Morning Lesson November 15, 2021, Transcription

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

Part 1:

Baal HaSulam - Shamati 59. Concerning the Staff and the Serpent

1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we are continuing to study what is the principle of the upper world that exists beyond our feeling and attainment and understanding. Why is it beyond it? Because we need to acquire vessels in our emotion and in our understanding, our mind, in order to reach it, in order to feel it. Then, in such a way we will be able to begin to conquer the upper world, to come closer to the Creator, to understand Him, to get closer to Him, to adhere to Him according to what is required from us. What we have to replace within us is the approach to whatever we feel. That to feel reality not inside of the will to receive but in the will to bestow.

How do we arrange these things? We don't know. Rather in our feeling, in our perception, we have to shift from seeing reality within reason, the way it seems to us. Then to poke and check and feel and enter more and more within reason, into our intellect and emotion that we were born with, the egoistic one. And to realize that the upper world is the opposite. It is a reality and actually it is a greater internal complete reality. However it is the opposite of us. Specifically the fact that the Creator created us in the opposite form from the upper reality, and then He gives us the possibility to invert it, as we say, to invert ourself, our perception, the importance, from feeling everything in the vessels of reception or feeling everything in the vessels of bestowal.

Here we are in a transition between feeling and grasping the physical world or feeling and grasping the spiritual world. For the corporeal world, even though it seems to us that it is a great infinite world, in truth, it only has a very small volume. It's not huge and great and strong but seems that way rather because this is how we were born and how we developed, which is of course on purpose. We therefore think that this is what there is. This is the truth. This is what's right. This is what is strong and stable and this is the only thing that exists. However it is like the embryo inside of its mother. It seems that the whole world is the womb, that it is inside of it, or like that worm that is inside of the radish and it thinks that the whole world is like that radish.

All we have to do is invert our perception to come out of being within reason, in whatever we were born with in those qualities which are in order to receive, the egoistic ones. To rise above them to the perception of the opposite world of giving, bestowal, above reason, it doesn't matter what you call it. Both the egoistic perception as well as the perception, which is outside of it the spiritual perception, there are many names, but all in all as he explains to us in this article that we have before us concerning the staff and the serpent, there is no transition between the egoistic perception and the perception of bestowal. There's no transition, there's simply a leap either in this or in that, and there's no intermediary state. Each and every moment we need to guard ourself, to check ourselves, whether we are truly in the right perception or not. As much as we will try, we will make efforts each time to awaken to the correct perception above reason in order to bestow. Then accordingly, we will enter quicker into the spiritual perception. We will exist in it and in this way, we will reach the goal. Where we shift from this state in which we exist, where this state is truly called an imaginary world and it does not exist but rather inside of our sensations, out of our imagination. That we depict ourselves and the whole world, that seemingly we are in it. Then when we make a few efforts to change our perception, and out of these exertions of ours, to shift to a new state. It's like labor pains where the fetus wants to come out from the womb. Then we do come out, we merge, and we already enter the eternal complete spiritual life with our correct perception.

Let’s read this article and let's see what we can do so as to constantly maintain ourselves beyond reason. That each and every moment one checks himself; am I inside reason or above, freezing in reason or above reason. By such checks, such monitoring, we can reach a state where we finally rise to a feeling of the spiritual perception. This article should greatly help us in that. That is, to accustom oneself to see reality through the quality of Bina and not through the quality of the Malchut, in the quality of bestowing and faith and not in the quality of reception. By that we usher ourselves into the state of Ibur, impregnation, conception. We elevated ourselves through our annulment over our will to receive to the level of Bina.

We put ourselves into the spiritual womb, the quality of bestowal. We want it to be our environment so that even though inside we don't yet have forces of bestowal, the force of Bina, however, we want them to be at least on the outside. In all the states that I am going through, I want the Creator, which is the quality of Bina. That He will direct me in each and every state, and I with respect to Him, just want to be a point, just a drop of semen, just that point of desire that annuls itself. This is why it is a point, and to let the Creator do with me whatever He wants. What does that mean? That however He changes the external and internal conditions for me, I just want one thing, to annul before the force of faith, the force of bestowal. This is the correct and only perception by which we enter the upper world. Let's read it.

Shamati Article 59 “Concerning the Staff and the Serpent” (12:03)

2. R. (12:46) That is if we let go of the matter of faith, bestowal, so that we don't want to grip it, we don't want to look at reality through it, then that state disappears and we once again enter within reason inside our will to receive. That is, this is a matter of we either make an effort and we are in spirituality or we let go of the effort and we fall to corporality.

Reader continues: “in order to understand this….” (13:17)

3. R. (13:40) That the Creator wants to be revealed specifically upon the states that do not seem important to us. What does it mean, they don't seem important to us? Because they are all in order to bestow. This is outside of the wheel to receive. The will to receive usually gives us the direction, what to look at, what to pay attention to, what to take into account. It is what their exes navigate us through all the things in this world. We need the opposite. We want that the will to bestow will show me what is more important, what is less important and by that I will see the opposite world. Not black and white in the will to receive, but rather with a different spectrum. A different relation as though I am putting on different spectacles and I see a different world. Not according to receiving more are receiving last, but rather bestowing more and bestowing less. This is entirely something very very different. How do we reach that perception?

Reader continues: “this is the meaning of the question….” (15:18)

4. R. (15:54) This is how we are built. There's nothing we can do about it. Automatically this is how I look at the world, all of my senses are arranged like that. To perceive things as much as possible that are important for the wheel to receive. This turns me in all directions, it is only according to this condition, where is there more with fulfillment for the will to receive.

Reader continues: “one appreciates things….” (16:20)

5. R. (17:04) That is certainly we don't feel it this way, but we can name ourselves so that whatever stands against reason, that is important and whatever is within reason is less important.

