Lesson Preparation
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Lesson on the Topic “To Bestow Contentment to The Creator” (Preparation for the Convention in Arava 2019)
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words, Item 311
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Future Generation”
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Criticism is allowed for only 30 minutes after a person has worked for 23 1/2 hours a day in the right line, that is, he has justified everything. The work in the right line is to transfer our left line, our discontent, into the right line, through our efforts.
After a person has made the correct preparation during the 23 1/2 hours, keeping himself in the right line all the time and having trained himself to work in it, he should force himself to awaken the left line, the critical attitude. It is not easy for him to do this; he has already become accustomed to being in Hassadim, in mercy, merged with the Creator in the right line, and now he checks how much he can add to this bestowal for the sake of bestowal, to the small state.
One should always strive for a small state (Katnut); a big state (Gadlut) is only an addition, AHP de Aliya (AHP of ascent), that is, a tiny part of the desires to receive that can join the desires to bestow. The main thing is that a person moves to the left line not when he suddenly dislikes something, but only after he has built the right line with his efforts and has the right to awaken the left line.
We are constantly positioned against the Creator: “There is none else besides Him.” But the Creator clothes in outer garments, representing the whole of reality: inanimate nature, plants, animals, and people. We must penetrate through these garments, clothe in them, and accept and reveal the Creator in them. In order to break through these garments, we must first gain the desire for bestowal. Only then, as small additions, do we add the desires to receive to it, which is called the 30 minutes a day.
You can determine this proportion not only by time, but by weight or size. The idea is to strive for the small state, it is important, and the large state is only an addition that must be carefully weighed. We should understand that we do not work with genuine desires to receive, but weigh what desires to receive we can work with to add pleasure to the Creator above our desires to bestow.
The work with the desires to receive is much more difficult, high, and sublime than the construction of desires to bestow, the giving attitudes toward the Creator.1
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 30 “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”
1 Minute 24:10
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Lesson Preparation
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Lesson on the Topic “To Bestow Contentment to The Creator” (Preparation for the Convention in Arava 2019)
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words, Item 304
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “The Future Generation”
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The assembly of friends (Yeshivat Haverim) is the most important action. And this is not only when we gather physically and sit together. Assembly (sitting together) in spirituality means that we do not use our desires to receive but only the desires to bestow (to sit). We restrict our desires to receive and relate to each other only with bestowal.
While preparing for the assembly of friends, I should imagine that I am going to assemble and unite the parts of my soul into one soul, into one spiritual Partzuf, despite all their differences. And the more this Partzuf grows, improving its quality, the more noticeable the internal differences between the friends will become, simply unbearable. But at the same time, we should unite in order to create one spiritual Kli, a Partzuf in which all opposing properties exist and unite above all differences.
From this, it is clear that the assembly of friends is the most important action through which we correct our soul and make a place for the Creator to reveal Himself, and we realize the purpose of creation.
We need to perceive the assembly of friends not as a simple meeting for an hour or two; we need to think about the essence of this action. The purpose of man’s existence, his mission in this world, in the spiritual world, and in his life, this all must be brought together to the assembly of friends so that it takes place only for this purpose.
The assembly of friends helps in implementing all the conditions revealed in each of us and in the whole world. We must not ignore any parameter; we need to attach each one to the one Kli for its maximum completeness on our level so that the Creator could reveal Himself and enjoy us.1
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/20/19, Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Article 30 “What to Look For in the Assembly of Friends”
1 Minute 00:28
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I do not work on my sensations and mind, I want only one thing: to be incorporated in others and receive through this inclusion new sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch. Through the connection with the friend I am now building a man, Adam, similar to the Creator. I do not care about my current feelings because all of them are at the animalistic level.1
From the 3rd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/19, Writings of Baal HaSulam,“The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah,”
1 Minute 33:10
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Articles “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 14, “The Need for Love of Friends” (1988)
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The ten is a raft that saves you in a stormy sea. First, you need to grab it and not let go. When you are already holding on to it and even sitting on this plank of wood, you go through all the ascents and descents, lowering your head before each rolling wave, as Rabbi Akiva did escaping from a sinking ship.
It does not matter what kind of waves they are: in sensation or in understanding, bigger or smaller—I accept them only in order to strengthen my connection with the plank. After all, I depend only on it; if I let it go, I will perish.
To grab hold of a raft means to hold onto the center of the ten and not let go, to be connected with the friends and try to see the purpose of creation in the strongest, most internal connection with them. The Creator is there and the secret of my life is there.
Whatever happens, I will not let go of the connection with the friends. All these images that pass before me cannot disconnect me from: Israel, the Torah and the Creator are one. I am connected to the Creator through the ten and everything that happens is intended only for strengthening this connection: Me—the group—the Creator.
We need to treat the ascents and the descents equally and hold on to the center of the group despite all of the states passing over us.1
There is no need to leave the lesson! We exit the place of study physically, but in fact, we do not. The Creator has arranged our lives in such a way that we have different times and all sorts of states. Everything is given for the purpose of correction. But we attribute only three hours for correction when we are in the lesson. This is incorrect. What about the other hours?2
To strengthen in faith means to strengthen ourselves in the force of bestowal. Beforehand, I had some force of bestowal through which I was connected to the group to a certain extent. Now, when there is a disturbance, the desire to receive grows and I break away from the group, do not think about the friends, do not notice them. There is no space in my heart and mind for them.
