SUNDAY PRAYER: YESOD-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Sunday.

Lesson on the topic of “The Time of The Giving of The Torah”

Morning Lesson May 19, 2023

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

Part 1:

Baal HaSulam. Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah]. #6

1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:42) The essence of the Torah is to let a person enter a state in which he finds the Creator. Where gradually, slowly, slowly to the extent in which he’s capable, understands and gives his agreement and his efforts he can feel what the real world that we are in, that we exist is, and that it is concealed from the rest of those that fill our world at the moment. Meaning Matan Torah, the giving of the Torah is a true gift, whereas a person who is part of this world, that has no more than being a beast, that he can be and reach the degree of Adam, resembling the Creator to such a degree. By changes that the Creator lets him do and enables it for him, and gives him the conditions for a person to be able to raise himself to a higher degree than still, vegetative, and animal. This is what we learn and this is what we need to agree to, accept upon ourselves and to implement. The plan of creation is for us all, all those creatures called people in this world for them to rise in their attainment, in their qualities towards the quality of the Creator which is considered that they have reached the complete adhesion with Him.

Reading Item 6 (03:33) “But when we fully understand the essence..”

2. R. (08:05) Yes, words that we are not capable of appreciating but nevertheless, questions.

3. S. (08:24) He writes to us here that the Creator’s intention is to inform others, Godliness to everyone, what is that?

R. That everyone will feel and attain that there is a central force in reality which is the Creator and only He manages everything, does everything, observes everything and we are dependent, all of us upon Him not partially but 100%. This is how we also define our advancement more correctly, not the directions of development however, but rather that the pace of advancement is something that nevertheless when we come and we are going towards the final correction, that every step along the way we need to stand, understand where we are, how we have come so far and how from this point onwards we can make another step forward. All of our work which is to determine how we come to the last, the final stage.

S. How in each and every moment like he writes here, do I know that I adhere to the Creator and feel in each and every moment?

R. If I am in the ten and everyone more or less understands that the adhesion the Dvekut between us is that place where we meet and discover that we are adhered with the Creator then we just need to arrange ourselves that way, no more than that. We don’t need to run in some kind of direction, to investigate some distances rather it is all within our vessel. Where first of all we should understand what it means, the connection between us and deepen in it and feel the one root in it. When we try to be adhered to this root then this will actually be the revelation of the Creator.

4. S. (11:48) What’s the difference between adhesion with the Creator and adhesion with the ten and adhesion with one’s wife as it is said, “And he left his mother and he clinged to his wife.”

R. These are forms of equivalence of form, where they are all actually degrees for adhesion with the Creator. To adhere to the woman that’s the first one, it’s still called corporeal adhesion. It is written about that. A person will distance from his father and mother and adhere to his wife. While there’s also a certain form of internality besides the externality that we hear, then a person needs to adhere to the group, “love thy friend as thyself” is the first step before “Love thy Lord, thy God.” It is there that he sees the extent in which he’s not capable of being in love to others and is requested for help and he turns to the Creator asking for help inevitably because the Creator would help him.

Then he starts to see the extent in which he is dependent on the friends, on each and every one of them and on all of them together, it’s not the same thing. It’s in each and everyone that searches how to advance towards each and every one to support one another and all of them together and the extent in which he already sees them connected as one man in one body, in one system and the Creator fills the system, moves it and leads it to higher exalted degrees of existence. Those are the degrees that we actually have to go through. It’s all basically connection and nothing besides that.

S. When we are required to do the work of man so with regards to adhesion with the wife in the relationship and adhesion with the ten and only then adhesion with the Creator?

R. Yes, these are the three degrees that are actually in one direction and lead to one goal. This is how it is written in the Torah.

5. S. (15:42) Can you explain what is adhesion?

R. Adhesion, it’s where we try to constantly be more and more adhered to others. The more I connect internally, the more I feel that we are “as one man in one heart,” meaning that we have one desire even though we are two, and to the extent in which we constantly feel the distance between us and upon this distance we want to arrange the nearing, the adhesion. Here I learn how these things are opposite, how they, these two opposite things support one another.

S. But what is the adhesion about? What creates adhesion?

R. In qualities. I can’t be like Him-I can be like Him, if I want to come closer to him then I need to resemble Him, He is merciful and I am merciful, He is gracious then I am gracious. Meaning to learn from Him His qualities and to try to change my qualities so that they will be externally, I don’t know but internally, externally so I will also appear that way.

S. When he writes that the intention of creation is to inform the creation of His Governance, what exactly does it mean, what does the Creator want?

R. The Creator wants for us through coming closer to Him to feel how He dwells in all of reality and that we also are like that, that we will also spread ourselves upon all of reality that way.

S. And the adhesion brings us to recognition of Him or the result that we get in Dvekut is it in action or an outcome?

R. Adhesion is an action and a result. I want to be in adhesion, with let’s say my friend so from the smallest things that I’m capable of resembling Him with this is how I come closer to Him. Just like we see how children learn, when they are growing all kinds of things from the grown-ups and even though we see that it’s not real, that it doesn’t go for them but already there is in the living body this inclination to do like the big one does. Only that’s on the degree of animate, on the degree of Adam, the speaking, we need to already enter inwards into the big one, meaning to His feeling, to His understanding, to His nature and to try and be inside like Him. How can we? That we can’t. We can perform external actions like the other, even like the Creator and to ask Him that as a result of our efforts, we will perform such actions, we will also receive inner changes and this is how we will come closer to Him. This is the whole matter of the work in the group, where actually in the group we have ten desires.

