Morning Lesson October 12, 2021 Transcription
Part 1:
Article 19, Baal HaSulam - What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work? (However, if the Creator gives one some illumination)
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/tk2qRJuw?language=en
1. Rav’s Introduction: This article is very unique even though it seems relatively easy but there are such points and segues, transitions between these points where he provides a lot of discernment. We usually skip over that, and we don't really sense or really get into it, we just kind of skip over it. So, we should repeat this article again and again, maybe we will do that afterwards. But for now, let’s continue and if there are questions then go ahead. There are many points here that don't awaken right away in a person but according to his experience on the path, as much as he can see it, because it speaks in words that we are kind of used to. But still, you want to pay attention to each word that he says here, because each word represents a state that we go through.
Shamati 19 (02:05) “Since there is a rule that there is fear of heaven only from….”
2. R. (03:30) Meaning, we have to reach a state where we feel that there is great resistance of our will to receive to even make a step, an action, one thought, one deed, towards bestowal. Then, we can see how we are in a state where we are powerless, we are reluctant, we are held captive by our ego, our will to receive, that does not let us move whether it is in thought, desire or action, and that is a problem. That our will to receive forces us to do the deeds and actions that it desires, and we begin to better understand in our mind that if we had a desire to bestow, it would force us to do other actions and think other thoughts. But, bit by bit, we discover with all the efforts we make how much we are not capable of that. Then, we could be in a state where we would like to have some thoughts, and make some actions and calculations of bestowal, but we can’t. We immediately, or after some struggle, we surrender and flow with the current of the will to receive.
Reader continues (05:31): “However, if the Creator gives one some illumination above….”
3. R. (06:13) If the Creator gives love, gives a hug, gives connection, closeness to a person, to that extent he begins to first hate the evil. The hatred towards the evil pushes him away from the evil, he can’t touch it and that is how he advances. We have to see here that we have to achieve love of the Creator because it detaches us from the evil, it is a power, the power of love towards the Creator attracts us towards Him and takes us out of the evil.
Reader continues (06:57): “This means that the love of the Creator extends.…’’
4. R. (07:07) That is very important. The love of the Creator extends from the place of evil, meaning only if we feel the evil, the hatred towards the ego, how much I can't get out of it and it's always holding me captive, and this way I develop hatred towards it. To that extent, I begin to feel that I have love towards the Creator, at least some relation to the Creator, it gradually builds up and shapes up in a person all the way towards love, urgency, necessity, to the point that I am better off dead, I have to reach Him. Then, to that extent arises hatred towards the will to receive that prevents me from uniting with the Creator and that's how we advance.
Reader continues (08:16): “In other words, to the extent that one has hatred for evil….”
5. R. (08:38) At first, in the beginning of the path, a person agrees with what is happening, he thinks that these are states he has to go through, and he surrenders. Just like he has ascents, he also has descents, just like he has attraction towards bestowal and the group. Then, there is also some sensation of it, he doesn't understand that these things don't just happen by themselves like waves in the ocean, but that they happen in order for him to relate to that correctly. So, he has to develop this relation towards the state of detachment, to feel the evil in that, not the evil in that he feels bad, but he feels bad because he is distant from the Creator, distant from bestowal, from connection. Then, correspondingly he begins to develop gradually a preparation for Tzimtzum, Masach, and Ohr Hozer (restriction, screen, and reflected light), he begins to build the basis for the spiritual Partzuf in him.
Reader continues (10:13): “this means that to the extent that he has hatred for the….”
6. R. (10:38) So on the condition that he wants to reach the goal, the wholeness of the goal of connection and bestowal, I want to achieve connection in order to engage in bestowal, in order to be similar to the Creator.
Reader continues (11:00): “If one does feel that he has evil, he cannot be granted….”
7. R. (11:22) Only hatred towards the evil. We need to discover that we disagree with the will to receive, every time I feel it within me, I get a negative sensation, a negative attitude to it, I can't stand it. Yet, when I see it in others, I become relatively more patient because I know from myself how the ego, the will to receive, rules the person, it makes me more capable of withstanding and forgiving what happened in the others. On the contrary, what happens in me, I can't stand, I can't look at this will to receive that attracts me in all of my deeds, it pulls me in its direction. I become more meticulous in examining what is the reason for each and every state that I am in.
Reader continues (12:50): “As we have said, one must not be angry….”
8. S. (13:30) That anger that one begins to feel for the will to receive for self, is there any way to use that force in order to want to pray more to the Creator, like he feels like there is more energy in it or power in it? Is there any way to turn that into raising more of a prayer, a demand, to the Creator?
R. Yes. But it is more effective if you actively want to come closer to the group and express your desire there to get closer to the Creator because within my people do I dwell. The Creator is hidden in the group; therefore, you can't do some individual personal work here. If you want to reach Him, you will have to rise above your ego which separates you from others and specifically make actions towards connection.
