READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN SUNDAY

Rabash. Moses Went. 1 (1986)

LESSON MATERIAL

Moses Went

Article No. 1, 1986

It is written in The Zohar (items 1-3): “‘Moses went.’ Rabbi Hizkiya started, ‘Leading to the right of Moses the arm of his glory, dividing the water before them.’ Three holy siblings walked among them. Who are they? Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. We have established that Aaron is Israel’s right arm, as it is written, ‘When the Canaanite, King of Arad … heard that Israel was coming through the sites.’ ‘Through the sites’ means that Israel were as a man walking without one arm, supporting himself in each place, since ‘sites’ means ‘places.’ Then ‘he fought against Israel and took some of them captive,’ since they were without a right arm. Come and see, Aaron was the right arm of the body, which is Tifferet, hence it is written, ‘Leading to the right of Moses the arm of his glory.’”

We should understand the allegory that he gives about the verse, “When the Canaanite … heard.” RASHI interpreted that he heard that Aaron had died and the clouds of glory had departed, as a man who is walking without an arm. What does it mean that Aaron was the right arm? We should also understand from the allegory that when one who has no arm walks, he supports himself in every place. We should know that everything we want to do must have a reason that necessitates doing it. According to the importance of the reason, so is the ability to exert in order to obtain one’s wish.

For this reason, when a person begins to walk in the work of the Creator and wants to work in faith and bestowal, he wants to know what is the reason that one must walk specifically in this way. Each one understands that if the work was based on reception and knowing, the work would be better and more successful. That is, the body, called “self-love,” would not resist this work so strongly, since although the body desires rest and does not want to work at all, if it were on the basis of reception and knowing, it would certainly be easier and more people would engage in Torah and Mitzvot.

Baal HaSulam said that the Creator wanted the body to resist so that man will have to have His help. Without help from the Creator, it is impossible to achieve the goal, and this was in order for man to be able to rise to a higher degree each time, as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.” The holy Zohar asks, “With what is he aided? With a holy soul. When one is born he is given a soul. If he is rewarded with more…” Therefore, man is given work so he can rise in the degrees of holiness.

But in the order of the work, meaning in order for a person to ask for the Creator’s help, we need to be careful because when one comes to work, the body tells him, “Why are you so upset? In any case, you cannot overcome your nature, called ‘self-love.’ You cannot come out of it, and only the Creator can help. So why are you straining yourself, making such great efforts to exit self-love? You’re working for nothing! Why do you need this work?”

Baal HaSulam said about this that before each action one wants to perform he must say that the choice is only up to him. At that time he must not say that the Creator will help him. Rather, he must make every effort he can, and he needs the Creator only to complete the work, and he cannot finish the work for the above-mentioned reason.

Our sages said about this (Avot, Chapter 5, tractate 21): “He would say, ‘It is not for you to finish the work.’” Therefore, it can be said, “Why do I need to work? If I cannot finish it, what good is my work?” This is why the tractate continues, “Nor are you free to idle away from it.”

Thus, we see two things here that seem to contradict one another: On the one hand, a person is told to work “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” This implies that the holy work depends on man, meaning that he can finish it. On the other hand, we say as it is written, “The Lord will finish for me.”

The thing is that both are needed. On the one hand, a person must make a choice, meaning to have a desire to work for the Creator. If he could finish his work he would remain in his current state because he would feel that he is complete because he would see that all his actions are for the Creator, so what else is missing? Therefore, there is no longer any need to draw the light of Torah.

However, in order to have a need to progress in the Torah, since the Torah is the names of the Creator, which the Creator desired to reveal to the creatures, and according to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli [vessel],” then how can one receive the light of Torah when he hasn’t the Kli, called “need and deficiency”? For this reason, when one begins to work and sees that he cannot finish the work, he acquires a need and deficiency for the light of Torah.

It is as our sages said, “The light in it reforms him.” And then, each time he wants to become purer, he must receive greater help from above. This is why we need both, and there is no contradiction between them, since each has its unique role.

