READING: FROM MIDNIGHT TO DAWN TUESDAY

Lesson on the topic of “Purifying the Heart “

LESSON MATERIAL

Purifying the Heart – Selected Excerpts from the sources

1. RABASH, Article No. 30 (1989), “What Is the Meaning of Lighting the Menorah in the Work?”

Prayer means that he should know that the Torah and Mitzvot he is observing are not for the sake of the Creator but for the sake of the created being. This means that since he wants to purify his heart, as it is written, “Purify our hearts to serve You in truth,” it follows that through prayer, when a person prays for the purification of the heart, he will remember that the Torah and Mitzvot that a person observes is for man’s sake. At that time, he sees how the evil controls a person and he cannot emerge from its governance. In other words, by observing Torah and Mitzvot and praying, these bring him the purity of the heart.

2. RABASH, Article No. 942, “Concerning the Mind Controlling the Heart”

The mind serves the heart, which is the will to receive, just as the hands and legs and the rest of the assistants that one has. For this reason, there is no other way but to purify the heart, for which reason we pray, “Purify our hearts to serve You in truth.” The mind cannot determine for man to walk on the good path or to the contrary. Rather, as was said at the time of the giving of the Torah, “We will do and we will hear.”

That is, first, we will do mindlessly, and then we will be rewarded with hearing, so we can hear that what we are doing is what is good for us. Conversely, if we first want to understand that it is worthwhile for us to bestow upon the Creator and then we will do, we will never achieve this.

3. RABASH, Article No. 342, “Noah Was a Righteous Man”

Man has no control over his heart, to be able to change the feeling in the heart, if the heart feels what his contemporaries tell it, and the heart takes after the majority.

For this reason, there is no other choice but to overcome through actions, perform acts of bestowal, and ask the Creator to give him another heart, as it is written, “Purify our hearts.”

4. RABASH, Article No. 268, “One Learns Only Where One’s Heart Desires”

One who wants to come closer to the Creator and be able to learn things that show ways by which to bestow upon the Creator must pray to the Creator to give him a different heart, as it is written, “A pure heart, create for me, O God.”

In other words, when there is another heart, and the desire in the heart is a desire to bestow, everything he learns will show ways of things that show only bestowal upon the Creator. However, he will never see against the heart, as was said about it, “And I will remove the stony heart from within you, and I will give you a heart of flesh.”

5. RABASH, Article No. 268, “One Learns Only Where One’s Heart Desires”

The only advice is to pray to the Creator to give him a different heart, meaning to understand that there is nothing better than to give contentment to the Creator.

At that time, he will be able to see his faults, for specifically by understanding that if he sees the fault, he will gain merit for himself because he will be able to correct, for otherwise he will remain with all the faults.

It follows that the debt is his privilege. At that time, it will be possible to examine the fault, unlike one who does not work in correction, and who will never see the faults.

6. RABASH, Article No. 623, “Purify Our Hearts”

Before one achieves the state of bestowal, when his intention is for the sake of the Creator, there must be a concealment. Only after a person purifies his actions does the Creator behave with him with open Providence.

For this reason, we pray to the Creator to purify our actions, as in “A pure heart, create for me, O God.” And why does one pray that the Creator will purify his actions? It is not because he wants to be rewarded with open Providence, but in order to shut the mouths of the agitators.

7. RABASH, Article No. 35 (1989), “What Is the Help in the Work that One Should Ask of the Creator?”

It is written, “Purify our hearts to serve You in truth.” The purity of the heart will be that our work will be in truth, meaning in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker. A lie means that a person says that he is working for the Creator, when in fact he is working for his own benefit and not for the sake of the Creator. “Learners of Torah” are those who understand that it is worthwhile to attain the Torah, since the Torah cannot be where there is separation, and self-benefit separates man from the Creator.

8. RABASH, Article No. 26 (1985), “Show Me Your Glory”

The path of truth is called Lishma [for Her sake], meaning that he does everything in order to bestow contentment upon the Creator. At that time the resistance of the body comes to him when it argues that it understands that all his work is to satisfy the vessels of the body, which is self-love. At that time one begins to see that he cannot go against the body, and then he needs the Creator’s help. This is considered that he already has a Kli, meaning a desire and need for the Creator to fulfill him, and then what our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided”.

9. RABASH, Article No. 25 (1990), “What Is, ‘Praise the Lord, All Nations,’ in the Work?”

Yet, it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided,” which implies that man’s work did help the Creator, creating a place to give help, so why is it said that everything is done by the Creator? We should interpret what our sages said, “He who comes to purify.” That is, if we see that the person came on his own to purify, which is an awakening from below, the answer to this is “He is being aided.”

