TIKKUN CHATZOT: Lesson on the topic of “Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends”

Morning Lesson January 1, 2022, Transcription

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

Part 1: Preparation for convention “Rising Above Ourselves”

Lesson 4: Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends

1.Rav’s Introduction: Certainly, we have nowhere to get the greatness of the goal. We were once connected together in one system, one mechanism. We existed in such a form to begin with, such that this is how the upper force arranged us. Later on in order to elevate us to an independent degree, to feeling and understanding and attainment of the vast reality and the Creator Himself, the one unique and unified force that is holding inside of itself the whole of reality, the shattering occurred; so that we would go through the stage of the shattering that exists in us and from it we will rise once again to the state of connection. When we come back to the state of connection in which we existed before the shattering, before what we call the sin of the tree of knowledge, then by that we obtain the two states, the state of disconnection and the state of connection. And in between these two states we then begin to feel what the created being should feel: the whole of the true reality between the plus and the minus, the light and the darkness and so on, because these two states broken which are and whole include within them everything. When we study these two states one opposite the other then we attain the system of creation to its full extent, its essence, its purpose, and then we understand out of the disconnection and connection not only those states in the system but also the upper mind, the upper providence that it is actually managing us and how can we attain it and become incorporated in it. And how do we actually reach a state where we manage everything up to the state of “my sons have defeated me” when we truly become great and equal to the upper force, that same force that is ruling nature? And even more than that we elevate ourselves through the upper force to degrees that exist even prior to the shattering, even higher than the shattering. That is through the shattering and the correction of the shattering we can acquire such discernments, forces, means that we can rise a lot earlier than the shattering and before the existence of the created being, truly into the degree of the Creator, to seemingly penetrate into Him into what He Himself is. These things we don’t quite have the words for them because our entire vocabulary comes specifically from the shattering of the vessels. The more we correct, as much as we correct our vessels, we acquire the shattering and the connection, but out of that we can also begin to receive certain discernments which are above creation, but this is still ahead of us. The most important thing we need to understand is that all of the ascents that we have are upon the descents, and all of our descents all come from the shattering. And there is nothing new in that a person discovers how broken he is, how mistaken he is and how much he doesn’t want it, is not ready for it, not willing. All of these negative things exist in us already and they all have to be revealed and we don’t need to be upset by the fact that they are revealed, we just have to regret the fact that they’re not revealed with a greater pace. As we read from the sources of Kabbalists they went through changes, let’s say 500 changes within 5 minutes as an example, the number itself it doesn’t matter. This is what we need to aspire to, as many changes as possible, ascents and descents, meaning the frequency in between the states. So let’s consider that we are advancing towards higher states or advanced states and this actually is the indication that shows us how much we are advancing, the frequency, just like in technology as we talked about in a previous lesson. Like in technology that the more we advance we shift to higher frequencies, so it is in the wisdom of Kabbalah. The more we advance through ascents and descents we advance towards states that are in higher frequency where they replace one another very quickly. This is not so important for us that we are before the revelation of ascents because it is actually good. I need to discover all of the descents that exist in my broken vessel and upon that I need to try to discover all of the ascents in the vessel that I’m going to correct out of the shattering, and it cannot be that someone will do this work instead of me. And this is how we advance. Therefore we shouldn’t pay attention so much to the states that we are going through but rather that we are constantly holding onto the goal and we are concerned about the greatness of the goal. And the greatness of the goal as we see from the title of lesson number 4, deriving or suckling the greatness of the goal from friends, because all in all in me in each and every one of us there is no greatness of the goal. It can be only on my level but if I want a higher level that can be only from us connecting, meaning becoming incorporated more in a society. There I discover the goal as closer and the greatness of the goal is more conspicuous, better understood, better felt. Well, we will reach that, in the meantime let’s start.

Reader: Lesson # 4 – Deriving the Greatness of the Goal from the Friends

Deriving the greatness form the Friend

Excerpt #1 Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 225, “Raising Oneself” (09:18) Twice

2. R. (10:44) In simple words I would say that our goal is to come back to the system of Adam HaRishon where we are all connected in a single system. We’re all connected, we’re all incorporated, everyone feels everyone because otherwise you cannot work in that system. Imagine to yourself a mechanical engine where all of its parts have to be working in collaboration. So all-in-all what we have to have in order to come back to the correction is that each one finds himself as much as he is in a correct connection with all the other parts, and therefore all of our advancement should be only in that. This is the hardest work. There specifically our ego is present and it resists it, but we have no other place, no other work besides us being drawn to connection, forcefully against our desire. And only in such a way we are directing ourselves in the right direction. There is nothing else to do, but only what we call raising Divinity, the Shechina from the dust or that system of connection between all the souls together. And then we can discover the power of connection, the Creator out of something and its opposite, as much as we discover the shattering and as much as we discover the connection.

3. S. (12:41) I wanted to ask what does the shattering add for us to attain the upper intellect, the essence of the purpose of creation? What does the shattering add?

R. The shattering is a special thing the Creator has created, prepared for us. He created a corrected system like the one we attain at the end of correction, but on His part, the side of the Creator, meaning without our participation, without our involvement, without it being 620 times more as we make this system greater through our feelings. So the Creator created the system, He arranged the system according to the upper light that He prepares. He creates the evil inclination even though the evil inclination is the force that is opposite the Creator, the one that rejects it. But nevertheless the Creator positions that system in a state which is called the Garden of Eden, the degree of Bina. It’s not the degree of Gadlut, it’s when the created being exists in the light of Hassadim. Therefore this is what the Creator did, then He breaks it. He breaks this vessel from the degree of Bina to the degree of Malchut, in order to receive, and we need to start to get to know it and to correct it, fix it. And therefore all of the corruptions that are revealed in us are revealed only from that same source because we are broken, meaning what the Creator has prepared for us. And therefore the fact that a person discovers all kinds of negative phenomena that exists in him it seems to him that it exists in him and it’s his fault and he’s seemingly doing it, but that is incorrect. The Creator has prepared it and therefore we should be happy with the bad as with the good, we enjoy the fact that it is revealed. It’s like we see with doctors, that they search and do X-rays and all kinds of tests and all kinds of things until they find the true cause. And when they find the true cause that’s good already. Then it is possible to take care of it seriously. Otherwise beforehand they are truly in a state of confusion, perplexed, they don’t know what to do. Therefore the revelation of evil is more important than everything because from it begins the correction and the good. If it is revealed as Baal HaSulam writes in his letter that he is happy to see a student who has the feeling of evil because in the revelation of those wicked ones we actually reach the corrections. And therefore this is what we need to understand, that we have to go through all of the bad things, and we have to relate to them also as good things which come to us after we correct the bad things one by one; and that we ourselves in the bad and also in the good we actually relate to them uniformly. It doesn’t matter to me if it is bad or good because through these two revelations I’m advancing towards the middle line, the Creator. So the Creator prepares for me in advance the line of corruption, the left line, and I through the group I discover our good states as we approach Him, which is the right line, and in that way, I come to the revelation of the Creator which is the middle line.

S. (18:14) How does the shattering, if I understand correctly, it raises us from Katnut, from Bina to Keter, to Gatlut. What is in it that this addition happens?

