*This transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves possibility for errors.*
*Morning Lesson October 22, 2020*
*A Letter from Baal HaSulam (1928)*
1. Rav’s Introduction:
Yes, this is a special unusual letter, and it's also something that he's not writing for his students, it's not for us, for the future, but rather he wrote it to his relative, so let’s see what he wants to express by that. Maybe we do have something to learn from it.
*Reader A Letter From Baal HaSulam (:43 - 8:52)*
I received your letter and you asked many questions, especially you want to know on What I build my foundation in the wisdom of Kabbalah. These have to sit on a clear and clean drop of ink. As for me, I don't find myself obligated to sympathize with you, with your sorrow, but for reasons that I keep to myself, I will reply to you as much as I can. I will tell you the gist of what happened to me from the beginning of the engagement to the end, and because of which, I was rewarded with the wisdom through his Mercy. On the 12th of Cheshvan on Friday, on Saturday morning, a man came to me and it was revealed to me that, what he was, great, very wise and knowledgeable in the wisdom of Kabbalah and in other teachings, and within these two began to speak and I felt and tasted that he had the wisdom in him. All of his words were in self boasting and very exaggerating. Nevertheless, I believe wholeheartedly that he promised to reveal to me the wisdom of Truth to its fullest. I started with him for approximately 3 months each night after midnight at his home. The majority of the learning was of the ways of Purity and Holiness. But each time I pleaded with him to reveal to me some secret from the wisdom of Kabbalah. He began to say, to speak very generally, but he did not complete his words and it created great yearning in me, until once after a great pleading, he did complete one secret, and I was overjoyed. Since then, I started to acquire a little bit of being by myself. When my being grew as my being grew, my teacher, my holy teacher grew farther from me and I did not feel it. This continued approximately 3 months until in the last days I did not find him at his home at all. I sought him; I looked for him but I didn't find him. Then I felt that he had grown far from me and I was very saddened and started to improve my ways. On the 9th of the month of Nisan, in the morning, I found him and appeased him a lot for the matter, then he was appeased just as before and revealed to me a great secret, great and inclusive secrets. In what was hoped for that was measured but found lacking. Then I was overjoyed even more, of course. But then I saw him as if growing weaker and I did not come out of his house anymore. But on the next day, on the 10th Nissan he passed away. I cannot express in writing my anguish because my heart was filled with desire to be rewarded with knowledge and wisdom like him, and here I was left bare and destitute, and even what I did receive from him was forgotten temporarily because of the great sorrow. Since then, my eyes were looking upward with endless yearning and longing. I did not rest for one minute until I was favored by the Creator. Through the merit of my holy teacher and his teaching, my heart opened in the sublime wisdom on and on, like a never-ending fountain and by the mercy of the Creator. I was also reminded, by the Creator’s mercy, of all the secrets I had received from my teacher. How can I thank him and how can a poor man like me who, from the very beginning, had no wisdom to even understand, praise him for his great mercies and benefits, but who can tell him what to do. My holy teacher made a living being a businessman. He was famous all over town as a great businessman, but no one knew that he was a Kabbalist to this day and he did not permit me to reveal his name. Now I would reply to the rest of your questions, I make a living being a Rabbi here. The reward and the salary is fixed, and it is very meager, but the Creator gives me what I need in different ways. In general, I enjoy living in the land of Israel, for now. I always hope for the Creator for his Mercy is ever standing. I engage in Kabbalah in the public for everyone, but to individuals in hiding by sometime show the ways and some inlets according to the time. I engage in the literal Torah sometimes in the day except when I teach lessons to the students at the Seminary. My daughter, Leah, we hope to marry her in the coming days. The groom is very learned and he is the grandchild of the Rav of .... and the Maggid of Mezritch. His lineage passes all of the Disciples of the Baal Shem Tov. Everything is good with my health and the health of my family. May the Creator give us good news and we will be rewarded with salvation of Zion, your brother-in-law Yehuda Leib.
2. R. (8:52) Yes this is a special letter because he doesn't write this to the students or to the world but rather to his relative, and this is why his style here is special, but it's interesting to see that he writes about his concealed teacher. That's seemingly revealed this to him a part of Kabbalah, his approach to Kabbalah okay let it be usually we don't read this thing but because I wanted everything to be open before you it also affects the hearts and all the soul that's why I decided we're going to read this letter as well.
3. S.(9:53) It's an amazing letter, thank you very much, he writes here about how he lost touch with his teacher at some point, how did it happen and I want to make sure it doesn't happen to us?
R. No, that teacher became concealed of him. In the wisdom of Kabbalah things happen in a way that either the teacher is completely concealed, as it says here, he is gone physically. And sometimes it turns out that the Creator is physically there, you see Him and feel Him, but you stop feeling your internal connection and that's, as usual, everything comes from above. You may say that I did that, or someone else, it doesn't matter, but it happened. It's happens like this because you need to develop inside the student, a special approach to the teacher and through him to the Creator. That's why, that's how it happened.
. But he writes there, something special develops and that maybe the teacher be concealed from him?
R. He himself started to reveal something, so not to disturb him, that's why the teacher vanished and later as he perceived these things in the beginning of his path so the teacher completely vanished, he died.
S. They didn't have it ongoing connection?
R. No, no, a few months.
4. S. (12:02) Kabbalists would often conceal themselves from each other, I was wondering what's the purpose?
R. That's because you tell me please, when we have small children do we open the whole world to them? Bit by bit we show them all kinds of wisdoms, all the different possibilities and different levels, in different manners so that a person will be able to use everything that lies within our world for his own benefit. It's the same here in the wisdom of Kabbalah. We can't reveal the Upper Forces now because then we're going to use them in order to receive for our own detriment, we're going to burn our souls. God forbid we won't be able to come out of the Klipot later, that's why spirituality is revealed to us in a measure that we can properly use it to receive it in order to bestow, according to the spiritual itself, so we can go into the spiritual world in the same system of forces, that's why Kabbalists hide a lot. There's a verse you open one part and you conceal two parts. So at that time the work has to be great, the work of concealment in order to help the student advanced properly meaning that the questions will remain in him that he will be able to try to solve them and if he knows them, that's good if he doesn't know them well let him try to come closer in various ways to it and to ask.
