Morning Lesson March 22, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Passover - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. (Pithom and Raamses - Arei Miskenot [Cities of Affliction]. #92)
Passover - Main page for all chapters
Reading excerpt #92 (00:32) “Although each illumination received from above…” Twice.
1. Rav’s Introduction: (02:07) Yes, this is why it is important for us every moment that we are able to come back again and again in our thoughts to connect between us and also with the Creator even though we have intermissions and each time we come out we leave it and then we come out and we come back. All of these moments they add up, they accumulate and all in all their sum total in the end is what matters. This is why through the entries and exits as it is written, this is how we attain the spiritual world ultimately. Each and everyone has the same sum total the same number that he has to attain in his labor.
It's not so important that a moment before he was thinking about spirituality about connection and then it stopped. These intermissions, sensations, come deliberately from above. The Creator arranges them according to all kinds of conditions so that a person stops the connection between him and the Creator and with the friends, and with the group and with the purpose of creation, and then once at the end he renews it. That is all in all what we have to do is to put in the conditions so that the Creator will bring us back to connection once again. As much as each one of us and all of us together, join in and are drawn to that by that we gain time. All in all it accumulates to a certain number so that we begin to get a spiritual feeling of the entrance to the upper world in actuality. That's it.
2. S. (04:31) Connection between us more or less is understood. What is the connection between us and the Creator?
R. The connection between us and the Creator? This is the goal that we have to achieve in the connection between us. What am I connecting to the friends for? We are not building some kind of socialism or communism, we are not building some brotherhood but rather we are doing all of these in order to achieve a connection with the Creator and the manner of the connection between us is what defines the manner of the connection between us and the Creator. Meaning brotherhood, love, mutual help, connection, feeling of others, feeling each other so that everyone will connect in one place into one whole.
S. We connect and gather with the friends like many other people who come together and support each other, where in this process the component of the Creator appears? What people do in the world is different to what we do with the Creator.
R. This is what we learn in the wisdom itself. Meaning in the mechanics when we connect and obtain a certain common vessel then we awaken a feeling in this vessel, a feeling of light and that light appears in us as the feeling of the Creator.
S. What needs to be this kind of unity so that it is not just this unity but the complete vessel for the fulfillment of the light?
R. Our vessel should be the yearning for the full connection, complete connection, the feeling of the friends that ultimately will create in us the correct yearning for the connection with the Creator. This Is how we advance already. It has been prepared by the Creator and if we turn to connect. all of us together in the Ten as one man in one heart, then in this heart in this common feeling the Creator begins to be revealed.
S. Complete unity of all the thoughts and desires of the friends how to connect to this way?
R. As much as I can in my present state. This is considered my full complete true connection. Later on, other disturbances will appear and may be greater problems and upon all of this I will have to connect even more and more with the friends. This will give me an even greater connection and revelation of the Creator inside the connection between the friends. The Creator is revealed between the friends.
S. There's some state in me, I have my friends as I feel their desires and thoughts. What does it mean that I now connect to them fully?
R. Well as much as we can, as much as we can. For the time being we cannot measure our efforts but soon we will be able to do so. We will measure them in units, this coarseness and the screen, etc. According to that we will discover the light of the Creator in this vessel, in the reflected light we will receive the direct light and the mutual feeling of that will be felt in us. The feeling of these two lights will be felt by us as the level of revelation of the Creator in us.
S. You talked about the light of the Creator. What is the vessel?
R. The vessel is our desire. Our desires become connected in us in order to discover the Creator. In order to delight Him, to give Him the possibility to be revealed and to shine in us, in His light of love and bestowal according to the measure to which we are able to connect between us in the light of bestowal and love. Meaning whatever we can do between us practically we create the conditions for the revelation of the Creator.
3. S. (10:17) It says here that a person receives at once what he received one time after another, so I guess he receives a great abundance of light. How can a person be able to receive it all at once?
R. There's nothing too bad about it. We can receive, over time small doses of light and then they all connect into one light but we receive it in the quality of bestowal. Therefore we are able to receive it. We are able to receive it without any problems. There's a great difference whether we will be receiving it in our vessel of the will to receive or in our vessel of the will to bestow. Meaning when I receive it for Him, then it is a totally different feeling then the more I receive the more I bestow. By longing to bestow with what I received to bestow to the Creator this in fact guards me from the direct light. I wouldn't be able to receive even a micro dosage directly. Only a very tiny light, a tiny drop of light that keeps us, sustains us, but besides that I can keep on developing and it all depends on the kind of reflected light on the power and the quality with which I will have to bestow to the Creator. To that extent, I will be able to receive light from Him.
S. This means the power of the screen?
R. Yes.
4. S. (12:33) We are now in the time of Passover and it seems that we have to make a special kind of effort, so how does a person determine that he did everything that he can?
R. This is according to the friends. You should make a calculation with the friends how much they are connected together into one man, one body, one thought, one desire, one heart. It doesn't matter even to the very smallest extent that they have. However this direction is what helps us advance forward and then we advance towards the revelation of the Creator.
