Morning Lesson July 4, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 28, 1987. What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work?
Reading Article. “It is written, “You shall not add to the word..”
1. R. (38:10) What is the impression? How do you feel in general, are you recovering? Well?
2. S. (38:40) It was really long, maybe we can read it again?
R. The whole article? Yes, sure no problem.
S. It's hard to grasp it all at once.
R. Correct, correct.
S. There are states where we read only one except from this article and we talk about it the whole lesson. It exhausted me a little bit.
R. This is true. Usually in the group we read an article and then read it in the lesson and then after twice, that's the minimum a person needs to read. So he gets something out of it, he has some impression that remains.
3. S. (39:48) He says that in turning to the Creator you have to ask for something great, not like the example of the guy who is in prison and asking only for bread or the guy who was mortally ill but is asking about a small sore. Meaning, we should ask about spirituality about everything. But a person has no taste for spirituality. I can ask about something that I have some sense, some grasp, bring me that, but if it is something I have never tasted, I have only read about it, I know about it from the scriptures or from a text, rather how can I ask so that my request will have meaning?
R. We still need to ask, even though the request you're not sure it’s correct and you are not sure that you are turning to the Creator with it, and it's just a request an outcry like a child screams, that part of his screams are just to make an impression, to get attention but we still need to do.
S. But it's not a request from the bottom of the heart?
R. Correct, but that's the way it goes; from Lo Lishma to Lishma it is still worth it. It's not like you cut off your plea to the Creator altogether and say until I really want, and until I really pray and cry from the bottom of the heart, where is the bottom of my heart and then I will turn to the Creator, no. It's just like in life you start from small things, spoiled things, and that's how we advance. We are in the creation, meaning all our actions, discernments, all our feelings, we have to build them, prepare them, arrange them, although the Creator is doing it, we have to be ready for it. This is why we shouldn't just wait. We shouldn't be passive.
4. S. (42:33) In gratitude for the article, at least from me it's clear what is the point to which we have to pay attention. It opened up. First of all before the request, we have to reach some wholeness and he explains that really beautifully in two ways. First way and the second way and now it is clear to me why Kabbalists sat for two hours before they came to the level of prayer, they had to first build this gap between the desired state and the present state and then the prayer comes, so it flowed and when we started reading Rabash, it really helps.
R. Nice, okay.
5. S. (43:33) A beautiful article and I love how Oren reads so smoothly, I love that. But It's not clear: how do you come to a state where you say, that's it, I had enough on the right, now I have to awaken the left? And if we add in the right it will become worse?
R. It's in a person's feeling, it's how a person feels it; there is no measurement for this, some sort of a dial or something that gives you a sign. It's when you feel that now an addition can come from the other side, an addition, you don't erase the first part, right then left, left then right, but rather both can already be, can already be advancing in the same direction.
S. He says there are two types of right a person should build; one is gratitude for the right to work and to be in the ten and with friends gratitude for that, and the second one he talks about depicting the state of the end of correction. Are these really two kinds, or do you have to go from one type to the other?
R. This is something a person chooses, some remain on one side some on both this way or that way and there are those who come to the third line, too. This depends on the depth of the point in the heart.
6. S. (46:00) I actually feel that the left line is the path of truth and you want to truly scrutinize each and every moment where you are?
R. Yes.
S. And this is a true path of scrutiny when you feel a need inside, a true desire where you are in each and every moment. On the right line you build the importance, if we return it to the importance of the Creator, and on the left line you build the deficiency, the Kli with which you turn to the Creator, what are you asking for in each and every moment, otherwise what will you ask for?
R. Okay.
7. S. (46:43) Yes, It's truly a question, the left line is truly a deficiency that you are lacking and the right, you build everything as if, as if he was rewarded, as if He is Good that does Good. So how to get the importance? I think that is the whole problem, how do you receive importance from seeming….?
R. It comes from above, the importance comes from above.
S. Because there are these two discernments that friends talked about, one is that there is another discernment, also a question where he is proud, he feels pride that the others did not merit and he did merit, that billions did not merit and he did, that this feels a little bit more real?
R. No, it's not in order for him to take pride in this, it's in order for him to appreciate the Creator's relation to him; It is not in the negative direction, it is in a positive direction.
8. S. (47:59) He mentions in the article many times that a person should always praise the Creator and then pray, how does a person praise the Creator?
R. I perhaps don't know, but it’s certain that we have to do this first otherwise to Whom are you praying? In other words, the Creator has to be, it is written that He organizes all of creation, His forces spread over everything and There Is None Else Besides Him, etc., etc., and then you have someone to pray to. That it’s certain that He can correct in you whatever is needed and then you will come to be a man.