Each and every desire is divided into several other desires but if we try to come closer to one another more and more and more and to combine them somewhat together, even though we don’t exactly know what that is, then it turns out that with time we will feel that each begins to be included from the other and this is how we come to be as it is written to be “as one man in one heart.” A very interesting thing which doesn’t happen in corporeal nature, this already happens in a spiritual nature, another level, it’s similar to the incorporation that it happens in chemical matter. Let’s say in such substances there is such an influence, also in processes that take place there. Mostly in chemistry between atoms and molecules and such interactions but in us, it is higher up, it is in desire, in desires, in thoughts, in grasping, in perceptions, until we all truly become like “one man in one heart.” Meaning that each and everyone has different qualities but the head that manages them seemingly is one head. Then we build a ten that behaves this way and then in it we feel the revelation of the Creator. We are yet to talk about this so that you will understand it yourself.

6. S. (23:54) You said that we need to go through inner changes until we come to a state where we are in one head. We change these inner changes they will lead us to the same desire or the same intention, or something else that we don’t yet even understand that will be that one?

R. We don’t exactly know what way we advance. It’s like with a child who doesn’t know why he’s being taught something, something about this and something about that and another thing but the teacher says now we are going to dance now we’re going to sit and we are going to learn, now we are going to count something, that’s how it is. It’s all planned in such a way from above.

S. When we work in the ten between us and we influence each other let’s say together, yesterday we met for a meal, we talked about a topic that we wanted to discuss and there was a clear feeling that each friend has his angle on the topic, not everyone thinks the same, everyone sees it a little differently. Ultimately out of the collection of everything something is born which is an action that it wasn’t even clear in advance, that this is what we wanted to do but something else was born and what I’m trying to figure out is there was a process of some incorporation between us and as a result something new was born and I don’t understand it. These are the inner changes that we need to go through, these new things that will be born in the connection between us because it wasn’t clear when we were in the process, it wasn’t clear that this is what we will ultimately do, something new was born. I don’t know if I’m communicating this.?

R. You’re not managing to convey it and I’m not managing to understand and it is not important as long as there is movement and this movement is nevertheless towards connection, towards mutual understanding of where we are. Let it be, so don’t demand anything in advance that you want to define it as this is what you want it to be, just flow with it as long as we try to bring us all together, closer, we will come out of it. We don’t understand just like little children, they don’t understand why this is happening, why they are being pushed this way or that way in all kinds of things to do this or that rather they follow their parents.

S. Maybe I have a clear question: when I am in the ten, what do I need to break within myself in order to manage connecting with them? What do I need to change because I put my desire there among everyone but what do I need to give up on to concede in order for this incorporation to be?

R. I need to concede my inner force that wants to constantly feel itself in this center of the connection and that I’m connecting them around me. I need the opposite, to feel them that they are all connected and I am in the inclination towards being inside of them. It’s hard, you know the words here are hard to describe.

7. S. (28:36) Can you specify what it means to carry out the Torah and Mitzvot?

R. Observing Torah and Mitzvot is considered to constantly yearn towards connection between us and to discover in the connection between us all kinds of manners of connection, that by which we will see how from that, how we can connect. We will see the qualities of the Creator, the qualities of the Creator. Because altogether who is the Creator, the Creator is, come and see, as we learn the system, the closed, complete, unified system which includes everyone, and there aren’t too many words here. But in such a way when we want to connect between us and to discover through this from all the forces, one force that will be the Creator.

8. S. (30:20) What does it mean that the eye has not seen a God besides you?

R. That which a person discovers, he discovers in his vessels and in a special way that suits him, is similar to Him and that’s why it is called his God.

9. S. (30:52) Is Dvekut [adhesion] both an action and an outcome and if so then it means that even beginners can be in adhesion somewhat only from the desire to be in adhesion?

R. When we grow we need to note how we grow. It could be that we will understand that also babies that are born, they are also with us together with the adults with the grown ones, but through the act of nullification towards us. We already have here, I would say some initial first condition to belong to the big ones, which is to nullify before them. If a person enters the group and nullifies before it and is willing to participate with them, then he is already on the path. And we’ll soon begin to feel the Godliness that is in the connection between them.

10. S. (32:15) Is this an action that we can do with our hands and legs?

R. No, that doesn’t have to do with our corporeal body all together. It also doesn’t have to do with our corporeal actions but beyond our actions there are also, there’s the desire of the heart and that’s the main thing. As much as our hearts will be closer to one another, connect to one another, then we will get closer and reveal the Creator.

11. S. (33:05) We are each different, each one has its own root of his soul and dynamic and pace of correction, so what’s the point of resemblance to completion between us?

R. The point of resemblance of ours, I don’t know what to answer. The main thing we need is to be connected in the ten, to discuss between us how we advance, how we are impressed on the topic of the lesson, the words of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. From one day to the next we understand a little more and a little more and also we are drawn in action after what we learn, that we see.

12. S. (34:20) How can we feel this mutual adhesion in the ten?

R. Where we won’t feel ourselves but rather feel something that is common and that each feels that he is truly talking from this common center between us. And then when we begin to locate such a matter it will truly be as our one heart in which we will start to discover also the presence of the Creator that is with us, together, and this way we will organize ourselves correctly.

13. S. (35:52) How can we feel and understand the Creator’s goal if we are detached from the Creator?

R. By yearning to it, by longing to it, longing and asking until it’s gradually revealed.

14. S. (36:19) What does it mean to arrange or organize ourselves correctly in the ten?

R. To be in contact with everyone in an inner connection with everyone as much as possible and from that connection to be drawn to the Creator and to understand that this connection with the Creator, this, the ten with the Creator is how we attain the purpose of creation.

S. Before the connection with the friends a person needs to check the longing for the Creator?

R. Of course that’s what leads him.

15. S. (37:20) What do we think or feel and do in adhesion with the Creator in the ten?

R. What do we do? We connect everyone together with the Creator and to the extent in which this  connection becomes tighter and powerful, we become closer to the purpose of creation. That’s how it is to be “as one man in one heart,” it is called. There’s nowhere else to go or to do but rather just to connect everything together and that one point we return to the center of reality.

