SUNDAY PRAYER: MALCHUT-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of SUNDAY.
On the Verge of Lishma
Morning Lesson April 21, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
On the Verge of Lishma – selected Excerpts from the Sources. #15
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:30) What is special about the transition even though not everyone and not yet, we’re not yet in that, in the transition, we’re just studying about it, approaching it but still we have to try and envision it, what needs to change within us so that we cross through this border which is a very unique thing from Lo Lishma to Lishma. It is when a change of perception of reality happens in the person in the sensation of reality, in the place of the Creator fills all of man’s environment and He orchestrates everything and determines everything in man’s life, thoughts, desires, that He is in everything and other than Him there is nothing; None Else Besides Him. So how do we move from the state we are in today, in the perception of reality where there are many causes and we too, are somehow shaping reality according to our thoughts, desires, actions. How do we move to a state where we discover that everything is the Creator, that He fulfills the entire world, all of reality, and only His will, His desire, His attitude, only He does everything and fills everything and we exist within Him. Meaning that our entire work comes to a point where in each and every step, in each and every action, even thought, everything that happens within us and between us, we discover that in all works the Upper Force. Discover that more and more as if we make room for the Creator and that is how we discover the true, upper reality. Okay, there are no questions about that. We will continue.
Reading Excerpt #15 (03:50) “The impression that comes to a person..”
2. R. (04:53) Meaning that the person in all his actions, in thoughts, speech, action he feels he has to continue the actions of the Creator. That He fulfills the world and shapes the world and everything that happens is only the Creator. And man, only as if makes room from his ego, from his thoughts, his desires and then that place is filled with the Creator, with the actions and desire of the Creator only. So in order to allow us to make room to restrict ourselves and make room for the Creator to show Himself in all of reality towards the person, so for that we have to do our spiritual work. Meaning we have to restrict our will to receive and depict the Creator that fulfills everything and shapes everything and there is None Else Besides Him and that is basically
what our work should be the whole day. Meaning, as long as we are conscious that we exist, we have to make room for the Creator and then our ego is restricted and makes room for the Creator to appear. This is what we have to do.
3. S. (07:15) How does the person free a place in his heart?
R. He has to feel his heart, what the heart is drawn to, what it is moving towards, aiming towards and try to see in all these actions, all these states that the Creator fills everything. That the force of bestowal, of love, connection comes instead of where a person thought before that he wanted to determine the way the world works.
S. And another question: how does the person awaken his heart to the feeling of impression that he talks about?
R. I think the best thing here is that one shall help his friend. We won’t be able to do it alone, there has to be some group, collective, global effort as much as possible from all our groups around the world. That we want, that whenever I can depict reality to myself that we exist in, that it all is filled by the Upper force, the Creator’s force and the Creator’s force is connection and love. Each and everyone’s annulment towards the others and so as we feel this field, it’s called the field that has been blessed by the Creator, then we will begin to reveal it more and more as existence between us, filling up the space between us, connecting us and becoming revealed.
4. S. (10:10) I wanted to ask: what does the restriction that needs to be performed in a person depend upon?
R. A restriction is that I restrict myself, my natural attitude and instead of that I crown the Creator as fulfilling everything and surrounding everything.
S. But why can there be Creator in the reality without restriction?
R. Because I’m filling up the world, my ego that is. If I, right now feel reality, the world, humanity, doesn’t matter what it is, that I am filling up the world, I am depicting to myself what is my ten, what is our group, what is humanity, in general I am shaping that. And if I take myself out of determining the form of reality, then instead of that I have to bring the ten and the Creator that fulfills it.
S. So what does it mean that the Creator fills the reality?
R. That love, connection and bestowal fill up all of the reality. And what I think of as the opposite because my ego depicts a different reality to me which we are used to, all of that because I relate this way to reality and I want to determine a new kind of relationship.
S. What’s the action that needs to happen so that this restriction will take place upon you for the Creator to fill reality for you?
R. I want to stop the action of my will to receive on the world, on both myself and the ten and our general group and all of humanity. That I don’t relate to them through my ego, in a natural way, the way I do it instinctively and I rather really want to crown the Creator as the King of the world. Meaning that the force of bestowal, connection instead of the ego that would prevail before, now this is the force that fulfills the world.
S. It’s like there’s a demand for you to truly change your vessels of reception completely?
R. Yes.
S. So this advice that is to be adapted to the Creator, where do we bring it from?
R. I depict it to myself based on what we learn, based on what I feel, that it also becomes gradually revealed in my ten.
