Morning Lesson January 13, 2023 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Zohar for All. "Introduction of The Book of Zohar" The Donkey Driver. #106
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:30) Yes, we will continue, we are already in this ‘Introduction of the Zohar’ and in this article, so please.
Reading Item 106 (00:50) “Rabbi Elazar started and said..”
2. R. (03:20) We see how everything is organized in a gradual, procedural way. How these degrees descend towards the lower ones helping them rise back up to these degrees from below upwards. This is how a person climbs from the degree of a righteous to a greater righteous, from a lower degree to higher and even upper degree and his entire ascent is in further and further being willing to let go of the delightful life he had on a lower degree and rise to a higher quality of delight on an upper degree to the extent that he can be in adhesion with the upper more and more. So every ascent is an ascent towards the quality of Bina and that’s what is called the life of delight and through that we receive Mochin de GAR; only through the light of Bina. So even if we rise to the degree of Hochma it is clothed through the Mochin de Bina and this is called the next world. Well that’s it, no more to add.
Reading Item 107 (05:30) “We should also interpret, “How great is Your goodness..”
3. R. (07:45) This is how it is arranged in the development of the Partzufim through Keter, Bina, ZA and Malchut; that ZA clothes Keter and Malchut over Bina. So we always talk about the coupling of Hochma and Bina or ZA and Malchut on all the degrees; that this is what should happen between them. And as it is written, MA and BON are destined to become AB and SAG.
4. S. (08:38) What is this pairing when Malchut clothes in Bina and the ZA in Malchut?
R. They reach the final correction; meaning the lower ones have completely taken upon themselves all the qualities and limitations and properties of the upper ones and they clothe on to them, they sympathize with them and they have nothing more to do. This is why their correction is called finalized; the final correction.
S. So in this case we constantly learn that the lower Partzufim clothe onto Keter and the lower degrees the higher they get but here it is something else?
R. No, it is not so. All of the problems, failures and distractions are all in the lower ones and the lower ones have to rise to the upper ones and clothe over them. Meaning embrace all of the nature of the upper one which means they correct themselves to the level of the upper one and by that all that is broken in them, how to say this, what else to call this besides being broken; it all becomes corrected. We have no more to do besides raising the ZA to Keter and Malchut to Hochma and Bina.
S. How does the lower one produce an ascent?
R. Only by feeling the upper one and praying to resemble Him; only through prayer. And the prayer of course, has to be tied to the actions, that they come together in tens, then in hundreds and then thousands and then accordingly, they can rise to a higher and higher degree. That’s how we connect.
S. So in this prayer, you say that the lower one feels the upper one and asks to identify with Him. How do we ask correctly from the upper one in order to identify with Him?
R. It is that if we are reading the Zohar and we try to have the Zohar influence us in a way that we will have the right prayer. The Book of Zohar is intended for that, it is telling us all kinds of stories and tales and incidents through which we begin to gradually understand and feel what we are lacking in order to get closer to the upper one. And then accordingly, each of us and all of us together, ask from the upper one to bring us closer. That’s the whole remedy and virtue of the Book of Zohar. So when the time came that the souls already needed to be risen and they were worthy of rising, so then the ten of Rabbi Shimon was revealed in that special cave they were in, where they sat and wrote and so that’s how it happened.
5. S. (13:24) A few weeks ago when you read the Zohar and I asked you about the firmament and you said those were screens and here in item 107, when he writes that the smaller tree, the Malchut and he brings it to the height of the firmament, is it speaking to the highest degree of the screen the person can reach?
R. Please repeat.
S. You explained a few weeks ago what firmament was and you explained that they are called screens. So we are talking about the secret of Hochma, so it is telling us or hinting that we reached the end of correction with the highest screens?
R. First of all we did not reach anything. Reading does not mean that we have reached it. Reading is not attaining, so do not get confused as we read now about some incident in the GAR of Atzilut and where does it rise and what actions it makes, that it actually happens within us. If I open up the book and read it, it doesn’t mean that I am already at the place that the book talks about.
