Part 2:
Morning Lesson September 21, 2021, Transcription
Everything is Obtained by the Power of Prayer - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #11
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ibcxNawCACnIoOpOPvRNizR6ihrSD4JY6hweK4kD3YI/edit
1.R. (00:10) We should advance a little. Just don’t forget that the prayer needs to be the public prayer, the prayer for the connection, that nothing is attained within a person but rather only in his connection with others to the extent in which one emerges from his own desire and connects with the other strange, foreign desires that are far from him, that are repulsed by him and from him after the shattering of the general Kli (vessel). To the extent that he wants to bring the whole Kli (vessel) back to the correct state as it was, he doesn't know what the right is but connected so everyone will be connected in aiming themselves towards the Creator. Then, accordingly we begin to attain, from the connections that we tried to do, the upper force. And one’s attainment is already called the attainment of the soul, the godly part from above.
Excerpt 11 RABASH, Article No. 29, (1987), "What Is ‘According to the Sorrow, So Is the Reward?’ (01:48)
2. S. (05:09) When someone comes to discover a real lack, is part of that lack actually starting to feel the sorrow of the Shechina (divinity)?
R. That depends on the development of the deficiency. But certainly, if the deficiency develops more and more than from feeling, the extent in which it is missing from him, he moves to feeling and understanding what others are missing and then from the others what the Creator is missing.
3. S. (06:04) How do we achieve a true desire so that we will want the benefit of the ten?
R. It’s a matter of exertion and prayer where I need to exert as much as possible to be the one who bestows upon the group and to pray to the Creator, from being connected to them for Him, to help me to the extent that I can connect to them such that I will feel and reveal Him. By that He will have contentment from us. Then, I am called the representative of the group and that’s how it is where I turn to the Creator in such a way, in such a way, especially in our times where we are called the generation at the end of correction, the last generation. Hence, this is how we need to advance.
4. S. (07:35) Rabash writes here that it is upon the person to scrutinize what he is losing by not having the desire to bestow. How do you recommend to do it correctly this introspection?
R. All that we need in our life is all together to attain the Creator. The Creator is “Bo-reh – come and see,” He is revealed from the connection between us. Therefore, we need to pay attention to our Kli (vessel) whether we understand at last that everything depends only on the attainment of this Kli, this vessel. One day we will break the walls of our hearts and instead of having many rooms that each one has a room of his own, we will build some big room which will be suitable for the Creator to enter and be revealed. That is the main thing that we need to do which is in order to bring contentment to the Creator to break the walls of our hearts in order to connect into one heart.
S. Is there a place to work on the feeling of sorrow in that we are not yet in the good state or just to engage in the positive?
R. If we want to come to connection that Kabbalists write about and engage in it, and want to awaken each other towards this, then it turns out that eventually we reach thoughts, desires, and actions that are correct.
5. S. (09:42) How can I feel the lack of something that I am not familiar with?
R. Ask from the Creator to give you the possibility to connect your desires and the desires of the friends, as much as possible, because nevertheless we want to return to being one general soul of Adam. That's the purpose, the goal, of our existence. From this existence, this sensation that we are divided, separated, distanced, we need to come to a state that we are connected. That’s it, we have no choice, we should only be drawn to that. We need to understand that our actions need to be from the side of the vessels and the light is in absolute rest, there is no problem with it. Therefore, let's at last cause something for the connection of the vessels.
6. S. (11:05) At which point in the process does it become essential for us to recognize the evil in us in order to aspire for the good? Because if we don't have that feeling of oppositeness, how will we feel that we are lacking something?
R. Therefore, we are in such a state where you can also use what we are learning, also in the awakening that you received from the Creator, and also from what you feel from your will to receive. Then, you are in a state that, don't worry that you are missing something, you are not missing anything. Just to scrutinize each time exactly where you are, in what state, and try to advance this state as much as possible towards connection. There is nothing more to do.
