Morning Lesson Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves possibility for errors.
Morning Lesson November 7, 2020
Parashat Noah - Selected Excerpts from the Sources, #10
1. Rav’s Introduction:
Yes, let's again let's try to see through the Torah, how the Creator directs us in life every day, every week because the Torah comes from the word light, Ohr, it has to give light so we know how to continue, how to understand the situation, how we see what the Creator does in the world, what he changes, how he organizes the world from week to week. According to his guidance, according to how he guides us from day to day, from week to week, let's see how we should react. You could say that as well everything is in the...but the question is whether we see it or not. Let's try together, bit by bit each time to try to extract from the Torah those guidances, those reactions, those actions that we need to do, that the Creator does on us and we accordingly should respond toward him. The more we try, the more we will see that our minds and our hearts expand and we understand better what the Creator does because we are in a situation in the world that changes dramatically from week to week and we have to change accordingly. This is why we started learning the weekly portion after Rosh Hashanah and let's begin to process that in a more practical manner. Perhaps we'll be able to do that, to see the Torah as instructions. Torah comes from the word light or Hora’ah, instruction, to see how we can become partners with the Creator and be together with him advancing towards the purpose of creation. Let's try in the weekly portion to see what the Creator wants to explain to us about our situation and how we can respond to it. Both are in the Torah. The Torah contains everything. So let's continue where we stopped and continue on.
*Excerpt #10 What Is A Flood Of Water In The Work? Reader (3:07 - 5:07)*
10. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1989), "What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?"
One who walks into the ark, which is Bina, a vessel of bestowal, the Sitra Achra does not see them. That is, they have no common language making it possible to understand what the Sitra Achra argues against the work.
When a person walks on the path of bestowal, which is regarded as above reason, faith, until the point of faith the Sitra Achra can argue with a person. But as soon as a person has entered the ark of faith, above reason, the Sitra Achra remains standing by the gate of faith and cannot continue.
2. R. This is why we who are in a state where the whole world has become circular and no one knows what's going on, what the Creator wants from us, what's going to happen to all of us. We have to go into the ark and this is Binah, the quality of bestowal. Where I want to be in a ten first of all and then expand the boundaries of the ten and in this way to feel myself more and more connected to everyone and our ark contains the whole world, all of reality. This feeling, this tendency has to be first of all, for us and as an example for all of humanity because we will advance to a state where all of humanity will feel that it doesn't know what to do, what's happening to it. The floodwaters will wash over us from every direction and I'm sure you saw pictures from how water comes say in the cases of hurricanes or tsunamis, how they wash over everything and there's nothing you can do and we're all just tossed with this flow, with this stream, this water, Hesed, mercy, and there's also a state of Gevurah. So we have to connect ourselves among ourselves and then this water will become calm water. We will begin to feel how we can stream calmly towards the purpose of life and all of us together safely from day to day to discover the Creator more through the connection between us as we sail together. You can ask questions along the way but things that are relevant to what we're talking about and try to see and what we're going through today that the weekly portion is revealed in it, that it's relevant.
*Excerpt #11 What Is A Flood Of Water In The Work? Reader (7:47 - 8:56)*
11. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1989), "What Is a Flood of Water in the Work?"
The opposite of Kedusha is called “waters of quarreling,” since they extended upon themselves that which they should not have extended, called “waters of quarreling,” and were defiled in it. This means that the opposite of Kedusha raised the left line over the right line, meaning said the exact opposite of Kedusha.
The path of Kedusha is that we need the “within reason,” which resists what the “above reason” says. The reason why they need to use and engage in the left line is not that they want to walk in the left line and listen to it. On the contrary, they need to use and engage with the reason so as to have room to go above reason.
3. R. There are people who say we don't want to think about anything. We pray, we do everything mindlessly, yes, whatever is written we will do. That's no progress. It's not what the Creator wants from the created beings. We have to use our ego correctly, our egoistic will to receive the cruelty that awakens in us and turn them into a springboard so we can rise from level to level, higher and higher. This is why the ego is revealed in us each time more and more and that's exactly how we ascend.
