Part 2: Rabash. Letter 54.

Reader: (0:00) We are reading in the letters from Rabash, we’re going to be reading Letter No. 54 - Letter number 54.

Hello and all the best to my friend,

I am informing you that I received the five folios (sheets of paper) in your book and thoroughly enjoyed it.

This week, I said a commentary about a question presented in The Zohar (Tazria, item 9): “Rabbi Aba said, ‘We learned that the Creator sentenced that drop, which would be a male and which would be a female, and you said, ‘A woman who inseminates first delivers a boy.’’ Rabbi Yosi said, ‘Of course the Creator distinguished between a drop of a male and a drop of a female, and because He distinguished it, he sentenced it to be a male or a female.’”

Baal HaSulam interprets this in the Sulam [Ladder] commentary: “We learned that a woman who inseminates first delivers a boy. Rabbi Aha said, ‘We learned that the Creator sentences the drop to be either a male or a female, and you say, ‘A woman who inseminates first delivers a boy.’ This means that we do not need the sentencing of the Creator.’ Rabbi Yosi said, ‘Of course the Creator distinguishes between a drop of a male or a drop of a female, and because He distinguished it, He sentences whether it will be a male or a female.’”

He interprets that “there are three partners in a person, the Creator, his father, and his mother. His father gives the whiteness in him; his mother the redness in him, and the Creator gives the soul. If the drop is that of a male, the Creator gives the soul of a male. If it is a female, the Creator gives the soul of a female. It follows that the woman inseminating first, still did not make the drop eventually become a male if the Creator did not install in it the soul of a male. This distinguishing that the Creator distinguishes in the drop, that it is fit for a soul of a male or a female, is regarded as the Creator’s sentence, for had He not distinguished it and did not send a soul of a male, the drop would not eventually become a male.”

To understand it by way of ethics we can interpret that each birth can be only by male and female. It is so because the male is the power of bestowal in a person, and the female is the power of reception in a person, meaning one’s wish to delight himself, where his only concern is his own pleasure. Through these two forces, we have the work of choice—to choose the good, meaning for the Creator, and loathe the bad, which is to satisfy his lusts.

Concerning insemination, it is as though we place a seed in the ground and it does not bear fruit. Only when the seed that was placed in the ground has decayed and become annulled, it yields fruits. Therefore, in ethics, sowing means something that is cancelled.

By that we will understand all the above said. A woman inseminating first means that “first” means the thought. That is, if the first thought is to annul the power of receiving pleasure only for oneself, then she naturally “delivers a male.” That is, from the cancelling of the force of reception emerges the force of bestowal, for then his wish is to bestow contentment upon the Creator.

And if the man inseminates first, meaning that his initial thought is to annul his power of bestowal, then she naturally delivers a female, for then the act that the thought begets is to receive, to satisfy only his wishes.

This is the meaning of the Creator distinguishing the drop, meaning the thought—if the intention is for the Creator or for self-gratification. If it is a male, namely that he has cancelled his power of reception, which is the meaning of “A woman who inseminates first delivers a male,” then the Creator sentences the drop to be a male.

The thing is that only the Creator can discern and know the truth, if his intention was for the Creator, and then the Creator gives him the soul of a male, as our sages said, “He who learns Torah Lishma (for Her sake), etc., the secrets of Torah are revealed to him,” meaning that the Creator reveals to him the secrets of Torah. If he is a female, meaning that he has cancelled his power of bestowal, which is called a “male,” she delivers a female. That is, the act that he begets is only for his own pleasure, and then the Creator does not give him the assistance from above. Rather, it is as our sages said, “He who comes to defile, it opens for him.”

It follows that by the Creator distinguishing and sentencing, this is what really happens, for only the Creator knows the truth, since he can deceive himself and think that his intention is only for the Creator. But when the Creator brings him closer and gives him the attainment of the soul of Torah, he knows that he was born a male, that the act he is doing is for the Creator, and then he is rewarded with the revelation of the secrets of Torah and becomes an ever flowing fountain. At that time, he achieves the true completeness.

I will end my letter with wishes of a happy and kosher festival.

From your friend, who wishes you and your family all the best,

Baruch Shalom HaLevi Ashlag

M. Laitman: Reactions? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (10:57) Who begins the process, a person who chooses what his thought will be to nullify his intention for receiving, or is it the Creator who discerns and sentences?

M. Laitman: I think, what do you think?

Student: According to what he says, a person. On one hand. On the other hand, he doesn't really know if his intention is to cancel the force of bestowal or the force of reception. Rather, only the Creator knows that. That's why he distinguishes and sentences.

M. Laitman: How do others feel about it? 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (12:06) It's also a question. There's no answer because seemingly a person decides in the beginning if he wants to receive the force of reception or the force of bestowal. There's some preceding condition, seemingly, but he has no certainty with it, until he sees the result whether he's in bestowal or reception. So, there's a certain true partnership with the Creator. Where a person in the beginning, there's probably certain conditions that he has to do so that bestowal will take place. But he doesn't know this with certainty.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:02) He writes here in the end, only the Creator knows the truth because he can deceive himself and think that all his intentions are for the sake of the Creator. But when the Creator brings him closer and gives him the attainment of the soul of the Torah, then he knows that he was born a male and that the act he is doing is for the Creator. We could maybe say that until he feels that the act he's doing is for the sake of the Creator, and that it's the Creator letting him feel that it's correct that he did, until then, his intention is probably not correct.

