Morning Lesson July 2, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Essence of the Wisdom of Kabbalah (Conveyance from a Wise Kabbalist to an Understanding Receiver)
Reading “Conveyance from a Wise Kabbalist to an Understanding Receiver…”
1. R. (01:32) It's not enough to have a great teacher, the student also needs to be on a certain level to understand what the teacher is telling him with his own mind, what is the teacher delivering him? It is not simply hearing in the ear and thinking with the brain. It is a special form of reception from one to the other.
Reading (02:00) “Conveyance from a Wise Kabbalist to an Understanding Receiver…”
2. R. (02:22) There are a few questions we need to resolve before we getting to the matter at hand, what does it mean conveyance from a wise Kabbalist?
Reading (02:36) “Conveyance from a Wise Kabbalist to an Understanding Receiver…”
3. S. (04:10) What does it mean to receive from a wise Kabbalist?
R. Something who wishes to deliver to convey to the student and the student is capable of receiving it, of learning it according to certain conditions by which the student prepared himself and then he can receive this message from the teacher, meaning just like we understand from this world, there are some who deliver, who conveys, someone who receives as a system that connects them so what one delivers or conveys, the other can receive and they can be connected and the student can understand what the teacher is conveying to him and continue with that.
S. Let's say the lesson ends, how can we in the ten check if we receive from the teacher or not? Like you said if we got from mouth to ear, mouth to mouth, is there a criterion that we can check?
R. We’ll read and find out that's what he's trying to explain to us. That's what he's trying to explain in what way to what extent, which quality with which kind of preparation the student has to be in order to receive from the teacher what is conveyed to him. It doesn't depend on his wisdom but on certain special conditions.
S. [Question missing]
R. I don't know, let's see further.
4. S. (06:15) It is really not clear even if he's the greatest righteous in the world you can’t teach him, so we're not even allowed to learn according to what Baal HaSulam says.
R. You’re not a righteous and you’re not wise, you’re just an average person, maybe that’s why you’re allowed to learn.
S. So why is he writing what he writes, he shouldn’t write it?
R. He writes in a way that he knows how to write. You should trust him.
S. So how do you explain this sentence?
R. I do not explain, I wish to understand those things like you. That's it.
S. They say it's even insulting if the listener is wise on his own where he knows the relationship between roots and branches, so what, it’s so simple what he writes.
R. I understand that you need to hear something that's it.
S. So why is he writing it?
R. When you listen you will understand.
5. S. (07:35) What is a wise receiver and understands in his own mind, it’s like contradicting?
R. We don’t know. Let's learn and we will see. We will read it a few times, ask questions, we will combine our questions, we’ll start to pray He will answer us, it will give us a chance to understand what is going on here. These excerpts for now are not clear.
Reading (08:20) “Conveyance from a Wise Kabbalist to an Understanding Receiver…” continues
6. S. (13:02) According to what is written, what type of force should we add to our vessel in order to bring joy to the Creator?
R. Try to be good in the eyes of the Creator that is what we need. Start asking yourselves each time in what can I please the Creator? Very simple. There is there are necessary things that we have to keep coming to the lessons, connecting with the friends, keeping what is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah straightforward way the minimum requirements let's say, and there are additional things that we have to ask ourselves, what do we need to do in order to please the Creator. This is not simple, we should ask, ask how he can like us. It is like if we are keeping all the conditions in order to bestow, by that we reach normal correct connection we are accustomed to it but if I want to reach a stage where I express my love to the Creator, I want to carry his favor I want to be good in his eyes, I want him to like me, not egoistically and there is a special, a special thing I have to do here I have to think about the Creator and relate to him in this way. I want him to like me not because I am doing things or because I'm accustomed to do certain things, it is a certain addition, what can it be? So I began to acquire such an attitude to the Creator through which He can give me He can allow me to enter states that are close to him and then as he writes, then the Creator fills him with the wisdom, an understanding to sublime attainment and it is impossible to assist by flesh and blood and then once has grown fond of a person with this sublime attainment, one is then ready to come and receive the vastness of the wisdom of Kabbalah from a wise Kabbalist only then after that when he has connection with the Creator he can learn from the Kabbalist the inner content of what they want to convey to him because now they have a common language.
7. S. (17:28) So what develops man is this is connection with the Creator and finding joy in that and only then with the Rav?
