MONDAY PRAYER: NETZACH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN

READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN MONDAY

Lesson 1 “The Work Is Mainly in the Heart”

World Kabbalah Convention “Opening the heart”

September 30, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio

Lesson 1: The Work Is Mainly in the Heart

1. R. (09:47) Yes, so we will open the Congress with Rabash’s article, The Purpose of Society 2 and we will try to open our heart, together all of us, as one heart: men, women, it doesn’t matter from which languages, from which edges of the world we came here, so as long as we’ll have one heart. And in that heart, specifically because it is connected from all kinds of different and foreign parts that are different, however the connection of the hearts is what will open up for us the vessel for the feeling of the Creator, that He is one for everyone. This is what we need to feel that we’re opening our heart towards, me towards everyone, I connect with everyone, everyone has room in my heart, I am inside them, in the hearts of the friends. And this is how we open our heart, our collective heart and this is actually what our Congress is; let’s see what Rabash writes to us.

Reading Rabash. Article 1, 1984. Purpose of Society – 2 (11:34 – 16:36)

2. R. (16:38) Yes, so as much as possible we should open our heart to everyone and feel that the Convention is revealed in our hearts, that they’re all connected into one heart as much as possible, exert, exert to be close in our hearts to one heart, and in that we will begin to feel how we’re getting closer to the Creator, there and that one heart He is present. If we want to discover the Creator this is the way, this is the action that we need to carry out; and therefore there is no choice for one who wants to attain the Creator, to discover Him and in general humanity ultimately has no choice but through suffering and problems, thoughts and desires of various kinds, in the end everyone comes to a state where we have to cancel the partitions that exist between us in our hearts and connect them into one heart. This is the purpose of the society and this is why humanity is revolving from one year to the next, from one day to the next, through all kinds of problems, ultimately until it finally has to attain that there is no choice but to work on connection against the egoistic human nature that constantly wants to push us away from each other. And this distancing, the Creator, Himself, keeps it so that in our work against the distancing we will be able to make Him greater, and in this way we can feel Him more and more. Therefore to begin with we were created in the will to receive in our ego, each one within himself and we have no choice but to try to get closer and connect between us, between all of us in a single desire, this is called ‘in one heart’.

This is actually the purpose of the society, what Rabash wrote was about. I remember that new students came, new friends after I gave a few lectures in different places, in Tel Aviv, and then I invited them to a meeting. It wasn’t in our place, it was in the old building, and I asked Rabash, ‘what should I talk to them about’, because I myself was a beginner. So we were walking in the park and he asked for something to write on so I gave him the aluminum foil from the cigarettes and he wrote on that. He wrote, not this article, The Purpose of Society 2, but the first article, “we have gathered here in order to lay a foundation for the building of the society”. This was his first well-known article and this is how we started and even though since then, thirty, forty years have gone by, however the matter remains the same matter, and even though many people are now hearing about it but the process and the method of correction is the same method about which, even the ancient Kabbalists, thousands of years ago, wrote about it so let’s hear it again, what did he write? 

Reading Rabash. Article 1, 1984. Purpose of Society – 2 (22:25 – 27:16) 

3. R. (27:18) This means that we should relate to each and everyone who is here as a friend who is close, he’s with us in one heart, to try to truly accept them in one desire, one heart, in a longing for the Creator, and in this way to continue with all of us together. And one who does not understand that, explain it to them; in the end we need to make sure that there’s no one here who is indifferent to our goal to connect and discover the Creator and the connection between us.

4. S. (28:32) Here in our home, we have friends from all over the world, indeed we have a great privilege, a great joy, a great excitement and also you said that we have a great opportunity. Sso I wanted to ask what does the Creator want from us, from Bnei Baruch?

R. The Creator wants that we will be the center of connection, that in that connection He’ll be able to clothe, to become revealed and through us, gradually, towards all of humanity, bit by bit. That’s what the Creator wants from us, that we will be the source of the revelation of the Creator to humanity.

