Morning Lesson December 25, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
The Way to the Creator in Mind and Heart - Selected excerpts from the sources
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, the way to the Creator is indeed through mind and heart, we do not have anything else but mind and heart. So if in the heart we are entirely not capable of being connected to the Creator to begin with, our will to receive only wants to receive, to fulfill itself as it is in oppositeness and it is in a distance from feeling something that is outside of the will to receive. Whatever enters into it that is felt, whatever is outside of it is not felt and there is also a distance beyond not feeling as much as I feel that it is the opposite of me. Meaning here we have a feeling that works in measuring nearing and a feeling that measures distancing, so I see that it is the opposition, that I hate it, or maybe it is mutual, maybe it is not so that it is mutual but I hate him, I cannot accept Him, feel how much he is opposite to me, I am in anxiety of even thinking about such things that are opposite of me. Therefore the distance is great, so what can we do, what can I do? The Creator only bestows and he wants us to become just like Him, therefore He created us in the will to receive actually the opposite of Him, so we would be able to feel what is close and far from the will to receive and to understand and feel him through truly, like Him without involving in that our own qualities.
Therefore the whole attainment is called the attainment above reason, that I have to rise above the will to receive, to exit the boundaries of the will to receive, just like the worm that breaks through the bitter red radish it was living in and starts to feel the upper world. I have to do the same, I have to exit my will to receive and try to incorporate into the desire to bestow which is the Creator’s desire. In this way to rise higher and higher. Why to rise because in truth the Creator is not the desire to bestow, it is only in respect to us, this is how he appears to us, but the Creator exists on a degree which is much higher than that, the will to receive, not desire to bestow but he just wants to show us his attitude to what is the way is opposite to him , what is seemingly foreign to him, alien to him. Therefore we have to incorporate in those qualities, to try to include them inside of us and to start to feel what it means inside of my desire, above my desire to come closer to the desire of another and move away from my desires, from the others desire.
That is to start to feel where, here, are those changes, I am closer or moving away in the desire and by this to start to feel the others more or less. I have to be in control of this because then I will be able, through my change to the other, that does not depend on me on my desire, this is how I feel each time to another one the way I am built. Instead if I can control my relation to the other not according to the nature that was established in us but according to what I determine each and every moment. Then I can have such changes to the others, to the Creator and by that I can measure, to see, to change not only my attitude to everything but also to understand myself as well. Who am I, how am I built, how the Creator created me and from that I can understand what he himself, the Creator is BoReh, come and see. The person is made of mind and heart and it turns out that this is an entirely different work, the perception in the mind and in the heart. If we are talking in respect to spirituality then it is easier, if we can say it is easier, to work in the mind, in the intellect. We seemingly have more control over it, we are able to reach it faster from our state of in order to receive to in order to bestow. We are able to envision these things that exist outside of our brain because the brain, the mind, is built in such a way that it is willing to feel something that is opposite. Like plus and minus, negative and positive and so on, while the heart that is the whole of man, this is our nature the mind is seemingly an addition and the heart exists as the foundation of man.
Therefore with the heart I cannot control it directly, I cannot. I have to perform all kinds of exercises with my mind and all kinds of exercises around the heart that the Kabbalists suggest to us to do. Then through these exercises I somehow influence my heart so it begins to be ready, it becomes qualified to receive discernments that are not natural for it, discernments of bestowal. Discernments of feeling others. Here, once again, we come to the group and how much we have to try to clothe in each and every friend, to try to feel, what does he think, what does he feel and how much can I live inside him, to take him into consideration to unite with him. These are the exercises that all have to do with the feeling of the heart. When we organize them in such a way that we try to make it so that we won't have any partition between us, like one man in one heart like the Kabbalists recommend to us. Then in such a way we truly come closer to a state where we become, we get such a common feeling that we can say that even though we are all very different and we are even in opposite forms to one another, above those forms we can be connected as ten Sefirot . Then we can truly have a place which is organized and arranged. It is called a Partzuf in which we can depict the Creator to a certain measure that we are able together in the connection between us and in the annulment of each one towards the others and the adaptation of each one towards the others, to arrange our internal relations in such a way in our mind and heart so that they will be congruent with the Creator to the force of bestowal. The Creator, according to the intensity of such a connection, clothes in us. In this there will be the revelation of the Creator to the created being. It seems to us that these are difficult things, that these are things that are very far from us but it is not so. We are truly standing at the opening for such a connection and such revelations. The work is in the mind and the heart, in the mind and the heart, and as I said already, the work in the mind, in the brain is seemingly easier because we can work with the mind in all kinds of different forms. While in work in the heart we do not have any control over anything. Let's see how the Kabbalists describe this to us especially Rabash and also Baal HaSulam but especially Rabash, he elaborates on this. This is our primary work, the work in your mind and in the heart. We have to enter into this and delve into this and truly go in there and it is not too bad if we become confused and we do not understand it. We nevertheless should not get tired of making exertion in everything it says.
Excerpt 1: RABASH, Article No. 23 (1991), "What Is the Meaning of the Purification of a Cow’s Ashes, in the Work?" (12:37)
2. R. (14:21) This means that it is not enough that I try to perform all the actions of bestowal as I can, instead I have to change my heart so that my heart will let go of self-love, that I do not want to take myself into consideration but only take others into consideration. This is called that I restrict my heart and I develop reflected light, Ohr Hozer, connected to others, in connection to others, in love of others, this is the work in the heart. The work in the mind, as we can see here already, is relatively easy work, but we need to start from it because if we don’t, we cannot activate the heart. This is what it is about, that it is not enough. I work only with my intellect, I am not a philosopher or a psychologist. I want to be in attainment. That is, to enter the feeling of the upper world in relations of bestowal, love and connection. This is all the Creator’s space and it is his dimension. So the work ultimately is the work with the heart.
