Part 2
Morning Lesson December 06, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
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Baal HaSulam - Shamati 73. After the Tzimtzum
Shamati 73. After the Tzimtzum (Twice)
1. Rav We are going to read it again. (03:48)
After the Tzimtzum [restriction], the first nine (of the ten) became the place of Kedusha [holiness]. And Malchut, over which there was the Tzimtzum, restriction and the will to receive. The first nine are not the will receive. It's a desire to bestow that comes from the Creator over the Tzimtzum, the Malchut that became the place of the worlds. There are two discernments to be made: 1) a hollow place, which is a place for the Klipot [shells/peels], whose essence is the desire to receive only for themselves, (that's the hollow place) and 2) a vacant place, meaning a place that became vacant for inserting what one chooses—Kedusha or the opposite.
What does the opposite mean? Klipot or shells. Meaning there are desires that can be in order to bestow and can also be in order to receive and that is the place of choice called the vacant place.
Had it not been for the Tzimtzum, the whole of reality would have been in the form of simple light.
R. (05:46) We can't talk about the light. We can only talk about the light that is in something, a vessel that reveals it. Otherwise you can’t reveal it, it’s like looking at something in the sky at night. It's dark but we understand that if there is something there, there is something that the light encounters because it fills all of reality so if it encounters some sort of disruption, some sort of a screen, it shines. In other words, the screen is what reveals the light. Therefore the hollow place is as he says, it’s a place where there are shells and if we turn the hollow place into a place that is vacant of shells and place our screens there, through them we reveal the light just as we see in the sky. It is all dark but if something comes and interferes with the darkness as if it interferes, it doesn't really interfere. On the one hand, it's as if we place a partition in space but by that we discover that there is light there. It is counter-intuitive: wasn't there light there before? Of course there was but we couldn't see it because we didn't place a screen, a barrier.
So he says this:
Had it not been for the Tzimtzum, the whole of reality would have been in the form of simple light. Only after the Tzimtzum was there, there was room for choosing to do bad or do good.
R. (08:09) What did the Tzimtzum do, why was there a Tzimtzum allow us to choose to be similar to the light or opposite according to our nature.
The abundance extends into that place through choosing the good. In other words it is revealed it was there before "There Is None Else Besides Him" the Creator fills everything but if we place a partition then we discover that He is in this place.
This is the meaning of what is written in the writings of the ARI that the light of Ein Sof Infinity shines to the lower ones. Ein Sof is called, the desire to do good to his Creations from the upper force that fills all of reality on the one hand, on the other hand, the light becomes a dark place. Although we discern many worlds in the beginning, ten Sefirot and other names, it all extends from Ein Sof called the thought of creation to do good to his creations.
The name Sefira, singular for Sefirot and world, is because the abundance that pours out from Ein Sof descends through that Sefira in the world. Meaning we call the light and the world and the phenomenon according to the light of Ein Sof that should come down as it comes down and appears through some special quality, special threads and accordingly we call it a world or a degree or a Sefira. This means that since the lower ones cannot receive his bounty without preparation and correction for the lower one to be able to receive, corrections were made by which there is ability to receive. This is called Sefirot, what are the Sefirot? They are corrections on the will to receive where the will to receive that acquires the form of the Sefirot, loses the light of Ein Sof or processes the world of Ein Sof which is not processing the feeling of the lower ones into all kinds of forms that the lower ones can digest, take in, and that's the functioning of the Sefirot. In other words each Sefira has its unique correction to connect the part from Ein Sof with Malchut which is the created being and then we have nine Sefirot that are along the way from Keter to Malchut and by which the light of Ein Sof which shines in Keter can undergo all kinds of changes and be receive in Malchut and awaken in Malchut to perform such operations on itself that it reaches even Keter. Because of this there are many discernments but they are only with respect to the receivers. Everything is only from the perspective of the receivers if not from the perspective of the receivers we can't feel or name anything. Since when the lower one receives the abundance from Ein Sof, he receives through a special correction which adapts it to receive the abundance. We can't just receive the light of Ein Sof we have to perform corrections on ourselves and according to these corrections we receive some sort of Illumination from above. What is the light of Ein Sof, we never know. We know only what we can receive in our corrections. This is why the Creator is called Ein Sof because we cannot discover Him, feel Him or understand Him, ever.
