Morning Lesson September 30, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
1. Baal HaSulam - What Is “Hurry, My Beloved,” in the Work?
1.Rav’s Introduction: As part of our repeating and going over with the articles of Shamati, we are going over the articles that Rabash wrote when he heard as he writes, I heard, Shamati so we're going over them.
Shamati 10 (00:48-03:34) Twice
2. R. We see it in our life that in each one there are states when we want to run away, quit, move away, take some distance, and it is given to us directly from above to show us so that we will learn from those states. Just like when we move away from a child that we put in front of us, so he can learn to walk and then we move away from him and then he doesn't know what to do, he cries but he has no choice so he has to take a step forward and that's how the Creator does it. He wants us to be able to stand on our own two feet and move and walk forward on both legs on the left as well, which rejects and yet a person will understand that it is for his benefit and he will advance. That's why all the rejections we feel in our lives, there is never anything in them and we never get a rejection in our lives to get off the path but only to advance and what's required of us is only to overcome more and add some more strength and make another effort and not forget that this is how the Creator teaches us to walk. The group must constantly be as an envelope, the right environment to keep a person from forgetting that precisely this way we advance on both legs and it's impossible to do it on one leg. Everything comes from above and everything comes only in order to promote us. The states might be the worst possible states as they seem to us but they are nevertheless in order to progress. Of course, there's always a possibility to turn every situation to a better one, a more advanced one. If we chose in all those states not to be in more pleasant states but more instrumental, more beneficial for progressing towards the purpose of creation then we would see that we always have only according to, that we need to advance only in this direction. The Creator always leaves this path for us to rise above the ego and advance towards the goal.
3. S. (06:37) If the Creator gives you states that are comfortable and pleasant to the ego, should you agree with it?
R. Agreeing or disagreeing is already your decision but the fact that the Creator gives it that is correct everything comes from Him. He can give it to you directly or perhaps when he moves away, my beloved is like a gazelle. Then a person has to decipher the situation correctly and understand what is required of him. Of course, we should try to understand everything not in our ego, in our will to receive, enjoying for ourselves but as much as possible rising above ourselves and deciding in a manner that is independent of ourselves.
4. S. (07:55) When does he write that he blemishes the Kedusha specifically when he feels moving away or declining?
R. Because there is no such thing as moving away or moving farther. The fact that it seems that we're moving farther away and we accept what appears to us as truth is a transgression because we are advancing only towards corrections. We increase Holiness not decrease it and if we increase it on the left side then we have to understand that it is precisely by the Creator opening up to us a little more of our will to receive and we feel ourselves as heavier, more fallen, more dissatisfied, but it is advancement on the left side so that we can overcome it on the right side. That's how we walk on both legs.
S. Identifying, we are heavier is possible to feel but also to decipher what we want from that site, how can we decide for you correctly?
R. When I always want to advance, I always have to choose that I want to advance toward bestowal and connection. If now I see I want it less or don't want it at all, I reject it, it is a sign that the Creator has clarified and showed me a little more of my left line and I have something to work on the importance of bestowal the importance of connection. So now I need to be incorporated into the society even more through it, receive strength.
5. S. (09:52) What gives us that inversion of thought when specifically, the faith, the belief that it is Kedusha runs away from a person and not the other way around?
R. That's the problem and it seems to us that the Holiness is running away from me and I have to understand it correctly that the fact that a little more egoistic desire appeared in me than before and it is I who seemingly grew further from Holiness.
6. S. (10:44) When a friend leaves the group does he stop advancing and it causes the fall of his friends?
R. When a friend leaves the group he leaves because he doesn't feel connection to the group. He's got complaints and he has grievances against me, against the group, against all in Bnei Baruch and against the whole world and against the Creator and he is the only one who is right. That's clear to us. That the ego came and kind of overpowered him in such a way that he could receive from us the strength in the powers but he doesn't want it. He feels smaller and greater than us and usually a man's pride destroys him so much so, that he is buried under his will to receive and dies spiritually. It happens to a lot of people. This is how they quit, how they drop out, maybe they are not aware of what is happening to them, on the contrary they think they're right and they finally discovered the truth. And that in general how could they go to such a society that talks about such abstract things well, this is how it happens. I spoke about it with Rabash as well because there were such incidents and he said of course. Usually in all the religions and belief systems, the disciples have the highest respect to the teacher and to the path but there was no left line there. No criticism, no increase, no intensive investigation of the ego every step of the way as in the wisdom of Kabbalah we are advancing on both legs. Because we want as it is written, and you will be as God knowing good and evil.
