Congress Lesson 5 June 6, 2021, Transcription
Lesson No. 5: Devotion
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we are in lesson number 5 in the current convention, truly a successful congress thus far. This is about soul devotion. Soul devotion is a condition for connection on the spiritual level. In everything that appears in us is revealed, in this degree of disturbances that we have to overcome which we would not feel even if we are delivering our soul. Whatever we have attained in spirituality, everything we wish to discover and we do discover and we do reveal in our work, in our spiritual effort, above that we have to make actions of sole devotion. It does not matter to us what we attain, we give it up. We give it up and we wish to seemingly stop existing, to disappear, to not feel anything meaning the highest spiritual degree the Keter of each and every state is when one nullifies himself completely. This is what we learn from the wisdom of Kabbalah. The coarseness of 0, Keter. It does not matter what coarseness that person has, he always tries to nullify and make himself to be coarseness level 0. This is what we have to go back to in the connection between us and discover the connection between as in all different states in all matters of connections and by that each one grows richer and fuller by connecting the vessels and filling them with lights and all of that eventually comes to nullification. That all that is not for, it is not about me but all of it belongs to my ten which is the entire vessel of Bnei Baruch and through it to the Creator, all of us, it is not that we nullify ourselves this is called, one receives one. We are in contact with the Creator with the upper force. We have reached the stage through many other stages, our first lesson, a small thing seemingly that Spirituality is Revealed Outside of Me. The second lesson was about Mutual Guarantee that we have to attain, which we have to reach. The third lesson was strengthening ourselves in None Else Besides Him and the fourth lesson everything is attained with the power of prayer and the fifth lesson is Sole Devotion and we have the last lesson today which is connecting into One 10. Meaning we see here, a highly calculated process of what we have to do in order to truly incorporate together correctly. This is why this lesson is so important. Sole Devotion is the essence of connection between us so let's answer some questions.
2. S. (4:35) I wanted to ask about the matter of Keter in every state. What does it mean that we come to such self-nullification in every state?
R. I check myself every day, according to how difficult it is to wake up, to recuperate, to rise, not physically, physically I don't need to think about it because it is a habit for me for the last 40 years. But as much as I am able to pick myself up from the inner blockages every day, if new vessels appear to you, from the shattering, from the darkness, having no light in them and you are in those vessels, and you have to awaken them and not return to what was there before. What was there before it is dead, you have to work with the new vessels which you have right now. Try to revive yourself more and more with those new desires and feelings. You have to wake up, yearn for connection, yearn for revelation and so forth. as it is saying, “It shall be as new in your eyes.” Accordingly, I check myself, how difficult it is in the morning to concentrate my thinking on the work, that I decide or we decide in advance, what we study. And this is good. I wake up in the morning, it could be 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. and I have to arrange myself before the lesson and here comes the question. How to do this? I like to be dictated what to do, not that I am coming to give a lesson about something which I decided or woke up with, no. It's been in me now and my students are sending to me that topic, the lesson, the writings we use for the lessons and this is what they are interested in. This is important to hear about, so I have to somehow adapt myself to their plan to their desires and accordingly I can see how difficult it is for me to enter into this topic. And if it is more difficult, I am happy because it is the Creator who arranged for us a new and more serious degree than before. And this is how I begin my day from the state of difficulty, getting up, waking up, recovering, building the new degree and how important it is, how special and unique and unified it has to be. And how much I am not in it and I have to search for ways to rise inside and to appreciate and value this state so I truly have a new day.
S. What you said is amazing, how to look for these points of self-annulment before the lesson?
R. It is very simple because each one has a ten and the ten has to decide on everything you have to do, and I do what the ten decides. This is exactly the devotion we are learning about. I do not know what the Creator is, his desire, his power, but the ten is in front of me and I have to scrutinize this group that’s before me and the Creator is actually waking up this group, arranging it. Is it actually existing or is this the Creator on my screen, that is only in my head, in my heart, in my brain and feelings. Maybe it is how the Creator is portraying the reality I am in and relative to this reality on one hand, this is the closest to me because it is the group. On the other hand, nevertheless it belongs to spirituality and behind it stands the Creator that controls and governs everything and each of the friends. If I am in a group behind which the Creator stands, I have to perform various actions, how do I associate myself with the group in order to reach the Creator? Here I begin to understand that what we have here is sole devotion. I have to devote myself, I have to do it towards the ten and if I do this then I make myself more and more fitting to the Creator. Meaning in such annulment I stop the existing restriction as we call it in the wisdom of Kabbalah. I do not annul myself so I will not exist, but it is if I don't exist, but all the coarseness remains and there should be a restriction on top of it. And that is how I advance towards the realization in practice, the implementation in practice of myself relative to the ten. Accordingly, I am incorporated in it, I deliver myself to it, I give myself over to this. Eventually it is towards the Creator but I do not know who is the Creator because He never appears to me directly but, I only dwell among my people so I have to show myself to Him through the group in as much as I can be in anything, and more and more I get excited and appreciate more and more this action of soul devotion where everything I got all my spirituality, it is in the ten. What else can be more tangible and clearer than that. This is where the creation is. This is why the Creator broke the vessel of Adam Ha Rishon where we, more and more gradually feel ourselves belonging to Him, to His spirituality in practice.
3. S. (12:52) You mentioned this vessel and that we should not remember what we had before, how much is it connected to devotion? What is this instrument that you mentioned, not to go back to what we already have?