S. You receive reality through the ten?
R. Yes.
S. So until there is a restriction upon all that is to receive you start receiving through the ten?
R. I can perceive but it is still very restricted, very limited.
S. So last question, the restriction, what does it actually bring us? It brings us the ability to change the vessel of perception? What does it bring us the restriction?
R. The restriction gives us a new governance that the Creator, the force of love, connection, bestowal, it begins to enter the entire world and fills up all the places where beforehand fulfilled by many foreign thoughts, desires that each wanted to control and now only one force is in control.
5. S. (15:37) Is the first restriction related to the Creator or the created being?
R. We relate everything to the Creator.
S. Without the first restriction is there no created being?
R. Correct.
6. S. (16:13) This action of restriction seems to have stages, it doesn’t happen all at once?
R. Right, correct. We have to understand that what we are doing in general is as a result of the Creator’s influence over us. We carry out His instructions, his desires, that I now have a new desire, a new thought, new movement and it all comes to me from the Creator. And I try to digest it, recognize it and continue on my own. Meaning there is something here that comes from the Creator to me and there is also what I continue from myself, by my thinking about what happens and organizing things, clothing what I received from above in my thoughts and feelings and that is how I continue towards the ten and the entire world.
7. S. (17:58) When I try to build the quality of love inside the ten, how do I then extend that quality to the whole group and to the whole world?
R. That actually is not so much of a problem. If I can, if I can perceive my relation to the ten that I want everyone to be connected in a single thought, single desire, single action, to see before us a single reality which is the Creator and we identify with Him and we want to determine onto ourselves only the actions that He will set for us and that He will accompany us and guide us and govern us, so when we make such an effort in the ten, each of the ten can depict these things as happening in the entire world.
S. What does it mean that the Creator accompanies us?
R. The Creator accompanies us all the time, but now in our forces we want to carry it out, to hold Him, to increase Him in our eyes; that the living God will grow.
8. S. (20:28) Where will I emphasize my effort? By diminishing myself or making the Creator greater?
R. There are actions that determine each other. When I make the Creator great, by that I relatively, respectively diminish myself or vice versa and more than that happens in the group action. When we, in the group, try to determine such a relationship between us, that we are shaping the Creator, as it says, “you have made Me,” that we build the Creator through the connection between us. That the kind of connection, the intensity and character of connection between us will be as the Creator. And the Creator is firstly love, connection, annulment, mutual annulment of each one towards the others, so the more we make room from our ego and rise above it and wish to connect between us above this annulment of the ego by that we let the Creator, give the Creator an opportunity to be revealed, we reveal Him. This is called “you have made Me.” That by that, we literally build a certain space between us where the quality of the Creator resides.
9. S. (22:22) According to the text he says that making the commandments and connecting to the friends and connecting to the Creator is the same. Then he says that in both cases you should not have any hope for anything in return to yourself?
R. Meaning that you benefit from it, yes.
S. So this is described as Lishma the highest state. How does this coincide with the state of receiving in order to bestow which is also the highest state, ultimately we have to receive in order to bestow?
R. Correct.
S. So according to what it says here we don’t receive anything?
R. In the meantime that’s how it is, that’s the first stage, that I don’t receive anything for myself. After I clean myself from receiving which is for my benefit, then I can begin planning the actions that I am connecting, working, connecting to others in order to bestow to the Creator.
S. According to what is written, Lishma means that I have nothing that I received for myself and Lishma is described as the highest state: the final correction?
R. Let’s say so, Lishma is a condition.
S. In parallel we learn that receiving in order to bestow is the highest state the created being achieves?
R. Receiving in order to bestow is higher than bestowing in order to bestow.
S. Receiving in order to bestow is higher than Lishma?
R. No, no, Lishma means that I work not for myself but for the others and this can be through an action through the group and towards the Creator; this is called Lishma.
S. If there was a table of Lishma and receiving in order to bestow, would it be on the same height?
R. Lishma includes in it all kinds of actions of bestowal. Lishma means for the sake of Heaven, for the Creator’s sake, for the sake of the connection between everyone if we’re talking about how it is in practice between us, how we do it.
S. What do we receive in Lishma?
R. In Lishma we receive pleasure from bestowing to the Creator because we can’t work without receiving pleasure, we’re working with our desire, the desire does not dissolve and then we come to a state where I do work towards the ten, to the general group or the world, and thus, we advance.