S. This Congress, how can I embrace everyone, how can I accept everyone in my heart?

R. I want to feel this in my heart, that my heart is willing to absorb all of the hearts that are here, and that we all of us are yearning for the Creator. And ultimately we will achieve connection between us and building of the place that is called Shechina, that is where the Creator can be revealed to us. That’s basically what we get to, that’s what the Congress or Convention is for, to discover such a connection between us that we will reveal the Creator. If someone makes the effort towards revelation of the Creator, I’m certain that one can feel how the Creator enters and appears in the correct connection between us.

5. S. (31:31) I’m here to tell you that my friends and I are very grateful to study with you and love you very much! My question is: should I try to change my egoistic desire, little by little, or is it more effective to ignore it and just focus on my friends desires?

R. I don’t see any difference here, it’s either you receive the desire of the friends and you incorporate with them, or you enter their desire and connect with them. So ultimately the desire should be one: discovering the Creator and that it will be a revealed in the heart, in the shared common desire to all of us.

6. S. (33:47) When I give a good example to my friend there’s a risk of seeing myself as higher than her, so how do I overcome that?

R. This is true, however, along with that I have to see myself as lower, as the more I rise above the friends, with that, I have to feel myself as lower than the friends in such a way that, well let’s say like a mother towards her children. So on the one hand, she’s doing everything for them and she understands and she knows how to take care of them and she does and she’s stronger and wiser, many times more than them on the one hand. On the other hand, by being so, she takes care of them, she turns herself as into something lower than them, in the sense that what they want becomes important to her. So when we want to connect with the friends we are receiving their desire and we want to help them realize that desire, and that is what elevates us and not taking us down and you’re advancing well in that.

7. S. (36:11) I missed the airplane, the flight, and thanks to the ten and the friends I took another flight. What is the difference between a ‘sensitive heart’ and a ‘vulnerable heart’ that could be hurt that comes from the ten?

R. A ‘sensitive heart’ is a strong heart that knows how to guard itself, on the one hand and on the other hand, it’s open to the friends, to feeling them. A ‘weak heart’ is that which also becomes incorporated with the others, lowers itself towards them and works with them but as a lower one. A heart that works in a strong person needs to be, on the one hand, an independent heart in that a person decides that he’s going forward until he achieves adhesion with the Creator, and this can happen only in connection with the friends, on the one hand. And on the other hand, it’s very much willing to be coming included with every problem that exists in each and every friend in order to help them incorporate with them and thus continue. 

8. S. (39:04) My heart is torn to pieces when I try to open it up, when I hit this wall of criticism and ego, and when I feel the hearts of the friend who are here I experience deep shame because it seems to me that when I will open my heart everyone will see what it’s inside and I’m ashamed of that.

R. And what do you find there for example?

S. Criticism, all kinds of nonsense, and I understand.

R. And what’s so bad about it, so? Typically what we answer to that is, “go to the Craftsman who made me”, go the Creator Who made my heart as it is,  complain to Him. So when a person discovers his evil heart, he shouldn’t be ashamed of it or try to hide it, he should try to transcend it and ask the Creator to correct it, in principle correcting what the Creator, Himself, did. So that we have the complete authority or right to turn to the Creator and demand Him to correct our hearts, that’s why it says “go to the Craftsman who made me”, meaning go to the One who made me this way. So the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is built on connecting in the request of the Creator, in the demand that He will correct us; and the Creator, to begin with, is saying “I created the evil inclination and I created the Torah as a spice”. So what does it mean that Torah for the correction, it is the upper light that we can draw and it will correct us. Only it can do it and our goal, our mission is to discover the lack of correction and then ask the Creator that He will do it and He is standing by for that, deliberately, that we’ll ask, that will beg, because in such a case we get closer to Him.

S. Thank you very much, but now from this place I would like to ask of the Creator that He will correct it, that He will help us, that He will see our hearts and help us to open them up towards each other and be ‘as one heart’. This is my greatest desire right now, I’m very grateful to you, I’m happy to be here and I hope our hearts will open up. 

R. The thing is that each one can ask of the Creator, He hears everyone but to push Him to action we have to do it only out of the group. There are thousands of people here so when you’re asking, you’re connecting with them, and by that you already unite in the hearts. In our ordinary routine we work with the ten and if the ten is connected then it can influence the Creator so that He will change them, thank you good luck! 

