Morning Lesson August 12, 2021 Transcription
1. Rav’s Introduction: We will try to take another step forward as we do daily, and nevertheless to interpret Ibur more internally. We heard that entering Ibur, conception, is very difficult. Why is it so difficult? Because man disconnects from this world and he thinks something in this world can help him. Like a drop of semen, he glues himself to the upper one, to the womb, and he hangs his future, his present, he hangs everything there. He has nothing in the world but the upper one and he needs to receive everything from the upper one. There are forces that develop his mind and discernments, instructions, everything. A person disconnects himself from all of those things that he previously thought could help him in this world and he takes only those things that can tie him to the Creator, and that's the group. In effect, he begins to feel that he depends only on that and nothing can help him but that. Then he can say that he enters impregnation, Ibur, and we need to see our entire life, what's happening with us, as an invitation to turn to the Creator and to constantly be in a state where we are asking of Him, trying to connect to Him, and turning to Him.
Specifically, when all the means that we used to see in this world and thought we needed to use, we see them as no more than reasons to turn to the Creator. I take what's passing over me, it doesn’t matter if it is corporeal or spiritual, and aim it towards the Creator and turn it to a prayer, a request, I then begin to enter Ibur. All of our efforts towards Ibur, conception, should be in trying to turn everything that is happening to us in this world into means that would push us to enter into this connection with the Creator. All of our corrections should be aimed at the Creator, since we only ask Him for correction, meaning I don't turn to myself for anything, rather I can see in the study, dissemination, the group, each and every process we go through, whatever is happening to me in the world, all of it is one complex external force designed to push me to become an embryo inside the upper one, meaning to annul before Him. We ask only for the correction so that He will help me each and every moment to be more and more connected and cleaved to Him, and ask only to be in constant contact with Him.
I am willing to annul my head, brain, thoughts, desires, my everything, and only be cleaved to Him, just to be adhered to Him without my mind or my feeling. What I receive from Him is what will fulfill and dominate me. This is the form of the embryo. When we turn to Him in this way, without any conditions, just wanting to adhere to Him, and put all of our reasons for what is happening to me in Him and justify Him everywhere, in every action and every moment, by that I enter conception. This is the essence of the connection between the sperm and the womb. Although I have the nature of Malchut, when I annul myself from my root, from my will to receive, and wish to ascribe, associate myself with the upper one, the will to bestow, by that I raise my Malchut to Bina and I become an inseparable part of the Creator, the upper one, Bina. That's how we enter Ibur, impregnation, conception. If, God forbid, there are no accidents of birth, we will begin to develop in greater and greater adhesion and connection with Bina, meaning with bestowal above reason. Connection above my desires for independence, for separation, and so on and so forth. That's how we advance. So let's advance accordingly
Excerpt 20 (08:10) Twice
2. S. (12:50) What is the Creator?
R. The Creator is the force of bestowal and love that is opposite our nature. We need to understand this force, this quality that fills all of reality except for us. Although we are working inside the Creator we are disconnected from Him because our qualities are opposite
S. I'm trying to picture the Creator, I turn to Him, I pray, I want to touch the friends but nothing happens. I don't feel anything.
R. First of all, it will help you to think about it more and try to turn to the Creator more. It will help and will shorten the time for you to try and see what is happening with you. Respond to the actions of the Creator around you and this will also advance you. The main thing is to imagine that you wish to be in adhesion with Him, meaning in some degree of equivalence of form, and to bestow the way He bestows. Turn to Him. As I explained before the text we read, the main thing is to constantly be turning to the Creator and, as much as possible, to disconnect yourself from what you have in this world, from anything you don't have to be in, meaning anything but necessities. Necessities are neither praised nor condemned as they don't interfere with our spirituality. Be adhered to the Creator in everything else and anything that's serving the needs of the Creator.
3. S. (15:45) What is ‘matter’?
R. Matter is the will to receive and the spirit is the will to bestow. The will to receive is present in you, it does not disappear. Nevertheless, the more you try to be adhered to the spirit, the desire to bestow, you disconnect from your nature and you begin to approach the Creator's nature.
4. S. (16:44) There is a feeling that a person should not put so much energy into his own thoughts but immediately dialogue with the Creator, who is hidden?
