Morning Lesson November 11, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 57. Will Bring Him as a Burnt Offering to His Will
1. Rav’s Introduction: In this article, you will Bring Him as a Burnt Offering to His Will or You will bring Him Closer to His Will. How can it be that we have no desire and we will receive a desire, how will we bring ourselves closer to the right desire, how does the Creator help us in that? Because the desires are in His hands, not in our hands. Let’s see what he says about it and also how we can increase our desire. Why do we have to receive our desire before we get contact with the Creator in each and every stage and also why is it that we get desires and thoughts that are bad, that are opposite, what is the benefit of that? That seemingly the Creator is proud He says I created the evil inclination. Let's see that from the article.
Shamati article 57. (01:54) “Will bring Him as a Burnt Offering to his Will”
2. R. (02:38) If to begin with the Creator wants something, why did He create the created beings in order to fill them up with all the abundance and raise them to his degree? Because it is the nature of good to do good. Why does He do all kinds of bad things to us, so that we will ask of Him to invert them, to elevate us to a degree where we will be able to receive all the abundance from Him.
Reader continues: (03:10) “It is known that in order….”
3. R. (03:20) What for, why should we proceed with a desire from below so that we will cry out and want and maybe with a special kind of an outcry, with a special desire for a special fulfillment why do we have to be in that? If in this world we feel that this is happening well it happens but if we're dealing with the Creator so that everything is in his hands, why do we have to proceed with our desire in order to get something with Him?
Reader continues: (03:56) “We must understand why…”
4. R. (04:34) That is we need to show our desire for contact with the Creator, for an appeal to the Creator, to awaken Him so that He will come closer to us, He will pay attention to us, He will turn to us. Seemingly we have to do all of this with all of these things that we lack in order to be in tight contact with the Creator. By that we need to be those who begin, those who awaken. Even with a desire that we don't have, let there be a desire. And for the desire to be from the side of the Creator, we also pray that there will be a desire up above, these things are not so clear.
Reader continues (05:34) “Even though above there is….”
5. R. (06:27) This is already a partial answer that the fact that we pray that “May You have a desire”, we ask of the Creator “May You have a desire.” By this we actually develop our desire both in quantity and quality, and each and every kind and also under which conditions so that when we turn to Him, by that we actually establish ourselves. And it may be that this is why He is not answering us until we establish ourselves in quantity and quality that are suitable for that abundance that He wants to bring us.
Reader continues (07:12) “At the same time we must say…”
6. S. (11:58) What is this prayer, that there be a desire above that we'll create our desire so it is real, if from above there's always the desire to delight the Created beings?
R. He explains to us that up above there is a general desire but if you want to enter a direct connection with the Creator, then you need to evoke Him to such a connection. Therefore it is upon you to turn to him to pray to ask.
7. S. (12:45) Why is it written that the Creator does everything but the Creator needs an awakening from below?
R. The Creator needs an awakening from below because the general desire is to bestow to the created beings. This is why He created everything, the whole of nature and us with all the elements we have in us, everything besides one thing, that He leaves to us the ability to awaken Him from below. To turn to Him and to persuade Him to be in contact with us and to bestow to us so that we will advance until we will become like Him. This is why what pertains to us, is only to ask.
8. S. (13:52) How do we convince Him to be in contact with us and correct us?
R. It's very simple, and many articles talk about it, that in order to resemble the Creator you need to be connected with the friends. Because the Creator is the Keter of the degree so you need to be incorporated in a group which all of it, all of it as much as possible, becomes solidified, connected and it turns to Him. It turns to the force of connection and this is how we come closer. This is how we persuade the Creator. We persuade the Creator that He should help us, He should take care of us. If we cannot persuade Him, it is a sign that we don't want it.
S. What is it that we want to receive?
R. We want to come into contact with Him, we want to receive filling from Him, the filling in our heart, the filling in our brain.
S. In what way is this expressed, what is this connection? How is it expressed? Let’s say that he shows a desire as he writes in the article, desires that are opposite from the Creator and purity. I don't ask the Creator to take them away or to remove them. What do I ask, how does He answer, what's the result?
R. This is something that you need to talk and think about, what should you ask the Creator or what it is you want to get from Him? What changes would you like that whatever you get will affect changes in you may be in correcting your desires and in your thoughts, maybe in the fulfillment for your desires and your thoughts and more, you need to know that. You have before you some supermarket everything is in it, in that shop, so go in there and take whatever you want. This is really, but you need to scrutinize what should I be focused on in order to receive from the Creator the most important thing for me.
9. S. (16:43) In such a case how do we pray for the Creator to cancel our correction as our sages said and that after your brother got a blow, what does it mean that after your brother gets a blow, he is lowered?
R. No, we can't scrutinize some small part of what is written here, it will always confuse us. You can't take half a sentence here and make of it a complete theory. A theological, some ideology or something later on it always ends up, it's revealed as something that was incorrect and harmful, so you need to look at the thing in whole. Soon we will read it again and it will be more clear and if not then you should ask.
10. S. (17:55) It is written here, we are given bad thoughts and desires that distance us from the work of the Creator, who is this we have?
R. We are those who want to get closer to the Creator.
11. S. (18:22) It is written here that we have to regret bad deeds and yet we must not regret or justify the judgment and then it says we have to regret Him not allowing us to do good deeds so what should we do, this or that, regret, not regret?
