SUNDAY: HESED-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: FROM MIDNIGHT TO DAWN SUNDAY
Rabash. What Is, “For I Have Hardened His Heart,” in the work?. 17 (1991)
LESSON MATERIAL
What Is, “For I Have Hardened His Heart,” in the work?
Article No. 17, 1991
We should ask about the verse, “for I have hardened his heart,” why did the Creator not harden Pharaoh’s heart right in the beginning, but we see that only after Pharaoh admitted and said, “The Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked,” then the verse says, “for I have hardened his heart”? Also, all the interpreters ask, Why did the Creator deny Pharaoh the choice?
It is known that the order of the work is that we begin the work in order to receive reward. To the extent that the body hears that it will be rewarded, and if it does not suffer, this leads a person to work in observing Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds]. That is, to the extent that he believes in reward and punishment, he receives motivation so as to be able to observe Torah and Mitzvot in all its details and precisions.
In this way, a person sees that he is advancing each day, and therefore enjoys his work, since he sees progress in the work. This follows the rule that one cannot do any work unless he sees progress in the work. It is like a person learning a profession and sees that he is not advancing in this profession, so he looks for something else to do, an easier job for him. But without progress, it is impossible to do anything. This stems from the matter, “which God has created to do.” For this reason, there must be progress in everything.
This is like the horse that circles the grindstones and walks in circles all day long. Because it constantly walks in the same place, its eyes must be covered so it does not see the truth, but will think that it is walking to a different place each time. That is, even animals must see progress in what they do, and any progress in the work is seen only when we work in order to receive reward.
But when we begin to work in order to bestow, when we want to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, which is equivalence of form, a person cannot look at the things he does. That is, although he sees that now he is doing more than he did while he was working in order to receive reward, but now he has a different measurement, which is to what extent he aims his actions to be in order to bestow and not for his own sake. At that time, he sees that he is far from it. Although he has many ascents, meaning he ascends in his degree, and now he wants to do everything for the sake of the Creator, it is only because he has received an awakening from above. Then he wants to annul before Him, as a “candle before a torch.”
But afterward, he descends from this state and falls once more into self-love. Then he sees that he has become worse; that is, he sees that each time he is farther from the work of bestowal, to the point that many times he comes to a state of “pondering the beginning.”
A person asks himself, “Why when I worked in order to receive reward, I had a good taste in the work, and I prayed and learned willingly, but now that I want to make more efforts than I did while I worked in order to receive reward, I see that I do not have the flavor that I had then?” The person asks, “Now that I want to work for the sake of the Creator, it stands to reason that I should have felt more closeness than while I was working for my own sake, but now I see the opposite! Not only am I not advancing in the work, but I am going backwards!”
The answer is as Baal HaSulam said, that one must believe that everything he feels now, that he is farther from the Creator, comes from above. That is, it is the hardening of the heart that the Creator gives in order for one to discover the real need, meaning to feel that without the help of the Creator, a person cannot emerge from the control of the will to receive for himself, but only the Creator Himself can help. That is, as the Creator gave him the nature of the desire to receive for himself, He should now give him a second nature called “desire to bestow,” since there is no light without a Kli [vessel], which is called “deficiency.” That is, the lack puts the taste in the filling.
Thus, if a person is given a filling but he has no need for it, he cannot taste the real taste in the filling. If he is given the filling before he has a need, he will not be able to use the filling, to elicit from the filling what is in it. It follows that the lack is part of the filling, since one without the other does not work. It follows that as one is given a filling from above, so one should be given a lack. It turns out that when a person sees that now he is farther from the work of bestowal, he is given this from above because the lack is part of the filling. Therefore, as the upper one gives the filling, so He gives the lack.
By this we can interpret the two questions we asked: 1) Why specifically after Pharaoh said, “The Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked,” the Creator hardened his heart, and not before? 2) Why did He deny him the choice, as it is written, “for I have hardened his heart”?
The answer is that in the beginning, when starting the work, a person must see that everything depends on him. This is so as long as he is working in order to receive reward. At that time, a person can say, “The Lord is the righteous one, and I and my people are the wicked.” Hence, when one wants to work in order to bestow, meaning achieve Dvekut with the Creator, he must see the truth: It is not within man’s hands, since it contradicts the nature with which he was born. Only the Creator can give him a second nature, but without a lack, there is not real flavor in the filling. Hence, the Creator gives the hardening of the heart so that the person will feel the deficiency to the fullest.
This explains why only afterward did the Creator harden his heart, meaning after he began to work for the sake of the Creator and not before. Also, why did he need the hardening of the heart? It is for another reason, that if one does not feel the real lack, one cannot receive the real filling, since there is no light without a Kli. It follows that the hardening of the heart was not to his detriment, to remove him from the Creator. On the contrary, the hardening of the heart was in order to bring him to Dvekut with the Creator. We therefore see that the lack that a person feels when he is distant from the Creator, that, too comes from above and not by a person’s awakening.
