Part 2:
Baal HaSulam, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, #56
Item #56 (0:14) “We have thoroughly explained the Tzimtzum Alef (the first restriction) …” twice
1. S. (3:13) How is it that the reflected light which is a vessel for pushing away the reception is called a new vessel of reception?
R. Because their refusal to receive in order to receive becomes the condition to receive in order to bestow.
2. S. (3:45) He writes that the reflected light becomes new vessels of reception, we know that the reflected light is also, they do not receive in the Rosh but in the Guf?
R. However the reflected light that develops in the Rosh of the Partzuf instead of receiving in order to bestow, in what can it bestow, it can bestow to the host in the fact that despite of the restriction, it now develops a different desire towards the host. I would receive for you rather than for myself and the reflected light that wants to bestow to the host becomes a new vessel. It is as though there is a new condition that can work with his will to receive but in order to bestow, but to the extent that he has an intention in order to bestow he opens his will to receive and uses it and it all becomes a vessel of bestowal.
S. But the vessel of receiving, the light is in the Guf?
R. The will to receive is the will to receive. However, it is covered on the inside with the will to bestow. I do not feel that I am receiving what I feel is that I receive but the pleasure of receiving is completely in the host, in the giver.
3. S. (5:48) Even in the corporeal life on the degree of food, sex, the Creator will give such big things, great gifts. You do not understand why He gives such gifts. How can you make a restriction, how can you calculate in order to bestow. Is it even worth doing it?
R. Everything depends on the importance one compared to the other. Do you understand? There are states that I really want to eat however suddenly I have a phone call, and let's say they are talking about something that, God forbid, something is happening, a disaster somewhere, something terrible. Now I do not have an appetite anymore, meaning everything depends on when you compare one thing to another by comparison. That is why all of our pleasure, food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge, Kabbalists explain to us that they happen in the level of this world. Above this level of food, sex, family, money, honor and knowledge, there the pleasures are such that they can only be accepted by the force of bestowal. A force of the reception cannot incorporate them. That is why if we are equipped with a force of bestowal, meaning the importance of the host, then we may continue receiving these pleasures however only under the condition and to the extent that we are aimed at the host. This is how we, that is why we learned that spirituality is above corporeality. That sex, food, money, family, honor and knowledge can be received in the vessels of reception, in the will to receive which we were born with. But if we want to get other pleasure, eternal ones, unlimited by the distance, place or time, then we have to be equipped with vessels that work in bestowal. I will not receive it because I want to enjoy it, rather I will receive it because I, with my reception, I want to give pleasure to someone else. It may be like, well, imagine to yourself, like with the mother. She enjoys the fact that I am eating. Let's say I'm at her place and I'll eat to give her contentment.
S. Let's say, I don't know, I got a big sum of money in the lottery. On one hand I freeze in one place. I am not worthy of it according to what I feel, but if I'm given it, I have to accept it. How do I build an intention and understand that it came from the Creator and I thank Him for it. What should I do?
R. Instead of you, I would put it all into dissemination, into the dissemination of the wisdom of Kabbalah. Because basically you are alive, it is enough for you to live. All the rest, what can you do with it, give it to your soul. Your soul is the vessel of bestowal. Only by disseminating the knowledge about the Creator in the world you can really succeed to correctly implement, to realize why the Creator gave you this sum of money.
S. I just took money as an example. Let’s say it is something that I can't use to bestow?
R. That is why we have discernments according to what Kabbalists tell us. Do whatever goes into the good of all, the good of the Creator, and the good of the collective. In order to bring all of humanity closer to the Creator. It doesn't matter if it is money or some kind of actions or whatever you can do. Do it. There is nothing else, all the rest of the actions we see that even if it is, I don't know. Do whatever good things you can do, except for you. All the rest whatever you do, humanity will turn it to in order to receive and instead of doing good you will be harming all of humanity. It is just like with our corporeal advancement. That is why there is a verse “better sit and do nothing,” but if you do something, do it only in order to increase the importance of the spiritual development upon the corporeal one.
S. Then the work in the 10, that is the good work?
R. That is always the right answer, there is no question there.
4. S. (12:41) We come to a point where the importance of relationships becomes more important than all of corporeality?
R. Right.
5. S. (13:01) Question about the reflected light. Who eventually received that reflected light?
R. The reflected light is received actually by the Partzuf of the upper and then it clothes what it can be given to it and then the lower one can receive it.
6. S. (13:31) Where in this whole system does the inversion take place, that the importance of the host becomes more important than reception for oneself?
