MONDAY: KETER-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: FROM MIDNIGHT TO DAWN SUNDAY
Rabash. The Importance of Faith that Is Always Present. 6 (1987)
Morning Lesson August 12, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article 6, (1987). The Importance of Faith that Is Always Present
1. Rav’s Introduction: Faith is the sensation of the creator, the feeling of bestowal of the upper force that sometimes comes closer to the person and other times it leaves him. There is constant faith that’s attained and then it’s understood as a constant quality that holds the person and then accompanies the person and their space that comes at times however whatever happens if you’re talking about spirituality, everything is held and sustained by… Therefore the importance of faith is invaluable. We have nothing more to long for other than great, constant faith where we feel connection with the upper force and we are with it in Non-Stop connection.
Reading (02:33)
2. R. (28:36) Not to replace Faith with reason. This is very special article that we can see in it all kinds of states that we go through. Both in terms of actions and in terms of faith and thus better understand the Creators relation to us. Certainly we can’t understand all of it because we haven’t yet went through all the states that are discussed here but to some extent we’re already touching upon that.
3. S. (29:45) In the article he uses a lot of the words that he is rewarded. He says that he is rewarded, it is a miracle. Why does he use this words that he is rewarded? Rewarded is something that it sounds related to like a lottery and not about attaining or achieving something.
R. That a person does so out of his nature.
S. What did he do out of his nature?
R. That this is how he moves from state to state according to his Reshimot, according to his nature.
S. So he revolts and reincarnates and in the end maybe he will be rewarded and maybe not?
R. Probably.
S. So who does he mean here? To us, people who have a point in the heart or the whole of humanity?
R. No, of course to those who are like us.
S. What characterizes the one who is rewarded?
R. That he is rewarded with the complet adhesion with the Creator.
S. What characterizes his behavior, the way he operates, that he walks the path?
R. That he always tries to be in adhesion with the Creator in each and every moment.
S. So if you take those people who are rewarded before, what characterizes them is that they were always trying to be in adhesion with the Creator?
R. Probably.
S. Okay, now about, he writes about those who haven’t yet attained it. He speaks about the faint illumination that the whole of the world, the whole of humanity is sped by it, which is just a tiny small pleasure but it seems that the whole world manages to be fed from this small pleasure but those who have the point in the heart they don’t even manage to be fed by this. They don’t enjoy it, they don’t feel this small pleasure they don’t feel pleasure at all, the Creator he directs them only to him.
R. Yes, so?
S. Why is that so? Why someone who has a point in the heart cannot enjoy even a little bit? He doesn’t give us the ability to enjoy.
R. Otherwise het had not … enjoy a little bit, that little plessure will block him.
S. Blocks him, won’t give him a possability to…
R. Yes.
4. S. (32:51) I wanted to scrutany that we say faith above reason, sometimes we say, I heard you say that faith is bestowal, and knowing, and feeling. These are two different things, faith which is a feeling and faith which is above reason that he writes about here in the article?
R. Faith is the force that you wish to acquire in order to adhere to the Creator that’s it.
S. And faith above reason is when he subjugates his intellect so it is less important and he wants to go by the way of faith not using his mind, his intellect?
R. Yes, let’s say.
S. So these are two different things that have the same quality the faith and going with faith above reason?
R. Yes. It is not a simple article, we will get back to this article and still not really in our hands.
5. S. (34:18) How to replace reason with faith?
R. What do you mean to replace? It’s not, there’s no such thing. If I yearn to be in faith then I make actions to to obtain the force of faith and if I’m in reason then this is whaH descents on me.
S. How to make it so, so we can put the faith in the head and we understand within reason below the head?
R. That depends on what a person is yearning for and not more.
6. S. (35:25) At the end of the article Rabash writes, meaning that he wants to remain in faith even if he will have all the revelations, it follows that faith applies both in Katnut and in Gadlut. What does it mean that he will remain in faith even though he has all the revelations?
R. He prefers to go with his eyes shut even though he can see it all. Because with his eyes shut he feels adhesion with the Creator, urgency towards the Creator and that’s what’s important to him.
7. S. (36:24) What is the opening up of the eyes in the Torah?
R. It’s opening the eyes in the Torah, meaning he understands the process he has to go in order to increase faith.
S. This revelation, the opening up is not a single step forward and for that he has to keep going with his eyes shut always? On the one hand ther is te revelation, the opening up of the eyes and on the other hand we have to go keep going with our eyes shut.
R. Specifically by going with eyes shut he merits the opening of the eyes.
S. Are these different eyes than the ones that open up?
R. Yes, we will soon get there, we’re on the way.
8. S. (37:20) With faith above reason he cancels his reason or the reason only always remains?
R. Reason always remains it’s not canceled even though we say we rise above reason meaning but the reason remains.
S. What is the foundation that we start to work on top of, the foundation becomes faith or does it remains reason?
R. We’re always drawn to faith.
S. What happens to the reason if it’s not canceled?
R. Reason cannot be canceled because he goes by faith above reason so one supports the other because the creative being cannot just have the power of faith.
