Morning Lesson September 02, 2021, Transcription
Part 1:
Lowliness and Subjugation - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #13
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we need to continue nevertheless to check and investigate our desire and the Creator and how our desire was created specifically, so that through certain number of actions we will begin to feel the Creator through our desire to build in us that image. This is the meaning of revealing the Creator since outside of our desire we attain nothing. Everything outside of it is unattainable, so how do we take the desire the Creator created and in which we exist and change it, arrange it in such a way that we would feel in it something outside of ourselves, something that is against us, opposite to us, higher than us which is the upper force. The Creator that created us and is managing us and it is placing us each and every moment in our desires in our thoughts and how through a certain number of actions can we begin to feel Him and to explore Him and begin to understand Him and to some extent begin to even influence Him. Influence him to such an extent that we will influence how He manages us and that is the meaning of, “my sons have defeated me”. How we can more guide the Creator to perform such actions on us that He does not do directly on us right now.
This is the meaning of succeeding and obligating Him to correct us and to turn our nature and our actions into bestowal in place of reception.
As directly the Creator is awakening us and the will to receive and we awaken Him to give us a desire more correctly and intention to bestow and we can obligate the Creator to bestow to us the intention to be in order to bestow. Then our will to receive which is our nature without which we do not exist, but our nature will work with the intention to bestow. In this way we come to identify with the Creator and then, from your actions we shall know you, inside our actions we will come to know and who is He, what is He. From discovering in our nature, in our will to receive the nature of the bestower and that's how we advance. Hence, all of our work is as quickly as possible to reach actions of bestowal, which is what we call a desire to bestow, although it is not a desire but the actions of bestowal but the desire remains the same except it is working with a different intention as if we invert it, we turned it inside out like we do with a shirt from the front to the back. That's how we turn ourselves as well. Instead of working according to what seems to us to be to our benefit, we try to understand what it means to do something for the benefit of the Creator, what is the Creator's desire and arrange ourselves accordingly and each time we make ourselves this way from our desire to the creator’s desire, raising ourselves from Malchut to Bina, that our actions are becoming such that are not within reason that the force of Malchut who but the force above reason, the force of Bina which is above the Malchut and this way, more and more we will reveal harsher desires, greater desires in order to receive, we restrict them and we carry them out in order to bestow to the Creator.
If we lack the strength, the power, we have a 10 we have the Creator we incorporate ourselves in the 10 and we ask the Creator we receive the power to do it. Because this is how it is set up. If we want it, we can get support from the Creator and the 10, so there's no problem to arrange yourselves in such a way that all our actions will be in a way to bestow to the Creator. By that, this is called reflected light in order to bestow to the Creator, by that we will feel his true attitude towards us, how he wishes to bestow to us and what He wants to bestow to us. They are showing us, the upper force is the upper world, the eternal world and us in it. That is how we come to it, into equivalence of form with the Creator. This is for the time being what we are learning our work and this way we are going through degrees of coarseness, our desire that is constantly growing. 0 1 2 3 4, all the degrees of coarseness. Although each time a greater desire to receive is revealed, we try to use all the means at our disposal which are the group and the Creator. We try to turn it to the intention to bestow, we are not touching the desire itself it remains as it is.
The important thing for us is to aim the goal of this desire, its destiny, its destination, why it is working. If it's working for the sake of the 10 and through it to the Creator then we aim it like when we shoot, we have two points and if we aim ourselves to the goal like this, towards the target, the bullseye then we hit it. There’s me, the group and if I'm arranged properly and bestow to the group then I will certainly bestow to the Creator although I cannot see Him, that's how we advance. This whole work is called faith above reason, bestowal above reception and we cannot bestow, we cannot resemble the Creator except on top of the force of reception that keeps awakening in us in different forms, in new coarseness and that's how we advance. We are already advancing but, in this work, there is always a period of concealment, just as it says, you know where the disease that we're going through today there is an incubation period, meaning it's a concealment. We are sick but we don't feel it, we feel more and more ourselves sick, until we feel ourselves completely sick. At first when we don't feel ourselves as sick it's the same as spirituality. We enter, we work there, we do different things until we feel complete measure, Seah. Meaning a special measure of exertion and then we feel it. Let's hope that we try to complete this time of incubation of concealment and we reach revelation.