This is similar to what we see in corporality, as every conduct that applies to spirituality extends to corporeality. We see that the order is that when a person is standing on the street carrying a heavy load, and he is asking a passersby to help him lift the sack onto his back, everyone tells him they have no time, and “Please ask someone else, since there are many people here who can help you, and you don’t really need my help.” But if a person is carrying a heavy sack on his back and the sack is dropping off and is about to fall to the ground, and people pass by him and he is asking for their help to put the sack on his back so it does not fall, we see that at that time, when the sack is about to fall off his back, no one will tell him, “I have no time; ask someone else to help you.” Rather, the first one next to him will immediately help him.

We should understand the difference between whether the sack is standing on the ground and he is asking for help, in which case everyone has his own excuse not to help him, and whether the sack is on his back and is about to fall, so the first person next to him helps him. We should understand that it is different with someone who is in the middle of the work, who has already begun the work and we can see that he is asking for help so he can continue the work, meaning that the load on his back is about to fall and so we help him.

But if he only wants to begin the work now, we tell him, “No rush. Pretend that the desire to begin the work came a little later; this is not so terrible.” For this reason, everyone sees that he does not need immediate help, but can wait until he finds someone with spare time to help him.

The lesson is that when a person waits for the Creator to help him and says, “Now I can work, but before the Creator gives me a desire and craving, I cannot overcome the desires of my body, and I sit and wait for the Creator to help me so I can begin the work of the Creator.”

This is similar to a person waiting for any person passing by him to place the heavy sack on his back. Likewise, that man is waiting for the Creator to give him strength and help him, and place the burden of the kingdom of heaven on his back, as it is written, “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load.” He wants the Creator to help him with these burden and load and then he will begin the work. At that time he is told, “Wait for an opportunity, and in the meantime stay with the sack of assuming the burden of the kingdom of heaven below on earth.”

This is not so with one who has already begun the work, and is not saying that he will wait until the Creator gives him the desire to do the holy work and then he will begin to work. Rather, he does not want to wait because the craving to work and reach the truth pushes him forward though he does not see that he will have the ability to go forward alone, like Nahshon.

However, he sees that he cannot continue this work and is afraid that the burden of the kingdom of heaven, which he is now carrying, is beginning to fall off from him so he begins to call out for help, since he sees that each time, the burden he has taken on himself begins to fall. It is like a person carrying a sack on his back and sees that the sack is beginning to fall. We see that in corporeality, each one he asks for help helps him right away, and no one puts him off for later.

Similarly, in spirituality, one who begins to see that the burden and load are beginning to fall off from him, meaning the work he had previously assumed, to be “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” and he sees that soon he will be in descent, so he cries out to the Creator and receives help. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided,” as is written in The Zohar.

Conversely, Baal HaSulam said about one who waits for the Creator to help him first and then he will have the strength to work, that it is as it is written (Ecclesiastes, 11), “He who guards the wind will not sow and he who looks at the clouds…” meaning that he stands and waits for the Creator to send a spirit of repentance. This man will never reach the truth.

Now let us return to the matter we asked, “What is the allegory about a person walking without an arm and is supporting himself in every place, and when Aaron dies the arm departs and then the Canaanite can fight against Israel?” We need to know that the right arm is regarded as Hesed [mercy], which is the vessel of bestowal. That is, he wants only to do mercy and bestow. By his power, Aaron drew this power to the people of Israel. Because of it no one could fight against the people of Israel, since it is the conduct of the body that it comes to a person and makes him see that if he listens to it, it will give him many pleasures. But if the body hears that his only desire is to bestow, he sees that it hasn’t the strength to speak with him.

They received the power of bestowal from Aaron the priest, which is the quality of Hesed, and were adhered to him. Therefore, they were under his governance. Hence, when Aaron died, he lost the power of bestowal and the war of self-reception began, for the body could now find a place to argue with him. This is why he gives the allegory of a man walking without an arm, having to support himself in every place he finds where he can find support.

Here the lesson is that since they lacked the power of above reason, called “mind,” as well as the power of bestowal, called “heart,” the body demanded support for every effort that it made. That is, it asked, “On what basis are you demanding of me to give you the strength to work?” Since he had no Hesed so he could say, “I am going above reason,” since this is the quality of Aaron, whose is regarded as Hesed, called “bestowal” and “above reason.”

