Morning Lesson January 24, 2024

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Letter No. 29. 

Reading Article (00:42): “To the Friends May They Live Forever…”

1. R. (56:20) This article includes the whole Torah you could say the whole work of man. We need to try to read it time and again, again and again. What's very nice and unique here is that it simply reveals, He reveals the things that we need to do, Tu BiShvat, toward what is a person's attitude toward his life and to the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking. Questions? There's pretty much no time but in any case. There are no questions, that's good. In any case, I see you're waking up. 

2. S. (58:00) I don't want to ask just a gratitude that we receive mercy from above and the best environment and what we have left to do like you said is just to the debt of the soul, to invest each day. to redeem this debt that we got, and it's like a tree if you put it in the best environment the soil, it will bring the best fruit. All I can say is that we are before the Congress, let's take what we have here and really raise it high, as high as possible. Open the hearts, feel this connection between us, and give us power together and each of us look around and see the gift we have received here. Each one who looks can just look around and see the gift that we receive from the Creator, which is the environment. without which we are really worthless. I just wanted to say thank you. L’chaim friends.

R. Thanks.

3. S. (59:24) He described beautifully in this article how a person thinks he will never fail and then the moment he fails in a touch of self-reception all of his spiritual vitality gradually departs from him and there's a complete deterioration of a person. How in a state of ascent, elation you don't fail? Specifically in that place, you don't fall to self reception?

R. It's by seeing the whole path that is laid out before you, it's possible, in any case, to mark out the stages is one thing. Secondly, to constantly feel oneself as being among the friends, that a person is the tree in the field, that he is in the field, and accordingly, he grows and continues growing. That is all.

S. Also when you're among the friends and elated you can still fall and start falling. What promises, how can a person really guard himself if it's even possible?

R. If I annul myself toward the friends then I already am not cut off from them, I don't dry out, I'm not detached, so it's enough for me to at least annul myself.

S. Let's say in a congress where everyone can be elated and connected together with vitality, how do you take this place and rise even higher and not just because of everything just being nice and beautiful you can just fall and think you're in it, but you're totally not in it?

R. We, contrary to those who come for one evening, how do you call those, seculars?

S. What a culture night?

R. A culture night, I don't know how to call it. We come to work, and in that we work we want all of us together to connect and rise. That's the difference between one night and the next. When I finish the evening, I can calculate what I contributed, what I acquired, and what work during those two or three hours do I do. To detail that work, as much as I came close and supported, etc., that is the difference between just a culture night or a party and a night of connection.

S. How do I know that from being among all the friends and there's joy and everything's beautiful, how do I know that I'm in the right intention and that I don't scatter and then because there's a lot of joy and noise around me then it kind of promises me something, that something's happening?

R. From the beginning I prepare myself that I come to a place where in this place I have an opportunity to receive, to correct, and to fill all the desires that are in my heart, all the desires of my heart, everything, everything that exists in I dwell in my people. There I receive everything, and all the rest depends only on my inclination, my desire, my passion, and how much I demand of them to help me, to adhere to them. Other than adhesion between us we need nothing. The state of adhesion is what is given to everyone. Such a connection that we rise to the Creator's degree. 

4. S. (01:05:38) Rav tells us that every day we have to strengthen in the matter of faith.

R. Yes.

S. What is the practical advice to daily strengthen our faith?

R. Strengthening faith? We have faith in the group, faith in the friends, faith in the group, faith in the Rav, and faith in the Creator. We need to try to provide answers to that, to connect with the source of these faiths then we will have enough strength.

5. S. (01:07:06) What can we do in the day-to-day when we can try to connect with the Ten to get to the point where we are uncomfortable in our egoism and really feel the need for a prayer?

R. During the day we need to think about it. Who are you coming close to, who are we? What is our goal? Through what we can come closer to it? With what steps do we reach it? That is all from now until the convention we need to check and renew and do it among ourselves.

6. S. (01:08:20) How is it possible to strengthen the roots of the friends who go by the way of faith? How can we support them?

R. To try to connect, to be as close as possible. Try to embrace one another, to be in a feeling of one another from corporeal to spiritual feelings, that we can depict ourselves how, what it means that we are one man in one heart, in a single intention, and to progress that way.

7. S. (01:09:27) It is written that when a person works by faith above reason he can't be in pride. It turns out that the pride only exists in our reason?

R. Yes.

S. Meaning when you get to the spiritual degree, we will be automatically humble, we will not be proud.

R. Yes

8. S. (01:10:09) It says in the article one takes from the environment is only Lo Lishma, what does it mean one takes from the environment only Lo Lishma?

R. A person receives from the environment all kinds of impressions, inspiration, opinions, and sensations. All these things when he receives them, they influence him and bring him to certain states which are all Lo Lishma. He needs to work with them and convert them to Lishma. In other words, there is great work here, very major work to correct his impression from the environment from Lo Lishma to Lishma.

9. S. (01:11:39) It is written that man is the tree of the field, meaning it is our personal work. How do we turn this individual work in this article to work with the group? How does this coincide with working in the group?

