READING: BETWEEN AFTER MIDNINGHT AND DAWN MONDAY

Rabash. What Is, “The Shechina Is a Testimony to Israel,” in the Work?. 37 (1990)

LESSON MATERIAL

What Is, “The Shechina Is a Testimony to Israel,” in the Work?

Article No. 37, 1990

The Zohar says (Pinhas, Item 491), “‘For the Leader on Shoshan Edut.’ Moses said, ‘Shoshan Edut,’ the Edut [testimony] of the Shechina [Divinity], who is called ‘Shoshan Edut’ because it is a testimony standing over us and testifying about us before the King. It is holy help for us to praise in praises. This is why it is called ‘Shoshan Edut.’ Moses said, ‘It is called ‘Shoshan Edut’ because the Shechina is a testimony to Israel, who are her organs, and she is a soul upon them. She is help from heaven, as it is written about her, ‘And you will hear the heaven.’ She is holy assistance.’”

We should understand why the Shechina is called Shoshan. What does this color [Shoshan is a rose] of the Shechina imply to us? We should also understand what it means that the Shechina testifies to us before the King. We know that Edut [testimony] should be by seeing and not by hearing. Therefore, we should understand what seeing is there here, to say that the Shechina testifies to us with respect to seeing.

It is known that we have two opposite discernments in the work of the Creator: 1) On one hand, we learn that the purpose of creation is because His desire is to do good to His creations. For this reason, He created in the creatures a desire to receive delight and pleasure, since to the extent of the yearning for something, so is the measure of the pleasure. It follows that the purpose of creation was that the creatures will enjoy the world. In other words, He created a desire to receive pleasure for the creatures to enjoy, meaning that the whole purpose was for the creatures to enjoy. 2) On the other hand, we are told that it is forbidden to receive for ourselves. That is, a person must not do something in thought, speech, or action for his own benefit. Rather, one should be concerned with doing everything for the sake of the Creator and not for his own sake, as it is truly against the purpose of creation.

The answer is that a person needs to work for the sake of the Creator not because the Creator needs that others will work for Him or to be given something. Rather, it is a correction for the creatures. It is as the ARI says, that in order to bring to light the perfection of His deeds, meaning for this act, called “to do good to His creations,” for the creatures to enjoy and so that there will be wholeness in this pleasure, meaning so they would not feel shame in this, a Tzimtzum [restriction] and concealment were placed on the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give.

Yet, this is only when they have the intention for the sake of the Creator, meaning that because the Creator enjoys His will being followed and receiving the good from Him because He wants this, this naturally removes the issue of shame that the disparity of form causes because there is a rule that every branch wants to resemble its root. As the Creator bestows, likewise, when the lower one bestows, he enjoys.

When the lower one must receive, he is ashamed. Hence, this correction was placed on the will to receive for one’s own sake, which comes from creation, that a person should place on the will to receive an intention to bestow.

However, when a person wants to observe Torah and Mitzvot [commandments/good deeds] with the intention that this will bring him a desire to do everything in order to bestow contentment upon his Maker, and since this desire contradicts human nature, which was created as a desire to receive only for one’s own benefit, so when a person says, “I want to do good deeds so that through them I will be able to aim everything for the sake of the Creator and not for myself,” the will to receive for oneself within one’s body, which is called “wicked,” yells, “What is this work for you?”

And what is the answer we should give to its question? The answer is brought in the Passover Haggadah [narrative]: “A wicked one, what does he say? ‘What is this work for you?’ For you, and not for him. And since he excluded himself from the public, he denied the most important. And you, too, blunt his teeth.”

This answer is very difficult to understand. He is asking a question; he wants to understand why we are going to cancel the will to receive, which is the desire that the Creator created. We must answer him, since he is asking according to his view, that he is correct. Thus, why did they say, “Blunt his teeth”?

Baal HaSulam said about this that since he asks, “What is this work?” meaning “Why must we work for the sake of the Creator and not for ourselves?” There is nothing to answer to this. In other words, a person is given an answer to his question so he would understand with his mind. Yet, here it is impossible to make it understand because he is asking, What will the will to receive have if he works in order to bestow? If he were to receive later, after he wants to bestow, meaning if we could say, “Bestow, and in return you will later be able to be a receiver,” that would be bestowing in order to receive. This is called Lo Lishma [not for Her sake].

Therefore, when a person wants to work Lishma [for Her sake], meaning to bestow in order to bestow, there is nothing to answer it. This is called “Blunt his teeth.” In other words, the answer is that we must go with force, meaning above reason, since within reason, the wicked is right. This is called “Blunt his teeth.” He said that a person cannot defeat the evil at once, but that this work is in ascents and descents until a person is rewarded with winning it and taking upon himself the burden of the kingdom of heaven as faith above reason.