By this we can interpret what our sages said (Avot 2:5), “In a place where there are no people, try to be a person.” We should interpret this in the work. When one begins the work, he begins in order to receive reward. Afterward, he sees that there are no people here, since in the work, we learn everything in one person. It follows that he saw that there was no quality of people in his heart, but only that of beasts—who do not know anything more than their own benefit. And he thinks about himself, how can it be said about the chosen people, as it is written, “You have chosen us from among all the nations; You have loved us,” that there is nothing more than a beast’s desire in the heart of the chosen people? Our sages said about this, “In a place where you see that there are no people in your heart, do not look at how the rest of the people behave. Rather, try to be a person.”
In other words, since you have come to see the truth, that one must be a person and not a beast, while the rest of the people have not achieved this awareness—that there are no people in their hearts—since they have not received this awareness, it is a sign that they still do not belong to the work of the individual, which is the work of bestowal. This is the meaning of the words, “In a place,” meaning in a place where the knowledge comes that “there are no people,” meaning that this person who received this awareness must try to be a person and not a beast.
Hence, for the most part, a person feels that he is complete. He prays, he learns Torah, and he observes Mitzvot. He thinks that he should only increase the quantity, but in terms of the quality of the work, he has nothing to examine because he thinks that he is doing everything for the sake of the Creator.
It therefore follows that when one feels deficient, that he is immersed in self-love, and that he is far from the matter of bestowal, this does not come from the person, but rather by an awakening from above. That is, from above, he was notified his real state, that he is removed from the Creator and does not want to annul before Him. That is, when one feels his own lowliness, he must believe that it came to him from the Kedusha [holiness]. This is similar to what is written about Moses (Exodus 2:11-12), “He went out to his brethren and saw their suffering, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, one of his brethren, and he saw that there was no one.”
In the work, we should interpret that precisely when a person has the quality of Moses, called “Torah,” he can see how an Egyptian man, meaning the will to receive for himself, he says that it is called “a man,” and with this force, called “Torah,” he sees that it strikes the Hebrew man. That is, for the Hebrew, a “man” is one who does not do what a beast does, meaning that a man is one who does not use the desires of beasts, as it is written, “and he saw that there was no one,” meaning that “a man” will never emerge from him by itself. This is so because that person has the quality of Moses, who is the quality of “faithful shepherd” (who shepherds the faith for the whole of Israel), and that force awakens a person to see the truth, that he will never achieve the quality of “man” by himself. This is the meaning of the verse, “and he saw that there was no one.” This causes him to ask the Creator to give him faith in the Creator, by which he will achieve Dvekut with the Creator.
However, once a person has been rewarded with faith, it is still incomplete, for although now he is called “man,” and not “a beast,” he should also achieve the quality of Torah, for specifically through the Torah, a person achieves his wholeness, since he should achieve the state of “the Torah, the Creator, and Israel are one.” This is called “the quality of speaking,” as it is written about Moses, who said, “And Moses said to the Lord, ‘Please, Lord, I am not a man of words.’”
In the work, we should interpret that he asked that it was not enough that he was already in the quality of “man,” but he wanted to be a “man of words,” to be rewarded with the quality of “speaking,” called “Torah,” for specifically the quality of “speaking,” which is the Torah, is regarded as wholeness.
However, we must not forget that in the work, there is the matter of “right,” which is the opposite of “left.” That is, just as on the path of the “left,” the more deficiencies a person sees in him, the better, since a lack is called “a Kli [vessel],” so a greater lack means a bigger Kli. The same is true for the “right”: The more complete one feels, the bigger is his Kli. That is, the more a person sees that he is full of deficiencies, the bigger is the prayer that he can pray compared to one who is not so deficient, and whose prayer is therefore not as wholehearted. Thus, specifically the lack determines the measure of the prayer.
Also, the path of the right is considered that a person must feel that there is wholeness. Here, too, to the extent that he feels wholeness, to that extent he can thank the Creator. That is, the wholeness that one is in determines the measure of the gratitude to the Creator. Hence, a person must seek advice how to see that he has wholeness. However, he must see that his wholeness is not built on falsehood. We should ask, If a person sees that he has no need for spirituality, and he is immersed in self-love, how can he tell himself that he has wholeness?
First, we must appreciate the connection we have with the Creator, meaning that one must believe that the state where one feels that he is empty and destitute, when he feels that in his heart, there is no need for spirituality, who gave him that feeling? Usually, a person worries about what he lacks, and he does not worry about what he does not need. Thus, we should ask, Who gave him the worry for that which he does not need?
The answer is that in truth, he does have an inner desire, he does need nearness with the Creator, but that lack is still not revealed within him to an extent that he will need to seek advice how to satisfy his lack. For this reason, a person must be glad that at least he has a need for spirituality, whereas the rest of the people have no interest in spirituality whatsoever.
