YESOD: TIKKUN CHATZOT תקון חצות – LESSON WITH RAV MICHAEL LAITMAN
Lesson on the topic of “Pesach (Passover)”
Morning Lesson April 4, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Passover – Selected Excerpts from the Sources. (Hard Labor #94)
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, we are continuing to study what is our way. That we begin to feel ourselves, that we have to reach something in our life to know what we are living for, what is the true purpose of life, how do we reach it? How do we implement it within this life? This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is about and on the way to that we learn that our work is inside of our nature. We don’t need to work with this still, vegetative, and animate around us but rather we need to work with ourselves. In order to work with myself, I need to work with those who are outside of me. This is why we become organized in the group as people who have been through this path recommend to us, and this is how we advance to the spiritual work. The spiritual work means that we come closer to the Creator, who is the force of bestowal, the force of love, which we develop above our own qualities which are all self-love, and the force of self reception. This is the nature of the still, vegetative, state of animate and speaking and we want to rise to the level of Adam, similar to the Creator. So here we have to rise above these forces of the still, vegetative and animate and that work is not simple at all. It is called hard labor.
Why is that? Because it is against our desire. A person could do anything, but it is just a matter of having a profit. So working for a profit one can do it on the condition that he is among other people who tell him about the importance of some certain action, certain works, and then one is capable of doing such actions, such works, that maybe even not according to his desire right now. All of this is in the framework of the ordinary work that we have in this world. That is what is felt in our will to receive. We always weigh and measure what is more worthwhile relative to what’s less worthwhile, there are things that we stay away from, from thinking them and doing them and there are things that we do nevertheless persuade ourselves, and we go and we work and make efforts, we study, we work, in order to reach some special gain. That gain is measured according to the importance, the importance in the eyes of man and the importance of the eyes of society, maybe the eyes of the individual it’s not so important but because it’s important in the eyes of the environment so the individual goes for it.
He wants to acquire it and conquer it because it gives him importance in the eyes of others. This is how we operate in the framework of general desire, the will to enjoy. But when we come to our life, our daily life, we begin to see that there are certain actions here that are weighed, they are measured in our will to receive and the will to receive of others and here we are as a very special transition to do what is good in our eyes or what is good in the eyes of the environment in the eyes of others. This is how we also are in scrutinies. But there is yet another kind of work, which is even more disconnected from our desire. If we wouldn’t have a desire for something, but we come in to some society and in that society we see that yes there is important for certain actions, certain desires, so through the environment through the influence of the environment, we change the values inside of us and we start to ascribe a greater value to what is favored by the society, what the society appreciates.
This is how we change, we advance, we change our values and by that we discover that it is possible to work not according to the desire of the person himself but the desire of the environment. But if the environment brings us a desire which entirely does not exist in us, but it is even the opposite of what we have, what are we going to do? Let’s say get into an environment where they value actions of bestowal. It’s not the way that it was before for me, that I liked fish and I came to some environment where they like meat dishes or to the contrary that they respect dishes without meat. Vegetables. Vegetarians. So I simply replace my desire with their desire and I get used to it, I get used to them because they give me a feeling of importance. A feeling of importance in whatever they are and I, bit by bit start appreciating what that society is presenting before me, what they appreciate. This is called the influence of the environment over the person and we see this in our life that there are many many such examples in our environment and it all depends on the influence of the environment over the person.
But there are such actions in the environment or there could be, that there are such actions in the environment that they teach us to rise above our will to receive which is called above reason, above our reason to qualities of bestowal which are entirely, I don’t have any possibility to value them, those actions. It’s not meat versus milk, fish versus meat or all kinds of such actions that are also customary in our world, but they don’t have the same importance like ordinary actions. Ordinary actions are those that are related to food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge. Those actions exist inside of the understanding, the feeling of our will to receive so then certainly I need to just shift from a method of enjoying one kind of thing to something else. But if I am told that we need to transition to pleasure which is of the completely different type, not fish instead of meat but rather from reception to bestowal. Here I never know don’t know what to do. Because in our world there are no such examples. I don’t feel, I don’t detect it in any vessel of mine. I don’t have any instrument, any device by which I can identify an action which is in order to bestow. It’s not for my benefit but for the benefit of others, how can I do it?
Here we already have a problem. We are told that this is actually what is called the Exile of Egypt. That we need to reach states where we will hear what does it mean in order to bestow, and that such actions of in order to bestow do not exist as examples before us in our reality in what we call this world. We need to detect these actions out of the relations between us which we don’t have but if we will perform all kinds of actions as though we are doing it actions out of the will to bestow, as though we have a will to bestow, Then when we make an effort in that, we invite upon us a special force. A special field that will influence us. And that work is called precisely the work in attaining faith above reason. This is our work during the time that is called the Exile of Egypt. When we begin to discover that we do exist in order to receive, more and more even we identify to what extent we are only in the force of reception, and along with that we try to perform all kinds of actions, different means, that can bring us to the other nature.
To the force of bestowal. so that our actions on the outside may not seem so opposite to before, but we will perform them inside, inside of ourselves with a desire to bestow the desire that is not directed towards self-pleasure. There are many questions here, things that are truly not clear, that will become established in us, also as questions so that it will be clear to us what is required of us more and more, it will become clear. So it will be more and more clear that it is not within our powers to do it, but rather we will have to carry out actions and demand a reward for them. So that the reward will be that we will understand, we will feel, we will perceive the essence of these actions and they will clothe in us those actions and they will bring us the feeling of the essence of what does it mean to bestow and it’s really not simple. Because we all remain in our will to receive and that will to receive does not become replaced and within this will to receive ours we do get qualities of bestowal, thoughts of bestowal, our desire to bestow and this is how we acquire qualities of the Creator inside of the quality of the created beings. This is called that the Creator dresses within the person.
