Morning Lesson December 9, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 11, 1989. What Are the Forces Required in the Work?
Reading. (00:40) “Our sages said…”
1. R. (33:08) Well what's the impression? This is how it is, quiet.
2. S. (33:30) I have questions, not impressions.
R. No, questions are an impression.
S. What forces of labor exist in a person to fight the Greeks that awaken in him?
R. The Creator.
S. What Creator in him?
R. A prayer to the Creator. Just as the Greeks come from the Creator and the Creator arranges them so that they will pressure the person and he will feel that he must get help but by himself he's incapable of coming out of the governance of the Greeks, so also the Creator arranges forces so that the person can turn and ask for help.
S. When Greeks awaken in the person to the same extent forces awaken?
R. Not to the same extent, to the extent that a person asks.
S. The force of asking, he has such a sufficient amount of request against the Greeks?
R. Yes.
S. What's the role of the labor?
R. The role of the labor is to become capable of receiving help from above.
S. What's the true deficiency for which a person receives a filling?
R. The true deficiency for which a person discovers is what he gets a filling for.
S. What exactly is that true lack for which he receives fulfillment?
R. He wants to have the strength to connect with the friends in order to give contentment to the Creator and therefore he's willing to receive from the Creator whatever He wants to give him, what the Creator wants to give him.
S. Any filling is called a miracle?
R. Well here it's a filling for getting out of Egypt, this is the miracle.
S. When there's this complaint in a person that you don't need to have great skills, great bravery, you know when there's a complaint in a person that he didn't merit such skills, such strength, what can he answer that complaint?
R. He doesn't have the strength?
S. That he's powerless and doesn't have the skills and talent and other people are successful and so forth.
R. This feeling in a person is the best possible thing, that now he realizes that if he doesn't turn to the Creator, he'll just remain like that.
S. Then time after time when he sees that he doesn't succeed what holds him to continue in that?
R. Apparently, he didn't yet ask properly.
S. Probably he doesn't have these talents and this ability.
R. This is called I labored, and I found. This means that I have to labor with a request, with a prayer in order for the Creator to give me the strength. I'm not dealing with anybody else here except for the upper force. Just depict to ourselves the correct state. I am studying opposite the Creator; He arranged this state for me. I have to turn to Him and ask of Him for help in order to overcome this situation; so where will you run away from that place where the Creator brings down to you, that he educates you your whole life. From that same place you're now receiving a burdening of the heart, and from that same place comes to all of your Greeks and so you should turn to that same place and ask, ask for help and you will receive it for sure because everything is arranged only for that.
3. S. (38:54) It turns out that about both states where it says do not believe there was no sufficient labor and then he writes also that it all depends on the matter of faith, so I'm asking what's the relationship between faith and labor, one provides the other or how to work with that?
R. I am in a certain state where I feel that I have no powers and I need to get help from the Creator, and I turn to Him and ask. If I get help all the better, I advance a little bit, if I do not yet get help it's a sign that my request is an insufficient request.
S. Then he says it depends on faith. How to increase faith in order to labor sufficiently, what's the connection between these two things?
R. I need through the Ten, through the group, through the study, everything that we have, I need to reach a feeling, the understanding that if I will put in sufficient labor in bestowing through my vessels, bestowing contentment to the Creator I will get from Him correction in these vessels and help.
S. He describes a state where he labors and it's insufficient.
R. It's not corrected enough, yes.
S. Where's the extra?
R. Well we have to search, we have to search for an additional place for exertion but there is nothing else here, it's either we reach a state where we get help from above or we don't. If not then we haven't yet put in sufficient exertion and if yes then we use this exertion to add it to our deficiency and we get the correct sufficient vessel in order to overcome the situation and come closer to the Creator. The whole problem is with the labor, I labored, and I found, believe it.
