Morning Lesson October 9, 2022, Transcription 

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio 

Part 1:

Sukkot - Selected Excerpts from the sources. #10

https://docs.google.com/document/d/10o1zGE1mgd6W8aMMjHJ8Ea70RlxQRIcM_BLK4PnY0Bs/edit

1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, the Sukkah is a structure which has four walls and a thatch, even three walls are sufficient and a thatch because if we have the aspects of the vessel 1, 2 and 3 then phase four is actually built from them. The main thing is that there are three walls and the thatch. So that's how we should see it, let's see what Rabash tells us.

 Reading Item number 10 “The Sukkah.. (01:11) 

2. R. (01:25) Again we're not forgetting that Sukkah means the structure of the spiritual vessel. The spiritual vessel is called the soul which we build from our common desires in the group, in our group, and in the correct vessel, in the correct connection we discover the inner light which is the Creator.

Item 10 “The Sukkah is made from four walls...” (01:56)

3. R. (02:20)  This is basically ready for him meaning the ground is always beneath.

Reading Continues 

4. R. (02:35)  Which should be four walls and a thatch.

Reading continues

5. R. (02:48)  That from the waste of barn and winery what's left after we make bread and wine, which are the foods of man so what's left of this waste from that we make the Sukkah.

Reading continues

6. R. (04:25) That he builds everything on the ground.

 Reading Continues

7. R. (04:45)  Meaning we mostly need to be concerned about the walls and the thatch. That's what he writes.

8. S. (05:10) I'm sitting in making the effort to feel what are those same four walls, and how they separate me from love for others, love for the Creator. I know that there are four states that accumulate but what are these four walls that separate between us?

R. Hochma, Bina, ZA, Malchut. Meaning qualities, desires that if we advance we'll certainly begin to understand what they are, and at the moment we don’t, and in your intellect I cannot explain to you what it is because there is no example to show you that this is like Hochma and this is like Bina, this is like ZA, I can’t explain that to you. There are no examples in our world. These are forms of bestowal. Try maybe also during the lesson to go back to that.

9. S. (06:51) We talked about yesterday about the four walls that they are the big Behinot but now he's really opening up these place of the Sefirot and it's not clear why he takes this position of the Sefirot and also Yesod is missing. Could you open this up a bit why the specific walls are called HGT and why it's built like that and why Yesod is missing?

R. The division is built from the connection between man's phases and how much he wants to connect them and aim them towards the Creator. Then he begins to see how these phases of his align, how they have to be aligned in order to aim towards the Creator. If he tries to do that then he begins to see what are the different forms here. Hochma, Bina, Daat, Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod Yesod. He begins to see how these Behinot connect in him in order to build such a structure where from these qualities he begins to see what lies within them. That we don't attain the light, the upper light, we don't attain the Creator, even though we call it Boreh, come and see. Rather we attain our impression, the impressions in our desires, how they're impressed by what fills them, and when our qualities connect between them, we are impressed by their connection, by their impression and from that we seemingly feel what lies within them and that's the revelation of the Creator.

S. When these qualities connect  in our ten is that when the Sefira actually light up?

R. Yes, if they connect then the Sefira shines, each and every Sefira.

10. S. (09:59) In our gathering of the ten we are simply people who are gathered in order to incorporate in this material. From where do we start building the Sukkah?

R. We want to bring our desires closer to each other so that between us there’s a connection, and from trying to connect between us we begin to see that it's not just our egoistic desires rather these are desires that can be in bestowal, in connection, in love. That some upper force can influence them and connect them in ways and manners that we didn't know before. Then we begin to see what is the connection between our connection and the qualities that we can reveal between us. That according to equivalence of form we can attain in them, feel the force that is above us, the Creator.

S. These walls that we learned about in the thatch.

R. These are our different desires that exist in various forms of connection between them.

S. What's the first form of these desires? Meaning what do we take first and connect? How in this are we building the thatch?

R. If we make the walls then on top of them we make the thatch, the roof. You're an architect, you understand how this works. So that's how we build it.

S. The walls and the connection between us what is this work?

R. In our qualities of each and every one who's willing to be a pillar to be a foundation for the whole structure of Sukkah of our connection.

S. [missing]

R. To begin with we build it all together in our intention. We build a building which is common so that no movement of what we do is for anyone's personal benefit but it's for all of us as one.

S. What does it mean that I want to be as a pillar?

R. That I want to be a foundation in whatever I can for this whole structure and hold and promise this whole structure that it will stand and serve everyone.

11. S. (14:05) It turns out that we have two discernments that we need to be in. First to give pleasure to the Creator, to request that he will give pleasure to the created beings and to receive from the Creator in order to give Him pleasure. Are these the foundations?

R. It doesn't matter what you think along the way it will change many more times. What jumps in your head right now you think it's a question and that's how it should be. It's hard for me to answer it because it's not exactly these questions. It doesn't look like if you'll get an answer now then you’ll understand what is the path. The direction will keep changing, you still haven't found the right approach.

S. They talk about enlarging the Creator, His importance and you say that it's comprised of the first floor and second floor. First to give pleasure to the created beings and then to receive from Him and give pleasure to Him and then after this we reveal the greatness of the Creator?

R. No, no, no, that's incorrect. That's not exactly the right approach, no. If you heard that once and that’s what you imagine to yourself put it aside for now. If you had some small mistake there now you want to build on top of that mistake more and more buildings. It's not worthwhile.

12. S. (16:16) Ultimately why does everything depend on Hod?

R. Because that's what you want to raise and elevate. It's your goal to bring contentment to the Creator.

 Reading 10 again (17:00)

13. R. (18:54) Which is expressed in the Sukkah. Sukkah is a temporary residence. We will understand one thing from the other. There are many more quotes, we still have time for Sukkot there are many lessons to go, we will understand what's the essence of Sukkot and the Sukkah. Sukkah is a temporary residence.

