Afternoon Lesson October 26, 2023, Transcription

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

Part One:

Baal HaSulam. Shamati 15. What Is Other Gods in the Work?

1. Rav’s Introduction: It's a very special article like all the Shamati articles, basically, but there are those such articles that are very special, just like this one. Other gods, what are they?  There are gods, there's the Creator, and then there are other gods. How could it be? From where, who are they? Please let's read it.

Reading Article. (01:04) It is written, “You shall make no other gods over Me....” 

2. S. (12:55) How using the stones for weighing he acquires the vessels of bestowal?

R. That depends only on the intention, it doesn't matter if I am receiving or giving the main thing or what are my intentions for the sake of The Creator or for my own sake.

S. How do the stones help us? I want to be in bestowal, I get some obstacles, disturbances, and something that is pushing me away.

R. That's excellent that there are disturbances, it means that if you go against them then you will for sure be in the quality of bestowal.

S. So just by resisting the obstacles you acquire the vessels of bestowal?

R. Yes.

3. S. (14:17) And resisting the obstacles means to accept the Creator? These are questions of who and what and the Creator is looking at how I respond to them? 

R. Yes.

S. But these thoughts about the friends, they are expressed to the friends? I should justify the friends first?

R. It doesn't matter even if there are a few actions, all in all, there is just a single thought.

4. S. (14:56) When a person is weak before the power of the evil inclination in him, how to overcome it and continue on the path? 

R. The main overcoming is in a person nullifying towards the friends, and then when he is among them, he sees what actions of bestowal he can do.

5. S. (16:03) Recently I see that I don't have enough faith. The Creator has hidden, everything happens by itself. How to overcome this state?  

R. It's always returning yourself to a state that is the Creator managing you both in mind and heart. There is no you, it’s just the Creator turning you in every direction.

6. S. (17:03) I don't understand how to deal with external thoughts.  

R. With foreign thoughts you need to build a simple work that it all comes from the Creator and that “There Is None Else Besides Him.”

S. The state of “There's None Else Besides Him,” seems like the next step.

R. To remain in it, to go for further adhesion and depth that, “There Is None Else Besides Him.”

S. It seems like the whole question is seemingly washed out.

R. No. no, no, listen, you direct your work to the Creator, you want to see him that he is always the operator “That There Is None Else Besides Him,” and all that you feel in the heart, in all that you think in the mind, it all comes from him, and it spins you such that it returns you to these things. This is what you receive from him and that's it, this is called “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me,” try to always be in it.

7. S. (19:06) In the work a student becomes more and more aware. How many times has his heart actually hardened? And he wants to have this heart of flesh, where he can have contact with the friends and with the Creator. So, what can we do for ourselves apart from the Creator giving us these hearts of flesh, what can we do ourselves to stimulate our heart of flesh?  

R. To be together with the friends, that's first of all, to connect together in the thought or in the desire and both in the thought and in the desire to connect together.

S. And that should suffice our work then the only thing that remains is prayer?

R. Yes, we don't need anything else. If I'm in a prayer in a request in a demand to the Creator to help me to be together with the friends in one thought, in one desire, there's nothing more than that.

8. S. (20:57) There's a feeling that when an event happens the more, we want to connect it with the Creator and justify him, it feels like it is impossible. You are just in this vortex of the ego, and you can't get out of it, and if someone else comes up and another opportunity comes up, why is it impossible to do it by yourself?  

R. It's Impossible by yourself because you don't have enough strength for that but if you connect with a friend or a few friends then right away you have, right away you have the strength.

9. S. (21:58) When I love a person, I want to give him pleasure and if he receives this to give me pleasure, I don't understand this. How can we, receiving in order to give him pleasure, actually give him pleasure?

R. What's not whole in that?

S. When I love someone, I want to give them pleasure and want them to get pleasure but not just because he's giving pleasure to me by this.

R. Correct, and here the same thing, here we need to receive pleasure in order to please the Creator.

S. So here's the main thing, we have to receive this pleasure?

R. Yes.

10. S. (23:06) If I fall asleep and I can't come to the meetings of the ten, can I say that I'm losing importance for some reason, and I can say that the Creator is pushing me away from the work? What's more, correct? 

R. The Creator, that's what's correct.

S. How can I place these stones on the scale to weigh?

R. Start to demand of the Creator to help you to get stronger.

S. I have to remove my ego from the equation and just work with the Creator?

R. I don't know such sentences, I just know one thing in everything that a person feels he feels directly from the Creator.

S. Then always this clarification between the evil and the Creator?

R. Yes.

11. S. (24:17) All the pleasures have to be not for oneself but for the Creator. How can this thought be in a person at all, how can it be that these questions appear? What can I get from this even if the thought itself awakens the body? How to exit this, because we talked about this for years that we have to eat in order to give bestowal to the Creator. How to take a single step against this control of the body? 

