Morning Lesson July 4, 2021. Transcription
Kabbalists Meal - Selected Excerpts from the Sources
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we would like to talk a little bit today about a very special action that Kabbalists determined to have a meal where we sit together, well and as much as we are allowed to keep these conditions and sit together physically. Along with that to connect emotionally in our desires for us to sit together. This sitting about it symbolizes in our world when people get together, they eat, because eating symbolizes for us receiving the abundance from the Creator to the created beings. The Creator is feeding us, and this is why when a few people gather who are close in their opinions, in their inclinations and they realize that in their connection between them in their internal connection in their heart gradually, they reach such arrangements when from the many broken desires, they become a single desire. The difference, the gap, we get that exists between the desires specifically becomes the glue between the broken parts of the desire that was broken to begin with by the Creator. They operate and they work against this shattering, then the meal becomes an act of correction, it says that we connect broken parts that are far away from each other and through the meal we would like them to unite, to come together with all of our desires connected. This is why by eating something in a symbolic way between us we seemingly wish to fill our common desires which are still divided into all kinds of desires but by us having a meal meaning by us feeding from a single source, from the Creator we want this desire to unite.
Then we can reach the corrected state as one man with one heart and to the extent we discover a single Creator. This is how we reach the purpose of creation since the Creator broke our vessel and we felt how far from each other we are. We made efforts over thousands of years through many incarnations, many lives, how can we unite? Eventually, we reach a point where we do unite together and the meal symbolizes for us, we are sitting together, we are in a single desire, with one fulfilment which we get from the single Creator. We are all one and therefore Israel, the light and the Creator are one. the connection of the whole of creation together is realized, discovered in the mail symbolizing this connection. This is why the end of correction is also depicted for us as a great meal with the whale where all the righteous are sitting and eating the whale. The whale means the great will to receive the Creator created inside the sea, the sea, the ocean which is the light of Hassadim(mercy). In this sea there is this great fish or the whale which symbolizes for us the desire to receive and then the righteous are eating the whale which means that they know how to use the entire desire to receive the Creator created how to receive in order to bestow. Today this evening, to Israeli time, it will be 6:30 PM. We want to have such a meal. It is a symbolic ritual. We are not having a feast like kings or wealthy people because we have no interest in that. We have to and he wants to focus on the essence of the meal.
This is why Kabbalists established it to begin with, what is the meal. It can be in different styles in different regions around the world because of the wisdom of Kabbalah, after the ruin of the temple and they left Israel 2000 years ago, some part went to Europe another part went to Asia. The Kabbalists who lived in Europe, they developed this thing in a way that it was suitable for them there and this is why we are having a meal according to what they determined in Europe. In the countries of Russia and Poland there were mostly Kabbalists there who lived in the last few hundred years during the 16th to 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and they determined with whatever they had, because they lived in great simplicity, great restrictions, and poverty, so that there was no need for more to have a meal. This is why they drink something to say L’chaim, it was a little bit different from one place to the other. They drink vodka or whatever they had in the region whatever the Kabbalists could get as it was customary in the Europe where they lived and as for eating there wasn't much. They determine that it is a slice of bread with a little bit of oil and onion, these things are usually possible to obtain. This is how they prepared these things. We also would like to prepare an hour-long meal for the symbol of those meals at the Kabbalists established. Therefore, today in the evening at 6:30 p.m. Israeli time, we will be sitting down in all the different places all over the world anybody who wants to join us. We prepare in advance a small plate of chopped onion with a little bit of olive oil on top of it and if you want you can add on top of it some black pepper and a slice of bread or two slices as much as you want and besides that a small glass of alcohol is vodka whiskey doesn't matter what. You can also do this without alcohol. Also, you can have a glass of beer, anybody who likes it, so some sort of an alcoholic beverage and as we talked about with the chopped onion, with olive oil and bread and this is the meal.
The most important of course is that by performing such actions together we want to connect. We want that all of our yearning and inclinations and thoughts will all be connected into a single state. It is not that we are sitting and eating, it is not a restaurant instead by this really, we want to symbolize that we are all connecting to a single desire, and we received from the upper force, from the Creator single fulfillment and he is a fulfilling was all together and he is performing in us our correction so we can completely entirely become a single heart, a single desire. This is actually a meal for Kabbalists so hope that we can feel this, and we will come closer to this in practice. These are very important things, Kabbalists used to do this by themselves many times, there is no special time for it instead of when there is an opportunity between them. When there was the ability to express such an attitude between them and to the Creator, they would have a meal something simple you can organize it everywhere at any time. I am very excited about this because we used to do this with Rabash and for me this was very exciting. It really impressed me. I felt that by this action, which is basically a very simple action, we reach a state where we truly want to connect our hearts to a single desire, a single feeling, and a single Creator. by this simple action, are connecting to the Creator and he is connecting to us. Let's hope that by this, this is about what we will do.
Therefore, the meal is not with that slice of bread and the onion and the olive oil and the cup of beer or whiskey or whatever we drink. Instead, it is about connecting from our side, so we connect together as one and with the Creator as one and this actually is like the meal of the end of correction when the righteous sit with their crowns on their heads. Meaning with the intention to connect everything together with the Creator, this is the meal of the whale, and this is the desire to receive the Creator created at the beginning of creation. This is the whale which they eat, the righteous eat, meaning they use the desire to receive in order to give to the Creator with all of their abilities and with everything and the Creator is expecting from them. Let's hope that one starts to feel this, and it will connect us even more and we are together in very advanced stages in very advanced stages towards the correction and our degrees are very important. It is like with children who grow up so later on they grow up and implemented in practice but mostly later on, they implement what they received in the days of their childhood, in their infancy and in their youth so even though we haven't yet reached the goa; probably and we do not feel our connection, in practice and the reception of the fulfillment of the Creator to actually reach as in practice and fulfill us.
