Morning Lesson June 30, 2021, Transcription
Raising Ourselves, #16
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ngY7MJQ9yqEuuofb6q4_nr3Xj9TIJ92UFCYIndNGWro/edit
1.Rav’s Introduction: What does it mean to raise oneself? We are operating according to our feelings with the senses that we were born with and those that develop within us in our mind and in our heart, meaning in our mind and emotion, and raising ourselves, doesn’t mean to be with a greater mind with a greater emotion, that even within this world throughout our life this is how we develop but rather to raise oneself means to raise oneself to a different degree of perception of the attitude to reality. Which is just like we had just like with the force of reception which will be with the force of bestowal. The force of reception is called within reason. Whatever I know, I understand, I feel, I accept, I receive within my vessels, my senses of reception. Above reason is what I acquire and this comes to me after many efforts and a lot of investment. When I start to feel that something is awakening within me towards giving. Towards the fact that I am willing to go forward without any of the ordinary rewards. Which I would always demand, consciously or unconsciously, but this is what I was working for, this is why I was performing actions. But here I begin to feel that the attitude to it is specifically, not that what will I get out of it, what will I have, but rather I think about the nature of my attitude, to what is happening that this attitude will be without any demand in return.
That I simply want to take part in whatever the Creator is doing with me in a way that I personally will get nothing out of it. This actually is called a reward, that I will be able to perform actions and not to feel that I am getting anything out of it. We reach that through those same states that we go through, that Rabash is telling us about in these excerpts. These are very special things, very subtle. They happen to a person if he has been there for a while, meaning quite a bit of time in the work in the ups and downs and with certain all kinds of different relations and he is despaired of his own forces despaired of knowing what he needs to do and all that's left for him is only just one thing. That suddenly he begins to feel, it awakens within and gradually slowly from a fog that his work is approached specifically, should be in a state where he has no demand no belonging but rather, he just wants to give the Creator, to ascribe himself to the Creator to the extent that specifically the fact that he is not getting anything out of it for himself this is the reward. That is, the reward is that in his will to receive he will not get anything. He will not get anything. At first this feeling, this thought, comes only in the mind, the brain and he starts to think and to yearn for it sometimes more sometimes less, and he takes some time with all of these things. He forgets about it a little bit, and then he comes back to it until he begins to understand that this state where he is not depending on anything for himself, he doesn't want anything for himself. It seems to him; it's felt in him as the reward in itself. The fact that I am not about to receive anything out of what I am doing and I am willing to do everything. All the efforts that I am capable of and that I will not receive anything for it actually, I feel that the fact that I am not getting anything this was the reward.
This is the beginning of the work that is considered spiritual. It is called faith above reason. That is above the reason where he always knew why he was doing things and he would measure all of his work in his vessels of reception as much as he wanted and what did he want to receive to get to understand, to feel to control and to truly have a grip on it, to hold it. Now he says no. I specifically want to feel that it is coming out of me and not coming into me that I am just operating in a single form only for the benefit of the Creator that he is receiving and I am giving, I am bestowing, I am sending away from me to Him. This actually, well there are many forms to express these things perhaps but each and every one should be thinking about it. How does he depict it to himself? These things are difficult for us to convey in our emotions because we don't yet have, in order to bestow in Lishma, for her sake. We don't yet have shared emotions. So, each one should try to ascribe himself, to associate himself with all of these excerpts that somehow, indeed they are describing to us the state of transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma, from in order to receive to in order to bestow from corporeality to spirituality.
2. S. (08:13) When you incorporate in the friends, the group you feel yourself a bit better and it doesn't depend on the state, that is already self-reception, so how from here to go to the work and for the sake of the Creator?
R. You are right that an action towards the group that I perform actually brings me to bestowal towards the Creator. But it doesn't come immediately but rather it is a kind of transition and this is why it is difficult to give an example. The actions in the group are still actions that are in order to receive. And I cannot feel in them yet my disposition, that towards the action specifically coming out of me and not coming back, so that I get nothing in return. I, specifically, in this feeling that I am already getting in this quality of in order to bestow, I feel that I am interested in it coming out of me and not coming back and this specifically is what I see is the reward. This is what I want to feel to the extent to which I am bringing out of myself and it does not come back. However, this comes to a person as a result of his participation in the group and his participation in the inclination towards the whole world, and gradually slowly when he is drawing forces and he prays to the Creator with the group, that he will have the force to truly bestow somehow even though he doesn't quite know what it is. Then it becomes established and gradually he begins to feel that he has such an inclination that it is possible to work in such a way that giving that it is coming out of you and does not come back that will be the reward. We have examples of this world, let's say, between parents and children there is natural love which obligates the parents to give to the children and to care for them, even more than towards themselves. But this is a corporeal example of which is not in order to bestow it is just that nature arranges it this way and we see this also in animals. Therefore, we do not have other examples of this world so that we can give a little bit, that we can give or we can give the opposite example.