Reader continues: “this is because all the concepts……” (17:23)

6. R. (31:40) It's a strong long deep article but it is fundamental, it is the foundation for our spiritual work.

7. S. (32:03) What does it mean that the shell is the basis of the will to receive?

R. The will to receive as the basis for the Klipa shell and it's also the basis for Kedusha, holiness. The will to receive is us and it depends on how we work with. If we want to receive our whole perception inside of the will to receive in our life or we want to come out of the will to receive to rise above it. To the quality of the Creator the will to bestow. This is what it's all about. Either we stay within our nature or we want to rise above it. When we want to rise, we want to emerge from our nature, then this nature of the will to receive starts to inflate and it starts to grow. Then it says, 'one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater'. Therefore the one who goes above reason always has more reason, He becomes smarter, he understands more, he feels more he attains more. Seemingly they want to hold him inside the will to receive so he is given a greater will to receive and inside the will to receive he understands more and more what is happening in where he is. However, those who agree with it so then they have what everyone has in this world a little bit more a little bit less but it's still in the framework of this world.

This is what happens. but we have no choice. We must implement that same desire, those Reshimot, records that the Creator awakens in us which draw us and pull us to the attainment of the Creator, to the attainment of the degree of faith and it seems to us now that while we are in the will to receive. That the degree of faith is an easy naive level, it's not something serious. Because we all exist in the quality of reception. Whatever we get in the will to receive that's what we have. On the other hand we need to check even with corporeal eyes how much the will to receive is limited. How much it is limited, it cannot be any more than the degrees of the still, vegetative inanimate. That is it cannot be more than merely existing in the connection between these small parts of nature. But not any more than that. This is why here we need to learn how do we acquire the spiritual degree. And this is what this article talks about.

8. S. (36:07) It is written that there is no intermediary state between the staff in the serpent, what does that mean?

R. Yes, that you exist in this or in that. It may seem to you that sometimes you are in the middle, on some stitching line between these two states but that's incorrect, it does not exist there's a will to receive and it's either in order to receive or in order to bestow and that's it. This is the only way we can see reality. Therefore, each time when we don't make an effort to rise above reason, we fall into the will to receive into within reason.

S. In the beginning of the lesson you gave an example of the transition between being immersed totally in the perception of reception in the perception of bestowing is like putting on glasses where everything changes completely. It feels like we're so immersed in reception that it's not clear how to make that transition from reception immediately into bestowal. How do we do it?

R. We indeed immediately shift from reception to bestowal and it's through the influence of the upper force what we call the upper light. It influences us as a result of our efforts. If we put in sufficient efforts in quantity and quality then the upper light influences us and later on this action is done suddenly. There is an accumulative process, and after it has accumulated into a certain measure, then this leap occurs in us. We come out of in order to receive and reach in order to bestow. This is why we have to strengthen ourselves so as not to run away from this work because all in all each and everything that we do is called a penny and a penny adds up to a large amount. Then we emerge from the vessels of reception into the vessels of bestowal. This is why patience, keep going and keep going and keep going.

9. S. (39:53) Baal HaSulam writes here in the article that a person needs much preparation in order for him to have the forces because otherwise because the body refuses to do this work.

R. It's our whole work now. That we try through the connection between us through dissemination through all kinds of activities that we do. To draw more and more light upper light. And when it influences us, we come into this accumulation of its influences that all together afterwards they shift us from reception to bestowal.

S. Baal HaSulam writes here that a person each and every day I see you rises from his bed he has to check himself where he is and according to his ability to cleanse himself from the filth of the Klipot the shells. This should be a perpetual examination and when you get up, you're usually not in the state of holiness you don't feel any closeness. How to make this transition quickly from the serpent to the staff?

R. I don't think it's a problem. We need to first of all during the day we have to try those who are still not used to it. We have to awaken to check where I am. What am I thinking about? A few lessons ago I said that what we need is to invert. To imagine that just as I'm thinking about me now in the end. how I invert my will to receive, my intention, my disposition to benefit the Creator, to for the sake of the Creator. Then it's not important for me what I feel now what I will have. I depict to myself that what is important in what I'm doing now is that it will be good for the Creator for the upper force for the higher degree. This is how I need to renew my relation to reality. My approach to reality. We have to try to do it at least several times a day and especially in the morning or before the lesson. When I calibrate myself to be ready to receive the lesson and, in the lesson, a great surrounding light shines on us from the whole world Kli. If I'm ready for it I feel that I am totally under this very powerful, intense influence. If I don't prepare myself, what I get from it is a very limited influence.

10. S. (43:39) What does it mean that he had put his divinity on trees and rocks?

R. Just as trees and rocks are things that we can find everywhere, meaning there are things that are relatively cheap. They are not gems, they are not special trees. So the Creator places his Shechina [Divinity], meaning He wants to be revealed in a very simple way. You don't need to be smart, you don't need to have special qualities, you just want to shift to a perception of giving rather than a perception of receiving. This is why you practice on the friends, with them together, helping one another. When you build such a society, such a group, and then ask yourselves are we really becoming today more connected, closer to each other? Is what we are going to achieve in the connection between us achieving a correct connection so we will begin to reveal the Creator? Because the Creator is our sum total. This is what we need to see as a result.

11. S. (45:32) Why is it impossible to receive, even partially, if one's intention is in order to receive for oneself? What's missing here in order to invert the intention to in order to bestow?

