Afternoon Lesson November 16, 2023, Transcription

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

1. Baal HaSulam. Shamati 211. As Though Standing before a King

1. Rav’s Introduction: What can I say? Let's read, it's a short article, think about what he wants to say.

Reading Article. (0:50) “One who is sitting at one's home..”

2. R. (03:00) Well, in general that's the article, that's what Baal HaSulam wrote. Let's listen again.

Reading Article Again. (03:17) “One who is sitting at one's home..”

3. S. (05:37) The article is as if small but it is filled with all the goodness. What is that very first sentence, “as though standing before a King?”

R. One who is sitting at one’s home is not as one who is standing before a King. So a person should always feel as if he is always standing before the King. This is in essence the state that has to be his constant state. It doesn't matter if he goes to sleep or work, if he is eating or he's walking around, he's always before the King, before the Creator. So it's impossible to disconnect from this connection. In other words faith has to be so strong that so he would feel that he stands before the King all day without break and then he will have, he will certainly have trepidation and love in fullness and as long as he has not achieved this kind of faith, he should not rest, for this is pleasure, this is life, this is our life and the length of our days. He should not disconnect himself from the King and he will accept no recompense until he attains connection with the Creator. The lack of faith should be woven in his limbs until the habit becomes a second nature, to the extent that he feels the King, to the extent that when I remember Him He does not let me sleep.

So literally, he cannot calm down because he always has a yearning to feel the Creator, the King and all the material, all the corporeal things only extinguish this Hisaron, all the corporeal matters quench this lack. Since he sees that anything that gives him pleasure, he should have no consolation, no matter what happens he has to hold himself, prevent himself from feeling any pleasure that will quench his desire, and he should be careful with any corporeal thing that he receives so it does not quench his desire. You should always feel only the Creator, that he is standing before the King and this is[..] This is done by regretting that by this pleasure the sparks and powers of the Kelim of Kedusha, the vessels of holiness are missing in him, meaning he wouldn't receive anything that would distance him or conceal the Creator from him. Thanks to this sorrow he can keep from losing the Kelim of Kedusha, the vessels of holiness. So if he always wants to be careful that he can disconnect from the Creator, by this he can protect himself from this happening, okay.

4. S. (10:00) I wanted to clarify the connection between this and similar articles. The task that Baal HaSulam is giving us this task as if we always need to be in front of the King and is he giving us how we can test, check ourselves if we fulfill this task, and he also tells us that we need to regret that he is giving us this task, that if we resolve it do we receive the light of the Zohar? If not he will just keep sending us, what is this thing? The question: all these articles we don't need to look for some hidden meaning in them, we simply need to take like tasks for the ten to resolve?

R. Yes, that's a correct approach, not to all the articles but to most of them.

5. S. (11:23) I really love this article and when we read it together I have this feeling of wholeness as if it gives me this very high degree and the lesson ends, I leave but what remains is this record of this whole state and I yearn for it and when we read it today, I invited everyone to read it together, is that also an approach?

R. Yes, of course, of course this way you support each other.

S. Reading the article we are not resolving the tasks we are just simply awakening each other, how do we resolve this task in the ten?

R. When you try in your general yearning for the Creator to imagine such a state when you are before Him, you support each other, you turn to the Creator and you have no other problems apart from being in such connection with Him. Okay.

6. S. (12:50) I wanted to clarify, it just escaped. There was a flood in my head, I will ask later.

R. Okay, don't worry, wait a bit.

7. S. (13:22) At the end of this article it says he needs to be careful that all the corporeal things that he receives for them not to quench his desire. The question: how does the ten help a person to be careful of this?

R. To be together with all the friends in the ten in one direction, in one yearning to feel the Creator, to strive for a bigger connection with Him all the time, so this would be a constant yearning in a person. Okay.

8. S. (14:20) To reach this deficiency we do so after we reveal the feeling of the Creator between us or we can reach it even before that?

