READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN TUESDAY

Rabash. What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work?. 9 (1989)

LESSON MATERIAL

What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work?

Article No. 9, 1989

Our sages said (Baba Kama 60), “No calamity comes to the world unless when there are wicked in the world, but it begins with the righteous.”

We should understand why the righteous deserve calamity if the calamity should come to the wicked. Why is it the fault of the righteous?

In the work, we must first interpret what is calamity, what are “wicked” in the work, and what are “righteous” in the work. To understand all this, we must know what is “work.” Also, we should understand why we need to work in the first place, meaning what do we gain by having to work? After all, who created all the things that exist in the world? It was all done by the Creator. Thus, for what purpose did He create this world, where we must work for everything we want to acquire, whether corporeal needs or spiritual needs?

To understand all this, we first need to understand the meaning of the whole of creation, meaning for what purpose the Creator created the world. The answer to this is as our sages said, “to do good to His creations.” For this reason, He created creatures and imprinted in them a desire and yearning to receive delight and pleasure. This is called the “purpose of creation.” Since this is not in equivalence of form with the Creator, the creatures will feel shame in the delight and pleasure.

Hence, a correction was made, called “Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment,” so as to receive only with the aim to bestow. Since the lower one must make this Kli [vessel], and this is against nature, since the Creator created the creatures with a desire to receive delight and pleasure, for this reason, everything that is not natural is hard for one to do. This is called “labor.”

It therefore follows that labor does not mean that a person must exert himself. Rather, it is a result. Since it is against nature, it is hard to do this act, and this is the labor. This is so between man and the Creator, but there is the same correction between man and man, in order not to have shame, for man is afraid to eat the bread of shame.

For this reason, we were given the matter of negotiation, where the employee gives the landlord the work, and for the work, he gives him money. Naturally, there is no shame here.

Also, between man and man, the landlord’s wish is not that we would labor for him, but that we would work for him. This pertains to the product, which is the matter of swapping—the employee gives the host the produce, and in return, the host gives him money.

With a buyer and seller it is to the contrary. The seller gives the buyer the product, and the buyer gives the seller money. One way or the other, both must give. Otherwise, if one gives and the other only receives and gives nothing back, then there is disparity of form here, and the receiver feels shame.

It follows that the purpose of the labor is not the labor, but rather that in order to prevent shame, both must give. Since by nature, man is created only to receive, this is the labor. Thus, the labor is only a result and not the aim, meaning the purpose. It follows that it is not the labor that we need, but the equivalence of form. The labor comes because we do not have this by nature.

Now we can understand what are “wicked” and what are “righteous,” and why “No calamity comes to the world unless when there are wicked in the world.” In the work, “calamity” means that the delight and pleasure are not revealed, meaning that it cannot be revealed to the created beings that His desire is to do good to His creations due to the disparity of form. As long as man has no vessels of bestowal, which is called “equivalence of form,” this is the reason that detains the abundance from descending to the creatures. It follows that “wicked” is one who is remote from the Creator. Thus, in the work, “wicked” is one who is in disparity of form from the Creator, who is not in the form of “As He is merciful, so you are merciful.”

It follows that the upper abundance cannot descend to the lower ones because of the quality of “wicked” in a person, since in the work, it is considered that the person himself consists of the wicked, which are the sparks of reception. This is the meaning of “No calamity comes to the world unless when there are wicked in the world.” This means that the fact that the abundance is not coming to the world, this is considered a calamity that comes to the world due to the will to receive in man, which detains the delight and pleasure.

By this we can interpret the whole matter of the wicked who do not obey the Creator. He commanded us through Moses that we must obey the Creator, or He will punish us. We should ask about this, We can understand that a flesh and blood king, who demands respect, would punish anyone who did not obey him, but why does the Creator punish for disobeying Him? Does He need honors and to receive respect from the created beings? And if He is not respected, is He offended?

It is like a person walking into a henhouse and giving them orders, and they do not obey him. Can it be said that the person is offended by them? It is much more so with regard to the creatures and the Creator. How can it be said that the Creator is offended by the creatures when they do not obey Him, and that for this reason, He sends them calamities?

