Morning Lesson July 6, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 42, 1990. What Are a Blessing and a Curse, in the Work?

1. Rav’s Introduction: In our world we have nothing besides either a blessing or a curse and we need to direct ourselves each time to the connection between us, and from the connection between us to the Creator. And on this line, we are ready to receive blessings from the Creator, meaning that He will bless us so that we will only perform correct actions in coming closer to Him on that same line. That's it.

Reading Article. (01:23) “The interpreters of the Torah...”

2. R. (42:00) Everybody heard it? Yes, great, I see that only one friend heard it, well?

3. S. (42:18) He writes here a lot about escaping the campaign. He writes usually when a person sees that he works and does not advance, he escapes. What does it mean to escape the campaign?

R. To run away from the connection with the society, with those that he's studying with and in general from learning the ways of a person in this world wants to keep the commandments of the Creator.

S. Let's say I am here now with the friends in the lesson, does that mean that I'm in the work, in the campaign?

R. I don't know, I can see that with your body you are here but I cannot say more than that, you can say it.

S. This is the question: how does a person check that he's not escaping the campaign and that he's doing the work?

R. According to his actions in the society.

S. What are his actions in the society?

R. How much does he work in order to be connected with everyone, to unite with everyone and he operates for everyone.

S. A question about the matter of ‘old age’, he writes that ‘old age’ means that his desire to achieve the goal has ceased, meaning it’s a state, a state in the work?

R. In spirituality it is always this way, it's not according to corporeal discernments.

S. Yes, meaning that a person in his spiritual path necessarily reaches a state of old age?

R. Yes.

S. How do you break free from that state because he writes that a person has to always start anew so that he won't be as an old person. But he lost his aspiration to reach the goal so how does he…?

R. But this is the aspiration he was given from above. He was given it from above, but he needed to try to have this aspiration on his own.

S. This is the question: how in the state of ‘old age’ a person needs to have his aspiration from himself, he needs to receive it from above?

R. No. From above you are not going to get it again but rather only according to his efforts.

S. So you have to continue and expect that according to his effort you will get some fresh strength?

R. First of all there has to be devotion to continue, to continue. This means that whatever happens I am not going to exit, as it is written “anything but leave”. Even if it takes another 10 years, 20 years that doesn't matter; I continue on my path, and this actually is the first and the greatest condition; that a person becomes at least in a corporeal way he becomes loyal to the path. He is not going to leave and then there are additional possibilities to add to the continuation of the path: that he enters the group more, he becomes incorporated in dissemination, in the connection, in all kinds of things.

S. Meaning if I hear you correctly the first condition is not to leave, put your body, put yourself in the environment.

R. Yes, anything but leave.

S. If a person does just that, does that promise him that he will reach the goal?

R. Well, only that, maybe it's not enough but maybe by this he doesn't accelerate his development but it does bring him onward, to new states.

S. I'm asking because you mentioned Devekut, the matter of Devekut here…?

R. But that is already devotion; the fact that he doesn't quit the path and he is given all kinds of difficulties on the way, burdening of the heart.

S. But the matter of inner devotion that a person devotes himself internally to the society, to the goal, the path, where does that come from?

R. What do you mean where does that come from, you said that a person does it?

S. No, I can't let's say a person can give himself his body even that not, but with the Creator's help he can put himself in the environment's hands, but we are talking about inner devotion that a person has to internally be devoted to the society?

R. Yes, this depends on how much he truly begins to work on the connection with the environment? that here he establishes strong connections with his environment and by them through them, with them, he wants to reach adhesion with the Creator.

4. S. (48:17) It seems like all is done by The Creator, a person has to achieve some prayer and The Creator helps him, gives him lack, gives him vessels.

R. On the condition that the person prepares himself to receive this help.

S. Connects himself to the environment?

R. Well let’s day, it’s not only that but that is the most important.

S. My question is sometimes when I look I see that I can't find the place of free choice of the person. Maybe it’s ok that we’re looking for a choice and we can't find it where and then we have to be more meticulous but when I feel like there is no free choice, I feel something is wrong, I need to know where is my free choice?

R. I don't know how this came to you, who told you that now you need to search for that?

S. It basically cancels me completely if it's all just deterministic, this force works in me takes me to the second state and then another force works in me and it takes me to another state.

R. Well the force of separation works on you, let’s put it this way; separation from spirituality and you need to resist it.