Therefore, only in the wisdom of Kabbalah does it happen that a disciple disagrees or even hates the teacher and rejects the teacher. Basically, he is taught to be on a level where he is advancing and approaching the upper force, he has to know it, understand it, and it is not for the time being it's not suitable for each and every one. When a person comes into our group and he is completely unsuitable for it, unsuitable, he is suitable for the time being to walk around on the street with all kinds of methods that are out there but not ours. We come to understanding and recognition of the upper force how it behaves with us how we behave with it. This is already only for special people, but for regular people they are incapable of it. They need to simply learn what they need to do in a physical worldly way with their hands and legs and mouth, how to pray, how to do all kinds of things, and in this, finish their lives. Yes, that's why people who come to us into our group, by chance and we have many such people because we're open to everyone. There are also those who discover after some time that it is not right for them or they are not right for us or they are not right for us, we're not right for them and they quit. It's not a question of the intellect, they can be smart, it depends on the preparation of the heart, the preparation of the soul. If they are willing to go against their ego, to rise above the true forces of nature in order to connect them together to the one source to the Creator the good and the bad, then they can advance with us. But if they are unable to, they don't have the patience, they don't have the intellect, the right intellect or the right feeling to connect together the good in the bad, to a singular force then they leave. Normally because they are dissatisfied with us, they hate me. It's natural because how can they agree with us much less love us? When we show them only that the road is difficult and you have to constantly annul themselves and relinquish themselves so how can they love it, how can they agree? This is why Kabbalists, until recently concealed this method because it's not suitable for the general public. We also don't really circulate everyone and even if we do circulate here and there, you see that very few come and of those who come many leave. For the time being this is the number of people that can hear the truth but mainly realize it on themselves.
S. The friends who stay in the group, they get hurt from the actions of the friends leaving?
R. No, they need to talk among themselves to make them stronger and this actually makes them stronger, in other words, the one who left let him leave, good luck to him and his regular life, we are moving on. I think that our world is showing us from day to day that there's nothing much to look for in this way. In this world what does a person gain I cannot say. Neither money nor respect nor power are waiting there, nothing. It's just that he doesn't want to adopt what nature meaning the wisdom of Kabbalah tells him. Nature wants to open up to him possibilities and opportunities to really see nature correctly. To take both forces of nature the plus in the minus and combine them into a middle line which is basically the method of Kabbalah and to do it but not outside of ourselves but to do it within us. To ourselves calibrate ourselves and arrange ourselves, organize ourselves within, like the rest of nature. With right, left and middle, three lines, force of reception, the force of bestowal and the right combination between them and then a person comes to a state where he sees and understands and feels all of reality. Above time and space and motion and all the limitations of a singular egoistic line. Also above the altruistic line in which there are no measurements because it just opens and gives everything and here there has to be a combination between the two lines. Because only through both are we standing on the road in the middle between the two lines. And we can bestow a measure the form of bestowal, and in this way in degrees we attain the Creator more and more.
7. S. (21:43) What does it mean that a person wants to blemish the Holiness, how can they blame the Creator?
R. There are all kinds of things that we seemingly don't want and disagree. We can't really blemish Holiness, the force of bestowal, you can't, it's impossible because we receive everything from there, a person is operated from there 100%. But he has his own desire as if he wants to blemish, as if he wants to put a flaw in the Creator. It seems to him like he can somehow connect if he didn't succeed in the positive way then in the negative way, he will succeed. I am saying it's impossible because Holiness determines all of our states including this state but a person wants to blemish it. That too it determines. But it's all with respect to the individual only. I really feel sorry for those people who leave and curse us and are dissatisfied with us, they are unaware of how they are only growing further away from this path of approaching the Creator. Eventually everyone will walk on nonetheless, but they will be the last if they continue in this way.