When a person appreciates this, although it is not important to him, he does appreciate it and tries to thank the Creator for this. This causes him to acquire importance for spirituality, and from this a person can be happy. By this, a person can be rewarded with Dvekut, since as Baal HaSulam said, “The blessed clings to the Blessed.” In other words, when a person is happy and thanks the Creator, he feels that the Creator has blessed him by giving him a little something of Kedusha, then “The blessed clings to the Blessed.” Through this wholeness, one can achieve real Dvekut.
Baal HaSulam said that a person should depict to himself, even when he is in utter lowliness, when he thinks that if the Creator had illuminated for him a great awakening as he once felt during the ascent, he would certainly be willing to do the holy work. But now that he does not feel anything, how can he deceive himself that he has wholeness? At that time, he must believe in the sages, who said to us that one must depict to himself as though he has already been rewarded with feeling the existence of the Creator in all his organs, and how he would thank and praise the Creator. Likewise, now he should thank and praise the Creator as though he has already been rewarded with the real wholeness.
LESSON
Morning Lesson August 25, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 17, (1991). What Is, “For I Have Hardened His Heart,” in the work?
Reading Article. (00:44) “We should ask about the verse,..”
1. S. (26:28) He writes, “as the Creator created to do,” what is this? Which God has created to do? Then he is searching for work which is easier for him, but without progress he can’t do anything, and this stems from the matter which God has created to do for this reason there must be progress in everything. It’s like a horse that circles the grind stones all day long in circles. What is which God has created to do?
R. That the Creator left for us a part of our work that we have to labor and through our labor we will come to a desire to bestow.
S. When he speaks of the lack, that the lack is part of the feeling?
R. Yes.
S. How should we relate? What’s the correct attitude toward these two things? Because the possibility for exertion is from Him?
R. Yes, we have to see before us an invitation for labor and an invitation for exertion.
2. S. (28:35) He talks a lot in the article about being in the state of loneliness and giving. He talks about how the Creator gives him the lack of the feeling, now, as human beings generally, when we feel something unpleasant we learn rather quickly in our feelings. I don’t understand why there’s such a great hardship, that you feel this hardship many times as burning and it’s many times hard to tie to the Creator and then the Creator does help you and you rise, then again, and again, and again. Why don’t we succeed to understand, why do we learn that now when you feel the confidence that you can fall? Suddenly you can fall. You experience it and then it happens again and you don’t feel that you can fall, you don’t seem to learn.
R. You probably haven’t fallen enough yet.
S. That’s a lot of falls.
R. As it says a thousand times the righteous will fall and rise. Why are you laughing, friend? The world is funny, so you laugh?
3. S. (30:06) The world is funny so you laugh. He says here that if you wouldn’t feel the true lack then you wouldn’t be able to receive a true feeling. Why am I laughing? What true lack or a true feeling? I don’t feel I have this lack. Yesterday I came to study here. He talks about burning of the heart. If there’s a burden on the heart, how can you even come to study here? This seems to be a conflict.
R. There are people here who each have something. If you try to collect from them, they’re not going to lack anything that you’re taking, but if you can collect from them, let’s say some aspect of love, bestowal, connection, proximity, then those who do it, that will be sufficient for them to rise to a higher and higher degree.
S. Look what he writes here because the lack is part of the filling, that’s when the Upper One gives the filling, thus the Upper One also gives the lack..?
R. Yes.
S. He talks about the burdening of the heart, what is that? There seems to be some sort of conflict.
R. Of course, the fulfillment and the deficiency are in a conflict.
S. What is this conflict?
R. The deficiency indicates the emptiness of the Kli and the fulfillment indicates the wholeness of the Kli.
S. What to do, what’s our work?
R. You need both.
S. To connect them?
R. Yes.
S. How do you do this? It’s a conflict. What’s our work?
R. First of all we need to find a deficiency in the Kli that the Kli truly lacks.
S. What’s that same lack the vessel lacks?
R. Attaining the true deficiency.
S. What’s that?
R. That’s the Creator.
S. The lack for the Creator?
R. Yes.
S. As a result of the burdening of the heart?
R. Yes.
4. S. (33:06) What is to reach a state so that there is no person, no man? That I need to reach the state every time?
R. That you’re looking for what am I lacking from the qualities that can make me Adam, man. I achieve them, don’t see them, I don’t discover them.
S. He says faith in the Creator is not enough, not sufficient.
R. Yes.
S. That I need to receive this force each time anew.
R. Yes.
S. That is what I need to ask for each time? To be here in this force to incorporate with the friends?
R. Yes.
5. S. (34:02) What is the result of the correct balance between the lack and the filling, and wholeness?
R. What’s the correct balance between deficiency and fulfillment?
S. What is the result?
R. That the deficiency we filled with the fulfillment and then they support each other because you can’t feel one without the other.
