Morning Lesson September 16, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 1, (1991). What Is, “We Have No Other King But You,” in the Work?

Rav’s Introduction: (0:33) This is the essence of Rosh Hashanah, that we crown the king, that the upper force is truly upper and it draws all of us towards it and with it, we crown our connection, and by the connection between us, we build, we make him as the King of the world which is essentially the symbol of this entire, this day and this holiday.

Reading Article. (01:29) “We should understand what it means when..”

1. S. (41:10) I got the opportunity to also say thank you that you are with us, we missed you. The tables were arranged, there's many guests at this, there's a lot of material on this article on the topic, not just one topic. I tried to get the gist of what he's trying to tell us and he says; there is a force in a man's hands to do all his work for the sake of the Creator, he's asking and then he says; we have no other King except You because we have no force to overcome and make You our King and then he asks how can we even receive the power to overcome and accept that we have such a great King and give Him contentment. So this is kind of the topic, how can we do this overcoming? Where will we get this force of overcoming, let's say, in the ten?

R. The force of overcoming, in general, is that we are not concerned about ourselves but rather how to, all of us, bring contentment to the Creator.

S. That's my problem when he says that when I get blows, I need to search for this…

When I come here I don't expect to get blows, I expect to connect to the friends and not get blows. I don't need Kabbalah for this. Why is there this concept that there's Hesed, [mercy] and blows and this and that.

R. In order for you to tell the difference between this and that, seeing in what way you achieve truth, and desire that truth which appears between reward and punishment.

S. Is there really reward and punishment and blows?

R. In order to give the person the ability to understand, to choose and move towards the path.

S. What are the blows that we get?

R The blows, meaning what you don't want to feel in your will to receive.

S. Can you skip over this or is it part of the path?

R. You can somewhat skip that on the condition that you educate yourself as to what are the blows and what is the meaning of good. It's like a little child if he learns that it's worthwhile for him to prepare his homework and to be well-behaved then he prevents himself from these blows.

S. What is this force of overcoming in the ten, what do I need to do?

R. Overcoming means connection.

S. Connection?

R. That we want to reach connection and because we don’t want to initially according to our nature and we make all kinds of actions to connect and then to the extent that we do lean towards connection we begin to understand that the correction of the world is specifically in connection.

S. Right, connection and annulment.

R. We don't have anything else to do, the connection between us is the path to salvation. That's how we have to advance.

2. S. (46:17) He speaks in the article of Odem, red, that a person receives this red from his mother, what is he talking about here? In the article, he talks about the father receiving the white and the red from the mother, what is this red for us?

R. Redness and whiteness are the influences that we receive from the left and the right in order to properly connect us to the goal.

S. When we work on connection between us it's clear that we want to reach wholeness so what is this “red” that is supposed to be revealed, what is revealed?

R. We're going to learn that, he didn't scrutinize that yet.

3. S. (47:19) He says that when a person reveals lacks in himself he should know that they were hidden and now are revealed. What is the significance of this, whether you know this or not?

R. Because man is full of deficiencies to begin with from the moment of his creation and bit by bit they appear in him in order to give him the opportunity gradually to correct them.

S. And he feels sometimes that there's a new lack and where does he get this from?

R. A new deficiency then, it doesn't matter, it's all about what he wants to do with it.

4. S. (48:22) How can a person feel that he is sitting and that he's not doing anything for the benefit of the Creator?

R. Well, suddenly he suffers blows, these blows as if he doesn't deserve that. Why does he deserve these blows on the one hand, on the other hand he begins to also feel, discover that these blows come because he's not doing anything to the benefit of the Creator and only to the benefit of himself.

S. Then it's called that the blows turn into mercy?

R. Yes.

5. S. (49.22) In the beginning of the article he talks about different kinds of reward and punishment according to this world, the next world or bestowing contentment upon the Creator. Does a person have a choice in what reward and punishment he has or is it from Above?

R. The person has the choice how to scrutinize the reward and punishment and what kind of reward and punishment he wants to rejoin, that's still ahead of us.

6. S. (50:04) What's the most significant reason for turning to the Creator? That He will help us to repent, to correct everything, giving a second nature, what is the most significant cause for the prayer? Is it that we see our sins or that we don't want to talk bad about the Creator or that we see that we are bothering the general soul of others?

R. Usually it appears gradually and most important is that in not correcting himself he prevents the Creator from being revealed to others.

7. S. (51:22) When a person feels he has been thrown from the work for the Creator and this is punishment from Him, how can he believe that the Creator is holding him closely? Why does the Creator give him the sensation that he's being at fault and he is being punished?