However this preparation that we are doing is building vessels in us and later on when we discover what we are receiving from the Creator we will have less of an opportunity to manifest our own deficiency to later on write about the Sages who craved to go back to those states of infancy, smallness in order to, nevertheless, if it was possible to complete their deficiency, the information, their craving, their own participation and this is why we need to appreciate, to value our states at the moment. Specifically, now, when we are transitioning from the state of having no awareness in spirituality, especially from this state of being unconscious we can develop ourselves more and more and express ourselves how much even though it is not revealed to us from the Creator. However, we do want to open ourselves up even more in our hearts in a common heart to the Creator so to fill our heart with whatever the Creator is giving us, this is the essence of the meal.
2. S. (17:11) The intention to connect is something we do with all our meetings, gathering of friends, a lesson, so what is the special flavor of the meal, why do we need to eat, what is unique here?
R. It does not matter what we eat, it does not matter. The bread is like the first of the foods in all different cultures, nations, it doesn't matter in what form it can be a pita bread or a bun or loaf or other forms, but it is made of flour as it says, ‘if there is no flour there is no Torah’. That this is man's primary food. We can leave without many kinds of food but without bread the person truly cannot leave for a long time. Our body is built in such a way that the essence of the meal is bread and as much as I visited Kabbalists with Rabash that meal was always with bread. They might give you bread and a cup of tea and a small cup of some alcohol and that was the meal. Because besides the bread all the rest is just extra. This is how we do it, a symbolic meal, then one just prepares a small slice of bread and the salt and pepper, and this is it or if he does not have any more, he cannot do more than that this is enough.
S. What is unique about the intention during the meal? Which separates it from other gatherings and lessons because in every activity think about connection?
R. Our desires are divided into food, sex, family, money, honor, and knowledge. This is why our basic desire is food. Therefore, we want to connect through our basic desire and through a basic action which is food. This is why the meal that we want to have is the most natural action that is connecting people and we see this from the early days of the world, until now that it is still happening. Therefore, we always honor people who come to us as we give them something, some refreshment and we ourselves when we want to have some feast, something good, we throw a meal which comes to us from nature. This is why they also do it in the style of the Kabbalists where here the most important is the intention. What does this meal symbolize.? It symbolizes our connection between us and that we want to express our intention to each other during this meal. How long is it going to be, it will be one half hour? Maybe half an hour and something else but Vlad is also organizing so he knows.
S. It is one hour?
R. The meal will be one hour. We have enough time. I do not know what exactly they are planning but we follow the plan. This is how I like it, that the students themselves get organized and they choose all the different texts from different texts and the recommendation of the Kabbalists how to keep them and this is how we study according to the sources.
3. S. (22:25) There are moments of silence during the meal serving the thought, what is the Kabbalist, what is the meaning of the silence? Does it have a particular meaning what we should do during the silence?
R. Yes, there were such meals with Rabash when we would sit together and there are plenty of food and drink and 70 or 80 people sitting around the tables, one big table and then suddenly he would say let us think and then he would sit like this with eyes closed not moving and we would follow his example. There it could have been for an hour, it didn't happen many times, maybe two or three times during my history with him when I was next to him. However this is how he behaved and also at the time when we would eat together with him, just me and him just the two of us, he would not tell me anything but he will just keep silent and go deep in the middle of the meal when we were eating together, me and him, and then he will also become silent and would go into his thoughts, deep inside, not moving at all, getting deeper and deeper into the internal scrutiny. Where is he right now? In unity with the Creator, this happened. We will not get into these things right now; it is still premature for us but later on we will feel the need for this but right now we have no urge for this year.
S. When we are in silence and we eat, we have a special taste of the food, does it have a meaning, what to do with this taste of the feeling when we are eating silently?
R. I do not know what kind of flavors you can get from a slice of bread with onion and a little bit of olive oil on top of it. I do not quite see flavors in it but there, instead, what it is about is that we take it as a food for our soul that they are eating a primary food in such a way that we can function so that beside these simple flavors we have, all of our intentions, all of our thoughts are awakening and uniting in the Creator from us together and to the Creator. This is actually the intention of the meal very soon we will read from the excerpt.
4. S. (26:57) What to expect from the meal today?
R. I do not know, it depends on you if you think that I make the meal. No, the friends are preparing the meal and the wish to connect into a single heart and then with the heart intention to open it to the Creator to bring it closer to the Creator, this is the meal when each one together with the others is fulfilling the Creator, the Creator in return fulfills us.
5. S. (27:53) When we were in the physical world then a song or a melody had a very special value, we could hear each other and incorporate into singing together. How do you see the value of a melody or singing in the virtual world?
R. The fact that we are in a virtual connection is very beneficial for us because each one understands the true form of this connection that we have towards the other and on the one hand is giving him more freedom on the other hand we get more of a place for internal craving towards internet connection. I think this state where we seemingly, due to the virus the Corona has brought to us is the correct state. I value these things instead of us running to a single place and we cannot even do this just look where we are coming from, Hungary, Belarus, Spain, Florida, how could we put together, all into one place? This is how we should be in one place? We will be in one place, we have a single place in this virtual world, and we also have a special place for all of us together in a higher world, in the spiritual world so let us start getting used to this, that we are living inside the desire, not living in some places, some physical room and in that single desire we can connect with a single intention towards the Creator. This is how we turn this place into the vessel of our soul with the Creator that comes to our meal.
S. What do we focus on when we sing together in virtual space?
R. Being together uniting with the Creator but we will also read about it from the excerpts.
6. S. (30:19) When we get together with our families for a meal, it is a special time. It feels to us that there is more connection with the family. Is there a stronger connection we can feel during the meal than other times and if it is so what causes this stronger connection?