S. This true psychological block that you can’t come to in order to bestow and still be in Lishma, it is simply illogical, it’s something that you can’t cross with your intellect.
R. Receiving in order to bestow and Lishma?
S. Yes, they don’t logically work together?
R. Why? It’s like the example of the host and the guest, the more the guest receives with an intention to give pleasure to the host, by that he actually manages to bring pleasure to the host by receiving more, and the host enjoys that the guest has received this and this and how much he enjoys and that is on behalf of the host. And on behalf of the guest, the more he receives more and more, the more he brings pleasure to the host.
S. But in the end it is talking about actions of bestowal, it says I need to connect with the friends, I need to help them, to give them, will I feel the flavor with this?
R. More than that and that depends on what level or what height you are working with them.
S. It is interesting that at some point you come to a place from giving from taking out something from you, you are actually eating the food that the Creator put before you?
R. But when you eat the food the Creator put before you by that you connect to the Creator and then your food that you receive is no longer just food, it is what is connecting you at the lowest level to the Creator, on top of this you build the relationship and with the relationship you can reach all the way to the light Yechida.
S. So what are the portions? You say it’s a glass of water, solid glass of rice and then a steak? What are these portions when we talk about the friends in the connection with them?
R. The will to receive as much as you can activate it in connection with others.
S. How can I activate this will to receive in the ten?
R. That you wish to connect with them, be in a single desire even though your desires are different but you want to connect them, you want to connect them to a composite sort of desire, so that together you can all bring contentment to the Creator in a complete manner.
S. Eventually each activates his will to receive in this equation?
R. Yes, of course. Without the will to receive, how do you connect to others?
S. Because for the time being it seems like the guidance is […]
R. But how do you bestow?
S. I give them things, I make them coffee […]
R. Meaning you are nullifying the will to receive so you are working with the will to receive.
S. The annulment of the will to receive is reception?
R. The annulment of the will to receive is bestowal.
S. I’m asking how do you do an act of spiritual reception in the ten?
R. Spiritual reception in the ten is that I feel the desire of the friends and I do what they want, that’s it. They want me to receive from them a portion of pleasure, so I nullify myself from wanting this pleasure for myself and I transition that to a form where I do it only for them.
S. So he prepared something for me to eat, so I need to receive what he’s giving me to do some calculation that now I will eat what he prepared for me not because I want it but because he prepared it but I do want to use my will to receive, I want to enjoy?
R. Of course, without it you can’t enjoy it and you therefore can’t bring joy to them. If you don’t enjoy it, you don’t bring joy to Him.
S. You said that when you do this action of trying to bestow during the act of bestowal then the food has no flavor?
R. Yes, with the food itself you can reach a state where it is tasteless.
S. This as much as you can imagine receiving in order to bestow?
R. No, that is a transition, that we begin to do something in order to bestow then we can eat the tastiest thing in reality and feel no taste in it because the will to receive from there disappears. I want to cancel the will to receive I want to make it only in order to bestow and if I depict that I do it only in order to bestow to the others and the others are not yet connected to me, I don’t use their vessels but only my vessels and in my vessels I nullify the reception of pleasure, then I don’t enjoy the food at all. I feel it like a piece of cotton.
S. Is that an intermediate state where I also won’t taste it, and also forget about it later?
R. That is all later.
10. S. (32:54) There are very special moments where the work in connection with the friends and the work with the Creator seems like the same. And there are moments where the work with the Creator has one flavor and work with the friends has a different flavor. So these moments come to show me that I’m not in wholeness or maybe I actually need to taste on purpose those two tastes, to work with them somehow?
R. Yes, you have to taste both in order to scrutinize, differentiate between them.
11. S. (33:35) To cause a friend to bestow to me; is that a good action?
R. Yes, more accurately to give the friend an opportunity to bestow to me, yes, of course that is a good action.
12. S. (34:05) I didn’t understand what is the pleasure of the Creator for me not feeling the taste in the food? He wants me to enjoy?
R. It is not that this is the goal, rather it is on the way to show you that you are working above your will to receive, that you have left the level where you determine everything according to taste and now you can determine the level of the work according to the greatness of the host in your eyes.
S. But I don’t feel the host at the moment. How can I?
R. In that way you will advance until you feel Him.
13. S. (35:15) When a person wants to restrict himself from reality like you opened the lesson with, meaning to block his natural feelings, then the initial result is that he feels darkness, meaning how do we continue from that point?
