Morning Lesson September 12, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Faith Above Reason - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #22
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we will have to come to the force of Bina above the force of Malchut, the forces of bestowal all the way to the force of love even. This is our work, this is what we have to do, this is what is required of us. We have two ways, the path of light or the path of suffering. We can check what Baal HaSulam writes typically, the path lies somewhere in the middle between the two, not the path of Torah and not the path of suffering but the path of the land, which is in the middle. To the extent we are capable, we are trying to rise above the path of suffering to the path of light, the path of the Torah, in the prayer and in the connection between us and so on and so forth. This is how it works until the end of correction. Meaning we've come out of this path leading to the end of correction and we will discover various stages, various different states but they will all be from the way of faith within reason to faith above reason. We always have to look for ways to rise higher in the force of bestowal and the force of faith and of course in the stages that we go through, we will understand better why the Creator did it this way. So that we will have such a world. He supplied help in the form of the broken humanity, and a broken group, and the obligation for Arvut and mutual guarantee and other things along the way. We will see how all of it is necessary, all of it is organized so that we will go through these stages, these different degrees, and later we will discover the Partzufim, the Sefirot, worlds, until we get to the world of Ein Sof where everything connects and accumulates into one system.
What I want to say, therefore, is to relate what we are studying, not like previous topics where we went through one topic and then to a second topic and then a third topic. We spent a year or two learning these disparate, separate discernments and now it is all adding up towards the attainment of faith above reason. We have to understand that this is 'the' topic. Let us go and merge with it, connect with it, rise with it and thanks to the Creator, it will be revealed from our advancement in it. This is how we will understand and feel the degrees that we need to take to rise towards Bina and from Bina to Keter and this is how we advance. Therefore, we need as much as possible to try to be incorporated with the topic itself, to see ourselves, as the person has to see himself, each time trying to incorporate with it, to integrate with it, connect, and understand and try to feel all the details that exist in this topic. For the time being let's continue.
Excerpt 22 (05:09)
2. R. (06:47) To the extent that in every state however evil he remains in the Creator is doing with him and this is how the person progresses. Of course, from above they arrange more and more difficult state and the person real need to receive help from above, the light of Hassadim force to overcome and resist and then the person will be able to justify the situation because the situation is an elevating him each time more and more about the desire to receive above the ego bestowal him the force of Bina the force of faith above reason. Then it will be a big gap between the reason and above reason, between Malchut and Bina and then the person starts to attain the qualities of faith above reason and to understand creation that is built from these two forces of reason and above reason.
3. S. (08:07) Is there a difference between when the person can overcome but cannot but justifies what is better?
R. How can he justify?
S. When he cannot overcome, he knows that it comes from the Creator and he cannot overcome but he justifies the Creator.
R. I don't understand how to justify the Creator, without overcoming one’s reason when the reason paints an evil state for him and so on. So, it could be some temporary thing but it cannot be either above reason or below reason or within reason but you are talking about something intermediary not something realistic clarified.
4. S. (09:13) It says that we have to settle for a little what does it mean to be content with little
R. The state of a Bina is that one does not want to receive anything, instead it wants to be satisfied with everything it has and this is how this definition works. This is why we have to understand that the person who comes to the degree of Bina that wants to rise above himself he does not request anything for his desire to receive and then the Creator can show him and disclose to him the entire world but the person needs to get strength from the Creator in such a way that these forces, with them he does not require any fulfillment for himself instead only to give contentment to the Creator. Then he can give contentment to the Creator by being satisfied with little, whatever he has he does not want anymore, he is happy about it, this is the first degree of entering the spiritual world. We rise above the ego, we do not make any calculation of what happens inside the ego but as much as we can be above it that's important. For instance, this is the example of the guest and the host, the guest is sitting at the table of the host and the host is putting in front of him different beautiful dishes and the guest feels that he has a desire and hunger for it on one hand.
On the other hand, he does not want to use this hunger and desire in the usual way, according to his desire, he does not follow his reason, he wants to rise above his reason, he wants to relate to the host above his reason. If he had no reason, no desire, he would not be able to relate to the Creator with what he could relate, but specifically because he has a desire to receive from the host this is the beginning of his connection to the host. If he places a restriction that he does not want to receive anything for himself and he wants to resemble the host, then he lets me know how much I can give him. I can give him only on the condition that when I receive nothing back from him, I receive no reward from him. Then I also begin to receive from the host from the smallest pleasures in order to give back to the host and this is how I build myself relative to the host. I give him pleasure exactly how he wants to give me pleasure all the way to the highest point when we become equivalent to him and he to me and the creature wishes to reach balance in order to give contentment to the host according to this calculation.
