Morning Lesson February 6, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam: Introduction to The Book of Zohar. Item 9
1.Rav’s Introduction: I think before each and every lesson of ours we should have a prayer. Either we compose it ahead of time for each and every lesson. Some of the prayers could be permanent where we repeat them. They can be short, just a few lines long as long as we try to connect our hearts and enter the lesson already as in a single desire ready for the influence of the Creator over us. Let us go to the prayer from Africa
Reading of the Prayer friends from Africa
2. R. (01:56) Amen to this a prayer and from this connection let us start the lesson
Reading from Introduction to Book of Zohar Item 9 (02:14)
3. R. (05:17) I will read Item 9 again
4. S. (09:18) I do not understand so much if the Creator has a desire to create the will to receive meaning He already has some persona and some image of the will to receive, that he wants to create. When I give, I have some idea of the gift I want to give.
R. That is why we cannot relate to the Creator in this way. We cannot turn to it because we have no common quality. This is why we relate to the Creator this way outside of the Creator outside to his essence meaning the way he is himself he cannot turn to him because we have no grasp there, we cannot turn to the essence because we have no connection to his essence no common qualities and although what we have is his connection to the Creator that come and see he made of himself and external form through which he relates to us.
5. S. (10:51) Pardon me for being so linear but these excerpts seem to leave out Adam HaRishon, who are the souls we are talking about, apparently there was only a single creature, it was the soul of Adam HaRishon.
R. These are parts of Adam HaRishon is the desire that the Creator created. The desire to receive He created existence from absence, such a desire to receive did not exist at all because the Creator is the will to bestow and above the will to bestow which is his essence Atzmuto we cannot say anything about this part since we do not have attainment of this part. BoReh, come and see, is an external form and external manifestation of the upper force that creates the will to receive, existence out of absence. That form of reception did not exist in the form of the Creator.
That is why he is called Creator, BoReh, outside of His degree, outside of Himself, He created the will to receive outside of what He wants to give to this will to receive as fulfillment and exactly according to all the changes that He wants the will to receive to undergo and resemble the Creator, the abundance of the Creator, meaning the abundance to receive, although it will be the created being. This is when it is a will to receive, but it will be able to change to such an extent that he will feel what is the will to bestow. What it means to be in bestowal and from that he can reach the state of the Creator. This is his entire form of development.
6. S. (13:17) It is not clear according to this passage, that there is no difference between the souls and the parts of the Creator?
R What we are discussing here is the upper desire that relates to us and not further inside. We are not built to attain those things. We have no capability to attain more than that. It belongs to the external part of the upper reality. We discover what the Kabbalists who attained it told us. We discover it as a desire to do good to his creatures. This is what we attain, and the desire to do good to His creatures creates a desire to receive and in working on the will to receive, that He created in us, both in the will to receive and also in our ability to change the will to receive, to form it, to make it into different forms that resemble the Creator, the desire to bestow.
Through those two desires that we have the desire to receive that comes directly from the Creator and the desire to bestow that we try to build by ourselves towards the Creator accordingly we have a connection with the Creator. We try to resemble Him in our will to bestow. This is called the degree of adhesion of the creature to the Creator and also in the other way, activates our desire to receive that was created in us and receive from the will to receive that pleasure, that fulfillment He wants to give us.
We have to work seemingly in two opposite directions, not wanting to receive that the Creator received in us and we resemble the Creator. After that we open up the will to receive and we receive in it in our will to bestow. This is why our path includes two parts, one apart along the way where we develop up to the degree of Bina on the degree of bestowal. We do not want to receive the restriction of the growing will to bestow that we build on top of our will to receive. Once we get to the degree of Bina that we restricted and when we get to the degree of Bina in its entirety, bestow in order to bestow, then we can also go to the second phase of our development where we begin to work also in receiving in order to bestow. This is a very important stage, great stage, and upper stage. This is how we get from Bina to Keter