R. A good question, I would even say it's a cunning question, a shrewd question. The problem is that if I begin to receive respect, it will go into my will to receive so I will go deeper and deeper into the will to receive, into my egoistic vessels. This is why it's not a good idea. I should be only in bestowal from me to the friends. The more I give to them, it is certain that I am adding to my spiritual box. There's no question about that. The more you help the ten, help the friends, arrange things for them, whatever you do for the sake of the ten, for the sake of their friends, for the sake of one friend, it is certain to go into your spiritual account and not become erased. That's all you can say here, we read it in many places.

S. What is that intermediary state if I don't have the intention to receive? Why is that not called in order to bestow?

R. The fact that you are not receiving in order to receive, does not mean that you are already in the intention to bestow. Maybe you have nothing to receive in front of you, maybe you have no powers, maybe such powers are working on you from above that don't give you the chance. It still doesn't mean that you have the desire and the screen, and you are facing this spiritual feeling and you are coping with it to receive only in order to bestow.

12. S. (48:16) Is it correct that the state of faith is what does not exist inside reason, it was never there? Above reason does not exist at all?

R. Correct. Reason is what is accepted and felt in the will to receive. Faith is what is accepted and felt in the will to bestow. We have no desire to bestow, we only have a desire to receive. What we receive from above is a special force to work with the will to receive in order to bestow. It's like an example of having a mother and a baby. She constantly thinks about the baby, that it will be happy. She thinks about what she can do to make it even better for the baby. So of course, she is working with her vessels of reception, because she has no other vessels. She is the will to receive, but this will to receive is directed entirely towards someone outside of her. Except the mother doesn't feel that it's outside of her. She feels that that baby, that little baby in her hands, is even more within her, it is more important than herself. Likewise, we have to come to feel others, that what is outside of us will be more important to us than we. It seems unrealistic, but precisely in this way we come to feel the upper world. This is called ‘’I saw an opposite world.’’ What does it mean to see an opposite world? To see what previously I couldn't even imagine, and all of a sudden in this opposite manner I see it. What does it mean in an opposite manner? That it's impossible that what is outside of me becomes more important than me. Normally, we are very egoistic, especially those who come to the wisdom of Kabbalah. You are the most egoistic out of the entire world, to such an extent that we don't feel what someone thinks, what someone feels. There are people who feel others. Kabbalists in the beginning of the way, before they receive the quality of bestowal, are very obtuse to the world and to others, very obtuse, they can't feel others. It seems to them that the other doesn't really exist, they are like statues, like objects. So are people, this is how they see it, but through all the work on themselves, when they draw reforming light through the ten, we come to states where we begin to awaken a little bit and feel the friends in the group. Suddenly, we have some feeling towards them, that they have become close, etc. But it doesn't come easy. So don't despair, and precisely those with more coarseness and more efforts, we come to a state that we obtained the opposite. We, in the greater coarseness, obtain rising above this coarseness and we enter into bestowal. But, on the one hand, you have the Klipa [shell], and on the other hand, you have the Holiness. We shift from one side to the other.

13. S. (53:36) It is written this is why they entice one to draw light to their degree. What is the meaning of this sentence?

R. That the will to receive, the shell, awakens a person to constantly be in states where she can receive greater fulfillment - greater feeling. That's it.

14. S. (54:26) It's very hard to simultaneously hold myself in the lesson, and also be in the lesson. How can we focus on the lesson?

R. I would recommend that during the lesson you get into the lesson as much as possible, and don't really think about yourself, about your own situation. Just dive into what the teacher says, into what the friends are saying, and into the text, as if you don't exist - like diving into the sea, and you just disappear there so that the upper light will influence you as much as possible, and with it you don't interfere. Afterwards, you will have time to get into it with your intellect, to criticize and scrutinize. But in the meantime, as you are listening to the lesson with the group, annul before the group, annul before the lesson, open up all your channels and just absorb what is there. This is why questions are good, but here what counts the essence of the question is. You see, I am letting you ask, nevertheless, because there has to be some kind of communication between us, and the study material in between. But in truth, the right absorption is when a person becomes completely annulled, gets rid of all of his will to receive of himself, of his qualities, and wants to be like an embryo in the womb, as if he doesn't exist, and everything operates on him from above. In this way, we are certainly absorbing the material the best way. We don't install into the material our own will to receive - why is it like that, why is it like this, it's like this, it's like that. And then, I don't drink it.

S. So if I disconnect myself, I hold myself in that state where I am saying the Creator is giving me this state, and all the things that I hear come from Him, then my hearing disconnects in that state?

R. So try to do what I'm telling you. You will see new things.

15. S. (58:04) What is humbleness in our work?

R. Humbleness? Humbleness means I am not demanding anything other than to be annulled, as if I don't exist with my will to receive in the light, in the Creator. I want to, at least in one dot, raise Malchut to Bina. That's what I want to do, to enter as a drop of sperm in the womb, me being in the womb - in the upper one, and I Malchut, at least in one drop. Meaning, I cancel my own desires, and I want only to cling to Bina, and simply cancel myself before it. This is called the sperm comes, and it attaches itself to the womb. That is what I want, that is the entry into spirituality. Afterwards, we will learn with you that there are the three days of absorption of the sperm, they are the beginning of the three lines, the three days of absorption of the sperm, and then forty days of the creation of the embryo until we see that we have an embryo. This little body is already a will to receive, but it is entirely annulled to the extent that it can annul itself before the upper one, to that extent it grows in the upper one, in Bina. This is what it is given. It absorbs the quality of bestowal as much as it can, it inverts itself to be similar to these qualities of bestowal so they will control it, and then in this way it develops in the mother, in Bina, because everything follows the equivalence of form. Then after forty days, forty days are degrees of ascension from Malchut to Bina. When he receives the qualities of Bina on his will to receive, he remains in his will to receive, otherwise, he will not be a created being. Then, the will to receive that grew during the forty days of creation of the embryo when it's already to some extent similar to Bina, this is called going through the first stage of development. Then, there are the three months, and three months, and 3 months, months according to the Moon, not according to the Earth. We count, in spirituality, the months by the Moon - lunar months, because Earth is the will to receive. The Moon is ostensibly here, and in between, an intermediary degree between the will to receive - planet Earth, and the Sun - the will to bestow. As much as we can, between Malchut and Keter, to be more and more in the degree of Bina, this is what the Moon symbolizes. Then, we will talk about what we discover about the Moon, what we want to discover. What we reveal, they don't tell us. There are very interesting things there, about how a person comes to the Moon - touches the Moon. There are very interesting things about it, but that's along the way. So this is how we develop. Constantly annulling before faith above reason, constantly thinking about the group, Creator. In this way, it is called days of development of the embryo.

