Morning Lesson September 26, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash Article No. 46 (1990): The Order of the Work, from Baal HaSulam
1. Rav’s Introduction: (0:35) According to the custom we need to commemorate the date of departure of our teacher Baal HaSulam, a great Kabbalist who paved the path to the correction of the world. Thanks to whom we know how to behave in order not to be confused, not to make mistakes on the path to the Creator. His path and his method are based on Kabbalists who came before him and that's why we are happy that we have such a teacher that we are his students and that we can follow this path to be certain to reach the purpose of creation during our lifetime. Baal HaSulam left many writings for us; he taught a few people. Mostly, his eldest son Rabash, who wrote down this method suitable for our time, for us, for the souls who are coming down into this world. Let's learn what Rabash says about the method of Baal HaSulam. It's called “The Order of the Work” by Baal HaSulam.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 1. (3:10) “To believe that there….”
2. R. (03:25) One overseer, one unique and unified, ‘There Is None Else Besides Him’, who rules over all of the reality, the whole world, each and everyone, and we need to be connected only to Him.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 2. (3:46) “To know that faith is of….”
3. R. (4:06) Although faith is of inferior importance that's how we are created, that's how it is organized in us, but we need to walk in such a way that it will be above us, where we constantly wish to rise and attain it, the force of faith. The force of mutual bestowal and to hold this principle above everything.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 3. (04:43) “His faith should be….”
4. R. (04:54) That whatever we do on the path of faith, bestowal, adhesion, connection all of it will be in order to bestow and not to ourselves but to the other.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 4. (05:17) “When attributing the work to the Creator….”
5. R. (5:34) Meaning even when we can't feel the Creator for the time being, how He accepts us and receives us, nevertheless, we take into consideration that what we do and what we attribute to the Creator indeed comes to Him and He accepts our plea, the result of our efforts.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 5. (6:16) “There are two discernments to make….”
6. R. (6:50) Meaning when we try to walk in faith above reason no matter the situation if we have this opportunity or not from the beginning of our path we nevertheless have to try and go above our reason because our reason for the time being is entirely based on in order to receive.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 6. (07:23) “One should know that when.…” - Twice
7. R. (8:26) A person needs to remember that in his corporeal work, he might be able to assist himself, but it's only with the framework of his existence here in this life in this world. However, in the spiritual work when he yearns for connection with the others, to unite with them, then he enters this absolute eternal rule and he determines for himself a spiritual path.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 7. (09:12) “We must give thanks and”.... - Twice
Reading Rabash Article No. 46. Item 8. (10:21) “The heart of the work is to….” - Twice
8. R. (11:19) Even with what little hold he has in spirituality he has to be happy for being there.
Reading Rabash Article No. 46… Item 9. (11:34) “We should also walk on….” - Twice
Reading We should make three discernments in the order of the work (A Sage’s Fruit, Vol. 1, p 115): Item 1-3. (13:02) “To yearn to complement….”
9. R. (14:01) We see that the wisdom of Kabbalah is a method that aims us and raises us to the Source, to the center of creation and it wants to tie us to the center point of all of creation for us to attain it. As he writes here, we will attain our soul, the root of our soul, and connect to the upper force, One Unique and Unified, in whom we can incorporate and find there the starting point and the final point of all of reality.
10. S. (15:13) What does it mean to yearn for the commandments of the Creator? What does it mean to understand it?
R. By keeping the commandment of the Creator we come closer to be like Him, by that we approach the purpose of our existence.
S. But it looks as if this is the main thing more important than Israel and the Creator?
R. The commandments of the upper One that is the commandments of the Creator to us. Where if we keep them you can say in short to rise above our egoistic nature to connect with one another “as one man in one heart,” this is really the commandment, and if we if we're headed in this direction we are approaching the Creator, we discover Him inside this commandment, meaning to connect as one.
S. Why does he demand us to delve into the secrets of the Torah?
R. Because the secrets of the Torah are our qualities, the degrees or the aspects of our connection, and those laws that we can exist in together “as one man” in one system.
