SUNDAY PRAYER: MALCHUT-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN SUNDAY
Lesson on the topic of “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”
LESSON MATERIAL
Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him
1. Baal HaSulam. Shamati 1. There is None Else Besides Him
It is written, “There is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what one sees, that there are things in the world that deny the upper household, the reason is that this is His will.
This is deemed a correction called “the left rejects and the right pulls closer,” meaning that what the left rejects is considered a correction. This means that there are things in the world that, to begin with, aim to divert a person from the right way, and by which he is rejected from Kedusha [holiness].
The benefit from the rejections is that through them a person receives a complete need and desire for the Creator to help him since he sees that otherwise he is lost.
2. Zohar for All, Introduction to The Book of Zohar, “On the Night of the Bride”, No. 138
It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from the Creator, for it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, for this is unbecoming of the complete Operator. Hence, when one feels bad, denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him and the superior Operator is concealed from him to that same extent. This is the greatest punishment in the world.
Thus, the sensation of good and evil in relation to His guidance brings with it the sensation of reward and punishment, for one who exerts to not part from faith in the Creator is rewarded even when he tastes a bad taste in Providence. And if he does not exert, he will have a punishment because he is separated from faith in the Creator.
3. Baal HaSulam, Letter 18
One has no choice but to direct all the present and future moments to be offered and presented to His great name. One who rejects a moment before Him for it is difficult displays his folly openly, for all the worlds and all the times are not worthwhile for him because the light of His face is not clothed in the changing times and occasions although one’s work certainly changes because of them. This is why thanks to our holy fathers, faith and confidence above reason have been prepared for us, which one uses in the tougher times effortlessly and tirelessly.
4. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 18
First thing in the morning, when he rises from his sleep, he should sanctify the first moment with Dvekut with Him, pour out his heart to the Creator to keep him throughout the twenty-four hours of the day so that no idle thought will come into his mind, and he will not consider it impossible or above nature.
Indeed, it is the image of nature that makes an iron partition, and one should cancel nature’s partitions that he feels. Rather, first he must believe that nature’s partitions do not cut off from Him. Afterward, he should pray from the bottom of his heart, even for something that is above his natural desire.
Understand this always, even when forms that are not of Kedusha [holiness] traverse you, and they will instantly stop when you remember. See that you pour out your heart that henceforth the Creator will save you from cessations of Dvekut with Him. Gradually, your heart will grow accustomed to the Creator and will yearn to adhere to Him in truth, and the Lord’s desire will succeed by you.
5. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 18
One who assumes the complete burden of the kingdom of heaven finds no labor in the work of the Creator, and can therefore adhere to the Creator day and night, in light and in darkness. The Geshem [“rain,” but also “corporeality”]—which is created in coming and going, changes and exchanges—will not stop him since the Keter, which is Ein Sof, illuminates to all completely equally. The fool—who walks under a flood of preventions that pour on him from before and from behind—says to all that he does not feel the cessation and the lack of Dvekut [adhesion] as a corruption or iniquity on his part.
Had he sensed it, he would certainly have strained to find some tactic to at least be saved from the cessation of Dvekut, whether more or less. This tactic has never been denied of anyone who sought it, either as in “the thought of faith” or as in “confidence,” or as in “pleas of his prayer,” which are suitable for a person specifically in the narrow and pressured places, for even a thief in hiding calls on the Creator.
6. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 138, “Concerning Fear that Sometimes Comes Upon a Person”
When fear comes upon a person, he should know that there is none else but Him. And even witchcraft. And if he sees that fear overcomes him, he should say that there is no such thing as chance, but the Creator has given him a chance from above, and he must contemplate and study the end to which he has been sent this fear. It appears that it is so that he will overcome and say, “There is none else besides Him.”
But if after all this, the fear has not departed him, he should take it as an example and say that his servitude of the Creator should be in the same measure of the fear, meaning that the fear of heaven, which is a merit, should be in the same manner of fear that he now has. That is, the body is impressed by this superficial fear, and exactly in the same way that the body is impressed, so should be the fear of heaven.
7. RABASH, Article No. 6 (1990), “When Should One Use Pride in the Work”
A person should pay attention to this and believe that the Creator is tending to him and guides him on the track that leads to the King’s palace. It follows that he should be happy that the Creator is watching over him and gives him the descents, as well. That is, a person should believe, as much as he can understand, that the Creator is giving him the ascents, since certainly, a person cannot say that he himself receives the ascents, but that the Creator wants to bring him closer; this is why He gives him the ascents.
