Morning Lesson July 9, 2022, Transcription 

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

Part 1:

Advance By Overcoming - Selected Excerpts From the Sources. #19

1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:14) Yes we will continue with these excerpts until we finish them. We have other such packages that we have to go through until we will update our soul so it will be directed precisely through the connection between the friends to the Creator. Please.

Excerpt 19 (00:38) RABASH, Article No. 19 (1985), "Come unto Pharaoh – 1"

2. R (01:25) This means that we first of all enter the connection between us aiming ourselves to the Creator by coercion. We press ourselves; we obligate ourselves towards bestowal. This is in the tens and later on through the whole world to the Creator. This is how it is towards connection between us and from the connection between us to the Creator. This is actually the way, and this is all done through habit. Pay attention to this word, when one accustoms oneself to work coercively, meaning that he accustoms himself to coercion and he also coerces himself to make it a habit, the work in bestowal then the mind too operates by lines of bestowal. Meaning that all in all it all comes into place only according to the habit, to coercion. As it’s written a penny and a penny accumulates to a great amount and then at that time it is impossible that the mind will pose the 'who' question, what is the work, who is the Creator. It will not ask that because the senses have already grown accustomed to work in bestowal, habit becomes second nature. In other words the senses no longer ask that question what is this work that you do, since they are already working in order to bestow. Through coercion, through habit they enter bestowal and naturally the mind does not ask the 'who ' question. This is what Baal HaSulam writes in this Shamati article 19, What Is the Creator Hates the Bodies in the Work. Read it again and we will continue

Excerpt 19 again (03:35) “We should pay attention to…”

3. S. (04:21) The pressure itself on a person in spirituality, doesn’t that bring him..?

R. Yes that too, of course. All the pressure that we establish on ourselves, on the group, on the connection between us, on the Creator it all comes together and all in all this is the matter of coercion. That the person gets used to it more and more then he enters the spiritual degree.

S. The address itself is the prayer?

R. Yes, the way we establish ourselves, we connect our desires, we aim them, and we ask. Of course all of that is called a prayer. Why is it a prayer? Because it’s all about turning to the Creator. 

4. S. (05:29) What does it mean to work out of a habit?

R. According to the habit, it means that the way we live, we need to understand that we need to have such an attitude also toward our spiritual actions. It has to become a habit so much so that when the Reshimot, the records awaken, when the desires awaken I work with them so I can no longer do without them.

S. Meaning Reshimot awaken desires that I...?

R. That I can’t do without overcoming, I can’t do without arranging things towards the Creator, I cannot be without the connection with the friends. The habit becomes second nature. We are built in such a way in spirituality as well as corporeality that if we do something each and every time, it becomes absorbed in the corporal organs and in the spiritual organs in such a way that there is no longer any choice. We feel as if we were born with that, we feel that in our life. You can see how habit becomes second nature. A person is not born with all kinds of customs and habits but later on when he gets accustomed, when he's taught, when he’s forced, it is called first by coercion and later willingly. A habit enters by coercion into our life and later on we cannot get rid of it. Because once it is absorbed it starts to establish within us our emotions in ways that if we repeat them we enjoy it. This is what it means that it becomes second nature, that even things that you are not used to, and you didn’t want them, and you didn’t enjoy them, later on by keeping them you do enjoy. You can see that in many things in life.

5. S. (08:14) What is meant in this article by the who question? Can you give an example?

R. Who is the Creator that I must listen to His voice, that I must do what He demands of me. The laws of bestowal, laws of love, laws of connection, why do I have to do them even though they’re against my nature? This is why the who question exists.

6. S. (08:51) He writes about a state as if the resistance is gone. So where is bestowal if there is no overcoming and walking above reason?

R. New, higher questions come, higher and greater obstructions come. Don’t you worry. You will always have work until the end of Correction.

7. S. (09:24) Are our habits and desires all embedded in our Reshimot? Do we have any freedom along those lines? 

R. Precisely. You said it correctly and nicely. When we become accustomed to something it is registered in us and it becomes like something that exists in nature, something that I have to keep. As though I receive all kinds of records from previous lives, from the root of my soul. So now through habit I establish within myself new records.

