Lesson November 10, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 56. Torah Is Called Indication
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, this article is Shamati 56: Torah Is Called Indication. It is one of the fundamental articles about the foundation of the wisdom of Kabbalah, because it tells us about the main principle that we have in the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is compared to all kinds of other engagements in this world. The one that engages in the Torah of the public versus the Torah of the individual, one who studies public wisdom and teachings. He studies all kinds of wisdoms and teachings and he measures his advancement according to the number of pages he studies, how many rules he knows, and also according to how much he is being appreciated. That is all in the vessels that you can measure in this world. Whereas, the Torah of the individual, which is the wisdom of Kabbalah, is measured according to how the person himself is measured, and not what others can see in him, feel in him or know about him. So he feels himself each time as much as he is actually distancing, as much as he is more loathsome, corrupt, and truly an egoist, how much he is immersed in concern for himself and feeling himself.
Therefore one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater, he feels his desire as more and more lowly, loathsome and he feels himself as weaker, unable to cope with his desire and overcome himself. This is why it says that the reason of the Torah is opposite to the reason of the landlords, the view of the Torah is opposite to the view of the landlord. The view of the Torah is as much as a person distance from himself and the view of the landlord is as much as he fills his possessions and accumulates possession more and more and there is oppositeness there. This is why this article explains to us precisely of course in a way that is beautiful, it is nice, certainly nicer than me. What is the difference between the wisdom of the individual and the wisdom of the Kabbalah and the wisdom of the public, which are all kinds of different teachings and faith where there are a lot of different parts. Let's see what he writes and go ahead and ask so we will be able to scrutinize it sufficiently
Shamati article 56 (04:00) Torah is called indication.
2. R. (04:24) That is to the extent that he is coming closer actually and he studies more and he understands more and he feels more. In his feeling he feels that he is actually moving away. That he is becoming worse that he understands less.
Reader continues (04:45) “in other words he is shown….”
3. S. (13:25) What does it mean that a person measures his true state nearing the Creator through faith in the Creator?
R. As much as he yearns to reach adhesion, equivalence with the Creator, according to that he measures his true state. Because indeed the true state we have no way to measure it, everything exists inside of us relative to us. If one studies and constantly feels how he is always further from the Creator, then he should realize that the Creator is showing him the truth and this is why he, according to that truth, he's advancing. That is he is advancing according to the truth not according to the distance.
4. S. (14:43) Here in the article it seems like a person sees his ugliness in others and then he says go to the Craftsman who made me. How do we now calm myself in the state and constantly move towards the Creator?
R. The fact that I see myself as higher than the other, this shows me the degree of my lowness, how much I am inside of my ego. Therefore, if I explain this to myself correctly, how do I see the world, people, the friends? If I am proud that I am above them, then this shows how far I am. Then I have no choice but only to pray that the Creator will help me to come closer to them and to come closer to him and see the truth. Not the truth of how far I am but rather the truth that through actions, through my inner corrections, I can come closer through the friends to the Creator.
5. S. (16:25) How do I distinguish if it is even possible, If I am closer to the Creator because of a great effort of a person in the group from moving away from the group because it's the opposite?
R. Well, usually a person who doesn't invest in his advancement, his true advancement he doesn't feel that he is far away. The Torah doesn't show him the truth. The Torah shows one the truth only to the extent that he invests in his correct advancement, that is he wants to be closer to the friends, closer to the Creator, He wants to reach bestowal. Then the Torah shows him how much he is not in that. But if he doesn't invest a lot, then the Torah seemingly puts him to sleep. Everything is okay, you can't continue like that or to the contrary, it evokes even more pride in him and his ego and he feels himself as successful. Look at all the people who do not study the wisdom of Kabbalah but rather they belong to all kinds of religions. They keep all kinds of actions, whatever every method demands and they feel themselves at all as whole. They have no problem, from day to day one keeps on adding. Whereas one who studies the wisdom of Kabbalah, he has two states, in one state he sees himself how much he is on a more loathsome, despicable lower degree than the others, because the Creator reveals to him each time a greater degree of his ego because he's able to advance. On the other hand this is how he feels himself.
6. S. (19:19) What is Elijah in the text, is it the reason?
R. Elijah is the degree of revelation. A special level of revelation is called the revelation of Elijah.
7. S. (19:50) This revealing lack of correction, what is the criteria for this, what does it mean I am revealing, what does it mean I'm so ugly and terrible?
R. Each time as I advance, I find myself to be more egoist, more corrupted. My desire that exists inside of me, my foundation, it is revealed in me more and more. This is why I therefore feel worse and worse. Because according to the ordinary human mind, the more I advance I should be better, I should understand more, feel more, I should be higher and here I feel myself the opposite each time. A descent, a fall is revealed, darkness, night and only later on through my work, if I do work correctly, then I discover gradually a special illumination that elevates me and it brings me to a feeling of morning, the day.
S. But it always includes the possibility of correction?
R. Well of course you become worse and worse. However each time if you're free from the right actions and mostly it's in the social connection, then out of that you reach a state where all of that dark, black, confused state, becomes clarified. A special light comes and illumination and you feel more, you understand more, where you were, the darkness becomes light.
8. S. (22:08) According to what he writes comes to a state where I'm the worst in the world, I am the ugliest dog on Earth, If I compare myself only to the group the friends are stronger than I am but there are friends who are less frequent than I am in the morning lesson and less active in dissemination, are they ugly or worse than me, so I'm in the middle somewhere?
R. No, it's not according to that it's not according to those corporeal discernments. That they are doing less dissemination or things like that that you can measure yourself, no. However, we measure them according to their devotion to connection in the group connection with the Creator, how much they are drawn to it, how much they know how to overcome all the different states and how much they support the friends in the 10. Are they truly holding them pushing them up so that they will rise. That is to the extent that they care for the Arvut in the ten, mutual guarantee in the 10 according to that we measure the greatness of the friends, according to the degree of Arvut or as Baal HaSulam writes in the Arvut article.
