Morning Lesson January 14, 2024
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash 27. What Is the Meaning of Suffering In the Work?
Reading Article. (00:33) “On Yom Kippur, in the ‘Eighteen Prayer’ we say…”
1. Rav intro: (52:00) This is the longest article we have read. What is the impression?
2. S. (52:23) It is a very special article, I read it several times already, but in the end, I feel all that we need is a deficiency. A deficiency to be adhered to the Creator, the society, to the articles we read here every morning. The articles we read here and ask questions and implementing them together in the Tens gives us the ability to move forward and not get these descents that we sometimes feel, descents that are the other side always pulls us back. I feel this on a day-to-day basis and if you don’t push forward enough and want to implement what the Kabbalist Rabash and Baal HaSulam give us in the work each day it’s like, in a second you can, it’s like walking on a tight rope and you feel like the Kabbalist and the society is your balance. When you are on the tightrope, he gives you the balance not to fall off from there. This is how I feel about the article.
R. Very well. What else, yes.
3. S. (54:05) I get a lot of inspiration from the society because when you read the article and look at what’s happening, it feels like a miracle that there are so many people who come here and do it. He places it before you, no censorship, you will feel you’re getting farther, the Creator himself is pushing you away. So, it’s impressive it’s a very special society.
R. Very well.
4. S. (54:41) He writes that the best advice during the ascent is when he feels that there's a state of spirituality and he wants to find deficiencies he calls it lies that see the future. He says in this state it's advisable to delve into the Torah. What does it mean to delve into the Torah? Which writings are considered, or it doesn't matter?
R. The same Shamati articles, I think.
S. Articles of Shamati, okay. So, he does that to not have descents, but as wise he sees the future like an old man searching for new deficiencies on the ground?
R. And, from that he will truly know what he's looking for.
S. What is the advice along the way we discovered the Esau within us and the Israel within us? It’s a path, right?
R. It's a path.
S. What's the advice to awaken the Esau, the quality of Esau, so we don't want to cancel their own domain?
R. What is what?
S. How to awaken the quality of Esau so a person does not want to remain in his own domain? So, all the reward goes to himself?
R. You want to correct the Esau?
S. I want to advance to a state of Israel where everything is for the sake of the Creator, even though it's far.
R. For that you need to stay away from Esau.
S. Move away from him?
R. Yes, not to use him as much as you can rise above him.
S. Rise by which force?
R. Prayer to the Creator.
S. A prayer not to be assisted by the Ten?
R. Yes, that's clear. Through the Ten the Creator will give you force into the Ten and when you connect together with them, then you rise above the Esau.
S. So, not using it means already the decline of the desire?
R. Yes, of course.
5. S. (57:27) Why in the ascent we should delve into the Torah and not look at the Ten and look at what the friends need? Which can also spare suffering? Why specifically look into the Torah?
R. In the ascent one becomes closer to the Creator, he has more strength and more discernment about where he is and where he needs to go. So, in the time of the ascent one has to look into the Torah and see where they're advancing him and his society.
S. In other words, you should look for how you can help the Ten but through the Torah?
R. Yes because he's close to it.
6. S. (58:40) During the ascent what deficiencies should a person look for?
R. During the ascent?
S. The ascent.
R. In the ascent, you have to look for how you further and further honor the Creator and extol the Creator.
S. We say that in an ascent a person gets a filling we shouldn't be looking for deficiencies in the state of wholeness?
R. Still there is what to look for. He's not in the final correction, there's still a road ahead. Therefore, still has to clarify the ascents and do that.
S. What is the difference between the deficiencies that a person raises to holiness out of a descent and deficiencies that he raises to holiness through the ascent? Because in both cases he corrects the shattering, so why is one way undesirable and the other one is desirable?
R. The fact that a person asks to be saved during the descent is natural, and the Creator helps him. But when he’s in an ascent he has other deficiencies, so he asks how can I bestow, how can I assist, what can I do for the sake of the Creator? That’s what he's lacking, knowing that and doing that, meaning all his deficiencies are positive in order to bestow to the Creator.
S. The impression I got from the article is that a person doesn't need to bring himself to the state of descent he should make an effort to remain in ascent and rise even more?
R. Correct, yes.
S. It seems to me like in the work when I descend, I say well okay so, I'll raise new records. I don't feel that it's so terrible that I have fallen, so, I’ll discover more broken records are correct. I don't fight to maintain the ascent is this incorrect?
R. You're not sorry?
S. No, I have no regret, no sorrow.
R. Okay, that happens too, it just shows that a person understands that this is how the path is. Up and downs, different states, positive and negative. Seemingly, however, the goal of creation is to unite with the Creator so one has to be sorry that right now even though he understands and feels and has some awareness, it's still not a perfect state it's not a complete state.