8. S. (23:47) How can I pray in the ten to the Creator when I am full while our desire ends?
R. You are also a great asset to your society when you fall, because now you are forming the left line now you are the will to receive as being revealed for the first time after the breaking in you and if you join the group with this will to receive in the same direction where everyone is going, then you're adding to them material substance, and the light that they'll receive from above on top of that substance, will give everyone the ability to advance. Our whole progress is on two legs, so now you're activating the left line with your ego with your big new will to receive which the Creator revealed, and the group helps by adding the right to it. In this way each one brings to the group his own will to receive, egoistic will to receive and the group helps him balance this desire. In this way everyone advances on both legs. You need not be ashamed or regret a new desire being revealed as Baal HaSulam writes, I am happy with the wicked being revealed. With those thoughts, with those egoistic thoughts and desires, when they are revealed, you should be happy because this is the foundation, the basis of our advancement.
9. S. (25:58) Is there such a thing as something happening coincidentally?
R. Nothing happens by chance. By chance or coincidentally means you don't understand the cause and consequence so it seems to you like it's chance.
S. You said by chance, so I'm asking?
R. From our perspective it is chance but chance means you don't see the reason. That's why we call it chance.
10. S. (26:46) A person receives a descent, he feels it comes from the Creator, he comes to the group he makes different actions, he asks the Creator to rise above the descent, why the descent actually grows stronger and shouldn't it be the other way around?
R. Of course not, the more we rise towards the goal, the purpose of creation, the more we are equipped with greater desires to receive crueler ones. As it is written, anyone who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than him and we correct the evil inclination, the bad desire and that's how we rise. How can we rise and climb if not on a mountain which is those broken desires that we have, from the sin of the tree of knowledge, when the system broke, when the Creator broke the system, created and broke it. Now we have a place to work and correct it.
S. Speaking of that state of the descent where I got a descent but it continues to get stronger in that same state?
R. It's a sign that you have not managed to correct it. You have to be incorporated in a 10 some more with that same descent and try by incorporating in everyone, turn this descent into an ascent. How do we advance? RAV is drawing. How do we advance from, we fell, we rose, we fell deeper, we rise higher, and so on until he who was greater than his friend his inclination is greater than him and that's how we rise until we rise to the end of correction. This is why we need to get stronger and stronger in the group in order to be able to rise and determine those degrees of ascent and as little as possible remain in the time of descent. Our whole work should be like that.
S. A person tries to do anything he can do during this descent but the truth he fails?
R. It's a sign if he did everything he could as you say but I'm not sure that's true but if he did everything, he could but he couldn't, it's a situation where the Creator shows him that besides a person's own efforts to connect to their friends a prayer to the Creator is missing. There are two things here, he needs to come into contact, let's mark it as connection, connection with the group. But besides the connection with the group, he also needs in order to rise, in order to rise to ascend, he also needs help from above. He needs to get help from above. In order to get help from above he needs to during the descent, he needs to raise MAN so as to receive and return MAD from above and downwards and then he will have the power to ascend. We need to do all those things. If you're not in the group, if you can't raise MAN together with the group then you will not receive MAD and then you will not be able to rise. You leave that state, meaning you leave it as if you are going back to your previous state, to here, but you don't rise to the proper state because you haven't connected to the group.
S. This failure doesn't bring a person to prayer but more frustration and grievances?
R. Because he remains in his will to receive and he's dissatisfied with his state and he weighs everything with his ego and doesn't want anything else, where is what I deserve why haven't you given me and then he gets angry with me with the group with the Creator. Instead of what, instead of thinking and calculating why it is happening to him because he's not doing what he is supposed to do.
S. How does he turn and change the thought as we read in the excerpts and not that everyone is wicked?
R. Because he leaves the lesson and doesn't want to remember anything he learned and doesn't want to implement it but just like that, whatever he heard he heard. It’s as if it has nothing to do with him. What's important is me, what I have, that’s what's important and he can't position what he hears against his ego. That in the end he has to work with his ego and that he needs to add in this more and more each day, he does not have it he doesn't want it.
S. That's what I'm asking, how this inversion takes place, this inversion of thinking and he can't come up with a prayer, he’s frustrated, how from here he comes to a place where he blames himself?