*Excerpt #11 Reader reads again (9:43 - 10:45)*
4. R. Normally what we see in the world is that people begin to quarrel actually. We can see that now even in states where there is no place for a quarrel, they have to find a solution. They are looking for a solution by starting to fight with one another and the Torah says that we should do the opposite. If we, in hard times, when the flood water comes, it comes from above, if we try to go above it in connection between us, in this way we are saved. We are pulled out of the flood into the calm water and even to some place of tranquility and connection. Here is our work to explain to all of humanity and also to ourselves because among us there will be very difficult states of quarrels and misunderstandings and that's without any justification. With no reason in reality. It's like the disciples of Rabbi Shimon who felt they wanted to kill each other. How could that be? The disciples of Rabbi Shimon who were writing the book of the Zohar, come to the lesson and they can't look at each other and they want to kill each other, it's inconceivable. The will to receive emerges out of people and that's how they feel so then they have work against this evil inclination that's intensifying so that when they overcome it, they come to the level of faith, the level of Binah is an even higher level and then they can really see how the Creator prepares for us, how he elevates us from the growing ego, how he raises us to a higher level from his perspective this is called the ascent. Because it's written “I have created the evil inclination” so he reveals more and more of it and we have to get from the Creator, the good inclination, the light and the power of bestowal and rise to faith above reason. That's how it works, that's the work.
5. S. (13:23) In item 11, it's written that they have to engage in the reason so that they can go above reason?
R. We should shut our eyes and do nothing. Just follow simple things. We have to study this system and know it and try to work with it. We have to know nature and go above it. That's it. That's what we learn.
6. S. (14:09) We build the ark, in the ten. How is that different if we're doing the Sukkah?
R. No, we're not learning about this or that. We're learning about connection. Ask properly.
7. S. (14:33) If we were to be more successful in dissemination, would that influence the fact that between the friends it would be less bad revealed?
R. No, why should the bad be revealed less, it should actually be revealed more, so that we have more of an opportunity to rise above it. We have to work, we have to be operators, workers, heroes, soldiers. Everything that comes to us, we have to see that it comes from the Creator because there's none else beside Him and we have to take it and rise above it to the level of Binah. All of the obstacles are for us to rise above them and therefore we don't pray for there to be less bad. We pray to have the strength to rise above the bad to faith above reason.
S. Maybe it's more delicate to the situation of Rabbi Shimon meaning that we will share it with all?
R. Don't think about that, think about what you have to do first of all that we have to rise above all the obstacles in the connection between us where I can't connect with all my friends in the ten because there are partitions between us. We have to rise above these partitions. That's the main thing. That's step one. After that you can talk about all of the other stages so that the first stage will be a means to overcome this too.
8. S. (16:32) How can concealment help us in the work in the group specifically in the time when we're in a descent?
R. The Creator gives the complete state. He gives feelings and thoughts and actions that we have before us in this world, in everything that's happening with the whole world, with the pandemic. He gives altogether a state where every detail in that state is arranged in such a way that it complements the others and we have to overcome the situation in general. We shouldn't think we should do this, we should do that, if we didn't have this, it would be better. No, whatever we get, we have to get and it's revealed from my root of the soul as a degree upon which I have to rise. I want to correct my soul. I want to come to my corrected state, to my eternal state, to the next world. By all means, that's what I have in front of me. I don't scrutinize that I want this and I don't want that. I don't learn what happened in the days of Rabbi Shimon, what happened between this Sukkah and that don't get into all these philosophies. We have to learn what pertains to our days, to our situation not like those wise guys who ask what's between this and what's between that, we should study that in university, we don't learn that we learn what we have to do in order to achieve life's purpose.
