PART 2
Baal HaSulam - Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #25
Item 25 (00:48) “From here emerges the full resolution of the fifth ….”
57. R. Meaning we need to recognize the body, meaning our will to receive as this is what in Kabbalah body means, because Kabbalah doesn't deal with the animate part of us only the spiritual part of us, the desire. Then this desire needs to rot and only then to be revived. What does it mean to rot? That we are beginning to recognize that our will to receive is not worthy of anything besides death and burial like the Book of Zohar says. However, after it reaches rotting and becomes dust, as it is written ‘you have come from dust and you go back to dust’. when it is truly rotten meaning that we don't want to work with it, it becomes dust for us, something that is completely worthless. After that, it needs to be revived, the revival of the dead it is called, meaning the dead, those desires that we don't want to use, they need to be revived in their flaws, meaning all of these desires as evil and harmful as they are. Why? That is interesting, so it will not be said that it is another. So what, if one will say it is another or not, the desire? it is unclear: We are talking about laws of nature and we just need to understand what is going on here? what is happening in this whole process that we are now in a very unique state, where now right in front of our eyes there is some true revolution that is happening with human desires with the general desire of humanity, with all of reality and the whole world that's perhaps the average person still doesn't understand what is going on but that we are witnessing the collective egoistic desire also in the levels of still, vegetative, an animate and certainly in humans, it is now undergoing a complete revolution. It doesn't happen in a day but in our levels, we begin to see that yes, there are big changes happening every day in our desires and then they also take shape in human society and the world is changing. We will see it soon.
Rav reads: From here emerges the complete resolution of the fifth inquiry: since the body is so corrupted that the soul cannot be fully purified before the body rots in the ground, meaning this will to receive has to rot in the ground otherwise the soul will not stand out and shine and then why does it return at the revival of the dead. The question of the words of the sages is that the dead are destined to be revived with their flaws, why do they need to be revived with their flaws? To revive okay, but with the flaws it will not be said there is another, this is another question who cares if it is another or not, all of those details? Why is it also written this way in the Zohar?
Reader continues Item 25 “and you will clearly understand this matter from the thought of creation….”
58. S. (08:46) Can we say that the external vessels are the bodies and Bnei Bruch is the soul which is separated from the body?
R. No, that is incorrect. First of all, vessel is a word we don't understand, desires, there are only desires, still, vegetative animate and human. The human desires include desires that yearn for the revelation of the Creator, let's say at Bnei Baruch, and desires that don't long for the revelation of the Creator, the 8 billion or however many people there are in the world. That is what's happening and how we distinguish the desires that belong to Bnei Baruch or all the people of the world. What else can we say? That is our work. How do we raise ourselves more and more in corrections? and how do we bring all of the people, all the human beings to us? we can't attract them to us because they don't want or need that, we just need to explain to them the purpose of creation, to be a bit closer to each other and this way even just from knowing where and how the world develops and where it is headed, we will already have great support from them. We will all come to the final correction. Only WE have to discover the Creator by getting closer to Him but all the rest of the people if they don't have that desire then there's nothing that you can do with them except as much as it is possible for them to participate, it will flow to them through us, the upper light will correct them as well and elevate them and they also will achieve correction. That is how it is and we will certainly feel it happening soon.
S. (12:0) So what soul are we connecting to? What does it mean to connect to the soul?
R. We don't connect to any soul, we ourselves need to put together the collective soul called Neshama, the GE of the general body of ADAM, the general soul. We belong to the part of GE and all of humanity that is not drawn towards revelation of the Creator called AHP, there are two parts of the soul.
59. S. (12:44) What is the process of the body rotting in the ground?
R. We talk about the body rotting in the ground and being buried there, what it means is that the will to receive that gradually loses its power, it's rotting in the ground, its power in order to receive and then it can belong to the order to bestow.
60. S. (13:35) It says here that in the 6000 years that are given for the work there are no corrections and we reach the body meaning the extended will to receive in it. What is that big will to receive?
R. No, it is just a will to receive. The excessive will to receive means that there is really nothing besides that and all of the upper light and the correction depends on that will to receive. it is limitless and has to be corrected all the way.
S. So if we make our correction in order to bestow the inner light expands and some light comes.
into the will to receive?
