Morning Lesson January 25, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam “Body and Soul”
1. R. (00:20) This is a short article about something not prepared for printing. At least we can return, move it, and receive something from it for the time being. Later it will become clarified.
Reading Body and Soul. (00:42) “Before I clarify this exalted matter…”
2. R. (02:59) Meaning he is trying to convey to us a few concepts regarding body and soul and explain it somehow so that we would not make any mistakes since we are surrounded by sources that when people were do not understand it.
Reading continues (03:29) “Three methods in the concepts of body and of soul”
3. R. (06:25) Meaning here he does not convey anything new but a certain view. That there is a soul and when it is in the body it enlivens the body. If we say the body is alive, we see all kinds of actions in the body. These actions are invoked by the soul and when it leaves the body, the body dies. It is just a piece of flesh that is lifeless.
4. S (07:04) Maybe he answers that later on, but what is the difference between this method and what the wisdom of Kabbalah says?
R. I do not know, you heard what we just read. Did it say anything about what you are asking?
S. So I will ask in a different way. I am trying to understand what principle Baal HaSulam wants to emphasize here.
R. I do not know, I do not know yet. He just started to explain to us that this is called the method of faith. There is a soul and there is a body. The soul clothes to the body and that the soul enlivens the body and determines all of its action and when it departs the body returns like a piece of flesh and we refer to it as dead. That is how he divides things into matter and spirit.
5. S. (08:12) He says call the souls of people and they have a reality of its own there before it clothes in the human body? What, there is life before the soul? Is it a spiritual soul or a corporeal soul or a force that enlivens the body of the flesh? Clothes in the human body? Is that what he is saying?
R. Perhaps, yes. The question is, what do we define as a soul, is it a spiritual soul or a corporal soul where it enlivens the body, the flesh or is it something that that gives this flesh also a higher form of life not on the animate degree but on the degree of man for example the Creator.
S. What is nice is that he writes that afterwards the body does not die, so that afterward death does not work on it. Meaning that there is life altogether that clothes in the body.
R. The souls likely exist in the body, they come and clothe in this body, by this clothing the body assumes this liveliness and there is also a question when is this clothed in the body? During birth, before the birth, or maybe when the feminine and masculine part connects inside the woman's body. There are many questions here, many discussions but all in all it is still a question.
S. That is where we came from and that is where we are going?
R. This is a different question. Do not drag me there.
Reader continues: (10:19) 2) The Method of Believers in Duality”
6. R. (11:61) It also stems from how people observe that the body lives and dies and nothing remains of it. It rots and concludes its existence but the spirit in men likely does not disappear but rises to its spiritual source perhaps and there it exists. But contrary to the body we cannot say anything about the soul that it ends and rots.
Reader continues: (11:47) “The difference between these two methods only…”
7. R. (12:46) This too is very important to mention because their entire ideologies about how different kinds of souls bring to us different corporeal expressions by reading the faces, the palms, all kinds of teachers that we identify in the corporate body. We can talk about the forces of the inner soul that exist in that person. Where seemingly the soul’s projects itself or copies itself corporately into the body.
Reader Continues: (13:33) “3. The Method of the Deniers…”
8. S. (16:16) If the body is abandoned from the soul and it rots, where does all the work of correction go afterlife? This work that accumulated. It is a consciousness that remains, is there any trace of it?
R. If you make any actions, of course they remain, there are corporeal actions and there are spiritual actions. If you perform any spiritual actions they remain because the essence of the spiritual action is that it is eternal like the Creator towards who you are performing these acts. Spiritual actions means that you are doing his actions towards the Creator, and it means eternity because it is tied to the Creator. Corporeal actions means that you are doing it within the will to receive, means that it all ends with the will to receive and that is how it remains. Just like the will to receive itself. Meaning that it is temporary, finite and has an ending.
Reader Continues: (18:07) “Thus, I have laid out in general terms all that...”
R. Let us see how he continues.
Reader Continues: (18:09) “The Scientific Meaning of Body and Soul According to Our Torah…”
9. R. (19:46) Meaning there is no certainty in anything we are doing. In anything that we wish to develop.
Reader continues: (19:55) “but if one is a genuine student, he will walk around this...”
