Morning Lesson July 31, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 23 (1988). What Beginning in Lo Lishma Means in the Work

Rabash. Article No. 23 (1988). What Beginning in Lo Lishma Means in the Work  (00:37) 

1. Rav’s Introduction: (33:38) What is the impression from the article?

2. S. (33:54) It's not clear in the article what is to learn Lo Lishma in order to annoy? I’m learning in order to annoy others?

R. Yes.

S. What does it mean that it’s not clear?

R. My main purpose in the study, the reason I come to study, is in order to prove that the other one doesn't know.

S. That's all I'm studying for? To disprove the friends?

R. Well ,do you know how much power there is in it? That people invest their whole life for this just to prove that the other one doesn't know, he's zero, he doesn't understand, that he's wrong, yes?

S. As if I know better than him, not that he's a zero that I’m better than him?

R. Let’s put it this way, so.

S. He talks about other states of Lo Lishma, that he says they’re really they’re all revealed in one person. How does this work? Can it be one time that I'm seeking to learn out of respect one time by coercion each time like this?

R. No, each one is in his own way and it stems from the root of his soul.

S. If I identify also different states, people learning from different reasons, so I have reason to work with it or nothing I can do with it?

R. Why should I do it?

S. I'm asking if there's something I should be working with or just to know about it.

R. I need to study Torah in order to reach Lishma, and not that I my measure myself towards other people, that does not elevate me.

S. There's nothing really to do with it, that if I see a friend in the Ten who's learning, let’s say by coercion and another friend by wanting respect? Is there any work to do with it or nothing?
R. No, you can take a negative example from it, but it's not certain that you can distinguish.

3. S. (36:27) These he thinks he repeats like many articles that he's tying these things here until he's five discernments like these five discernments and direct light here too?

R. Yes, that's correct.

4. S. (36:47) He writes in the fifth discernment, that the fifth discernment of Lo Lishma so the matter of reward and punishment not in corporeal matters, right? Not that a person was reward or pleasure and spiritual matters, what to describe to myself as spiritual pleasures? I try to depict myself with spiritual pleasures are?

R. There are no pleasures yet and you cannot distinguish between them and you cannot grade them.

S. If I'd like to like put a line, this is corporal pleasures and that's spiritual pleasures

R. Then the difference between them is with respect to the will to receive with the respect of your intention with the order to receive or in order to bestow.

S. What's the pleasure from bestowal?

R. Like the pleasure from reception, you feel a certain inner filling that you get.

S. What's the pleasure as he writes here from Torah and Mitzvot? What's the pleasure in that?

R. That you get to a degree where you already enjoy the Torah and Mitzvot and then you can also understand what the feeling that you get from them.

S. If I had wanted to desire it, but I still don't have it.

R. How can you want it if you don't have it?

S. That's what I'm asking how, maybe from the friends?

R. That's impossible, well maybe from the friends if you we see that someone is enjoying certain acts of bestowal, then yes. This is why we need to be incorporated in one society and learn from each other, yes.

S. What's the difference between working for the others and working for the Creator? Sounds like a very thin scrutiny.

R. No, these are two degrees even though they're in the same direction to bestow to others. Nevertheless, the difference between them is great because to the one that you bestow that is before you then you have a calculation with him. I don't know what you're doing it for and what is it that you intend to get in return for it, etc. whereas in respect to the Creator there we already need to reach a greater degree in order to connect with the Creator.

S. It's good to imagine that I'm bestowing to the friends now and that I'm somehow bestowing to the Creator even though it seems kind of imaginary?

R. Yes. yes, but nevertheless yes. 

5. S. (40:08) It's written that he shall fall in love and the Creator is a great lust and great love and that when I remember him he does not let me sleep. What must we do to reach such a lust, such a love?

R. In all of one's actions, his deeds, his intentions, his thoughts, and all of his heart and soul as we call it, he intends to give contentment to the Creator. 

