Part 2
Morning Lesson January 10, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Reading Baal HaSulam Shamati 213 “Acknowledging the Desire”
1. S. (04:18) What does it mean that I see the Lord before me always and stand before the king?
R. That I have to constantly bring myself back to a state where I am standing before the Creator and I'm moving closer to him according to the equivalence of our qualities, equivalence of our form.
2. S. (04:50) He described a few things here to feel standing before the king, lack of faith?
R. It's all the same. Faith means the feeling of the Creator. It is very simple, the feeling of the Creator is called faith, not feeling the Creator is called lack of faith, how to feel the Creator is called lack of equivalence of form. As much as you are in the force of bestowal you can feel who was in bestowal.
S. What is a lack I need to have?
R. Lack to attain the force of bestowal. You have nothing other than that then you will see the whole reality, especially the group that you are giving an opportunity to increase, to attain and connect, combining all those qualities of bestowal.
3. S. (06:03) What are the signs that the Creator sees our prayers?
R. You need to try and feel during the prayer how inside your words and your thoughts that the Creator is already present. Even before you disclose a certain feeling towards Him even before that He is in it, and He governs you from there.
4. S. (06:58) What is this action that says to believe if faith is feeling the Creator, what is the action to believe?
R. Bestowal, faith is bestowal, bestowal is the meaning of faith. It is coming out of the desire to bestow and the desire to bestow is the force of Bina called faith. We have to come closer to that and from that we come closer ourselves.
S. He writes in the article that he who loves his friend prevents himself from doing anything that doesn’t bring contentment to his friend, how to keep myself in that way?
R. I think this has to develop in us naturally. I relate to the friend first of all and always check whether or not it is to his benefit. If it is what he wants. More than that is what I am doing to him. Does he want that, but he is unable to attain it by himself but I'm giving it to him then this is called completing for the friend, filling.
S. How to complete that correctly?
R. Think about how the friends are connected with you and you'll be connected together in such a way that the Creator will be necessarily between you, this is called ‘my sons have defeated me’ the moment we connect in the correct way we obligate the Creator to be revealed between us. This is the meaning of building the temple. Our heart and desires are connected and they become one heart where the place of the temple, Beit HaMikdash and becomes that place of Holiness, the place of bestowal is revealed in it which is the Creator.
5. S. (10:00) It is written in the second part that the thing that necessitates the person to labor there are many things but they are not aiming at the cause but the labor is only towards the goal
R. Yes but there are many causes. Of course, everything is only arranged according to the correction and in the correction because everything comes from None Else Besides Him but we can go towards it directly with our understanding, our mutual action with the Creator or along the way we philosophize or make different twists and turns or incorrect actions until we learn how to advance correctly. It's like in our life, we have to teach our children how to walk straight, safely and the Creator does the same with us.
Rav Reading Excerpt #1, Baal HaSulam Shamati 213 Acknowledging the Desire (11:30)
The basic primary principle is to increase the need. It is not enough for us to have a small deficiency towards the Creator called a point in the heart and we wish to reveal it but we also need to we need to add to this deficiency that the Creator illuminated in us, that the heart we need to add it an additional force, an additional deficiency that is greater and better directed. He says that we need to grow and increase the need for this is the basis for which the whole structure is built where we want to reach from here onto all of the way of correction and the strength of the building is measured by the strength of its foundation. Meaning, as much as our deficiency towards the goal can be bigger then accordingly we will build and construct a higher structure until we reach the height of 125 degrees. Because many things compel one to labor but they do not aim at the cause therefore the foundation impairs the whole structure. If our foundation is incorrect and is not aimed at the cause and the goal, then we are already turning in a different direction and although from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma. Meaning, no matter what it still requires a long time and takes a long time for us before one returns to the goal where we are walking and taking an incorrect path and discover that we are wrong, then we have to retrace our steps and take a straight path. We see it in our friends and those that leave who stayed on the outside for a long time and then come back to us. What can you do? There is nothing to do. You have to accept them and continue on with them. Don't believe yourself until the day you die that is what it says. So with each and every one of us the same thing can happen. The only condition is Arvut.
Therefore one must see that the goal is always before his eyes as it is written ‘I see the Lord before me always’. The Creator has to always be before me as the goal. Only like that is a person filled with fear and needs no preparations or observations but only to be completely nullified before the King, before his very nature. Meaning is a person annuls himself each time before the Creator and in all the additional things that accompanied it, relative to the group and the friends and so on meaning there is nothing else, this is the straight path towards the goal. Just as we see in corporeality that he who truly loves his friend thinks only of the best of his friend and avoids anything that is not beneficial to his friend. All of this is done without any calculation. It does not require a great mind since it is natural love itself guides him just as a mother's love for her child who only wants to benefit her child and she needs no preparation or intellect to love him census it is a natural thing. It is her desire, it is a natural thing, it is in her heart, since it is a natural thing it does not require intellect but it is done by the senses themselves. The senses themselves are devoted since this is how it is in nature as due to the love for something they give their soul until they achieve their goal. As long as they do not achieve this their lives are not a life. They are in constant yearning and searching; they don't know what to do.