R. During the meals that we used to have with Rabash, it was forbidden for us to bring anybody from our families, somebody who does not belong to our society to the group or to the 10, and only men would participate. Women had their own meal, and they can also do that but in our meal, we intend that the men are sitting connecting between us. This is how we are going to behave and also, I am not against the women, that they have to be outside of the screen modestly.
S. I was referring to the connection we have during the meal that it is stronger. I know that we just have men there but is the meal itself at a time when we can connect the stronger somehow more strongly and if so, then why is that?
R. I already talked about it, and we are going to read about it in the excerpts that the whole matter of the food, the meal is about connection because meal means that we have prepared a desire to receive the upper light from the Creator with the intention to give back to Him. A meal means that the Creator is giving to us, and we are receiving it with the intention to give back to Him, so the meal is actually the application, the summary of all of our connections all of our corrections. The true meal is the meal of the end of correction with a vessel that is ready for the right intention or connected together and that makes a coupling with the Creator, the upper light and then we reach there that the Lord will be King over the whole Earth on that day the lord will be one, the Lord is the vessel, and the light will be one when the light of infinity fulfills the vessel. This is the true full meal in it's a complete form in its realization, this is the end of correction.
There are no more questions, so they start reading. Some of them will also be repeated in the evening and also, they will prepare for us a few melodies, this is how we really have the meal with melodies. This is not a ritual, but this is a time for connecting our intentions, desires, and our passions between us and with the Creator therefore this state is a very important one we do not use it all the time but only once in a while once in a month or events in a few months. This should truly be something that is very special, should be felt as something special because here we are actually realizing our passions and desires are in the most yearnings. Let's read and understand more.
Excerpt 1 (35:00) twice
7. S. (37:00) This means that we have to realize that the Creator is already existing seemingly at the end of the meal and the whole process we go through this for Him as a preparation for that meal, for that place where we will prepare all our desires in the correct form and we will be able to receive from the Creator of the upper light in order to bestow in our vessels with the intention to bestow and it will be the fulfillment of the light of Ein Sof, in the vessel of infinity, and this will be the meal of the end of correction.
8. S. (37:44) We see that the host makes great preparations for the whole creation in preparation for the feast?
R. The end result is in the initial thought, the end result is immediately clear to him, but he wants in order to bring all the components to the Creator, to this end result that from the end result he has to make the preparation. Therefore the end result is in the initial thought and then it started to develop from the end result from infinity starts to develop the whole measure of the light and the vessel and all the different degrees and the examinations down to our world into our state and here we start to feel ourselves at the beginning of existence at the beginning of the way and then we start to realize that we have to climb in order to prepare the vessel for that and final meal.
S. What preparation do we have to do in order to arrive at the meal with the right Kli?
R. To connect ourselves into a single vessel because the vessel was broken deliberately so it is broken so when we are ready for the vessel with a single desire, a single intention all together in order to receive a single, complete upper light so nobody would be lacking. Because there is no such thing in spirituality of wholeness that something is missing. Even if one gram is missing one tiny soul, one tiny vessel doesn't connect to the other. There is no meal, yet the vessel is not complete, and that light cannot be revealed.
S. So practically what do we have to do today in order to be ready for the meal?
R. Now we need as much as possible to connect ourselves into a single vessel in a global organization and also to explain in a simple, clear way to everybody as much as possible to the whole world in all different languages using all possible opportunities. What is the purpose of our development from the point where we do not understand how we develop in direction? This is the reason why we are constantly stumbling into problems hitting a wall and we have no idea what is happening to us, so we have to open up for ourselves our eyes and see what the ultimate goal is, which is connection among everybody, above the ego because. Otherwise, the connection cannot be and to that extent we are also coming closer to the upper force which is accordingly fulfilling us according to how much we connect. This is how we reach He and his name are one, he is the upper light, and his name is our desire, the vessel. It becomes a one will be as one he is one and then we further unite together, this is actually the purpose of the correction. We are correcting ourselves. We are building ourselves as a vessel that is equal and standing opposite to be Creator, this is why this state is called the end of correction and what happens after the end of correction about that we are not talking yet for us. It is like the end of history, but it is not the end of history. It is just the beginning of the next new degree but for us for the time being there in this process.
S. What should we talk about, what should be focused on during the day, so it really comes with a new excitement and a new desire for this connection to happen in the evening?
R. We will have such meals once in a while maybe as it used to be with Rabash and meal once a month which is the first of the month or the head of the month, maybe less, maybe more, maybe once a week on Shabbat. Because we are in such a state that it can be easy for us to do, we do not need to travel or fly or to do anything, we just have to sit at the table where I am used to sit at home opposite to my computer opposite to my camera. I can see the friends each sitting in their own place and then we have the drinking with whiskey or a vodka it does not matter what drink we use and those who do not want to drink alcohol don't have to they can drink beer or another beer either or even glass of wine but a drink and the slice of bread we actually are not doing anything else besides this this is the meal that should be in such a modest form because it's whole essence is able to the intention, about our emotions, what am I doing right now by performing this action in physicality it is a symbol of our spiritual connection.
S. So that is something specific unique because every day we meet twice a day before a meal?
R. Friends and the talk so we should prepare something in terms of a new flavor is some new action, so we come prepared.
S. Perhaps you can read the selected except we will find some more quotes with regards to how the Sages appreciated the meal, how the meal is a symbol of the corrected vessel fulfilled by the upper light that the Creator fulfills the vessel, so this is how we have to appreciate it. I see that usually you don't ask and here you have this inner urge to ask, you like eating so you have this internal urge it will be ok, let others ask as well.