16. S. (01:03:21) What is this honor in the work that he talks about in the text? What should we do in order not to receive the honor?

R. In order not to receive our honor a person has to keep himself, guard himself. It is very important work. I would say it's the very first test in entering spirituality if a person is absorbing the respect or not. And how to guard himself from this? He should be constantly immersed in the ten. This will guard him from being in order to receive, and mainly it concerns respect - honor.

17. S. (01:04:35) In the beginning of the text, it says that the Creator told Moses to throw the staff. Why did he throw it, what for?

R. It is an example of learning that if we throw the staff, which is called of inferior importance, lower importance, meaning we help faith above reason. Then, our staff which should lead us on the way to the end of correction, when a person walks with his staff all the time, it becomes a serpent.

S. Why did the Creator specifically tell him that?

R. So he would learn from this what is happening to him, so he would learn from this. You went on rocks? They had a walk in the desert, how to shift from this world to the spiritual world. How do we shift? You walk behind the one who is in front of you, and where he places his feet, in those same places you place your feet, and you should always walk with a staff - this walking stick. If you follow someone, he is the guide - he is called the guide, and you place your feet exactly where he does, and with your staff you do what he does. Then, it is certain, if you do that, it is certain that you are advancing correctly. You don't need to see anything else, only how to advance precisely in all your steps, in all your movements, after him - behind him. This is called advancing correctly. People who walked on real hikes they know. There are many rules to it, but that's the main rule.

18. S. (01:07:21) It says at the end of the article that after one received honor, it is hard to stop receiving this honor.

R. It's egoism, his ego. If he receives attention, a special relation, and doesn't create a shield against it, sometimes you have to receive attention from the friends or from others who respect you, otherwise, you have no respect for them. You have to show that you enjoy their relation to you, that you are thankful to them for it, you have no choice. The greater a person seemingly is, then he has to show everyone that he is willing to receive from them. Otherwise, he will seem proud, like who are you to bring me anything. So this is why we need to relate in this way. Actually, the lower a person is, the more you need to relate to him with more attention.

19. S. (01:09:04) What kind of examination can a person do in order to make sure that he jumped, but not just imagining it, because there is a great fear that I can't trust my own judgment? You also answered to a friend before that the examination is in the ten. It is still a question, because you can always turn what the friends are saying, and you always deal with that to a scale of merit, they justify you.

R. I will tell you more. It is not a check in the scrutiny in the ten, its implementation in the ten. We just don't see it, we can't imagine that spirituality is actually, it really is, in the friends. If you depict to yourself what a spiritual womb is, it doesn't exist anywhere - there is no such a thing. It is only if you enter the group, it could be the smallest group, it could be two, that much. But if each one annuls before the other, they can achieve spirituality. Two is the least plural. That's it. So the group is the spiritual womb. Don't imagine it is being somewhere. Yes, it is in the connection among the friends. It exists, although you don't feel, don't see, and don't understand it that it exists, but it does exist, all of our degrees until the end of correction exist. So if we exert to imagine our spiritual state as here, and existing, then we are already on the way to the truth. This is why, where is the womb? In the group, in the connection within the friends

S. So if the friends are always judging me to the scale of merit, they justify, then how do I check if I am in the right direction?

R. If you truly want to see the whole group and each friend on the side of merit, then you need to feel every single moment, how you are veering off from seeing everyone on the side of merit. Then, the Creator begins to give to you the opposite, an additional will to receive so you will grow like an embryo in the womb, and you need to absorb another piece of the will to receive into the womb, adapt it to the connection in the ten, some more in order to bestow in what was - what happened. Yesterday was good, but today you're already not so well organized with the ten, you see that you have some more criticism, other problems. Then, you need to understand that all those things are problems of growth - growth pains, pains of development. There is no other way, that is how we grow.

20. S. (01:12:58) It says that it is forbidden to receive honor. So how can I praise the friend in a way that does not harm him?

R. Normally, we don't do it. We can do it maybe in a L’chaim when we get together in the ten. But the truth is, we have to elevate the whole ten and more than that, to elevate the Creator. Say cheers to the Creator - L’chaim to the Creator, for holding us, for positioning us correctly, and for promoting us. Of course, we should speak a little bit about the friends, as well. But the most important is, nevertheless, that everything begins and ends with the Creator.

21. S. (01:14:05) Regarding the paragraph that if a person leaves the discernment of the staff, he immediately falls to the discernment of the serpent, and immediately enters the state of failures. He writes that there is a state of serpent and also a state of failures. Seemingly, this should be two states where one follows the other. So what is that state of failures?

R. It depends on the extent to which he feels the situation. He might be in the serpent, but still does not feel the failures, so he agrees to live in his will to receive although he understands that now it is operating on him, and he doesn't want to get out of it - on one hand. On the other hand, if he falls lower, then the serpent that he feels - the failures, already, this is already the recognition of evil. I might feel myself inside the ego, I am an egoist and I don't want to change. You understand? There are such states in us, as well. Afterwards, comes the state where I do want to change. I can stand this ego and its control over me. There are many states. You are not in such a state of the control of the serpent over me, until I hate it. Through the hatred, I separate from it, I move away from it.