R. Yes, a person needs to connect and speak with the Creator. A person needs to turn to the Creator as much as possible even though for the time being he doesn't feel any response. He seemingly has no one to talk to but he turns to Him and he speaks. Does the baby know he's turning to his mother? He does. He cries and grabs what's next to him. You see how he holds onto a teddy bear or some toy. It's very important for him and he gets used to it. We need to try to find such types of pleas and addresses to the Creator together in the group. Each one gives an example to the others.
5. S. (18:44) What is the difference between cancelling my intention and cancelling my thoughts?
R. I don’t want to get into it as it may confuse people. Simply let your thoughts, your intention, be this way for now. The topic is to adhere, to glue ourselves to the Creator. We don't need too many calculations whenever we turn to Him. We see ourselves adhered to Him with every request. Ibur, conception, is only one action. I am cleaved to the upper one in everything that is happening to me. My only dialogue is with the Creator, with the upper one. I ask, I demand, and I cry, just like kids. They simply need to express the deficiency in them. We should do the same towards the Creator and in different ways since everything is in His hands. He will bestow to us; He will answer us .We will gradually begin to discover His responses.
6. S. (20:58) Ibur, impregnation, annulment, and prayer seem like something from the same place but they have three different states. Can you explain it?
R. Conception, the annulment of one’s self, and the prayer are the same. When you connect them together you will receive the correct form of the embryo.
7. S. (21:50) How do we cling to the Creator so that He will attach us to Him?
R. You should ask the friends to help you turn to the Creator and adhere to Him in such a way that he will never be able to leave this connection. Make it permanent for the time being. The group can help you make the connection with the Creator. You will understand how important the group is to you.
S. What exactly should I ask from the friends?
R. That they will help you turn to the Creator, to adhere to the Creator, and to constantly be in a dialogue with the Creator. You will then understand the 10 have to be in it together and if you'll ask Him together then surely you will turn to Him and not to something or someone else. You will rise from Malchut to Bina and the Creator will hear it. When you annul towards one another you will come to a state where Malchut disconnects from his qualities and clings to Bina. This is simply how it happens, we can't do it any other way. When each one turns towards the others and asks for their help, this disconnects their personal ego, Malchut, and it glues you to the group ego. Although it is the group ego, it is already Bina, it is Malchut that is in Bina. This is how you develop and grow at the beginning of your spiritual development.
8. S. (24:34) When praying for the friends, does it make a difference to make the request with yearning or without yearning from the mind and heart?
R. Of course, it's important. If you wish to fulfill the anticipation and yearning, then you have a strong force. You're asking forcefully to annul yourself because you hear that this is the only hope, this is the only action we need to do.
9. S. (25:46) How do you exalt the Creator?
R. He explains it. This first sentence is from Psalms, written by King David, about twenty-five hundred years ago, maybe more. So he writes, “Exalt the Lord our God and bow before His holy mountain”. Why? “For the Lord our God is holy.” Meaning you need to exalt Him, to raise Him, see how great He is, all the way to Ein Sof, infinitely great in all of your discernments. On the other hand, bow down before Him. Why? Because He is holy. ‘Holy’, means separate from the will to receive. He explains that ‘exalt’ means that if we want to know the exaltedness and greatness of the Creator we can obtain this only through adhesion through equivalence of form. What is equivalence of form and how does one achieve equivalence of form? The beginning of our equivalence of form with Him is when we adhere to the womb, to the upper one, adhere to the Creator. So what do we need to do? We need to “bow before His holy mountain”, meaning He is great in His qualities of bestowal. We must surrender, annul and restrict ourselves, in order to enter these qualities. We begin to adhere to Him and become equal with Him by annulling our will to receive and bowing down to Him. ‘Bowing’ means surrendering, when one lowers his reason and says, ‘what the reason understands or does not understand I annul and subjugate it’. We don't take into consideration any mind, intellect, or feeling of ours.
