THURSDAY: MALCHUT-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Thursday.
Rabash. Who Causes the Prayer. 18 (1986)
Morning Lesson May 30, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 18, 1986. Who Causes the Prayer
1.Rav’s Introduction: (03:23) I don’t have much to add aside from repeating the same words that this topic is an essential topic because other than prayer nothing connects us to the Creator, and other than prayer, there is no other way for us to influence our fate. Other than prayer, there is nothing else that the Creator is expecting from us. Hence, the prayer is the main thing. Let’s hope that we know how to compose it, how to reinforce it and how to use it to influence the Upper Force, so He would take us through all these corrections.
The Writings of Rabash. ‘Who Causes the Prayer.’ (04:25) “Our sages wrote, one should always praise the Creator, and then pray..”
2. R. (23:00) That is the article by Rabash. Questions?
3. S. (23:12) So it’s not clear what is the boundary thus far. The Creator awakens and from here the person has to work?
R. I think we shouldn’t look for this boundary, to this border, but to constantly see that we can expand this border and give the Creator more and more room to work in us.
S. So, practically what will awaken in me is a desire for prayer and from here I begin to work?
R. Yes.
S. So now I begin to work, so how do I know that I’ve given the proper quality or quantity? How do I know?
R. You are constantly in it because other than prayer you have nothing to do; only to expand and to strengthen the prayer.
S. But sometimes I feel that He awakens me and sometimes, so I search for two minutes, sometimes for ten minutes, sometimes I go deeper, sometimes less?
R. So accordingly you have to respond more and more and more you see that He is changing your desires in you.
S. I don’t have a sign to understand that I answered back to the extent that it was expected of me?
R. No, only add.
4. S. (25:05) It says in the article if we don’t feel the delight and pleasure that can be received it is hard for us to be thankful for it? I remember for the past few days you have talked about Dougmaot and being an example to the friends. But on Shabbat you said a few things that have really touched our hearts, so I wanted to ask about it. You said that the friends who disregard the environment, the friends who disregard the Rav, and it really touched our hearts, so we want to ask who are these people because we want to receive only good examples so that we can be thankful for what the Creator has given us. So if you could open it up for us so we can know who these people are so we can receive only good examples please?
R. Each and everyone goes through such states and it’s correct and it’s an achievement. You can’t come closer to something if you don’t disrespect it or change your opinion about it. You have to go through all kinds of states relative to it.
S. He also writes in the article, that when a person does self-analysis into why he suddenly remembers spirituality, to try to obtain something from it we should say that the Creator sent us this thought so that we can pray. So the question is: after doing this self-analysis, how can we suddenly remember that it’s the Creator who is doing it and not be complacent and still be able to ask for Him to help us?
R. We can’t reveal it now because we are not in equivalence of form with the Creator but we are approaching it and we will reveal it still.
S. Baal HaSulam writes in the article, “if I’m not for me who is for me” and “when I am for me, who is for me,” but it is saying if it is not now, then when? So the question is: even though we are not in equivalence of form, if not now, then when?
R. Each moment we need to expect the Creator to come closer, to reveal Himself, to connect with us, to pull us to Him and we will reveal Him in this closeness.
S. He also writes in the article that the Creator calls upon us to speak to Him. What does it mean that He calls on us to speak to Him?
R. For us to connect with Him and become like partners. We ask, He answers, He asks and we reply, and this way we reach connection.
5. S. (29:45) How to praise the Creator? How do we praise the Creator?
R. First of all, it is not you alone. Even when you understand that there’s a deficiency and that we can’t do anything about it, only with all the friends, so we need to connect together to try to reveal the Creator between you and raise in praise to Him.
S. Meaning to come with a common intention and deficiency and to come to the Creator with this?
R. When we connect we can turn to the Creator from our connection with all of our intention, with all of our desire, with any goal that we may have.
6. S. (31:16) In the article it says that the Creator answers or doesn’t answer a prayer. When does the Creator answer and when does He not answer?
R. It depends on a person. What state he is in, what kind of connection he has with the others and with the Creator. If a person truly reveals a deficiency, then from the Creator’s point of view there is never an action against him but if a person needs to obtain additional deficiency, additional understanding, it’s possible that he is not getting an answer from the Creator right now but instead he has to add and add exertion.