R. The shattering reveals to us the deficiencies. That there was a complete system and it was broken and now it is becoming revealed to us from the lighter to the heavier, gradually. The broken states become revealed to us and we need to correct these states through the connection between us, because this is the correction. It is all ahead of us, before us. There is nothing redundant here. There is the group and the revelation of the bad states in each and every one. Those states we just need to decipher them correctly. This bad that we are discovering we’re discovering it because it is distancing us, making one reject one another, making us impervious so we cannot feel one another, and we need the opposite. To constantly ask for correction so that my heart will open up to the friends, so that I will feel them as inseparable parts of myself.

S. (19:43) How can we add to the wholeness, where wholeness was created and the shattering adds to this wholeness?

R. Shattering adds to wholeness when it is revealed when our corruptions are revealed. So the more I correct these corruptions then I bring the system back to wholeness. This is how it works. And this is how it works in our world also, these are trivial things that we can understand from our life. Without the revelation of the shattering, of corruption, crimes, I cannot correct anything.

4. S. (20:48) The high pace of the switching of the different states is what brings us closer to the Creator?

R. As much as we discover corruptions and as much as we try to correct them, we enter higher speeds, higher frequencies. So the corruptions are revealed as we’re able to correct them with great speed. And it all depends on our efforts, on how much I arrange the group so that I will be able to use it to correct my corruptions. And this is what each and every friend does and how by that we also help one another.

5. S. (22:10) What is my circle when we say raising ourselves above our circle?

R. Whatever I have in connection with the friends, that is my circle. And I have to raise myself above the circle. Well of course you can say that there are additional circles in my connection in general with the world, with my family, friends and relatives, but the true circle towards which I measure myself are the friends with whom I build my spiritual circle. I need to understand that I cannot rise above this circle until as much as I become incorporated in them, inside of them. This is actually my vessel.

S. You said that the goal is to rise to the Creator’s degree. How to aim ourselves in our life to reach such a degree?

R. The Creator is revealed or the degree of the Creator is revealed through degrees, and from degree to degree. It never exists but rather we build it, “you have made me.” Why? Because we come out of this shattering, out of the records of the shattering. And therefore as much as we try to establish ourselves, raise ourselves from the shattering by that we build Him. “You have made me.” This is what is written.

6. S. (24:10) What does it mean to correct the corruptions?

R. The results of the shattering, all of the consequences of the shattering that the Creator has prepared in us deliberately – and there is nothing else besides that – we have to discover them and connect above them. And therefore all of the evil that is revealed we have to be happy about it as Baal HaSulam writes therein the letter, where is that letter, let’s research. “That I am happy about the wicked ones that benign revealed; that if you saw me and asked me why I am happy and why that joy, I said that specifically the revelation of those wicked ones we reach the sanctity of the day, etc.

Read that excerpt, we need to understand such things and constantly hold them inside that we exist in that form. There are states from which we must not decline but constantly have to renew them and keep them, renew them and keep them; and this is how we will advance quickly towards the goal. There is one rule, that everything is revealed is revealed out of the shattering which the Creator created and it’s not at our account so we should not regret the fact that we discover the evil, the bad, the corruptions that become revealed but rather we have to establish this system towards correction from the moment it is revealed and onwards, that’s my work.

The Creator had prepared all the corruption and He gave me the possibility to correct it, so how do I perform this correction? By arranging everything – the importance of the goal, the group, connection, etc. – what does it say there?

Reader : Baal HaSulam Letter # 5 (26:36- 27:23)

7. R. (27:35) So we should remember and understand that there are no new corruptions; it’s not that I now cause them, there is no evil that comes out of me, now, but rather all of the bad things they emerge themselves out of the shattering that occurred before us, back in the world of Atzilut. And therefore there is ‘nothing new under the Sun’ and therefore we should not regret the fact that evil is revealed but rather as Baal HaSulam writes here in the Letter that we should be happy when evil is revealed.

8. S. (28:14) In this article, he keeps on writing here that “when the evil that was concealed is revealed even though it’s not completely controlled, it is a great salvation”?

R. That is very important and also in our spiritual world, in our corrections I saw many people who are confused, perplexed, almost crying – that they’re eating themselves up, as we call it in an inner shattering, and this is an incorrect approach. It is incorrect because we should regret something else – the fact that we’re not getting corrections from the Creator but not about the states themselves that are being revealed. The states are being revealed, I should not regret it, these are states that need to be revealed from the general Kli and it doesn’t depend on me at all; to the contrary, I should be happy that I was given some great, important part in the system of Adam HaRishon so that I can correct it and I happily accept it. Therefore, as we see again here, “I’m happy with the wicked ones that are being revealed” and each and every one should write this before him so that he will see it all the time. That I need to reach a state where I am happy when such states are revealed when I feel weakness and then what can I do? When I’m helpless, lacking strength, lacking spirits – even though I am inside those states and I cannot move myself – I should still try to grasp in my thoughts as much as possible that these are states that are revealed out of the shattering of this system of Adam HaRishon and the Creator has prepared those states for me in order for me to start to rise from them to corrections.

9. S. (31:08) The process is clear, and then when things are being revealed I try to be happy with it. What is the correction, what comes after the joy, where is our correction?

R. First of all you have to arrange the group so that it will help each and every friend to be in an inclination forward and hen it is clear that in such a way none of the friends will be sad, lacking forces, but though they each and every time will feel that you are in a nice, good system that is moving from minus to plus, from minus to plus, and it is working in these two states just like … system especially our modern systems that work according to impulses with high-frequency – minus, plus, minus, plus, all the time through this process – and so we also in our spiritual systems, it is the same, however there the frequencies are a lot higher. But the changes that we feel are very slow changes but when we advance, we feel as he writes here that “it is hundreds of time a minute and even more,” and if we will start to count additional, inner things in our connections and interconnections, and our mutual influence between the Sephirot, etc., the speed is almost infinite.

S. Where is our correction after we establish everything and try to be happy, what is the correction of evil that is being revealed?

R. First of all, I’m grateful when evil is revealed, I am grateful for it. That finally now I discover another portion of evil, another portion of shattering from the general shattering of Adam HaRishon and now I can perform my partial, individual correction in that system – and it’s by doing it in my ten – and later on I double myself, multiply it from my ten to the greater Kli, we will learn later how it’s done but for now, in the meantime I need to do that. What we are talking about now, this is practical Kabbalah. Meaning to prepare ourselves for the fact: I am ready for the revelation of the evil, that the evil does not come from me – the Creator have prepared it for me, and now He is revealing it to me, I accept it with joy right – “I am happy about the wicked ones that are being revealed”, and later on, I shift to the good side, So what can I do about it, how can I organize my environment, my ten, and how did we reach the correction? That is, we are talking practically about how to approach the correction. We have no other work except for raising from the shattering of the system of Adam HaRishon.

S. What is this correction?

R. Connection, connection, there is no more.

S. Whatever is revealed we’re happy and we can reach a correction?

R. Only connection – upon all the things that are being revealed we just have to perform a connection. And then connection, we also don’t do it because out of the shattering we cannot see the right thing. We just have to draw the light according to the rules that we received from the Kabbalists and then when they are revealed, the corrections, from them we will understand one thing opposite the other, the shattering opposite of the correction and out of that, we will have experience and we will be rewarded with greater revelations of the shattering and greater corruptions. And greater revelations of corrections, and this is how we will rise out of the degrees. What is the difference between the degrees? That whatever you corrected on the first degree, raises you to the second degree and there you discover something that is a lot worse in the shattering. If you discovered the shattering in the systems of the light of Nefesh in the coarseness of Shoresh, Root, now once you’ve corrected it, you discover the shattering in the coarseness of Aleph One, light of Ruach, and this is how it is going forward, 125 degrees.

