Morning Lesson February 17, 2024

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.

Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. Foreword to The Book of Zohar. #22

Reading Item #22 (00:13)

1. S. (05:04) The question is clear that in Atzilut there cannot be a situation, as he says the mirror where you see through colored panes, so how is there any perception in Atzilut if we don't have these vessels?

R. Yes.

S. That's the question he presents if I understand it correctly?

R. I don't know. Atzilut, the world of Atzilut we can attain but only through the worlds of Beria, Yetzira and Assiya. Then when we get to the world of Atzilut it seems to us as it’s already revealed through the three worlds of BYA.

2. S. (05:55) I'll expand the question even more, he says He, His Life and His Self is the essence of the Sefirot, the light in the Sefirot in the vessels but the essence he says he can't talk about it. How to discern the essence of the Sefirot as one of the three elements if you can’t talk about it?

R. We'll see onward, write the question down and we’ll see.

3. S. (06:31) When he writes that in the world of Atzilut the vessels are in complete Godliness too, with respect to what does he mean? With respect to the continuation of the expansion of the worlds or in the correction when they rise up? With respect to what are they complete Godliness, the continuation of the process which is why the world of Atzilut is like Ein Sof or with respect to the end of correction?

R. Obviously towards the end of correction.

S. The world of Atzilut is regarded as complete Godliness with respect to the end of correction?

R. Yes, well let's see.

Reading Item #23 (07:18)

4. S. (10:57) What is the necessary one?

R. That's the Creator.

S. Is there a reason he uses his name? He says the necessary one, Ein Sof, all kinds of discernments?

R. That He is the source of all of reality, that according to His desire that's how reality was established.

S. When we talk about Ein Sof we are referring to something that is above Atzilut.

R. Yes?

S. Why do we have Ein Sof on one hand and on the other hand we have the Creator, the necessary one, all kinds of different discernments in relation to what we can perceive?

R. That's all towards us. From Kabbalists attaining these things in a certain way that is the names they gave it.

S. What does it give us? What is our boundary? How far can we perceive? Because Baal HaSulam is trying to define that we cannot perceive the essence or the abstract part of matter. We're working with Ein Sof but here he says we have no connection to it, it’s confusing. Our connection with the Creator is called Ein Sof but it's above Atzilut and the worlds BYA so what does that mean?

R. It means we truly don’t have attainment. Ein Sof means no limits and we only attain in limits, borders.

5. S. (13:10) Can you elaborate on what is the soul because I understand that creation is directed toward the souls, a soul which is the subject that the Creator wants to develop all the time to come to complete attainment of the Creator, but how should a soul relate to creation?

R. A soul is part of creation.

S. What is the difference between being incorporated in something, being a part of something and being the thing itself?

R. It all depends how you separate it and study it.

S. When I look at creation should I say that it’s a part of me, that it is me or should I say that it is something that the Creator created and I'm only incorporated in it?

R. No, the soul, Neshama is creation. From it being separated from everything so the soul is actually the essence of the created being.

S. Should the created being hold both ends, that on one hand it's outside of creation on the other hand it contains all of creation?

R. No it depends on the degree of its perception.

S. How should we relate to creation?

R. What do you mean by creation, what is your meaning by saying creation?

S. I understand that I have to come to a state where I give contentment to the Creator for everything that He created but I don't know how to relate to everything He created. How do I position everything He created with respect to me?

R. I can’t define what you're asking, who can help him?

6. S. (15:47) The question is how do I relate to the still, vegetative and animate, to all of creation that I find with my senses?

S2. There's also the concept of connection between the souls which is even more confusing.

R. You need to summarize it in a clear way. Creation means everything that is extended from the Creator and exists outside of Him and is given in our perception, we are able to perceive.

S. I feel like the Creator gave us the ability to contain in our feelings everything that He created. We have this ability, all this vast reality to contain it in one thought but I don't know how the souls should. Where does it position itself, does this creation belong to it? Is it, ‘it’ or is it something outside of creation?

