Morning Lesson February 18, 2024

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

Part 3

Baal HaSulam. Foreword to The Book of Zohar. #24

Reading Item #24 (00:15) “Let me give you an example from this world...”

Reading Item #25 (04:46) “The three worlds of...”

1. S. (06:02) How are thought and action merged together?

R. They merge you see.

S. I don't see. He says that the light that illuminates in Atzilut, even before they even talk about the illuminations, in the state of disconnect between the spiritual world and the corporeal world. He also says that the corporeal reality does not exist in him in this reality in the matter of thought and action, therefore there needs to be a means of some sort?

R. No.

S. How do we start to work with them together?

R. In the thought of creation.

S. Is bestowal on everything?

R. Yes.

2. S. (06:46) He gives an allegory of a person who wants to build a house. He first contemplates having a house then a plan of how it’s going to be and then he executes, so what do we learn from this example, what is the example telling us?

R. The moral is that the Creator had a thought and a plan. From the thought came the plan, from the plan come out all the actions which are executed before us.

S. He says that in the Creator there isn’t actually a difference between all those things. In one thought everything was created so it's not clear the moral of the story here?

R. No.

S. Are we participating?

R. Participating? No, but the fact that we are in it, yes we’re part of it.

S. What does it mean to be in this but not participating in it?

R. I don’t know, go up there and ask.

S. In these three stages it's clear that we’re not partners in it but in the implementation are we partners in that?

R. To some extent.

S. In what?

R. In the fact that we understand a part of it.

S. Understand? That's our participation, to understand?

R. Yes.

S. What do we understand?

R. Something. I'm saying it seriously, the things that we can't explain accurately.

S. They say we know you from your actions so what does it mean to speak in that way?

R. You can say as many sentences as you want but it won't help you out here. You simply need to agree with creation the way it Is and try to annul before it until it’s revealed.

S. Maybe the last question because we're learning that we have to resemble the actions of the Creator?

R. Well you can bring many lines like that.

S. We talked in the beginning of the lesson about playing in Hesed, so we have some kind of participation like little children?

R. According to my understanding no.

3. S. (09:13) In the Creator the thought is enough and with that He completes everything. Why?

R. The whole creation is the thought of creation, is the thought of the Creator. He doesn't need anything else besides that thought but in order to bring us to perceive Him, to recognize Him, be conscious of Him, He expands creation into such dimensions where we exist and seemingly we reach Him.

S. Why is it needed for us, the creatures, the thought is not sufficient but we have to have an action as well and all together what is that gap between thoughts that we are created in and the action that we create with?

R. First of all, he explains to us that on the level of Shoresh and on phase four and three we're still in the upper light and we’re there in the final adhesion, not that it's final but the one that will be revealed in the end. On the degree of Bina and below it there's already a division between the thought of creation, the Creator and his actions.

S. What is the reason or the cause or the final result from this division?

R. The Creator wants to give us a place of work, a place where we can see ourselves, feel  ourselves and rise to Him with our own strength and that's why we have a desire to receive on the levels of three, two and one where we exist by our own strength.

4. S. (12:01) Are the souls only in the worlds of BYA?

R. Yes.

S. Do they attain the light that’s in Atzilut only according to what illuminates them in BYA?

R. No, the souls can rise in practicality to the highest degree. 

5. S. (12:37) Is there some kind of execution without the participation of the creatures?

R. Yes.

S. Can such a state be?

R. Yes.

S. How is that possible?

R. Everything is included in the thought of creation and then the thought of creation allows the creatures to participate or not to participate.

S. It’s not through the actions of the creatures, they don't participate in that.

R. If the thought of creation allows for it then it’s with the participation of the created beings.

6. S. (13:46) It's written here that the three worlds BYA and this world are the transition from potential to actual but we also know there's a difference, an essential difference between this world and the first spiritual world, the world of Assiya. Why does he define them together, BYA and this world against Atzilut?

R. The world of Atzilut is the world where the Creator exists in His usual form, in the upper light that fills all of reality and the three worlds of Beria, Yetzira, Assiya are disconnected from this ideal and the world of Atzilut but still through them we climb to the world of Atzilut. In our world, in the world of Assiya, there are already such degrees where we are disconnected completely from anything spiritual.

S. Meaning to simplify we could say the worlds of BYA and this world as one world?

R. Yes.

Reading #26 (15:15) “In the above allegory you find how the three…”

7. R. (19:00) What we have here comes to us from Ein Sof through all the degrees and eventually from this world we have to climb back to the world of Ein Sof.

