Morning Lesson December 10, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 13, 1991. What “You Have Given the Strong to the Hands of the Weak”

Means in the Work

1. Rav intro: Yes, how could it be that the weak merits success in the war against the strong and great and many? Please.

Reading: (01:00) “Here is the order of the work: When a person wishes...”

2. R. (41:19) It’s a complete rich article, what do we have to ask, to add? Not so much, okay.

3. S. (41:43) The title of the article is what is you have given.

R. The weak in the hands of the strong.

S. He opens all the thought of creation, but it doesn't really explain you have given the mighty in the hands of the weak, he doesn't explain it. Can you explain the connection to the title?

R. Those who thought of themselves as heroes, to begin with ultimately discover that they are given to the hands of the weak.

S. Who identifies it, the will to receive?

R. The will to receive reveals that at first it thought about itself as strong and then it sees how weak it is and that it cannot attain anything by its own strength.

S. In other words, it discovers there's a force from above which is the first and the last?

R. Yes. 

4. S. (43:05) Yes to continue this, he writes those who yearn for his mercy yearn to receive bestowal and not as additions but that they actually need it in order to sustain their souls?

R. Right.

S. Maybe the strong ones are those who feel complete and don't feel that they are working for themselves, but they can overcome, and those who feel themselves as wicked see that they are weak and there's a lot of evil in them. They are the ones who can now perform the correction because they understand the evil in them.

R. Yes.

S. The whole article talks about the recognition of evil when a person receives it as an advancement that he can now turn to the Creator, and he needs the Creator?

R. Yes.

5. S. (44:07) He writes a person has to bless for the bad as one blesses for the good and one should believe that it is for his own good. How do you recommend doing this advice, to see in everything that it's for your own good?

R. To accept it, to begin with as that, that this is how it is, and keep holding onto that by the environment in the Ten.

S. On the path we live in two realities, there's the reality found in the Ten and there's you know making a living outside. Situations that come, should I look for the good, that it's for my benefit also outside of what is happening to me among the friends in the Ten, this effort?

R. No, I don't think that there you can find good things.

S. This good that he talks about, what is this good? I want to define it, what does it mean for my own benefit?

R. Your benefit meaning that you can reveal all the actions of the Creator as happening to your own good.

S. What is for my own benefit?

R. That they bring you closer to good, to a force of bestowal, a force of adhesion with the friends and through them adhesion with the Creator. That's what you wish to discover and that's what you understand is good.

S. Can I say that the good is that my nature changes?

R. Possibly, could be, but we're not talking about nature already, we're saying that you understand that this is what it needs to be. Are you already going through changes? Possibly yes.

S. He writes here even though he doesn't understand it and to give thanks to the Creator for it.

R. He understands that the Creator is doing with his actions to lead him to truth, to the attainment of truth even though he hasn't attained those states yet.

S. How can we connect, how to give thanks for something that I don't understand is good?

R. If you understand that here you have to change the way you use your vessels, your desires, then you no longer think like you did before in vessels of reception you rather think in a different style already. How much are you standing on the verge of changing yourself from vessels of reception to vessels of bestowal and then the definitions which you call good or bad change. 

6. S. (48:04) It is written that when a person chooses friends, he chooses from which of the friends to connect to. How do you make this choice, through the heart, through the mind, the intellect?

R. What’s the choice, that he wants to advance with the friends?

S. We can read in the text he's referring to, he writes: “Therefore as with love of friends, when a person wants to adhere to the friends, he chooses for himself with whom to connect. Meaning a person chooses friends and switches for friends that will have good merits.” I think this is what he's referring to so he's asking how to make this choice, with the intellect or with the heart?

R. Both, at first he feels these discernments at heart and then he adapts them in the mind.

7. S. (49:57) It is written here that the Creator brought us out of the exile of Egypt not through an angel or a Seraph or a messenger but the Creator Himself, what does that mean?

R. That there are no forces that help the person taking the person out of the exile in Egypt but the Creator Himself, that's what they discover from all that's happening to them in that process.  They discovered themselves in the exile in Egypt as slaves, in the will to receive in order to receive, and now they feel that they've been through some change and they already have a second nature which is to bestow and exiting in order to receive into in order to bestow, this is called the exodus.