Also, a person should believe that the Creator gives him the descents, as well, because He wants to bring him closer. Therefore, every single thing that he can do, he must do as though he is in a state of ascent. Therefore, when he overcomes a little during the descent, it is called an “awakening from below.” Each act that he does, he believes that it is the Creator’s will, and by this itself he is rewarded with greater nearing, meaning that the person himself begins to feel that the Creator has brought him closer.
8. RABASH, Article 19 (1990), Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work – 2
One must believe as was said above, that “there is none else besides Him,” meaning that it is the Creator who compels him to do the good deeds, but since he is still unworthy of knowing that it is the Creator who commits him, the Creator dresses Himself in dresses of flesh and blood, through which the Creator performs these actions. Thus, the Creator acts in the form of Achoraim [posterior].
In other words, the person sees people’s faces but he should believe that behind the faces stands the Creator and performs these actions. That is, behind the man stands the Creator and compels him to do the deeds that the Creator wants. It follows that the Creator does everything, but the person regards what he sees and not what he should believe.
9. RABASH, Article No.19 (1990), Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work – 2
One must believe that he did this because the Creator commanded him to observe the Mitzva, and he had to obey what the Creator commanded him to do. However, the Creator hid Himself in a clothing of Lo Lishma, such as the friends, so that through this clothing he would think that he must obey the voice of Lo Lishma.
But in truth, one must believe that it was all the Creator’s doing. Thus, after he performs the Mitzva, he should say that it was the Creator who acted behind the clothing of Lo Lishma. It follows that then one should thank the Creator for giving him the desire to observe His commandments through this clothing.
10. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 1, “There Is None Else Besides Him”
One must always try and adhere to the Creator, namely that all his thoughts will be about Him. That is to say, even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater decline, he should not leave His domain, namely that there is another authority that prevents him from entering the Kedusha [holiness], that can bring benefit or harm.
That is, he must not think that there is a force of the Sitra Achra [other side] that does not let a person do good deeds and walk in the ways of the Creator. Rather, all is done by the Creator.
11. Zohar for All, Introduction to the Book of Zohar “Two Points” No. 121
All the many contradictions to His uniqueness, which we taste in this world, separate us from the Creator. Yet, when exerting to keep Torah and Mitzvot with love, with our soul and might, as we are commanded—to bestow contentment upon our Maker—all those forces of separation do not affect us into subtracting any of the love of the Creator with all our souls and might. Rather, in that state, every contradiction we have overcome becomes a gate for attainment of His wisdom. This is so because there is a special quality in each contradiction—revealing a special degree in attaining Him. And those worthy ones who have been rewarded with it turn darkness into light and bitter into sweet, for all the powers of separation—from the darkness of the mind and the bitterness of the body—have become to them gates for obtainment of sublime degrees. Thus, the darkness becomes a great light and the bitter becomes sweet.
Hence, to the extent that they previously had all the conducts of His guidance toward the forces of separation, now they have all been inverted into forces of unification, and sentence the entire world to the side of merit.
12. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 172, “The Matter of Preventions and Delays”
All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater distance, as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us. And any prevention one overcomes brings the way closer for that person.
13. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 70, “With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”
When one overcomes all the hardships and the disturbances, one is not easily repelled, but with a mighty hand. And if one overcomes even the mighty hand and does not want to move from the place of Kedusha [holiness] whatsoever, but wants to adhere specifically to Him in truth, and sees that he is repelled, then one says that fury is poured out on him. Otherwise, he would be allowed inside. But because fury is poured out on him by the Creator, he is not admitted into the King’s palace to adhere to Him.
It follows that before one wants to move from one’s place, and breaks in and wants to enter, it cannot be said that he feels that fury is poured out on him. Rather, after all the rejections that he is rejected, and he does not move from his place, meaning when the mighty hand and the fury poured out have already been revealed upon him, then “I will be King over you” comes true. This is so because only through bursting and great efforts does the kingdom of heaven become revealed to him, and he is rewarded with entering the King’s palace.
14. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 52
When a person introspects and feels his poor state, he awakens to return to the Creator and pours out his prayer in great longing to adhere to the Creator. He thinks that all those prayers and all that awakening are by his own power. He sits and awaits the Creator’s salvation, small or great. When time passes and he sees no sign of welcome from the Creator, he falls into despair because the Creator does not want him, since after all this longing, He did not turn to him at all.
It is written about this: “Seek the Lord while He is found.” That is, when the Creator presents Himself to you for asking, then you will necessarily seek Him, too, for it is man’s way to move first. In other words, the Creator first gives you the heart to seek Him. When you know this, you will certainly grow stronger, as strong as you can ask, for the King is calling you.
