Morning Lesson March 31, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #16
Reading item number 15 “Thus new vessels were made in the Partzufim of Kedusha instead of Phase 4 after the first restriction”.
1. S. (04:17) The meal between us, the one that's discussed in the work in the ten, what is it?
R. It's to receive from the Creator the revelation of the upper world.
S. To receive between us in the ten, so why do we need to receive it because we want to bring him contentment?
R. Of course, everything is in order to bestow.
S. So do we need to feel some pressure that there is a table and he is seemingly giving it to us?
R. The Creator puts pressure on us so that we will want to discover him, receive his revelation. Of course.
S. And how do we create such conditions in the ten so that we really feel like he is pressing us and he really wants to give to us? How do we create such conditions in the work in the ten to feel like he is really pressing us and he's really giving us so we can do this for his sake, this giving so we are the givers?
R. Well, it all depends on our intentions on how much one wants to bestow to him and if his bestowal may only be to the extent that we receive from him well so we are willing to receive, but we are only willing to receive under the condition that by that we are bestow unto him.
S. It's just that there's this addition that we are willing to receive only if we are giving to him so that requires some contact with him in order to feel him so we can somehow define for my sake, not for my sake, for his sake.
R. Yes.
S. How do we do this?
R. To the extent that we want to give to him we stop reception of the abundance in order to receive and we start connecting between us and by wanting to give to each other ultimately we are aiming to give contentment to the Creator by this and then we shift this whole action for the name for the sake of the Creator.
2. S. (07:47) It follows from this excerpt that the guest is completely dependent on the measure of pleading the pressure on the host doesn't determine anything. If a person is only going to accept a cookie he's going to take a cookie, at the meal if he wants to take a meal he'll take a meal. So how can the guests change anything here?
R. The guests may determine his own attitude, his relation to what he receives from the host. What is he getting it for and what is he getting it for and for what cause and that's all. You don't need anything beyond that because the host depends on the guest. How will he receive from the host?
S. On what does the power of the intensity of the pressure of the host on the guest depend? What causes the pressure to grow from small to great pressure?
R. To the extent that the host can work more and more for the guest. It's like a mother and her baby, how much pressure can she put on her baby as long as it's for his own good. That's all. That's all her intention.
S. What is the motivation of the host for him to eat? What does he want the guests to eat?
R. The host loves the guests and he wants to give to the guest because to begin with he has a desire to bestow and the guest by that starts also receiving a desire to bestow back for the host.
S. So how can we, in our connections in the ten allow the host to give to us?
R. By being connected in a ten wanting to help each other, we bestow on the host and we show him that we want to receive together all of us from him because we are all connected and we all want to receive from him in order to give him contentment from us and then the host starts filling us.
S. With what is he filling us, with what does the host fill us?
R. With the upper light, the upper pleasure, his revelation.
S. How is this different from a corporeal filling?
R. I cannot say, about this there is a verse, “taste and see that the Lord is good”.
3. S. (11:09) After we feel the pleasure of the host and the screen and we know we cannot receive any more otherwise we receive it for ourselves?
Can we feel the pressure of the host in our screen and we know that we cannot receive more from the host otherwise we receive it for ourselves, so we build a restriction.
R. I don't understand the question.
S. He's asking, is it possible to feel the pressure of the host on our screen so that we will receive?
R. Explain yourself.
S. When we receive from the host we feel pleasure and we want to return it. We don't want to receive for ourselves, we want to return it so we build a restriction. So the resistance we feel, maybe stop it from receiving, is that the pressure of the host?
R. No, the pressure of the host is for us to receive pleasure without limitation.
4. S. (13:00) The question is, is rejection of reception increasing the yearning in the created being?
R. Yes, that is correct.
S. And isn't it supposed to be the opposite, that the minute we taste it we should have more yearning. So why does it happen the opposite with the pleasure?
R. I don't understand what you're asking.
S. Usually we say that appetite comes with the tasting, so when we're tasting the desire grows. Here he says that if we reject the reception, this creates the yearning because it seems to be the opposite.
