TUESDAY PRAYER: MALCHUT-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of Tuesday
Lesson on the topic of “Pesach (Passover)”
Morning Lesson April 9, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Passover – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. (For with a mighty hand he will send them. #173)
Passover – Main page for all chapters
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:30) Yes, so we have already gone through a few states in connection between the nation of Israel and Pharaoh and it turns out that a person who wishes to come out of slavery, out of the will to receive discovers how powerless he is and is baffled and doesn’t know what to do. Then he discovers that on his part it can’t happen, that he can’t rise above the will to receive even if he makes all the efforts that he’s able to do, he can’t do anything. Then he begins to realize that he doesn’t have a choice but to turn to the Creator, and the Creator will do it in his stead according to his request. The Creator will do this work on Pharaoh and force Pharaoh and weaken Pharaoh. That’s how a person comes out of his ego and begins to receive the force of bestowal, the force of love, the force of connection.
Before that he tried and for moments here and there he saw some success but ultimately he comes to a point where he’s not succeeding in terms of actually exiting the will to receive for himself, this is not within man’s strength. Then he discovers the rule of Pharaoh in a true form and then he realizes that only by his connection with his friends as much as he can but mostly by the address to the Creator, the plea to the Creator that he will do whatever He wants to do; he gives the Creator all of the power and trust, requests and cries, everything, because he himself has no ability to do anything. He is squeezed and he realizes that only the Creator can do this work. Just as the Creator created the will to receive and the will to bestow, just as He created all of those states that a person goes through, it’s all shaped by the Creator, then only one thing is left; to turn to the Creator so that He designs the steps for him to leave Pharaoh, to come out of Pharaoh’s rule and that’s what’s becoming clearer and clearer to the person.
That’s something we’ve discussed yesterday as well and now we want to get into the next stage. This is called ‘for with a mighty hand he will send them.’ Meaning the Creator pressures Pharaoh, pressures the will to receive, the ego within each and every person. And he begins this work in advancing the person towards a sharp state where the person faces Pharaoh and begins to feel that he can detach from him to some extent. He doesn’t have the power to do this but he recognizes that this is the process, to detach from Pharaoh and move away from Pharaoh. This is what needs to be done. And certainly in this entire work a person understands that he himself cannot do this, he can’t do anything here besides his inner work, as much as he is capable, as much as receives the strength to do so. Also the request from the Creator, to do it by all means because a person feels himself like a little child that is holding the hand of the adult and he completely depends and relies on the adult.
This is how we discover our situation, a very unique situation and it brings joy. One who is in that state feels that what opens before him is a new path, hopeful and with some confidence as he shifts all these things from himself to the Creator on the one hand. On the other hand he attracts the Creator into the group as the upper force, the force of bestowal that must become revealed above all. And by that there will be a change in the balance of forces working on the person. So those who wish to come out of Pharaoh’s rule to the Creator’s rule are called Yashar El, [straight to the Creator.] They begin to understand that in this way, in this style the exit will happen and that’s how it’s planned from above. So if we’re talking about the mighty hand it’s with respect to Pharaoh. That Pharaoh, the bad force within us will feel and understand that this is one’s place to confront his evil inclination. So let’s see how the text talks about this.
Reading #173. Twice (09:29)
2. R. (13:46) Here essentially is the entire plan for how to come out of Pharaoh’s rule so we can then succeed in all our paths, in the groups, in the world, in seeing all of reality from one end to the other and then we already rise above nature, above the will to receive in order to receive. Then we already begin a new life with a new power, new mind, new emotion, connection between us, everything begins to work in the style of bestowal. Is this understood in general? Don’t be shy to ask. These are the points that are very important, very principled. We’re right on the borderline.
3. S. (15:06) I heard you saying that there will be a change in the forces working on the person. Is this something we will be aware of, is this inspiration to understand that we are in the right direction and are there now or are we still far away from this?
