Morning Lesson September 07, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Faith Above Reason - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #5
1.Rav’s Introduction: We hear from Kabbalists that as it is written in the Ari’s Tree of Life, before the created beings were created the upper light filled all of reality and then the Creator, the upper force created the created beings and brought them to such a level by cascading from above downward that the governance and the control of the Creator gradually disappeared from the degree of EinSof, infinity when the upper light filled everything to a state where from the perspective of the created beings, it seems as though they fill everything, their ego fills everything. The process that we have to go through is the reverse. This is called 'rising back up', so that although currently our ego fills everything and the upper light, the governance of the Creator is concealed. We have to come to a state where it is as if the Creator is revealed. Meaning the control of the power of bestowal is revealed and the control in the power of reception of our ego is concealed. This is called rising back from concealment from this world on the ladder of degrees to the world of EinSof infinity where only the Creator is present and There is None Else Besides Him. This whole ascent is called man's spiritual work, who wants in degrees to receive a desire and agreement that the Creator will control him instead of his own ego more and more each time.
This is called ascending on the degrees of revelation of the Creator, the revelation of the power of bestowal, love and connection instead of the forces of concealment of the connection. This is what we have to do, to agree that it will happen and to make efforts to make it happen and this way to raise ourselves through prayer, through asking because some are connected, we want to be to the Creator, the force of bestowal in the force of love, love above others not self-love. We should ask him to do this. Therefore, our whole work is in connecting together in order to ask Him to have one prayer for the one goal for the Creator to fill us for the Shechina Divinity to be among us, this all depends only on us. The Creator from his perspective helps in every possible way except that he seemingly doesn't allow himself to do all of the work instead of us. Rather he leaves for us the request and if we convince Him, force Him and tell Him to help us in each and every degree above our ego to want Him more than our ego, then He helps. He can't break or change this condition because on this, our free choice depends.
This is why behind-the-scenes He operates and is willing to help us in everything but, openly in our feelings and our intellect, in our minds and our hearts He hides himself and through the connection between us in the lessons we are going through each of us must depict to himself the spiritual state where we all connect and help one another as without this it is impossible, at least in the 10. When we help each other to turn to the Creator as much as we can together, by this we really build a spiritual connection that we want it to happen this way. Although we don't want to really, we imagine how it should work all that we don't really understand how but all of the efforts we make just like little kids who make efforts in doing something building something, in this way nature, meaning the Creator helps them according to their efforts and this is how they grow, the same for us. First there has to be labor on our part and the Creator waits only for this and then as an answer to our labor he immediately helps as much as he can help us but he must leave for us a place for exertion because without it we don't grow. Just like children, if we don't give them a place for labor and effort they won't grow and they won't know what to do, precisely by exerting they grow and the same for us.
We have to understand that the more we exert, the more we grow and therefore let's imagine more and more what it means to be in the spiritual world to which we aspire. Let's imagine more correctly what it means to be in spirituality, meaning above our ego, above the rejection that exists between us initially, inherently which of the Creator created. He says, I have created the evil inclination, so we have this basis in us of rejection, envy, self-love and above it we build as in a game that we build the connection between us, the spiritual world. Our spiritual relationships. When we perform several such actions in a way that is close to the truth, although it won't be true because we don't have to spiritual qualities, but when we want it to happen and when we act it out then we will receive from above the power of bestowal and it will connect us this is called, rising from reason to faith above reason, from the will to receive to the will to bestow each and every time. A larger will to receive will appear and we will reveal the will to bestow and discover the eternal world and ourselves and the Creator, the common force that is present there and this is what is ahead of us. Let us read some excerpts that have been prepared for us and then we will go to questions.
