Part 2
Morning Lesson February 2, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. You Have Made Me in Behind and Before (Remember and Keep Were Said in One Utterance)
Reading from heading (00:24) “Remember and Keep Were Said in One Utterance”
1. R. (01:35) That the Creator created everything in the opposite. For each and every creation there is this thing, one thing and its opposite and only this way creation exists. There are only a few parts of creation or one part from creation that can organize the right relationship between opposite things that exist in Him. That is a person that makes himself like the Creator that is why we call him Adam. All the rest are in these opposite parts they have. They don't really feel the opposition in them but they organize, they arrange themselves in correction behind all those who perform the correction in their reason. Kabbalists are drawn to the corrections, they perform the corrections. All the rest of humanity is only incorporated in the last degree, the last step of correction joining everyone, joining all the Kabbalists.
Reading heading (02:51) “Remember and Keep Were Said in One Utterance” Again
2. R. (03:58) This means that in each and every one, in each and every creation, even in the smallest piece. From the still and of course on a higher level in the vegetative animate and speaking, there are two parts that are contradictory and by the contradiction they grow, they advance and they reach the goal.
3. S. (04:30) Can we say that there's only the desire that was created and it can be either the quality of bestowal, the Creator or the opposite?
R. It comes out of the Creator creating the will to receive. That’s why as he says, I have created the evil inclination, so it's as if there’s only the evil inclination. Because the Creator created it, so there is part of the evil inclination, holding it sustaining it. That is why it is called creation. Then it turns out that each and every part whatever it is, it can be maybe, thought or speech or action or material, whatever. We have two different opposite parts.
4. S. (05:30) He writes here and it’s not clear, and it is the manner of creation that the Creator created, regarded as two opposites in one subject. How can you think of two opposites?
R. Opposites are the will to receive and the will to bestow. If the Creator wants to create something, creating something means outside of Him because He is the will to bestow to begin with, What He creates is the will to receive otherwise it won’t be a created being.
S. Then he writes that all the combinations in the world were made of this, all the combinations of the world were made of this. Are all the combinations of the world two opposites?
R. Of course otherwise it doesn’t exist.
S. What does that mean?
R. It means that if something exists it exists because it is opposite of the Creator. The Creator is only the force of bestowal and the created being has to be from the force of receiving alone. Because this force that receives doesn't exist in itself. It’s made of the force of bestowal so it includes this force of bestowal from the Creator and the force of reception.
S. Is it too early or can we utilize this in the tens, two opposites in one subject?
R. That is how we should work, why not?
S. Can you give an example?
R. Whatever forces we have we want to bring everyone to the force of bestowal.
S. How do we do this? What action do we need to do to reveal two opposites?
R. Two opposites, when we bring them to correction will be to receive in order to bestow. That’s a high degree. In the meantime we should elevate ourselves only to the force of bestowal, the form of bestowal that is called faith above reason. To raise the degree of Bina, the degree of bestowal above the degree of reception, of Malchut.
Reading heading (08:00) “The Power of Speech”
5. R. (10:36) There aren't even questions, this language is so unclear, I understand you. There are all kinds of sentences here he takes from the sources of the Torah. That is why it’s difficult and he also didn't write it for anyone, he wrote it for himself.
6. S. (11:21) Why can't we simply say there are two forces, reception and bestowal? Why does there still need to be as he writes here, 22 letters and more details?
R. In what way can the Creator organize the created being to organize him on one hand, on the other hand, to give the created being all the feeling that the created being is independent, that he can get forces from nature and still the Creator remains independent and that he has free choice. That is how you will turn on these forces that he receives that will truly be in order to bestow and in order to bestow, no one will force him to do. He himself will rise in such degrees of bestowal, of recognition of understanding that he will rise out of himself. That he does want to bestow, he is the will to bestow, not someone is forcing him. That is how he reaches a state where he can stand like the Creator. Like the Creator, meaning what will be the difference between man and the Creator, that they will be both partners in creation. There's a question here as well. What does it mean partners, everything is done by the Creator, so what does the created being add? We have to scrutinize all these things. The main thing is, the whole problem of the Creator if we can say that He has a problem, how to create this creature that will essentially be like the Creator that will be some help to the Creator. Rather that the Creator will depend on the creature and the creature will depend on the Creator to the same extent. And besides that, they will both be independent of each other, free. Well we can say that the Creator because He is the first, He is the last and Besides Him there is none, but how can you say that about the Created being? Meaning how can you see adhesion, wholeness, what’s prepared for us in a way that the created being really reaches the Creator? What does it mean to reach, to become like the Creator? How can we understand that? Meaning besides the Creator being the first, everything that there is in the quality of the Creator, does the Created being receive it? There are many things here that are not yet clear but at least we understand the question. The solution is to...that is why he writes this here in the way that he turns it around so that we will somehow understand his clues.
