Morning Lesson February 26, 2022 Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot. #17
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, I have already said I reminded that as Rabash said once that the most important point about the study, when we were learning from the study of the Ten Sefirot, we opened the introduction so we studied the introduction just like now, and we came to the introduction after many years we read little bits, not even in depth, but we opened Item 17 and he said read this until you understand what it says here so now, we are on the same point at the number 17, that was 43 years ago maybe I have understood a little bit since then.
Reading Nr. 17 (01:16 - 04:27)
2. R. This means that the although the world the truthful world is closed and concealed we have the possibility of opening up our vision are feeling our senses to begin to feel a completely different world and it all depends on us and this judgment that the world is concealed and we are in darkness, concealment, this is temporary until we cleanse ourselves and refine our vessel of perception and we need to feel there we are truly and it only depends on us this is why this is how it is written so let's read again.
Reading again 17 (05:40 - 08:47)
3. R. If everything is clear we can continue if nothing is clear then there is no point in continuing so please answer me are there any questions so if there is nobody to answer oh yes there is.
4. S. (09:11) What is this commitment, this pledge that the student has to make before study before whom does he pledge?
R. The student pledges that he does not simply read and hear something but he studies in order to attain the purpose of the Torah and this is the reason for his study. This is why he has to cleanse his vessels in order to start to feel the truthful reality and then he knows what to do. Because until then he cannot hear, he cannot see, he cannot accept anything truthfully. First of all he has to correct his vessels of perception so they would not be selfish but they should be neutralized of the selfish ego.
S. From experience we see what does it mean to pledge I can pledge all day long but I remain a selfish person?
R. No this is not correct because you are reading additional conditions other than that that you have to study something you need the right intention for the study you need the ten, the friends, you have to speak with them, work with them and do all those actions that the study when you are reading from the correct books in the most correct way they possibly will influence you. It will influence you and you start to feel in your vessels of reception that they are cleansed.
5. S. (11:11) Where is the student's pledge, where is the pledge of the ten?
R. It is in each and everybody, what is the pledge for the time that you are sitting in a circle and you say something to each other, you are reading what the sages demand, what they tell you to request from yourself and of the ten and of the Creator. There is the person, the ten and the Creator. The person is the individual desire the Creator wakes up, the ten is already when the person is already organizing himself in order to connect to the Creator and to the extent he connect to the ten in that he can connect to the Creator and this is how he is cleansing the vessels of perception that he starts to feel that world he is in, the state he is in. The world Olam from the word concealment. what kind of concealment he is in.
S. So the pledge is for me or should I be concerned for the friends?
R. You have to do everything in order to uphold the conditions so they're reforming light will influence you and you can connect to the friends and through them to the Creator meaning to discover together with the friends that the Creator dwells among you. He is already there.
6. S. (12:47) He writes that he pledges, strengthens himself in faith in the Creator, and he is guided in reward and punishment. What exactly does the person want?
R. Faith means the force of bestowal, we want to do everything in order to reach faith, the force of faith and not only that but complete faith. First there is the light of Hassadim, complete faith is with the light of Hassadim with a little bit of Hochma, to receive in order to bestow. This is complete faith. To bestow in order to bestow is only faith, that’s it.
S. What is the guidance in reward and punishment?
R. The more you learn correctly what the Kabbalists are telling us on behalf of the Creator how they need to study, if we study correctly then we need to be certain that by that the Creator will influence us and bring us to correction.
S. What is this correction?
R. The correction means that we will begin to feel ourselves higher than the selfish ego and to the extent we feel the connection between us more and more and the connection between us will begin to feel the reality of the force of bestowal, the force of love that truly fills the whole of reality. This is the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.
S. When this happens how does reality change? Do I see differently, do I become different?
R. Then you will see how different it is, you will see in what it is different, you will see the other reality and you understand it differently, feel it differently and behave in it differently.
7. S. (15:08) The evil inclination comes to us immediately with the possibility to correct it? This is the first question.
