Lesson on the topic of “Subjugating the Heart”

LESSON MATERIAL

Subjugating the Heart – Selected excerpts from the sources

1. RABASH, Article No. 18 (1984), “And It Shall Come to Pass When You Come to the Land that the Lord Your God Gives You”

One should fight with oneself to subdue the heart, which is where these desires clothe, expel the domination of the will to receive, and give full governance to the desire to bestow upon the Creator. When one begins to work the holy work, which is to aim all of his work for the Creator, the wars between those two desires begin. Then, through great labor, a person is rewarded with overcoming and he wins the war. At that time the ruling of the will to bestow upon the Creator enters his heart.

2. RABASH, Article No. 926, “Come unto Pharaoh”

One will not think that he can submit his evil inclination by himself. Rather, as it is written, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day. Were it not for the help of the Creator, he would not overcome it.” Hence, one should not say that he cannot defeat his evil, for he must believe that the Creator will help him.

3. RABASH, Article No. 696, “Your Strength to the Torah”

If a person wants to succeed in the Torah, he must see that the desire to engage in Torah is stronger than the rest of the desires in him, and then they will surrender to it because the strong has the power to subdue the weak. Hence, the strong desire subdues the desire for idleness, for honor, and the rest of the lusts.

4. RABASH, Article No. 282, “Be Mindful with a Minor Commandment as with a Major One – 2

All the darkness that we feel in spirituality extends from the evil within us, which is to receive in order to receive. Our sages said about this, “I have created the evil inclination; I have created the Torah as a spice” (Kidushin 30b), meaning that through the Torah we obtain the power to subdue the receiver in us so he can work in order to bestow.

In other words, all we want to receive from the Torah and Mitzvot is the power to subdue the evil. This is the only reward that we hope to receive from Torah and Mitzvot, since once we obtain the power to bestow, we will be able to obtain all the delight and pleasure that the Creator has prepared for us.

5. RABASH, Letter No. 13

All the work we have is only to turn the reception to be in order to bestow. This is against our nature and desire. However, we were given the remedy of Torah and Mitzvot, by which we obtain the power and might to subdue our bodies, so that all of our intentions will be for the Creator. This is the meaning of engaging in Torah through the light in it, as well as to engage in good deeds, which is the meaning of loving others. By those two we can exit reception and be rewarded with bestowal.

6. RABASH, Article No. 128, “Exalt the Lord Our God”

“Bow before His holy mountain.” Bowing means surrendering. It is when one lowers his reason and says that what the reason understands or does not understand, I annul and subjugate it. Before which quality do I subjugate it? Before “His holy mountain.”

Har [mountain] means Hirhurim [reflections], meaning thoughts. “His holy,” for “holy” means separated from the matter. This means that he removes himself from the desire of reception. “Bow” means submitting the body, even though it disagrees, and taking upon oneself only thoughts of Kedusha [holiness]. This is the meaning of “Bow before His holy mountain.”

Why must we submit ourselves to thoughts of Kedusha, meaning retire from receiving in order to receive? It is because “The Lord our God is holy,” for the Creator only bestows. For this reason, one must be in equivalence of form with the Creator.

7. RABASH, Article No. 696, “Your Strength to the Torah”

When one wants to go somewhere, but there are people who interfere with his walking on the path he wants to go, and each one pulls him to the place he wants, if he is drawn, he does not have the strength to subdue them, and then he is pulled away from the place where he wants to go to the place that the strongest one among them wants, since he subdues all the others because he is more powerful.

It is likewise with emotional strength. Man consists of many desires, and each of the desires wants to subdue the other desires and draw the body to go to its side.

8. RABASH, Article 30 (1988), “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”

When his reason shows him his friend’s true face, that he hates him?” What can he tell the body about that? Why should he submit himself before his friend?

The answer is that he wishes to achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator, called “equivalence of form,” meaning not to think of his own benefit. Thus, why is subduing a difficult thing? The reason is that he must revoke his own worth, and the whole of the life that he wishes to live will be only with the consideration of his ability to work for others’ benefit, beginning with love of others, between man and man, through the love of the Creator.

Hence, here is a place where he can say that anything he does is without any self-interest, since by reason, the friends are the ones who should love him, but he overcomes his reason, goes above reason.

9. RABASH, Article No. 24 (1991), “What Does It Mean that One Should Bear a Son and a Daughter, in the Work?”

The work above reason should be unconditional surrender. That is, one should take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven above reason. A person should say, “I want to be a servant of the Creator even though I have no idea about the work and I feel no flavor in the work. Nevertheless, I am willing to work with all my might as though I have attainment and feeling and flavor in the work, and I am willing to work unconditionally.” At that time, a person can go forward, and then there is no place for him to fall from his state, since he takes upon himself to work even when he is placed right in the earth, since it is impossible to be lower than the earth.