This is why Malchut is called Shoshanah [rose] or Shoshanim [roses] or Shoshan [another name for a rose], for the name is always given after the event, since we are not rewarded with the kingdom of heaven without the matter of blunting his teeth. This is why Malchut is called Shoshanah, after the act.

It follows that the meaning of Shoshan is “Blunt his teeth,” since there is nothing to answer to his question and we have to go by force, by coercion, although the wicked one, meaning the will to receive for oneself, disagrees. This is called Hakaa [striking], meaning that he fights with himself. When a person says to his wicked one, “It is worthwhile to serve a great King and we do not need anything in return, but only because He is great and ruling, meaning because of His greatness, a person should be satisfied when serving a great King,” the wicked one says to him, “How do you want to serve a great King? Do you feel His greatness, for which you are saying that it is worthwhile to serve Him?”

In these states, a person is sometimes unable to depict to himself any greatness of the Creator. Instead, he feels the lowliness in Kedusha [holiness]. This is regarded as “Shechina [Divinity] in exile” or “Shechina in the dust.” In other words, he does not feel any importance in the King. On the contrary, depictions come to him that push him away from the work of the Creator to the point that sometimes he even wants to forget about the work of the Creator, for while he remembers that he should work for the Creator and not receive any reward for the work, but the work itself should be his goal, this can be said when a person feels a taste in the work. At that time, the taste he feels commits him to continue the work and he does not need any reward.

But what can one do if when he comes to do the holy work and says that he does not want any reward for his work, then he has no reward that will obligate him and will be the reason for which he can work, and work gladly, for afterward he will receive a great reward because he is working not in order to receive reward.

Also, he does not feel that he will be working for a great King, so how can one work without any joy? He is told to work coercively, meaning without the body’s consent. This is called “Blunt his teeth.”

But from where can one derive powers to be able to force himself to work in order to bestow? And even if he overcomes himself, he cannot do such work gladly. That is, the work he does at that time is like that of a captive person who is forced to work. Each time, he says, “Perhaps there is a way I can escape from here so I would not have to work for others?” The only joy he has then is when he looks at the clock and sees that soon he will rid himself of the work.

It follows that when the work if full of sorrow and agony from having to work for others instead of for himself, can the owner look at how his employees are working for him, crying as they work, and saying, “When will I be able to rid myself of the work?”

The person asks himself: “Does the Creator want us working for Him compulsively?”

That is, they feel that man is far from the Creator, that he does not feel the love of the Creator, meaning that during the work, that he will love the Creator. He looks at himself and does not know what happened to the person. That is, where the work is for the sake of the Creator, the person should have felt closeness to the Creator during his work, meaning to have more desire each time to draw closer to the Creator.

But now it is the complete opposite. That is, he feels each time that he is drawing farther from the Creator, that the acts he does push him away. He feels each action as though he is pushed out, meaning that he is not permitted to approach and feel the importance of Torah and Mitzvot, and to feel some flavor in these actions. On the contrary, it is as though a distance has been created between them. It seems to him as though no one can stand the other, and all his actions, which he does by force, are to him as a burden and a load. He always contemplates escaping from these states, but he has nowhere to run except by sleep, meaning that he finds flavor only in sleep.

However, at that time, the question is, Why is it really so? That is, a person should ask, Why do I deserve this? Is this the Torah and is this its reward? Is it because I began to work on the path of truth—which is to come to do the holy work so it is all for the sake of the Creator—that I am being pushed out of the holy work?

Why is it that when the work was like the general public, meaning to do good deeds, and I did not think at all about the intention for the sake of the Creator, and I relied my work entirely on the general public, who think only about actions and not about intentions, I had a good taste in the work and in the prayer? I knew that I was praying to the Creator and that He hears my prayer, and I had the strength to continue with the prayer, and I never looked, when I was praying, whether the Creator hears my prayer. That is, I had no criticism over my actions and I was certain that everything was fine.

But now that I need to rise in the degrees of holiness, since I want to work for the sake of the Creator, in order to approach the Creator, what have I now? I am only growing farther where I should have been growing closer.

The truth is that we must believe in faith in the sages and not follow what human intellect dictates, but rely completely on what the sages told us. Baal HaSulam said that a person should believe that this is so although he does not see. Yet, a person must believe that the Creator does hear the prayer, as it is written, “for You hear the prayer of every mouth.” Since a person asks the Creator to bring him closer, the Creator wants to give him real closeness, meaning to give the person the delight and pleasure that the Creator wants to give. This is called “the purpose of creation.” For this reason, the Creator prepares for him Kelim [vessels] for this, and Kelim are called “need” and “lack.”

We see that there are only three things: 1) A person understands that if he wants to be a servant of the Creator, he must be abstinent and not enjoy anything, and then he will be a servant of the Creator. That is, in return for this, he will receive reward in this world and in the next world. 2) He understands that he must achieve the degree where he can work for the sake of the Creator, meaning that all his actions will be for the sake of the Creator, and he settles for this. 3) A person must achieve the purpose of creation, which is for the creatures to receive delight and pleasure, and not that they will give, since giving—which is that we must bring contentment to the Maker—is only the correction of creation.