8. S. (51:32) How to determine the right deficiency without supplements, or additions but in turning to the Creator?

R. Only by the friends who you want to connect with, and you have the urge to connect with them, also for lack of any other choice, and then you see only the Creator can save you from in order to receive.

9. S. (52:12) I have an impression that when I think in what way and from which directions people influence me, I see that there's a mixed theater here, there's like a play, a theater, a play in a theater. Everyone is in it.  Everyone in the theater knows that they're in a play and everyone is already at the end of a correction, they're all angels and only I don't know that I'm in the theater. It's as if in the system only my part is missing.

R. Let's say, yes.

S. What should I do?

R. Join, join those who want to rise from the degrees of the exile to the degree of redemption. Only with the revelation of the Creator, that's what takes them out of Egypt.

S. I see in myself a person who might think he's strong, he's smart but the Creator gives him states from all kinds of directions and then he feels that he's totally powerless, nothing. He wants the intention of the Creator; he wants to revoke all of a person's confidence. What is special about a person's demand, how should we understand it?

R. Man has to join the Creator, cling to the Creator, and ask with any form of request that the Creator will help him transcend his ego, his will to receive and connect to the friends, and through that, he acquires all the forces that enable him to cling to the Creator and then when he adheres to the Creator, he can ask the Creator for forces of salvation.

S. I have to be open to the Creator, what I feel, what I think, I have to be open so He sees this is how I feel, this is what I think, so I totally annul myself, right?  

R. Yes, you can't hide from the Creator, towards him you always remain as a little naked baby. He understands everything, sees everything, and does everything.

S. You said before that love of friends is our Creator I haven't forgotten, love of friends is the Creator in this world so if I annul myself in my connection with the friend then afterward I don't see the friend but I want to love the love right, I love the love right?

R. Yes.

S. It feels like it's close to the end of the road, right?

R. Yes. 

10. S. (56:36) It is written in the article that the Creator sees a person, on the other hand, we also learned that when a person is in exile it is his responsibility. If everything comes from the Creator, how can a person be responsible for his own exile?

R. A person is responsible only for not asking, that he doesn't want to ask the Creator for the strength to come out of Egypt. That's what a person is guilty of, that's where he has to be cautious, and make sure not to stay in Egypt, meaning to always aim towards the connection with the friends in order to emerge from his ego. 

11. S. (58:01) It says here in the article that through the labor between a man and his friends and between man and the Creator, it says to toil in both mitigates iniquity. What does this mean, to toil in both mitigates iniquity?

R. That the iniquity, meaning in order to receive, which comes to us from the sin of Adam HaRishon where the vessels took on an intention to receive, then by the study of Torah, by the connection between us we correct those vessels and then we come out to freedom from in order to receive.

12. S. (59:04) Thank you for this beautiful article. I heard in the article that what is good for man is to annul before the Creator, to know the Creator as in principal one and myself as powerless and the work is only to receive from Him, to ask of Him, to come to prayer to Him, meaning to annul before the friends among other things. This is what our good is.

R. Yes, that's our work.

S. The main work is in annulment before the friends and then ask the Creator?

R. Correct. 

13. S. (59:57) He writes here, “Only those who fear the Creator attain that the Creator watches over the world in private Providence, as The Good Who Does Good. But as for the rest of the world, for them there is concealment.” But we’ve learned in the end everyone is corrected, so how to move from concealment in the world to a state of fearing Him?

R. They don't see that they’re in concealment. A concealment is already a kind of revelation which shines, and then you see, you discover that you’re in concealment.

S. They are in a state of double concealment, they don't even know it's concealed? How do we come from double concealment to single concealment and then to a state of fearing Him? First, how do you shift from double concealment to single concealment?

R. Only by being in a society.

S. But if you're in double concealment how do you even come to a state of being in the society?

R. Every one of us, everyone is in a different will to receive, and therefore from the differences between you when you somehow want to get closer to each other, you attract the light that reforms because in the difference between you, as you want to somehow get closer you’re using this light to actually get closer.