S. And then we discover that I have not seen a God besides you?

R. Probably.

16. S. (38:42) Dvekut it’s a bit more clear what it is but the glue if we can ask what that is?

R. The adhesive, the adhesion matter, the glue is what we need to demand from the Creator because we usually don’t have adhesive matter, naturally we have rejection from one another and to adhere to one another is something that we need to attain. I don’t have glue and also my friends don’t have this glue that makes us be able to glue to one another, to adhere to one another, it is simply something that is from non-existent. How can we get to this? We can find, locate this adhesive if we depict to ourselves this connection between us that is so desirable that there is nothing more beyond that. And then we want, we ask, we expect it to come to us, this adhesive. Therefore, if we are in the society which is as big as possible, Baal HaSulam writes, then it is easier for us to achieve, attain this adhesion material, this adhesive, this glue and we will adhere to one another. It all depends on the greatness of the environment. Okay?

17. S. (41:31) The more we advance the more dependence is felt on the friends in the ten and sometimes this dependence causes helplessness, other times happiness. The question is: what’s the right attitude to our dependence on the friends?

R. I am happy to discover that.

S. Is there a way to increase this dependence or it happens indirectly?

R. This dependency comes directly towards me and I feel how much I can’t come out of it, and I enter into it willingly or unwillingly just like inside of a swamp, and more and more. And if I give myself to the society then I am happy that I enter into this swamp and for me these are good signs.

18. S. (43:23) We spoke about the sight, vision or grasp of the eyes not seeing a God besides You, such a perception is this a result of my relation to the ten?

R. That’s through the ten towards the Creator.

S. Can we say that our relation to the ten shapes perception of reality?

R. Of course it is.

S. Can we specify what is the relation that each friend should have towards the ten?

R. For me every friend in the ten should be as a component of the spiritual world. It’s like a part of the puzzle, that through which I see the upper reality. And it’s not important to me, his qualities, his individual qualities but altogether that’s what we need in order to reveal the Creator, to discover the true form of reality, of the general reality. We don’t have words for this, it will all come from the efforts of a person.

19. S. (45:20) You said that each friend has a quality of his own but there is one mind, one head, so what is missing for me to put together the pieces of the puzzle to one because I see there’s dismantle in the ten?

R. I don’t know, that’s something that the Creator does.

S. What’s on my part?

R. We need to try to come closer to one another and connect “as one man in one heart.” How to exactly do it, it’s done from above, the attempt to it is from below.

20. S. (46:10) Why do I need to be incorporated with all of the evil in the world and all of the good in the world so as to correct my part in the collective soul?

R. A good question. Your incorporation in all the good and all the bad is your exact part.

21. S. (47:00) You spoke about fuel before. My question is: what should a friend do, he feels all of a sudden that he doesn’t have it. Sometimes he wakes up and he forgets why he’s there, sometimes it happens to a few friends together in the ten, how to work with it?

R. That’s an excellent state and what they had was erased and they can start appreciating themselves, arranging themselves, sorting themselves, directing themselves anew. It’s a sign of a new stage in advancement. Why not?

S. Where to take forces from?

R. Oh you have several other friends?

S. In the same state?

R. Well, a minus times a minus gives you a plus, it all depends on how each and everyone fills his role and helps him keep that friend to sustain that friend. Well what can you do? There’s nothing you can do on one hand. On the other hand there is the prayer, the general prayer in which all those poor ones who are connecting and are yelling to the Creator, “help, our Father, our King.” The main thing is not to be alone, the main thing is to not be alone.

22. S. (49:00) The friends said that there is interdependence in the ten and Arvut is mutual responsibility. Are these similar things?

R. Well, let’s say it’s the same thing, they are very similar.

S. Dependence I feel but taking responsibility and not willing, how to move from dependence to responsibility?

R. You don’t yet feel how dependent you are on everyone, if you truly feel like you are dependent 100% in every possible way upon everyone at any given moment, then you would feel that they are dependent on you and you upon them and you would come to the complete Arvut, to complete mutual guarantee.

23. S. (50:28) It says the lowly rise in true recognition to be a chariot for Him and to adhere unto Him. What is this rising with true recognition?

R. They are rising by beginning to attain, by being completely fallen, lowly and having no forces or anything but they find in them some point which nevertheless enables them to be together. And in this together, when they nullify themselves in order to be together, to connect, then this together is what draws them to connection. People can be connected and either they are strong, good, understanding, feeling, going towards a great reward or vice versa. Or they don’t have what to lose and therefore they are going together in order to take advantage of the emptiness in them as they don’t have anything in their hands. Here we need to see how we are going together, we need to have both this and that in us.

S. These lowly rise with true recognition and become a Merkava to Him. What does it mean to become a Merkava [chariot] to Him?

R. Because specifically we need to understand that this lowliness, upon it the right connection takes place towards the revelation of the Creator. Yes, why not, actually and to the contrary by them feeling themselves happy and capable and with great forces, nothing will come out of that. On the contrary, the whole standing at Mount Sinai and then the walk in the desert is all to disclose to them the extent in which they are in lowliness, powerless without a force that is leading them, sustaining them, raising them up on their wings. That’s the whole walk after the receiving of the Torah.

S. What does the ten look like if it becomes a Merkava to him?

R. How to be a ten that is a Merkava to the Creator? It has nothing other than perceiving the Creator altogether with the fear of not falling from this connection and this is how they come closer to Him, all the time all the time as long as they can hold on to Him, there’s no more.

24. S. (55:00) How do the joy and fear come into play in the adhesion with the Creator?

R. Joy as joy and fear also as from out of the feelings how are they expressed, what can I tell you, I can’t say. In anything that we are capable of we need to show that we are happy, that we are impressed, every step along the way on the path even though our path is not understood and it is difficult in the desert with the unknown and behind every corner, all of a sudden before us could jump up the messengers of Pharaoh and with that we can continue.

Reading item 7. (57:00) “But here came the sages of The Zohar..”

