Morning Lesson December 16, 2023

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot. #5

Reading Item 5. (00:17) “Now you will understand what is written in The Zohar...”

1. Rav Intro: (09:09) I think what he’s writing is clear, this is our time. There is not so much to add.

2. S. (09:30) Why is there no more fear to disclose the wisdom?

R. To whom would you reveal it?

S. I see many Kabbalists appear, they use the words of Kabbalah, and Gematria, both to impress the external ones and to attract them and it causes even more separation. In order to accept the student, Kabbalists had to go through seven wisdoms in order to be prepared and to receive from the teacher but now you see. I don't want to say how many Kabblaists I’m meeting, families are causing all that. In the name of Kabbalah, Kabbalah says this, and Kabbalah says that, everywhere.

R. Okay, so what? Before the clarification, there must always be confusion after that the light comes from above and clarifies matters to people.

S. I understand the problem is if there's a need to open up the wisdom and attract additional sparks because thus far...

R. Leave it to the Creator to decide when to do it, and when not to do it. We will wait patiently. When He has a desire, a need, a decision, and action we will know about it. Every generation thinks that he deserves, why does he deserve? We need to agree with what happens from above, and what is done from above, and do what we can. Whatever we receive we receive.

3. S. (12:13) The book of Zohar is an interpretation of the Torah. What did Rabbi Shimon and those with him in order to reveal the wisdom to the world, what did they add?

R. I don't know. I think there's a great gap between what’s written in the Torah and what’s written in the book of Zohar. We can’t say that the Book of Zohar is a commentary of the Torah, we understand neither. So, I don't know, I don't know how to relate to it.

S. Okay, Baal HaSulam writes that actually, we need to enter the wisdom of the Ten Sefirot, enter this vessel. How can we be worthy of this work?

R. I guess we will become worthy one day if the Creator wants, if the Creator wants, we will be worthy. For the time being we are fools.

4. S. (13:44) When he writes about the fear of revealing the wisdom it’s fear of revealing it to people without points in the heart or fear of revealing it to people with points in the heart but who are still not ripe enough, not ready to develop the whole method?

R. Both, both.

5. S. (14:11) Before whom does Baal HaSulam explain that he doesn’t add another word to Kabbalists, to whom does he feel that he needs to explain himself because he wrote “In truth there is no dispute for those who study Kabbalah”? 

R. Actually, many dispute him in many forms, and many angles but in truth as he understands he didn’t add anything.

S. That's exactly my question why did he need to apologize?

R. He wants to explain his attitude to those who might want to get up and say anything about it. That in his opinion he didn't add anything.

S. Were there such people who came to him with such a complaint? Why did you explain, why did you add? There were some people who did this?

R. Of course, there were those who would come to his burial place and spit on his gravesite and step on it and you name it.

S. Where he’s buried?

R. Yes, yes.

S. There was there such a state where people didn’t...?

R. People who couldn’t tolerate the idea that this person lived and existed and finished his life the way he finished it, that he was a Rabbi in parts of Jerusalem; that he had a few students that built this roof over his grave that was demolished, there was a lot of noise around it.

S. When we began to read the introductions to everything he wrote, he received all kinds of permissions to write, he received recommendations, and he didn’t come without him needing to do it. Why was it so necessary for him to get other people’s acknowledgments?

R. It’s not because of his name, it’s because of his writings. He wanted them to be publicized all over the world and throughout the people of Israel.

S. This is why he needed the acknowledgments?

R. Yes.

S. There was no doubt he was a great man who suffered quite a bit. 

R. Yes, as usual, there weren’t that many people in that generation who recognized his greatness, that's typical.

6. S. (17:43) On what does the need of the world for the wisdom of Kabbalah depend?

R. As he writes, only by the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah we will be rewarded with the arrival of the Messiah in our times, in our days.

S. This is from our perspective, from the perspective of the expansion of the wisdom of Kabbalah but from the perspective of the receiver, from the perspective of the world on what does it depend for them to have a need for the wisdom all of a sudden?

R. Time will come, and people will feel that they have terrible emptiness, one that threatens their very existence, their lives, their legacy. They will want to know what is life simply and then they’ll understand what he wrote about.