S. This effort you can feel between teacher and student, this kind of effort to conceal, what about between students among themselves, should they be revealing their spiritual degrees to each other, their states? How should we function in reference to each other?
R. They should behave the way the teacher tells them to and not to look for something above that, because they may be confused. It's not that they can get confused but not in things there's no need to get confused about. We see that the ones that start studying the wisdom of Kabbalah, come to mysticism or enter a new age, all kinds of stuff. That's because they themselves are looking for ways to advance. Not in the way that we learn and go deep into it, But they're searching for rather and more and more places. To raising plants and animals by the way the wisdom of Kabbalah, or healing people according to the wisdom of Kabbalah, or finding connections between Kabbalah and astronomy, there's a hundred different things. You don't know how many books were written about it, different wisdoms that had nothing to do with Kabbalah, but they've been written by people who wanted, by the few lessons they acquired about the wisdom of Kabbalah, to take it and to connect it to all kinds of things in this world. The truth is for the ones who go deep into the group, into connection, because that's the right direction of Kabbalah. If you deviate in different directions right way, and you start fantasizing on all kinds of wisdoms, by that you stop your correct advancement and you become what is called the wise at night. You don't understand anything, but it seems to you are right and then he starts selling his wisdom to others and thousands and thousands of people.
S. How can friends in a tens help each other stay on within the guidelines of the teacher in terms of the fantasies or expression of their understanding of Kabbalah?
R. Only by going over the lesson again and talking in the framework of the lesson nothing more than that, they may read the words by Baal HaSulam and Rabash of course, however stay in the same direction of the lessons because these lessons direct us exactly to reach the goal without deviating.
S. There's some times that we fall into this trap of interpretation as we try to discern an article amongst ourselves and I think there's room for that but also then there's times when you want to come back to the construct of the Rav’s advice the structure of the lesson itself. So how much leeway do we have there between discerning as a group and staying strictly to the lesson for the Rav’s advice?
R. I would recommend for you to go into reading, reading the materials of nothing besides that. Don't make of it anything except for reading their materials, that's it. Less about talking out of your fantasy or something. No, go deeper into what the Kabbalists tell us, to all always be in that don't take your nose out of the book.
5. S. (19:47) Can you reread the letter, it is in Hebrew, I'd like to hear it again?
R. What you want to read it again?
*Excerpt again Reader (20:36 - 26:17)*
6. R. These things are less important he just writes to his relative.
7. S. (26:36) What does it mean that the teacher reveals to the student because we know without the right Kelim the student can't?
R. The teacher can raise the student through the vessels of the teacher and then they'll seal it it's like a baby, we take upon our hands and then we seemingly sees the world from our height.
S. Disconnected to the verbal explanation?
R. No, it has nothing to do with the new words as well, but usually not about words but it's about vessels.
8. S. (27:19) Is right here that after the departure of his teacher he missed him and yearn to feel and prayed to the Creator, what can we learn from this.
R. We should read the words of Baal HaSulam and Rabash and to you to receive the internality they wrote about, that's it through reading, through speaking, through study will also get the internal first force that lies within the writings.
9. S. (28:09) If you can please explain how we should relate to the words of this letter?
R. There is a style by which religious people used to talk a hundred years ago, yes that's the way they used to write and speak.
10. S. (28:41) He writes here that he convinced his teacher to reveal a secret, in what does it mean that he convinced them?
R. You really wanted to answer into the internality as the matter of attaining a Masach, screen and through the screen when you attain the qualities of the soul, the spiritual realm and the Creator which is the entirely the force of the soul and he did not have this Force of bestowal, probably and he really yearn for it and then the teacher gave him a little bit of his screen, of the spiritual force that he had for a while and then just as you take a baby on your hands, so he can see more and you take him and you lower him back down, it's the same.
11. S. (29:54) Concerning the words of Baal HaSulam in the letter should we deal with thoughts of being poor and destitute is there any meaning to this in our work?
R. No, if you don't feel this well you have nothing you have can you make of yourself something but you don't feel, a person should only yearn for the things a Kabbalists tells us to yearn for.
12. S. (30:37) We see that the moment of departure of the teacher is a very critical moment, great sorrow that made him forget everything, is there a way to prepare for such moment?
R. I think that instead of all these thoughts, what we should build is a society where everything happens, truly so. Don't be sorry with or without the teacher within society is where we build the spiritual Kli, that is what we engage in that is where we are, everything will continue there if we can reach the Kli, the Creator stays there, the teacher stays there.
13. S. (31:35) The process of concealment, is it pertinent for today to the last generation, is there a need for concealment, to conceal things, for the upper one to conceal himself?
R. There's also the matter of concealment in order to let the created being develop properly, there's always first grade second grade third grade. even in university it has to be this way according to how much you develop your vessels in your brain or in your heart.
14. S. (32:25) You're right when we read these things, first there's a great feeling of wonder and yearning, how can we always keep these feelings towards this wisdom alive?
R. In order to be impressed that's why we took this letter, it's not letters of Baal HaSulam we have, it is not published, because we don't read this because I wanted to awaken you a little bit.
15. S. (33:21) Can you tell us what it means by speaking about secrets he couldn't understand?
R. No I can't explain and I don't understand it, it's written in a way that you can't know exactly what the secrets are about, there are many things, anything you don’t know is a secret, the question is do you care about it or not, can you accept it or not, that's the question. It's like if you go into a certain class school and you don't know anything yet but you're being prepared so you can learn, so you can discover it and learn it. Here it's the same, you can't get some secret to reveal a secret, you first need to have a question to feel you don't understand, that you may understand, your intellect grows then you can reach revelation of secrets, then it's no longer a secret. You can say it about anything in the world, it's a secret but there are no secrets, ask people on the street are there any secrets here they'll say no there's no secrets here everything's clear. A secret means you're ready to know, but still you're missing a certain vessel approach then I'll discover it, that's the way it is.
16. S. (35:12) I have so many questions it's as if he received the messenger from the Creator to teach Baal HaSulam. It gives you a feeling.... Does a Kabbalist throughout his advancement get from the Creator a private teacher like Baal HaSulam?
R. No.
17. S. (35:56) If we're speaking about scientific laws why did he have to send to reconcile with him if it's all by laws?
