MONDAY PRAYER: BINAH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: between after midnight and sunrise of MONDAY.
All Your Actions Will be for The Sake of the Creator
Morning Lesson April 22, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
All Your Actions Will be for the Sake of the Creator – Selected Excerpts from the Sources
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:24) That’s what it is in one sentence. We have the purpose of the work, the purpose of the labor and it includes everything. We need to raise, to elevate the upper force, the force of bestowal, the force of connection to be above us and it’s always being in us and connect us so we can annul ourselves before it and that is everything. And then each one will feel that he’s the last of everyone and does everything in order to push everyone to contact with the Creator and he himself is only assisting in it and this is his goal. What does it mean all of your actions will be for the sake of the Creator? For the Creator to be revealed as He truly is, one unique and unified force and there is none else besides him and it fills everything, surrounds everything and we want it to fill us in this way and determine all of our thoughts and actions.
Reading excerpt #1 (02:15) “One must always examine oneself,”
2. R. (04:34) There really is nothing to add to such words. Only the consent of the heart and concern that all of the friends will be in it together. And in this way we will feel ourselves that we are all each one in everyone else, to make room for the Creator to be revealed within us completely. As much as we can for now.
3. S. (05:38) What does it mean that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life?
R. That all the moments I am conscious, when I live and exist I will feel myself as getting closer and closer and closer to the Creator and the Creator to me is the common desire of all of the friends where I discover or reveal their source which is the Creator. This is the house of the Lord, everyone’s common heart.
4. S. (06:35) What is the agreement of the heart?
R. The agreement or the consent of the heart is when I want my heart however I feel or reveal my desire will be entirely emptied of anything besides one thing: that the Creator will feel it by the power of bestowal, love and connection he fill it.
S. What determines what my heart agrees with?
R. What determines is my desire and the influence of the society, the influence of the society. The heart is the result of both of them. First I kind of give it direction and this is called the point in the heart which the Creator holds and the rest depends on how much I am attached to the friends and they are attached to me. And in this way we mutually, together come as one man with one heart and then in this common heart we reveal the upper force, our landlord, our host.
S. Does a person have control over his heart or the friends cause his heart to agree?
R. I cannot control the heart.
S. If I can’t control it then how do I make it agree?
R. I try to push it toward the friends so it would want to connect with them, incorporate in them and in this way I create in it, I build in it, I fashion in it a condition where the Creator can be revealed.
S. So what are we doing to each other’s heart because it sounds like ultimately your heart is not in your hands at all?
R. It’s not in my hands but I can bring it closer to the hearts of the friends to stand behind them to push them forward to the Creator to ask the Creator to satisfy their desires, for me to be the worker, the operator and they the receivers.
S. And this means that you work on your heart in working for them you cause the heart to change?
R. Yes, that’s all that I can do. I don’t own my heart but if I pray for the friends and I too, I agree to be the last, the one who only does the operation and the others are receivers. So this is what will happen.
S. How to develop this change that you dedicate your life for their progress and you agree with it?
R. That’s the labor, it’s to the extent that I depict to myself that this is how the system is built. That we are all together in the system of Adam HaRishon which lost the connection between all its parts and I try with my efforts to see them connected together and then bestowing upon each other and I want to be the last one pushing everyone toward connection and willing only to do the work and for them to receive the results.
S. And that’s your spirituality? The fact that you worked for them to advance that the results will be in them, this is called spirituality for you?
R. Yes.
S. Even though you don’t see results in yourself?
R. If I don’t see results it doesn’t matter. I see in this the purpose of my existence because by this I allow the friends to approach the Creator and I give the Creator a vessel to fill; the desires of the friends, so they will connect together through my prayer and the Creator will fill them and delight in them and enjoy them and then I’m regarded as a servant of the Creator.
5. S. (12:28) He writes in the beginning that one must examine oneself always, the purpose of one’s work, meaning if the Creator receives contentment in every act that one performs. My question is: how does a person examine himself because he already said one can examine oneself?