R. On the one hand we do need to regret it, on the other hand we should be happy that the Creator is giving us, by not giving us. That the Creator by not giving us what we need He is actually inviting us to develop a connection with Him to reach His degree. Understanding Him coming closer to Him and to be such that we do persuade Him and that he will take care of us properly. This is called, my sons have defeated me. He wants us to ask for the right things for our development so that we can become like Him.
S. Is it correct that when we scrutinize our intentions and actions, we should hold both directions so it will be complete?
R. Yes that is correct we can't just go to one extreme and one end without the other end.
12. S. (20:16) He says in the article that the vessels that will receive the Torah through the path of Torah will be broader. Why will they become broader than through the path of suffering?
R. Because we begin to feel more. What exactly does the Creator want to give us and He wants to give it to us according to the equivalence of form so we have to add to our egoistic desire corrections. That by these corrections we enlarge the vessels, we don't just want to receive, we want to bestow through our reception and this is considered that the vessels become broader. That I take the Creator into account, what can I give Him, what can I do for Him? This is why I open up my vessels I am therefore working on two vessels. My deficiency that remains, nevertheless the Aviut the coarseness is not becoming refined it doesn't disappear but also the Creator's desire that He wants to bestow. Also my desire that I want to bestow to the Creator and then he is ready, willing to receive from me. That is we have here as it is called, 620 times more what we say about the desire of the created beings that receives an amplification 620 times more. Therefore we discern instead of the light of Ein Sof that we are in it now but it is so small that we cannot discover it, but when we arrange ourselves correctly then we start to discover that light shines according to our work according to our lack.
13. S. (22:21) My restlessness, does it mean that there is something in the created being besides the fear of the Creator? How does it help us resemble him and approach Him?
R. If we advance correctly then we'll understand precisely what we are missing in our connection with the Creator. And how do we begin from fear and all the degrees of fear we later reach bestowal and love.
14. S. (23:15) How should we create a common awakening between friends in the group so our desires are the same as the Creator's desires?
R. That is true, that is as much as we are in a common awakening then we have a certain congruence to the Creator. So how do we create that no awakening? Through despair in trying to arrange everything on behalf of each one. Then one starts to understand that he can get closer to the Creator only out of connection with the friends. This is called from the love of people to the love of the Creator this is how we advance. We have no choice but only in such a way because on the way you have to relinquish your will to receive you have to relinquish yourself. You have to incorporate with others, you have to take on a second nature and short this is what you have to do. In that second nature you organize it for the time being, how do you get it by restricting everything you have in your first nature and allowing the upper force, the force of the light to influence you bestowed to you and take care of you. This is how it works.
15. S. (25:06) It is written that the Creator awaits our prayer. Does that mean we have any choice?
R. No, the Creator arranges all kinds of suffering for us on our level, our beastly level, the present level, by which he actually advances us to the questions of what I am living for, what's the reason for my life, etc. We cannot stay as we are now. Each and every time each and every moment, we need to have an answer for the question of what I am living for until we reach the true and essential questions and also the answers to them.
16. S. (26:20) Why is a punishment called correction?
R. The correction is a correction either through punishments, which means it comes to us from above, or it is through limiting our desires through our prayer from below.
S. Is there such a thing as a group punishment, a group correction of the ten?
R. Yes, that may also happen. As much as they become connected, they start to connect together and to that extent they can start to raise their request to the Creator out of the connection between them. This is the most beneficial thing and this is called a public prayer.
17. S. (27:26) What does it mean to evoke trouble like it says in the article? How do we do this in the ten?
R. We can ask from the Creator when we have a certain connection between us. It’s not clear to us how to continue with that and how to connect and unite ourselves more and more. The revelation of the Creator is according to the intensity of the connection between the friends in the ten. So how can we do it? We are asking that He will explain to us what else we have to do in order to connect more. We attain Him in that form of connection on the degrees of NRNHY.
18. S. (28:46) He writes in the beginning of the article that he is coerced until he says, ‘I want.’” If the Creator gives us the bad thoughts so we will ask of Him, what does it mean to precede our request from below?
R. We need to search for what we are lacking in order to be closer to the Creator. What are we missing? If we scrutinize what's missing then we ask Him to give it to us because everything comes from Him. If we don't know what's missing then we ask Him to explain to us what it is we are missing. This is called the prayer before the prayer. That is, give us a deficiency so that we know what to ask for.
S. Do we need to ask Him every time?
R. We have to turn to the Creator even if we have no request so that by asking, we will have a request.
S. Is this in order to awaken our desires with more scrutiny?
R. Yes, that is correct.
19. S. (30:20) What are the vessels that are called equivalence of form?
R. The vessels that are in the equivalence of form are the desires that are in order to bestow. They are in equivalence of form with the Creator who is entirely bestowing. The desires that are corrected and aimed so that they want to bestow in order to bestow or to receive an order to bestow are corrected vessels either on the degree of Bina, which is to bestow in order to bestow, or on the degree of Keter, which is to receive in order to bestow.
20. S. (31:27) Is it correct to say that there is no punishment? A friend says that troubles are gifts to accelerate our direction towards the Creator.