We will study along the way also how all these actions are called and also we will learn what happened to the whole of humanity when it started to absorb these matters that everyone has to act in order to bestow and how much they immediately run away from it and decided that certainly it is possible to perform these actions in some corporeal style with our hands, with our legs in practice, in action but not with an inner desire, not with an intention and from that religion was born, Judaism, later on Christian, later on Islam and more and more. We will see that along the way, I want to go quickly here. This needs to settle within the person. So that it will come out of this position, within the person, each one as much as he is capable of understanding what is happening here in the general nature and in the individual nature of each one. So let us read and let’s try to advance to come closer to what they right for us.
Excerpt 94 (18:13) Twice
2. R. (18:54) That is do whatever you want with your hands there’s no problem in that, it’s just that your intention, don’t try to work on this, you see it’s impossible. Leave the intention to be in order to receive as it was before. Then you end up instead of with the wisdom of Kabbalah, you end up in religion, it’s very simple. If you do not work in order to bestow, if you don’t even intend for it, you don’t even know about it, and also you are not being taught, then you are in religion. That’s it, you are performing all kinds of actions and you don’t feel any overcoming, any resistance, nothing, you feel good and this is how Judaism emerged and later on the other religions.
Reader continues: (19:52) “and this is called a soft mouth…”
3. R. (20:37) They saw that it was impossible to perform actions that are above reason in order to bestowal, in the force of bestowal, in that I truly have to love others and we yearn for a connection with everyone and these things are against nature all together from 0 to 100%. Then they descended to a state where it’s not worthwhile to do that, but rather we will perform actions in whatever we are capable of. In the externalities such-and-such and in the internality, we don’t know what exactly what happens inside of each and every one, but rather according to the external state this is how we will relate to each other. Therefore the wisdom of Kabbalah is called the internality of the Torah, it speaks about the intentions, specifically intentions of the heart. What is man’s desire directed to and religion speaks of the externality. How much the person is performing actions externally and according to that, we think and we measure and we value the person.
4. S. (22:11) How now in the lesson to carry out these actions in order to bestow?
R. In thought, try to do it, in thought that’s it. That we want to be together all of us, as one man in one heart meaning in one heart that all of our desires will connect only in one direction. That we want to reach a single desire which is entirely directed to the Creator, to the force in bestowal between us.
S. Do we need to think about this all the time?
R. As much as each one is capable of, yes, it’s more important than anything else.
5. S. (23:06) What do I need to expect from the influence of the environment on me, what needs to change?
R. I expect from the influence of the environment over me that this environment will compel me to yearn for bestowal, to yearn for connection, to yearn to be with them in one heart and that I will have some small inclination towards that so they will continue to push me towards connection so that all of our hearts will truly connect into one great heart. In it according to the magnitude of the connection between us we will discover the Creator who is as a result of the connection of our hearts.
6. S. (24:09) Is there any danger that we too, the Kabbalah students, will do some actions out of habit and fall to some religion of our own?
R. Of course who is this about, it’s only about us. Rather whom, just the whole of humanity
S. It sounds like he’s talking about it historically that this is how it was.
R. Yes I said that this is the source from which the origin from which religions emerged, yes, that thousands of years ago, well less than thousands to thousands let’s say. Judaism from the wisdom of Kabbalah itself, after the Exodus from Egypt after all of these things what we talked about it is all really more internal, spiritual, emotional but the wisdom of Kabbalah started to spread more within the people, the nation, and finally after a few hundreds of years out of that the religions emerged.
S. So I’m asking now not historically, how did the religions escape from the wisdom of Kabbalah about myself, maybe from an inner weakness to try out this act of bestowal that’s needed. I will run away to dissemination and do these and those actions and develop some religion of my own.
R. You can do that of course but then you will be deviating from the path towards adhesion with the Creator.
S. So how to not run away from this work of bestowal like you said and how to change the values towards the society and not develop some sort of habits and doctrines of my own?
R. This is truly a problem, and each one of us has this danger that he might fall into his own trip and start to develop his own religion and in the world there are even a few thousand religions, faiths of different kinds, each one actually has his own deviation and he can’t even measure there, he can’t check where exactly where he is. So what to do? There’s only one thing that we connect between us and we keep precisely what the Kabbalists are telling us. You see how slowly we are advancing gradually and each time we want to check where we are. To detect, to locate and to check, to measure, the degrees of connection between us, to what extent in the connection between us we discover a mutual bestowal and how much this mutual bestowal gets a force from above and it becomes in order to bestow which is called faith above reason.
S. I’m still not whole with this, where does the person have the strength to do through this hard way of labor and not deviate a thousand different directions?
R. Only with his adhesion with the environment and the adhesion with the environment to the Creator, if you want to put it into one sentence, the answer. Only through that. But we already have books and authors, we have our teachers and we learned it from them just like now you are here and they are guiding you more internally to how you will feel, that you are doing this hard labor. That without you working with your will to receive, your corporeal will to receive and sorting it, which way is it directed, and whitening, scrutinizing it without that you will not reach spirituality. How can we extract from all of our corporeal actions something that is spiritual? Of course in our corporeal actions there is nothing that is spiritual but rather which action do we have to perform so that upon these actions we will draw the reforming light and from the corporeal actions we will suddenly emerge values and intentions that are spiritual.
From where can that be? So this can be because before we reach the spiritual development, we and our foundations underwent a shattering and each one is incorporated with sparks of reception and sparks of bestowal and then because we have both this and that, in someone in which there are more sparks of bestowal, stronger sparks of bestow so we begin to yearn for such actions for the upper light that will influence us that it will give us something, we don’t want it in order to bestow but for us to have it in order to receive, fine. We also don’t understand what it is in order to bestow in order to receive but there is a yearning for it. People who have a yearning to feel What does it mean actions of bestowal?