15. Rabash. Notes. 133. It Is All Corrections
“All the illnesses that I had placed on Egypt, I will not place on you, for I the Lord am your healer” (Exodus 15:26). Our sages ask, “If I do not place the illness, what is the need for a healer?” (Sanhedrin 101a). We should interpret that since I am the healer, why should I place on you an illness if I must heal the illness? What do I gain by placing an illness? It must be as a punishment, and if I must heal the illness, what kind of punishment is it? It is as though I work for nothing.
For this reason, I will not place illness upon you, and what you think is illness, you are wrong about it. Rather, all the states you feel, if you attribute them to Me, are all corrections by which you will approach Me in Dvekut [adhesion].
16. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 121, “She Is Like Merchant-Ships”
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on what proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” This means that the life of Kedusha [holiness] in a person does not come specifically from drawing closer, from entries, meaning admissions into Kedusha, but also from the exits, from the removals. This is so because through the dressing of the Sitra Achra in one’s body, and its claims, “She is all mine,” with a just argument, one is awarded permanent faith by overcoming these states.
This means that one should dedicate everything to the Creator, that is, that even the exits stem from Him. When he is rewarded, he sees that both the exits and the entries were all from Him.
17. RABASH, Article No. 28 (1987), “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work“
He must believe above reason and imagine that he has already been rewarded with faith in the Creator that is felt in his organs, and he sees and feels that the Creator leads the entire world as the good who does good. Although when he looks within reason he sees the opposite, he should still work above reason and it should appear to him as though he can already feel in his organs that so it really is, that the Creator leads the world as the good who does good.
Here he acquires the importance of the goal, and from here he derives life, meaning joy at being near to the Creator. Then a person can say that the Creator is good and does good.
18. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 1
Everyone believes in private Providence, but do not adhere to it at all. The reason is that an alien and foul thought … cannot be attributed to the Creator, who is the epitome of the “good who does good.” However, only to the true servants of the Creator does the knowledge of private Providence open, that He caused all the reasons that preceded it, both good and bad. Then they are adhered to private Providence, for all who are connected to the pure are pure.
Since the Guardian is united with His guarded, there is no apparent division between bad and good. They are all loved and are all clear, for they are all carriers of the vessels of the Creator, ready to glorify the revelation of His uniqueness. It is known by the senses, and to that extent, they have knowledge in the end that all the actions and the thoughts, both good and bad, are the carriers of the vessels of the Creator. He prepared them, from His mouth they emerged, and at the end of correction it will be known to all.
19. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 8
There is a sublime purpose for all that happens in this world, and it is called “the drop of unification.” When those dwellers of clay houses go through all those terrors, through all that totality, in His pride, which is removed from them, a door opens in the walls of their hearts, which are tightly sealed by the nature of creation itself, and by this they become fit for instilling that drop of unification in their hearts. Then they are inverted like an imprinted substance, and they will evidently see that it is to the contrary—that it was precisely in those dreadful terrors that they perceive the totality, which is removed by foreign pride. There, and only there, is the Creator Himself adhered, and there He can instill them with the drop of unification.
20. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 19, “What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work”
One’s hope should be that since he cannot break free from the power of the will to receive, he is therefore in perpetual ascents and descents. Hence, he awaits the Creator, to be rewarded with the Creator opening his eyes, and to have the strength to overcome and work only for the sake of the Creator. It is as it is written, “One have I asked of the Lord; her will I seek.” “Her” means the Shechina [Divinity]. And one asks “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”
LESSON
Morning Lesson October 13, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Growing Stronger in There Is None Else Besides Him – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #15
Rav’s Introduction: (00:27) We are strengthening again to be together and even more than yesterday, and this is how it should be every day. Let’s hope that we will succeed connecting everyone to the Creator in a single desire and a single heart and by that we will reach our goal to adhere to Him, to the Creator and the Creator will help us with that and bring us closer to Him. By that, He will come closer to the entire world, to all human beings and they, too, will connect and gather around us and by that we will reach the general correction which is the purpose of creation.
Reading #15, RABASH, Article No. 133. (01:35) “All the Illnesses I Had Placed on Egypt…”
2. R. (03:02) Meaning everything the Creator does, He does only so that we will come closer to Him. Even though it seems to us that He seemingly is rejecting us or at least not answering us, it’s only so that we will feel and make an even greater effort to be closer to each other and to attract the Creator to dwell among us.
