HOCHMA: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

Lesson on the topic of “Pesach (Passover)”

Morning Lesson April 7, 2022 Transcription

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

Part 1:

Passover – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. (For Lack of Spirit and for Hard Work #104)

1.Rav’s Introduction: (00:26) Yes, why is it hard labor? Because for the first time we need to imagine that we are coming out of ourselves and this means that we are caring for the other. And, a person cannot come out of himself meaning out of his will to receive, except if he enters the will to receive of the friend and he cares for the friend, and by that he can disconnect from himself and of course the Creator then helps him in this action. This is our work. Therefore here we discover “lack of spirit and hard work” on one hand. On the other hand if we truly hold on together; we don’t forget about it, we support each other, we give examples to each other on how to do it. Examples don’t have to be physical, example felt in our five physical senses. But if we strive in our internality for the first time here we can feel just to what extent we are in one vessel and we help one another to rise above our will to receive in this way. So, it turns out that to care about a friend so he would not worry about himself but only I care about him, I guarantee that I will help him with the force of Arvut, our mutual guarantee and each one does this towards the others, by that we are creating a foundation for coming out of Egypt.

But for that we truly need to think, each one about the others in the ten, it can be done above the ten as well but for the time being it is enough. So each one in the ten thinks about the others, how much he wants to give them the force of Arvut, the power of confidence that we can rise above our will to receive and not think each one about ourselves, but instead each one will think about the others. That’s what Rabash means when he writes that each one needs to be as a zero relative to the others: That the friend’s desire for me will be the most important thing and compared to it I will be annulled, I will be willing to do anything to help him realize himself. In this way we can say that we are in Arvut, mutual guarantee, and we all rise from our will to receive, our egoistic will to receive; both our individual will to receive and our collective will to receive and there is already a foundation an infrastructure for the condition of the clothing of the Creator in us. Therefore our principal work is to understand that I have to care about my friends in my ten so they will rise above their ego above their will to receive, connect between them, and I will be like a father, a mother towards them, a grown-up, an organizer, and each one will be this way towards the others. This concern, this worry, will tie us together in such a way that in this general concern we will reach the general Mutual Guarantee, Arvut and the Creator will be able then clothe in us, shine his light on us and tie us all together.

That’s the first thing we need to do right now: To try and learn how to connect to one another in the ten in such a way that we wish to help the other by taking upon myself the work of the friend. Then, when I wish to do it I seemingly pray for the friend, I help him. This is the meaning of “each shall help his friend”. Then the Creator clothes in my tendency for helping the friend and in this way each and every one raises the others and in doing so, we all rise up. When we look at those things you can spend a lot of time talking about it but it will only confuse us and take out all the taste, the flavor out of it. It seems difficult but it’s not because if we truly accept it as the necessary thing, something that is possible to do, it’s possible to imagine it, possible to think about it, by that we immediately invite the Creator’s help; for him to walk with us and do this action. So each one wants to help the friend rise above his state and when each one thinks of the friends in this way, he will feel the Creator coming and pulling us up together mutually, so that we will all succeed in these efforts. We become like small children who wish to help one another rise above their egos and the Creator comes from below and supports us and lifts us. In this way we rise. This is the effort we should think about and we will feel how it’s coming to life. That’s it, that’s what I wanted to say at the beginning of the lesson.

2. S. (08:17) This is a very very important moment because we have an opportunity now to connect and to bring our desires and mind and heart. How can we bridge our mind, our desires and direct ourselves? How can we bring ourselves together and do what you are trying to teach us now?

R. It is a problem. We have to think about it. We need to constantly try to come back to it and imagine how we can help the friend to take their place. I want to be responsible for my friend so that he will succeed. I always used to think that I should be successful and now I am interpreting it differently, that my success is when I help the friends succeed; and each one thinks this way about the others. That’s why the law of Arvut, mutual guarantee, is so important. That is why Baal HaSulam opens his explanation on spirituality from that, because no one actually performs a spiritual act for himself but only for the friend, because that’s the meaning of in order to bestow; that’s the meaning of to be spiritual. That if I care about myself no matter how hard I try, I will always end up doing things within my will to receive, so this is the main concern each one should have is how much he will cause his ten to be as zero towards each other and raise the others and support them, sustain them and in this way we keep the law of Arvut and we advance ourselves to rise out of our own Egypt.