9. S. (18:55) I don't manage to grasp what the lack of partitions are when they're no partitions?
R. What can I tell you? What example can I give you? Take an embryo in its mother's womb. Between the embryo and the mother, there is this system while it's there in the mother and in his own ark. They are nevertheless tightly connected. The more the fetus grows, as it grows, we will learn in the wisdom of Kabbalah about it, it grows by being separated from the mother. It's no longer connected to her instinctively but has to build communication lines with the mother, right left, middle, he gives to the mother, the mother gives to him but all the degrees as it grows, after it's born, as it grows and grows, these degrees don't remove him from the mother. They seemingly remove, but he skips over them and reconnects, moves away and reconnects, moves away and reconnects, it's called night and day night and day night and day that's how he counts seconds hours and days when he's more and more connected to the mother through the ego that grows after it's born. So are we. The more we grow from day-to-day among us in the group, in humanity in general, our ego grows accordingly and we have to try and make such contact between us that the egoistic desire that grows in each of us will not set us apart but it sets us apart so that we will connect each other even more tightly and in that way we will perform acts of correction.
10. S. (21:34) What's the difference in the connection in ascending above reason, is it common work and how is it individual?
R. The faith above reason is personal work. We have to show each other examples and support and prayer to make it group work.
11. S. (22:04) For what reason did they continue, what they shouldn't have extended? In the excerpt it's written that they extended to themselves which they shouldn't have?
R. They pulled an egoistic will to receive and used it egotistically.
12. S. (22:36) Entering the ark, is that building a Kli or is the ark a womb?
R. It doesn't matter if it's a Kli, an ark or a womb it doesn't matter, I don't want to get into scrutiny of these details.
13. S. (23:02) Is the work in rising above reason inverting the ego?
R. No, it elevates us above the ego that you go helps us rise to the level of Binah. The more we have ego the more it forces us to rise to Binah and then we discover the Creator more and more without the growth of the ego we wouldn't be able to reveal the Creator.
S. What's the meaning to invert or flip the ego, to switch the ego to make it upside down?
R. It means to rise above it and use it as a lever for bestowal in the opposite way from what it awakens in me.
14. S. (24:07) After we do good work in the connection between us we need to discover the next incarnation in our connection, more hatred and distancing. Why is the next corruption not revealed in our relations between us corporeally?
R. This, I cannot say, it's how the system works, it's connected within and without, in all kinds of systems and subsystems, there's no answer to it. Whatever is revealed, we have to rise above it. Anything that belongs to me I have to see it as a lever for advancement to the level of Binah, the level of faith, the level of bestowal.
16. S. (24:59) How does a person know he's going above reason?
R. How does he know? By overcoming an obstacle and preferring to be in contact with the friends instead of being as before, alone.
17. S. (25:29) We are yearning to live in calm waters, so do we need to overcome the flood in order to reach it?
R. We don't need to overcome the flood. We need to go above the flood. We're not fighting against the flood. We're going into the ark. Understand? This is the method, the right method. Fighting nature, God, the upper force which gives us the flood, we can't do that and what for it's stupid. To go against Nature's forces? Nature is God. You can't. Instead, I have to build a situation where the Creator awakens me through the flood to build that state and this is called building connection. What does he want in the end? He wants that after the breaking of the Kli HaRishon that he built he wants us to want to reconnect so as to discover him. So as to build a place for him. This is the purpose. Not to fight against the flood. We have to kiss the flood and embrace it, accept it as the right thing as helping us. Without it, who would push us to connect? Who would push us towards the Creator if not the flood?
18. S. (27:36) He writes in the text the situation where he drowns the left over the right, reason from above reason, we have to work with the left and the right....?
R. We have to go with faith above reason, bestowal above reception. I recommend the same to you. You're beginning to ask these things and from within them are getting confused. That's not how you approach it, first feel what it is about and then begin to interpret the words as well.
*Excerpt #12 What Is...Reader (28:24 - 29:12)*
12. RABASH, Article No. 4 (1991), "What Is, “The Saboteur Was in the Flood, and Was Putting to Death,” in the Work?"
Baal HaSulam asked what is the difference between the saboteur putting to death or the flood putting to death. He said that the flood caused corporeal suffering, and the saboteur causes spiritual suffering. In other words, within the corporeal suffering there is a saboteur who kills a person’s spirituality, meaning that the torments of the body bring him foreign thoughts until these thoughts sabotage and kill the spirituality.
