Morning Lesson December 12, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 11, 1990. What Placing the Hanukkah Candle on the Left Means in the Work
Reading (00:42 - 32:51) Rabash. Article No. 11, 1990. What Placing the Hanukkah Candle on the Left Means in the Work
1. S. (33:35) In the article it explains why it can use the light of Hochma, only on the condition that the light of Hassadim, that there is this guard. That way, reception will turn the intention also in order to receive and everything, and at the end he says on Hanukkah the light of Hochma without the clothing of Hassadim, how can that be?
R. There were no vessels yet ready to receive the light of Hochma, this is why there was no prohibition on truly receiving the Hochma, and well, we need to read if that is the question.
2. S. (34:42) He speaks here on the materialization of the matter in spirituality, all of these events like Exodus, like Purim, and the miracle of Hanukkah. Is this like root and branch or anything that happened in the spiritual world, can we understand it that way, this is what took place in our world?
R. Well, let's say.
S. If the vessels, the same vessels, if the same lights, would they take place differently those same states?
R. I don't understand the question.
S. If the nature of Israel, the same we read about, the vessels of the souls?
R. Yes?
S. In a state of connection and unity would the same spiritual roots be realized differently?
R. Of course, we are the results, the consequence of the spiritual vessels and lights.
S. We know that everything that happens now, it happens through this cycle, same lights, the same, it’s revelation of the lights and the vessels that we prepare?
R. Yes?
S. Also now, can we change the revelation of the light in such a way?
R. Through the vessels, yes, through the vessels we can change the arrival of the lights, and in this way can reach the arrival of the complete light into the complete vessels.
S. So all of this protection that Rabash writes about here, it's we, we prepare that?
R. Yes, the whole thing is that the lights are above, the vessels are below, and we have to adapt such vessels so that the lights will enter them they will enter them and shine in them until the end of correction of all of the vessels.
3. S. (38:14) He gives advice here to go from Lo Lishma to Lishma, if I understood it correctly he gives gratitude to the Creator for the Creator giving him help through the concealment.
R. Yes?
S. So what is the advice here?
R. Through concealment, meaning through the lights that do not shine for him, he will actually be able to prepare himself; he will be able to prepare himself in order to prepare the vessels.
S. He says here that now he has a choice to say that now he works on behalf of the friends, and he has no contact with the Creator. Then he says that if a person gives gratitude, then he will for the sake of the Creator.
R. Yes, because he sees how much the contact with the friends is the means to reach contact with the Creator.
S. What is this matter of gratitude?
R. That he realizes that through the connection with them, he completes his own vessels.
S. What is the addition that he needs to expect that he gives gratitude to the Creator for letting him work through the friends?
R. Incorporation, incorporation with all of the qualities in the Ten Sefirot that have become incorporated and bring him to a state where he can also feel the light of the Creator.
S. Is the gratitude and action or a result?
R. Gratitude is an action.
S. What kind of action is it?
R. It's like reflected light, that he thinks the Creator for doing this miracle for him.
S. So what does he need to do, a person sees, for example, that he's not working for the sake of the Creator but he's working because of shame, that the friends obligate him. What does he now need to do to realize Rabash’s advice here to be grateful even though he is working through the will to receive still, nonetheless, he is grateful for it. What does that mean? What is it?
R. He tries to get closer to the Creator by wanting to get to know His actions, to learn from the Creator, to be what we call a wise disciple.
S. Is that through gratitude?
R. Yes.
S. I didn't understand, how can he?
R. When he thanks the Creator, the fact that the Creator keeps working with him and he is learning from it all of the manners of connection between him and the Creator through the friends.
4. S. (42:00) Hanukkah is the correction on the right, on Hassadim, and here it turns out that it's not Hassadim?
R. Why?
S. He summarizes the article that the purpose of creation isn't enough, it requires the clothing of Hassadim. But how can it be clothing of Hassadim if it's already, there is a correction of Hassadim?
R. I don't understand.
S. That's the first stage.
R. The first stage is Hanukkah, the second stage is Purim.
S. So if in the first stage, there is already a correction of Hassidim, then why is the correction of the purpose of creation is it not enough, why does he say it's lacking the clothing of Hassidim if it's already done?
R. Soon we will understand it, but if so then seemingly, Hanukkah, we could have finished all the corrections, but no, it's not the end.
S. May I ask another question about a miracle?
R. Yes.
S. He says that it's not in a person's ability to attain, so what's the purpose of all the prayers and all the exertion if the miracle, in the end, is for spirituality?
R. So that we will be ready for a miracle to happen.
S. So what does a person attain in getting in connection if, at the end of the day, he gets spirituality through a miracle?