S. What is the state of the emptiness today in the world?

R. Today the state of emptiness is covered by hate, mutual hate, everyone to everyone and especially towards Israel, it’s evil and it’s not the end.

S. Hatred, does it satisfy a person, does it cover over his emptiness?

R. Yes, the hate fills a person greatly, it fills a person.

S. As long as the evil inclination celebrates, how do we come to emptiness, why should a person abandon the hatred?

R. No, he will not abandon the hate, but time will simply pass.

S. What will happen to the hatred?

R. The hatred will dissipate.

S. How will it disappear because as long as don’t do our role the hatred will grow? 

R. Time also does its thing.

S. What will happen over time?

R. Hate will disappear, and we won't be able to receive fulfillment from hate.

S. Why would a person not receive fulfillment from hatred?

R. Time, time, understand that it doesn't depend on us it depends on time. We won’t be able to fill ourselves with hate toward one another and everyone toward everyone.

S. In the last 50 years, there was this tendency, growth for the wisdom of Kabbalah compared to all those thousands of years before. How do you feel, will this spirit grow, will people want this wisdom, or will it decline?

R. Yes or no, waves, we’ll have waves. I also don't think that there’s a tendency for the wisdom of Kabbalah but rather for mysticism and things around it. Hence, I don't think that the appetite for the wisdom of Kabbalah is growing and revealing itself more.

S. What is the wave that we are in right now?

R. Right now we are in a descent, a general descent. The whole world needs to reveal its nothingness, that we have no hand in the truth, we can’t save ourselves from emptiness, from blows, and I truly hope that this will pass quickly but for the time being, we don't see an end to it, on the contrary each and every day there's a greater fall in humanity.

S. Was it that decline, will we see more and more people awakening, asking?

R. No.

S. Why not?

R. No one needs the wisdom of Kabbalah. It grows in them, it will grow but for the time being there's nothing.

S. I'm looking for the dependency, that the more there is emptiness the more there is the question about the meaning of life or maybe there is no connection?

R. No, the monkeys on the trees do they feel emptiness? No, they’re wise and smart but for their level, their degree.

S. Still I don't know, if a monkey doesn't have food he’ll search for it, and he’ll move himself elsewhere.

R. He’ll take a stick and begin to do something with it until he comes to something, yes you're right.

S. Where is Israel in all this emptiness in relation to the world?

R. I think that we are in the crosshairs of the whole world and everyone is coming to hate us and if we don't reveal the origin of the hate to ourselves and to others our state will not improve for a long time.

S. You said that in general hatred satisfies a person and gives him a filling.

R. Relatively speaking, it depends on the states.

S. Okay so the world is filled with hatred toward us, does that cover their emptiness, does it satisfy them? What satisfies Israel, as well as hatred?

R. Israel has nowhere to run, it has nothing to do, it doesn't know how to arrange itself. Give it some space in the North Pole and people will run away from there.

S. People are surviving, they’ve survived for thousands of years so from where would the question come, the need for the Kabbalah, the need for the filling?

R. We still don’t see it, we still can’t see it. It has to come when there's no other choice, where there's no place for us to feel safe in the next moment.

S. As long as we have a country, and we can survive there's no question about the meaning of life?

R. No question, and Baal HaSulam with respect to the country and bless it, it was written on this Shabbat knife on the state of Israel. 

S. How in these conditions when we have a country, how can we awaken that question, how can advance toward the wisdom of Kabbalah because it contradicts, we have the good conditions?

R. There will be a few more periods that they’ll have to go through.

7. S. (26:20) Can we accelerate this time?

R. Only through the connection between us and the prayer.

S. How does that connection between us accelerate the times?

R. We will build vessels that resemble the vessels at the end of correction.

S. That’s us, those that have points in the heart, that gather around.

R. It doesn't matter, it doesn’t matter at all. There's a hero in quantity and a hero in quality. On top of all this emptiness in the world relative to the purpose of life we are heroes.

S. When we do the right work at the right pace these times will pass quickly to humanity?  

R. Yes, in leaps and bounds. 

S. This is the right dissemination basically?

R. Yes.

8. S. (27:32) Before the wisdom of Kabbalah regarding Judaism, Judaism has existed for nearly 4,000 years and we in the country have been here for 75 years, and it seems like we’re disconnected from our Judaism, from our identity. I’m not even talking about Kabbalah and all of that but from the Jewish identity why, why is it like that? 