R. We try to connect to the friends and together with them we try to overcome.

S. Let's say I connect with the friends; we say let's exit. What to do with this unity?

R. Ask for a connection between you in order for you to have a general strength to overcome the ego.

S. And then what happens if we do this?

R. Then do it and afterward see what happens.

12. S. (25:46) If there are problems there are foreign thoughts that control me. Can I use the ten as protection from foreign thoughts and should I hold on to them? If I’m with the ten then everything will pass, is it so?

R. Yes, in the meantime. It is possible afterward you will see whether you are doing this to run away or not, but in the meantime do it.

13. S. (26:25) There's some rational understanding in these articles, at least that the system there is simply a difference between us and the system. A false difference, the mind suggests that it can't be without a miracle to come to this equivalent of form. 

R. Okay, that's correct.

S. So the mind continues and says you can't justify the system.

R. Ask the Creator, ask it from the Creator he is expecting it.

S. So the Creator builds the system and if we come from our actions to try to be similar to the system then the Creator comes and fills up our feelings?

R. Yes.

14. S. (27:41) Is the work with vessels of bestowal, is it made up of two stages? 

R.  Yes and no.

S. And if yes, the first stage in the work of creating the vessels is to correct all the foreign thoughts that come from the Creator and the second stage is to ask him for help so that we are with the friends in one thought and one desire? Can we say that these are two stages that include the vessels of bestowal, that is the work with vessels of bestowal with these two stages and also achieving one thought and one desire?

R. Well let's say.

S. Not quite? What is it then?

R. No nothing, no, everything's ok just continue.

15. S. (28:48) How can we not have envy, not be jealous? It is written in this article it says that he is jealous, that we always have to be direct, and we are always in concealment. It's as if like in a couple, is it similar? 

R. Yes.

S. How can we be devoted to our work?

R. By caring not to stop the connection with him.

S. I'm always in connection with him, we want to justify that he is in any place, in anything that is revealed in the good and evil. We always have to be devoted to him and give him pleasure.

R. Yes.

16. S. (29:51) Please tell us what will be the stones for weighing? Is it our internal state thoughts and clarifications or actions in the group? What is the right way? 

R. Both this and that, depending on what we are talking about, but in general, both this and that. Both the thoughts, the feelings, the relations between us, and between us to the Creator, everything all together.

 

17. S. (30:30) All the relationships with the Creator are built through the friends. I feel that he is the “Good That Does Good.” If I don't come to the lesson for some reason but if my friends come, they still get the light from the Creator through you, but the Creator is behind you as well, so everything that doesn't have to do with the friends I transfer onto the Creator, everything comes from the friends to the Creator?

R. It's correct.

  

18. S. (31:33) How do I know that the Creator is happy for my actions?  

R. Ask him. There's nothing else I can say. I told you, why are you laughing?

S. I am not laughing, I don’t understand.

R. Ask the Creator all the time.

19. S. (32:13) From the article it turns out the problem is not that we reveal evil from the Sitra Achra, the other side, however, we call it, but that we disconnected it from the Creator. Then the next moment, how in that moment when we reveal that evil do we connect it to the Creator? We raise it to the level that he wants. What needs to be the work in that moment when we discover the evil and how do we connect to this state to raise it to a higher level that the Creator wants? 

R. Rise Above evil, higher than the evil.

S. How?

R. How? In your thoughts and actions, we must always try to rise higher than evil.

20. S. (33:25) In this clarification today in the lesson you said that whatever we reveal we give it to the Creator. What does it mean to give it to the Creator? How do we complete this action, is it the inner work or the thoughts in the prayer?

R. In everything, it is called to bestow. Bestow, that's it.

  

21. S. (33:59) What is our work and what is the Creator's work?

R. Our work is to ask, and the Creator's work is to give.

22. S. (34:16) I see that the only solution that can help with the foreign thoughts is thinking about the connection with the friends. It seems like running away like a child. How do we truly bestow? 

R. I don't understand why it is running away. You have to get closer to the Creator, it is the opposite of running away.

23. S. (34:59) Before when I wanted to ask the question to the Creator you said that there is no one to ask but the Creator. My question is, you are my Rav, how do I work with you? What do I ask you? How do we work together? 

R. You work with the Creator, work with the Creator, this is an instruction from your Rav to you personally, that's it.

 

24. S. (35:41) The thoughts about the necessity come and they disturb you from the spiritual work, are these foreign thoughts? 

R. Yes these are foreign thoughts, but we have to take all these thoughts like this and change them turn them upside down to thoughts for that they come from the Creator deliberately so that we go against them and in this way, we will get closer to the Creator thanks to them.