We're still on the degree of Malchut, the degree of beasts, and we wish to rise to the degree of man who is similar to Bina, to bestowal, to the Creator. So “bow before His Holy mountain”. Har, mountain means Hirhurim, reflections, meaning thoughts. We have these different thoughts, we don't know what to do. Hirhurim, reflections, are these kinds of thoughts that are running around in our heads and don't let us approach adhesion with the Creator. He’s holy. Holy means separated from the will to receive, opposite the will to receive. ‘Bow’ means submitting the body even though it disagrees. It disagrees? Fine you don't have to agree, there is no one who demands you to agree. It is not up to us, it is up to the will to receive, to influence us to agree or disagree. We can do only one thing: to ignore him. He wants something and I don’t give it to him, even if he disagrees. Even though he disagrees, I take upon myself only thoughts of holiness, Kedusha. It is most important to be in bestowal, in adhesion with the upper one through the group. This is the meaning of ‘bow before His Holy mountain’. Why must we submit ourselves to thoughts of Kedusha, holiness meaning to retire from receiving in order to receive? Why do I need to do it? That is my entire nature. The answer is because ‘the Lord our God is Holy for the Creator only bestows’. The purpose of my development is to understand, feel, and to come closer to Him. I must be in the same form, the same quality as the Creator. So I must surrender myself and receive the quality of bestowal from the Creator. That's why we must be in equivalence of form with the Creator and by this we can obtain the exaltedness of the Creator. How high He is, how great He is, and we can achieve the attainment of the exaltedness of the Lord our God. We need to slowly read each and every line and accordingly we will gradually begin to feel Him, to implement, and to ask. That's the work. That's how we advance.
10. S. (32:27) Is there a difference between annulling and subjugating in the 10?
R. There are many things here but what difference does it make? The important thing is to surrender yourself before the 10 in order to receive greater strength to think about bestowal and connection. It doesn't matter what you call your attitude towards the 10, you surrender or you adhere. The important thing is that you wish to receive forces and qualities from them that will help you disconnect from yourself and adhere to the group and through it to the Creator. You need to imagine the group as corrected and you must wish to reach that form.
11. S. (33:40) How can we cleave to the Creator and not be distracted by our corporeal, mundane activities?
R. Other than spiritual actions I don't need to. I just work to take care of actions like an animal in this world. I don't need to think about the Creator. In general, I have to do it so I will have the possibility of being in the group, in the study, and so on and so forth. I do not need to invest my thoughts during my work in the office, or factory, or wherever it is, I just need to do the work in this world. I do not need to attach spiritual intentions to it, just to think that I must do this work in order to do the spiritual work. For the time being, this is enough
12. S. (35:43) Does the importance of the goal determine my annulment?
R. The importance of the goal certainly determines the height of my annulment and directly influences it. I can annul myself according to how important the goal is to me.
13. S. (36:31) How do we know if we should continue or stop an activity when annulling before the upper one when it seems we are not successful in connection?
R. Even though you cannot increase it, you have to keep going, you have to continue even if it's an action. It's about expanding the boundary of holiness. We have to relate to holiness above reason when we cannot see any benefit in it.
14. S. (37:21) Is the connection with all the friends the same or does each friend have a specific connection?
R. There needs to be a connection to everyone. Its outer form should be according to the friend but internally the connection should be uniform for everyone. I don't mind which friends at the time I am connected with because I have to be connected to everyone. Only the outer form can be different but it is really not important to us.
15. S. (38:31) What are ‘reflections’ in the work in the 10?
R. They are what distracts us and disturbs our connection.
S. For example, thoughts about corporeality?
R. Anything that goes against adhesion with the Creator. There are no examples here. Anything that goes against adhesion with the Creator. That's it
Excerpt 21 (39:18) Twice
16. R. (42:30) This is very important: we need to come to a state where we are totally dependent on the Creator and demand one hundred percent of the forces and states that promote and advance us towards Him. That's it basically. The group has to remind everyone, ideally through these excerpts, that we have to be directed together more and more to the Creator with a request to connect and direct us to adhesion with Him so we will enter as an embryo, a drop of sperm, into the womb, to that one point that consists of 10 as it called rises from the Malchut and becomes incorporated in Bina.
