Afternoon Lesson June 16, 2023

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

Part 1: As Clay in the Hands of a Potter - Selected excerpts from the sources #3.

Rav Intro: We understand that this is a very important topic because we are in the hands of a higher power that teaches us and does everything we need to move increasingly toward our corrected state, towards the Goal of Creation. Please.

Reading excerpt #3 “It is forbidden for a person to say….” twice.

1. S. (02:54) What is the difference between the potter and the Creator? He asks about the article we read this morning. We said clay in the hands of the potter. He asks what is the difference between a potter and the Creator?

R: The Creator is our potter. He established and formed man, created him, and all that is in man, in each and every one of us, in all of us. We are the continuation of Adam HaRishon, his spawn. So, we all have to accept that we come from the Creator. But the purpose of our life, our existence, is that we make some effort to be like the Creator, to get closer to Him, even stick to Him, to merge with Him. That’s the whole program of our existence.

S: It is written: “like clay in the hands of a potter”. We do not say: “like clay in the hands of the Creator”. Why do we not speak of this?

R. Because the Creator creates all kinds of properties in us, and every moment He shapes them changes them, and therefore we treat Him as the Source of all changes in us.

2. S. (05:26) Accustom and persuade the body to follow the laws of the Torah.

R. Yes.

S. How can a person find out, in relation to what he should accustom and persuade the body, according to it or not?
R. The laws of the Torah are a law of the highest nature when we must learn what is called the property of giving, unity, rapprochement, and love, and carry out all these actions on ourselves so that we eventually become like the Creator, the power of the Good, in love with all creation. This is the Creator, and we are the other way around. And this is what we need to understand, what we need to learn, and what we need to fix.

S. It takes a lot of time on the way to find out what he should force himself to do?

R. Yes.

S. How to become more sensitive to the right self and not confused with different external opinions?

R. Man must always make a check, control, and learn what is the nature that the Creator gave him when it is the opposite of what he should become in the corrected state, and that we certainly aspire to change ourselves. Change can occur through the efforts of man, through the fact that he asks the Creator for help, and so we step by step, step by step, step by step, correct ourselves.

And when we see how much we push everyone away, hate everyone, far from everyone – so much as we have to try to change our attitude towards everyone so that we end up treating each other as one, embracing, loving, and feeling different from the Creator.

3. S. (08:26) So it is always necessary to determine his attitude towards his neighbor, towards his friends?

R. Yes. We have no other option. How do I know what I should become? That is why “love your neighbor as yourself” is the great rule of the Torah. This is the rule.

S. And how does the humiliation in front of your fellows make a man fit to be “clay in the hands of a potter”?

R. To the extent that we tilt ourselves relative to our surroundings, relative to our neighbor (usually in the tens) we approach the Creator, we become like Him.

S. This belittling... What is the result?

R. When we distance ourselves from our ego, from our desire to receive and want to be in the nature of only giving.

S. The question is that our desire to receive has many manifestations. How to specify the right manifestation to be forced?

R. Relative to my neighbor, when I treat my neighbor as I wish him well.

S. And in relation to himself, the person to himself?

R. To myself, I only do the things that are necessary for my existence to treat my fellow man well.

4. S. (10:22) It’s very difficult to check. The confusion is that the person as it were begins to accept various limitations on himself, instead of addressing directly to the neighbor. This is usually a mix-up, let’s just say, one of the confusions.

R. We need to rise above our nature, which we were born with, and that we really want to get close to our neighbor, and these are our friends in the top ten. So we build such a society, and to the extent that I approach them, I have to recognize how close I am to the Creator.

5. S. (11:20) Must the physical body, will it decompose? To become like the Creator, must the body disappear?

R. And why does it have to decompose and disappear? It’s an animal level that doesn’t have to be corrected. And to the extent that we become like the Creator, our inner body (Guf), called "Neshama" (soul), becomes like the Creator. But the outer body (flesh, skin) should not correct itself, there is no defect – it is an animal level. And so there’s no fixing it, it lives like any animal.

6. S. (12:37) In this passage one hears as though the basic law of education. An adult can raise himself. But the little kid doesn’t raise himself, he has parents who care about him to eat what he needs, not what he wants to learn, and so on. For us, the role of parents is played by friends in the ten?

R. I think not. For us, the Creator performs the role of parents. He gives us all the states on which we must correct ourselves.

S. I see, and does the ten somehow participate in this process?

R. Ten is like an external form, a group in which I have to realize myself correctly.

7. S. (13:48) We are in the hands of the Creator. How should we feel in the correct form that we are in the hands of the Creator?