R. From what is he frustrated, from what.
S. That he wants to climb, he wants to connect?
R. He wants to ascend to rise, if he wants to ascend, he should get on an elevator and go up. Rising for us means connecting to the group and turning to the Creator. You have to get into the elevator, meaning you get into the group and turn to the Creator and he elevates you but not you but everyone. Kabbalah is the laws of nature, it's not going to help you if you agree or disagree. These laws are absolute laws if you want to advance, learn them and keep them. If you don't study them in order to do them in practice the laws of nature, then it's not going to help, the Creator will not change anything. You won't be able to defeat him by not wanting to do what he determined in nature and because of you he will change the laws of nature. This did not happen and it will not happen because the Creator himself is nature.
11. S. (36:10) We know there are simple falls and there are hard falls, when pride is revealed. Sometimes a person feels it inside of him in a kind of, clearly, it stands out. How can a person, a ten, keep the person protect him, meaning how can a ten run ahead of a person, precede every friend, and build such a connection that can soften it?
R. How can you. You need to speak in the group about all events like that. We must talk about them, discuss them. We need to speak in the group about such states and we need to give explanations to each one, that this can happen with us, why should we get into such states, even before we enter such states. Let us play as if we’re in such states and we come out of them. The main thing is to come out of them, that’s it, like we do in our life. It’s recommended to imagine, to depict how much we can be in opposition. Let's talk about it in the group, and also at the same time, the same place. Let us discuss how we are coming out of such states so all those things will pass over us in potential and not in practice. This is the whole point of learning something, let's do it, let's do it this way, don't hide it or anything. There are many states that you don't wish to discuss and you think there's nothing to talk about. No, you have to talk about all kinds of spiritual states that can happen to each one and to the group as a whole, and then you'll be able to advance quickly. Try, try everything.
S. Do you think that there is room for some toughness in the ten towards friends, to be harsh on them? Sometimes it seems helpful or should we always yearn for some?
R. No, you need both, you need both. We advance in three lines in everything, also towards each and every friend. There is one line, soft, right. Left line, which is judgement, calculation. Ultimately, we should get the middle line.
12. S. (40:16) Running away from Torah and commandments, should we always place conditions to the Creator for a prayer? I'm asking because I want to know about this.
R. To run away from Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), what does it mean Mitzvot (commandments). Mitzvot (commandments) are all the actions that we do in order to attain the force of bestowal. When I try to connect with the friends, let's say ‘’love your friend as yourself,’’ this is a great rule of the Torah, and if I make all my actions in the direction of connection with the others, then it’s a rule, it includes all of the Torah. What do I do by that? I make efforts in connection because that brings me to the correction of the vessel of Adam HaRishon, which is our all our life, our history, everything we need to attain. So, by doing these actions I invite the reforming light called Torah, because the light in it reforms. Then, through various actions of bestowal that I awaken, although I can't do them but I want them to happen, then I have the following. An action in my will to receive where I want to do something like a child but of course I fail, however I try because the results of my efforts, I get the upper force that clothes to some extent in my action of connection, coming closer to the group. Then, time after time, time after time, we come closer. Then, it turns out that through Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), meaning from my efforts to connect, and through the reforming light that appears on my efforts, we come to a connection. This is the meaning of keeping Torah and Mitzvot (commandments), that's it. What is that great rule of the Torah? The rule (Klal) that includes everything, is ‘’love your friend as yourself,’’ when we come to such a state, that's it.
13. S. (43:49) There really is a feeling of a cloud that has landed on us lately. It’s as if, on one hand you can come to the group and do things, increase importance, change moods, and get through this situation. But the question is, how do you really use it? How do you respond to it correctly and not just go through it, change the situation, but how do you really make use of it for the right spiritual work?
R. The right spiritual work we can do now with everything we've gone through in the last month and also in the last congress. It's when we understand this, before us, new period which is the entrance in practice to Ibur (impregnation). What does it mean to enter the Ibur (impregnation)? It’s entering the connection between us, in practice, in each and every ten. Where, here, we’ll feel the connection between us one force, the Creator, and we’ll feel Him with the force of our desire, where each one of us is willing to give up his “I” in order to be connected with the others, and to feel the force that unites us, the Creator. This is the beginning of Ibur (impregnation), that’s how we need to see the state before us. Now, we need to start working with it and practice. Again, I'm saying it again, connect between us so to some extent will be in one desire, which is entirely aimed at the Creator, like towards the host, and he wants to receive from the host when the host wants to give. The first portion we will receive from the host in this way, not because we want it but because we want to delight Him. That first portion is called the attainment of the spiritual world, the spiritual state. This is what we have to do now.