10. RABASH, Article No. 22 (1991),”What Is ‘A Lily Among the Thorns,’ in the Work?”

One should believe that the fact that one has been rewarded with faith in the Creator comes from the Creator. By this he is rewarded with the voice of the Creator subduing the enemies, meaning that the will to receive surrenders and in its stead comes the desire to bestow, and now he wants to work for the sake of the Creator. This comes from the voice of the Creator, as it is written, “The voice of the Lord is powerful” (Psalms 29:4). We should interpret that the voice of the Lord gives power to man to subdue the enemies.

LESSON

Morning Lesson September 29, 2023

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

Part 2:

Subjugating the Heart – Selected excerpts from the sources

1. R. (00:28) We’ll continue the lesson, Subjugate the Heart, selected excerpts from the sources, number two. We will try to get into it together. The excerpts are very important. People worked on it, to extract those excerpts from thousands of articles by Rabash, mostly. Let’s read them, connect to them and try to rise above through them.

Reading Excerpt #2-Three Times. (01:18) “One will not think that he can submit..”

2. S. (03:37) What does it mean to defeat the evil inclination?

R. To win over the evil inclination means not to follow any thought, any desire, any action which does not connect you with the group, meaning they don’t advance you, they don’t bring you closer to the Creator.

S. So not to deviate?

R. Always be ready to examine what does it give me when I perform a certain action or another. Does it bring me closer to the friends or does it push me farther apart?

3. S. (05:15) What does it mean to believe that the Creator will help him?

R. How to?

S. What does it mean that he must believe that the Creator will help him?

R. Yes, if someone can help me in any state I’m in, if there’s anyone that can help me: it’s only the Creator; there’s no other power.

S. When does a person understand that he cannot submit his evil? At what point does a person stop submitting the evil by himself and then enters the remedy?

R. Possible but nevertheless he has to check how much his power of resistance to change is positive or negative, he has to check it.

4. S. (06:28) How should a person demand from the Creator when he does not see the Creator, he doesn’t feel the Creator, he doesn’t know Him, so how can he demand from Him?

R. He should imagine to himself, try to depict to himself that it’s written that ‘the whole earth is full of His Glory,’ that There’s None Else Besides Him, that He fills the world, He is the world and we are inside of Him. If a person can imagine reality in this way he constantly tries and tries, tries to somehow to see it, to feel it and eventually he will open it up and it will open up for him, try it.

5. S. (07:56) About overcoming, in relation to overcoming at every moment, how can I do it so that I hold the connection to the Creator at every moment?

R. Look, it’s not such a problem for a person to hold in his mind that I’m in a reality with my friends and we’re all connected and we’re connected to the Creator who’s at the center of our connection and that through our and by turning to the Creator we can change reality, we can aim it in the direction we think we need to go.

S. All that ends in the room we sleep in when the friend snores next to me?

R. I also snore.

S. But I’m saying very seriously, someone was always knocking on the wall because someone else was snoring and then I forgot to ask the Creator. When I said, “okay, it’s all good.”

R. The fact that you couldn’t hear the Creator and that you couldn’t ask Him because the friend disturbed you, you didn’t miss anything by that. That’s good, correct, through that you connect even more between the two of you and with the Creator. And what to do about it? No idea, I don’t know. Try nevertheless to prevent these disturbances if you can’t overcome them, try to reach love, to such an extent where if you suddenly stop hearing any disturbances from the friend during your sleep you need to worry what’s going on, he’s not snoring. Like a mother and her baby that she’s trying to hear, is he asleep because I can’t hear it, is he sleeping or what? So try. For the most part ‘love covers all crimes.’ You will have from all of that including this Congress where you can’t sleep because of the snoring, you will have left a good impression.

6. S. (11:56) Do we need to seek connection with the Creator in order to direct ourselves correctly or to try to find what He demands from us and try to agree with that?

R. I think it’s one and the same. If not the same for you, try this way, try that way until you reach the scrutiny. I think that, all in all, we need to be directed at the state where both the friends and the Creator are all connected in your heart.

7. S. (14:57) My nature is a will to receive, how can I subjugate myself?

R. Only by connecting with your friends and the force of their connection, your connection with them, they’ll pull you out of your personal self-love to loving them; to love them.

8. S. (13:56) Can we also ask this: What is the action or the role of the friend or the ten where I can submit myself? What is the action on behalf of the ten so that I can submit myself?

