Shabbat Morning Lesson November 28, 2020 Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves possibility for errors
Excerpts from the sources: “Work with Faith Above Reason”, #43
Rav’s Introduction:
1. WSQ: (00:23) Let's do a workshop to start with, each group speaks within itself agrees on what is faith above reason in one sentence or two, and then we get the permission to tell everybody what it is, so everybody in the groups we want to come to the definition as short as accurate as possible, what is faith above reason? Go ahead in a minute everybody gets a chance to speak.
2. WSQ: (03:27) How do we prefer bestowal to reception if we are all opposites, so how can we prefer bestowal over reception if we are all opposites? Let's speak in the tens, come to uniform agreement and then we ask for permission to speak so how do we come to bestowal being more important than reception?
3. S. (06:44) Bestowal is of the group and its importance builds a common consent and through the mutual consent in the ten we build a common screen.
4. S. (07:23) I try to say this way, it takes two steps, the first is when we feel it is worthwhile, or something is pulling us to it, and the second step is pure bestowal which becomes the most important, it is through nullification and subjugation in the ten.
5. S. (07:53) We should take the thoughts that the Creator is sending, and with them think how we can correct them, so we can together correct and work in the group with what the Creator is sending to us.
6. S. (08:27) With the mutual, collective work in the group we rise above reason and reach a common view.
R. Very nice.
7. S. (08:47) By adding the common force, penny by penny becomes a big amount, and this is how we reach a common screen.
R. This is also good.
8. S. (09:02) We play the game of bestowal in the group, use envy and everybody can get that.
R. Excellent, today the UK is better than everyone so far.
9. S. (09:30) I think that this is a practical goal that can be achieved if there is an illumination of the light of Hochma with the state of Bina being made by us with the Hassadim increasing the intention then the light of Hochma comes and we add a little bit.
R. No, this is not said this way you have to be more accurate.
10 S. (10:35) By organizing myself to want to do everything like the friends.
R. Correct, the basis, the foundation is correct.
11. (11:04) S. Whatever the Creator is giving, have to ask Him to work with the question, what is faith above reason.
R. Correct.
12. (11:30) S. To serve the friends' needs putting our own needs in the hands of the Creator, even though we are concerned for our needs, we serve their needs.
R. Nice very nice.
13. (12:02) Importance comes when the environment has importance,
R. I have to see to the importance then it will be as a means to reach faith above reason. This is correct.
14. S. (12:34) Faith above reason is when there is joy with the connection of the ten, with every means.
R. When I feel that I am happy, it is worthwhile, I want to always be connected to the ten in all the states we go through, and then I am already in an act which is faith above reason there, are many actions in this too, but in the end it is like that, it is like the ticket to entering the upper world that exist entirely in faith above reason.
15. S. (13:30) Seeing only what's outside of me in the friends.
R. This is very good, this is very true.
16. S. (13:45) In the adhesion of the friends above my own adhesion.
R. That also is correct.
17. S. (14:02) Thanks to the importance of the Creator, and the friends and the books and the teacher give me this importance, we reach a prayer and then the Creator gives an opportunity to prefer bestowal over a reception.
R. This is also very correct, look at how the answers are somewhat different, but they're all correct.
18. S. (14:35) The importance of the friends and the ten.
R. This is also a means to reach it.
19. S. (14:50) To nullify ourselves in the ten in order to reach connection as much as possible, to be present in the ten and make correction and nullification as soon as possible.
R. Yes, it is also true.
20. S. (15:30) I start playing the Creator's game, the game of bestowal.
R. Well, this is also fine, this is also correct.
21. S. (15:54) Restricting myself, opening the heart to the friends and opening in the direction of the Creator.
R. This is too broad.
22. S. (16:59) When my desire feels less important than the group's desire.
R. This is very good. Nice, very concrete approach, nice this is really felt as a powerful thing.
23. S. (17:36) To always stay attached to the friends despite whatever is happening, whatever happens to any of the friends.
R. This is correct, true, like a baby catches the mother you latch onto the group and never let go of them whatever state you go through during 24 hours, this is very, very important and instrumental, effective.
24. S. (18:20) To pray to the Creator to the good that does good and by this reach faith above reason.
R. Yes, that too is correct but there is more to it.
25. S. (18:45) To only see the examples the friends are setting and to be sensitive to what they are yearning for.
R. Yes, that is also true.
26. S. (19:09) I am talking to the Creator through the friends.
R. This is correct, but we need to examine, define, learn what it actually means to talk to the Creator through the friends.
