Morning Lesson November 30, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 99. He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous
1.Rav’s Introduction: This is another special article in Shamati, there is a unique condition in it regards to the study, let us read.
Shamati 99 (00:55)
2. R. (22:42) Okay we heard it once, the article, a very special article as it basically says in each and every one there is the ability to develop. There is any possibility to adhere to the Creator, to be similar to the Creator and to grow within myself, within oneself to become a spiritual person and rise through the human levels of this world, the still, vegetative and animate and in the meantime, we belong to the animal level and we want to rise to the speaking level, the level of Adam, similar to The Creator. This is only by clarifying this single point that we develop within us, developing our soul and when we discern it, we are either a wicked or righteous. And each time we work on it and grow from righteous to wicked or wicked to righteous and by this we grow. Our whole attention should be on not being smarter or wiser, or any of that; none of the human qualities that we see make each one different from the others in this world, as we don't care about these differences. What we care about is the spiritual difference, the difference that exists in spirituality between human beings. And that is what we call either wicked or righteous, and that is something that we need to grow between us. Let us go to some questions, I don’t think too many, the article was long, we need to read it until it even partly settles within us and that is good also and throughout our path, we will have to understand it better and better.
3. S. (25:19) What is the meaning of clothing the soul not receiving more than what one needs for the soul?
R. There is a will to receive in each and every one of us and we have to use our will to receive as much as we need to sustain the body, to give it what it demands, a number of calories daily. We also need to put it in clothes because, for example, we are not animals that we have our own fur or feathers like birds have. We need clothing and that is already a hint about how man has developed beyond the animal. This clothing that we have to put on ourselves, these rags, it hints at the clothing that we have to have on our inner body, the soul which we can't use unless we have some clothing for it. We see that from the very beginning of man's corporeal development on the face of earth that he felt a need from within because that is his inner structure. He felt a need for some coverings. Even if you find some tribes today in some remote places in the world of the Amazon or other places, you would still see they have some form of garments, some form of clothing. Animals don't have a feeling that they lack that, that they are devoid of clothing and that stems from the spiritual degree that should develop within the human because he needs some clothing over his soul, not the body but the soul.
That is what makes us a little different from the animal level. But there is a big difference between the animal and human level, and that is in our will to receive. Our will to receive can be different in many ways from the others and it comes to it by Nature. How to conduct oneself with all the differences that exist between us that is possible only by a specific direction, and this unique direction is what is called righteous or wicked. Here we have to understand what really was given to us for our development, as opposed to the still, vegetative, and animal that we see on planet earth. And what we are going to discover in the universe, and as opposed to that, the speaking level demands a very rapid and unique development. We have not received it instinctively from nature that we can just follow it and that is it, and everything will just work as it does with plants and animals. We have to reach a stage where we need some guidance on what to do with the human within us, so wicked or righteous relates to the human level, smart or not depends on our machine here and other phenomena also relate to our animal level.
But this distinction of righteous or wicked relates to what is beyond the nature that we were given. With animals it is very clear how they relate to each other. These run away from those and others come closer to each other and so on, they are connected to each other in some ways that nature brings about. As it says go and make a living off of each other, so this species eats the other and this species creates something for another species and throughout nature even in the still, vegetative and animate and to some extent the human level also, is using this on his still vegetative and animate levels. To some degree we are all in this one single system interconnected in order to live and survive by using each other. But there is another parameter that exists in the human being, where he can be either wicked or righteous, these things don't develop right away as we can see that the human level doesn't evolve immediately like still, vegetative and animate. But after the development of all the other levels then the human level begins to surface, to emerge.
Also it emerges in the form of still, vegetative and animate levels of the human, so a unique manner of development is required in order to grow the human out of the animal level. We can see that from the whole history of Adam, how he developed what we call the point in the hearts that began to emerge in him, his point of contact with the Creator. Here when his point of contact with the root became apparent then that brought about the question of where this human will go with that and what does this point determine. It determines a development in two possible directions, either wicked or righteous. And this is something that does not exist on the still, vegetative and animate level. We can say about a dog that it is evil or about a horse that it is righteous, rather it has a certain character. Each element has it even if it is a plant or something on this still level. They have characteristics that they got from nature and these are unchanging. On the animate levels we can tie them up, but it is not that we can correct them.
The human however has this point of being a wicked or a righteous with regards to his surroundings and then from his surroundings to the Creator, even to the upper force. So he can be either good or bad to them, and in this attitude of being good or bad to his surroundings and the Creator, we see that the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah, this method that we have received from above our nature, that is what we mean from above. Meaning that we have to correct ourselves, to connect ourselves and learn from each other, and through each other how to be righteous above wicked. Here we see the Creator is helping us in revealing to us the degree of the wicked, bigger and bigger each time and on top of that we have to correct it to be on the level of the righteous, higher and higher each time. That is essentially our work to the extent that we engage in that, that the quality of the wicked that appears between us where we want to reject each other and repel each other, in that one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater than himself.