3. S. (03:49) What’s the meaning of illness here? What’s the meaning that the Creator brings it and He also heals it?
R. All illnesses are a result of becoming distant from the Creator. Similarly, all healing is coming closer to the Creator. The fact that the Creator awakens between us some new distance, it’s only in order to show us that we have additional places to work to come closer to Him. We’ll accept these matters either by becoming distant from the Creator because He gives us a new area to heal Him, to correct Him, that is the distance between us and then from between us to Him. That’s how we need to see and how we ourselves heal Him, that we pray for it and by this we will come to a corrected state. How can a personal state, and that is the healthy state. That is the only thing and we need to see these states as more distant from the Creator, that He’s doing this purposely so that we will come closer to Him. Each time we come more distant in coming closer until we reach the final coming closer.
S. What does the Healer appear here for if everything is decided by the appeal to the Creator and everything depends on Him?
R. It all depends on the Creator that we turn to Him and ask for Him to heal our hearts from our own thoughts, from our will to receive, from becoming distant from one another. That is called illness, the source of illness and we are asking that He will heal all these distances between us until we will reach one heart.
S. How can a person not agree with this illness, with this distancing when he does agree with this?
R. If a person agrees that he became distant from the Creator and the Creator has no more possibility but to increase the distance between a person and the Creator then a person will feel where he is. It’s like we might have some illness but we don’t feel that it’s taking place in us and then we also can’t heal it. That’s why the Creator is doing all kinds of actions so that we will feel the gaps between us and that we will want to heal it, meaning come closer up on these distances. That is actually all of our actions in coming further away and closer and further away and closer. That is how we eventually come closer.
4. S. (07:56) He says here that all the states you feel, if you relate them to Me they’re all corrections, so is there an illness and a Healer or is there no such thing, it’s the wrong attitude towards it?
R. It’s all in relation to our will to receive the Creator is playing with. He increases our will to receive so that we will feel Him and you will feel through Him the illness and you will want to heal it, to cure it and that’s only by coming closer to Him, to the Creator. By this we advance to constant advancement.
S. Yes, but he says that this is the wrong approach, the wrong attitude?
R. The attitude isn’t correct that we become further away from the Creator as an illness, as a malfunction, but really we need to understand that it’s the Creator that put this in front of us. That we need to treat this correctly, that There Is None Else Besides Him, that it comes from Him and that yes, we want to come closer, that our hearts will be as one heart.
S. Then we don’t see it as an illness, we see it as an opportunity to come closer to Him?
R. Yes, because there are no illnesses at all, only becoming distant from the Creator who reveals to us where we are on a new degree, further away from one another and we need to keep coming closer to one another.
S. But we have to go through both stages. I see that it’s an illness and I ask for correction or can we just be in a state of everything is an invitation from Him and that there is no illness?
R. No, you can’t feel the distance as an illness, you can’t.
S. These are two states that we have to go through and feel?
R. Yes.
5. S. (10:32) It’s written in this excerpt about the period of building of the Kli?
R. Yes, on the general building of the Kli, the general Kli.
S. At what point can we define that I began the first building stone of bringing contentment to the Creator, what’s unique here?
R. Rather becoming more distant from the Creator or coming closer by the friends, through the friends.
6. S. (11:21) When for the first time does the Creator answer the prayer?
R. When a person asks, the Creator immediately answers. A person may not be able to differentiate but it’s certain that it happens that way.
S. What to define such a request if so?
R. The request is only for connection, that is the root of all the illnesses.
7. S. (12:00) If I understood correctly the Creator makes us grasp things in a mistaken way as an illness, or something like that?
R. Is that a punishment is an invitation to come closer.
S. But why is He making us mistaken and thinking it’s an illness?
R. We correct His approach.
S. What corrects us from that into corrections?
R. He will treat it differently but we treat illnesses this way personally when we understand that we need to overcome them. We are still in such a state and then when we come closer and closer we will start identifying these corruptions not as illnesses but as things that are higher and even distance between us is an illness. Also, if there is a cooling down between us, that’s also an illness, and then the illnesses as a corrections; they will be on higher degrees.
S. Meaning because of the suffering He basically coerces us with suffering and He could give us the answer to at least give us the understanding that it’s correction; that He’s correcting us. He could have at least let us understand that we’re meant to see this as corrections?
R. You need to connect with the friends and understand that there is nothing more than becoming distant, that’s the illness and becoming closer is the remedy.
S. What I’m saying is that I’m feeling anger towards Him that He is putting us through this whole suffering. We’re relating to Him as if He wants to our benefit and He wants to do good to His created beings and we go through all this suffering. He could have at least told us in advance, let’s say, that we’re talking about corrections and not this thing that we’re talking about an illness?
