Morning Lesson October 15, 2021 Transcription
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Lishma [for Her sake]
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/UEikDufF?language=en
1. Rav’s Introduction: We are continuing with the same primary topic of why we exist in this world. We were born in the state of the will to receive and we develop and reach a state where we feel how much it is pressuring us and how much we suffer from it. Some people were given an opportunity to rise above to a different level than the nature of this world, which is called the ego or the will to receive for oneself, to the nature of the upper force, the quality of the Creator, to the will to bestow. Eventually those who have this desire, the drive to reach the will to bestow, the form of bestowal, the form of the Creator, need to implement, to actualize this inclination that the Creator gave them. The other people will make this ascent following them. We learned that we have a great will to receive, but inside of it there is a tiny point that is yearning to reach Lishma, for Her sake, and we call it the point in the heart. We become that point, that special point that is yearning to reach the Creator, to the extent that we yearn for the Creator, and it determines the fate of the entire heart meaning this whole great desire of humanity. We need both to care for how to give contentment to the Creator and also how to save the whole of humanity from that terrible egoistic state in which it exists and therefore is suffering more and more from one day to the next. Our work and our purpose in this world where we exist right now, where we were born and where we feel and discover the state that we are in, is to rise from that terrible egoistic state to the upper world whose nature is the opposite nature, the opposite quality, the altruistic nature of bestowal and giving instead of reception and hatred. We do this by shifting from the desire of each one to receive only for himself to a desire to bestow to others, each one to everyone. We attain the Creator's nature by this. This transition is called the transition from Lo Lishma, not for Her sake, to Lishma, for Her sake. The state where those who long to reach Lishma, for Her sake, but are not in it yet is called Lo Lishma, not for Her sake. They are not yet in Lishma, so Lo Lishma. What does that mean? People who do not yearn for the Creator, who don't know or understand that they have to replace their disposition from the will to receive to the will to bestow, from hatred for everyone to love to everyone, only need to change themselves and not anyone else, and everything that everyone feels in his world he is feeling himself. We have to make a transition from Lo Lishma, not for Her sake, when we're not in love and bestowal for others and the Creator, to Lishma, so that we will reach love to others and to the Creator. This is only for those people who receive a drive for it and that they are drawn to it; it's not for all the people in the world. They will do this work in a simple way. They will be elevated specifically as a result of our efforts to the degree of Lishma, which they deserve.
The state where we exist, where we feel this world in our egoistic desire, is called this world and we get it in our uncorrected desires, the way we were born and develop. When we want to get to an altruistic desire, Lishma, to feel and love others and to be concerned for others ahead of concern for ourselves, is called bestowal. It is then considered that we are beginning to feel the upper world and the Creator. This is actually our work, you know that. I've repeated it and went over it a little bit before this article that we have today which is called Lishma, for Her sake.
Shamati 19 (07:56) “Concerning Lishma [for Her sake]. In order for a person…”
2. R. (08:37) There are many people who study the wisdom of Kabbalah, they study the text and it is a true study, however, they don't hear that you need to reach Lishma. They say these things but they don't understand the essence of these words. They start to understand, bit by bit over many years, that here it refers to an inner change within the person. That the person shouldn't perceive the environment, the world, in his vessels of reception but rather he will perceive them in his vessels of bestowal. It turns out that we have to replace our vessels and then the world and everything will change. We won't feel a different world until we replace our vessels from reception to bestowal. We won't feel ourselves in a different reality.
Reader continues (10:01) “...Because of this, upon assuming the burden of the kingdom…”
R. (10:10) Meaning that he agrees with the goal of reaching in order to bestow, Lishma, and that this will be his goal.
Reader continues (10:21) “...one needs it to be in utter completeness…”
R. (10:54) This means that we truly, seriously begin to see the goal that we have to reach. Everyone in the world needs to reach it, everyone who exists in the world, should reach Lishma. The question is if we go as the avant-garde, as a commando unit, and we're breaking through to Lishma and we join all the generations of the Kabbalists, all the souls that have already corrected themselves, there in Lishma.
Then there is the other part, the people who did not receive the revelation of the point in the heart that pushes them to the Creator, to reach Lishma, bestowal, they are in it passively. They live in this world according to the same thoughts and desires that nature, Providence, the Creator, awakens in them each and every moment and they just reform actions completely without any free choice. We need to understand that our free choice is unique. There is only one choice: we either exist as the servants of pharaoh, as slaves of the will to receive, or we reach in order to bestow and then we are servants of the Creator. I need to choose each time and make efforts to reject the servitude of my ego to be a servant of the Creator.