S. In this world in order to absorb something we have instruments like ears to hear, eyes to see. What instruments to hear something in spirituality do we need? What do we need to develop in order to hear the Creator’s answer?
R. Only to be closer to the friends because in the connection with the society there you will find that instrument that has to be tuned to Him. It’s like calibrating a musical instrument: you have to sound a tone and accordingly, you calibrate your instrument. And it’s the same here in the society: there’s a goal, this mutual feeling and everyone needs to try and be in tune with that.
7. S. (33:44) In the article he stresses the matter of gratitude to the Creator. What is so special about gratitude that he talks about it all the time in this way?
R. Gratitude is the correct reaction from a person to the Creator. What does the Creator do? He constantly pulls him, he aims a person toward the purpose of creation. A person has to recognize it, to understand it, and come closer according to these signs more and more.
8. S. (34:35) What’s the difference between what a person prays for in the beginning of the article as opposed to the end of the article because in the beginning he says that he has a deficiency for spirituality, he doesn’t understand why he’s not close?
R. I think that if a person goes with his prayer according to the flow in the article and he gradually calibrates himself, tunes himself and brings himself closer to the Creator. He sees where he is getting deficiencies from, direction, and this is how he should.
S. Once he already establishes the praise of the Creator, can he be again in the same situation as in the beginning of the article, when he doesn’t justify Him when he..
R. It’s possible that once again he will uncover great deficiencies but it is all possible that he will be ready to rise above them as well.
9. S. (36:05) He writes that he mustn’t wait one minute, to not say when I have time I will study, lest you will not have time and Baal HaSulam says that we almost believe in private providence, it’s not the person who calls the Creator but the Creator who calls the person and he says I want you to speak to me. What does it mean to speak to me? Do I need to speak to me so what is..?
R. You should understand that the Creator is turning to you.
S. I am just trying to understand, it follows that the reason for nearing does not come from the person but from the Creator and because of it we should not think that the Creator hears our prayer but he is brought closer before the person even turned to the Creator to bring closer to him.
R. The Creator is the first to turn to him.
S. But once he says the Creator turns to the person and before that he says that the Creator turns to you, as if I, the Creator am turning to you?
R. Yes, so what is the question?
S. I want you to speak to you. There’s an expression here that the Creator brings or returns the plea, as if I need to talk to myself?
R. A person thinks that he is turning to the Creator but the Creator is turning to him. We will continue and we will see it clearly.
S. In another article he writes that gratitude broadens the vessels. What is special about gratitude that brings a person closer to the Creator? What does it mean that it broadens or expands the vessels?
R. Then the connection between them became tighter, closer, more understood that both are in a process of mutual nearing.
10. S. (38:54) It all begins when a person suddenly feels that he cannot thank the Creator honestly and say, “Blessed is He that said, let there be the world,” meaning that he enjoys the world that he is thankful to the Creator for creating the world and here’s what to enjoy from that we see and need to enjoy, that’s the question? He writes this feeling in the first paragraph, this feeling, when he sees that he cannot thank the Creator and say wholeheartedly, “Blessed is He who said, let there be the world.” Meaning that he so enjoys the world that he thanks the Creator for having created the world so he has what to enjoy. From what world should he enjoy? What does he mean that he should enjoy the world and thank the Creator for it, and when he doesn’t feel it that is the cause for..?
R. That the entire creation a person begins to discover creation that is already there for him and he is grateful to the Creator for arranging everything so suitable for a person that each and everyone of the people in the world comes to this place and finds there his Creator and together and in total, they come and rebuild, if we can say, one Creator for everyone.
S. Because a person is under concealment, can we say that he should come to a state where he says, “Blessed is He who said, let there be the world,” and he’s thankful for the concealment?
R. Concealment, yes.
S. So how if he is supposed to be thankful for the concealment because that’s where he gives work for the Creator, why should he then ask of Him, do not hide your face from me and show me your greatness and importance?