3. S. (10:35) With our concern of our Arvut, has an external side to it like events and so on, and there’s an inner side. You said that first of all we have to worry about the inner part. What does it mean? How can we care together correctly for the inner part?

R. As much as we are connected inside, between us to the one goal, one cause, and for us to constantly care about that inner connection, that point of the inner connection between us. That’s a problem. If we constantly maintained this point of connection between us, even if we don’t reveal anything in it for the time being, that’s the place through which we connect to the Creator, and as long as we look after this connection between us above all the disturbances and there will be disturbance, and again we will reinforce that connection between us on top of the disturbances; by that we are building the infrastructure for the revelation of the Creator.

S. How by connecting among us, how does it impact? How does it make the Creator connect us?

R. Our effort. When I wish to connect everyone and strengthen everyone and I care about them, for them to realize themselves and, each one from the ten is like that towards the other friends, like a father who holds everything up. He makes himself to some extent similar to the Creator and this effort appears as a spiritual effort, in order to bestow. A person seemingly rises, he wants to perform an act that is similar to bestowal, to love. So through such actions when we all do it, when we invite the reforming light to clothe in us, it corrects us and he makes this action itself to happen; the action of connection.

4. S. (31:23) When I am making an effort to make an internal action, I think about the friend I want to succeed, I want to give him Arvut. What happens is when he needs my physical support he needs my physical relation to him but I am powerless to even move my fingernail towards him. What does it mean in respect to the mutual guarantee I am giving him?

R. Try to think about it more. Try to think about it artificially. Try artificially to ask the Creator to give you such an opportunity because this work of caring about the friend is the only spiritual work you can do for now. Even later, in effect all of your work will be through the friends. Otherwise it will not be spiritual. Just understand the essence, the depth, the intensity of the law of mutual guarantee. We will get back to it, let’s say in 15, 20 lessons and then 15, 20 lessons later we will return to it in order to implement it in a new state, a new degree, on a new level. All in all, the law of Arvut, the law of mutual guarantee, is the law of connection of all the broken souls into one soul, until the end of correction.

S. How do I set an example? You said we should set an example. How internally, without the five senses, to the friends?

R. Example, I don’t remember how they said it. But we should also give a physical example that you care about the others and to publicize that you care and worry about the others, by that you will weaken them, yes. It says that “he who does a favor to his friend must inform him.

S. If we can influence a friend according to the principle of lust and honor. Can we also do it internally or is it only external?

R. Both. Of course internally it’s always correct but it’s also recommended to do it externally because it adds peace in the world. That’s why this action needs to exist in externality as well. “He who gives a gift to his friend must notify him”, that’s what it’s written. Because it increases the peace in the world, it adds to the peace, to the wholeness, closeness; correction.

S. If I thought about a friend, in his favor. Do I have to make it known that I was thinking in his favor?

R. Yes, just don’t overdo it, don’t confuse others. But give them a short example.

5. S. (17:17) Is Arvut a condition for exiting Egypt?

R. The Arvut is a condition for all the corrections from when the person begins the path; to make his point into 2, 3, 4 points, it’s all through the mutual guarantee. By connecting to one another and forming these ties of Arvut, by that we arrange the vessel and bring it from the shattering to a whole vessel.

S. And, the Arvut that Baal HaSulam explains in the article the Mutual Guarantee is that they should be responsible for each other in order to receive the Torah?

R. He talks about it in general but that’s actually the work.

S. On the face of it a person should be willing to completely relinquish, concede everything to his friends…

R. Because he lives in it. On the one hand he annulls himself and on the other hand is responsible, he includes everyone. From the point of view of the will to receive he minimizes himself down to zero; and from the point of the will of bestowal, he makes himself greater than everyone.