 Reading 11 (19:23)

14. R. (20:48) Meaning a person who wants to advance towards the Creator and sees that in his progress he already comes to something, to some degree to some level, and he as if has nothing more to add so we say go out of your place to a temporary residence. Meaning you have to feel that you're on the path, that you're undergoing changes and that you are as the aspect of a guest, and that each and every change you assume will fulfill you, give you joy, give you a sense of connection and closeness to the Creator. You will then be able to praise the Creator, what is called the [missing translation] and to recognize more and more the essence of the degrees you are climbing. So a person once in a while should think, just like for us the Sukkot is a week within a year; so it says go out of your regular residence and go into a temporary residence. You have to build this temporary residence which is called a Sukkah. You have to build it on your own and live in it for a week. So what is he writing? Sukkot is temporary residence. Meaning one who has already been rewarded permanent residence meaning he has nothing to add in his spiritual work, then he has a sign, a commandment from above. The advice is to leave for temporary residence as when he was on his way to the house of God when he had no certain place or he didn't yet discover his equivalence of form with the Creator, there was no such thing. So before he arrived at the permanent residence meaning getting contact with the Creator. At that time he constantly needed to reach the Creator's palace where he's already with the Creator in some connection, and in the temporary residence he had guests, meaning all kinds of revelations, proximities to the Creator that come and go, come and go. When his work was in the form of a passing visitor like let's say someone who comes into the Sukkah and out of the Sukkah, just like the Sukkah is a temporary thing as he discovers connection with the Creator in the Sukkah it is also temporary. Now he can extend from the past work, when he was always thankful and praising the Creator for the Creator always bringing him closer. When he was on the path and he always had doubts, fear, lack of confidence about his progress, is he advancing, yes, no; and when he thought the Creator does support him, when he discovered it then he did have joy and that gladness he had he can now extend it on Sukkot. So even though he has a permanent residence, a solid house of his own, permanent, but leaving it now and entering a Sukkah he feels in the Sukkah that he is more dependent on the Creator and he's in this temporary state. Therefore they said leave the permanent residence and dwell in temporary residence. You'll feel how it's like to advance towards the Creator and be dependent on the Creator from one moment to the next. Then you will see more and more qualities in you for how to advance towards the Creator.

15. S. (26:00) What you said now that same fear of disconnecting from the Creator, to reach a decision, of determining a connection with the Creator, the price of this is felt like it's unrealistic.

R. It doesn't matter we have to continue and continue more and more. If you read the book of Torah and if not I recommend for you to read it, when did they sit in the Sukkot? It is said that in Sukkot the Creator placed the people in the desert meaning they didn't have their own house. Then the Creator told them build this kind of residence these temporary residences of the Sukkah. That's what they did. So we similarly need to understand that we are now building temporary residences. It's temporary, it's not real, but in order to feel how we're going to have to build the building of the soul in the future. Now we still don't have the soul, we still don't have this kind of connection where we can feel the Creator which indicates that we’ve built a house where the Creator is revealed. Therefore we have to continue and search for how to build this building. Certainly we build it from our hearts, and when we try to connect the hearts to a single heart then even on the first degree we begin to feel in it the Creator on the level of Nefesh, the light of Nefesh.

16. S. (28:43) It turns out that each holiday of Sukkot symbolizes one of the states that we could go through?

R. All of our holidays, all of these holidays are holidays of Kabbalists. Because there's no such Nation called Israel, some nation that has its own religion and customs and so on. It all stems from qualities of the spiritual world.

S. We are now as if under a microscope scrutinizing are states that we will be able to understand them in the future. But I'd like to understand, what is this permanent residence and how do we exit it because the temporary residence, it's hard to determine what that is?

R. You imagine yourself now that you have to reach a new connection with the friends. This means that you come out of your permanent residence and you want to enter the temporary residence; that you want to build this small house but new, small but new, and you're looking for how will I hug the friends, embrace the friends in such a way that will be a new form of connection, more advanced, more holding us together. This is called coming out of the permanent residence, the old connections, and discernments that we had and try to enter new connections.

17. S. (30:54) Can you tell us what is the meaning of this that Malchut has nothing of her own?

R. Malchut has nothing of her own. We have the discernments of Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, these are six discernments and Malchut does not have what all these discernments have together which accumulates in the Yesod. You have Hesed, Gevura Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, five phases. Yesod collects them all together and conveys it to Malchut. Malchut receives from Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, which entered the Yesod and from the Yesod they fill the Malchut, that's how it works.

18. S. (32:39)  When you reach this Malchut, do you feel this wall, do you feel yourself half good half bad? How do we advance from this sensation of the wall?

R. I don't really understand what you're saying.

19. S. (33:28) In what means and materials do we build these walls? Is it from love of friends?

R. From the relationship between the friends. The walls of the Sukkah are built from the relationship between the friends. The more we want to be connected to each other that is how we build the walls of the Sukkah.

20. S. (34:38) I have nothing and no reason to be in a permanent residence? I always have to exit a temporary one?

R. In a permanent residence you can’t have changes, there are changes but it's not really a new structure let's say, a renewed structure.

S. So why do we have a permanent residence in spirituality? What is it?

R. That’s what you rely on. There are also many laws for how to sit in the permanent residence and in the temporary residence and when you have no residence, when you go and leave the temporary residence and go back to the permanent one; if there's too much rain for instance, it's not that simple. In spirituality there are many different kinds of relationships between permanent and temporary because you cannot advance without temporary, but you also cannot advance without having permanence.

S. You explained that the temporary residence is to find a new connection with a friends, so what is the permanent residence?

R. That without relying on what you have in the previous degree you can’t reach the next degree.

S. So you can say that the previous degree is called the permanent residence and the temporary residence is the new stage I enter?

R. Yes, yes, very nice. So I see that this time we can understand more about Sukkot.

21. S. (36:18) So the true joy is that I am in a temporary residence, and I find a constant need for a connection with the Creator through the friends?

R. Yes that you create the guests each and every day by a new connection with the friends. You invite the guests meaning a new guest comes to our Sukkah, the new connection appears between you.