S. He wrote here that he’s going by the ways of the Creator only in the place where reason dictates it and not against reason, and we don’t even go to the direction of faith. So what do we get out of this? How do you rise to faith if you are only walking in a place where reason dictates this?
R. You go to a place where the reason necessitates, what does reason necessitate? To go by faith above reason.
S. So it turns out that it’s still reason I mean where is the addition of faith here? Where exactly is the addition of faith?
R. I should always be walking towards faith, a degree higher than reason.
S. What does it add to reality that in a given moment you have both faith and you have faith above reason?
R. That your faith is higher than all your discernments.
S. And this means?
R. And this means that you are in the power of the Creator.
S. And what about the reason? Reason for me is everything that’s hapening?
R. The reason for you is in order to raise faith and determine faith above reason.
S. So existence begins to be, well through faith we start to relate to reality to faith?
R. Yes.
9. S. (40:19) My question is, how out of the inclination towards the connection between us this faith is warm?
R. It’s the same direction because we can’t reach faith if we don’t enter connection between us. Because the power of faith does not exist in our world and also connection between us doesn’t exist in our world but if we long for connection which we can somehow depict and establish then out of that we can get closer to the power of faith.
S. What’s in common is that both do not exist in our world?
R. Yes.
S. Why this specifically the gate to enter faith? Why from all the possibilities this is the thing?
R. We we have to achieve the power of reason and from that rise to the power of faith.
S. And reason is actually in the existence to connection?
R. Yes.
10. S. (42:13) The three forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob is the middle point of wholeness so how come Jacob says if is the is the Lord with me then the Lord will be my God? Seemingly he makes a condition, he doesn’t go above reason but rather he makes a condition to the Creator. If the Lord is with me then he will be my God. How come Jacob was actually wholeness and seemingly he has a doubt?
R. He doesn’t have to cast a doubt, he expresses a condition that if the Creator dresses in me he will be my Creator and he will govern me he, will manage meaning I’ll follow in his footsteps but if he doesn’t close within me then no.
S. How is it possible for Jacob to say such a thing?
R. Because he sees it’s the truth, that he can adhere to the Creator only on the condition that the Creator clothes into him.
S. I’m sorry but if a person goes above reason how can Jacob have a condition or a doubt? If I go above reason that means that even if I see that within reason it is like this I’ll say even within reason it’s like this but I’m going above my reason, seemingly Jacob doesn’t do that?
R. He does but he just… the conditions when can he do it but it is actually not in adherence. But it is on the condition that the Creator clothes in him.
S. And this is possible?
R. Yes it’s for the worst and not the better.
11. S. (44:18) As I understandit, man’s success on the spiritual path depends on his ability to solve a dream, the dream that he will choose; here it says that “all the dreams follow the mouth, this means that if a person speaks good things with his mouth, meaning that he always says that we have to do good deeds and it is all for the sake of Heaven and not for his own benefit, then the good dream comes true”, so what does this ‘mouth’, what does it mean to ‘say good things with his mouth’?
R. Although everything seems to him as impossible and he sees everything pessimistically, he accepts it as something great, that can, the greatest thing that can happen in our world, and he accepts it as coming from the Creator, Himself, and that’s how he continues.
S. So we came back to the ten, we play this game where, you know, we say according to the rules of Rabash, the question is somewhere should there be an equivalence with the this claim in your heart, meaning you should not just say it to the ten but also be in it, somehow, to actually be there.
R. I didn’t really understand.
S. With respect to the ten, I play a game, I act, I say everything that should be said according to the rules of Rabash but how are these in a different place, in a place it disagrees with this reality, it d doesn’t see the rgeatness of the Creator, the heart is in a different place.
R. Yes.
S.The question is should we aspire that the mouth and the heart will be equal all the time?
R. Yes.
S. From where should I take the right, correct power to act this game and not to do it with incorrect efforts?
R. If the group consolidates to a single, central point then everything is depicted correctly, everything is depicted correctly, meaning all the questions and anything that doesn’t fall into place and doesn’t connect or doesn’t equalize, all those things ultimately push us towards the center, the center. And in such a way we discover that we have nothing important other than the connection between us and we want to reveal the Shechina.
12. S. (47:56) What does it mean to go with faith above reason, what does it mean, practically?
R. Faith above reason practically means to go not according to what I feel but rather what I think needs to be from the perspective of Kabbalah.
13. S. (48:27) How to use the darkness for the purpose of connection and to remember the spiritual, even in a dream?
R. To used the darkness for the sake of connection is that I’m willing to stay in darkness, which is to my eyes, and only to try to open my heart to connection.