Meaning the people who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah, they come with a great egoistic force and they have a hard time connecting with others, they are very much individualists and we have to understand that there is a method in front of us which helps us specifically because we are so bad and so in changing, and this ability of changing our bad to good, inverting and transforming it, because the Creator says I have created the evil inclination in that is the rejection from the friends, the Creator and everyone else. We have to try as much as we can to build systems of connection of getting closer between us and then between us and the Creator as it is written from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator and that is how we advance towards adhesion with the Creator and that is the goal. By that we become corrected, meaning our whole brokenness is our mutual hatred and rejection, mutual distance between us. A person finds it towards his relatives as well as people who are far away from him as he discovers he doesn't have anything in life besides himself, not even his family or children, his nation or the people or the world and not the Creator of course. It is just me.
That brings him to the revelation that we call I shall rule and then he starts correcting that and he begins to understand that his correction can happen only after he forcefully relates himself to the 10 and one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater than himself. This means that the greater the soul, the harder it is for him to connect with others as he doesn't hear or understand it, he can miss these words talking about connection for years inside the group and only after years, many years he begins through his participation after all of the other things that he does, he begins to receive an illumination from above that shows him specifically in connection with others that you can achieve correction. Then the person suddenly opens his eyes and begins to advance in this direction, he begins to see that the whole Torah is intended to open his eyes and bring him closer to connection and through the connection, it is like through a lens that concentrates the rays of light through that he will better see the essence of creation, the Creator and advances. So our path is long and only for people who have no other choice but to discover the meaning of life and to achieve the purpose of life that they don't want to stay on the beastly level and just live and die like other animals.
We have to submit ourselves to this so in everything in life we have to understand that our choices only to be righteous or wicked, all of the other things are written from above, they are deterministic and they descend to us in a pre-planned manner and we cannot determine anything about it. It is literally preplanned, predetermined all of man's fate. As he writes they look at the drop and they say what will come out of it, this or this or that, everything besides righteous or wicked. This is what we should be clarifying and checking each and every moment, to fight for it as how do we correctly identify this question and give the right answer. What does it mean in each and every state and moment to be righteous or wicked but that is the only thing that we are facing and to try to become righteous and clarify what it means to be righteous. That is essentially what all of our moments are about, as the more we advance the more we see that our life is divided or composed of points, if we think about a straight line for example it is built from points and points and points, even mathematically speaking. There is an inversion that happens at each and every point and that puts a point on a straight line, so we have to see our life in a similar way, that our life is built from points and the choice at each and every point. The direction from each and every point is where I ask myself am I righteous or wicked, what am I choosing. These are the only points, not the past or the future, nothing besides the present moment and from these points we assemble the straight line toward the very end of all of our corrections where we achieve the complete adhesion with the Creator.
That is our choice each and every moment to scrutinize whether I am righteous or wicked and each time I understand that in the next stage, in the next phase that I am going to see the next phase as bad, as wrong because in my will to receive from one degree to another, my will to receive grows. I become wiser, smarter, more inside the scrutiny and it is just for me to see bad decisions that I have made in previous states that now I can correct them. So there is no righteous in the land who did good without committing a sin first. We can do good on the basis of seeing the previous sin and then each time correcting our previous sins so there is no reason to fall into despair. You have to understand that we all go through sin but the sins when we correct them, even though we are discovering greater and greater sins but as we go, we are correcting the previous smaller sins and that is how we actually come to the higher degrees. One who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than himself and this is how we advance. So righteous or wicked, these discernments remain within us until the final correction and there also, both the righteous and the wicked, both the monster of our evil inclination as opposed to the image of the Creator within us, which is the good inclination, they both stand in front of us in a magnified way as we see how the Creator created one thing against the other and this takes us all the way to the final correction.
The Creator is really the one who scrutinizes, it is that middle line that helps us at each and every stage to relate one to the other, to see that even the evil that was created was created in order for us to discern the good, the opposite. Otherwise we won't see any discernment of good. It would only be through the bad, it is like the advantage of light, of white, that we have no ability to perceive if not through the darkness, the blackness and that is how we clarify everything. Without our evil inclination we would never be able to feel or to understand or to relate to the Creator that is why it is called helpmate against you. That is basically the article, the article he did not say wicked or righteous, there are many different profound even tragic states that are deeply interwoven here but we will get to feel that not just today but throughout our development. All of the articles of Shamati are not about one specific point on our path, they actually accompany us all the way to the end of correction but we are already on this track we just have to walk forward. I am very happy that we had our meeting two days ago and a lot of people were present both in Israel and in our world Kli and there was an inner feeling for those who felt that we belong across the globe to a single Kli.
That we are beginning to really establish a certain kind of organization, a body or desire that has within it a single intention, a single goal. We are ready to be included in this desire to be together with the Creator and to be with him in attaining the complete and final stage. This revelation has begun but yet it wasn't yet apparent to us, but in the last meeting that we had we really started to feel it as a lot of people shared with me that they began to feel that to an extent that we are in a common feeling across the globe all of us and that is a major thing. We are now going to go forward in order to clarify the wicked and righteous between us, how we should sort them out in order to find a deeper and tighter connection called the upper force, until we come to an actual connection and adhesion with him and when we advance to that we discover the levels of connection with us and him which is called the degrees of attaining the worlds. Worlds, Olamot comes from the word for concealment where everything used to be concealed that it becomes revealed as a concealment and before that it is not felt like anything is concealed so that precedes the actual revelation and that is what we are facing.
4. S. (50:25) On the clothing of the soul, how do we know if we have what we need for our soul and not for ourselves?
R. The clothing of the soul are my friends when I care about the group, my concern for the group or the corporeal concern, the concerns I have in the study, the spiritual concerns with all of that I build the clothing of the soul.
