Morning Lesson December 02, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 241. Call Upon Him When He Is Near
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, as usual, we progress in the scrutiny of the internal work of man, which is the attitude to the Creator, how to come closer to Him, how to adhere to Him, to begin to feel, to understand, to grasp onto Him with all forces of our spirit. To adhere with all the forces of our spirit to the Creator, and here He gives us an additional means which is very important, I would say the most important for beginners. How we need to respond to react in certain moments in adhering, in coming nearer to the Creator. He says the prophet writes, call upon Him when he is near. What is call upon Him when he is near? Meaning that the Creator, He always controls us and he always rules over us. And we need each time and what is given to us, to respond correctly to what He is doing with us. Just like a mother who is taking care of the baby and awakens him and wants each time to reveal some reaction out of it, to make him happy, that he shall feel her, he shall feel the world more, that's how the Creator awakens us and that’s how we need to respond to that. The article explains to us how we need to see and to feel and to respond in each and every moment that each moment what we feel, all these moments come from the Creator and we need to use each and every moment as much as possible to take advantage of it. In order to more and more adhere to the Creator, in what He is awakening in us, the sensation of these moments. Let’s read and we will find here the correct, nice new, maybe an approach for us to come closer to connection with the Creator.
Reader reads: (03:52) Shamati 241 “Call Upon Him When He Is Near.”
2. R. (04:19) Meaning there are times when the Creator is farther and sometimes, He is closer, how can that be from the Creator with respect to the created beings.
Reader continues: (04:31) “it would seem that there is a time when He is not near……”
3. R. (05:26) Meaning each and every one is in the perception of reality according to what they feel at the moment, and this sensation comes to one from the Creator because There's None Else Besides Him, and then it turns out really, maybe one sees for himself entirely good and the other sees himself in the world that is entirely suffering, or somewhere in the middle, so who is this dependent on? The Creator. They say He's the good that does good to the good and to the evil and he fills the whole world so I guess it seems it's all dependent on me and how he responds to how the Creator awakens him each and every moment. That's how it is with respect to all the people of this world also with those who have the tendency to reveal the Creator and also to those who are apathetic, don't understand and don't feel that there in the world that the Creator fills entirely at all.
Reader continues: (06:39) “and the profit warnings about that.”
4. R. (07:15) Meaning if you feel that you have a certain connection with the Creator and you need to know it is the Creator turning to you, it's not you who are the first to turn to Him because typically that's how we think. I now have a desire for the Creator and I want to come close. I turn to him, I ask, I may have certain demands, complaints why the Creator is not bringing me closer, why is he leaving me and it's actually the other way around. He is coming closer to me, He is awakening in me those feelings and those reactions to make me turn to Him. It seems to me that I am the first and on that, it says I am the first and I am the last. You just need to correctly decipher your states but all the states without exception come from me. The fact that a person awakens and he asks the Creator and it doesn't matter with what problem or question or complaint it is all a reaction to the Creator, first turning to Him to the person himself, that the awakening always comes from the Creator, He's the source. This is a sign, the Creator's nearness, the desire to be near and the person is typically full of complaints, why am I not coming closer, why am I not turning to Him, where is the Creator? He's not aware of the fact that it's the Creator that turned to him and He is already awakening him.
Reader continues: (09:30) “the evidence of this is that…”
5. R. (10:15) Meaning our entire desire to turn to the Creator even with our complaints and anything we may have, that all comes to us because the Creator has awakened in us those feelings, those pleas. The fact that we turn to Him and it seems to us that we have awakened first, of course this is all at the expense of the Creator. It comes from Him, it’s clothed in our will to receive and the Creator precisely, infinitely in a precise way He awakens us in each moment and in each turn each discernment, each state we are in so that we would gradually scrutinize one by one our nature compared to the Creator's nature.
Reader continues: (11:20) “hence one should know……”
6. R. (12:04) That is what is happening to us along the way, many times we feel this way that there is no future, there are no prospects. Nothing good can come out of this. We can't get to, in order to bestow, we can't get to invest everything in bestowal without receiving anything in return. I'm willing to work on it specifically in such cases without seeing any future and I don't demand any future. I want it to be this way and I'm willing to remain in that state for eternity. This is a point through which I can feel the Creator. Because I have an opportunity to annul myself but typically, we're not capable of it yet and the Creator gradually brings us near to the correct state.
Reader continues: (13:23) “but when he sees a person from afar….”
7. R. (13:41) Then he awakens from his despair, his darkness and typically through the help of the ten even when a person does not feel that he's getting it from the environment. The Creator is always working on a person through the environment and a person wakes up and he begins to ask, to cry out.
Reader continues: (14:08) “likewise one who has lost the good way….”
8. R. (14:40) In other words, the Creator nevertheless awakens a person. Although we are all in this forest, where we lost our way and we don't know and we can't come out of it by ourselves, and yet slowly, meaning gradually the Creator awakens us and he extracts us from our egoistic desire where we are all very confused.
Reader continues: (15:17) “but this is the voice of the Creator….”
9. S. (15:23) Meaning when a person awakens and he once again wants to reach spirituality and find out the essence of life, the purpose of life and not remain on the animate degree as an animal but rise above it a little bit this doesn't come from by himself rather this is considered the voice of the Creator calling him.
Reader continues: (15:49) “but if this is the voice of the Creator if he has not completed….”
10. R. (16:06) It's a problem until we complete our exertion, we do not feel that it is the Creator calling us. Sometimes we do feel it but later it disappears, we forget about it and that is also a correction to this matter of forgetfulness. Nevertheless this is how we are advancing towards the understanding throughout our entire lives, the main thing for us is to be sensitive to what I am hearing from the Creator each and every moment. There's the voice of the Creator that comes to me through the ten each and every moment and that I hear it by myself and each time we need to be as alert as possible to this voice and never think that it is I who has awakened to the Creator. But it's certain that the Creator has awakened towards me, because if He detected the correct moment in my state where he can awaken me. These moments are not such that I can discern them as better or worse. I can come to a person in a state where he is seemingly not worthy, seemingly distant from spirituality and all of a sudden, a desire, a thought and opportunity appears to him and he thinks about spirituality and about the Creator. That's the meaning of, suddenly hearing the voice of the Creator and calling on Him.