S. And this resistance comes to me from the force of the environment that I'm with?

R. Well, let's say so.

S. Or from the Creator, it's like I'm in the middle of many forces that’re working on me.

R. Yes, but you need to arrange these forces.

S. Okay, so my place is to organize these forces, shape the picture, the right relation?

R. Yes of course, all of these forces you have to arrange them in such a way that you will know that these are the forces that come in order to seemingly separate me from spirituality and these are the forces with which I can obtain in order to bond me to spirituality.

S. But isn't it like I'm a sunflower towards the sun?

R. So what, why does it bother you that you are chasing after the sun like that?

S. There too, I feel maybe it's not me who chooses it, I don't know, it's just where the forces are working if they work on me this way I run that way, but it's not me?

R. Where are you searching for yourself? you think you have free choice, do you think that you can already distinguish between freedom and actions that are forced I don't understand?

S. I don't feel that I can.

R. So why are you attached to this, that I have to see if I have free choice is; you are just some small animal that chases after some small pleasure.

S. I feel that way.

R. So what is the problem?

S. It doesn't stop me, i still have power to reach the goal but sometimes it think at some point I need to reach it, that is something that doesn't let you rest until you get to that place.

R. So, you should pray that along with all of your actions that you chase after these small pleasures, that you want to be not so connected to them you want to be free of them; that you want to rise above them, at least to understand how they come and how they influence you and how you can be free of them. Ask.

5. S. (52:38) First I wanted to continue the friend's scrutiny. Why do we see one devoted friend leaving the path and another one who continues the path in full force?

R. That we cannot know. That we cannot know, it is written, “do not trust yourself until the day you die”. And therefore we must only try to get stronger.

S. I'm looking to see what promises a person, that he doesn't leave the campaign?

R. The connection with the society, but that too we can see how much the connection with the society can suddenly shatter and be torn at once.

S. Another thing, Rabash writes here “we have to begin a new everyday, new overcoming”, what is that?

R. That today I am beginning my connection with the society and with the Creator anew. I check myself where I can strengthen my ties even more, and this is how I continue.

S. And he continues, that every overcoming creates a new deficiency. What is it about the overcoming that gives birth to a new deficiency?

R. Because by this, when I overcome and I want to be stronger more drawn forward to understand more, feel more, to be connected more with the society; I want to feel those ties those threads that hold me, that bind me to all of my friends and these threads, that they will be even stronger tighter from one day to the next.

S. Are these threads the new deficiency that is born in me?

R. It's a demand for a tighter connection with the friends. There are two things here; that to the extent that I do not believe that I am capable of holding on on the path, I grab my friends just like a child grabs his mother let's say and it does not want to move away from her, especially he sees something that is scary let's say and then, by tying ourselves to the society we build connections with the society and we get closer to it, and we become “as one man with one heart”.

S. How to reach this strong sensation that I don't believe that I can hold on to the path?

R. You need each and every day or let's say at least once a week, you need to make a calculation of how you can stay on the path, you can even talk between you about it: How will we stay on the path and how can we advance? That it is all only through the connections between us, and otherwise it's like a person walking on a tightrope in a circus, he can fall any moment; whereas if you have these points outside of you that you can grip on to then you can already continue. This is necessary for us to do so.

6. S. (57:08) A person needs to have a true deficiency to the desire to bestow meaning that he feels that the deficiency is so great that there is no one in the world who can help but the Creator is the only one who can fulfill this deficiency, and this means that he truly needs the Creator when he comes to that deficiency.

R. Because he sees that no one other than the Creator can help him.

S. How to build the deficiency that only the Creator can fulfill?

R. This deficiency is revealed in us in a person gradually by a person trying nevertheless to bring himself back to having a grip on the path.

S. He writes that this is the point where you escape the campaign. How do you lock yourself on that only the Creator will give you the vessels of bestowal that only from there can it really happen?

R. A person should say that, I don't quite know which words I should use here, that no matter what happens to me I am staying. I can continue on the path no matter what happens if I die now or in another 10 or 20 years, that is not important for me. The main thing for me is to hold on just like I'm holding on today even if I don't reach any spiritual achievements every day.

S. But this need for vessels of bestowal, how does this need grow from day to day from a moment to moment? How does it truly become a need like anything else you need you know you need it? How do you become needy of vessels of bestowal?