However, we should believe that the whole matter of the Creator’s vengeance is not for the sake of the Creator, but for the sake of the creatures. That is, the punishments they suffer bring them to be rewarded with the delight and pleasure, which is the will of the Creator that the creatures will receive from Him.

This means that the suffering brings the creatures to take upon themselves the matter of bestowal, for only they are the real Kelim [vessels] that can receive the upper abundance that the Creator wants to give them. This is the meaning of what is written, “No calamity comes to the world unless when there are wicked in the world.” For this reason, they suffer. That is, everything they do in the work gives them a bitter taste, since they have no vessels of bestowal, for only in them do the delight and pleasure shine. It follows that the wicked, who are the reception within man, prevent the reception of the good.

It is as Nahmanides said (presented in The Study of the Ten Sefirot, Part 1, Item 1), “There is a difference between ‘One,’ ‘Unique,’ and ‘Unified.’ Interpretation: ‘Uniting to act with One Force,’ when He works to bestow, as is fitting of His Oneness. When He divides to do His work, and His operations are different from one another, and He seems to be doing good and bad, then He is called ‘Unique,’ since all His different operations have a single outcome: to do good. It follows that He is unique in every single act.”

It is as we interpreted, that the matter of “calamity that comes” is not a matter of vengeance by the Creator for not obeying Him. Rather, it is that He wants us to obey Him and observe the Torah and Mitzvot for the sake of the creatures, and not for the sake of the Creator, since He has no deficiency whatsoever for which He needs something for Himself.

All He wants from the lower ones is that they will receive delight and pleasure without any unpleasantness, but that the pleasure will be utterly complete. If there were shame while receiving the pleasure, there would be no wholeness in the pleasure. It follows that the calamity that the wicked feel is for their own good, as this will induce the correction of their actions.

However, we must know the meaning of correcting the actions in the work. It is that on each and every act we do we must place an intention. The intention is that with this act, we want to bring contentment to our Maker. By this we will achieve Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator. When doing the act, it must not have an aim to benefit himself, but all of his concerns should be how to please the Creator.

These people, who want to walk on the path of bestowal, are called “righteous.” That is, although they still have not achieved the degree where their whole intention is to bestow, they want to achieve it. They are regarded as “walking on the path of the righteous,” meaning to achieve the degree of “righteous.” They are named after its end.

But those who work like the general public, who are not concerned with the intention, to achieve the degree of “righteous,” we do not speak of them in the work on the path of truth. Rather, they belong to the work on actions. Their intention in Torah and Mitzvot is as Maimonides wrote, that “they are taught in order to receive reward.” Only those who have already understood that we must work for the sake of the Creator are regarded in the work as walking toward achieving the path of truth.

Although they have not reached it, Maimonides says to them, “They are shown that secret bit by bit.” And what is the secret that is forbidden to reveal “to little ones, women, and uneducated people”? The secret that the act alone is not enough, but there must also be an intention to bestow and not receive reward. Rather, his whole pleasure is in his ability to serve the Creator. This is his reward, and to him, it is worth a fortune. This is why they do not need anything else in return for their work, but the fact that they are serving the King is their entire pleasure, and this is what they expect.

Now we can interpret what we asked, If the calamity comes to the world because of the wicked, why does it begin with the righteous? The answer is that the righteous in the work are those who want to walk on the path of truth. Although they have not reached it, they are walking on that line. Hence, we must know that this calamity is that they feel the taste of dust in Torah and Mitzvot. Where they should have felt that “They are our lives and the length of our days,” they feel a bitter taste.

They ask themselves, But the purpose of the creation of the world was to do good to His creations, so where is it? We see the opposite! We should feel sweetness in the work when we are serving the King without asking for any return, but we see that the body objects to it. This causes them to understand that this entire lack is because the King is a lowly king, and has no importance.

Otherwise, they should have felt the importance of the King and would have annulled before Him, since we see that inherently, it is a great privilege for the small one to serve the great, and we have no work annulling before the great. Why, then, do we not see this with regard to the Creator? We must say about this that the Creator, who is the King of the world, we do not believe in His greatness. On the contrary! In The Zohar, this is called “Shechina [Divinity] in exile” or “Shechina in the dust.”