10. R. (20:32) We can see it in ourselves as well.
11. S. (20:37) Baal HaSulam writes about an eternal soul that cannot be separated in any way. The soul cannot be separated, and it is eternal. What was the state of my soul before the shattering?
R. Before that there was no soul. Soul means the upper light that enters a suitable vessel and determines together with the vessel a connection without a light, is not even considered a vessel by the preparation for a vessel. That is what we learned according to the wisdom of Kabbalah.
12. S. (21:44) Can I say that until a certain time we developed according to one of the methods?
R. It is possible to get confused between these three methods, but it is not development or advancements, it is simply scrutinies done in a certain place.
13. S. (22:19) Baal HaSulam starts the article and says from the day I came to the wisdom of Kabbalah, what does it mean when he says wisdom? What is it for him?
R. I do not know, what is the question?
S. Me, myself when we say the wisdom of Kabbalah what do we mean?
R. Go through his writing and see what he says about the wisdom of Kabbalah. What is it?
S. Is it certain sources, is there a certain approach to everything written?
R. The wisdom of Kabbalah is a wisdom that speaks about the actions of the Creator relative to the created beings. What the created beings reveal; and pass from generation to generation and from that they attain the wisdom they attain the acts of the Creator towards them.
S. So all the books that are written are the wisdom of Kabbalah?
R. I do not know all the books. You are things that have no basis. What do you mean by all the books?
S. That's what I am asking.
R. I do not know. Go to the library and see all the books.
S. I mean the sources of Israel?
R. I do not know what the sources of the nation of Israel.
S. So what is the definition of Kabbalah?
R. Define where you ask? You are not listening to me. I cannot answer your question until it is going to be clearly defined.
S. What is the wisdom of Kabbalah of Baal HaSulam?
R. I do not know what it is for Baal HaSulam. It is likely those writings but not the wisdom of Kabbalah. It is the books written by true Kabbalists.
S. The name, the wisdom of Kabbalah, when did it appear?
R. We attribute it to Adam HaRishon, the first, to Adam. You have to be more precise with your language or you will have great confusion otherwise.
S. I do not have the depth from which you are speaking.
14. S. (24:45) Can we say that the body is a double concealment of the Creator of the will to bestow?
R. No do not come up with such definitions that are not written anywhere. It is not recommended. It is better to remain floating in the air until we see the precise definition written by Kabbalists. You say double concealment, those things can be utterly confusing. Science, like the wisdom of Kabbalah cannot stand such things, such inaccuracies, it likes precision.
15. S. (25:46) I remember we always study body and soul, so it is an amazing part. We really enjoy these excerpts because there is a lot of material. When he writes that his whole life the certainty of yesterday became the doubts of today and the certainty of today are the day of tomorrow in the way that you cannot determine anything for the day. What is he trying to say here?
R. He wants to tell you that everything you know about this world will be incorrect tomorrow. This is how it is going to be day in and day out. Whereas when you discover spiritually above reason, about the spiritual world, meaning about the Creator. There you discover the truth, except this truth keeps advancing and is revealed more and more.
S. It is great your interpretation. Basically you are saying that the whole world is an optical illusion, and you just think that you were in a certainty.
R. Please do not take up our time. Thank you.
16. S. (27:05) I am curious about the impregnation of the souls, how it came into the person?
R. Dear friend, you will discover this yourself. How do you receive it, how does it enter, how does it dwell and precisely in what vessel does it settle? You will see it yourself.
Reading: (27:58) “Revealed and Concealed”
17. S. (31:26) From all the messages that Baal HaSulam is stating, how do we live in this imaginary world with all of these methods together? What is Baal HaSulam's answer?
R. Until you start researching, you will be confused because you have no matter and no base. It is like any type of science. You know it is like we say, if you go into the hospital ask some clearing lady what to do, she will tell you what medicine to take and everything is very simple and if you speak to some Professor, they will tell you that there's doubts and we have to check. The deeper we go into reality we have more doubts. That is why the whole matter is the approach. The approach has to be that what we have for certain in our vessels is a science. We can engage in it and research and know and understand and teach and learn. What we cannot learn, understand, and grasp and research so we can keep going at it with all such as ifs. The scrutiny that we do in our minds but not in deeds, and in our mind that has no basis, it always brings us to all kinds of mistakes that humanity to this day is confused with.
