Morning Lesson August 29, 2021 Transcription
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, #21
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/sources/kB3eD83I?language=en
Item 21 “You already know that in general, the substance of the Masach
1. R. (00:33) That means that the screen is standing before the Malchut, the desire to receive and it doesn't let anything go into the desire to receive so man supposedly gave himself a word not to receive anything and then he can limit himself and this is called that there is a screen that he built. That screen disturbs all of the things that want to enter his desire to receive it prevents them from entering, this is what he says, that you already know that the substance of the screen is called Kashiut, coarseness, something that is very hard like the screen that does not allow anything to push into its boundary. That is how the screen is, it does not let any upper light through it into the Malchut as the light can't go through this screen to Malchut. Supposedly there can't be a contact between the upper light which is the desire to bestow with Malchut which is the desire to receive. It would be like a short circuit in electricity, two opposite things, in spirituality they can't meet. Everything in spirituality is only according to equivalence of form and if the screen will stand in the middle between the upper light and the Malchut, the screen will need to be built in a way that it can equalize Malchut and the upper light that it can meet and even fill each other. But if there is only a separation, there won't be an entrance to the reception of the light of Malchut but at least we start from that. So the screen disturbs the upper light from entering Malchut and the screen doesn't let anything go into Malchut which is phase 4 this is considered that the screen holds and repels the entire measure of the light that will clothe the vessel of Malchut. It has also been made clear that those five phases of coarseness in the fourth phase are included and come into the screen and join its measure of coarseness. Meaning as much as we have the hardness in Malchut so the screen has to have the hardness to not let the upper light enter the coarseness, that desire to receive in Malchut so as much as the desire is to receive as greater the screen should be harder. The coarseness should be Malchut balanced with the hardness of the screen.
2. S. (04:19) What does it mean that the screen equalize to Malchut?
R. It happens that Malchut and this screen connect and balance, we will study it later and ask about what we are reading now.
3. S. (05:00) Who builds the screen?
R. The upper light according to the demand of the lower one, Malchut does not want to receive in order to receive because by that is she completely opposite of the Creator, this is why she discovers in what she is filled from the upper light in the fourth phase as she reveals the force of restrictions and she can't stand the light in such a way that she is opposite of the Creator. We need to understand here that revelation of as much as the desire to receive in the fourth phase finds itself completely filled with endless pleasures, infinite pleasures, as much as there is in the fourth phase in one hand. On the other hand discovers how opposite it is from the Creator that it receives from the Creator of bestowing as the guest and the host, the guest cannot receive from the host, that he is willing to die just not to receive because it is reception. It feels that it erases him completely. It's essence, its selfishness. That it does not exist, meaning that if it goes down from the degree of Adam to beast. The beast does not have shame. This is why it can receive and eat if there is no problem. But the moment from the beast level that we can raise it to feel shame to that extent it cannot proceed but only under the condition that it is hers for certain, she deserves it just like people say they deserve it and I don't, but they do. There has to be a coverage of above what a person receives.
S. There is the discernment of the degree of man what you said does not sound clear and logical but how do we stabilize this beforehand?
R. That is why we receive some kind of longing for spirituality to reveal the Creator and this longing is egoistic because we are not in the world of Ein Sof but we are at the bottom of the degrees and they are set up in a way that we can gradually raise ourselves.
S. I heard you in the beginning of the explanation say a person gives himself a word not to receive the will to build himself and this is called that he is building the screen, and you also said the upper light builds the screen for man. How do we stabilize the attitude between a person's capability to not receive pleasure to his deficiency of ability to do it at all and to be independent of the Creator?
R. To see bestowing through the 10 and then I feel as much as I am opposite from spirituality and do I still want to reach spirituality, if I do I have to establish myself before the 10 and through them but only through them, not alone, not personally, only through the 10 can I receive forces of bestowing. These forces can stabilize me correctly before the upper light, before the Creator and only thanks to the Arvut in the 10.
