Morning Lesson December 21, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 104. And The Saboteur Was Sitting
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we have two very short articles today from Shamati and that is probably a more or less how Baal HaSulam said it and Rabash wrote based on his words and these through points along the path are achieving Lishma which is above our ego and above ourselves calculations so that all of our calculations will be according to the will to bestow. According to the calculation of the Creator and not that of our ego. The more we transcend all of the conditions that we see, feel and experience each and every time the more we rise in faith above reason. Meaning that way rise to Bina further and further coming closer to the degree of Bina and moving away from that of Malchut accordingly the degree of Malchut faith is the degree of Bina and that is faith above reason, that I make a calculation not according to my will to receive but according to the will to bestow. The will to bestow we don't know what that is in the Creator but when I want to approach and come closer to it somewhat to feel it and the Kabbalists tell me that you should engage in loving others instead of loving yourself. You need to engage in giving instead of receiving and in such a way you will approach Lishma.
The less you think about yourself and the more you think about the benefit of the ten and through this sort of exercise you will approach Lishma. Baal HaSulam said a few words about this here as they were studying the Zohar so this is Article 104 and The Saboteur Was Sitting. Meaning that the saboteur is present, what is it about and what is he saying? Rav reads: In the Zohar portion Noah, he says this: There was a flood and the saboteur was sitting in the midst of it, he asked, Baal HaSulam, a flood means a flood of water, this in itself is deadly and a saboteur, it is a flood. What does it mean that the saboteur was sitting in the midst of it, in the midst of the flood? Also it is a trouble inside a trouble, also what is the difference between the flood and the saboteur? They both bring pressure and suffering so Baal HaSulam replied “that the flood is corporeal torments, meaning torments of the body within it meaning within the torments of the body there is yet another saboteur who sabotages spirituality. This is the main thing and it means that the afflictions of the body bring him foreign thoughts until these foreign thoughts sabotage and kill his spirituality. meaning this is what we already know from our life that different states, unpleasant states come to us, fatigue, confusion and weakness, it could also be extreme states that are pressuring us where something is terribly wrong, whatever it can be.
If we put all of those things together from the environment and the family and whatever it is that a person has, all of that can be called a flood, within that flood sits the saboteur and the saboteur it means that all of these troubles that appear corporeally, they detach us from spirituality. It is hard for us to advance from within them, move closer to spirituality, to think in order to bestow and to do what is good in the eyes of the Creator because the corporeal troubles pressure us. There are two saboteurs here so to speak, a trouble within a trouble, a corporeal trouble that carries a spiritual trouble inside of it. This means that the saboteur is sitting in the midst of the flood and here we have to make a good judgment of how we cope with this, how do we overcome the disturbances that are corporeal, understanding that they come only to direct us better, to a higher level Lishma.
Then we will understand that from the flood itself, from within life and all of the circumstances in life and all of our relationships in the ten that also come and try to engulf us with these waves of the flood, inside that we still need to rise and try to fight the corporeal and spiritual flood. There is an order to this work against that, against the external and internal disturbances. The external disturbances could be many things but they are also we have to relate them to the same source just as the inner disturbance, it is one within the other. So we have to align these things and sometimes we forget that it all comes in order to direct us to go above reason, to go above our mind and other times even if we don't forget that it comes to deflect us from above reason but we are just incapable and we are willing to succumb to it. We have to really be accountable to ourselves here, what is the saboteur within the saboteur, meaning the spiritual disturbance that lies within the corporeal one and here we will advance.
Reader: Shamati 104 (09:44)
2. S. (11:08) Do we understand correctly that in every flood in the right work we need to seek the saboteur, meaning not to struggle with the corporeal flood but with the inner saboteur?
R. In each and every state where we discover ourselves to be disconnected from the Creator, from in order to bestow, from the group itself, from everything that belongs to spirituality to being in the spiritual state, whatever state it is we have to try to determine two states, that bodily state and the spiritual state. Bodily means all the states in circumstances that we have here in our corporeal world which is, first our health, our mood, our corporeal environment, family, that is one. Two, the extent to which it affects and hinders our connection with the ten and the Creator and this is how we align all of these circumstances, everything that affects us into a single source. That it all comes from the Creator, of course the whole flood comes from him including both its external and internal appearance. So first try to see everything that exists as belonging to the Creator, to the point that we only have left to think whether I also belong to the Creator and so then what is the only thing left outside the Creator, it is just that point of observation and decision which is the point in the heart that when the Creator created the will to receive, he detached it from himself so to speak.