5. S. (51:14) It says the righteous are few, so the Creator chose the righteous even before creation and it seems that the righteous does not have freedom of choice because the Creator already created them as righteous. But in the article, it also says that he did not say wicked or righteous isn't that a contradiction in the article?
R. No, the Creator doesn't create righteous or wicked, he gives the person all kinds of qualities, hero, a brave, righteous, or rich, poor with all kinds of inclinations but not with it according to righteous or wicked and that is what we need to choose by ourselves. But you can ask, do we still have some discernments, beginnings or foundations where we need to see if a person is inclined more towards righteous or wicked. About this he explains to us in the article about free choice, the freedom, that it depends on how much a person holds onto the right group, but a person is brought by the Creator perhaps through different kinds of groups and discernment to the good state. He puts his hand on the good fate and says take it and if the person takes it, he develops and if he doesn’t, he misses it and at some later opportunity later incidents he can have another opportunity to develop. Ultimately, he will have to realize his free choice.
6. S. (53:23) Thank you for the broad and deep explanation to continue the question from Turkey it is written that the angel doesn't ask righteous or wicked and then it is said that they Creator puts the righteous and the wicked in all the situation is, that he implanted them they’re so this something that the Creator doesn't tell the angel or this is the foundation of the righteous, that sits in every quality?
R. I don't really understand your question but still we have throughout the generations from Adam HaRishon onward in each and every generation there are people who tell human beings how to achieve adhesion with the Creator if people want to hear it and so we see that from Adam onward how these generations for almost six thousand years now, how they exist and in each and every generation we have people who tell us about the purpose of creation, the essence of creation and how to realize it.
S. That is exactly the question because it said that the Creator doesn't start with righteous or wicked, we see that in history we have these people.
R. Those people who are later discovered as great, righteous, they also grew through the same conditions, they also had to learn something from someone. Even Adam HaRishon, the first one who was born with certain qualities then went through the shattering and began correcting himself, he had certain conditions for it. It is called first man because he is the first one who began the correction of the collective soul. That is why he is called the first but before him human beings existed, he also had a mother and father and there were many people in the world already even though we are talking about six thousand years ago but we call him the first man because he is the first to achieve the form of Adam, human, Domeh, similar to the Creator.
S. When we talked about the fact that the Creator is spread out the righteous in every generation.
R. That in each and every generation we can be assisted by the people who teach us, give us examples, even help us to get organized, which is something more practical in our time that we have to get organized correctly between us so we will reach a stage where we are closer to the Creator.
7. S. (57:02) When the wicked is revealed to correct this state do I need to be happy and ask the Creator to correct it or is the joy itself already and appeal to the Creator for correction?
R. To the extent we better and better understand where we are and we establish ourselves correctly with the group and the Creator then our progress becomes more tangible as it is recommended to put the mind and the heart together, the emotions and the thoughts bring them together into our progress and to do that within the group. Even though you think that without the group you are going to develop and attain some higher states you still have to see that the progress inside the group is the right kind of progress as this is where you will discover the Creator and this is what is important. Whereas outside of the connection with the group you could be what we call a wise guy, meaning that you feel you can understand and feel more but not those discernments that belong to the construction of the soul. So first of all don't escape the connection, the sense of connection that we are all connected and in every such connection with the ten you have different kinds of people and different kinds of state and so specifically through the connection between them when you connect them together in mind and heart this is how you advance.
8. S. (59:18) What does it mean to relay to yourself with force to the ten?
R. I have to put myself forcefully into the ten as there is no problem doing that I don't want to be there because each time a new will to receive surfaces and I grab a hold of myself at some point in some moment, what am I thinking or feeling. I don't think and feel about myself in the ten, I feel myself the way I am and here I have to make corrections. How do I feel and think if I were to see myself inside the ten and then I am baffled what does it mean to be inside the ten, how do we bring ourselves together, how do I connect them in my consciousness and in my emotion, in my mind and my heart and that is where man's work is. So try to always think about it and talk about it with the friends and then turn to the Creator because from this work you will have no choice but to turn together to the Creator because you will feel that you are not in connection between you together. Rather each one imagines to himself a different kind of mechanism and that is far from connection. You will begin to really feel what you are lacking, what does it mean to be one man in one heart and these efforts will take you to a state of true connection. This true connection from your efforts is different and far from each other and opposite from each other as you are, you were going to ask the Creator and he is going to do it for you and that will be the connection of the spiritual Partzuf of the group.
9. S. (01:02:15) As it says in the article you can be born as a fool or you can be born as a wise so we don't have a choice in that but what does it mean if you're a fool and to be righteous or a righteous fool, what does that mean and how does a fool become righteous?
R. One has nothing to do with the other thing as righteous or wicked, fool or wise these are different discernments and in spirituality they are even far from each other and it is not foolishness or wisdom in the sense that we explain it in our world as also wicked or righteous is not the discernment that we speak about in our world. They are discernments with regards to connection, to incorporation and to the connection between the pieces of the desires to a single desire. What we call a single heart so we don't have the same approach as we do in our world towards different pieces. Imagine to yourself that you are now in an open-heart surgery and you have to take the healthy part of the heart that you took a flawed part out and now you have to take another part of a healthy heart that you took from another person and plug into it so you have to tailor the hearts together. That requires reaching the state where they are compatible for connection as we are familiar with this problem in medicine. How there is a lack of compatibility that they can't work together even though we are all human beings one thing does not match the other thing. Actually on the human level we might see that organs from a pig could be more suitable for humans than another human. Anyway there's a lot of details in that and what I'm trying to say is that connection is based on the equivalence of the inner qualities rather than external qualities. In our inner qualities we would become closer and closer to each other, this is what makes our hearts connect more and more even though our bodies are not important, that they remain what they are.