S. At the end of the day when a person makes a calculation it seems like he invested 1% of the true potential. On the other hand, he looks back and he thinks that he couldn't do more because he did what he was allowed to do. How do we come to a state where we are really putting everything?
R. We will never reach a state where we invested everything. There is no limit to it, there is no limit, it is an infinite vessel and an infinite light and we attain the limit, the boundary, the complete vessel and the complete at light through connection not by me investing and investing everything.
5. S. (14:26) What is this illumination when we see from above in the beginning and that we will depart and that we later on will receive it all at once. What is this beginning illumination?
R. That initial illumination we constantly get small Illuminations, the entire question is how much do we aim ourselves so that all our Illuminations, all of our exertions will connect together into one exertion. We will receive the sum total of our exertion as the vessel and some total of our Illuminations as light and there will be light inside the vessel.
6. S. (15:25) Are we going to receive everything that goes to the Klipot in return after all the efforts we make?
R. Well first of all I don't quite understand all this that is going to the shells but let's say that if something falls into the in order to receive, into the shell then we get these opportunities to correct them later on.
7. S. (16:11) What does it mean that the Creator brings us the stops based on each and everyone's condition?
R. Well even though we work together and we want to connect all of our exertions and our relation to the Creator, we want to connect it together. Nevertheless each one is also working out of his own effort. According to that we feel how much we are advancing. It's according to the efforts of each one and also according to our collective results in the group.
S. Who determines the conditions ultimately? Me or the Creator?
R. Of course it's the Creator. I just have to put in maximum connection and effort.
8. S. (17:18) It is said that everything in your might, the might of your hand to do, that do. You talked about the pauses that the Creator gives us all stops. The question is with the ten we rise to a certain level of connection. What do we need to do to shorten the pauses, the sensations in order to hasten the path?
R. We have to constantly think about how to connect even more. That's it. This is what we do in the ten. That's it, so whatever it turns out, it turns out. up, downs so long as we constantly yearn for connection even if we fall.
S. How to prevent those states where everything is good?
R. We can't avoid over and run away from anything, we just need to yearn.
S. We make efforts and the Creator gives us what we need?
R. Yes.
Reading excerpt #93 (18:47) “As our sages said, Pithom and Ramses...”
9. R. (20:25) This means that the true reality is that we we are always, it's always us with the Creator and if we have foreign thoughts between us it is considered that we are with all the people with in the world or the people who live in this world with all kinds of desires and plans that they have but if we we cleanse are thoughts and desires and aim them more towards connection, then it turns out that only we remain in the world. and all of the others seemingly disappear. We all become the people of the Lord, the nation of the Lord. Meaning that we all start getting closer to the Creator and we become incorporated in the Creator. We discover the upper world and the eternity and the wholeness in nature. This is why if we stop building something for ourselves like Pithom and Ramses, beautiful cities that the Egyptians built and in then instead of that we will build our groups as one group, one humanity. This will be one structure for everyone and this is how we will reach the goal.
10. S. (22:39) Even if we build a building in order to receive in order to bestow in the next state it disappears meaning we start anew?
R. In the end the building of in order to receive it falls and the building of in order to bestow is renewed, it rises anew at the expense of the building order of the structure of reception. This is how we reach the end of connection, the complete vessel.
S. That's at the end in the final correction, but in the stages of the current work if I build in order to receive or in order to bestow in the next state I start from scratch? I don't have the measurement to say if I built in order to receive or in order to bestow?
R. As much as you built, this is what you built. It doesn't matter but if you don't see it it means it doesn't exist, if in your feeling it disappears when it's not that it disappears but it is rather that it disappeared in order to give you the possibility to keep working, to keep building. All of our work is in order for us to build from all of our emotions all of our thoughts from our mind and our heart for us to build everything only as a vessel for the revelation of the Creator.
11. S. (24:14) I hear from the beginning of the lesson that we need to create the conditions for the revelation of the Creator. Where are these conditions? What does it mean that we make the conditions for the revelation of the Creator?
R. In the connection between us it should to some extent be congruent with the quality of the Creator. Meaning that we can connect in our desires which are the opposite of each other, that we nevertheless will be able to make some kind of connection so there will be a negative force. The force of rejection received from nature to begin with, the evil inclination and above it we will connect to ourselves in the good inclination as much as possible. When we will reach a good inclination at a certain power then we will be able to receive between the evil inclination and the good inclination a place for the revelation of the Creator so that the evil inclination will give us power. What we learn as coarseness and the good inclination will give us refinement and the refinement together with the coarseness will work in such a way that they reveal the Creator.
S. What is the connection between us in which the Creator is revealed? Meaning what I am trying to clarify is what is that connection that is to Him the right conditions for Him to be revealed, what puts together this connection?
R. Just like in any system, also systems that we built in this world. You have there a positive force and a negative force and there has to be a certain relation between them one opposite the other so that in the connection between these two forces the Creator the third force can be revealed. That He can be revealed towards the created beings specifically in such a way.
