Morning Lesson October 25, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 1, 1989. What Is the Measure of Repentance?
1. Rav’s Introduction: “What is the measure of repentance”, that we don't know, what is it the Creator wants from us, to what extent do we want to come closer to Him, to adhere to Him, what is the measure, let's hear.
Reading Article. (01:14 - 30:03) “It is written, “Return, O Israel,...”
2. S. (30:15) What kind of condition of faith do I need to have, to develop, so I can reach the absolute truth that will allow me to shift between the mind and the heart?
R. That everything that's done is only done by the Creator and There Is None Else besides Him and everything the Creator does is only for your benefit and not for anyone else. If you will reach these two concepts then you can already relax that you're okay, you've attained the goal.
3. S. (31:23) What is the role in every stage of our advancement of the intention, is the main, central role to begin with, we are born in the incorrect intention?
R. Yes.
S. What should build the corrected intention?
R. To connect with the friends, by that we slowly, slowly, begin to think of the others and by that we reach a state that our thoughts, our actions, they are for the others and we ask the Creator to help us with that, and by that we attain the quality of bestowal.
S. And in the Ten, if we scrutinize this intention together then we don't have such scrutinies, ‘who has the right attention’, who doesn't’?
R. No, each one scrutinizes their own.
4. S. (32:48) It says here that “when a person does not succeed in exiting self-love, he reaches the need for the Creator to help and that the Creator will help him in what, in a holy soul. A holy soul which is the upper light which is revealed to a person and then he feels this part of God from above”. What does it mean to feel the holy soul as help, as assistance, from the Creator, how exactly do we feel it?
R. He begins to feel the quality of bestowal appears here and he wants to bestow, to help, to fulfill others, to be a partner to the Creator.
5. S. (33:43) How to be in constant faith above reason and not to ‘stumble on the rock’?
R. Hold onto the friends and to the Creator, nothing more to do.
6. S. (34:18) There are two things here that I would like to understand, please: on the one hand, he says correctly that “our work purifies the will to receive so it is in order to bestow then we become worthy and qualified to receive the abundance,” on the other hand, he says the Creator made it so that anyone who begins the work will immediately see the greatness of the Creator”. How can I put these two things together, how do they coincide?
R. I think it's the same law, that in the work in order to bestow a person starts feeling the Creator.
S. That is the awakening of the point in the heart, it means that I suddenly feel the greatness of the Creator, it's this awakening?
R. Yes.
7. S. (35:16) How do we check the intention?
R. You check the intention by being among the friends, and together with them, working on attaining the goal.
8. S. (35:42) Someone who feels like he's failing in the study, as it says here in the article, should he blame himself or is this failure of the entire group or the ten?
R. No, a person needs to say that it is his failure and that he has to help the friends, and later on himself, to come out of this failure and to reach the goal.
9. S. (36:31) What is the biggest problem stopping us from making a true prayer?
R. The main and biggest problem is that each one is thinking of his own benefit.
S. What can we do to change that?
R. To adhere to the group as much as possible, it will help you detach from yourself.
10. S. (37:26) What are “the three impure put Klipot, shells, from which all the sins that a person makes stem”, what are the three impure shells from which all the sins that a person commits stem from?
R. It doesn't really matter now, ‘great wind’, ‘big cloud’ and ‘the spreading fire’, we’ll learn that later on in detail, what every single Klipa does.
11. S. (38:15) Why is “iniquity and injustice, the stumbling stone to spirituality”. I don't understand?
R. That really is the great failure that is along the path.
S. What is the failure?
R. The failure is our general ego.
S. What does that have to do with injustice?
R. Yep, and our transgression is our ego, the will to receive, self love; that this, we are emerged in it, in this transgression, and we can't exit it to rise. The Creator is capable of that, we are not.
S. Does that mean we have to justify the Creator all the time, if that happens?
R. Of course.
S. That means if you justify the Creator, you do not have ‘a stumbling stone’.
R. You do but you know why you failed and why it's related and how to do it, how to correct the failure.
12. S. (40:33) In the article, he speaks about “a sign for good progress is when I show a person the secrets of the Torah”, what are the secrets of the Torah and are they revealed in reason?
R. Yes, they are revealed in reason but when they will be revealed you will understand, then you'll understand.
13. S. (41:08) Here in this article and in other articles, he says that “you can fail midway”, what is this middle between the right and the left, the middle of the path, what is that ‘midway’?
R. This middle is when a person can get confused, can get lost, he cannot understand where he needs to keep moving forward.
S. Why does it speak about ‘the middle’, specifically?
R. Because it seems to him that he's advancing but he's in fact, he's not really advancing, soon we will understand this.