Excerpt 5 (10:33) Twice
2. R. (13:32) We have to try to see our work in spirituality, meaning in our inner change as we will see it in little children who through nature, which is the same Creator, how they also grow except it is within this world. Of course, this happens by making an effort by overcoming by The Creator giving them the strength so they are pushed and drawn to know and to understand and to feel to attain to do something. Look how restless they are they don't desire to do nothing, they constantly want to do something and what they are doing is very hard work but it is the Creator who does it and we need to build for ourselves such an environment that will compel us to do the same with our agreement but we are powerless to activate ourselves to such an extent that we are like children in order to attain, reveal the spiritual world, our own next state. This is why we need a society to impel and pressure each one of us and only in this way will we be able to advance. We shouldn't think that the society is small or incapable. Maybe there are people among us who think that they are great and society is not appropriate for them, it doesn't matter. We need to have a society as big as possible as the king is glorified in the multitude of the people and each one to some extent must be impressed by his friend and that it is certain that we will advance. It all depends on the relationships between us to the extent that we establish and fashion the force that nurtures, raises and develops us, as the Creator says you have made me, towards us you organize the force that awakens us elevates us, connects us, we ourselves, by ourselves. Therefore, it is as we have written that the carriers of the Ark, it is written, that the Ark carries its carriers so, to the extent that we build the Creator, build this force of bestowal among us as a mutual influence between us, mutual bestowal between us, from the love of people to the love of the Creator, so it turns out this force elevates us. We operate in such a way that the upper force formats us and makes us as one bundle and then we come to the form of the soul of Adam HaRishon. There are many things here but this is really our work, all of the discernments are revealed along the way and the main thing is to just keep going. Believe that only through the power of mutual bestowal and support that we can achieve this because what is in the friends is the power of the Creator which is what I need to rise and besides this I need nothing. Look what is written by the Kabbalists, so let us time and time again awaken ourselves and each time a little more inwards.
3. S. (18:51) How can we pressure the Creator to help us?
R. If we all ask of Him just as He put us all in one group. Of course, who else does anything in our world besides the upper force. So, he put us all together, so we have to turn to him and it is certain that by this we can awaken Him and compel Him, as it is written ‘my sons have defeated me’. We will force Him like a child who nags and forces us to play with him to take care of him and so on.
S. How can we do this, how can we ask, how to raise the prayer?
R. Every excerpt we read is a kind of prayer or every excerpt we read you can turn it into a prayer. Let's say now we read some excerpt, something from article number 38, ‘What is a Cup of Blessing Must be Full.’ Meaning, to bless the Creator you have to do this from a complete heart according to your small degree but it has to be a whole heart. And this is what we need to come to. The state where our request is from all of us at least from the 10 if not from all the tens together and that we do want to unite and to ask. And when I say 10, I don't mean that there has to be 10. It could be five, six, or seven. At the time of Rabash I was in a group of six people. When I asked Rabash about it, and next to us was a group of 17, at least 15. I asked Rabash to fill up our six so there will be 10 as well. He said it doesn't matter, number 10 is a spiritual thing when we unite our qualities as much as possible. On the other hand, it says 2 is a minimum number, so if two people work with each other correctly they build between them the spiritual vessel. But as much as we can, let’s say we have 10, 12 people in the group, but in practice half of them come. It does not matter, never mind, even if half of them come. Let’s not regret missing the other half of the group. Let us unite among us those who are present and want to be connected and attain the Creator. Let's connect correctly between us, pray and ask the Creator, and attain it. Let us work on the connection between us. Between those who do desire it. This is how it happens in humanity. Everything is a pyramid. Some are higher up and some are lower down. so first of all, let's exert, those that did receive the strong desire and power to persist. We understand that there is no choice and especially we see in our world there is nothing more for people to do than worry about their eternal life, their soul, their connection with the upper force. By this they acquire power and understanding how to change their life. So, let's not look at those who do not want to unite, who are lazy. For the time being they do not have the same desire. Also, that pyramid exists in that group as well. We want to turn it into a circle for everyone to be equal, to help one another, and complement each other. But for the time being we see that that is not the case. So, let's help each other and come to it.