10. S. (01:05:42) In the article it says about connecting to the Rav to connect his powers and what is the difference between receiving Rav’s powers and receiving the group’s powers?
R. To receive strength from the Rav is to receive guidance but to receive strength from the group is to receive the strength from the group is to receive force from the system to be connected with them to attain the Creator, the Rav is the guide and the realization is in the group.
11. S. (01:07:05) How to protect yourself from the thoughts of external people?
R. I don't get involved with them. I have learned from Rabash to listen for a few minutes to the news and to get the most important things of what is happening in the world, de facto which helps me a little bit to see what influences people, but opinions I don't get involved with at all. I can hear something here or there about economists for example but just because it is something that influences people. What will truly influence society in the end is happening from above but these views impact people on the level of where people are, so we don't have so much to be impressed by what is traveling in the world. We only need to take into account the trend that is influencing humanity towards connection or disconnection and then accordingly we can also see what the connection between people’s inclinations and the Creator’s inclinations who will be is influencing them. These are things that are going to happen anyway one way or the other, so we don't really need it except if we engage in dissemination then we need that, otherwise I wouldn't go into these things at all. The world will ultimately move forward and roll forward and as much as we try to raise ourselves the world will take on a more accurate path. I really hope that we will be able to show the world the right direction of its development that will happen along with questions about recognition of evil and understanding the path. They will happen together.
12. S. (01:10:11) Is it me seeing my distance from the friends and the push against my nature in order to connect to them?
R. Yes.
S. I see myself always becoming worse all the time. It is almost more difficult.
R. Yes of course that is new for you? It is good that each time you find yourself as worse, you are being shown more and more the truth of who you are until you find yourself in a state where there is no one worse on planet earth. We see this from the Zohar, right? that when one wise person traveled on the beach and he found someone very ugly, the beach here speaks about the sea of wisdom that appeared to him because he studied a lot. Then he discovered himself as so ugly, so evil and then he cried. What can he do? Then he received a response from the Creator to go and study and take care of himself; what you have now discovered is the truth and now what you have left is only correcting it. So the same for each and every one as we discover ourselves worse and worse. That is the left side of each level and we rise by going left and right and left and right; that is how we go up the level. This is great. I'm just hoping and wishing for you great strength so that you can keep rising and maybe jump through a few levels as it is not literally possible but just to go further and further.
13. S. (01:13:00) How to awaken in me the recognition of evil in order to feel and understand correctly in every state that comes whether I am righteous or Wicked?
R. If you support all the friends in order to push them to the Creator to a greater connection, that is what it means; then you are righteous. And you Justified all creation that the Creator created and all that he gave you, and you realize all of it in the right direction.
14. S. (01:13:42) You said that our life is made of points and each point has parameters that were defined in advance except for that choice of righteousness or wickedness. So the question is as it turns out the righteousness or wickedness is completely disconnected from our entire life?
R. We're talking about spiritual development. In spiritual development we have to determine ourselves with regard to the purpose of creation, the process of creation; and that's what we measure to see whether we're in the right state or bad state. That's how we determine whether we are wicked or righteous. But it's unrelated to the states we go through with respect to other people. To them, I just need to relate to them nicely, we have to understand they are managed from above by the Creator and I have to just treat them calmly and positively.
S. That's clear but every moment we discover that we are in some states, some points like you said, what does it mean that I'm descending from this state to righteous or Wicked?
R. Do I justify this state or not? Do I aim for a higher state or not? That's what I need to do.
15. S. (01:15:33) The dumb become smarter if he wants to connect to the group to study the wisdom?
R. First of all let's say a person already discovered himself as a fool and he advances towards the group to become wise. That could happen in a physical sense: He just wants to know what Kabbalah explains, he cares about it as regards to knowledge, as a scientist, it could be a religious perspective or a psychological perspective. But when he goes deeper into Kabbalah, he sees that it's not about these discernments of science, philosophy and culture and so on, but this is about the correction of the human himself. Not what he needs to learn externally and gain more knowledge, wisdom, philosophy and know some smart adages. Rather he himself needs to change by the group. That's the problem, that there are people who come to the group and from their nature they want to go into the group and try to change it. That's natural, for each and every person, otherwise no one would connect with anyone. When a person comes to another person or to the group, everyone just wants to take control. To take control means to impose your way of thinking, your perception over the other and bit by bit as we go into the group through the study and the light that reforms, we begin to internalize that what we need is to become a replica of the group. Meaning I want the group to permeate me and to copy its shape over me. Like what we do when we make a mold, like a template; we take a certain shape which is the right shape we want and we force it into some piece of metal or tin and thus we shape it in the right way, and in an opposite way than what it was originally. And if a person is ready to reach the group and be there like this; just a piece of metal and let the group impose its shape on him, that means he is willing to be in adhesion with the friends in the group. That should be the approach to one who goes into the group. Now of course we can't just demand it from everyone who comes into the group but gradually over years possibly a person understands this acknowledges that he has no choice; but to be a copy of the ten and this way he'll become an Inseparable part of it and thus enters a state of connection with them and the Creator.