R. Look, we need a concealment or we would not be able to reveal anything. That is clear to us on the one hand, on the other hand, you don’t conceal your face from me. It means that this is the purpose of man’s correction but we don’t ask. Although it says to ask for your face, for you the Creator. I think that we need to try and approach the Creator from all the states and don’t hide your face from Me. This speaks of higher degrees that are still ahead of us and nevertheless, we need to try and come closer to them because specifically, in revealing them, we will reveal ourselves in the true form, the true, correct form.
11. S. (43:23) It says in the article that a person says, “for you hear the prayer of every mouth,” and other people it says, anyone who doesn’t receive an answer means that they are not praying wholeheartedly. What does it mean to pray with every mouth and that people don’t receive an answer because they are not praying with every mouth? What does it mean?
R. Meaning not with an open heart, they haven’t reached a right scrutiny in order of all the thoughts and prayers of a real prayer.
12. S. (44:14) How is it that the power of the light of the prayer is so sharp that it can change a person’s fate?
R. Nothing is more powerful than the prayer because it’s a deficiency, it’s raising a deficiency and not a deficiency that we have but one that we obtain and build truly from its opposite state. We have a deficiency to fill up ourselves and here we need to come into a deficiency to fill or to satisfy the Creator. This is why we need to constantly think about the right deficiency, the right prayer.
13. S. (45:28) Is it correct to think it is hard to pray when we are inside of our desire but gratitude for everything, anything and everything in the world every person that we meet, everything that we see, does that prepare us for prayer and then we come to the group and pray through the group this gratitude, that preparation?
R. Yes.
14. S. (46:12) When the prayer comes to us from the Creator before we start praying, so what is our true deficiency?
R. The Creator knows our real deficiency and awakens it in us according to where we are.
15. S. (46:50) “Before they call Me, I shall answer,” when the Creator awakens the deficiency to turn to Him, on the other hand we ourselves in the ten, we are able to awaken the importance of turning to Him, meaning to build such a deficiency by ourselves, are those things equal or the deficiency that the Creator awakens on one hand, and on the other hand, the deficiency that we can awaken in the ten?
R. There’s a big difference between the deficiency in a person and a deficiency in the ten and a deficiency that comes from the Creator. And each such deficiency, each kind of deficiency has also several manners. The most important deficiency is when we try to unite among us with our one deficiency to the Creator, this is the most important. We should be directed towards this together or aiming for this together.
16. S. (48:15) A person thinks that he is turning to the Creator but it is the Creator turning to him, so when the person realizes that the Creator is turning to him and not him turning to the Creator, so what does the Creator expect from him in return except for gratitude?
R. The Creator expects from a person to want to come closer to Him, to the Creator. And the nearing is according to the equivalence of form, “as He is merciful, so you are merciful, as He is graceful, you are graceful,” etc..
17. S (49:06) If the Creator does not awaken us, we will not be able to pray to Him. What can we do to find the Creator liking, so that He will give us the desire to turn to Him?
R. Search by what I can awaken the Creator in order to draw closer to Him.
S. He gives strength also for this search and this yearning?
R. Yes, but we should be the first.
S. What can help us to be the first?
R. Connection and in the connection scrutinize what else we need to in order to come closer and adhere to Him.
18. S. (50:00) What is the mechanism that exists in the prayer and what is the value of self-convincing in the prayer?
R. To the extent that we are connected together we are inspired by the friends and then they can help each other, help each other reach the common desire, the common deficiency.
19. S. (50:38) In the article there is a scrutiny about a prayer for myself but we learned that the prayer has to be for the other, otherwise I’m harming myself. So in which circumstances is the prayer for myself correct?
R. I can ask to correct myself in order to be connected to the friends and to help them.
S. There is a quote, “if I’m not for me, then who’s for me, and if not now, then when,” so the question: if I’m not for me then who, what should that direct us to?
R. We need to be directed only to the connection between us. From this, each one will come closer to his real place and be incorporated with everyone else. This is the right place for the prayer.
20. S. (52:13) How can each and everyone in the ten begin to feel that he is connected to the others and begin to reveal the Creator?
R. I do not know how and when. It depends on the person. It depends on the root of his soul, on the level of his connection and many other elements.