22. S. (36:54) We speak a lot about making new connections in the ten with the friends, adding spiritually but how can we make new connections? I know my friends in my ten already for twelve or thirteen years, how do I make new spiritual connections in the ten?

R. You have to discover through your effort, new relationship with the friends. To see in them good things, bad things. On the bad things you want to transcend them as though you don't see them or you can even transform them to good things as it all depends on you. You determine, you judge them for better or for worse. That's how you advance then, towards them, and you keep building a new reality each time.

23. S. (38:18) Is there a connection to the morning lesson that each day we're building a new degree?

R. Yes, yes in our lessons too every day we try to build connections between us. Then it's like we build a new Sukkah every day, yes.

24. S. (39:06) Is the temporary residence physical and spiritual?

R. We certainly need to build it spiritually, without it we do not advance from one degree to the next. However, corporeally we can also build it. We build for whoever wants, on our roof on the roof of our building there's a Sukkah. Usually we build it for how many? I'm told for 1,400 people. Meaning we were able to host 1,400 people in this Sukkah. We have some photos from there, filming's you can watch that. A lot of people build these Sukkot.

25. S. (40:16) Are these Sukkot squares or can they be any shape?

R. You need to open up the Talmud, not TES, the Babylonian Talmud and learn from there how you build a Sukkah. Like a study book for engineers, scientists and it's written there clearly how we build and in what manner. What could be used as the wall of the Sukkah, what could be the height of the sukkah and not more, can the sukkah be built on a height? Let's say you have a tall building. Can you build a Sukkah on the roof? All sorts of such things. There are many questions around this and it's all written there.

26. S. (41:20) Then why does the Sukkah last for 7 days, not two or three or more?

R. That's according to the lights that enter from the Keter to Malchut. Thus it is written that sit in a Sukkah, 7 days until you receive all the light from above into your Kli.

27. S. (41:43) What's the meaning of joy on the path in the last paragraph we read and what do you do if you have no joy?

R. What does he mean there’s no joy? That you reveal your connection with the Creator. Then there is no greater joy that the light is revealed within the Kli and gives it life.

28. S. (42:09) How do we use correctly the waste in the work?

R. That all our matters in the spiritual work that appear to us as waste we need to raise them above our head and build the thatch, the roof specifically from this. That when I raise the importance of the spiritual waste to be more than everything.

29. S. (42:42) In our state too there is work of going to the temporary residence? What is that?

R. We need to feel that we are preparing ourselves to exit our permanent residence that we are in. That we are in our connections and all these things that we're used to we need to exit them to a temporary one. Meaning to renew all the connections between us and with the Creator, like this day by day.

30. S. (43:25) Is the temporary residence the faith above reason?

R. Yes you could say such.

31. S. (43:44) The feeling that we go on the path towards the Creator is only when we build new Connections in the ten?

R. Yes.

S. If we feel that we’ve built it and we're afraid to ruin something then it's a permanent residence?

R. That's not good. It's written, it should be as new in your eyes. That each day you need to see the relation between the friends anew and the relation between the friends and the Creator as new.

32. S. (44:34) We see the gap between all of you and we don't know how to turn all this hate into the thatch so it will be as a springboard?

R. That's right.

33. R. (45:15) The residence is the ten that we are building whether it is permanent or temporary. If it's not changing then the friends are not working on the renewal of the connection between them, then that’s a permanent residence and that's not good. We need to exit to a temporary residence to renew the connections and to rise to a higher degree between us and between us to the Creator.

S. At what stage the residence becomes permanent?

R. That we don't wish to renew it. We build it we finished it and that's it. So there's an obligation at least once a year, a year is called that we complete this revolution, this year. That we need once every go around to renew our connections, to receive a new Kli and new soul.

S. We have to feel in the ten the permanent state and come out of it to a residence, to a temporary residence?

R. Yes, yes, yes, that’s how it is.

S. So in what stage do you go out to a temporary residence?

R. Whenever you already see that you must, to renew the connections with the friends and from the friends to the Creator.

S. What does it mean to renew the connection with the friends?

R. To make them on a higher level.

34. S. (46:57) I wanted to ask, we talked about it today and yesterday that Sukkot is the Kli of your soul. So why do you need to replace your soul?

R. To raise it to a higher degree.

S. But what's the difference?

R. The difference, its height, its might. As it's written, return the children of Israel the way to your Creator.

S. So why is it something temporary?

R. Because it's changing all the time. I want to be in ascent all the time. I'm not satisfied with any state until we reach the end of correction.

S. But it turns out that you have your regular vessel of the soul that you work with and then in a very short time you go to a higher Kli and then you do what? Once again you could come back?

R. No, no, no you're not returning. I want to remain there. I want that the temporary residence will become my permanent residence. That all the internality of the temporary residence I take with me, that when I return to the permanent residence I take it with me. I already have a new soul.

S. What's the power of this Kli? What is the power of the Kli?

R. The extent of the connection between the friends.

S. That's what you take from one state to another state?

R. Yes what else do I have? If I don't have connection I don't have a Kli at all. I don't have a permanent or a temporary residence.

S. So why is it temporary?

R. Because I can be in change all the time, in progress.

S. So in renewing the connection between us, this means we've built the temporary residence again?

R. Yes, and it's always a temporary residence, it should be as new in your eyes.

35. S. (49:27) What's the difference between residence and palace or temple?

R. It's about the same thing. You're thinking in the right direction.

 Reading 12 “The commandant to go out of…” twice (49:51)

35. R. (53:09) Meaning that in joy he exits from the permanent residence and enters the temporary residence. He feels in this that he's progressing, that he's rising from degree to degree, from state to state, coming closer spiritually to the Creator. Thus he accepts this commandment in joy. That you sit in the Sukkah 7 days, that you exit your permanent residence, and you sit in a temporary one, and more and more such rules that we need to fulfill, that's it. Meaning the matter of coming closer to the Creator that truly if each and every person would know what it is he would be happy to live in a temporary residence all the time. That each day you will be as new, and you advance to the Creator from day-to-day.