2. S. (10:26) What are the senses to use, do I have to feel or does the whole ten have to feel the Creator?
R. You will feel the Creator personally in all of your vessels and desires and thoughts in various intensities and various ways.
Excerpt 13 (11:09)
3. R. (12:30) What is he trying to tell us, a person cannot begin to climb, to ascend before he feels himself in a down, down below, a true fall and how long does it take him to come down to that state before he begins to ascend again because our entire path is made up of ascents and descents. Well, it all depends on how much we are investing we don't need to wait for this passive time as I am entering deeper and deeper into it and fall more and more. But even our descent has to be active and I continue to study, to work in the group, to do different things. Then quicker and more efficiently I can grasp my discernment, my attitudes to the Creator and the group and I see that I am incapable of doing anything and in this way, I see that there is no other choice but I have to ascend. I disagree with the ascents, descents and even during the descent I have to study and resist the descent since then I will reveal the end of the descent in a more beneficial way, more beneficial to achieving a new ascent. The time of ascent should not be passive, we have to work in it as much as possible in the study and meetings and disseminating, this way we will accelerate the descent otherwise descent can take months.
Sometimes a person loses his consciousness as we call it in spirituality and he ends up living like the rest of the world and for how long nobody knows. Because if he disconnects himself from spirituality and only the Creator the way he has awakened him the first time when he just made its way to the wisdom of Kabbalah, for the first time then he'll do it, when he feels like it, when it's time. But when we feel ourselves in a descent, we must first of all each one to others disagree with this fall, because it is pulling all of us towards the descent and each and every one although he's in a descent he should do something. Myself, when I was going through the descents I would translate things, I would organize, I would do something because then the head does not quite work, the heart doesn't work at all, so you have to do something close to Kabbalah, close to bestowal. You have to find the certain something to do which is helpful in bringing Kabbalah into individual lives and the world as well, it is very beneficial to give lessons to beginners because by that a person awakens, reawakens the wisdom of Kabbalah, he arranges it how he's giving it this connecting with new forces a new group, a new view on things. Awakens in him the scrutiny, the critical view on his state, it is very beneficial to teach is the most beneficial especially during a descent.
4. S. (16:52) If the Creator reckons our will to receive at every state how can we overcome it, how can we rise above the power that created us?
R. The Creator awakens our will to receive from one stage to another gradually according to powers we have, the conditions we are in and he never gives us states from which we will deliberately fall, according to the rule he will always raise and never demote him. Sanctity means bestowal so to constantly raise someone up into bestowal, never put him down, even if it is a descent, it's the ascent so in order for you to rise later to a degree higher than you were before and that's how we should take our path always positively. We are dealing with the good who does good and he is giving us these exercises only for us to climb higher and these exercises are always evaluated against all of our capabilities and nothing more. If we relate seriously to the process we have to go through, we will never fail, we will descend not because we are failing but because we are given additional new desires to receive, a higher greater will to receive. We need to rise above that as well and reach an even higher form of bestowal and what seems like a descent is that ascent. It is an ascent that is before us that we simply haven't climbed yet. in this way we climb higher and higher
5. S. (19:27) What is the meaning of the story of the descent? How do we accelerate this process of descent?
R. Through this study and the connection in the group by doing this, we are bringing ourselves closer to the upper source and he shines on us even more. First of all, we are maybe going through a faster descent because we must go down to the current fourth discernment level four from which we can climb back up. So, the study, the dissemination, the connection between us are all the means and prayer come afterwards but these are the means we used to accelerate the descent. And we enter the ascent.
6. S. (21:20) The descent seems like something personal, does it depend on the friends, on the group, how do we not remain stuck in the descent?
R. If I am connected to the group and the lesson daily and I try to absorb them, those forces of connection from the friends and the lesson it is enough for me to also be in ascent every day.
7. S. (29:24) When the Creator criticizes friends is that ascent?
R. The Creator criticizes the friends, I don't get it.
S. No when he makes me think of criticism of friends?
R. No, that is for you to criticize what you are getting and how to respond to it.
8. S. (23:08) It's an example, let's say I fall into a state where I see no point in bestowal and going above reason and the 10 does not agree with my fall and I pulled everyone into this descent, is the question correct?