9. S. (23:44) If I say go to the craftsman who made me it's as if I'm shifting the responsibility to the Creator, how will this approach bring me the recognition of evil?
R. I'm not passing the responsibility to the Creator, the responsibility depends on me because according to my appeal I determine how I advance but I can advance only through the help of the Creator. Only by me getting help from above. Therefore it's not that I just throw away the responsibility for myself. If I will not turn up then who knows when the Creator will awaken me through all kinds of suffering and blows. But if I will turn to him and then certainly in my appeal, I already start to get help.
10. S. (24:49) What is the advice if the recognition of evil grows over time that the prayer and concern for the friends for the Creator to give him contentment, doesn't grow to the same extent as the recognition of evil?
R. This is a sign that the person is still not sufficiently immersed in the friends. He still is not tied or connected to the help of the Creator that he is expecting help from above.
11. S. (25:38) This is an article which appears in its importance between a person in the Creator through Torah, through filling his vessel, if a person has this impression that he understands that the Creator gives this to a person through Torah, this ugliness, this feeling, that in this feeling of remoteness that it's actually for him to come closer, how can he use this Hitpalelut for the benefit of the 10, how can he connect this impression with the friends?
R. Look, we forget that our vessel, our body, Guf, our soul, is a structure that incorporates 10 parts. 10 parts and in those 10 parts we have the Keter which is like the Creator and we have the Malchut which is as the created being. All of the others, the other 8 parts, are on the way from Keter to Malchut. As the Sefirot of direct light and from Malchut to Keter as the reflected light, bestowing from the Creator downward and then bestowing from the created being upward. There cannot be any bestowing from Malchut to Keter. It is not through all of these other Sefirot. Through incorporation with all of them because otherwise if we are not incorporated with everyone, then we are not building before us the concept of the Creator. As it says you have made me because there is no Creator. Where did you see him, where did you find him? He doesn't exist. Also as Baal HaSulam writes that you are not allowed to reach out and touch him because there is no such thing. This is something that is above our attainment, above our nature, above our feeling.
But rather it is possible for us it became possible for us, through the cascading of the desires, and bestowing from above, from the Creator the way that he arranges those desires so that out of their incorporation, out of their breaking and the correction of the relations between them, by us arranging all of those things together, specifically by that we build this concept of Creator. With respect to me, with respect to us, before us, out of a state where he does not exist but in such a way, we can build him. This is why all of these descents from Ein Sof down to us, it is a preparation. That we from below upward will build the Creator. We will build him according to our correct attitude towards him. Then we will have a connection between man’s ego through his relations in the 10, to the Creator and the other way around, bestowing from the Creator from the 10 to the person. In the connection between us where each one has a different lane towards the Creator, and there's also a lane from the Creator to him. When we connect in such an integration, such a connection between us we build a complete vessel. 10 Sefirot of directly and 10 Sefirot of reflected light and couplings by striking, all these interconnections, everything that we learned about the spiritual Partzuf and the Partzufim when they connect together. Eventually, this gives us a sphere, a complete form which we feel, Israel, meaning each one who is aimed at the Creator. Oraita, the Torah, the connection between us and the Creator as we become incorporated as one in a single system which is as a sphere it is more round. This is what we need to do and it is done specifically when a person discovers, reveals his exertion upon all of those problems that the Creator awakens in him. The Creator awakens in us, by that addition of light coming from Him. He awakens in us feelings of corruption, another corruption, another corruption, another corruption and by this he shows us how much we can connect to Him more and more and more. Therefore the most important thing is that we need to realize each and every moment in our life that I have an ability to connect even more between us. In the connection between us, this is how we reach the form of the sphere, wholeness. Then it turns out that each one connects through all kinds of events, incidents that appear between us in the 10. Until we establish the image of the Creator
12. S. (32:52) Needing friends in truth is something that you need for life, is it only after the restriction?
R. No, it's along the way if we constantly try to remind ourselves that the connection to the Creator is through the 10 and not in any other way, then a little bit more and a little bit more this is how we establish our connection with the Creator through the 10. Then we start to feel that we, all of us, exist in me, the group and the Creator or the Creator, the group and me, from below up and above down.
S. But after the restriction does some other need appear?
R. Well that's already the work that's already on the path. The most important thing is the principal and according to the principle we should already work. There are numerous details here but they all follow the principle of Israel, the light and the Creator are one. Meaning the person who yearns which is called Israel, the Torah meaning all of the lights that we want to sort between us, to scrutinize and the Creator. To constantly be in me through the group to the Creator and whatever I feel is what I get from the Creator through the group.
13. S. (34:53) In the text I didn't really understand one place, once I discovered that I am the weakest link in our mutual responsibility he writes then comes the other side and agrees that I am the worst. But they give me an excuse, sort of. If I were born with different qualities I would succeed. I don't understand the essence of this excuse, how can it stop me if I have already discovered that I am the worst?
R. This is why you feel that I am not successful but if I were born with better qualities with a greater inner strength, then certainly I would be able to overcome everything and I would constantly take part 100% in the group in the study in dissemination in whatever is required day and night as much as possible. Besides the things that I necessarily have to keep like work, home, such things a little bit and that's it this is what a person thinks. He doesn't realize that those weaknesses that are being revealed to him, it is an order for him to connect more. So that he will be able to reach the Creator so that nevertheless he will be able to digest his situation and turn to the Creator with a request this is what is required of us. But their request has to be organized, arranged correctly. Correctly means arranged through the 10 with an effort to put together the structure of the 10 as correctly as possible. By coming closer between us we don't know what the structure is, how do I know where I am in the 10, where is each and every friend and in general we don't have a 10, we have five let's say. Even says that the minimum of ten is two, so I don't know, but rather my effort to reach such relations between me and the friends that are similar to the Creator those are the degrees of bestowing. So those relations gradually build between us a connection which is as a right 10 a complete Sefirot which are called the Partzuf of the Soul. The Partzuf is a form the form of the Soul
14. S. (37:51) What do we have to do if sometimes we feel more hatred towards people from the world instead of people in the 10, how should we cope with it?
