Morning Lesson September 21, 2023

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

Part 3:

Yom Kippur - The Day of Atonement - Selected Excerpts from the sources. #7

1. R. We learned with you about the exit of, emergence of the will to receive through the light, how the Creator organized, set up the will to receive so that it would achieve its correction and filling, so here the question is how are sins and transgressions related. As it’s written, “go to the craftsman who made me”, this is how I’m built because the upper Light, the upper Force created me. And by that, this is how I exist, so what can I say about myself, where am I, where is my nature, where are my desires, who governs me, who manages me that you can say that there are sins and transgressions here on my part? All of this we will have to scrutinize and clarify.

Reading Excerpt 7 (01:49 - 02:53)

2. S. (02:59) It is written that we should interpret that the sin is in saying that there is an evil inclination, what does that mean?

R. That basically it is the will of the Creator that awakens in a person deliberately so that a person will scrutinize on top of it, himself, his relation to the Creator.

S. Scrutinize my attitude towards the Creator is clear but why does it say that the sin is in saying that there isn't an evil inclination?

R. Because everything is given from the Creator and not ever any other side although it is also written that way, too, sometimes, but it is according to the degree that a person can determine and this is why we have to accept all of those things as coming from above.

S. So every sin that is revealed, I have to see that the Creator did that to me also?

R. There Is None Else Besides Him, the Creator did everything and He did it all so I would know His creation from beginning to the end.

S. So where exactly is the place of man, of ‘if not for me who is for me?’ Where is the place that is not None Else Besides Him?

R. There's no such thing.

S. So that paradox of none else but me or None Else Besides Him, that’s with us until Gmar Tikkun, the end of correction.

R. Yes.

S. But to feel it every time, ‘it’s me, it’s Him, it’s me, it’s Him’, that is our work?

R. Yes, that is the revelation.

3. S. (04:56) So what exactly is the sin of man?

R. Man’s sin is when he says that there is a sin.

S. He writes that if a person is unworthy he is thrown from above, why is he unworthy?

R. Because he probably did not discover what he should discover.

S. This action called ‘toss someone from above’, that is for man's benefit?

R. Everything is for man's benefit.

S. So it is a good thing, it is towards correction?

R. Yes.

4. S. (05:36) In other words, when he’s thrown from above it’s because he did not scrutinize correctly and the Good that does good?

R. Yes.

S. So we want to repent over the sins so the beginning of the?

R. What sins?

S. First of all, there is a sin that it’s supposedly something for myself and not from the Creator.

R. That there is sin, yes.

S. So the first repentance is to acknowledge that everything came from None Else besides Him? 

R. Yes.

S. And how does the next part come, from the Good who does good, what we said?

R. After There ‘s None Else besides Him you determine that that None Else besides Him is Good and does good.

S. But how do I have to feel it too?

R. Yes, with all your bones.

S. It looks like to determine that it is from the Creator, I do have the ability to do that?

R. No.

S. No?

R. No, no you cannot discover it is from Him unless you feel that it is coming from there is None Else Besides Him and that He is Good who does good, these things come together.

5. S. (07:10) What does it mean that “I created the evil inclination”?

R. Who?

S. “I created the evil inclination”, He created it in man?

R. Yes, the Creator created it in man.

S. So that is not a sin that He created?

R. No, no, it is still before all the sins, before everything, it is from the foundations of creation.

S. When we work in the ten and we see these states that we feel that are evil and that we are working with it and scrutinizing it and we see that it is from the Creator?

R. Yes?

S. So does that mean we are overcoming a sin?

R. When we discover that there is bad in the world we attribute it to ourselves, that it all depends on our relation to creation, that we have not yet corrected that there is an evil inclination; but in truth there is no evil inclination.