8. S. (10:15) Bestowal the way I understand it is the intention that a person should receive from above. How is that related to the habit of actions?

R. Bestowal is something that is supernatural, it's against my nature, but if I accustom myself to some kind of bestowal then it is registered in me and I now keep it not by coercion, but willingly. Check yourself and you will see that you also have that, everybody has such Reshimot, records of bestowal that are actually against our nature. But we keep them because we have already accustomed ourselves and out of the fact that they are registered in our memory it's already pleasant for us to keep them.

9. S. (11:17) Doesn't the habit blemish the importance? When you do something out of a habit doesn't it blemish the importance?

R. You're right because seemingly if I got used to it then I’m no longer doing the work, I no longer have resistance. But this is actually what it’s about, that we need to reach a state where all of the actions of bestowal will be for us as a habit. And more and more layers, lower layers will come to us from the broken soul of Adam HaRishon. They’ll be revealed in us, and this is how we will do it, make it a habit over each and every layer.

10. S. (12:16) What should we pay attention to when we make a new habit?

R. That it will be in the direction of correction, nothing besides that.

11.S. (12:35) Forcing oneself, is happening in awareness or does the environment force a person to do it?

R. No, the person has to establish it, determine it. 

S. What does it mean to establish it?

R. He needs to check it, understand it, know, and implement this action.

12. S. (13:14) Do these questions ever end because I feel that if I don’t ask myself everyday how to raise myself to the second nature I won’t build it. 

R. We are going with you each and every day in the beginning of the morning lesson over such questions that we build based on very special verses from all of the writings of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, which are the most important ones, and those verses include within them the entire spiritual work. This is why it is worthwhile to go over them again.

13. S. (13:58) What does it mean that the mind works according to the lines of bestowal?

R. Our mind is like a machine and in the direction that we aim it to, this is where we work with it. Therefore the matter is that either it operates by lines of bestowal or by lines of reception, this is how the mind is willing to work and it depends on how we direct it.

S. Should we get an answer to this question?
R. We need to get a habit, to make it a habit, to build a habit within us.

14. S. (14:54) When a person, a question awakens, who is the Creator that I should listen to and what is this work, what is the habit one should accustom himself?

R. No each time we have a new work with that but what we’ve done already, that becomes a habit. Who is the Lord that I should listen to Him? Meaning who is the Creator, why should I listen to His voice, why do I have to bow before Him, who is the Lord that I should listen to Him? And what is that work that He demands of me, the work of bestowal, connection, serving everyone, the whole world? These are actually questions that are difficult for us to answer, meaning to connect with them. 

S. So what is the answer? Is there a habit? Can you develop a habit against these questions?

R. By coercion. Look at this excerpt 19. When one accustoms oneself to work coercively, work in bestowal and so on. Meaning we begin that way, by coercion towards bestowal, and to try and determine inside of us these principles and then the correct form of the soul is built. 

15. S. (16:41) How should we bless the good so it will become a pipeline and pass on the habit of bestowal to all around us.

R. That too is done by habit, it is very simple. More and more to get used to us being in a small group and they connect to this whole big group. We position ourselves in such a way that we need to aim for that and prepare for that near future we will connect to the whole of humanity and we need to aim for that and to prepare for that and arrange ourselves in such a way that we will be ready for that and in such a way we advance and also from above they brings us closer to the extent that we prepare ourselves to be the leading group for humanity.

16. S. (17:58) How can you accustom oneself to work against nature? Can this become a habit?

R. Yes, this can become a habit even if it is against nature, the habit becomes second nature. Meaning you already are used to making an effort. In many things in our life we make efforts, and the effort is never desirable, why would I want that? But if I am used to being in the effort, then this is how it works. 

S. There are many things that I'm paying attention to when the habit is not to exert in them, it becomes a habit not to make an effort in them.

R. This is clear? So what do we do? We connect ourselves to the group and we try to follow them as much as possible to follow them in adhesion. 

