Morning Lesson August 26, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Annulling Before the Upper One - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #48
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, our primary topic is annulling before the upper one, why? Because only in such a way we can feel the Creator, discover the Creator, come closer to and study in a way that we attain our own nature and along with that we attain the Creator’s nature. We attain our nature out of the fact that the Creator shines to us and He awakens the force of our ego, the force that is opposite Him, against the Creator, and then we attain His nature, the force of bestowal, opposite our own force of reception. This is how we begin to study and the more we study ourselves, our own lowliness, our own weakness, our ego in short. Accordingly, we can learn from the Creator what are his qualities, the force of bestowal, the force of love. It is only one opposite the other and therefore all of our work includes two parts. One part is to discover our own nature as much as I am only concerned about myself and besides that I have nothing, I cannot think about the other. I can't think about anything or feel anything except only through the will to receive, my desire to enjoy. This is actually me, and besides that I have nothing, and through the reforming light that shines on us according to the extent of the readiness of our Reshimot, records from the shattering of the vessel of Adam HaRishon, we begin to feel certain other phenomena.
That there are others and we need to do something towards those others. Usually, I want to use the others, to take advantage of them for my own benefit, and this actually is my natural disposition. Along with that, I begin to discover in my will to receive, that I want to know the essence of life, the purpose of life and in that I begin to see how much I am helpless, lacking the ability to attain it. That there is some other force which is ruling me, controlling me, shutting me in the framework of this world and not allowing me to come out of it. Then I realize, and I agree that I need to learn what is the force of bestowal. It takes a lot of time, years, until I understand that only by me acquiring the force of bestowal, out of it, I'll be able to study the complete reality. The Creator who is managing the whole of nature. Only in such a way I will truly be complete, whole, that I will have both the force of reception and a force of bestowal. Therefore, all of our work is to advance with both of these forces, in the right mixture between them, in the middle line and then we will truly know correctly, in a balanced way the entire reality. As the Creator said, I created the evil inclination, I created the spice of Torah because the light in it reforms one, but the force of creation includes two forces. The good force, the bad force, the force of reception, and the force of bestowal. This is why we need to try both of them. We need to acquire both of them. Without the force of reception., it's impossible, because this is our nature.
The more this nature grows we see how the created being grows from the still, to the vegetative, to the animate, and the speaking. Later on in the speaking, there are also four stages, four degrees of the Adam, that human, this is how we grow until we attain the Creator. That is his degree, his nature as much as we do it, this is why we are in the state where the speaking degree begins to acquire the qualities of the Creator. It is called Adam, and one who does not attain it, is not called Adam. It is called the nations of the world, meaning raw material that can become Adam. This is how we advance. In today's lesson we will try to realize how important it is for us to annul our will to receive to the Creator’s will to bestow. That without these two forces we cannot stand and exist in the true reality that includes the two forces, and how can we ascribe ourselves to the force of bestowal, to the force of the Creator and according to the degree, to be called Adam.
Excerpt 48 (07:45)
2. R. (08:05) That is, we begin our work in that even though the entire wisdom of Kabbalah and everything that we hear is very attractive, and it seems to us that this is something that can resolve all the problems that we have in the world and in our life. Because this is our general ego that is pushing us to it more and more, however the most important thing that we want is we want to get to know the upper force, to discover it, to discover the upper world. Actually, it is interesting that almost immediately when we begin to engage in the wisdom of Kabbalah, we actually get a descent, the feeling of our own lowliness. That seemingly is what is important. So instead of me receiving through the wisdom of Kabbalah, pride, elation, what I naturally, egotistically, would think that this is how it needs to be. I find out that it is actually the opposite, I get darkness, I get lack of desire, lack of spirit. I do not discover anything sublime, to the opposite I feel that I am truly in despair. I don't even know what exactly the despair is from. Bit by bit, more and more, I start to scrutinize it and start to understand how great it is, this despair and how harmful it is and then I also learn along with that for what purpose did it come? Why do I get it and what for?
Reader continues (10:17)
3. R. (10:33) When we come to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we want to discover the Creator, the entire world above time and emotion, and place to truly be above the whole of nature and instead of that, what do we start to feel that we are below everything. So why?