R. We are in a state where we can understand what we’re facing, that we have to feel that we’re very weak against our ego even though we are seemingly physically willing and ready to do all kinds of physical actions. But internally we cannot overcome our ego and take control over it in the sense that we would be above it in order to bestow. Meaning that we already have despair from our work as it says ‘the children of Israel sighed from the work.’ They can’t put in more labor because they’ve seen in all sorts of examples that they can’t defeat their will to receive and that they don’t have a choice. Rather they have to do something about it but what is it? They don’t know. And that’s the cry, the plea to the Creator. Specifically in that state of despair they begin to recognise that the Creator needs to do this work and not us. But what’s up to us is simply to cry, to ask, to open our hearts as we need you to control us. This is what they need to tell the Creator.
4. S. (18:02) How will the children of Israel sigh so that the Creator will help them with a strong, mighty hand?
R. Simply by trying to connect between them and by adding their prayer, their cry and aiming it towards the Creator, that’s what they need to do. No success in anything is demanded from them except for detecting what hinders them and that they have no power to overcome these disturbances so as to connect and rise above their ego.
S. What is our work?
R. The work of the person is in connection and turning to the Creator for help.
5. S. (19:31) How does the mighty hand serve the purpose of creation?
R. That a person sees that it’s impossible to win here without the upper force. The person discovers that, before this he doesn’t see it. He thinks that by connection and by all kinds of corrections maybe he’ll be able to do something but certainly in truth there’s no chance for success with man’s strength. Only the Creator can dress into them and connect them and take them out of Egypt.
S. Can we say that the stronger the mighty hand to that extent is the greatness and beauty of the Creator and the purpose of creation?
R. Yes of course, it all becomes revealed through the balance of forces, the relationship between the forces that work on a person. And then a person starts to see that the Creator’s force can defeat the evil force.
6. S. (21:42) What does it mean to give the Creator strength?
R. To ask of the Creator to set up the forces within the person in such a way that he will be able to connect with others and rise above all the disturbances that keep him in order to receive.
S. In the beginning you said that we have to draw the Creator into the group. What does it mean our work?
R. To want to feel Him in connection between us more and more. That we are connecting, uniting and feeling the force of the Creator that is increasingly influencing us.
7. S. (22:47) What stops a person from truly being able to open his heart to the Creator?
R. One has to work a lot with himself, with the friends and fall into despair many times. It takes a long time. The Torah doesn’t talk about the timetable through which it happens but from the moment that a person as if wants to come out of Pharaoh’s rule, out of Egypt, to a free will which is called a free land so it works on the him in a way that he knows that he has to reach it this takes a long time, sometimes years until a person begins to understand that I cannot do this with my strength, with my force. Later he finally understands that only by the prayer, by the request that is organized, that is shaped, the prayer has to be shaped for the Creator to help them, to help his group and so forth. That takes a long time, that period can take a few years. In our time it is shorter but it still takes time.
8. S. (24:52) I understand from the excerpt that it takes a great deficiency, a great vessel but what do I do if the vessel feels like it’s diminishing and it’s getting smaller? Meaning the despair from my own strength and also despair from crying out to the Creator, what do you do?
R. All of that is on the way, on the path and correct.
S. So it’s fine to feel that the vessel is diminishing, getting smaller?
R. The opportunity is that your strength is declining. Meaning that you no longer see that you have strength of your own to rise above, to overcome Egypt.
S. So I should just just continue.
R. Yes, to keep going that’s in regard to any stage you’re in.
9. S. (25:55) The excerpt talks about stages that lead us to the final condition. How can we now create that vessel, how do we advance correctly according to those stages?
R. There is something making noises here, something in the microphones. Please repeat the question.
S. The excerpt talks about certain stages we have to go through in order to come to the final state where we have a vessel. How can we go through these stages correctly in order to eventually create the vessel so that the Creator hears our prayer?
R. Two actions: connection between us as tight as possible and then turning to the Creator out of that connection that we shape. If we succeed then we’ll make connection, make contact with the Creator and we’ll be able to bestow to Him. And He will do upon us all the actions that we have to go through before we can exit the ego.
10. S. (28:15) If to begin with it’s clear that a person doesn’t have the power to do this by himself then how do you come to the real deficiency?
R. It is sufficient for us to connect between us in our request to the Creator; that He will take us out and that will work and all the rest the Creator will take care of. He will change our forces, our desires, our thoughts, mostly our forces of connection and then we’ll advance toward the exit.