R. To bring the person to serious work when the Creator gives him this kind of state clearly.

8. S. (51:57) We learn about faith above reason, that it's the quality of bestowal, Rabash says in the article that a person must believe in the faith of the sages. What is this?

R. Most important to the person in whatever state he is, is that he feels himself in the group and the friends are holding him and not letting him move and run away and turn in some other direction but rather stay in place and make new discernments and then see how, what is happening, what will happen and then as a person is moving towards the friends, towards the world, then he can decide what he really needs to do in order to straighten himself towards the Creator.

9. S. (53:20) What is Faith and when is the person believed to have faith?

R. When he has the force to grab hold of the Creator and that's it. From that moment on he has to keep strengthening the power of faith; the power of holding on to the Creator.

10. S. (53:52) What is the whole deficiency given from Above?

R. The complete deficiency given from Above is that a person only wants to adhere to the Creator and is looking for how and by what means can he increase this deficiency and that's the only thing that he yearns for.

11. S. (54:25) Is there a difference in actions of bestowal to the Creator or towards the friends?

R. Through bestowing to the friends he comes to bestow to the Creator.

12. S. (55:17) Can we say that my attitude to the Creator determines whether I receive reward and punishment?

R. What is important is that I adhere to the Creator and it doesn't matter in what form, that is my reward and if not yet then this can be his punishment.

13. S. (55:14) What does it mean to grip onto the Creator?

R. This means that I attribute my whole future to Him; as much as I'm bonded with Him and yearn for Him and hold on to Him in a way that I can't let go of Him.

14. S. (55:58) He writes sometimes when one comes to despair, meaning that he wants to escape the campaign and he reaches a decision, the next stage right, in the same moment we have so many opportunities to actually enter the campaign. Whether it's to enter a Zoom meeting with friends, there are many such opportunities, even just to read an article. And yet a person feels in that state that he wants to escape the campaign. When he has those opportunities how do you make the decision to not escape?

R. The decision typically needs to be to enter deeper, into a tighter connection with the group, with the ten, that should be the answer to everything. Meaning if I don't know what to do then to go even deeper, even further into the group.

S. And afterwards also he writes, sorry I lost my place, thus, beforehand a person needs to do everything in his ability. It is written all in your ability to do, thus do. Why is that sensation always that you're doing half of what you're capable of, at least on my part?

R. Because we never scrutinize the complete Kli, it's not the final correction yet, it's on the way. So something comes up, something appears and a person needs to gradually tie himself to the Kli.

S. So we will always remain in lack?

R. Yes.

15. S. (58:19) What does it mean to go deeper into the group?

R. That a person discovers that he has a lack of connection with the group in all kinds of corners  and discernments and then he makes efforts to connect to Him nevertheless.

S. But when you notice that there's no connection, how do you, from such a place, awake to ask for there to be connection?

R. So then it’s clear to you where you're not connected.

S. It's clear but I’m asking on what does a person's tendency to want to be even more connected depend?

R. When he overcomes himself and tries to be adhered.

S. But from where does he bring this need, from where do you bring a need that it hurts you that you're not connected?

R. You've already come to that. You already look at the others, you see the way they're connected, how they're yearning to be close to one another.

S. Clear. It's just that now we just read that you have to crown the King over you and now you just said every moment you should be in movement so that you connect even more. So how do you reconcile these two things together? Why not be in constant movement to crown the King over you but rather be in a movement to connect?

R. I don't understand your question. You discover that you're not connected enough to the King or the group?

S. To the group. But in the end the goal is to come to a state where the Creator is over you. So here's the question: Why not constantly have a tendency toward there, so we can succeed in exalting and crowning the Creator? Why should the reaction be toward more connection with the friends?

R. Because the Creator is in the center of the connection. If I don't aim myself to the center of the connection with the friends, to the group, I won't be directed towards the Creator correctly.

S. Is the connection the Creator?

R. The connection is the Creator. The Creator is in the center of the connection, He is stabilizing the connection, without Him there is no connection.

S. So what are we crowning? We're crowning the connection of ourselves?

R. Yes, yes.

S. So if I look at this through this perception what do you want at the end, to see all of reality connected?

R. Yes of course. All of reality when it's connected and I am in the center of the reality, that center of the connection that sits upon me, it determines everything to me.

S. So all your calculations have to be toward that, is there a connection there or isn't there a connection there?

R. Yes.

16. S. (01:02:44) In the beginning of the article Rabash distinguishes between faith and knowledge. What keeps the person in the work of faith?

R. Knowledge is what a person feels in his own vessels and faith is what he receives in the vessels that come to him from Above.