25. R. (57:15) To begin with, why didn’t He create us in the final correction?

Continuing reading. (57:22)

26. R. (57:33) What do we benefit from being born in such lowliness and by thousands and thousands of steps and actions where we fall and don’t know what to do and cry and what do we learn from this, what do we get from this? Why did He do this to begin with? He is supposed to be omnipotent, so what forced Him to give birth to us and shatter us and bring us to those difficult states where he seemingly can do anything. Instead of why not put us already in the perfect state if He can do it. We have to understand something, so you should create the conditions for understanding. If we need to feel something, He needs to create the conditions for us to feel, so why is this mandatory for us to go through these stages where even today we don’t see the end yet? So what’s going on? Why does that have to happen to us in such a long-winding and difficult way that where the end is not seen? Why the omnipotent Creator created such an opposite form of Himself and that is our entire path and every step on it. The question is clear: can someone add to it?

Reading continues. (59:45)

Reading item number 7 again. (01:00:45)

27. R. (01:01:45) Meaning that the issue is not to give us the end of it but rather that we will exert in each and every step and then be well rewarded with attainment and feeling that cannot be attained and felt in any other way, but only by working above the difficulties and challenges in each and every step. And then we attain what the Creator wants to give to us.

28. S. (01:02:33) I’m impressed how you see me from such a distance, it’s very difficult, he says something that’s not understood at all. He says that one who eats and enjoys the labor of his friend looks at him and feels increasingly humiliated. Why should I be ashamed to look at his face, what’s the shame here?

R. I don’t know but that is what it said, that one who receives for free is ashamed of others, for receiving for free. Because they probably earned what they have and he says he sits with them, at a table, as a guest who was invited out of understanding but he doesn’t have of his own, that he cannot earn anything, it’s a shame to put Him aside and then he feels that it’s mercy on him; it’s charity.

S. But you always say that if you’re saying, if you sit with the Creator, at His table, I have to somehow feel ashamed to sit and eat before Him. What do I need to do if I’m sitting with the Creator, meaning for me to not be humiliated, what do I have to do?

R. You need to approach Him with a reward, with payment.

S. What is that payment?

R. That payment, ask Him, probably you need to give Him what He gives you.

S. Meaning what? That’s exactly the point, what do I need to bring, that He brings me?

R. I don’t know, ask Him. Maybe He demands something else from you than what He demands from me.

S. According to the study, what do we need to do when coming to Him in the meal so that I won’t feel humiliated in the meal?

R. You have to bring to the meal some gift that is accepted, to give to the Host whether it’s money or something else.

S. Well, I’m sitting here everyday, let’s say I’m sitting in my ten and we’re having a meal, what do I need to feel? How do I not feel them humiliated in the ten, so I will feel good for example?

R. You need to participate with the ten in a physical way, in a material way and also prepare yourself for questions and answers that you discussed there, whatever topic, and then you will feel that you are participating well in the meal.

S. And then I will not feel seemingly humiliated in the meal?

R. No, why? On the contrary, you are with them in the same meal and topic and you are like them.

S. Meaning we will be on the same level?

R. The level doesn’t matter, you can be on a different level but as much as you are capable, you participate with them.

29. S. (01:06:40) About the question of why did the Creator create us corrected to begin with, Baal HaSulam answers actually because of the shame. The question is: why did He create shame?

R. Because without shame, the created being, who has no shame, doesn’t feel his state towards others. He only feels his own narrow, beastly ego that he wants to fulfill, meaning to just beat whoever is next to him and that’s it. That means he cannot rise above the animate level.

S. He actually created in us this deficiency, if we could say in order to raise us up?

R. Yes, of course, still, vegetative, animate and human are the levels and degrees of the deficiency that awaken in the created being.

S. I meant to ask if this shame is a certain deficiency that uplifts us?

R. Yes, it’s a deficiency, it’s how I am seeing as opposed to others.

30. S. (01:08:15) What’s the difference between the payment for participating in the meal and the payment for participating with the Creator?

R. In the ten, perhaps you mean that they came to connect. That the main thing is what’s the connection between them and on what level and what degree, for what purpose, and when they are together with the Creator, then their questions are already aimed at Him. All right, well everyone’s ready for their reception of the Torah.

31. S. (01:09:04) It’s not clear, that why if the desire of the Creator is to advance us, He also has to be so cruel. Certainly there is a gap and we need to attain what He prepared for us but He appears to us as truly cruel, not the behavior of a merciful Father I would say?

R. What would a merciful Father do then?

S. There’s the giving of a challenge for us to attain but there’s also the failing us as much as possible, it feels like two things that are not?

R. What would you do instead?

S. I would do the same thing, I just wouldn’t make it so that every time you rise it drops you even more. If we come to a certain connection between us in the ten, so we’re always in this place that we’re falling even more.

R. It’s just the feeling of distance from the goal.

S. Why don’t we ever feel that we’re advancing?

R. That too, is a sense of progress.

S. In what, how does that contribute to us continuing and working even more and what is this that enables us to come closer to Him, to adhere to Him?

R. You’re getting greater exercises to solve.

S. Okay, bigger, but He also adds with a certain kind of ruthlessness, where there’s upon that, let’s say, that there’s the tools that I learned in the previous exercise them too are being raised, meaning it feels even more messed up and even more foolish and not capable of solving it, even simple things at this point, even a simple connection, we’re not capable at this point?

R. It appears to you that way, it seems to you that way, that’s how we advance. If you ask some mathematician or physicist or it doesn’t matter, and you start asking them about things that are learned in school, that’s no problem. But if you ask them simpler things so to speak, they won’t know how to answer because it is unknown, it’s simply unknown.

S. In what is the advancement and what access should we look at that we can say, this is what we’re going for and this is the right way and it will enable us to relate to that which the Creator has given us as a good and positive thing and not to constantly remain in that negative experience that we have?

