MALCHUT: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Lesson on the topic of “Faith Above Reason”
Morning Lesson November 17, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Faith Above Reason – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #18
1. Rav’s Introduction (0:19): Yes we are continuing on the same topic of course until we feel that we are going along with the Creator and he guides us throughout the whole process, I am very happy to see familiar faces and let’s go.
Reading excerpt #18 (0:45): “The work above reason should be unconditional surrender..” twice
2. S. (3:37) What is this force that holds a person that is really on the earth he is lying on the earth he has no flavor in the work he has no strength, what is this force that holds him in there?
R. We have only one force that holds us in all the states which is the light that reforms the upper light the Creator’s force doesn’t matter how you call it but it is the creator that shines when he shines on the person through this light he gives a person various states and then the person is either lying on the ground or flying in the heavens it doesn’t matter but whatever he feels is an outcome of he already gets from the Creator.
S. What is the secret here, let’s say that I have no flavor no strength and then all of sudden I come to the lesson and friend comes and he invest in the lesson he has no flavor no strength in it but another friend doesn’t comes, let’s say, what is the secret here that regardless this there is a connection to that force?
R. If I direct myself to bring contentment to the Creator even if I do not know what it is and I don’t feel what it is and I have no self participation or excitement from it of my own but if I try to think in this direction I already advanced towards this feeling and come to a state where I actually begin to feel how much I do probably cause him some sort of of an influence on my part and correspondingly I begin to feel how much he he influences me. And that is how the spiritual work begins to take shape. This is called me for my beloved and my beloved for me but I have to start on my part even though I later see that I am never the one who actually starts but still I have to start.
S. There is some kind of force that helps me a person doesn’t have strength but the Creator gives strength?
R. Of course of course there is but the Creator once a person to start thinking in the right direction to calibrate himself aim himself position himself correctly and muster all his strength and intentions, that is what the Creator expect because this is how a person builds his spiritual identity personality you understand that this is the main thing for the Creator it is like when we grow our children we expect them we wish them to respond correctly to our actions that is what the Creator wants.
S. So he wants what without any connection what we feel?
R. Yes despite all of us wanting to feel good when we begin to work not according to our good feeling but according to the correct goal, that is how it is.
3. S. (07:58) Where is faith above reason if I have completed subjugation without surrender?
R. It is the condition that is the condition of men’s subjugation towards the influence of the Creator that he agrees to accept everything but from the Creator only.
4. S. (8:36) What does it mean to receive the kingdom of the Burden of the Kingdom of Heaven?
R. That the rulership of the upper one I wanted to be upon me with all of the strength of the upper one and in every state, I agree to it I want it even if I later disagree and I have all kinds of different states I want to be under his rulership only.
S. This is actually Bina, this is Malchut Shamayim?
R. No no no forget about Bina and all of those things stop being smart, simply the creators governance over the person I want him to control me I want to feel his governance his governance doesn’t paralyze me does not detach me it just he rules me and I feel how the upper light fills me and passes through me goes through my entire vessel and thus I want to feel him all the time more and more.
5. S. (10:30) Is there also an option to scrutinize whether he is subjugating himself to the Creator not to his ego?
R. Yes of course he needs to feel it this is called the revelation of the Creator that a person needs to reach a state where all that he receives he wants to depicted as receiving it from the Creator and certainly only from him and he wants to feel it as good and to respond to the Creator in the way that he is really happy to be under the rule of the Creator and only for him if he can also add to that only for him for the sake of the create he wants to feel good and thus he comes to a state of gradually coming closer to the Creator bit by bit.
S. On top of the ego most of the time it is not comfortable?
R. Yes for this he needs to connect to the friends and connect to the Creator until he truly feels it has a great pleasure.
6. S. (11:52) I don’t know if they ask but what is the difference between emptiness and what we are reading here about the descent and the importance?
R. Speak clearly.
S. What is the difference between the descent we are reading and the emptiness here?
R. Descents are the descent in importance that’s typically what we think of as descent and emptiness is a sense of lack of fulfillment, one does not belong to the other meaning you could be in lack of fulfillment and yet it is a state where you could be really appreciative of it because I do not take my fulfillment into account.
S. Meaning in an empty state you are still in work and in a descent?
R. Yes in principle there is no state that a person can say that it is not a state of work there’s no such state in every state it is applicable, and in every state one can say that he has work to do.
7. S. (13:23) When you were saying when we completely accept the upper governor and this is feelings and sensations run through us, is this something that we will feel all the time or does it come in waves as we recommit to that, wanting to be under the upper governance?
R. We always want to bring ourselves back under the influence of the upper governance that everything that happens comes from the Creator and everything we do is to get back to the Creator and the group is the means the device through which a person connects to the Creator and the Creator to the person.
8. S. (14:33) It is written here in passage 18, it says that I want to be a servant of the Creator even though I have no idea about the work I have no flavor in the work and nevertheless I’m willing to work with all my might, so my question is about the concept in the work here what does it means that he ‘s ready to be a servant but he is also willing to work with all of his might. There is a danger here that he is working in the wrong direction?
R. No don’t worry dont’ worry about that the Creator will set up everything. You just make the effort as much as you understand when a child does all kinds of nonsense do we take that into consideration we understand that according to his state that’s what he knows to do and actually through all the various corruptions mistakes when he breaks things and builds them again that’s how he grows and becomes wise.
9. S. (15:52) Rabash writes here as if he has the strength the Creator holds our hearts, this is the force that he brings through us through our desire where we want to imagine the feeling that this is the path to imagine the truth, the future state?