3. S. (13:16) Does Lishma happen in a moment or does it happen gradually?
R. Lishma means in order to bestow, to be above in order to receive. There's a lot written about it. This is the nature of the spiritual world, the quality of the Creator, the will to bestow, the form of bestowal, etc. The person who rises above his ego, above his will to receive, and begins to work above the will to receive, is referred to as being in Lishma, and he constantly wants to cover his will to receive with the intention to bestow. The will to receive remains as it is and actually shows itself greater and greater than it was before each time. However it is all in order for the person to be able to cover it with a desire to bestow with the intention to bestow. Our work is to use the will to receive in order to bestow. We need to be alert to the fact that we exist in the will to receive and it changes and grows each and every time. We need to be concerned about how to resist it, how to cover it with the intention in order to bestow. If I use the will to receive to bestow above it, it's considered that I'm on the degree of Bina. I still have the coarseness of Shoresh, Aleph or Bet, meaning zero, one, or two, from Malchut to Bina. If I'm able to use the will to receive that awakens in me in the degrees Gimel and Dalet, the degrees of 3 and 4, then I can use it in the opposite form even to receive in order to bestow. This is already great work and it is very special. This is what we try to do.
4. S. (16:50) Can we ask for help from the Kabbalists?
R. We need to ask for help in all possible forms. It's not only that we rise above our ego and we continue our correction but we also elevate them. We bring them into our system when we turn to these high souls and ask for corrections. Each and every corrected part in the general system of Adam HaRishon is happy to take part in the correction, so it has great joy when you turn to it. This is considered to make the souls of the righteous happy and this is what we need to do. Later on we will learn about how to connect with them. This also pertains to the Ibur, the impregnation, of the souls of the righteous. Yes, we do need to do this.
5. S. (18:37) Do we feel the pushing of the passive part of the soul to achieve Lishma inside or does this come from above? How does this work?
R. We can't talk about that now because we don't feel these things. We don’t want to talk and philosophize about what doesn't enter our senses because this will simply be an opening for great confusion. Kabbalists only talk about what is revealed for sure, for certain, in their vessels. The time will come when you will have a connection with the high souls, both those who are actually clothed in bodies and those that are not clothed in bodies of this world. You will get to know everything. Gradually, bit by bit, we'll talk about the whole of creation. Gradually, to the extent that you're able to receive it and not to be mistaken.
6. S. (20:06) How do I invert even my smallest desire for Lishma to the benefit of the friends?
R. As much as you are capable, use all of your desires for the benefit of the friends and this will be on the way to Lishma.
7. S. (29:49) Does Rabash mean that every person in the 10 pours his heart out to the Creator or does he mean the 10 together?
R. Both this and that.
Reader continues third paragraph (21:15) “do not say that if Lishma is a gift from above “
8. R. (21:56) It is clear that I cannot do anything against the will to receive that the Creator created, which is the entire nature of the whole of creation, the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. I don't have the vessels or the means, and have no possibility to change my will to receive or to diminish it, increase it, or move it from state to state. It seems to me that this is possible but it is impossible. It's considered to replace a cow with a donkey. I want to work with the will to receive by myself and it seems to me that I am changing the will to receive. Instead of one, it's a second one, then another one that I'm overcoming and I'm doing it. It is impossible to do anything. Therefore, all of our actions are only by us turning to the Creator and He gives us the mind and the power to perform the right actions. We can do whatever people say without Him, but these are not corrections. It's not considered that I am performing a correction when I do what I am capable of with my mind and heart because the corrections can be done only by the upper light.
I do not advance without turning to the Creator for His help to teach or to do, and I do not achieve anything with my individual or general correction, or in the 10 or in humanity. Therefore, first of all, we cannot forget that we must first turn to the Creator for all of the corrections that we want. It's unrelated to all kinds of things that we determine in the 10 or in our lives mechanically. We have to keep these unrelated things in the relations between us, in the relations between people by our own forces but we can advance towards bestowal, towards true connection, only by turning to the Creator. There is only one thing left for us after all of our efforts trying to perform actions of connection and bestowal. We turn to the Creator for Him to help us, to teach us, and for Him to give us the strength, the mind, and the understanding of how to perform acts of connection. Following the shattering of the soul of Adam HaRishon this is the only action we need to do.
9. S. (25:38) Baal HaSulam says here in the second paragraph if a person sees that the organs do not agree with his view he has no other choice but prayer and one must be given awakening from below but if the organs do not agree then it applies that you can't even do the prayer you can't even give the awakening it's it like a function that approaches an axis but never reaches the axis so it seems that you can never the ego will never let you give this prayer. How does this work?
R. That is true but nevertheless if we try together to carry out that appeal to the Creator, it does come out of us and it does reach him. Because in our appeal there is the matter of envy, lust, honor, the matter of competition, the matter of well all kinds of things meaning the will to receive is also mixed in our prayer. So we can do it. Even though we are one hundred percent the will to receive, a small will to receive, however through the negative connection between us that exists between us we are able to reach a state where we do want to turn to the Creator and to get help from Him.