S. In a double concealment, you're not even aware there is such a light, you're not in spirituality so how do you?

R. You don't have a choice, you begin from this. You begin, you learn where you are.

14. S. (01:02:12) How do I come to a state where the Creator is the first and the last?

R. How to work in such a state or move to such a state?

S. How do I come to a state where the Creator is the first and the last?

R. Okay that's a different thing, how to reach a state where the Creator is first and last. That is by our work when we learn together with the friends and each one adds to the other his revelation that the Creator is everything and There’s None Else Besides Him. Then I begin to absorb their views.

15. S. (01:03:23) It is written that in the verse love your neighbor as yourself, your neighbor is the Creator. The question is, everything that I see outside of me is really the revelation of my own evil?

R. Yes, by this, by this recognition, we first discover that we are immersed in evil.

16. S. (01:04:09) How are the actions of the Creator bringing us to salvation?

R. Bit by bit we discover better and better that we only depend on Him and then we begin to ask of Him for a lack of other choice and then from desire, from awareness, that according to the plan of creation, we depend on Him, and we hold on to Him and therefore we only turn to Him, and we take only Him into account and connect.

17. S. (01:05:06) After all the scrutinies of the created being what is the action of working for the sake of the Creator?

R. Connection, the connection between you, this is the action that makes us resemble the Creator, only connection.

S. This point after we have already performed the act of bestowal in order to bestow in the connection after that is reception with the friends in order to bestow, this is the action?

R. Then we can work in receiving in order to bestow to the friends and this is how we all connect both in vessels of reception and in vessels of bestowal. From everyone, we aim toward the Creator. 

S. If I may ask another small question, at what point does the Creator, what action does the Creator have of the contentment?

R. In our center, the center of the group.

18. S. (01:06:24) How does a friend come to a discernment that it's a person’s fault if he cannot overcome the evil inclination in him?

R. He was given everything: he was led to reveal the evil inclination and the recognition that the evil inclination is opposite to the will to bestow, to the purpose of life and he was given the ability to turn, to ask, to receive instead of the evil inclination the good inclination, the force of bestowal, so actually everything is in man's hands, the main thing is the prayer, to turn the will to receive into a will to bestow.

19. S. (01:07:34) The beginning of the text tells us your friend is the Creator and then it says toil in both mitigates iniquity. I thought that that meant making a difference between the love of the friend and the love of the Creator, that mitigates iniquity and becomes immoral.

R. The thing is that working with the friends can happen intermittently, with pauses, that the person goes into it and out of it, and all of it, together accumulates. However, the work with the Creator begins from the moment that a person connects himself in all his actions to the Creator so he no longer lets Him go and he only rises in his degree, a degree of connection but the intention is already in one single direction. We’ll talk about that later on.

20. S. (01:09:16) I heard you say that the only thing we need to do is actually to ask to come out of Egypt and we know many times that we're just asking for luxuries, so that's the recognition of the evil but how can we come to that honest request to come out of Egypt?

R. The more you invest in it, the more you think about it, and the more you revolve around it then this thing becomes important and relevant and thus you receive help, according to the feeling in our heart. It doesn't depend on how much we cry, it’s about what we feel in the heart.

21. S. (01:10:20) It is written in the article that before a person can correct the evil in him there is a correction of not seeing the evil. The question is how can I correct what I don't see?

R. You feel it in your attitude to the friends, it’s all work of the heart until you feel that you're with them in a single heart, in a single desire aimed towards each other. That’s how you gradually become the Ten, towards that single point, that central point and that’s how we advance.

22. S. (01:11:32) We learn that all of reality is felt within us and all the friends are a part of me and I'm a part of them. Out of all the coarseness I feel within me I don't like myself, so how can I love my friends?

R. We have to love the friends because they have the same desire to reach the purpose of life as we do, as we want to reach the purpose, the same goal in our life, so we’re connected on the same track, the same path, and towards the same goal. Therefore, we can help each other, support each other, and support the path, the goal with righteousness and power and that’s what we see is within our strength.

23. S. (01:13:04) In relation to the friends, we perform the commandments and correct our vessels so we can correct our relation to the Creator. In relation to what do I annul myself when I want to receive my vessel which is in the friend?