S. Is that called faith?
R. I don’t know what to call that, I’m saying that these two phenomena: fulfillment and lack, they have to be felt one through the other.
6. S. (34:58) Ultimately after a lot of exertion and efforts, and falls, you get privileged with feeling the Creator and complete annulment and devotion, like a fetus and I live only for Him. Then there’s a sensation that everything He does for me, that He throws some toy at me, some ball and I run after Him like some dog and bring Him this ball, back to Him, and He throws the ball again at me and I keep annulling myself and keep bringing Him the ball like this. What kind of example is this like He gives the horse walking the circles in the grind stones?
R. I don’t know, you’re painting some picture to yourself and you’re saying that you want to live in that picture.
S. Isn’t that the state that we’re in devotion to His desires, to give Him contentment when He plays with you? Like He throws some toys at you right, like that’s His game and He’s happy for you.
R. That’s what you discover in the meantime.
S. It’s years like this though. He makes you feel like He relates to me like some baby, some dog. When will He stop this attitude towards me like a dog?
R. When you will be able to.
S. I try to do everything He wants.
R. What you achieve for now, it’s like a degree of a dog or a baby.
S. What else is lacking? I’m devoted, I just want Him to be happy, to have contentment for me and it seems to continue like that. I tried to stop Him, to leave here and He brought me back, like a dog on a leash.
R. He is like this.
S. When will it stop? Either He will leave me or treat me like a man and not a dog?
R. Why do you think He treats you like a dog?
S. I am closing my eyes and trying to do what He asks and it seems to repeat itself?
R. Try to discover what He actually wants from you.
S. I’m asking Him all the time, with tears. He seems to enjoy this, it seems like His game. Give me, thank you.
R. Probably it’s not enough.
S. What’s missing? You know and you don’t say. I continue like this. That is what I have. I can’t seem to leave here and I can’t seem to continue.
R. What did the friends say? I’m asking, maybe you haven’t turned to them. Turn and ask for advice for help, for clarification. Maybe they’re saying something and you’re not hearing it. You have to try more.
7. S. (38:49) I feel his lack very much, he’s a dear friend. I want to ask in the article, even the title I have hardened his heart, Pharaoh’s heart. What is the meaning of the Creator hardening Pharaoh’s heart?
R. That it is difficult to turn to Pharaoh to awaken his heart so that he helps us and allows us to come out of exile in Egypt.
S. Is there a connection between desires, corporeal desire that awakens in a person, to work with the correct lack that’s spoken about here?
R. Yes, basically, yes.
8. S. (39:45) There is advice here that can help each friend. He writes here that a person needs to depict to himself as if he’s already been rewarded with feeling the existence of the Creator in all his organs. He feels that if he succeeds in this action he can really hasten the process all the time. I want to ask you how to correctly depict this to ourselves? Are we imagining something here? What’s this action of depicting the greatness of the Creator?
R. That’s according to the connection between us. To the extent that we know how to connect between us, where each one pictures himself what the Creator is, and these impressions, we connect them, and we raise them above our head.
S. It’s not that I’m sitting alone, I’m imagining to myself, but rather as you’re saying, that we sit together and each one adds to this depiction?
R. It’s not that it’s preferable, it’s mandatory.
S. That’s the correct realization?
R. Yes.
9. S. (41:24) What is a more correct answer to such a state, correct response, to give thanks to the Creator or ask for the filing, for the lack?
R. I don’t know exactly how you feel a lack, but fulfilling the lack is more important.
S. To fill the vessel would bring more contentment?
R. Yes.
10. S. (42:10) From feeling the lack of the friends we can rise from all states, Rabash writes here. How can we always feel the lack of the friends?
R. Get closer to the friends, cling to them, bond with them and feel their deficiency and then work with their deficiency.
11. S. (42:50) It’s written here this force awakens man to see the truth that he will never achieve the quality of man, a person, by himself, on his own. This is the meaning of ‘that he saw that there was no person’ and this causes him to ask the Creator to give him faith in the Creator. What is a request for faith in the Creator?
R. It’s a force that will allow him to achieve devotion, the force of bestowal.
S. We are asking for the vessels of bestowal? That’s the same thing?
R. Yes. Yes.
12. S. (43:47) What does it mean that the Upper One gives us both the lack and the filling? What is the Upper One?
R. The Upper One is always the Creator. Who gives both deficiency and fulfillment. After the realization of the deficiency.
13. S. (44:29) When the burdening of the heart comes there’s always the sensation that a person didn’t work enough, and that he’s not capable of grasping what the Creator wants of him. There’s a sensation that he can’t even prepare ahead of time for the state. We’re talking about the same thing, but what is man’s work? Does he just have to accept a new state and give thanks on it, because of course it comes from the Creator and he is all, or is it more about having to prepare ourselves in some manner and learn something in the work here?
