Morning Lesson September 17, 2021, Transcription
Option 1:
Faith Above Reason - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #30
1.Rav’s Introduction: It is written that all that we can attain in spirituality, because we have no desire for spirituality or the force of spirituality, the spiritual force itself, we can receive it from the Creator but receive from Him only to the extent that we truly yearn for it. What does it mean to receive the force of bestowal, the spiritual force? It is considered that we are bringing the Creator closer to us. How to long for this. That's why the Creator, just like we teach children to walk, where we put them on the ground, and we distance a little from the child. Then he cries, he doesn't know how to stand on his own two feet. Then he cries and wants to go but he doesn't know how to lift up his foot, and then we help him. You have to lift up one foot and then the other, and like that slowly slowly. Meaning to ask and turn to the Creator you can only on the condition that we want to walk, and we don't know how to walk, and what to do, and are in despair, until we are simply standing there and crying. This is how we in spirituality exactly need to bring ourselves to such states.
Meaning the state is not good, the state of despair of not having any confidence being insecure. We feel ourselves seemingly lost and there are many haters, many resistors, many people who just confuse us, it seems like they just rise like that themselves we don't understand that it's the Creator arranging all of this that 'there is none else besides Him' and he's arranging it only for us so that we will understand and feel how without that we would not be able to move towards Him, towards the Creator we wouldn't need Him. Hence the prayer as much as we talk about it, needs to be, the needs to stem from a special state in which a person feels insecurity, in despair, being completely disassociated and helpless and not knowing where he is in the world where he is and where he is relative to the truth, nothing. He feels himself like a child that cannot move forward, he doesn't know where exactly. He doesn't understand how. That's the situation that we are in we're just about to walk, we're learning how-to walk-in spirituality. Since spirituality, we do not understand and we don't feel how we need to advance with which foot left, right. We try to look at immediately around us we see all kinds of people, organizations, groups of people, which behave one way or another in their lives and we don't know who is right and this is also that we will take faith above reason and advance. Meaning we have several conditions here in order to progress, to be in a state of despair, completely helpless. We don't know who has the justice here, who is right, a state of weakness, willing to receive anything that can give me confidence. That's on one hand, on the other hand I see that I might be actually going back to what I once was or not at all in the direction of the wisdom of Kabbalah but maybe to religion let's say, to not be in faith above reason but rather in reason, below reason. We have a problem here of how to scrutinize this but without the scrutinies which come and in each and every step along the way in every degree they were with us, and we will try to go in a way that we won't have any proof, any knowledge, any confidence, but rather only in the next state. As we connect between us and depend fully on the Creator, only that way we advance. This is all expressed through prayer. We're all together this entire helplessness and having no strength or forces or having the right direction altogether, this insecurity, and lack of confidence, we arrange these things as the beginning of the prayer.
Then from that we begin to try, we try to advance. With our eyes shut yet we don't see anything ahead I also can't see, but I also am not yearning for seeing or advancing towards seeing, I am advancing towards being dependent on the Creator. Just like the little child that once we put him on the ground to make a few steps, and he's walking, so what does he need? He needs to try to make a step and he is seeking the way to grip onto us, to hold on to us. The Creator gives us this
grip if we try to make a step forward and our step forward is above reason. It is truly like walking into the abyss it is something that is an unknown. A very special feeling, but it specifically in that feeling where we try to make a step like that, we suddenly feel that this is spirituality and specifically in this we later find the delight. Especially the confidence is in that and nothing else that can be clarified in my reason can help me, but rather specifically that force of faith the force of Bina above reason aims me correctly and this is done with guidance from the Creator in a very sharp way forward. We will try to give each and everyone such a feeling of what it is.
Excerpt 32 (10:09) Twice
2. R. (12:04) Meaning he shuts his eyes and although he can it's not immediately now but it will be that way, although he wants to go in knowledge, meaning with his eyes open, in knowing, he shuts his eyes, closes his eyes and prefers to go in faith. Meaning towards the Creator, then he really is inclined towards the Creator. The moment he closes his eyes and advances, the Creator is seemingly walking him forward, that's how he advances.
3.R. (14:57) The thing is, that the Creator arranges all of the conditions for us both internal and external, where we are in an internal confusion because we're accustomed to going towards our intellect and feelings which is called reason. The Creator arranges for us a way that we begin to think that this path is unrealistic, how will I advance, how will I go, how will I do things that are against what I understand and feel? I must be here above reason, in contradiction to everything that my mind and feelings tell me, so where am I according to what I then, will be able to do something? Everything that I am accustomed to do is according to my mind and my feelings, that's all together I have two, the intellect and the feelings. How will I relate to those two that I have and I have nothing but them, how can I advance? I have a brain, I have a heart, I have everything, but all-in-all here I am told that you need to rise above all that you feel, and all that you understand and then if you go with it forward you will succeed. How will I go, if I am completely having to leave everything I have, they say a prayer. There is nothing but that. That's the place where you need to ask to demand from the Creator to give you the force of bestowal so that you will go above reason with the force of bestowal. Then you can't understand with your intellect or feel with your feelings but rather you will receive a new intellect and a new feeling, spiritual ones. In them you will go, in them you will move. These are things that we need again and again to try to do and from the Creator teaching us how to make such steps in spirituality we will advance. We don't leave this world, our families and our jobs etc. and all those things that a person is in, even though Rabash writes in Shamati 4, read a little from there. It's a problem that we in such states it appears to us like in order to advance above reason, we need to leave everything we have in this world because we feel this world within reason, therefore it's hard. A person is for the time being for a short time in helplessness in insecurity, he doesn't even know what to do doesn't know what to do he wants to run back to the states he was in before where he was certain in his life, where he was living working his family, all kinds of such states that we feel in which we are connected to our lives. And wants to run towards them to truly shut his eyes and not receive anything from the way of bestowal from the way of faith above reason. But slowly slowly not to let go but to try for it to open up and then the Creator arranges for us this path. We don't leave our life, it seems to us that we let go of it and our principles and our physical life, they remain within reason, let them remain but in order to acquire another spiritual path we need to rise to it and to somewhat get along in it and know how to get along there.