R. Why is it like that? It’s our history, really, He created this situation for us.

S. If we look at it simply, you look back and you see what we've been through. When I look at my life, I see I’m building something, something happened to me, so I learn for the future but our people, it’s as if they went through terrible things extinctions, destructions, when you look back you see everything that happened and then you see the results, terrible results and it’s as if you don’t see it there, there’s a disconnection. 

R. No, they can’t see it. You’re right, they can’t see it, we have no memory, no historic memory, nothing to hold onto.

S. Why is it like that? I speak to people and when they look back, they don’t look beyond and when you tell them, expand your perspective, our people are not 75 years old, it’s far older. Look what happened, we shouldn't be surprised at what happened to us is happening, but there's this automatic way there’s this block that’s blocking their view. The question is will this block be opened?

R. For the time being this block doesn't want to open up because we're not interested in translating or rather conveying this history, these feelings to our descendants, we don't want them to hear about it and we don't want them to suffer.

S. Being Jewish, subconsciously it's connected to the suffering, that’s why?

R. Yes, not subconsciously, consciously.

S. In our consciousness when we try to run away from it and hide it, it keeps hitting us in the face. I’m hiding something and I get slapped and then I hide it again? When will I tell myself enough, this is who I am?

R. For the time being in between things we succeed. Who in the world doesn't know the Jews, who in the world doesn’t speak negatively about them nevertheless, we exist. Our survival instinct is powerful.

S. Yes, but to exist you see you don't need to go a long way back, you see that every time you tried to run away with this you couldn't, you weren’t allowed to.

R. So?

S. Why are we not now seeing what is happening and can’t connect it to that point?

R. Ask yourself.

S. I can’t understand, that's why I'm asking, I don’t understand.

R. We don't want to commit toward the Creator and come out of this narrow place that He put us in, that He prepared for us.

S. He will gradually force us and close us, pressure us just like when we came to the wisdom of Kabbalah. No one came because he was happy, he came because of pressure, he came because he didn’t receive satisfaction. Will this happen to our people now that they’ll feel this inner pressure?   

R. People cannot reach the wisdom of Kabbalah in this way.

S. Not to the wisdom of Kabbalah, I’m just talking about Judaism.

R. Judaism it’s even more, no. I think that it will be only with the help of the upper force, that it will open up the eyes in each person's head and he will understand where he needs to orient himself, toward where he should move. It’s good that we’re talking about it and you hear it and you understand or don't understand these questions.

9. S. (32:49) It seems like there are two enemies, there’s an enemy that’s throwing rockets at us and there's a more silent, crueler enemy.

R. The one that is lobbing rockets is not an enemy, he’s a placeholder.

S. Yes, it’s the force that connects us. The more internal, the real one, those Jews that are so cruel, silent, subverting from below, what is the prayer with respect to those, to those Hellenists, those cruel and powerful forces?

R. We need to pray to the Creator so that these forces will simply disappear from the world, disappear, cease to exist. I don't know, when I delve into all of our books and stories I don't see any force of salvation except for the upper one that has to awaken and extract us from this swamp, it’s so deep in all of humanity, so full of hate and rejection from every people, every nation, I don't know what can be here. On the one hand, we see that we are not lower from each generation, we’re not going lower in our wisdom, in our participation with all the nations of the world with reality on the one hand. On the other hand, we need to see how we can rise, how can we find this entire world from the filth it’s immersed in and we’re with it, but seemingly we have this power to save ourselves and to save them as well.

10. S. (36:05) I wanted to ask about the need for the wisdom of Kabbalah. Is it something that exists in reality, meaning will a person have to come to a need for the wisdom of Kabbalah at some point in his development?

R. I think if it weren't for the wisdom of Kabbalah humanity would be left with nothing, nothing. What does humanity need in order to be saved and to adhere to the upper force? Only the wisdom of Kabbalah. Why do we need to adhere to the upper force? Otherwise, you have no right to exist, what for? Why should it exist in the way it exists right now? We’re worse than animals. I think the wisdom of Kabbalah itself is eternal, just like its source and we are not even touching it but nevertheless, we’ll need to feel it and reach it.