R. In the wisdom of Kabbalah it's not the way it goes, in our world, in our vessels you have to develop your brains to understand to be able to discover something new. In the wisdom of Kabbalah you have to discover a force to acquire, to discover something new for yourself. You have to develop a strong sensation, a force of bestowal, a force of connection, an ascent above your nature a little bit, and to that extent when you become more of a bestower then you can reveal a little bit of the wisdom of Kabbalah only in this way.
18. S. (37:04) You said we should focus more on reading our are the articles of Baal HaSulam and Rabash lately we started reading the articles of Rabash to extract principles and scrutinize them and should we stop scrutinizing among them among us?
R. I don't know what you just to know what when you say scrutinize, you can practically just know what is written there and remember as much as you can when we talk about it between us in order not to forget to try to realize it.
19. S. (37:53) He writes there that the learning was based on letters of learning of purity and holiness, what is it that you learned with his teacher purity and holiness?
R. Go ahead we learn this as well it's in order to receive wherever it's called purity and holiness.
20. S. (38:28) When the Rav passes into the world of truth when he dies, can he still direct and to guide his students, how does this work?
R. I can't explain it to you but it is possible, if they connect among them and achieve a certain level of connection and at that time they are also in the world of bestowal where their teacher is.
21. S. (39:21) From the letter it seems like the teacher, that was revealed to Baal Hasulam to take his first steps and without that physical teacher Baal HaSulam would not have then absorbed in the wisdom of Kabbalah that so?
R. Yes, there are just a few cases where a person gets an illumination from above and advances on his own, without a flesh-and-blood teacher.
22. S. (40:05) What impressed me most was Baal HaSulam’s huge yearning, I don't know how we can even touch such yearning because it sounds?
R. Look, what can I tell you, if a person sees that it is what his destiny lies upon, this is what his whole life and that's why he's alive and if he doesn't go in this direction, he shouldn't even go on living because he doesn't want to look in a different direction. Because for him it's to lose everything. So it's clear that this is how he relates the revelation of the wisdom of Kabbalah and the teacher who shows this to him deficiency, it's a high soul with a great deficiency that’s why he yearns, that’s why just callous and a great Kabbalist who emerges as we learn this, from the letter, but from the prophecy of Baal HaSulam you want to read that?
*Reading the Prophecy of Baal HaSulam (41:39 - 55:03)*
The Prophecy of Baal HaSulam
And it came to pass in the days of the war, the days of the dreadful carnage, that I was praying, crying bitterly all through the night. And behold, at the break of dawn, it seemed as though all the people in the world have gathered in a group before my mind’s eye. And a man was hovering among them with his sword over their heads, lashing at their heads. The heads soared upward, and their corpses fell to a great basin and became a sea of bones.
And a voice called out to me: “I am the Lord, God, who governs the whole world with great mercy. Reach out your hand and grip the sword, for now I have given you power and might.” Then the spirit of God clothed me, I held the sword, and that man vanished instantly. As I looked unto his place, and he was gone, and the sword—in my possession, my own possession.
And the Lord said unto me: “Go out from your country to the pleasant land, the land of the holy fathers, where I will make you a great sage, and all the sages of the land will be blessed by you, for I have chosen you for a righteous sage in all this generation, to heal the human suffering with lasting salvation. Take this sword in your hand and guard it with your heart and soul, for it is a token between Me and you, that all those good things will happen through you, for until now, I had no such faithful man as you to give him this sword. For this reason, the evildoers did what they did, but from now on, every saboteur who sees My sword in your hand will promptly vanish and be uprooted from the land.”
And I hid my face, for I was afraid to look upon He who was speaking to me. And the sword, which seemed to me like a simple iron sword that was a horrible destructor, has turned in my hands into glimmering letters of the holy name Shaddai whose luster is filled with light, contentment, tranquility, and reassurance for the whole world. And I said to myself: “May I grant all the dwellers of the world a drop of the purity of this sword, for then they will know that there is pleasantness of the Lord in the land.”
I raised my eyes, and behold, the Lord stood over me and said to me: “I am the Lord, God of your fathers. Raise your eyes from the place on which you stand before Me and see the whole of reality that I have created existence from absence, upper and lower together, from their very creation in the unfolding of reality through their continuous evolution to their completion, as befits the work of My hands by which to be glorified.
Then I saw and rejoiced over the glorious creation and all that is in it, and the delight and pleasure that all dwellers of the earth enjoy. And I was grateful to the Lord.
Then, I said unto the Lord: “We will serve You with tremor and fear and forever be grateful to Your name, because from You neither bad nor good emerge, but a long succession of pleasantness set before us from beginning to end. Happy are they who stride in Your world, which You have prepared for them, for pleasantness and gentleness and abundance. There is no deviousness or obstacles in all Your deeds, upper and lower together.” And I was filled with wondrous wisdom, and atop them all, the wisdom of His absolute private Providence. And so I have gained wisdom day by day for many days—one hundred and eighty days.
In those days, I contemplated praying to the Lord saying, “Behold, I have been filled with wisdom more than all my predecessors, and there is nothing in the world that I do not know. Yet, I do not understand a word of the sayings of the prophets and the sages of the Lord. Also, I do not understand most of the holy names. And I thought—the Lord has promised me such wisdom and knowledge as to become a paragon among the sages and the created beings, yet I still do not understand their sayings.”
And before I called, the Creator came over me and said, “But behold, your wisdom and attainment are far above all the sages who have lived on earth thus far. What have you asked of Me which I have not given you? Why torment yourself over understanding the words of prophecy, which you know for certain are uttered from a degree inferior to yours? Would you want Me to bring you down from your degree so you could understand their words as do they?”
I was silent, and I was jubilant, and I answered nothing. Afterward, I asked the Lord, “Thus far, I have not heard a thing about the persistence of my corpse; all the benefits and destinies that have come to me are solely from the spiritual, and there they all aim. What if some illness or bodily harm confuses my mind and I sin before You? Will You cast me from before You and lose all this abundance or punish me?”
And the Lord has sworn to me in His great and terrible Name and in His eternal throne that He will never let His mercy off me for eternity. Should I sin or should I not, His mercy and holiness will never part from me. And I heard and rejoiced. (For you have already achieved your goal, and I have pardoned all your sins, and this mercy.)