6. S. (08:47) We learn There's None Else besides Him so why is the evil inclination called evil and in what is it evil?

R. It is evil in that it, nevertheless, for the time being removes us from the Creator.

7. S. (09:09) Something isn't clear, he says that “the evil inclination is evil from his youth, that the Creator created him and he needs to be corrected”. So first of all, how do I correct it; two, why should I correct it if the Creator created it, so what is the story, what hides behind this?

R. He created it in order to distinguish between us and Him, so we will be able to shorten the way so much so that we achieve adhesion.

S. So this, we are talking about the Days of Atonement, Yom Kippur.

R. Right?

S. So what should we do on Yom Kippur in this state, what should I say forgiveness for?

R. I have to correct to try to see my evil and how much it helps me come closer to the Creator and enter the good.

S. What do I have to do on that day, can I cover my sins on Yom Kippur?

R. Yes.

S. How?

R. By determining that there is no evil in the world.

S. That is the thought, but in the deed, in the ten what do I need to do?

R. No, all of our corrections are basically only in the intention.

S. In the ten I need to do it with intention?

R. Yes.

8. S. (10:46) I heard, it is a sin to call the sin a sin, but is it also a sin to say that there is an evil inclination, so how do we call the evil that is revealed in man, how to call it?

R. It is the evil that the Creator created so that we would recognize it and be able to correct by changing our relation, our attitude towards Him.

S. And I have no responsibility about it, it is just from the Creator?

R. Until we discover the Good and does good in the Creator and thank Him for creating the whole world in this way, and we can distinguish between bad and good and exist between the two of them; otherwise we would not be able to feel ourselves as created beings.

S. So what is a special work now on the Day of Atonement when a person sees the good and the bad, what should we do there in the middle?

R. We have to be in the middle between good and bad, and feel that bad was created only so we would know the good. Without having good there will not be bad and without having bad they will not be good so then we would have no sensation of, no sensation of reality.

S. Should man ask that the Creator correct the evil at its root?

R. Yes, yes.

9. S. (12:44) The will to receive is the main vessel that we build in the ten and we have to want to correct that general will to receive, what does that mean together to want to correct that vessel?

R. That we want through our connection to discover a good desire from connection, and through it, we want to correct the ill-will, the bad will that brings about all the rejections between us.

10. S. (13:36) We talked about the sin, what is a sin in the spiritual work, is fortune telling a sin, what is a sin?

R. A transgression is when I do not relate or accept the Creator as the Good who does good and that There Is None Else besides Him, that is the source, the origin of all the sins.

S. Is there any corporeal action like fortune telling?

R. From where do you get this nonsense, fortune telling, where do you read this, I don't understand you.

S. Meaning in corporeality, could there be a sin to do something with your hands that will be a sin?

R. If you are not harming others then you are not regarded as a transgressor, as a sinner.

11. S. (15:02) To continue the question from a friend, if every correction starts from the left line as we learn, so it turns out that we can't reach a true desire to increase the greatness of the Creator, to raise it from the dust, as long as we do not have a desire to humiliate the previous desire?

R. Yes, of course it is just like there cannot be pleasure from food unless we are hungry, there has to be a will to receive and then comes the correction of reception, of the filling of an order to bestow and then we enjoy both the food and the Giver of the filling.

12. S. (16:08) Could we say that on the Day of Atonement, that the essence of the Day of Atonement is the need to lower the will to receive?

R. No, of course not, we need not fight against the evil inclination, we need to use the evil inclination correctly.

S. What is the essence of the Day of Atonement?

R. That we rise above all the obstructions, feelings, that we have in our lives, in our world above them to the complete connection.

Reading Excerpt 8 (17:07 - 18:06)

13. S. (18:12) If we say that the sin is that we do not know about None Else besides Him, the Good that does good, so what does it mean that the sin is before the friend now?

R. You cannot reach adhesion with the Creator unless you do it through adhesion with all the friends along the way, the friends on the path.

S. Yes that is something we learn, love of the Creator to love of the created beings.

R. Yes.

S. But is there a separation between a sin between man and Creator and man and the others, what is the sin between man and the Creator and what is the sin between man and the created beings?