According to the above, we can understand what we asked, Why when a person asks the Creator to give him vessels of bestowal, he receives from above bigger vessels of reception than he had before he asked the Creator to be given vessels of bestowal?

The answer is, as we said in previous articles, that if a person receives a desire to bestow right away, meaning that he will be able to overcome the small will to receive, he would settle for this, and the will to receive within him would remain uncorrected because it would not be revealed to a person so he could ask for the strength to overcome it.

This means that the fact that a person sees, when he asks to be given the power to overcome the small will to receive, and in return for the prayer he is given a big will to receive, it is not as the person thinks, that initially, his will to receive was small, and then from above he was given a big will to receive.

Rather, it is as The Zohar says about what is written, “Or make his sin known to him.” He asked, “Who made it known to him?” And he said, “The Creator made it known to him.” This means that the Creator made him see each time to a greater extent how big was the power of the will to receive with which he was born, as it is written, “Sin crouches at the door.” That is, as soon as he was born, it was born with all its might. This is why it is called “a foolish old king.”

However, a person need not know the full extent of the will to receive. Rather, this revelation of the power of the will to receive is gradual. That is, the evil should be balanced according to the good that he has. In other words, to the extent that a person exerts to cancel the will to receive, to that extent it is revealed to him from above.

As we explained concerning, “To the wicked, it seems like a hairsbreadth, and to the righteous, the evil inclination seems like a high mountain,” we said that since the good and the bad must be balanced, as our sages said, “One should always see oneself half good and half bad,” since they always go together so as to have a choice what to decide.

It follows that the bad is within man. However, the bad is revealed according to the measure of the good in a person. Hence, when one begins to walk on a line of truth, the bad appears in him each time. However, for each bad state that he feels, he cannot do anything except ask the Creator to help him, as it is written, “Man’s inclination overcomes him every day. Were it not for the help of the Creator, he would not overcome it.” It follows that man is powerless to overcome the evil, but the Creator must help him.

However, we should know that this, too, is a correction. That is, the fact that a person cannot overcome the bad without help from above is deliberate. This is so because if a person has the ability to work for the sake of the Creator by himself, he will remain in a state of Katnut [smallness/infancy]. That is, he will not need to rise in the degrees of Kedusha, where a person should come to attain the Torah, where the delight and pleasure that the Creator wanted to give to the creatures are concealed.

If a person feels that he is fine, he has no need for the Torah. But if a person cannot overcome the bad, and in that respect, a person cannot be satisfied, since he sees how the evil governs him, so he sees that he has no grip on holiness, so how can he be satisfied?

At that time, according to the measure of his overcoming, he sees the truth more clearly—that there is no chance he will be able to emerge from the governance of evil. At that time, when he asks the Creator to help him, he asks with all his heart. Moreover, often he despairs and needs extra overcoming to have the strength to go above reason, that the Creator can help him.

It follows that by overcoming and asking for the Creator’s help, in what is he helped? It is as The Zohar says, “with a holy soul.” That is, each time, the help is with a greater illumination. This is why a person cannot emerge from the governance of evil by himself, but rather needs the Creator to help him. By this, he will reveal his NRNHY of Neshama [soul].

According to the above, we should interpret what we asked: 1) Why is the Shechina called Shoshan [rose]? 2) Why does the Shechina testify to us before the King? That is, what should she testify? 3) What does it mean when he says that the Shechina is called “Help from above,” as it is written, “And you will hear the heaven”?

She is called Shoshan because it is impossible to acquire the kingdom of heaven, which is faith above reason unless when the wicked comes and asks, “What is this work for you?” and wants to know within reason what he will have by working for the sake of the Creator and not for himself.

At that time, there is nothing to answer within reason, since within reason, he is right, as it is written, “And since he excluded himself from the public, he denied the most important.” That is, since he denied the essence of the correction, which was in order not to have shame upon reception of the delight and pleasure, it follows that the Creator does not need to be served. Rather, the fact that we should work for the benefit of the Creator is for our own benefit.

That is, through this correction there will not be the matter of shame. This is what he denied. Hence, it will not help him to understand anything, and instead, we must go by force, meaning by coercion, which is called “Blunt his teeth.” And since this work is ceaseless, it is called “Blunt his teeth a lot.” This is why the kingdom of heaven is called Shoshan or Shoshanah [both mean “rose”], from the words, “Blunt his Shinaim [teeth].”

And what does the Shechina testify to us? that we are fine. We asked, Where does she see this?

The answer is that it is because she helps us. Malchut is called “Assistance of heaven.” This means that Malchut herself gives the help. This is as it is written, “He who comes to purify is aided.” Thus, she can testify that we are fine because she helped us in this.

