Morning Lesson May 8, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. Table of Answers for Topics #84
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we continue with this addition to part one of TES and I just want to, before I forget, I want to say a few words about something I saw yesterday from a few friends that told me about states they are going through, very similar states. Such where people find themselves in the state of helplessness, weakness, that they cannot do anything, they do not know what is happening before them, what they need to be doing, what is required from them; and mostly that they cannot see, cannot discover any forces especially physical forces to do anything, to do anything. They are on different levels of recognizing this state and a part of them.
Why did I think it is worthwhile speaking about it, because a part of them started to respond, to discover that this is happening in such a way that the higher Providence, the Creator is pushing them to connect to society to receive forces, powers from the society. When they discover this need, that there is no other choice, that this is the only way that they can continue to live, even the force to live they don’t have. Only then they take a step forward, they connect with society even more and they begin to receive the powers from the environment, that’s how the Creator’s working with us. Meaning He is making us weaken us in our feelings, in our intellect, in our actions; He is showing us how without the force of bestowal we cannot advance and we have nowhere from which to take the force of bestowal except from the environment.
That I will look at the friends, I will envy them, I appreciate them even more. That I will want to attach myself to them and even if they seem to me like small or beginners, it does not matter, the important thing is to incorporate into the environment because the force of the environment is not some individual, it is the force of the Creator. Even if they are beginners and they have nothing, as Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma says about his small students, and in this way we can receive powers and awakening and what appears to us as a tall mountain where we can do nothing and we have no strength, no desire, no motivation, we become weaker, the hands drop, everything withers. But to the extent that we begin to connect to the society, no matter what, because we see that only by this we have the ability to arise and lift ourselves up and we begin to receive powers.
Those powers are not the same that we had before the descent, before the fall, rather these are spiritual powers because they come from the Creator through the ten. So those who grow weaker and we constantly find ourselves in these states, pay attention. If you can connect your tens, to your environment or in general to the entire world wide group of Bnei Baruch, if you receive any forces from this, these will be spiritual forces and we will be able to practically advance toward the Creator. That’s it, that’s what I wanted to say. That I saw that some of our friends are getting such forms of weakness that they completely wither, they are unable to do anything by their own strength, they used to be able and now they are not. This brings them to a state where simply they are without any power, they are better off dead. And then, they have nothing left except to receive new forces and advance through the group.
They will find that connection with the Creator and they will be able to receive from Him new forces, new powers, spiritual powers. So do not despair, do not fall, do not think that I have no power. Of course I do not have powers, I do not have any powers, I am the created being not the Creator. And to receive power from the Creator this is possible only through the environment. And only to get to a state where I receive a powers from the environment only with the condition that I am despaired of the love of self and as is written, “there is no happier moment in the person's life except when he feels that he is despaired of his own strength”, and he has nowhere from which to receive the strength because then he needs to turn to the Creator and the connection with the Creator is through the society. The contact with the Creator through the society and he receives these forces from there and advances.
2. S. (07:47) It appears exactly how you said, yesterday, but it appears that it was like the whole ten was weakened. So what I understand from you is that we should connect to the bigger group but if the ten is weakened as a whole, should we not focus first on trying to connect in the ten or does it matter if one of the members of the tens make a line with the world Kli and bring it to the ten, is that the salvation?
R. If the ten, even the entire ten is in a descent, is fallen, is growing weaker, it can find within itself forces for renewal. It is not mandatory for it to connect to the world Kli and to start looking for things there; although each of our tens has tens that are closer to it, that are nearby, they are in contact with more than with others because this is how the system is built. There are groups that are closer, tens that are further apart so iit is not ‘a must’ for you to go look for connection in general with other tens, other external tens; but rather inside the ten, if you decide that you need to strengthen the connection between you then you can grow stronger because the Creator is nevertheless inside you but it in it is in a concealed way. But if you grow stronger, if you apply the pressure, if you feel that this is your salvation then you will succeed even without leaving the boundaries of your single ten.