And after all these days, I listened attentively to all the promises and destinies I have been chosen for by the Lord, yet I found in them neither satisfaction nor the words by which to speak to the dwellers of this world and lead them to God’s will, as He had told me. I could not stride among the people, who are vain and slandering the Lord and His creation, while I was satiated and praising, and walking merrily as though mocking those wretched ones.
Matters have touched me to the bottom of my heart, and I resolved that come what may, even if I descend from my sublime degree, I must make a heartfelt prayer to the Lord to grant me attainment and knowledge of the prophecy and wisdom, and the words by which to help the forlorn people of the world, to raise them to the same degree of wisdom and pleasantness as mine. Although I knew that I must not sadden my spirit, I could not hold back, and I poured my heart out in prayer.
In the morning, I raised my eyes and saw the Dweller of heaven laughing at me and at my words. He said unto me: “What do you see?” and I said, “I see two people struggling—one wise and perfect and strong, the other small and silly, like a newly born child. And the other, the weak, small and tasteless defeats the strong and the perfect.” And the Creator said to me: “This little one is destined for greatness.”
And the little one opened his mouth and told me some words I did not sufficiently understand, yet I felt in them all the treasures of wisdom and prophecy that abide among all the true prophets, until I knew that the Lord had answered me and gave me ways among all the prophets and sages of the Lord.
Then the Lord said to me, “Rise up, and look to the east.” I raised my eyes and saw that that little one has at once rose and equaled himself and his level to the level of the big one, although he still lacked taste and reason as before. And I was bewildered.
Afterward, the Lord spoke to me with a vista, saying, “Lie down on your right-hand side.” And I laid down on the ground. And He said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see many peoples and nations, rising and falling, and their faces are deformed humans.” Then the Lord said to me, “If you can give form to all these nations and blow into them the spirit of life, I will bring you to the land that I have sworn to your fathers, to give to you, and all my goals will have been fulfilled through you.”
23. S. (55:28) The previous letter, under what conditions does the Creator take the teacher from the student?
R. This is the business of the Creator, we don't know that.
24. S. (55:55) The last text we read, it feels like some prayer awakened in me and I can't sit still, everything is kind of bubbling inside, what's the sensitivity that awoke?
R. Lately I see that you're criticizing the things that we learn, this is not okay, that's not okay, we should learn the study of the 10 Sephirot, why didn't you give us all kinds of other things, as if you understand what we should learn. So I have to keep on going in what I have to do in order to make you grow up not like the small children, which think they should receive this instead of that as if they have mind or understanding what's the right way for them to advance. That's why I chose some text that can put you on the right lane a little bit. So maybe it will give you a bit more mind and emotion to bend, to bow down your head to accept what the teacher gives you. If you don't, you wont stay, you will leave. The ones who accept what I give stay and the ones who don’t. I felt that your criticism won’t let you integrate on the lesson then you're not advancing and accepting the lesson inside you in order to advance and this gives me much pain. So I want to make a separation here between the wise people, who are just sitting here and it's best for them to leave, they don't want to learn from me and the ones who are really learning whatever comes with an open mouth whatever comes because I'm organizing the lessons. That's why this lesson is to shake you from the state that you were in you are not in a state that wasn't good and of course everything depends on your relation to the lesson we always learn the words of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, but by your attitude to them you're disrespecting and that's very bad.
S. How frequently should the teacher awaken such states in the students?
R. A person has to come to the lesson prepared otherwise he has no Kli in order to receive the lesson, he doesn't have the Kli. I personally awake at least 2 hours before the lesson, now I'm not telling you to do that, you don't have to do this, but the truth is before you go to sleep you have to think about the next day's lesson. When you wake up you should also have emotional preparation then you'll receive it in advance, take one more step forward, one more step forward. But if you're not prepared to get the lesson as something that helps you advance, it will do the opposite, it will throw you back more and more. And I have seen such people that invested a lot but could not advance because they disregarded the lesson, they disregarded me. I don't demand honor or anything, but the teacher has to be important in the eyes of the student, otherwise he won't accept for him. Only a small one can receive from a bigger one, if anyone thinks he's bigger than me, how can you learn from me, he has no way to learn. So, you have to think you're organizing your relationship with your friends with the lesson with me, etc.
25. S. (1:00:44) What does war between two people symbolize?
R. I don’t want to explain this text, but in the way you feel it is okay, but I'm not going to explain beyond that.
26. S. (1:01:25) Is there fear in reading such text, how do we read them, how do we add all and read and annul?
R. Open your heart and your brain without anything personal about it, don't go into it personally. Just read it as if you are going inside and you are completely annulled.
27. S. (1:02:06) Following what we read, does that mean are we continuing in the path of Baal HaSulam and we have to fill the promise that you gave?
R. Of course, we have to keep on going in his way.
28. S. (1:02:32) The prophecy I was afraid to look at the one he spoke to but in the morning he awoke and saw the Creator what is that what does that tell us what are these words teach us?
R. That you have to open your heart and then you can reach a state where you can see the Creator a heart is the will to receive if you open it in order to bestow to reveal the Creator to be in contact with him.
29. S. (1:03:20) In the first letter it talks about how all the efforts that you make on a day-to-day basis can raise you and allow you to attain what the teacher tells you?
R. Isn't it clear that if a person doesn't invest everyday in the lessons and in the ten he has no chance to reach spirituality, these are essential means, in the ten you reveal spirituality in practice by learning with a teacher how to organize the ten so that the Creator will be revealed in it.
S. Concerning the second letter, the little one is our efforts?
R. Stay with your questions and scrutinize them on your own, you received enough answers from me about everything you have to get the answers from the heart, open your vessels and in these vessels you'll get an answer.
30. S. (1:05:08) I want to ask about the emotional preparation you say we have to be prepared emotionally for the lesson?
R. The wisdom of Kabbalah is revealed in the emotion it is a desire, the Creator created the will to receive a certain emotion that is impressed by receiving, by being filled, how can we be filled, not by what he gave us in this world, some very small portion by which we live. As if we have a Kli and in this Kli we only have a little bit. Let's say this is the vessel (Rav’s holding a bowl with prunes) and inside it inside out we have just a little bit down there in the bottom of the vessel a little bit so how can we reach a state where we filled this Kli, the size of our corporeal life with spiritual life that's only possible if you do it in order to bestow, in order to receive is the corporeal life. The spiritual life is only with intention in order to bestow that's what we learned so try to do that in the ten that's how we do it.