Reader continues: (18:04) “this is what the prophet warns about…”
11. R. (18:20) It's not the person but it's the Creator that awakened, as a result a person also awakens and we are called created beings. We are under the control of the upper force. The will to receive, the Creator created and of course controls it and it's force, the upper light and through these two forces like through two wires he is running us, managing us. We just need to learn that it's all coming from There's None Else Besides Him and we need to learn how we can connect to this upper governance. Where as much as I can annul my ego that is disturbing me, preventing me to adhering to the Creator both on the right and on the left, in anything He awakens me then in that I awaken, my “I” who seemingly does something here and I annul towards the upper governance and I begin my spiritual path from it.
Reader continues: (19:42) “Hence when the Creator wishes to bring him….”
12. R. (20:24) We need to try to feel that we are under the upper influence throughout any state we may be in, good, bad, dark, or light. Meaning the feeling in the heart and the understanding in the brain doesn't matter. I need to always try to be under the control of the upper force completely as much as possible. That's a sign that I am approaching the degree of the Ubar, embryo. I am included in the Creator and then I begin to grow in Him by annulling myself more and more towards His governance in my feeling and in my intellect.
Reader continues: (21:18) “Thus, he could have now shown his whole heart….”
13. R. (22:00) The Creator is calling on him. He cannot discern or notice that everything that comes to him comes to him from above. Let’s slowly start to scrutinize things one by one and then we will read it again. The article is short but extremely important.
Again, the main thing in each and every moment, is that a person needs to catch himself, that whatever state of his mind or his heart all comes to him from the Creator. A person needs to construct his correct reaction to what he has received from the Creator in his brain and in his heart. Of course, everything the Creator is giving is for the sake of advancing a person, so a person will advance more and more. A person accordingly needs to arrange what he needs to change in his brain, his heart, his feeling, and understanding in order to cleave to There's None Else Besides Him and The Good That Does Good more and more even though he might feel confusions in his brain and unpleasant feelings in his heart.
14 S. (23:44) How can we continue the awakening on the Creator's part in both the left and right lines?
R. Try to think that everything is for the good, that there's no bad as it's written ‘there is not a cruel person in the King's palace.’ We are all inside the upper force. There are no other forces but There's None Else Besides Him and I annul myself towards the Creator and I say that it's only Him who is working in whatever I may feel. I am always only looking for how to annul myself, how to be an embryo. I bring myself closer to spirituality by that and later, after the degree of annulment, will need to annul ourselves even more and more and more in order to be small. We then grow bigger and older more and more until we reach an equal degree with the Creator. It's all through annulment, meaning the degree of the embryo where we annul ourselves. This is the first degree on the path; later we simply grow more and more in our understanding, in our feeling, in our participation, and how we raise MAN. It all starts from the point we just discussed that everything that happens to us comes from Him and we need to respond correctly to it. Everything He does, He does so that we will now feel the correct conditions for annulling ourselves in order to adhere to Him.
S. I have to make concessions according to the rules of this world but internally I know it all comes from the Creator, and I have to keep nullifying myself, right?
R. Yes, until you begin to feel that everything you see in this world is the work of the Creator and you see no place vacant of Him.
15. S. (26:45) How is this need felt in the will to receive before calling on Him in a desperate prayer and what is his response to our cry in such a state?
R. There are many modes to that. I can't even answer it. Our nearing could be by agreeing with Him and wanting to be in adhesion in each and every state that comes to us only from Him. That's how we need to react and to arrange ourselves.
16. S. (27:34) If everything comes from the Creator how can I nullify if I'm between my ego and the Creator? What am I? What questions are mine to ask the Creator?
R. You need to try with all of you might to annul towards the Creator who is turning to you. When He gives you a state in your mind and your heart, you wish to annul to Him throughout this state. You need to feel that you are dwelling in Him as a result of that and that you are present in Him. You begin to come closer to the feeling of the embryo in a mother's womb. That's how we approach Him until we discover this state realistically.
17. S. (28:50) How to discern the calling of the Creator?
R. What you are feeling in this moment, and throughout your entire life, comes from the Creator. Now the question is how you respond to it, how do you react to it in order to enter into the right form of connection with Him. That's our entire work; that's why we are called Kabbalists. We wish to feel the world as coming to us from the Creator and we receive Him in this way. Try to ascribe everything you feel to the Creator then think how you need to react to it.
18. S. (30:27) The Creator is calling us and we turn to Him in our tens. How do we meet with the Creator?
R. When I annul towards the ten, I actually am annulling towards the Creator and although I am not aware of it, it turns out that I am getting closer to Him. Very simply, this is the means. I regret hearing from tens here and there that they don't gather much and if they do, then a portion of the ten comes and a portion doesn't. Maybe out of ten friends only four come to connect between them in a gathering or meeting. We don't understand that precisely where our will to receive resists is exactly where we perhaps could do the most accurate spiritual work.
S. We are always in conflict and resist, but it's the Creator's actions. Are we still moving towards Him? How do we need to meet with Him?
R. If you overcome the obstacles on the way to connection, then the Creator is revealed inside the connection that He established. He brought you to the good faith and good fortune, and He said, ‘take it.’ You need to connect in the ten and try to build that point of connection in it where in it, and only in it, you feel that center, that place of connection between all of the friends, all of the hearts. Inside those hearts you will feel the Creator. There's no chance of revealing Him any other way.
S. Does His initial address to us always remain or how does it change?
R. How can it change? How could you start any thought or desire in place of the Creator? You are a created being; you are a result, an outcome. You can't have anything completely of your own. Rather what is actually yours is the ability to correctly respond to what you are getting from Him. It is written that the Creator is always the first and also the last. Meaning He’s bringing you to the correct form and the correct reaction in the end. This is the end of correction.