27. S. (19:39) Totally immerse into the love of friends and feel that I depend on them every minute, and to bestow to the friends and the world Kli.
R. Excellent.
28. S. (20:05) When the past remains with what the lower one has and the future is faith above reason.
R. Correct.
29. S. (20:30) To fear constantly everyday that we have not enough strength in the connection between us, not enough providing love, because at the end the objective is to attain adhesion.
R. We are vessels, the light comes from above and the tighter we are to each other, the closer we are to each other, to that extent the light will be able to fill us, to reveal itself in us.
30. WSQ. (20:17) The next question is how do we see, accept that we do not receive the light, not that we get close to the Creator, but we get close to each other to build the vessel. Where we can do something not to yearn for spirituality for ourselves, but to yearn to build the conditions for spirituality to be revealed in us? How to shift from the tendency towards the light to the tendency towards the connection between us, which is the main thing, which is the basis of the work? Can we do this, let's think about that, how do we think about a connection as the main instrument for achieving spirituality, achieving bestowal to the Creator, that everything depends only on the connection between us.
WSQ: How to shift the emphasis from the light even from the Creator, from all kinds of spiritual forms to the connection between us as this is the vessel for the spiritual action. How to shift all our concerns only to this, if I catch myself during the day and I think about the Creator, I think where am I, I think of what is with the upper light, when will it finally influence me, when will it reveal to me, when will I get closer to spirituality? How can I think instead of this more about the reason for it, the means for it, the principal instrument for it, so I have to be connected and then I will have a vessel and instrument, with which I will be able to approach spirituality? So how can I shift myself from all kinds of spiritual pictures to build the spiritual vessel?
31. S. (25:09) We increase the importance of the connection of the ten talking about it all the time and setting an example, will be the basis for entering spirituality.
R. We can't constantly talk to others to be connected to them so what do we do throughout the whole 24 hours that we will constantly be inclined and leaning toward connection between us that this will be first and foremost the basis for entering spirituality.
32. S. (25:51) To try to reveal the Creator specifically in the ten not in me but like in the workshop to look for him between us.
R. Fine.
33. S. (26:14) To always be yearning for the lack of the friends to be filled.
R. That is the means, the safest instrument.
34. S. (26:56) I am asking of the Creator every moment, every second to think, to ask the Creator to give me the strength to love the friends more, only to ask from the Creator more light so I can ask for the friends every moment every day.
R. In other words constantly to be connected to the Creator with a prayer to help me love the friends, to come to love of friends.
35. S. (27:36) I cannot exist without the ten and I have to visualize this everyday, I have to remain connected with my spirit in the ten because the ten is the Creator, and the Creator is in the ten.
36. S. (28:06) A common assignment, so all the friends can do it during the day all the time, and we connect through this daily assignment.
37. S. (28:25) To see myself as the lower part of the ten and they depend upon my correction for correction and to use the Torah firstly for self-correction.
38. S. (28:46) Do I have the desire to give all day to care for the friends that they will want to bestow all day to be out there Kli.
R. Meaning to pray for the friends that they will be in bestowal.
39. S. (29:18) Pray to the Creator that every individual in the ten, with his special uniqueness can hold the intention in the group all day long.
R. Yes, but this is difficult, this is the problem.
40. S. (29:52) A person should think about the friends and we have to nullify ourselves and give happiness to their friends so the Creator would be happy.
R. Correct.
41. S. (30:32) When we're all in the same intention we thank the Creator for everything and see Him as the good who does good.
R. Fine.
42. S. (31:11) The Creator is a pure bestower and He is only revealed to those who can give bestowal too, and this way He can bestow to them.
R. That is correct, the Creator is revealed to the extent that I also want to bestow to someone else, through similarity, this is true you said it well.
43. S. (31:49) With constant prayer for the friends, and I forget about myself.
R. Yes this is true, this is one of the signs that my prayer is correct.
44. S. (32:18) Pray to the Creator to give strength to nullify to the group, for the sake of the unity of the group.
R. Yes, it's very nice.
45. S. (32:43) Not to care about this situation itself, but to care about how to respond and realize it correctly, as there are no bad states that come from the Creator.
R. That is correct.
46. S. (33:03) To be in a constant request for the friends with an intention for the friends all the time like a mother caring for her son and to ask for the ability to ask for them.
R. Yes.
47. S. (33:32) So all friends reject the evil inclination everyday and as we are doing the same work in order to reach equivalence of form between us.