*Excerpt Reader (1:06:52 - 1:14:02)*
31. R. This is a bit difficult because of the luggage in the style but it once he said wants to say is that he had no choice but that he has to reveal this concealed wisdom to everyone in the most apparent way, the most revealed way as much as he can in order to let every person have the opportunity to go into this process of creation, process that all the people in the world go through and all the souls he felt that he has no choice. It is not that his desire was this or that but a person that comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah and goes into it, he sees that he's required to invent himself for the sake of humanity and this way it may come closer to be in order that's the way it is.
32. S. (1:15:18) You advised us to be constantly immersed with our noses in the book and only read, if I understand correctly, from there we will get to this matter of feeling the words as you said. What is the role of the intellect in this whole process or does it have no role?
R. The intellect only helps you to slowly organize your emotions correctly, it is only a servant, the Kli is the desire, but organizing the desire is in the right connections, that is where the intellect does help us. And also not our intellect, but the Light that Reforms, when we organize a prayer, when we arrange the prayer to the Creator, then what comes to us from Him is what arranges us. True intellect we do have, all in all its role is very restricted, very small, because it is entirely under the influence of the egoistic emotion and you can't control your intellect unless a higher intellect comes from above. This is why you remain in this way where your whole salvation and advancement only depends upon you awakening the Light that Reforms.
S. You previously said that you feel that there is criticism from the friends about what we are learning and generally about your decisions, at such a time when the whole world Kli has really become one, what creates criticism from friends and how does it influence the rest of the Kli?
R. First of all, criticism is a good thing, but this criticism should be one that builds rather than one that ruins, do you understand? I take all into consideration and I tried to compromise between what I think and what you think, I'm not trying to bend you all to my own desire and decisions. But I tried to explain to you why I decide this way, nonetheless, and for you to somehow to agree to it. So, it seems to me that these things are on the way and they are okay, and if someone doesn't agree then they can leave. Even lately we have people who left, they think that they are smarter, they don't have enough desire, they had more thoughts to acquire, to become greater, to rise above all. They were even willing to invest in it a little bit until they started understanding that their investment is in order to bestow, meaning that all of my success is when I don't think about myself, by handing myself out for the sake of others for the sake of the Creator and it is as if I'm not there. Here they decided to understand that the business here is not so economic for them the way that they thought it is. Usually we are talking about people who have money, people who have a fortune, they are successful in commerce and all kinds of things and then they leave, and what can you do about it. Here they gain is the opposite, the more that I get rid of everything the more I feel myself that I am giving everything to others and it's not necessarily that they have to get rid of their corporeal fortune or something else, but this is how development goes. I start appreciating the quality of bestowal above the quality of reception, this is why they leave, why they go. First, they criticize us looking at us from the side, I hope that soon the world will go through such states, that nonetheless that maybe they will come back, because they have invested a lot. Now is the time they are starting to discover what the Wisdom of Kabbalah is about, that is why they are growing further away, then some blows will come and a calculation will come and they will see that there is no other choice, they have to go according to the plan of creation and not according to their plan.
S. I also heard you say that criticism is good if it is constructive criticism?
R. Yes of course.
S. What is constructive criticism?
R. It is when we have to scrutinize exactly what your questions are and you yourself ask why am I thinking about this or that, why did you decide this way and not that way? That is okay and it is good, it means that you learned, but not to say that we're not happy about what you're doing. That is not the right way to scrutinize, to serve something to be scrutinized. Because you approach the scrutiny, you separate yourself from me and the whole process and that is what I feel pain about.
S. So how can we enter into annulment, after the method of the teacher that wants to convey?
R. Do you remember what the student of Baal Shem Tov told when he found the coins?
S. Yes, the golden coin in his pocket.
R. Maybe you can find the text about it, that's what it's about to reach such a level, that is our goal, then you use the vessels of the teacher, you can use it to rise even higher. This is the meaning of being a good student.
S. I have the quote from Martin Buber and ... A Disciple of the Baal Shem Tov asked about the disciples of his son-in-law Rabbi David from Chernobyl, do you believe in your Rabbi in complete faith? And they were silent because who would dare to say that they have complete faith. So I wish to tell you what is faith, Rabbi David continued, one Shabbat, one Saturday at the third meal at the end of Shabbat was extended longer than usual as happens often, then we said grace for the food and immediately prayed the evening prayer and ended the Shabbat with a cup of wine and we set for the meal of the following Shabbat we were all very poor had no penny, much less on Shabbat when it is forbidden to carry money. Nevertheless, when the Baal Shem Tov said to me after the meal, David give us money to buy honey water, which is an alcoholic drink. I placed my hand in my pocket although I knew I had nothing and I took out a coin and I gave a coin to buy the drink.
R. That's the way it is, you see it is simple if he completely annuls himself to the Upper One then he will get from the Upper One what the Upper One says. That is how it works, even though for us it seems like a fairy tale or a story or a joke, that is truly the way it is. Because the Upper One prepares that gold coin, that they used to have such coins, we're talking about the 19th century. The Upper one prepared and it's only that the lower one didn't have the opportunity to receive, so he says bring me the money if you want it, if you are going to do it with your eyes closed, it doesn't matter it's like the envelope that we talked about where it it's $1,000 or $500, it doesn't matter if this is the way you approach things you will receive from the Upper One what he is asking from you, you just accept it, it is in your hands. Is it clear?
33. S. (1:26:17) We learned from Baal HaSulam, first of all there's none else besides Him and we learned that the heart of the Kings is in the hands of the Creator. Baal HaSulam in his letter it seems like he is angry, what does it mean?
R. When you reach the level of a Kabbalist, you will understand why he is bursting this way, then you will understand if it is in order to receive or in order to bestow, what gives him such pain. In the meantime, the direction of your thoughts is not the right one.
34. S. (1:27:22) I still want to go back to the question about the program, of course you know what is best what is good for us, on the other hand and there are parts of TES we have never learned yet. If we don’t learn it with you, with whom will we learn it?