Shamati 4. (20:42)
4.R (21:40) Yes because in our world we feel the reality and everything is in the vessels of reception. If we were to feel bestowing vessels that souls of spirituality, we would do something but it's impossible, what we need to do, what will I hold on to? I have never been in the quality of bestowal and the quality of faith in the desire to bestow and all sorts of states in which I have nothing to do with how I advance in this world. Here comes a problem until we enter the spiritual world and begin to get along there.
Reader continues
R. That's what we need even though we're certain that what we acquire in our vessels of reception, the Creator slowly gradually wants to move us to vessels of bestowal as well. It's not that it appears to us like we're letting go of our home and our family, entering some unknown cloud, misunderstood cloud. We need to make that transition that's the barrier that we talked about which we need to relate to and get used to. The main thing is to hold on together and then there is no problem where I have no confidence, no way to find myself there, in this spiritual state but if I hold on to my friends together all of a sudden, I see that in the connection between us, that is where we begin to see the new reality and the new state and there is no problem of orientation there. I can feel this whole new reality and then I begin to discover the world which is billions of times greater and more powerful and stronger than this world, this small world that appears to me as lowly and this one point.
5.S. In this picture you're depicting of the little child standing by himself and confused, what's the prayer?
R. It's the Creator teaching us this way that we need to go only in faith above reason, that's what we tell a child, make a step forward but he doesn't know what to do, how to use his foot or what to do. Then it turns out that only by kind of pushing him forward a little more and more he does it and then he understands that this is what he needs to do before he tries himself, as much as you tell him it won't help. This is how we are in our life.
S. What is the prayer in that state what does he ask for?
R. We ask to have the ability to go in faith above reason, which the Creator obliges us to do and for us to hold on together to each other and by doing so we can make that step forward.
S. Sounds as though he's asking to remain being blind?
R. Certainly because we're not going with the force of Malchut but the force of Bina with the force of bestowal and we go specifically with bestowal. We once did an exercise in Tbilisi where we had to go and walk above all kinds of obstacles with our eyes shut. We had to hold onto each other, yes. What turns out is that if you think about the other and how you need to do it for him and you make room for him so that he won't fall in the different obstacles along the way, there were ladders and all kinds of things there, then everyone succeeds. Therefore, faith above reason is not that we don't see anything, it is that you clothe yourself with different vision with different feelings through bestowal and then you see the world and all of the reality in a much deeper way, a much clearer way than it was before.
S. What do you discover what do you see?
R. You see the force of the Creator and all of reality.
S. Where is the above reason?
R. That is considered that you go with the force of bestowal above the force of reception. You don't want to go in the force of reception, of knowing because knowing lowers you to this world, but rather you want to go in the force in which you are connected to the Creator seemingly with your eyes shut. By that you will advance and each time you advance by you even more and more hold onto the friends together and discover the Creator between them even more and those are your steps.
S. The whole of faith above reason stands on the concern for the friends to hold them?
R. It's the means it doesn't stand on this it's the means to do so.
6. S. (29:30) It feels when you explain this way we have to do is step into this abyss blindly and on the other side I feel like my mind starts working and it holds me and if I hear the example of the child, this walking, the child has a concrete example he sees other people walking and we don't we don't see anybody walking whatever. I do want to step one side into this abyss and the other side I feel so much strength to want to jump into this abyss and on the other side I feel enormous restriction. It's pulled into my mind so can you give me something extra to make this jump into this abyss?
R. We now will work on this more and the main thing we need to know here are two things, I have no more than two, it's the group and the Creator. I feel myself helpless and I can't advance or do anything. But I can hold on to two, to my friends and to the Creator. Meaning I need to feel to the extent and which I am connected to them more, and I need to feel how much I need my advancement with the friends together ahead, towards the Creator and with the help of the Creator, so He will pull us towards Him. I won't be able to stand alone but if I am with the 10 and the Creator pulls us towards Him, imagine for yourself this picture. I have everything I don't need anything but that I have the group, well as much as I have 5, 6, 8 doesn't matter how many people, if together with them I am somehow connected, we turn to the Creator to pull us forward and then it will take place.
7. S. (32:40) What does it mean that we advance in spirituality and do not accept how we see the world in our vision but rather we aim our perception towards bestowal?
R. When each of us lets go of his ego and wants to advance with his eyes closed. I have no other possibility of advancing. If I don't close my eyes I'm advancing in the corporeal world and just as you were a beast you remain a beast. For the time being, if I want to go on the spiritual path, I must close my corporeal eyes and open my spiritual eyes. Later we will see that I will use both this and that. What do I do? I have two means, the group and the Creator. I try to build the system with the group and with the Creator which leads this system and then there's no problem. If I am going to turn to the Creator alone it will not ever help. I need to nullify before the society and I need to connect towards them. I need to build the conditions that the Creator will turn to us with and help us. Then we will advance.
8. S. (34:38) What is this new world where we lose our orientation?
R. You're not opening the new world, you need to build it. You begin to learn by connecting to your friends and turning to the Creator. You begin to learn how to make steps forward in the direction of spirituality by observing these two conditions. Then you begin to feel forces of bestowal that are operating around and within the environment. You didn't feel these forces of bestowal before. You begin to be a spiritual cell that advances toward spiritual states as you connect with the friends and the Creator begins to work in you.
S. What does it mean that the Creator starts to work on us and we become a spiritual cell?
R. The Creator is now giving you forces, desires, and the understanding that you are in a state of helplessness and that you cannot advance. You don't know where to advance. All that revolves in your mind and heart are only forces and qualities of reception and not of bestowal. We are in corporeality and not in spirituality. Make an effort to be connected to one another this way so that with effort, each of us will be able to rise above ourselves. The fact that we cannot is clear but each tries to make that effort to exit from himself and thus advance towards the request to the Creator for Him to do this for us.