36. S. (54:18) In the transition from degree to degree, from the permanent to the temporary residence, the changes are small changes, like habits of something or that temporary residence is something fundamentally different?

R. You accept the Creator’s commandment in joy, you need to build the sukkah yourself, to build it from waste, from all sorts of branches and sticks, things that are broken from this you are building the sukkah, yes? You are enjoying that such a time has come and you're entering the sukkah, you respect the sukkah, you’re even kissing the sukkah, the thatch and that it's a great joy, it's truly a happy holiday because it speaks of the rise of the degrees from time to time in all the seven days of the holiday.

37. S. (55:52) I want to express great gratitude for our ten.

R. Thank you, I feel it and I'm glad that you feel this way.

38. S. (56:27) Can we say that this state of temporary housing is the state of Katnut which a person feels himself in Hassadim?

R. Yes, yes but it's actually suitable to pass from degree to degree because the light of mercy, the light of Hassadim, it doesn't bother to be in all the degrees.

S. Also, there are some states that a person doesn't want to leave Katnut, they don't want to leave that comfort zone inside of Hassadim, so how should a person relate in this case?

R. When you have some then you have some, there's a part of Hochma and then there's a part of Hassidim, in mercy; and the light of Hochma can only expand in light of mercy so this that we feel now is this that we have this opportunity to approach this light of Hochma. 

39. S. (57:54) This stage where we build the Sukkah or sit in it, what is the difference?

R. Build the Sukkah is the commandment, but the main thing is to sit within it, meaning if I reach you, as a guest and you already built the Sukkah, so I sit in your sukkah and I have no problem, I don't need to build one for myself.

S. No translation – Rav interjects

R. Don't invent anything, if there is a Sukkah that I can sit in and be there for 7 days, no problem I enter and I'm in there, but if I don't have, I need to build one. There is a commandment that people who don't have already Sukkot then we need to build for them. Thus it's written, “seven days in a sukkah”, it's not written that you need to build it just that you need to sit in it seven days, why seven? Because that's the time when the lights enter the vessels, it’s not a matter of seven days in our world, rather that Chesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Yesod, Malchut, until all the lights enter from Keter and Hochma enter to all the rest of the vessels underneath them.

40. S. (59:44) He says as the text says, “even if the whole world tells you are righteous, you see yourself as a wicked”, what does it mean?

R. That I need to make an effort to always see in me some additional qualities that I need to correct.

41. S. (01:00:34) Can we understand that coming out of the permanent residence is coming out of my ego, my habits?

R. Yes, of course.

S. To go into some contact with the upper one?

R. Yes, yes.

42. S. (01:01:21) Following the last question, should a person always be, he will be wicked towards the Creator, is that what he aspires to?

R. See yourself as wicked, meaning they should always have an opportunity to advance to the Creator and rise more and more, and don't rely on the whole world that tells you that you are righteous, you need to progress, to advance. Let's say that you may be the highest and most righteous than anyone, then that means you can’t advance anymore? That the whole world is not lying, right, they’re all telling you we all see you as righteous, but you, yourself, see your true state, that if you see it truly you will always see yourself as wicked.

S. It sounds like he aspires to condemn the Creator if he's always looking for what is wrong?

R. Yes, he is looking how much he can do additional something for the benefit of the Creator and he always finds it.

43. S. (01:03:01) What does it mean that “no outcast will be cast out of Him”?

R. That we cannot attain the Creator, ultimately we cannot attain Him.

44. S. (01:03:29) In item 11 it says, “as it was in the time he was going towards the palace of the Creator even though he came to a permanent residence, he had guests, meaning in the time he's work was as a passing guess”, the question is what is “a passing guest” in the spiritual work?

R. There is a guest who is present and which wishes to connect with the Host and to be adhered to the Host, and then there is one who was just passing by, incidental.

45. S. (01:04:22) What does it mean that we have reached permanent residence in the ten?

R. This that we reach the permanent residence in the ten, that in this that you have constant connection.

46. S. (01:04:40) Is building the Sukkah happening only after we have made a permanent contract with the Creator?

R. You need, first of all, to reach a permanent connection between you in the ten and then you will have a drive, a push to raise even higher in your connection, in your constant connection to reach a newer connection and an even newer connection. For this you will need to exit your old connection and rise to new connection, that’s called, “to exit temporary residence and reach permanent residence”. It's like an elevator from the state of the group one to the second state of the group, so you are entering the temporary residence and raising himself to the second floor.

47. S. (01:05:47) Sukkah is the temporary residence, the visitor is also a temporary phenomenon, what do we need to make the temporary residence, permanent, and that the Creator between us will stop being a visitor and will become something permanent?

R. All the time, all the time to yearn for the renewal of the connection between us.

48. S. (01:06:17) Should we try to make exercises of coming out of our permanent tens and being guests in other tens as a spiritual exercise?

R. I don't want to hear about such things, I don't want to hear. You don't know how confusing and dangerous and disconnecting from the path that is. If you cannot find the in connection between you the opportunity to rise, that is a very big problem. But not that in order to rise I need new tens; how can that be? I need within the same ten to renew the connections more and more and more, otherwise it's not called an ascent.

49. S. (01:07:12) The walls are the relationship between the friends but what are the foundation and the roof?

R. The foundation is the ground that we stand upon, and we don't need to change it, and the roof is the thatch, the sechach, it is the screen, the common screen between us and to the Creator.

50. S. (01:07:41) In Sukkot, we're talking about the temporary cover of the reason with faith, is this not our constant role to always make that state?

R. Yes, it should be this way, but Sukkot symbolizes for us the need for it. 

51. S. How can we make sure if we build a spiritual sukkah between us or not?

R. According to the renewal of the Creator in our eyes.

52. S. (01:08:20) Should we each moment come out to a temporary residence?

R. According to the need, if we want to reach a higher state then we need to enter permanent residence to a temporary residence; to renew our state there and to build from the temporary residence a permanent residence. 