S. So you're saying that a person could do that, but it would still be aimed through the center of the 10?
R. Yes. The more we want to advance towards the Creator, we have to understand that the concept of the Creator resides in the group. That spirit that exists among the friends will later appear to me, becomes revealed to me as the Creator. Also know it constitutes the shape of the Creator to me, but it is Bore, come and see, to the extent I can detect it, I can see it. Let's say, I see that the friends are indifferent to each other, this is the shape of the Creator that I am attaining. If I see them coming closer to each other in different ways, in that I come closer to the concept of the Creator and so on. So the Creator is, come and see, that He becomes revealed to the extent that we discover Him in our connection.
9. S. (16:17) In the first paragraph we read, Baal HaSulam says that everything comes from the deficiency, he says that it is our effort to build it. In the second paragraph, he says that only one the Creator gives an illumination from above, the will to receive surrenders. So, I want to understand.
R. The Creator. We need to make efforts according to the conditions that the Creator gives, whether it is in my mind or my heart, how I need to detect it, how I need to aim myself. There's also some work of the mind here, and there’s emotional work. How much I want to bring my senses closer to this in order to detect this kind of state, the kind of connection between us in the 10, how I reveal Him from that state where He hides among everyone, and that is how we advance. The work here is in both the mind and the heart, how we see this force in creation, in the still, vegetative, animate, speaking, in all of reality, and in all the worlds, that He governs everything. We are now getting closer to Him in order to identify Him. How do we identify Him? Specifically at the level of connecting with the friends where we can make many actions that are so-called spiritual, their characteristics of spirituality, to get closer to each other, awaken each other, inspire each other, bring gifts to each other, in studying together, having a meal together and so on. Meaning, we can make some corporal actions here, these corporeal actions express our tendency to connect, but why? Always with the intention that between us we want to reveal the Creator, meaning that ‘’the field that the Lord has blessed,’’ that attitude that grows all the way to love.
S. And the hatred for the evil, the hatred for the will to receive, then I get it as a result of my work, as a result of my deficiency, or is it a result of the Creator giving an illumination from above?
R. It doesn't matter. It comes to me as if, whether it comes as a result of my actions, or because the Creator shines on me and lets me see new states, it is the same thing. It just seems to me sometimes it seems like this, the other times it seems like that. But certainly, to the extent that I participate with the study and the group, to the extent that I am scrutinizing this, accordingly I advance.
10. S. (20:16) Is it not possible to cooperate with our ego instead of hating it in order to love the Creator?
R. At least not at this stage. In this stage we have to reach the hatred because our desire to receive is in an egoistic state. It appears to us in full control where we don't separate between us and this egoistic desire, it resides in me, it governs me to the point that I think that me and it are the same thing. The ego lives in me, and it is inseparable. So how can I peel it off, extract it, remove it so that I feel myself not under its governance, that’s step number one. We achieve that by hatred towards our ego, the will to receive remains but not in the intention to receive. Then, in such a way we do the first part of the spiritual work, but after we have done that and we came to a state where my ego doesn't control me, I reach a state and this is already the degree of Bina, where I have the force of bestowal. The force of bestowal you also need to attain that, so that force of bestowal will rule all of my desires once the ego leaves there, it is no longer in order to receive. Then, comes the will to bestow, the quality of bestowal, and with that quality of bestowal I advance further and further until I begin to work with it in order to bestow. Which means that I once again pull into myself the will to receive, but I already use it with the intention to bestow. This is the second part of the path, from Malchut to Bina and from Bina to Keter.
11. S. (23:28) Love of the Creator, we have this very subtle direction. What is this type of relationship in the 10 that is called love of the Creator?
R. We can't understand this in the meantime what love of the Creator means, because none of us loves anyone besides ourselves; this is embedded deeply within us, in our core very strongly. So, we can only hope that the upper light will come and explain these things to us, and to each one personally, what self-love really means, what the ego is, what levels of it exist within us, and how we gradually get rid of it. After some years, a person begins to discover that he is capable of beginning to extract these egoistic shapes out of himself. It is always accompanied by fear, what will happen to me, what will happen when I remain empty, how will I exist, because one always has the feeling and understanding that there are some forces, he knows and understands what to do about them, and suddenly he begins to feel like some baby. He doesn't know anything, he just throws his hands and legs around, he lies where he is put down, and he has no correct instinct, like a baby when it is born it only has one instinct, to suck, and through that he is nourished, and he can grow. By using the new world only to grow, he thus grows and sees more and more discernments. The same thing with us when we want to get rid of our will to receive, we don't know in what way we are going to do that. First of all, we have to discover that we are all fully driven by the will to receive and then gradually, as we come to know the will to receive little by little to its great intensity, we then go from one Tzimtzum, restriction, to the next, and even to the will to bestow.