R. We will scrutinize whether he's right or not along the way. What can we talk about if we don't feel like that?
21. S. (32:11) We always ask to move from love of friends to love of the Creator. What is love?
R. Love is complete bestowal in a complete connection.
22. S. (32:42) Should we pray to receive the right desire or the right intention?
R. Both the intention and the desire and the action, everything that we want to change. Everything we want to attain in spirituality is attained only through a request which we call a prayer.
23. S. (35:16) What does it mean that the Creator first ignites the desire and then after some time He puts it out, quenches it?
R. He turns on the desire meaning He reveals the deficiency to you and then later on He turns it off. He doesn't turn it off but rather He hides Himself a little so that you will ask for His revelation in some form: a new desire, a new intention, coming closer, annulling your ego, connecting with the others, and so on. His whole concealment is in order to invite you. This is called ‘my beloved is like a gazelle.’ As the gazelle runs away, he turns his head back in order to see how he is distancing from the one who wants to chase after him. So it is with the Creator. He is moving away from us but He checks each time whether this distancing is not too much, as it has to match our ability to turn to Him.
24. S. (34:38) What is the prayer of the righteous?
R. First of all, the prayer of the righteous is to justify the Creator's actions, meaning for all the states that we go through because our states are the actions of the Creator. We want to be in the state where whatever the Creator does, I consider it all to be good. I can turn to Him from here and ask for something else, even for my corrections. If everything that He does is for the better, what do I lack? What I lack is only to correct myself in order to accept this whole benefit.
25. S. (35:35) How to turn the punishment into correction?
R. Through our attitude. There are no punishments, there are only corrections. This is why if we understand that if we change our attitude then we accept it as corrections. Instead of crying we are grateful for it.
26. S. (36:20) It is written that the punishment is a correction. So why do we pray for the Creator to cancel our corrections? What does it mean that your brother is flawed before you?
R. That instead of feeling punishment I want to feel a correction. This is why I turn to the Creator to open up my eyes so that I can see I am getting corrections now and not punishments. So that instead of complaining I will give Him gratitude for performing these corrections over me. It's really like the way the mother wants to punish the baby. The baby stays as he is on his own and so she has to amplify the suffering out of lack of choice because otherwise the baby may do something to harm himself. We, likewise, need to understand that the Creator is the Good That Does Good, and is always doing good things for us. If I want to attain the good each time, then I have to obtain a correction over my will to receive. If I feel bad in my world about something it's a sign that the Creator wasn't able to give me better things because I'm in my ego, in my will to receive. This is why I need to ask for corrections for my vessel until I will start to feel in my vessel that the Creator fills everything. He feels my entire vessel. This is considered that I have corrected myself for the time being. A greater vessel will be opened later on and there will be additional problems and all kinds of corruptions and I will have to ask for corrections for those as well. This is how it is degree after degree. Left, right, left, right.
27. S. (39:08) It says that it's not enough that he has a desire but there has to be good will from the side of the Giver as well. Does it mean that the Creator can have good desires and bad desires?
R. The Creator always has good desires but according to the correction of my vessel I feel them as good or bad. If I feel bad it's a sign that I have something to correct until I feel good. This is how it works, very simple. The whole problem is not to fall under the feeling but to be in the feeling with understanding. So I will control the situation and ask for corrections when I feel bad. I do not ask for corrections to feel good but in order to come closer to the Creator and to bring Him contentment. I respect my bad feeling because it helps me see where I am. This is why we have to bless for the bad as for the good, and even more. We bless for the good when we are thankful for the good because it helps us be balanced in every state and advance towards the Creator. This is why the Creator says, ‘I have created the evil inclination,’ I have given you the possibility to advance and reach adhesion with me.
28. S. (41:02) The article says that the Creator can later on give the abundance if there is a vessel that is fit to receive the abundance. What is the abundance that the Creator wants to give us?
R. According to the will of the vessel. I don't even know. It is something that fills all of the will to receive, all of the thoughts in order to bestow. It is everything that the Creator dedicated to creation. I have no idea what it is. It's the filling of the final correction of the whole will to receive that the Creator created is corrected in order to bestow, it is in adhesion with the Creator and receives all the filling that exists in the Creator. The Creator will be clothed in the created beings and become one created being which is called Adam.
29. S. (42:06) I heard that there is no coercion in spirituality but the article says that he was coerced until he said, ‘I want’. Can you explain this?
R. There is no coercion in spirituality but in corporeality, meaning in our desires, which are in order to receive, of course there is coercion. Of course the Creator forces it until he says, ‘I want.’ To the extent that he says, ‘I want’ in a spiritual desire,’ there is no coercion. This is the meaning of there is no coercion in spirituality
30. S. (42:56) Our desires to discover the Creator and want to have a relationship with Him all comes from the Creator. He does everything. Is our free choice only to ask correctly?
R. Yes, exactly that. Our free choice is to turn to the Creator and ask of Him. This is what man was given to do and by this we correct our relation to the Creator, from our ego to giving like Him. We become in equivalence of form with Him. He wants to give us and we want to give to Him and in this mutual way we come to be Adam, Domeh, similar to the Creator.