Also, we asked, Why must she testify? We should interpret that once a person has been rewarded with the kingdom of heaven, when he can work for the sake of the Creator, he needs to be rewarded with the Torah, called ZA, a “King.” This is what she must testify, that he already has the kingdom of heaven, and is therefore worthy of the Torah, called “the names of the Creator,” which is the purpose of creation.

LESSON

Morning Lesson October 28, 2023

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

Part 1:

Rabash. Article No. 37, 1990. What Is, “The Shechina Is a Testimony to Israel,” in the Work?

Reading Article. (00:28) “The Zohar says, “For the leader..”

1. S. (34:21) What is the sense of shame in the created being? Shame is the beginning of the spiritual state?

R. Shame is when a person feels how much he cannot stand before the Creator, meaning to answer him what the Creator is asking. Then he feels Him.

2. S. (35:02) What does it mean to be rewarded with the Kingdom of Heaven?

R. It’s that a person feels how the Creator is managing him and he needs to enter reciprocity, contact with Him.

S. How to get into reciprocity with the Creator?

R. According to the equivalence.

3. S. (35:53) There’s this part here about how he’s aided like it is written in The Zohar with the holy soul, and he’s aided with the Creator by the illumination and this illumination is equivalent to the connection between us?

R. Yes.

4. S. (36:24) Where do we get the power, the forces to be able to work in our ten to blunt your teeth?

R. When we want it and we are capable of it. When a person decides that he must answer the Creator precisely and in the same direction as the Creators is asking him.

S. The article does not speak of a ten where you can get the forces, so how did they here in the article, where do they get the force from to be able to work in “blunt your teeth” because you need a lot of courage, you need a lot of forces?

R. Well, yes it doesn’t speak about the ten but of course we get to the force through the ten, the ten is a system, it doesn’t change.

S. What is the addition of the ten compared to the article that is written? Where do you get the forces? What is the addition of the ten because in the article you don’t need a ten?

R. No, even if Rabash doesn’t write about the ten actually but he means that a person is in an environment which is all working on getting closer to the Creator. The Creator gives them all kinds of signs, conditions and according to these conditions they nevertheless try to get closer to Him even though each time the conditions are more difficult.

S. So we can adhere directly to the Creator?

R. Through the ten. Everyone must work through the ten. One time he emphasizes more and another time less, it depends on what it is that he wants to explain to us.

5. S. (39:10) What is the relationship between the Shechina and Malchut?

R. Malchut is the general name and the Shechina is already what pertains to the group, to the person but it speaks in general of the Creator’s relation to the created beings.

6. S. (39:51) I hope the question is in the right place: a friend in the ten passed away. He didn’t tell us he was sick and there’s a great sense of lack in the ten, we feel very weak. The friend always used to help and push us towards connection. He would always say that we have to go to the lesson, he would always support us. The question is: How can we help and give back to the friend’s soul right now.

R. We will participate together with you in this loss and let’s hope that such an incident won’t create between us and him and between us and the Creator any separation but to the contrary we will strengthen ourselves and we will see him, this friend that he is actually now a representative and he’s building a new connection an even stronger and higher one from between us and to the Creator, through him, through his high soul.

7. S. (42:02) What does it mean in the ten to receive the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven and all of the different intense opposite states we go through?

R. It means that each time that the Creator shows us our state usually we then see how much we are not in a good state but along with that we do want to get closer to Him whatever we, no matter what we feel and this is how we will get closer to Him more and more and more. The most important is that each and every moment we take in a new breath and take a new step forward whatever the state is, as it says, get up tomorrow morning with a new song in your heart.

8. S. (43:25) How can I use a sense of being pushed out of the holy work in order to get closer to the Creator?

R. If we understand that this whole rejection and in general all the rejections and insights of distancing only show us how much, in spite of it, we can come closer to adhesion with the Creator, then all of these signs of distancing awaken us to nearing and this is how more and more by all of these things joining, accumulating, by overcoming the separation and overcoming the distancing, this is how we get closer to the goal, to be “as one man with one heart.”

9. S. (45:15) How to rise above reason together in the ten, above the various states that every friend deals with?

R. We take all of them together into a single circle and we go together. Then we all overcome. We are together and the Creator is with us. If we’re not together then we don’t get help from Above and we do not succeed.

10. S. (45:58) When a person overcomes and asks for help from the Creator how is he helped? It’s like he writes, to the holy soul, so every time that the Creator has to help the person, by this he discovers that NRNHY of his soul. The question is, how does the NRNHY of his soul appear to him, when a person is in the ten with a prayer for help?

R. When a person wants to connect with the friends and build together with them a new vessel for the reception of the upper Light to enter together with a single desire. So then they turn to the Creator and the Creator unites them, He fills them with a new light and in that they feel as though they’re rising to a higher degree. This is actually the correct answer or this is how the Creator to begin with arranges for them a new state.