17. S. (19:15) Can we say that this method can transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma?

R. Yes, this is the method that leads us from Lo Lishma to Lishma habit becoming second nature. Meaning the intentions to bestow, the actions to bestow getting ready to be revealed in us and we see that they are revealed from within, and this has become second nature.

Excerpt 20 (20:13) Likutey Moharan, Last Edition, Mark 48

18. R. (21:46) This is certain that everyone went through that process that we're going through, not even one of us didn't go through it. If we reach a certain spiritual degree means that then we went through everything that we are going through.

Excerpt 20 (22:02) Likutey Moharan, Last Edition, Mark 48 (Again)

19. S. (23:42) The article was kind of an answer to my question, but I still want to ask. When we feel the push back, the blow and I'm talking about the corporeal problems, I am talking about the internal separation from the Creator, from the bestowal. I truly feel that I am not wanted, that I am not desired by the Creator, and he doesn't want me to do this work. Should I annul this but also in the article it says that this state is nearing, but this is not truly what I feel. That he doesn't desire me 

R. You feel these things that distance you in order for you to actually discover the necessity for connection, it's like a flirt when a woman rejects the man, she doesn't reject him to really reject him but in order for him to discover, to reveal that he wants her even more. Do you understand that or not ? I am not quite certain you understand what I'm talking about.

S. I understand, like I know from myself, that when a woman rejects you, you want her with the bigger deficiency, when you are rejected you want to grab her with more passion.

R. No, but her intention, the intention of the woman when she rejects you is for you to reveal that you want her even more. This is why she rejects you in order for you to reveal that you do want her. Meaning that your vessel, your desire will be great, will be ready to connect with her. It is the same here when a person enters the spiritual path he's rejected and rejected. The Creator rejects and rejects him until the person reveals greater and greater necessity. He does not agree to leave but only to go forward more and more until his power with such alertness going forward will be sufficient to rise of the first spiritual degree,

S. During these objections how can one make himself believe that this is like a flirt that he truly wants you but conceals, how can I make myself want that?

R. I don't know what to say but tell me do you have some other choice in life? Do you have something else in life? Go ahead but if you realize that you have nothing else, but this is the only thing that exists, and it is worthwhile for me to engage in that and to fill my life with this then you stay and you continue. Meaning through these rejections the Creator establishes and increases our power to reach Him. Only through rejections only through descents all kinds of despair that He injects in us. It's all made for us to reveal a stronger desire. In spirituality you have such degrees in the desire that you have to develop them. These are great forces.

S. Should I invest more into the ten? Should I invest more in dissemination or in translation to somehow awaken myself because I cannot pray.

R. Try, even if you can't. You will just say with the dry heart with your mouth, whatever you can, it doesn't matter what it is, and this is very beneficial. The most important thing is not to disconnect.

S. How can you do it? When do you say internally that you have a rejection from the Creator? How can you come in front of us and continue to teach and internally you feel different?

R. I try as quickly as possible to connect with the friends. To hear them, to hear what they are saying, as quickly as possible I enter into the friends. This greatly helps me to come back to go back, to go back on track.

20. S. (29:11) In this state there is a problem if the Creator rejects us. We can't connect to the usual pleasure which is our fuel? How do I replace our fuel or maybe the Creator wants us to advance without our usual fuel?

R. The Creator wants to replace our previous fuel with a new fuel so that each time I will have a new desire, a new goal, a new Creator, I am new, the group is new, each time I will see them as new .Otherwise, how will I climb to a higher degree? This is why he gives us such discernments. That we are seemingly disconnected and have nothing that I can be assisted by, and I have nothing that I can do. I am entirely disconnected. I have no life, I have no future, I have nothing. If it would be possible to die, I would agree right not today, but today without any continuation simply to shut my eyes and enter the absence but that is impossible. This is impossible. This is impossible.

S. If you're saying that the Creator is like a father who tests us, letting us walk alone with some candy, that's what we should do but if we choose our own candy to come closer to our father, that is already the candy.

21. S. (32:01) I sometimes, I also feel that I'm in the state where I have no life to agree with this state and to go forward in our spiritual work?

