Morning Lesson January 15, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Faith Above Reason - Selected Excerpts from the Sources
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we exist in a perception of reality through our five physical senses, bodily senses. Meaning in the will to receive that the Creator created and in it we feel ourselves, and it does not matter that each one feels something in his own style and all together each one has a certain perception of the world on his own. However, all together that picture is the same picture that we feel certain levels in our will to receive in which we receive impressions from the still, vegetative, animate and speaking levels from the surrounding world which seemingly surrounds us.
Later, we learn a little bit that there is a different perception which is a more through perception where one does not feel in his own vessels the way they are impressed but he can also come out of his vessels and rise above them and feel reality not as it passes through his qualities and this is how he is impressed by reality but instead a reality that is above his qualities. Even before it enters, even before the impression enters his vessels, he rises above himself. He feels a reality that is above him before it comes and cloths in him. This perception is called 'faith above reason' meaning that it is a means with which we feel the upper world and the Creator what it truly exists, not in man's qualities but truly above him, this is the approach of faith above reason. That the quality of bestowal, the quality of Bina determines what I will feel. For this I have to restrict my ego, in whatever I am given for the time being, in each and every degree I have this work anew. After I restrict my ego, I want to rise above it and to begin to feel reality not in my vessels of reception but in the opposite vessels, in the vessels of bestowal. In this way, it is truly possible to feel reality but in which vessels, in which qualities? I cannot clothe myself in something else I simply cannot but if those same qualities of mine which I have if I invert them so that I use them instead of in the style of reception to the style of bestowal then by this through the qualities that I have in receiving, I can bestow. I can work with them in the opposite way not for my benefit but for the benefit of others, then it turns out that in this way I rise above myself and I build above myself a new sense which is called the spiritual sense. Then it is not in the will to receive, it is not in Malchut that I received but rather in faith above reason in Bina above Malchut and there I want to receive my impressions to live and to feel the whole of reality. In this way the progress to a new perception of reality.
These things they come to the person gradually through the influence of the upper light and the upper force that comes to the person to the extent to the person annuls himself as much as he understands, that he is able to nullify himself towards others, in what way, what for and how there are many questions, there are many days that the person has to go through until he understands and he feels until he goes towards the actions of bestowal and then he let's go and then he comes back and then he let's go again, until the person is able to stand on it and say, yes this specifically what I want and I stand on this. I have to receive the quality of bestowal so it will be stronger in me than my natural quality of reception. I must, I must exist this way. Of course, here to the extent that one is in a great and important society in his eyes, as much as he subjugates himself before them, he will be able to receive from them the greatness of the quality of bestowal. The greatness of Bina or faith so it will be higher up, above his own reason, above the quality of Malchut, above the quality of reception, and this is how the person advances.
Therefore everything depends on our work in the ten in the great society as much as one arranges all the elements to influence him so that they will take care of him so that they will all work between them so one would ultimately feel that everything depends on how much the greatness of bestowal will be greater in his eyes then the measure of the greatness of reception. Through ascents and descents and with these discernments, this is how one advances. There are days for the better and for the worse seemingly because it is impossible that light would be without darkness because it precedes it. The person gets used to it and he reaches a state where he is already above all these discernments, light, and darkness but rather he understands that this is how it has to be. This is actually the reality that opens up within him. Contradictory sensors and inside of them and against them with their help, he starts to perceive the spiritual world, the upper world. This is it; this is what we have before us and everything else, all the rest well let us start and we will attain it from the passages that we have before us.
We just need to realize that each and every one of us has different qualities otherwise we would not be different from others, and it will be all just one. The difference between us is not a kind of will to receive that is in each and every one of us, therefore we need to learn the rules of how we rise above the will to receive and turn it into a will to bestow. Along with that, we also need to not forget that one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is also greater. If one feels that he has great difficulty in the work it is a sign that he will nevertheless at some point receive forces and help from above, maybe later then his friends who have a smaller will to receive than his, but through that he will advance and he will advance more. Therefore, as much as the person's ego is greater of course it is more difficult for him to work with it and to overcome it but in that overcoming he will be able to reach greater achievements in his awareness, understanding and mostly giving contentment to the Creator. Let us see what the Kabbalists write for us and try truly to come together with them in a single heart.