Reading Item #13 (01:09:12 - 01:12:25) “The meaning of the mitzvah sit, as in dwell meaning …” twice

53. S. (01:12:36) It is said that the mitzvah of Sukkah is a light mitzvah, what does it mean?

R. You can take all sorts of branches, pieces of the trees, smaller branches, bigger ones, limbs and built a Sukkah from it; you don't need to buy anything expensive and work so hard to make it beautiful. Even that you are on the way somewhere, you can take some branch or part of the tree and build from it some Sukkah. Three walls, that’s all you need.

S. In corporeality it's understood, what about in spirituality?

R. You don't need anything from this world in order to build this spiritual vessel just your inner vessel.

54. S. (01:13:51) What does it mean that it seems like the shade comes from the waste but it's the Creator himself?

R. Because in sum total what appears to us as waste actually points to this that the Creator is concealed behind us.

S. It says here that “it is important that two opposite forms will be depicted to him”. What does it mean?

R. That there is a form that appears before the eyes and a form that doesn't appear before the eyes, reason and above reason, concealment, and revelation.

55. S. (01:14:51) The group of Bnei Baruch and Israel, they keep the tradition, the customs, they built Sukkah, there is a lot of corporeal actions that belong to it, and around-the-world, we the Russian speakers we don't have these traditions or customs. Are we losing something from not keeping the corporeal tradition, maybe we should do something of these customs?

R. We're not talking about any tradition rather we are only making certain signs, signs of spiritual laws, nothing more than that. Only signs, physical, external signs of the inner spiritual laws.

S. Let's say in Russia there are no such things, I guess it's not popular in the United States either?

R. You don't have to do anything if you had to do it, if it were necessary I would have told you to do, you don't need to do anything.

S. In Gmar Tikkun, how can we perceive that, is that permanent buildings?

R. The end of Corrections is when we get to a state where temporary abode becomes a permanent house for us.

56. S. (01:16:56) What does it mean that we feel that the Creator is telling us to leave the permanent house?

R. To come out of the group, shake it through the renewed connection to reach a higher degree of connection. We need to renew the connection between us on a higher level.

57. S. (01:17:38) Why did the Creator give us the ability to sit in the Sukkah if we don't have the yearning for the Creator like King David?

R. Well, why we don't have like King David, I don't ask because I also don't know what exactly happened to King David; it is very high, someone who asks about it simply doesn't understand what he's asking about. We need to ask how can we reach states of righteous, meaning those who can justify the Creator in each and every state we are in.

S. I'm asking about the yearning, why are we working so hard to gather this yearning from the dust. I see that the great ones they had it, I don't know, it's like real like second-degree souls.

R. There is such an egoist, you are, I had no idea that you compare yourself with the great Kabbalists, the great righteous people what they have done, what they did with themselves. How can you say that?

S. I don't have a brain, I'm asking about the yearning, where is the yearning towards the Creator?

R. Where did they get a yearning for the Creator because you were looking for Him all the time and they wanted to renew His qualities in every opportunity they had, and you only have complaints, not requests to the Creator but complaints to the Creator.

S. So yearning from complaints I turn it into request?

R. From requests, yes, to Him.

58. S. (01:19:50) I wanted to scrutinize from me, a few principles in the work: let's say if the word in the sources is to go out, is that the same action as let's say what was told to Abraham, “go from your land”?

R. Yes, yes, leave that states, come out of that state. Everything is with respect to spirituality not corporeality.

S. I just wanted to scrutinize as a principle, is that right to all these principles, let’s say?

R. Not a single word in the Torah speaks of the corporeal world, only about man’s inner world.

S. That's clear, that there could be a difference that here it says, “go out” and in a different place it says “go out”, maybe difference condition or coarseness but the action is similar?

R. Yes.

59. S. (01:21:11) He writes here that “the shade is the Creator, Himself, and the mercy of the Creator is revealed in that shade to such an extent that David is asking to sit with Him through all his days”; so when the light of the Creator comes he feels the mercy of the Creator and what is that different than a person feeling in the shade and feeling mercy?

R. When a man attains the Creator both in the light and the darkness on both sides, this is the Creator's grace. 

S. So you're drawn to revelation, the place His light shines?

R. No, the darkness shall illuminate as the light, it's not correct.

60. S. (01:22:17) How do you, that contradiction that it’s also waste and that it also comes from the Creator?

R. Inside a person, the fact that it seems to the person like waste, it only seems to the person like that.

S. But the moment it comes from the Creator, it's not waste any more, how can it still be waste and also come from the Creator?

R. Because it appears to a person, the waste of barn and winery, if a person accepts these things above his head, it becomes a thatch, the connection between him and the Creator. Without this thatch he cannot connect to the Creator, the thatch is the screen.

S. So it stops becoming waste?

R. It becomes connection, yes; it is not when a person steps on it with his heels as waste, rather he raises it above his head and it becomes the screen between him and the Creator, the connection between them.

S. Then he needs to keep it and remember it was waste?

R. Yes, yes, of course, what do you mean to remember, of course to remember

S. So to hold onto these two states together?

R. Yes, in the corporeal eyes it's one way and in the spiritual eyes, it’s the opposite.

S. If in the corporeal eyes it stops being waste?

R. Then he is not holding onto this matter.

S. So that’s the concealment that he says?

R. Yes, it's the confusion between permanent and temporary housing.

61. S. (01:25:16) How is it possible that the Sukkah made of waste will be home for the Creator, shouldn’t that home be a temple, good, strong?