11. S. (29:22) Here it talks about not demanding to attain but only to do the work. So what’s the difference between the vessel for reception of the abundance and walking on the path of truth?
R. There’s a difference between nullifying before the upper force and asking it to do what’s needed. And we don’t interfere with His work because He’s working with our ego, with the will to receive that He created before creation and we only want Him to do what’s needed to us and we’ll feel the results.
S. What is the path of truth?
R. The path of truth means the will to bestow will always be above the will to receive.
12. S. (31:00) We have to build the Kli between us. In the preparation it was said let’s make this whole lesson a prayer. So how do we do this, how to make this whole lesson a prayer including the whole world Kli?
R. Go ahead, please, turn the lesson into a prayer, that’s what needs to happen. It is said about the person that I wish they would pray all day. How can I pray all day? That I’m constantly carrying a deficiency to connect to the friends and through them to the Creator to the point that I convince the Creator and I defeat the Creator we can say, so that He will pay attention to us and help us, that’s it. You should all write down these things. You can hear them again and again but write down these things in front of you and see how necessary these things are.
13. S. (32:54) The Creator filled people with hatred so they would correct it and turn the hatred into love?
R. Yes, certainly yes. This is the work of our will to receive, that it positions us one against the other. We’re always in criticism towards the others and when we connect in the ten we have even more states of that nature. We feel them stronger until we understand that we have to transform them to love where there is no boundary and no stop and no wall between us. Until then we’re not ready for the exodus from Egypt.
14. S. (34:08) Currently we still don’t have a desire to bestow, if I understand correctly. So if we still don’t have a desire to bestow then what is the prohibition because we have nothing to compare with, so what are the prohibitions?
R. We don’t have a will to bestow but we can envision to ourselves what kind of connection, what kind of state we have to achieve so that instead of being let’s say ten people, we are a Partzuf. So we add to each other, each adds to the others, whatever he has and then from those ten egoistic systems we become a single, altruistic system facing the Creator. Look at what’s happening here: ten, mini, individual systems, each one his own system, and we come together, connect and wish to become a single system of bestowal towards the Creator. So we have to know how we connect between us, how we put the pieces of the puzzle together, how we aim that towards the Creator, how we connect with Him, dissolve and add our deficiency to Him.
So we enter Him in such a way that He feels in all His actions that He’s aimed at us and He now resides in the same circle with us. And He has to bestow us the mind and feeling so that we will feel both the mind in our brain and the feeling in our heart so that we can connect between us and reach a state of being “as one man, with one heart.” A single integral system, not ten pieces but rather everything’s working reciprocally in an increasingly connected fashion between them. Then as we evolve we’ll begin to feel how we further and further and further connect through more and more qualities, desires, thoughts, actions and forces in a mutual way so that we interconnect in different ways between us. Until we add through one should help his friend, we add to each other in such a way that we feel that spiritual action cannot be done alone as we still think right now. It’s only together, if we each add to what the others have then we achieve a single force, a single thought, a single desire and a single action.
And then it follows that the Creator welcomes us, that we want to incorporate into Him in such a way through the mind and heart and connect to Him and live in Him until we become an embryo. There’s already ten forces that wish to incorporate, to dissolve into the Creator and then the Creator is impregnated with us and He begins to take us into Himself. To some extent we begin to feel that we’re in the spiritual world, the world of Ein Sof which is a completely different reality. There are forces that completely fill our world and it’s actually just one force and we gradually relate ourselves more and more to Him. We’ll discuss this more, this is still ahead of us but right now we want to enter this system, we want to go into that system.
15. S. (40:11) When we start praying we turn to the Creator because we are powerless to change. You said in the beginning He, the Creator will turn to Pharaoh and weaken the ego. What does it mean to weaken the ego and strengthen us?
R. It’s all a matter of relationships with the force of bestowal. If the force of bestowal, connection seems to us as more important and greater than reception and isolation then this is what we’ll do.
S. Is the Creator not taking the chance to reveal the evil inclination because it should become bigger, more revealed and if He takes it away, our Pharaoh then we don’t have a chance to correct any more?
