Morning Lesson December 23, 2023

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

Part 1:

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 1. There Is None Else Besides Him

1. Rav intro: So, let us aim the heart of each and every one to open up to the friends and try to connect in such a way, with all our hearts, so that the Creator will be able to fill them. And there will be room for Him there, a special whole, great place so that he can fill them together. 

Reading: “It is written, ‘There is None Else Besides Him.’ This means that there is…”

2. R. (17:31) This is the first article that Rabash gave me. This is how the other articles started. I think that this is the fundamental, the most important article. 

3. S. (18:15) When he says that why did he find favor with the Creator and later he did not? A person cannot comprehend with his external mind. Does he say don't look for the reason or look for the reason, but understand it's not available in your mind?

R. No, advance in spite of whatever reasons seem to you.

S. A person has that question, why now yes and later no? What to do with this question?

R. We don't have the possibility to answer it but rather to think of some incidental, imaginary reasons. I don't recommend that but rather go forward whatever it is.

S. To understand that this question exists but to ignore it?

R. Yes.

4. S. (19:35) How can it be that if there are more transgressions than successes, then he has no ability to overcome even above reason? He comes to a demand from the Creator, if all his failures are greater than his successes.

R. If a person feels that he has complaints towards the Creator because the shattered is greater than the whole. And if he cannot arrange those complaints then why should we sweeten them? We simply continue, we don't pay attention to these questions, for the time being, because we don't have the possibility to ask correctly, to answer correctly, and also to get the answer.

5. S. (21:12) It says then he comes to a decision that there's no one to help but the Creator, Himself. We say that the Creator always helps through the group. What does it mean that the Creator will only help him, himself?

R. Usually, yes, the help comes through the group. But it could be that a person hears that answer by himself. It’s not that he hears it from the friends. He feels this answer truly inside of his heart directly from above.

6. S. (22:20) Typically to relate everything that is happening to me personally, I can't relate it to the Creator. Acts of overcoming are mine, I did it. If I’m in a state of, I feel bad, as he says I’m a heretic, I relate it to someone else, all kinds of states. But because I'm in the environment I, in retrospect, related it to There Is None Else Beside Him. How in the current moment to do it so that everything that's happening to me I relate it to the Creator? Even if it enters the correctional states.

R. All the states enter the correction but how each time to hold on to this point of the connection with the Creator and the correction, for this we have to be connected to the group.

S. Not only that, but we also need to hasten the times. That’s another point, right, to hasten the times? It's as if we're lagging behind with everything that's happening.

R. No, the most important thing for us is to always be connected to the group. And flow into every state that the group flows into; this is more important.

S. And the personal feeling?

R. The personal feeling you should add to the group and flow in that way. 

7. S. (24:31) There are states where a person does not feel that There Is None Else Beside Him. He writes because that is His will to not feel this way. 

R. Yes?

S. So, what should a person do in such states that this is his desire, to not feel this way?

R. Search, search for a connection with the society where inside this society he finds his connection with the Creator. 

S. What is there in this connection with the group that gives you recognition of There Is None Else Besides Him?

R. Because all his friends are directing him towards that. When he connects with them he enters the same direction.

S. Personally, privately when a person goes through certain things in life, certain situations, he looks at reality in this way. And he tries to relate everything to None Else Besides Him. That's not considered as work?

R. It is considered work but such work that he's not getting closer to the goal. The goal comes to us as a result of connection. Where there in the connection with the friends and searching for the feeling of the Creator. One Creator inside of one connection, inside of one group. And he as one is searching, that actually is the goal. 

8. S. (26:32). He finishes None Else Besides Him by saying, for this one must seek advice for how he can bring contentment above. Clearly, if he receives pleasure there will be contentment above. I'm telling you, what kind of advice can I take from today's situation? How can I think There's None Else Besides Him?

R. If you reach a certain awareness, to a certain degree, that There Is None Else Besides Him then you feel yourself as happy.

S. I’m always trying to apply what's happening in the field. How can I say There's None Else Besides Him in spite of everything I see around you, such darkness? How can I say it, that’s what I hear from all around me, None Else Besides Him. What does that mean that There Is None Else Besides Him? Even though He's showing you such blackness in your eyes, you also say there's None Else Besides Him, can you see it this way? Can you give contentment to the Creator by seemingly blaming Him for everything? How to come out of that?

R. Throughout history the Creator did many such exercises for us and we went through all of them. This is how we reach the entrance to the period of the end of correction. About which it is written that it is altogether a very difficult state. It's very hard to hold on to it and we hear that we are in this period already. Therefore, let us hope that we will go through it and this period comes in order to correct us, to adapt us to the state following the end of correction. And so let us try to get stronger and our whole success is in the connection between us because only through connection do we reach that state where all of us are connected in the right way. We are ready to hold on to that weight of the end of correction.

S. The question is: In today's state, practically speaking, do I also need to, as we say, think that There's None Else Besides Him? In spite of everything, that He's doing everything, what should I think about? What do I need to do in such states?

R. You should persuade yourself. You should persuade yourself that indeed There is None Else Besides Him and the Creator does and will do everything. It is upon us only to search for how we can attach ourselves to Him.

S. In spite of everything, rise above myself?

R. In spite of everything, it doesn't matter how much you understand it or don't understand it. If you could, if you would get such an education from your parents, from your teachers, also with such education, you would run away. You would cry out how come? But now you have already received a certain understanding that you have to accept this education and adapt yourself to the special state.

S. The question he’s asking is, can we give contentment to the Creator in spite of everything? How do you do it?

R. Even when we search for how to connect and adapt ourselves to the state of the end of correction, we nevertheless give contentment to the Creator. Even though we're not yet in that state, that is how it is.

9. S. (31:56) I want to get back to a question the friend asked earlier, I didn't understand the answer. His first question was, if I understood correctly, we can say There's None Else Besides Him after the fact. But how can you relate what's happening to the Creator throughout an event, not only retroactively?