R. First of all, shut all your senses, your emotions and your mind and to enter some work in connecting to the friends; this is the most certain way and it’s easy, effective, it's beneficial for the spiritual advancement when you have nothing because you become Incorporated inside them and they just carry you, they and carry you and that's it, so do that first of all, that's one. Second, which I recommend, is that each and every one must have a spiritual job, spiritual work so that each one should find himself some students, two or three that he's studying with them and he's teaching them. or he is writing some articles and other such things, this greatly helps the person who is working on the materials. Teaching others, preparing articles, doing something, sorting what we have in the archives, wanting to have his own arrangement, this is very good.

22. S. (34:04) The way I understand it, the disturbances, they become some indicator that the harder it gets the more effort I have to invest in them and that has to be my habit, but later this habit is also an aid for me to overcome with less stress?

R. No, we are not searching for anything that is difficult, we want to go only together and in the direction of the Creator, meaning we are tying ourselves more and more strongly. Then you will see there specifically, there is all the difficulty.

23. S. (35:13) About cohesion, what does it mean that the ten ‘coerces’, can a ten coerce an action of bestowal on the individual? 

R. No, usually the Creator does to us each and every moment, if we pay attention we can discover ourselves in a new state, and then in each and every new state that is revealed we have to reveal ourselves that we're connected between us and to the Creator.

S. So this coercion is something that each one does on himself or the ten?

R. Both, both, each one individually and together.

24. S. (36:06) How will we enjoy correcting our will to receive?

R. If there is such a view in the group that we are going towards correcting our will to receive, that already gives me strength and I enjoy it.

25. S. (36:34) What is the reason the Creator shows a person that he’s unsuccessful?

R. In order for him to grow, so he would realize that he needs to advance with the force of bestowal and not the force of reception, that’s it. So that he will pray, and he will ask for forces, so that he will pray that the goal will be shown to him more clearly maybe and so on.

S. So the first breakthrough into spirituality is perceived as success for a person after all the disappointments?

R. Of course it is success, of course.

S. It is just not clear, what kind of success is that if he's always disappointed in the spiritual path?

R. If he's disappointed in the spiritual path but can work above his feelings, that is already success.

S. There’s a place where he breaks through into spirituality so what is this success?

R. If he breaks through into spirituality.

S. Yes.

R. So that's already success, or maybe we don't understand each other?

S. This success, the first breakthrough, it’s like a collection of all the disappointments, it’s like the success that was a disappointment that became success for a new kind of success? 

R. Yes, above all the disappointments he has a leap to the degree of faith and then he enters spirituality.

26. S. (38:45) Like you said now, distance nearing, distance, this is actually increasing our faith above reason?

R. Yes.

S. So this is part of my second nature?

R. Yes.

Excerpt 21 (39:10 - 42:03) RABASH, Letter No. 26; When one walks on the path Twice

27. S. (42:14) Something is unclear, here, because he calls the awakening from above ‘rest' but to me it sounds as though he can finally work in bestowal so why is it a “rest”?

Rav reads excerpt 21 (42:38 - 43:03)

R. He has some flavor in spiritual work: in the lessons, in disseminations, in anything, the main thing is thinking about connection, that’s the test, does he feel the flavor, there?

Rav continues: (43:18 - 43:04)

R. That everything's okay, he is fine, everything. 

Rav returns to reading

R. So there are all kinds of states that a person goes through from one state to the other. What should we learn from that? That we need to always try to find an awakening.

28. S. (44:57) In the previous except we read: it says in excerpt 19, “when a person accustoms oneself to work cohesively and these questions no longer awaken in him, the questions of “who” and “what”. But in excerpt 20, it says that “he is still working in overcoming and he didn’t reach habit”, so are these different kinds of obstructions? When you have the questions of “who” and “what” or when a person already feels that the Creator doesn’t want him at all and he’s not coming closer to the work, are these different kinds of obstructions?