R. Wait, wait, a little bit more and a little bit more, this quiet prayer that you bring out from within, from your heart, it works. In truth a person prays every moment, every person, however bit by bit our hearts come closer, they come closer to the purpose.

S. It's just that the words here are so powerful. He writes when a person asks, give me the power to endure not to escape the campaign to achieve the vessels of bestowal and not to leave in the middle of the path and these words, how do they become alive for all the friends who are going on the path? How does that become our life?

R. A thousand times shall the righteous fall and get up, very simple. Patience, determination, persistence and stubbornness. There is nothing more to do, there is no other life, whatever they do to me what can I do? A person should depict to himself all the time inside of his life and throughout his life that I have no other place.

7. S. (01:01:41) He says that in every Mitzva there is a light in a deposit and that too disappears. I feel like here he put us through a nice exercise like a friend and another friend tried to clarify. I feel like we do not have the shame to receive the pleasure from Him, we have to make this effort every day anew, do not ask to have that shame in asking that pleasure? Is that what it means when he writes here?

R. That too.

S. I want to be more specific. What does it mean that in every Mitzva the light is in a deposit and that it disappears. What do we need to do here so it does not disappear?

R. Try to get closer to the center of the true act.

S. What does it mean to the center of the act?

R. To bestow.

8. S. (01:03:02) You gave the recommendation before that a person needs to organize, sort out the forces that hinder him on the path or that actually push him closer towards the path. now I just thought about it that when the new people who come, how to recommend to them to organize the forces that will bring them closer to the path and I suddenly felt that I have a friend here every period of time, goes through a new, this need, to reorganize his life again and again even when he wakes up in the morning he has to organize his day. How is he going to be as close as possible to the path? And that's after years of experience, after years of experience, what is your recommendation?

R. There is no recommendation here, rather with which task he is going to go with through the day.

S. That's what he needs to think about?

R. Yes and it should be something that is different from yesterday and he is already a new person and how does he want to go through the day.

S. How does a day of a person who close to the path look like?

R. According to his state, what is it that he wants to attain.

9. S. (01:04:53) The advice we read, it's like they're given to an individual person and I see that the true advice needs to come from how the society, how we are as a group prepare ourselves to these states and go through them. I noticed that like today it was very hard for me to wake up, I felt that a burdening and I felt that I just didn't do a proper preparation from the evening. This is the advice that I know about, it's an advice that the ten should carry out. And I see that's the reason why I couldn't do it smoothly and comfortably and the counsels that we hear from Rabash, it's like they are an individual, and I want to hear advice about how as a group we carry out the conditions so a person has a right preparation and the right vessels, the smooth coping because the matter of the society for us as if it's supposed to bridge over all these problems and burdening. I feel that if we work correctly as a society we don't have all these problems. They become included in the ten and in the group. Where is the advice and how as a group we carry out the right conditions?

R. This is according to how much each one thinks about the group, about the ten. To the extent that he thinks that he cares about it, that he's connected with the ten. To that extent, that he cares about its well-being, the well-being of the ten, this is how he advances. He prays for them, he cares for them, he pushes them to the Creator.

S. That's a piece of advice for the person, the individual, and I feel like it's a fixed match if we are thinking about the individual because we are expecting the individual to have the strength of the whole, of the collective. Clearly, if he manages to do this he'll be part of the collective,and  he'll have the strength to go through the whole path in a healthy way, but I feel that as a group we are not being meticulous about, we are not awakening within us as a group how we go through these processes as a group that the emphasis needs to be on the group and not the person as an individual going through that?

R. We will reach that soon, it's still too early if now each one will start worrying about his ten, I am afraid that all of the tens will start to fall apart.

S. I didn't understand, what does it mean, Rav?

R. I mean that I still don't think that we can care about executing in the tens, spiritual actions.

S. Meaning the advice we can't do it at the level of the ten only at the level of an individual?

R. Yes.

S. So what can we do?

R. Well I mean with mutual support, and help, and prayer but it is not that in a way that is more emphasized external, soon.

S. What do you see are the steps towards this stage that we can work more as a group?

R. When we feel, “as one man with one heart,” when we get closer to such an internal state.

10. S. (01:09:40) I will try to continue on this line? We went through a congress where we built some mutual deficiencies all the world Kli, we worked on it, we keep working on it and then working on the prayer. We read the articles in every article is just a prayer, we have to connect our prayers to one and if I put together everything we study, the system is ultimately coming from a higher world. We have to raise MAN, all of us together, I also don't know how to ask this exactly. Even he writes in the beginning, see I behold and then he talks about it first in singular, then in plural that we all have to come to the single authority, that we all turn to the Creator, “as one man.” On the other hand you're afraid that the tens will break apart?

