Morning Lesson January 13, 2023, Transcription Testing 

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

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #44

https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/ALlyoveA

Reading Item 42 (00:30)

1. S. (04:25) Where should we relate to the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking if they’re not lights of Sefirot?

R. Still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, are the desires that are arranged this way in our world when they affect each other – still, vegetative, animate, and speaking.

S. We learn that everything is included in man so how can we relate to the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, because he says that there are the lights of NRNHY and there are the Sefirot KHB TM , that still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, where does it enter?

R. I understand. He’s telling you that you have the soul of Adam, angels, clothing, and halls. So the soul of man of Adam is the most inner one, upon it Mala'achim angels on it clothing and on the halls that's how they bestow upon each other, perfect each other, and this is how this whole structure advances getting new Reshimot, new lights, and this is how it advances.

2. S. (05:53) It is written in the degree, in animate degree, what Rabash writes I remember that he talked about the horse, he said, look at the horse it's an angel. I wanted to ask whether animals are angels

R. Yes.

S. How can we relate to a dog a horse a bird?

R. They are in a lesser degree than humans and  humans affect them and determine their place. They are drawn to people in order to be by their side and to be fed by them.

S. In the family when we need to annul toward the child that was said, do we need to insert the animal inside of the house?

R. No, no, no, this is not what we are talking about. We are talking about spiritually. We do not need to organize your corporeal world that stands for us in the still, vegetative, animate, and speaking, to the spiritual degrees, no it’s not a must, you don't need that.

3. S. (08:04) We learn that everything is attained in man's vessels and then we learn that there are souls, and angels, and dresses on those souls. How can we understand that when everything is felt in man's vessel?

R. Ultimately all these lights from above they go through the soul of humans and then they enter lesser degrees as all the MAN that rise also rise from the smallest degrees to the higher one.

S. So these angels and dresses these are lights? 

R. These are forces, forces of nature like you have gravity, instead of that you can say you have an angel for you

.

S. We simply divide everything to lights and vessels, there’s no other forces in the world, and in this relationship angels and dresses they’re lights or vessels?

R. These are forces, these are forces, and these forces act on the desires and by that the desires move in space, the spiritual space, and they come closer or further away from these sources of lights.

S. How do we attain those forces? These are spiritual desires. How do we attain these forces?

R. Spiritual forces are attained by us by our inner work between us when we connect.

S. And what is that phenomenon that we attain in connection?

R. I don't understand you. I don't understand you. It’s as if there is some scattering. Let us go to Moscow one, we will take a different route.

4. S. (11:01) You said the upper one determines the place, for example of the animal, where it needs to be in a system, the speaking degree. Does it need to change its place in relation to what it received in the beginning?

R. I do not understand your question.

S. You said that the speaking degree determines where the animate degree is in the system and that degree is lower than …. . We develop ourselves in the speaking degree and from the beginning was that …. and when we develop we change our place in the system within ourselves, meaning we have an opportunity to move in the system.

R. I don't understand your system and it's not the first time. What are you building there?

S. You said that the animate degree in the system in relation to the speaking degree is a fixed degree.

R. What do you mean fixed?

S. We talked about angels as some kind of program which has no free choice, no free desire.

R. Okay.

S. And the person when he is born he receives that data but he has the opportunity to grow to a higher degree.

R. Okay it’s possible, yes.

S. So that’s what I’m asking about. It turns out that we are in the only degree that can develop in the system, to change its starting point.

R. In short a man can come closer to the Creator that is all. He has no other freedom.

S. I’m sorry about the…

R. Okay, in the mean time I will wait patiently. 

5. S. (13:38) Are we talking about dresses where we all serve each other and develop thanks to that?

R. I didn't understand your question.

S. When we are talking about dresses when everyone dresses on each other and we develop in a mutual manner.

R. Of course this is how it happens. The closest example for us is the ten. No one can develop if he doesn't bestow upon all the ten..

6. S. (14:55) He writes here that I want to scrutinize, he says that the three degrees still, vegetative, and animate did not emerge from them so for themselves but only for the fourth category which is man and to rise by them to man. What does it mean to rise?

R. To rise means to get a higher degree.

S. How do we do that? Can we connect that to the Zohar to allow that? You said that we need to adhere between us. Is the reading of the Zohar enough? We're reading, everyone reads. What does it mean to adhere between us and how do we rise through the Zohar?

R. We want to advance to the height of the Creator. Return Israel to the Lord your God.

S. Why am I asking you? Because we saw about a month ago this movie about Rabbi Shimon where he entered the cave and he said to his friends, friends now in the cave, he put a knife between his teeth and said now we are going to start working. Do we also all need to put a knife between our teeth in order to read the Zohar?

