Morning Lesson January 30, 2024
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 21, 1990. What Is, “As I Am for Nothing, so You Are
for Nothing,” in the Work?
Reading Article. (00:23) “It is written in The Zohar, Truma, ‘And they shall take…’”
R. (38:15) Thanks to the reader, any questions?
1.S. (38:30) What is it to exert in spirituality?
R. Like in corporeality, when I gather all the opportunities that I have to perform someone's desire.
S. In corporeality, I can understand. I wanted to wake up in the morning and come to the lesson it was a little difficult, I made an effort, it was important, and I woke up, but towards anything we call spirituality there it doesn't feel like effort, it feels like either you have, or you don't. It's like zero-one, there’s no gray area there that you can put forth an effort.
R. There is a gray area. I lie in my bed, and the alarm clock rings, I can get up or I cannot get up. I need to gather from all kinds of thoughts and desires and reasons to get up and then maybe I will get up.
S. We talked about deeds and acts in spirituality and working in the intention. Can I with the intention for myself I know that’s good, I feel like that all the time, and there is some form of intention in order to bestow, I don't know what that is, but I heard. The closest that I can do to that is to think about the friends, what's to their benefit, what they need now, what example, etc. But the moment it enters the thought it again feels to myself, for myself, it doesn't feel like bestow or what they're describing.
R. We need to try more and more to have such variations until you feel that there is a difference in it.
2. S. (40:45) Now that we're sitting and studying Rabash we read the article by this are we bringing contentment to the Creator in this deed, all of us together?
R. Well, if there is such an intention then of course we do.
S. Meaning, at first a person can come and enjoy the material, the coffee, the milk, and all that we talked about, and gradually with time the intention enters and he does this deed because he feels that he is bringing contentment to Him by sitting and studying?
R. Yes, and even more than that, if we think that we are working for Him in order to delight Him.
S. That was the question actually if we're sitting here now after the convention and we all want to delight him meaning for the study to bring him contentment?
R. Yes.
S. That’s where we need to?
R. If not for this condition we would not be studying.
3. S. (41:58) Rabash gives us here a very beautiful discernment about the Kli, he divides it into two, that one Kli the Creator gave us which is our nature is our desire to receive, and the other Kli which we seemingly with our effort bring bestowal to the Creator. He talks about some rewards, some yearning and how we, because we are in the desire to receive in our nature expect some reward always. He says even though the second half which comes from us even there it is not quite from us because there too the Creator gives us that part which is not quite. He gives us Torah as a spice and he gives us the good inclination and the evil inclination, he doesn't give it to us alone, he gives it to us there in the second part. I am asking how do we come to the study, I want to feel like a true partner to the Creator because if I'm your partner in this business I'm not looking for this reward for myself because I'm your partner. My feelings and your feelings should be equal. How do we, how do I, come to a true state where I feel every given moment a true partner to the Creator?
R. This is by precisely keeping the Torah and Mitzvot that the Creator gave us.
S. Can we expand this a little bit, it's clear about the Torah and Mitzvot, but this way is, we're told all the time ascents, descents, reward, no reward, yearning. How do I want to feel that the reward, that all my work that I'm doing here is for the sake of the Creator like we said earlier? We come here to study, we want to bring Him contentment whether it's through the friends, through every single friend that is here, we want to bring Him contentment. How do I really feel every given moment, even when I wake up in the morning from my bed I come with joy because I want to be his partner. How?
R. Well this is something we need to learn. This is something we need to learn. I get up in the morning and I want to be His partner and I get up in the morning. I don't want that.
S. I have a question about that too Rav, he talks here about a certain craft or a talent that we have to learn how to sell or work on a certain thing in our vessels. I know that talent is not something you learn. It's something that you're born with.
R. The skill or craft, we get from above according to our prayers and according to the Creator’s desire.
S. That’s it exactly. How can we learn that talent?
R. We don't need to learn it. We don't have any place to learn talent, skill, it's actually a quality that you get from above, from the Creator.
S. Probably everything is investing in this talent?
R. I don't know what you're talking about, and I think you got confused big time.
S. It could be. I’m asking the most meaningful question. How eventually, as you’re saying, we will be true partners with a Creator? It’s to be here every day, to invest every day to make the effort?
R. Yes.
4. S. (46:09) He says in the article that we need to know what name of the Creator we are addressing, the one that redeems those in bondage, healer of the sick, etc.
R. These are details already.
S. Do we address a certain Kli to receive the filling?
R. We don't turn to the vessel, we turn to the Upper Force and ask Him to get some bestowal from Him, that he will bestow to us what we are missing.