R. How to continue? Try to continue with your actions of bestowal.
S. To start depicting the friends?
R. That too. I don’t want to answer you, you will try to keep going with that state forward.
S. How in order to receive forces we also use the thought of the greatness of the Creator. Where does this record exist in me, from this thought of the greatness of the Creator? Where do I get that from?
R. Where do you get it from? It doesn’t matter to you right now.
S. How did we develop the thought of the greatness of the Creator?
R. You want to rise to the degree of where it comes to you from and that doesn’t belong to you.
S. I’m constantly searching for forces to perform actions.
R. In order to control them, to know them and control them and that is the incorrect form.
S. So I need to search for forces to do something, right? So I’m asking about that?
R. You’re not asking about that.
S. You’re right, so I changed my attitude here. How do I ask for those forces to develop the thought of the greatness of the Creator?
R. Annul yourself and imagine the Creator fulfilling the whole reality.
14. S. (37:31) We are the desire to receive with the intention in order to receive. If I understand correctly in Lishma it is in order to bestow. Now the pleasure that we receive before the transition to Lishma, if I understand correctly, is from the intention in order to receive and then the desire doesn’t change, only the intention. So the pleasure takes place from the pleasure from in order to bestow?
R. Yes.
S. Meaning that the pleasure to delight is actually inside the intention itself?
R. Yes.
15. S. (38:18) So what exactly is this state of to bestow in order to bestow?
R. That I only wish to bestow and not receive any results in my vessels of reception.
S. Is there in Lo Lishma, the state of receiving in order to receive, to bestow in order to receive? We understand that but then we come into that state of bestowing in order to bestow: how can there be a reality of bestowing in order to bestow? What does it mean, after all the will to receive is the only thing that the person has?
R. So of course I’m always working with the will to receive.
S. What does it mean that it’s to bestow in order to bestow?
R. Meaning that I don’t want to receive in my will to receive any response, any response from my action.
S. There is also an action that is from the will to receive?
R. Always, always without that we have nothing to talk about, the whole of creation is the will to receive.
S. Okay but nevertheless, do we need to focus on certain desires, meaning to bestow in order to bestow means that we need to clothe the right intention only in good intentions that are also somewhat acts of bestowal, like you said to give friends things, coffees, things that are seemingly bestowal in our world?
R. Yes, that as a means.
S. Do we need to focus on such actions at that stage?
R. Yes.
16. S. (40:10) So if we can continue this question which a friend asked: to bestow in order to bestow comes after the transition between Lishma and Lo Lishma, to bestow in order to bestow is already included in Lishma?
R. Bestowing in order to bestow is included in Lishma.
S. And before it first comes the restriction?
R. Let’s say.
17. S. (40:42) We learned that practically we need to exert in making actions of bestowal even if the intention is not correct but to try and make these acts of bestowal in the group?
R. This is very useful, very, it helps us to get to know ourselves.
S. So my question is: why is it like that because according to the schematic the advancement needs to be at first through restriction and only after that we perform acts of bestowal, so why don’t we exercise restriction? Why do we exercise immediately bestowal?
R. Because still on the way there you are going to have to make the action of restriction over the will to receive for itself and to aim that towards the benefit of the friend.
S. So that is my question, why when we drill these things we talk about acts of bestowal, we’re not talking about actions of restriction first of all?
R. We don’t talk about the Tzimtzum [restriction] because we want to move from the action of reception to the action of bestowal and the fact that in the middle we have to stop ourselves from the previous action in order to receive that is, so now we have to move to an action of in order to bestow. And on the way there, of course, there is an inversion in our intention of who do we work for but we are still not so much found in highlighting this difference in the intention of the action. It is something that is clear to us that it will happen this way, either I do it as the guest to myself or as a guest for the host. That is the action that happens inside the guest and it’s not so relevant to the host.
18. S. (43:23) If I understood correctly Lishma is love? We’re talking in a spiritual manner?
R. No, no, let’s not get confused, love or not love. We’re talking about the actions, Lishma means not for oneself.
S. But eventually we come to Lishma through exertion or effort as we say and about that there is a matter of suffering because you are operating against the desire to receive. So how do we intensify, make the level of effort greater and advance towards that measure of restriction that we’re talking about?
R. By connection between us.
19. S. (44:44) How can I make a place for the Creator to be revealed and how can I awaken the same awakening in the friend?
R. By my intention as I want to connect with them and to bestow to them, both to the Creator and to the friends.
20. S. (45:37) You said in the beginning, that we are in a reality with many causes shaping our reality. What are these causes because you said we have to change our relation to these causes? What are they?