31. S. (43:54) Why do we keep getting punishments, that is, corrections, when we make efforts in our prayer?
R. It's in order to correct us more and more, to make a more precise correction. It's like a missile that needs to constantly move itself to check itself with relation to the target as it flies. It can't fly straight because then it will not feel it's deviation. It feels itself only if it turns itself a little bit away from the right direction more and more. When it constantly checks itself with respect to its deviations this way, the deviations themselves help the missile or a person maintain the right direction. This is why it is written that a righteous will fall and rise a thousand times. If we don't feel every moment that we are falling, confused, or deflecting, we cannot accordingly correct our direction towards the goal.
32. S. (45:30) How can we stop relating to lack of reception as suffering?
R. It is through connecting with the group. We have to help each other. We have to feel that the group is in a boat, and the well-being of the boat is achieving the common goal. This is more important to us than anything personal in each of us and by this we advance quickly, correctly, achieve everything.
33. S. (46:17) Why are there people who are rewarded with advancing on the path of Torah while others are advancing through suffering? Why does the Creator promote people differently?
R. That's incorrect. First of all, there's not a righteous man on earth who does good who did not sin. It's incorrect, everyone makes mistakes. Look at what Kabbalists write. How do they know it? It is written this way in the books because everyone felt these things in their own heads, on their own backs, and that's how they advanced. So don't think that there are those who are like princes who advance beautifully, nicely and smoothly. On the contrary, you can see here and there in the sources about the difficult lives of Moses, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Shimon, etc. All of them worked hard and they suffered. Rabash told me a little bit about his life. I saw that I wouldn't be able to tolerate the kind of life that he had and what he endured. I was given this life, with completely different conditions, according to the decline of the generation. We're getting different conditions. Previously people had nowhere to live, they lived under the tree with their family. If they had a canopy, that was something. They were not sure in the morning if they would have something to eat in the evening. There was no certainty. What's happening today is called the decline of the generations. Our generation has to be given it but accordingly it needs to scrutinize more substantial and essential questions.
34. S. (49:08) How will we establish ourselves in quality and quantity that are suitable for the abundance that the Creator wants to give us?
R. This happens precisely through the problems that we constantly have to locate, problems that fall on us, or that we ourselves want to approach, detect, connect, establish and accept. Yes. There's no problem with this. We are receiving everything according to our vessels.
35. S. (50:23) Just to be precise is the essence of the work to be able to ask correctly?
R. There is a possibility for a very strong egoistic desire to awaken, and it may be possible to bring it down through an even stronger egoistic desire but you didn't correct yourself by this. If there is a specific desire which you don't want to control you under any condition, then you come to a different desire, but that's not a correction. A correction means that you simply run to the group with your corrupted desire that you cannot work with. When you get in the group you do whatever they want. You can confuse yourself in matters of the group. This is the most correct correction.
S. We run to the group, to connection, but we see the Creator does not retreat and He deliberately pressures you more and more with these desires. It is not clear how the Creator wants us to use these desires.
R. Raise your incorporation in the group above everything. You need to demand of the Creator to be revealed in the group. Achieving correction in the group and attainment of the Creator in the group and will cover the whole world, your entire horizon. This is what you need to do. You can turn to the friends and say, ‘Guys, I'm in a state where I desperately need to have a united thought and desire so I'm asking to unite. Let's adapt and adjust ourselves to each other more and more because otherwise I see that this stream comes like a river current and it pulls me out.’
S. Along with that I see that there will be no progress without this stream, this current. It seems like they won't want to go there because otherwise there will be no room for work.
R. When you're given work, do you do it? Of course, we have to be thankful for the bad as well as the good and to use both these forces, both of these sides, the right and the left correctly. We don't want to cancel the left, we want to use it correctly.
36. S. (54:18) The final correction is a necessary condition in order for us to feel the upper abundance, or can we feel the upper abundance partially along the way?
R. I did not understand the question.
S. Is the final correction a necessary condition in order for us to receive the abundance from the upper one?
R. Yes. We can't correct the vessel without receiving all the lights, and states of the correction of the vessel. Without receiving in the corrected vessel all the fillings, without it there will not be the final correction - the end of correction. If I understood what you are asking correctly.
S. Is it possible to feel it gradually? Is it possible to feel the upper abundance before the final correction - before the complete correction, can we feel it partially?
R. We feel partially, according to our correction. We feel the upper abundance partially according to our correction during the 125 degrees, and in each degree, you have another 5 degrees, and another 5 degrees. Yes, this is how we advance.
37. S. (56:24) Maybe the only punishment that the Creator gives us is disconnection from the ten in our emotion and our mind? About this article and your explanations, how do we reach the point where this disconnection from the ten I start feeling is a great danger?
R. Only through work in the group. If the friends also think that any movement from connection among you is dangerous, stops you, throws you off, etc., if you think this way, at least the majority of the group by this you are already keeping yourself advancing only forward and correctly.
38. S. (57:40) He is coerced until he says I want. How does this action happen inside of the ten?
R. If it's truly a ten, if it truly already wants to be constantly connected and wants to feel the relation from the Creator in a common way among them within them, this is a great thing. Then, they need to constantly maintain the connection between them. Out of the connection between them to constantly direct themselves towards the Creator, from within the connection, from within their circle, at the center of their circle, to be directed to the Creator and constantly maintain the connection, the center of the connection and the Creator. It has to be perpetual work, non-stop, because every moment as the moment passes it is considered that there is a new desire. With the new desire they have to check the connection again, and again at the center, and again from the center together to the Creator. In this way, their boat is aiming directly at the purpose of creation.