R. Well?

7. S. (17:20) What is the soul?

R. The divine part from above.

S. If it’s a divine part from above why do I relate to it as something that’s not connected to me? How is the soul connected to me? 

R. You have to attain it.

S. Through all the work we learn these are degrees of attainment of the soul.

R. Yes.

S. Until I attain this soul I don't have real work with spirituality, with Godliness?

R. Let's say so.

8. S. (18:00) If there's None Else Besides Him how can something come out of the Creator and be outside of Him?

R. That's really a question. Are we outside of None Else Besides Him or are we in Him? That's a question, that is part of the topic of perception of reality.

9. S. (18:50) When we come to correction, when we raise the vessels to the world of Atzilut and there the lights and the vessels are in complete unity, how can we define that there is something above it? There is infinity, Ein Sof and all the worlds before that?

R. I don't know but I guess Kabbalists attain it and that's how they tell us about it. 

S. Beyond maximum equivalence with the light there are more discernments?

R. I don't know if it's the maximum equivalence. He, His Self and His Light are one is above the world of Atzilut.

S. What does it mean complete Godliness that he wrote that the vessels are already one with the Godly light?

R. We’ll see.

10. S. (19:55) Baal HaSulam writes here that the souls are included in the Creator. We also read about Sefirot and lights and the Sefirot and vessels so still, what does it mean that the souls are included in the Creator?  

R. Souls being included in the Creator it seems to me like it means that they attain the Creator.

S. In a system we speak in the language of the Sefirot. The Sefirot are vessels so the Creator’s a light in those vessels?

R. Yes, the light of Ein Sof, infinity, the light of Ein Sof in those vessels.

11. S. (20:53) About the friend’s question, if I can try and say what he meant, can I say it, can I relate to it?

R. Well?

S. The friend asked a question, what should my relation towards creation be?

R. Yes.

S. I felt that his question wanted to say that there's light and vessel. How do I just take away all the concealments He created and build that direct relation, that I exist and the Creator exists? That's according to what I understood that the friend was asking.

R. Basically, all of creation is what connects you to the Creator.

S. Yes but he wants to make everything disappear in order to reach a direct connection to what the Creator created. He created the world for me and me to serve my maker and the whole question is how do I create this attitude without all these concealments?

R. It’s impossible, you need to develop the vessels within you to sympathize with all these degrees until you come to a state where there's nothing that removes you from the Creator.

S. I guess that’s what he was asking.

R. Let him think and ask again. Let’s wish him good luck that he will take us there too.

12. S. (22:43) Sometimes we say that animals or plants will be extinct from reality but according to perception of reality that can’t happen, right?

R. That's the first time I heard it, what did he say?

S. According to perception of reality, the new perception.

R. What is new?

S. True perception. Nothing can be extinct from reality right?

R. I don't know where you fell off from. 

S. It came up.

R. Keep it in you and don't tell anyone.

13. S. (23:37) What separates us from knowing the Creator if we are one with Him?

R. What separates us is only our evil inclination, our will to receive this is what separates. When we want to achieve adhesion with the Creator this is what we want. 

14. S. (24:28) What is the soul made of?

R. Light and vessel.

15. S. (24:40) A lot was said that a form with no clothing in matter, it turns out that Kabbalists somehow found a way to see a form clothed in reality. How is that possible, how can you describe that? How can it be that they went through that border that can’t be attained by simple people?

R. I don't know, when we attain it we'll see it. For now I don't know.

S. Can anybody attain it or only somebody who has special qualities?

R. Anyone who has special capabilities.

S. When we study with you do we have that potential?

R. Everyone has this potential.

16. S. (25:48) A friend was asking about None Else Besides Him. On one hand the created being has to reach a perception of None Else Besides Him that fills all of reality. 

