TUESDAY PRAYER: GEVURAH-TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN TUESDAY
Lesson on the topic of “Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him”
LESSON MATERIAL
Reinforcing Ourselves with There Is None Else Besides Him
1. Baal HaSulam. Shamati 1. There is None Else Besides Him
It is written, “There is none else besides Him.” This means that there is no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him. And what one sees, that there are things in the world that deny the upper household, the reason is that this is His will.
This is deemed a correction called “the left rejects and the right pulls closer,” meaning that what the left rejects is considered a correction. This means that there are things in the world that, to begin with, aim to divert a person from the right way, and by which he is rejected from Kedusha [holiness].
The benefit from the rejections is that through them a person receives a complete need and desire for the Creator to help him since he sees that otherwise he is lost.
2. Zohar for All, Introduction to The Book of Zohar, “On the Night of the Bride”, No. 138
It is a law that the creature cannot receive disclosed evil from the Creator, for it is a flaw in the glory of the Creator for the creature to perceive Him as an evildoer, for this is unbecoming of the complete Operator. Hence, when one feels bad, denial of the Creator’s guidance lies upon him and the superior Operator is concealed from him to that same extent. This is the greatest punishment in the world.
Thus, the sensation of good and evil in relation to His guidance brings with it the sensation of reward and punishment, for one who exerts to not part from faith in the Creator is rewarded even when he tastes a bad taste in Providence. And if he does not exert, he will have a punishment because he is separated from faith in the Creator.
3. Baal HaSulam, Letter 18
One has no choice but to direct all the present and future moments to be offered and presented to His great name. One who rejects a moment before Him for it is difficult displays his folly openly, for all the worlds and all the times are not worthwhile for him because the light of His face is not clothed in the changing times and occasions although one’s work certainly changes because of them. This is why thanks to our holy fathers, faith and confidence above reason have been prepared for us, which one uses in the tougher times effortlessly and tirelessly.
4. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 18
First thing in the morning, when he rises from his sleep, he should sanctify the first moment with Dvekut with Him, pour out his heart to the Creator to keep him throughout the twenty-four hours of the day so that no idle thought will come into his mind, and he will not consider it impossible or above nature.
Indeed, it is the image of nature that makes an iron partition, and one should cancel nature’s partitions that he feels. Rather, first he must believe that nature’s partitions do not cut off from Him. Afterward, he should pray from the bottom of his heart, even for something that is above his natural desire.
Understand this always, even when forms that are not of Kedusha [holiness] traverse you, and they will instantly stop when you remember. See that you pour out your heart that henceforth the Creator will save you from cessations of Dvekut with Him. Gradually, your heart will grow accustomed to the Creator and will yearn to adhere to Him in truth, and the Lord’s desire will succeed by you.
5. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 18
One who assumes the complete burden of the kingdom of heaven finds no labor in the work of the Creator, and can therefore adhere to the Creator day and night, in light and in darkness. The Geshem [“rain,” but also “corporeality”]—which is created in coming and going, changes and exchanges—will not stop him since the Keter, which is Ein Sof, illuminates to all completely equally. The fool—who walks under a flood of preventions that pour on him from before and from behind—says to all that he does not feel the cessation and the lack of Dvekut [adhesion] as a corruption or iniquity on his part.
Had he sensed it, he would certainly have strained to find some tactic to at least be saved from the cessation of Dvekut, whether more or less. This tactic has never been denied of anyone who sought it, either as in “the thought of faith” or as in “confidence,” or as in “pleas of his prayer,” which are suitable for a person specifically in the narrow and pressured places, for even a thief in hiding calls on the Creator.
6. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article 138, “Concerning Fear that Sometimes Comes Upon a Person”
When fear comes upon a person, he should know that there is none else but Him. And even witchcraft. And if he sees that fear overcomes him, he should say that there is no such thing as chance, but the Creator has given him a chance from above, and he must contemplate and study the end to which he has been sent this fear. It appears that it is so that he will overcome and say, “There is none else besides Him.”
But if after all this, the fear has not departed him, he should take it as an example and say that his servitude of the Creator should be in the same measure of the fear, meaning that the fear of heaven, which is a merit, should be in the same manner of fear that he now has. That is, the body is impressed by this superficial fear, and exactly in the same way that the body is impressed, so should be the fear of heaven.