We feel ourselves as if detached from him so I have to relate my mind, my heart to the Creator as well. What do I conclude here? But I don't have my own mind or heart, no thoughts, no emotions it is all designed by the Creator in me so that above my feeling and my understanding I will rise to him as the source even though in my feelings and in my thoughts, I go through various states that are opposite and confusing and throw me from one end to the other. I accept all of that as a flood sent by the Creator and He has to send it in order to clean and purify my desire as we read that after the flood, the earth, let's say planet earth is cleansed from all kinds of phenomena and new life can emerge so even though this water that comes to clean everything is a flood, it is not just the water of Bina, it is Bina and Malchut that clean each other. Such a connection is made that leads to corrections, meaning that there is a connection that happens between Bina and Malchut and that is how we can use that to advance that's how creation began. In creation means within the human there is an opportunity, a possibility to transcend the will to receive and relate everything that is happening to him to the upper force, to Bina, to bestowal.
If a person realizes that both the external saboteur and the inner saboteur, one inside the other, the saboteur in the corporeal states and even more than that in his spiritual states that prevents him from rising to the degrees Bina, the degrees of faith, if he understands that it all comes from the Creator and he has to relate both of those saboteurs to the Creator, these great disturbances, there is None Else Besides Him. By that he gets rid of foreign thoughts, both on the level of Malchut and above on the level of Bina to come to the state of faith above reason. What is faith above reason? That I don't take into account both of these saboteurs, the corporeal and the spiritual and I am only adhered to bestowing, to the Creator, that is the first point that exists in the quality of faith, Bina above Malchut.
In arranging our attitude to spirituality we have to differentiate between these two levels, the corporeal discernments and typically we feel ourselves tired and powerless and maybe even some sickness, other corporeal disturbances, family work. What is happening is within these disturbances we have to discover the spiritual disturbance that I don't want, that I have no strength, no mood and I have such laziness that I can't overcome. That is the second more internal saboteur and against it we should especially fight so by these two saboteurs we try to reach the cause of them which is the Creator. As it says that I bring the flood to the ground, he does all of that. By that we come to the degree of faith above reason, that I accept both as coming from the Creator and I hold on to the friends and along with the friends and the Creator that is how we are saved from the flood and we discover that our connection between us and together with the Creator leads us to be sure and we come out of the ark and we begin to settle on the ground. In the will to receive that can already achieve the degree of Bina that is where we start a new settlement, faith above reason.
3. S. (21:01) From what you just answered, if I understood it correctly, the flood, the spiritual saboteur that the Creator sends to purify our will to receive, this internal saboteur is what bothers us to perform actions for spirituality. The question is what need does the Creator have to put a saboteur inside of us?
R. We have two forces, Bina and Malchut, we have to discover them, detect them and understand the connection between them, how do we work with both of them and advance in such a way? This is why we have two saboteurs, one on behalf of Malchut and another one on behalf of Bina, this also determines that we are in between the worlds. The corporeal world and the spiritual world, we are in two bodies, one let's say the biological body that we discover as the one that exists here in this world and the other bodies are spiritual bodies which means desires to bestow. That exists on the spiritual level and it all comes from the fact that it is one inside the other, that the true saboteur sits inside the external saboteur because we are made of the matter of Malchut and we wish to achieve qualities or behavior Bina. That gives us two levels. that we are the created being on the level of Malchut and the Creator is on the level of Bina and that is what we need to attain, how we need to study his behavior to become similar to the Creator. This is why there are two levels and two such troubles that prevent us, one on behalf of Malchut and the other on behalf of Bina, we have to see it as a helpmate against thee. There is nothing that prevents us, it just awakens us and prevents us from resting otherwise we would just agree doing nothing and falling asleep. These two saboteurs constantly shake us and push us to rise higher to the goal.
4. S. (24:29) With someone who desires spirituality if these two all the way go hand-in-hand can one exist without the other at times?