S. Even if it is over a person's necessities?

R. Yes even if it's to do with necessities.

25. S. (36:38) When thoughts come to a person as he writes, and they disturb his mind, attack his mind, and then he sees that it's like he is in a washing machine, in a vortex, what can a person do in that state?

R. First of all hold on to “There Is None Else Besides Him,” everything is done by the Creator. The more, and the stronger this vortex is, means that it is his attitude to him as well.

S. Why does the Creator give him such a state?

R.  To increase his concentration to a higher level in “There Is None Else Besides Him.”

26. S. (37:37) What is the right preparation before we request to do it for ourselves and not that someone else will prepare us?

R. The right preparation before a request is when we are always directed to the Creator through the friends. I have to prepare myself, and my friends, and the Creator is behind them. We studied this in several articles that the Creator is behind the friends, and we always have to imagine this, and we will advance in this way.

27. S. (38:32) Sometimes It sounds a little bit like humor that you have this type of humor in the army.

R. Well it seems like you had good teachers in the army.

28. S. (38:56) I find myself that basically I am very influenced by our world, and I feel that I have adhered to the Creator and everything that is happening in this reality, and I truly feel how he manages everything. All the forces in reality and I need to understand why I see it so well and even get comments through this world Kli, through this world reality in everything that is happening in the nations. Not in the ten, but I also wanted to feel it such in the ten, for it to always be in this state, the way I feel in the Kli. Why is it like that?

R. Because there, exactly in the ten, is your true work. You have to, in relation to everything that the Creator is sending you, all kinds of thoughts, you have to disconnect from them and put them through the ten.

S. Meaning both if it is the revelation of the Creator and all his forces, not in a positive way, but in the way that you feel it, in that revelation, if you feel it's in reality, I shouldn't relate to it? I should leave that Kli and try to feel the Creator just in the ten, is that correct?

R. Yes, yes, only in the ten. Without the ten there is no Creator. It's not the Creator, I don't know if this can be anything.

S. So when we have spoken for many years about antisemitism and how Baal HaSulam writes about this reality there are all sorts of forces. He sees these things and if there's a feeling like that, that is what the Kabbalists tell us about our reality. What is the difference between that and what's happening in the ten? Because Baal HaSulam writes a lot about what is happening in this reality, he has attainment in that, a feeling with that, what to do with that attainment?

R. There's nothing to do, this is what is given to you. You have to go through all of these pictures, you have to try and recognize the Creator.

S. I Identify Him very much in this reality, but it's not in the ten it's not equivalent. I wish I could feel it there like I feel this reality. I don’t understand why it’s like that and why shouldn’t I pay attention to it. I cannot disregard the fact that the Creator does show himself through the general world.

R. This is the form of his concealment, this is the form of his concealment.

S. If you can say another word about it, what does it mean that he conceals himself this way?

R. He can’t conceal himself in a different way, but only behind the system of the group and the friends. 

29. S. (42:29) You answered a friend from Turkey to think like the Creator is managing you in all the states. How can we reach such states desirably from the whole heart, how do we develop such a desire for that? 

R. I try to see everything that happens to me as the Creator's actions. He flips and turns me in different directions only Him, and I only feel the result of what He does to me. This is it.

  

30. S. (43:51) If we don't allow ourselves to drown in those thoughts that we pay attention to each one, does that place us in the position of givers? 

R. No, for now, we are just clarifying the conditions.

S. I understand, but in continuation, if we see it from a certain perspective?

R. In a perspective yes, continue.

31. S. (44:30) Why is it difficult to place love over pride? Why is it hard to choose love over pride?   

R. Love is when you cancel yourself and annul yourself before the others, you do everything to give them pleasure and pride is the opposite.

S. And what to do?

R. Overcome.

S You feel what I'm saying, right?

R. Yes, of course, I feel you.

32. S. (45:29) The purpose of life according to these studies is to receive pleasure from the Creator in order to return the pleasure to the Creator for us to bestow to him. I hear that we need to correct our corrections. Sometimes the lesson seems very complex, but is it just to add the intention?

R. It would be simpler, it would be more simple, okay.

  

33. S. (46:44) In what way do all of our prayers turn into one?

R. When we want to unite with one another, we want to be in one heart, and then all of our prayers turn into one prayer.

34. S. (47:20) How does reality transform when we manage to get over extraneous thoughts and work on strengthening the connection in the ten?  

R. It's because we change ourselves. We correct ourselves, that's why reality changes. We are changing reality. 

S. So he is always helping us to make corrections?

R. Correct.

35. S. (48:18) If the Creator is sending us very difficult storms doesn't it mean that he wants to kill us with them then? Is it more correct to say the more the Creator sends us these things that educate us, the more he loves us and wants to bring us closer?

R. Yes.

  

36. S. (48:45) A person nonetheless needs to rise above the evil by himself or the ten raises him whose action is it, who starts it? 