That is, the fact that he has come to purify comes by assistance from above. Otherwise, he would not come to purify. It follows that the fact came to purify also comes from the Creator and not from the created being.

10. RABASH, Article No. 30 (1989), “What Is the Meaning of Lighting the Menorah in the Work?”

Only when a person comes to a state where he says, “Salvation by man is in vain,” meaning that one cannot help himself and choose the good. In other words, when a person sees that this matter is difficult from every angle, then the help from above comes to him and the verse, “He who comes to purify is aided” comes true. That is, when a person comes to purify and begins to walk on the path of achieving bestowal and uprooting the evil from within him, he sees that it is out of his hands. At that time, the Kli is completed from man’s perspective, meaning the lack, when he becomes needy of the Creator to help him emerge from the control of the evil.

LESSON

Morning Lesson August 27, 2023

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

Part 3:

Purifying the Heart – Selected Excerpts from the sources

Reading Excerpt #1. (00:18 – 01:32) “Prayer means that he should know..”

1. S. (01:42) In many places it’s written that we have to ask the Creator to do all our actions for Him, for His sake?

R. And here?

S. Here it is important to remember that it’s all for us, for the created being.

R. It’s not for the sake of the Creator but for the sake of the created being, meaning the Creator did not place before us six-hundred and thirteen commandments but for the fact that through them we will reach sanctity.

S. So how can we combine?

R. That’s from the side of the Creator, from the side of the created being he needs to do it not because he wants to reach sanctity, holiness, which is seemingly for him, like he’s going to gain something, but in order to give contentment to the Creator and that’s what he wants to rise to the degree of sanctity.

S. So why is it important, as it’s written here, that everything is for the created being, why the emphasis here?

R. Yes, for the sake of the created being from the Creator’s side, this is how it is.

S. But why is it important to remember, he says that it’s important to remember, why?

R. So that we, when we wish to resemble the Creator, we’ll do it for His sake.

S. Why is it important to remember that is for the sake of the created being, can you explain this please?

R. I don’t understand, the Creator did everything in order to do good to the created being, right, the created beings have to take upon themselves all the conditions from the Creator, they like it, they don’t like it, but the correction is when they bring everything to a state where all will be for the sake of the Creator; then there will be equivalence between the Creator and the created being completely.

Reading (03:50 – 05:20) #2 “The mind serves the heart, which is the will to receive, just as the hands and legs and the rest of the assistants. “

2. S. (05:26) How can we do mindlessly?

R. Mindlessly means without corporeal mind, above corporeal calculations, that’s it.

3. S. (05:49) Here he talks a lot about doing, doing, doing, and in the previous part he talked about observing Torah and Mitzvot, what does it mean ‘to observe’, what is that action?

R. With the help of the light that the Creator shines on a person, the person can change himself

and he can turn his nature from in order to receive to in order to bestow, this means that with the help of the Torah, the light, he changes himself in actions.

S. It sounds like an action, it’s an action: I’m doing one, two, three, I get four. What does it mean ‘to observe Torah and Mitzvot’, there was something that was there, I understand, do I only discover it, do I give life to it, what is this action called ‘observe’?

R. When you invite, as much as you are learning about it, you invite, you learn how to draw the reforming light which changes you.

S. Drawing light means to observe?

R. Yes.

S. There’s two, there’s the matter of the Torah and there’s a matter of the Mitzvot, there’s the matter of the Torah and we ascribe it to the action of light, right?

R. Correct?

S. What do I observe in the Torah?

R. Through the Torah we keep or observe the Mitzvot, commandments, actions by which you correct yourself from in order to receive to in order to bestow.

S. Okay, so it’s as if there’s light and there are vessels and the person in between has to make sure?

R. Yes.

4. S. (07:46) What is the state of a ‘pure heart’?

R. A ‘pure heart’ means that all the desires of man become pure, meaning without any intention to receive.

S. Does a prayer purify the heart?

R. If it attains what is needed then, yes.

S. And here, does the prayer come from, not from the heart, itself?

R. It doesn’t come by itself, it comes when a person tries for it to happen.

S. Where does this trial come from, not from the heart?

R. From the heart, from love of friends, from work in the ten.

S. Meaning the heart itself is asking to be purified?

R. Also, also, a person feels that he has a bad heart, an evil heart and the heart requires correction, his heart requires the Torah, the reforming light.

Reading (09:09 – 10:42) #3 “Man has no control over his..” Twice.