6. S.(41:00) If I understand what Rabash is writing here right here, he says that there's  few discernments of Lo Lishma in us, correct. He writes here that we need to weigh them carefully, what to tell each discernment about Lo Lishma, each person?

R. Yes apparently.

S.I tried to find the right thing to activate me? The main thing to fill all the Mitzvot, to reach prayer, connection?

R. No, you need to distinguish whether this is Lo Lishma or Lishma and then to feel why are you in it, and what should it lead you to.

S. I assume that everything is supposed to bring me from Lo Lishma to Lishma.

R. Yes.

S. What are all these types he is talking about here and are we supposed to compare or decide which one? What is he talking about?

R. Apparently, in each and everything that you feel you have a certain measurement, this is more, this is less with respect to your ego, your will receive,with respect to bestowal to others and with respect to the Creator. If you want to, if you can measure it and accordingly you grade them.

S. How can I know that I made the correct grades?

R. Maybe some of them you can do it by being connected to this society. It could be that part of it you can already grade it because you're connected with the Creator. This is how you would advance and you should ask, you should ask for a scrutinies, ask for advancement, to be more and more in it in order to bestow to rise higher.

S. What happens if I'm doing it wrong?

R. Then the Creator will correct it, nevertheless it depends on Him you have nobody else that you can depend on, but only on Him and to the extent that you are in the society then adhere to the society and measure your adhesion to it.

7.S. (44:01) If a person studies in order to disseminate, to teach, build groups, what kind of Lo Lishma does that belong to?

R. What is he doing it for?

S. In order to disseminate the name of the Creator, the wisdom of Kabbalah

R. When we need to scrutinize this, what is he doing it for? The fact that he's performing a certain action, well maybe they are paying him for every gathering. This is why he does it. Maybe they pay him for his work with honor.and he does it, not with money but with honor, respect and so on. So, we need to scrutinize what is the reason.

8. S. (44:59) Regarding in order to annoy, he says that if the person who is studying to annoy is lost that he can not reach recognition of evil, how can we protect ourselves from this and maybe to identify where in this in order to not to fall into this?

R. Because hatred towards someone is what leads him on the path, is what pulls him forward. There's a lot of power in that and in that too there are many degrees. Maybe he just wants to be higher than everyone, like scientists, and it could reach such hatred where they want to kill one another.

S. Is there some exercise or something we can do in the Ten in order to identify in my heart, an intention that I'm starting to annoy? Because he says in this state you don't get recognition of evil I can't even be aware that I'm in it?

R. But it starts with that but later on, one nevertheless does it in order to defeat the other. Here already, there are no compromises.The Creator gives him a heart of stone and he only thinks of triumphing, and nothing besides that.

9. S. (46:58) I understood we have these five discernments of Lo Lishma, especially the state where a person is working for respect or working that he's being coerced into Torah and Mitzvot they sound the same to me more but actually all these states kind of sound the same to me, more or less, why and what's the difference and why are we discerning, differentiating between them?

R. On our advancement on the path,we go through all kinds of stages and we start to distinguish between the reason, the cause and the effect, with the people, with the world, with oneself, and then we begin to distinguish between distinguish the reasons for our actions and therefore Kabbalists who have already gone through all these things,this is how they write about it.

S.This principle that there is something both common to all of them that it's all Lo Lishma, we're doing we're making this separation this differentiation between our own scrutiny?

R. Yes, certainly.

10. S. (48:30) We learned and feel that we do everything because the environment and if this environment will give me the respect that I receive, like let's say an example, he gave us of somebody looking for work, he does this even though it's not acceptable to him,maybe that's why I'm here as well because I cannot find a better place and so on and so on. What is all this? These stilts that I'm working on, these discernments. How am I supposed to work with this? Am I supposed to ask to overcome these or is it a foundation?

R. All of these discernments, they are how the will to receive grows and develops like a baby in the womb of his mother, or later on when he is born, when he grows and develops and according to his growth this is how his mind and his emotions and actions are, this is what he wants to tell us.

