Afternoon Lesson October 13, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam Introduction to The Book of Zohar #71
1. R. (00:17) We have come to the end of the introduction to the Book of Zohar, and we are reading the final part of it so whoever wants to go back to something and ask something prior to this we are ready for that too and to study that.
Reading #71. (00:50) “The Reason for Their Words…”
2. R. (07:55) Well, and now we will see what is asked, and then we may read it again.
3. S. (08:05) Why do all the tragedies come to those who belong to Yashar Kel, why do they come straight to us?
R. Because specifically from the behavior of people who are closer to the Creator is the system of correction dependent on the whole world. It's like you for instance need to fix your car so the main thing is the important thing in the engine, and then you correct something additional which is not so important that without that the car will work anyway, that's the thing. Therefore, the blows are felt and sensed in the important parts of the system, and this is from the very beginning of Adam HaRishon and is related to the group that is called Israel, Yashar Kel, direct to the Creator that is aimed at the Creator according to its nature.
4. S. (09:45) What is this here about the internal of the nations and the external ones and how is it related? How can we depict such a state when the internal nations agree with Israel usually, we are rising above it?
R. They'll agree, gradually part of the nations of the world will agree with it. That there has to be a friendship and a partnership and a closeness between us and that there can't be any human advancement in the motion of humanity forward and its advancement through history. We're coming close to it that eventually, some part of humanity will begin to understand that the closeness between nations, is not only to prevent wars it's a necessity that comes from nature itself from the source of nature from the source of the Creator. I think eventually people will start understanding the need for unity between us.
5. S. (11:38) I understand that from Baal HaSulam everyone is engaging in the Torah and is in externality and also increasing it. In this world, only you are engaging in the internality of the Torah. How can we come out of this equation other than mercy from above?
R. We have to advertise in what the correction of the world depends on and to try to explain it in any spoken language and let's hope that gradually it's something that should be advertised more and more, and more and more people will start understanding and feeling and coming closer to keep that condition of unity in the world.
S. The moment in the world who's engaged in the internality of the Torah beside you?
R. They're all in the world also concealed righteous people that in heights who are completely adhered to the Creator, we just don't know them, and don't search it won't help you.
S. My question is, besides mercy from above to increase the internality of the Torah in this world and more people who engage in that, what else can we do so that the internality of the Torah would increase in this world?
R. That's what we need to try and advertise the method of correction, the general method that works on every man and woman and we need to show everyone how we are doing it, and to organize such states in groups and societies that they will all be able to come closer and participate.
S. As long as I didn't come to engage in the internality of the Torah how do I not increase the externality in the world?
R. It doesn't affect anything if you don't reach the internality of the Torah then your actions just remain on the corporeal level just like those who go out to demonstrations. They don't really ruin the world, just the lowest degree.
6. S. (14:23) If we increase the quality of Israel within us the internality will that help Israel win against all its enemies?
R. Yes.
7. S. (14:46) At least according to what I understand from this article Baal HaSulam gives a very unique role to the corporeal people of Israel, not Israel the way we interpret it but the corporeal physical people of Israel. I also heard from you that calamity comes to important people and at the moment that calamity that comes doesn't come to Bnei Baruch which we call Israel but only to the corporeal people of Israel. He also describes this very structured process that first there has to be a correction in the corporeal people of Israel that mentions the suffering of Poland and so and only then can we correct the world. How does that happen in everything we do?
R. We need to reach it, we need to come to it, what do you recommend we do?
S. Meaning one who engages somewhat in dissemination in Israel I recommend a gathering of people that have a way and access to dissemination in Israel and discuss how we can disseminate in Israel to really go on the track. Baal HaSulam says that it needs to happen, which at the moment we are less successful in that, let's put it that way.
R. Please, what is preventing you from opening a forum page on our internet and starting discussions there, maybe you'll reach the right agreement.
S. Is there an organization that is in charge of all the Hebrews? There's dissemination in Israel and this organization needs to manage it and organize all of that and only if it comes from my experience, only if it comes from this body and under that and through that management, and then something can be done or at least we can try we might not succeed.