S. Just to say thank you to the team that prepared the experts, they are very beautiful.

R. We’re all feeling the same towards the entire team, and you see a few other people here. It’s not me, I just receive it ready and indeed when I get it, I’m also truly impressed by their work, really, I am jealous of them. How much they really know the sources and are always able to arrange it for us in the right way with the headlines and arrange the excerpts and everything. They are truly great, truly great, yes.

10. S. (37:40) Which force does the ten have on our path?

R. It is, the ten is a pattern, a mold we have to establish as vessel of Adam HaRishon. Each and every time he has to work in the direction that it connects to the extent that it reaches a certain connection between them when they already have some light, inner light in them then they can start connecting to all the rest of the tens, having some force of bestowal within to ten then the ten can be connected to another ten. And then by these forces of bestowal they start to seemingly connect between them. We will learn this – we should not deal with that now because it can confuse and ruin our path for us – but this is how the work is. First, each and every ten acquires a certain vessel of bestowal, light of bestowal, and then they can start connecting between them. It is like people are friends in a ten, that is how every ten will be with an adjacent ten. We’ll reach that, we’ll come to that.

11. S. (39:46) You have explained something and I think it is really beautiful. It is that we are moving away from our nature, distancing from it but it’s also something that is very difficult. I can’t. When I try to enter the ten, I can’t release myself from myself. It always interferes, so what kind of work I can do to dissolve in my friends until I don’t feel myself. and only my friends.

R. First of all you should try to walk with my words for a few hours until you attach them to different phenomena in your life. In the group and then you will see how you can keep on with that, that is all.

12. S. (40:55) The frequency of the revelation and the joy out of the revelation of evil, this depends on connection with the friends, this is how I feel it, so the question is how can we strengthen this connection between us today?

R. First of all, when bad things are revealed, when the distance and the rejecting each other, pushing each other away, the results of the shattering, you should be happy about them being revealed, and that joy from the correction will be almost like the joy from the corruption. When you discover a corruption, it is like physicians who are looking for what is wrong with this patient trying to see if we can see it and finally, they discover it. How relieved they are to see it, it’s a sigh of relief because it gives them light but what light is there? It is the revelation of evil but it’s the revelation – of evil. Not only bad, but it is also a revelation and this is why the light is in it already from above; and it gives us direction towards correction, that’s it. That is why we have to pay attention in this state of revealing evil. There is revelation here already. There are upper lights that direct us to the corrections and that’s how we keep on going. Meaning there is no state in our life that we can seemingly be in a sad state, helpless, having no strength. We should always see how much in these days the Creator has prepared these states for us. And even though we are completely disconnected, completely despaired, completely, completely, He has prepared it for us. We have to go through it, to correct these things. These things are very important and in them specifically we will later discover the intensity of correction.

13. S. (43:45) In respect to each and every friend, I discover a lot of hatred. With respect to the center of the ten, I feel here there is always light and love and the Creator, so how should I relate to that?

R. Relate to it like states that are still corrupt but still advance, more and more and more and more, ask the Creator to give you connection with the friends. You should reach a state with them that inside, in your heart, you feel that you somehow started being close to them. They touch you and you touch them and try to develop that.

14.S.(44:45) How can we force the Creator to correct the evil because we don’t have continuous connection with Him? You ask, He doesn’t answer immediately, it’s not like a conversation within the friends.

R. This is incorrect, incorrect. The Creator always answers immediately, it’s only you cannot hear it so don’t say about Him that you don’t get an answer. But rather it’s not some mail, or system, computers or something, it is you are getting an answer even before you have asked the answer is there and as a result of His answer, right? As a result of His answer, you’re asking it; you think that you’re first but about the Creator it is written that “ I am first and I am last.” This is good what you say, it is correct.

S. But it doesn’t help me, I apologize but what you’re saying now doesn’t help.

R. It will help you.

S. You’re answering me but I don’t hear the Creator’s answer. He doesn’t answer me by speaking, I can’t understand Him.

R. Listen up, if you will hear what I’m saying and you will try to organize yourself with respect to what you feel then you will start feeling it the opposite way. I am telling you, try and you will see that even before you do and feel and think the Creator arranges all these things for you; and also when you respond to what He’s doing to you that, too, is His arrangement – even you don’t want, as if you’re not content with Him using soft language – as much as you’re willing to curse Him and all of that, that is all done by Him. Try to see in everything that “I am the first,” as it is reasonable about Him and you will succeed, you are a fellow that should succeed, you have the dedication.

15. S. (47:20) What is in the act of connection that makes it into spiritual practice?

R. We don’t have anything else besides an action of connection, everything is spiritual practice and inside this practice we also get the theory – the spiritual theory – we don’t have anything besides that. As much as our ego, our will to receive conceals the importance of connection from us between one person and his friend. And look how it is all over the world in the degree of still, vegetative, animate. No one wants to accept one another, no one feels the other, everyone feels everyone only in the form of receiving, using, exploiting. We must see that besides this work, we have nothing to do. Do you know how many years it took me until it came up to my heart and I started to feel a little bit into work a little bit? It takes a long time but this is the direction where we have to help each other and also to show. To show others how successful they are, how successful we are – envy is the great force.

16. S. (48:54) Is joy in a state that is revealed, can it be at the same time that as total helplessness against something?

R. Well that’s clear, it’s like Baal HaSulam writes: “there is no happier moments in this life like the one he is despaired from his own forces, he sees no one can help him and he is worthy of an outcry to the Creator to help him, well you’ll remember that.

S. So I feel lowliness, inability to respond to the situation and at the same time I’m happy about it, both of them at the same time?

R. Yes, yes of course this is so. I have seen Rabash being in a very broken states and then he would aim his finger, point his finger at himself saying “let it suffer, let him suffer,” with such hatred I have never seen such hatred from him. “Let him suffer,” that was something I didn’t really understand, I certainly didn’t feel what he wanted to show by that. But it was truly a critical state.

S. So it turns out that the correction is in adhering to the Creator, nothing external with respect to the state itself but only in the joy that it is coming from the same source that Good that does Good even though I’m not able do anything to the situation itself?

R. Well let’s say this is how it is and that’s it otherwise you’ll start philosophizing around that. No, there is none as wise as the experienced. If you go through all these states, just increase the pace; the way to increase the pace is to be drawn to the connection or by the connection between us. It doesn’t matter what state you’re in, be drawn to the connection and by that you increase the pace forward, full speed.

Letter 55: Baal HaSulam (51:16 – 52:09)

17. R. (52:13) Nice, I like to add these things every time to the lessons so people will later be able to see it in the right flow.

18. S. (52:29) The revelation of the shattering is it only between me and the friends or it’s also something that happens in the world and I can, see?

R. No, it’s between me and the friends, that’s the main thing for me. I don’t look at all the changes that take place in the world. For me, I should look at it because I give these talks and answers about all kinds of things but the truth is for each and every one and for me, too, what is important is how close I get to my ten, that is it, only that.

