SUNDAY: NETZACH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: FROM MIDNIGHT TO DAWN SUNDAY
Rabash. We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work. 21 (1985)
Morning Lesson August 18, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Rabash. Article No. 21, (1985). We Should Always Discern between Torah and Work
Reading Article. (00:40) “We should always discern between..”
1. S. (15:33) He says “in the time that we learned Torah we need to learn with manners”, that’s the first point he makes there and he also says “there’s a big difference between learning Torah and prayer?
R. Yes.
S. Are we supposed to pray before this study of Torah and what are these ‘manners’?
R. I don’t know if everyone is yearning but it is said that “Torah is good with manners”, what does that mean? That if a person studies in order to correct himself then he comes to the right goal, to the right state.
S. It’s not written here about Abraham but wasn’t Abraham, wasn’t he a person of manners?
R. I don’t want to go into that.
S. What does it mean “to go into it with manners”?
R. It means that I want to correct myself according to the Torah meaning that my will to receive will receive strength so that it’s able to be in order to bestow.
2. S. (17:31) What does the light that reforms do in me and what does it mean to aim ourselves to receive it?
R. The Creator created the evil inclination, if we want to transform it, if we discover that the evil inclination is indeed evil, then accordingly we are ready for a change. How does the change happen, from the evil inclination to the good inclination, by the intention from in order to receive to in order to bestow, this is what we learned that we need to achieve.
S. How do I aim myself in the lesson now to receive the light?
R. Think about it, simply think about it. Who do you need to receive from, through who, how to increase that light, how to get closer to it, what it needs to do to me, and then all together you will get closer to this matter.
S. And I’ll have some indication that I’m going on the right path?
R. Yes, you’ll ask, you’ll demand, you’ll pray that you’ll feel it.
3. S. (19:08) He writes “a separate time for Torah and a separate time for prayer”, how do we connect both these times together?
R. He said it’s separate, why do you want to connect them together?
S. Why are they separate, why is there a separate time for Torah and a separate time for prayer?
R. Because Torah means wholeness and prayer means “deficiency”.
S. How do you connect that together?
R. Only through man who wants to be comprised of both.
S. His desire?
R. Yes, through the person that wants to become incorporated through both deficiency and wholeness.
S. And what is the whole Torah, is the names of the Creator?
R. Torah means the light, the force of bestowal that comes to us from the Creator, and the entire Torah is the names of the Creator, which means ‘the appearance of the Creator inside the human being’, it happens when one feels, the forces, the lights, that activate him.
S. The names are what’s revealed in man?
R. The names are types of lights that come from the actions of the Creator and therefore the person feels how they work through them.
4. S. (21:19) He writes “because man begins to feel the aspect to do good to His created beings which is the reason for the creation of the world”.
R. Yes.
S. Why did we want to reach the feeling to do good to His created beings?
R. In order for the created beings to be able to receive and enjoy the influence of the Creator, so the influence of the Creator called ‘lights’ goes through various filters, barriers, adaptations, conversions. That the Creator will be able to bestow upon the person so that the person so that the person who exists below in reality, could receive that influence and to discern and to feel and enjoy that influence.
S. What must each one do to truly focus now on such actions and this will bring me to see him as to do good to his created beings?
R. You have to long for that quality somewhat; it exists in the Creator and according to the equivalence of form you will be able to feel how He works on you.
S. I don’t know how to succeed to see Him as ‘to do Good to His created beings,’ where is the effort that I can try to reach it?
R. Love of friends; if you get closer to the friends even though you have no natural preparation for it, then by that you discover a place within you where you will be able to feel the influence of the Creator.
S. Even today if I love the friend, that I caused that the Creator loves him, too, and does good to him?
R. Well, let’s say so, yes.
5. S. (23:55) In the article he writes, “the light in the Torah which is the internality of the Torah reforms him, however we must aim ourselves to receive the light of Torah during the study.” How during the study do we aim ourselves optimally to draw the light?
R. Every word I learn I hope that it will correct me, now possibly I don’t know how it happens, but that is truly how it works. In that case what I study is called Torah, that the light in it, there’s light in it that reforms me.
S. You said that every word that we learned to focus on it, are you talking about the word that received in the text or what the Rav is saying, what the friends are asking, what words?
R. Everything, essentially what I get during the time of the lesson, what I long for, I am hoping that it will help me get closer to the Creator.
S. How important is the preparation over the course of the day, in order to receive the light that reforms during the study?
R. Very important, I don’t know how to tell you how much, in percentages or kilograms or what, but it is important.
6. S. (25:54) I see a problem here, he says that “even more we can say here, that man must ask the Creator to give him this lack, meaning that we will feel in that he’s lacking the desire to bestow and that this is all that’s stopping him from achieving spirituality”. We don’t know what bestowal is, so what’s stopping me?