4. S. (24:21) What is the meaning of going with our eyes shut in the work? Why does the Creator hide from our ego?
R. There are two forces that operate in, not on us. What operates on us, is on us. The main thing is what operates in us. It is the upper force that operates either as let’s call it a good force or as a bad force and between the two we feel ourselves as existing. We cannot see something in either light or in darkness but only in the contrast between them, in the differences between two things. Then we begin to feel our existence. It is in all of our senses: in the tactile sense of touch; especially in sight; hearing; taste; and smell. We can detect and feel ourselves in all of our senses as present and existing only if there is a difference between two forces. Basically, they are the power of the Creator and the power of the anti-Creator, the will to receive and the will to bestow. We don't yet distinguish between these two forces. The Creator exists alone so we don't exist. When He created a force opposite of Him, He created the evil inclination. In the collision between these two forces, in between them, we can feel ourselves as existing. This begins creation from the word Bar, meaning outside, of the Creator because there is something outside of the force of bestowing. He created the force of reception so that then we can exist in the contact between them, in the contact between them, from the collision between them, in the gap between them. We exist in the point of contact between them. This is how we exist and this is why we call the Creator, Boreh, come and see. Through the two forces that He created, plus and minus, bestowal and reception, we can detect Him and ourselves. We advance in this way.
5. S. (27:27) What is the concept of Dinim, judgments?
R. Judgement means we have to scrutinize to what extent we are close to the power of bestowal. The truth is, as it is written, that the Creator judges a person where he is, in the place where he is. Meaning the Creator judges however a person judges himself. Therefore, if a person doesn't want to overcome and do something, then he won't do it. That’s fine. When the time comes, he will want it. Then the Creator begins to work behind the scenes in a more concealed way to promote a person. If a person wants to work more in revealing and wants to advance towards bestowal upon the Creator, through the friends, then accordingly the Creator can reveal Himself, His help. It is according to our efforts. This formula, this relation between our efforts and help from the Creator is called ‘judgement’. Judgment basically means a calculation. This is also its meaning in Hebrew. To the extent that we want to try with all of our efforts to reach bestowal, to get closer to the Creator, we can discover that He is going toward us, in helping us. This formula is called the judgment. You can write this down as a mathematical formula. Spirituality is very mathematical. We speak about it with all kinds of words and we convey this in such a way that is emotional, with feelings, but basically it is laws that operate between the desires to receive and the desires to bestow. The labor, as we say, is a restriction the screen and reflected light. The coarseness and refinement, the degrees, is all technique or technology. But as it passes through our feelings instead of technology it becomes an emotion.
6. S. (31:05) What does it mean when you need the opinion of the whole 10?
R. what does it mean that we should get support from the 10? Well, let's put it this way, do I have to go to each one and ask what do you think whether you agree or disagree? No, I have to ask myself, am I submitting myself as it's written in the social articles before everyone, before the whole ten, am I working for their sake, am I working according to their desire to advance together towards the goal? This is called being among them together with them. I don't need any more than that. I just need to keep them in front of me as that vessel through which I come to the Creator, so if I am connected in them and among them which is possible only by annulling before them. So, when I am in them, annulled in order to reach the Creator and annulled together with them before, this is my spiritual work. This is how we restore the system of A dam HaRishon.
S. That's not very clear. There is a feeling that there's a break?
R. of course here we feel between us like a wall, between me and the Creator or between the will to receive and the will to bestow, between me and the society, the hatred and love. These are two forms of nature, one is the Creator and the other is the anti, which he created deliberately, the opposite of himself; And we are constantly revealing something from its opposite and this is where we are, and why we have a problem, because we are all on one side of nature in the will to receive but we want to describe, to imagine the group, not each of them, the group has being on the other side of the border and the more I am Incorporated in them seemingly pass through this border between the worlds, between the two forms of nature from the will to receive to the will to bestow, I seemingly pass on the pieces of me of my will to receive, I passed them on to an order to bestow
7. S. (34:45) I incorporate with my friends and I shift the will to receive to the spiritual work, what’s the role of my friends here, it appeared from what you said that is passive?
R. Of course if you make an effort now then it seems to you like you are Incorporated in the friends and they are as a kind of passive vessel, a state that you are Incorporated in but that states that you are Incorporated in although at the moment it seems to you less active then you are, is like a person sitting in the boat and you want to go with the boat through some river or the sea because otherwise you don't cross it, or from Shore to Shore, so how do you do this? Through the group. So, the question is in the depiction it seems like the group is inanimate like it is still, and that you have the oars and you are working with them. On the other hand, I don't know where to go. If you annul in the boat, you simply lie down in the boat, shut your eyes, annul yourself and you want to be together with them whatever they demand you will do without any rhyme or reason and your feelings don't matter, above your intellect above your feelings, you want to be canceled with them and in them. Then it is certain that you will come together with them to the goal. Then the boat becomes not some inanimate structure but at a higher level than yours, you are elevated to a higher-level through all of the attributes and calculations and if you annul yourself before the friends, in this way you are certain to come to the next spiritual level. Several such actions of annulment and you will feel how you are entering the spiritual degree because even the first annulment like that before the society when you cancel before the boat, you are already in the right direction, it is already spirituality. We begin to feel it more clearly as we still need to go through as we learned the 5 degrees of root,1,2,3,4 and then we will receive the first feeling.
