Morning Lesson February 6, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2
Faith Above Reason - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #73
1. R. (00:11) Yes, this is a very important document as you know. You have gone over it, spoken about it. Faith above reason it is the matter that is very important, very due. He stands before us to raise us to a different level of perception of reality, connection with the Creator, understanding, sensation in the spiritual reality. All this is called reception of reality in faith above reason. Meaning in appreciation of the value of Bina more, the value of the quality of bestowal more than the value of receiving knowledge, Daat, reason. If we relate such to reality then we reach a state where truly, gradually we will change. We will invite the light that reforms which is the light of Bina, and it will influence us, bestow to us more and more and our will to receive which is Malchut our entire nature, it will begin to be impressed more and more from the sensation of Bina, from the sensation of the force of bestowal. From appreciation of bestowal more than the appreciation of reception, to such an extent we will begin to see changes in us, unnatural changes above the nature of our will to receive and along the way there will be all sorts of changes such that it doesn't appear to us that it is normal, that it belongs to this world or in general that it cannot be that we will exist that way. But we need to go through these stages until it will be determined in such a manner that we have two levels, the level of the will to receive in which we think, feel, debate, judge or measure ourselves in the corporeal will to receive.
Just like we speak, let us say with our children or with strangers, only in the will to receive. Like it is written “the judge has not but what his eyes see,” all according to our will to receive. But on a different level of perception of reality that we want to be in, in connection between us in the group in the desire to bestow, as much as more and more we’ll connect ourselves to the desire to bestow and live in it, relate to the friends and to the Creator through this desire to bestow, we’ll describe to ourselves more and more in our efforts and thus we'll begin to build the conditions according to our efforts to be in the desire to bestow. The Creator will arrange for us an ascent to desire to bestow to the level of Bina above the level of the Malchut and thus we will begin to feel sometimes, infrequently, and then more and more both in intensity and frequency, that yes, we can belong to the level of bestowal, the level of faith. We rise above ourselves and that is actually our work in faith above reason, as much as we can rise above our nature. Please.
Excerpt # 73 twice (04:56 - 07:27)
2. S. (07:35) When we try to go above reason, so also our reason grows. So, it is as if through this we are also managing our reason, so what is the need to descend into the reason in order to ascend?
R. We do not really need to descend into within reason but everything the Creator arranges for us a new reason we have to try and go above it. Meaning over every will to receive that is revealed in me, of course we are talking only about what pertains to spirituality not to this world, to corporeality, to family, to our job no. On top of all the states that are revealed to me in the group, in the study and dissemination, in such things I have to overcome them with the power of the bestowal on top of the power of reception with faith above reason, that is it.
3. S. (09:05) This whole process of feeling the spiritual world, it seems like a precondition to attain the true prayer that rises from a shattered heart. So how can we come closer to it, now, when we do not have this degree, how can we reach the real prayer in the ten?
R. Only through the friends I turn to the Creator you can ask Him, ask for him to receive a connection with the society which is already called the degree of Bina to some extent; and then by this you will begin to feel the power of bestowal, the power Bina, the power of faith. This is how we discover it in practice.
4. S. (10:04) In the work in the ten I have two disturbances: ‘one is the judge has only what his eyes see’, and the other one is ‘they have eyes and see not’. When do I use the first one and when do I use the second?
R. “They have eyes and do not see.” This concerns the will to receive which cannot see truth and therefore in our spiritual steps we have to constantly to go with faith above reason; otherwise, we are not carrying out any spiritual act. If we are in the spiritual realm meaning the connection between us the friends and the connection between us and the Creator, and this is what we were given an opportunity to be in it, but we are not using the right vessels, that is the area where we should work with faith above reason, meaning in bestowal, very simple in bestowal.
S. When do I use ‘a judge only has what his eyes see’?
R. “A judge has only what his eyes see.” I use it either when I am in this world and all kinds of dealings in this world, or when I am in the spiritual world, and I am at the level of the spiritual world and I relate to it there, meaning either one. If I am a judge, if I can scrutinize my reason then this is how I relate to it, corporeality, and spirituality. But in corporeality with corporeal vessels and in spirituality with spiritual vessels. But do not be confused between the two worlds. In each world, related to it with its own vessels.
5. S. (12:40) It is not clear where a person can criticize his own state if spirituality is important to him so what can he check if he has importance? It says you have to criticize spirituality from the importance you have. But if you have importance, what can you scrutinize?
R. If you have importance for spirituality, with this importance you can criticize
you can criticize, you can monitor your spirituality and even measure it.
