Local Meeting

Prayer & Workshop

Introduction

In today's meeting, we will clarify the concept of prayer that we have learned and how it is connected to the workshop.  

First, let's read through some of the materials we studied on Sunday to refresh our intention.  

It is recommended to read each quote twice.

“...A request - this is when a person feels what he is lacking. This is specifically in the heart, meaning that it does not matter what he says with his mouth, since “a request” means that a person asks for what he needs, and all of man’s needs are not in the mouth, but in the heart. Therefore, it does not matter what a person says with his mouth. Rather, the Creator knows the thoughts. Hence, what is heard above is only what the heart demands and not what the mouth demands, since the mouth has no deficiency that must be satisfied.”

--Rabash, article # 27, 1991

“For this reason, there must be preparation for the prayer, to accustom oneself to the prayer, as though his mouth and heart are the same. And the heart can come to agree through accustoming, so it would understand that reception means separation, and that the most important is adhesion with the Life of Lives, which is bestowal.”

--Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article # 122

“Hence, when a person comes to pray he should prepare for the prayer. What is this preparation?”
We should interpret that concerning the preparation that each one does, it is in order to know what to ask for, since one must know what to ask for. That is, a person has to know what he needs.

--Rabash, article # 27, 1991

“The only advice to obtain a deficiency, that we are lacking the desire to bestow, is by prayer, which is a “medium” between man and the deficiency. That is, one prays for the Creator to give him something for which he has no deficiency, that he will lack it. It follows that the Kli [vessel] that is called “deficiency” is a deficiency with respect to the feeling, meaning that he does not feel its lack, and the prayer is that the Creator will give him the light, which is the filling of his lack. It therefore follows that the filling is a lack. Thus, he has no other choice but to pray to the Creator to give him a deficiency, and this is what connects the Kli with the light.”

-- -Rabash, article 22, 1986

How to reach the right Prayer?

This is actually the question for a workshop, but before we start, let's remind ourselves what is the goal of a workshop wih a short exercpt from Rav Michael Laitman.

Question: How is it that when working in a circle, in a workshop, I begin to feel a connection with the entire world soul, with people I don’t know?
Rav: The Creator created one big desire and then broke it into pieces.

In other words, the only desire that was created was shattered into billions of fragments under the influence of what is called the sin of Adam, because Adam introduced egoism into this desire. As a result, the connection between the parts of the general desire stopped, and each individual desire stopped feeling all the rest. To be more precise, it felt them, but wanted to use them for itself only.

The general desire to receive is called, “Adam” or “Adam HaRishon” , or the “soul.” After the Shevira (breaking), the collective soul was divided into a multitude of individual souls.
Then, the individual souls fell even lower. In each one of them remained a small point called “Keter,” which is the beginning of a future soul. These points or sparks that remained unbroken, draw us toward reconnection in order to discover the Creator.

When they are ignited within us, we long to discover the entire system of the Creator.

This is revealed in us as a longing to attain the meaning of life, and we find ourselves in some group.

A group is a certain part of all the individual souls that must now reach correction. People gather together into one group, without knowing why themselves, and begin to work on themselves in groups of ten, to transform the group into one unit, one common whole. The moment that they attain this, they immediately begin to feel the Creator.

This is what we must do. So in every place, wherever it may be, you must find friends with whom you will learn to create among you a single whole according to the method of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Then you will feel the upper world, meaning you will restore the connection between you called 10 Sefirot, a Partzuf, or a soul.

Through this structure, you will be able to feel the upper world clearly. “Soul,” “Upper World,” and “Creator” are the same thing.

Workshop

So, now, during the workshop we will keep in our mind and heart this inner longing to discover through others - the whole - that part of me that I can connect to.

Workshop question:

How to reach the right Prayer?

“...Man cannot escape from the control of self-reception by his own strength, as it is the nature in which the Creator created man, which only the Creator Himself can change. In other words, as He has given the created beings the desire to receive, He can later give them the desire to bestow.
However, according to the rule, “There is no light without a Kli [vessel], no filling without a lack,” first one needs to obtain a hisaron. That is, he must feel that he is lacking this Kli called “desire to bestow.”

And concerning feeling, it is impossible to feel any lack if one does not know what he is losing by not having the Kli, called “desire to bestow.” For this reason, man must introspect on what causes him not to have the desire to bestow.

To the extent of the loss, he feels sorrow and suffering. When he has the real lack, meaning when he can pray to the Creator from the bottom of the heart for not having the strength to be able to work for the sake of the Creator, then, when he has the Kli, meaning the real lack, this is the time when his prayer is answered and he receives assistance from above. It is as our sages said, “He who comes to purify is aided.”

--Rabash, article 29, 1987

Workshop

In which way do you think the workshop can be an instrument to build a "Kli"?

When we work together in a workshop and we realise how little we are able to truly connect with one another, we slowly come to the realisation of the need for the help of the Upper Force to change something in us so we will be able to get closer to this state of one soul. It is a process.

Next Lesson

Preparation to the convention - and Workshop in the global lesson