39. S. (59:26) Sometimes the desire doesn't let go of you. An addition of the greatness of the Creator in each and every state that He created the way I feel it doesn't that help? Because the will to receive doesn't really care about it?
R. But how do we increase the greatness of the Creator every time? By revealing all the disturbances, personal and in general, in the society, and asking for the possibility to rise above them, meaning we elevate ourselves higher than the disturbances. This is called ‘’ love will cover all crimes,’’ the connection between us to be all above all the disturbances. In this way, we rise, we elevate ourselves more and more, and more. There are desires, let us say five desires, so we should unite above those five desires, and this is called rising, and rising more and more. In this way, the connection between us constantly increases, intensify.
40. S. (01:00:56) There is the example of the great Kabbalists you gave us, and that example tells us that you cannot run away from corporeal suffering. So what should we learn from that example? How to turn corporeal suffering into torments of love?
R. We are in such a development, in such a period, in the evolution of humanity that we don't need to go through physical problems, material ones, no. Rather, all our problems should be much higher, ideological, about the correction of the vessel in intention. The previous generations scrutinized more of the material states. They had problems with food, other such things, we don't. If we, especially, if we maintain our direction of how to advance, we will have no material problem. But rather, all the problems will be, there will be problems of course, but they will be ideological problems, meaning in the intention in the relationship between us. That's the way it is, this is what will happen.
41. S. (01:02:36) How do we awaken within us joy in the work between us?
R. Joy, gladness, is a result of good deeds. If we try to do good deeds, we will have gladness, joy, true gladness.
42. S. (01:03:02) Can you explain what the doors of the final correction are?
R. The gates for the end of correction. A gate means that every time we overcome disturbances and ask the Creator to connect above the disturbances, all those disturbances become the substance of the connection. Everything that rejected us, that repelled us from spirituality, from the Creator, from the intention to bestow, becomes a glue for the Creator, an adhesive for the road between us. That is how we advance.
43. S. (01:04:06) There is an impression that all corrections and abundance are only created for me, and I am the center of all of creation. What is this impression and is that a true impression?
R. It is true that every person must say the whole world was created for me, it's written this way. Moreover, he has to say it, not only can but has to. What he does in the vessel of Adam HaRishon, in the correction of the vessel, no one else can do it instead of him. This is why we should do all of the personal work of each of us in connecting in the ten. We have no personal corrections, I don't correct myself. Tell me, in what can I correct myself, what is there in me that I need to correct? There is nothing in me that I can correct, only my connection with others. According to this, I correct myself. I am a particular Sefira in the ten Sefirot of the soul. So according to what is in me, I have to establish, fix my connection with the others, with all the others. This is how I correct myself, I have nothing else to do. This is why ‘’love your neighbor as yourself’’ is the great rule of the Torah. There is something to correct in this, and if you find within yourselves all kinds of qualities, traits that are uncorrected, it is nonsense. Drop it. Only the corrupted connection should be corrected, and this is all of our work. That is it. If a person looks at himself, what he should correct according to his own intellect and feeling, it is a lie, it is a mistake. Only the connection between us, there we need correction. Then, out of this correction, we reveal the Creator in each and every ten, and between the tens, until the final general end of correction.
S. Inside the ten, outside the ten, it seems like all of the people, all of my 10, outside of me, have some sort of inner language, that inner communication, but I am the only one who is outside of that. Everybody is acting the same as a robot, like angels, and they can understand each other, but I am the only one who is outside of it. How to work on this?
R. Try to cling to them and do everything you can to be connected to them. When it seems to you like they all are behaving correctly and only you are not, this is great, this is beautiful. Every person should have this perspective. Then, you begin to see that you are corrupted, you are the wicked one. Great, because it is true that besides you everyone is already at the end of correction. The fact that you see them as corrupted, you see it in your own vessels which are corrupted, and the minute that you correct them, you will see them as corrected. That's it. This is why, besides yourself toward the ten, you have nothing to correct. Don't correct yourself alone, but only in your connection with the ten. Everything else, delete. It is philosophy, it is psychology, it is nonsense, correcting all the qualities, etc. Only the connection with others.
44. S. (01:09:20) I feel that when a good feeling comes in the ten, with that exactly come alien thoughts. I do want to aspire for a good feeling, so how is it possible to avoid the alien thoughts and stay only with the good feeling?
R. A person should be thankful for the bad as for the good, and you are asking us how to avoid bad thoughts. You have to be thankful for them. Are you listening? So first of all, think why and answer yourself, and you will see that your approach needs to be different.
45. S. (01:10:19) What is in the prayer that actually specifically qualifies the vessel?
R. A prayer means raising MAN, raising the deficiency to the Creator to correct you. There is indeed no other action that can correct you, this is why the prayer is so important.
S. But the prayer it's not the words that I speak, it's not the deeds that I do. There is something very special about it, you have to calibrate yourself in a certain way. I feel that I'm only asking, only asking, in the prayer about myself to receive. So how do I change this paradigm, this perception?
R. I don't know what is happening to you, but I know in the prayer we have to ask for help from above to correct ourselves so as to be more bestowing. This is what we need, to bestow instead of receiving. Then, to the extent that I connect to the friends, I see that it is a result of the prayer that I connect with all the friends. When I connect to the friends, that too is a result of the prayer. That is it. So don't be confused, check yourself.
