Morning Lesson February 29, 2024

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 15, 1988. What Is “There Is No Blessing in an Empty Place” in the Work?

1. S. (48:55) First of all a huge impression, and I don't understand how Kabbalah students existed before the Rabash articles existed, each time I feel anew how I take a beast and implants in it the desire to become an Adam, each time anew it's simply exploding with gratitude for the privilege of being here together and reading this article. Now to the deficiency, he gives here throughout the article this concept about ‘the shared trouble of others as half a comfort’ and later he answers it in a way that leaves a deficiency but I will ask anyway. I will read, he writes when a person sees that there are other people that are not engaging in Lishma and he feels that they're not in a state that's so bad for them, and the trouble of many is half the comfort, If so they complete half of his deficiency with their filling. Therefore he doesn't need the Creator to help him for only half a deficiency; it turns out that he only lacks half a Kli  and the Creator gives the feeling upon a complete Kli, that is for a complete deficiency. 

Now we are here with abundance I have a Ten, I look at them, I see the whole group, the article of Rabash and I have here I feel like some kind of completion to half of my deficiency, I really feel like this is the state that everything's good here and I understand this is a state along the way that we have to go through because of what Rabash writes about it. The question is, how do we hasten this state? How do we, from this state on one hand where there's all these good conditions, doesn't become for us some shared trouble that because of that we can't come to the prayer?

R. You're saying that we are in a state where we can’t have a feeling of deficiency?

S. A whole deficiency.

R. Yes, a whole deficiency, a complete one. Why?

S. Because I look around it it's true, that's what I see, I'm sure I don't see precisely but he writes ‘I look around and I see and I feel that they're in a state that's not so bad for them’, what I just read right, I can read it again.

R. Yes, yes, I understand. But it's not the same deficiency that you want to feel.

S. No. But on the other hand it fills me up, I have a Ten, I meet with them, we're together, and I sometimes see how I'm better than them, I'm succeeding to come here and there etc, those are things that fill up a person. Again, I understand that it's a state along the way that we have to go through. On the other hand I'm kind of asking how not to be stuck in that state? How to hasten it?

R. You don't feel that after all of that you are left empty?

S. Exactly.

R. You don't feel it?

S. No.

R. You're looking for it?

S. Otherwise there won't be a whole prayer?

R. Well. Do you have an answer for him?

2. S. (53:06)  A person needs to come to a state according to the article where he feels like he's the worst of everyone, and only he is in that state. And if we're in a society where we're constantly around  greatness and abundance and all that, and we are actually nourishing one another with wholeness, we don't share deficiencies; the deficiencies are like each on their own. How from this state can a person come to the feeling that he is the worst of everyone in the world? 

R. Yes.

3. S. (53:5) We learned, we are learning at least I thought so until this article that, actually I come with a very small deficiency for spirituality, and only through the environment and incorporating and annulment before the friends you come to the necessary intensity to form a prayer. According to what he writes here, it seems like, I don't imagine another deficiency as the deficiency for bestowing. So, what he writes here is the fact that my friends have that deficiency, It connects in me the deficiency for spirituality.

R. Okay, so what do we do?

4. S. (54:44) He actually gives a solution here and question is how do we get to it? He writes that certainly this knowledge comes from above and not from his own forces.

R. Which knowledge?

S. That is not working Lishma, that's the higher knowledge that Rambam talks about here. As long as the Creator does not reveal himself to the person in the heart and give him that feeling, he doesn't really have a connection to the Creator; he's never really praying to him. So, that's the only solution and it kind of comes from above. That Rambam says here that we have to reach the state of much knowledge and this knowledge and this wisdom is given into him from above, meaning, according to this Wisdom, we need to aspire to be wiser for us to be given more Wisdom but it doesn't depend on us.

R. If so, what do we do? 

5. S. (56:13) I think the main issue is that we are trying in the ‘vessels of reason’ to work on something that should be in ‘vessels of faith’, and it just won't work. We simply need to understand that we have to go through it; It's impossible with ‘vessels of reason’ to attain matters that only come in ‘vessels of faith’.

