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The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Lesson (Morning) July 18, 2024.

Part 1: Baal HaSulam. Letter No. 3

Reader: Hello, we are reading in the writings of Baal HaSulam, we are in the letters section, we're in letter number three from Baal HaSulam, you can find the study material on, Sviva Tova and the Arvut, you can also send live questions through there. Whoever asks questions here in the hall is asked to stand up, hold the microphone close to his mouth, and speak loud and clear. The writings of Baal HaSulam, letter number three.

Reading: (00:31) Letter No. 3.

Tav-Reish-Peh-Bet, 1922, Jerusalem

To …

“Four entered a PARDESS,”1 etc. Before the world was created, there was He is One and His name is One, since the souls were not considered souls, for the issue of name refers to when one turns one’s face away from him, and the friend calls upon him to turn his face back to him.

Since prior to creation, the souls were completely adhered to Him, and He placed upon them crowns and wreaths, glory, majesty, and splendor, even what they did not evoke, since He knows their wish by Himself and grants them. Hence, it is certainly irrelevant to state a name that relates to an awakening from below of some side. Hence, it is considered “simple light,” since everything is utter simplicity, and this light was understood to every simple person, even to those who had never seen any wisdom. 

This is why the sages and the wise called it Pshat (literal), since the Pshat is the root of everything. Authors and books do not speak of it, as it is one, simple, and famous concept. Although in the lower worlds, two divisions are detected in the Reshimo [recollection] of this simple light, it is because of the division in their own hearts, by way of “And I am a smooth man.”2

Yet, the above-mentioned place has no changes in any depiction you might make. It is like a king who took his darling son and put him in his grand and wondrous grove. And when the king’s son opened his eyes, he did not look at the place where he stood, since due to the great light in the grove, his eyes wandered far away, as the distance of the east from the west. And he cast his eyes only on the buildings and palaces far to his west, and he walked for days and months, wandering and wondering at the glory and the grandeur he was seeing to the west.

After some months, his spirit rested and his passion was fulfilled, and he was satiated from looking to the west. He reconsidered and thought, “What can be found along the way I have traversed?” He turned his face eastward, to the side from which he’d come, and he was startled. All the grandeur and all the beauty were right next to him. He could not understand how he had failed to notice it thus far and clung only to the light that shone toward the west. From then on he was attached solely to the light that shines to the east, and he was wandering eastward until he returned right to the entrance.

Now do consider and tell me the difference between the days of the entry and the days of the exit. All that he had seen in the latter months, he’d seen in the early months, as well. But in the beginning, it was without inspiration since his eyes and heart were taken by the light that shone toward the west. And after he was satiated, he turned his face eastward and noticed the light that shines toward the east. But how had it changed?

But being near the entrance, there is room for disclosing the second manner, which the sages call Remez [intimation], as in “What do your eyes imply?” It is like a king who hints to his darling son and frightens him with a wink of his eye. Although the king’s son does not understand a thing or sees the fear that is hidden in the hint, still, due to his Dvekut [adhesion] to his father, he promptly jumps from there to another side.

This is why the second manner is called Remez, since the two manners, Pshat and Remez, are registered in the lower ones as one root, as the meticulous ones write, that there is not a word that does not have a two-letter root, called the “origin of the word.” This is so because no meaning can be deduced from a single letter; hence, the acronym for Pshat and Remez is PR [pronounced Par], which is the root of Par Ben Bakar [young bull] in this world. And Pria and Revia [multiplication] comes from that root, as well.

Afterward, the third manner appears, which the sages call Drush [interpretation]. Hence, there was no Drisha [demand] for anything, as in “He is One and His name One.” But in this manner, there is subtraction, addition, interpretation [studying] and finding, as in “I labored and found,” as you evidently know. This is why this place is attributed to the lower ones, since there is an awakening from below there, unlike the illumination of the face of the east upward, which was by way of “Before they call, I will answer,” for here there was a powerful call, and even exertion and lust, and this is the meaning of “the graves of lust.”