7. S. (12:23) No Translation
R. To the extent one tries to reach connection in order to bestow, according to those efforts, one is helped from above.
8. S. (12:49) How do we break the walls of our heart in the preparation for the lesson?
R. That is the essence. That is the essence of the preparation for us to try to reach a state in which, really, we attain some form of connection between us prior to the lesson. That’s the preparation.
S. We, in our ten, gather at 2:30. We read excerpts, we have a workshop and many friends have a hard time when they wake up to open their heart and speak words of awakening. So how is it best to do this preparation?
R. The more you advance, you'll discover that you awaken in the form of a beast, that you have no form of desire or deficiency whatsoever. And even when you begin to awaken and to recover from your sleep, and you want to reach a state that you feel something in your heart and this precision and sharpness of your feeling it just doesn't happen, the heart doesn’t respond. It will be more and more difficult to open the heart, just like a car that you want to ignite but it doesn’t start but we do. This is really difficult for our souls and the more we advance, it will be more difficult just like the Baal Shem Tov. How hard it was for him to rise from the state of his descent where he did not remember, could not even read, he forgot the form of the letters. Do you understand the extent of what that can be? Therefore, we need to also be happy that we are coming to such disconnections because the advantage of light from darkness, because then out of us connecting above this darkness, we’ll have a greater fill of light.
S. We should simply continue to read as usual and to enter into it slowly, gradually?
R. Yes, yes, yes. Just mention all of these things we are talking in short and continue. The main thing is to be persistent every day.
S. The deficiency, the lack to bestow, this is a lack that I need to feel outside of myself? Let's say it’s a lack of a friend that he has it and I need to feel it? Or is it my deficiency that I want to bestow?
R. There are many ways to see this and I can’t open this up right now.
9. S. (16:36) What is the form of the work that we connect?
R. Sorry, I can't understand what you're asking.
10. S. (16:56) The deficiency for a person's participation in the ten, maybe the person cannot see it himself but the friends do see it. How is this possible to somehow organize it so the lack of the friends in relation to their personal participation of each one will pass to everyone?
R. Ask to have such a connection heart-to-heart that everyone will feel and understand what you have in your heart, even without words.
11. S. (17:38) Should we in the ten pray for connection first before praying for bestowal, or do I need to pray for bestowal so we can have a strong connection?
R. No. There's this and there is that it depends on the state. But connection, certainly, is the first concern that we need to have.
12. S. (18:14) About the true deficiency, if we can be more precise about it, this is a person's desire, or the recognition that he doesn't have the forces to work for the Creator? Or these are desires of the ten towards the Creator that were absorbed in us?
R. Usually, the way a person feels correctly in the way towards correction he receives through the ten.
13. S. (18:49) How does a person include all the friends in the ten in his deficiency for bestowal? Let's say on the basis of the example of the prayer that we read following the lesson?
R. He needs to feel all his friends being in his feeling, in his heart, that he wants to connect with them and that they are truly somewhat in his heart, and from that feeling he operates. What does it mean he acts? He prays to the Creator in order to advance you all together, everyone, from one's connection with his friends. From that we can pray, the Creator feels that point of connection between us. There is connection, there is a point, from where to turn to the Creator. If we don't have the point of connection, you are just awakening the surrounding light which of course helps but you don't yet have a Kli, a vessel, to turn to the Creator with. And that vessel that you turn with is a vessel for the friends, from your behalf, where you are praying and asking. That’s how each and every one for the others and then all these prayers connect together to one prayer in public.
Excerpt 12 (20:30) Twice
14. R. (23:19) When do I feel joy? When I have a deficiency to connect to the group, to connect to the Creator, to reveal Him, to rise to Him. I am happy from the correct lack that is revealed in my heart. So, we can rejoice from the deficiency and when we don't have the deficiency, we feel ourselves as a beast. Because according to the deficiency we measure a person, to the extent in which he is missing, what degree he is missing. Because the filling comes from the Creator and from us only the deficiency is dependent upon us, to the extent in which we want a higher greater filling, a more unique filling would come to us. That’s how we measure a person, according to one's lack. That’s why we also need to be very happy with those deficiencies even though we still feel the deficiency, but we are happy that we are lacking the true exalted thing, and that we are sorry and we are frustrated that we don't have, but with that we are happy because we are going to the upper higher thing, the deficiency of people and not of a beast.
