Morning Lesson November 24, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. A Speech for the Completion of The Zohar

Reading Article: (00:26) “Now You Can Understand the verse, “In the multitude of people is the king’s glory....”

1. S. (06:15) We hear here that Baal HaSulam explains to us that the student, his path to progress spiritually, is to adhere to his Rav. In our work, at least I feel this way, you hold us far away, the students, you don't let us come closer to you, at least according to the stories I hear, I've never been in other groups, but the Rav is some kind of someone who they do many things, for example, they try to resemble him externally. Does it not lack in our work? When he talks here about adhering to the Rav what is he talking about?

R. I don't know shoes, shirt, vest, I don't know.

S. There are groups that do that, you say that jokingly.

R. That's already Hasidism, a form of Hasidism, that's customary in Hasidic courts.

S. I'm asking us, here in Bnei Baruch, what does it mean to adhere to one's Rav? To adhere to what you say, and what you recommend, we do that. Is there anything else here because he's talking about many additional things here that we could do in adherence to our Rav, for example, he talks about serving his Rav and pouring water.

R. Let's say that you and I are being like one body. How would we activate ourselves towards one another? That's it, that's one body and that's how we need to try and be with the friends and more so with his Rav.

S. But the friends, at least I feel this way in the ten, that we do that. We very much come closer to the friends, with Rav, he’s as if more distant. That's as if, that's how I feel.

R. That's clear.

S. Is that how it needs to be?

R. It shouldn't be this way but in fact it is, maybe you also feel that I'm not letting you come closer.

S. Yes, there is such a feeling at least I have such a feeling.

R. So what do you do?

S. I'm asking you; I'm asking my Rav.

R. You need to try and come closer. How else can you be a student?

S. How can a student in Bnei Baruch today make another step towards his Rav?

R. As if he's a part of his Rav, his teacher, what do you mean?

S. I don't understand what that means, what does it mean to be a part of his Rav?

R. Can someone help me, help me out here?

S. The question is how can a student in Bnei Baruch today make another step closer to his Rav?

R. First you need to hear what the Creator is saying, what his Rav, his teacher is saying, and try to adhere to that. You need to keep it, to carry out that desire of the Rav, and through that you'll come closer to the Creator.

S. With us in the work today there is this medium from us to the Creator in order to reach the Creator.

R. It's different today, it was always like this, it was impossible to approach the Creator if you're not in a ten.

S. This is what happens in practice, what happens in practice the more we exert in the work between us, to come closer to our Rav, we feel that we come closer between us, that we come closer to the friends.

R. The Rav is missing between you.

S. How do we insert the Rav to our relations?

R. We talk about him, you depict his image, his inner image, and you try to adhere to him, his inner image.

2. S. (13:17) I actually don't know what he is talking about, when I needed you my Kli if I wanted to attain you, I would tell you Rav, I need you and I never heard you say no. You would always say, “Come with me in the room.” This means we have a problem where we hold back, it is not that you don’t accept us. Whoever wants him, our Rav, will accept you as a part of the community. The problem is not with him, it’s with us, we are closed, and it is hard for us to open up to Rav and I think the problem is with us, not with Rav.  If we truly wanted it, Rav was always with an open heart with any question that I wanted to ask, and he would help me with everything. And I really want to insert into what he says that serving the Torah is greater than learning it. It’s a big sentence, what does he mean by that?

R. Why do you need to limit yourself and not to study? They say that the use of the Torah is greater than, the merit of serving is greater than the merit of learning. Meaning serving the Rav is greater than the measure of learning from his Rav, so it is not that you disqualify or invalidate the study.

S. He says you come to school, but you do not need to learn, you can sit and incorporate and draw the reforming light and that is it. You don't need to study so much maybe just to feel something, maybe just connect to Rav?

R. That’s important and this is important.

S. Also to study, with the intellect?

R. Yes, also with the intellect; but more important still is to serve.

S. So this is what he says, “The service in the Torah is what brings about adhesion, serving the Rav, one’s body and soul brings contentment to his Rav and brings some in adhesion to his Rav.” What does it mean to serve one's Rav with body and soul in order to bring contentment to his Rav?