Afterward begins the fourth manner, which the sages call Sod [secret]. In truth, it is similar to Remez, but in the Remez, there was no perception whatsoever; it was rather like a shadow following a person. Moreover, the third manner, the Drush, has already clothed it.

Yet, here it is like a whisper, like a pregnant woman … you whisper in her ear that today is Yom Kippur [Day of Atonement], so the fetus would not be shaken and fall. And we might say, “Moreover, it is the concealment of the face, and not the face!” For this is the meaning of the words, “The meaning of the Lord is to those who fear Him; and His covenant, to make them know it.” This is why he made several circles until a whispering tongue said this to him: “He has given Teref [food] to those who fear Him,” and not Trefa [non-kosher food], as that soldier sneered.

You understood by yourself and wrote me in your letter, though shyly and timidly, that you are a bachelor, and this is not the proper way.

Since this verse came into our hands, I shall clarify it to you, as this is also the poet’s question: “The meaning of the Lord is to them who fear Him.” And why did he speak in such a way? It is as our sages’ question, where we find that the text twists (eight) twelve letters, to speak with a clean language, as it is written, “and of the beasts that are not clean,” etc.

But your reason does not suffice the poet, for He could have given abundance to the souls, and with a clean language, as Lavan said to Jacob, “Why did you flee secretly and stole from me, and did not tell me, that I might have sent you away with joy and with songs, with a drum and with a harp.” The poet’s answer to that is, “and His covenant, to make them know it.”

This is the meaning of the cutting, the removal, and the drop of blood, meaning the individual thirteen covenants. Had the meaning not been in this manner, but in another language, four corrections from the thirteen corrections of Dikna would have been missing, and only the nine corrections of Dikna in ZA would remain. Thus, ZA would not be clothing AA, as is known to those who know the meaning of God. This is the meaning of “and His covenant, to make them know it.” This is also the meaning of “Ancestral merit has ended, but ancestral covenant has not ended.”

Let us return to our issue, which is PR (pronounced Par), PRD (pronounced Pered), and PRDS (pronounced Pardess). This is their order and combination from above downward. Now you will understand these four sages that entered the Pardess, meaning the fourth manner, called Sod, since the lower one contains the upper ones that preceded it. Hence, all four manners are included in the fourth manner, and they are right, left, front, and back.

The first two manners are the right and left, meaning PR (this is the meaning of his words on the step at the Temple Mount: “All of Israel’s sages are worthless in my eyes”). These are Ben Azai and Ben Zuma, as these souls nurtured from the two PR manners. And the last two manners are the Panim [front] and Achor [back], which is Rabbi Akiva who entered in peace and came out in peace. They correctly stated, “It indicates that for every thistle, mountains of laws can be learned.”

Achor is Elisha Ben Avoia who went astray. Our sages said about that, “One shall not raise an evil dog within one’s home,” for it is going astray. Everything that was said about them—“peeped and died,” “peeped and was hurt,” “went astray”—is said of that generation when they gathered closely together, but were all thoroughly corrected, one at a time, as is known to those who know the secret of reincarnation.

Yet, another he saw the tongue of Hutzpit, the translator, which is why he said, “Return, O naughty children,” except for the other, and Rabbi Meir, the disciple of Rabbi Akiva, took his place. It is true that the Gemara, too, finds it difficult; how did Rabbi Meir learn Torah from another? And they said, “He had found a pomegranate, ate its contents, and threw its shell (another).” And some say that he corrected the Klipa [shell/peel], too, as in raising smoke over its grave.

Now you can understand Elisha Ben Avoia’s words: “He who teaches a child, what is he like? Like ink written on a new paper,” meaning the soul of Rabbi Akiva. “And he who teaches an old man, what is he like? Like ink, written on erased paper,” he said of himself. This is the meaning of his warning to Rabbi Meir, “Thus far the Shabbat [Sabbath] bounds,” for he understood and estimated his horse’s steps, since he had never come down from his horse.

This is the meaning of “The transgressors of Israel, the fire of Hell does not govern them, and they are as filled with Mitzvot [commandments] as a pomegranate.” He says that it is all the more so with the golden altar, which is merely as thick as a golden coin. It stood for some years, and the fire did not govern it, etc., “The vain among you are as filled with Mitzvot as a pomegranate, all the more so,” as he says, that the Klipa, too, is corrected.