5. S. (10:52) Where is the point where the heart can ask for purification if the heart is only the will to receive, where does the point where it begins is?

R. No, the heart is not only the will to receive, there are other systems in it as well, a person begins to feel what he’s asking for and the heart and also how he criticizes the heart.

S. But where does this desire to bestow come from in this heart which is only they will receive, what is the trigger that starts they will to bestow?

R. From the head, from the head.

S. And where does the head take this desire from?

R. From the beginning we have Moach and Liba, we have heart and a brain and then the desires and thoughts begin to change, to move about from degree to degree. And the heart begins to feel and the brain begins to make calculations and calculate the difference between the states until a person sees that they cannot be this way.

S. But we say that the thought is the consequence of the desire, say, so it starts from desire?

R. That is correct, everything starts with a desire.

S. But in the heart there’s only will to receive?

R. But later, I’m telling you, these things change, they accumulate and the brain makes a calculation and this calculation returns again to the heart.

S. The moment there’s a desire in the brain, I understand there’s a scrutiny, but the initial desire, the raw desire, because it says, “if you don’t have a desire start doing actions.” But where do they get the desire to do actions?

R. A desire to receive that exists in the heart pushes us to perform various actions; these actions bring results, and results can be good or not so good according to our opinion. And then we begin to compare them, contrast them, and then we by this we come, come to decisions. We wish to initiate actions and states which are different than what we have before and then we ask for a change, is that clear?

S. Yes, everything is in the will to receive, but that same desire to bestow, we don’t have it?

R. We don’t have that will to bestow but those with a point in the heart, he feels how his affairs are not working out exactly. He’s starting to ask questions from the point of view of the will to bestow and then he realized that it doesn’t belong only to the will to receive, that there are actions that he can perform that are above the will to receive.

S. Meaning all the scrutiny only begins from the moment the point is awakened, before that?

R. Without it there’s no scrutiny, there’s only scrutiny of what more and what less, where can I gain more or gain less .

6. S. (14:48) What is this action of purifying the heart, what characterizes it?

R. ‘Purifying the heart’, the heart is called ‘desires’ like the brain is the thoughts, so all of our desires should be aimed at reaching bestowal, this is the meaning of ‘pure’.

S. Yes that’s the state but this action of purifying, what is this action, “purify our hearts”, what is this?

R. With the help of the reforming light we wish to purify our hearts, we want all the decisions in the heart to be in order to bestow.

S. Meaning, it is also a request, ultimately it’s a prayer?

R. Yes, it’s a prayer.

S. And what, there’s a difference between purifying the heart and opening the heart, two different things?

R. Well ‘opening the heart’, it’s a manner of speaking, what does it mean to open and close. But purifying the heart, yes, it’s that the desire in our heart will be for the sake of the Creator, the created beings.

S. And what’s the difference, I understand that the intention has to be pure, all the desires have to be in order to bestow, but what is the connection between that and connection?

R. Because with the help of the connection we come to such requests for the reforming light to work on us and correct us.

S. So the connection is the means to reach your heart?

R. Correct.

S. When the heart is pure the person feels that he’s clean because on the way the person feels more and more dirty or coarse?

R. Until you reach a pure heart.

S. And when he reaches that he doesn’t feel?

R. He feels he wants only for the sake of the other, he can’t take into consideration his own self benefit.

S. And where does all the dirt go?

R. It burns in the light!

7. S. (17:00) Rabash wrote this and he wrote that “the heart follows the collective, the majority”, what does this mean?

R. Usually, the ordinary desires when a person is used to feeling them, that’s what the heart feels along.

S. But what does it mean” takes after the majority”, the majority in the ten?

R. No, no, it seems to me it’s the majority of the emotions and thoughts that the person feels.

S. Does it here that it’s the direction the ten is taking him?

R. No, no, there’s no ten yet.

8. S. (18:03) He writes that “there’s no other advice but to overcome through actions and perform acts of bestowal.”

R. Yes.

S. And the previous excerpt he also talked about “we shall do and we shall hear”. This is an innovation, why is he talking about it as if it’s something usual, that’s how we always study? You don’t learn how to play guitar with our mind, we learn to play in practice, we don’t have another program in our mind but to practice, to practice. This is a natural process, first we do and then we understand, why so special then, “we shall do, we shall hear”?

R. You may be right.

S. It’s not about being right, there’s a point here, what is what is so special, it’s clear that what I said there’s nothing new here but he writes about this here as if it’s this innovation, it’s right below our nose and we don’t get it, like even though if you don’t try you never learn, even every child knows, what’s the innovation here?

