Morning Lesson January 05, 2024

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 29, 1990. What Is, “The Torah Exhausts a Person’s Strength,” in the Work?

Reading Article. (00:40) “Our Sage said, “Rabbi Hanin said…”

1. S. (38:13) When I see here it says that he would be able to overcome the measure of this great measure of this will to receive which is called that the lower one rises to the upper one to ask for the force of the screen. What does it mean the force of the screen that's in the Ten?

R. The force of the screen in the Ten is a common force of several friends who hold each other, feel each other, and give each other examples how much they need to exert together in order to overcome the disturbances.

S. Yes, so here it talks about the more it exhausts one's forces and I feel more than once that I'm coming to that screen, and I feel like it's exhausting me completely, here I fall greatly. Also, the friends, my wife, also at work, I don't manage to lift myself above that. What will give me the force, I understand that it's truly exhausting forces, how do we overcome this exhaustion, how do we make it so we will not be exhausted so I'm truly able to rise above this because it's horrible this exhaustion?

R. Connect to the friends more and ask more from the Creator for the strength.

S. What will he give me first, to overcome?

R. In the end he will give you such strength that you will be able to overcome the evil inclination and you will respect the Creator the society more than the evil inclination.

S. I notice that each time I fall and it’s a lot, how can I explain this to you?

R. There's nothing you can do, it's like that in the beginning.

S. What, later it becomes easier?

R. Afterwards you'll learn how to work with it. But still it's in the direction of having to overcome the evil inclination with your request from the Creator.

2. S. (41:00) You can say that the article is understood but it's not clear why he uses the example of pleasure, because while a person is working and wanting to work in Lo Lishma to wanting to reach Lishma, so he actually feels suffering in the work, it’s not that he has pleasure to overcome?

R. So what is he overcoming, the suffering?

S. He doesn't feel the pleasure, he feels a lack of forces, he feels a lack of vitality. What pleasure do you feel in the lack of vitality meaning that it's actually the evil inclination to overcome the desire to receive for ourselves. Meaning there is some great pleasure that I'm supposed to receive, and I manage to sustain myself and not move into that, so he's talking about such pleasure and our work there is no such thing yet?

R. We are in the will to receive in order to receive, we want to come closer to the Creator to rise above the will to receive in order to receive, so it is to some extent in order to bestow.

S. That work is hard, and it truly exhausts the inner forces in a person, it exhausts ones’ will to receive that's clear. Here Rabash uses kind of like overcoming the pleasure that he feels but there's no pleasure here. In the beginning maybe there's pleasure when there are screens, but until you come to that degree there's a lack of forces a lack of pleasure. Well, if it wasn't with it an example of pleasure I could understand, but here I don't understand why he's using the fact that a person, the Torah exhausts one’s forces because he can't deal with the pleasure that he has?

R. Pleasure from rest.

S. Meaning, we seemingly don't feel suffering but rather simply the pleasure that takes us backwards that draws us to being in our state of beastliness, of not being able to advance, that's considered that we have pleasure? Because it is not felt as pleasure?

R. Yes in the meantime like that.

3. S. (43:54) I'm discerning that everything is opposite here, in the discernment in the reality where I want to bestow, I receive. When I want to receive, I don’t receive. More and more each time it happens that I want to bestow I receive more, I receive more coarseness. Does the will to receive bring this to me and operates this way and lets me work this way in order to receive? It’s like a flip flop here, and I see that it's good for me but my desire to receive brings me there so that I will bestow so that I will receive more. Do I need to work in such a way?

R. To bestow in order to receive?

S. In the corporeal pleasures that I receive, I receive coarseness and I feel more things and more ability to deal with them. When I receive more feelings that are corporeal and good and I rise even more, meaning I feel better, so the will to receive in me understands that and why is it wiser than I am?

R. In the meantime you have such states where you are tasting what it means to bestow.

S. When does that end, when does that come to that place where I exit it completely?

R. When you want to get out.

S. Meaning, I need to ask for that and to work with the friends and that is the goal? 

R. Yes.

4. S. (45:40) It's written here that the more a person sees the Creator as great he sees that he's humble, so it seems like the Creator sees two different things in the Creator. How do we move from that point to unification and connection and wholeness with the Creator?

R. From what state are you talking about?

S. What’s written here, we should interpret what our sages said, Rabbi Hanon said, wherever you see the greatness of the Creator, there you find his humbleness. Meaning it seems like he’s great and small simultaneously, let’s put it that way. How do we come from such a picture to a picture of unification and completeness if there's such a split in the Creator and a person's vision?

R. There is no split, why can't a great one be humbled?

S. Well it's kind of?

R. If He is truly great then you expect of Him to be humbled.

S. Meaning, he doesn't have to flounder His greatness?

R. No, of course not, what is He, a little child?

S. Meaning He's great without having to be prideful or something like that?

R. Yes.

5. S. (47:11) We see here a permanent process, a person receives heaviness and then he gets the ability to discover everything comes from the Creator, and then he's in a bad state and understands that only the Creator can get him out of that, and he turns to Him. Again, we see that the hardship and the evil come and that the created being understands that it comes from the Creator. My question is this the only mechanism in our spiritual development that in our spiritual development in short?

R. Yes, yes in this section this is how it happens it's very simple actually.

S. Were supposed to go through these stages of heaviness and overcome and reveal that it's the Creator. Can these hardships be not necessarily blows but receive some pleasure and attribute it to the Creator or?