R. This is forbidden, this is already a Klipa, even if I look for how it appeared yesterday, what I had yesterday if I want to return to it yesterday, it is Klipa. Even if I am able to reach the state I was in yesterday and yesterday it was sanctity through holiness, I was able to relate myself to the ten. I was in devotion to them and today if I wish to go back to what was there yesterday it is Klipa. It is forbidden and we should not be in it and each and every moment we are only looking forward. I have to be prepared for this and make calculations so that we only take steps forward. Meaning I do not care if I attain in my common feelings something higher or not, I do not care about it, I don't want to check myself compared to yesterday, it is not recommended. I want to have, as it is written, “They shall be new in your eyes.” Everything is new and if it is new, it is new. Maybe not as successful even if I have difficulties and I cannot find myself exactly in connection with the ten, nevertheless it is new and new is good. If someone yearns for yesterday, craves for yesterday it is a Klipa.
4. S. (15:02) What form, what scrutiny can we do in the ten correctly in order to be certain that my selfish interest will not confuse me?
R. This is exactly the soul devotion we are discussing right now. You have to incorporate in the ten, you have to dissolve into the others, you have to immerse into others, how to do it in each and every state. These states always change according to the coarseness. They are becoming harder and harder and also according to the mode of this connection and that connection. Therefore, we have to take this into consideration and it is not so important for us in what way this devotion happens, as long as there will be new states and those new states appear to me perhaps less than yesterday, less than how it was before. I was impressed more, maybe I am not as impressed, maybe I do not feel as much. Nevertheless, I accept this new thing as new. This is more important than what I had before in this wisdom, it is called, “It is better to be the tail to lions than a head to foxes.”
I
5. S. (17:11) What is the role of the path in spiritual work?
R. The role of the path? I have a general path I have to go through. I must have experience because there is none as wise as the experienced. I need to take this path methodically. It is not like I wish to go back to the same connection and the same soul devotion I had yesterday. We will talk about this during the lesson. Let’s go to the material of this fifth lesson on soul devotion.
Reading excerpt 1 (18:36)
6. R. (19:40) It is clear to us since we are starting from the desire to receive which is opposite to the Creator's desire to bestow. We have to nullify the desire to receive to the degree of this nullification we can ascribe ourselves to the Creator and associate with Him until we reach this attainment. We have to work more and more on the degrees of soul devotion. The soul is the general name of our spiritual vessel and it can be attached to the degree of the upper degree, the Creator. But only to the degree of this nullification and then we have to understand first of all, we have to nullify our coarseness on the degrees of Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, 0 1 2 3 4 and then later we have to work with these degrees 0 1 2 3 4 in our desire to receive and work with them in order to bestow which is essentially the devotion. Otherwise, what kind of devotion is it if we only nullify? It does not end with the restriction. Restriction is just the first condition and afterwards we have to perform acts of adhesion when we associate all our desires and coarseness with the desire to bestow, which is called the Creator and through this, we begin to connect and participate in the spiritual action of the upper force.
7. S. (21:51) If craving for yesterday is a Klipa, shell then what is recognizing important moments of the way?
R. Writing important moments, you can do it by writing about important moments. It is about writing on the tablet of your heart which means that your desire to receive inscribes what you go through and this is how it stays. Do not worry in moments when you need to remember something or go back to something or get into something, you will have it for the time being. Simply crave to be in adhesion to the Creator, in truthful adhesion in every moment that you wish to attain, this is called soul devotion.
8. S. (23:19) Why is devotion, a spiritual degree, begin in the ten?
R. Where else can you realize this if not in the ten? Towards what can you nullify yourself of everything. Nullify yourself and be in devotion above your desires. Relative to what other desire can you do this if you do not have a ten before you?
9. S. (24:12) Can you clarify what is Klipa in spirituality on one hand, and on the other hand when studying yesterday's lesson, is it already a Klipa?
R. No, the state that you have is a new lesson today. If we want to have the lessons and study something in the morning and there is no new lesson during the day, and you did the morning lesson until noon, in the afternoon you can repeat yesterday's lesson. You do not tarnish the current lesson by going back to the lesson before it.
S. (25:21) If I write down points from yesterday's lessons and repeat them the day after, is this Klipa?
R. No, it is not a Klipot, it is not a problem to repeat the lesson that Klipa is when you return to the same feeling, the same images, the same states that you had yesterday. We have to erase this; we have to try to wake up new things about it. As it says, it has to be as new in your eyes. It is not about the material it is always the same materials which we take every day but you have to feel it in a new way.
10. S. (26:19) Is it possible to say that nullification is a state of bestowal?
R. It is part of bestowal, yet nullification is restriction and you can continue by adding active nullification when you do the nullification and you continue the bestowal.
11. S. (26:59) When is my effort becoming devotion?
R. This is something we will learn. I do not want to place conditions on it, we will learn this, ask at the end of the lesson.
12. S. (27:33) How to get myself accustomed to devotion when the desire grows all the time?
R. Each day we have to start anew and this is how we climb the degrees, all the degrees we go through until the end of correction of the vessel. It is about nullifying the ego. This is the meaning of nullifying oneself in devotion.
13. S. (28:17) What holds the devotion to make it last?
R. You have to renew this each time to renew the state of devotion more and more. Just like the desire to receive keeps renewing itself, the records are getting newer each time. You have a never-ending work on your soul devotion in each and every moment over the renewing records.
