YESOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Lesson on the topic of “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”
Morning Lesson August 22, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Growing Stronger in There Is None Else Besides Him – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #4
Reading #4 Twice
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, this excerpt is very full and emotional.
2. S. (04:34) Can you please explain what is written here, that it is desirable to cancel nature’s partitions that he feels?
R. We can’t do that but we can ask that the Creator will cancel the partition that exists between us and Him, this is what we do, we try, we ask and then as he says, and the Lord’s desire will succeed by you, but we ourselves, cannot do it, we cannot cancel any partitions.
3. S. (05:27) Regarding the partitions of nature, it is like a dream that we are dreaming, before we wake up from sleep? Does it weaken the connection between us?
R. No it doesn’t cancel anything and it does not create a partition between us and the Creator, it is something natural that also exists in animals and human beings. Every living body requires a cessation from its existence, and entering sleep, it is not a partition from the Creator. It is a part of our life and it actually renews within us many spiritual forces as well.
4. S. (06:35) What is it that we get up in the morning and we reach a state that we have a desire to adhere to the Creator?
R. So when we get up from sleep we are normally not in adhesion with the Creator, maybe from the sleep we already get up with some thought from the Creator but because in the sleep we have no sensitivity, we don’t have our ordinary sensitivity that we have throughout the day, then we have to come back to that sensitivity and that it will all be directed toward connection with the Creator.
S. Let us say that we woke up, what is this state that the desire of the Creator is in his hand, is that adhesion?
R. Yes when we wake up in the morning we want to be in adhesion with the Creator and all the time to remain in that state more and more. This is how it is.
5. S. (07:59) Baal HaSulam writes in his letter that the moment the person gets up from his sleep he should sanctify the first moment with Dvekut with him, pour out his heart to the Creator and so on, how it possible to even do such a thing? In my current state, comparing it to these high words I understand how much I am not.
R. Well you will try another day and another day and another day and you will see that you can already from the sleep to get closer to the state where you get up and you start to actively think about the Creator, well it depends on what time you’re in with respect to the lesson, and then you prepare yourself to the lesson. It is desirable to turn on some tape or whatever you have at home and listen to a few songs of ours, good ones, proper ones that you can choose in advance, hear an excerpt or a few excerpts, read a few things from the topic of there is None Else Besides Him and this is how you wake up and aim yourself correctly toward to perceive nature correctly.
S. In addition we learned that our connection with the Creator is only through the friends, through the ten, I don’t know why we start to scrutinize the friends, Rabash doesn’t write about it.
R. Yes, but also you should wake up and try to connect with the Creator and after you are directed toward Him, then you also go to the friends, you seemingly turn, it is not that you connect with them but seemingly you turn to them, you don’t call them, but you turn to them and in your awareness you connect the whole group and together out of that and you awaken them and they awaken you, and everyone is together in an embrace, this is how you imagine all these things and then you turn to the Creator.
6. S. (10:54) Every action we need to do together with the Creator, and one time we learned that the Creator always precedes us.
R. No, I nevertheless have to ask of Him, I have to awaken and ask and give thanks, meaning that the connection has to be mutual. I want to awaken myself and awaken the Creator towards me and it also goes through the ten but first, me to Him and Him to me, and later on together with the friends to the Creator and from the Creator towards all the friends in the entire ten and this is how I prepare myself to an active connection.
S. Who was the first, who is awakening who, of course later on it is mutual. But who is the first, the Creator or the person?
R. No the Creator awakens the person but as he writes here, 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 24 hours of the day so that there’s no cessation of adhesion. So who does it? The person does it the moment that he wakes up from sleep.
7. S. (12:49) What is the condition, the state where one believes that the walls of nature are not separating the Creator?