R. The fact that you will say, after the act, that you already see the bottom line, the summary, that There Is None Else Besides Him, that is not really that much. That is simply faith within reason, you could even say that it is below reason. But the fact that you say about it anything that it is revealed to you that There Is None Else Besides Him, and it comes from the Good Who Does Good, and you want to accept it in this way, with all of your heart. That it comes seemingly completely revealed, this whole action as the Good Who Does Good, from its beginning to its end, that is the true solution.

S. How do you do it?

R. How do you do it, by connecting with the group and getting stronger with the friends.

S. What's the connection between the group and relating things to There's None Else Besides Him and that He is the Good Who Does Good?

R. Because you have to be convinced by the friends that this is how it is. That There Is None Else Besides Him and He is the Good That Does Good. And certainly, in the present state, also.

S. How can the friends convince me of that?

R. Well, you depend on them. If they all of them think this way and they determine this way, then you'll have no choice. You receive from them this view.

S. They need to tell me this or is it enough they are thinking it and then it’s passing to me because I depend on them?

R. They think about it, they talk about it, and you feel it in them. This is our obligation to present ourselves in this way towards each and every friend in the Ten.

S. From that I simply absorb it from them?

R. Yes.

10. S. (35:09) What does it mean to reach a decision that There's None Else Besides Him?

R. It is that I take it upon myself the leadership of the Creator as though it is revealed. I relate to it as though it is the only thing that works on me, and I stand before it and I accept it.

S. On what depends on man’s ability to be in awareness, in the attainment of There's None Else Besides Him?

R. It depends on how he directs his heart.

S. Do you attain it, do you attain it in permanence?

R. We attain it from within the person's heart. 

11. S. (36:32) Continuing the previous friend’s question: If I come to this place where I determine, in the midst of the situation, that There's None Else Besides Him. What's the benefit from that, what’s so special about doing it during rather than after the event?

R. The benefit from it is that you enter a world that is filled by one Creator, and you are inside of Him.

S. What does that mean, that I'm entering one world with the Creator, that I'm in it?

R. This is how you feel, and this determines your decisions, your actions, your life, everything.

S. How, why?

R. By you delving into these things. That only the Creator exists, There Is None Else Besides Him and He operates in all of the details in reality in which you exist. You have nothing else to do but rather to adhere to Him.

S. How will my actions be different if I'm doing it throughout, during, or after the event, I can’t seem to get it. In what will I behave differently, in what is my state different?

R. If you will work on yourself in order to search for that single force that surrounds everything and manages everything and There's None Else Besides Him. Then you will simply reach contact with the Creator and later on adhesion with the Creator, which actually is the purpose of our life.

S. When you're trying to do this action you constantly discover that you're not there, I'm speaking about myself.

R. Okay, so you are given an opportunity to add a bit more, to add a bit more efforts.

S. Then after I add these efforts, as you explain, certainly through the friends, and prayer, we know how to do that. What would change then, what would be special about that, which is seemingly the highest state that we're talking about, to reach None Else Besides Him?

R. What will be then?

S. Yes, how will it be different?

R. That is considered the end of Correction of that man, that is it.

12. S. (39:55) Earlier I heard that you say, the period of the end of correction is something that’s hard to hold on to. We hope that we’ll get through it this time. What do you mean, hopefully? Is it possible we won't be able to make it?

R. This period is not simple, I would say it is really hard, it is new. We, in that, must go many times with our eyes shut. And hear our teachers in a way that they are up above, and they determine our path.

S. What we experienced, what we will experience now, is it a sign of that period, the level of difficulty of this period? 

R. Again?

S. What we're experiencing now, the state our people are experiencing now, is that only a sign of the beginning of that period that you're talking about?

R. Well, let us hope not, let us hope that we won’t enter that period because such things are written about it that it is not good for us to feel it in the way that it was written. But rather we will try with the Creator’s help, with the Creator's mercy, to go through it a little bit above it.

S. What makes this time unique is that the light is growing stronger and if we're not suitable for it then we will experience it in external forms?

R. Yes.

S. So from here comes the responsibility for connection and it has to be suitable for that. It has to adapt to it; we have to understand we have responsibility for connection and increasing it. Maybe according to a pace of what's coming from above, and then we’ll experience everything, but more internally perhaps rather than externally?

R. Well, I can't really speak about internally, externally, we don’t yet know that.

 

13. S. (42:41) How and when do you determine that There's None Else Besides Him?

R. When we can get close to it, identify it, and adhere to it.

S. All kinds of things happen to a person in life. How can he determine that There's None Else Besides Him and now I overcame, or I did not overcome? What is the time a person stops and says there's no one else that can help me but the Creator?

R. Yes?

S. When? They keep saying you have to overcome above reason, and prayer, go to the friends and so many actions.

R. Also about that, that There is None Else Besides Him. That has to be above everything.

S. But when will a person say it because he can say that there's None Else Besides Him about everything, and then it’s nothing.

R. Just to say it, that is not the state. One has to feel it, one has to be close to it, and one should be connected to it.

S. We work in the Ten, and we have all kinds of meeting points. Let's call it, let's say I missed a meeting point, a gathering. How to determine that indeed it was None Else Besides Him and I made all the efforts to be there?

R. You should try to feel this, that there is nothing to do about it. There is none as wise as the experienced one. These things are about feeling.

S. When you try to justify the Creator, are you in a state of lying?

R. No, well, as much as you feel it, you feel it.

S. Seemingly I understand what you're saying internally but I can't connect it to the actions in my brain.

R. Well, try, try more and more.

14. S. (44:57) I wanted to ask, following these questions from the friends. To justify or accept that There's None Else Besides Him during the action. Throughout our lives we’re required to make many decisions, daily decisions that influence necessarily our spiritual path. It could be about work, living, moving, apartments, family status, and many other decisions. So, when the Creator lets me feel that He's not the Good Who Does Good, is that a signal to change something? When I don't feel that the Creator is Good and Doing Good, I hold onto the understanding that There Is None Else Besides Him, He’s Good Who Does Good. But actually, in practice, I don't feel that He's the Good Who Does Good, it’s happened to me. Is that a sign from Him that I need to change something in my life?

R. Of course.

S. Okay, from that point where I recognize that I feel bad, I need to change something?

R. Until you come to the feeling that the Creator is None Else Besides Him and He Is the Good Who Does Good, you should change.