7. RABASH, Article No. 6 (1990), “When Should One Use Pride in the Work”
A person should pay attention to this and believe that the Creator is tending to him and guides him on the track that leads to the King’s palace. It follows that he should be happy that the Creator is watching over him and gives him the descents, as well. That is, a person should believe, as much as he can understand, that the Creator is giving him the ascents, since certainly, a person cannot say that he himself receives the ascents, but that the Creator wants to bring him closer; this is why He gives him the ascents.
Also, a person should believe that the Creator gives him the descents, as well, because He wants to bring him closer. Therefore, every single thing that he can do, he must do as though he is in a state of ascent. Therefore, when he overcomes a little during the descent, it is called an “awakening from below.” Each act that he does, he believes that it is the Creator’s will, and by this itself he is rewarded with greater nearing, meaning that the person himself begins to feel that the Creator has brought him closer.
8. RABASH, Article 19 (1990), Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work – 2
One must believe as was said above, that “there is none else besides Him,” meaning that it is the Creator who compels him to do the good deeds, but since he is still unworthy of knowing that it is the Creator who commits him, the Creator dresses Himself in dresses of flesh and blood, through which the Creator performs these actions. Thus, the Creator acts in the form of Achoraim [posterior].
In other words, the person sees people’s faces but he should believe that behind the faces stands the Creator and performs these actions. That is, behind the man stands the Creator and compels him to do the deeds that the Creator wants. It follows that the Creator does everything, but the person regards what he sees and not what he should believe.
9. RABASH, Article No.19 (1990), Why Is the Torah Called “Middle Line” in the Work – 2
One must believe that he did this because the Creator commanded him to observe the Mitzva, and he had to obey what the Creator commanded him to do. However, the Creator hid Himself in a clothing of Lo Lishma, such as the friends, so that through this clothing he would think that he must obey the voice of Lo Lishma.
But in truth, one must believe that it was all the Creator’s doing. Thus, after he performs the Mitzva, he should say that it was the Creator who acted behind the clothing of Lo Lishma. It follows that then one should thank the Creator for giving him the desire to observe His commandments through this clothing.
10. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 1, “There Is None Else Besides Him”
One must always try and adhere to the Creator, namely that all his thoughts will be about Him. That is to say, even if he is in the worst state, from which there cannot be a greater decline, he should not leave His domain, namely that there is another authority that prevents him from entering the Kedusha [holiness], that can bring benefit or harm.
That is, he must not think that there is a force of the Sitra Achra [other side] that does not let a person do good deeds and walk in the ways of the Creator. Rather, all is done by the Creator.
11. Zohar for All, Introduction to the Book of Zohar “Two Points” No. 121
All the many contradictions to His uniqueness, which we taste in this world, separate us from the Creator. Yet, when exerting to keep Torah and Mitzvot with love, with our soul and might, as we are commanded—to bestow contentment upon our Maker—all those forces of separation do not affect us into subtracting any of the love of the Creator with all our souls and might. Rather, in that state, every contradiction we have overcome becomes a gate for attainment of His wisdom. This is so because there is a special quality in each contradiction—revealing a special degree in attaining Him. And those worthy ones who have been rewarded with it turn darkness into light and bitter into sweet, for all the powers of separation—from the darkness of the mind and the bitterness of the body—have become to them gates for obtainment of sublime degrees. Thus, the darkness becomes a great light and the bitter becomes sweet.
Hence, to the extent that they previously had all the conducts of His guidance toward the forces of separation, now they have all been inverted into forces of unification, and sentence the entire world to the side of merit.
12. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 172, “The Matter of Preventions and Delays”
All the preventions and delays that appear before our eyes are but a form of nearing—the Creator wants to bring us closer, and all these preventions bring us only nearing, since without them we would have no possibility of approaching Him. This is so because, by nature, there is no greater distance, as we are made of pure matter while the Creator is higher than high. Only when one begins to approach does he begin to feel the distance between us. And any prevention one overcomes brings the way closer for that person.
13. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 70, “With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out”
When one overcomes all the hardships and the disturbances, one is not easily repelled, but with a mighty hand. And if one overcomes even the mighty hand and does not want to move from the place of Kedusha [holiness] whatsoever, but wants to adhere specifically to Him in truth, and sees that he is repelled, then one says that fury is poured out on him. Otherwise, he would be allowed inside. But because fury is poured out on him by the Creator, he is not admitted into the King’s palace to adhere to Him.
It follows that before one wants to move from one’s place, and breaks in and wants to enter, it cannot be said that he feels that fury is poured out on him. Rather, after all the rejections that he is rejected, and he does not move from his place, meaning when the mighty hand and the fury poured out have already been revealed upon him, then “I will be King over you” comes true. This is so because only through bursting and great efforts does the kingdom of heaven become revealed to him, and he is rewarded with entering the King’s palace.
14. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 52
When a person introspects and feels his poor state, he awakens to return to the Creator and pours out his prayer in great longing to adhere to the Creator. He thinks that all those prayers and all that awakening are by his own power. He sits and awaits the Creator’s salvation, small or great. When time passes and he sees no sign of welcome from the Creator, he falls into despair because the Creator does not want him, since after all this longing, He did not turn to him at all.
It is written about this: “Seek the Lord while He is found.” That is, when the Creator presents Himself to you for asking, then you will necessarily seek Him, too, for it is man’s way to move first. In other words, the Creator first gives you the heart to seek Him. When you know this, you will certainly grow stronger, as strong as you can ask, for the King is calling you.
15. Rabash. Notes. 133. It Is All Corrections
“All the illnesses that I had placed on Egypt, I will not place on you, for I the Lord am your healer” (Exodus 15:26). Our sages ask, “If I do not place the illness, what is the need for a healer?” (Sanhedrin 101a). We should interpret that since I am the healer, why should I place on you an illness if I must heal the illness? What do I gain by placing an illness? It must be as a punishment, and if I must heal the illness, what kind of punishment is it? It is as though I work for nothing.
For this reason, I will not place illness upon you, and what you think is illness, you are wrong about it. Rather, all the states you feel, if you attribute them to Me, are all corrections by which you will approach Me in Dvekut [adhesion].
16. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 121, “She Is Like Merchant-Ships”
“Man shall not live on bread alone, but on what proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.” This means that the life of Kedusha [holiness] in a person does not come specifically from drawing closer, from entries, meaning admissions into Kedusha, but also from the exits, from the removals. This is so because through the dressing of the Sitra Achra in one’s body, and its claims, “She is all mine,” with a just argument, one is awarded permanent faith by overcoming these states.
This means that one should dedicate everything to the Creator, that is, that even the exits stem from Him. When he is rewarded, he sees that both the exits and the entries were all from Him.
17. RABASH, Article No. 28 (1987), “What Is Do Not Add and Do Not Take Away in the Work“
He must believe above reason and imagine that he has already been rewarded with faith in the Creator that is felt in his organs, and he sees and feels that the Creator leads the entire world as the good who does good. Although when he looks within reason he sees the opposite, he should still work above reason and it should appear to him as though he can already feel in his organs that so it really is, that the Creator leads the world as the good who does good.
Here he acquires the importance of the goal, and from here he derives life, meaning joy at being near to the Creator. Then a person can say that the Creator is good and does good.
18. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 1
Everyone believes in private Providence, but do not adhere to it at all. The reason is that an alien and foul thought … cannot be attributed to the Creator, who is the epitome of the “good who does good.” However, only to the true servants of the Creator does the knowledge of private Providence open, that He caused all the reasons that preceded it, both good and bad. Then they are adhered to private Providence, for all who are connected to the pure are pure.
Since the Guardian is united with His guarded, there is no apparent division between bad and good. They are all loved and are all clear, for they are all carriers of the vessels of the Creator, ready to glorify the revelation of His uniqueness. It is known by the senses, and to that extent, they have knowledge in the end that all the actions and the thoughts, both good and bad, are the carriers of the vessels of the Creator. He prepared them, from His mouth they emerged, and at the end of correction it will be known to all.
19. Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 8
There is a sublime purpose for all that happens in this world, and it is called “the drop of unification.” When those dwellers of clay houses go through all those terrors, through all that totality, in His pride, which is removed from them, a door opens in the walls of their hearts, which are tightly sealed by the nature of creation itself, and by this they become fit for instilling that drop of unification in their hearts. Then they are inverted like an imprinted substance, and they will evidently see that it is to the contrary—that it was precisely in those dreadful terrors that they perceive the totality, which is removed by foreign pride. There, and only there, is the Creator Himself adhered, and there He can instill them with the drop of unification.
20. Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 19, “What Is “The Creator Hates the Bodies,” in the Work”
One’s hope should be that since he cannot break free from the power of the will to receive, he is therefore in perpetual ascents and descents. Hence, he awaits the Creator, to be rewarded with the Creator opening his eyes, and to have the strength to overcome and work only for the sake of the Creator. It is as it is written, “One have I asked of the Lord; her will I seek.” “Her” means the Shechina [Divinity]. And one asks “that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”
LESSON
Morning Lesson October 8, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Growing Stronger in There Is None Else Besides Him – Selected Excerpts from the Sources.
Reading Excerpt #1 Shamati “It is written there is None Else Besides Him..” (00:12 – 03:07) Twice
1. S. (03:13) Whatever a person doesn’t ascribe to the Creator, it means that it’s the Creator rejecting, that that’s He wanted it?
R. Yes, it’s not that the Creator wishes to reject the person, He wishes to advance the person, but in order to advance him He rejects him and then the person wants to advance.
S. And what should a person do in those states?
R. Cry, pray, ask, make efforts in order to move himself forward.
2. S. (04:04) How do you strengthen yourself in None Else Besides Him?
R. You grow stronger in There is None Else Besides Him by constantly being in There’s None Else Besides Him.
S. When a person sees that the Creator is rejecting him from the path, putting all kinds of doubts in him, how can he strengthen himself?
R. If it is only the Creator there is no problem, he is nevertheless connected with the Creator except the connection might be face to face, but face to back, posterior, but nevertheless he is connected.
S. How does he connect to the Creator more in those states?
R. He tries, he tries, he asks, he prays for it, he connects the friends more, he asks from them, meaning everything available to him in order to remain connected.
S. When a person sees that he has no prayer, that he is empty, so where does he get the forces from within?
R. From his emptiness.
3. S. (05:35) So, there is no mood right now, what can I say. There was an attempt to enter here to the, through the border, and he writes that “the benefit is from the rejection that through them he will get a complete need and the desire for the Creator to help him since he sees that he lost”. Why does the Creator need to bring us to the feeling that we need Him? He is perfect so why do I have to reach a state that I will ask for His help, what’s the matter in this?
R. Because, in effect, this is the best example for you in order to understand the Creator and come closer to Him.
S. When he wants me to come closer by needing Him?
R. Yes.
S. But we learned that who can help me is the friends in the ten, so why the Creator in the middle here?
R. Do you wish to connect in the ten, to the ten?
S. That’s why we’re coming in the study, he says if you want to connect to the Creator so connect to the friends in the ten. So how suddenly the Creator’s in the middle here, and he doesn’t write that if you connect with the friends you can connect to the Creator. Why should I reach a state that I have to call the Creator that He will help me not the friend will help me, why is it written such a way?
R. Because you’re not that impressed by the Creator, but from the friend who is near you both positively and negatively, you are highly impressed.
S. He writes that There is None Else Besides Him and we learn it for so long that “there’s no other force in the world that has the ability to do anything against Him and what one sees and things in the world that deny the upper Household, the reason is this is His will”. This is deemed, well, according to what I understand, that we have to reach a state to understand that no one can help me but the Creator.
R. Correct.
S. Why do I need to reach the state that I have to understand that only the Creator can help, what is hiding there?
R. Because that’s the truth.
S. What’s the truth?
R. The truth is there’s only one force that determines for you the entire process of life.
S. So what’s happening, it is all that is happening, is all from Him?
R. Yes.
S. I understand, thank you.
R. Write it for yourself.
S. I write it but, you know you say this whole mess in Israel now, it’s all the result that we hate each other, so He is showing us now, supposedly He is showing us, ‘if you don’t connect, if you won’t be dependent, you will be hanging one next to the other, is it what happens?