What does it mean above our nature? We say that they have in them a point in the heart, meaning a spark from the upper light that entered into their will to receive during the shattering, the spark of the upper light it exists inside of their will to receive. This is how they keep searching for the spark and this is what is important for them in their life. Over many years in the history of humanity this is happening in many people and there are such who do reach the hard labor and they go through this labor and specifically through this work they discover what does it mean the root of the soul, spirituality, spiritual vessel, the Creator who is revealed through this vessel. It is all ahead of us.
Item 94 (32:15) RABASH, Article No. 14 (1987), “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror” Again
7. R. (33:31) This is actually the whole problem that we have during this time called the Exile in Egypt. That we are already beginning a little bit to understand what does it mean in order to bestow even though we don’t yet have these qualities within us. But out of us hearing about it that we need to reach that, and that there are those who reach it . We begin to feel how difficult it is, how impossible it is, how much it is very difficult beyond human power. Therefore the fact that our will to receive is telling us that this is very hard work and it will be better for you to rest or to engagement something else, not precisely in attaining in order to bestow, with such actions and thoughts, We begin to see before us very hard labor, which is called assuming the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven which means that I need to forcefully accept. It is a burden that we put on an ox or on a donkey or on a horse in order for it to carry the wagon behind it.
A yoke and we have to accept it in such a manner against our desire against our body, and then out of lack of choice, out of necessity I have to do it. We do it with respect to animate degree. Let’s say when I put it on my horse, on my donkey the yolk, the burden then it agrees because it gets food from me and forces from which to exist and also have it. That it gives us the feeling of the landlord who is wiser, who understands more, feels more and is capable of guarding it and keeping it the donkey or the horse. We need the same thing, truly so. We need to bring ourselves to a state where we bow our heads and we want to accept the burden the yoke of the Creator upon us and to be in that form in order to bestow. That even though I belong to the animate degree, I take upon myself all of the laws of the higher degree. In which I will be similar to the landlord to the Creator this is why I will be called Adam similar to the Creator. As much as I will be able to be in order to bestow. This is very hard labor but we are together a big group, the first group of its kind out of humanity, that is now rising and ascending out of the midst of the whole of humanity. This is how we will succeed.
Excerpt 95 (37:31) RABASH, Article No. 14 (1987), “The Connection between Passover, Matza, and Maror” Twice
8. R. (38:00) Meaning it depends on what kind of actions and work that a person is in. If it’s in the labor of the Egyptians it’s not a problem. I work and I receive what I deserve, and maybe even more than I deserve, and this is how I advance. Everything is fine. But if we are advancing in the hard labor of the work of Israel we have a problem. Because every step along the way I feel the extent to which I have to work against my nature. Against my nature, what do we do?
Reader continues: (38 :48)“ it follows that a soft mouth…” Again
Excerpt 95 (39:35) again
9. R. (40:42) This is actually the essence of what we have difficulty in the work. When we want to perform actions in order to bestow we have no forces for this.No transgressions and we have no idea what to do.Where is the result from it there are no supporters. And certainly this is the place in which our Egyptians will awaken in us and say what do you need this for. You can work in a regular way like everyone in order to receive. Also you went to perform acts of the bestowal do exit bestowal but receive a reward for it. You want to pray? Pray and receive a reward. Anything you want, and do what you will receive a reward. That is like what was said to be the source for the birth of religions, the birth of religion. Judaism than Christianity. than Islam. And this is how it began in human society. The matter of doing all kinds of actions seems spiritual, but in order to receive so that it will be good for us.
10. S. (41:10) If the whole world is inside of me what is this environment that is inside of the person?
R. For the time being that will cause confusion, you go with what we are explaining and not with what you once heard.
11. S. (42:41) What is the right effort to be in connection, what is the right effort to be in the intentions?
R. Both in connection, in connection I am in the intention the main thing is the intention as the intention leads me to the necessary for a connection.
12. S. (44:14) How’s it possible that the Egyptians can proceed Israel to follow a false path in order to receive.? How can you lead in a lie?
R. How are you living?
S. I don’t live in a lie, I follow you.
R. Oh oh sorry. so we’ll go together to the truth.
S. I’m truly asking how do I have the force and the point in the art if a person has the point in the art how to where you going to go against it into falsehood?
R. Because that point is in under the control of the desire to receive.That’s called the point of Israel that is inside the eagle has the desire it is in captivity there it is called Egypt and this is how the heart controls the point in the heart governs it. Okay?
13. S. (42:43) Is the work of Israel hard work or easy work.
R. The labor of Israel is to emerge out of the control of the Egyptians. Out of the control of the will to receive that holds them that way. That’s it, that’s the work and certainly this is the most difficult work there is. Because it can’t take place without the help from above. In all the rest of the work that we do we can operate with the forces that are on our plane. In our hands. The work of Israel is work that I cannot execute even the smallest movement from this work if I don’t receive the forces and guidance from above.
S. Can we turn the work of Israel into easy work or was it meant to be hard work?
R. Only to the extent in which I Set that I separate from myself and am incorporated in the ten and adhere to the Creator, and the Lord shall complete it for me.
14. S. (45:41) Rabash says that even getting up from the morning lesson without an intention, that’s also okay. So, is that okay? Can we also do things without an intention until we reach in order to bestow?
R. Until we come to in order to bestow all the work that brings us closer to in order to bestow is also considered holy work.