Envy, lust and honor, they are measured from one person towards another person, right, envy, lust, honor from one person to another person because if I wouldn't feel the others, if I wouldn't have these three elements, these free inclinations and below us and honor, I wouldn't even feel them. Because I exist in the human society which is egoistic and broken so towards all of those who are in the society I haven't an egoistic perspective. I look at them through envy, lust and honor. So then when we want to connect and overcome these things, we feel how much we are not capable of it and we run away from it. If over that also, over the connection we see this as necessary in order to achieve the honor, to feel the envy and the lust then it turns out that specifically those negative inclinations help us. This is how we can turn to the Creator in demand and ask of him for our advancements towards bestowing.
S. So it seems that that point of despair that even the ego is asking the ego is actually emitting this prayer is that correct?
R. Yes. We will learn about these things in the meantime, let's advance according to the article but you're right you should ask more.
10. S. (29:58) What does the prayer need to be so that it will become an awakening from below?
R. The prayer if we want to awaken the upper force so it will be stowed to us it has to resemble the upper force to some extent. Meaning it has to be on the same wavelength in the same frequency as the upper force. The upper force works in bestowal so our prayers should also to some extent before bestowal, to an extent at least. Then to that extent we are obligating the Creator the upper force to hear us and to respond.
11. S. (31:02) Lishma do we obtain against the fight of the ego with suffering or with discovery of joy that grows time by time?
R. No, no, no, it's not about the joy, we should also have joy, but it's a result of the fact that I am certain that I am advancing on the right path. However we are advancing above our ego. We are asking to have the strength to rise above our egoistic inclination and only in such a way that I want to rise above my ego, and to acquire all kinds of forms of bestowing in the group. Of course in the meantime it is only in the group or in our entire vessel the world vessel of Bnei Baruch in such a form I am rewarded with receiving forces from above so that I can incorporate in the vessels of bestowing meaning in the soul, Neshama. The soul means the will to bestow and then in such a way I already begin to feel and understand what is happening. What is going on in the true reality not in our limit, the domain which was deliberately created by the Creator in a particular form of a desire in order to receive. Then we exist in it as if in a bubble. But rather that we try to come out of it to the broad world, the world of bestowing the true world. Like this worm, right that has to come out of this bitter radish and this is how we need to understand what is our reality relative to the true reality.
12. S. (33:39) What is an action of true correction in the work?
R. True correction is a prayer as he says. A prayer, however, we need to understand what kind of inclinations we have for the prayer. Preparations for the prayer, a correct request because only it actually advances us towards the Creator's words of general force of bestowal.
13. S. (34:20) By what do we merit an illumination from above?
R. Through the merit or through the force of annulment towards the upper force. As much as I am willing to annul myself, to concede myself relative to the force, the general force of bestowal that exists in the whole of the surrounding reality.
14. S. (34:56) What is it to feel the world in vessels of bestowal?
R. It is considered to feel it as it is according to our degree of equivalence of form. With this true world, the world of truth. For that we also need to first of all to acquire this quality of bestowal. To the extent that we have vessels that are like the spiritual world so we will feel the spiritual world to a certain extent.
15. S. (36:02) How to receive the flavor of Lishma in the 10?
R. When we try to be closer and closer to each other, at the beginning out of lack of choice and later on more and more with the understanding that we must reach connection. Otherwise we won't feel anything besides whatever each one perceives, each one of us through his own perception of reality in an isolated, discreet manner, uniquely. Then we don't feel anything except for ourselves. A person, when a person instead of the true reality he feels, sees, and attains whatever is inside of him, in his vessel of reception, in his will to receive, and this is considered that he is attaining this world. This world which is the opposite, which is false, it is untrue. Therefore what we need is only to realize that without connection between us, we're not capable of feeling the upper world, that's one thing. Secondly, to reach a connection between us we're not capable of doing it on our own, ever. Thirdly, to reach the connection between us we can do it only through the upper force because it is the force of bestowing and connection. To the extent that it projects to us its power, to that extent we will advance towards such a connection where inside this connection we will start to feel the spiritual world, the Creator. These actually are the actions that we have to carry out, actions of connection between us and only according to the degree of connection in them we will feel the spiritual world. The fact that we don't want it, it actually comes to us as help. So that we will start to feel what it is that we are lacking, what is hindering us. Then in order to invert this resistance, this opposition specifically to coming closer to spirituality, then we have to pray. To ask of the Creator that he will invert our force of reception, rejection, envy, lust, honor, everything we have. All of our inclinations to move away from others that He will invert it to the opposite, to nearing. He is capable of it. This is what we need to ask for.