9. S. (37:34) That step towards the abyss on the path of reason that you talked about and then going with the friends in the ten, is this specifically the place that illuminates or is it just a fantasy?
R. We have this on one hand and we have that on the other hand. Even when you feel that you have an abyss, if you relate to spirituality in the form of reason on the one hand, and on the other hand if you'll start to search through spirituality, you'll see what to rely on. Everything is excellent when you attach yourself to the group and the Creator and then you have a paved road and spiritual confidence. Adhesion saves you every step on the way but along with that, in the beginning of every step you will feel how much you are hanging in the air, like a tower flying in the air.
S. Will I have a lack of orientation and of where I am in every state?
R. Yes, we always start without foundation or understanding, with nothing. This is how we scrutinize all of the states that are broken as a result of the breaking of the soul of Adam HaRishon. We start to correct each and every state by coming closer and helping one another in our ten. The Creator then gives us a feeling that we are not capable of it because we are doing it by ourselves and nothing is going to work for us. Then we must connect in a bit of a different form between us in order to turn to Him. The end result is in the initial thought. It's not that we just connect between us like some commando but rather, that to begin with, we plan to turn to the Creator. We come to the connection between us and establish it in order to turn to the Creator out of it.
S. Say I'm now in some crossroad and reason tells me something very clearly?
R. What does the reason tell you?
S. Mostly rejection.
R. Yes, but how should you advance towards spiritual discernment so that you will start to feel the spiritual states, the spiritual world? The spiritual world is the world of bestowal in which I feel the Creator as the general force and more and more we begin to establish ourselves inside of Him.
S. Is it a sign for me to go above reason when my reason tells me something?
R. Yes, that's called faith above reason. I have reason and this is how I see it and this is what I'm told maybe from people outside. We need to go above that, in contrast to that, not to break these things but rather to build ourselves above it. The whole corporeal world and all of the disturbances will remain. We do not resist or oppose anything, but only inside of us. We are going above reason not externally, but internally. You will start to feel how much the whole world exists in order to receive in the low corporeal form and how much we are going above it. This is the only way. Within a few steps we will see that this is the way and the Creator is pushing the whole of humanity to that, however, they do not understand. We also may not understand yet what the Creator wants from us, or how to take our first spiritual step.
10. S. (43:30) I am like an animal without free choice so can I reach the level of being like a candle before a torch?
R. We cannot do it without first being an animal because each and every degree begins with us falling from the earlier degree. Each and every one of us has a bag with his broken vessels after the shattering. Each time we take out, or we are helped to take out, the broken vessel next in line so that we will be able to correct it. It turns out that each time we begin from a broken state. This is why it says, ‘a thousand times the righteous fall and rise’. That's not a problem, we will get used to it. You will see how practically, specifically through the connection between us, from lesson to lesson, from day to day, we will enter deeper and deeper into the feeling of the true world, the spiritual world and you will see where we actually are.
We should portray nature in the five spiritual senses as well as how we are imagining, depicting, or training in our five corporeal senses. In our degree of development, we are perceiving it in the form of a beast, in the same animal senses that the animals have. We want to be Adam, human, similar to the Creator. We need to change our perception. It will come, we will enter into it and you will see how this is something very special. The most important thing is that we need to try to hold on to the friends. You will see there will be many states where each one shall help his friend and only that can truly help each one of us to advance. The more each understands that he depends on the others and alone he will immediately fall from whatever he has, that will help us.
11. S. (46:46) Are we allowed to ask the Creator to give us a desire to bestow when we only feel our will to receive and are disconnected from the ten?
R. Yes, but seemingly he will be stepping in the same place until he will understand that his whole progress depends on his connection with the friends. He needs to advance through the connection with the friends. We start to detect that these are not friends, but Sefirot of the souls. This is how we advance
S. We discover that we have no desire to bestow in that initial point, that first transition.
R. You don't need to bestow. You need to think that to advance toward spirituality, to feel, and to discover spirituality, I have to have these friends. I start to feel spirituality only in the connection between us. Where's the spirituality in the connection between us? I don't know because this connection does not exist yet. We will discover it when we truly try to connect with the help of the Lord, as we say, with the help of the upper light, the reforming light, that brings us back to bestowal.
S. What compels the Creator to give us the desired form?
R. The general plan of creation that He started and that He will finish. This is what compels the Creator. The Creator is obligated according to his plan. He only has the force of bestowal and this is what he wants to implement in us.
12. S. (49:02) We need to connect, and we need to go after the Creator?
R. Of course we need to follow the Creator. You are all following the Creator only on the condition that you connect. This is how you try to bring yourselves to adhesion with the Creator inside of the ten, inside of the group. The teacher is a guide who seemingly stands on the side, showing you and pushing you forward. He certainly, in no way shape or form, can replace the upper force. He needs to be important to you otherwise you will not hear what he is recommending, but whatever he is explaining to you is just a recommendation on how to advance. You will not advance in any other way but to the extent that you do.
13. S (50:27) As you are telling us that we need to close our eyes, I am thinking about Samson.
R, No, forget about these examples.
S. Is corporeality just here to make the connection to spirituality and that is how we are supposed to use it?
R. Yes, I recommend that you read what we are studying, even a thousand times, and not add anything else to it, not even from the Torah. Watch out, otherwise you'll get confused and drown in all kinds of depictions of verses.
14. S. (51:45) When is a ten considered as succeeding?
R. When you start to discover that it depends on the mutual help of the entire society. When each and every one feels the connection between them and out of the connection between them, they turn to the Creator. They want to go on the path of bestowal and out of that mutual help, that mutual bestowal, is how they will advance.
S. Is our response always like a baby?
R. Well other times will come and different times will come but for the time being take that for example. The condition is that you arrange yourself correctly in the ten otherwise you're not a baby or anything.