R. only in order to bestow.
S. Is it not the strong will to receive, that is why it is distinguished here?
R. A will receive is the same will to receive and it is divided to many parts, 5 stages and another 5, to 125 steps and so on.
S. Here it is written, that from the corrections nothing comes to the body so how can it be that we receive the light, we are learning in TES that if there is a reflected light that there is an internal light?
R. There is a desire to receive which cannot be corrected in order to bestow but when all of the corrections of the first nine Sefirot are completed, then we also correct the Malchut more accurately, it becomes self-corrected. I will tell you differently, all of our corrections are about Malchut relating itself to the first nine Sefirot, it is if it raises its coarseness and works through rejection with the first nine Sefirot and that brings us light and creates all of the Partzufim of Kedusha. When we do that; receive the upper light in the first nine Sefirot of the soul then after the will to receive itself becomes corrected, it becomes in order to bestow. This gives us the 8th, 9th and 10th millennium and other processes that we don't study but that are mentioned here and there. We haven't reached this yet and it doesn't belong to the work of the lower ones as our work is only to relate ourselves to the first nine Sefirot, to work on the will to receive by rejection, so it is not that important to us as we can't distinguish between this and that.
61. S. (17:29) What are our desires made of?
R. Desire is called the substance of creation and it is made of Desire, of deficiency. There is light which shows itself as fulfillment and then out of this fulfillment the deficiency is created, how is this done? you will have to go to the study of the four phases of direct light. In the fourth phase you will learn how the desire was created from within the light. First the light emerges and within it is only one black point outside of the Creator there is just this very tiny distinction that exists and out of this black point comes the great lack of the fourth phase, and the result of the fourth phase is us and the whole world.
62. S. (19:00) Since they thought it was to do good to the created beings, He created a big desire to receive it sounds like two opposite things?
R. Yes.
S. How does this work out if He creates and has the thought to enjoy how can He create such a big will to receive that only brings me trouble?
R. But not that bad as he writes.
S. If he turns me into such a big ego, is it that I will enjoy my work? Why is he giving me more obstacles?
R. He gives you so many examples about that, such as a son who has to suffer in order to enjoy the heritage that his father leaves him and other things, what do you want as there are other stories like this.
S. It is like he is putting an obstacle.
R. Not at all it is like what is written, don't show a fool work half done, it is impossible to say right now that something is correct or incorrect, right or wrong as the Creator out of unconditional love is unbounded and infinite love, that is what he does with us and we alternately we discover his attitude, the revelation of his love is the result of our whole work and let's hope that we do discover it.
S. You said the body rots so if it rots what remains?
R. The desire cannot disappear, it can only rot. Meaning you can't do something with it in the sense of making it nothing oh, you can only bring it to rot and what does that mean that you won't be able to use it, that you see how contemptible and lowly it is, how much it is nothing. But it is not nothing in itself, its importance has nothing.
S. That is something else, that is nice.
R. You are happy, now you have an answer.
63. S. (22:13) Our whole world whatever rots here becomes food, the intention to receive those rots feeds the desire to bestow?
R. We have a need to steal and enjoy, this is the biggest pleasure, something I don't deserve, something I don't put any effort into and I enjoy it. If I make an effort to attain it, I enjoy it even more in a different way, in a very special way. There are a lot of ways to enjoy it as there are people who eat once an hour whatever they can and there are others who will wait for half an hour and enjoy it with an appetite. Meaning it all depends on how we relate to the desire. The problem on behalf of the Creator with creation is I want to give but I don't have anybody to give to. What does this mean? It is a desire that wants what I want to give it and if I build that desire it is not the desire itself that wants to receive but that I built it in such a way that it will want to receive. It is not called a created being. It is like I made some kind of machine and some mouth opens and swallows continually like a trash can. How can I create a desire that will want, that it will suffer from not giving and it will enjoy, if I am giving and it will want and accordingly appreciate me and also enjoy not as much as I am filling it, but that it will enjoy the most exalted thing and this is my degree, to be as me, to be like me. How can I build such a thing? There are all kinds of jokes that like if the Creator can create something else like the Creator to contradict or not to contradict, that he could build a rock that he can or cannot lift it. his is the issue, how can he create a created being to receive of itself as if it doesn't come from the Creator, the desire must come from the Creator, no not from the same desire that the Creator wants. His desire has to be completely external, how, as there's nothing but the Creator, there's none else besides him. This is why we here need to think about what the Creator’s problem is here. The biggest problem is to create a created being that will want to enjoy the state of the Creator, the state that he will be like him because in the end this is what we come to in adhesion. We reach a state to be like the King's son that he himself becomes the King and that is a problem. That it is hard to see and feel and understand, to explain, gradually every time closer to understanding why it is so complicated. The whole matter of creation is hard to understand. I understand you.