R. But we should always be concerned about that.

S. My inquiry is how do we raise a prayer to the Creator together?

R. How do we raise a prayer to the Creator together? Well, first of all try that each one raises a prayer and then we will work on our common prayer. How do we shift from an individual prayer to the prayer of many? Is by each one becoming incorporated in the others and then they begin to feel how they are all incorporated in a single prayer, in a single place, and a single goal, and a single heart. And this is how the feeling that they're all connected in the point of the heart, it rises in them. That's how it is. It will come.

11. S. (01:12:00) I wanted to continue the friend's inquiry that every day is like a new day, we wake up in the morning in a completely new day starts. The question is: For this to happen it's not sufficient to say I wake up and everything is new? If you haven't done certain things in the day before, if you haven't worked correctly. My question is: How to plan your day correctly so that you really wake up in the morning to a new day?

R. Try to do it beginning with the evening before you go to sleep, that you will truly have the good prayer that you will enter the night.

S. And before the evening, the evening is really the last phase before that we also need to do the work?

R. Right.

S. So ultimately from what I see every stage depends on the previous stage you say the evening but if you didn't work before that it is going to be hard for you to do that and then and so on every stage builds the next stage. So what are the stages here? What is the breakdown of these stages?

R. It's as we learn the morning prayer, the noon prayer, the afternoon prayer, the evening prayer, praying on the bed. The reading of Shema on the bed, we need to read about it, we need to learn about it. you can search for maybe you can find some materials about it in the Rabash articles I can't remember right now.

S. The morning lesson should be the peak of our day?

R. I think so because that's how it was with Rabash.

S. In the morning lesson and in our thinking we should already be preparing for the next lesson start preparations?

R. It's not that simple, don't start inquiring with all the things that you want. I am telling you we need to learn these things according to the order.

12. S. (01:14:35) To continue the scrutiny that the friend started, it seems to me that the reader is trying to clarify something essential, fundamental, we have the connection which is a cure and the salvation in the place of the work. If we had to summarize our work in a word, it would be connection, connection in prayer.

R. Yes.

S. Now, every article we read from Rabash describes in great detail what we are experiencing and Rabash is directing us like a coach in a sports team. What to do step by step in order to advance to our goal. So I think the friend is asking why the whole teaching of Rabash, that we are so excited by and so impressed by everyday word spiritual coach is giving instructions to an individual player when we all feel that these instructions, individual, even if he tries really hard will not be able to realize them unless you realizes the other thing that is not written about here which is connection.

R. Rabash wrote about it enough.

S. He wrote about a spec compared to the huge amount of instructions to the individual. So maybe he can organize our thoughts, why there are plenty of instructions about what the individual should do in this article in previous articles and yesterday before as opposed to the few articles he wrote about society, why did he write so many instructions to the individual?

R. Because each and everyone inside the society must carry out his role, daily he has to incorporate into the society, connect to the society, he has to raise his prayer to the Creator from the society. That's what he is writing.

S. The three sentences you said just now, this is the general instruction we get, right? A constant, like a standing order, this is what you have to do, incorporate annul yourselves and everything we have to do in society and in a word it's connection right?

R. Yes.

S. And in the article just like the article yesterday and in the article we will read tomorrow doesn't talk about it, it as if the individual is given a thousand precise instructions do this and this and this and that.

R. What to do?

S. It didn't say a word here about incorporation and connection with the friends or anything like that?

R. No.

S. Well what is it written, it's written if you feel this if you feel “x” do “y” if you feel “z” do this if you feel this do that he gives you a map of what you will feel you discover that you feel this then he tells you now do this now do that now do this and it’s if you find yourself here and you seemingly understand what he is telling you to do but when we finish reading we say this is great but when you connect to the friends it will not help you will no be able to do everything he writes about here so if I understand correctly this is the friends question, how to relate to the thousands  articles describe the work of individuals as opposed to the general instruction connect to the friends and everything will be okay if you don't connect nothing will help you?