R. Yes yes, this is how it is.
10. S. (16:28) You said that it’s only for the Creator he wants to feel good, what state is he speaking about here where he only wants to?
R. What do you mean what state any states that a person is in he wants to declare that any state that he feels comes from the Creator for sure because there’s nothing else besides him, so in every state he feels good even he doesn’t actually feels good but that’s because of his inner disturbances.
S. So every feeling that doesn’t come from the Creator?
R. There’s no such thing that it does not come from the Creator. You understand if a person truly thinks that it doesn’t come from the Creator then he has to try to still attributed to the Creator.
11. S. (17:37) Why do we always need to work between Heaven and Earth until we reach the end of corrections?
R. No these are all kinds of different states that is only in the beginning until we choose to be in the heavens meaning in bestowal in connection between us and the Creator.
12. S. (18:27) I’m going to continue the friend from PT35 turns out that despite all the states that a person feels he again needs to nullify and again continue playing, just what the Creator?
R. Yes, you can say that.
S. So that is kind of how he gets rid of his ego?
R. Yes.
13. S. (19:15) What does it mean unconditional surrender, there is an emphasis here without conditions there’s a state here where I do not agree with the state?
R. How can you disagree with the state you are in if that state certainly comes from the Creator meaning you have to correct yourself in order to feel that you received from the Creator and that he is good that’s good and that is what you discovered, the fact that you do not discover the Creator as good that does good that is certainly a sign that you are in lack of accord with the Creator. You are not in the same form as the Creator so you have what to pray for, to ask for corrections. The Creator will correct you to the point that you will feel that you exist in the world of the upper one.
S. There are conditions, is not unconditional surrender I am demanding correction, so I am saying this condition so what does it mean without condition?
R. Unconditional submission meaning that whatever you received from the Creator you are accepting it and you accepting it from the Creator and it is good that does good coming from the Creator. Certainly comes to you as good but according to your qualities you still feel it as bad and therefore you ask him to change your qualities until you feel it is good and not you feel it as good in order to feel good but in order to not slander the Creator.
14. S. (21:17) You have already answered my question when you answered the friend.
R. Okay, thank you, thank you.
15. S (21:34) What am I supposed to feel good from?
R. You need to feel good with the understanding and feeling that you are moving towards the Creator.
S. But I do not understand a lot of things, there is no freedom of choice?
R. We are not talking about what do you understand we are talking about what you feel.
S. Again ok, the feeling comes and goes it is like in the spirit I am not controlled it?
R. In the meantime.
S. What should I be confident in?
R. Be happy about being on the path and going through changes, be happy about that.
S. It is like a baby so it’s okay, yah he is crying.
R. That’s right, so you are baby, so what?
S. I don’t know, it feels like something is lacking here?
R. Nothing missing nothing lacking you want to fill your intellectual vessel as you do in this world but spiritually does not come that way. Also in this world we advance according to how much we understand our own feelings.
S. I don’t know why this morning there is this feeling like if there is no understanding there is no feeling not in me not in the friends and everything is not clear so you are happy about it but it is just not clear why?
R. It is a state but you have to say that what I am receiving is certainly from the Creator and so I can ask of Him that he’ll change my vessels so that I will feel Him closer, more understandable more this way or that way, turn to Him and ask for changes and start doing that. Otherwise you are always in your own inner scrutinies only, and that is incorrect you have to always clarify what is your attitude to the Creator because he is the only source to all of your states.
16. S. (24:04) I’m also going to continue the scrutiny. I do not control the feeling of the friend that he is in these states, these are his vessels, how in his state how can we help him besides the concern how can we help him exit because he is part of us?
R. Yes we need to portray him as existing in our vessel and we together are working on changing his state and then changing the state of another friend and so forth.
17. S. (25:12) Does a friend not see the descent as an opportunity?
R. Again.
S. Does a person by himself not see the descent as a descent but as an opportunity?
R. That depends on the person how can I answer, it depends on the person’s personal state and I have nothing more to answer here.
S. And what helps us in such a lowly states to surrender and receive upon ourselves the burden of the kingdom of heaven, what point does the person hold on to?
R. That he is holding on to his connection to the friends.
18. S. (26:12) He wants to be a servant of the Creator but he’s not able to feel the Creator, he is speaking with the Creator but the Creator does not feel him, what he does needs to get rid of everything and then I will be able to talk to him?
R. The fact that you feel that you do not feel the Creator is already a feeling, and quite an advanced one so keep going and you will succeed.
Reading #19 (27:10) “Under its shadow I coveted to sit, and its fruit was sweet to my palate..”
19. R. (27:38) It doesn’t matter what states.
Continue reading #19 (27:43) “When one has the strength to say this—that the Creator causes him all this—it is to one’s benefit.”
Again reading #19 (29:17)
20. S. (31:18) We need revelation and the light of the Creator?
R. In order to bring him contentment all the states we want to achieve on the ladder from 0 to 100%. It is all in order to cause the Creator contentment from us.
S. If so then how is the revelation of adhesion revealed above reason?
R. That is what we are learning now the whole time that I achieve the quality of bestowal, the quality of bestowal is above reason and in that quality of bestowal I reveal the Creator based on the law of equivalence of form and thus, I feel him and he feels me, and we begin to be in adhesion with each other.
S. This adhesion with the Creator above reason, it doesn’t end until you are in above reason, is it something constant?
R. Adhesion in faith above reason is never-ending; we only keep adding and adding to it.
21. S. (33:07) It’s written “Under its shadow I coveted to sit and fruit was sweet to my palate,” that means that the Creator hides His face and it helps us advance more on the path, so do we need to rise above reason, how then do we help on another between us to rise above reason?
