Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. Inner Observation. Chapter 2. #13

Reading #13. (00:18) “Prior to the restriction, the disparity of form..”

1. R. (02:06) Meaning that in the light of Ein Sof, prior to the restriction there was no change in the desire to receive but rather only after the restriction, a differentiation took place between that which was in the desire to receive before the restriction and after it and we can discern the difference here of what's happening. Let’s see what's happening in 14.

Reading #14. (02:40) “Restriction means that Malchut of Ein Sof..”

2. S. (04:25) How can Malchut of Ein Sof suddenly diminish her desire, lessen a part of her, how can she bestow on herself in that way?

R. She can, because her desire is primary.

S. But how because she is the will to receive so how does she have the forces to restrict herself?

R. That is something we'll probably learn soon. Malchut can restrict herself or augment herself as she wants; she just needs to understand what result will take place from her action.

S. And when she intended to do the restriction she wanted it to be in that way?

R. Otherwise why did she do this?

S. I don't know, I thought that she felt shame and that is a response?

R. No, it's not necessarily like this, certainly it's a response to the shame, but not a direct response. We're going to be learning this now, put a question mark on item 14 and we're going to move to the next part, 15.

Reading # 15 (06:21) “Now we shall explain the matter of the soul..”

3. S. (08:48) It's written in 14, that the light of Ein Sof includes Malchut in there. How can that be, how can the Creator include the Malchut in there?

R. Because Malchut is the greatest desire, it's the most developed so that it will be able to illuminate upon the whole space that it has to impart it, so it needs to include Malchut as well.

S. So there's existence from absence and it's all included in the Creator?

R. Yes, yes.

4. S. (09:58) If the desire comes from the Creator is that not coercion on behalf of the Creator, that He is pushing?

R. Except for the desire, the Creator didn't do anything. “I have created the evil inclination,” that's what He says. All of creation is the desire to receive, that's what the Creator did and against that all the corrections are upon the created being, where the created being asks the Creator to correct him, change him.

5. S. (11:25) Is there an example in nature for such a thing, something that is born out of something and then there's a quality in it that isn’t in what created it?

R. There is no such thing, it can't happen, it can not be. From a quality that exists in the progenitor, that's where development begins and then later, when it's born and differentiated and distances, the new qualities are created in it.

S. That we’re included in the Progenitor?

R. Nope, that does not exist in the Progenitor. Just like we see in the four phases of direct light, let’s say.

S. What example can we see in nature that we can demonstrate such a thing, that it's born and there's a quality that we didn't recognize in the progenitor?

R. I don't know but let's not look at something that exists in the progenitor. We see this in the wisdom of Kabbalah, that desire to receive is born in the Shoresh, in the zero level and it develops in Aleph, Bet, Gimel, Dalet - one, two, three, four, after four it has nothing more to develop because it becomes completely opposite the quality that it was born from, from the Creator, of the desire to bestow, and that's why these four phases, the desire to receive needs to be what it needs to be in the created being in the desire to receive and no more.

6. S. (13:12) He writes that before the restriction there wasn’t a disparity of form, that they were one, the light and the vessel, and we say that it felt the gap because it brought it to shame?

R. Where, before the restriction?

S. Yes.

R. Let's accept what's written here and then we'll scrutinize it. It was Him and His name was One, He and His name is One, the name is desire and in such a way he develops.

7. S. (14:03) For the restriction, what is the role of my intention?

R. Everything depends on the intention, it all depends on the intention. I can receive and be completely opposite the Creator, I can receive and be in that similar to the Creator; it all depends on my intention.

8. S. (14:44) How can we feed our soul to acquire equivalence of form with the Creator?

R. We need to talk between us, “One will help his friend,” so that each will receive some small part that's in each of our, of his desires to receive and when we're all incorporated in one another, then in each of us there's sufficient desire to receive to work with it even in order to bestow.

9. S. (15:35) In nature there's a coral which is still, but it grows.

R. So what do you want to say about that?

S. She asked if there's an example in nature, there's an example, coral, yes, it moves from being still to vegetative?

R. All right.

10. S. (16:06) Is the intent to do good on others, is that Ohr Hozer, the intention to do good to others, is that reflected light?

R. We did not learn that here yet.

Chapter 4 item # 16. (16:33) “After the restriction and the screen..”

11. S. (18:28) How can the reflected light become a vessel?

R. He's not speaking about the vessel itself but a condition for the vessel exists for there to be a desire, that's why the reflected light can supposedly be a vessel.

S. It's written here that the worlds of ABYA of Tuma’a, of impurity are without the reflected light they can use the vessel of reception. How can it be, after all we have the law of the first restriction?

R. After the restriction and screen that were placed on that vessel called the will to receive, so there's a restriction and screen, it was canceled and departed from the system of Holiness in its stead the reflected light became the vessel of reception, meaning as much as it can reject the light from itself it becomes a vessel of reception. Know that this is the whole difference between ABYA of Holiness and ABYA of impurity. The vessels of reception of ABYA of Holiness are from the reflected light that is established in equivalence of form with Ein Sof, while ABYA of Tuma’a use the will to receive that was restricted, being the opposite form from Ein Sof. That makes them separated and cut off from the life of lives, namely Ein Sof. So what are you asking about it? 