Reading - Excerpt #1 RABASH, Assorted Notes. Article No. 236 “The Whole Earth Is Full of His Glory" twice
2. S. (15:51) From your words in the beginning of the lesson I have many questions. I want to ask something that is related to the excerpt we read. What does it mean that the person gives his heart, to whom should he give his heart?
R. To the quality of bestowal really. The heart is called Malchut, the will to receive. This is our nature; it is all of us. We need to raise the will to receive to the intention to bestow, to invert the way we use it, from reception to myself to bestow to others. Then I exit my perception of reality that is entirely within me to the true reality that exists outside of me, and it is not dependent on the boundaries of my will to receive. This is actually all of our work. Then we discover that in the whole of reality there is a force of bestowal that is operating, not a force of reception, meaning it is not that I operate in reality but rather the force of bestowal, which is the Creator, he operates in all of reality. This is how we begin by that to already attain the qualities of the Creator, the forces of the Creator, forces of bestowal until we discover all of them. How do we discover them? These forces are in control, those forces of bestowal control our will to receive. As we learn with a spiritual Partzuf, Rosh and Toch and we make a calculation of how much we are able, in the Toch, in the inside of the Partzuf, in the will to receive how much we can have in them the qualities of bestowal.
3. S. (18:18) How are the senses opened in the ten, what should we be looking for?
R. How do the senses open within the ten. Usually, it is by us trying to come closer in our hearts to each other. That work is not visible to the eye. Of course, we can sit down and drink and eat and sing but all of these actions are external actions. As much as they are true or not, we will have to check that. Rather the disposition of each and every one to annul before group, so then this disposition gradually brings the upper light closer to him, and therefore the need to try to be in that as much as possible
4. S. (19:56) It is written about Rabbi Shimon that in all the concealments he felt and believed that here was the light of the Creator. Is this faith above reason?
R. We need not to disconnect from the Creator. This is the upper light, the total force of bestowal, the force of love that fills the whole of reality, and even though we don’t feel that, however, nevertheless we need to try hold ourselves in a state where this is how it is, that we are operating in a world that is entirely the force of bestowal, the upper force of bestowal. We exist inside of the Creator and in order for us to discover him we have to discover our vessels, to what extent are ready for it, we want it, how much do we appreciate do we value the force of bestowal above the force of reception. That within us, within ourselves we feel the force of reception and as much as we can be in faith above reason or in the force of bestowal, above the force of reception, and we want to determine this also as much as possible in our groups, according to that we come closer to a state where the upper light, the Creator works on us and awakens within us one time a greater force of bestowal, one time a greater force of reception. This is how we grow as though we are climbing a ladder with two legs left right left right this is how we climb. This is our work. Therefore, do not despair and do not think that this is an easy and short way, and it can be done with one leap, but rather truly this is through ascents and descents. Look at what humanity is doing throughout its thousands of years of development, also each and every person through all of his incarnations, this is our work. Until we reach a state where we acquire the quality of correction and we are able to develop within it already on two lines, from the one hand we receive the will to receive that becomes revealed and on the other hand we can discover the will to bestow and with both of them we can climb up the ladder.
5. S. (23:42) Is there a sign that the upper forces when the upper force is revealed in the ten?
R. The sign is that we feel it, one who feels it feels it, the one who does not, he does not. It depends on the person. If he is devoted to the ten then through the ten, he receives influence from the Creator. The devotion to the ten there is many degrees in that. It all depends on which ego of the person he annuls himself. It is all measured according to our will to receive according to our ego, as much as the person is able to diminish himself to annul himself before the ten, in other words to appreciate the ten above himself, according to that he rises and he can receive from them, as with Rabbi Yosi ben Kisma. We need to read again this story; it is not a long one.
6. S. (25:31) Rabash writes that a person will achieve his wholeness when he feels only himself and not another reality but we say that the person should annul himself and feel the friends so what is Rabash writing about here?