R. Then push them into this.
S. All right, I will try.
R. Good.
8. S. (17:19) Something here is very unclear to me, it says after our iniquities we became witnesses to all the above and moreover the measure of judgment hurts, specifically that the best of us as it says it starts from the righteous first. First of all, who are the witnesses that he talks about?
R. Our Generation.
S. Who are the best of us that he talks about?
R. The ones that were, maybe there are a bit more left. Those who are on the path to Lishma or are already in Lishma in this way, they are coming closer to the correction.
S. Why is the correction he says, it begins with the righteous. First, who are the Righteous here and what does it start from the righteous all the troubles, seemingly troubles? It starts from the righteous first, why?
R. Can you let me speak?
S. Yes, of course.
R. We need to learn, and those people who more than all of us understand what we need to do, meaning to connect between us and from between us to more, and more, and more people. They need to be the head of the organization and they need to lead us into the general connection as broad as possible and to draw people from the whole world from all nations and all backgrounds that are feeling pain, from not coming closer to being one man as one heart. In that one point of connection with all people of the earth and in this way, we can spread the forces of the Wisdom of Kabbalah to the connection of the world. From that succeed.
S. Why did the righteous in all the generations have more suffering, they were not believed, and their families were banned. What is the reason for all of this, why isn't the Wisdom of Kabbalah accepted at all, specifically the great Kabbalists in their generations?
R. Because the reason of the Torah is the opposite from the reason of the landlords and because the landlords are a big physical strong part, and the reason of the Torah only exists in very few people. On our level the physical force of the landlords it’s stronger than the spiritual force of the ones who hold the reason of the Torah and that is why it is happening in that way.
9. S. (21:21) What is the difference between the internality of the nations of the world and the internality of Israel?
R. The internality of the nations of the world is the will to receive and the internality of Israel is the will to bestow.
10. S. (21:48) What does it mean that if a person corrects himself, he also corrects the world?
R. Man, or a person, is a small world, so what does that mean, that he is connected to all people on the Earth, with all the souls. It is like a sphere that each part in it is connected to all the other parts, and then it turns out that as much as a person corrects himself, he corrects the world, and as much as God forbid, he corrupts himself, so he corrupts the world, that is the whole matter. And as much as he corrects himself and also increases himself, so he connects to more, and more, and more individual souls and helps them start ascending and coming closer to the peak of the worlds, the Creator, clear?
11. S. (23:13) Will the state in Israel cause people to search for the Wisdom of Kabbalah?
R. The state in Israel will cause people to search for the Wisdom of Kabbalah; I hope, really hope that, yes! And if that won't help, the Creator will need to give us more and more suffering so we will through them search and find the place of calmness, the place of justice, which is a place of connection between us.
S. The question is whether the message of the connection is sufficient or saying that the Wisdom of Kabbalah is the solution to reach connection?
R. We can't just say in a sentence that the Wisdom of Kabbalah is connection and that is the solution, people will not understand that according to their understanding. The Wisdom of Kabbalah is something that belongs to all kinds of remedies and medicines and maybe dances, it is not what we understand. We need to explain to everyone that we are speaking about the structure of reality, that the structure includes all of the universe, all of humanity, all of this still, vegetative, animated, and speaking, all the nature of the whole universe without erasing anything away from it. That we need to understand that we are in a world that needs a correction of unity, that is the main thing, and in that, we have great work to obligate all people in the world to think about it. That we do not have any possibility to come to the correction of the world, to reach peace and wholeness and a good life between us without incarnating again and falling into this world, the lowest point of reality. If we do not connect as one man with one heart. We need to really explain it very strongly to everyone, and that a person in his life even with billions of people who are confusing him and the people that are outside of him every day, that they will not confuse it to such an extent that again and again he disconnects from the purpose of life, and falls into money, honor, knowledge, food, sex, family, which is the only thing that draws him.
S. Maybe it's a hard-hitting question but do you think there's a special message from the Creator for us in the fact that so many little children are killed in this war?