14. S. (48:53) What does it mean in the spiritual work ‘to solve a dream’?
R. That’s not really for us yet, I’m also afraid that it will be misconstrued, we’ll work on it later on,
15. S. (49:29) What is faith or believing in Gadlut, in the greatness?
R. This, too, we haven’t learned yet, that’s the power of faith is the power of bestowal, and in Katnut or Gadlut thatt depends on how much we wish to solve it. Sometimes we solve faith in descending in a degree and sometimes in rising up a degree, we have yet to learn that.
16. S. (50:23) What taste in the work should faith give us?
R. What tase in the work should faith awaken, I don’t know how to say, what taste in the work, faith needs to bring me the power of transcending, of adhesion with the uppr one, that I detach from my own quality and I truly equalize with the upper one.
17. S. (51:15) You said that we need to have faith so we don’t fall into reason, what is this concept of reason that the article speaks of?
R. There’s no such thing that a person, the perception of the, whoever has it, has it in whatever way they do, but faith always has to be above.
18. S. (51:43) The article that we read that are more clear, there are articles that we read that we feel are more opaque, obtuse, you don’t manage to get into them.
R. Right.
S. And you also said, at least I heard you say, that it depends on the connection between us, that if we will have greater connection between us we will be able to receive these articles, the grasps them.
R. That’s not me, everyone says it.
S. Beyond the connection between us, what is the advantage or the value that a person gets from the insides or the personal discernments that he gets. Or is it not relevant at all, whatever the personal discernments the person has or just depends on his environment, if he’s connect he gets something and if he’s not connected then he won’t get any?
R. A person needs to somehow understand where he is, himself, that’s one thing; second thing, that he detaches from his status, from his perception, and connects to the group and tries to enter the mind and heart of the group. And from that understand what is even being told and then try to understand the difference between what he understands through the group and when he understands through his own mind, that’s it.
S. Another thing in the same area, sometimes when we read an article for the second time there is greater clarity, meaning maybe it’s only a few minutes later between the frist time and the second time but nevertheless the things enter more deeply?
R. Yes.
S. Why is it so, because we’re connecting more in the second time?
R. Right, it depends on the connection and not on the amount of minutes.
19. S. (54:13) It turns out that according to item one twenty-five in Introduction of TES that “we advance through the strong desire to understand what we study, and you, Rav, started the lesson that faith is the feeling of the Creator, understanding the Creator, understanding bestowal, and then we actually have a state where we need to take the understanding and bring it down, in importance, below faith. So the question is what are the stages of effective work specifically with the understanding?
R. We can use understanding only after we’ve used faith, we have to approach anything with the power of faith, with self annulment, with adhesion with the upper one, adhesion with the power of bestowal. And after we do that then inside that action of faith that we have achieved then we can begin to understand what we can understand by faith here.
20. S. (55:43) It’s written that “a man requires great labor and great help from above in order to be able to defeat the evil within him and there are many people who are not rewarded with it and for those who are rewarded with it, for them, it is truly a miracle:, what does it depend on that this miracle will happen to a person?
R. That he will receive aid from above.
S. What does that depend on?
R. It depends on how much he devotes himself to the ten, devotes himself to the Creator, how willing he is to do actions that he doesn’t really understand them but he reads, he hears that he has to do them, actions of bestowal. Actions of bestowal are actions that we don’t understand the need for them but we’re willing to do them, that’s called ‘an action of bestowal’ in a simple way. And then people who are capable of that who are willing they receive some progress towards those actions of the bestowal, that’s it, you wanted to ask something else?
S. This replacement of the evil within me to defeat the evil within me, to defeat the evil within me which is the will to receive.
R. Yes.
S. So the will to receive works inside of him, which is the evil, which is the opposite of the light,and he learns that we need to perform acts of bestowal and connect with the ten and so forth.
R. Yes?
S. So he tries to perform these actions, when does the miracle happen that the evil inside, which is the will to receive, which is the opposite of the light, how does this miracle happen that it’s replaced?
R. When altogether all of his actions, efforts, achieve a complete measure.
S. Why would this miracle happen to one but not another?
R. No one knows, no one, it depends on the general Kli of Adam HaRishon; it’s like how we learn how a living body evolves that such cells develop and then different kind of cells and this organ and that organ, and why does it happen in this or that manner? That is determined by the complete, general, whole body that needs to be established but it’s already existing in potential, in the planning, and therefore from that degree it determines the order of the development.
S. So it seemingly turns out that a person leaves in some kind of a split: on the one hand, if he performs actions of bestowal, actions of love of friends, in the study, in dissemination and all of that, seemingly it’s some external image that he’s going in the direction of equivalence. But inside it’s still the same donkey which is completely the opposite of the light, it is only the will to receive, so this split, is this how we advance, that one creates certain external wrapping of bestowal and inside he’s still a beast of a beast, of a beast?