14. S. (41:59) A question related to children learning to walk: When kids learn, they learn at a different rate, some may learn to walk really quick, while another takes a lot longer. Similarly, in the ten, some members may be able to acquire full faith rather rapidly, while others may require a lot more time. If that is the case, how can we maintain the unity amongst the members and how can we develop and maintain that common desire that we can pray to give different stages in our development?
R. The Creator, He changes the rate of development of each and everyone and He gives each and everyone their own exercises and help of their own. And that is why we don't need to pay attention to it, the main thing for us is nevertheless, to try and do more, another step forward and another step forward as much as possible and all the rest can fall into place.
S. Again, when children learn that the mother steps back a little bit, the child can see the mother so they have that sense of comfort, that mommy is just there, a step or two away. In our journey is there a way for us to develop a sensation, that inner knowing that the Creator is right there just right around the corner. We don't see Him but we know He's there guiding us, teaching us and we can have the full faith that we are being taken care of, even though we can’t see Him.
R. We need nevertheless to try and see the Creator in front of us, in front of us, in faith above reason, with all of these exercises that we receive, we need to see the Creator in front of us, that's all.
15. S. (44:43) The question we received from a friend, he's asking about the last paragraph where it says, “do not go far from us.” It's also written, “do not hide Your face from us”. The whole problem is that if the Creator moves away, we should feel that it's to our own benefit and not escape the campaign. So the friend is asking, we connected in the Congress in Israel, the Creator, as a result of it, brought war to the state of Israel. Now we're more free of our imaginary engagements, we can invest more in the work, in the morning lesson, in keeping our format in disseminating. But we see that this is not what we wanted, we asked for one thing and we received another thing. Is there a lack of equivalence of form here, from our side on our behalf, so that we might be at risk of quitting the path because we don't see that it’s all to our benefit, what can help us?
R. You asked ten questions, you shouldn't do that, you, first of all, need to say that everything is for the better, no matter what, everything is for the better. And the only thing we're lacking is the increasing connection between us more and more, and what we need in order to reach this is only prayer, adhesion to the Creator more and more, that's it.
16. S. (46:31) What exactly do we aspire to, what should be the first thing in terms of our priorities: faith or the intention?
R. More important is faith.
S. Seemingly they complete each other, complement each other?
R. I don't want to get into that, it's enough for us to know this, we need to acquire the quality of faith.
17. S. (47:10) When we feel the Creator far away, how can we distinguish whether we're in work or not or maybe the Creator is just playing with us?
R. I didn't understand?
S. When we feel the Creator far away, how can we distinguish if we are in the work or not or maybe the Creator is just playing with us?
R. How can we know this, only to the extent that it helps us come closer to the friends? That is the main thing, that's all.
18. S. (48:19) In the last sentence of the article he writes, “let us understand that this is not moving away but that You are doing it for our sake so that we may know that everything You do is for our sake.” This demand to understand and know, isn't it the opposite of what he writes in the entire article, that we shouldn't use our reason but go with faith?
R. No, the result of that is lack of knowledge, it's all for our benefit.
S. When it is permitted to demand from the Creator to know and to understand in our efforts?
R. No, no, no, that's something else, to know that He's doing it for our benefit, we will know but more than that we won't.
S. So he's talking about the future state which we should aim for, not right now?
R. Yes.
19. S. (49:27) What is the role of the ten in order to advance the person, because here in the article, it said that it’s something that you have to hold onto, to the Creator?
R. Yes, it’s possible, that’s how the Creator supports us and teaches us to walk.
S. So this is help, this is helping us to learn how to walk?
R. Yes, of course, we learn to walk in the group, specifically.
20. S. (50:22) What does it mean that “the first step of the child in the spiritual work so that if the mother lets go of him, in that moment when he takes the first step on the path”, what is that?
R. When he has to do a correct summary of what he has because his step actually depends on that, where he's advancing to: to the Creator, through the group. So on the path it is revealed before him or he's even walking in the wrong direction.
S. So it's a choice?
R. Yes, it's a choice.
21. S. (51:16) In the article he speaks about the hardening of the heart, that it is created in order for a person to have a need for the Creator. So the question is whether this principle that the Creator creates hardening and burdening in order to feel the need for His help is also valid for the ten, that He gives us all kinds of states and burdening for that purpose?
R. The same state the Creator is preparing.
S. Now, in the ten, we have the feeling that we don't succeed in making decisions, we don't even reach an understanding of how to make decisions, how to decide. Does this stem them from the fact that, like you said before, the Creator wants us to ask Him for it?
