Part 3:

Baal HaSulam. One Commandment (Bringing Contentment to One’s Maker Inadvertently)

(00:20) Reading “bringing contentment to one's maker inadvertently” twice: “It is hopeless to…”

1. S. (03:52) It says the path to achieve this degree is not limited by time but by his qualifiers and by the measure of one's control over one's heart?

R. Yes.

S. What is that?

R. That it's not limited under time, it's not that a person lives for many years or maybe he does a lot of actions but the way we measure time, like that, whatever he's given from above and he performs it.

S. What is the degree of one's control over one's heart?

R. We can interpret it somehow, as much as it is possible for him to lift above his ego.

2. S. (5:00) Along with what the friend asked, can a person actually have control over his heart?

R. By turning to the Creator and asking.

S. Directly?

R. Could be.

3. S. (5:15) I'm trying to understand from what he writes that he cannot start from Lishma but you have to begin in Lo Lishma, is that advice or?

R. That's the reality we all start from the lowest degree, that comes to that specific Soul, part of the Soul, and from that you start ascending.

S. But we, on our part, have to work as if we are aiming for Lishma?

R. You cannot, you still do not know Lishma, Lo Lishma where we are. We start from where we start.

4. S. (6:12) Giving contentment unintentionally, is that called Lo Lishma?

R. Giving contentment inadvertently, that is called Lo Lishma.

S. When I'm in Lo Lishma and I work only for my ego, in what am I actually giving contentment?

R. Because you're still trying, you're trying, we don't understand how much we are performing egoistic calculations and by that we're advancing towards the purpose of creation.

S. What's this thing about intentionally or unintentionally and why does it make a difference?

R. Because it's a completely different degree, from a person's intentions he starts coming closer to the Creator, giving him contentment,that's already a different kind of work, by this he expresses himself.

S. When I work to bestow contentment intentionally to the Creator, then what? I will be in a degree like the Creator, next to the Creator, below the Creator? When I'm small and I do it unintentionally I get it, I'm small. When I'm intentionally giving contentment there's already some equality, we have our relationship then He is greater and I'm small.

R. Yes, so what's the question?

S. What does it mean to give it contentment intentionally? What is the degree he rises to?

R. That his reason also agrees with this.

S. And what does this say about the relationship between man and the Creator?

R. That we're in some direct connection, me for my beloved and my beloved for me.

S. A person can try and intentionally give contentment to the Creator even if he's in Lo Lishma? Let's say, I'll say it egotistically, it sounds like a degree that's good to be in?

R. Of course it's good to be in, it's great to be in Gmar Tikkun, end of corrections.

S. No, I hear it, I read an excerpt that says I have to give contentment to the Creator intentionally. I'm saying okay every action I'm doing or I'll try in every action to give contentment to the Creator, is that intentionally? It sounds like that's not it.

R. You're doing it by riding upon your ego and turning it into a vessel in order to bestow.

S. Is it all a change of attitude or?

R. I don't know what to tell you, depict to yourself that you are inverting yourself into something else. That everything you have which is pleasant and good becomes gross, but you accept it in happiness with appreciation with the most exalted taste you can be in only because by that you're giving contentment to the Creator. 

5. S. (10:14) What gives contentment to the Creator during the state of Lo Lishma?

R. The Creator accepts him as small and also plays with him and has fun with him.

S. From man's perspective he has to take it into consideration that he's given contentment to the Creator?

R. If he wants to give contentment to the Creator even if he doesn't see results of it he still believes that that's the way it is.

S. So which of his actions give contentment to the creator?

R. That we understand the correction of creation, that's connection, closeness, reception in order to bestow.

S. So with our actions we need to tell ourselves if I exerted today in connection, I also gave contentment to the Creator in that and it's not lying to himself, he truly gave contentment to the Creator, the Creator felt contentment from it?

R. If a person tries, yes. 

6. S. (11:40) Regarding what's good and pleasant becoming disgusting and gross?

R. It all depends on the revelation of the goal. It all depends on the revelation of the goal. As close as I am to the goal it tastes better and the further I am it's more gross. 

S. What taste gross? What is the work there? A person feels disgust.

R. Yes.

S. What's disgusting him?

R. He's disgusted by two things, one he tastes something sweet, on the other hand he understands in his mind that it is disgusting. 

S. Why?

R. Why? Because it's not the same taste as it is in the Creator.

7. S. (13:04) Here in the middle of the excerpt he cautions, well he doesn't caution, he says that many have fallen and will fall in the field of work of Lishma and will die without wisdom yet the reward is nevertheless great, what is their reward?