5. S. (13:32) According to what I understood only when I do not want anything for myself then I receive?
R. No, when I want nothing for myself, I have an opportunity not to receive anything and beyond not receiving anything for myself I develop an ability to give to the Creator, to eat for his sake. Because I do this a huge favor to him, accepting the dish like the host and the guest I open up my desire from the smallest measure possible to the greatest, to enjoy it more in me, in my desire to receive for the sake of the host and then my calculations are spiritual calculations.
S. And then when I receive, I pass that back to the host, I give it back to the host?
R. What does it mean to give it back to the host, you cannot give these pleasures back, I enjoy myself in these vessels where I want to give back to the host, this is bestowal back.
S. Then I can enjoy without guilt or shame?
R. Of course the more you receive from the host the more you give back to him and then the shame, it becomes glory and reception becomes bestowal.
6. S. (15:27) What is the meaning of what you said receiving small pleasures to give contentment to the Creator
R. We start with the small pleasures because the created being is not sure he has to make calculations over the big pleasures, this is the order NRNHY. We cannot jump into the main course immediately to get the greatest light. Certainly, I start with but I can confidently make calculations with and cope with and from the beginning I have no way to make calculations above any kind of pleasure. So, this is why I examine, I sort them out and I choose the smallest pleasures, I can make calculations with and then I slice it into tiny pieces. I test this pleasure and as much as I can feel that greatness of the host and only for the sake of greatness of the host, I am tasting it. Then, I start building in me a new vessel for receiving pleasures and I begin to build in me a vessel which resembles the Creator. Here it turns out the way the Creator feels the pleasure in bestowing to the creature. The creature in the same way wants to give pleasure to the Creator and then we enter equivalence of form with him. So already here I discover a certain connection between the Creator and myself “I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me” and this new examination, the new details when we connect and embrace and feel each other, we generate a new reality called adhesion to the Creator. Connection all the way to adhesion, even in the smallest portion. This is already the first spiritual attainment, later more and more, but it is all on the condition that I go with faith above reason, this is called faith above reception.
7. S. (18:30) So the entrance into the first spiritual degree as you said before has to do with this internal revolution inside that we do not use any longer the five senses but we start using spiritual senses. That we no longer receive pleasure from receiving to ourselves but like the felt pleasure from self-reception and we feel pleasure from bestowal, this is the revolution?
R. This is truly the revolution, the inversion we are not in it yet because we have to learn to receive in order to bestow and we are not in it yet but you can say a few words about it but I would not want to get into this because we still miss the examples and the right vessels. So, talk about what it means Bina above Malchut, faith above reason that bestowal is more important than reception.
8. S. (19:42) What will help me the most to have faith above reason over my desire to receive where should we start?
R. We start from how we need to read in our free time, all these writings that we learn in the morning lesson, so how we read whatever we learn in the morning lesson, read it and read it. Although we do not clearly understand what is written we might disagree, it has nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing, I have to read them because there is a great deal of spiritual force in them and this is what I want to be influenced by. So, it does not matter if I understand it more or less and what is written if I have any connection to it, what is important is that the force that is concealed in them, this force will influence me, this is what I want. This is how we progress it takes time and the fact that we still do not understand what it talks about and I get it, it will take time before you can feel anything through them but it is progress through confusions and difficulties but you will go through them and you acquire a new mind and feeling from Bina, from the degree of bestowal from the quality of the Creator. In such a way gradually the force of the creative you'll be conceived in you the upper force, according to the degree of conception of the force of the Creator in you. You become Adam similar to the Creator and without this force of Bina faith in you, we are called just a beast. As it is written everybody was like a beast because we are not better than the animals, on the animal degree.
9. S. (22:39) How should one come to pray to help the friends, what is the prayer for helping the friends?
R. The prayer for the friend, means that I am trying to reach bestowal and my bestowing is when I want to reach a state where the success of the friends is more important than my personal success and this is the meaning of praying for the friends. If we are in the force of Bina, it is like the real Ima in this world, when we want to give it to everybody, to help everybody, to serve everybody this is what is pressuring us and we want to explode. Like the cow that more than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to feed' and this is how we need to understand the force of bestowal that needs to impregnate us.
