TIFERET: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Lesson on the topic of “Faith Above Reason”
Morning Lesson January 21, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Faith Above Reason – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #24
Reading Excerpt 24
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, that is as much as it seems to us that this work is simple in the states we go through, there is no benefit, there is no high work, and we do not feel out of it any additions of mind, emotion, understanding, awareness, attainment, it does not matter what is important to us. It is how much we appreciate it. However, that we can perform even the smallest actions in order to ascribe them to the Creator, for His sake, by that the quality of our work is measured. That means that how much the person feels himself as lowly, and how much by that he can send all of his efforts to the Creator, who is high, by that we should measure our work. Therefore, we should believe the sages that told us to do so, and as much as we annul ourselves, our pride, even our exertion, our knowledge, accordingly, we give contentment to the Creator. This is actually such an effort when we do not take into consideration what we are, where we are, what we understand and feel, but rather as much as specifically from the lowest place we are able to appreciate our work as a special work towards the Creator, by that we are truly doing the greatest bestowal.
2. S (03:45) Actually, the measurement, or the certainty that I am doing it for the sake of the Creator, is the feeling of lowliness?
R. As much as from the feeling of self-lowliness I can ascribe my efforts to the Creator who is high.
S. Is that the measure?
R. For the time being, we do not yet have any measurements. How can we do work here, comparisons etc., but that is how you start. That is it does not matter to me how do I feel but rather from that state that the Creator gives me, and there is none else besides Him, so whatever I feel comes from Him, so in every state that I am in, I should try as much as possible to aim it toward Him, and by that I already direct it toward bestowal.
S. What is this lowliness, because I grasp lowliness as a lack of appreciation for the Creator, that I do not succeed, so how could it be?
R. Why not succeed, but I do succeed from my state, the lowest state, to try to perform a certain operation of bestowal towards the Creator. So I am doing it like a baby, who does not have anything to give or to do. But he makes his mother happy, more so than a greater or older child.
S. What is the feeling of lowliness, towards whom is the feeling of lowliness?
R. That I have nothing, I have nothing in where I am, not in emotion, not in my intellect, in discernments in nothing, but rather from the state I am in, I want from that lowliness to direct myself to the Creator. If in that too I do it for the sake of the Creator, in the other lowliness I am in, then the Creator enjoys it even more.
3. S. (06:13) What is the faith in our sages different from believing in the sages?
R. Faith in the sages and believing in the sages, in my eyes are the same.
4. S. (07:20) There are two voices inside me, one says I want to control everything, the other says you are nothing, who are you all together? How do I operate inside, what do I need to do?
R. You need to try to be in faith above reason, not that your reason will rule but rather the force of faith, the force of bestowal, the force of connection will rule. Read these excerpts from beginning to and read them all, and you will see how they will work inside you.
5. S. (08:09) By what do we attain joy, even though we feel lowliness in the work?
R. Lowliness for me is not something that is high, it is not some achievement, lowliness for me is actually the initial condition that I should constantly position myself in lowliness towards the Creator and then do as much as I can out of myself towards Him. Then I will be incorporated like Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma says with regard to his students in the ten, and in this way, I am correctly directed. But first of all, in my lowliness I become incorporated into everyone; and then I am connected to everybody. Then I can also receive through everybody. This is on one hand, and on the other hand, I am willing to invest in everyone, to give to everyone, and on my side to be the highest to everyone. Why? Because what I can give, nobody else can give, each one is unique.
S. What deeds bring a person to lowliness?
R. A thought, and also in practice, as Baal HaSulam writes, it is good to annul himself towards the friends in practice.
6. S. (10:00) What does it mean to ascribe to the Creator actions and efforts; and how to do that through the ten?
R. To ascribe to attribute to the Creator means to the ten, to the group because “from the love of people to the love of Creator,” this is how we can turn to the Creator, this is how we can do something to Him. That is, whatever I do, all in all, for my group, in aiming towards all of it, there I can say that I do this in order to bring them to unity, to connection, and to the form of bestowal between us, all in all which is integral and total, that in my eyes is the Creator, Bo Reh, come and see. This is how I attain this force.
S. Does that mean that the general form of unity of the group, of the ten is actually considered that I am ascribing it to the Creator.
R. Yes, yes. How could you do that differently? How could you define this differently?
S. Exactly, I cannot define it in any other way because the Creator is not something I can?
R. That is right, all in all, if it is inside the group if it is connected to the extent it is connected, not even completely but the degree of its connection, through that, is how you can imagine the Creator.
7. S. (11:57) About the joy: this morning we prepared and experienced joy and impressions, and it is a certain parallel to the joy of the Creator, yes?
R. Yes, yes, we should crave specifically for joy because joy is the fact that we have a nice relation between us.
8. S. (12:33) The pride disconnects the person from the ten, from the Creator. How can we invert this self-pride to lowliness?