R. Trust Him, He knows how to do this work. Now we are only saying what we have to do for now, afterwards we’ll talk about the following stages.
S. This sentence that he will turn to the Creator and weaken the ego, how do I work with this?
R. Simple. The desire to turn to the Creator is revealed in us because we have no choice, we have no one else to turn to. We discover more and more that there’s None Else Besides Him and that He controls everything including Pharaoh but His relation to the forces of connection and separation depends on our decision and here we can ask. So it turns out that just as a little child asks the parents for something, we ask of Him more and more and more by pleading with more and more accuracy to bring us closer to the goal.
S. If my ego loses its power then how can I see my evil inclination to ask more to correct above it? If it’s becoming weaker then I don’t have any correction possibilities. This is what I don’t understand, how to work with that.
R. The evil inclination doesn’t disappear, don’t worry it won’t leave you. You will see how much it becomes revealed greater and greater than you knew before. It’s all still ahead of you.
S. How does a mighty hand really help and benefit us then, the mighty hand to bring down my ego?
R. Gradually it raises the Creator above all the other forces that operate on us and we need to crown Him as the upper force, but it happens gradually.
16. S. (44:46) Is there a certain replica, a copy in the corporeal nature that there are some individual units that suddenly transform and connect and become like one thing, like one body that feels itself on a more evolved level than before?
R. There is no problem, no problem, I take some idea that I need to connect to put together all kinds of pieces so that I get a car, for example, so each part is intended to be alone and afterwards, I put them together so they would interact with each other correctly, and then it turns out that they work together and through their connection they understand what they can achieve. And if I disconnected a part of this from the system then the whole system becomes damaged and cannot work; and we can see this from our lives on many levels in many examples.
17. S. (46:45) Continuing this question, every component in a car, let’s say, has its own function.
R. It cannot carry it out without being connected to the others.
S. Right but in the group, we have to identify and understand what our function is and how to do this?
R. No, we only need to connect between us for the time being, truly, completely blindly and that will work because the Creator is taking upon Himself all these parts. Just like you see in a newborn baby that all its parts are connected and work in harmony between them, that’s it.
S. So, for now not to deal with what I’m supposed to do, just these actions in the ten?
R. That’s it, there is nothing else to do, you will never be able to attain what you are going to connect, we are the created beings not the Creator, we work from below not from above. So when I start to connect, to arrange, to organize the parts that I want them to work together, I do not picture to myself the whole machine, this whole creation in its complete form. I connect only according to a single rule: I want them to be in harmony between them, in good correct and mutual connection between them. And this is what brings them to the right connection. A person should not jump above this action, otherwise he immediately becomes confused and loses everything, and he has to start over again from the beginning, we’ll talk about it.
18. S. (49:13) Everything is measured according to the connection between us and how much we nullify, towards whom do we nullify?
R. We annul before the Upper Force that manages the connection between us correctly.
S. I understand that there is an Upper Force operating, where is the main work we need to do instead of chasing our own tail?
R. The main work, the essence of the work is unity, unity, for all of us to be connected into a single system of Adam HaRishon and we only think, dream, plan this. We want to achieve and we have no other purpose and when each is searching in what way he can become connected with others in order to serve them completely, then we come to the right connection in the system. This will all connect for you later, you’ll see how these things are all closed together and it is simply how they exist.
19. S. (51:23) Isn’t also the desire for not to be controlled by the Pharaoh egoistic, how can I clarify these powers and forces inside me?
There is also an egoistic part in it but after it, we always start from the ego, there is nothing we can do, but afterwards we shift, this is called ‘shifting from Lo Lishma to Lishma’, so we shift to the selfless form.
S. How can I scrutinize the forces working inside me, Moses, Pharaoh, etc.?
R. We cannot always scrutinize these forces and that’s not my goal, my goal right now is, first of all, to work on connecting these forces in the direction of mutual bestowal towards our general connection and not that we check more than this. This is called, ‘by your actions we will know you’, when we begin to work, like children learn: they do something, like monkeys, they do, they look at us and do it. And then through doing they learn how it is built, how it is made, what they did and this is how they advance.