R. Help us be connected together and attain the center of our connection, and in the center of our connection we will want to reveal You and all the answers are in you.

S. If we’re adhered to that request and that work then we experience all the advancement as a positive thing or is it not important at all?

R. It’s not important.

Continuing Item 7. (01:13:08)

Reading Item number 8. (01:13:35) “This matter is like a rich man..”

32. S. (01:15:10) The example is very clear here. Really, this poor person is aware that he’s getting gifts and he’s aware that there’s a difference between him and the Giver and there is a clear process. What’s not clear is the process that I see, I’d say, we can call it outside, where specifically the shame is lowered, there is no shame and even in the ten there is no shame. It comes off, it’s like opposite of what he’s describing, where this poor man comes and seemingly the power of shame in him increases and intensifies to the extent that he wants to attain it himself. And I’m saying that what I see is that the intensity of shame is lower the more we advance. Why do I see it this way?

R. You see this in our egoistic way, you want to cover the shame and not take it into consideration, that’s why it’s as if there is no shame, nobody wants it. Today it’s like I robbed the bank, I got caught, so I’m ashamed for getting caught-not for being a robber; everything is upside down.

S. How does that serve the purpose of creation, that distance from the shame?

R. We would understand the source of the shame and how to take care of it correctly and truthfully.

S. In the ten should there be shame towards the ten?

R. It depends on in what.

S. What should I be ashamed of towards the friends?

R. The fact that I’m thinking of myself.

33. S. (01:17:40) The purpose of the whole process of the end is the revelation of the Creator right?

R. Yes.

S. Can you expand on what it means to reveal the Creator?

R. To reveal the Creator means to reveal the force of love and bestowal that fills all of reality, and all of reality is our will to receive.

S. And all that is possible in the ten?

R. The ten expands to include the whole of reality and that’s how it’s carrying out its role.

34. S. (01:18:27) What can we do with this rich man, as it’s written in the example here, that he controls your entire life, and you see that he controls the entire life. The wealthy one is the Creator, the other one is the created being, and there is no chance to be like Him, so what does the one who receives all the gifts from the rich man do?

R. We see plenty of examples around the world where relationships between humans change drastically, where that poor person, the weak and poor person, he can invert the relationship in such a way that he would feel himself as running everything and the wealthy person is serving him. It all depends on the understanding of the relationship between them: there can be such a thing, you understand.

S. Yes, through the example of the Host and the guest where He tries to give him food?

R. That too, yes.

S. That’s why in this example, the poor one doesn’t refuse to receive the gifts. Baal HaSulam takes this example, which is as if half of the tale of the Host and the guest?

R. Yes, let’s say.

S. What I’m trying to understand is when we start working toward the ten the shame is felt. You feel the greatness of the friends, the size of the friends and how much you want to help them and support them and care for them. You want that, I don’t even know how to ask the question: How do I use this shame to connect more to them?

R. Begin to serve them, begin to show them you want their benefit.

S. And from these actions will I serve them? I suddenly start feeling that I’m great, I’m serving, I’m giving and then again I fall to the previous degree, as if. As if this balance that I don’t understand, when I go to serve them and I still remain below?

R. Because you want to be good in their eyes, that’s what’s important to you. That’s why you serve them, so they would say about me, I’m a good person, that they would respect me and so on and so forth.

S. Is that the correct way to work for them?

R. This is a person’s natural intention.

S. And what’s the spiritual intention? How do I work with the ten in a spiritual way? I still need to serve them it seems?

R. Yes, but you have a different goal now. Remember when you came to our society, how quiet you were, how much you wanted to do good to everyone, and everyone would see you in a good light and there would be no one here that opposes you. On the contrary, you would even give out gifts to each and everyone here. Later, when you acquired your place in society more or less, you stopped behaving in this way, you can shove someone, you can say something to people, argue. What happened to you, why?

S. I lost that fear, the fear that they would throw me out?

R. And what do you do? I with my character, I need to see that fear ahead of me all the time before me, to feel it, because otherwise I would just go crazy in every society, lose control. I want them to pressure me and then it’s possible that I will advance correctly, right.

S. Sounds like it’s necessary otherwise I will start feeling great etc.?

R. How do you do it? How do we do it, we need to think.

Reading continues (01:24:45) “And this thing is natural..”

35. S. (01:27:35) It sounds very egoistic, it’s even the opposite of what’s written here. What I feel here with this whole story is that we are the biggest egoists. We want to do this and this and that, look at what he writes here, it’s that we’re egoists and how do we reconcile that?

R. What has not occurred?

S. To be egoists?

R. No, what you call an egoist is different, there’s a matter of reading it and accepting it as working. The fact that I work with my great will to receive does not mean that I’m an egoist, I just need to see the goal.

S. How can you explain the sentence, look at how much of an egoist I am, that it’s all for myself?

R. It’s not that others do it and for me but I attain all the property by myself, not that it’s working for me. Does that mean that I am an egoist?

S. It’s all for myself, I want it?

R. Hold on, hold on. You take for yourself this way or that way. The question is here: on the one hand you work and you earn it and it’s yours, on the other hand, the others work and you take it and you think there’s a reward.

S. Then he feels the shame and impatience of when he gets the present showered upon him. How can we? When I feel this and when I read this you say we’re not an egoist that I want to swallow the whole world and in addition I also want to be like Him. What does this come from him that I want to be like the Creator the biggest egoist, that I want to be like the Creator?

R. The Creator did it in you.

S. Where does that come from?

R. I told you, from the Creator.

S. That I want to become like Him?

R. Yes, more than Him.

S. More than Him?

R. Yes.

S. I asked myself what am I as a person, this guy?

R. He wants to be similar to the Creator, it doesn’t matter if it sounds like fantasy, it’s how you accept it.

S. I said in the beginning it’s like this dream, like the Creator. You can truly be in such thoughts. The question is: How do you reach such things, to be similar to the Creator, it sounds very huge?

