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

Daily Lesson (Morning) March 7, 2024

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Body and Soul (Revealed and Concealed)

Reader: We are reading from the writings of Baal HaSulam, the article Body and Soul, we are in the subtitle, Revealed and Concealed. You can find the study materials online and also ask questions from there. Body and Soul, subtitle, Revealed and Concealed.

Reading: (00:30) Revealed and Concealed. “Today's science has sufficiently…”

R. (04:40) questions? Yes? 

S. (04:44) It's written that our sages understood this matter and reached that recognition a few thousand years ago, and for that reason, about the religious concepts, they guided and forbade us not to reach any conclusions. What does it mean about the religious issues? What does he mean? 

R. As much as I understand, it is about a person's approach or relation to the hidden force that we don't see, don't feel, but we have some internal need to reveal something like that. This is why we begin to build it out of what we are lacking, and we put on it, on that image, everything that man's soul yearns for. 

S. What limitations are they putting on us? 

R. There are so many things here that you can't even say that there is a limitation. There are no limitations. On the contrary, the more man's imagination is developed, the more he goes wild. 

S. (06:53) Baal HaSulam divides the perception of human consciousness into revealed and concealed. Everything about the revealed, we can research. Everything about the concealed, we can't even look at that direction. And there's the matter of simple faith here that we are equipping ourselves with it from people who already attained the concealed. Now, Baal HaSulam says it's not permanent things that they keep changing. So, if a person has these three things, how do revealed and concealed, if they're not permanent, but they change, how does the concealed become revealed? 

R. Out of our research of nature we come to such research and revelation; revealing facts that seem to all of us as the same. Usually, we call it science. Because we are within science, this is how we operate.

S. The science is part of the revealed, we can research it, we can make experiments, and then we can come to conclusions and develop. 

R. Yes.

S. But concealed is something that is concealed from our senses, it's concealed from everything. We're even not allowed to engage in it, only to equip ourselves with simple faith that the sages who attained it, gave it to us. So, how can that conceal that we can't even touch, but only from simple faith, and for me, simple faith, so let's say my love said that this is how it is in spirituality, so I just accept it. For me, it's something permanent and doesn't change. Here he says that revealed and concealed are things that aren't permanent. So from that, how can something concealed become revealed?

R. The fact that we determine that something is concealed or revealed depends on the person. Therefore, if we develop throughout the generations, then the revealed and concealed changes as well, and their boundaries certainly change.

S. It turns out that in a person there is no part in this matter. It comes from above, from the general force of nature that develops reality, and then humanity changes through that.

R. It does not depend on man's development.

S. Okay, now it's clear. 

S. (10:33) He gives two discernments here: One is research, which we're not allowed to do, and there's a matter of actual feeling, experience, how it's in a person's experience. When it happens, you feel it, you can't research it, but you let it happen until you experience it. Until maybe later, it becomes revealed, and you can research it.

R. We will read and then maybe we'll understand. Okay? What? 

S. (11:24) What's the difference between a deficiency and research? 

R. A deficiency is when we don't know, and research is when we begin with all the data we have; we begin to go inside and study the reasons and connect the results between them in order to come to some sort of a picture. 

S. Is it right to say that researching a deficiency, scrutinizing it, and developing it is allowed?

R. In principle, research is permitted but in things that are really in our senses. 

S. Let's say I don't have a great deficiency for spirituality, I recognize it, but I want to develop it. So, can I research how to reach the right deficiency? 

R. Yes.

S. (12:44) It turns out that there is an objective revealed and concealed, or is it always subjective?

R. The question is this, is there a definition of what is revealed and what is concealed? And is this boundary, can this boundary change? 

S. It can be agreed on by everyone, or everyone has to check within themselves, each and every person, actually.

R. Yes. It seems that way. 

S. So, I'm asking towards the people on the outside: In reality, should we encourage people to open up more to the fact that there is something concealed, that they don't know about it, and they should want this concealed to be revealed to them, or should people concentrate on researching, organizing what they know, what's revealed? 

R. Are you asking what should we do? 

S. I'm asking on, you see that, on one hand, there's an escape from things that are concealed. People want rational solutions to things. There was like a distance from things that weren't tangible, I couldn't touch or see. On the other hand, people who are researching this see that there's a big awakening for it. They're not really talking about it, people are afraid to say that they don't want to acknowledge that there are things concealed, that there are things that are beyond. But when you talk to people one-on-one, they do have such experiences, they do have such sensations. So, should we encourage people to open up more to this fact that there are things that are concealed that we can't feel yet but we should want it, or just focus on organizing the revealed reality, and that it?