S. Okay, simply asking: what does it mean that he is saying the height of the firmament?
R. Height of the firmament means that he is raising him to higher screens but it is not that as I read I am already there. I have to make these actions happen within me; to know them and to feel them, where they are in me.
Reading Item 108. (16:20) “Your goodness” is the light that was created..”
6. R. (21:05) That we should understand that all of those special days and months, holidays and so forth, it’s not like it is for us. These are signs called by the same names but the events and what actually happens there is completely not following our calendar and our definitions that we can think about. Everything is only about the upper light that bestows to the souls more or less at what intensity.
7. S. (21:58) He writes that from these Mochin the upper Garden of Eden emerges. What is this place, the upper Garden of Eden? What is this place, is this a vessel?
R. It is a place of course, it is a specific desire, a vessel that we need to reach.
S. How can we identify this place in order to reach this? We need to have something to hold on to; something to imagine?
R. Bit by bit it will be revealed in each and everyone according to their desire, their work, their root of their soul and most importantly, that we are generally drawn to it. That we do not already start looking for some unique, specific discernments or examinations because we are kind of, want to take discernments from this world and try to force them into the upper world. It is not worthwhile doing and it will only stop us and confuse us on the path. It is like you need to take a specific route and you want to go on your usual route but it is definitely not worthwhile.
8. S. (23:47) What is the state of the righteous who fears sin, it reminds us of the fear, so how to start the action in the ten?
R. To fear sin for us means that we will not let go of the connection between us and always strengthen in every moment as much as is possible because no moment is identical to another moment. It means that in that moment we have to strengthen ourselves again; strengthen the connection between us.
S. I need to pray: I have to remind myself to pray all day?
R. Yes until you start receiving. Each time you are drawn to it and you discover new flavors in it, what it is about, what kind of connection, what is the reason for the connection and what is the result of the connection; all the discernments that are in it.
S. So this is the path to discernments?
R. Yes, that’s our path.
9. S. (25:20) What is a new month in spirituality?
R. It’s that there is a renewal of leadership between the upper one towards the lower one and this new connection therefore, it is like when you go into a new class in school or a new society or a new kind of connection which is deeper and tighter. This means that you are progressing from one month to the next month. Chodesh in Hebrew, it means renewal, so this is how you get closer and especially it is about moving to a greater phase of connection between us. That is what month after month means and also day after day and so on and each and every moment.
10. S. (26:36) You say that the Garden of Eden is a special place we have to come to. Are we in hell?
R. We are below hell. We have not yet reached the degree of hell: tell me what is hell.
S. When I do not know where I am.
R. Why do you call it hell if you do not know?
S. Maybe then I am aware of it but I do not know?
R. We will see.
11. S. (27:27) Since we started to study the Zohar maybe there is not so much to ask about. Maybe there are some concepts of definitions but mostly to absorb the atmosphere.
R. There is only to connect and in our connection to find those depictions that the Zohar depicts. But of course it is going to be 1,000 times less than what the Zohar actually intends.. It is like a little child surrounded by adults but somehow he understands some of what they say, he laughs when they laugh, so similarly, we have to gradually get closer to the emotions that the Zohar describes for us. It really brings us up, just like how we relate to babies, then children, then youths and so on. This is how the Zohar relates to us: it is a book with which you grow.
12. S. (28:50) Can we say that when we speak of the correction of man, in actuality, if we are inside the Creator, then all of our qualities have to come out to the path inside the Creator where our location changes, so our environment will become more clear before us just like a vessel of reception? We do not change qualities.
R. We can call it that way for now.
S. What does it mean that if you do not change qualities? How do we advance from one moment to the next? Why did the Creator make us in such opposite qualities, why do we have to change it?
R. What I am hearing from you is interesting: so why do we exist in the first place?
S. In order to grab a new place?
R. How do we take a new place without changing our qualities?
S. Yes it is looking from a different direction a little bit. Then when we take the path through the Creator, it is like in The Wizard of Oz. They reach a place but they see that they are required elsewhere.
R.I do not know what you are talking about: don't tell me stories. Every change within us is a change of our qualities; closer to us or closer to the Creator. I don't know what you're reading between lessons. I do not know where you take these things from.