R. The ten needs to show each and every friend how connected it is, how in the center of its connection it depicts the upper Force that’s connecting them and how they’re all adhered to the upper Force and how they get closer from degree to degree. Meaning above greater and greater disturbances all the way till the end of the correction. If a person feels that he’s in the ten in such actions then he’s on the highway.

9. S. (15:27) Many times in the lesson I get this new thought as if I understood something and I go after that thought and I get deeper into it and I can take a lot of time and I’ve detached from the thought of the friends. I’m in a static state. What’s the correct response to this new inspiration and impression during the lesson? To get deeper into it then or to leave it for afterwards?

R. Especially when connected to the friends during the lesson I need to constantly feel that I’m together with them to such an extent that I never disconnect from them. I can disconnect from the Creator but not from the friends but that is the problem. The connection with the friends is the foundation, the basis for the connection with the Creator. Without it I can’t be connected to the Creator. That’s what’s written, “from love of the created beings to love of the Creator.”

10. S. (18:12) When I think about this concept that the Creator will help and I put in my mind that it’s dangerous and I feel this sense of fear like things will not work out if I constantly think that the Creator will help. How do I align myself with that reality, how do I trust or attain the faith that the Creator will help?

R. According to the will to receive, according to your demand to the Creator so He would answer you, so you He would help you. That demand has to be strong, intense, consistent, constant, so try to be connected with the friends and to turn to the Creator in order to obligate Him to answer you.

11. S. (19:45) When the gratitude and request to the Creator connect is that an opening to connection?

R. Yes.

12. S. (20:22) How can I ask the Creator for help to get me over the evil inclination because I cannot annul to the Creator who helps me afterwards?

R. You’ll be able to understand it slowly, don’t let go of the plea to the Creator. That’s all I can say. I’m not going to say more, so in order to not corrupt your path.

13. S. (21:53) From states of lowliness and a fall it’s easier to turn to the Creator because there’s nothing else. How can we continue requesting in the same intensity when we have inspiration and this elation?

R. These are exercises like in sports. We have to keep on trying, trying, trying, getting with those exercises, you’ll see it’s not that complicated.

14. S. (22:55) What is a constant request to the Creator?

R. It’s when you feel in your heart that you must have contact with Him.

S. How to understand, how does that get realized in our work?

R. You simply want to have this contact with Him, you demand that contact.

S. Exactly what I want to understand, what’s this constant request, what’s this constant work, right. So how does that work, let’s say, I understand that we need to meet with the ten and we make this mutual request. Let’s say we meet in the ten and at a certain time we pray to the Creator but when you say a constant prayer, this consistency, what is that?

R. It’s this constant attraction, permanent attraction to connection with the Creator. You had a first love, one-time, first crush?

S. Yes.

R. You had them maybe more than once and you constantly thought about it, you were a young boy but you were constantly occupied with it, you couldn’t get rid of it. You should reach the same state with your yearning to the Creator.

S. I understand that example but it’s automatic.

R. Of course this is something that the Creator gives you in our world so that you’ll understand what is the true attraction, yearning to someone else. Those were hormones or something else but it doesn’t matter but you can’t get rid of it.

S. When we’re talking about a constant request to the Creator, what are the means that we have for that, what do we build so that that appeal, that request would be alive and that we could call it this constant appeal to the Creator?

R. You have to build for that such conditions, such surrounding conditions that will remind you, bring you back to it and you’ll be able to constantly use them.

S. I understand, like how you once said that we put this alarm clock on every half an hour and that will remind the whole ten to turn to Him. That’s a means, a concrete practical means. What concrete, practical means do we have which is not just once every half hour but which is constant?

R. This is only pressure from the environment, from those around you, through envy, lust and honor. And envy, it’s when you feel that you are lower than others and so on and so forth. Meaning use our egoistic qualities and do it so with their help will come to yearn for that connection to the Creator.

S. Today the holiday of Sukkot starts. What should we do in the world Kli so that we will be in this constant appeal all day long?

R. We will talk about it.

15. S. (27:42) In this constant yearning to the Creator which is internal and all the time, who do I turn to? Let’s say that I depict that He creates the whole world, all the connections. Who do I turn to in that very moment? The same force that created everything?

R. Yes.

S. It is not some abstract appeal?

R. From your state, yes, that’s how you can try. I don’t see any men, only women.

16. S. (28:34) The true request to the Creator always takes place with suffering, how can we replace the suffering with joy and faith?

R. That is according to the group, relative to Whom are we marching forward daily, approaching more and more, coming closer to feeling Who we have contact with, Who’s leading us. So day to day we have to become closer.