R. We learn that the pleasure for the Creator can be revealed in his created beings, this is why we have to see that the created beings want it, that they connect between them and in this way make room for the Creator, create a room for the Creator to be revealed between them.
S. Usually the criticism comes from all the examinations, comes from outside towards the person. Here the demand is that one will examine oneself. It is a problem if I say something then how do I criticize myself if I think it is good?
R. Again it is through the society we ourselves cannot do anything we don’t feel ourselves, we don’t know ourselves, we don’t control ourselves completely. There is no way, there is no possibility for us to criticize our work only through the society.
S. So how does he write that one must examine oneself?
R. Through the society, to constantly think how we can connect the friends together, push them into one system which will be according to which in its nature will be closer to the Creator in mutual bestowal between them.
S. So it’s not that one examines oneself, it’s that he wants to bestow to the others, to the friends in his examination so that’s the question: one must examine oneself, meaning that I am looking at the group, at the friends, not myself?
R. For now fine, have it this way for now.
6. S. (15:12) There’s a bad feeling of emptiness in the stomach, the force that pulls you deeper to pain and sorrow. That’s a feeling that I have. You probably feel this state in me. How do I push everyone from that state, my friends, the world Kli and me, the last one? How can I do this action?
R. First try to connect with them and understand that the Creator wants them to be together directed toward Him. That they will make a place where the Creator can fill according to the law of equivalence of form, meaning that all of the friends shall be in mutual bestowal toward each other and together when they do this to bestow upon the Creator. When all of them put together such a force of bestowal that is common and toward the Creator and according to the equivalence, the Creator dresses in them, becomes revealed in them, they reveal the Creator. And this is what we should advance to, move to, aspire for.
7. S. (17:00) What’s the issue of seeing myself as the last one who pushes everyone forward and I because sometimes there are places where we have to lead to be like Macshom, to jump forward so how to find your location?
R. That’s true but being last means I don’t want anything for myself but only seeing them connected together and creating a place for the Creator to be revealed in, in order to bring Him contentment, that’s it, that’s what I want. I am like the organizer of the work, the one who sets up the situation and in fact I don’t need any reward, any prize. We need to think about it. These things are a little more personal and deeper.
8. S. (18:14) What does it mean to push? What’s the action of pushing the others?
R. Pushing with respect to society means I care for them, I pray for them, I ask the Creator to come closer to them, to tend to them, to pay attention to them, to really ask him to soften himself toward them and to feel myself as responsible for them, the one who tends to everyone, takes care of everyone that it depends that their situation depends on me if they would advance from day to day, that it depends on how much I ask and beg the Creator to give them His force of connection, his bestowal. These things, it’s hard for me to find words for them.
S. It sounds like you have found but what if I don’t have such a desire, at times when I don’t have that desire, what to do?
R. Of course we need to work on these words, on these feelings, on this participation, on this concern all of the time. This is why every moment he will have a feeling that what you said thus far in your heart it’s not enough and you are looking for more and more turning to the Creator, to please the Creator, more practical, more influencing, more bestowing, more impactful until you see that to some extent it is working.
S. So my question is: who pushes me to push the society, how do I get the strength to always ask for them?
R. This is your concern, a concern in one’s heart. You have to find that concern. That for each and every one that you look at everyone like that here and on the screen all over the world and you see that there are countless friends and they all are dependent on you. Afterwards you will start feeling that the whole of humanity will depend on you.
S. But when you don’t yet see this system this way, if you don’t feel it then how will you awaken the true degree?
R. Real it’s not real but as much as you can just imagine that this is what it is and imagine that by this you are actually working. You are operating you’re operating the system, activating it. You’re activating the system and then the question is how to continue, what to do? And then you also turn to the ten and all the forces that you reveal you want to add to it because basically there is no higher, more important work then to add, to join all the friends, to advance toward the Creator, to make room for Him to be revealed.