15. S. (46:10) It turns out that the whole time of Egypt, the Egyptians seemingly hold us over the intention to bestow, so we won’t go there. According to this excerpt, and in general from everything we studied it turns out that the period of Egypt is specifically about the intention so we will not shift into the intention to bestow
R. The Egyptians give us everything except from being in the intention in order to bestow, and by that they help us perform the scrutiny of what it is to be in spirituality and this is their work. We need to understand that all those forces that we’re under are the forces of the Creator, spiritual forces that operate upon us in a more disclosed way, less disclosed way in all kinds of manners. So, the Egyptians are called the force of the Creator as explained to us what the will to receive is and in what manner it operates upon us and how we can emerge out of its control.
S. What is in the intention to bestow so that there is such resistance that we will shift to it?
R. The intention in, in order to bestow makes the whole essence of all of my actions from corporeal to spiritual. Where I don’t attribute anything to me no forces and not the action itself and not the result of the action. But rather simply I myself disconnect. What remains for me is just to ascribe what I have in mind and heart, to the Creator and that what I have is from him and what I’m aimed towards is also to him, and I myself am zero but that zero defines that all that the Creator puts in me, all belongs to him.
S. So when it says that when we read, that there is hard work here, hard labor, this discernment of the hard labor, it’s over, it’s about the transition from the intention to receive to the intention to bestow?
R. Yes the bottom line that’s where it is but until we get to such a short definition, in order to, we have a lot of hard labor to get there
S. But in what is our ability to perform this transition the light performs all these changes in us. Where do we have any control over our intentions?
R. You have control by turning to the light, you have the control of coming to that cry just like a baby that compels his mother.
S. So this is seemingly the only action that we have to do?
R. Eventually yes and the people of Israel cried out from their work
S. So we can see the whole period of Egypt as a period that brings us to a scrutiny of the outcry; how to shift from one intention to the other?
R. Yes and that cry leads us all the way to The Parting of the Red Sea it’s a cry that includes within it the inclusion of our adhesion to the Creator that inevitably and even from the desire first of all, coercively and later in the desire in which we come to a state in which we want to be the Creator’s servants.
S. What is the end, the tip where a person decides that that’s it I can no longer live in in order to receive, I have to shift to in order to bestow?
R. That edge is where he is capable in the darkness of Egypt to run away to run away from the in order to receive. He has no desire, intention or other inclination to just run away to disconnect from in order to receive.
16. S. (51:18) You said that we have to do what the Kabbalist tell us 100% and if something of the advice of the Kabbalist we don’t manage to do it let’s say I don’t participate in dissemination or I don’t go to Yeshivat Haverim then what?
R. If we don’t do our actions according to the council that we get from the Kabbalist accordingly we weaken and prolong the days of exile. That’s how it is.
Excerpt 96 (52:04) Twice
Excerpt 97 (55:08)
17. R. (55:53) Meaning we can see according to the external deeds of a person whether he is in a spiritual path or not. According to the external acts which says nothing about his heart. Maybe he’s doing it out of him wanting us to think nicely about him.
Reader continues: “intention this is called the hidden part…”
18. S. (57:19) To the 96th excerpt I wanted to ask what is the male and female work
R. That’s not so important to us since we will learn that it’s the work in order to receive in order to bestow of all kinds of types, we will understand that later.
19. S. (58:18) Why from this world to the spiritual world we start with action in order to change our intention and not the way around?
R. The question is so how can we act upon the spiritual world with corporeal actions that’s maybe more of a general question. Of course we cannot change something with our corporeal actions but we are in the middle, the one who performs the action is made of a body and soul and he is made up of the corporeal part and the spiritual part. Therefore this is what is special in this creature called a person where he can resemble the Creator even with his corporeal actions because through these corporeal actions he compels, he obligates his desire to receive to change. Which is why we need to begin our work even by gathering in the group and doing all kinds of group actions: we sit, we eat, we sing and more and more. Who needs those things? What spirituality do we have in that? On the contrary it is such a simple corporeal action but by these corporeal actions we are operating upon our desire and we have no other means for the time being to influence our desires.
S. Is this because we are rising from the bottom up to the ladder that’s why we start from actions and then our intentions and our desire changes gradually degree by degree?
R. That is also correct but mainly we have nothing else to influence for the time being. There is no other way for us to influence the point in the heart. We need to change the intentions of our heart. The heart is called the desire of a person, we’re not capable to influence it only through all kinds of side means, sideway means seemingly that are actions where we connect we hear, we sing, eat together, even study together where we feel that we are dependent upon one another somewhat therefore we organize into groups those are our actions in which we gradually slowly slowly come closer to bestowal in our heart to influence our heart.
20. S. (01:01:56) This persuasion by all the Egyptians that it is worthwhile to work in order to receive this is actually advancing on the left line so where is the Holiness here? It is like religion really.
R. All the religions talk about the acts of the person for himself that by that he benefits this world, the next world, the Garden of Eden, Heaven etc. Meaning, in order to receive they all stemmed from the wisdom of Kabbalah but made those actions to in order to receive for the benefit of a person therefore a person adheres to such actions and becomes fanatical about them and even extreme about it and by that he has interest. That is the whole matter of religions. Look at with strong powers are there but in order to bestow there is no strength, there’s no force, there’s no desire, there’s no necessity on behalf of the nature of man therefore the wisdom of Kabbalah is a place that people come to only those that feel that this is the truth but how much is the truth worthwhile for us, what force does it have. There are no forces in our world for the truth.
21. S. (01:04:00) Is faith above reason… Is there some relevance to faith above reason to acceleration of the transition from myself to others?
R. I do not understand your question. What does it mean?
S. We have to shift from in order to receive to in order to bestow so is faith above reason relevant?
R. Of course without that you can’t move over there without the force of bestowal it’s called faith above reason, its the force of bestowal, a force that goes out above the force of reception so certainly without me acquiring such forces from above I won’t be able to relate to the other in bestowal. It will always be forces of reception on my behalf.