9. S. (44:57) It said before that you don’t see a difference between receiving or giving inside the desire of the friends, my question is when we understand the desire of the friend and we go towards it, we connect to it, when we receive love of friends inside this sea of love, it’s as if I’m letting go, is there some equality here in the work?

R. Equality between what?

S. Is there, should we go towards the friends in a conscious matter or instead of that, should we simply annul and get all the love from them, is that the same thing, is it equal?

R. This is done by study, especially by reading the articles of Rabash about the group, about connection, and when we read we draw the light that reforms and it connects us and it organizes us and it draws upon us the light that comes from the Creator, so the whole work in the ten is what does that for us 

10. S. (47:25) The Kabbalists teach us that the Creator is Good and does good but we see the bad that is revealed in this world, how should we relate to this world, this bad that we see in the world, this war, all kinds of crazy people, how should we as Kabbalists see the revelation of the Good that does good in this world because there are examples that we cannot understand when you look at them, that He is Good and does good through them?

R. I understand you, in the meantime we cannot understand this, that requires, to somewhat transcend our world, and then we’ll see from a perspective of the beginning through the end of creation all that it needs to go through. And only then and only to that extent we’ll be able to justify the Creator and otherwise through our eyes, in our qualities, there is certainly nothing more horrible than the Creator. So that everything that happens in the world stems from Him, and that’s why all the evil in the world and all that happens in general is the appearance of His Providence. And we have to see ourselves as chosen ones to change that Providence from a bad Providence to a good Providence; therefore it is written, “I have created the evil inclination, I’ve created the Torah for its correction”. Torah means the upper light that we need to draw and to the extent that we draw that light we will begin to feel how our world becomes good, all of that in principle is up to us, so let’s work on doing that.

11. S. (51:22) Thank you for the opportunity to be here, the opportunity to receive some air away from the corporeal world. My question is how can we hold on to the seriousness, how can we do it and what is this levity, this frivolity in the work?

R. Every moment where we are not taking seriously the purpose of creation, to be included in it and also to push it forward and publicize it, any moment not there, is a moment of frivolity, that’s it. I know you for many years now and we’ll go forward together. 

12. S. (58:22) It is written in the article that in order to connect we have to be equal?

R. Equal, we need to be equal?

S. We’re supposed to have equality towards one another?

R. It’s not dependent on us being truly equal, it depends on how we accept each other; there will never be any equality between us, each one of us is a different person, a different body different nervous system, the brain, the feeling. Equality can only be when we make ourselves equal.

S. That is what I wanted to ask about: now that we have the Congress, where all different and we’re asking different questions, and we really want to incorporate in each and everyone, and in this to annul before Him and in this to feel equality, so what to pay attention to feel this equality?

R. We all have the same nature, the same nature, same goal, and in respect to that we are equal; also, the more we advance, the more different than equal we become because egoism in each of us develops more and more. So according to the ego we become further from each other but each of us yearns for the same goal and therefore we come closer, and in the end we become ‘as one man in one heart’, that’s it

13. S. (10:20) I am full of gratitude to you and the friends who created this one place in the world, this meeting the Creator will bless us all! From the beginning of this Congress, I observed with great yearning and quietness, what role does the silence and quietness between us serve in order to allow us all to connect and reveal the Creator?

R. It is that through the silence we want to hear the friends hearts, we want to connect in the heart so they will permeate one another, be incorporated with one another. If we had an instrument to check our hearts, we would feel from lesson to lesson, from day to day, how much our hearts have become complex and in their complexity we come closer to the revelation of the Creator in one heart.

S. And how important is it, on this path, to be silent?

R. Yes and no, I need to give everyone, to let everyone express themselves, l I also want to convey to them my own feelings. So it turns out that our Congress consists of all kinds of operations, actions of singing, silence, articles, questions and answers, and inside everything becomes mixed and in the end leads us to the goal.