R. He's saying something. Okay. 

So, what do we do? Did you all understand better?

6. S. (56:56) I didn't understand more. I marked what the friend said, that there's this leap from where a person..he writes here in the middle of the article, though they too feel that they're not yet in this true wholeness, nevertheless they feel themselves standing above the general public, even though they have Torah and Mitzvot but they're missing advancement in quantity, but in quality they understand that they have to add but it's not too bad, there are worse people than them. But they believe that there's always what to add, but they can live and even without any addition to what they have. That's the state that I'm describing, you can live like this. Then he says, it's like the answer and then there's a leap here, I'd love to be able to scrutinize this gap. Why does this person really feel like he has nothing? Who revealed the secret that we have to go to Lishma and he's still far from it? Therefore he is suffering and he feels himself poor that he doesn't have. In short he feels himself poor so there's this leap from you can live this way, and all of a sudden Rabash jumps it to a place from where it feels like from the same state it moves to a state and where ‘my death is better than my life’.  There's this emotional leap here, it's clear that the Creator compliments and completes this spin but the question is, can we haste in the state, bring the state that where the state that is good for us, we study with a group of  Kabbalistis, Bnei Baruch, study a lesson with a Kabbalist, with Rabash we do what’s needed, we can live like that. To a state where it feels to us that from the same state it feels like to a state that I'd rather be dead than alive? What kind of trigger needs to be here? How can we hasten to move there?

R. There needs to be a calculation here; between a person and the Creator. That's what's important. Because a person can calm himself down more and more here. 

7. S. (59:35) In this process eventually a person comes to a state that he feels that he is the lowest. That's where he needs to arrive in this whole process. Also in the society of Kabbalists, that is the Creator gives it at the end, and then he says he need to give a blessing on this. Sorry if I'm deviating from the topic we scrutinize thus far, but how can you give a blessing when you go through this process and you discover your wicked and you do the calculation as you said and then you give a blessing on that? How can you give a blessing in such a state before a prayer?

R. Okay. Anything more to add?

8. S. (01:00:38) Maybe in the state that the friend talked about is actually the place for the prayer before a prayer, and then if I put the yearning, the necessity of the society of the friends that will move me in this way. Finally I see that it’s clear that they’re higher than me. They're in wholeness and the Creator is playing with me, because I see everything outside of me, it comes from within me. Eventually, i come to a complete deficiency out of envy, that they're so high and I am lucky to just be near them. I need to be like them. 

R.  What's the difference between their state and where you are?

S. They are in connection, they are in faith, they are in service of the Creator. And the Creator gives me the opportunity to be beside them so that maybe I will come to the same state of also being in service of the Creator. And I'm hungry from their devotion. I want to be like my Ten. 

R. Beautiful, beautiful.

9. S. (01:02:44)  There's a beautiful example that he gives here that really the question is how do we get such a deficiency? He says, It is felt more in women, that if they are lacking something, even if they have more things, more than her friends. If she feels like she's missing something she can say I'd rather die than live, and cannot even be comforted by the fact that she has things more than her friends. But if the deficiency touches her heart, she said that she feels more miserable than the whole world. And the question: How do we come to such a deficiency like women?

R.  Where do the women have that deficiency that men do not have?

S.  Here he talks about an example from nature.

R.  But where do they get it from according to nature?

S.  The root is Malchut. Upper root. That is how she’s created, the woman.

R.  A womb. And?

S. This feeling is missing.

R. This feeling is missing from a person and he can complete it by connecting to the Creator and participating in birth and the fulfillment of the spiritual Partzuf.

10. S. (01:04:13)  I see that what is discerned here is what a person's prayer should be throughout the day, that he must have the Creator fill for him, complete it for him for him to have a complete deficiency otherwise he would be dead. He will never be able to come out of his state, he will never have a complete prayer and he himself cannot attain it, he must have the Creator to give it to him. It’s a feeling that you can go with all the long; the feeling that you are missing the Creator to complete this for you.