17. S. (43:44) What does it mean that he took upon himself complete annulment?
R. If I decide that I am seriously going for self-annulment then I have to see myself as disconnecting myself from myself, a kind of peeling myself off from myself. Myself, my ego and I attached myself to the group with all my might with all my heart and soul. And when I try to be in this all of the time and I add to it all of the powers from the environment from the 10, all my activities, anything I can add that will help me be together with the 10, adhered in mutual bestowal and upon the Creator, this is already the impregnation, the Ibur and everything else I have to I do my corporeal job, I tend to the family, whatever is needed, try to be in both. I am reminding you that Baal HaSulam and Rabash had held their jobs in order to earn money and in addition they were learning and teaching the wisdom of Kabbalah and they weren't ashamed about it they didn't avoid it. Rabash told me how he worked in paving roads. It is the most blue collar work or he was working in construction and other such jobs, for several years he worked as a shoemaker, a cobbler. The jobs then weren't like today where you can keep your day job for life. He worked wherever it was possible and that's how he worked and Baal HaSulam also. Although he was a religious judge back in Warsaw, when he came to Israel he became a teacher. Meaning each one worked in regular jobs. He didn't live out of people paying them, but from what they made with their own hands. Spiritual work doesn't require a lot of time. It requires attention, a person's heart.
S. You have to be precise when we tried and made efforts, that's clear what does it mean decided or took upon himself? What's the difference between decided and tried?
R. When you decide, it means you're directed from above but then you have to add to it your own energy and perseverance and that is the labor.
18. S. (47:49) Sometimes in the 10 some of us want to scrutinize the reading that we are doing in the sense that the question, the wisdom of the word is that not annulling oneself 100%?
R. We need to try to be as much as we can with the hearts of the friends and attach ourselves to the teacher, and to Baal HaSulam to the Creator. Basically when this whole mechanism and all of those desires should be before us and in it we will feel our place of adhesion with the upper one. That's the beginning of the Ibur, the impregnation.
19. S. (49:03) He explained what is the degree of annulment, how do you measure it?
R. As much as possible, as much as possible, in every way.
20. S. (49:31) How to overcome the thoughts that show us that we are unable to reach the great annulment?
R. It is good if you feel this reaction clearly that you are being told that you have to add more labor, more exertion. It's like a person standing in front of a sales person at a shop, you give him money he looks at the money and says no, no, no, it's not enough. You have to add some more. This is what we have to understand from it because there aren't really forces that object to us, there are forces that direct us more precisely towards the goal more accurately towards the goal in both quantity and quality. Quality means we have to come and calibrate and fine-tune our direction and quantity means increase our efforts to advance. But there are no rejections, you don't decrease in Holiness, always increase.
Excerpt 22 (51:32) Twice
21. R. (55:40) That last phrase, “It is not worth living for myself”, that is the key phrase in each spiritual degree because in the end, he wants to be impregnated and continuous impregnation. Yes, the meaning of impregnation and birth up to the spiritual birth all the nine months of pregnancy is in a state where he says for me it is not worth living. I want to totally be adhered to the upper one to the womb to attach Malchut to Bina. So the intentions to bestow will control all the desires to receive, the intentions to bestow or intentions of Bina, the desires to receive or the desires of Malchut so Bina at the end needs to govern Malchut control it and that's how we elevated ourselves to Bina, to the womb, to the upper one. This is why this phrase, he overcomes his reason and goes above reason and he says for me it is not worth living for myself, this phrase in the end, in every scrutiny of a person, that's where he has to end in that phrase. That he has no answer, he's got no other decisions other than annulment before the upper one. I'm not living for myself. I live only for the upper one, I annul before the upper one, the upper one wants me to grow in it, so I grow. I do everything and whatever that upper one who wants to let Him do on me. What I can do is only come to that phrase that it is not worth living for myself. Pay attention, when you scrutinize, during the day, these excerpts not to forget these key points of entry into spirituality that it is not worth living for myself, meaning a decision that has to come at the end of every scrutiny we make. Who am I, what am I, how am I? It's not worth it if it is for me. I am not living for me. I am living in order to adhere to the upper one. How much? Until I have no heart, no mind, I don't understand anything, I don’t care. I am totally annulled and then I will be an embryo. All the spiritual qualities in degrees are above it, our soul is above it. This is called entering a world of bestowal.
22. S. (58:51) The most important thing in our advancement is to 10 the annulment and the connection. How can we tell that we are in fact moving towards the mountain and not the opposite direction?