R. [No translation]
8. S. (14:36) This illness thing, it’s very frustrating and disturbing and when it happens it feels like I don’t know how to get out of it, all I want to do is how to figure out how to connect to my ten, even that’s frustrating. Is that really an illness, is that what he’s talking about here?
R. The illness is that we are overcoming distance from one another, that each time the Creator raises the sensitivity and we feel that we’re more distant, meaning more ill and that is how we advance, by wanting to annul the distance.
9. S. (15:41) From the illness we can learn about the source of the problem, the question is what can we learn from the characteristics of the blow, or what is demanding of us to do?
R. For the time being we cannot understand according to the illness, what is the source. Later on, over time we can penetrate deeper in and start identifying where the revelation of the disease is and what we need to do in order to cure it, how to turn to the Creator that will heal it. We are not searching for any other means other than to turn to the Creator each time.
S. At the first stage of the illness we shouldn’t relate to what the illness is, the goal is to connect to the Creator and the second stage is also to be revealed to us and why is it revealed that way and will we be able to learn more from it?
R. This does not have to be revealed but our attitude has to be for greater connection.
10. S. (17:10) Is the correction that we will feel a greater need from friends to do our own work, a greater involvement in the needs of society towards the Creator?
R. Both this and that. We need to do everything in order to connect ourselves together in one Kli and one desire, that is the correction.
11. S. (17:53) Are bodily illnesses related to spiritual illnesses, if so how?
R. From the Creator’s side there is no difference between the diseases, but to the extent and how we are distant then we feel the illness. It all stems from the distance or closeness between us; it’s the root of all illnesses and its remedy.
12. S. (18:38) You said that the lack of connection is the root of all illnesses, on the other hand we learned that He gives us doctors and they do not resolve the problems on their own, but rather to turn to the healer since he was given the privilege and the right to heal us. How is the stage of turning to the illness, if it’s, God forbid, a bodily illness related more to the connection between us?
R. We need to turn to the doctor of course. Just like it’s written that the doctor has the permission to cure, but here he’s referring to the disease as anything that is preventing us from being adhered to one another and to the Creator. That is the root of all illnesses, of all problems and that is how we need to respond accordingly. That is all. Then when we understand that the cause for all illnesses, illnesses and disorders, it seems to us as bodily illnesses because you’re asking about this. The illness really, is the meaning that everything is uncorrected, for every malfunction that there is in between us, in the families, in the nations, between the nations between us and the Creator, eventually, that is the root. If we correct everything in the relation between us to the root, to the Creator, then we correct the root of all the problems, of all the illnesses. You’ll see it’s not just an uncorrected state, it could be corporeal, or spiritual; that is all called a disease.
S. That transitional stage when we’re trying to listen to the advice of the Kabbalists and turn to the Healer. From the moment when a person, God forbid, feels a bodily illness, that intermediate stage where he’s operating through the doctor, is that more yearning that draws us more to the Creator, is that the way this leans?
R. Yes.
13. S. (21:44) Is everything that I see corrupted outside of me something that I need to ask for a stronger connection in the ten for and connection with Him for Him?
R. Yes.
S. Everything, no matter what I see?
R. Yes, because the source of malfunctions and an illness is a certain type of malfunction.
S. It all stems from my connection in my ten that I see that I correct by fixing the connection in my ten?
R. Yes.
S. What’s the difference between me coming to a friend and me saying to Him with a request, “Don’t behave that way anymore,” and that’s how I correct it or me increasing connection immediately in the ten. What’s the difference between these two forms of corrections?
R. There are these and those, and you need to see in the group how we correct, and of course if we feel a malfunction is because from the inside we are not connected enough according to the states that we are experiencing.
S. That’s correct all the way to the general level where we’re seeing wars between nations?
R. Until the very end.
14. S. (23:29) Is there some illness for a person that he turns to the doctor, does that not distance us from the Creator?
R. Of course it distances to the same extent that we’re not doing this as a means to come closer to the Creator.
S. Does it mean that it needs to be in the intention?
R. Of course.
15. S. (24:04) About the illness in the ten, if I now feel, I have anger at a certain friend, criticism, that’s an illness that the Creator’s actually increasing this illness so that I will pay more attention?
R. Yes, and other than that you need to correct your attitude very quickly for the same friend you have criticism towards.
16. S. (24:33) Can this illness be manifested in our corporeal life as some kind of resentment that we have from someone that might have hurt us in the past, that we don’t even know it’s there, can this be preventing me from my connection with my ten, with my friends?
