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

Daily Lesson (Morning), August 17, 2024. 

Part 2: Baal HaSulam. Introduction to “From the Mouth of a Sage.”

Reader: We're reading in the Writings of Baal HaSulam, the Introduction to “From the Mouth of a Sage.” The study material is on Sviva Tova on the Arvut where you can also send questions. The Writings of Baal HaSulam, Introduction to “From the Mouth of a Sage.”

Reading Article: (00:30) It is known from books and from authors that the study of the wisdom of Kabbalah is an absolute must for any person from Israel. If one studies the entire Torah and knows the Mishnah and the Gemara by heart, if one is also filled with virtues and good deeds more than all his contemporaries, but has not learned the wisdom of Kabbalah, he must incarnate once more into this world to study the secrets of Torah and wisdom of truth. This is brought in several places in the writings of our sages.

This is what The Zohar writes in the interpretation of “Song of Songs,” explaining the verse, “If you know not, O fairest among women,” which our sages interpreted as the soul that comes before the Throne after a person’s demise.

The Creator tells it, “If you know not, O fairest among women.” Although you are the fairest among women and virtuous in good deeds more than all the souls, if you do not have knowledge in the secrets of Torah, “go forth by the footsteps of the flock,” leave here and never return to this world. “And feed your kids [young goats] beside the shepherds' tents,” go there to the seminaries and learn the secrets of Torah from the mouths of the disciples of our sages.

We must understand their words, conditioning the perfection of a person with the study of the wisdom of truth. Seemingly, how is it different from the other words of the revealed Torah? We found nowhere that one is obligated to understand all the subjects of the Torah and that he will not be completed if one subject in the Torah is missing. Moreover, our sages said that it is not the study that is the most important, but the act. Our sages also said, “One does much, and another does little, as long as they aim their hearts to Heaven,” and there are many such sayings.

In order to attain the depth of their above words, we must first thoroughly understand what has been written many times in The Zohar and the Tikkunim [Corrections of The Zohar] with good taste and with reason: “The Torah, the Creator, and Israel are one.” This seems very perplexing.

Before I elucidate their words, I will notify you that our sages have defined a great rule for us regarding all the holy names and appellations in the books. These are their golden words: “Anything that we do not attain, we do not define by a name.”

Interpretation: It is known that there is no thought or perception in Him whatsoever, as it is written in the article “Elijah Started” in the beginning of the Tikkunim of The Zohar. For this reason, even the thought of the “self” of the Creator is forbidden, much less the speech.

All the names we call Him do not refer to His self, but only to His lights, expanding from Him to the lower ones. Even the holy name Ein Sof [Infinity], presented in the books of Kabbalah is also regarded as light that expands from His essence.

However, since He determined that His light, which expands from His self, will be attained by the lower ones as Ein Sof, we shall therefore define it by that name. Yet, this does not refer to His essence. Since there is absolutely no perception or thought in Him, how will we define Him by a name and a word? After all, all that we do not attain, we do not define by a name.

Any beginner in learning the wisdom of truth must contemplate the above great rule before any scrutiny in a book of Kabbalah, that even the thought is forbidden in His self since there is no thought or perception in Him at all. Yet, how does it speak of a “name” and “attainment” of Him, which imply attainment?

However, it is a great Mitzva [commandment] to examine and research in His illuminations that expand from Him, which are all the holy names and appellations brought in the books. It is an utter must for any person from Israel to study and understand the secrets of Torah and all the ways of His bestowal upon the lower ones, which are the gist of the wisdom of truth and the future reward of the souls at the end of correction.

It is written in the words of our sages, in several places in The Zohar and the Tikkunim, that all the upper worlds and all the Sefirot of the five worlds AK and ABYA have been prepared in advance in quantity and quality to complement the children of Israel. This is so because the soul of one from Israel is a part of God above and “The end of an act is in the preliminary thought.”

It arose in His simple will to delight the souls by way of reward for their labor, and for this reason the whole of reality expanded from before Him by way of a sequence of causes and their consequences in the descent of the degrees through the worlds AK and ABYA. Finally, they elicited two discernments clothed in one another, meaning the soul from the concealments of heaven that expands and robes the corporeal body.

The essence of reality expanded through the last degree, which is the corporeal body with a soul. Similarly, the cascading was made by way of cause and consequence relating to the essence of the existence of reality, which are the conducts of His giving that hang down by gradations.

Thus, the upper light, higher than high, will ultimately expand and come to the soul clothed in the corporeal body in this world, as it is written, “for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbor to know the Lord, for they shall all know Me, from the greatest of them to the least of them.”

It is written by our sages and in The Book of Zohar that “The whole Torah is the names of the Creator.” All the stories and the laws and the sentences, all are His holy names.