4. S. (42:06) The state he describes I did not labor but found, so one already found, why doesn't he see that?
R. Well, it seems to him that he found. So?
S. It's not that he actually found?
R. I don't know. Well, certainly the person thinks that this is the finding, but our sages say it's not. I did not labor and I found, do not believe it, that it is upon the person, he should not believe that he is now getting a response from the Creator.
S. What's the direction or the description of the state here?
R. Well he must continue in order to get closer to the Creator even more and understand what precisely is the gap between him and the Creator and how to receive help from the Creator in order to breach this distance between him and the Creator.
S. If he doesn't see the labor all the way and the finding that is a result of that, that the Creator truly helps him, then it's not considered attainment.
R. No.
5. S. (44:00) At the end of the article he says that a person has to reach salvation of his soul and then he receives it. Does a person reach a state where he understands that his soul too doesn't belong to himself?
R. Well bit by bit he does attain it, yes.
S. Meaning if I think that my soul belongs to me then I demand my salvation for myself and if I ask for saving my soul, that it belongs to the Creator, to the general system then it's a different thing.
R. Yes.
6. S. (45:14) What is the role of labor?
R. We need to exert and relate everything to the Creator, that He did, does, and will do all the actions, that There Is None Else Besides Him. And we need all the changes that we do in our vessels to relate to Him.
S. And, from what we read and also see that when we do this exertion that you just described, the body rejects it, when we start, and the body rejects in such a way that you don’t even realize it and you are already in a different place. And, then what? How do you get out of it? because I need to ask the Creator for help when I don’t even want Him to help me?
R. Yes.
S. So, you feel that you are in a sort of a bubble, I am supposed to exert by asking Him for help, to relate everything to Him, but I actually don’t want it, I didn’t exert, that is the state that I didn’t really want. I can stand here and say I want it, but inside the heart resist it in such a way that you have no choice but to stand against this nature.
R. So what?
S. So, how will a person with a will to receive can ever achieve a state of exertion?
R. That you will receive from above; in the condition that you are not diverting from the path and always advancing in it, despite all the questions and reasoning and so on.
S. So, the condition of exertion is a state that the Creator brings upon a person, the person cannot really achieve this place of exertion himself?
R. No. No, of course not.
S. No to what?
R. Of course a person cannot make these actions. Only the Creator gives him the force of labor, the push to
7. S. (48:12) To continue this question, if I pass to a certain state and I say to myself, the Creator sent it to me, There Is None Else Besides Him, is that considered to be labor?
R. Labor is an exertion against the reality that the Creator is putting in front of you; against all the problems, failures, and states that you are going through along the way.
8. S. (49:07) If I think that I exert but I don’t feel that I gave up, I did some sort of action, but it didn’t entail any sacrifices, is that labor?
R. No. It’s not labor and not exertion. All the labor and exertion we are measuring against and by the forces of resistance. This is a matter of coarseness and exertion.
9. S. (49:46) How do we connect between exertion and the remedy of the Torah, so our exertion will be in the right direction?
R. By that, I work in Torah; advancing myself more and more in order to bestow what the Torah demands from us, by that I get closer to the Creator.
S. And in these days, in the miracle of Hanukkah what do we need to put emphasis on to get closer to the Torah?
R. We can think more about the miracle of Hanukkah. But I don’t think that precisely that will help us, no. We don’t relate spiritual time, or spiritual states, to corporeal states.
10. S. (51:07) He concludes the article that at the end the Creator gives a person vessels of bestowal, but all along the way there’s a process of, it all depends on how much you are depicting you are in faith above reason. And then the Creator can help you and give you these vessels against everything that comes to you. So, the question is what precisely is the faith, the faith above reason?
R. Faith above reason is work in the opposite force from our nature. It’s in the forces of bestowal and love, in characteristics we don’t have in us.
S. Is it already called the vessels of bestowal?
R. It’s called, vessels of bestowal, Holy vessels. It’s already the forces of Bina and later the forces of Keter.
S. So the ability to be in faith, is it in the hands of a person or is it something that the Creator gives him, where is it coming from?