R. Yes, yes, also the temple is built of waste, waste, yes of waste, all kind of things, rubbish that the person doesn't want, he looks down at, and only in faith above reason can he build a house for the Creator, that is how it is, it's opposite to our logic. That's why it's customary with Jews not to build something luxurious, it's only in the last two hundred years they started to build, But in truth everything was, it looked like the hut and that was the place of prayer or assembly. But Knesset, Synagogue, House of Assembly is a place for us, for people to gather, if you have like a village, one of the houses where people assemble, this is called the House of Connection, House of Assembly, the Synagogue. There is nothing in all of our laws, there is nothing special, nothing exalted about it. A few times I visited America, I went to some importance houses and the hosts would show me, “look at this golden Menorah I bought, how many pounds, look how many other things that I got, things that belong to Judaism, this is from gold, this is from silver”. They wanted to show me that they respect gold and silver, the Torah does not demand it that's all, you don't need it, you don’t need it at all. Only the simplest things: take pieces of wood you find on the floor, in the field somewhere, and you can use them to build Sukkah, a hut where the Creator can dwell.

62. S. (01:27:28) What is the matter of “sitting”?

R. There is standing, there sitting: standing, and sitting and lying down, hose are three states a person can be in, Yeshiva, sitting is Katnut, smallness.

S. Another question about going from the permanent house to the not permanent house; so they say it is the passage of a state?

R. Not more than seven days.

S. So the previous state of the permanent house to the non-permanent house, to the temporary one, how do you make sure it does not become permanent?

R. After 7 days I said you, you have to leave it.

S. What is seven days, it's not 24 hours, what is a day?

R. No for us, it's seven days.

S. So how to make sure I'm not stuck in this new degree and always to keep going?

R. If you're in the degree then you know how long you've been there and what is your obligation to come out.

S. It's not clear.

R. Enter the degree and you will see that it's very clear.

63. S. (01:28:57) Continue in that question: every degree ends by going to the temporary home?

R. No, not every degree rather we will enter spirituality and we will see, not every degree.

64. S. (01:29:22)  Usually a holiday is an event, a special event against some special spiritual root that takes place every rarely, here we're talking about a daily event, so what is so unique about it if it speaks to something daily?

R. Passover is seven days, we have two days, holidays are two days.

S. The question is that transition from a permanent to a temporary house, it has to happen daily meaning we're constantly going through this holiday of Sukkot, and the rest of the holidays are after long periods they come towards the spiritual root, let’s say Passover, the Exodus. And here what's unique about this holiday if it's something that takes place on the daily level? It's not like an event like we usually know?

R. I don't understand you, does anyone else understand him? Let’s say as if starting tomorrow we have the holiday, the festivities of Sukkot so tonight we have to prepare ourselves to move into this temporary housing, so what’s the problem?

S. This is something we actually do every day; every morning lesson is our attempt to reconnect?

R. Yes, but these signs you get once per year, it's written “it should be as new in your eyes”, but we have the beginning of every month and the beginning of every year, you have  once in a while a special occasion.

65. S. (01:31:29) First of all I have I need to just say “thank you”, I don't remember, I'm very inspired also I feel it in the group, a great inspiration by understanding all these concepts of Sukkot. I wanted to ask, continuing the friend, about turning the waste into the screen. We feel sometimes that the connection between us isn’t important, or we catch ourselves indifferent towards the connection, we can’t define it as waste. How from that state that the connection is not important, connection with the Creator isn’t important, how do you turn it from that state do you turn it into the screen?

R. Yes, you see that, sometimes it happens like that, that it flips, it inverts, everything happens from above. We simply need to continue and trust the Creator to take us from state to state in the right way, But more than that I have no more to add, I don't know what to else to say, as Baal HaSulam writes, “it's beyond me”, when he writes about why he was merited with this high soul, he says “it's beyond him”. The Creator does it when He needs it, we are part of the big system and what is needed for the entire system accordingly things happen to us. We simply need to add and not to run away and escape and be ready for any kind of change.

66. S. (01:33:15) Regarding the question about the screen: so there is connection in the ten, we feel that it’s permanent and then a new desire is revealed between us, and we actually go into temporary home which is like fragments of our connection. What are we lifting exactly above our head, is it leftovers of the connections we had, is it something new that is born, what is this thing that we use as a thatch above us?

R. We raise a prayer from the new Reshimot that appeared to us from previous states, from past states, whatever comes out from the past states, like sparks, I forgot the word. These sparks we raise them up and from that we receive lights, records, new records for which the next Partzufim or new Partzufim are built.

S. How is that connected to the previous degree or maybe it isn’t?

R. It's a result of the previous degree, how can something come out of zero, there is no such thing; even zero is something compared to what was.

67. S. (01:34:56) Can we say that this waste is shame?

R. No, no, no, the waste it's not shame, no, those are things that we didn't think that you could build anything from them. It is excess, it is waste, it is rubbish, it's something I cannot make food out of it, I cannot make anything out of it, I cannot eat it or drink it. It is not good for anything, and suddenly I discover that specifically that which was waste and the lower level becomes the food, nourishment, the important thing for the higher degree, that’s how it is in our life. If we wish to advance suddenly those things we used to look down at, suddenly we see how important these things can be and if we raise them between us, we will be able to build out of it new relationships, new connections, a new degree.

 

S. I wanted to ask about the transition between waste to ….. And can we say that when we see that waste is not actually waste and there’s a thin line between them, as shade, to somehow transform it, and though that shade we develop a rejection towards reception, am I correct?

R. Yes, waste becomes the shade, the screen, something we did not think it was inconceivable to use it for something suddenly becomes the screen to connect me with the Creator, specifically thanks to this waste that works now is a shield, as a cover, as a screen, I connect to the upper force, I become connected to Him.

S. Is it results of Reshimot, the revelation of new records?

R. Yes.

68. S. (01:37:31) No doubt that Sukkot is a special activity because we enter a moment when we have those guests. How can we unite the concept of the different lights that enter the Sukkah and the bestowal between the friends in the ten?

R. Each and every day we are, we have new connection between us, we renew the Sukkah, so each and every day the connection between these, let's say seven qualities is new. Therefore we celebrated with the Ushpizim, the guests, this innovation comes in the form of a new light that we receive each day anew, Chesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, Malchut, that is what we are celebrating, we will talk about it.