S. Is there a difference between the restriction and reception of pleasure and the rejection?
R. The restriction and rejection are two things, restriction that I restrict myself and rejection that I am already working outside of me in the reflected light. That I already ascribe it to the source of the pleasures and the restriction I supposedly just relate to my desire to receive.
4. S. (10:09) You depicted the action without the screen, was this also in Malchut of Ein Sof?
R. Because he still did not obtain the opposite, the inversion between the desire to receive in the upper light as their it can receive in order to receive just Malchut, as the upper light inside her but the moment Malchut starts feeling what she is compared to the upper light then in her start coming impressions and discernments on the degrees of 1, 2, 3, 4 and then the fourth phase with in the Malchut where she develops the root, 1, 2, 3, 4 that a decision is made that I can't stand this in me and that sensation of shame obligates Malchut to restrict herself.
S. Meaning the sensation of the short circuit is the created being? Malchut did not decide this, the light has no problem entering the vessel?
R. On behalf of the Creator there's no problem only on behalf of the created being as we can't stand it, this is why the Creator wants the created being to decide that it's restricting itself but it's not going to receive, in order to receive, in such a way to prepare the vessel.
S. What will help us to make this decision that we were not willing to receive with the intention to receive?
R. Also the shame, imagine to yourself that your friends know what is happening in your heart, in your desire to receive. As much as you would be embarrassed.
S. Are there some exercises we can use to awaken the shame?
R. Correct, for now we advance through our ego and how could it be that I'm already here for 10 years studying and I have nothing, meaning that I am still advancing through the discernments of reception, this is what I hear the complaints from your friends. How to advance more correctly is only through bestowing. Constantly try to raise the importance of bestowing to the group and I receive a response from them as much as bestowing is important and according to that I can see my advances.
S. Should a person lower himself before the friends?
R. Even though Rabash writes that it is good and right I don't think we can do it in a good way, it would be like a fault, like a lie.
5. S. (13:55) Can you explain the last sentence that we read about the 5 degrees of coarseness that connect in the screen and in the hardness of it?
R. Yes, because the same desire to receive that is in the fourth phase must have a screen on it as a force that is in the will to receive to draw the pleasure such that there will be a force in the screen to reject that pleasure. The screen neutralizes or protects Malchut.
6. S. (14:41) There is something false preventing the upper light from doing what it wants, like the Masach preventing the light from entering, how is it possible something prevents the light from doing what it wants?
R. I understand what you said at the end, if the light bestows how can we stop it from bestowing, it is like what am I against the Creator that I am pushing or rejecting Him, kicking Him out that He won't get close to me, that is correct. Why? Because I can't stand it. My will to receive can't stand the bestowing of the Creator. It brings me such great pain that I received, leaving the bestowing of the Creator and that we are opposite of Him. That it no longer allows me to do anything else, that's a restriction, that's a restriction which Malchut performs it's not that she chooses the restriction, it is a necessary action out of this that she reveals the attitude of the Creator towards her and her attitude to the Creator and the pleasure that she receives. Try and see just how much shame when it is revealed in the correct manner that it stops you from everything. You will need to make some correction on the shame, this belongs to everyone and I deserve it also like he also does this as well, that we use all sorts of things which are not ours.
Yet truly if the shame is revealed in a revealed manner then we can't do anything with it because the sensation of shame is a flaw not even in the will to receive as animals. Also I have a will to receive as there is a flaw in my “I”, in myself that there is a point in me that is above the degree of animal, in the degree of speaking and from this place the sensation of shame cancels in me the foundation which to be Adam, man and truly lowers me internally to the degree of the beast. If I agree with this, it's no problem like we see that there are people who are in all sorts of states even in concentration camps or some other very difficult states of life. They go down to the degree of animate but if something remains from the degree of man they cannot put up with the shame, it depends of course in what form in what degree this shame that appears in them as it all depends from the root of the soul. From where the soul came in the general vessel Adam HaRishon according to intensity and character of that soul such a person feels that. We have yet to speak about it.