R. You don’t want it.
S. Want what?
R. The will to bestow.
S. I don’t know what that is?
R. You don’t know what that is, so that is indeed a problem.
S. He writes here that it is stopping from receiving spirituality?
R. Yes.
S. It’s not clear, how can it not stop me, I don’t even know what it is, is that our entire problem, to advance in spirituality because I don’t know?
R. Spirituality is called’ love of others’, of everyone because the Creator who fills up all of reality, His quality is love. Therefore we have to try to come to that quality at least to somewhat, intellectually understand it or even feel it here and there.
S. He writes here also that “this deficiency doesn’t come by itself, you don’t just get it like that but rather by work”?
R. That I focus, that I truly want it, that I pray, that I connect with the friends to just achieve that deficiency and so this is how we get to that gradually.
S. I want to focus specifically on our delay of achieving spirituality. Is it possible to skip this, that not let it stop us from what he writes here in achieving spirituality?
R. He tells us we have no lack here, together with the friends that I’m with, I need to reach a state that I will lack that. There are many things in life that I don’t lack. I was born without feeling a lack for many things but then gradually I start acquiring a lack for certain things. Why, because I see that others have them and I don’t, that others enjoy certain things and benefit from certain things and I don’t. The will to receive which is what everyone’s nature is, begins to want this, and therefore we have to build such a society in which everyone will want to receive from the others a desire to bestow.
S. This is a type of envy?
R. Envy, yes, envy, lust and honor.
7. S. (29:07) There’s a time for Torah, separate, and a time for prayer, separate, for us to correctly say prayers like the friend was talking about. That we should have a lack for spirituality and time of Torah as you said, is a type of wholeness indicated a few times in the text. That during the study of Torah, we don’t speak of man, we don’t think of man during the study of Torah, and he says “if we shouldn’t criticize oneself at all but rather learn the Torah as it is”. What does it mean during learning Torah I’m not supposed to scrutinize my lack?
R. Yes, because Torah is wholeness, it’s the actions of the Creator, the thoughts of the Creator, His qualities. Therefore when we learn the Torah we need to picture ourselves in wholeness and the opposite of that is prayer. That we then envision ourselves full of deficiencies, wanting to achieve something, and that’s how we will reveal our deficiency and raise it to the Creator.
S. What are we doing then now and in the lesson?
R. We try to be in both Torah and prayer.
S. There is a state where they both times connect?
R. No but perhaps there is to some extent, but essentially a person always has to be able to tell where he is or if he’s just studying what’s written, that’s ineffective.
S. Meaning during our study, sometimes we’re in a state of wholeness and sometimes we have to bring ourselves to a sensation of lack?
R. Wherever we bring ourselves to is where we are.
S. There are parts in the lessons that are more suitable, for this or for that, according to what we learned?
R. Yes but is more dependent on the person himself.
8. S. (32:00) He writes here “meaning Torah is called ‘the revelation of Godliness’ and this is called ‘the internality of the Torah’, which is revealed externally, in manners and law and manners of work and stories and all of this is called externality of the Torah”. What is internality and externality in the Torah and the Ten?
R. The internality of the Torah is called ‘the light that reforms’, that if I aim towards the Creator according to my state and I receive the strength from Him to transcend my desire and achieve the desire to bestow according to the degree I can be in, that’s the main thing. This is called that ‘I study the internality of the Torah’, meaning the light in it. Externality means learning the laws, the conducts of all kinds which is not directly related to the changes within the person but it’s discussing it in some external fashion.
9. S. (33:43) How does the light bring a person force, power for Torah, Mitzvah – good deeds?
R. It’s the same nature, therefore when the light comes from the Creator and works on the person it awakens the person accordingly.
10. S. (34:24) What does it mean to speak to the Creator?
R. There’s the Creator which is the upper force, Good That Does Good, None Else Besides Him, we say everything about it only in relation to the created beings and not he in and of itself. We have no possibility to feel or say something about it and what the created beings receive from the Creator is called Torah. It is this force of liveliness that the Creator sustains all of creation and directs it to His goal.
S. Can we say that our connection with the Creator is a connection between us here, that same field that we build here, is this the unique connection with the Creator?
R. We make the conditions where we can discover the influence of the Creator over the created beings and how by His influence He brings them into some new states, that’s what we want to do. And so we accept these new conditions in a desired way that it’s good for us, that we are doing all of these actions along with Him and we’re following His path.
S. Are we His partners on the path, it truly feels that way?
R. Yes.
11. S. (36:38) Sometimes a person comes to the lesson, he enters it like a beast and comes out truly illuminated and inspired. Sometimes he comes to the lesson and he falls asleep and he’s up, a song, it’s over, to pass over him like a truck. How do I know to measure if I work correctly in the lesson, if the light influenced me properly?