S. What does it mean that in connection there are both good and bad inclinations?
R. Coarseness and screen and refinement.
S. What is the coarseness of the connection?
R. The cause of the connection is the will to receive so that we can use it so that above it we can connect.
S. Okay, and the purity or the refinement of the connection?
R. It's when we achieve by overcoming the coarseness that nevertheless we are connected. This is the measure of refinement that we have achieved.
S. Where does the Creator enter this work? Like that is against the resistance, the coarseness of the connection, how do we put the Creator into this?
R. The Creator is the one who manages our whole correction and he comes in and it fills our entire vessel, which is our desire to receive. They are all in contradiction to each other. However, above that we want to connect. In our connection above the opposition that we feel, our positions that we feel. The connection above the resistance we build a condition in which the Creator can be revealed. We build an artificial vessel that resembles the Creator because it is built out of the will to receive that we make a restriction over it and a screen and we want to use it in the opposite manner with reflected light.
Then we build the conditions which make it similar to the quality of the Creator to bestow. We don't have the quality of the bestowal but if we stop our will to receive we don't use it then we elevate ourselves above it and in the opposite manner we want to use it, then it turns out that we will have quality in order to bestow. Where does it come from? Actually from our desire to receive, we will have the quality of in order to bestow and then in that we will be similar to the Creator and in that quality we can feel the Creator's nature, His revelation.
S. But the vessel of the connection that we make, the vessel that is above those contrasts between us. What builds it?
R. What built it is our will to receive that we want to be above it.
S. Okay, that's clear, but what do we bring to this vessel that makes it a vessel?
R. Our desire to be connected in spite of the repulsion and rejection. We asked the Creator that he will give us a connection above the rejection between us. One who is greater than his friend, his inclinations is greater. The one who is able to overcome his great desire will be greater than the others. This is how we have this competition between us, this competition in connection.
S. The connection between us is that we want to connect above the contrast between us?
R. Yes.
S. Is it just this tendency?
R. Yes.
S. That is sufficient in terms of the Creator to say that we have made the condition for Him?
R. Yes, you should understand this from the practice and the actions themselves the way it works. We don't have a will to bestow. The will to bestow that's the Creator, for us we always make it out of the will to receive that works above itself in faith above reason, in the opposite manner. Then we reach some similarity to the Creator and in that we then have this projection from the Creator, the bestowal or the influence from the Creator from the upper light and then we begin to discover Him.
12. S. (32:09) In this artificial vessel that we build you said that the connection between us both of us, makes the Kli. What is it in the ten, in this Kli, the Masach and the Aviut and the hardness? How can it work with reflected light? You said these are the conditions for the Kli: the Masach and reflected light to connect with the force of the Creator?
R. Precisely because the vessel that we build, we build it out of our will to receive it has to be with a restriction and screen and reflected light and it constantly has to work above itself in the opposite manner in rejection against its own desire. And all of the elements that will be in it will be just like in the upper light but in the opposite manner.
S. The ten needs to think how to bestow together?
R. The ten has to think how to reach mutual bestowal together and from this bestowal to bestow to the Creator. That by connecting above the ego of each one, that by that we give room to the Creator to be revealed in them and get joy from this.
S. When we work in connection between us, we make a meal or a good gathering of friends, some warmth is created and some good feelings of satisfaction that you have such friends that you are connected with them that you're doing something important. Where comes the restriction here, what should we be cautious of, what thoughts?
R. We have to watch out that in each and every place that we get that we bestow to the Creator. First we make a restriction, a screen and reflected light and after that we pass it all to the Creator so that he will enjoy, so that we perform all of these actions only with the prerequisite of the blessing that we want the Creator to enjoy and for ourselves we don't want anything.
13. S. (34:51) Does faith above reason have to increase to counter-balance our increasing ego?
R. Yes, the faith should always balance our ego and bring it to the right usage.
14. S. (35:21) How do we continue to work non-stop for what we build?
R. We are in a ten and so if we constantly think about the goal as much as possible and about how to keep it, it turns out that we will always have opportunities from above to be in some kind of connection if we aim ourselves to the Creator. There are those that want to disconnect there are those that are asleep, there are those that work, that they can’t disconnect from the thoughts that they have when they are at work but in the end, the Creator arranges for us such that if we use all of our free moments then we will reach a vessel that reveals the Creator very quickly.
15. S. (36:36) If I understand building and working on the artificial vessel is connecting the deficiencies between us and restriction is over anything that is against the connection. What is the work on the screen and how does it manifest in the work of connection?
R. The work on the screen is that we want that over each and every desire that appears in us that we will have restriction, a screen and reflected light to the Creator so that all the pleasures that we are able to discover in our life, they will all be together, with all the friends in the connection with the friends they were all be directed to the Creator; to bestow back to Him.