3. S. (10:12) In my view, in the last few days, the question is where can a person nullify himself and where does he need to demand? This question is not sufficiently clear, can you describe some measurements of where do I nullify and where do I demand?
R. No, this is what the person has to scrutinize by himself. But as long as he has connection with the environment, good or bad connection, various ascents and descents, as long as he is constantly in contact within the society and this will grow stronger and by that things will be clarified. Just do not let go, always be in that same direction: I, the group, the Creator. There is no other path, I, through the group to the Creator and the Creator through the group to me, and this way we advance. What I started to speak about is because I saw this phenomenon that are growing weaker on the path.
They think they have no more forces, not enough desire and what to do when there is no desire, there are no forces, no power. Some of them started to discover that this situation must come to the person who advances because only this can bring him to a greater connection with the society and within the society with the Creator. For him to truly begin to reveal the system correctly the way it functions so it will stop being concealed as it was before but it will become more apparent, more clear, more revealed and we’ll advance. Let's go back to our topic and if you have questions on what we discussed now, ask.
4. S. (12:56) I assume that the friends in that state know this advice incorporating into the environment and getting strength from there, this is the main advice.
R. No, I talked about a state when the person does not know this is how he has to do, not that he’s never heard about it and that he wasn’t in it. But rather that he is in such a descent, such a fall, in such a disconnection, mostly lack of strength, lack of power to advance, to study, to do anything. The forces of spiritual life have left him, maybe even corporeally he’s not that way he was before and then even if he was with us for years, it does not matter, on the contrary. It is a person who is a veteran of spiritual work in this life so he simply needs to discover from zero, from his inner darkness that he has no other choice but to again and again connect to the ten.
S. Typically we say that in that state a person is like dead and he needs others to pick him up and help him.
R. Each one of us needs to feel that there is a group that never lets him go, that pushes him forward or pulls him behind and this is how he can advance.
S. So how will he feel this ?
R. He will feel it because the society constantly cares about each and every one not to fall but remain with every one, concerned for the unity of the society and the general advancement of the society has to be a permanent care.
S. Last question, still I did not understand why this time, what does he need to do this time so that he can receive strength from the environment as opposed to other times?
R. This is the upper Providence when he feels himself so helpless, no desire, no yearning, no power. He knows not what to do, the path disappears, the work, his hands just wither, what to do? But he nevertheless exists being with others, annulling with others and gradually he feels that this is the form of advancement, and again and again there are such states that have to go over us. There are many people who used to be with us and they left, they actually left, and they have a certain demand even from me, “why am I not helping them”? It is impossible to help them overtly, the way they understand how the help needs to come, rather in spirituality, the consideration is only with raising MAN from a person through the general soul, meaning through the society to the Creator, and also it comes back from the Creator in this way.
So if these people won’t succeed in annulling and continuing they have no other choice, they certainly will go back to their lives. Maybe they will succeed in corporeality, maybe they will enter a different society that gives them a feeling of advancement not with the force of bestow in order to bestow but using different corporeal methods, this is how it is what can we do? But we need to know that nevertheless our advancement depends only on the connection between us and the society. The extent to which a person annals himself, truly melts in his society, and together with them he advances by making himself a zero, as Rabash writes, “the more zeros the more forces he receives of one and one and one from above through the society.
5. S. (18:22) It’s interesting, I just reached out to a friend, yesterday, not in my group who I hadn't seen and was checking on him. And he got back to me through a message and describe exactly this state that he was going through, exactly how you describe it. And my first Impulse was that it is a enviable state and an opportunity to reach out and contact and directly request of the Creator. But he seems to think that this is something some how embarrassed about and he wanted me, asked me to keep it a secret from his ten and even not to speak of it.
R. This is why I started talking about this little bit so you would know. We understand but we keep forgetting because a spiritual states renew themselves each time they appear to us a little differently but the transition from state to state, from degree to degree is always when the person falls and everything he had disappears from him, all his intellect, his feelings, the path, nothing, he falls into a new will to receive that now appears greater and deeper, full of a feeling of helplessness. He has to go through this and he can go through it only with the condition that he maintains the corporeal schedule which is the study and everything that belongs to the system, that he is accustomed to, and the connection to the society. Even when he does not quite know what to do he maintains a general framework and then he receives help and the Creator takes him out.