22. S. (01:16:18) The more we advance, there are more problems? Is that what he said?

R. The more we grow, the greater the problems become. Don't you see from your corporeal life?

S. I am not an example, I always have problems. According to what you say, I have to understand that if in the ten, I have no trouble, everything is fine, we are sitting together in the lesson?

R. It is a sign that you are not working on the connection. You are just a group of lazies (lazy) there is no value to the stand.

S. What do you suggest we should do in the ten, if that is what we feel?

R. Try to reach a more internal connection in our desire, in our yearning for the Creator - everyone wants to reach the revelation of the Creator, everyone wants to reach equivalence. The revelation of the Creator can only be in vessels that are suitable for Him, that are like Him. Where is my vessel in which I resemble Him, the vessel of bestowal, where do I grow them and develop them? Only if I am in a group. This team that I have to train with, and see if I am ready, and how much I can be in order to bestow. As much as I don't want to be in bestowal towards the friends, I have to tell myself that, even more than that, I'm not willing to bestow to the Creator. Usually, we think now, of course, I want to bestow to the Creator. It is a lie, because that is what your ego is saying, that it is worthwhile, that he is going to profit somehow. But if you can't reach bestowal towards your friends, where you annul yourself there, cleave to them, to help them, to be with them in each and everything, you are not getting to the Creator - you are simply not getting there to be as one man in one heart. Then, you come to the Creator because the Creator is all inclusive of all our connections.

S. You said that you used to be with your teacher almost alone, without a group. So how did you advance with Rabash if you did not have a group? Did you fight with them all morning long? No. I don’t understand what you did.

R. That is not for you. Elijah came, I sat on his wings, and he took me up. Why don’t you believe me?

S. I believe you, you can do that as well. I want to understand more. In our group, in our ten, what should we do in your opinion? You say to annul yourself.

R. You are in a state, there has never been such a good state in all of reality -never been. You say now the students of Rabbi Shimon, they would sit in a cave, eat their slice of bread, they had nothing else, they were in dire straits and that would not help them. Place yourself like, make a cave in your living room, get in there, take some dried bread that they toss out from the deli next door, a bucket of water and get in there. Start annulling yourself completely towards the friends, and you will see how much it is helping you or not. I do not know what you want. A person has to work in the state that he is in, he doesn't need to limit himself in anything. All the limitations have to be inside.

S. Meaning, also not to be afraid of arguments in the ten?

R. You can be in a bad ten, a good 10, you can be a billionaire, it doesn't matter what or whom. It all depends on how much you are preparing yourself inside. It has not to do with what you have outside. Make the effort.

23. S. (01:21:42) In this article there is great depth that is still concealed from us. It is written that he placed his divinity on trees and rocks. It is clear that it is lower than the degree of Adam. Where is the animate level here?

R. All the degrees of still, vegetative, and animate, are included together. A person has to rise above them. All those things have to be not important to him. The spiritual degree has to be the most important out of all the degrees of the still, vegetative, and animate, where we exist. The human degree is above all of it, it is spirituality. We are not human, we belong to the animate degree.

24. S. (01:22:47) We always say that the feeling of faith above reason is when I am willing to go without any support. Here, I am confused. Do I need the rod, don’t I need the rod?

R. The rod, the staff, you need to walk with it. ‘Matteh’ [staff] means lower in importance. All of my mind and my feeling, I am not throwing them out, I am walking forward with them. How do I advance towards spirituality? By stepping on my mind and my feeling, and by that I know that I am moving correctly towards spirituality. Do you hear that? Only in this way, is the meaning of Moses is pulling them out of their ego, out of Egypt, toward the Land of Israel - meaning a desire aimed at the Creator, ‘Israel’ - Yashar El. How is he doing it? He is walking with the staff. Each time he is going lower, he is putting the importance of reason below, and he is putting degrees of faith above it - he is building those degrees above it. The greater the reason, he needs to build a greater faith to cover it above. The reason grows higher, faith needs to grow higher still. That is how you advance.

S. In faith above reason we need support, or don't we?

R. In faith above reason we need toward annul to the group, and to that extent to receive the reforming light from above. The main thing is not to forget those principles.

25. S. (01:25:17) There are states where I feel like I can't work with the friends. I feel so rejected, and I don't have any desire to work with them, it seems impossible.

R. I understand. I also had.

S. You said previously that two is the least. When there is a state that I can’t work with the friends.

R. No, no, no. Sometimes, you are running away from this work. It is that, if by chance you only have one extra friend. We have such a range of tens here. We have to enter the ten that we come to, we have to mingle there, annul there, and disappear there, until we become invisible among them. It is like when you are throwing a piece of something into the water, it crumbles and dissolves, and disappears. That is how we need to feel ourselves in the ten, in this way. As less as possible, on one hand, you work, you help, you organize corporeally. But in spirituality, to annul as much as possible before them. That means that you are entering, you are organizing the womb, on one hand. On the other hand, in order to annul there, to dissolve there in that womb and begin to grow. You begin to grow there under the force of bestowal, of faith, according to how much you can absorb through them the influence of the Creator. That is how it works.

S. I understand there is work with the ten in general, but when there is a state with a friend that suddenly there is some kind of friction, some state where it is difficult to come out of it. So am I supposed to go out again?
R. No. You are not going out. You are accepting all those states as ‘’There is none else besides Him,’’ that is what the Creator is doing to you.