16. S. (37:45) As we build and the Egyptians, our will to receive is destroyed and we try to maintain unity and purpose. Can we take courage or hope that in the end there will be peace in the world that will come out of our connection and disconnection or is it also egoistic?
R. Yes, of course we can do that and that is why everything is built this way and it is already predetermined that ultimately we will succeed and all the people of the world will connect and or will achieve attachment with the Creator.
17. S. (38:43) If we are in a state and we don't want to pass it on or to go through it in a way that we can bring delight to the Creator, then we have no individual character in that state?
R. Yes.
18. S. (39:10) It is written in excerpt 93, ‘All the work that they did to serve in the work of holiness was swallowed in the ground.’ What is the meaning of swallowed in the ground?
R. That is if there is no benefit of all the efforts they put in and therefore, they raise their hands and start crying, that it is endless. Just like friends of ours who leave us and go back to normal life. That means they go back to Egypt and then they do the same work there, that the upper nature requires of them, however they do it with no benefit of getting closer to coming out of Egypt.
19. S. (40:20) Our efforts, our collective efforts in what we are building, is it our efforts that are swallowed in the ground or our perception of all of our efforts that are swallowed in the ground?
R. It's our perception, the efforts don't really go away, they don't disappear, we later receive them but our perception is such yes.
20. S. (41:10) I feel that my ten and all the friends in the Kli are already in a high degree in spirituality. I see them there, being joyful and happy and my heart longs to join them there. Is that a good desire?
R. Yes, it’s good, that's how it seems to you but you still have to work in order to raise you and everyone else together towards the Creator.
21. S. (42:00) How do I purify our thoughts in the connection in the ten?
R. By all of us wanting to connect together to a single desire and a single Creator that is the work that we purify our thoughts and desires on the path.
22. S. (42:50) What should we pay attention to in the state of Pithom and Raamses so that we won't go through the same states 2,000 times? What kind of discernments should we have in order to accelerate that state of Pithom and Raamses?
R. To work together, that's all.
23. S. (43:10) How do you pass the good feeling and the satisfaction that we feel from connection to the Creator in practice?
R. Simply to focus the desire of the heart and the thought on this
S. Is this how we reveal the screen, is this how we do not receive? Is this how this works? We no longer feel what we get?
R. By connection between us which we have discussed 1,000 times.
S. Okay, we have connected, we have a strong Yeshivat Haverim, and a meal and then we feel the satisfaction. How do we pass it onto the Creator?
R. By the thought, by the intention, from that same intention of connection between you it should have been there to begin with that we are connecting in order to present the Creator with our Kli.
S. Then we stop feeling that satisfaction?
R. When we stop feeling we have to do it again.
S. No, I think about it that if we are passing it on to the Creator then we stop feeling it, we stop having this good feeling?
R. If we think we are passing it on it doesn't mean we actually are, we have to really be in that meaning, not let go of this thought and feel when we actually attain it as the Creator: pray.
S. Should we talk about it during this meeting, this Yeshivat?
R. Possibly.
Reading excerpt #94 (45:03) “It is written that the Egyptians..”
24. R. (46:20) Obviously this is not simple even though it is difficult, it is prepared and determined for each and every person.
Reading excerpt #94. Again. (46:38)
25. R. (48:00) What can I add that the Egyptians give us hard work, meaning they are messengers of the Creator, they have no free choice. And the Creator, through them, drops on us each time increasingly difficult work. Obviously it is only the Creator orchestrating the whole thing. And so in spite of that we have to try to connect against that and aim our connection to the Creator. When will we attain our unified, shared desire, so that the Creator who is One, will be able to fulfill our desire that becomes one, from all of us, together and that will be a correction.
But between now and then it is very difficult work because every time we achieve some connection we see that it gets broken and again we achieve connection and again we discover that it is broken and that's why we think we are incapable. We are capable of achieving some connection but it doesn't hold, it doesn't hold because the Creator directs us to fall and He has prepared all of these degrees for us, ascent and descent, rise and fall and that's how we go until we complete our entire work. Meaning that we realize our entire will to receive in small portions in order to bestow.
26. S. (50:12) Many times we don't have the strength. What can we do when we are tired? What can help me concretely so that we can reach very quickly a new beginning? So that we will have the correct conditions for it?
R. And it says about that, ‘the children of Israel sighed from the work and they're outcries went out to the heavens, meaning they reach a state where they truly can't, they are incapable, they can't stand it any more, all those things together. And they raise their hands and cry. What do you do? You cry until the Creator listens and He listens and He brings us back to the work. He calms us down, gives us a new degree and then with a new desire, with a new mind we continue to work because it's impossible to reach the final correction unless the vessel is prepared.
27. S. (51:34) Why does Rabash call the spiritual work that it actually separates, with the intention of self-reception and not with the intention to bestow? It says here that they worked not in order to bestow in the spiritual work. How can it be that they are doing spiritual work but it is not in bestowal?