21. S. (53:05) How to know if I’m turning to the Creator or if it’s my ego directing me?
R. If you feel that you are connected to the friends and your connection with them is a tight connection and you can turn through it, to the Creator, and you expect that through this connection you will receive from the Creator an answer to the prayer, then you are on the right path, you are on the right way.
22. S. (54:05) Is the only action of a person to pray to the Creator to bring him closer and what does it mean that the Creator answers his prayer?
R. That He brings him closer, there’s nothing more, we don’t need anything more other than closeness to the Creator.
23. S. (54:38) Is the Creator awakening only the person or the entire ten?
R. The Creator awakens the person and the whole ten, yes.
24. S. (54:52) How to tell if we are giving, if we are making room for the Creator to work in us and it is not the ego working in us?
R. It is to the extent that our prayer is not for ourselves but for the general correction, for bestowal for the whole world. These are really the signs, the indications.
25. S. (55:25) How to check the result of the quality of the prayer?
R. This is a very personal matter. I would also say deep. Again.
S. How to check the result of the quality of the prayer?
R. I do not think we can do this, at least not right now. The results of the prayer, of raising the prayer and the answer to the prayer is very difficult to detect. We come to it but not now. If we have a mutual, direct connection with the Creator, in short, we need to move ahead and then we will come to states where we will also know how to ask about these things and how to open them up as well.
26. S. (57:18) What is the role of the teacher in building the prayer from the students to the Creator?
R. To learn together with you what it means to have the right, true prayer, together with you try to come closer to the Creator, to identify along the way mistakes and to go around them. This is what pertains to the students in relation to the Creator. Example: consistency, you are getting these things.
27. S. (58:17) Women Australia are saying that one of the assignments they’re working on in preparation for the upcoming congress in Asia, is to ask each ten to write a prayer each day and to pass it another ten, to create an unending daily prayer chain. Do you see the importance of that for the congress?
R. It is good, it is good to try to write a short prayer as non-personal as possible, but one that belongs to everyone, so each group and every person can become incorporated in this prayer, this is excellent, yes.
28. S. (59:12) Is gratitude to the Creator equal to prayer to the Creator?
R. You cannot compare them; both are important. In both prayer and gratitude they have their own essence.
29. S. (59:41) He writes and he observes this all article as an observation.
R. Yes.
S. What to bring into the day I feel like yesterday or today unless something really big is changed, I will not be able to be in the state of inner observation contemplation; you know when the tens gather and schedule and activities and dissemination. It has been a long time since I caught myself in the middle of the day, in the middle of life and I stop and I look inwardly and ask those questions and they give the time, what I want from the Creator? What He did not give me? What I’m asking of Him raising gratitude, raising the importance of decree? I’m thoroughly impressed by his writing but where am I in them and where is this?
R. So go back to it several times a day and demand to have such deficiencies, questions and to search for them in you. What is special about it?
S. It’s not special, it simply does not matter. When it comes down to it, it’s not enough, certainly it’s not enough. Also when I’m reading it now, I’m thinking, oh it’s the Creator who sent me this feeling that I am not able to look inwardly?
R. So what, yes, He sent that to.
S. So, the question: what will be different today to approach the state that Rabash is writing about?
R. That today you think that may be that the Creator presented it to you and not that you thought about it by yourself.
S. So also the feeling that I am disconnected from this process. Remember that the Creator sent that too?
R. Yes.
S. So what is the next stage?
R. That you connect more and more to the Creator doing everything, and out of this identification you really think that it is coming only from the Creator, out of this, you come closer and closer to the truth and perhaps you will begin to feel yourself more correctly.
30. S. (01:02:32) There is a question that he asks several times. I’ll try to be accurate about it. When we read this article and talk about the prayer that we are doing, he doesn’t write here where to include the friends or our ten in this process. We can say if I woke up now, it is not because the friends started me, of course it is from the Creator. But if He awakened me it was not for myself but it was for me to care about and think about the friends, there are many things that he does not write about?