69. S. (01:39:26) What does it mean that “we are rewarded so it will be like a permanent home for eternity”?

R. If he accepts what he had as temporary, it comes to him permanent, each day we add the temporary connection that we attain to our permanent housing until our permanent housing grows and grows and becomes more refined during the Sukkot. 

S. So eventually the permanent home is when we have the complete force of faith?

R. Yes.

70. S. (01:40:20) I still can't understand what is the waste, that from it we build the screen in the ten?

R. The waste is what you look down at, you disregarded because it goes against your reason, against to have it against your intellectual understanding, your rational understanding and that's why you think about it, it's rubbish. But if you follow the Sages you can build out of what they do and not out of what your brain tells you, then you come out to build the Sukkah, the hut, specifically from the waste. Then you discover inside the Sukkah all those guests, where each and every day you have a new revelation, it’s Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Aaron, Moses, Joseph, David, that is how it appears to you.

S. In what am I disregarding the work? Let's say the morning lesson, it is my top priority then there is the ten Zoom during the day. I guess it's not as important, it is not an equal set of importance to the morning lessons so you can miss out on the meeting. Is that what you mean that I do regard these situations?

R. I can’t say, first of all I don't think that's what is more important and what is less important although the way you think, many people think this way. We need to consider everything relative to our connection, how much our connection grows stronger between us in the ten: does it grow stronger from the morning lesson or from the connection of friends? Then accordingly you should weigh it, evaluate what is more important and what is less important. Because after all we need connection, such connection that the Creator can be revealed in it.

S. That's clear but how to build something gradual, what I disregard not in the work?

R. That is according to your decision.

71. S. (01:43:29) The waste, is what the will to receive disregards or what the will to bestow disregards. It's like two different kinds of waste?

R. Correct.

72. S. (01:43:53) You said the waste is excess that we that we couldn't use, so what is “excess from previous connections”?

R. From something I disregarded, I look down at the friends and now you see that it is wrong, you need to renew it, correct it, and use it.

S. Why is the correction does not end the moment we were able to raise it, but we need seven more days to sit?

R. Because you go through seven kinds of connection between us and with the Creator: Hesed Gevura, Tifferet, Netzah, Hod, Yesod.

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio 

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. The Gatehouse of Intentions (Chapter 1. #4)

https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/Nw0ew8p4

Reading (00:22) #4 “Once we have clarified that all the emanated beings are one phase that incorporates all four elements…” Twice

1. R. (02:00) Meaning, we're going to go over in general and then we will go into all of the details. 

Reading (02:06) #5 “Everything that was created in all the worlds is only four phases…” 

2. R. (02:59) Again he divides it into the root and HaVaYaH. Soul, body, garment, and hall.

3. R. (03:23) we should finish what we started there because this is something new already. Where are we?

S. We are in item 5

Reading (04:03) “We should know that the ten Sefirot KHB HGT NHYM are but five phases,...”

4. S. (06:21) About this book it said that Baal HaSulam wrote it as an introduction to a prayer. So I imagine a person holding in his hand a prayer book and reading this preface. What kind of conclusions should he make of it? 

R. Baal HaSulam was in England, and they saw that he is wise and he knew about the prayers and intentions. So some person approached him, a rich person and told him that he wanted Baal HaSulam to write something and he's willing to pay for it, for some compilation about prayers. So what did that person know? He wanted a new prayer book from the great Kabbalist that is before him. He told Baal HaSulam I'll pay you money you write a prayer book. Baal HaSulam said okay but before I write the prayer book I need to write an introduction to it. That's what I heard from Rabash. And the rich guy said okay write an introduction to the prayer book room for now and then write the prayer book. And Baal HaSulam wrote it, it took him a few months I don't know exactly how long. He wrote this book; it is not a book it’s like an article. And that’s how it was accepted and published as the book The Gate House of Intentions, an introduction to the Kabbalist prayer book, and Baal HaSulam never intended to keep writing the prayer book for Kabbalists because we have the prayer books, we have a few examples that nobody can use. Even somebody who thinks that he can it’s a big mistake, that's it. That's how it happens. So from this we have The Gate House of Intentions because the prayer book is intentions.

S. if we are talking about a prayer this should prepare us for a prayer. So how it should we learn this material if this will prepare us for a prayer, or this will become a prayer?

R. The book it doesn't matter what it's called, it has to bring you a certain prayer to the Creator. When you read here that we need to organize our qualities called Sefirot, now it’s not Sefirot because the light isn’t shining on them, but soon it will be. So you want in your qualities in your connection with the others that you’ll concede towards them, and they will give you their qualities and you will give them your qualities, and everyone will be able to bestow still in something at least. So in them the upper shines according to the law of equivalence of form. Then in this you’ll start attaining what it is in the compositions of letters, words, Taamim Nekudot, Tagin, Otiot,  that's how it happens.

5. S. (11:15) There are five qualities. Tifferet divides into six qualities, and he writes this because of the incorporation in the Sefirot in one another. What does this mean?

R. Tifferet is a general name and a private name. Tifferet is ZA in general. That it includes Hesed, Gevura, Tifferet, Netzach, Hod, Yesod, six discernments, phases and they are called Tifferet, that's it.

S. But it says because of the incorporation of the Sefirot in one another it divides into six. 

R. Correct. Because in those 6 Sefirot, HGT NHY  they have an incorporation in one another and this whole incorporation is also called Tifferet or ZA.

Reading (12:38) “There is also no complete incorporation of KHB in Malchut…”

6. R. (13:19) Meaning it all comes from the incorporation between these qualities in the general Tifferet.

Reading (13:28) “There is also no complete incorporation of KHB in Malchut…”

7. R. (16:05) No questions, it seems that this material is difficult.

8. S. (16:26) What is the incorporation? We have KHB as he describes it as incorporated in ZA. What does it mean that there is an incorporation between Keter, Hochma and Bina?

R. KHB are the phases of the Rosh meaning every phase is on its own right. Keter is like the one conducting everything. Hochma and Bina are the two qualities, Hochma and Hassadim in mercy that need to reach each and every desire in order for them to correct it, so it’s expressed in the form of bestowal. And the Keter is like the manager, the one conducting this incorporation.