R. I don't think we should deal with it. We should exert all our efforts in the connection between us because this is what is important for us in our spiritual advancement and all of our relationships with the world will be reconciled by themselves bit by bit.
15. Workshop question: (38:57) What did we understand from the article that is the most important thing in learning the Torah, learning the wisdom of Kabbalah. Again, the question is what is important for us in learning the wisdom of Kabbalah?
16. Rav reading (42:42) The article Torah Is Called Indication. Torah is called indication from the words shot through, it means that one engages in the Torah he feels his remoteness to the extent of his exertion in the Torah.
In other words he is shown the truth meaning he is shown each measure of faith according to his remoteness. In other words how to say if he is learning Torah and it is just knowledge, to know what is written with his egoistic intellect. But rather he is learning in order to advance, to know the Creator. According to his measure, if he tries, he tries correctly. According to this he should actually feel his remoteness, that he is far.
In other words he is shown the truth which he didn't see before. Meaning he has shown his measure of faith. How close or not close he is to the Creator which is the whole basis of the truth to the extent the basis of observing Torah and Mitzvot, commandments on one’s measure of faith. In other words, all we need is to come to devotion to the Creator, that's it and here we are shown as we are learning and Torah when we learn the wisdom of Kabbalah which is called the internality of the Torah. Then we feel that we are opposite, that we are moving away. People who don't study the wisdom of Kabbalah who don't study as it is called the wisdom of truth, they don't feel that they're moving away. For them, they keep adding and adding first of all knowledge. But those who study not knowledge but Torah they feel that they are opposite, moving further and further away, previously they were better, now they are worse. Previously they understood more and now they understand less. Both in mind and heart, they feel that they have become less than before.
In other words he is shown the truth, meaning he has shown his measure of faith which is the whole basis of the truth. To the extent that he has faith the whole basis of observing Torah and Mitzvot is built on that. Since then it appears to him that his whole basis is built only on the upbringing he received. In other words, the way he's studied all kinds of teachings, let's put it this way. This is because rearing is sufficient for him to keep Torah and Mitzvot in all of its intricacies and details. Meaning he does what is required, he comes, he attends lessons, he studies, he even performs all the activities that he needs to, that he understands. Everything that comes through rearing is called faith within reason. In other words, this is the life of a regular person who engages in all kinds of teachings, belief systems even though this is against one's mind. Meaning reason necessitates according to one’s addition in the Torah so one should feel closer to the Creator.
However, as it's written above, the Torah always shows him more of the truth. Meaning to what extent if he's learning Torah, meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah.
The wisdom of Kabbalah is called the true Torah. So if he's learning the real wisdom of Kabbalah when he learns and so that when he learns he draws the reforming light even to the smallest extent, when he doesn't know it but he is in this environment, he's in the group, he hears about what he needs to do. Then through the 10 even if he's not that connected to them and doesn't feel all those things, he doesn't hear that he needs to be corrected, still gradually it works on him then he begins to feel some changes. These changes begin to show him that he is in darkness, in a descent, misunderstanding, confusion, he doesn't know where he is, what is this world but it's in his feelings, not in his intellect. In his feelings he begins to see how lost he is.
Even though it is against one's mind, meaning that the more he learns, he feels that he's less than before, lower than before. Meaning reason necessitates that according to one’s addition to Torah, meaning in his studies intellectually. So one you feel closer to the Creator, that he understands more, feels more, he comes to know this upper force.
However, the Torah always shows him more of the truth. Meaning not the state of the world, he's not studying it as some sort of physics and astronomy. He is studying this on himself and then everything depends on his inner vessels, his own inner vessels, where within me are the microscopes and all those instruments by which I can come to connection to them and correct work with my inner instruments, how can I come to the Creator. According to what we learned, my inner instruments are the group where to the extent that I connect to the friends in together with everyone it's as if I connect to all kinds of instruments by which I later discover the Creator. In Hebrew, the world vessel and instruments it's the same, vessel, Kelim.
This is where the person searches for the truth and the Torah brings him closer to the truth. Meaning we learn that in every person there is this point from the Creator which is called the part of God from above. That part exists in everyone but it may be more standing out or less standing out. He sees that when they walk into the room where they are learning and one comes out to teach or I found one person out of 1000, there are all kinds of sayings that say that this point that burns in a person is one part out of 1000. Over the whole planet that too is a lot. I wish one person out of 1000 in the world would come to us. What we want is to disseminate as much as possible so that as many people as possible come and that will help us get closer to the Creator. What happens in the meantime he says this, although it is against his mind, meaning reason necessitates according to one's addition in the Torah so one should feel closer to the Creator. However, the Torah always shows him more of the truth and he sees how far he is from the Creator. Previously he didn't see it, it's not like the Torah pushes him away and then he gets worse and worse and worse the Torah doesn't make him worse. What the Torah does, it shows him how opposite he is from the Creator. Meaning it shows him the truth. That's when a person's searches for the truth. Then the Torah brings him closer to the truth and he sees his measure of faith in the Creator. Meaning how far is from the Creator.
Meaning the more he learns the farther he feels himself from the Creator. Therefore if he doesn't have a point in the heart that connects him to the Creator, one point and around it all the qualities they show him how opposite he is from the Creator but that point, that inner point in a person, has to be in connection with the Creator and then a person will not run away because to him that point is more important than all the other qualities, understandings, whatever he has.