10. S. (24:31) You said that we need to build a Kli but yesterday we learned that we still do not have a Kli and through the prayer we have to ask for this Kli?
R. Of course, we do not have any vessel, the vessel is a deficiency, so we do not have the deficiency to bestow. We are all working so the will to receive, the deficiency to receive which we had and perhaps still have, would grow smaller and smaller, until we feel that we barely have no deficiency. Not today, but maybe tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. Meaning in terms of time, in the near future, we hope that we will feel that our will to receive is satisfied more and more with only necessary things and it doesn't pull us in different directions, only to exist, to survive, and this is for the time being. It will come and renew itself but for the time being this is how it is, and in its place, I don't know, I seemingly in a state where nothing seems attractive to me and gradually when I have nothing to yearn for, I begin to understand that this is in fact the state from which I can begin to yearn so that I can bestow to the Creator. Since I do not have any desire for my own and then I can bestow to the Creator. Then from that I will begin to develop in faith above reason. This is the beginning. We have already talked about this during the last week.
11. S. (27:09) The 10 come to the quality of Bina together or some friends might get there first and help the others to get there?
R. Yes, you do not progress equally. Each one is different from his friends but in total our progress depends on all of us and what we receive from above, the force of help from above. So, we cannot determine who is more or less than and how. Instead, we only have to try to pray to the Creator in our connection to help us reach mutual bestowal and according to our mutual bestowal we can give to him as well. Where and when, who will be more than the others or less than the others in truth in the group, it is not important. It depends on the root of the soul of the person, it depends on many elements in which we have no say whatsoever because imagine, we are single cells that exist among many other parts like it, among millions or billions of parts like this single cell. We need to develop but our development depends not only on us but on the entire environment we are in. We can exist in between such tens. We do not need to pay attention to it because we do not have the vessels of communication or examination, instead we simply have to progress as it is written in the writings we read.
12. S. (29:52) How to reach a state where my intention is similar to the Creator? Even if I think my intention is correct, I want to steal all the time.
R. I do not understand what you say, you have a good tendency, you have a strong desire but think about the questions before you ask your questions are not properly formulated. Write them down and then ask, read from what is written before you, this helps to organize and formulate the question properly.
13. S. (31:23) If all reality is inside of me then my friends are also inside of me, so does it mean that loving the friends means loving myself?
R. No, it does not mean that because you do not feel them as part of you, they are not in you according to your feelings. For the time being you feel yourself as you feel yourself and others outside of you, we do not disconnect from this reality you feel otherwise you'll imagine that you are already at the end of correction. When you begin to change the way, you perceive reality you will see how these things will change, we must not mix imagination and reality, we have to live in the reality we feel.
14. S. (32:44) When you are clinging to the friends connecting to the Creator what causes you to get the pleasure?
R. Also to the extent to them you go through bestowal in order to bestow and then reception in order to bestow, you receive everything and then you give it back to them. This is the extension of truthful bestowal, instead you are already using the vessels of a reception, this is already greatness (Gadlut).
S. You said that you start to slice parts of from the pleasure, how do you see this that you are slicing?
R. We gradually acquire this under the influence of the upper light on us. It influences us to see more accurately what it needs to receive, what it needs to bestow and we do not get confused anymore. We still have not obtained the lights that will scrutinize us, will sustain us and this lies ahead of us.
15. S. (34:21) The writing talks about two states: how to settle in feeling and mind which are already spiritual degrees to go with the eyes shut. What is the focus on going with eyes shut? Do we use the intellect, how can we use going with eyes shut working with the mind?
R. You need to activate the mind and feeling in all degrees even when we say we are walking without feelings or without intellect, this is only how we speak about. The person cannot cut it out of himself that he says that I shut my eyes and go with eyes closed, going with eyes closed means that I do not take into consideration after I checked it and see it thousands of times as Rabash gives the example of above reason. I check and I see and everything I think and examine but then I accept the opinion of the others and go above my reason.
16. S. (35:54) Craving to receive from the host where does it come from, from appreciating the group?
R. This is later, this you do not have yet a desire to receive from the host, we do not have contact with him, we cannot give to the host let alone receive from the host, so do not jump ahead.
S. It is clear but we still try to engage moving towards spiritual actions and we need the craving to connect to the host, where does it come from. How can we appreciate the Creator, is it through the group?