S. Progress is dependent on the agreement of the heart seemingly as it's described?

R. Yes.

S. At any moment I could be flying off the path and feel a bit less pleasure than what's comfortable and I'm just flying off,something that is not acceptable to my heart. What do you do with this?

R. Well,along with that you have this opportunity to strengthen yourself at every moment and in each and every state and to resist flying out.

S. I can resist these discernments and Lo Lishma? In the meantime this is what is seemingly holding me?

R. Yes.

S. How?

R. You play with it, you play with it, you try to find for yourself more supporters who can lead you on the path, to tie yourself to the friends and they help you to remain on the path, and this is the matter of the group.

S. Exactly, what they do is strengthen these discernments of Lo Lishma even more and give a bit of respect and give a bit of things that satisfy me, things that will keep my body on the path, things that are holding it in this way.

R. Well it could be the opposite, that opposite of all of the actions by which you would have liked to get out of the society they actually give you the opportunity to grow stronger in the society and to stay.

S. But I don't understand where I'm overcoming my dependency on the agreement of the body that has to accept all these satisfactions, otherwise I cannot go on,or are we supposed to rise above this or pray on it or is this a foundation and the body will always have these things to satisfy it and without it there is no person.

R. No, you replace the corporeal satisfactions with the spiritual satisfaction, that you are more adhered with the society, more obligated to the society, that you persuade yourself that you have to be with them, it's not that you work only under a single force, you have here for and against, you have your two forces and you are between them.

S. But I feel in my sensitivity, my dependencies on these discernments of Lo Lishma are just increasing and growing.

R. Of course, it grows each time but you also grow.

S. I don't need to be afraid or be over that these Lo Lishma are growing all the time and I need more satisfaction,more respect and that it's growing all the time along the path, the process?

R. Yes and no, yes and no, it's just that we're talking in general and not individually, and this is how I have to speak.

11.S. (53:37) Whoever is annoying me he's actually not giving me motivation, not giving me something to envy?

R. Well, let's say so.

S. It could be he's doing something harmful, truly he's doing something harmful to himself as we are told here, but in the society he can be something that's maybe advancing others?

R. He is advancing others of course for all of these things we actually help each other advance. right line, left line.

12. S. (56:26) Rabash says that if you come to somebody and you want to tell him to take upon himself Torah and Mitzvot you have to look at which of the five discernments of Lo Lishma is suitable to talk about, that he can accept, so we're really supposed to learn them like this and use it like this, outside in dissemination or in the Ten?

R. We'll learn this on the way through actions.

S. We should know how to use it and should it actually be beneficial?

R. Life will teach us, life will teach us, it's not that you really need to know it, you will know.

13. S. (55:14) He writes here that there is Lo Lishma because of the greatness of the Creator and if I understand correctly, if a person doesn't work in the environment about the greatness of the Creator, he cannot discern all of the others and measure because you need to see an opposite, something and someone right?

R. Correct, correct. 

14. S. (55:40) He writes that because of this, a person should always be told what is important for him, otherwise he won't hear what when you're talking to him. The teacher explains to us what he's studying for Lishma, right? The teacher doesn't explain to us ,what is the study of Lo Lishma, I don't understand, what does he mean?

R. No, both need to be explained and understand the difference between them and the border and from the pass from one to the other.

S. I understand that I seemingly study Lishma here but I also hear things that are Lo Lishma and this is what pushes me and this is how my subconscious works. How do we accelerate this recognition? That now I'm in Lo Lishma and I want to change that, because I can hear the Lo Lishma for years?

R. The more you advance to Lishma you'll have an increase in Lo Lishma as well. They need to be in balance, left and right otherwise you will not advance.

S. The five discernments of Lo Lishma accompany a person until the end of correction? It 's always from Lo Lishma one comes to Lishma and that's from it is until the end of correction?

R. Well, the end of correction is still far and when a person enters on the intention to bestow it's not called the end of correction.

