Morning Lesson February 02, 2024
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 1, 1986. Moses Went
https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/OnWQPVvx
1. Rav intro: (29:19) Okay thank you friend, if there are questions please.
2. S. (29:28) I want to say that first of all this is an exciting moment for us that our whole Ten is here for the first time. I want to ask about the beginning of the work, our feeling in the Ten that we want to do the work and he speaks about in the article here, about a bag that's too heavy to carry that was about to collapse. How with our vessels that we have at the moment, how can we know that we are doing enough work so that he can help us with soon to fall a load?
R. With your example of a person who stands in the middle of the street with the heavy bag he also has all kinds of questions. How will I carry the bag and am I even ready, prepared for such a load? It’s part of the work, but if we have an opportunity and all the data with which we can turn to the Creator for help then it's probably up to us and we probably shouldn't escape it.
3. S. (31:09) When he speaks about the faith above reason and honor of above, does this mean that we can receive these forces in a group or is this just a personal thing?
R. We're talking about this in a personal way but we're all in groups and we can't be torn out of the group, so we also have to realize that it is also a group work. Meaning there's a single law just like a man with respect to the Creator similarly the group is one towards the Creator.
4. S. (32:04) The work if I understood correctly is going above reason, right?
R. Yes.
S. What does it mean that a person decides he's going for that work? How can you make that decision? What are the conditions to make such a decision?
R. Well let's ask the friends maybe. When a person feels that his work demands him to go with faith above reason he first needs to see if he's in it, in such a force and if not he needs to ask.
S. It sounds like work above is a very advanced stage in the work, it's not something that a person just does immediately?
R. It's close to us, it’s in our hands, it's just in the direction of bestowal and it's just that we can't even move one mm away from my state but in faith above reason I can do that.
S. I understand so we're here with the friends in the group and we get opportunities to bestow with the simple things we do, and to us going into this work we're starting to carry the bag means doing actions that we understand as bestowal for now?
R. No, you make a calculation, and you see that if you make an effort for it in such a way you will be working in bestowal.
S. And then a person understands or not he just goes and does it, is that it?
R. What do you mean understand or doesn't understand?
S. Because the matter of bestowal is kind of not so obvious, am I bestowing am I not bestowing?
R. No, so you can't work. How do you decide that you can now make an action with faith above reason?
S. That was my first question.
R. He writes the conditions for you. First of all you're in a state where you have no strength of your own, no motive let's say or no reason for you to start working. Rather you first need to awaken in you the initial point, where do you begin and when can you begin from being in the group and it is ready to help you, to assist you if you show everyone how your work is above reason.
S. Meaning the initial stage is there's no forces of his own, that's where it starts?
R. In faith a but reason it's impossible that a person will have something, of course he doesn't.
S. How does a person get courage? I don't know how to constantly put himself in a place where he has no power, no forces and we don't like that, I don't know about others. I'll talk about myself, I don't like to put myself in some place that I don't have forces, I can't do I don't want to go into such states, the desire to receive really doesn't love that?
R. On the one hand, on the other hand it's a very very joyous point on the path that I have nothing for myself, and I can't make any action or slightest movement and then I can turn to the Creator and cry for Him to help me.
S. Is that the state that Baal HaSulam calls there's no happier state than a person's life?
R. Yes, yes.
5. S. (37:00) He writes that before every work we have the choice that depends on me and not to say that the Creator will help him and to put forth all the forces that he has. Why when a person clears the Creator from his work and works as if it all depends on himself, why is that the initial state the initial step?
R. Because he wants to decide out of all his forces and attributes what can he do about this.
S. When does he see that it's not in his power to do so?
R. He checks, he checks and he sees that he has no preparation for it.
S. Is this a stage for sorting desires that are going through him?
R. Correct.
6. S. (37:57) Can we say that the heavy bag, the heavy sack is the yearning for the Creator that is revealed in a person? Meaning that previously he didn't see that the help exists in the society but that now the deficiency is more aimed correctly and therefore he starts to be more sensitive to the help of the Creator?
R. He needs the Creator.
S. The direction changes and he actually discovers that the help is there before him?
R. Yes.
7. S. (38:52) In the Ten I feel that I'm developing, growing, going through certain states but accordingly I also feel that in the corporeal world I'm developing a certain empathy and altruism towards people. How can we differentiate between these two things?
R. Why?
S. Do I need to?
R. Between what and what again?
S. Between the corporeal world in my spiritual advancement with my group?
R. Why do you have to differentiate?
S. Because in the corporeal world not all people have the same goal as mine, not everyone wants to advance in spirituality?