9. S. (45:36) Is it worthwhile to invite our old friends who left the ten before but have good relations with us?
R. This is a calculation for you to make if they truly have a clear inclination to connect with us then invite them but where do you invite them? To open their computer screen in front of them or what do you mean inviting them where to do you invite them, but we are talking about right now is open to the whole world. The whole world could be sitting in front of their computers with some chopped onions and dipping their bread into olive oil with onion and water. Do you invited them for that, you invite them for an action of connection these symbols are not important they are not the main thing so if they want to sit together and connect and try to be somewhat impressed with the connection and try to reach a state where our connection is so unified that it opens up and we discover the Creator in it which is still concealed, closed, we cannot unlock it but if we open up we discover the Creator in our connection so if they long for this to belong to this to be present then please they can come.
10. S. (47:44) In the beginning you said that you have to appreciate this time that is between the lack of consciousness and consciousness, and you said that the sages were really craving, they missed those states of infancy and smallest and the opportunity to complete it. Can you explain this?
R. It is not exactly according to our topic but we also read the writing where we need to collect those writings and they had a craving here and there to desire they had the desire to go back to state they had it before in order as if to complete to correct them it is like to say as you now recall that the behavior you had how you behaved badly to your parents or relatives were other people and today if you had the option to go back with your present mind and emotion you could go back to those states you would behave differently. There are such states and such corrections as well in Kabbalah, in spirituality it is possible otherwise you can never achieve a complete vessel we will talk about this more because it is too early for this at this stage. We still cannot travel through the axis of time -- past present and future -- but soon we will be able to do that.
11. S. (49:42) If there would be a physical meal where we would be sitting together, eating together, there would be a particular atmosphere that in a virtual meal, what is the difference between a meal gathering of friends or a lesson? Okay, we have the bread and oil and drink but besides this what turns this interest, special occasion but it turns this into something special, it is not clear?
R. I's not that we're not together physically but it wakes up in me this kind of deficiency so I have an urge to get to feel the others even the closer and then we sit together physically then this deficiency would be hidden and would not notice it and we would not feel that we have a further and need to get closer to be emotionally connected more. Because we're sitting together physically next to each other at the table we see each other we can drink together, the fact that we are far away from each other, first of all this is done by the pandemic. Because we are in all different continents we are all around the globe it turns out that here there is no deficiency, no mistake because of this pandemic because of the virus but it is to the contrary, this is the revelation of the truth, this is how far we are as the pandemic just put us into physical distancing and it wants us to realized that in this manner and even a lot more than that we have a spiritual, emotional distance from each other.
S. Yes, but theoretically, if you get ready for the morning lesson as well where we have zoom meetings and the gathering of friends virtually, and there is no difference in the form. We are not doing anything special. We are not going to a congress. We're just sitting opposite to the computer screen. What makes this action especially when all the actions are some kind of a flat action beside the preparation?
R. It is not so, because during the meals we always take into account that we are sitting together around a single table, seeing each other and there is a big difference here between doing it through the screen or doing it by physically sitting together. This is one difference, of course, there are more differences, the fact that we cannot sit together for a meal, this is a big difference, it is not like it is in some other activities, it is not studying, it is just something different.
S. So theoretically we're not sitting around one table now?
R. I don't know what you mean about theoretically, we have to reach one heart and that we see each other detached from each other. It is what the Creator arranged for us as such a state, so we truly know this, what kind of connections you need to make. I accept these states with great sensitivity and a gentleness and see it as an opportunity from the Creator. It is highlighted that this is how we have to organize it and how can we go from this state, not to go back to states we had before but how can we come from this state to a correction, to have connection between us. Then I make the calculation, but I miss, and I don't miss sitting with you physically at the single table and raising my glass for a toast or passing food to each other or something like that. This is a connection in our desires we missed the internal connections when we feel internally on a higher level connected there this is what we want so this meal is some kind of it or an incentive or something that works as up to make a new request to demand where can we be internally emotionally, with a single desire intention together. Sitting together means that we unite, that we do not feel that we are separate, different bodies behind the screens and then when we are connected between us then we begin to feel the feast of the whale that the Creator wants to give us, He feeds us.
S. I am not talking about the difference between the virtual and physical meal we have progressed to the virtual round this is the future so in the virtual meal we have them what is the difference between the lessons or the Gathering of Friends when we are opposite to the screen and then meal when we are also opposite to the screen, so it is something special but why is it special?
R. It is right, but still we do not say it in words or make the same scrutinies or we try to get into the lesson in the lessons we are in a different scrutiny we are working our connection with the Creator differently and the meal it is the main thing, that we have between us and the Creator to prepare our vessels so we could be ready to receive from the Creator, during the lesson it is working on our intention and it is more of an individual work it is a more specific work.
12. S. (57:13) Is there a point in the meal to emphasize this connection above time and place?
R. We will see you during the meal we speak, we read some relevant sources and we sing and the most important is that along with all those actions we are going deeper and even deeper into our intentions to connect. When do we achieve such connection between us that we are willing to be in the feast of the whale together with the Creator, where the whale means the great desire to receive the Creator created which He wants to fulfill.
S. Does it make sense to try to achieve this connection between tens and that are mixed so the friends and third of its room with other groups and he still keeps his ten in his intention, but he is together with other friends getting impressions from other friends?
R. I do not think that we need to work on this now and discuss this now it is not about search scrutinies of that sort it is the issue is that each wants to be connected with everybody and the Creator and these tactics these theories are not in the place of the meal it is much deeper and much simpler.
13. S. (59:14) The friends took very seriously the love of friends and unity in the meal and decided to keep it every day since we had the Congress in 2017, what is so magical is that never does it become mundane you don't ever get tired you're always waiting for this meal of the friends of different times and zones. It is so magical how do we use this for our connection?