Know that the great Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehosha are also from the souls of PR, like Ben Azai and Ben Zuma. But Ben Azai and Ben Zuma were in the generation of Rabbi Akiva, and were his students, among the 24,000. But Rabbi Eliezer and Rabbi Yehosha were his teachers.

This is why it is said that instead of Rabbi Eliezer, they were purifying the purifications (Pshat) that they had done over Achnai’s oven, since they cut it into slices (eighteen slices) and placed sand between each two slices. In other words, the third manner is as the sand between the first slice, which is the second manner, and the second slice, which is the fourth manner. Naturally, the sister and the awareness are conjoined as one. And Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Yehosha as one are disciples of the great Rabbi Eliezer, and Rabbi Akiva is seemingly included in them. This is because a second good day, with respect to the first good day, is like a weekday [Chol means both “sand” and “weekday”] in the eyes of our sages, since the Drush, compared to the Remez, is like a candle at noon.

But the sages of his generation defiled all those purifications and burned them, and the great Rabbi Eliezer proved with the aqueduct whose water rose that Rabbi Yehosha was a great sage, and the walls of the Temple will prove. And they began to fall before the glory of Rabbi Eliezer and did not fall before the glory of Rabbi Yehosha. This is a complete proof that there is no place for any doubt that he is pure.

But the sages took Rabbi Yehosha for himself and did not wish to rule as with Rabbi Eliezer, his teacher, until a voice came down, that Rabbi Yehosha was really his disciple. But Rabbi Yehosha did not connect to his place and said that you do not heed a voice: “It is not in heaven,” etc. Then sages blessed him, for the light of Ozen [ear] had been canceled from them, since they did not follow the rules of the great Rabbi Eliezer. And Rabbi Akiva, his favorite disciple, told him that his 24,000 disciples had died during the count, and the world was sickened, a third in olives, etc.

Elisha Ben Avoia and Rabbi Tarfon came from the same root. But Elisha Ben Avoia is the Achoraim [posterior] itself, and Rabbi Tarfon is the Panim [face] de Achoraim [of the posterior]. What is this like? In one house lay bitter olives that are good for nothing, and in another house lies the beam of the oil-press, which is good for nothing. Then a man comes and connects the two. He places the beam over the olives and produces a wealth of oil.

It follows that the good oil that is revealed is the Panim, and the beam is the Achoraim. And the plain wooden tools are thrown away after they have completed their work.

Understand that this custom is in the expansion of the roots to the branches in worlds below it. But at their root, they both appear at once, like a person who suddenly enters the oil-press and sees the beam, and under it, a large pile of olives with oil flowing abundantly from them. This is so because at the root, all is seen at once. This is why one is called “another,” and the other is called “Tarfon”; one is “a beam” and the other is “oil,” which immediately flows through it.

This is the meaning of going astray. After the desire has emerged, which is the soul of Rabbi Tarfon, the soul of “another” remained as “bad manners” in one’s home. This is the meaning of the letter combination, Sod: Samech is the head of the word Sod itself, the soul of “another,” and Dalet is the head of the word Drush, the soul of Rabbi Akiva, because they are the operators. And the Vav in the middle is Rabbi Tarfon.

Yehuda Leib 

1. Translator’s note: In Hebrew, a Pardess means grove. But in Kabbalah, it is an acronym for Pshat (the literal Torah), Remez (intimation), Drush (interpretations), and Sod (secret).↩

2. Translator’s note: In Hebrew, Halak means both “smooth” and “part.”↩

*25-30 starting task 2

M. Laitman: What's your impression?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (25:46) The general impression is that Baal HaSulam is kind of writing all the time to students of attainment, and Rabash wrote to students that are not of attainment, usually. And now all of a sudden in the letters and the articles it's much less clear. That's it, the feeling is like a child in the kindergarten that's hearing the adults talking in Baal HaSulam's letters.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (26:22) Also, this article is simply showing the extent of the attainment of Baal HaSulam. Not too long ago we studied the Last Generation articles, which is a completely different language for layers of society that don't have any attainment, and the roots and branches, and all that he describes. He simply presents the method of correction to people that have no connection whatsoever. But, this method between a person and his friend, in this lower degree, he simply describes it in a completely different language, in a truly holy language, the language of the branches, truly.