R. I'll tell you, if you are in a 10 that is with all the other tens in the spiritual process, and spiritual means you want to cancel all of your intentions to receive and come to the intention to bestow, from the power of reception to the power of bestowal. You are among such people who also want it as much as they can but they say that they do want to come to it, and you're in a big organization that has a direction and a basis and books, the literature to advance. So now you have to say it is all up to you. It all depends on you. You've got a place where you can annul, you've got the powers and the help that will help you annul and then you come to annulment basically what are you and begin you're canceling your ego, you're not canceling yourself. When I say it's not worth living for myself I want to die. We mean our ego. Not ourselves but the ego in us which is what we want to put to death because it limits us into our narrow dark, small world and we want to rise above it. So you have to make the right discernments here. When it says he who wants to live will put himself to death. He who wants to live will put himself to death, because we are going to put our will to receive to death. Because it disrupts, it disturbs us, distracts us until we acquire the desire to bestow Bina's desire to bestow, we rise from Malchut to Bina and then from Bina from below we go back to the Malchut and begin to bring up, to awaken the Malchut in order to add the will to receive to the power of Bina and then we shift to receiving in order to bestow. We can tend and we can work with the will to receive of Malchut but with the intention we have acquired from Bina. When we are incorporated in Bina now, we are incorporated in Bina’s desire to bestow, in this is called bestowing in order to bestow. When we cancel and cancel our will to receive in every way as much as possible but once we have completely canceled it this is called Malchut having risen to Bina, now we’re awaken the Malchut's forces, the will to receive and begin to work with them in order to bestow because we have Bina’s power of bestow huge very powerful and we add to it the powers of the Malchut, a little more a little more and by the place we come to degrees the first part of our ascent is called bestowing in order to bestow, the entry from the Malchut to Bina. The second part of our ascent is called receiving in order to bestow when we add Malchut to Bina and this way we work receiving in order to bestow until we get to the Keter, meaning from Malchut to Bina and Bina to the Keter.
23. S. (01:03:39) In excerpt 22, he writes out reasonably speaking, you can justify this. How can you justify the friend when he shows that he hates him? Meaning I see his faults and I hate him but it seems like he hates me is this correct?
R. What's the difference? There is no difference in this or that. The important thing is that I have to cancel my ego which shows me that I am wrong or the friend is wrong or the Creator is wrong. Because he set up these relationships between us. As long as I have an opportunity to annul myself and to ask the Creator to help me and in this way come to annulment, to become an embryo, Ubar. Then we have to help each other mainly by each one showing his friend how much he awakens in his friend all kinds of unpleasant discernments, bad ones. Yes, that's the way it works.
Excerpt 23 (01:05:05) Twice
24. S. (01:08:22) What does it mean to separate the ego from my “I”. If I am the ego what then is me, can I say the eyes are the point of the observer in me?
R. A person consists of two parts: a will to receive and the point in the heart; these are two opposite forces that exist in us. We are saying that they exist, basically they exist in every person. It's the result of the breaking of the vessel of Adam HaRishon. You have no created being called human in this world that does not have a spark of the power of bestowal in each and every one, the only question is to what extent does it shine, to what extent is it awakened. So we don't only have the will to receive but also a spark of the desire to bestow and we must understand that we have to wake it up. That is our whole work to awaken as much as possible the desire to bestow in us through the Creator through the group, and by awakening it, we advance and that's it.
25. S. (01:10:13) How much can a person be united by wholeness itself if he feels the other friends wholeheartedly and praises all friends?
R. In the end, the relation to the group has to be the same as to the Creator and even more because the group is the means, the instrument for reaching the Creator. So as an instrument it becomes more important than anything else really, and here lies the problem because we can easily slight the group, the friends, the group, we’re used to it from this world. We cannot really attribute to the group, spiritual discernments, spiritual importance and this is our problem. But if we relate to the internality of the group and in the internality is where the Creator is, then we are beginning to direct ourselves correctly towards him. When the group becomes like a site through which I aim to the Creator and only in this way can I be directed towards Him.
26. S. (01:12:05) Initially we think that we chose the spiritual path but it's the Creator who brought us from below, under the concealment, under the veil of concealment. Should we make the effort to reach annulment and if that's the case we come to a point where we cannot advance, we try but we cannot advance. Then we unite as a 10 and we raise a prayer, we ask the Creator to do it for us, is this the way we should awaken the Creator from below so that He will do it for us?