R. It is as we learned that after we read the article in the group then we need to discuss it, to divide it into parts because it is impossible to swallow it all and try to, in each and every part, to give a correct wrapping and then to come closer to that article, everyone together, in discussions, and accordingly we will try to understand and feel it to accept it internally, meaning that it is as if we rise to the level of the article and we can use it. 

S. The fruits we receive in the end is after all the work we do in the group we can receive the fruits of this tree?

R. Well yes, so?

S. That is the end of our work, kind of like in the group we will receive the fruits after we do all the work that we…?

R. Yes, it's the second time you said that what is next?

10. S. (01:14:25) It is written that if a person has been rewarded with the protecting angel that he's right in his judgment, what does that mean?

R. We are not going to go deep into this right now. One angel can put us into a depth that we still do not understand.

11. S. (01:15:11) It says in the text about not falling into arrogance or pride. The will to receive is very attractive when the thought wanders. How can we prevent this fall?

R. Through connecting to your friends. It is better that the friends' thoughts will enter you than thoughts about the world will be there or your own thoughts.

12. S. (01:16:02) It is written that we burn what was yesterday. What exactly do we need to burn, the connections we made, the impressions, or what?

R. All the waste that we get from the trees we usually burn it.

S. What is this waste?

R. Leaves, branches, warts, everything we cut off the trees. All that we burn.

S. How to understand that spirituality? What exactly do you mean?

R. I don't use it. I supposedly burn it. There is no other way to get anything from them.

S. These are all kinds of offsprings of the Sitra Achra? 

R. I don't know, it does not interest me. Now, you asked the question, and I answered it.

13. S. (01:17:29) He wrote that when a person does a certain work for the sake of the Creator the sign is if he yearns to humble that matter before a person and it is a sign that his intention is real. How is it right to humble or lower our deeds? How's that expressed in the Ten?

R. It’s not work for beginners. It is for someone who is very advanced, and we will learn it later on.

14. S. (01:18:08) It is written in the article that every day a person needs to give the Creator all the actions he did, both commandments and transgressions, and begin all anew and he mentioned several times we have to forget the past and start every day and anew. When we work in the Ten, in the group, many times we are reminded by impressions from conventions we had. What is the meaning that he says here in the article that we need to give back to the Creator everything from the past and start all over?

R. Every day we have to start with a blank page.

S. What do you mean by blank page? What do I have to leave from yesterday?

R. You don't have to leave anything for yourself. As it is written, that may be new in your eyes, and in this way, every day you start your work with a new page, a blank slate, based on yesterday all my previous discernments so then I do today's work much better.

S. Like Rabash says about forgetting about the past, what do I need to forget?

R. It's not does not interest me what happened. I take the work that I can do with the day that I have today.

S. What can I take from the day before?

R. Anyway you could take from yesterday everything you had but the most important thing is that you do not want to repeat the day from yesterday but that every day will be new in your eyes.

S. Meaning, if I managed yesterday to aim the friends then I cannot use that same principle of the work of yesterday?

R. Correct. 

15. S. (01:21:04) How to use the earthly thoughts as fertilizer to strengthen ourselves in the Ten towards the convention?

R. If we reveal and discover together the thoughts that disturb us, we have to connect above that today and in this way, we relate to them that upon them, upon yesterday, we are in an extra connection of today.

16. S. (01:22:09) We were talking about the path of correction of waste, and you said that the waste should be burnt. We also have waste that can be used as fertilizer so what different waste do we have here? One is using them to be burnt and one is used to get fertilizer. What's the difference between these wastes?

R. It depends on what type of fertilizer we have and types of waste and in this way we work. There are things that we can burn and then use, there are things that we bury in the ground, and by that, we, and that is the way we use it. That is all according to the way a person uses things that he does not see a need for them, a purposeful need for them, so he tries to have like a secondary need with them.

17. S. (01:23:54) It is written in the article that the essence of truth is revealed in the action. How can a person hold on to the right balance between the scrutiny and the action?

R. If a person reaches the right scrutinies which are final, so obviously he already understands what he needs to do with it.

18. S. (01:24:40) I wanted to know if, in terms of being motivated to do the work, are we supposed to try to find flavor in Torah and Mitzvot and by flavor I mean, feel, try, to make it so important that it almost feels good to try even though we know it’s egotistically, or is there a different way that we should go about it?

R. No, no, we can't do it in that way. Not in any action, we can't give ourselves opportunities to return to our weaknesses and to make a place for our egoistic desires that are opposite of the goal of the purpose of creation.

S. How do we not do that before we have vessels of bestowal?

R. By restriction. I close myself; I won't let myself burst out into all kinds of actions and by this, I lower myself to the animate degree.

19. S. (01:27:04) He's describing a situation where receiving it as a goal brings him to pride, to effort in reason, that it is worthwhile to be a servant of the Creator. The question is why can't we use this sometimes? It’s similar to the question that a friend asked but what is the difference between that and the pride of one who serves the Creator? 

R. I did not understand, repeat.

S. He is describing a state of receiving the work of a day into pride. It brings him into work within reason to understand that it is worthwhile for him to work and serve the Creator. Should we prevent ourselves from seeing the day as the goal, not every day?

R. Yes, but that you take it as something worthwhile to approach it, to reach it on behalf of your will to receive, I do not think that is possible, it will not be a day.