S. Okay, so I also realize out of that, that he took care of an environment for me, that I need to change something from within. I need to change.

R. Certainly.

S. Sometimes there are states where we need to change something on the outside, also, externally?

R. Sometimes, sometimes.

S. How do we, the people, the friends who are walking on the spiritual path, how do we know how to accept? I mean, the fact that we have to change within, we always understand that we work from that. But when we know that we also need to change something on the outside, these are sometimes critical decisions that can have a great influence on our spiritual development. Is there some principle where we know that now we need to change something on our externality, also?

R. Yes, this is something a person decides on inside the society. In the society, he has friends, he is connected to them. The Creator places his hand on the good fortune and says take it. The person should accept it this way, decide, and then act.

S. Let's say I'm making ten thousand shekels a month. And one day I decided that I couldn't live with that, I needed to make fifteen thousand shekels a month. So, should I come to the friends and say, guys, I decided to change jobs and?

R. No, no, we are not talking about such things.

S. I'm giving this as an example. What does it mean to come to the society or the group? These things could actually also be very intimate, very personal. I'm trying to get some advice from you about this principle so that I can look. Some sort of like a compass where I can say, now my ego is playing with me, and I shouldn't change anything externally. I have to focus internally, or maybe I do need to change something on the outside. How do I make a decision?

R. First of all, you cannot place the entire life of a person into this little pipe in order to not think later but only flow through it. It doesn't work this way; we need to constantly make decisions and change accordingly and by that come closer and check ourselves until we reach the correction.  You are looking for an easy way out.

S. Sorry but I'll keep asking. He writes in the article that sometimes a person receives a need and a desire to enjoy things that he said before were filth and now he finds new pleasure in it, right, as an example. How, now, I suddenly feel I have some desire for all kinds of things. I feel bad in my present state and this new desire shines for me. It can be anything, but it shines to me, and it's not related to my spiritual path, maybe even the opposite. How do I know to make a decision if I should realize this desire or not realize this desire? Is it even something that I can control?

R. The wisdom of Kabbalah recommends being in a society. To hold on to all the friends as tight as possible, to study together, to speak with them, and to invest oneself in the Torah. Then after this preparation, to try and decide, make decisions inside the society, try, and decide in the society that he is advancing. You are looking for a one-time solution, one way, immediately, and forever.

S. It's the opposite, I'm looking for a principal according to which I can make all my decisions in life.

R. No, it doesn't work this way, it doesn't work this way. You are not going to get such a principle. You have a principle; it is called There's None Else Besides Him and a few others like that. Nevertheless, with each principle you have to work with each principle constantly.

15. S. (51:25) This article actually relates to a person who is separated from Godliness. He is in concealment, and he says there's a way to get closer.

R. Let us say.

S. He says, there's no godliness, many gods, one God. I wanted to ask about a point in the article where he brings a person into a place where he says, even the sorrow and the pain or the joy, you have to come out of it. It's not personal and in turn pain and joy which is more general. We see it in other places, the sorrow of the friend, the joy of the friend, the sorrow of the Shechina, and the joy of the Shechina. I wanted to understand how that helps me to enter the correct perception of reality that He is directing us. Specifically, by coming out of my personal feeling to a more general feeling outside of myself?

R. Go ahead, enter the society, enter their thoughts, their desires.

S. Actually, my first step towards a more correct, more true scrutiny is to enter, not a personal scrutiny of myself, but something more general which is outside of me?

R. The kind of scrutiny where you feel you are completely inside the Ten.

S. He says even if you feel good and now, you're rewarded with something, you should not take it to your own account. But be happy that the Ten is happy or the Shechina is happy. 

R. Yes.

S. Each time I have to make a scrutiny, both with pain and sorrow and also with joy, if it’s personal and it's disconnected from what’s happening on the outside. Then it means that I deviated from the right, from the correct reality. It should always be connected to the general, to the public?

R. Yes, this has to be connected as much as possible to the collective.

16. S. (53:58) It is written that men should then regret it and say the fact that I performed this transgression is because the Creator hurled me from Kedusha. If the Creator is Good Who Does Good and we should attribute everything to Him, and He made me do this transgression, why should I regret it, why should I regret it then?

R. You caused the transgression.

S. That I caused the transgression, that let's say, that I don't regret it?

R. That is a problem, you need to look around you at the friends and ask. Ask yourself if you're together with them or not. The fact that you do not feel sorry is clear. But is this attitude correct? 

S. Why regret it if the Creator made me do this transgression?

R. Here you are starting to throw everything back at that first cause; we have left the first grade. 

17. S. (55:25) Where are the conditions required of a person in order to attain There is None Else Besides Him?

R. The conditions that There Is None Else Besides Him? He needs to be connected with the friends to such an extent that he would feel that they are all as one. Then in this connection between them, they will feel that there is a single force above them.

 

18. S. (56:19) I heard that through There is None Else Besides Him we can reach connection and adhesion with the Creator. How should we yearn for it because the Creator is hidden? How should I depict it to myself, this connection with the Creator, adhesion?

R. The Creator is concealed because we are after the shattering. Each one feels himself as existing individually in the world. There are other people, some are closer, and some are more distant, but nevertheless, he is on his own, and that is the power of the shattering. If we wish to feel the Creator we need to connect, preferably in the Ten, to have ten friends who together learn how to connect. In this way, we can at least try to attain There is None Else Besides Him because the Ten that is connected that unifies all of their thoughts, feelings, desires, and actions creates that condition whereby the Creator is one, and they are ten as one. They adapt themselves to one another, to some extent, even to the smallest measure, adapting to the ladder of degrees, but there's already going to be a connection between them. 

19. S. (58:44) How in this effort to keep There is None Else Besides Him every moment, every point in time, not after the act like we said. How does that not cancel “If I am not for myself who is for me?” Where is, if I'm not for me who is for me, then at all?

R. “If I'm not for myself, who is,” should be before each and every effort that I put in. Afterward, behind it, beyond it, is the effort to describe to myself, depict to myself, that There Is None Else Besides Him.

