The Need for Love of Friends

Welcome to all our great and special friend who the Creator has assembled here with a sparkling point in the heart - in the midst of all the distractions of our world. Each of you is very special and we're so happy you're with us today.

We have an opportunity to read Rabash today - and that justifies us living today. The day hasn't been wasted. We can see what we can add and that's another matter - thinking of the friends, praying to the Creator etc. But we're really inspired because we're watching lessons from 20 years ago - and we don't remember anything from those days. But every day we're discovering how great our teacher is - and how his lessons are not ties to any specific time. His lessons suit the deficiency that the student has built.

Today we're reading the article The Need for Love of Friends. Now is a good time to think whether it's important to us or not to love the friends. We'll hear what Rabash has to say about that - Rav gave an intro to this article in the following clip -

Clip: Introduction to The Need to Love Friends

As an introduction to the topic "The Need to Love Friends," I will emphasize that there is no light without a vessel, no fulfillment without a deficiency. Everything depends on the will, because the light is in abundance, in complete rest, and we are in the light of the infinite. A person's feeling depends solely on his deficiency towards it. That is, if we want to feel the attribute of influence and love according to the equality of form with it, then we will feel. We will feel that we live, we will feel that we are present, we will feel that we are filled with it. If we do not need to be in the attribute of bestowal and love, then we will not feel it, even though it is present and fills all of reality. But reality itself, namely the will, we will not feel it.

That is, the Creator who created will, was created by abundance, by the light, by the attribute of bestowal and love, but the feeling within the will, depends on how much this will itself yearns for that attribute that created it, that fills it.

Therefore, we have two things, there is desire, which is a very passive thing, the material of creation, and there is longing, which is already what the material of creation develops from itself and according to this it begins to feel the power of bestowal. The power of love, the power of filling, the degree of liveliness, the life in it. And if the desire comes from the light, from above, the longing comes from below, and the lower must develop it.

By what does one develop longing? Only by detaching oneself from the filling that is made by the refraction, which is made from above and below. Even in the detached state, there is a spark within the desire, from the longing, from its tendency, which gives the desire, an opportunity, a possibility to begin to desire to achieve bestowal, until one really longs for the light, one who longs is called "Kishoi", which is called "above the will that is in him". By this is measured the essence of the creature. Michael Laitman

So what we want to do right now is develop yearning from below - the difference between desire and yearning is that we can only get yearning from the friends. We'll use this lesson to ask to have this yearning - especially if we don't have it.

The Need for Love of Friends

Rabash Article No. 14, 1988

There are many merits to it:

1) It brings one out of self-love and to love of others. It is as Rabbi Akiva said, “Love your friend as yourself is the great rule of the Torah,” since by this he can come to love the Creator.

However, we should know that loving others or working for the sake of others is not the purpose of creation, as the secular understand it. The world was not created for one to do good to another. Rather, the world was created for each one to receive pleasure for himself. Saying that we must work for the sake of others is only the correction of creation, not the purpose of creation. The correction is that in order to prevent the matter of shame, there was a correction of bestowal, which is the only way for the creatures to receive the complete delight and pleasure for themselves without the flaw of shame.

As Rabash explains, loving others is not the goal - it's the means for ridding ourselves of shame in reaching the Creator.

Clip on the topic of Shame

Shame is a necessity, it is a kind of test, whether I am in harmony or in opposition with the Creator. If I develop the feeling of shame, towards the distinction of the recipient or bestower, then I really acquire a sense in it, with which I can go and progress, and be sure that I am progressing correctly. Therefore, that sharpness of distinction that we can receive in the right environment, towards the right shame, which is solely in love and bestowal, or in its disadvantage, is a very important thing. This is actually the whole essence of society, that it gives me this distinction and the ability to develop it. Michael Laitman

The world acts according to egoistic values and we want to transition to having higher values. And we can't do this alone. That's what all this is about. The whole purpose of society is for us to have the right conditions for making the transition.