19. S. (34:05) We learn everything comes from the Creator, and the feeling is opposite. Do we need, each and every moment when we connect, define it as Him? Do we need to ask for corrections in regard to normal states?
R. No, no, no. There's no such thing. You can discern hard things, easy things, there's no difference towards the Creator. With regards to Him, light and heavy have nothing to do with it, because it's the light of Ein Sof [Infinity]. So you have to be in the right request, in the correct reaction over anything and everything, and begin from ‘there's none else besides Him’ and that everything is coming from Him. From that, you are trying to respond to Him, and you can respond to Him correctly to the extent that you annul before Him. Meaning, we always remain within the Creator like a drop of semen inside the womb, and the more coarseness is added to us as if we are growing as an embryo inside of the womb, we annul ourselves more and more until we come to a state where we grow into the Creator. Although we say that later there is a birth and suckling in other states, everything is happening inside the Creator - only inside of Him.
S. So a good state is when I feel great high spirit? Then, still I need to ask Him to correct it?
R. I don't know what you call a good state. It could be a good state as a result of what, of feeling adhesion in the Creator, or gaining some news that you made some money somewhere or you got invited to a party? What is the good state? The good state is when I feel adhesion in the Creator completely, wholly, as much as I can depict it. That is considered good to me, that according to my actions, when I can bestow to Him, I feel I'm entirely in adhesion with Him. That is how we cling to one another, ‘I to my beloved and my beloved to me.’
20. S. (37:22) In order to respond correctly to everything coming from the Creator regardless of how we feel it, is it in our power to do or we need to ask for that, too?
R. This is the force of the ten. It can only be as a result of the force of the group, not from one person. If the group is entirely working on how anything that is happening to each person individually, to everyone together, that it's all coming from the good Creator, it's all for their benefit, then each one receives this force. It is called the force of Arvut [mutual guarantee]. In this way you advance correctly.
21. S. (38:25) There's a condition here in the third paragraph, that he says if you pay attention, you notice the Creator is near you. What is this condition? What do we need to pay attention to? What does it mean to feel the Creator is near to us?
R. That in each and every moment the Creator is conversing with you, and He wants you to answer. That's it. This is the meaning of being near, and that He is always turning to you, always. Are you always trying to be in contact with Him?
22. S. (39:17) He writes here that first a person is lost in the woods and then he falls into despair and then only then he hears and sees that someone is calling upon him so what does it mean the Creator is first in that state?
R. Well the Creator arranges the forest for him and the person feels himself in the forest in this life. Then our normal living existence we feel lost and we have nothing out of it. We even wish to come out of it and we can't and we see ourselves coming to an end and we have nothing out of it. I got no benefit out of it. That's how we grow old and from that we cry. If there is a group that awakens us and we cry out and if not, even with other groups we may be immersed in that forest and we remain as we are lost and we can die. But the moment we hear the voice of the Creator from within our life as if we are in this dark forest. Being in the forest we hear the voice of the Creator. We feel that there is a place of salvation there's a ray of light shining to us inside a world of darkness
S. Can we say that only one we hear the Creator's voice there's a state of choice because the Creator does everything before that and then after that?
R. Before that there's a choice in the choice is only the group. When the Creator shines, it's no longer a choice. The choice is according to your effort in order to connect to the group and there you hold on to the anchor, the compass, the direction and you try to come out of the forest and then in the group when you are trying to look for the Creator where is He what does He want from us in this way you emerged from the forest
S. He warns us here that if you accept the awakening, you say that the Creator okay but if you say it's yourself then no. So is there a choice here in the part that feels the awakening?
R. We learn that a choice is only a choice of the group. That in choosing the group you are starting to approach the Creator to look for Him to hold on to Him. Alone you cannot do it, alone it will not happen.
S. The awakening that comes is an awakening for the connection in the ten?
R. The awakening comes to you so that you would begin to understand again and again that in the connection with the ten you are advancing towards the Creator. How will you actually build an embryo and construct it if you're not connected to others?
S. But at this point where the Creator awakens me to want to connect with the friends, I can also choose to not want to connect with the friends right? Meaning I can say it's not the Creator does that or what?
R. We'll talk about it. I don't want to give you a clear answer. It's better if you make some mistakes and it will get clearer and clearer to you how to orient yourself and how to save yourself.
23. S. (43:45) It means that when I feel the blackness, if I try to cling to the Creator then?
R. Can you repeat the question?
S. No translation
R. That, too. In different ways, really. Everything we have in our brain and our heart we receive from Him.
24. S. (44:47) What can help a person see that the Creator is calling upon him?
R. Again.
S. What can help a person see that the Creator is calling upon him?
R. There is calling upon him? The support from the friends. There has to be a field around a person that will correctly direct him to the source from which he is hearing. Who is he hearing? If he is alone, he needs to be the correct time, he needs to have the correct soul. This is not the case in our time. We are advancing only to the extent we tie ourselves to the ten, to tens, and then to all of humanity. That's how we aim ourselves at the goal.
25. S. (45:49) It turns out that from what we said that if I were to receive an awakening from above, it's like the Creator is taking away my choice. So there is room to understand I didn't make enough work on my own so He could have woken me?
R. In what do you think there's a choice?
S. That without any connection to the awakening from above, I work from below and try to achieve going to?
R. You work from below?
S. Yes, I'm not waiting for an awakening from above.
R. So what are you reacting to if it is not coming from above?
S. I am not responding, I am not waiting for.
R. Hold on, hold on. You are the created being, the creator, you only react to things. Otherwise, you're not even an animate. If you are doing anything, it's always as a reaction. The upper light does the work and you are the will to receive. The will to receive is dust.
S. So the response is really only for how the Creator brought me to the group and said, ‘take it?’ If I respond to that, then I work on my own and I don't need more awakening than that?