S. There is such a state where sometimes a person, let's say, manages to enter this frequency of There Is None Else Besides Him with each and every detail on the outside. Inside, where is this ‘I’ then, which is behind “If I’m not for myself who is for me?” Who is operating?

R. You act in order to attain that There Is None Else Besides Him.

S. If I'm operating then how is There None Else Besides Him?

R. Because, still, you disconnect yourself from Him.

S. There has to be such a disconnection that a person has to keep?

R. From the very beginning, in order to give a person, the ability to exert, to work, to yearn, and to pray. That is why the Creator created this matter, it is a restriction.

S. “If I'm not for myself” and There is None Else Besides Him, it's not the beginning of the day and the end of the day, before the act, I say “If I’m not for myself who is for me?” Afterward, I say that there is None Else Besides Him. But rather every moment I have to combine both of them?

R. Yes.

20. S. (01:00:54) I don't manage to grasp it. When a person gets all kinds of events in his life and now, he determines that There is None Else Besides Him.

R. Yes.

S. Should he also agree with whatever he's going through in his life, or if he has an action where he can go and change things? What I'm trying to ask is the moment the person determines that There's None Else Besides Him, now does he accept the movie that the Creator is playing for him, or is he allowed to change that movie?

R. No, he does not accept it simply, he has to arrange it. Everything we have in life comes from wanting to arrange it according to There is None Else Besides Him, the Good Who Does Good.

S. About what exactly do you say There's None Else Besides Him and later on you go and arrange it. You change your condition, your life?

R. By doing it according to this command whereby I wish the Creator to be the One, Unique, and who Unifies everything in all of reality.

S. I'm trying to understand practically, how is it manifested. The Creator is arranging for me a life where I constantly see that it’s separating me, in all kinds of places in my life, with my friends, with my family, at work, it doesn't matter, He’s breaking everything. Now, trying to say There's None Else Besides Him and flow along with this shattering, or where does There is None Else Besides Him come in, and where am I allowed to come in and say no, because that's not There's None Else Besides Him, I do not agree with what He does?

R. You must accept life as coming entirely from Him. You have no choice but to return the world to correction.

S. Determining that There Is None Else Besides Him, what is it about, about the fact that it comes from Him, is this what you determine? About what do you determine that There Is None Else Besides Him?

R. Of course He is the first and He is the last. Also, in all the states between the first and the last, He is there also, but concealed.

S. The state itself, am I obligated to change it? By changing the situation, do I not harm There is None Else Besides Him?

R. You change nothing but your attitude, your individual attitude.

S. Changing my individual attitude, how does it change the fact that I have the connection, or I have a certain problem? 

R. Yes, it is exactly this individual attitude.

S. In the end, do you change it? I mean do you want it to change. Or do you simply annul yourself before the situation? 

R. You are changing yourself only, only the way you view things.

21. S. (01:04:33) Besides a person's individual relation to reality, his perception of reality, he doesn't change anything else? Everything that he’s going through, he has to just go through it?

R. Yes.

S. What does it mean if I'm not for myself who is for me?

R. If you will not change yourself, no one will help you with that.

S. How do I combine it with There is None Else Besides Him?

R. Everything that you feel is coming from Him. So, that you would adapt yourself to Him.

S. If now incidents happen to me in my life, all kinds of incidents in my daily life. I don’t know, my family suddenly falls apart, I want to change my job, things that happen to me in my daily life. What should I say, There Is None Else Besides Him, I just need to change my attitude and see that He is operating me in that way now?

R. Yes.

S. Where is my place where I can make a change and say no, now I'm putting aside There Is None Else Besides Him, I don't want that to confuse me? But now I want to make a change with all the strength that I have and then acknowledge Him?

R. You cannot, you cannot do it. You wish to make changes in life without There Is None Else Besides Him?

S. Then I justify There's None Else Besides Him, I use Him to make changes that fit me.

R. No, no, no, King of the world. 

S. Yes, that's what I'm trying to understand. Seemingly it turns out as if I remove the responsibility for myself from what’s happening to me in my life because I just have to change my attitude, and my relation to it.

R. This is an incorrect approach.

S. What is the right approach?

R. You do everything together with There is None Else Besides Him, using His power, not that you move Him aside and you correct your life. After you correct your life, you can go back to Him.

S. In my correction of my life, is that within my power, to correct my life, to change my life in my daily life in each and every action?

R. No.

S. It's not from me?

R. No.

S. So the whole work is?

R. The work is with you, the Ten, and the Creator.

S. This is the whole work of a person?

R. Yes.

S. How to hold on to it all the time and right now?

R. Through the connection with the Ten.

22. S. (01:07:25) There Is None Else Besides Him, and we see that in every action that appears to us that He does it. That we feel it in our vessels, if we look at a broader perspective, at the friends, at the group and onwards in greater circles, we see how much one action that is felt in me has a different influence. Sometimes in a completely different way than the rest of my environment, my surroundings. Let's say with one action I feel my pride was hurt, I see that somebody else through the same action was hurt in his money, somebody else with his respect and honor. Now you teach us that the entire solution to all of the actions and the problems, everything that is revealed to us, is by adding to the connection between us. Check where we can.

R. Ultimately, this is the solution.

S. It’s all in the connection between us. How do we take it and do it, it's like building one huge puzzle. How to focus everything on this point of connection?

R. We cannot do it directly but eventually everything accumulates to that.

S. If I stand with a certain problem that I feel in my flesh, opposite my friends, my Ten, what should I tell them? What is the help that I should ask them for?

R. To help you stay connected to them, supported, to hold you up.

23. S. (01:09:33) Can Bnei Baruch do a hastening, an acceleration of the times? If so, how do we do it? What are we lacking in our work in the Ten, in the group?

R. We do wish to reach Ahishena, I will hasten it. Let us hope that we will come to it. It is all through study and implementation between us, especially between us and all the groups together. As much as we advance, we become more and more like a single group. Let us hope that this is how it will be.

S. This is our opportunity to increase the connection between us in the Tens, also in the group, in our Tens, where we meet once a month. We sit together, we read excerpts, and we read the Zohar together, also. What else are we lacking, how to make ourselves stronger to strengthen the group?