R. That is in the Peh of the Partzuf. It performs a screen. In the Peh of the Rosh of the Partzuf stands the Masach (screen). That means that spirituality becomes more important than corporeality. Then the importance of the Creator becomes more important than me, the created being. That is how the created being accepts it and he is willing to work this way.
S. And the Creator helps him in this?
R. The Creator helps in any situation that should happen for the spiritual development of the created being.
S. And against the Creator, the restriction and the screen, it supposedly…?
R. The restriction and the screen are against the Creator but they are the conditions without which the created being cannot exist. If the created being will not perform a restriction over the upper light. The created being conceals himself from the Creation and he says, ‘I do not want to see you.’ However, once I conceal myself and I can face your pressure then I can open up myself a little bit, to the extent that I can. So that I will receive from you only to that extent that I can bestow back to you. Like the guest and the host.
S. We are speaking about the Partzuf, the Peh is mouth, the Guf is body, Raglayim (legs) s feet. Does the Partzuf have a heart (Lev) also?
R. We will learn this in the future. In the lower Partzufim we will learn about all the organs we have, that corresponding we have in our corporeal body. But not yet.
7. S (16:04) How's it possible that where the upper one is the weakest and it loses all the forces of bestowal, that is where he gives birth to the new Partzuf?
R. I do not understand what you are saying. However, the upper one is purified, refined, he cannot receive any more. That is why he prefers to come down to a lower degree from Galgalta to AB, nevertheless, to receive something in order to bestow. And the current portion joins the previous ones. Now he gets in AB the light of Hochma, in Galgalta he received the light of Keter. Now he has two lights.
S. In refinement, does the Partzuf lose forces when it refines the forces of bestowal?
R. In refinement, the Partzuf loses the force of bestow that he used to have because he realized it. That's why he leaves it, let’s go of it. You have to understand this is a screen he's not working with. He stops it because he does not need it anymore. The Partzuf as it was before he is still there. There is no absence in the spiritual and he goes to work with a new screen, with a new record, and new reception of light.
S. And when the screen ascends, refines and rises to the mouth of the head, what is the calculation in the coupling in the mouth of the Rosh?
R. To the extent that he can receive again for the host in order to bestow he cannot do it as before. So, he will receive less instead of the light of wisdom he will get the light of Bina.
8. S. (18:11) You said that the upper Partzuf ascends a degree and we know that the example that Baal HaSulam gives with the meal, is there an example that we can get in the connection between us in the 10 what it means to go down and receive on the lower degree?
R. No, our ways are always the opposite. We rise in degrees, we do not descend. Here we are talking about the descent from Ein Sof to this world, the building of the degrees, when later the last degree we humans in this world are born and we start climbing, later when we implement them, we rise from below upwards.
How does a ten ascend a degree?
R. By overcoming and connecting between themselves. Every time more and more connect, the intensity of the connection to determine the degree.
S. Is there a way to understand what the intensity of the connection we are in state that we are in?
R. Be more as one man in one heart.
9. S. (19:45) The resistance of the vessel becomes a bestower that is through the screen?
R. Yes.
S. So with the help of the screen you received from the Creator because you can ascribe something to him?
R. Yes, the screen is exactly that force above the restriction, in the beginning there is a restriction not to receive for oneself and then there is a screen, a calculation of how I will receive in order to bestow to the Creator. Meaning beginning to the Creator becomes for me a condition with which I now make a calculation, what can I do now in order to give pleasure to him, I to the Creator. This is called the screen and then I make the calculations. Imagine that you are in such a state, what can you do in order to give pleasure to the Creator? Go ahead, do it. Try even if you make a mistake, you will still be closer to spirituality than you are now
10. S. (21:08) Reflected light builds a new Partzuf?
R. Yes of course all the reflected light builds a Partzuf.
S. Is the reflected light our intention?
R. Reflected light is our intention to bestow to the Creator, as much as we receive in this reflected light, bestowal itself as it happens is called a Partzuf. Meaning of the spiritual Partzufim are portions that we bestow to the Creator
11. S. (21:56) The attempts to connect in the 10 internally upon not seeing the friends trying to be in the tendency, is this towards the ascent?
R. Yes you can say it but we still need to scrutinize it. You said it was a bit confusing. Think how to say that, even write it down and then ask.
12. S. (22:36) Can you please explain the connection between the TNTA and the Zivug (adhesion) coupling of the next Partzuf?