15. S. (25:19) What is the fulfillment for the desire for correction?
R. The fulfillment of the desire for connection will be the light that will bring connection, which is what you desire, if you desire to connect. Before that, you have to feel that you lack connection. Perhaps, your prayer right now should be that I don't feel a lack of connection and so, I don't even know what I should do, I don’t feel pain, what do we do. Our whole problem is that we don't sufficiently clarify the lack and the size of it, and mostly the quality of the lack. This is what indicates what a person is, whether he is still an animal thinking only of his body, how it will exist. Food, sex, family, money, honor, power, knowledge, these are all beastly lusts. The lust of the human is through connection, let's say not before even he scrutinized it through connection, but to achieve bestowing to the Creator, that’s it, that’s how we learn.
S. How does a person clarify his lack?
R. That is by, other than himself he is relating to another factor, only when he hears another perspective which is the group outside of himself and he clarifies what is the group's desire opposite his desire, then he can clarify what state he is in, what exactly is his degree, only when he compares himself with the group.
16. S. (28:11) What does the Creator want from a person when He takes from him the right deficiency, and then he is left in the state of beast? What does the Creator want from him then?
R. The Creator takes the deficiencies from human beings so they will begin to clarify what is the actual correct deficiency and this happens only through our connections in the group.
17. S. (28:58) What is the difference between a deficiency for bestowal and a desire to bestow?
R. The desire to bestow is already a desire that can be realized, and the deficiency for the desire to bestow means I don't have the desire to bestow yet, I just think that this is what I’m lacking. These are states on the way.
S. No translation
R. Only incorporation with the group and prayer to the Creator, no other means.
18. S. (29:48) Does the deficiency stem from us or is it the work of the Creator?
R. Everything comes from the Creator, but we have to scrutinize it. Even though I realized this deficiency came to me from above, the question is how I sympathize with it, accept it, but everything comes from above, from my person there is nothing. Only through his incorporation in the environment he finds additional forces to realize what he thinks He is choosing, but it appears to him this way. The truth is, that both in terms of the goal and everything else, it is always the Creator orchestrating it. But to realize what we are getting, where we are, that is already our work, our free choice, and it’s the corporation with the group which is returning to the Partzuf of the soul. There's also many prayers here to the Creator in asking for the upper force, but the work of man is in there. In short, our work is to bring the Kli (vessel) for connection. Of course, there is the upper light here that does the action but without our request it can’t happen. He either awakens us by suffering until we realize that all suffering happens in order to remind us that we have to correct the Kli (vessel) of connection between us, or we ourselves realize it out of the study and ask. But what is up to us is only the prayer to the Creator, that He will correct the connection between us, because besides that we don't need to correct anything in the broken soul of Adam HaRishon.
S. We ask Him not to give us the filling to the ten, what are we asking from Him?
R. We are asking Him to help us connect to a single desire, that we will be able to integrate all of our desires to one so that accordingly He will be able to be revealed in us. That’s basically His pleasure, to appear to the created beings to the extent that these created beings make themselves one created being called Adam, which is the general name that means ‘’similar to the Creator’’, and accordingly the Creator can be revealed. And the correction of the connection and fulfillment of the connection, that’s all Him.
S. That one desire where we want to connect, what is this desire?
R. A desire that we need to connect to, it’s the desire of the collective Malchut (kingship), which we are all part of, and we want to take this part of Malchut (kingship) out of its Klipa (shell), out of ‘’in order to receive’’ and into ‘’in order to bestow’’ which is Kedusha (holiness) and thereby, receive corrections and fulfillment from the Creator and resemble Him. That’s how we bring Him contentment.
19. S. (34:25) How our intention, our thought to give contentment to the Creator, merge with the thought of Ein Sof (infinity) to bring contentment to the Creator?