R. I do not need to engage with pride, I need to go from the other side that I want to see how I connect with the others, how to do something together with them. Not to touch the pride because then, frontally I may not be able to work with it, but rather the other way around. The more I connect with the friends in order to attain the advancement, the annulment, bestowal, but not in a direct way.
9. S. (13:34) What is the atmosphere of the ten that enables us to constantly discern the actions of the Creator and to constantly be correct?
R. the most important thing is to constantly be directed towards the connection among everybody then with respect to this increasing connection, in relation to it, we will always be able to detect and discern, diagnose all our states correctly.
Reading 25 (14:40 – 15:48)
10. R. (15:49) In other words, the fact that we are confused on the path is a sign that the Creator is directing us. Each and every time He confuses on this path more and more in different directions, in order for us to find how we can advance so we learn how to advance. These are like exercises that He is doing with us until the truly learn how to walk; and then we have more difficult exercises and even more and so on. Each time it will be more difficult until we come to a state that we are ready and understand, we have experience, and we can truly become like the Creator, this is how we advance.
11. S. (16:48) He writes here that “there is a little bit of a grip in spirituality”.
R. Yes.
S. Does not there need to be a state of complete disconnection?
R. In what?
S. Inside this entire process we go through, there is confusion, a little, some kind of connection, though we say if there is no disconnection, we do not replace that state, we do not really advance?
R. Yes but this is in respect to the person who feels, this is what he feels, that he is disconnected, it is a feeling. It is still connection, however, in the Achoraim, the posterior, because ordinary people on the street do not feel that they are disconnected, or they are connected.
S. You said we learn, and we will have experience. Will the experience of the current degree be enough for the next time or each time we have to learn again?
R. Well, each time but the experience on this degree helps me to feel how much I am confused on the next higher degree, and in this way, I can advance. Each time it is with higher and greater confusion and failure.
S. Is there a difference in time of the preparation before we enter the first degree and what happens between one degree and another in the spiritual world?
R. No, the first time I have no idea what is happening. The Creator prepares it for me, and this is it, it is completely not dependent on me. It is like how the father and mother have a coupling between them and they prepare the next body, right? The baby, the child. Therefore here there is nothing besides the deficiency that exists in that future child that wants to be born and that compels the father and the mother to have coupling, and then out of the Hochma and Bina, a new Partzuf is formed. But later, it is a different kind of work, already, it is also with the baby’s participation. But in time of the conception, the impregnation, the participation is not with the baby’s discernment, it is clear, but later on more and more so. So at the time of the impregnation the work is in annulment and later on it is already with participation to some extent more and more.
12. S. (19:44) How to approach correctly immediately being able to grip onto the fact that the Creator enjoys in every state or is it best to fall and assemble this reality from the broken pieces being a Creator being on top of all of reality?
R. Most important is to collect all the impressions from the friends to try to put them together as much as possible and ascribe that to the Creator. Until we gather all our impressions together in speaking and acting, until we reach a prayer when we have what to turn to the Creator with and the Creator hears only what we all together want. So if he does not raise a request to the Creator in an orderly manner, we do not have any chance to advance. Therefore this way takes a lot of time because we do not believe our teachers, that we need to first and foremost connect.
S. At some point does it eventually become an automatic action, or is it always?
R. It is never happening on its own. This actually is the word, “the Creator created to do,” that we need to arrange these things. This is our participation and by this, we grow and become the partners of the Creator. So each time we have to scrutinize where is our participation?
13. S. (22:06) What is the King’s Palace for us?
R. The King’s Palace is that place where the quality of bestowal and love dwells in a general, all-encompassing way. It is Malchut that rises to the degree of Keter because Malchut is the will to receive and Keter is the will to bestow so when Malchut corrects itself it becomes entirely as the Bestower, this is called The King’s Palace. You might say it is on the way because Bina is also called, house or palace.
14. S. (23:07) It is still not clear how you perform an examination whether the Creator enjoys?
R. I need to check myself; I cannot check the Creator. I have to check myself whether I am doing everything that the Kabbalists recommended to do; and the first condition is that I have to be connected to the group.
15. (23:41) The Creator accompanies us throughout the process. He is bothering us. He is doing all kinds of exercises for us. What do I need to reflect from this or what should I do with this endless care that He has for us?
R. First of all, annulment towards the group and through the group to the Creator I have to be in annulment. In whatever there is, I annul myself from the state that is felt in me as the lowest and up to the highest, it does not matter in what states I am, I first of all I annul myself. This is the condition for entrance into spirituality for Ibur, impregnation, for Ibur. Later on, we will talk about what next. That is, taking upon ourselves what is called, “the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven” in everything. Just like with a drop of semen, you do not ask what and where. Instead, from it, the future human being starts to grow. If I want to grow in that way, I need to depict myself as a drop of semen that has nothing of its own. But rather, in what can it assist in making itself into an Ibur, an embryo and then a baby, and then a grown-up person? Only through annulment, only through annulling oneself to the upper one, through the ten. All our work is only by taking upon ourselves restriction after restriction, and according to that we will grow.
