Part 2:
Morning Lesson September 06, 2021, Transcription
Baal HaSulam, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, #33
1.R. (00:25) So far, we have learned about the direct light, reflected light, surrounding light, the coarseness, and screen. Let's continue and may begin at 33.
Item 33 (00:51) “Now we shall clarify the issue of the Bitush [beating] ….”
2. R. (02:32) Rav drawing. I am drawing it this way. Here you have the red arrow that is the direct light, let's call it 1. 2 is the reflected light in the Rosh, the head; and afterwards 3 enters inwards as the inner light; and the extra that was not able to enter the Partzuf is 4, the surrounding light. We say A is the Rosh, the head, B is the Toch, the middle, and C is the Sof, the end of the Partzuf. This is
what we have, Any questions about this< only this?
3. S. (03:48) The reflected light is in the Rosh?
R. Yes, only in the Rosh. The reflected light illuminates only in the Rosh.
4. S. (04:37 The purpose of the surrounding light is to enter to the Toch and the purpose of the inner light, why is it opposite? Why is the entering of the surrounding light into the Toch opposite the inner light?
R. The inner light comes from the screen and wants to feel itself in order to give contentment to the Creator. The surrounding light is what cannot give contentment to the Creator and thus remains outside the screen in the Peh of the Rosh. Rav drawing. It is the reason for the reflected light, the internal light, and the surrounding light.
S. Is the inner light not interested in the surrounding light to enter?
R. The screen does not allow it. What does it have to do with the light? All of these things occur only by the screen, the Masach. The screen is the force that decides how much I can receive on the intention to bestow, 2 is the force of repulsion. Accordingly, from this force of 3 is the internal light, and another force of 4 is the surrounding light.
S. It says these two lights are opposite from each other.
R. Internal light and surrounding light are opposite because this screen does this. One receives and one expels.
5. S. (06:45) Is the difference between the reflected and surrounding light because the reflected light is connected to the inner light?
R. The lights don't operate on anything. The screen does everything. All of the decisions are in the screen. It is the reason and the cause for the inner light, the reflected light, surrounding light, and the direct light. All of this is the screen which feels. The moment we have the force of opposition to reception without any calculation, we will feel the lights operating upon us and we can operate them.
6. S. (07:40) Does the light have quantity? What does it mean that the screen can receive a part and a part not?
R. The screen stands on the will to receive. The will to receive with the screen makes a calculation of how much it can be in equivalence of form with the upper light, with what the Host gives the guest. Accordingly, it thinks and decides ‘this part I can take; and this part I can’t take’. We see this in the drawing. Number one is that the Creator, the Host, gives the guest, and number two is that the guest rejects and he doesn't want, he feels shame. He makes the calculation of how much he can receive with the intention to bestow. The part where he is receives is number 3. Here he is not capable, two great pleasures are over here and this is four.
S. How can we define what puts pressure on the screen?
The upper light puts the pressure on the screen. You need to think more about it, depict to yourself that you are by someone and you have the Host in front of you. Try to depict the situation, these relations to yourself.
7. S. (09:30) Is the inner light diminishing our will to receive and the surrounding light evoking new forces?
R. Yes, correct.
8. S. (09:51) In the beginning of the wisdom of Kabbalah we talk about Behina Dalet which is not qualified to receive the light and the Partzufim of Kedusha becomes vessels, are these the same Partzufim of Kedusha?
R. Yes, this is all we are talking about nothing else does the wisdom of Kabbalah have to talk about other than the will to receive that wants to receive, the restriction, the screen and from the screen how that same receiver becomes a bestower
S. He's talking about this in the beginning and now he specifies?
R. Yes there is the Creator and the created being and the Creator wants to place the screen between such that the Created being can be in equivalence of form; This is the entire wisdom.