8. S. (38:09) What does it mean to go all the way into work between us?
R. All the way means as much as I am capable of: This means all the way on every level and every degree in every person it is a personal matter.
S. How is it expressed in the work between us, in the 10?
R. by each one giving everything he possibly can, whatever he is capable of.
9. S. (38:50) Why do we need an equivalence to form if there needs to be a collision of forces to feel reality?
R. Equivalence of form between us needs to be that we each time, clarify through what the Kabbalist wrote for us, what is our common goal and how can we be connected among us in order to achieve it? because the common goal is at the center of our connection to bring ourselves back to the vessel of Adam HaRishon, all of our efforts are to bring us back to 1 point of connection, so accordingly we need to examine ourselves in each and every state.
10. S. (39:56) If I don't exert all of myself in the 10 does this mean I'm not adding the good force of connection and there would be a judgment, if I judge myself?
R. You are doing harm by that both to yourself and to everyone. If the Creator puts you in a certain state and says take it; the Creator puts the ‘person’s hands on the good faith’, and the person doesn't want to do this for whatever reason, he complains that perhaps the Creator put him at the beginning of the spiritual path but he has no strength to go on the path. This is the person's problem. because the means for spiritual development was given: the group, the teacher, the study material, the environment, he got everything and nothing is missing. He can fill up his whole day and night with the material and it all depends on him as he also received the first push, which comes from his point of connection in the system of Adam HaRishon from the root of his soul but the rest he must add. Not to sit like it says, ‘the fool who sits in his own lap and eats his own flesh’, not to sit and cry that I am not able. I understand that we go through states as we all do, as I've even seen these states in kabbalists that existed in our world in my time. They were in a much higher state than ours but also, sometimes, in great lowliness and still they emerge from it. The most important is, as it says ‘anything but leave’ but there are several degrees to this. ‘Anything but leave’ means that I still remain with the 10 with what activities that the 10 determined, so I am on the still level with them, whatever they do I do, like a baby that mimics the adult but I somewhat still participate. This already means that I am with them.
11. S. (43:06) You spoke about the quantitative matter of the 10 and the question is: I'm in the morning lesson committee so we meet friends that have just given up because their 10 doesn't come to the lesson and you can feel their despair, and if I heard your advice correctly we have to focus on the moment in the work on those who are present at the moment. So, the part that is not coming maybe it should be like a secondary, auxiliary force helping us to connect. Can you elaborate on this?
R. Each one is different than his friend as there are no two identical people. But in spiritual efforts by the upper light, which shines equally on everyone, then we gradually take on the shape of a circle and even then, a sphere, where all the tens interconnect and in the meantime, we need to engage in whatever we can. So, each one gives his own effort to his extent and if there are people who are not coming, later you will see that they will, and they’ll do intense work. But in the meantime, we have to of course, try to keep them as much as possible in the group's daily efforts, when they can’t, instead of fighting with them, we have to keep them there quietly and wait until they awaken. Each person has a Time, and also pray for the completeness of the group, which means the peace of the group. This is what we should pray for. So those who can ask of the Creator before they approach their friends in order to awaken their friends, they have to pray to the Creator that he will awaken the friend. This is very helpful for both of them. It is said that ‘one who prays for his friend is awarded first’.
S. In principle the view among those who aren't coming is that normally they have all kinds of corporeal distractions that stop them, and not the greatness or the importance of the goal.