16. S. (40:00) How can we get the powers to cover the will to receive with an intention to bestow?
R. Only in prayer, like I just said. The will to receive remains the will to receive. We need to just locate its inclinations in order to receive, for its own benefit, for his own benefit, the way he works at any given moment. To the extent to which we want to change this, as much as we recognize it as the force of evil which is called the recognition of evil, and as much as we want for this force of rejection to be one of hatred, distancing from others, it will become attraction, closeness, connection, towards others. At first, in the 10 we need to do this. Then, to the extent in which we understand that this is the essence of correction, and in this correction we discover the force of bestowal which is called the Creator. There is no Creator without the created being, and the created being is the connection between us. So in such a manner we can come closer to corrections, but this is all attained only through prayer.
17. S. (41:42) How should I prepare myself for the prayer?
R. By talking between us, as well, about what we're lacking in order to come to adhesion to the Creator. To be together to the extent in which we rise above our ego that separates between us, we come close to the Creator actually, or at least, we learned what we are lacking in order to come close to the Creator. Accordingly we operate our request which is called prayer. If the request is correct after the true efforts of ours, then we receive the forces of correction from above. Then, with the correction between us we come closer to the Creator.
S. Should the correct prayer be that I will reach Lishma, or the friends will also reach Lishma?
R. It's written, ‘’one who prays for his friend merits first.” That's what we need to understand, adhere to the principle of bestowing is superior, is above.
18. S. (43:14) According to the text it says that it should be in complete perfection, meaning entirely to bestow, and not receiving anything. What will the created being bestow, if he doesn't receive anything the Creator?
R. Again, what?
S. It says in the text that it should be complete, with wholeness, meaning in order to bestow, not to receive anything. So the question is what will the created being bestow if he doesn't receive anything from the Creator?
R. What will the Creator bestow if he doesn't receive anything from the Creator? If he will want to bestow and not receive anything, he will receive the upper light. We don't need to draw the upper light for it to come to us in our desire to receive, that's impossible. It arrives in accordance with equivalence of form, as much as I want to bestow, to that extent the upper light fills me and I can bestow it to the other. It's a nice question, it's a correct question. Meaning, to the extent in which I want to bestow to others, I receive the upper light, and I will be able to bestow it to others. It's not that I need to receive the upper light, there's no matter of reception of the upper light. The spiritual world all works on an opposite nature, on the nature of bestowal. Hence, to the extent in which I don't want to receive, I already come closer to the Creator, to the upper light. To the extent in which I want to bestow, to give, I invert myself and become a vessel for reception of the upper light. It enters me, He is in me, to the extent and to the intensity of my desire to bestow to others.
Reader continues 4th paragraph (45:55) ”Yet, there cannot be a real prayer...“
19. R. (46:52) Meaning, there are several states here that we have to go through.
Reader continues (47:00) “We should also know that by obtaining Lishma...“
20. R. (47:37) So here I think that maybe we should do a workshop.
WSQ. How do we come to a state that as it's written that all one's deeds did not give him any benefit in order to obtain Lishma, and only then he can perform a true prayer? Meaning, a true prayer, I can give from my very state of despair, a grave state in which I am not capable of reaching Lishma and I want it so badly. With that, I understand that it is truly impossible, I can't emerge out of my body, out of my skin, and bestow to others. It's not my head, it's not my heart, it can't be, and not nothing. But I understand that there's a different reality where the soul operates and in the form of bestowal outside of it. How do I do this, how do I reach it, how do I make it, how do I convince the upper force to do this to me? How do we come to such a state, to a breakage, to a state in which we are certain that we will not succeed on one hand with our forces? But we must therefore receive forces from above. The Creator it is like we are obliging Him to give us the force of bestowal, in prayer, in a cry, this is how we need to do. How do we come to a state where we are erupting in such a way between us, that the Creator hears and says “my sons have defeated me,” that I gave them the desire to receive and they are demanding from me the opposite, the desire to bestow? How do we reach such a state of breakage and from it we are ready to obligate the Creator “my son's defeated me” as He says, we obligate the Creator to change our nature?
21. R. (54:59) It is written that one who prays for his friend merits first, what does that mean? Because if I am in a desire to receive and I really want to come to the Lishma, to the desire to bestow, then I depict myself a state even though I don't care if I remain in the state I'm in right now even though I really want to. Reach the sensation of spirituality, the Creator to exit this narrow, dark world. But if I really want to reach bestowal, then I need to pray for the friends for them to reach it and I only support, I only help with that. I convince the Creator to help them and I by myself am not concerned, that is my concern. For me to pray for the friends and they will succeed. Then if I really have such a prayer in the heart, then it's considered that one who prays for the others is rewarded first. Because then I truly have a desire for bestowal and in truth my prayer in such a manner in which I pray for others, this gives me the possibility even though I don't intend this. But it gives me the possibility to receive the force of bestowing from the Creator and to invert myself to the desire to bestow. Let's talk about this. Meaning, in order to reach the desire to bestow I need to come to a state that my friends will be very important to me, so much so that I only pray for them. I ask the Creator to help them and I don't ask for myself or anything. If I do this well more or less, as much as I am capable, from all of my heart. It's best to do exercises on this, the heart softens and then I come to a state in which I truly ask for the force of bestowal. If I'm asking for others. Then it turns out that I receive spirituality. That is called praying for others is rewarded first.