R. These are the obstructions, there are different obstructions but ultimately as Kabbalists explain to us, they’re focused on two questions in us: ‘who’ and’ what’. ‘What’ is this work, meaning why do you need this exertion, the work, and to reorganize and to ask, to find the strength, etc., that’s the question of ‘what’. And the question of ‘who’, who is the Lord that I should obey? Must I work and pray and to reach that Creator that always pushes me away, He doesn't want, He stands in my way? Meaning these two questions are for scrutiny of the path for correction and the question of the forces of correction, who am I working towards?

S. In the last excerpt we read, excerpt 21,verse it says that “the mind already agrees to work only for the sake of Heaven and then these questions of ‘who’ and ’what’ disappear”, those mentioned in excerpt 19. So following such an effort, is it possible that a person once again comes back to it and the ego jumps again?

R. Of course, of course, these disappointments, all these questions come and come and come all the time, until the end of correction.

S. So if it always seems to a person that he is being thrown from here to there, then what meaning is there to all of this? In every state I can tell myself that this is the truth or maybe it's not the truth, and also in the opposite state so they seemingly cancel out?

R. The scrutinies are constantly in higher and higher degrees, it’s always in higher degrees. “Who is the Lord that I should hear His voice, that I should obey You?? That's the question that is always with respect to the Creator in all the degrees until the end of Correction; and what is this work, what is the essence of this work? How do we adjust ourselves and incorporate ourselves in the Creator? These questions certainly appear in each and every degree but every time it’s a new intensity, a new way.

29.S. (48:46) Each time that I feel certain in my relations with the Creator He takes something away from me and once again I need to build my relations with Him and this is what it is each time, anew. I truly feel uncertain, insecure about the forms of our relations, each time they take away something from me so what should I do?

R. Pray, first of all, strengthen yourself in the ten, and take on yourself, as much as you can, some kind of work in the ten, in the world, in dissemination for people. As much as you can be working more effectively, more efficiently, more mixed with everyone, then through you, from below upwards and from above downward, all kind of thoughts will go through you and you will incorporate yourself in them, that's how you will advance.

30. S. (50:19) In the excerpt we read, that state of rest he defines, is that a state of having no lack?

R. The state of rest is not a lack of deficiency, there are many different kinds of rest. It’s when a person takes, he stops on his own, not stopping the studying, that he doesn’t want to ask anything at the moment, he doesn’t want to advance by his own forces, his own strength and this is how he’s resting. This rest may come from above, that he simply feels that nothing new appears in him, no new Reshimot, recollections, and then it's hard for him because he feels that he annuls and his life is a dry, everything is dry.

S. Could there be a state that the person feels full and because of this he doesn't need anything?

R. This is the worst state because then he enjoys his states when basically it’s his state, himself, his own state, not the Creator not the group but being inflated and he enjoys that.

31. S. (52:13) This state when there is an awakening from above, should a person develop some kind of special attention so that the moment that I feel that I have forces it's a sign that I should immediately give them to the group through dissemination or anything else?

R. Yes, that’s correct.

32. S. (52:41) You said that regarding ‘the rest’, we need to find an awakening?

R. Yes?

S. What kind of awakening did you mean? 

R. In order to solve the questions that will awaken in the rest.

Excerpt 22 Baal HaSulam Shamati, Article No. 15,"What Is Other Gods in the Work? (53:16 - 55:58) Twice

33. S. (56:06) After getting rejected the feeling of envy becomes so much greater, how should I work with this kind of big envy?

R. That's good, it increases the vessel very much, you should try not to forget about that. That all of these responses like envy act in a good way to expand our vessels, and then to continue to work with that as much as you can. Especially, something to learn, learn something not necessarily what we learn during the morning lesson, just is to take, some, the best is to learn something that doesn’t relate to the spiritual work, exactly, of ours. For instance, The Study of the Ten Sefirot, something like Part One, Two, Three, Four, like what we’re learning now. And this will calm a person down, organize him.

34. S. (57:36) How can there be such a state that a person already discovers that there is None Else Besides Him, and he is completely under His rule, how can it go away?

