Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend

Hello to all our dear friends. We're very happy to have you with us. We see more and more friends are joining us. We were just talking about our great friend in New Zealand who woke up in the middle of the night to translate the lesson. All the friends who are translating right now - we have a doctor translating to French for example. We thank you for your dedication and hope the Creator will pay you for all your hard work. So it doesn't really matter if someone is actually listening to the translation or not right now - the recording exists and will be heard for decades.

A few hours ago we did an inner screening of the new Baal HaSulam movie with Rav and the director. You could see in the movie how much Baal HaSulam invested in dissemination. And you could really feel that he wasn't doing it for his generation - it was clear to him there was nothing he could do with them. He knew he was writing for the people who would come 50-60 years later.

Before we start reading we'll get direction from Rav in the following clip. He really gives us a program for this concept - Make for Yourself a Rav and Buy Yourself a Friend:

Clip: Our Ultimate Goal

He tells us here that first of all, to determine the goal, our ultimate goal is to discover the Creator. And if we see by definition what the wisdom of Kabbalah is, it is a method of discovering the Creator to the creature in this world. So discovering the Creator, the Supreme Power, who bestows and leads us and watches over us, everything is from Him, one power that operates in the world. Everything else is under Him. To reach Him, to discover Him, to call upon Him, to be like Him, in devotion to Him and so on, that is the goal. It is called "Make yourself a Rav." First of all, that this is the greatest and most important thing, that it determines everything, all the rest of the things are under this goal for me.

That is to say, if it is in accordance with the goal, I take it into account. Then the closer it is to the goal, the less important it is from this goal, or if it is not at all towards the goal, I throw it away, no matter what it is. And so then I begin to sort out everything in my life, all thoughts, all desires, everything. And the less I lie to myself, the more seriously I want to be truly on the same line that brings me to "Make yourself a Rav," that this great one, the Creator, is the goal before me. That's first of all, and then according to that I determine, what is then closest to achieving this goal.

And then I see according to what the Kabbalists say, that to achieve the Creator, one achieves Him, not Him one achieves. The "Creator" is called come and see, and then I achieve Him within my own vessel, that this attribute called "Creator" is revealed in me. What attribute? The attribute of bestowal, the attribute of love. According to what does it reveal? According to my willingness to be influenced and loved myself. Oh, so I mean, I need to build such a desire in myself, a vessel, yes? In myself to want this attribute that it will control me. That it will control, that it will fill me with the attribute of bestowal and love. I mean, that already brings me to a more precise definition, so what do I want, what is the goal. Although I don't want it, but what is the goal anyway.

How do you get to the point where you want this goal, the bestowal and love that will fill me, and that I will be completely only in this attribute, that I will have no more than that, neither in my head nor in my heart. As if it filled me, I have emptied myself of all the other things, I don't know where they have gone, in general as if they never existed, and I am completely in bestowal and love for the whole world. I don't think about myself at all, I don't have such a thought. As if new software has entered my head, into my entire system, that's it, and it controls me, and I become a different person.

How do I get to that? So I get less than this goal and on to... Back to the means, they tell me, by the group, how do I do it? They say, you need to work here in a "buy yourself a friend" way. How do I buy him, maybe you can also buy a Creator? They say, no, you can't buy a Creator, it's a result of the influence of the light that changes your qualities, and brings you by buying the friend, that you are willing to invest in the connection, that you are willing to contribute and do everything, then the upper light appears on you and then it arranges for you a desire for bestowal and love in which you feel the Creator.

I mean, the "buy yourself a friend" is actually something I suddenly see, it's a wonderful thing, I can buy, invest, bestow to someone, give them like that, maybe do all sorts of things, I don't know what, but there is something here that is in my hands, that if I relate to friends, I thereby invite the influence of the upper light upon myself and he brings me the Creator. I mean, friends are simply a springboard to the Creator, through whom I attract Him to me. It's called "and buy you a friend." Michael Laitman

The article reminds us to work on the Make Yourself a Rav - it requires real work making your friend into a Rav, because it doesn't come naturally. Even making Rav a Rav is hard work because we need to agree with him. The same goes for the Creator - I have to work very hard to say to others. The attributes of love and bestowal need to be very respected in our group.

Rabash is saying we're not missing anything except one thing - Make yourself a Rav - so there will be a sense of the greatness of God. And then everyone will be able to do the process.