But in spirituality, we begin to feel how this is clothing within us and truly it becomes required. Suddenly a desire grows within us to give, to bestow to the Creator and later on we develop this desire towards the Creator through the friends. But I have something that comes from above from the Creator, and I begin to feel some attraction towards ascribing to Him my actions. It is as if I am giving to Him with each and every action that I do whatever becomes possible for me so that I can ascribe this action to Him. And in that action, I feel that I am giving to him and this for me is pleasure. This for me is the reward. It is not accompanied by me loving Him love does not come yet it comes later, it is simply how the Creator is organizing, arranging this force that is working on us and is helping us to come from reason to above reason, from reason to faith. From the force of reception to the force of bestowal. To begin to feel the force of bestowal that exists in nature and that we can also become equipped with it and in such a way we can begin to operate in it. There are not that many words in that and also, we do not see any examples that are clear or conspicuous. There is no such thing but rather what we can say, as far as Baal HaSulam and Rabash describe this to us here, that it comes to a person as a result of all kinds of efforts, whatever is in your power in your hand to do, do it. Whatever is in your power to do, do it and then you will feel, then you will know and you will understand what this is about. Whatever we don't see if we don't feel it in order to receive it is here in order to bestow it here all of these forces exist around us and we can operate in this and also in that.
We together have reached a state where we want to and we need to and it is required for us to talk about it. Because the connection between us is already beginning to give us the foundation for us to operate in such a way and we will begin to feel what it means, the force of bestowal, above the force of reception. It comes to each and every one, in a way that is just like we talked about. Suddenly the person feels that he has a drive to give to the Creator and he feels that by this action he is giving and this drive, is still not quite clear to him, he doesn't have some color some special feeling and he doesn't yet feel that he is enjoying it, but rather the drive itself the action itself he wants to perform some action so that this will be in the direction of the Creator. In order to bestow but bestow what? What is the pleasure? Something, no. There is no color or a shade of pleasure yet, just giving. That it is just like we see this in little children that they do something but, in their actions, there is no emotion. Right, we give them some emotion, we want to hug them and kiss them, and do something with them. If they, do it back to us, they do not have an emotion. They do it because we are asking of them or in such a way, they want to express themselves. However, their own emotion is not developed yet so it is with us. We are in our development of in order to bestow to the Creator just like little children towards their parents. I don't have anywhere from which to take examples and there's not much written about it, this is why I am making up these things from myself however we are advancing we are advancing towards that.
3. S. (17:54) How is it possible to give and give without receiving? Where do we get the fuel to continue giving? Does it come from a descent?
R. No you're not listening to what I am saying and it's natural that you can't hear it. It's not too bad. However just realize that after efforts with the friends to connect with them and to work above my ego in the lesson and also in giving and dissemination, and also in connection with the friends. When I want to be in some connection which is above my ego, I begin to feel that I want to give to the Creator. From where does it come? As a result of our work, if we do something for it, in fact, in truth, we didn't do anything because we are not yet detecting this force to which you want to give, to bestow to the Creator it is hidden. There is no such thing in general in reality it does not exist. However, you begin to feel that you feel that you want to do this action, such an action and this action is still felt within you as pleasure. Even though you are not aware of it, but in the basis of this action there is pleasure. You want to do it and this means the will to receive is pushing you now to perform an action in order to bestow so that you want to see a result out of it and the fact that you feel that you have no results out of you giving out of you bestowing, this action in itself that you are performing it is giving you pleasure, it is giving you fulfilment and you enjoy. You are pleased, you are filled by this action itself. Just like say, towards the baby or the little child when you give him something and you enjoy it. For you it is not giving the fact that you are giving to him you don't feel like you are giving right? It is the same here, so this is how we begin to enter getting to know what bestowal is. What is the quality of Bina or faith?