R. They do not separate him anyway that is for sure, however they don’t feel that they don’t separate him from the side of the Creator there is no partition and the person is of course naked before him, on the side of the person there is a partition and that partition is what a person wants to cancel and this is what he’s talking about. That is if he wants to be in adhesion without any partition between them. He should imagine this and pray for it that there will be no partition, this is what we need not more than that. Our whole life is only to cancel the partition between me and Him.
8. S. (14:05) We are talking about the partitions from the beginning of the lesson, what are the partitions of nature?
R. Nature’s partitions are that I feel that I exist and the Creator exists, and these are two authorities, and I want to be a single authority, the Creator’s authority and I will truly be inside of Him.
S. This, that I wake up in the morning and immediately ascribe everything that happens to me to the Creator, give thanks to the Creator, request from Him, does that already give me the connection to Him?
R. Maybe yes, maybe no, I do not understand your words. You need to check yourself with your emotion how much you are in soul devotion towards this connection, that besides this connection you do not want anything.
S. But I know that I feel that my connection with the Creator is through the friends.
R. That is even better so now add all the friends to that.
9. S. (15:34) In our environment when we wake up early, we know that the Creator does not let us sleep, and we feel very joyful that we overcame a great obstacle, is it correct to feel Him great like this, that he let us wake up and give Him gratitude and be in all this?
R. Yes, we should thank the Creator that he helped us get up and now we are awakened, and we can continue the work of the Lord, meaning to come closer to the Creator and cancel the partitions between us, between the friends also and to the extent that we cancel the partitions between the friends, we also cancel the partitions between us and the Creator.
10. S. (16:37) You have hundreds of students that don’t wake up in the morning immediately to the lesson because they live in different parts of the world. So I don’t understand this excerpt here that talks about the first thing in the morning.
R. It doesn’t matter if it is there now in the morning or not in the morning, but rather whenever they get up in their morning, they should immediately renew their connection with the Creator, that is it. That is first of all, first with the Creator, and then they also think about the group, that with the friends, together with everyone in thought and with a minded effort, he connects with them and with the Creator and he seemingly binds everyone to the Creator and this is how he starts his day.
Reading #5 (17:50) “One who assumes the complete burden..” Twice
11. R. (21:29) That is, we should always ask all the time to be in a prayer, in request, because first of all, we don’t have a person or someone who is closer than the Creator who is willing to arrange everything, willing to help and expecting it and waiting for it, and truly more than us, He wants us to succeed in our correction and we have no one else to turn to, only to Him.
12. S. (22:11) In the beginning of the excerpt he writes about assuming the complete burden of the kingdom of Heaven, then they would find no labor in the work.
R. But we need to reach that.
S. Then he writes that whoever says that they don’t feel a lack in the cessation of Dvekut then they are missing something.
R. Yes but it is not about the same person who assumes upon himself the complete burden of the kingdom of Heaven, there is a difference.
S. What is the difference between both states? In one state he is saying it is good, right?
R. One who assumes the complete burden of the kingdom of Heaven, so for him, he feel that everything is wide open, from his side it is his whole heart and from the Creator side it is his whole heart, they both have an inclination towards each other, and therefore he can be adhered to the Creator in day and night, but we are not talking about such states and we are also not in such states, we don’t even understand exactly what it means to be in that and therefore our whole work is below that.
S. So he is saying do not even think that we are close to the state of complete adhesion?
R. Not to think about it, but that you need to know, more or less, where you are and of course you are not still in complete adhesion. Complete adhesion is the end of the path. What is it that we have to correct? All in all from here on we need to correct ourselves until the end of our correction so that we will be in adhesion with Him, let’s say in day and night in all the 613 parts in whatever way you want to call it, 125 degrees, we have to reach adhesion.