R. There is a difference.

S. What is the difference between them?

R. That you cannot come closer to the Creator unless you first connect with all the other people.

S. That part is clear, but in the previous excerpt that we read he said that the sin is to say that there is a sin and I want to acknowledge that There is None Else beside Him, the Good who does good, and let's say I do a horrible deed towards the friend now.

R. Yes?

S. So I need to say or acknowledge that I, that it came from the Creator and so on and so on; so what is this thing, a sin between man and the friend?

R. I didn't understand, when you commit a sin toward a friend, by this you commit a sin towards the Creator.

S. Okay, and I have to understand that it came from the Creator that There's None Else besides Him.

R. What is ‘it’?

S. Again, the whole previous session, we stood on that point that the fact that a person said that he sinned, that is the sin, and to say that everything came from the Creator; so how suddenly when we work in front of the friends, it is not from the Creator and it is a sin I did towards a friend?

R. No, that too comes from man and it comes also from the Creator, and if he wants to connect with a Creator he has to correct his relation to man, to the person. And then out of this we will have a correction of man's relation to the Creator.

S. So, practically, a person has to calculate in this time what he did wrong to the others and how to correct his attitude towards the other?

R. Of course or otherwise the Day of Atonement will not be over.

S. So it does not end with None Else besides Him, The Good who does good, he has to do soul searching how can I make my deeds better?

R. He must, he must ask for forgiveness from every single one.

S. What is the transgression between man and his friend?

R. Transgression between a person and his friend is when he thinks that it is the friend who harmed him and not the Creator.

S. How does he make his friend happy?

R. By asking the Creator and asking the friend to forgive him and allow him to come closer to them.

S. What is the action of forgiveness?

R. The act of forgiveness is when he sentences himself or judges himself.

S. And do you have to practically say something to the friend?

R. Yes, to the friend and to the Creator.

14. S. (22:29) Can we say that the sin before the Creator is that I am against the Creator in my qualities and cannot adhere to the Creator? And the sin before the friend is that I, with the same qualities, but I do not want to adhere to the friend?

R. There is something to it, yes.

15. S. (23:15) It's not clear what is going on here, at least for me, we are speaking of man's attitude towards the Creator, it is clear I have to do some correction, in my perception here is broken, that is clear. But what is this whole matter of the friend, transgression with the friend, sorrow from the friend, what are all those actions?

R. Why?

S. Because if the work is before that upper force, that He created the will to receive, the evil inclination, I have to understand that everything I see shattered in the world, all sins it's just lack of adhesion with the Creator. It is like everything is in relation to that force so how suddenly is there work before the friends, what transgressions are before the friends that I have to ask for forgiveness, what does that action even, it is not clear?

R. Why, why do you think that you are not committing any sins against them?

S. It sounds very corporeal, we are trying to reach a connection to the Creator that He's going to change my qualities to be like Him, so the work in front of their friends is to discover the places of the evil inclination where I want for myself, where I have an intention for myself and ask the Creator to correct it. Where are the actual transgressions here, I'm transgressing here, it sounds opposite.

R. But if you are not asking that He will correct you, it's not a transgression?

S. Towards the Creator, why is a friend connected to this?

R. You have no transgressions against the friends?

S. He writes, “yes”, but that is what is confusing because what transgression can I have before the friend? I come to the ten, I want to discover the Creator, I want Him to change my qualities to be like Him, so we’re doing work here in the ten, trying to connect, doing everything. We say that evil is revealed, it is, it is not like a person chooses to do the evil, it’s revealed, who revealed it, the Creator. So we can say you discover the evil, correct it, where is the transgression towards the friend here, what, I have freedom of choice to do evil to the friends?

R. The fact that you don't see how through your actions you are stopping the Creator in the friend on the way to correction, what can you do, you don’t see it?