M. Laitman: No one wants to say anything? Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (27:33) He shows us the cascading of concealment and revelation. The second face, the third face, the fourth face, but eventually we see that we all have one root, and that if we take, just like here, we take each of his uniqueness, his vessels, and we connect everything together, there we reveal the Creator each time more and more. The uniqueness of the Creator, He shows us each time in the connection between us, His uniqueness. Also, in the preparation today, we kind of gave meaning to annulment of each and every one towards the society. The more we come with annulment, thus we can reveal more the special connection between us, and how unique it is. That's what I understood.

M. Laitman: Right. If we would connect, we would see this letter openly.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:51) The feeling is that there are many hints here. It's like little tips of ropes here and there that he's leaving us, but it's hard to think how to open those hints. The general impression is that he's talking about the whole revelation being through concealment.

M. Laitman: Yes. That is the entire attitude that one should have through concealment to reach revelation.

*30-35 Starting Task 2

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (29:33) I'll just say that yesterday, before our Ten meeting when we read the article, this letter, there was in Sviva Tova for about 20 years of this letter in the archive somewhere, and there I think every sentence you had an explanation of maybe 5 minutes, more or less. So, just so we think about that too. And I'm saying it to the friends mostly, because I told it to the friends how impressed I was, and now we're seemingly not opening it, but just to say that a friend also mentioned it not too long ago, the way you related to that letter and it was truly to every word, everything was kind of seemingly simple. This is the first phase, that's the second phase, third phase, fourth phase, and now it's like we're learning a lesson for beginners, that's what it was back then.

M. Laitman: That's how I used to speak. He who hears, obligates. Okay, we’ll rise and reach bigger things.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:00) What to do if you read an article and you don't understand nothing from what you read?

M. Laitman: We should be impressed that we don't understand anything, but nevertheless we want to go back in, and we want to cleave to the author, and in this way we raise a prayer, and we hope for an answer.

Student: And we need to make an intellectual effort to try to understand what he's writing there?

M. Laitman: Both mental and emotional.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:48) The letter begins with four entered the Pardes, etc. And four entered the PARDESS, one called them this, one called them that, this happened to this, and only Rabbi Akiva entered and came out peacefully. What is four entered the PARDESS?

M. Laitman: We have four virtues or four measures, and the story is how can you correctly enter the PARDESS and to reveal this entire PARDESS, Pshat, Remez, Drush, Sod; that opens up relative to a person and give him the possibility to learn everything, to make corrections and to exit peacefully. 

Student: Where is this PARDESS, and why do we need to enter it?

M. Laitman: It's from the four phases, four phases and a person has to come out of it to a higher degree.

Student: Is this PARDESS now before us? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: What's in this PARDESS? I know in the PARDESS you usually have citrus or fruit in this grove, so what's in this PARDESS? Are we going in it to get fruit? 

M. Laitman: That depends on a man's attitude toward the PARDESS, toward the grove. You have to reveal the correct attitude and see how to take care of it, of this grove and what do you need it for? That's the main thing to scrutinize and anyone who goes through the grove comes out to a world that's all good.

Student: Why did only Rabbi Akiva enter and come out peacefully? 

M. Laitman: He was greater than his friends. 

Student: They were also great, no?

M. Laitman: They were. 

Student: They’re Tanaaim. 

M. Laitman: Yes. Nevertheless, I don't want to get into it, he didn't demand anything. There's so many things in this that we don't know how to quite solve.

Student: In the common way for entering a PARDESS, into the grove, there's like a symbolism to justify why you're not allowed to come close to the wisdom of Kabbalah, because four entered, three came out not good, and only one came out good. So, if you want to protect yourself, it's worthwhile for you to be cautious, entering the grove could be dangerous. What is Baal HaSulam teaching us here about this entry into the PARDESS? 