S. What will bring the masses to a need for the wisdom of Kabbalah, what will bring the masses to need the wisdom of Kabbalah?

R. The question about the meaning of life, the question about the meaning of life, why do we live?

S. To come to that question is something very personal that a person goes through with himself in order to even come to this question.

R. Yes, the time will come and quite soon when people will ask themselves and won’t know how to answer and will enter great despair, great suffering, and will cry out to the Creator.

S. Each one in humanity in the end has some sort of a trail by which he has to come to the question about the meaning of life because he wants to come to some connection with the Creator so he’ll have to come to the wisdom of Kabbalah.

 R. Yes.

S. Everyone has to go through this track. 

R. Yes, I don’t see any way around it, no other way. Rather through the wisdom of Kabbalah to get to know this one force and that will obligate it to take care of us because He wants this prayer and that's how we will save ourselves from all the troubles.

11. S. (39:22) Are there other ways to acquire the wisdom of Kabbalah, and attain the Creator besides study? By study, I mean sitting in from of the book, in this way. 

R. No, we don’t need to sit in front of the book, we need to work more on connection.

S. Who is we? We study 5, 6 hours a day at least so who doesn't need it, other people?

R. In general.

S. Us too?

R. No, we all need to increase the connection between us.

S. This is a feeling, in order to? 

R. In order to need the Creator. 

S. It’s a feeling to need the Creator, as a result of what? As a result of what will this feeling come, what should I do? We live in this world, we were given a body, what do we do in this external body so that we come to such a feeling? From this day I didn’t understand, until today I understood, I had to learn, we learn, we study, and we’ve been studying for thousands of years. 

R. You’re right about it, how to study, what to study. 

S. Right, so now you’re saying there's a different way, what is the way?

R. In practice to be more connected to one another, this is many times more helpful in opening the heart.

S. I understand practice but what should we do? Meals, games, what should we do?

R. Each one should show the other how much his heart is open to the other.

S. Why do we begin this?

R. Go ahead, from this moment.

S. What about learning, and studying?

R. The studies required are needed only in order to bring people closer to some extent.

S. Bring them closer?

R. Yes, I don't think the study itself makes the correction, on the contrary, it might even bring separation.

S. What about what’s written in 155 where we awaken all kinds of states that we don't know but there are forces there, what about that?

R. You're right, it’s written this way in item 155 of the introduction to TES. I don't think so, I don't think the study is the engine that will drive us forward, only the relationship between us, straight, simple, and it will bring us to closeness, only this. They won’t want to understand more than that.

12. S. (43:12) Will humanity also give up on religions?

R. I don't think there's something there in religion, religion provides people with degrees in human society.

S. With respect to the internet that will be awakened in the world and the question of the meaning of life, wouldn’t that make religions stronger?

R. Religions provide humanity with a social mechanism of sorts, a social mechanism, not more than that. Okay, we will get back to it, time is approaching. Why are you laughing?

13. S. (44:39) I'm really trying to understand the word connection, what do we do with this? I understand it’s a feeling like love, I understand what love is. I understand we have to do many things in order for it to be formed, this feeling and we are always talking about the connection as a result but what are the means, what are the exercises, practices, and actions, how do we come to this? I understand it's through a prayer but even for prayer, prayer is also a result, the prayer is the result of my work, I cannot press a button and pray.

R. What kind of deficiency does there need to be so that you will want to be in connection and bestowal and mutuality? What kind of deficiency do you need to have? For the time being, we see that the deficiency for disconnection is greater than the deficiency for connection.

S. Where in this group or in the nation?

R. In the group, in the nation, in everything. We need to think about it carefully. No more questions, everything is clear.

14. S. (46:14) I heard earlier that you said you don't want to commit yourself to the Creator to lift us out of the narrow place we’re in. Why aren't we willing to commit to the Creator?

R. Ask yourself, I don't know. I need to obligate to the Creator and commit to Him by working for the sake of the other and in no way for my own sake. Is it possible, can I do it? I don't see that I can. For a tiny moment yes but over time and for everyone without limits, how could it be? That's already a different nature opposite to our own nature.

S. So this is what we have to come to?

R. Yes. Why are you laughing? Your face is so content I don't know where it's coming from, bring out such a spirit.  

15. S. (47:50) Finally, we're talking about something that’s close to the heart.