R. Rabash writes that he has to annul his ego in order to feel others in the ten. To the extent he is incorporated in the ten, so he begins to attain the Creator who is in the ten. There he hides, the Creator means this is called the hiding God. Where does he hide? Inside the friends. If I connect to the friends and I want to incorporate in them then I begin to feel that those desires of theirs with respect to me, they become the womb and I become an embryo inside of them. This is how I grow within them. The Creator is the one who is developing me, it is the force of life, vitality, this is how he does it.
7. S. (27:59) What are the foundations upon which faith above reason is built?
R. First when I annul my reason, and the rest we are going to study it.
8. S. (28:22) He says in all the concealment he felt he believed that here was the light of the Creator and that qualified him to reveal the light of his face. Why does the concealment bring me to revelations?
R. In our world how do you reach some understanding some awareness, something it’s out of the opposite state where you don’t understand you are not aware it, you don’t know, it’s the same in spirituality, however in spirituality also need to prepare your vessel of perception your vessels of reception because you don't have a feeling of spiritual phenomena.
S. How to explain that the concealment becomes the revelation of the Light, what is the work here?
R. Concealment precedes the revelation, let us put it this way. We feel let us say certain special sounds in the air and you, you do not feel them you did not receive them, you do not understand them you do not recognize them so how can we help you to attain these sounds. So first of all we tell you that there is such a thing you don't believe us, you do not believe it, or maybe you don't care, you do not feel any need for it because it is not revealed so you don’t feel what kind of gain you get from it, and this is how it is with all people in this world. Go and explain to them what spirituality is, there is no such thing, and it does not matter. Later, bit by bit through all kinds of blows, all kinds of events over thousands of years they begin to feel that nevertheless they are missing something. They don’t know what they exist for why and so on, and later on a desire grows within them already through such degrees so that they're asking more and more about the essence of life, the meaning of life, if life itself is not worth so that they are not able to fill themselves like little children with all kinds of toys games then we see humanity as it is today when it is starting to decline, seriously it’s starting to decline let go of all of these values that they had before.
We will fly to the moon, we will create all kinds of special machines, we’re going to do this and that, we will inflate our lives with all kinds of games and events and it will be good for us and we will discover stars and more and more, and we see that gradually humanity is becoming emptied, it becomes emptied of any content, and even with such things with which it can be filled for the time being fashion or even sports, it was so important before and all kinds of other things, it loses the importance for all of its engagements so what can we do then? In truth ninety percent of all our businesses, our engagement of this world is redundant, and nature is also telling us already that we cannot receive any more, we cannot exhaust nature anymore, we cannot exhaust any more out of it. It is truly in a state of exhaustion what do we have left.
Meaning we have nothing with which to engage in this life in which we exist in our present form as we see it as we are familiar with it and then out of that we then ask. So what and then the pandemic also comes and helps us greatly it comes it cleans up all the nonsense, it shuts us in our homes and all kinds of additional special phenomena will come soon, you will see, and then humanity will start to be more ready I would say they will be more ready for the reception of different values that does not come through shopping and working and shopping and working and shopping again, again, and again. Everything is coming to an end
S. So our whole difficulty is the concealment?
R. Concealment is not a difficulty. Concealment is an opportunity to correct ourselves to the true perception of reality, not how we see it through our life through whatever we do, food sex family money honor knowledge, but that we have to rise to new values which are entirely different from what we had before, so all of these forms of food sex family money honor knowledge will take on the form of bestowal instead of the form of reception and then out of that we will feel how much our fulfilling in its essence will be a different essence.
S. But if today, so many people all over the world, we are many many people, do we have more strength to remove this concealment?
R. Don't look at these billions of people.
S. Our people, Bnei Baruch, many people.
R. If the upper light will shine one gram more, we will change us and the whole world.
S. Is there a difference between today and the previous times or is it the same difficulties?
R. All of the periods are very different and especially in our time. Look at humanity, look what we have been through in the last hundreds of years, I am talking of humanity about the corporeal low will to receive. Look how much we have been through and just you wait, and you will see what will happen in the upcoming months and years.