R. The question is not whether the group agrees with my state rather how I take my state myself. I have to reach such states where I accept the group as a true and corrected thing and I see myself as lower than them, chasing them. I am chasing the connection with them. Only with such discernments can I rise.
9. S. (24:10) You said that at some point I discover that I'm in a real fall, what is a real fall?
R. A true fall means that I feel that all the discernments that belong to spirituality, they approached zero in my eyes, they don't work on me, it is to such an extent that spirituality is not important to me, spirituality disappears for my horizon, I don't appreciate it, I don't appreciate the Creator or the group. I feel myself as a beast that wants nothing except to simply exist in this life. This is a true fall when I have no contact with any of the means that can somehow tie me to spirituality. There may be even worse states but we'll talk about them later, those are the kind of shells that are not, we don't deserve to be in such negative states yet.
S. Right now I also don't feel spirituality.
R. You don't feel spirituality but you don't feel it not because you fell from spirituality but you simply can't feel it. You need to put in the effort through your connection with the group and by trying to do certain actions above reason and reach a certain feeling that you are working with the forces of bestowal towards the friends and towards the Creator above your own forces. You wish to arrange yourself in this way to turn yourself into the bestower towards them and then when you correct yourself in this way and you have that tendency towards them, that inclination from that you will feel, have the feeling, the meaning of the descent from the states and this will be considered a descent.
S. Does that mean I have to start building a force?
R. You certainly have to feel the meaning of a spiritual ascent or you will not feel descent from that, if you don't climb to a certain height how will you feel the fall from it? That is why we first need to feel ourselves exerting forward in connection between us, then in this way we will grasp the correct perception of reality and if we fall from it, we go down we forget from the higher state that we imagined then we can call that a descent. From that we can once again ask the Creator to raise us, to help us in addition to our efforts. Meaning the Creator helps on the condition we put in the effort and we are asking, we cannot exert any longer but we have put in the effort to him, the request to him. We ask if this is the correct preparation for the prayer and then will feel his answer to us because there will be a restriction in it, while we first have a restriction and its screen but later there will be a restriction and screen and reflected light and I will receive all the forces and fulfillment.
S. So I need to ask of the Creator to return from the descent?
R. No, only higher and higher. I don't know which you can measure to tell what you have and what you can get, no, you're only asking to move forward. Less intellect and feelings, you're a scientist, you love to work with your intellect. Throw it out as if you don't have a head, work only with your feelings. Otherwise, you're constantly stuck on making calculations and here there are no calculations in intellect, this is only emotions, more or less, bestowal, reception, higher more together with everyone in a united heart to come out of it, to get into it these are all feelings. Try, you will succeed, you won't succeed, but to come out of the work in the intellect that is not simple. I understand it's your character, it's your work. I get it how natural it is for you, how difficult it is to come out of it, but there is no choice and then you'll succeed more than everyone else but for the time being, efforts.
10. S. (30:36) As long as we are in the will to receive, our will to receive cooperates only if it sees some benefit. So how do we know when we feel a closeness to the goal if it is coming from the will to receive or the importance of the Creator?
R. This depends on what I am aiming for, aiming for giving contentment to the Creator and not giving contentment to myself. It can be only in one direction either to Him the Creator or to me that's how I check it. Therefore, until or before my will to receive grows to a certain level, sufficient level above the still, vegetative and animate degree to the speaking degree, we are not qualified for doing spiritual work and you see it all over the world. That is why it is written about all those who did not come to the wisdom of Kabbalah they are all as animals, the will to receive is still small and not egoistic enough to begin and correct their ego.
11. S. (32:29) When we feel we are in a descent is it correct to want to come out of it as quickly as possible or should we strive to go as deep as possible in the descent?
R. No, we talked about it at the beginning of the lesson. If I make efforts to climb out of the descent I accelerate my descent, I reach the necessary depth and I begin to climb back up. Don't think that now you are free falling and that you cannot do any actions of bestowal, on the contrary specifically now during the descent you're trying to perform acts of bestowal, you're going to accelerate the ascent and you're going to reach the bottom, you're going to hit rock bottom and then you'll begin to climb up you have to reach all the way down and from that to ascend.