What we can do is to some extent become similar to Him each time in a different way. And the sum total of our manners that we connect we call this phenomenon, come and see Boreh the Creator and in this way we to some extent with great limitations, and with great restrictions, but this is called, Creator, come and see. It's clear that it's only towards us from our perspective. This is the meaning of receiving through special Sefirot although there are no changes in the abundance itself. Now you will understand the matter of the prayer that we pray to the Creator. After we said that we can't become similar to the upper one we can't reveal Him the way He is Himself. There is room, there's always room for a deficiency and the deficiency brings us to the prayer which is when we pray to the Creator which is the light of Ein Sof. We can't reveal or feel or attain Him ever, this is why it's called Ein Sof no end because we receive only Ein Sof at the end in the vessel and Ein Sof is the connection that the Creator has with the created beings. In Ein Sof you also have several degrees that we can discern and above it to where we can't discern at all.
Normally we'll talk about them as attainment of the 7th,8th,9th and 10th millennium and beyond that after the end of correction. Who knows, but Kabbalists do insinuate these things. We pray to Ein Sof which is the connection that the Creator has with the created beings. On the one hand the Creator is called, come and see, on the other hand we attribute it to Ein Sof there are many discernments here. As we get closer to it, we will learn it and discover it. The connection of the Creator with the created beings is called His Desire to Do Good to his Creations which is what we reveal. Meaning to the extent that we establish our vessels in order to bestow, accordingly we can reveal the bestowing upper force which is called His Desire to do Good to his Creations. This is what we discover and although there are many names with the aim of the prayer, the interpretation is that the abundance will pour out through the corrections in the names since precisely through the corrections in the names will the abundance be in the hands of the receivers. In other words we perform all kinds of corrections on our will to receive. To make it similar to the aim to bestow to the Creator according to the equivalence of form, we discover in the will to receive in order to bestow our level of adaptation to the Creator and that's why we call him the Creator come and see what we reveal. And it's all about, only through similarity with the intention to bestow, I to my beloved and my beloved to me to the extent that I bestow upon the Creator I discover that the Creator wants to bestow upon me. This is called contact with the created being with the Creator.
18. S. (17:26) I have a question about the first paragraph about these two discernments, some of these places it mentions like the second place or the vacant place is about Kedusha or the opposite. Is the opposite of Kedusha, are they not the Klipot?
R. The shells are not a vacant place, there are many discernments. The will to receive in order to receive, when I discover it, clearly this is the place of the shell the Klipa, then I understand that I cannot use these desires. Let's say I have a certain attitude towards a friend, I criticize him, I can't stand him and so on and so forth. I put a restriction on that, I don't want to use it. Before I discovered my attitude it was not scrutinized, it was not clear. After I discover how I relate to him I see that it's a place of the shell, my will to receive in order to receive depicts him to me in this way because I didn't have a will to receive, I would not relate to a friend whatsoever, much less criticize him. After I restrict myself, that place becomes a place where I can already correct. Meaning I rose, what does it mean that I restricted? I rose above my intention to receive and now I can even perhaps turn it into the intention to bestow. How? I connect to others, not to this friend. I cannot because I am relating to him negatively, so I connect to other friends and I try to receive from them additional powers to become incorporated in them and then when I'm incorporated in them it's considered that I have connection with the Sefirot with the remaining Sefirot, right? Then I come to correct my relationship with this friend, specific friend and then it's considered that I elevated myself above the degree of reason to the degree of faith above reason and in that place, I can then discover my connection with the Creator. Because if I correct my relationship with the friends in this way by this, I actually clean myself from the aim to receive and I approach revealing the Creator.
S. If we have this state of feeling emptiness which is sometimes or very hard to bear, is this actually the vacant place where we have to choose?