R. No, they both exist simultaneously and they both come from the Creator together but the question is to what extent am I in contact with the environment, the ten and that I find that there is one saboteur or two. If I am connected to the environment and I discover the disturbances are actually spiritual and if I am not connected to the group then I typically find a corporeal disturbance that I feel bad and I have no time or power. That I am incapable of doing anything, maybe I am just letting go of things with all kinds of thoughts and desires and when I am connected to the group then I am on a different level of thought and doubt. The group necessitates that envy, lust and honor take the person out of this world, meaning I also can't allow myself to talk to the friends the way that I think about myself. For myself I can say I don't want anything, but I just leave everything and I am sick of it, but when I am with the friends the owner and the envy don't allow me to speak this way. By envy, lust and honor I don't allow myself to speak that way, to be that low in the eyes of the friends and that begins to help me rise to a higher level. Our ego is called help me against me as it helps us to rise from below up and we have to see how that happens and what makes it help mate against me. It is as if against, working against itself.
5. S. (27:38) Why is it written that it is a saboteur, after all it is the help from the Creator?
R. This depends on how you accept him, of course it comes from the Creator when all kinds of disturbances come, they come only to show you that you are in a bad state and you have an opportunity to rise to a better state. We rise in sanctity and never descend in sanctity. It all depends on how you prepared yourself in the ten as we discussed that the ten does not allow you to succumb to the disturbance but rather overcome it and advance.
6. S. (28:54) This article Baal HaSulam says that inside corporeality there is an additional force that can obligate a person, meaning foreign thoughts can kill the spirituality in him. You gave the example of Rabash that he was rejoiced with the sufferings of the body and not worried about the saboteur.
R. No, he would say he would point at his body and say let It suffer, meaning that he would detach himself from the corporeal disturbances of the body and say Let It suffer. That he was already detached from the body and moved to a different level, he was able to use the suffering of the body to ascend spiritually. These disturbances won't be as disturbances to him.
S. The question is whether always in the sufferings of the body is the saboteur killing spirituality?
R. Yes, always even if a person doesn't identify with it, like we say people off the streets, ordinary people who don't study the wisdom of Kabbalah, people who do not intend to achieve Lishma. For them also the suffering that all of humanity goes through is not for no reason as they all come together and accumulate and push humanity forward. Not in a path of light, a path of Torah but in the path of suffering. It is not enough and it is not desirable but it at least it is something.
S. If it is possible to protect ourselves from the corporeal sufferings and find a disconnect from the body because we come to the lesson to receive the influence of the light, so how to protect ourselves from the saboteur that sits inside?
R. That is where we already need the ten, by connecting and by intending to the inner saboteur that by it and thanks to it we rise higher. This is like the example of Jacob who came to Egypt, to Pharaoh and the Torah writes that Jacob blessed Pharaoh, how could it be that Jacob, the senior of the fathers, the middle line, Abraham was the right line, Isaac left line and Jacob the middle line, meaning the most important, and he comes to a meeting with Pharaoh symbolizing all of the ego created by the Creator, and he greets Pharaoh. First of all this is a very high degree that he is capable of doing that and what we see from this is that he knew how to use all of the ego created by the Creator called Pharaoh in order to bestow. This is called blessing him or greeting him, connecting him with Pharaoh and to the Creator, to the source of both. That from the Creator comes both Jacob and Pharaoh and Jacob blessing Pharaoh, meaning that he raises Pharaoh to the degree of the fathers, that there is no inferiority here. On the contrary we are talking about corrections.
7. S. (33:45) When I feel physical pain it bothers me to participate fully let's say in the ten, I understand that it comes from the Creator but this physical pain bothers, how to overcome this?
R. It is impossible.
S. I understand it's from the Creator
R. I will tell you even more, Baal HaSulam said that all of the troubles and all of the problems with all of the suffering that a person goes through in life and also the suffering of dying in this life, we are talking about ordinary people not Kabbalists, just an ordinary person that goes to all kinds of suffering before dying and dying and suffering. Baal HaSulam says it is not worthwhile to give up on that, that is what he said to his relatives and to his students, to those close to him and I am telling you also as my students. It is not that we appreciate the suffering and want the suffering, another person would say not them and not their reward. But especially with regards to an ordinary person as we try to rise this suffering to a spiritual degree but an ordinary person even if he doesn't do anything he suffers from his ego, from his will to receive that before he gets rid of it, he suffers from it and that also raises him to spiritual progress and that is why he said it isn't worthwhile to give up on the suffering. This brings up a lot of questions, should we make it easier on people who are about to die so they don't suffer that much or not, to help them and let them suffer, no. Whatever we can do based on our current success in medicine we should do. Not that we do all kinds of other actions here such as euthanasia and other things. Again I'm not making any decisions here, I don't know, but this is what he said but I don't think we should give up the suffering that happens before death.