R. So we will see, we will see, let’s read a few times this verse and we will carry it out as much as we can and then we will see what he’s talking about.

9. S. (19:45) He says “we shall perform acts of bestowal before there’s an intention”, the heart is not aimed, then he says “purify our hearts”.

R. Yes?

S. So it’s not like learning how to play guitar, I’m doing something illogical, I’m, I bestow even before I am aiming to bestow, how can we do this?

R. Do it, if you want to reach bestowal you have to practically do it.

S. So in our ten and the connection we perform actions even when the intention is not clarified and we hope, we expect for it to fall into place later, what’s the order here?

R. Do, carry it out even if you don’t have the intention, if you don’t have the intention to bestow, even so, yes.

S. But later we need to ask for Him to correct it?

R. That’s only the beginning.

10. S. (21:00) He says that “we should purify our hearts”, meaning I have to ask for the general heart and not the purification of my own heart?

R. In principle, yes.

S. It’s clear that we all influence one another in the ten, how to ask for the general purification of the heart?

R. We want the Creator to purify our hearts meaning our desires from a constant thought about ourselves.

S. But what will happen as a result of this purification, we’ll constantly think about one another and the Creator?

R. We will think about our common desire that will connect all of us and we will bring us to yearn to the Creator.

11. S. (22:18) What is the true prayer in the ten that would allow the stony heart to come into complete purification?

R. What action? Again?

S. What is the true prayer in the ten that will allow the stony heart to be purified?

R. I pray to the Creator so that He will help us to purify our stony heart, that we are willing to be under this action, this operation, He’s bestowal that purifies the heart of the stone.

12. S. (23:43) We read these excerpts as preparation for the Congress, what heart should we ask the Creator for?

R. The common heart so that it will only be aimed towards the friends.

13. S. (24:07) We know that our path is about annulling for the friend but why is it so difficult to submit to the desire of the friend without adding or detracting?

R. [NO TRANSLATION]

14. S. (25:03) Prayer, is it the product of the heart or the brain, the mind?

R. Both, both the brain and the heart.

S. They say the prayer has to be from the bottom of the heart?

R. Yes?

S. Where is the influence of the brain here?

R. The brain organizes the prayer, aims the prayer, but the heart sends it to the Creator seemingly.

S. Meaning you can, we say the conflict between the will to receive and the desire to come out of the desire to receive activates the brain and it always takes actions?

R. Yes.

14. S. (25:55) I heard the heart has different systems, where is the heart?

R. The heart is there.

S. Where?

R. Within man and within the heart there’s the will to receive of a person.

15. S. (26:19) What does it mean that the heart is inside a person, it’s not inside the body.

R. Don’t you know the heart is here?

S. Are you speaking of that heart of a different heart?

R. I’m talking about the will to receive which is within a person.

S. I thought it was a system that’s seemingly outside of me and I only think it’s inside of me. Is it in me or elsewhere?

R. The heart is within a person.

S. What’s the connection between my heart and other hearts?

R. There is no connection, there’s a disconnection. These hearts are broken hearts and there is no connection between them. There used to be ‘one heart’ when there was’ one man’ and since it broke, many hearts were made, many people. That’s why everyone is called Bnei Adam, the children of Adam.

S. What does it mean when we say to connect the hearts? How do we do this?

R. ‘As one man with one heart,’ we want to return to such a state.

S. We just want it, that’s the meaning of connection?

R. We’re asking, we’re praying, we’re doing all these calculations, how can we connect? All these efforts are drawing the light that reforms and then we succeed.

S. Can I feel stronger in the desire of my friends to connect and in this way to reinforce my own desire?

R. Yes, of course.

S. How to increase the desire of the feeling of the friends?

R. You pray for their desire to be more united, to incorporate all their personal desires. And from all these individual desires that there will be one desire that will rise to the Creator.

S. Can I pray only for their desire to connect, that they will be stronger?

R. There is nothing else, there is nothing else.

16. S. (29:11) After the purification of the heart we’ll have control over it?

R. Yes, afterwards. Once we correct our heart it will be under our control and we by this control will only perform actions of bestowal.

17. S. (29:37) Five minutes ago you said to a friend to stop thinking of yourself but it’s impossible because every five minutes you stop yourself and you understand that you’re thinking only of yourself, you’re on this carousel. So I want to ask, if I notice does it mean that it’s a place of work? To stop, to observe and to think that at that moment the entire world Kli will have its heart purified and then we’ll all stop thinking of ourselves? Is this practical work every five minutes, otherwise you can’t live with it.