R. You ask the Creator the reverse. You keep turning to Him and you keep asking Him to awaken you with finer and finer more exalted discernments, because you understand that you are only a reaction to the influence of the Creator, that you are the created being and He is the Creator, He is always the first. Consequently, you are turning to Him and you ask Him to accompany you more and more. As we turn to Him, we simply increase the pace of our development.
S.
What
is
an
awakening
from
below?
How
can
we
reach
that?
R.
This
is
an
awakening
from
below
when
we
agree
with
what
the
Creator
is
doing
although
this
entire
process
runs
contrary
to
our
ego,
nevertheless
we
turn
to
Him
and
we
ask
Him
to
work
more
and
more,
and
more
on
us.
That's
why
a
person
is
not
capable
of
turning
to
the
Creator
with
such
a
prayer,
but
only
through
the
ten.
25. S. (48:33) You said, in principle, when a person is minimally connected to the Creator, even to a smaller degree, he is already in wholeness if you don’t let go. What is then the role you recommend giving to reading the articles and awakening the lights? Because, really, I don’t need a lot of quantity, right?
R. The upper light is constant, it is in absolute rest. Each and every one awakens it according to his desire, his direction, orientation, his willingness, readiness. When we say bigger light or smaller light, it all depends on the desire of the vessel. So here, it only speaks of a person, how much he can awaken, how much he can awaken himself, and in this way to advance.
S. There is importance here that the whole ten is reading it, and we read it all together?
R. Both, both. We need to read it alone. Let's say, read the article three to five times individually. Each one does it until he can see the text, he can scribble to add a question mark. Connect with the text, it is very important. Then, when you read it together a few times slowly, and you begin to feel that it might be confusing to a person, but this is already a different kind of work. But this is how you are preparing yourself for the Creator to work on you through the ten, this is already a form that is closer to the Creator although it might seem to you more distant, not so personal, but it is more spiritual. Let’s try to read it by yourselves, and later try to read it together.
S. You say many times that it's very important to read. In the beginning of the path there was more strength to do it, or maybe we are just a very spoiled generation, but there's no strength to read it fifteen, twenty, times. I'm envious of the friends who actually do it. So what are we supposed to do? Ask the Creator for strength? Really force oneself to do it?
R. Let me tell you. I read the Shamati articles hundreds of times, not dozens but hundreds of times. Each time, I take the article as is, the original, and I begin to introduce different signs, commas, periods, I strike out some things. I want to connect with the text even in this way, and each time I see that I am highlighting new things, I connect to the text in a new way and I see that nevertheless there are changes. If I open an article, I don't see any contact with me. Then, I am even happier because now if I try to enter it, I will surely find something new in it. If I see that I have nothing new, I'm not ready for the article. I will simply read it the way I already know it by heart, it's not good.
S. We can say if a person didn't read it several times, then he's definitely not seeing the whole meaning of it?
R. With certainty. Look, the Shamati articles, Rabash didn't give them to anyone. But I saw over the years, as I was walking out with him, as I was driving for a couple of days in Tiberias or elsewhere. We had once every two weeks a custom to gather with our students and go somewhere and be there, with sleeping there and eating there, and studying there and doing hikes there, and so on and so forth. I would see that this is what he's taking with him, this is what he is studying. He loved studying the Shamati and also a part of ‘The Study of the Ten Sefirot,’ item 16, the last portion that we will soon learn together as well. But the main thing in the Shamati articles is that they correctly aim a person towards the upper force. Only by correctly connecting to the upper force he can advance until he reaches adhesion. So how can it be that he cannot let go of these articles?
S. No, not to let go of it. But to bring in a minimal extent those who are considered your students and even to read automatically just five times the article?
R. I think it's correct. When I come to you to a lesson, it's a sign that I read the article yesterday at least three times yesterday. I read today's article maybe even more times, four or five times, and also this morning when I got up, I read it twice. Because I have to come to you with a certain inner willingness, and in such a way that this article is prepared in me, is ready. Otherwise, how will I convey anything to you of what I need to do from the Creator? Anyone who is not doing it this way, I don't think he will be able to succeed, I don't think so. Even more than that, even better, if yesterday, let's say, we read an article so it's good to read it with the group and that's what I'm also doing with my group. Also today when we come to the lesson, before the lesson, we read this article in the group, each one reads an excerpt. In this way we are preparing ourselves internally in the connection between the hearts, and in renewing this matter itself. I am asking you to treat what we are learning in the Shamati articles seriously. It is a true asset of how to connect to the Creator, truly, it exists nowhere and no one is getting this. I received it from the Rabash, I was reading these articles when I was next to him, but when he was on his deathbed, he gave me the notebook and he said you take it. Then, I understood that it's probably the end. So we have to treat these articles extremely seriously.
26. S. (58:32) When a person reads this article, it has an emotional and intimate feel about it. When a person reads this article and is touched by the words of the Kabbalists, he understands that it's the Creator's calling, He is nearing to him. He feels gratitude and understands the only thing he can do is pray for his friends and asks for his upper nine to come close to each other. When he meets with his friends an hour later in a physical meeting, and he prays with them, what should this prayer add qualitatively to this prayer he had when he read this article?
R. Talk about it with the friends, and whatever you say will be the right thing. I cannot answer such a question, only you can.
27. S. (01:02:55) With this feeling of near or far does that depend on how much light I can receive in my vessel, meaning is the feeling of distance or closeness depend on how suitable the vessels are?
R. Yes of course that depends on that and many other parameters it has to do with the root of one soul and we can't talk about it now. This is an intellectual question not a true emotional question.
28. S. (01:03:30) It says only if you did not complete his work on the path of correction he cannot feel and think that it is the voice of the Creator and then he thinks that it's the power in the might of us and what does it mean that he could not complete his actions on the path of correction?
R. It means that he's not in complete adhesion and it turns out that he cannot ascribe to the Creator and everything that is happening to him.