R. That's what happens. When I work I want to bestow but it turns out the opposite.
S. How can we diagnose this?
R. To continue, simply continue.
S. Unrelated to what is happening?
R. Yes, ask the Creator to help to direct us, to correctly give us power and support and continue.
S. Restriction and screens that is the exodus from Egypt actually? Do we acquire it from above this quality?
R. We acquire the quality of the screen gradually, another spark and another spark.
S. Each one individually or together in the ten?
R. Each one individually, but ultimately they connect and their mutual sum total appears as a Kli.
S. We say that in one moment we come out of Egypt, right?
R. Yes.
28. S. (53:45) Do the Egyptians have free choice and if not, how come?
R. The Egyptians don't have free choice; they only have a single desire to receive as much as possible in each and every state. And in general no one has any free desire besides one who rises above his desire and reaches the degree of Yashar-El, [straight to the Creator] then he is aiming at the Creator and a free desire is being made in him.
29. S. (54:40) About the soft mouth, I understood that this is a state where we are being persuaded that it doesn't work against the existence of the Creator but its purpose is to keep the status quo so that it still remains in the will to receive, is this correct?
R. Let’s say so for now, for now that’s okay.
S. And if you succeed in this and become persuaded, how do we go back to the direction of bestowal?
R. We can't stop these things. There's an engine that drives everything and leads everyone to the final correction whether they want it or not. Therefore, there comes a time, it says about that, ‘What the mind doesn't do, that time will,’ and then we escape Egypt and achieve freedom.
S. So can we influence it or are we simply given to the hands of these forces and we can't influence it?
R. We are given to these forces completely and along with it we have free choice there which is to hasten the time but it is not that we choose some new kind of path or new kind of fate, destiny no, you are going to advance anyway, you're going to do everything but you can speed up your development.
S. That is we are not inventing the wheel, we are simply running with it in a way that it is synchronized?
R. Yes.
30. S. (56:32) They say in the excerpt, that their efforts are wasted but if we feel that our efforts, our prayers are being answered, is that a good thing too? Could feeling that we are progressing, can this indicate that we are getting closer to bestowal?
R. Yes, in all the states we are getting closer to bestowal, even where we are today and if we don't know where we are but we come to the lessons, we come to the meals, we come to all kinds of activities and gatherings of friends and all of that advances us step after step towards the purpose of creation, towards correction. The only question is: how fast, what's the pace and here we have to make sure that we increase the pace of progress.
31. S. (57:50) I got a bit confused. Maybe you can help me? We learnt that there is no Creator we make Him, we build Him in the connections between us, so who do we turn to with a request and Who do we get the answer from?
R. We turn to the Creator that we build. But it's not that he doesn't exist, there is no such thing. There is the force of nature, it just doesn't appear to us, that's why we say that to us for now. He doesn't exist, it is hidden.
32. S. (58:42) It seems to be that work in connection is difficult because we do not see the results of our work, so is it our work to persist nevertheless, with faith even though we do not see the results?
R. Yes, we have to work even when we do not see their results because like Kabbalists say, it is all accumulated, it all adds up and it just appears later on.
S. How can we be certain that the path is right, or is correct if you do not see the results?
R. Our work is not based on seeing results, it is based on working with our friends to increase faith. If you want to be certain that you are working and getting a reward, then you should go to some factory and be an employee there. And also choose such work that you are getting your daily payment every day, then you will be very clear that you're getting a reward, even better if you get money every hour. People who like that, typically become like small, independent people who have some kind of a little store, shop where they sell something. With every item they sell, they get money immediately and then it is clear to them that their work brings them a reward. But those who want to gain big time, they typically have to work in such areas where the pay check does not come right away, rather they have to wait until the time comes and the benefit becomes apparent. That is how it is in the world.
33. S. (01:01:20) I apologize for the question but in the end we are capable of reaching such a level where physical death we will just see it as a different state than the one we have now?
R. Nice. Yes, for sure, nice.
34. S. (01:01:42) If I think about the Creator and I want to give contentment to the Creator but my action and my prayers somehow is in some way it somehow causes me to relate to the Creator in some particular matter but with that it would be uncomfortable, not good for some other person. I tell myself, I tell myself it's not good, I don't care that it's not good for others because I want to get close to the Creator but this is a lie, right?
R. Why is that false? Truth is what you want.
S. But if it is unpleasant for some other person, but I think that I'm somehow getting closer to the Creator isn't that false, a lie?
R. It is a lie that you are coming closer but what you think is true.
35. S. (01:02:54) To rise above reason I need humility. So is humility a spiritual degree or is it some kind of a physical, bodily sensation which is somehow linked to my will to receive?
R. Yes we need humility because following humility is fear of the Creator, we’ll learn that.
36. S. (01:03:46) So can we say that the Egyptians gain pleasure and they lie to us about the pleasure that we receive in Lo Lishma?
R. The Egyptians are desires in our body, in each and every one. They are not human beings, they are desires within us that for now wish to receive for themselves and what they receive during the work for now they later give it back to the desire for in order to bestow. So we will learn more about the Egyptians.