R. There are many ways, each and everyone has his own path. Meaning the steps each one is taking  are personal steps. That's why we need to, But again other than connection, nothing can save us from our state and take us to the higher state.

S. We all feel it, how within that feeling that nothing but connection will help us. that besides connection, we have no other work. Within this grand and simple truth now I'm swallowing these articles too, and they give me instructions, manual instructions for the work of the individual.

R. You try to keep this, to do it inside the connection.

13. S. (01:20:59) How do I build my deficiency, do I try to look for it at the center of the ten? or do I look for it in me? the way I understand the lesson?

R. No, you're not looking for a lesson, you are looking for how you can be as adhered to the ten as possible , to the entire ten as possible.

14. S. (01:21:39) I will try to, there's a scrutiny here between the personal deficiency and the a general collective deficiency and to get an answer, to get a raising of MAN, we need to focus more and more on the collective deficiency of the entire group?

R. Well, is the whole group? the ten.

S. The ten is what you perceive in the senses, it can be one ten, the whole Kli, the whole world?

R. No, no be specific, don’t confuse us.

S. Exactly, I don't want to confuse, there is a prayer of the individual and there is the prayer of many. We have to come to the prayer of many. The prayer of many is a deficiency of at least one more person or two people at least. So the scrutiny is how do we come to a minimum of the prayer of many that is made of two people who want to connect together? How do we concentrate our thoughts? How do we concentrate our prayer on succeeding in raising MAN? Two is the least plural, how do we concentrate on this common deficiency?

R. We need to concentrate on the connection between us in the ten, not in two, or some other number but in the ten, in order to understand what is it, we can imagine how each one of us is connecting to one, two, three of the ten, but in truth, the ten has to be the goal that we have to be incorporated in and lose myself in. And that's it, as much as possible all the way up to soul devotion. The ten for me has to be eventually like the Creator, like the Creator, where if I know how if I give myself to them, if I know how do I give myself to the Creator? Meaning I get to the true will to bestow.

15. S. (01:24:40) In the past 19 years I think there has not been a day that I didn’t hear that we have to connect and connect and connect. And when I look at people here, we have doctors, engineers, intelligent, very high quality people, and it says if we don't understand something about this connection that will be internalized and understood in us. Although we talk about it every single day, it is as if there's something that doesn't sink in, after we hear everything, I don't really 100% believe that behind the friend there is the Creator or to look at him and I understand that I have to relate to him that I relate to the Rav or the Creator. Something about my nature doesn't let us believe 100%, I can say it but at the Yeshivat Haverim assembly of the friends, or on zoom, but it doesn't come from the heart, it stays in the same situation for 20 years without moving. He gives an example of an old man, what it means to be old, and it's not a matter of age and it’s about giving up on your attempts so you say maybe a better generation will come that it will advance further. How do we break this wall in our hearts so that we can really be in devotion, devote ourselves to the friends? What do we need to do? What is that small step that will break the wall?

R. Prayer, prayer. And I have nothing to do with it, seemingly I cannot help you. You are looking to get salvation from me. Each one has to pray for his friends and in that, you will come to the goal. I have nothing more to add.

16. S. (01:27:13) And almost every article of Rabash that we read, Rabash writes that we need to come to a prayer of recognition of evil; it's as if there is only suffering. There are no articles to talk about pleasures. So why don't we write about how the person enjoys being in the work? It seems like it's all suffering and it's all questions about everyone suffering, there is no pleasure.

R. Kabbalists write to us on the problem along the way so we would know how to overcome them. And that's how we read these articles, the wisdom of Kabbalah is entirely about how to work with our Will to receive and try to rise above it. That is the entire wisdom of Kabbalah. Hence, if you have a complaint, try the path and then see what you will write about.

S. It's not a complaint. It's just that it's not so appealing to the will to receive.

R. The Kabbalists are not concerned about making it attractive or not. They care about making it  truth the truth and someone who is trying to attain the goal will have the correct direction as to how to attain it. That's it.

17. S. (01:29:18) Everything we learn now, it is clear to me that the states described in these articles that Rabash writes are states that a person goes through in his work between friends, in a connection, where he tries to build a connection, or attainment of spirituality. I did not have that question back in the friends, it's clear and we already experience it. We are here in society, we work in tens. So my question is, these articles that Rabash writes are for people with attainment, for people who give us advice on how to go through these states, how to go through them and be in prayer and gratitude, because all the states we go through are basically the Creator bringing us nearer. So my question is, how not to condemn? Because everything we talk about, it’s as if we're speaking out of sorrow or distress, but by this we are condemning the Creator.