16. S. (01:20:01) What does it mean the degree of the speaking; that we already know how to turn to the Creator in each and every state?
R. The speaking degree is the human degree. Now, even though the human degree is a general degree, even a baby as we see in our world, an infant. But the humans that we refer to as the speaking degree really are those who have an inner discernment, and they can also speak their Torah. That is a higher degree.
17. S. (01:21:03) The text says that the righteous are few so how do the righteous maintain their righteousness when they are surrounded by the wicked?
R. The righteous are righteous because they contain the wicked within them; it's not that they're surrounded by wicked, they themselves consist of their own Wicked. But they have the right discernment of what it means to be righteous above the wicked, within them. So by preferring the degree of the righteous over the degree of the wicked. Because otherwise there is no righteous degree, it doesn't exist if it's not one on top of the other. Love can only be above the crimes. The wise can only be opposite the fool. The righteous can only be opposite the wicked and they have to be together, one opposite the other. So the righteous know what makes them righteous and what are the wicked in them because on top of them they build themselves as righteous. So then they have no problem understanding the other; both in their wickedness and in their righteousness. That's why it says, “there's no righteous in the land that did good without committing a sin first.”
18. S. (01:22:55) After the congress we had now, that event, a completely new thing was revealed. Once I thought I knew something, I understand something, now I was completely tossed. I feel like a rag, I don't know anything. There are people who have come to their group and they are only there for a few months. I am 20 years with you, and I feel like I am nothing, a zero, I don't have the forces to keep doing anything. What should I do with this?
R. You need to scrutinize if this is a state of advancement or is this something outside of the path. We learned that the more a person advances, he advances between two forces on two legs - left and right. As much as light is revealed, darkness is revealed corresponding to it. The greater the light that is revealed, the greater darkness needs to be revealed, and they support each other. All of creation, which is outside of the degree, begins from the creation of darkness. So going through these states where we finally suddenly fall, and feel helpless, and we don't know anything, don't feel anything - different ways, all of that doesn't make us weaker. We know this is how we are building the vessel inside of us, and we are inside our vessel, and that is why we have to go through these states. It is possible to connect with society, and to grab it like a baby who clings to his mother, clings to her body, and then everything that happens to you doesn't dissuade you much, doesn't scare you. Through adhesion with the group you are going through these states faster and more comfortably. Do it, go ahead. The fact that this is coming to you after 20 years on the path, very good. It is a sign that these are true states.
S. What is the big sin, the biggest sin the wicked can do against the group?
R. We don't speak of the group. We typically speak relative to a person himself, and relative to the Creator. A wicked person is one who comes to the group and doesn't let them connect, doesn't give them the possibility to connect. Let's put it simply, he doesn't give them the possibility to connect, he introduces light headedness into the group, to the ten, frivolity. There is no choice for the ten but to fight with him gently, but possibly even to expel him.
S. How can you check that?
R. This is not for now. You should check it, that is possible.
19. S. (01:27:09) You were speaking about the points we go through on the path. They are the wicked that are being revealed?
R. Yes.
S. You also said that we discover it towards the past, these points. What connects between those points?
R. I don't quite understand this form you are painting. A line is made of points through which you have to reach the goal.
S. What is this line made of that connects between them? If I am in the existing point and I look backward at the point that was there, what is the line that connects them all?
R. Each and every point has to be opposite compared to the point before it. I am not sure how to say it in Hebrew. If you are learning math, there is a definition of what is a straight line, that is the sum of points, where in each and every point there is an inversion of the differential of the degree. Maybe someone knows how to express it in Hebrew.
S. In the group there is like a point of choice, they constantly choose the good environment. What actually gives a person that power to choose?
R. A good environment is when I have to depict this environment I am in, which the Creator brought me to, and said ‘take it’ as Rabash says, I work on strengthening, reinforcing. Therefore, I constantly strengthen myself to be more connected to them, to push them forward as much as I possibly can correctly.
S. But what gives the person the forces to keep annulling and seeing the greatness in the friends every time?
R. We need to scrutinize between us how much advancement is necessary, and it's only towards greater connection with the group.
S. Then what? The more you scrutinize it, it becomes practical?
R. Yes, of course. That is how we advance. What is the question?
20. S. (01:30:39) I am the will to receive. How can I really define myself as righteous or wicked?
R. I don't think we need to think about it. I need to think about how I add myself, attach myself, glue myself to the group. I can start discussing myself after I'm glued with certainty, adhered to the group. To think of myself as unbelonging without connection to the group, it is a tower floating in the air, it is philosophy, it is an incorrect attitude.
21. S. (01:31:41) What do we need descents for that bring us to complete disconnection? Then, you can pray, you can answer the question of righteous or wicked?
R. So you would pray correctly, you need to move from state to state through these points of disconnection and to maintain the connection. Because you have disregarded or looked down at the previous state of connection, and you didn't ask for an increase in the previous state of connection, you connected completely from it.
22. S. (01:32:26) How can we, in the work in the ten, constantly check that we are engaging in correcting our soul? What are the criteria?
R. As much as you are connected together, and in that comment point you wish to aim at the Creator.
23. S. (01:32:59) Where is our choice between the righteous and the wicked, if everything was determined from the Creator?