S. Even the wicked ones, it’s everything that distances me from working in the ten?

R. Yes, yes, my whole correction is now only to raise my ten and later to enlarge the ten, to broaden it.

19. S. (53:26) If the frequency depends on the connection with the friends, then what does the connection with the friends depend on?

R. As much as you’re attracted to it, as much as you discover your heart – do you want to connect – and you look at the friends and envy, lust, and honor and all kinds of forms. You discover a need for connection and rejection from connection, that’s how we advance.

S. It seems as though there is advancement in the connection, the entrance to the frequency.

R. Advancement out of connection, of course, but you have to understand that it always comes from cessations: the feeling of distance and indifference and such things. There’s nothing to do about it. We have to understand that one cannot exist without the other, you want to advance a little bit, you have to make a few tacks, a few pulses forward and you can’t do it any other way, understand?

S. On what does the indifference depend, or the disconnection, what does it depend on?

R. It’s the extent of your connection with the group to that extent you determine the pace. And as much as you are concerned about the connection all the time, you’re pace will increase, you’ll grow, that is how you move on from macro to micro. It’s like waves, kilometers, meters, centimeters, millimeters, etc. until you reach such pulses that you have millions every second. And then they have the ability to give you very large quantities.

20. S. (58:51) Some time ago, you talked about this state when Rabash was suffering but we’re in such a state, how can we nevertheless feel joy?

R. We are small, we don’t need such forms of torment as Rabash and Baal HaSulam went through. Years of hunger, distress but rather what we have, we have, let’s accept it the way it is – the main thing is to focus on the connection between the friends and by this we can really make a leap, and can start being a real special vessel that brings Adam HaRishon finally to a general correction. We have many friends from many nations, various places in the world, very different roots and that’s good, actually. It gives us such incorporation, such multicolor – how should I say that – multifaceted way of the vessel and that’s the true vessel of Adam HaRishon. It’s a small dimension but it’s entirely this way; and this is what distinguishes us and the rest of the groups that are learning, maybe here or there in various shapes. We are above all the different limitations, the different discernments that are custom in our world, we are equal and we’re spread over the whole earth amongst everyone. This basically is our uniqueness, this is our strength so we have to try to make an even greater connection, more intense. Then we will succeed because we certainly are the correction of man, the correction of the general vessel.

21. S. (01:01:35) In the world outside, they are very much afraid of changes and changing conditions. Each and every one wants to remain in his circle but I see that also friends who don’t want changes. They want to stay in the same state and you said that we need to regret the fact that we don’t want to accelerate the pace of changes, so what should we regret?

R. Changes, first of all, all occur in our ten, each one in his own ten. No one comes out of the boundaries of his own ten and as much as we feel the ten becomes one vessel then we will also discover that the Creator is giving us opportunities to connect to other tens. But that is going to be a different kind of connection and a different degree, not in our current degree but in a higher degree so that there will be integration of these with those. It’s like a chemical connection we’re like all kinds of parts of molecules that connect with each other. So we will find the words for that, we will be in there, do not worry about it. It will happen.

S. How does the friend accelerate the changes in the ten and those connections?

R. By appreciating each and every one more than himself as Rabash writes, there is nothing else. I have to see the others, even though I don’t see them and always they seem to me lesser and it cannot be that I am greater than him in everything but with something, I’m greater than this guy, and something I’m greater than the other guy. So this thing of me being greater than someone else, I have to decrease it because that’s not what is important. I have to emphasize in what he’s greater than me and how much in that I can attach myself to him as a smaller with the greater because that is how I advance.

S. Can we say that the Congress is a state accelerator?

R. Of course, I also expect this Congress because in this Congress I too will do the same work – it’s the same work until the final correction – I will also take a few steps forward, specifically there when I will be able to annul myself more to the intensity of the whole big vessel called worldwide Bnei Baruch will have.

22. S. (01:05:02) I know that eating myself up is not good, we talked a lot about it. But this emotion nevertheless awakens in me and I don’t know what to do with it?

R. All the negative things that are revealed in us are only revealed for us to rise above them with the importance of the goal and the Creator. God forbid, we won’t be immersed in these states because they certainly come to us from the evil inclination, from the shell, Klipa.

S. To focus the question: I agree with you entirely but maybe the quality of eating myself up is this ego that I should let it suffer?

R. That’s correct, leave it aside. Let it eat itself up.

23. S. (01:06:16) Please tell me: what should be my response of the ten for the revelation of the hatred in me? How to relate correctly to me and how should the ten respond to such a state?

R. It really depends on their relations in the ten, how much this then is already advancing. I cannot tell you exactly how to respond to that. What the ten should show you is that they’re in connection between themselves and that they want you to connect to them but you also feel that they see you as not really part of them so that they will evoke envy in you and you will make all the efforts in order to connect to them.

24. S. (01:07:32) When we correct the corruptions, is there a difference between the individual revelation of evil of every friend in the ten or the revelation of evil in the entire ten?

R. Yes but you can’t yet distinguish between the revelation of evil in a personal way or group wise or worldwide. There are changes in it, yes.

25. S. (01:07:08) When we see that one of the friends has corporeal problems being revealed, is that also the result of corruption? Should we be happy with that, how do we correct it?

R. The corruption is revealed for us so that if we cannot take part in that corporeal correction with her, at least with her, we’re trying to pray for her and we try to help her internally by supporting her emotionally.

26. S. (01:08:45) How can we help the friend be happy with the wicked ones being revealed?

R. Discover that these are evils that are being revealed not simply troubles, for women especially these are more internal things with respect to children, the family, it comes to the bottom of their hearts. Men don’t really accept it internally like women do, for a woman it is the hormones, she feels inside her womb, meaning of a very internal place and that is why as much as she feels her corruptions, she also can correct more than men. Mind and emotion are very much connected to the place of birth seemingly. Truly so and when they feel it together, they can organize their relationships and to determine these corrections. I don’t have the words, I usually don’t talk about it this way, I never talked about it but the women will organize it. Meaning the same places where you feel that the women feel that you are in pain and you can’t organize everything, from these same origins of this feeling you have to understand that you are giving birth to corrections there, truly so.

27. S. (01:11:00) Is there a difference between the recognition of evil and the revelation of evil between the work of men and women?

R. I don’t really, I won’t really find the words about the difference between the men and women. I would rather them find on their own that it is their work, their scrutiny, the wisdom of Kabbalah barely discusses that, rarely reveals that. It talks about the will to receive, connection, certainly a connection is something that is much easier for the men than women, every woman is like a whole world and she can’t really, she doesn’t have this tendency, this disposition to connect to a different woman and she is not so ready for that by nature. On the other hand specifically the correction is made in them. We have to help the women and also give them an example and how to connect, women should discover between themselves and how difficult it is for them a few times more than the man and so they have to also discover the points of connection between them.

S. How can we help a friend when she mixes up her corporeal state with her spiritual state and by that she brings down the entire ten?

R. She should maybe hold all these scrutinies and not pour them out on us, not confuse all the group of women of hers but it will pass, these are scrutinies. We are on the path, some advance more, some advance less, groups are not yet equal and this is why give it time, give time to all these things. Now we can say that we’re going into serious work.