S. Several questions arise from this then: one, how does a friend, or how does one recognize that this is an enviable state, that this is a state where you recognise that you are primed or well prepared for an advancement and two,.
R.No, no, no, hold on, if he discovers anything except the fall, the descent, the helplessness, the darkness that he has no physical strength, he has no thoughts in his mind, he’s dead. If he does not attain that state, then you can’t say that he is exchanging his state to a new more advanced state. So he cannot be in the state of weakness and to understand that this is a weakness in order to advance him. He has to go through the state of weakness in all truthfulness, that “I am better off dead then alive”, and this is how he needs to feel. And then he annuls thimself as much as possible, meaning he gets carried with the state and he enters a new state where the Creator begins to shine to him and awaken him and add forces to him, the force of faith the force of bestowal and this is how he transitions to the new state. But the transition is when the person is seemingly dead, he has no feeling, no mind, no future, no nothing.
S. He has to turn to the Creator directly, right, through the friends?
R. He has no strength for that as well, he does not have the power for it. He can feel that he wants to turn to the Creator but he does not have any desire for it, he can think that he needs to turn to the Creator but it does not have the thought. He needs to recognize, to get to know the state, itself, that neither in his mind nor in his heart he has no foundation on which to turn to the Creator.
S. So if he does not have the strength or ability to want to crawl out of his own state, he doesn't have the ability to turn to his friends from embarrassment or shame, from disconnection completely. Is this the obligation of the group to recognize this state?
R. Yes, yes, exactly, that is correct. What do we do with a person who is dead? We take him to the cemetery, bury him, this is what we have to do with the dead. This is our obligation towards the person who was close to us, that is what we have to do with the friend. We had a friend, now he’s dead in spirituality, dead in spirituality. He cannot participate with us but what does he do? He is seemingly emotionless without any spiritual movement among us and we have to strengthen him and as much as possible to continue with him and he does nothing. He keeps certain things in order to maintain his body and that’s it. In this way, this is called, well the meaning of “helping him even when he is dead”, and after a while he wakes up. The Creator revives him and he is resurrected, this is it. And begins to acquire a new force and when he goes through that state it means that he comes to a new incarnation and he starts to live on a new level, a new level of connection with the Creator.
S. So what does it mean for ‘the ten to take their friend to the cemetery’?
R. It’s when we give him all the conditions in order to slowly advance through the state which is called, “dead” in spirituality, and you can see on him that he’s practically almost dead in corporeal life as well, he has no physical strength. And this way with our help, he is going through the state of disconnection from the spiritual life, he receives spiritual burial and eventually the ‘resurrection of the dead’. The Creator gives him a new spirit of life and he is renewed.
S. What does this mean for us in general, as a world Kli, that we see this phenomenon happening to many friends. What is this a sign of for us, is it a good sign?
R. This is a very good sign that we are going and we are renewing from one state to the next. And the next state will be higher spiritually and it can be so high, after such incarnation, several incarnations, that we begin to feel the Creator working with us and how we are working and influencing Him, and we will come to what we call, “the revelation of the Creator”.
6. S. (27:25) This is exactly the state where I find myself now. Much more dead than alive, and I know in my mind that my direction is spirituality but in the corporeality, I’m never satisfied. Everytime I want something and I realize it, I no longer want it and this is very confusing to me. So do I need to focus on organizing my life in relation to the spiritual work because I do not know what is the truth? Here, I feel that I am being drawn to the right and left and there is no stability.
R. We have so much material to read from the writings of the Baal HaSulam and Rabash. I’ll tell you only one thing: try to constantly fill yourself with what is written in those articles and additionally ‘what the mind doesn't do, time does’. A person has to patiently go through all these states and the main thing is as it is written, “anything but leave”. Do not go back to corporeal life only where there is truly spiritual death. Try, try to be especially in dissemination, if you feel that you have something that you can add to them then add in dissemination. You specifically could become a good teacher.