R. But he somehow needs to be ready for it, it's not he that he performs the miracle, that he is ready for a miracle. He realizes that only through this miracle he will reach wholeness.
S. So everything that we do is just prepare ourselves?
R. Yes, but in the end spirituality doesn't depend on the labor; in the end, if there's a miracle, there is, if there is no miracle, there is no miracle. Spirituality depends on your exertion, nevertheless, how much you prepare the vessels.
S. So what is the miracle?
R. That in your preparation you don't reach that, but rather when you reach it, then you can detect the force of a miracle.
S. okay, so without exertion a miracle cannot happen?
R. Miracle, yes, but the realization, the recognition that there is a miracle, that cannot be.
5. S. (45:30) Would it be correct to say that Hanukkah is work on the concealment of the face and Purim is work on the revelation of the face with the Creator?
R. Yes.
S. So all of the vessels that we received right now but we cannot use them yet, this whole preparation is through all the friends here to the environment the Creator gave us. We actually build ourselves and this is our keeping on the path, on the way, through each and every one of us who is building these vessels through praying for each other, building the connection and love between us?
R. Yes.
6. S. (46:24) Can we say that a miracle is a change in our perception, it's replacing our perception?
R. Yes.
S. The prayer, left and right, are with respect to how we entered the house but if it's inside the house, a reflection of the Creator, left, left, and right versus right. A person should invert his qualities so left would be right?
R. Yes.
S. On Purim, it's up and down?
R. Yes.
7. S. (47:23) I would like to go back to the scrutiny of the previous friend: Seemingly there are two states here that he tells us about, one is when a person works for the friends, he gives all of himself to his friends, but he doesn't detect the Creator behind them, and then there is a state where apparently he does enough work and then he is rewarded with a state where it is opened up to him, it is revealed to him that the Creator is behind the friends.
R. Yes.
S. Why is that a higher degree, seemingly the first degree is more work for the person?
R. Well, in the second degree he attains the Creator, in the first degree he only attains the vessels.
S. Then when he attains the Creator it's already simple, for the Creator everyone is willing to work, he has been prepared for it, but for friends, it's a lot harder?
R. On that aspect you are correct, there is an inverse relation. I recommend that we read the article again.
Reading (48:48 - 01:21:19) Rabash. Article No. 11, 1990. What Placing the Hanukkah Candle on the Left Means in the Work - Again
8. R. (01:21:25) We see how much the clothing of the Hassidim is important.
9. S. (01:21:33) He writes in the beginning that he takes us out of Egypt in order to be your God. What does it mean in order to be your God, should have been the opposite, we should be as servants?
R. That we will be the nation or people of the Creator who belong to Him, who observe the laws, who are in adhesion with Him, this is called the people of the Lord.
S. What does it mean that he will be a God for us?
R. That we will do everything according to His will.
S. Is it correct that before Lishma there is no miracle?
R. Lishma, for her sake, in itself, is a miracle.
S. There is a different miracle?
R. No, before Lishma, we're working with the will to receive.
S. Until Lishma, we can say that there's no miracle?
R. Yes.
S. Is it good to do Torah and Mitzvot because of the friends?
R. Well, why not?
S. I don't know, maybe the will of the Creator.
R. It depends on how you relate to the will of the friends, is it not coming from the Creator clothed in the friends?
S. So that is a question: should I connect it to the Creator or is it enough to want to be part of the Ten because of the friends?
R. Basically, we need to see ourselves as facing the Creator, There Is None Else Besides Him, and the fact that He created many people, this rich environment, and through it, He governs us and even confuses us, it is all in order for us to develop the vessels. So that we will absorb all those discernments between the Creator and us, everything that we exist in reality. So that we would absorb it and be incorporated in it, and then we will be able to see that the Creator fills the whole world.
10. S. (01:24:22) Usually we hear that the purpose of the work is to bestow contentment to the Creator, and this article specifically, I'm getting a strong impression that the essence of the work is to keep His desire, to observe His desire, so what is the difference or maybe it's the same thing?
R. To give contentment to the Creator and?
S. To observe His will.
R. Which is what?
S. His desire to do good to His created beings, in this specific case, to perform the Mitzvot, to observe them, to agree to the corrections.
R. To agree to the corrections, to observe the correction, to observe the commandments, this is all correct, but what, how should we relate to it, what is the question?
S. What is the purpose of our work?
R. The purpose of our work is adhesion with the Creator.
11. S. (01:25:53) Continuing the friend’s questions, he writes that a person has to observe the Commandments also by coercion, even before he has a desire. So what is that thing that the Creator wants of us to do even through coercion?