R. Each and every state is separate and that's why there's no problem. Yesterday I was loving, now I am hating, in a moment I’ll love again. You can see it with babies, immediately he's crying, he’s laughing, he’s laughing he’s crying. That’s how it is with us in spirituality.

S. We can see this is a disconnection?

R. No, no, first of all we're not disconnecting from the Creator; what seems to us is only in the respect of us, again it’s like babies.

35. S. (58:50) As much as I understood, there is nothing that we can blame ourselves because all the states we go through are not in our control, are in the hands of the Creator so we can only arrange our reaction to what we can feel. So in my reaction I discover two experts(?) inside me” the one who wants to dissolve and annul inside the Creator above everything but the other one wants to take a sword and kill the Creator. So how to find the middle of line here to reach the above degree?

R. The next degree will be exactly that middle line, try to work towards connection through the friends to the Creator and you will see how much it leads you to the next degree.

 

36. S. (01:00:03) He has a lot of confusion between corporeality and spirituality, what can be considered spiritual and what can be considered corporeal and how can he truly invest himself in spirituality according to what it says in the excerpts we are reading now.

R. Everything that brings you closer to connection through the friends to the Creator is spirituality all the rest is corporeality.

37. S. (01:01:10) What does it mean that we need to build the habit on our own? Is this about spirituality and love the Creator?

R. Yes when we want to connect between us we build spiritual discernment. What does it mean, spiritual discernment meaning bestowal meaning when we connect above our nature we want to connect as if we want to connect then all the rest as it is written the Creator will finish the work. We just want the Creator does that's how we always are in all of our efforts and all of our actions, in all of our plans we only want it to happen but in truth it's the Creator that does it that's why it's called the Creator's work. Our business when we force the Creator to do the work, but we have to learn how to force him. 

S. Why is it so difficult to establish habits?

R. Because it goes against our ego.

38. S. (01:02:39) What actions of bestowal are preferable that we will have as habits?

R. As habits when I always think about my friends and the Creator about this one system just like my baby, the great thing above me is that only that stands before me. My group, all our groups together with the Creator together and we're all incorporated this way and we discover the upper reality, eternal life.

39. S. (01:03:22) What should I do when a person can no longer force himself, he can no longer keep the habit?

R. He has to be like Rabbi Akiva, talking about the sea when something happened to him, the ship was wrecked, and he was in the stormy sea, and he had nothing to do so he grabbed onto this piece of wood, and he held onto it. The main thing was that he held onto that piece of wood and out of that he reached shore. That's basically the sign why kabbalists tell us about it the story happened two thousand years ago so what’s the benefit here for us to know? When the sea is stormy, and we don't know what to do and we have nothing we have to hold onto each other and the Creator as much as we can even to the smallest degree but to be in it and then this stormy sea will do the right work on us, and it will bring us ashore.

40. S. (01:04:56) Is the habit built from the fact that we hold onto the intention to bestow?

R. Yes.

41. S. (01:05:07) Can we accustom ourselves to love the friends?

R. We should accustom ourselves to love the friends so that it becomes second nature. We get this nature when we love the friends. 

42. S. (01:05:27) What is the work that we need to do in the ten in order to strengthen each other against thoughts of distance?

R. We should not forget that there are no friends, it all seems to us. It seems to us that everyone I now see that they are in my imagination but rather as it is written behind every friend stands the Creator and if I connect to you I connect to the Creator. Bit by bit more and more and more until I really feel myself connected to you and basically to the Creator it's only that I can't connect to the Creator I can't see him but as I connect to you in you through that I discover the Creator. Then I discover.

43. S. (01:06:33) Why is there a feeling of guilt when a person is not able to overcome? I feel that this is not the reason why I should overcome.

R. Well that helps us that we blame ourselves.

44. S. (01:06:52) How to love the Creator if he rejects me?

R. Understand that this rejection seems to you to be this way, but it's actually help. This way he's leading you to a better and more correct and real goal.

45. S. (01:07:16) Things that are related to a schedule it's easy to make it a habit but to awaken the heart that is difficult. Why is it so?