R. We must feel good if we are in the hands of the Creator, and it all depends on how we are in the same form as Him. That is, if the Creator is good and Creator of good and close to all, and wants to correct all, then we too must be in such states towards others.

S. When we have some difficulty understanding, there is a difficulty to understand... How to understand this divine law?

M. The question is not very clear.

R. We have no difficulties. We need, as much as we can, and even beyond that, to build this kind of relationship in the ten, men with men and women with women. And so we will begin to understand more and more what the Creator requires of us and what we must do.

S. I want to clarify. When we have difficulty understanding. How to understand this law? We do not understand. How to understand this law? There was a question about this.

R. It is only by trying to build this law between us, and then, as a consequence, we will also begin to understand what the Creator requires of us, and how we should behave – from this we will understand.

8. S. (16:18) I wanted to ask about the phrase ‘clay in the hands of the potter'. On the one hand, we are clay in the hands of the Creator. On the other hand, he writes that it is forbidden for a person to say that he is waiting for the Creator to give him the desire to deal with the Torah and commandments.

R. Yes.

S. What is the right attitude towards this, that on the one hand, you are in the hands of the Creator, and on the other hand you are forbidden to wait for Him to give you the desire?

R. We want ourselves, each time (since it’s not just me, it’s the whole ten), we must each try to accelerate ourselves into the likeness of the Creator in our mutual relations and always reach for the likeness of Him. To be like him, that’s all.

S. So, what are we “clay in his hands”?

R. It gives us all the starting conditions, what we started with, born, grown, where we are now, all the changes we feel in our society, the changes we are going through in our tens – it all comes directly from the Creator.

9. S. (17:51) This is how it all comes from Him, but what does it mean that he writes at the end of the passage that one must train and persuade the body to follow the laws of the Torah, according to it or not?

R. By body, he means desire to receive. It’s not the flesh.

S. Understandable.

R. So we need to reassure ourselves that we essentially just want to be in the right, good relationship with each other so that we get closer to reciprocity with our friends that we have nothing but good relationships. And in this mutual help, we fix ourselves.

S. And in what are we clay in the hands of the Creator, what does He do to us?

R. He gives us all kinds of changes, and we have to turn ourselves to unity all the time on the basis of these changes.

S. So I just want to make sure that I understand. He changes us and we have to unite according to the changes? What does He change in us?

R. Makes us all big and bigger egoists in all sorts of ways. And we have to understand that it comes from Him, and we kind of play with Him. When He plays something that spoils our nature more and more, and we try to fix ourselves. And so we are always in the game.

S. In this game, the action of the union is ours or is it also what is called “clay in the hands of the potter”?

R. The unification action is ours. We unite, we ask for the forces to unite, we ask for understanding how to do it, and so on.

10. S. (20:11) Is it possible to say that to be practically like clay in the hands of a potter is to be like clay in the hands of a group?

R. I wouldn’t say that after all. It’s in the hands of the Creator.

S. And how to see this, that on the one hand you are like clay in the hands of the tens, (it forms you), and on the other hand you are clay in the hands of the Creator (potter). How do you tie it?

R. No, with the help of a group we correct ourselves to be more and more in fusion with the group on the basis of all the conditions that the Creator forms between us.

S. Isn’t the group that shapes you, makes you?

R. No. No. Well, that’s true, but it’s not like they did it on purpose, just the Creator.

S. What does the group do to you? What is the important action of the group over you?

R. The group shapes all the conditions and also makes of itself such actions to become one person in one heart. But in any case, your correction is to the Creator in prayer when you want to merge with Him.

11. S. (22:04) You said that the ten to us is the outer form. Can you explain this?

R. I don’t get it. What was I saying?

S. In one of the lessons.

R. It doesn’t matter, I don’t remember now.

S. It’s just...

R. I understand, but I don’t know what it says.

S. The feeling that you are clay in the hands of the potter – is it related to the place in which we are in the spiritual: Assiya, Yetzira, Beria, Atzilut?

R. We are in union among ourselves, in our group, in relation to the Creator. And to the extent that we become united and unified, we are more and more like Him, and thus we approach Him, and in accordance with that, we are moving up the ladder.

S. Is it correct to say that the ten is always one level higher than us?

R. Ten is always above us.

S. One level? I mean, if I feel myself in the world of Assiya, ten – in the world of Beria?

R. That’s not what I said. You’re trying to add all sorts of things today that have no foundation.

12. S. (24:11) We teach in general that the Creator is the property of giving. And creation before correction is the desire to receive for receiving.