14. S. (46:33) You said before that we need not a pleasant state but a beneficial state. What is the difference between a beneficial state and a pleasant state?
R. I positioned myself, I prepare myself to decipher, to consider, value it, discuss each and every state according to how much it advances me towards the goal and not according to how pleasant it feels to me in my feeling. Of course, there's a limit to how much I can tolerate, how much my ego can tolerate and suffer. How much harm I can do to my ego but nevertheless, we need to see ourselves advance in this way.
S. What characterizes a descent and what characterizes an ascent? Is a descent only the will to receive?
R. A descent is when I don't appreciate or value actions of bestowal as before. An ascent is when I appreciate acts of bestowal more than actions of reception as they come to me, and I prefer to be in them.
15. S. (48:26) How do we calibrate the forces between us for spiritual attainment?
R. How to calibrate the forces for spiritual attainment, it's only according to how I can attach them to the ten with my friends because then, the directions are correct and they're capable of acting and attaining the result. If I am working outside the group, not physically, of course, but rather, the entire group can be more united, then I have no chance of succeeding in anything. On the contrary, I will bring harm to myself, if I think of myself individually discreetly.
S. Are there clear signs of the correct work between us?
R. What can be clear then if you're inside the group. Of course, there are not. Only in the group can you scrutinize these things. Bend over before the group, bow down, try to incorporate without any reason, any intellect, that's your opportunity. One who becomes smarter and wiser, look what people who leave Bnei Baruch say. They look down at the ten, everything starts from that, looking down at the ten and looking down at the Creator. That’s it, they come out, they fall.
16. S. (50:47) If you feel in your ten that all the friends are in a descent, that they are tired and it's difficult for them, how can you try to help them come out of that state?
R. There's no tiredness in spirituality. If you feel an upliftment, a spirit, if you are connected with the goal and that could be through the ten, of course, then there is no such thing as tiredness or fatigue. So, you should interpret correctly what does it mean when you are tired.
S. People feel in a descent, you see that it's difficult for them, they are in descent, they don't have high spirits.
R. It's because they fell from the appreciation of the greatness of the Creator and the greatness of the group. I'm not saying you should rest but after a short rest, you need to pick up our material and through it you need to rebuild the appreciation for the group.
S. What is incorporation? What is performing acts of bestowal in the group?
R. When we help one another to not fall from the appreciation of spirituality, so spirituality will be important in the eyes of each and every friend, as much as possible.
S. What is spirituality?
R. The greatness of the Creator, the greatness of the group, the greatness of the teacher, the greatness of the entire vessel of Bnei Baruch, where we all see ourselves as having to be connected, and leading humanity to the goal towards, adhesion with the Creator.
S. There's a lot of spirituality in me, as you said, but in the last congress I couldn't listen to you, I couldn't be in the group. In congresses, in this virtual time that we we’re in, there is such rejection in me, such resistance in me, that I can't be in these congresses.
R. Good. It's very nice that you say it before everyone, we can learn from it. There are many people who perhaps feel like you. First of all, you may not feel that you have an opportunity to be incorporated with the great audience that's drawn towards the purpose of creation, you are lacking the appreciation of this great audience who are all, without exception, parts of your soul. You hear me, they’re parts of your soul, such parts. All of humanity, all of them are parts of your soul but those you see before you, people of Bnei Baruch, that you see before you during the congress who want to connect, these are the parts that are most advanced of all the parts of your soul. Because after the sin of Adam HaRishon, we were all mixed together with one another. But by the reforming light, when the souls that are more special souls, the ones that are closer to the light, they come up for correction first. Therefore, you have to appreciate those people who come to us, who are together with us, and that together with you they can rise, they can ascend towards you. They’re parts of your soul, you and your soul. The first one is the Keter (crown), and all the other parts are the remaining Sefirot. So go ahead, respect them, you need to love them because through this love you seemingly include them together, you connect them to you and then you put together your soul, put it back together in the correct form. It's a shame and it's a shame, a greater shame that anyone who doesn't do it, understands then, he’s not attracted to it, eventually he falls off, he drops off, he leaves.
S. I was very close to it.
R. I understand, that's why I'm answering you.
S. The truth is that the group, my desire to be incorporated into the friends, drew me to the group once more and would not let me.