R. Of course this is correct. It's great that you said it this way and the most important thing for us is to convince the Creator to help us to keep tending to us. A part of our existence. We go through it as in our world there are parents, parents are Hochma and Bina who are governed by the upper force and then they begin to depict our desire and then we begin to grow but spiritual growth happens or requires our participation completely and to some extent I annul myself, I have to agree, I have to ask, I have to taste and say this is good, this is bad, just like a little child. How good it was to grow inside of the mother if the mother ate, it received, it wasn't asked anything. That's how it happened but once a baby grows we see it has to be more and more independent. More and more independent and then the parents even if they are not interested sometimes they have to give it more and more freedom, independence to take care of itself. That's what we are like. We have to take from the Creator more and more actions to tend to ourselves to our spirituality by ourselves and this is what happens to us. What are Kabbalists saying? How can you tend to yourselves until you come to resembling the Creator? That's the process we are going through until we are called Adam, Man, Domeh, similar to the Creator.
27. S. (01:15:28) It says that He brings us to that state of death, He brings us to that cry?
R. Well, of course He does, everything is done by the Creator.
S. How can I bless this process and kiss the stick? Also when you feel like death?
R. Stop crying, be a man. Rise above it and you can start thinking thank you for giving me this blow and thank you again for giving me this blow. He's giving you blows and you are telling Him thank you, I love you for each and every blow, you’ve got to try it.
28. S. (01:16:32) In our 10 a friend died and he always wanted unity in the 10 and in one moment the Creator let us justify this state. So what does this sacrifice obligate us to do?
R. We need not be sorry, I learned that from Rabash. We don't need to be sorry about anything. But rather here there is an examination for us, how much we believe that everything is done from above and in the form of Hesed, mercy. He took this friend from you so you can advance without him and each and every one of you has to receive something of what the friend used to give to the group and to compensate for the group. Don't be sorry about the Creator taking and what happened and too bad, you're not missing him, no one is missing. On the contrary, the fact that he took this friend from you, let him hasten his correction and we have to compensate for his place that's it. This is the matter of the mutual guarantee in the group.
29. S. (01:18:34) How should we interpret our personal physical life and the friends in the 10 as the annulment in the 10?
R. I don't understand you. Each one whatever he feels he has to have to sustain himself because there is no choice, this is my beast. It requires care so you have to give it sometimes you are more sick or more healthy, this way or that way. Each one also has different qualities for his beast and that's the way we have to relate to it but it's not that we should pay attention to that in some way. Each one tries to sustain his beast so that it will function properly and give him the ability to cultivate his soul and to take care of the soul.
30. S. (01:19:57) When a person reaches a state that he says for himself it is not worth living on one thing it's and very scary but also very like a relief. What is happiness in that state? What am I happy for?
R. You have to check in, say maybe now you won't be concerned about yourself. From that you are happy, but you have to think about what you reach, in order to say that for you it's not worth living. So what are you going to start living for, for the 10? So start investing there through the 10 and the Creator that 10 itself isn't the goal it's only the means and then you'll discover as much as you are happy.
S. Where will a person take forces from in order to kiss the stick?
R. From the prayer from, the prayer there is no other excuse here.
31. S. (01:21:25) Does every action for a connection, is it in bestow and if there is not a plea to the Creator it is egoistic?
R. We are in states that are even before the Ibur/impregnation and this is why we cannot distinguish between the miscarriage and the advancement for the embryo. So scrutinize in the meantime, each and every action that is aimed in order to bestow to the group and through that to the Creator, it is certainly Kedusha/holiness.
S. And the condition to resemble the Creator to enjoy bestowal right?
R. Enjoying bestowal is possible but it can also be yes or no. But try to reach it with all of your forces, yes.
32. S. (01:22:34) It is written that ‘from the love of friends, we reach the love of the Creator’. Are there any stages or does it happen all at once?
R. No, there are many such situations when you come closer and grow further away and come closer again and further away. Sometimes I feel like I hate the friends and love the Creator and sometimes I see that they depend on one another, but what's more important to friends or the Creator and so on, and this is how I basically advance. There is no exact correlation between the two in the meantime, later it will come.
S. When you ask for the friends and you turn to the Creator, and at some moment you feel that you supposedly lost the friends from your field of view, how can I be aimed?
R. This will become clear to you if you attain the impregnation, the Ibur, because the place where you adhere to the Creator is the group, your womb will be the group, and the Creator is what gives life to the group and through the group it gives life to you. This is something we should truly, forcefully, put in our awareness.