R. To feel that we are closer to one another. Close, we are in love and connected!

24. S. (01:11:20) There Is None Else Besides Him. That, a person says, as the friend says, to take responsibility for himself and feel better and there is None Else Besides Him, that we say, what is the difference? 

R. Again?

S. There's None Else Besides Him that the person says in order to feel better and take responsibility for himself and There's None Else Besides Him that we say, what is the difference?

R. It’s the difference between truth and false.

S. What's in that?

R. It is like a person on the street that says, God willing or thank God; or a Kabbalist that connects to the Creator and carries out all kinds of actions.

S. There are states where you feel that you're standing opposite a wall. You want to get closer even to the friends, or to the group, but you feel that the Creator now placed a wall there and it doesn't allow you to get closer. How in here comes There Is None Else Besides Him?

R. The Creator never places a wall before you. Rather there are special cases that do not belong to us, yet. A person does not perform actions of connection and he sees the Creator interrupts him, that is a lie.

S. If such a state comes to me, it’s because to begin with, I didn't act correctly in the connection?

R. Yes, yes.

25. S. (01:13:02) Sometimes the Creator gives me blows because I did something wrong so He's right. I have to invest more, to this regard less, that's fine, He was right. Sometimes He gives blows because others aren’t okay, they are disregarding, they are not investing.

R. And He's beating you up?

S. Yes.

R. That is not okay.

S. Really, it’s like that, what does He want? Can I change people, that’s how He created them. Either He erases them or makes them repent but what can I do?

R. What can you do? You can cry.

S. I do, it doesn't help.

R. Cry more and more!

S. I cry to you every lesson.

R. You like to do that!

S. Let’s end this already. Either person perform all sins and argue between them, and then the Creator gives blows.

R. And? 

S. That's okay, you justify that?

R. I do not justify anything that I see as wrong.

S. So what do you do?

R. I say that I see things wrongly.

S. Okay, I wanted to change my vision but that's not happening either. The war is continuing, you’re saying worse states are going to come. But I'm doing everything okay, really? Tell me what I'm not doing okay, I'll change myself even more! But I'm doing everything, life isn’t happening. Not investing, and disregarding, the Nation of Israel are arguing with one another, I can't influence it. I don't have any way to change it, not prayer, not dissemination, it doesn't change, nobody's learning. Either they don't have points in the heart, or they don't have a deficiency. I can only either ask you to teach me more or invest in me more. I don't know what else we have to do, it’s the end.

R. You want to get private lessons.

S. Rabash gave you private lessons, he saw you had a special deficiency. You had the left; the others didn’t have the left line. So, he knew to invest in you; so maybe there are a few people here that have the left line. I guess most people here are still and there's parts that are probably more vegetative. Maybe a bit of a change, you know? If Rabash invested in you he saw you had a special deficiency.

R. I will think about it, I will think about what to do with you!

26. S. (01:15:55) “I prefer the inner screen that I have acquired with great exertion, pure self-love. But every so often I need to realize myself, to be an Adam because that's what I was born for. That's my freedom of choice, and by this, I'm giving contentment to my Maker.” Question: Do we always need to search for the light and the vessel? Once the light and once the vessel comes first? Because there’s no light without a vessel, light without a vessel is defined as Atzmuto. That there is no thought there at all that can be understood. That is why He and His name are One. Is that the way of my beloved teacher?

R. Besides my beloved teacher, everything is correct.

27. S. (01:17:20) We came here for an attack, an attack of connection. We're learning None Else Besides Him and the friends are making a lot of efforts to be precise. To feel that the true work is with None Else Besides Him. What can we do now at this moment together, how can we aim our hearts toward this? How can we extract something that we’ve never been able to until today?

R. Even more pressure on each other, and our hearts, to connect all of them into one heart, into one desire, to one purpose, and to feel that our hearts are truly connecting. There's nothing more to do, connection of the hearts is the main thing. I think that today we are doing a very central and primary action in this.

28. S. (01:18:59) How can we let go of a bit of the intellectual system and go more into the emotional system of Bina, of understanding of faith? That it will live inside us from each and every moment to the next?

R. It all depends on the connection of the hearts, what new can I tell you?

S. It's not enough. Today in the Ten, we have a few meetings a day, we read articles, we ask, what do you feel from this, not what do you understand from this, what do you feel? Such an article as None Else Besides Him, it’s full of emotion and we are asking intellectual questions.

R. No, you’re not asking questions from the intellect, I did not hear such a question, only those questions of feelings. I see that lately, especially today, they are all asking only about emotions, about feelings. When will we reach a common feeling between us in which we will discover the Creator?

S. The daily work, every day, every moment.

R. Yes?

S.  How can we put the emotions in there? Rav said this, it's written that. How do I put that feeling that it will start living in me, really living in me?

R. You want, in these words that we are reading or what Rav said or something, you want to find in them the feeling.

S. I have to search for the feelings inside me?

R. Yes, yes, yes.

29. S. (01:21:21) Kabbalists write us that toward None Else Besides Him, the work is in above reason. And that's clear that if I fall into reason the whole feeling of None Else Besides Him disappears there. But until a person isn’t rewarded in getting some blessing from above that he’ll have an ability to work above reason, so he sees all the horrible things in the world. Everything that’s happening here in Israel and the world. Somehow, he wants to ascribe it to the Creator and determine that it came from None Else Besides Him, the Good That Does Good. He feels that the whole body resists it until hatred to the Creator. But along with that, he makes an effort and determines that it came from None Else Besides Him, the Good That Does Good. So, that action, that draws the light that reforms? On the one hand, I don't feel I even hate it, I reject it, on the other hand, I still determine it?

R. Yes.

30. S. (01:22:30) Is the channel from the lower one to the upper one only through prayer?

R. Arvut?

S. The channel, channel of connection, is it only through prayer?

R. Through the plea, turning into Him, yes.

S. Only prayer, there’s no other channel?

R. No.

S. What about gratitude, he says it goes against prayer.

R. A prayer also includes gratitude.

S. Why?

R. That is the way it is, that is a prayer.

S. I want something to change, that’s called gratitude?

R. A prayer includes everything that you can turn to the Creator. Everything from sorrow, crying, and up to joy that bless everything.