R. You’ve never dreamed about it?

S. I’ve never dreamt of such a thing before I came here.

R. You understand.

S. I get it, is it truly possible to realize?

R. Of course, why else would all be sitting here?

S. It’s not too big of a goal?

R. it’s not too big, it’s exactly what we all have to attain, each one of us and all of us together.

S. I look at me, at myself in the mirror and I say, what, you want to be like the Creator?

R. “Return the children of Israel unto the Lord, Your God.”

S. And I tell my wife that I’m planning to be like the Creator and she says, “What, you, you’re going to be like the Creator? How are you going to be like the Creator?”

R. What does it mean, how you look?

S. Your behavior, you’re an egoist to even speak nicely?

R. I will be like that, I will be like that.

S. What does that mean?

R. I didn’t finish, I’m in the middle of the treatment.

S. I need to change is what you say?

R. Yes, I will change, the Creator, the Healer of everything who promises I will be like Him.

S. If I tell my wife, what do I need to tell her, how is this change, what’s involved in this change to become like the Creator?

R. Tell her to respect you because soon you’re going to be like the Creator.

S. Because my behavior changes and I just become worse and worse from one day to the next. How can I reach a state that I will change and become more and more similar to the Creator?

R. Try every day to take upon yourself a task to be like the Creator to some extent.

S. Like what?

R. I don’t know, do the dishes.

S. I throw the garbage out, I do the dishes, I throw out the garbage, I do everything and despite that there are complaints, you won’t be there like the Creator, there’s no way in your behavior. What’s expected from me, what do they want from me?

R. I don’t know, she should show you what the Creator does and then you can do it in His place.

S. It seems very mysterious what you’re saying?

R. Well there’s nothing to do.

S. How do you see a person who changes for the better, even in the ten, how do you see that a person changes?

R. A person who changes according to an approaching to the Creator he seems like a person who’s comfortable and good and convenient. He tries first of all, not to get in between people, he tries to agree with everyone, he tries to be such that he is invisible.

S. He annuls, he flows?

R. Yes.

S. And that’s the change that exists in him?

R. Yes but that for the time being.

Reading item number 9 (01:35:18) “Indeed we need to examine the heart..”

36. S. (01:39:30) It’s unclear how exertion covers the shame, it’s as if the rich tells the poor, clean something over here and then you become my inheritance, there’s no proportions between what he receives and what he gives in exertion?

R. I don’t quite understand what you’re trying to ask but certainly by putting in the exertion we discover or rather we reveal our control over something.

S. We labor in our lives in order to attain the purpose of creation but the purpose of creation is much greater than the labor we give?

R. That is correct but the Creator has placed such a condition on us.

S. The feeling of self-possession is that the illusion of a person who reaches that?

R. It’s not so much as an illusion, he writes about it, it’s a person who tells him to work with me for one moment and I will give you the entire world. There’s a question that how can it be that our work is in this world and you will receive in return the eternal perfect, eternal world but there’s something else here. We’re not working on actually acquiring the next world, we’re working on correcting ourselves to be in the next world and this huge matter, it’s a big difference because I just need to correct my perception. It’s not like I’m meriting the next world.

S. There’s no matter of demanding a reward?

R. My reward is to be able to correct myself to become a bestower. It’s recommended to be like the Creator, and then I’m ready for everything, I’m not going to receive everything I’m going to bestow, I’m going to feel and grasp and ascribe all those things to myself. On the contrary I’m going to give it to everyone, strength and everyone will reinforce everyone and be an instrument in the hand of the Creator. That’s why there’s really no doubt because I’m able to come to do it and distribute it.

S. Why is there this word possession here that I have to feel like it’s a possession?

R. Because I acquire this big vessel of the next world in order to distribute it to everyone, the question is correct, it’s a very correct question.

S. In continuation: what characterizes a self-possession that is spiritual?

R. A spiritual possession, when I am happy to fill all the vessels that come my way and be a servant to them and to the Creator and be in between them.

S. In self-possession there’s me, I did it, I acquired it or not?

R. Maybe in the beginning a person thinks this way.

S. How can there be this self-possession, this entire exertion, the toil of the creation as he writes here, is so that we will reach this point of self-possession right?

R. Yes.

S. How can it be this self-possession on one hand and that the greatness of the Creator doesn’t relinquish that, what is this self-possession in spirituality?

R. It’s because if I annul my ego then I begin to accept the role of the Creator and do everything in His place and I constantly thank Him for giving me an opportunity for doing it.

S. But the execution instead of Him, He requests me to do this, do that, the more that a person develops in spirituality he advances in the attainment of the greatness of the Creator where there are no actions, where there’s never any actions, so what is this self-possession where it’s as if he needs to develop? How does self-possession develop in a person which is the whole purpose of creation and on the other hand There Is None Else Besides Him?

R. He becomes the mediator, the one who connects the Creator and the rest of creation all the created beings.

37. S. (01:44:04) On our path a person exerts and then he can reveal a little bit of the Giver. Does there need to be this spike of shame in the middle or can he do that without feeling that shame?

R. I don’t think we can advance without shame, I think that shame needs to be revealed in each and every degree but in different ways and we need to respect it. It gives us an opportunity to check ourselves in a new way each time.

S. In relation to the next excerpt it says that the Creator’s nature is rest and we need to be happy in that state of rest and not in a state of work. Now when I look at the world, what rest? Everyone’s running around?

R. What world, why are you ascribing it to the world?

S. The creation.

R. No, this has nothing to do with the Creator.

S. Where are the outcomes of this?

R. No, it has to do with the will to receive, the will to receive does not belong to the Creator.

S. That’s why it’s always running around?

R. Yes, this pursuit, who is even considering it?

S. It’s not considered a branch – this will to receive?

R. No, no, the will to receive is the will to receive, the will to bestow is the will to bestow, the Creator is the Creator and the created beings are the created beings but the whole world with it’s running around and all of it’s pursuits, it doesn’t exist.