14. S. (01:05:57) It truly is a huge privilege to be here together with you on this path, you’re on this path for many years, and we now have the desire to ask this question, ‘what is the purpose of our life’, and we really run after, we chase this desire here. How does this influence the rest of the world, what we’re doing here?

R. We want to unite in our desire in our egoistic desire, each and everyone of us, into other desires, and in this way to come to one big desire in which we will feel the purpose of life, the purpose of creation, the Creator Who is holding us and sustaining us as one body. This is basically our work, there’s nothing more than that, we learn from all kinds of wise books that Kabbalists have written and collected and assembled over dozens of generations. But what is really important is only to be closer to each other because what we receive from spirituality enters between us, between us, if we build connections between us then there is where the upper light enters. And this is where it is present, this is where it remains, and from it we begin to see and to feel the purpose of creation, the plan of creation, the essence of creation.

S. Thank you we very much appreciate your exertion on us!

15. S. (1:09:05) I am very excited, I am crying already from yesterday, my eyes just closing from the tears. 

R. What’s the problem?

S. Yesterday I felt how much the Creator loves us and it doesn’t matter who you are, what religion, if you’re righteous and wicked, and I felt I can’t give Him anything.

R. I think you need to calm down, you just became incorporated in the general feeling, the general sensation and this is why you’re so excited! Let’s relax and begin to think with our heads and not with our hearts for a little while; afterwards it will become balance, so your question?

S. The question is how do you live with this feeling onward, what should I do?

R. We have to balance all our feelings with our intellect, we were given the mind and the heart, and we have to connect and balance them. Everything we feel in the heart should go through the mind and what we want to know in the mind has to go through the heart. In this way everything will be okay, it will calm down and it will be okay.

S. Yesterday I revealed that my nature is incapable of doing this.

R. It is very good and it’s true, right now your nature can’t do anything, that’s true; but as a result of your work and your study with the group, you will see how you receive from your friends completely different qualities and you will succeed, and you will be able to balance yourself and move from degree to degree.

Reading Excerpt #1 twice  “The work is mainly in the heart” (01:13:23 – 01:15:22) 

16. S. (01:15:35) If I see something bad in the friend and I don’t say anything, and I’m just working inside myself in internal work, does it open the heart or am I close in the heart?

R. For the time being it’s neither, you have to do all kinds of actions, all kinds of activities, by which you will come closer to the friend until you love her.

S. So what actually is it ‘to open the heart between us’ now?

R. ‘Opening the heart’ means that I am not ashamed of the friends, they’re not ashamed of me, and in this way in the ten, for now, it’s in the ten, and this way in our ten we become with ‘open hearts’ toward each other.

17. S. (01:17:42) How can we all close our eyes and get closer, a millimeter, between us and toward the Creator to jump into this ocean of love with the Creator?

R. We have to work together in the ten to try to work to go through several disturbances, obstructions, and through them, we will learn how to become closer to each other, and when we have enough disturbances and overcoming the disturbances, they will be as Aviut, as coarseness and softness. And then we will begin between the two of them to reveal the Creator, this is how we will advance toward the truth. It’s not, it doesn’t come quickly but if we work on it the Creator will arrange it for us.

S. I am here in the Congress for Sukkot and I feel this connection of love between us, I’m even connecting with the friends, and on the other hand, I feel distance, and how much does it take for both these opposite sides to connect?

R. I still cannot measure distances, farther closer, we don’t have the instruments but soon we will be able to feel closer, further, and by what actions we can bridge the gap, the distance.

18. S. (01:20:46) It is written, “love the Creator with all your heart and with all your soul”; ‘your soul’, what is that?

R. Man’s soul is the spirit of life in him which sustains him on the human level, the level of Adam. It is that spiritual force that we need to develop, that’s it, we will deal with it, we will deal with it we will.

S. It is written, “to purify the soul”, does it mean my soul or others?

R. Mine?

S. And the soul of the friend is the same one?

R. No, each one has his own soul and we can only, through external action, set an example and help the friends correct their souls, their individual souls.