S. How do we create this basis?
R. That is what I just discussed, that is what Kabbalists write about. By discovering that only the will to receive takes advantage of us and governs us, and we try to follow it. He is walking ahead of you and showing you what is good and what is best, and you are like a detective, let’s say, you are following it, and you are examining what does he want to bring me to, where is he leading me? You begin to see this will to receive not as your friend, it can take you to some various dangerous places. So, you are looking at where it is directing you, and you need to begin to minimize his actions in some areas, in some cases you shut them down completely, you don't want to follow it at all and so on. That is the work with our will to receive.
12. S. (28:48) What does it mean to be patient with respect to what my ego shows me about my friends?
R. To be patient, first of all, it's throughout many degrees. First, not to leave the process. I am in a 10 and even though I want to run away, I am disgusted, I hate everything there. They all seem as liars to me, as if they love each other and I feel, in myself, that they are just lying. Sometimes I think, ‘Okay, everyone judges through his own flaws. I'm not really seeing them; I'm seeing and hearing myself.’ But the most important is: anything but leave is most important. I have to wait. Sometimes it takes a few years until a person begins to feel such shocks in his mind and heart and he begins to see himself in the world in a new way, a bit more and a bit more each time. This work is a result of the extent of connection, of incorporation with the group.
S. Yesterday you answered a friend that all we need is to add to the actions is the intention. The act comes from the Creator. But the intention is ours or does that also come from the Creator?
R. The intention too comes from the Creator, it all comes from Him. The will to receive, the intention to receive, the Klipot, the shells, it all comes from Him, but we need to sort them out and decide. From all these things with what do we want to be left with, what we agree and disagree with and want to move away from. There is nothing that does not come from the Creator. He gives us possibilities to do what we want with everything; He wants us to have free choice and to choose on our own what kind of creatures we need to be.
13. S. (32:05) It says we have to accept the actions of the Creator without any doubt but if we have no questions, how will we understand it?
R. I don't understand what you're talking about. How can we have no doubts? I always have a force that resists my will to receive doing actions of bestowal. On one hand, I don't want to do actions of bestowal, connection, or getting closer. I don't want that. On the other hand, I have to do it. I am obligated at least on a corporeal level and therefore I need to make some effort. Physical effort might not be such a problem, that can be done, but spiritual, emotional effort does not depend on us that much. To some degree I can convince myself and change my attitude, we could call that psychological, but to truly change my relation to something that is done only by the upper light. It is all in the Creator's hands. This is why there has to be prayer. Through the 10, together with them, I turn to the Creator and I ask Him for a change.
S. He relates to Baal HaSulam’s writing that we have to accept the burden of the kingdom of heaven above reason as an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load without any arguments.
R. If you're going to argue, you are going to argue with your egoistic will to receive. What other forces do you have? We are in a certain state and before us is an opportunity to go towards bestowal, but I am in the force of reception which tells me that it's not worthwhile to stay where I am and so on. What to do? Usually, people spend a lot of time struggling, they don't choose. They are struggling between this and that, and they live through states of inner doubts. This state doesn't lead to anything. This is why there has to be a decision. I am aware that I prefer to remain in my ego and decide to remain in that. I know I am in this world and I am like all other animals. I let the will to receive manage me the way that it wants. I don't criticize it but I agree with it and take myself down to a beastly level. Many do this and it is done in conjunction with various methods, religious, philosophical, psychological methods, and they mitigate their corporeal lives. Or I decide that I have no choice. In each and every moment in this argument between the will to receive and the will to bestow I have to go in the direction of bestowal. I have to go into the group, into the Creator, and try to lose myself in them, and advance.
14. S. (37:03) Is discovering your evil and hating it always the same?
R. When I opened up my evil in a complete way I reached a hated state, a state of the recognition of evil, where I recognize how my evil disturbs and prevents me from the purpose of life that I just live for no reason. I am not taking advantage of the opportunity that I was given to achieve adhesion with the Creator. This is called recognition of evil.
S. Is it possible to hate your ego enough to love the Creator?
R. Sure, you can if you get closer to the group and incorporate with them and with what the kabbalists write. You can, it is all up to you. Still, it is not going to happen overnight even though you want it and you should want this to happen overnight. Perhaps this will happen in a few years.
15. S. (38:46) You said that if I discover and reveal the bad and I annul myself before everyone in the 10, this is something that calms me down. What should I do?
R. You should go forward and you will discover it yourself. I can't answer questions about every step you will discover along the way.
16. S. (39:26) What is the difference between my ego and the friend’s ego? Should I hate my ego that I see in others?
R. You're not seeing your ego in others the way it is in others. You are in a state where you are facing a screen, like a television screen, like the monitor where you see us now. You are seeing yourself on that monitor in all kinds of ways and forms. It seems to you that they are forms of the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, in the world. That is the difference between the form of the world and the form of yourself. You are seeing your own projection on all parts of Adam HaRishon and you have to come to similarity with them.
S. I should hate this projection if I discover the ego?
R. If now you look at it the way we just said, then no, you just need to see that this projection, meaning the friends, and discover that they are loved. You will see them as close to you.