R. How can we rise above reason, by my wanting to to get closer to the Creator, it doesn’t matter in what state we are in. In any state we are in He sends it to us, and He sends us only for the goal of rising above that state in adhesion with Him, so let’s say he yells at us and pushes us, rejects us, gives us all kinds of exercises, it doesn’t matter what, then we only want to be in adhesion with him.
22. S. (34:45) When the Creator sends us the reality that we can’t change and we experience all kinds of different feelings as a result of that, and the Creator sends us this reality so that we can feel these feelings or your refers to rise above reason?
R. Along with feeling it, of course we have to feel it, we also have to rise above these feelings to adhesion with the Creator. He sends us all of these feelings from a good intention, that above the feelings we will adhere to Him.
23. S. (36:09) The article mentions that the Creator enjoys when we bestow to the friends. Why would the Creator enjoy, does the Creator have some kind of lack that He has to enjoy?
R. Yes, certainly The Creator exists in those feelings that He designed within us so that we have some way to communicate with each other. Therefore, our mind and heart everything that we have we can say also exists in the Creator not because He has it, but because He has it to be in communication with us.
S. And do we enjoy at the same level that the Creator enjoys, do we also automatically enjoy at that same level?
R. That we can’t say, this we cannot say, about no-one, not even our closest friends, no.
24. S. (37:46) I want to give an example, the best example to the friends that I can, so in what way do I give an example to awaken them?
R. An obvious physical example that stands out that they will certainly understand.
S. I feel around me there’s a lot of examples and I don’t pay attention to them. What should I do with them?
R. Learn from them and still continue with your own example.
25. S. (38:32) We hear a lot that the Creator gives us only good and with our eyes we see the bad. What is the good that the Creator is giving and how to recognize this good?
R. The Creator certainly gives everything for the better, the good. We accept it egotistically, the same like little children we don’t really want to carry out what He demands from us.
S. If we look at the will to receive a lot of difficult things, how do we recognize the good?
R. We don’t identify the good, the good will only appear in the corrected form. It’s not that the world is filled with good, the world is filled with bad, but by corrections we achieve a good world.
26. S. (39:41) What does it mean not to pray that the shadows will flee from the world?
R. That the shadows, the concealments, will be corrected through our work.
S. This is the true joy that I need to be happy about that the Creator gives me and this is what I need to correct, my attitude for the friends towards them?
R. Correct.
27. S.(40:20) Is the goal of a person to bring pleasure to the Creator?
R. Yes, because you have to have faith in the Sages who say that the Creator is the Good Who Does Good and therefore He wants to benefit the person. Meaning everything the person feels in his world he has to correct himself to the point that he feels that his world is filled with the Creator’s good attitude towards him, eternal pleasures, unlimited, that’s what he needs to discover in his world.
28. S. (41:11) When a person has a bad feeling, how to rise above it in advance since you can’t eliminate a feeling?
R. He doesn’t need to eliminate the feeling, he actually needs to use the bad feeling in such a way that he calibrates himself to undergo changes that will bring him to a good feeling.
29. S. (41:53) What does it mean that the Creator enjoys?
R. What does it mean that the Creator answers? That He changes my state and I feel that he made the change in direction and in what direction.
S. But the Creator isn’t supposed to receive something from me: He just gives, bestows, I am supposed to be equal to him?
R. To the extent that I equalize with Him I feel a change on His part.
S. Okay but what’s this feeling of joy?
R. I can’t describe this feeling.
S. What am I working with?
R. You work with your feelings but don’t ask me about the feeling, you don’t ask about the feelings.
S. I need to make actions, it doesn’t matter what I feel, what I receive from Him, what I experience. Am I supposed to bring contentment to the Creator to cause Him contentment, so how in my actions how can I cause contentment from bestowal and not from reception?
R. From receiving something from the Creator and whatever it is you feel, you are always feeling the Creator, and you want to feel it as pleasure. By that you bring pleasure to the Creator.
S. Whenever I ask for this change in my vessels?
R. We didn’t speak of asking making requests.
S. How am I supposed to enjoy it without receiving it for myself?
R.Try to reach a state where you enjoy receiving this pleasure from the Creator. Who do you receive it from, from the greatness of the Creator.
S. And this is what I enjoy from, and not from reception?
R. Yes.
30. S. (44:18) In the last few lessons we learned that faith above reason is the results a person receives from his efforts, from the Creator. The question is if a person already receives faith above reason he is already working with that, it is already this action?
R. Yes of course, it’s an action.
S. Why is it written here that he needs to work above reason?
R. Yes.
31. S. (44:53) The connection between the feeling, the emotion and the light that reforms, so this state of this mutual feeling between a person and the Creator, this is a state where the light that reform has developed, meaning this sensation, this feeling is a result of the light that reforms?
R. It comes as a result of it, but essentially not mandatory it doesn’t have to be.
32. S. (45:38) When we are in concealment and in this torment, we really don’t know that the Creator sent us this opportunity to come closer to Him and then we justify, cry, and we blame the Creator that He doesn’t love us, we are in exile. This Exile somehow influences us in our work in the ten and our corrections and my friends’ corrections but me and my friends in this exile, it is hard to come closer, so we have this sensation of being stuck, so how can we pass to the friend the importance of the goal?
R. Above what we feel as disregard and all of that, above that we need to appreciate our state and pass the importance to the friends the importance to the friend. The state itself might not be good but we weigh it as good because it leads us to the right goal, and that’s what we pass onto the friends. There is always a matter of reality and how we weigh reality, so reality itself might not be good, but it is necessary to lead us to the good state. Also the good state doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be pleasant in our vessels of the will to receive but rather it will advance towards adhesion, towards correction.