R. There’s nothing here that you didn’t do enough. We have to go on this path and ask the Creator each time to get closer and closer to Him.
S. When the lack for spirituality disappears in me, Kabbalists write to us that the lack must grow when I feel hardening, the burdening of the heart, I feel that it disappears from me and I want to leave the work. How to work with this state?
R. Here we have to communicate with the friends and try to hold on to all the forces you have.
14. S. (46:17) At what stage is one given the hardening of the heart and the lack that he can realize the greatness of the Creator from them?
R. You can’t exactly say in what stage, all stages.
15. S. (46:47) It’s written here that all of our progress from the work is recognized only when we work on attaching to receive reward but when we work on the intention to bestow, then a person is not capable of seeing the actions that he’s performing. What does that mean?
R. Because he’s in movement from himself, the quality of bestowal, so he’s not seeing what he’s receiving, whether he’s receiving, in what.
S. I didn’t understand.
R. You’re losing your desires to receive and therefore you also lose the ability to assess where you are.
S. It’s written here that specifically when you work on attention to receive reward, oh I got it. Can I ask more about the burdening of the heart? You said earlier that the burdening of the heart is an invitation from the Creator to begin work, but on the inside we feel like we’re being rejected. So how do we transition, like how do we begin the work to give thanks on this to accept the invitation?
R. We have to lower ourselves, bow our heads toward the friends.
16. S. (48:42) It’s written in the text that we must be rewarded with faith and Torah. What is to be rewarded with this aspect of faith and Torah in regard to the burdening of the heart?
R. Torah is the light that reforms.
S. Also, it’s necessary for us. How we feel the burden of the heart is how we can reach the quality of faith, that we have no possibility to reach it?
R. Why not? This opportunity exists for everyone.
S. Well, during the burdening of the heart you can’t seem to tie the state to the friends, to the Creator you feel disconnected.
R. No, maybe I don’t understand your question.
S. Okay, we’re talking about a person who gets a burdening of the heart, that he has no forces to reach faith because he’s being disconnected from Above. What do we need to do to reach this quality of faith and Torah when we have a burdening of the heart?
R. To lower your hands and not do anything besides surrender to this upper bestowal. Then you will see how it takes you out of it.
S. How do I do this, so it won’t push me out of connection with the friends?
R. You will see how that happens.
17. S. (50:53) How to feel that your lack is a true one? When is it worthwhile to share it with the friends?
R. If this deficiency pushes you to connection with the friends, then it’s a true deficiency and you can always use it.
18. S. (51:30) Moses wanted to be a man of words, what does this ‘man of words’ mean?
R. To be what? What does it say there?
S. He asked what does it mean to be a man of words?
R. Yes, it doesn’t say there? Who is a man of words?
S. It’s written that after a person has been rewarded with it, it’s still not wholeness and being that he has called a person, not faith, but a person must also be rewarded with faith that specifically by Torah a person reaches his wholeness, because a person must reach this, that the Israel and the Light of Torah are One because this is the aspect of ‘speaking.’ As Moses said to the Lord, “Please Lord, I am not a man of words.” He was asking that he’s not enough, that he’s a man, he wants rather to be a man of words, to be rewarded with the quality of ‘speaking’ called Torah. For specifically in the quality of ‘speaking’ which is Torah he is then regarded as wholeness.
R. Yes, to receive in order to bestow. Understood, yeah.
19. S. (53:40) The Creator is in complete rest and also the Creator also plays with a whale it says, so when we have to reach equivalence of form by work and labor, how do we come from work and labor to play and rest?
R. Specifically by the exertion and work we acquire qualities that can be even in states that we are working hard to feel that it’s not work, but rather rest. That’s how it is.
20. S. (54:45) How does the state of the burdening of the heart that comes from Above, from the Creator manifest?
R. How, in all sorts of ways.
21. S. (55:04) I reached the understanding that I can’t run this war, but the prayer doesn’t erupt, does it mean that I didn’t invest enough effort?
R. Correct.
22. S. (55:22) What does it mean to try to be a ‘man’ and not a ‘beast?’
R. It’s exactly what we make the effort to do. To be tied to the Creator like human beings and not as beasts.
23. S. (55:45) How to collect from the friends aspects of love, bestowal, and connection, what is this action of collecting?
R. This we do together, slowly and gradually. The question of how to take advantage of the tendency to love is clarified in us. We’ll see it on the way.
24. S. (56:33) Why is the path to get something by depicting as if we already got it?
R. Well, we want to see the goal and to perform some actions toward it and in such to see ourselves striding through them.
S. I need to paint a picture as if I already got it and have been awarded with it?
R. In each state that you were doing something, besides the present one, you’re also depicting to yourself the next one, otherwise how are you performing an action?