WSQ: How do we within the tens want to observe, place ourselves in such a way that we will all will be rewarded with the spiritual quality, the quality of bestowal?
22. S. (01:02:00) What kind of exercises can we do in order to soften the heart?
R. The more a person thinks about a certain phenomena, that phenomena begins to be more clear and closer, more understood. That's why we need to try three times a day to perform the prayer for the friends, to the Creator. Where I am asking him to connect the friends together in such a way that he will be able to be revealed in them in the force of common bestowal and then our group will be united and connected with the force of bestowing, the common force of bestowing and by that we reveal a place for the revelation of the Creator. Then we will be able to receive his revelation order to bestow to him. So we need, in all kinds of words and all kinds of ways even if it doesn't work out through the efforts to compose such sentences 3 times a day at least. You can do it up to 5 but 3 is also enough. Then, in that, I need to see the friends which the Creator connects between them and builds in them a place which is called the Shechina and he can do well in that place as the Shochen, as the dweller and then through that both the creatures and the Creator come to a decision between them which is already the correction of the world. It begins with my 10 and then from all our organization, our great organization and then to all of humanity. For my home will be called a house of prayer to all of the nation's as it is written.
23. S. (01:04:37) In our 10 we have two perspectives, one: is asking for the friends is something that I do, or this is something that the whole 10 builds, a common prayer, is it one over the others or the whole 10 together?
R. All of these things are good and correct, each one prays for the 10 and the whole 10 together can come to a state in which they pray, meaning they turn to the Creator with their desire that they put together and like that. Sure we need to work on these, we need to work, see how to implement, how to sort out these things as long as it comes out as much as possible in an accumulated, united manner. Then it's called one receives one, just like the Creator is one you need to build from yourself one desire where you want to bestow to him just as he wants to bestow to you. Then if you reach that line, enter that line with him then you begin to reveal it
S. In the text it says that Lishma is considered a gift, why is it considered that Lishma is a gift something that comes after a prayer?
R. It's not important that it comes after the prayer but Lishma is called in order to bestow both in the desire and in the thought. We don't have it to start with, we are built in a different way and therefore when we receive this quality of bestowing even though we asked it is nevertheless a gift that the Creator is giving us from him loving. Loving us not out of us deserving it. It seems to us that we deserve it, we ask, we request and then we receive it from the Creator no. In truth we cannot ask for Lishma, and a true matter. Inside you always have your egoistic desire with the egoistic profit and reward as well and so on. Therefore we come in a false matter, no matter what it's like, that but it doesn't stop us, it doesn't need to chill me down. I need to do all that I possibly can and then after that I receive it as a response from above and that response is called a gift. Since the Creator the force of general bestowing of reality feels that certainly I am asking from my ego even though in my eyes it is truly as an eruption of the request from bestowing and so on. This is how I receive the gift. Lishma is a gift from above. It's good if we don't forget about that, that what we receive from above is all a gift because the desire to receive all together, with the desire to receive we're not capable of asking to bestow, we have no such possibility. How is it possible? But all of our requests, the prayer, the cry, even the deepest cry from the depth of the heart is nevertheless, eventually egotistical. But, but, if we ask, we receive the gift of the quality of bestowal from the Creator and advance that way. It's all in a gift.
24. S. (01:09:46) How do we shift and start hearing, is it a leap from Lishma, from state-to-state or a few stages?
R. Lets first ask appropriately, start to receive and as it is written, let it teach us. It will teach us, it shall teach us. Let's think about that and the stages, the stages will come. Let's reach the first stage where we reach a certain appreciation of connection between us in which we discover the quality of bestowal and in this quality of bestowing even we can even more reveal the quality of bestowal in a way that we will feel the source of the bestowal, the Creator.
25. S. (01:11:16) We have some friends pray more than three, four times a day in our 10 for each other for the friends and the more we pray the more I reveal that I am only praying for my own benefit. Again even more for my own benefit, so how do we come to this, many times we pray for each other, come to this true prayer for the benefit only for the friends? So this is how we do this, come to this true prayer because we can keep coming to this prayer and praying and pray, but every time it's only for my own benefit? How do we get out of this?