4. S. (20:52) You said beforehand that we lack a shared feeling, shared emotions. What does that mean?
R. Well, I can't tell you yet we don't have a shared emotion. So, we cannot talk about it.
5. S. (21:23) When I try to feel what it means that receiving no reward is the reward, you come to the feeling that in your experience there it's all one there's no difference in giving and receiving because everything is one it's all whole?
R. It's not like that, you distinguish very clearly between the action that is called bestowal and for the time being this is what you called bestowal and between the action that you call reception. You can feel the difference between them. Keep going and you will see that this is how it is.
6. S. (22:14) Where is it aimed, that tendency that is coming out of me and not coming back?
R. I feel that I am passing it on to the upper force that exists outside of me.
S. We say from love of people to love of the Creator. What does it mean to give to the upper force without the friends?
R. I'm explaining that we have invested a lot in the connection between us, in the annulment of each one towards the ten and with our connection with other tens; in our connection not only with the whole world Kli but with humanity in general. We care for them and want to pass on the method of connection from us to humanity even though it is different from the way we are connecting. We want all of us to eventually connect, as Baal HaSulam describes. Those who are drawn to the Creator, who are called Israel, connect first and later the whole of humanity will connect to them. Israel is passing emotions, forms, a bit of their knowledge and understanding of connection to the Creator to humanity. Humanity brings us their deficiencies and concerns and in return we supply them with forms of connection. The connection is ready. They join us as the AHP to our GE in a single Partzuf. This will take a bit of time and is ahead of us, but this is how we will bring everyone to the end of correction. Actually, we are already in this period of time.
7. S. (24:53) How do we give personal examples to the friends?
R. By faith above reason. We study together and try to pass on what we feel to the friends in the connection between us. We help each other this way. Also, what I initially felt returns to me with greater intensity.
S. So the efforts we make in our intention in every state influences the friends and comes back to me?
R. Yes, exactly. This is what I would like to happen. I have no possibility to awaken myself to bestow upon the Creator without getting anything in return. It is impossible to grow stronger by myself, but I begin to understand how the general vessel can assist me, how it will join me and I will join it. This is how we will take care of it for the time being, each one out of his desire towards the Creator. We already have quite a few people that can start thinking like this and begin to operate and aim their desires. This is how we become established on the spiritual plane. This is the beginning. The work is done forcefully. We don’t feel any spiritual results, lights, fulfillments, influences, direct light, or reflected light, but it already exists and is breaking through the boundary between this world of reception and the upper world, the world of bestowal.
S. Would you recommend focusing on this inner work giving strength to the friends as you described, or should we concentrate on external examples?
R. I don’t know what you mean by external examples. If we perform actions with the intention of giving contentment to the Creator, then those external actions with respect to our will to receive, should help us rise to the spiritual degree of Bina.
8. S. (28:34) Does strengthening the connection between us increase the force of faith?
R. This is the result of the connection between us that we want to establish. The reforming light shines on us the more we are concerned about this connection and brings us the force of bestowal, the force of faith.
9. S. (29:11) If we feel this inclination but the ego ruins it, do we argue with the ego or simply pray?
R. Only intensify the forces of bestowal. This is called love covers all crimes. Only in this way.
10. S. (30:02) Do the actions we make toward annulment to the friends draw the upper force bringing us closer to bestowal?
R. Yes
S. Do we help the Creator give it to us by these actions?
R. Of course, this is how it is done. First, we need to perform exercises to connect to the ten even though we have no need for it, then we become closer to one another in the ten even though we don’t want it. Later we discover a spiritual benefit, spiritual meaning with the forces of bestowal. The forces of bestowal, for the time being meaning mutual bestowal between us, in this world as we understand it. We want to develop this in the ten. This is how we advance. As a result, we eventually come to what we talked about in the beginning of this lesson, how the desire to bestow to the Creator appears in us. We discover that urge even though we don’t understand or feel who the Creator is. Rather I feel like performing actions that do not benefit me. I used to consider the gain I would get before I would do an action, but I am beginning to feel profit in doing for someone else without any reward, that this is my reward. This is how I now want to operate and I search for ways to operate like this, but frankly, I cannot quite find it. What can I give him? This tendency has already built a lack of bestowal within me. This tendency towards bestowal belongs to the level of Bina. An example of this in our world is a woman who wants to have a baby so that she will be able to give to the baby. Of course, this is a corporeal example. She wants to give birth, to have someone she can nurse and give to. This also exists in a person who wants to bestow upon the Creator without getting anything in return, only to care about giving and this will be his fulfillment.
