in order to put weight on the right and we have to correct the right to be higher and higher and to incorporate the left with it.

26. S. (01:17:14) What is the importance of the Se’arot hairs in our study and how should we understand it?

R. Se’arot are deficiencies that are revealed on the path as we grow so that we will correct them and that these Se’arot we will be able to internalize them as vessels.

27. S. (01:17:52) It says that the Torah comes out of Hochma. What does that mean?

R. That the Torah is the light of Hochma, not only the light of Hochma but its Yesod, its foundation is the light of Hochma.

28. S. (01:18:15) You said no longer that we need to awaken in ourselves the right and also the left and along the way it is clear that you work with the right but to work correctly with the left for the ten and in general?

R. Without the left line we would not be able to advance forward. With the left line we correct, we calibrate the right line towards the goal.

29. S. (01:19:10) Rabash gives here a complete action plan. I read to myself the first thing that person discovers is that if he is under the control of the evil inclination and wants to reach Lishma so the secrets of the Torah are revealed to him and three that it needs to be included in the Hasidim, what is this process? Does it need to be included in every step?

R. Every time we acquire a new degree of work with the Creator this is what we have to do to prepare the vessel to fill it with the upper light  and to the extent of the equivalence form with him and then to keep rising upward.

S. For me it all ends in the first stage when you want to reach Lishma and you discover that you are under the control of the evil inclination?

R. From here one has to draw the upper light up on himself to correct you so it will give you forces to balance the evil inclination.

S. What does it mean, 'the light of the Torah'?

R. The upper light.

30. S. (01:20:58) Is the middle like the Lishma?

R. The middle line is Lishma.

S. When the primary value is the truth is that the middle line or not

R. That is the middle line

31. S. (01:21:27) It says in the article the Searot meaning Lo Lishma and it covers the light and the Creator reveals himself until he is completely corrected. How can we learn to use what we read in the article or these sentences, in order to be able to work also in the left light Lo Lishma until we receive the Torah or do we need to accept upon ourselves the burden of the Creators kingdom and demand the light of Hassadim from above reason.

R. Good, what you said at the end that is correct.

32. S. (01:22:30) The question about the text when his wisdom is greater than his action than his wisdom does not exist, can you explain that?

R. One should work forward not by wisdom but by scrutiny in order to bestow.

33. S. (01:23:05) We are all under this armor. I heard what will help us break through this armor?

R. The extent to which we can connect to our friends, to that extent we will be able to cross all of the barriers.

34. S. (01:23:31) Let's say we take two adjacent degrees so the Dimin that one experiences needs to be, I need to relate to them as the right line in relation to the upper degree this gives me Dimin on the left line? Sorry, what is Dimin for me? i He gives me Dinim, judgment from love?

R. We will scrutinize that later now it's not the time for that.

35. S. (01:24:21) It says in the article with the third discernment the middle line is covered Hasidim and it also says that in faith above reason this middle line, Hochma clothes in Hasidim, what does it mean that the right is mingled with the left and the left is mingle with the right concerning the middle like any faith above reason?

R. The right line is more related to faith and the left line to knowledge and the merger between them we have different work, that is why sometimes we need to work with one and sometimes with the other.

36. S. (01:25:58) In the text it is written, can you explain why and how you can work?

R. Repeat please.

S. When we speak of Hochma?

R. When we speak of the Hochma we speak of the Enayim,so what is the question?

S. He is asking how to work with that in the Ten?

S. How is Enayim related to Hochma and how does it work with this idea of the eyes of the public in the Ten?

R. We will scrutinize it later, we are not really sure about what he is asking.

37. S. (01:27:50) It is written here that even though he looks at the world and he has many questions, nevertheless he goes above reason and he says they have eyes but they cannot see. How to work with a principal in the Ten?

R. When the person does not go according to what he feels but according to what the Torah tells him. They have eyes but do not see. That is it.