R. that is nonsense, because all the disturbances come from the Creator, there is none else besides Him. He orchestrates them, corporeal and spiritual disturbances of all kinds, in order for us to overcome them; this is why it is said ‘we only rise in sanctity; we don't subtract’. So, all of the disturbances that exist in our life are only in order to raise us and if we can't, if we are lazy in that, so don't say that the creator doesn't want it we don't want it enough, but what do I do if he doesn't give me the desire? He gives you the possibility to absorb desires from the environment. This is why the Creator puts the person next to the good faith, puts his hand on the environment, and says take it, and the environment as much as it can; it must give strength to the person, and the person must really bow before the environment so the environment always pressures him.
12. S. (47:53) What does it mean to ‘shut your eyes’? Is this an effort not to see something and if so, what are we trying not to see?
R. I want to say just one thing: how the Creator governs the group and how the group each time connects in order to respond correctly to what the creator is doing with them. This is what I always want to be connected to, the Creator works on the group and the group responds to the Creator. We raise prayer each time as we have nothing else to do. Only to raise a prayer either request or gratitude, and from the Creator we receive accordingly. Each time we receive strength in thought, desire and power, all of the time the more we discover our sensitivity, both to turning to the Creator and by that we also discover our sensitivity of hearing the response from the Creator, understanding and deciphering it correctly. So ‘me for my Beloved and my Beloved for me’, this direction must always be in our use.
R. The Creator wants us only to make an effort. Why does this will receive have a tendency to check according to the result and not according to the efforts?
R. The will to receive wants to benefit, it doesn’t want any effort. It wants to feel what it has in Its will to receive, that is, and listening to it is a lost match. so, we have to focus ourselves on our connection and see our progress in a different perspective in a different aspect. That we connect so much to the point that we discover the Creator there. The Creator is, come and see, Bo Reh, from the connection between the created beings to the love of the Creator. How we connect in order to find Him in our connection; the Source, the initial Source of our connection is the Creator. He who broke us, shattered us, and dispersed us and we in return, need to make an effort to connect and in that connection, we will discover Him. This is called ‘from the love of the created beings to the love of God’. this is how it works.
13. S. (51:23) When I submit myself before the 10 do I get strength from them?
R. Of course as a little one towards the adults, just like Rabbi Yosef Ben Kisma, what did he do? He was great, but he knew how to subdue himself towards his beginning students and that brought him strength and progress. That is why he said, ‘I can't leave, I am not going to advance without them’.
S. So what do I have when I subjugate myself?
R. You want to support them, to support their connection as much as possible.
S. By this I add and promote them?
R. Of course, you add to each and every one of them. Is there anything more effective for each of them and all of them together, than connection? If you pray and care about the connection between the friends and the goal of the connection is to achieve bestowing to the Creator. Then you are properly aimed 100% through Israel, the light and the Creator are one.
S. I have this confusion. To subjugate myself is like doing something static, just to bow my head and be incorporated in them.
R. To incorporate with them means to look for how you caused their connection; this means pushing them forward, forward means inwards.
14. S. (53:27) How did we let go of the games of the corporeal world and build spiritual work?
R. I don't know what else you need in order to despair from the corporeal world, what's happening is not sufficient? What else do you need or want in order to see in our corporeal world as something that exists only for you to disregard it, and not disregard but to properly place its importance. That we have no reason to be preoccupied with it except to exist for a certain. Of time. Today we are alive, tomorrow we die we have to use our present reality for Spiritual progress.
S. Why does it take so much energy and time from us?
R. Because we want to be emerged in the falsehood.
15. S. (54:43) What is the best help a person can give to the 10 in his most empty and dark state?
R. To incorporate if you can't do more, to show them that he incorporates with them and gives himself away to them, to nullify specifically because he has nothing to add that he is truly powerless and he is emotionless not understanding anything, just nullify.
S. And in the opposite stage when he feels the most full?
R. Then show them how there is a force in the group of going forward. Some people leave the group and some people go in the back and each time they alternate. In the military attack you run forward with your weapon, someone is behind you and you keep shooting and covering and when you finish your clips, he replaces you and he shoots instead of you and this is how you clean the path forward.
16. S. (56:18) Among the good examples in the 10 I resist; how do I not reject what the Creator sends through the friends?
R. You have to see how the Creator sends you help in both directions. On the one hand you feel the group and their progress and where they are drawn and on the other hand you discover how much you don't want it. So, you have two levels, one opposite the other that appeared to you and in between, you need to make the calculation of what you are going to do. I recommend annulling in this way and incorporate in the group as a still, as a baby and this is the safest way to move from one state to the next meaning that you agree to be born on a new level.