R. Yes, all these things are very, very integrated, mixed up in a person because he eventually needs to reach general love for everyone.
17. S. (25:33) How during this period should we relate to states of friends where it’s hard to justify the Creator and are even weakening it in relation to other friends?
R. You need to work on it and quickly and it has to be strong and you need to get it together and influence each other and to read together and to learn together until you will feel that you are coming closer and that there is no difference between the friends or different kinds of thoughts or desires which push you away.
18. S. (26:27) It can take years of study for a friend to understand that the illness comes from the Creator, so what thought or what can help someone hold on to the path until he attains that as long as the illness is bringing him the persistence of suffering?
R. It depends on to what extent we are connected in the group. If we are all holding on together to the group, then each one reminds the others that it comes from the Creator and only to the Creator we need to turn because this state that we received, no matter what state, comes from Him. It turns out that it all depends on the connection between us and turning to the Creator from the connection between us. That is all.
S. How, what to do when someone is going through these torments, this suffering and has no strength to ask for help from the group?
R. The group needs to set an example that through each one he turns to the Creator, through each one to the Creator, otherwise he doesn’t have a way to reach the Creator, a person alone cannot reach the Creator only if he connects at least through a few friends… to the friends. Is that clear? Okay.
19. S. (28:41) When I’m with the ten it’s easy for me to connect everything to the Creator and to see that it’s Him sending it for us to ask for correction, but you can also feel the importance of incorporating with the people because it really strengthens the heart to pray, so how to find the right balance between how much to be inside the ten and how much to be in the people to absorb deficiencies from them?
R. You need to connect first of all with those who are closer to you, meaning whoever is your friend, that in the group these are the friends, these are the people that agree to be together with you towards one goal in one direction with actions, mutually, with coming closer, and after you have agreed between each other, then you need to start actions of coming closer. Also, as much as possible to be with the people that are outside of you. That you can also perceive them for prayer, for an action, even if they don’t understand or feel but we can absorb them like their little kids that can be with us.
20. S. (29:33) How can we tell that we’re making progress, that we’re becoming more connected, is that something that we can feel or should we trust our feelings?
R. To the extent we feel that our hearts are coming closer to one another, to that extent we can measure the distance that we are building between us, that it will be shorter and shorter.
21. S. (31:19) What is our attitude toward people who left Bnei Baruch and are still connected with us and are slandering the group, the method?
R. We don’t really have any contact with them, but still they should know, if possible, what we’re doing, so that it will pull them back. The reason for their distancing is the despair. They wanted to get immediate results to come to the next world, to feel the Creator, and that happens over years, and they didn’t really invest in it, so we need to leave for them a possibility to come back.
22. S. (33:05) How can we move from the stage in which we identify the corrections and move to the stage in which we address the Creator? How do we move from identifying the corrections to turning to the Creator?
R. When we turn to the Creator by that the corrections begin.
23. S. (33:37) Please tell us how to work correctly internally with the intention so that the distancing from the Creator will be shortened to a minimum?
R. To be close to the friends and all of them together to be close to the Creator, and before everything there has to be contact with the friends, and from that connection to turn to the Creator and connect to the friends. He’ll connect among the friends among one another and when you have a mutual connection, then from that connection you will be able to turn to the Creator.
24. S. (34:42) Is being sorry about the past in which I didn’t act correctly or feel some guilt, is that an illness? How do we correct that?
R. We need only to take this into consideration and to try and not make any mistakes for the present and for the future, but not to be immersed in the mistakes of the past. We’ve grown from there because of these mistakes we are now in a different situation.
S. Because the sensitivity grows on the way and also it feels like something I didn’t see once, that it seems to me as something bad.
R. I understand. I understand. This is on a higher degree than what you did before and that it seems very, very bad, but not to look at this but to look only forward.
25. S. (35:54) I want to ask about the answer that you gave a moment ago to a Latin one, maybe I didn’t understand something. If I understood the question, he depicted a picture in which people left the study, and the group, but are still in contact with them and they are slandering the group, the path, the Rav, something that is related to our goal, do I need to listen, to hear this slander? I didn’t understand.
R. No, not listen to slander but it’s possible that they will want to come back, not that we’re working on them or reaching out to them, no. They left, they left, it’s as if they’re not here. That could be a matter of repentance, and that is why we are not doing anything against them, of course God forbid, of course not, each one has freedom of choice. If they will want to come back then we will need to discuss under what conditions we give them this possibility.