We begin to feel the desire to bestow feeling like a woman who wants to nurse but has no one to give to.
S. Without feedback, how do we know we’re not making mistakes when we bestow to the friends in the ten?
R. I don't know. You need to get feedback; you need to do everything mutually that Rabash writes about in the ten and see the results.
S. It's tough because we don't know exactly how to give, but we want to give.
R. Read Rabash’s social articles again and again. You will learn from reading them. I have nothing more to say.
11. S. (35:16) What is the difference between faith above reason and the friend’s reason is faith for me?
R. I don't know what you mean about the friend's reason. We are not talking about this now. I cannot elaborate on this. What we talked about is what is important for us right now. I am not going to the friend to know his and my reason. We are talking about how a person awakens the force of bestowal.
12. S. (36:20) How important is it to show happiness and a good mood If I do not yet have the emotion of joy?
R. It works according to the principle from the love of people to the love of the Creator. By me trying to bestow to the ten, to care for the entire world Kli, and to care for all of humanity, I am aiming to eventually bestow to the Creator. Without His help, I will not be able to bestow to my ten, the worldwide Bnei Baruch group, or the whole of humanity. ‘Israel, the Light, and the Creator is one’, that myself, the group, humanity, and the Creator all become as one, as a vessel and the light. I awaken the upper light the more I think about it, the more I yearn and am concerned about bringing everyone to my outlook on creation to a single form; it awakens me to a state where I feel my lack of the force of bestowal. On the other hand, it truly suddenly awakens me to perform this action. What will I bestow? How will I bestow? I am perplexed. I want to bestow upon the Creator but what will I do? I then begin to feel that my actions towards the ten, towards the great group of Bnei Baruch, and towards humanity that I am operating in order to serve the Creator, that He will begin to engage with them, to reform them, fill them, and enjoy them. So that He will correct the created beings, to connect them, to put them together and fulfill them if there is some deficiency, they are raising that to Him is His entire pleasure. It is like the mother who enjoys giving to her demanding baby. This is how it happens. We are now entering very interesting work. We are beginning to feel what is inside nature, in the depths of nature, the instinct just like the mother towards the baby, to feed and nurse it. We will discover these things. There is a lot here, many things about to be revealed to us. I am very happy about this.
13. S. (40:41) Is there a connection between the discovery of the deficiency of bestowal in the degree of Bina and the first spiritual degree?
R. To the extent that we begin to feel and detect within us this urge towards bestowal and are able to act and feel that within the action itself we are obtaining a reward, and are not demanding anything other than this action, the giving in itself is the pleasure. Then we can elaborate on this.
Excerpt 16 (42:19) Twice - RABASH, Article No. 289, "The Creator Is Meticulous with the Righteous"
14. R. (43:31) We may not distinguish yet all of these determines how much the fact that we are not getting any response any answer for our efforts which are all still egoistic efforts, however to the extent that we are not receiving no, all of these things accumulate and they build within us a need for a remedy. So that nevertheless we will feel that bestowal is the reward. This actually is what we need to attain in our work. That it is not reception that is the reward but rather bestowal is the reward. And therefore, through all kinds of actions we perform we are drawing and inviting the reforming light and it is what replaces within us, this foundation. What is the reward? We need to demand the reward, however that the reward will be the action of bestowal in itself and then in this act of bestowal the greater it is the more hidden it is not revealed, not it's beginning, and not its end is revealed to us, for the greater it is and by that by performing such actions we get the greater reward greater pleasure.
Reader repeats Excerpt 16.
15. R. (46:40) So the fact that we don't receive, we don't receive time and again any reward that we are expecting and hoping for in order to receive, this, eventually heals us. It is felt as a blow each time I am not receiving so it is a blow and then it turns out that by that I reach this advice out of lack of choice to work in faith above reason and I am not capable of it. However, bit by bit my efforts nevertheless awaken the reforming light. And that way I reach the remedy, that is I begin to feel that specifically in that I am not receiving anything in return out of my efforts, I begin to feel the reward in that.