16. S. (26:03) How can the best support to other tens with faith above reason even if there is coldness between them? How can we reveal friendly relations between tens?
R. We, first of all, need to think about how we support our own ten and therefore, all of those who, for the time being, are in the ten and they have some forces so that they can come closer to each other, they can connect, they can pray to the Creator, we do that. We do not wait for everybody but rather simply start as much as possible. Even two or three out of ten, and more and more and more, and then we draw through us the Reforming Light, the Upper Force, and in that way, we do try more and more to awaken the ten.
17. S. (24:45) What to do with a person if every day it is like a miracle, we can feel that every day he is like a miracle, he is still on the path, he is still coming to the lesson, he is thinking about the friends, so that’s like a mercy from above, but it is clear that all comes through the friends, but also when he makes the effort that is also clear that it is the Creator who gave this effort, so where is the person in this whole story?
R. All of the actions are done by the Creator. The beginning of the states and also the end of the states, however, in the middle the person should realize that all that what he has for the time being comes from above from the Creator, and the person needs to arrange all these things in such a way that he is received it from the Creator, and he needs to continue it. He needs to continue in the form that the Lord will finish it for me, of course he cannot do anything, but he just wants to ascribe this work to the Creator and direct himself to the Creator would finish the work also, just like He started it, and what is upon the person. It is just to connect and tie together the beginning and the end, and then everything will work out. This is what we need to do, to realize that every state is started by the Creator, and every state is finished by the Creator, and we just need to tie the beginning and the end.
18. S. (29:46) In this verse he says that He also gives some strength to overcome the spies that talk to him and pick his head with all the purposes. Nevertheless, he has some grip on spirituality, the question is: What do we need to pay attention in the state of being in such a state of confusion, falls, complaints?
R. Pay attention that you never disconnect from the Creator, even when you are not pleased with your situation, and you do not even know where you are, however, the fact that you do not know where you are that also ties you to the Creator, that too the Creator has given to you.
S. Is this what we call gripping on to that? Gripping on to what?
R. Yes because it is coming from the Creator. He does not know what it is, but rather that it is coming from the Creator.
19. S. (31:08) You answered a moment ago to the friend from Turkey about the certain work where 2-3 friends in the ten can start doing, and by this they can wake up the ten by addressing the Creator.
R. Of course.
S. What is that thing that 2 or 3 can do?
R. If it is two, they can already awaken the Creator, one cannot awaken the Creator, which is not a prayer, a prayer is in the public. A prayer of the ten is when at least two awaken, and they turn to the Creator and ask Him to pay more attention to the ten, that He would help the friends, that you want to connect more, and that please be revealed and connect us and so on.
S. When is there such a state when two are awakened and the rest of the ten are not?
R. I do not know, there is no predefined state or time to search for it, and the moment you have it then activate it, but then when you have it, start awakening each other and then you will have it.
S. We are awakening each other, we are always together, it is never two alone doing it, but all of us together.
R. If you have more, it is even better.
20. S. (32:44) In the state of lowliness, what do I need to nullify in respect to myself? and is there a difference between annulment myself or performing a restriction on myself?
R. Actually there are differences because in annulling myself is that I make out of myself completely zero, and then I do not use what I have. To restrict myself is that I am aware of how much I have forces, but these forces right now for some reason, I do not want to use them. Either I do not want to use them because these forces are still not in order to bestow, or these forces could be great forces in order to bestow, but I have to restrict them in order to equalize myself to the lower ones, and maybe other such reasons as well.
Reading Excerpt 26 (34:05)
21. R. (35:23) This is something truly beautiful, meaning, it does not matter to us if it is an ascent or descent, it does not matter in which direction they are directed. The most important thing is that we can change our attitude from each and every state. One, that we are directed to the Creator because we received everything from Him. Two, that it does not matter if it is plus or minus, in whatever state I am in, I can always invert and change it to bring it to the Creator. I get from the Creator both the good state and the bad state, and if I use them correctly then there is no difference between the good state, and the bad state, with both of these I can use them to come closer to the Creator, correctly, and truly, how should I put it? With the same force, the same quality to reach the same goal. It is like a current rectifier where it does not matter if I have a plus or a minus, I can always rectify it and bring it to the correct and good result. Therefore, ascents or descents, it does not matter to us, what it is important to us is how we use all these states in order to come closer between us, and to the Creator, and then we begin to understand that in both of the states; in ascent there is a descent, and in a descent there is also an ascent, and it all depends on how we use it. If we rise above reason, then there is no difference between ascent and descends, I use everything that I can in order to implement it towards coming closer to the Creator, in order to bestow and then we emerge above our own desire, above the restrictions, above everything, and then we become free.