R. It is something unique and not routine because we need to prepare ourselves correctly if we want it to be a Kabbalist’s meal as we want all of our vessels to be as connected as possible and in order to bestow that we are ready to receive in these vessels from the Creator in order to bestow which is something that we are very far from, but with the symbols of the meal we want to make it happen and play in that. This is why it is a special event.
14. S. (01:00:42) Why do we sing? What is the special influence of the music?
R. It is not a melody, singing is not a melody. When a person sings, it reveals what is hidden in his heart, the depth of his emotions that is what is expressed in a song, in singing. That's why it's customary to sing whether alone or together and without an orchestra, just pure singing. Sometimes we can do this with musical instruments, it is not something that is very fundamental.
15. S. (01:01:55) I remember you said that when we sit together physically, we even incorporate into the smell of the friends, something we are not completely aware of. How did we complete what will pass through us virtually so it will be an even higher quality of connection?
R. We probably have reached such states where we have the opportunity to develop such branches of connection between us that are not through eating from a single physical plate or raising the L’chaim in a way that we are getting physically closer. Now we need to shift all of these actions including the physical impressions of the smell and how we see each other through the eyes, we have to shift all of this to a virtual form. Then from the virtual form to the spiritual form. We have to try to be even more intensely connected then we used to be, this is what I have to try to attain.
16. S. (01:03:30) What is the spiritual meaning of the onion and the olive oil?
R. You can replace the olive oil and the chopped onions. Typically, food like bread is a staple food that exists in most cultures and clearly because it has to do with how the human body is built, that it needs the bread. The oil is also something that we must have as our body needs it to some extent, it is possible that we get it not through olives but something else and onion is just because in those areas where they lived, this vegetable was cheap, and it was preservable that you could eat it the whole year and did not have to prepare it in some special way. This is why they use that. We need to realize that this whole tradition comes to us from Eastern Europe where the Kabbalists lived in the last 500 years.
17. S. (01:05:39) You told us how Rabash during the meal would keep silent and would go deep into the connection with the Creator. How do we do such an exercise, can you explain it?
R. I don't have anything to say, do it on your own and you will see how you can hold your intentions like that, maybe it's not for us yet, we will see.
18. S. (01:06:19) One of the things that gave me a great impression in the meal is that we would hear about dissemination activities that they were doing?
R. I don't think so, I don't know, it basically does not belong to the meal but maybe sometimes in order to awaken the friends, in their intention and there's a certain sensation or recognition of the greatness of the friends, in that perspective it could be worthwhile I don't know we will see over time.
S. When we gathered in the center for a meal, it was very strong and focused. Why is it only virtual this time?
R. No, I wasn't there in that meal as I did not participate so I can't say anything about it. I don't think that today looking at the state of the coronavirus in the world, that we can allow such gatherings in all the places of the world however you look at it. We're not even discussing this now. Each and every one, it is good that he is sitting in front of his computer like now and participating in our gathering. We called this a meal, fine. It is in order to clarify how the connection between us can become more internally. This is what the meal symbolizes, and it is not that we put all of our bodies into a single hall but rather that we want to be sitting inside our one vessel, our one soul. That is one for all, this is where we want to be sitting. That we leave all these things that we said before, stop thinking about what used to be but rather think about what we need to be. Not just today but more and more, more advanced. How we sit and where we sit. It is in a spiritual form as internally as possible as we can sit together. It is not about the bodies.
18. S. (01:09:11) Once in the meals or in general you could prepare something for the friends to arrange the chairs, peel some potatoes. How do we serve the friends now?
R. Now you need to go through all of our materials to bring a quote or two that can awaken the friends' hearts. That is, it and this is what I would recommend doing. It is true that we once had a physical opportunity to be of service to the friends and to prepare things and there were people who really liked doing that. Friends came to our Congresses specifically in order to not leave the kitchen because in the kitchen they had such an atmosphere that this is basically the work, this is the place where I feel everyone. The Creator says that we have to rise to a higher kitchen and start being cooked by higher forces of the soul. Let us look for that as it is time that we have to also think about the food of the soul not the bodily food. We need to rise to a different level as this pandemic didn't just happen for no reason it came in order to reorganize our connection.
Excerpt 2 (01:11:37) Twice
18. R. (01:12:26) Let's think about what we are preparing for the meal that we are going to have this evening. It's very simple what I am preparing. It's not about the slice of bread with the chopped onions and the olive oil, a cup of whiskey or a bottle of beer. It is about what I am preparing for the meal. Not the stew that we used to make in the kitchen or the salads, no. What do we prepare for our meal so we can fulfill our collective soul? How do I bring my part which I think is very important for the fulfillment of our collective vessel? Let us think in this direction and raise to a different level than what we had before, from corporeality to spirituality. Let's take care about how we bring our peace and fulfill all those pieces that everyone brings.
Excerpt 3 (01:14:04)
19. R. (01:15:55) What deficiencies do we need to prepare for the meal because according to the deficiency we awaken before the meal we will feel the flavors of the meal, we will have the appetite to fulfill ourselves with the fulfillment and what it would be if we had not tasted the flavors of bitter and spicy so what are those spicy and bitter things that we need to prepare before our meal in order to then certainly feel, thanks to them the fulfillment in a better way. What is it in spirituality that we can do with the spicy things, pepper, salt, olive oil, the different kinds of acidic things or sour things? What could be in the place of the alcoholic drink or something. In a spiritual way, what do we prepare that can be a spiritual appetizer and increase the spiritual fulfillment, what do we do about that? This is the question to write down and think about as it is important along the path until the final correction. How do we awaken ourselves with the appetite for the right fulfillment using those spicy condiments which are opposite to the food itself, to the nourishment itself because I do this? Because of the spicy things that we take in, we then need the opposite that calms down, to quench the spiciness because then we can feel more of the flavor of the primary food. Start seeing how we do this in a spiritual sense.