14. S. (29:10) Almost each lesson you bestow some revelation to us, some state. How to relate to it correctly, returning to prayer?
R. It has to always turn into a prayer and it is not like one state, yes and the other no. We have to always turn to the Creator in order to reach a spiritual state so the Creator who supplies the strength and the conditions to place ourselves into spirituality. So how do we need to behave in each and every state? We have to learn about it from the states themselves, but the permanent attitude to those states should be the devotion.
15. S. (30:18) What is so important as yesterday? We are very insistent on following the writings, the sources being in focus with our questions. What is the importance of feeling it in a gradual way, if I can still listen to the reading tomorrow, in a new state tomorrow, how to relate to yesterday's texts?
R. Tomorrow I will hear those questions and I feel through the questions and answers a new depth. It all depends on me, on my vessel and then as it says, “They should be new in your eyes.” It means that things can be old. We are reading the same articles and speak the same words about different states but my internal state, my internal vessels change and I change. I feel great changes, radically different about how it was yesterday compared to how it was yesterday.
16. S. (32:02) I have to direct my devotion to the ten, to Bnei Baruch, to the Creator who is the destination of my devotion?
R. It is your 10, I cannot see anything else before me except that 10. The Creator is revealed in the 10. All the qualities, degrees appear in the 10 as much as I ascend and descend it is all relative to the 10, this is why I always work towards them in my spiritual work.
17. S. (33:04) What is the importance of the framework in devotion?
R. You cannot reach any devotion unless you are in the framework of the ten.
S. Do we need to increase the framework?
R. Increase the importance.
S. The attitude to the framework has to be truly holy?
R. Yes, because this is my soul, this is the way in which the Creator is revealed to me, this is my spiritual vessel, it is like a temple. It is the house of prayer, the holy temple. The ten is everything, it doesn't matter what you call it, we cannot appreciate it right now.
S. What is the meaning of the decreasing framework, let's say a friend reduces his commitment, his framework?
R. This way he is distancing himself from the means to reveal spirituality to connect with the Creator, to come to corrections, opening up the spiritual world before him, what are we talking about, there is no question about this.
Reading 2 (34:44)
18. WSQ: (35:35) Why is it that in spirituality devotion is the goal, I mean there is nothing beyond building the vessel as in the state of devotion, so why is it that in spirituality this is the goal?
19. R. (42:45) It means the great difference between physical life and spirituality is that in physical life devotion, while in the spirituality is the goal, we do not need anything more than soul devotion. Afterwards, after we deliver ourselves and we are attached with everything, we have to the Creator in the bestowal in order to bestow, receiving in order to bestow in all our vessels there is nothing more to do, the devotion is the goal, is this clear?
20. S. (43:34) In the workshop we search for the difference between restriction and devotion?
R. It is when the person on the nullifies his selfish ego, the desire to receive, this is the beginning of devotion he has to accept all reality, all the infinite upper light inside the vessel he discovered and he attaches to himself the infinity vessel, all the states he discovers during the hundred and 25 degrees. When he reveals them gradually has to bring them all to the Creator in nullifying himself on top of his great infinite ego that appear with all the lights in it which is the entire NRNHY and the light of an Ein Sof that appears in it, all that offering to the Creator in order to nullify himself and by that it to be similar to the Creator. This is the nullification in spirituality, through this action the person attains adhesion in the Creator there are not that many words can see because these are all very high states about the action of devotion is an active thing in spirituality and all those degrees of coarseness, the degrees of NRNHY when the lights fulfill all the vessels and all that in order to nullify oneself towards the Creator, it is called devotion.
21. S. (45:42) It seems that you answered our question we wanted to ask: is there a calculation in the mind about devotion?
R. Of course, we have to make calculations both in our brain and in our heart and then we connect between us through various threads of connection and then we always have calculations on top of calculations: how to connect between us, how do we come to a connection of this personal desire into a single desire under one screen we discover the devotion. As a result of this when we come to this, we nullify ourselves in devotion to the Creator, meaning the devotion is a great work, it is an action when all the NRNHY and the vessels of KHBZON and all of the allowed to make a coupling on the deepest Reshimot and all of that in only in order to associate ourselves, to attach ourselves to the Creator actively.
22. S. (47:30) The truth is I do not understand if you could bestow an example?
R. Continue and you will understand.
23. S. (47:49) Can the person truly devote himself or is it like a thief? What are we talking about?
R. For the sake of attaining the devotion you have a group, a ten before you and you need to do that relative to them, this is it. Try to be in everything you do when you are working with them even if you're smarter, greater after all of that, try to be on the inside, try to be nullifying yourself more and more actively towards them as much as this comes to you against your desire to receive, you have more clear work and then indication that you are in devotion.
24. S. (48:52) What is the difference between the degrees in terms of overcoming the coarseness? Is there a qualitative difference?
R. There are many things in the degrees, I cannot even explain them, the actions have to be in ascribing ourselves to the upper force to see what He is.
25. S. (49:33) Difference between devotion and adhesion?
R. Adhesion is the final result and devotion is the result of all these actions which we call soul.
S. What is devotion then?
R. Devotion is action and adhesion is the result.
S. But soul devotion is also the goal we also said earlier?
R. Yes, to come to it is the goal but it is also an action because we are working on the devotion.
S. What is the active action of devotion?
R. It is the Ibur, Yenicka, Mochin, embryo, breastfeeding, and adult, these are all the degrees we are talking about this at all the degrees of devotion because this is all above the desire to receive.