R. This is called help from above and you have to be grateful to the Creator that he gave me such friends perhaps, that He gave them a desire to treat you nicer. But ultimately, you need to give thanks to the Creator into the group that you stayed on the path. Otherwise, you would have left and certainly moved farther and farther away.
17. S. (57:04) Sometimes in a descent, there is a feeling that because I'm in a descent, I’m harming the society, doing harm, I am not speaking of raising importance. So, in such a state should I quit for some time and return when I calmed down?
R. First of all, the group has to be a group for life. We need to see it as a system that never disperses and never separates in its parts, that's one thing. Second thing is that when each one is going through ascents and descents, we see it throughout the entire writings of Kabbalists, we see because we are learning those materials so many times. One time, one friend drills a hole in the boat and then, a second one drills a hole, the first one corrects himself and he brings himself back to ensure he is not drilling a hole. Each one is going through many states. We need to include these states with us because none as wise as the experienced and advance in this way. There's no such thing as a person leaving, it says about it ‘’anything but leave,’’ he can do anything but leave. When you leave, you leave back into the beastly life, you descend from the spiritual degree, however much you’ve had, but you had somewhat, but you’re coming back down to the corporeal world.
18. S. (59:27) If a student holds onto ‘’There is none else besides Him,’’ and he may be angry with Rav and with the whole world Kli, and with the group. He tells himself, as Kabbalists teach us, that the Creator gave him that thought, to be angry with Rav and with all the friends. Such a person, doesn't it make sense, it doesn't make sense that he should leave the group if he knows he got it from the Creator?
R. We know but we understand, we never pressure a person. Ultimately, if he leaves and he says I want to leave, I'm not suitable for you and not suitable for me. It doesn't matter the excuses, it doesn’t matter really. Then, we don't do anything against it.
S. Right, but this is within reason. Meaning if he is within reason as in everything in our world, if he is like in a certain job, or if he studies something, so he quits. But if he presses on that place that gives these thoughts, if we adopt it, isn't it a safer way to hang on and stay?
R. Look, we can't obligate a person. I'm saying what I'm saying. We cannot promise anything to him except for what he himself gains and succeeds within our group. The group relies, or is founded on spiritual actions, on obtaining bestowal and connection. That's how we come to an adhesion with the Creator, that’s it. The group was founded on the principle that it was given to every person, anyone in the world, as Baal HaSulam writes ‘’yellow, red, white, black,’’ it doesn't matter whom. Everyone can come to adhesion with the Creator and that's why we are open to everyone, that's it. More than that, we don't have any conditions. We accept everyone and we advance together. I have nothing more to add. Consequently, we never limit anyone, not with any corporeal action, in nothing. Only the heart, as much as you can correct your heart. Please, we are doing that and we are willing to help you with that, as well.
19. S. (01:02:51) If a person studies Kabbalah for several months and afterwards leaves that’s clear. But if a person studies ten years, he comes to the lessons, he comes to congresses, he knows everything, how after ten years can you quit if you already understand Kabbalah, everything's clear to him that he needs to make efforts?
R. On that, it says ‘’don't believe in yourself until you die,’’ until the will to receive dies and you enter the spiritual world, you cannot be certain that you're even in contact with the truth because you lack your first spiritual vessel. You can still run away and there is nothing to keep you here. When you’re saying ten years, it says nothing, that’s why Baal HaSulam says ten years, twenty years. A person needs to toil and exert, and then he enters the spiritual force. Then, the spiritual force enters into him, rather. That's it, it's no wonder. Don't come to a state where you look at someone who is here for many years, the years mean nothing, they say nothing about a person.
20. S. (01:04:55) It's not quite clear to me where is this point of decision of a person who is working. You spoke to us, now for half an hour, about the Creator doing all those things. So where is man's point of choice?
R. Man's choice is there, but when do we get it to make a choice? When we are incorporated in the group and if I leave the group, I have no choice, I am under one desire, one egoistic desire. Only on the condition that I am Incorporated in the group, on one side I have my ego, on the other side I have the group. Then, between those two tendencies, I know how it works and with whom, and how, I have to pray to the Creator to help me, to shine through me.
S. There, the point of choice is realized as Baal HaSulam says, that you have to choose the right path, the path of truth?