R. Right, you can be in this whirlpool all the time.
S. So how to scrutinize this point?
R. As much as you can.
S. Is it correct to speak about it with the friends?
R. Possible, possible to. That’s it, still it will come and go deeper in.
31. S. (01:03:42) It sounds like he’s giving us a few stages in the work of the prayer. First of all detect that There’s None Else Besides Him, as He sent him this burdening, the thought of that he is not on this path, doesn’t matter, some loneliness he calls it. Then a person has to become, to be grateful and give thanks and praise to Him that He’s Good That Does Good, everything he is giving is in order to advance the person. And here he should immediately give gratitude to the Creator for giving him the thought and desire for the spirituality and after he knows the Creator is calling him and begins to be grateful and praises the King, then the third part, stage, by bringing him closer, he can pray for his state since he sees that he lacks Torah and he doesn’t have any discernments between true and false, sounds like the next stage, what is that?
R. Discernments between true and false. Of course after the first phase when he obtained something in order to move further he has to determine what is on the right way and what is not? We will get back to it soon.
32. S. (01:05:35) An article, truly powerful article but I have a feeling, I’m doing all kinds of actions, I have many responsibilities in the Turkish Kli and now I’m here in our home, in our lesson with our friends. It is great but I can’t feel that I am advancing enough. So, what to do?
R. Usually beginners have this feeling that they are advancing slowly, not quickly enough. What can you do? You are advancing and you are advancing correctly, just participate and as much as you can in all the activities, when you’re here, when you are in Turkey, everywhere, as much as you can be connected with our groups. That’s it. And I see in you that you are advancing very well, you are observing many discernments and you’re using them within you correctly and I’m very pleased with this progress. Good luck to you!
33. S. (01:07:48) He describes on the one hand the state as if the created being is removed from the Creator and on the other hand that the Shechina feels sorry for this distance. How can a person be removed from the Creator on one hand and on the other hand feel the sorrow of the Shechina?
R. This is how he feels the Shechina, the divinity in this way.
S. How can you come to the states where you feel the sorrow of the Shechina, of the divinity?
R. To the extent that you want to participate in her sorrow?
S. What does it depend on?
R. It depends on the person, on how much he understands which is the good state for the Shechina and in what state he is with respect to it or to her right now.
34. S. (01:08:46) What are we grateful for the act, meaning that he gave us the deficiency to pray or his attitude towards us?
R. For having brought us closer.
35. S. (01:09:07) Meaning the action that He brought us closer?
R. Yes.
S. Is it okay to ask in English?
R. Form the Boreh?
S. From you.
R. From me? You can ask however you want. To the Creator, there is no difference.
S. It says in the article that at that time the Creator sent him the sensation of his own fault and called upon him to join Him, that presents a lot of questions, mainly from gratitude and praise you move to Hisaron and request, demand. And, it says here that the Creator shows him his own faults, now that occur in the Hisaron, in the lack and sometimes you run into a problem that God forbid a friend or someone you know is in a bad situation and it’s time for the prayer, the Creator really calls you, you even find the gratitude that He is calling you and you move to the deficiency and then you ask yourself where is my fault. Is it my fault that I did not call the Creator and keep closer to Him or is it my fault that I do not have enough faith and I think there’s something wrong in the world? And all of a sudden are you asking for the Creator to see what’s outside of you, the health of a child God forbid or you are simply asking the Creator that you remain in a state of Ein Od Milvado, Ha Tov UMativ, None else besides Him, the Good who does good.
R. I still need to work some more on getting closer to the Creator; to understand what His purpose is in every state that I go through.
S. So where’s the place of the prayer when there’s a friend in need? Is it in my own attainment of HaTov UMativ, the good that that’s good, or is it for the sake of the friend?
R. Of course, I first have to pray for the sake of the friend, for the benefit of the friend if I can. This is clear. And, ‘one who prays for the friend is rewarded first’. That is what I would answer.
S. About the ‘one who prays for his friend is answered first’ I have a whole long list of questions about that. I feel that if he’s answered first then the friend receives what he needs. At first I thought that if I pray for the friend’s attainment, I would receive attainment in spirituality first, but if I receive what I want, that the friend will have spirituality first, correct?
What does it mean to receive first, if my prayer is not for myself?