Reader continues (10:55)
4. R. (12:58) This is all well and good, here, as it says by Rabash, one thing is adjacent to the other as it says, let's say. I am reading at the end of this paragraph. Therefore, when he sees his own lowliness, this gives him the right need for heaven's mercy to be helped, I don't immediately discover this, it takes many years. It could take many years until I discover that I have no choice and I am in helplessness and out of that, that I don't know who to turn to. Am I and I am truly in an empty place, despaired, crying out as if from the desert to the heavens. So, after that I gradually begin and it is mostly through the 10 to get some understanding and a feeling that I have whom to turn to and therefore, here, is the essence of the work in the group for one not to run away from the campaign, and at least have the possibility to pray to the Creator. This is what we have to establish clearly, correctly, strongly in the 10, right? that's it. That we don't escape, we don't come out but rather each and every day we come to the lesson and during the lesson, mostly this is the time for the prayer before one to have the ability to at least pray to the Creator. If not pray, then at least the ability to pray to the Creator and this way bit by bit, we get closer to the first action, again, not to escape the campaign and have the ability to at least pray to the Creator and that is one; and second, that the Creator will help him to truly emerge from the control of the body. First of all, we are concerned about having the possibility to ask and second, that our request will truly be realized from above.
5. S. (15:48) Give examples where recognition of evil is when you discover hatred towards the friends but if it happens the other way around, where it seems to you like the friends want to destroy you and maybe there's even a certain agreement that is connected to this somehow.
R. Sure it's called “one who disqualifies, his disqualifying through his own flaws”. If it seems to you that the friends are relating to you in this way is because you relate to them in this way.
S. What is the order of actions here?
R. That I, in any case above reason, need to relate to them in a good way until I feel that they are relating to me in a good way and if still in their attitude they feel that there is some part there, which is bad. It's a sign that I have not corrected myself yet because instead of the friends I need to feel the Creator.
6. S. (17:16) I ask the Creator for help to correct my lowness and along the way, I try to raise the importance of the goal. Is that a mistake on my behalf to awaken the friends to do that or should I wait patiently for the friends themselves to get there?
R. No, we need to do everything possible, but in such a way that you are in concern, not pressuring, not determining.
7. S. (18:23) There appears to be a huge frustration behind not being able to annul. So how do we overcome this frustration of not being able to annul to the Creator?
R. The inability to annul before the Creator is also one of the components of annulling before the Creator. The fact that I cannot annul before the Creator, as this explains it teaches me, it shows me my weakness that even to annul before Him I cannot do it. That I, altogether, cannot control myself in anything. My ego is, instead, controlling me, doing with me, whatever it wants. What does this mean? It means just one thing, that we are lacking the social connection, the connection in the ten that if the ten comes together then each one in each and every 10, find the force to annul before the Creator. Because each one shall help his friend to the extent that you annul before the friends, this teaches you and brings you to annulment before the Creator in practice, in action. However, if the 10 does not work on the connection and we do not annul before one another, then we also don't have the ability to annul before the Creator, and this is how it will continue and continue without any solution until the Creator will do all kinds of other exercises with them such that they will be able, nevertheless, to annul. But it's impossible. First of all, you need to perform all of these actions towards the friends and only out of that the Creator sees what we are doing and according to our efforts, He already performs our actions towards Him. He establishes our actions from us to Him.
8. S. (21:08) After our nature is nullified, is it still possible to be as a help against Him?
R. But this is something else already after we can all already before the Creator, to the extent that we do annul before the Creator, we already entered the forces of bestowal, yes. The Creator then continues to work on us in a different way, on a different degree from our annulment and onward as it's called in Ubar, in the embryo that to the extent we can all ourselves towards the Creator, we enter Ibur, conception. We start to feel how, according to our annulment, we begin to feel that we are in contact with the Creator and as it says, that the embryo in its mother's womb sees from seeds from one end of the world to the other end. This is what we attain because actually where we are, we are in the restriction. What is annulment? We are restricting ourselves and this is how it is with the group and then we reach the Creator shining to us really without any limitation from one end of the world to the other end. But we cannot still use the force, use what we attain, but only through our annulment, and in that we have contact with the Creator.
9. S. (23:23) You said that we define in the 10. We don't run away; we don't go anywhere. Does that definition have to do with, let's say, if we start discussing something in the 10, in a very gushing and hot way, we don't understand. Is there a place for this? Maybe we know how we should come out of such a meeting?
R. Before that you have to determine what it is you have to scrutinize and you have to do it, and the second thing is that, nevertheless, in whatever we are engaging in our whole engagement and it doesn't matter if we are discovering, revealing good things or bad things. However, they are all for the sake of connection only.
10. S. (24:31) When we are lowly but we want to add zeros to ourselves, should we pray that the Creator adds zeros to our feeling or is it better to add the friend's deficiency to the Creator instead?
R. To offer the deficiency of their friends to the Creator, if I see the deficiencies of the friends, I have to turn to the Creator and ask of him that I, instead of those deficiencies I will see merits because one who disqualifies is disqualifying through his own flaws. So, I need to correct myself. That is, the question is entirely incorrect.
11. S. (26:05) It's written that we are using two forces, the first force and the second force one is the lowliness of ourselves so what is the force we use mostly for our work?
R. Each time, whenever it's necessary to use one of these forces for the work, we use it. This question is not out of experience. Whatever I do, I do it as effectively as it is to use one force, I do it against the other force, and this is how I do it, and mostly I want to use the force, the greatness of the Creator.