8. S. (37:28) Is the work or the correction just to relate to the disturbance as a spiritual disturbance or is there more to do after that?
R. We don't have disturbances, we sometimes call it that way but what we get from the Creator after we were created in the will to receive is all in order to recognize our will to receive as the evil inclination, which is something that we don't know, we don't see and we don't look at our whole nature as evil and that it is all against us and it stands between us and the Creator. That is what we need to identify, we should be walking all day with this feeling that our nature is what separates us from the Creator and how do I rise above our nature and cling to the Creator and how can the group help you to do that?
S. So the disturbance is simply to teach me to hold onto the ten?
R. The disturbances are not disturbances, they are actually the opposite and they are assistance, they are called helpmate against me as they help me to come closer to the Creator and cling to him and come to the upper level of nature.
9. S. (39:41) I start by knowing whatever situation it is it is an opportunity for development to advance so what if I just react with an intention to be stove for the benefit of the whole ten, have faith that the Creator will finish it as he sees fit instead of spending time scrutinizing all of the thoughts in the mind about that situation?
R. Try it and see based on the state that you're talking about, I don't want to go into the details of that state but you speak in a way that shows you are all ready for the scrutiny.
10. S. (40:38) Yesterday we were studying the text and we mentioned the sufferings of Pharaoh and Amalek. Can you explain the difference between these two disturbances and the two saboteurs that are in this article?
R. No, we're not going to do all kinds of comparisons between the articles, you remember what you read yesterday, others don't, that's not a way to ask. You still need to be together with the whole group and everyone who is studying and what you are studying right now. It is good that you are doing this kind of study as well but don't throw it on us here.
11. S. (41:37) The will to receive is constantly seeking pleasure but finding suffering and the desire for spirituality relative to that to come to giving fills us but it seems that the ego is not letting us advance, is that the constant struggle that we have two the end of correction?
R. Let's say so, what does it mean that the ego doesn't let us advance, it actually advances us because helpmate against me without the ego we would not be able to advance. The will to receive is the fuel and thanks to that we advanced as it is just always transitioning us from one goal to another goal, taking and putting us through different directions. It is like with kids without the ego that pushes them in different directions they wouldn't evolve, they would not and the same thing with us. As we are still in the will to receive, it is what governs us and pushes us to develop and here we are told how we can use the will to receive and use this suffering that happens to us, within which lies the saboteur. What does that mean that the saboteur is within the flood, the flood itself is the Gevurot, disturbances and a saboteur as well but especially by one being within the other, we can advance to faith above reason.
S. In the end of the article I read this is the meaning that the afflictions of the body bring him foreign thoughts, until these thoughts sabotage and kill the spirituality we need to prevent that not to come to that?
R. The foreign thoughts are what bring us to spirituality, if we use them correctly, we can't otherwise come closer to spirituality without the foreign thoughts but it is not that we use them directly the way that they are. Rather by these thoughts each time we are forced to connect between us in the ten and connect to the friends more and through the connection with the friends we use these foreign thoughts as leverage that necessitates us to advance forward. We don't understand so well what is the role of our ego and that is why I mentioned how Jacob greeted Pharaoh because our ego is called helpmate against me because without that help against you, you would not be able to advance.
S. Because it seems huge, where you say that we need to work on it and take it with us and then aim it to spirituality?
R. Correct, let's say I'm in a certain place and I have before me the possibility to learn, to talk with my friends in our connection throughout the day, to do something else. Besides that I have an immense desire to lay down and sleep, to rest and to leave everything. There are two desires that are truly conflicting one another, so here I need to see the extent in which if I were to connect to the group without the disturbance and now where I really want to sleep but I feel tired, I'm not in the mood and I don't have anything, indifference to the friends, if now I overcome and connect to the ten then I am already in connection with them in a much higher degree, so that is what we call the help against him. On one hand it does an action that is against and on the other hand it raises me to a higher degree of connection and coming closer to the Creator. These are clear matters but see how he works and we are not allowed to forget this, if we do it like this every day to every opportunity that we have for connection, for the scrutiny of our texts and speaking that we do between us and we will benefit from it.