11. S. (47:33) How to balance good and bad when the evil inclination keeps increasing?

R. We need to begin with to understand that any bad that is revealed is in order for us to rise by it to a higher degree of good. Therefore there’s no bad without good and there’s no good without bad but rather there are degrees or steps left, right, left, right and this is how we need to advance.

12. S. (48:24) Thank you Rav, we really want to be joyful in the work in order to please the Creator. The question is: How can you be in true joy when the more we try to do good the more we discover the evil within us, like Rabash writes. What is the point of being in true joy from this complicated process?

R. The point of grip to be in joy in each and every state is when we connect and in the center of our connection we turn to the Creator and this is actually the most important for us, this is what brings us joy. Because we nevertheless succeeded in coming closer to each other in connecting with each other and out of our connection we turn to the Creator and ask of Him that He will take care of us and that He will bring us closer. We don’t need more than a request..

S. What brings the most joy to the Creator?

R. The fact that we ask, that the Creator will unite us and will bring us closer to correction. That’s it. It’s the work of the Lord. We, all together in the work of the Creator, which means that we want to show work to the Creator. This is what He longs for and our yearning is only to feel the correct form of the work as much as possible to serve it to Him.

13. S. (50:36) How to build an intention to bestow on top of the will to receive?

R. That’s what we’re talking about all the time. To begin with there’s a will to receive in us and instead of it we try to ask the Creator that He will have a desire to connect together so that we can bestow to Him because He wants to bestow to us, so we must bestow to Him. It turns out that we are engaging in the same work. It’s just that, “I to my Beloved and my Beloved to me.” This is how we attain the goal.

S. We engage in this work and receive joy and pleasure. Do we also pass that pleasure onto the Creator or it happens automatically?

R. No, we enjoy the spiritual work in that we’re doing it for the Creator.

14. S. (52:00) I heard you say earlier that if we are not together then we will not succeed. How can we measure this degree of togetherness? How can you measure the degree of connection between us?

R. To measure that we can’t, we don’t yet have instruments of measurement but we can try each time to be more and more connected according to how much we understand it and feel it right now.

S. We reach some point where we feel that we need some type of closeness to the friends, not that we come closer to the friends but that there’s some type of cohesion within the group?

R. Yes.

S. Should you only focus on your participation or if you feel that lack of cohesion in the group itself, should you go into the group and try to evoke something within the friends?

R. No, he has to get into the group. He has to be together with everyone and only out of this unity of this connection between them they can turn to the Creator, otherwise the Creator doesn’t hear it.

S. Do you then just go into the group and I don’t know how to explain it to you, like physically come and pull the guys together or should it be some type of internal work where we just engage in prayer?

R. We need to scrutinize it more both this and that, you still lack scrutiny.

15. S. (54:16) The feeling of shame is that the feeling of repulsion and if it is, how can it cope with it in the ten?

R. Together, all of us, we must find answers for all the problems that appear during our spiritual work. Meaning as much as we are going to connect together so that from the point of the center of our connection we will turn to the Creator and demand adhesion from Him, advancement, understanding; in this way we should go.

16. S. (55:20) On the one hand, in the ten we ask for Hassidim so the Creator will connect us to Him, on the other hand, we’re grateful for all the judgments that come down upon us. How do we combine these two forces and how do we reach a prayer out of them?

R. Judgments that descend on us are those disturbances that we need to overcome in order to build ourselves correctly in a single desire and then we will be similar to the Creator, precisely. That’s it, so we have to understand that how the Creator works on us is only in order to calibrate ourselves correctly.

17. S. (56:28) It says and even more than that, many times one comes to despair and he needs extra overcoming to have the strength to go above reason so that the Creator can help him. What state or what help are we talking about here, in order to get out of a certain state or is it asking for help from the Creator to change our nature?

R. It doesn’t matter how we call it. If we want to get closer to the Creator we try to ask it from Him.

S. Could it be a state where most of the work is to believe that the Creator can help us?

R. Well, that’s obvious, otherwise how can we turn to Him? As a basis of our work we have to be in an always increasing state where only the Creator can help us and solve all of our states one by one according to the order of getting closer between us.

18. S. (57:53) Soon we will connect with other groups in a common Congress in Europe and we want to ask, this physical meeting, what kind of support can it give to the whole world Kli and what would be the best way to organize it?

R. You have to make it so that your state, your connection will help all the participants feel how strong are the groups among us and that’s how it’s like your group that’s connecting there, and Eastern Europe uniting into a single whole, helping all the others reach such a connection where we draw all the others after it. You can do that. Create a good presentation of what you intend to do and explain to all the others what you’re doing and what you’re demanding from everyone else. How can they join you, how can they be with you in a single, global desire for the Creator.

19. S. (01:00:13) I didn’t understand, what does it mean in the text as the state of Katnut [infancy/smallness] in the work, in our requests? What is the difference between Katnut and Gadlut according to our requests?