R. Of course it comes from the Creator. The person to start with does not have any characteristics of faith.
S. So what supports being in faith because it looks like from the side of a person there’s only resistance to the faith?
R. True.
S. So what supports the faith?
R. First of all, “I created the evil inclination, and I created the Torah as a spice,” that the light in it corrects us. That is how we work: we want to get close to one another, especially in our tens, to attract from above the Upper Light that is called, the Light that corrects. That is bestowing on us and little by little is pulling us closer to, in order to bestow, to the Creator, to the force of bestowal. Then, when we are connecting together in the ten, we start to feel that the Creator is with us and we are becoming more and more able to draw Him. To draw Him to correct us.
S. So when he writes that faith is the wall, let’s say the Greeks that came upon us, what is this wall, what it separates us from?
R. We need to reach unity. By our exertion, we get closer to a connection between us and demand that from this connection we receive the light that reforms; and that light raises us to degrees of bestowal.
S. So what is our support that holds us that we will have faith and we won’t fall under?
R. Only our request. Only our request to the Creator to help us to be together and to the extent that we get closer to each other, to that extent we receive help from the Creator, the light that reforms.
S. And from the side of nature everything goes against it, we don’t have anything in us that wants faith?
R. Of course not. Yes.
S. So only through prayer we really can…how do we bring a real desire for faith if we have nothing in us that wants it?
R. We want to receive from the Creator a force that will connect us, that by that force that we receive from the connection between us, we can reveal the Creator.
11. S. (56:46) In this world, from all the deficiencies of past generations we have all the abundance like telephone and electricity. If I needed to get to these deficiencies on my own maybe I would need a thousand or two thousand years to find the deficiency in me.
R. Yes?
S. I understand the article speaks about the exertion for the person to find the deficiency and need. I feel that on my own it will take me thousands of years to reach this deficiency. Is there a way that in spirituality?
R. But you are among, look, how many people, that are all searching for deficiency for spirituality.
S. In this world naturally, I feel that I get their labor, or I also enjoy from it. Here in spirituality how do I do that?
R. The fact that you want to connect to the friends, and to be with them in one heart, one head in that, you draw on yourself all the vessels.
S. Do I need to feel something that each friend is lacking and to adapt it to me, or is my deficiency enough?
R. No. You need to be equipped with their deficiency.
S. We are making a diary in the Ten, and we hear from each friend that he didn’t succeed in this or that. How do we collect it and with that demand? Is there a way?
R. No, not like that. Read articles. I didn’t hear anywhere that we need to do it in that way.
S. You gave us a practice that each friend will write in the Ten Diary. What prevents him from connecting, what can’t he get over from? We started to talk about it from the diary, and we felt more where each friend is stuck, and the question is whether this method, to try and include in our friend’s feelings can give us a breakthrough to a bigger deficiency? Is that the point?
R. Could be. But in the fact that you want to connect to one another, to help each other. Yes.
12. S. (01:00:11) This condition of, exert and find, don’t believe. As a person doesn’t connect between the work and what is revealed, it’s a necessary state on the path?
R. Yes.
S. Until he arrives?
R. Until what needs to be revealed arrives.
S. Until he arrives at a final deficiency, to a complete Kli?
R. Yes.
S. And that is the distance that he sees within reason, that he exerts but he doesn’t connect it to the result?
R. Yes.
S. That is the gap between within reason to above reason, meaning we need to go here above reason?
R. No, it will already be within reason for him.
13. S. (01:01:04) What is the relation between bestowal and resistance in the Ten?
R. Bestowal and resistant to what?
S. Many times, our society gives many opportunities for connection, so I’m asking, on one hand, I see that there is resistance, and on the other hand I see an opportunity for connection and there I see the bestowal, so what is the relation between them?
R. Continue and we will see. I don’t know what to say.
14. S. (01:02:06) My question is like that; the Creator brings on the person the heaviness of the heart. Then a person starts to look within himself at the defiance and the real prayer to the Creator to help him.