S. From the lessons I get such examples.
R. When you speak I am hearing a completely different approach, some ideology, something totally different: pay attention to it.
13. S. (31:16) A person, does he say that we can enter the Garden of Eden in this life and overcome the guards?
R. All of our work is aimed at the end of correction, that we need to reach, to reach at least that in the life in this world and there are people, that is souls, that can attain much more than that because the end of correction is only the end of the corruption. It is the end of our corruption what we had from the beginning of creation and this is what we need to correct and by correcting ourselves we understand that both the good side and the bad side that has appeared in us and how we move from bad to good, from shattering to connection and then we can work with both states.
When we work with both states we can advance further and progress further. Advancing further means that we have a vessel of both plus and minus of the system and that means that we can enter the systems 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th millennia as it is called GAR. That we ourselves did not come from there but now after the final correction that is, we can climb to these degrees and after that I cannot say what is next.
But all of that is ahead of us. A lot of work, a lot of degrees and they all give us a sense of up through the worlds, truly new worlds; an adventure. That’s what we should base ourselves for. Just like when you were kids and you wanted to feel something and discover something and this is how we need to now position ourselves. Not in front of death as we are going to soon die, instead we are going to live; we are going to live soon.
14. S. (34:15) To be in the Garden of Eden means to be incorporated to the root of the soul to incorporate into my root of the soul. Is it done only through the friends in the ten; they are the root of my soul?
R. I have to discover the root of my soul which is the Creator. First of all, with respect to myself, I will cling to Him more and more in a way that it is even mechanical, like a baby or an embryo that is later born and then is bonded in a more external way. But it is basically more and more bonded and it feels through his own senses that the mother is Bina and he connects to her and this way goes further and further.
That’s our spiritual development and there are other higher degrees even like what we know from this world to some extent. That the child is first tied to his mother and then he starts looking more towards his father. First it is not understood who the father is, somebody next to him, playing with him but he does not relate himself to the father and later he does. It is the same with us, with regards to Bina and Hochma and then we try, when we start to relate to these qualities in this manner and so forth.
S. Ultimately I can reach this special place only through the friends?
R. The entrance to any spiritual space is only together: only together. This is what the Zohar shows us and the ten of Rabbi Shimon.
S. So what Rabbi Shimon is discovering is, that he is revealing the secret that living in the ten or the state of connection between them, he is revealing the secrets and shortening the signs for us. How we can do this: is it simply revealing the state they have all gone through in the ten; all those Kabbalists in their connection.
R. Yes, yes, yes, this is sufficient to ask. A person should understand this through himself. We always talk about the states where we further connect and discover all of the aspects of our connection. This is basically what the whole Zohar is and the whole wisdom of Kabbalah is. Until we discover ourselves as, ‘one man, in one heart,’ at the central point of creation together with the Creator; Israel, the light and the Creator are one.
15. S. (37:35) In the last item, it says that all the souls are in the lower garden and they don't rise to the upper world or they go up to Eden and then they come down?
R. We are going to learn about it, there are just a few sentences about it here.
16. S. (38:08) Can we go through the degree of hell individually or as a ten, so it will not touch the whole of humanity, so we do the work for them in their place?
R. Why do you imagine these things for yourself at all?
S. In truth we have such thoughts about the general correction; it is horrible.
R. There is nothing horrible here. Hell means the feeling of rejection from the friends and from the Creator. And the Garden of Eden means the closeness, connection with them to a single whole where there is a greater, upper light that appears and everything is compatible with the same picture that we again and again feel and draw within ourselves as if we created, generated.
And don’t imagine some picture when people are walking in a garden or something. No, it is only closeness or separation between us, towards each other and it appears to us in such a way so that we will clarify between us more and more possibilities for the revelation of the Creator in the connection between us.
17. S. (40:04) What is the difference between reading of the Zohar together in the lesson and just listening to it or reading it by ourselves?
R. During the lesson when you are together with the friends you are participating basically in a single action and when you are reading on your own you are on your own, you don't have the same collective, spiritual action as you could have and the effect is big here.
18. S. (40:55) It says that there is an upper Garden of Eden and a lower Garden of Eden. What is the difference here, is it between VAK and GAR?