9. S. (10:58) Is the reflected light the intention to bestow?
R. Yes.
S. The direct line clothes on the screen?
R. Correct.
10. S. (11:15) If the inner light is felt in the vessel where is the surrounding light felt?
R. All of the lights are found within the vessel. There is no outside the vessel that we can feel something, even though we say surrounding light, which is found outside the vessel, it is felt inside the vessel.as if it exists outside the vessel it exists outside the will to receive that can receive and it has that kind of sensation. When you are by a very nice portion and you received a small part of it because you are ashamed to take more whatever influences from that portion to you in that same serving is called the internal that you can receive it that it remains on the serving plate this is the surrounding light. You feel it but this is why it's called surrounding light.
S. According to your drawing it's not clear where the surrounding light is? What is the connection between the surrounding light and the Sof?
R. We didn't talk about it and it's not clear because we didn't talk about that. You should hold up and see this. We have many other parts of the Partzuf, the ahead.
11. S. (12:49) Where exactly in your drawing is the Bitush, the striking between the surrounding light and the inner light?
R. (Rav draws a circle and marks Bitush: Here is the Bitush (striking) The Tabur (the navel) because Tabur is the end. It is clear that more than here it does not receive. There is a difference. There is a separation between the internal light and surrounding light. There it makes a strike because the surrounding light doesn't agree that it won't be received any more but where does he reveal it? In theTabur.
12. S. (14:07) There is direct light that comes like a portion to me. Can I say this is all I feel?
R. Of course, there is no more from the side of the created being he doesn't know what is happening outside of him. This is his will to receive. Everything is found outside of him. So, what does he know? He knows that the will to receive is what someone gives him and now he reacts and everything that is occurring is occurring inside of him. So, it cannot be that somewhere outside him. Even though he says the surrounding light is stars, a universe, planets all sort of things. It is a lie. This is all felt inside it all by us. Baal HaSulam writes this.
S. I am asking this because we, like the Kabbalists, are feeling this in all states if possible?
R. We don't do these things. We don’t have the restriction, screen, reflected light, the feeling of the giver or the host or the feeling of myself as the guest. We don't yet have these things. We should try to resurrect these things and relate to creation in this way and then everything that we draw and read will be carried out inside of us.
13. S. (16:11) Why is the striking of the internal and surrounding light relative to one another and not a striking of the screen and the Masach?
R. You are correct but this is how we say, this question is always asked. That’s how we talk. That's how we say.
14. S. (16:35) The force of the screen is dependent on the quality of connection in the group?
R. Yes, the screen is the result to the extent that we connect between us and to the extent that we cannot connect because as much as we cannot connect this is what we call the coarseness of the screen, how much we ask the Creator to help us connect. Then he gives us the screen itself, meaning the result of all the work in the connection between us, is called the screen. Then we, as a 10, because here, (refers to the drawing), these are the 10 Sefirot.
S. Meaning once again it turns out ...
R. To the extent we build ourselves, the Rosh because we have our desire but as we connect between us build the Rosh, the 10 Sefirot are called Guf.
S. This is called Guf?
R. Yes
S. We are building in faith above reason and the Rosh is given from above?
R. Yes.
Item 34 (19:00) “We have learned that both the Ohr Pnimi and Ohr Makif …”
15. S. (21:56) The screen is a condition by which I prefer the connection with the Creator on top of the reception?
R. The screen is what equalizes between the receiver and the bestower.
S. Where does the screen come from?
R. The receiver feels the shame it makes the restriction on itself and does not agree not to receive but the light wants to bestow the Creator, so what to do, I must be like him. Otherwise, what? He's making an action on how to bestow. Then he understands because the Creator wants to give. Then I can play with his desire, that if I have received from him, not because I want, but the opposite of my desire because He wants and by this, I am bestowing to Him, not to myself but to Him. Thus, here it turns out that we have his entire mechanism of how we receive the wisdom of Kabbalah, how we receive and remain similar to the creator.
S. I am incorporated in the desire of the Creator before I receive?
R. Of course, if I make a restriction, I have no problem and after the restriction I do the maximum as much as I can to give to the host as much as I am capable of. How can I check this? According to the sensation of the greatness of the host in my eyes and more than what I am as much as his importance is greater than me then the importance of my ego.