17. S. (41:17) What is the difference between the corporeal actions that are of a spiritual characteristic versus true spiritual actions?
R. Spiritual actions are actions in which I want to do good to others, to the friends, to the Creator. To the extent that I cancelled myself and I want to exert for them, for their sake, I can do this.
S. What about corporeal actions with a spiritual characteristic?
R. It doesn't matter if they are spiritual or corporeal, what is important is the intention.
18. S. (42:22) We have learned that we need to work in two lines, but now you emphasize that we need to work only with the good. Can you explain?
R. I don't want people to get confused. When working in two lines I myself manage the good force as well as the bad force. These two reins are in my hands and I control them and direct myself to the Creator through both the good force and through the bad force. I don't see such force in the men or in the women, and all the more so not in men. There is no such thing, we are not controlling those two reins yet. What does it mean to manage through those two reins? When I need to increase my will to receive in order to advance, I twist it however I want, I turn it however I need to. I work with the force of the limitation on the left line when I need to turn in some direction. It is very complicated work when all of creation is in front of me and I am seemingly working with it in order to direct it both through the right and the left to the Creator which is called the middle line. We are still far from it.
19. S. (45:02) How does the developing hatred influence the 10?
R. We are on the animate level as it is written ‘they were all as beasts’ if we are in our will to receive. If we rise above the animate level in us and want to emerge from the will to receive so it doesn't control our minds and our hearts, but that we will be higher than it and we want to manage and govern it, this is called moving from the animate level to the human level. We can perform spiritual actions there. So, we need to feel the boundary where we rise above our beasts and enter the state of the human in us. That boundary is measured according to our governance over our ego. I hold all of my desires and thoughts, just like in my fist or in my hand, and then decide what I am going to do now with my nature, with all of my nature. Can I do this or not? When I won't give myself one inch, one moment, one instance of weakness, this is called performing the restriction. I begin to think with this force of restriction if I can do something for another person or not? A spiritual action is when I act for others after this restriction.
20. S. (47:49) What is the difference between seeing the bad in me and ‘a fool sits and eats his own flesh’?
R. A fool eating his own flesh means we're incapable of anything. We are powerless, we can't overcome, and we can't resist. We just flow with whatever the will to receive gives him. He might even go toward connection in the group, physically. He can study and be in lessons but he is not overcoming his will to receive, to belong more and more to the connection, in the group, to donate himself. He is regarded as moving closer to spirituality to the extent that he can relinquish himself in all kinds of activities. Our work is only against our own nature, against the will to receive. This is why the wisdom of Kabbalah is not for everyone, only for those who can be patient until the upper light corrects them, not that we do. It is not strong people who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah. If they thought they were strong they very quickly feel that they are not strong, but they are willing to be patient and continue, no matter what, ‘anything but leave.’ Then the upper light gradually operates on them in such a way that they begin to feel spiritual actions and forms that promote them.
21. S. (50:33) What to do if I don't feel hatred toward the will to receive?
R. It is a sign that you are not directed toward the goal. If you were directed toward the goal you would see how your will to receive is manipulating you, turning you in every direction except in the direction of connection and love. Only through the love of people do you come to love of the creator, meaning that through approaching people you come to approaching the Creator. If you don't feel that your ego interferes with you in this it is a sign that you are not trying to get closer. There are very tough souls that can't come closer, can't approach and can't feel another person, they can't feel that they are close to one another. They only live as much as possible within themselves. Women are far more egoistic than men, and they feel very closed within themselves and they can't come closer to each other. Maybe they can externally, but it comes through sympathy over similar psychological or emotional suffering that every woman goes through. But truly? No, it is a lot harder for women than it is for men. The wisdom of Kabbalah was originally only for men so as not to confuse women. Only now because it's the last generation, can men and women study. Rabash started it when he allowed women to listen to the lessons and gave them the articles. Women’s work is a little different than men's work because to begin with, they have an inability to accept the other as a part of her. Each and every woman is a part of the real Malchut. There will be a time when we can get more into it but it is according to our general progression.
22. S. (53:57) What’s the difference between eliminating the evil and coming to the recognition of evil?
R. When we succeed we come to the recognition of evil. When the will to receive, thoughts and desires, our whole nature is desires and thoughts, mind and heart, so our whole nature is bad because it is working entirely for the sake of the beast, if you can put it this way. There is no man, human in us, because man is one who is similar, Dome, to the Creator, Adam, he works in bestowal back to the Creator with reflected light, we don't have that. This is why we are all as it is written, we are all similar to beasts, and what we need is to gradually develop such conditions that will influence us and elevate us to the human level, to similarity with the Creator. So that even though we are not similar to the Creator yet, we are already talking about it, we have some understanding of how much we are not there, we have some understanding of how and how much we need to receive new things in order to be there, etc. In other words, this is how we gradually advance.
Reader continues (56:36): “one should believe that the obstructions of the will….”