3. (16:01) Rav reading Excerpt 1: Man was born with the nature to receive for himself, he must divide His work in two manners, 1) in the mind which is that one should pay attention to the state of his faith. Yet in faith the person can work in order to receive reward meaning to observe the Torah and Mitzvot in all kinds of actions between him and everybody else mostly in respect to the Creator. From the love of people to the love of the Creator that he observes the commandments and Torah because later it will reward him, meaning that he would have benefited from this for himself so therefore he remains separated. 2) Hence, there is another special work called "heart'' which is the love of others and if he works only on the love of others then he would still remain outside of Holiness since love of others is not the purpose of creation. The purpose of creation is to do good to his creations, meaning for the created beings to receive from the Creator the delight and pleasure, not to bestow to him but to receive. But if they have no faith, meaning that they do not have the power of bestowal, how do they receive anything from the Creator, when they have no faith in the Creator, the force of bestowal to him. It must be in two different manners, in mind and heart, we have to develop here the force of bestowal to the Creator and also the understanding and the understanding of why we are doing this. This is why with the force of bestowal but with faith that we developed to the Creator in our mind and heart, in this way we are aiming ourself correctly and we come closer to him. Of course from these writings we will not know it what mind and heart are, so I recommend to you let us leave these questions that I see coming from many groups and let us read a few more writings so we would have certain complete attitude more or less at least on our level to the mind and heart to the spiritual work.
Excerpt 2 : RABASH, Article No. 237, "Mind and Heart" Twice (19:25)
3. R. (21:26) This means that according to what it says here apparently, we always have to sort out to whose benefit, to what purpose, intention am I working. Seemingly I am a neutral operator activating my mind and heart according to some direction, if it is intended to benefit the Creator then my mind and heart should be operated by myself with knowing forcefully and this is how I bestow through them to the Creator. If I do not identify that I can do that then I do not activate my mind or my heart and they remain as they are, without any work and it does not matter what I feel. I can feel in my mind and heart all kinds of phenomena but that let them stay as they are, I do not touch them. The most important for me is to detect if I have forces so that I can operate my mind and heart to bestow to the Creator for the benefit of the Creator and as much as I am certain that I am capable of doing that. First of all, this is how I determine my attitude to spirituality, sit and don't do is better, if you cannot do it then don't do it. Don't do it also means that you are working against your ego so that too, even those actions when you hold yourself and you do not do it for your own pleasure this is also spiritual work. It is just for the time being you cannot hold yourself above your actions so you could perform actions of bestowal but this also is considered that you are doing, you prepare yourself for the Creator to work on you and develop within you the force of bestowal.
Excerpt 3: Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 44, "Mind and Heart" (23:54)
4. R. (24:48) Yes, because the result of all the efforts is the work in the heart. The heart should start to want to bestow, not naturally like it would feel to begin with if it was built in the form of bestowal but because in the beginning it is built with the will to receive in the form of a reception. So as much as it wakes up above it in bestowal, this is already considered a corrected heart, it is already called the work in the heart and from that we start to feel in the heart the Creator. Just like the Creator is seemingly clothes in the heart, it is not like he clothes into the heart but we correct a part of the desires in the heart in order to bestow and in them we feel that the Creator is seemingly clothing in us.
5. (26:03) Rav reads excerpt 3 again : One must examine if the faith is in order, meaning that if he has fear and love, as it is written, “If I am a father, where is my honor, and if I am a lord, where is the fear of me?” And this is called “mind.” We must also see that there will not be any desires to delight oneself, that even a thought to want for himself will not arise in him, but all his desires will be only to bestow upon the Creator. This is called “heart,” which is the meaning of “The Merciful One wants the heart.
R. The Creator wants the heart, this is the summary of our work. The Creator wants the heart as it says that the Creator demands, wants all the hearts and we need to prepare our hearts towards Him in such a way because he demands all the heart. The work in the mind is work that should advance us to work in the heart, so the heart starts to change, to receive desires of bestowal in it, to be filled accordingly with the forces of bestowal which is considered that the Creator clothes into the heart, is revealed in the heart.
Excerpt 4: RABASH, Article No. 1, (1989), "What Is the Measure of Repentance?" (27:49)
6. (29:56) Rav reading 4: When a person begins to walk on the path of the work of bestowal, he complains to the Creator, “Why have You made the concealment of Your face to the point that we cannot overcome the concealment that the Creator has placed, so we can overcome those two things—mind and heart?”
Why did you make it an obstacle before me so I don't even know what it is, we do not know what it is until we start to work on these a little bit more, to get into it a little bit more until through all kinds of success and obstacles and all kinds of things, we begin a little bit more to understand and feel what it is all about. What is this work in the mind and heart that they are requesting from us because in our simple egoistic life in the world, we do not stumble across statute states, we don't. All our work is inside a will to receive and here it is above this desire divided into mind and heart, the work in the mind and the work in the heart. Rav reading Indeed, why did the Creator make it so that we must believe and did not do this because otherwise anybody who begins to work can immediately see the Creator’s greatness. Why should I believe, what is faith? I do not understand, I do not have such a thing in my life. The fact that the Creator made it so that we must work in faith, it causes many people to move away from this spiritual work, we can see how many people are like this in the world.