Thus, all we need is faith that the Creator is a great and important King. It follows that specifically among those people who are called “righteous,” who want to be righteous and serve the Creator without any return, they see and feel the bad in them. That is, they feel the calamity that they are unable to receive delight and pleasure because of the wicked within them. It is simply that they feel that they are wicked, that they are lacking faith that the Creator is a great and important King, and you have no greater wicked than this. They simply see that they are lacking faith in the Creator. It follows that when are the wicked in a person revealed? Precisely when one wants to be righteous.

By this we should interpret what is written, “but it begins with the righteous.” “Begins with the righteous” means that the calamity begins to be apparent and felt from the beginning, meaning as soon as one begins to shift from the work of the general public to the work of individuals, for the work of individuals is called “the path of the righteous.”

For this reason, our sages imply that immediately, as soon as one wants to work in order to bestow, the calamity appears in a person—that he feels that he is far from faith in the Creator, and therefore far from receiving the delight and pleasure that He wishes to impart upon His creations. In such states, a person sees in himself descents and ascents. Thus, the meaning of “but it begins with the righteous,” is that “begins” means when he begins to enter the path of the righteous.

But those who work like the general public do not feel that they are placed under the control of the evil. They do not see that they are lacking faith in the Creator. On the contrary, they know that they have so much faith that they could give to others. They even preach to others why they are not walking on the upright path, so they would understand that what matters is spirituality and not corporeality.

When these people hear their words, they think that the admonition they are giving them, that we must do everything for the sake of the Creator, they must know what “for the sake of the Creator” means, for otherwise they would not preach. But in truth, they do not even know what is to bestow, for bestowal is against nature, and when a person sees how difficult it is to prevail and engage in the work of bestowal, how can he rebuke another? He sees that he is lacking faith, to believe that the Creator is a great King, since by nature, the small can serve the great without any reward.

But when people from the general public say that we must work for the sake of the Creator, they do not even know the meaning of the words, except what they heard when they were taught. They did not understand what they had heard, but they continue this slogan because in them, the evil is only as a hairsbreadth, as our sages said, “To the wicked, it seems like a hairsbreadth, and to the righteous, like a high mountain.”

This is so because there is a correction that a person will not see more bad than he can correct. For this reason, “wicked” in the work are those who have no need to work for the sake of the Creator, but engage in Torah and Mitzvot for their own sake. Therefore, the bad in them, which is the will to receive for oneself, is apparent in them as bad. This is regarded as the evil inclination being as a hairsbreadth.

But the righteous—who want to walk on the path of bestowal and begin to correct the will to receive—see each time that the bad in them appears to a greater extent until it becomes in them like “a high mountain.” Therefore, they cannot lecture others because they are busy asking for faith in the Creator for themselves. This explains what our sages said, “No calamity comes to the world unless when there are wicked in the world, but it begins with the righteous.”

LESSON

Morning Lesson October 15, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 9, (1989). What Is, “Calamity that Comes upon the Wicked Begins with the Righteous,” in the Work?

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, it’s really interesting if the calamity comes to the wicked in order to correct them then why does it begin from the righteous? Let’s see.

Reading Article. (00:56) “Our sages said, “No calamity comes to the world..”

2. S. (30:28) The quality of bestowal or to delight to His created beings, it seems like something very far away but in every such state to delight the Creator, I think this is accessible to us. We have it in our hands, so through such actions we eventually do build the final state?

R. At the very least, we begin from these actions.

S. But this is truly accessible to us, right, in every given moment, we can avoid shame?

R. To the extent that we are able to get away from ourselves and get closer to the friends, to that extent we can truly bring contentment to the Creator.

S. Such conscious actions are the ones that build in us the quality that we aspire to?

R. Exactly that.

3. S. (31:38) What is the thing that hinders us the most from discovering the evil in us?

R. The thing that prevents us from discovering the evil in us is our ego. It always tells us that we are okay. There is no more.