S. How do you do this annulment and subjugate and be still?
R. The one who shuts his mouth during the feud, meaning not to go into any arguments or scrutinies until you're completely incorporated with them and then begin to awaken but from the strength that you received through the connection with everyone, that will make your progress correct.
S. Where do you get the strength to shut up and stop yourself at the time of a quarrel?
R. I don't know what to tell you, I think the most correct thing to do is to incorporate with the work of the group and somewhat participate with them or give lessons even though the lessons can raise one's pride but at least they push him forward, to engage in something, to do something.
S. Concerning the phrase, he who prays for his friend is answered first, the activities the person does in the ten for the purpose of connection or incorporation, what should he see as the final result, himself that he will be answered first. That there's a justification for this action because he is advancing to spirituality, because sometimes we say that I don't care about myself but the 10 advances and they will reach spirituality, in “I” for myself, I don’t care about myself. What should be the final result, that I will attain spirituality?
R. Truly it doesn't matter what I answer you as you need to get an answer from life, do this, do the other way around you know everything. You just need to work at a greater speed but you need to receive an answer for life and the same thing for everyone.
Excerpt 6 (01:01:53) Twice
17. R. (01:03:21) The truth is, it’s a psychological problem, that I can really just make a switch inside of me and look at the state this way or the other way. I either see the world through the light of reception or that of bestowal, that’s it. It all depends on how a person decides, try and see that the truth it’s possible, that’s what he’s saying. Therefore, when the evil inclination brings us foreign thoughts, this is the time to take these thoughts and raise them above reason, do the opposite, go against them, or at least not to pay attention to them so to speak. This is something one can do with everything one’s soul desires. What are we doing here? The Creator is hidden, working behind the scenes, and we instead are listening to a different force the Creator is showing to us, the evil inclination that He created. And He brings up in each of us each and every moment and if we want to do the opposite of what the Creator shows to us, then we exactly reach Him. A few efforts in this direction and we’ll begin to stabilize His picture behind the whole picture of this world, try. It is a very practical method for revealing the Creator behind the picture of this world, that He stands behind everything that exists like Baal HaSulam says in the Introduction to the Book of Zohar with regards to perception of reality, that even though we think we exist in a wide world, this whole universe is filled with infinite distances and time, it all appears to us this way. It all is just what’s felt in our will to receive, that’s it. If we invert our perception to a desire to bestow, we discover a different picture called the spiritual world. There, distances have a different sense, the discernments are different, time is different, we can go up and down and back and forth, we’re not chained to time, space, and motion as well. Let's do it, it’s doable. Eventually, this work of faith above reason must raise us to enter spirituality, to the next level of existence. Our world, like Kabbalists say, is just a grain of sand, it’s nothing, it’s completely imaginary. Let’s rise to spirituality which is called the world of truth.
18. S. (01:07:23) How do we make the help from the Creator not be felt as a force of resistance but as cooperation? How do we change our attitude to the help He sends us?
R. This is by the group. That as much as we each, by the group, somewhat come out of ourselves toward the group, by that we also take on a different attitude towards the Creator. That’s why we are more ready for the revelation of the Creator, better built for it, after we incorporate with the group. That’s what I can say. We have to be more connected through mutual aid and reaching one goal for everyone, and by that we specifically come closer to the Creator. The Creator is not outside of us, it’s at the center of our connection. The more we can detect and depict the center of our connection in a more accurate way, to that extent we'll advance towards the revelation of the Creator.
19. S. (01:09:22) When we ignore the foreign thoughts, are we by this raising them above reason?
R. Yes. We don't ignore them, we don't throw them away, we can't get rid of the evil inclination. We rather build everything with the evil inclination, it remains at the foundation of each and every spiritual state. Just as the Creator created it, only our attitude to it is what we change, from our self-love and egoistic love towards love of friends and the love of the Creator. What is more important to us? If the importance of the Creator, of others, begins to be more important than myself this means that I raised myself to faith above reason, bestowal above reception, that’s all. We can talk about spirituality in various ways of Sefirot, worlds, or we can talk about spirituality through talking about the relationships between us, there is no difference. To the extent that friends are more important than me, in truth though, not how I maybe imagine to myself for a while, but that would mean that I have risen to a spiritual degree instead of a corporeal degree. And basically, that's it, there’s no more. And accordingly, towards the Creator as well, from love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.