12. S. (34:01) We can generate a desire for fear of one thing to avoid the descent, how to overcome this fear individually and among the 10?
R. In the 10 we need to reach the state where I don't have that many descents that they are intertwined with the sense with the ascents and descents and ascents of everyone. In total we connect like a wheel on a bike that part of the wheel is moving forward and part is moving backwards, but if we can feel the central axis of the wheel, we feel ourselves together. At that point that the more it spins backwards or forwards it's felt in us as one motion, it doesn't matter in the group the ascents and descents don't matter. Rabash would say it this way, people have taken themselves by the hand in a circle and they jump, these jump up, these jump down but when they do it together, they can't feel who is up and who is down. The important thing is we all feel ourselves together in one motion so it all depends on that connection and in the connection, you win and you take advantage of all the actions in all the states.
13. S. (36:01) When I'm in the descent how can I help the 10 without praying to the Creator to help everyone?
R. I don't know, how can you help the 10 without praying to the Creator, because the Creator is the one who manages and covers the 10 and if you're not inviting this force how can you cover the 10 and help it? We try to put ourselves together from below to fit the Creator's cover from above, so we will be from below and the Creator will be from above and if you're not turning to the Creator, I don't know how you can help the 10 because each and every state that the 10 is going through is coming to us from the Creator.
S. I asked I don't want to pray that the Creator will help me when I'm in a descent. I want the Creator to help my 10 through the descent I am experiencing.
R. Fine, so how can you do this without turning to Him, it is only on condition that you connect to the 10 and turn to the Creator, there is no other way. You ask Him, you turn to the Creator for yourself, otherwise you're not turning to the Creator at all if you're not connected to the 10.
14. S. (38:22) How can we make a true correction of the heart and not run away from the descent?
R. If we constantly want to connect to the Creator in a descent or an ascent, then we're not running away. If we turn to the Creator through the connection between us it is even more effective and we act even more, we operate even more. There is nothing special here, all the things are revealed through connection, me, the group, the Creator. The whole problem is that here we need to discover new states each time in these connections between us, me, group Creator. Here we therefore need to make an effort, this is why it is concealed why it's not felt why we fall from it but we just need to connect these three things together, me, group, Creator.
15. S. (39:48) Sometimes we learn that it's necessary to accept this state and not to ask more, but now, by the descent we learn that we should not agree with it, how do we know when to agree with it and when not to?
R. We don't need to agree with anything until the end of correction rather, when do we say that we don't want to agree or do want to agree? When I disagree with what my ego tells me to do with this, I disagree but not with knowing that I can always turn to the Creator through the group. I'm not stopping myself, only if my ego tells me, wait, don't do it, it will pass, you need to get some rest, you need to do something else. I have to resist this. There is a difference what we are talking about, what forces we awaken.
16. S. (41:07) What is connection?
R. Connection means that several different desires unite among them or connect them to one goal, that one goal determines if there is a connection between the different desires.
17. S. (41:47) How to manage the descent without interrupting the entire 10 with its state?
R. The important thing is to keep yourself by force in the 10 to engage what they are engaging in, to submit yourself even more, subjugate yourself even more before the friends and to work. It says, as an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load, just like an idiot follow what they're doing and, in this way, you will advance with them together. Just look at them and do the same even if you don't want to, even if you don't understand what they are doing there are such descents that you can understand what they were doing, why, what for, but I don't want to criticize I am criticizing myself but now I am a beast and I have to belong to them like a beast, that's it like a dog following its owner.
Excerpt 14 (43:38) Twice
18. S. (45:56) Practice all the states we go through in the 10 ways for the system to awaken and correct us?
R. Yes.
Excerpt 15 (46:34) Twice
19. R. (48:54) In other words, we have to check if we are above reason or not and to what extent we are and when we are and when we are not and try to position ourselves in such a way that if we're not in above reason if we are in reason, it pains us very much, because we are on the level of a beast. When we are above reason, if we are there, then we are on the level of a human, so we have to constantly check if we are on the animate level or on the human level and we should try to rise.
20. S. (49:39) Sometimes my prayer for a friend seems artificial it is as if I'm praying for a reward. What should I make my prayer for friends more realistic?