46. S. (01:11:59) You now said that we have to bless over the bad as over the good. This is indeed the approach that we learned in many articles. However, here in the article the approach seems to be a little bit different, maybe very different. Baal HaSulam says we need to regret the fact that we have bad deeds or bad feelings even though it does extend from above. The mind asserts that we should not regret, we should justify the judgment, but nevertheless we need to ask for it to change. How did these two approaches coincide?
R. Those two approaches connect together beautifully, that although all my failures, all the bad things that exist in me, all come from above from the Creator, as it says ‘’I have created evil inclination.’’ I still have to regret that the Creator created in me all these bad desires, and at the same time, on the other hand, I have to justify Him and bless Him, thank Him for creating bad things in me, because then I have some connection with Him at least for the bad. Because otherwise, I would have no connection. Then, I can ask, demand to cling to Him, to adhere to Him with requests to correct me. I kind of grab Him like a child grabs a grown up by the clothes and demands of Him to correct me. So ‘’I have created the evil inclination, I have created the Torah as a spice,’’ etc., because without our evil inclination, we would have no contact with the Creator. Just imagine that you had no evil inclination, how would you approach the Creator, with what? This is why we don't ask to disconnect the evil inclination, to erase it, to revoke it. No. We only want to correct it. So to the extent that we correct it, the good inclination grows in us - the right line. The left line - the evil inclination, should also remain. I need it in order to nevertheless keep me constantly in the right direction. This is how I walk on two legs. I always need to see the left line as renewing, ‘’they will be as new in your eyes.’’
47. S. (01:14:51) Towards the beginning of the article, it says something that I do not understand. It says we are not permitted to do good, can you explain that?
R. I did not understand. Where are you? We are not permitted to do good?
S. Yes, towards the beginning of the text.
R. I can't find something in the beginning of the article. The words, I do not see them here.
S. Okay, I will try to find it.
R. Find it and turn to someone who knows this language.
48. S. (01:16:04) When can a 10 know that they are ready for the work in feeling and understanding?
R. Every moment, every moment without this you have nothing. We go through many states until we start hearing that the connection in the 10 is basically the point that we have to care about all the time. If we will be connected in the group even 2 or 5, doesn't matter how many. Then in this mutual annulment towards each other we build the spiritual desire and then can reveal the Creator to a certain extent. If we do not have annulment towards the others, is it desirable that we have at least 9 and a 10 but at least two people that annul to each other we won’t have a vessel to advance towards the Creator. Because all the correction is the correction of the shattering of the Adam HaRishon.
S. In the exits and the entrances in the 10 is that also the work or the work is already being connected?
R. No there is no such thing, we always have entrances and exits and entrances and exits, you have towards forcefully enter the connection between us. Once you do something you are thrown out because the records come up and give us the conditions to connect.
S. Is our true work in front of the Creator that we have to pray and you ask to give gratitude or the actual work that we constantly have entrances and exits and we work with that?
R. Our work is always to be connected upon all the disturbances, all the changing conditions to always be connected.
49. S. (01:18:35) Can you explain what other vessels of the final correction?
R. The vessels of the final correction are when all of us discover all the disturbances, all the corruptions in us and we are drawn towards the connection between us with all the strength above the disturbances and corruptions. That is the vessel in which we can locate the coarseness meaning the rejection, the cruelty, each one's desire to kill each other on the one hand. On the other hand above that we perform a connection in this feeling of disconnection above the feeling of hatred, above it. Love covers all crimes, we cover it with love and this is considered that we all cover it with restriction, screen and reflected light and that is all we build a vessel, the Partzuf.
50. S. (01:20:04) I found the place, I will read the line, it says that we must regret not being permitted to do good deeds. It is hard for me to understand this.
R. Yes, we must regret not being able to do good deeds and that is why we raised this deficiency upwards and we are asking for strength and we get this strength to do good deeds and to connect
S. But it says that we are not permitted to do good deeds, that is why I was confused.
R. That is for us to truly ask correctly.
51. S. (01:21:21) What is the final correction, does it end all the corrections?
R. Of course, there is an end to the correction because the light that created the vessel created it in a certain way when we see the root 1 2 3 4 or 0 1 2 3 4 degrees of coarseness meaning 5 degrees all in all. Each one divides into 5 and 5 more. All in all 125° so there's a beginning and there is an and then that is why we talked about six thousand years. Meaning this is how we should correct ourselves.
52. S. (01:22:26) Why should we awaken the desire above if more than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to give milk?
R. We will not get from above help without us asking. All we will get from above is trouble until we ask. Because the Creator wants us to participate with him, take part like partners in the correction.
53. S. (01:23:05) If it is written that the prayer corrects man more, even more than punishment and that is the reason that when you pray instead of a punishment so you take the suffering away and pray instead for him to correct us. How do you pray instead of the punishment?
R. I can't tell you. Think according to what we said, if we are asking with every state we get of lack, of adhesion we are asking for adhesion between us and from us to the Creator and if we are asking that means that is a prayer and we do not need punishment. But if we discover as soon as possible, we discover requests for correction, we do not need these harsh states. With each and everyday detail if I'm sensitive enough I can correct, ask for correction and then I will never reach true blows.