S. If I can't cope with it, what do I do? I let go, and I go to a different friend?

R. You are not letting go. You are trying to correct it because it is coming from the Creator. You are not letting go. If you are letting go, if you leave, it means that you don't want to receive what the Creator is giving you. Otherwise, you're not getting to Ibur [conception]. We need to understand that in all the problems that we have in the ten, we must overcome them and unite above them, because this brings us to Ibur [conception]. All the degrees of conception are by annulling, annulling, annulling, each one annuls himself towards the ten. That is how we grow up until we are born. Then, later you will have greater problems. You still don't want to kill one another in the ten, so you will get there, you will have such states as well.

26. S. (1:29:35) How can the staff, on the one hand, help us advance and on the other hand when you throw it on the ground it becomes a serpent?

R. If you are throwing the staff you don't want to accept your mind, your intellect. Only to step on the staff and work on the staff because it is below importance, it is lower in importance, then it becomes a snake. You should think of that situation.

27. S. (1:30:51) What nevertheless is the difference between faith and the other side, the will to receive?

R. Faith is the force of Bina. Sitra Achra, the other side, is the force of Malchut.

28. S. (1:31:15) In the article it says that there is no intermediary state but you said that there is an intermediary state between the Earth and the Sun, the will to bestow and the will to receive. Can you explain?

R. No. I'm sorry these are long stories, very subtle and special, not for now. We will get a little bit more into faith above reason and then we will understand what the force of Bina is, the force of the moon. How it is arranged, the relationship between the Earth and the Sun. What is the birth of the new moon? There are many things there. They are all a copy from spirituality. When we enter spirituality, even to a small extent, we will be able to understand and explain to each other. If not, we will talk about what is happening with all of those things. They're starting to talk now about how the Moon is revolving around the Earth in such a special way and what is happening there. It is full of questions. There are more questions about the moon than about any other celestial body in the universe. You won't find about the stars, Mars, Venus, it doesn't matter where you look, you won't find such questions as you will have about the Moon. There are questions that we are not even aware of, about things that are there and that are happening. We will encounter many interesting and foreign phenomena, strange even, that will all push us more to understand our connection with the rest of the universe. Specifically through the Moon. When we see that the more that we want to get there and settle there, it doesn't quite work. Suddenly we want to take off to Mars and other places. That is not serious. Those are just games. The Moon is our first challenge towards understanding the universe. It will bring us many questions about the spiritual system, spiritual existence.

29. S. (1:35:08) The 10 is asking. Can I praise a friend in the 10 when I see that he has great honor that calms him down and gives him confidence, and then he falls down and becomes more distant?

R. We have to do everything in order to keep a person in the 10 so he won't run away. That is first. Second, you have to connect him as much as possible with the friends, maybe not the entire 10, but to a few friends for certain. Thirdly, you have to try to put him into work in the 10 as much as possible. Then gradually through such actions he will connect to us.

S. How is it possible to use honor in a beneficial way for the friend?

R. Show them honor for doing something for the 10, for the society. That it is well deserved and don't think that you are corrupting them somehow. Show them respect for what they are doing.

S. If there is a desire for honor, how can we replace it with a purposeful desire?

R. This is an extended work to transfer my self-respect to the Creator, but it is possible. The springboard is that I’m respected because I am connected to the Creator. That is why I will receive honor if I will be close to the Creator. It will be my trigger. It drives me to come closer to the Creator, to receive honors. But then when I get closer to Him, the upper light influences me and instead of wanting to receive honor and respect I would like to receive the contents.

S. Is there a state that the 10 falls to honor for other tens?

R. It is possible. I don’t know. Guys, scrutinize those things finally by yourselves.

30. S. (1:37:58) According to the text, at the end of the article, what does it mean that ‘a person by honor he becomes reality in itself?’

R. Because he begins to consider himself, appreciate himself and see himself as greater, more important. That is what is happening to him.

31. S. (1:38:35) It is written ‘very, very’ that he must not receive any honor for himself and the second ‘very’ is even though his intention is not for himself, he's still not supposed to receive. Can you explain this second ‘very?’

R. I need to look after myself so as not to receive any importance to me, although they say things about me and they speak to me. They shouldn't reject, it because that would be a blatant disregard for the one who is turning to me in this way. I have to build a shield, a screen inside of me, so that what they're saying doesn't touch me on the inside. That is what I have to do. Try. Who am I, what am I? It is important for me to appear good toward you, both men and women. I want to break down all the barriers for you to relate to me pleasantly because the wise words are heard pleasantly. You would be able to hear better and absorb what I am trying to convey. I have to act in such a way that you will accept me. That is how we have to do it towards one another. But it has to be purposeful.

32. S. (1:41:06) It is said that the staff of Aaron grew, that all the work he had with the Creator was on the basis of the staff of Aaron?

R. ‘Budded’ in this context means giving good results. When we go in faith above reason. That it is called staff, ‘low in importance.’ If you go this way, then we are rewarded with the fruits of this staff. And you will receive spiritual fruits.

S. What are those fruits and what is this budding in the 10?

R. When we discover the Creator inside the connection of mutual bestowing between us. The results of the good connection between the friends is that we discover the Creator inside this correct connection as a result. In the connection between us, we build such connections that are called a tree of knowledge and the fruit of the tree of knowledge is the Creator that grows in the correct relationship between us.

33. S. (01:42:26) It is written that Moses answered and said they won't believe me, what do the doubts of Moses teach us?

