MONDAY: BINAH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Monday.
Rabash. What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work? 2 (1991)
Morning Lesson June 24, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 2, 1991. What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work?
1.Rav’s Introduction: We are born, we reveal ourselves in a will to receive in order to receive and we only think of ourselves, that’s our nature and that’s the only thing that we care for It is a type of ego that the Creator, the upper force built within us as it says I’ve created the evil inclination and we have no way to feel that there is some other opposite nature, just as we discover in outer space that there are some celestial bodies, planets with various different qualities, we study them, we try to understand them but we are still in inside what we have and here we start thinking what will it give us? If we discover the upper force who has an opposite nature to ours, we are all results of his making, of his creation; we are a will to receive for itself or in order to receive and he is the opposite.
So we have two parts in nature, two areas, two haves two; one part of reality works according to the will to receive for itself and another part of reality is probably under the governance of the will to bestow to others and these two parts are two worlds as we say, the corporeal world that works for itself and spiritual world that works for the others; and we in truth we have to be comprised of both. Both the will to receive for ourselves and also the will to bestow to everything outside of us and that’s how we truly come to the purpose. In such a way we have to develop. So let’s see what Rabash tells us.
Reading. Writings of Rabash. What Is, “Return, O Israel, Unto the Lord Your God,” in the Work?
2. S. (37:50) What I feel is that the two main things that Rabash touches here in this article or in general in his articles first of all is the precise discernment, what is the state that the person is in, to get to know the reality that he’s truly in without being aware of his, of the reality he has nowhere to advance to. The second thing, which is more complicated is he uses a lot this concept of above reason. Seemingly I feel in the articles that he says that a person can automatically go without reason and this to me is unclear, meaning we also read in the articles that only the Creator can bring a person to be in the state above reason, so how do we reach that state of using this above reason if it’s impossible to reach it without the Creator allowing us to reach there.
R. Correct, more.
3. S. (39:00) We are in concealment, we don’t quite know how do we get ascents and descents, what is the necessity, the urgency for the request for the Creator and when do we reach it, cause we go for these ascents and descents, what compels us to actually turn to the Creator and to turn to Him so that he will change, in what exactly inside of me, what should I ask for?, what is the actual request because we can simply be in this work?
R. We are in a state that we want to come out of and to come out of it we feel is not in our own strength so we ask the Creator, this is called prayer, meaning to come out of our state to a more spiritual state, that’s our work. This ascend, this exit is our work that’s what a prayer is for, that’s what we need to do; accordingly as Kabbalah’s promises the Creator will work on us and raise us from the present state to the spiritual state.
S. Doesn’t the Creator himself know what he needs to give to the person without the person asking?
R. The Creator knows everything, man doesn’t and that’s what’s important.
4. S. (41:08) Many times Rabash writes about it that the person feels far away. Is this the result of the person yearning for the quality of bestowal or is this active act that the person doesn’t want to accept it?
R. There comes a state, the time where the Creator wants to show the person what is his true state, then he shows it to him by all sorts of states or incidents; now, depending on the environment one is in, that determines how quickly he understands how quickly he is working with the Creator and that the Creator wants to show him where to advance and the society can be the device that will calibrate him, that will direct him towards that corrected state. That’s how we should see ourselves, meaning to the extent that we connect to the environment and we don’t criticize the environment and it may seem to us as very much not corrected.
S. Rabash also writes that we, when we reach a group that yearns for love of others we have to reach hatred for the will to receive?
R. There’s no such thing. That to fall in a group of righteous, such groups existed in history in just a few centuries.
S. That we yearn to reach love?
R. We yearn for it.
S. And it’s also written that in this group that we have to reach hatred to the will to receive, that’s what I want to ask about. The separation from the will to receive it comes out of the yearning for connection or is this the active operation on my part, that I inside want to be disconnected from the will to receive?
R. I want to detach from in order to receive and attribute myself to in order to bestow and that’s just a little bit of desire but all the rest happens by the influence of the environment and the Creator.
5. S. (45:10) What is iniquity?
R. You don’t know what is iniquity in Hebrew?
S. I know what it usually means, but here he says we have to find iniquities we were performing, search for them, repent for them. I’m trying to understand, how do I find an iniquity and how to repent for it?