Excerpt 4 (01:19:06) Twice
20. S. (01:22:06) It sounds like in the excerpt that the meal is a gift for something that we worked hard for. Is it correct to think in such a way?
R. Yes, of course.
S. So our meal now is for this effort, for all of our exertion throughout the coronavirus and the connection we have achieved, and this meal is a gift for our reward?
R. Anything that you receive from the Creator is called a gift, so you are actually asking that I have labored so much, and I have reincarnated for thousands of years to go in between, many different states between life and death. All of that is not accounted for but now that I receive something it is called a gift. So, all of my work is just preparation to receive the gift? The gift is given to a person who makes no effort out of love, and he receives the gift and enjoys it. So why do we call it a gift? Because we prepare ourselves only with a deficiency, the deficiency to receive the gift and then the Creator gives it. Think about it, you will see that we don't gain the gift as a reward, that I went through so many life cycles and so many efforts, labor, now give me what I deserve as this is usually what a person thinks, no. I just prepared myself to receive the reward, or the gift and also, I haven't actually prepared myself to receive the exact reward or gift. But when I work correctly, I say I don't deserve anything. Then it seems like I am getting a gift because a gift is not something that is given to a person who earned it, if he earned it is like a prize. Here, we're talking about a gift one is given because he is loved, the one who loves me gives me a gift, why? Because he loves and nothing else is needed so if I wouldn't do anything and I would just be whoever I am, however, I am then I will still get this gift and we will talk about the difference between prizes and gift and how to achieve both.
S. We can't just look at it and say it's some sort of a test that we worked well during a time?
R. I don't want to get into that. It is still far from us as it doesn't follow the kind of calculation that you want to start here like trade and commerce, you still need to learn.
21. S. (01:25:52) He writes there that the Creator doesn't give the person any help in the meal as the person prepares himself for the meal by making certain that he is invited, how do we reach this condition?
R. He is invited.
S. That he will be invited.
R. You want an invitation?
S. He writes that what a person can do to prepare the meal is to get himself invited to be worthy of it.
R. Yes, exactly, that means that the Creator takes a person's hand and puts it on the good faith and says take it. That when He brings the person to the group and says take it, all of the things that He is organizing around the person, that the person needs to see that it all comes from the Creator as an invitation.
S. What does it mean to prepare himself?
R. Prepare oneself to receive the invitation, meaning to be invited to work for the Creator as our whole work is not in our egoistic vessels, it is all a reward, it is all a gift.
22. S. (01:27:33) The meal reflects our work, and all of the ingredients are necessary so that we will be able to taste the meal. Is this the right approach to the meal?
R. This is what I want you to discuss during the day towards the evening: what is the right preparation for each one and for each 10 and for all of us together towards a global action that we are doing? This is what we call a meal which is only an hour. There is nothing corporeal there, there's no orchestra, there are no fireworks. However, it is about what is the essence, here. That we are making in the meal. We are actually creating the preparation for the higher guest, the Creator to come and to dress into our meal, our vessel, our deficiency, to fulfill us. This is the meeting between Bnei Baruch and the Creator and this is what we call a Bnei Baruch meal. How to do this? Think about it until evening. Think about it, it's a very important and practical and spiritual action.
Excerpt 5 (01:29:50)
23. S. (01:31:08) What spiritual food do we get at the meal?
R. What are you yearning for?
S. Love, connection, happiness of heart.
R. I believe you. What spiritual food do you want to receive? What spiritual desire do you think you should receive in spirituality?
S. To know the essence of our existence.
R. There is a difference between what you want and what you actually should receive according to the plan. You have to work on this situation, where they both become as one - the desirable and the existing. We will think about what we need to attain during the meal, what changes should happen in us, what meal we should desire and what feeling we should come to, what deficiency, what should we change in ourselves to really be all of us together as a vessel for the revelation of the Creator in us? This will be called a meal. It is the right filling of the correct vessel. So as much as possible, let's desire to be the correct vessel, let's talk about this. What does it mean to be the right vessel? Not like we desire for the meal with the filling, we desire to be a vessel so that our desires will connect in such a way that the deficiency will be suitable for the Creator to clothe in and to be revealed.
24. S. (01:34:17) Is the meal and action or a result of the action?
R. We always have a prior action and a following action, and we are in between as if we are now preparing for a meal. We have what we went through beforehand and questions that we want to solve and to achieve something and the next day that we want to approach, and this is why we're having a meal. If we decide we are going to have a Kabbalist’s meal, meaning a modest way as they used to do it, internally, very spiritual which was the custom for them so we will achieve new feelings, deficiencies and in this way to advance.
S. When we had Congress's, you said everything is about the preparation, it's more of a festivity itself of the connection that we attained, is the meal the same thing?
R. Not at all, our meal is the result of the preparation before the meal. But the meal itself is an act of connection that we have prepared, and, in that connection, we want to see, depict ourselves as having prepared a vessel for the revelation of the Creator. The end of correction is called the real meal, we prepare ourselves as if to the final correction.
S. So we need to aim for the next degree of connection, the end of correction?
R. Yes of course, in that direction, in that line, we want to advance.
25. S. (01:35:50) In physical meals you feel you are participating - you have a chair; you do something with the others.
R. Wait, now also I am sitting on a chair and sitting in front of the computer and participating, what is the difference?
S. There was a feeling, now it is like you're watching TV, a movie and that the party is taking place in a faraway place.