R. Emptiness has several discernments. When you feel emptiness, it can be because you're not working among yourselves, meaning it is before the work, prior to it so there isn't any correct form in it. It's just for a lack of connection, positive, negative. That's what it's about. Our work begins only when we scrutinize the essence of the connection between us whether it's positive or negative because that's what we have to come to, we have to discover the truth in our relationships. By improving our relationships we can discover the Creator through the method of come and see. In our relationships we reveal how much we can bestow upon the Creator and to that extent the Creator can clothe us because he needs this vessel. Look at the article The Arvut, The Peace, love your neighbor as yourself, this condition all of our corrections are corrections in relationships among people. Now humanity is coming to a state where the whole world is connected and connected in contradictory states. This is the place where we need to explain to humanity what the correction should be because there is already a corrupted place that is clear to everyone that it is corrupted so let's scrutinize it and let's bring it to correction.
19. S. (23:10) What is the meaning of names in this article? At the very end I don't think I understand it?
R. Names are the light that dresses in the vessel and according to the essence of the vessel that's what we call the light because the light has no names. It's only the light of Ein Sof something primordial in origin but as it traverses the vessel and reveals itself this way then there we can talk about the light. But it's basically the same phenomena that it assumes on itself as it traverses, travels through the vessels. It's like in technology, in our physical world when a certain travel through wires acquires the limitations of the wires that it goes through and then we talk about the light, let's say a red light or blue light. What are these lights? They travel through various vessels and take upon themselves these dresses, attires and then we say white light, blue light, red light. But the light itself is colorless, it is only because you dressed in a certain external phenomenon. The same goes for us, the same goes for the Creator we don't attain him himself. The way Baal HaSulam writes, beware not to touch him. We rather talk about the Creator as come and see. That by coming to him in all kinds of dresses, through these dresses we can know him and understand him as we talked about the friends about all the phenomena we discover, we don't reveal any phenomenon the way it is in itself, we cannot, there is no such thing. But only according to the extent that we can dress this phenomenon in our reflected light, In our relation, in our understanding, in our minds and our hearts. According to this we reveal.
S. Another clarification, the connection between that and the names we use daily like Moshe, David, bicycle?
R. In these names we only reveal that manner of a phenomenon that is revealed to us and we are attached to it. So these names are only levels of our connection to some spiritual phenomenon basically to the Creator, it's always the Creator. This is how we discover a phenomenon and name it. There are no people, there is nothing, besides man there is only the Creator and the fact that we find all kinds of phenomena, it's because through the sum of these phenomena we will discover Him. The Creator cannot be revealed in his complete manner to a vessel that is completely not corrected for it this is why there is the breaking from that perspective of the vessel and a breaking seemingly from the perspective of the lights and then through many lights and vessels that are corrected. When we correct them in the connection between them in reception to bestow between them, by this we come to a state where we have one vessel and one light but that vessel already comes from us, our participation is involved there.
20. S. (27:46) How to correctly pray for a friend in the ten what do we ask of the Creator?
R. Ask the Creator first of all it might be that he will correct us to see the truth and perhaps then we will see in his friend in the ten different things than what we saw before. Afterwards what we detect in him, that what we detect in him that he probably doesn't see and we do see then there's the matter of doing the correction for him or helping him in different ways. To carry out corrections but the main thing is that our correction is only in order to come closer to him emotionally not inwards not openly. But emotionally come closer to him and help him be connected to us internally. In this way save him. Understanding that by this we save ourselves and not that we save him because then we save someone from the ten but when we see the flaw in him, it is a flaw in us and therefore in fact by this we are correcting ourselves.
21. S. (29:43) What is the meaning of the significance of the good that does good, why is it expressed in our feeling and perception and can you even feel the good that does good on the bad?