7. S. (19:13) Concerning the screen is it like a trap meaning that it is closed when we receive for ourselves and that opens when we receive in order to bestow and give the credit to the Creator for the abundance that we are receiving?
R. Let's say so approximately, the screen is the special border between the desire to bestow of the Creator, and the will to receive of the created being and truly changes the entire attitude of the created being to the Creator that he can receive and intention to bestow and the screen turns it into bestowing. The screen is not just a separator, it is an entire system, truly thick to the extent it is capable of changing the will to receive in the created being to a will to bestow, it matches the will to receive to the desire to bestow the created being to the Creator and it works. It is a very unique thing, our entire life is that we need to equip a screen as it includes the coarseness and the thickness of the created being and the bestowing from the Creator and the connection between them in the hardness and the coarseness of the screen and the intentions in all the connection. In short, the screen is the center of all the spiritual work and the spiritual connection. The point of connection between the created being and the Creator. This is called 'work in the screen'.
8. S. (21:43) We learned that we develop gradually in every degree we have to restrict the desire and we have to feel the shame, what do we do from the fear of feeling the shame?
R. We need to understand that the greatness of the goal that I need to reach bestowal to the Creator to the extent of devotion and passing my spirit that it must be greater than the shame. Not that later on I will have an opportunity to cover myself and justify myself before everyone, this is not important that I will be revealed before everyone with all of my desires and my thoughts and everything that I have in me, in my head. Compared to this that I will be able to reach, to bestow and pass and give myself to the Creator, this is how we reach our spiritual existence.
9. S. (23:06) About the hardness of the screen, how do we obtain that hardness?
R. That is all of our work as we attain this by our need according to how much we can awaken the Creator to build the screen in us.
10. S. (23:55) I remember how I used to go to my mother. She prepared the meal and knew exactly how much I wanted and what I ate and I had the desire that she would have a good feeling. Where is his shame here?
R. There is no shame here, this is the opposite if you don't receive from your mother what she prepared for you then you will have shame. Rather there you are working because you are in love with the upper and so towards him as much as you reveal that you enjoy from Him, that in this you are a given pleasure to the other. By us no, we have yet to speak about this, if you will get rid of your desire to receive that you will enjoy only because the Creator wants to give you pleasure like the mother to you, yes, then you will truly be able to receive from Him everything that He gives before you until the entire world.
11. S. (25:25) What is the root of the fear and the purpose in the correction?
R. The root of shame is a flaw in oneself, the deficiency in the self and it is we erase yourself, my me that the Creator said I have created the evil inclination, our ego can't agree with this.
12. S. (26:11) The same that Malchut felt?
R. In every place that the will to receive appears it is found this shame.
13. S. (26:41) I wanted to know what is the gap that you are speaking about.
R. Opposite a form opposite of action, opposite of intentions.
14. S. (27:01) The five degrees of coarseness in the fourth phase connecting the hardness of the screen, what does it mean that they are incorporated and connected?
R. We haven't learned about these things yet, it's the first time we're reading it and we haven't even finished 21 yet. You will get a chance.
15. S. (27:43) How do we study correctly when you always want to understand?
R. You need to know and to understand and along with this that you need to activate yourself just like we spoke in the first part of the lesson in faith above reason. This and this.
16. S. (28:10) When we do exercises in the greatness of the friends in the 10 I want the exercise to finish quickly because I feel shame in front of my friends, is this real shame?
R. No, that is egoistic shame. In the meantime that is only egoistic shame.
17. S. (28:49) How can we build the hardness in the screen with our request if the intention is not correct yet?
R. We can't, we make an effort as we're on the path of Lo Lishma.
S. These attempts to bring us closer?
R. We are getting closer to it.
18. S. (29:26) How can we implement this when studying the way that you said that we want to know the structure of everything of the system, but how do we implement it in the 10. Is this by restriction, annulment that we want to work to the center of the 10?