R. I do not like several questions at once. Never ask me several questions together at the same time, you are asking not only for yourself but also for others, so please ask only a single question.
S. The evil inclination, does it come immediately with the possibility to correct it?
R. It is clear that from the Creator we get a question and an answer together hand in hand, we have to understand the question and then through the question we get to the answer.
8. S. (16:08) Thank you to all the friends for being here today and Rav I thank you for being such an anchor for us. The question is in regards to the evil inclination, should I listen to the evil inclination or should I only listen to the Kabbalists that tell me that I cannot do anything without my friends and the world Kli together?
R. You have to accept all those things as a part of a single package, first of all it all comes to you from the higher source where the question and the answer exist together and you need to reach there. There the light and the vessel, the question and answer are as one but it comes to you first of all as a question, as a problem and you have to understand this and spend some time with it and try to solve the problem. Solving, meaning that each and every question is the measure of the selfish ego, the degree of the ego is revealed and top of that you are building the connection with the friends and then from you everybody to the Creator. To the extent we are doing this, to ask the Creator to connect us to be revealed as the force that reveals the deficiencies and connect them, fulfills the deficiencies with the connection of the light of Hassadim and then in that you begin to feel the vessel that is being corrected and later we also come to equivalence with the Creator where you feel a sudden illumination of the light of Hochma there, this is how it works.
9. S. (18:25) It says in the introduction in part 17 that you can trust your landlord to pay your reward. Who is the landlord and what is the reward?
R. The Creator is the landlord giving you work and you are certain that, you have to be certain that if you do what he is given you to do then you will be rewarded with the reward and the reward is to reveal the connection with the Creator.
10. S. (19:16) The question is, Job seemingly believes in the Creator that; you created the righteous you created the wicked who holds you down coerced are the sinners so what is lacking Job’s faith?
R. I do not know what is lacking. It says that everything we have to come to the revelation of the lack of connection between us and which is the deficiency that exists in the broken vessel of Adam HaRishon and we have to ask the Creator to correct this. This is our work to reveal that deficiency in the connection between us and to ask the Creator to correct it.
11. S. (20:15) What commandments do I have to strengthen my work in?
R. The exertion is only for the sake of the connection between us because with that we connect to the Creator as well because the commandment that includes everything, the main commandment, is love your friend as yourself this is why it is called a Klal, a rule, a great rule.
12. S. (20:55) He created the Torah as a spice that revokes the thoughts of transgression, so if you meet the villain, pull him to the seminary. What is it pulling the villain to the seminary?
R. If the person feels that the ego is riding him, dominating him and he has no other choice but to read what the Kabbalists write and in these texts to aim himself that helps him to rise above the ego and come to the feeling of the Creator.
Reading 18 (21:49 - 24:14)
13. R. (24:15) What does he want to say here? That we have no choice, there is no other solution but the correct study, meaning in a group under certain conditions and when we expect that through the study we can acquire the reforming light and then we correct ourselves, we start to enter the spiritual feeling. This is the only solution, this is why he says. I am reading again, “Clearly they cannot rid themselves from the judgment of the ego, of the will to receive. If they say that they received that spice and still have thoughts of transgression.” They still have egoistic thoughts and desires although the study is before them, the means are there but they cannot see that they received the spice.
That they can rid themselves of their ego and to that extent connect with each other and the Creator. Meaning that they are still in doubt “and the evil inclination has not yet melted for the Creator who has created it and then gave the evil inclination it's strength, our ego, evidently knew to create the remedy and the spice liable to wear off the power of the evil inclination and eradicate it all together.” “If one practices the Torah and fails to remove the evil inclination from himself it is either that he has been negligent in giving the necessary labor and exertion in the practice of the Torah as it is written, I did not labor and found do not believe, or perhaps he did put in the necessary amount of labor but he was negligent in the quality.”