7. S. (29:42) I want to tell my story, maybe it will help the friends. I left my house for a day or two and it is a state where you cannot turn to anybody, maybe I did not work correctly.
R. Maybe but I do not recommend it. I recommend a person remains within his physical and spiritual framework and not to come out of it, just to run away. It is good to run away sometimes and it's good to get away and the Kabbalists used to do that, it is called “going into exile”. But I don't think it is effective. In our times, you can come out of yourself while staying in the same room where you are in.
8. S. (30:50) There is such a phenomenon in the friends in the ten especially in the ten on duty, what do we need to do as a ten on duty?
R. People who are responsible for the state of society, they have to ensure that there is an awakening, ‘a spirit of life’, as Rabash writes. High spirits, that everybody will be awakened. What is there to ask, there is a lot written about it, don’t forget.
9. S. (31:38) These falls, these rejections, it happens more than once throughout progress in spirituality so we arrive at all kinds of states like that. The question is: today's descents are different from yesterday's. What kind of experience can I derive from yesterday's descent for the descents that happen today?
R. In truth, on the one hand, they say that “none are as wise as the experiences” but on the other hand, whenever this is coming, it is coming as if anew, on a greater coarseness, And this new coarseness seemingly erases all the past experiences. So I cannot offer anything here, just to continue, keep going. As long as you are in the society, in the environment that is pulling you forward and you constantly feel yourself obligated towards it then in this new mutual way you can stay on the path.
S. To continue, you said that each and every descent is basically something new and each time it takes me to a new state. So what is the difference between the various descents?
R. We cannot say what is the difference between the descents and the scents because it is measured relative to the spiritual world and we do not have a firm grasp in it in order to measure the height of our descents and ascents. Therefore, we should simply continue, we should keep going and go back to the activities, hold onto the group, hold onto the Creator like a small child more and more, and we grow up in this way from state to state.
S. I will ask a question from my mind, sorry. It turns out that this descent that I reach and receive experience to hold onto the friends and make connection with them, so with the experience of these descents I stop attaining this complete abyss you are talking about because I'm already holding onto the friends.
R. No, this won’t help you, you need to take these descents as needed, don’t worry, this is already the upper Providence and the general Kli will give you the proper descent. Not the way you think about it that you can stop yourself from going down, no, on the contrary. If you have the strength, the powers, you’ll descend even lower, deeper in order to later to raise higher, that’s how it is. The descents and ascents are greater the more we advance.
10. S. (35:40) You said that the descents take on a new form of the will to receive. During the awakening, the new will to receive helps us or it continues to work against us?
R. Even when it continues to work against us it is also a form of help. The will to receive is mostly helping us, the fact that it is making us fall down and making us weaker, this is how it helps us. He is helping us realize that without the Creator we are helpless.
11. S. (36:41) Question from experience: this state keeps coming back for years. Many times you feel that a friend starts moving away, falling. At first I used to run to him trying to help and inspire and save him, so to speak but nothing helped. So it is clear that all of the ten have to be included with that. So when we manage to do this, awakening the ten, then it works and if not it doesn't work.
R. Ok you speak much but not on point. The question should be clear: what should we do? Nevertheless we have to help the friend who feels himself falling in all kinds of ways, not directly but indirectly. Take him to learn something, to do some work in the group, to go on maybe a hike together, a day trip together, to something together, call him not during the lesson but during other times. Try to awaken him, maybe we need to speak to his wife, ask her what is happening, what is going on with him so she could help without mentioning this call to her. All kinds of forms that we have to activate in order to save the friend, bring him closer to the ten, this is it.
S. This is the question: when you do it yourself, nothing works. When do you succeed in including all the then in this process of caring for the friend then it works. But usually we cannot activate all the ten, so what do we do when you see that a friend is falling and the ten says ‘it is all good, he will come back’.
R. To try nevertheless to talk about it with the ten and if not with the ten even by yourself try to bring him closer to the group, there is nothing to do, only this way.