37. S. (01:05:22) Regarding increasing the pace, the pace of what exactly?
R. The pace of scrutinies, we have to increase the pace of the scrutinies to the extent that we will try to clarify, process all of our thoughts and desires.
S. What characterizes this work of this scrutinies precisely?
R. To the extent that one shall help his friend, to the extent that we can together in our common thought more or less clarify our thoughts and aim them towards corrections.
S. Increasing the work is mostly in the thought?
R. The power of thought, yes, the power of scrutiny. I thought that’s our entire work.
38. S. (01:06:48) The quality of the screen, we get it only if I ask, if I pray or I bestow? Is it some sort of merit or does it come as a result of connection with the friends?
R. The result of the work depends on the result from the connection, I would answer that.
39. S. (01:07:48) The pleasures that are between people who are on the spiritual path, how are they different from thoughts of other people?
R. I can’t compare that, it’s the difference between two words, it’s not bigger or smaller.
S. The thoughts that people have on the spiritual path when they yearn for the Creator, how are they different from thoughts that other people have?
R. There’s no connection with thoughts of ordinary people, no connection.
Reading #95 (01:08:49) “For that reason, the Egyptians imparted upon their thoughts that it is better..”
40. R. (01:10:09) The work in order to bestow is very difficult. You don't feel the work itself, you don’t feel the investment, you don’t feel the response. So it’s like you're working in the air, in outer space and that’s why not many jump on it. Like it says 1,000 go into a room and one goes out to teach or to the light. That is what it says. I found one out of one thousand meaning that the calculation is such that it doesn’t work out for everyone. What to do? Simply to continue, to move forward another year and another year. Ultimately after a few years a person starts identifying that he’s on the right track, on the right path and he can already see from afar that he is moving closer towards the final correction.
Reading #96 (01:11:26) “However they all interpret hard work as Pericha, friable..”
41. R. (01:13:07) Meaning that it was very difficult to accept what the Egyptians would say.
42. S. (01:13:27) What is the work of man and the work of women? What is this replacement that occurs between them?
R. Men and women, man refers to overcoming and woman means as it says, her power is as a female which means lacking the screen, the ability to overcome. That’s how they’re drawn. So they’ve replaced this with that, the work of man to the work of woman and vice versa. Meaning where it was easy they turned that into somewhat of working in order to bestow. And where they couldn't then they made it into the work of women.
S. How can we see that in our work?
R. In our work you can’t see it yet. We will soon come to scrutinies about our work. There has to be some amount, some quota of impressions of what we went through and then we can sort things out and understand from our actions, from our experience where we are and what we’ve done.
43. S. (01:15:19) You spoke about the true reality. Is it that we live in the womb of the Creator full of love and mercy, is that it?
R. Yes.
S. How will we know that the thought carves the walls of the heart and breaks the stony heart, how we will know that?
R. We will know when our stony heart is crushed and instead of that we’ll have a heart of love.
S. I'm really happy that the heart will be smashed, broken, truly happy about it.
R. Good luck.
44. S. (01:16:23) Is the goal to reach a state where the work itself will be the reward? So until that everything seems difficult, we don't get any responses?
R. Correct.
S. That’s our goal to reach that?
R. Yes, when we come to a state where the work is the reward then that's it. We’ve rid ourselves of all the troubles, all the problems. The question is are you are happy with that because first you had an area of labor where you were able to labor and do something. Now you have no labor whatever, you do you get a reward from that. You’re not working against the desire so there’s no reward, there’s no labor. what do you do? Then we have a different kind of work. How do we work without labor and without reward the way we had before? That’s a big problem. We’ll get there, it’s not for now but we’ll get there and turn it upside down as it says.
45. S. (01:18:20) In our ten we want to have long workshops as a ten. Do you think that this is something that can help us accelerate the connection between us or do you recommend other practical actions that can accelerate this state of one man with one heart in the ten?
R. Now here let's do a workshop.
Reader Workshop (01:19:04) - How can we reach a state of one man in one heart?
Reading #97 (01:26:24) “We should also understand the matter of hard labor in..” Twice.
46. S. (01:30:24) If my intention and my friend’s intention remain hidden how are we able to correct it?
R. No that’s in order to receive but in order to bestow we begin to feel each other; then we already don’t have any secrets from one another but we are all together above all doubts, above all over comings.
47. S (01:31:24) What does it mean the revealed part where everyone can see the truth?
R. What’s revealed to everyone and what isn’t revealed is called the concealed part that only the selected few can see, those that have an additional sense towards that hidden organ, the sense that reveals.
48. S. (01:32:17) He writes here that the act of Mitzvot and the study of Torah, he sees and others can see also if he's carrying out the actions of Torah and Mitzvot or not. So according to Baal HaSulam what is more preferred, intention or acts of Mitzvot or all together?
R. He says in the action of Mitzvot you have support because if you do it everyone sees it and everyone praises you and says that you are great and wise. However in intentions no one knows where you are. That’s why they don’t talk about you, you have no support from the environment.