7. S. (17:01) Is it a separate part of the bestow that we call the point in the heart?
R. The point in the heart is what we receive from the will to bestow, from the Creator. He plants it inside the will to receive. Through the development of the point in the heart we come to resemble the Creator. The starting point comes from the Creator. This is why it is divine apart from above, the point in the heart of the will to bestow. This starting point exists in every creature except, in different degrees, in each one of us that stems from our individual soul, in the system of Adam HaRishon. This is how we develop his point until we connect to this more and more of the desire to receive. It varies in forms each time more and more and by that we process the will to receive. We get it to work under the dominion of the point in the heart and the dominion of the intention to bestow and this is how we grow ourselves more and more until this vessel which is entirely the will to receive with the intention in order to bestow, to feel the Creator and we can have this mutual work with him. “I am to my beloved and my beloved to me.”
8. S. (19:08) The rock from the mountain, does it turn each time to the mountain from step to step, stage to stage?
R. Yes, we need to return our souls to their source which is by connecting between us and connecting with the Creator. This is our work exactly.
9. S. (19:52) So until we attain the desire of the Creator, we are not considered created beings. So this reality that we feel in our five senses does not exist, is it a complete illusion?
R. This is a philosophical question, and it is not a question of attainment that belongs to spirituality. We need to continue and develop in us the connection between us, because in the connection between us we liken ourselves to the correct system; we receive from the upper light, from the Creator, greater qualitative bestowal that is closer to the truth and it connects us correctly and fills us, and then we will be able to understand what we are going through.
10. S. (21:10) The Creator is a complete system of the quality of bestowal. How within the system did there appear the desire to create the created beings, the desire to do good?
R. Where did the Creator get the desire to create the created beings? We cannot discuss that for the time being, it belongs to a higher degree. Before we can even refer to him as the Creator and we might talk about it later. But it is not important to us. We belong to the created beings, and we must ask only about our work in order to understand how we are going to develop. Later we will be able to understand more things from our development. How in the Creator suddenly came the desire to create a creature? We do not discuss that; it does not belong to us. We are created beings so we have to learn what belongs to us and later we will see that there are many more questions that do not belong exactly to the created beings, but we will scrutinize them, nevertheless. Nothing will remain concealed from us, only gradually we reveal it if we learn it correctly.
11. S. (22:50) Rabash read the introduction of the Zohar with you many years ago and we also learned this introduction. Today we are in tens, we have new discernments and abilities. Does this form a new state that we are learning this as a ten?
R. Certainly. We are learning it again; we are learning it in ten and we want first of all to realize it in the ten since within the ten we wish to relate to the connection in the ten which is the Creator. How concealed it is from as and how it begins to be revealed, or maybe not revealed but we can feel that He needs to be there. This way we come closer, more practically in this intentional search for the attitude of the Creator, and of ours to Him.
S. What causes contentment to the Creator, this quality so opposite to the will to receive?
R. When we search for Him. Our desire is to know our King. We connect, we are ready to do everything against our ego, against our desire as long as it helps us get to Him. He is a hidden God, and we are chasing Him.
S. The contentment to the Creator we also feel in the end that is within us?
R. We need to feel pleasure from being together, from connecting in order to find Him. That is our entire work, to find Him and He hides among us, between us, when we are not that connected. So all those cracks that remain between us, those distances, those gaps, He is there, He is hidden there. Then we check between us where else can we unite ourselves in order to locate Him and thanks to our work in connection between us, we clothe ourselves around Him we begin to see that He is between us, and then we begin to be filled by His light.
12. S. (25:50) Perception of reality sounds on one hand very informative, but how do we change our perception of reality from informative to a place of work?
R. We are learning the wisdom of Kabbalah gradually. And we start with the vessels in which we have no sensation, no feeling. We do not have any feeling - closer, farther, Creator, created being, connection, separation, our intentions. We repeat those words that we read or hear but we still do not have a certain reaction from our own feelings because we are not used to it in our lives as well. But gradually through the study, through the connection, through the efforts, but mostly through envy, lust and honor that exists between us, through all those forms of relationship that exist between us we come to a state where our feelings will join as well. We are egoists compared to all humanity and it is not so simple for us to start connecting between us and revealing new sensations, new qualities between us.