S. Okay but in relation to Egypt, it says if a person has to be willing to remain in Egypt as long as my friends come out?

R. Yes but he has to take them like ‘on the wings of an eagle’, and take them out. He needs to accompany them, he needs to hold them, he needs to walk ahead of them like Moses, although he was the most modest one, that’s why he led everyone. These two discernments exist both also in the corrected Malchut that rises to Keter. You should think about this point because we are talking now about the Exodus from Egypt and it depends on applying this action.

 Excerpt 104 (20:06) (21:00) Twice

6. R. (21:43) That he knows that he must work for the benefit of the other and he can’t, he discovers that nevertheless he works for his own benefit but he begins to recognize that he is doing this work forcefully, because the will to receive obligates him. Meaning he’s working ‘hard labor’ as if he is in servitude for Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh obligates him to work with the intention to receive and he suffers but reluctantly he works. So this work, these discernments, these differences; when a person begins to see that he is in order to receive and he’s unable to do it differently, this is already the feeling of servitude, slavery, and that’s already a degree; that’s spirituality. He doesn’t attain spirituality yet but he is doing actions to come up to spirituality. It’s already in the direction of The Exodus.

7. S. (23:03) The heaviness in this work, sometimes it’s easy to think about the friends and pray for them and sometimes it’s very difficult to do. It doesn’t depend on the preparation or anything, the conditions are the same but it suddenly becomes difficult. Is this the coarseness that is revealed in the work?

R. Of course. The Creator shows us various conditions based on the size of our ego, external conditions. We can’t quite put all of those things together, we can tell why we experience all of these states. Why do such things influence us suddenly, whether something is good or not so good or bad or disturbing? And we are in a state where we seemingly can’t control our states, so what to do? Here specifically we need to understand that there are no coincidences but everything is from within ‘the complete system’. That we for the time being don’t know and don’t recognize it, but gradually, we receive guidance. How to relate to ‘the system’; the system of connections between us, where if we correct the connection between us and ten in effect we are shaping ‘the system’ more and more, correctly. This is our work.

Excerpt 105 (24:53) (25:45) Twice

8. R. (26:31) According to what we discussed it is more or less clear.

9. S. (26:40) We read these excerpts yesterday: How do we shift from the bitterness when the will to receive doesn’t want the quality of bestowal, the bitterness from not being able to bestow?

R. All of this is done from above. We need to do what is required of us to do, and as a result of our efforts we invite the reforming light. Our efforts might be a few percent good but mostly incorrect, but the relationship between the correct effort and the incorrect effort influences the awakening of the upper light in a certain way that fits us, and the upper light that influences us accordingly, corrects us; each one individually, without all the confusion of the thoughts and desires, it is only in the efforts that we can put in. The important thing here is only to keep going and as much as possible, to repeat those exercises, those excerpts that we are learning. And, that’s how we advance.

Excerpt 106 (28:18)

Excerpt 107 (29:31) (30:45) Twice

10. S. (32:00) One should wait until the evening of Exodus, even if he lacks the spirit?

R. There is no evening of Exodus when you look at the calendar. Rather when you are ready for the Exodus from Egypt this is called, the eve of the Exodus from Egypt or the night of the Exodus from Egypt. It is not according to time, it’s according to the willingness of the group to come out of Exile. When we know we must reveal the Creator; the force of bestowal that is common to them, to be revealed to them. If they are ready for that this means that they are in the beginning of the Exodus from Egypt.

11. S. (33:07) Despite the fact that we are desires to receive, how can we accept to work without reward?

R. Our reward would be, not in the will to receive but in the will to bestow. Our reward will be when we discover the force of bestow between us, and here this is the inversion that we go through along the way. The thing is that just like now we are working with the force called the will to receive and it’s just like that, how it is programmed our inner mechanism, where by receiving i feel pleasure, fulfillment, a certain energy that moves me and forces me to work. And, when we go to the spiritual world as we call it, we seemingly flip the switch and we switch to a different energy; an energy of bestowal where the more I bestow, the more I feel pleasure.

