Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
On the Verge of Lishma - Selected Excerpts from the Sources
1. Rav’s Introduction: I'm very happy, at the end of the holidays that we have reached the verge of Lishma. Meaning that most of us understand that this is the degree we’re in, we have to make efforts in order to collect all the forces, all the tendencies, yearnings, in order to rise to that degree. Of course it's not within our power, we can do it only on the condition that we receive it from above, but to help it and to prepare ourselves for the request, for the prayer, to convince the Creator that we are worthy of receiving from Him this exalted gift really the only gift which is Lishma. This is what we need to do; the preparation and the reception of Lishma.
Let's hope that we will come to it as quickly as possible, come to it all together as much as possible and each shall help his friends because we need a great deal of power for it and in each and everyone there is a special power and we need everyone: men, women, everyone, both veteran students and new students, everyone. Let's study these verses and try as much as possible not to let go of what we have learned before on the matter of Lishma. We have powerful excerpts. We are very excited about them. We should not forget any of those things; rising to the degree of Lishma demands from us a firm decision, a group that is prepared for everything in order to reach Lishma.
Reading Excerpt #1 (03:25)
2. R. (04:04) Meaning anyone who does not yet the taste of Lishma cannot imagine it, it is so disconnected from our nature, from our life, our feelings, that as much as you fantasize it and try to depict it you will never know what it is. Therefore, what does he say? “Because of this…
Reader continues (04:37) ”...upon assuming the…”
3. R. (04:55) Meaning, this is what we need to forcefully try and hold ourselves to; to give, to bestow, to come out of ourselves, to forget about ourselves, to disconnect from ourselves and not receive anything, as little as possible on ourselves, by that we are advancing to Lishma.
Reader continues (05:28) “...and if a person sees…”
4. R. (05:56) That is what we need to do in the first stage and afterwards to enter deeper and deeper and check where else do I disagree, the idea that the Creator will fill all of me, all of my thoughts, all of my desires, actions, my intentions. And for me to agree to follow Him, to be drawn to Him, to do anything needed with my brain, my heart, all of my muscles until all of my bones shall declare it, to do everything only for that. Everything else is not important to me. I am willing to leave everything only in order to reach Lishma. If a person constantly tries to aim himself in that direction then you may say that he is already on the way.
5. S. (07:25) You said that in the beginning you spoke about the decision that we need to make, we have to be full of drive, of urgency to let go of everything and not to receive anything? How can we make a decision like that?
R. Look at your friends and see how they are already in it, imagine just how much it seems to you that they are in it; envy them and try to come closer to them to be like them. We can learn this from any person, any person without exceptions. So this is the first thing, we will start from that; I am surrounded by people that are all drawn to the Creator and they wish to deliver themselves to all the actions, thoughts, desires, that the Creator wants to give them. They are in Soul Devotion to Him, and I wish to connect with them, to be incorporated in them in this group and simply disappear there, hide there, so I can also advance towards adhesion with the Creator together with them.
S. The central secret here is to focus on the friends and adhere to them. Is this the secret of not returning to myself, to my calculation?
R. If I wish to adhere to the Creator I must pass myself through the connection with the friends; I have no other solution, otherwise I will always be dependent on myself, tight to myself constantly and I will remain inside of myself. To come out of myself, I aim myself towards the Creator to get closer to Him and this is only possible if I am connected with the friends.
6. S. (10:18) What is that same sensation of faith above reason, that I want to cling to them, is it in my attitude or I perceive them as I perceive them?
R. You need to come out of your will to receive and be in your will to bestow. The will to bestow means that you are rising above your nature, above your ego, above your Malchut, above all of that is the quality of Bina, faith, that is why it's called faith above reason. And how can I do it? What is the force that takes me out of Malchut and raises me to Bina? I don't have such a force, I can ask Him the Creator but it will be lip service, it will be just words, so how will I do it? If through envy, lust and honor I'm Incorporated with the friends, impressed by them, envy them and I wish to be like them, they appear before me that they are advanced.
So I would like to cleave to them and use the connection between us, which really depends on me as much as I wish to adhere to them then I will be swept by them, I will go with them, and therefore without our society we can't do it, on the contrary, that's what Rabash writes in his articles “I must depict myself as a zero compared to the others” and so on. Only in this way I will simply be carried behind them, they will be able to give me the strength, they pull me, and I follow them like a child near the grown-ups. And it does not depend on how much they know or how veteran they are; rather it depends only to the extent in which I can imagine them as great, why?