R. This doesn't matter, we have to always strive to seek the Creator before you and hold onto Him.

9. S. (14:53) It is written in the article that this lack of a deficiency needs to be felt in his organs to the extent that habit becomes a second nature. How do we reach this in the ten?

R. If you constantly strive to be closer to the Creator, imagine that He is in front of you, then, little by little, you'll succeed.

10. S. (15:44) What does it mean to depict to ourselves as if the Creator is in front of us?

R. Well, that you are before Him, you can talk to Him, you can hear Him, you can feel Him as someone who is close to you.

11. S. (16:03) What are the vessels of holiness, Kelim of Kedusha that we need to guard? This is the connection with the friends, to fear losing it or is it when receiving pleasure I need to feel where it is coming from and who I am standing before or I need to regret in our connection that I'm disconnected from the friends now?

R. About all of this you can think and regret that there is not enough connection with the Creator, that you are scared of disconnecting from Him, that He can leave you. All these feelings, these worries you can always put before Him and ask Him to not distance Himself from you and to not disappear.

12. S. (17:14) Here it's talking about that we always need to depict as if you are standing before the King, and then when I was there in Sukkot, as friends told me that love of others and the friends told me that this is love for everything that is outside of him, so this tool to depict that the Creator is in front of you, is this a practical tool that we can take into the ten?

R. Yes, this is a practical tool to imagine before us the force, the Creator, that if He responds then He will attract us to Him and will start to see the world in a different way.

S. Do we have some kind of indicator to see if we are doing this in practice or if we are just flying off into certain fantasies or do we simply need to do it and do it without looking at the results?

R. We constantly strive for being closer between us and with the Creator.

S. In other words the quality of this exercise depends on the quality of our connection?

R. Yes.

13. S. (18:42) Can we say that only in the ten there's the truth and then the Creator is in front of us? Can we say that we only have advancements if we feel that the truth is only in the ten and the Creator is in front of us?

R. Yes, if I imagine that I am in the ten before the Creator this is enough. Everything will wait for my reaction.

14. S. (20:05) When we read about this, that normal pleasures in our life, how do we correctly read about these pleasures? Sometimes you have this reaction that, okay, I'm going to live without any pleasure at all and that's also not correct?

R. Of course this is wrong. We have to get closer from the Creator and through the Creator everything else.

S. How can we do that, through Him to everything?

R. That's why the Creator does this. If we deepen in this way, deepen into, immerse ourselves into life in this way, then we will feel the Creator and we will feel everything else.

15. S. (21:19) In this article it says that we shouldn't think about our corporeal matters, we shouldn't be concerned with it. Question: can we do so if we are together with the friends and are asking about each one's personal world, kids, finances etc., for it to be filled with the Creator from the friends to have more of an opportunity to reach wholeness?

R. No, we can't do this, we have to only ask to feel the Creator and through the Creator what He will give you, you will have.

S. So strengthening the connection and the Creator brings us to all that?

R. Yes.

16. S. (22:16) How can a person connect to the Creator with whole faith, with all of our broken desires?

R. This is on purpose, the Creator did this on purpose the worlds and our world and we have to get closer to the Creator through the opposite state from afar. It is said, “I see the Creator from afar.” It is exactly from afar. When I get closer to the Creator, I start to feel Him better, feel Him more.

S. We don't see the Creator here but we see the friends but we always want to reveal the Creator, why don't we talk about the friends more and less of the Creator?

R. We do talk about the friends and enough. Look, this is a short article, it talks about how we have to imagine things as if we are always before the King. As a rule of thumb, in other articles they speak about it in a different way. Look at all our articles about the friends. Here it is different, we have to talk about, have concern for our attitude to the Creator. I always have to imagine that I am before the King, the Creator.

17. S. (24:55) How can I help the friends so that they always remain in faith all of the time in front of the King?

R. When I feel that I am standing before the King, I am praying for myself for my friends so that all together we'll feel a connection between us and with this connection we would feel the Creator that is before us. Again, I have to depict to myself that I'm in connection with my friends and all together we feel the Creator as someone who is before us. Are we missing something?