R. Repeat the end of the question, please.
S. He is asking about the precise point of choice of a person, should he choose between the group or his ego, as Baal HaSulam says?
R. To choose between the two, of course. We are in this choice constantly, that's what the Creator arranged for us so we have to constantly choose to adhere, to cling to the group and that's how you bring yourself back to the system of Adam HaRishon.
21. S. (01:07:23) There's no initiative to promote the ten. There are voices for, that is with Rav, and there are voices that say there is no need, we can settle with what we have.
R. No, no, no. What new initiative? What are you telling everyone, I didn't hear about any new initiative.
S. What is the initiative?
R. Yes.
S. For example, yesterday we thought about creating a vision for the 10. That’s the initiative.
R. Then, what it is?
S. The goals where the ten wants to advance, where the 10 wants to be six months from now, for example.
R. Okay let's say this.
S. Yes, so it's an initiative, how to improve. Some people say that what we have now is enough, there's no point dealing with something else, and some say it's a good idea worth doing it.
R. I can't discuss it, I'm not in it. I know only one thing, I have a morning lesson and in the morning lesson I need to release a new portion to my students. What they do later, and when they philosophize between them, I am not responsible for that.
S. The question is, what should the ten focus on if it wants to accelerate its advancement?
R. What we see in the articles. I see in these articles such depth that we haven't even started to scratch. You think you understand, you heard it by ear and it has gotten accustomed to hearing those words. The ear, yes, but the heart does not work according to the ear and that's what we need to worry about. How to make the heart work according to what we hear, or what we read in the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. That should be the goal and the form of advancement.
22. S (01:09:57) There's a different situation as a result of the growth of egoism, all kinds of grievances towards the ten appear, and he tries to move to another ten where he'll feel more comfortable. How should we relate to such a state, does it require a scrutiny of the ten?
R. If a person wants to move from one ten to another, we don't respect such a decision because he's in his egoistic desire, he cannot decide spiritually and logically even what to do. If he is in a ten, he should stay in it, precisely when he feels difficulty in advancing. This difficulty comes to him from above, from the Creator, and he has to accept this difficulty in such a way that above it, he will come to connect with them. Then, he will succeed in the correction of his soul, that's it. There's no such thing as a person choosing between one ten and another as if he understands what's closer to the root of his soul. Rather, everything exists according to how the Creator arranged it for you. You fell into some ten, you find yourself there, stay there, that's it. If they agree that you can be between them, you have to be there and correct yourself in spite of the difficulty and the problems, specifically because of these problems, you see that you'll be more successful in the correction of your ego. I don't agree with people changing tens. Rather, only in extremely special cases. Let's say, they are brothers, father and son, in the ten and it disturbs them. We have to change that. People who are biologically close relatives but if not for that, I don't think there is a room for that, I don't think it's justified.
23. S. (01:12:48) There's a question regarding a friend who wants to return. What is your advice, how to ask the Creator for the power of connection, what prayer is effective so we can help the friend who wants to move away?
R. You have to talk to him and find out what he wants, why he is leaving, and to see if you can help him or not. Maybe his grievances are such that we can do nothing about them. He simply says I have lost all desire for spiritual advancement and I wish to live like the rest of the world and die like the rest of the world. Like on the animate degree, he lives and he dies, I don't want any more than that. We have to try to awaken him again, that spark that he had. This spark it's not like it got extinguished, but it’s under the desire to receive that grew on purpose. It grew on purpose so a person would raise back this spark. Let me make a drawing for you.
(Rav drawing) There was a small mountain, and a person discovered that he wants more than that. The red dot is his desire for the Creator, and down below is this world. In order to raise a person towards the Creator, they add more desire to him and from this day, he needs to climb higher. His desire for the Creator must be bigger compared to what he had before, in accordance with what he received. He has a bigger will to receive and then he is closer to the Creator. He can advance towards the Creator, except through, when our egoistic desire keeps moving in this way. Here and here, and we have more and more, that's how we grow up. That’s how we grow up from the degree of Shoresh (root), 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, that's how we grow up and we have 125 degrees. We always need to raise the importance of the Creator, spirituality, the group, above the importance of our own ego. There's no choice, this is the work. That's why we have to talk between ourselves and read, and study, and remind each other, this is a must. We should pay attention especially when we were in the congress, on a certain level of connection, because after such actions, we especially are in a state of transition, where they reveal in us a new egoistic desire, so we would advance more towards the Creator. Let's say in the congress we were on this level, this kind of effort, now we are on this level. The will to receive is now bigger, but we have to raise the importance of spirituality accordingly, and we do it each time. This is a simple thing.