7. S. (01:02:33) In order to advance the person needs new vessels, if I understand correctly when a person is in an ascent and doesn't do what is written in the article the Creator sends him a descent, so he'll have new vessels, and the reason to ascend?
R. Yes, he has to go through descents in order to be equipped with vessels by which he can rise.
S. What is this method when I'm in an ascent to look for new vessels? What's the difference between these vessels and the vessels that you would get in a descent?
R. In the descent, you don't receive light. You feel your state the way it is, right? Whereas in an ascent you have upper lights relatively and you can ask and differentiate between what you have and what you can, what you can depict during the ascent.
S. Is there a difference between the vessels the person acquires in a descent and the vessels the person acquires in an ascent if he does what is written here? In the end, you need more vessels in order to advance, that's a law. So, either I acquire the vessels in a descent or an ascent, as I understand it?
R. That is not so, it's not the same vessels and it's not the same, not the same process.
S. That is exactly my question. What is the difference? That's what I'm trying to understand.
R. Look, in a descent, we’re far from the Creator. We typically have an inclination to blame everyone and the Creator and until we begin to rise from that state it takes us a long time and power and it's not, it's not in connection with the Creator. However, in an ascent, we want to know more, understand more, feel more. Rise above if we can and then we have work to do. So in the time of the ascent, we have to be more thankful, to be more drawn to the Creator and this is the right time for it.
S. Is there a way for a person to reach spirituality through ascents and descents or does he have to perform what he does, what he describes here in the article from ascent, to ascent, to ascent?
R. No, not always but sometimes he can identify during the ascent the state of descent and that he won't need to descend, but it's not simple and it's a special kind of work we will get to that too.
S. I am asking because from the article it seems like he is trying to teach us. This is as I understand it, that a descent is not a good situation. It's a situation that's against the system because in the end, at the same time, at that time we're far from the Creator. The Creator is with us in a descent, it's not good, we have to come to the state where we come out of ourselves where we want to constantly give Him contentment. The Creator doesn't have contentment when we are in a descent. This is how I understand, in this article you have to aspire to constantly be in an ascent going from an ascent to an ascent, and what I can’t understand, can I own this path of ascents and descents which is nature, which is constant rise and falls in the end can we reach spirituality or not until we understand this inversion? That’s all that’s important is to bring Him contentment and you won’t fall in a descent. Not because you don't want to be in a descent, but because you don't want not to bring Him contentment. Only then you can reach spirituality. That's what I'm trying to understand here.
R. It is not exactly, there is something to what you say but it's not exactly that's all the time. We have to use both ascents and descents in any state possible.
S. Another question, it was a pretty long article. Can you give us some main advice from this article? What's the main advice from this article in the end?
R. That is what we were talking about now, I think. The main thing is how to correctly use all the states that we are going through in both ascents and descents.
8. S. (01:08:47) The article is very powerful but what is written in the end, I did not understand. So, I will read: “The Divinity in exile, when a person regrets being far from the Creator, meaning he is in the will to receive only for his own sake, like animals. This is unbecoming of the human quality, he should direct the suffering, so it is not because he wants to be a man, and this is why he suffers, but rather it is because of the sorrow of the Shechina.” What does it mean that the Shechina is in exile suffering because we are in a descent? What does that mean?
R. That we don't think of the Creator and how to get closer to Him and bring Him vessels filled with light. Rather it is unimportant to us and if we do want to get close to Him then it is in order to be filled with light, which is the opposite of the goal. Meaning the main thing for us is to bring a gift to the Creator, the vessels that He created within us, “I have created the evil inclination”. When we correct it with the intention to bestow and thus these vessels can be filled by the upper light, that is what we bring to the Creator.
S. So it means that when we are in a descent or suffering, the Shechina, too, it influences the Shechina?
R. Yes, yes, our states of ascents and descents influence the state of the Shechina.
9. S. (01:11:05) A person works and because something shines for him, he sees the purpose of creation. He thinks he's on the right path, he feels he's in the right direction, and then he gets a descent. Instead of a descent, he feels that he is lost, maybe the goal still shines for him, but he doesn't know the road, or the way. And then he gets foreign thoughts that maybe he should do something else, work in a different way. Maybe his work was not good, he should find a different kind of work. At the same time, he is debating, maybe he should, is it that he should work differently or should he continue in the same manner of work and just keep going forward in the same way. And that's debates pain him, he doesn't know what to do. What is the advice in such a state? Should he be looking for an answer, is there a way to distinguish between working incorrectly, or maybe there is no such question here, ever? What do you do in the state?