R. Yes and sometimes he falls to the beast, and he’s got nothing to do with that. And other times he receives an acsent above that beast and he rides the donkey.
21. S. (01:00:35) She says about the Creator that “he told him I am with you and I will guard you wherever you go”. The Creator here expressed the blessing in the mouth, why and how man and we’re from, understood it’s from faith, how does he express this blessing as a good solution so that it takes place, why should a person also utter the blessing?
R. Otherwise there’s no connection between them, it is very simple.
S. The Creator already expressed it in mouth He told him “I am with you and I’ve guarded you wherever you go”, there was the reality where Jacob had the Creator, the Creator spoke, it’s called ‘the reality of the dream’ becauseit’s in this world. What are we supposed to do in this world so, as you said, faith will be non-stop, that life and speech will come from faith so that the dream will happen for the best?
R. I don’t know about everything that he will ask, all-in-all, I don’t know what to answer, maybe you do, I don’t know.
S. If a person?
R. You shouldn’t continue. I don’t know.
22. S. (01:02:27) Working above reasons towards the friend or towards the Creator, is that the same work?
R. Actually, it is the same work.
S. Same effort, same type?
R. Same effort, same kind, I don’t know, but it’s the same work, who is the friend, it is the same Creator who clothes in this way towards you.
S. Why am I asking, because towards the Creator a person receives all kinds of states even in corporality, there is some upper force that sends him, I don’t know wars, diseases, I don’t know. So I have to accept it above reason, I don’t know why He’s doing that, I can’t justify it within reason and see it, but I have to go above reason because He is Good that does good, that’s one kind of work. Towards the friend it is seemingly a different work, the friend is not a source of problems and troubles and so forth, so I have to justify his actions, it seems like a different thing?
R. It is not so different, it is only because we don’t see the true reality, that is why there is still a difference between the true reality and the reality that we imagine. But in truth if we could see everything there would be no difference.
23. S. (01:04:19) Do we receive the power of faith from the friends?
R. We get the power of faith from the Creator with the help of a correct attitude that we determine between us towards the friends.
S. Can we say that faith is like a rock you put under your head in relation to love of friends?
R. Yes.
24. S. (01:05:12) Is it possible through dreams that a person’s dreaming to receive some insight or prove that the Creator is with us?
R. Again?
S. A person is dreaming dreams, can you use some of these dreams to receive some insight or proof that the Creator is with us
R. No, we don’t work with dreams in any way not in a good direction or bad direction, not as warning, not in any direction.
S. How can we use dreams that we have about the upper worlds?
R. We don’t use dreams at all, we don’t yet have any possibility to even talk about it.
25. S. (01:06:47) I want to ask from a different perspective: In religion there is a problem that is also mentioned, referenced in philosophy and science. Nature is something whole and in religion there’s some split, there is me and there is no in something that is outside of me, so to begin with it clearly cannot be something whole because I’m part of the system. So faith of a reason, the question is, can that solve this problem?
R. No, faith above reason doesn’t mean that I disconnect from my reason, I disconnect from the society, faith about reason is a completely that I connect with the Creator.
S. The problem is the reason is a control, it’s my ego, and when I will be able to rise above the ego and not use it, it seems like I can solve the problem because the ego is no longer involved?
R. So what?
S. So I can attain nature, not know, but no attain what nature is and what is unity between the ‘I’ that attains and all of nature, as far as I understand?
R. Yes, there is something to it.
26. S. (01:08:50) I heard you say that we have to reach the power of reason and from that rise to the power of faith; now we learn that we are already in the power of reason so what is the reason that we don’t have?
R. The power of reason, the power of knowledge, I don’t know, it is a power, I didn’t see any such definition.
27. S. (01:09:48) How do we support that faith in the friends?
R. Through connection and example between us, through connection and example between us.
28. S. (01:10:15) I think we need to work with faith in order to attain Dvekut, adhesion, and the adhesion is the reward; and I ask you why in adhesion we have to always renew the faith, is such a state doesn’t pay off and we have raise all the doubts?
R. First, we always have to raise higher, to raise faith and adhesion higher and higher up, and even the doubts, yes they too should rise along with that, and that is how we will advance more and more, these are the means for our ascent.
29. S. (01:11:14) What determines the clothing of the Creator within the person?
R. As much as we will open his heart.
30. S. (01:11:31) Question from a friend, the dream is that we are in the will to receive and the awakening is that we’ve acquired the will to bestow?
R. Yes.
31. S. (01:11:53) The article mentions that Jacob said I dreamed a dream. What does it mean?
R. That now he wants to explain the matter of this dream, that he rose to a higher degree and this is what he can tell his friends.