33. S. (47:58) What does it mean that “the fruit was sweet to my palate”?
R. There is the taste of dust and there is a taste of sweet fruit. We need to reach a state where we will feel sweetness from our work.
S. Similar to being aware of the good and the bad and the tree of knowledge, so I don’t want to be under this light that burns and go under the shade, then how do we build a Masach, a screen?
R. The Masach is called the intention to bestow to the Creator and not for myself, this is called Lo Lishma or Lishma, in order to bestow or faith above reason, all these terms they indicate bestowal.
S. It turns out that all of us are working on this Masach and all of us are turning into this fruit, this fruit that needs to become ripe and bring pleasure to the Creator?
R. Yes.
34. S. (49:47) The prayer is a request in gratitude and he also enjoys from the greatness of the Creator he also enjoys greatness from the Creator and also causes Him contentment?
R. Yes of course that’s what we need to achieve. The goal of creation is to enjoy together with the Creator through adhesion with Him.
35. S. (50:28) How can we discern between the bad and harmful feelings between a spiritual state?
R. This depends on how you treat the friends, check opposite them, are you in connection and getting closer to them or not.
36. S. (51:11) How can we agree with every state that the Creator sends us, together with raising this cry to the Creator, is this not some contradiction?
R. No it’s not a contradiction, it’s like a baby or like a little child that’s always going through different states, towards his mother, but he doesn’t let go of his mother, good things, bad things, to him she’s the whole world. That’s what we need to be towards the Creator, and we have nothing besides this cry to ourselves that there is None Else Besides Him that we receive everything from Him, that we are only in contact with Him and He aims for each and every one of us and we have to aim towards Him.
S. Yes and I agree to the states, so what do I ask for?
R. What did you agree with?
S. The state that He sent, I agree that it came for me there’s None Else Besides Him and I have greatness of the Creator, so what am I asking for, what am I bringing contentment for?
R. You bring contentment to the Creator by being able to return the same relation towards Him.
S. What is the prayer if I am already complete and everything comes from Him, what is the cry out?
R. No, no listen, if you are all whole you have nothing to ask for, if you are complete you have got nothing to ask for. You have to search for, what can I ask of the Creator, how do I turn to the Creator? What am I asking for? Do I have love for everyone? Can I bestow upon everyone all the goodness from The Creator where I connect the Creator on one hand, and on the other hand to all created beings or at least to my ten. Then through me I pass all of the light of Ein Sof as much as I can to my group. Can I do that, if not start asking.
38. S. (56:07) Theoretically you understand everything, but there is no emotion at all. Where do I bring this emotion from, do I need to go out and do all kinds of actions?
R. You have to work on the heart and through the heart you will start feeling the friends and the Creator and also yourself, because yourself too, you don’t feel. It all has to work as one, more and more, kind of cook it up, tie it together, and then you will start feeling it.
S. Work with the heart really ask the Creator to give me this work. I don’t really get it, sorry.
R. Try to cry, try crying.
S. I am crying day after day and I am not able to do it even though the tears are not correct.
R. I know that’s why I said that. Look we have no other choice, we have to soften her heart and bring to it all kinds of sensations so that they can pass through from the Creator through the heart, all kinds of feelings to all of the friends to all of the ten.
39. S. (56:12) The greatest affliction I can think of going through is death, physical death, so is this work preparation in order to go through physical death and have it be sweet?
R. No, you don’t need to think about that, we can’t yet scrutinize that state. That is why leave it alone and don’t delve into it.
40. S. (56:55) Can we say if I go above reason and see each other as a help, it will soon become crystal clear as Panim?
R. Yes.
41. S. (57:25) He writes here that when a person has the strength to say that he knows that the Creator is the one who causes him all this and it is for one’s benefit so the question is what depends on?
R. It depends on a person’s effort, to the extent that a person tries to make efforts to unite himself and unify himself with the ten and the Creator.
42. S. (58:06) In terms of relating feelings and connection towards the Creator, what role does the prayer play in that relationship?
R. What is the role of prayer?
S. Is the connection in our prayer between our ten and the Creator?
R. Prayer is the connection between man and the Creator.
S. This is how we communicate feelings?
R. Yes of course, but through the Creator it all passes through the Creator, a person can’t pray to a person, a prayer is always between levels, upper and lower.
43. S. (59:13) When this darkness comes, it comes so we can receive new flavors and different flavors so we can come out of ourselves and feel the next degree in bestowal and everything every time we just want to feel this pleasure in us. Then we are frustrated with our ability to do that, how can we receive new forces for bestowal?
R. Learn from the friends.
44. S. (59:54) When a person is in darkness and concealment and he feels no emotion and has no mind in the work, how can you feel that the Creator is enjoying from his work and saying it doesn’t matter whatever state a person is in?
R. That all depends on how much a person moves away from himself and wants to get closer to the Creator through the friends. Then accordingly he receives a feeling that he rises above his vessels.
45. S. (01:00:58) It is written that all the concealments and afflictions that he feels is because the Creator is sending him so he can work above reason, so the question is above reason and afflictions, it goes one with another meaning there is no above reason without sufferings and without concealment?
R. Why?
S. I’m asking.
R. that depends on how you accept it, that’s already your subjective attitude to the state.
S. If everything’s nice there’s no matter of going above reason or there is?
R. Above reason is unrelated to your attitude towards the friends and how they accept you, but rather your path and the Creator.