22. S. (37:48) If I am in descent or ascent, I start to understand in my intellect that this is what the Creator gave me, and here it is written that the person starts to?
R. There is a certain illumination upon him that gives the person the feeling that this comes in order to bring him closer to the Creator that is the reason for all the descents, from where specifically from the descent we can come even closer than we do from the ascents.
23. S. (38:36) Why is it that in the beginning of the path for quite a long time, sometimes it can take years and the Creator does not give us a feeling of descents?
R. Look, this is personal. It usually depends on the root of the soul to the extent in which we say the point of the heart, where everything depends on as much as the person is in a general state in the general system of Adam HaRishon, what according to the root of his soul he needs to do. Therefore, there are many different states, but it will be best if we do not pay attention so much what state we are in, rather where we need to get to, what state we need to aim towards, that is more important, and then, we will not be immersed in the state, which is felt inside of the will to receive, but rather already from the state that the desire to bestow needs to raise us up.
24. S. (40:11) How to understand and feel that ascents and descents both come from the Creator?
R. That comes from experience. It is out of our experience when I look at what I have been through, ascents and descents of all kinds of states. I can say already that I did invite those states, that I did not accept them either and so on, but this just happened to me. It passes through me, just like the whole life, the entire life that goes through a regular person in this world, where he looks at life from being older, not even being old, just from being 40 or 50, 60 or 70 years old, where he sees what he did, or he went through, but rather the Creator put him through all those states and every single moment when the person thinks that he is doing something that he caused the situation, and it is he who performed something or executed something, but later the person knows that it was all like a dream and although, just like in a dream, it appears to us that we are living, or we are in some kind of an event, but later when we wake up, we understand that all of this just seemed to us this way, so it is the same with our life, it seems to us that we are living. We will talk about it later, when we have discernments towards something else, towards spirituality then we will know how we can appreciate and measure and evaluate our life like a dream or like real life. The real life is something we only define in the ten, and all the rest outside of it, it is still a dream.
25. S. (43:02) Kabbalists out of their awareness that everything comes from the Creator. Is that related to what they say that they want to be in the state of dust?
R. Not necessarily dust. By me giving everything to the Creator with my soul devotion, I do not have to feel myself as dust as well. Dust is one of the states, an important state, but all together it is just one of the states.
S. You said that we should always remember in our head the goal, the destiny, so that goal we have it in our head, and out of that we plan the steps we have to take in order to get there?
R. We cannot plan things to that extent, rather you are thinking somewhat correctly, but we do not have the means in our hands, we do not have those forces for us to be able to do that. We do not yet have the ability to perform a restriction, a screen, and to define the direction, and perform it.
S. I meant the Kabbalists are in attainment. Should we aspire to be like that?
R. It must be that, but under the condition that you are connected to the ten and through them you perform these actions because these actions are in order to bestow. In order to bestow you cannot be alone.
26. S. (44:42) He describes a perfect state where both the ascents and descents are linked to the Creator, but why is it a descent if I can still link it to the Creator?
R. That’s what you understand that the Creator is putting you also through the state of descent, where He is adding for you more will to receive, and you cannot work with it yet, and you are under His control, but this state is state of descent in which you are aware which state you are in.
S. But in principle, in a fall you lose everything?
R. Not always, you might be in a descent, and you are aware that are in a descent that you cannot do anything, and the fact that the Creator gave you, and the Creator is in control and you can nullify yourself here, but with that you do not lose your perception, and your grip on the fact that you are receiving it from the Creator.
S. In what is this descent?
R. You are actually in a descend under the control of the will to receive, but that addition of desire to receive that you are under His control right now, you are also aware that you receive it from the Creator and then even during the descent you’ll find yourself adhered to the Creator, but nevertheless, this adherence is not nice on your behalf, nor nice on His behalf, but rather you need to change this now to be face to face.
27. S. (46:56) How can I bring the friends from my ten to come closer to the Creator, how to pray to the Creator?
R. Give them an example talk to them this is very important because if you connect together as much as you can, it does not matter how much even somewhat but if you can connect together in order to appeal to the Creator, which is already the best and greatest possible action that can be. Show them how you want to do this and ask them what they think, how they can assist in that talk about this, the scrutiny how to connect in order to turn to the Creator is the scrutiny, which is the most important, it connects you together. The Creator gives an illumination from above and then you become a group. That is why this side all of you today, let us say that you want to talk about how you connect in what measure, in what manner, in order to turn to the Creator. Also your connection, you need help of the Creator in that too and that is how you will have advancement and then you will feel that by not being connected now, that the lack of this connection was prepared for you by the Creator as well.
28. S. (48:50) We read here in this excerpt there is this impression that there is a great collaboration between the person and the Creator, and the person has to make an effort while he is in the descents and the Creator gives him forces so that is the role of the ten in this process? Should he give the person forces in the state of descent so he can make this effort?