We should interpret his words. The flood and the rain are called “revealed,” meaning that which is visible to our eyes, that the saboteur was killing the people. That is, what a person thinks, that if the will to receive had what it demands, meaning knowledge and not faith, if it could understand everything about His guidance, as the will to receive requires, he would serve the Creator properly. However, this is not so, and as a result, because it is difficult for a person to suffer, he moves away from the Life of Lives and wants the Creator to impart upon him only pleasures. This is why he moves away.
19. R. (29:12) We see this in our lives. When troubles come, problems, pressures, pandemics, people stop thinking about sublime's things like spirituality because they have to think about life. Will they have food, medicines, jobs? The flood kills the corporeality first of all and then spirituality.
*Excerpt #12 Reader continues (29:43 - 30:38)*
20. R. We see that if the suffering increases, many people actually run away from spirituality, from being with us, from studying the wisdom of Kabbalah because they think there are more important things, things that are necessary for life. They don't understand that bread and spirit, both come from the same source, the higher source. Only there is none else besides Him and that's why they quit, but by that they make a big mistake because they are missing out on their life cycle.
21. S. (31:19) Do we need to love the ego of the friend or to always point towards correction?
R. We don't need to love the ego, not in us and not in the friends. We have to rather try to rise together above the ego, to support each other, set an example to each other of how we rise above the ego to the degree of faith bestowal.
22. S. (32:00) You said and we also see this in reality that the harsh corporeal states neutralize a person from thinking sublime thoughts?
R. Perhaps instead of bringing him closer they may push him away, correct.
S. So it's not clear how all these precious things humanity is going through right now is supposed to lead them to lift their eyes and have to think of things that are....?.
R. It's not one state, we go through many states in order to decide correctly. For humanity to decide correctly about the states it goes through in order to, in order for it to demand corrections it has to go through many states, difficult, easy, problems, diseases, hunger even, all kinds of fears, yes. What can you do? There are many kinds of fear, anxiety but actually awaken a person from the corporeal form as we learn in the introduction to the Book of Zohar in “The First Commandment,” The first mitzvah is fear, so we go from corporeal fear to spiritual fear until a person rises and begins to function correctly.
S. So are their corporeal sufferings that bring a person to the essence of spirituality and some that do not?
R. Everything is set up towards the goal it depends on the root of his soul but if he's in a group so even if he's not ready himself but it's because he's in such an environment he develops accordingly. The most important is to not drop out of the environment. To hang on to it like a baby hangs on to its mother. You can't tear it apart from its mother.
23. S. (34:13) Can you say that the flood comes and we get....?
R. Incorrect and correct, the flood doesn't come so we can correct something but in order for us to correct ourselves and actually the better we are, a bigger flood will come in order to raise us even more. You're not speaking like someone who's working but like someone who's, I don't know, weak. We have to see what are the means to elevate us higher and you're saying the opposite. The flood, in order for us to build an ark. Every problem comes in order to reveal to us what else we need in order to achieve the goal. Likewise, we advance from state-to-state.
24. S. (35:21) I have a friend that is sick in the hospital, he gave us a great impression, he was always in all the lessons and all the connections altogether he gave great forces to the ten. Does that mean that he's above reason?
R. It doesn't mean anything, it does not mean anything, you can't determine with your eyes if he's on the spiritual level or not.
25. S. (35:57) You said that the flood kills corporeality and then...?
R. No, you will learn it.
26. S. (36:11) The depth of the feeling of the sorrow depends on the height of the ascent?
R. Relatively, yes and no. The worse the situation is, the higher the ascent is certainly. It's like as the Zohar tells us about Rabbi Shimon that when he fell into being Shimon from the market, out of the descents, he felt that now there would be a very high ascent.
*Excerpt #13 Reader (36:58 - 38:20) reads twice*
13. RABASH, Assorted Notes No. 345, "And the Lord Saw"
After the flood, when man saw that those who do not walk on the path of truth die in the waters of the flood, called “evil water,” as in “Who is the Lord that I should obey His voice?” which is Pharaoh’s question, and the question of the wicked one, “What is this work for you?” then we see that there is an evil inclination. But before we see that we can die in the flood, we do not see any evil.