I follow the power of the Creator in them so to the extent I can imagine myself as small relative to the grown-ups, so I am awakening the force of the Creator that is in them, although they themselves might not know like Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma: if he annulled himself towards his students then he advance, and this is what we need to do. We have no other way to reach Lishma, that is the only thing, from that we open ourselves up to develop all kinds of tendencies of spiritual laws of society and connection and in this way we advance. And there is no choice, we can revolve around it for many years until we finally reach a necessity; that only Lishma and only in this way that we are discussing here, can help us reach spirituality.
S. They are before me right now, what do I need to do, cry before them, what?
R. You need to repeat Rabash’s articles about the society. According to what you say it's as if you have never read those articles. I am sorry to hear that.
7. S. (15:10) Concerning what we're talking about right now: We are awakening the dawn, and not the dawn awakens us. What's the meaning that the awakening comes from above in order to reach Lishma?
R. First of all in general, whatever we receive every moment it's awakening from above, from above. There is nothing here that awakens from us. There are many verses about this, everything begins with the Creator. But we only need to understand that whatever we have comes from the Creator, what we have is what the Creator wants us to have right now and we need to look at it critically and decide, is this what we need in order to advance towards the Creator, towards adhesion with Him.
S. So what do we do in our ten so the Creator will awaken us?
R. We want to connect in such a way that we will feel ourselves connected to one desire, and in this desire we will become closer to one another more and more, we will feel that this desire is the desire of the upper one. And, we will locate this upper desire as the desire of Bina, faith above reason, and in this way we will cleave to this force and it will raise us higher and higher.
8. S. (17:33) What is the significance of, the body doesnt agree to give and not to receive and that we need to reach that state?
R. The meaning is that we arise to the degree of bestow, degree of Bina; to the equivalence of form, the first maybe, with the Creator.
9. S. (18:10) I feel all the time that our actions in the ten our prayers and organization of the ten, all that I feel is with my own forces. How do I do an action of true bestowal that comes from the Creator within the ten?
R. You will reach a state where you wish to truly be in a certain action which is bestowal: When you wish to feel exactly what the force of bestowal, the world of bestowal, and you will feel that you have no connection to it whatsoever, and then you will need a connection with the Creator; so He’ll help you, clothe you, fill you with knowledge and intention and desire, with the act called bestowal. We have no relationship to it in the beginning. When you truly want it to happen then you will be ready to do anything, even against your own desire, contrary to everything you have in you, only to feel, to get to know what is bestowal, what does it mean coming out of one's self. Then, your prayer will acquire the power of necessity and you will receive it, you will receive it.
S. (10:30) Can you explain what it means to “taste and see that the Lord is good”?
R. Yes, taste first. We can taste in accordance with any quality of the Creator, the quality of bestowal. After we receive the quality of bestowal and that it fills us to some extent, now we feel the flavors that pass through our desires, our thoughts and intentions and then it’s called “taste and see that the Lord is good”. But we first have to try and do everything that is needed for it. This is the action of connection, the action of rising above ourselves, and prayer.
11. S. (21:40) In contradiction to what we just heard Rabash says in another article that a person shouldn't say, I'm waiting for the Creator to give me illumination from above then i’ll have the opportunity to do the Holy work, so how do we settle both these approaches?
R. So what? I didn't understand the question.
S. it’s the opposite to what his father writes, that we need to wait for an awakening and that we don't need to wait, that the person needs to take the responsibility and not to wait.
R. I didn't say you have to wait. I said we have to yearn, to try, to pray and to keep all these conditions in order to come to Lishma.
S. He writes, in order for a person to reach Lishma first he needs the awakening from above?
R. Right. How do we get the awakening from above?
S. We asked? by prayer?
R. Of course.
S. But If I'm in a state of darkness, a fall, what will cause me to pray?
R. Connection with the friends, receive it from them. keep the laws Rabash is writing in his “social writings”. I'm willing to hear all the questions because the most difficult questions awaken in a person when he speaks of Lishma. Because he can't tolerate it, our nature is in complete opposition. That is why I am willing to listen and gradually solve the problems, to see how opposite it is to us.
12. S. (23:44) How can I reach a state of envy of the adhesion the friends have, when the adhesion itself is concealed from me? How do we get to this jealousy?
R. Try to look at them and see how much they are drawn to Lishma to bestowal to connection? As much as they have something in them for that, and by that to see how they are greater than you. You have to reveal the force of envy. Together with that, you have to feel honor towards them, that if they are bigger than you have to feel respect as we do towards the big ones; not self-respect but respect towards them. And from that again and again, think that the condition that Baal HaSulam is explaining to us, not only him, all the Kabbalists explain to us that the spiritual force we can receive is only in the ten, only in the society. We have no other choice whether we like it or not: I must, daily, as if I'm going to work, to try more and more to connect with the friends, to come close to them, this is my spiritual work. You have to.