64. S. (26:52) Why does it say that the body has to be revived with all of its flaws, why doesn't it need to be corrected in a complete form?
R. It comes in a corrected way but in order to understand how corrected it is now, to build and feel everything that it is acquiring now, it also needs to discover the whole vessel that it went through and built and now the fulfillment is revealed in him has the advantage of the light from the darkness. There has to be darkness to be revealed and then the light against it and in the contradiction between the light and dark and the contrast between them then it is revealed as much as they created being did the work and came to the depth of the attainment of the Creator.
65. S. (28:22) The first and third states are the same, is there a difference in the intensity of receiving?
R. Yes, the first and third state are not the same thing, they are two states, the first state is the beginning of creation and the third state is the end of creation and the difference between them is very big, we will learn about it more. We are only saying how they are connected to one another through the second state and how the first state and it says it takes the third state to be revealed and the third state is born and cascades from the first state.
66. S. (27:56) Once the body rots in the ground what is the relation to being sick? Why do I want to go back to being sick, what is the motivation?
R. It is according to the light that excels from the darkness you can't feel light if you don't have darkness, you can't feel health if you don't have sickness. The fact that we have all the records from the darkness, from the state of being sick, we have those records in us. This is why we enjoy feeling good, feeling healthy, that we feel good from all kinds of things. You can't feel good without a person comparing it with something bad. With all instruments, whoever works with technology, also at home and anywhere we also are in a state of one against the other, dark against the light. This is in everywhere and every state because there can't be any feeling of anything in reality if you don't have the two, light and dark, existence and absence, plus and minus, whatever you will say that there is some kind of relation between one and the other and in that relation, it determines the feeling of man for the good or for the bad. Think about it as it expands a person to where it is nice to think about it.
67. S. (32:52) There is an excerpt, Zohar for all Ki Tazria, Wisdom Excels Over Folly: As light excels over darkness the benefit of the light comes only out of the darkness, the correction of the white is black for without the black the white would be pointless and because there is black, the white is elevated and respected, it is like sweet and bitter a person cannot know the taste of sweetness before he has tasted the bitterness. Thus, what makes it sweet is the bitter. In things where there are opposites, the one reveals the other such as in white and black, light and darkness, sick and healthy. If there was no sickness in the world the term healthy would be unattainable as it is written, God has made the one opposite the other. It is also written that it is good that you grasp the one and also not let go of the other.
R. When do we not feel anything, when we don't have records, when can we feel something is when the record starts coming out as every record that is in us that we feel, that in advance is already included from the record of coarseness and refinement, from light and dark. Otherwise, there won't be a feeling, there has to be something that feels and what it feels. In this way we exist, that's why I think about it more, read about it as Baal HaSulam writes a lot about it in many places. You will see that we have no choice as also here in the introduction to the Book of Zohar he explains it to us, try to read the introduction on your own. There are more, complete parts in our archives and all kinds of language on the perception of reality.
68. S. (35:50) To read about the perception of reality is there a way to do this in the 10 or this is more personal?
R. You can do everything in the 10 if there is an agreement on studying some material and reading something, please do it from our sources obviously, the main thing is Baal HaSulam and Rabash.
S. Beyond reading, if we say we work in 'love of friends', this is something we can do without them, by changing perception.
R. Don't bring me into the decision-making whatever you decide all of you together in general agreement you do that.
69. S. (37:09) In the sources where it talks about prayer is it always about raising MAN our prayer is not always about this?
R. Prayer is raising MAN even if it's not a deficiency we also need to relate to it in such a way, prayer is raising a deficiency from the created being to the Creator.