S. What will happen? What could happen?
R. The desire changes and our perception of reality changes and then the world we see, and feel will be different.
S. Yes, scientists are saying that what is happening in reality, we see that reality is changing.
R. Okay, fine, this is what the Wisdom of Kabbalah has been saying for a long time, so those wise scientists are also saying it.
9. S. (36:38) You said that money, power, knowledge, and honor will acquire a different form. What is this new form?
R. Money, honor, and knowledge will take on a new form. It will be through a restriction screen and reflected light. Honor is the glory of Heaven, Kesef money is through the screen, Kisuf yearning, or a cover, something that covers, a screen, and knowledge this is the upper light that will appear in our new vessel, the perception of the Creator getting to know the Creator, this is how it will be. Meaning seemingly those same conditions but with a spiritual appreciation.
10. S. (37:47) In the writing it says that we have to annul what we see in our reason, that we have to go with faith above the intellect, but the minute he goes above the intellect what should he do with what he sees within reason, should it be erased or what?
R. He goes above it, and he builds a degree above it. This is why it is called faith above reason, we need the reason and one who is greater than his friend he has a greater reason and the one who develops, his reason becomes greater stronger and one attains everything he attains it all through faith meaning as much as one elevates himself on the degree of Bina towards Bina, towards bestowal by that he acquires new vessels which are broader and with a new essence a spiritual essence and then it turns out for him that he becomes higher up above everyone in his mind and in his emotions he cannot talk to them he cannot explain it to them maybe but this is how it works.
11. S. (39:32) We constantly perceive reality in the will to receive all the flavors and satisfactions and everything we see. When we want to unite in our hearts in the ten, how does it become a higher perception of reality?
R. A permanent one or a higher one?
S. Higher.
R. Each time our desire grows each time we have greater disturbances worse you might say disturbances, and when we rise above them then accordingly, we qualify ourselves to see reality through higher vessels, when we have greater discernments, not just between one rock and another rock, but rather one atom compared to another atom. We begin to work with more subtle vessels in this way we discover reality with which qualities do we work within the wisdom of Kabbalah, how we can receive or how much we can bestow more, with which degrees of coarseness are we working, with which screens, etc. and by that we truly enter not molecules or atoms we are entering the forces that are operating and activating those molecules and atoms. We exist on a different level of reality not of matter but rather the forces that are above matter.
S. How, while we connect between us, can we incorporate in these forces that are operating the atoms, which are above them?
R. They are forces that we reveal they are us, we reveal them we work with them they are ours. To the extent that I receive the same qualities as the Creator, that I am standing in minus and plus in the two forces of creation, the will to receive and the will to bestow and I begin to work with them, I am already above matter. It is called being on the degree of faith above reason. Gradually, bit by bit, we are talking about it, we are becoming incorporated in it, wait and you will suddenly discover that you are absorbing all this information and it becomes you. It just takes time, what can we do. Okay?
12. S. (42:51) The persistence in the intention is there some correlation with the will to receive and is that connected to the Arvut that the friends give in the ten? To the degree of Arvut, mutual responsibility, in the ten?
R. Please repeat the question.
S. The force of the intention does that depend on the coarseness on the will to receive and one’s incorporation and the mutual guarantee in the ten?
R. Yes.
S. So it turns out that the intention comes from the external vessel? Is the externality of the vessel and the heart of the friend is the internality of the vessel?
R. Correct. The will to receive remains and the will to receive works but it works in the opposite way. It becomes revealed so we will build our spiritual degree above it. It is called anybody who is greater than his friends his inclination is greater than his. I reach a higher degree and being greater than my friend means that it is what I was a minute ago but my will to receive increased so on top of it, above it, I rise even higher.
13. S. (44:50) Above reason is it a result or an action?
R. Above reason is an operation which is a result of what happened before. I am not exactly sure what you were asking about this. Why do you care if it is a result or an operation? It is always results and operations and the results are the basis of the next operations.