13. S. (24:38) A tactic to be in adhesion he writes, either by the thought of faith or confidence.
R. There are few ways we will learn that, but for the time being we don’t see it, these things are not clear to us, they are seemingly not before us, and so just think about adhesion. I want to be adhered, how? Like a baby is it here to the mother, that is it. That they have between them such glue that it is impossible to pull the mother from the baby, to take him, to tear him apart from the mother. For him, this is whole life he has to be only in that, besides that he doesn’t want anything. You see how they sit on the mother, he turns his head but without letting go of her, like that, we see this, it is the most comfortable and natural form, also for animals, like monkeys the way they hold their offspring like that.
14. S. (26:04) We must be in a condition of constant demand for salvation, but the will to receive is moving and shifting every moment. How will we remain in the spiritual vessel, in the material process we are in?
R. If we look what the Creator did, how much He made adhesion easier for us, which is actually the purpose of development, the purpose of creation, the purpose of life and the end of correction. If we are in a ten and it is not that it is 10 times harder for us to reach adhesion with the Creator because I depend on everyone, but rather I depend on everyone not as an obligation, but as a merit, a privilege.
How should I put it, that I depend on everyone in as much as in each and everyone is in adhesion, I am also with him. He takes me and I take him and this is what we call Arvut, mutual responsibility and this is how we each other and therefore one doesn’t pray, the other one does, the third is not capable and the fourth one forgets, but in the end all of us can be in our general Arvut between us and this is how we are constantly adhered to the Creator and constantly we are concerned on how not to fall from Him.
15. S. (28:17) In the beginning it seemed that we remember the connection of the friends and then the Creator, so here it is the opposite, so what?
R. First of all don’t speak about others, you could speak about yourself, you can say I not we. So if I do not remember the Creator and why should I turn to the friends? Therefore first of all, when we wake up, we should remember where I am from, who I am, what I am, who gives birth to me, who holds me, who sustains me, who directs me, and afterwards so that’s from my side in order for me to reach Him and connect and adhere and strengthen the connection, then I turn to the ten.
I can also turn to the Creator through the ten, I can also turn to the ten, but if I turn to the ten, I missed the first principle, what for? What is the reason? Why I reach the ten and that happens also, that I turn to the ten, I seemingly lost the way, I don’t know why, what for, I know nothing and I relate them simply because I’m used to it, habit becomes second nature and then I hear from them that there is a Creator and we have to connect with Him, that also happens. But actually the connection with the Creator should be the first, as it is written I am the first and I am the last.
16. S. (30:22) We feel the beauty of the adhesion with the Creator but we feel these thoughts disconnected us from Him, if the thoughts come from Him aren’t the thoughts supposed to bring us closer to him?
R. Again.
S. If the thoughts come from the Creator shouldn’t these thoughts bring us closer to HIm?
R. All the thoughts come from the Creato. In general everything comes from the Creator from zero to one hundred percent. Bad thoughts, good thoughts, it doesn’t matter which ones that doesn’t mean anything. I have to sort these thoughts. I have to arrange them, organize them and see and filter them with which thoughts I am now going forward and operating. The Creator operates the whole of reality in all the Sefirot and the inner one, in the particular ones in the thoughts, inner thoughts, everyone, inanimate, vegetative, animated everything is inside of his net..
17. S. (31:58) I understand that I cannot correct myself and how can I help my friends correct themselves?
R. Together with them. No one can correct himself because He does not exist. A single Sefira out of ten Sefirot cannot correct itself. It has to become incorporated with all ten Sefirot and together with them in harmony and in the style of one, correct itself together with everyone. What does it mean to correct a single Sefira ? There is no such concept,there isn’t. Rather we have to connect the Sefirot, we have to organize them, we have to see to which kind of connection, which intensity and manner of connection in order to bestow some light from the Creator and then operate themselves with a request and an action in receiving in order to bestow and then it will be a correction.
18. S. (33:07) I need to stay to myself, how sorry it is that I do not have adhesion with the Creator right now? We have to show joy to the friends. How do we hold on to this sorrow from this lack of adhesion and joy at the same time?
R. It is true, you can have both this and that at the same time. The fact that I have sorrow for a lack of adhesion means I’m already on the path and getting closer to the Creator.