12. S. (47:49) I thought this article was very simple. Now, I see how much is hidden in it.
R. All the articles are like that, all the articles of Shamati are like that. That is why I want us to go through them one by one until, at least in the first reading, it will be clear in simplicity of what he is talking about there, of course. It's not important that it is two lines, the saboteur is sitting inside the flood. But when you start to clarify it and scrutinize it, you see it is our entire spiritual life, all of our advancement depends on these two words.
S. If possible, exactly where you left off, it turns out that my will to receive aspires to some rest. The first saboteur let's say he gives me all that, life is great, family is great, everything is okay, that I can't even move to the second saboteur and deal with the connection with the friends. So, if I am satisfied and happy, everything is good and also the friends are good, then I have no work. Then, there is a fear that I, as if I should yearn for this work because if I don't have these two saboteurs, I have nothing to do.
R. Correct. If we don't feel resistance to spirituality, it is a sign we are not in spirituality. This is like you are sitting in a car, and you have to turn on the engine, and waste fuel, forces, wear and tear, and all of that, in order to progress. You can't just lay down and you and your bed will be brought to the end of correction, it doesn't work that way, it only happens according to efforts and the efforts are measured in accordance with the suffering, in accordance with the force of resistance to it. This is why we are talking here about the two saboteurs which constantly bother us in our advancement. Also the corporeal disturbances which is this world, our family, our job and all kinds of things and within them spiritual disturbances and a person needs to locate these and those not to be immersed in them but to locate them and to see the extent to which these disturbances are actually guiding him to the goal. Then when he aims more to the goal, more internally, he will see how these disturbances will change because they emerge from the Creator and if he had corporeal disturbances, what can he change here? See that through his attitude to the goal he can also change the corporeal disturbances as well. He no longer has a disturbance from the side of the family, the children, work but rather it all moves more and more toward spiritual disturbances. We need to learn the relationships between these two saboteurs.
13. S.( 52:09) Can we say that Bina by the flood created some compression over Malchut and raised us higher?
R. Correct not even Bina but Keter because it all comes from there where all the creatures need to Keter and therefore from there all of the forces that operate Bina and Bina operates Malchut and from that Malchut begins to respond correctly to Bina if she is capable through people to perform her actions in order to bestow and this is how it happens
S. What rises higher in the Malchut to Bina ?
R. MAN, prayer. Nothing besides that.
S. This is the purification that comes from Malchut demand rises to Bina?
R. Yes, you also need to agree with how I am teaching. I want you to get there toward the searches and the seeking and scrutinizing and not for me to give them to you prepared because it won't be absorbed and yours, you from the seeking from the efforts of all of these scrutinies you need to come to the solution the way it truly happens.
S. How to take advantage of that state in the ten and not to disconnect?
R. First we have to define times for it to rise as they say. Where you have to define certain times a day that you have to connect, like it or not you have to connect and you don't let go of a person who says I am not capable or I can't today. To whatever you can you have to be connected with us, even somewhat. You can't talk because you are in some meeting, correct, but nevertheless we want to know that you are with us. We are not letting you go.
S. It is good that there is no one who is letting me go.
R. That's right, I won't leave you. Let's say we have to pressure each person this way. There's no such thing that you can't .that there's something next to you. You have to keep something next to you in a way that you are connected to us so that we will know in some red bulb that is lit in us to let us know that you are with us. Maybe you can't listen but it is next to you. Let's say you are unconscious, but you are with us, this is very important and, in this way, we don't let go of any friend throughout all of the meetings between us. Later we will also talk about how to expand the meetings, not as far as times but as far as the internal connection.
14. S. (56:05) How to relate correctly to a situation where there is a genetic disease where suffering doesn't go away. Is there a role for this spirituality? How do we use it correctly?
R. For all of the sufferings that we have, corporeal, health, mental, spiritual all the ones that we can overcome or not, that we could have overcome in our century but maybe before that in the history of humanity we could not overcome. All of this needs great study but altogether we need to accept it and to try and be aimed at the suffering in a simple way. To do the maximum that is possible so they won't bother us, to reach Lishma, that is what we need. All of the sufferings. Meaning if I was now controlling the world, I would stop everything except for one thing, in what way can I bring humanity to Lishma, to a connection with the Creator from the connection between people. That is called Lishma. Let us hope that we will reach that. Now how to use all the torments and sufferings also in that way to the extent that we can aim them to reach Lishma.