12. S. (39:49) I would like to confess that I was not in the morning lesson for a week after the Congress, I chose to do so and for a week I was not here. And I can say that I forgot everything, who I am, what I am, what I am heading to the Creator makes you forget everything” the ten, the bestowal, and I cannot tell you how happy I was, what kind of joy I had in my will to receive. Why is it arranged in this way?
R. It’s done like this from above so you would receive additional desire to receive and eventually to decide this is not the life, to spend my days like this. It would be better if I could go down to the degree of a beast and then to receive, just like a horse that receives its hay, and it is happy about life and there is nothing to add, everything is good. It depends on your state, level one, two, three, four, but ‘he how adds knowledge adds pain’, that’s a problem hre. So the fact that you came back to us, that is from above, it’s not something that you have done. From above they will not let you rest, they want to advance you, you have to be grateful to the Creator for doing this to you because this is already called salvation and everytime we come back from such states it is only because of the Creator’s personal attitude to us.
S. I can’t tell you how hard it was to get out of the bed. I hear the alarm and the friend from the ten calls me and it is so difficult to take just a single step out of the bed. It is the will to receive does not want to witness light, the will to receive doesn't want to touch the light.
R. Ok, so you want to explain it to us, why do you think it is easier for us?
S. Of course.
R. That’s what you feel and not us, right? That’s how it is.
S. So how can we overcome this?
R. I get up at least one hour before the lesson, I leap out of bed like a little child whose friends are outside waiting with a ball and all kinds of games and they call him and he leaps out of bed and runs to the friends, this is how I get up every morning.
S. One thing that I feel is that we all have to invest into dissemination because personally it is the only thing that keeps me on the path somehow, is dissemination.
R. This is correct, that’s correct, I agree. I completely agree. Each one has to open additional groups, additional circles, and this will help him advance tremendously. Just know that everything you’re experiencing, everybody experiences the same thing. There are those who prepare several alarm clocks: one next to the bed then next to the next room, one in the kitchen, you have to get up and stop the alarm more or it just keeps going, all kinds. There are those who call friends, in short and in truth, you need to make a commitment, an obligation. If I commit to awakening someone then I have no other choice but to get up.
A person needs to commit to himself that tomorrow morning he wakes up as an animal and tomorrow she has only one way to wake herself up by preparing an alarm clock or something that will awaken him, and if he did not prepare it, he will not get up. And as we discussed earlier, we are in between the degrees since then everything disappears and I want nothing and I’m dead, I have no emotional or physical power, I have nothing, and there you need social preparation. This is why the Creator shattered the general vessel and specifically in the connection between us, we bring ourselves back to the system that is before the Creator. By myself I can never face the Creator, I can receive certain awakening from Him but this awakening will be only for me to connect to the ten and the ten is already standing before the Creator and can be connected in mutual connection to it.
13. S. (46:47) Is the principle of ‘if you leave me one day, I leave you two’, is that principle at work when the person grows weaker and he has no powers to do what he did before?
R. Yes, it works in all states but you cannot count on this. We have to nevertheless prepare ourselves in advance, we have to prepare ourselves and the main thing is to have times, let's say that 9 p.m. you go to bed no matter what, otherwise you cannot wake up for the lesson. This has to be something mandatory, not to drag things, not to linger. Everything has to be according to the schedule, Rabash would be very concerned about maintaining the schedule, the framework.
S. Is there such a thing where a descent, a weakening happens to a person because he looked down and disregarded this preparation?
R. We don’t know the reasons, the precise reasons for what’s happening. We can’t make such calculations that “because I did not do this then such and such happened to me”, you can never tell. But everything nevertheless happens because of a decision above, that’s how we have to take everything.
14. S. (48:53) About this law of helping the friends twice and if it doesn’t help then let him be, is this correct also for a friend in a descent or only to the friends who left?
R. No, this is for everyone, for everyone you have to try to help and more than once, more than twice, also.
S. Meaning a friend left, I turned to him twice and he did not get back to me so continue to turn to him?
R. No, that is enough, maybe in a few months try again. Because on his part, there is also a matter of pride or maybe some justification of his new path so you have to give him options.