R. We all want to connect. In the connection between us, we activate our vessels and the vessels of the friends and then we all connect and become corrected.

24. S. (01:13:53) How to come to a real desire and a true request to receive the quality of bestowal from the Creator?

R. Were you able to hear this? Repeat the question.

S. How to come to a real demand to receive the quality of bestowal from the Creator?

R. Only by connecting with the friends, with the Ten, when all of you together ask from a single heart.

25. S. (01:14:56) The Creator shows a person every day that he's going backward, that he’s immersed in self-love?

R. Yes because that's basically how we go forward.

S. If we are no longer inspired it becomes routine, is it okay, not okay?

R. It's not okay because it’s an opportunity to raise a prayer to the Creator, to want to further connect to the friends.

S. Every day is the same, it shows you here, here, and here.

R. This is a sign that you’re not paying attention to things toward the Creator showing you the evil, that’s a shame.

26. S. (01:15:55) Question from a friend: what’s the degree of participation in the general volume of the Ten? Is that what the Creator determines?

R. Of course, only the Creator defines the measure of connection between us.

27. S. (01:16:29) How important is it in our prayer to emphasize that the Creator is one, unique, unified, and benevolent, to make Him great so we will be able to ask of Him?

R. This gives us the possibility to be connected to Him as the one force of all of nature, of all of creation.

28. S. (01:17:04) To help the friend who spoke before: if you connect with the friends, I'll tell you if you're connected or not. There are times when he gives such tricks that you can't feel that you're not connected, everything feels and sounds the same, you think you're connected but such cunningness this Pharaoh has.

R. Does anyone understand what he's saying?

S. He says Pharoah is sophisticated, doesn't let him feel that he's not connected, he does all kinds of tricks to him.

R. What am I supposed to answer?

S. No, that was just for the friend.

R. Okay, thank you.

29. S. (01:18:11) One common question friends asked: it says before a person is capable of correction, he doesn't see the evil in him, why is it so?

R. To not lower him too much.

S. How can I actually see that I’m the worst, I don't know how to make myself seem the worst.

R. Compare yourself with the friends and if you see yourself as the worst of them all, that’s the truth.

30. S. (01:18:56) A request for a few definitions: What does it mean that Adam HaRishon left NRN and was left only with Nefesh?

R. The lights that were in NRNHY departed from him and only Nefesh remained.

31. S. (01:19:17) What does it mean that David says you did not make my enemies rejoice before me?

R. That was created for him in personal Providence there.

32. S. (01:19:31) A person with the will to receive creates much damage. How much of it should he reveal before the end of correction?

R. With the will to receive we do damage one another, well, so? How much should this be revealed? According to our attraction to correction, we discover how much we are in corruption.

33. S. (01:20:00) When we come out of our ego in connection with the friends what is the next step in the prayer of the Ten?

R. Again?

S. When we come out of our ego in the connection with the friends what is the continuation, what should be the next level of the prayer?

R. That we need to be in higher and higher, broader, stronger connection so that we will be able to reveal Him, receive within it the Creator in the complete manner.

34. S. (01:20:39) What is the difference between adhesion in the Creator and greatness of the Creator?

R. Adhesion is the connection between us, and the greatness is that which we reveal His presence in everything that happens in the world.

35. S. (01:21:01) What are the changes a person has to observe daily, and how to use them as an engine for the advancement of the Ten?

R. As much as the Creator is in the Ten as much as we discover in the connection between us and Him and make some effort to come closer to Him. It’s all measured towards the Ten, not towards a person.

36. S. (01:21:36) What happens one step before we come out of Egypt?

R. One step before we move out of Egypt is the stage of darkness, but we feel that we’re ready to enter the darkness only in order to exit.

37. S. (01:22:12) What is the boundary between a deficiency for correcting the evil and the necessity to correct the evil, how to be in the necessity?

R. Necessity and deficiency need to be the same.

S. Let's say there's a feeling of a deficiency that I have to correct and there's a feeling that it's necessary, I can’t live like this?

R. That's the boundary, that's the border between them.

S. How to be on the side of necessity?

R. That's a necessary step, that you have to correct the evil and it doesn't let you live.