16. S. (47:49) So it turns out that the action of distancing the Creator does for us as a result of us trying to come near Him. So how do you approach the Creator? What's the action I do to approach the Creator?
R. In that you are bestowing to others you have nothing to give to the Creator as it says what will you give Him? He does not have any lack and this is why you have before you the entire world. And you have what to do. To feel their lacks and to help them reach the right lack. In order to get the fulfillment from the Creator and by that you can do a favor to the Creator. Also, a favor to the created beings, it is all in your hands.
S. How come the desires are felt and the words are felt as if we are coming closer to the Creator and not to the people?
R. Because the people are all in a state, as you see them right in your eyes, they are all broken. These are broken egoistic desires and you have nothing to do with them, but only to cause them correction. This is what we do through dissemination and through our work, that we want to bestow to them. That we want to associate them with us and join them as the AHP as to the GE and this is what we are trying to do.
17. S. (49:53) We learn that we don't want to receive anything for a reward certainly not in order to receive but walking on the path we don't have the precise scrutiny of whether or not there is any contact with in order to receive or is it truly bestowal and the person always has this conflict, should he add something or not? How to examine if my intention is in the right direction?
R. You have the possibility to bestow to the 10 and you have the possibility to bestow to the entire vessel of Bnei Baruch, and also to the whole of humanity, in what? In bringing them closer to the Creator, in that you will explain to them, more, what does the correction mean. What should we advance towards and how should we behave in order to get closer to the Creator? This is the whole matter of dissemination. We, in that we need to engage so don't you tell me that you do not know and you do not understand you have clear actions before you that are before you, within the reach of your hand.
18. S. (51:21) How to combine work in the 10 and work with a bigger vessel like Bnei Baruch, the whole of humanity?
R. Only gradually if you with the whole 10 can operate towards a greater vessel, do it. If you cannot with the whole 10 to do it, then you can only perform actions of dissemination. That is an external explanation.
S. What does it mean to work the whole 10 in what way?
R. When we connect between us and we out of the connection between us want to bestow to our greater vessel of the whole of Bnei Baruch and how do we do it, well not in practice not corporeally, well maybe there's something to that also but mostly it's with the spiritual intention.
S. Is there a way to grasp this vessel of Bnei Baruch only after we are in connection in the ten?
R. Yes, otherwise, you don't even have the right perspective towards that, only when you feel what does it mean to be in a 10 out of that you can also depict what does it mean to the general vessel of Bnei Baruch to work, otherwise you don't have the right depiction of what is this vessel.
19. S. (53:04) How to correctly hold this idea that the blow is also healing because the instinct is to run away from the blow but it heals you, so how to hold on to these two concepts together?
R. If I feel that the blow is helping me to have the right relations towards bestowal, that it is holding me and aiming me towards bestowal and bestowal is important for me, then I am willing to have a certain feeling of the blow in order to aim myself towards bestowal. I don't quite know how to find better words for it but this is how it is. Well, let's say, here the question is broader. Why do we feel pain in all kinds of states in this world, in states where let's say, we hurt in our body? Why should this be accompanied by pain if there would be no pain, we would not take care of it, right? That's the whole issue that we give people, let's say, anti-pain medications and they may harm themselves because they do not feel it. That's on the one hand, on the other hand we do need to develop these medications otherwise we would not be able to take care of them to get surgery. So here, this is what it's all about how we awaken between us a special sensation towards things that are not felt in us. However, we would like them to be felt, we want to receive an awakening and a sensitivity towards the force of bestowal which we lack so how can we do it? So, we can do it in a simple way. We talk about it, we scrutinize it, each one shall help his friend, and in this way through envy lust and honor as it says, they bring a person out of his lack of sensitivity to an emotion towards the force of bestowal. There is nothing I can add here, these are the things here that we need to awaken within us.
20. S. (55:56) Before I put my question mark on, I aimed my intention to give contentment to the Creator through the world vessel and the question is, where is the ego when working with intention to bring contentment to the Creator and what should I do and what should I not do when working with the intention?
R. When we work in order to bestow contentment to the Creator our ego is working however in the opposite form. It is a force that does not go away, does not disappear from our actions from the relations between us from the relations between us and the Creator. Rather it is working and it is called coarseness. It is the basis of the spiritual vessel and specifically by standing upon it we are performing spiritual actions and in the opposite of it with reflected light, that same force that used to draw to itself and it wanted to receive specifically that same force now through the reflected light through the force of correction that is working on us, it become a force giving a force of love and giving away and this is how it becomes, how it works.