S. What is the action that is called to accept the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven?
R. When I take upon myself to come closer to the Creator through adhesion with friends and to try to reach it completely. This is called to assume the complete burden of the kingdom of heaven.
19 S. (33:58) How is this transition done, the thought of the Creator and to adhere to him, like a baby to the mother, to prayer?
R. Of course the prayer should be the result of that. Everything should start and end in a prayer because only through prayer can we advance. We have to organize the prayer, the connection between us as one man in one heart. A prayer that will emerge from us, as from one man called Adam. Then we turn to the other one who is the Creator and we ask of Him that He will connect us , fill us, correct us and most importantly that we will reach adhesion with him.
S. When you say that we need to be in prayer all day, can you explain the state?
R. All the states, bad ones, good ones, nearing and distancing. We have as a result of that to turn to the Creator.
S. In order to be adhered to Him, like a baby to a mother or we have to exit this state?
R. In all states including the baby and the mother.
21. S. (35:24) What is more important than annul the partitions between us or between me and the Creator?
R. The separations between us, because the separations between us and the Creator already depend on the separations between us. There is no separation between us and the Creator but only those separations that exist between us. The distances between us. They all accumulate, add up and this is what determines the distance between us and the Creator.
S. Why specifically if I overcome the partitions between us do we reach adhesion with the Creator?
R. Because it is the same thing. If I reach adhesion with the Ten when I reach adhesion with the Creator. I cancel my ego to such an extent we’re already instead of the force of rejection I have the forms of connection and then by that I begin to be in adhesion with the creator. The calculation is a simple one.
22. S. (37:18) What is the action that turns the preventions into adhesion?
R. Disturbances, they tell us where adhesion is missing. Thus we need to be happy from this that we reveal the disturbances.
S. What is the action that we should perform the moment that we discover the disturbances?
R. That we can pray, that we can ask the Creator to correct the disturbances. The correction is not upon us. What is upon us is to reveal where we lack adhesion. Between the friends, from between the friends and the Creator. Usually it is between the friends and then we turn to the Creator to correct. That is it. The force of the breaking and force of correction is only the Creator.
S. What.comes first, the disturbances or the adhesion?
R. First comes the revelation of the shattering, which is disturbances. That is how they show us where there is lack of adhesion and then return to their Creator and request the correction.
S. But is there something that helps to identify these disturbances and ask for correction?
R. The request of the Creator to bring is closer in the ten, as different as we may be very different from one another. Nonetheless we need to request from Him to bring us closer. Nearnes to be an internal sensation above all the corporeal things. Rather that we begin to feel that we belong to one network. Later on we will feel that we are in the same network with all the people of the world.
S. Is there a difference between cessation of adhesion with a Creator and cessation of adhesion with the friends?
R. Surely that one results from the other. As much as I adhered with the friends, then I am adhered with the Creator, Adhesion the friend’s is the first, it is what determines and then adhesion with the Creator the result of this. Thus it is written from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator.
S..The disturbances are only in the ten? Only in the connection between us?
R. Yes, mainly in the connection in the ten. Even more than this, we will soon see how much our connection in the ten can heal all of the corruptions in the society and even in the world.
S. The disturbances that appear to me. should the be share with the Ten and we ask together or should it be done individually.
R. We speak only about the lack of connection between us in the ten. If you have this, then you don’t need to say anything. The main thing is that you are requesting from the Creator to help you to be adhered to with the friends that between you there is some tear.
S. Are the tears are more group wise? All of us together?
R. Work on it and you will see how much there is until the end of correction, until the end of correction.
23. S. (41:51) How can we awaken consciously to each other and follow the desire to bestow to come together with the friends and not stay asleep, and I’m okay, there is nothing wrong here, I have everything, everything is good? What is the difference between going one way bestowing to friends , society or I just go to sleep.