S. What is this unit, what is its role? The incorporation of these three Sefirot, what does it come to do here? 

R. It’s the Rosh, the manager, it’s a part of the Partzuf  that manages the rest of the Partzuf, Keter, Hochma, Bina. Keter only has the thought of creation. Hochma and Bina are two qualities Hochma and Hassadim, that with them the will to receive can absorb them and change by them.

S. So phases of Rosh KHB create a certain incorporation a certain structure and then they come and correct the Guf, the body?

R. Yes.

9. S. (18:33) Baal HaSulam organizes things in a way that was not done before. He takes the words of the ARI, and he divides and explains many many things. But we know that until a person is in spiritual attainment it’s nothing it doesn't really help him. So what is this order that he created, what is the purpose of it?

R. Even if we are not in attainment yet but if we want to reach attainment we read and somewhat yearn to enter this book; really just get in there between the letters and words, we want to feel it that it will affect us, bestow upon us. We want to incorporate and blend into this text. And that's how it affects us and influences us.

S. For that we TES where he writes clearly. But what is this prayer book? What is the purpose of that?

R. I didn't see it like the Siddur or the prayer book of the [missing translation]. We will read it in the second half of The Gate House of Intentions how Baal HaSulam relates to the prayer book of the [missing translation], as much as he rejects it. That's it.

S. I'm talking about what he intended, to create a preface to the prayer book.

R. He wanted to write what he wanted to write. It had nothing to do with the prayer book or the introduction. You see how he called it The Gate House of Intentions. He didn't attach this text to any prayer book or any other book. It’s an article, that's how he called it.

S. We see that when a teacher explains let's say when you give answers you always leave room for the students to understand, you don’t close the answer or package it so there’s no way to escape it. He also when he writes in such a way that he leaves an opening. How does a teacher know what to open and what to close?

R. He clothes in the student as much as he can and through that he speaks. My whole purpose is that you understand and feel and continue this onward. I don’t want to shut off the path before you. On the contrary, I want you to have questions and these questions have to open you then you’ll be able to develop and advance.

S. You are answering not only to a student but to an entire group, you are answering to thousands of people.

R. Yes and what?

S. So where do you draw the line on what to reply and what to leave open?

R. I always leave some field even of questions, that there in that field these questions are like sprouts. That a bit come out of the ground, and you have the ability to go and connect to them, pick them and advance.

10. S. (22:42) You were describing that Keter is like a manager. Is that the relationship between Reshimot and Keter?

R. All the Reshimot, records, qualities, Sefirot, Partzufim, Alamut, everything that exists is there because it comes out of Keter. Keter includes everything in it. Each upper Sefira includes everything that is below her. 

11. S. (23:27) He writes that also in Malchut there is only incorporation of KHB in wholeness and also there called KHB in ZA. The five phases are called KHB NHY are called VAD. There is no wholeness here as well. So why don't we say that there are six phases of Malchut as well?

R. No. All of the mercy and judgments that are revealed are revealed not in wholeness, but they also demand the work of reflected light. When the reflected light raises its qualities upward the lights from above can enter all the vessels and then you have all the complete Sefirot. 

S. But there is no wholeness in ZA.

R. Why not?

S. That's what he writes that there's no wholeness.

R. That’s what he says, I’m speaking altogether.

12. S. (24:43) From Keter two opposite qualities come out, Hochma and Hassadim. When it comes to Tifferet there it is divided into six discernments. How from the two, from Hochma and Hassadim do you get six?

R. Not six, thousands of qualities and discernments, lights. That's no problem because every upper one includes everything below it.

S. I didn't get it.

R. Every upper Sefira includes in her everything that’s below her. Where does something come from below her? From herself.

13. S. (25:42) The incorporation between the discernments, the qualities are like the incorporation between us completing one another?

R.  No, don’t confuse us.

14. S. (25:59) The five discernments HGT NH are called in her 5 Gevurot. What are Gevurot? What is that concept, how to understand it? 

R. From the word to overcome in Hebrew. Gevura to overcome is Gevurot, judgements and  Hassadim, mercy.

Reading (26:39) #6 “Let us speak of the world of Atzilut, and from there we will understand the rest...” Twice

Reading (27:47) #7 “Let us return to the matter of the body, for this phase is ten Sefirot, ten qualities...” Twice

15. R. (30:23) It is not so clear what he means here but let's keep going.

Reading (30:28) #8 “These garments are inside the houses, which are the seven halls of Atzilut...” Twice

Reading (32:11) #9 “These four phases are regarded as the ten Sefirot that begin from Hochma and contain four phases.” Twice

16. R. (35:01)  Let's end here. I do not see any questions.

17. S. (35:18) The Gate House of Intentions, where are the intentions where is what’s written here?

R.  I don't know, I didn't name this. Maybe because that rich guy said that I'm going to give money and you organize a book of prayers of Kabbalists, so that's why Baal HaSulam called it like that. I don't know, that's what I think.

S. Why a house for a gate. Usually we say gate for a house?

R.  I don’t know and I don’t want to philosophize with you and all your wisdoms. Your approach is horrible. You don't know anything about it and you’re starting to philosophize about it. It just opens the doors to all the philosophies and mistakes.

18. S. (36:27) In item seven we read that in the ten garments the Creator wore the garment of pride, and it says, “the Lord is King, and He wears pride.” What does he mean?

R. I don't know. We will attain that clothing and we will see.

S. What is the clothing of pride of the Creator?

R. Clothing is usually reflected light, but I don't know. I didn't attain this clothing.

R. In ten clothing the Creator clothes, right? A closing of pride and more than that, no. The clothing, the garment is reflected light. That in general all these garments are when a person overcomes his will to receive, his pride, and then from that the reflected light comes and through it he receives the depiction of the Creator. The Creator is clothed in the reflected life of man, that’s called inner light.