S. If I look at it like, that it’s like, I have this virtual case and that I’ve already been awarded with that.
R. It’s not about you being privileged, you want to be rewarded and thus, performing the action.
S. But it says you have to envision as if you’ve already been awarded with it.
R. That’s fine.
S. That’s the only way to get it, to think as if I already got it?
R. Whether you want to or not you do it. You depict it to yourself, otherwise how do you perform an action right now? You must. You must. You must see your next stage, that you’re in its action, in its realization. Okay, what else?
25. S. (58:29) We heard yesterday in the lesson that the evil that unfolds is that I don’t need the support of the group.
R. Correct.
S. What’s the difference?
R. That’s evil you must correct.
S. The burdening of the heart?
R. The burdening of the heart is the cause for the evil.
S. Is there a state where I’m under the burdening of the heart or the evil that involves in the friends cannot help?
R. Of course the friends can help, to be an example and support. Of course.
S. If I feel they can’t help?
R. If you feel that, that’s a sign that you’re not tied to them. Not connected to them.
S. When do I turn to the friends and when do I turn to the Creator?
R. First to the friends. You have no reason to turn to the Creator if you haven’t performed the connection with them.
S. If I can’t turn to the friends then I turn to the Creator or there’s no such thing?
R. No, no that’s a lie. That it seems to you that you’re doing it, but that’s not the order.
S. If I feel low, very low, and lowly, and can’t turn to the friends, what can I do?
R. Even better for you to turn to them and to the Creator.
S. Meaning through them to the Creator?
R. Yes.
26. S. (01:00:42) I’m trying to understand practically, you know me, you know my wife, you know I want to tell you that recently there’s always complaints or this and this and this and that and the burdening of the heart and why can’t you do this, why can’t you do that? How can I find fulfillment in all of that? It’s only complaints all the time.
R. Turn to the Creator.
S. To Whom?
R. The Creator.
S. I’ll turn to the Creator?
R. Yeah, ask Him to explain to you that your wife is so correct?
S. She’s right?
R. Yes, she’s right and why she’s jumping on you, and awakening you, and what you should do.
S. How do I find fulfillment? Can you tell me, “look at what’s written here?” You need to find fulfillment from this deficiency that’s always getting on you and look at what he writes. We need some burdening of the heart so you know I have a lot of burdening of the heart so.
R. Because your heart is so hard, so foolish, they can’t turn it around.
S. How can I get fulfillment from that, from the burdening?
R. What kind of feeling can you receive?
S. What do I do? Just get another hammer in the head and another one?
R. Until you begin to change the heart and the heart can only be filled with good things.
S. How do I? It’s not just the wife, it’s at work. Why can’t you do this? Why aren’t you here? Why is it like that? Why does that happen? How do I receive fulfillment from being said why this, why this, why that, and complaints, what do I need to do? What option do I have?
R. To learn and what manner you can relate to the people around you and to the wife and to the Creator.
S. You asked me why I am laughing, because you always have to make an overcoming and you’re not really succeeding and then you fall even below. What do I need to do to rise above this, to not be insulted, and not be hurt, and I’m always hurt, and what do I need to do? How do I, what do I need to do to overcome that?
R. Raise your hands and ask for help.
S. Just say Gevalt!
R. I don’t think you understand that, but yes.
27. S. (01:03:51) When we share between the friends, what is the Creator? How do we understand it? Can we relate it to the demand or the fulfillment?
R. [No translation.]
28. S. (01:04:17) What does it mean to be in the need of the Creator in the Ten? Should this be a common need?
R. Yes. It needs to be a common lack, that’s what’s important even if the lack is small, but if it’s common, you obligate the Creator to answer it.
29. S. (01:05:05) It is said, in a place of people tried to be a man, what does it mean?
R. To be on the intention to bestow to others.
S. The quality itself, what is it? It’s like a unique prayer?
R. You make the effort to adhere to the Creator and then even in the smallest effort that you adhere to Him, you become a person. That’s the difference between some person and the person, and the man the Torah is talking about.
30. S. (01:06:09) In the work of bestowal what does it mean the work of the individual?
R. When a person feels that he is alone in front of the Creator.
31. S. (01:06:38) I want to relate to what the friend said in the beginning of the lesson and it’s really talking about the exertion and the finding and there’s a quote from… that says he labored and didn’t find, don’t believe, because the finding itself, why do we settle for not just having the place to work?
R. We measure our progress and our actions according to what we have in our hand and then how much force we are wasting towards the Creator, that’s the problem; the difference between the vessel of reception and the vessel of bestowal.
S. But if there’s a strong connection with the friends in the group, then in my labor I do need to feel that I’m getting something because me and the friend are one, so why is it difficult for us to continue to exert and get there?
R. I guess we still don’t feel ourselves as one.
32. S. (01:08:13) Is the beast to man process each degree or does it happen one time?
R. It happens all the time, all the time.
33. S. (01:08:39) People always ask about how to translate the work of the individual or the work of the collective. How can we communicate this concept: the work of the individual or the work of the collective or the work of the human and the work of the animal? How do you translate that?
