Morning Lesson February 12, 2024
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 9, 1991. What Is, “The Smell of His Garments,” in the Work?
Reading Article. (00:40) “Rabbi Zira said about the verse, ‘And he smelled the smell…’”
1. S. (40:42) What is it when he says that the descents aren’t needed in order to reveal the evil and they will know later that only the Creator can help them, and this help comes specifically for a whole deficiency and then he will come to complete help. Why or how come the help only comes with a whole deficiency?
R. From each and every state in which we need to get closer to the purpose of creation we get closer to wholeness. The wholeness means that it includes the good and the bad, all the actions through the states that a person has gone through, and we receive all of it together. The Creator, that the Creator created everything and arranged everything so that we are capable of understanding and attaining and feeling and justify Him from contradicting states. This is why we have nothing else to do but only to continue, and continue, and continue on the same way.
S. He continues by looking at the descent, the ascent rises to a more exalted level and it’s a true miracle. How does that happen? First of all, where does he take the power during the ascent to look at the descent?
R. Specifically from the state of ascent he receives the powers and by that, he can look at the descent and realize how much he lacks additional corrections, changes.
S. He looks at those states that the spies showed him when he was in the descent, those are the states he's not correcting during the ascent?
R. Well let's say so, even though it is not quite so, it seems to us that we correct certain states that maybe we ourselves even caused them. However, this is how it appears to a person.
S. It turns out that the descents that he gets from the path are like opportunities during the ascent to make a choice, they balance him out?
R. Yes.
S. I have to truly be grateful for them, this general view of things?
R. Yes, we should bless for both of them.
2. S. (44:20) While reading I felt my desire wanting to take me from here to there. I used a few of the answers that Rabash gave in his other articles. The question is, did Rabash write those articles in a certain order, or in truth there's no order per se? Let's say we reveal something here and we use it and there are other discernments that appear later. The question is, Rabash wrote it in a certain order he felt this process?
R. Of course.
S. Should we also look at the articles in the order in which they were written?
R. Well, we study them but, in our mind, it all connects to one article.
S. No, there's no criticism? I don't mean it as criticism but we later on feel all the articles as a single article.
3. S. (45:52) He writes, that's why when a person begins to work and he sees that each time he’s incapable of achieving the degree of work in order to bestow he becomes needy of the Creator’s help, the point that each time you have to reach the need for help from the Creator. What’s the benefit here, what’s the correction here when we turn to the Creator? What’s in it?
R. What's there is a grip on the Upper force that he and only he can save the person.
S. What is the device when a person is in a state where he's distant he feels the descent and he can't come to this vessel called a request, help from the Creator?
R. He needs to continue, continue, and then over time the bad force and the good force, despair and fatigue, and also nearing, as a result of the requests, all of these things come together and join into a state where he is capable of turning correctly.
S. There's this approach here in this article where he writes, “A person should not be impressed by the descent, but he needs to ask each time of the Creator to bring him closer to Him.” Meaning, on the one hand, you shouldn’t panic as a result of the descent, the more serious even-keeled approach, and on the other hand, he ran for help to the Creator. How do you combine these two things?
R. Again.
S. There are two seemingly two approaches, that is how it feels to me. On the one hand, a person should not be overly impressed by the descent, he shouldn't panic as a result.
R. That's right.
S. On the other hand, he should run to the Creator and ask for help, it's like one, they erase each other.
R. Yes, but without feeling that he must get help, he can’t turn to the Creator. The help must be truly so that this is the only thing he wants from the bottom of his heart, and therefore he goes and connects all of these states until he reaches a true desire.
S. There's a state where every moment as we give this example to a child, each second, he can run to his mommy and ask. Is there such a point where every little thing for which he runs to ask for help, maybe that blemishes the value of the actual help from the Creator? Can you overuse it?
R. It depends on the nature of the character of a person. There are people in this world you can see a person hold himself and you can't see anything on the outside even though you know he's going through great suffering and there's those who cry out, help us, and there's really nothing about.
