Morning Lesson November 07, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 2. Part 6. Inner Light .#1 (start with: "The lights clothed the Sefirot")
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, so let's first read the intentions before the study of TES selected excerpts from the study, please go ahead.
Reading excerpt from Rabash (00:48 )
2. R. (01:31) That is before we start studying our intention why is it that we come to study and for what purpose and under what conditions we want to study what are the relations between us and the relations between us and the Creator and what is the primary thing that our study our action is bringing us. This is what we have to prepare so it will be very clear to us to the extent that we do demand some results from this study to that same except, we will indeed receive an advancement.
The wisdom of Kabbalah it's not like the wisdom of physics are all kinds of other teachings, other sciences, here it all depends on what you want to receive from the study, not just this knowledge that we are studying. This is why it says it's not the wise that learns, we don't need to know what we learned yesterday and that we will keep it in our head and we will be wise by filling up the cells of our brain but rather we need that our study will change us and it will make us of us different vessels.
Instead of vessels for the brain for the intellect for understanding and remembering, that it will make change and us toward spirituality so that we will be able to connect between us more and as much as we in the connection between us become closer to the system of Adam HaRishon we correct the shattering through the connection between us to that same extent we begin to feel how we exist in that same system and how the system is operating.
This is called the revelation of the Creator to the created being. That we discover the upper force that resides in the system, This is why the entire purpose of our study is completely entirely different from how we study all the sciences and in all other places as we read more than once at the study of Torah does not require wisdom, it doesn't require the person any special accidents but only devotion to it that he will know why he is studying for what purpose and each time he will aim himself more and more precisely to the correct purpose of the study. This is through connection with the friends to connection with the Creator.
3. S. ( 04:59) When we study the Talmud of the 10 Sefirot it becomes that there are two intentions in parallel. One is to try to attempt to find the Creator through our connection and the second is the intention for the text which we are studying, how to combine these two intentions together?
R. In truth it doesn't matter how much you remember of the text. You can bring any person from the outside for that who likes to study, who has a good memory, and he will study and he will tell you truly I knew a person that anything he would read he was able to bring you a page and at the end of the page there would be a half a word because the second half of the word would be on the other page he would remember that also, so much so, and it's not that he was unique or excellent in that or that he would remember on what page some text is written.
There are people like that who want to show off that they remember that as well. No, it's not the wise one who learns but rather those people who yearn for the goal more they learn and even though the Creator may be does not open up for them immediately, He's not obligated to us. Maybe we will attain it later but we are aiming ourselves precisely to the goal of being together and in the connection between us to obtain the Creator, or more correctly in the connection between us to serve him contentment from us.
S. In the text accordingly needs to go as if in a background ?
R. Yes, it's not the wise one who learns. Meaning that you can maybe not even remember the text and not know it. Baal HaSulam had a few people that didn't know Hebrew at all and he said don't translate for them. Let them just sit and listen and out of that they will get into it. They will get into it, because all in all, we are drawing the reforming light, you see, that is the intention. We are drawing and upper force and it has to open up our soul and the soul has no boundaries and no languages and no codes that you need to open up.
It doesn't depend on how much you know a language or how you are dressed or how you came or in what form or what. It depends only on the desire to be disconnected from your ego. Disconnected from your ego and therefore when we begin to study the wisdom of Kabbalah all kinds of problems also begin in the families, and with some of the friends that we hate this and that, and this is not okay and that is not okay. Meaning the Creator gives us conditions for the will to receive so that the person would be able to see that he has a place to work.
S. What is the meaning of the study of the Ten Sefirot and particularly if we're saying that the intention is the important then why not articles of Rabash, why specifically of the Ten Sefirot?