R. Through coercion, there are also several degrees in this, when it is against the person's will, and it can be according to a person's will, if a person tries to convince himself that it is for his own good. There are others, so in this way, we seemingly observe the Creator's will, but it is no longer the Creator's will, but it is our will. We see that the whole world, that they believe in some way, in the upper force in all kinds of belief systems and religions they built for themselves some sort of Image and worship it. This is their form of spiritual work, look how seriously they do it!
S. For us, what does the Creator want of us?
R. We have to attain, it has to be attainment, clear attainment, attainment above our desire. Attainment that comes to us in the vessels that are unnatural, that naturally are not ours, and therefore we try to achieve adhesion with the Creator himself.
S. Is it true to say that man's work or a central part of it, is actually to scrutinize what the Creator wants from him?
R. Along the way, yes of course we want to scrutinize what the Creator wants from us in each and every state and try to observe His will by revealing that we ourselves are opposite of His will.
12. S. (01:29:00) It says that since a man has the reason to see his true state, it gives him a place to go above reason. Meaning that above reason, a person cannot go without the help of the Creator. We say that above reason is already the state of Lishma, so what is the plea to the Creator to go above reason in Lo Lishma or to reach Lishma?
R. I don't know, there are many degrees, and why should we now try to scrutinize them while we are still not in vessels that can scrutinize it, what for, why can't I ask for things that are above you? Ask on the level where you can attain and understand and research.
S. It is written that a person should not say that he is worse than all those person people who were in Egypt, that the Creator has the force to take them under their control. We say that our generation is the hardest vessels, so we can say that it is harder to take us out of Egypt than them, or we could not say that.
R. I do not know, I am not going to compare is this is more difficult or heavier than this. We have to do what we have to do, that is it, and of course, we can do it if it comes to us.
13. S. (01:30:59) He writes that according to the rule, we shall do, and we shall see, the deed affects the intention, what deed affects the intention?
R. An act of bestowal influences the intention to bestow, so even if previously I did not have the intention before but if I did something by force, by this I can come to the intention.
S. How can I use any deed that I do, day-to-day, in order to bring it to the right intention, is it possible for the deed to go to the intention?
R. You, first of all, research and think, why am I doing it, why am I doing it, what can I achieve through it?
S. What is an act of bestowal?
R. When I bestow, when I give to a friend, to friends, to the group, to the world even if there is also my will to receive involved there, also relates to me, it belongs to me, it comes back to me through some detour. But still I know that this is how it happens, and I know that I advance this way.
S. Why should that deed give me an intention to bestow?
R. Because I'm aiming for the sake of the created beings outside of me, for the sake of the friends.
14. S. (01:32:30) What is for the benefit of the Creator?
R. For the sake of the Creator means that, in the end, I want through all of my actions towards others, to come to bringing Him contentment. I cannot add anything to the Creator, Himself, I cannot bring Him contentment. If you write, what will you give Him, meaning that there's nothing to do here. But because I am performing good actions towards His creations, by this I do good to Him.
S. Why is it not enough to do good deeds towards the created beings?
R. It is not enough, I have to come to bring Him contentment because the whole thought of creation emerges from Him to me through all the created beings. So I, too, have to try through all the created beings to relate in the same way to Him.
S. So what characterizes the state when the person is working to give contentment to the Creator and not to created beings, how can he discern that?
R. This scrutiny or clarification comes to a person gradually, but that is to the extent that he is willing to work with the created beings, otherwise he becomes confused.
S. He writes that a person says that by giving good deeds, that is the will to the Creator, He obligates him, and then he says again that if he chooses and says that only the Creator helped him to do good deeds by clothing in the friends, so he gives gratitude and is rewarded with working for the Creator in revelation. So there is a benefit of a person telling to himself, now I want to work for the benefit of the Creator, what does it mean that I tell myself what does it matter?
R. He is directing himself; this is called the saying is the intention. He is directing himself to come to work to an act that he's directed toward the Creator.
S. If he does not have the intention yet?
R. Even if he doesn't have it, but it's impossible that he does not have it if he is already talking about it, to some extent, it is there already.
16. S. (01:35:45) In the end of the article it says, that is why the miracle was only on the spiritual meaning the light of this purpose of creation, that is the light of Hochma, right, that it was shining? What does it mean, how can we feel it, how can I recognize from all my feelings that state?
R. Repeat?
S. How do I feel that state of the purpose of creation, that it was shining? He says, the miracle was in the spirituality, the light of the purpose of creation that was shining. How can we feel such a thing? Maybe, to be more focused, let's say between the friends and society?