M. Laitman: No, we don't relate to it at all the way the people think about it. Rather, those who have a tendency to penetrate the secret of creation, they enter. And they get through the entire grove, enters peacefully, comes out peacefully and the grove is open before them.

Student: What's the line that we have to keep in order to…?

M. Laitman: You wish to be incorporated with all your might, with all the forces that appear to you on the path, and you agree to anything. Very simply, you agree to anything; In order to be included, to be incorporated with the PARDESS, with the grove, and after these four degrees you acquire, you reach the truth.

Student: There's a picture here where it starts entering the King's garden, and the light shines towards the west, and then a person goes towards the light that shines to him. And later he says that there's actually many things also on the east, but because he was aimed towards the light that was in the west, he didn't notice them when he entered. What are they trying to explain to us here?

M. Laitman: That a person, when he walks and enters and acquires these ideas, and adhesion in what opens before him. He's limited, he’s limited; but ultimately he opens up his four aspects, phases and is incorporated in everyone. It's a very complicated letter. We'll get back to it one day. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:34) I simply want to use what the friends said earlier and to get advice from you. In our archive, really, there are several very old lessons in which you kind of like explain better or explain more these letters.

M. Laitman: Because you were before me, but 20 years ago, maybe longer, I don't know, I don't know what's in the archive, and then I had to explain it somehow in a way that's clearer. 

Student: I'm simply asking for advice: Is there a point today to go and look for those lessons, to listen to them and learn something from them? Or, because I simply did it in the previous letters, it gives a kind of a gift to the intellect. It's like the mind is kind of happy but to say that something remains from this after, I don't really know? So, what's correct for us to do today? That's what I'm asking, that's the advice I'm asking for.

M. Laitman: I don't know. Try. Try. I hope that I spoke correctly and you're not going to get anything wrong out of it, anything incorrect. The Creator will correct everything. 

Student: What is the reason that as the years goes by it seems like, at least in the lessons that you explain less and less?

M. Laitman: That's what I asked Rabash also. He says he has to guard himself and guard me, and that's why he reveals less and less, and I have to add in revelation, in order to reveal more. And that is also written in a few letters, that's how you have to do it. It comes out this way. 

Student: Does it actually depend on the degree of the student, how much the teacher opens up and explains?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, if a student is advanced enough, it's enough for him to say a few words and he understands. And for a beginner, you have to pour and pour.

Student: What to do if the student feels like he's not advancing, and Rav is nevertheless not opening?

M. Laitman: I don't know. I don't see that I need to open this up more. With these letters, maybe, because they're difficult. But…it will all work out.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (41:56) Continuing the friend, also several questions I received on the topic. 20 years ago, you saw an audience that needed an explanation, so you opened every word, every sentence, every comma? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So, what do you see now before you?

M. Laitman: Now I see before me an audience that has to exert and put in labor and prayer; and then we'll receive an explanation, but it's not going to be verbal and not from me. 

Student: Okay, now what about the whole Kli, because our world Kli is diverse. There's an audience that has to exert and pray, and there's an audience that is hearing for the first time this, it's new, these texts, and he's expecting some verbal explanation. How do we bridge these gaps in the whole Kli?

M. Laitman: I don't know. I truly don't know. I think you need to speak more amongst them, maybe? But, what opens up from me opens up, and what shuts down, shuts down. 

Student: So, you're saying that we need to exert and pray and to get an explanation, but not from you?

M. Laitman: Yes, by being connected and by studying together.

Student: Who do we get the explanation from?

M. Laitman: From the Creator, but as a result of the connection between you.

Student: And a question that I hear all the time, not all the time, but I hear it from friends from time to time, that Rav, you would open much more 20 years ago, like friends say, and today he does less, meaning we don't hear from his, on his behalf too much, and if we don't ask, we don't hear anything from him. What, is that because the students are advancing and not because Rav is less wanting to open? 

M. Laitman: Correct. Whatever the mind doesn't do, time does. We have to invest more and more. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (44:13) Earlier you said that if we were to connect, we would see the letter in a disclosed manner. 