R. Yes.
S. How do we better the state now?
R. Finally we change the attitude to one another.
S. In what, how?
R. That all of Israel are friends.
S. So all we have to start loving each other?
R. Yes, you continue to sit quietly, comfortably, and if, when he changes, he changes, maybe I’ll also change a little bit. But first let the situation change, the air will change, you don’t ask yourself, demand yourself to change.
S. Who do I have to change towards?
R. Towards each and everyone.
S. You always say “look don’t do the work on the outside, do it in your ten”, is it right?
R. First of all, yes.
S. What do I have to get to in the ten that it will stabilize and change, what do I have to do?
R. First of all, for you to be as one, ‘as one man in one heart’.
S. That can change the state?
R. That can change the state; only this can change.
S. So what you’re saying is that you’re not connected between you and that’s why there is trouble?
R. Correct.
S. How do we advance?
R. We advance toward connection, there is nothing else, only toward connection.
4. S. (11:14) When a person is connected to None Else Besides Him, does he get everything by inner peace or is he moved by the Creator’s actions in the world?
R. He gets excited by the actions of the Creator about, toward, the whole world, first of all toward his friends and him, but to the whole world. He understands that everything that is happening is done by the Creator.
S. But is he excited by what people are excited, people are excited by actions, what is the Kabbalistic excited from?
R. A Kabbalist is excited more from the quality of actions, people come closer, people move apart, great crowds are moving mutually, one into the other, one against the other. And the person who can see it from the outside sees how the Creator, to what extent, He, the Creator, is managing humanity, to bring it to recognize the evil in it.
S. He’s inspired by the way the Creator is working on humanity?
R. Yes, of course.
S. Just like we are practicing in the ten to feel the Creator in the ten, so the Kabbalist feels the Creator is working on all of humanity.
R. Yes.
5. S. (12:52) I wanted to ask how from an egoistic discernment of None Else Besides Him to make sure that it comes from the heart that There’s None Else Besides Him. Because in an egoistic way, I do what I want, There is None Else Besides Him and that’s it, but how to make sure it comes from the heart?
R. The forces that govern the whole world, this force spreads out and covers all of humanity and you can aim this force according to your choice, direction of adhesion, connection between people. Try to do it and you will discover that this force, to some extent, is serving your direction.
6. S. (14:06) It was said that There is None Else Besides Him and there is no other force that has an ability to work against Him, so we know that also when there was a war and Baal HaSulam opened the map of Israel and said exactly how things are about to happen?
R. I am not engaged in that, I am not engaged in that, my dear. I’m not engaged in telling the future according to maps, don’t bring such questions to me.
7. S. (14:50) It is written that “the benefit of the rejections, that through them a person receives a complete need and a desire for the Creator to help him”. In what is that true help from the Creator?
R. By giving the importance, importance of connection.
8. S. (15:17) When this mess in Israel started and the friends told me about it, I started watching the news, but there was a completely different emotion than what the friend from Africa was saying. It seemed to me like the second temple is coming down, that we are reaching the end, is that right?
R. No, calm down.
9. S. (16:06) Without complaining, how to keep Him between us, that pain, and what is that pain?
R. The pain that we’re not connected to a single body, don’t feel ourselves belonging to the same body.
10. S. (16:39) When such a state of rejection comes to man, that he is rejected from holiness, should he feel that something is wrong with him, that he has to do more? Where is the balance between None Else Besides Him and “if not for me, who is for me”?
R. A person will find it, a person will find it; in effect there is no balance rather everything is None Else Besides Him as much as I can raise him above my head.
11. S. (17:24) When the person sees things in the world that deny the guidance from Above, for instance what is happening now in the country, so eventually do we have to reach a state that we will ask the Creator to help us because otherwise we are lost. The question is: How do we reach the request to the Creator to help us and our relatives and our nation to request that He will take us out of self-love?
R. I didn’t understand?
S. Should we turn to the Creator as he writes “that the Creator will help him because otherwise he sees he’s lost”, is the request to help us and save us from what is happening now in the country or should the plea to the Creator be to save us from self-love?