S. Right, but he constantly switches from Lo Lishma to Lishma to Lishma to Lo Lishma?

R. Right but left,right, left right so he falls to Lo Lishma and then again he falls to Lishma he climbs.

S. A person reaches the study and he intends to be in Lishma as much as he understands it and he gets pleasure from the Creator, what determines if he's truly in Lishma or not?

R. Where his intentions are, what does he want to reach? Not what he wants to feel, rather he wants to reach.

S. Here the thought is enough where he intends that's what determines it?

R. Yes.

15. S. (58:10) It is almost like a person should hunt this Lo Lishma,he should find as many means as possible for Lishma otherwise he has nothing because only from Lo Lishma he would come to Lishma.

R. The closer he gets to Lishma then along the path he will go through all sorts of forms of Lo Lishma but it's on the path to Lishma, not that he's sitting and expecting when he will catch this Lo Lishma.

S. Okay, the goal is to reach Lishma but what the friend asked, What I understood that nevertheless a person needs to tie himself to the path with as many ties as possible with respect and all of these things no?

R. No, by connections to honor, money and all sorts of big things in the will to receive that by that I will advance to Lishma?

S. No, but if a person gets respect from the friends that he will want to come another day in another day and he strengthening for himself ties to the environment?

R. If that's what's advancing him, that's not good.

16. (59:36) A person that according to his character is suitable to study in order to annoy can he advance or is he doomed?

R. Nobody is lost, nobody is doomed, everyone will reach the complete end of correction ultimately, but according to the exertion is the reward.

17. S. (01:00:02) Can we say to keep the Torah and Mitzvot is to come to the lessons and the with the friends and the lessons with an intention greater and greater connection?

R. Yes.

18. S. (01:00:13) It says the work in Torah and Mitzvot Lishma, meaning in order to bestow and not to receive reward and he becomes fit and worthy of receiving the parts the five parts of the NRNH, what does this mean in practice to receive those five parts of the soul?

R. It means to go through all these degrees one after the other until we attain all of them.

S. In the final degree in this division, meaning in Lo Lishma,you will fall in love with the Creator with great passion. What is that light that a person receives in the final degree of Lo Lishma and how is it different from the NRNHY?

R. He's not receiving the lights of these degrees of Lo Lishma, rather he's receiving only the sensation of the burdening of the vessel.

19. S. (01:01:14) Can all of these five stages of Lo Lishma change a few times during the short period of time? Is that okay?

R. Yes.

20. S. 01:01:27) Does a person have the ability to shift from one Lo Lishma to the other or move toward the Lo Lishma that is closer to bestowal or just try to work in Lishma?

R. I didn’t understand.

S. IThey are asking, if one should try to shift each time to reach a higher Lo Lishma or simply to aim for Lishma?

R. Of course, we're aiming for Lishma. When do we ever aim ourselves for Lo Lishma?

21. S. (01:02:09) Is the study for honor or shame does it mean that he's not making the right calculation opposite the Creator but only opposite the society?

R. Yes.

22. S. (01:02:26) What is work because of the greatness of the Creator?

R. That only the high and the greatness of the Creator in my eyes is what determines my actions now. 

23. S. (01:02:53) How can one rise above this evil inclination in order to enter the preparation in the state of Lo Lishma?

R. Again?

S. How can a person rise above his evil inclination so he will be able to enter the preparation and into the state of Lo Lishma? 

R. The most sure thing is that if he annul himself before friends and this is the most sure, secure and gradual manner that he can do so.

24. S. (01:04:08) How inside man's heart is the greatness of the Creator created and what can he truly do for Him?

R. Whenever the Creator with His demands with His conditions becomes the most important from all other causes that can awaken to a person.

25. S. (01:04:51) In our work how does this recognition help us and the kind of Lo Lishma that we're in?

R. We don't know exactly in detail, to measure what Lo Lishma we're in, the main thing is that we discern that we are in Lo Lishma and that we're yearning for Lishma.