R. When we reject the reception, no. That it's not clear to me where he stopped.
S. On the one hand, the expansion of the light and its departure which we tasted causes the increase of the desire, but here the fact that he is not receiving this causes the increase of the desire so it seems to be contrary.
R. The fact that I used to receive the light and I am rejecting it, so why did I reject it, because I was protecting myself and I don't want to be the receiver.
5. S. (15:00) How is the host influenced by the guest becoming a giver instead of a receiver?
R. The host is happy because the guest has reached equivalence of form with him and the guest that restricted himself from receiving is basically not further, is not distance from himself, from the host but rather he came closer to the host by his new nature of giving, that's why the host is happy.
S. The abundance that the guest feels, is it the contentment that he is given to the host by changing his relation to the host? Or is it because he is allowing the host to give him more food?
R. These two are basically the same, the fact that the guest enables the host to give him more and this gives him pleasure because he gives pleasure to the host, that's his goal basically.
6. S. (17:14) He writes that the force of rejection becomes the essence of the vessel. From where do we get the force of this power of rejection and how can we keep it?
R. The power of rejection is born in the will to receive because he wants to resemble that will to bestow of the giver of the Creator.
S. In the beginning, he doesn't have the power of rejection. So, how does it grow within the created being so that afterwards because if it is the essence of the vessel and we can't without the power of rejection. So, how does it develop because we constantly want to return to the Creator, no?
R. I don't know what you are saying. We want to begin with to receive in order to receive. When we receive the abundance, yes then we start feeling that the abundance has a different nature, in order to bestow. As a result of that in the will to receive, awakens a will to bestow as well which changes itself, changes itself from the will to receive to the will to receive in order to bestow. It can do nothing, only to receive, but it can change its intention and this change of intention is what changes the will to receive and turns it upside down from receiving to bestowing, because everything depends on the reason why he does it. What's the cause of the action and this is how they evolve.
7. S. (19:15) Within the ten among the friends, is it the same work or I am pushing some sort of relation where the friend wants to give me and he does the same things?
R. Yes. We need to locate in the 10 the way we are trying to realize our desires according to what is written in the preface for us.
8. S. (19:53) In the beginning of the item it is written that in the face of holiness the very rejection of the light that comes from above creates the completion of the degree, meaning it becomes a reflected light. When it goes lower down and the created being builds the screen, the restriction, and the reflected light. How does the reflected light, who examines the reflected light and allows it to become a vessel, what is this mechanism?
R. The screen, the screen does not want to receive. Rather if it receives in order to bestow, then it enables itself to receive. Thus he resembles the giver and to that extent enables himself to receive, because its reception is no longer reception, rather it is bestowal.
S. Is this how the screen becomes the examiner of the future Kli?
R. You can say that, yes you can say that.
9. S. (21:28) In this item that we read it says that a person who loves and respects the quality of bestowal and it is humiliating in his eyes to receive from his friend, is this a preliminary condition for the restriction? How do we develop it, this attraction towards the bestowal and the rejection from reception for ourselves?
R.This happens to us by the effect of the friends and the study. When we learn, when we connect, when we organize the relations between us bit by bit we start valuing more and more the qualities of bestowal, the intentions of bestowal and we diminish our will to receive. This is how we advance.
10. S. (22:54) What our will to receive wants to receive in this example and what the Creator wants to give us, these are two different things probably. My conclusion from this is that what the guest projects is not the same thing that the Creator wanted to give him?
R. The rejection is not the food, the refreshment, the reason. It is only the reason, a condition. It's like when we refuse that food, it is a condition for us to receive in the future but by that we are avoiding the unpleasantness of being receivers.
S. Yes. What I meant was my impression from this excerpt is that what the guest rejects and what the Creator wants to give are two different things?
R. The guest rejects the pressure of the host, he says I don't want. And then he agrees afterwards when he sees that his rejections have become equal to the pressure of the host.
S. Why is the rejection called reflected light?
R. Because by the this he become similar to the Creator by not wanting to receive, because he has got a will to receive.
11. S. (25:18) Is there merit or do we bring contentment to the Creator when we practice the screen with friends and not in the study?