R. We have a special message, a simple message: This war is a clear state that we are in a bad state, and we are guilty of what's happening, only us. There is nothing to hide, but it has to be balanced with our understanding and our willingness to correct ourselves and the whole world with us.
12. S. (27:57) It is written, "Each of us remainders should take upon himself, heart and soul, to henceforth intensify the internality of the Torah". My question is how can we intensify this internality and what does it mean to take upon this externality ourselves? [Reader reads excerpt]
R. That the connection between us in the tens and then hundreds of thousands, it will be preferable upon all other connections, and our connection, through our connection to the Creator, with the Creator, it will be as the most exalted on the height, on the peak of our plans and let us hope that we will go towards that ahead and a head until we implement it.
13. S. (29:45) Does it mean “That the nations of the world will carry on their shoulders”, as we read, does it mean that we have to pray so that specifically that the nation of Israel will unite because they are the most broken?
R. Let's aim ourselves correctly means to aim ourselves towards connection because it is the connection that all nations will understand, that the good future can only be in the connection and in the connection between us, only in that way, we can receive anything we want, except for one thing: Control others, to determine something to others, each one has to understand and what his uniqueness is, what his work is or her work is, what they have to do in order to do good to the others. In this way, the others will work towards them too and then there will be unconditional love and mutual love and support between everybody. That is how it is in nature, and that is how it has to be, and that is how it will be, all this depends on us today and as much as we succeed in coming close, even in one step, that is what these wars are happening for.
S. I'll be a bit more specific, so we Bnei Baruch, all our Kli, we do not highlight the people of Israel in the plan of Israel, or that still internally in our prayer we aim for helping them more?
R. Yes, it is necessary to also work on that level, to unite, protect ourselves, and correct also on that level, even though for us the main thing is to disseminate this idea to all of humanity.
14. S. (32:26) It says that “All the nations of the world will know the merit of Israel”, what is this merit or virtue of Israel that they will recognize?
R. That the main thing is connection and in the connection, we reveal the Creator and there's nothing else about that.
S. You said that we are to blame for what is happening here, only us.
R. Yes.
S. Basically I’m asking myself where is the place of our work if we, Bnei Baruch, are the only ones; I also heard you say, I wrote, “The behavior of those who are closer to the Creator determines the system of correction for the whole world”, so my question is where to focus our efforts, where’s our true influence on the world?
R. Look what he writes: “And from now, only us, the ones who are left to correct this distorted part in all of us that we will take upon ourselves to increase from here on the internality of the Torah and give it its worthy place as it is important upon the externality of the Torah”.
S. How to increase the internality of the Torah between us in the tens and realize that this is the only place of work, that this is who will influence the world and not to escape and do other kinds of actions?
R. Speak between yourselves until each of you convinces the other, period. We have no choice, without that, we will go through more and more disasters, and not only us but the whole world with us until we still have to come and implement it.
S. It turns out that the tens of Bnei Baruch is the front of everything that is happening in the world, like the source?
R. Yes.
S. And only there I can correct something, not in any other action?
R. Yes, and I think the women can do much more than the men in this as we have seen many times in history.
S. What can we do Rav?
R. You can demand to connect, also from the women and also from the men.
15. S. (35:23) We learned that the advantage of light comes from darkness, what light do you see coming out of this darkness that Israel is in now?
R. That they bring to each and every heart of man in Israel, of a person in Israel, the understanding that connection is above all other calculations. Who is going to be the President or who is going to be the Prime Minister, or who's going to go out into the streets to demonstrate, and so on.
S. Do you feel that this below awakens something in the public towards that?
R. It is already passing, it will now become mutual blaming and mutual calculations, and there will be courts, court trials, and all kinds of arguments. The main thing is, it’s going to be good for the press and so on.
S. And after all the destruction and loss and mutual blame and all the mess ahead of us, what kind of Israel do you see is growing anew?
R. That they do not want to come back to what we had, we have seen what was and what will be, and we don't want it to be. We want to enter a new world, the new world is new relationships, and the new relationships are what is written in the Torah, “Love your friend as yourself”.
S. Many times we went through such programs and very difficult states that our nation went through, how is this last incident different from before, why will we hold ourselves now, facing forward?