R. Yes.

S. How to understand that the desire to receive for the sake of receiving, as clay in the hands properties of giving? What is the relationship between them? Intent for gain is completely controlled by the property of giving, intention for giving? Is it right to say so?

R. Yes.

13. S. (24:47) It is written that one must accustom and persuade the body to follow the laws of the Torah, according to it or not. It seems to me that there was once an opportunity to really teach yourself, to set a routine, and now it’s kind of smaller. Is there any way to teach the body to follow the laws of the Torah and not what it wants?

R. Yeah, that’s exactly what we should be doing. That’s it. So connect with your friends and perform the unification actions, and you will see how much it will reveal in you.

14. S. (25:49) There was much talk about the group, about the Creator-group relationship. And since we are talking about ‘clay in the hands of the potter’, is it correct to understand that the group is the basis on which this vessel is built? And the group is, shall we say, an instrument of using the Creator in shaping us?

R. Yes.

15. S. (26:28) The question is a bit long. There are times when the desire to merge with the Creator is very strong, and it makes us feel that there is a push to come to the giving and there is an aspiration to come to the giving. How do you balance those feelings when they’re so strong?

R. I don’t get it.

S. There are times when the desire is very strong, the desire to come together with the Creator is very strong, and it makes us feel that time is pressing, time is pushing us to accelerate. How do you balance those feelings that are so strong?

R. Only through greater unity between us. In fact, the greater union between us in any state, whatever it is, gives us an immediate solution, no matter in what condition: in feelings, in thoughts, in decisions. Always more united – this is the solution. Okay?

16. S. (28:05) In principle, I have a question similar to that of Hadera, but more practical. What specific actions, besides unification, must be performed to fulfill the laws of the Torah with the maximum result for the tens, for the use of tens?

R. You can’t do anything because you don’t have a ten, you don’t have a group that wants to team up, and you don’t see it yet. Give them all this.

S. We have a ten. With a group, it can be difficult, but there is a ten.

R. What does a ten mean? What do you count on your fingers, how many of you? There are 10 billion of these in the world.

S. ... but we are, really. And we try.

R. Are you trying?

S. Yes.

R. Well, if you try, then you will succeed. Because it all depends on it.

17. S. (29:11) Is it possible to accustom the desire to be united in the ten, not to the external but to the inner?

R. No. The will to receive can not be accustomed.

S. Teach to unite in ten?

R. No, it’s against its nature.

18. S. (29:38) Is it possible to train the desire to receive annulment in front of the friends?

R. Also impossible. You can’t, maybe outward forms are sometimes possible, but all this is not for the benefit of giving, that is, not for the good of your neighbor.

S. So what can you teach him?

R. Desire to receive?

S. Yes.

R. To everything it feels good about.

19. S. (30:19) He writes in an excerpt that the body should be taught and persuaded to follow the Torah’s laws.

R. Yeah, that’s a big problem because it’s against nature.

S. So what is the advice to teach the body?

R. To do, to do, to do, to perform actions when you accustom the body to giving actions, actions of unification, until it gets used to being so.

20. S. (30:51) When you say do, is this internal or external action?

R. External. Internally, we are not yet able to do. But external actions gradually penetrate the inner part of the desire.

21. S. (31:11) What, for example, are the outer examples of unification? We say that our unification is the inner.

R. No, why not? If we do congresses, dinners, things like that, why not?

22. S. (31:32) At first he could accustom himself to all such external actions, and today he sees that he has less and less strength to accustom himself to such actions. So what is the advice for such a friend who is moving forward and sees that he has no strength to teach himself?

R. Changing the environment to make the environment more oppressive is more illustrative. And then he’ll do what the environment tells him what to do, what the environment demands of him.

R. All right, read on.

Reading excerpt #4. (32:22) “Our Sages warned….”

23. S. (33:40) This is what the friend asked earlier. Is man “clay in the hands of a potter” in the hands of the entourage or the Creator?

R. Everything is in the hands of the Creator. But how does it come to us? From the Creator, through the group to us. And how does it come from us to the Creator? Also through the group.

S. And how does a person know that he chooses his surroundings? It seems that the surroundings are the same, and his strength is also weakened.

R. Yes.

S. How can he increase the importance of the environment in his eyes so that he is impressed with them more, and receives more impressions from them, so that he can accustom himself on the basis of increasing desire?