S. But there is no deficiency to check it?
R. First get there, you ask about things you do not have.
S. What if a person is an inspiration?
R. Inspiration does not mean you attain spirituality, it is only an inspiration. It is like a child is inspired by something, excited by something.
S. Let us say I do not have it and I am fighting to attain connection so that I am criticizing my work what am I not doing right; and when I get the forces from the group, I do not have this criticism, it is lost, I do not criticize anything. I have the forces to be in the group and I am just searching above and above. Where is the criticism when you do this?
R. Criticize your own work with the friends, you have it in your hands, what is the problem?
S. I do not understand where from the importance a person has that is where he criticizes from?
R. I do not understand what you were asking. You have a relation toward the friends, check your relation to them, to what extent you are with them heart and soul, to what extent you what extent to push them forward to the Creator, to extent you are in this. Go ahead, measure it even, to what extent you had it yesterday and today and how much you want to have it tomorrow. This you have in your hand, your relations, your relationship with the friends.
S. That I am doing that you get forces in the group; a person can do this checking.
R. Very well, so what are you asking?
6. S. (15:18) It seems to me in the ten I am always trying to measure myself; you know measure if I am advancing with ten. So what I am asking is, am I always in the left line, in what is called the left line?
R. The right and left line we can measure them only according to the goal where I am, as opposed to the goal that I want to achieve, and to what extent I am connected with the group along the way. If the point which is me and the group, and the goal are all on the same line then in this, I am going in the middle line, and this is what we should constantly be.
7. S. (16:25) He writes that “then comes a time that he has to go in the left line”. So he does it from choice?
R. He does it out of his own choice because he realized the right line, he connected with the ten and by this he connected as much as he could with the Creator; and by this he realized the right line. And now he wants to correct himself from also in his vessels of reception and this is why he shifts to the left line. We still do not know how to do this practically, but we will learn it. We will be playing from the right and from the left and then we will be implementing ourselves realizing ourselves in the middle line.
S. Afterwards he also writes that “he feels that he has nothing but that the importance for spirituality is still above reason,” so it is like a divided state. What is the state that he feels both?
R. Yes, which is he still has not obtained within his reason the importance of spirituality that is above reason.
S. You have to attain the importance of spirituality within reason?
R. That's too, of course. After he completes action on the current level, this is how he has to feel, that he attained the importance of spirituality within reason too and that is what spreads and feels him up.
8. S. (18:23) When we want the quality of bestowal during the prayer should we cancel all of our desires? What kind of prayer should we raise?
R. Only in order to be connected from us to the Creator which is basically the final form of our correction. This is what we need to ask that the Creator will arrange for us, connection between us and with the Creator. This form is correct, correct in every single state of our spiritual ascent, which is the way it is.
9. S. (19:34) How to hold in the prayer those two contradicting ends: in reason and above reason?
R. When we want to raise above reason from within to reason, and to have in this a higher reason every time so that the reason we rise to above reason, afterwards we become within reason and we rise higher still above reason, this too will become within reason afterwards. And that is why every time we will get wiser precisely by wanting to rise above reason.
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10. S. (20:28) What is the term that a person will always praise the Creator’? Should I always establish the praise of the Creator?
R. The Creator needs to constantly be above all your corporeal values.
S. So, I need to justify Him in every deed He does to me in this world?
R. Of course, not only in this world but in general. The Creator is None Else Besides Him; He is above everything and the origin of everything. And if you have not discovered that He Is Good and Does Good, it is because you are a living in your own vessels and you have to pray to Him, and He will correct your vessels and you will see that He's Good that Does Good.
S. And when you reach a point that you justify him?
R. Then you will justify Him.
S. When and how?
R. When He shows you that He Is Good and Does Good in all your vessels.
S. But that is the quality of bestowal, you do not have it before.
R. Okay, correct He should give you the vessels of bestowal.
S. So, what do I do in the meantime? If I do not justify Him, I slander?
R. Correct and then you ask of Him to give you the right perspective.
S. Through working in the ten?
R. Through everything, what is that got to do with it? Why are you limiting yourself to the ten?
S. How can I do it alone?
R. I am not saying you should not, also through the ten but do not limit yourself. You want to see the Creator as the Good and Doing Good to everyone covering everything and this is how you want to accept Him, period. Anyone who adds subtracts, do not add to it – through the ten, not through the ten.
S. So our work is to reach a state, a point where I really justify Him 100% in my feeling?
R. Yes.
11. S. (22:34) It is written that “he can give a true prayer from the bottom of his heart on what he's lacking”, so is that a private deficiency? How to add it to the common deficiency?