S. Every attempt, every connection to the upper one is only through prayer, no other connection?

R. Correct, it is also written that way.

31. S. (01:23:47) How can I connect to the general calculation?

R. How to connect to the general calculation? Get into a Ten, get ten other friends, try to be close to them, try to help them in everything, buy for yourself a friend. Then you will see how much it brings you closer to them, and vice versa, them to you.

S. Is there some condition that the collective need to do for everyone to connect to Him, to the general calculation?

R. Yes, but it depends on the individual. The collective has to show a general desire, only.

32. S. (01:25:00) About determining None Else Besides Him: When I determine that There's None Else Besides Him, how does it affect my correction and the Ten’s correction?

R. It influences to the extent that you determine.

S. Does the Creator need this determination on my behalf or on our behalf?

R. Yes, of course! He wants to bring all of us to one system and this is why it determines.

S. Many people say, None Else Besides Him, what’s the addition from a Kabbalist that reaches the Good Who Does Good?

R. That for him, the Good Who Does Good and There Is None Else Besides Him, become as one.

33. S. (01:26:22) We’re in this lesson because there’s a special state in our country. You see that there’s a wave spreading around the world. The whole world is in a whirlwind because of this. Can you help connect what we’re talking about for an hour and a half, about private work, and the Ten’s work, and like you said, the feeling between us to this state? Because, in the end, I came to the lesson with a lot of yearning to get some force here. And to go out with it and not to take it into the Ten. Because on the outside it's a catastrophe, in Israel the state is just very, very bad, you can't hide it anymore. It's not that you can say oh, everything’s going to be okay. It won't be okay; everybody agrees on that. How I don't know, what can I take from here beyond connection, we know that, we know that.

R. The fact that we know already is not good. But, in truth, it is our way to correction and our way to salvation. If you think that you can succeed in a different way, it never happened in history, nor will it happen. The only question is when do we throw out our external clothing, this egoistic shell, and be able to understand what it means to feel the other as yourself?

S. Today, in reality, there’s one person, a second person and they don't agree between them on very essential things in their life, not simple things. How can they rise above that state?

R. Through pressure from the outside.

S. It’s happening, we see, but this pressure is getting stronger. And like you said, God forbid we reach what's written in the books, the true pressure of Gmar Tikkun. I'm asking what can we do, now? Take two people that are completely opposite in their opinions about things that, for them that’s their life, it’s essential. It's not nonsense, somebody cutting them off on the street?

R. Yes, I don't think that our country deserves correction right now. We still have not come to the recognition of evil which is that we hate one another. That we are the origin, the source of hatred in all of humanity and this is why everyone is pointing the finger at us. That we are the guilty ones, this is how they feel, and it is true. We want to relate to ourselves like the rest of the nations of the world, but it's incorrect because we are not like them. The accountability is on us.

S. If we go and say that, and I have, I told that to a few people who don't study with us. They jump on you as if you said something of idol worshiping?

R. True.

S. So what do you do?

R. Still, we try to circulate it as much as possible, we try. The time will come when they accept it and begin to tend to themselves. We have no one to turn to but ourselves.

S. What I'm hearing, maybe I didn't hear it right, that this is the time to concentrate between us and to go out less in this time. And let the revelation of evil happen without us, and it will happen whenever it will. And then we’ll internally be ready to do an action, that’s what you meant?

R. Perhaps.

34. WSQ (01:33:44) Okay friends, let’s have a workshop. We want before we keep going to settle None Else Besides Him in us so now in the groups let’s have a workshop. What did we take from this lesson, central points, how do we take them to our work, how do we strengthen one another in None Else Besides Him?

R. (01:42:50) Are there special questions following the workshop?

35. S. (01:42:57) You answered the friend that we’re lacking recognition of evil. I'm looking at me, first, at the Ten, in the group. What's the revelation of evil in myself, in me, in the Ten, in the group? 

R. Revealing evil is not just bad, it is the reason why the Creator opens up the feeling of evil in us, to awaken us. Because if in the tendency to connection we cannot feel the bad, and we will feel the bad and the evil in different ways. This is what He is giving us, yes. It comes in this way, therefore, let us understand better. What are the questions because this is the fundamental topic, There Is None Else Besides Him in the wisdom of Kabbalah, so, please?

36. S. (01:44:25) When a Kabbalist looks a reality, now and he sees None Else Besides Him, okay, he sees the Good Who Does Good. Can you look at the seventh of October and see it as the Good That Does Good?

R. For lack of choice, this is what can bring us closer to correction, yes.

S. Again, we're going to that same question we started the lesson from. How in practice? In the past, we can say about everything that brings us to the correction.

R. Correct, correct, this is why there are revealed operations of the Creator in the world and concealed operations, but in the end, it is all love.

S. When a Kabbalist looks at the current reality, he can see love there? He can he feel the love of the Creator there, the love of the upper force?

R. Yes, yes, those who are corrected do not see anything bad. Because they see in these operations how much they advance us to connection and to correction. Because we cannot get closer to each other unless through trouble. We cannot think about the correction of the world but only through states like this, what can we do? What can you do with a child, of course, not to the extent that it’s happening with us, if the child does not want to listen, does not want to obey, does not want to study, what are you going to do? You want to limit him, to restrain him, to put some pressure on him.

S. I believe you and I can understand it, logically. A Kabbalist sees the love of the Creator in this action, from what you depicted, that He wants to educate a child and bring him to the good state. But he also feels the sorrow of the child that’s suffering.

R. He suffers with him, yes, but you cannot stop the suffering because then the child will not grow.

S. How can we that connect to you, and we also want to feel this love. How, somewhat, can we let the child feel that it comes from love because otherwise, it's a depressed child? He does not feel his father's love.

R. There is the sorrow of raising children.

S. I'm talking about the kid.

R. Yes, about the child. The child doesn't always feel good things from the father but even blows.

S. He has to feel a drop of love, there, to have the motivation to change.

R. He who spares his whip hates his son.

S. That’s on behalf of the father, I’m talking about the child. He has to feel a small source of love to have the motivation to change.