54. S. (01:24:34) Is the desire for unity my desire or the desire of the 10?
R. It should be a mutual desire in the 10.
55. S. (01:24:55) Is it true that all the deficiency that we feel is the basis for the vessel and the prayer is the trigger for the Creator to answer our pleas?
R. Yes, I see that the question has started to be more superficial. It is as if it is obvious that we are waiting for the answer of yes.
56. S. (01:25:28) What is the connection between recognizing we are completely dependent of the quality of unity and the prayer?
R. Okay we're going to stop here. I'm asking next time to be more serious in your questions. It is all clear to us from the article itself. So these are all the rhetoric questions. They do not require an answer. That is what I feel in them.
57. R. (01:26:05) I will read the article again if there are true questions then we will take a few questions.
Rav reads Shamati 57 “we will bring him as a burnt offering through his will, our sages said how so and they got an answer, he is coerced until he says I want. Meaning how do we reach the correct desire by all the time being bent more and more, that is how we come to the right form of desire. This is called to bring him as a burnt offering to his will, meaning he brings them closer to the right desire we must also understand when we pray let there be a will and some other thing. Meaning what am I asking for since more than the calf wants to eat the calf wants to feed. So why do we need to pray that there will be a will above. If the Creator wants to give more than even more than we want to receive, why do we need to pray for him to give? Maybe we should ask for something else. It is known that in order to extend abundance from above one must proceed the awakening from below. But he wants to give, why should I come first and ask why do you need to proceed with the awakening from below? We must understand why we need an awakening from below, because of this we pray there will be a will above. Meaning we need to evoke a desire from above to administer below it is not enough that we have a desire but there has to be a good will on the part of the giver too. That we have to, even though he wants to give we have to evoke him to give without this he won’t give.
Even though he wants and above there is a general desire to do good to his creations, he still waits for our desire to awaken his desire. Meaning if we are not able to awaken his desire it means that the desire on the part of the receiver is still incomplete. Precisely by praying that there will be a will above our desires made to be a genuine desire, to be a vessel to receive the abundance. At the same time we must say that all that we do, both bad and good, everything extends from above which is meaning the of private Providence. Then in us there are no actions we get everything from above. Meaning if something depends on us is how we respond to everything that we go through in life, only to respond. It also written to us how we should respond. That the Creator does everything yet at the same time we must regret the bad deeds though it too extends from above. The mind asserts that we must not regret but justify the judgment that the bad deeds come to us. It is to the contrary, we must regret not being permitted to do good deeds, that is what we should be sorry about which is certainly a result of punishment. Meaning that we are not worthy of serving the King. If everything is guided, how can we say that we are not worthy since there's no action below.
For this purpose we are given bad thoughts and desires that distance us from the work of the Creator, that we are not worthy of serving him, the Creator. For this reason there's a prayer for this. This is the place of correction to be worthy of and capable of receiving the work of the king. We can see why there is a prayer for some trouble since the trouble came as some punishment from above. Punishments must be corrections since there is a rule that punishment is a correction. That's why we pray to the Creator to cancel our corrections. The sages said about the verse your brother to be dishonored before your eyes. The beaten is your brother. We know that in humanity there is this method, how to suffer more as though these tournaments cleanse a person and correct a person. That is incorrect, it doesn't go according to the wisdom of Kabbalah. We must know that the prayer corrects a person even more than punishment.
That's when the prayer appears instead of the punishment the affliction is lifted and the prayers placed in its place in order to correct the body. The will to receive with intention in order to bestow. This is the meaning of what our sages said, reward through the Torah must not be rewarded through suffering. We must know that the path of Torah is a more successful way and yields more benefits than the path of suffering. This is because the vessels that will be fit to receive the upper light are broader and can yield adhesion with him if we do it by Torah. Meaning by the correction between us and prayer. This is the meaning of he is coerced until he says I want it means that the Creator says I want the deeds of the lower ones. What deeds? Just to try to connect and pray for the Creator to do it because we see without him, we cannot attain connection. The meaning of the prayer is that the Creator craved the prayer of the righteous. For by the prayer the vessels are made fit for the Creator to give the abundance as there is a fit vessel to receive the abundance.
58. S. (01:35:17) What is a true desire that there will be a vessel to receive abundance?
R. That he doesn’t receive a response from the Creator and the Creator fills him he is the right vessel, first he asks the Creator for correction he receives this correction, meaning the restriction, screen and later on he knows how to ask the Creator to help him to measure, to do all kinds of actions of receiving in our will to receive.
S. What do you think that today we do not have a desire for such a vessel?
R. I don't know, check.
S. How can we reach a true vessel, that is the question?
R. That is how it says, it says it here, to examine am I in the true vessel, am I in the connection with the friends and out of our current connection we turn to the Creator. and we are asking him to correct our connection to be worthy to receive light from him, from the Creator the fulfillment, to receive the fulfillment from the Creator in order to bestow.
S. That is only the work in the 10, how can you reach that?
R. Only in the work in the 10 and only through the requests for the correction of the connection and later in the connection itself. Is this new?
S. No because we are constantly trying to do it but it's not working.
R. It is not working. if you hear for the first time, how will it work?
S. If we can get advice, how can we reach it quickly?
R. Don't let go of this during the day.
S. How do you mean, I have to work today, what should I do?
R. Always think how I am connected to the friends and if you are not connected it is also good that you will have what to ask from the Creator in the 10.