20. S. (54:07) Can you help me to draw out this polarity between the despair, despair of my own strength against this, there’s seems there’s this background now of deep, deep faith and a deeper level of nullification and I cannot quite feel the polarity between the two?
R. We still haven’t reached that very deep faith and correspondingly we still do not know what is that deep despair, so the questions are not practical at this stage, we’ll get to that.
21. S. (55:19) How does pleasure or bringing contentment be received in the Creator if He already determines everything in advance?
R. The Creator is a network of connection between us which feels what is happening in it, and accordingly it responds, it has the beginning of creation, the end of creation and the situation where we are. Its purpose is us, to promote us, to help us, advance us in our forces, in our awareness toward the end of creation where we are all incorporated in our desire ‘as one man, with one heart’ and build all of creation as an ideal, integral system where, in fact, this will be called Bo Reh, the Creator, Come and See, where we are advancing toward it, we discover it and are incorporated in it. So this is how we relate to the system of the Creator, as it is written, “there is no Creator without a created being”, so if we come to the state of the real created being then we discover in it, the Creator.
22. S. (57:22) Studying the passage, the Creator wants us to feel far from the truth and I have heard the pleas of friends here and how they feel that Pharaoh is keeping them far from the truth. And we have gone through many scrutinies and trying to shape the prayer, so all that we need is the right Kli and the demand adding to what my sister shared earlier, if we all continue that demand and everything that we do and the lesson is shared in the meals when we’re singing and dancing can we reach some kind of tipping point where we’re pushing for that Ibur you described so beautifully earlier, that we push closer to that Ibur with a partnership of the Creator?
I feel we all are here, the whole world Kli, not just the friends here in Petah Tikva but around the world are looking for this desire to have a deficiency for the tipping point. So according to the passage, it is all about the demand, constant demand […] if we continue this demand every moment we have such a powerful environment to remind each other that this is what we’re here for. It’s what we’re feeling. We want the Creator. We know we can’t do it. I hear so many friends say we cannot do this, we have to have the Creator. Will the demand create a tipping point, thank you?
R. Are you done? I cannot answer you, I cannot answer you. We have to advance along the way according to what the Creator awakens in us every moment, out of this approach, connection and in these small steps we advance correctly, that is it. And next time if you get permission to ask, don’t open this huge notebook in front of you, it will not be accepted.
23. S. (01:01:00) When I feel how the friend wants to come out of his Pharaoh, what opportunity is there from the group to enter the friend’s heart and help?
R. Set an example, nothing else.
S. You said that we have to try to find our place in the general machine. Here I have to do my scrutiny and try to join the general system?
R. I don’t get into that, this is all nonsense, this is your ego twisting you from every direction as if you can put some order here with your own brain.
24. S. (01:02:20) One has to fulfill his role in the general system like a cogwheel, is it possible to see how the system works from the side and appreciate the thought of creation?
R. A person with respect to the group can see these things to the extent that he participates in them.
25. S. (01:03:05) Is the desire to make a Kli for the Creator, can it be egoistic?
R. Of course, of course it can.
S. What does it mean that I do something for the sake of the Creator? How do I know it is for the sake of the Creator or if it’s from my ego?
R. Each one can fantasize that he is working in order to bestow.
26. S. (01:04:07) We learned that there are two actions: connection between us and a connection between us to the Creator. Where does the transition happen from connection between us to connection between us and the Creator?
R. By relating the connection between us to the connection with the Creator.
S. When the ten tries to connect together it already contains the next action, the address to the Creator, just the effort to connect between us contains that?
R. They have to think in advance that their intention is for the system they build, they will reach the Creator; connect with Him.
S. So to begin with we have two forms of connection between us towards the Creator directly towards Him?
R. Yes but we can’t reach him directly unless we connect between us first.
S. And what is the point that there’s sufficient demand for the Creator to take us out of the plights of Egypt?
R. That we only want to be in the mutual force of bestowal. That’s it. That the Creator is giving us His power and we, with His power connect and establish between us a system that on the surface, on the outside it works, operates like the Creator.