As long as he constantly finds his source of life, the Creator. In those in whom this point is still not clarified enough, they leave. We see such people, such friends that we had and they left. They will come back but who knows maybe in this life may be soon or maybe who knows when but everyone is still in the same field that the Creator is managing, governing.
In other words the Torah shows a person the truth of where he is with respect to nearing the Creator and this is why our first phases are such that we feel ourselves more and more opposite. This is why it is written, he who is greater than his friend who exerts more in getting closer to the friends and the Creator, his inclination is greater than him, He feels his evil inclination is greater. Then it is as if the Torah instead of correcting him, which would make sense to him. It shows him the truth how far he is. It's not like yesterday he was closer and is farther today, but yesterday he didn't see it and today he does and tomorrow he will see even more and more. When we come to the end, we feel ourselves before the final and complete adhesion, we feel ourselves as the farthest, farthest from there we come to the deepest adhesion.
This is so on a person when a person searches for the truth and the Torah brings him closer to the truth, to the truth, that's the right word here, it brings him closer to the truth and he sees his measure of faith in the Creator. This is so that he would be able to ask for mercy and pray for the Creator to bring him genuinely closer to him, to the truth meaning although I see how far I am, only to ask the Creator to erase this gap between me and him which now appears as a greater distance, even as opposite, no but to allow me to nevertheless, over that distance to get closer to him. So I have both the coarseness of being far and adhesion which is closest. I need to have both coarseness of being far and adhesion which is closeness, or what is called refinement. I need both coarseness and adhesion. In the coarseness, I discover my true nature and in adhesion I discover my nature of the Creator and then in this way we come to a connection between us.
Again, when a person searches for the truth, the Torah brings him closer to the truth and he sees his measure of faith in the Creator. This is so that he would be able to ask for mercy and pray for the Creator to bring him closer, genuinely closer to him. To be rewarded with faith in the Creator. Then he will be able to bring praise and gratitude to the Creator for having been granted being brought closer to him. To the extent that the Creator reveals my oppositeness from him, I ask him on top of this coarseness to bring me closer. Give me the same qualities as yours. Then a person becomes comprised of two, the quality of bestowing and the quality of reception and in this way, he can be in adhesion with the Creator even when initially he is opposite from him.
However, when he does not see the measure of his remoteness, so that each time he is in connection with the 10, in connection with the lessons each day learning. When a person doesn't see his measure of remoteness and thinks that he is constantly adding, you find that he builds all the buildings on a rickety basis. This is not the wisdom of Kabbalah already, it's the wisdom of the Torah of the general public. He has no place to pray for the Creator to bring him closer to him, he doesn’t feel remoteness so why should he ask to become closer, he doesn't have it as a lack, a deficiency. It follows that he has no place for exertion, to be imparted whole faith, since one exerts only for that which one needs. Hence, as long as one is not worthy of seeing the truth, he hasn't ripened within for it. It is the opposite, the more one adds in Torah and Mitzvot. one adds in the measure of his wholeness. He feels himself as more complete and does not see any deficit in himself. It's called he adds each day, each day, he feels more whole, prouder, that he knows more, we see this in the people around us. Therefore, he has no place to exert and pray to be granted faith in the Creator in truth. Meaning the quality of bestowal that can be when his ego is revealed. When he feels corruption then you can talk about correction but when he engages in Torah and Mitzvot in truth, in short, the Torah shows him the truth, that's why the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the wisdom of truth.
The Torah has that power to show one’s true state of faith. It's his level of faith and in parentheses Rabash adds and this is the meaning of make his sin known, meaning then a person discovers his sin, his participation in the sin of Adam HaRishon. When one engages in Torah and sees the truth meaning his measure of remoteness from spirituality and sees that he is such a lowly being that there is not a worse person than him on Earth, it is a necessary feeling that we have to come to and it comes from within and there's nothing you can do with it, you don't ask for it. It just comes and you feel that there is no-one worse, lowly, despicable, selfish, there is no one lower than you. Then the Sitra Achra, the other side comes to him with a different argument. In fact, his body is really very ugly and it is true that there is not an uglier person in the world than him. Why does he do it, so he will despair. That's why she tells him this. Because from a person who is despaired, our ego actually becomes filled. Since she is afraid, the other side, our ego, that he will notice and come to correct his state. For this reason she agrees to what one says that he is an ugly person and lets him understand that if he had been born with higher skills and better quality, he could have overcome his evil and corrected it, and he would have been able to achieve adhesion with the Creator.
If you were born with better qualities and skills, if he had greater inner power, if he had the ability to cope with his ego as some people are strong, but he can't, he is weak, very simple. He is a rag, it is as Rabash said about me, well now you feel like you're a rag just like I am. He actually appreciated that feeling of being a rag because that feeling awakens every now and again every step of the way actually until the end of correction. Because until the end of correction we reveal our egos which drop us. The answer to this should be that what she tells him the other side, is brought concerning Rabbi Elazar, son of Rabbi Shimon, that he came from a fenced tower, from a high tower, he was riding his donkey Rabbi Elezar, the son of Rabbi Shimon they were sitting in a cave writing the Book of Zohar. So when he came from his father's house along the way, he was strolling on the riverbank, and he was very happy and his mind was screwed, meaning all of a sudden, he started becoming proud. He felt that he was good, that he was a great person, that he was happy, why? Because the Torah showed him the truth that he was in his ego because he was learning much Torah. Then he came across a person, in other words within him he felt that there was another person who was very ugly so he asked the person within him, “Hello,” but he did not reply. He said to him “how ugly is that person, are all your townspeople as ugly as you?” Meaning is it usually usual to have it this way. So he replied, “I do not know but go and tell the Craftsman who made me. Why are you complaining to me that I'm ugly? Go to the Creator who created me and complain to him how ugly is this vessel that you have made.”