“This means that while practicing the Torah they did not set their mind and hearts to draw the light of the Torah which brings faith to one’s heart.” So that whenever the person engages with the friends, with the study, with anything possible he is thinking how the light of Torah will come and correct him. “Rather they have been absent minded about the principal requirement demanded from the Torah which is the light that yields faith and although they initially aimed for it, their minds went astray during the study.” Consequently they are not able to receive the light that would cleanse them of their ego and bring them to the spiritual degree. “Either way one cannot rid oneself from the judgment, arguing, coercion.” As it is written there that those who sin are coerced, what can they do if they have such an egoistic desire over them. But no, it is incorrect. They cannot exempt themselves from the judgment by saying that they are coerced since “I created the Torah as a spice.”
The even inclination was created on purpose and also the spice, the Torah was created intentionally, and a person has to use one against the other. “Since if there had been any exceptions from this then Job’s question would remain valid..” by saying what did He do, He created the evil inclination. But they say no, there is the evil inclination that’s true and there is also the Torah as a spice. What for? Why do we need to cleanse ourselves of the evil inclination by the correct study? What do we get out of it? We get a great reward which we can attain only in this way since we need to be with the evil inclination and work against the evil inclination in this arduous work, long work for thousands of years through many incarnations we come to a place where we triumph over the evil inclination. In this way we come to the revelation of the Creator to the created beings.
14. S. (29:57) It says that we have to request the light that gives the faith. How to request this light that gives us the faith?
R. We need to build a ten as strong as possible and to study together what we are studying. The main thing is the intention during the study. That’s what he is saying, that the problem is not to know about the intention but to think about this intention throughout the study, meaning to think about the purpose of the study. That I am studying not in order for me to simply know or for me to have a certain pleasure from knowing, from understanding or feeling, but instead rather how much do I want this study each and every moment to heal my ego, to heal my egoistic desire.
15. S. (31:18) On one hand in the previous text it says that there is nothing to fear, I created the evil inclination, I created the Torah as a spice. Here he says that he is not exempt from the judgment. What does that mean?
R. We are in judgment, judgment is our ego that grabs us that does not let us move. Each time we want to advance in our lives according to what our ego is showing us, what to look at, how to look, etc., so we cannot exempt ourselves from the ego, from the judgment. As it says He is directing us, look at this desire that makes us do these things. So we cannot run away from it. It simply dominates us and directs us every moment in our lives. How can we get rid of it? Only by studying and constantly thinking when we can exempt ourselves from the evil inclination, rid ourselves of it, come out of the control of Pharaoh, from the control of the ego. This is what we need.
16. S. (32:54) There is a need to build a strong ten. How is a strong ten different from not a strong ten?
R. To the extent of the connection between them and from between them to the purpose of creation.
17. S. (33:28) What is the light of the Torah that shines only for those with faith?
R. To the extent the person wants to correct himself accordingly he receives an illumination while studying the words of the Kabbalists.
Reading 19 (34:06 - 37:13)
18. R. (37:17) What does he want to tell us here? We have to study. Anybody who wants to know the Creator has to learn the wisdom of Kabbalah, this is certain, this is what it’s talking about. But nevertheless other people have other portions that do not speak directly about how to attain the Creator but speak indirectly about the actions of the Creator without entering into direct connection with Him. This is how we need to advance. Those who are drawn to the wisdom of Kabbalah, we need to allow them to study with us through different courses, through different degrees of study. Those who do not want this should not be coerced but each according to his desire, as you see what we’re doing.
Reading 20 (38:44 - 39:45)
19. R. (39:46) This means that a person that is studying even if he does not have a true desire for the revelation of the Creator, if he has some affinity to the Torah he should not let go of it, he should continue. Because by this, he will gradually develop and come to a state where his desire will change and then he will come to a greater desire, a stronger desire, aimed correctly and he will see before himself the path he has to go through and come to revelation of all of reality before him and adhesion with the Creator.
20. S. (40:46) How can we in the ten acquire this quality? How can we know in the ten that we have reached His quality and how do we keep it?