A few hundred, maybe a few thousands out of billions, it is as if the Creator made working with faith a stumbling block, it is an obstacle for all those who fail in this. Why did the Creator do this? Baal HaSulam says about this that we must believe that the Creator made it this way that our work would be in the form of they have to believe in the Lord and his loyal servant Moses in the mind and heart, to truly change that mind and change mostly heart and this is the best way. That there is no other, he did not choose among a few alternatives but there is truly no other possibility to enter spirituality only through working the mind and heart. This is the best way in order to achieve the complete goal which is to do good to his creations otherwise the Creator would not be able to be revealed in us and to fulfill us with his light, with his presence. This is specifically through faith that the created beings can achieve the completion of the goal which is to receive the delight and pleasure that the Creator contemplated giving to the created beings. In order to reach faith, the force of bestowal, the quality of Bina, is only the condition and then we can open ourselves up to the light of Hochma and to receive it in order to bestow.
Excerpt 5: RABASH, Article No. 237, "Mind and Heart" (34:37)
7. (35:55) Rav reads 5: When the person goes above his mind then when he is given the mind that approves all of his work when he would never see such a thought, he would be able to say that he is receiving all this in order to bestow since it from his heart he can relinquish the mind. At that time he can be rewarded by the light of faith if he relinquishes his mind, for he can relinquish because his aim is not for himself. The proof of this that he does everything even if it is against the mind and the intellect, naturally he is able to receive the light of faith and can be certain, sure that his aim is to give but when he cannot work in faith but only where that mind approves, according to the will to receive, then he necessarily remains inside the restriction. For this reason we have two works, the mind and heart, we need both works. There is a lot more to add here but this is what he wrote.
Excerpt 6: RABASH, Article No. 24 (1990), "What Does, 'Everything that Comes to Be a Burnt Offering Is Male,' Mean in the Work?" (38:04)
8. (39:30) Rav reads 6: It is written in the article in the book Matan Torah similarly all your actions will be only to bestow and to benefit others. Thus you will equalize your form with the form and the qualities of the Creator which is the spiritual adhesion. There is the discernment of mind and heart in the equivalence of form, engagement in the Torah and Mitzvot in order to bestow contentment to the Creator is equivalence of form in the mind. This is because the Creator does not think of himself whether he exists or whether he watches over the creations and other such doubts Similarly one who wishes to achieve equivalence of form must not think about these things as well because they are all aim for their own will to receive, it is clear to him that the Creator does not think about such things because there is no greater disparity of form. So if anybody thinks about such matters about himself, about me, so he certainly separated from the Creator.
9. R. (41:10) Let's have simple questions, ones closer to us, to the point.
10. S. (42:28) In many of their writings he talks about the fact that we have to check if he gives to the Creator in all the actions and desires, so how to check each desire if I give to the Creator or not?
R. My dear friend, it is very simple, you have friends, you have the group, if you give it to them you are giving to the Creator, it just seems to you that they are friends but they are not friends at all. You have to look at them as if the Creator sent them or sent them to you as messengers, as his delegation so you have to relate to them as if to the Creator. So there is no problem the more you go inside that friends and truly relates to them as if to the Creator, this is called from the love of people to the love of the Creator, this way you can discover the Creator is clothed in them and you will have no problem and this is how the Creator is revealed. This is the only thing you have to do.
S. As you said when we penetrate into the friends, we try to feel them, absorb their desires, to love them, so in principle all the other desires we have, what to do with them?
R. All the desires, all the thoughts, everything we have gradually incorporated into our relation to the friends and in them accordingly, I begin to discover the Creator. I do not discover their faces or the material relationships in this world, I start the discovered the essence of the relationships between us which is really the Creator and then the friends disappears, the group disappears, this world disappears within in a cloud of relationships between us and in that cloud, I discover the essence of bestowal which is the Creator.
11. S. (44:59) If we look at our desire from the outside, is it considered a separate creation?
R. I don't understand the question.
S. If we hide our desire, it seems to us like some kind of a separate creation and then we can ask from the Creator to fill it up?
R. If my desire is seemingly outside of me within the society, in the group then the Creator can fulfill it. As long as my desire is within me, the Creator cannot fulfill it. This is a very simple rule, if I want to give to the Creator by all means I have to come out of myself with this desire and I have to connect to the group so the whole group would want this. So it would be for the benefit of the group, the benefit of the friends and this way I can begin to feel that by this I grow closer to the Creator and there also I will also receive the answer to the extent I am incorporated in the ten. To that extent the Creator can bestow upon me, to that extent. Let's say that I go into the ten with 2 kilograms of desire, those kilograms desire the Creator can bestow to me and in them I discovered him and here the group can help me, pull me a little more into the group. This way I can start to work with them, I to them, they to me and so on and then we are working this way in order to give the Creator a place to be revealed, by this to give contentment to him like kids who want to connect against their desire to fight to give contentment to their mother. This is how we need to work, we will do this, it is coming closer to us, it is becoming clearer because the upper light, the surrounding light is influencing us and it is arranging, organizing and correcting us.
12.S. (48:12) How can we avoid having our actions to love others leave us outside of Holiness?
R. If he does not do this in practice we cannot do spiritual work alone, by ourselves, this is a huge obstacle, it is the main thing that I have to understand, feel and establish resolve in my mind and heart that I have to perform these actions outside of myself. Tell me what is outside of myself, how do I come out of my ego without entering into the others? There is no such thing, there is no such thing, this is by our whole work is about how to come out of ourselves, each one and how to enter the ten because to this we pray and we also asked the whole ten to help me through me a rope so I can come out of my ego and this way each needs to help the others.