R. We need to nevertheless continue to pray, just pay attention that this prayer should be as collective as possible, as much as possible for the others. As much as possible where you understand that you all together want also in this your own benefit and no more than that, but it is truth that you discover. This truth is worth a whole lot. Therefore he writes there in a certain article that when do we come to the truth? When we reach the beneficial truth or the complete truth, when there is a transition to the truth, when a person reaches the end of a truth, the end of the lie, end of the false, there's an article I can't think about right now, because I'm in something else with you. Continue for the time being and also the fact that you're discovering that you're praying only for yourself include that in your prayer. In your address to the Creator. That's it and it's even worthwhile to write it before you, that this is what I need to ask for and about this and about that and about that and it's not important that you forget that the Creator is doing this to you. So you will replace your thoughts and desires but it is good. It's worthwhile to invest.
S. What is this point of despair, what is this point because?
R. The point of despair is simply where I simply have no contact with the force of bestowal with the force that sustains my life. The point of despair is a very big egotistical point where I discover that I am connected, I am adhered to the control of my life. My observation of things, my perception of things. That's considered the point of despair where I cannot distance myself, disconnect myself from. Rather I constantly demand to control, to nevertheless control and this is the center of the soul where I must be connected to my fate to hold on to it. That's the point of despair that I cannot let go of. But the moment I come to such a state the Creator gives me that gift as he disconnects me from my desire to receive in such a way that I want him to control me. Because otherwise I am lost. Then the Creator gives me the possibility of being lost to being completely independent of my desire and then I am free. That's called it is free for the dead where the will to receive that is dead then I become free.
26. S. (01:16:22) I feel too much flavor and joy in annulment to the 10, why is there so much flavor in the annulment?
R. We don't need to really ask about that because the Creator makes these calculations from shining on each and every one soul a bit more and then one person feels that one way and another feels it another way, each one feels it in a different style. What is important is advancing according to our line of progress and along the way there will be changes, the fact that you feel good and happy on the path, why not feel that until the end of the path, there will be more changes. Just hold on and everything will fall into place, at the end everything will work itself out.
27. S. (01:17:39) How to also pray and also work?
R. Prayer is actually the action that we need to realize and try to feel, that if I pray I am activating the system of the whole of reality and I direct it in its action to the center of all of reality which is the original force of bestowal called the Creator.
S. What is complete prayer, when we pray together or it is enough to just partially each one as much as he can?
R. The true and complete prayer is our feeling that emerges and emanates from the heart of the person and even more accurately from the hearts of the friends who are connected as a single heart and they themselves can't feel the depth of the request that awakens in their connection to the Creator. We can only later understand how much we would influence the Creator according to his response. Afterwards when we will be in a tighter connection with the Creator, like say the spiritual Partzuf, then in the Rosh we will have the revelation of the Creator and we are above the desire in the Rosh the whole desire is from Peh and below and we are in the Peh and above in the Rosh of the Partzuf, and there we are connected to the Creator above our desire in the inclination to him and him to us to make all the calculation we are going to make in the Rosh to build the Guf, hopefully soon.
S. In order to pray for the friends that are not active, let's say for someone that comes once a week where should I concentrate on a general prayer in the 10 and in the core?
R. We should also pray for the friends who don't come every day. I recommend to you to think about how to do this, all across the world, across all of our groups from the North to the South Pole. Let's determine that there are such days where everyone comes, it could be a Friday or Monday or Wednesday, but on those days we will also give material that is more condensed, concise in a way that will influence them more. They can't come every day, we will agree with that, what can we do, but let us not lose them on the path so maybe we can do it this way. Think about it and at least if we know that they come on specific days, let's say twice a week. Whatever you figure out, whenever they can, that all of these days we will do more of a recap of material that we have been through because ultimately there is no choice as all of us will reach the final correction, the only question is when. We already went through, together, all of the life cycles and different forms of life and you see that in this one, we have been awarded with the opportunity to cross the barrier and enter the upper world. So we should hold on to this opportunity and not let it go. Our progress, it is always in how much we help each other, therefore helping these friends who come a few times a week, by that we will each one do something to them and it will only help all of us.
28. S. (01:23:11) The Kabbalists write that if you pray for your friend you are rewarded first?
R. So the question is?
S. Why first, and why to begin with if he says he is also rewarded, why is he first?
R. Because if he is praying for others then he receives for them in order to then deliver to them what he is praying for, that is natural and that is how the system works. Everything follows this scheme by which the system is built, that it is a stronger desire than others that can be in contact with the Creator that he is praying for them, that he receives for them and passes on to them so it raises him and raises them in connection with the Creator, there is nothing here that is not understood.
29. S. (01:24:26) There is a daily problem that if I hear annulment of my own benefit to be there for the others, that the friends are to reach Lishma, I depict to myself that I have to be in suffering, am devouring myself, yet it is not like that I am supposed to be in joy and why enjoy the work in the 10, then I feel guilty.