R. I don’t think that it’s in one’s strength to measure and split or splice together all of his positive and negative impressions. No but he has to try to make an effort and from his effort he can then make some calculations, to come to some outcome.
S. It says “a person that he obligates himself to be here in the lesson with his teacher and friends”, is this promising he’ll draw the light that reforms in something?
R. [no translation]
S. This state of a person brings himself to the lesson in a beastly manner and his body with the friends, with the teacher, with Rabash; and maybe he can’t even hear a word, it just passes by his ear. By this can he be sure to some extent that he’s drawing the light that reforms?
R. Yes because he invested, he gets up, he comes from his house to hear, he participates as much as he can, he suffers when he doesn’t feel and he doesn’t understand. And all of that can bring him better results than what people who are seemingly smart and successful will have because his deficiency might be great. Therefore it is said that “it isn’t the smart one who learns”, completely not, but rather anyone who wants to learn that, the Torah will enter him, will reach into his heart, that his heart will want to receive the Torah. That kind of person ultimately becomes incorporated, included in the Torah, in that ‘light that reforms’ and then he changes, understood?
12. S. (39:39) What is it called that a person is studying Torah?
R. When he has a deficiency to know the actions of the Creator toward him.
13. S. (39:56) Can you explain what is, let’s say ‘what a person thinks, that’s where he is’?
R. Where a person feels, is where he is and where he wants to be, is what his prayer is aimed at.
14. S. (40:16) Can you explain that the Torah is the ‘names of the Creator,’ how is it different from the internality of the Torah?
R. The internality of the Torah is the light, ‘the light that reforms’, but, the externality that the Torah dresses in, it dresses into all kinds of words, sentences, actions that we are in contact with, that we are by connecting to these expressions, we learn the Torah, we can get an impression of the Torah and we can try to make of ourselves some kind of process, some kind of structure that is compatible with containing the Torah.
15. S. (41:31) How can we check what is written in the matter of work and when it’s discerned that he is advancing to the goal of removing the restriction, the Tzimtzum?
R. Our goal is to rise above the Tzimtzum, meaning not to use vessels of reception only vessels of bestowal, and the more we use them the higher we rise above the Tzimtzum, and this will determine our degree in the spiritual worlds, the five spiritual worlds. And that will allow us to feel where we are in what degrees of the ladder, in what kind of connection with the Creator.
16. S. (42:28) Are we those who choose that we are in the state of Torah or prayer or does that come from above?
R. We have to think, we should think that we are choosing it on the one hand and on the other hand we also have to accept that the Creator chooses it before us, for our sake, and we have to connect both this and that within us.
17. S. (43:05) It’s written that a person needs to be praying all the time, how does that tie in with a time for Torah and a time for prayer?
R. We have to learn, study the Torah, and that our study will also become a prayer.
18. S. (43:28) What’s the connection between a request and an intention?
R. Intention is what I’m aimed for or what I want to aim myself towards, and the request is what I ask the Creator in order to reach the place that I chose.
19. S. (43:57) Rabash writes here that “when it’s revealed externally, laws, stories, all the externality of the Torah and when a person engages in the Book of Zohar and the commentary and TES, is he engaging here in externality or internality in the Torah?
R. Externality, internality is the light that reforms; it’s the inner light.
S. So what’s the difference, let’s say, this internality of the Torah? How does it become different from the rest of the forms?
R. The rest of the forms don’t even discuss the actions of the Creator and the wisdom of Kabbalah does. But among the actions of the Creator there are some actions that belong to the actions themselves, the vessels and those that relate to the lights that shape the vessels; that’s the difference.
S. So the intention speaks more of the light?
R. Kabbalah discusses the lights more.
20. S. (45:15) By the study we reach the recognition of evil, right, we reveal the gap between ourselves and what we are learning about; bestowal and love, that we are far away from this quality, and this gap, is that recognition of evil?
R. Yes.
S. What happens, let’s say I can give an example. I forget about the ten for two days, not to nullify before them and their decisions. Ultimately there I will also feel bad and there’s some deficiency for prayer to correct this connection between me and them or to equalize with the ten, so what’s the difference between this feeling of this gap and this feeling in the study?
R. I didn’t understand?
S. Let’s say that now I don’t nullify before the ten, I don’t accept that their decisions that I don’t want to connect, ultimately though I begin to feel bad, I begin to feel a gap between me and the ten and then comes the prayer for correction, that the Creator will help me reconnect to the ten and nullify before them. Is that a kind of recognition of evil, that feeling of disconnection?