15. S. (58:23) Is the inner saboteur a condition of advancement for the person who is in control of the situation?
R. The Creator controls it, no one except for that.
16. S. (58:57) To overcome my attempts to connect with the ten. What does it mean to overcome the disturbance? I see that something is missing.
R. What is missing here is support from the friends, for them to pressure you so that you will connect to them, come closer to them that is what is missing and no more than that. Don't wait for you to have the desire that you don't know what state you will have to overcome. Where you will have no strength to move even your smallest finger moreover yourself in your internality and to aim your heart towards connection with the friends. Therefore you need to only through one will help his friends where a person can save himself from the house of imprisonment, only friend. You need to be ready for this and perform such habits and customs and systems, rules in the group that we are not waiting for a friend to scream for us to help him. No. Where we come to a state where we come and help him. We don't even wait until we will hear his cry but simply every single day, we need to check throughout the day several times what state all of our friends are in in the ten. Are they okay or not, just like with soldiers.1 2 3 and 5 so that everyone is present and ready for connection. Otherwise we will fall, that is called Arvut, without which we certainly cannot. This is the main rule and law for the building of the vessel for the revelation of the creator.
17. S. (01:01:26) What traits and tactics should one develop to better work against the saboteur of spirituality? What preparation can help?
R. Constantly examine oneself to what form you are in in the perception of these saboteurs. We are always in a state where these saboteurs are holding onto you and not letting go of you and it is just that they are switched, these saboteurs, they are changing so it seems to you that you are free somewhat maybe from them because you're not paying attention. Actually every single moment you are in the hands of these saboteurs, external saboteurs and more internal saboteurs which are both operating on you. You feel the laziness, a little sickness, something else and this is to the physical saboteurs and within them spiritual saboteurs just like we read and it is a problem, a very big problem of how we can get rid of them. This is through me each time evoking myself a way to exit their grip as they are holding on to me and finding me. I have no possibility of escaping. What do I need to do in order to escape them? Here there is but one solution, the ten. A prisoner cannot save himself from the outside imprisonment but only his friends grab him or throw him a rope or something that they do and only in such a way he can run away from the house of imprisonment, from his ego. Only the friends can save each of us from within the ego of each of us. Where a person is. Therefore the flood, the internal and external saboteur we need to think now what they are towards the ten, to my exit from the ten, to my coming closer to them in order to bestow, to Lishma and how I come closer to that, how I near that. Always divide my presence in my egoistic desires into two parts, to the corporeal part and the spiritual part, the two saboteurs where one comes and brings me all kinds of corporeal problems into me, fatigue, sickness, all kinds of problems at work and at home that is the corporeal saboteur and the spiritual saboteur where he already starts to work, this is not for you and you can't and how many years have you been investing in this and so on. I need to arrange my attitude in the right way to both of them. You see friends, all together, we read an article with four lines of the article and we are talking about it already for more than an hour. It is a sign that it has become closer to us.
18. S. (01:06 :13) How to work with the flood that the friend goes through?
R. Help that we have learned many times, if we identify that it is under the flood then we must simply go to him and help him.
19. S. (01:06:36) How can Bnei Baruch help people who feel the flood externally?
R. The main thing is for us to connect to the external flood with the inner saboteurs so that I won't think I am in an external flood only because of the reason for the extra mile flood is from the internal flood, if I don't identify it, it's not good so I didn't scrutinize the situation correctly.
S. So it is enough to present it to them as these troubles
R. We are talking about people that are connected in tens, that yearning for spirituality, don't bring me babushkas.
20. S. (01:07:31) There are friends working in the tens who are sick with a disease who say that it is very difficult to overcome the personal fear of losing life and to constantly hold onto the goal and the Creator. Can you give advice on how to overcome that fear?
R. I can't give any advice here. All I can say is to those who belong to Bnei Baruch. Are they in Bnei Baruch? If they are not in Bnei Baruch, there is nothing we can do.
S. Yes. Bnei Baruch students.
R. If they are in Bnei Baruch then we need to pray for them at least once a day and we need to try and think about them and strengthen them as much as possible. First of all, everything that comes, comes from the Creator; it all comes in order to attain the final goal. It is clear that all of us eventually pass away from this corporeal life, the lowest, most difficult, and darkest of worlds. We need to help them to be constantly connected to the goal as much as possible.