11. S. (17:25) How can we receive these qualities according to order or simultaneously?
R. Only to keep all those principles gradually, gradually, not all at once. We can't just jump over them because we're unable simply to feel them, to see them, to keep them. We must do it gradually to connect them to us, to try to connect us in them, in such a way that we will all come to be as one system “as one man,” and accordingly to see the world as one system, and in that we'll attain the Creator, to understand along the way that as we keep these connections between us gradually. All the things that are written here are actually a system that we have to keep and maintain in order to connect ourselves to the Creator. There is nothing else besides that connects between us and connects to the Creator and by that to attain from the individual souls of each and every one of us, a general soul, a general desire, and this one desire according to the extent we attain it we will be entirely in order to bestow. And then we'll be connected and incorporated in the Creator, 'As He is merciful so you are merciful', and in all of us in order to bestow to one another, and in this way, we'll understand, we will attain the ways of Torah, where the ways of Torah, after all, are the connection between us in all of us all these laws of Torah speak only of different modes of connection, all of us as one, in completing one another, complimenting one another, and as we advance and we keep these connections between us accordingly, we attain the integral, the inclusive quality which is the Creator and this will be reached the purpose of creation and everything, meaning both in keeping it, and being it, and connecting and adhering to the Creator.
S. In the individual soul of each one, we obtain the general soul? How do we do that?
R. We connect to each other and by adapting the connections between us and our corrected desires as we are connected to each other and in this way, we attain the quality of the Creator the Good Who Goes Good to everyone, the quality of bestowal, unlimited and unrestricted and we reveal ourselves in this way as existing already inside the Creator, inside this laws, inside His quality.
S. Individual soul of the Creator, let’s say a friend in my Ten or another friend, I connect to it. How do I do it? And how through it do I feel the general soul?
R. When you connect to the friend you make out of the Ten one desire, let’s say, who is entirely yearning to the Creator, entirely wanting to come close to and to unify with the Creator, entirely bestowing to this, to that, and to it until we’re approaching the Creator. Meaning we have to see that this is our path, our engine, and if we want to come closer to Him, to the Creator then we have only one way to do it to come closer between us between the members of the Ten. That is why as much as we join one another we connect by that we're moving closer to the Creator and therefore everything here depends on our common work.
12. S. (24:03) First of all I'd like to express the joy that I feel from being here in our home with our family and our beloved teacher. The question is, how can a person learn the secrets of the Torah without tasting it and how can a person advance from tasting the Torah to knowing it?
R. In order to attain the essence of creation, the inner power of creation, who is the Creator, creation starts by revealing itself as broken and then we begin to connect. In the beginning, Adam connects molecules, certain organs, and certain bodies, later there's a connection between feminine parts and masculine parts and creation. Later we come to a connection, not in the still vegetative and animated between us, but on the speaking degree. On the speaking degree means according to our character, our view of the world, and our connections to one another, by giving birth to offspring from the connection between bodies that are not connected to one body.
That's how we advance more and more until we reveal the need for a greater and greater kind of inner connection between us and together with that we reveal how we are in opposition and hate and repulsion to one another, and as these powers grow in us, they develop in us so we develop from a thing and its opposite and in each one we have something in its opposite as we are a collection of all kinds of desires and problems and together with that the more we connect we want to connect, we are unable to connect, and in this way, we get through all the course of our development until we reach such a state where we connect in masses and nations, countries, political parties, all kinds of associations, and then we come to our times. We are used to being divided into countries, nations, families, and so on, and now the time has come for us to slowly go through a very special development where we have to attain how much we have to be above all of our differences, meaning the connection, our connection should be not on the corporeal level but rather on the spiritual level. That's the time in which we exist, we have to raise our connection above all the differences. Let us hope we understand it, attain it, realize it, succeed, and come again to the end of everything to this one image, this one Adam, this one man that is what we need.
13. S. (30:25) On the one hand, he takes it all through that you have to believe that there is someone who is looking over the world and he takes it to in order to bestow, but where is the perception that through connection, through interaction, where does that come in? The whole approach of the need for a Kli, for a vessel where does that come in this order?