R. First of all the fact that my prayers are seemingly artificial doesn't matter, it is like a child who is playing, who is acting out towards the parents, he's crying as if he really wants something. We know he isn't but, in the end, he nags and nags so he gets what he wants, we give it to him from the perspective of the Creator. It also applies because this is nonetheless called preparation where I still don't have a desire but I'm still asking and I know I don't want it but through these requests I come to a state where I will want it. We have to constantly direct ourselves through the group to the Creator, to arrange ourselves as correctly as possible in the request and it doesn't matter if the Creator still doesn't answer us, we are constantly it's called, a door for those who knock in repentance and we want to get an answer from Him a response and we don't let go until we get it and it really builds us and positions us correctly with respect to Him. Because by this we are doing His work instead of Him, awakening the desires in us, through this nagging. We ourselves because we don't have real desires, we build the real desires for spirituality and therefore this too is highly respectable and this too is called spiritual work. Look at little children, take examples from them and do it.
21. S. (52:16) It's not clear from the excerpt how from the greatness and importance of the Creator a person can go to the left line and make a scrutiny within reason how important and great the Creator is in his eyes?
R. This will come to us later, now we don't have it; a person measures according to his desires, all the measurements are in the desires even when we measure the intention, it's measured on top of the desire. We need to try to connect more and more among us until we begin to discover through the connection between us, the shape or form of the Creator, which is revealed in the form of bestowal, this is called the form of the Creator and then this is how we will come to the right measurement.
22. S. (53:27) How can the 10 help a friend who received a serious burdening because he lost a close person?
R. I understand it's a big problem, it can be very emotional, very personal, but we still have to rise above all. Baal HaSulam says it's a transfer of form when we see our bodies and we don't later see them, the bodies are worthless. As Baal HaSulam says I don't care where they bury my bag of bones because it really has nothing to do with a person. Humanity attributes importance to it, places headstones and it performs all kinds of operations around the burial and what not, but in truth there is nothing real to it. It does not help those who are living physically and those who have already got rid of the animate body, the animal level. So, there is a set time for how long we need to think and regret and mourn for the dead and then as quickly as possible to return to our spiritual work because by this we certainly help the soul of the deceased.
23. S. (55:40) Concerning the article, what is it that they say being in above reason can create the deficiency for being in lowliness? What is this? Because if you're already in above reason, isn't that already lowliness, it creates a deficiency, what is the article saying?
R. There are ascents and descents, when you are on a small degree you have to be at a higher level, a higher ascent, in lowliness, well, it depends on top of which will to receive you get lowliness, on top of which state. So, all of our states, it's written about them, there is no one lower, humbler than Moses. He is the climax of humbleness, humility. To get to these things is very difficult because you are working in practice on top of the will to receive.
24. S. (57:09) What does the Creator want to teach a person, what is He trying to build in him, when a person puts in thousands of efforts over a long time and receives no response?
R. First of all the fact that a person doesn't receive a response from the Creator and doesn't feel like he is getting a response according to how much he exerted, that means nothing. It is all how a person feels in his own personal feeling but it's not like it is not working. Afterwards it will be revealed at once. It is like having machines or devices or situations in our lives when you do something on and on and on and only afterwards you get the response. Sometimes it takes years I'm telling you years, from my experience I'm telling you, it takes years. When a person is seemingly doing nothing, as if he's not making any progress. The wisdom of Kabbalah and all those things are out there in the background and he seemingly doesn't exist. But afterwards it awakens, he recovers and discovers that the times that passed did not go without a result. Just keep going, as an ox to the burden and a donkey to the load. We have no choice, there is nothing else we can do here. Besides, what can you do? We are living in a world where we really don’t have anywhere to go. Instead of revealing the Creator and approaching Him, to His force that is good and doing good and connection among everyone, and loving others as yourself, which everyone agrees. We have nowhere else to go, so we will keep going and you will see.
25. S. (59:46) In excerpt number 14 it says that these actions that I see, all the tactics and all the ideas, are exhausted and I have to grow stronger and say everything that is lost, everything that happened is from the Creator, it's for the best. Is this building the prayer?