R. Is this enough to reject the evil inclination?
S. I don't know.
R. By simply rejecting the evil inclination we still can't connect, let's say each one discovers that his evil inclination harms him in all kinds of ways so we reject the evil inclination and become good but totally unconnected to each other. We are kind of floating in the air without connection in between us without a vessel, why do we need to get rid of the evil inclination? There are many people who would like to get rid of their ego but what for? So here is the question, the order of operations do we need to first of all determine for ourselves the goal which is bestowal connection and adhesion between us and the effort force and with all of nature which is really the Creator and therefore we have to rise above our ego as the obstructor, on the one hand on the other hand it helps us because by rejecting it we come to connect among us and to that force of connection that is called the Creator. So, it's not enough for us to move away from the evil inclination, we have to first of all, decide that we have to achieve bestowal, connection, love the good inclination. Otherwise we will not receive help from above, why do I need to move away from my ego? To be a nice person, in whose eyes? If I don't do anything good to others by this, we need to understand there are two forces in creation for the reception and one force of bestowal all there is nothing in between so I cannot get rid of the bad force unless I replace it with a good force, there is nothing in between I can't be in zero, I am either in plus or minus. It has to be very clear to me and I have to put the emphasis on it that I am going specifically to connection, to bestowal, to the quality of the Creator and then on the conditions that I'm drawn to this and I want to grab the connection, the power of bestowal to that extent I can disconnect from the power of reception.
49. S. (37:49) The main thing is not to let go of the thought that we're connected through the Creator and our work is to hold a ten and unity?
R. Correct, our connection can only be if we picture ourselves connected through the Creator, the Creator is the connector, he is the network of connections between us.
50. S. (38:24) Do I only see the quality of bestowal and the unity in the friends as promoting the Creator.
R. That too is correct.
51. S. (38:55) The exertion, the example for connection will be the vessel, the place where the Creator wants to increase our emotion, it is when I see the greatness of the friends behind their efforts.
R. Fine.
52. S. (39:26) There are many differences between us we can't understand and in this place we have to be sensitive to build a bridge for the sake of the entire body of ours, to feel these places and to do the work it is like a business.
53. S. (40:01) To go out to disseminate with the whole group on one hand it will make the Creator happy.
R. That is correct, but you need to connect the two more tightly together.
54. S. (40:26) S. You said there is only the force of bestowal and the force of reception, so my question is what does it mean, what does the middle line mean?
R. We are not talking about this now, think about what we are talking about.
55. S. (41:04) Each of us in the ten that's trying to collect the points in the hearts that exist in people's hearts to aim it toward the Creator and unity in order to receive the light that reforms?
R. Correct, Queens is the example of a group that we have been together learning the wisdom of Kabbalah for maybe 30 years even, 25 or 30, they are continuing on and on, good for you. I have the highest respect for them, for their exertion it is beautiful.
56. S. (42:00) It is like building any huge project, having meetings everyday with all of the teams so you take everything into the ten, you scrutinize every day twice a day, the mutual deficiency that as of this moment we have to feel for everyone, to hold it in the heart. Of course we take realistic steps to realize it to keep it.
R. Fine, but be more concrete.
57. S. (42:38) We feel that we have a load which is given to us only if we can push it together towards love of friends to bring it to the Creator.
R. Very well.
58. S. (43:02) Do you want what the ego doesn't want and to find tactics in the ten to awaken the point in the heart.
R. Nice. Nice twist.
59. S. (43:50) To pray to the Creator that will connect the ten with the love, 34 hours a day so we can be a conduit of bestowal to the world and by that to give him contentment.
R. Very well but 24 hours is enough for us, not 34, very good.
60. S. (44:20) We need to take care of the friends like the dearest person to us.
R. Correct.
61. R. WSQ: (47:56) How can we explain in one or two sentences that spirituality is built in faith above reason? How can we explain shortly, spirituality is built in faith above reason, talk about it in the group and then explain it in one or two sentences.
62. R. WSQ: (52:22) How can I depict myself being on the one hand in this world in the degree of still, vegetative and animate where my body, my beast lies, existing according to the function of the body as the verse goes, the physician is permitted to heal, and at the same time I exist in faith above reason, in the spiritual world, in the spiritual feeling, where I feel the forces of bestowal, the connections between everyone, how can I exist in both worlds this way?
63. R. WSQ: (55:51) It turns out that in our world we don't need to change at all with what is happening to us with this still, vegetative, animate and human or should we change? How can I be in faith above reason with the still, vegetative, animate and speaking of this world? How can I be spiritual also about what is in my corporeal beastly five senses?