32. S. (01:12:28) When you started your words in the lesson I really connected to what you said and I wanted to clarify. You said in the beginning that faith is the sensation of the Creator, the upper force that sometimes comes closer to us and sometimes leaves us but if there is permanent faith then it has to be permanent every moment. My question is I always come to the physical lessons since Covid ended and we started coming back to the hall, so in this process I felt this unique power that we had in the physical gathering. I gather a great physical force from the society and after the gratitude I gave yesterday I came to some point that I had to stay virtual today and suddenly I feel this disconnect, it’s not the same power. I’m asking how do I need to reach the state where I’m truly in complete faith so that this physical force will also be with me virtually because it took me a while to get into the lesson.
R. Let’s wait for tomorrow, the day after, for a few days to go by then we will talk about it already from a new degree. Don’t be so dependent on your mood.
33. S. (01:14:09) I received such an understanding that faith is not love, not bestowal, it’s such greatness of the Creator that a person wants from the desire of the Creator, from the mind of the Creator he wants to work, is that so?
R. Yes.
S. And if I could continue the question, maybe I don’t understand but this faith, the mind is more exalted than the desire, as if it’s within the Creator?
R. It’s too early for us to speak this way.
34. S. (01:15:10) What does it mean that he put his reason below his head? Is that a result or a condition to be in faith?
R. It means that all of his thoughts are based only on reason.
35. S. (01:15:49) He writes that if the Creator will be with me like it was in my dream the Lord will be my God. He says that there is faith and there is reason. How after reason a person reaches faith again?
R. These are degrees, degrees. Faith, reason, faith, reason, that’s how a person climbs.
S. Doesn’t he lose balance?
R. We will learn it there.
36. S. (01:16:36) Can we view faith as a new perception of reality?
R. Faith is a means by which to see reality in a new way.
37. S. (01:17:07) In the article it’s written when the wicked sees the righteous he wants to bring him to death. How can we overcome against all those obstacles when we try rise above reason?
R. I didn’t understand the question.
S. She was saying how to keep subjugating all the cases that everything that happens to us is determined to the good path?
R. Typically it’s through connection with the ten and from the ten to connection with the Creator. That is the general action that can always raise us to a higher and higher degree. I have nothing more to add.
38. S. (01:18:45) The matter of the dream that is explained here and we have more examples of it, so the Creator is actually controlling our mind and heart, that’s how he is activating us. Is the dream because we’re not working for ourselves and that’s why we see it as a dream?
R. Okay, let’s say there are other kinds of dreams.
S. So practically if we go to bestow there are no dreams because we see the true reality right?
R. Right.
S. Thank you, that was the question.
39. S. (01:19:39) Rabash writes in order for the world to exist before the abundance for now they will enjoy with the spark that falls into the shells and from this all Earth dwells in joy. So we’re speaking about our world or the spiritual world?
R. It’s the spiritual world, the spiritual world, a spiritual action. That’s what we call a thin candle.
40. S. (01:20:23) What is the way to devote..
R. Repeat please.
S. What is the way to subdue our deeds and our reason towards faith?
R. What is the way to subjugate our actions for faith? It’s when we all connect and bow down if you can say it this way before the Creator and demand from Him to work through us. That is the most general action to which He must answer.
41. S. (01:21:47) It is written you will see your world in your life and go with it to the next life. What does that mean?
R. We’ll see your world in this life, meaning we come to a state where we can reveal all of the current reality in our vessels. This the meaning of you shall see it in your life and more than that we can also see the next degree, the end of correction that is before everyone.
42. S. (01:22:41) It’s written in the article that this world is like a dream and the way you solve it, that’s how it exists. What is that force that a person has to solve this dream called this world? How to use it, not to remain passive in this dream?
R. Connecting with all the friends and by that using our common mutual force we wish to connect with the Creator. That’s how I come to a state where the entire world goes from being a dream to a reality.
S. The connection with the friends, the state you described doesn’t always depend on me, so what I’ll just remain sleeping if it’s not depending on me?
R. It depends only on you, think about it carefully.
43. S. (01:23:52) He writes in the article that this is called the promise of the Creator, to do good as if man also gives a solution. He says if we don’t give a solution we won’t be able to accept the abundance He wants to give us. So my question is, I feel that the Creator gave us an open check and we’re afraid to sign it.
R. His signature is to come closer to one another, believe one another, open the heart to one another. Meaning open the pocket to one another without any examination until we reach a state of complete faith.
S. So what do we actually need to do, to ask for more and more importance?
R. To ask for the power of faith to dwell between us, among us, on us, that’s what we need.
S. I feel as there’s really a special force in the connection between us and the society so why don’t we attain, why don’t we understand this force is really special and that it will be with us in every moment?
R. We understand it we just don’t want to rise to it, we don’t want to rise above. How will I advance towards opening my heart and opening my pocket and all my thoughts and my plans and everything I have? How will I open it up to everyone, to all the friends in this way, to everyone, every other friend and by that we will assemble the correct web of connections between us?