29. S. (01:04:14) A person who does not pray, who does not do any scrutiny, is it because the Creator is far?
R. Yes and also because he is not doing everything that is required of him, he is not connecting with the ten. He's not doing everything that is required of him through this study and that's why he doesn't bring himself to the feeling or the understanding of what is happening to him from the Creator.
30. S. (01:04:49) Before I came to Kabbalah, I felt distant from the Creator. Now I don't have that feeling but I cannot ask the Creator, how can I turn to the Creator?
R. If you would connect with the friends and start asking how to connect to the Creator, you will understand that it is possible and it is near. Start composing the correct prayer and start looking for what the Creator is doing to you together. How does he care for you because all of you together in the group you are like an embryo inside of the Creator. So the more you connect, the more you'll feel the influence of the Creator. It is a simple thing, it all depends on the level of connection between you. A greater intensity of connection and you'll feel the Creator is working on you if you separate from one another, you feel the Creator is moving apart. That's how it is happening. From this is the result from all the conditions when you say that the Creator and behind every friend, the Creator is in the center of the ten and so on and so forth and in this way through the connection between us, we come closer to him. There is no other way to discover him, to reveal him only when we feel as close as possible between us to such an extent that it cannot be that we are that we will feel ourselves not dependent on one another but the contrary each day our mutual interdependence has to grow to such an extent that if I lose connection with the friends by that I immediately feel that I am falling from spirituality to physicality. For me spirituality is a feeling inside of the ten, within the ten and physicality is a feeling outside of the ten, very simple only in this way.
31. S. (01:07:32) How to not miss an opportunity that the Creator calls upon the person?
R. This is also through the ten where we can increase and amplify our sensitivity to the Creator. This is done through the level of connection between us in the group, in the ten and then we need to connect between us. In bestowing to one another to such an extent that each one will hear the voice of the Creator through the day. Through the ten we all belong to the Malchut and in order to hear the Creator from the Keter we all need to be connected so from the Keter it will come down all the way to the Malchut to the extent we connect between us and we wish to reach with our reaction from Malchut to Keter. 10 Sefirot of direct light 10 Sefirot of reflected light that clothe in one another in this way we come to the voice of the Creator, why is it called the voice of the Creator and not just by hearing and not sight because the main thing is Bina, to reach connection between us in order to bestow this is the degree of Bina.
32. S. (01:09:07) Does the ten somehow direct the Creator’s calling to each other or it is an external force that works by itself?
R. There's no such thing as an external force, the Creator's inside of us, it simply is not felt through the growing connection between us. We need to try to feel him inside of us, he is not outside of us, is not somewhere far, near or far as a result of the feeling of the heart. But he is inside of us, we do learn about this from the article the Arvut. From arranging the ten from placing his hand on the good fortune to say take it only in this way.
33. S. (01:10:04) Do I aim for the Creator's call to some other friend in the ten?
R. What does it mean that I aim for that?
S. That I pray and ask.
R. I prayed to the Creator, a certain friend in the ten, is that what you mean? I can do that. Even better if I turn to all the friends in the ten, aside from that person I think we need to pray for it and then all of us will pray.
34. S. (01:10:42) When is the Creator closer when is the farther in concealment or revelation?
R. It doesn't matter, it is all relative to a person both in concealment and in revelation he cannot say. The Creator near, the Creator far, depends on how a person can summon his forces in order to connect to the ten and turn to the Creator.
35. S. (01:11:12) Will there always be inner resistance before the Creator starts controlling?
R. Yes, we'll always have an internal resistance because we are all the will to receive and it will be more difficult and even more and more difficult both to connect and to turn to the Creator. But this is the matter of the ladder of degrees.
36. S. (01:11:55) How will a person not deceive himself in terms of under what control he is?
R. He check that in the group if he can connect to the friends in the group, it is a sign that he is on the right path, the correct path and there are those among them who don't feel those things, didn't feel those things and after a few years they started to understand that is how thick and egoistic our will to receive is. Until we reach such a stage where we come to a state where we understand connection is the only correct action, it takes a long time.
37. S. (01:12:44) How does self-annulment in the ten helps bring the Creator closer?
R. To the extent a person annuls himself to the ten he annuls himself to the Creator this is a direct proportional relationship.
38. S. (01:13:05) It says in the article that one collects and gathers all of the remains of his strength in order to attain the light if a person recruits all the strength that he has left, later he sees that it doesn't look like it was his own strength?
R. Of course it is not our strength, our forces or our actions as we don't have any forces, our power, even our thoughts aren't ours we simply want it to happen. In as active a manner as possible, everything within the might of your hand you should do and then you will see how much it works. But we have to do it although everything is done by the Creator but I nevertheless have to do what I think is up to me and you ascribe all of it to the Creator in the end.
39. S. (01:14:10) How does the Creator want me to answer him, what does that mean?
R. To answer the Creator means that I aim myself and the ten at him, that we want to be in adhesion between us and with him.
40. S. (01:14:32) I just heard that we have to be an embryo when I'm not connected, on the other hand the main part of being an embryo is being in connection with the other so what role does the annulment serve in building the state of the embryo?
R. An embryo means annulment. Both to the ten and toward the Creator which ultimately is one and the same so the more that we try to annul ourselves to the ten and to the Creator, this advances us to the entrance of spirituality called conception.
41. Rav Reads. (01:15:35) Call upon him when he is near, that is what the prophet Isaiah says, we must understand when he is near, meaning while being near means since the whole earth is full of his glory, he is always near and he feels the whole of reality. It is only us that can't feel it so what is it when he is near, what does it mean? It would seem there's a time when he is not near, sometimes it is this way, sometimes it is not, for man. The states are always evaluated with this state to attainment and feeling of the individual if one does not feel his nearness then nothing will come out of it. Everything is measured according to one's feeling, one person may feel the world as filled with abundance and the Creator is filling the whole of reality and the other will not feel the goodness of the world as if the Creator is not in the world at all. So we cannot say that there is a good world, instead he states as he feels that the world is full of suffering and the prophet warns about that, call you upon him when he is near. He comes and says no, the fact that you are calling on the Creator is because he is near, it means that now you have an opportunity if you pay attention and you will feel that the Creator is near you it is a sign of the Creator's nearness.