R. We learn even if we don’t learn ultimately we come to the recognition that there is one power called nature, it assembles us, and connects us and from the point of view of nature everything completes everything, everything is whole and perfect, and we need to try to be also in accordance with that.
S. In the order of the work of Baal HaSulam, where can you see him addressing the fact that you need a connection between people in order to attain all these things that he writes here?
R. You have no proof from nature, you can say that yes the way these connect and those connect in order to survive, so on and so forth, but that's not proof for humans.
S. It's a necessary process to reach the fact that you believe there is a Creator and so on?
R. Eventually, yes.
S. What comes first in order to attain everything Baal HaSulam here breaks down?
R. We come to all kinds of connections besides from the human connection whereas we advance we need to bring ourselves to connection against our desire, against our ego, and only in this way will be able to succeed and be as one man in one heart, but it won't happen simply regularly like it happens in all kinds of levels, other levels.
S. What exists on the human level that the connection in it is different than all the other levels why doesn't it take place on the human level?
R. The connection is ineffective because it doesn’t come from nature, that's what's special about the human level, humanity, we can see it from the early days to this day, and from the character of a person, we see it they're all in opposition to one another or opposites.
14. S. (34:04) Why doesn't he write any principle in relation to others? He says that if you engage in love of the Creator it will benefit the public, but in these nine principles if you read it it's just you and the Creator.
R. Yes.
S. There's no, nothing in the middle?
R. Because it doesn't come from nature and no other nation, no place, no culture do you have a call for connection the way the wisdom of Kabbalah which exists above humanity where it's calling on each other to connect and reach a degree of connection above natural power. We can connect in order to succeed through someone, against someone, and so on and so forth but that's not the connection of the wisdom of Kabbalah he’s describing.
S. In the order of the work here, he didn't relate at all to Arvut, mutual guarantee, the love of others, why, because it's not a principle?
R. Why is there something here?
S. What about the love of others?
R. No, The right line is you have to praise the past to give gratitude because that depends on the future meaning to the extent he gives thanks, a person can thank in advance. Item 8, the heart of the work is to open the right line meaning wholeness, that is whatever grip we have on spirituality we should be happy that the Creator has given us the thought and the desire to do something in spirituality, and in this connection with the Creator. Item 9, we should also walk on the left line, this is all the beginning, those are the lines through which Baal HaSulam expressed it. Rabash writes it is not Baal HaSulam writing it.
S. It's still not clear, why out of nine principles he doesn't mention the love of others?
R. He doesn't mention love of others, he doesn't mention the Arvut all those things are hidden inside, but if you continue they will come out.
15. S. (37:03) It's clear that there are gaps between us and we need to bridge these gaps and when I read the order of the work from Baal HaSulam and the love of others and connection to friends and the connection between us, I don't see anything there.
R. What do you need to see?
S. No, I want to relate to the friend that it's individual work. I understand it can't be seen in individual work, but in every clause I see here let's say the first one; to believe there is an overseer to the world, is it impossible to tap and I don't have friends that influence me, everything I have today?
R. If you open up the items I can't open up the items alone only in a society.
16. S. (38:19) What does it mean that it's the order of the work from Baal HaSulam?
R. That's what Rabash wrote.
S. It's an order that we need to do, is it a collection of laws or?
R. No the order is relative it's sometimes according to inner nature and another thing and then it goes back to the first that's.
S. Are they connected one to the other or is it one principal that it all stems from?
R. They are connected to one another they also complement one another, but you can't take them in the form as that's how it is. First of all, it's what you understand the way it's written. It's written but how you understand it, that might be something completely different.
S. Can we check our work and compare to it, if we're checking each one of these if we're inclined to keep them or not, does that mean we're working correctly?
R. Yes, but I don't think we need to relate to it in this way. We don’t need to keep these items one by one, but rather when we see them, feel them, or go from one to another, then we advance in this way. Sometimes it happens in people, in humans, individually a little differently.
17. S. (40:28) It says a number nine that a person needs to go in the left line, but only for half an hour a day. What is the left line?
R. Criticism, why is it like this and why is it like that? For the time being there's a great deal of depth in it.
S. But it's written even in this left line, what we understand from this many times a person can be in days, even months, in these scrutinies.