S. This is my question, does the person need to wait for his request to be serious and needed instead of running to the Creator for every little thing and every second?
R. That person should see that on the way. Along the way he feels how the Creator is turning to him or not he does this he does that; he begins to feel his work with the Creator then he doesn't have a question about what he should do.
4. S. (51:08) He says that during an ascent a person must remember the descents. Elsewhere we read that it would be like an old person looking for something he had lost. Meaning a person is never in an ascent in a clean way but he should always be careful and think that he's about to fall and lose it like he's tarnishing his ascent.
R. Yes.
S. There's no pure ascent a person can just adhere fully and that's it?
R. No.
S. You constantly have to look?
R. Yes, how can it be? He has to constantly reveal that he has a deficiency, a deficiency for adhesion with the Upper force.
S. Is it more fear than deficiency?
R. On small degrees, it is fear, yes, but on the great degrees, it's no longer fear but rather a necessity.
5. S. (52:33) Thank you to the friends for choosing these materials. There is a flow here that builds brick by brick in this work. There's a question here, several times he writes they should have believed that the Creator gave them, there were ascents, descents, and slander then they should have believed that the Creator would give him a second nature. What is the meaning of what they should have believed, what is this concept of should have believed?
R. Well, of course, it comes from above. That many times a person did not ascribe it to the Creator or an incident or nothing but now in one of those states he begins to discover that of course, it comes from a certain force, a certain desire, and in that desire and he has to respond to it in a certain way and a mutual work begins between him and the Creator.
S. The thing that they had to believe is like a rock that's getting worn out each time, many times?
R. Yes.
S. Can you say that it comes absent-mindedly?
R. I don't think it is inadvertently, actually it’s a result of an effort by the person and a certain revelation on the side of the Creator.
S. Yes, true many efforts but when it comes it comes as a result, it's not something a person does it's a result of an experience of these wearing out?
R. Yes, the Creator is taking him for many states, and in these states, a person receives a certain impression, and all together he gains experience and then he makes up his mind what he truly needs.
S. If you say that they had to believe, meaning he should continue and continue until he reaches faith?
R. Yes.
6. S. (55:01) There are two states that a person can come out of the descent somehow. One he writes about here and that's when the Creator gives him the ascent and the other thing that I noticed is we have our daily order of things. I'm doing something that I noticed that I was in a descent before and then I seemingly come out of this descent. Is any one of those things considered on the account of the person? Did a person do it or did the Creator take them out?
R. No, no nothing really pertains to the person. The Creator simply takes him through all these states ascents, descents of course, forgetfulness, whatever you have and, in the end, the person discovers all of these emotions and he gains experience and he's already willing to relate to the states that he is going through each time and in a way that is more and more correct.
S. It seems like the ascents and descents, it's not about that. It's about whether or not you're capable of entering adhesion or trying to be in adhesion with the Creator. That's the story. The ascents and the descents are kind of like the foundation. A person would eventually make contact with the Creator and that's what it's about, right?
R. Yes.
7. S. (56:57) Both yesterday and today in the article Rabash says, on one hand, you acquire a vessel when you're conscious about it, the awareness of these states of the descents you don't forget about it, it's like a property you can work with, and you acquire experience awareness. On the other hand, we need to have faith. Also in past articles, we learned that It says a person has to feel himself as nothing, a zero, it depends on the Creator 100% he has no foundation whatsoever. How to reconcile these two things?
R. Whatever the mind doesn't do, time does and during the exercises that the Creator sends to a person, the person starts to see how much these things start to come together and they bring him to a state where he can understand what is happening with him and to what kind of state they want to promote him. The person starts to understand all of that.