R. Again.
S. Where is our choice between the righteous and the wicked, if everything was determined by the Creator?
R. This is nonsense. Our free choice exists and we need to accept it in this way, that our progress, our advancement is in the longing to resemble the Creator, and vice-versa. The more we disregard it, deride it, we are wicked. We can't say everything is in the hands of heaven, except for fear of heaven. The way we can advance ourselves towards the Creator, that is in our hands
24. S. (01:34:03) Is it not egoistic to see ourselves as righteous?
R. No, no, no. If the righteous, is one defined as loving everyone, helping everyone, adhered to everyone, responsible for everyone, how can this be egoistic? I am amazed by these questions, who is asking them? I guess people who are completely not with us in the study.
25. S. (01:34:37) What is the generation? Why do we need a righteous in every generation?
R. In each generation, each period, there needs to be in our world such people who are leading the generation towards connection, towards correction, because people who are in this world on the face of this planet require an example of sorts, a leader, a leading figure. That is why we need teachers in each and every generation, that's how it used to be throughout our history.
26. S. (01:35:36) How can we come out of this confusion, and discern between the righteous of the generation or just egoistic smart people?
R. It is very simple. It depends on what we are talking about. The righteous speak only of the correction of the soul, correction of man, the connection between us, in order to bring ourselves to a higher human degree. It does not concern how smart a person is, rather how righteous he can be, bestowing, close to the other. Smart people talk about other discernments.
27. S. (01:36:23) When I justify the state in every moment, how can I aim it to a higher state?
R. A higher state is when I am more adhered to the group. Very simple.
28. S. (01:36:43) If it is not important if a person is a fool or smart, why did the Creator create them like that?
R. The Creator created wise people, stupid people, righteous and wicked, many kinds. Each one of us is very diverse, very different, as a result of the collection of qualities inside each of us. We need to look at the difference only relative to being wicked or being righteous. Everything else is joining the discernment of righteous or wicked since it is not enough to simply be righteous or wicked in order to adhere to one another. We have to have additional qualities so we can find between us different forms of the correct communication.
29. S. (01:37:47) Can there be a fool that understands that he is a fool? What should we take from the word 'fool' from this article?
R. Fool or wise are people who understand, who attained, that they are such, and the more he sees himself as a fool, he can become wiser. On the other way around, when he reaches the degree of wise, he sees together with that how much of a fool he is. Wise and fool, like righteous and wicked, these discernments exist in one person and not in several different people.
30. S. (01:38:37) We learned that the righteous is the one who justifies the Creator. Is it enough for the wicked to bless his destiny in order to become righteous, or does he still need wisdom?
R. The wicked and righteous are discernments that don't depend on the amount of wisdom in a person. Rather, the main thing for us is to reach a state where we rise above the wicked in us, and by that we reach the righteous in us. In the gap between the wicked and the righteous we can measure our spiritual degree. All other degrees are only there in order to help us, assist us, in determining the degrees of the wicked and the righteous. But in truth, they don't determine anything by themselves, I am willing to be the greatest fool together with the greatest righteous. Because we are not speaking of foolishness as in the form of lack of intellect. I receive all of my intellect as a result of my adhesion with the Creator while being righteous, so I don't acquire these discernments of a wise person from this world. This is called a smart guy, a wise guy, because our world is in darkness.
31. S. (01:40:42) How can the Arvut [mutual guarantee] in the ten help us work with the righteous and wicked inside us?
R. Specifically, through the Arvut we come to a state of a connection between us. From the connection between us, we come to the correct discernments regarding everything we need in the wisdom of Kabbalah. The main thing is to begin to measure all these discernments, all these states, from within the Arvut [mutual guarantee].
32. S. (01:41:35) If the animate degree is perfect, why is it written that if man corrects himself all degrees of nature will be corrected?
R. The animate degree is not perfect. It is not complete or whole. What is perfect is the speaking degree. Maybe I didn't understand the question. If we reach the speaking degree, the speaking degree is the degree of man - Adam, who resembles the Creator. This degree is not carried out in this world in a living body. But you could say, well you see, look, this is a man according to his head, his inside, Rosh - Toch - Sof, his legs, his hands. This is a horse, there is a difference between a man and a horse. There is no difference between a man and a horse. A horse is a desire, and a man is a desire. Rather, inside a man there is a point that resembles the Creator. If that point develops, it goes through the same stages as a physical or corporeal embryo inside a spiritual woman. Then, he is born in spirituality, and he grows up in spirituality, he becomes a man, a spiritual man. We cannot see the spiritual man with our own eyes, we are speaking of that man. That man each and every one of us needs to grow, needs to give birth to from within. The animal, the beast, the animate degree, it lives. This is my body as you see me now, I am alive on the animate degree. If you wish to see me on the speaking degree, you need to use spiritual eyesight to see into me and see whether or not I have a spiritual image, person in me - I invite you, I am open. That is how it is. There is no difference between the corporeality of a person and his internality in spirituality. There is no accordance, one could between these qualities, one can be ugly on the outside but very pretty on his internality in spirituality.
33. S. (01:44:23) How can a person determine that the needs of the body don’t overcome the needs of the soul?
R. I don't think this is quite relevant for us, but in general this is determined by the goal. If my goal is a spiritual goal, then certainly in order to attain it I give all my forces to it, all my powers, this is the main thing for me.