18. S. (26:10) We want to thank you all of the time because we feel our size and greatness in spirituality.

R. Thank you.

S. To always be in front of the Creator in faith and we need great faith, what is this faith, what is this quality of faith?

R. When we believe that everything we have, we understand that we get only from the Creator, that There Is None Else Besides Him, and that we want from, with all our might, to give Him back only the good, okay.

S. This faith, is their contact with our root? Meaning that we are always in contact with our root?

R. Yes, if we address the Creator, turn to the Creator, we are in contact with Him.

19. S. (27:57) In this article it is written that we lack faith and we need to yearn for it but I feel that I am lacking the Creator and not faith. Are we not inviting Him enough?

R. Faith is the force with which you feel the Creator. This is not something disconnected from you but to the extent that I yearn for the Creator, I want to feel Him, even touch Him; this is called that I am acting in faith, okay.

20. S. (29:00) When a person receives pleasure in order to bestow does it also extinguish the deficiency?

R. Of course, this is the true pleasure because he receives it in the vessels of bestowal for bestowal.

S. When a person feels those pleasures, only afterwards he understands what it means to be careful?

R. Yes.

S. And another thing, please tell us, when we receive that screen, in those pleasures, from those pleasures there is a screen and then the screen diminishes. Is this towards Hochma, we say that the desire extinguishes?

R. Yes.

S. And this process will stop only at the end of correction?

R. Yes, yes and that's it yes.

21. S. (30:28) It's written that when one is before the King, there is certain love and faith in perfection, love and trepidation or they come together?

R. Love and fear they come, yes, together.

S. What does it mean love and fear in perfection?

R. It's like one dressing into another, first there is the fear and then the fear of the love.

S. Should this always be all together in one place?

R. Yes.

S. This love and fear and when there is love there should be fear, constantly so?

R. Love also increases the fear.

22. S. (31:38) I wanted to find out if one person attains the final correction then he helps all those by correcting his part in everyone? What do others get when one corrects everything, what does everyone else get?

R. He receives that part, the person and he can develop for them.

23. S. (32:22) We get each pleasure from the lessons of Rav, from the sources, working in the group but in some way this is also a pleasure of our world. Should we limit these pleasures to feel that we are standing before the King?

R. No, you need to connect and pass this all in return to the Creator.

24. S. (33:00) Throughout the day I do the following: I talk to the Creator as my father. I just talk to Him about everything. I ask, I get His advice, can we do this?

R. You can.

25. S. (33:20) How to be correctly tuned to create this tool in this world and be constantly in inner work?

R. Such a person appears so that as if he constantly sees the Creator in front of him.

26. S. (34:00) There's no Creator, you've told us this many times. In order to feel Him, we have tools from the great Kabbalists and the first tool is my friends, my group, who I see, who I talk to, who we are working together with to feel the Creator. And if I'm surrounded by books of great Kabbalists and everything that is happening in the group, in this small Kli because a group is not a Kli but in a small Kli of the group, something is happening that I don't like and I am against all this but I learn from the great books to take part in all the events. Does this mean that if I'm sitting at home I am not similar to one who stands before the King?

R. It's a problem but I think that gradually it will get corrected, gradually it will get corrected.

27. S. (35:23) A friend in her ten says that she shouldn't ask Rav questions because they don't help the world Kli. Can we say so, can we forbid someone else?

R. No, we shouldn't forbid a person in such a way, we should not.

S. Another thing she feels when she imagines that she stands before the King, she feels shame and trepidation. She wants to run away. She can't stay in this state for long. What can she do?

R. Connect with the friends, connect with the friends.

28. S. (36:26) In the second paragraph it says he shouldn't desire corporeal matters that quenches lack. Does this mean this feeling of difference from the Creator?

R. Yes.

S. I've always thought about this concept of fulfillment, pleasure, in the corporeal understanding it is connected to our feelings, we get pleasure, and in Kabbalah pleasure is something opposite and its oppositeness, differences and this unpleasant feeling in the vessels?