R. It is all because the Bina in its basis is divided into GAR and ZAT to begin with and so all these phenomena also provide these two aspects in every degree. GAR and ZAT upper and lower: we are going to learn that.
19. S. (41:45) What is a complete and open act?
R. A complete and open action is that all of the will to receive that has appeared in me now, I do not know it, I do not know who I am, where I am, why I am; it does not matter but if with what I have within me, I organize myself in different inner and outer forms of connection with the friends and the Creator, inside that connection, at the core of that connection, at the center of that connection together. And that is the action that I consider a complete action on my part for the time being.
S. What is an open action?
R. I do not know what is open action.
S. It says here, “which you have made for your dwelling, O’ Lord, a complete and open action.” So what is the open here?
R. The open action or revealed action is that I take some more vessels and I include them in my action. This is about the amount of vessels, the attitude to the vessels around you, that first they weren’t part of the action and now they are part of the action and so with respect to them the action is called revealed or open.
S. How can we reach this openness, how to do this in the ten?
R. We always make sure that we make actions in the ten because without the ten there is no action. This is what it's all about. The main thing for us is to get used to every action that has to happen inside the ten, it is 10 and not 9 and 10 and not 11 as it says. And if we get used to these actions we begin to feel through them more accurately, through all the friends they are part of this action of this connection in the ten. Through them we begin to feel new spiritual qualities that come from the incorporation of all our souls in each other. And the incorporation of all of these souls together in each other, leads us to the sensation of the Creator. And the Creator is the sum total; the totality, through the Yesod, which is also called the total which connects everything. And then we feel in our Malchut what we receive and that is already the truth where all of the qualities are incorporated with each other.
20. S. (45:55) You gave the example of the baby that is connecting to his mother and then as he grows his relationship turns to his father. Can you explain how initially he is connected to the mother and then later to the father?
R. These are the two forms of work with the Creator. We did not discuss it yet and we did not attain but the difference is vast. How in our world it is revealed as a connection between the newborn to the mother and later to the father. This is not simple to explain and how he begins to accept his father.
To accept his father also depends on periods of human development. When he has a mother and next to the mother there are a few additional women who would surround the newborn baby and then the father he enters into the connection after sometime.
We are going to learn these things. Why animals do not have such a connection as we have? The offspring that are born do not often know about the biological father and sometimes the father will go against them and wants to devour them and the mother has to protect them from the father. And this happens also with people. We are going to learn about all of these phenomena and their origin but for now it is not important for us. I am just concerned that our women suddenly entered some slumber, a coma.
21. S. (49:29) It says there are a chosen few whose places are in the higher Garden of Eden, can we consider that there is a state when we are always living in faith above reason and in Dvekut all the time, if so is MAN replaced with only being grateful and acceptance?
R. No, I cannot understand this assumption that we are also living now in faith above reason, it is not correct, we exist and live like animals who feel their world, what they feel is their world and they live accordingly, while in the spiritual world, it is what we can feel only as a result of our connection, and our quality is very different and this is something we have to establish inside of us, then we can see the spiritual world the spiritual structure of the universe, with everything in it and then with everything with the cosmic systems and each and everything in the universe, and who we are and what we are. This is still very far from us, we have to come to that according to our feelings and not that I am telling you about it and then you're just listening.
22. S. (51:35) I always had a feeling that my ten is my spiritual mother, if this is the case, who is my spiritual father and how can I come to know him?
R. Your ten is not your spiritual mother, rather this is this source from which you receive energy and discernments because you have to grow from one point, like into a collection of points, a collection of desires, ten Sefirot, so you have to receive through the ten, various different discernments and the then these discernments should give you the inner qualities so you can say to some extent that the friends that you connect with are going to build the internal structure in you to some extent.
23. S. (53:18) Such a thing opened for us that when you are reading the Zohar you expect the heart to dissolve and get closer and yesterday I felt a stone in the place of my heart, I couldn't do anything and it completely did not open, what should we do in such as state, I am praying, I am in a ten, but it is becoming fossilized more and more?