R. You need to fight against this laziness that you have. You need really to be strong to awaken one another, to hold one another to be strong. I have nothing more to say. To always be with us in all the lessons and to make an effort to read our materials.
24. S. (43:19) There is a sensation as like the Creator is in an emotional force. Is this because he clothes in my vessel and I see him through my own vessel or is it because his essence?
R. Such is his Essence, he includes all the hearts in a manner that is from the worst of the very best in all the states they are in and go through and upon this is in that positive force and waiting for them to reach that same state.
S. How can we stabilize our adhesion for regardless if I am in night or day or in concealment, revelation but how can I stabilize myself regardless of what state I am in?
R. There is this magic word, this magic action called Arvut. If you are in the ten and in the ten of each one takes a new place, a different place each time, then you are completing one another unless there is room for each one to be in every state.
S. So even if I am unable to connect in my own forces I have the desire of the friend and through this desire I obtain additional forces to connect.
R. Correct.
Reading #6 (48:25) Twice
25. S. (51:35) What does it mean to be in a condition that is suitable for the Creator?
R. When we feel that we can scrutinize a question and raise it to the Creator, that is a worthy prayer.
26. S. (52:09) What does it say here about, what does he mean by witchcraft, what is that about?
R. I do not know, I have no business with that, but try to think that a person can think about all sorts of things, where this comes from and why and so on. Does he fear or not, does he have thought about the Creator or not, maybe there is some side forces that are bothering him that are bringing him some thoughts about there is one else besides Him. So he needs to understand that all of this the Creator himself only is awakening in him.
S. So there is nothing a person or people in the world can change, it is only the Creator, there is none else besides Him, that is it?
R. Not that they just cannot change, rather they cannot think and decide and do but rather the Creator does everything only and a person has nothing to this, rather just to use what passes over him, next to him in order to use it for adhesion with the Creator. That is all. Try you will see how nicely it is works out, it is arranged.
27. S. (54:12) It is written that as the body is impressed by the superficial fear so he should be impressed by the fear of Heaven, what is this fear of Heaven that we should be impressed by it to the same extent?
R. Yes, that is a problem to be afraid of the Creator at least like I am afraid of some thing. I don’t know, really a big problem, we need to reach a state that if the Creator does everything and it is in his hands then I have nothing to be afraid of besides Him, If they come to me with some criticism, of course it comes from the Creator, and that is how I need to see every thing in my life there is none else besides Him.
S. It seems like external circumstances, especially for us, very realistically show you danger, how to turn to that such that you will be afraid with such a strong emotion, that you’ll be afraid of that Creator?
R. It is a problem, the moment you reach a state that you depict all of you are disturbances that they come only from the Creator then these disturbances disappear.
S. The fear disappears also?
R. Yes, fear needs only to be in order to hold the love.
S. Can we reach such a state, where I am in this fear, feel Him?
R. Of course and even more than this, why were we given all these disturbances, everyone, only in order that we will learn from this, how we need to relate to the Creator.
S. So I should bring myself to such a state where I am truly in this fear, I will feel I feel him?
R. If you pass on all your fears that come from all sorts of sources around and you pass it onto the Creator, ascribe them to the Creator, all of these fears begin to receive a sweetener, you you stop to be afraid end rather beginning to love, that is called love covers all crimes.
S. I will ask a bit different, not that the fear will go away but rather to be dependent on the Creator to the same extent, to be afraid of him also, that is in a way that is so clear and conspicuous.
R. The Creator doesn’t want you to be afraid of him, he wants you to love you like he loves you and thus you need to exchange these fears, these anxieties to connection, to love Not that we exchanged fear for that and fear for that and towards the Creator it is called Yirah, a bit different than fear, Pachad, because then I will feel bad because then I will bring upon him unpleasantness. You need to think about it, how much you may be te it in better words or pleasant ones.