R. (Rav drawing) TANTA (Taamim, Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot) are the states that the Partzuf is going from the reception of the light called, Taamim (tastes), the reception of the light in the Partzuf (Rosh, Toch, Sof). We have a Zivug. There is a coupling of the striking in the Rosh, a descent of the lights in the Toch of the Partzuf, which are called Taamim (tastes) and raising the lights back which is called Nekudot. The records from Taamim are called Tagin and the records from Nekudot are called Otiot. That is all we have. Nothing else. The light descends into the desire. It gets a feeling, a sensation called Taamim. The light departs out of the desire, that’s Nekudot. It leaves a taste of what was in there, that's Nekudot. The records of the Taamim and the Nekudot are called Tagin and Otiot. All in all, we have four records, impressions in the will to receive. (Refer to diagram) This is the will to receive, the Taamim enter and exit and then Tagin, Nekudot and Otiot. There are more but they are additional but not the main ones. They are like overtones, we will learn about them. There actually are more than 20 kinds of records, all in all and the lights that are in the Partzufim but it is enough for us for now. The rest we will know from our practical work.
S. What comes to the next Partzuf, is it the Tagin and the Nekudot?
R. The next Partzuf does not take anything other than what he decides. It also has a Rosh, Toch, Sof, but it decides upon the records it got from the previous Partzuf.
S. Which is all the TANTA?
R. The TANTA takes what it needs in order to decide. Once it decides, that is what takes place in it. Nothing from the previous Partzuf and enters the new one.
S. Can I also ask a question about the corporeal pleasures?
R. What corporeal pleasures?
S. Is there consideration from above that if an action was made with the right intention, we still do not have the internal intention of Lishma, but we try to be in the right intention for corporeal pleasure
R. Can we receive spiritual pleasure with the right intention? That we need to learn. We need to learn that, but first we need to restrict them to completely stay away from them and then decide that we are going to decide that we're going to work upon them from the smallest pleasures. Then bigger, and bigger and bigger with the intention to bestow. Then with the intention to bestow that I do not feel the pleasure the way it is the way I want to bestow to the others with it. Meaning I have to feel the others. I have to calculate as much as they will enjoy these pleasures that I now want to receive for them. I need to be connected to the others as much as I give them joy by this and then, and only then, can I decide what pleasures and in what quantity I can receive. That it will be like a means to give joy to the others. Therefore, pleasure is my goal.
S. Also about the corporeal pleasures when I do not yet have the intention of Lishma. I received a corporeal pleasure and I tried to be in the right intention. How is that considered?
R. It is not considered anything because you are a beast, very simple. What you need to do is only actions with the friends in order to learn the connection with him about to receive the general desire of the group as your personal desire.
13. S. (29:14) The first degree of the screen that we attain as we rise from below upwards; with this intention will be to bestow contentment to the Creator, from the onset of our attempt to connect to the friends that will always be the main intention? Even though the Creator's trying to divert me, the group has to establish this intention to bring contentment to the Creator, that is why we are here?
R. Yes, we are supposedly fighting against the Creator supposedly if you can say that. That is why he says afterwards my sons have defeated me.
14. S. (30:20) Is there a principal difference between the work of the Partzuf when it rises from below upwards in a descent?
R. You have to learn that. It is completely not equal, these 2 tendencies, from above downward and from below upwards. The essential difference between them is that from above downwards it is all done from the pressure of the upper One, the pressure of the Creator and that decision of the created being, and from below upwards it is already the pressure of the created being and the desire to help on the behalf of the Creator. It doesn't matter because we will learn about it soon.
S. The Intention to bestow that we're trying to build for the Creator with respect to what do we build it, with respect to the good force that revolves reality or a stronger connection in the 10?
R. We do not know anything about the upper forces; we only know how to work towards the forces that we reveal in the 10.
15. S. (32:22) So what is basically the connection between the TNTA and the Reshimot of the clothing and the coarseness, in the next Partzuf, is there a direct link between them?
R. Yes, we need to learn about it. We will learn about it soon.
Item 57 (32:46) “Know that in these three Partzufim Galgalta, AB, “Twice
16. S. (39:25) How to develop an emotion for the language of the kabbalist so that we can perceive the spiritual reality behind the words?
R. You need to talk more about it between you and the 10 and to read maybe more. How should I say, I receive it like you are, from the articles, from the articles of Shamati especially. I have nothing else to say; from hearing the teacher, from speaking to the friends and from studying the materials and try in the actions with the 10 with the friends to start feeling the material of the will to receive, maybe also the will to bestow, more and more; with the prayer, with the request, as much as possible, that is what we need. I have nothing else to say.