R. We do not reach His quality because if we reach the quality of the Creator even to the smallest extent meaning bestowal, mutual bestowal between us then by that we start to feel the Creator, we begin to reveal Him to some extent. That’s how we understand that we have done certain work.
21. S. (41:54) How can we understand that we are on the right path?
R. It’s a problem. We have to exert, take a long time before we come to the good sign. Wait a little longer, we will study it soon. If not today then we’ll learn it tomorrow. When we see a good sign that we can begin to discover the path, the Creator, the higher reality, we’ll see it soon, what he says about it.
22. S. (43:07) How can I rid myself of this egoistic desire if this whole body is egoistic?
R. These are exactly the questions on the path. I am very happy that you are asking this because in a few days we will be reading only about this and we will know how to solve this problem. We will see it together.
23. S. (44:00) What is this negligence in the spiritual work?
R. What is negligence in the spiritual work, it’s that we forget while we are studying. We don’t connect between us. To want to discover the Creator we have to bring the network of connection between us and if we don’t have this network where will we receive his revelation? This is why we need to understand that just crying and whining will not help. The Creator fills all of reality.
23. S. (45:21) So there was a question about what he was writing in Item 19 about negligence. What is the negligence in the spiritual work?
R. Negligence in the spiritual work is when we forget about the goal, why are we here. We are here in order to connect among us because in the connection among us we want to discover the Creator. So to build between us a network of connection where we discovered the Creator. This network could be even between two people but the safest is among ten. This is what we need to do.
24. S. (46:08) What does it mean to be distracted from the Torah during this study?
R. We need to constantly think about how to build the network of connection between us that is suitable in terms of its qualities with the qualities of the Creator, at least to some extent of bestowal and then we will discover Him in this. We have to check ourselves every day if we are moving toward this or not. If we are doing something with a network of bestowal between us or not.
25. S. (46:53) Do I control the amount of light I get when studying the texts of the Kabbalists?
R. When we study the writings of the Kabbalists according to our intention, our desire, our goal that we are learning, according to this we get the illumination that exists in the writings of the Kabbalists. This illumination connects us and establishes us and gives us the revelation of the Creator. It is called the reforming light.
26. S. (47:31) Does the person control the amount of light he receives during the study?
R. We cannot distinguish for now between quality or quantity or feeling or understanding and grade it and give it numbers. But we can control all these things, yes.
27. S. (47:53) Does the person depend on his ten for the success of his intention?
R. Of course. The person is certainly dependent on his ten but his ten also depends on the rest of the tens. There is some sort of mutual support among everyone. This is why we have to see that everybody is connected and each one in every ten influences everyone else. So if you see some who are not so connected among us and may even be doing opposite things to connection, even if they are on the screens before us then you should stop them and put them back on track to connection between us. Otherwise it will be a blemish for everyone.
28. S. (48:53) How can we overcome the routine of the study and keep in each lesson the intention for correction?
R. If you constantly think about how to build a network where you are discovering the Creator then you will not be able to dissolve in the routine of the lesson because we are not in a routine. We are constantly correcting the network and building it. We are becoming closer and closer to the revelation of the Creator and besides you help each other, you need to awaken one another and don't disconnect yourselves through all kinds of science; disconnecting the friends from the lesson I will not let you do this.
29. S. (49:54) What is the difference between the judgment done by our ego when it judges us and when we pray and we see that we judge ourselves through the prayer?
R. Good questions! When judgments come to us they come from the Creator, from the general system. This system in this way positions itself, establishes itself more and more and this is how we advance. This is why we need to respect these judgements and this is how we advance.
30. S. (50:52) The events in Russia and Ukraine exposed the heart. Everything is very sharp, high relief, the prayer is sharp. How can we be in connection so the prayer will always be so sharp and strong?
R. We should direct this study to help the world rid itself of the judgment. Not only we in our tens because the world has a different work to do to bring to itself reforming light as well. Not to the extent that we do because we want to connect and give the Creator room to be revealed and in this way bring Him contentment. But we want to bestow upon the world so that the world too will have nearing of the Creator to its own extent. So they will feel better, more confident, safer, with less pain and more closeness among nations.