S. And in a different place we learn it’s like a wick and the fire, so the afflictions is the wick and that’s where the fire of faith burns, so the more suffering there is the more of a place for faith. I’m asking the state here, so these afflictions are what pushes a person to come above reason?
R. Yes.
S. It doesn’t necessarily need to be this way, there’s other ways?
R. Yes there are better options.
46. S. (01:02:33) Everything goes to the friends and yesterday you said we need to receive examples from the friends. In the ten we realized this exercise and we saw that actually we are not able to receive the examples of the friends correctly, how can we receive examples from the friends correctly?
R. You have to open your heart and feel the friends, that they are included in your heart, and how the Creator wants to feel you together, and then in your attitude towards the friends, you feel the Creator’s attitude towards you. That is all.
47. S. (01:03:25) Can you say that really we’re not able to stand against any state unless we’re not bringing contentment and pleasure to the Creator and jumping from that?
R. Well yes and no, that depends on the preparation.
Reading excerpt #20 (01:03:58) “If one decides that he wants to work as dust..”
48. S. (01:05:42) Baal HaSulam gives us this discernment here, when a person makes a true action of bestowal, there’s a flavor of dust and so here it’s like most of our actions come from the will to receive. Can we prepare ourselves really, for an act of bestowal where there’s this true flavor of dust and that it will come out and what can we do?
S. Like what?
R. What we are doing, what are you asking, what we are doing is what we’re doing to advance towards the Creator and towards truth.
49. S. (01:06:36) We feel that the Creator is working from this work, what vessels do we feel the Creator is enjoying?
R. We can attain this in vessels of bestowal, to the extent that we build them, and we build them according to faith in the Sages that they instructed us what to do and we follow and we have faith that we are doing things in the right way.
S. According to the faith in the sages and all the recommendations we make these actions of bestowal one towards the other in the ten and so our experience to aim it, we try to aim it towards the Creator, are we supposed to feel this?
R. We feel within us the response, we feel the response within us.
S. What’s this response, it’s like this connection that we feel?
R. Yes, yes, yes, a response to what we did.
S. Just?
R. Ask straightforward questions that I can answer in a straightforward way.
S. What response from the Creator are we expecting as proof that He is enjoying from our work?
R. We feel and understand through our connection between us and the Creator and we begin to sense the response of the Creator to it both emotion and in our mind, it depends on the level the person is in, you understand. It depends on what level he’s at.
50. S. (01:08:57) I would like to believe that I’m doing something to bring contentment to the Creator, but I cannot even say I am because even to be in this lesson I feel as though the friends in this group right now in this Arvut, are the ones that are actually doing something that are pulling me to be in this lesson and the only thing I can feel is gratitude. Is that the only thing that I can now express to the Creator because that’s all I’m feeling because I’m not doing any of this, it’s the friends that are pulling me towards this?
R. This is a very very lofty and good feeling if you can keep in it and keep it all the time and then you will see how inside this feeling you will start revealing what the Creator wants to answer you, that’s actually why I take you as a very serious woman.
51. S. (01:10:27) How can a person get the strength to be in joy while tasting dust?
R. The taste of dust is one of the flavors that the Creator sends us an order for us to advance. Therefore if I know that I receive it from the Creator in order to see my state opposite His, then I have to be happy that I’ve already received something from Him, some serious true discernment and so from that state on I’m going to advance because dust refers to the foundation that’s under our feet and on a it tread and move forward until we reach the upper Malchut, Keter.
52. S. (01:11:51) How do we know when we’re getting feelings and sensations of the Creator? How do we know it’s not the ego trying to trick us like it usually does?
R. It doesn’t matter to us, what’s important is that we’re advancing from one lesson to the next.
S. When I get those feelings and sensations and even though I have another feeling, that it’s the ego messing with me just ignore it?
R. Yes, continue as you are, it doesn’t matter how much ego you have, maybe today you’ll have you cranked it up a few more percentages and two days from now you won’t see it all and then you’ll find it again, so every day it changes what’s important is that you go through changes.
S. The faith that we as we progress and we’re doing these things and we’re having faith that these things we’re doing or what the Sages tell us to do and they will get us where we want to go, so we just basically ignore the ego and its complaints and keep pushing forward?
R. We don’t ignore the ego, but above the ego we begin to rise higher and higher. We take the ego as one of our components within us and we’re not overwhelmed by it. The fact that I have an egoistic primary quality it’s what the Creator created and he sustains it and keeps nurturing it and that’s in order for me to keep rising above it more and more. How do I rise all the way to the level of the Ein Sof 125 degrees, where each time my ego grows and I then raise myself above the ego. Each time it grows above me and I grow more above it, and so each time I feel how much I’m dependent on the friends on the group on all of the those ingredients that help me rise above the ego. but I’m not deleting it, I’m not even fighting it, I’m only appreciating the Creator and the group above all the disturbances.The work is not that difficult, what’s important is that we need to focus it and properly detect what it is.
53. S. (01:15:12) Can you explain the meaning of dust?
R. Dust is my will to receive, which is the ego for everything on one hand, and I need to form on my will to receive to make it like dust where on one hand, it’s the foundation and very important, on the other hand, it has the value of dust, of nothing.
54. S. (01:16:12) You said that if I have a relationship towards the friend and I receive an attitude from the Creator, does it depend on only for me to receive the proper feeling that the Creator responds like an echo?
R. The Creator is a result of what I do, yes. This is called you made me. Where the Creator has no specific character or form, nothing, only how we make Him. His construction, His form that we build and that’s the form of the Creator, it’s not that it was like that in advance. It’s how we connect between us and in this way that we stabilize it between us, that’s how we build the Creator between us.