R. No, usually what is written.

6. S. (48:36) He writes here towards the end that a person should know, just as the evil comes to him from above also his emerging from the evil also comes as help from above. 

R. Yes.

S. It looks like their reception of the evil is from above, but it obligates him to the work of men before that.

R. Of course we always have two works, work from the perspective of the Creator and work from the perspective of man.

S. That’s the question, it's like the egg and the chicken. Who starts to work the person and the Creator gives them the Revelation?

R. The person never begins anything and doesn't do anything the Creator does it, either in a revealed way or a concealed way.

S. It’s as if it looks very strange. It's like the Creator wants to advance a person so he creates in him a thought to start working in bestowal and to discover that he's not capable.

R. Yes, what do you do with a child who wants to advance?

S. Like in a puzzle when you break up the puzzle for him let's say?

R. You don't break up the puzzle. I don't play with puzzles, you bring books, and you tell him if you read them, you'll be great, you'll be a grown-up.

S. Okay so you're like bringing him a challenge?

R. When he looks in the books it breaks him and then he doesn't know what to do and then he comes to you crying, and then you start helping him out, how, you don't solve the problems instead of him. The problems that are written there but you explain to him a little bit. You give him a direction away in the book so he can solve it, the problems.

S. He also writes, he says that the evil is revealed above reason, and also above reason he needs his solution to resolve it.

R. Yes.

S. What's the matter of above reason in the revelation of evil? Because a few pages earlier he wrote that the revelation of evil is knowing that he is within reason.

R. Yes.

S. It seems like a clash here, a contradiction.

R. The revelation of evil or recognition of evil is knowing. A person knows that he has evil, and he cannot advance anymore, now he's in advancement. Although he sees that he is unable, he's got no fuel, he still tries more and more, and more, like you see with children, that sometimes they are repeating the same action many times.

S. Meaning this toil is like a Torah that gives some life where he rises and considers the Creator's great and makes a work great.

R. Put it this way.

S. Is there something else, do you mean something else?

R. There will be, there will be things.

 

7. S. (52:29) What characterizes the recognition of evil, stage before entering spirituality?

R. That a person sees he's got obstacles.

S. What are these obstacles?

R. That doesn't let him advance, not in order to receive and not in order to bestow and he doesn't quite know what to do, and how will he do it. What is he going to do with his life? He’s confused, disconnected from the motivating force, the moving force.

S. This is all considered in a stage before entrance that's what it's called what happens?

R. This happens even after he enters, yes, you need to feel it.

S. What is he supposed to do with that feeling? It's like he feels it, what should it lead him to?

R. It should lead him to a state where he comes closer to the Creator and sees in the Creator an anchor the only force that can help him and pull him to the truth.

S. That's the only ray of light he has there; he has nothing else?

R. He has to do some exercises in order to see that it's like that.

8. S. (54:16) Why is spiritual lust more difficult to overcome than corporeal lust?

R. Corporeal lust, for corporeal lust I have all kinds of medicines that I can distract myself from it, rise above it, whereas with spiritual lust that's a problem, I don't know how to get rid of it, I don't know what to do with it. There is a real obstacle here: a spiritual obstacle and internal obstacle and obstacle in intellect in the feelings that is much more difficult.

S. But we learned, Rabash wrote to us that spiritual lust to overcome it, only the Creator can help you, you have to pray to Him, and corporeal lust it's through your work.

R. You could call it that.

9. S. (55:39) About the evil that's revealed in the Ten, the evil that’s revealed in the Ten, let's say in the form of, there's some quality of a friend that is very, it's angering, it doesn't, it's annoying. We know that this is all inside of me and all these things, the question is, how do we work with this, how do we work with this?

R. First of all, let's say I feel, maybe others don't feel it, but to me it really angers me, annoys me, so I have to understand that it's a spiritual disturbance if it comes from within the group, from within our common life in the group, so I already need to know what to do with it.

S. What do we do with this? It comes from let's say from the work in the group and I'm trying to work according to our principles, to understand that whoever negates does so in his own flaws.

R. Lack of love, love will cover all crimes, so it's clear that here it is lack of love. If instead of this friend, that I get angry with, and annoyed with, if it was someone else, I might have treated it differently.

S. I heard that, Rabash said, that because we love ourselves, we don't see the flaws, and then through the friend I see my flaws, so when something annoys me in a friend, is that an unpleasant quality inside of me that I don't see?

R. Yes.

S. Okay, now for me to succeed and create love towards that friend, then also that quality will be corrected in me, or is that not enough?

R. Yes, for sure, only in me.

S.  For sure, and the way to correct my bad qualities is to see them in my friends, create love, manage to come to the feeling of true love, and the moment I get to that feeling, I know that quality that was bothering me is corrected in me, yes?

R. Yes, usually. In a simple way.

10. S. (58:10) In everything there's a Panim and a Achor, anterior and posterior, the attainment of the thing is called the anterior and the lack of it is the posterior, from Lo Lishma to Lishma. What is Torah and Mitzvot according to this article here? It’s not clear what's going on here according to the article?

R. Torah and Mitzvot, Commandments is what we have before us as means by which to connect with the Creator and draw from Him the light that corrects us that it brings us closer to Him.

S. What does Torah and Mitzvot do as far as we shall do, and what is Torah and Mitzvot as we shall hear?

R. Well that's already Torah in the Commandment in the form of doing is what we can do, and in the form of hearing is what we intend to do to the extent that we come to a state where we hear, this is already a higher degree.