S. How do I activate the system exactly, what action of mine does it?
R. Your prayer.
S. Prayer, my artificial prayer activates the system?
R. Yes, even if it is artificial, even if your heart and mind don’t match is what they say, it’s not the same, still from Lo Lishma, not for her sake we come to Lishma, for her sake.
9. S. (23:15) The prayer activates the system and it also says that one who prays for his friend is answered first. What do you do with this answered first?
R. You are tending to them. When you pray for your friends you become responsible for your friends situation and then through you you take everything that comes to you and pass it to the friends. In other words your prayer ends in being, in doing it in practice.
S. Meaning what the friend needs to receive passing through me?
R. Yes, yes.
S. That’s the table that we have to work on it, meaning that there is work in?
R. Yes, of course there is work here and you need to participate and what passes from the Creator to the friend you become a partner, a real partner and in this way you connect your friend with the Creator through you. This is a very complicated, multi-layered, multifaceted situation that we need to be incorporated in, delve in more and more.
10. S. (25:13) What’s the training the individual needs to receive to that state that he passes through himself the force of the Creator?
R. The training is simple. To what extent am I trying in my heart to include the friends and raise them to the Creator, to present them to the Creator. This is the training and the training shouldn’t happen in advance but on the spot. When I ask and I pray and perform the action. Here I also acquire the training, the qualification to do such actions, connection, prayer and mutual fulfillments between us.
11. S. (26:15) There’s a kind of movement of the holy society where each of us is included in the society and receives strength from the actions society does from the greatness of the goal, the path and with these forces the individual receives he bestows them back to the society and it’s like a movement like that and one nourishes the other. There are such moments where there’s like a switch and it gets deleted. What does the Creator want from us?
R. So we would search for the connection between us and the connection with him and activate the prayer and come closer among the friends and for us to upgrade the connection between us, the mutual bestowal, that’s it. As if you are switching gears from one to the other and from one to two and from the second to the third. And that’s what we need to do so don’t be impressed because the previous connection starts, it is only an opportunity to rise.
12. S. (27:53) What is that state that each of us decides with love, determines with love and pushes all of the ten to unite the desires?
R. Each one has its own character and the point he was born with and the special point in the heart that he’s never connected to the others and he in order to advance has to awaken them to connection. So we need to see that all of our tendencies toward the Creator are directed toward him and to connect to each other in a manner of mutual help.
S. You said more than once that there has to be some subtlety of the soul between walking on the path and the demand there has to be some subtlety in terms of the demand from the friends. So what’s the right gentle way to pass on to the friend?
R. Look, I see before me three-hundred, four-hundred friends and likewise each of us and I have to see on my part through my prayer, through my relation to the Creator that through my connection to the Creator I will be able to give them a connection to them between the Creator and the friends. That connection no one can provide besides me, it is my personal connection with the Creator. Therefore, here I need to see that I am connected to each and every one and with the Creator and through me make that connection. That’s my work. And this is what will build for me a place in the heart, by this my heart expands. From the perspective of the friend, through my heart that the deficiencies and prayers go to the Creator and from the Creator fillings come down through my heart and commands come down from the Creator to my heart. And so to this extent I and the Creator begin to be something like one. Well, we will talk about it, how to expand the system.
13. S. (31:23) In my request I need to arrange my attitude towards the friends or the friends towards me?
R. Both. I have to pray to the Creator to soften himself for the friends, I’m allowed to say that to Him and I have to pray for the friends that on their part they too will be more alert and sensitive to the Creator.
S. What does it mean that I can ask the Creator to change his attitude towards the friends? I start from the premise that He’s the absolute.
R. No, He’s not an absolute, the Creator is not an absolute. On the contrary He organizes such conditions that we have what to ask for, that we have what to correct. So we’re not talking about Him, that’s clear but we’re talking about His operations toward us, toward the possibility to advance, to want changes, to ask for them and so forth.