S. When does the change occur?

R. When you want it to occur and when you persist in that, then it happens.

S. There are many times that I want something, but I don’t achieve it. How do I succeed in everything that I want on the path?

R. It depends on what you want and how you insist on it in order to receive what you want. You understand there needs to be a very strong desire here – that you wish to come out of your ego and work for the sake of others.

4. S. (32:52) What does the righteous do with this anger – this evil – that he sees before him? How should we work with it?

R. He tries to destroy this evil, meaning to transform it to good, to overcome it. What else can he do?

S. It also says that he doesn’t preach to others?

R. I don’t understand what kind of translation you are getting there.

S. He doesn’t condemn the wicked. He doesn’t see them as lower than himself?

R. Righteous and wicked are in a single person. Therefore, he wants to kill the wicked within him or at least lower it and the opposite with the righteous – raise it, increase it, above the wicked in such a way that he will get closer to the Creator. The righteous and the wicked are within a single person – each and every one of us – and it’s up to us how we relate to them.

S. Can we say that if a person changes his perception from reception to bestowal he will also be able to justify the war that he sees?

R. Of course.

S. What is the essence of the war? It brings us to connection?

R. Yes.

5. S. (35:00) What is a calamity exactly?

R. A calamity means the rule of the ego in the world, that’s called calamity.

S. Who perceives the calamity?

R. Man, the human, the calamity comes into the world in order for man to think about what can he do, how to correct himself so that the calamity will go away, will disappear from the world.

S. Does everybody perceive the calamity if you are righteous or not righteous?

R. On the way towards correction, it certainly comes and helps man correct himself.

6. S. (36:28) Rabash describes it in the article as a very logical mechanism. The moment that the yearning towards bestowal begins to appear in a person – the quality of the righteous – to the same extent, a person begins to discover how far away he is from the Creator because he discovers within himself all the evil, all the problems, from here comes the question. It is also written that the wicked – the quality of the wicked – is what operates or moves all the evil in the world. As much as a person sees that he’s far away, so I am a little bit confused here. It says here that all the time a person tries to be or aspires to be a righteous, and he sees also the evil within him, so what is the matter of wicked here even?

R. Righteous and wicked can’t exist on their own they constantly complement each other so that man feels himself as wicked, corrects something in himself, and then opposite those qualities that he corrected, he feels himself as righteous, but in principle, all of this changes from here to there, righteous or wicked, righteous or wicked, and this is how one rises: left, right, left foot, right foot. That’s how we advance.

S. How suddenly the quality of the wicked is replaced by the quality of the righteous?

R. A new egoistic desire is awakened, not corrected yet, and it turns out that it becomes wicked.

S. Where does the quality of the righteous disappear? If I understand correctly, the righteous appears, and then a person starts to work with him all the way to the end. How come suddenly the righteous disappears and is replaced by the wicked?

R. So that man will work and correct all of his qualities. So that all the evil inclination, which the Creator refers to saying in the beginning of creation, “I created the evil inclination,” that it will ultimately become corrected by man, more accurately by the Creator but the request, the demand of man to have the good inclination, thus, all the bad will turn to good.

S. In the article, it turns out that the person works with the quality in the quality of the righteous he begins to discover the evil in him until this evil becomes a high mountain, so it turns out that the moment he becomes wicked then the high mountain becomes a hairsbreadth or did I not understand correctly?

R. No, no, wait with that a bit.

7. S. (40:28) Can the righteous cancel the evil decree by his efforts?

R. Yes, the righteous can cancel all the decrees, and then instead of bad, we will see good.

8. S. (41:00) From the article, it seems that faith distinguishes the righteous from the wicked. How can we foster greater faith in our ten?

R. Only by transcending the will to receive. Faith is the quality of bestowal, and if the Creator elevates in us the will to receive, it is so that against it, we will demand the desire to bestow and that is how we rise in degrees of faith further and further.

9. S. (42:15) He writes that the suffering brings the created beings to take upon themselves the matter of bestowal since these are the only true vessels that are capable of receiving the upper abundance which the Creator wants to give them. Can you explain again why suffering brings a person the quality of bestowal?