S. Then he writes here, that to hear His words that he merits to hear His words His voice?

R. Yes, it's the inner content of the Creator, of the Creator's will, this is called “We Shall Hear.” We need to find there are several articles that talk about it, we need to find them soon.

11. S. (01:00:22) How do we make this transition, is it something that I was wise now I'm blind and on the contrary, I was black now I am white? Is it a sharp transition or is it gradual and how do we? 

R. Gradual to the extent that you correct yourself and become more and more suitable or congruent with the Creator or compatible with the Creator, you begin to feel how you're advancing, your advancing towards Him.

12. S. (01:00:56) To continue the question that the friend asked about, the qualities in the friends that appear to me and actually this quality I'm correcting through quality of love to the friend. There's also the opposite state where I see all kinds of qualities in the friends that are truly impressed by, I see that he's great, he's bestowing great efforts. What's the attitude there, are these also quantities in me that I need to somehow relate to?

R. If you see good qualities according to what you see good qualities in the friend and you want to be like them similar to them, right?

S. How to relate to this because you said the qualities, the evil, the bad qualities are for me to correct through love and the good qualities also my qualities?

R. The good qualities that you see is good, you should also attribute to yourself as well, so that at least these qualities you see in them are a good action from the friend.

S. Okay so this means that I need to envy him even more and be more like him?

R. Connect to him more and try to be like him.

S. Okay, can I ask another question about the article? The article begins, it's written here about 18 councils and deposits?

R. Yes, advice, councils.

S. Yes, councils that are in the state of concealment and the posterior and is like in the Panim, anterior, and then they explain that all the work is in the 18, in the councils that’s what we do, yes?

R. Yes, and the deposits are the results. 

13. S. (01:03:13) Let's say a person receives a desire for a kilo of pleasure, he wants it, he identifies the intention in order to receive. Now if he overcomes this, he doesn't see the soccer game, he opens the Zohar lesson instead, or he sees the soccer and attributes it to the Creator?

R. This is the question? What a tragedy. Well, and?

S. Will he see the game in attribute it to the Creator or do something that's in the form of bestowal, like for example see a Zohar lesson or something in that style?

R. I don't know but if he watches the game his team loses, just imagine. You both missed the lesson and his team lost and how angry he would be with the Creator.

14. S. (01:04:54) First he's talking about the corporeal pleasures and if you overcome it with a screen you overcome with the spiritual pleasure. What's wrong with spiritual pleasure, why do we need to overcome spiritual pleasure?

R. A corporeal pleasure is what we identify in corporeal vessels in this world without rising to spiritual degrees. A spiritual pleasure is already in order to bestow.

S. What's bad with that?

R. Nothing's bad with it. We just have to come to it and receive it in vessels of bestowal.

S. No, but he's talking about overcoming and there's some kind of work of overcoming spiritual pleasure but it's not good?

R. Of course.

S. It's not good?

R. It's not like it's not good but you have to do it in equivalence of form in order to bestow.

S. I’m in a meal with friends, we're doing a workshop or praising one another, is that called spiritual pleasure?

R. No.

S. Then where does spiritual pleasure begin? I'm sitting with friends, hummus meal, we’re doing a workshop, something very internal, intentions, sometimes there's pleasure. Is that a spiritual pleasure?

R. It depends how people receive it, how they feel, how they carry out the connection between them.

S. Execute it with concentration in the workshop, we raise a L’chaim, I feel like I'm really with the friends together.

R. You have a button that you press, and you enter spirituality?

S. No, it's work. All lesson long I’m thinking about it, I prepare myself, I come to the meal and there's the workshop and then you're truly in it and there's pleasure. Is that a spiritual pleasure?

R. Pleasure from what?

S. From the friends, from the thoughts on them, from the connection that was created for us. Is there something that’s not okay that we have to overcome? Is there some work that I’m missing?

R. It is all according to a person's degree.

S. What is the most exalted thing and the highest degree? What is the work there?

R. On the highest degree when you do it only in order to be connected with the friends and through them with the Creator.

S. Here already it's considered that I have overcome, yes?

R. But it's not done with words, it is done in the heart.

S. Okay, now a general question. This article talks about pleasures and the state of Israel today and there's a state of war, there's not a state of pleasures, war, sufferings, killed, wounded. How do I use such an article and connect between the situation of the people of Israel today and I’m talking about pleasures here. Why did he even choose this article because the state is there's no places whatsoever, if you can connect it somehow?

R. No, maybe we should read it again sometime and speak in that direction.

15. S. (01:08:31) He writes here that a person starts to work on the way towards doing everything to bestow and not to receive, and it comes from above more sweetness in the flavor of self-love, in the end he sees that it's more difficult for him. To actually continue the question of the football question: Now a little bit more sweetness, corporeally, I'm watching the football game, I'm having great pleasure, I'm enjoying it. What does the Creator enjoy more, for me watching the football game in joy, or from me stopping the football game, and for the sake of it, will hear the Zohar lesson like their friends said. But I will suffer, it will be like some kind of bitterness in it. Where does the Creator enjoy more?

R. I don't know which team are you there in the game?

S. I'm sorry, I didn't understand?

R. You connect yourself to some group, to some team.

S. To the pleasure from the game, it doesn’t have to be a game, it's an example for the sake of it, it can be anything else that I enjoy from, and if I stop it, I will suffer. But from my pleasure from that, I understand that there's something bad, that I understand that I'm not doing something that is not advancing me spiritually, it annoys me, it kind of bugs me a little bit but it's not like I'm suffering. On the contrary, if I stop this pleasure I'll suffer more.