17. S (41:41) Is the screen a vessel to conceal the Creator or to reveal the Creator?
R. We have a restriction and then a screen. The restriction is that we will close off the Creator and we do not want Him for ourselves and then we want the Creator, we want to grab Him, we want to reveal. Spirituality starts from me closing off the Creator, not wanting Him until I am sure that I will receive his revelation in equivalence of form: that I will be able to give to Him and I will receive from Him to the extent that I give Him, only in such a way, in equivalence of form. Before that I will not open myself towards the Creator. It is not that we want to discover the Creator as much as possible; where, give me, give me, no, on the contrary. I do not want to reveal the Creator but only on the condition that I will have the forces, for sure to be with Him, that I'm giving Him and if I'm not giving him I am restricted; in my restriction that me, I am restricting myself, I don't want Him, and then when I feel enough forces that in something I can bestow to Him above the restriction so I can lower the restriction gradually slowly slowly and then, I can open myself for the Creator in order to enter into contact with Him that I’m willing to accept something from the Host because my reception will be as bestowing.
S. How can I make sure that I can give Him?
R. After I do not receive anything for myself, in all kinds of states that's supposedly let me receive; from the rejection that I would rather be in contact with the Creator, I don't want to get any reward, any payment. So, after that I can already say that yes, I can. I am able to pay, like in the restaurant where I get something and I can pay for it. But before that I do not want to go into the restaurant even if they let me in, and they do not check me whether I will be able to pay for what I want, I don't want to go in there because I have nothing to pay with: I don't have a screen, I don't have anything to give back to the Host.
S. What confuses me in the meantime is the matter of bestowing to the Creator and His importance, receiving from Him? Because now it is together, meaning being in contact with the Creator?
R. You cannot be in contact with the Creator only through the friends and to the extent that you are bestowing them and doing something for them. Then you can enter contact with the Creator. Only in such a way.
S. It turns out that restriction is something individual and the reception is only through the environment, through the 10?
R. Everything is personal towards the person that is in the work.
18. S. (46:30) So the root of the restriction is done as a result of the integration of the fourth phase with the previous phases?
R. The root of the restriction is a result of the fourth phase as he writes there, that in the fourth phase it feels that is opposite of the Creator and it cannot stand it, because it is entirely the will to receive and the shame is revealed and it expels all the light, it drives it out, all of the connection with the Creator; because that connection seems like it is against everything, because on one hand she feels the Creator's attitude towards her as much as he loves her, and she feels herself as much as she only loves herself and the gap between both brings the greatest shame and the restriction.
S. What he says later is as if the wicked are like the Beast, is that when the fourth phase does not yet know the opposites of the form?
R. The fourth phase that feels itself is receiving and wanting to receive even though she understands it is opposite of the creator, to that extent that the desires in her are called wicked. The fourth phase that has desires root, 1 2 3 4 in phase 4, they're different, they're other desires and this is how she behaves. That is why each and every desire, in the fourth phase has a name: still, vegetative, animated or speaking, even though it is in the human; that is why the third phase in people, in the will to receive is called an animal, the 2nd is called vegetative and the first phase is called the still, that is how it is.
19. S. (49:20) What according to the excerpt, can a person add to what the faces of AK have done in the form of the fourth phase?
R. The faces of AK didn't do anything in the fourth phase, they came out in a gradual, automatic way from the fourth phase, after the restriction and developed by the two forces: the force of the will to receive and the screen that remained there after the first phase, and that is what they are doing. Meaning all the descent from above downwards just cascades a screen with the coarseness, and that is how it moves away from the Creator and reaches the lowest point in spirituality. That is where we will still learn, there's a system there called Adam and somehow shatters and also falls until this World, in this World. Now we need to learn from all these actions how we try to be in the will to receive and restrict upon it, only to receive in order to bestow except for the necessities for existence. There is no prohibition on it, if a person needs to eat as much as he needs to exist, because without existing there is nothing to ask of him. But we are speaking from the level where he can exist and onward, what happens next; that is where he is the landlord.
20. S (51:37) How does shame help us advance in the work?
R. Shame helps us advance in the work on the spiritual degrees. They are very great and for now we are concealing this shame, meaning we have nothing to be ashamed about. Not that we are concealing ourselves, the shame, but we are behaving as if we have nothing to be ashamed of, meaning in an opposite way; when we will reach a level where we will start being ashamed of the way we exist, then through shame we will be able to ascend to spiritual degrees. For now, we are in a state of ‘go to the artists who made me’: that I'm not ashamed and if you have problems, go to Him and complain to Him,’ that is it.