23. R. (57:23) Through his will to receive, to the extent that he rises above his will to receive, he doesn’t want to take it into account. It's not regarded as just erasing it, but if the will to receive that now controls him with it, he wants to rise along with it, to get closer along with it to the Creator. If he erases the will to receive, he will have nothing with which to come closer, but rather this will to receive is revealed to him as a step that he has to step on. So this will to receive does not disrupt him in approaching the Creator, and then he rises, climbs up the steps in this way towards the Creator.
Reader continues (58:17): “He will help him transform the will to receive….”
24. R. That disturbance seems to him as before, he rises above it and wants to adhere to the Creator despite the disturbance. If we can't, then he prays, he becomes more and more incorporated in the 10, searches some ways so that with the will to receive, that was revealed, he still remains adhered to the Creator. Then, he discovers that he already understands Him, feels Him, he is closer to Him.
Reader continues (58:58): “Then one must believe that from this extends contentment….”
25. R. (59:08) Precisely, a person working with his will to receive, resists it. Either he erases it, he has no choice, that is the only way he can stay connected to the Creator or he even comes closer on top of the will to receive, he comes closer to the Creator.
Reader continues (59:33): “from his praying to Him to draw him near in the manner….”
26. S. (01:00:15) When we talk about the work towards the host, we always say the host gives us delights and we make the restriction and reflected light, Masach (screen), in order to bestow to Him. What is the work opposite the will to receive that we are talking about?
R. This is the work that we are talking about now in the article. First of all, my desire, my beast, I have to somehow diminish its influence, or erase its influence all together, or even ride on this beast, in order to approach the Creator. It depends on how I can work with the will to receive. There is Ibur (conception), Yenika (nursing), Mochin (adulthood, maturity), we have the three degrees initially. We know that we have the will to receive and I have to detect it as bad. The recognition of evil brings me to a state where I restrict the bad, although it is not bad in a way that I usually feel it as bad for me, no. According to my beast it’s not bad for me, it’s good for me. It is bad on the way to advance toward the Creator, toward the group toward the Creator. Then, I accept it as bad and then I have to abstain from it. In this way I begin to struggle with the bad so there is a time when I only detect the bad. There are things that I don't even detect, but I hear what the Kabbalists say and I do what they say, I have no feeling about being in the 10 but I am there, because they say that this is the safest way, the surest way to advance toward the Creator, to reveal Him, to build a vessel for revealing Him. That’s how we advance.
S. It is like the evil comes from within me and I have to restrict it on the outside?
R. Towards yourself. What does it mean outwards?
S. To make sure that it doesn't come out towards the friends?
R. Yes, let's say that, that too. But first, what about me, will I remain with this bad or do I want it to be restricted?
27. S. (01:03:48) It is like a continuation when we discover some flaw in our work in the 10, or flaw in the friend. How can we cover it, we need to do it together or we can each see his flaw and use the advice of Rabash?
R. It is written very simply about this. All the flaws I see outside of me are my flaws, flaws in me, on every level, still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, they’re all my flaws. If these flaws were not in me and I would see around me only the Creator, the upper force, the ‘’Good who does good’’ only, and I wouldn't even detect any separate forms, it would all be as the upper light that fills all of reality.
S. Through the friends, through the 10, I find some flaw. Let's say, I see some flaw in the friend and I understand it's my own flaw, what do I do now? Ask the 10 to help me cover it, rise above it?
R. Ask the Creator to help you get closer to the friends with love, that’s it. If you see that there are such things in every 10, then turn it into a common prayer, try to connect, try to put together such a prayer. Each one will write a sentence and that is how you will come to it, but you don’t need to write it, you don't even need to say it, just check what is in your heart
S. I understand writing a prayer, but love, what can I do with that?
R. Love comes from above when a person is willing to connect with the other and accept the other as himself, and even more than himself, this is called love. It is similar to what we have in this world. If I love someone, how is my love measured, to what extent I am willing to make concessions for the others’ sake, just like that, just so. Afterwards, we will see what other manners exist in it, in spirituality.
28. S. (01:07:09) What does it mean that the will to receive can take me to dangerous places?
R. I don't know, I'm not thinking about it now. I'm thinking about bestowal and love, and not about dangerous places.
S. He's asking about the example you gave before, this depiction that you need to be like a police detective that is following the will to receive, where does it guide you. You said that sometimes it can take you to dangerous places, so we need to pay attention. That is what he’s asking about.
R. You say that this is what he means. There are so many depictions, maybe in his head. There is one depiction but in mind, there are many more. So, how should I be careful from what the will to receive leads me, I have to always check it. I always need to really suspect, be suspicious of it, what is the thought, what is the desire that awaken me, where are they taking me. This, I do need to check all the time.
S. Is one of the ways to really be just aiming at the goal all the way, patiently?
R. What do you mean all the way? All the way means according to your current ability.
S. According to the vessels I have now?
R. Yes.
S. Then, that’s what it means to go all the way?
R. Yes, of course.
29. S. (01:08:52) Thanks to the evil, man has work to do to get closer to the Creator. So how do you really hate the evil?