S. I wish the Creator will help us overcome it, really it’s..
R. That’s how we truly wish for help.
44. S. (01:26:32) We need to reach equivalence of form, that’s what the article says and then reach adhesion. So that is by working above reason but in that a person has no memory, he never remembers the result he had from this work. I went above reason, I got pleasure from it, there’s some kind of pleasure but there’s no memory. You always have to remember to do the same actions again and then I see that from adhesion also the friends, also the Creator, there’s always these disconnections. Is equivalent of form always from these disconnections in going about reason or..? So what is this adhesion what does it mean to remain..?
R. With adhesion means with inclination to reach the final equivalence.
S. And that’s the reward he’s talking about?
R. Yes.
S. So this flavor that disappears is because we work in bestowal and not in reception?
R. Yes.
45. S. (01:27:50) A general scrutiny with your help, even you answered it many times but I see we don’t hear you yet what you’re saying, maybe today we will. I saw a friend asking from home that he was connected virtually and he said that he had a scrutiny that today he should connect virtually, not like everyday when he comes here and it will be difficult and now he’s sitting at home and he’s sorry that he didn’t come here. In the years of the Corona we had this curse come down on us called the possibility to connect from home and a lot of friends that are here are very close, it could be 4 steps or 4 minutes in the car, maybe even 12 minutes in the car. But this new curse that fell on us during the Corona says that I am scrutinizing what’s better in my eyes spiritually, to come here and be with the friends or to connect to the friends with all my heart from home.
When I can come here, not that I’m sick, not that I can’t come, a regular day everything is usual and I heard you say many times that whoever lives here close and technically can bring his body here that is a spiritual action, to come be here with everybody in the study hall. But I see that the curse isn’t going away, it keeps grabbing people. I won’t come to lesson, I’ll connect from home, I won’t come to the meal, I’ll connect from home, all kinds of this craziness that I will connect from home. How can we put this curse behind us? It’s like a peal that took over us and it’s breaking up tens. I see friends telling me we don’t meet as a ten for a meal because we ate. There’s are all kinds of philosophy around this that took over us now. I don’t see that you are scrutinizing everyday whether you will connect virtually or come here even if you don’t feel good. You come here with blood, sweat and tears, you give us your whole heart. How can we break this virtual peal that took over us? I feel it’s empty spirituality that every day a person will invent scrutinies and justifications as if it’s spirituality in itself and not physically with the friends when he can. What do you think, how can we break this peal?
R. I think this question exists for thousands of years. How to solve it this question, I don’t know. You didn’t touch on the fact that we’re working from within tens so if a person is at home he doesn’t feel the pressure from his ten to come?
S. There are tens that inside them there are friends that think one way and friends who think a different way.
R. What do you mean differently, not to come?
S. Yes, not to come, they don’t come. Why? We could sit at home for three years and connect, we didn’t advance spiritually. There are people who feel that it’s better this way, it awakens them more, it uplifts them more, connects them more. This world is all corporal, we have to develop our soul not our body. It matters where my beast is going to be? People can give four hour lectures with this philosophy. There are tens that are part this way, part that way. It became like a pluralism where everybody invented their own Torah, everybody knows exactly what to do today.
R. Without a doubt, sitting here just like we are now there is a greater additional influence on one another with this entire audience and each and everyone compared to how it would be if he sat at home. I don’t have an answer. By nature I am extremely lazy but relative to the lesson there is nothing else you can do. There’s a problem with people not coming?
S. Of course it exists. Everyday the person asks himself today I’ll come, tomorrow I won’t. Maybe I’ll come once a week then the rest I’ll connect from home. There is a meal, I’ll be there, I won’t be there. Maybe I’ll connect, I’ll hear it on Sviva Tova. All kinds of things, it became all kinds and each one is sure he’s doing according to what he really believes in the heart is right for him. Meaning the heart and mind determine what is right for me to do spiritually, to connect from home or connect from here, to be in a meal or not to be in a meal. Maybe the meal isn’t good, all kinds of things, all kinds of philosophies. There’s a lot of Torah and each one decides according to his feeling and my feeling today is I feel that it awakens me more so I’ll be at home, I feel it awakens me more physically so I’ll come physically.
R. What do you guys recommend, what do you think?
S1. (01:34:11) Our ten used to be virtual during Covid, everybody was but also afterwards. What made us come here is that we felt there’s a force here pulling us. One friend started coming, we didn’t put any pressure, we said we’ll let everybody who wanted to be virtual stay virtual, whoever wanted to be physically be physically. Snd the fact that came here, a few friends, it created envy and gradually people started coming. So I think first we should respect whoever chooses to be at home because there was a long time that we were home and it caused a habit and it’s not simple to leave that habit.
R. But that was many years ago.
S1. Yes but eventually there has to be something that pulls the person here. We have to concentrate on the force here and it will draw people and I think not to pressure, pressure pushes people away.
R.