R. You won’t learn it with anyone.
S. Baal HaSulam wrote them, with anyone.
R. He wrote them for people of attainment, what do you get out of learning them, tell me wise person, tell me something out of TES and I will tell you what you are talking about. You can't even tell me one sentence from TES that you understand the text, because you learn out of a remedy, Segulah, a virtue or remedy by which you get the Light that Reforms as he writes in the item 155 in the “Introduction to TES”, how many times did you hear this from me and you still want to know, knowing is Klipah, attaining is Kedushah.
S. I'm not talking about me.
R. I must bring you to attainment and I'm certain I can't bring you to attainment, I am telling you certainly and seriously, for years you are with me and all you want to use is your brain, your intellect, either you throw away your intellect or you go away and learn somewhere else. I'm speaking seriously. There is nothing to learn here with the intellect, only to attain, only that and you can read this and many sources by Baal HaSulam and Rabash. Do you have another approach, go right ahead, I'm telling you seriously I don't need your kind of students, the way that you are now. I almost don't understand as much as you learned TES, what does it give you?
S. I'm not speaking about myself.
R. Stop talking such nonsense, how can you not understand that it is incorrect, listen to what I'm saying at least once, at least once listen to what I am telling you, the teacher, not in general, not yours. The people studying with me to attain the Creator and not to know what is written in the book. Because what is written in the book, you can know only after you attain, before that it is not considered knowing, it is not considered attainment, you simply wish to put into your computer, your memory what is written. The book knows better than you, you have nothing, you are not coming close, I'm telling you it'll take you 10 years before you finally understand, it is not the way. Then you will get back to relating to the material correctly, it's written in a thousand places about that, a thousand places, if you think that we are going to learn the Study of the Ten Sefirot, the way you think you learn it, don't come to lessons, don't bother showing up. We are learning how to open the heart and how to connect between us, how to reveal the Creator in the heart to the extent that we receive the Reforming Light we will know the study of TES and all that is happening and only in this way, not by filling our mind with what is written in the book. We don't even understand what's written in the book, we don't, and I can't teach you that because you're not in it. You don't understand, you don't know this material, meaning you don't feel it. You don't feel it. Nevertheless ,you are stuck in yourself so I'm telling you in this way. I am establishing people of attainment and not wise people that just know the text, there is no such thing, Rabash did not teach me that's, on the contrary he told me to hate people who wish to attain spirituality through their wisdom. This is called Klipot, a shell, if I hear it from you again, I'm sorry I won't tolerate you in the lesson. I've heard it many times and tolerated it quietly but now that we are entering the stage of the last generation there is no room here unless you change. This is for you and for others, we study the study TES to receive inspiration not intellect, we want the Light to shine on us and develop us in bestowal. All of the rest I don't want to hear from you. You're starting to pass this rumor from one person to another, what are you going to get from it, you're not following the directions of Baal HaSulam and Rabash, it is ot the wise who learn, it is written clearly, according to the wisdom, not according to the intellect but according to the emotional desire seeking to in order to bestow. How much desire to bestow do you have? That you are going to go and understanding TES the study, you received the Lights inside the vessels, how many lights have you received in your corrected vessels?
S. Why do you think I want it in my mind?
R. That's what I'm hearing from you, that you are 10,15 years here, and how many times you telling me this?
35. S. (1:35:04) We study what the mind doesn't attain, the time will force us to attain, how do we separate knowing and attaining, I think I feel something, can you give us the difference between knowing and attaining?
R. There is the reason of the lower one and the reason of the Upper One, as usual two levels there is this world and there is the Spiritual World, to know when our world simply means to read and to know what is written. Let's say I have to go take a test and they tell me you have to know this, so I'm reading and reading until I know what is written in the book. I only need my intellect, my mind, no emotional feeling, nothing, only our brain is working. In spirituality, to know comes from the words and “Adam knew Eve his wife” to know is to connect a feeling that comes through connecting, knowledge Daat, you have Keter, Chochmah, Binah, Daat is the Light that expands from the Rosh from the Keter and Chochmah, Binah into the Guf, this is why we have to arrange our body, our desire is that through the Daat, knowledge, you will connect to the Rosh, this is the meaning of knowing, this is the meaning of knowing it in the Wisdom of Kabbalah. This is the difference between corporeal knowledge and spiritual knowledge corporeal reason and spiritual reason there are many things written about it and I am amazed how much you're not in it.
S. In this light the feeling of connecting is what bonds us in the ten ultimately?
R. The Light can come and clothe in a vessel that is suitable for the Light and adapted to the Light there is no difference between the intention of the Light and the intention of the Kli the Light that comes from the Creator that wants to bestow. To bestow good. The Kli also has to be in the intention to bestow good back to the Creator, how can we do this when we connect, we are connected between us in mutual bestowal. In this mutual bestowal that is built correctly so that you will aim it towards the Creator then this mutual bestowal when you aim it at the Creator we receive in it the revelation of the Creator. Because our bestowal to Him is like our bestowal to us, like the guest and the host, this is how we work.
36. S. (1:38:57) What prevents people from reaching the internality of the words, how do we receive from the author?
R. If we don't reach the internality of things, it's not even worth working on it, that is what Baal HaSulam writes in his letter not even such a wise people that thought they knew what is written in the books and you give them a line from a book from Kabbalah of book they know how to they can continue from that line to the end of the book. I guess that's what our friend from Moscow yearns to know, it is not an emotional matter, they're not working in their feelings but only with their intellect. So, we don't do it like that we'd only do it by developing our vessels of feeling, vessels are vessels of feeling and not mental vessels. The intellect is only used to mechanically arrange things, only, therefore if you remember something that is written it could be good, but know that Kabbalists would pray to forget what they learned, forget, in order to read and understand and feel anew each time. That's why we don't think we know what was yesterday or the day before we, don't remember what we read over there, Kabbalists wish to forget that it will be as new in your eyes. You don't understand the attitude towards corporeality and spirituality are two different attitudes and try to convince yourselves and obligate yourselves.