R. Everything starts from the Creator, and everything ends with the Creator.

S. But practically, let's say, I reveal evil in the ten, I get upset, they come out, and it's as if the ten doesn't care what is happening with me. I don't understand now, where do I get the strength to rise above?

R. Calm down.

S. I already calmed down and I was concerned, I just don't understand, I already prayed, I asked the Creator to correct me, for me to be able to enter into the ten, and then I am told you are no one here, you came late, why are you even here, and I don't know how I can rely on help from this ten, I don't understand it.

R. Be patient, do you understand?

S It's just upsetting I am trying to do that and there is nothing in return.

R. Don't demand anything in return, they are giving you an opportunity to thank them. Do you understand? Look at Moscow for how this man is laughing at you. Everybody will pass through these things, everything will be good, don't worry.

37. S. (50:40) What do we do if there is a disturbance, not foreign thoughts but a certain state of stupidity that I feel on the outside as if there is something great on the outside, but everything passes through by the ear, and nothing is entering. How can I cope with that?

R. What to do, pray. So that the Creator will remove this dumbness and this fogginess.

38. S. (51:28) I understood, I don't know if it is so, but is it correct that there is a personal correction in the final correction, Gmar Tikkun, that's equal to everyone is that correct?

R. No, it is different for everyone.

 

39. S. (51:58) Are all the obstacles that we are faced with are we are they our egoistic ties, are we connected to them deliberately as part of our ego for us to correct them, and the only way out is to pray?  

R. Yes.

S. It came to me this morning that it makes me feel as if we have this entanglement with the events and we cannot be free from them unless we pray for Humanity to be free from them and our friends to be free from them so in other words, we cannot free ourselves until we free others?

R. Okay, it's all good, that's correct.

40. S. (53:10) Concerning this weighing process of the stones, this inner process, what sort of dialogue is this, a negotiation, or an internal war to come to a certain agreement? Is this a negotiation, this weighing process an internal negotiation? A dialogue let's say maybe with the Creator with whom exactly?

R. Yes.

S. What is a sign to choose, when does the weighing process end? What are the signs of the weighing process that we are doing it correctly?

R. When I care only about bestowal. When I have concern only for bestowal.

S. Should I keep myself in a weighing process all the time?

R. Yes, ok yes, this is desirable.

S. So you can keep yourself in a weighing process all the time so that you can benefit others?

R. I try to all the time weigh that the Creator does this what for? Why does he intend to do this? How do I react to what he did?

S. Is this Devkut, adhesion with the Creator, this negotiation process with the Creator?

R. Yes, of course.

41. S. (55:44) We accept this as a foundation in our ten that he is the “Good That Does Good” and everything is only from Him. With those revelations the things that we feel as revelations of evil, it’s us evoking a different side of him and a certain part of us which is necessary to correct in us when it gets revealed, and now in the ten we are doing everything in order to correct that, and it's as if it's working for us. But we feel that in one ten against all of the scary evil, we need some help in connecting everyone against this evil. What can you recommend for us?

R. It's possible that you are saying the right correct things, you have to work on this, start uniting with other tens and you will see what will be, but the main thing is to come from what you do in your ten first and foremost.

S. We try very much so.

R. Thank you.

42. S. (57:57) What to do when the desire to receive is really upset at the Creator and does not succeed in justifying anything and seemingly in the mind there are all the right answers, we see it's like this and it's all good and we see that the whole direction is correct in the intellect but the heart is not ready for anything and it's very upset?

R. What can I tell you, this is your heart.

S. But how as if I always thought that the intellect at such times would help the mind to understand, but it doesn't help at all? What do I do? I don't want to be upset at the Creator.

R. To pray, pray.

43. S. (59:00) What needs to be in my intention before I want to give gratitude to the Creator to the ten to you?

R. Put all of this in your intention.

44. S. (59:30) If the Creator shows the person that he has a certain influence in the outside environment it can be given thoughts that there is work outside of the ten, so how do we work with that?

R. No, no, it has to bring himself back to the ten. There are all kinds of foreign thoughts that confuse us. We have to be just in the ten between the friends and only with them we can come to a connection correct beautiful and constant and after this, we will see. 

45. S. (01:01:00) How do we cause all of the friends that are simply full of abundance and adhered in the lessons that you answer them one influences the other? How do I cause this to the friends?

R. Try to wake them up to come to the lesson, try.

S. I am asking because I am already trying to get the spirit from it, I see that there is so much abundance of all the goodness that I could simply arrange my whole life, it is simply spilled out somewhere there and not in me.

R. I don't know what to tell you. You must ask them, ask them. Cry ask for mercy and maybe this will be arranged.

46. S. (01:02:13) In these stones to weigh the Creator and don't make any other gods over me, is this in the desire to bestow and to receive? Are these the intermediary stages?

R. Yes, that's correct.