R. Poor guy, that in none of the states you feel that you're happy about yourself and your work, so what do I recommend? I recommend being more connected to the 10 and only appreciating these actions of being together, only these actions. Maybe it seems to you that your actions in the 10 are much more simple, even silly as compared to what you can think about or do on your own, but the actions in the 10 are spiritual actions and not what you imagine to yourself. It is worthwhile to pay attention to that only and to invest in that.
S. There is another point here that lately in our scrutiny it seems clear that we can't, that every step is a mistake and every time we are organizing every step or that we have to accept that we are mistaken in every step that we are taking and it's okay to ask for corrections?
R. For four years I used to work in fixing plane systems, the navigation, the gyro systems and those systems, in any of those systems where there is a self-regulating system, in this loop that they are built on examining the deviation, without the sense of the deviation from the right direction they don't know where they are. There is this direction to the goal and I always have to see at what angle with regards to the goal I am in, if the angle is 0 I don't know what to do, if the angle is a certain percentage let's say 10% or 20%, something, even by the micrometers. That I have to feel it, without it my system doesn't go up with any type of work and I don't know where I am. The person is advancing forward if he has discernments between what is correct and incorrect, being in these two discernments this makes us realize that we have control, that we are there, that we understand where we are going.
Now we are deviating temporarily, this way or that way, but thanks to feeling that I know where I am, that I am in control of the situation and advancing to the goal. Don't be afraid that we are sensing the mistake, the deviation specifically the mistake and the right response to the mistake each and every moment just takes us to the right goal. Because we are always between two forces, the desire to receive and the desire to bestow and how do I ultimately come to a state where the will to receive connects to the desire to bestow supporting it to become similar to it, this is what we need. So we have to accept this approach for our entire life. It is even in technology that we create, we can't see anything otherwise, there always has to be something that is truth and a deviation from the truth and without the deviation the truth would not be felt at all as truth. This is called one thing and its opposite and that is how we advance by one thing and its opposite, there's also an article about this in Shamati. So let us relate to all of our states in a necessary way, do not worry that you fall or you lose yourself, it's good that you feel like that as it has to be that way but in truth you are being guarded meticulously from above with love of the Creator toward you unboundedly.
30. S. (01:30:52) What to contain the right prayer for friends?
R. Just imagine yourself that you are like a mother and that you are asking for them, that's it. That your love towards them will manage you to the right attitude of connecting them to the Creator.
31. S. (01:31:42) What do you advise a group that refuses to follow your instructions for praying for one another?
R. Patiently continue, it doesn’t what happens, ultimately this is what we get from above, our ego is probably very big and deep and we can’t see the bottom of it and therefore I can't come to the Creator and complain why did He do this this way. There is such an article in the Zohar called Afra- Afra, maybe we will get to it at some point. There is nothing to do but continue and when you are willing to advance without conditions then you advance towards spirituality. If friends leave midway then what can you do, they leave. It says about this that one thousand go into the room and one comes out to teach. Let us hope that from us many more will come.
32. S. (01:33:51) About the mistakes, is there such a thing as a mistake that someone can actually make a mistake?
R. No, the truth is known as the Creator ultimately holds and guards everything that passes through him.
S. So what should we do, why does he always give a feeling?
R. Why is he giving you what he is giving you, I don’t know, you are always asking about the Creator, I have no answer, I only know one thing, how I should respond to what I receive from him.
S. What should we do with a feeling or a thought that comes from the Creator, that I made a mistake?
R. Only prayer, we are learning this from the article. What is he saying, that all the actions did not help, only then can he get a true prayer from the bottom of the heart.
33. S. (01:35:32) The more someone advances on the path he realizes the goal is farther away and that he should have exerted more, how to reach the despair that we feel we did everything?
R. We don’t need to reach despair, if you read about it, it does not mean you are making it your goal. You have to put in front of you the goal of connecting with the friends, connecting to the Creator through the friends and desire for that and not try to create images of shapes to yourself that you are far, this or that, you're not going to get into anything this way or at work this way. Only sometimes a person is permitted to touch upon these despairs in order to once again jump above them and continue this spiritual work, until a person goes through all of the obstacles in his soul which means until he fills the cup of his effort to that quote, he doesn't reach the Creator because he has nothing to reach or to get to him.
S. The exertion doesn't end, it keeps going?
R. Yes, but it depends on the quality of it as it changes.
34. S. (01:37:36) Why is there not inside of us a natural software like the desire to receive to the desire to bestow?
R. And then what will we have? Two systems?
S. Yes, we can develop them in parallel.
R. And then what? What will you get? You won’t have choice from it. There will be no corrections and no anything. The Creator creates everything and you are aimed by these two systems right and left, let's say, and that’s it, like animals. That means that there is nothing out of you and these systems are always balanced on the same height and they guide you left or right. So you take spirituality into the corporeal level. No. You need to think some more about why it is like that. It’s what I’m seeing.