R. No, pleasure is a pleasant feeling but it is felt specifically in the vessels that are opposite from the usual ones, that a person receives pleasure from feeling the Creator.

S. Okay, but there are two types of pleasure. While Kelim are uncorrected the pleasure is unpleasant because he feels oppositeness but when he is corrected then we can say that this is a feeling of pleasure?

R. But we still need to talk about these things.

S. How does a person transition from this feeling of sorrow, suffering because he is the opposite, that he can miss out on the holy vessels?

R. This, too, we still need to talk about more. Thank you for telling me it.

29. S. (38:28) With regards to pleasure, I would like to have the right intention. The whole world is fulfillment, sometimes the simple things give a lot of pleasure. I don't know. As soon as I see that I get pleasure, I give thanks to the Creator for sending me this pleasure and then I feel that I'm receiving fulfillment and then there is a danger of staying with this image that you always get pleasure from the Creator. So how to treat pleasure correctly? I will ask in this way: how to treat pleasure correctly in our world?

R. We need to try and receive them with the intention that they all come from the Creator and that I try to receive them in the reflected light, in the same type of attitude of the Creator that He is sending me these pleasures because There Is None Else Besides Him, and I want for Him to receive pleasures from me.

30. S. (40:00) In the article it says the pleasure cancels Hisaron and pain. This means the feeling of distance from the Creator, right?

R. Yes.

S. That when we get pleasure with the intention to give pleasure to the Creator, at this time we are thankful to the Creator for the pleasure and we give Him back this pleasure. At this moment there is no distance, right? So we are very close to Him in this state, if we want to do this for the Creator and why is this, why does the pleasure quench the Hisaron?

R. It's because we are not yet corrected.

31. S. (41:00) We have a very strong ten but we are going through difficult states. We have different people in our ten, different in terms of their participation. How can we become one person with one heart?

R. It's enough, yes, it's enough.

32. S. (41:36) For one who is still very uncertain with regard to[..] when it says here in the text that we must think that we are standing before the King all day long, for one who has no notion of what this means, how to depict, how do we go about even approaching that feeling or encouraging that feeling of being before the King?

R. That we are always naked before the Creator.

S. These are just words. I can't work with words. What does that mean?

R. That all that I have in the feelings, in the intellect, everything that I'm feeling it all comes to me from the Creator and I now need to respond to it in a way that is as close as possible.

33. S. (43:20) If we want to walk towards the ten, meet the ten halfway and we all feel like we are sitting at home but after, at the end of a meeting we are standing before the King, is this a sign that we managed to unite spiritually?

R. Yes, yes.

S. And what should we do all day? It’s not clear, is it realistic to hold onto the ten everyday in this state?

R. Of course each one within himself is holding his ten.

34. S. (44:07) We learn that when our desire is not corrected I correct it in the friends, my desire is in the friends. This is the only connection between me and the friends, through this desire I feel them?

R. No, there are a lot more possibilities but first through the desires that we need to correct.

S. And this desire it's clear reception that's clothed in the vessel of bestowal?

R. For it to get dressed in the vessels of bestowal.

S. But when it's corrected in someone else and it's not dressed?

R. Yes.

35. S. (45:15) How can we attain Kelim in which we will feel the Creator all the time?

R. We need to be connected with our friends in this constant way and then in them I'll be able to feel the Creator all the time.

36. S. (45:54) This article seems very close to a person from what there is in Shamati, it resonates very well. It's written here that he should have sorrow that sparks and powers of the Kelim of Kedusha so Hisaron for spirituality and when we are all together we have this Hisaron, when it's all good we are holding onto the ten in the heart.

R. My dear, what's your question? Can you tell me?

S. It's very hard to see the Creator when you don't like something, when something is bad, how to look at the Creator in this way?

R. Remove those haters and then you will see the Creator.

S. And how to do this?

R. Depict to yourself that you are exterminating them.

37. S. (47:20) We go through all these ways of receiving pleasure and all the suffering brings us back to the Creator but the feeling that these cycles, we have to go through these cycles to the point where this becomes a habit for us until we purify our vessels?