R. The appreciation of the group and the appreciation of the Creator one cannot be greater than the other in spirituality
17. S. (36:53) We have different roots for the soul but we are in the same 10, so our souls are still close to each other, so we need to develop in a way that is more or less equal?
R. It is like when you are on a ship, there is the captain, there are people, the sailormen who work on the engine room and those who work on the deck and the navigate the ships by the stars and more and more there are different levels of people with different roles. It is the same in the group but you need everybody because in spirituality you need to have a complete vessel, ten and not 9, 10 and not 11. Therefore, they are all important as one if one is not doing his job, the whole group is not doing its job.
18. S. (38:32) Rabash at the end of the article brings us to a request and I am wondering if staying in gratitude is also a kind of prayer?
R. This would be clarified later if it is the same prayer or not, of course everything will change many times. We haven't even gone through one degree in faith above reason. Just keep going and we have to feel how step-by-step we are nevertheless progressing, feeling where is the entrance to the spiritual reality. What it means exactly spiritual reality, how we arrange ourselves in it more and more and how we can overcome the level of the Malchut and reach bestowal and reception in me. This will become more and more obvious this will become more and more obvious.
19. S. (40:08) How does the10 advance in faith above reason to reveal the Creator's names?
R. As we connect and, in the connection, we resemble the Creator, this entire connection is to bestow to the Creator and to keep the desire of the Creator it turns out that every 10 is in one intention in one action, in one deed and if we adhere ourselves to the Creator and this is the goal which is revealing the Creator. This is connecting us and it is not that every wish to connect between us just for nothing these are just empty words but the fact that we want to bestow to the Creator, to come close to him this wakes up the upper light and connects us specifically, it connects us and this is how we progress. The 10 cannot be without craving for the Creator because this is what makes us into a single 10. Then we can be aimed at the Creator because then we can reveal him so it turns out that this tendency, this position that I, the group and the Creator that places me in the 10 and 10 progresses towards the Creator.
20. S. (42:27) So we cannot change anything in our self the solution is always to pray and to ask from the Creator but the Kabbalists do not explain to us but it means how to do this, they expect us to know how to do this or what or if it will appear later on?
R. The Kabbalists explain to us in thousands of places, how to connect, how to pray to the Creator, what to ask for, you are just saying something nonsense. There is no such thing that they do not explain it or that we do not have this. Thousands of books have been written about it and if you do not know then don't speak about the Kabbalists, speak about yourself.
S. So I hear that I have to pray and I ask from the Creator to me these are spiritual words something that is not in my vessels, these words these words of to do, is this correct to relate to this this way?
R. Keep going the way you are, just understand that anything you are doing in the 10, the more you try to help in whatever you can in dissemination, in building the group, this wakes up the reforming light on you and this is how you progress. It is possible that not now but maybe 10 years from now, you will start to feel changes as a result of the reforming light working on you and suddenly you see or finally you will see that what it means bestowal above reception, which is good faith above reason, this is how it is.
21. S. (45:03) The importance of working for the Creator is in our thoughts but at the same time some of the vessels, some of the friends do not see this importance. How to help the friends who want to serve the Creator with all their hearts?
R. Only by showing them an example of the importance of the goal, of the importance of the work, there is nothing else to help the importance of the goal, the importance of the work to attain that goal, show the example.
22. S. (46:11) How long and how can we attain the state of spirituality?
R. You can attain it, you can reach it by caring about the entire group so that the group would attain spirituality and I see myself only as the activator or server, the one who is the catalyst of that progress of the others. This is the best way to care for my own spiritual progress, we need to understand that it's not like I am doing a business here. I am truly working on it. I want to progress and I am willing to do this work. I agree that they have to progress and not me and then I understand this is how I progress in spirituality when I only care about the progress of others when I check myself, when I care about my friend’s progress and not my own and then I arrange myself in the best possible way in relation to faith.
23. S. (47:50) Is creating a vessel in the 10 and natural process or it is possible to speed this up?
R. Building vessels we can speed up through our work, only through our efforts and the work that more v progress and come closer to each other to become one man with one heart as everything is written about the society everything depends on the environment. So much is written about this if you read them, you understand that all of it is written so we would develop the force of bestowal above the force of a reception or faith above reason, it is the same just using different words because we are speaking of the connection between people and not between us and the Creator
24. S. (49:04) Yesterday we learned that if there is no suffering then there is no deficiency and we also spoke above about suffering at the beginning of the lesson about the suffering of Bina who has no strength to give but wants to bestow?