This is possible, it is permissible, you have unlimited possibilities. So, although this seems to us right now as something unrealistic, it is completely realistic. Except we just need to perform the correct actions by which we obligate the Creator to turn the switch, to flip the switch so we would work not as a result of the force of reception but as the result of the force of bestow. Then before us is a full world, the world of the Creator, of the One Force that is truly acting in reality and in this reality in which we are; we will begin to see it as the imaginary reality that is revealed to us only so that we would be able to distinguish, black from White, the reality from in order to receive to the reality from it in order to bestow.

Because we, the creative being cannot feel only one reality, we have to add the contrast, the difference between the two. Therefore, the will to receive always remains, it never gets refined. It is in the foundation of spiritual desire and we discover everything above it, without it we can’t do it. Without it it is only the Creator’s nature: We are in the will to receive, although our understanding, our attainment, our life all of it is above the will to receive, but as much as we can be above it, accordingly we attain spirituality.

12. S. (36:58) The heaviness, the difficulty in the work, should a person shift it to the understanding that because of it there is sorrow, there is pain in the Shechina, Divinity and that’s what he should pray for? Because I’m not in Arvut so the whole vessel is incomplete?

R. Yes that’s what it says, that we are not Incorporated with this feeling where we have to come to “the sorrow of the Shechina” from our identification with reality. But when we incorporate ourselves with the group we discover it, we attain it, gradually as much as we wish to help the friends as we discussed in the beginning of the lesson. We also discover that our yearning for it, our inability to do it, yes and no; is building in us these feelings of darkness, of our inability, of our unsuccessful effort. And, by this we become closer to the Creator, through our failures, because we need him more.

13. S. (38:51) You open up the lesson by saying that we think that to help the friends we think about helping the friends and the Creator is coming close to us. How to combine this with the ‘hard labor’? Does the Creator cancel suffering or He gives us the ability to accept it and continue the work?

R. Precisely in the previous suffering we felt we received the revelation and then the suffering became pleasure and attainment. It’s not that we have to yearn to suffer, no, we have to yearn for the acts of bestowal and connection. But when we don’t achieve these things then the suffering becomes a vessel. All of the slavery in Egypt, is basically the building of the vessel for the attainment of spirituality; but don’t start sanctifying the suffering. No.

14. S. (40:18) What to do when the Egyptian comes with the question of what is this work? Should I try to answer him?

R. No. We need not argue with it. Either we punch it in the teeth as it says, or the best is to keep reading. If I have questions and I can’t answer them, immediately, I don’t start thinking and getting confused with all kinds of answers, I go and read. I go and read sources of Rabash. For example these excerpts we are learning now and usually I immediately find the answer, and even if I don’t find the answer through reading I awakened the reforming light and it elevates me and gives me some sort of an answer, and even if it doesn’t and I forget about the question I’m already where I am, reading, so that is also good. The important thing is to not remain helpless, in a bad mood. No.

15. S. (41:54) Following a previous question:  What does it mean that “Malchut is in the dust” we typically say that “Divinity is in the dust” what’s the difference between them?

R. Yes. Malchut being in the dust means that the Kingdom of Heaven which is the Shechina, Divinity is in the dust. It is when we don’t appreciate the revelation of the Creator.

Excerpt 108 (42:27) (43:32) Twice

16. R. (43:34) Meaning they wanted to emerge from the state into spirituality, like us now.

Reader continues: “which work are we speaking of… “

17. S. (44:41) In the ten should we be humble or should we show the burning love and bestowal we have towards the ten? Should we conceal it or reveal it?