37. S. (1:41:40) What does it mean and how to swallow our thoughts?
R. I don't know what you're speaking about.
S. You said that if we had a bad or negative thought, we should swallow it.
R. Don't be immersed in it, immediately move to something else more purposeful and connected to the ten.
38. S. (1:42:22) Is it correct to feel in that concept of buying a Rav or acquiring a Rav that the honor of the Rav is awe of the above and if you acquire that feeling all of the doubts disappear?
R. It is true because we need to develop in us the force of faith, the force of bestowal, the force of Binah, and if I want to buy, acquire more wisdom, it is incorrect. I am learning only for the Light that Reforms to influence me, to give me the force of bestowal from me outside, I don't need to acquire anything inside but only to be able to bestow from my nature to the outside, that is what we wish to attain in actuality. Those who wish to constantly fill themselves with all of the ideas written in the book, this is not a school, it is not a university, it is a totally different attitude, it is the attitude of bestowal it is a spiritual attitude, it is about how to acquire the vessel of bestowal. We don't have pop quizzes on what is written on certain pages in the study of TES, God forbid.
39. S. (1:44:26) If we have a desire to participate in the ten that means that we are in bestowal, the fact that we want to participate in the ten?
R. Yes, we wish to participate in the activity of the ten because any activity of the ten is in order to build between us relationships of bestowal, of love where according to equivalence to form their Creator can be revealed, the Upper Force.
40. S. (1:45:16) How can a student recognize that he is studying correctly, that he is searching from the ten to study the text from the heart and not from the mind?
R. He is trying to realize what Baal HaSulam and Rabash are writing in all of their articles about the society, accordingly which is a correction of the connection between us and according to the size of the connection between us, the Creator is revealed between us. There's not too many wisdoms here, you don't have to be smart, it's not the wise who learn. It's written if you can open up your heart, it's not simple, it is by the Upper Light, but if your heart opens up in the connection with others, then the connection between two hearts you begin to discover the Creator. That's it.
41. S. (1:46:48) About the exercise of the Baal Shem Tov, can we check ourselves towards the faith that we have with our teacher like happened with this student, can you give us an exercise that we can check as much as we have faith?
R. Do all of the things according to what Rabash is writing to you, no more than that.
42. S. (1:47:24) What you said about aiming our study attainment hit us pretty hard, so in view of this it's a large awakening, so we can get back to how we should be studying, it seems like lately all of our questions are from the intellect so in view of this how should I questions before emulated with what you just told us now.?
R. Very nice question, we need to use our mind in order to correctly aim the heart to the Creator, so you get organized correctly, connect and try to make all of the preparations as such that our feelings will connect, they will come closer to one another, and in that web of connection that we are trying to weave, we will ask the Creator to finish this job that he will truly connect us. Because we can't do it by ourselves, but to somehow come closer and in prayer we ask the Creator to meld our inclinations towards one another and in that connection that He is doing he is also shining so we will connect and He is shining so this Light will also fill the connection between us.
S. So how should I question, speak to you during the lesson, not the same as before?
R. We are learning all of those lessons, we are learning a little bit of TES, and most of the material before us is on faith above reason, the spiritual vessel and how to construct it, this is the primary material and the study TES has to be no more then let's say 30 minutes out of the lesson. Slowly we finish all of the material on the building of the Kli, we will get into the study of TES more, we will accustom ourselves to study it as a remedy, as a Segulah for connection not as a remedy for filling the mind and intellect because it perishes with the body once it dies. It decomposes and nothing is left of it, it is not a spiritual thing this is what the Kabbalists write to us, that because we don't have the emotional vessel, the spiritual vessel we ascribe great importance to our intellect. But please understand that it has nothing to do with spirituality, it is only to get organized, to organize the chairs and to sit down and learn how to connect. So to learn how to correctly arrange the chairs we need the intellect, to learn how to connect correctly we need the heart. All of the Kabbalists, they are said to work in the wisdom of the heart and not the wisdom of the brain. I'm grateful to.... for awakening this and at least for that we need him.
43. S. (1:51:28) What is the importance of reading the text that will lead us to a sensation of love from the friends?
R. The importance is that they awaken us in the right direction, we don't understand why it is built in this way, what the world is built in this way and why do we have to learn this way, we don't understand those things, we don't understand where we are, and what system, why we are connected like that in general we don't understand anything. Give yourself time to arrange the connection so that the Light will shine into that connection and it will be a little clearer to us where we are, let us reach the first degree of attainment, that is it. We have no other choice, only in this way can we somehow understand where we are.
44. S. (1:52:56) When I write articles or any kind of dissemination, I want to enter the heart of the public and also I want to enter the heart of the friends in my ten, is there any difference here of entering the hearts of the friends in my ten or entering the heart of the public?
R. We spoke about it so many times and you still ask, we need to first connect in our hearts in the ten and from the ten, from within the ten to pray that we would begin to discover the Creator in the ten. Together with that then you need to connect with the general public because if we close ourselves in the ten we are turning it into an egoistic vessel for ourselves, we can't bestow to the Creator unless we expand and continue to bestow to the whole world. To all of the creatures until all of the souls will connect in this big vessel of Adam HaRishon in this massive flow they will bestow to one another as it is written go and receive your sustenance from one another and only in this way we will we be able to feel the general vessel and reveal the Creator fully according to his desire. To bestow to the Creator means to cause the connection of all the souls, to that system of Adam HaRishon.
S. How do I enter the hearts of the friends, I heard you say we get together and we pray to the Creator but how to enter the hearts of the friends?
R. Talk to them about it with your friends and pray to the Creator that you want to enter their heart, it will help. Both with the friends and with the Creator, try to be between them both in this and in that, that you want to be incorporated in them and it will work out for you.
45. S. (1:55:56) Thank you for an unbelievable lesson you have just pushed us ahead, is it true to say that if I am willing to give up annulling or forgetting like the Kabbalists, by this I am expressing my faith above reason and only get the knowledge as much as I need it?
R. Yes, by annulling what we had yesterday and the reason that we're headed towards a greater faith than what we had in our reason.
S. You were saying about the importance of the preparation for the lesson and you said you're not expecting that we wake up 2 hours before, so what do you expect from your students, how to prepare themselves for the lesson?