33. S. (01:25:06) Is the annulment of the desire, are the thoughts of the group?
R. No. The annulment of the desire with respect to the group it’s with respect to the Creator is when I feel how I can rise to the degree of faith, to the degree of bestowal.
34. S. (01:25:11) Today when we met with the 10, we were speaking about a state that we just read in the last excerpt that all calculations are true. Can you explain what that means that the discernment is real or the calculations are real? In #23 He wrote that ‘he has no calculation for himself but all his thoughts are the truth’?
R. Yes, it's because he annuls himself and he is attached to the upper one, that's why it is true.
Excerpt 24 (01:27:21)
35. R. Yes, here he strengthens this point for us: that we have to pray and only through the prayer we attain the force of bestowal from above coming to us, and we can rise above our desires to raise Bina above Malchut that is how to advance every time, more and more. Of course, immediately, Malchut grows in us and we again have to rise to the degree of Bina and this is how every time we need to rise more and more.
36. S. (01:29:49) What is a state of happiness in spiritual work?
R. Happiness in spiritual work, there is a verse, there is nothing happier than solving a question or a doubt. If I used to have a doubt and through the group I turned to the Creator and I have received help from Him and so I rose and I raised myself above the ego, above my will to receive, so this makes me happy. From the fact that the Creator sent me a problem meaning an additional will to receive, He gave me the mind and the emotion and the forces to pray to Him, to ask through the 10, to ask from Him. From the fact that He bestowed from the 10 back to me a force to bestow and I use this force of bestowal now in order to raise myself even higher with bestowal to the Creator. So there are many scrutinies here, all in all this yields happiness that's why there is this verse, there is no happiness like resolving a doubt. I used to have doubts. I didn't know what I should do. Now it is solved and I can keep on going.
37. S. (01:31:39) About the blows we get from the Creator and suffer from them, you said we need to thank them and pray for them. Should the prayer be, this gratitude be true and not false?
R. Look this is relative, it is like a mother understanding her baby, it doesn't matter if he is crying or asking and maybe his cries are real or not, what is he asking for exactly. The main thing is that we do what is upon us to do and a Kabbalist doesn't say you should be very cautious in asking for the real thing, no, what they are saying is ask all the time, ask. Meaning we have to actually resemble a corporeal baby when he is crying, he is demanding, he does it anywhere, everywhere. So what we need to do is all the time try to through the group adhere to the Creator, with a request, with gratitude, with whatever you can, whatever you can that's all.
38. S. (01:33:18) We say that we need to ask the Creator through the group and you said once that Rabash told you: “Did you ask?” Did he mean through the group?
R. I don't want to talk about these things with Rabash. It will confuse you. Later you'll get all the explanations once you have the basis to understand these correctly.
39. S. (01:33:59) I heard you say that we need to fill the place of the friend that the Creator took from us. How do we fill that place with prayer?
R. Only inside, only in your thoughts you should think about this. I see this concerns you very much so in your thought try, because this still disturbs you, you are not whole with this, you are not whole with what the Creator did and you don't agree to that. So you should try to justify the Creator for each and every state and not to go into all kinds of emotional calculations, too emotional that are related to this world. We don't know what's happening in the upper calculation but certainly there is no connection between this life of ours, to the spiritual life. Just as Baal HaSulam writes, he says I don't care where and how they will bury this bag of bones of mine, it doesn't matter. It has nothing to do with the soul. Just as religion thinks we are not related to that, all we are related to is the desire, sometimes this desire clothes in a body, in flesh so that we will perform certain actions that are in the flesh and later we will all come out of that we have to come out of that to keep on going in the corrections above that. That is why we don't have to make these calculations just to understand that according to the truth there is no connection between eternal meaning, spiritual life and our body, this flesh and bones of ours there is no connection between the two. This is part of your religion, it's not part of Kabbalah.
40. S. (01:36:47) I heard that the connection in the 10 should be in internality and connected equally to everyone, what does that mean? What does it mean a unifying connection between everybody in the 10, how can I depict that I am connected to everybody?
R. You are connected to the 10 in the form that you first of all you annul yourself completely before all the friends, you annul yourself and after that you can internally, the same way internally, help them with a prayer for them so that they will rise in the spiritual degree and to the extent that you caused an ascent for them then you too rise along with them because you are the one who caused it.
S. How to depict this term that I am annulling towards? What does it mean that all of the friends towards them I am annulling?