R. From self-love.
S. So that’s the point that when the Creator sends things that deny His guidance from Above, that tosses out completely from None Else Besides Him, how do we come back to this point that has to help us come out of self-love and reach love between us instead of asking for save us, help our nation?
R. Because these are egoistic requests, ‘help us’, ‘save us’, ‘raise us’, and so on and so forth; these are egoistic requests.
S. So that’s the point because on one hand, He is sending things in the world that deny His guidance from Above, just toss Him out. And the person just cries out ‘help me egoistically but we want to reach a state that we are asking for help that is not egoistic. So how to come closer to that, how to help one another, focus on it?
R. Only through the help of the friends, when you speak about it together, you decide to turn to the Creator specifically with such a request. First of all, connect us, bring us into ‘as one man in one heart’ then this heart, we open it to the Creator, He enters it and fills it.
S. Sometimes it’s very difficult because there are states that friends have family that are going through all kinds of scary states?
R. That doesn’t matter, it’s not important, specifically when you are in the scariest state if you are thinking correctly we are helping them out.
S. Okay, so who has to think correctly because if I have a state in my family that, I don’t know someone in my relatives is in the dangerous place and I’m in the state that I am completely tossed from Above, so I’m not in the cry out to come out of self-love, it’s only help my family?
R. This is not good.
S. So how can I, how do we help each other?
R. So overcome this fear you have to think of There is None Else Besides Him.
S. It’s not in my forces, on my own.
R. There are my friends, right?
S. Of course.
R. Do it.
S. But if someone is in this state can they even hear about None Else Besides Him, they’re all losing it?
R. You have to because that is the remedy, that is the remedy; specifically in this way, you can turn your fate upside down.
S. So can we do it without mixing them and just to want it for them because they can’t listen right now?
R. Yes.
12. S. (21:59) Is the rejection, can it be expressed in a way that the Creator is giving a person in corporeality, something that he is drawn towards?
R. Of course.
S. Can the person understand that it doesn’t lead him to the purpose of creation but it’s a great temptation, how can a person refuse not to fall? When it happens, it happens from moving away from the sin, how can you turn it around because you can’t work on yourself and you can’t refuse it?
R. You have a group; in it make the scrutiny.
S. How to perform the scrutiny?
R. I don’t know, I have answered this so many times, if you’re asking this I simply don’t answer it.
13. S. (23:08) I feel great disappointment after the Congress because we wanted to make a change in the world for the good, why did None Else Besides Him send us these disturbing pictures, did we miss out on something in the Convention?
R. What do you think?
S. I think that we missed out on something.
R. What did we miss?
S. Connection maybe that wasn’t enough, maybe I didn’t connect enough?
R. Maybe it’s the other way around: Because we wanted to connect more intensely between us, we turned to the Creator asking to be more connected, and He showed us to what extent we are unable to do it.
S. When will these pictures already change for the good in the world, we’ve been working for so many years for something to happen?
R. You are not working for so many years, what do you think you’re working on? We need to truly try and connect between friends, the men, the women ‘as in one heart’ and to ask the Creator to correct our common heart, that’s it.
14. S. (24:57) I want to continue what the friend said earlier: I’m here in Israel, for the first time. I’m in such a situation that I hear the bombs and the alarms and you have to go to the bomb shelter. Whether you want it or not, there’s this beastly fear that just conquers you and I was so angry that I don’t want to be that beast that just pulled and just dwell on those feelings. So I called my husband and I asked him to sing songs, Bnei Baruch songs, so it’s not a question but you don’t want to remain as a beast, that we really make a correction, the work of the Kabbalists. How can we help one another not to fall into the feeling of a beast, it will happen when the bombs go off and it conquers you but how can we be above that nature, how to be above that level?
R. Give an example, give an example.
15. S. (26:39) When he writes “that the benefit of the rejections is by that the person gets a complete need for the Creator to help him”. Now in the ten we feel rejections a lot, so how in the ten are we more successful to find the benefit of the rejections?
R. When we want to connect above the rejections then you will feel the need for the help of the Creator, that is the benefit.
