[Jennifer]

Last week takeaways for me — it is my responsibility to make the connection with the friends.  it is not on anyone else.

Intention is the key to drawing the reforming light.

We are together here to act as one.  Become one as if absorbed into each other.

[Jennifer]

I’m attending online due to responsibilities.  The spring retreat was wonderful, even online it changed my life.

With more of a relaxed in person experience taking place, will there be open Zoom rooms for those of use who can’t be there in person this time?

Thanks!

[Jennifer]

This is a good question.  I’m having odd struggles of approaching the work and the every day life.

[Jennifer]

Naomi – I adore your enthusiasm and energy.  I have similar questions.  I feel the pull to the work, but as of yet I don’t understand enough or have processes to do the work.  I feel the beginning of a life long journey which I my energy has built up to start.  I hope that makes sense.

[Jennifer]

Lesson #4 Homework

What Is the Reason for the Heaviness One Feels when Annulling before the Creator in the Work?
I heard on Shevat 12, February 6, 1944

We must know the reason for the heaviness one feels when he wants to work in annulling his self before the Creator and not worry about his own benefit. A person comes to a state as though the entire world stands still, and he alone is now seemingly absent from this world, and leaves his family and friends for the sake of annulling before the Creator.

There is but a simple reason for this, called “lack of faith.” It means that one does not see before whom he nullifies, meaning he does not feel the existence of the Creator. This causes him heaviness.

But when he begins to feel the existence of the Creator, his soul immediately yearns to annul and connect with the root, to be contained in it like a candle in a torch, without any mind or reason. However, this comes naturally, as a candle is canceled before a torch.

It therefore follows that the essence of one’s work is only to come to feel the existence of the Creator, meaning to feel the existence of the Creator, that “the whole earth is full of His glory,” and this will be one’s entire work. That is, all the energy one puts into the work will be only to achieve this, and nothing else.

One should not be misled into having to acquire anything. Rather, there is only one thing a person needs: faith in the Creator. He should not think of anything, meaning that the only reward that he wants for his work should be to be rewarded with faith in the Creator.

We must know that there is no difference between a small illumination or a great illumination that a person obtains, since there are no changes in the light. Rather, all the changes are in the Kelim [vessels] that receive the abundance, as it is written, “I the Lord did not change.” Hence, if one can magnify one’s Kelim, to that extent he magnifies the illumination.

Yet, the question is, With what can one magnify one’s Kelim? The answer is that to the extent to which he praises and thanks the Creator for having brought him closer to Him, so he would feel Him a little and think of the importance of the matter, meaning that he was rewarded with having some connection with the Creator.

To the extent of the importance that one pictures for oneself, so the illumination grows in him. One must know that he will never come to know the true measure of the importance of the connection between man and the Creator because one cannot assess its true value. Instead, as much as one appreciates it, so he attains its merit and importance. There is a Segula [power/remedy/virtue] in this, since by this he can be rewarded with this illumination staying permanently within him.

**********

This passage touches me deeply. Before coming to know some of the basics through Kabu, I felt lost and alone – a version of the heaviness (of the heart, I believe).  I often asked myself “What is the purpose of my life?  Why was I even born?  Looking at the world and it’s clear there’s no point.”  Now I think of work ahead and feel faith in the future.  The connection and loss of connection will be difficult, but is also integral to the process.  I wonder if it will feel like the lost and alone experience that I had in the past…

[Jennifer]

What do I have to do in order to “make myself a Rav” – nullify myself, accept the message

Rav impression from video – the dedication and humble bearing was very clear.  The goal to aim at the creator only, not corporeal things, is how he lives his life.

[Author]

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