R. What do you care about it?
S. I feel like they don't understand me and I'm not the same person I was and I'm constantly clashing against walls of misunderstanding?
R. Why do you demand of them to do what you do?
S. I'm not ,I simply talk and express myself in different ways and it's less accepted?
R. Why are you looking at me, friend?
S. I'm waiting for the answer.
R. I think that a person who wants to get closer to the Creator let's say, he has no complaints about other people. Rather the Creator is aiming them in their way, and he only exists among everyone and asks the Creator for forces of bestowal, what he needs.
S. It's simply more difficult when it has to do with family, relatives, people that were before my point in the heart when I was born?
R. Yes, but you have to feel that now you're in a new state therefore how do you look at them and the Creator and all of reality, and how they look at you and there are changes but the changes they are manageable.
S. Are the sensations that I feel, do I need to cause them happiness and that in the end there's some judgment day that they will see and look at all their thoughts that I thought, and all the statements I stated and know everything. Are those feelings correct and the apathy I feel towards them?
R. I'm not sure what to tell you. We have to try and follow what Baal HaSulam writes. Do I need to demand my environment to act like I do? Of course not. Do I need to influence them with some idea or power which goes against what they're doing now, also I think no. However, we need to take care of ourselves.
S. But if I'm on the right path, why can't I draw them with me, why do I need to get out and hide this and not show them?
R. In the right way you should influence them only through example, only through example by making actions of bestowal. First of all they see it, perhaps they'll also see the reason why you do it and then they'll get closer that's one thing. Secondly from being among them you'll influence them, because around you will be some kind of field that pulls them to a new direction and that's enough.
8. S. (44:12) He writes here when they enjoy the work meaning when they're eating, although this is also work but when he enjoys in action in the time of the act it's not considered work. What is considered work and what isn't considered work?
R. The work is called that a person wants to get rid of it. Meaning does the reward, let's say covers the expenses so to speak. That with the same amount of power that a person attaches to his actions and the same forces, they will ultimately align the person where to walk and how to walk. I got a few thoughts going on and I am losing my direction between them.
9. S. (46:14) He writes, he stands and expects that the Creator will send a spirit of repentance and with that he'll never come to the truth. Sometimes a person does everything he has to, comes every morning to the lesson, even performs a certain role and serves the society, doesn't miss out on his zooms, the workshops, answers his time, does the work, and expects that from that something will happen. Is that considered that he's standing and waiting for the truth, and it never comes, is there something missing?
R. A person needs to every single moment expect to receive some change from the Creator whereas at any given moment he will change.
S. Based on what will he change, he puts everything on the land, and he is saying when will the Creator come?
R. No, no we're talking about the condition that he does work.
S. Working means that he puts the sack on his shoulders and then the Creator will help him?
R. Yes.
S. What does it mean that we're lifting up this sack because again this technical work or that we're coming to the lessons, we're participating in everything and even serving the society. Is that really picking up the sack or is there something more internal?
R. You're looking for new ways by which to nevertheless lift up that sack and how to move it towards the goal.
S. What is to lift up the sack in our work?
R. To pick up the sack in our work means that in my work I receive from my connection to the group another part that didn't participate earlier in connection, and I tried to adapt it to connection.
S. That'll have to be discerned. The word connection is so amorphic, that it is so distant?
R. No, no you need to know that this force needs to be as your representative in the Creator and in the connection with everyone.
S. I'll think about it, thank you.
10. S. (49:11) It's important for a person to lift up that sack, it's already very important for him to pick up that sack and he feels that the sack is very heavy, it's a ton and he can't pick it up alone. That already is a very important point, and he was told, and he knows that one of the means he has in order to lift up the sack is to turn to his friends, to turn to his Ten?
R. Yes.
S. Now we touched upon this yesterday that something that really hurts and it's very important to a person and he asks. My question is before we turn to the Ten, before we turn for help what is the proceeding attitude, what is the work of the one who's asking, what should his attitude be towards the one who's asking from, towards the Ten?
R. What do I need to do, why do I need to do that, what's the benefit from me appealing to the Creator, what is the benefit from me turning from the Creator to the friends. How will I be more sensitive to the help of the friends. Where they're doing something right now too, but I don't feel it, and this is how he advances.
S. Does he need to be convinced that he will come to the point where he's convinced that they will help him or the very fact that he's asking because he was told? There are like two levels here right?