S. But I am told that the friends are already in adhesion and I tried to hold on to this as much as possible and my ego wants to grasp on something and enter and I try to hold to this idea that they the greatest of the generation, and even happy with this but if I tried to awaken envy I seem to lack that point of grasp, because the ego does not see it, it's concealed.
R. Try, try to depict to yourself how great they are and how they are nevertheless in a higher feeling compared to you. Try, and you will see. After all there are many states in your life where you envy people, so try here, try to awaken the degree where you envy them, It is the only envy that is constructive.
13. S. (26:55) What's taste leads to awakening from above?
R. The taste that brings us an awakening from above is the deficiency for spiritual advancement.
14. S. (27:41) We spoke frequently about the game, can we use this in this state?
R. Of course we can. We have to act until we reach the true state, and even in the true state whenever you reach a certain degree in order to reach a higher degree we need to act as if we are in a higher degree, and in this way we climb from one state to another. Any state right now is called the present state; and if we want to rise to a higher degree we need to give it an awakening and imagine as if we are on a higher level. And, to awaken forces so they will continue to awaken us and push us to a higher, more exalted state. Like children, by playing they grow up and become wiser and understand more. That is how we should act and play with Lishma; that's why we read articles, talk to each other, we sing, all in order to depict to ourselves what is that spiritual state to which we wish to reach. So each time we have to act in a higher state in the ten, try to imagine states that are higher than where you are right now, each and every one, and then you will see how much it will pull us, it will pull you forward.
15. S. (30:09) Regarding this exercise of seeing friends as great, with some people it's simple to annul and see them as great and with other friends it's not as simple to annul, is it easier that we start with the easiest to the hardest or to focus on the hardest first?
R. Both. The most important thing is to try and imagine each and every friend as the greatest of the generation. The greatest of the generation. And try to do it with the friends that look to you the most lowly, the smallest, that are lagging behind and see them as great; the greatest in the ten and then you will advance.
16. S. (31:20) The desire to bestow never brings a loss even when it seems that something is against me or the teacher is angry with me?
R. If it's within the framework of the group then the force of bestowal is always an upper one.
17. S. (31:50) From the last point you just spoke about: There are friends that I'm not envious of but I understand that everything depends on how I look at them and awaken the envy towards them, but how to awaken envy specifically if I see them as the lowest?
R. Try to regret the fact that they seem so lowly to you; and to the extent that you see them so lowly, be angry at your ego that paints them before you in this way.
S. How does that bring me closer?
R. You are constantly looking for ways to be lower than your friends. If you can imagine the entire group like that, not at once but through your work each time; towards each and every friend you feel just how much you are lower than them and you are the lowest, the least of the entire group and how much you would want to connect with them, to get absorbed by them and you want them to lift you up and take you together with them to this entire spiritual journey.
S. And what am I lowest in them, in what they are greater than me?
R. In everything. They're more connected between them, they are closer to the Creator, they have more mutual connections between them, and it seems like you are actually outside of them, outside the circle of the group.
S. And how exactly to be envious of who is lower? Why does it matter because the force of envy is just a means?
R. By that you received the correct direction on how much your egoistic desire is lying to you.
18. S. (34:22) In order to enslave the body do we need to convince the Creator that we want Lishma and in what way are we trying to convince the Creator?
R. In the fact that every day and in each and every opportunity we're going back to the conditions of what the Kabbalists tell us about Lishma; what we need to do to attain Lishma.
19. S. (34:55) There are friends who have already attained Lishma. How can we know who and how can we get an example from them?
R. We don't need to know who they are but there are such friends, and we need to try to be envious, in general, towards the group.
Reading Excerpt #2 (36:36): “The need for man’s work…”
20. S. (38:20) How could I know that the Creator helps my friends reach Lishma? How can I verify that?
R. If you look at them correctly, you wish to connect with them, you wish to reach Lishma together with them, then you begin to see how great they are and then you begin to envy them and you try to reach the same place as they are.
21. S. (39:13) What does it mean to invest all the forces of my ability, especially in the first excerpt, where is this our agreement? I feel everyday that I need to agree and I am tested every day a new?
R. This is the meaning of taking upon himself the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven. You heard it many times, day in and day out to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven. That is what we need to accept. You need to put your head into it like a horse or a donkey who gets all those vessels installed around his neck and he should carry what is needed . That is called an Ox to the burden and donkey to the load.