Because he knew that he had sinned he descended from the donkey. He left his pride, his substance, his material and descended from it. According to the above we can see that since he learned much Torah through it, he was granted seeing the truth. What is the truth, what is the distance between himself and the Creator. Meaning the measure of his remoteness and nearness. This is the meaning of his mind being crude. Meaning that he saw the complete form of one who is proud, the will to receive, his ego and then he could see the truth. That it was he himself who was that very ugly person. How did he see the truth? By learning much Torah, in other words the Torah explains to us, shows us how broken we are. Since the breaking of Adam HaRishon and what we should correct. Thus how will we be able to adhere to the Creator's since a person is so ugly. This is why he asked if all the people were as ugly as him or was, he the only ugly one and the rest of the people in the world are not ugly. What was the answer, I don't know. What do you mean I don't know, it means that they do not feel and therefore do not know.
I can't speak for everyone. Each one according to his feeling, to the extent that a person reveals to a person that he is opposite from him and why do they not feel? It is for the simple reason that they were not rewarded seeing the truth since they lack Torah. So the Torah will show them the truth meaning they're not learning the wisdom of Kabbalah, the wisdom of Truth, which will reveal to them how opposite and far they are from the Creator and by what they can come closer to him. To that Elijah replies to him, Elijah is a special illumination from above which usually brings us scrutinies. Go to the Craftsman who made me, Elijah said, meaning he had this insight about what to do. Go to the Craftsman who made me, the Creator made you, he made you this way, you can only turn to him and only from him will you receive the powers to answer. Because he saw that he came to a state from which he could not ascend, He was really in a decline. Elijah appeared to him and told him, go to the Craftsman who made me, in other words, since the Creator created you so ugly, he must have known that with these vessels it is possible to achieve the goal. That he is actually showing you everything that is opposite from the goal so you would need the goal and you would need the Creator. Then the goal, the Creator and your ugly states when they connect again, it will be the right vessel and the upper light and the Creator will be revealed between the ugly vessel and the complete upper light. So do not worry, go forward and succeed. This is what we need to do.
17. S. (01:11:55) When I discover how ugly I am, is that any contrast to the matter of annulment?
R. Why? They're not contradictory. I am learning and discovering my state according to the state that is revealed to me from above through the reforming light. I discover that I am weak, I'm an egoist, I don't want to correct myself, I don't want to connect to the friends, I am better and smarter. Along with it they're not contradictory. I can discover that I know nothing and at the same time I can discover that I'm above everyone. These things that seemingly cannot be together, cannot go hand in hand, works out easily in an egoist.
18. S. (01:13:27) I measure my attitude toward the friends throughout the day. How much I am willing to think about and invest in them. How is that related to the matter of studying the Torah?
R. When I learn about the structure of the worlds and Partzufim, it is called the study of Torah. To the extent that I learn about the importance of connection when I learn about the process which went through the lights and vessels and how the Creator made these actions I am tied to His actions. Through His actions called ‘from Your actions I shall come to know You,’ I begin to become familiar with Him. I awaken upon myself these forces of lights that influence me through the study and more and more they make my broken vessels suitable to those same actions the Creator made. It turns out that if we study with the intention to get closer to the Creator, to become familiar with Him and to resemble Him, then all our study influences us. We need to pay attention to how much we are changing from day to day, seemingly for the worse. Today I become more crude, more vulgar, more intellectual, and less emotional. These are also results. We need to go through all of these things. The main thing for us is to continue to study, read, and connect
S. How is that connected to the relation to the friends? One day I see them as great and I'm going to serve and invest in them: another day I'm wondering about my connection to them all together.
R. That's precisely what they show you. On one hand, according to your ego you say, ‘What do I care? I don't even want to be tied to them.’ On the other hand, because there's a little bit of an illumination influencing you, you say, ‘No, no, no. This is very important for me, this is my soul.’ Each friend’s face appears to me. The Creator gave us the opportunity to identify the souls by our faces. We will reach states that we will feel the lights and vessels and then I won't see these faces, I will see the lights in the vessels and these will be my friends. Let's say I see a thousand faces before me, right? No, I won't see them. Like in our world when we become familiar with a person, his face, his externality doesn't explain everything. I feel this internality because he's my friend, he's my relative, and I’ve seen him a lot. I become familiar with him so I don't see a person just as he is on the outside; his external appearance is mixed with the internal impression, the persona of a person. So we will feel the friends and see in them the internality. When I look at the friends, I relate to what I am familiar with in them: this one like that, and this one the other way, and another way in the third one. Each one invites a different impression in me. It will come.
19. S. (01:18:22) What does it mean that the Sitra Achra comes to him and says that he is correct that he is ugly and there's no one uglier than him so that he will come to despair?
R. This is revealed by the light that reforms. The Creator reveals how ugly the person is, how huge his ego is, how it is eating him and burying him, and that he has no chance of reaching some correction. In this a person is very much weakened. This is the work of the other side, the Sitra Achra, the shells. It has a lot of different types of influences on us and we need to work with it. Connection with the friends will help me because no person can save himself, no prisoner can free himself from prison. There are states that I have no chance to do anything and I'm expecting the friends to save me. We have to look at friends in the group that fell and take them out by force. We need to come to them, to catch them, to shake them up, and bring them back to us. There are states that a person cannot get out of. The more we progress and acquire connection with the friends we enter such states that only the friends can save us. You are already tied to them and the Creator gives opportunities that strengthen the connections between us only by such events. A person can look down on everything and want to leave. We need to be prepared to take back all those people that left us and didn't want to be together with us. There's no such thing that we cannot take a person back if he wants to return. It doesn't matter what way, with outbursts and whatnot. Ultimately, we will need to take him back and he will be among us and successful.