S. Meaning this understanding should be there, but it is the foundation?
R. Well, yes of course, the most important is not the understanding, the most important is the feeling.
8. S. (58:48) What is the indication that I'm now in an ascent and I can start to remember the descent?
R. Well, first of all, you remember about it. That you remember the descent, you recall the descent and you're able to understand this state you were in before, and the state you're coming to now.
S. In order to start it, he says that you can only do this action when you're in an ascent, right? How do I make sure that I'm in the ascent or just happy about I don’t know what, there are a thousand reasons to have a good mood. How do I know it's the state of an ascent?
R. The state of ascent means that you are willing to remain in it and to continue it because by that you're giving contentment to the Creator.
9. S. (01:00:15) He starts the article that the person should see that he's half innocent before a person reaches the correction of it in order to bestow. How can he see that he's half innocent?
R. Half innocent means that there's nothing that gives him this foundation and he feels that he has nowhere to glue himself to.
S. He gives examples where a person should see he's half wicked and half righteous. How can a person see that he's half-righteous? That half wicked, that I understand, but in what way can a person see that he is half-righteous before he reaches the correction? What is this righteous?
R. If he's not going to go through these states how will he determine he's wicked?
S. Wicked because you check yourself according to your thoughts and intentions and you see that you are not capable of being in order to bestow, you can't help the friends, you can see that?
R. Wherever he sees himself as wicked, there in the same states he can see that he is righteous.
S. He is righteous in what?
R. He justifies the Creator to some extent, he performs certain actions of bestowal.
S. In that, he can see that he is half innocent?
R. These are degrees.
S. Also, if a person performs one Mitzvah when can a person say that he has performed even one?
R. No, one commandment or Mitzvah means a Mitzvah of faith, a person comes to it and he sees that he truly did this great correction.
S. He also writes that he must give him greater evil so that he will have a choice?
R. Yes.
S. What is the connection between a choice and evil?
R. As much as there is good and evil in a person, one against the other, a person can see his true state.
S. When he writes that he betrays the work of the Creator, what is the correct relation for a person who sees his state, that he is betraying the work of the Creator? How should he relate to it?
R. Well he has to correct himself, what else can he do? He has to correct himself and become righteous.
S. With respect to the spies he says that the spies said what they felt, so a person can never look at the feeling itself?
R. No, from the side of the feeling he will never receive both in the feeling and in the intellect any correct results.
S. What is the foundation, the basis that you can use other than his emotions, and his feelings? What can he look at so that he can check himself, his way, his attitude, his connections with the Ten, and with the group if his feelings are not a correct yardstick?
R. No, he cannot follow the feeling.
S. What can he follow?
R. In those instances but only when his above reason when he's above his nature, then he can follow the feeling.
S. Why is there such a demand that the evil must be completely exposed or revealed, what does it mean completely?
R. That he's all bad, what is not clear?
S. He also writes that we should learn from the state that he had during the descent. How does a person learn something from what he had? Now he feels a state of ascent that he has a yearning towards the Creator, a yearning towards connection with the friends, what can he learn from the state when he didn't have the yearning when he didn't have the importance? He didn't have a demand to get closer to the quality of bestowal. What does he learn from that?
R. He can learn that the Creator is also giving him such states, and he has to be grateful that he's giving him those states.
S. When he demands that he will not suffer for no reason in the state of descent what does it mean to not suffer for no reason? It can be that a person goes through all these different descents, and he suffers for no reason?
R. Yes.
S. What does it depend on?
R. It depends on a person's awareness, consciousness.
S. But the person's awareness is also a result, isn't it?
R. No.
S. What depends on the person here so that he doesn't suffer these sufferings for no reason?
R. If he thinks that it comes from the Creator, he has to delve into it until the place of suffering he will feel the good states instead.
S. Last question, thanks to the order of the work, how to reach adhesion with a Creator? You asked yesterday or maybe a few days ago, whether our actions in the Ten cover everything that we need in order to reach Torah and Mitzvah, Lishma. What do you think is the answer to this question?