S. In actuality, according to the message we read, the true thing is our relationship with the Creator. If so, we are somewhere between faith and reason and the vessels of reception that we have. Where is the correct method for the revelation of the Creator?
R. The right method is to obey the advice of the Kabbalists or even the commands of the Kabbalists in a blind manner. Because you cannot do anything before you reach an eye opening in the Torah. Meaning in that light, to that measure that spreads upon you from the Creator. That is what you need to do, is to follow them like a baby following an adult. Grab onto him, grab his hand, and walk beside him and then maybe you will succeed. If you can study in such a way from him, gradually everything. But there is no other method. It is a natural method as we have in this world on the animate degree and also on the degree of Adam. Only on the animate degree do our instincts work. That is why a child wants to be connected to an adult, with relatives because he knows with them, he grows, and he can learn something that is for his own good. That is an instinct that is pushing him towards it. But in spirituality, we have to find what the Kabbalists say, we need a group, and the teacher, like the articles say and if you hold on to them then you can advance and reach a state that you too will be like them in something.
18. S. (36:00) About the border between revealed and concealed as Baal HaSulam explains here in the last two paragraphs, where the revealed is what he has already attained in his consciousness, and he can explore it and the concealed is not. So how is it with us? What do we attain within our consciousness and what don’t we attain?
R. In corporeality we attain everything that enters our vessels. Our senses, vision, hearing, taste, smell, and touch, and how we develop more vessels that expand what we can perceive. We cannot add more channels except for those five channels. Vision, hearing, taste, smell, touch, we do not know what else there is. But, the vessels we have, we can expand the frequencies that we perceive. So we build instruments, that with them we can hear all kinds of waves, see all kinds of waves, and discover all kinds of things. That is it, no more than that. That is in our vessels. From this we have no entrance into spirituality but in that world, we understand a bit more but if we build a new vessel, a higher one, which is opposite of our vessel of the will to receive. That in it we can acquire, by the upper force, by coming closer to the Creator, in order to bestow and by resembling the Creator, in connecting to friends, by this we are trying to bestow through the friends to the Creator. Trying to receive from the friends towards us and in this way, with the group through the ten Sefirot as we say, we start being connected with the upper force, the upper source. That is actually a different kind of method of absorption; it is not based on the will to receive and through it we discover all of our earthly reality. But it is a method that is built on the will to bestow the opposite. That as much as we come out of ourselves and enter the others, in such a tendency towards the others, that we try to do it, in the group. That is called love your friend as yourself, by that, we reach love the Lord your God. In this way we actually acquire above our force of reception, a force of receiving, we build a force of bestowing, the will to bestow, the desire to bestow and then according to our equivalence of form in the will to bestow and the action of bestowal and the manner of bestowal, that we acquire, in that we start feeling according to our equivalent of form. As much as we are bestowing, by this, we start feeling the general upper force, the Creator, that is entirely bestowing. By this we are starting to reveal Him, come closer to Him, working with Him, in a way that I am towards Him, and He is towards me, and this way we enter a mutual connection.
S. (40:46) It means that in the revealed and concealed for us is the revelation of the quality of bestowal? So how do we reveal the quality of bestowal, this is the border between the revealed and concealed?
R. Yes. We discover the quality of bestowal above the quality of reception. This is called faith above reason. You understand how it all connects and becomes not so confused and smeared out? it becomes more concrete.
19. S. (41:35) You said that through the ten we can bestow to the Creator and through the ten you receive?
R. In which other vessels can you give? Explain to me? Even in our world we build some vessels in order to give or receive. We need some special vessel. Something that projects, yes?
S. The question is, how through this vessel, let us say I have a ten, my friends, we connect. What does it mean that inside this connection we bestow to the Creator? What does it mean that through our connection we receive from Him?
R. It is simple just as you can perceive radio waves, these waves are everywhere. If you have an instrument that can absorb, can grab some wave, so you get it. The Creator is everywhere, by the ten, when you connect to them, and everybody in the ten wants to connect and build some instrument, a general instrument. So each one, and all together, we will learn how it exactly happens, its ten spheres that complete one another and each and every sphere gets something of its own, and in such a way we reach a state where we grab the Creator, grasp Him in our sensor which is the group, and each one, the more he bestows to that, in that receiver that is how he receives.