R. What is truly a bad action that doesn’t lead us to the goal but only confuses us and even throws us out of the path? What is such an action? only one; when we use the will to receive for ourselves.
S. When I use the will to receive for myself and I read what Rabash says here in all of his articles, these are all operations of the Creator over me; how do we now use these operations as he says here that a person should take these iniquity and then he says and take this good, remove all iniquity and take good; how do you use these to your benefit in the end so that it’s seemingly advancing you towards the goal and you’re not just committing some crime, how do you repent for it?
R. I don’t understand exactly what you’re asking, a person exists in various states. The Creator shows him how far he is from bestow, from connection, from the society, the environment, how much he doesn’t want to push himself in the environment towards connection between them and with the Creator.
S. So what is it to repent?
R. To inspect, am I really trying with all the strength that I have to move towards bestowal, connection with the friends, the group.
6. S. (47:40) What does it mean how do we interpret ascents and descents? Ascents and descents are about how to relate to the quality of bestowal, so can we relate to descents that we receive in order to receive?
R. The descent appears in a person when he receives and addition of the will to receive that the Creator opens up in him a bit more a will to receive than what he has in general but it was concealed and then a person feels that he seemingly falls into a stronger will to receive, that’s not a descent.
S. What… said, that a person falls into the stronger will to receive, for the person, for us, for me. It seems like each time you fall in the same way, you said many times that to us it seems the same but it’s never really the same it’s always bigger. Why is that so?
R. Because the Creator wants us to advance, and therefore He always gives us a greater will to receive, we fall in it then we can’t come out on the one hand, on the other hand we begin to understand over time that we have no choice but to pray, to cry that the Creator will help us.
S. So with respect to me He always drops me, I fall all the time, the will to receive grows, I don’t see that, that the will to receive is growing because I see same process and it always feels the same, I fall into something and I come out and then I fall again; to me it always seems also like the same thoughts and the same processes?
R. Exactly, you still can’t discern them, it’s like a little child.
S. And the reason for it, that seemingly he continues all the time and will continue until I feel helpless?
R. Until you understand that it comes from above specifically for you to ask the Creator to help you become corrected.
S. And this can go on for a long time, such a thing?
R. Very long time.
S. So what nevertheless can we do, want more because in the end when we come out of it it seems like it’s over and then you feel you’re finished with it and then again you fall?
R. Ask the friends to help you, that they’ll pray for you and that you will help them and they’ll help you; one shall help his friend and that’s how you rise.
S. So it’s only about the Arvut in the ten?
R. Yes.
7. S. (51:04) What does it mean that the Creator brings the person closer?
R. The Creator always brings the person closer, it depends on how the person feels it but as it says we only rise in sanctity and we don’t descend. Everyone is moving towards the end, towards the purpose of creation.
S. But in what exactly does he bring us closer? What does it mean that you and I are closer?
R. Closer meaning that you better understand where you are and what’s up to you. you better justify the Creator and get closer to the friends and in short all of these conditions become closer and closer to you.
S. He writes that a broken heart means that a will to receive controls the heart?
R. Yes.
S. And that the Creator is close to the brokenhearted. What does it mean that the Creator is closer with the will to receive or what exactly happens there, what does it mean that the Creator is close to the brokenhearted?
R. The Creator’s close to the brokenhearted meaning that one who understands that his heart is egoistic and thus is his heart seems broken to himself, then the Creator understands that and feels that and he’s sorry together with the person and he’s willing to participate with the person in correcting the heart.
S. And what does it depend that the desire in the heart will be replaced?
R. To the extent that a person is in the right environment that’s tight and close and for mutual help and how much he understands that?
S. But he writes that only when the Creator changes for the person the desires in his heart the heart becomes whole, complete?
R. Yes.
S. So how do you bring this state where they change your heart?.
R. In my heart I want to wish to connect with the friends, I feel how much I am able and am unable and I bring all of that to the Creator and ask for correction.