26. S. (50:45) How can I wake up the hearts of friends towards devotion?
R. Only through example and the study together with them.
27. S. (51:16) Is devotion a reward for effort and investment?
R. Devotion is everything, all our actions need to be in devotion or to bring one to devotion, we need to be incorporated in the concept of devotion, that is how it should be in our part. All our work has to be in order to incorporate and to deliver our soul to the Creator to return our vessel to Him. This is the meaning of working on one's devotion.
28. S. (52:07) Soul devotion, if I take that from the work above reason and there is also within reason actions we do, how to combine them correctly?
R. We always have to combine everything into a feeling, into intention, our correction to be incorporated between us and with the Creator, this is called devotion. When the entire vessel we are creating now is so that there would be nothing in it, nothing in us, except bestowing contentment to the Creator this is called devotion. Check yourself what you are doing, is there anything for yourself in it or you do not care about the results and everything is done in devotion to the Creator and to the friends.
S. So in this action there are physical practical activities we do in the ten, we can check?
R. Yes, they also have to be in devotion to each other and that you cannot relate to the Creator otherwise because He is standing behind the friends so you have to be in devotion to the friends, so everything that belongs to spirituality in that the friends are more important to you then yourself.
S. But are there some actions above reason to do like this work of devotion?
R. Of course, it is above reason.
S. This is the main question because practically it contains actions both above reason and within reason so what is the right combination in this work towards the ten and me?
R. If you wish to reach spiritual devotion you have to do all your actions in order to bestow, in order to bestow meaning above your reason.
29. S. (54:35) How does active soul devotion coexist with active desires to love the Creator through the ten?
R. Soul devotion is the vessel when we nullify ourselves towards the Creator and then in this vessel, we reveal the Creator's attitude to us and there we discover all spiritual degrees.
30. S. (55:17) What is devotion to the ten?
R. When we discover between us various forms of connection between us and these forms and these forms give us the feeling of nullification of our existence as we call it and this way we get to a state where we seemingly nullify that creature relative to the Creator and then once again there is None Else Besides Him.
31. S. (56:14) A friend said that he does not have an example of devotion in the ten, can he himself attain devotion without example?
R. Yes, you should try.
32. S. (56:45) I heard that the Creator hates the bodies, how can devotion help correct that?
R.Devotion can't help with anything; it is the condition of the true spiritual vessel where there was a desire to receive, the Creator shattered it and turned it into in order to receive. When we raise it from in order to receive to the degree of soul devotion meaning entirely in order to bestow, by that we are correcting the desire to receive the Creator has prepared, shattered and gave to us and we are returning it to Him corrected. This is called devotion. Maybe the words confuse you, devotion, soul devotion but the concept is simple, all of the coarseness that appears in me egotistically in order to receive I correct it completely in order to bestow. Then I deliver, I return my soul again to the Creator in a corrected manner this time.
33. S. (58:30) We learned that the devotion passes through the love of friends. Can we say the same thing about devotion towards the Creator, pass on to the devotion to the friends?
R. We don't know who or what the Creator is. We are not in direct contact with Him, we can only approach the Creator through the system called the ten. We have no way to detect Him, to direct ourselves towards Him, to act towards Him, we can't. This is why for us the ten is that system through which we can turn to the Creator and therefore in everything we intend to come to devotion to the Creator, to that extent we have to come to devotion to the group. Otherwise, it won't happen, there are those who say to the Creator, of course I want to do everything, but to the friends or the group, not really. That is the problem, therefore we have to constantly maintain ourselves in a position where we have no choice, we have to locate within us each one and himself, we have to locate this system where I see my friends in a spiritual way. That we are coming together and I cancel myself before them as written by Rabash in the first Social Article that I have to be a 0 towards them. He explains to us an act of devotion, annulment of each person's presence, existence before the ten and that is how we achieve spirituality.
34. S. (01:01:18) What changes in us in the actions of devotion?
R. In actions or operations of devotion we diminish ourselves, we cancel ourselves and are willing to do anything, we are ready for anything, bestowing in order to bestow, receiving in order to bestow. When we come to states where we cancel and cancel and cancel our desire to receive and then we reconstruct it and bring it back to us ready in order to bestow. In order to come to work with the desire to receive, in order to bestow, we receive it in order to receive. We have to come to annulment, restriction and after restriction we have to renew this and begin to work with it in order to bestow. All of those degrees are degrees of annulment of we, this is devotion when all of my desire to receive that I have to turn them in order to bestow, give them to the Creator but if it's mine I cut it off myself and give it all to Him. Moreover, I annul myself and I work for Him, this is why this work is spiritual work in devotion.
35. S. (01:03:14) What does it mean practically to connect the desires under the same screen in the ten?
R. When I build of the desires that are revealed such skills and systems which is done in me that I direct them all to bestow contentment through the ten and what happens in the ten itself, all together is felt in the Creator in the system of Adam HaRishon which is broken only from our perspective, but for itself it exists entirely already.
36. S. (01:04:17) Can we act in the ten?
R. Of course, it is an appropriate question, we have to act each one towards the others at being engaged in devotion and wanting to attain devotion, yes of course.