R. There are many and they are different. They are varied and we don’t need to enter into this now.
21. S. (46:18) When I think of Lishma and Lo Lishma as opposites there is a disconnect that is unclear between them. If I think about it like a mountain, that the slope is Lo Lishma and the summit is Lishma, what is the correct, better way to think about it?
R. I don’t know, try to be closer to what we’re talking about with our examples.
22. S. (46:54) How do we become more sensitive to the friends’ desires because my ego listens just a little bit?
R. As much as I develop I start to feel the friends more because my development always includes their qualities in me. That is why I gradually feel them more and even a person who is not so soft-hearted, nevertheless feels that he has an understanding and closeness to friends.
23. S. (47:53) How do I work in the ten without any benefit or pleasure in my will to receive?
R. Well, that is our work until through our efforts we receive an illumination from above and it gives us the possibility to bestow to one another, to work above the will to receive. This is to the extent in which friends in some actions will be more for me than I am myself am. So it turns out that I do everything for him, the calculation must be realistic. So we need to try to see each friend more and more from day-to-day in our eyes.
24. S. (49:15) In the work Lishma do we receive two fold, one time the deficiency for the friends to bestow to and another time the abundance to bestow from the Creator?
R. Let’s say so.
25. S. (49:38) I am a clear will to receive the basic thing He created. He operates me in two senses: my thoughts and the will to receive which is the heart, until I nullify the will to receive towards the friends I stay the same basic thing, so I need to restrict myself in the ten so that together we break through and build the Creator and from the Creator to the universe? Is the process correct?
R. For the time being, yes.
26. S. (50:23) How do I reach a state where I don’t want to control bestowal?
R. First of all try to bestow and then check why you are doing this. What it gives you? Is it really bestowal, to bestow in order to receive and in this way you will advance towards scrutinies.
S. So what’s the action because I find myself that I want to control by bestowing to the friends? What do I do?
R. You continue to nevertheless bestow to friends, but do a certain scrutiny on the intention of why you’re doing this more and more.
27. S. (51:36) Does the Creator organize my ten according to the level of my desire and intention for Lishma?
R. Well, of course, yes. To the extent in which you can enter Lishma, accordingly the Creator arranges for you the next actions, the next steps.
28. S. (52:21) As far as I understand, I need to enjoy the will to receive of the others. Is that correct?
R. It is not always. I want to enjoy from the will to receive of the other. What is that sentence? The desire to receive is in everyone else and all of them. I need to enjoy their desires from feeling them, from arranging them, correcting them. I don’t know, maybe through them bring pleasure to the Creator? Maybe you should say that.
S. This is what I wanted to ask: how do I grab hold of the Creator there?
R. You don’t perceive the Creator through the desire to receive in the friend. If you use the others’ desires to receive in order to connect Him to the actions of the group, then through that action, that common action you can delight the Creator.
29. S. (54:00) What is in the action of greatness that the person does?
R. In the action of greatness, what’s an action of greatness?
S. They he has to make the Creator great, the friends, the ten, what is in this action?
R. That he makes it grander in his eyes, he makes the Creator and the friends greater in his eyes and that bestowal will be inscribed in him as reception.
S. This is exactly the point that is not perceived: how is this action considered reception?
R. Well because they are great in his eyes and bestowing to a Great One brings pleasure.
S. To say they’re great to say the Creator is great I can say […]
R. No, you can’t say if you don’t feel this action you are just saying words just like that.
S. How to feel that, how to work with that?
R. We need to work with them, go to serve them, go do something for them, try to serve them and then you will see the work towards them will become bestowal and pleasure.
S. If the friend serves the ten, serves the group and says they’re great, feels they’re great but we can’t receive the greatness from them. Meaning there is this action that’s supposed to be mutual here after we do this service you need to receive this greatness and your emotion and mind?
R. That all depends on a person to the extent he diminishes himself before the other then he can recognize the greatness of the other and to enjoy them and to receive those vessels and bestow through them.
S. How does the ten exude greatness on the person?
R. That is according to his willingness to adhere to them, they’re even willing to bestow to him from their greatness, to show him something but he if he’s not aim towards this, not on the same wave, if he’s not working on the same wave, then it won’t work out for him to receive their greatness.
S. Excuse me for asking like this but we have a case in the ten, we have a very great friend who decided he wants to leave the ten because he doesn’t feel the greatness. How do we cope with this in the ten because it broke all of us?