S. How do you grow the opportunity for working above reason in the ten?
R. Simply in each and every state we want to establish ourselves in the right form between you and towards the Creator. This is how it should be non-stop.
15. S. (53:44) Can you give us one clear way, what is the difference between faith above reason and faith below reason, we heard eyes closed and how not to fall into being a religious person and remain a Kabbalist?
R. When you are going only with the force of bestowal between the friends and you want to be connected together between you as one man with one heart through the force of bestowal and out of this force of bestowal that you can arrange that you can detect between you and turn to the Creator. This path is the opposite of the landlord's meaning those who think egoistically, they are called landlords.
S. Now in this scrutiny we are talking a lot about the force of bestowal and to go with the force of the bestowal and connection in the ten but we also learn that we don't have the vessels to bestow so how does this all get to order?
R. It works out as much as you can each and every time, this is how it is in each and every new state you always start from having nothing. But you have the friends so you tighten the connection among everyone. And you turn to the Creator as much as possible together with them in what we call a prayer in the public.
S. At the moment, actually the connection that the attempt to connect between us is the kind of force of bestowal we are aiming to now?
R. Yes you should try and then we'll have what to talk about, the fact that you're asking without any bases any practical basis it only causes confusion.
16. S. (56:13) How to use faith above reason during the concealment?
R. Specifically during the concealment it's even easier to go with faith above reason when you don't have to replace your reason because you are confused and you can't do anything and so on, so you build the degree of faith above reason.
17. S. (57:06) You're leading us in some suspenseful adventure here, a movie, you mentioned the spiritual world that we will go with our eyes closed and inside this growth and this drop into darkness, we will discover new senses and these new senses will feel every time we fall more will we discover a new sense, what sense are we talking about, about, taste smell etc. or other senses?
R. We will discover all kinds of new states from which we will begin to understand what it means sight, hearing, smell, sense and touch in the spiritual meaning of it. This will be revealed but for the time being anyway we don't have it, just like a baby when it's born it has no senses.
18. S. (58:14) Will the Creator advance me in this work through the friends should I request this from the Creator?
R. As much as you are connected with the friends so the Creator will advance you and this relates to everyone, a person who is not connected to the society he can hardly advance. You'll advance a little bit in the understanding and feeling a little bit but actually in practice, no because nevertheless all of our actions are only in the connection between us.
Excerpt 33 (59:03) Twice
19. S. (01:02:52) The state of love of friends, is that our spiritual state, sense?
R. No, for the time being no. Love of friends is the condition that we are developing in our spiritual, in our physical senses as much as possible until the Creator will shine in us inside the connection between us. According to the degree of bestowing that we will have that will ask that will have a connection between us that is not in order for us to advance on our own but advance with the friends. Then through such little forces of bestowal that we will establish between us, accordingly we will draw reforming light and then we will begin to discover in that light according to the equivalence of form between us, in the states between us and with the upper light where we are. From that we will learn that we will learn what spirituality is, the force of bestowal, connection and so on. Now we're just talking about it without a feeling.
20. S. (01:04:23) In order to go above reason, we need to make sure to understand the situation we're in and here the ego is saying what is this work for you. Is there a way in our work with the friend we can recognize, is there any synonym that we can say, oh that's what it is and then I can go above reason?
R. Why would that be called above reason, it would be called within reason. What you're asking for is specifically within reason. I understand that in this way you will feel and understand as wise and doing things but no that is not how it should be. You are seemingly born anew. In a new world and you don't know anything about, from what you have in physicality that can help you in spirituality where you are now born. You specifically need through your physical force to develop as much as possible with your physical discernment and to arrange your state with the friends and with the Creator so that it will match the spiritual qualities. Think about it
S. The thing is the more we understand the situation we are in we can adjust but that's the thing we don't know we need to use the brain at some point and that's where the confusion lies because I'd like to go above reason, this is something we need because without that we cannot do anything.
R. This is why you need reason in order to build above it, the above reason and this is why the Creator made it so because it's impossible any other way. This is why it is called faith above reason. One who goes towards this faith his reason grows each and every time and he needs then on top of the reason that grows, that increases, he needs to bring greater faith in his way to advance.
21. S. (01:07:26) Is faith above reason to neglect or forget spiritual disturbance or take that disturbance to turn to the Creator to help us?
R. We shouldn't throw away that spiritual disturbance but rather see it as the posterior of the spiritual state that I wish to now climb to. This is how it is, this is how it needs to be.
22. S. (01:08:23) What can I do if I feel that the Creator is taking apart my 10 every day, each day is getting rid of one friend, what should we do?
R. You need between you to try to connect and ask of the other tens for help. Also realize that if a certain 10 is falling apart, this is a great blemish for everyone. We need to be concerned and help each other mutually. I was talking about the connection in the tens all the time, only that, but now we need to start to feel the necessity for help outside of the 10 from one 10 to another 10. So please start to develop such relations. Everything is in your hands, don't you think that in the morning lesson like now you are getting everything. You're not getting anything and it does not advance you unless you realize it and actualize it through extra connection in the 10 each and every day truly each and every day and in that each 10 should help everyone and if it sees that it can truly help this is a spiritual opportunity for them.
23. S. (01:10:10) If I myself am busy in self reception and there is a certain rejection from the body, what point do I raise the prayer here?
R. With whatever you can, it doesn't matter so much but what's important is that you hear and that you keep hearing and each and every day you come to the lesson and you're connected with your 10 as much as possible. This is already advancement and there are disturbances and those disturbances specifically on top of them, you are climbing the ladder in from one spiritual state to a higher spiritual state that is closer to the Creator. This is what we have to, even if we don't understand it, we have to believe that each and every day that this is how we are elevating ourselves towards the Creator, this is the spiritual work, the inner work, this is what we need to do.