According to the above explained, that “Anything that we do not attain, we do not define by a name,” you will thoroughly understand that the holy names of the Creator are the attainments that expand from Him to His servants, the prophets and the righteous, each according to his merit, as it is written, “we are distinguished, I and Your people, from all the people that are on the face of the earth.”

This distinguishing comes to us through the reception of the Torah and the keeping of Mitzvot [sing. of Mitzvot], first only in the revealed way, which has the merit of purifying our bodies and enhancing our souls to such an extent that we become worthy of attaining the whole Torah and its Mitzvot as His names. This is the entire reward intended for the souls at the end of correction. However, it is in this world, too, as it is written in the Gemara, “You will see your world in your life.”

This explains to us why he calls the 613 Mitzvot in several places in The Zohar “613 Eitin [Aramaic: counsels] in the Torah.” Also, in many places in The Zohar, he calls the 613 Mitzvot “613 Pekudin [Aramaic: deposits].” This is so because at first, one must keep the Torah and the Mitzvot in order to purify his body and enhance his soul. At that time, the 613 Mitzvot are as 613 Eitin for him, meaning “tips” by which to ultimately come before the King and be rewarded with the light of His face. Observing the Torah and keeping the Mitzvot gradually cleanse him until he is rewarded with the light of the King of life.

Also, it is written similarly in the Gemara: “Why should the Creator mind if one slaughters at the throat or at the back of the neck? Indeed, the Torah and Mitzvot were given only in order to purify Israel with them.”

However, after one has been sufficiently purified and merits the light of His face, one’s eyes and soul open and he is rewarded with attaining the 613 holy lights found in the 613 Mitzvot. These are his holy names, meaning the ones that come to our attainment.

By keeping each of the Mitzvot, one takes the part of the light deposited in that Mitzva since the Mitzva is a Kli [vessel] where the light is clothed, meaning a holy name that belongs explicitly to that Mitzva. This is the meaning of “The Mitzva is a candle and the Torah is light.”

At that time, he calls the 613 Mitzvot “613 Pekudin.” It is like one who deposits good stones and gems in a Kli and says to his loved one, “Take this Kli for yourself but guard it from the thieves and robbers.” Thus, they only speak of the Kli, but their primary intention is the precious stones deposited there.

It is known in the books of Kabbalah that the meaning of the holy name “The Blessed Holy One” or Kudsha Brich Hu [the same in Aramaic] written by our sages and in The Zohar is named after the HaVaYaH [Yod-Hey-Vav-Hey]. This holy name contains all the holy names until one higher than high. Thus, we learn that “The Torah and the Creator are one,” even though the masses do not see Him in the Torah, but only stories, sentences, and laws.

Indeed, I have already explained that “apples of gold in settings of silver” is how the 613 Pekudin are called. It is as our sages said, “The whole Torah is the names of the Creator.” Hence, the Torah and the Creator are one.

Yet, there are general and particular, where the Creator is the assembly of all the names and the general light, and the Torah is divided into 613 lights. It follows, that all of them together are one, and are the Creator Himself.

Now there still remains for us to explain the discernment of Israel. First, you must understand the matter of the multiplicity of the separate forms in spirituality, meaning how they are divided and in what. (Author’s proofreading) Corporeal things are separated by a knife and such, or time and place separate and distinguish them. Yet, this is unthinkable in spirituality, as it is known to be above time and space.

However, know that the whole difference in spirituality between the upper lights is only in the disparity of form. For example: The mental souls in people are certainly divided into separate souls. Each individual has a different soul.

Yet, the essential difference between them is nothing more than stemming from their disparity of form, meaning that the soul of one is good, the other’s is bad, one has acquired wisdom, and the other folly, etc. Our sages say about this, “As their faces differ from each other, so their views differ from each other.”

Yet, we can understand that if all the people were to come by the same concepts and the same inclinations without any difference whatsoever, all the souls of all the people would be regarded as a single soul. Its value would have been the same as the sunlight; the light clothes in all the inhabitants of the world, yet we do not discern that there are separate forms in the sunlight. Similarly, one mental soul would have robed in many bodies since places do not separate at all in spiritual matters if there are no separate forms in their attribute.

M. Laitman: And thus far, clear?

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (22:44) It sounds that the effort, it says every person of Israel? 

M. Laitman: Probably.

Student: So every person of Israel can open this and read it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: Another question, part of the audience around me, they started studying, what Bnei Baruch offers to study and develop. And there's a part that aren't in the lessons, yet. And they ask me to learn something with an article or something from Kabbalah. 

M. Laitman: So? 

Student: Am I allowed to do that? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (23:45) Rav, it says here that Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one. Now, Israel is obviously someone who yearns for correction. How can we understand the difference though, between the Torah and the Creator? 

M. Laitman: This is what is written. I guess in the end, we attain that they're all together, complement each other, are incorporated in each other.