27. S. (01:05:55) I heard you say a few times that the path takes a few years and that we are advancing in baby steps. I hear it and I feel like I can’t hear it and agree with it and also be in a non-stop effort. On the other hand I see you, I see friends who set an example for that and grab hold of the path for many years and have alertness and motivation and never stop making efforts. How can you hold on to these two ends?
R. I received this life in order to constantly advance towards matching the Creator because for what else? If you have anything else, any ideas? No, so this is what I do, as much as the Creator gives me strength and years, this is what I have to do. Of course there are ups and downs here and all kinds of states but in any case, whatever happens I have to increase the importance of filling up my life with advancement toward being “as one man, with one heart” and in One Creator. So all of reality comes to that, comes to being a point, one point, one dot. That’s it. There is nothing here that is exceptional, it all depends on the importance that a person develops through the environment.
S. So how to understand what is missing in me that I can’t have this level of alertness? It’s importance, that’s the point?
R. It takes years but actually yes, it also depends on the point in the heart that the person is born with and his mind, his heart demands the Torah, the light. That is the way it is. Everything else you will discover along the way.
28. S. (01:08:50) Why is reality so far from the truth?
R. I wouldn’t say that it’s far, it is opposite but they are close, it is just opposite. So it all depends on the perception, on our view. Sometimes you fight with someone, you yell at him, he yells at you, it might be in the family, might be with a friend and all of a sudden, something happens that you stop arguing because of whatever and you start feeling that you’re not actually fighting but you’re actually close and then all those things that previously stirred up quarrels, now they stir up connection. So we needn’t see spirituality and reality as being so far, it is from one end to the other but these ends are adjacent, touching each other, so it all depends on our relation to it.
29. S. (01:10:40) All these states of Egypt, all these states of hunger and poverty and emptiness, it’s all that there is in Egypt and only in these states the Creator can work, all of Egypt is just this infancy?
R. The Creator operates throughout the way. He is revealed in Egypt and afterwards and all the other phases in the exodus from Egypt, on Mount Sinai in the desert.
S. Not the whole process, just where we are at now. When there is no pride in the path of the Creator there is no joy of bestowal, it’s all just […]
R. No, along with it, when the person experiences he should be happy with what he’s experiencing because it brings him closer to the purpose of creation. He is going through necessary stages, necessary stages, and this is what fills him with anticipation to achieve correction.
S. This whole state, you like something is suffocating you and you have no knife to attack and defend you just give up gradually?
R. Maybe that is the idea that is the goal for you to give up and give up and give up until nothing is left and then you will begin to agree with the Creator.
S. And what do you say? This is the way?
R. Yes, this is the way and I’m sure you can, you can achieve all the corrections.
30. S. (01:13:10) I want to connect to the question about the expectation because once I understand how things work, there is also some mechanism of compensation, some reward I want for my work. How can I break this mechanism and put everything in the hands of the Creator, of the work, the expectation and wait for that mechanism we talked about to take its course in a harmonious way.
R. Only through connection can we shorten and hasten the path, there is nothing else only through connection.
S. Creator I feel myself fried on this chair?
R. So what do you do, what do you suggest? We are telling you the laws of nature, this is how we advance from one end to the other. From in order to receive to in order to bestow and in order to attain the power of bestowal in a way that we approach resembling Him more and more. There’s no other way in nature to know anything except through equivalence of form, so what do you do?
S. Nothing I’ll keep on being fried in this chair, Rav.
R. You don’t need to be fried. If you add the feeling to the intellect and the intellect to the feeling, then you’ll understand what you’re doing it for and you will keep yourself from burning.
31. S. (01:15:49) When we receive the force of the Creator what will we see here? To what reality do we open our eyes?
R. You see the entire world above our reality, above the restriction of the barriers of time and space, you see the entire system as it exists. That it exists in one single force that is called the Creator and it is clear to you all of the actions that have been done from the side of nature, that nature is the Creator, in Gematria, Elohim, and that everything that is happening is happening in the will to receive and gradually you’re researching it and the force of bestowal. So you are revealing the entire reality that exists within nature and there is nothing more than that. There’s nothing, everything that we can say, know, it all exists in the very same system that we are revealing.