This is called, “hangs the earth on nothing.” Baal HaSulam interpreted that faith above reason means that he has no support, but everything is hanging in midair. It says, “Hangs the earth,” where “earth” means the kingdom of heaven. “On nothing” means without any support.

Therefore, when Aaron died they had no one to draw this power so they went within reason and naturally supported themselves in each and every place. That is, wherever they saw that they could receive support so the body would want to work in Torah and Mitzvot [commandments] they would accept it. This is called “through the sites,” as a person who is walking without an arm. Naturally, the Canaanite came to fight against Israel because within reason they have the dominance to fight. But above reason they cannot argue with this path because he does not need any support.

It follows that the whole exertion begins when a person wants to go above reason and needs to receive that power from above. This comes to them through the quality of Aaron, but now he himself must draw that force, meaning ask of the Creator to help him.

At that time he begins to discern between two things: 1) one who waits for the Creator to help him receive this power, and stands and waits for it, and 2) one who hasn’t the patience to wait for the Creator to help him, but rather begins to work and then yells for help from the Creator and says, “For the waters are threatening my life.” And because he has already come to a clear understanding that only the Creator can help him he receives the help.

The order of the prayer should not be as lip service. Rather, when he is faced with danger he should not yield before the governance of evil that comes to him with strong arguments and wants to distract him from the work of wanting to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven. They make every effort to disrupt him with everything they can do.

We see how the poet is giving us a clear picture of the evil that is standing before us. It is written in the Selichot (Selichot [prayers for pardon] for the fourth day of the Ten Penitentiary Days), “To You, O Lord, I call, O dreadful and terrible. Do not hide Your face in the day of trouble, when cursed ones arise against us … saying, ‘You must not accept God, bowing before Him dividedly, and without sanctifying He who does much pardons, nor fear the Godly dread. When I hear this, my heart trembles; this I will reply to my adversary: ‘God forbid that I should forget and leave the portion of the God of my father.’”

It turns out that when one wishes to take upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven, and burden means “as an ox to the burden and as a donkey to the load,” meaning that both the donkey and the ox resist assuming this work, but do it coercively. Why do they resist when they feel that they are working, but when they enjoy the work, meaning when they are eating, although this is also work, they are enjoying during the act so it is not considered “work”?

When a person has no right arm, regarded as desiring mercy, at which time he enjoys the work, the Sitra Achra [other side] has no contact with this work so she can fight. But when Aaron dies, namely when he has not been rewarded with Aaron’s quality of Hesed, the outer ones come to him and tell him all kinds of words of heresy, and then it is work in two ways.

LESSON

Morning Lesson February 02, 2024

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 1, 1986. Moses Went

https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/OnWQPVvx

1. Rav intro: (29:19) Okay thank you friend, if there are questions please.

2. S. (29:28) I want to say that first of all this is an exciting moment for us that our whole Ten is here for the first time. I want to ask about the beginning of the work, our feeling in the Ten that we want to do the work and he speaks about in the article here, about a bag that’s too heavy to carry that was about to collapse. How with our vessels that we have at the moment, how can we know that we are doing enough work so that he can help us with soon to fall a load?

R. With your example of a person who stands in the middle of the street with the heavy bag he also has all kinds of questions. How will I carry the bag and am I even ready, prepared for such a load? It’s part of the work, but if we have an opportunity and all the data with which we can turn to the Creator for help then it’s probably up to us and we probably shouldn’t escape it.

3. S. (31:09) When he speaks about the faith above reason and honor of above, does this mean that we can receive these forces in a group or is this just a personal thing?

R. We’re talking about this in a personal way but we’re all in groups and we can’t be torn out of the group, so we also have to realize that it is also a group work. Meaning there’s a single law just like a man with respect to the Creator similarly the group is one towards the Creator.

4. S. (32:04) The work if I understood correctly is going above reason, right?

R. Yes.

S. What does it mean that a person decides he’s going for that work? How can you make that decision? What are the conditions to make such a decision?