S. Do I correctly understand that in a true way I can justify the Creator only above reason?
R. Yes only through faith above reason which we will acquire, the force of bestowing only through that, we will be able to reach contact with the Creator all the more so adhesion with the Creator.
24. S. (01:11:51) How can we feel in the 10 sensations of adhesion to the Creator?
R. To the extent you're connected in mutual bestowal to some extent with one another then you're generating inside that common force between you which is called the Creator. From the words, Bo Reh, come and see, it is all in your hands according to the connection between. The Creator cannot be revealed outside of the 10. He has nowhere in which to be revealed he needs a place desires which are contradictory but upon them that they want to be connected and according to the gap between the desires, that distance themselves from each other naturally, this is called coarseness and as much as you close that connection between you on top of it which is called clothing as much as you do it accordingly the Creator clothes in you and they themselves discover this measure of connection between you which is called BoReh, come and see, and then the Creator says you have made me.
25. S. (01:13:38) There are certain points that we can pay attention to and accordingly make decisions in the connection that one 10 can assist another 10, but say a 10 doesn't ask for help and we see that it does need help?
R. Only through examples, if you will show them the 10 that you see that is not quite advancing through the connection between you, you will show them how you are connected and how much you are gaining from being connected and concerned about it, how much you realize that advancement is only according to the degree of connection. This takes a lot of time until the end of correction, all of our advancement will be only to the extent we are connected. Until reaching as one man as one heart.
S. It turns out that we need to come in envy?
R. Maybe, yes it says that envy, lust and honor takes a person out of this world so let them see how much you are doing, things of connection and they are not capable of but gently show it to them.
26. S. (01:15:21) I feel myself as a child toward my friends in the 10, so what can one give the friends?
R. You can be the greatest, it all depends on how much you influence them, give them an example of how much you want to be in the connection between them. We don't need to be too clever here, the wisdom of Kabbalah doesn't require the mind or intellect, it only requires actions that the Kabbalists explain to us.
27. S. (01:16:18) When we had the exercise to walk with our eyes shut, I remember you said if you think of the friend in front or behind will feel, you will disappear because you are only concerned and feeling the friends around you. So now we are speaking about this mold that we have to build between us to turn to the Creator, how does a day go by that this concern on every friend in the 10 that that will be the reality, how do you do this in your 10? What is the innovation now?
R. It is that I, like with that example that we had where we were truly walking with our eyes shut, that each one was helping the other and each one is concerned about the others who are before him and behind him, we were holding with our hands like a human chain. If I think about the other then I have no problem I start being connected to the entire chain and we don't fall. We were going there in dangerous states and situations, walking in the air. This is what we need to do now so that I don't know how to take a step forward but only in that I am gripping my friends more. this is the formula, that I don't know how to take any step forward but only that I am gripping my friends.
28. S. (01:18:36) Is faith above reason a vessel to reach spirituality and how do we ask from the Creator for the forces to reach faith above reason?
R. Faith above reason is called the desire to receive that is governed by the force of bestowing, the force of Bina. The will to receive is in the will to receive and we use it as if it wants to bestow, it is like if you are sitting at the host place and you really want to eat but you stop yourself, you make the restriction and after that you begin to receive from him only to the extent that you can bestow to him, only according to that. This is called faith above reason so we don't leave the reason, we use it to the extent that we can rise above it and the levels of rising in bestowing above reception. It's called the first second and third degree, this is how the degrees are always measured in spirituality.
29. S. (01:20:42) Can you explain the concept of Shechina?
R. Shechina are those vessels that are the desire to receive which are corrected with the restriction, screen and reflected light and therefore they can reveal the Creator. The corrected vessels of the created being that can receive in order to bestow this is called revealing the Creator, they are called Shechina.
30. S. (01:21:32) What should be the personal preparation in order to come closer to the general work?
R. We should be ready for faith above reason and entering the spiritual world, discovering the spiritual world on the condition we understand that our whole existence right now is a beastly existence not just corporeal but beastly. That we are on the levels of still, vegetative and animal and we want to rise to the speaking degree, the human degree that is similar to the Creator. In the meantime we hear what our egoistic desires dictate to us and we need to reach a state, we will have thoughts and desires that are like what the Creator has. Accordingly, we will be called similar to the Creator. Adam, Domeh, similar to the upper one.
31.
S.
(01:23:06)
You
said
we
don't
need
a
mind
just
to
do
the
actions
that
the
Kabbalist
tell
us
to
do
but
if
I
don't
have
the
spiritual
mind
in
order
to
understand
what
it
means
to
try
and
come
out
of
myself,
to
ask
for
the
Creator
to
connect
then
what
is
the
work?
R.
The
work
is
to
follow
these
practices
and
habits
that
the
Kabbalists
advise
us
to
do.
S. What is that?
R. To connect and to participate in the lessons.
S. How can I connect if I don't know what that means?
R. If you don't know what that means don’t connect, don't share complaints that are not in the right place.
S. I don't want to complain.
R. Read the Rabash articles and learn from there what it means to connect.
S. I have read them many times, he is speaking from a very exalted place.
R. I don't have anything to give you, you have a strong and good desire but you still need to receive and accept the guidance from what is written. That is it, it is written simply that you need to connect with the friends and to that extent you will advance so follow that, how? Read it in all of the writings of Rabash, I don't have any more to offer you.
S. Here when I am participating in the lesson but without my heart?
R. Okay, very well, that's all right that you are there without your heart but try as much as you can to also bring your heart closer and then the feeling that you feel you want to be in the connection with your heart but you can then the difference in the gap between these states will become the prayer for you. Ask of the Creator, you come to me with a complaint, go to the Craftsman who made me, go to the Creator and complain. Write it down in front of you that you always have to turn to the Creator only with your complaints and then you will always be praying. Actually, you should say thank you for giving you such states.