R. It's possible.
S. Now there's a confusion that we have between managing, like people manage on the outside: they get a decision the majority decides in a very clear cut way versus the way a ten should behave. In the ten, will we never be able to reach, how shall I explain it, in the way that people outside would manage it, it will never come. Should we make such differentiations between how we behave in the spiritual aspects of it and all these things?
R. I don't really understand what you're asking, our decision has to be that we are a ten and within the ten we decide now on our path as much we’ll be more adhered to the Creator, what is there to ask here?
S. Okay, let me say it this way. We make a decision, let’s say, and later on suddenly the state awakens where we say, “Well, actually we didn't make a decision, not everyone decided”. And if we, let's say, we have a decision, we don't carry it out. The question is it’s a matter of how the ten should conduct itself, like on the outside, if you have a business or something and you have to make decisions. Or here, the principle that applies is the Creator is deliberately giving us these exercises so we can turn to Him?
R. Both, you can't say why exactly, but of course He wants you to treat Him with additional seriousness and consult.
S. Our lack of success, can we say it stems from our lack of seriousness?
R. It's possible, it's possible.
22. S. (54:13) We read that according to what overcomes a person that he increases that revelation of the light of the Creator, what overcoming is this referring to?
R. Overcoming the gap between the friends, to connect with one heart and feel the Creator's answer in it, the result.
S. How can we know that I'm going and connecting with the friends? What exactly do I need to feel all the time?
R. “As one man with one heart.”
S. What should be done throughout the day? To pray and that's what it is called?
R. Yes.
S. Because that's where all the work is, that's where all the trouble is?
R. That's right.
23. S. (55:09) Why does it say that one who studies Torah for the Creator’s sake then it's revealed to him and it said in plural but we learned that there's only one Creator that everything comes from Him?
R. This is how we relate to the Creator, that there are many qualities in Him, many discernments and we say Gods etc., meaning we relate to the Creator as a multifaceted force.
S. So it resembles both unity and the rest?
R. The multiplication, also.
24. S. (56:06) There are states that he defines as a stumbling block, an obstacle, are these not necessary states in order to go above them with faith?
R. I didn't understand, again?
S. There's some kind of obstacle and we want to understand what's coming out of it and he defines it as an obstacle, but if it is not states that is necessary. Aren't these states necessary so that we will learn to work with them in faith above reason?
R. Yes, we must also stumble across them in order to learn how to work correctly later on.
25. S. (56:59) How do I prepare myself to receive everything the Creator wants to give me and to focus only on connection and serving the world Kli, the great Rav, how do we do so?
R. Adhere to the friends. You have friends before you and you need to adhere to them and for certain you'll go along with them in the right way.
26. S. (57:38) In the article it says that a person is born circumcised, that of the Malchut rose, the amount grows to Bina and only later on it awakens the state of the three Klipot. In other words a person in his ten, the first stage, is that enough that he is circumcised and that he doesn't need to work in the Gadlut, it's like the smallness of the Partzuf?
R. [No translation]
27. S. (58:32) It says here that in order to be rewarded with love of the Creator and not for his own benefit it's not in the hands of a person but it is a gift from God. Also, does the person need to remember this in his work constantly that it's a gift from God?
R. We should always remember it.
S. The fact that he needs to give exertion from himself, he needs to think that the result depends on Him and still he needs to remember that it's a gift of God.
R. Yes.
28. S. (59:27) I would like to ask about the overcoming. I also want to take the example of the child and the mother and there are a few over comings here. One, that the child has something he has to do himself and second, he needs to believe that the mother is there protecting him. What is this overcoming that we need to do to minimize the gap between the friends and myself?
R. This is not clear to you? What does it mean to minimize, reduce the gap between you and your friends?
S. No, because I can seemingly do some actions on my behalf or I can work in some prayer and say that only the Creator can do this. What should I focus on?
R. On the prayer.
S. Something's missing here Rav, I don't know how to explain?
R. Nothing is missing, there is nothing that is missing. Prayer is called work in a heart, if you work with it properly you will not need anything else.
29. S. (01:00:54) A person can act as if he is joyful and pretend to be happy when pleasing the friends. Can a person achieve, even though it does not come from a person's heart?
R. I do not quite understand the question.
S. A person can pretend to be happy and pretend to make an effort to please the friends?
R. Who does it work on when he pretends, when he's lying?
30. S. (01:01:50) It is written that because of the Sin of the Tree of Knowledge he drew upon himself the Malchut and this is considered that he pulled on his foreskin. What does it mean to receive from the empty space?