S. It is a clear to them that the work has to be in love of others but how can we prevent the work of love of others does not leave them outside of holiness if one works only on the love of others he can still remain outside of Holiness because love of others is not the purpose of creation.
R. But from love of others you get to the love of the Creator so we do not just remain nice people, we have to from the beginning to determine that are we even in words, we do not really understand what it is yet, we cannot really put feelings into these words, but nevertheless we are people with a point in the hearts. To begin with we were given some level of connection with the Creator and that level of connection we should constantly increase, intensify when I wake up in the morning and in every situation. I have to remember that I must increase and intensify my connection with the Creator that he gave me and how can I do something here, from my part in order to do that.
13. S. (51:47) Faith influences the mind, how does it influence the heart, how is it felt in the heart?
R. Faith is felt to some extent in the mind as well but it is mainly in the heart, what am I trying to say, the main thing we need is the correction of the heart. The mind is only some auxiliary tool we need to keep ourselves and direct ourselves and do something but all the work in the mind is also around the heart, concerning the heart. Therefore, as much as we may try to approach the heart, we do it through the mind, this is how we are built but from the Creator we ask help us change our hearts, this is the main thing. Our desires for them to receive the power of restriction to receive the power of the force of bestowal, the desires remain desires to receive. What does it mean that they receive correction, they do not become the force of bestowal, an intention to bestow connects to them when I work with the same will to receive but for the sake of others, for the sake of the intention to bestow. This is why the others has to be in my eyes more important than myself, this is why I have to restrict myself and increase, extol the other so I have to disconnect from myself and cling to the others. There is very, very special work here and by the way, the whole world is approaching this. We may not understand this, we may not feel this but this is what is happening now from day-to-day in all these quarrels and the problems the world is experiencing. These bickering and the problems where they cannot find among them some contact point and they are moving further and further away and temporarily come close and move away again, they are only in order in the future to find the point of contact that will connect them. We will see, it is just that without this it is not possible, without it is not possible to approach
14. S. (55:18) What does it mean that there is no self-satisfaction but it has to come from the upper one? There is no self- satisfaction, what does it mean?
R. The heart is called the desire, the Creator created desire, the will to receive and this is the only thing we work with. Even when we say that we are restricting the desire, we are rising above the desire we cannot, it is only our attitude to our own desire, which we received initially in order to receive because it came to us after the breaking. When a part of the light entered the will to receive and then the will to receive acquired the intentions to receive. This is what we cannot do anything with it because it keeps on pulling towards itself and we need the power of a society in which the force of the Creator dresses. So we need to establish here a force, a powerhouse that will pull us from our will to receive in order to receive and transition us into the will to receive of the society of the ten. This is what we are building so our whole work should be how to build connection between us in the ten so each ten can help each person emerge from his aim to receive and to achieve the aim to bestow. In the meantime, you are working in order to bestow to the friends, among the friends and in them we can discover that the more these friends acquire in our eyes, a singular image and we discover this as the Creator.
15. S. (57:43) How to acquire faith through the love of friends?
R. I look at the friends as much as I try to see them as great and we learn together, we are reading and talking nevertheless, we start to feel that the friends are more and more worthy, great in my eyes. I do not relate to them as I related to them a year or two ago, they become more and more important to me. Because of the work we do we get more and more reforming light and this is what I detect that even though previously I had not much respect for them, I did not pay attention to them, I was thinking how to use them in order to progress more, how to use them. Today I look at using society in a different way, how I can yield myself, concede myself, annul before them, dissolve in them. Where actually if I could annul myself and be in them as if I do not exist, like you jump into the water and you are in the water, this is how I want to be in the group. So I see that my situation to the group nevertheless has changed and accordingly through the group I get more and more influence from the Creator because I cannot receive anything directly from him only to the extent that I return to the pattern of Adam HaRishon, the vessel of the ten. This is how we progress, this is our direction and then we will discover the mind and heart, this is not a problem, our problem is how to draw reforming light in the ten together and then each to the extent that he's Incorporated into the ten he will receive if he is incorporated in the ten, he will receive even though I am not so incorporated I still receive because the general light of the small group can still influence the person. You can see this is how it works, we just need to pay more and more attention to this.
16. S. (01:00:57) In the excerpt it says: “If I'm the Lord, where's the fear of me?” If the Lord fears nothing, what is the fear of the Lord?
R. The Creator isn't afraid of anything. The Creator determines what we will feel and what we will think, He has got nothing to be afraid of, even egotistically, if we can imagine the Creator not as a force of bestowal, which is hard for us to imagine but even as a force of reception, if the Creator is a superior one and everything comes to us from Him then everything that awakens in us and happens to us, that's felt in the mind, in the heart, it all comes from Him, so what fears would he have? He would only be afraid of how to advance us toward Him; how to raise us toward Him. In this we have free choice, there is an element that the Creator does not control. Otherwise, this whole creation would become inanimate, still. You understand, if we are all completely under the power of the Creator, there would be no created beings here. What is it, a fixed game? Like a baby that does something but we know in advance what it will do, so what's the point? Rather, we, toward the baby in such a way as if we don’t know, as if it's free, and then it needs each to add on its own. The work that we would seemingly be able to do for it, it is the same for the Creator. We can say if He knows in advance or not because He comes from holiness from the end of our way. But nevertheless we have to understand that we have no other way but only to receive this discernment, that the Creator cannot concede or make allowances on our free choice. So we have to make our efforts and work above reason and this is why we have to establish our relationships in the ten as if it is spiritual as much as we can imagine it. It's as if the ten is completely not corporeal. It has qualities of bestowal, qualities of love, qualities of connection, dedication, devotion from each one as much as possible, and each day, more and more so. Then by this, we do this forcefully and we also turn to the Creator and ask Him for the strength and we ask Him to clothe in connection between us and help us in our connection, we’ll also correct it, by this we advance. This is really our work, in both mind and heart. There we will know how to divide the mind and heart and how these two approaches help us be more connected. The main thing is the connection, there we attain everything.