R. What can change the matter is only advertising it, only explaining it, a broad system of explanation made of every person in Bnei Baruch, and also from every woman from Bnei Baruch, a broad explanation to all the nation of Israel that is what we need to do. We have to write, to speak about it, to photograph, to sing. Thousands and thousands of pages and hours in order to convince the nation, each one in a style that is close to them, to try through articles and all kinds of forms, to reach a state that we touch the heart of each and every one. It is a big problem, but it is our work and we cannot be despaired and put our hands up, that is why I’m really asking you not to let go of it, but every day it shall be new in your eyes. That again, and again, we start, and we start disseminating and just spread it into the nation as much as possible, just try to reach everyone’s heart. I’m sure we can, and the Creator will help but first, we have to do what’s on our behalf and demand the ten to do what it can, only.
16. S. (40:00) We learned that we need to be incorporated in the sorrow of the public, on the other hand, we know the power of the influence of the environment. We are not going to delve into the news or go into some actions of, I don't know, solidarity to feel the pulse of the people. The question is how do you incorporate with the sorrow of the public without being incorporated in the guts of what is happening?
R. We need to explain to the nation that all those victims that, again and again, history takes of us, that those victims, we are demanding that they will be for the connection and correction of the whole world. It is not just a person that was alive and died and children and babies and women and girls and elders, we want the whole nation to understand that it all depends on their heart. Our weapon is our heart, with our heart, if it connects to the hearts of the friends and we aim our general heart to our mutual heart towards the Creator and give Him a place to enter our heart, by that we make room for the whole world, we turn it around towards the general connection between everybody.
S. This is powerful, how do we recall all the victims throughout history including their recent shocking events, and demand connection and correction of the world for that?
R. We have to start and as usual as it is written, “The Creator will finish the work for me”; we don't understand this whole system or the way that it is working, but the whole thing is that we will start, and the Creator will finish it for us.
17. S. (42:56) How to disseminate where there is no example, we know there is the internality of the Torah, we move up towards the Creator through the connection in the ten, but the new people who just come into the Wisdom of Kabbalah look at the corporeal part and for them all the people of Israel are supposed to serve as an example?
R. Well, we don't have to advertise Israel to people who are distant from it. In no way, you just reject them from it. You have to explain to them without Israel, without the Torah, without all kinds of wisdom that are far from a regular person. You have to explain to them in what the good future of humanity depends on, of the world, and the connection between people. And to write it in all languages without any connection to Israel or Jews or anything, that only that way the world is built. If we connect, we will have it good, and that is what we have to advertise, nothing else, without any connection to anyone.
S. Yes, okay, but still we are connected to Israel, related to the time of Israel, we have the headquarters in Petah Tikva.
R. You have to write on all websites that are popular, all the viewed pages of the internet, such places, and with no connection to us or Petah Tikva, good luck!
18. S. (45:10) Today the internet is filled with messages that say that we are strong together and together we will win. The Creator is not in the picture but is that sufficient for the people?
R. I don’t think you can explain the whole picture to the nation but a bit more advanced towards connection, towards the essence of the connection, what it is exactly, what it gives us, to understand all of nature and bring it to one source, that is worth it!
S. And it seems like it is going toward a place of pride, we are united, we are strong, and we will win against everyone.
R. Don't write in such a way.
S. No, not me, that is what everyone is talking about right now, that is what the public is talking about right now.
R. So you write otherwise, you write otherwise.
19. S. (46:31) I want to understand what you explained before to a previous student: If the matter is going to soon end and then there's going to be bigger division and the press will take its interest and everyone will blame one another, then what will we have other than to despair?
R. We are going to need to write about this now, that once people go into despair, they will understand that it is flawed.
S. What is flawed?
R. It is flawed that we can’t stop blaming each other and we cannot move away from each other, but we have to feel ourselves that we belong to “One man with one heart”, and one people, one group that we exist together in one bomb shelter. And that we can come out of it only under the condition that we have the right weapon, and that right weapon is our connection, that we will expand the borders of that bomb shelter around the whole earth, that we all reach a state that we are all “As one man with one heart”.