8. S. (54:09) What are the corrections?
R. The corrections are that I will see how much in my state I haven’t yet fulfilled what is required of me, that I haven’t attained the shattering of my heart, the corruption in my heart, how much I don’t want to be connected to the friends, how crude and indifferent I am to the distances between us; all those things I have to clarify, all the time and bring them to correction.
9. S. (55:12) He speaks in the whole article about two kinds of people the majority and the general and the individuals?
R. No, about the whole public we’re not talking about them now, it doesn’t matter to us, the people who are just wondering the streets who don’t have many mutual work with them.
S. So the individuals as I understand correctly are those who want to reach adhesion with the Creator and what we’re saying here is that they’re willing to examine themselves and check where they are in respect to this process.?
R. Yes.
S. Sometimes a person is capable of doing these examinations and sometimes a person is not capable of doing these examinations or he can’t see, so on what does it depend that a person can truly be in this examination all the time and search for where he is, search for the places where he is not ok, where he’s far away?
R. To the extent that he understands that he has to be close to the friends and tries to be with them and sees how much he’s not with them, these two pieces of data, how much he wants to be with them and isn’t with them, this is the main thing, this data he needs to come with to the Creator.
S. It’s unpleasant to see this and I feel in myself that I have a tendency to run away from looking at it so how can I not run away, that I’ll agree to look at it, that I could see the gap that I actually don’t love them?
R. You’re right, there’s nothing else to do. In our scrutinies we have to reach a state where I relate to everything that’s happening above my will to receive and what, what’s in it, I find, I reveal before us, meaning before me and before the Creator in an open reveal where I want to correct this.
S. So you’re saying I need to go above my will to receive in the scrutinies, how can I do it, I don’t have the strength to go above my will to receive?
R. You don’t need to go above the will to receive, you need to go knowing that you are powerless to go above your will to receive.
S. Okay, so I don’t have the power and then I realize that I must get help?
R. Yes.
10. S. (58:30) In the second page in the second line it says about the excerpt: return oh Israel to the Lord your God, and it says onto the Lord your God because you fell in your iniquity, means because you fell in your iniquity, the iniquity of faith; is faith part that is rooted in the people of Israel and we must ask for it this is our iniquity that we don’t have faith?
R. I don’t understand your question.
S. He says that the iniquity is because of lack of faith, is this my iniquity that I don’t have faith or do I have to develop it over during my spiritual development and ask the Creator to give me this quality?
R. Yes, because we start from a state of being beast, animals, the animal level.
S. But it’s still my iniquity that I don’t have faith before it become Adam?
R. Yes, of course.
S. It’s my iniquity that I was born an animal?
R. You were born that way, that’s it and you have to raise yourself to the human level.
11. S. (01:00:13) What is all the way to the Lord your God, onto the Lord your God?
R. To the Lord your God meaning that in our qualities we have to identify with the qualities of the Creator.
S. And when he says that the repentance has to reach the throne, what does that mean?
R. That by my repentance my request and actions that I do I come to a state where if I can put it that way, I break through the cover, which is over the Creator.
12. S. (01:01:21) I wrote that before you said that we connect with the environment, we don’t criticize it, it can seem to us as very much uncorrected, but what can we do if there are a few friends in the ten that constantly criticize, they keep pointing out why the friends are wrong, even a few friends tell them it’s incorrect we don’t succeed in working with it, what do we do, how do we correct it?
R. To agree on such a rule that in the society we don’t criticize anyone besides when we possibly have specific gatherings of that nature where we sit together and scrutinize what points of failure we have.
S. What to do practically if a friend starts criticizing not in such a meaning but he truly, he brings us down what am I supposed to tell him?
R. You need to tell him right to his face you need to tell him straight forward that this is not accustomed here because it doesn’t correct we work towards correction it’s not about something being holy or not, it is about whether it works for the correction if it works for the correction it is acceptable if not then it’s not acceptable.
S. And he will start quoting what you say sometimes let’s take off the gloves, lets not be gentleman, we have to advance?
R. Yes, but sometimes we need to do that for the purpose of true criticism that we try to do.
S. Okay I get it, so only when we’re doing scrutinies according to the order of the assembly by Rabash when we…. face first with scrutinize something then we take off the gloves, we have to do in an orderly way?