S2. (01:35:23) With the permission of the organizers I want to share with the friends around the world that if you have an opportunity to stay here sometime do not miss it. The addition with your ten that you will obtain from this journey, from staying here in Petah Tikva has no equivalence, price in the world.
R. What else?
46. S. (01:36:48) You said earlier that there’s a need to open the heart and you said also to open the pocket. What did you mean to open the pocket?
R. I’m not sure what I was referring to earlier but we need to feel that we live in a common circle. That’s what I think I was referring to, not more than that.
47. S. (01:37:43) I’m in a very strong ten. We gather in the Arvut system every morning lesson but before the Corona because of external pressure we all became virtual. Now we’re trying to come back and it’s a very hard to gather, very hard but at least once a week we do it. So I wanted to strengthen what the friend is saying, what’s the difference if now I’m in a ten, I have ten friends who are in the lesson every day. Is there an addition when we all gather physically? Should we aspire to that, what’s the difference and how to come back to it?
R. We’re starting our path from our world and we need to continue it in this way. There can’t be that there are other opinions here. We need to gather into greater and greater groups in quality and quantity. As far as our connection goes we must come closer to one another, that’s the summary of all of the plan of creation. And in the connection between us we need to begin to feel this aspiration, the yearning for the connection of the hearts of our innermost desires. As much as on the other hand we have no actions for that, on the side of nature, from nature’s point of view we have to do it. We have to return the entire world, everything that exists, all of creation to one desire.
That we would want to live, to exist together in all the pieces of the still, vegetative and animate that are in it and we’re coming to it. We are at a turning point, a transition. We need to understand clearly, to think about it, to weigh everything, to look at humanity’s history, look at everything that’s happening with us as necessary actions for our correction. We need to speak about it, think about it, feel it and in this way work and advance. So don’t worry, we are advancing. We will nevertheless have to connect, to unite all of us together to such an extent that we’ll stop feeling this gap, the difference between us until all of our bodies, everything that’s corporeal between us, all of it will disappear from our sensation.
S. Essentially what you were saying I agree with completely but I want to implement it with the ten virtually so that these physical limitations that forced us to go into the virtual contact, how from this can we go back to a state that we used to gather physically? We used to gather everyday and now only on Shabbat we can hardly gather with much less people then when we used to gather every day. There’s a big difference from what we had until today and there’s no more physical limitations to gather but the gap remains. So what’s the difference between us working in our ten to having all the tens gather together? How to come back, we’re stuck in that state.
R. Yes, in each one of us, between us, between the tens and in general in all the groups there are great changes after this virus. I see it but there’s nothing you can do about it. You have to understand that perhaps this change had to happen and also here we have great changes in the groups, in the numbers of people and connections, all the bonds that we make. I think it’s going to take some time and maybe in general we’ll move to a new state. Not that we’ll go back to the past but find a new state altogether. So each of us needs to work in his group, the tens are not canceled in any way, shape or form. It’s written about it in the wisdom of Kabbalah everywhere, the connection of the tens into an even greater connection. This is already moving closer to it, a general desire, a mutual common desire. It’s written in the Torah when they entered the land of Israel they started to connect, started to connect and started to correct. I hope that all of it will be clarified in the near future.
S. One more point, you said that there needs to be some kind of addition, that we don’t go back to the past. So what’s going to be the difference if you could say, what should we aspire for what is that new state? What’s the addition, what to focus on?
R. We wish to connect, to be connected with with the help of the upper force, of the Creator so He can reveal in us and for us to be able to feel that we’re holding on to Him, His path and all of our friends. And the difference is that before we had to hold on to the friends and now we have to hold on to the Creator in order to hold on to the friends. Additionally I hope that soon all those problems in Europe, Russian, Ukraine and so on and so forth, all those things will disperse, disappear and we’ll be able to feel ourselves more freely. That our movement is going to be less restricted and we’ll be able to organize again all kinds of congresses, I hope it will happen quickly.
48. S. (01:48:17) I want to speak in general. Let’s say everybody’s here over 10 or 20 years. We went through some kind of development, the group went through at least in our corporeal schedules. I’ll give you two examples because it’s a lot beyond that. In the past we had a custom that people have to find a place to work and have to get married and base themselves and then come and study Kabbalah. There was something else we used to do, that a person beyond the air conditioning and coffee he drinks he used to donate more, up to 10% of his salary and pay Maaser. But at least and today we don’t talk about these things, we don’t touch all these things and many more. The question is simple, are those spiritual laws? Did they change or do we just expect to be more mature and choose the path or do we just want to be more open and not limit people? What is the reason for this change for our advancement in this process?
R. In truth I don’t know. Especially during Covid I was quite disconnected from what was going on, additionally I trusted all the systems here that are taking care of all these things. Hence, what we used to demand and to maintain maybe it grew weaker and disappeared but I think that those were good systems.