12. S. (27:02) If we understand with our intellect the Creator’s importance, we promptly do what benefits intelligent people. What does it mean to do what benefits intelligent people? If we're studying with the heart, how does the intellect or the heart discover the Creator inside of the 10?
R. If we try to be as one man in one heart, then we discover in this work, one state to the next, more and more correct states, correct states as they need to be and then whatever Rabash writes, here, we will feel it. The most important is to truly bring the hearts closer and in order to bring the hearts closer, you'll need to work with your mind, your intellect and then in this way you will advance.
13. S. (28:32) You say that it took years for learning about what is the force of bestowal so what if in the corporeal life, we have yet to finish studying the force of bestowal will we reincarnate?
R. These are things that I cannot talk about because you won't be able to grasp them correctly and in the earthly form we saw. This way all kinds of methods and explanations, so I prefer all of these questions for the time being, keep them aside and we will come to them when we have the correct feeling in them and next to it the right intellect.
14. S. (29:39) In the first excerpt, it is written that when we are discovering the Creator’s importance within reason, we do things that are important to those with intellect. So, the context of reason is not so good, here. It's written here when they understand with the intellect the Creator is importance, we promptly do what benefits important people?
R. If we discover that the Creator’s great, good and doing good, then according to that we are in adhesion with Him.
15. S. (30:27) Specifically, in a time where the work is before us to give ourselves before the Creator from what are we coming close to?
R. This is a good question. It takes a lot of time until we want in all kinds of different forms to attain through our will to receive the spiritual life and as much as we try in all kinds of different angles to approach spirituality with our vessel, with our will to receive, we see that we do not succeed. It is like when you come, let's say to some government office or something high and they don't accept you. You can walk around for a long time, but they do not take you into consideration. It is the same with us, with the spiritual work that if we do not come in the right way, you can walk around in circles until the end of your life and you'll get nothing. Don't you think that they can change, that they can change their approach, their character. It will not change because all of the spiritual states are built according to the ladder of degrees. From this world all the way to Infinity, to the end of the correction and therefore what we have to do is as much as possible if we will keep what the Kabbalists write about the group, about the connection and through it to the Creator and to our corrections, then it will happen, and if not then it will not. This actually is the problem that we want to determine towards the Creator, our laws, our desires, and they all stem from our ego from the will to receive. So, it turns out that as much as we demand and ask from our will to receive, we will feel ourselves farther and farther away and that too is good because the movement nevertheless exists. So, it's a negative movement, we find out that we do not advance in the right direction, and bit by bit this corrects us.
16. S. (33:48) What is the difference between nullification before the friends and nullification before the Creator?
R. Towards the friends I have to annul myself now already there is no preparation for it, but only the understanding that is, this is the first leap from my ego from this world to spiritual actions because annulment before the group is already a spiritual action. It is a transition, let's say, and this is why, this is what I need to do. We perform this transition and this is the barrier internally. We don't need to go out to the group and break someone's face or we need to realize that only by only breaking the barriers between us do we reach the breaking of the barrier and this is the first and most important stage. That is to connect between us so much so as it says, to be as one man in one heart, that I always do what the friends need out of me and this determines my entire spiritual life and in that by me seeing their example, I begin to see how much I have to correct myself as quickly as possible. Therefore, if it is difficult for me to rise above my ego, it is because I do not want to carry out the simplest actions of connection that exist here before me, that were given to my disposal in this world and there is nothing here besides that. To the extent that we try to connect with each other, with one another. Look at what Rabash writes, with what words that he writes to his students. How much he opens his heart and he is ready for everything and on the outside, he was the complete opposite. He was like a porcupine; it was difficult to come close to him. Truly, like with his thorns like a porcupine and look what he writes. We need to try to transition, to pass through the partitions of our heart and the hearts of the friends until we all connect as one heart and according to our connection, intensity of connection in our hearts, we can measure our spiritual degrees. The first entrance to the connection between the hearts is considered that we have entered Ibur, impregnation, and we have crossed the barrier, the boundary between corporeality and spirituality. Here therefore, you need to understand that the spiritual work and the work on connection in the group, it is the same, that's it, and nothing else.
17. S. (38:19) in the excerpt it talks about discovering his own lowliness, our lowliness and annulment the same thing?
R. My lowliness is where I recognize the extent to which I want to rise above my ego above my laziness and start to get to know who I am. According to that, I developed the prayer.
18. S. (39:08) So our inability to annul directly before the Creator it brings us to efforts to connect in the 10, following these efforts to annul are there additional efforts we need to make towards the upper one or is the connection itself the goal that we are pushed to the fact that we cannot by ourselves annul before the upper one?