34.S. (01:45:12) At the end of the article, the 42 paths are the ups and downs and the path of the Creator. What does that mean?
R. That we need to advance in stages as we advance towards the Creator. These steps, these degrees, of approaching the Creator are predefined because this is the will to receive that we have to process it towards in order to bestow. That is how we come closer to the Creator, that is what is written about it in the Torah. This is the path, the journey we have to go through.
Reading again: Baal HaSulam - Shamati 99. He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous
35. R. (01:48:08) We can change our fate. How can I change myself if it is pre-written that I will be a fool or wise or a righteous or a wicked? This is how I was born and this is how I was sentenced. This birth certificate. Michael Laitman will be a fool, wicked, lazy, and other such things like spending all his money. Can I control those things or not? You cannot control anything except for one thing: to be a righteous or a wicked. All other things are predetermined and are sentenced in advance so you shouldn't think about how to change all those different inclinations and dispositions you have. Only one thing: wicked or righteous. If you want to take care of that you'll be able to succeed with all other of your qualities and, in general, will succeed in life.
Reader continues: (01:49:40) “We should also understand the words…”
36. R. (01:50:56) The question is complex. We either need to make corrections in each and every generation by concentrating all the corrections in one generation, perhaps all generations after it will be corrected. So what's better to do here? He says no, the Creator did it in this way and we need to learn from it. In each generation, in each and every state, there needs to be righteous and wicked. You need to let a person reveal both in each and every generation born and developed. You should have free choice in both and each and every generation needs to have it.
Reader continues: (01:51:49) “To understand the above we must ……”
37. R. (01:54:04) He might not have any good, strong, special tendencies, but because he used his righteous and wicked qualities correctly, he will reach the purpose of life. Imagine a person who has a weak character and a weak desire. It doesn’t matter that he does not have great intellect and he received education at home and he was spoiled his entire life or that he is confused and he's predisposed to play and do all kinds of nonsense. It doesn't matter as long as he has a feeling, a scrutiny, a certain sensitivity for what it means to be righteous or wicked. Then it's possible for him to develop the sensitivity more and more until he corrects all of his discernments and all of his qualities and they will remain down below. He will manage all of the crimes that he has according to his disposition towards the truth, towards being righteous.
Reader continues: (01:55:39) “Since he is completely incapable….”
37. R. (01:56:13) The Creator solves this problem of choice by a person to have free choice. Even though he is entirely made up of terrible qualities, has weak character, and is confused in all of these various dispositions, nevertheless, among all his negative discernments that are completely opposite to the goal, he's got one discernment which is righteous or wicked. He holds on to that discernment and cannot let go of it. It comes from his nature. Thanks to that he gradually picks himself up from the sewage of all these terrible desires and horrible tendencies and inclinations and he comes out of them towards adhesion with the Creator. He cannot tolerate one thing: he cannot stand to be a wicked, to be dishonest. It appears in him in such a way that he doesn’t care about anything and can agree and chase all those things but he cannot let go of the truth, only the truth. He can close his eyes about it at the time and be confused but it will be revealed to him again and again. That's how he was created and it will bring him to correction. It won't let him calm down.
Reader continues: (01:58:35) “To understand this, that even a fool….”
38. R. (02:00:08) These things are known even in this world, that's how it is set up.
Reader continues: (02:00:26) “Now we can understand the above words….”
39.R. (02:07:56) Here we have to be careful that we don't go into Hasidism. If the important person likes to eat, so I have to love to eat; he dresses this way so I also have to dress that way, and so on. No. Here we need one thing similar: I understand his attitude towards life and spirituality as much as I can. His attitude. So the same way I need to see whether that can be my clothing or not.
Reader continues: (02:08:52) “However, according to this….”
40. R. (02:10:42) There is a big benefit by the simple, the weak, and all kinds of other discernments, except for the righteous, because specifically through them we have great coarseness. We have such discernments that the righteous can uplift above them and they both are corrected, the wicked, the weak, and all kinds that don’t have adhesion with the Creator, do the same spiritual work. The way they support one another, even in a negative way, they are helping parts of the souls, called ‘the souls of the righteous,’ to justify the Creator in all of creation. All the rest of the souls, especially the lower ones, have a role and they are rewarded with adhesion in the Creator.
Reader continues: (02:11:50) “But we must know….”
41. R. (02:13:18) We want the Creator to pull us and He is saying, “You come to Me”. So who's doing the action? We want the Creator to do the action and He, supposedly, wants us to do the action in coming closer.
Reader continues: (02:13:40) “the meaning is that during the decline….”
42. R. (02:16:21) Until we reach adhesion, the complete adhesion. It's a very special article and I'm happy we read it twice. There were questions and they were actually to the point and this is good for the first time that we came to know this article. All in all it went in; obviously, we can't digest it yet, but it went in there. It's really a very simple story here: none of us need to look at any of his qualities completely. He could be a person who is completely stupid with all kinds of horrible qualities, or he wasn't educated and is without knowledge, or he doesn't have a profession and he doesn't know anything. He doesn't even understand who he is or if is in a low state. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter at all. If the Creator brought him to a ten, and he tries to incorporate in them just like a baby that doesn't understand anything, that is the degree that is the state which is the best for spiritual advancement. The more he advances he will see that his annulment towards the ten helps him advance more than any wisdom and any overcoming. All the overcoming is only in annulment because the Creator is in the group and a person annuls towards the Creator in such a way. We actually need to enter the quality of bestowal, Hesed, mercy in this way.
