Local Meeting # 24:

"There is None Else Besides Him" + "If I Am Not for Myself, Who Is for Me?"

Following last week's Sunday lesson which started our preparations with the convention study materials, we will continue today with a focus on "If I Am Not for Myself, Who Is for Me?" through the sources, video clips and workshops.

Excerpt 1 - Baal HaSulam, Letter No. 16

"...Prior to making a Mitzva [commandment], one must not consider private Providence at all. On the contrary, one should say, “If I am not for me, who is for me?” But after the fact, one must reconsider and believe that it was not by “My power and the might of my hand” that I did the Mitzva, but only by the power of the Creator, who contemplated so about me in advance, and so I had to do.

It is likewise in worldly matters because spirituality and corporeality are equal. Therefore, before one goes out to make one’s daily bread, he should remove his thoughts from private Providence and say, “If I am not for me, who is?” He should do all the tactics applied in corporeality to earn his living as do others.

But in the evening, when he returns home with his earnings, he must never think that he has earned this profit by his own innovations. Rather, even if he stayed all day in the basement of his home, he would still have earned his pay, for so the Creator contemplated for him in advance, and so it had to be.

Although the matters look the contrary on the surface, and are unreasonable, one must believe that so the Creator has determined for him in His law, from authors and from books.

This is the meaning of the unification of HaVaYaH Elokim [God]. HaVaYaH means private Providence, where the Creator is everything, and He does not need dwellers of material houses to help Him. Elokim in Gematria is HaTeva [the nature], where man behaves according to the nature that He instilled in the systems of the corporeal heaven and earth, and he keeps those rules as do the rest of the corporeal beings. And yet, he also believes in HaVaYaH, meaning in private Providence.

By this he unites them with one another, and “they became as one in his hand.” In this way, he brings great contentment to his Maker and brings illumination in all the worlds..."

"If I Am Not for Myself, Who Is for Me?"

Watch Clip 1

Transcript:

Rav: We don’t know what spirituality is, what it means to be above our own mind and heart. I don’t know what the quality of bestowal is, what faith is. It’s something I can’t grasp — it’s not within me. I can’t see this result or phenomenon outside of myself, anywhere, because everything I perceive, I perceive through my will to receive.

And so, bestowal itself becomes the issue. I don’t know what true bestowal is. Even when I give, it’s still receiving — I’m receiving. We don't judge it by the form of giving something to someone, because in truth I’m receiving — I’m always receiving. Whatever I see or don’t see, whatever the action, the type, the context — it is always reception for myself, for myself, for myself. When I look at something, when I see something — how can I gain, how can I succeed, enjoy, be fulfilled — this is the approach of the will to receive that lives inside me and drives everything I do. Both in conscious and unconscious ways. My heart that beats, my body that sustains itself, the cells, the organs — everything operates from the desire to receive, constantly receiving.

So here’s the problem: how do we attain the quality of bestowal, which is the opposite?
It is said: You have a part called “If I am not for myself, who is for me?” — and that part, you must do. This includes actions to get closer to others, to build the group, build the ten, and to influence one another as much as possible.
The second part — is given by the Creator.

Excerpt 2: Baal HaSulam, Shamati, Article No. 217, "If I Am Not for Me, Who Is for Me?":

“If I am not for me who is for me, and when I am for myself, what am I?” This is an inherent contradiction. The thing is that one should do all of one’s work by way of “If I am not for me, who is for me,” that no one can save him, but “by your mouth, and by your heart to do it,” that is, a discernment of reward and punishment. However, to oneself, in private, one should know that “when I am for myself, what am I?” This means that everything is in private Providence and no one can do anything.

If you say that if everything is in private Providence, why is there the issue of working in the form of “If I am not for me, who is for me?” Yet, through working in the form of “If I am not for me, who is for me,” one is awarded private Providence, meaning attains it. Thus, everything follows the path of correction, and the distribution of added fondness, called “children of the Creator,” is not revealed unless it is preceded by work in the form of “If I am not for me, who is for me.”

"If I am not for me, who is for me?" and "There is none else besides Him"

Watch Clip 2

Student: It's unclear — where is the boundary between "If I am not for me, who is for me?" and "There is none else besides Him"?

Rav: Wherever the person places it. There’s no law, boundary, or barrier like: "This is the Creator's side, and this is the creature’s side." The person defines it — until he attributes everything to the Creator. That’s how he reaches complete adhesion.

Student: Where does a person’s work begin and end, and where does the Creator’s work begin?

Rav: A person acts, and then he must hand everything over to the Creator. And later, to the extent that he can, as if, take from the Creator and perform and sustain it himself, he reaches a state where everything happening between them — on one hand, he attributes it to the Creator, and on the other, he is ready to carry out everything himself. That is called complete adhesion. We still need to explain the essence of it, but that’s the idea.

Student: Are "If I am not for me, who is for me?" and "There is none else besides Him" sequential, one after the other? Or are these two parallel states?

Rav: "If I am not for me, who is for me?" comes first — when I truly want to see myself arranging and upholding the laws of nature as one, as a single law. I set everything in a way that the Creator is the one unique force standing at the center of all reality. And as I arrange and observe this, I gradually reveal "There is none else besides Him" — that everything I did, I acted only to reveal that One Force, which from the beginning was acting as One. To such an extent He acted as One — that He placed all the obstacles before me, confused me, did all these things, and taught me like a good teacher — so I would know how uniquely that One Force permeates every place, in every corner of my mind and emotions.

Workshops

Workshop Question 1 
How do we implement "If I am not for me, who is for me?" in our group?

Workshop Question 2
Let's add to the importance we have for the convention and share our build-up of excitement.

(Additional options from last week)

Workshop Question
How do we organize our group to aim us toward None Else Besides Him?

Workshop Question
After discussing how we organize ourselves in the group, share with the friends two new things that you're expecting to attain at the convention?

Convention Invitation

Clip from UK