R. Yes the Ari and later on Baal HaSulam, they expressed the cascading of the light through all of the degrees to the created beings. This is why when on our way back, we learn how to climb those degrees, then we draw upon ourselves this reforming light. Now again there is a very special issue here that we are learning from Ein Sof, Ein Sof, Galgata, AB, SAG, and all the other things down to this world. When we study however, when we begin to work between us then we begin to work in that we start to connect from below more and more, more and more tightly and therefore in that. Meaning in the study, we only study the upper roots but in the work we do between us, we try internally and our souls to be closer to each other.
This is why it's not the wise one who learns. I don't need to learn the wisdom of Galgata, AB, SAG and all these things. This is an order to be attentive so that there would be some topics and some common materials but the most important thing for us is to try to be connected as much as possible, in order to more and more resemble the upper Partzufim, the upper vessels, that we hope for the light that it along with our efforts to be closer to each other that this light, this light will truly bind us.
It will cancel the boundaries, cancel the individual ego of each one, and it will connect us in tens and hundreds, and thousand,s and this is how we will enjoy the light that it is connecting us into such a vessels where there the light already appears in a vessel and then we begin to be connected both to the vessels as well as to the lights. That we from the animate degree ,the beasts, reach a connection between us as spiritual vessels when we annul ourselves, our egos to be together as one man in one heart. Then the upper light works on us accordingly and it connects us. Then in the connection between us,we attain the light, the spiritual lights and the vessels. The Eternal reality.
4. S. (13:33) How much does the intention depend on the preparation?
R. Actually we should be in preparation 24 hours, all the time. The purpose of my life is to discover the connection between the friends and out of the friends to discover our connection with the Creator that he will be revealed as one who is connecting us and filling us and becoming revealed in us. There is no clear division here to ours or efforts. I actually need to be in this all the time, I should live it. It's not so difficult because indeed there is a great difference between living the reality of this world or the spiritual world. You cannot see this on us, so no one is going to hinder us. Nobody knows what I'm thinking or what I'm intending, and so we simply need to live in that.
5 S. (15:06) It's not the wise that learn, and it's all about the intention to draw the light but if we are reading or learning the book of TES, you have these sketches in the back that Baal HaSulam made and also the Ari made. How can we work correctly using these sketches and what is the purpose of sketches, how should we work with those when drawing the light?
R. I'm not certain that these sketches can actually help us. I also like these sketches very much as a student and for many years I was engaging with this. You can see this in some of my books, however so that it will does not pull you into some other form of internal expression when we speak of the inclinations of the soul, I can maybe draw this if I give a meaning to each internal inclination that I have a certain depiction or a certain graphical sign or image.
Nevertheless, it doesn't mean anything for people, it's just kind of a language, not more. Also it's a language for those who understand it, and so Baal HaSulam wasn't so much in that. Rabash also didn't like these sketches too much. Sometimes he would do it but when he lacked the words. This is here and that is there because in spirituality you have no place,no time and no movement and you don't have any drawings and depictions. It's just to make the language more brief and more iconic. He would use it very seldom, he hardly drew anything for me even though I like drawing very much because I came out of the University where I spent many hours sketching and drawing things, all kinds of schemes, etc.
I don't think it's worthwhile to delve into these sketches. You can see how throughout the entire TES, how many drawings Baal HaSulum did. Only at the end of the study of the 10 Sefirot, you have what do you call it, Sefer Ha Eilan,The Book of theTree, yes there you have it, this is what Baal HaSulam did and the ARI made some small drawings in The Tree of Life and also it's not quite known if he did that or maybe his students like Chaim Vital maybe who added these things. It’s not known to us because nevertheless 500 years have gone by since the time of the writing and later on when they took them out of the cellar and they started to, out of the basement and they started arranging them, until it reached a certain more organized form and then Baal HaSulam made a book out of it. In short, I do not recommend delving into the drawings.
6. S. (20:22) Is the study of TES suitable for everyone?
R. No, it's not suitable for everyone and there are people who cannot even stand it. It's a matter of perception of reality. There are people who perceive reality in a pictorial, emotional manner and those who do it in a more intellectual manner. Therefore ,you have all kinds, however nevertheless let's say the Pitcha, the Preface at least we have to know it, and those who cannot study TES that it's difficult for them I would recommend to nevertheless go over The Preface again and again.