R. We need to believe that we're in a very big cloud, that is all good that does good and in order for us to connect with this cloud, we see in place of this cloud still, vegetative, animate, speaking of this world. We need to change our attitude towards them like towards the Creator. We're actually this still, vegetative, animate and speaking are coming to us from the Creator so that threw the changing of this attitude towards them this connection in which I protect them look over them love them and watch them in the right way I'm not otherwise allowed to kill or destroy anything in reality but only in order to benefit the general reality. In this way I need to see my attitude towards the Creator. All together through all of his representatives that we can say it that way which are the still, vegetative, animate and speaking in my world.
S. But there's a point that I feel that he's the good that does good, he's giving me the abundance or I should work on it?
R. About that you have to say they have eyes and see not, they have ears and hear not. Meaning your seeing from your flaws you're seeing everyone flawed, correct yourself towards them towards all of reality and then you'll see everyone is corrected they have no form. You, when you look at them you give them form. If you weren't to relate to your reality in your will to receive, you would be in the light of Ein Sof which has no forms, no forms whatsoever
S. What if a person feels this good, this abundance, what should he feel? I understand it's not related but what should he feel?
R. You need to feel that you're in the light of Ein Sof in the Creator and that he is good that does good only and all the creatures that you identify now are altogether your parts that you're seeing outside of you because your soul is incorrect, it's not corrected. These are things that you need to think about and gradually it will be revealed as well.
22. S. (32:59) After the restriction of the first 9 Sefirot Malchut becomes a restriction of the first Malchut becomes a place for the worlds, why do we distinguish Malchut if it is still included?
R. Malchut is not included of the upper 9 but if she restricts her desire in order to bestow, rather her intention in order to receive and the extent she wants to work with the intention to bestow and she works with the first nine and she is in capable of rising above the intention to receive in order to bestow, then she rises to the first nine and accordingly feels them, that is considered that we reveal the upper world above Malchut, anyway you can’t explain this with words until a person reveals it as so.
23. S. (34:15) Do we need the ten Sefirot to correct each other, do we need to relate between us only with the screen and not with our open heart?
R. Yes, you can say that in the relation between us in the ten or in the tens, in the Bnei Baruch group in general we are building ten Sefirot, have you seen the labor that is erecting a building. The way they all work each in his place and each on his floor that each are standing up the walls and these are dragging up the pipes and each are doing this, this is how we are erecting our general building.
24. S. (35:29) That I heard you say that these Klipot, shells are not the vacant place so it's not certain what the shells are and how we move from this place to the vacant space and in this vacant space what do we have, what do we choose and what is this whole process between?
R. That is already too broad of a question and we will have to learn it. For the time being read.
25. S. (36:15) What is the intention of names in the ten?
R. The names for the 10 Sefirot are given to us by the Kabbalists and explain to us this whole system that we can read about that. There is in the Zohar and also a part in the Zohar of what volume is that 12 or I am not certain, where there is an explanation about the numbers and the names so there is such a thing. So it could be that we also have already on the internet that we can give a link about that for everyone if they want to know and discover it.
S. Sometimes it seems that the whole ten is the vacant place and the only vacant place is outside of it, what can we do in such a state?
R. I can't talk about that because it's not precise, you have to scrutinize these things. The ten, whatever I intend to you and you intend for something else and we can't talk about it in a precise way and later it will be recorded and we will learn who knows what and when. I am cautious about talking about things that can be misunderstood.
26. S. (38:09) I simply cannot understand what it says here, I cannot connect to these things or do not understand what connection means, all of the time my mind is vague and my thoughts are.
R. During a special state in between degrees, in between states between one scrutiny and another, there is a confusion and this is nice as it's a preparation to a higher degree. Continue and you will see that you will understand in the next stage more and you will feel and this is the main thing that you will feel more. Maybe you will understand from the feeling which is even higher.
S. What should I do now? Should I accept this because I feel everything is running and I am just standing still?
R. It is okay, this is how the states are between the degrees and also about that you can read.
27. S. (39:24) What is the advice given about the prayer to pray to the Creator, to Ein Sof, to the name, should the prayer be specific or general?
R. The prayer is a raising of the deficiency upwards, MAN do you have a deficiency to transfer him or not, ask yourself and your friends whether you can put together such a deficiency that would be great, so try to do so this is what it is talking about.