Morning Lesson May 24, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 2. Inner Observation. Chapter Three. #28 ("The second discernment is that after the upper light,")
Reading Item 28 (00:15)
1. S. (02:39) What is the light of Hochma? Today you said in the first part of the lesson that we, in our relation to the friends, we discover something additional that is called the light of Hochma.
R. The light which comes from above is the light of Ein Sof, white light, there is no Hassadim or Hochma in it but the desire to receive which receives and reveals this light that desire to receive that divides bestowal from above into Hassadim, Hochma into all kinds of lights there are many lights according to the size, form etc. Therefore the Creator doesn't have light of Hochma, light of Hassadim, this is the upper light that expand from Him, then according to the qualities of the receiver it enters them and then it appears that way already. Therefore if the vessels are vessels of reception then the light of Hochma is revealed in them if these are vessels of bestowal meaning they have enough strength to bestow then what reveals in them is a weaker light which is called the light of Hassadim. It all depends on the will to receive in the vessel. In the measure of the desire to receive.
S. How can we aim our will to receive in the way that we can receive the light of Hochma?
R. To do that we need to be in the form of receiving in order to bestow. The light of Hochma is the light that comes and fills the vessels of receptions, we don't have the true vessels of reception, the spiritual one rather we need to restrict our desires to receive and to receive in them at first the light of Hassadim and after the light of Hassadim we begin to grow ourselves until we receive the light of Hochma and then the light of Hochma expands in the light of Hassadim and this way we learn how to receive in order to bestow the light of Hochma. That is the process. Here we're not talking about that yet here he explains to us the principles by which they cascade from above downwards.
S. One more thing, it says here that after the revelation of the light of Hochma, the vessel of Hochma came out?
R. Because we're talking about the revelation of the light from above down, how the Creator in his light creates the created beings, not that the created being exists already and performs all sorts of actions, corrections and then come to revelation. The lights that spread from the Creator, rather here we talk about how the light that comes from the Creator to the desire to receive and performs actions upon it. This is different from the work of the created being from below upwards, here there is no creature yet. Meaning there is not yet the desire to receive with the restriction, screen and wanting to connect to the emanator and be like Him. Here not yet, here it is still the emanator building the desire to receive it is just like we in our world, we are a baby that is beginning to develop inside his mother's womb so he is developing. His mother is responsible for all that is there. For all the takes place and grows and develops therefore he says after the appearance of the light of Hochma the vessel of Hochma itself and emerged, and we, where we are already existing then through the development of the vessel of Hochma we will reveal the light of Hochma where the vessel preceeds the light and from above we get the opposite, the light of Hassadim in the vessel.
S. What is the vessel of Hochma?
R. The vessel of Hochma is the vessel that the desire to receive is arranged in such a way that it's worthy to reveal the light of Hochma meaning that there is the desire to receive there and in this desire to receive it will be felt, the bestowal the Creator will be felt in such a way as the light of Hochma, a light that brings with it the filling to the will to receive, to the will to receive.
S. We learn from above downwards?
R. No, we are not talking about the intentions. There is no vessel yet there is no vessel here yet. You're still in the process that you're being explained how the Creator, how the upper light, He, performs in his action and develops the will to receive. There is still no created being.
S. That's the question exactly.
R. He doesn't receive, he receives because that's how the upper makes him, just like a baby inside his mother's womb. An embryo in his mother's womb does someone ask him anything? No. He is given everything he needs for his development and this is how the nine months of gestation go through, it happens and later on he is also not asked too much. He's given and that is it until he becomes bigger and he already says I want, I don't want, he cries, he laughs etc. But it starts with not having any authority of his own. He is completely under the authority of the upper annulled before the upper one. We too when we want to grow we need to annul ourselves completely towards the upper and by that we begin to raise ourselves already. To ascend somehow. These things repeat themselves all the time Malchut of Hochma becomes the first substance in Bina and with the emergence of her light the vessel of Bina herself emerged. Item 29 yes, please.
Reading Item 29
2. R. (11:45) Meaning that from the upper, the light emerges and the vessel from the lower one and the light and the vessel cascade together and the light builds the vessel until it builds the kli until it completes the next discernment for example after Hochma comes Bina which develops that way from the Hochma and so on and so forth. Where each and every discernment has a desire of its own, a coarseness of its own and a light of its own.