S. What's more correct?
R. What’s more correct of course is to do the work in the intention.
S. Then they don't see your work at all.
R. It doesn't matter if it's seen or not, what matters is that you are going to correct the world.
S. In the tens what kind of intentions do you have to do and what is it?
R. The most important is the intention for connection.
S. Without actions? They shouldn’t see it at all?
R. The action is the intention.
49. S (01:33:48) The intention and faith above reason, are those two separate, different actions?
R. Intention is intention and faith above reason is already a degree of man that is in faith, in bestowal, above reception. Every intention is possible but faith above reason is already a person's attainment.
50. S. (01:34:36) It says in the excerpt that he himself can also not see the intention since it’s possible to be mistaken about the intention. Our primary work is in intention and I can’t see the intention of a friend but the fact that I too can be mistaken, how can I check that my intention is correct?
R. To check if the intention is correct, you can do that if you’re thinking of connection with the friends more than you think of yourself.
S. Then I won’t be mistaken?
R. Then you will definitely not be mistaken, that’s what aims you towards the Creator.
51. S (01:35:38) In the beginning of the excerpt he says understand what does it mean hard labor, then we have two discernments but we are left without the understanding of what is hard labor. What is it?
R. Working in labor is hard work where the results are not seen.
52. S (01:36:14) When we come to the study, do we need to arrange to make a common intention or everyone should have a concealed intention in the heart?
R. No, it's better that our intentions will be organized and similar as much as possible.
53. S (01:36:50) Is the right connection when all the friends identify or detect an open heart in each and every friend?
R. Yes.
54. S (01:37:10) The prayer that we connect in the ten or the world prayer, does this belong to the concealed part or the revealed part?
R. It belongs to the revealed part.
S. [No translation]
R. We are not hiding that, although we might not be talking about it but we're not hiding it. That is why it is called the revealed or the revealed part.
S. In our work both parts are important, right?
R. Yes, we will also reach the second part.
55. S (01:38:00) In order to justify how the spiritual reward is applied in the ten, we sometimes receive it as negative. What is important to remember in such states when we receive a new charge in spiritual work?
R. Because we were advancing from one state to the next and we need to remember and to apply these states.
56. S (01:38:53) Why in the work of bestowal can’t I feel that I am advancing?
R. Why can't you, you can, only if you appreciate yourself according to the quality of bestowal.
S. But here it says that I feel the work as hard labor just because I don't understand I'm advancing?
R. You still do not appreciate yourself as bestowing, that is why it seems to you that you are not advancing.
S. But is this work truly hard or not?
R. It depends on a person?
S. What does it mean to work without effort?
R. Ask about it in ten days. Hold your horses in the meantime, it is for your own good.
57. S (01:39:57) He writes that a person cannot trust himself because it is concealed from him and others, so who can he trust and what can he trust?
R. Your intentions, through which you are connected to your friend not yourself.
S. About the revealed part and the concealed part, we learned that we are able to see the truth only in the vessels of bestowal and in vessels of reception we always judge everything according to bitter and sweet, so how to relate it correctly?
R. One more time I don't understand.
S. It says in the excerpt, that the truth is something that I can see in the revealed part, whatever has to do with actions. On the other hand, we learn that the definition of truth belongs to vessels of bestowal?
R. Okay, we will scrutinize this next time.
58. S (01:41:45) It turns out that all that is left for us is the action and to do it without reward. What is the action?
R. Every action through which you can bestow upon the ten, to strengthen and to connect them; that is the action. These are the actions that you need to aspire to, to yearn.
59. S (01:42:27) If the intention is in the heart and the thoughts in the mind are hidden from the person how will we work with them?
R. For whatever reason it’s concealed, a person can only work with what is not concealed. And what is concealed in us we don't know but what is concealed in us is the Creator Himself. It is all the process that we need to experience in the future, that is how it is.
S. Shouldn’t the person who is doing the work with intention need more support?
R. Yes, he needs more if he's working just in action but he needs to receive it from the friends, they talk about it that is how they hold one another.
60. S. (01:44:04) You said earlier that our main task is to increase the pace of our scrutinies. I want to ask when I am with myself during the day and I have a lesson in my ear. How does the principle of each will help his friend actually working in such a condition in order to accelerate the scrutiny?
R. You're listening to the friends, you're listening to me, to the lesson. You are connected to something: all of this works on you.
61. S. (01:44:53) I couldn't understand the matter of hard labor. I thought it's better to work towards the Creator with happiness rather than with no desire but also it is said if there is pleasure, there is no labor, so which one is more valuable here?
R. There is physical work and there is spiritual work. In the physical work the main thing is to work and to put in physical strength and in spiritual is to invest spiritual forces that we invest on the condition that we don't agree with the work itself, with our actions, with our state but we still understand that it needs to be in order to advance towards the spiritual goal. And that's why we're doing it: how do we do it, where do we take it from, where do we take strength from in the connection between us and prayer.