17. S. (01:05:18) The work in the mind and heart connects to the intention to bestow?
R. Yes, yes, you're right. In mind and in heart, our work comes to a single intention to bestow and then, to the extent of this intention to bestow, we begin to use the desire as much as we can, perform acts of bestowal in it.
18. S. (01:06:02) If I understood correctly, faith above reason, well, the reason is my current heart and mind, and faith is mind and heart of the upper degree that I need to reach the group, Rav, the Creator?
R. This, too, is correct; although there are discernments too, but that's fine.
19. S. (01:06:48) If we attain the equivalence of form in the mind, will it help us to demand equivalence of form in the heart from the Creator?
R. We can shift from the mind to the heart, gradually, because the mind will force us to connect; to understand that it comes only through connection. And then, in the connection, in the propensity, disposition to connect, we will receive a new feeling not personally, individual to each of us but a common feeling. And then out of this, we will begin to feel what is outside of us. ‘All of people’ is only a degree to reach the Creator, it is half the way. It is seemingly it is if the group helps me come out of myself and be incorporated in the Creator so in the group meet the ‘me’ that comes out of the group comes out of myself into the group and the Creator who can come down, move Himself into the group and there we meet, everything happens in the system of Adam HaRishon, which is the ten.
20. S. (01:08:44) In the text it says that we should work in faith but also believe so what is this work in the ten of faith and believing?
R. The work with faith is when we ask the Creator for the forces of Bina, forces of bestowal, we hope to receive it from Him through the ten. And then we come to work with faith itself, with the force of faith that we receive, and in that force, we can already relate to the friends and to the group, and in it to the Creator in order to bestow. Through our work with faith, we seemingly build the place that is called ‘the womb,’ and through our work, afterwards with the force of the faith, we ourselves become an embryo inside the womb. We have externality of the work and internality of the work, and then they alternate and they change places. We will talk about it
21. S. (01:10:33) How can we advance in the work while the more we invest in the work in the ten, the more we discover the heart becomes heavier; and there’s also more expectations from the friends so how can we work in such a state?
R. It is true that the heart grows heavier and it's true that the more we advance in spirituality, the heavier we become, the more selfish we become but opposite that, you also have states when we rise above it. And then our work is on two legs, we have to immerse ourselves on the right foot, meaning in bestowal, in faith, and the left foot will always be for us as the heavy foot, and specifically through this we will advance from degree to degree because the level, the height of the degree, is determined by the addition of the egoistic desire. But we rise, we climb above this desire and in this way until we come to the minimal connection between us where in the connection between us in the ten, we to some extent of our desire from each one we become one desire. And then it is called an embryo, very simple. That’s each of us, cut off from his egoistic desire, a part, a tiny part so that in that part all of us, each of us for himself will be able to unite into one body, one desire. The difference is and it is the same desire of each of us but we can put a restriction on our intention for ourselves and dedicate it, donate it to the ten and through the ten to the Creator. And then that part becomes the spiritual embryo and then we feel ourselves as connected and the Creator is in us and he sustains us.
S. How do we cut off this part right now?
R. So the example is good, fine. Well, sometimes it works, it comes out clearer.
S. Should I expect anything from the friends, demand anything from them?
R. Of course, first of all you have to give them an example. I want all of us to be this way so I have to set an example in the ten , examples in the ten are positive examples, right? It has to be, it is called helping one another. even though I'm not really in this example, myself, but I want to be this way. So the way I'm acting towards the friends as if I want connection, to come closer to them, it influences them for real and even though I don't really understand if I am in this example or not, but this is how we built the ten. Exerting as much as possible in expressing in this external expression all of us together in order to give a place to the Creator. We are building the Shechina, the Divinity, a network of connection between us that is suitable for the revelation of the Creator.
22. S. (01:16:12) When I think of getting closer to the friends, I see him only activating my mind. I want the heart to move but it’s still, it's not felt. So what is working with the heart? I want to activate the heart but only the mind works.
R. So you activate the brain with the intention with the hope, as much as you can that it will also move the heart, that is it, as much as you can, and this is called the prayer because you're doing an action and you're asking for a certain result.
S. The request for certain results: that means to activate the heart?
R. No, this is still activating the Creator to change your heart. The heart is in the hands of the Creator, hundred percent. The Creator created the will to receive and He's the sole governor of it, only through the Creator, through the ten, can you influence the Creator. Only then through the ten can He influence you. This web, network, exists in and will exist in this way although we sometimes see it more or less but that's how it works. The whole system of connection is built this way, even between nations and humanity, inside everything, we will see, soon, how everything will begin to get organized according to the ten. In this ten and other ten’s, and such things and other kinds of ten’s but everything arranged according to one template. The fact that we don’t see it, we see in some opposite form according to nations and other forms of the ego, that’s for the time being. We will discover quickly how these things are very close to us.