R. Moses speaks of the whole will to receive as the uppermost point but it is important to us not just merely the upper point but the entire will to receive should be correctly impressed. Therefore Moses who his task is to pull the will to receive two the degree Bina, Moses is the point of Malchut tied to Bina otherwise you can't make any corrections in Malchut that is why the fact that you have such a point that connect Malchut and Bina the will to receive with the intention to bestow is called Moses. So he is walking with the staff ahead of the people, ahead of Malchut to take all of them to the degree of Bina. So it turns out that this is his role and this is why he is saying to the Creator they will not believe me because I am connected to Bina from where you start, but how can they do it? The Creator says he will take your staff and you will throw it down and it becomes a snake and if you pick it up and you manage the will to receive it becomes the staff. Meaning if you go lower in importance where the force of reception has to be lower than bestowing this is called faith above reason and you advance correctly and emerge from the corporeal world to the spiritual.

34. S. (01:44:50) That's how he should wash himself from the filth of the Klipa. What does that mean in our work every day?

R. The water means the quality of Bina, and we have to enter this water, the quality of Bina, this means that we enter the Mikvah, the ritual bath. The water in the Mikvah has to be all from the sky, from above, from the heavens, not in our world what we are doing. Rather when we wish to enter under the influence of the upper light to influence us, by that we acquire the force of bestowing and we are able to work with it with our Malchut.

S. So what does it mean in our work to bathe oneself from the filth of the shell?

R. In our work we want the light Bina to come from above and to influence us and in this quality, we will be able to wash ourselves and remove all of the Klipot from the intention in order to receive and to go with what we acquire from Bina, the quality of bestowing. By ourselves we are zero, we receive a little bit from the will to receive when we go to the will to bestow where we receive correction in order to bestow. The will to receive remains and the intention to bestow remains on it. In this way we move in such a burst from the will to receive in order to bestow.

35. S. (01:47:17) What do we correct first, the intention or the perception?

R. Without the right intention you can't have a correct perception that is why the main thing for us is the intention as everything follows the intention. In order to receive the intention or in order to bestow, that's why we always need to check for the correct intention.

36. S. (01:48:01) How can a person check if he's working with Holiness or God forbid the opposite?

R. Only by incorporating in the group and having the upper light influence him.

37. S. (01:52:30) What to do with strong internal resistance when trying to annul yourself to merge with the friends?

R. That is a wonderful thing when a person wants to annul to the friends and he feels how difficult this is for him, he is not allowed to do this, he is not led to do this. It's not that he doesn't want, it is the Creator within him that does not let him have the opportunity to do that thing, to let him annul to the friends. So if a person recalls that both the good and the bad force come from the Creator and all this person needs to do is organize his relations both the good and bad for us not to relate to them, but that they both come from the Creator and that a person has to be incorporated with both of these forces to build Adam that resembles the Creator. You can't have a minor without the plus then you can't have a plus without the minus, they have to be together because we are not the Creator which is totally in order to bestow. We can't be and don't want to be only the receiving force, we should build ourselves from the correct convergence between reception and bestowing this is why only this way we can reach the correction.

38. S. (01:54:24) The struggle within the starting to occupy all my thoughts does it need to be this way?

R. By this way I build myself in the correct way with respect to the upper force, with respect to the Creator and what I need to understand is that whatever I receive within me and around me all comes from the Creator. All I need to do is to organize my relation to all of this that there is none else besides him, the good that does good and how I accept these things as there is none else besides him, the good that does good. If this is how I relate to the entire reality it is a sign that this date that I got from the Creator but I got it and absorbed it in the right way and as a result I have built myself in the right way.

39. S. (01:55:30) Should the inner struggle occupy me all the time? Should it be this way?

R. Actually yes, we don't have practical work beyond joining ourselves together with the friends to such an extent that when we are dealing with the friends, we will start feeling that we are reaching the feeling of the Creator. Where does that come from? Look at the children and the way that they play. In the first year or two of their lives they can't play with other children. Later they start to play with other children. Slowly they enter it where they wanted and that is how we are. We need to start dealing with the connection between us already. Out of that we will also feel how we can in the connection between us start understanding, how to connect to the Creator otherwise what are you coming to the Creator with you don't have the vessel or the feelings or the discernment. Only out of you knowing how to make up the right relations with your friends and it takes many years of this study from that will already know how you can start revealing the Creator, opening him up and understanding this force that created you and the friends and is establishing such relations between you that out of these relations you are capable of understanding who He is. The one who establishes these relationships in the 10 and only this way.

This is why I have no choice. I have to go into a connection with my friends. There are such that have a good feeling for that, they have the subtleness. Let's say that I am very blocked and I don't really feel how they are relating to me, I don't feel how I am relating to them. Great coarseness, what can you do? Both in the absorption and coming out of myself. This is a sign of a big soul. This is why we have to make a bigger effort. What does it mean that from the connection between us to a connection with the Creator? Israel, the light and the Creator are one. Only from the environment from the connection between us do we build the vessel to reveal the Creator. To get to know the Creator in the feeling of the connection with him. That is why this is what is before us with most seriousness, if you want to reach the Creator go ahead, start building 10's, to develop the relations in reason and faith above reason to realize and to implement the articles of Shamati and in general what Baal HaSulam writes in the Matan Torah, Arvut, the articles Rabash about the society. You will see only as much as you learn from the relations between friends in the 10, only from these principles, from the emotion and intellect that you develop within the 10, from that you can reach the revelation of the creator. It took me years to understand this, a few years. It was very difficult because I am a big egoist, it was very difficult for me to reach that. I asked Rabash and he said whatever He gives, He gives you.

You just need to keep on going and that is how you should keep on. You just need to see that the approach to the Creator is through the friends, not because he sets up his condition but because we need to build this inner sense of hours to feel the Creator because he is the inclusive one. We can only build the inner sense by trying to connect to the friends. We can or we can't, as much as we can or not, we're pushed away from it, we are brought closer, all the upper forces. It doesn't matter. I need to maintain me, the group and the Creator. There is no other way and this is how the world is.