Excerpt 3 (01:04:50) twice
37. S. (01:06:46) How can I surrender myself to Him without the perception that the Creator is behind everything?
R. What does it mean understanding that you will feel the Creator stands behind everything, how do you feel this and with what vessel? If you haven't achieved devotion, how will you feel any spiritual phenomena? Spiritual phenomena are all in vessels of bestowal and devotion means you are working outside of you and if you haven't achieved this and how can you feel the Creator in spiritual operations? In other words, devotion is a precondition for feeling the spiritual world, for feeling the Creator and to the extent that you on top of whatever coarseness you perform acts of bestowal this is regarded as being in devotion and this is how you feel the spiritual world. The Creator, it is a natural scenario that extends from creation itself that we are created beings from the Creator and if we don't achieve devotion, we won't exist in that spiritual world which is His. We will always be in an imaginary world, we are now in an imaginary world which He created only so we would exist so that we would come in freely, of our own choice into the spiritual world, into bestowal and then I enter as a spiritual part into the spiritual world.
38. S. (01:09:13) Do we have free choice to be devoted to the ten or is this a result of certain actions like prayer and annulment?
R. We have to see before us the goal of devotion as this is the condition, the precondition, the prerequisite to be in the spiritual world and this is why all of our operations which we want to do among us in our group, in dissemination, in learning, in all of our efforts is only to come to devotion. This is called when will my actions be as the actions of my ancestors. We have to look at devotion as a necessary goal that is before me and that I always have to yearn to chase in every act and in every thought.
39. S. (01:10:36) How to cause our small Kli, our small heart that wants to receive so much, how to pass this on to complete devotion to the friends and the Creator?
R. Example from the friends, all of the friends have to act each one towards the others as if they are excited, elated and they are doing things because they want to come to devotion, this is now. But once they come to devotion then we have to start acting the opposite, I don't care about devotion, I don't want it, I slight it, I belittle it, each one towards the others to give the others an example of coarseness so they can justify the friends, now they are just pretending, but I understand what they have inside and by this they correct their vessels of reception. In the first stage they established their vessels of bestowal and this is why they give good examples of devotion around them from the environment. We will talk about it as it will come.
40. S. (01:12:35) How can the tens be an example and cause envy between themselves in their desire for devotion?
R. The tens, I wouldn't say that's a good idea, let's first get stronger in the tens, each one in his own ten. Afterwards then between the tens, you can somehow a little bit, but it can confuse us and I am afraid that if we focus our attention into the ten rather than outside the ten of what happens between us and them it might confuse us, it might blur our focus.
41. S. (01:13:45) In corporeality, in a chess game you have two players and you have the board and a sacrifice during the game in order to win during the games, does this also happen in our world?
R. In our world we do this only to make a profit and making a profit means buying something from another. Here the game is when we connect among us into ten in order to devote ourselves to the Creator as much as possible. In this work we have annulment which is called restriction and afterwards there is more work to bestow beyond the restriction. And all of this is called working on devotion when I devote all of my vessels, desires with all of my qualities, all of my abilities and all of my connections in the vessel of Adam HaRishon, I give this all to bestow upon this entire system because in it is the upper force called Creator and then to the extent that I bestow upon this common system, to that extent I bestow upon the Creator and I begin to discover how He receives and enjoys.
42. S. (01:15:32) Tell us please, the Kabbalists describe in different places, different kinds of reward like revelation of the Creator and efficiency for bestowal, incorporation, adhesion and it seems to be a reward worthwhile to work for and maybe only for that reward is it worthwhile. On the other hand, we are told to work with no reward. Is this contradictory?
R. No. There is no collision because my reward is to work without reward, the more I invest and cancel my reward for the sake of others where I become a pipeline that conveys the upper light to others so I am like the Galgatta vEnayim and they are like AHP, to that extent I am in pure bestowal.
43. S. (01:16:56) Baal HaSulam writes that all of man's exertions are only a preparation for devotion, the question is devotion a state you can feel and how?
R. Devotion is the conclusion of every effort in the current state so after I did everything required of me, with the friends and the Creator who helps us, we come to a stage where we are in pure bestowal and this is called devotion.
S. Can I feel this state that I have reached?
R. Of course you feel every spiritual state several times more than you feel the corporeal state.
S. In what and how do I feel this spiritual state?
R. You feel that the upper force of bestowal and love fills all of reality and all of reality is you.
44. S. (01:18:22) What is the significance of annulling completely before the Creator?
R. This is called annulling yourself, canceling yourself above your vessels of bestowal, coarseness 0, 1, 2 and even annulling myself above the vessels of reception in coarseness 3 and 4, by this I cancel my interest, my egoistic desire and I turn it completely all of it to work in order to bestow. There are many things here that we will still have to interpret, but we are already beginning to approach it. We have to go through all of these things in practice, to feel that this is what we are doing, what we are dealing with, what lights enter and how they work, to stop the lights and receive them in order to bestow with the aim to bestow and only on this condition that we receive these lights and, in this way, we relate them to bring contentment to the Creator. Meaning receiving these lights I have no personal interest whatsoever, I'm willing to receive them only because the Creator enjoys so I also am willing to enjoy so He will enjoy because if I don't enjoy, He can't enjoy because He is giving me. The Creator doesn't need anything besides to fill us with pleasures so I am willing to receive the pleasures from Him and enjoy, but my intention is by this I am pleasing Him, not that I am enjoying because of it, although I really want to enjoy these lights directly.