23. S. (01:18:37) I am asking about excerpt # 5: Is it true that if you do everything against your reason, you can be sure that your intention is to bestow?
R. If we do this within reason?
S. No, against reason.
R. Against, no I can’t necessarily say you know there are people who do in all directions. The fact that we want to come out of our ego, this is called ‘come out of our reason,’ doesn’t mean that we are already in the right direction. In order to decide on the right direction, I need to have two points, then there is correct line between them, correct vector; so only to come out, only to do against the reason, it is not enough. I need to also have the right direction, the direction of faith which is above reason where I am aiming myself as I'm coming out of it. This is what is important.
24. S. (01:19:57) How to format the mind and heart in a right relation to our work?
R. That's what we are learning, the question is correct but how to format it? First in the ten, in the connection between us. If we reach a connection even if it's going to be an incorrect connection, egoistic connection then “a forsaken town cannot be destroyed” because they’re all connected, it’s a ten. Even if it’s not aimed correctly the Creator nevertheless cares for them, the Creator holds them, He sustains them, He advances them correctly. The main point is to have the connection, and it is recommended not only to have the connection in the ten but also in our entire Kli, our entire world group; and in this way, we advance. It will give us the correct direction in our efforts.
25. S. (01:21:13) Excerpt number 6, he says that the Creator doesn't think of Himself whether He is bestowing and so on; he also says that “there is not a greater disparity of form and whoever thinks about it is for sure separated from the Creator”. How can I measure my attitude towards the ten, if I'm in the right relation?
R. Are you thinking about them and you caring about them and not yourself? This is the simplest way: what's at the heart of your concern, you or your ten ? That is it, just like a mother who thinks about her baby and not herself. Although she exists and she feels how difficult it is, it doesn't matter to her, as long as she can do everything for him.
26. S. (01:22:24) In an excerpt 6, it says that if I give contentment to my maker, so it's equivalence of form of the mind but He wants the heart. So what's “equivalent from the mind”?
R. Keep at it, and you will reach the discernment of the heart.
27. S. (01:22:53) It is also about the advice that you just said: that each one should slice something from his will to receive for the ten. In excerpt 5, he emphasizes the success of a person in relinquishing his mind, and in excerpt 2, he says that a person should relinquish the joys of the world. How can you relinquish the joy of pleasures of this world?
R. We don't need to do it, we need to raise pleasures from spirituality from bestowal to be greater than from pleasures from reception, and on that it says “envy, lust and honor take a person out of this world” if I am in the ten and the ten correctly presents to me spiritual values, I begin to appreciate them, to value them more than all corporeal values and if I can't feel it, it's a sign that the ten is not doing its job towards me. And I, too, do not annul myself enough toward the ten. We don't need to work against evil, against the will to receive, I need to work in order to appreciate the will to bestow in order to appreciate the connection. I have to work in the positive direction not in the negative direction. The will to receive is always stronger than me, I need to appreciate more and more the will to bestow, to respect the Creator, to value demand by that, I will rise more and more. Of course, I will discover how much the will to receive, again, is pulling me inside but it’s for me to come out of it, again, in a different direction with a greater force. That is how we advanced.
28. S. (01:25:10) So what does it mean” to slice off a part of the will to receive”?
R. By that, I “slice” it: when I am working on appreciating, on valuing spirituality more than before, I seemingly take a piece from the will to receive to the will to bestow. The desire remains the same except, where is it, on which side? Either in order to receive or in order to bestow.
S. “To slice it,” it’s felt that it has to be some action and then work in appreciation and raise the importance that is something that we constantly do but I don't feel that I'm slicing my will to receive by trying to appreciate it.
R. Incorrect, that's incorrect, you also feel it. Sometimes you see that there is no choice and you must, now, dedicate yourself to the group, to the ten and then you invest forces in it and you work. Let's say preparing the gathering or meal for the ten and then you invest, you work in it and those forces that you would otherwise previously ascribe to yourself, to in order to receive, you now passed them to in order to bestow.
S. In the actions it's clear but when there is an opportunity to do actual actions of bestowal to the ten?
R. You meet online, right, so what's the problem? You meet, so I need to, now, dedicate myself, devote myself to the connection for half an hour so that we’ll have a connection between us as great as possible, as powerful and direct as possible so our hearts will feel how connected they are truly as one piece of living flesh, we have to exert in that.
29. S. (01:27:39) How can we help friends that for years and years gave their whole life in managing all kinds of organizations, and today that part of the work between mind and the heart also if I give personal example it won't help, they just step on you. And I really want for them, they deserve it. I don't know, I feel helpless.
R. Sir, it has nothing to do with our inner work, it has to do with the organization so please turn to the person in charge in the organization. I can’t get into it and it has nothing much to do with all the groups around the world. You have to sort what you're asking about, not about personal things relative to your group and a few friends.
S. The gap between those friends?
R. I don't want to go into problems because those problems are not from the place of work, right now.
30. S. (01:28:57) I wanted to ask what causes the Creator to change the men's heart?
R. Our willingness for Him to do it and our demand because there is no one who can change besides Him: “I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice.” So please give us the spice so that the intention of our heart will be to bestow.
S. But what's that willingness?
R. Willingness for what? In our demand?
S. That the Creator will change your heart”
R. The willingness on my part to demand from Him I can demand from Him that He must. If I demand it, it means “My sons have defeated me.”