R. To the extent to which we want to annul before the Creator, we discovered that it is impossible so in that we discover that it's probably the Creator who's pushing us backwards towards the group, and then inevitably we begin to work on the connection between us in the group. Then we see that the connection between us is actually the same action that we need to do in order to resemble the Creator. All our work is in love the friend as ourselves and from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. All of the things that talk about the love of people and this work is from here to the end of correction. Until we reach such a connection that the Creator with no limitations is revealed between us as this is how each and every one reveals himself to others this way.
S. According to what we study through our attempts to annul to the upper one they are destined to fail, yet they push us towards the action of connection, the essence is the connection not the annulment?
R. As much as we feel we are not capable, to annul before the upper where even the simplest action, even corporeal ones. I cannot do to the group and the Creator, that it is that hard for me and I truly put my hands up. I see I must incorporate with the friends because I am in despair and this is the only solution I can find. That is how the shattered system is arranged before me of Adam HaRishon and then I see before us a little corporeal and a little spiritual and find forces that will help me to advance. Even in a corporeal way I start to come close to them to do actions and to see how I receive from them forces of awakening. That is how we advance.
18A. S. (42:49) The Creator is sitting and measuring if I relate nicely to the friends, if I listen to them, if I read excerpts and organize them, is this what is important to Him?
R. It is important to Him you are nullifying yourself to come close to Him. He created the Kli and shattered it in order to give you the possibility to come closer to Him and here we say that it is the friends and I need to do something towards them that is completely not true and it is truly it is deception here, we are confusing ourselves here. Our ego is showing us friends but not that the Creator stands behind each friend, each in a different quality and wants to somehow draw us to him in this way.
S. I'm asking if he really goes into these little details, is that what he measures?
R. You can't do it in any other way, you can't work with us in any other way. If you don't work this way, who are we, we are shattered little pieces and egoistic.
19. S. (44:19) The question is whether we will enter spirituality, we will no longer work with our reason but only with our emotions?
R. We are only always working with our feelings. A person is only feeling the intellect, it is only given to aim our feelings correctly because of desire is feeling.
S. What happens to our freedom of choice if so?
R. Our free choice? Please, what's the problem?
S. If we need to annul a reason and we only use our emotion in spirituality then what happens to our freedom of choice?
R. That's how it's written, nullify your reason before his reason, your desire to receive nullify it before the desire to bestow of the Creator then with your desire to receive acquire upon it his desire to bestow and you work with the vessel of bestowal in order to bestow. How otherwise do you think it's possible to do, you cannot become the Creator, you cannot remain in your desire to receive in order to receive and not be a creature. Rather according to the plan of creation, you have to, since you are a creature and you are opposite of the Creator, to rise and degrees of identification of equivalence until adhesion with the Creator and therefore you acquire upon your desire to receive forms of the Creator, forms of bestowal, external ones, certainly external. Inside you'll remain the will to receive always but there will also always be upon you more and more of this covering in order to bestow by which you will be called Adam one who is Domeh, resembles the Creator and that's how we advance to corrections.
S. When we will be in spirituality how will the system of our decisions change, how will freedom of choice change?
R. Of course, it changes how can it be each time we advance, we change, our intellect changes in accordance with our feelings, the intellect cannot grow just like that, but rather as a result of the feeling. According to the desire of a person that's how the intellect operates because the intellect operate so that the desire will be able to achieve and attain what it wants. Therefore, in animals, in all kinds of fish and every creature even in the inanimate it has an intellect in order to attain what it wants. Usually in still vegetative and animal, they have the same desire. Just like it is written like a calf that is one day old, you could call it a bull, an ox. Because it has the same intellect like the adult bull, why? Because it doesn't change, it has the same intellect. Whereas that same intellect meaning essentially it doesn't change. What it wants he wants he wants a little bit more of this, little bit more of that but small things, small changes on the same plane. Whereas in a person there is each time a new desire in a gradual manner, gradual degrees this way and that's in everyone in all of humanity, in all the billions of people. We don't understand this later we will see the extent and which day after day people and humanity rise from degree to agree to higher degree and the desire changes and the intellect changes, the desire changes the intellect changes and accordingly we see periods and errors that we go through in humanity and this is how it will be with us even more.
S. If by the fact we enter spirituality do we become partners that we have more free choice or there is everything governed by the Creator, none else besides him as it was in corporeality?
R. To the extent I receive qualities from the Creator in order to bestow by that I become in agreement with Him or in partnership with Him and then there is a common part between us, there still a part where I am separated from the Creator and there's a part where I am completely together with Him. In that part that I am together with Him I am considered His partner and that's it, there I do like Him without any problem I understand and feel like Him. In the other parts of mine that are not yet in the degree of Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, 1, 2, 3, 4 then I am not yet in agreement with Him fully, maybe in such a way I might be even contradictory to an extent and then I know it and I restrict it and so on, that's the work in these inner dynamics of a person.