14. S. (45:32) Faith above reason comes through the friends and depends on the degree of my annulment?
R. Yes, exactly.
15. S. (45:48) How will we be able to measure the degree of faith?
R. The degree of faith we can measure according to the degree of our overcoming, according to the degree of overcoming.
16. S. (46:08) Why is there a need for concealment? What kind of correction are we talking about?
R. The concealment is mandatory in order for us to be able to build above our ego, the spiritual degree, the spiritual degree, the spiritual world. So, we build the concealment, we are the ones who want the concealment because without it we will not build the spiritual world. We do not build, we ask, the Creator does it, but it is still according to our request our demand.
17. S. (47:12) What is the measure of faith made of? What does it mean the revelation of the faith of the light of the Creator?
R. We simply discover it as the upper force, the upper light which spreads into our vessels which have been made ready for it by the restriction where we prefer the force of bestowal over the force of reception and this way this is how we advance.
18. S. (48:02) How does the ten help us reach faith above reason?
R. Without the ten I would not even be able to think about faith above reason because I would be lying to myself that I am in faith above reason. Look what is happening to us, every time in our reality with the ten we fall and rise again above our ego, we fall again and rise again and every time we connect to our group, we feel how all of our operations are in constant ascents and descents ascents and descents in terms of the value of the ten, and without the ten we would only be within ourselves only within our own with all of our tens. So, we cannot advance without the ten. We have to do all the spiritual operations within the ten to establish them among us and it may not be now, it may be in a year or two, whenever you can do it but until you do it, inside each of you towards the ten that you see and feel, you will not achieve spirituality and this is how it will be in all of humanity.
19. S. (50:25) Is this something each one achieves individually or does the entire ten attain it?
R. It is a preparation in the ten, but it happens toward each and everybody personally.
20. S. (50:45) What are the signs that we have reached that? How is it manifested in the ten?
R. By wanting to be truly as one man in one heart. We cannot but we want to.
21. S. (51:22) How is it manifesting in the ten? What are the signs in the ten that friends have reached faith above reason?
R. We feel that we are ascending (there are problems with the microphone). We feel that we are ascending in these degrees. You have to feel it, I cannot explain things that are not felt.
22. S. (52:04) The request to discover the Creator, doesn’t it contradict the issue of going above reason if we want the revelation of the Creator?
R. No, this is why the revelation is done in the vessels of Bina when we want to be in bestowal, and only toward the qualities of bestowal that we receive and acquire, only toward them do we advance and receive the sensation of bestowal. The upper world is revealed in the qualities of the upper world that we acquire. We first acquire the qualities of the upper one and then we get the feeling and sensation of the upper world. So, there is no contradiction for us, otherwise there would be like a short circuit as if in our vessels we are getting the sensation of the spiritual world, it is impossible.
23. S. (53:19) What are the rules with which we can rise above the will to receive?
R. The rules for rising above the will to receive are to come to love of friends. To the extent I love the friends I can measure, but it is really very accurate. To that extent I emerge from myself and become incorporated in the others and by that I acquire my vessels of bestowal. To the extent I am in the others, by this I begin to feel spirituality, the spiritual world.
24. S. (54:06) What is reason in faith above reason? What reason are we talking about?
R. Above reason means that we are in a corporeal perception, and we want to rise above it.
25. S. (54:29) When we speak between us it is OK to speak about the fact that one of us in bestowal or should we talk in general about annulment in the group?
R. No, we are not speaking personally about anyone in the group. We rather speak about the general situation, the existing situation.
26. S. (55:03) Is the influence of the upper light the influence of the friends over me? Is that what we call the influence of the upper light?
R. No, the influence of the upper light on me I feel according to the changes in my qualities from reception to bestowal.
27. S. (55:22) What exactly should I annul?
R. A person should annul his intention to receive so he will not attribute to himself anything that exists in reality, including himself as well. He attributes everything to the Creator, including himself.
28. S. (55:56) In the first excerpt Rabbi Shimon says there is no place to hide from you meaning all the concealments that he felt he believed that here was the light of the Creator. How can it be that there is concealment and also a feeling of the light of the Creator at the same time?