S. How do the worlds of ABYA, how can they use the will to receive, after all, it's restricted?

R. It's restricted but if we don't receive for ourselves, you take a desire from those worlds and you start turning it in order to bestow so the will to receive won’t become the will to bestow.

S. If I understand correctly, these worlds of ABYA are existing for the sake of correction?

R. Of course, for the correction.

S. The correction of the intention?

R. Everything that was created was created for the correction, otherwise nothing would have been created to begin with. To begin with the intention was to make conditions for the lower ones to correct themselves.

12. S. (21:32) I heard you saying that we need to receive the desire to receive of the friends so we have a big desire to receive that we can receive in order to bestow. If I heard correctly? What does it mean to receive the desire to receive from the friends?

R. “One will help their friend.” That means that I study with them, I hear them, I'm included in them, incorporated in them, and in this way I incorporate in their desires and my desire becomes greater.

S. Are we not supposed to incorporate and connect our yearnings for the Creator?

R. Yes, but after we incorporate in our desires, incorporate in our yearnings.

S. Our yearnings to the Creator are our desires to receive?

R. Our yearnings to the Creator is a result of our desire to connect to Him.

S. Is that what we need to kind of, I heard you saying earlier that we need to connect our desires to receive or is that something else?

R. Yes, to connect.

13. S. (23:02) Are the restriction and the screen a result of the greatness of the Creator that we've created in the ten?

R. Restriction and the screen is the will to receive that we've established in the ten, yes, and the connection between us with the light that reforms that comes from the Creator.

S. It means that we don't think about the restriction but only about the importance of the Creator and that happens on its own?

R. Yes.

14. S. (23:38) The reflected light became a vessel to receive the light. Is that the desire to receive or desire to bestow or desire to receive with the intention of in order to bestow?

R. The will to receive with the intention to bestow, that's called the will to receive with the restriction, screen and rejection.

S. I understood, but at what stage does the desire to bestow begin, let's say to bestow in order to bestow, that comes later?

R. That's later on in the systems.

15. S. (24:20) Are the incomplete desires what creates new vessels and also new worlds?

R. No. Desires need to go through corrections from in order to receive to in order to bestow. They have to be connected together and then use the system in order to receive in order to bestow, that receiving in order to bestow is the pure giving, that's what we have to come to. That's it, in that we’ll have equivalence of form with the Creator.

16. S. (25:48) There's faith which the vessel acquires and it also loses it and then it acquires it again. Then there's faith that the vessel does not lose. How to receive it in that form of faith?

R. I don't know, together we'll do what we need to and then together we'll learn.

17. S. (26:28) I have to go through all my desires and purify them and if so, what here is the role of the ten in my life?

R. You need along with the ten to discover all your desires, to check whether they're directed to bestowal or reception and correct the ones that are directed towards reception.

S. In the ten we can help one another with this because we're always in this atmosphere of mutual help and that's how with our friends we get the things that the Creator didn't give us before?

R. Yes, yes, that's it.

18. S. (27:22) The concept of ABYA of Kedusha and the ABYA of impurity, of Tuma’a, are they the same thing that we learned in the first article of being the servant of the Creator and not being servant of the Creator?

R. ABYA of impurity are the ones who don’t work for the Creator but want to receive for themselves and ABYA of Holiness are the ones that want to receive in order to bestow. That’s it.

19. S. (28:28) We learned that one of the main qualities of the screen is the [Hebrew for hardness], the hardness, meaning the rejection for self-reception, what is in this hardness that sounds the responsibility or?

R. That all together enters that term.

20. S. (29:00) What was created first, the restriction or the screen?

R. First the restriction, the screen is just an addition to the restriction; the restriction means that I don't want to receive as I was created in order to receive. I don't want to work with that quality, that's called, ‘restriction’. Then there's a screen above the restriction, that I do work with my will to receive, but already in order to bestow.

S. And do these things change within, throughout time?

R. They change according to the degrees that we are on, ascent, descent.

21. S. (30:00) Can you clarify: When the evil inclination or a sharp descent comes in our lives, and we still are able to connect with the friends and the friends help us come out of it, does that mean we have corrected that evil inclination in the system?

R. First of all, we didn't correct the evil inclination in the system yet, but we're going towards it.

22. S. (30:52) The question is this: Whether the reflected light also becomes a vessel of reception for the desires that are not aimed towards bestowal?

R. Reflected light becomes a vessel of reception, we learned about that; after the restriction, the reflected light becomes a vessel of reception.

S. Does this also include desires that are not aimed towards bestowal or ….?

R. To the extent that the desires go to the restriction, screen and reflected light, so the reflected light becomes a vessel of reception instead of the will to receive that was before the restriction.