R. Yes.
S. Okay, something about the article that I was very much impressed by what he writes to always be worthy that it’s actually when he discovers it’s not worthy and actually the evil inclination controls him but he wants to be worthy and then he’s considered already a worthy disciple, similarly he writes about bring wisdom to the wise one who wants to be wise he will bring him wisdom, so it’s all about the desire where we want to be? It’s really nice to hear that.
R. Yes, everything follows the tendency of the heart.
13. S. (01:04:14) He explains here that during an ascent one has a basis of feeling and he already knows what is the goal that he’s working on. He’s promptly, immediately from above and he says about that wisdom that he thought that he know what to rely on, where’s that wisdom and the advice for it is to hold himself as a state of a fool, constantly be a fool. How do you do that, how to do it?
R. To be petty in Hebrew which means naive or innocent is the highest thing. Is there another word for it? Naive yes. So it’s not that innocent, on the contrary he wants to be in innocence or naivety because he always wants to merit an ascent.
S. What’s the technique, what’s the way to do it, it’s when a person has some feelings, some uplifted spirit he’s in the state ascent, he feels as though the goal and the friends in a way it all shine to him, how to keep himself in that state, to be gullible so he’s not immediately thrown away but rather to continue?
R. First of all why will he be thrown away?
S. That is what he writes here.
R. So I don’t understand the question again.
Reading (01:05:56)
14. S. (01:06:52) So how to keep ourselves in the state of a fool?
R. To be in bestowal, to be in bestowal, the force of bestowal guards him.
S. So the person can keep himself in such a state of Katnut, smallness, being a fool?
R. No, that’s in the group.
S. How to correctly combine these two rules that he judges only what his eyes see but then he has eyes and do not see?
R. The judge has only what his eyes see that is true, that is how he has to relate to what appears to him and they have eyes but see not means that after everything he examines in his mind he has to go above reason and see that there is another degree that he does not achieve in his mind.
15. S. (01:08:15) What does it mean in the article that beast in gematria is BON and man is MA? What’s the relationship between them?
R. BON is the desire to receive Malchut and in its natural form what is the will to receive of Malchut that has an addition of a desire to bestow like ZA, right? So, man as a beast, meaning it’s the degrees of ZA and Malchut and we have to raise these degrees to the degrees of AB and SAG.
16. S. (01:09:26) He writes in the article that the abundance cannot enter the broken vessel and also when the heart is broken also the feeling enters and also in the articles we read that when a person labors he performs some actions etc. It says you will not receive the feeling, there is no such thing than the feeling, the Creator will decide to whom to give it, to whom it would be beneficial. So what is our spiritual feeling?
R. I did not understand the question, anyone did?
S. Here in the article it says that when the vessel is broken he gives an example here, when the vessel is broken the abundance cannot enter the vessel and then he continues and says that when the heart is broken then you can’t feel the feeling. You labor, you make efforts and later on and Baal HaSulam also writes that when you exert and you try to receive the feeling inside of those efforts and to achieve a feeling etc. he writes that the filling seemingly for your effort, for your labor the Creator will decide to whom it will be beneficial you’re not going to receive it, he says that to the person. So I’m asking what is our spiritual filling, what is it that we want?
R. Our spiritual fulfillment is the Creator, we wish to be filled by the Creator, the desire to bestow to everyone without any boundary.
S. Okay, but in this time many things that we go through together, well also not too long ago we read an article that says that all the righteous, the great ones in the work etc they are caught first. Yes. The judgment is upon them, they’re the first ones to be caught so how can we in our daily work, how can we be cautious because in order to receive is so slippery, it’s elusive and a few times I catch, I’m being caught, I catch myself you know it is the ten and then why am I asking? Because we always work on our guarantee, on mutual support and now here also in the work between the tens I feel that each one of us is looking for self benefit of the ten. Even if there are rules and everything else we prefer to be in the ten, to have it in the ten. This is what I want, I want to be in a ten etc. but that too is kind of self-benefit. I think that I deserve it, I think this is my spiritual advancement but not to take the role, that will come later you understand what I’m saying?