20. S. (01:21:58) There is a point that is difficult to understand. The question was ‘why’ and the answer was ‘I do not know’ meaning that it's something they don't feel so they don't know. If ugliness appears in a certain friend appears, I can ask the friend if he sees this ugliness and he can say ‘I don't know.’ Does that mean that the truth was not disclosed to them? The friend is the mirror of my qualities so why didn't he know?
R. Each one has their own revelation. We will need to connect between us above all that we reveal in the friends. To me a friend yearns for the goal. He comes to the lessons and connects to the friends much he is capable of so he is yearning for the goal. That is called Kudsha Birch Hu. He is participating with us in the lessons and is connecting with a group. That is telling us that he is called Israel, Yashar El, that is called a friend, connection. If he leaves that, he falls. An exit is a falling from a spiritual state that was and he fell from it. There are those that fall not too far and we can pull them or he comes and returns himself. It happens a few times a day with each and every one, not like two hundred times in five minutes like it happened in the Baal Shem Tov. There are those who are thrown very far and here it is work on the side of the person. He surely needs to do the maximum not to leave his habits because habits become second nature. He must come to the lesson and to do all those things, but if not, then it is the ten that has to help him. These are things that we have already learned.
S. After all, the friends cannot be corrupted.
R. Who told you that they are not corrupted? They are corrupted just like you; we are all corrupted. There is one way of perception and there is another way. Besides me the whole world is corrected. There are different approaches to correction. So do not take everything as some foundation that you cannot move off. We learn states, changes of states, and relations between different states. On one hand, it is true that besides me everything is corrected; on the other hand if I relate to everything that way, I will not be flexible, will not learn the states, and I will not be able to understand the others in the group or my friend.
21. S. (01:26:12) Torah comes from the word ‘shot through’. Can you explain it?
R. The Torah shows a person the truth, and that is why it is called such. Torah is the upper light and when it appears it gives many results, thus we call it all sorts of names. Here he explains that Torah is what shows us the truth of our state, and the truth of our state is how much we are opposite of the upper one. This is how we need to understand the Torah more and more each time. So Torah is what shows us the truth.
22. S. (01:27:29) Baal HaSulam says that it is enough for him to be educated in order to keep the Torah and commandments in all of its particulars.
R. This is the approach of a religious person who is educated in this way. He learns through all sorts of books and he is taught how to behave in this corporeal life. Of course, he does not need to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah but rather to get away from it. Whatever he learns is called ‘faith within reason,’ that whatever he learns, this is what he has. Religious people barely feel ascents and descents because they are always adding more connections, deeds, and needing more pages of study. That is called ‘faith within reason.’ This is how most of the world’s people exist. Only unique individuals with a tendency to attain the Creator and have a desire to see our King reach the wisdom of Kabbalah because they want attainment because they have a point in the heart. They cannot be satisfied with faith within reason within the human mind and emotion rather in faith above reason. ‘Above reason’ is called that they must accept a sensation and understanding from a higher degree which is Godly and when they rise to this higher degree, there they attain the Creator. This is called ‘faith above reason;’ the ‘reason’ by them and the faith is ‘above reason.’
S. How can he go to the Craftsman that made him when he hasn’t discovered he is ugly?
R. That is a sign that you haven't studied or learned enough, you haven't connected enough with friends. There are not enough conditions for the upper light to influence you for you to feel wicked. Because only on the condition that you feel you are wicked and that you have no opportunity to leave or exit your state and you want to run away but you can’t, that you are like in prison closed up, can you turn to the Creator and He helps you to rise to a higher degree. If you don't have this pressure, it is a sign that you haven't engaged enough in the study and have not connected enough with the friends. These are two things before you: the study and the society.
23. S. (01:32:09) The kabbalists recommend that if a person studies the Torah for more than three or five years and doesn't feel advancement he should move to the study of Kabbalah. The study of Kabbalah enriches our inner world.
R. Impossible. Think about your questions more.
24. S. (01:33:04) The recognition of evil is probably the most difficult stage in the method for the ego of a person. What is the essence to scrutinize the true intention?
R. Recognition of evil is not just some part of the path, it is the entire path until the end of correction. From the point of the end of correction there was the shattering, the breaking, up until this world, our state. As we get closer and rise in the degrees to Infinity, we recognize evil in a greater manner more and more. So he's speaking of these, that they are the words of the Messiah and all such things, meaning very difficult and harsh states that are revealed in the degrees of correction of the upper degrees. But that is okay. We are entering the ladder and are beginning to see, to identify, and ask where the coarseness is, where the screen is, where is the upper light, where's the connection between us. How do we build the ten, the Partzuf, and so on. We are just beginning to understand. Like a baby doesn't understand but he begins to grasp some games. He doesn't yet know what to do with them but as usual they put everything in their mouth. This is still how we are. We do not feel exactly what we need to work in the tens, with the tens in general or with ourselves; we, the ten and the Creator. But it will come. The main thing is to continue to grow day by day.
25. S. (01:35:25) How can you shake up a friend that is close to the environment but he is stubborn?
R. I don't know. That is not a question. Ask questions that are closer to the topic, and not general questions. Okay? So be careful, ask questions according to the topic of the article that everyone wants to scrutinize and not just you.
26. S. (01:36:24) We received the task of three stages that we are doing throughout the day. How do we now take this article that we are learning now and take it into our day? What do you recommend, how to work during the day with this article?
R. I think that, how many times do you gather after their lesson?
S. We have a meeting right after the lesson. We do a lesson summary after the lesson.
R. So the summary of the lesson must be that you briefly go over the entire article. That is after the lesson. And how many more?
S. Two more times.
R. Excellent. In these two times that you connect you must study the article for tomorrow. I hope that you receive it early in the morning. I get it sometimes early, sometimes not so much. We need to worry that they bring you this article before the first connection. When does this happen by you?