R. Yes?

S. There are two questions: What will the Creator enjoy more, and where do I eventually take the force to overcome, because I will have to make that leap eventually?

R. There is nothing to enjoy here from the perspective of the Creator because your choice is egoistic, and your concern is egoistic.

S. Even if I'm not harming anyone, I'm enjoying myself, I'm not harming someone when I enjoy now for myself. Is that called egoistic?

R. Yes, of course, it's written, “The wicked sleep is better for them and better for the world.” But still, you're not doing anything good to anyone by that.

S. Okay, so I want to summarize this point for a moment: It's better for me to give up my corporeal pleasure and actually feel bitterness and some kind of bad feeling. If I don't have the forces to do something for the sake of the collective, it is better for me to, anyway, to do something, to overcome some corporeal pleasure and go to sleep?

R. No, no.

S. So, what?

R. We once went, well not once, we went to a soccer field, stadium, and on the way home Rabash said, we should respect this place because in it many people come to enjoy. You understand, this is how he looked at the place. If people come to enjoy, come there to enjoy, you too should respect that place.

S. That's why I asked because of that example which I remember, that's the question?

R. What were you asking?

S. I am driven by pleasures like he writes here, a person is driven by pleasures, I start to go on the spiritual path, I receive more pleasure from self-love?

R. Yes?

S. If we take the example of this football, again I didn't used to enjoy it, now I studied the Wisdom of Kabbalah, wow, football is even more attractive, I find even greater pleasure from it?

R. Well?

S. What do I do with this stage? I have two options, one to go to the Kabbalah lesson, two, to see my football. I enjoy more from my football.

R. Yes, that's clear, but it all depends on the preparation. Perhaps you could enjoy soccer more, but you would be beating yourself up, that you're enjoying soccer more than the lesson. So, is this worth it?

S. Is it preferred?

R. I don't know, perhaps not; if you regret not watching soccer then, no it's not the right solution. The right solution is to enjoy being on the same path as the Creator.

S. That's the root of the question, exactly. If I don't enjoy being on the path of the Creator, I feel that is actually the bad?

R. You need to build a society that will help you get pleasure from the game, for example.

S. No, from the Creator, I have pleasure from the game. I don't enjoy from the path of going in the way of the Creator, I don't enjoy. I don’t enjoy now instead of watching football to thinking about the friends. It doesn't give me pleasure; I enjoy watching the football game.

R. Well?

S. How do we create the flavor, the taste in bestowing? How do I create some kind of pleasure, because by being here I'm not doing anything, it's better to be at least enjoying the football, I bring more contentment to the Creator. How do I create pleasure in the work that is actually bitter to me?

R. If it's bitter to you then you need to come among people who respect it. Then through the connection between them you will receive from them their qualities, their values, and then this game will be important to you.

16. S. (01:15:36) To continue the friend’s scrutiny here, help me in the direction please. All that I do in this world whether it's a football game, pleasure, movie, food, all my corporeal pleasures. I look at them all together through a little hole in the penny, and in that hole in the coin, I'm saying, does this bring me, bring contentment to my friends, does it contribute to my friend's spirituality? If so, it's good, if no, it's not good. Am I in the right direction?

R. If you can sort things this way and be adhered to what you see, then of course it's good.

17. S. (01:16:33) It's written that at first a person will overcome his corporeal pleasures and then he will overcome his spiritual pleasures. The question is, is it really possible to overcome his corporeal pleasures once and for all?

R. No, you cannot overcome any pleasure once and for all because each time your vessels change, your vessels, not that the pleasures themselves change. I don't extract the pleasures from the coffee but how much I wanted it. In my current vessels, according to that, I enjoy everything that is valued according to my own vessels.

18. S. (01:17:35) Is this evil within us, is there an end to it or is it infinite?

R. Of course there's an end to it, we're coming to the end of correction, of our evil.

19. S. (01:17:53) Should we be afraid of the revelation of evil within us, or should we be happy about it?

R. To be happy about it, even bless!

20. S. (01:18:03) What is the work of the Ten in helping each friend overcome the will to receive?

R. If each friend overcomes his own will to receive, what will be the work in the Ten?

S. How can the Ten help each friend overcome the will to receive?

R. Oh, that's something else; without help from the Ten, no one in the Ten will be able to overcome, eventually. In the beginning it's so-so, sometimes you succeed, sometimes you fail, in order to establish a person on the path somehow. But later, later we have to understand that our work is only between the friends, among the friends.

21. S. (01:19:05) How is it expressed the humbleness of the Creator?

R. In each degree it is a very different thing in the way we accept it, appreciate it, work toward it.

22. S. (01:19:43) It's unclear how the Torah exhausts a person and how it heals?

R. These are not byproducts of or side effects of the Torah as a remedy; rather it exhausts. The exhaustion of one's powers by the Torah is actually the correct result that we seek, because then we wish to be connected under the wings of Divinity, as we call it under the Creator and hold on to Him like a small child is holding on to a grown up.

23. S. (01:20:47) Meaning these are two emotions in one place that they exhaust and heal?

R. The Torah exhausts a person's strength, he sees that he's unable to do anything by himself. Together with that it shows him the way.