R. That's not a left line. That's what he writes, you have to walk on the left line half an hour a day is enough, not months. If he's in it for months it's not a line, it's not the left line whether he fell into the Klipot.
S. The style of the Baal HaSulam and Rabash it feels like a person has a choice here how to decide if he wants to be in the right or left.
R. Yes, the help of the environment alone makes it difficult to change his state, his path, and his direction of development, but when he's with the friends and the environment and with their help he can change his direction and in this way quickly change from one state to another. The more a person who submits to the environment the more he will advance.
18. S. (42:51) Besides what we saw, he said that when there's a guide to the world that's not in the group he also writes here that in the order of the work, there are three discernments: he ought to complement one soul, this is called the quality of Israel. So what to return the soul to its root, the soul belongs to everyone. Here he's saying that this is the general direction of humanity. That’s the most important point the way I see it.
R. That's why the connection between us is the first phase and most important.
19. S. (43:52) What efforts are made in our work to go in faith above reason?
R. Efforts toward connection; to connect is the main thing.
20. S. (44:06) What's the difference between spiritual joy and egotistic joy?
R. The difference between spiritual joy and egotistic joy is that spiritual joy comes from connecting between us and the Creator and that's the source of our joy and it's written, “for in Him our heart shall rejoice” and egoistic joy or happiness is where I succeed compared to the others, that's egoistic joy.
21. S. (43:43) Many questions about excerpt number seven of giving praise and gratitude. How not to forget the importance of praise and gratitude in spiritual work, how to keep it and not lose it?
R. You have to talk about it in the group and set up times for it. According to the schedule daily, weekly, and monthly, and be responsible, for placing a responsible friend over it. Whatever is not in us naturally we have to determine it mechanically.
22. S. (45:28) What is the expression of joy in our work?
R. As much as we can connect in the center of the connection all of us revealed joy, that is it.
23. S. (45:49) In item 6, he writes in love of the Creator he benefits the public. Why does one benefit the public if he engages in the love of the Creator?
R. He connects the general system where everybody is into the Creator so obviously it clearly benefits everyone.
S. In one's individual work in one’s efforts?
R. Yes.
24. S. (46:30) He writes in item 7. To the extent that one gives thanks, to that extent that we appreciate everything we receive from above, and know how to keep the help we receive from above so as not lose it. How can we appreciate in our work the help and not lose the help that we get from above?
R. To look after each other, we look after each other and we pray to the Creator to help keep us together, to connect us, to reveal in us. To a small extent, this is the way.
S. Do we need to have a feeling in the ten, and in the group that we're getting help from Above?
R. Of course, if not for the help from Above we would not be sitting here. Of course, it is the power of the Creator that comes down to us and organizes us. Because it is not in our nature to assemble at 3:48 at night and speak about such delusional things.
25. S. (48:12) Can there be a period of time in which a person develops or a ten, or a group, that he needs to be in the left line for more than thirty minutes?
R. It is written this way you have to try not to be more than that.
26. S. (48:47) In item five, what actually does it mean that we go above a reason because we have no choice? So what is the point of choice of going above reason?
R. On the one hand, he has no choice on the other hand, he chooses to act like that even if he has a choice it is written that in faith above reason there to two discernments to make; one he's going above reason because he has no choice, so he goes above reason, and two even if he was given the reason he no longer has to believe and go about reason, but still he chooses to walk on the path of above reason. Meaning does he follow the path of reason according to necessity or according to choice, so what is the question?
S. What is the point of choice concerning faith above reason?
R. That I prefer to be in the above reason in every state, in any condition because above reason is where I enter the quality of the Creator.
S. What is it that I compare? What are the things that I choose? I need a sort of scale, so what do I choose, what should be on the scale?
R. In above reason, I choose only above reason, or below reason, maybe within reason. In order to approach the Creator I have no other way except above reason, when I advance against my ego.
27. S. (51:45) In item one it says to yearn to compliment one soul and to return it to one's root, this is called the quality of Israel. What does it mean, please?