R. I did not understand the question. You are praying, you are getting what you’re praying for, it doesn’t matter for what, for yourself or for the friend.
36. S. (01:14:50) It’s written here, “Before they call on Me, I will answer, while they’re speaking, I already hear.” So if our prayer is the result of the Creator’s desire in us, what is the prayer that I raise from myself?
R. Your response. Your response. And also you do it for yourself. We think we are doing it for the Creator, ‘before they will call, the Creator already knows the answer’ is that the Creator already knows the answer and our response.
S. So what is the correct response, should it be when the desire to pray awakens in me? I have something now and you are also saying that the solution is always in prayer, so now I want to pray together with the ten, what does that response mean right now?
R. You only want one thing: To connect with your friends and incorporate in the Creator and in that vessel, you and the friends together to receive what the Creator wishes to fill you with.
S. When we connect in the ten, what does it mean that we now have arranged the praise of the Creator before we pray?
R. That He is the One, Unique and Unified. And There’s None Else Besides Him. You need to reach a state that you can understand what you can bestow to Him and you do bestow it to Him. And more of such things.
S. Do we need to talk between us about His greatness or it’s a feeling that needs to be born from…?
R. This is in each and everyone. Mainly in each and everyone.
37. S. (01:17:16) To continue the question of the friend, we all feel that we wish we were in it all the time, and from this reality we find ourselves doing a lot of things that are not even related to that. What is the reason for that…?
R. The Creator is organizing it. The Creator is organizing it.
S. There are so many hours that are unrelated to this, creating olive oil or whatever, how is it related to this?
R. I cannot tell you. I also can’t explain to myself, because I do not know all the magnitude of the actions that need to take place in creation; and as much as they are all connected these actions to one another. But I guess there is a general benefit in that. Look at what’s happening with the world; you can say that and you can criticize each and everything but the Creator wants it. That’s His will.
38. S. (01:18:51) These laws, ‘if not I, then who is for me’ and ‘if not now, when’, what is their essence, how to use it correctly?
R. That I must do what is touching me. What’s on me?
S. So what, am I first, I need to awaken?
R. I must awaken. I must be the first. I must be concerned for the whole group, the ten, and so on.
39. S. (01:19:31) You said that we need to be aimed only towards the connection between us and from that each and everyone will come closer to their true state and will be including everyone with everyone, that is the true place of prayer. Searching for this place of prayer and emphasizing the lack of ability to do this prayer, how can we also appreciate the lack of the ability to pray as part of the process?
R. We have to work together and from that we’re going to feel it, as much as we can do it without the Creator’s help.
S. So there has to be additional opening of the heart?
R. Yes, of course.
40. S. (1:20:44) In the process it’s like he’s skipping the phase of getting angry at the Creator. If I know He did everything and He brought me to this state that I am in and the state is not good, I’m not satisfied with my state?
R. He, Himself built this unsatisfying state in you.
S. Exactly, so how can I go from one state to praising Him, I’m angry at Him now.
R. Angry like a little kid. We need to accept it as we have to take it for granted that the Creator is conducting us, playing with us, teaching us and the whole process of teaching so you learn from questions, you learn from exercises and that’s why He puts us into this all the time.
S. There is no room in it for inner observation? If there is some anger towards the Creator to cancel it? Isn’t there any room for such an emotion?
R. Such an emotion has to be, because without it you cannot correct yourself. The fact that I feel that the Creator, there is something wrong with Him, that He did this and that to me, it’s things that are in us and we are in it, we feel it. Now the question is: what to do onwards? I have nothing to say, we just continue and discover more and more states.
41. S. (1:22:54) How can we appreciate the fact that the Creator made sure that I have a connection to Him more than the deficiency that I have now, or the friend?
R. You have to think about it and develop the right response to it.
42. S. (1:23:28) The Creator constantly awakens in us a deficiency and sometimes these deficiencies are related to corporeality and sometimes they are related to friends and study. What can we learn from the time of deficiencies that are revealed?
R. What He wants from us, either a practical response or scrutiny or a change in intention. That is what we need to scrutinize.
S. Could we also learn according to the quality of connection, if there are deficiencies that are more corporeal, does that mean that we are less connected or what?