14. S. (33:19) What does it mean to soften his heart for himself towards the friends, it’s unclear what to ask.
R. I ask the Creator to be more merciful towards my friends.
S. Merciful in what sense?
R. To have mercy on them more, to come closer to them, to be softer toward them, to help them, to allow them to advance more softly, easily and quickly.
S. And it is permitted to ask that?
R. It’s permitted for me, for the friends of course; for myself no, but for the friends yes.
15. S. (34:25) How can I suddenly dictate to the Creator how to behave to the friends, be soft, don’t be soft?
R. I’m not dictating, I’m asking, I’m not telling him you have to. I know that through my request I can change his relation to the created beings, this is how he created this system to begin with.
S. Maybe now in this blow that he gives the friend or this state to the friend, maybe that’s what’s good to Him now.
R. I’m not spoiling it, I’m only asking.
16. S. (35:12) So could it be that my request that He will advance them in an easier way will look to me like another blow, that the friend receives more suffering?
R. I don’t get into philosophies, I say what I need to do.
S. How do I understand that my request has been received? That I’m asking that the friend will advance in a beautiful, smooth, easy way.
R. No, what’s for me is to raise the prayer.
17. S. (35:52) What is that state, probably a perfect state that I exist only to bestow and if not I don’t need to exist?
R. Yes?
S. Where is the root?
R. The root is the Creator who only gives and I have to come to a state, to actions where I will be entirely to bestow.
S. And what am I here?
R. You are the one who is asking to be like that, only to bestow.
S. Who or what is asking for that?
R. My desire, my point in the heart. I understand that there are many questions here but that’s the way it is.
18. S. (37:04) When I have to feel my friends in the heart you said I need to connect them to the Creator, how do I do that?
R. I have to try to see them together with the Creator, that they are all connected. To the extent that they are connected between them they are close to the Creator and I am seemingly pushing them from below, more and more closer to the Creator, towards the Creator.
19. S. (38:05) Let’s say I assume I want to bring contentment to the Creator through the friends to Him and I see that the friend doesn’t want to connect with the friends, to aim for the Creator, he wants something else? So who do I please the friend or the Creator?
R. You have to try to bring the friend closer to the goal and that is what you are asking for instead of him. You are asking for the Creator to push him forward, that’s all. That’s what the friend cannot do, ask the Creator for progress. You ask instead of him. This is called one prays for his friend.
S. If I see that the friend cannot open his heart does it mean that I can’t open my heart or is it that there is no such possibility? Only then I turn to the Creator right?
R. I turn to the Creator and ask that the Creator open the friend’s heart and help him advance in connection with the friends. From connection with the friends they’ll connect with the Creator and that’s how they’ll advance, that’s it. We don’t have so much to add here.
S. Our situations change all the time and we can’t do some things, actions but there is an action. Do such actions give contentment to the Creator when there is no real connection between us but I have a prayer?
R. If there is a response to our state and it really doesn’t matter what state we’re in, we turn to the Creator and ask for changes. That already is a prayer and it’s a good action, that’s already a good action.
20. S. (41:42) How can we stop searching for excuses not to pray for the friends?
R. But what else do we have to do? Tell me, from all of the spectrum of possibilities that you have opportunities what else do you have to do instead of asking for the friends? For the created beings there is nothing else. The Creator is whole. If you ask for yourself it’s egoistic, so it turns out that besides you and the Creator there’s this broken Kli that the Creator shattered deliberately and you have to make sure that you pray, that you ask Him to bring this Kli back to its corrected form, it’s connected form. There’s nothing besides that and we begin this work from the ten. And by that we basically learn what to do in the rest of creation.
21. S. (43:33) If I pray for something close to me it’s an egoistic prayer, if I pray for a friend it’s not a real prayer because in my heart I can’t pray for a friend. my will to receive resists. It means that I’m not keeping this condition, meeting the condition of prayer in both cases so from where do I get the confidence that my prayer will be accepted?