55. S. (01:17:53) A person’s deep question that awakens is how do we bring contentment to the Creator, if as a result of our actions we come to a little bit more love towards the friends and more of a connection. Is this a correction from the Creator, is this a confirmation that we’re giving contentment to the Creator?
R. If altogether you see that your friends are satisfied with you then that brings the response of the Creator upon you.
56. S. (01:18:39) We learned that the joy is a criteria to the right of good action so if I understand correctly joy and pleasure is not something?
R. Why, specifically the egoistic people can be in joy as well, and the egoistic qualities, why not?
S. Then how should I understand it, then how do I know that joy is a criteria but actions are, why is joy a criteria?
R. He is talking about spiritual actions and actions of bestowal, where they can also be actions of reception which I enjoy and I’m happy about.
S. We’ll speak about this joy, this happiness, tell me if this joy and happiness is it a sense of wisdom or is it being in the upper wisdom?
R. if it is spiritual, it is above reason.
S. If I am in happiness from the joy then I am in faith above reason?
R. Yes.
57. S. (01:20:24) I would like to know, what is the goal of all the disturbances in the state of lowliness and what damage can happen if I’m not able to overcome these things?
R. It’s a very beautiful question, thank you for asking. First of all disturbances are degrees that I need to rise upon, above the disturbances and that’s how I come all the way to the essence of creation all the way to the goal, therefore without the disturbances we wouldn’t be able to rise. There are 125 degrees, these disturbances are always upon the will to receive that is growing in us. There are 125 degrees of the desire to receive and each time I feel that I have new disturbances and I need to rise above those degrees, above those new desires and adhere to the Creator. That is called I have risen another degree and another degree and that is how spiritual ascents takes place. Nice question, the correct question.
58. S. (01:22:23) It turns out if we correct the relationship between us then we correct the form of the Creator?
R. Yes correct, we stabilize the form of the Creator because he does not exist there is no Creator without the created being.
S. And the moment we feel him a certain way we correct our relationship more then we correct his form?
R. Correct.
S. And it turns from this that we are able to see our progress, our spiritual progress?
R. Yes.
59. S. (01:23:23) What is the connection or the difference between the faith in the teacher and faith above reason?
R. The faith in the Sages is actually faith above reason because the sages are all in the degrees that are above the ego, in faith above reason.
60. S. (01:23:57) You responded to my question but I’ll ask anyway, is the taste of dust and I’m happy in the taste of dust because it brings me closer to the Schechina and He the Creator takes pleasure?
R. Yes that is correct you understood this.
61. S. (01:24:36) The corrected person can sense the Creator within reason?
R. No he doesn’t have within reason, he raises himself always to above reason and in the action above reason he can then discover within reason. Nice question, it’s kind of a cunning question.
62. S. (01:25:16) Is the point of overcoming the disturbance is where we begin to sense the Creator, and is the point of overcoming the disturbance we begin to sense the Creator, how does one advance from this?
R. Yes, he is right.
63. S. (01:26:43) Does the Creator know what is pain, is he able to sense it?
R. The Creator feels all that we feel, all together and therefore he suffers and is happy and all kinds of feelings go through Him as in a degree that collects within it our impressions.
64. S. (01:27:22) Is it possible to say it this way that in order to rise above the level of sweet and bitter to the level of truth and lies we need to release this attention to whether it’s sweet or bitter for me and give my life to the control of the Creator and he rules and controls my life in this is the truth? And this is the joy that initially I am doing some silly things, some nonsense as if trying to do something that I’m not capable of, and as a result I’m coming to the fact that the Creator controls and rules everything and then I give my life to His control and from that I get joy?
R. That’s also not the end of the way, at the end of the path is when you see that you’re doing it with understanding and recognition and not doing it with awareness and not just letting it be. You’re going with your mind and your feeling in the way of the Creator. You’re placing the Creator before you and that’s how you follow him.
65. S. (01:28:58) My question is if a person rises in faith above reason the Creator is revealed, is this what’s called revelation of the Creator?
R. No that’s not revelation yet, the result of a person going in above reason will be the revelation of the Creator that’s the Kli, where a person goes in faith above reason by which he reveals the Creator.
66. S. (01:29:39) Sometimes when I’m able to rise a little bit above my state and I can add to the ten and then I fall back into my state. When does this state come when I’m able to work together with my ten towards the mutual state?
R. if you were to relate more seriously to your work then you will get there.
67. S. (01:30:17) Tell me please I’ve been waiting for this relationship with a friend in the work in the heart, do I need to understand it correctly my yearning to connect to the Friends?
R. Where I have sat in his shadow you’re saying some other word that I don’t understand.
R. Where I sat in the shade, you have to always be not from the feeling of the Creator but just to know that you’re operating for His benefit, through the friends, because you cannot turn to the Creator directly, only through the friends,
S. For them to be successful or before me?
R. It’s all for their spiritual benefit, whatever you can do and not just spiritually but also corporeally earthly, that is written everywhere. In general you’re succeeding so don’t worry. We need to be in joy.
68. S. (01:32:04) In the prayer that we build a relationship or an attitude towards a new state?
R. How from prayer do we build a new attitude, well from the prayer. Think what do you have and what do you want and what do you want to attain and what do you really want. Try to talk the truth and see accordingly what’s happening to you, in the prayer in the group in the ten. You will see that you already need to be in the entrance of Lishma. Guys I’m telling you, women too, you are already in states, in advance states and everything needs to be before you.
S. The prayer comes out of wholeness of our connection, how do I format this intention of the heart to uplift this deficiency?