S. It seems that people enjoy movement, holidays and the internet?

R. Okay, what do you want from them?

S. According to the article they need to enjoy rest and not all these constant pursuits.

R. Whatever the Creator gave them that’s what they do.

38. S. (01:48:29) How can we relate to the gifts not as a reward, but as a gift?

R. If you can do something where the Creator receives from you through the ten, through the whole world that he receives from you, then you feel how beneficial you are for the ten, for the whole world even, then you need to thank Him. What’s the question?

S. You deserve it, it’s a pay check?

R. No, we need to try and do everything through the ten and then we’ll have no shame then, no thought about it. We did it, we connected, we attained it inside of our connection, we revealed the degree of closeness to the Creator, thank you and all the best.

39. S. (01:50:21) It’s written in the excerpts that the Creator created people with different qualities, some rich and some poor, how can it be that one part has a root in the Creator and the other part doesn’t?

R. I can’t explain it for now, I can’t, but what difference does it make for now, we’re not dealing with philosophy, deal with things that are closer to our practical work.

40. S. (01:51:58) In relation to exertion how should the exertion be in order to attain the purpose of creation? What should be the exertion in order to attain the purpose of creation?

R. Exert together towards the same goal of creation, together. That’s the question, that’s the answer.

S. We did a lot of work and exertion in order to hold ourselves in a certain place but together with that we got health problems. We have a friend who has a very serious health problem. Why do these states come after we really did lots of work and exertion, what should we do as a ten and personally in relation to these states?

R. We can’t draw conclusions about our work, our exertion, our reward, rather we have to accept it, that all of it comes from One Source, and only through the connection between us and the connection to the Source, can we mitigate that state but we have no way to understand why is it and how is it, we can’t.

41. S. (01:52:20) In relation to what we’re talking about now, if we come from the spiritual world why do we lose that memory of the whole spiritual world in order to do our work, why don’t we remember anything?

R. In order to do our work now in a pure manner.

42. S. (01:54:22) The level of shame, does it increase the more distant we are from the Creator and so the more distant we are from the Creator does the shame increase?

R. The level of shame grows and increases according to the revelation of the deficiency.

S. In the process we’re in we reveal how far we are from the Creator and that’s the exertion we need to give?

R. Let’s say that, yes.

43. S. (01:55:19) If There’s None Else Besides Him and the Creator is the Good That Does Good and after every action and the outcome of the action it’s all on His account, so there will always be shame. Is the whole idea to annul the shame?

R. We get rid of that shame to the extent that we approach connection.

S. The connection that He does, it’s not also on the feeling of the shame?

R. No, what you ask and receive there is no shame, what you ask for and then receive, there is no shame.

Item # 10 (01:56:14) “This is what gives us the fowl taste of shame…”

44. S. (01:57:28) Does “each shall help his friend” shape the ten’s shame into great honor?

R. Yes.

45. S. (01:57:56) In relation to the previous item, are there other things that are included or are not included in the Creator or the other things that are not included in the Creator?

R. There is nothing that is not included in the Creator it all depends on how you accept it, is the will to receive included in Him? No, so where is it? There are things that are included in Him and in an opposite manner.

S. According to what he wrote in the previous item, how can we explain that sentence that Baal HaSulam writes?

R. [No translation]

46. S. (01:59:24) I’m just trying to clearly understand the fundamentals of the wisdom of Kabbalah, so according to this item here, a person is a receiver and responds to, receives and when he receives he feels shame and feels very bad?

R. Yes, it seems that, yes. What’s the question about?

S. The question is that normally I thought that naturally, you receive to enjoy, so who exactly is Baal HaSulam talking about that feels shame when he receives?

R. If he receives from the Host, and he receives and fills his vessel by doing so, it turns out that he has shame from that because he feels that he receives and someone else gives him and that lowers his degree.

S. If he feels a giver then he can feel shame?

R. Yes, if he doesn’t feel the giver then he doesn’t have any shame. It’s like people in this world who don’t feel Godliness and they don’t feel shame.

47. S. (02:01:28) If you leave a plate for a person like an animal, it’ll just eat everything if no one is looking at him but he must have a connection with the Creator?

R. The difference between a person and an animal is that the person feels the Host upon him and the animal does not feel the Host upon him. If it needs to eat it eats, there are several things in that.

S. How to feel this shame, how to come to it because somehow this word is familiar but how to feel the spiritual shame?

R. The group, if you picture yourself in the group, that you need to receive everything from it and through it, then it could be that you will feel in that, shame.

S. In what will I feel the shame, when I simply receive light from the Creator is that where I feel the shame?

R. You will receive shame in that you will receive from someone who gives to you like we sometimes feel that in this world, you’ve never felt shame before? It can’t be that you haven’t felt shame before.

S. If there is love between us?

R That’s something all together different whether it’s love not the ego but love then you can receive and in that you feel that you do Him a favor, that by receiving from Him you express your feeling of love back towards Him.

S. [No translation]

R. Yes, only love eliminates all the differences between Giver and receiver. How does a child who receives everything from its mother, he takes everything from her, from all the nerves and she cannot do anything and she loves that because the love covers everything.

S. In our relationship with the Creator the quality of faith, the love is also something that needs to reach collaboration?

R. Until we correct the will to receive, we will always have a problem of shame, and reception and bestowal and love and everything we can in this connection, connect, we need to connect so that there will be between us a connection that is as tight as possible. Is that clear? That is something very, very internal, important and sensitive. We can through these kinds of connections neutralize all the corruptions.

48. S. (02:06:18) I am wholly inspired by this lesson. It’s very moving. I wanted to thank the ten who prepared this lesson. Thank you. Yesterday, when you were asked how do you summarize the lesson you said that you’re happy but you see that people are sleeping. You also today mentioned it twice. How can we prepare our next lesson to be not less than a Congress? Prepare such a deficiency for meeting the Creator?