R. Yes, so what? I understand it’s not the complete correction but on the way there, this is good. And one already has the feeling and faith that this solution will be found in the ten, the power, the support. That is good, that’s already good.
17. S. (01:14:09) I look at the friends and I see that they are heroes so automatically I try to be like them, and I look at myself and it destroys me so how I come out of this impasse?
R. I did not understand what.
S. I’m asking for myself, I’m asking to be like them, I’m asking to be like my hero friends, how to do I ask not for myself?
R. That’s okay. The fact that you’re asking to be like them, to be with them that’s good. By this you are strengthening yourself and them.
S. But it’s written, the one who asks for himself brings ruin for his soul so I’m asking for myself how can I avoid this?
R. You are asking to adhere to others, that’s why there’s nothing bad about that, on the contrary it’s a prayer for correction.
18. S. (01:15:46) We heard that you have to reveal the Creator clearly, what does it mean to reveal the Creator clearly?
R. To reveal the Creator in a clear way means, it means I want to discover the connections between us, that they will be in help towards each other, in love and connection with one another only for the benefit of the other and not for my own. It’s such a net of connections between us that will bring us to revelation of the Creator.
19. S. (01:16:59) It is written he who comes to purify is aided, so according to this is the friend that we pray for should he also have a desire to be corrected?
R. Yes, that is desired.
20. S. (01:17:34) It is written that when a person is in trouble with a broken heart it means he doesn’t have Hassadim. From where do we take this Hassadim? How do we come closer, how do we achieve wholeness?
R. We need to enter, to adhere to the group, try to be the smallest between them, that I can anything possible to take the Hassadim, the mercy from them.
S. What does it mean to take mercy from them?
R. To be inspired.
21. S. (01:18:37) At the end of the text it says that a person, it is forbidden to teach an unworthy student, what does that mean?
R. Unworthy is whomever doesn’t want it or someone who wants to study but it is clear that his purpose isn’t for the benefit of humanity.
22. S. (01:19:26) Who are the broken parts in the article?
R. Our language is the end and also it is different kinds of states that are final.
23. S. (01:20:19) The question is what is the difference between a state of descent and the state of lowliness?
R. A descent is a general name to the state that a person can go through who has a certain degree in the perception of reality that is less than what he had before. And it could be that degree, that state that it also comes with helplessness, lack of desire, no forces, no mood, and so on.
24. S. (01:21:23) Please help us clarify: the Creator is the quality of the good who does good. I suppose we come to this at the end of correction, but currently, right now when he adds more and more to the desire all the time, how do we keep this in mind because it’s a beastly state, you suffer blows, how do you see it as something good?
R. You hold on to one another, hold on to each other and everybody together holds the Creator and you convince them that he will educate you correctly and relate to you in love, that you love him back and that you want to come close to him, that he won’t turn his back on you. And in this way everything will work out.
25. S. (01:22:48) I have difficulty with the word iniquity. What does iniquity mean in this context? So let’s say remove your iniquities or iniquities of faith or failed in your iniquity, what does iniquity mean because in English it means many things so what does it mean here?
R. Iniquity here, how should I say in Hebrew except for a sin maybe, a transgression, a mistake, maybe. If you made a mistake or iniquity so you felt in it so now you have to correct it all.
S. So what is the iniquity of faith?
R. Towards faith, I think that’s the main sin or iniquity is that we want instead of faith to be in knowing, knowledge and not exchange one on the other for 100% but we should I don’t know a certain percentage.
26. S. (01:24:58)
R. No, it’s not the final stage, it’s the raising to the next degree.
27. S. (01:25:25) There is a point in the article that is not clear to me. He says there that when we work in the will to receive and the benefit is not hidden from us because we are the will to receive and then we ask the Creator to give this face of man. Why do we ask, are we asking from the Creator to feel a different taste or do we need to work in a way that the taste is hidden from us?
R. Again?
S. In the article there is a point that wasn’t clear to me. Rabash explains that when we work in the will to receive and we feel a flavor, the flavors are revealed to us but in the will to bestow the flavor is not revealed to us, the taste is not revealed. So he’s asking asking the Creator to give the face of man, why should we ask the Creator that? Do we want the taste to be revealed to us or is it that in bestowal do we work without feeling the taste. This is not clear to me?