R. Correct, this is why you see that there are bad states and good states. So, we nevertheless, try to understand the Creator's relation to us. He wants to educate us, look at how much we slight it, we neglected, with our confidence, our relationships. We have these protests because almost to the point where we don’t need an external enemy. The internal hatred that exists in the people was enough to destroy the nation and the country.

S. It doesn't change, that's what I'm saying.

R. So there will be more, there will be more blows. For thousands of years, now, so there will be more. Why do you think we need to go through it, why do you think it needs to pass? He gives a law and it is unbreakable. 

S. There are laws of nature. I’ll give you an example, when it happened, I went somewhere and saw two people arguing on the street. And I felt, is someone looking? I just felt that it was bringing us to death, it tore me from inside. And here the time goes by and I'm speaking about myself, as a beginning Kabbalist, someone who wants to advance and I see reality. Again, I see that I'm developing a cold shell and it's me, that it’s in me that’s living it and understanding it. How can people on the outside, where will any recognition come that these arguments between them, that there’s hatred?

R. From your work, from your dissemination. From where else will they receive it; from where did we receive it?

S. We had a small point that aspired to be there. 

R. To them, the Creator gave a more hidden, covered point. We just need to understand that we have no choice, the world has to follow the correction that was determined in advance. You cannot say about this that it’s good or bad because you don't see the road to its end. There is nothing we can do, a little more and a little more, and you will accept these things in a way that it is impossible to avoid it. Of course, you can take a part of the wisdom of Kabbalah that does not belong to what is happening, what will you get out of it?  We’ll only be running away from reality.

37. S. (01:51:47) I wanted to ask the friend’s question from a general aspect. Baal HaSulam in the article The Essence of Religion and Its Purpose, he says that the purpose of the wisdom of Kabbalah is to bring a person to the recognition of his egoistic nature.

R. Yes?

S. How can we reach recognition of evil without knowing the good of the altruistic nature? Because for now there's a feeling that we’re pacing on revealing the ego? 

R. Why? How do we discover the good? Please, you have a Ten. You forget that it is an instrument, it is an instrument to reveal the good. It is an instrument for correction of the whole world and that the Ten is a complete vessel.

S. True.

R. So?

S. At the same time, through our work in the Ten, we are revealing more of the egoistic nature than the good and the sublimity of the quality of bestowal. It’s as if the Creator shows only the side of our nature and hides His side, the side of bestowal.

R. Many years ago when Rabbi Shimon and his students gathered in the cave. There they determined that there had to be a special group from this whole world and the mess around them was all around that group, and look what happened to them, what they revealed. Because there was pressure from the outside and it was the call of time from within, and look at what they reached, revelation of the whole reality. Why can’t you do that today in your Tens? Even more and more to connect, to try from that pressure to extract the essence of human development here and to Him. Just make Him reveal Himself, that is what we must do. Do a favor for everyone with this, also to the people and also to the world. I have nothing to add.

S. Maybe we need more sensitivity to the quality of bestowal because ostensibly we’re used to translating good as what is good for our ego. And the real good which is bestowal is hidden from us, we even translate it as bad so how do we? 

R. Yes, yes.

S. It’s like our desire understands good as bad, how do we invert it?

R. You have a Ten, that is why all the questions get solved there, all the questions.

38. S. (01:56:12) To connect this scrutiny to There's None Else Besides Him. You said to the friend that a person needs to do everything together with the Creator, together with There's None Else Besides Him, with His force, perform actions with the force of providence. I'll give you an example: Let's say I come to the Ten and the thought comes to me to increase the connection, as we just said. The thought goes through me that There's None Else Besides Him implanted it, and I come, and I want to implement it with my own strength. How, instead of implementing it with my own strength, do I implement that same thought of connection with the force of the Creator, together with Him?

R. Come to the Ten and you already planned that today you have to come to the Ten with a new form of unity and you work in it. Also, talk a bit if you can, but the main thing is in your desire. You talk with a few more friends that are close to you and together you all start to press on the group. For sure, in the group, there are at least two, three, or four that are closer to one another, are suitable to one another, and understand one another. So, try, try in this way, to organize the Ten. That you will all be as one man with one heart, and you’ll see how each and every Ten will start ascending. They will make an elevator for themselves and that is how it's going to be. Just look at it, you look at a Ten like a gang, some friends.

S. If I understood correctly, the minute I come with a desire to connect or to perform some act of dissemination as part of Bnei Baruch, I come to another friend or two friends and I consult with them, at that moment, it’s not already my force but the force of the Creator? I'm activating this thing with the force of the Creator. Because this is what we want, we want to work with the force of the Creator, not with my own force. 

R. Okay.

S. I’m now trying to understand what it means to work with the force of the Creator.

R. That comes afterward, after what you do. You talk to your friends, you convince them that we all need to connect closer to one another, to feel one another, to sit one beside the other, and in this way, to advance.

39. S. (01:59:40) We understand and agree that connection is correction together, and to reach a prayer. I want to ask, it may sound technical, but it may help us. When we talk about prayer, is prayer more correct if all of us are asking the same question, and also have the same request?

R. No that is not important.

40. S. (02:00:16) Does the connection between us create the reality?

R. Yes, the reality that within this reality the Creator has to be revealed.

S. This is my only connection in the Ten, can it correct the situation?

R. Correct.

 

S. All over the world?

R. Yes.

S. Our intention is not to correct the situation, but to not have the sorrow of the Shechina, the Creator?

R. No, no, no, there will not be sorrow of Divinity, that is a result of the connection.

S. But before the connection, we want to direct it so that we don't get the pleasure but the Creator, it’s for the sake of the Creator. 

R. You just read that; it is not that you feel it.

S. Okay, I will ask practically, when a Ten connects and creates some frequency of the bestowal seemingly outwards.

R. Not outside, inside it, Inside the Ten, for a circle inside them.

S. Okay, when this frequency is created, the question is, if we say that our connection creates a different reality then that frequency in the Ten, this circle, can we try at this time to connect the circles, our efforts? Because it sounds to me like the friends are asking how do we do this inner attack together to create a different reality?