R. I do not know this knife between the teeth. 

S. In the movie we saw that, that he says now we are going into the cave and we need to put a knife between our teeth and now we’re going to start working.

R. Yes, that is correct.

S. So I'm asking do we need to bring a knife from our place?

R. No, you are in a place which is like a cave.

S. Certainly I know it.

R. Okay, so then let's say that’s a cave and we are going into it, and we want to see ourselves belonging to one spiritual source acting upon us, bringing us closer, connecting us, leading us to the state of Adam HaRishon.

S. I want to understand something. You say that when you read you need to adhere between yourselves. How can we adhere between ourselves? We read the Zohar like children.

R. Desire.

S. What does it mean with a desire?

R. Each one should discover what desire he has; each one has a desire because creation is a desire. Anything besides the desire is our imagination that is why it is called an imaginary world. Every person is a desire, and we need then to attach our desires to the others and then we can become one new desire, that’s called one man in one heart.

S. The attitude between the tens here when we are reading the Zohar what should the attitude be? Friends reading the Zohar,  what should we feel, how should we behave?

R. We should behave in a way that we come closer to each other internally in our hearts and ultimately we need to feel that we are in one desire and this one desire is the Creator.

S. Is there another action that we need to do during the Zohar?

R. On the way maybe but that’s the goal.

S. What additional actions could you point to that could progress us?

R. Whatever brings us closer.

S. Can I get an example?

R. I don't know, there are many actions when you do it for the group for the society. 

S. Because this example of the knife between the teeth I always think what is the intention? What do I lack to give to the ten?

R. To care for your ten to be connected, and in their connection they will want to be as one, and then out of this effort to be as one they will discover that this one is also the Creator.

S. We need to annul toward the friends, to subjugate toward the friends, to be in the same mind, it's a problem to understand what is happening here like you said we need to read the Zohar and to adhere between ourselves, that is not enough, there are these things around it. How do I annul toward the friend? How do I overcome toward the friend, because we are just reading, and we’re not do any work other than that.

R. No, everyone is doing work except for you.

S. What work is everyone doing?

R. Everyone is examining themselves how much they can be more connected to the friends.

S. Okay, it is a wide topic. 

R. What?

S. If one friend says something that insults the other friend and then you can get up off your chair and leave and you're saying you have to be with a knife between your teeth, sit, accept what the friend tells you as if close your mouth, accept it because it is for your benefit. No, no he gets up and he leaves the table. So that's what I'm talking about, this force of overcoming is lacking.

R. Okay so that's also good. So he felt, we all felt he’s lacking the force to overcome now we need to work on this force.

S. Very nice. How do we do that? How can you give some sign so that we do not escape the table?

R. Increase the force of connection to be more than the force of overcoming, the force of separation.

S. That is what progresses us in the reading of the Zohar?

R. Yes, we are all always in two opposite forces good force, bad force, reception, bestowal, coming closer, further away, etc., so we have to make sure that the force of connection grows more and more that we’ll come closer every day upon the force of separation more and more and this is how we will advance.

S. Then you'll see that no one sleeps here.

R. Stop with all your criticism, do whatever you can in your ten.

S. No, because you said everyone is falling asleep, what is happening to you.

R. I cannot talk to you because you're a person who that so much experience in arguments as a profession, that’s why, let us leave it.

7. S. (22:35) What does it mean that at the animate degree there are angels that influence the souls? Can we depict the quality of the souls in relation to the animal souls?

R.  No, no we cannot use any names by them to make corrections in nature. As much as we will know about it that will not help only through our inner desires when we connect them, and this is how we will build the system of connection between us and through this system of connection we will flow. The forces of love and connection will flow only through that we will correct creation.

8. S. (23:56)  Stop me if I'm mistaken. What is the difference between that in which we work in the ten and working in dissemination. We start disseminating and we have this rejection, which is serious, and everyone has their principles, habits, qualities when we are disseminating together men and women. It turns out that one does not accept the other and gradually we start moving toward a single goal. Today, we have a convention that we created as one man with one heart. Why does it always happen with dissemination, but it does not happen in the 10th that in the dissemination we turn into being as one and care who is coming. How do we do that in the ten?

R.  You do not have this one single goal for everyone. You are not giving birth to one common child for everyone. Think about that.

9. S. (25:51)  In relation to this reading of the Zohar it is like entering this shower of warm water and you cannot get out. I always see that you tell the readers to read slowly, and I understand that there is importance to really take time with every word and not to run through the pages. Is that correct?

R. Yes.

10. S. (26:24)  I have a double question. Is it enough that a person does not leave the place where he feels a stony heart, meaning that he does not leave the war and if so how can we do that? How can we make it so that our ego will not confuse us and will always be in that request. What should we do?