R. What does it mean that Bina doesn't have the power to give, of course she has the power to bestow I do not understand. Bina suffers because she cannot bestow because the others don't accept it as it is written, like the cow is full of milk and they don't want to take the milk from her.
S. So how does she give if she has the power to bestow but she does not bestow?
R. She needs to find someone who can take it from her, this is what the Creator wants, if we don't want to receive from her, if you don't want to suckle from her, like the baby from the mother, like the calf from the cow, then he is suffering and then he is sending us different actions to progress us. Sends us conditions, states so we would also feel that suffering as a result of not receiving from him but he wants to give us the good relationships, where he wanted to give something good over to us but we feel this as suffering torment because we are not yet prepared to receive correctly from him.
S. So the force of Bina the force of bestowal, what does it depend on, the higher or lower?
R. The force of bestowal is in Bina but it depends on the lower ones if they receive it from her in time or not, the Creator has the plan of creation which is called the 6000 years and we need to develop according to this, at times according to that plan or we can speed it up. This is the meaning of Israel accelerating the time and accordingly we can see it.
S. So she is stuck, so what to do?
R. Bina that is stuck because everything she wants to send to us so we would develop correctly and she cannot do that, then all of it is felt in us as torment, as Klipot, shells, as big problems. This is because we are not building ourselves correctly to receive all the good things from her or the bad things. The evil things we feel is not because they are evil or bad but because we cannot receive all the good things from above because we do not have the vessels so we feel it as suffering.
S. How to speed up the ability to receive?
R. Through the connection between is through study and prayer, the main thing is the prayer towards that Bina, towards that higher force of bestowal, we turn to him with request to build the vessels of bestowal and then we activate our desire and we can receive in order to bestow so we can receive from the higher-level, from Bina in order to bestow.
25. S. (53:31) So we need to study 3-5 years to reach spirituality. Is this true?
R. I do not think that the time is that important, it is not playing a role here. I think nevertheless we need time because the upper light works both on mankind according to the axis of time and also in relation to us through the axis of time but we can speed up the coming of these lights on us. Everything depends on us. Everything depends on the degree of connection between us so we have nothing else to do but to ask for the connection between us and prayer to the Creator and make efforts in between us to connect and accordingly the lights will influence us and then we will progress accordingly.
26. S. (54:52) When we ask the Creator to help us to rise above reason he sends as help made against us and then we need to turn to the group to progress but where does the group get the strength that we do not get?
R. Because by connecting together according to the recommendation of the Kabbalists we need to subjugate ourselves to some extent to connect and then according to our physical structure as a group we resemble spiritual details like the 10 Sefirot that connect together and then we build the Partzuf of the soul. The soul is the vessel which is connected with the force of mutual bestowal inside on the degree of Bina, the degree of bestowal so the light they receive is the light of Neshama and this is how we need to try to do that. Meaning try as much as possible even if we are rejecting each other, each as an individual nobody wants to connect to the others this is our inherent nature but if we do all of this in order to connect to the Creator, since I have no choice, this is the condition. Because then I come to the Creator with the forces of bestowal with all these concessions, I make over myself, I nullify myself to become closer to others, then everybody together when we are building such as mutual concession that we can approach the concept of the Creator we can build this concept between us. If we try to come to this structure where the Creator is made up of all our efforts then we can discover him according to the law of equivalence of form, this is the meaning of you have made me or you have built me or my sons have defeated me, in similar lines.
27. S. (58:15) You answered the friend that we still have to let the light, give it time to influence us. Can I accelerate that by increasing the desire to connect?
R. Yes only that.
S. How can I increase the desire to connect?
R. Think about it, see what is written many things are written about it the main thing is to bestow in practice to the 10.
28. S. (58:59) I would like to speed up the desire to connect.
R. With everything you've got you need to feel that you are doing it.
S. What is the sign that I am connected to speed it up?
R. As one man and one heart to scrutinize all of these things, what is written about it and to show it to others, we need to work not just wait for it to happen.
29. S. (01:00:02) About prayer being the most effective action and in preparation for the Congress the different questions come up, how do we ask from the Creator for collective action that everyone turns to the Creator or we stop and think and then do it?
R. In both are good and correct things that are beneficial to your advancement and you need both to advance, individually one by one and then everyone together and then again individually and everyone together and this is how you need to see the correct form of advancement, the correct style of work. Each 10 will discover its own unique form of advancement.
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