S. What should we tell the person in moments when fear overtakes him?
R. We need, as much as possible, to strengthen them. Everyone will feel that he is moving and passing from this life and he should strengthen and connect himself to the next life.
21. S. (01:09:53) How can we help a friend when corporeal trouble first appears?
R. It is important for us to not be disconnected from the ten for even a moment so the ground won't escape from under our feet. That is all I can say. This is called ‘mutual Arvut’ where we need to care for him all the time.
S. What kind of scrutiny should a friend do before bringing his trouble to the ten so that the saboteur will not appear?
R. We usually don't explain to the whole ten but to one or two from the ten who are more ready to receive such problems and consult with. Saying it before everyone is like you are silencing the ten’s advancement. This is why we need to do the opposite. The ten is there and we are injecting our problem into the ten. This is a delicate thing we have to do here, and each ten a slightly different approach. We need to be arranging more of a tighter connection between us in all kinds of states.
22. S. (01:12:05) I heard you say in the past that if a person has problems with necessities, then he can go out and fix his necessities and then come back to the spiritual work.
R. No, no, no. Not to stop, not to stop completely. No. It could be that he has no choice and maybe he'll miss a few lessons, but not to cut off completely. He also writes about that. By no means let go of the path otherwise you are truly falling into corporeality. Your corporeal solution will be different if you are connected to the group or not.
S. What if he feels he is a burden to the group?
R. Whether he burdens or not, is not something on him. The Creator arranges such things and he needs to hold on to the ten as much as possible without performing egoistic calculations which usually justifies a person thinking, “Leave. Don't worry. You'll come back in a year” and so on. No. ‘Do anything but leave.’ That’s the law.
23. S. (01:13:39) When we look at the flood and the saboteur it sometimes looks like an infinite wall that cannot be breached. Should we cunningly work with the saboteurs and let them take us where they want us to go?
R. I do not know your philosophies; I know that you like philosophies. I do not go according to those practices, I go according to what is written by Baal HaSulam and Rabash. There's no such thing. I don’t even want to hear about counsels that come from the corporal intellect of a person. I only go only according to what is written. I have nothing else to rely on. I am sorry.
24. S. (01:14:35) Does the ability to rise to the spiritual level through physical suffering point to a connection between the body and the soul? Are we not to revoke the suffering?
R. I'm not saying that there's a connection between body and soul. These are things that are completely, completely contradicted to one another and there is no connection even in anterior or posterior in what we call the ‘body.’ This imagination that we have that we have a corporeal body helps us reach Lishma, to the feeling of a soul, of the Nefesh. No more than that.
S. Why does a person continue to keep suffering physically in order to advance spiritually?
R. Because both come from the same place. Would you prefer to get rid of suffering and finish your life?
S. Since the Kabbalists obligate it, I am guessing that it points to a connection between the two.
R. What you are saying is that it probably points to a connection, but I don't see it this way. Because by saying that there is a connection between the corporeal body and the soul you open the door to different philosophies, beliefs, and whatnot.
25. S. (01:16:49) What are those alien thoughts that bring suffering to the bodies?
R. What characterizes them is that they clothe in the body and then I feel different things in the body. I think it's the body, but it is not the body. It comes from my evil inclination.
26. S. (01:17:18) Must we fall by the saboteur that brings us to spiritual death?
R. It depends on the type and intensity of a person's soul, meaning that the time has come for the will to receive to be corrected. There are those that have a big soul, a big will to receive that needs to be corrected and was not corrected, and there are small souls and it is easier for them. A person advances accordingly.
S. Is it possible to overcome such a state?
R. It is possible for a person to overcome whatever state he gets. This is a rule for everyone.
27. S. (01:18:30) How do we correct the saboteur before he kills spiritually in us?
R. We are reforming both saboteurs, both the inner and the external one, by overcoming them and not allowing them to separate us from the friends and the Creator. We correct these saboteurs by justifying their presence. I hope you are hearing this.
28. S. (01:19:17) How does physical pain in the human body help with spiritual advancement?
R. I don’t want to sanctify the suffering, but suffering is a kind of indicator that measures what we can or cannot bear something for the sake of the goal. It all depends on the importance of the goal. There is much that we do not understand. Look what suffering a woman goes through when giving birth. A man could not take it at all, they are not built that way, but a woman gladly goes into it two or three times. She understands that it will be hard. This is called the ‘importance of the goal.’ She wants it; this is how nature is working in us. This is how we also need to work on our goal.