R. I don’t want to translate it, we are wherever we’re in.
S. Why?
R. It’s a better chance of not being mistaken.
S. To leave it open for everyone to have their own thoughts?
R. Yes.
34. S. (01:09:25) The Creator hardened the heart of Pharaoh because the Pharaoh was his loyal servant and similarly he grew Moses. What quality do we need to have to soften our heart towards the Creator and towards each and every one of us?
R. We need to learn from Pharaoh, pick what’s done to him, what they do to him and he receives blows, disappointments, truly and he remains loyal to his purpose and his role, he remains loyal to his role, it’s a force that the Creator created in order to show His control on him, of himself, and the Pharaoh maintains his ways loyal, he lives only in order that the Creator can show Himself to everyone.
35. S. (01:11:10) What is it in the tenth plague that makes Pharaoh release them? Why only then?
R. He did his entire role. He brought the ten blows on them and in the final one, he releases them, and opens up the gate and helps him to exit Egypt.
S. What’s special about the tenth plague, why that one?
R. That in this they become free, they feel already that they are above his control entirely, and thus, has no ability, no reason to hold him in Egypt, there’s nothing to hold them for anymore.
S. I was privileged with the lack for the Creator and it says that there are people who have it and I have friends who didn’t, they were not awarded with that and they feel good and they enjoy their life and I’m in between the will to receive and the will to bestow and I don’t get pleasure from this or that; I’m just stuck.
R. In your friends, too, they have all sorts of desires that they want to realize, and they cannot realize the act and they probably will never realize it in their life, and what can they say? Thus, this that you’re yearning for, the Creator instead of yearning for what else, say.
S. Soccer, bicycles, things like that?
R. Modern bicycle yeah, so say that you’re chosen.
S. But I suffer, it’s like I have to work on two worlds?
R. Don’t work in two worlds, work only in one world in the Upper world, in order to attain the Creator, and everything else, let it go.
36. S. (01:13:54) What does it mean to feel the reality of the Creator in all of the organs?
R. How can I know and how can I tell you to feel the reality of the Creator in all of my organs, let’s say now that I’m feeling that and how am I going to express that to you?
S. Still?
R. Still, try to reach such a lack, that all my bones are shaking.
S. It feels like it depends on how much I become incorporated?
R. To the extent that you will desire that the Creator will fill all of your being, That’s it.
S. About the articles of Rabash, it feels that all the friends are connected to the articles and feel very close to them.
R. That’s the main thing. That’s the main thing, and thus, there’s a reason why we don’t learn TES yet, that we will truly connect in heart and soul through articles of Rabash to the Creator.
S. A question that comes to me from the morning lessons, it’s a question that the lessons are indescribable. I wanted to ask why in many articles it says that when a person begins to understand that only the Creator can help, that only work above reason and so on. I wanted to know: What does it mean to understand in spirituality?
R. Understanding means that he begins to understand what’s taking place inside his mind and his feelings and how he came to it.
S. It’s not in my head? Is it in my feelings?
R. It’s in your feelings.
37. S. (01:16:12) He writes here that for that reason man should be happy that he has a deficiency, he has a deficiency for spirituality and most people don’t have any business with spirituality. He writes it in a lot of places and how not to be proud about that because I’ve tried many times and it’s hard to get the importance of it and how to do it correctly to compare every time?
R. I don’t know, what does it mean to be proud of having a deficiency for spirituality? What does it mean that I’m running from morning until night to look for the source for the fulfillment, that I’m sitting with the friends looking for the source that will fulfill my deficiency?
S. I mean proud that when he says compare yourself to other people who don’t have such a deficiency.
R. How do you justify the fact that the Creator gave it to you? The Creator gives you a deficiency, a high one, an exalted one and what are you doing with it, if you’re not doing anything with it then you’re even more guilty.
S. How not to be happy that they don’t have it and I do have it?
R. That’s even worse. You’re right.
S. How to do it correctly because he said that we should be happy from this?
R. You need to be happy the Creator gave me a deficiency, but you’re happy when I’m specifically implementing and realizing that deficiency, that I’m turning to the Creator one-hundred percent of the fact that he gave me this deficiency, otherwise, what am I doing? I’m worse than anyone else who did not receive such a deficiency, he did not receive a deficiency so he’s not doing anything and he’s…[no translation]
38. S. (01:19:12) He writes man should be happy and still he has a deficiency for spirituality but other people don’t have any business with spirituality or interest. When a person sees that as important, even though it is not important for him but a person does see it as important he tries to give gratitude to the Creator for it and that makes him get importance for spirituality and from that he can be happy?