R. No, the Creator here is giving you an opportunity to return.
S. The Creator?
R. Yes.
S. What proceeded that?
R. What do you think, it came from your..?
S. Of course not.
R. What are you asking?
S. The question is: How do we connect our study and our attitude to the ten, this gap?
R. During the study we connect with the ten, with the Creator, with the entire system that the study speaks of everything. And we want as a result of the study to connect more between us with the Creator and to reveal Him in the connection between us, that it, nice.
21. S. (47:50) [no translation]
R. We don’t need to determine ahead of time that we need to be in but rather a person needs to yearn for connection, that’s it. And where he suddenly finds himself, feels himself, it will reveal it as that, in advance.
22. S. (48:28) It says here that, “certainly a person, as it’s written here, any person needs to make an action, it is said that which God has created, you shall do”.
R. A person needs to yearn to resemble the Creator, to get closer to the Creator as much as possible, more and more. It says, “to return to Israel, all the way to the Creator.”
23. S. (49:16) Once you ask the Creator to give the deficiency, not the vessel, it shows that he’s devoid of the vessel to bestow, do we need to ask more than that?
R. What are you asking?
S. Do we need to ask more, do we also need to ask for the filling of the vessel?
R. Of course, you can ask everything.
S. But do we only need to ask for the Kli, for the deficiency?
R. Yes.
S. So we don’t need to ask for the filing, does that automatically come when we have the Kli?
R. When there is a Kli, then the filling, either we request it or it already comes, not sure what state exactly you’re asking about?
24. S. (50:40) In how or what stages do we begin to get closer to the degrees of getting closer to the Creator?
R. It will be revealed by itself.
25. S. (51:37) He writes here that “one shouldn’t think of himself and shouldn’t criticize himself because if he thinks of himself he’s engaged in the externality of the Torah, meaning that a person has to always yearn for revealing the internality of the Torah, to strip away the garments and discover the name of the Creator in the Torah”. So the work that we do in the Torah is that how we have to be toward the friends, too, or is it a different kind of work?
R. Try, but actually, it’s the same work.
26. S. (52:22) More or less we understand what is deficiency and lack of fulfillment, also it’s more or less clear what is the feeling of wholeness when light comes, not true wholeness but in the direction. And I think in the beginning of the lesson you said that we have to feel it simultaneously, I don’t understand how that is?
R. Soon, soon it will connect together, you’ll feel a connection between them.
27. S. (53:07) We learned that He created this against that and how to implement in our spiritual work a state that defines itself?
R. What did he ask?
S. It’s written here that “the Torah exists in and of itself.” How can that be if all that we discuss is one opposite, the contrasts define themselves, so what does it mean that the Torah is considered in and of itself?
R. We’ll reach it and we’ll see; Torah is something that really speaks of all of creation.
S. How do we relate to this in the work and practice this split?
R. Specifically from the split we can reach wholeness. If we feel it from the split then we already have a point of gripping, that we can grip onto it and demand the wholeness.
28. S. (54:23) I heard that you said that in order to bestow, that the will to receive has to absorb some force, what is that will to receive that has to absorb that force that transforms it in order to bestow?
R. We simply need to yearn to resemble the Creator and ask for that.
S. Is the vessel of bestowal, is it built from desires to receive and then in these vessels of reception we receive the light of bestowal?
R. Let’s say so.
29. S. (55:28) It’s written in the text that in order to pass the restriction, the Tzimtzum, we were given the remedy of Torah and Mitzvot. Why or whether the restriction is an action, isn’t it an action that is never canceled, so why does the restriction need to be canceled?
R. We want to cancel the restriction because it separates between us and the Creator and thus, that’s what we ask for.
30. S. (56:10) There’s a state of wholeness where we are one; one creature against the whole the Creator and the ten yearns for that. What is the deficiency of the ten, the lack of the ten where we judge ourselves, what is that action?
R. That we check ourselves, how connected we are, how similar we are to the Creator in our connection and accordingly, we raise a prayer and ask for the Creator.
S. Does it happen to each of us or all of us together?
R. Yes, in each of us and all of us together.
31. S. (57:00) It follows that I have to discover a number of discernments within me or us, so what is the main place where I discover these discernments, where does it happen?
R. It happens in our desires; how connected they are together.
32. S. (57:22) We read this article in the evening meeting of the ten, and according to this article do we need to start from reading the sources that awaken the light that reforms and only then it will direct us to the scrutiny, to the scrutiny of our deficiency and raising it?
R. In the beginning of the lesson we read the article of Rabash and connect to the source of the light.
S. Is it the same in the ten meetings?
R. Yes, also meeting with the ten, choose half a page from the article and read it.
S. So then the work itself begins and then the scrutiny in raising the deficiency to the Creator?
R. Yes.
33. S. (58:28) It says here that the Torah is a revelation of Godliness, but it also writes that during the study we have to build an intention to receive the light of Torah. How to build the intention to receive the revelation of His Godliness, correctly?