R. There are things that are called not from his own reason or awareness but still they went through this life in this world and suffered from all kinds of things. What did they suffer from? From not being able to fulfill their ego. Who gave them their ego and gave them the desire to fill the ego? None else besides Him the Creator obviously. So the fact that they were working for the Creator and tried to perform all the commands of the evil inclination and still suffered and weren't successful, so they deserve upon all these efforts upon all this path a reward.

S. What is it?

R. That next time it will be better.

S. What is next time?

R. Next incarnation. I have nothing to say. that's it.

S. Next incarnation it means that the yearning a person had he did not take advantage of it fully and then?

R. New records will come and continue the work. 

8. S. (15:10) A new born baby who knows nothing gives his parents a great deal of contentment when he smiles, those who were not even Lo Lishma  didn't even find the wisdom of Kabbalah, didn’t hear about Lishma, Lishma I live my life. I’m giving contentment to the Creator inadvertently?

R. Yes.

S. Meaning the Creator enjoys creation even before it enters the process of correction?

R. Yes.

S. A person enters the process of correction, we see that as children grow up their level of contentment that they bring to their parents they actually dropped, not that it grows as they grow; babies give a lot of joy to their parents.

R. Because they're not doing anything with themselves.

S. Who will give more contentment to the Creator, creation before it was corrected or servants of the Creator who are trying to reach Lishma and are still in Lo Lishma, if I can ask this way?

R. It's different degrees of Lishma. Lo Lishma, giving contentment from his awareness or not from his awareness, it's different things.

S. Creator relates to everyone according to his place, wherever he is.

R. Yes, of course whatever He gives that specific created being and what he sees is a result. There's a certain created being from what he got tries to add from himself meaning against his will to receive, against his ego, if he tries to add something or not. Only that is measured.

S. When you start on our path you look at the world outside you see many corruptions there because everyone is working for themselves really all the time. You somehow begin to understand what it means to work for yourself.

R. The way that the Creator’s activating them.

S. How does the Creator get contentment from the suffering of the people outside because most of them are suffering most of the time if you really check closely. How does the Creator derive contentment from this or He doesn’t even measure this suffering?

R. Ask Him.

S. I'm asking you, I don't have a connection with Him.

R. I don't know, I'm not His secretary. I don’t see His calculations so don't ask me. These are things you need to scrutinize on your own, each one of you.

Prophetic truth in physical measurement (18:37)

9. R. (20:01) Though It's difficult to understand his language, sometimes he puts it in such a style that we don't even have an ability to understand it simply.

10. S. (20:25) Baal HaSulam writes that first the path is a man towards his friend and then he speaks about Lo Lishma and Lishma and now he's saying that a bodily success is called Lo Lishma, so what is a bodily success between man and his friend?

R. Bodily success means the bodies which are the desires, like in a vessel.

S. What are successive desires between man and his friend in our work actually?

R. They connect together and they work together as if they are one body.

S. On what level does that work on what we're doing day-to-day, connecting and,,,

R. Yes, on all these levels on all these planes.

S. If we're saying that we succeed in some way to connect our desires, even in the simplest way, in a daily corporeal manner, could we say that that's called a degree of Lo Lishma?

R. Yes. 

11. S. (22:04) It's written that the sign of a true prophet, his prophecy is best suited for the physical success of his contemporaries. What is that?

R. He knows how to manage them, how to bring them closer, how to explain to them how they should behave between them in such a way that the laws of the upper nature will be received even on their level.

S. What's on their degree?

R. It's their degree except it's lower meaning there they will feel to some extent the benefit from keeping spiritual actions.

S. It seems like an adapter.

R. Of course.

S. He translates the truth to something they can absorb in a bodily success?

R. Yes, each one of us is like that relative to the other.

S. What does that mean?

R. Each one of us helps the other be either greater or lower relative to the other and that's how we connect into one system.

12. S. (24:09) A true prophet is that something I can take from him for dissemination? From what we just studied I need to pass things that will be good to the friend's desire. Can I also understand that towards dissemination?