S. You give us this example with the food that we are talking a lot about and that through the taste of the food you can feel the connection with the Creator so to what extent do we combine the taste?
R. If you truly want to bestow to the Creator you can begin to discern what taste and begin to bestow to him, and all that we drew here in the drawing you will have to fulfil it. How much I am getting from the host, the creator, and how much I need to reject entirely. Then make a calculation of how much I can receive in order to bestow to him and how much remains outside. On top of all of these things, I must make a calculation. This calculation in sum total is called a Partzuf. Meaning portion that I receive in order to bestow to the host in return. This is called a I and thus exists all of the connections and relations in spirituality. There is none other. All that exists is the will to receive in the will to bestow. The Creator and a created being.
S. We say the screen is a result of all that we are accumulating between us and we can't ask the Creator to get this result between us?
R. Anyway you turn it around it will be the same. The screen is what works against my ego when I want to enjoy, I myself want to enjoy to the extent I want to give pleasure to the Creator.
S. Besides that same level of connection between us the connection between the friends doesn't exist anywhere else?
R. In order to bestow to the Creator, you should first bestow to your friends. Otherwise, it won't work and accordingly you can understand your distance from spirituality, close or far and perform actions only in that direction.
16. S. (27:05) This illustration is the Partzuf, this illustration is the ten sefirot and the desire to receive, all the same thing here?
R. The Guf of the Partzuf (refer to illustration). The Guf, this is the will to receive. That is, it, the Rosh is the thought, calculation (Cheshbon)
S. The thought only comes from the desire, so what is separate? How is that thought separate from the desire?
R. No, all the thoughts are in the Rosh head and the desires are in the Guf (body). These are the thoughts here in the Rosh.
17. S. (29:01) What is the role of the surrounding light in receiving all of the lights inside the vessel? What does it do exactly? What's the process of receiving all of the light?
R. That is later. After many actions until the final correction, we receive the surrounding light in small portions more and more. This comes later. This is the process that we go through.
18. S. (29:53) If I understood you correctly, you said the illumination of the reflected light, Ohr Hozer is only felt in the Rosh but the last sentence says in excerpt 34 that the reflected light is below the Rosh, is this a proper interpretation?
R. No, the reflected light exists only in the Rosh also in the Guf. but that is something else and we will learn about these details in the future.
19. S. (31:15) Can you draw something on the screen?
R. If a person doesn't have a screen that you have the will to receive and against it pleasure and the will to receive wants to devour all the pleasure. There is no calculation with pleasure or another source of pleasure. Only how to fulfil itself with this pleasure and this is not the wisdom of Kabbalah, that's the wisdom of this world. How can we fulfill ourselves without making any calculations with the source of pleasure. This is not the wisdom of Kabbalah. This is not wisdom.
S. We begin to draw all of this for him and they tell us to draw this where we are? Where do we draw to them all of the surrounding lights?
R. There is nothing to draw here. We are talking about our situation, and it is said that we are all like beasts and we just want to devour everything before us. That is something that you have to explain to them. This is why we cannot receive beyond a small illumination that holds us alive. All of the rest if we want to receive it, discover it, this is only through this system we are now drawing. If we can reach a state where we can receive what is before us this way, then we will fill the entire reality including the source of reality.
S. Nothing at all? Just the blank page?
R. Yes, with respect to the wisdom of Kabbalah and the spiritual world we don't exist because we are all the will to receive not the will to bestow. Yes, explain this correctly. This is why the entire length of a person's life, to enjoy this life and as he dies it's not considered anything neither good nor bad as if it didn't exist. Meaning he did exist in order to collect all kinds of negative discernments of his existence and then by many incarnations you eventually reach a state where the will to receive awakens to truly search for the way he can exist and receive the upper light then he comes to the wisdom of Kabbalah. What we are drawing here is the only scheme and the only possibility to get into contact with the upper light to feel and advance until you reach a complete and mutual connection.
