Morning Lesson February 12, 2024
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. The Foreword to The Book of Zohar. #6
Reading Article Item 6. “You already know that there are ten Sefirot, called...”
1. S. (05:43) What does it mean that the vessel in the world of Atzilut passes it without color? It says it is like the light itself.
R. Yes, there is nothing to color the lights with.
S. Is it a vessel that is not in Ein Sof, Infinity? There is some coarseness there.
R. No, what does he say? White, red, green, and black. Those are the lights. What do you have in the light of Atzilut? White light.
S. Why does he say that the vessel of Atzilut is like the light itself and there are no changes in the light?
R. That the vessel doesn't make any difference in the light it doesn't color in any way.
S. Why is it regarded as the world of Atzilut? Why isn't the world of Atzilut from Ein Sof to the end of the world of Atzilut? It begins only at the end of the Tabur.
R. The world of Atzilut starts below the Tabur, it is there because that's where the vessels start formulating.
S. What does it mean that the vessels begin there in the world of Atzilut? The Vessel doesn't make a change in the light.
R. Because it's so pure that it doesn't make any changes in the light.
S. Is it the same as it is above the Tabur? Above the Tabur there are no colors?
R. No, that is what he explains.
2. S. (07:42) It is written that color is according to the light that passes through it. We know that when we look in the eyes it's what the light is reflected, not what it takes through, what it swallows we don't see. Why, in spirituality is what passes through it?
R. That's how it colors it. The light that goes through a certain world, Sefira, Partzuf through it, gets an impression from what it went through. According to that, we can say it's something about the state that the light went through.
S. The color is from the reflected light or from what it went through and was received in the vessel?
R. The light when the light goes through some kind of Partzuf, it receives the color of that Partzuf.
S. It was already received in its domain and its taste in this Partzuf?
R. In the Partzuf, yes.
3. S. (09:02) If there is an object in the world of Assiya for example, it receives light. We know that it always receives in ten Sefirot.
R. Of course always ten, no more no less.
S. In the world of Assiya, how can you discern a Sefira, like Atzilut or Yetzira, what's the difference between the Sefirot when it is in such a dark place?
R. The dark place also has a vessel, and the vessel also is divided into ten other vessels.
S. But the discernment between these vessels should take colors as if?
R. Seemingly like in all of the BYA entirely.
S. They're in the place where the light hardly reaches it's dark? We can still make discernments in the colors?
R. Yes, the discernments we have every day in science in anything and when we come closer, we get into it, we start researching and we see that there we have the same laws.
4. S. (10:20) The world means concealment on the light, if Atzilut doesn't make changes in the light then what's the concealment?
R. There's no concealment.
S. What's the difference between that and Galgalta or even higher if there's no concealment?
R. There is none.
S. What does it mean Galgalta and Atzilut are the same?
R. I don't know, but that's what he writes. In the world of Atzilut, there's no screen, no shattering, no nothing.
5. S. (11:11) What does it mean when a person attains the ten Sefirot for the first time?
R. When a person attains the ten Sefirot for the first time it means he goes through all their qualities, they're all impressed in him, he identifies with them, he resembles those qualities and, in that way, he goes into the world of Atzilut.
S. How are they imprinted in him? How did they shift from quality to quality, from Sefira to Sefira?
R. Every quality is revealed towards a certain world and that way the world goes through this quality it says if it's color by it and continues.
S. For some Kabbalists, a friend in the Ten wants to discover the Ten Sefirot, and he feels a connection with his friends. What does it mean in this connection that the ten Sefirot awakens its qualities and is revealed in this feeling?
R. A person feels himself as made of those qualities and in each one of them he wants to feel the Creator, in that way, he discovers them inside himself.
6. S. (13:20) In order to discern the worlds BYA do we have to annul ourselves and all our forces?
R. Yes.
Reading item 8. (14:00) “In addition to the above there is a very important...”
7. S. (17:10) We say that letters are vessels meaning Atzilut doesn't have any vessels, no letters?
R. The vessels are still incomplete, let’s say, the coarseness in them does not stand out yet.
8. S. (17:32) What is The Book of Heaven?
R. The Book of Heaven is the ten Sefirot which is all the worlds and through all of that, the upper light comes to the receivers.
S. He talked about a book, author, and story. What is the story?
R. We'll see it. It's three degrees that through them we discover the Creator's actions toward us.
S. What is written in the Book of Heaven?
R. All the laws of nature, all the laws.
Reading item 9. (18:27) “We said above, in the third boundary, that the Zohar...”
9. S. (20:24) He tells us two things here, that they rise either towards Atzilut or in their place. In terms of the work of the lower ones, what are the differences between these two operations?
R. The difference is that they either ascend to the world of Atzilut or remain in their place.
S. But the influence it can be in the lower ones can't be in Atzilut they have to come down, no?
R. The lights come from Atzilut.
S. The discernments, the vessels, that I receive below in the lower ones, can they already use them?
R. Yes, of course.
S. What's required of us in order to create this connection?
R. To receive the nature of those worlds that we need to rise upon.
S. How do we awaken a request, how do we awaken help us?
R. That's not in the wisdom of Kabbalah that belongs to a man's work.
10. S. (21:39) Concerning the Zohar, speaking only about the worlds of BYA and the connection of the Atzilut to them, in the study of the ten Sefirot they talk about everything and in the Zohar only about this part. In the study of the ten Sefirot, he starts from the four phases down. Is it different work the Zohar and in the study of the Ten Sefirot and the Zohar described?
R. Yes, of course, the Zohar tells us about the worlds of BYA and a bit about how they influence the world of Atzilut.
S. What comes before that? Nikudim and all that is not mentioned in the Zohar?
R. Almost none, only as upper roots.
11. S. (22:30) I want to understand this item we just talked about. When we rise to the world of Atzilut, and the background is white and in descending to the worlds of BYA the background changes according to the world it is in?
R. Wherever you are, that's how you can absorb that background.
S. The background mat change, according to where you are?
R. Yes.
S. Besides the letters which are according to the worlds?
R. Yes.
12. S. (12:13) Basically, the ascents of the worlds of changing material or something else? How does it change our perception in the ascent of the worlds?
R. We haven’t talked about it yet. Where did you see it written here?
Reading item 10. (23:3) “Yet, the allegory and the lesson are not quite...” Twice.
13. S. (26:12) Meaning there is no content that we take from what is written but the letters themselves, the white in the book. This is the content and not what is written.
R. You want to ask what I'm learning from, from the letters, from the form of the letters, from the color of the letters, what am I learning from?
S. Or from the white of the book?
R. You can't grasp the white, the white is Hochma, that's what you can't get.