40. S. (02:01:56) You spoke about the exercise last week that we should build a prayer with five lines. Three about the friends and two for the Creator. You have to start with the Creator and end with the Creator. How do we build a qualitatively better prayer?
R. That's not what we're speaking about right now. Why are you choosing these questions? Do you have a different question?

41. S. (02:02:27) Because of the control of the Sitra Achra (other side) a person does not go forward because he doesn't have a need for a higher degree. Why does a person not have that need to move forward?

R. His will to receive is constantly stopping him. Telling you, you shouldn't do it it's not worthwhile for you, stay in your current state like a cat, comfortable. That's how a person every moment as he moves forward, he has these places where he stops. This is how he is stepping in the same place.

42. S. (02:03:26) What is the difference between the staff of Moses and the staff of Aaron?
R. The staff of Moses is the staff from a higher place and the staff of Aaron seems to be lower, it is 2 degrees between Malchut and Bina.

43. S. (02:03:51) Is it true work to try and to turn bestowal, that doesn't belong to the perception of this world without knowing it is true bestowal?

R. We need to understand that the still, vegetative and inanimate, are what we feel in our senses in this world don't belong to the correction. The rules of nature need not change. The forces of nature do not need to change. Only the degree of Adam, the human level is changeable. That is why I ate the fruit, that it is old and the world keeps on turning and it is all the same. We have all of these parables. Besides the human, Adam, everything remains the same. What we need to do is only to change our relation, our attitude, not to not be on the level of the beast as we are. As we were born, and this is how we stay. No we need to be on the degree of Adam, the real human level that resembles the Creator, if we stay at our level we are like any other animal if we try to resemble the Creator, we are coming closer to the degree of Adam that resembles the Creator. Until we start going into the conception, the Ibur, and from then on, we start growing. This is called to get an Adam from within us as much as we annul our ego, the egoistic form and how much we are willing to take upon ourselves the form that resembles the creator. Meaning instead of the forces of reception, forces of bestowal until we get in shape that resembles the Creator. Relatively small but still it is called Adam or the Neshama, soul. Even though from within this Adam, the desires are to receive otherwise it would be the Creator, but he is the created being. He is in the will to receive but the shape of connection between them and outside of them is felt as one thing in him. It all resembles the Creator and then in this way this Adam becomes a spiritual Adam.

44. S. (02:06:57) What does it mean for the benefit of the 10 that each one thinks differently?
R. Of course they think differently. You probably know how the organs work in our body. There is a resemblance between the way the heart and the brain, the liver and the lungs work, but they resemble themselves? Of course not, but they know how to be in the interaction, in the correct internal connection between each other and the right extent of connection between all of the internal organs in the body gives us the extent of the health of the body. That is why this is what we need for each one to remain the same. but only by how much we will be corrected. To the extent that he is connected to others and we are all connected in a way that we are all one healthy body This healthy body will feel that he has one force, clothing and running it. That will be the Creator, the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.

45. S. (02:08:24) The opening of the lesson you said the world is an illusion it exists in our imagination. Does this mean that my ego does not exist in any way shape or form?

R. Nothing to do, it is written in a simple way, punch him in his teeth, blunt his teeth it is very simple. Even though he doesn't let you do anything, be wiser and more cunning and try to manipulate it in a way it will give you until it becomes an aide against it and help you attain the Creator.

46. S. (02:09:10) How to determine who is a friend in the 10 and who is not?

R. To begin with we should accept everyone in the 10 as a friend. We have to accept the entire humanity as a group. The fact is, in the meantime we are incapable because of our weakness but the truth, in the final correction we will all connect to Guf, the body of Adam HaRishon. Each and every one will take care and be concerned about the general vessel of Adam HaRishon and we will all be connected both in thought and desire and action. Each one will function according to what he is capable of but for the sake of the general body, the whole body.

47. S. (02:10:15) What protects us from receiving honors?

R. That is a problem but we need to think more, not to erase the honor because whatever the Creator created, we just need to give it the correct expression. I should have honor. To be in bestowal from doing the Creator's work, from wanting to correct the world, that is called that the heart grows higher in the degree of the Creator, that the heart is higher meaning it is pride. The heart is all my desire when we are proud about doing the work of bestowal that they are going towards the correction of the world.

48. S. (02:11:26) How not to slack even for a minute?

R. That all depends on the spirit of the group, that in the group, there are friends and each one should feel that the group is maintaining the general spirit that maintains him.

S. Is it correct to enjoy self-annulment?

R. Of course it is. I have seen this Rabash how he annulled himself in very difficult states but he wouldn't let himself have any weakness. If he was capable, he would cancel himself in everything of himself especially when he was able to help his students and friends, he would jump on it with his eyes on fire that he can do something for the sake of someone else.

R. We went over this article of the staff and the serpent with you and now what I am asking is for it to be read again and throughout the day we're going to go over this article again and we're not touching any other articles even though according to your plans you were supposed to do something else. Read only this article until tomorrow and tomorrow we're going to come back to it under the condition that you repeat it three or four more times except what we are reading now and that way we will be able to somehow see the article before our eyes.

Shamati 59 (02:14:00)

49. R. (02:30:36) I'm willing to answer whatever questions you have after you go through the article during the day as long as they are serious questions if you want to come out of Egypt and rise from our world to the upper world, the spiritual world, this is the article that will bring us there. This is why it is also written about in the Torah that Moses and Aaron, they bring out all of these egoistic qualities of the person from the control of the ego to in order to bestow this is what it is about. Only about Moses, the force that pulls us, by this we can do it, so try and do this until tomorrow make an effort.

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