R. When I wish to complete my soul which is disconnected from the general soul called Adam HaRishon, the first man, Adam. By that I wish to raise it to its root and anyone who is doing it according to his effort according to the trajectory of his walk is called Yashar Kel, straight to the Creator, this is what I want to be, other words to return the soul to its root and anyone who is doing it is called Israel.
28. S. (52:57) All we need is to adhere to Him. How can we come to this need?
R. Through the connection with the friends where each one sets an example for the others and no one has this desire, truthfully, but each one who is looking at the others and desire awakens in him. This is also how we wish to teach our kids, we tell the child to go play with him, don't look at him, but look at this one. This way we want them to receive from others the desires, impulses and so on and so forth.
29. S. (54:08) We skipped over item 9 and it was very powerful. Maybe you can help us understand what's going on here. He says that he prefers the love of the Creator over self-love and to the extent that he sees the deficiencies he will pray that the Creator will truly bring him closer for specifically on two lines one advance. What does it mean to prefer the love of the Creator over one's self-love? How can one know?
R. After I feel the line that's needed in order to advance I need to also use the left line in order to advance. It’s like you have two legs and you're moving forward or if you're riding a bike, so with the right you do a movement forward, and with the left you're moving backward, and then it switches and this is what we need to do here in our spiritual work.
S. Specifically, this line is the most difficult to understand. He writes that specifically with these two lines of person can advance. So the more I am an egoist the more I can advance more? How can I overcome my egoism?
R. The greater the ego you have, “he who is greater than his friend, his inclination is also greater,” and then by overcoming it, you move forward.
S. The question is how to overcome it?
R. The same way as someone with a weak ego advances, to what the same with someone with a strong ego. The one who has a stronger ego in his overcoming, that is how he advances. That's how we see this, it is what happens to us in our lives, in technology, and everything, to the extent that we overcome more opposing laws of nature than we can profit more.
S. I want to make it more practical, we're working in tens all the time, you said that only the tens can bring salvation to the world. I’m sitting in my ten, beautiful ten, my friends, how can such a circle he says the person can advance in two lines. How can I advance in two lines in the ten?
R. You are in your small group, but it includes all the groups that are here and in the world and then we are connected to one another and influence one another in all forms that you know forms that we ourselves do not know how, but still this is the connection between us and that is our strength to overcome.
S. The friends are good, nice, they're so kind. What should I overcome here? They're so nice?
R. You don't need to overcome them.
S. So who?
R. Your ego.
S. They're nice.
R. Living alone you're saying again how nice they are, but look at yourself.
S. Yourself, myself?
R. Yes.
S. So what do I have to overcome?
R. You need to overcome your ego.
S. Toward who?
R. Toward yourself, that you are constantly thinking of.
S. You have to stop thinking of myself in the ten?
R. Of course, you need to start thinking of all the tens, think of all the tens and of the Creator and by this, you will rise higher and higher in degrees.
S. Not to look for the force to overcome in the ten, but do this individual work on myself?
R. The ten needs to help you to come out of your own ego and to join them and to connect to them and to be included in them entirely.
30. S. (58:46) To go above reason is against one's nature. At what point does one reach a point where he can actually go above his ego?
R. By starting to receive influence from the environment and then he raises it above himself and he works with his own force of the group is this okay or not.
31. S. (59:52) Regarding item 2, just to know the faith is of inferior importance it teaches us to walk on this path.
R. Inferior importance for a person? Yes of course, otherwise you would have no work. You need to go in the path of faith. Faith is below importance. We need to raise it forcefully in our efforts above. Then accordingly we will go in faith above reason.
S. The work is to take faith and raise that constantly above although even though it is below?
R. Yes, yes.
32. S. (01:01:01) He writes that on the left line, he needs to make calculations and pray for half an hour a day but we learn that we have to pray all day long?
R. Yes, but not in order to come out of the left line. In order to advance, to adhere, and to cling to friends and so on, the left line here is the criticism.
S. It has to be between the prayers?
R. Yes, there's a difference in prayers of course.
S. The right line, this gratitude of the right line for being rewarded with the work and all that. Maybe every prayer has to be wrapped in that all the time?