R. The light of the Creator that comes to us is not against concealment. We never feel the Creator Himself, it is above our vessels. What is received in our vessels is already a result of the influence, the bestowal from the Creator being incorporated in bestowal from our part. When those two bestowals which is called the clothing of the direct light in the reflected light, when those two bestowals are incorporated together, we feel the result of the incorporation of the direct light and the reflected light, and this is all that we feel. The light that comes from the Creator or the Creator himself we do not feel. This is why what we feel from the upper, it is called Boreh, come and see, Creator.
29. S. (57:25) You said that concern for the friends is one of the conditions for working in faith above reason. I take part, I care for the friends in the ten, but it does not feel like faith above reason. So, am I doing something wrong?
R. You are not doing enough. Until you come to a state where you begin to feel that concern for the friends is the main thing and comes before concern for the Creator and for everything, until I come to this, I do not achieve spirituality.
30. S. (58:08) What is this lowliness that we say we need to be in?
R. Lowliness is when I feel the way Rabash writes in the articles. I feel that I am the least of everyone, I have nothing special in me from the friends, from the group. I feel that I have nothing to give them, and that compared to them I am a complete zero.
31. S. (59:01) Does the lowliness come from feeling how great the Creator is or out of the fact that we simply do not feel Him?
R. The Creator can be felt as great or small depending on how you feel the friends as great or small. We have no measurement directly with respect to the Creator, only toward the friends can you truly measure how you are relating to the Creator. I am saying this to everyone and seriously. Check if your relation, your attitude toward the friends, towards the group is changing correctly or not. If not, then perhaps you are standing still or even regressing.
32. S. (59:56) We constantly advance from faith above reason to within reason, which is how we advance. So how can we advance in a desire for revelation or a desire to discover the Creator?
R. We just talked about it. I think there is no point in continuing with these questions.
Excerpt #2: RABASH, Article 6 (1989), “What Is Above Reason in the Work"
Twice (01:00:23 - 01:04:00)
33. S. (01:04:27) If my second thought regarding anything is that it comes from the Creator does that mean I am doing something wrong and that I should ask from the Creator to give me faith above reason?
R. First of all, above reason is the upper force, the force of bestowal. It comes and is dressed in a person and in it a person can think differently, understand differently, see differently. It is not some manipulation. In the intellect it has to actually be in the feeling when a person acquires the power of bestowal from above and that power of bestowal helps him to be above his intellect the corporeal intellect this is called faith above reason. Are you listening? The fact that I am receiving powers from above so that now I can, to some extent, be above in my force of bestowal above the force of reception. This is called faith above reason when I already have the special power, the special foundation in me by which I can be in bestowal so that the power of Bina is dresses in me on top of the power of Malchut and to that extent I will be able to be a giver in some way not actually giving it is still far but still to think in this direction.
S. This means that if I feel this joy, if I get joy from the force of bestowal then that is faith above reason?
R. Yes, right.
34. S. (01:06:53) In the text it speaks about the work of a person in faith above reason, is that the matter of faith above reason in the group that it is group work?
R. That is later, that is still far.
35. S. (01:07:14) In the excerpt it says that one should pray to the Creator that he will give him the power to accept faith above reason as though it were within reason is that some inner feeling or does it mean to also pray for the friend and not for myself so that the friend will have such a feeling?
R. No, we are completely deviating from the point. It is talking about the person himself and what is in him.
36. S. (01:08:01) It says here that faith above reason is great work and that a person on his own is not capable of engaging in it but rather he asked the Creator to give him that force, that power. I cannot see the connection here; it is like a missing link as I see it. It says in the end we have to pray to the Creator but in the middle that there is great work so what is the connection between the two?
R. We have a lot of work to turn to the Creator it is not simple and once we receive help from the Creator we begin to work with the force of Bina, face that we received and through it we can arrange ourselves position ourselves in a degree in a different relation to the group and to the Creator.
S. But it does not say here that one should work in above reason but first it says that this is great work so what is the great work?