R. It is not worth getting into this, we’ll just get confused.
S. And in terms of the prayer is it always the same or does it change from one deficiency to the other?
R. Prayer changes of course to the extent that we are connected to one another, going through all kinds of changes, we change our prayer.
43. S. (1:25:05) In the article here he describes that the importance is to notice that the Creator awakens us for prayer. The question is: what is the difference between the Creator awakening us to pray for ourselves or if He awakens us to pray for the friend? The awakening is still from Him so what is the difference between Him awakening me to pray for myself or for the friends?
R. It is a huge difference because prayer for myself is the closest, shortest prayer and obviously the Creator is awakening it, so He also wants me to do some criticism on the essence of my prayer. Maybe I will change it to begin with.
S. This means that the feeling that awakens in us, do we appreciate the connection with the Creator if He awakens us for the prayer for myself or for the friends?
R. Yes, of course. The Creator and ourselves and the friends; it’s all together.
44. S. (1:26:30) If we go here with Rabash, until the very end, then it turns out that the prayer is fulfillment, so at the end, the person, so whatever remains through the connection with the Creator is his connection to the Creator?
R. Not only that. The prayer itself is the Kli and if you organize it correctly he starts getting a feeling in that Kli.
S. That is what I’m trying to understand. At the end is there an answering of the prayer or is the fact that we reach the prayer is that the desired outcome? Because he says that what the Creator wants is for a person to pray for Him and the fact that a person feels that the Creator arranged his prayer for Him, then He brought him closer. That is coming closer.
R. Yeah.
S. There isn’t some expectation for me praying and the Creator answering my prayer and I’m satisfied but the fact that I have a connection with Him, that I have a prayer and deficiency, that is the fulfillment?
R. Yes.
45. S. (1:28:10) He mentioned a few times about the praising of the Creator, also remembering from the past that you explained to us that the Creator loves being praised. I wanted to ask if when we do our prayer for the preparation for the lesson every morning, would it be correct to include praising the Creator in that prayer, so that it will touch each and everyone’s individual prayer?
R. Yes.
S. And the habit will become a second nature.
R. Yes, try it, that’s desired.
46. S. (1:29:10) When we pray to the Creator to receive the force of bestowal, what do we expect from Him: fulfillment or a deficiency to bestow, or is it the same thing?
R. These things are the same things, you are right. The deficiency will be only to bestow and this is what will fill us.
47. S. (1:30:00) I see there are all sorts of prayers that the Creator hears and that the prayer that we pray for the others, there’s a prayer that we pray for everyone and we are dependent on the prayer. Another type is when we pray for ourselves and another type is when we want to see the merits of the friend other than those types of prayers. Are there any other kinds of prayers? Can you give us an example.
R. No, I can’t, there are many kinds. Maybe we’ll talk about it in the future.
48. S. (1:31:04) In the time when we are distant from the Creator, we continue until we reach a true deficiency. Is it correct to request to shorten that time?
R. Whatever you have on your heart, that’s what you ask for.
49. S. (01:31:42) It was said a while ago that we are expected to come closer to the Creator. When do we come to this expectation or are we always in such an expectation?
R. That depends on the extent that you bestow upon one another. To that extent, you will feel that you have the deficiency to come closer to the Creator.
50. S (01:32:38) He who awakens us and brings us closer, how to reach it before Him?
R. Only through connection with the friends you can awaken in yourself a desire for connection and advancement.
51. S (01:33:20) Is the amount of connection in the ten, is that a measurement for the quality of the prayer of the friends?
R. Yes. Of course, yes. We do not know yet how to measure this yet, but yes.
52. S (01:33:42) Every morning in the workshop we create a mutual prayer, and sometimes during the day in other workshops we give a few seconds for a silent prayer. That sometimes is felt as more powerful, because we have no verbal expression and the heart works. What is the uniqueness of every prayer – the one that is in the heart and the one that is vocal?
R. The uniqueness of the prayer that’s called, “the work in the heart,” as much as the prayer changes the heart, the direction that the heart is aimed towards it, and draws the person after it.