R. This is how it should be, why do you think that it should open so easily every time, you have a stony heart and in order for you to open you need a lot of work. If you want your heart to accept the ten inside of it, then it will dissolve and become a soft heart, a living heart.
S. I really want to accept the ten and I can not.
R. You have to ask because your heart is in the hand of the Creator, so ask from him to open your heart and say that you wish to bring the friends into your heart.
24. S. (55:03) What is the protection of the mother when a person is working with the form of the father as you talked about?
R. The mother is protecting the baby in all instances because she is the closest to the baby and even when the father is approaching and influencing the baby, in spirituality or even in the physical world, we see that the mother is always trying to be between the baby and the father, we can see it in the animals even more clearly, and with us, we also feel it. That the mother cautions the father how to play with the baby and how the mother is protecting the baby, and the baby always feels that he is closer to his mother, this is how it is according to nature, not the beastly egoistic nature, but according to the child who feels connection to his mother, he was born from the mother, there is an inner connection between them. Inner connection means although he came out of her this internal connection and the umbilical cord has been severed, but spirituality is not open yet and they are connected to each other.
S. Can we say that the state repeats itself in each and every degree, somehow because it is like following each other?
R. Not in each and every degree, it does not stop this connection remains all the time, it is felt more or less from the side of the mother, from the child that could be already be a grown up but it doesn't matter, it never stops.
S. But it depends on the vessels of the receiver, it depends on our perception at the end of day?
R. It depends on how much we develop our vessels here, how much we approach the qualities of father and mother and we feel how connected we are to them and how they can help us to rise even more to their degree, and how we can raise them to an even higher degree, this is how it works.
25. S. (58:16) It is like we lost the deficiency for the after the short congress we had in Turkey we prepared and red articles about Lishma, and for maybe a year we were in a time of a growing deficiency and as we started reading the Zohar, it is like we made some leap into a big ocean and there's no more deficiency, there is nothing to to sort of land your feet on, and you don't want to be just something that floats on water, so how to acquire a deficiency and not just be passive but actively move with your group?
R. [rough translation] In our world, not only in the corporeal world, but also in the spiritual world, there is no action if there is no action against it, there can be no plus without minus. And so if we want to move forward, we need to feel constantly about what we're making progress against, what we're making progress and so on. At the last conference, we made a breakthrough. And now we have to feel for what, and what did we do all this for and what did we accomplish? We move forward, we set, and we define.
26. S. (01:00:36) Why does the Zohar cause sleepiness, especially for women and how can we turn it around?
R. The Zohar is very deep, very current, very relevant, and it is trying to pull us to a very practical path of development. We have to understand that the Introduction To The Book of Zohar that we are going through is the most important book of all the Kabbalah books, because it explains to us in brief and easily, how we need to see the entire system of creation. Hence, we will need to relate to it in this way, that before us is the most important book, the Introduction To The Book of Zohar. We will go over it again and again. I'm asking you to read it at home, several times at home, what we are going through. There is nothing concealed in what we are going through, nothing confused, we don't need to know exactly about the upper Mochin and all these things, the corrections of Dikna, no we simply have to go through it step by step and should it somehow understood and written in such a way and truly enter with our brain and heart relatively smoothly.
27. S. (01:03:16) I think The Book of Zohar lesson is doing something to us that we do not understand. For me, it is like I do not feel like asking questions, I just want to hold on to the connection with the friends and just pray for everything that The Book of Zohar is trying to pass on to us, for us as women, to get everything from it. So I don't know whether asking questions or not asking questions is the issue, I think it is doing a great work inside of us to bring us closer, that's how I feel about it anyway. Questions sometimes can ruin the connection and it's like a lot of inner work is happening in us to bring us to this level of seriousness, so that we understand that the connection between us is the real thing that we need to focus on.
R. I think you wholeheartedly for your words let us hope that we will all feel this way.
28. S. (01:04:39) We read in the beginning of the item that the Creator made a state of light that a person saw everything from one end to the other, how can a person study it and receive it?
R. It was the light at the end of correction that the Creator concealed for the righteous to reveal it later on after the corrections, that is it.