20. S. (35:06) The internal light inside the Partzuf is the pleasure he feels he's giving the Creator? That He truly enjoys this?
R. Correct.
S. Then the surrounding light comes and makes it all depart. What is good about this?
R. Try to depict the host as the surrounding light, and what does He tell the guest? ‘What you took is nothing compared to what I want to give you, and you have to accept everything that I prepare for you; otherwise, it will be considered that you received maybe one thousandth of what I want to give you.’ To me, in my eyes, it is not considered that you have received or that I’m enjoying you. Try more. The host is putting pressure and for the guests, he has no choice. If he will keep receiving from the Toch to the Sof of the Partzuf, it will be in order to receive because he doesn't have a screen anymore with the intention to bestow. All he can do is one thing; he cannot stay in his current state because it's not considered to receive. He received a little bit and there are no dynamics, her, no motion forward. This is why all he can do is depart and then once he receives the light in the Partzuf, it decides he has to come out as a result of the Bitush, the striking of the inner light and the surrounding light, there is a decision and as usual all the decisions are in the Peh de Rosh, and this is how he departs. He departs from receiving with what he received, on the hand; on the other hand, when it comes to Peh de Rosh, he starts feeling what the host wants to give him; he sees it is truly Ein Sof. And then, he decides again ‘well, maybe I will receive something’, and he has a new calculation. It is like the host always tempts him, ‘to take this, take a little bit of this or a little bit of that’, and he receives this way until he seemingly receives for the sake of the host until the final Correction, all the way to the final Correction.
21. S. (38:15) Is there a difference between rejecting the host because of fear to receive punishment or fear from shame?
R. There is no calculation of punishment or shame, here, because there is no punishment in spirituality. You are standing before the Creator, who is the Good who does good. All of your calculations are only to do good to Him as He wants to do good to you. As much as we can be connected, embraced, loved and this is why there is no fear in spirituality of anything. The only fear is I bestowing the maximum, as much as I can? That’s all.
22. S. (39:19) In the drawing, the upper part, the Rosh, we are building in our efforts of Arvut, right?
R. Yes.
S. The lower part, the Bitush, the striking, that that occurs, how do we build that?
R. Here we feel the Sof, and we can't perform the actions of bestowal because with all of the force of bestowal that we have, we depart this state, we come out of the contact with the Creator and the light, and the pleasure, everything. We have to depart because we see what we did do, by that we didn't really do something. We did something for the Creator but in comparison to what He gives, we have no ability to do anything, anymore. This is why we have to come out of this contact and start looking for a new one we can enter into contact with the Creator again. In what can we still add and bestow contentment to Him?
23. S. (40:49) There is something a bit confusing, as much as he makes a calculator, he understands the will to receive more of the intention to bestow or less?
R. As we make these calculations, we see the more we make these f, we make less receive less. We see that the first Partzuf comes and second Partzuf, and it turn s out there are 125 Partzufim, and each one is smaller than the previous one.
24. S. (41:37) The surrounding light that is against the four phases in the Partzuf or even the previous phases in the Egulim ,before the restriction?
R. No there is no such thing. We're not talking about the Egulim, ‘the circles’, all we can talk about here is what happens through the screen that’s standing in the Peh de Rosh. the screen determines all of the order.
25. S. (42:19) The Partzuf, in the drawing, the ego or the evil inclination, is part of the Guf or the corruption is in the Rosh?
R. There cannot be corruption in the Rosh.
S. What we call the evil inclination or the ego, is this part of the Guf? Where is it in the drawing?
R. It’s not in this drawing because all you have in this drawing is the will to receive with a restriction upon it. Meaning when a person is willing to work with it only in order to bestow; and, within this whole drawing, what we draw is the style of bestowal of that Partzuf -- there's no will to receive for himself, there are no Klipot, here, nothing. Only the will to bestow because we are drawing, here, the relations between the Creator and the created being. They can only be in the mutual force of bestowal between them