R. If you can extract something for dissemination from this go for it.

S. The concept, is it right for dissemination to see where I can benefit the body?

R. It's possible, it’s possible, yes, it's possible that this is how it should be. 

13. S. (25:04) What does he mean physical success?

R. Physical success is success in the lowest level possible in that state where a person is.

S. That will bring him to enter the path of working Lishma?

R. Of course, it shows how deep he works in the matter with the spiritual laws.

S. Is he speaking about someone who already started?

R. Not starting, the one who is doing this work.

14. S. (26:20) What's an untrue prophet?

R. A false prophet is one who confuses us about the future, showing us a false path.

S. Because the definition here of the physical success is very confusing for a true profit. If I tell others that the wisdom of Kabbalah will bring them a spouse, or money, or fortune. or abundance, or all kinds of good things for their life,

R. A false prophet.

S. Why? It's a physical success.

R. But it can only happen to a person on a spiritual path.

S. Can you explain, it's confusing even what you said just now, so I can understand?

R. What is the wisdom of Kabbalah for?

S. For revealing the Creator in this world.

R. Why is he saying that they'll get married and make money and enjoy life?

S. If he's saying a true prophet has to bring physical success.

R. What is physical success?

S. What is physical success?

R. I think it's to get married and to make money and to spend your vacation where? You don't know? In a pretty place somewhere.

S. So what is it?

R. Physical success? When he attains the Creator even on the lowest degrees of the will to receive.

S. Meaning what should he do before for that to happen?

R. I guess corrections. He has to find the society, he has to connect to the society, he has to be active in it, connect all the friends as much as possible, in this way advance towards the state where the connection between them will be such where the Creator can gradually be revealed.

S. sWhy is that called physical success?

R. Because for the time being they work between them based on physical connections, connection of bodies seemingly.

S. I don't understand because it's not physical success it's spiritual success.

R. This is called physical success because if we're performing such actions with the body then it means that we're trying to reach physical success, connection in the bodies.

S. To sum it up, physical success is revealing the Creator?

R. Let's say that it's the revelation of the Creator by coming closer in the bodies.

S. Meaning?

R. We become as one man in one heart in the connection between us and the groups.

15. S. (30:43) When we want to open this method to the general public, when do you explain the Creator in this?

R. I think that if we are making a plan and from the plan it becomes clear to us when we can begin to explain about the connection to the creator, turning to the Creator, the actions of the Creator relative to the group.

S. That's a long-term plan that builds a person, right, gradually if I understand this.

R. Yes, that's why you're asking, no?

S. No, I'm not asking something opposite. That from one meaning I want to give like a first impression to tell the general public, so do you go all the way? Do you explain from the beginning what the purpose is? That eventually the purpose is to reveal the Creator, to attain Him in His words but is that enough to say connection, again to the general public who isn't studying Kabbalah in a usual manner?

R. I came to some audience I don't know them.

S. Right, for an hour and a half meeting you'll have with them, you won't see them again, he doesn't study with you, they don't study. Now you have a chance to impress them, so that first impression you go all the way with the Creator that it is the purpose, that's what Kabbalah teaches or not, or is connection enough, and confidence and…

R. No, no, no, connection, security, they might not hear it, they'll hear general things. I actually need to tell them about the general laws of nature, that we are in this bubble and this bubble is governed by a few forces and of everyone that are inside the bubble, still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, we belong to the speaking degree and we have the ability to change our state to change our fate, the wisdom of Kabbalah speaks of that. That's why it's so important and that's why it is being revealed today more and more because after thousands of years of development we have reached the state where we are actually able to digest this.

S. How can we change our state, our destiny in that bubble?

R. If we connect according to the laws of the bubble this bubble is the general rule of all of nature where nature there are laws, absolute laws that have a beginning and an end and we need to try and form some connection with these laws and accelerate their work on us because on that depends how much we can receive pleasantly our change with their help.

S. What's the most important law in that bubble?

R. The laws of this bubble, the most important law, is the law of uniqueness or individuality that everything works according to one desire, one rule, one cause, one purpose. 

S. Which is? What is that one cause, what is that one thing working where is it tending towards?

R. The singularity works to connect all of the created beings, all of the participants who are present, all of those who are made here in this bubble, it works to bring them to a state of mutual sensation whereby they will feel that the good mutual connection between them, where each one helps the other. is what brings them to a state where each and every one will truly care for the other and by that they discover that one force that works within this bubble, and they are adhered to Him, we build Him we make him out of the separation that exists in us from the get-go.

S. Who's the Creator in this meeting, this bubble?

R. What we put together between us as it says you have made Me.

S. When we put them together, when we make Him, what do we discover, what do we feel?

R. We feel one power, one plan, one reason, one goal. Everything exists in this concept of one, one unique and unified, or singular.

S. How does that solve my problems in life? What does it solve altogether?

R. Everything, because by that we begin to understand how come we're broken, distant from one another, don't understand one another, what's the reason for all of our troubles.