S. I’m asking about spiritual development, we’re here to reach spirituality not to have a nice building, it’s all means. Did the spiritual laws change and today we can donate or not, we can do certain things or not?
R. No, we have to maintain and it’s also written in the Torah. It’s not some Kabbalist that wrote about it, it’s written in Torah. But tithing and contributions, what the person has to give and contribute of himself through his exhertions and with his hands and everything, that’s needed, there are no concessions there.
S. And marriage and work and basic self-management in order to live?
R. Here it’s a question because we don’t need to place too great of an obstacle before those people who wish to come, people for whom getting married sounds like an impossibility let’s say in the next 10 years. So he’ll come here 10 years from now. No, we need to meet our audience halfway, that’s it. Meet our audience halfway and make such conditions, take such steps or conditions that the general public is capable of tolerating.
S. But they come to develop spirituality, I’m asking on purpose.
R. For him to buy a cow and a prayer shawl doesn’t mean that they’re going to develop spiritually.
S. And for the spiritual law it is or not?
R. Yes but nevertheless there’s an agreement here. Will they agree with you or not and accordingly you need to behave.
S. What’s the purpose of society then?
R. The purpose of the society is as much as it’s capable of coming closer, coming here, bringing the public, the audience closer to it and then to its path. There’s nothing to do, we live under the conditions that the Creator is placing on us.
49. S. (01:53:57) I wanted to ask about the physical participation. When you say friends, tell them dear friend, when you wake up in the morning in the first moment of your freedom of choice you can come here physically to your group, to your ten and to really give greatness of the Creator to the world. And also as a spiritual reward, you get the spiritual reward from it. That’s where you can give your exertion, the place of connection and the greatness of the Creator.
R. Okay, thank you.
50. S. (01:54:42) You said that when we sit together there’s an extra influence from the whole audience than sitting at home, that’s clear. Everyone should scrutinize with themselves in the tens and put the right kind of pressure. The friend’s words really touched the heart, to sit with everybody in front of the Rav is such an opportunity, so let us all rise and these scrutinies are good. I wanted to ask, you said something that made me tremble before if I wrote it correctly. That first we have to hold onto the friends in order to connect to the Creator and soon we’ll have to hold onto the Creator in order to connect to the friends. If I wrote it right can you say something about it?
R. No, I think you wrote it correctly.
51. S. (01:55:45) Yesterday two interesting things happened to me. One I sat in the meal next to one of the friends, a veteran here from Bnei Baruch and he looked and said in the last 10 years it’s the same people we see here. Then I drove home with another veteran friend and he has a custom, a very interesting one that every time we sit together we have a workshop, even when we talk together a workshop. He asked what do we want from the other on this path? I said that I came here and I expected a sentence from Baal HaSulam, that you want to break the iron wall between Kabbalah and the nation of Israel and I heard that from you personally once. Now when you were speaking about the public and getting close to the public the question is we opened all channels of connection, we connected you to all kinds of TV shows for the public. Everything you’re saying on my behalf is true. It could be that what the public hears are things that cause them not to want to come close to us because they understand it’s not for them. Now when we’re speaking about donations, Maaser and things we learned in the lessons, these are things that the public can’t listen to, they’re not ready. I remember when I started here we didn’t know what Bnei Baruch was, we had to sit in some place in Tel Aviv and hear friends talk to us about things that we could digest and then gradually we developed and when we came here we were able to hear.
They let us come only on Shabbat, the evening group like where they used to teach the wisdom of Kabbalah. So something we should check is this openness, does it help connect new people to the wisdom or maybe this openness drives people away? All of our dissemination, if we look at it in the past from 2010 we have this Zohar Congress and the gates opened and thousands came. Let’s talk about the truth, it’s opposite and maybe it’s a good thing, I don’t know. But how does this come together with breaking the iron wall between the wisdom of Kabbalah and the nation of Israel? Or maybe it had to be opened and closed and then we think again what the next stage is that will cause it to open. Eventually like you said we have to come close to the public.
R. And what do you recommend?
S. I recommend to assemble a group of men. I’m talking about Israel, I don’t understand anything about the world outside. Something to do with dissemination and we can contribute to dissemination. I invite us to create such a group and sit down day and night and reach a conclusion or understanding and try to see reality as it is. See what is the organization’s goal and see how we are moving this reality towards the goal of the organization.
R. Okay.
52. S. (02:00:02) I forgot the idiom that the Creator will finish it for us. So wait until the Creator will finish it for you. I’d like to say something from Psalms. Ask the Creator for the return to Zion, we were as dreamers and fill our mouth and our lips of song. Then the nations of the world will say the Creator did all this with us and with me. We were happy. Return as the rivers and the south, those who sow with tears will reap in joy. He will come with joy he who carries his bundles of wheat, a man to the whole world and forever. Thank you.
R. Nice. What do we have next?