R. Well let’s ask the friends maybe. When a person feels that his work demands him to go with faith above reason he first needs to see if he’s in it, in such a force and if not he needs to ask.

S. It sounds like work above is a very advanced stage in the work, it’s not something that a person just does immediately?

R. It’s close to us, it’s in our hands, it’s just in the direction of bestowal and it’s just that we can’t even move one mm away from my state but in faith above reason I can do that.

S. I understand so we’re here with the friends in the group and we get opportunities to bestow with the simple things we do, and to us going into this work we’re starting to carry the bag means doing actions that we understand as bestowal for now?

R. No, you make a calculation, and you see that if you make an effort for it in such a way you will be working in bestowal.

S. And then a person understands or not he just goes and does it, is that it?

R. What do you mean understand or doesn’t understand?

S. Because the matter of bestowal is kind of not so obvious, am I bestowing am I not bestowing?

R. No, so you can’t work. How do you decide that you can now make an action with faith above reason?

S. That was my first question.

R. He writes the conditions for you. First of all you’re in a state where you have no strength of your own, no motive let’s say or no reason for you to start working. Rather you first need to awaken in you the initial point, where do you begin and when can you begin from being in the group and it is ready to help you, to assist you if you show everyone how your work is above reason. 

S. Meaning the initial stage is there’s no forces of his own, that’s where it starts? 

R. In faith a but reason it’s impossible that a person will have something, of course he doesn’t.

S. How does a person get courage? I don’t know how to constantly put himself in a place where he has no power, no forces and we don’t like that, I don’t know about others. I’ll talk about myself, I don’t like to put myself in some place that I don’t have forces, I can’t do I don’t want to go into such states, the desire to receive really doesn’t love that?

R. On the one hand, on the other hand it’s a very very joyous point on the path that I have nothing for myself, and I can’t make any action or slightest movement and then I can turn to the Creator and cry for Him to help me.

S. Is that the state that Baal HaSulam calls there’s no happier state than a person’s life?

R. Yes, yes.

5. S. (37:00) He writes that before every work we have the choice that depends on me and not to say that the Creator will help him and to put forth all the forces that he has. Why when a person clears the Creator from his work and works as if it all depends on himself, why is that the initial state the initial step?

R. Because he wants to decide out of all his forces and attributes what can he do about this.

S. When does he see that it’s not in his power to do so?

R. He checks, he checks and he sees that he has no preparation for it.

S. Is this a stage for sorting desires that are going through him?

R. Correct.

6. S. (37:57) Can we say that the heavy bag, the heavy sack is the yearning for the Creator that is revealed in a person? Meaning that previously he didn’t see that the help exists in the society but that now the deficiency is more aimed correctly and therefore he starts to be more sensitive to the help of the Creator?

R. He needs the Creator.

S. The direction changes and he actually discovers that the help is there before him?

R. Yes.

7. S. (38:52) In the Ten I feel that I’m developing, growing, going through certain states but accordingly I also feel that in the corporeal world I’m developing a certain empathy and altruism towards people. How can we differentiate between these two things?

R. Why?

S. Do I need to?

R. Between what and what again?

S. Between the corporeal world in my spiritual advancement with my group?

R. Why do you have to differentiate?

S. Because in the corporeal world not all people have the same goal as mine, not everyone wants to advance in spirituality?

R. What do you care about it?

S. I feel like they don’t understand me and I’m not the same person I was and I’m constantly clashing against walls of misunderstanding?

R. Why do you demand of them to do what you do?

S. I’m not ,I simply talk and express myself in different ways and it’s less accepted?

R. Why are you looking at me, friend?

S. I’m waiting for the answer.

R. I think that a person who wants to get closer to the Creator let’s say, he has no complaints about other people. Rather the Creator is aiming them in their way, and he only exists among everyone and asks the Creator for forces of bestowal, what he needs.

S. It’s simply more difficult when it has to do with family, relatives, people that were before my point in the heart when I was born?

R. Yes, but you have to feel that now you’re in a new state therefore how do you look at them and the Creator and all of reality, and how they look at you and there are changes but the changes they are manageable.