21. S. (57:36) We work from within our will to bestow contentment to the Creator. What does the Creator want from me? How to recognize the Creator's desire and work accordingly?
R. The Creator's desire is simple. He wants you to reach loving Him. So that you will feel in your developing, when you love towards Him, His love towards you. There is no more however in order to reach these things you have to go through all of the corrections and all of the interconnections to reach love of people and out of that from the love of people you will reach the love of the Creator. Then to the extent that you will reach turning to Him with love, you will also feel His love toward you. This is how it works and the end of the corrections, the purpose of creation is the adhesion and the highest degree of adhesion is love and this is why it says and you shall love the Lord your God.
22. S. (59:19) It says here in the excerpt, when a person is in a state of loneliness then there is no point in being meticulous with Him. What does it mean to let go of Him?
R. Well this is with respect to the Creator's attitude towards the person that the Creator relates to the person in a certain way so that he doesn't pay attention to the person's responses like we look at its baby, like we relate to the baby but only to the extent that something develops within him. Out of His recognition, out of His understanding, then according to that, we relate to Him. According to the same level of understanding and awareness in the baby we start to relate to Him and before that there's no one to relate to. It is just some piece of flesh that is behaving as it should behave according to nature. He is still on the level of the beast.
Excerpt 17 (01:00:38) RABASH, Article No. 44 (1990), "What Is an Optional War, in the Work - 2?"
23. R. (01:02:04) Yes in such a way the Creator plays with us as bad as it says, my beloved is like a gazelle as Baal HaSulam explains to us that the gazelle when it runs away it looks back at the person from which he has run away and this is why the Creator when he moves away, He is seemingly is distancing from the person but he also looks back at the person to what extent the person understands that this is the Creator who is moving away from him because by this He intends to pull the person to draw the person to Him, following the Creator. This is how they reach a state where the person is drawn to the Creator and he receives as it says here a push, a thrust towards adhesion because he cannot remain in a state of loneliness.
24. S. (01:03:16) Why is there a gap between the Creator's desire and the individual desire?
R. Because the individual desire is not a desire. We need to reach the general desire at least in the 10 or the 10 is the minimal quality of the vessel that can express itself towards the Creator and the Creator can relate back to him. The Creator cannot relate to an individual person because it is such an element, a part of the total desire and it cannot feel the Creator and it cannot be ready to receive anything from the Creator and that's why one person and individual is not ready considered a 10, you need it to have a 10 or at least two, the smallest collective is two.
25. S. (01:04:19) What is there in the Creator's posterior that draws the person's will to receive?
R. The Creator awakens deficiency in the person. When spirituality departs from him and he feels that he's in a lower degree egoistically speaking, that's why it is through the posterior.
26. S. (01:04:47) How can I detect the Creator or recognize the Creator's desire if I'm not getting a response from the Creator, how can I be certain it's not my ego that is deluding me?
R. If you could receive a reaction from the Creator, you would be in it already. You can't because you don't have a right attitude towards the Creator and you can't feel Him because you are in different feelings and values to such an extent that you cannot even feel the oppositeness you have towards the Creator. It turns out that you have no other choice but to make these exercises to develop the feeling of the other, or rather the feeling of the Creator through the feeling of the other and that's why the Creator created the will to receive and shattered it into many parts and you have to connect with these parts and try to connect with them and care about them and receive from them and so on and so forth. Because by that you begin to somehow prepare those qualities with which you can work with the Creator. Without reaching love with the other connection with the other you cannot come to work with the Creator. You don't know how to approach Him, that's why He is closed off. To the extent that you cannot reach the other, even more than that you cannot reach the Creator. That is why we can't approach Him directly also with what vessel would you approach Him? You don't have it; you don't have such a desire with which you can feel Him and bestow to Him. It is only if you connect if you have a 10. In order for you to reach some contact with Him the Creator shattered the will to receive and gave you the possibility through great exertion to connect these desires together since specifically from the connection of these different desires, desires that hate one another you can come to a state where you then have an understanding and a general desire correct thoughts in order to connect with Him. You learn from the connection in the 10 how to connect with the Creator and the Creator is the all-inclusive and if you connect with the 10, you will have a knowledge of the all-inclusive force, totality with which you can begin to connect.