R. Think only about the friends and nothing besides that and about yourself, take yourself out of the picture. 

S. There needs to be some kinds of questions you tell us that we are sleeping and not asking questions?

R. These questions will be solved by themselves. Think about your friends and everything will be ok.

11. S. (27:36)  It is written that the still, vegetative and animate help the speaking of the male soul. I wanted to direct myself that the still, vegetative, and animate they hold the soul and then they form a certain foundation for a correct intention.

R. It's possible but usually we have to understand that these stages of the still vegetative and animate are all essential stages when there's an essence between them. It's not that the still is equal to the vegetative. The vegetative is not equal to the animate. Between them, each and every one there are these new degrees of life. There's a connection between these parts in a special way and this is how we have to relate to them.

S. It is clear to me that I cannot make the discernment of where I am but wherever I am I know the reception of the light that changes me and all the other parts I can cause them to support and to also move away those that do not relate and give time for connection is scrutiny, that is what I mean.

R. Yes.

12. S. (29:19) In relation to the scrutiny you did earlier with student how can we let the book of Zohar work on us and that we are connected in the ten.

R. First of all without being connected in the ten, The Zohar cannot affect us at all. When we connect to the ten, we wish The Zohar to control us, to affect us, to spread in us and fill us only this way because at least according to our external structure we resemble what the book of Zohar requires of us. Without connecting to a ten, we do not let the Zohar, we are not allowing the Zohar to affect us. It is as if we are not reading it or not dealing with it.

Reading #43 (30:43) “When man is born he immediately has Nefesh of Kedusha..”

13. S. (33:34) It says that every person is born with the posterior of the Nefesh of Kedusha and I remember that you told us that Rabash knew how to open the point in the heart for people. How did he do that if you can tell us?

R. It is not the time or place.

14. S. (34:12) The text of the Zohar itself, there is a feeling of additional adhesion in the ten; however, at the same time we feel fear from falling. How to face that because it is a feeling of an additional connection but sometimes there's more fear from falling?

R. I did not understand the question.

Reader repeats it..

R. I need to come closer among yourselves and with the Creator. Then you will not lose your connection and the connection with the Creator, and you will all move towards the same goal. There's nothing else to do and there will be fear and fear is also good. It protects you.

S. It seems to be harder every time.

R. So what. Certainly, it will be harder. What about that?

Reading #44 (36:12) “Prior to thirteen years of age, there cannot be any emergence..”

15. S. (40:33) You said that it is impossible to connect. How are we going to do?

R. That we will feel the connection between us and in the center of the connection between us we will always be directed towards the Creator. It does not matter what degree it is on.

16. S (41:16) It is written that the Nefesh of man is clothed in kingship of the World of Assiya. Is that the closest spiritual degree to us?

R. Yes.

S. So what is this Nefesh of man?

R. Our lowest spiritual degree.

S. What is that? Is that a degree of connection in the ten?

R. Yes

S. What does it mean that this level of connection rises and clothes in kingship of the World of Assiya?

R. When we gather together we can attain the inner content of our connection.

S. What is the inner content?

R. What is it? I don't know, try to attain it and then you will know.

S. How can we in our ten, in our work reach this state called Nefesh so that after we can rise even higher.

R. In your connection among yourselves, through your connection in the ten you want to reach such a connection among you which will be felt as this common feeling which is called Nefesh.

S. It is really interesting that for us a connection in the ten is the connection in the ten. It is one constant thing that we are working on but here there are so many details with something called Nefesh something is called kinship of Assiya. How can we discern all these things in everything with the connection in the ten.

R. When you reach that state you will start discerning between them?

17. S. (43:52) What does it mean when a person is born, he is born with a part of the posterior side of Nefesh, this point of the light of Nefesh.

R. That in his desires he has spiritual fulfillment which is called the posterior of Nefesh of Kedusha.

18. S. (44:22) How can we come closer in the internality of the heart? How can we develop this emotion which is not from our will to receive?

R. When we start connecting between us and each one becomes ready to concede his personal feeling for the sake of the common feeling.

19. S. (44:54) What does it mean to be adhered between us practically?

R. We in practice want only one thing: to feel the point of connection between us.

20. S. (45:10) With respect to the still, vegetative, animate and speaking what does it mean that this still is the Hall of everything in the world. How does that relate to the development of the desire?

R. Still is the lowest degree therefore it can be the foundation for all the other degrees that will grow and become revealed within it. Everything comes from this still.

21. S. (45:50) What are the still desires within us?

R. Those are the desires that we need to elevate to higher degrees.

22. S. (46:01) Are the souls divided to the still, vegetative, animate and speaking? Or every person on earth has to rise to the speaking level?

R. Both this and that.

23. S. (46:16) What is the spiritual relation we have to establish to the still, vegetative, and animate? What should be our relation to them?