R. That's our whole work. You'll never be able to do that, the habit to activate the heart is very difficult to do because the intention in order to bestow that we really need to forcefully determine. That's why there is no habit here.

46. S. (01:08:04) Just like there is any other habit that we get from an early age, can we also get used to working in bestowal?

S. Is it possible to get used to working in bestowal like any other habit we acquire at a young age? 

R. No because this is against our will to receive, and it will never be such a habit until we get light that affects us and gives us an opportunity to work to be above our will to receive. But for it to be easy? Only under the condition to the extent that we are adhered to the Creator.

47. S. (01:08:53) Every day brings new desires. Should we change our habits every day in the ten?

R. Everyday new desires and we need to pass on these desires to the action, to correction. We need to bring all of our desires to correction; correction is to bring on them an intention in order to bestow. To realize these things. To receive in order to bestow or to bestow in order to bestow that is already later. 

48. S. (01:09:39) The forces that the Creator develops in us to habits, are these forces that will need later on in order to perform the restriction? 

R. Yes of course, everything that we're doing now we're going to have to incorporate that into the restriction.

49. S. (01:10:00) Making something into a habit that is dependent on a precondition that we have a desire for it?
R. Yes, without the desire you can do nothing, no action, no decision.

50. S. (01:10:18) Is the flirt that a person has with the Creator, is this something that continues throughout the entire path? And all the changes are only the greatness of the Creator?
R. Yes.

51. S. (01:10:32) How is it possible that a person is able to continue through years if a person makes efforts in the ten, in the lessons, in dissemination, but he feels only his own loneliness, he’s not allowed to taste the flavor of holiness?

R. Yes, so what? I do as much as I can do my actions coming closer to the Creator, and even these actions that I do they give the Creator contentment.

52. S. (01:11:05) Can we obligate the friends to commit to the ten to lessons and workshops?

R. Yes, in corporeality we can coerce them to connect together, to perform some actions, to learn. That's something we can force; we can obligate usually that's how it happens.

53. S. (01:11:33) Rest and enjoy, in the spiritual work. Is that the same?

R. It doesn't have to be. Rest is when we, now it's not yet clear to us, when we feel that we can be incorporated in the Creator then incorporation in the Creator every time it may be called rest.

54. S. (01:12:07) Can we say that rest is a state when a person stumbles across the quality of bestowal?

R. No, it may actually be the opposite that we rest during the ascent and dissemination. Rest is consolidation of forces to the next action.

55. S. (01:12:34) How can we reach a state where we see the alien thoughts as a blow?

R. I see how much these alien thoughts, even though maybe maybe pleasant to my ego but how much they're disconnecting me from the spiritual work from my friends.

56. S. (01:12:59) Is the entrance to spirituality, does it stem from the fact that a person has accustomed himself to these actions?

R. Entrance to spirituality depends on the habits, yes. When a person is tested will he not leave, will he guard, will he strengthen himself and others that's a result of these examinations he goes through.

57. S. (01:13:32) If distancing is like the Creator's flirt why do we sometimes get such strong objections that no connection is left. 

R. That's what's done with us but it's a sign that from there we can come back. That's a question; can we come back from these rejections back by our own strength or can we do nothing, whatever happens, happens, I’m willing to sleep and maybe I wake up in six months or a year or something will change.

58. S. (01:14:11) Is the advancement in the spiritual work a person’s choice or does the Creator advance him?

R. It’s always the Creator that does. A person never has an opportunity to say, I did that.

59. S. (01:14:29) What influences the pace of building the habit of how quickly it is built?

R. The pace of building a habit? Only our work. As much as we try to connect just like the structure of Adam HaRishon and as much as we aim ourselves to the Creator to fill our vessel our sphere, what we're doing between us that's basically advancement. We should always see this image, the shape before us.

60. S. (01:15:27) In excerpt twenty it says that we need to overcome against all the rejections but when a person feels so rejected where does he take the strength from such an extra strengthening?

R. He should think rather of himself that the Creator has pleasure. When he gives no pleasure to the Creator he has an opportunity to think of the Creator.