R. Yes.

S. On the other hand a person is given a feeling that he's outside of creation, that he’s separated and he can perceive None Else Besides Him beyond that perception. How does that serve the purpose of creation, those two perceptions, how does that serve the purpose of creation?

R. We can perceive the worlds and everything within them. They can speak about the Creator who influences the worlds and how He created them and we can speak about ourselves, how we change and accordingly how we attain the worlds. This is our limitation.

S. In what you just described there’s a perception of a created being that can discern the worlds, he can have discernments but along with that there's still None Else Besides Him, meaning that it’s not his discernment but that he's like activated in a process here.

R. Yes.

S. This perception, is it right that I feel that there are two perceptions, that that’s the purpose of creation, that there will also be the one perceiving None Else Besides Him? In None Else Besides Him is there a place for the created being?

R. No.

S. So who is perceiving the worlds, the discernments?

R. Those who perceive, perceive, and those who define it in such a way this is called the created being.

S. How, in the same breath let’s say, how does he feel None Else Besides Him?

R. To the extent that he discovers the Creator in his attainment, to that extent this is what he calls it.

17. S. (28:44) I think from the friend’s question there's a confusion I feel. The fact that we’re in some sensation that there's something greater and like holistic surrounding us, loving us, it's still not the None Else Besides Him that Kabbalists are speaking about. What they’re speaking about is from perceiving the bestowal that they’re in, the world of bestowal, because this None Else Besides Him of I'm enjoying the fact that I’m in something great the whole world has that, all religions, it’s opposite of the true None Else Besides Him, it’s not that? 

R. Okay.

18. S. (29:35) I’d also like to talk about what the friend asked, what’s outside the Creator, it connects to what they were saying. I heard in some conversation that the difference between man and an animal is that there are very intelligent animals and they have a lot of understanding, sometimes more than a human but the difference is that man knows that he doesn't know, or he knows he knows. There's like a criticizing mechanism, that’s the special quality in the homosapien or whatever. A friend was asking what’s outside of the Creator, so we learned that there's nature and in Gematria it’s 86 and in it here's a quality of bestowal and we call it the Creator, that's what we learned here, that we call this quality that is revealed in nature between two people, between two parts that are interested to reveal it between them and suddenly the phenomena appears and so what's outside of the Creator? It’s like the friend said, it's not outside the Creator but outside of the connection, it’s outside of this quality of bestowal, we're not in it, it's not that you go in and out. It’s what the friend was asking, it’s not a difference or only bringing suitcases or not, that's what it seems like from the outside but there is no outside. Outside of the Creator is that you’re just not in the right connection in order to reveal the quality of bringing suitcases, that's what it does. It's not just bringing suitcases, it’s the quality of bestowal. Why would you want to be in it? Because if you’re included in the society so the influences of society and the importance increase that quality. Is that right to look at it that way?

R. Have it this way.

19. S. (32:02) The scrutinies developing, in Atzilut the relation between the Sefirot is complete equality?

R. What do you mean complete equality?

S. That if in the whole process of the ascent to everything that's with him, so the Sefirot are  supposedly contradicting one another or we could say that there’s work in revealing the evil or for the souls that they all start from Assyia, that we start raising what the created being can’t complete himself, that he can’t bridge the gap between the desire to give contentment to the Creator to his nature that draws him like gravity that constantly buries him. Complete equivalence, maybe I mean that it’s like working with the revelation of the good and that the vessels of the Sefirot are supposedly contradicting like working with revelation of evil?

R. I'm listening.

S. When we work in the Ten wherever we are now and trying everyday to find between us through such materials that are so beyond us, articles that enrich us with deficiencies and those are the desired depictions, that's where prayers come from. The attitude to such exalted things that we’re reading here, is the right attitude towards it, like the friend was asking so the right attitude is the vessel that can encompass this whole Ein Sof, this whole soul. This most bottom line in our relationship should always be prayer, meaning that if I didn’t reach prayer I didn’t reach the right relation?