R. We need to reveal to one another love basically but not one that bursts out, don’t pressure everyone. Give everyone, give your friends a feeling that you are constantly at work but without jumps constantly at work on one kind of plane on one level. You are concerned with the Arvut in the group, with connection in the group, you are concerned about the direction towards the purpose of creation in the group, you want to support them in this, you are in this and you are advancing together. So give them support and the feeling of confidence that’s it and don’t overdo it but as much as you are together at a certain level at this average level, that’s how you should be among them also not more not less. If God forbid there’s some sort of a decline and disappointments then you can add but basically support them give them strength as a good friend, that’s it. One who is beneficial, instrumental.

S. How can each and every individual help the friends in the ten that all of the ten will give permission to the Creator to cloth inside the ten, so how can I connect with the will to receive of the friend and make him subjugate to the Creator?

R. You connect to the will to receive of the friend and you help him because you with your will to receive can help the friend and the friend with his will to receive can help you because the disturbances that each one feels it feels only with respect to his own will to receive and with respect to the will to receive of his friend he doesn’t feel disturbances this is why he can help just like if God forbid my friend is sick and I am well so I help him, in this way we help each other.

S. Also to sustain Arvut is it true that we need a vessel called fear from the lord to keep the Arvut to keep the boat, so we need fear, right?

R. We need to maintain the Arvut, the mutual responsibility as one vessel. I always have to try to fill up, fill them, to do the works that my friends cannot do. If God forbid one friend has a problem with his legs, another has a problem with his hand, a third one has a headache and he cannot work with his head today etc. So I, wherever I can, I want to compliment them. So that our ten will be as a complete unit of warriors. That’s it. I once gave an example that it’s like in the Army when we attack, the one who is ahead is constantly shooting, say, with his machine gun, and the others are behind him. He runs out of bullets he goes back and another one steps forward and shoots and then the third one and then so they switch all the time. This is what we should do.

18. S. (49:40) What is a person lacking when he wants to come out of Egypt but he doesn’t have these questions?

R. When he looks at others he will learn quickly, it’s just like in our lives as children when we grow among grown-ups. So giving an example to others is very important.

19. S. (50:14) You spoke about the importance and urgency of Arvut, mutual guarantee, what’s the level of Arvut, mutual guarantee that we should reach in each and every ten before the night of exodus and also in our ten where everyone can agree on?

R. We agree on the Arvut in a way that each one replaces the other and takes the others place where he can and by this, understand that by this he becomes similar, he begins to become similar to the Creator. Arvut is the key to becoming similar to the Creator. Arvut is the key or permission to feel the Creator, to clothe in him because in the Arvut you unite with the ten and there you discover the Creator to the extent of your Arvut with the ten because Arvut is the vessel and the Creator is the light that you receive as a result of this action.

Excerpt 109 (51:50)

20. R. (53:02) Look what Pharaoh does. Precisely through Pharaoh we come to great lights, to great spiritual degrees, and without Pharaoh’s work, we wouldn’t be able to do it. Who does the spiritual work? Pharaoh.

Excerpt 109 again (53:26)

21. R. (54:30) The more we advance the more we will have problems, disturbances that are more difficult and will need greater help and this way we gain higher degrees and greater lights that will enter and correct us and fill us. Only through efforts there is no way around it.

22. S. (55:00) Especially in light of our efforts, a question, Rabash writes we need to draw big lights, as if I can draw the lights, big or…?

R. No, you overcome your will to receive to the extent that it disrupts you and pushes you away from connecting with the friends, from yearning for bestowal, from doing acts of bestowal in practice acts of connection so accordingly you have to overcome it and try to do something in this world in practice in connection with the group and turn to the Creator to get help and of course the Creator arranges it all for you and by shouting you receive. Part of the work you do in corporeality in the group and part of the work you do in spirituality by turning to the Creator.

S. What does it mean that I drew the lights? It was hard for me to make an action of connection, I overcame myself and I made an action of connection?