R. Suffering pushes the person forward to look for instead of the quality of reception where he feels suffering, towards the quality of bestowal and that is how he is advancing.

S. We need to reach a different kind of suffering, right? Torments of love?

R. That’s afterwards. In the meantime, we have no connection to that. After we acquire somewhat of the quality of bestowal, then we come to the quality of love and correspondingly begin to receive suffering of love.

S. It means that, in the time being, we shouldn’t be in some illusion that we actually enjoy suffering. Suffering is something bad, unpleasant?

R. Yes.

10. S. (44:00) It says because it is against nature, therefore it is difficult to perform this act and this is the labor. This is between man and the Creator. Likewise, the same correction exists between man and his friend so that there will not be shame. It says here that there’s labor between man and the Creator and between man and man, and with his friend, it’s clear, but what is the labor – the exertion – between man and the Creator?

R. That he always raises the Creator in his eyes to a higher and higher degree.

11. S. (44:50) It says that all of the work is to be with the intention that with this act he wants to give contentment to his Maker. What gives contentment to the Creator?

R. It’s that we connect between us and ask Him in a common prayer to raise us to Him, closer to Him.

S. This is in the actions that we do in the ten – efforts that we make in the ten. What about the things that we do outside of the ten? What gives Him contentment?

R. If you are not in the ten, you don’t bring Him contentment.

S. I mean our corporeal actions in the moments that we’re not really in the connection, in the lesson, or in the daily meetings but rather in those other moments?

R. Still, you have to imagine yourself that you are connected with them. You can’t reach the Creator if you don’t reach connection with the friends. Between you and the Creator: on the way stands the group, if you connect to it, then you open your path towards the Creator because the Creator hides Himself behind the friends.

S. This is when we meet in the lesson or in meetings but then I go to work, I go shopping, and I am with the kids. How do I give contentment to the Creator then?

R. So you’re always maintaining connection with Him anyway. It doesn’t matter where you are – buying food or at work, whatever.

S. But, then I’m seemingly without the ten?

R. You need to be physically with the ten or emotionally?

S. That’s my question?

R. That’s not a question.

S. What’s the answer?

R. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting next to them or like now you are each sitting in your homes. You still have to envision yourselves being together “as one man in one heart.”

S. It says I have always seen the Creator before me. I should only think that I have seen the ten with me everywhere I am?

R. Of course because the Creator becomes revealed only in a ten.

12. S. (47:44) What does it mean that a person walks on the path of truth which means to serve the King?

R. That he always wants to get closer and closer to his friends and through his friends get closer to the Creator and thus, go together with them – he, the ten, and the Creator as one. By that, he comes closer to the purpose of creation – that we’ll all be together as one.

S. How can a person shift from being wicked to being righteous?

R. That all depends on how much he appreciates the spiritual work as opposed to all kinds of corporeal states.

13. S. (49:05) Is it correct to say that the difference between wicked and righteous is that the righteous is aware that he is wicked?

R. Yes, it is all in a single person – both the righteous and the wicked.

S. So the difference is the awareness?

R. Yes.

S. If I understand correctly, this is the reason that the righteous, who knows there’s another option, is more harmful – he causes greater calamity than the wicked himself? Is that correct?

R. It’s not two people – it’s a single person.

S. Yes, I understand but let’s say the righteous one is aware that he’s wicked and the wicked is not aware of it. Why do they say that the righteous one – that calamity begins with the righteous? It comes because of the wicked, but it begins with the righteous because the righteous, they know there is another option and they don’t choose the right option still?

R. Let’s say.

S. What does it mean that calamity comes because of the wicked but it begins with the righteous?

R. Because still in the connection between the created beings, there is evil inclination, so they discover that the Creator allows them to reveal that.

S. Who are they?

R. The people who are at the moment are considered wicked.

S. They do discover that they’re wicked? I don’t understand?

R. Because you’re not listening.

14. S. (50:55) Can we draw the evil that we see in the world into the ten and correct it?

R. We don’t need to reveal the evil in the world and attract them to us. We have to first correct ourselves, meaning all of the lack of connection between us in the ten, that is what we have to correct first, otherwise how will we correct what’s happening in the world?