R. Yes, this is wonderful. We have to try, we have to make an effort, to try.

18. S. (30:51) What is the heart of the ten if there’s distance between the tens?

R. No, there’s still a connection within the tens, that’s the call the heart of the ten. And from each and every ten there is some desire that connects them, unifies them when they think of themselves as a ten. That’s called their heart.

19. S. (31:35) Can one view the heart as a screen that interacts and gets desires from the Reshimot with the aim of purifying the connections, optimizing the connections between us?

R. Can you repeat please?

S. Can one view the heart as a screen which interacts with the Reshimot so it gets only a desire to bestow for example and does this to purify our connections so as to increase the connections and purify the connections between us?

R. This is how it will be revealed, yes.

20. S. (32:31) In the first part of the lesson you said that the Creator controls everything that is happening in the ten.

R. Yes.

S. The Creator controls everything so what do you mean, what’s the emphasis here?

R. The thing is the Creator controls either with revelation or with concealment. Of course He controls everything, There’s None Else Besides Him in each and every detail, it doesn’t matter how small you take it. But we discover Him when he wants us to discover Him and in the rest of the cases we don’t discover Him when he doesn’t want us to reveal Him, that’s all.

S. [No Translation]

R. When He wants to be revealed He’s revealed, when He doesn’t, He doesn’t but what we need from our side is to give Him as many possibilities to be revealed as possible.

S. What is the work in the ten that is specifically there He can be revealed?

R. Connection between us between us, elevating the ten higher to a spiritual height.

S. How do we raise the ten to a spiritual height?

R. When we connect ourselves between ourselves and then we try to be ‘as one man in one heart,’ as it is written.

21. S. (34:09) When can we get control of the heart?

R. Whatever you want, once you want it. All these exercises we go through are basically towards the control of the heart.

22. S. (34:28) There’s no other advice but to overcome and perform acts of bestowal so what is my action of bestowal on the ten?

R. When you act under the force of bestowal by that you’re basically pushing forward all your ten towards bestowal.

23. S. (34:58) What does it mean that we overcome through actions?

R. We overcome our own ego and we want to be more connected in a certain result.

24. S. (35:15) Two questions about the Congress, they asked how should we prepare ourselves as a world Kli for the Congress to feel as one global heart ready to be purified?

R. I hope as a result of what we’re learning, we have almost one month. So we will learn in what way we want to present ourselves towards each other and towards the Creator in the Congress. We’ll scrutinize it but we want to be as one body, in one heart. That people that come over here, they don’t come just to visit our place but rather they know us, they know this place and what’s happening here. That’s why I think as they come over here they’re ready to connect with us, to enter our organization. And we’re expecting it to be many people so we can have such a connection together that we’ll have it easier to draw the Creator towards us. That’s the meaning of, ‘My sons have defeated Me,’ when we want to draw Him towards us.

25. S. (37:02) Yesterday you said the Congress is a step on the way to the end of correction. So what stage does this Congress constitute, what state should we attain with this Congress?

R. Whatever you want, to me it seems that there is no limit to what we can receive. We are in the age of the Messiah, the last generation. We are in the right study and all in all, we need only to aim the heart of each and everyone to connection in the tens, to connection to hundreds and thousands. So, all of us together, to the Creator.

26. S. (38:02) How should each ten prepare itself for the Congress?

R. We’ll learn that, too, in the upcoming lessons. Besides that we need to learn: what does it mean to be together? The Congress is not just putting some people together in one place but rather we have to feel how much each one is ready to give room for everyone within his mind and heart.

27. S. (38:55) In the big Congress we had before I feel that every friend that came from afar made an effort to get here. I felt a great shame and obligation, an inner obligation to be concentrated and to pray for them. What are those actions that the friends do when they labor and come?

R. It is a great exertion that they are doing in their time, their force, their power, their money, everything they have in order to come over here and be with us for a few days. And we have to feel it, to appreciate it and to really help them as much as we can. This is why it seems to us that we need to examine how much this cost for them this Congress. To be here, to come over here and it’s not they, themselves, that they’re covering their charges, we are also in a little bit with them and for it to be really equal to such an extent, it should be equal.

28. S. (41:08) Today we have a Global Gathering of Friends. How should we take advantage of this opportunity as good preparation for the Congress?

R. Talk about it and you should decide together, decide together. It’s good that we start with having no desire, no plan, no direction, goal or anything. And you start concentrating and when you concentrate it becomes clarified for everyone, for each one what we’re standing before. That’s it.

S. What does the Creator want to happen between us?

R. The Creator wants you to understand what you’re standing before and how you can realize it. And that you will build such beginnings so it will be carried out, that’s it.