R. Let’s say.
S. In this condition when the Creator lowers a person and the person finally arrives to a prayer, to request for help, to demand, and the Creator helps him. He gives him the force and revives him. Why is it a lie? Because within reason he knew that now the Creator helped him, only the Creator helped him. So why did Rabash describe it as a lie, because seemingly the burden of the heart was given by the Creator and He lets the person reach despair of his own forces until he asks for help and then he gets it. Seemingly the Creator did all that, so why does he describe it as a lie, because seemingly I did not labor here, I only discovered my own lowliness with respect to bestowal. I discovered I’m not capable of being in that and then I discovered that I have a need for help from the Creator because only the Creator can do it. Why is this a lie, I mean, there's nothing that I did here, why is it considered a lie?
R. We will see, we’ll see; still the scrutiny itself is false.
15. S. (01:03:46) It is written that when he asks for help, there's no need, everybody makes fun of him, they laugh at him, so if we pray needlessly does it weaken, if we pray needlessly does it weaken our prayer for the friends?
R. Yes, of course, the prayer weakens if it doesn't have sufficient need.
16. S. (01:04:51) Maybe it's a primitive question but I would like to understand a little bit about the exertion, what is high-quality labor in the Ten that we have to focus on so that we don't spread thin, but it will be like a laser beam?
R. When I work on closeness between the friends.
S. That's all that is required right now?
R. That's all that's needed, and through this closeness, I receive the response of the Creator.
17. S. (01:05:42) Please tell me, the distance between us and the Creator, is this the force of faith?
R. Well, let's say so.
18. S. (01:06:30) To what degree will we know that our soul is now ruling the body, controlling the body?
R. At the degree of Hochma, that’s still far.
19. S. (01:07:13) What can I do in order to increase the power of faith within me?
R. Only to be more connected to the friends.
20. S. (01:07:39) He gives the example with the thief that you catch a weak thief or a strong thief, now if there is a state where it’s very difficult to cope with it, we feel a need to turn to the Creator. But if it's a state where it seems like there’s no problem, I can handle it by myself, I don't turn to the Creator, so the question is how do we reach the need to turn to the Creator even in states that seem to me simple, that I can take care of them by myself?
R. That’s something a person gradually comes to, where he realizes he is powerless, and can't do anything.
S. How does he reach that, does he see the results of his actions, if he sees that with the external actions, even simple actions do work for him, how can he reach turning to the Creator?
R. If he works together with all his society, with his Ten, then he sees that he is powerless.
S. So the more a person advances, he will see that even with simple actions he doesn’t manage to do it, he doesn’t have the strength to do it?
R. Yes, yes, the essence of the actions is greater.
21. S. (01:08:55) One who is strong doesn't have a need to ask, what does it mean to be weak in the work?
R. Weak at work, weak at desire, that's all, it’s weakness of desire.
22. S. (01:09:29) Can we also say, in a way, that a degree consists of the development of the thief and asking the Creator?
R. Repeat, please?
S. Can we also say, that in a way, a degree consists of the development of the thief and asking the Creator?
R. Yes, yes.
23. S. (01:10:14) This help from the Creator, does it come as it’s written as a gift or nevertheless it's a result of our work, of our labor, that I worked, and I received some result?
R. There is such an issue here that the Creator sends fulfillment, sends correction, but we have to take it as a gift from the Creator because ultimately, He does everything, and by that, we get closer to Him.
S. For example, we have a friend here who doesn't manage to wake up, seemingly it's a state that comes to him from above, we tried to wake him up, he tries, and he himself tries. He asked of the Creator, but he didn't succeed, so what should happen as a result of it, should we feel some power where in the end he does succeed?
R. Yes.
S. This means that we should, nevertheless, discover something which is above us?
R. You have to always ask together with him.
24. S. (01:11:35) Our Ten at the end of every gathering we pray together, wouldn’t it be better if we work on connection between us and exert on connecting, and in this way, we will wait for a true deficiency from which the prayer will emerge?