24. S. (01:21:15) Is it possible to relate to the topic of corporeal pleasure?

R. Sure.

S. There's a matter here of what I understand that when I go and enjoy from a corporeal soccer game, I need to see that ability to also not go and watch the game. Where if I don't go to the game, then nothing happens, nothing changes in my feelings.

R. Yes.

S. It's a force and ability of the restriction that I can build within myself and when we reach that state then it is also possible to progress, is that the case?

R. Yes, there's something to it; if I reach a state where I can rise above my own calculation, that's already kind of progress.

25. S. (01:22:42) He writes here at the end, and they asked about it a few times. That when a person sees the greatness of the Creator, then he sees that the Creator is humble and that He tends to him personally in private Providence?

R. Yes.

S. What is this quality of humbleness and how through that can we equalize ourselves with the Creator?

R. Humbleness means that with all His greatness and His abilities, He is found in every created being, and He does everything in order to lead each and every one to the complete correction. Like a devoted caretaker, nanny, completely devoted.

S. How do we need to learn from that? That this is how you were needd to relate to the Ten, to each and every friend?

R. Yes, to all of creation.

S. Simply, quietly to care about them, without the externality, I mean. To be in this constant concern towards the friends?

R. Yes.

S. Can I ask more about that point? When we hear that someone is sick or wounded or someone in the family is hurting, there is this identification that everyone has within. But how can we see this spiritual trouble, this spiritual yearning where we would relate to the friend as if he's sick or wounded or something like that?

R. You can't see it, with which vessels are you going to see it?

S. That's the question, how can we reach such a degree?

R. That's what he explains to us, that we have to have such concerns, such care. That we are not special, and we're not united and we do not care about seeing being as a single vessel, a spiritual vessel, and that is a problem.

S. Let's say there is this corporeal trouble, and it's a sign that we need to care about it. What is the sign that we need to do so spiritually? You say that we don't see it, so what is lacking so that we would see that?

R. Only in mutual connection between us, and as deep as possible. I have no more to add, a mutual, deep mutual connection.

26. S. (01:25:28) This article we read yesterday, by ourselves and also yesterday we had a meal with the Ten and read it again. When you read alone, you find how the article is long and when you read it together you feel that there's something great and it's unclear that it is but it's something great. And then you come to the morning lesson with all the deficiency of the friends who are here in the gathering and the efforts of everyone, and all of a sudden you see that Rabash gives you all the Torah in every article. All the work of how to invert the will to receive that is trying to understand what is the Torah through advice and the deposits, until the point of the revelation on how a person comes to see the Creator, and it is just an inspiration to see the force of the deficiencies of the group act upon you. I want to ask something here: He says that the person each time needs to rise to his upper and to request the force of overcoming and the will to receive. What is rising to his upper one?

R. To annul; when I come to the upper one, when I can rise to Him, only by annulling to Him, incorporating in Him. Entering into this action with the upper one as if I'm not there, I am nullified, and from that I receive an impression from all of it. Later I can go back down to my own place and somehow do something by myself.

S. Who does the person need to draw as his upper one, to picture as his upper one? Sometimes it's the Ten, sometimes it's the whole group, sometimes it's the Rav, sometimes it seems to be Rabash, and there is also something there called the Creator. Who does the person need to picture to himself as the one that is above him to which he needs to annul?

R. The Ten, the Ten is the shortest, closest thing to a person.

S. Thanks, is it something at the end of the week that everything rises whether it's blood pressure rising, importance rising? Is it connected to the times, this ascent towards Shabbat, is it some kind of general expectation?

R. Expectation, tiredness, nevertheless, is not related to spirituality.

27. S. (01:28:27) This deficiency that I've had for one or two weeks, we accompany new students on the path who are with us for twenty or thirty lessons, a few of them have been with us for a few physical lessons. At a certain stage they need to shift to a virtual group, like our friends in the world Kli, and it is very hard for them. They have this huge deficiency, and they want to continue but they don't succeed to overcome?

R. What do you mean to overcome, overcome what?

S. To join a virtual group and to study as if through the system?

R. What's so difficult for them?

S. They seek, they enjoy it very much the corporeal aspects that the physical group gathered, and they don't succeed to shift. They try and they try it once or twice to come and the virtual doesn't give them that impression. But they still have a deficiency?

R. Yes.

S. What can we tell them how is it possible?

R. Put into their group, someone from us, from your group, to accompany them all the time, to be like the head of the group.

S. They have that all the time, we have friends in their groups that are constantly accompanying them and speaking with them?

R. What are they lacking?

S. If I would know I wouldn't be asking now?

R. Ask them.

S. They lack our physical meeting, they're only impressed by physical meetings, and we don't have the opportunity to give them that at the moment.

R. Why?

S. Because I don't have enough people in the area who can continue that method there. They can come once a month to a physical meeting but not week after week.

R. You can't even do it once a week?

S. There are not enough people to run that from the same group.

R. Maybe a few groups together, I don't know what to do what you're asking me. I am all for having each one helps his friend, and for them to come together to the safe place every once in a while, and will hold them, sustain them, we had that in our group. In the in the group, as Rabash set us up, we had six people in my personal Ten, and we would meet physically once a week in someone's home, each time a different place and that lasted a long time. Rabash would write his articles and we would read them, six people, once a week. Later there were groups that built themselves up and there were fifteen people, and Rabash said, “That is fine, you are like that and they are like that.” That didn't give us a possibility of balancing ourselves out.

28. S. (01:32:12) The state that the friends depicted comes from There Is None Else Besides Him, so how do we relate to that state?