Reading Item 30 (12:30)
3. R. (13:25) Yes, this is how they are differentiated, these from those, Bina from ZA.
Reader continues Item 31 (13:32)
4. R. (14:18) Yes, we see here that he's diminishing his explanation here a little bit and really these states are very special, they are high and it is hard to explain them to people that are not in spiritual attainment because there is a matter here of the desire to receive in the desire to bestow, which connect and distance from one another until they build all these discernments, they come closer and distant, come closer and distant and by these there's different participation between them until they reach this Malchut and in Malchut they are already all connected in a way that we can see that if Malchut does not come to the restriction and Zivug de Hakaa then she cannot realize herself. So we will talk about this.
5. S. (15:33) Why is it that every new degree ends with Malchut?
R. In implementation there is a Keter in each discernment from Keter to Malchut, there are 10 Sefirot. They complete the participation between them and emerge with a summation so actually those Sefirot complete their role and the next degree begins.
S. That's how it is set in the program to begin with, even if you start with Hochma? it turns out the Creator created the vessel filled it with light. Where's the will to receive?
R. That's received even before that without the will to receive the light would not emerge at all. We wouldn't be talking about light. When we talk about light we are already talking about something that emerges, that appears.
S. In the beginning we learned that the Keter created the vessel of Hochma so where in there do you find the Malchut?
R. The desire to receive in each degree is called Malchut and if we talked about the beginning of Keter we are already talking about the action of Malchut without which we would not be able to talk about any kind of movement in the light.
S. This means it's a small part of the plan of the will to receive?
R. Yes, yes and now it is appearing in this small way.
6. S. (17:51) In item 29 it says the desire and the degree is always called vessel or Malchut of the degree, so what are the other degrees called Keter, Hochma, Bina are they not all desires to receive as well?
R. Yes but in each of them there is its own desire, from its own fashion of the desire. The desire to receive in general and this specific desire to receive appears in each and every degree in a different manner, in a different way. The desire for salad, the desire for bread, for cheese, for coffee each of those are different desires but desires. We're only talking about the desire and the upper light is the filling for each and every desire and what they desire wants and then towards the desires we talk about on behalf of the desire there was a desire to receive and the desire to bestow. The desire to receive is wanting to receive for himself according to the desires in him and the desires to bestow, according to the desires he reveals towards the upper in its connection to the upper if you want to connect to the upper you have no choice but for your will to receive to perform actions towards the upper, in connecting to the upper. Meaning you need to arrange your desire to receive according to the desire of the upper therefore there has to be a connection and then you need the light to arrange for you so your desire to receive will arrange it to be like the desire of the upper and for you to be truly like according to his will and that is how we learn. That is how the vessel called the vessel of reception develops.
7. S. (20:00) Every time it is written that Malchut of the upper one is the first substance for the lower one. What does it mean its the first?
R. First means that from it onwards it develops in the current degree. We can say that the desire to receive, the desire to receive without any form. In order to receive or in order to bestow it is called the matter of the degree. All together all the matter of creation. From the beginning to the end it is the desire to receive.
Reading Item 32 (20:42)
8. S. (22:06) Why are there 10 Sefirot in the Bechinot? We are talking about the four phases of direct light. Why is he talking about the 10 Sefirot in each Bechina?
R. Oh that is not now, that is because the third phase, it divides, it includes in it a certain salad or a cocktail, I don't know how to say it, a mixture of many discernments that are all of Hochma and Hassadim and therefore she includes within her all those discernemnts and therefore she's called ZA meaning that it prepares itself for a state for which the Malchut will develop, the final desire to receive where also the desire to bestow that is in Keter will be clarified and Hochma and Bina in Hochma and Hassadim and now in ZA it will be connected together and baget Malchut meaning a vessel in which they can exist, fill it and this is how it will come to its implementation. Therefore ZA is detailed for us it is divided in us to many details. Although in each and every discernment there are the same details but these details don't stand out, they are not emphasized like they are in ZA.
S. Why is it that the main vessel, the central vessel, is ascribed to the vessel of Malchut? What is so special about Malchut in each and every degree?
R. Malchut is the desire to receive upon the upper light which was developed from all the upper influences above her and therefore she wants to receive all the influences above her into her and that is why she is called the Kli, the vessel.
S. It draws all the lights, she causes all the drawing of the light?
R. It's not quite yet but let's say for now. Yes. Malchut is the desire to receive that wants to receive all the influence, all the bestowal from above and it's arranged in such a way that she's meant for that, she's arranged that way.