R. First of all through example through envy, lust, and honor, for Him to see that you are doing it together and He is not. You can talk with Him, to do all kinds of common actions. You can even do a little Kabbalistic meal or any actions of connection, something anything. How to awaken a friend, that we have read many materials about that. I understand that we forget them, and we do not use them, so we need to awaken them to renew.
29. S. (50:09) He was asking, and I also wanted to ask about it, that the connection out of everything that we learn in the lesson the connection to the Creator seems direct. I justify my ascribed ascents and descents to Him. When at what point does the…?
R. That’s not connection. When you are doing it, it is not connection yet.
S. When do I bring the ten in, before I even start?
R. You need to awaken the Creator to a connection with you as well. It cannot be if you are not mingling with the Creator into this action. The fact that you are just saying that you are in connection with the Creator, is not connection. Connection can only be on the condition that you are incorporated into the ten and with your forces you are aiming that ten to a connection with the Creator because without the ten you do not have that device that you can connect to the Creator with.
S. The moment some situation like that awakens when I start to have such a relation, attitude I immediately will have to bring it to the ten so it will be in the right direction?
R. Otherwise you do not have connection, any direction, not an initial point, nothing. Do you understand? It is a device for connecting to the Creator, the instrument to connect to the Creator is the ten. That is the commentator, the conduit, it is something that connects between you. It is the communicative part.
S. What should I do with everything that I feel that I do think about the fact that the Creator arranged this, and I need to do something in the ten?
R. The fact that you are doing something is ok but if you are not organizing the group which will be somewhat connected in the direction of the Creator then you did not do a thing. You know what needs to be done seemingly but you did not do any work. That is the most important point, that if I want to turn to the Creator, I must organize the ten otherwise it is called, a cry in the desert. Meaning that I do not reach the Creator. Well say, ask, I do not understand why here, and I understand that this is our failure, our failing point but what are the questions in this?
30. S. (53:00) The question maybe also in the ten when we feel a person has some scrutinies, we do not see him in the lesson, maybe in such moments should the ten give him forces to participate in the scrutinies the person is going through?
R. The ten can get involved in every single thing all the way to the most personal intimate things of the person because there is no more internal, more intimate important point in our life than the connection between us and the Creator, there is not. All the rest is beastliness. What we have in our family, with our spouses, with our workplace and all kinds of things like that, it comes and goes. Today you live, tomorrow you die. We need to nevertheless understand that our connection in the ten is eternal and there is nothing you can do about it. This is why we are here before these eternal questions. how we connect in order to reveal the Creator in the connection between us.
31. (54:35) It turns out that the third state from excerpt 23, when I discover that I am lacking dollars in the envelope, that is the awakening towards the Creator that I give to the friends and specifically through this deficiency, it is not about the $999 but the fact that $1 is missing, this is actually the profit, the gain?
Rav. Correct.
32. S. (55:15) Absolute lowliness, what is absolute lowliness, complete lowliness in the ten?
R. I did not understand, was that a question; what is complete lowliness?
S. What will help us reach a complete state of lowliness?
R. In what is the lowliness, the lowliness is in the fact that without the ten I cannot reach the Creator. I remain a beast, I live as much as I live and just like I live in this world, which is it. Rather only through the ten I reach some spiritual attainment, meaning that I can bestow to the Creator, and I can come to some recognition of Him, some awareness of Him.
S. What is the work we need to do in the ten specifically in order to reach that degree?
R. Connection, connection.
33. S. (56:40) I wanted to ask, I feel it is even too much in the ten, it is too much for me, can I just choose one friend in the ten instead of the whole ten?
R. You can, Rabash writes about that, read more of his articles, this is what you are missing, the Social Writings of Rabash.
S. What do I do with the rest of the friends, how do I relate to them if I focus on one friend?
R. That is where you will find it, I am telling you. You are asking questions as if you did not read them.
34. S. (57:36) It says in the excerpt that it first the person believes that the Creator is giving him closer and later he feels the nearing, so we say that this coming closer is only through faith, so there is some stop here how can we feel it?
R. It is the same thing, you are still confused with the concepts of this world. The feeling of the Creator is the feeling in faith, in bestowal, it cannot be in any other way because you can feel Him according to the equivalence of form with his quality. When you have that quality like He does then you will feel Him. Otherwise he fills all of reality, but you do not feel Him. What does the feeling of the Creator begin with? That you begin to feel the quality of bestowal somewhat inside of you and to that extent you start to feel the Creator.
S. What is the difference between faith and attainment?
R. It is the same thing and do not get confused with what we think from religions and from beliefs and all kinds of things. The feeling of the Creator is faith.
35. S. (59:37) You said that the Creator is the element that links between us. How can we develop sensitivity towards this force?