61. S. (01:16:02) With an ordinary flirt it's a woman who rejects but in this way the Creator rejects, what to do when the Creator rejects, and the woman has to chase after him?

R. What does this have to do with a woman? In the spiritual process where all men and women relative to the Creator, we are completely equal, similar, there are no men or women relative to the Creator.

62. S. (01:16:37) During times of rest are we retreating or are we stopping and not advancing?

R. We're stopping, we never go back, never.

63. S. (01:16:55) It says about awakening in the excerpt is that before entering spirituality or when you enter it?

R. You receive awakening one time and also throughout the entire path before spirituality and during and you enter spirituality. You can receive an awakening everywhere; it depends on how much we connect and where we ask it to happen.

64. S. (01:17:26) On the one hand habits help us to come closer. On the other hand can they also prevent us from connecting?

R. There are no disturbances, all the disturbances are what we arrange ourselves by our own laziness. Laziness, that is our problem. Laziness is typically laziness towards connection. If we are able to annul our ego between us and connect we succeed with certainty.

65. S. (01:18:11) What is the awakening from above that comes to the person?

R. The awakening that comes to a person from above is the desire to continue on the spiritual path, in general, there is nothing else.

66. S. (01:18:32) On the one hand we need to build habits, but we also say we have to always be in changes so how does it coincide?

R. Changes have to occur all the time and that should be a habit. 

67. S. (01:19:29) Thank you Rav, about the last item we read, twenty-two, it says there about these thoughts that come to a person and that these thoughts beat the person as a result of the advancing in the work or engaging in the work, what conclusions can we draw from this? Is that a warning that we need to be restrained in the work or what?

R. The more we advance the more disturbances we get, that is for sure just like in our life except there it's in spirituality in building the screens and making those efforts.

S. It shouldn't scare you?

R. That depends on how much you're connected to the group. If you're connected to the group and you are together even the surrounding light that you awaken will already give you the feeling of confidence, security.

68. S. (01:20:51) If the hard questions of Pharaoh appear as criticism towards the friends, how to help the friends overcome that?

R. We have to shut our eyes and say that instead of the friends it's the Creator I don't see the friends that's how he's shining to us, and we will see that there are no friends but only the Creator who fills all of reality and now in order to educate us gives us an opportunity to correct ourselves. He shines to us; he awakens in us this feeling as if we are among the friends. It's all the Creator depicting for us these forms of the friends. Why is he doing it in this way? We'll learn about it later how the lights are the ten Sefirot to depict each and every friend, how we have to adapt ourselves to each and every friend why I am in such qualities and the friends are before me seemingly the friends, seemingly their qualities and if I connect with them then ultimately I correct myself with the Creator. Think about it.

69. S. (01:22:25) Day after day I'm afraid that I won't come to the lesson. Does that mean I'm on the right path?

R. Yes, but other than that you also have to prepare such means that even when you don't want to come to the lesson these means will obligate you to come to the lesson.

70. S. (01:23:23) We are reading these articles. What does it mean to understand that it is necessary to get help from above?

R. You have to prepare yourself ahead of time for the lesson. You have to read all these verses in advance. What is not clear? You should ask the friends, even the language heads need to understand the text that is written. Perhaps take down questions that you will scrutinize about the text that we're going to read. You get those in advance. That's how you need to work and then after the lesson if there are additional questions you ask and if not again to repeat something these verses are very good, we select them from a lot of materials. 

71. S. (01:24:52) What is that piece of wood from the boat that collapsed?

R. I don't know. I didn't ask Rabbi Akiva. I don't know how to explain this to you. This is the quality of bestowal that he wanted to reach in the stormy sea. He was holding this piece of wood with Rabbi Akiva on it because he held tightly to this principle. Where this piece of wood, this plank, this quality of faith brings him to the safe harbor.

72. S. (01:25:49) He's talking about the parking here and he says that we receive in order to strengthen, what are the actions that should strengthen us the most when we feel pleasure and taste in an ascent?

R. To connect to the friends and as much as possible to get all the flavors and all the good, try to fill them with that, fill them with that.