R. When I intend for something, and for me, the beginning of the work and the end of the work are already in front of me, and then I try to do it. This is what I understand.
R. He cannot use it because of the lack of Hassidim because you are not allowed to use it?
S. Yes, he does not have the intention to bestow, he does not have the light of Hassadim, and then his intention to work by force with the light of Hochma will not be, will not happen ,will not be carried out.
S. That's called spirituality and they could not use it yet?
R. Yes because he does not have the light of Hassadim.
S. So we cannot use the candles of Hanukkah but only to view them, to look at them, because there is no clothing; what does it mean only to look at them?
R. To see them only, meaning this is the only way you can use them, and you don't use them, but you only see them, this is an act before they use.
S. Practically now, we are in the days of Hanukkah, there are special lights, what should we do, how can we implement or use this week, these days of Hanukkah in practice?
R. We learn what it is, and we try to somehow approach it, and that is it. When we are at such a level, we will feel, in practice, what are the lights of Hanukkah, what does it mean to light these lights, and how to behave with them. In the meantime, we do not have it.
16. S. (01:39:09) To know the will of the Creator, is that really knowing or is that faith above reason?
R. To know the will of the Creator is in the person's sensation.
17. S. (01:39:25) What should we do in the spiritual work for the evil inclination to bring benefits and not damage?
R. For this, you already need to know how to work with it in order to bestow.
18. S. (01:39:41) Why is the light of wisdom called left?
R. Because it's not the light of Rachamim, the light of the right, it is a light that awakens corresponding to the vessels of reception, corresponding to the darkness, corresponding to the force of darkness, there is nothing more to say.
19. S. (01:40:23) What does, “we will do, and we'll hear” mean and how is it expressed in the Ten?
R. We will do, and we will hear, in general, means that anything that we want to do, we try to do it together, we try to do it in order to bestow upon each other in agreement in the Ten, and then we aim it to the Creator, this is called from the love of the people to the love of the Creator, and we try to also feel in one desire what we attain.
20. S. (01:41:09) He writes that when he's born, he gets Nefesh soul from a pure beast, and afterwards he gets Ruach from the holy animals, and then he gets Neshama from the Chariot, can you explain what that means?
R. No, these are high spiritual states that we are not yet, we are far from it, but they are all attained to connection and mutual bestowal between us and from between us to the Creator. This is basically the order of the actions and the direction of the action.
21. S. (01:42:06) Today we learned why we put the Hanukkah candle on the left. Yesterday we talked about it in the Ten and we could not find an answer.
R. Because the actions are still not corrected.
22. S. (01:42:42) He writes that the fact that a man has a reason in his true state, it gives him an opportunity to go above reason. Meaning that above reason, a person cannot go without the help of the Creator and if he sees that on behalf of the mind he can go ahead, he does not need His help. So the question is, in the Ten we are careful a lot, we try to speak in greatness and not in a way that lowers. So how do we work correctly for what he says here that we need to say that this is in reason, but we are going above reason, how do we do that?
R. If we can, and if we cannot then we do not.
S. Let's say that there's a phenomenon you see in the Ten, in reason it seems unwanted, but we always know that everything is by the Creator and always for the good. So how do we conduct this discussion correctly in order to work with it?
R. But it will not work for you above reason, you’re just changing one opinion for another.
S. How can it work above reason?
R. It still cannot work, it still cannot work.
23. S. (01:44:11) How can we know that we receive the light of Hochma?
R. We will feel it, that the light of wisdom shines from one end to the other, and it becomes clear to us who we are, what we are, what we are doing. Meaning the reception of the light of Hochma is like opening the eyes, clear?
24. S. (01:45:04) How to turn posterior into the face?
R. Turning posterior into anterior means elevating yourself to a degree where you are connected and you love the friends, and likewise toward the Creator.
25. S. (01:45:44) In the article it is said that in the book Shaar Hakavanot, it is written that both Hanukkah and Purim are the single discernment that extends from HOD. So the question is why HOD, why not Hesed or Yesod?
R. That is the level of the action.
26. S. (01:46:19) He states to be rewarded of the face, is the face something you're rewarded with, or can it appear just to give a person a momentary discernment of what face and posterior is? Is it always something where you work and are rewarded, or can it come randomly?
R. Interior means you understand what is happening to us, and posterior means we don't understand yet, but it gives you an opportunity to prepare our vessels for perception and understanding.
S. Do I work for it, or will it appear without my work?
R. You have to ask yourself if you're working for it or not.
27. S. (01:47:13) How can we build vessels of bestowal above our vessels of reception in order to accept the light because it is against my nature?