26. S. (01:05:24) In relation to this article so we see that there are a few ways and Lo Lishma, and these ways are classified according to man's soul, meaning each one of us is different, and we seemingly try to match what is suitable for every person so that he will be able to advance in Lo Lishma. The question is at the moment that a person recognizes that he suddenly working for honor, so just like they don't tell children to begin with the whole truth,the question is if it's good that he will continue a little bit more even though his goal is of course to reach Lishma but here he describes that each one should choose what is suitable for him, or at that moment we should pray and the moment that one discovered that he's working for honor he should immediately pray to the Creator help me and change it, change it for me and correct it for me, or is it better for him to continue a little bit more nevertheless to advance by using honor and Lishma.

R. We're talking about sensation and in what a person feels himself to be more distant from the Creator there he needs to pray.

27. S. (01:07:11) This article feels like a ruler that one has inside in his consciousness from which he is measured and we can grade our situation with respect to this ruler and then we can also pray but the question is when a person is in the study in order to annoy is this a temporary state and a person can backtrack to discover that he fell into that this because in that state you you don't discover evil or should the friends gently tell him about it?

R. Both.

28. S. (01:07:57) According to the five discernments about Lo Lishma, is it true that all five of these discernments are actually included in one person and it is for us to discover them and actually according to work above them?

R. Simply to continue and to continue work.

29. S. (01:08:48 ) If a man, when he is involved in Torah and Mitzvot and he feels pleasure in the work and he suffers if he doesn't perform Torah and Mitzvot don't we think that this is a form of constriction or fear?

R. So,what's the question?

S. When a man is engaged in Torah and Mitzvot and he feels pleasure in the work and when he doesn't feel it he feels pain isn't it a sweet way of constriction or coercion?

R. No, it's not coercion,he already is in an equivalent a certain equivalence of form of the Creator. 

30. S. (01:09:58 ) To reach Lishma it's possible out of each one of these five detailed degrees are only from the 5th discernment when you get pleasure from the light that is clothed in the Torah?

R. Yes, you're right.

31. S. (01:10:23) A person works, he lowers his head he follows the ten all of the discernments that are listed here and the article that Rabash gives us the attainment of the person is the inside the Ten so if I examine myself in the Ten and where I am and what place and what state I'm in?

R. No, that's not your business, your business is to be more tied to everyone and to make the effort to connect to everyone in the center of the Ten. That you will be there and also work on drawing the Creator there.

S. I mean should I examine my state out of the projection of the friends and the Ten and in this way to practically advance in the direction of Lishma?

R. You can't do that to such an extent why do you think that you're capable of such things? You need to work on being connected with everyone, in one point, that's it.

S. Isn't that the Creator's way to show me where I am?

R. That I do not know, when the Creator shows you where you are. 

32. S. (01:11:57) Wanting that the work will only be done by Baal HaSalum's method and his way, according to this desire when we work with friends to work specifically in this direction, exactly like that, only in this way can we call this process some kind of disregard?

R. Why, it's not degradation we will advance also in such a manner to the purpose of creation.

33. S. (01:12:15) I saw within me all of these four kinds of reasons. My question is, if I see what degree I'm in right now should I ask to be elevated to the fifth degree?

R. This prayer always needs to be that we want to rise to a higher degree in recognition of evil and adhesion to the Creator and connection with the friends, of course. 

34. S. (01:13:36) What can we ask for in the Ten in order for us to fall in love with him with the Creator so that he does not let me sleep?

R. I don't understand.

S. What should we ask for in the Ten to reach a state where he doesn't let me sleep? I love the Creator so much that he doesn't let me sleep. 

R. Well, I want to receive an example from the Ten first of all examples,that my friends adhered to the Creator to such an extent that it will not let me sleep. Yes, that works very strong.

35. S. (01:15:13) Are those five discernments that Rabash speaks about in Lo Lishma, are they the preparation that the Creator is taking us through in order to discover spiritual fear and through that reach true love?

R. Repeat please?

S.The five discernments on the path of Lo Lishma is that preparation that the Creator is taking us through in order to reach spiritual fear and from that to reach true love?

R. Yes, yes.