R. I don't know but he is giving us a law here.

S. What is the law?

R. That if I help my Rav, my teacher, with all his corporeal matters, I make his corporeal life easier, makes life easier; in that I serve him, and that brings about my spiritual profit.

S.  I didn't understand what you said now.

R.  It is not important.

S. What does it mean to make his life easier, I make Rav's life easier, or he makes mine easier?

R. It's not important.

S. I didn’t understand it.

R. As much as you can help your Rav with everything he needs, you gain spirituality from that.

3. S. (17:15) When Rav teaches us then I try to feel through the guidance of Rav the commandments of the creator; that the Creator is giving us these commandments, these laws that are coming to us.  then I work in service to the Creator not to Rav, it turns out that I am working towards the Creator and not to Rav. The question is, is there a place to also see the service towards the Rav here?

R. No, it doesn't matter. it doesn't matter, in this way, you serve the Rav and the Creator.

S. Another thing, in a few articles and places it says that the Rav, maybe the friend of yours is a Rav, meaning that anyone who is greater than you turn into being a Rav? 

R. Yes.

S. The act of serving the Rav, can also be in the ten, where we serve the friends? Could we see it that way too, that we serve the Rav? Is that also a form?

R. Yes, that is also a form of it. Yes, it is worthwhile to see each friend as a Rav. 

4. S. (18:48) I wanted to ask who is Rav in our path?

R. Rav in our path is a guide who is teaching you how to advance in spirituality and how to come closer to the Creator.

S. And what does it mean? We work in our ten to love each other, to work in love between us.

R. You want to connect between you so that in the connection between you you can reveal the Creator.

S. Can we reveal love towards the Rav through the ten?

R. Yes of course, only in this way.

S.  And what is it to love the Rav?

R. It means to try and keep and realize those spiritual laws that he is teaching us.

S.  I didn't understand.

R.  To love the Rav means to try and keep the spiritual laws he is teaching us.

S. It is like could you say that every word Rav says is in another word that the Creator is speaking to us, that there is something here that we feel something from above?

R. Yes.

5. S. (20:41) Rav, you give us several assignments to do during the day many times, can you say that these assignments are those like the laws that we need to carry out?

R. No, an assignment is not a law. You don’t have to keep it because it doesn't come from the Rav, the laws come from the Creator, and the assignments are along the way.

S. What is the law? How do we come to a law?

R. A law is the law of nature; the laws of nature are the laws of the Creator.

S. We learn that it is bestowal, that we need to bestow to others.

R. Yes, just like the laws of the Creator it doesn't belong to someone.

S. But we also come through to that through all kinds of assignments that we carry out?

R. We come to keep them through various assignments.

S. And then we come to carry out the laws?

R. Yes.

6. S. (21:46) How can we, the students make life easier for you?

R. Make life easier for me? Just understand what I want from you and do it, nothing besides that.

7. S. (22:26) How do we insert into the ten, and the Rav?

R. The Rav is inside each and every ten, truly, he is in it; and what he says is his spirit that exists in the ten. Try to keep and follow what you learn from him daily, and that is it.

8. S. (23:12) There's a feeling here in the hall that it is easier to incorporate with Rav, to be here with you in the lesson and the meals, most friends are studying virtually, do they also receive that feeling?

R. Try, try, I do not know in what way. I would come to study daily and when I asked Rabash if I could move from Rehovot, a city in the south to Bnei Brak, he said no, no I forbid you, and that was for about a year. Day in and day out I would drive in the morning and return in the evening, I would go there twice a day, sometimes three times a day, back and forth, and that is how it was until he finally said yes you may move then I rented a place and moved.

S. Is this something that we can do when we are here physically in order to pass that feeling to our friends in the world Kli?

R. Try, try to do it. It is not a matter of being near or far because everyone here today, there is no lack of physical connection but of adhesion; how much you are prepared to carry out these actions that I recommend you do. Because ultimately the desire of the Rav should be accepted by the students and exist there, it doesn't matter how the Creator twists things and in what ways, we must keep it this way.