R. I did not understand.

S. That state that the friend depicted, which is an unsatisfying state, that also comes from There Is None Else Besides Him, so how should we relate to that?

R. Let it go and say There Is None Else Besides Him.

S. We shouldn't try to control it, to change it?

R. Control it?

S. Meaning, we shouldn't try to control it, we shouldn't want to progress, just to leave it like that?

R. Stop placing There Is None Else Besides Him into every moment, every state. It says something, there's nothing, we don't attain Him, we don’t feel Him like that when we're together. But we must reach a state where nevertheless there's a gathering once a week and it's recommended to have it on Thursdays and it's not mandatory, but it's recommended. We have the same thing in my days, Rabash had established that, and when you connect you read an article, answer questions, you drink a little L’chaim, such short things like that.

S. I'll expand the question: If we agree with There Is None Else Besides Him upon every state, even unsatisfactory states, what will let us get out of these states at any time? If everything comes from There Is None Else Besides Him, so let it be that way?

R. No, no stop saying things like that, There Is None Else Besides Him, God willing, and all these things. They're just words to confuse you, you don't do that.

29. S. (01:34:43) What does it mean to receive the evil above reason?

R. Why do you need to?

S. Here he says I need to receive or accept the evil above reason. Throughout this whole process we need to accept it above reason, the good, the bad, and here he emphasizes the evil, I need to receive above reason. How to participate in that process and to receive it above reason?

R. I don't know, give us an example.

S. I'm in a state of an ascent, I feel connected with the friends, I feel like I can give them bestowal. And all of a sudden, I get this opposite state detached and it is clear that it comes from the Creator, everything comes from the Creator. How do I relate to that above reason, how do I relate to that process in a way where I understand that is for my benefit?

R. Of course, everything is for the good and everything comes through the Creator, but why is it coming? This is up to you to investigate.

S. That's what I'm asking I'm asking that why and I want to understand why but my reason doesn't let me understand why. Other than one thing where I can come to request from the Creator to let me exit that state. Beyond that, what else can I do, what is above reason?

R. But it's not a solution to come out of that state.

S. Is the solution, also, to go be with the friends, to be close to them in each and every state, that's clear. But all of a sudden, you feel that you can enter this completely opposite form.

R. Okay, so have a place for justifying Him.

S. To justify Him, how can I do that if I see everything the opposite?

R. That you see it, they have eyes, they can’t see.

S. What should I request in that same state?

R. To be given the correct site, the correct vision, that you want to love the friends.

S. This process constantly accompanies us throughout the whole path, and as much as you progress more, you see what is evil it is that the lowliness that the friends talked about earlier, that lowliness you feel how much your distance from bestowal, how much you are distant from what's called love and bestowal. I'm asking a question with that lowliness, why does the Creator give that to us and it's always more and more, the more we progress?

R. In order for us to rise above that lowliness, this lowliness is a very good thing, it's the best quality that can be. If I bow down to this lowliness, it's a sign that I'm actually overcoming it, climbing above it.

30. S. (01:38:02) Continuing the questions of the qualities of the friends, let's say, I see friends say that they want to see soccer, so the friend is telling me, tomorrow I have a soccer game, I was looking forward to it, I want to see it, what is my relationship to it?

R. You need to say that you should not talk about those things in society.

S. Simply to close that discussion?

R. Yes, you shouldn't bring that to society and talk about it.

S. Let's say I told him, but my attitude to that is that I want him to come not to the soccer game but a lesson. Just tell him the lesson is very important, it seems not so, it seems a bit preachy, Is it a bit better to maybe pray quietly?

R. Yes, also that.

31. S. (01:39:08) Is the state of above reason is it together with my state of faith, does that come together?

R. It could be, yes.

32. S. (01:39:44) I wanted to ask about the lesson itself, is it possible? We come here; we make an effort during the day to come with a deficiency to the lesson. First, what should the feeling be throughout the day in relation to the lesson, what is the extent of responsibility that I need to feel in relation to the upcoming lesson?

R. When I'm going to the lesson and I am going to meet with my friends, and all of us share the same goal. Through this lesson, we wish to come closer and embrace each other and feel the Creator who's before us. That's how we'll come closer to Him and reach the state where the Creator is revealed.

S. Now to the lesson, each one here comes with a deficiency, you hear about the deficiencies of each one. What is the condition that I could integrate with those deficiencies?

R. Get rid of your own deficiencies and wish to be in their deficiency.

S. Is the daily Kabbalah lesson is it something common where I have a responsibility to bring a deficiency to the society?

R. We need to bring our deficiencies to the lesson, yes.

S. Is there a connection between a friend working during the day, making efforts, doing everything possible so that he can come to the morning lesson with a really big deficiency, and that deficiency that he brings with him, does that help all the friends?

R. Yes.

S. As much as he brings a bigger deficiency so can he also incorporate more with the deficiencies of the friends?

R. At least on his part he is going to make an effort and with respect to the others, I don't know. But each and every one should respond to the deficiencies that each friend is revealing so that he's drawn to it and connected to him and then they continue two, three, or more towards the Creator.

S. Now we don't always succeed in coming to the lesson with the same size deficiency, sometimes you come with the bigger deficiency sometimes the smaller one, so what's the difference between the states?

R. At least I come to the lesson with this burden that I do not have a deficiency and I expect to receive from the friends.