62. S. (01:46:07) Do I understand that right, that the exit from Egypt is that exile from slavery?
R. Yes.
S. What turns hard work into pleasure?
R. Who am I working for, what am I doing and what do I want as a result of my work?
S. Can you please explain it, it's not really clear?
R. No, what I said is enough.
63. S. (01:47:07) If the intention is the most important thing in the work and I can make physical intention, physical action with the wrong intention then I better not do any action and only think of the correct intention? And if yes, why do we need physical actions?
R. That is true: such a question exists. What do we need spiritual actions for if we can determine our attitude towards the action internally but the thing is if we will work only internally, it is not enough, it is not enough that our intention will be complete, that we are included from body and soul, now we need to do also bodily actions.
64. S. (01:48:29) I started to notice that I’m trying to apply the intention but the thoughts that I have are sometimes against it. Is this the Pharaoh that we have to make the change?
R. Pharaoh is revealed in every state that is against the Creator. That is where you will discover Pharaoh.
S. Against the Creator, against the connection?
R. Yes.
65. S. (01:49:15) You said the intention is the action. What is the intention in this?
R. The intention itself works as the action. That if I equip myself, then it works in spirituality like an action. I don't have any other tool in spirituality, only the intentions.
S. Is it correct to say that our effort on our part, to make the right intention is the action and only when the Creator is clothed in it, we can say we have the intention in order to bestow?
R. Yes.
S. These last two days we had very intense scrutinies and I feel I need to thank you and the friends for accompanying us through those states.
R. Good, thank you very much.
66. S. (01:50:31) What will force a person to come out of the labor to hard work?
R. Only through connection with a friend so that the upper lights influences on that connection. Through that a person will be able to transition from one degree to the next, from one degree to the next. We need to understand that this is our advancement, the physical connection, internal and the influence of the light that reforms on this connection.
67. S. (01:52:05) Ever since I started studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, the intention, the only intention that I scrutinized was that I have an egoistic desire for myself and I only want rewards. The more I advance, the more this state becomes worse. How can I understand that at some point, this intention to bestow will come because it feels very difficult right now?
R. You can ask the Creator, when will you get vessels of bestowal through which you will enter the spiritual world, the spiritual force. Ask Him, when will I get vessels of bestowal, you created me with the vessels of reception and I'm constantly in them and as much as I try to come out of them I can't, so I pray to You and ask of You to raise me from the world of reception to the world of bestowal. Okay, do it, do this work, do not wait.
68. S. (01:53:40) I have the pain in my heart for the fact that some of the friends understand that the intention is important in spirituality and some friends insist that the action is also important for the prayer. How to combine the friends?
R. As long as we exist in our bodies except for the souls, by the way we don't yet feel then it's very important for us, the actions. That is why we come to the lesson, we connect, we come closer, specifically because of that.
S. Is there other means by which we can connect these friends to ask the Creator to have a workshop so we could connect and be in one action?
R. Why not do it, work in that direction, why not? You're smart, you're developed, you're pretty, I mean internally in your substance, so gather and ask.
69. S. (01:55:22) What purposes, what intentions do we use our minds in the work, towards which goals and with which intention do we need to use our reason, our mind in the work?
R. To connect, isn't that clear? What do we need the group for? To connect because the Creator can only respond to the group and not towards the individual. I can cry out my entire life, nothing will help, we need to cry out from a mutual Kli.
Reading Item # 98 (01:56:56) "And women's work with men's work" means that
those people do not have the power to overcome…” twice.
Reading Item # 99 (01:59:52) “Now we can interpret the meaning of hard labor, which
was said to be "Replacing men's work with women's work…"
70. S. (02:01:55) Intention and thoughts: are they separate? And the reason I ask is because sometimes you could have thoughts that are corporeal, they're trying to take you away from the intention to be with the society and if the intention is to bestow but the thoughts are all taking you away, how do we calibrate ourselves so that the thoughts will align with the intention?
R. That is called that his heart and mouth will be equal.
S. Yes, so?
R. Correct the thoughts.
S. What do we do because for instance, sometimes you could be in a state that is so heavy and my personal experience is you could take the intention, put a computer in front of me and I still want to be here even the thoughts are somewhere else but sometimes I find eventually the thoughts and the intention come to alignment but how does that happen I don't quite understand or does it really matter whether you understand it or not?
R. How it happened it's not up to you. You received it already from above, you need only upon that to arrange it in such a way of how you relate to them.
71. M. (02:04:45) We have a question from the study material team. The friends that say they're missing the language of Kabbalah, The Preface and The Study of the Ten Sefirot. We want to ask everyone to do a survey and ask friends if they're interested in incorporating The Preface and the Wisdom of Kabbalah during the lesson. Let's respond to a survey in the system. Press one if you're interested in including the language of the wisdom of Kabbalah and The Preface in the lesson and two, I'm not interested. One I'm interested, two I'm not interested. Also, here in the study hall raise your hand if you want to incorporate The Preface.
Vote: Want to incorporate.