R. Yes, through all of our mutual actions with the ten, we are building and organizing the screen.
12. S. (25:58) What makes it that the Ohr Hozer becomes a vessel of bestowal? What is that it becomes a vessel of bestowal, Ohr Hozer?
R. That he learns from the Creator what it means to bestow and then in what he can receive, he turns it to in order to bestow. He acquires from the host his intention to delight, to please, to give pleasure to others and this is what he uses, this example.
S. Does this create a sort of extra yearning to keep on bestowing? Does it create more and more Hissaron so that it forms this vessel more and more because we receive, let's say, we receive some impressions, let's say from Hochma or whatever?
R. Yes, yes, yes.
13. S. (27:27) I heard previously that you said that when the Creator bestows upon us in the meal, by that the created being develops also a quality of bestowal, so conversely when each of us in the ten is trying to show love and to bestow to her friends by that she also evokes a desire to bestow in them?
R. Yes, of course.
S. And this is how we help the friends discover the Creator between us. This is one shall help his friend?
R. Yes.
14. S. (28:16) What enables us to reject? What is this force of rejection?
R. The force of rejection is reflected light, it is when the created being wants to become similar to the Creator.
S. In the example of the guest and the host, the guest sees that before him there are pleasures, there's a full table and the love of the host is in front of him. In our state, when we are in exile when everything puts pressure on us, how can we see this good and how to receive this power to reject?
R. We should relate to the Creator as the Giver and we want to receive from Him only on the condition that with our reception from Him, we are giving Him pleasure, we are causing Him to feel pleasure. This is why we do the restriction, the screen and the reflected light and only after that we connect back with Him, we answer Him.
S. But we don't see what is before us. How to see that everything is a table full of good food that's prepared for us? How to develop this power to reject?
R. You cannot see this before you do the restriction. This is why I said restriction, screen and reflected light.
15. S. (30:15) I am trying to make a distinction between bestowal and pride? At the point of rejection to the meal, does the guest have an intention to give contentment to the Creator or simply hate to be a receiver. Because if it is the latter, it could be described as pride but if it is the former, then it is bestowal and I want to make a distinction between the two?
R. It's the desire to become similar to the Host.
S. So we have the desire to become similar to the host and that is bestowal?
R. Yes.
S. If it is the case that the guest simply hates to receive, would that be pride?
R. What guess that hates to receive?
S. So if the host [..]?
R. No, no, no this is all nonsense. The guest wants to receive this is his nature. You can't say otherwise and if he wants to overcome his nature it is only by receiving an awakening from the host and then he makes the restriction, stops himself from receiving and performs an act in order to bestow. This we still need to learn how he does it but the guest wants to receive, he cannot change his nature.
16. S. (32:25) I do not see anything good in this perception of reality except for the spiritual development of Bnei Baruch and I don't want to accept that. Will my refusal help me attain a vessel of bestowal that will help me be part of Bnei Baruch?
R. Correct, you can do it this way or that way, what's important for you is to keep studying and if you love or hate, reject or accept, it doesn't matter, just keep on studying, if you agree or don't agree, it doesn't matter. The study itself will influence you and you will see the truth of how to go forward.
17. S. (33:30) Is when the Creator wants to give something good to me, can I make attempts with the screen even though I am not 100% certain that I will succeed?
R. It's always good to try if this is a question.
18. S. (34:15) I just heard the common meal develops the quality of bestowal. Can a game of basketball or tennis also develop the quality of bestowal?
R. But what's the goal, what’s the purpose?
S. The goal is probably connection.
R. The goal of connection?
S. The goal is connection, yes.
R. Did you ask soccer players or not? Sorry I didn’t understand.
S. If with our ten, we go out to do some sports, can this also develop bestowal?
R. Yes, it can make you on the corporeal level closer to each other, yes.
19. S. (35:19) With all the actions that we are trying to do and learn is our perception, our thoughts, what should change in us?