R. This is natural for little children who are always complaining, I don't have any, I want this, I want that.

S. Is this okay? We are a group that are studying with the Kabbalist. We are reading in these articles, so is this situation okay?

R. That's what we have. That's what we have in our world, in our state. I think it's correct.

S. What does it mean to be in prayer and gratitude in our work?

R. To be in prayer that the Creator will give him an opportunity to see the path, the next step, what do we have to do correctly? How to summon the forces in connection? How to jump from one state to the next above reason, in faith above reason, and so on and so forth. Meaning all in all, the path is clear. We simply need to persevere, persist.

18. S. (01:32:12) First we should say thank you for this lesson and not take the lesson for granted. It is a lesson that you listen to and whenever you watch it again, it will open up and will open up even more with the friends' deficiencies. But you told us what kind of task I will have for the rest of the day? When I wrote it from the first sentence, from the word me, I shifted it from me being the ten, me being what we do. What action, what activity for the person who is on the path, when does it shift from the personal me to the ten?

R. When we connect and we wish to reach and be in one connection, one desire to attain the Creator a few interesting things take place here. First of all, each one has a different Creator. Just like we can imagine to ourselves. But that's how we get along. I can't speak to states that will arrive a few steps in the future, It won't do us any good. We have to continue the way we do right now. Why are you trying to ask? I don't see in what we've been through any special questions to come for all of you jumping up.

19. S. (01:34:15) He writes here that we have to start anew every day and every new beginning is called a day.

R. Yes.

S. And a prayer that a person gives is called a day, and the prayer creates a need and a vessel. Does the prayer create a vessel and a need? What does it mean that the prayer creates a need and a vessel? The prayer is the vessel, no?

R. We can say so.

S. So what does he mean here?

R. I don’t know what he means.

S. Since the prayer to draw near to the Creator makes a need and a deficiency for a person. 

R. Yes, if a person is asking, is praying, and he wants to get closer through his efforts then he is able to scrutinize more what he wants.

S. Okay, so this is basically what it means in the first part which he calls actions, right?

R. Yes.

S. That we have to constantly do actions, because without actions there is no work with  intentions. So mainly he is referring to growing stronger in prayer.

R. Yes.

S.  So afterwards he writes that we have to start over in overcoming and every overcoming creates a new deficiency until from each day it becomes one long day, when there is already the ability for the Creator gives it desire to bestow, the filling that is called the will to bestow. So when is the day created, what is the condition for the creation of the long day?

R. I think it's when he reached a complete deficiency, because it's a new day, it’s light that has to come to him and be received in a new vessel.

S. Because it says each new day a person creates a hole until it becomes one day.

R. Yes, until there is a hole and in this hole there’s enough volume in order to receive the fulfillment from the Creator.

S. So do we need to engage in this search for it, wait for it? Friends are asking for twenty years we have been making holes but we don't see this complete deficiency that has to be made. Or should we not deal with it whatsoever and just follow with faith in the sages and whenever the long day comes, it will come?

R. So the person is not doing anything, how can he receive anything?

S. So how should I relate to it?

R. Everyday should be as new in your eyes. You are starting it with a new deficiency. What you have been through yesterday builds a deficiency for the coming day.

S. Should a peson need to be in the work where he is now or should he also look at the years he has being through, and all the efforts he has made?

R. You can look at all those years and everything you want, so what about it?

I don't quite get you. I came to Rabash in 1975 or 76, since then, of course there are times like this, times like that. There are times that I feel like I have nothing to do in this world with all this process, I understand you. I also saw Rabash go through all kinds of states, and I heard about all kinds of kabbalists who went through less than simple states. But everything passes. The Creator needs to prepare. We are not at the end of creation, we are at the beginning of creation. And each one of us, there’s work that is being done on each one here. Each one here is being formatted to a new human, a new person each time. And that's what we need to do. Especially in these times that is called ‘between the straits’ soon and so on. It's not so simple, it is also influencing us. Everything passes; day by day, day by day, until we reach what the Creator intended for us for, for each and everyone, and for all of us together.

20. S. (01:40:05) Rabash writes that he should ask the Creator to give him a blessing which is called the desire to bestow, called the vessel of Hesed, where he wants to work only in order to bestow contentment to his Maker. I did not hear before what is a blessing, what is a blessing and how do we ask for it correctly?