Reading 21 (52:10 - 53:10)
31. R. (53:11) In other words it does not matter what person, smart, a fool, somebody who wants more, or less. He can through the method that there is, from the source of creation itself, if he uses it he can be rewarded with the revelation of the Creator to him. And this is how everyone succeeds because the final purpose is as it is written, “they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them and my house shall be called a house of prayer to all the nations.” The house meaning the common vessel of Adam HaRishon will be for everyone, for all the souls, all the people. They will be able to be incorporated there to be accepted there and live there, meaning to feel the real life. This is why we do not need anything other than as it says through fear of the Creator and observing the commandments. Meaning when we want to observe all the laws in order to bestow, this is called observing the commandments. Fear of the Creator, making sure that it’s all in order to bring contentment to the Creator and in this way we will advance and succeed.
32. S. (54:49) Several times he mentions herem the term wisdom, wise, the wisdom of the heart, the wisdom of Torah. What is this wisdom?
R. It’s the ability to see the future. That now he is some place, and he’s working and directing himself to something that he sees should be born. This is called being wise.
S. There is a difference between the wisdom of the Torah and the wisdom of the heart?
R. No. Right now I would not make a distinction, no. I like to give things that will not let you get confused.
Reading 22 (56:11 - 59:00)
33. S. (59:05) In the previous verse that says, “words of Torah”, what does that mean?
R. The “words of Torah” are all the words that are written about how to advance towards the Giver of the Torah, and the Torah, itself, are all the laws that bring us to the revelation of the Creator, this is called Torah. When we learn these things and observe them, we draw the upper light; we still can't say what is the NRNHY and it influences us, and it promotes us towards actions that are in order to bestow. It gives us more and more powers, feelings, and understandings, promotes us until we can do these operations by ourselves as well.
34. S. (01:00:18) He mentioned “meat and wine”; so “meat” is the revealed Torah and “wine” is the concealed Torah?
R. It is not important for you right now to philosophize in this, drop it. There are many things we leave aside; the main thing is to understand the principles.
35. S. (01:00:46) What does it mean that “the study of the Torah and the Creator, the names of the Torah are one”? What does that mean?
R. It means that if we are learning rules, when illuminations come to us from the Creator, through these illuminations that come to us, they build for us an image where we seemingly know the Creator, it is called Come and See, BoReh. The word BoReh, Creator, means BoReh, come and see, whereby learning how to connect to Him, you gradually come to know Him. Of course you know Him to the extent that you could approach, come closer, to the extent that you can study and absorb the study. But it is still not that He, Himself, His self, we cannot know this. We can only His relation to us. This is why it is called, come and See, BoReh, the Creator, BoReh. That’s it.
Item 23 (01:02:38 - 01:03:38)
36. R. (01:03:40) In other words, we do not need anything only to learn correctly, acquire fear and then we will discover and know the Creator, yes?
Item 23 Continued (01:03:50 - 01:05:39)
37. R. (01:05:41) In other words, we have no means that is more effective than the wisdom of Kabbalah which helps us come to the revelation of the Creator, to adhesion with the Creator.
38. S. (01:05:57) Not entirely clear, what does it mean “a good sign”?
R. “A good sign” is the revelation of the Creator to the created being, when the created being achieves adhesion with the Creator, when he rises above his ego. It is all the same, it's just different words. The created being rises above his ego and in this way, continues to rise and rise on the degrees of disconnection from the intention to receive and nearing the intention to bestow.
39. S. (01:06:43) If a person studies the wisdom of Kabbalah for five years and there is no good sign, what does it mean?
R. It means that he didn't put in enough intention, maybe even actions, but certainly intentions to come to disconnection from his will to receive and connection with the intention to bestow, which is what the wisdom of Kabbalah is intended for, to bring him Reforming light. It may bring him Reforming light, but he does not absorb the light, he does not absorb it; he is seemingly disconnected, do you understand? It is like a deaf person, you can yell, you call him but he doesn't hear you.