S. There's a certain state of connection in the ten, each one of us adds from himself, something to that, what kind of signal are we able to perceive there?
R. You discover from the Creator the quality of bestowal, to the extent that you try to stabilize it between you and the others, you, and the friends. That you want to give to them and in this way each one towards the other and everybody together are doing this work in this receiver. That you want to reach a state that through it you are bestowing to the Creator. So each and every one in this receiver is adding his part and you all together want to transmit it to the Creator. This is what you want to come out of this, so you pray, you ask that the Creator can give you this opportunity that it will work out, that you will succeed and then each one will help his friend. As much as you support one another and work on it together in all kinds of different matters, have meetings, meals, study. But the main thing is that you think how we can connect between us in such a way we teach one annuls themselves towards the others in order to incorporate in them and how he can absorb from everyone in order to incorporate in them. It turns out that eventually you will build an instrument like a contact between each one and everyone, then you make such connection, communication in the group that you build the Creator. The Creator is called the inclusive, that if you read some kind of a connection between you, that each one wants to bestow to everyone, so some measure of connection that you reach that is called “Come and See,” look what we attained, look what we have received, what we have discovered it is the Creator, “Come and See.” In this way we discover him.
S. From what you are saying, I hear that all of these efforts that we put in towards the connection, building this device is the signal that goes to the Creator. What is the signal that comes from Him?
R. The Creator is inside of us, we do not need to go and pull him from somewhere. Also what we are doing now, succeeding, mistaking, asking, feeling confusing, yes, no, it is all Him doing. It is all Him doing, we just need to try and come closer to Him. That is it. We will talk about it more, but this is how it will happen. You see I am talking, and I see that most of the friends are starting to perceive it in a more tangible way, which is close to their heart and even to their understanding that is good.
S. When we build this connection, you say that we also need to aim to the Creator, how to correctly focus that aim?
R. It all depends how each one through all the friends wants to be aimed to the Creator, this is called to give contentment to one's maker.
S. How can each friend direct himself, aim himself more correctly, I want to be more precise here?
R. We read many things about that, through the connection between us to the connection to the Creator. Nothing else to say, to the extent that you want for the benefit of the friends, you can give this attitude back to the Creator. That is it.
Reader continues (49:00) “Permitted and Forbidden in Using Human Science”
20. R. (50:03) Meaning that we can take from life only facts. That they enter our five senses, and we are sure that it is that way.
Reader continues: (50:19) “Clearly such proof cannot be found in any spiritual matter…”
21. R. (52:23) That is why we are working here like animals as beasts.
Reader continues: (52:25) “Such a thing is utterly unthinkable and not only for …”
22. R. (53:24) Yes because then every person is just a biological machine that is activated by the forces of nature and then there is no freedom of choice, no cause and effect and everyone is just a biological machine, that is it, just like we see on all animals, still, vegetative, and animate. So we are part of the animate and we are also activated by nature and even though we developed all kinds of wisdoms, they too are on the same level as nature. That is why, by that, we will not ascend above the animate.
Reader Continues: (54:14) “Indeed know that the method of those who conceived the quality…”
23. R. (55:48) I guess I will head home; you should read these parts. This article is not really organized and prepared for print. It was not really elaborated on by Baal HaSulam, the writer. That is why it is difficult to study it and that is why if we read it, let us say in a while, for now we will advance by other articles. So we will see as much as here too we have more material between the words.
24. S. (56:32) I want to ask about the method that Baal HaSulam chooses to explain. We read two articles, Wisdom of Kabbalah and Philosophy and also Body and Soul. He spends a lot of time on the nine methods which are common in the world. Should we also use this kind of method to deny existing methods to explain our own method?
R. No, we do not want to mix with everything there is, not to do it as criticism on something, for what? First of all, by this you will be like a lot of other people who want to build themselves on flawing others. We do not want this. We want to explain what the wisdom of Kabbalah is and whoever understands and so from that they will understand what is unique about it compared to other methods if he even knows them and if not so what also. So he will not know other methods, he does not have any tendency for it. He will not start comparing one method to another, he will just remain and what he is, each one. The main thing is that we should reach a spiritual vessel and from this it will be clear how it is exalted beyond all other methods that people can invent in this world.
S. Where does the secular method fit, on one hand the person that has no salt in after his death nothing remains and on the other hand, he has freedom of choice or at least that is what most of them think, where does this fit between these three methods?