R. For the Creator to bless, a blessing is a special light, an upper light, that comes to a person and raises him to the degree of a blessing. A blessing is a special form of the connection to the Creator who is called Baruch, like Baracha, blessing.

S. Is it possible, can we understand that what the article describes is the relation towards the Creator and toward the quality of bestowal and that relation is actually how we relate to the ten?

R. It's beautiful to say it like that, now we have to attain it.

21. S. (01:41:41) I want to ask you Rav, we are after a congress that awakened a huge spiritual force. I felt it even before the congress itself, and during, and also now. And now a real, great deficiency for connection, for the group awakened. We finished the congress on Sunday, but I feel like the congress is still happening within us right now, and the results of the congress are happening now. We acted on our part, now the light is working on us. So the deficiency now is how do we deal with the abundance of the light that is coming now as a group, just like we awakened it as a group at the congress. So what does it mean to receive this light as a group now and deal with it as a group, not as individuals? How do we, as a group, deal with these results, what should we do with it?

R. We need to advance, it's not like we reached an end point. We have to advance. Each day, we receive a new illumination from above and upon it we have to advance.

S. Is there something special that we should do after the congress with respect to the light that was awakened as the results of the congress, something special towards that state or do we just go back to the routine until the next congress?

R. No, we are not going back. We're completely not going back, and it's a problem that we have people who are complaining about why aren't we going back, and I'm saying we should not go back; we should keep going more and more. And we, how should I put it? We just have to continue, the way it is coming down on us everyday we have to continue towards connection, and cancel all of the disturbances meaning not pay attention to them. Rather to simply, I have no words. Ask.

S. It feels like there are no words, no vessels to say we want but there is a big deficiency to receive the light as a group and I'm asking, i want tools as a group or the vessel as a group.

R. The tools of the group are very simple, each one connects to his ten and each one inside his ten everyone annul himself and they discover the force of the ten; and with this force of the ten we acquired the new degree. It is like we are talking about the Partzuf, Ten Sefirot, all of the Sefirot annul themselves and in that way they come from Malchut to Keter. They discover that intensity, they receive it in order to bestow, and that's how they attain the degree. And, again they connect with a new coarseness, they annul themselves, and so on. I don't understand the problem here. If I connect to others and I feel everyone's coarseness and everyone feels the same and if we connect, we come together with the coarseness to the point of refinement and then we can turn our point from coarseness, from the coarseness between us to the refinement between us; and in this way we jump ten Sefirot forward from above down. Clear?

Think about it.

S. We have a tens meeting today. We will listen to it again and we'll try to do it.

R. Thank you.

22. S. (01:47:00) There are many discernments we had and that are hard to talk about some of them you mentioned the Sefirot, the refinement, the coarseness, these are things we are beginning to feel. We learned that there is the entry of the light and the impressions of Taamim, flavors, and then there's the departure of the light, and then the Otiot, their letters, and then when we have nothing to say, we are impressed by the light and we also have no question because we don't have the letters because maybe we went through refinement. There is great gratitude that I had to share with everyone because we are all in this.

R. Right, it's all up to you.

22. S. (01:47:48) There's a state where we still don't have the vessels of bestowal called old age. So what is the effort that we make, the labor, because once we have the vessels of bestowal, what is that called?

R. Birth.

23. S. (01:48:15) How do we know, let's say when we're praying, it says, “know before whom you stand,” so how to, “know who before who you stand,” according to your sensations, to your impressions, if you're standing before a great or a small king?

R. We cannot say, we cannot measure, only according to our individual state, do we accept the one who's working on us as great, we are not measuring the Creator we cannot measure Him.

S. According to our impressions of the congress we had, the previous congress. These impressions, are they related to, “are we standing before a big or small king?” So how do we distinguish between these sensations where we are?

R. I think that each one needs to make a calculation for himself, for the time being. We cannot yet connect as one man in one heart, but we are on the way to it. It is possible that next time we will have a better outcome even.

S. Then why does it say in the article, “we need to know before whom we stand?”

R. Read what it says, it doesn't mean that you know, but you discover the Creator you reveal Him. Nevertheless, imagine who you’re dealing with.