20. S. (51:36) We learned that our annulment before the 10 should be active annulment, that is in preparing the ten, I have organized in a meeting for them and discovering, revealing our own lowliness and ask for the Creator what can we do if we do all of this but you don't feel lowliness, you feel that it was successful and they also say it was successful?
R. Why do we need to not succeed in such things, in such preparations, it could be that we're not succeeding in our interconnection, our inner spiritual connection because that's already coming to us from the Creator but in our external preparation, our external connection, the connection itself we need to see that we are succeeding in that we have no problem. We perform discussions between us, connections between us now we are preparing with you a big convention at the end of September. We will have also during the whole month of September, all kinds of special meetings, we need to do all kinds of actions and succeed in them in corporeal connections between us, in the connection between us we need to succeed, why not? That's given for us. But with that as we want to transcend above the corporeal actions to spiritual ones and to see spiritual results in our connection here specifically, we will discover that it doesn't really work so good for us, why? Because the Creator wants for us to be connected to him because it's by His force, by a connection on our behalf and by His force we attain the next spiritual degree. That's why what we feel as a barrier as a Machsom that the Creator does not let us connect between us and come to the feeling of the interconnection because he wants his force of bestowal and love to be in the connection between us. Therefore, this is how we see the Machsom, the clash, the resistance between us and here we even have all kinds of quarrels between us, disputes between us that he does and it's not that we cannot connect between us but rather He wants for us to scrutinize everything even more and to understand that we are depending on Him, that we are dependent on Him. Because He who makes peace in the heavens will make peace on us and without Him, we will not reach bestowal, to the wholeness, to completion and this is how we will advance. Then it turns out that even in all the sorts of actions of this world I also feel coming closer to the Creator and I attain closeness with the Creator.
21. S. (55:00) The text says that there is excitement, the person is drawn to it, that this happens many times in the works throughout the day, why does this happen?
R. I didn't understand the question, but many times a day we try to come closer to one another and we try and we fall and we seemingly forget, yes, and again awaken to the connection between us and to the Creator and fall. Sometimes we awaken to a connection with the Creator and forget that everything needs to be from our connection between us and therefore this connection between us and the Creator is an empty connection. It is empty since it is like an egg and it is not fertile, it is in its infertile egg and there is the seed but there is no sperm that enters the egg. Meaning there is no connection between the male and the female there is no connection between us and the Creator because we forgot, we want to connect to him but where is the group, the group is actually the Kli, the vessel within which we need to reveal Him. Therefore, many times we yearn in a seemingly empty way to the Creator without any response seemingly, because sometimes there is even a negative response. Here once again we need the help of the group so that we will remind one another that without the connection between us, we do not enter spirituality, that's one thing. The second thing is that through the connection between us we do discover quickly what the stages of entering spirituality are. So don't forget that this is very important. Therefore, we need during the day to remind one another the group, the 10 to 10 and within the ten, that friends we need to not fall from the connection between us not too far from it and we always of course fall and forget, so we need to nevertheless more and more to bring ourselves forcefully back and each return forcefully to connection between us is a new spiritual action and then a penny and another penny add up to a great sum.
22. S. (58:34) These details that you're telling us about the work and we say I'm not sure I understood correctly that our advancement is based more on entering greater details about how we annul and less about what we achieved and that our work is more towards annulment, is the work more about tiny details with respect to annulment?
R. The essence of our work is to see the correct form, the correct mold that I build the group as 10 Sefirot, a Partzuf and in it I want to reveal the Creator as the inner force that sustains those 10 Sefirot in the system and fills it. That's how each of the friends in the tens needs to depict that to themself. All together that's what we have, there's no more in the world than that and from that we will understand how everything is built and what is going on but it is all from me wanting to combine everyone together with my forces with as much as I am in my mind and my heart. For the Creator to be revealed as the connecting Force, the building force that sustains us together.
23. S. (01:00:43) In the introduction, you talked about the four degrees within the person. What are these 4 degrees?
R. Those degrees are built by the incorporation of the will to receive in an act of bestowal: Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimmel, Dalet - 1, 2, 3, 4, are the degrees of the will to receive as much as we can cancel and nullify this desire and above it perform an act of bestowal, of giving to others, of concern and care for others and so on those are the degrees.
24. S. (01:01:53) You told Luigi that in attaining a new desire, we attain a new mind, a new intellect. But why do I need to restrict it, on the higher degree?
R. I didn't understand exactly.
S. He said that you told Luigi that each time we have to attain a new mind, a new intellect, but in order to reach the higher degree why do I have to annul my previous reason?