32. S. (01:26:20) All of our work is in between the 10 and what is our work when we're in business with our necessities?
R. That you are doing these things as the result of necessity so you will also have time to engage in spiritual manners as the Creator created the connection between corporeality and spirituality for each and every person as it is suitable for the person and we will see how much he organized your states corporeal and spiritual but it is all directed toward connection.
33. S. (01:27:15) You said from one degree to the next our reason grows, what is our reason that grows from degree to degree?
R. Reason means the clear corporeal reason and the clear spiritual reason that I have to rise above the corporeal reason and listen to what the Kabbalists say to me as much as possible and then when I climb up the levels of faith above reason each time, I acquired some level of faith and I establish myself there then it becomes reason and I have to rise to a higher degree. Each time this happens just like you know in our world where we move from a smaller reason to higher reason, the same as in spirituality.
S. It gets more difficult or is it the same level of difficulty because we have more forces to ascend?
R. I wouldn't say it's more difficult but it requires more effort but a person becomes capable as we only arise in sanctity.
S. What is the problem with annulling the reason even if it grew more?
R. It is control, reason is the control of the knowledge, reason and spiritual reason we will have to learn, that is the three lines.
S. It is hard to understand what we are annulling exactly.
R. When we get there it will be easier to understand and express.
Excerpt 34 (01:33:08) Twice
34. R. (01:37:25) There is nothing more to add here what does he tell us each and every state where you are you have to hold on to faith above reason and keep yourself on the path to try not to forget that whatever appears to you is only to strengthen the path and not to throw you out. If you feel that it throws you to all sorts of other directions you should know that these are auxiliary forces assisting you. Help made against you so that you will grow stronger and move forward. The Creator on one hand helps, on the other hand he disturbs in order for you to ask him to transform the disturbance to assistance. You are always in contact with him, God forbid, thinking that there are other forces besides the Creator, opposite to the Creator hindering us. There is none else besides him as he writes even one who says there is the other side, there is no such thing, it is all the force of the Creator that works on us and we are connected to it. You already know of these articles and quotes
35. S. (01:38:06) At the very beginning it says a person needs great Mercy in order to not escape the campaign so we know that we have to pray to the Creator, we have to pray and be strong, what does this mean, great Mercy?
R. He feels that he has difficulties and the Creator puts very big tasks on his shoulders and he can't overcome them this way and this is good that he cannot overcome, meaning that this is what the Creator wants he wants us to turn to him in each and every step and the fact that it is difficult this is good. We are not capable and it is good we are not capable, why didn't you ask is what we should not forget. This is possible only by helping each other to set the examples for each other. There is no problem as disturbances we can experience them from dawn to dusk, all the time as long as we turn to the Creator with these disturbances in the right way to be connected between us and wanting that each and every disturbance has each one and all together that we turn to the Creator with them and then very quickly we will come to spiritual results.
S. I received this great Mercy when I pray, is this what happens, is this what it means, I need great mercy and where does this great mercy come from?
R. Yes, you then receive the great Mercy from the Creator, you are always only dealing with the Creator, how can you ask where is it coming from? Is there any other source, none else besides him.
36. S. (01:41:52) To succeed in keeping persistence and doing actions mechanically with the 10 but I don't find any feelings with the Creator in reality how should I make certain my action will be below reason to go above reason?
R. The emotion comes after it doesn't come right away, it is like a little child, that you want him to hug you so he is hugging you because you were asking him mechanically, he can also caress you in some way. It is mechanical because he doesn't have these feelings yet, same with us we are devoid of emotions of relating to the Creator properly, to each other properly we don't have this yet as we grow we can open ourselves up and begin to advance.
37. S. (01:43:09) The 10 went into dormancy in the last week, there's no forces in the friends are tired. What is the Creator trying to tell us in this state?
R. Each and everything that we go through is to go forward as we only rise in sanctity we never fall, now he is showing you how much you have to add your own efforts to be connected and by the connection that you turn to him, you invite from him the light that reforms and in this way you advance. This is called in his shade, I covet his shadow, his shade and his fruit is tasty to my palate
38. S. (01:44:15) To measure something corporeal like coming to the lesson is possible but how do we measure the connection between us if we take into account that we don't reveal it between us?
R. You will begin to discover this, as you go a bit deeper into the spiritual scrutiny. Always think about this that you want to discover between you the connection between you the force of connection, of mutual bestowing between you. Ask the Creator to shine on you and show you what is the force of connection between you. That we may begin to feel that you can ask for anything you want, no problem as long as you turn to the Creator together, how much you understand him it doesn't matter you can turn to him and demand.
S. How to measure the success?
R. According to what you receive in the end you will advance.
S. Should we discuss this?
R. You can try.
39. S. (01:45:59) Before we reach faith above reason, we can reach it before recognition of evil?
R. No, one thing has to do with the other, I have to feel how my ego humiliates me all the time and keeps me away from everyone and ultimately from the Creator. That I have to see my ego as something that really impedes me, it is help made against me, the negative force that has to be in me so that in the difference between the good force and the bad force that I will feel and discover the Creator otherwise I can't. Still only one force without the other that is only possible for the Creator, for me I can only discover the light out of the darkness.
40. S. (01:47:27) What does it mean that we can ask for whatever we want as a 10, we ask for what we want and the Creator gives us what we need?
R. If you decide on asking something together that you see is worthwhile then go ahead and do it.
41. S. (01:48:03) How can I continue praying to hear and see the above reason?
R. This is simply by persistent, perseverance, think about it and try to find the material in Baal HaSulam and Rabash articles, you don't have any more than that, delve into that and pray to the Creator that he will help you understand and feel how to gather the knowledge that you crave, start working this way.
42. S. (01:49:02) Yesterday it was just us without you and today everything was very new and special, wanted to ask what happened, the work without you is completely different when it is just us?
R. How different?
S. I don't know, we watched a lesson and we didn't speak much.
R. Was it productive?
S. Very.
R. Good then in your meetings during the day that you have at least twice a day, you don't feel that you are there without me, that I am not there?