S. Are the sensations that I feel, do I need to cause them happiness and that in the end there’s some judgment day that they will see and look at all their thoughts that I thought, and all the statements I stated and know everything. Are those feelings correct and the apathy I feel towards them?

R. I’m not sure what to tell you. We have to try and follow what Baal HaSulam writes. Do I need to demand my environment to act like I do? Of course not. Do I need to influence them with some idea or power which goes against what they’re doing now, also I think no. However, we need to take care of ourselves.

S. But if I’m on the right path, why can’t I draw them with me, why do I need to get out and hide this and not show them?

R. In the right way you should influence them only through example, only through example by making actions of bestowal. First of all they see it, perhaps they’ll also see the reason why you do it and then they’ll get closer that’s one thing. Secondly from being among them you’ll influence them, because around you will be some kind of field that pulls them to a new direction and that’s enough.

8. S. (44:12) He writes here when they enjoy the work meaning when they’re eating, although this is also work but when he enjoys in action in the time of the act it’s not considered work. What is considered work and what isn’t considered work?

R. The work is called that a person wants to get rid of it. Meaning does the reward, let’s say covers the expenses so to speak. That with the same amount of power that a person attaches to his actions and the same forces, they will ultimately align the person where to walk and how to walk. I got a few thoughts going on and I am losing my direction between them.

9. S. (46:14) He writes, he stands and expects that the Creator will send a spirit of repentance and with that he’ll never come to the truth. Sometimes a person does everything he has to, comes every morning to the lesson, even performs a certain role and serves the society, doesn’t miss out on his zooms, the workshops, answers his time, does the work, and expects that from that something will happen. Is that considered that he’s standing and waiting for the truth, and it never comes, is there something missing?

R. A person needs to every single moment expect to receive some change from the Creator whereas at any given moment he will change.

S. Based on what will he change, he puts everything on the land, and he is saying when will the Creator come?

R. No, no we’re talking about the condition that he does work.

S. Working means that he puts the sack on his shoulders and then the Creator will help him?

R. Yes.

S. What does it mean that we’re lifting up this sack because again this technical work or that we’re coming to the lessons, we’re participating in everything and even serving the society. Is that really picking up the sack or is there something more internal?

R. You’re looking for new ways by which to nevertheless lift up that sack and how to move it towards the goal.

S. What is to lift up the sack in our work? 

R. To pick up the sack in our work means that in my work I receive from my connection to the group another part that didn’t participate earlier in connection, and I tried to adapt it to connection.

S. That’ll have to be discerned. The word connection is so amorphic, that it is so distant?

R. No, no you need to know that this force needs to be as your representative in the Creator and in the connection with everyone.

S. I’ll think about it, thank you.

10. S. (49:11) It’s important for a person to lift up that sack, it’s already very important for him to pick up that sack and he feels that the sack is very heavy, it’s a ton and he can’t pick it up alone. That already is a very important point, and he was told, and he knows that one of the means he has in order to lift up the sack is to turn to his friends, to turn to his Ten?

R. Yes.

S. Now we touched upon this yesterday that something that really hurts and it’s very important to a person and he asks. My question is before we turn to the Ten, before we turn for help what is the proceeding attitude, what is the work of the one who’s asking, what should his attitude be towards the one who’s asking from, towards the Ten?

R. What do I need to do, why do I need to do that, what’s the benefit from me appealing to the Creator, what is the benefit from me turning from the Creator to the friends. How will I be more sensitive to the help of the friends. Where they’re doing something right now too, but I don’t feel it, and this is how he advances.

S. Does he need to be convinced that he will come to the point where he’s convinced that they will help him or the very fact that he’s asking because he was told? There are like two levels here right?

R. That he doesn’t know if it’s two layers or levels or several. It’s written, one will help his friend. He starts to investigate this and begins to get into it to what extent he can help them and to what extent they can help him.

S. By asking to be helped as well?

R. It could be.

S. In what way?

R. In his deficiency. 

11. S. (52:05) It’s written at the end of the article that when a person has no right arm called delighted in mercy, in which he can enjoy the work then the Sitra Achra comes again and does the work. What does it mean that we’re not allowed to enjoy from the effort in the work?