R. Yes, they are the basis, the foundation of the prayer. A person just has to be certain that every state that he is going through is on the way to correction, to the end of correction. The reason he can't see those things is because he is still small and can't detect them. But afterwards we come to states where we understand and feel the changes we are going through. In the meantime, that's the way it is. Don't look as if you don't need to see or accept it or receive it. Nevertheless, strengthen your connection to the group each day and with the Creator and try to bring yourself into the group, closer to the Creator, more and more and more. Keep going more and more, and you'll see that you will get results. Although according to the wisdom of Kabbalah we shouldn't wait for results. But actually, the more we can work without getting results, these states are considered higher when we make efforts and don't get anything in return. Perhaps the opposite. Because we see that we are in descents and falls and the Creator arranges for us all kinds of states of disappointment and disillusionment and if we nonetheless advance according to what we are building, and we are not looking at any results, this is called performing acts of bestowal and advancing. Precisely on top of that we are revealing our progress and the reward.
S. There are states where I completely don't understand what is going on and I work automatically and there are those states where it turns out that you can scrutinize your state. You can see the lowliness of it, so I scrutinize it in thought. I see that it is from the Creator, that it's all for the good, it is as if I am connecting two blocks, with cables. Is it like that if I work in the thought, and I already connected it and I aim the efforts towards the Creator? Is this called the answering of the prayer?
R. This is still not a complete prayer because you're doing it only intellectually and not with your feelings. But because you are feeling your emotion is not working, at that moment your heart is really dead. So at least you're doing it intellectually and so that too is a correct state and that's how it works. Just keep going.
26. S. (1:03:38) How to build the importance for the feeling of spirituality?
R. Basically we want it and that's why we came to the wisdom of Kabbalah. In building and increasing the importance of spirituality in all kinds of ways, the safest way to do it is through the 10.
27. S. (1:04;22) To what extent are we allowed to lose connection with a person in this world?
R. I don't really need to be in connection with this world at all, because what is important is to be in connection with the friends. And build between us such an atmosphere, such a state where we see the upper world and relations between us are as they should be - in the soul, in bestowal, in connection, in love. That's how we have to rise. This is basically our work. I need this world only in order to disseminate to it. Something from the connection. And perhaps get from it a little bit of the feeling of helplessness, because of everything that they are going through, in order to accelerate my development even more. So as to rise and help the world even more. Basically, our whole spiritual development is within the 10 and between the tens.
28. S. (1:06:19) Can you give us advice? Which exercises can help a person replace his intellect or his mind with emotions. There are various exercises for developing one’s intellect. But for developing your emotions and feelings, you can spend your entire life without replacing the intellect with feelings. So how can we work on it?
R. We don't need to replace the intellect with the feeling. We need to add spiritual emotions, spiritual feelings and spiritual intellect to what we are feeling and understanding in this world. To position the spiritual discernment in our mind and heart higher than corporeal discernments. That's it. How can I do it? I have to constantly appreciate more, the importance of the connection between us and in this way, we will position the upper world above the corporeal world. Importance. There is nothing more than that. The more I exert, the more important it becomes to me. We see in this world also the more you put into something. Look at animals when a person cares about his pets or plants that he grows, these things become important to him and he thinks about them. So, we should invest more and more energy in the connection between us.
S. Importance and strength is clear, but the mechanism is not clear. I'm going to do it and in one moment and suddenly poof I’m going to come close to it emotionally?
R. Yes. You have to make great efforts to exert extensively in them and arrange yourself among them and then you will feel how precious it becomes to you. It is all according to your effort. Rabash writes about precious and knowing, he explains it in Shamati.
S. Rabash describes such things that I never experienced.
R. The more you put into the friend, the more, the closer and closer he becomes to you. According to your effort, to the effort you put into him, you will not want to lose him, to be far from him. Because you invested in him, so there's a part of you and him. So, it all depends only on the labor. Clear?
29. S. (1:09:43) You said before that the most beneficial thing is to teach, to organize, to disseminate, and to awaken friends. We know it but we do not do it. So, we wait, sometimes years. How to depict such a ten that can create such an atmosphere where none of the friends will remain indifferent, on the sidelines?
R. You have to picture it. There's nothing more to do here. Just imagine how the ego is stopping you and doesn't let you advance in what Kabbalists are saying about dissemination. You have them, you can read, it's all in front of you.
