Part 3:

Purifying the Heart - Selected Excerpts from the sources. #8

Reading (00:19) #8 twice “The path of truth is called Lishma [for Her sake],..”

1. S. (02:18) How to try and aim for Lishma every time?

R. Lishma is in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator, this is called Lishma.

S. There is a phenomenon in the recognition of evil that it’s clear to a person that everything he does is in order to receive.

R. Yes?

S. So at some point he could agree and say yes, I'm in order to receive that's clear. So if I understand correctly he should resist this and not agree to this.

R. The question is, is it correct? If we’re all made of the will to receive then why should I conceal the will to receive, resist it, move away from it?

S. Exactly, so how do I reach Lishma if I agree with the will to receive?

R. I have to receive an opposite force from the will to receive so I will feel that I have two forces.

S. So how will I get the opposite force of the will to receive if I don't want to come out of it?

R. They said that it's through the society and through study.

S. So how does society create such an atmosphere that we don't agree with to the will to receive?

R. We connect between us and each one wants for the sake of the others. It turns out that we do want to come out of ourselves, to move away from ourselves.

S. And how every time to determine that correct intention?

R. I think it's not a problem. We read the text and talk among ourselves. When we listen we want to sympathize with the will to bestow.

S. Not to agree with the will to receive?

R. Disagree with the will to receive to the point that we want to completely restrict it, as if it doesn’t exist in us and relate ourselves only to desire to bestow.

2. S. (05:12) He writes that the need for the help of the Creator is the vessel. So what’s the transition from the need to the help of the Creator that brings the vessel?

R. The need for the help of the Creator is as much as I want to disconnect, move away from my will to receive.

S. How is that a vessel?

R. What?

S. That I disconnect from my will to receive?

R. To the extent that I try to take it out of myself, not work with it, ask the Creator to take it away from me because He created the evil inclination in each and every one. So we ask Him to take it away.

S. But still how is that a vessel? The vessel is in order to bestow already.

R. No, no, no, not at all. What vessel is in order to bestow, the will to receive is the vessel? No.

S. So the vessel is only the need for the help from above?

R. I don't know that too. In the meantime we're not asking about that. Don’t jump on a term that is still not in me.

S. The need for help from above, the will to receive is completely annulled, the evil in it, right?

R. Yes.

3. S. (06:58) In what do we give contentment to the Creator?

R. In wanting to be similar to Him.

4. S. (07:13) He says that once a person tries to give contentment and sees that he can’t a vessel is created in him that now the Creator can fill. The question is, what is the filling of this vessel, in what does the Creator fill him?

R. What does a person want?

S. He wants to have an intention to bestow.

R. So the Creator should probably give it to him.

S. We’re used to saying that the vessel is filled with the pleasure, so the pleasure is in the intention to bestow?

R. Yes, if he wants it and receives this filling then the intention to bestow is in him.

S. When we speak about pleasures, it's only pleasures in the intention?

R. Yes.

5. S. (08:19) Many friends will be coming to Israel during Sukkot and some will coming here to Moscow. What preparation do we need to do if we have to build another connection towards the Congress that we’ll all be together?

R. Everyone has to yearn to everyone being in one heart. How to do it? You need to learn, you need to talk about it. Whoever is coming here or there on going back home or coming to Moscow as you said, I don't know, but in any case we have to maintain the connection between us and be as one man with one heart as much as possible and in this way advance in our work.

6. S. (09:33) What is this state where a person feels that he can’t go against the body?

R. A state of lowliness, lowliness, a state of lowliness.

7. S. (10:00) In the ten there's a friend that says that she's participating only for us and not for herself so how can the Creator help her because it says that “he who comes to purify is aided”, so if she doesn't come to purify herself, only for us, is that the right approach?

R. Yes, yes, the important thing is to move towards bestowal.

Reading #10 (10:49 - 13:05) “Only when a person comes to a state where he says, “Salvation by man is in vain,”” twice.

8. R. (11:51) And then he bursts out with crying, with a litany, with a request, an outcry, and he gets help, again.

9. S. (13:10) We’re towards the end of the lesson and soon there’s announcements, we were thinking from the Meals team, if we can ask you a few questions?

R. Well, if there’s time, by all means!

S. First question: In the Shabbat meals there’s a feeling that a vey innner connection and feeling has become, we leave here in a very stronger motion. So what's the right way to work in the meal with the charge we leave the lesson with, how to process it correctly?

R. However you feel, you should direct the meal accordingly, there's a lot of material to read about that, too; I don't have much to add.

S. What's the important in such a meal after the lesson?

R. Well, we will start saying our usual words again, ‘we have to try to come closer to one another, to connect with one another and be as one man with one heart so this meal we will advance us’. The usual words but we are already in these words and above them in the feeling we have to rise.

S. So if we ask about feeling, we wanted to ask about the meals we used to have you used to have with the Rabash. How would it feel when the student sat with the teacher together in the meal?

R. I cannot even talk about it because it depends on each and everyone, with how much he yearns for that connection that is revealed in the meal, for that meal, for the friends!

S. What did the Rabash, what does the teacher give the students during that meal whether speaking or not speaking, what happens there exactly?

R. He didn't speak much of meals, sometimes, there were actually long speeches but usually not so much. The closer a person comes to spirituality the more he sees that his mouth become shut and he has nothing to say so much because everything comes in this silent manner from above. But we will succeed.

10. S. (16:38) It's right that you said, ‘what, we're going to say the same words’, but we see throughout the years that we put a different feeling into these words; sometimes it rises us sometimes we lose a bit of. On what does it depend that is readiness, this tension, the importance, the greatness towards the meal?

R. It depends on the depth of feeling the words, the letters, how much they, to what extent they shine, to what extent they elevate a person. This is why Kabbalists usually don't speak so much because each one connects from within his heart into the general atmosphere, and in this way they advance, that's it.

11. S. (18:13) We saw a few friends that lately there’ve been meals where the Rav hasn’t been participating with us, so I wanted to ask, does it depends on us? Or it’s something we’re doing in the meal or is there something we can do that you would want to participate in the meal with us?

R. It depends on the importance of the meals and on how much those who are in them are participating in them correctly.

S. So you are not participating with us because you don't feel we’re doing that?

R. Maybe once they were three that I couldn't participate because health issues but usually it's because there isn't really a sensitivity,  importance in the meal, that’s it.

12. S. (19:40) So what should we do?

R. You don't need to do anything, you can have a meal without me and it's actually good that I'm not present at all because it awakens you to be organized and have a meal on your own, and in this way determine what is a meal between you?

S. But what importance do we need now to add, what's the important of the meal?

R. That it brings closer, unites, that it comes to each one that you feel during the meal how much you need to be together as ‘one man in one heart’, that the meal really connects!

31. S. (20:49) What does it mean that there's no sensitivity or importance in the meal?

R. A meal, according to Kabbalists, according to Kabbalists understanding, is the greatest thing in connection. It’s when we seemingly connect together and receive from the Creator the filling and we sit together and receive the feeling. And we, basically there's no higher state, you are with all the friends and with the Creator, and the Creator seemingly is giving you the filling. What could be higher, therefore, we should think about it and not slight it.

S. So it could be that we're not preparing correctly to a meal?

R. Yes, we are not thinking correctly.

S. Even though it's after a three hour lesson?

R. It doesn't matter.