22. S. (01:05:32) He says that the body and waste are broken through the hard work, what exactly breaks in this work, what does it mean?
R. The will to receive is constantly under the pressure as all the work that it’s told that it needs to do in order to bestow is against it.
23. S. (01:06:06) What should we promise to the will to receive in order to persuade it to give us power, strength?
R. At first we need to promise the will to receive that it will receive everything according to what it wants. It’s like with a baby. We give it whatever it wants and that’s how it grows. The more it grows, more and more then we start to limit the baby and this you’ll receive and this not, this is good and this is not good and so on. That’s how we teach him and stabilize him in a way that he can become big. It is the same with us.
24. S. (01:07:06) What is the good that we know and that the world doesn’t know about?
R. We know that the purpose of creation is to come to the force of bestowal which is the creator. To rise above the force of reception called the imaginary world where it seems to us that were in some reality that is all established under the force of reception but it’s a lie. In truth it only appears to us this way, that we are in a world that is all the force of reception but rather when we rise in the force of bestowal which is above the force of reception we begin to see that the whole world is opposite that, that it’s under the force of bestowal, it’s the force of the creator and the Creator or the presence of the Creator or Shechina, Holy Divinity fills all of reality.
25. S. (01:08:13) Is the taste of dust in reception is what actually gives us the flavor in bestowal?
R. There is something in that I can’t now interpret it, but without the taste, the flavor of dust we won’t be able to differentiate also forces of bestowal. Therefore in all of the commandments, all the Mitzvot they say in memory of the Exodus from Egypt. Meaning that we always need to somewhat touch that force of reception in order for us from that rise to the force of bestowal and that’s how it is until the end of correction.
26. S. (01:09:05) How can we guarantee that the fuel for our friends will not be diverted, distracted so much that they will leave the path?
R. We advance slowly, slowly, gradually we learn these things from the sources in a very gradual way and with the help of the friends that prepare the study material for us I can see that they are very loyal to the path and above them is the upper force that manages their hearts and that’s how we advance. I am very happy that we have such an organization that follows persistently and meticulously and this is how we come with a big quantity of people to the spiritual degrees.
27. S. (01:10:10) How does the mechanism work of changing the intention through action, what should we focus on? In order for it to be effective?
R. The act itself doesn’t do anything but because we are the ones that are acting and we are made of matter and spirit. Everyone has desire and this desire is nevertheless connecting with other desires and influence upon Everyone by doing so we, also bestow to the Creator therefore we change our current form, current state.
28. S. (01:11:00) If we cannot trust our intentions we cannot see, why do we give importance to the intention? What could help the ten to advance, only the mechanical act? In the article it is written in the last one we just read, I think I understood, that we cannot trust the intentions. So why do we give the importance to the intention just like in the article 155?
R. In order for us to want to receive the intention in order to bestow from above from the Creator more than the change of our intention we do not need anything else. Because intention is everything, what a person aims for. There are people that take a knife and cut open another person’s body and that is called a crime and there are those that do that and it is called a commitment because it is a surgeon that is performing a healing act towards a person. So it is not a matter of the action itself but the intention of what he is doing to the other. Therefore our entire study of the wisdom Kabbalah is the study of the correct intention. How in each and every action we do we will think about what we want to attain as a result of this action, that is it.
29. S. (01:16:44) How to connect the right intentions if they are even concealed from ourselves?
R. If the intentions are concealed, there is nothing to do but we will try more and more to be more with the intention to bestow. This comes also through corporeal actions because what happens to us, we are in the physical world not for no reason but rather we can perform actions here in the mutual work between us, and dissemination, outside of us also, and this is how more and more we are incorporated between us and enter into space which by even the physical, external actions connections between us, that are different, we come to a state in which the upper light bestows upon us and aims us more and more, guides us. Also gives us the opposite, all kinds of states that we see that we cannot connect and this is how we advance. I even see that there’s advancement amongst women even greater than amongst the men. They started from afar and now they are closer.
S. So what does it mean that the intention to connect with the intention of other friends?
R. That they understand more and more the extent and which the connection between us is necessary for the extent in which the connection between us is necessary for attaining the goal, to the attainment of the goal. The more important the goal is it will obligate us for connection, to the extent to which it is less important we will not want to connect. I need to see that there is no choice but the goal is attained through the connection between us.
30. S. (01:19:18) How can we see if our heart and mind are in the right direction in the work? How can we see discern if we lie to ourselves about our heart and mind in the work?
R. It is not important how much we are lying to ourselves or not, we do not understand that, according to degree in which we understand that is what we have. That is it and it shouldn’t stop me that I am in a lie. It is like a little child, that is him and the extent and which he behaved for his development for his age and that is us too. We should not be ashamed or worried about what we are capable or not capable. That is a intention that we are just moving forward
31. S. (01:20:11) What is working without a reward?
R. Working without a reward means that I do not want to get any kind of reward in my vessels of reception for my desire to receive, only for my desire to bestow. In my work I wish to reach a state where I received the forces of in order to bestow and that I will be entirely directed towards bestowing outwards and not that it will come to me only in these moments where I am especially awoken or awakened but I will feel that it is changing inside of me and more and more that I am under the forces of bestowal and that that is my normal state and more and more as much as possible.
32. S. (01:21:13) Do we discover the quality of bestowal every time anew on every degree or do we add to what we attain?
R. We add everytime we add more and more of course.
33. S. (01:21:36) Is reception of the burden of the Kingdom of Heaven the force of annulment?
R. Receiving the burden of Heaven is the force of annulment and not only annulment but bestowal that I learned from the Creator and I try to be like him.