R. We have to hate only to the same extent that our nature disrupts us from approaching the Creator, from coming to the Creator. Also, we have to understand that this disturbance positions us in the direction toward the Creator because if there were no bad, how would we find the right way. There must be the bad, it is necessary. It wasn't created for no reason, it is not like the Creator wants to create evil. When He decided to have created beings and that they will be able to connect to Him, and know Him, and you can only know Him from the opposite form from His, from this the bad was formed in the same way that the Creator wants to be known. This is why in the bad there are the same forms as there are in the Creator, except in the opposite way, in every manner that exists in the Creator. This is why the evil is so huge, gigantic and diverse, rich, because only through it do we discover the Creator. The Creator is the upper light in which there are no discernments, it is called absolute love, an open heart. There is nothing. Only by placing darkness in it in all kinds of ways, we can distinguish that there are opposite qualities in it from the darkness, which is the light. This is why the Creator is ‘’Bore’’ (“Bo-re” – come and see), because you can only see Him when you come to Him from the darkness.
S. This is exactly what you said, that’s necessary. So how do you really hate it?
R. Hate that it disrupts you from getting closer. But if you are not getting closer to the Creator, then the evil inclination is not evil, it is helping you have a good time in this world.
30. S. (01:11:55) If the person is bad, how can a bad person hate his evil?
R. Through an illumination from above that comes to a person, on one hand. On the other hand, within a person there is the point in the heart, which is a part of God above, it is a Reshimot (record) from the broken vessel that broke in the will to receive. Then the upper light which influences the general will to receive, I am going to draw it for you. Rav drawing: So we have a broken will to receive, a person's own ego, and within his ego there is a dot, which is a record, a record from what existed in Adam HaRishon. According to this record, this is called Adam within us, and the general ego is the will to receive, the overall ego. So some illumination comes from above and influences, this is called Ohr Makif (surrounding light), and influences this point. Because this point awakens, this is called dressing in this surrounding light, and the two of them together want to run away from the ego and return to the source of the light, the origin of the light. This feeling, when a person feels that all of a sudden he has this disposition to know what am I living for? Why am I alive? What is life? This is exactly the awakening of the point in the heart. It is a desire to know the origin of life, not the way religious people, they want to pray, they want to save their lives, when they feel that they need some, maybe, confidence or security, these are the regular religious people. But a person who awakens to know his Maker, the upper force, the reason for life, why we are alive, this is called the awakening of the point in the heart in him within the general will to receive. This is what happens. Then, what happens, we have to increase this operation, how we make this will to receive grow, grow a lot. So how can I turn this tiny arrow into a big arrow? This is done through the group, if I connect with more people, and more people, and more, and I am impressed with them, how they too receive influence from the upper light, and we connect together and we seemingly become one body, we become one body. Then, we are as a group and the Creator influences our group in such a way that we do seemingly connect the points in the heart, it is He who connects through His light. Then, we have an opportunity to come out. These are simple things. We will later see how according to these rules, our cells also exist in the human body, how all those things connect, basically the laws of communication, commutation, the laws of connection.
31. S. (01:17:46) The difference between the will to receive and the evil inclination, what is it?
R. I heard the difference between the will to receive and the evil inclination. The general will to receive is in all of creation, in the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. In speaking there is an additional will to receive called, ‘’evil inclination.’’ It is a certain desire that directs him to the source of creation, to the Creator, that a person who has in hand this will to receive, this evil inclination, and he feels that he has something toward the upper force, toward the source of creation that he must reveal. He has a demand, he has something to it, that’s called the point in the heart. The heart itself is a person's desire to me, but the intention in the heart is what pulls a person to the Creator. Not only does it awaken in him some livelihood, but a desire to attain the essence of life, the center of life.
32. S. (01:19:25) How can I use my will to receive to have close contact with the Creator?
R. Simply integrate more, incorporate more with the group, with the lessons, read recommended material, and that’s it. Participate in all kinds of activities, everything that you can do in order to awaken your heart.
33. S. (01:20:10) How long should we start an article, because there are different matters started now?
R. No. If we want to continue, we want to finish it. It’s an article that we can repeat again, it includes in it. I think maybe we should continue.
34. S. (01:20:35) How do you uplift above the will to receive correctly? Because it just hits you like a truck, how can you overcome with the Creator because you want to run away from it?
R. That’s not good, not good. In the beginning, of course, we want to detach from it and supposedly we do. But over time, we gain experience, that it is better working with the will to receive in such a way that we need to join it, to join it to our inclination to the Creator. Then, specifically through the will to receive that grows, we come closer to the Creator, because those same degrees that we rise every time, rise and rise, and rise. The height of the same degree is the will to receive that grew. The point in the heart, it is as if it leaps from one degree to the next, to the next, to the next. That is how we come closer to the Creator. Is that clear?