S. Okay, so that is something else, I do not see it, but it sounds about all kinds of transgressions, ‘I did this to a friend, I insulted a friend, I don't know what’. What you were describing is completely different, it’s that I do not see your own shattering, I don't see my intentions, they are hidden from me and I have to see them being revealed every time and some evil being revealed. This circle I understand but I cannot understand where there is actually doing evil to a friend, a transgression, a sin towards the friend, to ask for forgiveness, that’s not clear either. Prayer I understand, it’s work in the heart but what is forgiveness, what I'm speaking into words here, this whole attitude sounds very corporeal?

R. It is still too soon to answer you.

S. This whole holiday, the Day of Atonement, sounds very weird all of a sudden, that’s what I’m trying to say.

R. It’s a calculation.

S. But we calculate every day, every evening we come, we ask “what did you do, did you come to the ten, did you try to work, did you try to come closer to a friend, did you discover that you’re different, shattered, that is the calculation. What other calculation after a year I do on the Day of Atonement, it sounds so artificial.

R. But still there is this custom of making this calculation, it is a custom.

S. I understand the custom but what about our correction, how do we correct this thing; again I'm going back to the beginning, if the sin is that a person determines that there’s something except for the Creator who created the will to receive and that's what’s shattered, that's what keeps me away from the Creator, what are the other sins, what are the other transgressions, what are you asking forgiveness for?

R. Nothing, that is the main thing, yes.

S. So I don't understand the meaning of asking forgiveness from the friends.

R. The friends, the Creator, it is all in order for me to ask for forgiveness for not being focused on putting all the parts of creation together and out of that, to turn to the Creator.

S. Okay, so there is something personal here, ‘I'm sorry about the things I did to you’ or it's me before the system called ‘the Creator’ that is revealed like friends?

R. That too.

S. So there’s also the general perception and also personally in front of the people?

R. Yes, yes, this is what we have to do on the Day of Atonement, before the Day of Atonement, that the atonement for sins, for iniquities.

S. What is asking for forgiveness, ask for like children?

R. Take a prayer book and sit before the friends and read what it means to atone, to make atonement.

S. I did homework with my son yesterday in the second grade. It means to say sorry for what you did and not to do it again.

R. Well?

S. That is the work in front of the friends?

R. This is before the friends.

S. It sounds like kindergarten.

R. It is like kindergarten so what, what do you think our whole life is not like kindergarten? I have nothing to add, we just need to raise these things to our level and continue, we will talk some more.

16. S. (30:34) I want to ask differently: why is it important to the Creator a person's attitude towards a friend?

R. We don't talk about the Creator.

S. Why is it important in our correction, the attitude towards a friend, why don't we ask about asking for forgiveness from nature that I am polluting?

R. What are we going to do, bow to a tree?

S. Why is there an importance towards the friend, there are so many details in reality, why is the friend important?

R. Because he is the one who presents to me my relationship to others.

S. But man, if he thinks of himself, he damages all of reality not only the friends?

R. This is already philosophy.

S. Why is it that man, there are whole movements working in this, it’s also felt when I throw things into the garbage, I’m thinking ‘why am I polluting my reality, why can't I be a person who is more concerned about the environment. I feel that it awakens in me somehow, it started happening at some age, why is this a secondary attitude and the attitude towards a friend is the main one?

R. Because the friend is a human being like you and to the rest of nature we can address gradually, more and more.

S. So maybe the question is why not to relate to the most exalted part of reality which is the Creator but only to relate to, like, lesser details, like a friend, that's how it seems to a person, that is how it is depicted to us, that there’s an upper Creator and there’re friends in this world.

R. So we need to ask forgiveness from the friends. We have such a prayer in the prayer book where we sit and read it before everyone and we ask for forgiveness. And after that we begin the Day of Atonement. We are done, we have a lot more to scrutinize both about this Day of Atonement and the next Day of Atonement.

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