R. That there are no true desires there.
S. What does it mean that he pulled on his foreskin in relations between man and his friends and man and his Creator?
R. It is an incorporation of the basic desires and their relations between them.
S. At the end of the article, he speaks there about the fact that you become distant, so it is not becoming distant, it is that you do for our own sake and there a person can become distant from the work by being thrown from the path. When one is being pushed away from the work, what can I hear, to what can I cling to?
R. We must always only have thoughts about bestowal. What kind of question is that?
S. It is just that in what He is showing that he's far, since every time he is shown what it is in order to bestow and then these thoughts, they bring a person the foreign thoughts until sometimes he wants to escape the battle. What to hold onto when you have these foreign thoughts that attract me?
R. There is nothing to hold onto other than the friends, as much as one can shut his eyes and simply be between the friends, with the friends.
31. S. (01:04:31) I asked for the friends, for the force of faith above reason, bestowal. Is it okay that I expect a result to see with my eyes, or is that none of my business what the Creator will give?
R. That, too, is good. That is good, without the result you will not be able to ask.
32. S. (01:05:00) How can I reveal that I'm walking in the wrong direction?
R. According to your relation to the friends, only according to that.
S. If I reveal that, should I attribute it to the Creator?
R. You should relate or ascribe everything to the Creator, whatever it is.
33. S. (01:05:49) A question about prayer: You taught us every time we pray, we must include gratitude. Given that repentance is such an important topic as well, I wonder if we should also include repentance in the prayer as well?
R. Repeat the question.
S. The question is, should we also include repentance in the prayer? Given that it's such an important topic?
R. I think so. Without it our demand will not be true.
34. S. (01:07:27) It is written that a person helps another person and he gives him a holy soul. If that is the means and not the purpose, then what is the purpose? What does He want? What does He give a person if he gives him this holy soul as aid?
R. That is a nice question. A holy soul is what we want to receive so instead of the will to receive, the will to bestow in order to bestow, to love and so on, all of that is called a holy soul.
S. What is the purpose?
R. The purpose is to acquire the holy soul.
35. S. (01:08:23) Can you give some practice, practical exercise to enable us to change our intention?
R. In order to change our intention we have to constantly think of something else. Then the intention that you now have, then bit by bit, it will turn into that direction.
S. What does it mean to think of something else?
R. To think of something else than what you were thinking before?
S. I do not think about the intention anyway. I suddenly hear that I need to change my attention so I have to keep thinking not about it?
R I do not understand you.
S. What does it mean to think of something else other than the intention? I did not understand.
R. Start thinking of something else. Get into thoughts that have a different value than what you had before and bit by bit, you will turn yourself into a different direction.
S. Different direction, than what?
R. According to the desire. You should learn from the friends, that may help you.
36. S. (01:10:18) In what is the path of faith good or most beneficial than the path of knowledge in order to reach the purpose, the greatness of the goal?
R. The path of faith can be above everything, whereas the path of knowing is closed within the circle of knowing.
S. In the path of faith we can come out of the limitations and can reach the Ein Sof, infinity?
R. Yes.
37. S. (01:10:59) It says in the article that everything you do is for the Creator, your Lord, in other words that he reaches a degree that for himself it's not worthwhile living but that he lives for the benefit of the Creator, we just go repentance. What does it mean to live for the benefit of the Creator?
R. That I want His glory will be revealed all over the world, all over the created beings.
38. S. (01:11:38) Rabash writes here that this burden is that a person wants to understand the worthwhileness. Should this be kept or not? On the other hand, in Rabash's Social Writings a person needs to calculate what he gained from a gathering of friends or an assembly, so when should one calculate within the work and when should one not calculate?
R. When we work for the sake of the Creator we only work for His benefit. When we work for the society, we can work for the sake of the society.
39. S. (01:12:14) Do we need to justify and agree to everything that the Creator does to us other than becoming distant and becoming separate or also to Him becoming separate and distant from us, should we agree to that?
R. No, that we should not agree with as it is written, “Anything but leave.”
40. S. (01:12:43) After that he feels that he's distanced from the Creator after he was close, how to start the work again, the attempt to work in order to bestow?
R. Simply to start. There's nothing you can do about it. That you do it according to the desire of the Creator that this should be your reward.
41. S. (01:13:08) If I will adhere to the Creator with all my mind, will I never fall?
R. I cannot promise that.
42. S. (01:13:16) The example of the mother and child, is the goal for the mother to leave the child alone or does the Creator want us to work?
R. Yes.
43. S. (01:13:33) To be rewarded by the Creator is a Godly gift. Should a person show the Creator that he is interested in this gift?