R. Incorrect, incorrect, that’s nonsense the fact that you seemingly performed acts in connection in corporeality you can’t perform these actions but did you perform an act by this in an internal connection? Check after you do something physical with the friends to what extent you performed this act in spirituality? Did you really get closer to them or not? And then you will see that you didn’t and precisely by doing everything you could in corporeality to connect in a corporeal group you will see that inside the same distance in your heart between you and the friends remains. What do you do? Here there is room for prayer.

S. Even internally I understand that externally we are doing the necessary work but internally I ask for the friends and I can’t really ask for them, I can’t feel that they are close, I overcame myself and I felt to some extent the closeness of their friends. Where is it here, whether or not I drew the light?

R. You will not know this immediately, now you are already demanding a reward. Only when you can constantly return to the same request to the Creator to connect you as one body with the friends. This is what you ask because by this you bring him contentment and the fact that you want in your common desire to receive the revelation of the Creator already, this will already be in order to receive. When you really can connect with the friends with the common force of bestowal then you will reveal it according to the revelation of the Creator. It will come, just keep going.

S. It turns out that according to this excerpt you have to ask for help not in order to receive the light but I need the help because it will help me act?

R. Of course. Why do you need light? You only need to be connected with the friend so that by this you bring contentment to the Creator. Afterwards you will be able to perform actions in building for the Creator a place to be revealed. This will come. Let’s not confuse ourselves.

23. S. (59:30) It turns out that when we cannot feel connection then the suffering becomes a vessel. What does it mean to build a vessel in prayer?

R. When the will to receive feels that it will reveal itself as the will to receive and it’s remote from the friends and wants to come closer to the friends and connect with them but cannot and turns to the Creator and demands from the Creator to bring him closer to the friends then when they connect among them he feels that they have become in that one desire, they have become as one and he asks the Creator to accept their one desire because they all did it, this is how he feels in his vessel that at least he did it in, this connection with others, in order to make room for the Creator to be revealed and enjoy his children, this whole group. This is really the disposition that a person should have and to extend that he presents it to the Creator he can feel afterwards how much the Creator enjoys him, how much he expected. We will open it up more, we will work on it.

24. S. (01:01:39) When we ask in our prayers from the Creator to strengthen, to grow the deficiency of the friends, does that awaken the rule of Pharaoh?

R. No, because we are turning to the Creator.

25. S. (01:02:04) From excerpt 107. When Malchut is in exile under the control of the Klipot then the Malchut is considered as dust as something that is not important. He is asking who is they? Who is for them?

R. Those who participate.

26. S. (01:02:32) What does it mean to punch the Egyptian in the teeth?

R. All those disturbances that disrupt us in connecting we have to go against them, and this is called breaking their teeth. Punching them in the teeth.

27. S. (01:02:58) What to do in the state when a person cannot overcome the hard labor, the hard work?

R. No one can overcome the hard labor, and no one can overcome the easy labor too. The more we advance in our corrections the more we see that even the slightest smallest correction I cannot overcome it and do something. I can only ask the Creator to arrange my corrections and raise me to the correction..

28. S. (01:03:39) Why is it that without the Pharaoh without the suffering you cannot receive the great lights?

R. The suffering measures the depth and the power of the vessels. The hungrier we are, the more we can enjoy the food.

29. S. (01:04:06) How should we pray one time together or 100 times by myself?

R. Both but together is much more helpful.

30. S. (01:04:27) How can each one of the friends and the friends together flip the switch from reception to bestowal?

R. They should be in constant bestowal, we haven’t come to the vessels of reception yet.

31. S. (01:05:18) If suddenly the morning lessons taste like dust and every lesson seems like it’s repeating itself and all the prayers seem like they are repeating themselves. How can you find innovations in this state and a new upliftment?

R. Through prayers, through connection among the friends and through turning to the Creator. I will just like to tell you one thing, those who do not go through the lessons now will have no other chance because we will go forward and then he will seemingly be out of the loop. He won’t be able to absorb it and make up for it afterwards. He has to participate with us now, every moment, every day so try to talk to your friends that they will all participate in the lessons. These lessons are about the actual exit from the will to receive into spirituality.