64. R. WSQ: (01:00:21) How can I, by being in this world, meaning that part of reality the way it seems to me, but it doesn't matter as this is how I discover it, how can I, in that also, to discover the Creator? I feel that something is revealed all kinds of pictures and shapes, the laws of this world appear to me, revealed to me doesn't matter by which vessels, what's, how I discover it but how can I using what I have, what I see in front of me how can I discover the Creator with that?
65. R. (01:01:58) Are there groups in the world that can answer this? How can we in this world try to reveal the Creator through it?
66. S. (1:02:18) We use this world that is completely hidden in order to raise a deficiency for the quality of bestowal and this is how we rise degree by degree.
R. Fine.
67. S. (01:02:41) I look at this world through the ten, and discover the Creator in it.
R. Okay, that is also true.
68. S. (01:03:00) I am the same to think that everything that happens happens thanks to the environment that I am in, the ten, the group, the friends, the scent, the hearing, seeing, tasting, everything is revealed here.
R. This means that the Creator is the foundation and he reveals himself through all kinds of shapes and pictures I see in this world.
69. S. (01:03:42) We can leave the still, vegetative and animate as they are. What's important is for us to work on the intention and this is what helps us see the spiritual world together in the corporeal world.
R. Alright.
70. S. (01:04:11) If some part is revealed in us and that part we should find the Creator that they are not separate parts but parts in the system that we will gradually discover the Creator completely.
R. This is true and there is a lot to it, so how can I add to what I discover in my five bodily senses, how do I discover in that also the internal action of the Creator in that. What does he want in that, how does he activate it, why did it do it this way, how do I discover this? This is not a question for Belarus only it is for everyone.
71. S. (01:05:18) Through increasing the adhesion in the ten we have to understand that there is none else besides Him and feel it.
R.
72. S. (01:05:36) Through actions towards the ten and the group.
R. In general this is correct.
73. S. (01:05:56) Once the world was all connected in the soul of the Creator after everything broke we have become splinters, shreds and I know that in each shred, there is a spark of godliness and then through it we can reconnect to everything.
R. That is true it is the right picture.
74. S. (01:06:28) The love of friends and love all created beings, looking at the beauty of everything that was created in the love of the Creator.
R. Can't say anything against that, that is true.
75. S. (01:07:08) Specifically in this world the quality of the Creator awakens in us, the one who brings us the desire to unite in the ten in order to realize the quality of the Creator between us.
R. All in all, it's the Creator who is communicating with you and this way, looking at you.
76. S. (01:08:28) I live in my five worldly senses and I count the money three times....
R. Every time you see a flaw you are saying it is using the flaw and that's not the way that it's coming from the Creator. Anyone who judges does it with his own flaws, that is correct.
77. S. (01:09:21) A constant dialogue with the Creator through the ten.
R. Yes, this is truly the only correct approach to all of the different cases of the spiritual world with respect to me, when I relate to it only through the ten otherwise I stay in my imagination as being part of spirituality without the force of bestowal I can only establish through the ten.
78. S. (01:10:09) Nature over millions of years has built our world including our five senses so at least we shouldn't destroy, extinguish, harm, in other words we have to build a relation to the one who built it all and maybe give back to him.
R. Yes, correct.
79. S. (01:10:46) When we work together and become included within each other, higher forces operate on us the force of the Creator allows us to work in states that we don't understand as well as opposed to the five senses that when we don't understand something we stop and think, is this correct?
R. Correct.
Excerpt Letter 16 Baal HaSulam “Our sages just say it follows that the physician....”(01:11:20 - 01:13:06)
80. R. WSQ: So how can we do that in our life, in everything? Let's say I'm at my work with my friends in the forces of this world how can I and should I address everyone like the Creator standing behind them? Like with the Creator who is clothed in the doctor? How do we do this? How do I especially relate to my friends this way? When I look at my friends and I should relate to them in a way that it is the Creator standing behind them as it is written, Rabash writes more than once that the Creator is standing behind all of the friends, so how do I do this? How do I relate to it, how do I talk and how do I feel inside, how should I calibrate myself in order to relate to each and everyone this way, first of all to the friends, to be be that behind each and every one there is the Creator of standing and he is talking to me through this figure it is not then it is the Creator, it is none else besides Him this is how he wants to establish all kinds of right qualities in me to correct me with the right relation to him basically. Because if I relate to everyone properly that is how I am relating properly to the Creator. So how can I organize myself this way with respect to all of the revelations that are in this world with respect to me and how do I relate correctly to the friends?