R. Yes.
S. What are the conditions to receive this gift?
R. Soul devotion.
44. S. (01:13:56) How to overcome the main problem of each one thinking for his own benefit?
R. If each one thinks of his own benefit then they have no solution.
45. S. (01:14:16) If a person shows the Creator his greatness does that mean he does not have enough faith?
R. Yes.
46. S. (01:14:36) What should our intention be in a time of prayer for others? What can the prayer not do Himself?
R. The Creator cannot do anything by Himself, in man's work but only according to man's request?
S. In the prayer, we have to give everything to the public to the intention, the MAN, everything?
R. Everything.
47. S. (01:15:15) There is a prayer that I will connect to the friends and a prayer that the friends will connect and there is a certain prayer for a certain friend. What is the correct prayer?
R. It is all correct, according to the deficiency of this or that or that.
S. Each time we have to understand what is the right prayer and then ask?
R. Of course, how without understanding it, how can you ask for it? I don't understand. I can't even comprehend the state even.
S. What is a common prayer?
R. You saw that you have a common problem and for this problem you are raising a prayer.
48. S. (01:16:20) Is the love of the Creator completely opposite to our reason?
R. Why.
S. Because I think we cannot truly within reason, you take his love?
R. That is correct but the Creator will give you the strength.
S. Is there another way to achieve the love of the Creator?
R. When He gives it, you will have it.
49. S. (01:17:03) It says that every time he thinks he comes to the work of the bestowal he's shown from Above that he's so far from the work of the bestowal and how is he shown that he's far? Each time he's shown what is in order to bestow, so how does that happen?
R. I do not know, come to it and you will see.
50. S. (01:17:40) A few moments ago you said that we have to think differently, think about something in order to change the intention. Does that mean changing the intention about what we thought or we just need to disregard the thought we had before?
R. Ignore the previous thought.
51. S. (01:18:22) You say that we should have the right intention. What is the right intention?
R. The correct intention is that we all wish to connect in order to give contentment to the Creator.
S. But to the extent that any intention is different, in our unity when we build this Partzuf of the Ten, how can we truly connect through equivalence of form if there are different degrees among the Ten?
R. That's not important to me, that's the work of the Creator, He needs to do it.
52. S. (01:19:25) It said that he follows the collective with the will to receive for himself and if he comes out of the majority or the collective then he is like the child. What does it mean with regards to the Ten and does it have to do with our common ego?
R. The rule is the rule, the ego.
S. What does it mean to come out of the majority?
R. I think the intention is when that person truly wants to separate from the group.
S. But we know it's not good to disconnect from the group, so to come out of the collective ego?
R. Even from the general ego, to separate is not the general.
S. But what if he wants to take the path of bestowal?
R. How can we go on the path of the bestowal if he wants to separate from everyone?
S. He says that if he is in the collective then he feels wholeness, as I heard and if he disconnects from it then as I heard that is the collective ego of the group. If a person wants to disconnect from it it is not that he wants to come out of the Ten but maybe to pull the Ten out of the ego.
R. We're not going to get into this, it's not that simple, if a person is inside the general collective, he cannot come out of it, we do not need to get into philosophies.
53. S. (01:21:31) What is the circle of knowing? Is the knowing received from the Creator through the friends?
R. Yes.
54. S. (01:21:57) How to reach the need to repent? How to understand that this is what is needed?
R. Talk about it more and more to talk among the friends you will understand that there's a great need for it.
55. S. (01:22:31)The question about the prayer, if I want the light from the bottom of the heart and I want the same for the friend can this be called a prayer or raising MAN?
R. Yes.
56. S. (01: 23:06) When we have a general collective power in the group of these opportunities, what exactly do we ask for then?
R. To raise all of us, together, “To the Lord, your God.”
57. S. (01:23:41) We learned that the understanding is like a stumbling block. Now if we had to reach understanding in the Ten before we start a complete action, what understanding does the ten have to reach before every action?
R. Each ten has to reach an understanding that he has nothing before it except for the connection before and to the Creator. That's it. There are no other problems, just these two connections: connecting to one and then one adheres to One, the Creator?
S. If say some of the friends came close to this understanding you describe and some don't do we go ahead and act as a ten or we wait?
R. We do not wait. We initiate the action.
58. R. (01:25:17) I allowed you to ask for more than an hour, more than that I'm not going to let you ask, except for two or three questions at the end of the article and that is it. This is how it's going to be starting tomorrow. It is impossible the way I just heard it. It is abnormal. Besides that the questions repeat, you do not write down those questions in order to learn from them and this is how it is repeating itself.
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