S. My ten is very good and we have everything. When I see on behalf of the ten good examples it also causes me suffering? How can I deal with that properly?

R. This is good. You have a good character. I’m jealous. It is good, just keep going, it will all work out.

17. S. (30:35) If I envy the friend and I feel lowly how can I start rising?

R. Connect to him more, as much as you can and then you will rise up together with him and this way we can all rise up very quickly.

S. He is in a descent, he has no strength or forces?

R. You don’t need any strength, you only need the force of envy, you need a small portion and from that you begin to get closer to the friend who is the object of your envy and you can rise together with him. Everything is done by the Creator.

18. S. (31:59) We said that there will be a day where we will come from rejection to closeness through prayer. I have such a state where I pray for a long time but the state doesn’t change, I don’t see any answer. What does the Creator want from me?

R. What do you want to hear from Him?

S. That He will give me His quality of love and bestowal to the friends above my ego. That I am in such a beastly state right now that I don’t want to be in it.

R. Maybe you already received it and you are not using that quality.

S. How can I feel it? I feel like a beast. I don’t feel any love to the friends?

R. Maybe you won’t feel love to the friends immediately but you will feel an opportunity to be close to them and in this way, small steps you’ll get closer and closer to them.

S. He inserts you into the state of a beast, when you demand and He puts you even deeper in this beastly state.

R. If I have such states then I know that I simply need to be together with the friends, simply be together with the friends and that will help me.

S. To be with all the actions that they do?

R. In every way possible.

19. S. (34:15) Each day you teach us deep topics from that depth we hear what we need to receive or is there something that we should do to hear in the heart more deeply?

R. And the question is?

S. How can we hear you more deeply?

R. That is up to you. It’s up to you. Sometimes we go through certain excerpts, we read them, we hear them and you ask nothing. I’m extremely impressed by these excerpts and other times it’s a different way, the excerpts are not so deep, or complex, and you have a ton of questions. It is all according to the preparation of the person. It is like with little children and grown-ups. The more grown-ups understand things deeply and also quantity wise and for the little children it could be like air to them. So, everything will change and you will be full of questions.

20. S. (36:40) If I understood correctly the excerpt, if I need to envy a friend, do I need to envy a friend who is in a fall, in a descent?

R. On the one hand, yes because if I’m neither in an ascent or a descent then I envy the friend who is in a descent because from that it feels, he feels that it is a descent and he now has the ability to rise from it, to ascend.

S. How can I change in my brain, this thought where I always think if a friend is in a descent it’s as if he is making a hole in the ten. How can I change my thoughts on this?

R. No, it is not always like that at all, it is only in the connection with the others when we arrange the ten, arrange that boat.

S. How does a descent of a friend in the ten, how does that help the whole ten ascend?

R. That’s what we need to do, to arrange the ten so we will all be as one and the ten will always be balanced.

21. S. (38:34) When the evil inclination is revealed how should we work with the thoughts of escaping where we want to escape. Sometimes it appears as if holding on to the friends is insufficient because we are afraid to lose strength or lose the ten. How do we work with the thoughts of escaping when the evil inclination surfaces?

R. When the evil inclination tells you to run away? It says, smack it in the face, hit it because you don’t have another enemy, another hater in the world except for the evil inclination who is sitting inside of you and pushing you away from the Creator.

S. How do we give this smack?

R. To smack, to punch the evil inclination is possible only by connecting, by sitting together, by having a small meal, rise above the disturbance. That’s what we do.

22. S. (41:10) A question about building reality in the ten. How do we work during meetings so that the reality that’s created will be as close as possible to the Creator. What else should we start with, end with so the work will be…?

R. On that it is written in the articles of the group about how to sit, how to speak, what to do. It needs to be responsible for these gatherings. There’s a lot written about it.

S. I’m not asking about the action but the inner state?

R. The inner state depends on how you physically prepare what you want to happen. These things are connected with us. You cannot differentiate these things, you cannot separate them.

23. S. (42:52) I have a feeling that if I feel with the ten and without the ten I can feel the Creator in anything and everything. Is that normal or is that an illusion?

R. I don’t know. You need to reveal that and decide but continue with it. I don’t know like you are now.

24. S. (43:49) We already started to feel the internality of the friends because something feels very different than before but how do I know it’s not just my imagination because I wanted so much?

R. Continue, continue, without stopping and we very much hope that throughout this convention we will reach a state where we will be able to start feeling the internality of the friends.

25. S. (44:52) When we open the heart to the friends, do we receive light?

R. That’s a question. Maybe yes, maybe no but in any case what you want to give to them and in them the question is whether they feel it or not.