28. S. (01:13:35) Is anger towards the ten or criticism towards the work of the ten, is that the revelation of the shattering?

R. Yes, anger, criticism, feeling afar, pushed away, that’s all with respect to the ten, that’s how to come closer to revelation of the shattering.

S. How do I relate to such a friend that is in such a state?

R. Set an example for her, it’s good that a person has to go down to a place where the friend is to show him that he’s in the same state and when they are coming close to each other, when one is acting and the other is really down there, out of this, their connection, the one who’s acting can help the one who is really down.

29. S. (01:14:39) We discern which corruptions we should correct and which appear as corruptions because we are not seeing them correctly?

R. No, there is such corruption that we need not correct but all of the corruptions that should be corrected are only in the connection between us. Every day I have to see the society as greater, more important or special and that I by that make efforts to come closer to connect to them.

30. S. (01:15:18) Which states are preferable, long and deep steps of revelation of evil or short and intensive?

R. Short and intensive.

31. S. (01:15:35) We are saying that the Creator’s first and last, so does that actually mean that every time a cry comes out of my heart or a demand, it is the Creator calling to me and awakening me?

R. Yes, of course there is None Else Besides Him, also the response of man over what he discovers the good and bad, what he is about to do, it’s all the Creator. He is managing us only to the extent that we acquire restriction, screen and reflected light, to that extent only then do we start coming out of our ego and start being independent. Meaning that we could distinguish between the actions of the Creator and our actions that were opposite to the Creator, that we are facing the Creator and that is how a person acquires his independence. In the meantime, what we are going through, we are like a baby, look at a baby, look how the baby responds, how it operates. Does a baby have anything of his own, it’s what nature invites in him. Same thing with us only to the extent that we have the Tzimtzum, Masach and Ohr Hozer, we become independent and also to the extent, limited to the extent of our screen, who are we protecting ourselves from, the Creator, in order to remain independent. That is what my sons have defeated me is all about.

S. I’m just really inspired, I understand it all, but it’s amazing to hear you speaking from the internality of the womb of the woman?

R. It is so.

S. If every man could feel a woman the way you do.

R. That’s the source of life there. There’s nothing extraordinary here. To understand me correctly a woman is the womb, that is her essence, everything else is what everyone else has as well.

32. S. (01:18:15) Every question that awakens in us is there already an answer prepared?

R. Of course even more the answer is predetermined and it invites the question, it’s not like with us, where we go from incomplete to complete, in spirituality we go from complete to incomplete.

33. S. (01:18:43) How do I deal with corruption that lasts for a long time and they’re not being corrected?

R. It seems to us that it does not come to be corrected, there will come a day, a special state where we will see that it was corrected, that by various actions it happened.

S. Can we renew states without falling between each one?

R. What is the next state, if you don’t discover a new flaw and you correct it and you raise yourself and you raise yourself to a new state from one degree to the next, so how was it possible otherwise? We always discover a descent and an ascent, a deeper descent and a higher ascent that is how it is from minus Ein Sof which is called hell and to plus Ein Sof which is heaven.

34. S. (01:19:57) We are saying what’s important is a high frequency in the work. How is this expressed in prayer for correcting the heart?

R. It depends only on the connection between us. To the extent that we start connecting more we influence each other more, and then these mutual influences in the group cause the leap in frequency.

S. How is that frequency expressed? As a prayer that keeps renewing for correction?

R. No, the prayer that is renewed comes from us. It comes from always being inclined towards getting closer and getting closer depends on the importance of the ten. So the more important the ten is, the more I develop its importance, then from the importance of the ten each time I go into it like an embryo in a womb, and I want to grow there further and further. I want to envelop myself with everything there is in the ten. And then like we also discussed yesterday I’m building the placenta to myself. It is these connections I make with the Creator in short. Because Bina, the womb, is the Creator. So in this way each time I renew through my connection with the ten my connection with the Creator, because I don’t have a direct connection with the Creator just like the baby or the embryo has no direct connection to the mother. It is through being enveloped by the placenta and through the placenta connected to the mother in a special place through a special system and everything is got. Both what he receives from the Creator and what it gives to the Creator, even the waste that comes out of the embryo that goes to the mother as well and becomes included in the mother’s system. Meaning we are connected to the Creator in such a way that the connection is complete.

S. So is that the condition for the frequency to be revealed? What is the frequency itself, what is revealed?

R. The frequency becomes revealed to the extent of the connection between us. The frequency does not come from above, it is only to the extent of connection between us. How much we push ourselves to be closer to the ten despite all the conditions that appear. It is possible that in the ten suddenly I discover let’s a friend number one, whatever happened there with his family towards my family. Friend number two I didn’t even know, but he did some harm to me, and friend number three I look at him and all of a sudden, I see that he is such a person that I would always run away from. And the fourth friend, I can’t stand such people and suddenly I see him that way. In short, love covers all crimes. The crimes will grow more and more. They will be multifaceted in different ways. If we pay attention, they will morph every moment and on top of them we have to build our screens, our relationship, and this is called building within us vessels for the light of Hassadim. And then we will feel what it means to be an embryo.

S. What happens quick or many times? What is that thing that happens? How is that frequency expressed, how is it felt in a person?

R. By disconnecting from the Creator and connecting to the Creator through the ten.

35. S. (01:25:05) Do we need to locate the bestowal in the 10 during our work to understand what it is and how it is expressed?

R. How bestowal manifests in the ten: by caring, thinking, feeling; also being in communication between us. How else to say it, I don’t know. We are in mutual bestowal.

36. S. (01:25:45) Is the actual plea to the Creator already the correction or does a change need to happen?

R. Turning to the Creator can only happen through the friends. When I address them, not in practice but internally, I turn to them to strengthen our connection so that we all become ready for the Creator, and then I turn to the Creator. You cannot turn to the Creator with anything else. When you turn to Him, this way that we want to advance towards the Creator, by that we do good towards all our circumstances.

S. The shattering is always felt intense, and the connection is only for a second. Why doesn’t an ascent feel like a descent?

R. Because the descent hits our ego directly on my heart which is full of ego, and the ascent elevates me somewhat emotionally, also intellectually. But it’s not that I get a deep feeling like a knife to my heart like it happens in a descent, it’s always like that. Even in our world, even in our language. How many beautiful words you have to say to a person and how many negative words you have. And the same with tragic and dramatic creations versus positive ones. So it all comes from this unbalanced view we have in life because the Creator is concealed and the evil inclination is basically revealed.

37. S. (01:28:00) When you say to increase connection do you mean internal work like thoughts, prayers, scrutinies or should we have more zooms and more meetings?

R. Only within our groups. Of course I think that you, both men and women, that you’re doing all kinds of talks, conversations, lessons and groups, that you are guiding and opening up. But we will advance.

S. I mean in our group, to increase connection in the ten. Does that mean more prayer and inner scrutiny? Are we speaking of inner things or more external meetings?

R. I’m not sure what you’re saying. What you need to do to connect in the ten. What you need to do, do. That’s it in short. What else? if we can do something with the friends, read something, do something, sure do it. Just don’t exaggerate because by that you could be forcing the friends.

38. S. (01:29:28) What does it mean when Rabash said let the body suffer, and what will help us disconnect from our beast and be happy that it’s suffering?