S. Do we ask for it from a real desire to bestow?
R. A real desire to bestow I do not know. We ask for it and usually it goes through our desire to bestow as much as possible and it depends on the extent to which we are connected in the group because, all in all, we reach the Creator through all of our connections. So even if I am little and maybe my situation isn’t that great but still through the group I could reach a state where I will come closer to the Creator.
34. S. (01:22:51) There is a feeling that spiritual work has to be very hard, how can we do everything in happiness?
R. That we are on the path. This needs to give us joy and it doesn’t matter where on the path that I am, the main thing is that I am in the right direction. I left one point and I’m reaching another point, so the fact that I am in the right direction and that I am in a group meeting, some kind of chariot that is taking me from place A to place B that already is my joy that I am on the path and I will get there when I get there. If I am included in the group I am under the rule of the power of the Creator as I have nothing to worry about but to become more and more Incorporated in the group.
35. S. (01:24:05) How can we inside get powers for the truth?
R. How do you get powers to the truth? For the truth. I would put it this way, simply, truth consists of three letters Aleph, Tav, Mem. Aleph is like the Keter, Tav is like the Malchut and Mem is like Bina. So I am joyous, I am glad because I am connected, related to these three letters, I’m in the ten in the place where it is implemented.
36. S. (01:25:05) Why couldn’t Israel take control over the Egyptians? If Israel aspired to the Creator why couldn’t they shut their mouths to the Egyptians?
R. We have just one point from spirituality, just one and the Egyptians are the whole of reality, that great big desire to receive from the Creator. So how can I, with this one point, overcome all the Egyptians, Pharaoh who is King, the great big desire to receive created by the Creator. How can that be? I have just one option of reaching a state where I will run away also after blows serious ones that Pharaoh goes through, the Pharaoh inside of me and then because I have no other choice I run away from Egypt. Meaning that I start feeling the extent to which the actions that I take are ones of reception and how it really pains me, that I run away from them. Not from the process itself, from the wisdom of Kabbalah, from the group but from feeling that it is the Pharaoh that is controlling me. Eventually such revelations of mine time and time again meaning these escapes, this is what eventually guides me on the path from Egypt. We will learn what it means that Moses fled Pharaoh and went to Midian and everything that is going on here there are many processes here Egypt is not just some short kind of story where he goes into Egypt and exits Egypt, takes a package with a big will to receive from there and exits the place in order to correct the desire to receive and reach the end of correction. But it is an extended process of how to become included, integrated in the entire desire of Egypt which is the desire to receive which means that we correct everything that we take out of Egypt.
37. S. (01:27:57) How can we prevent the thoughts of the Egyptians, avoid the thoughts of the Egyptians while connected in the ten?
R. We cannot. We always fall and fall into the intentions and desires of the Egyptians and then later we identify them among us and correct them. That is the work. When we exit Egypt all in all, what we do is that we correct all of the desires that we have taken from Egypt. There is nothing else that we can do about this, there is nothing else to do. We enter Egypt, we take the desire to receive that enters through us through Pharaoh, exit the control of Egypt ,the control of Pharaoh and take that desire with the intention in order to bestow and that is the end of correction.
38. S. (01:29:13) How to develop the desire to run from the will to receive?
R. That is the difference between being alone and being a nation meaning in connection. That we have no choice unless or only if we connect with each other as much as we can. It doesn’t matter by how much but as much as we can. This is how we want to connect to each other with one another and to reach a state among us to be as one man with one heart which is the end of correction.
S. You said against bestowal you cannot even have a small movement without having force and guidance from above. How to get forces and guidance from above and how to know that it did not come from the Egyptians who confuse me?
R. To pray to the Creator for him to give us the ability to connect. That is it and not to think about the faces of the friends but about their heart.
39. S. (01:30:39) You said that the will receive is constantly under pressure and the work before us is against it so how can you deal with it in the best way possible?
R. Together. There is no other answer.
40. S. (01:31:27) Heard something special so it turns out that if in a deep directed way we can build our intention, so that organizes our whole life and not the other way around. Meaning that we do not connect the intention to our life but the intention is what builds our physical actions.
R. True. Nice. You are starting to straighten out properly.
41. S. (01:32:22) The true intention of the heart is hidden and we need to do actions of bestowal but why within me do I see the opposite, I feel the desire to give but I see that all of my actions are with the end of receiving, with the intentions of receiving?
R. That is how it is supposed to be. Do you think that you reach some sort of spiritual action and you correct it or is it the Creator who corrects it? At the end of each spiritual action you discover that you are even worse than you thought and without connecting to the Creator and demanding of him to correct you it will not work and then you turn to him. So the revelation of evil is where you are completely powerless, you understand nothing, you are incapable of attaining anything of yourself even if all your intentions and desires are all pretty and nice. That is called the end of the way. It is called “and the children of Israel aside from the work and their prayer rose to the Creator and the Creator heard”. Meaning that it is only the middle of the way that we discover that nothing happens that we cannot do anything. So what do we do? Then we cry out to the Creator that he needs to do it and not us and the more we discover it the more we will try to turn to him until he does the final correction. That is it.
42. S. (01:34:30) Because there is None Else Besides Him so we see how the Creator himself tries to make a vessel of us through our Rav so he will be revealed in that vessel. How successful are we to make you happy and to make him happy and how much more effort do we need to make to make him happy?
R. We are now advancing from lesson to lesson in a real gradual and real way. You could take every lesson that we went through and really see that these are degrees, the rungs of the ladder where we are advancing more and more towards real corrections. But still we feel no result and it doesn’t mean that we are doing nothing. These corrections are something that we are going through, we learn that we need to connect and that we need to turn to the Creator for him to correct us and elevate us to the degree of bestowal. For us to treat each other moore as friends on the path that we need to be interconnected with each other, To the extent and which I want to bestow to everyone, I want to bestow to the Creator and I cannot bestow more to the Creator more than I bestow to the friends.