S. Why does it need to be in an individual way and not in a general way? Why does he refine it and make a precision there?
R. Because each one has its own grievances, complaints, and questions.
5. S. (47:11) He writes that you need to believe that you will have reward in the next world and here there's exertion, and then he talks about the three fears; the first fear being punishment of monetary or physical, the second fear is a punishment of this world and the next, and the third fear is from Him being the Lord and the King and ruler. How can you even identify if at all, in what fear he is in?
R. According to how he feels; if he has a clear feeling that fills him, then he determines this as what he has in him.
S. Can he take assistance from the Ten when he’s doing this?
R. Possibly.
6. S. (48:02) He talks about the lack is where a person needs to feel that he is missing vessels of bestowal and he feels that all that he does, he does for his own benefit, and it hurts him that he is far from adhesion with the Creator and he sees that from his side, on his behalf he has no way to exit the desire to receive and that is called a lack and that belongs to the created being. Meaning a person needs to feel the lack and that's what he calls an act, a deed. Then he repeats that he has to feel pain in his body from not managing to bestow. Can you talk about this pain a little bit simply logically it is not clear however the desire to receive can feel pain from not bestowing. What is that pain?
R. If you have a little child that, God forbid, is sick and you want to impart him with health and you can't do it, and he cries, doesn't sleep, and screams, then you search for medicine, you search how to get out of it.
S. It's understood, but that's exactly the point. We have this perception here, my little child, I love him, he is more precious to me than my own life and it hurts me that I'm helpless. Here this matter of this function of love is missing.
R. We need to develop it. First of all, to feel that you depend on the Creator and the Creator doesn't send healing for the time being, so what can I do? How to awaken Him, evoke Him to send this medicine? It's a problem.
S. The problem is from this example, I don't even feel that I am sick. If I were to feel that I was sick.
R. No, we are talking about your child.
S. I'm talking about the deficiency for bestowing and the fact that I don't have it supposed to feel it?
R. No. That you will have the desire to ask of the Creator.
S. The example is clear. The example that when the child is sick, and you need help then you feel that it hurts you and you are missing it. I'm talking about?
R. And, you turn to the Creator?
S. You turn to the Creator, you have no one else to turn to. Here, I'm talking about the work that we've gathered here for. I need to be the bestower, and it will hurt me that I'm in the nature of the receiver and I need to be the bestower. Here I'm asking what is that pain?
R. The child is sick, and you need to raise a prayer to the Creator that it will influence the Creator and the Creator will heal the child.
S. Who is the child in this example?
R. A child. Do you have children?
S. Again, you’re going back to corporeality with me.
R. I don’t know your fantasies.
S. You gave me an example that I will understand, right?
R. Yes.
S. The child in the example, who is it in my nature? What is the child?
R. When you feel in your heart, inside of you, some image called your child. You have children?
S. Yes, I can understand it. I’m asking again.
R. What else do you want?
S. It’s in my perception, that I love my child, he’s important to me and I care for him.
R. If you want to get all confused, please do it without me. I am explaining clearly, that is it. First of all, attain that. I have nothing more to say, you always want to spin things in another direction.
7. S. (52:35) Can we assert that our studying to adhere to his commandments, and drawing closer to Him, in the company of my friends, brings Him contentment?
R. We can check it, yes. We need to see the results and if we don't understand them or we are not satisfied with them then we have to raise it to the Creator again.
S. So if I can follow up with another question? If I understand it correctly, we have to clean our evil inclination by actually taking the so-called bitter medicine and actually see the evil in us, so we can get cleansed from it, that’s how we can become good friends with each other and adhere to Him. Is this correct?
R. Yes, yes. If we take the qualities in which we are far away from the Creator, and we try to change them to replace them with qualities in which we will feel that we are close to the Creator; this is how we get closer to Him. This is called the work of corrections.
8. S. (54:44) It says in the article every man shall give as he is able according to the blessing of the Lord your God which He, the Creator, has given you. What does that mean actually that you're totally dependent on the Creator on your actions of giving?
R. Of course, it's my nature, it's my character, this is how I behave. I don't have other vessels besides those ones.
S. How can I come, let's say, that the Creator will bless me so that I will be able to give?
R. Ask. There is no other connection of a person with the Creator than the person asks and the Creator gives.
S. Should I ask the Creator for the blessing to be able to give?
R. Yes, yes that I will have the possibility to bestow. Maybe not directly to the Creator, but perhaps through the friends.