R. Yes, yes, correct

11. S. (01:05:06) Throughout the article he talks about the truth. A person wants to go to the path of truth. The truth is revealed to him if he has a true deficiency and then he has to give gratitude and be in joy the Creator reveals to him the truth. What is that state that the Creator discloses the truth to a person and also how to be in joy to be revealed to him that he is in such a terrible state?

R. Truth include all the vessels, also according to how they write it: aleph, mem, tav , emet,  truth. It's all the vessels

S. When a person, especially when he’s working, is a developing creature. Everyday he sees that he’s not in truth because truth is something that belongs to the future, the present is when he's not in truth. How can he be in joy from the truth being revealed to him when he is not in truth?

R. Yes, he is happy that they’ve shown him that he understands what's before him, understands that the Creator is ready for it and all that is missing is a certain period of time for a person to complete the exertion.

S. The whole knowledge or evaluation of a person when he compares himself to himself or to others, what he that he has, what the others have, and according to that he defines his state and he also knows his deficiencies but he can be certain that he is not in the state of truth not even in truth relative to what he will think tomorrow.

R. It's already part of the truth to find out that you are not in it.

S. Where is the confidence that tomorrow the higher truth will be revealed to him come from, and how does he know that, how can he trust himself?

R. He needs to be happy in his lot, he needs to be extremely satisfied because he has a part, he takes part in the work of the Creator and in truth he doesn't think about the future so much. He enjoys the fact that today as well he's moving closer to the Creator.

S. Where does the person get the confidence that he will receive assistance from above?

R. From having a prayer and a connection with the Creator that He will give him everything he will require to reach the end of the exertion.

12. S. (01:09:04) In the Rabash articles he talks about revealing a deficiency. where the person needs to see that he's the worst of everyone and also to thank the Creator for revealing it. The question is, whether in a complete manner he discovers here the request of the Creator, where it’s written, the request for Him to come closer, that He will aid a person to come closer to him.  Is that a complete request?

R. It looks like a complete request will be at the end of the path, the last prayer, the final prayer, and what is happening now still incomplete, but a person will feel that it is on the way and he has to advance and come closer and move forward in this path and that's how he advances. 

13. S. (01:10:24) What is the …. shall have comfort?

R. Simply put, if a deficiency exists in each and every one then a person who has that deficiency as well doesn’t feel it as the end of the world.

S. Is the trouble the deficiency?

R.  Yes.

S. Why is the ….. only a half comfort and not a complete comfort?

R. Because a person can do something here to come out of it. He is not connected with everyone but the deficiency. He might still have freedom of choice, his opinion and then he can try to determine something by himself.

S. How to get comfort from the Creator and not from the environment?

R. We wish to receive from the Creator not comfort, but to show Him that we can attain His consolation on the condition that He will fill all the wishes in our hearts.

14. S. (01:12:15) A shared trouble half comfort sounds like it calms the person down.

R. I don't know. It's such a half that it comes to show a person to what extent he has another half waiting.

S. That half that a person needs to reveal he usually receives examples from the society and from people that give examples.

R. Which is worse because then he sees that everyone has it and he doesn't.

S. If he sees that he has and they don’t, they have and he doesn’t, it pushes him. He can either put him in despair or drive him and say I also want. What is preferred, to receive in the society example. power an impression from friends that are having difficulty along the way and from time to time manage to show signs of life, or to give an example to friends who are persistent, devoted, determined on the path? What pushes a person more, what drives him more?

R. That's his work in the Ten and the attitude for the Creator to him precisely, at the root of his soul, in other words if a person must reach the solution then he comes to it.

S. What will bring a person to the solution to make the friends greater that are devoted and are persistent or to see the friends that are struggling and from time to time are succeeding. Where is the emphasis if there is such a thing?

R. There are different states both for this and that but what's important for a person is to subdue himself, lower his head and thus turn to the Creator. He's willing to be the last one of Tens or hundreds or thousands or even the entire world, the last one and then he would be even happier being the last one as if the world relies on him and he holds the world and pushes them all forward to final the correction, towards unity with the Creator and that’s why he’s praying for it.