R. To resemble oneself as much as possible to the qualities of the Creator and the names that are known to us.
S. What qualities of the Creator are known to us?
R. Connection, love, mutual aid. These types, in general; connection.
34. S. (59:32) During the lesson we are under the influence of the light. During the meetings with the ten we are also drawing the light that reforms?
R. It depends on the extent to which you want to connect.
S. [no translation.]
R. Yes, you can prepare the Kli for the light.
35. S. (01:00:13) We know that the light exists and there is a clothing over it in the form of words, quotes and letters. How do we undress these garments and strip them away?
R. We don’t undress these clothings, these garments, we want to receive light in them because we cannot receive light without clothing and without dressings and thus, we simply need to enlarge, to raise the light and illuminate us through the clothes.
S. Is there a difference between revealing the light in these clothings because we yearn and connect and we build it towards the Creator our reflected light? So are there some garments where we discover a certain light and then other garments we discover another light?
R. As you begin to reveal later on, when you begin to reveal.
36. S. (01:01:41) It sounds as though our entire work is in receiving the desire to bestow; the deficiency.
R. Yes, of course.
S. And when we receive the lights what do we need to do? Not to awaken more deficiencies? Because he says we have to discern between one state and another. We have the state of the Kli and what are we supposed to do when we receive lights?
R. That we pray that the light will come and raise us to the degree of bestower. We rise to it, then we truly feel that we have some greater connection with the Creator.
S. But there has to be some action of gratitude or something?
R. You’re asking about after the connection with the Creator? Surely, because it’s the thing we already attain and this already invites a response from us.
S. And how do we need to accept that it says, “Thou ascend Me in behind and before?”
R. It’s in both, from darkness and from light that we receive from above; we advance. The interiors and the times of darkness will face the times of the light where we advance left, right, left, right.
37. S. (01:03:54) You said before that the goal is to rise to the vessels of bestowal and to use the vessels of reception the least as possible. That is what I heard?
R. That is in the meantime until we acquire vessels of bestowal in such a manner that we will begin to join to them, also, vessels of reception.
S. And I also heard, in one of the recent lessons you said, “that we now can already begin to restrict the desires on the animate level,” that is what I heard. I don’t know if it’s accurate or not?
R. I don’t know what context I said that.
S. In terms of restricting, like we said before, to use the vessels of reception as least as possible, so on the intimate level we need to try to restrict as much as possible?
R. That is not spiritual. I believe I was referring to corporeality.
S. In corporeality, yes, to restrict the desires, in corporeality to the least as possible, is that something we need to do?
R. No, leave it. If you’re getting confused in something don’t take it into account and if something must be clear for you then it will appear again and again.
38. S. (01:05:25) Yesterday, in the ten meeting, we read the article and a person expressed their deficiency and said that throughout the articles he cannot understand exactly what the article is about and that in general, during the reading, in the lesson or in a meeting he basically prays for the friends and he cannot identify this is about this, this is about that, what is exactly here?
R. Okay, it’s like that, so what?
S. Okay so he’s asking: How, in the ten, how to correctly relate to that? From his perspective, all the articles are just some kind of a[…]
R. He still doesn’t feel a difference? Okay, don’t press on him. Just let him participate as much as he can. That is always like that, there are some of the people who advance slowly and they don’t understand what it is talking about and it doesn’t need to bring us despair and also to that same person himself. It is written about ‘the wise one does not learn.’ That by specifically the exertion that one gives, accordingly he opens his heart and the Torah can enter his heart. But if he thinks that he understands and he feels and everything is okay, he doesn’t really have a lack so much and then he doesn’t advance.
S. It was exactly his question. He was asking how to direct the deficiency during the reading. What should I think about? To understand what Rabash writes or pray for the friends to understand?
R. I don’t want to dictate anything to him.
39. S. (01:08:01) If a person just needs to be in a state of Torah or work, should he hold on to these states, to one of them?
R. No. The main thing that he should be as close as possible to others, as close as possible.
40. S. (01:08:38) In order for a person’s prayer to change, to be authentic and from the heart, he needs to understand what he has to change within him in the words, connection, love. It’s okay but it doesn’t touch the bottom of my heart. How can a person really understand what needs to change?
R. To get closer to the friends, he doesn’t need to change anything else besides this, and this direction to get closer to the friends, it should determine what he is doing right now and his private state.
S. And how can he know what really prevents him from coming closer to the friends?
R. That he should check. Here it is a very practical work; what is bothering me to get closer to the friends.
S. A person can give a lot of excuses to himself. We are not meeting enough and not enough friends are coming, many things. How do we find the truth and what to really pray for?