27. S. (01:08:44) Nevertheless what turns our actions of connection in the 10 to actions of giving to the Creator?
R. They become actions of giving towards the Creator by themselves, rather we connect we feel how much we cannot connect and then we turn to the Creator to connect us. It is important for us to be together, it's important for us to connect and bestow mutually to one another. It is important for us to be as one man and one heart, although in each and every one there is hate, that is getting clarified towards the others. And a strong group, there'll be such currents such forces working against one and all the different members of it and from that we need to extract the coarseness and we present that to the Creator to correct it. And in this way, we will reach a refined State we already have a vessel that resembles the Creator to a small extent.
28. S. (01:10:11) How is the person drawn to the Creator out of the state of lowliness? What is this help that is given from the Creator?
R. Depending on what kind of lowliness we are talking about, is it lowliness because of lack of strength? Is it because he is not able to reach what he wants to reach? Is it because he wants to reach reception or bestowal? What does it mean, lowliness? Is it lowliness because he cannot obtain what he wants, but what does he want? That's what you need to clarify and scrutinize. Everyone can pray to the Creator and cry to Him, we usually say that to cry to the Creator and ask of Him anything we can, only for our connection because we lack nothing else. If there is connection between us in the 10, from that, we can turn to the Creator and demand from Him as from the complete vessel, that is ready to work in order to bestow and inside of it and from within it to the Creator to the same extent.
29. S. (01:11:54) You said we should not feel opposition with respect to the Creator. What does it mean this state?
R. We need to reach a state where we feel the Creator as our partner. Where, whatever we wish to do in spirituality He is our partner in that he helps us. He, on the one hand he is standing against us but in order to scrutinize what we are lacking and then He comes and helps us to the extent we ask for help, He comes and helps us to correct it meaning he helps scrutinize all the required corrections and then He helps make those corrections both sides, He is helping us. Just like we are playing with kids, we show them the flaws, we also give them examples for how to do it. With the Creator it's even more because His light does all the corrections. All that is required of us is to locate the place where we need Him, to scrutinize things, to correct them, to explain to us what to do and so on and so forth.
Excerpt 18 (01:13:43) Twice- RABASH, Article No. 44 (1990), "What Is an Optional War, in the Work - 2?"
30. R. (01:17:08) Baal HaSulam writes look at the way you were before, in a higher state than now. Don’t despair, go and rise even higher. We used to be impressed by how sensitive and understanding we were, how we spoke more to the point and now we are going through states that seem worse, that seem we have lost everything that we once had. This feeling comes to each and every friend. ‘The wicked in their lives are called dead.’ I feel that I am like a dead person. What can I do but to wake up, recuperate and start the work again.
31. S. (01:18:20) When a person is in descent, should we talk about how great he was prior to his descent?
R. It is very personal and sensitive. I don't know if I can tell you to speak one way or another. We need to know what works better for each person. Should we speak to him or not? If so, in what way? I am avoiding answering this question, as it is not so simple. It may seem like you are helping him, but maybe it is not worth it. Perhaps later you will see that the Creator corrected those things no matter what you have done or have not done for Him.
32. S. (01:19:57) Do we say that a person should not return to his previous state because it could be a Klipa?
R. We are speaking of a person who once was in a better state compared to now, in bestowing, giving and connection and now he is not. ‘The wicked in our lives are called dead’ this is what he writes so what are you asking?
S. In other lessons we learned that we need to advance from the present state to a new state, but here it seems that we are to derive life from an earlier state.
R. Yes, because I feel that I used to be in a better state than I am right now. Where did I fall? What is happening to me? These states are the result of my study and work in Bnei Baruch. A person is perplexed, as this is not the result, we’ve read about for a person who works for the Creator. What is this about? He awakens only by hearing the words of Torah by himself. Then he feels to what extent he was in a better state compared to today, this pushes him to new actions. He is not as impressed from hearing it from others.
S. What is the difference between drawing forces from a previous state to awaken myself? Between going back to Kedusha or to the shell to revive myself?
R. He is not going back to the Klipa rather it pushes him forward. He sees he was in a better state compared to now. This stimulates and pushes him forward. How can it be that he used to be better and more successful? That he was advancing? He was feeling and speaking on point but now is totally empty?