R. I don’t know what it means that Ein Sof wants to bring contentment to the Creator. What kind of questions you have all the time? I am asking you, go home after the lesson, think, hear the lesson again and rewrite your questions correctly. Really, you should work on the questions a little bit, Ein Sof (infinity) has a deficiency to bestow to the Creator, that’s what you’re saying?
20. S. (35:50) Coming to the right deficiency means that I have a picture of the state that I aspire to? Is this coming to the deficiency when I know what I want?
R. That too, can be, but not necessarily this is the most important deficiency.
S. In other words, does the deficiency mean I have something and if I feel it's not within my power, if I know that I can't achieve it and I have no deficiency for it meaning, I have to feel I have the potential, the ability to attain it?
R. I'm not going to get confused with you and all the deficiencies, and questions that you have. You always have to think, you always have to scrutinize and do it to the point, and not just to have a feeling of a question but scrutinize it, process it. Discuss between you, among you, read the Shamati article again, or the Rabash articles, or the quotes that we are now reading. According to your questions, I see that you don't have any questions. A question needs to be a clear question. The other one asked about how Ein Sof bestows to the Creator, what are we talking about? So, look into this, there is a limit to where this...
Excerpt 13 (38:00) Twice
21. S. (41:44) How do we turn states of suffering when we face obstacles that seem insurmountable into light?
R. I have to first bring myself to the true state when I am facing a disturbance in life, that what appears before me is always from the Creator and how I relate to ‘there is none else besides Him.’ Always as an accessory, an auxiliary, it could be pleasant or unpleasant but it is assistance. I only received the assistance in corrections. According to my ego, it might be unpleasant and not good for me in some aspect, but it is always assistance and it always aims me towards the goal. This is how I need to first see the situation. This gives me the ability to settle down a little, to calm down and accept life correctly. They are given from the higher source and by aiming myself towards the Creator I see myself settled on the path and that is how I am going to go forward. The question is what do I do with what I’ve got? I have to thank the Creator for all that He does to me because that brings me to the correction and it appears that this correction is optimal for me and that is why I bless Him in each and every moment. I try to use all of the data in the correct way for my progress to bring Him contentment.
22. S. (44:47) It says he must perform every act of Torah and Mitzvot. Is it correct that I don't have to go anywhere outside of Rabash’s writings to find this?
R. Torah means the light that shines in us from above according to the extent that we perform the Mitzvot. Mitzvot comes from the word ‘commandment,’ meaning it is according to our actions that are aimed at bestowal. More and more I want to make actions in bestowal through the friends to the Creator and bring the group together in such a way that the Creator will ultimately appear in it without any limitations, as much as He wants. These actions of connection between us when I direct myself this way through the group to the Creator are called Mitzvot. The goal of all of the Mitzvot is to go back to the Kli of Adam HaRishon, to the complete ten Sefirot. That is what I should long for.
23. S. (46:42) How do we correctly connect each one’s deficiency in the ten throughout the day?
R. There is no problem connecting the 10s because if we understand that each and every ten is internally directed at connection and through connection to the Creator, then to go forward to the Creator we have to connect between us. The more we connect between the tens, the more we aim ourselves towards the Creator and this is what we should do from the person to the ten, from the ten to other tens, and through them to the Creator as much as possible. Perhaps we won't find more than twenty, thirty, or fifty tens who can be connected together but that is already a great Kli that did not exist since the shattering of Adam HaRishon until today. Such a Kli did not exist. You can say they came together after the exodus from Egypt, but that was before the shattering. I am talking about after the shattering. No such thing happened before. We were at the degree called ‘Egypt.’ Egypt is a degree, it is not a place, or country, or time. All of these are degrees in spirituality.