43. S. (02:18:46) The end of the article says that the Rav knows when to rise and when to return. What does this mean for us?
R. Truthfully right. We still have to scrutinize that but gradually we will locate the righteous and the wicked inside of us and use it more and more according to our connection with the group and then we can also understand that from our deeds.
44. S. (02:19:32) What does it mean to scrutinize the truth in the ten?
R. Without the ten you can’t scrutinize the truth, you don't have a vessel for it. Are you the one who is scrutinizing? You need to say that you alone are like a horse. We become Adam, man, the more we connect to the ten. It is possible to describe such a state that from a horse you become a man. When a few horses together annul towards one another and want to connect with one another, the image of Adam, of man, grows from that connection. They understand that what they put together is like some kind of external puppet but inside it's full of the upper light. They feel the Creator by this. The external depiction, the external form, resembles the Creator in mutual bestowal and then the fulfillment inside is actually the essence of the Creator’s bestowal towards them.
45. S. (02:21:28) Can a person choose his soul or the clothing he receives?
R. A person cannot choose his soul. He doesn't choose anything but one thing: whether he wants to change his destiny. He can change it only by adhering to the group. Through the group he gets the light that reforms that organizes him even more with the connection to the group and by that he can determine his spiritual advancement. He receives the new external clothing, meaning of the soul, by that. The image of the internality that fills the external clothing is called a soul. What he had with the group before were corporeal things. Afterwards, he said that this is what he thought, but it wasn’t, it was just depictions of his internal qualities. There wasn't actually anything in it, and it even disappears afterwards. There is nobody, there's no world, there is nothing. There is only a ten which gets stronger and stronger that reveals the Creator because you can only reveal the Creator in the clothing of the ten. That's how it happens.
46. S. (02:23:47) In the beginning of the article he talks about a drop of semen, night, and this angel.
R. It's different discernments we get from above so we can build differences of giving and receiving in us.
47. S. (02:24:12) During the lesson you said that you were willing to be a fool who is near a great sage. How can we stay connected to you together with our ten?
R. Connected to me is through the lessons. I open myself entirely in the lessons with you. We need to yearn in our adhesion to create such a state, such a connection, such a form that will resemble the Creator as much as possible by these articles. When we reach such a form, we will all start feeling the Creator in us; it will be the clothing of the upper light in our spiritual degree. So all of our tendency is to build such a connection between us that even in the smallest measure, the upper light will be able to appear in us.
S. So we'll be able to learn from you, Masach to Masach.
R. We will even learn not between the Masach, the screens, but from degree to degree as much as we can resemble our connection to the Creator, from our relationships that resemble the Creator's relation towards us. It's obviously through a screen but the main thing is to think of the connection and not the screen, coarseness, collision or restrictions against our will to receive. We should think of the states where we will be above the will to receive. It will come. The article is very important and I recommend that you read it again throughout the day if you have time for it. We will come back to it every so often.
S. (02:28:19) After this unity evening where you felt this connection we had there, you mentioned again this exalted concept called ‘the last generation.’ We want to know what you did see?
R. I saw the beginning of the last generation and what has been made of us, that we are really becoming on this earth - we are becoming the foundation, the beginning of all humanity, eventually, that is joining into one system, one mechanism, around the upper light. That this upper light is working on all of us, connecting all of us, organizing all of us, opening everybody’s eyes, and we are starting to see and understand where we are. Because without seeing the truth, we will not be able to change. Only us, the small part of humanity, can go with the force of bestowal with our eyes shut, but all of humanity cannot. By this, they have to be the other part of the Partzuf [face], not GE, but AHAP. They can connect to this only in a way that they work with their will to receive and annul it a bit. The way they use it in order to bestow to GE, but we will learn about it. We will learn this whole thing, it is still far. For now, we are talking about how to stabilize GE, our part in the general soul of all of humanity. But this state is already stabilizing more and more, and it's coming down on us more and more, becoming closer to us from above, and that's why I am very excited. It is very important for us to establish and do everything we just can for it to happen, and it will happen as quick as possible, of course, in order to give contentment to the friends and to the Creator. I was very happy that this feeling has already begun to clarify in this last meal we had, this last congress we had. I hope that in three months, when we organized the next congress, I think we will be even more prepared for the state, that we will also see our friends from around the world that are also in groups and meals in L’Chaims [cheers] together, that we do it from one group to the next in a way that we don't feel differences between the groups - it is all before us. Let's think about how to do it. We have to give it an external and internal form to our connection, and then for sure that we will succeed. We are actually that group of the last generation that needs to be that source, that seed, that around it the whole world will unite and connect and receive a simple human form of connecting the heart without any differences in anything - not in the clothings or the customs. We have one custom, ‘love thy friend as I self,’ that is it. One condition for each and every one, to open their heart to the others. So we will advance towards that. I am very happy that we started feeling it, and we will get stronger in it, and overcome it. Obviously, there are a lot of forces against it, but we have to understand that the forces that are against are in order to give us more of a form, because the force of bestowal can’t exist without the force of reception that limits and threatens it. We, under the pressure we feel from them, by that we are establishing ourselves. That is why there is no evil in the world, there is only good.