R. There are things that we undergo on our flesh, on our will to receive, on our body, our relationship with others, and that is very unpleasant and a person instinctively moves away from that and doesn’t want to feel these things. And he better mitigate and sweeten these things in whatever way possible. And this is where the importance of the goal is required, that it will be the determining factor, and the importance of the group. The group creates a kind of field around the person and in that field, he decides how to relate to each and every phenomenon in life. It is very important. The atmosphere in the Ten is very important. It stabilizes a person in every situation in life.

39. S. (01:30:48) How to reach a practical state in which I feel the friends more than me?

R. I should tell myself that the feeling of the friends is a feeling in which I feel the Creator, the upper world, the purpose of creation, the source of creation. And so I have to be aimed at feeling the ten so that the deeper I go into that feeling the more I hide myself there, become included there just like an embryo in a womb. Then through this womb I begin to feel the upper world with everything that relates to that.

40. S. (1:32:06) When the shattering is revealed in the ten and now the ten is separated, so what should a person still absorb from it, a friend in the ten, what should they be cautious of?

R. He should write to all the friends in a short concise very concise manner, otherwise people will just read it so much that he is happy about the evil that unfolds the wicked that becomes revealed. Everyone understands the sentence already. So let’s so let’s reveal the evil and come to a state where love covers all crimes and within the love, we will feel the upper Force something along these lines.

41. S. (1:33:016) What does it mean to scrutinize the wicked that are being revealed, what is scrutinizing a state if we don’t have to dwell in them and just increase the frequency?

R. No, I’m talking about things that happened in the group on that level, not spiritual but corporeal, so we need to try and understand these situations between the friends or how the descents of friends influence the whole group and how we come out of that.

S. We’re speaking a lot about the frequency, how do we increase our speed?

R. That should come by itself, this frequency, to the extent that we need corrections.

S. Also in the lesson now you said a few times that we shouldn’t delay in one state to just keep going, move ahead. So what does it mean to scrutinize a state correctly and not dwell on it, what should I reach?

R. First of all love covers all crimes, that the cover, from covering after you cover then you can already somewhat start clarifying what is the cover versus what you are covering. Meaning the difference between plus and minus, between connection and rejection, hatred, and in the connection between the two you will start scrutinizing your states, what the Creator does to you and what you are causing. We can’t say much here because it will only bring confusion, that has to come from experience.

42. S. (1:35:35) I want to ask about the process that we are going to go through in the Congress because now the topic of the lesson is getting the greatness of the goal from the friends, before it was adhering to the friends, before was annulling before the friends, and the first one was coming closer to the Creator. What is the process that we are going through?

R. What process you’re going through is something you need to discover on your own. What I hope is that from these lessons that we are going to do now you are going to be more prepared to make good and maximum amount of work between you and the Congress, and that will bring us a true result. That is what I really hope for and expect to happen, and you should try to be ready for that.

43. S. (1:36:49) Why are we influenced by the connection of the friends and that gives us greatness, why does it work like that?

R. Because the system of Adam ha Rishon even though it is broken it is broken towards us, to give and show us what we need to correct. And the corrections are not in the externality of the system but that we correct these connections between us within us. It’s like you give a child some building blocks, some bricks or some other game to assemble to put together. Now we don’t mean for him to fix those bricks but to see how they need to be connected, assembled and so on. The same with us. All the corrections that we go through over the flaws that appear the corruptions it is in order to bring us to a state where we can reveal the Creator. So we have to relate to the corruptions and the connections in a serious manner. That’s the means to reveal the Creator otherwise we won’t be able to. And this work, all of us are related to it, belong to it and besides belonging to it we are also destined for it we have to become pros at that.

44. S. (1:38:38) I don’t understand why the only method of Correction is connection?

R. What was the corruption?

S. That I hate the others that I don’t want to…

R. No, no, that is the result of the corruption. What was the corruption about? The shattering between the pieces which were initially just like one, there was no sense of difference between them. They were so unified, so united to begin with that you couldn’t see that they’re different. The difference became revealed, imagine this state which is whole and all of a sudden you start seeing some cracks, some connections between them between these pieces where does it come from? It doesn’t come from the matter itself because the matter is basically whole rather the upper Force comes and as it connects with the matter it obligates matter to begin to see difference in the matter itself, between this and this and that part. I don’t know how to give you an example here. Let’s say it’s like in modern times, that if we look at how we thought about matter 500 years ago, so we thought about this as a piece here is a piece of matter, then we started created magnifying glasses, microscopes, now you look into a microscope and all of a sudden you see a whole world there, all kinds of things are moving happening, what’s going on. So that is what is happening. We are moving to states where we go deeper into matter and then we see that it exists in lack of equivalence of form. If you didn’t receive an answer, ask again

Excerpt #2 – Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 99, “He Did Not Say Wicked or Righteous”( 01:41:45)

R. This is about not just people who are weak and not so developed this is about all of us because each and every one has a limited will to receive and it’s insufficient in order to perceive the whole creation and the Creator and we have to achieve complete attainment so that’s only possible by coming closer to the friends and if we come closer to the system that stands before each and every one that is sufficient for us. After that we go into more groups and more systems but even just my ten doesn’t matter exactly how many people are there but that is sufficient for me to reveal the Creator. The way the Creator needs to be revealed to us for now

45. S. ( 01:42:41 ) What is the reason for the shattering? If it was whole, why would you shatter it, I don’t understand it?

R. This is a question that we discussed before. I don’t know who else wants to ask what is shattering for?

S. I think everybody

R. We talked about it so many times recently so are you just provoking something here?

S. No, I’m just thinking, all this trouble, all this mess. I am asking why the Creator wants to break everything if it was whole?

R. Without troubles and chaos you would be an animal that never wants to rise above itself and get to know anything above itself.

S. We could only advance in trouble?

R. If you would not want to eat you would not move away from bed, you understand that? Food, sex, family, that is the first thing that takes the person out of this world then money, honor, power, and knowledge but first food, sex and family.

S. Here we are speaking about importance. I know that our whole problem is a matter of importance. You get importance if you have a result or if you have problems. How can you get importance from our daily studies? How can you get this importance?

R. We establish this importance within us by integrating and incorporating with each other the lesson, coming to the lesson together. The main thing is the incorporation. Just understand what we are missing and where the correction is. It’s about the incorporation of a person and others. Otherwise there’s nothing to correct, just understand this unique Godly action. Incorporation, Hitkalelut, getting mixed into each other through absorption, through something of that sort. That is where everything comes from? Where did creation begin? Light and something somewhat different from the light. This is called the creation of darkness and everything else is just the development of one on top of the other and the light excels from light to darkness through the oppositeness.

S. All this weight is only the importance, otherwise how can we reach anything?

R. Correct, that is correct, yes.

S. How do you strengthen it? How can I cause it? How can the people in the ten or all ten’s? How can they increase the importance, by what?

R. One shall help his friend.

S. That’s the thing.

R. Yes, one helps the other otherwise no one makes it. That’s why there is the shattering of the vessels which gives you millions of people that each have to help each other.

46. S. ( 01:47:37) When we are now speaking about incorporation how we melt in the ten and in the soul of Adam HaRishon, what happens on this path of the incorporation between us that suddenly we acknowledge and feel that we are in the soul of Adam HaRishon?