S. To be willing to hear such a thing sounds like a miracle because we see that from blow to blow, the bigger it is, then later the division and then the mutual blame is bigger.
R. Because we are not successful in connecting, that is why each and every blow just scattered us more and more.
20. S. (48:40) What is the more internal connection between us?
R. It's a more internal connection. Meaning that we don’t talk about being in a shared place, or a shared country, but that we are in a shared heart, and in that heart, the more it becomes one, the more the Creator enters it.
21. S. (49:13) The people in the state of Israel and also in the world have a broken heart but an open heart. How can we support that heart? What can we put into that heart?
R. We have to build such a society for them that will accept them warmly. Say, Toronto, that you will show everyone, show them that they have a place to come, where to be, what to do, how to get organized, how to feel confident together, how to feel that they are in a society that can help each other. That is what Toronto should do towards all of Canada, let us say, or even America. Do you understand?
22. S. (50:37) What does not let us connect correctly? What is in the way?
R. Our heart, that each and everyone's heart is inside of a membrane, inside a bag, and it doesn't allow feeling the others' heart. That's what we have to break through, break the boundaries between the hearts so they are united as one.
23. S. (51:32) If in my ten, I reach the whole connection it will affect the world positively?
R. Certainly, undoubtedly, no doubt at all.
24. S. (52:03) How can the women of Bnei Baruch connect? How's it expressed in all of humanity when the women of Bnei Baruch connect?
R. Just like with the men so do the women. How many women's organizations exist in humanity? There are many. When I went overseas to North America, South America, Europe in Europe not as much, but in North America and South America usually women managed such organizations, international organizations. I do not understand why you cannot do the same, and start expanding, start attracting, and inviting.
S. When we connect, what are the results in the world, in the nations, when we are successful in connecting? What are the results?
R. So women understand that connection can be a cure for the situation and so if they think in that direction, by that it heals the world.
25. S. (53:59) The nation is in a very fragile and sensitive state, and you depicted a state that soon we are going again into inner wars. What can we add to our message except for the unity awakening the positive force of nature that’s watching over us, that is touching people? What more can we add not to miss out on this opportunity to aim the nation in a positive direction? There is a real feeling of responsibility and fear that we might not be able to do it right.
R. No, we are not afraid to do something wrong if we try from all of our hearts to do the right actions. “The Creator will finish the work for me,” as it is written, and we have to start and be certain that together with a Creator we will succeed.
S. What should we say? What's the most important thing to say all day?
R. That we have to be together all of us and never against someone.
S. How to prepare them for the state where everyone is going to start blaming everyone and the press is going to take us into war again?
R. Write about that too in a way that this cannot be done, that this brings us to a disaster.
26. S. (55:59) You answered our friend that we need to demand a connection from women and men. Except for the example of connection in dissemination in the ten, what else can we demand?
R. There is no more. Connection of the hearts, that is it.
27. S. (56:43) With your permission I will read from the excerpt: “Woe unto those people who make the spirit of Messiah leave and depart from the world, and not be able to return to the world. They are the ones who make the Torah dry, without any moisture of sense and reason, for they confine themselves only to the practical part of the Torah and do not want to try to understand the Wisdom of Kabbalah.” So my question is, the Torah has existed for many years before it was given, before anyone asked for it, and the world is still behaving the way it was. Now Baal HaSulam comes and says that is not enough for the laws of the Torah of nature and pull the light in correction for the will to receive, you also have to know how to give it an extra dimension, something that isn't written in the Torah. How to fill the world with love, how to pass everything that is written in the Torah to the level of feelings of connections of closeness meaning that it is beyond the Torah, it is the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is the base. And the question is here we go into an emotional state because the Torah is dry, it’s the laws of nature.
R. How are you saying that? How do you dare say that? How do you know the Torah is dry, it is exactly like Baal HaSulam writes, “That they make the Torah dry by saying that”. I'm going to conclude the lesson from this point. I'm not going to be able to continue but really criticize what you just heard and tomorrow we'll continue.