R. To the extent that I try to pray for the friends, for the group in order to bring them closer to the Creator I better and better understand that perhaps I’m incapable of doing that, at first maybe I thought I could but then no. I then see that time and again that my prayer is egoistic and then what am I supposed to do? Also pray for that. And through all those states that I go through I gradually correct my attitude to the others, to the friends until they come closer to me and become as one man in one heart. And to that extent the Creator also comes closer to us. The matters are simple, just that doing that requires patience and support, patience of the person and support from the environment.
22. S. (46:06) It’s as if there are two kinds of work here, my work and the work of the rest of the friends. Are there common operations that we need to do?
R. Whatever you want, whatever you want, do it. Obviously one shall help his friend and you’ll do collective actions and that’s certainly desired.
S. I mean a prayer because it’s as if there’s my prayer here for the friends and sometimes we say that we need to connect and pray together, so it seems like two different kinds.
R. No, one doesn’t disturb the other. There’s a prayer that comes from your heart, there’s a prayer that comes from the connection with the friends.
23. S. (47:11) On the face of it seems like we’re learning how to build a corrected state where we constantly pray for the friend. Recently I hear more and more that friends are looking maybe even to move a ten in order to advance themselves. How do you close the gap between the desirable and the existing?
R. I am very much against such changes because it seems to a person that there’s a different environment that can give him more progress, awaken him more towards the revelation of the Creator or the quality of bestowal. I don’t think so, I don’t think so. We have such examples from all of history, Rabbi ben Kisma, and so forth. It all depends on the person himself, how he shapes his state and his attitude. So let’s not think about moving from one ten to another unless it’s really exceptional circumstances. And what’s important is to continue with all the conditions you’ve got so we continue towards connection.
24. S. (49:14) The final goal is for the Creator to get contentment from our efforts. What is the final goal in our situation so it’s not something that we talk about but something that is really on our part toward the final goal? What can we do now toward that final goal?
R. The end goal? To become incorporated with each other, to feel that we are a single composite desire and in that desire we are included with the single Creator.
25. S. (50:04) He writes here that a person’s constant examination of the purpose of his work is if the Creator gets contentment from everything he does, so how does he check it? We say you do for the friends, you want to see them getting closer, it’s as if you’re giving contentment to the Creator but there’s no test to know if you bring contentment to the Creator.
R. But more or less you can depict to yourself that you are working towards the connection of the Kli, from all its pieces into one and you’re all making the place for the revelation of the Creator.
S. Perhaps in your action, yes. You invite the friends, you make them a meal, you pray for them but in the end you discover that it was in order to receive. So how do you shift to also have an intention to bestow contentment upon the Creator? Sometimes you find yourself doing a beautiful thing for the Creator and then you realize where was the contentment to the Creator, there wasn’t?
R. Contentment to the Creator only exists in your relation with the friends because you’ve got nothing to give to the Creator, what will you give to Him?
S. Should a person think about it even artificially, that at the end of the act or the beginning of the act there will be the intention to bring contentment to the Creator, should he think about it? So do I have connection to it or not, is it some dry thought that I have to exercise?
R. Yes, not that you know His desires, His plans and then you do it. You want to feel the contentment that you bring to the Creator.
S. I want to feel or I don’t want to feel?
R. I’m telling you that you want to feel it, and here’s the problem, what for?
S. If a person has no greatness of the Creator from where does he get the..?
R. That’s a completely different thing if he doesn’t have greatness of the Creator but you want to feel or not.
S. From where will you get the fear toward the host, contentment to the Creator? Because there’s a host in front of me and I want to give Him contentment but if there’s no such thing that you feel in your bones, that it’s this dry action, how do you add emotion to it without Him being revealed, without it being for myself?
R. Here you are touching upon something that is in the transition from Lo Lishma to Lishma. You don’t want to feel anything from what you’re doing to the Creator because it’s a payment, a reward.