R. There are a lot of methods and also beliefs, psychology, physiology and religion, there are a lot of things. There are people who like to sort them out, organize them, and give each and every method some value. We do not do it because we have no contact with them. We just want to reach faith above reason, to go beyond all the methods, all the approaches to a level that there is only the wisdom of Kabbalah, and it explains the person about the true reality.
Reader continues: (59:40) “The Accusation against Maimonides”
25. R. (01:00:50) They thought that specifically by Rambam, Maimonides, he was great, and he dealt in metaphysics and philosophy, so many people of coming to the wisdom of Kabbalah and revealing the Creator, they followed the metaphysics and philosophy in such a way that I do not want to elaborate more. Later on when we advance in spirituality it will be clear about what we are talking.
Reader continues: (01:01:27) “Needless to say today our generation has already recognized….”
26. R. (01:01:57) That is why it is very severe, what was in history. For many years they burned all of the Rambam books; there was some judgment there until this period went by, it was prohibited to engage in his books. Today we are beyond all this. As he says in our generation, we have developed to see that metaphysics and Philosophy there is no real content. That is why it is clear that we should engage in what happened back then with Rambam that was so dangerous, that is why we can study his words, because he really was a huge true Kabbalist. These things, throughout 5,000 to 6,000 years that the wisdom of Kabbalah exist, these things are part of great history that the Kabbalists have gone through and with all their revelations and with all their search we will still learn about it. It is very interesting how the human mind, the revelation of the Creator, the approach to review of the Creator, how it all changes from one generation to the next until it comes to our generation. From that we will soon learn about what is so unique about our generation.
27. S. (01:04:05) In the text, about the sages that Baal HaSulam mentions, the same way that he spoke against Maimonides, their people also talked against Baal HaSulam, also the authorities also objected to his writings. The question is which sages does he write about that rejected Maimonides?
R. They were great sages back then that understood the Rambam, and they attained the Creator like Rambam did. He was a great Kabbalist but because he used all kinds of terms from metaphysics and philosophy, which is why they were afraid that people will start going into metaphysics and physics and philosophy on their own and not the way that the Rambam was presenting it. So in order to build a barrier to prevent people from going through all those methods, they put out like a judgment that he is wrong and that his books should be burned and that you are not allowed to study them. Only after some time when we already let go of that generation, this philosophy and physics have completely gone bankrupt already and it is clear to everyone that it is not worth investing a bit of time and energy. That is why we are allowed to read his books of Rambam and study from them, because they cannot cause us to deviate into some kind of metaphysic form instead of the method of Kabbalah. We will talk about it; it is not simple. These things are not so simple and easy. As I said, it is thousands of years of development of the wisdom of Kabbalah which is the first greatest and the most ancient method in humanity that came to us six thousand years ago from Adam HaRishon. We will talk about it more.
28. S. (01:07:20) The current state of the world we are in with war about to break out and pandemic and the climate people should have asked what is going on, it seems like they have become more corporeal instead of more spiritual?
R. Because they have bigger problems, they want to watch out from heat and cold, from all kinds of outbursts of nature and from Corona and all kinds of other things, from wars. There are problems, they want the first of all to take care of themselves, for them it is in this world the most important thing is his life, his body. That is what everyone is concerned about but so why do you need to even speak about it here?
S. When should this connection take place according to the wisdom of Kabbalah between the body and soul?
R. First of all it has to happen here with us and if we will be the source of that force where the spiritual and the corporeal connect together then we will be able to also be a center of connection of all of humanity and they will start feeling that we only have the truth, and they will come and they will study from you. You will be the teachers of all of humanity.
29. S. (01:09:15) According to the wisdom of Kabbalah what is the main role of the body in this?
R. Both have to work together in body and soul, that by the mutual work between them we need to reach these with the Creator.
30. S. (01:09:54) From this article can we take any principles that we can convey in dissemination?
R. No, no, it is a short article. We do not know it, we do not feel it, it does not get into our awareness. We cannot use it in order to disseminate something from it and also all the parts where he says body, soul, it is such short paragraphs that are not final, that is we ourselves are not sure what to do with it. For this reason please be rational, we cannot use these articles. We are reading them in order to expand our knowledge a bit but not more than that.