M. Laitman: Yes, that's clear. There are no secrets here. All the secrets are revealed through the connection.

Student: Why does connection change the perception of reality, meaning something that is now concealed from me, I start to see it revealed, if a connection is created. 

M. Laitman: Because in connection, you are seeing the letter correctly. 

Student: During the reading of the letter, there's like an effort to understand, each is in reading, and efforts to understand what Baal HaSulam is passing on to us. What does it mean that each is inclined towards connection, and that's what will open up this letter for us? 

M. Laitman: We need to complete one another, complement one another, as one man in one heart. And then in this common heart, we will reveal the internality of this letter.

Student: While I'm sitting and listening to the letter now and reading it, I need to be in another place with my heart? 

M. Laitman: Together with everyone. 

Student: To feel the friends, what they're going through, what... 

M. Laitman: No, it's just that you're together in one desire, connected, embraced, and aimed at the Creator.

Student: And then I will start being...There will be something that will be revealed on a different layer?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:15) Entering the PARDESS, the grove, is entering exile? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And exiting the PARDESS is exiting the exile? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (46:30) I wanted to ask about the approach to these writings. There are writings that I can see on myself that you can... It's like you read them and to a certain extent, in our feelings and also in our mind, they settle there somehow. And there are writings that don't settle and even the reading is hard for you. So, what is the approach meaning, can we say that the writings that some are more beneficial than the other or you can't do such calculations about the writings? 

M. Laitman: If you don't understand, then it appears difficult. It's clear. Now, what to do? Go over it a few times. 

Student: So, what determines that this Source will open up for a person? 

M. Laitman: Only opening of the heart. Opening oneself, to get closer to the friends, to the teacher, to the Creator.

Student: How does a person do this? Because it's kind of clear for you that... 

M. Laitman: Through the opening of the heart. 

Student: But the heart, you don't control the heart. 

M. Laitman: Try. Pray. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (48:19) The PARDESS opens when we are ready or enter a special state. The PARDESS, the grove, is revealed altogether, or is it entering in…

M. Laitman: However, it's revealed.

Student: However it's revealed, I mean, is it sudden? 

M. Laitman: It's different.

Student: Do we feel that we're entering the PARDESS? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Do we have a feeling of forces that stand before us, and we need to start to relate to them? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Okay, and each of us in connection needs to use his forces to be concerned with how to use it or just be together, or is it simultaneously?

M. Laitman: How to use the PARDESS, the grove, all of you. 

Question (Croatia): (49:25) The first time you hear this letter, you don't need an explanation because I don't understand much. But it's enough to read it together, truly like yesterday we heard the Zohar. So, specifically in this matter, is the attitude when we’re learning the letter need to be like we do with the Zohar, or different? 

M. Laitman: The attitude should be that we connect, as much as possible amongst ourselves, and we enter the text. Then, we wish to absorb it in our common vessel. That's the secret to entering; the more we gather and concentrate between us and feel as one, we will approach our success.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (50:52) I don't know if it's correct to ask this way, but earlier we talked about this a few minutes ago that the more advanced the student is, he needs to hear less with his ear the explanations, and more to adhere with the heart. Is the fact that we're hearing less explanations from the Rav is supposed to push us actually more to…?

M. Laitman: Yes, yes. Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (51:31) Continuing the friends’ scrutiny, I nevertheless want to share with you friends that when you hear Rav and the explanations from 20 years ago, take into account that it can fill you. It fills the deficiency, and you can come to the lesson full and it's most correct. At least that's how I feel, that when we read it together, you come with scrutiny, you come and write questions, come to the lesson with a deficiency, and that is also most correct from the connection between us. And to really hear Rav, it's more correct to do after the lesson and to do a comparison.

M. Laitman: Yes. However, you want.

Student: Yes. I'm just saying, personally this is how I felt and many times when I tried to hear you from several years ago, it actually fills, you don't have a deficiency, but the deficiency doesn't exist like when you come without hearing you, but you come and do it through the scrutiny between us.

M. Laitman: Yes. That was the purpose; to fill those who come to the lesson as much as possible. 

Song: (53:09)