R. A good question. Be incorporated in the collective and see that the deficiency actually belongs to the collective. It depends on the level of the person's incorporation in the collective.
12. S. (23:28) You said not to get confused between the two worlds. How not to get confused between the two worlds in the ten? In the ten, is there a corporeal world? When should we go above reason in the ten, when within reason?
R. What pertains to the group and to the Creator has to be above reason for us. What pertains to our functioning in this world, at work, with the family, with the kids, has to be within reason.
13. S. (24:11) You gave an example about the baby and the porridge. What if the porridge is not tasty for the baby, how can he give contentment to the mother? Because usually we are not happy with what we get from the Creator, what should we do about it?
R. This is already on the condition if a person wants to be a Kabbalist, then he will want to increase the greatness of the Creator, to raise the greatness of the Creator to such a level that even if he receives things that are not good according to his own will to receive, according to his own qualities but because he received it from the Creator, he will feel sweetness in it. Then he will have to do the restriction, the screen and the reflected light, and reception above the screen in the forces of bestowal, in the intentions of bestowal.
14. S. (25:10) You said to check my attitude towards the friends as much as I am in heart and soul with them and wanting to come close to the Creator with them. What if I discover I have no desire, I do not have a desire for that desire? I am doing everything I can but this desire for spirituality is not renewing itself, what is your advice?
R. Keep going and immerse yourself as much as possible in the friends and in the study – in the lessons. The lessons and the connection with the friends are really the only means that can bring us to spirituality. Just exert more, invest more, and if possible, in dissemination, too.
15. S. (26:09) Also in dissemination we have to go above reason? What should our relationships be when we disseminate?
R. These are two different questions: relate to the whole world in a way that you have to see the world that the time came when it deserves to achieve corrections, and we have to help it, assist it to be in corrections. And in corrections means being in a mutual connection among all the people in the world who are approaching one another and coming to the states where the one Creator is revealed in everyone.
16. S. (27:14) When we disseminate, should we go with a reason? Should we have relationships like in a factory?
R. In dissemination we have to go above faith above reason in the scene where we do not look at what the world is, that it is far from corrections, but that we have to show its future. Whether it wants to or not, we are in the last generation and people have to know where they should advance.
17. S. (28:00) Why don't we feel the good and pleasure that the Creator has prepared for us? How do we acquire this force of bestowal?
R. We do not feel that the Creator is bestowing upon us and wants our best and loves us because it will confuse us. It will make it difficult for us to reach the Creator in equivalence of form, in order to bestow, it will make it even more difficult. So, what the Creator did is in order for us to reach Him in equivalence of form, to be equal to Him, it is to the extent that we equalize ourselves to Him. He created in us a will to receive that is opposite from Him and through the will to receive, we can connect to Him in order to bestow. And then we will have two forms: the natural form where we are opposite from the Creator, and every time we rise to spirituality more and more, we will feel how opposite we are from the Creator; and the other one is that we are close to the Creator, similar to Him. Those two forms have to be in us and in this way, where there is the middle line between them, we become adhered to the Creator with our heart and soul and then the created being really does reach the level of the Creator.
18. S. (29:49) If you feel a bit of wearing out in a certain dissemination, should you just keep going in the same way or maybe should we change the way we disseminate, a different style?
R. Perhaps you need to change, perhaps you need to change something every time, try to change and then maybe go back to it or not. But one thing is clear: we must not stop disseminating. Consult with people who understand it, with the source here in Bnei Baruch – the people who are responsible, in charge of dissemination. What we call the Heads of the Languages, Heads of Dissemination, but speak to them and ask for advice. But certainly, without disseminating we will not advance, we will not be promoted. We can advance only on condition that we become guides, guides both men and women. If we do not make this of ourselves then what is the benefit from us? The Creator wants to make of us His representatives, and if we do not do it, then we will not advance. Why does He need some person to be, to know something, to understand something? That person will not ascend, either. Baal HaSulam also writes that everything he was rewarded with is only because he wanted to disseminate the wisdom of Kabbalah to the masses. We see it in all the great Kabbalists throughout history that they advanced only because they advertised, publicized the writings of Kabbalah in the masses.
19. S. (32:22) There is a bit of a confusion between faith above reason in all kinds of actions, a few things. Like the first point, friends say, Maaser. It is a corporeal action; it is supposedly corporeal, but it is spiritual so is it above reason?