The evidence of this is that we must know that man is not naturally qualified for adhesion with the Creator since it is against man's nature, we are opposite of that nature, by creation man only has a desire to receive while adhesion is only to bestow. However as the Creator calls upon man it creates a second nature in him where he wants to revoke his own nature and adhere to him, to the Creator. Here one should know that his speaking words of Torah and prayer is only from the Creator, only from the Creator. He should never think that it is my power and might of my hand since it is the complete opposite of his might. This is similar to one who is, if some pressure comes to a person to come closer it comes from the Creator. Reading again this is similar to one who is lost in a dense forest and sees no way out of it, to an inhibited place so he remains despaired and thinks that he will never return to his home, completely lost in the forest of our life. When he sees a person from afar or hears a human voice, the desire and craving to return to his origin will immediately awaken in him and he will begin to shout and ask of someone to come and save him.
Likewise, one who has lost a good way and entered a bad place and has already accustomed himself to remain among beasts for the part of the will to receive it will never occur to him that he should return to a place of reason, of Kedusha, holiness. If a person falls it has to be an additional force acting upon him to bring him out and when he hears the voice he awakens to repent. Usually we think it is us, on our own but this is the voice of the Creator, not our own voice. If he has not completed his actions, the path of correction, meaning he has not done enough quality and quantity of exertion he cannot feel that this is the voice of the Creator and he thinks that it is his power and might of his hand. This is what the prophet warns about that one should overcome one's view and thought and overcome with complete faith that it is the voice of the Creator. This is why we have to support each other in the group with all of our means so that a person will be more and more confident, assured and feeling that any awakening he has is only from the Creator.
When the Creator wants to bring him out of the dense forest, darkness he shows him a light from afar and the person gathers and musters the remains of his strength to walk on the path that the light shows him in order to obtain it. But if he does not attribute the light to the Creator and does not say that the Creator is calling him the light disappears from him and he remains standing in the forest. All there is, is one option to remain on the path to remain with whatever I have I got from the Creator and then we will certainly fall to a darker forest and we will merit discovering the Creator in a clearer way. Reading again. Here he could have now shown his whole heart to the Creator to come and save him from the bad place, from the bad place from the will to receive and bring him to a place of reason called a place of the sons of Adam, a place of people as in Adameh el Elyon, a desire to bestow in that he's in instead he does not use this opportunity and remains once more as before in this dark forest.
42. S. (01:24:15) You were speaking about the importance of reading the articles, is there a difference between reading or listening to it?
R. Reading it is better.
S. You explained today that the created being responds and what does it mean that the dawn doesn't awaken me but that I awaken the dawn?
R. It means that we have to by all kinds of means to awaken ourselves to come closer to the Creator even though you may say the Creator is always first but as much as we can make of ourselves all kinds of signs to wake up and turn to him, we must do that.
43. S. (01:25:20) It turns out to build the Creator in the ten is just to raise sensitivity to him?
R. Yes, nothing more than that, a point from which we may build sensitivity is in us it is called the point in the heart, this is the true part of Divinity above and what we add to that is the qualities, or desires which are only to be in adhesion with the point of connection with the Creator.
44. S. (01:26:09) What do I do by completing the exertion if the Creator is first and last?
R. Whatever you can do, you do, it doesn't matter what the Creator’s doing, whatever he is doing he is doing and bit by bit we are discovering how we truly does everything but we need his awakening, as he awakened us first, he wants us to add on our own with our mind and emotion to be adhered to him.
S. Is part of the exertion to ask from the Creator constantly the same request until I will feel like I got what I needed?
R. The exertion is when you are looking for a connection with your friends in order to establish such states between yourself so you can call the states come and see. We come and we see, we have built, you have made me, we built the image of the Creator between us as a mutual force of bestowal.
45. S. (01:27:28) What does it mean the Creator shows man light from afar?
R. It is when he only awakens us, it is not that he is about to be revealed inside us, in our internal tea and we have to prepare ourselves to be adapted, to feel him, to attain him, this is something that we have to build on our own. The awakening is something you get from outside and attainment is something you get inside.
S. According to what you see, if you see a person or a man closer to the Creator than someone else, can you recognize such a thing?
R. That is not something we want to measure because we can't do that in a true way that is why I don't want to talk about that. You just have to see how much a person invests in the ten and maybe he's not so capable of investing because we don't know the depth of the corrupted will to receive that lies within each one but to the extent that a person tries you have to accept him and help him this way.
S. In the beginning of the last time you talked about the tens meetings where 4 - 5 friends come where you have an opportunity to annul, there's a state where there's a certain resistance without a reason and then there is a state where there's an external reason that prevents a person from participating in both cases are we speaking about lack of desire to connect?
R. Lack of desire to connect is natural and it is clear that you have that, the question is how much we on this lack of desire do to connect, when you always have an opportunity to run away and to do something you nonetheless overcome and you do go to this meeting and you try to strengthen your group as much as you can with all of your strength. There is no justification here.
46. S. (01:30:18) What is the quantity or quality that lets us feel everything came from the Creator?
R. I can't start taking care of that because we don't have the clear data for each and every one but as you grow you grow both and quantity and quality, it is like an embryo growing and then from a certain state on we can measure both the quantity and quality, it doesn't come all at once, not immediately.
47. S. (01:31:17) According to the article this inner prayer that we are trying to build is that from above or a result of our efforts from the group?
R. I can't really answer that because it doesn't depend only on one ten, moreover on one person. Rather we are in a process where the Upper Providence, the Creator’s relation in general to all of humanity, to all of the souls, he is performing the actions and we are a part of it. This is why in the meantime we can't exactly talk about it, we only learn in a partial way how we can add and where we can be more efficient, where we can enhance the development, nothing more. To come to some of the first degrees on the path where we feel ourselves in the conception, the impregnation and that way we'll have the mind and the emotion of the embryo and our adhesion to a certain extent to develop our connection with the Creator somehow as the Creator is revealed in the connection between us, come and see he's not revealed outside of the created beings. So let us first come to that as the main thing. For us it speaks about the correction of the breaking of the vessel of Adam.