R. You're asking about me?
S. Yes, you asked that, and that lesson and I want to ask how you look at it?
R. How do I look at it, I look at it.
S. You don't want to tell us something about it?
R. No.
S. So we should make a scrutiny about it?
R. Of course.
10. S. (01:07:55) The article speaks about many different states. What do we even define as a state? Are these emotional conditions, awareness or lack of awareness, or maybe corporeal conditions?
R. A state is every moment a person can stop himself and ask about it, about that state, about that moment. Is it coming from above, from below, why, yes, no, this is called the state.
11. S. (01:08:42) In the end, what belongs to the person and what is his account in the end?
R. What belongs to a person? To try and feel as much as possible what the Creator is doing with him and what he should be doing and what kind of reaction he has to bring.
12. S. (01:09:18) If the entire process is planned by the Creator, does it mean that the descents are given to us only so that we will come back and turn to the Creator, it's like an alarm clock?
R. I don't know why an alarm clock, but all of the descents come from the Creator so that we will learn, so we will learn from them the states of ascent.
13. S. (01:09:50) What does it mean to guard yourself from descents?
R. That each time I wish to climb higher and higher in my appreciation with the Creator and His actions.
14. S. (01:10:04) It is written, and it follows that the descents which are the betrayals are considered transgressions. What are betrayals in spirituality?
R. Betrayals in spirituality means it’s when a person works against the desire of the Upper one, what the Creator arranged for Him, but he does not accept it.
S. How to cope with betrayal and with the fall when there is thought that there's no power to pray?
R. Over time. Whatever the mind doesn't do, time will do.
15. S. (01:11:19) In most of the articles Rabash gives us two things, one is the correction of creation and the second is the purpose of creation. In the two articles yesterday and also today, he doesn't say a single word about it specifically meaning not to explain the purpose of creation, which is to do good to his creations, and to do good to his creations we reach the state of understanding, correctly and for the sake of the Creator. Everything he describes to us in this article is the process of not for the sake of the Creator so that we will be able to reach the deep scrutiny of for the sake of the Creator and realize we are mostly working for our own benefit?
R. For the time being you can say that, yes.
16. S. (01:12:12) How does a person check and be certain in the past he didn't deviate from the goal and since then he kept on distancing and moving away from it?
R. He cannot be certain, he has to ask the Creator to open up for him all of those states so he will know what he did.
S. Can the Ten help every friend to make sure that he is constantly in the right direction and on the right path that he did not deviate in some direction and who knows if he will ever come back?
R. The society, we learn how the society needs to help him, to embrace him, to pull him towards the center of the Ten, that's it to work with him.
17. S. (01:13:36) I spoke to a friend or two and there are friends that have a great awakening, it seems like an ascent to them, and from the scrutiny we did I see it's a very dangerous state that you really have to pay attention not to receive in order to receive that awakening because then it distances a person eventually. On the one hand, he got a lot of forces and happiness on the path, but it can, if we don't pay attention, it can distance a person eventually. The question is when we get such a feeling of awakening and forces, what should we pay attention to in order to direct it correctly so that it will not deviate from us but put us on the track ahead?
R. Read the Shamati articles I have nothing else to add. It's with the upper grace that you do so.
18. S. (01:14:58) There's like a repetitiveness when he explains that there's a part where someone has doubts and works for nothing and then he gets an awakening again and rises a degree again and thinks it's over and then again, the evil comes with greater forces and another descent. I wanted to ask about those states, that repetitiveness, that cycle. In the cycle you forget the previous state, when the doubts come, he forgets that he wasn't in an ascent with an awakening, when he has an awakening, he forgets about the descent. What's the reason for this forgetfulness?
R. In order for him to accumulate more and more experience.
S. When he's persistent about it again and again, what does that cause him? What does that bring a person to?
R. This brings him, each time, new discernments even though he maybe doesn't feel that way and he joins all these states to a special state.