20. S. (01:11:47) What are the foreign thoughts? Can you detail them?
R. Foreign thought means any thought that goes against even a little bit, against our progress towards our connection between us and the Creator. This is what’s called foreign thought. If I can join that thought into our connection and with the Creator then it’s not foreign. Let's say we sit together and eat together, and sing together, and I don't know what, we feel great together but it’s a means to connect between us and with the Creator. Therefore, this action will not be considered a foreign action even though it doesn't have that goal, then of course it is foreign. Everything ultimately is weighed according to the goal.
21. S. (01:13:11) The passage says ‘’every overcoming join into a great amount’’. What is that special in this overcoming, annulment? What kind of sensation do we have to build?
R. That is overcoming the will to receive that causes my ascent, in rising above the will to receive and this is already rising towards the Creator, the will to bestow. There's nothing more than these two forces. When one falls the other one rises, that’s the only way I can ascend.
22. S. (01:14:10) The foreign thoughts, why are they essential in order to bring them into spirituality?
R. This is a sign that I am truly on this level of feel it, see it, somehow, agree with it. So, joy is a sign that I am on the right track.
23. S. (01:14:50) When we were successful and acting in above reason, and really annulling ourselves?
R. We’re always playing this game. This game in general is called the game of the Creator with a whale, the Leviathan. The Creator is the force of bestowal, playing with the will to receive that He created, the will to receive that is in the created beings so you’ll be able to explain to them what the force of bestowal is, that he will be able to identify, to differentiate the things that have changed in them, in the qualities. That is why the Creator created the evil inclination, the egoistic will to receive, and He is playing with it. Every time, upon this will receive that’s in us, in each and in everyone, in all of us together, to discover what is the will to receive and what is the opposite of it, meaning the will to bestow, the Creator. That’s the revelation of light upon darkness, that’s what He is doing with us.
S. I can be more precise. It turns out that’s a game on our behalf for the Creator.
R. From the side of the Creator this game is ongoing and from our side it's whenever we want to use the forces of creation in order to understand, to feel Him, to identify ourselves towards Him. This is called the work of the Creator, that we want to resemble Him from this game. Then we are between the will to receive and the will to bestow that He created in order to stabilize ourselves between these two forces. We are not erasing the will to receive, we only want to raise the intention in order to receive, but the will to receive itself remains all the time upon which we build our forms of bestowal.
Excerpt 7 (01:17:40)
24. R. (01:19:26) Meaning it’s not joy like we are happy. It’s specifically from being against our will to receive and that we have an opportunity, not that we're able to overcome, that we have the opportunity in overcoming to show how coming closer to the Creator to bring joy to Him.
25. S. (01:20:01) What does it mean to go out of the control of the will to receive?
R. You here understand and feel what He wants from you but with the force of the group, you rise above what He demands in prayer. In short, you accumulate strength in order to stabilize yourself above Him as if you are in the force of bestowal and then through that effort you make additional efforts, and additional ones. These efforts are called exertion, that you accumulate such efforts and that is considered that you reach a portion, a Seah (full measure), it’s like a portion that was once used in the past, in history. So, you reach this portion of exertion and then, in that vessel of giving this portion of exertion, in that you begin to feel revelation of the Creator.
26. S. (01:21:46) When I am raising foreign thoughts to above reason, should I have to know the purpose of the Creator for giving this thought to me? Or is it enough to only say He is good who does good for rising above reason?
R. I can't answer you because you need to take all of these states, to examine them, to sort them out. Then you’ll know what the degree of Bina is upon the degree of Malchut, what is faith above reason. It’s a different world. You don't leave yourself with thoughts or emotions from this world and deal with them in the spiritual world, no. You have to rise above them and that is why there is no wise as the experienced. You have to try and do all kinds of states in which you’re in order to reach this reality called faith above reason.