R. No he says that a person who enters the wisdom of Kabbalah and studies and connects to the teacher and connects with the friends and connects to everything and now he wants to find out how he can nevertheless give contentment to the Creator in the special way how does he get to the Creator or how does it please the Creator? Meaning he has this yearning to be good in the eyes of the Creator, I don't know what to add here, it is not merely bestowing it is not connected with the friends you need, you need to have a special longing for the Creator. I want very much to please him without any connection to me. I am willing to do anything that he wants me to do toward the friends and the whole world and more and more in short, a person empties himself from all the intentions for himself and he fills himself only with the intention for the Creator. I cannot quite express it. There are no words for this.
8. S. (19:38) What does it mean that a student prepared himself?
R. It is like he is ready for complete devotion. I don't have other words for this.
S. A mutual language here it's written that in order for there to be such a conveyance you need a mutual language. What is the mutual language between you and me, can I ask that?
R. When we reach these exalted states it will be clear to us.
9. S. (20:29) It says it's not the wise who studies, so I should just shut up and listen to draw the light and then I will understand so I don't get it?
R. Hence continue as you are and keep quiet and learn.
S. What about the light that reforms?
R. Don't worry it will influence you.
S. But I have drawn it anyway?
R. Okay it's according to how much you draw yourself to the connection with the friend's and the Creator through them.
S. So when you teach us how should we relate to that?
R. The way it's written according to how much each one understands that's how he relates.
10. S. (21:23) When do we build the intention for the Creator before in action during an action after when does that happen?
R. All the time our intentions to the Creator should be, should develop in the us all the time because that is actually the final goal at which we are aiming.
11. S. (22:09) A wise student, can he go through this whole process without asking Rav questions?
R. Certainly.
12. S. (22:37) In these texts he speaks a lot about reason. Should we also think that he's speaking about faith above reason when he says reason?
R. Both.
Reading (23:09) “Appellations alien to the human spirit.”
13. R. (25:44) Meaning the language of branches the language of Kabbalah is very harsh and precise because the Kabbalists who named all kinds of spiritual discernments knew precisely the connection between the branch and the root and how we can use them in order to awaken those forces that will develop us that's why I specifically in this way they wrote and conveyed their knowledge to another and to us.
Reading (26:29)
14. S. (28:08) A Kabbalist pointes at the root and uses the branch. Is there a way to express this gap between the root and branch?
R. No not necessarily because by pointing at something this degree that he opens up before us includes all the degrees from it to Ein Sof and all the degrees from it down to the lowest degree in other words every definition discernment of any words any degree any state includes in it everything above it all the way to Ein Sof and everything below it down to the lowest state because we have direct light and returning light reflected light and therefore by definition it includes everything.
15. S. (29:37) Can you explain in the previous part he says that if there is a wise student you can teach him but the righteous even the greatest of the world you can't teach them. So what is that righteous, what can we take from that to our work?
R. Righteous meaning it can be wise it can be going through great states but he has no connection no soul devotion and that's why he cannot receive what the Kabbalists wishes to convey to him because there's no connection there is no contact between them meaning he can hear based on his wisdom but according to the inner connection it is absent so what can you do?
S. So how does he become righteous?
R. He becomes righteous by justifying the Creator and doing everything he can, but he's still not connected with the teacher in such a way that the teacher can convey it to him there needs to be an inner connection between the teacher and the student for it to flow from the teacher to the student.
16. S. (31:07) What are the conditions we need for the generation or the ………. that they’ll be able to receive what the Kabbalists want to give to all of humanity?
R. I don't quite know because these conditions might change they could change we are in the last generation and therefore things are changing, and I think they came to us easier than they came to the previous generations and we all of us could receive this inner conveyance from the Creator to the Kabbalists who worked throughout all the generations.
17. S. (32:25) He writes in the beginning of the paragraph that if we leave a case untouched what does it mean that we use each and every thing. What does that mean?
R. Means that we wish to find the root for everything and use it in a way that we aim it toward all the created beings and through them to the Creator.
S. In our state can we do it?
R. We can certainly try, without it we won't advance, this is the condition of being in the last generation.
S. That every case I have to check what its root is?
R. Yes.
18. S. (33:24) What is the flaw if I don't take every state and scrutinize it in the connection between us? What flaw am I causing?
R. By that you are preventing the corrections from reaching you and others.
19. S. (33:54) About devotion to the teacher, I see that there are friends that their relation to the teacher is very internal, strong, gives inspiration. How can a person adhere to those friends and also acquire such an attitude towards the teacher?
R. This is according to the inner point in each and every one's heart. As much as he wants to receive through this cascading down from the Creator, all the way down to him, through this trail, through this conveyance, that's it. There is nothing to do here, only to be connected. You don't need for that to be physically close or to perform mechanical actions. It is written, the soul’s devotion.