45. S. (01:21:13) Is adhesion something accumulative or attained in each moment?
R. Adhesion, annulment change all of the time according to the desire, to the extent that the Creator awakens this desire and we work above the desire, accordingly the annulment and adhesion are also a result of our work.
46. S. (01:22:00) How to hear what you're saying and also how to come closer to the subject, what is being written about that it is completely separating between our understanding of corporeality and spirituality, how do we do this transition gradually?
R. Were you all little children? You were correct, and I would imagine that you were a little boy and you're sitting in front of your mother and your mother is feeding you with a little spoon, feeding you what you are eating, some porridge or something, whatever little kids get and you like it. She adds a little bit of honey maybe and you like this food but you want to do this not in order to enjoy but in order to please your mother, how do you do this? You have to cancel your pleasure, your egoistic pleasure to go above it, meaning to have this internal calculation that you wouldn't receive it if not for your mother. So just imagine the difference between the pleasure of receiving this very pleasant thing and enjoying it and how you hate receiving this pleasure directly even though it is very tasty and pleasant, how you have to overcome it and how you have to now build a relation to this pleasure that you are doing this only for your mother. Then you will begin to understand what is needed for devotion, that you don't want to use your vessels, your desire to receive, you don't want to use this you don't know how but this is what you don't want because otherwise you will have no connection with the mother, you would only be connected to the porridge that she gave you. Imagine these things bit by bit and you'll see that they are very palpable things, that they are very practical and we need to start getting used to them and we have to establish among us these relationships in the ten. Try to perform such operations in the ten where you give everything for the friends and I don't want anything for myself and if I can do this then I am permitted to even receive from them in order to bring them contentment. We have two friends connecting to each other in spirituality, to bestow in order to bestow and to receive in order to bestow. Both belong to devotion but complete, clean devotion means that I receive and enjoy but in order for the friend or the Creator to enjoy me, in other words my vessels have reception also work in order to bestow. This is called real devotion, in other words we have two degrees in devotion, to bestow in order to bestow and to receive in order to bestow. That's it.
47. S. (01:26:52) What does it mean to play devotion and who was impressed by this game?
R. To act in devotion and basically, we are impressed by it, I don't know who the Creator is and so what I attain is I attain BoReh, come and see, in other words it is a system that I built with my relationship with my relation of bestowal as long as I live. Therefore, through devotion we build that system toward which we are in devotion, you can say well it's all imagination but isn't this world now an imagination also? Of course, it is, spirituality is not imaginary because indeed I begin to feel the operating force, the upper force which is revealed through my relation and now with my relation I am not revealing any upper force. I am immersed in my egoistic desires and I live in them.
S. So what is the difference between playing devotion and working on devotion on yourself?
R. This is the meaning of the revelation of the Creator to the created being as we learned in the article that Baal HaSulam wrote: there is single concealment and double concealment, single and double revelation, in these 4 degrees we reveal the upper force. Through your actions we will know you, to the extent that we work towards Him and want to adapt ourselves to Him, to that extent we reveal Him and, in this way, we make contact with Him, we interact with Him. “I to my beloved and my beloved is for me”.
48. S. (01:30:01) From the explanation you gave about the two degrees in devotion we see how limited you give our vessels a version of devotion so is there any concept like unconditional devotion because the conditions that we have also give us a limited version of devotion?
R. There are two states out of these two states there is complete devotion, devotion when we are in the upper like a seed, like a drop of semen and you can't say that we are as it is the upper one who does everything. We are in devotion and you can't say that we have reached it or we have attained it and devotion in the end of the correction is when we have reached like the beginning of the corrections, that we were like the upper force and in the end of corrections we are also in the upper force but we're the ones who invited this force and we want to be in such a state compared to Him.
Excerpt 4 (01:31:45) twice
49. S. (01:34:22) What is the main difference between devotion and there's None Else Besides Him?
R. There is None Else Besides Him is about attainment, what we should come to in each and every degree upon each and every desire that is revealed, we have to reach this in our work. We reach Keter of the degree and we attain the origin, the source of that state, of this degree of these two Sefirot what comes to us from the roots, from the upper force and then we can say there's None Else Besides Him, we can determine that there's None Else Besides Him. This is a result of our exertions to connect between us and to cancel ourselves before the upper force, our root, our origin. This means that we reach the feeling, the attainment in None Else Besides Him, there is bestow in order to bestow, reception in order to bestow, all of the degrees that we go through this is about attaining the upper force. Devotion is our efforts to cancel ourselves to the upper force and to reach every time for that time as much as we can to detect Him in the connection with Him.
50. S. (01:36:14) Can we say that to the level that we fear not being able to serve the Creator to that same extent we are devoted to Him can we use this to measure?
R. The extent of our devotion can be measured only with respect to the friends, we have no other way because only out of this vessel we built between us and from between us do we aim at Him, we aim at Him only in this way can we measure the spiritual vessel of ours.
51. S. (01:37:09) Baal HaSulam writes in the beginning of the world is relative to the extent of complete devotion must happen out of fear. How is fear connected to devotion?
R. We want to reach a state that we are very much excited and we enjoy the Creator clothing in us and determining within us all of the actions, all of the thoughts and all of the intentions to such an extent that we want to give Him as much space as possible. To clear inside of us everything that we can so He will fill more and more, that He will fill us this way, this is what we want and with that we have the work above our ego which is Malchut to receive all of the bestowal from Keter.