R. The great work is that he has to make great efforts to receive help from above, to pray, to ask to do all kinds of preparations for it, actions and activities so we will have the desire and need for it and also when he gives up and falls and fails and doesn't succeed so gradually he understands that it can only come from above only from above and therefore he demands help from the Creator it is not like now I ask I have to have the deficiency to ask for help from above which is called the force of faith to receive it from above and to know that I can receive it only from the Creator.
37. S. (01:10:15) What emotion should we experience and how long should we feel it in order to enter spirituality?
R. It is unique to everyone and that is why I cannot say in what feeling and how long and in what way it is very unique to each and everyone.
38. S. (01:10:53) In which shop do we buy a spiritual sensation?
R. In the upper shop where we want only to bestow. Only to send our feelings and intentions through the friends to the Creator. When we want to engage in bestowal, when we want to obtain the value of bestowal, when the act of bestowal is more important than the act of reception and then through this disposition even if it is artificial through it, we begin to receive from above new discernments and help.
39. S. (01:11:53) When we talked about the fact that we need to depict the friends as great in what exactly? What qualities should I artificially elevate in my eyes?
R. What is written in all the articles about connection among the friends and their relation towards them, the connection in the group. What do you want me to do, go and read it all again to you? I understand that you lose it, but you already have to know how to become incorporated with what the Kabbalists write, over and over. In your questions you are trying to make me give you an extract of Rabash’s 20 or 30 articles. How can I do that? We have to renew it every time more and more.
40. S. (01:13:09) The preceding desires of the still vegetative and animate they receive man's work on the level of above reason, or these things are not related?
R. I do not understand why you were even connecting them. What are you asking? What are the still, vegetative, and animate desires?
S. The desires in the person, the fires in the ten, this is what we should be working with right? So, is there a connection between working above reason and the earlier desires or are they not related?
R. Not related. Work without thinking about them. Afterwards it will fall into place.
41. S. (01:14:16) When the pandemic started you said, well I couldn't agree with the fact that my teacher who is talking in such a way it was painful for me but I had no choice I had to accept it and only sometime later on we heard from you that not only were you right but all kinds of things… (no translation) I have an impression that before, if I wouldn't accept your opinion before I wouldn't be able to hear you anymore.
R. I do not understand the question.
S. How really close is that to faith above reason that I will take the knowledge of my teacher because I have no other choice?
R. That is always the case. It is always like that there is upper and lower, and we need to always clarify and embrace the view of the upper one. There is no other choice and each and everything the same way we are educated by our mothers or later learn something or when we learn from the Creator, it is all from him, except without being clothed through other people let us say. Everything comes to us from above and the whole process we go through and everything that exists in creation there is always the upper one in the lower one. And that is how we attain everything.
S. There should always be a disturbance I have to overcome?
R. No we cannot perceive anything but to the extent that we are against the thing that we have to perceive. Otherwise, it will not stay on us. Whatever we receive; knowledge, feeling, through hearing, seeing, whatever it is it has to be through resistance because we are the created being, we have to be opposite to what we are going to attain. When we receive an attainment then there is a connection between us and the thing that we attain. Until it becomes included and imprinted in us that is the only way it happens otherwise it is impossible because we remain created beings.
42. S. (01:17:57) What in faith above reason becomes reason afterwards?
R. No, it does not become reason, it increases, faith above reason is a force of Bina, bestowal which grows within us more and more and raises our ability to resemble the Creator, and to the extent that we resemble the Creator that increases our reason. We will talk about it more. There are many details here and I see that we are beginning to lose the main direction here and go to other things.
Reading: Excerpt #3: RABASH, Article No. 28 (1987), "What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work"
43. S. (01:21:10) In words, everything sounds so simple as qualities that are outside of me and the friends and I have to find the Creator, connect them to me, and make them my own. Why is there such a gap between the understanding?
R. That is because it is not so easy for us to change, and the change within us is slow because we cannot, we do not want, we depend on each other. Just understand that you cannot be alone in the world when there are billions of other pieces of the broken Kli, and your correction depends on them. So, each and every one depends on the others until this spiritual integration will come to realization at least in a ten; and then a ten on another degree, meaning multiplied more and more, until we begin to discover this in our feelings. It is a big problem, the shattering is very deep, it goes all the way to the foundations of creation. Each and every desire is in shattering
44. S. (01:23:20) In the first state, should I just ask for the friends to have faith above reason, that they will reach it?