33. S. (01:43:03) it's a lot more comfortable to be in a virtual lesson and I understand that it's better to be in a lesson where we incorporate with the friends here in the society. The question is how we can position that because getting up in the middle of the night and going to the computer is a good condition. You sit, you listen to the friends, you see the friends and it's a lot harder, especially in winter, in the rain to pull yourself out of the house to go in the car and come here to incorporate. The question is what do you recommend to battle in order to come here, or I'll go with the more comfortable option next to the computer?

R. To say that the reward for walking is in his hands, meaning that the drive that you make the effort that you put in that costs you time and fuel and your health and other kinds of efforts, all those things add up to your exertion. That's why I remember when after discovering Rabash I would come to study, I would come from a town in the south of Israel. I had a car; I would come to him several times a week and later I told him that instead of driving each morning from the town to here it's better if I just relocate and rent an apartment here and move my family here. He said no, no you shouldn’t, for now don’t. My little child, I have a wife, a kid, I have a place of work, I am independent, self-employed, I'm not a child. Rabash said, “No, no you shouldn't. It's better, it's the reward for walking as it's called.” Meaning, the fact that you were driving for 40 minutes, this is worthwhile to you, and I kept doing it for another whole year and I already despaired from moving to Bnei Baruch and I'm riding and I'm listening to a tape cassette, you know they used to have tape cassettes back then. These little tapes and I would listen to them on the way, and I didn't think of moving, and then suddenly one day he tells me I found a place for you. In truth it was like, yeah come at noon on such a such a day and I came and he indeed he found a place for me not far from him, a couple of houses down, and I took that place, and I moved in. What am I trying to say, it was a year and a half from the moment that I wanted to move until I finally moved, so we have to think carefully.

S. I'll try to come, and you'll look for an apartment for me in the meantime, In Petah Tikva I'm talking about.

R. Thanks. Today we have a big mechanism, a lot of friends, I even go out into the streets, what will I find? There are not that many here like you who want to move. Here we have many.

34. S. (01:47:53) There is a feeling that in every moment it is as if everything that took place until this moment, all of this reality is a thread that will disappear. My question is how we can work with that thread, where there is always this thread where everything that has happened, everything that I've done on the path, everything that has been done in one moment will disappear and I will not be able to continue this reality, it is constant. What should I take hold of on the path, how should I work?

R.I don't know. There are those that feel this reality to be eternal and I live and live and who knows where I live. There are those who think that everything is over today, at least relative to me, and there are those, and there are all kinds. It all depends on a person.

S. That is what I'm asking, today I'm standing and asking questions and tomorrow I won't stand here and ask questions. In this state where it is constant, our whole life is like this, what should I take hold of? Why is there this thing where in one moment this whole thing can just disappear in a single moment. Not in my heart or in terms of what I think or feel, but this physical reality can just not continue at all?

R. This reality doesn’t exist the way we perceive it but that is no longer relevant to the topic, we live in a reality that we don’t feel who we are and from this reality it will continue tomorrow as well.

S. I'm sitting here, I’m with a Ten and I am asking the Rav. What should I take hold of so that this reality will continue even tomorrow?

R. Only your imagination.

S. I build that tomorrow in order for it to take place?

R. Yes. 

35. S. (01:50:33) Do we always need to come to connection, and in order to reach connection we cannot do that alone, we need to raise a prayer. In order to reach a true pair prayer from the depths of the heart, we need faith. How can we reach a request so that faith is what we lack in order for us to be complete and whole so that I can really reach a prayer from the depths of the heart for connection. I feel that I am unsuccessful in finding this true deficiency, meaning I don't feel that I suffer if I don’t raise this deficiency in faith, because I feel that that is the key. I lack the faith, but I am unsuccessful in raising the request for that.

R. Because you don't feel what is faith exactly.

S. I understand, it's really a great despair.

R. If you will receive faith what will happen?

S. That the prayer will be certain that the prayer will be answered because I will believe He who I turn to the Creator, that cry. In a moment I am walking around in a dark room and I'm looking for that cry?

R. Yes.

S. What action in the Ten, where do we gather ourselves in order to reach that cry because through that we could all exit Egypt?

R. We need only to feel one another, to hold on to one another and then we come out. The darkness will simply run away, disappear the moment we begin to establish for ourselves a 

single direction.

S. How can we raise that request, through what, through more gatherings with friends?

R. Yes, yes, yes. When you pray for them and each one is praying for everyone else, but this is being built gradually. In the last few months specifically, there is a nice addition.

36. S. (01:53:48) I want in continuation of what the friends talked about here, about the desire to come here, about the participation and what we feel in coming here. I want to add in and say that there is a big team that treats the friends in Israel, everyone who wants to come to come closer here, we will personally help you out with what you need. What I want to say is that out of our work with them just by engaging with them, the moment that that scrutiny begins in the Ten of when to come, how to come, who wants to come, all that engagement and also why? The reason for them coming here it just awakens and inspires the whole Ten and it gives us strength to continue the path. Yesterday I got notices from Tel Aviv asking us to hold us a table close to Rav because we all want to come. So, the forces that the Ten gets from that scrutiny and we come, and others come here with a huge effort, and it very much raises this huge appreciation. And Tel Aviv, even though it is a 15-minute trip, it seems as if the efforts here are greater than this group that is traveling for two hours to get here. These friends who say that they feel empty, I just want to say that with a lot of experience of working with the friends, do actions together, come closer together, meals together, trips together, everything that you do, you do together. It is a pure benefit for the Ten.