Excerpt # 110 (01:06:37)

31. R. (01:08:30) We see that is not simple, it’s a long way and we need strengthening everytime in order to keep going, keep going and keep going and every time we will have descents, ascents, we will get new flavors, tastelessness and this is how we will advance.

32. S. (01:08:54) You know we are reading the article now and I am discovering our group and all Bnei Baruch in this article. How we suffer, from the suffering I hear the prayer of the friends, the great prayer of the friends. What else is missing for us to draw the force of Moses on it so he can pull us out from Egypt?

R. What we need is persistence, patience and persistence on the path. Where we constantly go forward and then we fall and we get up and fall again and so on repeatedly many times every day and we will succeed. There are no miracles here just as you learned and you lived that many years in the world so you need to understand that the opportunity that you were given now you have to realize it to the end of your life and beyond as well. You will see how it dresses in such a way that there is no difference between this world and the next world and everything. Just continue on the path.

33. S. (01:10:27) We are constantly at war for Passover and we are constantly at the door to get through. What kind of cry should I give to the Creator to get the necessary key to open this door?

R. You always cry out the Creator from where the heart cries out. You don’t choose which outcry you can give now. It’s not like you have a storage, a warehouse of outcries and you open it up and you choose which outcry I will now cry out. You only continue and whatever comes out that’s the way it should be.

34. S. (01:11:36) If I have concerns for myself and above it I wish to care for their friends. Is that a correction?

R. If I have concerns for the friend and beyond that I have to care for myself?

S. The other way around, if I have concerns from myself and above it I wish to care for the friend, wanting to care for the friend, is that correction?

R. Yes, of course, yes.

35. S. (01:12:22) Tell us please everything we are learning today, everything we’re speaking of today, the whole day. Is this the work between the friends or the attitude towards the friends, it’s one of our fundamental concepts, our friend. What is the criteria to be called a friend?

R. The friends on the path. We want to reach the same goal which we scrutinize and clarify together and constantly direct ourselves to the same goal. In the beginning we are not so connected, we scrutinize more and more the goal and then we see that we need to become more and more connected among us and more and more directing ourselves toward the goal and this is how we build the connection between us until we come to a form of connection that is similar to the Creator and then we approach him.

S. It says an ongoing scrutiny. I’m not sure how to say it, Ill try to say it more softly. We have in the ten friends who practically never show up, we don’t see them in the lessons but we would love to be together and we try all possible tactics, to pressure them, not to pressure them, gently and mutually, somehow there doesn’t seem to be any progress in it. It brings us pain because it is a true thing. So it is not clear if we should do what Rabash tells us about such friends or? There are those whom we have never seen in the lessons or on the zoom calls but they are listed in the ten. It’s not clear how to relate to them, how to help them. Should we do what Rabash tells us about the group? 

R. We have to be open to everyone, everyone who wants to connect. If he has good thoughts and he doesn’t want to do harm to the group he should have the possibility to connect and advance with us. At least one step forward. We are traveling on the road so they also go from one stop to the next a small part of the road but still, they did something, they will have the incorporation with us. This is how we should see things and not go by force. Work with those friends who are with you who are always more or less with you and that’s how you will succeed.

S. What you said a bit earlier that those who do not go through the lessons with us now, they will be behind and we will be way ahead, so that is scary, so? 

R. You still have to continue with those who are with you and with the world group, don’t forget that you are all with us together and therefore all and all there is this one great body between us that is advancing towards Arvut between us and those who come and those who do not come from your small group, what can we do? There are different reasons for that and later on we will be able to correct them as well. Don’t worry about that, worry about connection with those who are there.