S. Is there a certain point that after a few cycles because it happens a lot, is there a point where he starts feeling and the forgetfulness disappears, or does it constantly continue?
R. He needs to try to connect his mind to this.
S. What does that mean?
R. Meaning to understand why this comes to him, what's demanded of him, what he needs to do, that's actually written in the articles.
S. How does the mind help so that the forgetfulness will disappear?
R. It will disappear or become something new, yes.
S. In the preparation period, could we reach a state that we can already see as one whole and not like cycles of ascents and descent but as an order of advancement?
R. More or less, yes.
19. S. (01:17:39) The righteous and the wicked is that towards the intention of a person?
R. Yes.
S. The ascents and descents, how did the righteous and the wicked, how do they connect it to the ups and downs in the feeling of good and bad, how do you connect all of this?
R. The wicked and the righteous are according to how much they justify the Creator or to the contrary.
S. During an ascent or a descent?
R. That too depends on what state they're in.
S. Because it's not clear how a person can ascribe himself to a certain state, how does he know if he's in an ascent or a descent, according to his feelings?
R. According to his feelings, according to the situation, yes. Accordingly relative to his friends.
S. Then from here out does he reach a state where he justifies or slanders? How does he do it?
R. If you think about this state that you're in all the time, thoughts, intentions, the states themselves towards the Creator, towards the friends, towards the world, towards yourself, then you'll start to collect all of these impressions correctly together and then you will see and you will see how this happens.
S. Is there something else except for a person's feeling if he feels good or bad?
R. Again.
S. A person on the path feels good or bad, is that considered an ascent or a descent?
R. Not always but let's say that yes.
S. Is there anything except for that if a person feels good or bad is there anything except it?
R. He may feel bad but with that, he is in a certain joy in appreciating the actions of the Creator, it happens.
S. It all depends on what he measures?
R. Yes.
20. S. (01:20:39) It's written that we have to believe that the Creator promised Israel to give them the land of Israel, full of milk and honey, so He will give it to them for sure. How to rely on that promise practically, how should that be expressed? He says that the Creator promised that He will give the land of Israel full of milk and honey. How do you relate to that practically, how should that be expressed that promise?
R. That they will come to states in which they feel that they are in that.
S. I have so many failures, how to see myself part owing and part deserving like he writes here?
R. Before a person receives upon himself some spiritual action, he needs to depict himself as being half in debt, half in merit and here he defines it as certainly he wants to move to the side of good, to the side that is in reward and in merit.
21. S. (01:22:44) I understood that a person gets a state of an ascent and then he remembers that he had a descent and that he needs to do an action himself called, what I understood in the article to observe that descent. What does it mean to observe a descent, what is this action?
R. All that he had in the descent thoughts, desires, goals, forces, connection with the group, connection with the Creator, these are the essential main things necessary things.
S. Going deep in thought and feeling during the state of descent?
R. Yes.
S. How does he do it, he thinks about it, how does he scrutinize it and how does he go deeper?
R. That he is in a state of ascent and when he's in a state of ascent he can think about the state of descent, and to understand the extent in which he was not in his true qualities, real qualities.
S. He could go deeper into understanding and to go into feeling?
R. I'm not sure that that's a given that's possible.
S. You said desire, so it just stays in the thought or also a feeling of a desire?
R. A thought, a thought is enough.
S. How does a person know that he ended the action of observing the state of descent?
R. For the time being.
S. Let's say, he remembered, he thought, let's say he understood something and even attained what the benefit he gets as Rabash writes, know how to be careful from the descents and how to appreciate ascents?
R. Yes.
S. He releases that state and goes onward?
R. Yes.
S. If he doesn't reach those results that Rabash writes about?
R. It's not so bad he'll catch it next time.
22. S. (01:25:26) We say the expansion of the light of the departure makes the vessel worthy for its role so by this we're actually building the vessel, we're asking to build a vessel by this observation on a descent during an ascent?