S. Is it possible to say that when we grow, we first learn to discover the light of Hassidim and our attitude toward it, and only from the light of Hassadim, we begin to discover what is the initial light created by the Creator?
R. Yes.
29. S. (01:06:09) S. You said that the mother protects the child. What are the actions that we as children will be attached to the mother that defends us, that protects us, trying to be like her?
R. To adhere to her, to reach adhesion between us and then adhere to the mother. If we wish to adhere to the mother, each and every one of us, we will not attain anything because it was simply be a mess, but if we connect between us, in order to adhere to the mother, here we have a spiritual action because we wish to reach adhesion between us, meaning we do not come with our individual requests to to mother but rather we we come to mother because she will help us with adhesion between us and then to her, and then it is certain this action will be successful.
30. S. (01:07:38) Many times you give the example of relationship between mother and baby, how to cling to the mother and how the mother cares for the baby, but we barely talk about the role of the father, what exactly is the relationship between the lower one and the father, the upper one and the Creator?
R. When a person grows, he comes to a point where he needs to receive education from his father, but it takes time after many degrees, after a long time.
31. S. (01:12:27) We talked about mother and father, it sounds like mother provides everything, what is the contribution of the father?
R. First of all it is clear that this is how it is ranged by nature, Keter Hochma, Bina, ZA, Malchut, Bina gives birth and all the lights pass through her, she contains them and she prepares and contains the ZA, the newborn, that is why he is connected to mother and he receives from mother. And what happens with Abba, Abba is working through Ima, father through mother.
S. What is the contribution of father if mother provides everything?
R. What the father gives her, she passes to the child, she can't do it without father, there are two lights, Hassadim and Hochma, and both of them have to pass, both have to come from above, through Abba, through Ima, to ZA.
32. S. (01:13:31) I would like to talk to a state when I started to study the Book of Zohar, I feel that my ten is not enough connected to face this book, and this brings me to not connecting to my ten, I feel distant from it, to a state where I do not understand, I don't feel within the ten, connected to do the work that we usually do, what is the Creator handing me?
R. The Creator is sending you some notion, the knowledge that you have to have a ten, without a ten you stand no chance. To take even one step towards the purpose of life and you will remain severed from the Creator, from spirituality, from the purpose of life and from spiritual life itself. This is what he is trying to tell you, and you think that it is the tens’ fault, it is not the ten to blame, it is your fault. You have to connect to them, with closed eyes as much as you can, because that is your place, that is your spiritual place, and if you won't make the effort then you won't succeed. So that's it, this is what the Creator’s giving you, both this world and the next world, they are all connected to your connection to the ten, I have nothing to add.
33. S. (01:15:59) The father feels that the son takes place and is afraid of that, is that a threat for the father, and is there a conflict in that, is there some spiritual meaning to that, where the father tries to harm us?
R. No, because we are also advancing in the degrees the child can never take his father's place, he cannot be the husband of his mother, that is the role of the father, and I don't know what exactly what you're referring to, but in spirituality it doesn't have anything to do with that, even if they rise to the degree of AVI, they elevate their Abba ve Ima to a higher degree because whatever you get, you get through your upper one, by his agreement, by his work. That is how it is in spirituality.
34. S. (01:17:32) After the lesson, when you go through the material, there's a little bit of an understanding, but when we read it in a lesson in the lesson, then we don't understand it so much, but there is this effort to create this correct effort toward the ten.
R. Yes, I understand you, nonetheless keep on doing what you are doing, read it again, beyond the lesson this material.
35. S. (01:18:22) How can the mother do it such that the children will do what the father wants to give them?
R. Ask again.
S. How can the mother make it so that the children, the lower ones, that they can receive just what the father wants to give them?
R. The light of the Abba goes through the mother and then the mother, the Ima gives to the babies, each and every one according to how she decides, meaning from the father here, he only gives in a general way and the mother divides it all up to everyone.
S. But the lower ones, the children, there’s a state where the children cannot receive what the father wants to give them?
R. Father is not related to the lower ones, to the children, he's not connected to the children in a direct way, he gives through the mother and the mother gives them already.
S. Is the ten here the mother or the father, in our work?
R. The mother.