This is what we learned from lesson to lesson and a more practical way through our excerpts, discussions, scrutinies. So we actually have a very clear form of bestowal, of advancement, of progress only we need to be very consistent and it cannot be that I’m not coming or I did not come to some lesson because these are really becoming degrees, rungs and you cannot just leap over one and you’ll have to repeat it, go back to it, go over that lesson and it’s in the archive. If you can’t participate live then nonetheless to advance and this is something that I’m really recommending to you not to miss out on any lesson but to go to the archive and listen to it again and again and to advance that way. Here there cannot be any compromises. Don’t say I couldn’t for me these are different times, the time zone is different. I have different problems. You have to go over all of the lessons gradually because that is how they are built. We are only going through it the way that it is written about in the Torah and now actually we are in very important scrutinies which is also that according to the calendar that we are right before the Passover and the exodus from Egypt and we are studying about it and let us implement it as much as we can.
43. S. (01:38:22) It seems like in this description that we are seeing the development of man and since the appearance of the intention as a separate entity within an action, that is the job of man. It seems like all of the problems that we are having is because we refuse to work on this level and this level and it seems like this story is actually very human in nature, like it encompasses all of us in a very inner level. Is this correct?
R. Yes. True.
S. Everyday we as a ten come up with a mission and I know we said that the action is not so important but sometimes these actions that we come up with are very hard to do. Is that because we are kind of starting to work on the intention from the action?
R. There are many reasons for it. I would not like to answer it now. These are things you need to scrutinize. It allows you to connect in a multi-faceted way to the path, to the reason, to the means by which we can advance. So it is good that you yourselves deal with it.
44. S. (01:40:31) Aside from the work that we do between us, the studies and the meetings, is it good to imagine with our mind what would be the end of correction or at least within our feeling and mind a great connection between us?
R. Good question. I want to see the end of correction now so that I will know what I am supposed to come closer to. Nice, so what I will show you, the end of correction in a movie. The end of correction means that everyone loves each other, that everyone is interconnected, that everyone is in a state where there is no difference between anyone, that I do not see the bodies but I feel that we are all in one heart, in one desire that consists of many desires but they all act as one desire and one inclination which is to bestow to each other limitlessly and all of that in order to sustain, maintain the Creator inside of them in order to bestow to him, that is it. Depict the situation that way and live it.
45. S. (01:42:37) You said before that we advance from one lesson and then to the next in a gradual way and we need to take every lesson and not miss it. I wanted to ask if every ten goes through this hierarchy of degrees separately or is it something mutual to all of us?
R. Every ten goes through states of its own because gradually it is becoming a Partzuf, and this Partzuf has a role of its own. Not that it is that different from the others but still it is different like cells in the same body.
S. Still there is something mutual to everyone because we are all feeling Passover, we are all feeling these states.
R. Right, it is only hard for us to compare when you say everyone but yes, everyone.
46. S. (01:43:45) About what you said about missing a lesson, it was clear to me what you said about how every lesson is a new degree but what can I do if you miss a lesson, once, a second time you start feeling that you have already ruined the path and that this flaw gets deeper more and moore. Then you start thinking while I already ruined everything so it doesn’t really matter if you miss one more lesson. Then it seems like things become less and less important. So how to fix it, how to return to a state where you believe that you can organize it all?
R. Look, this is not simple. It is written about it, that before you enter the group you sign the Covenant of Arvut. That we need to support each other whether we like it or not everyone has to do their work in the group. There is no other way about it. The other thing besides that, besides your group is that there are other groups too and there’s the management above it and nonetheless you need to hold on to each other that is how you will help each other. That is the only way. So please take such actions that will keep the group up and not that you fall and no one even sees that someone fell. There is no such thing.
S. No translation.
R. A person cannot do it and also does not need to think about what happened in the past. Doesn’t need to think about the past but only about the future. Therefore it says if you leave me for one day I will leave you for two days, meaning that if you miss a lesson then it will be arranged such that you will miss another lesson and another. Be careful not to miss even one lesson and when you remember immediately without even thinking you need to make any room for such thoughts to come or not to come, first of all, you just need to do it forcefully and then think. So come to the lesson, incorporate in the friends, it will give you a new mind and then you’ll start to feel yourself as healing from this problem.
47. S. (01:47:03) What you asked answered now those two friends in the ten we have a few friends that because of family matters so sometimes they go away for a week or two or even one day, they disconnect from the lesson so how does that happen that you leave me for a day and I’ll leave you for two. We make the efforts because part of the ten does make great efforts so how can we bring them back to the half?
R. No problem. No problem. We decide on certain times we play the lesson from the archive and listen to it together again. They listen to it the first time and now we’re going to listen to it the second time. That is how we force them to be together with us and that is how we repeat the lesson and we really benefit from it.
48. S. (01:48:30) If I feel how important our work is in the world I would feel like a hero, like Superman but if I feel like I am great in any of this, I fall under the domain of Pharaoh. So I just feel like I am standing still because I do not want to make mistake, so I do not kind of grab onto how important everything is. So I feel like I’m stuck in the air.
R. You need to feel that you are great, that you are capable of annulling yourself towards the Creator and that you are capable of performing any kind of bestowal with the help, that your greatness comes as a result of your connection to the Creator then you will have no problem. Be proud. It is called to be proud in the ways of the Creator but to be proud because you are connected to the Creator because you are taking his ways.