70. S. (37:50) How can we recover a broken Kli?
R. By asking the Creator for the light that reforms and that light works and bestows on the vessel and corrects it, bringing the vessel forces of the screen and the restriction and then the vessel can start correcting itself. What does it mean to correct itself? That the vessel starts raising the prayer to the Creator. There was the first prayer and now the second prayer, that it is asking him even more to please correct this and correct this, and this way each and every time he raises MAN, the light comes and the light performs actions in the vessel and he starts feeling new desires and raises those desires also upward and in this way every time. it is like a loop, a turnaround, “me for my beloved and my beloved for me”, and in this way we correct but, in the middle, there is work in the group, there is scrutiny, there are a lot of things but in the end, “me for my beloved and my beloved for me”. From us to the Creator and from the Creator to us.
71. S. (39:58) Yesterday you ended the lesson by telling us there are special times with relation to the hardening of the heart and with the opening of the lesson you made the difference between building the vessel which we were talking about to see the good in the friends, but also the correct end of us all. The question is, is there a difference in experiencing or feeling that the darkness or the hardening of the heart in relation to building the vessel or correcting the vessel?
R. Correcting the vessel is acquiring the screen, afterwards building it with the screen, reflected light, Partzuf and by the Partzuf we perform the action of receiving in order to bestow. That is the correction that we have, there are a few prayers along the way here that we need the deficiency to raise to the Creator as there is a deficiency for the receiving force and for receiving the screen on each and everything. We constantly have to raise desires to the Creator so we can feel what we have received, now we don't have the sensitivity which is sufficient to feel the Creator in every moment performing actions in us as we are in a lack of awareness. If we can feel the actions that the Creator is performing in us for you with no stops, always, and according to that we will turn to him and ask.
S. As a student for practical advice when there is a hardening of the heart towards the friends it is understanding that there is resistance, indifference and that you need to work in the 10, but if there is this burdening or darkness in the 10, you don't know what to do as you cannot understand, is this an example where with Rabbi Akiva where you just hold onto the wood and the water and you bow your head and wait?
R. We know each other for years and I will tell you one thing, there is no one as the experienced, as I am saying this specifically to you because you are already from your experience of being with us for years. You have to see that there are no explanations here, just simply that you have to hold on to a person that he won't run or fall and just keep going on the path and then from continuing they become experienced and from the experience he becomes wise. Then he begins to understand what is going on, if you are demanding to receive the mind without the experience, this is what you are learning from and it is not correct. This is why I think and scrutinized on your path that you are already many years with us and then it will be clear to you more or less how it works itself out and keeps going.
72. S. (45:09) We use vision as and identifying vessel and accordingly we have different feelings and emotions. Is it correct to say that in corporeality I see with the mind and in spirituality I feel with the heart?
R. You can say that there are intricacies here but you can say that.
73. S. (46:04) To refer back to the drawing regarding the three states Baal HaSulam did not mention anything about Machsom, the Machsom we cross and still have 125 degrees to progress, where is the Machsom located on the diagram?
R. It is in the beginning of the first state, so I don't remember which drawing you're speaking about, the timeline with the beginning and the middle of the end? The Machsom means that we enter the spiritual work and now we are before it, we don't have a screen, restriction, records that awakened within us spiritual records toward spirituality from the shattering. They are but it is still preparation and this is called the time of preparation. It is a very long time, time that is unpleasant but it is still a time of preparation.
S. So we are before the first state?
R. Yes. What does it mean, the first state? It means that you are recognizing records from the state of shattering. This is the time of preparation. There is no screen so how can you reveal records from the shattering and reveal them?
S. When we cross the Machsom and start working in the first state then we come to the second state?
R. Yes, what is the second state, I don't recall what happened in the drawing there.
S. It is where we said all the corrections are.
R. Yes, we enter the work with the screen and start making the corrections and then until the end of correction with everything on the path.
S. The second state is the 125 degrees?
R. Yes of course, that is called working with the screen.
74. S. (49:12) You mentioned the topic of thought which is a huge force that we don't use sufficiently. Can you expand?
R. No, I cannot expand now, answer concretely about something yes but not that I am going to start.
S. In the work in the 10?
R. No, that will take us too long. The main thing is that you have a good day and do what we were speaking about, read the excerpt again to see the good in the friend and also these parts. The state in the group and our general group is in a very nice ascent.