R. To truly pray that more than what I feel close to the friends, I don’t want to feel anything; this is my greatest desire, greatest desire.
S. And if it’s not yet my greatest desire?
R. Then you need to think about it and talk about it.
41. S. (01:10:37) I wanted to ask next to the question of Hebrew two. How do I keep constantly the flow of the light that I’m not in the lesson or when I’m not in the ten and mostly when my will to receive distances myself from the friends or from positive thoughts to the friends?
R. If I want to be more adhered to the friends, then in this I’m awakening the light to influence us and make our connection tighter. There is no other action here that can be. Only that I awaken the light to adhere us more. That is all we need, to make an effort to depict to ourselves, ascribe to ourselves, and in this manner to draw from above upon us the light that reforms. And to feel that we truly understand and feel even though the connection itself, we don’t feel but we will feel in the connection between us, new discernments; new discernments of understandings, sensations, scrutiny, and that is how we will reveal our nearing, meaning according to the result. Is that clear?
42. S. (01:12:47) I want to continue the friend’s question.
R. Your lady also has the same impatience and quietness.
S. Does it mean something about my state, too?
R. I don’t know but it’s like that in the lesson, we see.
S. Well, okay, for her it’s a constant state. I want to continue the friend’s question. The person who comes to the lesson every day and he doesn’t understand anything, you said it’s good because it ultimately increases his deficiency and some people advance slowly.
R. He says that he comes every day, every morning and all the time feels the lack and what can be better?
S. So here is the question: What is a deficiency?
R. That I want something and I don’t feel good. I’m quiet inside and we have someone like this here, that’s always in unease here, that a couple of times has already raised his hand. I respect that.
S. Is there such a thing that if I came here, that I might not have a deficiency? I am used to it, every morning for twenty years, I come here every morning automatically?
R. It’s good, it’s good. But better if everyday you would run forward with a new desire like the first time.
S. Of course, that’s why I raise the question. Like the friend said before, he can’t understand anything that’s written. How such a thing awakens rather than shuts off his deficiency?
R. It’s a blessing from above.
S. Where is the blessing?
R. That he constantly remains in a lack, and he has a new lack, day by day, morning by morning, and he comes and he wants to solve the question.
S. Where is the deficiency? The fact that he comes and he comes?
R. No, no, no, why does he come? He wants to receive an answer from his question.
S. Is that true?
R. I don’t know. Ask him. There are people who will come out of habit and there are people who because of their nerves, they cannot stay in bed. And there are people who, their spouse, their partner tells them, “How can you stay here, go study, otherwise how am I going to get Torah?” And then, he has to come here and get Torah, like he is coming to the store and bringing it back there. Right, friend?
S. How to tell the difference between habit, a person coming from habit, and a person coming from deficiency? How can you discern that? Of course he doesn’t receive anything from this study. I’ll give myself as an example, I’m already naked here towards the friends. I come to study Pticha, Preface, twenty years, every morning, day after day, sometimes there is insight and sometimes I can even feel what is written, that, if it happens it disappears, as if it is gone, as if there’s nothing there and I can’t even remember.
R. It is said that the ancient Kabbalists would pray to forget. Not to remember; that everything will be a blank page for them.
S. But how do you feel deficiency? How does it not put you in despair to come again and again?
R. What are they giving you? The fact that you’re here.
S. That’s a deficiency, itself?
R. That’s nevertheless a deficiency. Now what are you doing with this deficiency that the Creator is allowing you to keep going. He gave you the beginning, as it says, “I am the first,” and you have to continue to extend this deficiency to bring to the correct depiction, illustration, what am I doing with this deficiency? If not for the Creator, I would never get up. We’re saying habit and all those things but I would never get up if it weren’t for the Creator.
S. So when I come to the study of Pticha and I know when I open the book and know that I’m not going to understand anything. How do I approach this?
R. I would like to obtain a connection between myself and the friends and between all of us and the Creator; obtain the connection. And in this connection, everything that I need should be revealed to me in order for me to keep my role in creation.
S. And I need that the connection will ultimately happen between this emotional tendency you described and the study of Pticha?
R. Yes, yes, I imagine this picture and I want it to happen.
S. So why doesn’t this connection happen?
R. Because you don’t want it, you don’t imagine it and want it as something desirable. Try.
43. S. (01:19:10) It is written here, “It is written that Malchut which is called the will to receive yearned for equivalence of form which is called bestowal. Therefore, when it is drawn, this matter to the created beings, which come after the breaking of the vessels which took place and after the sin of the tree of knowledge, this deficiency that the person felt, that he lacks the vessel called the will to bestow is not there.” So I’m asking about this excerpt. So could you say that we are Reshimot of the broken vessel of the Achoraim of Ohr Hozer?