48. S. (01:33:23) The Creator only awakens chosen people with a point in the heart, what to do with the other people?
R. No, first we have to reach adhesion with the Creator and with respect to others we have to publicize the correction in general without the internal work but rather in general that's still the future of the world is in the connection between everyone and all of us are connecting correctly and with mutual help. This is how we reach the correction of creation otherwise we will always advance from blows to blows when basically the lack of our connection in each and every moment is what brings us these blows. Instead of attaining good things we attain opposite forms, beyond that no. The future of the good world by connection is something that we have to publish.
49. S. (01:35:02) We say that man was created in the image of the Creator so why is man's nature the will to receive? Is the Creator only the will to receive?
R. We didn't really learn that yet, the stages at the Creator created the will to receive and we call this the form of Adam in the Garden of Eden, that he was naked and didn't need any clothing or correction on his will to receive. Then there was the sin and he fell from in order to bestow to in order to receive and all of these things we are not studying about, we will get closer to studying about it when during the correction we will rise from in order to receive to in order to bestow and then we will know what the true form is that was previous to the egoistic form. It's not so important to us right now, it is a theoretical question.
50. S. (01:36:38) The question is why is it written, the voice of the Creator and not the sound of the Creator or the calling of the Creator?
R. It doesn't matter to us, you're asking the right questions but we will have to explain why it is the voice of the Creator that he hears and why doesn't he feel it in a different sense, voice is the degree of Bina and that's why in this degree he hears it.
51. S. (01:37:43) When the distance overcomes, increases, does the voice become stronger or weaker?
R. It all depends on the intensity of connection between people.
52. S. (01:38:18) What practical actions can the ten help a friend with to respond correctly for an awakening that he received?
R. Read about that in the Articles of Rabash about society as I have nothing to add to that.
53. S. (01:38:45) Baal HaSulam writes in the beginning of the article that the Earth was filled with his glory and he is always close so this fact, are we supposed to take it with faith above reason?
R. That is from the perspective of the Creator being close because we are in him and he feels everything.
S. But we are supposed to receive it as a fact in faith above reason?
R. I don't understand what you're talking about, you have an opportunity to accept it above reason accept it, you are asking so that I will tell you, yes as if you have received it already?
S. Because it seems like a basic condition to understand the whole article.
R. You are correct.
54. S. (01:39:46) How does a person in that thick forest when he hears the voice of the Creator that he doesn't show search for the right path or the right key but that he goes and breaks his heart?
R. I don't understand these philosophical questions as he asks according to what he feels there is nothing else here, he feels he lost the way and doesn't know why he's alive and there is a true goal in life as he hears everything but it is the opposite of his life so he makes the calculations of what to do.
55. S. (01:40:40) The friends ask what does it mean to bring the ten closers to the Creator?
R. No, we have to connect everyone together, the ten and the Creator
56. S. (01:41:02) During the lesson you said that whoever can't read the article alone probably won't succeed and it was hard for me to hear because I'm in the unsuccessful part. We meet in Zoom meetings and we constantly read the Shamati articles and when I read to the ten, I feel all the inner content in that paragraph or that I read goes in and when the friends read it's a bit more difficult but something I can grasp. From each one alone I can't read the writings but if it's at least with one more friend then I can do it.
R. So ask your friends to be a bit more together so you can discover these things, all the more so and why are you turning to me as if what can I do. This is how you can feel it is better, do as much as you can.
S. You said, he that can't read alone probably won't succeed, you said we need to read these articles alone and I'm saying that I can't.
R. Okay later you will learn how to read it on your own in the meantime read and don't look for excuses. Read as much as you can with your group without your group, as much as you can and all the rest will be there and will come. The changes will come.
57. S. (01:43:03) How not to fall into a fantasy that we're coming closer to the Creator?
R. Measure if we are coming closer or not, that is all by the extent of up connecting between us and that we are here together already the voice of the Creator turn into us, are we capable of being together already, that we are in one boat, that we are rising and descending on the ways, are we this way already or not yet? Each one is still on his own.
58. S. (01:43:54) The Creator is supposedly always calling a person and he is saying this is a special opportunity and he shouldn't miss out on it so how to relate to the reading is this every moment or to recognize it in certain times?
R. As he writes here, the Creator turns to the person calling him and the fact that the voice of the Creator is always there, that is a different kind of Illumination.
59. S. (01:44:45) How can we know if we should respond with resistance to what the Creator is awakening in us or the opposite?
R. Search for such states it all depends on our sensitivity, either way discovered negative or positive relation from the Creator to us coming closer or further away but for us to feel that we are the result of his address or his relation as there is no place that he is not taking care of us. Either come in closer or increasing the distance, it is truly so all the time and this is why we always have to be in connection with him and to locate this dynamic in which way is it going to come closer or grow further. By this we develop ourselves and we will discover our own sensitivity.
S. We are saying we always need to awaken the friends.
R. Are you saying something new here, of course?
S. When do we respond differently except for just adding in connection is there another way?
R. There is no other response except adding connection and presenting the connection to the Creator, you need nothing more. That is the way to come closer to the final correction, that you grow together until all of the tens connect together, until all of us come to a state where we are all connected as one man in one heart and that is the final correction. We have no other way.
S. When can we say we resist with the Creator gave us?
R. On the path you'll see you're resisting it every time, but your left line is growing.
S. Is this called the screen?
R. It's not the screen, it is the resistance, it's not the resistance to the light that comes when you want to receive it in order to bestow it is a general resistance in order to bestow meaning it is a Klipa.