R. We need to feel the friends, that they are very close to us.
S. Does our thinking help us here, how do we work together within our mind and our emotion?
R. We come as close as we can. I can't advise anything else.
20. S. (36:10) I'm confused, the restriction is not to receive the light and this is the reflected light?
R. No, the restriction is not to receive a light to restrict the light that comes into the desire of the created being and then when he restricts himself and doesn't want to receive, by this he moves away from the Host from the Creator. And then he decides what he achieves by this. If his desire in moving away does it calm himself or does he still want to do what the Host wants, then he becomes, he moves closer again to the host and starts receiving from Him as much as he can while thinking that what he is receiving is only in order to bestow upon the Host.
S. So the beginning is not to receive anything and then this distances me from the Creator?
R. Correct, correct.
S. And then I start coming closer but with fear and I only get a little bit but only in order to give him contentment, to the Creator, to the Host and not for my own pleasure?
R. Correct.
21. S. (38:16) Can we say that the force of rejection is something that we get from the reflected light?
R. Yes.
S. And this is how we start building the vessel from the force of rejection?
R. Yes.
22. S. (38:44) The request of the Host and the request for the Host can come from the ego or from shame?
R. We use our ego, we have to overcome it and act against it and on top of it we build our relation to the Host.
23. S. (39:12) If both bestow upon each other, the guest and the Host, even though the guest is receiving, does he bestow through the screen and how can we reach such a state?
R. We have to try to bestow upon the Host through the screen, our screen, where if I make a screen, so I don't receive for myself but only for the sake of the Host. After that I measure, I weigh, how much I can receive it for the sake of the Host and not for myself and my reception will then be equal to bestowal. And this is what I pass on to the host and the Host feels what I am doing for Him, this is called receiving in order to bestow. And this is how we are in some sort of equivalence with the Host in the wisdom of Kabbalah, it is called equivalence of form with one another.
24. S. (40:40) If we are the will to receive and the Creator is the light and He gives us the intention, so the question: is the screen also made by the Creator?
R. Of course, all the things that exist the Creator arranges them, sets them up but He arranges them according to our response, our reaction to what He is giving to us.
25. S. (41:24) What happens with the screen when it is in a state of bestowal?
R. A screen in a state of bestowal is ready to bestow. What can it do in order to give back to the Creator? It can only receive from Him because this is what the Creator wants. Therefore, to bestow upon the Creator is measured by the ability, the measure of the ability of the created being to receive. So it turns out that the Creator gives and the created being receives but the intention of the created being in receiving is only for the sake of the Creator. So it turns out that his reception is tantamount, equivalent to bestowal. And in this way they come to, they become identical or to what is called adhesion.
26. S. (42:50) In the work of connection between us when we try to connect sometimes there are some criticisms that arise or something that rejects the connection. Is that basically the meal that the Creator is giving us?
R. Yes, you could put it this way.
S. However, this meal doesn't always seem to be tasty, it doesn't attract us?
R. Change your attitude and you will see how much. I was once, well many times actually, when I was at Rabash’s home, we were studying and usually I would go into his kitchen. I would make coffee and then we would sit and drink and study. One time he went and he made coffee and he brought himself and me a cup of coffee. So, I smell the coffee filled with detergent, cleaning material so what do I do? I drank it. It was some acid, it was detergent but that's what you do when you want to please the host, you accept it, drink it and enjoy, enjoy what? Not the material that was in the cup but from the relation of the Host who wanted to give to you, to delight you. So likewise we have to distinguish between the act which is bitter and sour and the intention of the host which is loving and he wants to give.
27. S. (45:27) I wanted to be precise here. Reception in order to bestow, what is described here happens when a person incorporates the whole world within him?
R. What does it mean, the whole world?
S. It means that he is connected already. There is him and the Creator and the whole world and the ten are already part of you.
R. Let's say it is, it will make it easier, they are degrees.
28. S. (46:20) The pleas, so that we can feel the Creator’s plea, for that do we need appetite?
R. It depends for what?
S. If I don’t feel the Creator’s plea, does it mean I don't have enough appetite?
R. Yes.
29. S. (46:49) What happens to the desires that the Creator gives us when we believe that this desire has an intention to bestow and it pushes us to advance but later on we suddenly freeze with fear and we are not sure if it was correct or not: did we bestow?