S. On the other hand I have to have connection with the Creator because if I have no connection how do I pray?
R. That we’ll discuss, we’ll discuss it. The questions are correct but the answers for now can’t come this way.
26. S. (53:46) What is our role in the correction of creation?
R. To connect all of the broken pieces together by the request, by the prayer to the Creator.
S. Where does it lead?
R. Correction of the Kli.
27. S. (54:22) What is the Shechina?
R. The Shechina is the place for the revelation of the Creator in the created being.
S. Why should we ask for it?
R. That I’ll have a corrected desire where the Creator can be revealed.
28. S. (54:51) To be one who pushes everyone forward, do I have to have this kind of character? What kind of character do we need to have, each of us?
R. Everyone’s got it, everyone has something, don’t worry.
29. S. (55:27) Concerning feeling or not feeling if the feeling is a sign of intention, meaning I want to have contentment not in a way that I enjoy but just to know that I mean it, I intend for it, that I’m asking for contentment to the Creator. But I want the feeling to be a sign of intention that I really mean it, that it’s sincere. Is this okay or is this still not good?
R. It needs to be checked, this might already ruin your direction.
30. S. (56:15) What does it mean that I connect to them and present them to the Creator?
R. That I cause the friends to be connected among them and from their connection to give the Creator an opportunity to be revealed in them. Then that’s it, to bring contentment that is.
S. I am asking about the action of connecting, is it something that you see in your relation to the friends, that they’re in connection or are they supposed to be connected in practice in someone? What does it mean that I connect to the friends?
R. It doesn’t become just simply revealed as one like that. I discover that I caused connection between the friends on the condition that I’m close to them, that I’m bonded with them, that they adhere to each other; that we become as one man with one heart to some extent, and then I can say.
S. In the act of presenting to the Creator: how do you perform this act where you present this connection to the Creator?
R. I only work on connection between the friends and the friends should show themselves towards the Creator as willing to receive His abundance.
S. What does it mean, what are they ready to receive?
R. The revelation of the single force, the one unique and unified force to the extent that they connect. So the essence of the connection is what needs to become revealed in them.
S. If I want to look at the connection revealed each time, in what are we more connected from time to time, in what is our connection more then before in the previous time?
R. I would say this, that we are ready to be closer to each other in thoughts, speech and action in order to discover the upper force that shapes all of us as one, influences all of us as a single body.
31. S. (59:55) How do I know that I completed the spiritual act, meaning I want to perform an act of connection, I think about the friends, I start caring for them, how do I wrap it up? How do I know that I did something that is spiritual?
R. First of all a question is when should I ask for it and should I even ask for it and in what way and when do I say see the results of my spiritual action in the group.
S. I’m not asking about the results, I’m asking how do I know what I do is complete in a spiritual sense, not physically to care for the friends to buy for them, I do this I care for them I think about it but what is missing? What is regarded as spiritual? I’m not looking for an answer for myself but to know that I have performed a complete act?
R. That you cause them to connect to each other in a spiritual way, in a complete way, as a circle, as a sphere, it is difficult for me to express these things.
Reading Excerpt #2 twice (01:01:45) “A person must work and exert..”
32. S. (01:03:33) In our situation Baal HaSulam writes that there is the work of the individual who has constant demands. He writes that from the Creator it’s an assistance, so a person will not be content with less and will constantly demand will have a true demand. Here, we seemingly have, I don’t want everyone to complain, we have demands, requests, complaints. I want, I want us to hear together, really to determine that everything we get is assistance from the Creator. So how in our state can we be in gratitude because every state we go through as a Kli, as a group, is an assistance for us to get stronger. So each one, he Writes, he should be the last. So what does it mean to be last, it means to take responsibility for my friends that they will be together? It makes it bigger as if you’re last but at the same time you become great. So the question is: how in these states can we be in constant gratitude that it is really assistance from the Creator and we will recognize it as such?
R. Correct, what you’re saying it says the person should pray and be grateful for the bad as he is for the good and maintain this prayer all day. That’s all, it is all correct, how to do it? I don’t know? Ask the friends because it depends on how they look at reality and decide how they need to see the world themselves, their reality from day to day and then they reach a state where they’re always in gratitude.