S. Part of the friends have health problems. It’s no problem with Bnei Baruch, they have no problem with Bnei Baruch, but family, health problems came and now it's disturbing them from continuing?
R. I don't know what to answer this. About this, all I know is one thing. Rabash usually wouldn’t accept all these excuses, problems in the family, problems with health, with work, other things with the children and with the wife. That’s all excuses. Meaning a person should try to be connected to the group, with each and every state, until he comes to the purpose of creation. Meaning there is no such a thing that he is separate, what is he separate from, his soul? He goes back to his beast? There is no such a thing. Specifically, because he has all these problems, he has to hold on stronger to the spiritual force. Then, he will see how much the spiritual force that has to develop in him, this spiritual forces exactly what determines these situations a person goes through.
24. S. (01:20:13) Why can't we feel that our ego increases in force?
R. That’s because we think that these are just arguments, that they’re logical. That’s why, at that moment, we agree with them. That’s the way it should be, that is the Creator doing that. He is opening that evil that lies within us, but it was concealed, and He's showing that to us portion by portion, layer-by-layer, a little bit every time. That’s why we need, basically, if we are connected to a group, to the lessons, and to the teacher, we have to be happy about it, that now a higher evil inclination has been revealed to me. Meaning, I'm climbing on the mount of God, I'm closer to the Creator. But in the meantime, I'm climbing upon the broken will to receive. But where do I meet the Creator with hundred percent of adhesion? Atop all our great ego.
25. S. (01:21:42) How to raise the spiritual importance of spirituality and in Creator, if I don’t have physical contact with the group?
R. What does that matter? You have the books, what do you think that people used to have a hundred or two hundred years ago, they had all the media lines like you do? They had nothing. Rabash used to pave roads far from his home, and from Baal HaSulam - from his teacher, from his father, and so what. He used to work, in such a work, you know what kind of work is that it is hard, it’s very dirty, and they used to work morning until night. Whenever there was light outside, they worked and in the dark they went to sleep, that is all, there was nothing. That’s how he used to work a few years this way. There was any other work he could sustain his family, to have something to eat, it is not like today. That’s why there is nothing to complain about, you have to accept all the conditions as they were. If you can easily make them better, go ahead. But basically, the way we have the communication we have today, is such a special state, you should bless it. All the rest depends on the heart.
26. S. (01:23:49) I wanted to scrutinize about what you said about changing tens. A lot of times, people ask to change from one ten to another. Our friends that are in the lesson every day and their partners in the ten hardly show up. It’s important for them to have a strong environment to advance, and they feel that in their ten they don’t have people to work with. People come for a quarter of a lesson, half the lesson, not every day. So, friends like those, after a while that they tried to encourage the friends to come, the state does not change in the ten. In a state like this can a person ask to change between tens?
R. If there is no choice, that’s something you should discuss. You should discuss this, it is not simple. I can’t give you an answer right now, I can’t. It's required to try to pull all these bums, forgive me for saying that, to connect and to come to the group.
27. S (01:02:24) Those fifteen years that I'm studying, so I saw many different states and there are friends that, as you say, they wanted to solve some problems in their corporeal life and they left. From my experience, I never saw they succeeded. On the other hand, those same friends that are in complex states, that were able to stay and overcome, I see that they were able to fix things and also, in the corporeality. How does that happen, what’s the explanation?
R. Well. A simple thing is written about it, ‘’ the path of the Lord is straight, the righteous will walk on it and the wicked will fail.’’ Meaning, he who walks according to the rules of nature, will profit ultimately. The only thing is, does he see he makes the profit? Because it includes both this world and the next world before death and in spirituality. This is not simple, it’s hard. We don't see the whole perspective. If you show this to a person, he will walk in reason, not in faith, and that’s not the correction, that’s not spirituality. That is why we need to, nonetheless, we need to try to connect between us and that out of that, people will get strength, that’s it. Because in the connection between us the Creator is revealed more and then, the force of our connection can cure all the people who feel a lack of spiritual strength.