R. All of our work is actually to stabilize the screen.
Item 21 (30:08) “You already know that in general, the substance of the Masach….”
19. R. (33:10) Meaning we see here that if we have a screen that is suitable to the coarseness, to the thickness that the screen and the thickness work in such a way that they created being, the guest can work towards to host everything that it receives. It is not returning everything it is returning the same attitude which allows it to continue to receive and to enjoy and this brings pleasure like you just told us about your mother. Meaning the more appetite that there is, the more the sensation of hunger and ability to eat that you received from the host and you get filled with his pleasure and in this you are filling him in pleasure that you receive and enjoy from him. These are things that are very not simple as there is a lot of internal essence to all of this and we will speak a lot about it.
20. S. (34:40) How does the connection between the screen in the coarseness happen?
R. The match between the coarseness and the screen is by the same vessel which invites the upper force to correct him, that he wants to be an equivalence of form with the upper light, with bestowing and that same upper light which was going to fill the vessel to bestow to it, it first of all bestows to the vessel the force of the screen, the forces of rejection and the opposition. The force that it builds in the vessel is precisely matching to what it must give in the vessel. It turns that the rejection from the side of the vessel to the pleasure, let's say the corporeal pleasure, the desire to receive, that it raises the vessel to the degree of the bestower instead of the receiver that it was before. Then it turns out to be working with the host, that the host gives him pleasure and he gives pleasure back to the host as a partner with him. The Creator gives him pleasure into his desire to receive in order to reveal in him the desire for pleasure and the host awakens shame that he gives him and the host gives him the desire to receive, the screen, the force of rejection and the reaction back to the host called reflected light and in such a manner they are connecting because in this he becomes a bestower to the hosts and even more. Because if he would not receive from the host he would not bestow to the host, the host would be in deficiency. The creation of a thing is that the inner state where he's on the same height as the Creator, as we say in life where the child doesn't want something their mother suffers, such love truly obligates the upper one to serve the lower one. There are a lot of details to be clarified along the way. The main thing is to be clarified in the heart of the person who studies.
21. S. (37:50) What we read is the development of the screen so the hardness where does the screen start from, from the root?
R. The screen begins from Malchut and ends in Malchut and only in the will to receive in Malchut is it found. But its action is toward the previous phases where the desire of the Creator is revealed to the created being.
S. In Malchut there are four phases?
R. Yes, and there the screen works.
S. So it starts working before the shame, the shame is the last thing that comes?
R. You don't hear what I'm explaining. The light builds the will to receive in the fourth phase, root 1, 2, 3, 4. Only in the fourth phase is the recognition of shame, the oppositeness of form from the light that fills it, and the fourth phase decides to perform the restriction. After the restriction it is not enough because the restriction is only upon the action of receiving, but the attitude, the relation of the upper one towards the lower, here there is no action from the side of the lower one yet. The lower one developed this attitude, this screen that after the restriction there is also a screen, the screen expresses the attitude of the lower one towards the upper one. That he relates to Him in the same manner, like the upper one towards him. He wants to give pleasure to the upper one despite that he wants to receive and despite that he made a restriction upon himself and he hates to receive. He now develops in action that he returns this pleasure to the upper one on his part and this is how they connect. The upper one bestows pleasure to him and he bestows pleasure to the upper one. What is he bestowing pleasure to the upper one, in this that he receives from Him like a guest by the Host, and then they equalize. To that extent they equalize, they are adhered to one another. You can say the Creator is the first one and did everything and he stabilized all of these things, this is all true, but ultimately after the lower one performs the restriction, screen, and reflected light and connects in the reflected light back to the Creator, they are connected together without any change, any difference in degree in them, truly equal.
22. S. (41:24) No Translation ….
R. I don't know what you mean by those words. These are conditions that need to be explained.
23. S. (41:54) If I did not create this oppositeness of form that I had nothing to do with, how can I come to feel shame?