R. What did he ask exactly, I did not understand.
S. He says at the end of every meeting of the Ten, we have a prayer, wouldn’t it be better that we will exert in connection, and from that connection, a deficiency will come from which the prayer will emerge?
R. Try and see, hard for me to answer, try and see.
25. S. (01:12:50) It seems to me that if the Creator will not give us a lack, it will be very hard for us to exert, so how is it possible to ask the Creator to give us even more desires?
R. Together all of us will ask to have a stronger desire for connection between us, for the purpose of life, for Him for the Creator, Himself, we will ask for it.
S. So, what will help us is just being persistent, time itself?
R. Of course, of course, persistence.
26. S. (01:13:43) How can we defeat the laziness and want to do efforts for the sake of the friends and the Creator, there is a problem.
R. I understand you, but we have to demand of the Creator for the strength to work for the friends and for the Creator, Himself. For the friends, that we all want to unite, and for the Creator, that from our connection we will all be able to bestow upon Him.
S. And what can I do?
R. I have to check these two states, am I close to them or not, and to ask and cry to the Creator to give me deficiency for it.
27. S. (01:14:48) If the Creator gives a person his exertion, what is the state that comes before a person gets the exertion from the Creator?
R. Before the exertion, a person gets all kinds of conditions for the work and then he sees that, he sees more and more that he is not suitable for them. And then he cries out, he raises his hand, he doesn't know what to do, and this way he comes closer to the Creator to help him, like a little child. But in the Ten, we can accelerate these states, we can hasten them, and demand together from the Creator to reveal to us the real situation.
28. S. (01:15:58) What is the sign from the Creator that the difference between negligence and the quantity of exertion, and negligence of quality in exertion?
R. It is hard for us to distinguish and say that it is happening because we didn't give enough labor in quantity or quality. We still don't have for this enough experience or desire, you can't help it, it will come later.
29. S. (01:17:10) I don't know what we are talking about in the spiritual world because these states, the faith, I don't know how to consider this.
R. And if you connect with the friends?
S. When I connect to the friend so that state comes?
R. It doesn't matter, constantly be connected to them.
S. So the effort is to connect with the friends?
R. Yes.
30. S. (01:18:01) What can we learn from the parable about the thief and the child, when the person cries out when he doesn't really need to, what can I learn from this for our work?
R. That if we cry out like children, then the Creator doesn't pay attention to them, he needs only serious things, that we yearn to come closer to each other.
S. So what is the order of the work before we cry out, what?
R. To exert, to make an effort, to make an effort in connection however possible at any possible moment.
S. And the essential question from the work in the Ten: What comes first, or we always say that we need to pray, and we need to turn to Him? But there is a question, how can we turn to the Creator before we do everything in our forces and exert in things that are in our forces to do? To meet, to help, to be interested in one another; simply, physically be concerned for the friends?
R. Yes.
S. So there is like a complaint, that if we didn't exert, so what could we turn to the Creator for?
R. You are turning to Him to have the strength and the willpower for the goal.
S. But there are things that, supposedly, you still need to do with your body that you didn't do.
R. It is a sign of a lack of desire.
S. So what is the right step to do from here?
R. Pray.
S. So that is the question, we have to pray, but why if I still didn't exert?
R. Who says you have to make an effort, maybe you don't have to make an effort, the prayer in itself is an effort.
S. Exactly, so what does it mean the prayer is the exertion?
R. I am exerting to connect the plea to the Creator and receive from Him the strength.
S. Where is that limit and is there an order here because on one hand, we said you can turn to the Creator without us exerting for connection; on the other hand, we're saying that there can’t be a connection if we don't pray. So, we have to begin with a prayer or after we exert?
R. We have to try to unite in all these states that were going through, in every possible way, together with the prayer to succeed in all those states, that’s it.