22. S. (40:32) It's quality for the sake of heaven. How do you imagine it ? Friends, Creator? I somehow lose myself completely between them. I have no thoughts, aspirations relative to myself?
R. What to do? This is what is called 'they should be as new in your eyes. That each time the question is new, new discernments,preparation, depiction and connection everything. Don't get upset about what you heard, then maybe today you don't understand,it is good. The Creator intentionally does this in order for us to build new degrees each time.
23. S. ( 41:51) The question is about the quality of Lishma, is the goal to bestow only bestowal to the Creator?
R. Lishma for her sake the person begins to make smallest restrictions upon himself. He doesn't want to use his will to receive until he gives everything and receives under the intention to bestow everything until the end of correction. Lishma is all of spirituality,
S. Could it be relative to the created beings? Making himself the smallest and this is Lishma or does it have to be relative to the Creator?
R. That is the condition that if he's going towards Lishma then he must see, to prepare himself on the path to see himself as the smallest of everyone.
S. To reach the Lishma, is the person who's the smallest relative to the created being is this already Lishma?
R. Not yet, but this is the preparation from the side of the vessels.
24. S. (43:38 ) He talks about the deficiency and the vessel, how do we grow together the deficiency for prayer?
R. That I understand, hear and read that without prayer we cannot attain the state of Lishma. The state of Lishma becomes more and more desirable and necessary for me . My entire future depends only on this otherwise I live like a donkey and they die like a donkey and nothing remains of me. I want to attain spirituality, bestowal to the Creator, adhesion to the Creator through connection with the created beings, that I will raise all the created beings in my Kli vessel until the degree of the Creator. It is all a goal for me, then I must insert myself as an Ox to the burden and a donkey with the load.
S. How to grow the attack in the prayer?
R. The Creator will give us all sorts of disturbances and we will rise upon them, more and more. How to advance? There is no problem, the Creator each time arranges it for us, it works in an automatic manner.
Reading Excerpt 2 again (49:22): “The need for man’s work…”
25. R. (49:47) Meaning the prayer depends on us, the fulfillment, the answer depends on the Creator.
Reader continues (49:57): “...however the prayer must be…”
26. R. (50:44) This, that he invested all of his forces and it did not help him, that is a sign, a very good and nice sign.
Reading continues (50:56): “...yet how does mand knows…”
27. R. (51:22) So what is the reward from this? That he invested all his forces and it did not help him?
Reader continues (51:30): “...thus one must do…”
28. R. (51:44) What we call Lishma.
Reader continues (51:46): “...then one can pray…”
29. R. (52:00) And then the Creator hears his prayer. Alright?
30. S. (52:15) What should we lack so the prayer will be complete?
R. Connection with the friends, to make the effort to be as one man in one heart, to know that without prayer we cannot receive any correct answer, response, that we cannot attain anything without the prayer and then when we connect in such a manner and it's called the we beat on Teshuva, that we demand the repentance and then it occurs and if we did receive it, the response, it is a sign that the demand on our part is not whole. It's like he says the person can attain this knowledge precisely if he invests all his powers and his ability and it did not help him, that is the condition that then he can give the correct scream that opens his connection with the Creator and it's called Lishma, he begins to receive qualities of Lishma. Is that clear? Meaning there are a few conditions here that we need to be in despair and pass it and despair again and pass it again and thus we reach Lishma. Is that clear?
31. S. (54:19) If a person feels a new feeling was born in him, does he have to speak to the friends or hide it from them, conceal it?
R. That's a problem. It’s better not to talk about it, better not to talk about it in the group where everyone is working and there are all sorts of states then each one can bring one another a thousand stories and discernments and in this we need to understand it is very easy for us to confuse our friends. It is better that each and everyone, quietly, according to how much he understands, how much he feels, go forward.
S. I wasn’t sure how to ask.
R. That is the correct question and I'm telling you the correct answer. Kabbalists usually don't talk much between them about this.
32. S. (55:34) If the friends are not here, not playing the Creator's game, does it mean that I haven’t done everything I was able to do and invest enough strength?
R. Yes, being in the lesson and in the middle of the scrutinies that we do during the time of the lesson is the most necessary thing for spiritual advancement.
33. S. (56:17) When he speaks of the prayer here what is the prayer that is Lishma what should a person ask for?
R. Prayer Lishma is that a person wants to reach Lishma, that he wants to receive the force of bestowal, spiritual force.
S. About delivering his power, how can a person come to give all his strength because the ego constantly calculates?
R. Then he overcomes it everytime and requests it, asking him to devote himself.
34. S. (57:00) I feel resistance to connection. Should I start asking for myself to be able to rise in the ten or ask about the ten or continue to depict the complete whole state even though I don't feel it?