R. We are doing all kinds of actions. We are not yet aware of what kind of actions we are Incorporated with but this is how we awaken the light that reforms and it when it works on us, it creates all sorts of connections between us and then we become wiser, more sensitive, and then the world meaning the state that we feel becomes wider, deeper, more complex and that is how we attain Creator.

S. What is the state in the ten? Is it liking a mutual feeling or an attempt that was acquired through this revelation of Adam?

R. This is the feeling of connection between us to a single body, to a single place, single desire, single thoughts, single feeling, more accurately.

S. In an objective all the friends in the Ten put their maximum efforts. They are all trying, they are yearning. I’m trying to understand what is in addition.

R. Mind and emotion. If you take ten little kids and put them in a sandbox and they build something. What do they get out of it? Gradually they grow and they begin to build not just from the sand but they make bricks and from them they begin to build a small structure and then they make it bigger and so on, until it becomes a whole structure. You know how humanity developed. They started collecting rocks from the ground until they started making up their own bricks and made them square. At first, they made hay with the soil and the water to make it stronger and other than that they would take these bricks and put them into an oven to warm them up and solidify them. Then they could start building big structures that hold themselves and so on. From playing like that, that is how we come to that. That is how it is with us and everything. Look at cars from a hundred years ago and today’s cars. You could see it everywhere. Look at how everything has changed. Similarly that happens with us and the vessels change greatly and spiritually great changes and it’s all within you.

S. Your example with these bricks…

R. You’re an architect so you understand.

S. Yes, I wanted to ascribe it to our work. We have actions, daily actions, morning lessons, zoom meetings. Congresses. and it’s like bricks that we are building our advancement from

R. Yes, right.

S. What is added? These bricks, we use them all the time.

R. We don’t even notice how it changes. We add more and more feelings and intentions and to this we want to connect between us this way or another way and we try and they change. Sometimes we pay attention to that and sometimes we don’t, because it’s still a lot of people, five people, ten people, who are connected between them.

S. Now, before the Congress how do you see our state and how do you see the structure at this moment?

R. We have to build the structure, build the building. Each and every one must reach a state where he sees how much he builds, how much he adds in his connection to others. More accurately not in perception but his support towards the others and by that he builds his place in this building that were constructing.

47. S. (01:54:02) How to extract the main part from the lesson because even though it is very intense, they go by very quickly, and it is getting quicker and quicker. How do we take advantage of everything we are absorbing?

R. You have to see the results. Get your results from the lesson and prepare yourselves for the Congress, and most importantly to see from your state today how you are going to each work in his ten. Each one in his ten to bring it together in such a way that you will start bringing the Creator into that.

48. S. (01:55:27) This excerpt is speaking of a person outside of spirituality so what does it mean that he likes these people?

R. Outside of spirituality I do not know. Here we are typically talking about a person who wants to go deeper into spirituality and then he looks for adhesion with people who are on the same path or already in spirituality, but in short towards the same goal. And when he connects to them, he has the power of request and progress that is much greater.

S. This person has a point in the heart?

R. Yes, of course. In our method it is impossible that there is a person without a point in the heart because ultimately without a point in the heart he will see that what am I going to do here? Everyone is just talking about the connection in the ten and how to reveal the Creator, and the connection in the ten. How much can you talk about that? Come on, enough! Such people will run away and only the people who have nowhere to go because they feel that this is their serious goal. For them it’s obligatory on the one hand and on the other hand it takes them to truth at least in terms of the sources. So these people stay and they cannot be confused with all sorts of religious activities, rituals of sorts. They are working towards the point. This is what I want. As it says our desire is to reveal our King. That is why they come, that is why they stay. And the more we advance the more will connect, and also the more will leave. Because they build a certain state for themselves and then they are good with that, and that’s it. There are some like that as well. We will try to keep everyone and get to the goal.

49. S. (01:58:39) What influences the changes of the frequency of the ten, in the quality in the ten, is there any resonance?

R. There are many things that we could see here in the group and later discover in natural systems and also in technology. That all of these phenomena have the same cause, the same nature, it’s just on different levels and different external appearances, but it’s really the same thing. So we could see this on all four levels still, vegetative, animate and speaking and the spirituality of the speaking level. All of those things we will discover. It is all very interesting how everything spreads from above downwards and goes into each and every level and spreads there in width. We will see all that.

50. S. (02:00:18) What we were saying about being able to hear a lot of negativity and much less colors of positivity, even in the external world, even the happiest people sing sad songs and, in our society, there is always a feeling of uplifting, that we can give a lot of positivity to people.

R. Thank you very much.

Excerpt #4 RABASH, Article No. 17, Part 1 (1984), “Concerning the Importance of Friends” (02:01:04)

51.S. (02:02:20) Can you please clarify these two types of works, seeing the friends as great and also seeing myself as small. What is the difference?

R. Seeing their friends as great, by that a person raises his society and his environment. By seeing himself as small he lowers himself in that environment. Both work in one direction but this is separate, and that is separate. Both those works are opposite in increasing the environment and in lowering oneself, but they both work in the same direction.

S. How to make yourself small?

R. That is why he writes that there are two conditions. One is how great the Creator is compared to me and how small I am.

S. How to make myself small and what makes me small towards my ten?

R. If I could really see the ten in myself, I would see the ten as an infinite vessel and the Creator is there and fills it completely and myself, I would see as a black dot inside my ten.

S. To make the ten greater to see them as whole that is somehow clear. The work of making myself smaller, what does it mean practically, emotionally? What does it mean to feel that I’m a black point?

R. Except for my ego there is nothing. As I advance, my ego becomes greater and greater, “and he who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater.” The friends become greater and greater than me and so it turns out that I am an even smaller point, smaller and blacker in a sea of light of spiritual qualities that are my friends around me.

S. How do I connect to them if I have nothing?

R. Annulment, and beyond the annulment I open to a brand-new world.

S. Annulment is what?

R. Annulment.

S. It means I’m a black point that besides the ego I have nothing?

R. Of course, that I annul myself.

S. This work should be in two manners meaning intermittently, simultaneously? What’s the right way to work with it?

R. I think it’s constant work. To sustain yourself in such an approach is a right approach for life, a spiritual life.

52. S. (02:05:45) What is the state of spiritual building?

R. To the extent that we can connect to one another and hold on to that connection between us in order to prepare ourselves for revelation of the Creator in us, in the connection between us. That is called a spiritual building. The Creator is revealed not in each one of us but in that net of connection between us that we supposedly grasp, catching Him like a fish in the sea in the net, but this net is us. If there’s no connection between us there’s nothing to grab. To the extent that there’s a connection then we can catch the Creator. Now, the Creator starts revealing Himself in a net that has a certain size of holes between the connections in the net. That’s called that even though it is written that a multitude is two, that is enough, but still the more there are there is more availability to reveal the Creator. It is also written about that. That’s how we build it. So first of all we are building the connection between us. You can describe it as a net to catch a fish, you can describe it as building, a building from blocks, from sand and so on, it doesn’t matter. The main thing is a connection between us, not in each one but in the connections. Between me and the friend is the Creator.