53. S. (01:34:421) I just heard that when the Creator gives us a prayer, He brings us closer to Him. That we have no other work other than work in the prayer. And, we have two questions based on that. If that is how it is, then attaining the first spiritual degree, attaining Lishma is actually attaining the quality of the prayer?
R. Yes.
S. [no translation]
R. That is not your business. You need to pray. Just pray.
54. S (01:36:05) Regarding the prayer, we are praying, and each friend expresses what he feels and it gives us results. Is it correct to do that?
R. You have to try and learn from that. There is a difference between what we think and what we speak and what will actually be. That we will not lie to one another or each one for himself.
S. We are meeting, and every friend is expressing what he feels, and then we publish our prayer. And we do it everyday. The question is, if it is correct, because really it is giving us good results.
R. It’s correct. Keep going. Keep doing it.
55. S (01:37:23) This entire article invokes the question. When we praise the Creator is this an expression of the greatness of the Creator, and our yearning to be similar, and to be close to the Creator?
R. Of course, that the Creator is in the height above all of us, and we cannot measure that height. But, we need along with that to accept it as exalted beyond exalted, and what comes out of Him and reaches us comes from a corrected degree, completely, and we need to accept that is the way it is.
S. When we express gratitude, is this a sincere acknowledgment that we recognize our disparity in form between our current state and the states of the Creator, and what the Creator is doing for us to come closer?
R. The Creator does everything possible in our state in order not to disturb us so that we will do our job to change, and come closer to Him, according to the equivalence of desires.
56. S. (01:39:50) We need to reach a deficiency to fulfill the Creator. Is that the goal for us, or is that a condition? How to approach it to fulfill Him and not ourselves?
R. We want to discover deficiencies in the Creator. What he wants from us, that is called His deficiencies. That He’s lacking only one thing – to fill us. And, that is what we need to scrutinize, and after that to try and do it.
57. S (01:40:56) First of all we learn that whoever prays for himself causes destruction to his soul, so how can one pray for himself? I must only pray for my friends, right?
R. Yes.
S. Now I understand after so many years of reading this article that it is written in the prayer of Shemoneh Esreh. Can you pray for all of the friends for the Creator to open their mouths like we read in the article, what a mouth is, and we will praise Him, we will say His prayer, His praise, and that might be a more correct prayer than what we can do with our ego?
R. Everything can be.
58. S (01:42:08) I can only feel my own pain and that brings me to a prayer. How can I reach a state where I feel the pain of others and from that reach a prayer?
S. Gradually you come closer to the friends and you start feeling what they are lacking, in the beginning you will feel what they are lacking because it also influences you and afterwards more and more you will start feeling what influences them that does not belong to you and in that way you keep going, keep going, just continue, and you will start recognizing what you care about more, what you care about less, of what they feel the friends, and in this way you can advance.
59. S. (01:43:33) How can the environment work so that we will be able to scrutinize our deficiency?
R. The environment needs to influence its connection on each and everyone that in this connection we discover as much as we are connected or not in what we can bestow mutually on one another and in this way we will keep going together and advance.
60. S. (01:44:23) Rabash writes toward the end of the article that after he knows when the Creator calls him and he starts praising the King then he can pray for his states since he sees that he lacks Torah he doesn’t know any discernments between truth or false. What does it mean that the person discovers that he lacks Torah?
R. The scrutiny, the scrutiny between his state and the group’s state and the Creator’s state and what is right and how to advance to the right observation.
S. Then how is the person supposed to respond to this?
R. To advance and to ask.
S. To continue the prayer again, okay, thank you.
61. S. (01:45:25) I want to make the scrutiny like it says, “if not I then who is for me?” And I need to open the scrutiny like he says and then there’s nothing else besides Him and the Good who does good. I see that here on the Good who does good he’s not able to arrange his praise before he prays. He feels that his mouth and heart are not equal, to say that he’s Good and does good for everything that happens, so I wanted to scrutinize the fact that a person begins because everything starts with the scrutiny that the person does right?
R. Yes, it’s just that a person isn’t always ready for the scrutiny. He first needs to really scrutinize what good and bad is and there are a lot of discernments that come before it, a lot of discernments before that.