S. (19:17) He opened and said that the allegory is not like the moral because in the creature, in another action in order to complete, meaning that with the Creator the thought completes the action?

R. It's only with respect to the created beings and all these degrees in the middle are arranged for us so we can attain Him.

S. I can’t grasp whether, if the thought completed everything seemingly also for that discernment that with the creatures it should have been included in it as well?

R. I didn't understand.

S. We after all say…

R. We are included in the thought of creation from beginning to end, from end to the beginning, there's nothing that can be that is not for us or that we can’t change.

S. Okay, now the question is if the thought completed the action so why is there a need for the execution of this plan necessary?

R. Because it speaks of us, the whole plan was for us only.

S. If the thought completes the action in its completeness it includes also what’s upon us?

R. No.

S. Why?

R. With us it leaves something that we need to attain ourselves from our actions and our experience.

S. Why?

R. Why? Like a child you will enjoy discovering new things each time.

S. Also the discernment of me enjoying, discovering new things each time is supposed to be included in that thought.

R. Not relative to you. 

S. Also the discernment, I’m sorry for philosophizing a little bit?

R. Do you feel what has to be revealed?

S. Of course not but that's the question, it's as if there's something missing in that thought that  completed everything already?

R. No it conceals from you intentionally a part of itself.

S. Then seemingly it wasn’t necessary if it would complete everything including the discernment of from below upward.

R. Yes?

S. Then there would be no need from below upwards to be done in practice because its already in the thought?

R. No, there is perhaps, perhaps necessity for you to invest energy, effort and through your investment, through your effort you will open up for yourself a special process that exists in creation which is His desire to benefit His creatures, where without it, it will not be revealed towards you. You need to reveal what the Creator did and how He intentionally corrupted everything, it's all intentionally arranged for you and the end of the action is in the initial thought, where He thought about all of His actions, all the actions that you will have to go through so that this will ultimately give you true pleasure, adhesion in Him where you will discover Him, reveal Him from beginning to end, from the end to the beginning and in this way be adhered to all His thoughts and desires and actions. I guess there is something here that we cannot understand and articulate, but soon.

8. S. (23:55) He calls it a generation or innovation, the deeds that we are supposed to do.

R. Yes.

S. How can there be a generation if in the beginning of the plan it’s already, it’s all inscribed, the whole plan is written also all the stages along the way.

R. Relative to the created beings, relative to the created beings it’s all innovation, generation. Can you tell what will be revealed to you in another degree, another moment from now? No.

S. He writes that the world of Ein Sof, as far as the general attitude towards the world and the individual and general and this world versus that world?

R. I would say that what is revealed from the source, from the thought of creation onward belongs to the created beings, to the attainment of the created beings and the created beings who attain all those actions, who ultimately attain the thought of creation by that come to a state, a place where they understand and feel the thought of creation in its entirety and that's how they reveal the Creator. What did He want, what did He do and so on and so forth. It is like when you get to this world, you don't know anything, you don't understand, you’re born, you grow up then you get married, you become similar to your parents and then you get to a point where you reveal the world and we are also like that.

S. Can souls rise above the world of Atzilut?

R. No, their root is there. There's no need for it, there's no deficiency.

S. That’s where they’re corrected, that’s their conclusion?

R. Yes.

S. Why do we need the whole system above the world of Atzilut?

R. To understand it, to feel it, to be incorporated in it.

S. The corrections are performed in the world of Atzilut or a light that comes down from the world of Atzilut to the souls below the Parsa? 

R. The corrections take place in the worlds of Assiya, Yetzira, and Beria and they're all incorporated in the world of Atzilut where that world and Ein Sof are the same.

S. The desire to receive that feels a lack for light receives the light in that same desire. How is it possible for something that seemingly rises to the world of Atzilut?

R. Not in the same desire.

S. Not in the same desire?

R. No, because the created being that reveals his desire relative to the upper light, he reveals a much bigger vessel, much bigger. 

S. He reveals the upper desire?

R. Yes.

S. Another desire that’s not his?

R. Yes.

S. Gradually he performs actions to acquire a desire as his own?

R. He’s doing it, he’s rising to that same desire. It’s like a child who comes to the degrees of AVI or his father and mother and he does the same actions and from your actions we shall know you, he recognizes what are his upper ones.

S. It’s pretty fantastic, it’s like a baby who understands that his mother traveled to the store to get him a pacifier?

R. That too, let's say. 

S. The light does that, such an understanding so high that?

R. You attain everything.