S. Is there a sign that the heart changes? Because I recognize that it becomes more blocked, it's not softening.
R. It's possible that it feels more blocked, on one hand but on the other hand, this testament to your advancement also when we go from one grade to another in school, lessons become harder, much more material to study, tests and so on. Those are signs of advancement.
S. About school, it's clear but in our work, I don't know it's like it seems they're going backwards.
R. Why? It seems this way according to the coarseness, according to the intensity of the work, then of course suddenly you feel what kind of work did I get? I don't understand anything, I don't want it, it is true in each and every degree that you are going, that you're transitioning, you're feeling this way. Your will to receive immediately detects that it’s against it and that it doesn't want it, it looks for ways out. And if you know the connection and investment in the study, in the lesson, this is what will take you out, then you can advance – there is no other way, there's no other way or you wait until the sufferings intensify, if not in this lifetime who knows when? and then we will advance.
S. We read that the Creator wants your heart, so what does it mean he wants your heart?
R. It will be in order to bestow. The “heart” means all of man’s desires, that they will be in order to bestow.
S. So then, how do we give Him our heart?
R. By asking Him to change the intention in our hearts. “You created the heart, you made it, you corrupted it, you prepared everything, now, where are the corrections?” We need to – by ourselves – come to a state where we open up the heart, we discover how wrong it is, broken, corrupted, disassembled, in pieces, and we ask the Creator to correct. He corrupted it, He should correct it – this is the meaning of “My sons have defeated Me.”
31. S. (01:33:09) How do you combine the work between mind and heart correctly?
R. To correctly combine the work in mind and heart you begin with the mind, the brain. This is closer, easier and this is not directly opposed to our will to receive, not in direct collision with it. And when you enter it gradually you begin to touch the desires themselves, the heart. Then you understand that you can't do it, you need help from the friends, help from the Creator. And in this way, we get into the work. In the mind we don't get to actual spiritual work, only a small part of it. All of the work is on the heart, but we get to it from the mind.
S. Who has to be the leader, the mind or the heart? Who is in more control?
R. The mind. Through the mind, through connection we approach the correct work.
32. S. (01:31:49) The work in mind and heart, it's about the will to receive in order to receive. So how can you measure together in the ten that we are going in the right direction?
R. Only through the connection between us. The form of connection is not important as long as it is connection first. Then later when we have connection then here and there, we can work on the essence of connection, why, what for, in which direction. But first of all it is the connection.
33. S. (01:35:42) It says that if they don't have faith, they can’t receive anything from the Creator. So why if you don't have faith, you can’t get the abundance from the Creator?
R. Faith is the force of bestowal, the intention to bestow which exists above the will to receive. Without the force of bestowal we can’t adapt ourselves to the Creator who is entirely the will to bestow. And we are the will to receive but through the force of bestowal that we install above us as we receive the reforming light, then between us and the Creator there is the intention to bestow, and in this way, we are suitable to the Creator, adapted to Him. He is in the desire to bestow and we are with the intention to bestow, so to some extent we are connected, and then that intention to bestow when those desires control us to that extent, we can reveal the Creator. The revelation of the Creator in us is called inner light, NRNHY that we can receive. In this way we perceive the Creator and we begin to resemble him.
34. S. (01:37:26) The purpose of creation is to do good to the created beings. So what is the true good and abundance the Creator has prepared?
R. When we feel what it means to bestow like Him. And I grow up to the form which is the Creator that feels His attitude towards the created beings and I also feel the same attitude to the created beings, and through them to the Creator.
35. S. (01:38:02) It says that if he works on the love of others alone, he’ll also remain outside of spirituality. Why is that?
R. Because he's alone, alone you cannot do it. We can’t get to bestowal on our own, alone. This is the greatest barrier there is, that I think, I want and I will do. And I will receive from above the help and become a bestower like the Creator, and we’ll bestow to one another. So why do I need this world and all those people? I don't need them, let it be me and the Creator and the others they can drop dead. Why do I care? It doesn't work this way. Until I care at least for my ten I can't come out of myself, I don’t adapt myself, adjust myself to fit the Creator. The degrees of my connection to the ten are the degrees of my connection with the Creator. I have no way to do this work in any other way no way whatsoever. That is why we nevertheless have to be connected and as much as possible to ask the Creator to help us to understand that the connection between us is our salvation. It is what raises us from this world to the upper world, to the spiritual world. Besides that there is no other means, only if I am incorporated in the ten and in it like in an elevator I am rising to the upper world, to the spiritual world.
36. S. (01:40:11) In excerpt 3 we have to see if the faith is OK, if one has fear and love. So how to check, according to what criteria?
R. Faith is the force of bestowal and we can measure it again only in the ten. As much as I can connect to them, I rise above my ego. This means that I acquire the force of the bestowal and as much as I am included, incorporated and imprinted in them it means that I work with my will to receive in order to bestow.
37. S. (01:41:10) It says of the Creator doesn't think of himself and we have to reach such a state that we're only thinking of others. It feels like a desired state but completely opposite of us. Is it really possible to do?
R. Yes, we need to resemble the Creator and to that extent we become humans, Adam, that resemble the Creator. And that's what dictates for us this whole method, that is what it is teaching us.