9. S. (24:47) In our world there is a chain of commerce, there are the stores, there is the commercial, the people who buy and sell and every time someone gets some money out of that so what do these degrees get from drawing the light?
R. Also in them there is Malchut, in a way that it belongs to each and every degree along the way and this Malchut is filled with light and from the general Malchut which is at the end of all the degrees she receives the reflected light and passes it onwards, meaning from all the Sefirot from Malchut upwards they imprint in them all the Sefirot from Keter down and then there's an Illumination in all the degrees, in all the Sefirot and therefore they're called not discernments but Sefirot like Sapphire, illuminating, shining.
10. S. (25:56) In the four or five previous items in this chapter he explains the cascading in each and every degree, how it's made. Can you explain this cascading within a desire that exists and works?
R. I did not understand first of all we're not talking here about something that belongs to us, truly. There is no desire to receive yet we are talking about discernments, phases, not desires and not about the created beings, therefore relative to us it is hard to explain. We can say it's in Arvut that way that it's happening this way but it's not that we can discover these things in us this way.
11. S. (26:54) Previously you said that we have to attain the spiritual will to receive first and at the moment we have an egotistic will to receive, so what does it mean to obtain a spiritual will to receive?
R. The spiritual will to receive is called that I want to receive only in order to bestow. Where all my desires to receive are restricted by me, yes. That is called the work in restriction and if I open the restriction it is only in order to bestow. Where to bestow to the Creator just like to the host, I as a guest can do so only on the condition that I can receive for Him. Meaning I restricted myself and now I am open to receive from him something only in order to bestow to Him, meaning I am certain that by this I am bestowing to him, what pleasure I’m bestowing, what measure I can receive in order to bestow so God forbid I don't all of a sudden enter in order to receive, it is all me examining in my reception from the host.
S. Is that something that as a person I can not make mistakes here? Can I reach such a state?
R. We have to get to such states. Yes of course, try to do it with your friends and you will see. how much you're giving and how much you're receiving from the friends and you're doing with such calculations.
S. Yes, I notice that every time I try to just do it I find out that I did it for myself so how can we reach?
R. That's not important. Despite all of that, continue, the calculation is good, the calculation is correct and it will eventually lead you to higher calculations.
12. S. (29:10) About the approach to the study we hear from you many times that we have to depict these states from TES in the connection between us in the emotions, to look for it inside us is that correct?
R. Yes yes.
S. It's not clear what am I looking for, what am I depicting if it's not about us and there is no vessel here?
R. Here it is not talking about us, it's clear but I want to learn something from this that will belong to me. That's it. Nevertheless these are my roots, what can I learn from this relative to me? That is actually my goal in the study.
S. What is this emotional search I have to do? It sounds as if there is an intellectual effort to have to go into, I understand the system how it's connected to me, it is not clear?
R. I am not entering into your picture. I don't know what to say to the extent in which we nevertheless, no matter what we are reading, can depict something from it as existing between us. It is good. Even the worst possible things, the highest possible things it doesn't matter, nevertheless we are starting to work with our will to receive here with our hearts. the relations between us and all of this advances us. It softens our heart as we call it.
S. Okay, I simply cannot understand how to connect something that is not about us?
R. It does speak to it, it nevertheless speaks about it, try to connect to it.
S. Isn't it engaging in something that is abstract?
R. I'm not getting into philosophies as much as I can imagine. I can try it, nevertheless I am working with myself. I am doing something, otherwise I will learn it as a philosophy.
13. S. (31:55) About what you said a moment ago, if you can clarify more. You said that there is a desire. How can we restrict the desire or what does it mean to aim for the goal? What does it mean to put the intention above it, the screen? How to do that?
R. As much as I'm capable I restrict my action with a friend to only actions in which I am certain that I can bestow according to my understanding according to my degree. As much as I can bestow to them to that extent I connect to them as much as I cannot bestow to them then I'm very cautious. Until I seemingly don't relate to them but rather in the corporeal way only in a certain nice kind way that is what we need to do.
S. So are restrictions only about actions we can do in the ten and for the ten? These are the basic spiritual actions of ours?
R. Yes.
14. S. (33:40) What does it mean that the phase comes out of the Malchut of the previous phase only when it draws this light?