R. I need to depict to myself the whole state in the ten, request forces to adhere to the ten, to be together with them in the manner that I am truly annulled, that I am annulled before them, annulled before them.
35. S. (57:47) How not to reach despair on the path to the complete prayer if it doesn't help?
R. Not to despair, quite simply, take an example from the friends. Don’t despair until the end of life do not despair.
S. This work is for years.
R. For years, so what? For a big soul it takes years, a small soul it is faster.36. S. (58:29) How can a person come to despair of with his own strength if we constantly stay and work on this point that we have to work above reason?
R. That along with this we fall to despair and raise ourselves above reason.
S. So how can the person come to this point of the complete prayer if you constantly see it like that?
R. Specifically In such a manner, ascents and descents and thus we reach it.
S. He reaches the point where he says that he cant rise above reason anymore?
R. Until you scream in such a manner that the Creator says okay, alright, that's called my sons have won me over.
37. S. (59:26) I know I have invested everything I've got because each day I awaken it and I think I have not done anything?
R. That's correct, you did nothing, start now.
38. S. (59:45) You always teach us that the reward for spiritual work is the work itself but we shouldn't receive any rewards, anything within our egoistic vessels, but lately you seemingly feed our ego by constantly repeating the fact that we are about to enter the spiritual world. Is there no contradiction between the two?
R. No contradiction. I'm only telling you that soon whomever is working strongly and wants to reach the quality of bestowal will reach the quality of bestowal, that's it.
39. S. (01:00:53) What is the connection between when a person invests everything he has and it did not help him and for the body to agree? Why should the body agree in the first place?
R. The body does not agree rather in the condition that it receives an illumination from above and then it makes some inversion in it otherwise it does not agree.
S. Only after investing everything in not receiving?
R. Yes.
S. When he invests all his force, his power he should forget entirely of the Creator meaning to have such work that you ask nothing but go forward?
R. You never forget the Creator rather you either depend on him or don’t depend on him for your next state.
S. While investing all the forces I've got even when I'm asking it does not help.
R. Then you specifically tie everything, that it all depends on the Creator.
S. What does it mean?
R. Because you see that nothing depends on you. Like a baby that bursts out crying because he feels that everything depends on the adult.
S. After I invest forces and see that I don’t get an answer?
R. And thus you reach the final despair.
S. Do I continue with a small request to give everything and reach the edge?
R. What do you mean to reach the edge? That you and I are not requesting any more?
S. No, to the contrary that I have only one request and that's it.
R. Then reach this final request and probably then afterwards you receive a response from the Creator.
40. S. (01:03:17) We are speaking about a complete state, a whole state, can you define for us what that means, what is that state called a whole state?
R. Adhesion.
41. S. (01:03:38) How can we reach internally the urgency of building connection like it is on our flesh?
R. Only by connection in the group each one should help his friend that you will envy one another and thus help one another to reach the true big desire of everyone for the Creator.
42. S. (01:04:15) What action leads to an awakening from below?
R. What action? That we see that our will to receive does not get filled.
43. S. (01:04:51) What is Lishma? What are the qualities of Lishma?
R. Lishma, for her sake, is called the intention to bestow that everything is directed through their friends to the Creator, the quality of Bina.
44. S. (01:05:25) It says that the organs disagree with this opinion. Which organs can be in disagreement if both the desire and the action are born out of the thought?
R. That the will to receive doesn't let us to be in agreement, in short.
45. S. (01:05:51) In excerpt number one it says entirely to bestow and not to receive anything, the question is how and what can a person give if he receives nothing?
R. That, try and see. It is written about this taste and see that the Lord is good.
46. S. (01:06:32) You related to a friend's question that to reach Lishma takes years and for a big soul it takes many years and smaller souls it's faster, what is a small soul and great big soul?
R. According to the basic desire that there is in that same soul. All the souls come from the soul of Adam HaRishon but when this great desire called Adam HaRishon is divided into parts then each and every one has what is called the root of its soul.
47. S. (01:07:15) How can we rid ourselves of the anger and hate in order to raise a prayer from the heart when the heart is busy with these feelings?
R. Slowly and gradually we begin to understand that there is no other path, that rather however the Creator leads us, he knows what to do with us.
48. S. (01:07:41) How to follow the power of Bina in the friends and how to detect it?
R. Force of bestowal that we see how much each and every one invests in something, wakes up in the day or night, performs such actions, worries about the connection in this society and by this we advance.
49. S. (01:08:11) Friends in the ten that rarely participate in the talks, they are barely active, how to envy those friends?