Student: But we have to reach it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: We have to make the discernments. Now if I understand correctly, it says that the Creator gave the Torah as a system of correction. So what's the difference between the Torah and the Creator, if they all should be united? What's the difference between them?

M. Laitman: The souls in the end should unite together into the system of Adam HaRishon. That system is a vessel within which the light should clothe. The light that dresses in the vessel is called Torah. And we come to a state where the Israel, the Torah, and the Creator are one. That the whole of the corrected vessel that receives all the light that is intended for creation should become whole, should reach fullness. In other words, all the light and the full vessel together are in a state of oneness. And One is the Creator. 

Student: We always speak on the side of the vessel, right? 

M. Laitman: We can, from the perspective of the vessel.

Student: So on behalf of the vessel, what is the Torah and what is the Kaddosh Baruch Hu, the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The Torah is the light that fills the souls, the vessel, right? And the Creator is its source, its origin, before the light fills the vessel. 

Student: How can we even speak of this source, before it fills the vessel? 

M. Laitman: We speak of it with respect to the vessels. 

Student: If we already attain something all the way, so it's clear. You attain the Kaddosh Baruch Hu, the Creator, in the vessel. But before, how can we even speak about Him? 

M. Laitman: Well, we need to speak. We need to define. To distinguish between this and that, and this and that. That's why these three elements, Israel, the Torah, and the Creator, are one. That's already at the end of the corrections that we attain. But before that, we say that they are three. That Israel is a vessel, the Torah is the light that we receive in the meantime in order to unite and acquire a new form. And to the extent that we discover that, we reveal the vessel correctly; the Creator is clothed in them.

Student: So Kudsha Brich Hu has to be the goal? An aspiration we want to reach? 

M. Laitman: The aspiration is, to be as one. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (28:05) What's the difference between the holy names or attaining Atzmuto, His essence? 

M. Laitman: Attaining his holy names is when the vessel is still incomplete. But in some way, it equalizes with the light in it and therefore, attains it partially. So the stages by which the vessel corrects itself, and accordingly, it's filled with the Upper Light, we call them degrees. And this is how we come to a state where the vessel is complete, and its light is complete.

Student: All of our work is to have a feeling towards the Creator, bestowal, adhesion. So why doesn't the Creator let us attain Atzmuto, His essence? How does it not take away from adhesion? 

M. Laitman: Attaining means you have a vessel that can receive from the Creator, what the Creator wants to fill it with, and to identify what it receives and unite with it. So this is how we define the parts, by which, we come to the complete correction.

Student: Why doesn't the Creator let us attain Atzmuto, His essence? 

M. Laitman: We can't. In the wisdom of Kabbalah, where it says forbidden, it means impossible. 

Student: Last question. What is the Keter? In the ten Sefirot, there's a Sefira Keter. So what is that compared to Atzmuto? 

M. Laitman: Keter is the source. Everything that is below Keter exists in it, everything that stems from it. But for itself, it is attained as a source; the origin only. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (30:38) The records awaken according to their importance in cause and effect. There's also a state of the order of the degrees. Lower one, upper one, upper, upper one. I agree that I'm the lower one, and you're the upper one, and the Creator is the upper, upper one. The question is, is that state, does it escort us till the end of correction? 

M. Laitman: Yes. It's written about it. The ladder of degrees does not change. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (31:17) Baal HaSulam writes that people are divided and separated in the form of their desire. And afterwards, he writes, if all people would attain the same knowledge and tendencies without any differences, they would truly be one soul, considered as one soul. And then he explains that disparity of form is actually the intention. So in any case, it's not clear how people with different opinions connect in a way that they attain the same thing, that all their attainments are the same?

M. Laitman: We'll get there and check it. 

Student: So the process starts by really needing to annul the form of everyone and yearning for that drop of unity? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes. Yearning to adhere to the Upper One. When we come to it, we begin to discover that the Upper One is the same for everyone.

Student: And afterwards, how do the other forms connect? 

M. Laitman: They want to become similar to the Upper One, and that's why they connect between them. And accordingly, they receive greater lights, more substantial.

Student: If there's some completion like in a puzzle, does it happen on its own and I don't have to search for it? 

M. Laitman: Both. 

Student: In practical work with the friends, I need to try to let myself go and resemble the thoughts of the friends. How can I incorporate with them and understand how He sees?

M. Laitman: This we need to learn from articles that talk about connection between people.

Student: Is it important in the state that we're in to learn all this? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (34:03) He writes that it's an obligation to study and understand the preparations from the Holy Books and the influence of the Light. He's speaking about demanding and researching. It's a main part of the studies. What defines what we attain? Let's say in yesterday's lesson, that we won't keep losing things because we have holes in us. 