S. How to enter devotedly, into the text whether I connect with it or not?
R. You have to shake your soul a little bit so that nevertheless this is about its actions inside the forces of the Creator. There is a will to receive that the Creator created and it exists inside this great field, an infinite field of the upper force that is working on your soul. You need to cause a connection between them, between the point of the soul and the field of the Creator, so that they will reach a connection between them and the development of the soul inside of the upper light.
S. Why has the study changed over the years if Rabash it was the main and now it's for us it's an addition?
R. It's a matter of time and a matter of the souls. Meaning the people who come to study, what is it that they demand more? During our time, the people demand not only their internal development but they also want to see all ready results and in the social change and everything just as Baal HaSulam soon says.
That we are already in the generation of the Messiah, the last generation. This is felt more and people who came during the times of Rabash were different than those who come from now. Nevertheless, let's say 40 years went by, and I see how much it's a different kind of people. Also they used to study The Prefaces and the Introductions. Nevertheless when a person would come they would study The Preface with him and follow The Preface, depending on what he will be drawn to, either he would sit with other students and they would be studying something.
Rabash didn't like to study The Introductions to the Book of Zohar or any other introductions. He didn't quite want to open up this matter to people who came. So the Preface Part 1 and Part 2 of the Study of The Ten Sefirot, this how he used to teach and so everybody taught in this is how people would be learning from him at all the people that were there, but during our time people already demanded more. They want to study to be more directed toward their development, towards the revelation of the Creator and in a clear manner in a way that they can begin to have a grip on it and begin to work with it in a mutual manner,’ I to my beloved and my beloved to me’ and so the situation has changed a little bit. women are drawn to it which was not characteristic at all before and also the younger generation is entering the study, This is how it is. Earlier people would reach the wisdom of Kabbalah at the age of 40 and now it's younger people that come. We don't ask them if they are married or not or how old are you but rather if you are an adult and grown up you can come and study.
7. S. (26:12) In regards to the virtue of the study, in what way does it come into play?
R. The Segula, the remedy of virtue from the study, comes especially out of us connecting more. You can say that this condition has always existed, so we have to connect and to study. There are not many conditions here.
S. I try to understand with regards to the sources that we study with it's clear that we study was sources that are not Talmud or TES and it emotionally drawing in you as if I identify with it and with TES it's something farther from you, when you can yearn to be with it and it awakens the prayer. Where is this work happening? Where does it occur when I'm not in the study with TES?
R. I did not understand.
S. Today do we have enough conditions to draw the light even if we read it less TES?
R. Yes look, there were times where there was no TES. When did Baal HSulam write it? There was The Tree of Life and there is times when they would come to some old woman in the old part of Tel Aviv and they would buy from her the Tree of Life, an old print of it, an old Eedition and there was nothing more from the wisdom of Kabbalah. She was really an old lady. I don't even remember what her name was, and what she belonged to. I'm sure she was the wife of someone. I don’t even remember and I don’t want to say. We would knock on the door, there's some partitions or something there and she would bring out some books to us and later on they printed them. There was this one store in Jerusalem in the basement on the Shabbat square and also in Tel Aviv, I don't remember where it was. In short, until this whole thing started spreading. Today you can find it in every store. You can see truly shelves of books of kabbalah but it wasn't like that.
S. It's clear today all the sources are as if in the person's palm, on the from phone and in all languages, I'm asking with regards to the study, at least this is what I remember when we studied TES, I would hear from you that this is the strongest source of the light that reforms.
R. That is true ,but if there are people that think that is not for them. What is suitable for them and they find it boring so then you have to wrap it with something else. This is why we add to this drawing, and stories and all kinds of things. We have to bring it closer and besides today people don't have as much patience as they did back then you have to realize that the world has become more full of all kinds of temptations. You can read this or that or watch this and so then it is difficult for a person to focus when he has before him just studying a single book.