28. S. (59:10) So the feeling of redemption, we feel it when this part is part, disturbance, becomes something whole, is that right?
R. Yes.
S. I also want to ask one degree in our ascent, as you were telling us about it, it is composed of multiple states?
R. We can all say about that, it depends sometimes like this or like that.
29. S. (59:54) There is a line here in what we read, it seemingly in order for him to overcome and says there is none else besides Him, I’ve always understood that this is a state in which a person binds himself so that he will be able to overcome and say there’s none else besides Him. Maybe this is something that is done over the person so there’s a chance that he gets to say that there is none else besides him. My question is for whom is this related?
R. I don’t know, it’s up to you to scrutinize it .
30. S. (01:00:34) Why is it so difficult to reach a request for the fear of Heaven?
R. Your ego doesn’t feel any benefit in it.
31. S. (01:00:51) I am quite old and I’m afraid that I don’t have time to reach adhesion with the Creator. How can I interpret this fear? Does it come from the Creator and what does he want to tell me?
R. He wants to tell you that he’s waiting for you to come to him and ask for connection. That’s it. Besides this, what are you crying that you are old, you’re not old, you’re still young, what’s wrong with you, how old are you?
S. 74 years old.
R. Less than me, what are you crying about? You have time for everything.
S. But I am very far, too far I feel, I have a lot of way to do.
R. That will always be until the end of correction, you will always feel that you are farther and farther and farther because that’s how you get closer to the truth. If you’ll enter, I always give this example, if you go talk to some Professor, some big person or a scientist he will tell you, look I don’t know anything this is like, this is like that. I have doubts about this and maybe like that, he has a thousand doubts because he knows a lot and if you speak to somebody, somebody learning in school and he will tell you yeah we just learned this, ndd for him it’s a short formula.
So there is no problem we will advance and will include everything and incorporate everything and we will reach everything, the thought of creation includes all of us together in a whole manner and then there we will be all connected and you won’t have anything to worry about. You’re already there in that same state, in the end of correction. You’re there you just don’t feel it yet. We have a story about Rabbi from the Zohar that he saw himself and Rabbi Shimon and everyone, in the introduction to the Book of Zohar, and he suddenly sees that they’re shown heaven and he sees heaven and he sees where he sits in heaven. How is that possible, where is he and what is going on here? Such a high exalted place, so don’t worry, everything will be all right.
S. Sometimes I feel like I want to cry, that I feel so impossible for me to reach to him, to reach him.
R. That’s nice, so cry, crying is good. The tears, they cleanse our soul.
Reading excerpt number 7 (01:04:48) “A person should pay attention to this…” Twice
32. S. (01:08:25) If I attribute everything to there is none else besides Him and I am not afraid of anything anymore, does that mean I finish the process or that I mean that I’m missing something in the study?
R. I know you finished the process for now, for what’s open to you. You are currently ending it and it’s opening up to you an additional new stage and that’s how it will be again and again all the best.
33. S. (01:09:02) How to understand that all the disturbances were given to us from the Creator in order to connect with him more, how to use the disturbances more correctly for the purpose of strengthening the connection, not to be a state where we constantly just dive into them?
R. There’s no other reason for each and every action we have in all of reality, the still, vegetative, animate, speaking, corporeal and spiritual or whatever they may be all to reach the end of connection, that we will connect to reveal the goal, adhesion in the Creator.
34. S. (01:09:53) Is quoting from the previous excerpt we red and he asked about that state what is the state for the fool who walks under the flood of preventions that put on him from before and behind, in number 5 and he says that he does not feel the sensation in the lack of Dvekut.
R. A person receives all sorts of disturbances and problems, all sorts of thoughts, actions, all sorts of truly problems befall on him from other people and from himself and everything and he doesn’t tie it to the attitude of the Creator to him, that the Creator by this wants to awaken him, to wake up the person’s attention, his heartfeltness, that he should turn to the Creator.