R. That he doesn't know if it's two layers or levels or several. It's written, one will help his friend. He starts to investigate this and begins to get into it to what extent he can help them and to what extent they can help him.
S. By asking to be helped as well?
R. It could be.
S. In what way?
R. In his deficiency.
11. S. (52:05) It's written at the end of the article that when a person has no right arm called delighted in mercy, in which he can enjoy the work then the Sitra Achra comes again and does the work. What does it mean that we're not allowed to enjoy from the effort in the work?
R. In essence, yes. We need to enjoy not from the efforts themselves but rather from to what extent the efforts impact the Creator and there is relation to the friends.
S. How can we examine whether our efforts bring delight to the Creator and towards the friends?
R. You're asking for your work to include already some raising of MAN on your behalf, some payment that you want to receive for your action, you want your friends to receive from this upliftment.
S. Meaning let's say I come to the lesson I make a certain effort and I feel good about that, so that's prohibited? Rather it needs to be such that I'm expecting that the friends will have an upliftment for my actions? Yes, is that so?
R. That's on one hand on the other hand it's not supposed to feel bad from this, it's not something that you know would cause a blessing that way.
S. Is it good that I feel bad from the effort?
R. No, your attitude towards your efforts needs to be in the same direction in which you think to move yourself.
12. S. (54:38) What does it mean that which is written here that he hangs it on the land his stuff, faith above reason has no force whatsoever and rather everything stands hanging in the air?
R. Yes, yes that's exactly this, that he understands that he has no assurance and that his efforts will succeed at any point. Rather just the Creator that he turns to can change his state and bring him closer to correction.
13. S. (55:32) Do we need the state of the sack, which is on our back to slide down, fall down in order to ask the Creator or can we prevent it beforehand so that it doesn't fall off the back?
R. No, the sack is seemingly falling, and a person is afraid that at any given point the sack would fall off. What does that mean and what is that in our feeling in the thought of a person? That I won't be able to bring contentment to the Creator.
S. That's fear actually? This is fear of not reaching the goal?
R. Yes, I won’t be able to bestow to the Creator and then if he feels that he's happy from that. That he now discovers a new point of deficiency and he's asking the Creator to give him forces to sustain himself in that.
14. S. (57:09) When we say that only the Creator can help, and man still needs to look for help through some clothing whether it's friends or the article. Not that suddenly some abstract force comes to him and then it overcomes his will to receive, meaning there has to be some calculation where you see that the Creator helps, let's say through the group?
R. Think, check it, examine it.
S. Even just the fact that a person remembers and hears but he remembers he needs to turn, is that already assistance?
R. Yes, that's already help.
S. It's insufficient, this assistance?
R. I don't know. It depends on what conditions, on what circumstances.
15. S. (58:28) We talked about the state of the prayer, a person who turns, is there a state that the Ten also does this collectively or is it an individual's work and how to get there?
R. How do we reach in our work a common action by us connecting and our intentions and desires, our actions are aimed towards us being and as one man in one heart in a certain action like that.
16. S. (59:31) I understood from the article Aaron is a force that draws us closer to the force of bestowal, and the Creator that it precedes the force of Moses but there's a nuance I can't understand. Why is this force attributed to the act of Mercy? It should belong to the left side, where is this connection that Aaron is on the left side and when does it move to the right?
R. We will scrutinize that a little later he doesn't really go too deep in this matter.
17. S. (01:00:23) Should we relate to effort like a game, that the Creator should love this game even if we don't love this game we need to incorporate with it and really do it in a true sense?
R. There are such states in which we have to do so, we have to check it and scrutinize it.
18. S. (01:01:18) It is said that one who starts the work does it because he wants to because the passion to do the work to reach the truth pushes him forward. Where does the passion come from?
R. Of course from the Creator but that's even before that.
S. Why do we say it's from himself when he doesn't want to wait for the Creator, is it from the person or not waiting for the Creator?
R. At this given moment in this state it doesn’t come, it came to him from the previous action let's say, therefore it's attributed to the Creator.
19. S. (01:02:18) Is it correct to say that the state of the death of Aaron is a kind of a shattering when a person loses the will to bestow and moves to work within reason with self-love. Then in his plight he turns to the Creator with a cry, with a prayer and it says that one who comes to purify is aided. Are we supposed to go through this process where these processes are all supposed to go through during our spiritual development?
R. Yes, yes of course, otherwise why would it be, they are telling us about this.