9. S. (57:28) In this article there are small questions and big questions. He writes that it is known that the purpose of creation is to do good to his created beings. And then he says that after a person believes this way and that way, and that way, he needs to know eventually, he needs to know Him, to know He governs the world and the Providence of The Good That Does Good. Based on what is that knowledge? Who knows that the purpose of creation is to do good to His created beings?
R. Those who have faith in the Creator.
S. Where does this faith come from?
R. The heavens. From the ceiling.
S. Is it a foundation?
R. You need, did you learn in school?
S. A little.
R. A little. Anything that you need to solve, you have a few conditions that you have to accept as an axiom, as a given; and then from that, that this is certainly so, then you are going to solve the problem.
S. Ok. Let's say I started my studies and I believe what I was told that this is right, I even accept it to the degree of knowledge. Later when I look at the continuation of the work, this faith brings me to a place where it will truly pain my body that I am not like the Creator?
R. Yes.
S. So, at that point, if I made a calculation that it is not worthwhile to believe and work hard and on and on, and at the end, the bottom line…?
R. True today. It's true that it doesn't pay off. You feel good, you have everything, you don’t lack anything, you feel that reaching an acquaintance with the Creator, to reveal Him, these are difficult things, big, let's leave them for another time; let’s say, for the next world, the next life.
S. It also tells me that I will receive a little reward here, a little reward in the next world, I don't know what that is, but?
R. Okay, then you will decide, nevertheless you have a choice before you; either to stay and continue in a beastly way that you see what's good and what's bad ahead of you truly, and you move away from the bad and get closer to the good. Or you will do what the Torah says, but that is already a different kind of work; it is no longer for your body, it's for your soul.
S. The whole process from the beginning to the end is kind of like in a fog. You're told you get a reward, and you'll get a reward but not you, the Creator will get the reward. It’s a little correction, and then all together you end up with nothing. It says the whole reward in the end is that the Creator will get the reward. Work, work, work, believe, believe, believe, you'll get a reward, yes, but it's not you, the Creator will receive the reward.
R. Why?
S. That's kind of the goal, that's what you have to get to.
R. The goal is adhesion. The goal is adhesion between the person and the Creator, equivalence.
S. This Dvekut, this adhesion, is on the scale on the other side where the suffering was where you're not even capable of doing anything and you feel pain?
R. Yes, in all the same places that you were suffering, in them the pleasures are revealed.
10. S. (01:01:48) Where's it possible to see that the Creator is enjoying? How can we recognize it?
R. Maybe you will see it later.
S. Is it supposed to be part of the goal of adhesion?
R. No, to delight the Creator is your work, that is your goal, and you want this to happen.
S. In order to work on that more and more, should I see that He's actually enjoying it?
R. No, then it will truly be in order to receive a reward.
That you're working in order to feel that you are giving to the Creator. That's like in this world in all sorts of our actions.
S. We actually need to place a concealment on this kind of feeling?
R. Yes of course. If I do not perform a concealment on this then it will be in order to receive.
S. On the way when we're doing this work and bestowing contentment to the Creator, we will get such feelings and states that where we will really have to make concealment over it?
R. Yes.
S. It's necessary, it has to happen?
R. Of course. He writes to us, Baal HaSulam: this is the whole matter of the screens, where and why the screens are there at the Partzufim of Kedusha, Holiness. It is all from that, where a person doesn't want to receive clear attainment and a clear feeling. This comes to him in an indirect manner.
11. S. (01:03:58) It says that from this we see that everywhere where the created beings feel they can get pleasure for something, immediately use this vessel that’s called the will to receive to itself. Meaning for himself, for his own benefit and the person should not be awakened to receive pleasure but rather to the extent the pleasure clothes in the thing, this pleasure attracts a person, and he chases the pleasure in order to obtain it. This means to the extent that the pleasure that is in this thing, it awakens yearning in a person. This is in the will to receive. How to develop yearning to bestow, how do we get that?
R. For the time being between the friends. Where we see how much it benefits, how much it advances, how much it opens in you all kinds of feelings. Whether you are bestowing or not. With such an attitude towards the friends you start to discover your nature.
12. S. (01:05:15) How to learn to feel the deficiency that the Creator is giving us?
R. Out of us working on this. That which we are drawn to comes from the lack that the Creator implanted in us; He gave a person not to Adam HaRishon but in general to man. But the question now is what do I do with it? First, I can see from this that the Creator wants to give me. But from giving me I am not in the goal, I can maybe even enjoy what he's giving me, but I need to perform a restriction, a screen, reflected light, that is the intention in order to bestow to Him. Then and only then can I perform an action that connects me and Him; by us coming into equality of form, by me wanting to give Him and Him giving to me. This is called the direct light clothe the reflected light, and then I feel the Creator in his action, and we are delighted from our equalization. That is the right action.