Now I need to work to get them back into my heart and mind at the new degree above the height of the new egoism. I start working inside the group, studying and performing all sorts of actions in dark, with the help of the friends, as it is written: “They helped every one his friend,” until again I draw the reforming Light that will bring me a new force of faith. I am separated from the old faith; I have already exhausted it.
The force that lets a person work in a group under the conditions of concealment is called “the covenant of salt” (Brit Melach), mutual guarantee. When I fall and lose everything, the group gives me strength. And when I rise, I give strength to the one who fell: I awaken him, support him, encourage him, set an example, provoke him, and cause him to envy. We need to constantly act together with the whole group as if we are connected, burning, and ready to reveal the Creator at any moment.3
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/9/19, The Right Way To Study The Wisdom Of Kabbalah
1 Minute 30:40
2 Minute 32:37
3 Minute 1:00:20
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Lesson Preparation
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Writings of Rabash, Vol. 1, Articles “Rungs of the Ladder,” Article 1, “Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend – 1” (1985)
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Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words, Item 302
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Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah [The Giving of the Torah],” Item 16
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The inner Light and the surrounding Light influence us in opposite ways. The inner Light gives us the feeling of the present day, and the surrounding Light gives us the feeling of the future. And in this way, we exist between these two opposing influences.
You must be able to use them. After all, if I feel bad today, this may be for the better in the future, and vice versa, if today I feel good, then in the future it can lead to bad consequences. How can you connect “from good to evil” and “from evil to good,” “from today to tomorrow” and “from tomorrow to today?” We can succeed if we know how to work with AHP of Aliya (Awzen, Hotem, Peh of on the rise).
Raising the AHP and turning it into action, we equalize today with tomorrow. And then there will no evil either today or tomorrow. After all, the desires according to which we separate today from tomorrow are corrected by the Light and filled with it. It turns out that we find ourselves in a world full of Light, in the glow of the Light both day and night, as it is written: “Darkness will shine as Light.”
This opportunity is provided for us by Tzimtzum Bet (Second Restriction). Thanks to it, we find ourselves in the system of opposing Lights: internal and surrounding. And due to the AHP on the rise, we can turn the darkness into a permanent Light.1
From the 2nd part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/19, Talmud Eser Sefirot, Vol. 6, Part 16, “Table of Answers for the Meaning of the Words,” Item 260
1 Minute 13:20
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When a person studies Kabbalah, his desires are constantly growing. But this is only for the purpose of giving him the left line, raising in him a corrupted desire to enjoy so that he has something to overcome and something to turn to the Creator with. We need a depth of desire (Aviut) over which we can build the screen and the reflected Light.
We tell the Creator with the reflected Light: “Although You gave us the desire to enjoy, we are building the desire to bestow upon it by restriction, the screen, and the reflected Light. And all this is done with the help of the Light returning to the source called the Torah. The Creator clothes in these corrections in the form of the direct Light, and the Creator merges with the creation.1
We must bring our broken soul to the Creator, but first we need to reveal it. The Creator knows that He broke it and prepared everything, but we need to make this discovery, called the realization of evil. We want to unite in order to reveal the Creator between us and we cannot do it because we are broken. It is necessary to bring this broken vessel of the soul to Him and let Him glue it together! And when He corrects the vessel, He clothes in it.
We must come with this vessel and ask for its correction like a small child in tears would bring his mother a broken plate. There is nothing more to reveal in this world: there was one complete soul and the Creator shattered it. Now we need to detect this shattering and ask Him to correct it and then fill it. There are two kinds of actions that we must evoke: correction and filling.2
The heart is a desire that is initially corrupt, black. As it is written: “For the inclination of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” Therefore, it is necessary to correct it to bestowal so that it loves one’s neighbor. Instead of loving itself, the heart will love others. According to the extent to which a person manages to go outside of himself toward his friends and connect with them by building a common Kli with them, the Creator can clothe in them. This is called a corrected heart.
The heart of one person cannot be corrected. But if a ten is united in their hearts, becoming as one person with one heart, in this way they build their spiritual Kli. In one person there can be no spiritual Kli; you need at least two, and best of all, ten.
It seems to us that it is more difficult to connect ten people than two. But this is not the case. After all, the upper Light comes to the ten in a special format. And if it is less than ten, then it is called: “Why have I come and there is no man,” because it is the ten that is called a Man.
However, even less than ten still draw the Light to themselves but not one because a man alone has no connection with the Light at all.3
We do not yet feel that our egoistic desires are standing between us. We just do not touch each other, we pass by as if we are not connected in any way. This is still far from building a common Kli. The common Kli is built based on the fact that we feel a collision, and above it, a connection. After all, the Creator created the vessel of the soul and broke it. And we need to reveal this shattering, the gap between us, and the way we can reduce this gap by being included in each other. Despite our unwillingness to unite, we nevertheless coerce ourselves to get closer and closer, and then there is a coupling with the help of the Light that reforms.4
The revelation of the Creator to the creatures in this world occurs when within a physical Kabbalistic group, in the union of the hearts, the power of mutual bestowal, the power of faith, the power of Bina, the power of the reflected Light in which the upper force is clothed, the Creator, the illumination of Hochma dressed in the Light of Hassadim is revealed.5
From the 1st part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 1/8/19, “The Right Way To Study The Wisdom Of Kabbalah”
1 Minute 21:10
2 Minute 23:30
3 Minute 30:30
4 Minute 41:20
5 Minute 46:50
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Daily Audio Version-MP3
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