R. It depends on how you are incorporated in what you are watching. Sometimes I watch TV and I cry. Sometimes I laugh, I become totally shocked, sometimes even more excited than in my own life. It all depends upon how you become involved in those forms that you are seeing that you are in. If you are sitting with your friends in a meal with songs and words and they touch your heart, then it can influence you far more than you would be influenced by a meal where you are sitting together with them at a table. When you are sitting together with them at a meal, you're sitting with them, and you can't move. You are pressured by people; you are not free. Here you are physically free, and you can behave however you want in order to be spiritually incorporated with all of your friends. You understand that you didn't do anything physically other than the slice of bread with the olive oil and the onion, besides this you have nothing in the physical world. This is called a righteous for satiation. All of your work is only to connect with them into one desire so the Creator can fill up that common desire.
S. Then the corporeal life seems great and now when it all disappears how to exchange this?
R. Our material life took up our whole world, all of our intentions and horizon now we have to get rid of it and the coronavirus helps this as well. You just wait for what will come going forward, how much we will have to disconnect from this world as we have come to a state where we have built all of the possibilities and now, we will have to leave all of those possibilities. I am talking about humanity. We will have to leave them all bit by bit and come to a state where in order to live it doesn't need anything but the bare necessities which is symbolized by the slice of bread and the onion and the little bit of olive oil. This is what humanity will have to come to the state where this is what we need and nothing else and other than this only connection with the Creator. This great world that we had that filled everything as you put it know it is time for it.
26. S. (01:41:13) We bring the example of the guests and the host often, that in the end the guest begins to feel shame that he can't receive and wants to attain the quality of bestowing. In the end do we have to have the similar sensations or reach a prayer?
R. About this you need to talk to all of the friends and then plan what you want to do during the meal and before the meal also, how you want to prepare yourselves for the meal. Know that it is very important and the more that you increase its importance and prepare yourselves for it, you can really make a big leap forward.
27. S. (01:42:22) Today I'm on connection duty and I want the friends to be ready to come to the meal. Is there something I need to do?
R. I don't know, you will have to search. It depends on each one of you and all of you together and I am not your guide here. I am just saying general things and you will go and begin to pick and build it. I’m just saying again that the meal is called the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun, that there is so much content that you need to bring to it compared to the corporeal world as the previous friend said, that it used to feel everything and we are doing away with this, we just need a piece of bread and to bring livelihood to our soul other than that everything else has to be spiritual. The Creator will do another option that will disconnect us even from that piece of bread.
Excerpt 6 (01:43:49)
Excerpt 7 (01:44:53) Twice
28. R. (01:46:16) I want you to talk about what is written here and then to explain to one another and those who want to, will explain to everyone, what is going on here, what is the desire to be explained here. The majority of the world, even Israel those who are directed toward the Creator eat only out of passion, to satiate their hunger, to nourish their bodies, but the righteous eat their food to strengthen their minds to the work of the Creator see, they eat in Holiness this is what we intend to do this evening. To extend through their eating the intention and the yearning, the great abundance for Israel, meaning to eat in such a way that we will extend through it a special light that even in learning we cannot do and make our minds new with additional understanding. From this we will get revelations in our mind and our heart, it all depends upon how we make the right intentions during the meal. Around the slice of bread if we relate correctly together to each other and to the essence of the meal we can attain a lot more from our learning and all of our activities. Why? Because it is the most natural basic activity that we can do. If we, in such an animated activity, if we can put the real intention on it, this will really be a powerful activity and bring us a new mind, a new heart and a new status. It is not just a meal. It’s a great means to attain a new spiritual degree.
Excerpt 7 reads again (01:49:15)
29. S. (01:50:10) It says here that even in Israel, usually we say that Israel is righteous.
R. No, to a degree even Israel eat only for satiation, so we are speaking about degrees and in the current degree where they are they do this for their food out of passion in a higher degree they don't do it in order to receive but it is still from the perspective of the next degree this is what it is called. It is a matter of degrees. The question is appropriate at this time.
Excerpt 8 (01:51:09) Twice
30. R. (01:52:49) During the meal we have to see even more that we remain in the right intentions for connection and connection between us and the Creator more and more. Likewise, every time and to use the meal because specifically the meal which gives us an ostensible ascent in a spiritual degree forcing us to rise. We need to emphasize these things during the meal for each one to feel it in himself how much the meal itself that we do in all of this mess of getting together speaking, seeing each other see, to what extent it disconnects us from the purpose of creation from the connection between us from our sharp thoughts, to only connect above everything. To what extent, disconnect us and also opposite that how it forces us to rise to connection on top of the disturbances we feel now. Those two things, revealing the coarseness in the meal and revealing the refinement in the meal we need to bring them out, to attain them, keep them as this is the new degree that we can attain in practice during the meal.
31. S. (01:55:05) What does the ten’s prayer include in the meal?
R. We have to agree on this prior to the meal that during the meal we will begin to feel how much we are growing apart farther from each other and that each of us and the ten together have to get stronger to rise above it in connection between us in order to bestow upon each other with mutual concern for one another, helping each other with mutual responsibility. The meal becomes the trigger, the place where we can reveal both the new coarseness and new refinement.
32. S. (01:56:19) Is it okay to pray to the Creator that the friends will have the right intention during the meal
R. Yes.
33. S. (01:56:49) What is the coarseness and what is the refinement in the meal?
R. To put it simply: coarseness is what disconnects me from the purpose of creation through connection and the refinement is the extent to which I want to refine the coarseness so that along with the coarseness and disturbances that are revealed know that I want to be even more adhered to the environment.
S. What does this have to do with the meal?
R. Because we are beginning to connect and see each other, participate in a physical basic action of food, so by this we awaken a new coarseness. It is not the matter of a slice of bread it is your engagement with the slice of bread that awakens the new coarseness. This is how it is arranged in the common vessel of all creation.