S. You don't disturb us.
R. No, I'm asking during the day when you meet without me, don't you feel the same as what happened yesterday or that yesterday was 24 hours special.
S. We watched the recorded lesson and everyone came and annulled.
R. Good to hear you have new discernments.
S. It feels today we are even deeper in the cave.
R. Very good, that doesn't matter, you come to the light when you reach the end of the darkness, the advantage of the light comes out of the darkness.
43. S. (01:51:04) What is prayer with no confidence? I know the Creator is the good that does good and if I am in a state where I want His help I turn to him, so what does it mean without confidence?
R. When you feel it you will understand and you will be able to see, prayer without confidence of course it depends what we are talking about, either you have confidence with the Creator or no confidence in your state, that is a good prayer for the other way around, figure it out, scrutinize that you are capable of that.
44. S. (01:51:51) About the right prayer in the 10 the correct prayer is that each one brings despair from all of the things that he is not successful in and then we find the right prayer or we put everything on the side and scrutinize what we need to add in order to connect?
R. Both but what is important is that you don't block each other, it is possible that each one comes with his own personal preparation and he is in his own state. If we connect in our personal state in order to direct ourselves to connection between us and then to the Creator, the main thing is to discover the Creator, then you will receive it. We are like 10 Sefirot in the Partzuf and each one is in a different way Keter, Hochma, Bina, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet. Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut from top to bottom, we are all in different qualities and we don't need to hide or to erase these qualities, on the contrary. Each one from his heart and qualities, from his mind he has to aim for connection and through the connection to the goal, to the Creator. So don't be afraid, the example to take from each other is only in terms of how we are inspired and alert to the goal, not to the past it's not that I need to think or feel or want as the friend does.
S. This is what you mean by blocking each other?
R. Yes, that I am supposedly in control over him, I don't need this or don't want it and I'm not allowed to, each has a place to express himself in the connection otherwise we will be missing something.
S. Then the main thing is that we bring all of that and we aim for prayer of the Creator?
R. Yes.
S. I heard you say before that we need to set an example of how to raise a prayer on each and every state.
R. Each and every state we need to be connected to the Creator that when all the states play through us, like on a piano when you extract the melody out of it. By constantly using the new qualities and new desires, new connections between them which are different, from this you get a melody. In that way you have to constantly be in this as you change, the friend changes, the connection between you changes, try to pray on the 10 and you will be able to reach a state that a melody comes out, a song.
45. S. (01:55:57) I heard you say that I always need to hold on to my friends and the Creator on top of everything that happens, I always try to do this but it's like the Creator is tearing my hands from my friends.
R. In order for you to hold on to them even more.
S. What does it mean to hold on more, how do you hold them firmly?
R. That you are thinking how I can bring them to connection, to a good connection that from it we can be closer to the Creator that you are serving them until you bring them close to the Creator.
S. I, always in practice, am more alone, this is what is happening.
R. I don't know what it means in practice that a person can be alone or not, it all depends how he pictures his connection with the group.
46. S. (01:57:21) What you just explained means that through the difference between us we will find the connection when we share our different opinions and take the friends desires and raise them to connect?
R. A spiritual vessel has two pieces of data, coarseness the will to receive in all of its parts and clothing as much as they are willing to connect so that one upper light will bestow through all of them. The question is this, how much or even though every time we discover ourselves more different, hate each other, don't agree with each other, can't agree with each other, want to kill each other, this is the coarseness. How much above it can we connect and help to be in together even though inside each one holds the other in order to not burst out and blow the group up. As much as each one goes and hold on to the connection even though you discover more disturbances and the disturbance isn't simple, you have to be somewhat connected in order to start feeling the disturbances for connection and according to that we become a Partzuf that has coarseness and overcome what is happening between us. According to the connection between the coarseness and the clothing would begin to discover the light. For now, we are just studying the elements of how to reach and resemble the lights being able to be revealed as none of us have built a Partzuf, this is what we want to reach.
47. S. (02:00:30) We raise a prayer, compose a prayer in the ten each day and we read it several times a day. The Creator answers our prayers every day but still it’s as if we don't trust the prayer, it seems like everything is happening by itself not because we made a prayer, it’s like there is no connection between the prayer and the outcome. What is that what to do with that, do we need to ask, to believe in the prayer?
R. For now we are advancing like babies that are being taken care of according to what the parents decide what they need, but afterwards more and more we start taking into account what the baby likes, what he wants, what he is drawn to. For now, we are being taken care of from above without being asked out in the open what we prefer and so on. Advance as quick as you can and you can reach a nice, good connection between you and the Creator. It’s going to happen.
48. S. (02:02:01) What is the test a person can do in states of detachment so he doesn't ask for himself?
R. In the states that he is disconnected he needs to understand that he is disconnected because he is thinking of himself and he is not lacking anything to add except for the thought about the ten and about the Creator, as it is written ‘’Israel, the light and the Creator are one.’’ Israel is the man connecting to a group which is called the Torah, the light, because that is where the system is revealed and the "Kudsha Brich Hu" the Creator is the upper force. Those three men constantly has to depict them as one.
S. How does a person depict the ten when he is detached from it, where do you start?
R. You start from zero.
49. S. (02:03:28) In the lesson on Yom Kippur you said that the prayer is the only thing that can make a correction. Can you explain, what is the meaning of this for the ten?
R. I can't explain anymore because for the last two hours we're speaking about it and you're asking now again, I have nothing to add. I'm just surprised how, what you are asking about, maybe you didn't understand the question. Everything is attained through the force of prayer, prayer is what we need to establish in the ten according to as much as we establish it between in our hearts. So the plea to the Creator, according to that, we will receive a response from Him. According to what I hear the question isn't, as if you just connected to the lesson.
50. S. (02:04:46) If I identify pride in the friends that hinders the connection in the ten between us, should I say that the flaw is in me and I need correction or ask the Creator?