R. Constantly turn to Him, connect your friends to Him and pray to Him all the time. Ask for Him to give you feelings that He is there, and He is guiding you.
36. S. (01:00:11) We say that a ten is between me and the Creator, so what is the work really? Should I shift from these states that I have accents and descents to a state where the ten has ascents and descents?
R. It is not important, it can be this way or that way. I do not count the ascents and descents of the ten. I need to be connected to them in every single state of theirs. To nullify in them in all of them.
S. How does the upper one relate to me? Does he relate to me personally?
R. No, through the ten, how are you asking such a thing? The Creator relates to a person where he is.
S. It is not clear to me, where is this transition between me, my states, and the states of the ten?
R. That I cannot explain to you, that you need to discover, in each and every state. I think that you are in too much philosophy and not in actions that is the problem.
37. S. (01:01:41) How in the connection between us in the ten do we make the effort to discover the Creator each and every moment?
R. To the extent in which you are connected you can turn to Him and to the extent in which you will be more and more tight together, you will be able to reveal Him in every single state. If he has disappeared it is a sign that you have no connection between you. Because you need to think about the vessel in which you obtained the Creator, and that vessel is the connection between you. To the extent in which you restrict and connect between you, you can be in the sensation of the Creator in each and every state.
38. S. (01:02:35) What are the operations that promote us to that state of true life?
R. Only connection, do you even hear what I am talking about this whole hour? No, I am asking everyone, do a calculation. What did you come to in the connection between you and each and every ten from yesterday to today? What do you want to get to from today and to tomorrow? Because that is your vessel, that is your vessel for the attainment of the Creator and to the extent in which this vessel, more degrees of coarseness are revealed, disconnections, contradictions and with that to the extent that you understand that is all to assist you in connection. Because it is not the revelation of evil it is the revelation of that place that in this connection that you can connect in now. There are many more wicked that need to be revealed as Baal HaSulam says. They have yet to be revealed and therefore you have no possibility of correcting them. You need to correct what is now, so try with all your might, with all your forces to be more and more connected, more connected, closer to one another, and by that you will reveal the Creator because the Creator is called come and see. It is between the qualities that connect between you and the qualities that distance between you. Between these and those in the ascents and descents that is how the Creator is revealed.
39. S. (01:04:47) How can we experience joy from the work if I feel myself in a lowly state?
R. That is not important high or low, I am in joy because I am nevertheless under the care of the Creator, and I have a place in the ten. He connects between us and awakens all kinds of disturbances between us in order to show us where we are not yet connected. This way I aim to come to a state in which we will connect and reveal Him.
40. S. (01:05:45) Can we be in a state of lowliness and attainment at the same time?
R. One does not necessarily have to do with the other, the Creator is great, and He shall see the lowly. That is specifically the lowliness that a person understands, understands his lowliness, his will to receive him and wants to invert it to catapult, a way to bring it over and leverage it to the Creator is what brings him there.
41. S. (01:06:34) How do we understand the expression that one should try to be in joy if the person does not choose what to feel in all the sensations that come from the Creator, what does it mean to try to be in joy?
R. A person decides where he wants to be in joy or in sadness. It all depends to the extent in which he correctly scrutinizes his attitude towards the reality that it comes certainly from the Creator only. If he received it from the Creator, then he already needs to be in joy. Because if he has connections with the Creator already, even though concealment and even though he has nothing but that small effort, that small knowledge, that tip of a string that he receives from the Creator should already give him joy.
42. S. (01:07:33) What are the spies in the work in the ten?
R. The spies are all those thoughts, all kinds of thoughts that want to deviate us from aiming towards the Creator. Their purpose is to awaken us and show us where we can strengthen our connection between us and the Creator more.
43. S. (01:08:02) Which practical actions in the spiritual work I should do if I see that I do not have the forces to overcome the spies?
R. We can never overcome the spies, we can never overcome any desire to receive anything. We just need to overcome the disconnection between us to connect ourselves each time a little more in a different manner and to turn to the Creator to help us. That is all our work. Write that down before you, we do not need to correct anything. Baal HaSulam writes like that about those who want to correct; the world characters he says. The world correctors are those people who think that they are correcting something. We are zeros and we always remain that way and because we ascribe ourselves to the upper force we can ask Him, for Him to correct creation, all that He has created, that is our work.
44. S. (01:09:29) The Creator starts and ends every state so what does it mean we tie the beginning and the end?
R. That it is all from Him and everything ends with Him, like that. That is what we need to define, to decide.
45. S. (01:09:53) Why shouldn’t it matter to me if I am in ascent or descent? If in the ascent I am able to give to the ten I can push the friends to spirituality so how come it does not matter?
R. In my ascent I push them towards spirituality, in descent I compel them, obligate them to push me and them too. It does not matter ascents and descents, it is like in, I do not know, this alternative current like I see electricity, you have everything entering into action.