R. Yes.
S. How to implement this advice: What should a person do, compare himself that he did get a deficiency for spirituality?
R. Yes, but not from the point of view that they did not get it but from the point of view that he got it.
S. And?
R. That’s what has to obligate him to rise and to realize this deficiency, and also when he bestows through this deficiency he bestows through his friends who did not receive the deficiency as well, he bestows through them and then it turns out that by that he’s justifying all of creation.
S. But here he’s making it difficult and even though he said even though it’s not important for him?
R. Yes.
S. That means..?
R. That’s what existed in him, that feeling of that’s not important but he’s doing it as if this is the main thing.
39. S. (01:21:03) The title is for I have hardened his heart, and hardening the heart of Pharaoh, every will to receive in a person’s heart is what the Creator wants from a person who thinks that the Creator is the righteous and I am the wicked, if a person reaches a conclusion that he surrenders to the Creator, he should enter spirituality. So why should the Creator harden a person’s heart, meaning push him back and give him doubts? Why does he give him this experience?
R. In order to build him, to build the man inside this body, inside this desire.
S. Can it cause a person to the opposite, to be despaired from this?
R. No, no, these things, the Creator is holding all of those things, the forces, for the forces against, and the Creator has no problem arranging a person in various forms of joy and sorrow, it’s not important.
S. Every person has to go through this hardening of the heart that the Creator gives the person in order to show him his abilities of the Creator towards man?
R. That’s how the Creator has made man.
40. S. (01:22:52) Why is it said that to get a deficiency it’s actually opposite from receiving?
R. I don’t understand, so what if it’s the opposite of receiving? Explain.
S. What does it mean to get a deficiency?
R. That I will now want something that I previously did not want, I looked at the friends and I had some corporeal connection with them and through this corporeal connection I received the same deficiency that they have. Through envy, lust, and honor I begin to receive their deficiency and I want to enjoy the way that they enjoy themselves.
41. S. (01:23:09) Continuing the friend and what he said I wanted to share that yesterday we read the article and we prepared ourselves, we had a Zoom meeting without any deficiency, with spirituality, it was difficult and it took a lot of effort to enter the article but from what Rabash is writing, that suddenly the wicked thoughts who even gave you a deficiency, that you don’t have a deficiency. The fact that you’re paying attention, that you don’t have a deficiency for spirituality that is something that you have to value and we really finished with, we were uplifted and we saw that the article took place during the meeting and I wanted to share that.
R. Good, did you think Rabash and Baal HaSulam and the Creator? You have to settle your account.
42. S. (01:25:00) Does the light that reforms help us implement ourselves all together to be Adam?
R. Of course.
S. So I’m happy for that and thank you, thank you, I really, really thank you.
43. S. (01:25:47) You said that Pharaoh’s duty, even though it seems evil to us, it’s enough that we are all able to discover the Creator so can we say that every event or state that we will come to us in the future, as humanity, as a collective, no matter what happens, it’s purpose is to reveal the Creator to humanity?
R. Yes, through Pharaoh I would add, through Pharaoh we will see in the future all the secrets of the Pyramids, Pharaoh, and see exactly, to what extent they belong to the revelation of the Creator.
44. S. (01:26:55) It is written, “I have hardened his heart.” Why didn’t it say that the Creator burdened Pharaoh’s heart in the beginning but only after he declared the Creator as righteous he did it, so how do I determine that the Creator is righteous, that I am behaving according to thoughts and the desires and how can I get such a determination?
R. Continue developing and you’ll see how our system is set up, that it’s showing to us good and evil, and truth and false in order to receive in order to bestow and then you will see.
45. S. (01:27:52) In the Ten, how can we help a friend that is experiencing a very great emptiness but she cannot feel that it’s in order to get filled?
R. You need to connect more. Form connections and feel that you depend on one another and in this way you will turn to the Creator to help you.
46. S. (01:28:49) Spiritual work, so that evil constantly grows whoever works spiritually along with that we say that we’re performing corrections in the work?
R. Yes.
S. If evil constantly grows, where are the corrections that we’re doing?
R. The corrections enter the system and on top of them we discover the evil as growing constantly without it the evil would not be growing.
47. S. (01:29:35) Why does the Creator connect us around some problems that the friends have, is that because we’re not working correctly or is this how He’s giving us the desire to bestow?
R. That’s how He shapes us, so we will be connected more to one another.
48. S. (01:30:13) You said that even though the deficiency is small, if it’s neutral you are obligating the Creator to answer for it. So how to reach a mutual deficiency? How do we know that it’s mutual, is it a feeling or also in the words that we agree on?
R. Both in the feeling and in the words and the thought and ‘all my bones shall declare’ as it is written, that is how we feel the deficiency.
49. S. (01:30:50) You told one of the friends that we should adhere to the Creator. Our question is: What does it mean to adhere to the Creator?
R. To adhere to the Creator means that all of our feelings, our thoughts, my desires, I unite with the Creator.
S. How do we speak about it in the Ten? We’re constantly thinking about it?
R. Yes.