R. Maaser, tithing, is not a corporeal action.
S. Can we say above reason about it?
R. Yes because I do not see any benefit that I am giving money. In my world it is an act that is egoistic; on the other hand, it is something very clear that if I give by this I am participating in dissemination. And disseminating the wisdom of Kabbalah in the world promotes the whole world toward the end of correction, so it will advance us as well, and specifically me. And the interesting thing is that with all the things we do, they can be only on condition that we connect to the ten. Maaser, tithing, acts even if I am not in a ten, and I am not connecting to them and not coming closer to them. But when I pay my tithing, it is a personal approach to a person. We do not say, “let's pay Maaser in the ten,” and then the whole ten gives that Maaser up to other tens all the way to the top of the pyramid, no. Any person by himself he pays it, why? Because Maaser corresponds to Malchut so it is a person's personal act when he wants to give the part of Malchut that he cannot correct, on one hand; but on the other hand, from that part begins the whole corrections of his Ten Sefirot and therefore, all of our spiritual connection begins with the Maaser.
S. So even though it is supposedly an external action, that I am actually doing with my body, it is still called above reason?
R. It is above reason because you cannot want to do it, and the more you work in spirituality and advance in spirituality, it still remains difficult for you, a difficult thing to do.
S. Another point that the Women were also asking: What does it mean to go above reason during dissemination? For people that disseminate together, what does it mean between them to go above reason? Should there also be above reason there or is it a matter of work relationships and then you do not go about reason? Or maybe you do?
R. No, I never spoke about this, that you have to go in this way. Disseminators are usually individualists; they usually disseminate each in his own area, to his own group, at his own level etc., so there is nothing there that connects them unless they are preparing themselves in such a way. But there is nothing there that is above reason, they have to prepare themselves, they bring the knowledge of the purpose of creation, the purpose of the correction to all of humanity which is within reason.
S. So how does it become an action that helps spiritual advancement?
R. When we approach the masses, and these masses awaken, by this we correct the common vessel and elevate ourselves as well.
S. Another aspect: above reason in the ten obvious, it is in our relationships and connection where the Creator has to be revealed. But the women also asked, is it a level or a layer of organizations where you do not have to go above reason there within the ten.
R. I did not understand.
S. If now we want to discuss organizational things in the ten: what time we meet, how much to meet, if friends are late, all kinds of phenomena?
R. About the ten itself?
S. In the ten? Should we also go above reason there or is there a layer in the ten where you do not go above reason?
R. No, no you do not need to go above reason, which has to do with organization, getting organized. Above reason only has to do with the spiritual ascent.
S. So, when exactly you do not go above reason? When no and when yes?
R. Give me an example. Where do you relate above reason in corporeal matters? It is only in our inner connection.
S. A friend in the ten talks long in the workshop. Should I take it above reason that everything he says is God's words and listen and listen, or should I tell him, “No, there is an order, we have decided we're going to speak briefly??
R. If we agree on something, then you have to say it because we agreed then he is disrupting everyone.
S. So here there is no above reason?
R. No, it has to do with the order when we determined, we decided in the group.
S. So, is there a rule we can be more precise?
R. The rule is that we in the connection between us want to direct ourselves to the Creator, and from the correction between us, to acquire the same form, same essence as the Creator.
S. That is above reason, where is it not above reason in the ten?
R. In all the regular orders, arrangements in the ten, take some usher from the outside to make the arrangements for you, no problem. Well, it is not quite like that but.
S. Many friends say I have corporeal issues, I have to go above reason and connect even more in the ten and then all my problems will be solved?
R. That too is correct. We need to continue; this is impossible to discuss everything in general. It causes confusion.
Excerpt #74 twice (40:31 - 42:58)
20. R. (43:02) Yes. When help comes from the Creator and then they can fill themselves precisely in the empty places to the extent that they can recognize the greatness of the Creator in them.
Excerpt #75 (43:27)
21. S. (45:31) How can we define fear if we do not have complete exaltedness of the Creator?
R. Keep going until it is complete. Nothing else to say. More and more and more every time until you know how to ask correctly and what to ask for.
22. S. (46:04) The excerpt talks about a person receiving lights that pertain to the root of his soul. We work in the ten so do each of us receive personally? How does it work?
R. Each one receives from his own will to receive from the internality of the heart, otherwise he cannot ask. The rest of the request will not be to the point, will not be his own. That is why we need to locate as much as we can in a heartfelt way to connect to each other, and from that point where I connect to the others also to connect to the Creator and ask for correction. Meaning in my connecting to the friends I locate that point of connection or lack of connection, and then from that point I turn to the Creator and ask for help about that connection, to realize it. So I have the group on one hand, the Creator on the other and I am in the middle. I receive deficiencies from the group and corrections from the Creator.