R. You want to open the heart, you want to put all the friends into your heart to see whether they will enter your heart, whether you can close the doors of your heart after them, where there close inside your heart so they don’t run away from your heart. Then you want to take this whole heart and to give it to the Creator. Try to do this several times a day this way and you will see the extent and which this helps.
69. S. (01:34:17) How do I relate to the new change that women are asking questions in the morning lesson, how do we work with it?
R. With patience.
S. If there are friends and men that are finding it disturbing?
R. Well that’s why they are men and that’s why it bothers them and at home doesn’t it bother him that the women speaks?
S. How do you suggest to handle it, to deal with it?
R. Develop the measure of patience and understand that it’s important, the Creator loves women, He cares for them. I’m saying this seriously, and we need to agree with Him and evidently have no choice. As now at the end of correction at this point in time women are awakening up more and more and becoming more important, all together in the human group both in quantity and quality. In quantity we see that there are more of them and also in quality we can see the extent in which they are growing. A hundred years ago such a thing could not be that a woman would be a manager, a caregiver, someone who understands or feels, someone responsible. It is truly to the entrance of the era to the last generation.
Therefore you’re probably also going through a certain critique towards me, how am I saying that women can ask and appear on the screen and also somewhere in the afternoon lesson or once a week and now even in the morning lesson. How is this happening that they have such a possibility, so I am telling you this is all happening because we are in the period of correction, at the end of correction and you will see what will happen, and just not from my behalf but from the side of all together the development of the world. Where all these states, these terrible states that humanity needs to go through, we will go through them in a good beautiful soft way thanks to righteous women.
S. We hear in the morning lesson the question of a man or a woman should be added towards his question, should it be different?
R. I don’t know to the extent of which is different or not. I just know one thing that day after day a woman has more strength in the family and the country and in the world and we need to learn how we, by this force that’s coming and being revealed how we can correct the world by this. I am not ashamed to be turning to women and asking for help for the correction of the world.
S. Where is this whole force of the women joining us?
R. I think that in this great force we will feel a new attitude towards the Kli, towards the will to receive, towards the connection between us whereas we will learn about women specifically about women, the extent and which it’s difficult to connect and how it’s difficult for every woman to connect with another woman. We will have to see how it’s possible to make these corrections and we’ll pray together for the Creator to do this, because the woman is the will to receive, in its corporal appearance and a man his quality is to bestow in the corporeal vessel. We will have to take care of this.
70. S. (01:39:44) You’ve mentioned that we need to be entering with our development?
R. There are those amongst us that are already in the preface to Lishma, for her sake, yes.
S. So how would you describe our work in the ten, what needs to change now in order for us to enter this work?
R. As we want to observe that which Rabash writes in these excerpts it’s mostly Baal HaSulam and Rabash what we’re learning now. We also learned previously the collection of other excerpts and that’s it, that’s the whole, all these qualities from Lo Lishma to Lishma and what we need to acquire. That’s what I see as we read them until we begin to understand them and maybe feel them from within, sometimes it’s not coming to us intellectually and not even in our feeling but in some other form that we don’t understand how but somehow it’s absorbed, it’s received. That’s how it is.
71. S. (01:41:17) You said that you wouldn’t be afraid to ask women for help in the correction of the world, what help would you want to ask the women in the correction of the world?
R. To give an example to the men, to relate to the men like a mother to her child, in the right way just understand me, that this is an example of how we need to be connected together.
S. In the connection of the women where does the vessel come from when the women connect what makes that click, what clicks in the connection of women?
R. In the common heart of each and every ten, where we start to feel in every ten, let’s say in my ten I start to feel that between us that there is a click, some kind of closing a locking between all of us and we start to feel that we cannot disconnect from one another and that our connection is the deepest there is in nature and its eternal and that we have nowhere to run to only more and more together until in place of the ten we will feel the Creator, we will feel the ten but it will be as a vessel in which the Creator is revealed.
S. It sounds very mechanical, where’s the love here?
R. I don’t know what love is, I do not know what love is, maybe you will bring me some formula of what love is.
S. I don’t know, there is a feeling that when I want to love the friends I want some warmth to fill my heart.
R. Meaning you have some empty place and you want them to fill that place.
S. I do not want them to fill it, I want, in my attitude and relationship to them, to have warmth and love for them instead of my self love.
R. Meaning not that they love you but you love them. Well very well, that’s written, that’s called love.
S. You said that in the end of correction the women are very sharp and as far as what I see men, as far as I grasp what this force is, it’s a very powerful force, and you said that the women are going to break through forward but where is this massive force of the men?
R. The force of the men does not stand out like the female force because men always were kind of in some kind of movement, action and they were always very conspicuous, they stood out, it’s not something new like with women. I think the action of the men later as we talk about the work of the women where they will do the work of the men as they acquire the intention in order to bestow.
S. I remember myself as a little girl in kindergarten and I would look at the boys and would feel that I am as if the mother and I want to be related to this father there’s something about this femininity that wants to belong, to be related to this manliness so how does that relate that there is such strong work of the women.
R. When you connect between you and connect to the Creator and the Creator is like the big father and he manages you and also men like that connect amongst them and to the Creator and the truth is that precisely these orders in which the way that the connection between the men part and the women part will take place in the corrections I don’t know if I will find words for it, but I will find only soon, not today.
S. Thank you very much.
72. S. (01:47:19) To awaken Divinity from the dust, how can the entire ten come closer to it?
R. The whole ten together when it begins to raise the importance of the Creator in order to give him room to ask even obligate Him for the correction of our vessel, that is called to raise Divinity from the dust.