R. Yes, thank you. 

37. S. (01:56:03) I am one of the reservists who just returned now from the war, from the base and I feel that it is hard for me to integrate into this society once again. How can I once again relate to my society with Rav, with all of these mutations with new friends, with friends who are weak and with friends who ensured all kinds of situations, how do I relate to that now? Other than that, I had an experience of experiences over there. In fact, Rabbis come, and they are blessing me in all kinds of external things that aren't here, and everything is very internal. How am I supposed to relate to that once again?

R. You need to make an effort to enter between us; your spirit should enter among us and strengthen us. There is work on you, personal work, great personal work, and I wish you all the best. 

38. S. (01:57:33) It is written in the article that the evil that is now received comes to him from above reason meaning that the reason cannot understand how we reached a state of loneliness, which is called evil. The question is how can I identify that evil that comes from above reason when I myself am within the reason, how can I battle evil if I do not know about it.?

R. You will feel that what is coming to you and how you receive it is already above your reason. You will feel it. 

39. S. (01:58:23) A question from the Ten, what happens internally in the Ten when we see sometimes hatred and on the other hand, we see greatness and inspiration?

R. That's natural, sometimes you'll come closer and drift apart, there's love. Sometimes there's hate, there are times for this, sometimes for that. The states change, and through them we also change until we reach a complete correction meaning complete connection and complete correction. 

40. S. (01:59:26) There are forces to words and we read an article, and we see the force that there are in the words. Then, we draw the light from the article, and we feel within ourselves things in order to reach corrections or to understandings and conclusions that help us. How can we reach a state where we relate seriously to the holy words?

R. Only through love between us, connection between us and from within us to the Creator. There is nothing more to say, you really don't need much more.

S. I'll give an example we read Torah and Mitzvot. These words have a very strong force and we read them and just skip over them. But if we really understand the emotional definition of the word Torah and the emotional definition of the word Mitzvot, so then we extract it from the article so much forces and we fly like this?

R. But this is individual work of each and every one, wherever he is and is listening to the article, that is how it is.

41. S. (02:01:16) I understand the path is like going on taking two steps forward and one step back. How can we explain what is the logic in moving forward and backward?

R. Because we are in the will to receive and on top of the correction of the will to receive, we can move closer to the Creator's nature and that is why the path is like that.

42. S. (02:02:18) You said that to connect the more we connect with a friend and being like him, that we should be like the friend. Is this form of love your friend as yourself to love the friend as yourself?

R. Yes, yes.

43. S. (02:03:01) It says in the article that evil that is revealed in a person is not from him, but a person sees as if this evil comes from him above reason. The question is, is this evil individual evil, personal evil, or is it evil that comes from the soul of Adam HaRishon?

R. It is evil that comes from the shattered Adam HaRishon, and we need to identify it, these parts that shattered and to correct them one at a time.

S. Is it true that this evil comes from Adam HaRishon, but I personally have to work with it? 

R. Yes, for sure. 

44. S. (02:04:31) Humbleness, modesty in the work, is that the concealment of the ego or the absence of the ego?

R. No, humbleness and spiritual work is that we, I don't know how to put it, humbleness, and spirituality, what is it, that I make humble my knowledge and my attainment.

S. Why is it done, why conceal my own attainment?

R. First not to awaken envy, lust, and honor, that is one thing. Therefore, I do not reveal my attainment that is one thing. Secondly, I want to be close to my friends and therefore the less that I disclose my attainment I can come even closer to them. More or less, that is how it is.

45. S. (02:06:41) How can I be in the lessons each and every day not for my own deficiencies, but for the friends' deficiencies, the friends from the World Kli?

R. Why not? If you know that through that you help them and you connect through you thousands of people to the Creator, so why should you not do that? Just think about the greatness and importance of the work, what comes into your hands. Okay?

S. Sure but I always have this feeling that I'm here for myself and not for the friends and that's why I want to rise above this obstacle?

R. Great, it all depends on your thoughts.

46. S. (02:08:04) We read according to the article that there are three stages of work. The first stage is that we work in Lo Lishma, the second stage we work in Lishma and the third, what’s interesting, is the 613 deposits. What is that third stage? 

R. That is complete dissolution into the general Kli, we speak about it sometimes. The main thing is to overcome the concealment that we are now in and to reach that revelation.

S. Meaning from each state the person needs to go through these three stages?

R. Yes, full concealment, partial concealment, partial revelation, full revelation, yes.

47. S. (02:09:20) The text speaks of physical elements like the throat and the head and so on and so forth. We have many instances in the Ten where there are many friends who are ill or those who have relatives that are going through difficult health-related situations. Can it be through our prayers in Torah and Mitzvot, can we help the friends in this way and the relatives?

R. Certainly we can. Everything we do with more intention or less intention, more together, less together. In all of these things we influence our environment very much, including relatives. Yes.

48. S. (02:10:50) You said that when a certain attitude of lack of love is revealed, you have to work in this style of love covers all transgressions, what is it exactly that love covers all transgressions?

R. Love, not pride.

S. Yes love covers all transgressions, what does it mean that love covers all transgressions?

R. Let us say we are arguing beforehand, we did all kinds of unpleasant things to each other, but if afterwards we reach love, so love covers everything.

S. How do we cover things with love, what kind of action do we have to do in the Ten, to truly cover things with love. What actions can truly help us in the Ten?

R. Actions of connection, actions that we performed together, reading articles, all kinds of things, all of that.