R. Only by connection. Only by connection. This is a special tool.

24. S. (34:48) Often a companion can be both a companion and a teacher. Where is this line when I should treat him like a teacher and when should I treat him like one?

R. A friend is the one with whom you unite to approach the Creator, and a teacher is the one with whom you obey in order to approach the Creator.

S. Yes, so the question arises, that I often cancel and go, let’s say, on the occasion of my friends: what they want, I try to do as they want. At this point, are they my teachers or my friends?

R. If you cancel yourself, they’re teachers. But if it’s a group, that’s another matter. You asked me about my friend and the teacher, when he is a friend and when he becomes a teacher. And if it’s a group, that’s another thing, you cancel yourself in front of the group to get in and be with them.

25. S. (36:22) We have a question from our ten. How do we understand when we have to work, make efforts, and in which – to put everything in the hands of the Creator?

R. We have to do our best. And when we see that we have nothing else in our hands, then we can completely cancel ourselves before the Creator and allow Him to act.

26. S. (37:01) This is a very practical question. When we come to the Kabbalah, we come to a particular group. This is the choice – the Creator made the choice for you, right?

R. Yes.

S. Okay. And it works, and if you don’t like something, and even if you don’t want something like a more advanced ten...

R. Why don’t I see the person who’s asking?

S. It’s me.

R. It’s you, but I can’t see you.

S. Really? I don’t know, I’m here.

R. Now yes. Next.

S. And when you come to Kabbalah, the Creator makes the choice for you. And if you change a ten in the desire to find such companions that would inspire you more – so you choose this environment? Such a delicate question.

R. There is no subtle question. In the top ten, you should stay. Only those friends with whom you are in the ten, you should treat as to the highest level, and not run from one ten to another.

S. Because I want everyone to hear and understand it. Thank you very much.

27. S. (39:08) If we are to be like clay in the hands of the potter and evolve for that – what is the use of the desire that the Creator gives us?

R. To choose between good desire and bad, and each time choose to unite us and unite with the Creator.

28. S. (39:45) What is the right environment?

R. The right environment is one that fully wants to merge with the Creator, in which everyone wants to unite with each other in order to come together with the Creator. And it must come to be merged with the Creator in order to give Him its heartfelt attitude, its love – it is a good environment.

S. Where is the free thought of man?

R. Free thought?

Remark: That’s what he’s asking.

R. Man has no free thoughts. Everything he has, he gets from above. And when does he have a choice? When he gets a few thoughts.

29. S. (41:20) Sometimes we feel that even a small outward manifestation of a deficiency from a friend is a very strong trigger for us to unite, to pray, but it happens so rarely. What can we do to make this manifest more so that we can see outwardly that a friend really has such a deficiency?

R. You need to be more sensitive to each other, to feel that you support each other, embrace each other, and thus quickly change your inner properties and move forward.

30. S. (42:30) The friend asks about the fourth passage. It is written: the sages warned: “Make yourself a Rav and buy yourself a friend”. And as you know, it concerns the choice of books. In all the years of a man’s life, these books of Kabbalah can provide for all his needs, including material?

R. I didn’t understand you.

S. I’ll read the question again, it’s a friend’s question. All the days of a man’s life the books of the Kabbalah are sufficient to satisfy all his needs, including material?

R. That’s enough until the End of Correction, it’s enough for the End of Correction.

31. S. (43:28) Can we have more? You have also said that we must put in the utmost effort, and when we see that we have nothing in our hands, then can we cancel ourselves completely before the Creator, and make Him act?

R. Yes.

S. I literally want us to come to this state, I have a huge need to come to it. What else can we add to this?

R. You have a very good wish, and you also have a head and a heart – you have everything. A little patience, a little more patience, it takes time. It’s like the cure in our world, the doctor says you have to take it for a week, two weeks, and there’s no way out – you have to take it. Because that’s how our soul, in relation to spiritual concepts, has to take-take-take-take, more and more, portions by portions every day, and then we feel like it’s changing. So a little more patience.

S. So the lack of patience, when I see his absence, what do you recommend that we be able to overcome for the entire ten?

R. Impatience, and impatience are from the ego because I act daily towards the Creator, I already give Him pleasure, and I give Him joy. But if I am dissatisfied – it is a sign that my egoistic desire requires (it requires filling) and it is not good.

S. So what do I do when I see it? I know it’s ego, but how do I imagine it?

R. What to do? I would comfort myself that I have to do good to the Creator through my friends, and beyond that I want nothing. The main thing is that the friends and the Creator receive from me the right, good reaction.

