Hevruta - Following Lesson 30."Concerning Love of Friends"
Hevruta - Following Lesson 30."Concerning Love of Friends"
We will study the following article of Rabash : "Concerning Love of Friends"
It is the second article of Rabash - and it will help us to understand how to learn these articles.
Let's read it entirely first, then we will break it down to see what Rabash wants us to understand.
Link: https://kabbalah.academy/en/library/sources/articles/837/
Rabash starts with a couple of points he wants to explore - questions we should be asking ourselves:
1) The need for love of friends [meaning, what is the need - why do we need love of friends - we understand the idea of friends, but why do we need to love them necessarily, maybe they need to love us?]
2) What is the reason I chose specifically these friends, and why have the friends chosen me? [Did I really choose anyone, I mean I came to study, the people were here, is this a choice?]
3) Should each of the friends disclose his love for the society, or is it enough to feel love in one’s heart and practice love of friends in concealment, and thus not need to openly show what is in his heart?
It is known that being humble is a great thing. But we can also say the opposite—that one must disclose the love in his heart towards the friends, since by revealing it he evokes his friends’ hearts toward the friends so they, too, would feel that each of them is practicing love of friends. The benefit from that is that in this manner, one gains strength to practice love of friends more forcefully, since every person’s force of love is integrated in each other’s.
Question:
What does that mean to practice love of friends? What is the force of love we are talking about?
From Rav Laitman
Force is force - meaning intensity - But in a person, it is also expressed in desire because all our matter is desire. Therefore, there is a desire and the force of desire by which we can measure it.
The Creator is characterized by the force of pleasure, meaning bestowal and love. But in relation to us, these qualities are manifested as the force of His pressure on us, meaning the cause from which any effect proceeds. Therefore, we measure His influence, His love, for us by the force of influence, the force of love, with which this field affects us.
There is a difference between the spiritual field, in which all kinds of qualities are located, and the force of the influence of this field on some foreign object located in it.
If this object has adopted the quality of the spiritual field, then they are in balance, no one is pressing on anything. But if this object is still somehow foreign, that is, does not correspond to the qualities of the field, then the field acts on it and causes movement in order to bring this object into balance with itself.
This is what happens in our world, and exactly the same law operates in the spiritual world.
From this, what do we understand as this force of love?
From Rav Laitman:
Our work must concentrate on prayer to make our request as correct and precise as possible, in the maximal way that we are prepared to get from our condition. At every moment we need to try to locate the right request according to its direction, intensity and character. This is the most important thing.
If we examine ourselves, we will see that we are not asking the Creator. And even if we ask, we are asking for ourselves, regretting our personal condition. And this is certainly the manifestation of the greatest ego.
Ordinary people in this world who are not involved with studying Kabbalah are in better condition than we are. After all, they don’t demand that the Creator should change, improve, or correct what He did to them, disagreeing with Him. They simply accept everything as it is, since they are separated from the Creator. At least they don’t come to Him with demands and claims, asking where is their deserved reward. A demand like this is completely opposite to the right prayer.
It is possible to arrange such a change in us so that we will ask correctly only by working in a group. A person by himself cannot hold himself in this process. If he is alone, he will fall into his ego again; he will begin to attribute everything to and demand for himself. He doesn’t have the means to format himself and arrange his appeal to the Creator correctly. This is possible only through common prayer.
It’s worthwhile for us to see all of these concepts very clearly. If we don’t get any changes on the way, this is a sign that we are not asking for them. All spiritual advancement is realized only through the prior discovery of a deficiency, a request.
Now let's go back to Rabash
It turns out that where a person has one measure of strength to practice love of friends, if the group consists of ten members, then he is integrated with ten forces who understand the need, that it is necessary to engage in love of friends. However, if each of them does not show the society that he is practicing love of friends, then one lacks the force of the group.
This is so because it is very hard to judge one’s friend favorably. Each one thinks that he is righteous and that only he engages in love of friends. In that state, one has very little strength to practice love of others. Thus, this work, specifically, should be public and not concealed.