R. Look, I’m not angry. I have no calculations with people who are sleeping, who exit ten times during the lesson to the toilet or whatever. I’m not in these calculations. If I would, then I would also go out and smoke a cigarette, do you believe that? There’s nothing to do. These are all normal things.

S. I didn’t mean it like that. I meant, how all the friends, how can we build such a deficiency for the next lesson for a meeting with the Creator? How do we break through, another millimeter forward?

R. First of all, I think that you need to read the study material for the lesson a few times. You need to really get precise with each and every word that Baal HaSulam writes. Why did he write specifically this way and not another. And after we come to the content of the lesson, then we will try maybe to connect between us more. And give the Creator the ability to ask the Creator to come into, to enter into the connection between us. That’s what we need, to feel the deficiency of the Creator’s presence between us. That is all.

49. S. (02:09:48) Is the screen made out of shame?

R. The screen is built of the force of overcoming.

S. So the shame is a feeling left over from the coupling and striking? Meaning measuring the coupling and striking?

R. Shame is the feeling of the outcome of a lack of equivalence between the person and the Creator?

S. How do we feel it without a screen?

R. After the first restriction, you cannot feel it without a screen. However according to what we read in the beginning of ‘The Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah,’ Baal HaSulam explains that it is possible to feel in this situation where the guest sits before the Host and he receives from the Host and enjoys what he receives so much so that until he feels the shame, that the Host gives and he receives and then suddenly he comes out of that meal, out of that connection with the meal to be like the Host. He doesn’t want that connection, he wants them to have a mutual connection.

Then the Host can play with him and give him all kinds of feelings and conditions of how they can be connected. It could be that He gives him a feeling that it doesn’t matter how much he receives, you will not feel Me as the Host and then these states are called the will to receive of the still, vegetative, and animate. Afterwards, there is the speaking degree which is where it’s already the guest who feels the Host giving to him and against that, in the person, it is felt, the feeling of shame that he receives from the Host, something that doesn’t belong to him and here is the root for correction.

S. The corrections all happen through the screen?

R. All the corrections are through the screen.

S. Again and again I’ll go back to seeing myself until we reapply or maybe we don’t come out of the desire to bestow before we have a screen?

R. I don’t understand.

S. Maybe the answer is too high for me, I have to listen to it again?

R That’s fine.

50. S. (02:14:22) We tried a few times to prepare for the lesson by going over the lesson, tomorrow’s lesson. And I saw this phenomenon where we go over the material and we have no questions. We have answers. We read, everything looks pretty simple but the questions do not pop up. Is that normal?

R. And when will they come?

S. I felt that they will come in the next lesson with questions from the material we studied alone the day before. We go over the material, we get questions and we bring them to the lesson. But it’s not happening, it’s like there are no questions. Everyone understands the material. Is that okay?

R. What is your complaint?

S. My question is do you need to reach a state where the material is not clear and we want to clarify the lesson or it’s not mandatory?

R. At least if you read the material a few times, the material for the lesson, that is good. And even if you won’t have questions, the material in any case will become absorbed. I would recommend doing so.

S. Shouldn’t a person feel a question all the time?

R. It doesn’t matter whether he feels a question or not. He doesn’t feel a question. So what do you want from him? He doesn’t feel it.

S. In the ten, sometimes I try to go deeper into the material and I receive answers from the friend. I say, let’s check it and I receive an answer from the friends. Is that okay? I would expect a common question, but instead I already receive an answer from the friends?

R That’s good. If a person receives an answer from a friend then that’s a sign that there is a connection between them.

S. The shame, in the state of Arvut where he feels the 600,000 lovers care for him, does he need to feel shame for that as well?

R. I don’t know. In the Arvut of the 600,000? I cannot say.

S. The feeling of love of his friend, you feel a friend loves you. Is this a cause for you to feel shame?

R. No.

51. S. (02:18:00) What belongs to the creature?

R. That’s the question? What belongs to the creature?

S. Yes, you said that the Creator awakens shame in the created being?

R. In the creature depends only the prayer to the Creator, that it will correct it in order to be in adhesion with the Creator.

S. What is adhesion? We spoke in the beginning of the lesson about complete adhesion. It looks like an impossible step. The created being cannot do that.

R. We gradually come closer to that.

52. S. (02:19:00) The shame can be an indication of connection with the spiritual root?

R. Yes.

S. Meaning the more shame one has, the more connection one has with the spiritual root?

R. No, there are a few conditions where in the end, that is what is revealed. We will discover that formula, sorry, we will scrutinize that formula.

53. S. (02:19:42) The shame is related to the importance of the Giver and the inability to return to Him something valuable, to give something valuable in return? Is the shame related to the Giver and the inability to return to Him something?

R. The shame relates to, the shame belongs to the creature, where through that it can elevate itself to the level of the Giver; the Creator.

54. S. (02:20:51) We gathered here with a great friend, Boris. We call him Papa Coleman. We received from the Creator a physical connection, strong, powerful. How should we relate to it and with the matter of shame? Is it shame, is it gratitude, how to relate to such a gathering, such a gift?

R. You need to try to be together, as close as possible to each other to understand that we want to come closer to the end of correction. In that there will be a place of connection and only a place of connection between us, not something empty or unknown, but a place of connection. And each and everyone can insert himself into that connection eternally. And that’s how we will try to feel ourselves.

55. S. (02:22:10) The prayer should be a request for us to perceive what goes from the root? Or the prayer should request for us to get rid of everything that doesn’t come from the root?

R. Our prayer needs to be “What do we want to receive from the root in order to adhere to the root?”

56. S. (02:23:09) If I feel shame, I see that the friends also feel shame. How can I support a friend externally if he feels shame because the shame destroys stuff internally, what actions should I take?

R. Only closeness, that he’ll cry before everyone and ask for connection.