S. What about the hearing of this bad-mouthing, or slander?
R. That we are trying not to hear. We will not enter without arguments or nothing. Whoever slanders for him, for us, he is as if he doesn’t exist.
26. S. (37:43) If I identify this precise place of the illness and turn to the Creator, can I heal this illness, even if it’s a very harsh one?
R. Coming closer to the group, and prayer with everyone, with all the friends; that is the remedy.
S. How do we come to the healing? It’s like I’m turning to Him and I’m not in it, as if it’s not really healing, it’s like the flaw exists so..?
R. Look for ways. I have nothing to say, search for ways.
27. S. (38:38) Distancing from the Creator is illness, and nearing to the Creator is the healing the remedy?
R. Yes.
S. If a person turns to the Creator with the same illness again and again and is not receiving the healing, what should he then do?
R. Continue. There’s no other way. You have to continue and reach contact with the Creator more and more from contact with the friends and understand that this is the path to cure all illnesses.
S. How does a person do it correctly, maybe he’s not doing it correctly?
R. He should check himself along the way, to what extent he is in contact with the friends, with the Creator and how you can strengthen these ties.
28. S. (39:47) You said that from the mutual connection we should turn to the Creator. How can we build this mutual connection?
R. We have to turn to Him again and again if we turn to the Creator, this way, through this bi-directional connection, you’ll have a connection with Him.
29. S. (40:45) If we discover there’s an illness and the correction will heal us from that illness, what should the prayer be to ask for connection in order for the illness to be healed or simply ask for the connection without pointing to the Creator for what problem exactly we would like to get rid of?
R. We need to ask for the connection and for us to come closer and as a result of that, the problems need to leave. There may be higher level problems appearing but in such a way we advance.
30. S. (41:56) Do we need to know the name of the illness?
R. No, we can’t define the illness.
31. S. (42:07) If there’s a war we simply need to ask for connection without mentioning in the prayer that we’re asking for coming closer in order to rid ourselves from the war, for example?
R. No, when such events happen like war, then we can ask with defining the issue and pointing to that problem and our request to get rid of this problem and be saved.
32. S. (42:43) The connection in the ten, that doesn’t mean that I’m asking, it doesn’t mean that the ten becomes a place of confession does it?
R. Yes.
S. No, I don’t understand, please, Rav, what do you mean by yes?
R. Maybe ask again, we didn’t understand the answer.
S. In what we call the connection in the ten, that does not mean the ten becomes a place of confession, correct?
R. Yes, it’s not a place for confession, it’s a place for connection and to lean towards coming closer to the Creator.
33. S. (44:04) What is our role in the ten besides the regular prayers when we have a friend who’s sick in the ten? What is the activity, the special activity that we need to do?
R. First you need to care for him corporeally and then to pray for him, for the Creator to heal him. That’s it.
S. We’re doing that, those prayers, we are doing that. Is there a specific activity that we can do or that you recommend to do that will be aimed truly to this correction, to this healing of that friend?
R. No, that’s what I said. There needs to be an effort towards connection between us and an effort in appealing to the Creator, that’s it. Not to disperse to all kinds of other things, just ask for that. Help us be “as one man in one heart” and from this one heart we are asking to care for and heal the blemish in our heart which is our friend that demands the healing in a special way.
34. S. (46:01) Can we feel only through the connection between us that There’s None Else Besides Him?
R. It may be that in the connection between us, we will be able to feel the true state of every friend.
35. S. (46:35) The self examination in comparison to the friend is compared to the healing?
R. No, the examination is not the healing. The healing is after we ask, if we pray for the healing, for the nearing and then from the healing coming, that’s the healing.
S. The examination is not healing?
R. No.
36. S. (47:14) How can a person understand what exactly it means to correct in that same illness?
R. He needs to correct the connection between him and the friend, that’s the main thing, that’s the foundation to all the problems.
37. S. (47:49) Many times in the past you have said that the most important qualities are consistency and perseverance. What do we need to ask from the friends and what do we need to ask from the Creator in relation to that. The most important qualities are patience and perseverance. What in comparison to that do we need to ask from the Creator and friends?
R. For us to strengthen together in our Kli, that all together our connection will be permanent, increasing and this is how we want to come closer to the Creator. To come closer to the Creator is considered that the kind of connection between us, the kind of connection between us will be “as one man in one heart,” with one intention for adhesion such that He will not be able to differentiate between us.
38. S. (49:10) If all of the diseases, our present lack of connection, then why do we see all the diseases, why do we see extreme diseases and smaller ones? It all represents lack of connection, so what is the Creator trying to show us here?