15. S. (01:15:54) Rabash says that once a person feels the suffering so he has that point of truth where he feels the distance from the Creator and he can pray and be happy for that. Now here in the same point when a person feels the suffering, how to truly ask correctly for the gift the Creator gave him, not just take the suffering away and give me some fulfillment in the will to receive and make me calm.

R. That depends on man's vessels, how attached to the society he is and to the Creator. Is he able to choose something opposite?  

S. He feels suffering now, he’s in a state that isn’t so clear on the path and he knows he has to be with the Ten but he still cannot focus his plea correctly, he feels bad and he wants to feel good now. Usually he came to society and felt good, now also that doesn't even make him feel good so there’s a point that the Creator is giving him another gift and directing him towards that suffering, so how does a person use this suffering correctly?

R. He has to replace that type of suffering.

S. How do you do that? How do you exchange suffering to what the Rabash is speaking about? That I have happiness that I have the truth before me that now I can demand from the Creator and really be blessed that gets blessed and not be cursed that is trying to adhere to something blessed?

R. How does he choose to be blessed?

S. What do we invert the suffering like you said?

R. The suffering transforms that’s only by the light that reforms. There's no other solution here and where does it come from? From above and how does the person awaken that? By his attitude to the friends. I don't exactly see where you are trying to put the obstacle.

S. I'm trying to realize what Rabash writes at the end, that I will I remain in a state that I demanding correctly that the Creator will fulfill my wishes and I won't fall into the 

Sitra Achra but remain in holiness. He gave me the gift to see that there’s suffering, that I’m distant from the work, he showed me the truth. I’m supposed to be happy from this work and now is the time to pray.

R. Yes.

S. At this point sometimes I feel that I’m falling into a state that I’m not for what the Rabash is writing about but I’m just asking for less suffering. I just want to feel good, so how not to get confused about a good feeling that man wants and not to fall from Holiness, to remain in Holiness, to remain in the work that Rabash was talking about.

R. You have exactly in your feeling the gap between being in order to receive and being in order to bestow.

S. I feel that area developing but I always lose it because I want to feel good again.

R. How can you revive this gap, insist on it and stand upright on it?

S. They say only through adhering to the Ten, that from then I can take another deficiency.

R. Well, and how to get to that?

S. I think that's what the friend tried to talk about too that here it’s like oh, you’re calm because everything is going through the same thing so everyone has a deficiency but we cannot give that extra push, the last push to truly reach Lishma. 

R. What is the difference between a deficiency that the Ten awakens in you and the deficiency that you wish to achieve?

S. The difference isn’t the feeling that there's a big gap in what I feel compared to what I'm supposed to feel. 

R. Yes.

S. I'm always asking for that, to close this gap, that I'm able to get the greatness from them.

R. All right. Do you have something to add for sure?

16. S. (01:21:34) I feel that there’s one thing and its opposite because earlier you had complaints to the Creator for going on the path of a lie so it could be that he was searching for a different goals but now that the Ten is showing me that there was an alien force controlling me and now it’s showing me the truth so I see that the Creator is treating me the whole path the right and good way and it strengthens my connection that the Creator is good and the faith that He can answer if I ask correctly and walk the path correctly so it awakens happiness to that revelation of truth.

R.  Yes.

17. S. (01:22:29)  How can we advance specifically through subjugation? Why doesn't it make you stand in place?

R. By a way of submission you can't advance unless you accept all the responses from the Creator as an opportunity for your response and progress.

S. How can I awaken another response from the Creator and not just go ahead and want?

R. By the responses, by responding to what you feel from Him.

S. Yes, but in order to feel from Him I have to try to break ahead, breakthrough, no? 

R. Well, let's say.

S. It’s opposite from subjugation or does that come later?

R. No, subjugation is not related to this or that. Only try to feel the response of the Creator and try to stand against it

S. What do you mean against it?

R. To respond to that to Him.

S. How can I stabilize this point even stronger? In relation to what you said before that I'm pushing everybody ahead and I want him to be first. How does one work out with the other? That’s the work that I have to respond to, that's the work that the Creator responds to?