49. S. (01:49:41) If a friend has a chronic disease and he cannot be in every lesson. He hears the recordings and it really devours him because he thinks that he is pulling the ten down and he wants to leave the ten or maybe go to a different ten. What could you advise such a friend?
R. I would advise not to let him go and to hold him as much as possible as much as you can and to repeat the lesson with him and to connect again around the lesson and again and again around the lesson. In a lesson there are many forces, not only mine, but of all the friends from the entire world, men, women, everyone and so it is good to connect to the lesson again and to listen to the lesson again and to listen as a rerun from the archive and to continue that way. Not to allow him to leave. It is not that you are helping him, by that he is helping you.
50. S. (01:51:09) What is the difference between trying to set your own intention which you cannot trust yourself versus trying to build a common intention with the ten because the common desire is more tangible, common deficiency?
R. Excellent. As a result of seeing and feeling that you are completely powerless and holding yourself on the path towards the goal and that you’ll fall for sure and err that you will not even know you fell and you erred. So from that you hold onto them like a little kid grabs hold of his mother’s dress and goes with her in order to not lose her. That is what you need to do. It is beautiful if everyone feels that this is actually his salvation and it is good that a person feels so small in relation to the group. Like Rabash writes like he feels himself as a zero in comparison to others that is a sign of progress.
51. S. (01:52:35) Where can we take a deficiency for the morning lesson if there is no deficiency?
R. I don’t know what you’re talking about. So I read that lesson, what we are going to study the next day and I read it today and I will not read a few days ahead but only what we are going to do tomorrow just for the next day. I want to be concentrated exactly on the material that we are learning tomorrow. So today I will read throughout the day until tomorrow all the materials that belong to tomorrow a few times. I will also read or listen to yesterday’s lesson, the previous one in order to be more prepared, to have the same spirit, the same topic for tomorrow’s lesson. In this way I feel myself that I am on the path, I’m on the way with everyone together. I am doing it because without this how can I come to the lesson and teach and answer, I have to be immersed in this material and it doesn’t have to be new to me and when I read the text of the lesson, so I put all sorts of marks for myself, all sorts of points that I understand maybe that this isn’t clear or this is wrong or this is good or this I need to emphasize or here I need to stop and come back, I want to understand the materials.
Through the materials I want to be connected to my teacher Rabash and in this way I advance. This is called my advancement from day to day, that I feel that I am connected to him more and more and his text becomes for me, how do I say it, it is like water I’m drinking and it is filling me. It is something that has to be a place of fulfillment for me that is why we have to read it, yesterday’s lesson to learn it, to listen to it and the next day it is a must to do it an advance, to read it in advance and to write questions, this I want to ask about, this I do not understand. You can also talk about the next day’s lesson together. What would you want to ask and understand and feel and how it works between you or not. It does not have to be something concealed.
S. It’s all the will to receive?
R. So what, of course I want to be connected to the materials and through this I get the light that reforms and it builds the will to bestow in me.
52. S. (01:56:35) What does it actually mean to discover the truth on our path? You touched on many points but eventually what does it mean to discover the truth on the path?
R. The truth on the path that I am in the will to receive and from it I must enter that desire just in a manner of bestowing in order to bestow.
S. So by actually wanting to all the time see the well-being of the group, of Bnei Baruch in general, that is my intention that is what I want to reach?
R. Yes.
53. S. (01:57:32) Why can Israel only be … and the hard work instead of going against him? Is he untouchable? We can not kill our ego?
R. You cannot fight Pharaoh. It is the upper force, the force of the Creator. Pharaoh and the Creator is the face and back of the same upper force. A person has no way to fix or in some what to even change Pharaoh, his ego. There is no way to do it ,whoever does do it, just know that it is a lie and he cannot even see or know or understand as much as he is lying to himself. That is our already instead of the wisdom of Kabbalah it becomes a religion. That is seems to someone that they are in order to bestow and for the benefit of the others and love everyone, but actually in no way did he come out of the will to receive for himself. That is what happens with faith and religion and spiritual methods, supposedly.
54. S. (01:59:33) I wanted to ask you regarding the question on the morning lesson to the fact of listening to it again. The problem is this, I listen again to the morning listen everyday, and because I listen again I write down the questions, because I could understand during a lesson I couldn’t be more focused, but the problem is when I write down the question and I come to the question, the lesson, the topic is changed so I cannot ask about what I thought in the previous lesson, how can we solve this problem?
R. Don’t solve the problem, leave it the way it is, don’t think that if you hear some answer to some question so by that you advance and you really gain something. The main thing are the questions the questions not the answers. The answers you’ll get later on every time you advance and a different answer for the same question, every time you’ll have a different answer, and it’s no problem it’s really like that so it’s good, keep going, you’ll succeed and don’t let it stop you.
S. So when you say to write down the questions you don’t say the fact of the question you but only to write it down and to keep it for ourselves?
R. Yes, here I write questions too and I just leave them there I don’t even ask you about it. The questions are part of the studies and then you see whether you ask correctly or not and whether you see it or not it doesn’t matter, it’s part of the study, we are constantly in questions and answers questions and answers ,this is our life each and every moment.
55. S. (02:02:17) You recommend us to read the study materials for the next day and also of course to repeat the daily morning lesson and there are many other things that we do during the day as well with different roles that we have and zoom and everything. How is it possible to find time for all of this?
R. I don’t know, I really don’t know, but that’s what it needs to be. Try.
S. So how to prioritize things, what are my priorities in relation to the ten, in relation to the path?
R. The priority is that you with the friends read the excerpt for the next day and if you have time left you have read excerpts from the current day that there were and more, as much as you can. I understand there’s no time and to do even another prayer and another discussion or what there’s no time for all of these things, but try, try as much as you can to still compress these things.