73. S. (01:47:58) We often hear that you said that many of us are on the edge of Lishma, will you let us know how this works?
R. Everyone needs to aspire for that and that’s enough. You will see how it will be revealed, you will be inside. If you don’t see it just now as you see this world, you will see it.
74. S. (01:48:48) Do we men need to see a great opportunity in overcoming and expression towards the women?
R. Try.
75. S. (01:49:00) This transformation from men leading and the strength that we are the strong manly group, how does this transformation happen? We can’t move from their greatness, from their importance, is there a psychological shift? How can we make it happen, how can we harmonize it?
R. You need to be like the men, meaning both to pull forward, to awaken, and when you take care of the child when you are caring for your boy, for you girls, for your children, there’s a difference if you are caring for your boy or for your girl? When you prepare them, you feed them, you help them get dressed, take them to school etc. is there a difference? There’s not such a big difference, that’s how we need to care for this. The main thing is connection between them and with the Creator.
S. This is not psychology, this is us connecting, uniting with the women and it gives us the strength to walk equally with men?
R. Of course, what’s the difference? What’s the difference all together? In spirituality what’s taken into account is your desires, the measure of bestowal to the Creator.
S. For example we are inviting the men, the next meeting of the women is not for the woman it is for the entire society because we want to prepare for the Congress and we also want to invite the men and we want to be heard and not just wave us away. Thank you very much love you are revolutionary
R. Yes, yes.
76. S. (01:52:06) We feel your shift very much from your side, we can ask more and be more involved but what is the change that we need to do right now? What is the addition that needs to come from our side in the work?
R. That which I’m talking about you need to do, that’s it and if you don’t then I will leave you and I won’t take care of the women’s side of Bnei Baruch.
S. But we always try to fulfill and accomplish what you were saying. What is required from us more now?
R. Connection, you are not taking care of the connection between you and from the connection addressing the Creator from there.
S. When women work together on something mutual, we feel much stronger everything that you are speaking of in practice and I think that it is easier for the men to accomplish because there’s something more obligating and more intensive. How can we use this potential that is being expressed precisely in the work?
R. We need to learn how women can work together, we need to learn this. That’s it, there’s no excuses here we must do this to be as one man in one heart is both for men and for women. This is what we all have to come to.
77. S. (01:54:22) What is the transition from the point of adhesion with the Creator to Lishma?
R. Adhesion between the friends and from them to the Creator is actually the implementation of Lishma.
78. What more is missing from the women Kli to reach Lishma and pull Bnei Baruch out of Egypt?
R. We are missing connection and prayer.
79. S. (01:55:15) What is the difference between the desire to receive and the ego and is dust a desire to receive or ego?
R. The will to receive is the will to receive, the ego is the same will to receive that is aimed for oneself because the will to receive has all kinds of degrees: Shoresh, Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Root, one, two, three, four. In the work of the root the person doesn’t feel like an egoist, it’s not on purpose where he is battling for it, yes or no, but instinctively, that’s the difference between desire and ego.
80. (01:56:10) It is written in excerpt 20 if He can do anything for the benefit of the Creator and for himself it is not important what flavor he feels. The question: How should I concentrate my work so every moment I will disconnect from the ego which is constantly demanding pleasure from the work for the Creator?
R. To work on it, as he writes, we need to work on it.
81. S. (01:56:57) I simply wanted to thank, I’m certain it’s for many women for the effort of overcoming that the men are doing towards us that is enabling us to develop in such a soft way even though there is great difficulty in many and to say that we see in the connection of the men salvation and maybe we don’t know how to express it but for us every connection of the men is truly the salvation of the world and it’s a great wander and a great gift from the Creator. Thank you very much.
R. Thank you very much as well.
82. S. (01:57:40) When we persist in the work even though it has the taste of dust, how do we grasp that the Creator is enjoying our work?
R. We feel it, if we do this work properly we feel that we are causing pleasure and contentment to the Creator.
83. S. (01:58:05) Is the concept of contentment to the Creator given in a feeling only or does it have a logical solution as well?
R. We, through our connection, measure where we are in comparison with the Creator, where yes and where no and where we are in equivalence of form with him.
84. S. (01:58:32) On one hand there is this inner relationship that I have with the Creator and we don’t share that with the friends. On the other hand we need to be with an open heart in the ten not hiding anything. How can I check myself, that I am not hiding anything important from the friends?
R. When we reach spirituality we will see how connected we are and how much we can do actions precisely out of our connection.
85. S. (01:59:13) What do we need to put emphasis on in the work in order to come to a state with the friends in the work to faith above reason?
R. To raise the importance of the connection between us in the group and the connection between the group and the Creator. There’s nothing else, there is no more, and more and more and more, this is all.
86. S. (01:59:42) Beloved Rav, how to accept when pain comes from the Creator?
R. Pain doesn’t come from the Creator, all the pain is from lack of equivalence of form with the Creator.
87. S. (01:59:59) Why on one hand we have to accept upon ourselves the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven and on the other hand we are given a nature that rejects it?
R. This is precisely as we are in two directions align ourselves with the Creator
88. S. (02:00:26) To feel that everything comes from the Creator is part of the work, how to feel that he’s Good that does good and where do we feel that?
R. To the degree that we connect to the Creator we already begin to understand that this is the good that does good and it is not possible that any feeling or thought will reveal itself other than that.
89. S. (02:00:56) Is this change of pleasure for myself the beginning of the work, a change from pleasure for myself to the benefit of the Creator, is that the beginning of the work of faith above reason?
R. Yes.