S. Why do we need all the details, why can't it be just plus and minus? Like a switch that we operate. Why do we still need additional details?
R. It's not an addition of details, they are needless. All things of creation have been created because of necessity because of the wholeness that it was there to begin with. And then this wholeness, this perfection became unholy, unperfected and we need to take this partition and to bring it back to wholeness again. That is for the created being to be whole just like the Creator. This way they can be in adhesion and adhesion is the goal.
S. Ultimately this adhesion returns to the state of two forces or one force?
R. I cannot explain this to you in words. In adhesion you don’t distinguish two forces they become as one. Light and vessel, light and darkness, doesn't matter how you call it. It will all be as one day, one vessel. You can’t explain until we reach a complete state, a whole state.
7. S. (16:42) What is the meaning of fire and water?
R. Two opposites that He connected.
8. S. (17:04) There's a sensation that we have two tasks, one to be similar to The Creator. What is the task before a person after he has become similar to the Creator?
R. Nothing is needed besides that because by realizing this goal of resembling the Creator, by that he realizes everything. Corrects himself, corrects the whole world, connecting to the whole world and becoming a partner and adhere to the Creator. This is what we can understand out of that.
9. S. (18:02) For this reason nothing appears by speech but only by hands and legs, however in truth the Creator has imprinted sufficient force in speech by which to dispose all actions. It feels that there is a very important point of coming out of this but I'm not sure exactly how to take it. Can you explain it a little bit more?
R. Everything is revealed through seemingly corporeal actions in this world, and they are connected, we just do not know how, to everything that happens in the upper world. That’s what I can add here.
10. S. (19:18) What is unique in the force of speech that makes us partners with the Creator?
R. The force of speech is not the force of our speech. Even though our level is called the speaking level above the animate levels. Also in spirituality there is the still, vegetative animate and speaking and that is what we need to reach. What is this force of speech, is when I reach the degree of the Creator. Also the Creator when he works with the created beings, He relates to them in speech. Everything is done by the word of the Creator, the heaven and earth have been created. That’s why speech is an upper thing, a higher thing. It’s an expression through the heart to the brain, meaning all the emotions and all the intellect that can be expressed through speech. Later we will talk about what speech is, speech in spirituality and we talked about it many times. That is through five parts of the mouth. There are five letters that come from the throat. In Hebrew there are the teeth and the palate and the throat. There are many things that are in corporeality, but in spirituality as a result of that or according to that accordingly, one is opposed to the other. We have spiritual actions that we perform in the Guf of the Partzuf, meaning in the Neshama, the soul, and these actions there are very complex. Try to imagine yourself how you speak. Now you're talking, I'm activating the brain, I'm activating the heart. A thought and a desire. I'm activating the whole body, the sight and everything that speaks, the palate and the throat, the tongue, the lips. Meaning these are all things that are related to such expressions by which we can connect between ourselves. That is the main thing to connect between ourselves, and then connecting between ourselves we activate more internal spiritual qualities in each and every one of us and we bestow on each other. That we will relate internally and we reach a state of one vessel where the Creator's revealed. These are very deep things, profound. We'll talk about them in the future.
S. It is only the privilege to be given this force of speech like we just spoke of, then in connection between us we can reveal the Creator between us?
R. No, we cannot reveal the Creator thanks to this speech we can only reveal the Creator in faith above reason. The speech is an external vessel to connect between ourselves.
S. The created being, his action is seemingly that he builds a vessel that goes against the Creator? He generates the rejection, the opposition?
R. The Creator’s help is by helping us in being in faith above reason. The resistance is only the result of our ego, it’s against our ego.
S. The love of the Creator we can only reveal in faith above reason?
R. Yes.
11. S. (23:59) When we reach the love of the Creator it is like a candle before a flame?
R. We come closer to the Creator in the way that is called the middle line. We do not become servants, slaves to the Creator we become partners with the Creator.
12. S. (24:34) It is written in the first paragraph that he took fire and water and mixed them into a single subject. Can you please explain what is the meaning of this sentence?
R. That these two ends in creation, the will to receive and the will to bestow, reception and bestowal can connect together, can live together in one vessel. Under the condition that this vessel goes through restriction, screen, reflected light and acting both in vessels of reception and vessels of bestowal in order to bestow.