R. I think you all have the possibility to relisten to the lesson during the day, to talk to your friends to speak with your ten and in this way to not forget about the topic and keep it fresh, it doesn't matter if you forget it is a great Mitzvah, commandment it is a great force that is operated from above, write down that we need to learn the Mitzvah of remembering and forgetting. It is good for a person to remember only faith, meaning the force of bestowal other than that we don't need anything. We do need to give up our knowledge in order to acquire faith, what we receive inside the vessel of faith includes also knowledge, or reason, but it is the result of adhesion with the Creator, you know the Creator. It will be as God knowing good and evil you connect to the Chochmah and Binah in the Rosh from Daat, that is a totally different form of attainment.
S. How to connect correctly between the mind and the feeling in the work?
R. I can't tell you but use your intellect only in order to direct your feeling.
45. S. (1:58:56) You said you're not forcing the desire about the study materials but it's clear that the teacher takes the student above the desire and reason, so what does it mean that when the teacher does take the students into account or not?
R. The teacher doesn't consider the students at all, if I would consider what you want I would do I don't know what, the teacher has to be the one who specifically insist on his own and knows what to give to the students and those who wants continue and those who don't won't, but I am not going to bend myself before you. Rather to correct and arrange you a little bit, to grab your attention, I will do it a little bit but this is part of the lesson. Our lesson today is not exceptional, we are simply correcting loose ends, I really hope that those who agree with it will correct themselves and continue with us and those who don't, I'm asking you please, leave us. I'm telling you I don't need smart people, I need people who want to correct their feelings in order to feel the Creator and through the vessel of feeling, through those feeling vessels they will be able to learn about the Creator, that is it the Light of Chochmah is clothed in the Light of Chassidim and there is no other way.
S. Lately it seems that we did some experiments studying the Torah, TES.
R. I also have TES before me now, I also want to do it, it's too bad you can't see how many scribbles I have here in TES, how many pages that I glued in, entire notebooks, not that I am disparaging it, God forbid, but when a person needs to expand his vessels of faith.
S. So like we started studying the Torah, how do we relate to things that we start and stop?
R. We didn't stop, we also had in our program today to continue learning the Torah but what can I do with such smart people like you when you're asking what about this and what about that, why do you care if you're not following me?
S. I'm asking the opposite, do we have anything to learn from these things should we correct something as if we started something and stopped?
R. The correction is that you agree with what I'm giving and if you cannot be like David like we read about, we took out the gold coin from his empty pocket, if you can't be like that for the time being, then what can I do, you're like the friend from Moscow, the same kind, you respect your intellect, I understand you’re a professor, a scientist, but the Wisdom of Kabbalah is different.
S. I don't think that I don't agree, I'm positive that you know and I don't, I'm asking if you feel that I failed or we failed when we start and stop something?
R. I'm letting your taste from everything that exists in the Wisdom of Kabbalah and I'm trying to explain to you why I'm doing it even though I don't have to explain anything, I don't have to, the teacher gives you something, you take it you swallow it and you keep going. With an open heart and a confident heart, the fact that you asked there is no other way of course, by that you bring down what you received from the spiritual degree to the corporeal degree, but that is what's happening. We can't receive it in the vessel of faith, what can you do. I continue with what I received from the Creator and I hope that you will start learning those things in the right approach and attitude to the Wisdom of Kabbalah to the study where it is not the wise who learns. We don't learn it in order to know the study of TES, another part and another part, the way you know you want to start and finish the study of TES, this is not the kind of factory that we are running here it is never been this way, they would not learn in this way, you learn in order to attain. It is a totally different vessel, a vessel of faith not a vessel of corporeal intellect. So, let us finish the scrutiny.
46. S. (2:04:59) It is clear that you know much better what to study, why are you asking the students or trying to listen to what they say?
R. Because we have no choice but to scrutinize our feelings using our intellect, our minds, what can you do as we have no other vessels. But the fact that he says my mind is the one who determines, I want to learn inside my mind I want to feel that, I want to know what's written in the book, not to attain, but to know, here I draw the line.
S. That is clear but if you choose and we annul, and study what you choose that will be faith above reason?
R. No it won't be faith of above reason, you are also an erudite, I know you well, nevertheless you have to arrange the person who learns as he can be constantly frustrated and in opposition to the teacher and the material that we study. We read, you have already forgotten about the letters of Baal HaSulam that way read in the first hour and a half of the lesson, you've already forgotten, because we start to talk about this nonsense again,.... but specifically what we learn from those letters of Baal HaSulam, he spoke only about attainment there, to cancel the intellect and to raise the feeling, the intellect comes in order for us to cancel our corporeal mind to push up the faith and inside the faith acquire the spiritual mind and you will see that Klipot, the shell is not letting us do it is throwing us back down. We need to study that as well. I'm happy that this is how things unfold and I have patience. That's it, I'm yelling at those people there it's so that you might hear me better, they will not hear, it's clear I know them for years, fifteen years or more and all the time it's the same thing it is a tendency from within a person who wishes only to work only with these vessels, he is not capable of developing different vessels. He might not make it in this lifetime, in this Incarnation, I am not in charge of that.
47. S. (2:08:06) The story of the gold coin is a good story, sometimes you say we need to check and not believe, so how do you work with that?
R. It is like with the envelope, you have to check so that we believe in more above, that is how you have to do, you have to check yourself, do I believe or not and if you don't believe, so even rise above that. If you can believe so stay in it and if I stay in it, how can I still advance then? But if I check it is as if I am erasing my faith? Or in what other way can I check in order to increase my vessel of faith? Think about it, we will keep going and talk about it tomorrow.
48. S. (2:09:29) How can we build the need for attainment-intellect into our mutual prayer, should we suppress the intellect or the need to understand?
R. No, we don't need to erase our mind, in our mind and in our feeling we need to aim ourselves towards the connection between us, the connection, that the connection between us will be the most exalted and important, the highest in importance. This is why the mind also helps as I only use it to aim towards the connection, to increase the connection towards the extent of that connection, my connection above my ego I obtain Aviut in the Kli and as much as I want to attain that bestowal I also obtained the purity in the vessel and then the Aviut and the purity when I organize them together in that I can be in contact with the Upper Light, with the Creator and then I can start feeling his attitude towards me. That is how it's organized, throughout the entire ladder of relationships between me and Him, from above downward.
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