R. No, you should have a feeling, you should have a taste, you taste and to see that the Lord is great. That’s the only thing that must constantly be with us. That is why we need to demand a taste, the taste of the Torah, that is what we have to reach. We have to be filled with the taste as if we, as if we are in ocean of a wonderful feeling. I don’t know how to say it, that all our senses are filled with flavors.
S. I can’t understand what it means that our senses are filled with flavors and how does that relate to the ten if I take it to the work between us?
R. Our senses are not filled from flavors that are prepared from above but what we feel, what we hold, that we’re holding that right thing so we feel the right taste. Let’s say this, you’re holding a baby in your hand somebody gave you, let you hold him, so you’re holding him and you discover that it is your own baby that you didn’t see it for so and so years as much as now you start being filled with feelings towards him. That is actually the deed.
S. So why do I need to ask the Creator here? I understand what you say, we have to yearn for the state and when I hold the baby and I discovered it’s mine you’re filled with emotion, so why do we need to ask the Creator? What are we asking from the Creator? Why should he be a partner in this action?
R. Without him you can’t discover anything, what you discover is him.
28. S. (01:29:19) How do we ask for the help from the friends without influencing the group?
R. Again I heard only half of it I don’t know what they’re playing with over there.
S. How do we ask for help from the friends without negatively influencing the group?
R. Again?
S. How do we, we talked about asking the friends for help or mutual help, how do I ask for help from the friends without influencing in the group in a negative way or without weakening the group?
R. How I ask?
S. Right, if I approach the ten, the group to ask them for help and I feel I’m weakening them by this, by asking for help? How do I approach them correctly, what should be the intention, what should be the right approach?
R. We need, we need to talk about it in the group, to discover a necessity for such an action and that the necessity will be agreed on by everybody and then ask.
S. That necessity of the action for asking for help?
R. Yes, and then it won’t weaken us because by this we all start connecting to that same deed.
29. S. (01:31:31) How to have recognition from evil and despair from my own strength and at the same time give the ten the greatness and exaltedness?
R. One has nothing to do with the other. I can be in greatness towards the te, and along with that I can ask for forces, ask for forces to exist.
30. S. (01:32:12) How through actions can we check the intention of bestowal in the ten?
R. Again.
S. How through actions do we scrutinize, check the intention to bestow in the ten?
R. I don’t understand.
S. How through the things we do in the ten can we clarify, scrutinize our intention to bestow?
R. What is it there to ask about here?
S. How do we check, what should we look at, how do we scrutinize it through the actions, through the activities?
R. So through the actions we’re scrutinizing our state. It’s clear, it is the same place, there’s no question about it.
31. S. (01:33:31) The reasons for ascents and descents, is it because of the broken heart?
R. No, the reason for ascents and descents is because we need to correct the vessel that was shattered before us.
S. The general vessel, meaning the heart?
R. The will to receive that was shattered we need to correct it and that is only possible through ascents and descents.
32. S. (01:34:21) In the article he touches a basic condition for reaching a prayer, that you have to first of all come to a state of sorrow. I know what kind of sorrow he’s talking about intellectually but that sorrow is very high, lofty. My question is, is there a kind of sorrow before the sorrow of not being able to bestow contentment upon the Creator? What kind of sorrow can we reach in order to come closer to prayer?
R. To come closer to the prayer we need a sorrow that we can’t reach connection, the needed connection.
S. No one likes to feel sorrow, is this correct? The feeling of sorrow is not a pleasant feeling or is it pleasant?
R. It depends when and how. I’ve seen many places in the world that people cry and in order to come and cry they pay a lot of money for it. When you go to a movie you go to such cartoons there but people pay for such pieces of art a lot of money and forces to build it, to direct it, to prepare it and also then to show it to everyone and everybody will pay a lot of money to see it. Meaning the feeling of sorrow on its own isn’t flawed if it brings some kind of understanding, summary towards the goal. That’s called sweetening the judgments.