R. You are replacing it each time. What I attain in the force of bestowal, I attain the reason of the upper and then, the previous reason is included in the reason of the upper. If I engage in bestowal, then I don't know if I've my previous reason because it too was corrected and built upon the force of bestowal, but that way I build each time my reason as a new reason upon the will to receive in order to bestow of mine, or maybe I don't understand exactly what he is asking.
25. S. (01:03:26) What is the difference between annulment and concession in the ten?
R. Concession means that I'm not nullifying my ego, I am just giving up my control compared to the control of the other, that’s called a concession. And that’s why there is a return from this action so that I, once again, will control and rule in His place. And nullification is where I give from myself as much as my demands are not correct, I recognize that, that they’re harmful to us and to the Creator and therefore, I nullify it. Meaning, concession is temporary, it’s in a certain place under external pressure, and annulment is where I, from myself, annul myself and understand how incorrect this is.
26. S. (01:04:41) What can we do when the feeling of the barrier, the ability to annul before the friends only pushes me away, it makes me betray the friends internally?
R. Look, we are all very big egoists. We don't even yet know how big we are in our egos, therefore here, we are in an advanced group, in an advancing group, and there are those that are nullifying themselves easily, but they’re not in Bnei Baruch, they’re in all kinds of surrounding methods, we’ll call them. We have no choice, we need to come to a state in which ‘one will help his friend’ and through that, we can advance to the revelation of the Creator. Simpler methods, we could say, are such that a person needs to nullify himself, he doesn't need connection with the others, he doesn't need help from connecting with the ten, and only from it, he feels how much he needs this force and there is no choice. But rather, there are methods that are philosophical, spiritual individuals, there are such methods where a person rises above his ego somewhat and that's it, it's enough for him, even not through the method of Kabbalah but spirituality as we call it. With us, it’s the most fundamental essential method which is built upon the correction of the general vessel towards the correction of the world. Therefore, we are advancing only by the group, Israel, the light, and the Creator, ‘from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator’, and so on, just like the Kabbalists write for us, that's the method of Kabbalah. All the rest of the methods are not exactly methods of Kabbalah, even though there are some seemingly spiritual, that lead a person to a certain entrance to a feeling that’s above matter.
S. (01:07:20) When a person discovers that he doesn’t have the ability to annul, not before the friends, not before the Creator, there is no such thing, he cannot do it, that it kicks him back, it throws him outside of the campaign.
R. No, not true, it doesn’t throw him backwards. If he is truly in the system, he is not thrown backwards, but rather he’s lowered, right, he’s lowered, he’s raised, all kinds of exercises are done to him, but it's not that he is being thrown all together.
S. (01:7:53) To sit in the ten, in the Zoom, in the lesson one hundred percent, that inside is outside of the campaign?
R. Until he discovers that he has to, he must, he has no choice, Rabash writes about this. We are in a method, just like you can see, according to the sources where that's how we need to go, we have no possibility of running away from that. You can’t interpret this method in some other way. But again, I'm saying, you have many all sorts of beliefs, reasons, opinions, methods, that are around that give a person some kind of upliftment, some kind of freedom, some kind of feeling. We don’t have a choice, we need to advance this way, just as we are, just like they write.
27. S. (01:09:01) Can you explain again the difference between concession and annulment?
R. When you concede to someone, why are you giving up, why are you conceding? That’s because he’s stronger, whether it’s intellectually or by feelings. Why give up, what can I do? It's like you tell a little child, where he's quarreling with someone, concede to him, give it up to him. It's not that you're saying you're not right and it's not okay. No, give up so that you will have some kind of benefit from this, that way you will stay his friend and so on. Meaning, concession is where you don't let go of your opinion, but rather you make room for the other to control. But you know that you did it and you remain in your own. Whereas annulment, you nullify yourself relative to him and then by that, you have no independence, you have nothing, you nullify yourself completely if it's annulment, well depending on which degree it is. But then, you received the reason of the other, or the opinion of the other to control you, from here to the end of the Earth. Meaning, concession is temporary and partial according to the situation, there's no choice, and annulment is total.
28. S. (01:11:13) When do we turn to the Creator with our prayer, and when do we turn to the ten?
R. We first turn to the ten and prepare ourselves with the ten together for how we turn to the Creator. What is good is that we, during the morning lesson, and it could be after it, for us to sit and put together a prayer, we’ll embroider or so together a prayer, we will knit a prayer and pass it to the Creator, where each add something a little more, a little more, until we in three to five sentences express ourselves, but ourselves, not what’s written there in the article, but rather ourselves towards the Creator. That's important.
S. (01:12:20) We unite only through the desire to spirituality? Sorry, wrong question. How can we check ourselves that we are engaging in the connection between us? Each one is making efforts but we don't feel the others.
R. The result needs to come from the Creator being revealed within us. There’s no possibility of discovering things until we attain the first connection.