46. S. (01:10:44) What does it mean to organize the ten, what does it mean that the friend in the ten organizes the ten?
R. Organizing the ten is that I awaken the friends to be in a tighter connection that we had before. As through this connection between us that is tighter, more understood, more felt more obliged we actually give room to the Creator to be revealed in a greater intensity. Which is actually all the joy that we can bring forth for Him. His desire to be revealed in the creatures.
47. S. (01:11:37) You said that if you do not organize the group so it will somehow be connected in the direction of the Creator then you have not done anything. What does it mean to organize the group towards the Creator?
R. That is called, to cause the building of your soul each operating towards the ten, by that he is building his soul and there is nothing else to do. All the rest of things we do around are also eventually in order to cause the general ten. In order to cause our general ten. That is our work, and we are truly advancing in that so let us invest a little more in this.
48. S. (01:12:43) Every day we have a lesson summary. How do we do the lesson summary in the right way? What should we talk about?
R. That is exactly on topic our entire goal is to bring forth unification connection. The Creator created the soul and shattered it so that we will connect ourselves again to one soul. We need to talk about how much we have done from yesterday to today in the connection between us or even that we did not do, even that we did not do but to the extent that we discovered that we need to do this. The extent in which we recognize more that this is what we need and come closer to asking the Creator to do this, because certainly the Creator does all those actions, but we need to ask. Our work is just a request, it is not an action or a deed. The prayer, our request is all that is demanded of us.
Excerpt 27 twice (01:14:35)
49. S. (01:18:28) In the prayer for the connection in the ten, what is the place of the demand to come out of exile?
For what else should we pray? That is the place. There is nothing else to pray for, we want to exit in order to receive called exile, to in order to bestow called redemption because that is how we bring contentment to the Creator which is the goal.
50. S. (01:19:05) We learn that from a descent we have to rise in faith above reason and today you said that we can do it also in ascent?
R. I do not know exactly what I said and what you heard but what is the question?
S. So how in an ascent we rise above reason?
R. What is the difference? What is an ascent, what is a descent, opposite to what is above reason. I think you are just confused. Think. Read a few more times and you will see. That it is unrelated.
51. S. (01:19:57) What does it mean faith above the previous degree?
R. It means that if I, in the previous state was in faith above reason then what I am having as a descent right now within reason, that to me is a higher degree as opposed to next, with regards to the next state I need to rise to. That is called you always rise and sanctity and never descend, meaning that even the descents that are between the ascents, they are for the sake of ascents, so we consider them as preparations.
52. S. (01:20:54) Why are the descents so important in spirituality that sometimes there is a feeling that they are more important than the ascents?
R. The descents are no less important than the ascents because without a descent there is no ascent and there is no recognition of the evil, of the will to receive, of the shattering without the descent, so you have nothing to correct. How do we feel that we correct ourselves? Who is awakening us to advance? The descents. Feeling the bad, the evil is a necessary feeling in the created being to advance its development.
S. Do I need to aspire to descend in order to feel the ascent?
R. No, you only need to aspire to the ascents but what is ascent in your eyes? The appreciation of the friends appreciating the Creator, connection, bestowal, which needs to be an ascent and that is what you, each time, need to gain an appreciation for. The quality of the descent also determines the quality of the ascent. Because according to how much you feel deficiencies, broken desires and so on accordingly you go and correct them.
S. So the descents so we should nourish them or bring them to a state that we could discuss them in order to be in an ascent?
R. You cannot discuss the descent because you are losing the power of scrutiny. You can scrutinize the descent only during the ascent. Without light which is an ascent without the power of connection without the perspective through the group, you cannot properly digest the descent. You will not be treating the right discernment, you understand? During the descent you are confused you feel bad, you relate that to feeling bad. I feel lack, but in the ascent, you begin to appreciate the power of connection, understanding adhesion and from that you can understand the descent. During the descents we cannot learn much, only from the ascent we also learn the descent.
53. S. (01:24:12) Who is called the transgressor and who is the righteous in the ten?
R. He who justifies the Creator is called a righteous and that can be in any moment and there are many such states of wicked and righteous in each and everyone.
54. S. (01:25:16) You say that you can give a person more than he can deal with so why does he run away from the work above reason?
R. The work above reason is spiritual, true spiritual work where not each person, not every person can bear that not every person understands it. Not every person is prepared to bear with it to endure until he begins to perceive what that work is, what is the essence of this work. Because if one’s soul is big, heavy that he truly needs to achieve great lights then he has great coarseness, and that is why he cannot perceive he cannot feel, he cannot understand what it means in order to bestow. He is such a big egoist that he cannot understand spirituality but only after much work and many actions that he does then it begins, and it takes ten twenty or even thirty years until one begins to discover these things. And therefore, look at how long we live as opposed to how long people lived hundreds of years ago. People lived 30 years 40 years maximum, why? Because today we need to achieve great corrections. It all stems from the same root, so we have no choice, we have to understand that our work is above reason, all the corrections are above reason and achieving these corrections requires us to work. We are going to have to work.