We are not so gentle or subtle. We are quite coarse, unrefined, blocked to feelings. This is why this work is so great because we will connect ourselves, connect between us so we will begin to feel it in our feelings. That is the problem and on the one hand; on the other hand we have no choice. We need to understand that coarseness and refinement, distancing from the Creator and attaining the Creator, they are actually equal, they are connected to one another. Hence although we are heavy, we are difficult, we are egoistic, specifically because our will to receive is so great and so blocked, so opaque, we will be able to reach such states where the Creator will begin to reveal himself. Then we will have great attainment as a result. That is why “he who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater.” The more the will to receive is greater in a person the more he finally reveals the form of a reality, the essence of reality that is greater.
13. S. (29:28) According to the text can we be called created beings today?
R. A created being is one who understands that he was created and that there is the quality of the Creator above him, the one who created him. He, the created being is tied to the Creator and to the extent that he enlivens and revives this connection, inside that connection where he finds himself, he is called a created being.
14. S. (30:28) You said that we need to connect between us to be similar in our desires, thoughts, and goals. Question from yesterday, how to reach such a thing because we are all so different?
R. If we were not different, we would not be able to attain the Creator. Because the Creator is attained specifically above or on top the differences between us where we wish to build above those differences a system of connection. Then in that system of connection above the differences between us, the system of separation, we use these two systems one on top of the other. With coarseness and specifically above its refinement we build the system called the attitude towards the Creator, the form of bestowal. This is how we discover our connection to the Creator, only this way. We never delete our coarseness, rather our coarseness is revealed more and more, and we are trying to rise above each and every day on top of that coarseness that is revealed daily. And we come to such states where in the coarseness and in the refinement, above it we begin to feel ourselves through such ascents and descents in which the Creator is revealed as the light that excels from darkness.
15. S. (32:25) How can we enlarge our will to receive?
R. Increase? The will to receive is the desire to receive pleasure.
S. In order to feel the Creator we need to enlarge our desire, right?
R. We receive from above an increase in our will to receive each moment. We receive both in corporeality, all of humanity is receiving it, and we too will receive in spirituality according to how much we can prepare the system of connection between us. So as to not to fail between us the Creator awaits to see how connected we are. To the extent we are ready to connect or that we are even connected in the ten, to that extent we will begin to feel how opposite we are from one another. We move apart, we repel one another, we push each other away, just like the students of Rabbi Shimon who wanted to kill each other.
16. S. (33:50) The example here is very tangible in comparison to our concrete work in the ten. The Creator seemingly separated between the fulfillment and the vessel. We as a vessel that receives everything from the Creator is opposite and we need to do this completeness upon us? We need to take upon ourselves with the ten with all the work that we do with adhesion in this that we are trying to resemble ourselves towards Him, because in Him there is everything.
R. I stopped listening to half of what you said. I am asking you, ask using one line, one sentence. We know each other, we respect each other for many years but I constantly ask myself should I let you ask or not. Ask one question only without the introductions and without all the stories. If you cannot do it, prepare the question at home, and then read it.
S. So the question is how do we connect back together between the vessel and the fulfillment the Creator created in our concrete daily work?
R. How do we connect the vessel and the fulfillment? Using the force of resistance between the vessel and the fulfillment because they are opposite to each other. The vessel is the will to receive, and the fulfillment has to be in order to bestow. This is why we build between them a screen which rejects the pleasure for itself and is willing to receive it only with the condition that he bestows it to the Creator. This is our work. Good question.
17. S. (36:11) Maybe a silly question: the sensation that the Creator created, not just opposite to his qualities but also a program for ascent to Him, this program itself is also not the Creator. From what stage are we talking about.
R. I cannot understand what you are saying. Can you ask more clearly, sharply more precisely? Think about it, how to do it.
S. I wanted to ask that also during the time of ascent of degrees when we build a desire to bestow above the will to receive, we have no choice, we have a set program ahead of us. We have no freedom of choice. That is a moment the Creator appears and allows us a number of opportunities and connections?