32. S. (46:11) This state of ‘clay in the hands of the potter’, what does it mean? The desire to get how it feels in this state: good or vice versa, feels some work, resistance, or is it something that we should constantly lead ourselves to (to this state)?

R. We have to feel like clay in the potter’s hands all the time. Yes.

S. And the desire to receive as it always resists this?

R. Sure, but we shouldn’t pay attention. We have to think all the time about how to make the Creator start to mold us now.

S. How is it that I buy myself a friend and make myself a Rav, that is, I join the group – that is, the cancellation when I make a Rav and buy a companion, and then I feel like I’m clay, so these three things are connected?

R. Yeah, but it’s based on self-immersion, when you disavow yourself, then it happens in you.

33. S. (48:06) You mentioned earlier that nothing happens to our physical bodies, but the spiritual body, the soul, is what changes. And now you tell another student or pupil that a person has no free choice, no free thought. What does it mean to have no free thought?

R. What man has is what he gets from the Creator. That’s it.

S. Is it spoken of all thoughts, of any thought that I have – it is from the Creator? How could there be no such spiritual thought, physical thought, or spiritual mind?

R. Where does a person get ideas? Suddenly I have an idea where it comes from. Who wants to answer me?

S. That’s my question.

R. Of course it comes from the Creator, it’s understandable. And so our question is: What’s their use? They’re good for us to respond to all these thoughts in the right way. Okay?

S. Yes, thank you.

34. S. (50:02) Question from a friend. A man has to make an effort at the point of ‘There Is No One Except Him', in search of Him, or in corporeal actions?

R. Yes. Next. Man should try all the time... how to say... to be closer to the Creator in that he wants to do the right way, whatever the Creator wants. That’s it.

35. S. (50:53) How do the combined points affect my point in the heart? Are these some laws of spiritual physics?

R. Yes.

36. S. (51:15) I would like to ask you for your advice. We have a bachelor meeting with Bnei Baruch every Friday. What kind of preparation do we have to do before this meeting, so that we feel in the hands of the Creator, people who want to make a family, and build something like the Kabbalists?

R. So think about the fact that you are in the hands of the Creator and you want to entrust Him with this choice. Okay? If we have enough candidates to be wives, choose.

S. Sorry, can I add more? We have a lot of candidates, but friends... I myself feel that I do not know how to fill these future wives. Advise us on how we should fill such meetings of our great friends, how to persuade the Creator to give us this light that we can fill them with?

R. If you have a common goal in life, and you want to achieve it, that’s all that matters. Everything else is marked as secondary. So go ahead, marry, be fruitful, and do not make a mistake.

37. S. (53:08) Must books be necessarily Kabbalistic or can one read others sometimes, but which also inspire love?

R. No. You only have to read Kabbalistic books.

38. S. (53:38) When a rabbi, a group, or a book comes, the first impression is that it all comes from nowhere. Then we realize that all this is from the Creator. So what is our choice?

R. Strengthening yourself in this way. The Creator does everything except one thing: that man must constantly work to strengthen himself on the way to the Creator.

39. S. (54:20) So you have to belittle yourself before unification, not before your friends?

R. I didn’t understand you. Of course, friends need to annul themselves.

S. If the Creator sends several thoughts to the person, does He give him the right to choose?

R. Probably.

R. Where are we now?

Reading excerpt #5 (55:03) “All creations are as in the hands….”. Twice.

Reading excerpt #6 (56:16) “It is written as clay….”

40. R. (57:15) Well, they’re beautiful words.

41. S. (57:22) When reason is part of egoism, faith above knowledge is fusion with the Creator?

R. Yes.

41. S. (57:41) Your lessons are very awake from sleep, and you finally want to start working for the Creator. The last lessons are taken very directly by the heart. The question is: how to trust the Creator and come to the decision that I want to serve only the Creator?

R. And you think about it more, and gradually you will see that this is the only correct and only correct thought.

42. S. (58:31) The property of giving back is a little difficult to imagine as a whole. Can you imagine all these virtues: kindness, mercy, compassion, and patience? And our attitude towards the friends, if we believe in the God of the Good and the Giver of the Good, must be like this? And how is it with selfishness... How can you calm selfishness in this moment, that in the end, I do not want to suffer, and I better, just like this... So can I work with selfishness?

R. Everything is possible, only you need to get your thoughts in order - “to comb yourself”, “to comb yourself in thoughts”. Just comb, it won’t help, you need to go inside the head. Try, it will work.

All my dears, be well, and see you tomorrow.

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