30. S. (1:10:28) In excerpt 15 it says that if a person doesn't understand spirituality's importance within reason and everything that is above reason is to ask and pray for the Creator to change his state. So, he needs to ask for a reason, what's the problem with spirituality being above reason?
R. He is asking for help and he doesn't dictate to the Creator how this help will come to him. It's clear to us how we pray. I don't pray to receive something specific. The Creator knows what I need to receive. I just need to ask. I'm not required to ask specifically what I need along the way in my next state, it is impossible. What is important is to ask.
S. Is there a problem with such a state where he does not see the importance within reason but he manages to do it, nevertheless?
R. Constantly ask, that's it.
Excerpt 16 (01:11:54) Twice
31. R. (01:14:27) So the question is to whom we are directed. If we are directed towards the Creator and we measure ourselves with respect to Him, the closer we come to Him, the lower and more corrupted and broken we see ourselves. Other people who work within the will to receive they feel that they are rising on the will to receive more and more. They embrace it more and more. They study more, they understand more, they feel more. They are acquiring more and more discernments in their will to receive. There is a difference. We discover forces of bestowal in the will to bestow. We feel as empty as a pomegranate. If we work within the will to receive, we constantly discover ourselves understanding more, feeling more, we are prouder. This is why such people want to dictate their views to others; they pressure others as if they understand, as if they have the Torah in their hands. This is what we see that we get out of this world.
32. S (01:16:34) What does it mean to ask for help from the friends? How do I use the force of Arvut correctly?
R. In any place where people connect, like in the military, or in a basketball team, it doesn't matter, wherever everyone is responsible over what they are doing. We have to understand that the sum total of the amount of work is what we will get from the whole group, not one or two or three. Suppose a basketball team wins some prize. Everyone gets the prize. The right action was not done by someone in particular. It is the same with us. The ten that wins, wins, and each one is rewarded according to his role, his duty. Our role is according to the root of the soul of each and every one and the Creator organizes that. That's why it is important for us that all of us advance together.
33. S (01:18:36) How should we relate to the contradictions in the wisdom of Kabbalah?
R. It is true that there is Aviut, coarseness, and then there's the restriction, the screen, the reflected light with which we work. We have a greater and greater will to receive every time. I perform actions by the light that reforms to change the quality of my actions from in order to receive to in order to bestow. It turns out that I work with two contradictory forces inside of me and between these two contradicting forces, I discover the upper world and the Creator.
S. So the expectation is from both forces. So, what is the middle line?
R. Every time is a small step, a small salvation. We achieve all kinds of salvation in the salvation of Egypt. Everything is for the person who wants to rise above his ego.
Except 17 (01:20:47)
34. R. (01:22:29) You have to go over these excerpts again during the day.
Except 18 (01:22:38)
Except 19 (01:24:32)
35. S. (01:26:14) Why should I feel that I am worse than everyone else?
R. First of all, this is the truth. We truly do not understand and certainly the will to receive will not agree. How can it be that I'm the worst of them all? The most stupid, the least understanding? The worst of them all? Each one feels himself this way in the round system of Adam HaRishon. This is the truth. He also discovers that he is in the lowest point because according to his nature it cannot be any other way. How can he be above others? He discovers, to some extent, his nature and his nature is the will to receive in order to receive. That’s why anyone who is greater than his friend sees himself as lower, and he attains greater lights. It’s simple.
36. S (01:27:58) When I feel a descent should first pray to the Creator or do I need to do everything in my power then pray?
R. No. First of all, as much as we can, be in connection with the Creator and ask from the Creator as it is written, ‘may he pray all day long’. We do not let go of the connection with the Creator. If we feel that we fell, that’s guidance from above. Everyone needs everyone. We should always want to go back to the connection with the Creator together, in any ten and within the tens. When our requests are the raising of MAN, we will always be in His direction.
S. What is the first action should we do when we are in descent? Do we turn to the Creator and to friends for help or do we try to lift ourselves?