52. S. (01:38:44) Is my devotion measured by my resistance to the ten?
R. Your devotion is measured in the amount, or the extent that you resist your resistance to the connection in the ten.
53. S. (01:39:17) Baal HaSulam writes in another place that a person should not be confused; he just has to obtain one thing, faith in the Creator, here he says we need to come to devotion. I can't distinguish between those two goals. What is the difference between faith and devotion?
R. Devotion is our direction, the way we should be in annulment and faith is the upper light that clothe in our annulment so the difference between these states, the subject, the action and the result.
54. S. (01:40:11) You said that devotion has several stages, the first stage is when we cancel ourselves, connect to the friends and are in that state of adhesion and the next degree why use the ego?
R. All of these things are learned in the action, in the study of TES. I'm telling you for the second time and I said this yesterday as well, when I hear you speaking it is as if your mic is different or you placed it differently as we don't hear you so well.
55. S. (01:41:11) How can I be certain that we are trying to achieve devotion without it becoming Klipa so that we don't enjoy those suffering?
R. We enjoy suffering only under the condition that they aim us better to the Creator, let's suppose that we are thankful for pains that we are having when we are ill. These pains when you are sick, they must correctly to take care of the sickness. This is why the Creator accompanies all of these phenomena with a feeling of suffering. Without the suffering, we would not have come to the corrections. We need the suffering and by that we have many such sufferings that we don't understand why we need them, how many sufferings do we have when we give birth to children, when we get rid of this life. Man goes through many sufferings and these sufferings have a goal and a purpose, they have a purpose. This is why we have to learn them and to see how we take care of them as everything is related to profitability to the goal, to the devotion that we are now talking about, because in our correct relation to it we can cancel all of the sufferings, but should we, we will talk about it.
S. What is the difference between devotion and servitude?
R. These are 2 degrees, servitude means I have no choice. I am entering such a connection with the upper one, it may be that in my eyes He's not the upper one but that I have to be in servitude towards Him. Devotion means that I myself filled my connection with the upper one because I consider Him to be the upper one and I want, and I am searching for the conditions, the qualities by which I can be in devotion to Him and we will work on this.
56. S. (01:45:06) What is the connection between devotion and bestowal?
R. These are two degrees, I have said this already in the previous question, that if I am canceling myself that is one degree and if I devote myself to the servitude this is a higher degree.
Excerpt 5 (01:45:50) twice
57. S. (01:48:00) How do we not become people who take pride in their suffering?
R. That is a shell when you do that in order to receive, and spirituality it is all bestow, bestow in order to bestow or receive in order to bestow and in bestow a sign is when you are happy. It is impossible to be sorrowful in spirituality only in order to receive, do you have sorrow.
58. S. (01:48:55) How to destroy the fear?
R. To the extent that there is still a desire to receive that is not covered by a restriction, screen, and reflected light it is still with fear, what will happen to me, what will be with me, there's not yet devotion. When you have devotion, it means you're not thinking about yourself at all it is as if you don't exist, all that exists is the Creator and you are in Him as a drop of semen. Then you will start getting more coarseness and you will grow within the Creator like Malchut in Bina, to grow more and even then, you are going to cancel yourself when your whole growth is in order to give Him contentment more and more.
59. S. (01:50:35) What do we need to build within our mutual guarantee that will help hold us in soul devotion?
R. You said it right, the mutual guarantee between us when we care about it, it will help us to be in devotion one towards the other, each one towards the others in the group and the whole group in general towards the Creator. This is how we will learn what devotion means from our relations to the relation with the Creator.
60. S. (01:51:30) Does adding passion to fear help us attain devotion?
R. Yes of course, we rise in degrees of devotion yes.
61. S. (01:52:08) What qualities interfere, disrupt with devotion and which one’s help?
R. The desire to receive in general stands in the way of devotion on the one hand and on the other hand it helps you to increase devotion upon it.
62. S. (01:52:45) Acting the thought of creation through which the Creator delineates to a person the desire to bestow upon the upper force unconditionally?
R. Unconditionally means the Creator does it unconditionally you also will accept the form of bestowal without any conditions.
S. Is there something in the thought of creation itself through which the Creator illuminates this desire to bestow in a person?
R. Without an effort from man this can only happen if the Creator is awakening us through the sufferings and with them when we do the actions out of the sufferings will illuminate there, the Creator does everything but it is best if we awaken as Baal HaSulam writes there is no place which is too far from Him and everything comes back to its root. It is best if we do what we can do.
63. S. (01:54:23) Can you please explain what Rabbi Akiva is trying to say?
R. By the way he wasn't part of the people of Israel, the nation of Israel he came from a different nation and he became the greatest sage of Israel until today Rabbi Akiva is a figure even though thousands of years have passed he is still a figure that whatever he said is still holy for everyone. What he said was that all of my life I have been learning how to reach, how to give contentment to the Creator in the degree of devotion and now once the Romans have caught me and they wanted to bring me to destruction, to use iron combs in order to comb my flesh. I'm not going to say what I said all my life and I'm willing to accept this terrible death in the way of devotion, I will not retract my words and the Romans killed him this way in a terrible way. This is why he said that what I have learned all of my life now I can carry it out. We don't understand these things, they are special situations which are very high.
64. S. (01:56:51) Is working devotion always against the desire to receive or can the desire to receive assist in this?
R. Always against the desire to receive and that is considered that the desire to receive is helping.
Excerpt 6 (01:57:15)
65. R. (01:58:50) These are very relevant words what he is saying a complete prayer, meaning that he's praying for the Creator to give Him a complete desire without any compromise for himself, that is a complete prayer.