R. We need to feel the extent to which we are included with them.

24. S. (46:42) We are many representatives from different tens in the same room. Should we work on the connection between us in our room in order to get the light of Zohar? How can we do it if we only meet once a day for the morning lesson?

R. That is also good. Do that.

Reading #45 (47:16) “And that light of Nefesh is called the light of the still of Kedusha..”

25. R. (48:06) That is how it is at the still level.

Continues Reading #45 (48:16) “…without distinction of details.”

26. S. (49:00) I wanted to know everything and also the friends they want to know and in order to know we can ask many questions but now I understand that I do not need to know but rather to feel or to understand how to perceive the Creator. Every moment I want to catch a fish, but you have to learn how to fish, how to do that? 

R. Through your connection among yourselves with your friends you build such a vessel like a net for catching fish with which you can catch the fish. So, in that same way you need to build your network through your desires which we weave together in order to grab the Creator and then you will have this vessel, this network of your own in which the light, the Creator will be able to become revealed in that vessel. That is what you need to do. 

27. S. (50:42) In the text he says that every new degree that is born, it immediately appears from the last degree from the previous degree. Is that ascent and descent?

R. No. It is simply the incorporation of degrees where each degree that becomes revealed, that reveals a part of the degree that is after it and then we can implement, we can realize the current degree and also start implementing somewhat the impregnation of the following degree.

S. The text says that before 13 years there is no depiction of the point in the heart, but after the 13 years when one starts engaging in Torah and Mitzvot even without an intention meaning without fear and love worthy to serve the King even when not for her sake. Why is it that in corporeality, the people of Israel are celebrating this bar mitzvah at age 13?

R. That is how it is, a branch in relation to the root, but there is no spiritual sign of that where a child at the age of thirteen receives a special light and feels that it is in him and that he is in some special attainment. No, that is customary, it is customs. Nothing more than that.

28. S. (53:17) In 44, it is written that the Commandment needs no intention. What does that mean?

R. The meaning is that the Commandments do not need intention. Meaning that even actions without intentions can also help us into corrections, but only enter the corrections to reach the degree of Nefesh and no more. Therefore, this is how we need to work. Meaning there are actions where if a person does them, he in any case is in some kind of adaptation to the upper light. That is it.

S. So in our state we need to be in intentions?

R. You certainly need to be in intentions, but he said that even actions without the intentions are good if they are adapted to spiritual actions.

29. S. (55:13) These 613 organs of the soul are corresponding to the 613 mitzvot?

R. Yes.

S. So it turns out that we come to the love of others in the world of Assiya?

R. Yes. We begin from the world of Assiya.

S. So it says that these 613 organs are created in the world of Assiya.

R. What do you want to ask?

S. That's it. That's it.

30. S. (56:10) I heard you say that we have to leave the personal feeling and move on to the common feeling. How can we do that?

R. That I do not care about myself, but I care about the entire ten.

S. How can we do that in practice?

R. What we can do, we do and what we cannot do we pray for the strength to be able to do it.

S. What is the intention? Is it a thought, a desire, a vessel? What is it?

R. Intention is what I intend to exit my current state.

S. I can say I intend something but the heart intends something else. What is working here?

R. Nothing acts, the mind does not act because it is just a thought. It is just for scrutiny, but after the scrutiny the heart needs to want and if the heart does not want then the mind, it is clear to me, I scrutinized that I need to love everyone so it in the mind I understand that, but in the heart I cannot. I disagree, I cannot absorb that entire thought. What should I do?

S. This is what I'm asking. A person can be stuck for years telling himself that.

R. Right. Therefore what I have in my heart is what the Creator feels and that is what he is ready to execute, but not what I have as thoughts in my mind.

S. So what can convince the Creator to give me a real intention if my heart never really wants it.

R. You Incorporate with the friends and you gather these desires for the Creator so that you will have these intentions for yourself and gradually you will come to a state where you will have a prayer.

S. How can we gather intentions from the friends. I'm not even sure they have the right intentions so what do I really gather from them?

R. Draw closer to them. Draw closer to them that is all. There is nothing special here that is impossible to carry out.

S. That is right but I'm always trying to come closer and it seems to not be right, not be exact. The intention is not exact. It's good that I'm trying to get close, so what. When will it really work on my intention?

R. I cannot tell you. Everything depends on what is in your hands. It seems as if you need to bow down before the friends and ask them for help.

31. S. (01:00:23) Is our work to connect the points in the hearts of each friend in the ten? Or is it enough to have two friends in order to feel the light of Nefesh.

R. No. Certainly the majority of the minority is two, but you cannot discard the others and say that with this guy and I am going to build the light of Nefesh. That is no good.

S. But we start with two and then advance?

R. No. The beginning needs to be in the ten, but if there is no 10 then it is written that the majority of the minority is two where even with two you can build a system.