S. At 11:30 and then at 5:00.
R. Okay. Towards 11:30 everybody should have the article, and even beforehand so that you can see it. Everyone can read it on their own, maybe highlight, markdown different things. I always look at the article first and make different changes, and that is it. Then, you learn it together for half an hour, 50 minutes, what?
S. We have two meetings of 30 minutes.
R. Excellent. 15 minutes is enough for you to go over the article twice, and maybe after that put together questions. Then, maybe 5, your second meeting to go over the same lesson again, the same article. You can do that or maybe read something from TES or Preface if we learned it the same morning. But the main thing is the article. Each article has to be digested and chewed as much as possible, more and more, just break it up to feel it in all of its details.
S. Meaning, you recommend to truly take the article to see how to.
R. The article for tomorrow.
S. Yes, for tomorrow. To see how we are correlating it to our work in the ten?
R. No, I didn't say that. I said that we need to learn the article for tomorrow together. Also, let's say in your first meeting and in your second meeting. If we have time, it depends on what article, then we can also add something from the Preface.
27. S. (01:40:12) The material is sent right after the lesson. The next day it is already translated to all languages right after the lesson.
R. Wonderful. Excellent work.
28. S. (01:40:44) True faith is an emotional or intellectual state inside of us? How should we relate to it correctly?
R. When you reach it, then you will see. You can't explain that exactly because mind and emotion by us is also not scrutinized enough.
29. S. (01:41:11) In our impression, chewing the material of Shamati is only after you explained it. We go through it and are incorporated with your explanations. If today we will work on the article for tomorrow, then everything we attained during the lesson today we need to chew it again?
R. I hear the question. But after the lesson, I rely on what I was told during the lesson. People remain and they go over the article. If not, then do it in your first meeting of the day, let's say at 11:00 your first meeting. So go over that same article you learned in the morning with all the doubts, explanations, questions. Write these things down to scrutinize them. In the future, sometime, we will surely go over the articles of Shamati after our first round of all the articles that we have to go through now. Then, in your second meeting of the group, let's at 5:00 p.m. you can already read the article for tomorrow, and prepare yourselves for it. That is very important, very important. In any case, to be ready for the article of tomorrow is an obligation for each and every one in all sorts of forms. Should read and become familiar, and understand, and write questions that he has, then he reaches the lesson and truly learns it.
30. S. (01:43:25) You gave an answer to a friend that the work we are doing is where we are kind of corrupted. On the other hand, you are saying that we should not ask for anything, but just to be in adhesion in the current state. How to settle those two?
R. First of all, it is not exactly as you say. But even let’s say like that, we need to accept each and every state on its own, of itself. I am corrupted on one hand. On the other hand, the Creator made me this way, so surely, I need to take my corruption very seriously and make an effort to correct it, and request from the Creator to correct it. That I am coming and requesting of the Creator to correct, I am asking Him to correct what He corrupted or am I asking Him to correct it because I feel the corruption on my account? Here is a question, because if I feel the corruptions on myself that they are mine, that is a different appeal to the Creator, save me, look how corrupted I am. If I did not do this, rather the Creator made me this way, then my appeal is very weak.
So what am I asking the Creator actually? You corrupted me, so fix it, and I am like standing on the side. Where here do, we need to see ourselves? Which state is more correct to reach? There are all sorts of other variations of relations, but here we need to think how I place myself before the Creator, because there's none else besides Him, right? The good that does good. He created the worst possible things such that I suffer, others are suffering, so what are we doing right? How do we form ourselves, establish ourselves towards the Creator? Let us open up our sight, let us look at everything from here to there in a correct manner. When can we do this? When we all connect in the 10, and in connection between us, through the connection between us we turn to the Creator. There we will find our true appeal to the Creator with our ego, with the appeal why did you create us this way, look at what you did? Are we to blame or not to blame? In this I revealed that I am to blame for it and nobody else. I can also just throw it at the Creator and so on. They are all sorts of such things, it is like a pit of snakes that we need to reveal. That is how we will advance, not simple.
S. A snake hole is really a terrible depiction.
R. Don't be afraid. If you are with the friends, you will always reveal that you are a bit higher than the snakes. They look up at you and they want to catch you. You are a bit above, one millimeter above them, because you are holding on to the friends. So tell your friends that you have what to be saved.
31. S. (01:47:27) Yesterday we received an exercise to put someone on duty, that through the ten will compose a prayer. We could not understand. Relative to these three sentences of request for the friends, and two sentences of turning to the Creator. We have an open document and after the lesson each writes their certain prayer. One prays more for the friends, one prays more for corrections from the Creator. We did not understand it so well. What changes can we enter into our prayer?
R. I do not know. I did not determine anything in this, so it has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the relations between the friends, between the groups, so don't turn to me about this. I am ready to hear, I am ready to recognize, to become familiar, but not that I am participating in it. Whatever has to do with the relations between the friends, between the groups, I do not get into that. That is forbidden for me.
S. Yesterday you gave us an exercise, you mentioned it twice in the lesson. You choose a friend that will compose a new prayer, so we didn't understand how to execute it. Now, each personally writes his prayer in a general document of the ten, then we have this prayer that is made up of these ten sentences. How to choose a friend?
R. This too, you need to choose from within the connection between you. Debate on the side and turn to the Creator. From above nothing will just come down upon us, we need to choose everything by ourselves.
S. We need to choose one friend that will write down the prayer, or discuss it in the ten?
R. You can do it this way or that way. The main thing is that you will connect more between you, that is the goal. Through some games you will play to be more connected, that does not matter.
32. S. (01:50:25) On one hand, if a person reveals the ugliness in him, he should be happy, because according to this article saying that he is advancing in the right direction? On the other hand, you are saying that he seemingly leaves the ten, the work after all the feeling of descent?
