I Dwell Among My Own People

Hello to all our dear friends who've joined us from around the world. Everyone who has chosen to join the lesson - new and veteran students. We're very happy and feeling very grateful to sit here right now and read the writings of Rabash. He wrote it for us. Each article is like a whole book to help and guide us. We know him thanks to our great teacher Michael Laitman

We have the next 90 minutes to go deep into Rabash's and Rav's words - and to feel together and attract the light that will allow us to come to the morning lesson fully fueled up and inspired.

Today we'll be reading A Prayer of Many - we'll try to verify what type of prayer we need to aspire to build. And we'll try to build a common prayer together.

Clip: Intro before reading the article

We have read, learned, and spoken many times that the main thing is that our appeal to the Creator should not be to one person but from a ten, a group, even a minority of two, and yet not one. Therefore, our entire tendency should be, first of all, to feel that we are connected together, as much as possible as one person with one heart, and from this, we are already addressing the Creator and not alone.

The person who addresses the Creator alone is not fulfilling this principle, that the Creator expects all of us and that we will be no less than a dozen, although the minority of the many is two, that we must connect with friends and much of this connection that we are together in the power that we bring out there among us as the common power, with which we address the Creator and then the Creator hears the prayer. Therefore, our prayer is called "a prayer of many," as the title of this article says.

Here are the main points of this article -

>> The correction is general and does not happen in one person, but in the relationship between people.

>> If an individual thinks about himself - how he will correct himself without any connection with others, then he simply does not understand and does not properly arrange the system for the bestowal of the light that reforms us. Therefore, he has no hope for correction.

>> All the correction is between the broken vessels, and not in the broken vessel itself. The vessel is not broken, the connection between him and others is broken.

>> The main problem is that a person is always dragged into thinking about himself, supposedly correcting himself, and this is a bitter mistake. Because he may be making very great efforts, but these are not efforts in his relationship with others, and it is precisely the connection between him and others that has disappeared from him, he always forgets this.

>> There should be group work here, a group effort in the examples of "each will help the other" to the extent that each of us directly, naturally and artificially, arouses the others through envy, through respect, that we all become alert to actually correct the relationship between us.

>> This is the thing we hate the most and don't care about the most, but we still have to remember it, and we constantly try to remind each other. Because without directly addressing the relationship between us, we don't make any corrections. We make all sorts of preparations, but not actual corrections.

>> The main thing for us is to reach a state where the situation of the group, the connection in the group, their spiritual health, will be so important to me that I only think about that, like a mother about her babies. And nothing else matters to me, I don't think about myself. If in this way I achieve a deficiency, a deficiency only for the group, only for the members, then I am already acting in the right way.

>> In other words, our only concern is to acquire a deficiency. That the connection in the group, that they will be connected, and that everyone will be directed towards the Creator in order to be a vessel for His inspiration, to make Him happy with this, if I take care of the connection in the group and its direction towards the Creator, this is actually my most correct form of prayer.

Let's read and feel what else we lack to reach such a prayer. Michael Laitman

The source - Article No. 15, 1986

It is written in The Zohar (Beshalach (When Pharaoh Let), and in the Sulam Commentary, Item 11), “And she said, ‘I dwell among my own people.’ He asks, ‘What does that mean?’ He replies, ‘When Din is present in the world, one should not part from the collective and be alone because when the Din is present in the world, those who are noticed and are noted alone are caught first, even if they are righteous. Hence, one should never retire from the people because the mercy of the Creator is always on the whole people together. This is why she said, ‘I dwell among my own people,’ and I do not wish to part from them.’”

Let's listen to what Rav says about that famous term -

Clip: I dwell among my own people

It is written in the Zohar, “And you said, I dwell among my people.” This means that the Shekhinah dwells between the people. “He asks, what does it mean? And he answers, except that when the law hangs over the world, a person will not separate from the general, from his alone, because when the law hangs over the world, those who were known and recorded alone, even though they are righteous, are perceived from the beginning.” Why? Because they are alone. Even though they are righteous, they are perceived from the beginning. This means that the main thing for a person is to be connected with others. “And therefore no one needs to withdraw” from the general, “from the people forever, because the mercy of God, blessed be He, is always upon the entire people together.” Do you understand? That the Supreme Power is a ruler over the entire general soul, a kingdom of infinity that we are talking about, it fills it, and only on this condition that you are there and to the extent that you are included with everyone, to that extent you are in connection with the Supreme Light. You are alone – you have no connection. “And for this reason she said, ‘I dwell among my people’ and I do not want to be separated from them.”

"For a law that is in the world," meaning, "the will to receive," the will to receive," this is called a law, "which is self-love, that the creatures were born in this nature," it is not their fault but that is how they were created, "as is known by the power of His will to benefit His creatures." This is how it is done, that they are in the will to receive for themselves, in order to receive, "and because there was a will to equalize the form, so that there would be no Nehama d'Supha, a law was made, that it is forbidden to use the vessel of reception,". That is to say, the will to receive is not bad. Even a will in order to receive, so what? But because there is a condition, a law of equivalence of form with the Creator, which is entirely to bestow, so whoever in order to receive... intentionally, no matter what will he has, big, small, someone who is in order to receive is already in a distance, separated from the Creator, and this is called a law that is in the world, "a law was made that it is forbidden to use the vessel of reception, only while he knows, that he will be able to direct the reception in order to bestow, then he is permitted to use it with "A vessel of reception." Michael Laitman