It follows that we say that what the Creator says pertains to man, that now he sees that the Creator is looking at him. Thus, among people who want to walk on the path of truth, this is not called “strike every living thing.” Rather, this is regarded as being shown the truth. Hence, a person attains that this is not regarded as a curse, but the opposite.
27. R. (37:18) Meaning doubts, yes.
*Excerpt #13 Reader (37:19 - 38:19)*
28. R. It's a little far. Let's read it again.
*Excerpt #13 Reader (38:22 - 39:36)*
29. R. Meaning when we go through the flood, it teaches us that there is no bad in the world. Everything is mercy, there are revealed mercies and covered mercies. So the flood waters are water, but it's evil water meaning there is Gevurah in them, there is such great force in them that could put people to death. The degree of Binah isn't all rest and it's all beautiful and nice. There are great pressures and problems. It's like an embryo in its mother's womb, it is just a lot of work there, it doesn't understand that because nature works on it from both sides, from the mother's perspective and from within itself. It's like a sculpture, sculpturing, it presses the clay or material to build or carve forms so you need to see the kind of forces that have to work on the substance of creation order to shape the form of man out of it with its every detail and every cell in internal organs and all the shapes and everything. What work has to take place between Malchut and Bina within this ark, within this uterus, so that the person or any living being, to take its shape and be able to be born. This is why we just need to understand what opposite forces work from the moment creation began because the Creator is the upper force that divides into seemingly negative and positive forces and then creation begins. We have to try to see each day how we are between these two forces and how by using the two correctly, we can advance on the middle line. We spoke about the middle line yesterday right? Democrats, Republicans but that's the middle line we have to walk in and gradually we will build it.
30. S. (42:26) Those boundaries, partitions between us it's not clear where we begin to rise above them, it's not so high and there's nowhere to move even?
R. Together. The answer is together. The solution is written, the recipe to all of our problems is only together.
S. But what's together it seems like...?
R. It's when you decide in the group that you can't overcome but there's nothing you can do it unless you come together, we assemble we don't understand how we don't understand exactly where, but when we want to be a little closer a little more together than before, we don't understand and it's against our will but this is what brings us the upper force. Normally, we think that we have to see the next state. We will never see it. we have to discover in us forces, powers to do something to carry out, we will never have it. The inclination to togetherness against the force, really, this is what brings us all the success, the understanding, the feeling and it by itself this inclination, establishes the future space and suddenly we discovered that we are in the ark and the ark is sailing through the flood it doesn't care about the flood until we come to Mount Ararat.
S. It feels like all the friends are already in the ark and the flood is going down and I'm outside and I remain outside.
R. No, why were you left outside? I'm organizing and I don't look at others, so I don't wait for others, I'm building the ark and I want to bring everyone into the ark. That's the work, what do you mean that you're outside, so who will do it?
S. No the feeling like they're already there and I didn't make it to enter or...?
R. So run to them, run to them I don't understand that situation. How can you drop it, your pride doesn’t let you?
31. S. (45:06) When strong reason comes, address a person very powerful to an argument or a quarrel. What does a person need to scrutinize in such a state?
R. We don't have any arguments and quarrels. We have Rabash and Baal HaSulam and this is our basis and this is our justice. Besides this, no one has any mind or heart or anything. Everyone are nothing, zeros, even less than zero, zero, zero, zero, zero, zero and maybe there at the end, one, so I don't understand or accept what you're saying as realistic.
S. I'm asking what, does a person just let go of it and that's it? Doesn't he need to figure something out inside his reason or just leave it?
R. I, of my complaints, come from my ego, from the will to receive. Besides the will to bestow and connection I don't need anything except I don't respect the desire to bestow I don't respect connection I respect my ego where I understand and feel and rise above everyone and then I feel myself as worth something that I have some weight but that weight, it is a totally egoistic weight and it's completely false. I guarantee you that's the way that it is. See yourself from the side of bestowal and you will see that that's the way it is.