R. That you want them to grow and enter spirituality before you. This is considered that you are annulling towards them.
S. And to depict that term, that I want them to go into spirituality before me as individuals, what in this has anything to do with the bodies?
R. What do you mean bodies? We just said it has nothing to do with the bodies and then you start again?
S. I want to understand what is the inner depiction of the 10, to what I am annulling?
R. The desires that are connected in the system of Adam HaRishon.
S. Is it disconnected from them?
R. Who do you ascribe?
S. Those desire some depicting that I want to annul.
R. Whose desires are they?
S. My friends in the 10.
R. So the desires of my friends in the 10, I want to ascribe what?
S. Do I ascribe them to these people, the bodies that are in the 10?
R. But I told you it has nothing to do with that, spirituality is in the desires, not in the flesh.
S. So it's completely disconnected. Is it like an abstract system?
R. This is called an imaginary world, later you won't see it at all.
S. How practically can I work toward such a distraction that is abstract?
R. Think about only the internal, it’s all about physicality. You should think in the meantime you can also affect them or bestow upon them physically and you can express your relations with them, your help, your love also physically.
41. S. (01:40:14) I'm very content with my 10. I think it's a very strong 10, friends work hard. I have no complaints but we've reached a point of frustration that we have not yet reached a state of despair. We are finding it difficult now to develop a prayer to include the Creator. Where do we go from here?
R. You should do it forcefully, that I should forcefully depict to myself that we are connected to the system and if we truly discover the points of connection between us in the system then we need in these points of connection, we will later see the form of the Creator and what is the form of the Creator? The qualities, connections that are part of the upper force of bestowal, we have no choice, that only this way can we reach and locate him.
S. When you say forcefully, you mean artificially?
R. I don't know what you mean by artificially, it's not artificial.
S. We feel it, we fake it, what do you mean by forcefully?
R. Yes, we are playing with this, we are acting until we start feeling until a habit becomes second nature just like we are doing with everything we deal with, in the beginning we deal with it but we don't know what to do. Later we start feeling that there is a response from the system from which we are working and it may be an intellectual system or an emotional maybe mechanical or electrical it doesn't matter but this is how this is called a habit becomes the second nature and have it brings you the recognition of the system with which you are connected.
S. I feel like a lot of friends have this issue and that's why I'm bringing it up now. I don't feel like it's unique to our 10 of frustration that we have hit a wall but we're not including we're not making prayer now. Is there an exercise that we can do to start this artificial, forceful action?
R. Every day I recommend for you to take from the morning lesson what you should do and this is how you can advance every day. I don't know how much during the day you go over the morning lesson and the exercise I recommend but if you do that.
S. We go through it and we discuss and we have beautiful conversations and we make movement forward but again there is a frustration that we're not actually praying for anything at this point and we don't know how and we're not even happy that we don't do it and we want to be.
R. This is purposely done from above, that the Creator doesn't give you what you want so that you will truly discover a strong desire and a true deficiency and then you can pray and to ask and to cry out until a crisis will happen. You have to cross the boundary here to jump above the barrier, this screen and then you can pass on to the second half from Bina to the Malchut, that's it. Here you should increase. What has to happen is an increase of the potential force for everyone when you can jump above reason rather than work in reason all of the time. Sometimes we fall back down again but we have to rise upwards just like yesterday, there was a verse, if it's only for me it's not worthwhile living and all kinds of things. So you should find the discernments inside that were ready to be in the quality of bestowal and that's beyond the boundary of death.
S. Can we request the crisis, can we pray for it?
R. Whatever is related to your spiritual advancement you can ask it, you can cry and the Creator must answer.
42. S. (01:46:18) How to connect these two things?
R. We're not asking for anything from the Creator except to be in the force of bestowal to the friends and in the force of bestowal to him. What else do I need? Nothing besides that.
S. But we're asking to describe everything to None Else Besides Him and to uplift above the states that He’s sending and to give the friends forces were constantly demanding things.
R. To be in the force of bestowal ultimately if you connect all of these requests, it is one, we request to be in the force of bestowal.
S. That's right or is it already a mistake because we're trying to dictate to Him what to do?
R. Look this is also something that you need because still if a person knows that only with this request he can turn from the depth of the heart he should do it and this will lead him to the next request which is closer to spirituality.