S. So, let's say that we see that, let's say I don't know I'm just giving an example, let's say we don't have any Ten meetings, friends don't come to any meetings during the day, and we say we need to pray. And then there's a complaint that we don't need to pray, first, we have to organize and meet, and then we can pray.
R. But you cannot connect and pray, so even for this, you need to pray as much as you can.
S. To pray that we have an ability to do the physical actions?
R. Yes.
S. Because that's the result of the desire?
R. Yes.
S. And it will be a true prayer not like the child and the thief?
R. It will be real because the situation is the situation.
S. Because we can’t even do that?
R. Yes.
31. S. (01:22:47) Can I try to relate to the previous friend’s question: How does it feel that one didn't feel exerted, and he thinks it's the truth, but Rabash says that the actual truth is still a lie because he did exert. So, he's asking all these two things connect, so can it relate to that?
R. Yes, but we don't quite understand how to weigh the labor; when I get up in the morning, much earlier than the time I usually do, and I come here, maybe, it's not a short way to come here, so this is labor, yes.
S. So that is what I thought, I had a thought, let's say some hero or fighter that you talk to him, and you ask him how something happened, he said I didn't do anything I do what everybody would do, I want everybody to be okay. We see, and he really feels he didn't do anything he just helped and whatever, and we see that he did so much and helped, we see a hero, we can't believe it. We understand he did an exertion and when he said he didn't, it's not true, but he really didn't think he did anything, he did whatever everyone would have done, what everyone's supposed to do, is it such an attitude?
R. You can put it this way.
32. S. (01:24:43) When I have exerted and found, believe, so is our work to build the vessel? Our exertion is in reason and finding the spiritual vessel is above reason?
R. I don't know what it is to find vessels above reason, we have to do what is written, what will it give you if I tell you yes?
S. Faith exerted and found, belief, so faith, faith is above reason?
R. Yes.
S. So eventually I have exerted and found, we find faith, right?
R. Yes.
33. S. (01:25:51) What is better to ask for, to ask for forces, to ask that the friends have forces or give us forces?
R. It is more correct to say give us strength.
34. S. (01:26:18) When you take the path seriously and you want to start working only for the friends and the Creator, so a lot of thoughts awaken and feelings that person starts feeling if I have to ask for myself, and this state actually distances you, it disconnects you from None Else Besides Him, it seems like it keeps repeating itself and it’s hard. How can we come out of this, how can we really take this decision and keep going onward?
R. Every day we start over, every day we start over; when I get up in the morning and I wash, wash up, I get dressed, I drink my cup of coffee and I go study. Then I constantly think about how I come into a new desire and realize it, that's it.
S. What does it mean to reach a new desire?
R. A new desire higher than yesterday’s, a deeper plea, appeal than yesterday.
S. You are more directed to an action towards the Creator?
R. Yes.
35. S. (01:28:24) What the friends were asking about faith above reasons, so according to what I understand from your explanation, the true cause of the deficiency for faith above reason, that is what we need to attain, right?
R. Put it this way.
S. So there is a deficiency that doesn't have different components or degrees?
R. Yes, of course.
S. Does it include faith in his Rav, faith in the Sages?
R. Yes.
S. So this whole mechanism connected to faith that we can't justify, that's the way to reach that deficiency, the true deficiency we reveal?
R. Yes.
36. S. (01:29:18) I hope it won't take us out of the lesson, I’m contemplating if we should do a work concentrated on the lesson and in the article and all this. And from yesterday, we’re all thinking and praying for the son of our friends, that his life is in danger. How can we hold these two deficiencies together, how can we hold these things right?
R. It needs to be constantly like that in us, we keep it here in the back of our minds, and we have to constantly think that it will work in his favor, that it will help him come out of the mortal danger, that’s it. And also, what we learn, we have to constantly think that by this we want all of this merit, the full result, to pass it on to his merit. Let's hope it will guard him, guard all of our soldiers, our sons, our children, and all of the people of Israel, that's it. I don't have anything to add, everything depends on our thoughts and on the worry in our hearts.