R. According to Katnut [infancy] it could be that we’re asking only for connection between us in the ten and in terms of Gadlut, is that we will already have the ability to influence others and draw them into that connection.

20. S. (01:00:55) When we nullify to the Creator, to the ten, to a situation meaning we attribute it to the Creator, do we unify the opposites by doing that?

R. Yes, we unite all the contrasts, differences between us and we turn them, transform them into one being; we compliment them.

21. S. (01:02:02) We read, “He who comes to purify is aided.” The question is: What should one do that he will be seen from Above as one who comes to purify?

R. To connect with the others, then he will be seen within the ten and his entire ten will be seen as ready to submit themselves to the Creator, to the Creator’s work. Our work is referred to as the Creator’s work. Why is it the Creator’s work? Because we connect between us and we make of ourselves a single part, single whole and it is willing for the Creator to work on it and that’s why our work is called the work of the Creator. We are preparing ourselves so that the Creator will work on us. We want to be as clay in the hands of the potter, that’s how we want to be in the Creator’s hands. You understand? Write it down, it’s very important. A person must really yearn for that, feel that and enter it, be in it. He wants to feel that the Creator is working on him. Like a man who shapes matter and shapes some substance into a form. That’s what we want, that the Creator will work on us this way. We’re willing to nullify all of our ego, the will to receive, our plans. Whatever it is, just to be willing in the hands of the Creator and the Creator has to work on us like the Maker who is shaping some substance.

S. A person can want to feel that the Creator’s working on him?

R. Yes, like a piece of clay, Play-doh, that’s how the Creator will work with them. Even though it is unpleasant because each time the Creator works against man’s qualities but a person is happy about that, that the Creator is changing him, is reshaping him each time and he thanks the Creator for this work.

22. S. (01:05:25) He says about the wicked here that you should “blunt its teeth?” What are the teeth of the wicked one and what is this action of blunting or striking?

R. To go against His will.

S. But what are the teeth, what are the teeth of the wicked one?

R. The teeth of the wicked, it means his desire to understand what’s going on.

S. Understanding the mind?

R. Yes.

23. S. (01:06:12) There is this example that Rabash writes about, about a father and a son, that he takes some poles and then he starts to make some holes inside of them in order to make[…] out of them. The son doesn’t understand why he makes holes in these beautiful poles, so my question is, in the work of the Creator, on our matter or clay, when He creates more deficiencies in us we advance, how do we get the understanding of the father and not remain in the understanding of the child in his complaints?

R. We want to adhere to the Creator by the ten, that no one can do it alone and the ten helps us to be, to create such an inclination in us, to be bonded between us and with the Creator. And that’s how we ask the Creator to work on us, to pressure us, to shape us, change us and hit us like when you hit a piece of clay or Play-Doh and that’s how we’ll advance, we’ll take on a shape similar to the Creator.

S. What is in this connection of the ten that gives the person the possibility to agree with how the deficiencies enlarge him?

R. What’s related to connection in that? That we give examples and help each other take on changes that are similar to the Creator. The Creator who pressures the person, He never pressures him in a direction that man can understand because He’s changing the person in the relationship to the group and a person doesn’t understand why he needs to change like this, why the Creator puts such conditions in front of him that don’t follow a man’s mind and heart. But when a person works in the group and he receives above reason in the work in the group, that you have to be close to the friends and along with the friends, so it turns out he understands what the Creator is pushing him towards, what is He doing with them and that’s how he advances correctly, even though the Creator is hitting him like when you hit a piece of Play-Doh or clay but he understands that’s what he has to go through in order to take on a form similar to the Creator.

24. S. (01:09:40) But it says in the article this is why Malchut is called Shoshanah, lily or rose after the act. What does it mean?

R. Shoshanah, rose, means it’s a flower that grows among thorns and that’s our form of growth. That from all the states we go through, very unpleasant states we ultimately grow as a rose. All of us together, Malchut is considered a rose.

25. S. (01:10:47) It says that as the Creator bestows so that lower ones, when he gives to the Creator he should enjoy. The question is if we should enjoy bestowal from our will to receive? It turns out that what we want to enjoy from and how the Creator wants to delight us are two opposite things. How to feel the Creator’s love and trust Him so that we won’t have any doubts that what He’s giving us is the true pleasure? It’s different from what we have in the will to receive?

R. Through the love of friends.

26. S. (01:11:50) He says in the article that the best way to cope with the disturbance is to go above reason. My question is: We work much more with a common prayer, so what is the relation between prayer and working above reason? He says that when the obstructor comes and it wants to understand within reason the remedy for it is to go above reason. Most of our work in the ten is through connection and prayer. How does it bring us to above reason, how are these two things related or connected?