20. S. (35:07) It seems that there are friends that for them it is always there, and it just gets stronger, and there are some no matter what they do they can’t bridge that gap. What is the advice here?
R. To try. Each one needs to try according to the root of his soul, each one according to his place in the system of Adam HaRishon. What he received, the opportunities he received in his lifetime, he should believe that this is his opportunity and continue this way. The main thing is through his teacher, this is a very special matter. But the main thing is through the group. There has to be a ten, a strong ten that’s holding onto the path, that does not deviate from the path, that constantly aims itself more and more sharply through its unity to the Creator, and that is the main thing and then it is certain that they are advancing towards a great correction. The problem is that in all those corrections until we enter the qualities of bestowal we keep demanding where, where, where is it, where are the results? Where is my attainment, where is what I deserve? Whereas as we learn today, as you get closer to the goal you see that specifically the yearning for the goal, the deficiency for the goal, these are torments of love. They are the sweetest and that is what we need, that's what we need to acquire.
21. S. (37:42) What does it mean that a student prepared himself?
R. A student who has prepared himself means that he is in contact with the friends, good contact. The way it should be where they have a common mutual vessel, they complete each other from their desires to the 10 Sefirot, a complete vessel and they want this complete vessel, they want to present it to the Creator. They check this complete vessel of theirs so the Creator will be able to bestow to it everything He needs in order to receive contentment from us, and this is what we yearn to be in. This is called a complete vessel.
22. S. (38:57) Is love to the teacher a condition to receiving the wisdom from him?
R. Yes, but it's not love the way you think about it on the street. It is love in such a way that there is a source through which I receive life, vitality, feeling of the upper world, feeling of the upper force, the next world and so on and so forth. So I am connected to that source, and this connection is an internal one, a spiritual one. It is not a connection like in our world.
23. S. (39:55) What is an inner connection with the teacher that is the condition to reach devotion? Does that depend on the person to develop such a connection and how do you build it?
R. Yes, it depends on the person first of all, and in the prayer of a person to the Creator, that is one thing. Second thing is that a person needs to be looking for it. He needs to look for how does he come to such a strong, powerful, good connection with the teacher, with his Rav, through which he comes to be connected with the Creator. You have to understand that these are degrees. There is man, a person above him, the teacher and about the teacher is the Creator. It can’t be that the person will jump directly to the Creator, it’s a falsehood. So you should be looking for ways to reach this state. He doesn’t need to know his teacher physically; he doesn't even need to see him. Rather he needs to be incorporated with all those things that the teacher is teaching in order to build himself and be ready to connect to the Creator through the teacher.
24. S. (41:35) Is it a special blessing from above when there is inner connection with the teacher?
R. I would say that the inner connection with the teacher is present for such people who wish to be incorporated with their teacher and the work that he is doing in our world. This is dissemination. Mostly it’s dissemination, maybe also teaching, organizing other people, bringing them closer more and more. This is the work by which a student connects with his teacher.
25. S. (42:41) What is the quality of Daat, knowledge? Is it awakened in the inner work of a person after he passed a degree?
R. Daat is a degree a person receives when he connects in a special way to the degrees of Hochma and Bina. What connects Hochma and Bina and includes both of them is called Daat.
26. S. (43:32) What are the spiritual upper roots made of and how do we connect to them?
R. All of our roots are made up of the will to receive and the will to bestow and the upper light that passes through them and comes to them in this way. It's clothed in the connection between them, the will to receive and the will to bestow as the vessel and this upper light passes through this vessel on to us.
27. S. (45:32) We need to raise the importance of the teacher, the importance of the desire of the teacher, and from that get the importance of the Creator. So as we learn to adhere to the AHP of the upper one?
R. We have no problem there. What does the Rav teach you? Connection between you and bestowal to the Creator, that's it. From these two conditions you then understand what you have to do. Develop a network of connections, show everyone how it's done, publicize those things. Look for more and more friends to connect to us so we will grow up because in the multitude of the people is the King’s glory. Then it will be easier for us to carry this big load from one place to the next, from this world to the upper world. It’s all clear to us.
S. That is called connection with the teacher?
R. Of course. What does the teacher do? The teacher is the connector, the mediator between you and the Creator and he explains in what we can please the Creator.
28. S. (47:08) I also have a similar question. You said earlier that a man reaches a true connection with the Creator through the teacher and before that we heard that it’s through the ten?
R. Without the ten, of course not since without the ten you're not there, you're not present. We learn about it; we write about it; without a ten you are not able to receive anything on your degree for which you have to be organized in a ten and above your ten there’s a teacher and above the teacher there is the Creator. So prepare yourself in such a way that you will be able to adhere to the teacher and from him to the Creator.