35. S. (01:11:00) As a person can understand that a Creator is giving him the ascents but certainly a person cannot say that the person receives the ascent, what does it mean to feel ascents, I only feel descents?
R. A person receives ascents nd descents, all sorts of states, don’t say only descents if he had only descents, then you wouldn’t feel the sense. because between descents you have some sort of ascent and you feel that you have the ascent
S. So what is an ascent?
R. And ascent is when you consider spirituality in something.
S. for the time being I don’t feel any kind of spirituality, so what kind of accent do I feel?
R. Maybe for you and a scent is to win the lotto and for your friend the ascent is to be impressed and inspired from excerpts in Psalms and for your third friend it could be that he didn’t have time before now he has time to read some articles.
S. So the ascent cannot be just in spirituality but ascents it’s also for the corporeal world, that is also an ascent?
R. In the corporeal world we don’t take these things into an account, we only take them into an account to the extent to which we have conditions more or less which are normal that we will be able to learn and connect with one another, to work in a group, to direct ourselves to the Creator and that’s it. I don’t need much, I need that I have a mind and a heart which are freed up for spiritual work.
S. They say if there’s no bread and there’s no Torah, so a person also needs to have an income and we don’t even have that now.
R. Oh stop crying.
S. I’m just saying there’s a lot of burdening now.
R. Everybody’s crying, yes.
36. S. (01:13:24) About excerpts number 6 what does it mean witchcraft?
R. Meaning that a person doesn’t see where it came to him, a thought or an action, that it truly falls from the heavens, he doesn’t know where from. As if somebody has cursed him or put some spell on him, he should know just one thing there is none else besides HHim and it all comes only from the Creator. That you shouldn’t ascribe anything that happens with somebody or some organization or person, it’s all arranged by the Creator. The Creator arranges everything.
37. S. (01:14:24) Does excerpt number six actually explain that there is nothing to be afraid of in this world aside from Yirah, spiritual fear?
R. Correct, if the Creator manages everything that I have nothing to be afraid of besides him, I only need to have fear of the Creator spiritual fear of the heavens is what it’s called.
38. S. (01:14:53) If the spiritual fear is stronger than the love, how am I supposed to know what the Creator’s telling me?
R. We need to reach a state that our love will include in it the fear, listen and think about this, that the love should include the fear within it. There cannot just be just love, I love unlimited, no conditions, that’s a lie there’s no such thing. Because our nature is a will to receive but that I’m developing myself correctly that I have fear and love and both of them go together and connect together, and then I reach the whole fear and the whole love, they complete one another.
39. S. (01:15:57) About the fifth excerpt, what’s the mechanism in which the Creator delights man only when he has despaired only of his own forces?
R. The fact that a person is despaired of his own personal strength and power and he gives up and he truly cannot do anything because he discovers that he was waging war against the Creator. Especially women, also men eventually discover that he was fighting the Creator, he was fighting with the Creator, that’s why he reaches the name Israel. What does it say about Jacob, you waged war with the angels, and you came to a state where, I don’t remember the verse, but in short you triumphed, you won, how did you win? By not giving up, not surrendering to everything that is passing over you but rather ascribe them to one force there’s none else besides Him.
40. S. (01:17:46) Can turning to the Creator not from despair be a state of above reason?
R. Yes, you can turn to the Creator, reach the Creator in each and every state. Yes a person can reach the Creator and each and every state.
41. S. (01:18:04) The fourth excerpt, it says that first he has to believe that the partitions of nature did not stand between him and the Creator, what are these partitions?
R. Fear, corporeal dread, spiritual, all kinds of calculations the friends, the family, the children, all kinds of things, that all those reasons can pull a person toward caring and worrying about them and disconnect them from the Creator, they need him to be inside those problems together with the understanding that he can only solve them with the Creator.
42. S. (01:18:55) We learned that the entire correction happens in the thought, what does it mean that the initial thought after the awakening is about the Creator?