Excerpt 49 (01:13:00) ‘’When a person is proud…’’ Twice
29. R. (01:15:53) That’s the main thing, that he doesn't want to cancel his authority.
Reader continues: (01:16:00) “this is the reason for the control of the will to receive….”
30. S. (01:16:24) What is that fine or subtle illumination?
R. I don’t understand what he’s asking about. What illumination?
S. He’s asking about the tiny illumination.
R. It is a very fine light that shines for a person and pulls him to spirituality, well, you can say it this way.
S. Can we learn something from this excerpt?
R. From this excerpt? Well, let's read it again. When a person is proud, how does he see that he is proud, that he has no desire to annul his authority before the Creator, he can't do what he wants, to be in order to bestow, in connection from heart to heart, and says that he has no lowliness in him. Meaning, he doesn't feel himself low to such a degree that he’s only born in order to keep what the Creator wants, only to serve everyone and to give everyone, to do everything for everyone, not to forget anyone. No, he doesn't see that this is suitable for him, but he rather does what he wants. And this is how each of us, everyone, is this way as much as possible in our life. This comes to him, all the bad qualities, from doing what I want. Meaning, in each and every moment, I don't ask what does the Creator want in every moment from me, but rather I ask myself what do I want? And this is what I do. From this, come to him all the bad qualities and he only develops his ego more, and more. The light of pleasure, which comes from above, illuminates as a slim light, very small light, in order to sustain the world. It comes, even in vessels of reception, and it shines for the egoistic vessels. So, this slim light, that shines in order to sustain the world, it dresses, as it is known, in three qualities called, envy, lust, and honor. And this is why we respect these three qualities, they pull us, they activate us, and all three qualities are included in the quality of pride. But seemingly, what is the connection between lust and pride? Afterall, lust is a beastly quality, that our ego, are the beasts in us, wants to fulfill itself. So how is pride connected here? When a person, only people have pride, like Rabash used to say, ‘you’re where a group of hens, does any of the hens be prideful over you or jump on you with pride’? No, no one in the animate level has pride. But for man, pride is the main thing, that’s what motivates us. The thing is, that pride is not necessarily between man and man. Primarily, it is between man and God, meaning with the respect to the Creator, that’s where the force of pride is activated. In the meantime, we use it between us, that’s for us to eventually come to the Creator, and we can really, truly, annul ourselves to Him. That’s where the whole struggle over pride is. For this reason, when a person is proud with regard to the Creator and does not want to cancel his own authority, then also he has something, this is the reason for the control of the will to receive for himself. Meaning, the will to receive that we see, that the Creator has created, what does it do? It gives a person a feeling that he exists as an inseparable part of everyone, standing in the center of the world, all the world is below him, including the Creator. But when a person annuls his authority before the single authority because He is the only one in control, he is rewarded with eternal life. He discovers that the truth is the Creator, He’s the one who controls the world, and the only thing a person should do is, to the extent he can annul himself to the control of the upper one, there he can find his eternal life.
S. (01:22:01) You presented such a form of work where I have to scrutinize what the Creator wants from me, every second. What can I do for the Creator? This work is under my control, I can do it as a habit.
R. This is only under our control, to the extent we are in connection between us, each one helps his friend. If we give examples, if we awaken each other, you can be certain that we can do that.
31. S. (01:22:48) In the work with the group, in the work of the evolution of the desire, is it in the intention or in the work itself in the group?
R. In the intention, the work is in the intention.
32. S. (01:24:08) Why is it important to scrutinize and determine our state, the connection between us relative to yesterday? And how is it correct to do this scrutiny?
R. With respect to the previous day, what I must do is examine to what extent I can today annul myself before the group and the Creator. And if I cannot yet measure these things, but at least, I can try to think how to measure and how to do it, and bit by bit it will become clear this way, that my whole work is measured in my annulment in the ten, and from the ten to the Creator. And this work has to be really every day. Even though some do write that today I do this and that annulments to the Creator, from the ten I tried to do it this way and that way towards the Creator.
S. How to determine this relative to the state of the ten?
R. Usually, we do it, it’s a duty where each and every day someone else is responsible over it, and he awakens the others. And this is how we advance.
33. S. (01:26:27) In order to cancel my pride, myself, I have to be in the highest degree of pride and resist the Creator and his authority, or specifically where one is the lowliest, most humiliated, that’s why we give up on it?
R. To be among these lowliest is the best. He who annuls himself to the group, to the friends, to Rav, to all of Bnei Baruch, he is the one who makes the most profit, he is the one who makes the most gain. Each one should see how it happens, and it doesn’t depend on how much he practically serves, and maybe he is a computer guy or something else. What matters is how much he wants to fulfill the desire of the group, and not his own desire. That’s what’s important.
S. What does it mean he wants to carry out the desire of the group, maybe he can’t?
R. Yes, yes. Then he can see how opposite he is from it.
S. Is it important to recognize the resistance or just how much he wants to keep the desire of the group he should focus on?