R. I asked this of Rabash and he said that shame is a creation in and of itself. That it doesn't need to be because we have the will to receive and the will to bestow. This gives, this receives, it all works out, what is the shame? The shame is a creation in and of itself in the will to receive, that the will to receive feels in this a difference between it and the Giver. That it is not found in the degrees of still, vegetative, and animate but only on the level of the speaking. And also on the level of the speaking it’s not in its degrees of still, vegetative, and animate of the speaking degree, rather but only in the level of the speaking of the speaking. There is the sensation of shame. And the sensation of the shame that awakens in the speaking, of the speaking kind is what pushes man to reveal the source of its life, of its existence. And such people, they come to the wisdom of Kabbalah and they cannot leave it. If they would leave it they would leave what ties them to the degree of speaking in them, the Adam in them, and they can't leave it. So another thirty or forty years it doesn't matter how many they are in it until they attain the correction.
S. Does this show us when we feel the shame this finally shows us who we are? We don't know that until we come to shame?
R. Shame we feel also in this world, but in this world the shame that we feel is to separate between us and the animals. And it is dependent on the matter of the extent of development of humanity in general and the person in humanity. The shame that we feel in spirituality belongs only to those who yearn to the Creator, to Yashar Kel, direct to the Creator. In that, there is shame. Those who reach the wisdom of Kabbalah for certain we can say that they felt even subconsciously, they felt that they have such a sensation of shame, even though they are not aware of this and thus they come in order to make this completion, this inner compensation on the sensation.
24. S. (45:30) Sometimes there is a state where if someone else feels shame, you feel the shame too?
R. I don't want to talk about the different forms and styles of our work, people will understand it in many different directions so don't ask me in such a manner.
25. S. (46:05) Does the feeling of shame escort the screen during the building of the screen?
R. The sensation of shame accompanies the vessel till the end of its Correction. Just like it comes from Infinity, it accompanies us to the return to Infinity. And specifically because of the shame we correct ourselves, we build this degree of Adam, similar to the Creator. Because this is what separates between: Adam and animate.
26. S. (46:52) What is built first the coarseness in the fourth phase and then the screen?
R. You're not asking about shame, you're asking about coarseness and the screen?
S. What comes first?
R. The 4 phases. When the vessel feels in these 4 phases his coarseness, and after this he begins his corrections, the restrictions, screen reflected light.
S. So first the discernments are revealed in the fourth phase and then the screen comes?
R. Yes, the screen cannot be without the vessel feeling shame. Meaning feeling that it receives, opposite from the Creator. That it feels shame, that it must do everything in order to perform a correction on the shame, and it decides how to make this correction on the shame. It’s by the screen and reflected light and the vessel searches how to do this by the receiving of the light with the intention to bestow. All of these actions are done gradually and soon we will learn this. Try to make such an order in the actions of the vessel. What do you think there needs to be as you learn, and we will talk about it and complete this list. I remember that once, I did this many years ago and it helped me very much.
27. S. (49:09) Why is this screen independent of the Creator and the created being?
The screen is the result of the Creator and the created being, it is not independent. It is found in the created being according to the request of the created being and the force of the Creator.
28. S. (49:51) Shame is revealing that we are not good enough before the greater system?
R. Yes.
29. S. (50:20) If the shame is what brought me to the path then why do I feel that every thought or deed is to escape the feeling of shame?
R. Because that is how we react, that is the protecting force in us. We just don't want to feel the shame and everything that we do, whether consciously or subconsciously, how I move, how I dress that all of the actions that I do, everything that I do, I build a house, a family all my discernments, all my decisions are only to avoid shame. All that we do in our life is to avoid shame. Look at what countries do, how much they invest in stocking weapons, just to not feel shame. Look at us, how strong I am. What stupid things we are doing what we are investing all of our life in, just not feel the shame. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the opposite. Reveal this shame that should obligate you to perform corrections. And in this we will end and you will complete this over the course of the day until tomorrow.