24. S. (01:50:50) How do we make this leap from coarseness to refinement like you said in those Ten Sefirot?

R. Using the connection between us, when we annul all of our coarseness and we wish to connect only in the point of refinement.

25. S. (01:51:20) How can a person check himself each day to see that he's advancing in faith?

R. Only relative to the environment, not more than that. If he accepts the environment into him, with his heart and soul and he wants to connect to them without any criticism, but only criticize himself on how much he is opening up before them then accordingly he can reach the opening and the revelation.

26. S. (01:52:23) Is it appropriate to be a teacher and teach the books of Pticha and TES to new students?

R. Yes, of course. It's good. Yes, it's great. Good luck to you.

27. S. (01:52:54) We read the article, there were instructions by Rabash, I took down all kinds of instructions, and I hope that the Creator will let me remember if we need it. But, I'm not certain about it. I hope it will happen, but I’m not sure. How can I trust the Creator 100%?

R. You are nevertheless under his power, under control of the Creator, whether you want to or not. You think this, you think that, it might be that he is has disappeared altogether from your mind and heart. It doesn't matter, he is always present, filling you, and controlling you 100%. That's it. So just imagine as correctly as possible what the situation is, and see how you can advance in it.

28. S. (01:53:56) It says in the article about the need to respect, to honor, the Creator. We respect the friends and the Rav. We see the greatness and accordingly we give it. What does it mean to honor and respect the Creator?

R. It means to lift him and to raise him above all the forces that exist in reality that he is one unique and unified. That there is None Else Besides Him. That all the forces that appear to us as existing are all included in him, and he operates them and operates through them. This is what we need to depict to ourselves and position ourselves in this way.

S. Can a person honor the Creator alone or through the ten? Because the qualities you say about there is None Else Besides Him is all stuff you can only discover in the ten. So how from the ten can we honor the Creator?

R. Yes, yes.

29. S. (01:55:22) The article says, “know before whom you are standing,” meaning a great king or a small king. How can we convert a small king to a great king in the ten?

R.  I don't know, I think it all depends on where a person is.

S. No (spanish to english) translation.

R. Yes. We need to understand that the Creator doesn't have any kind of yardstick. His glory fills the world, He, all of him, fills reality. All of reality is in him. We too are in him. And besides the Creator there really is nothing. And therefore, this is how we can measure with respect to him what we attain. But in truth the Creator is one, unique, and unified, and there is None Else Besides Him. Let's hope that we will be able to even touch on what these definitions mean.

30. S. (01:57:15) You said that each of us have a different Creator. How is the Creator different to each of us, and how can we eventually come to a same depiction of Him?

R. We still cannot make such calculations, no, our senses are still not ready for it.

31. S. (01:57:59) I would like to continue the scrutiny that the friends started about the relationship between personal work and seemingly a complete ten. We know that everything is only in me and the work that I have to do with the Creator is the work of correction, the request for correction. If each and every friend does it and we come to a minimal correction then the Creator will attach all of it to a ten. I think that’s the attitude that's written about here in Rabash and the seemingly individual work of each ten is correct. I cannot make the ten connect in the direction that I'm thinking of. It will be corruption. I can only correct myself and ask, and the ten is a reflection of my work, and the moment I will be ready the ten will rise to the next degree.

R. Very well.

S. Is it correct?

R. Correct. And it will be even more correct in some time.

32. S. (01:59:49) How to help the friends in seeing that the darkness is also a form of illumination from the Creator?

R. Yes, correct, find such excerpts and places in the text of Baal HaSulam and Rabash that talk about how the darkness also comes from the Creator in order to give us spiritual discernments.

S. It reminds me about what is written in the Talmud that from the day the temple was ruined that the gates of prayer were locked and which gate remained open?

R. Tears.

S. It's beautiful to see the hidden concealed hand working behind the scenes, light will shine as darkness. Let’s sing something.

R. Yes, nice.

33. S. (02:02:12) There's this new electricity in the air today, and it felt lately that there's an opportunity to take on a new responsibility as a group for our study, for our advancement, can you tell us how you see this novelty in this responsibility?

R. Today is a special day, it's the 17th of Tammuz, which is a month in the Hebrew calendar and it might also be affecting us. I have nothing to say, we are becoming more and more sensitive to small changes that the upper light is influencing us and is imparting on us and this is how we are advancing. We just need to keep all of us together more, to be concerned for the friends, for their participation in the daily studies and daily attendance, this is really important.