19. S. (01:22:52) Good morning to all those who came from all around the world, you’ve made it pleasure for us, you’ve excited us, welcome! It has been set upon you that you came to us, finally, “that the group of people have gathered, have assembled, to be as one unit in one place under one leader in high spirits above the human level, and they stand ready against all those who rise up against them and surely they are people who have strong spirit,  full of courage, and their decision is determined, and steadfast without moving back even one step and they are brave warriors of the first order fighting in the war against the ego to the last drop of blood. And their entire direction is just to win this war for the sake of His glory”. All the best to you who’ve come here, we wish you all the best! I have a big question: how do I connect all these hearts into one heart and enter them into my heart, even the hearts of all those?

R. Open your heart and we will all come in!

S. It’s open for all you, all the time, thank you to all of you!

R. He’s a veteran friend of ours, he’s been with us for any years! Let’s hope all our Arab brothers will also come and we will all unite. Our brother is an Arab who lives in Israel and has been studying with us for a long time.

20. S. (01:26:19) This is our first time in a Congress, MAK ninety-eight from Northern Ireland, the friends that could make it, they want to ask a question: how to learn not to cry from so much excitement and connection, that to be stronger, wiser, and more whole like the Creator? The Creator rises over our lack of wholeness, and we cry over the joy in connection, is it how it’s supposed to be?

R. Everything is advancing correctly and according to the laws of nature. keep going as you are.

21. S. (01:28:17) My question is if there is a sensation that, all in all, I’m just as black point that has no ‘white’ in it, how to accept it and not want to escape this state?

R. On the contrary, the fact that each of us is ‘a black do’,t this is our initial egoistic state and we have to invert ourselves and become ‘a white dot’ on the background of the black world; and afterward more and more white dots will join us and the world will become illuminated,  enlightenment.

S. How do we connect this with the friends?

R. Through the tens, this is what we’re doing with you.

S. I want to give thanks to my ten, that prayed for me and sent me to this Congress, my huge ten, I love you so much!

22. S. (01:30:15) It’s been said here that “the Creator seeks all hearts”, what does that mean?

R. The Creator wants all the souls to unite together into one soul called Adam, it is called Adam from the word, Domeh, “similar” because it’s similar to the Creator. Into such a state, we have to come, this is the purpose, the essence and the reason for our existence on earth.

23. S. (01:32:17) I want to give thanks to all the friends who helped me to come to this Congress! My question: in the beginning of the lesson I heard you say that, “I am in your hearts and you are in my heart”, so my question is how concretely can we enter the hearts of the friend? Is it by thinking about it very strongly or is it enough to just desire it, and how to realize it with all the friends together at the same time?

R. Well here it is clear, what we need to do, we have to search for a ten, the closer it is, in terms of its physical location on Earth, geographical location, and if not, then the virtual ten, we have many such things here, thousands who connect in this way and this is how we advance. In spirituality, the place, the distance make no difference, only the feeling in the heart, therefore we need to search more and more for friends, women friends and men friends who are closer to us, and ‘to be as one man in one heart, with one intention, truly in one heart’. And this is what will elevate us up to the connection where we will discover the Creator.

24. S. (01:35:04) We always say that we need to connect to open our heart and the connection between us, how can we also connect our minds?

R. Our minds will connect as a result of our feelings, the important thing is to connect the hearts; in the mind, it’s not important, it will follow the heart, it will follow the heart, so we don’t need to worry about the mind.

S. But the mind, it comes out from what the heart translates as emotions, knowledge?

R. Yes, so I can only say we have no choice but to connect the hearts, and that each and every heart will feel that it is drawn after the hearts of the friends, and accordingly our minds, too, will go and process it. The more we want to correct ourselves through the mind, as much as we may want we may not succeed, but only through the heart, this is how it works.

25. S. (01:37:30) I want to see the soul of each friend beyond the psychological or bodily aspect, so how when I look at each of the friends who are here, how can I see their soul to feel the friends more?

R. When you begin to connect with him more deeply, you will begin to feel where you are closer, where you are farther, and in this way you will distinguish between his soul and you’re soul, and you will know his soul and that’s it, as a result of the connection.