R. For sure, ‘’that he who flaws does it in his own flaws.’’ If you see something in the friends you see it as a copy of yourself, the whole world everything we feel outside of us is a copy of ourselves just like a mirror that you see your internality in the whole world. Imagine for yourself that you don't feel that don’t feel yourself, that you can’t correct every little bit that happens inside of you but before you, you have the whole world with everything that is going on there, all the people, all these things, even the still, vegetative, animate, and it’s all you from inside that sees all your inside on the outside. It is all your desires, all your thoughts, all your actions, all your plans, everything you see in the world. The world is a copy of your internality and only if you connect with everybody together that is called that you correct yourself.
S. So there's no ego, no pride in the friends, only me?
R. There are no friends. It's the Creator depicting you to yourself from inside so you’ll be able to correct your inner qualities and be ready to adhere to Him.
S. Thank you.
R. Think about it more but that's the way it is.
51. S. (02:07:04) I want to refine something. You said we need to play the ten like an instrument so there is a melody between the friends?
R. When you reach the connection between you and each one starts changing himself from the connection and coming back, changing and coming back, you’ll start feeling as much as this instrument is playing.
S. What is the melody about?
R. The melody is like David's harp, David is the Malchut. He knew how to correct his ten Sefirot, that’s called that he played his harp or his violin.
S. So it turns out that in our corrections we have to feel some force, the influence of the Creator between us?
R. Of course, you have to connect between you until you discover the Creator between you, how and the connection between you.
52. S. (02:08:42) How not to be afraid of asking from the Creator?
R. You will ask from no choice, don't worry about it, keep going.
Excerpt 35 (02:09:06) Twice
53. S. (02:12:52) We’ve gathered over three hundred friends and looked at the re-run of the Yom Kippur lesson with the Russia Kli, friends from all over Russia and Ukraine. It was something very special, I am very excited by it and we went through a lot together. Today, it felt like the lesson a new world opened up.
R. Good. I'm happy to hear it because soon we have a congress. Everybody is a congress of all world BB. We will work on the connection together and we will try to put together excerpts about it.
S. Yes. There is a whole plan already.
R. Yes, on the connection and we will feel as much as it pulls us ahead.
S. It felt like over three hundred friends are like one ten, that there is no difference, whoever I know and those I don’t, they sat and joined the lesson like one ten. It was very special.
R. Thank you very much, good. We will all see each other in the morning lessons. The main thing is in the congress that is coming up.
54. S. (02:15:00) You said that a person does not receive such a decrease that he can't keep up with. We can all rise to faith above reason?
R. Everybody. Everybody and eventually they all will. If not now, in the next incarnation. But all created beings and the still, vegetative, and animate that are incorporated in man with their desires, they also get there. Everyone reaches one desire that will be completely resembling the Creator in order to bestow, it’s called ‘’above reason,’’ it’s called the force of bestowal.
55. S. (02:15:49) You mentioned in the lesson about this musical, a melody of the ten and mentioned King David’s harp. We are coming to the Memorial Day of Baal HaSulam, what is the difference?
R. What difference?
S. Between King David, who corrected the ten Sefirot and played it, and Baal HaSulam who also achieved the final correction?
R. I can't compare or scrutinize between King David and Baal HaSulam, we don’t understand either of them. They are images, desires that have reached their end of correction and they are in such states that we can't understand. Try to imagine a little baby going between the adults, what does he know about what they are talking about, he can't even hear it, he can’t understand anything. That’s what you are asking about.
56. S. (02:17:10) We have exactly one week until the congress. Four thousand friends have already registered, a few other thousand still need to register. What is it about this physical action that a person agrees and registers to this gathering? How does it work on your inner desire even if you don't have a true desire yet?
R. I can say one thing about this. There is no corporeality in spirituality, it's all one desire that obviously is divided into all kinds of levels but there is no difference. The fact that we feel some small layer of our will to receive also in it, in that will receive, in that layer there is the upper light which bestows, otherwise we wouldn't recognize it. We are still being taken care of by the upper one and from it we start climbing on the degrees where we start ourselves, to find ourselves, to find our way in there. That’s why it is important that we all connect together and ‘’the king’s glory is in the multitude of the people’’ and then, we can really be closer to the revelation of the Creator in us, at least to the upper illumination that will shine on us and that’s how we will advance. I'm sure you can already feel, as much as such a gathering of forces, that even just a bit want to connect between them that it will bestow on each and every one. So it’s too bad that people don't sign up right away. It’s also an action, it’s an action of connection, even just signing up and so on. So don’t disregard them. As much as you disregard, you’re actually moving yourself away from the action of the upper light. Very simple, that’s how it works.
57. S. (02:19:59) Do we have the right to ask the Creator to obtain the will to bestow now and not in the next life cycle?
R. No, not next incarnation. There is no next incarnation, it’s on this one. You are lazy and you want to already. If a person, and it’s written, postpones his current moment it’s called that he might reveal it only in the end and in the end after everybody, it is not worth it.
S. Is it good to invite friends who were in the ten but they no longer come to the daily lessons?
R. Yes, it’s worth inviting to the congress friends who used to be with us and left, let them come. Today it is easy, first of all its days off, Friday and Saturday. Second, what does a person have to do, just let him come and see, we'll celebrate together. It is still written down on his soul that they did a spiritual action, and it’s life, it’s very beneficial for spiritual advancement
.
58. S. (02:22:11) It says the Torah only exists in one who puts himself to death over it. If we don't receive an example from each and every friend in the ten, we won't be able to care about the benefit of the Creator and merit the Torah?
R. No. Each one must show externally as much as he’s yearning for connection. I don't know what spirituality is but for connection, that is a must for each and every one.
59. S. (02:22:51) What preparations a person needs to do to be ready to put himself to death?
R. That the connection in the ten with the Creator is the only important thing that matters to him and that’s what he is alive for.