66. S. (01:59:03) When a mother offers food that was made in the ideal way but it's not tasty when I sacrifice my pleasure by eating it none the less for her pleasure does that bring us to that pleasure that we're talking about?
R. You should change your flavors so whatever your mother gives you will be tasty for you and not that you will do it against your flavor, it doesn't mean you're enjoying the food this way. What you need to do is change your desire, that is what we are doing otherwise the purpose of creation is to do good to the creatures. To give them pleasure and if you're always canceling your desire to receive and always bestowing then there's nothing left for you but it will be your joy in the Creator, you have to enjoy Him endlessly meaning to be like Him, to be in complete bestowal. Make your desire to receive work in the form of bestowal without any limitation.
67. S. (02:00:43) Should I ask for the friends to be in devotion or see them already in it?
R. It may be but at least you asked for everyone to be in devotion, to pray for everyone. If you want to receive a spiritual degree you have to pray for others to receive this degree and then as a result of your prayer you also will receive prayer this is how it works in spirituality. Not to pray to the Creator directly, I want to receive corrections, I want to bestow, I want to love everyone, no. You pray for others so they will be better and you ascribe yourself to them as well, that you are in the end of this list and then you will succeed. That is also devotion.
68. S. (02:02:03) When do we get pleasure from bestowing upon the ten?
R. When you ascribe the suffering to the desire to receive in the pleasure to the desire to bestow then you know how to define yourself into these two actions then you start enjoying the action of bestowal.
69. S. (02:02:56) Can we feel devotion as a state of smallness and all the feelings and attainments are just decorations?
R. Devotion is as we said from the state, we're in like a drop of semen in the womb of the upper one until the final correction, all of these degrees are partial of devotion, to a certain extent just a little bit more in a little bit more but in each and every one of them we are in adhesion into the upper and to that extent we are in devotion.
70. S. (02:04:09) Can a person pray in retrospect if he chose his benefit over the benefit of the ten, can we ask for a correction in retrospect?
R. It is also worth it, worth something if he doesn't see himself there, he can pray for it.
71. S. (02:04:42) What does it mean to have a desire without any compromise, what does it mean being satisfied to hear?
R. Of course, what is a question if there's None Else Besides Him then everything that happens in my reality, in my world in whatever I feel is that I should be happy with whatever I get from the Creator. Meaning I'm getting from the Creator the best thing for my advancement and it may be not so pleasant but it is part of the extent of my correction of my desires but you can be certain that every moment I am in the optimal state to advance toward the final correction.
72. S. (02:05:43) Are all the acts of devotion to bring the acts to the right intention?
R. In general all of our actions are to bring us to the right intention, both our actions and those that are seemingly not ours, everything is done by the Creator and for Him, we just don't understand it. Everything is done in a way that brings us towards the final correction, it's just that we want to participate maximally with awareness on our behalf.
73. S. (02:06:39) Can we replace the word devotion with absolute love?
R. Yes, you can do that, you can replace them if it is better for you.
Excerpt 7 (02:07:08)
74. R. (02:08:12) This means that he should try every time to add with soul devotion, even though he is not certain if he is in it or not.
75. S. (02:08:37) Adhesion does this come only through restriction or is it an act that is earlier and not dependent upon the restriction?
R. Adhesion comes after the restriction and other actions, we have the restriction we have the revelation of Reshimot and the screen that does the action of the reflected light where we feel the Creator how much we can equalize ourselves with Him and then we received the revelation of the Creator in the reflected light in order to resemble Him and then it makes a condition of adhesion with this mutual action that we have from the created being comes reflected light and from the Creator comes the direct light and these two bestowals clothe upon each other “I to my beloved and my beloved upon me”, together in from that place adhesion, the inner essence of this meeting of the bestowals, adhesion.
76. S. (02:10:21) What is that state where you do something with devotion but it is against the view of your teacher and the Creator?
R. If you do that against the opinion or the view of your teacher it is Klipa, a shell.
77. S. (02:10:55) How do we not confused of devotion with going below reason?
R. Below reason is when you go into religion, when you criticize nothing, you shut yourself down and you go according to whatever is dictated for you, you just follow it without emotion, criticism or anything, it says so I will do so. There is no way to bestow here because bestowal can only be with a desire from the created being. I have nothing to add here if you can understand it.
78. S. (02:11:50) Devotion, does this come as a reward from connection between us as a reward from the Creator for our efforts to connect meaning it's the Creator that gives it to us?
R. Yes.
Excerpt 8 (02:12:25)
79. R. (02:13:12) This is from the book called “The Collection of Prayer Likutei,Tefillot, it is about our relation of how it should be toward our path and the upper force and by this we have more or less come to know these states of devotion to which we should come to. Truly this is the main goal of ours, to reach a state of devotion. All of the spiritual degrees are degrees of devotion from 0 until 100%. So let us understand what stands before us and we will start realizing it towards the group, towards the friends. And then out of the friends all of us together towards the Creator as there is nothing confused here, there are two degrees me, the group and the Creator so towards the group. I learn how it is possible to be in devotion and then all of us together how we can if we are translating this between us, how we can perform an action of devotion towards the Creator. It is not complicated as everything is in our reach so we will try and we will succeed.