R. It depends on what goal you put before you, it depends on the goal.

S. Yes but the prayer itself is a means to rise above reason or..?

R. Of course, of course, only the prayer specifically is the means.

27. S. (01:13:17) How do we transition from bestowing by coercion to bestowing with joy? How do we transition from rising by coercion to rise by joy?

R. That depends on how we value our state; to that extent in that way we can value ourselves, that’s how we advance.

28. S. (01:14:16) I have this question: The Creator gave us a desire each day to discuss the questions you give us during the lesson and we started to feel the power in this activity. Yesterday we prayed for the friends and the Creator. Does that mean that the Creator is working on us in the ten?

R. Yes.

29. S. (01:14:54) If a person can work with his own strength to work for the state of Creator he will remain in the state of Katnut. Is a person aware that he’s in that state and if he is then how can he rise above this state?

R. Only through more and more connection between us, otherwise we won’t see the means to ascend more and more; to be close between us connect more and more.

30. S. (01:15:49) They say and then you will hear the heaven. How does a person know or how does he hear heaven?

R. If we want to hear the opinions of the friends and we connect between us, through that we start hearing the heavens.

31. S. (01:16:33) Please help us understand more deeply the lily, rose and roses.

R. Not right now.

32. S. (01:16:52) Being as clay in the hands of the potter, is this in the end about coming to an outcry for the Creator to obliterate or uproot the memory of Amalek in our desire in order to receive?

R. Yes.

S. I also heard you say yesterday that we haven’t even begun our inner work at war. How can we not only begin the war but really go all out in this war with all of our might and all of our togetherness?

R. You don’t feel that you’re before each and everyone’s ego. You are not fighting against each one’s ego, that’s why we didn’t start the war.

S. How do you suggest we begin this war? How do we do this because we are crying out and praying together. We can’t do it alone, we can try but in the end the Creator is the One who does it?

R. According to your requests, specifically according to the women’s requests.

33. S. (01:18:30) You said that the Creator is working on us like a piece of clay or plasticine and although it’s unpleasant because He’s working against our qualities, despite that a person should be glad that the Creator is changing him. In such states I’m not happy, I get nervous and angry and it can take days or weeks and I can’t get rid of the feeling of edginess, nerves. What should I do?

R. Because you feel that you’re against the Creator, right?

S. Yes.

R. Why are you against Him?

S. I don’t know, this is what He’s making me feel.

R. Isn’t it worth agreeing with what the Creator’s doing in you? You should lower your head and only ask of Him more and more to be in agreement with what He’s doing.

S. This is what I need, to simply agree with what He’s doing?

R. Yes, everyone’s lacking that.

34. S. (01:20:00) What is the relation between disturbances, obstructions and necessity and ascension and adhering to the ten and to the Creator?

R. Again?

S. What is the relation between disturbances of necessity and ascension and adhesion with the ten and with the Creator?

R. All disturbances come to us in necessity, that we have to rise above it and reach more connection in quality and in quantity and in this way we advance all the way till the end of correction, Gmar Tikkun. Then the disturbances aren’t disturbances, it’s just like in school when you’re in class. The teacher gives you, presents more and more homework, duties you need to do, tests, yeah, we had to do tests that we had to pass and in that way we advanced. It’s the same thing with our life, we have to constantly advance until we reach the degree of the Creator ‘And the sons of Israel will return to their God.’

35. S. (01:21:53) When you say we haven’t begun the war is it because we can’t detect our ego? What are we missing in order to start fighting against it?

R. Sometimes I see that we don’t understand where our war is supposed to be. The war is only on the connection between us and from the plea, from the connection between us to the Creator, that’s it. The connection between us starts from a corporeal degree, that we’ll be as friends in one group. Then more and more we ask of the Creator to connect us in a more internal way until we will feel that each one is inside the other. Between us there are no barriers and nobody is ashamed or far from the other. Then gradually we have to reach a state that we’ll reach the internality of all of us together. From this internality, from one towards all the others, we will start a movement towards the Creator. That’s what we need.

S. What we’re missing is to see the desirable state and constantly aspire for it?

R. Yes.

36. S. (01:23:48) Previously you answered a friend that you have to agree with what the Creator is doing in us. The question is: How can we be in the right spirit to be in this agreement because sometimes it touches sensitive points, sometimes you can agree more, sometimes you resist and the more you exert in this the more He’s giving you opportunities to do it. How do we create the right spirit for this work?

R. That’s only between the friends, that’s actually something very simple. Constantly be in connection with the friends, discuss it with them, search for it with them and that’s it.

S. Is it in the end the work we have to focus on, to constantly agree with what He’s doing in us, to constantly think about it and talk about it?

R. Our work is to constantly turn to the Creator and feel His work. That’s called the work of the Creator, that every time He raises us to a more powerful connection, to a greater height and in this way we reach the purpose of life.