R. When he rises in the morning except from sleep, maybe at night, it doesn’t matter but when he wakes up from sleep his first thought should be about his connection with the Creator. How will that be, if throughout the entire day he will think about it and consciously or subconsciously then he will certainly wake up with that thought.
43. S. (01:19:35) What does Baal Sulam mean about sleep?
R. He speaks about regular sleep without all that mysticism.
44. S. (01:19:52) Should I include in the first prayer of the day the friends?
R. First the Creator than the friends.
45. S. (01:20:01) If I wake up for the preparation for the lesson and not before, should I nonetheless read something or do something before I join the preparation for the lesson?
R. No, if your friends are already in the lesson then you must connect with them as much as fast as possible and nevertheless try not to be the last one to join.
46. S. (01:20:33) I heard you just say that with the help of connection in the ten it is possible to correct all the corruptions in the world.
R. With certainty. No doubt.
S. How do you do it?
R. Cleave to the ten, it’s very simple try it and see, I guarantee that by that you will rid yourself of all the problems.
47. R. (01:21:00) This is the beginning of the Pentatuech, this story, it says it’s Jacob’s dream.
Reading (01:21:29)
48. R. (01:21:42) They first called him Jacob and then when the minister all of the bad forces fought with him, meaning with his ego, he waged war on his ego and he won and he persevered then from Jacob he rose to the degree of Israel.
49. S. (01:22:07) The time that we bow down and take a spiritual step is when we can’t do anything for Heaven’s sake, how do they have a clear awareness for that?
R. I didn’t get it, when we approach, when we are unable, I don’t understand.
S. I think that he’s asking whether in a state where we can’t do anything for the sake of Heaven is this the only state where we can lower ourselves and take a spiritual step?
R. We can take a step forward only when we discover beforehand how much we are unable to do it when we are zeros when we fall. We are not organized and from that we gather our forces. We rise and we’re able to take a step forward, 1000 times a righteous will fall and get up. First he falls and then he gets up.
50. S. (01:24:24) When we find love out of despair for the first time, how is it possible to pass it on?
R. We don’t need to do anything except for connection between us and from between us to the Creator, all of it is a result of discovering how much we are not in connection, how much we want to reach connection and that’s it, this is the work, it is very very simple. All the difficulty is that we are doing it inside our desire which is our essence and that is why we are unable to do it, it is difficult to do it. Each time I need to turn myself and twist myself, this is seemingly to operate on myself.
51. S. (01:25:31) [missing]
R. Let me tell you we need to understand that our entire path is only from within the descent, the fall, the despair, the revelation of evil, and then we will rise from that and we advance and all of our advancement when we are in such a lowly state comes only when we ask the Creator to help us, to raise us. Only in this way. We are not able to raise ourselves, if we are able to do it by ourselves it is still not correction, the correction is when I understand that I’m going to a state where I fell because the Creator arranged it for me.
Even if I have problems with people, it doesn’t matter who or what, it’s always courtesy of the Creator and therefore I need and preferably through the friends, I need to turn to him and ask for correction, when I wish to be connected to him, until this flaw that is now revealed is now corrected. That’s it, all the disappointments, all the problems, all the falls we have to pass them to the Creator, all the connections and corrections and ascents also pass them to the Creator, pin them on the Creator and he will quickly succeed in everything.
51. S. (01:27:59) Why does love need to be involved with spiritual fear?
R. Otherwise it is not love.
S. I feel that if there is no spiritual fear in love then I don’t receive from the Creator?
R. Why because you’re a piece of will to receive, a piece of egoist. So you can’t have a positive attitude towards someone, unless it is above your ego. Which in your feeling is expressed as spiritual fear, I’m explaining it to you simply but you can read about it in the Book of Zohar, in the forward to the Book of Zohar, it’s the first commandment, the commandant of fear. That’s where they talk about it.