S. Why do we have all of these troubles to begin with?

R. In order to reveal this uniqueness, unity.

S. What is a person actually lacking in his essence, every person in the world?

R. Every person in the world is lacking connection with the upper force.

S. Can we say that a person who feels lack of confidence or meaning or…?

R. All these are simply different types of deficiencies from the upper force.

S. A person that has curiosity to discover, to hear, that's also an expression of that lack?

R. Yes.

16. S. (38:37) We're learning about giving contentment. You always teach us to think on the second degree. That's where my question comes from. The fact that me and the 10 came out of the Garden of Eden is because we weren't giving contentment to the Creator?

R. I guess. I don't know. You heard it from your grandma. I did not hear it from my grandmother.

S. I meant Rav that on this path he's bringing us to a state to make us wiser, to raise us up, to bring us to a state that we weren't in. That's the question. It's from our records, maybe it's still concealed but isn't that the way? Isn't that the tendency of the system to take us to that uniqueness?

R. Yes.

17. S. (39:54) What are the egoistic calculations and the self-expression whether gratitude or getting the greatness of the taste of the Creator? What does that add for the revelation in Him? What does everything he writes here add to the revelation of the Creator?

R. Our searches, our bad feelings, lack of connection, all kinds of troubles, this brings us a certain level of intensity to our connection compared to what we had in the beginning of creation 620 times greater and then we begin to reveal the attitude of the Creator towards us completely. That's why that is the reason that without the shattering without revealing the evil inclination, without it we wouldn't be able to reach the good revelation.

18. S. (41:10) I think that everyone would want a contact with the upper force to solve all of his problems. What according to your experience 40 years of disseminating, if I now put a thousand or a million people and I tell them this story in 2 minutes what you just told us? I guess individuals would want to come. Why? Even before they know they need to connect to that we tell them lesson number

17. I'm saying before, let's say they heard the story, nice, contact with the upper force will solve all my problems. So why don't they come?

R. It's not clear to them. It doesn't open up before them like the rest of this life. It's all closed, concealed, hidden.

S. Okay. A person believes in a lot of things. People are willing to sacrifice their life for some kind of Creator that they don't even know what that is.

R. It's not recorded in our desires. I don't have my desire, the feeling of the Creator and how to enjoy him. I can feel that I can enjoy some ice cream and how and in what way and how do I attain it and how do I enjoy it.

S. But a person depicts the Creator not as the quality of love and bestowal that he wants to give his life for. He's willing to do it for something that he can see. A person is willing to fight and sacrifice their life for the Creator.

R. That's for their pride, it's not for the Creator. We have to make a distinction.

S. So the problem is in the way we explain it, that's our problem? Or like you said they don't have a record for it yet and there's no reason to make an effort because they won't understand anyway.

R. Nevertheless we need, they need the time in order to scrutinize their records. The Reshimot will give them the ability to rise and then we will feel that they are pushing us towards new States and that's how we will advance.

S. So we're ok? We are doing everything on our behalf or we still have to try?

R. We have to try more and more each and every moment as Baal HaSulam writes, but it doesn't mean that we're failing. We need to advance using what we're learning from Baal HaSulam and Rabash and to publicize to all of humanity.

S. So to try, but the result isn't on us.

R. The result is not on us doesn't mean that we're not trying as best we can to do it.

19. S. (44:37) When he writes that the Creator is accepted on the generation in the path of Lo Lishma what does he mean?

R. That Lo Lishma we can grasp but Lishma we can't grasp because we have no Reshimot or records from that.

S. But who is he defining as a generation? Who is that generation?

R. The generation is the total.. The upper light reveals the total connections between people and this layer begins to work in their time, this is called a generation.

S. Let's say in our days, everybody can grab that Lo Lishma?

R. No, no of course not. You have billions of people in the world and relatively speaking it's fewer than we can talk about a thousand years ago.

S. So I'll ask again. What does he mean that there's an ability to discover that the whole generation will grasp what Lo Lishma means?

R. To understand where we are in Lo Lishma compared to somehow the explanation of Lishma, this is something we can somehow convey to the current generation. But to pull them in from Lo Lishma to Lishma we're unable to do that yet.

S. But this ability to hear of Lo Lishma, to be drawn to it. This thing, who does it depend on? On the one giving it, on the one receiving it? Who does it depend on?

R. It depends on the time, the time. There's no doubt that in our generation there are many people worthy of reaching Lishma. Alongside that there are many conditions that don't let them.

S. What those people who do deserve to reach Lishma? So what can you do to answer those conditions? Or is it not in our hands?