55. S. (01:27:59) I just read that only from now the quality of the descents determines the quality of the ascents, can you explain that?
R. Ups and downs are weighed against each other. The lower you fall, the higher you can rise. Because in the deep fall, there is a greater recognition of evil and that requires a greater light to correct it and then it raises you to a higher state, so the need is for a greater descent. The need that comes from a deeper descent is greater. And one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than himself. Because his inclination is greater, and he falls deeper then he becomes higher than his friend.
S. But it seems like I hear something new here because first I heard that from the amount of the states of the descent….?
R. Also true according to the amplitudes how deep one falls and how high one rises as well as the frequency.
S. He also said before that from a state of an ascent I push the group and in their ascent the group pushes me ahead so where does the quality come into this?
R. The more you invest in the group the more you can receive from the group. It is like you work with such systems, say a capacitor and a resistor, all kinds of such systems. Where you first fill up one thing and then you pour it to another place and then you can receive again in the first place and pour in the next place. There are many such similar systems in many areas of our lives, so similarly the more you receive individually, you pass it on to the group then accordingly you can receive more from the group. That is how we all build this collective system.
56. S. (01:30:47) How can we ask for redemption from exile correctly as Turkey 4?
R. In Turkey 4 you need to ask for connection among you in quantity and quality to such an extent that it is sufficient for the revelation of the Creator and revealing the Creator in a qualified Kli is called redemption. Because the difference between exile and redemption is the appearance of the Creator in that Kli. That first, felt exile and then made a connection and then the Creator becomes revealed.
57. S. (01:31:51) Can you explain what is for the sake of the heaven?
R. For the sake of the heaven means in order to bestow through the friends to the Creator.
58. S. (01:32:13) Many times we say, or we speak about ascents and descents, but going into perception of reality here, because it is me perceiving it as a descent or ascent this state. How does it really happen in spirituality, the ascents, and descents, what does it mean spiritually?
R. That is how it is in spirituality, there is nothing different here, what we learn we are learning how, how is it in spirituality? In spirituality I go deeper into forces of bestowal that appear within me, they appear in me and my desires. Instead of wanting to receive suddenly I feel as a result of the upper light, I feel that I want to be more in bestowal, by that I understand better the Creator, the friends, the whole of creation and I want to be more influenced by everyone and bestow to everyone, that is what is happening. All of spirituality can be discussed only from within our vessels to the extent that they are corrected for mutual bestowal between us and then towards the Creator. From love of the created beings to the love of the Creator. When you ask about how it is in spirituality, that is spirituality, there is no other spirituality. It all becomes revealed in our emotions.
S. Maybe I did not ask right. I personally feel that I am in a descent. The ten does not see that and they think everything is okay?
R. That is because you are still not feeling each other, you are not incorporated in common vessels. There will come a state where you are all connected together and then they will feel in you what state you are in, like in a body. That the general body feels what is happening to its hand or leg and that is how it will happen to you. In the meantime it is not there.
S. Do I have to bring my state to the ten? Let us say I feel bad, and I have to go to the ten and ask for them to pray for me?
R. We read and learned so much about this, I mostly need to bring the ten my inspiration from spirituality from the friends from the ascents. If I cannot then I am in a lowly state, then I have to try to submit myself in order to receive from them the sensation of the greatness of the goal the group, the Creator. These are the two states where I either bestow to the ten or receive from the ten. These are the states, two states I can be in, or I am dead where I am neither here nor there. This is called the dead are free, meaning I cannot do anything. Such states can happen as well where a person is incapable of anything he is between heaven and earth so to speak. Try to achieve connection, nevertheless. To achieve connection. Most important is not to follow your mind that keeps pushing you back to your life, where you live a few years, and you are used to that. Do not go there. Now you are going in a different direction in which to receive life.
S. How to respond if a friend brings his descent, his pain to the ten, to not pay attention to it?
R. Tell him that it is not okay, that it is not okay. If he feels bad, he needs to maybe consult with a few friends but not the whole ten, maybe one or two friends and consult with them on what to do. That is why there is a Gabai who is responsible for the general state of the group, and these Gabaiim need to rotate so every once in a while, there is a new one. A person cannot just come to the group and start saying I feel bad today. Of course not, he makes sure that he elevates the group not lowers them down.
59. S. (01:38:13) What action, direct action can we do and feel that this is faith above reason, and that we will be able to understand that it is really this?
R. This should be done by exercises. That I know what I feel now is what I feel and if I were in the feeling of the Creator of the force of the bestowal that bestows to me, then how would I behave? Try to behave that way as if you are in the quality of bestowal as if you have the feeling of love of friends. Try to behave that way and then you will see that you begin to get some impression from that and keep going and then we will talk.