Question: Why is it hard to judge other favorably? What is preventing me from doing so?
Rabash:
But one must always remind oneself of the purpose of the society. Otherwise, the body tends to blur the goal, since the body always cares for its own benefit. We must remember that the society was established solely on the basis of achieving love of others, and that this would be the springboard for the love of God.
This is achieved specifically by saying that one needs a society to be able to give to one’s friend without any reward. In other words, he does not need a society so the society would give him assistance and gifts, which would make the body’s vessels of reception content. Such a society is built on self-love and prompts only the development of his vessels of reception, as now he sees an opportunity to gain more possessions by his friend assisting him to obtain corporeal possessions.
Instead, we must remember that the society was established on the basis of love of others, so each member would receive from the group the love of others and hatred of himself. And seeing that his friend is straining to annul his self and to love others would cause everyone to be integrated in their friends’ intentions.
Thus, if the society is made of ten members, for example, each will have ten forces practicing self-annulment, hatred of self, and love of others. Otherwise, one remains with but a single force of love of others, since he does not see that the friends are practicing it, since the friends are practicing love of others in concealment. Moreover, the friends make him lose his strength of desire to walk the path of loving others. In that state, he learns from their actions and falls into the dominion of self-love.
Rabash says "Instead, we must remember that the society was established on the basis of love of others" Do you think we will forget the goal of group? And if there is a chance we forget how can we then remind ourselves?
From Rav Laitman:
Question from student: During the workshop with my group, how does I remember the need for inner work? I feel like I am a computer with two processors and one of them forgets about the goal, the work, all the time. The other reminds me about this all the time and remembers the entire process which I have gone through.
Answer: We cannot constantly remember the goal, the work, and we will disconnect from it all the time. This detachment is required to exist, but we don’t have to agree to it. And then it will be useful for our correction, as it is said: “Everything is found outside.” In other words, you don’t agree to be detached.
We are detached so that we will connect again on the next level. Also, I cannot hold myself on such a high level at all, except only by means of the environment.
Any electrical circuit works according to this principle; every item transmits its energy outward and takes new energy into itself, then again transmits outward, and receives inside again. It is like a coil and cable which constantly exchange energy streaming in circuits between them; that’s how they work reciprocally.
I cannot hold myself in a good state; I require mutual work with the group. That is how we alternate in our work. Moreover, each one of the friends passes through his own states. And then within this system, the Creator arranges the rate at which the states alternate in each one of us and in everyone together.
We must feel that we don’t exist in isolation; rather, we belong to one system with two processors, which work alternately, sometimes this and sometimes that. What we need is to pool our energy together so that you can charge yourself and be nourished with the energy from our mutual work. In a group, all the states that you have gone through disappear, all the previous levels, all of your history. All of this happens only within the group, within the collective Kli, until within it we reach the form of Infinity. Only then, in an action called the end of correction, will we discover everything that we went through.
All of this is found within the group. The first spiritual state begins in relation to the group, in my ability or lack of ability to be connected with it. That is how my first and smallest discovery of the evil inclination takes place, and so on to the last evil inclination, the great ego at the peak of the ladder of levels. Therefore, all of the results of the work are swallowed up by the group. The group is Malchut of Infinity.
Spiritual advancement is measured solely and only in contrast to the evil inclination that constantly increases: at whatever rate and with whatever power it increases, from this the rejection of connection grows in us. The rejection and the darkness become greater and greater, stronger and stronger, but we interpret, understand, feel them, and receive a push to work with them in order to connect with the group in the face of this darkness. We are interested in this rejection; otherwise, we will not accept our “signs of work.” Our advancement is measured with this.
Meanwhile, we judge only according to our feelings without objective measurement, but after this, we will measure our own states.
Rabash finish with:
4) Should everyone know his friend’s needs, specifically for each friend, so he would know how he can satisfy them, or is it enough to practice love of friends in general?
Which we can discuss if we have time, or it can be left for our own relfexiion until next time.