R. Nonetheless I guess we don't understand how hard it is for them, hard for them both because of their egoistic resistance and difficult for them because they have a lot of work at home and at work, some difficulties and thus nonetheless after all these problems they at least, in something, they participate thus we should envy them in something. It is all about the extent of the connection between us that we connect all to one vessel.
50. S. (01:09:02) How can I know if I did everything in power or not yet?
R. If you did everything you need to do then in this vessel you receive the revelation of the Creator.
51. S. Does entering Lishma means that you feel the body resist the connection with the friends?
R. No, after the body resists we go forward more and we reach connection with the friends and in them, with the Creator and then we attain Lishma.
52. S. (01:09:52) What is the connection between he did everything within his power to do and despair of his own strength? What is the difference?
R. The difference is that it is the preparation, that he did everything that seems to him but he did not reach it yet and this, that he reached it, is that he already reached it. One is the preparation and one is the attainment.
53. S. (01:10:30) Is walking on the path opening of the will to receive from above until he can’t stand it any longer?
R. Walking the path includes two states: negative and positive. Both of them are needed in order to accumulate the forces of desire, accumulate and fill, accumulate and fill and that's it and that's the way we walk left, right, left, right. That's how we go forward.
54. S. (01:11:00) How does a person feel that this is an awakening from above and not an egoistic fantasy?
R. He has nothing to check. Everything comes from above and the Creator is in everything.
Reading Excerpt 3 (01:11:23): “Feeling the vitality in the…”
55. R. (01:12:42) When we advance and pray and request and want to attain, to understand where we are and so on we don't understand exactly where we are rather in each state, in each place we need to yearn for more and to yearn for more we don't have from where to take the deficiencies and degrees and so on rather only if we are tied with the friends, connected with the friends and thus it's written envy lust and honor, these three things: envy, lust and honor that everyone attains it only with our correct society that envy lust and honor save a person, they pull him forward and by them he reaches the peak.
56. S. (01:13:58) If we have a person and the Creator opposite him what is adhesion in those states?
R. That the person in all his thoughts and desires feels that he is in connection with the Creator in heart and mind.
S. How can it be one in place of two?
R. By this that all the thoughts and desires are similar.
57. S. (01:14:48) The work in Lishma, for her sake, to reach completion and wholeness, I, the ten, the Creator in the same Circle, nothing outside of it, is this work Lishma, for her sake?
R. It's one of the external conditions for the work of Lishma, for her sake, that’s it.
58. S. (01:15:17) We gathered here this time in the morning lesson in order to connect with such commandments to learn Torah, for this action to be aimed at bestowal 100 percent. Since every friend reached this state for the sake of the friends and not for himself, what does the Creator want to hear from us?
R. The Creator wants us to check what state we are in, are we connected as one man in one heart? As much as we understand for ourselves and that we will ask of him for it to happen, that our connection will be whole as much as possible and according to the extent of wholeness and connection he will be able to fulfill us because the light fulfills our vessels,
59. S. (01:16:36) Today you said that it should be our work to envy the friends, to annul and see them as great so how to work with them if there's a feeling that you are like a pilot, you go to work and you cannot elevate the plane, how can you work in that every day?
R. This is because you are not together so you want to rise alone. It doesn't work. Only together. If you connect to the extent that you connect you rise, our ascent, it entirely depends on our connection. We don't need to ask for ascent, we need to ask for connection.
S. Yes, so it's as if I'm asking to ask to rise with them but I can't do it together, that's the point of despair?
R. Yes, yes of course, of course this is where the prayer needs to be.
60. S. (01:18:05) In the third except it's written a few times to feel the life in the Torah, what is that?
R. Yes, that is called the upper light that shines upon us for our corrected vessels and corrects us, fulfills us etc. That is called the life of the Torah.
S. The ability to feel the life, what is that ability?
R. The ability is that a person is able to cause the fulfillment of one’s spiritual vessels, in intentions, in thoughts, in desires in order to bestow. The light that fills the vessel is called Torah.
61. S. (01:18:48) Sometimes a person exerts the effort that is required but it doesn't succeed, why is it that?
R. He is not connected enough with the friends.
62. S. (01:19:10) If the intellect understands we've done everything and additional ideas don't benefit, what is missing?
R. Only connection.
63. S. (01:19:25) What are the conditions that are required so that a person can reach despair of his own forces?
R. You don't need to think of despair, our goal cannot be to despair but that we want to enter spirituality to influence it, to connect and then you see that we are not capable of doing that and that leads us to despair, you cannot put ahead of us a negative goal, never.
