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Hi Todd,
Unless the friend is constantly taking away the ten’s time together for corporeal digressions – and I don’t mean half a word here and there, but big swaths of time – we should be gentle, and understand that all friends are at different levels of desire. And in all cases, I would nevertheless be gentle. Consider that my ten represents all of my – even somewhat spirituality-oriented desires – while I have armies of desires in me that live and die only for corporeality, and wish to extract me out of all spiritual endeavors that take time away from corporeal fixations. So then, how much must I care for every precious desire that is even a little bit aimed at Kabbalah. This is how I should see my friends.
Having said that, we don’t need to talk about/introduce our corporeality to the ten at all. Our currency is the importance of the spiritual goal.
1) Yes. Alive means according to a desire. Now, there is basically a finite, sequential, albeit numerous set of possible questions on the path. For this reason, I prefer a student only ask one sentence or so with a question mark at the end. The rest is their scrutiny, their homework, and I don’t need it. After their scrutiny, they arrive at a clear question. That, I can answer. A long question, I can’t because I rob them of their scrutiny, and “all is clarified in thought.” That’s why it’s “alive” – because each new desire that is going over these scrutinies of the desire and thus moving closer to the revelation of the Upper Force, is like a new baby. You might have other babies already but you love this new one like the most precious thing. That’s why we instructors have endless energy to answer questions. Though we “know” all the textbook answers, each time a new angle is required to meet the asker where they are.
2) Yes, the scrutiny is done by the Light but on my request, and what I have in my tool box to send that request is my effort in scrutiny. When I’ve completed my work comes a question that I can’t answer, the Light has to, and that’s a real question. Yes, it’s a Reshimo that’s revealed.
3) Through your efforts. The Light knows what’s in your heart. That’s why your efforts, if you’re not being a wise guy, are going to be correct. “The Creator loves all the works, however they are.”
One degree is: the friend is at a higher degree than I, by Faith Above Reason. A higher degree than that is: the friend is higher than I, within reason. (I’m not talking about different little things that I can be impressed with others about in this world (while subconsciously preserving my greater importance than everyone else in the world)).
No, the gaps between the friends are beneficial to and required for unity. Two that are the same can’t form a whole. That’d mean redundancy. All the opposite states together form perfection. You know my (Dr. Laitman’s) examples of bicycle where one part has to go forward and the other backward, for the machine as a whole to propel. There’s nothing that is not built this way, in reality.
Disclosing a Portion is a book that explains the Torah from the kabbalistic perspective. The Kabbalist is a great novel by Simeon Vinokur about Baal HaSulam. I think the first book you mentioned is one of a kind.
Yes. But it doesn’t mean now I get involved in his corporeality like we understand corporeality. The friend is always on a higher degree than I am. It appears to me as lowly, as though he’s steeped in his corporeal desire. My spirituality depends on how I help him reach from that state to a spiritual state. In his corporeality lies my spirituality.