R. In our shattered vessels there are many kinds of lack of connection, also according to the degrees of lack of connection and the shattering and overcoming one another and all kinds of such states, this against that, both in quantity and in quality. Also, this against that, all of that begets in us all kinds of negative feelings called illnesses so we can’t enter now and locate exactly which desires and at what degrees and in which fashion they are in distancing and rejection towards one another, and there are many forms of connection between the different interactions that have results between them as they become causes of something else.
Hence we call them like a disease, if I’m not feeling well, there is no correct connection between all the parts of the desires in us, in a person, and to correct it we can only through the connection between the people in the group, that’s first of all, that’s the ER, the emergency room, that’s the ER in dealing with the intensive care for the illness. And that’s how we relate to the illness, to all the problems, and therefore, every source we have as a source or a cause of an illness eventually we need to heal it through the connection between us.
39. S. (51:51) Does the Creator want us to get used to searching for Him in every action?
R. Yes, of course, so we will immediately seek behind every error what the flaw would be and the ability to locate the error depending on what level we ask and accordingly we advance in healing our illnesses, meaning in healing the disconnections between us.
S. In such a way the Creator wants us to search for flavors towards Him like letters on a white page, illnesses are like the representation of the uncorrected vessels?
R. If we correct them, then in them we will start to feel the Creator. The Creator is like the feeling of the health on a higher level.
S. What’s the difference between the individual event, the group event, to the events of the world Kli, to events that are catastrophes? How does this work?
R. That depends on the degree that we’re going through still, vegetative, animal and speaking. The four levels of nearing, connecting between us and to the extent in which we correct the shattering between us, thus, we raise ourselves to a higher level of health.
40. S. (53:33) A question about Tzimtzum and evil slandering: Can we treat them as help against them to strengthen us?
R. It would be best if we don’t relate to them whatsoever. Rabash also writes, “I don’t want them to be whatsoever, in me, in my desire, in my head at all.”
S. What should I pray for? That the war will go away, that the soldiers will come back safely or is it for my sake or to those who started this in the first place?
R. No, I first relate to the sharpest, harshest things there are. The people at the front will return home peacefully, for the war to end, for all the people of the world to understand that war is the most corrupted of things that can be, and that we need to come to a state in which there are no more wars.
S. Do we need to pray for the war to be victorious on our side, is that not considered for the will to receive?
R. That’s correct but it’s not a complete prayer. A complete prayer is where I don’t wish to anyone, anything bad, only connection, as much as it seems unrealistic in our situation with all the enemies and haters of ours, nevertheless, we want for there to be peace on the whole world, that the revelation of the Creator will be revealed in such a way, above us, that it will cover us as a dome of peace.
S. Do I pray this will happen?
R. Yes.
41. S. (56:15) Could you say we get strength to live according to our desire to realize our correction?
R. Yes, we receive the recognition of evil and the recognition of good according to the state that we are in. Yes.
42. S. (57:00) We have a great Mitzvah to be in joy. I have a lot of difficulty with this during this time. How can we from all the states succeed in seeing something positive or when we gather together, how can we be in joy?
R. We cannot be in joy and there is no commandment to be in joy in a time of sorrow and war but we need to try and pray for everyone; that is actually the commandment in such a time.
43. S. (58:00) If a friend that does actions and he makes fun of friends, doing all kinds of actions in dissemination, what actions then do I take?
R. It’s like a little child, a baby who doesn’t know what he’s doing exactly, and therefore he is relating to corrections that way, upon which it is written in the books. It’s not that we’re taking it out of our heads but rather we are reading about this from our authors, from our books, that all the Kabbalists were in attainments of the upper nature they’re writing and reading and telling us about.
44. S. (59:17) There’s great concern, it is really felt how all of our actions are responsible for what takes place in reality. I would like to have, like a policeman here who would tell me how to differentiate internality and externality. How can I place such a policeman that would say pray, now disseminate?
R. You do have such a policeman, such a guard next to you; it’s the group. Where each protects each and everyone in how to connect everyone and how to guide everyone.
S. A physical meeting is more powerful and throughout the day I feel that it is deteriorating and I don’t feel that someone is standing by my side?
R. That’s exactly the place for the work, where the physical distance should not impact you. What, such low things already influence the intentions, our heads, our hearts? There is nothing lower than physical distance and even if that throws us from the measure of connection between us, and between us and the Creator, then it’s truly great concern that should be in us. We need to try and come to a state in which no distance, no physical change will influence us, will impact us.