R. Whether it's correct or incorrect we will understand later. Also, how to determine if it is correct or incorrect, by what do we advance, perhaps we are actually advancing through labor. We will see it in the future.
30. S. (47:50) When we relate to the guest as the whole ten, how does the pressure of the Host look when we look at the whole ten? What is the pressure?
R. The Host loves the ten and he directs it in all kinds of directions like a complete vessel. And the ten tries to accept it with love and to understand it nicely, correctly.
31. S. (48:35) As we can see in your example with Rabash, that you really wanted him to see that you enjoyed the coffee that he brought, so you didn't say that the detergent was in it but also, we have examples in the will to receive, that sometimes the will to receive doesn't want to be the receiver, it doesn't want to be lowly. It has nothing to do with giving joy or giving contentment to the other but just by being a receiver the person doesn't want to feel low and there is pride here. How can we distinguish giving contentment to others and rejecting because of giving contentment to the other or rejecting because of pride because I don't want to be lower than him? I don't want to be a receiver and for him to be the giver. How can we distinguish this whole state?
R. For this there needs to be a group. If I want to give my relation to the group then I connect to them and I pass it on to them and then as it is written, “from the love of people, to the love of the Creator.” But if I want to work directly with the Creator, then it is certain that there is still an intention to receive here and I am not organizing my relation, my attitude correctly.
S. We have states that, let's say a friend is going through a descent internally and sometimes friends are ashamed of asking from the friends. Sometimes we are ashamed of saying that friends I need your prayers. I need your thoughts. I have an internal condition: How can we overcome this shame and open our hearts completely to friends that we need them and that we need their thoughts and prayers in the ten?
R. We need to before the lesson hug each other and come to feel the society, to a connection in the society and then when we do such preparations it is certain that we will begin to feel ourselves as being, “As one man, with one heart” and within that heart we are receiving the revelation of the Upper One, the Creator and then in this way we are certain not to make mistakes and the Creator will be with us. This is what we need to try to feel.
32. S. (51:58) I have a question about the hardness of the screen. By what does the importance of the screen grow?
R. By connection with the friends. That's the only thing, out of this, from this, you demand from the Creator the forces of bestowal and then He shines more and then you will have more hardness so that you can resist the Upper Light and receive more of it in order to bestow.
33. S. (53:08) It is written that the extent that the nature of man is to get to know and to like the quality of bestowal and what is loathsome in his eyes is the quality of reception from his friend. So a friend is asking if we say that man’s nature is only to receive for himself, how to understand these words of Baal HaSulam, why is the will to receive a will to receive?
R. Because this is what we like to see in others that everyone is giving and how we do it ourselves? That is already a question, it depends on a person's ability to overcome.
34. S. (54:03) We are now going down to eat the Hummus meal which is a tasty meal and there is a desire to eat, this is not some acid or bleach. Can we also perform this action of the restriction and the screen and the reflected light?
R. Everything depends on the person, everything depends on the person.
S. The action that we now learn is in respect to the Creator but I don't feel the Creator right now, so with respect to whom am I doing this action?
R. Towards the friends.
S. So how do I do that?
R. You like to sit with them and together with them you raise a glass and eat this hummus meal.
S. This means that prior to that I stop my pleasure for what I want to eat and think about the friends? I make a L’Chaim with them?
R. You think about the friends, the greatness of the friends and how you have a beautiful opportunity to sit together with them to connect through the food.
35. S. (55:20) Maybe the world Kli can understand this. So the question is: how does a Kabbalist feel himself in the meal and how can we hold ourselves with respect to what Rav said? How can we hold ourselves above the corporeal food in order to really feel what we call the spiritual food?
R. I didn't give you the example with Rabash’s cup of coffee so that you would feel the meal this way. Our meal should be tasty in of itself and Bon Appetit for you but the fact that we are sitting together and enjoying together from this simple hummus and the bread, such simple things, this gives each of us an opportunity to enjoy sitting together, being incorporated together and it's actually the meal that is very, very meaningful for the spiritual advancement. Think a lot as you are receiving this food and you will see how it influences. L’Chaim, cheers.
https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/lzMhWNtl