64. S. (01:20:03) Rabash writes in his social articles that in order to see the good merits of the friends I should first love them, does that mean that before I develop love for them I won't be able to envy them?
R. You will be able to but it's already a different, a different kind of envy.
65. S. (01:20:28) Giving a conscious example can only be done when you are in Lo Lishma?
R. Yes, yes.
Reading Excerpt #4 Rabash writes “One must receive..” twice
66. S. (01:24:13) We want the will to bestow. Why are Kabbalists against that?
R. I don't understand what you're saying.
S. We want the desire to bestow according to the article and everything we actually want it.
R. Who wants it? You want it?
S. Yes.
R. Well if you still don't understand that you only want to receive then we need to wait a little more for you to advance to understand what your desires are.
67. S. (01:25:00) He writes here in an interesting way that the Creator gives the force of the screen, meaning the desire to hold the upper abundance, and then he says the upper gives the lower one taste and pleasure from the will to bestow. Are flavor and the screen the same?
R. Yes, it's actually the same but this is a physical force and this is an emotional phenomenon but they are connected they are related.
S. What is in an emotional phenomenon? I don't understand what you mean.
R. You pay money and you receive say an ice cream, it's an action so in that action there is payment which is the force of resistance and the Masach the screen and there is a transaction here that you receive something in return and this is in every single action.
S. The screen is the payment?
R. Yes yes.
S. And the pleasure is ice cream itself?
R. Yes that you want to enjoy acting within the Masach within the screen and not because you got the ice cream.
S. What does that mean that I enjoy that I work with the screen?
R. That by that you are giving pleasure to the Creator by that you're giving pleasure to the Creator.
68. S. (01:27:01) It's written that he raises a MAN and then he receives a screen before the lower one wants to bestow. So how does he get the screen if he doesn't yet want to bestow?
R. How can the lower one bestow? It only asks as if that it wants to bestow but after it receives from above the answering of the prayer then it understands what the will to bestow actually is.
S. Maybe we can read it slowly and you can explain this?
R. Excerpt #4?
S. Yes.
R. “One must receive the power to work for Lishma from the upper one, intention, power to work Lishma, one must receive for the upper one since the lower one is powerless to begin the work in order to bestow, but only in the form of Lo Lishma not for the Creator’s sake called will to receive, for only Lo Lishma not for the Creator’s sake gives the first moving force of the lower one meaning he understands according to his natural vessels that it's worthwhile for him according to his will to receive. When a person does not find sufficient flavor in corporeal pleasures he begins to search for spiritual pleasures only then, it follows the root of the work of the lower one is the will to receive andthe prayer called MAN rises up and then the upper one corrects this MAN and places on it power of the Masach, on this deficiency of the lower one, which is a desire to delay the abundance before the lower one knows about himself that his aim is to bestow. That is the upper one bestows upon the lower one good taste and pleasure in the desire to bestow.
S. When does the lower one know that he wants to bestow?
R. He says he wants to bestow you can also say you want to bestow but we won't believe you. The lower one asks to have strength to bestow to have the desire to connect to this abundance and that is his prayer, it’s prayer of not having it of lacking it. So he doesn't have the desire to delay the abundance before the lower one knows about himself that his aim is to bestow that is the upper one bestows upon the lower one good taste and pleasure in the desire to bestow, in that case the lower one can use the flavor of the upper one in bestowal and then he can also start bestowing. You can say hold on hold that again he's working because he has taste and pleasure and that is right he cannot work without taste and pleasure his will to receive remains only now he has the ability to work with the desire that he now received from the upper one from the will that he received from the upper one and then he can bestow, you can say hold on but it’s as if he's working with the will to receive yes or no?
S. No.
R. No. Why not?
S. Because previously he did it for himself and now he does it for the upper one.
R. So before he got a will to receive from the Creator and now he got a will to bestow from the Creator. What's the difference?
S. That he was a partner, he was preparing the vessel along with the ten.
R. Well let's say okay I agree with you for now.
69. S. (01:31:50) It says here then the upper one corrects this MAN. How can you explain that the upper one corrects the MAN of the lower one?
R. Because the lower one can never ask correctly precisely and the upper one correct its MAN in order to give this MAN to give this deficiency the spiritual fulfillment, the lower one cannot stabilize its MAN correctly, the light stabilizes the deficiency and the lower one did not yet receive the light so it raises something so he cries like a baby but the mother she knows what he wants and she gives it to him.
70. S. (01:32:45) When we receive with the intent to bestow, bestow pleasure back to the Creator, do you feel all the sudden the pleasure that comes into yourself? How do you turn the perception of pleasure off because it starts to overwhelm you?