S. So is part of the process that a person starts discovering the actions in these connections?
R. You're trying to ask me like this, do I have to keep those things now because I'm hearing from you, or I can wait until I understand them and attain them myself and then I will do it according to my attainment? This is the matter of belief in his teacher. If you believe the teacher, that this is what has to be done and you accept it as if you know, as if you're certain this is how it is and there is nothing else, by that you're saving yourself a lot of time.
29. S. (49:17) Every moment a new desire arises. So how will I think of the friends and the Creator constantly, like a Kabbalist?
R. With each and every desire that awakens in you check how much you can connect it to friends and to the Creator through them. That is it. What difference does it make? It doesn't interfere, it actually advances you. If you delve into it you’ll see that the Creator's actually leading you through the friends to Him.
30. S. (50:08) How can it be that Baal HaSulam and the ARI became greater than their teacher?
R. There is no problem here, it doesn’t mean that it’s more or less. We cannot measure and weigh those things, and in truth I'm not asking about it. There are many Kabbalists who discovered those things in a certain way. Each one does it from the depth of his soul. Maimonides, Nachmonides, Ramhal who was great, and many others many people, all these great Hasidic sages of the 17th and 18th centuries. There are thousands of people who throughout these past two-thousand-year path haven't saved godliness and wrote many things about it. Thousands and thousands of people have attained Godliness and wrote many things about it, thousands, and thousands of people. It’s interesting the different ways that each one attained Godliness, how each one wrote especially about it. This is all from the root of his soul.
So I recommend over time if you have the time, also in the future, to open up certain books that they wrote. We have some of those books and some are even translated to Russian, English. It’s good for you to get to know them a little bit. It is not mandatory, it is for anyone who has a bit more time to air out his heart and his soul, especially with Ramhal. We will learn about it. For the time being we're going with you over the necessary material that we have to go through, Baal HaSulam, Rabash, let's hope that we finish it. According to our plans we should be done with it in about a year and then we will go to some more special writings of other Kabbalists who are not lower than Baal HaSulam and the ARI, who are in spirituality. We cannot measure it absolutely, certainly; we will learn from them. We will see those great ones, the smaller ones and you will see how each one is expressing things in a special manner according to the root of his soul, the way he revealed the Creator.
31. S. (54:23) A few days ago I came back from Israel and during the trip I constantly watched the lessons with friends, and in our ten it is not clear how to give such a virtual example to one another because we’re all in the corporeal world. So Kabbalists always gathered physically and the actions they did would help them and also disturb them because physically there are a lot of disturbances. It's not clear to me.
R. I think we are fast approaching the state where we'll all be in one place, a spiritual place, one desire where you are sitting in Balti, the Baltics, I'm sitting in Israel, we have Moscow, Kyiv, New York, Queens, Karameh, and so on and so forth, and it does not influence us one bit. We feel ourselves existing in one place, in one desire, one heart. I hope you will begin to feel our one heart and that's how it will be. I was very happy to see you here and anyone who wants to come, and visit should write to the language heads and come here; we will be happy to host them and that's it. But with respect to the one place we are going to be in, of course as it's written, righteous are sitting and enjoying the light of the Shechina. The light, the radiance of the Shechina means that the upper crown, the upper Keter, the upper light influences them, and they all sit together, and they enjoy the radiance of the Shechina. When will that be? When we will reach this degree of the righteous ones. A righteous is one who justifies the Creator. For the time being we’ll connect you see that an opportunity was revealed to us, to be connected through the internet and let's hope that we continue in an ever-tightening connection. The most important thing is to open the hearts.
32. S. (58:43) We want to ask you how the friends can connect to the Kabbalists in the connection between us the way we learned about it right now?
R. By connecting between them. So they can connect and note where it’s written by the Kabbalists but between them, their connection they can connect directly to the Creator. Don't depend on me. The connection and your future, you have to see yourselves as much as you connect together, in that connection between you are about to discover the Creator, the connection with Him That’s it, that is your goal. Me, I’m just standing on the side and teaching you, aiming you to that connection between you and the Creator.
S. The way you explained it now, how can we find that one place, that spiritual place, where everyone is aimed at the same place, there is no difference between us?
R. In connecting the hearts as much as possible, that’s what we’re doing, and it is clearer to us that it has to be organized, how we have to connect and aim it all. I'm happy to see how from day to day it’s stabilizing. So let's work on it, let's draw more young people, beginners, and that’s how we advance. That is how we will advance.