26. S. (01:38:39) In order to love the Creator I need to love the friends, and for this, I need to annul myself. Can you explain the difference between annulling ourselves and restricting ourselves?

R. It is the same, restricting the desire is on the way to opening it up to others and this is what we need, on the one hand, we opening restrict our own desires, personal ones, egoistic; and on the other hand, we open up a desire towards the others and in this way, we’ll begin to feel the Creator.

27. S. (01:40:45) I was asked to ask a question for the mirror Congress happening in Sofia now. You said that “the words are complicated, complex heart”, does that mean that we will feel more descent than ascents?

R. Yes.

28. S. (01:41:47) I don’t know if this was a dream, you asked me for my name and I said, “fifty-six (my ten) and you said, ”but what is your name?”, and I said, “I don’t remember and I don’t want to remember because I don’t believe in it!”. From the bottom of our heart, we want to take the special opportunity and this special place, and send our gratitude to the Creator. We thank you, our dear, for the possibility to feel you in each one and to feel your greatness for recreating, through the connection with the teacher, with this sources, and with the ten, for the possibility to feel a different world through different eyes. For the remedy, that it exists and for the miracle that becomes the genuine, real reality, real perception of the new reality for bestowal being the truest thing, that the truest revelation. And for the feeling of being part of your work through the unity between us; for the softest mattress and the calmest sleep in your warm embrace, in our home, dear Creator, You are the Champion!

29. S. (01:44:46) If I may ask, the Creator can accept any form, as you said He’s like the glue between us, and the elasticity of this glue and the seriousness of our right intention toward the Creator. How can we strengthen this elasticity between us, this adhesive between us, here and now, so that we serve the Creator with one big heart with joy and honor?

R. To adhere to one another in the sensations and thoughts and actions, that’s it.

S. Through prayer every moment, requests, outcry, begging, litany, if we all do together it will be a very strong adhesive between us?

R. Yes, yes that’s how it has to be between us.

30. S. (01:46:35) How can we understand that my egoistic desire was restricted, how can I see it?

R. I don’t think you can truly understand it like this, immediately, you will simply be more focused and the purpose of creation and the connection with the friends, and then connection with the Creator in order that each three parameters will connect through you into one point. And a warm welcome to your group!

31. S. (01:49:02) My question is this: my ego is so big that I can’t let all the friends into me, or when I annul myself, I’m incorporated in everyone’s heart; how does it work everyone, becomes enters me and inflates my ego?

R. Yes, yes, yes, you have a large ego and it will be even bigger!

S. So it turns out I will include and contain everyone who is in this hall and even more?

R. Yes that’s what it’s written, “all who is greater than his friend, his ego is bigger, his egoism is even bigger”.

S. And this way I will contain all the people in the world?

R. And this is how we will connect the whole world until everyone will attain the degree of MAN, of Adam.

32. S. (01:5027) We want to open our hearts we are despaired already from the separation, we’re praying, we want to increase the deficiency more and more; what is missing in order to accelerate the process and obtain an open our hearts now?

R. Just open up the heart and accept all the friends inside the heart of each and everyone and connect all the hearts together to make such an internal effort inside the heart. And then when all of us connect, to the extent that we come closer, nearer, we begin to feel the Creator that operates inside our heart. And then we will begin, along with this, to reveal how all of reality is truly built. What is the universe and the galaxies and all these things, what is it all? It is something very strange, it is only inside our imagination, and then the imagination will change we will begin to feel a new world.

33. S. (01:52:31) I have a question from my ten from our common heart: when the Congress just started with every question and every answer, a special feeling fills us, we’re all afraid that by the end of the Congress will be torn from within. So the question of my ten is how do we embrace the whole world and convey the light of the Creator from this Convention and after it and beyond it, we want to shine, we don’t want to burst from within?

R. You don’t need to burst, we just finished the construction work here! We need to illuminate and illuminate, to shine to everyone, we need for people will understand that we can live in a wonderful world, in a good connection between us! And thus we will attain the purpose of creation. In about half an hour this lesson will end and we will go on to our next activity, I am very happy from the connection between the friends, how the friends are getting nearer, and in this that there is this mutual understanding of where we are, why we’re here, and advance on!