59. S. (01:38:05) If the records cascade?
R. We will talk about it later, we are not looking for the Creator, we're looking for a way forward for us to connect and from the manner of the connection between us from that we will start feeling the essence of the Creator and how to be connected with him. Before the connection between us you can’t ask you cannot ask the Creator of anything. You do not have the vessels, connections and preparations, nothing.
60. S. (01:39:12) Can you connect to these two things, on one hand we need a desire to give him contentment, on the other hand we are asking for him to have a desire to give us pleasure?
R. We are not asking this. Where did you see such a thing. All we are asking is one thing you still have to have a desire and strength to give him pleasure, to cause contentment to him, to fill him.
S. In the article says that we are asking to I have a desire from above.
R. A desire yes that is correct, that we are asking the Creator will have a desire to fill us in order to give him contentment. Well you are a bit confused still.
61. S. (01:40:30) I heard this excerpt and I understood towards the end of it, I do not understand it. You have to know that the path of the Torah is most beneficial than the path of sorrow and that the vessels that are able to receive the upper light up broader, how should I understand it?
R. That is one thing and the other thing is that you are drawing the light that reforms.
62. S. (01:41:09) I understand intellectually that I need to pray on one hand, on the other hand how do you make a bridge towards the true request?
R. Through the connection, through the connection.
S. How, I do not understand this?
R. Through the connection I tell you. If only there you will put your emphasis you will not move away then you will start feeling how to do it. You cannot pass it by words.
63. S. (01:41:55) When we are asking for a connection what are we actually asking you for a desire or a state?
R. Both are possible. The main thing is that we want to truly correct the shattering, the distance between us. When it is clear to us that we are not connected, when it is clear that we do not have a desire to bestow, that there is no love. That is why we are asking for connection, love and incorporation to be between us.
64. S. (01:42:40) How could there be a prayer without suffering? How could they both receive suffering from not being able to bestow?
R. The light that reforms, which I receive, mainly through the friends. There is this matter where I myself draw some of the illumination from above, some of the light the reforms from above but when we work together, I can ask through the friends. That is the main thing that organizes the right vessel for me, I start feeling for them, start caring about them and them about me and this way we already organized everything.
65. S. (01:43:39) A few days ago we learned that a person has to be prepared to take his present state there for eternity. Now we are learning that a person needs to raise a prayer, for his prayer to be answered, how can you connect those two observations?
R. Try in a group to talk about it and scrutinize it and then we can try to answer this.
66. S. (01:44:35) Is it true that in your article, the main idea is the Creator wants us to think above reason, that every correction depends on prayer, our constant prayer?
R. Correct absolutely, very much correct.
67. S. (01:45:15) You said that if we advance to words prayer hastening the path and we get a broader vessel, I wanted to ask if the intention is we are only going, going according to time because something changes in the final results because it doesn't matter how we reach the final state?
R. There's a path of Torah and the path of suffering, we are talking about the path of the Torah, how we draw the light that reforms in our awakening from below and we advance ourselves quickly. Sparing the suffering towards the purpose of creation.
S. Could I say that in the end we still have to reach?
R. Of course, but it depends on how long and in what way.
68. S. (01:46:36) Above the connection around the prayer. After the lesson we build a mutual prayer with the friends where each one has a few sentences from himself. During the day when we connect to one another at the end we read our prayer together. The question is what does it mean to connect and pray is it private but from the common?
R. Everything will be discerned in the thought. You have to think how you connect yourself, by the mutual bestow between you connect yourself to one system and out of this one system you already turn to the Creator and you want to be connected mutually. Then in such a system you have nothing else to do but to turn to him, to receive from him, everything already falls in the place between the ten and the Creator.
S. Can we feel that we are in the mutual prayer or just reading it together and asking to connect in prayer?
R. Ask for that, ask for that as well, ask for that as well.
69. S. (01:48:09) It is written about the punishments that they are corrections and there is a rule the punishment is a correction, can you explain what punishments are we talking about?
R. I do not understand the question, again?
S. It is written, the article that punishments are corrections and there is a rule that punishment is a correction. What punishment is he talking about?
R. It doesn't matter even to people outside of the wisdom of Kabbalah, the ones that do learn the punishment is a correction. It depends what punishment each one receives, personal or general, but punishment is a correction. But that is not our way because by that we do not give contentment to the Creator. Do you understand? It is like a child finally learned something in school but everything is on their punishments. So the parents are not satisfied with him.
S. So how do you say that punishment is a correction?
R. We bring ourselves closer to the Creator by prayers, by addresses that come before the punishment. That the prayer will precede the punishment.
S. To bring the medicine before the disease?
R. True.
70. S. (01:50:10) What does it mean that it was rewarded by the Torah and wasn't rewarded by suffering because he writes in the beginning of the article that if a person wants to come close to the Creator?
R. So it turns out that, what does it mean that he was rewarded, meaning that he is this merit he probably made efforts and then he advances towards the states, advanced state by the light that reforms, if he was not a rewarded, he is given suffering and from sufferings, the healing because he has no choice, he has to run he has to do something, he comes to the same result. It is only that his path is long and filled with suffering. So that is what we get. You have a difference, choose either the short and nice way or the long and filled with suffering way.