Daily Lesson March 3, 2024 (Morning)

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

Part 1. Rabash Article No. 8, 1990. What It Means that Esau Was Called “A Man of the Field,” in the Work.

Reader: Hello, we are reading the writings of Rabash. The article, “What it means that Esau was called a man of the field in the work.” The study material is on Sviva Tova and the Arvut system. You can send questions live through the sites. Anyone asking a question in the study hall should stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loudly and clearly. 

Reading Article: (00:31) “The Zohar says, it is written here, a skillful hunter…”  

R. (36:51) Someone asks, and someone replies, yes? Everyone listens to the question, let's see who can answer. 

S. (37:16) In the paragraph right before last, it says, Therefore, a man who begins to do the holy work, meaning, to do everything in order to bestow, should be careful from the externality. He should not deceive himself while doing the actions, which is the work of Lo Lishma, not for our sake, and he should tell his body, now I am engaging in Torah and Mitzvot, Lo Lishma, and through it, I want to come to Lishma. Why is it important, when he works in externality, in actions, why is it important that he will not deceive himself, as if he is working Lishma? What is the warning here? 

R. Who can reply? 

S. (38:11) The deficiency needs to be clear. 

R. What? 

S. The deficiency, what he is asking for, needs to be clear.

R. I didn't understand. What do you mean, a clear deficiency? What is he asking? For his real situation? You are saying something indirectly. I don't understand what you mean by a real deficiency. Go ahead. Ok. Yes.

S. (38:52) He writes, in the intention, it's called in order to bestow, because this is the whole correction of Malchut. 

R. Yes. 

S. There is a place for a person to deceive himself, meaning that this is something given to the heart, and it's not apparent on the outside, that it is possible for him to criticize.

R. And? 

S. So concerning the intention, a person cannot trust himself. 

R. So, what does he do? No, no, no what he asked. You answer.

S. What does he do? In the sages, that he can force himself in that. 

R. Who wants to answer? Yes. 

S. (40:07) Thank you very much, Rav. He writes here, our correction, this is why this correction of not receiving the delight and pleasure, is only on condition that we have the intention to bestow, called doing. 

R. Yes. 

S. The created beings need to do it, even though it's against nature. So, I'm saying, how do I really, how can I feel that my intention is real and correct to bestow? How do I check myself that I'm really aiming at what I do? 

R. You have to aim yourself in order to bestow. Yes, that's it. That's the answer. How to do it? 

S. I constantly demand this from the Creator, to direct me to ask for this intention, but once I do something, I don't always feel 100% that I have all the intention there. 

R. Probably the action is incomplete. 

S. Oh, so that's what we learned in yesterday's morning lesson, that a complete action with a complete intention. Meaning, how do I come to perform an act completely, even before I direct it completely? How do I make this effort where I say, this is the right complete action? 

R. You check your intention, and then you raise your request to the Creator to help you do an action and an intention in order to bestow. 

S. But the fact that I'm asking for it shows that there is some deficiency, and I understand that I'm not in the right place. 

R. You're not in the right place, because your intention is still in order to receive until the Creator corrects it.

S. So, I have to feel this correction in my relation to the friends, to the Creator? I have to feel this correction more and more each time. 

R. Yes. Who else wants to say something about this? No, about this. Yes. 

S. (42:38) The work in Lo Lishma checks the direction in the opposite manner. Previously, there was no correction. The Lo Lishma creates a correction. A person can correct the direction toward the Creator. 

R. That's correct. That's what's needed. Okay. Let's move forward. No more questions. No. Also, on the screens, I don't see anything. Not from the women. Oh, we do have. 

S. (43:20) Kyiv 1. What does it mean to be a hunter, a man of the field, and to pray in the field? What's the difference between them? 

R. If I am in the field, and I discover myself to be still in order to receive in my intention, I do all sorts of actions that help me replace the intention, in order to bestow. This is basically the whole thing. So, we have to hunt in the field and do that in order to bestow, meaning connect with the others in order to bestow.

S. What does it mean to go out to the field? 

R. To go out to the field means to look for correction over man's nature. When one is looking for how can he be similar, closer to the Creator. 

S. Is there a correction in our common desire? 

R. Yes, the field is the Malchut that a person connects to in order to bestow. He receives strength from there and corrects himself in order to bestow. 