81. S. (01:17:12) When I look with all of my might when I search and try to ask to connect to the friends into the ten but I can't succeed I am not succeeding because I don't have the strength anymore I have exhausted my strength so I pray to the Creator to give them to me.
R. Keep on going.
82. S. (01:18:01) To believe that everything is in private providence everything is for my benefit and everything is connected.
R. This is the right point to begin with. That everything is aimed at me, it is all for me and I have to relate to it the way the Creator is relating to me that is the right point to start with.
83. S. (01:19:00) Only in this world where the Creator doesn't exist, the created beings can be independent and build the form of the Creator among themselves so when I say after the physician heals me, that he did it by this I build the Creator. But we have to understand where this operation is among the friends it's not just some corporeal doctor
R. You build the Creator as a sum total of the desires of the friends connecting together this is how you build him this is how you make him, you have made me because this upper force does not exist, but only within the Kli. This is why this relation to the friends as a Kli to reveal the Creator, a Kli to establish the Creator is the only correct way to aim oneself to the Creator. This is why from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator, when you establish them out together all of these friends you reach a state where you feel what inclusive is, this inclusive force is a very special force, it is the integral force that lies above all of the details and that is the foundation, the basis of the entire creation. All of creation starts there outside of it, when it starts to divide to reach the discrete form and this is why when we in this way want to connect in order to find this one force between us, that is the center of the group and later even beyond that. In that resolution when we are capable of connecting in that precision, we start discovering the Creator as Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida, the main thing is Yechida, the one unique and unified.
S. So basically, I don't need to wait for a revelation, I can always build the right relation?
R. Nothing to wait for, it is a big mistake if we have to wait for the revelation of the Creator, it is the opposite we have to build him this is the difference between religious people and Kabbalists. We don't expect the revelation of the Creator in a way that we don't build it, only to the extent that we take part practically, we make the place and we establish him. It's not like fools who sit with their arms crossed eating their own flesh, when will the Messiah come? Not at all and how come, why should it come and who is that? Who's Messiah? Messiah is a force that is pulling you from all of these feelings that you are somehow disconnected from the friends to a point that you are finally in a finite way connected. Messiah is the force that is pulling you out of the small will to receive. Maybe you don't identify it yet, but it is still standing in your way of attaining the unity. Attaining unity is the purpose of our goal.
84. S. (01:23:13) Increasing the importance by lack of participation in the life of the group brings lack of power in the upper force in this open suffering over the whole world?
R. This is correct, your sentences were good.
85. S. (01:23:47) I relate to the friends as too great and I feel myself as small with the intention to bestow.
R. Yes, that is on the one hand, but on the other hand it is impossible, you can't hold on only to one side that I decrease myself Rabash writes about the articles of the group as one hand I should see myself is greater than everyone else who can pull everyone after me, truly so. That should be both the bottom point and the high point as well, truly. All of the friends are between these two points for me, once I decrease myself below them I am like a zero, as many zeros as I can and the other times I increase myself so as much as the zeros can stand behind me and only the gap between these two can I build my right relation to the ten and in general the relation to the whole world. We have spoken about this that by this I can include the whole world even all of the great Kabbalists because the point in my heart is special, it is very special, no one has it and I am connected to the Creator in that same point and no one can be connected in that point with the Creator because no one has that same point. That is why when I through that same point, bestow the connection to the Creator then that makes me special, I am Keter by that, this is how each and everyone is.
86. S. (01:25:57) To be in such concern that only my small prayer is missing in this general vessel.
R. That is correct, that is the right intention.
87. S. (01:26:18) Do I attribute everything to the Creator and build a dialogue with Him and internal and external connection with the friends in the ten?
R. Yes, that is our work.
88. S. (01:26:38) Building a covenant in the ten and through the ten to turn to the Creator.
R. That is correct, that is the right direction.
89. S. (01:26:56) The Creator controls the world, the Kabbalists have divided everything into two and every action he turns to the source that sustains everything yet the...
R. Okay, we have to keep going with the explanation because it's not so clear to everyone what you mean.
90. S. (01:27:34) We have to see all of these pictures that way since in our world as a sign from the Creator doesn't matter good or bad and we have to see it as a possibility for connection in the ten and then we have to pray in the ten to the Creator that he gives us the force to come to a better connection and then after this to bring the vessel back into the ten.
R. That is nice.
91. S. (01:28:18) To be healthier in this world and get from it the strength to annul myself in the ten.
R. A song.
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