33. S. (01:06:06) Concerning the labor, there can be one who serves the society until he just drops and then another person will just do something small and we will see that it doesn’t hurt him more. What is the right way to approach the labor?
R. Each and everyone makes a calculation and that is how we advance in also receiving examples from the friends and receiving an awakening from above and we have to see what else we can do in order to cling to the Creator.
S. Is there room for concern should I guard myself or do I just need to go?
R. I have to always try to cling, adhere to the Creator, meaning I want to bestow to Him whenever I can each and every moment.
34. S. (01:07:25) So when we raise a prayer for the friend, should we add to this prayer some action or not necessarily?
R. What action?
S. Like care in some practical way?
R. No, the Creator doesn’t need that. It is not a must.
35. S. (01:08:00) A person used to ask the old his days will be a return for the house of the Creator. How can a person ask that his entire life will be only for this?
R. The house of the Creator meaning is the group, the ten, where the Creator is revealed and it is a place of results from your effort, from your labor. You build the house of the Lord, the temple, so try. That is where there is the beginning of the work and the end of the work.
36. S. (01:09:08) What is the yardstick? What is the way to know you did the maximum in every situation?
R. I don’t know, I have not seen that. You have to be in the place of this action […]
S. I didn’t understand the answer.
R. I don’t know what it is to do the maximum.
S. Everything we learn so far is in a direction we should be in?
R. Direction, yes but you’re talking about the state itself, this I don’t know.
S. I mean to know for certain at every moment that you’re doing your maximum, that you’re not making concessions, allowances to yourself, you are not relinquishing all the actions we learn about?
R. It is nevertheless for that moment and the next moment it is a different thing but what does it give you?
S. That I’m not wasting my time?
R. No, let’s not, we have nothing to do with wasting time. We’ll talk about it, right now it is not getting to that.
37. S. (01:10:54) What does it mean that the person who does all these actions for the sake of the Creator, what does it mean?
R. That all of his actions are probably all for the sake of heaven, meaning that there is an intention to bestow throughout all the world, all the vessels the Creator created towards the Creator himself, the source.
S. But is it something that is completely, complete?
R. The result is that a person becomes whole, that he receives adhesion with the Creator and becomes like him.
S. Is he talking about the end of correction or it’s something that?
R. We’re talking about the children of Israel returning all the way to the Lord their God.
Reading Excerpt #3 (01:12:05) “When one begins to walk..”
38. S. (01:14:30) This excerpt truly reflects the will to receive. I mean, I have, I am aware of the greatness of the Creator, I am aware but in the feeling the body really doesn’t want to do.
R. Of course.
S. So how can the body think that it can go through such a long process without the desire?
R. But this process is the process of bestowal. You have a path in front of you that, on that, you can get to bestowing to the Creator. Let’s say, you have reached the last stage on the path, one more action is missing to complete the entire work and you pray to the Creator that will bring you back to the beginning because you do not agree to stop actions of bestowal towards the Creator, you have nothing more to do so what are you living for? So final correction is like death. Have not thought about it, okay.
S. Thank you, it’s hard.
39. S. (01:16:30) The exertion to work for the sake of the Creator, means I am asking myself every moment, did I do enough for the friends? Every day I have these questions, all the time I have these questions. Have I done enough and I’m constantly in a deficiency? Maybe I have not done enough. Is it the true exertion because I feel that every day I need to do more and more as if this is what directs me to the goal of this question? All the time, have I done enough for my friends?
R. Yes.
S. Are these questions I should ask myself all the time, all the way?
R. Yes, why not? And you should be happy with such questions because they open the ability to bestow.
40. S. (01:17:27) The entire creation is a closed system, can we say that all the efforts we invest to give pleasure to the Creator, all come back to us so that it will increase our efforts, increase the light, so it is seemingly all comes back to us and then we bring it back because it is a closed system?