M. Laitman: It's not lost. It remains in the vessels that want to reveal Him according to the level of their yearning. So it remains in them. But not visible to the one who has the vessel today, but it's inside there. It will be revealed when it should.

Student: The main points of the demand that came from the lesson, let's say from yesterday, the research attended, so they should pay attention that they're renewing an attitude towards it? Or is it something that's just playing out in each one of us and supposedly... 

M. Laitman: It kind of evolves by itself and we'll be able to come to states, where we can even reverse it back, turn it back. 

Student: And when we work in the Ten, if we didn't reach prayer yet, so what does that mean? 

M. Laitman: It means you haven't reached it. But at the end of the lesson, you should still be aware of what we attained. What have we attained, or at least what did we talk about? This we need to establish before us. 

Student: And if the deficiency didn't awaken more yearning, so we have to talk about it between us? Or is that inner work? Let's say the Ten isn't burning. The lesson ends, and we started working in the Ten. But in the middle of the day, we feel we're not burning, we're just filling in the time. 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So should we stop everything and say, wait a minute, here we're falling and…

M. Laitman: Yes. Yes. It depends mainly on connection. The connection.

Student: And measuring the connection is mostly a feeling supported by, we'll call it the mind or more clarity of the state of connection and the feeling supports it. 

M. Laitman: It depends on pressure from the friends. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (38:01) What does it mean that the intention is the pressure from the friends? 

M. Laitman: To the extent to which all the friends are interested in everyone being connected. 

Student: So if we come here, come out of here with a question burning in our heart, that is either personal or the Ten or is it about the Congress coming up? How to disseminate that into the Ten gently? 

M. Laitman: Stir up this question before the Ten. 

Student: Gently, how to do it? 

M. Laitman: You do it gently. 

Continuing Reading Article: (39:23) Now we shall come to the scrutiny, that it is known that the meaning of the souls of the children of Israel is that they are a part of God above. The soul cascaded by way of cause and consequence and descended degree by degree until it was suitable to come into this world and clothe the filthy corporeal body.

It ascends degree by degree until its stature is completed by keeping the Torah and observing its Mitzvot. Finally, it is worthy of receiving its complete reward, which has been prepared for it in advance, meaning attaining the holy Torah as the names of the Creator, which are the 613 Pekudin.

Now you can see with your mind’s eye that “The Torah and Israel are one.” The whole difference between the Torah and the soul is due to the disparity of form in the soul, which has been reduced to a very, very small light, and the Torah is simple light that expands from His essence, whose sublimity is endless, for “The Torah and the Creator are one.”

However, when the soul is complete in its full stature and receives the Torah in the form of His names, namely attains all the light deposited in the Torah and Mitzvot, you find that the light of the soul is equal to the light of the Torah, since it has already attained all the light in the Torah.

It is considered incomplete as long as there is some deficit in attaining a small and subtle part of the general light of the Torah. This is because the entire light was prepared for the souls, as I have explained above, “Everything that we do not attain, we do not define by a name.”

Since the light has been prepared for the attainment of the soul, and the soul did not attain all of it, it is therefore deemed incomplete. It is as it is written, “I shall keep the whole Torah except for one thing. Certainly, he is a complete evil.”

However, such as that you can declare in the keeping of the Torah and Mitzvot in attaining the 613 commandments. It is incomplete when lacking even one thing, great or small.

Hence, in the end—for it will finally come to complete perfection, namely attain the entire light of the Torah—there will be no disparity of form between the light of the soul and the light of Torah. Thus, you tastefully find that the Torah and Israel are literally one.

They are one because there really is no difference and disparity of form between them. Since we have already proven that “The Creator and the Torah are one,” and now we have proven that “The Torah and Israel are one,” it is therefore evident that “The Torah and the Creator and Israel are one.”

Question (Karmiel): (45:16) We have a question about the lesson, but mainly about a very special event that's going to be tomorrow in the north. The management of Bnei Baruch are coming to meet the Northern Kli in the area of Karmiel. About 60 friends are going to be coming from all the groups. A lot of them are displaced from their homes for a very long time. And because of the complex state we're in, we see it as a great opportunity for dissemination to strengthen Israel. We wanted to ask you, Rav. What do you recommend we do to use such a meeting to advance towards correction? 

M. Laitman: To work it out, so that this meeting is in one heart with all the residents of northern Israel, and you will feel together with them, and they will feel you, together with you. And then by this, we want to thank them for their prevailing persistence, and that we feel all the states they're going through, and that we hope that soon it will be over. And it really, truly all depends on our intention, we want to bring there, a new spirit. 

Student: Can I ask another? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: How can the groups prepare themselves so this meeting will work? 

M. Laitman: That you are coming to give them your warm heart. With this, you come. Warm your hearts and try to bring it to them. That's it. And good luck. 

Reader: (47:51) Announcements.

Song: (49:28)