26. S. (45:40) Do we feel the friends from our qualities or from the opposite state?

R. We feel the friend as the Creator wants us to depict him, otherwise we would not feel him. It’s quite complicated.

27. R. (46:25) “If a person wants to succeed in the Torah, he must see that the desire to engage in Torah is stronger than the rest of the desires in him, and then they will surrender to it because the strong has the power to subdue the weak. Hence, the strong desire subdues the desire for idleness, for honor, and the rest of the lusts.”

Reading #3 (47:11) “If a person wants to succeed in the Torah, he must see

that the desire to engage in Torah is stronger than the rest of the desires in him, …”

28. S. (47:57) How to do it so the desire to engage in the Torah will be stronger?

R. Necessity. When I understand that without the force of the Torah I can’t succeed. What should I do?

29. S. (48:32) How can we make it so that these needs won’t come through suffering?

R. That depends on how connected we are. If we are connected in a good network and we check it, how much is in this mutual bestowal, mutual influence and how much we wish to feel that togetherness, these new states and accordingly we will feel good.

S. So, it’s an opportunity to come out of ourselves and walk towards the needs of the friends?

R. Yes.

30. S. (49:49) After the lesson, immediately, we are going to the burial site of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. How can this add to us a special force before the congress?

R. Be together. As much as you are together you are closer to Baal HaSulam. That’s very important.

S. What should we think about? Certainly he’s interested in the success of the Congress but what should we think about it?

R. That we want to be close to him, to his soul. That is what we need. It can save us from everything, from everything. A person who came through his life to such spiritual degrees that I cannot even depict to myself, to just say some words. You travel there and succeed to connect with the soul of Baal HaSulam and Rabash. That is truly a massive spiritual force or anchor.

31. S. (51:44) In this Congress we place before us a goal of reaching the opening of the heart and connecting the tens so we true tens will be born here. Where is the Creator in all this picture?

R. There is a certain act, is there a certain act where the Creator doesn’t exist? So through what act and change does He exist in?

S. How should it be? On our part, how should it be for the heart to open for the ten to be built? How do we activate Him relative to these actions?

R. We take into consideration that the Creator is with us.

S. He’s doing it on us?

R. Certainly.

S. So what are we doing?

R. A request, a deficiency raising MAN.

S. How do we ensure that the prayer to Him for all the actions will constantly rise from us?

R. You will discuss it and each one tries to bring that out from the depths of his heart.

S. Is there a difference between the ten that’s connected without a Creator and a ten that has a Creator? What is the addition that the Creator gives?

R. A ten that is connected without the Creator is a football team, and the ten that is connected with the Creator is a Kabbalistic group.

S. What is so special about it? What does it mean to be a group of Kabbalists?

R. That all depends on the success of the connection and connection depends only on the force of the Creator that will fill them. We need to understand that connection is the Creator’s quality, to the extent on which it is in us, accordingly, we will succeed to connect. That is all.

32. S. (54:37) We see you create a lot of room and clear an emotional space for the women’s Kli. Do we also need to develop our sensitivity to this deficiency and if so how can we do it?

R. You have a need to be together, men among yourselves and only in that external way to prepare a meal or some place where you can work, like at home, so you will help the women but otherwise, no, other than that, there doesn’t need to be any connection.

S. How does the plea to the Creator change a person’s faith?

R. I think that 100%, completely.

S. Is it up to me, only on me?

R. It depends on the Creator and on the person.

33. S. (56:35) I’m going to the cemetery of Baal HaSulam and I tend to have an intention before I do anything. My intention is the fact that you said something in one of the lessons, as a spiritual father, you must know better and I made the decision that I will go but yesterday I kept thinking, I feel as if I have a connection with Baal HaSulam, anyway. I love his teaching, I listen to his melodies almost everyday, and when I’m in trouble I call upon him, believe me I call upon him when I have challenges and I say to him.. I’m asking what is the intention that I should have when I go to the cemetery because in my heart I have a big intention for a spiritual correction but what is the intention that we should hold as tens and as Bnei Baruch world Kli because I see the world Kli out there, they’re not going to be there with me and I want to take all of us to this event. So what should it be, our intention?

R. I will recommend for you to detach during that trip from all of your teachings and thoughts that you once had. Simply travel and to incorporate in all of our people and not to be above it at all, to simply submit, to be among everyone and even though you think that you are great and you have all this understanding of what’s happening but in any case the intention is simple, “I want to be with them, with everyone and that is all.” And then with that you will see how much you can rise and gain.