R. In essence, yes. We need to enjoy not from the efforts themselves but rather from to what extent the efforts impact the Creator and there is relation to the friends.

S. How can we examine whether our efforts bring delight to the Creator and towards the friends?

R. You’re asking for your work to include already some raising of MAN on your behalf, some payment that you want to receive for your action, you want your friends to receive from this upliftment.

S. Meaning let’s say I come to the lesson I make a certain effort and I feel good about that, so that’s prohibited? Rather it needs to be such that I’m expecting that the friends will have an upliftment for my actions? Yes, is that so?

R. That’s on one hand on the other hand it’s not supposed to feel bad from this, it’s not something that you know would cause a blessing that way.

S. Is it good that I feel bad from the effort?

R. No, your attitude towards your efforts needs to be in the same direction in which you think to move yourself.

12. S. (54:38) What does it mean that which is written here that he hangs it on the land his stuff, faith above reason has no force whatsoever and rather everything stands hanging in the air?

R. Yes, yes that’s exactly this, that he understands that he has no assurance and that his efforts will succeed at any point. Rather just the Creator that he turns to can change his state and bring him closer to correction. 

13. S. (55:32) Do we need the state of the sack, which is on our back to slide down, fall down in order to ask the Creator or can we prevent it beforehand so that it doesn’t fall off the back?

R. No, the sack is seemingly falling, and a person is afraid that at any given point the sack would fall off. What does that mean and what is that in our feeling in the thought of a person? That I won’t be able to bring contentment to the Creator.

S. That’s fear actually? This is fear of not reaching the goal?

R. Yes, I won’t be able to bestow to the Creator and then if he feels that he’s happy from that. That he now discovers a new point of deficiency and he’s asking the Creator to give him forces to sustain himself in that. 

14. S. (57:09) When we say that only the Creator can help, and man still needs to look for help through some clothing whether it’s friends or the article. Not that suddenly some abstract force comes to him and then it overcomes his will to receive, meaning there has to be some calculation where you see that the Creator helps, let’s say through the group?

R. Think, check it, examine it.

S. Even just the fact that a person remembers and hears but he remembers he needs to turn, is that already assistance?

R. Yes, that’s already help.

S. It’s insufficient, this assistance?

R. I don’t know. It depends on what conditions, on what circumstances. 

15. S. (58:28) We talked about the state of the prayer, a person who turns, is there a state that the Ten also does this collectively or is it an individual’s work and how to get there?

R. How do we reach in our work a common action by us connecting and our intentions and desires, our actions are aimed towards us being and as one man in one heart in a certain action like that. 

16. S. (59:31) I understood from the article Aaron is a force that draws us closer to the force of bestowal, and the Creator that it precedes the force of Moses but there’s a nuance I can’t understand. Why is this force attributed to the act of Mercy? It should belong to the left side, where is this connection that Aaron is on the left side and when does it move to the right?

R. We will scrutinize that a little later he doesn’t really go too deep in this matter. 

17. S. (01:00:23) Should we relate to effort like a game, that the Creator should love this game even if we don’t love this game we need to incorporate with it and really do it in a true sense?

R. There are such states in which we have to do so, we have to check it and scrutinize it.

18. S. (01:01:18) It is said that one who starts the work does it because he wants to because the passion to do the work to reach the truth pushes him forward. Where does the passion come from?

R. Of course from the Creator but that’s even before that.

S. Why do we say it’s from himself when he doesn’t want to wait for the Creator, is it from the person or not waiting for the Creator?

R. At this given moment in this state it doesn’t come, it came to him from the previous action let’s say, therefore it’s attributed to the Creator.

19. S. (01:02:18) Is it correct to say that the state of the death of Aaron is a kind of a shattering when a person loses the will to bestow and moves to work within reason with self-love. Then in his plight he turns to the Creator with a cry, with a prayer and it says that one who comes to purify is aided. Are we supposed to go through this process where these processes are all supposed to go through during our spiritual development?

R. Yes, yes of course, otherwise why would it be, they are telling us about this.