R. When he is in the descent, the first thing is to feel the state he is. In a true descent the person does not feel that he is in a descent or that he is connected to others, nothing. He is just living at an animal's level. That is why to bring yourself back to the level of Adam, to the speaking level, means to first connect to the ten and once you connect to your ten try to incorporate within them. We've talked about it, we talked about it today. You should incorporate among the friends, to try to go into them, and through that you will get the light that reforms and you will find His place.
37. S (01:30:38) Why are the feelings of descents from the past erased within us when we are in ascent?
R. It is because we have a broken will to receive which is greater than all the past states. The new will to receive that comes to me is greater than all the descents that I ever had. It turns off all the past ascents and descents. I can't do anything with my past experience. Through the society I can recruit myself to pray to the Creator. That is the only way I can come out of this new state which is a new and greater will to receive then all the previous ones.
38. S (01:32:07) Why are there breaks in states when you are released but you return to them? Why are you not always in the same state? Why are there breaks between them?
R. If I am up and I'm thanking the Creator, it's a gratitude prayer; if I'm down and I feel myself as down, I'm praying to the Creator and He changes me. What should I do if I feel nothing? This comes to us so that we can appreciate how good it is when you are up or down, how good it is to be up or down, how good it is to be connected to the Creator. So, what should we do when we are in the state of unconsciousness? It's a sign for us that we are not sufficiently connected to the friends in the ten.
S. Does it mean that I'm disconnected from the society if I am not asking?
R. This too, is true. Either up or down, either in gratitude or prayer. I should always be in both. Either this or that. If I'm not, it is a sign I'm not connected to the ten and that is why I am between heaven and earth. Spiritually speaking I am unconscious.
39. (01:3412) S: The feeling of lowliness is against my nature, especially annulling before friends. It feels impossible. How do I quickly reach that?
R. Only through annulment to the group and prayer. There is nothing to add.
Except 20 (01:34:47)
40. S (01:37:05) There was a feeling that the Creator answered prayers instantly at first, but now He doesn't answer. What does this mean?
R. I don't think the Creator has some sensation in receiving the prayer from us. Everything is with respect to you. If you feel this way you should examine yourself as to why you are not in an open line with Him.
41. S (01:38:03) All your corporeal desires were filled when you were with Rabash and you had no other desires but to reach the Creator. Why does the Creator bring a person to a group when his corporal desires are not filled? How can a man reach the state that he doesn't want anything corporeally?
R. There is no connection between the corporeal world and the spiritual world. Each one gets different conditions according to the root of his soul. I really didn't need anything when I came to Rabash but I kept on working. I drove about 25 kilometers from my work in Bnei Brak to Rehovot sometimes twice a day. I used to work and I was in charge in my work. There certainly was not a real concern for paying my bills. Each one according to his soul, how much it demands correction and not because someone has some kind of luck or anything else. Everything stems from the central point of the correction of the soul.
42. S (01:40:06) It seems like we need to wait for a moment of despair in order to pray. The sages tell us that we need to make all the efforts that we can and at the same time we pray as if it all depends on the Creator.
R. No, in each and every state you should try to organize a prayer to the Creator and specifically by that you will succeed. Only in this way can you succeed.
Except 21 (01:40:59)
43. (01:41:51) This means that the main thing is that they have reached lowlines and feel they have no force to advance, no understanding about where they are, and they cannot succeed by their own forces.
Reader continues: “This is as the ARI says….”
44. R. (01:42:51) This means a person has to reach a state where he has no chance to rise from his state. Only the Creator can save him. There is no other way. It won't help him to learn more or do anything. Only the Creator. The Creator through the group or directly, for each one and everyone together, however only Him. He is the only one you should cry out to. All of the states that we go through before that is for us to discover the deficiency for the Creator’s help in a most correct way in quality and quantity.
Excerpt 22 (01:43:38)
45. S. (01:45:04) Let's say I'm in a state of descent pf minus one, and then I then I rise to plus two, so the next descent will be minus two. Do I feel this as minus two? Do I have a memory of my previous descent?
R. No, you don't really remember the previous descent. Each one by his nature does not remember his descents. That's not the way to do it. We work with what we work. We cannot yet compare between the degrees. We do not have clear discernments and we’re not sufficiently managing our conditions. Tomorrow we will start a new document which will be called ‘the Creator is Revealed in the Connection Between Us’, and we will learn this tomorrow.