R. If that’s the question, then it is the wrong question, it is a wrong question, the question is wrong. The system is not closed off. It is not worth thinking in that way but it all comes back to us and goes there and comes back that the end in the beginning connects to one another, no. We are advancing from the beginning to end on a straight line and not revolving around something.
41. S. (01:19:15) When we give contentment to the Creator by praying for the friends, does that also mean that the friends receive contentment?
R. No, the friends, for that they get new states and this is how we help each other and eventually we see that nobody corrects himself but each one corrects the others and then in this way we eventually incorporate “as one man in one heart.”
S. But why does it say a condition to receive pleasure correctly?
R. That you know that you are correcting the others. You agreed to be correcting the others and you have pleasure from that and except for that you’re not asking for anything else.
S. Okay, so it could be that when I receive pleasure by praying for the friends, the friends do not receive pleasure because they become more burdening of the heart?
R. No, no, by this we connect more and we raise ourselves to a higher degree and of course there we will get different conditions, greater ones, bigger ones.
42. S. (01:21:41) I have noticed all this work in my ten, that I gradually take on certain characteristics from my friends. I became sensitive like one of my friends, stubborn like another but I wonder, is this the correct feeling or is it just a trick of my ego?
R. You see everything through your ego, that is why you can never be sure that you see something correct.
43. S. (01:22:44) My question is how to be the transition, what am I passing to the friends according to what I have or what I get from the Creator?
R. I don’t think you are passing it to the friends through you but the Creator is already taking care of everyone. Sometimes we say that that’s how it goes through but it is more correct to say that the Creator is taking care of everyone.
44. S. (01:23:35) Many times when the ego is revealed, there is an argument towards the Creator, look what you did and this should be corrected. Lately there is another condition: it is not enough to correct me, correct everyone. Sometimes there is anger if you correct me. It’s not worth it if you don’t correct everyone. Previously you said there should be some tenderness and softness, I don’t feel that there is an argument. What am I missing here?
R. We’re missing to know that we’re all connected together in one vessel. That’s why, if I ask for correction I have to ask for it for everyone and I am included there with them.
45. S. (01:24:30) I have two questions if I may. The more we make efforts, the greater recognition of the evil and also gratitude for the state because it is probably beneficial for me. Is there any value in the prayer that awakens that the Creator will take evil away from me because by that I do harm to the world because that is also egoistic?
R. Don’t think in that way, only think of corrections and not on punishments.
46. S. (01:25:16) There is a friend in our ten that especially after Passover he feels a very strong demand for a tighter connection and that it already has been a while this way. On the other hand I feel that the ten can’t give him a response for his demand. It is incapable of being connected in such depth and I don’t know what to do to such an extent that the friend is thinking about moving to a different ten?
R. I don’t think that’s the reason. I don’t think so. You need to speak to him and he needs to understand you more and it is not a reason to leave the ten. That is not a reason. I don’t think that. I don’t think there are reasons to leave, maybe from above, the teacher makes changes but not that you do it. No.
Reading Excerpt #4 (01:26:57) “Why do we need to work..”
47. S. (01:28:48) When a person aims and works for the connection of the friends, why is that not enough it is an intention outside of himself already?
R. Yes, but connection between the friends is the purpose of creation.
S. No but he says that the equivalence of form is the thing. So why must we add one more intention outwards?
R. Not even more outwards. We need to reach a state of adhesion between us and from the adhesion between us adhering to the Creator and that adhesion has to be whole that we are returned to be “as one man, in one heart.”
S. Yes, I’m asking specifically about this excerpt when he says the Creator doesn’t need our intentions, rather we are the ones who have to go through correction, equivalence of form. So if a person aims outside of himself for a friend that is supposed to be enough, why must it be for the contentment of the Creator?
R. Because that is equivalence of form with the Creator, “Me for my Beloved and my beloved for me.”
S. For the sake of the friend is still egoistic?
R. Yes, that’s not enough.