M. Laitman: Okay.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (13:53) What's the difference between the whiteness of the father and the soul that he gets from the Creator? 

M. Laitman: The whiteness of the father is the upper light, white and the soul is the vessel, the will to receive.

Student: That's not the light. The soul is not the light? 

M. Laitman: We can say that the soul is the light but it depends on where you're reading it. Sometimes you treat the soul as light, other times as a will to bestow. It depends on where you're reading it. 

Student: This matter of the father and the male is seemingly wholeness, correct?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: So what's this combination between the wholeness of the father and the redness of the mother? That, what happens between these two forces?

M. Laitman: They complement each other.

Student: What's the thing that, so what's the soul here? If there are two forces, deficiencies and fillings, and…

M. Laitman: The soul is a result of both of them.

Student: But there's a third matter here. 

M. Laitman: The Creator, who brings the light. And this unity between the whiteness of the father and the redness of the mother can exist together.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (16:12) We started the conversation with the question of the friend and then when the other friend said that only the Creator can bring them close, so only, let's say that on behalf of a person, it's not that we're passive. He writes in the article, to understand this in the matter of ethics, we can understand that every birth can only be by male and female. And then he continues by saying that where a person wants to delight himself,  can only be when he works for the sake of himself and by these two forces, he has to work in choice, to choose the good, meaning for the sake of the Creator. So, this relates to what the other friend said in the question of the friend that there's the part of the Creator and there's our part of our work. 

M. Laitman: Yes, and?

Student: Because you know that it's not a passive matter. The friend said that only the Creator brings us closer. Okay, we seemingly will sit and wait until the Creator brings us closer. So Rabash says, no, you have work specifically by these two forces, the male and the female by you choosing the good and rejecting the evil, then I can work. So, it's the combination of our work and a collaboration of our work and the Creator's work.

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (17:55) Also about the questions, he writes, there are two states. He writes, by this we will understand everything above. You're a woman who starts first, then it'll be a male, and if a man inseminates first, then first with his thoughts. Meaning, everything begins with thought. We ask, how does everything begin? And we also know that thought comes from a deficiency, that if a person doesn't have a deficiency, he doesn't even have a thought at all. So, it all starts from the Creator. He implants a deficiency in a person and then we start thinking of how to fulfill it. Then we have two options. Either to be a woman who inseminates, or to be a man who inseminates. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (18:58) What is the soul of Torah? He defines it as a person performs the correct action, then the Creator actually gives him the soul of the Torah. Should I read it? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: It follows that by the Creator distinguishing and sentencing, this is what really happens. For only the Creator knows the truth, since He can deceive Himself and think that His intention is only for the Creator. But when the Creator brings Him closer and gives Him the attainment of the soul of Torah, he knows that he was born a male.

M. Laitman: Well? 

Student: What is the soul of Torah? 

M. Laitman: The soul of the Torah is the inner light.

Student: The inner light inside of a person that he feels?

M. Laitman: That now a person feels?

Student: Thank you.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (20:05) Rav, I'm missing something. Where's the request from the Creator? There's like this thought of a person which is not yet clear, and then a partnership with the Creator, and then a result. But where is the appeal to the Creator and request for help for there to be the quality of bestowal, really in this process?

M. Laitman: I think that before that, when the Creator turns to a person,

Student: Before everything that He describes here? And then a person asks to scrutinize that it's the quality of bestowal really? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Student: So how is it that a female is born or a male is born?

M. Laitman: If it's a deficiency that comes from a person and it's a male, and if it's a deficiency that comes from the Creator, it's a female. We will scrutinize it further.

Question (PT 22): (21:24) How do you keep the thought that will always beget a male? 

M. Laitman: We’ll always want to be in unity with the Creator and walk in His footsteps?

Question (Woman Mac 56): (21:46) Why is the insemination the annulment of the force? 

M. Laitman: When a woman inseminates? You said something else. 

Student: It was what was written before. Why is insemination the canceling of the force? 

M. Laitman: Yes?

Student: Why is that action the cancellation of the force?

M. Laitman: I have a few answers, but I don't want to disclose them even. I'm not sure about it. 

Question (KabU 5 and Women Hebrew 1): (22:43) They're asking, what is one who comes to defile, it's opened up for him? After all, he's doing it only for his pleasure. Why is it opened for him? 

M. Laitman: So, he should check himself and see what he comes to through his request.

Question (Moscow 1): (23:04) Can a person want something anti-egoistic or just yearn for equivalence of form? 

M. Laitman: He can subjugate himself in the upper light and want to resemble the upper light. 

Question (Women Turkey 5): (23:23) Do we have free choice with everything that has to do with the thought?

M. Laitman: No. After incorporating in the society and then we receive power from the upper light and using this power, we continue. That's it. 

Reader: (24:04) We can move to Pirkei Avot.

M. Laitman: Go ahead.

Reader: So, we're going to move to the next part of the lesson.