9. S. (26:04) All the students who study here, all the friends, I think they signed a covenant with Bnei Baruch and with you, internally to go on the path whether it is hard or understood or not and that is the individuals. Our entire education, social education, comes from Rabash, how to work in a group, how to relate to the friends, and how to grow up together. We also hear from you many times when you speak about your connection with Rabash. Now we are not in that same form of daily work, is there a difference between students who sit at a small table with their Rav learning from him for many years, and in a form where there are thousands of students, academies, and campuses, great circles of students and friends who learn the lessons from Rav in their development and in their connection of the students to their teacher?

R. No, everyone can hear the same things that are being said in all kinds of circles and all kinds of lessons; and they can keep them, and it doesn't matter where a person is at physically and what society he is in, it all depends on him.

S. It seems as if once a few individual students studied in a small room with a teacher, it did not just depend on him, but it was also a lot of work on behalf of the upper one together with the lower one. But now, there's a new form of connection that never used to be that way, it is broadcast from one place to thousands and thousands of people, and each one can now decide to take 20% or 100% of it. it feels like something different.

R. It is the time for the end of the correction, yes.

S. There was once a time in the connection of the people of Israel that they had all these ministers, there was this mechanism where they had all kinds of small Ravs that dealt with small groups, is there such a place for such a mechanism in our period?

R. No, on the contrary. We need to see how all of us can be as one company, one body.

10. S. (29:22) How can a person serve if he doesn't know how to work?

R. He studies. He studies from the study of the Wisdom of Kabbalah how he needs to be a person who connects the Creator to the whole of humanity.

S. We want to hold you and support you; how can we bring you into our ten?

R. I am with all the tens, and I truly cannot say that I am with anyone who is far or close, everything depends on you, how each one individually wishes to feel that we have a connection between us. 

11. S. (31:17) You teach us daily, you influence everyone and bestow to everyone, and your desire is to pull everyone to the Creator, all the friends, and the whole world to the light, towards bestowal. So, I'm thinking, I want to think simply about it, if I advance and come closer to the friends and the Creator so Rav is happy, can I say that?

R. Yes, so what is the question?

S. The question is, if I wish to love my Rav, I also need to love every one of my friends. If I do not love my friends, if I do not annul before my friends I cannot love my Rav, because Rav loves everyone. If I want an equivalence of form with Rav, I need an equivalence of form with him because he loves everyone, right?

R. Yes. That is what is written, yes, nice.

12. S. (32:43) I dream that all of your students will speak to you mouth to mouth, how to raise such a prayer?

R. Try, try.

13. S. (33:23) You said to depict Rav’s Image, internally, emotionally, and to cling to it, how to do this correctly?

R. As much as possible, more and more, try to connect more, and embrace more, and by doing so you will feel how we need to progress from above.

S. How do you do it in the ten, is the Rav a figure that connects us, collects us, what is it?

R. From your feelings you will start understanding how to behave and what to do. 

14. S. (34:14) Can we serve the Rav while we are asleep?

R. While you are asleep?

S. Yes.

R. In principle, it is possible, why not, sleep is also a part of life. Everything is possible.

S.  Meaning the instructions that come from Rav are real. 

R. Yes. 

15. S. (34:59) When we summarize the lesson there is this feeling that the Rav is saying the same thing about this connection, I didn't catch anything new to continue the work and it works out. But sometimes you have to extract something from the lesson, and we have an opportunity to do something, and it will be a miracle if we can realize what the Rav was talking about. With what should we come out of every lesson?

R. With that we progressed forward more and more towards a miracle. 

16. S. (35:42) We thank you for all the force that you give us. Do you think that we need to use this tool, if the ten is the device, the instrument, that takes us towards adhesion with the Creator, where is the Rav in all of that, and should we disseminate that more in the ten this ingredient called Rav?

R. Rav is something that is in the center of a big group or organization, and he constantly tries to hold the connection of the organization with the upper force, with a Creator. That is his work. 

17. S. (37:22) I wanted to add that seeing the greatest of friends is something very important.

R. Yes.

S. And I need to imagine it. There's a tremendous advantage here because I don’t need to imagine it, I see it within reason. I think that this thing can add a lot to the greatness and the importance that I bring into the heart, and it could be helpful to everyone. And there are also qualities of the Rav that are very good, and the Rav is in bestowal, and we want to adhere to this greatness. Can you touch on that as well?