S. So what helps a person persist with the work of faith? My question is this: In the work of faith is there no knowledge because he has to grip to something?

R. Man wants to attain the quality of faith and that the quality of faith, Emuna will cover everything.

S. Is this not knowledge?

R. In the end it equalizes to knowledge because then he doesn't need anything else but that, but actually it’s faith.

17. S. (01:04:14) I was trying to write down Rabash’s logic and something’s missing. He says that a person has to come to the state where he works without the reward, just like the Creator doesn’t need a reward, so should he. Then when he understands that this is his reward he gets thrown out. One time there is a flavor in the work, another time there isn't until he wants to run away again, there's taste and then it's tasteless. How is this game when the Creator plays with the person, how does it bring him to a state of wanting to work without reward? What is the point where he says that’s it, that's my desire to work without reward?

R. But what is that term working with no reward? That means that me, from my will to receive I'm not getting any response.

S. Yes, of course, the will to receive cannot understand it, it can’t grasp it. But something in this game that’s being played on him from Above, that one time he's given a good feeling, that there is a right direction and then he's thrown out again without any perception of anything; he’s just thrown out again and again and again. So how does this friction and of course through the work in the ten this truth becomes revealed, it's not just in theory; so how does this friction, this constant rubbing make him seemingly want to work without a reward?

R. He wants to receive reward from the Creator. That's why the fact that he performs actions in order to bestow he feels a reward in them, in implementing the action itself.

S. And then he's thrown away again.

R. So he's thrown away again and again and again, and that's how he rises.

S. So what does the rubbing bring him to when he’s once like this, once like that?

R. That his vessel of bestowal grows.

S. Meaning to rise above the feeling that I'm happy or unhappy in the work, I feel good or not good, to come out of it?

R. Yes.

18. S. (01:07:05) I heard you say that a person looks at the King and says that He determines it, decides that this is his future, this is what he will be. How in the ten, when each friend looks at the center of the ten, the King each one sees a different facet, a personal one of the King toward him? What is the action among the friends in the ten that makes the King One for everyone, the same One?

R. I didn't understand you.

S. If ten friends in the ten look at one King, each one sees in the King his own personal future that he has to be. How do the friends in the ten, when they look at the same King help each other make the King one King for all of them and not that each one seemingly serves a different King?

R. He bestows to everyone, not to one or the other but he bestows to everyone. That's why there’s no problem here, He doesn't separate between those images.

S. The fact that He doesn't separate, there's no problem with that. How do friends in the ten unite the facet they see and give it to the rest of the friends in the ten so that the picture becomes complete, so they all go to the same place?

R. Because they want to connect ‘as one man in one heart,’ in one point. That they have one force that is conducting them.

S. So what exactly is this specific action of uniting the forces that make them be ‘as one man with one heart?’

R. The connection between them.

19. S. (01:09:36) I want to continue the friend’s words. You told him that in these movements that the Creator arranges for us by them a person is added more vessels of bestowal. Does he feel this added vessel somewhere in himself, does he feel any changes? Does he know that a vessel of bestowal was added to him?

R. The fact that now he’s in a lack of knowing that’s called that additional vessels of bestowal were added to him.

S. And in some place, because the Creator doesn't let him go, there are constant movements of entry and exit?

R. So a person has to advance in the force of bestowal.

S. How is it possible to convey, we're constantly trying to clothe words on feelings. Is there a way to convey to everyone, to join this thing into one?

R. No, that each one needs to do for himself, each one has to do that for himself.

S. How is the example that we give to the friends, how does it express?

R. When we give them such examples, that if they grasp those examples and they perform it on themselves, then they can feel.

S. I have to think about it.

R. Okay.

20. S. (01:11:49) To continue the question about faith and knowledge, Rabash writes that the Creator knows that the best way for a person to reach the goal which is His desire to do good to His creations is without the bread of shame which is receiving and it is through faith. He also writes in the beginning of the article that the work begins on the basis of faith. We have to believe the Creator leads the world, we need to believe in faith above reason, not in knowledge. What is so special about the power of faith? Why is it so important and how does faith persist in every ascent and descent, in every degree?

R. The force of faith is unlimited, that’s why it can correct us on all the degrees.

S. In each new degree when we have an ascent and descent do we have to renew the basis of faith?

R. Yes, of course.

21. S. (01:13:20) Rabash says here that when a person gets descents, lack of importance, rejection from the friends it’s an opportunity that the Creator is giving him so he can move forward. To come out of this, the thought that everything comes from the Creator has to return and it should gradually become MAN. Now these states, you get them mainly when you're in the society, when you try to work on connection, mainly when you try to come out of yourself. So my question is precisely the place where the Creator lifts you back is in the society and precisely in that place that you try to be in, exert to be in, there is where you discover the bad. So what causes a person to come out of the bad? How do they make it so we can come out of this state if specifically where you are saved is where you notice all the bad?