R. Yes, make it s.

18. S. (01:24:30) According to what I understand from the article, there's an essential point in the work when a person goes from Lo Lishma to Lishma. He gives it a lot of words here that they reveal the secret to him, they reveal the truth to him, they reveal something essential, there's all kinds of words that he repeats here.

R. Yes.

S. Once it’s revealed so he feels it and doesn’t only hear that he has to work for the Creator and not for himself, he feels it in his bones.

R. Go ahead.

S. Now when that happens so the path is paved. The deficiency keeps leading him and he’s not calm from being in the Ten anymore and so on, but in order to reach that obviously it comes from above and it says it’s bit by bit. He gets a feeling and it’s taken away and the evil inclination grows and so on. What I wanted to ask about is, bit by bit, that process, is there anything to add from that? We know what we’re doing everyday, we come, we try and eventually the Creator gives us a bit more of that feeling until it accumulates to some inversion point, but is there anything to add in that?

R. That's on the way. What you see that’s possible.

S. When the inversion happens the person knows, right? The secret’s revealed, he feels it but how long will it take, you don’t know and so on?

R. These questions you give up in advance on.

S. In our work we are used to it. Is there anything additional we can learn from the article?

R. Yes, of course between the states there are many more questions in responses that we need to give but to me it seems complete.

19. S. (01:26:53) He writes that if he says that there's someone who is similar to him that has a deficiency for spirituality he can already get a filling because of the sorrow of the many, it calms you. Is that connected to what we have in the Ten or not?

R. What is he explaining to us?

S. It seems that he wrote that his deficiency is lacking for wholeness because it’s only half of deficiency because that half is completed for him, and then he writes that if there's someone similar to him who has a deficiency for spirituality so who are my friends? It’s people who have similar deficiency for spirituality, so the question is that they’re not letting us reach a full deficiency, a whole deficiency, everything’s convenient and okay.

R. That they provide satisfaction in what?

S. That the person feels confident that he's in a big society, we’re sure we’re going to reach a goal and so on. Is there such a thing or not?

R. On a corporeal sense of course there is.

S. What he wrote here is that connected to what happened here between us? Maybe there's a danger?

R. Of course there is. This is part of the sorrow of many is half a sorrow,

S. How do you work in such a state?

R. When I choose who are the many, what is the force of the many, the amount of them.

S. In the group?

R. Certainly inside the group, of course. Outside the group I don’t even count that.

S. How do you choose?

R. No, I can’t do that. This is something you all have to choose, each one according to what awakens in him.

S. It seems he’s giving a few conditions in how to reach a complete deficiency a whole deficiency. He writes that he finds more people who are lacking what he's lacking. Second is that he’s the worst. Three that he needs it from the bottom of his heart and at the end he says you need one desire that there's no other desires mixed in there, so there's a few conditions. The question is, how to gather it all into one state, all these conditions?

R. Try, try in all the times, in all the states.

S. It could be in other states at once. Is there a condition that all the conditions have to come at once?

R. That too you should scrutinize. That's one of the conditions as well.

S. He writes that gradually he starts understanding that it’s worth working for the Creator and not for himself if it’s before the correction so in what vessel can he understand that?

R. For now he has strength to work on that.

S. In coercion you mean?

R. Not by coercion by force. Okay you want to call it by coercion fine.

S. It's like a definition that after, it's revealed to him gradually meaning that they understand that it's worth working for the Creator not for himself so is that before the person get the correction of the intention to bestow?

R.  That it is still by force.

20. S. (01:31:25) Did we already reach a state where every Ten can put themselves below other Tens so that we can raise other Tens through our common prayer?

R. Okay, and?

S. That's the goal, that's the next stage, right? So when can we put ourselves in that kind of work?

R. Let’s say you can and then what? 

21. S. (01:32:34) What does it mean that you cannot give a blessing for an empty table?

R. To bless for something you need to have something in your hand. If you have nothing you cannot bless, rather if you got something from the Creator and you know and see for sure that you got it from the Creator then you bless for it, that's one.