38. S. (01:41:52) How can we teach the heart of the ten to work together in bestowing to the Creator?
R. This is our work there is nothing else to do here. We need to come to a state where in mutual bestowal we begin to understand what it means to bestow to the Creator and accordingly the Creator is revealed from within the common connection between us. In other words the work in the group is the building of the image of the Creator, this is called you have made me. So from within the ten we discover the Creator, we begin to understand Him, to detect Him, to build him, to make him in practice. Because this concept of Boreh, come and see does not exist before we actually do it between us. In each ten this is how it is happening, this is what is taking place.
39. S. (01:43:16) Is there a heart of the ten that has to be corrected?
R. The heart of the ten, that's the will to receive that each one can slice from himself, sever from himself and connect his personal will to receive, the one that he donates, contributes. It's called donation, sacrifice that you bring to the center of the group. Where do we get the concept of sacrifices, Korban, it’s from the word Karov, close. It’s when we come closer to one another. How can we come closer to one another? In our hearts. So each one serves a piece from his egoistic desire and he wants to work with that piece that he cut off in order to bestow, and then all these parts that in order to bestow, that we each cut from our hearts, they connect together. And from that we get the general sacrifice, general offering that we raise to the heavens. This is the work of the sacrifices, the offerings.
40. S. (01:44:34) Is the work in mind and heart in the ten the same scrutinies we’re doing that lead to awakening the emotions between the friends and then a request to the Creator?
R. Correct. Even when we don't do this work in earnest, nevertheless all of our scrutinies even when we are outside of the connection and even when we don't connect between us quite yet, nevertheless we assemble although from afar. We actually assemble a general desire called Shechina and in it we anticipate the revelation of the Creator, which is called the Shochen, dweller.
41. (01:45:36) How to start working with the mind and feeling so we can serve our friends in the ten, to restrict myself to zero?
R. Set an example. An example in connection, an example in dissemination, an example in mutual help, this is the main thing.
42. S. (01:46:00) Why do I have to go from my will to receive to the ten’s, they're both the will to receive?
R. The will to receive of the ten is the corrected will to receive, the spiritual will to receive, and in it we will be rewarded with the revelation of the Creator. Whereas my individual will to receive is always egoistic.
43. S. (01:46:27) Why do we ascribe ourselves to the mind? How do we start our feeling ourselves as a heart in order to correct it?
R. If we could connect in our hearts, those parts in our hearts into one heart in truth the Creator will be revealed in it. The Creator will not be revealed in the mind, it is only a helpful instrument that helps us connect the hearts.
44. S. (01:47:03) Will the gap between mind and heart grow as we advance?
R. I don't see quite a gap between mind and feeling, both are work we do in order to approach the connection between us and from us to the Creator.
45. S. (01:47:24) There are friends that I am more rejected from than others. Should I work with them more or with the whole ten in general?
R. In general with the entire ten, that's how we work. Of course sometimes we need to awaken certain friends, give them an example without even talking about it, and in this way to awaken them to move closer, come closer.
46. S. (01:47:56) What actually changes my heart, things that I do with my heart or the requests from the Creator in my mind?
R. What changes me in the end is an example from the ten that I received from them. There is a ten, it needs to think how to set an example for advancing, for connection to all the friends. There are those who don't understand it, there are those who don't want it, don't care for it. Those friends are specifically those with a big, great will to receive and it is possible that you want to invest in them because they will be more advanced later on, but for the time being it is hard for them. All the great Kabbalists were investing dozens of years, decades in the connection, in the work between them to reach revelation. Because the will to receive is so great it demands great work with preparations, but once it begins to enter into contact with the upper light then the light needs to scrutinize them internally, deeply, correctly. So great Kabbalists as much as we think it came to them easily, that they have some preferential treatment from above, there is no such a thing. No, everyone worked really really hard.
47. S. (01:49:53) Should we reach recognition and complete control on the heart and mind separately or does it have to be one work?
R. No, it's two kinds of work, they don't always connect exactly each time between them but we need to try and work both in this and in that separately until we get a bit more into it. And then we will begin to get help from one to the other. We will begin to scrutinize the heart using the mind and we will begin to criticize the mind using the heart, it’s interesting.
48. S. (01:50:42) Where does the heart get the direction and forces to bestow in our heart?
R. From the shattering. From the shattering the intentions to bestow that we had during the shattering, even before we feel ourselves existing in certain reality. We went through the shattering and then from the shattering we come to a state where we become included, incorporated of mind and heart.
49. S. (01:51:32) On what condition does the Creator develop the quality of bestowal in us?
R. On the condition that we're ready for it. That we can show Him in the physical connection between us as much as we're capable of doing that we want it, or we're unable and we don't want it, but at least we're willing to invest in it. This way the Creator is bringing us closer.
50. S. (01:52:10) How to recognize what to work with, the mind or feeling?
R. For the time being or in general we could say we always start from the mind, everything will be clarified in the thought. But after it is clarified we carry it out, we implement it in the feeling, in the heart.
51. S. (01:52:48) What does it mean to sit and not do? Because it turns out that until my intentions are corrected, I shouldn't do, so I don't start working. How can I know?
R. No, “sit and do nothing is better” refers to when I am not able to scrutinize something, it's not that you're sitting and doing nothing. “Sit and do nothing is better” means don't interfere with your mind and your heart but rather invest yourself in the connection and the study, and then from your efforts in those areas you will feel that your mind and your heart receive a new feeling.
52. S. (01:53:38) Above reason is when you take something in your mind even if though you don't agree with it in your heart?
R. The state of above reason is when we disagree in the mind and sometimes disagree in the heart. Typically the state of above reason comes to us because we receive an illumination from above and through that we rise to the force of bestowal above the force of reception.