R. I understand you, but we have already squeezed this topic. We will return to it again.

18. S. (38:45) First of all, I feel like I speak on behalf of the world Kli, and we are grateful to the Creator that we have an opportunity to try and be your students. I feel great gratitude in my heart. I have a tough question but I'm going to ask it. Sometimes there's a feeling that Rav rejects a certain student and pushes him away. Two questions, first of all, how should the student feel this, how should he respond to this, and what should you do with this, that is one thing. The second thing is, is there really such a state where the teacher is pushing away students?

R. Yes certainly.

S. Why and how should the student respond to it?

R. How did the Creator perform restrictions and concealments, shattering, distance, and all of that in order for us to be able to recognize Him? We know that in our world there are actions on many different levels, and they cannot become equivalent with the purpose of creation to be good and benevolent and to benefit his creations, to say the least.

S. With the Creator it is easier because it is not like the teacher. You say too that you have to come closer, you have to serve Him. The way the students approach the Creator is by approaching the teacher who is his conduit. How to correctly respond when the student seemingly thinks that he wants to approach the teacher and do something for the teacher and on the other hand, he feels like he is being rejected. The teacher is rejecting him and pushing him away?

R.  Yes.

S. How to correctly respond to it, what should be the correct response of the student, and how to use these states correctly because he could distance himself because he is in the will to receive and it hurts him, hurts his pride, his ego, and other things because the Creator is vague?

R. Is it not help, that the teacher does so? He awakens in the student such emotions that he is feeling rejected, feeling offended. 

S. Depends on how much he adheres to society.

R.  Well.

S. If a student is offended by the teacher, how should he take it, how should he respond and how should he deal with those states? I think the question is clear and I respect the answer.

R. You need to seek the answer, you need to look for it, those who have a bigger ego and a bigger will to receive, become rewarded with such negative relations and attitudes.

19. S. (42:44) When you reject someone like you said, you told me to lower my hand and the first thing that comes to my mind is what’s not in tune with me? When I look at relationships, I'm asking how I am coming into the path, searching, and yearning. The second thing is the heart opens to you, first of all, your persistence doesn't exist anywhere else and there are people who know only you, they don't recognize this level of commitment of persistence, or consistency. Because they have no base for comparison with something else, I don't know what is present there, and I said it in one of the lessons. Sometimes I feel like you are my child as far as the love is concerned, I feel this love only towards my children and when it happened, I was shocked, so everyone should open his heart and find his way to you.

R. But the goal is not to love me.

S. No, it is like two feet. First, it adheres to the path, and on the other hand, it is to you as far as the connection, also when you reject me it just makes me realize where I am not calibrated, that is the first question. Why should I recalibrate, where am I coming from instead of dealing with nonsense and focusing on how to correct that moment?

R. In the meantime, we have come close to the end of the lesson.

20. S. (44:56) We were on duty with other groups from a distance and we worked hard on preparing the lineup and let the other friends who toiled and labor they weren't able to make it here and that's how the Creator gave it to them. We are trying to convey the topic of the closeness of the heart. After we did it, we were sitting here in the lesson and my friend from the other group said maybe we didn't prepare enough, we heard so many questions that came more from the coarseness. On the other hand, we said we don't have to receive a reward, we toiled, we labored and that was our work. My question is different, this week you spoke about two things that caught us and we talked about it in the preparation when we prepared the excerpt. One is the importance and my responsibility in order to attain the correction of each one here and the second one is the foundations, the Creator in us, we have the same elements just the composition is different. We found an excerpt from the Wheel of Changing the Form if I could read it.

R. Yes, read it.

Reading from the article The Peace.  

S. And what I wanted to tell you Rav when we talked about it, we want to thank all those squares on the screens, that we felt them as parts of our soul, that we are responsible for reaching the end of correction together. That's why we ask ourselves, why are we not able to pass this sense of the closeness of the hearts so everyone will feel the responsibility and the greatness of the Rav? Great gratitude to them and to Rav and to the Creator and all of that, to bring us to the end of correction. If you remember every moment in our meetings, I imagine it'll be easier. Thank you, Rav.

R. Thank you to everyone. I think we are all doing the work, with all the difficulties that the Creator awakens in us and between us, and certainly, we will still be rewarded with seeing good results in our ascent to the end of Correction. Le Chaim to you.