S. With the help of which efforts and conditions in the work in the Ten, can we discover the greatness of the Creator?
R. Only according to what we said, that in such a manner I begin to relate to the Creator like the way he relates to me, by this I build in me the image of the Creator. That is called the revelation of the Creator in the created being.
13. S. (01:07:33) We always talk about asking for a request, it is hard for me to increase my deficiency towards faith. Why is it so difficult?
R. Because lack is nature, and faith is not a natural thing.
14. S. (01:07:55) Earlier the friend asked how do we know that we know we're giving contentment to the Creator and your answer was that in every action that we aim to give Him contentment, this already gives Him contentment. First of all, the question is why is it so?
R. Because we intend to do it.
S. Why does that give Him contentment? As an example, it's difficult for a person to get up for the lesson, he has to do a lot of overcoming until he pulls himself out of bed and then he decides that I will do it in order to give contentment to the Creator, even though it's very hard for me to perform this action. So, there's no joy in this action or uplifted spirit but rather?
R. Those are additional things but at least there is an act.
S. There's a calculation, maybe if I don't do it, I will get some blow from the Creator, maybe I'll make Him angry?
R. Then the calculation is not to bestow to the Creator, but to prevent ourselves from receiving a blow.
S. Exactly, also in that state is it giving Him contentment, because in the end I'm taking the Creator into consideration but on the other side I don't want to get hurt by Him?
R. Yes, but nevertheless it’s on the way. It’s a start.
15. S. (01:09:23) He gives an example of somebody working in a certain craft and this worker not only does he want to make money but also wants the owner to continue so the business will continue. Now each one of us is in a spiritual business called the Ten. I want this business to continue existing. What do I want this business to profit from?
R. From the nearing of the Creator.
S. Is this the profit of the Ten?
R. Yes, and also yours.
S. With respect to the friends the fact that I want the friend to enjoy on the path, this will hold them on the path right, it will keep the business so that it will continue?
R. Yes.
S. The last question in this business called the Ten, if the friend feels that his friends in the business, they are working the business is operating he sees that the business is working even if he does not contribute to the business. What do you tell such a friend?
R. I do not know what you want.
S. I'll ask in a different way. What should each one give in order for the business to work, the business of the Ten?
R. It is written that we have to give our soul. The soul is the desire of every person and what he wants from life. That is what he wants to give to the business he needs to want it then he needs to give.
16. S. (01:11:38) Rabash speaks in many of his articles about the fact that the action is what is most important, and I can understand we can interpret action on many levels. I want to ask about action in our hands and legs what is called the practical Mitzvot. I feel more and more especially what we learn in Rabash articles, that maybe there could be a lot of benefit in these actions. Suddenly something that I didn't feel in the past and I have two questions about it. One, can the practical doing sometimes harm or delay a person if he does it in a certain way?
R. Yes, if a person thinks that by that he performed his action holy it is actually harmful for him. And he didn't even start with the intention to execute it.
S. So we should see it as a means that the action of doing is the means. Second question what intention should I establish inside of me before starting such an action? What kind of intentions should I do the action with?
R. I do not know. In the manner, to the extent in which you recognize, know, feel the act and that the Creator does to you then do a scrutiny on that. Why he does, for what he does, and how I can respond to this.
17. S. (01:13:35) Rabash writes here that the first half the Creator gives the will to receive and the second half that is for it to be in order to bestow that half pertains only to the created beings so that they will need to place a Masach, a screen over the will receive, that is the second half. What is the meaning of the created beings placing the Masach, the screen over the will to receive?
R. That the Creator awakens the will to receive in a person a special a new one, that was not used before by that person, and now the person needs to put a Masach, a screen, and reflected light on that desire. He does not want to receive a filling into that desire in the regular way, but he wants to use that desire to reach equivalence of form to the Creator, to resemble the Creator.
18. S. (01:14:46) How can we understand correctly that the vessel is made of two halves? Can you say that this is stages?
R. It is not stages, it is two halves of one vessel. Let's say half, that the vessel has the will to receive, and it also has an ability to build a Masach, a screen.
S. Is this approach that the vessel is complete, and I must perform corrections on my desires? Does it somehow conflict with the approach that this is two halves?