S. Do you still receive something in the vessels of reception?

R. You have to see what could be coming from the Creator either one direction or the direction.

22. S. (01:33:33) Is every state considered an ugly state if we drown in it?

R. Yes.

S. What does it mean not to drown in it?

R. Yes.

S. It means we like the Creator and the state is like creation and we are serving it?

R. Let's say if that’s how you understand.

S. To be first and last is that the same thing?

R. Yes, that is in relation to the various discernments.

23. S. (01:34:27) The article gives us an intention about the deficiency. How can a person come to see his true deficiency in order to give the desired effort?

R. How can a person reach a true deficiency? Yes, and?

S. In order to give the desired effort. 

R. If he's connected with the friends and he sees how all of them together are in a state of descent then that gives him great power to change the state, great demand.

 24. S. (01:35:45) How can a person see his friend when he's in a descent?

R. That's not always the case but sometimes he sees those fall and others go up, he has such a feeling, it happens. What to do about it? Try to influence them in such a way that they are all up high.

25. S. (01:36:39) The intention to bestow, do we ourselves build it or is it not in my powers?

R. Yes, intentions to bestow I acquire from what is revealed to me from higher states. 

S. That’s called that I’m working Lishma?

R. No, you’re just trying, working to establish your vessels of bestowal.

26. S. (01:37:20) It is written that it’s not that you're not allowed to reveal for him but it's impossible, meaning it all depends on the readiness of a person to receive that force from above.

R. Yes.

S. The only way is actually to strengthen in faith above reason.

R. Yes, ultimately yes.

S. That's what we have in the Ten to strengthen in faith above reason?

R. Yes.

27. S. (01:38:04) I want to relate to discussion about the sorrow of the many is half a consolation. Once we get that additional wisdom that it actually only comes from above, so we're happy about it being revealed from above and here there's a state the table’s entirely empty, it’s full, and we are happy that we are in an environment where the Tens also received it, from here from that we are happy, and then when we want to ask we at that moment actually build the minion and decide that I'm going from a state of wholeness and happiness, like Rabash is explaining, I really check what I actually have so we’re only at the beginning of the path and then I'm not allowed to look at, oh there’s more friends that haven’t gotten there yet, I have to look at myself that I didn’t get there yet, that's the interesting part. It’s a matter of importance and the magnitude of the goal. It’s either I look at myself and I decide that that’s what I asked for, that we have to ask for happiness in that state too so then we call the future into the present.

R. I don't know exactly what you're talking about we're bringing the future to the present.

S. What I'm trying to say is that the plea and the demand for having nothing and asking for it has to be through happiness. It's true that I’m in a…

R. That’s why it’s what’s written but I have a problem. I have to complete the lesson so we continue at another time.

28. S. (01:40:52) As I understand when a person exerts himself trying to connect to the Ten he develops love for the friends because he invests in them, the friends become precious to him, that's the prayer to the Creator, do the same thing to the person's heart. Does a person develop love for the Creator because he invests his heart to the Creator through prayer.

R. Yes.

29. S. (01:41:41) It is written that the problems of the many is half a comfort. Should we share our troubles with others so we can share with them?

R. Did anyone understand?

S. Should we prevent ourselves from sharing our troubles or not?

R. No, these are vessels. By this we awaken vessels in the friends. 

30. S. (01:42:45) I see that if I have a deficiency and the others have the same deficiency I can connect the deficiencies and build a vessel but that's like half a comfort. Once I get the blessing and the fulfillment that’s the other half of the comfort.

R. Yes.

S. Then it turns out that it’s not that the deficiency is restricted and a person is calmed down, the deficiency becomes strong.

R. Correct.

31. S. (01:43:56) There’s an impression that to see myself as the only one who isn’t corrected and the lowest that’s the truth that the Creator lets us feel every so often, so the question is, in what does that revelation depend on?

R. Depends on the efforts to get closer to the friends and to the Creator.

32. S. (01:44:34) Is there a full deficiency on every degree or is it only filled once before Gmar Tikkun?

R. Both these and that needs to be.