S. So how to open our ears, maybe we are not hearing?
R. Only through connection between us. What is written in the books is written for all the time, for all the circles, for everyone. You can organize a group at the end of the world, in Australia, I don't know where to organize a group. If they try to do what is written, they will reveal the Creator and by that come closer. It is pertinent to all the times and all the conditions.
40. S. (01:08:34) What does it mean that the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is clothed?
R. In vessels and lights that operate, work in order to bestow, this is called “the names of the Creator”. It is as we learned in the Partzufim, you have a vessel which is the will to receive that was restricted and has a screen and reflected light and works in order to bestow; and accordingly, a light that fills the will to receive to the extent that the vessel can be with the aim to bestow and then the light can enter it to that extent of equivalence of form and the intention to bestow; and, then there can be an equivalence between the vessel and the light that fills up.
S. What is this period of “five years”? That if he doesn’t find anything he should leave?
R. That is if you study other parts of the Torah, like the Talmud, Mishnah, then you need to drop them because they do not give you enough for reforming light, and continue with the wisdom of Kabbalah and there is nothing more than the wisdom of Kabbalah, beyond it.
Reading Item 24 (01:10:30 - 01:12:10)
41. R. (01:12:11) In other words, we should still keep all of the laws, the 613 laws, which are like the 613 vessels and the 613 lights, that we need to receive from above in order to correct our will to receive, so it works entirely in order to bestow.
42. S. (01:12:48) If you can be more precise: the period of three to five years, is that pure time for work in the Torah?
R. If you engage in Torah for three years or five years, and you do not see a good sign, then you have to come to the wisdom of Kabbalah. When you come to the wisdom of Kabbalah, that is it. Here we should go all the way and work only on your intention. The more you attach yourself to the intention to bestow with the friends, to that extent you reach the goal, you have nothing else. The wisdom of Kabbalah is the highest engagement and if you come to this and you engage in this, you have nothing yet still to engage in. Only through this can you reach the goal.
43. S. (01:14:03) This invitation to “see a good sign”, is it speaking of the individual or of the ten?
R. Look, both, a person works in a ten. It is not like at that same moment that he has to receive some revelation at the same moment with the whole ten, some revelation in him, a desire to bestow and accordingly feel the Creator in his desire to bestow, no. But more or less, through the work in the ten together, yes.
44. S. (01:15:03) How to see the hate and separation and disagreement in the ten as a good sign and not as a sign that we are doing something wrong?
R. Everything that we have in the ten we must accept as signs that are in order to advance towards greater and greater cohesion, and therefore this is what we have. Let us try to be more and more connected and think only about how to help the friends be more and more connected until our connection is in the quality of bestowal, at least in a minimal; then, there we will begin to reveal the Creator who was among us.
45. S. (01:16:07) What calculation does the ten and an individual have to do to not stay in place?
R. I have to always see myself as it is written, “Israel, Torah and the Creator are one”. I, the ten and the Rav and the Creator to be as one to the extent that I want to connect them all the time, one inside the other. By this, we constantly advance toward that point where Israel, Torah and the Creator are one, one dot. Where I discover me and the Creator together, where? In the ten, inside of the ten.
46. S. (01:17:00) How does the wisdom of Kabbalah help a person who didn’t get a nice sign while studying the revealed Torah? What does it add?
R. It opens up his mind, his heart, even without the revelation of the Creator, yet.
47. S. (01:17:27) We had very strong and intensive prayers yesterday, and today, the heart is hardened. How should we work from this point to reach faith in the prayer even greater, to correct the world?
R. If you prayed well yesterday, then today, you should be feeling that your heart is tired, and it doesn’t want to make more effort. And it doesn’t mean that it actually is tired and doesn’t want to make any efforts but it’s that you’re given more opportunity to connect tighter, and by that, come to a point where your vessel is new and strong. So don’t let go and keep going in this same direction.