R. Yes.
S. How does that happen because it's not according to drawings in TES where we learn that when the light departs then all the discernments come, when the light is filling so only by the distance and here it's like a different technique maybe I don't understand it. The technique here is that during the ascent you have to remember the descent and from it build the vessel and build some kind of state?
R. Yes, what can you do, because we are in such states.
S. Why not during the distance we get the discernments?
R. How will you receive discernments during the state of disconnection and distancing?
S. Here now I'm in an ascent I try, I cannot succeed, I do succeed?
R. You're in such a state in which you're dispelling the light from yourself?
S. No.
R. Are you in such places?
S. Only during an ascent, we can discern?
R. For the time being let's learn from the way he says, and later we will see more.
23. S. (01:27:20) On one hand, Rabash emphasizes that we need to calculate during an ascent constantly and bring these things, on the other hand, you answered that everything comes from the Creator. He said in the article many times that to let the person give him the privilege to choose so where is there a place of choice when we work in the Ten walking on the path where is the work in all of these discernments?
R. The place for work is at the time of the descent; specifically, we feel that we must raise ourselves to a higher state, and from it judge our state.
S. Specifically during the descent?
R. Specifically during the time of descent.
24. S. (01:28:36) When a person is in a state of ascent he is engaging with the friends, not with himself, so why should I search for a descent and start worrying about myself in this way and that way it's a good state and he should keep going?
R. That's correct.
S. Why does he say that we have to search for the descents and build a vessel because if I'm busy with the friends at some point I'm going to get resistance like he writes here, we all know that, and then from himself, he'll get a descent?
R. That's also correct.
25. S. (01:29:32) He says I'll read something “In order to choose the good and not the bad he has to be half worthy and half owing in order for him to have the choice, but if one thing is more than the other, he can’t determine anymore.” There's a point when a person who gets a descent and devours his flesh, he’s not there, if he is in an ascent and flying above the clouds he's not there either. It's like a point where he has to reach which is half and half and there, he has a choice, to choose the good and not want the bad?
R. Yes.
S. There's constant work to reach that half and half?
R. A person can always keep himself in a state of choice.
S. By that middle, that half and half there's no good or bad or there's good and bad?
R. He doesn't feel that he comes to a state in which he's holding himself that way, that he's half owing and half with.
S. That's a point that from it he supposedly is adhered to the Creator, that's what it feels like?
R. Yes.
S. That's not so clear.
R. Ask later more.
26. S. (01:31:30) You said that a state is any time a person can stop himself and ask whether it's from above or below yes or no that that's called a state. How to be in constant attention and scrutinize everything that's happening to me?
R. He says the best way is through the group to adhere to the Creator, in that direction, you always can critique all of your states.
S. My attention to where should I be directed to what I'm scrutinizing a state?
R. As you want to adhere to the friends and to aim this adhesion to nearing the Creator.
S. I should scrutinize what's happening to me during the day external, and internal?
R. Yes.
S. What does it mean to scrutinize correctly what is a good result of the scrutiny?
R. The right scrutiny and a good scrutiny is where you come to identify with the Creator.
S. He writes that one always grows on top of the other of the two types and we're learning it all as if it happens in one person. Can we interpret this also in a different way, if we look at our reality can we also understand that one nation grows on top of another?
R. I don't know, I cannot give such an interpretation.
27. S. (01:33:39) About the half and half state, does that mean that you always have to be like outside of yourself in order to not fall into yourself, and if you're always looking from the outside by this, you're somewhat resembling the Creator?
R. Yes.
28. S. (01:34:15) Is indifference considered a descent?
R. Indifference is called a descent, yes.
S. Even if he's completely indifferent to the friends and lessons that's a descent or is that outside of the game altogether?
R. It's outside of the game.
S. Why not get excited by the descents, it looks like there's more work there.
R. Yes, but to be impressed by the descents he says don't include yourself in such states that you feel during a descent, a state of despair and helplessness.