S. No it is not clear, how can... (Cut off by Rav) (01:21:46)
R. How could this be unclear? It’s good that you say that’s unclear, but look what’s happening. (Rav drawing) Degrees, degrees through which we come closer to the Creator. The height of that step, of every step, is the desire, desires that grow. When the desire grows? Then, that same point that I had here, I need to work on it in order for it to rise above the desire. So this is my current state, so then again came a desire. This is desire 1, then we have D2, D3, D4, and D5. Every time I need to rise my point to a higher degree. How, why? So that it will be greater itself. Here is point 0, and here is 1, and here is 2. That is the size of the point in the heart until the heart begins to expand. Then, I feel, both in my heart and both in the point in my heart, I feel this state in which I feel my spiritual reality that is how it happens. That is why all of the crimes, which is the growth of the egoistic desire, love will cover, love will cover all these crimes. This is how we advance.
S. What enters the will to receive on every degree?
R. I need, upon all of these points of the will to receive, to develop my attitude to the Creator who is the source of this, and who is doing this in order for me to come closer to Him. All in all, this coarseness, this thickness, that’s revealed in every single degree, this Aviut (thickness) it’s my ego that grows. What it’s doing is bringing me closer to this Creator, its help against Him. Specifically, by revealing this large ego, I come closer to the Creator and I reach Him with this great ego, with this large will to receive that I want to relate entirely to Him.
35. S. (01:25:42) What is the connection between the personal correction of the ego with the general correction of the entire will to receive of the first Adam?
R. Our personal correction, it depends to the extent we are concerned with the general correction, especially in our time, in the last generation.
36. S. (01:26:34) We say that the words “My sons have defeated Me” explain how to reach adhesion with the Creator through hard work, and building quality in the 10, in order to annul the shame that separates us from the Creator?
R. Yes, yes.
37. S. (01:27:04) About ‘’my sons have defeated me, this struggle you are explaining in the lesson. Usually, a person fights themselves alone, that the friends are not with him, and he needs to do the work. How can he do it more in connection, mutuality, a mutual effort? How should the connection work every time?
R. Our work is specifically through connection. The person that does not receive some rejection, repulsion of connection and he is not advancing, he needs to forget about the 10. Then, with his force to renew the connection with the 10. That is how it should be on each and every degree that is a sign of the renewing ego that it’s detaching, it’s detached from the 10. Then, forcefully, it continues and again he strengthens it, he strengthens the connection to the 10. That’s how it happens. So don’t be too surprised by feeling ourselves constantly in exits and entries, and exits and entries, with respect to the 10.
S. Let’s say that the children build a treehouse. So one brings a piece of wood, one carries the other. Where in the heart can you find a mutual effort?
R. By yearning for the Creator that He is one up on all of us. So from all of our efforts we begin to reveal, to the extent we are tied together and our building a home that is truly mutual.
38. S. (01:29:18) What are the signs of growth in the will to receive?
R. The will to receive is becoming greater, or to be more accurate, it is not greater, it is more complex, more cunning and it is more difficult to identify. Like in our lives, it is like I'm walking right by him and I cannot identify that it is the will to receive. We need to try to see where the will to receive is every single moment so that through it I will begin to treat life correctly. Every moment of my existence needs to be built on feeling what the will to receive does and its dealings. I build myself upon it.
S. It is hard to recognize it. Is there an exercise to take it out of hiding?
R. That is true. To better identify him we can connect to the friends and by delving in depth in articles. Reading the articles helps me. I remember how it was with Rabash, he himself wrote the articles of Shamati from Baal HaSulam, but still when he went to sleep in the evening he used to look in his notebook. When he was in the car going someplace he used to read Psalms. I actually still have his book of Psalms. By that we can be connected. Today we have such a wide and rich system of tens so if each one thinks slightly about the other tens and they will also advance in the path and accordingly we will advance. There is no problem. You do not even need to talk about it to remind one another. To the extent that you are drawn to the path, you give a general feeling to the friends in the group. According to questions and the general talk, that is a great help to one another and by that you will advance. ,
39. S. (01:32) What does it mean that the will to receive grows? How do I feel it?
R. The will to receive grows constantly in quality and quantity. When you have different thoughts and different desires every moment it is a sign that the will to receive is changing; accordingly, you need to cover it every moment with the intention to bestow in order to use it.
40. S. (01:33:51) What is the connection between the first restriction where I restrict the will to receive into the fist and do not let it move and the gate of tears when I cry that I want to bestow and I can’t?
R. The restriction is made, and we hold it like in a fist and does not let the will to receive to break through. It is only Tzimtzum, a force. There are other restrictions that are not only enforced but emotional development in awareness that it is not only in force that I hold myself but I reach a state where I do not want to use my will to receive, that I hate it. There are also five degrees in the recognition of evil until you reach the good. I work on my will to receive that is being revealed in this way. When I come out of Egypt we are speaking about the work itself in man. We don’t talk about being physically in Egypt. There should be 400 years, meaning four degrees in the will to receive and only on the fifth degree when man reaches it he then gets an impulse to come out of Egypt, out of his ego.