Reading Excerpt # 174 (01:18:00) “The answer to why..”
32. R. (01:19:00) Yes, meaning we are welcome, invited to deal with our evil inclination as much as the Creator is dropping on us the evil inclination, the ego that we need to use in the way of bestowal.
Reading Excerpt # 174 Again. (01:19:47)
33. R. (01:20:45) Yes, meaning always when we feel we have in front of us some wall, a block, a big problem, it means that we have really merited it and we need to use a much stronger force and this is how it will be more and more. Not to think that we are going from difficult work to easier work, rather from easier work to much more difficult work. However, from our experience and from our ability, if we overcome the differences and the lack of connection between us, we will see that we can do these actions easily.
Reading Excerpt # 175 (01:21:45) “If one overcomes all the difficulties..”
34. R. (01:23:23) Meaning that we need to understand that as much as we progress onwards in all of the advanced degrees, we are going to have more difficult work but we are going to be worthy of it on these degrees. Okay?
35. S. (01:23:45) There is a feeling that especially during the lesson, such disturbances are organized for us with such sophistication that you disconnect yourself and you don’t even notice for five or ten minutes. The time has gone and where was I? So when he says mighty hand, these levels if I compare them to little things?
R. Do for yourself all sorts of tricks not to disconnect, you have a text in front of you? Yes, you are tracing it together with the reader?
S. With a reader and also in the preparation we were sitting and preparing, twice we read them.
R. Then okay, we have to go through them more, each and every word connect it with some other words and there is no other way, this is the work.
S. But during the day there’s also times, like he says, with small desires and we quickly follow these desires. So how do I cope with that? What am I missing to cope with it correctly?
R. What is lacking? A desire, other than the desire and nothing.
S. And when you don’t have it?
R. There is now a great desire for the attainment of the goal. There is now a great desire of the attainment of the goal in order to reach connection with the friends, in order to attain the goal.
S. Last question if I may, does the Creator show on the path, on purpose that the person is weaker and weaker? You only discover that you are so weak or less than a rag?
R. Yes, of course.
S. Is that okay?
R. What do you mean, okay? This is how it needs to be but don’t be satisfied, don’t be happy that you are like this.
36. S. (01:25:55) Why do I feel that a mighty hand of the Creator works stronger on me with respect to others, if I compare myself to the others?
R. This is how your ego explains it to you, that the rest are not in the same disturbances as you are, this is how your ego depicts it to you like this.
S. We learned that the ego […] from the pure to the coarseness? But I don’t even feel that because it’s so hard?
R. Because it’s coming down to you already from a very high degree and you feel it in a way like it was before, like it was before when you started overcoming it and now you can’t overcome it and this is how it is with each and every next degree but in the meantime you are advancing.
37. S. (01:27:50) When we hear about this power, that is not in our power to do it, it puts me in a state of even less trust. A state from which I can do nothing, not even pray, I don’t even have trust in my own ten. It feels as if I’m in a trap. How not to fall into that?
R. Day to day to check yourself according to the writings of Kabbalists and then in such a way, you will understand where you are located and you will be able to aim yourself like a compass daily.
S. One more question: can we imagine that the mighty hand is like hatred between the friends?
R. Yes, certainly of course.
38. S. (01:29:25) You said that the Creator brings us out of Egypt and when that happens all we want to be is in bestowal. How when in Egypt under the rule of Pharaoh can we start wanting bestowal, it sounds illogical?
R. First of all because it is the plan of the creation and it’s coming from the Creator and the Creator arranges for us all of the natural forces including Pharaoh and all the disturbances. This is number one. Number two is that we cannot just from the Creator creating but that we have to turn to the Creator and ask of Him and when we ask of Him, then we do reveal how it is all built, constructed in such a way to bring us out of Egypt and bring us to complete association, identification with the Creator. You still haven’t learned Hebrew?
S. A little.
39. S. (01:31:30) At what moment once a person goes through all the states he discovers, he understands that There Is None Else Besides Him?