35. S. (01:38:49) How to aim our navigation system if we need a goal that is closed and clear to us in order to navigate to it?
R. Yes, if we by the group. You know, on the plane there is this gyroscope that keeps turning, keeps spinning. You calibrate it at the beginning, let's say to the North Pole. Then the plane, what is the plane, it's a piece of metal, it doesn't know where it is. If you install a device in it that maintains direction then the plane goes up to the sky and wherever it goes its spinner thing keeps the direction towards the north. They calibrate this according to the Northern Star for instance or different measurements. We need to be the same, where do we have such a device, the group and besides that nothing. We are like on a small boat in the middle of the ocean, we don't know where to go and the ego is the only thing directing us. If we want to be directed to the correct direction then we have no compass, we have no gyroscope. We just have to have this device and this device is the boat where the group. Then by connecting between us and making the connection between us despite our ego and above our ego, if we make a connection we are directing ourselves to the Creator, who cannot be seen or felt but this is how we connect to Him. Because above our ego we are trying to work in connecting together, so in this point of togetherness, this is the point that, let’s say, like the North Pole, or the North Star and this is how we advance. Without the group you cannot find your path, your route throughout, among all of the forces of nature around you. This is why it says ‘either the group or in death.’
S. What close goal can we put before us and then the next, and the next?
R. if I always make my goal as being in the center of the group, where everyone else is, not physically, but where the desires, the thoughts, the goals, the intention of the group are, spiritually speaking. If that is where I want to be, then I am correctly aiming at the Creator and I need to persist in that until I reveal the Creator.
36. S. (01:43:11) When should I ask to love the friends and when should I ask that the friends will have the force of bestowal?
R. When I ask for the friends, I am certainly asking that all of the friends, all of us together will have the force of bestowing and with that force of bestowing we will all connect together and connect with the Creator.
S. What does it mean that I pray?
R. I am asking for them, that I am willing to do anything for them to receive this connection and in there to discover the Creator because this is what they want. I'm not praying for their corporeality but for their spirituality. I am willing to work so that others, the friends, will receive the result.
S. Is praying for the others to ask that they will change for the good and how does this work with ‘‘he who flaws is as in his own flaws?’
R. Of course I feel that I am always seeing the faults and disqualifying each and every friend and this is true especially among the women. Because it is natural, it is the nature of the ego of the woman and how it works. But I only want one thing that the whole group will, nevertheless, connect and discover in the upper force. The upper force, we have to prepare it between us and then it will appear according to our efforts to be in mutual bestowal, in mutual connection, to the extent that we understand that we are all broken pieces of a single soul. As much as we can envision it, that the connection between us will make room for the Creator to dwell in our connection. Then He will appear and have contentment from us. That is what we want to make happen.
S. How to ask of the Creator when I discovered not only myself immersed in the ego but that all of my environment is in the complete ego?
R. The fact that the environment is immersed in the ego, I have to say about that ‘that one judges through his own flaws.’ It is impossible that the environment is immersed in egoism. I have to say that what I am seeing, meaning the negative qualities of the environment, I am actually seeing my own negative quality. The person who is corrected does not see anyone else as broken. No. He sees the qualities of the Creator everywhere. The person who is broken sees his own qualities on the background of the white light and this is why his whole world looks broken and egoistic. There is a lot more to add about this, but this is what we need to accept, to think about.
S. How to feel the deficiency of the friend as my own and how to ask through that deficiency, even though it is different than mine?
R. I have to imagine to myself that all of my friends are aimed at the connection between them and with the Creator. If I am not seeing it then I am trying to tell myself once again that ‘one judges through his own flaws.’ Meaning, it is incorrect what I am seeing, it is seen through my ego and therefore I want to correct myself. My correction will be in seeing that there is no one broken in the world and the Creator dwells in the whole reality, and the whole world is full of the light of Ein Sof, and I am finally discovering the truth. This is called ‘there is no one cruel in the palace of the king.’
S. So how to feel the friend’s deficiency and to ask through it?
R. That is not so important. Because here I can go into all kinds of directions. His deficiency, her deficiency, and the next one, and another one. No. The most accurate is simply to try to annul myself towards the deficiencies of the group and the deficiencies of the group are the deficiencies of the Creator. This is how we advance.
S. Should a person always reach the end of the lie in order to reach the truth or can he reach the truth earlier, by a big desire to reach the truth?
R. This depends on the extent a person is included in the group, from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. If he truly tries in spite of his ego to be connected to the friends, so much so that despite the fact that it seems to him that everyone is broken, false, and egoistic, he says that ‘one judges through his own fault.’ And that it is all his own fault and he prays to the Creator to see it in the right way, meaning through spiritual eyes not corporeal eyes. Then he really quickly attains the correction.