36. S. (01:16:42) How can we reach an understanding that if I won’t ask for the friend nothing will help?

R. That’s how it is. It is like how if the friends don’t care about you, you will not advance also and how can you force them to help you to think of you? By giving them an example that you want to help them. This is why it’s called Arvut, Mutual guarantee that it’s not one that can help the other but it is on the condition that the other one also participates with him and each one cares for the other. It’s such an incorporation that we come to a point that there is no difference between anyone, we all become a single system and even though there are billions of pieces there but they’re all interconnected in infinite connections so that it all becomes one system in its intensity many times, they call it 620 times greater than the initial system of Adam HaRishon which was a single desire. By their shattering and division to 600,000 souls as we call it, 600,000 pieces and  then they interconnect in infinite connections between one to all the other parts, specifically through that they regain an intensity of 620 times more than what existed in the birth of Adam HaRishon where it only had Nefesh of Nefesh and now it has Yechida of Yechida of Yechida.

37. S. (01:19:05) There are states that the pride goes up and then you can already feel the next step of the Creator, that he’s going to give you the blow.

R. We go through many different states and we have to go through it and learn from it from every state.

38. S. (01:19:32) Everything we are learning today about Arvut and all that, you say that time isn’t a factor in spirituality. So how can we still, cause there are people who are here for a month and they’re people who are here for 20 or 25 years so how does it work on us throughout this time in the spiritual work?

R. I don’t really pay attention to who is studying for how many hours or years, it all depends on the soul, the root of the soul. I don’t want to get into that, it doesn’t belong to me. I have to give every moment as much as I can for the general connection, alright?

39. S. (01:20:30) How can I feel the bitterness in the work for myself?

R. Make efforts and then you will feel flavor either bitter or sweet.

40. S. (01:20:54) In excerpt 104 it is written that the difficult work is called the Maror, when a person feels bitterness in the work when he works for himself. The recognition of evil is a good thing so why is a person here called wicked or dead?

R. This is how the will to receive sees that it is dead, that the evil within the person is either alive or dead. That’s what a person discovers

41. (01:21:32) Moscow is asking about excerpt 105. When they overcame to do something to bestow right away the thoughts of the Egyptians came. So why do the question of the Egyptians awakens and how do I recognize them inside me?

R. The thoughts of the Egyptians and all the disturbances they awaken for the person to need the Creator’s help.

42. (01:21:57) Do the friends depend on the efforts they make or on me thinking about them and wanting them to succeed?

R. Both. We are all in a single system.

43. S. (01:22:20) What does it mean to be concerned that the friends in the ten connect between them?

R. Give them an example and pray for them.

44. S. (01:22:32) Is annulment a type of bestowal?

R. Annulment is a kind of bestowal, yes of course.

45. S. (01:22:43) How to have an honest and direct discussion with friends at the beginning of the path and tell them that at some point on the spiritual work they will have to start taking care of others by keeping the law of Arvut?

R. I don’t think that in the beginning these things can be already discussed if you are already talking about that then they’re probably not actual beginners. With each and every person you need to work to the extent that they can accept it correctly, so it doesn’t stop them or break them or end confuse them but that a person can advance well and pleasantly with your support.

46. S. (01:23:37) Why don’t I feel the pleasure that the creator has in his plan for me?

R. A baby can’t feel the pleasure of a mother but when he grows he will discover it.

47. S. (01:24:01) Who becomes similar to the Creator: the ten as one body or every detail in it?

R. Both.

48. S. (01:24:10) Why, when Malchut is in the dust it’s lack of importance for the revelation of the Creator? Isn’t Malchut the will to receive?

R. Malchut is always the will to receive with corrections on top of it to the point of an intention to bestow. That’s how we need to see it, what is important is how much it has an intention to bestow in order to bestow means that the intention of Malchut, that this is how she relates to her parts, let’s say her ten parts and that is how each part of it relates to the other parts and to all the parts together and this is called the intention of Malchut.

49. S. (01:25:01) When I annul myself in the ten and I get support through the ten we rise and fall but I feel reward. Is that the right way, the right direction?

R. Yes of course it is the right direction because when I both rise and fall I can feel the reward in the descents as well, the descendants are not less important than the ascents.