R. Malchut of the upper becomes the Keter of the lower one and we need to learn those actions, what they are.
S. Why is the light organized in the direct and not the opposite of lights and vessels?
R. Where are you reading this?
S. I don’t know, it's part of his question?
R. I don't know, give me the source then maybe I can know it. Just like that answer according to his words, I cannot.
S. In the text, it turns out that the first Behinot?
R. You tell me where it is written.
S. In item 30 Zeir Anpin draws the light of Ruach?
R. In item 30?
S. Yes.
R. Malchut of Bina becomes the first substance of ZA with the emergence of its light, the vessel of ZA himself is emerged. In this way you will also learn that the substance of the phase three called ZA, Malchut of Bina is its cause and she became the first substance of ZA. Meaning Bina is its initial substance, Malchut of Bina which is the third phase. Meaning that it extended the light that is related to it, called Ruach and the second discernment is that after He extended and received His light his substance stopped being regarded as Malchut of Bina and received the form of Malchut of ZA.
S. We usually learn that the lights that come out are in the inverse value of lights and vessels. Here the first phase emerges according to the light of Yechida or Chaya?
R. I don't understand anything you're saying. Again.
S. We learned that there is an inverse value of lights and vessels. Here ZA immediately receives the light of Ruach for instance?
R. ZA received the light off Ruach from Bina and what’s the question?
S. When Hochma emerges it receives the light of Chaya, Yechida. It is not according to the inverse values of vessels and lights, so that is the question. How in the first emergence, of the first Behinot, the first phase, it receives the light of Yechida or Chaya?
R. Do you understand what he's asking?
Reader Responds: Why is this description of the entrance of the light and vessels is not according to the inverse value of lights and vessels, but rather as if each one receives its own?
R. Because it's still the direct light there is no restriction screen and reflected light. This is still cascading from above down, maybe that is the question.
15. S. (37:48) Why does Baal HaSulam emphasize time and again that the real vessel is only phase four?
R. Because it’s true, there is nothing other than the four phases. When we say that there is a desire to receive in Keter, Hochma, Bina, Zeir Anpin and in Malchut, these individual Malchuts are all together the reflection of the general Malchut upon all those Sefirot.
16. S. (38:23) Does the light enter the first material and the light that emerges from the vessel, are these two the same light?
R. There can never be two different places with the same light. The light that enters and the light that emerges is not the same light. The lights are all different in accordance with the coarseness and hardness of the Kli.
17. S. (38:52) After we prepare our intention can we define the state of unity as Malchut?
R. We can always attribute ourselves to the Malchut of the Kli and it's worthwhile for us to always perform a calculation in which form we are in the connection between us and with the Creator. That is the connection of Malchut with Keter.
18. S. (39:23) Can we call ourselves a created being or it is too early for that?
R. The created being is one who feels that he has the Creator and he is disconnected from Him and wants to connect to Him to the extent of the yearning and to the extent of yearning to the Creator he can call himself the created being.
S. How do we determine the level of coarseness?
R. The level of coarseness we're not talking about yet, but we can observe them only according to the clash between us. This condition that the Creator stands behind every friend to the extent and which I have difficulty to adhere to the friend, shows me the measure of my coarseness.
19. S. (40:37) Where does the innovation come every step and why does new light appear or if we are still in the Malchut of the previous degree?
R. Malchut of the previous degree contains within her all that is in the next degree below her. Therefore when we are talking about a certain degree we are also talking about the potential force in that degree which is about to develop through us, in the lower degrees below.
20. S. (41:15) What motivates our desire to start drawing the light suddenly?
R. That is where the general light shines on us in general. We attain the lights, the Sefirot, the worlds in attainment of the Creator.
21. S. (41:35) In item 30 it says that the upper one draws the light of the lower one. Then it says the lower one draws the light that is required. What is really going on there?
R. In the upper degree it is the preparation for the lower one and in the lower degree there needs to be in our work preparation for the attainment of the higher degree. The attainment of the Creator.
I see actually in the first part of the lesson how we are beginning to discover in this article Matan Torah the extent to which Baal HaSulam concealed many conditions, laws to the extent in which all is in there. It’s not called the giving of Matan Torah, the Torah for no reason. He is truly giving the entire upper force in this simple explanation which appears like an article for beginners. It is an article which includes it all, and I'm very happy that today I had this feeling and drive and desire to open it more.