R. In faith above reason, we can pray both for ourselves and for the friends and we have no problem to even have a prayer for ourselves because I am asking for the force of bestowal not the force of reception.
45. S. (01:24:13) The most important thing in faith above reason is to let go of the control of the ego, is that correct?
R. We do not want to minimize anything in all the work, not in the force of reception or bestowal or anything, all I ask is to keep ascending more and more, just that the value of bestowal will be more than the value of reception and that one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than himself. Therefore, I am not going to diminish my will to receive, I am also not going to restrict it as if I do not want anything. There are such saints: they do not eat, they do not drink, eat a little bread, and sleep on the ground, and drink a little water. This is why Baal HaSulam explained it to us in the Introduction to TES, that this is not our path, we only have the light that reforms.
46. S. (01:25:42) What is our corporeal mine for in our studies if faith above reason is the most important?
R. But we also always use our corporeal mind, meaning what is corporeal? Meaning in order to receive the ordinary mind we have in this world, as long as I am in this world, in this whole theater, as I feel this reality, then I need the mind and the emotion for this reality as well. How else will I exist? Accordingly, I need to relate directly to this reality that we call this world.
47. S. (01:26:35) Should we pray to reach faith above reason especially or does it come from the work in the ten at some point?
R. If I make myself smaller towards the friends and I receive what is in them as a higher degree to me, like Rabash writes in short. If we follow what Rabash writes about the rules of the group then we essentially achieve faith above reason because that is his goal; except he does not write it there in order to not confuse us, faith above reason, but uses the terms Kabbalistic terms of the group.
48. S. (01:27:31) In excerpt two, it says “as if he already attained it within reason.” Will it always stay as if he attained or at some point will we attain it?
R. No, within our corporeal reasons we are not going to attain anything because you cannot attain more in it. We need to imagine the general reality that is not ours at all, it is completely spiritual; and whatever happens, happens in the world of truth. The world of truth means the spiritual world; and we are not going to obtain anything more in the corporeal world than we already feel here, and that, too, will later be considered an imaginary world as it is always an imagination that we perceive a certain reality in our egoistic desire. It is only given to us to have an existence and build in our senses the world of truth, and then this world ultimately vaporizes and disappears because it has no truth in it. It is perceived in our egoistic sense and a temporary way for us to raise ourselves above it and this is called “by faith above reason.” The moment that, let us say, we would now require faith above reason then by that we would cancel this world because there would be no need for it, it is written about it in several places.
49. S. (01:29:34) Sometimes we have to ask for bestowal like now, but sometimes it says it brings destruction to one’s soul. So, do we only ask for the friends?
R. To ask for bestowal brings destruction to one’s soul, I do not understand that. All of our correct prayers are for the force of bestowal only.
S. The lesson yesterday about the prayer you said that we should always ask for mutual feeling for the friends and not for ourselves, not even to ask for contentment, so it is confusing at times. But even if I am asking for the force of bestowal, it is for myself and causing destruction of my soul? That is the question.
R. If I ask for the force of a bestowal, then with that force of bestowal I can then bestow to the friends and the Creator, but other than that I can pray that the Creator will give the force of bestowal to the friends. Certainly, if I pray for the friends that is preferable than praying for myself, even for the force of a bestowal, which is correct. But it is not that it is forbidden to pray for receiving the force of bestowal because with it we can then bestow, it is as simple as that. I am not going into higher things right now but asking for the force of bestowal, still there is a preference to ask it for the friends then for myself, that is correct. But there is no contradiction here. It is not opposite to anything we have learned.
50. S. (01:31:42) How can we help one another ascend above reason?
R. I think that first of all it is an example. Each one towards the friend setting examples. It is as if I just called the other one, you could tell your friends I called the other friend, and we talked about some article or some other thing. Meaning to awaken the others to be envious of what we are doing.