Excerpt #6: RABASH, Article No. 17 (1986), “The Agenda of the Assembly – 2 (02:08:15)

Excerpt #8 : RABASH, Article No. 30 (1988), “What to Look for in the Assembly of Friends“ (02:09:21)

53. S. (02:10:55) We each need to encourage each other towards the Congress and so on but I wanted to ask you a question. We know that the great one cannot receive from the little ones but you told us as our teacher that you are waiting for the Congress in order to receive from us, who are smaller. So how do you do that, and maybe we can learn from you how to do that?

R. It is written “I have learned from all my students.” I am learning from you, that’s it. To the extent that you are my students and you hear me so in return I get from you.

S. What do you receive, you don’t receive anything, we only make you upset?

R. No, that’s not right. If I’d only be upset, I’d let go of it, why should I suffer?

S. So how do you do it? In your greatness we sometimes have dumb questions and you say that you receive from us so. What exactly do you receive from us?

R. I remember that with Rabash we came out of the car after we came back from the beach, and I brought them in then I went to my place, it was like two hundred yards from his place. And then one of his sons-in-laws comes over, and they were speaking and he says I have to go to sleep because I have a lesson soon. So the guy asked him, he was like 30 years old, and he says, “why do you need to teach them, what do you get from them?” Rabash says “my pension, I can just make a simple soup with it, but with this, from this I get another piece of meat for this soup.” I saw how much this answer was sufficient for him, how he understood that this is how it is according to his mind. What do I want to say? We need to try and get answers into the desire and into the mind, and that it will be clear. Let’s hope it will be so.

S. If you make yourself smaller to the group then you grow? Is that what it’s about?

R. That’s for sure. There’s no question about that. For me I don’t stand questions that aren’t to the point because then they confuse everyone, they deviate everyone. But except for that, each and every question for me is important.

S. You nullify to the friend’s questions?

R. It is worthwhile for me to annul. How do you not understand that?

S. As a teacher you nullify the question of the friends?

R. In front of the student of course I annul.

S. How do you annul?

R. I hear the question and I want to give him an answer that he will hear and that the others will hear.

S. This advances you when you nullify towards the person who is asking?

R. Of course. In that soup I got another piece of meat.

S. I understand of course. You’re really doing beautifully, and we just need to learn from you.

R. We don’t have advancement but only from questions and answers. Do you understand? That’s how it is. A person can’t hear the text. But when he asks, there’s a chance that he might hear an answer. And in that way, he will know the topic of the subject. What can you do? It is called the sorrow of raising kids. It’s my role but I get a piece of meat in the soup.

S. What do you mean the piece of meat in the soup, what does that mean?

R. I get an additional life from my students.

S. This advances you in the degrees?

R. Also. I have learned from all my students. Also they increase the general perception, our general perception. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the wisdom to reveal the Creator to the created beings and by all their questions this topic expands and settles in the general will to receive more and more. It is something great.

54. S. (02:17:10) On the topic of seeing the friends as great and making myself smaller I’m asking myself why does it happen, because automatically if I see someone as great, I immediately make myself smaller or if I see myself smaller than clearly…?

R. No, no, no, it’s not like that. Listen, we can’t see someone great, not even a teacher, not to mention the friends, because our ego automatically works to lower the others compared to me. Why should I bow down before others? Who likes doing that? The will to receive is against it. That’s why all of our work is to incorporate in society and enter between them as a small one between the great ones. It’s very important, it’s a rule that whoever can’t hear it, until they will hear it, they will not be able to come closer to spirituality. The entrance to spirituality is after a person annuls before society and becomes a zero.

55. S. (02:18:55) About excerpt number 8 where each one needs to bring strength and encouragement into the group and so on, if we always give strength to each other than how do we come to despair of one’s strength and the ultimate prayer?

R. Specifically that is what we do reach because from our own forces we are despaired. The Creator that organizes the connection between us and helps us advance more and more, He brings us to a state that we see that we can’t reach anything. Where is the result from all of our efforts? From day-to-day we supposedly advance, but where’s our advancement? Our advancement into an abyss that we have reached? You just wait, it is before us. Where is this Torah and its reward, where is it? We reach a state of a great cry and then the Red Sea opens or the walls of Jericho, there are all kinds of signs. But it brings us there, we don’t need to be concerned about it. If we advance correctly then we reach a state where we are before that wall and then we will break it.

S. If I understood that I can’t turn to the Creator directly but only through the ten because…?

R. You have no way to turn to Him. Turn to Him through the ten as much as you understand and know and as much as you can depict it to yourself because outside of the ten, personally you are not touching the Creator, only your ego.

56. S. (02:21:37) So our free choice is to choose the right environment through which we attain the goal?

R. We have the right environment. The choice is constant. That every moment to depict the environment as greater, broader, stronger.

57. S. (02:22:03) On the one hand a person needs to feel himself as a black point, and the ten which is like an ocean of light. On the other hand a person needs to give strength and life to the ten. How can a black point do that?

R. Because it is in a sea of light and it is absorbing forces from the sea of light and feels even darker and blacker. In this way it determines its state, and a person sees that he is opposite and that gives him even more forces, specifically to annul before the environment and in this way, he can move ahead and advance.

S. A black point can also bring greatness to the ten?

R. Yes, as small as I am, the ten is greater in my eyes.

58. S. (02:23:07) There are some friends that I truly feel small towards and I have true appreciation towards them, but other friends I can’t take any examples from. How do I overcome that?

R. If the Creator chose everybody then I must annul before everybody and reach a state where I value everyone in a unified manner.

59. S. (02:23:34) Is the most successful prayer to pray not for connection in the ten but for connection in another ten?

R. No, I need to be in my ten and try to connect to them in one heart.

60. S. (02:23:58) How to always hold the greatness of our environment?

R. We need to constantly work on it, not that you did it once and it remains. No, we have to constantly work on it.

61. S. (02:24:17) If we don’t see the greatness of the friends, is that the place of correction?

R. If you don’t see the greatness of the friends, the corruption will be revealed to you and you will need to correct it now. If it’s already revealed, if you discover that the friends are down low in your eyes it’s a very nice state. It means that an ability has opened to you to start correcting yourself.

62. S. (02:25:00) What do you do in a state where there’s a feeling that the ten can’t yet clarify?

R. It shows that you are not able to correct yourself yet. The best thing is if I feel the friends as low, I go down to that low place and I connect with them there. And then I can start working in order to raise both of us.

63. S. (02:25:38) What does it mean to turn to the Creator through the ten? How do you do that practically?

R. If in the ten there are at least a few friends, it doesn’t matter how many, that are willing to be connected in order to turn to the Creator, from the connection between them they turn to the Creator. But that’s under the condition that they are connected, that they are first working on the connection. And then they turn to the Creator or they turn to the Creator to help them connect.

64. S. (02:26:33) How do we help each other incorporate with each other?

R. By an example.

65. S. (02:26:43) What is the reason we get states of fear? These are states that you can’t work towards the ten with?

R. It is a result of the Klipot, of the ego, the Sitra Achra that reveals that it is disconnected from the Creator and it is like a child who lost his connection. Then he is afraid and he cries out.

66. S. (02:27:15) Does the teacher always give an answer to the will to receive the student? Is that the right educational guidance?

R. I never give answers to the will to receive, no. Also, to the will to bestow, I don’t compliment. I give an answer so man will hear that in the student is where man is attained, and from that he can develop.