34. S. (01:55:21) I think that yesterday at the Shabbot Haverism, there was a point where we had open hearts and I thought ‘how did it happen’? In my opinion, previously there were partitions between us, we had a common preparation, we opened our hearts and in that moment our hearts were fused together, there was a fusion of the hearts. The question is how can we in this Convention come to that state where the person we see for the first time, is this even possible?

R. Well that depends how you will work on this person, how you get closer to him, hug him, but it is possible, it is possible. How did you learn Hebrew?

S. I live here, I lived here for 12 years, and only for the past 2 years I’ve been studying Kabbalah and I wanted to translate for those who translate the lessons. We have the option to hear the lesson in Russian and Hebrew, I have Russian in one ear and Hebrew on the other ear, and this is all thanks to you! We love you very much and we pray for your health and that you may leave until one hundred twenty!

35. S. (01:57:10) I’m so happy to be here again with all the friends! Yesterday we were hugging and it totally flooded me, my heart. My heart opened and I felt what it means ‘to open the heart’, my question is something else. When we work in tens, normally intellectual, even when we try to integrate the heart in the ten; but what is this connection between the intellect and the heart, the understanding. Another word my name is Hassan, I’m from German Eight, and I’m also taking part in building our Farsi Kli, Farshi (Persian) vessel. 

R. The truth is that the spiritual vessel is built from above by the influence of the upper light and the upper light that bestows to its parts brings them closer to one another, connects them to one another, heart becomes as the man feels that it occurs to him, that it occurs in him. And part of it the person doesn’t even know because it belongs to the rest of the parts of the larger, general vessel. And so, it is upon us, in the meantime, only to carry out actions of connection as much as they are possible for us, we have the opportunities for them. And accordingly we begin to feel larger systems and from there we learn to understand how everything must work, that’s it, we will have a whole lecture about it sometime.

36. S. (02:00:03) I’ve been on the path for years, I’m in a virtual ten, and I feel that I can’t find what I need in order to advance. I am translating, I help with the lessons, the campus, I’m making efforts in dissemination but I don’t feel there are results. I need a physical group in order to advance and I don’t understand what I’m not doing correctly?

R. Why do you think you’re not advancing enough?

S. I feel like I’m stuck but the heart, it opens to everyone but I feel like I need physical contact, that it would add something more, I feel stuck, stuck, for a while now, several months?

R. Do you have a ten?

S. Yes! I have the French-speaking ten, French One, and they’re great friends!

R. Okay?

S. I’m sorry, I don’t know if I’m explaining myself correctly, but I can’t, it’s as if I can’t truly open the heart in my ten.

R. So that is already a different question, sometimes it’s very difficult for a person to enter a ten,  sometimes when he enters the ten, comes to the ten and wants to connect with them, it is like they are not willing to accept him and there are all sorts of such cases. After the Congress write to me and we will see.

37. S. (02:03:28) I only want to answer, if I may, answer the friend who was my teacher with my instructor. I feel that I’m connected to you even though I’m not in the same ten as you. You were for me an amazing instructor and we are together, we are connected, I just wanted to tell you that, I love you.

38. S. (02:04:25) What is the difference between ‘an open heart’ and ‘a closed heart’?

R. ‘An open heart’ is that he can feel the others and ‘the closed heart’ only feels himself.

S. Can I notice that the friend has ‘a closed heart’, can I detect it?

R. That’s not so simple to talk about the other, about yourself, yes it’s possible; if I very much want to feel the friend and I cannot, I’m incapable, what can I do? So my heart is closed, yes; if I can cry when the friend is not well and be happy when he is well, then my heart is open.

S. And when the heart opens, does it stay this way, or is it it’s nature to always close up again?

R. It closes itself and opens itself according to man’s work, to the extent of man’s efforts.

39. S. (02:06:43) I would like to thank the Creator for gathering us here, for giving me, you, giving me the ten, and great friends! The Creator revealed Himself through them, this is my great gratitude for Him being Good and doing good and loving. For not leaving me or for letting me feel the love and concern and everything that He gives, thank you very much!