R. Both, how can you cut one from the other?
34. S. (01:28:24) More or less, it is clear what is annulment in the group. What is annulment towards the Creator he writes about?
R. The Creator is, all in all, called the inclusive, the sum total. So, to the extent that you annul yourself before the whole group, you start feeling this concept called the inclusive, the whole, and from that you will understand you have a concept about the Creator.
35. S. (01:29:06) Maybe it’s more emotional, but I would like to connect the matter of annulment and above it, not to being proud, to be humble. It’s as if the Kabbalists prescribe a certain avoidance where before you enter on this effort, you have to try not to be proud, to be humble. Where, after entering annulment at a certain time, or in the work? Is this how it is?
R. Yes, that’s considered to perform a restriction before every action, perform a restriction, when you don't ascribe to yourself everything you do, but rather through the group to the Creator.
36. S. (01:30:09) Can we turn pride into shame to restrict our desire to receive?
R. Yes, if I am among the friends and I make an effort to somehow come closer to them. Otherwise, I won't advance to the Creator. And then, I see that I am incapable of coming closer or moving forward towards them, my pride doesn't let me annul before them and then I start being ashamed, as Rabash says ‘from my thoughts, from my actions, even if they are petty’. This is how I reach a state that I diminish myself, I annul myself, and I really come closer to the Creator through the group.
37. S. (01:31:17) I want to be precise, what is the annulment of my control relative to the Creator, or we are only talking about only relative to the ten?
R. At the moment, this doesn't exist because you control your will to receive a hundred percent, you don't let the group or the Creator rule. To the extent that you will release your control, you enter Ibur (impregnation), then they start with growing control over your desires, they start establishing an embryo from out of you.
S. So I’m working only relative to the ten?
R. No, and the Creator which lies within the ten, the force that acts and activates the ten is the Creator.
S. But it's not direct work with the Creator?
R. That is true, along with the ten.
38. S. (01:32:36) Can the ten, all ten, annul before one friend, if it sees that he honestly can't annul himself and he’s convinced that he’s right?
R. So how can the ten annul before him, if he can't annul himself? What kind of a method is that?
S. Out of love to him? Out of love, a desire to help.
R. Yes, but why should we annul before him? Helping is helping, but annul to, what am I annulling to, to his pride? I don’t understand what you’re saying. You started over there, I have nothing to explain, and this goes completely against everything we’re learning. If one person in the group is in increased pride, right, his pride is increased, so, all of us in the ten will bow down to him, what do you mean, how can that be? I don't understand this question at all. Do not laugh, you’ve confused everyone, think about what you’re asking first. I am really ashamed about this question. Think about it very well, then afterwards, write down to me how could you think about this question. If someone raises his nose upwards, and you are standing on your knees, and bowing down to him?
39. S. (01:34:45) How to neutralize pride when you come to a meeting with the ten or to the lesson? Seems that everyone comes with these spikes.
R. With what spike should I come to the ten, if without me incorporating in them and coming below them, I won't reach the Creator. What spikes do I have here? I understand that later I see that I have these spikes but I don't come with them, I come with my desire to connect, to annul, to receive a quality with which I can connect to the Creator. The group is that passageway to the Creator, if I go through this passageway, I connect to Him. If I don't connect with the ten, what kind of Ibur (impregnation) do I want to enter? Ibur (impregnation) is the first degree of connection, zero on the spiritual path, the first degree, what is that? When we annul, then we start growing to the extent that we annul every time, the upper light can bestow the light of bestowal upon us. To the extent that we annul before each other, I annul myself to the ten, to the extent that I annul myself, that’s where the upper light bestows, and builds in me that force of bestowal. All I did is annul, I just made a zero out of my control, and He shines into that desire, into that area where I annul myself and it gives the force of bestowal there. This is considered that I’ve grown, one more day, one more day, until I’m born, etc. This is the method to grow, to correct myself, until the final correction.
S. I don’t want it, stop wanting it, or want something much more than I wanted before?
R. You cannot stop wanting, you have to perform an action, that the Creator, to the extent that you incorporate in your group, He can correct you, because, eventually, incorporation in the group is what we correct.
40. S. (01:37:44) When the intellect or understanding feels so full that it cannot absorb further, is this a level that the desire is reaching closer annulment?
R. Yes, to a certain extent, yes.
41. S. (01:38:50) In order for shame to be revealed, we have to accumulate all these tiny actions they write about?
R. Well of course, we have to reach a state where I cannot act in any way towards the friends, I feel how much I must do it, but I am incapable of doing it. And accordingly, I have shame.
42. S. (01:39:30) What is a spiritual action in the ten?
R. When each one annuls himself to the friends. You're asking as if you’ve haven't heard the articles of Rabash.