R. Yes.
S. Is the Torah a Masach between the light and the Kli?
R. Is the Torah a screen? No, maybe a connector, an adaptor, connecting light and vessel, you can say that.
44. S. (01:21:00) I wanted to ask a fundamental question. In our ten there is a great connection, in activities; in great connection. But I have a feeling that we are not progressing in the process. So how can we progress? Because advancement in the process means coming to the morning lesson and all the things that Rav talks about all the time and it’s not happening with us so much. It’s really a great connection, good activity, but there is no progress. What do we do?
R. Turn to the Creator. Advancement is not up to me. Turn to the Creator and ask, ask for an explanation. What are we not doing correctly or enough in order to feel advancement that will satisfy us. That is it.
45. S. (01:22:30) The time of the study of the Torah, during this time, a person needs to be in wholeness. Meaning that I need to feel that the Creator is whole, good, benevolent and One who loves my friends.
R. Yes?
S. So from this state I can be impressed and also wish to be like Him and then reach a prayer like from one side to another all the time?
R. Yes. He has got good discernments, the right discernments.
46. S. (01:23:15) I want to speak about this article in a language that is closer to us.
R. Go ahead, Sir.
S. In this preparation, the Creator awakens the point in the heart, the deficiency that gets us to come here that’s because He awakens you. I am still in these discernments, engaging with myself: who am I, where am I going, what am I doing etc.. Then we need to reach the stage of connection between us, where the stage of deficiency moves to being one of connection. I feel that somewhat, we are coming closer to that in which the preparation that we are doing during the day, each one individually, to come to connection and to come with that connection to the lesson. That connection with which we come to the lesson with which we exert to come with it, is that learning Torah where we come with that connection or with that deficiency for the connection?
R. Yes, it works out in such a way that when I feel an awakening to come and study the Torah, the next stage is what do I need the Torah for? In order to become connected with everyone, with all the friends? Why do I need to be connected with all the friends? In order to give the place for the Creator to be revealed? What for? In order to give Him contentment. This is our final point; to give contentment to the Creator.
S. And then in every moment of reality, we need to judge and sentence each person to the scale of merit?
R. Even the one who doesn’t want to come but nevertheless he comes; that’s the Creator arranges it so he will be here.
S. It’s as if a state when I’m engaging in myself and eating myself because also, this new place of work which is to build connection in reality, where the Creator reveals it every moment, right?
R. Yes. We are about to receive revelations of vessels and it will be clear to us how we work, how do we activate the vessels. Later we will have connection with the lights.
47. S. (01:26:12) It is written that during the time of prayer, we first need that one’s deficiency will be revealed. What does it mean the force of prayer we need to reveal the deficiency?
R. It should be clear to the person who is he, what is he, what he wishes to reach, what prevents him from reaching it? What is the path made of? How does he cross it? What does he lack in order to move through, discern this precisely? What is ahead of him, what are the stages that he has to go through? He wants to reveal all of those things.
S. So he needs to do a certain work with himself before he can turn to the Creator, the person?
R. Yes, of course an inner scrutiny. But all of it is already inside of you, you can see it.
48. S. (01:27:22) It says in the article that where the person thinks is where he is. I understand the place that I think is my heart, that’s what I understood from yesterday’s afternoon lesson. And the place where I think about the friend, that’s their part. If I think I will take my friends into my heart and I wish for the Creator to reveal to them that they will have it good. How do I insert the Creator into that table?
R. It needs to be revealed inside the friends, in the connection between the friends.
S. What exactly is the act that I do and that I inserted them into my heart?
R. You want them all to be connected in such a style that will allow the Creator to be revealed in them.
S. And I just surround them and serve them in this process?
R. You insert them into your love.
49. S. (01:28:45) Psalms are also a prayer and also Torah, if I’m not mistaken?
R. The Psalms? Yes.
S. He writes that there is a time of Torah is separate and a time of prayer is separate and with the Psalms it is together?
R. Both, yes.
S. Is there any reason for that?
R. It is a complete thing and Psalms are complete.
S. So Psalms is something more whole than the Torah?
R. I can’t say something to this degree but Psalms in and of themselves are a complete thing. I see everyone has a tendency for peace and not for attacking.
50. S. (01:30:10) Each day I understand that I understand nothing.
R. Very well.
S. I have the knowledge, I have memory of what is written in the Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, I can explain it to people.
R. Excellent. What else?
S. Once when I engaged in art, I wanted to reach some kind of final product, like a sculpture and in the end I would feel that I didn’t reach what I had in my heart and what I wanted to create. I didn’t even reach two-percent of what I had in my heart. Everyone is enjoying it and thinks what a great work but inside I feel that there is no pleasure of that you went through this state during the work, when you are holding the tools in your hands and work with the materials. Now in the ten, I am translating it to here with the friends. So in the ten you’re looking for all kinds of models and I ask myself do I want to do this or is the Creator acting through me, through the Torah, through the Pardes, where we’re always playing with these categories of climbing them and changing this feeling so that we will be one in the ten. That I want to seek access to a friend or be one to the friend and to the teacher, so it is as if He is confusing you on purpose and then you need to come to the desire, an ideal one which never comes. Do I need to reach this ideal state?