R. We need to do what we can do. Who knows if eventually he will attain or not? Everyone, at least those who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah, everyone needs to hope that this option exists before you.

S. So it brings us back to what we read earlier that he says that they'll die with no wisdom but they are also rewarded?

R. Yes because they've invested. The investment does not disappear.

S. But how not to reach that state? 

R. They have to invest to invest. Look, you have many people who engage in sports. Will he become a world champion? Maybe. And if he is for a moment after him someone else will come and more and more yep. There's no guarantee in it.

S. So it turns out that you exert and in the end it's not in your hand in any way whether it happens or not.

R. Yes, but it's written like this from the beginning. We don't demand anything but the ability to bestow. Bestow in a way where you don't think of yourself and of the results of your exertion, ok? The more we advance, the more we'll feel the purity of it.

20. S. (49:59) You explain to the friend the laws of the bubble we're in, an explanation to the general public. So how to bring them to a way to understand that the laws managing this bubble it's not something that if I want to I'll do the laws if not, but that you're obligated?

R. The laws of the bubble are unity. Unity, this is the primary rule, law. The more I try to come to this Force. The one unique and unified Force, and by that I am coming closer to truth, to the central point.

S. Maybe I could hear and understand it, let's say someone who's hearing a lecture for the first time?

R. Yes.

S. What should we say or tell about these laws, about the tendency to unite. That I'll feel that if I don't do it I'm already harming myself?

R. You should not close what you can open. Otherwise, you're not being the Creator's messenger or angel. You must tell the world as much as possible for them to correctly receive, feel, and continue.

S. What does that mean, towards what?

R. The form by which you tell them about g-dliness, about Creation.

S. There's that component of explaining how it works. I'm asking about the component that you are obligated to do it.

R. Each one is obligated as much as they feel and understand that it is their obligation.

21. S. (52:12) You're saying that you have to tell the world as much as possible that they'll be able to understand we should have to keep going. But what can the public hear if you see that they're clogged? I can speak and speak and rephrase myself. What is it about the public that they can't listen?

R. Gradually you must tell the audience such things that they will swallow it, grow wiser and hear more and more. This is the meaning of education.

S. What can the Israeli society, at least this is where I'm disseminating, what can they hear in our days? Not need but can?

R. Nevertheless, we have to tell everyone why we are in opposition, conflicted, broken and all of that is so each one will overcome himself in order to be connected and in the connection we need to bury everything that keeps us apart and raise above our head that which connects us.

S. How? It sounds really naive in the state of Israel today.

R. Naive, okay. Let's make a calculation daily how much this naivety is killing us, is demanding more from the people. How much more death is required to the people?

S. I understand what connection during our trouble is when a blow, a war, comes from the outside. That connection I understand and I can feel it even ahead of time. But how to bring connection as a goal, as a compass that pulls us ahead not from pain not from something negative chasing us?

R. Look we simply have to explain more and more and Baal HaSulam writes about it that Unity is the goal. And we need to come to it.

S. Even if we say we're all brothers and all those words and..?

R. No-no, No. No, these are are just… put your hands down.

S. So I'm asking how to explain this correctly, how to pull a person to this value of unity and not from a blow that comes?

R. Only through explanation, logical explanation that starts from nature like in first grade and goes more and more from it how nature is demanding us to be in unity. That we have no way as Baal HaSulam writes, that it's not going to work that one will triumph over the other and it will be quiet for everyone.

S. Nature demands that of us theoretically in general?

R. We have to replace the war between us to the war that each one will rage individually against himself.

S. What's a war against myself?

R. Man has to fight his own ego, his own evil inclination. We are approaching this, we have to explain it to everyone. We have to stop seeing the enemies outside of us, but only inside of us.

S. There's also the difficulty that I have to give up on something. I'm giving up on a lot of conditions?

R. Doesn't matter, nature is demanding that from us.

S. But I live in the Country and there are laws and conditions and I have to give up on a lot of things on my behalf?

R. The laws and conditions that you established in the Country it's all everything that you established but above that you have nature. Human nature, the nature of the nation, of the world and you have no say over those things whatsoever. So you should learn how to arrange the world to become a better world and not live in a delusional way.

S. And if I won't keep the laws of nature?

R. The nature will keep that and yourself.

S. What stage will nature help me understand that there are laws in nature that I have to keep?

R. It's giving, it’s living and understanding gradually. 

S. How?

R. Through all these kinds of eruptions of the still, vegetative, animate and people. You'll see that in all those levels, those four degrees you have any eruption of their nature that doesn't let you live.