R. Basically yes.

S. In the Ten we’re trying to find a way to renew the Ramhal duty but with more feeling so every action would actually end in some wheel, that its push comes from the prayer. The gap between the ideal of the wholeness in spirituality to this recognition, like the friend that comes with the  suitcases and doesn’t know why he doesn’t deserve to come in, the feeling of this gap is something we have to hold on and from it squeeze our prayer? Or prayer doesn't specifically need to come from a feeling, from this helplessness but from a habit, like a habit to depict the desired state and ask for it? It’s as if both, there must always be inner pain so to speak, I can’t do it alone, even with the friends I have to ask. Sometimes the prayer can even be this desirable depiction, this is what I'm told, that the book showed me this is the desired state and to simply ask for it.

R. The truth is that other than asking and waiting for an answer for revelation there's nothing more for us to do, only to keep asking all the time.

20. S. (37:02) What is creation? Is it correct that it’s the corrected soul because it's the right combination between Malchut and the first nine?

R. Yes.

21. S. (37:29) He writes that there is Godliness and that there will be no changes in it but there are vessels in it of Sefirot in which there is no Godliness. What are these vessels?

R. I don't know.

S. Then he writes that at the time of creation of the souls these vessels awaken?

R. I don't know.

S. They are renewed. 

R. This is something fantastic.

S. It's written in the text?

R. Well, read it.

S. “Things are perplexing. Could it be that Godliness gets inspired itself and receives changes because of the lower ones and if we're not speaking about Godliness itself that clothes in these Sefirot but only the vessels of the Sefirot that are not Godliness that have renewed with the creation of the souls”.

R. What is the question?

S. If our whole role is to reveal these vessels that they don't belong to Godliness, that they're not from Godliness?

R. Why only these?

S. Only that can change. Godliness is complete whole and there are no changes in it, there can’t be changes in it but there are such vessels that can change that need to change.

R. Does someone think otherwise?

22. S. (39:29) He writes that even if you say that it doesn't clothe and shine in the Sefirot but in the vessels of the Sefirot and you say that it doesn't belong to Godliness so that's part of the worlds of BYA but in the world of Atzilut that's the main question. That’s why he’s giving it as an option that also isn’t enough to describe the world of Atzilut?

R. Yes, more?

23. S. (40:12) I think nothing changes but our perception of reality and that's the essence of our correction.

R. Yes.

24. S. (40:36) Maybe to add that the Creator on one hand can do everything He has all the forces because He created all of reality but on the other one He concealed Himself to such an extent that with all his ability He concealed Himself and gave us that little thread of choice and He’s trusting us the egoists, the small ones, the low ones that have no forces He's trusting us 100% that we will keep the purpose of creation and reach Him. That’s just unperceivable.

R. Well now we’ll get all the answers. 

25. S. (41:30) I’ll ask a question that will also give the answer. When I want to attain something I define only according to my vessels of perception, is that right?

R. You have no choice.

26. S. (42:02) it seems that he’s answering it at the end that you have to understand the name Ein Sof as in the third definition, that everything in Zohar is concentrated towards the soul. That he's not obligated in reality but what all the souls and worlds include Him. It seems that we’re speaking about the Creator Himself, the quality of bestowal, He’s the point, the added relation towards us but if we’re speaking about realizing the thought of creation it includes everything from the will to receive to the will to bestow, all the words in concealments, so there's concealments in the system according to the place you are in the system you feel something different?

R. Yes, and?

S. I tried to answer the question from before, that how could it be that there are changes in His Godliness? The question is what the Godliness is? If it’s the entire spectrum from the quality of bestowal to the quality of reception it’s all included in Him, that’s why there are changes? 

R. Yes.

27. S. (43:48) To serve the Creator, to be chosen to serve Him, is that not the reward? Shouldn't we be grateful for the privilege to serve Him and whatever the Creator decides to do with me let him decide? How should we come close to such discernments in order to erase the will to receive?

R. We really have come to the other end. Okay, we will work on it afterwards.