S. How do I discern between resistance to the light or from me from the shell?
R. Your egoistic resistance is when you don't want to connect, that is the egoistic resistance. Resistance when it is already with respect to the light is when the light comes already once you have made the restriction on yourself and the light comes to you for you to build the screen and to receive the light in order to bestow above all of your resistances. Even more than that as when you start receiving the light only to bestow contentment to the Creator rather than for yourself.
S. Is it only in the state of a feeling of ascent?
R. Yes, they're too. There are ascents and descents. We will continue according to the situation. Let us not jump.
60. S. (01:48:45) We say behind every friend is the Creator so what is the damage caused by this regarding another friend in the ten?
R. Harm is done, what can you do? When you disregard a friend, you are disregarding the Creator. That is how Rabash also writes, it is exactly the same. You have to be cautious, this is what we learn.
61. S. (01:49:21)
The Creator calls us, the beam of light through the forest and we try to turn to him and he also said that from Keter light comes to the Malchut and we have to build the light back from Malchut to Keter, so there is clothing on the light to one another.
R. Light of Hochma and the light of Hassadim?
S. I don't know. You just said that from the Keter the light comes to the Malchut and Malchut to Keter
R. Direct light and reflected light is what goes on in Partzuf. Soon we will go back to the Preface and we will learn this in a broad manner. Right now I am in these articles with you. Soon.
62. S. (01:50:27 Towards the ten I don't have to think that I am helping them advance but that the ten is helping me advance?
R. I have to think that with all of my efforts towards the ten it is the ten that is helping me advance.
S. Why if we don't describe the light to the Creator the light is lost?
R. The light is gone because we don't connect to its origin
63. S. (01:51:14) What does it mean to be sensitive to the voice of the creator?
R. Being sensitive to the voice of the Creator means that I am always looking for what the Creator wants for me in each and every moment. I'm always under his care.
64. S. (01:51:38) I ascribe and justify everything that happens to me in corporeality and in spiritual work, are there states that I don't need to agree with, certain states that are given to me?
R. Try it. The main thing is the examination is in the group as you have to be incorporated in your group to annul before the group and the friends and in this way, you examine if you're acting correctly.
65. S. (01:52:14) Why is it that I care more about the friends in the ten and that they will be happy and healthy and strong and I don't care about Shamati or the articles. I care less and less about what's happening?
R. There are times that it is this way and sometimes it is different. There is expansion and contraction. The main thing is to keep going and don’t let go of the exertion.
66. S. (01:53:05) I have two questions. I would like to ask about the materials we are studying because you just said that you feel stuck with these articles, lately you are saying that from Italy and Sunday at the Congress that we are becoming one world vessel so the question is are there study materials that we should study now that are better? Some want The Preface, some want Shamati, some want Baal HaSulam articles. The Kli is very diverse and there are a lot of demands.
R. We don't have time, you see we are already two hours only to scrutinize for the first time this short article from Shamati and it is a very important article. It is really about the way I respond and what the Creator awakens in me. According to this article maybe we should build or take a picture of the group in a different way, the relations between us differently in order to be ready to respond to the Creator in each and every moment. Just like in mechanics where we organize our instruments to perceive the Creator's relationship to us. This is how he talks to us. Along with that our whole material should be related to the system we are in, the system of Adam which is The Preface. Then we organize it together. When we will come to that, I really hope that we are already, The Preface is something where we have to keep going as we haven't completed it. I am under pressure between what we have and what we want and this is why I don't know. I have to answer the woman's questions now. Recommend to me what we should do. You should have a discussion between yourselves about what we should do with where we are. Can we add an hour to the study maybe in the evening, maybe an hour or two, or some other time? I don't know. Even in these lessons that we are having now, there is also what percentage of our friends are coming to the lesson? Others learn in other hours, if at all. It all depends on her receiver.
67. S. (01:56:25) The feeling that the connection to the Creator is possible through the ten always disappears, should we reach a state that this feeling will be constant or is there a need to renew this feeling every time?
R. We have to renew the feeling every time. There is no constant feeling, that is a lie. Every time we have to feel ourselves as if we are in a changing connection.
68. S. (01:57:04) How important is it to be sorry to repent when we're not paying attention to the Creator's call for us?
R. To feel sorry maybe we may need that, that we are not sensitive enough for it but as quick as we can to start working. Meaning to strengthen the connection between us in order to not miss out on the Creator.
69. S. (01:57:33) Is there an action, any action by which I am free from the Creator?
R. There is no such thing, how can that be? The desire to receive is entirely in the upper light and the upper light working on it takes care of it constantly without breaks.
S. Why is a Creator choking us with his envy?
R. Choking us? I don't understand that.
S. Because he's always there in every action, it is as if only He, only the Creator.
R. If you feel that He is in all your actions then you are in (Gmar Tikkun), at the end of correction already.
70. S. (01:58:26) What does it mean to hear the voice of the Creator together, how does that happen in the ten?
R. When all of us from the connection between us feel how the Creator is one force, stabilizes and establishes us, and works on us together. This is a sign that we are connected to a Partzuf.
71. S. (01:58:57) what does it mean to bestow?
R. To bestow means to prefer a foreign or alien force that is outside of me above my own desire.
72. S. (01:59:08) What is the Creator close to? My ego or my yearning for him?
R. The Creator establishes our ego in order for us through this ego to start above the ego to start bestowing to one another.
73. S. (01:59:35) Missing the opportunity, it means that we were given an opportunity to adhere to his desire but because we haven't invested enough, we didn't take the opportunity?
R. Correct
74. S. (01:59:55) What is the corrected state of a person who usually feels despair or usually close to the Creator?
R. There's no such thing that a person feels close to the Creator and despaired. If he is despaired it is a result of being distant from the Creator.
75. S. (02:00:25) Are there states in which a person hears the voice of the Creator but he isn't able to follow it?
R. There is no such thing if he hears the voice of the Creator, he has an opportunity to connect to the group and keep going ahead towards extra connection. We are in the period of the final generation, the last generation. This is why we have no way to take care of anything else but the connection between us until we reach the final correction.