R. The previous connection, the previous connection.

S. In other words if we take this lesson for example, this special feeling we have in the lesson now this I need to remember and keep and next time, I have to remember this situation?

R. You don't have to remember, it will come to you.

S. How do you make these points really shine in a person when he is in that state? You said we have to remember the previous states that we had. How do you make these points, these states awaken now that you’re with the friends and you know somewhere in the back of your mind you have that good and connected state? How do you make that thought jump out, to shorten the way, to shorten the process?

R. That comes from the records, the Reshimot that you leave in the group. So they awaken you to your current state.

S. What does it mean to keep records in the ten?

R. You're already with them, you're with them in connection, so now those records are awakening.

S. How can I create such a state where every five minutes this record will wake me up? How can I advance before the descent..?

R. By you getting used to being with the friends time after time, every time in connection, disconnection, connection, disconnection. That's how it is, it happens.

22. S. (01:16:43) This previous connection, doesn't it calm you down? It’s like this safety net where you fall into the previous connection?

R. No, on the contrary it doesn't calm you down, it awakens in you another disconnection.

S. And how do you advance from there when the previous connection awakens?

R. In each and every state there's one thing and its opposite form and that's how they revolve, that’s how they revolve.

23. S. (01:17:22) I heard before that a person wants the quality of faith, he wants it to cover everything. What does it mean that the quality of faith will cover everything?

R. That eventually he sees that only through the quality of faith that he could acquire, that will cover all states, difficulties, everything.

S. What is this quality?

R. What is this quality? It’s the force of the Creator that covers all of reality.

S. So what should I depict, what force?

R. A man gets this feeling of the force of faith that gives him the ability to withstand everything.

24. S. (01:19:02) What does it mean to turn to the Creator and know to Whom you're turning? There was a lot written about it in the article, that you have to know to Whom you're turning.

R. When I'm turning to the Creator who is The Good That Does Good and includes everything and encompasses everything and manages everything, I can turn to Him with all of my problems and know that only He has the solutions for everything.

S. How in our request in the ten do we make it so He’s really present, so there’s a feeling that there's a connection with Him while we turn to Him?

R. It depends as much as you're connected between you and then you can depict to yourself how you are turning to Him.

25. S. (01:20:10) How in this time of Rosh Hashana can we as a ten be very focused and concentrated in this time?

R. If we want this time that Rosh Hashana will be really as a Rosh, the start, the beginning of all changes for the good, for connection, for adhesion, for revelation, then in our desire we make a regular holiday into the head of the changes, the beginning of the change.

26. S. (01:21:18) It is written in the article that every line in itself is incomplete. What is the deficiency of the middle line, the real deficiency. How can we complement it?

R. The middle line is something we need to stabilize ourselves and then that will take all the other states and put them in their place.

27. S. (01:22:04) Can we during the act which is for the sake of the Creator perform another act in order to feel that we are serving and bestowing upon Him?

R. When you connect together and want to bestow to the Creator together, then it succeeds.

S. May I ask another question? As long as a child does not begin to speak, the mother constantly repeats, say mommy, mommy and the child’s attempts are still not successful but they give joy to the mother. Then the child begins to speak and the mother isn't so happy anymore, so that's the way the Creator teaches us. What are our actions toward the Congress that we have to repeat time and time again so that at the Congress itself we will please the Creator?

R. Simply need to show Him how to work, how children learn from examples. Just as we will be in our family they will be in their family, same thing in the group.

S. When we turn and pray to the Creator is the most important to understand to Whom we're turning or the plea itself?

R. Both.

28. S. (01:24:19) In the fourth paragraph it says that we have to understand that the quality of faith is the lowest and there's the whole question here about the importance. To exalt the importance, is it my personal work or is it a reward from the Creator, that it's important for me to be in faith above reason?

R. The main thing is that we don't stop feeling the connection between us in the ten, in that connection gradually the Creator is revealed more and more. That means that our connection becomes more and more concrete, that’s what’s important for us.

S. So this importance, do we process it within us by ourselves or does it depend on our efforts?

R. According to our efforts.

29. S. (01:25:51) The pleasure I want and receive from any reception goes through me to a different vessel, it doesn't belong to me and the pain and suffering stays mainly and it weakens me. How can I work only for the sake of the Creator? How can I make all my desires and actions so I can work only for the sake of the Creator?

R. Only through the connection with the friends, only through the connection with the friends.

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