R. The fact that a person feels that he is in a descent, in a disconnect or even moving away from the path, is a good state because this state brings up in a person new desires, and suffering. And by that, he can advance, you can't move forward without accumulating desires for progress. It is like it's like a wheel, as we say, that it goes forward but it's because half of it is going backwards. And so here, we have work that is in two aspects: One aspect, is that we have strength, and you want to bring together all our means for ascent, for progress, for turning to the Creator. And the other half of our work is that we are in a deficiency, in a descent, in that the wheel is as if it’s moving backward. And so we truly think like where is the progress, where are our spiritual movements at all? Until a person makes these correct discernments and already knows how to work with them.
S. Until not long ago, there was a friend in the Ten who felt he was not doing the right work. And it haunted him for a long time until he just quit the path. It's not like he's not looking for the Creator, he wants very much but he felt the work is incorrect from his perspective. And it happens to each of us to a certain extent all the time. We fall into a state of scrutiny, are we working correctly or not? Someone might run away from it, another might hang on and continue, and then come back in a good way. What kind of person do if he's on the right path and he doesn't need to do a different work but simply should continue?
R. Baal HaSulam and Rabash wrote a lot of articles, I think that if a person wants to truly understand where he is and how to advance on the path, he can, in those articles, find his way.
S. I feel the answer, is it actually to adhere more to the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash?
R. Yes, yes.
S. So, there's actually here the strengthening of the faith in our sages, in our teachers?
R. Yes, what else do we have? The who to follow?
S. Sometimes we're taught that he wants to run away but he has nowhere to run to. So, it's like, if he sees something different maybe it seems different?
R. Sometimes the thoughts and emotions awaken in a person that way, but truly, we have what to do about it.
10. S. (01:16:40) I noticed in the work, throughout the day, if I received something good, I immediately am reminded by the Creator, I’m thanking Him and I'm reminded about the friends. It’s like this condition, you gave me good, so I’m also reminded of something in corporeality. What is that work, is it okay to advance like this?
R. Well, yes, those are also states.
S. What is the correct ascent, what does it mean to be in the correct assent, and where does it come from?
R. From connection.
S. When I'm with friends during the lesson?
R. Doesn't have to be during the lesson but when you reach a connection with the friends, you feel that you are really one man with one heart. From that, you have the forces to ascend.
11. S. (01:17:50) In the article there are a lot of calculations that the person needs to do with himself. The whole article starts with, even he says in the beginning, that they have atonement, what if I sinned and, he said this many times, the Shema reading, and they always make this calculation. Then what does the person see, what does a person do, what does he want; only at the end of the article does he start to talk about ‘we’. That's where a person leaves his calculations and goes to think about the Shechina, knowing that he’s an organ of the body, and the body is suffering because of his general state. How does the person manage to cancel all those calculations about himself completely?
R. Because he discovers that he is part of a huge system of souls of the Adam HaRishon. That he is dependent on them, as they are on him.
S. This state comes after many, many calculations with himself. What he feels, what he wants, what he receives pleasure from, and what he receives suffering from. Until in the end, he has to come to some kind of calculation of letting go of everything and look at the calculation of us, of the Shechina, of something.
R. I don't think so, why should he leave these calculations and take new calculations? He just goes from one state to the next, from one state to the next. Checking them, scrutinizing them, calculating them, until he reaches a state that along with the friends in the Ten or the big group as Brei Baruch, we can scrutinize everything.
S. It seems like there's a person who’s examining his thoughts, his desires, and his intentions as they should be or not. At some point, he feels this common intention when he says, we are in the state of a descent. We are only in the group, please note where that state of the group is. If you are an organ of that group, what is going on with the group, what's the result of the action of the group, and whether it causes the sorrow of the Shechina or suffering to the general body or itself is. I'm saying as if we need to put our entire personal calculation on the side and then we can decide that?
R. All right, that's the problem, and that is still ahead of us. None of us, almost none of us, are calculating the right calculation toward society. But for now, each one is thinking about me inside them, maximum. But not that me and them are the same, that is not yet. I am waiting for that. That's the problem; it's not a problem, it's whatever the mind won't do, time will do.
12. S. (01:21:41) We have states he's describing here ascents and descents, I feel like these two states are very good because it has a certain movement. But also in our life, there are many states that are pretty gray and they’re long, prolonged. I don't know if I should define them as indifferent or just no movement?
R. There are some.
S. And these are very difficult states because you feel no movement in them. I wanted to ask what is the benefit from those prolonged times where we don't feel a descent or an ascent?
R. That is a lack of work. Even mechanically in society because you have a group, a society and you have where to invest yourself and get a reward.
S. Is there such a state in spirituality that is not an ascent and not a descent?
R. Yes, that is the state of death.
13. S. (01:23:16) You answered a friend that during an ascent, a person should seek what he can respect and uplift the Creator with. What uplifts the glory of the Creator, what actions, what thoughts?