R. Yes.
33. S. (01:01:54) On that matter, if he is already on the right line in wholeness, what is the trigger that will cause him to scrutinize how much he is in love of the Creator? To do that criticism upon himself?
R. The fact that he's in the right line, that is for the time being is not that he is entirely in bestowal, entirely on the right, and that is why he still has work.
S. He himself from the wholeness that he feels that is the time to turn to his self-criticism?
R. Yes, also true.
34. S. (01:02:44) Why does the Creator disturb us, does not let us give Him contentment?
R. So that we will ask him to do it.
S. May I quote Baal HaSulam? “In one thought all of reality was emanated and created the lower ones and the higher ones until the end of everything the end of correction, where the single thought which is the one who does everything and accepts the purpose and is the essence of the exertion as Maimonides interpreted as One Unique and Unified.” Baal HaSulam TES in part 1, observation item 8.
R. Thank you.
35. S. (01:04:00) Can it be with five friends who gather for connection, three will reach connections and two will remain outside of connection or three connect and that is enough for the entire group to reach connection?
R. That is a very tough question. We actually all need to be in connection if you're asking me the law is simple, anyone who participates in the connection reaches a connection whoever doesn't, does not.
36. S. (01:04:51) For reducing or eliminating the resistance to the connection, is a prayer at the individual level able to affect the group and the advancement of the group?
R. Yes every individual prayer influences the advancement of the entire ten and that is how we need to relate to each and every one.
37. S. (01:05:35) Sometimes our efforts to connect in the ten yields a refusal from the friends, we feel a coolness of the heart. How do we need to turn to the Creator in such states?
R. Until we connect between ourselves, we cannot come close to the Creator. There's no question, clear?
38. S. (01:06:46) This is a very comprehensive article. Everything that Baal HaSulam details here, I do not see the spiritual fear of the Creator. Although it is included here in many items, the result of this, the fear of the Creator is not mentioned here?
R. Rise above and complain, what can I say? Maybe this work will open up the ability to see where the fear of the Creator is.
39. S. (01:07:43) How to develop the necessity for the interconnection between us?
R. You need to regularly speak about the fact that without a connection between each other, you do not attain the Creator. Without reaching out to the Creator and Him listening and hearing your desire, you will not receive an answer from Him and he will not change, and you will not change and you will remain on the same spiritual level as you are now. That is why the connection between each other and the connection between the Creator is necessary.
40. S. (01:08:50) There is a principle that I cannot understand its importance. I don't see it in this article about Rabash. It is the principle of growing the vessel, of expanding the vessel for example in the Congress we said that we are trying to expand from Individual ten to the general ten, sometimes we mainly speak about the vessel of the world Kli, and today when we hear the Rav, I feel that the vessel is all of the creation actually. So my question is, what is the importance of this principle of expanding the vessel?
R. The principle of expanding the vessel because the broader the vessel, the more inclusive, the more incorporated the smaller vessels that we have in this world, on the earth, doesn't matter which way we think of it, the vessel will be a greater influence on the Creator more and also force the Creator to bestow upon us, to correct us, to organizers us, and to show us what the true reality is.
41. S. (01:10:27) I was alone during the day of atonement and I prayed that I understood that I'm nothing with other friends, I can move, I can take a step forward without them. I can't make a move without them. It was very hard without them. Can you see advancement in this? What is the meaning of this state?
R. It is a very essential advancement because you felt how weak you were, not able to do anything on your own. I'm happy to hear that and I hope that from today on you will be more connected to us.
42. S. (01:11:14) About the work in the left line, is it important that even on a certain day I have no criticism I should think about something and what is the correct criticism?
R. The correct criticism is the type that helps advance toward the purpose of creation. When we advance in the right and the left, if they work in the same direction just like on the bicycle you go with the right leg, then with the left leg. So that is how you advance.
43. S. (01:12:12) Why by giving praise and gratitude for the past we build the future?
R. Because we are performing corrections on the past and that is how we know how to advance towards the future. Our whole path somehow we’re advancing, we do not pay attention, but we are always in the next step. The next step includes the corrections from the last step in it.
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