S. Let's say I connect to the friends in the Ten. What does it mean that I add corrections to this connection? 

R. You, too, add to your friends' desires in your group, in your Ten. You add your inclination or tendency to be a giver to others, and this is how you all connect more and more. 

S. (45:50) Yes, Rav. It says in the passage that he believes in the written Torah and not in the oral Torah. What is the written Torah and what is the oral Torah? 

R. Yes, well, who can answer? Does anyone remember? 

S. (46:24) Yes, the oral Torah is things he does in practice, like writing. He can read the oral Torah relying on knowledge of the sages, but he can't see it with his eyes. 

R. Okay, more. Any other opinions? Yes. 

S3. (46:54) I think the oral Torah is faith above reason, and the written Torah is faith in the sages, everything that they received and have given to us, and we combine them. 

R. Okay could be, yes.

S. (47:23) I think it's written here. We see here that Hillel said that without faith in the sages, there is nothing. 

R. Yes.

S. So maybe it's also believing in the sages, but it's also an answer to the previous question. Our test, if we are on the path or not, is if we need the help of the Creator with a request of faith above reason. If not, then it's clear we're still buried in the will to receive.

R. Okay. That's it? Yes.

S. (48:04) Is there a matter of correcting the intention to bestow? But what does it mean to correct the desire, so it is in order to bestow? 

R. No, there is nothing to correct about the desire. Maybe he writes it that way, but the desire can't be changed. The desire is a desire, and that's it. What we can change is only the intention. Our desires, that is, our actions, we don't need to change. Therefore, that's why our entire work is invisible. It's only the intention.  

S. (49:01) He is talking about the shame that a person comes to instead of shame in the will to receive, and then it gives him the work to overcome the shame. Can you explain more deeply the process? Because the will to receive is natural. So why should a person be ashamed to receive it if it's natural? 

R. The will to receive is natural on the degrees of still, vegetative, and animate. On the speaking level, the will to receive is accompanied by a sense of I, more than others, different from others. And here, the sense of shame helps the person that he has to work on his ego, and on his will to receive so that he won't be ashamed of any tendency or incident that he goes through. 

S. Is this shame inherent in the will to receive? 

R. Yes, yes, yes of course. The shame resides inside the will to receive. 

S. So, just as I want to enjoy shame afterward awakens. 

R. Yes.

S. But how does that make us labor? 

R. It necessitates you to labor. 

S. In the shame? 

R. Yes, of course. A lot of people do whatever they do because shame necessitates them.

S. So the whole trick here is not to be ashamed but just go all out into this thing with faith above reason? 

R. Yes. Look at all the people sitting here. Why will they not just scatter across the big city and take charity, let's say? One who receives charity throughout the day, let's say, earns the same amount they do.

S. But some people do ask for charity, and they lose the shame. 

R. Yeah, it's not that they lost the shame. They have some justifications. It's not that simple. 

S. (51:43) He explains in the article about two states of labor as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load. What is the difference between them? Because it says that a donkey to the load is the heart, and the ox is the mind. What's the difference between them? 

R. It's the difference between mind and heart. 

S. Why is the donkey the heart and the ox the mind? 

R. The ox is closer to the landlord. And the donkey is closer to the doing. That's how they differentiate this thing in the direction of the landlord or the direction of the work. And we have to work on both. 

S. The states of coercion in the current state we will always use coercion or is it only on the first stages of the path? 

R. Until the end of the road.

S. Until the end of the path do we have to work by coercion? But there are states when the Creator is revealed so then we don't need coercion. 

R. Of course, yes, of course, but still, it remains until the end of the path only at the end you finish it. 

S. In the first stages from what I understand, it's more by coercion and the more we advance it decreases? 

R. On the one hand, it goes down, on the other hand, it becomes revealed.

S. And in our current stages from where do we get the strength to go with coercion against the will to receive? 

R. To the extent that we talk about it and wish to achieve that out of shame towards the friends and towards ourselves, I can't allow myself to once again go back to the same state as before. 

S. How do we relate to this feeling because of this coercion that we force on the will to receive there's a feeling of weakness. 