R. You have to yearn for it but to reach it I don’t know.
S. Now for the group, should I purposefully insert myself under the pressure of the group?
R. Yes.
S. So that it really gets on my nerves?
R. Not to be making you nervous and stressed but you will have to enter the group and be connected with them and move together with them in the same general direction.
S. I come each morning like to work and work and whatever happens, happens?
R. Yes.
S. Not to wait for some kind of revelation or states.
R. You can pray and you can live in that deficiency.
S. That brings me pleasure but I feel this relationship between the friends gives me the feeling of vitality.
R. Okay, what else? Good luck.
51. S. (01:33:21) What is the difference between the reception of the Torah during the lesson and the reception of the Torah during a meeting and a gathering with the ten?
R. There’s a great difference there. There has to be a purpose of the gathering and the connection, in the purpose of the congress, the assembly, I don’t know. There can be many goals. What do we wish to reach? Which state? That’s what’s important to us?
52. S. (01:34:03) How can a person resemble the Creator if he feels himself as low and unworthy of coming closer to Him?
R. On that, it says that, “the Creator is great, and the lowly will see.” From our lowliness, we can reach the revelation of the Creator.
53. S. (01:34:25) Is it correct to say that the inner light is the internality of the Torah that acts upon a person in order to change his intention to be in order to bestow?
R. Yes.
54. S. (01:34:40) During the lesson, do we need to be in a deficiency or in wholeness?
R. In wholeness, wholeness.
55. S. (01:34:57) How can we combine the Torah as Pentateuch when the Torah is the light that comes from the Creator?
R. The Torah is called the light that comes from above. It comes from the five parts of the corrected vessel, five sources of light, NRNHY, and down below, we receive the Torah as a book made up of five parts. And we study it, we read it. There are those who learn it almost by heart. Some learned it even more than that, they entered the depth of it, so on and so forth. That has nothing to do with what we, Kabbalists, want from the Torah. We want to reveal the internality of the Torah, meaning the Torah is the upper light that corrects us, meaning reforms us, returns us to the good on one hand. On the other hand, when it corrects us and fills us, it brings us a feeling and a knowledge of where we are, who fills us, who moves us around? This is all called the Torah. So the Torah has many interpretations and there’s many explanations for it.
S. Can we call all of the Kabbalistic sources like Baal HaSulam, Rabash, Rav Kook, can we call it all Torah?
R. Typically we call all the books that speak of the revelation of the Creator to the created being; we call those Torah.
56. S. (01:37:25) You said that if a person wakes up and comes to the lesson, that’s because the Creator wants him there. On the other hand, there are friends who in advance, plan to come and don’t succeed to come. Does that mean that the Creator arranged it that way, that There Is None Else Besides Him and he doesn’t let the friend come even though he wanted to come or maybe he didn’t want him to come enough? How do we deal with those states? Is it a calculation of the ten, how should we relate to it?
R. It doesn’t matter what kind of calculations you have, the main thing is that you connect with the friends and together you will advance towards the Creator.
S. But these friends, should we pray for them during the lesson or during the day?
R. During the day.
57. S. (01:38:26) You answered a friend that to the extent that she comes closer to the friends so that she gets new states. Question: These new states are not always pleasant for me, Rav, so it turns out that I do this action of coming close to the friends but I don’t always get this pleasant state, and what is unpleasant for me, does that depend on my readiness to raise my deficiencies or to reach a new state?
R. Yes.
58. S. (01:39:10) A few moments ago, you said that in order for the Creator to come to us we need to pray. And in our ten we are always praying and working with this deficiency, so the question is: What is the prayer which is correct of the ten in order to cause the light to come to us?
R. To connect between us and ask the light to reach us.
59. S. (01:40:06) It is written in the article that a person will be for work. Can you explain what that means?
R. A person has to invest his power in his work in order to reach correction. That’s it.
60. S. (01:40:43) I have two questions. First question: We do not recognize the Torah at all. How should we learn the externality of the Torah? What do you recommend to us?
R. You’re constantly learning Torah, meaning the steps for approaching the Creator. That’s it.
61. S. (01:41:22) You said that all of the holy books are the Torah. So why is there sometimes this desire to read the Psalms and another desire to read the Zohar?
R. They, too, belong to the Torah, all of the books that speak of the revelation of the Creator to the created being are referred to as the Torah.