S. So when a friend brings sorrow into the ten he is really aching about the state of the ten and I see that in the ten there are two approaches. One is to cover this pain, it’s fine, it’s part of the path, you kind of put it out. The other is to intensify it and get into the sorrow, bring out of the sorrow, turn it into an engine for advancement. What is the approach we should choose in the ten when a friend brings sorrow or pain as you said about lack of connection?
R. I think that there will always be both because if we’re completely not connected that’s clear and that we have to yearn for the connection that’s also clear. So that’s why they both exist.
33. R. (01:38:04) We are in the process and in this process every time more and more points of work will be clarified, the points where we hold on to each other and the Creator and we need to advance no matter what.
34. S. (01:38:36) In this process we have the Congress next week, and to direct all of us and to focus us what vessel would you like to see before you at the Congress: that we come with sorrow, that we’re far from the Creator, that we are trying to connect but can’t succeed, along with greatness and gratitude and yearning?
R. I think that we need to come to the convention with the thirst to connect between us, to feel the connection between us and as much as we can to see that we’re connecting in all kinds of connections. It’s also not important as much that we understand the language of the friends, that’s not the point. What’s important for us is to feel how much we need each other because without discovering that need we won’t give the Creator an ability to bestow to us and connect us, that’s the main thing.
S. Also revealing this need comes from the effort to connect, specifically when we try to connect and we discover we can’t then we need Him more. So if we take this week that we have now, today’s meal and the gathering of friends, the morning lessons until the Congress, how do we bring ourselves into the maximum effort toward the Congress? That we not only at the Congress try to connect but every single moment we make the utmost effort to connect because basically the process is a constant encounter with lack of success, that our heart is broken and we need the Creator more right? So what do we focus on in our work in the ten, on the daily prayers? You said that we have to take a part of the road now and focus on it.
R. Again it’s only connection and towards the Congress it should be clear to you. So what did you attain in the connection, what type of connection did you attain, what did you discover in it? As much as we can be in it, to find ourselves in it, in that connection. That’s everything I can say. The results between the connection needs to show us where we are. The result of the connection is the Creator, attaining the Creator, feeling the Creator.
35. S. (01:42:47) Yesterday we had a meeting in the ten, we tried to reach some sort of common pain, some common prayer to come to with to the Congress. In our situation in the ten we have friends that are vanishing, fading and we can’t formulate a kind of common approach to it. It came up in the conversation that maybe we lack love, there’s no love between us, we don’t really care about each or have concern for each other. We understand what we have to come to, what we have to demand but the heart refuses to awaken and when you start touching it then many times some friends take a step back. It’s against the rules of Rabash to talk about it, we can’t talk about how there’s no love between us, in short we are at a kind of dead-end, impasse. We can’t reach a common sorrow and we know we have to come to it. So I’m asking what do we do?
R. Why won’t you ask for advice from the friends?
S. I’m asking now.
R. So again what is the question?
S. We know that we have to come to common deficiency, something that all of us need and we know that it has to be concern for the friends, love for the friends. We see that it doesn’t exist, we don’t have it but the heart doesn’t really want to ask. There’s a gap between what we know and what the heart feels and wants and we don’t know what to do from here.
R. So what’s the advice?
S. I don’t know.
R. Let’s say it happens in each and every group, in each and every ten we have the same thing, we reach the same summary. What do you think? No hands.
S. The ten has to act, in our ten there are some friends who always act out. We know his ten, maybe they need help from other tens.
S. I remember a few years ago I sat with a friend in the ten at a hummus meal and he said that one of the greatest gifts we received in the ten is that somehow every friend always adds high spirits, even if you see that he has nothing from where to get it. It’s a part of our work and we read it in the article today, in every article you have to scratch it out, bring it out, just like you read in Rabash’s articles, there’s no other way. It’s our only work and it’s true. Every time it’s someone else because that’s his opportunity, that’s the only rule that I am.
R. Okay. So there’s some kind of understanding why we started Rabash articles again.
36. S. (01:47:05) There is a very interesting paragraph here that a person or the ten agree with the covering that the Creator raises on us because our qualities are still not in equivalence of form and it becomes a part of the structure of the throne. Does the person have this ability? Should I read the paragraph?