R. I think that it doesn't depend on us, but rather the deficiencies that people will feel, those deficiencies will push them to research.

S. I talk to a lot of people, and they speak about this phenomenon in the Western world, that a lot of young people are suddenly drawn to such extremes, and the complaint is that, or the claim is that in their framework, they don't have any other inner spiritual satisfaction. So it could be that if you strengthen this openness, even though you can't explain it, but just to be sensitive towards it. If that could help or balance this escaping to the other side of the extreme part?

R. Look, the fact that there is emptiness in the younger generation, that's for sure. That's a given, that's obvious. But by what can you fill up this emptiness? The more we study and understand and open it and research it, we see that in the end you will have to bring them attainment of godliness, everything else, in the end, will not satisfy them. And the attainment of godliness, we don't see in our world how much and in what way we can attain it. Unless we study through the wisdom of Kabbalah and discover that it really does talk about the revelation of godliness to people according to the definition of the wisdom of Kabbalah, which is the revelation of His godliness to his creations in this world. Only if we are certain that we have in our hands such a technique. 

S. I want to go back to the first question again: When we disseminate, should we encourage people to go in that direction? Right now, it's concealed for them, It doesn't exist and to encourage them to want to open up or just try and look at reality the way you see it, what's before you, what's in your senses?

R. But what is the goal? 

S. I'm asking what will bring a person closer to the purpose of creation. To try and show him that there is rationality, something organized in what he sees, or to say there are things that you don't feel yet, that you don't see yet, there are whole worlds. Is that the right direction? 

R. I think that correct or incorrect direction we need to see that according to the questions, the deficiencies that are revealed in our generation. According to what the generation asks, perhaps they settle for revealing the Creator in a simple way and how to attain Him, and it's given or not given, to some it is, to some it isn't, and maybe the majority of them will only get colder and drop it for a while. Although, in the end, everyone will get to it. I don't have any more to say. I know that even if we now circulate it in every possible way, and cover everyone and even with the best material, better than Baal HaSulam, the ARI, and Rabash. Still, we will not be able to draw into it everyone. What kind of revelation should there be that will pull everyone that will draw everyone in? Only the revelation of the Creator Himself.

S. That's exactly it. Because you come to it like a crossroads with a person. Is there something beyond? Is there a goal? Is there a plan? There's like you don’t even know how to get there, to awaken it, or say, no, let’s try and see, we'll be united and this goes with the laws of nature and to organize in that direction. Or to try and provoke that point in him. 

R. You need to provoke it to stimulate that point. Undoubtedly, we need to stimulate that central point for a deficiency for the revelation of the Creator in this world. 

S. Can we do this with people who supposedly have no point in the heart, but like a general confusion?

R. Even if there isn't, they should join as much as they can; just as the Creator created everyone and gave each and every one deficiencies, likewise, we need to see that they can reveal what the Creator gave them.

S. So, to ignite this attitude, or something that's concealed. 

R. Yes.

S. (21:00) They're asking from Revadim, science researched and discovered gravity of the earth. Why can't science research the force of love and bestowal? 

R. Can you explain to me according to science, what love is? Tell me, you can't. 

S. No.

R. No. In other words, it has nothing to do with science, our science, yes? Contemporary science: It cannot reveal to us anything that has to do with feelings. This is why we leave it and don't touch those, let's call it layers, where science should cover, should fill up. We have no access to it. 

S. (22:12) W Zichron. How do we understand the prohibition in researching the concealed with faith above reason? 

R. There is no prohibition on anything, other than avoiding it so it doesn't confuse people. The sages achieved, by themselves, all kinds of definitions, and determined for themselves that thus far it is permitted, from here on it is forbidden, that's it. This is why we need to listen to them, so as not to be confused. 

S. (22:57) PT 22. What is simple faith? 

R. It is the hardest thing: Simple faith is the filling of the Creator, openly within a person that fills his heart, unboundedly. Otherwise, you can say that it is the highest and most complete fulfillment, of all the desires of a person, that are revealed in his heart. Okay? 

All right. I see that. That's enough for the day. Today you are already full.