R. Every time he’s adding and adding to this knowledge, awareness but only at the end of the road when he is included with the quality of bestowal in the complete way he can say that There Is None Else Besides Him.
40. S. (01:32:22) We read these excerpts and it becomes clear to us that the Creator calculated every millimeter on our path, especially the things we count as our own weaknesses. My question is: what is more beneficial for my advancement in every state? To try to attain the goal and discover Him or to discover His wholeness in the way He leads us?
R. I will try to understand. I would say it this way. That to reveal that all of the thoughts and desires that are passing through me are coming from the Creator, those against the Creator and those for the Creator, everything that I have to do is only to flow with them in equivalence and complete connection with the Creator, that is all.
41. S. (01:34:10) These are special days with a lot of thoughts and the friends are trying to give confidence to each other. I too have a great desire. How can I convey to them so they can add their exertion, have more exertion? Or should I take their desire but their desires are so great I can’t even come close to that?
R. If this is the desire of the group then to be included with it, to immerse in it and that’s all. That everything that you have you enter and place in them. This is the main way for our progress.
42. S. (01:35:30) If I may, I would like to ask about the way our lessons are going. When we moved to the format of the Galaxy, the lesson changed a bit and today too, there was a very good example. Maybe we read five minutes and the rest of the lesson were questions and answers. It is not a criticism, I am simply trying to understand from you what is the ideal way for the morning lesson externally and also internally?
R. Internally, I want for everyone to be connected, all of our friends here and all around the world, for us to all be connected. For us all to hear the questions and answers and discussions of what we have throughout the lesson, this is number one. Number two, well, maybe this is enough, maybe that’s enough for us to connect to the very same flow that we have in the lesson.
The fact that we speak, discuss a lot and read what we have less it’s not what concerns me because I’m certain that anyone who wants to advance will read this another dozen times, these lines and he will translate them and he will dissect them and bring them up for himself and we will advance in this way. These excerpts are very, very unique, they are the entirety, the heart, the essence of the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is necessary for us to reach the correction. That is it. Now, I see in front of me people who do want to understand and feel and enter deeper into content, great. More than that you don’t need. And I remember Rabash that said my store has to be open, whoever enters, enters, whoever doesn’t, doesn’t, and he wasn’t concerned that much about dissemination or all sorts of forms of study; everything that I can, I give. The Creator arranges everything else.
43. S. (01:39:20) Our work starts with None Else Besides Him, that’s why I’m standing here. How is renewing the covenant different from that? What do we do today to make the covenant mighty?
R. Each time our desires are renewed which is why the new desire I am required to do a revision, a check bag of sorts on my attitude, my work, my connection, my purpose and thus, each time, we are in clarification, in scrutiny.
44. S. (01:40:25) You said that it turns out that when a person starts walking on the path of truth he really doesn’t want spirituality?
R. It could be that it’s not true, it could be that it’s just a season, though later it passes and again you enter the chase after spirituality.
S. According to the excerpt the Creator actually helps by showing how far I am and how much I don’t want it?
R. Yes.
S. But you also said that ideally you would like the whole lesson, that we will be in a prayer and for that we do need to want it?
R. It can be that you see that you don’t want but you know that it is desire that you do want.
S. So how out of me not knowing what spirituality is and I don’t even know if I want spirituality or not, how from that a demand is born and then the prayer?
R. Through the light that reforms, through the Upper Force that shines on you and changes your foundation, changes your entire nature.
45. S. (01:42:45) If I was capable of overcoming the weak hand of the Creator and the mighty hand of the Creator and I have pride inside me?
R. Continue. Continue.
46. S. (01:43:21) The people fled Egypt out of the will to receive and they only received the will to bestow later on Mount Sinai? How did this happen that they came out without an intention and what is this intermediate state between reception and bestowal?
R. We will see it, we didn’t enter it yet.
S. Is it a different state?
R. I haven’t answered your question, so why do you continue more, you already asked today.
47. S. (01:44:30) How to help each other to believe that the Creator will make the miracle and pass us on from reception to bestowal?
R. Through connection with the friends. A person alone certainly is incapable to be certain that this is how it is happening to him, completely incapable. And it will not happen to him, only through connection.