R. You’re speaking about spirituality?
S. About what Rabash writes in the article. Does a person or the ten have the ability to become a part of the structure of the throne?
R. We have to be part of that throne. Actually we need to be in all of reality except for the Creator and the way we establish reality, establishing or stabilizing the Creator Himself because there’s no Creator without the created being.
S. In one of your recent lessons I heard something that took a long time to sync. You said that I come to the world when the world is perfect and all that needs to change is me. Therefore everything we’ve learned recently, you’ve been repeating it all the time is that in fact all the qualities of the ten are in me and actually everything is in me. That’s where the change has to happen and through the connection to the Creator we acquire the understanding of the connection between the personal and the general. This is what I have to do and it takes a long time to process this, but it explains what you’ve been saying lately that I’ve been hearing. There are friends who heard it probably a long time ago so I’m grateful that I have such friends, thank you Rav.
R. Okay, what should we do next?
37. S. (01:49:55) Concerning the Congress and also to continue what we talked about before, how do we take the Congress as an opportunity to lift each of us and all of us together? How can the Asian Congress help specifically in this?
R. Your questions are always so serious. I think that the Asian Congress is very special because they are in the center of the world, they are awakening that point that is very problematic, painful to the whole world. Because it’s a special place in all cases that’s why if we can add even a bit, add the approach of the wisdom of Kabbalah there it will give a very good result that’s felt and a calming feeling.
38. S. (01:51:38) Is it correct to feel a situation as if I don’t know, like I’m a fool or naive?
R. Again?
S. Is it correct to constantly feel as if I don’t know what the situation is? Is this called foolishness, gullibleness or naivety?
R. It’s not a problem. Search and feel that you don’t know. That’s okay, it will work out, that will work out.
39. S. (01:52:35) In the friend’s ten or other tens in such cases don’t we need the general prayer of the whole world Kli for this situation?
R. Anyway we need a general prayer, we need it. So it will be easy to put it together because it’s not that we go into states that are..
S. Are we going into states that we need the world Kli prayer more and more for a certain ten to be able to overcome a state?
R. We will scrutinize it soon. This is a very pertinent question but we will scrutinize it soon, not in this congress.
40. S. (01:53:56) I heard friends expressing a deficiency to want to come closer and to want to connect in the tens. As a group are we overlooking the value of connecting more with other tens to expand the Kli and to be able to connect more with the world in our dissemination?
R. I can’t say, I cannot say. You’re asking with respect to dissemination, to influence on the world. I can’t say because the world is in a very, very kind of rickety, shaky, unstable state. It’s hard to say.
41. S. (01:55:13) What does it mean the prayer of an individual if most of the time I’m closed off in my own desires and thoughts?
R. It hardly gives anything. It gives you some self-calming but it’s not that by this you actually place yourself into the global network and create some change there.
S. How to break through such a state?
R. Enter with force into the ten and only in it pray all the time. In it, for it, with it, etc.
S. We do it everyday a few times a day but there isn’t a feeling that there’s a real deficiency.
R. It will come. There will be a period of disappointment that you’re not succeeding in anything and then there will be a period when you start feeling that precisely in the connection between you, you are achieving success.
42. S. (01:57:00) You said that we need to reach a need for each other. How can prayer for the group and efforts to connect that are a result of a feeling of dependency on others, how does that bring us to the quality of bestowal? It seems very egoistic.
R. We are constantly learning about it. If you go along with us it is certain that you’ll succeed in an un-egoistic way.
43. S. (01:57:45) He writes that the people who belong to the collective that engage in Torah can’t feel their iniquities but people that work as individuals want to reach adhesion with the Creator. What is the reason that they can feel it and others can’t? What’s going on here?
R. It all depends on the cleanness of the heart. Those who want to connect with the friends will succeed. They will also succeed in changing themselves, in creating some sort of correction on themselves, and then they will bestow. Those who do not succeed in connecting to others will not succeed even if they have the best thoughts.
S. It’s not so clear because it says that those who aren’t successful belong to the collective and those that can, they work as a single. I don’t understand something here.
R. There is one who is strong in quantity and one who is strong in quality.