41. S. (01:36:11) Is the will to receive connected to private Providence?
R. The will to receive is obviously connected to private providence in a person. When the Creator advances each and every person in His own personal attitude toward each and every one. We’re speaking about people in which the point in the heart awakens and they want to come out of the will to receive just like that worm that tries to come out of the radish.
S. You feel that you are thrown everywhere, it doesn't feel like personal providence.
R. Those are your complaints.
S. But that is reality.
R. Okay, I can understand your reality. It is written that ‘a fool sits with his arms folded and eats his own flesh’.
S. But how can you feel that you have private providence?
R. Being able to identify every single moment that the Creator is disturbing you.
S. Is this how you feel this providence?
R. Yes. Who else is disturbing you? The Creator. Is there anyone but Him?
S. No.
R. Exactly. It is Him who is disturbing you. You need to do actions, actions that eventually all end with a prayer. All of our actions need to end with a prayer. So instead of disturbing you, He will help us cope with the disturbances and rise above them. We will travel the ladder of degrees by that.
S. It is easier to do this in the 10.
R. So do it.
42. S. (01:38:35) Can we see the drawing of the steps that you drew? So actually you explained here how we rise from one degree to the next and upon the growing ego we cover it with love. Where in this process is the point, does it even exist in this process, the hatred to the ego from every degree?
R. Hatred to the ego only comes on higher degrees. On higher degrees to the extent that you try and rise above the ego, to the extent you understand the ego is disturbing you from connecting to the create to that extent you hate it and then to the extent that you know that specifically through the resisting ego you reach love to the Creator than your hatred towards the ego becomes love. Not that you love the ego but the ego to you is no longer the ego but it is something that comes from the Creator which is called help against him. When a person reaches a state when he kisses the stick.
43. S. (01:40:15) You said that the Rabash used to open Shamati and we wanted to ask when we as a 10 are about to read a Shamati article is it beneficial to try and research it and understand the article or just to read to draw the light and disconnect our brain?
R. No, no, the more you talk about it the better, it is good.
44. S. (01:41:00) Can you ascend spirituality in a more natural way than difficulties or blows, can we advance constantly only through love like the Creator?
R. No, you have egoistic love and nothing more and that is why to advance in love is considered to increase your ego more and more, to such an extent that you will not be even able to identify which type of love you have between you. Like now you have love for your children? Yes. But we are not talking about such a form of love. Now towards man then we can already say something. There are already all kinds of conflicts and if we rise above these conflicts with love, if we will be able, if we will be capable so that these conflicts in the family, with the husband will bring us to the growth of love. That we will love each other even more because love covers all crimes, that we will know more how to rise with our lives upwards in all of the obstacles, with all the differences then we will really be able to increase love and reach true love so that we will learn how to overcome all of the crimes. That is something else, but we are usually not capable of that but we agreed that this is life and this is what we need to do.
To work on the ego that awakens between a husband and wife and inverted that egoistic form to connection, that we make each one, concessions of their own ego then we will understand what is happening with the other and in that way we will love the qualities that the other one has as if it is our own. It is specifically by coming closer to one another, this is something great. You can do it also psychologically a little bit but it is a lie that will not last, if you truly want to do it so that it will not break and that it will always exist and even grow more and more, for that we need the upper light. That is why again we need the wisdom of Kabbalah. It begins with the fact that we begin to accept this principle, that love covers all crimes that all the crimes remain and we know how to overcome them in such a way that love will grow.
It turns out that the more crimes that are revealed because these crimes, these malfunctions, these flaws which I identify in my partner, if I recognize that they come to me from the Creator. By that I can come closer to him then I begin to love them because it comes from the Creator. That it is the Creator appearing through the will to receive of my partner and then it will really become a state of love covers all crimes. We need to study this, if you advance in the wisdom of kabbalah you will know how to apply it in every family.
45. S. (01:45:48) What practical exercise can help me check that I'm on the right path and by that expose the needed hatred?
R. I just spoke about it, I don't know what to say. I know the women from Chile, I was there a few times, we had the conventions there. I think that there is no difference between Chile and any other place, they simply need to realize that the only thing we have between us is the Creator. It is written about man and woman that Divinity is between them. Divinity can be from the negative form between man and woman to the positive form. We only need to identify that it is Divinity that is between us and we need to work on it together, if we want to be connected even if there is some distance between us we need to understand that we are given in order for us to annul it and to annul it only by me bringing the Creator closer to the connection between us
46. S. (01:47:35) If we can give an example of an action for the others?
R. If I dress in the others and if I take them closer to the Creator that is the most correct action for the others. Actually it turns out that the action of dissemination is the most important and in fact it works for the well-being of the others.