S. And compared to that, a friend in a descent?
R. No, that’s a different thing, that’s a friend that you always have to carry, always hold. That is not that he is left, he just fell on the path. And also, it’s not exactly a fall, it’s a small descent for the sake of an ascent. It is actually in order to replace the current state with a higher state.
15. (50:37) After Congresses we have this phenomenon that if the Congress is really good, there’s a strong descent. If the Congress was not so great then everything is fine and everybody is happy. So is it true that we succeeded in the last Congress and these descents are showing us how powerful ascents are before us?
R. Yes, if if we rose then accordingly and afterwards, there is a descent.
16. (51:16) How can I connect my ten in the right way to draw the light that gives us the strength when my ten doesn’t want to let go of the Klipot?
R. This is not important, what they wanted, what they don't want, he has to work according to what is written, this is what the Creator is giving him and this is what he has to cope with and what he thinks that they are in klipot and he is not, it might be the other way around. You have to keep going on the path even though you have such friends and such a ten, you have to still try to see that this is what the Creator gives you.
17. (52:14) If the friends are in a descent, disconnected and they have to accept in support of the society. What can we do if he feels that the society itself is in a state of no connection or low spirits or despair?
R. Try to gather and discuss this, read some specific articles from Rabash about this, and try to read things in a way that it will help you lift up. There is nothing more to do only by reading the material together can we recover.
18. (53:10) If he has no desire, no strength, and they took the power of fife from him, then where does he get the strength to annul and surrender before the society to receive strength from it?
R. The strength, forces will be received from the Creator, the Creator is in those states when the person feels a descent. These descents are done by the Creator and the Creator is present in them and He waits for when He can help the person. If the person prepares a ten for himself in advance, and tries to be in some way in the lessons and in these social activities then the Creator has an opportunity to wake up the person. So we have to do all of the mechanical actions based on the clock, based on the calendar so that it awakens us to make an action even if we do not want to. Like, let's say the baby cries, there is no choice, you have to wake up, get out of bed and take care of it because he is crying, the same thing is here. You have to create such states that will force you to wake up and awaken, you have to try to determine this.
19. (55:04) In a state when I have no forces I keep the rule “anything but leave”. I do not give up on the morning lesson and my two daily zoom meetings with the ten, no more no less. What to do if I’m not able to put in even one ounce of effort beyond that?
R. But I am standing on that and insist on that and I'm not giving up on that, this is already good and now I keep thinking about how I am holding on to that and not letting go of that. Say that to yourself the whole day and then you will see how you get strength to do more.
20. (55:44) Three or four weeks ago you gave advice to try to connect to every hour for 5 minutes, short contact, read an excerpt and keep going through the day. And we have been doing this up to the last couple of days, and friends felt that after so many years, this action raised the ten to a new degree of connection. And this week we decided to go back to the older framework when the friends and decided to just have two meetings a day. For a few friends and for me it felt like we are stepping backwards, finally we received a gift and now we are stepping backwards, and I heard a similar thing in other tens so what is your recommendation?
R. I cannot obligate people to make contact every hour. That could be a disturbance in the work and it might do some harm for them in different ways, I do not know. If it was possible then sure I would recommend it but it cannot be just crude pressure of the group on every one of its members. But it is good if for a few minutes, three or five minutes, an hour, to go back to our connection, that would be good. But on the other hand, it is difficult, there are some work where people cannot have this option because they are not allowed to disconnect. I saw it on myself as well: if I am working on a text or something of that sort and I have to do something with it an work with it and then comes a time when I have to call or someone calls me and I have to completely the change my mind and thought and this is a problem, this is a problem. It depends on how the person is able to combine that.
21. (58:26) When my attitude is that they try to ask me to join the Gathering of Friends for two hours but I know that the coming lesson is going to be early, how do people go to sleep when they’re tired?
R. I do not know, you all have to decide it on your own based on what we are talking about. Every group has its own states and circumstances, I cannot decide it for you and then you take it as a rule of thumb then you start twisting and turning it in different directions.