R. This all depends on the person, this all depends on the extent in which he grasps it, it is very personal. Continue, and after a period of time you will start to understand what we are talking about.
33. S. (01:51:12) The Creator created you with so much ugliness that He surely knows with these vessels you can reach the purpose of creation. So do not worry, go forward and succeed? This is how we can describe our connection to the path?
R. Through the connection in the group.
34. S. (01:51:58) What does it mean that a person was privileged? By what he is privileged with faith in the Creator?
R. A person is privileged with the reaching adhesion. Faith is a state in which the Creator helps him to the measure in which he is incorporated in the ten. That is our work all together, ‘’ Israel, the light, and the Creator are one.’’ We need to connect all these three things to one, to a vessel, and to the light. That is it. Don’t run in all different directions and start getting confused between them. This is what we need. You do not know what state you are in, you do not know what to do. Connect to the group, and from there demand the Creator. That is it. It is always the necessary thing for us to do.
35. S. (01:52:53) What is the correct prayer to the Creator from the state of ugliness?
R. When a person feels ugly, then it is written about that ‘’Go to the craftsman who made me.’’ So through the ten I need to connect to the Creator, and to ask from Him for the correction. What correction I do not know. I do not know by what I need to correct myself. It is not that I am bringing all kinds of colors and perfumes, and shades that I put on my face. I need to correct my soul, my inner nature which I do not feel. I don't know where and how I am composed, and what is happening with me. I simply want to be better, more corrected, more of an Adam, more similar to the Creator. How can I do this? We see all the psychologists, the philosophers, it is a waste of time to hear them, it is like. Where am I turning to? So the Creator is called the one who heals all the sick. I need to turn to Him for Him to do it. He created and will correct only according to our demand. Therefore, turn to Him all the time and be in prayer.
36. S. (01:54:42) What is there in the wisdom of Kabbalah that is capable of revealing to a person the truth?
R. The concealed light. When we study the wisdom of Kabbalah and want to come closer to the ten, each to his ten, we evoke the reforming light. That is it.
37. S. (01:55:10) Continuing what we spoke of before, to go over the article for tomorrow. We also said a passage reading before sleep every day. Should we read that before some random article?
R. It is not random, we study according to an order. Excerpt before sleep, I don't know, I don’t get such one. Send it to me, maybe it is worthwhile going through that as well. We are studying the articles of Shamati, only for the time being. If there is a long article, then we are not learning it. We are learning articles that are shorter that can be put into one lesson. The long articles we will go through later in the end. But not excerpts that you are finding before you sleep. No. I am willing to get to know them, I am not sent those, but it is not in place of the Shamati articles. Those wise people who think so, I don't think that they are understanding what they are saying.
38. S. (01:56:26) Is the recognition of lowliness and ugliness of mine a sign for advancement on the path of Torah?
R. Again.
S. Is recognition of one’s ugliness and lowliness a sign of progress in the path of Torah?
R. Correct, yes.
39. S. (01:57:00) What is to add in faith?
R. To add in faith is to add in bestowal.
40. S. (01:57:12) I heard the Torah has different explanations, what it is talking about.
R. There are 72 meanings, 72 interpretations of it. Each and according to how many there are personal souls, their interpretations for the Torah. The interpretations are the vessels for the upper light that fills everyone. So each interprets it according to one’s ten Sefirot in which he is the Malchut.
41. S. (01:57:52) Where is lowliness revealed? How does a person use the state correctly?
R. Lowliness is revealed between a person and the group, or in the Partzuf it is revealed between the Malchut and the Keter. We have the Sefirot and the reflected light from Malchut to Keter by which we can invert the lowness to honor, to glory.
42. S. (01:58:23) What does it mean ugly? Is it good to see yourself as an ugly?
R. We say this way that from above a person is not given the revelation of evil more than what he can overcome. Therefore, all the evil that is revealed is revealed so that we will correct it. Meaning, accept it, receive it, discover the correct attitude towards it, and as we call it, ‘inverted it,’ flip it to be a vessel for the reception of light. Meaning, the coarseness in which the evil is being revealed will be inverted into refinement, into purity.
43. S. (01:59:21) Why can the Creator only fill an ugly vessel?
R. Because of the recognition of evil, without that, you can’t. What is the recognition of evil? I don’t understand, I don’t feel, I am not connected enough, I am not bestowing enough - where I am distant from the Creator in short, that is called ugly. Ugly is called opposite to bestowal, opposite to love, opposite to love of others. That is called ugly.
44. S. (01:59:50) ‘Go to the craftsman who made me.’’ Is that also asking from the 10 for help in the states that we feel really worse?
R. Yes. Also, including an address to the group.
45. S. (02:00:13) What actions in the group can help us to feel that we are not corrected?
R. Only connection. A tendency for connection covers it all. It also reveals in us our gender, and also that which we need to correct. It also shows us the parts that were already corrected.
46. S. (02:00:46) Is the recognition in the lack of my correction a reward? How can I share this reward with the ten?
R. Simply participate with the ten in everything that we talked about. There are many discernments here, but it is enough for us to simply be more connected. Try to help each and everyone in the ten with what it needs.
47. S. (02:01:19) Is joy on the path the measure of faith in the Creator?
R. If it's joy that comes from good deeds of connection, mutual bestowal, and through that even maybe bestowal to the Creator, then certainly it is good joy.
48. S. (02:01:42) Women have different schedules than men in the evening meetings. How can the women's 10's work correctly with the Shamati articles of today and of tomorrow?
R. Women should connect, maybe once a day. It is not a problem. The rest of the time that they work at home in the kitchen, and all kinds of things that they are busy with, then it is good that they should have an earbud in the ear and hear the lesson. To hear the lesson again is very important. I think that women are advancing really well, and even better than the men. They have a good desire for this. Really, I am very happy from seeing their progress.