S. So we need some, how to eat this piece of bread in order to bestow?
R. Of course, what did you think? How can you eat, not in order to bestow?
S. This is exactly the question: how to have this meal in a way that we can enjoy it in order to bestow?
R. Why do you come to the meal?
S. I feel good with my friends.
R. In other words you like sitting together with everyone eating and drinking and having a good time.
S. To aim ourselves correctly in intention?
R. That you are coming to an activity that is all connection and in an ascent towards the Creator, that is it.
S. The piece of bread with the onion I can't feel the flavor in it but in order to bestow.
R. You have to feel paradise in this slice of bread with the salt and pepper that you should feel. It is the light of Ein Sof that has not entered you and filled up not your stomach with a piece of bread,
but that you are feeling your soul with the light of Ein Sof.
S. Can you give advice on how to aim for ourselves?
R. I can't explain it to you, you want an answer to everything. There are no answers at all in life. In fact, that you keep asking all the time doesn't give you answers, you need to desire to get the answer from within, from the Creator.
34. S. (02:00:34) More than how to prepare, what to do during the meal?
R. Rabash may have had thousands of connections and disconnections as the Baal Shem Tov says he has gone through a thousand thoughts in a few minutes. To organize them it happens to everyone, and I can't tell you, but you have to do it and by doing it you will understand. You want to receive an answer without experiencing for yourself and it doesn't work this way.
35. S. (02:01:34) About the excerpt we read, the righteous eat not for their own filling and afterwards they will get an answer. Does this mean that once we start working in such a way that the state of the will to receive will change into a different form?
R. Yes.
36. S. (02:02:07) I heard you say in the meal, coarseness and refinement that are new, usually we learned about it separated in times and degrees, here it comes together?
R. They are not together, they are connected to each other.
S. In the same meal?
R. In the same meal.
Excerpt 9 (02:02:39) Twice
37. R. (02:05:33) This is what we need to try to implement in our meal, this is why we are not going to eat a wild calf or a whale, meaning the best food that will be in the meal of the Messiah in the end of correction, but that we take a piece of bread olive oil, onion, and this is what we eat. This helps us to raise more in spirituality because if we would eat delicious food, obviously against our desire we would be drawn to corporeal flavors.
S. I thought the Kabbalists write that the self-torments had nothing to do with our generation?
R. Is this an affliction?
S. It sounds like they are living very modestly, olive oil and onion help the intention?
R. No, even if they don't have more, I just gave you an example that I used to come to him, he couldn't see well anymore as he was 107 or something, he said let's have a meal and the meal was bread like pita, onion, salt and maybe not even in onion and tea with sugar. The wives were there, and automatically though they would add a bit more of the drink into the glass, and nothing more than that, this is called a meal.
S. The whole matter of eating just for satiation in the meal takes you out of the intention so what is the importance of the restriction?
R. To rise to spiritual pleasures, to spiritual filling, what do I care what I am putting in my throat, when I do this there's like a centimeter that feels flavors, after that it is like trash, it is really like that. So, look what we are doing in order to fill that sense that feels the flavors our whole life. So here it is simple as he writes about it.
S. This is how we should operate our day-to-day operations?
R. At least in our meals, yes. Sometimes we have very rich big meals that also used to be during Rabash and others there are somewhere you just don't want anything, just the essentials, the necessities just like now this is a meal where we are emphasizing something certain where before bread was one meal. The main thing is spiritual upliftment and that everything is aimed in this direction.
38. S. (02:10:45) No translation
R. That is the wicked and the righteous in man's body and between them there is a relation that they get stronger, they get weaker and the opposite.
39. S. (02:11:20) You said to eat bread to not make the temptation to eat too big, but when I was in Israel, we used to have delicious meals, isn't it more that we should eat more delicious meals to have more coarseness to overcome rather than just having the bread, so it makes it easier to overcome?
R. You eat a few times a day and every day so once do what we are saying, that is it. Try to understand what we are doing by determining the meal in such a way. The rest of the time you can eat whatever you want. But here in the meal where we are eating together, we will try that nobody will have more but a piece of bread, you can take two pieces of bread, and onion and olive oil. Take a glass of beer or whatever you want there and that is it. The rest will be against it in spirituality, that as he writes you can read all of those excerpts again before the meal that you will be ready for the meal. During the day today, only deal with that. You will see as much as it will give you a direction for the thoughts and the direction for your heart in a new way. You don't understand yet how it changes man.
40. S. (02:13:32) Why do we need to be afraid of missing the meal?
R. I don't understand what you mean by missing the meal?
S. Why should we be afraid of missing the meal?
R. Because we wouldn't be participating in a general action of the world Bnei Baruch that we are connecting in an action above all of our corporeal actions to connection in a spiritual flavor.
41. S. (02:14:17) These bitter and spicy, hot things that we should eat during the meal, should we prepare this to invite hunger for them?
R. You don't need it, you don't have to suffer before the meal, it's too early.
Excerpt 10 (02:15:03)
Excerpt 11 (02:15:38)
Excerpt 13 (02:17:18)
Excerpt 14 (02:17:33) Twice
42. R. (02:18:55) These are things we will still have to learn about that we lower our head to the actions of the Creator.
Excerpt 15 (02:19:10) Twice
Excerpt 16 (02:20:18) Twice
43. R. (02:21:28) We always need to have more Hassadim than Hochma because the light of Hochma is knowledge and revelation so there always has to be in Hassadim in order to bestow that it won't be the opposite.
Excerpt 17 (02:21:53) Twice
44. R. WSQ: We have 10 minutes left, let's speak between us. What do you think that will be good to do as our preparation for the meal? We don't have a lot to prepare, there's nothing to cook, each one I'm certain has a piece of bread and some onion, salt, and a glass of drink. So let us think how we still prepare ourselves during the day for the evening meal.