S. This is the war that should be in this, to agree with this together?

R. Yes because it’s entirely against our ego.

37. S. (01:25:25) There is a feeling of constant gratitude to the Creator but at the same time there’s also a feeling of pleasure during the lesson but we shouldn’t enjoy for ourselves. How do we make it so we enjoy for the sake of the Creator, for the sake of the friends?

R. Everything we say is written in the articles. You must process the articles, read every article a few times at least and if from today to tomorrow you can get an article, try and read it at least twice. Discuss it between you and then it’ll be more clear to you in what steps we’re advancing ahead.

S. We also wanted to tell you dear Rav that we miss you very much. We are inviting you to Georgia, especially in light of what’s happening in Israel. We want to take care of you here.

R. What could happen to me in Israel? Whatever needs to happen it could be anywhere in the world.

S. In any case we are inviting you, we miss you.

R. Yeah, prepare your wine.

S. It’s ready already, dear Rav.

R. We’ll get there.

38. S. (01:27:24) Concerning being clay in the hands of the potter, often the Creator is the one who awakens resistance in a person to something he’s experiencing or seeing and it feels like it’s something that comes from the Creator. What is the submission here, is it about relinquishing the feeling of resistance or to go with the feeling of resistance?

R. Go with the feeling of resistance toward the connection between us and with the Creator.

S. How do we do this because it feels like I have to throw it away?

R. I don’t know how, I only know one thing: from morning to evening I have to only think about that.

S. Should I tell the Creator, “You gave me a state of resistance but I’m still asking for connection?”

R. No – you gave me the feeling of resistance and above it I need to reach connection.

S. Do I still have to follow what is happening with my inner feelings or..?

R. I don’t want to get into all your scrutinies, do what you do, that’s it. You should think more and ask less. Every lesson you’re asking and asking and asking. I don’t see anything in that of advancement. Get your answers from within, from the Creator that is answering you, from the group that is giving to you and not from me.

39. S. (01:29:29) Kabbalists say that we have to annul before the Creator. Sometimes we hear that we ourselves build the Creator, how do we reconcile the contradiction?

R. It’s not a contradiction. We are creating the Creator from ourselves, from our mutual efforts and we bow down before this common effort that helped us create a common image of the connection between us, and that will be the Creator.

40. S. (01:30:29) We want to attain the names of the Creator in our studies. How can we attain it, how can we be worthy of the Torah?

R. That’s not yet. When we exactly start feeling the different styles of connection between us then we’ll be able to reveal the names of the Creator; that’s how He’s revealed between us and then we will be able to come closer to Him even more.

41. S. (01:31:20) It is written in the article that a person wants to escape from all the states he’s going through and he has only one solution, he wants to run away, to sleep. What does it mean in the spiritual work that a person runs away to a state of sleep?

R. He doesn’t want to hear or feel anything, he just wants to disconnect all of his senses, vision, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling. He wants to disconnect all his senses and leave his body as if with no livelihood, just sleep like a beast, that he has nothing of man. That’s a state that a person yearns for and that’s really a state that we need in the group to resist. You can let a person rest for a few hours but only a few hours.

42. S. (01:33:06) How can we fight against each one’s ego without robbing her of her freedom?

R. Without taking her freedom? We can fight our ego if all of us connect above our egos. In this way we reach the connection between us and in the connection between us then we build ourselves as a new group, a spiritual group.

43. S. (01:33:53) According to the article Rabash writes here that when a person is satisfied with his work, when he thinks of actions and not about intentions then he has a taste in the work and in the prayer. When I annul, simply annul before the ten and I do what they say it turns out that I am beginning to work and I begin to feel a taste of all this, then I don’t think about the intentions. I read here in Rabash that there’s danger in this, that I enjoy the work in the ten and I don’t ask questions so there’s a problem here. The question is what does it mean that when I annul before the ten and I’m in the ten, in addition I’m also working on the intentions?

R. Don’t think about it too much and don’t go too deep into it, simply do it in a certain time, do what he’s advising you; then you can see what things will come out of it, what the results will be.

S. Meaning intentions and so forth, that’s already the next phase of the work?

R. Yes, yes.

44. S. (01:35:37) It is written Malchut is called assistance from above meaning that Malchut herself gives the help. Is Malchut the desire of the group which brings us to equivalence of form with the Creator?

R. Yes.

45. S. (01:35:58) How can we make sure that we’re working above reason and not within reason?

R. That depends on your relation towards a certain state, whether above reason or within reason. It’s something that has to be clear to each and everyone. Do you have a child? When you tell him, “Do what I’m telling you,” this and this and that, if he does exactly what you say, even though he doesn’t want to do it, he’s crying inside but he’s still doing it. That’s called above reason, that’s clear now. You and the Creator: the Creator’s telling you something and even though you’re crying and you don’t want to do it, you’re still going to do it, that’s called above reason. For us the difference is that we need to ask the Creator to give us the forces to work in such a way because the child feels the bitterness from his parents, that the parents are pressing on him, pushing on him, then he’ll do it.