29. S. (01:35:17) There's something I'm not able to scrutinize according to this article. There are a few definitions of descent being a traitor that you don't have vessels of bestowal, but it says that during an ascent you have to search for the state of descent and it’s all states from the Creator. I can't connect all this, and I'd like you to help me?
R. I can give you one short advice to use right now and advance with it. You need to ask yourself every day that same question, you have to try and find an answer for it, gradually even over the course of a few weeks you will already be able to see a clear picture before you.
30. S. (01:36:51) When a person enters a state of ascent and rises to a state of connection with the friends you said you have to pass this connection to the friends, you said you have to pass this connection to the Creator. What does it mean that he goes back to that previous memory to the birth that he had, how from the state he is in he can scrutinize?
R. He after all doesn't fall into that state and he seemingly examines that state and that's from his current feeling, that's why all of this is just relative.
S. What does it mean that he checks, what is he checking in such a state of ascent?
R. Whether he's in a descent or an ascent where he is in relation to the Creator.
S. He supposedly adds vessels to this request?
R. Yes, his vessels.
S. What happens next with those vessels?
R. Then the Creator shows him where he is now.
31. S. (01:38:17) How does a person know that he's responding to the Creator correctly, how can a person measure that he's responding to the Creator correctly and that he's developing the right connection with Him, responding correctly to the Creator?
R. The indication that it's considered that he's the Creator in a person or at the same point.
S. What does that mean?
R. In the same point of scrutiny the same point of existence.
S. What's being a traitor in the Ten?
R. That's already a completely different question, a betrayal to the Ten we're talking about a person?
S. Yes.
R. A person that doesn't want to observe the rules of connection between the friends is called a traitor.
32. S. (01:39:36) When a person feels despair and starts thinking about the time when he just got to the path, how can he understand that now his vessel is full of deficiencies?
I will ask again. Now he feels despair but when he got to the path, he was full of happiness. Now he feels that all his work is worthless. There is no feeling. How can he scrutinize his state with all those deficiencies?
R. The best thing is prayer to the Creator where all the friends start to address the Creator and ask Him to illuminate through them, and asking the Creator to shine through me, and not just mine but all the friends of us all. What can we do? We’re not worthy of anything, only thanks to the Creator we can see where we are and how to advance.
33. S. (01:41:34) There are a few times in the article that there's the expression, land of milk and honey. I understand it has a spiritual meaning. What does it mean spiritually?
R. The land of milk and honey is where the foundation that we're standing on has both Hassadim and Hochma in the connection between us, and that we have no problems with this whatsoever ever.
34. S. (01:42:43) Should the summary of the lesson be that my task is to scrutinize myself and see where my feelings are directed towards bestowal or myself?
R. We need to be aimed only to the Creator through my friends.
S. My participation in this lesson is it to reach scrutiny of my state?
R. Yes.
35. S. (01:43:22) From what I understood the descent is a state of advancement but at the same time I feel that the ego is succeeding, and I feel complete distance. What can I do or what could the Ten do in order to help a friend during a descent?
R. Hug him and start rising together with him, that's the help for a friend during a descent.
36. S. (01:44:14) Does effort belong to man or it's like the prayer that we know the Creator causes the prayer? God forbid I'm not talking about multiple authorities.
R. The Creator.
37. S. (01:45:05) When he remembers the descent so he's actually valuing the descent as an advantage as he writes, because it can increase his ascent?
R. Yes.
S. The second condition is that he will know how to protect himself so that he doesn't reach the descent. So what is that condition? Because the magnitude of the ascent is the same?
R. Yes, but there is a descent and then there's the recognition of the descent. There's a big difference. I may remain in my state, in my place but with that, I feel how lowly I was.
S. It's only the matter of knowing what gives me a descent?
R. Yes, of course, it saves a lot of time and forces, a lot.
38. S. (01:46:15) If in corporeal deeds there's a principle that he did something a few times and it becomes okay, so sometimes I didn't turn on my camera when there's a meeting or so how does the Ten work in such states?