S. I want to give an example to you. For the rest of the day, I was busy with hating the friends, like I wanted to kill him maybe, I feel hate so much hate. But when I try to examine this feeling then I can't reach the source of the feeling, like why do I hate? Of course, there are some reasons. But when I can't get that source of that hate, I don't know what is the purpose of the Creator for giving this hate to me towards the friends, so how can I work on this?
R. First of all, of course you're right in what you feel towards the friend that comes from the Creator. Beyond that, you need to see what the correct way to relate to what the Creator awakens in you. It’s even not your business but it is what the Creator awakens in you and then from that you can relate back to what He sends you, what He is sending it to you for. The feeling of hatred and rejection, criticism, it doesn't matter what, that you must take this in the right direction, in purposeful direction and then you will advance. Because everything the Creator gives, it is only giving. Then you can with your efforts, you can direct it towards the goal and it’s a shame wasting anything else that comes to you in a different direction that has no benefit. On the contrary, you are going in some side path to get confused, there you start over thinking, no. Only in a way that it comes from the Creator so that I’ll direct myself to Him upon that disturbance that He now gives me. And how do I reach him? From love of others to the love of the Creator, that I now want to reach connection with the friends that’s awakened by the Creator who’s creating some conflict. And that’s how I will advance to connection with Him, until I will find that it is Him standing behind the friend, that He was the one behind the friend and getting me angry. And me, through the anger, by rising above my will to receive, I reach love from that hatred, connection with the Creator.
S. The Creator gives me a feeling, a desire, and my response to Him is in the intention? I can only direct with intention, is that correct?
R. No, you can also strengthen your ties with the group, with the friends. Yes, no problem. Eventually that’s what He wants you to do, that all of our work will be increasing connection between us and from that connection to Him, we will discover Him only as a result of the connection. Otherwise, it is an incorrect path. It’s clear? Alright.
27. S. (01:28:04) Why is the foreign thought considered too weak?
R. Prayer in Hebrew ‘Tfila’ comes from the word ‘Pasul’ wrong light, and that’s why we use this word, it misleads us in all kinds of false directions which are not the Creator and not connection. Most important for us is to internally decide within our desire, each and everyone, that the Creator is attained through the connection between us in the ten. If this has already been determined in man, he is already in the correct direction. Of course, he’ll be confused but he will be confused in order to be able to strengthen more and more along this path.
28. S. (01:29:32) There is overcoming that we go from the will to receive to the will to bestow or opposite but there is an effort, exertion. Is that especially in acting?
R. Let's say this. Each one will feel in a different style.
29. S. (01:30:00) In working with the excerpts, we heard that every excerpt is a prayer. Can we get more of a guiding help to work with every excerpt, as we read a lot during the lesson and the day, whether we read them alone or together in the ten? Beyond the general inspiration that we get from Baal HaSulam and Rabash, how do we make every excerpt into a prayer? What is the difference between each and every excerpt?
R. I read all of these excerpts a few times. I like to edit them and I delete my edits, and I revert it back to the original form of course, Rabash, Baal HaSulam. That’s how I better feel, better understand, because you can't understand these things only from a person getting slightly confused with them or understanding them, to the extent that he agrees or doesn't agree, that’s how I work. What else, I don’t know, that’s actually my work with the excerpts. To read a paragraph once or twice, I usually want to change it maybe in this way or that way to see the beginning, the middle or the end, and maybe to see them connected differently and so on. Then after all kinds of exercises, I better understand the verse that I reverted back to the original and I see what Baal HaSulam and Rabash write that is the most correct form and the best form. Then if I reach such an agreement with the verse, then it’s a sign that for now I have understood it.
S. So this process of trying to edit the excerpt, change the order, is important to pass it through us?
R. Yes, no, I don't know, that’s my style. In that way I can penetrate the words, the connection between the words, what’s written. But it could be different for each one, that’s my style of work. I come to a lesson, all the excerpts that we’ll study, I have already reviewed and read, and I know and feel them, otherwise how will I come to the lesson? I need to have this spirit. It's not that I remember what’s written, it doesn't need to be that way. I mean the spirit of these verses, of these excerpts. Now we’re in the topic of faith above reason, so I constantly need to connect to this topic more and more means to emphasize it, to have it clear from all different angles, and to receive it this way between everyone.