R. You already have a calculation here that you are doing everything in order to bestow upon the Creator and in order to bestow upon the Creator you need to depict the Creator as being in front of you and you're doing it for Him and only for that for you wanting to give to Him then you take something from your will to receive and you do the action in it in order to fulfill the Creator. In other words to start with you already take your will to receive from its hiding you could say in order to reveal it because that by it you will be able to bestow, in other words the intention in order to bestow it rides it dwells upon your action.
71. S. (01:34:23) When the upper one gives a feeling that I'm in bestowal He gives me a screen?
R. Yes.
72. S. (01:34:41) So why doesn't the upper one correct my MAN?
R. He corrects your MAN.
S. I don't have some attainment or bestowal, I'm not even close to Lishma, nothing.
R. You're asking something else already, of course you don't have attainment and bestowal but you raise a certain deficiency and the upper one corrects that deficiency.
S. but I'm supposed to receive something, some screen or flavor in bestowal, nothing.
R. You are correcting your deficiency by turning to the Creator.
S. When will I feel that I received some flavor in bestowal, or screen, something, fuel, something?
R. When you will have the correct deficiency.
Reading excerpt #5 (01:35:50) “Rabash says, only after he achieved this degree..”
73. R. (01:36:24) Hold on hold on that's unclear. “Only after he achieves this degree called Lo Lishma not for the Creator’s sake he is rewarded with other phenomena when he comes to a higher state, that is at that time he has no consideration of himself and all his calculations and thoughts are the truth. This is only in a state of Lo Lishma, not for the Creator's sake. In other words,” continue reading.
Reading continues (01:37:01)
74. S. (01:38:31) One of our friends is really not pleased when I'm asking questions, he says I'm disturbing the ten.
R. So they should ask someone else to ask questions, if someone's not happy you need to select someone else, the fact that you want to ask it doesn't matter.
75. S. (01:39:13) I'm asking a question again you gave me an answer but not so clear to me. You said that connecting to a ten and the Creator in that same circle and to feel the wholeness it's not all. What are we lacking? What should we add to pass on this stage and reach Lishma?
R. To help everyone, all the tens.
S. And being part of the wholeness of the ten of this circle, the field that the Lord has blessed including the Creator, isn't that being part of the ten?
R. Yes.
Reading excerpt #6 (01:40:05) Rabash “We should know the degree..’
76. S. (01:41:14) In the previous excerpt he writes that he annuls his existence that's called Lishma and then he is bestowing in order to bestow, I thought Lishma was to receive in order to bestow?
R. No also bestow in order to bestow is called Lishma, for the Creator sake, it's like Bina, there is a state that nothing is received that is called bestow in order to bestow right, and then to receive in order to bestow.
S. So Lishma is also to bestow in order to bestow and also to receive in order to bestow?
R. Yes ZAT of Bina and GAR of Bina, or Hochma and Bina or Bina and Hochma is more accurate.
77. S. (01:42:20) What does it mean to attain the degree of Lo Lishma?
R. Lo Lishma, not for the Creator’s sake is when we are on the path that we intend to work for the Creator's sake meaning to be above our will to receive, to connect with the friends with the intention of bestow upon the Creator but we are not yet there, we're on the path, sometimes more sometimes less, but we have not yet reached a state that we are above our ego.
78. S. (01:43:12) Why is being on the way meaning being in Lo Lishma is more important than being in Lishma?
R. Because if a person has not reached Lishma at all, so Lo Lishma not for the Creator's sake while he's on the path is something very important that he can't even imagine how important it is.
79. S. (01:43:48) Why only one who overcomes the rejection with faith above reason gives contentment to the Creator please?
R. Because then he is doing a true act of the bestowal.
S. Lishma and Lo Lishma always accompany a person on this path?
R. No.
S. If a person reaches Lishma for the Creator’s sake he no longer needs the Lo Lishma?
R. Of course he doesn't need it he's already above that.
S. When a person reaches Lishma, for the Creator sake I heard he feels the good that does good. Why do we need more work after that?
R. He still has what to correct. Reaching Lishma is only reaching the condition that he rises above his will to receive but now he needs to correct his will to receive that is above him meaning with the intention in order to bestow he starts using all of his desires from the smallest possible desire to the biggest possible desire until he uses his desire to the full extent, meaning what the Creator has created, and he does it in order to bestow.
S. This means the good that does good is always renewing?
R. The good that does good is the force of the Creator and of course it's renewed to the extent that a person requires the forces of bestowal.
Reading excerpt # 7 (01:45:49) “One must know..” twice