R. It is a sign that he is not in that state, he’s not great. You remember the example of Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma who was with his tiny, small students and nevertheless, received from them great vessels and rose to high degrees. So it doesn’t depend on the greatness of the society, it depends on the appreciation of the society in the eyes of a person. If they have an inclination towards the purpose of creation, it really doesn’t matter what level of the spiritual development they are in.
S. And how can we as a ten function towards the friend? How can we give him greatness on the one hand we feel his pain and?
R. Read this article together with him about Rabbi Yossi Ben Kisma.
30. S. (58:35) We learned that in order to feel the greatness of the friend I have to nullify before them, serve them, so when I serve them and when I try to do that I feel my greatness? On the contrary, the opposite?
R. Okay, it’s nevertheless worthwhile to do so.
S. So to continue with that until I feel their greatness or is there something else I’m supposed to do?
R. For the time being continue.
31. S. (59:10) I heard you say we perceive the reality through the ten. To perceive through the ten, does it mean we have to have a complete Kli of the ten and the Masach [screen]?
R. No, no, we perceive as much as possible. Also, now what we receive, we receive through the ten although we don’t see it, we don’t identify it but we are receiving nevertheless. Because the form of reality does not change and we’re all, even though we’re shattered, none of us exists on his own. Even though we talk that way but what we feel, we feel through the ten, only this ten, for the time being is at the expense of the Creator. If it weren’t for the ten, we wouldn’t even feel that we exist in any manner like we feel ourselves today.
32. S. (01:00:20) How to nullify myself in Lo Lishma in order to receive the light of Lishma?
R. If we annul ourselves towards the friends then by this we receive through this annulment already a certain impression from the Creator, from the group, we already have some form of advancement.
33. S. (1:00:50) What’s the difference between restriction and bestowing in order to bestow?
R. Restriction is upon the will to receive and to bestow in order to bestow is already work with our desires and intentions in bestowal in order to bestow.
34. S. (1:01:10) Is the table between us and the Creator the relationship between us and the friends?
R. While I wouldn’t talk in such a depictive manner but let’s leave it.
35. S. (01:01:34) Is bestowing in order to bestow, is it to the friend which you would hate to be done to you?
R. Bestowing in order to bestow is nevertheless a spiritual action as I bestow to friends and through them to the Creator. Only that I still can’t get my desire to receive it yet just rise above it.
Reading #16 (01:02:16) “Our sages said one should always engage in Torah..” (Twice)
36. S. (01:04:30) It says that a person in the degree of Lishma has to make actions without any hope for reward like honor or power. I just wanted to see that the friends are connected with the friends and embracing each other and enjoying this desire for myself or not?
R. You need to perform an examination whether what’s happening to you that gives you the forces to bestow is really the force to bestow to others and not through the others oneself, to yourself in return. That’s what you need to check. That’s how it is.
S. I make an effort and as a result of that I heard I want to see a friend’s connecting to myself. I don’t need anything. I don’t need someone to make me greater or tell me you’re great. I don’t take myself into account at all. I only want to see the ten connected if I don’t see that what pleasure can I get from this work?
R. I didn’t quite understand, maybe because there’s a difference between Russian and Hebrew.
S. I want to see the ten connected, why is that considered for my own benefit?
R. No, it’s not considered for yourself. To see the ten connected is actually good. Do you understand what he’s asking?
37. S. (01:07:29) I think he’s saying that if he makes an action of bestowal of connection he wants to see a result, is this considered reception?
R. The desire to see the result can be reception, yes. What does he want to see that result for?
S. I think that’s what he asked.
R. Try to ask it normally.
S. It says in item 15 that by man’s labor he wants an expectation of reward and something in exchange. What I want to see is the Ten becoming connected, is that considered a reward of payment?
R. Meaning that you see the ten is connected and is joined from being connected and whether from your behalf that is called Lishma.
S. If my aspiration is that the Ten will be connected, is that defined as a reward that I shouldn’t aspire to if I want to be in Lishma?
R. For you not to see the Ten is connected?
S. Is there a problem in wanting to see the Ten as connected? Does that fall into the definition of reward, as the expectation for some response?
R. It depends on how you receive it. It depends on how you see it. If I see them connected and it doesn’t matter in what way it really is, if I see them connected and I enjoy the fact that it’s connected that could be a reward.
Reading #17 (01:10:34) “Rabbi Meir says…”
38. R. (01:12: 33) There’s not much to scrutinize here but this is all for those who are in Lishma.