R. There is no such thing, no. There is only one way. There is only one way to reach faith above reason and to build ourselves in connection to that, that direction. I do not understand everything you are trying to explain to me, we do not have such a thing. There is something very simple. I build connection with their friends, in the center of the connection with the friends I have to reach connection with the Creator, period. That is it. We do not have here a choice of these things or those things, no, none.
18. S. (38:11) In the excerpt it says that the difference between the souls and His essence is that the souls are a part of His essence. Now we learn that there is the system of Creator and created being, so it is not clear how the souls are part of His essence. Is there a disparity of form?
R. The Creator is the will to bestow only. The created being is the will to receive only. There is no connection between them, no connection. When there will be a connection between them then the created being the will to receive goes through a preparation and the ability to direct himself despite that he is a will to receive. This is in intention to perform actions toward himself, the will to receive or toward the Creator, the will to bestow. More than this is not possibility meaning that created being will always be to receive. But his intention changes. Either he will receive for his own benefit called the shell, the Klipa or for the benefit of the Creator called holiness. This is it in sum total. The Creator is always the will to bestow.
19. S. (39:50) What does the disparity of form relate to in the created beings? The difference between the souls or difference towards the Creator?
R. It is both because we need to work in connection between us. Afterwards we need to work from the connection between us, and from this point of connection to the Creator.
20. S. (40:31) It says that the creature receives directly from the Creator and there are many questions there. How can the creature receive from the Creator if he is opposite to him?
R. It is the complete opposite because the will to receive is opposite to the Creator, opposed to Him so he can receive from Him, and this he has the will to receive. Without the will to receive there is no created being. But how to receive from the Creator? With the intention to bestow contentment to the Creator, that by this he gives to the Creator. Then it turns out that the created being according to how he is created and corrected himself, he is in two opposite forms one to another. According to his will to receive he is opposed to the Creator, pulling from Him and then according to the restriction, screen and reflected light he returns what he receives from the Creator back, returning to the Creator with the intention to bestow. It turns out that the created being is very complex in his structure. He has a will to receive that is filled, and he has an intention to bestow. That all this fulfillment he sends in return in order to pleasure the Creator. That is it. Imagine to yourself that you are like babies in the hands of your mother, and the mother gives you porridge and the baby takes this porridge. On one hand it is very tasty for him. If it is not tasty, what is he going to give back to that mother and only things that are tasty, good, and mother prepared, and everything she put into this action feeds him. He in return does it all only in order to pleasure her. Then it turns out that he is not receiving anything, nothing. All his reception is only bestowal, pure bestowal. This is what we need to depict to ourselves in our spiritual work.
21. S. (43:21) When we reveal separation in the ten, how not to run away and change your ten but deal with this state?
R. When it is revealed the separation in the ten, we need first of all to understand that everything comes from the Creator. That there is None Else Besides Him and that He is doing it to us. That by this we can improve our vessel and connect above all the disturbances. All these disturbances are for our benefit so that we will raise ourselves in the quality of connection that is even higher. and we will be connected in such a way to the Creator in a manner that is even tighter, more qualitative. Thus all the distance between us we have to see as an opportunity for connection between us even greater, bigger and for connection to the Creator that is greater and bigger.
22. S. (44:42) How can I acquire the form of my friends?
R. The forms of my friends I need to receive come to me from the Creator and that the Creator is the only operator. Beyond the friends, behind the friends He stands and directs them, arranges them to bestow to me in all sorts of forms, that I upon their bestowal to me I will annul myself and receive their bestowal, their influence on me as if it comes truly from the Creator. From each and every friend and all together I will be able to relate to the Creator, to the source of my life that comes through the friends. Thus it turns out that both the friends and the Creator and me are in one connection. What connects between me and the Creator, are the friends, my friends. Without them, without building of them a connection, then this connection does not exist. There will not be any connection from me to the Creator, only through the ten and the Creator I will be able to depict to myself, to feel Him. If not then it is clear to me how I need to connect to the ten, how am I connecting to them and through them to the Creator. This is how it works.