40. S. (02:08:52) thank you very much dear teacher, friends, we are greeting the Congress! how do we build the screen?

R. Connect between you, all listen to what is happening all the time and what’s coming to you from the Creator, and then you will reveal all this between you.

41. S. (02:09:46) We gathered, not so many in Latvia but the feeling is that the friends made huge efforts for the whole world to gather. We feel as though we are in one hall, the whole world. I wanted to ask despite all the efforts the friends made it was very difficult to gather. There were many disturbances but once we’ve gathered we’re beginning to feel such joy, such elation. It seems to me as I feel this lightness and this good spirit, good mood there’s even a desire to crack jokes, to raise people’s spirits. Even humor comes in. I wanted to ask how can we keep it in the direction so it doesn’t become frivolity? How do we maintain focus, how do we maintain the depth? What do we do in these situations when there’s a desire to not take everything so seriously? The friends are enjoying and you’re enjoying. How do we use this lightness? This is what we need sometimes, we don’t always have to be so serious and somber. Maybe within us this is the exit from ourselves to some light-headedness and this joy and happiness – that’s the question.

R. Make the effort to aim your states towards the Creator, to connect them with the Creator, to feel the Creator inside you, inside the connection between you. Then it will be clear to you if you are advancing seriously or not so much. The main thing is to correct the heart, to open it more and more widely towards all the friends that they will all enter inside my heart. Everyone can find room there, all the worlds, everyone, everything, all of the creation including the Creator. That is what we must understand, to depict to ourselves, to draw to ourselves, to reveal in ourselves and then we will succeed.

42. S. (01:13:07) Toward the end of the lesson I wanted to ask and in continuation to those moving hearts how do we maintain focus, concentration during the break? We have an hours break before the meal right now after the lesson because we have to get organized here in the hall. So we have an hours break, there’s is an area over there for the recreation. What do we need to focus on in order to expand the hearts, what would you do during the break in order to let everyone into your heart?

R. I don’t know I don’t know what more to do to get closer to one another. Manipulate your heart towards the friends. If we were already now capable of reaching one heart in one percent, in that percent we would reveal the Creator inside us and thus we would already advance in revelation of the Creator. In one percent but at least it’s something. We need to yearn for that and to make the effort to reach it.

43. S. (02:15:15) I always heard that when we open the heart the revelation of the Creator happens from the individual to the collective. In other words, first we feel one friend, then the ten, then the world Kli. So my question is, is there an opposite way, a reverse way from the collective to the individual, can this happen?

R. To feel everything immediately?

S. The whole world and then come to the individual.

R. No, you just don’t have that vessel, you don’t have that possibility.

44. S. (02:16:26) We have to finish.

R. To finish?

S. Yes, we have announcements and to present new books.

R. So let’s hope that our artists will play something nice.

S. Sure they’ll do it but before they do I would like to introduce two new books. The first book Is this book, a very, very moving book. Two books in Hebrew, the first one is called Shamati, I heard in the heart. What is Shamati in the heart? It is a book with selected excerpts from Shamati and Rav’s most updated explanations from recent lessons. When I came to the path we always studied Shamati in the first part of the lesson and it was just magic. It was hard to contain the power of the text of Shamati and I was just hypnotized just from the titles of the articles. You don’t understand anything and Rav opens it up. And here Rav opens it in the most updated, newest way, the most pertinent articles and the most important ones for us. So this is the book in Hebrew, Shamati in the heart. It’s in the book stand and this book I’m really excited to hold it. The friends showed it to me just before the lesson, it’s called On the Trails of Israel and I’m excited because I was waiting for such a book, I think we all waited for such a book. It puts order in the confusion of why people of Israel in light of what is happening in the identity crisis in Israel. It’s such a beautiful book, look at what it looks like inside, amazing. In short, highly recommended. I’m going to take several copies for me and for people that I want to give it to and these books are in the book stand outside, everyone knows where it is. Something more about the books, tomorrow between 7:00 and 8:00 Rav will be here and he will sign books.