S. He also says when a person is in exile, he prays to the Creator to take him out of exile and then the Creator takes them out?
R. Yes.
S. And we know that there are many conditions for the prayer; there is preparation for the prayer, there is connection in the ten, the praise of the Creator we should arrange. Is there an immediate response to the prayer without conditions, a person turns and then he receives or it’s always going to be like, wait a second, there's many conditions?
R. There are all kinds, there are all kinds. It depends for what deficiency a person is praying for now. If the deficiency is deep and personally he doesn't need many preparations, he turns from the point of pain.
S. Meaning to ask for the vessels of bestowal that we want to come to it. What is that? Does it require us to fill all the conditions?
R. No, that does not require meeting all the conditions, you just have to feel how much you have to have the correction, and that is it.
9. S. (50:07) Towards the end of the article, he says that the two lines have to be balanced so one will not be greater than the other and then the third writing will come and decide between them and the question is: If the person managed to equate left and the right, that they would be truly equal, he attained what is needed. So why do we still need the third writing to come and to decide?
R. But they have to be balanced, just like with weights or with an instrument that you weigh, that the two scales are balanced or not; so you need a third line that equalizes, that compares them and corrects them and brings them to the middle line, to equality even though they are opposite.
S. He says that the condition for the prayer, in order for the prayer to be accepted, the two lines, the two legs have to be straight, that’s the condition for the prayer. Without it before the left and right are straight, the prayer cannot be received and cannot be accepted. So I'm asking, what is the role of the third writing, that he says that then he has to come?
R. You have to attain it, the third writing in which these two lines connect into one goal, one direction, one essence. In them you come to touch, to adhesion with the Creator.
S. So the third writing is the thing that balances the lines?
R. Yes.
10. S. (52:12) ‘Thou shall not add or take away’ the first thing I felt is that it places me on a certain path in order to not leave this way or that. Then he speaks on the one hand about wholeness, and then about reason, and in one of the examples he kind of continues the process that I have to come here every morning, there are certain days that I'm here and some days I struggle with it. And I said to myself throughout the reading, if the Rav told you, come, I wouldn't have argued with it, you just come, so what is that? So I said, Rav is connected for me in some places to where I wish to reach, my goal, and the same thing is within reason, gradually we have to get into those points that will connect us to our destination, our goal, and that is my understanding of the left line.
R. Okay, we can go according to this, for the time being.
11. S. (53:36) The work of the right I can understand, I grow the importance of Creator and praise Him, and also the left I can understand, but what is the work of the middle line?
R. This the Creator gives from above. He gives you wholeness, the connection between the two lines.
S. You have to invite Him?
R. As a result of what we’re saying, we will get the middle line, we will be rewarded with it.
12. S. (54:08) I don't know about this article today, I thought it was clear, often times I'm not able to find myself in Rabash's article and here he describes a process, what a person should do in order to eventually come to this middle line. When we read it, it reminded me of the order of the ‘Agenda of the Assembly’ that Rabash teaches us, where we first have to raise the importance of the goal and bring praise and gratitude and then make a calculation where we are.
R. Yes, there too, we somehow come to a balance.
S. Does this article talk about the person and his individual work, or is there such a thing, or our work in the ten?
R. It is the work of each and everyone, for sure. And besides, we also have the work of each and everyone together with everyone, when we put together the complete system.
S. I have a feeling that the part of the right side would be more powerful in the group because by myself I imagine things…?
R. It should all happen in the group: the right, the left and the middle.
13. S. (55:55) These two lines seemingly birth one another, is it true that each line is like a Yesod, like a foundation for the next line? The left line we walk only based on the right line without disconnecting from it, we lean on the right line and also the left line has to lift the right line by leaning on the left, how exactly?
R. Exactly so.
14. S. (56:54) First of all, I have to say that the preparation that we read the day before we come here, it helps very much and there is a great impression from the process that Rabash is taking us through. It's felt very strongly the process on the right and the process on the left, and how essential they are, and if there's too much of the right or too much of the left, it is a true malfunction on the path, It can really bring you down. And you see states like that, where some friends go too much in one direction and it creates confusion. The question is about this craftsmanship, the art of working in the two lines?
R. The art or the craftsmanship is in patience, in patience. In states when a person can restrain himself, suffer a little bit, tolerate it, wait a little bit, by this he gains spirituality. That is it.
15. S. (58:20) It says that the two lines have to be equal, but sometimes Baal HaSulam writes spend half an hour in the left line and twenty-three and a half hours on the right. Where is the equality?
R. Yes, this is a place to do a workshop. So please, go ahead, check it.
Question for a workshop: Check how do we balance the two lines?
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