R. Yes, it is connected to one another.
19. S. (01:15:47) Can it be said that the Creator enters a person with all of nature's forces?
R. What?
S. Nature's forces, like rain, cold, sun, wind with all those things through these things enter a person?
R. Why throw those things? Say through thoughts or events.
S. I will tell you why I am asking. In the morning, I came and for ten minutes with rain and bitter cold and I am very happy about it because the Creator beat me with all his power and I am delighted about it. Thank you very much.
R. In my sorrow, it is not giving me any happiness. I cannot say that it was the Creator in all of his might that went into me.
20. S. (01:16:55) Can we acquire a desire of a friend that it becomes like my possession?
R. Yes.
S. How do I do this?
R. Try to adhere to him as much as possible to want the same thing as much as possible and you will see by that that you will acquire the same desire.
S. Can I do this maybe with money as well?
R. In our world possibly.
21. S. (01:17:43) The act of asking the Creator, the whole lesson you've been telling us to do that.
R. Ask, and don't tell me what I'm doing every lesson.
S. Ok, how from point of zero do I try to do this? What does it mean to try to ask from the Creator?
R. Do you have something to ask for?
S. Many things.
R. Take the smallest thing and ask for that. That is it.
S. What I mean is, the request, is it the desire I feel, that the lack? Is the request?
R. Yes.
S. So, by default, you are always asking the Creator if you want something?
R. Yes, okay so ask.
S. Is that correct or not?
R. Yes.
S. So what is the problem?
R. There is no problem if you really need something on the way to reach correction. correct your life, correct creation, so, you will get it.
S. So you're not getting the pleasure because you still do not need this help basically?
R. Your desire is still not his like his desire.
S. This is the result of the work we do every day?
R. Yes.
22. S. (01:19:17) How come that when a person asks for a deficiency for bestowal it’s called an act?
R. Because except for a deficiency that he formulates he cannot do anything.
S. But, why is it attributed to him, to the person?
R. Because the deficiency was not anywhere else before. From all the feelings and from all the calculations he now establishes a deficiency for something that he is demanding from the Creator.
S. What does it mean to establish that deficiency?
R. He knows in quality and quantity and the result, what he wants.
S. How do we come to creating or doing this act?
R. We don't do the act, we just ask, and demand. Our doing the acts something happens when we do it with intentions.
S. So why is it called an act on the part of the created being? He says it is an act on the part of the created being?
R. Because the created being is left with nothing to do. The Creator does everything, the created being only asks.
S. He asked for that thing to have a deficiency for bestowal?
R. Yes.
S. How do we help each other to ask for this so that the focus is on that?
R. We give examples, we support, we connect, and we have many means for that.
S. This is called doing it together?
R. Doing it together is something else already. Together means that we already understand what order of actions we have to do in order to implement that deed and by that we do it, we do the action.
23. S. (01:21:32) There was an example that you gave before that I have a question about. If a person is sick, even if he is terminally ill, he will not ask for himself. He may not ask for himself even when even when he is in critical condition but if his child is in a difficult situation, he does a prayer. Both states are in the will to receive so, what is the difference here? Why is the will to receive of the son more important than his own?
R. For himself he has calculations and forces but for the child, there are no calculations or forces. So, he just cries out, he feels that pain, and except for the feeling of pain he has nothing. That is why a person here in this case is weak.
S. How do we come to a state where the desire to bestow is more important to me so that I can pray for it, than the desire to receive for myself?
R. It is not right now, first we have to try to have vessels, to exchange our vessels from reception to bestowal. Then actions of bestowal, such special actions we can activate now in order to bestow but it is only individual actions.
24. S. (01:23:20) Speaking of this, you said that we have to awaken the Creator to send healing. When a person has a sick child, how do we do this correctly? How do we make the Creator send healing if there is such a situation?
R. We pray in all our forces, from all sides. We ask from the Creator. We do not let go and we glue that request to all of our actions, when I wake up, when I go, when I do. Everywhere I put that request in there, that MAN.
S. A person walks around with this pain in his stomach that he cannot help himself but because it is such a sensitive spot, how does he make that request something that is connected to correction and not just an animal that is hurting?
R. To ask for the ill person, you heal your people of Israel, and you just beg. Beg, it is a time that it is an act that you can ask for.
S. How can a person’s Ten help in such a state?
R. Of course, when the Ten joins here it is a great force.
S. What is the benefit for the person, when the Creator grabs him by the most precious thing for him?
R. To awaken a person to do something with him, so we have relatives and we have
opportunities.