23. S. (46:43) Why specifically does the greatest separation bring the greatest closeness?
R. Because the distance says how much there is between us a great will to receive which is separating between me and the Creator and it is the group that brings me such a sensation, this great distance between me and the group and more so between me and the Creator that stands behind the group. So in this it turns out that specifically my connection with the group, that I reject them, and they reject me, and there is seemingly no opportunity to connect between us, if we overcome this here there will be a strong connection. We will be able to reach the essence, a new essence of connection between us and in this connection the Creator will be revealed. This is upon all the rejections. We need to understand these are not rejections, they are invitations for connection.
24. R. (48:14) What I want to tell you - hold on, hold on to this introduction as much as possible, what we are learning now. You will see how much it adds for you, to the entire general picture of how to strengthen yourselves in the group and with the Creator together. All the best.
Reading Item 10 twice (48:44)
25. S. (55:52) What is a Klipa in our work in the ten?
We do not yet reach Klipot, shells. Shells are against the sanctity, and we do not really yet have sanctity. The shells are desires on the intention to receive. They are upon the desires to bestow. So there cannot be sanctity without the shells and shells without sanctity. Thus we work upon the will to receive and thus we receive in us these two forms. What is written here simply is the distance between one and the other, you can call it shells, and closeness between one another is holiness.
26. S. (56:53) I also wanted to ask about the shells. It is not simply a desire to receive but what is the degree of correspondence?
R. Shells are the will to receive that appear opposite the will to bestow. There is no such thing that we feel shells rather we feel shells against the holiness, and it is clear to us that it is one against the other. Not like now when we have no shells or sanctity. When we will be already in states of holiness, then we will also have a relation with the shells. In the meantime, to think about such things simply if I want for myself, it is a shell. I want for the benefit of the group and the Creator, that’s holiness. That is it.
27. S. (58:09) What is the difference between the light that emanates from His essence and comes to the world and what we read before, that the light is received in a vessel and that is called a soul?
R. There are many lights that all come out from the Creator and reach the created beings by all sorts of screens and all sorts of systems. But it is all the upper light that comes from the Creator.
S. Why do they call one of them soul? Why do we say this light, a soul and this is not a light of a soul; this is a light of the world or some other light?
R. Light that fills the vessel is called Neshama. In general the light is divided into NRNHY, Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, and Yechida.
28. S. (59:11) Question about the souls. We read that the essence of the soul is the great will to receive and on the other hand it is the mind of the soul. He writes that the will to receive is like an axe that cuts the desire from the Creator. So what is the soul?
R. Soul is part of the light that enters within the vessel and fills the vessel in a general manner. This light that fills the vessel, the inner light is called a soul. Why? Because it comes by the quality of Bina. The light that fills the quality of Bina is called a soul. Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, which is it, that is on one hand. On the other hand NRNHY reaches us. One of the lights is also called Neshama, the main light that fills the vessel of Bina. That is it. There are many such discernments, and we will see them along the way. Here we use only the term of Neshama, the soul, the inner light that fills the vessel. That is called Neshama. Just like in our life when we speak of what fills us and call it a soul. That is how we speak.
S. But nevertheless does it belong to the creature or to the Creator?
R. I cannot say anything about this. What does it mean that the light belongs? The light belongs to the Creator, but it fills the created being according to how much the created being does correct actions in order to receive it. That is it. Or maybe you could say that the light that fills the created being fills it to the extent that the Creator and the created being are together in a mutual action. But light always belongs to the Creator.
29. S. (01:01:44) Are we capable of distinguishing today the four worlds of holiness from the four worlds of impurity?
R. We do not talk about these things in the meantime so do not confuse us. Clear? We need also to see how much we can improve and give benefit in the lesson for everyone.
30. S. (01:02:20) Is the impurity like the mechanism by which we descend into the Klipot like an elevator?
R. Okay friends I cannot answer these questions. It is all still ahead of us and now to begin answering it in a partial way just in order to answer, I do not want to do that. The questions will come in due time, and I will answer them. In the meantime we are doing a transition to our next part of the lesson.