R. You have to come and make sure that whoever didn't come, he will come there. It's very important. Whoever is late is not just responsible for himself actually but also for all the other friends simply who forgot him and didn't bring him or didn't drag him with them.
39. S. (01:47:26) There's an ascent through overcoming and a descent from a dispute and implementing the choice. What's the difference between the two?
R. There's even more than two, everything depends on the extent in which we during the ascent want to rise towards the Creator and delight him in our work.
S. When I remember the descent I had, can we rise another degree on account of the previous one?
R. No.
40. S. (01:48:14) What's the work we must do exactly towards accents and what towards the descents so to be for true advancement?
R. Most important is connection and through the connection we want to rise from degree to degree on the ladder of degrees.
41. S. (01:49:01) By scrutinizing how close or distant we are from the Creator during ascents and descents, are we getting ourselves accustomed to measuring our ability to bestow to the Creator in spirituality?
R. That too, yes.
42. S. (01:49:44) I heard a person should keep himself in a point of choice. How does that help us experience the ascents and descents?
R. What do you call that point?
S. How does being in the point of choice help us experience ascents and descent?
R. We need to come to the point of choice and from it to see how we approach the Creator and choose only this way and try to connect the direction of the road, this vector with the point of choice so that both of them are together and in this way we advance.
43. S. (01:51:20) What characterizes a descent as growing corporeal desires?
R. What characterizes a descent or an ascent?
S. What characterizes a descent, growing corporeal desires?
R. Relatively.
44. S. (01:51:52) The article clothes softly and precisely on all the work and all the sensations we experience while working with the light, it's like a blind kitten trying to reach his food. At some point the eyes open and he sees what path he went through that he's going correctly. That's the experience I'm getting the impression and suddenly there's a meeting of a thousand go on the path and one reaches the light. Is that right? That our work that we implement as much as possible with all of our efforts?
R. Well?
S. Yesterday we had a workshop. We read this article and one of the friends remembered that you told us once that there are times of ascent and times of descent and there's also a time of like routine. A constant time that belongs to the middle line, should we see that we have to reach a constant line above states?
R. No, that's incorrect, this is incorrect. There's no middle line here. There are only ascents or descents here. This is how we should determine our situation.
S. Can we see you like an order of actions like once a person understands he has the evil inclination that it comes from the Creator and thanks to the correction of the evil inclination in him, he is rewarded with the quality of bestowal towards the Creator and by this he gives the Creator contentment, and for that the Creator rewards you with mercy and a blessing.
R. Yes.
45. S. (01:54:50) What are we lacking that the base we're standing on will also be the light of Hassadim and the light of Hochma, that will resemble the Creator internal and not only external?
R. We are working with all of our vessels from the perspective of Hochma and from the perspective of Hassadim and we raise them together to the Creator in order to extol Him even more. This is what we need to do.
46. S. (01:55:25) When we check the descents there's a fear of not to fulfill the body's needs because it will not let us advance towards vessels of bestowal, so how will we overcome that dumb old king?
R. How to defeat this foolish old king? It's by constantly wanting to be young, younger. He is old and foolish, so we want to be young and strong.
S. What does it mean to be young and strong in the path?
R. It means we constantly check ourselves, find the goal and we're not afraid to go towards it.
47. S. (01:56:37) It's written in the article that there's a state of the wicked that you don't walk the path to do everything for the sake of the heavens but to do everything for themselves, and it's written that it's a different quality where there's no righteous on the middle but it's all for their own benefit, but for the collective keeping the Torah and commandments they are righteous so help me understand that?
R. We need to try to observe the laws of the Torah that bring us to connection because this is the primary commandment, “Love your Friend as Yourself.” This is what we need to observe, this is what we need to yearn for, and this is the condition we just scrutinize, and carry out in our life.