6. S. (16:52) How do we keep increasing the lack all the time?
R. Through their friends and by studying. Meaning from authors and books from learning from the books and from speaking with the friends. From that you can acquire new deficiencies that together with the books and authors your friends, you can aim yourself more clearly at the goal and advance. There are no other means.
7. S. (17:41) What does the fear mean that is mentioned here?
R. Fear that I will not be able to connect with their friends and I will not be able to reach bestowal to the Creator. I will remain outside of bestowal and outside of Holiness. I will, God forbid, understand incorrectly what is the meaning of spirituality and it is not in order to receive but in order to bestow that I should agree to it and rise to a certain degree. This is my concern and this is what I fear.
8. S. (18:39) It says that the Creator here's the prayer of every mouth can we say based on that that the prayer is an action based on man and a sign that the vessel is willing to receive
R. Yes, correct.
Rav continues reading …whoever feels that this is like that, will surely be in Holiness, meaning he feels that he is similar to the force of bestowal like the Creator and surely he feels himself in wholeness meaning that he has faith, bestowal and as long as one does not feel that he is standing before a great King then one is the opposite and he does not feel it and it also awakens him to advance. We will later learn how we need to approach the Creator, that there needs to be a restriction, screen or reflected light there and that we could not open up our senses to him and grasp him with all of our senses, rather on the contrary we attain him by rejecting him in bestowal from us to him. Hence, once you see that servitude is first and foremost, meaning I come to serve, to give, to bestow first and foremost and after having it, this is called restriction, screen and reflected light then according to my efforts, according to what I attained through the screen, the restriction, the screen and the reflected light through the force of bestowal which is above the force of reception, the force of bestowal above reception, above Malchut and faith above reason that accordingly I can come into contact with a Creator since it will certainly not short the circuits.
Hence one should see that servitude is first and foremost meaning bestowal and one must regret not having sufficient faith and the force of bestowal is still lacking in him. The lack of faith is his foundation, the lack of bestowal. The lack in his brain and his heart to think and to feel that he wants only to bestow. Therefore he should pray for labor and desire to feel the want, that he lacks love and the importance of bestowal. Where will I obtain it? How do I activate it? Since if he has no lack it means that he has no clear vessel to receive the filling since when does he received the feeling of the Creator the revelation of the Creator, when he has a vessel of bestowal and he must believe that the Creator hears the prayer of every mouth and that he too will be delivered in complete faith. Meaning in total only the requests and prayer to have a desire to bestow the desire for the upper force to bestow that is all we need. This is the matter of the article, acknowledging the need, the desire, the revelation of this desire for bestowal. This is what we need and we need to check to see if we have it and whether we are advancing it and or not and we do this in a ten and immediately I will see if I am rejecting the friends or accepting them. Do I pay attention to their corporeal forms or is the most important thing for me their points in the heart although the point in the heart and the friends is not yet expressed correctly. It is possible that they are unable to express it correctly but it is there otherwise it would not be with me together. I trust the Creator for bringing me such friends and saying take it. By then you will be able to reach me and try to do it through them. A lack for connection, a lack for bestowal to the friends and through them a lack for bestowal to the Creator that is what we need to acknowledge and reveal that deficiency.
9. S. (24:20) It says in the last paragraph that a person should be sorry that he doesn't have proper faith, what does that mean?
R. To regret that he truly wants to obtain the force of bestowal and love of others and he does not have it which is why he regrets it and should regret it in the group where he sees that the friends have it and he does not. Look at your friends and try to see what is between them. You will see that between them there is a lot more connection and participation compared to what you have between you and them and then you should envy them because through the envy of counters, you will increase wisdom and you will want to reach the force of bestowal and you will ask of the Creator and you will receive.
10. S. (25:39) About the second paragraph he gives the example of one who loves his friend with true love and but then he continues and compares that to a mother who loves her child but for the mother the love for the child comes naturally and true love for the friend does not come naturally, so how do these two examples coincide? How do I take the example of a mother or the child and compare it
R. No, the example of a mother to her child, this is natural love and it exists also on the animate level, it does not exist on the speaking level. The speaking degree is us and we need to obtain the force of love, what does it mean the force of love, it means that there is a desire that on the one hand is found outside of me and on the other hand I raise it above my head. It is more important to me than anything. This example is truly the example for how we love small children, babies. That a mother towards her child is ready for everything nature obligates her. What do we need of course, through the upper light when we try to establish between us various activities and actions, we also wish to reach such love for the friends. Through them, when the friends become for me, parts of my spiritual body, this friend is the hand, this one is the feet, this one is the shoulder, this is the belly, this one is the brain and so on and so forth. Each and every friend is a part of my spiritual body and in this complete spiritual body the Creator already enters and enlivens that body and then we all, each and every friend needs to be, all of us need to enliven our soul. This depends on each one of us and all of us together.