R. Yes.

S. We are weak, you feel weak that you don't have the strength to overcome or that you kind of half overcome. 

R. Imagine in front of you an enemy and overcome it.

S. It is only with the help of society, alone a person cannot overcome it. 

R. Okay, they write about it. Quite a bit is written about it. Yes. 

S. (54:58) To continue, he writes a person must begin the work with faith about reason because within reason there was a concealment and then the work begins with choice. Meaning a person has to accept the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven, which means as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load, meaning although the body disagrees with doing it if it doesn't see what it's done with this work because it's the nature that the Creator created to do that a person must see what he does meaning what is done with his work he needs to see who enjoys the work that he is doing. To continue, I can understand forcing the body to do, forcing the will there is a society you want to be respected by the society you don't want to be embarrassed so, I can do all kinds of things that the society decides I have to do, even if it's to bestow upon others which I don't want to but how can I force the intention how can we force the heart? 

R. Same calculation. 

S. How? 

R. You now simply told us that you can overcome your desire and fulfill another desire, correct? 

S. Yes. 

R. In order to do what? 

S. In order to be respected, to be important in the eyes of society.

R. To get something, right? So, what's next? How can you shift this to the degree of relating to the Creator? 

S. That's the question.

R. The Creator will very much enjoy you beginning to relate to the friends with love. That will be the best gift for Him.

S. I know I want to. How do I really begin to love them? Because when there is no overseer, the society oversees me.

R. The society too can give that to you, yes. 

S. In the heart, there is no overseer it can go in a thousand directions and thoughts and desires. 

R. That depends on how you aim your heart. If you open your heart towards the society a bit more and you imagine to yourself that what exists in your heart is seen by the friends, then you ask the Creator to help you aim your heart closer towards the friends.

S. (58:05) What's the right approach to faith in the sages? 

R. You have to believe what they wrote that it will be as a law for us.

S. I'm checking whether I believe or not if I agree or not.

R. Yes.

S.  What do I do with disagreements? 

R. Ask the Creator to give you the strength to understand how much you are not with them and that you will have the strength to do it. 

S. (58:59) Man's heart is a desire, right? 

R. Yes.

S. And the intention is it also in man's heart? 

R. Yes. 

S. What's the function of the mind? I mean mind and heart. 

R. The mind it's more about weighing things and sorting things out. 

S. Correcting the desire, it is to ask to correct the heart. 

R. Yes. 

S. And the role of the mind is to go above reason if I understand correctly? 

R. Yes.

S. So, who do I work with? Which do I work with? 

R. You work with both. You can't completely separate the mind and the heart. You rather want to work more with your mind because here you can hold yourself and be in some sort of judgment but with the intention, it's a problem. In the intention, you can very quickly escape and not exactly hold on to the intention.

S. And in between them who manages whom? Or maybe it's not like that. Do they work together or what? 

R. One depends on the other but it's not mandatory. We who get bit by bit get closer. To give an answer that a person is not going to use is not good, it will just confuse more. Okay.

S. (01:00:54) Our desire is like a gushing river.

R. Okay.

S. How do I stop this river? So, I don’t drown? So, I can change the direction of the river. How do I place a restriction on such a stormy river? 

R. By the friends you can share the river across with everyone and work with only one route.

S. Like a family of beavers. The beavers who are building dams, he's asking about that.

R. Ah, okay.

S. What are the sticks and stones? 

R. Yes, I understand. 

S. To build the dam? 

R. The dam, like a wall. So, what are you asking? 

S. What's the material of the dam? 

R. Oh, it's what he sees right next to the river. All kinds of pieces of wood and so on, so what? 

S. Yes, but in the Ten in our work what are the things that will give us the strength to work against the river? 

R. We want to find a dam meaning a wall in the middle of the river so that the water from the river will move in our direction, yes? Okay, what are you asking? 

S. What are the materials of the dam? 

R. The substance of the dam is trees and rocks.

S. Yes, but what are the sticks and stones in our work? 

R. Our desires, our desires that we don't want to let the river just flow wherever it goes we want it to go in our direction, by that we come to the Creator.

S. We should pay attention to good examples of the great ones around us. 

R. Okay all right, next.

S. (01:04:04) Right, so before we move to the next part of the lesson, we'll sing a song together.