We received the burdening of the heart, meaning additional great will to receive called ‘Pharoah.’ It's not that it has to happen in Egypt, it is all inner states within us. We have reached that state and begin to feel that that state is exile. According to the feeling of exile, which means outside the Creator, outside the connection with Him, we begin to feel that we have to leave the exile. This is just like what happens with each and every one of you coming to the wisdom of Kabbalah. Where did it come from? Perhaps not being aware of it yet, but the feeling of being exiled from somewhere, of being far and distant from something. This is what brought you and now by the light that reforms, we organize between us in groups and tens to draw more light from above to extract ourselves from exile into redemption. We have learned that there is no difference between Galut, exile, and Ge’oula redemption, besides the letter Aleph which indicates the Creator shining on this state we are in and that turns this state into redemption. This is the way we have to work right now to bring ourselves closer to the upper light. It's only through connection between us. There's no way we can just climb up the air; it doesn't work this way. The more we come together, the more connected we are, we rise up the spiritual ladder. The principle is simple and it is one single principle.
24. S. (51:00) How should my ten build the house of the Creator from their hearts?
R. The house that we build from our broken desires is the meaning of building it from bricks, from pieces. We build a Kli called the ‘house’ where the Creator can appear, where He can be clothed, and we discover Him as he is clothed in the vessel. This whole house, which we call the ‘temple,’ is built from our desires that are aimed at connection. That’s how we build that place. It is also called the ‘soul,’ the collective soul, or the soul of Adam HaRishon. We build it only from the connection between us, our desires, our corrected hearts that connect to a single goal that the Creator will fulfill and be content. This is the same concept as the general collective soul. We just talked about different aspects and used different names.
25. S. (53:16) I understand that the answer to everything is always to ask the Creator or to connect, but I don’t understand how this helps. Is the right attitude to wait for it to be revealed?
R. Yes, until you agree with what you’ve got and say you don't want anything besides giving. You will begin to be a different person when you agree with this state. You keep jumping and asking ‘why’ or ‘how do I feel.’ There is no ‘why.’ Just do what you can for the benefit of the group.
26. S. (54:39) When we want to connect and feel suffering from not feeling as one heart how do you take it forward at this point and not get stuck?
R. You have found a deficiency that you can't be connected?
S. Yes.
R. Ask, out of this deficiency we find hatred like the students of Rabbi Shimon, you have reached so far that you feel that you want to kill each other, so can you imagine their prayer at that state and how powerful it was where they truly found in a new egoistic layer of desire that now appeared among them, they found how hateful of each other they are and then they felt that they can pray. By this great hatred that they can transcend it to a very lofty state of correction that this is what they discovered because they just found the material that was gathered to a mountain that the new severity of the state of hatred, now as the light can come it will transform into love and then they realize that that will be the final correction. Looking at the darkness that they have discovered, I wish this for all of us to go through such states.
27. S. (56:36) In the last excerpt we read, he recommends that if I can’t obtain a desire to bestow then I should ask for a pain of not having the desire to bestow, is that the recommendation?
R. The main thing is the pain, the deficiency.
S. Can we ask for the pain?
R. Why not as it is the component of bestowal that you are asking for because according to the pain from the deficiency of bestowing you can then turn to the Creator and ask him for the remedy.
28. S. (57:38) The result of the right discernment is that the ten gets the power to build the common intention?
R. Yes, we expect the 10 to receive the understanding and feeling and strength to build itself at an intensity of connection and from the connection between them to the Creator, that is our intention but we are also happy about all of the stages of revealing the deficiency that we can't, that we are separate and reject each other and don't feel each other even if we accept these discernments correctly that it's already points to the correct state. Because through the wrong state I can come to the correct state and that brings us joy and power to go forward. That is the matter of corrections, so even if I find the lack of correction, shattering to some extent, I have already found the reason now I just need to correct it.
S. Is it normal for a person to immediately find all of the hearts of the friends?
R. No it doesn't matter, sometimes it is like this or like that, that is true.
29. S. (59:39) What should we ask for the quality of bestowal itself, or for the vessels to attain this quality?
R. We don't know exactly what means we need in order to correct the situation as this is the Creator's business we just ask for correction. When I am in a negative state opposite connection in the attainment of the purpose of creation in the mutual bestowing and ask for correction, how will this come to me I don't care, and even if I care I don't touch that, I don’t go into it, that is the Creator's work. The created beings work is to find the deficiency that I am lacking and ask for it, everything is achieved by the power of prayer.