S. If I don't see it I need to pray for it?
R. You still can't see it, this might be the topic for our next Congress and we will advance forward gradually but this is what needs to be there. This is exactly where each shall help his friend in truth. We will learn more about how important it is for us to come closer, to connect internally to one another because this is how we are from the beginning of creation and up until today we developed but we need to continue at this time with our own forces and participation. That's how we have advanced with the upper force but from here on we need to advance from partnership with it.
11. S. (29:41) It says that the primary principle is to increase the need, what do you do when the need is very big and it goes out of its boundaries, how do you direct it towards bestowal?
R. First of all we need to sort out the deficiencies that we have, how much the deficiency is for the goal or against the goal, where against the goal is also good, all of the deficiencies, all the thoughts. Except there are those in which we can continue in the same direction and there are those that we need to work with but in the opposite direction. It's like the sea where we have a ship and its sails, a sailboat and we use different sails that are going for the wind, against the wind, at a certain angle towards the wind according to how we need to navigate at sea and the same as here. There are no good things or bad things rather everything is about how we use them and that is how we shall advance.
12. S. (31:17) It says that one who believes and the reality of the Creator that the earth is full of his glory and full of fear and his love does not need preparations if there is no fear for their friend, is there also no true love towards the friend?
R. Yes love grows on top of fear, trepidation and it can't be any other way. Fear or trepidation can be of different levels where you have small insignificant incorrect degrees of fear or could have such degrees where you advance correctly with this fear and trepidation. Meaning throughout our entire ladder, until the end of correction we correct ourselves against the fears, what scares us, what we love or hate, with the main thing is the fear or trepidation and that is the main way to diagnose it.
13. S. (32:40) Like we see in corporeality like one who loves his friend, true love only thinks the best of his friends and avoids anything that is not beneficial to his friend, what does it mean something that is not beneficial to his friend?
R. That according to what I see, I need to act towards the friends, I need to relate to him only for his benefit, mainly for his spiritual benefit but also for his corporeal advancement which helps him advance spiritually as well. I see the friend as a part of me, certainly not 100% as I'm still not on that level but I still see him as a part of me. When we are together we advance towards the purpose of creation.
14. S. (33:39) It says that as long as he feels that he is not standing before the King then it is the opposite and so one should see that servitude is first and foremost. What does this mean, does it mean serving the friends even when you have no taste in it?
R. Of course how else can I advance if I have servitude? If I have tastes in servitude we don't have that and when will we have that, it is only on the condition that I do everything above reason. Only in this way, meaning like it or not the importance of the goal has to obligate me to do it. We will never come to a state where we want naturally to perform acts of bestowal and connection but rather when we make efforts above our nature then we will receive from above certain help. Then the upper light will influence us according to the purpose of creation and to advance each and every one of us to the force of bestowal and then we will feel that we are born in the force of bestowal and accordingly we advance.
15. S. (35:24) Faith is mentioned in the last paragraph, can you describe what faith is in the right way so it is clear how to see that concept?
R. Faith is a feeling of bestowal. For the time being that is enough.
16. S. (35:51) It turns out that lack of faith and an increase in this sense of lack is the basis to come closer to wholeness, how does this sense of lack translate to the feeling of complete faith?
R. I'm amazed by the women's questions. It is hard for me to answer. Those are precise questions, very manly I would say. I don't hear them from the men. I am highly impressed, well done, wise, sensitive, understanding and truly studious.
S. So on the one hand it turns out that there is lack of faith and the sense of increase of the lack and this is the basis to come closer to wholeness and faith, so how does the lack translate to faith, in complete faith?
R. We cannot reach faith without a lack or deficiency for faith and when we attain the faith then the deficiency for the faith remains because it does not exist in us naturally, therefore it is written love covers all transgressions. The transgressions remain and they will remain as such until the end of correction. However we need only to cover them with love and we know that it will not extinguish the deficiency.
17. S. (38:03) The article ends with the words complete faith, is a complete bestowal upon the whole Kli, the friends?
R. Yes, it says and he will be delivered and complete faith. What can be said about that? Complete faith means that I received a complete force of bestowal on top of all of my desires whichever they may be. I receive above them the force of bestowal and then I can use them 100% to bestow, this is the meaning of complete faith.