S. Maybe I can ask from the opposite direction. The connection that we discover that we reveal in the ten, can it cover the evil that we see in the world, even if we ourselves do not experience it?

R. No, no. There is evil in the ten and there’s evil that we see in the world. Of course they’re interdependent, but it’s not that one covers the other.

S. How do we correct such high levels of evil?

R. Gradually.

15. S. (52:22) It says that the wicked one in the person lectures his friends so that they will correct themselves while the righteous doesn’t lecture others but rather he asks for faith in the Creator. Why is that so?

R. Because we usually don’t tell each other what you need to do. Rather, we set an example. We give an example of what we do, and to the extent that it influences the other, that’s how it passes from one to the other.

16. S. (53:10) It says that you have no greater wicked than those who see simply that they lack faith in the Creator. All of that, when the wicked ones are revealed in the person is specifically when they want to be righteous, so according to the article, the calculation within spirituality is not with the exit you’re doing in corporeality but with the intentions of wicked versus righteous in the person. Still, what about the calculation with everything we do between us in corporeality in order to come closer to each other and all the way to evil deeds of a person who harms other people?

R. To the extent that it enters a spiritual calculation, it enters it. We still don’t feel where that boundary is.

S. Is there any calculation with ordinary people who do not study Kabbalah and they do such harsh things that we see?

R. No, it’s not a spiritual calculation there.

17. S. (54:28) Ultimately it sounds that the righteous always discovers that he’s wicked, so what is he asking for faith? What is that faith he’s asking for?

R. By discovering that he is wicked, he’s giving the possibility more and more to rise and get closer to the Creator, and through the revelation of the wicked in him he becomes more righteous.

S. But that request, ultimately, you see how much you’re only asking for yourself. How do you change the request from yourself to the ten, to the others as a whole?

R. This depends on what happened before. Where you discover that you’re wicked. You see.

S. How do I scrutinize where I am wicked?

R. Check what is revealed to you.

18. S. (55:42) What is the high mountain that the righteous reveal?

R. It is those same qualities that they still did not transform to in order to bestow.

S. How do the righteous cope with this high mountain that seems so great to them?

R. They try to climb on top of this high mountain, meaning they try to acquire all the qualities – the bad qualities – in order to transform them to good qualities.

19. S. (56:44) Who is the righteous that will change the decree?

R. It is a person who sees how much he is in the evil inclination and how much he wants to invert it to the good inclination, and he asks – he turns to the Creator through all of the friends and he truly compels the Creator to correct him. This is called “My sons have defeated Me.”

S. Is there such a person among us?

R. We will see.

20. S. (57:33) Is there a difference between what the righteous feels – the sense of burden as what the righteous feels and what the wicked one feels?

R. There is a difference of course in quality and also in quantity. We need to feel both this and that and then we can compare.

21. S. (58:12) It says here at the end that there is a correction that man will not see the evil more than what is worthy of correcting. When it happens to the individual, it’s quite fast, but when we come to revealing the evil in the ten, it becomes a big mountain and it seems different from individual work.

R. Yes, so what is the question?

S. How can we make it so that the correction we do in the ten of lack of connection, that it won’t take us months – that we will focus on this work together immediately?

R. It depends on you. Why are you asking me? Let’s hope that you will realize that everything depends on the connection between you, as much as you are bonded, and then it will happen.

22. S. (59:40) You answer everyone’s question before us. You leave us to the last, and I’m sure it’s our fault, but we feel it. You ask everyone before us – everyone, everyone in the world, so here’s my question. Rabash says that the Creator wants us to have the most pleasure and the most delight and yet we suffer a lot and we blame ourselves. We blame ourselves and then we learn that it is the Creator sending us this. It’s the Creator making us feel this way. My question is: Why is the Creator so cruel to us? Why is it so difficult? Why does He torture us so much?