R. We want to relate to each other in bestowal and love and connection, and we ask together between us, from between us to the Creator, and in this way, we receive from above a power that enters us and corrects us and then we become carriers of the vessels of bestowal and within it or according to it, we reveal the Creator and from Him onwards.
28. S. (01:48:14) Many times you answer friends that connect between us or connect with your friends, is that answer for a certain person or for the whole Ten, and should a Ten take the answer and pray for a friend?
R. Usually it is for the Ten.
29. S. (01:49:10) Is Hanukkah higher than Purim?
R. Purim is higher, what is with you, Purim we celebrate it even with the bodies, we have to get drunk, we have to drink wine. Purim is a festival that is like the end of Correction, we hanged the ten sons of Haman, Purim is the end of everything, all the corrections.
S. Not Purim that will be, the Purim that was, that came before Hanukkah?
R. No, no, no, we are talking about the corrections that we have to do.
30. S. (01:50:06) It is written in the article that the Creator made one against the other.
R. So?
S. How does that serve us because He is the Good that does good?
R. The good inclination as the evil inclination, both grip a person and both say, it is all mine, he is all mine, and the person, in between, has to judge and decide between them and this way advance.
S. It is also written that each and every one on the path towards adhesion is promised, does that mean that everyone has a personal exertion?
R. Yes.
31. S. (01:51:06) Is the miracle here to show us what can happen when we all unite in faith above reason, that is the miracle?
R. Yes, yes.
S. So we start lighting the candle from the left to show the correction, reception to bestowal?
R. Yes.
32. S. (01:51:48) He writes that you can't use the light of the purpose of creation because it didn't take place yet, what does he mean that he has no vessels?
R. We still don't have the vessels to receive this great light.
S. So he says that we need a shattering?
R. Yes.
S. So what does it mean, that he didn't calculate how much he can bestow yet?
R. If the light that comes, he can calculate on it, but the light that hasn't come yet, how can he calculate it?
S. So only once he has a vessel?
R. Yes.
33. S. (01:52:38) Now there's a lot of pain in the heart, is it a part before the new battle to walk on the path of the Creator?
R. Yes.
34. S. (01:53:03) I wrote here that there are several stages in coercion, we first have to understand in our reason. Is this enough or do we also have to feel it in our heart?
R. From the reason, it will pass to the heart.
35. S. (01:53:50) What is the root of the soul?
R. The root of the soul is the desire the Creator created.
36. S. (01:53:58) It is written in the article that, about the seven discernments of Holiness, each of which consists of ten and corresponds to the seventy nations in the world that are in the person. So these seven qualities, are they, like, help made against him standing one opposite the other?
R. We will learn that later, but yes.
37. S. (01:54:37) He says here in the excerpt, but in this, too, we must not slight it, meaning that these actions, too, a person must be thankful to the Creator that the Creator gave friends strength to obligate him to work according to their will. This is called the Creator watching over him in concealment and the fact that the Creator had seems so forces him to do good deeds.
R. Yes?
S. What I wanted to ask is what does it mean to obligate the friends, how do we obligate the friends in a way that the friends will feel not the clothing of flesh and blood but the Creator?
R. By giving an example, giving an example.
S. Can you explain it?
R. No.
38. S. (01:55:44) For the correction of creation, it is said that let's say, bestowing is clothed in Hassidim, and for the purpose of creation, it is, reception is clothed in, let’s say, light of Hassidim. So it looks like it's twice Hassidim we need to use, what is the difference in the usage, is it the same light, how do we interpret this?
R. In the light of Mercy, Hassidim, we can use it only in acts to bestow, and the light of Hassidim can be used in the action of receiving in order to bestow. Then with the light of Hassidim in receiving in order to bestow, the light of Hochma can clothe in that, and then we already have a complete act.
S. To clarify, what is the difference in using the light of Hassidim in the correction of creation and the purpose of creation?
R. So correction of creation is the light of Hassidim, and the purpose of creation is receiving all the light of Hochma in order to bestow.
S. Could it also have to do with a double Lishma, Lishma for bestowal, correction, let's say of the correction of creation, and also Lishma for the purpose of creation?
R. Yes, you can say that, usually we don't say it that way, but it is right.
39. S. (01:57:54) I have this contradiction in me that I don't know how to reconcile: We have been in Tens for several years now, the Tens, my environment it was created in some way. I was given this Ten, I didn't choose it; on the other hand, it is written that a person should choose an environment for himself. How can I choose an environment for myself environment within the Ten because I can't leave the Ten?
R. Choosing an environment is every time to be more and more connected to them, discovering higher desires and pulling to them, connecting to them.
S. If I can succeed, is it my problem?
R. If you don't succeed it's your problem completely, only your problem.