R. Connection in a society that yearns to come close to the Creator.
14. S. (01:23:43) What does it mean for the Creator's benefit?
R. That means that we reach a stronger connection.
15. S. (01:23:58) What is the difference between a descent, as a result of spiritual work, or just like that, a descent?
R. The descent is the result from spiritual work, like in a piston that continues its path but must also go up and down, up and down. That is what we need to understand. But work, or states, or states we go through in life that humanity is going through in their life that they call ascents and descents, those are states that don't belong to spirituality. It's just in order to give a person some changes in their life, and that gradually a person can advance by them towards spiritual states.
16. S. (01:25:17) Is there a reason why people suffer more or less, and what can we do to diminish the suffering in the world?
R. The fact that they are suffering less and they're suffering more, it is none of our business. That belongs to the root of a person's soul. And we just have to keep going forward and see that they all come closer, everyone.
17. S. (01:25:58) When the Shechina is in exile is it dependent on us? And what is the sorrow of Shechina, what is she sorry about?
R. The sorrow of the Divinity, the Shechina is a lack of a fulfilling in the general vessel of the general Malchut. And what we need to do is what we're talking about here, meaning bring all of her vessels that we are parts of into connection and fulfillment.
18. S. (01:26:34) How can we assure that the person won't leave the campaign and surrender to the angels?
R. That is only through our work, the more the friends understand that we need to work on our connection.
19. S. (01:27:01) In our state, can we work without receiving a reward?
R. There is no such thing as working with no reward; the question is what is the reward?
20. S. (01:27:14) I wanted to ask what it means to make a calculation with the society. Where an individual makes a calculation with the society?
R. As much as he bestows, as much as he receives, as much as he is adhered, and as much as he's advancing with the society to the goal. We have to do such calculations.
S. Yes, but what is an individual part of the society? How does that transition move from being an individual to one who everything he does is part of the society?
R. It all depends on the recognition of a person. Nothing changes but when a person starts understanding that he is an inseparable part of the society.
S. How is that different from today?
R. Today, we don't have the feeling that we're really parts of one body.
S. What does it mean, one body, meaning what do you want to be associated with? What is that individual belonging to?
R. That we are dependent on one another, dependent!
S. And how does one who is dependent on others operate?
R. As much as from his operations, he changes the states of the others.
S. So how does this transition happen from being an individual to being part of a society, part of one body?
R. According to a person's calculation as much as he feels that he is part of the Shechina.
S. Is that in the hands of the person to move to that or what is that?
R. Yes, he must want it and ask for it.
S. How do you make the calculation of being part of Divinity? How does a person make a calculation, I want to be part of the Shechina?
R. I want to be part of that collective that the Creator created and wants to bring them to the end of correction.
21. S. (01:30:10) It touched me what Rabash wrote that eventually as a person is in lowliness and a feeling lowliness, it is the Divinity that is suffering. The question is how to bring them more to our consciousness that the Divinity is what suffers when the person is in lowliness?
R. First of all, a person has to disconnect from the fact that what he feels now is himself. He wants to feel, instead of himself, he wants to feel the Shechina, the Divinity, the society, on the path. The friends on the path, the group on the path, and then the Shechina, and then ascribe himself to that. And to devote his whole soul to this and his life.
S. Meaning when I have this tendency that I am in suffering, I need to somewhat remind myself that it's the Shechina that is suffering from this?
R. Yes.
22. S. (01:31:58) What does it mean to bestow upon the Divinity and what exactly happens there?
R. The Divinity, the Shechina, is the collective of all souls. Eventually, they will need to connect, only to connect and in their connection to reveal the Creator until the Creator and the Shechina will be as one. And Israel is what brings the Creator and the Shechina closer to one another. That is what we need to understand and where are we now? Not that we caused connection and closeness between Israel and the Shechina. Israel are souls that want to reveal the Shechina, that's it. Let's hope that we can awaken the Shechina to a connection to and unite all her pieces. That all her organs will connect together to one whole vessel.
23. S. (01:33:57) It was said here that usually, the order is that during the ascent the person doesn't want to seek deficiencies of his own. Therefore, we don't need to give the descent from the below. If we start seeking deficiencies correctly during an ascent, will it compensate for the need for descents?
R. Of course, if we rise on our own, want to rise from ourselves, and if we want to correct ourselves, we won't get negative states that will push us to the correction. Because we ourselves will be searching for places to correct.
S. In the continuation, there is an example of this old man who is constantly seeking something before him. How do we need to search correctly, like this old person, so we won't come to these descents?
R. That's in the Ten, it's enough in the Ten that it should be as ten connected Sefirot full, whole. And we have to search for that state.
24. S. (01:35:44) When I do something for the benefit of the Creator or the friends, eventually discover that it's all for the benefit of the will to receive. Do I need to battle the ego in this matter or wait for it to be improved?
R. I need to improve, to discover a state, an advanced state on myself towards all the friends.