R. For sure, yes. After each and every group feels that they have created something within them as if it's one, one circle. Afterward, you can connect all those circles as individuals.

S. Only after we created the circle.

R. Of course.

S. Regarding There’s None Else Besides Him, there’s the matter of freedom of choice. It’s written that we have it, maybe we haven’t come to it but it’s written that we have it. 

R. So?

S. If there’s None Else Besides Him, it means that the freedom of choice is something the Creator gives us, too.

R. Yes.

41. S. (02:02:56) First of all, the Creator is so great, I want to ask for hastening it. The way of hastening it does not mean that there will not be wars, right? There will still be wars, but it will come more quickly?

R. Yes.

S. On the day when the war started, October 7th, we prayed a prayer that I felt was complete, a complete prayer, whole prayer. But the moment I opened my eyes, the sirens went off. What mercy? Wasn’t there a quicker way for connection besides this war? Many times, in our personal lives we feel anger at the Creator. Why do our friends have to be injured or hurt? But even in this, we’re happy because there's a reason in this to connect to the Creator with so much power that he can give the friends. Complete healing because He is Good and Does Good. How should we move the quickest in the present state? Because the states will be more and more difficult. How do we remain happy, in gladness, together through it all?

R. That we connect in our Tens and that is where we can go through all these states, quickly.

42. S. (02:05:44) Concerning work in the Ten, you often use the word, pressure. You once even said that we have to press each other’s hearts so strongly that they will bleed, heart against heart. I feel that when we meet as a Ten and get into this effort, we often come to a point of freezing, where there are no words. We can’t move, we’re all silent, we feel next to each other, but we can’t take off this clothing and really feel the friend. It’s a point that as much as we try to pressure, to press, we remain in the same place, frozen. How at that moment can we do something?

R. Each of you has to think about how you can organize the Ten that a person is in, in a way, as if there is no Rav, and that is the only way to connect to the Creator and with Him reach Gmar Tikkun. Meaning not to wait for something that will come from above but how can we from below awaken Him? That is what we are lacking. You come to the lessons, to the meetings, all kinds of gatherings, as if we put a checkmark and that is it, but that is not right. That is how years can go by and nothing happens. Only afterward do you come with complaints to me. I want to tell you that we must reach a state where we, right away, start each one to organize his Ten. That it is a whole world that does not need anything except for feeling how it ascends towards the Creator. Try and calculate it, try and think about it, that only this is what we need, and not to think that we are in a big world, around a lot of people, that means nothing. Everything only depends on my little group. If I connect to it, to that group, and if I, with a few more people push them upward. Pushing by connecting more and more and wanting to reach the Creator, by that, then that is how it will happen. The time is very, very good, it is desired.

43. S. (02:10:08) A very moving powerful lesson, thank you to the Creator and to the friends who organized the lesson. We can feel in the lesson that we need to do something and connect even more. But this feeling that you feel like connecting more, it already happened and there is this fear that we will not succeed. How do you use this fear correctly and use it in order to connect even more and not fall?

R. Talk about it, that it obligates you to connect between yourselves and to the Creator, in your Ten. Look what Kabbalists did, they determined in a group, a Ten, which is whole. Also, according to the spiritual structure and also according to as much as we can build it, a corporeal structure. In that structure, to determine laws, laws of connection, of accumulating in such a way that each and every Ten will be as a whole Ten, as a whole system. In this way, we can go way up, so from now on try in your Tens to determine the right steps to come closer to the Creator.

44. S. (02:12:17) It’s not a question. I want, in the name of everyone, to say that this Convention and the meal will not be complete if you're not with us! I really hope that you attend it with us and will continue the convention with us.

R. What do you mean?

S. That you’ll be with us at the meal because you haven’t been with us for a long time, we need you with us.  

R. Did you cook? Okay, I will try. 

45. S. (02:13:13) A cab driver told me that it’s a privilege for each of us here to be here and study and to come here on Shabbat, on Saturday. Thank you for inviting us! I believe that this is very important and I'm really happy to see my friend here and the friends from the groups from the south, this friend is from the north and to see everyone. I want us to succeed, and I believe that we will find the real way together, all of us, thank you, Rav!

R. Thank you, all, I am really happy that this worked out, to have this meeting. 

46. S. (02:14:56) Normally, we only respond to different events. Can we invert it so that we would act, and the Creator would respond?

R. Great question! If we connect in the Ten, every Ten can affect all the others. Then, for sure, we will be able to go ahead and determine our destiny, that is what I can say.

S. That There's None Else Besides Him, right? And He’s the Good Who Does Good!

R. Yes, thank you.

47. S. (02:16:55) To continue the scrutiny about the pressure and the meal. Those who want to feel this pressure in the next action we have, the next activity we have, in the meal. How can you help us get into the meal with the Ten with that pressure, with that commitment?

R. Hold on to it, hold it in the center of the Ten. Want it, to bestow from there to the Creator. The path is short, the connection is direct.

48. S. (02:17:40) There are friends who are in the battlefield right now. How should they perceive that There's None Else Besides Him when they’re facing right before their eyes a danger to their lives?

R. Yes, for them it is easier to depict that There's None Else Besides Him. We need to be together with them in heart and soul, and to want to protect them from our desire, from our concern. That it will be like an armor around them.

49. S. (02:18:40) How can we read this article as new? What old state should we put aside and look at it as something new?

R. Every time we open it, it seems as somewhat new. That is when we determine like, it will be new in your eyes, we need in this way, to look at the group and the Creator. Try that the group and the Creator will be as close as possible and always before us. Constantly, before us, that is a must!  

50. S. (02:19:53) I want to tell the friend who asked about the friends on the battlefield. We got to speak to a son of one of the friends, someone who grew up here. He’s got Shamati in his pocket, and he reads and thinks about the friends. And says, that not only does he feel the Creator, but he also listens to the lessons in the time that he has. And he feels, he understands, contrary to how it was before. So, L’chaim to our friends!

R. Yes, good for him. Thank you, everyone, to all those who are with us. Let us hope we will grow and develop. Most importantly, we will break through, break through, onwards!