R. I don’t know what to tell you but apparently you need to connect between you and turn to Him and try to receive an answer. You have complaints – both about me and about Bnei Baruch and about why you’re not getting permission to ask for earlier and also towards the Creator. Well, what am I to do? You need to learn more and more to know what pertains to the Creator, what pertains to the created being, what kind of the connection they have between them, how to awaken this connection, what does it depend on, and then you will see that it doesn’t depend on the management of Bnei Baruch or me but rather only on you and the Creator and then you will turn to Him with these complaints.

23. S. (01:02:12) A person who studies true sources with a true teacher always reveals more and more that the picture of the world he sees is only a reflection of inner states inside of him.

R. Yes.

S. Good and bad and so forth. But each one is individually different from others. How is it possible that all of us, including those who are not studying, are seeing the same picture?

R. Are you trying to take me to physics, to the perception of reality?

S. It’s part of it.

R. We, all of us, exist in qualities and emotions and perceptions that are similar. Nevertheless there are differences between each and everyone but there’s also something which is common between everyone. This is why we see the world before us. We feel ourselves also as similar to each other and we have what to talk about because each one, behind each and every word, there is a special concept that awakens and we can talk about these concepts.

S. Can we say that for me, for instance, the picture that I see is also true. It shows me who I am basically?

R. Relatively, relatively. What is your present state with respect to the correction?

24. S. (01:04:35) You said to Tel Aviv that the connection in the ten doesn’t correct the evil that is revealed in the world – that the evil we see in the world is gradually becoming corrected. What can we do nevertheless so that the evil that becomes revealed now in Israel, at least with respect to people on the outside, would be more in mercy?

R. That we will relate to each other more closely with Hassadim. That is all, that is all.

25. S. (01:05:41) Do I understand correctly that these definitions of righteous and wicked become real only after the crossing of the barrier and until then we’re just sort of establishing some images of that but..?

R. Yes, possibly.

S. Sorry, but I don’t clothe it onto myself, it’s something abstract. I’m talking about some future states.

R. Yes.

26. S. (01:06:35) How will we turn any bad and harmful to good and useful as Baal HaSulam writes?

R. By overcoming, growing stronger in the connection between us.

27. S. (01:07:01) How do we reach a corrected reality?

R. Be closer to your friends. That’s it.

28. S. (01:07:33) What is the direct attitude to establish or to remember between the external evils that unfold and the inner evils at work with regards to this work?

R. We will learn that.

29. S. (01:08:11) This article states that he feels he is far in faith from the Creator and therefore far from receiving the delight and pleasure that He wishes to impart upon His creations. The question is, is this distance a feeling that we should pray for to know how much correction we need to do?

R. I didn’t understand.

S. Should a person want to have a feeling of his distance from faith so he knows how much more work he has to do?

R. No, he can’t know that. He should only overcome what he sees before him.

30. S. (01:09:15) He says here that the work begins when the person moves from the work of the whole, the majority, to the work of the individual. What is this with regards to us, to our work – to move from the majority to the work of the individual?

R. We constantly work this way and then the opposite way because we constantly need to see how do we connect more and more in the form of the general public and then in the form of the individual. Soon we will have more complex work between the entire world vessel and the individual vessel and a person will have to operate both in this and in that.

S. Just about that point based according to what he says, when a person is still working on the work of the majority, it’s like a hairsbreadth. He doesn’t even feel the wicked and certainly not the righteous part. But when he comes to the decision to work in order to bestow, which is the goal, then the big gap begins to appear, the evil within the wicked and he also begins to be called a righteous because he wants to be called a righteous. So where is that stage in our work?

R. It is still ahead of us, we don’t feel it yet, we don’t feel it yet. You’re asking about a stage which is way ahead of us.

31. S. (01:11:19) When we have complaints about the Creator, when we have complaints about the teacher, Bnei Baruch, it seems to me like this is a great revelation of the evil that has appeared. What do we do to turn this evil into good, could you explain it to us?

R. It is only through connection that we draw, invite the reforming light from above and then when it shines we invert from bad to good.

S. Yes, because sometimes, especially new students sometimes get confused about this and it’s always important for us to pray when this type of evil states appear – because it’s actually for connection and the only way to pray about it is to actually connect to the friends and then use it as a means for connection and for correction.

R. Yes, yes, I agree with you.