R. It's the same thing.

S. And this is an individual or a general state?

R. Individual.

38. S. (48:00) You said that we should get pleasure from the corporeal world and give, pass on the pleasure to the ten. In what way should I do this, inspire the friends, give them love or when we unite we have to be in the intention that this is for the Creator?

R. Yes, specifically in that way.

39. S. (48:36) If the whole world has to remember I'm standing before the King but I can't disconnect the corporeal world, honestly, and the spiritual world, I want peace to be everywhere. Is this a war inside of me that I cannot accept that there are fights that people are fighting and so on?

R. No, no it's not what it is talking about. Try all the time to feel yourself connected with all of the group and through the group with the Creator and that’s it.

40. S. (49:18) The main thing in a person's efforts has to be to connect with the force that feels the pleasure from the taste of bestowal and decreasing the taste from reception. What's the difference between the two?

R. I can't explain this to you my dear one. I can’t, you first need to taste it and then you will know.

S. So we can't make a difference?

R. We can't and that's it.

41. S. (50:02) The love of the Creator, pleasure from bestowal should he separate, distance himself from the desires as if it doesn't have anything to do with him. Is this restriction of the reflected?

R. Yes, we can play with it, yes it's possible to play with it such.

42. S. (50:50) How to give back the pleasure to the Creator that He gives me?

R. Try to divide it with the friends and through the friends think that you are passing this to the Creator. Okay, great.

43. S. () Is faith in the Reshimot?

R. Yes.

S. And in the ten?

R. Yes, of course in the ten.

44. S. (51:55) You said to feel the Creator in the ten, where in the friends do we feel the Creator?

R. In the center of your group when you feel the Creator.

S. What is the center of the group?

R. When you all connect together in your thoughts and desires etc..

45. S. (52:20) If we are being thrown out of this ability to hold onto the group and the Creator you get kicked out. Maybe the Creator wants this?

R. Of course.

S. To make more efforts?

R. Of course, everything that is happening is coming from the Creator.

46. S. (52:55) How to make my spiritual path not depend on me if I don't want to or if I wake up I don't have the strength from the desire to reveal the Creator, so His desire to be revealed would be the main thing?

R. That's how it is always happening with you and especially for you. I am praying for you.

47. S. (53:34) I have a kind of painful question: who can stand for the Creator? We have a friend in our group who keeps raising the question of education, status in society and so on, and at these moments we cannot unite, there is a big breaking, and what do we do to solve this question once and for all. Who should study Kabbalah, should you have education?

R. Where did you fall out from?

S. Well, that's what's happening in the group.

R. Take all my books in the Russian language and we will go through them and I think you'll find all the answers. You are saying such nonsense and it is just unpleasant.

S. Well, that's the way it is but thank you.

R. And besides that you have all sorts of lessons for beginners and you can ask these things there and you can write.

48. S. (54:57) Our connection with the friends is so natural as our relationships with children or in our family, our meetings and our connection let us melt in this environment and who are these, the friends in the ten that we can organize or protect this state?

R. What do you mean with which ten, with your ten.

S. So that the connection with the friends would be..?

R. What's the question?

S. In the text it says, “That the need for faith has to be in all the organs until faith becomes second nature.”

R. Until we feel it enters us in all our flesh and in that way we behave. Okay.

49. S. (57:17) Before you said that the Creator sends different thoughts and the person should react as closely as possible. What does it mean to react as closely as possible?

R. Try to come closer to the Creator and all the means through the friends.

50. S. (57:41) I have internal pain, it lives by itself. And in good states after workshops or when I work well. How to use this? I understand that this is pain, it's not even physical. I don't know how to use it correctly?

R. You don't need to use it. Don't worry, do what's upon you to do and in this way it will work out.

S. Should I leave it?

R. Do what falls in your hands to do, carry it out and this will arrange itself and it will work out. Well, I already gave everything that's possible in this article and from yesterday we also have a short article and from today as well, a short article remains. We will try to do it tomorrow. Good luck, wish you all the best. Big hug to everyone, good luck.