S. In any situation, it even reminds me of a business where you can lose money or clients don’t call you but in you in that situation you can find the benefit that you’re in. It’s like an art to constantly search for the benefits, how do we do this, how to remind each other?
R. Speak with the friends.
16. S. (27:52) I believe that you are my teacher, my Rav, you are my Rav and you know how everything is inside me, the intention, the deficiency, the feelings. And really I have a great pain, a really great pain. I want to say that there is nothing in my heart, there is no faith in there. I felt a lot of ascents and descents on the path, it’s not the first time, but now it’s like a state that I can’t explain. So we know There Is None Else besides Him and there is an impression, ascents and descents, we’re connecting, we want to draw the upper light, the mercy. But now I have no faith towards all the previous impressions, what should I do?
R. This is very good, first of all we are constantly climbing up those steps, faith, reason, faith reason, faith, knowledge, faith, knowledge. So there is no problem when something falls, when something disappears, in its place we have something we can raise and hold on to. Hence, the most important thing is the patience and to continue, even mechanically, what you did yesterday, that’s it. Faith doesn’t come out from the bottom of your heart, don’t do it from the bottom of your heart, do it automatically, do it automatically. “Tomorrow will be another day”, that’s how we teach ourselves to be like the revolution of a wheel: half of the distance is going forward and the other half is going backwards, and that’s how it moves forward in general.
S. I feel that I have no control in my body, no control in my desire, I have a fear.
R. Excellent, excellent, the Creator is trying to show you how much you are not the landlord over your body. That He is the Landlord, that He is the Host, the Manager, and if you turn to Him you can influence your body through Him.
17. S. (31:21) You answered the question. I have a similar question but the only thing I can add is, I don’t know, it’s kind of foggy, I think everybody feels it. It’s like the only thing going on in my head right now is that everybody is suffering because of the ego. I can’t even ask anything, for any help, for any connection. Where to draw this force from, where, the only thing I think about is the people who will have to join the army right now in a couple minutes and it broke my heart when I thought about this because it’s all about connection.
R. I don’t quite understand what you’re asking, everything depends on how a person accepts life, there are those who, during good times in the world, they feel themselves in a state of anxiety and disquiet. There are those who during the war and the bombing actually feel themselves quite relaxed, it all depends on a person in general. So don’t get into all kinds of states, extreme states, no, rather this shall pass and this shall pass.
S. The question was more about the ego, it’s not about what will happen, we know it’s from the Creator, we know it’s for the best because He’s the Good that does good and we can all relate to that somehow, above reason. But anyway you feel like it’s the ego that’s preventing everything, it’s the ego that’s killing everything around?
R. I think that the ego is our loyal friend, if it wasn’t for the ego we would not advance, we could not measure ourselves and measure each one relative to the friends, each one relative to the Creator, so of course there’s a problem here.
S. That’s also clear, Rav, that’s also clear.
R. Okay, good, so you need to think a little bit more.
18. S. (35:05) After the Congress we had, we felt a strong connection, happiness, closeness, we opened our hearts and came closer. What now, how to keep the happiness going, we are really on the next degree, an upper degree, all of us, and how can we give more happiness and more forces to one another, and gratitude towards the Creator?
R. Go ahead, you have the internet and start reinforcing one another, send each other words of encouragement and connect, that’s how we should all connect.
19. S. (36:20) Can we, right now, ask of the entire world Kli to think of the connection and thank the Creator for giving us this opportunity?
R. Write it down and send it to everyone.
20. S. (36:42) I didn’t understand your answer from before: How can I change my hate toward our enemies to advancement in the ten, is this correction, what is it?
R. As much as you are connected in your ten, you hurt the enemies more.
S. The war is in the ten?
R. Yes, in an opposite way.
21. S. (37:21) Aside from experience, the wisdom of experience, when you look backwards at the action of self-love..?
R. Yes?
S. When someone feels that he is being distanced, that between him and his friend instead of “a field that the Creator has blessed”, there’s a barren field. I feel the ego is blocking that, there is a bridge that the ego is blocking, what can help even as first aid?
R. You need to discern that, you need to discern about that. I am very sorry but I can’t talk anymore, I am giving you the reins and you bring the cart to 5:30!