S. This is what I'm asking about. In our days when everyone wants everything instantly, now I want my correction.
R. It doesn't depend on what you study it depends on how much you're connected with others and you make of yourself as clay in the hands of the potter.
S. There is such a reality where we study less of a certain writings because of our development today and what's suitable for the generation?
R. Yes, yes and out of lack of time and also because we change. Look at our friends, how many of them are willing to study TES? They get used to it later on but they come and study out of routine but are they truly drawn to it? Not so much I don't feel that, as much as I get responses from people.
8. S. (32:52) What does it mean to see the results in the society from the study?
R. To see the results in the society means that I am studying with the friends and I feel how much our study overtime doesn't work immediately and it doesn't go smoothly, but I feel how much this is working on us and it is elevating us to a more essential degree of connection. Maybe we're not connected more strongly but we understand that we need to be connected, that we need to belong to and to be as one man and one heart and this is the result of the study.
S. We're usually saying that we're advancing the recognition of evil so we need to see that as well.
R. Yes, also the recognition of evil how egoistic and small we are, we are trapped within our ego and we cannot do anything on it on the one hand on the other hand were constantly expecting that the upper influence the upper light will change us and correct us,
S. Do we need to see it in ourselves or in the society?
R. Both.
S. In the external society?
R. In the external society we can see many things only that it's deteriorating more and more that the world is deteriorating more and more.
S. This is called a good result of the study?
R. This is not a result of the study, it's the result of the general development of the world that it must understand and feel itself as going towards doom unless they reach corrections.
9. S. (35:25) Can we say that the repulsion from the Talmud...
R. No,don't start sharing all kinds of philosophies here, No way, each one has a certain inclination towards this and also towards that.
Excerpt 2: (36:01) Torah has the power to reform a person..” twice
10. S. (37:49) What does it mean that thanks to the Torah there will be an opportunity for the existence of man in the world?
R. The world means the spiritual world and thanks to Torah which is the reforming light when it makes a person within our will to receive it creates a spiritual vessel, meaning with the intention to bestow. Then it turns out that the person begins to see and he already exists in the upper worlds, This is how it is. However, I'm asking the question should all be to the point and not all scattered.
11. S. (38:47) In the world that we collect from opposites, will it be the real world?
R. The real world, the true world, means a system that works according to the spiritual intentions and laws.
12. S. (39:20 ) When we read TES there's a desire to belong to the upper system that we read about, how does a person relate himself to what is written?
R. By studying and constantly wanting to belong to and by that he draws the upper light that arranges him and corrects him.
S. Is it true to search myself within the writing's who is the I in it?
R. No, don't get into philosophies this is very far from spirituality even though we don't know what that is.
S. The minimal association to the text?
R. No, just do what the Kabbalists tell you and use your intellect less.
Excerpt number 3 (40:20) “ We engage in the Torah in order to..”
Excerpt number 4 I41:40 ) “ a person must make an effort..”
13. S. (43:49) Is the study without yearning also draws the light that reforms?
R. Yes, according to the measure of the yearning and if there is no yearning nevertheless there is also a small illumination.
14. S. (44:12) What to do if there is difficulty listening to the language TES?
R. We get used to it.
15. S. (44:20) Is the attracting of the light that reforms demand on the effort through the study?
R. Of course it's according to the deficiency.
16. S. (44:33) Is during the study of TES,the Ten has to do a special effort?
R. The Ten needs to connect together and try to gather to receive a response from the study together.
17. S. (44:49 ) Do you recommend reading TES together in our Tens meetings?
R. Maybe but maybe if you have time then yes but it's after all the materials that we study.
18. S. (45:11) How to open the heart to the study of TES to really be washed through with emotion?
R. Through efforts and only together.