29. S. (01:20:49) Why do some suffer and some don’t?
R. This is complicated. There are people that are not so sensitive to corporeal disturbances and then there are those that are more sensitive. There are even different kinds of measurements in medicine where they measured the body’s response when they put a small amount of electricity through the body and measured its response. There are people that will respond to it emotionally in a kind of an extreme way and there are those that don’t. It all depends on the specification of the body.
30. S. (01:22:01) What does it mean to justify the saboteur’s presence?
R. Without saboteurs we could not reach spirituality. The saboteurs show us the forces that resist spirituality, both the corporeal and spiritual ones. I start to depict that this entire world is a resistance to spirituality. My entire attitude towards the group and towards the spiritual world is also like a kind of resistance to spirituality. I need to change my attitude to both this world and the spiritual world so that I will see that all these things are forces from the Creator that aid in shaping me towards spiritual attainment. “There is No Cruelty in the King's Palace.” We have to see all of these bad forces as something good and invert them, and accordingly live in a world of good.
31. S. (01:23:28) How can we not enjoy the suffering when the idea that suffering is good for us is imprinted in us?
R. I prefer what is called ‘“You are fond of suffering.” They are torments of love that I suffer as a result of not having enough love towards the friends and the Creator. If I want to replace suffering with its opposite, then instead of hate and rejection towards the friends and the Creator I need to reach love and invert all the bad into the good. I will never be harmed this way and will never feel bad or pain only on the condition that I aspire to be in connection with them. This is a general remedy that protects me.
32. S. (01:24:55) Do our thoughts of corporeal pleasures start the wave of the flood?
R. That too, of course, but also in relation to spirituality.
33. S. (01:25:10) How can we overcome and rise above the flood of thoughts, the foreign thoughts and connect with the ten?
R. This is something that we already learned about in a different place, how we can strengthen ourselves and hold on to our connection in order not to fall to the saboteurs. This is what we learn all the time: through connection, by annulment, what Rabash writes about in his social article.
34. S. (01:25:49) If all of Israel are guarantor to one another, so while fighting these saboteurs where is the ten’s works and where is the individual’s work?
R. I don't think that there's work of the particular and general here, but we all need as much as possible to try to connect, to be more tightly together.
35. S. (01:26:22) If a student experiences a flood where you live, does that count as “a flood in his work?”
R. No, we only need to get a feeling that if we disconnect from the ten, then I'm in the stormy sea. Pay attention to the sentence: as I disconnect from the ten, I am in a stormy sea meaning, I'm thrown out of the boat; this is how we have to feel and this is how I have to live my life.
36. S. (01:27:13) You explained that the corporeal world comes from Malchut and the spiritual world comes from Bina, but we learned that this world does not exist so it means that it has to be below the spiritual Malchut?
R. It is not important. He's asking out of wisdom, it is not important, he will advance and find out. I will not be going to describe all these things to everyone now where Malchut and where Bina is.
37. S. (01:27:44) A lot of times you say that the ego is the help against and I also heard that the wife of Adam is called help against, is there a relation between the two?
R. A person can learn many things from the woman's behavior, the main thing is that he should annul himself towards her, to some extent.
38. R. You see, we've been studying a four-sentence article for an hour and a half and there’s still more to talk about. So just see how related this already is to our life.
39. S. (01:28:50) I'm hearing all the explanations within our ten and I want to ask if in our work the flood according to what we know are waters that cover the whole land. It sounds like something good in spirituality, so why in that state can the saboteur actually kill spirituality?
R. I don't know why you are taking some corporeal form and pertaining to spiritually. What does he say about the flood, that it comes and washes everything away, and you have nothing left. And in those waters that wash everything away there's a saboteur. So learn from what he tells you, and not from what you take from some pretty novel.
40. S. (01:29:55) From your explanation about birth and woman, what is spiritual birth?
R. Spiritual birth is long after the flood and what we go through in the flood. We need to prepare ourselves first and foremost to be an embryo, to develop throughout the nine months of pregnancy and then to come to birth, to be born. To be born means that you are already getting to know the spiritual world; the new reality that is revealed to you in your new vessels. It doesn't exist, like this world doesn't exist. It exists in your perception. We exist in your perception, this world, this entire universe, where does it exist, in your perception. Same with the spiritual world and the spiritual birth.