Morning Lesson April 18, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio.
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah. #17
Reading #17 (00:25): “Thus far we have clarified the three foundations in the Wisdom...”
Reading #18 (02:55:) “Now we shall explain the five phases in the screen by which the levels change...”
1. S. (08:42) How to develop a hunger, an appetite if there is no hunger or appetite beforehand?
R. For example, what?
S. For example I am coming now to the host and I do not have an appetite or hunger for what he prepared so what is this visit worth?
R. It is worthless, you're not there for a visit.
S. Can I develop hunger throughout?
R, No, that's a different question already.
S. How do we arrive at this vessel?
R. Truly if we reach that vessel so to begin with we already have a need. Some point in the heart exists in everyone that comes in contact with the wisdom of Kabbalah, he comes to a group, the question is is it enough to be beneficial on the path?
2. S. (10:12) What composes the coarseness of the screen?
R. The coarseness, the hardness, if we are speaking about the screen it is the force of resistance towards reception so when we want to receive what is before us and we stop ourselves from receiving.
S. Yes but how does a creature come to such an outcome? What exists in it that he can resist the reception?
R. Shame and the honor of the host.
S. Okay so two components: shame and honor, okay.
3. S. (11:14) How does the hardness and coarseness relate to the screen?
R. The hardness is connected to the screen and the coarseness is connected to the vessel. Coarseness is already a given data that is in the will to receive and the hardness is in accordance to the will to receive, it can invite the upper light and then turn the coarseness into hardness.
S. What comes first or how do they work together the hardness and coarseness on the same degree?
R. On the same degree the coarseness and the hardness are connected to one another because one is the result of the other. We have coarseness and if we work on it in order not to receive, to not use that coarseness but in order to bestow then that becomes hardness with the help of the light that reforms.
S. And then through the hardness you can use coarseness?
R. Yes.
S. Meaning it is…
R. That is already receiving in order to bestow.
4. S. (12:52) We spoke in the first part about feeling the friends and praying for him and we see that in the corrected system we want to take the light and pass it on to the other.
R. Yes.
S. So how in this state that I received the light to pass on to others act the hunger and…?
R. Now we're not speaking about giving it to others. Why are you coming up with this?
S. Meaning what does it mean to bestow to the Creator?
R. I don't know. I'm reading what is written in front of me.
5. S. (13:32) We're talking about the kingship right, phase four?
R. Yes.
S. What in the striking and coupling turns phase four into refined in order to receive?
R. Because she feels a necessity to connect to the upper light and she is able to perform that striking up on the upper light in order not to receive directly.
S. And does the level of the coarseness depend directly on the hardness, the refusal?
R. The measure of hardness is connected to the resistance.
S. So phase four feels a certain coarseness but only uses part of it to raise the returning light or does it always use the entire coarseness?
R. I don't understand. Phase four is the will to receive it rejects everything that is coming to her in order not to be a receiver.
S. This is the restriction.
R. Yes, this is the restriction. What happens afterwards?
S. After the restriction…
R. She checks how much she can receive in order to bestow and then she can open herself to a measure of the upper light to receive it in order to bestow and receives it. But that reception is already after the screen and the reflected light, that is why it is not called reception but in order to bestow, like bestowal. If phase four was a vessel of bestowal she would do it without a restrictions and a screen and reflected light but for herself, just bestow.
S. Which is like it was if the system of the first man, out of itself?
R. We can say so.
S. So what is not clear to me is to that to the same degree of the resistance from the side of the lower, only to that degree can he raise the returning light? Only to that degree, only to that degree he can raise the returning light?
R. Yes.
S. And this degree, this measure rises from time to time?
R. It always changes.
S. Changes means it grows.
R. Yes, it grows.
6. S. (16:38) A friend is asking is hardness Hassadim and coarseness Hochma?
R. It is not written here. Have him ask according to what we read.
7. S. (16:58) He writes here that in the beginning there was a vessel of reception which is the hunger and the appetite and that because of the shame the vessels were turned to the vessels of bestowal. What is in the resistance that turns it into a vessel of bestowal?
R. It takes him from the role of the reception, of the receiver to the role of the bestower.
S. How do I receive if I am in the forces of rejection?
R. So you're not receiving anymore.
S. So how can I take the meal and the friend and bestow to him?
R. That you cancel your restriction and only begin to receive in order to bestow to him. Your intention opens the vessel of reception.
S. How in the same moment I don’t fall into the pleasure of the appetite in eating?
R. Because you don't want to be a receiver.
S. But you said that these vessels don’t disappear in the end.
R. That's fine but your intention inverts the vessels of reception to vessels of bestowal.
S. So I'm always holding to the intention?
R. Of course, of course, of course.
8. S. (18:24) The rejection and the refusal do they change something in the vessel itself or they develop an additional…
R. No, it's in your vessel that you accept terms upon yourself towards the giver. The host does not change, he just wants to push it into you, his refreshments as much as possible.
S. And what is developed for me is that I reveal a new area for which to give?
R. Yes. You can say it in those words.
9. S. (19:04) You said that we're holding ourselves back from reception and that has to do with the screen. I thought that it is the role of the restriction where a person has a yearning and then he stops himself.
R. Yes, that's a restriction.
S. So what is the difference between the coarseness and the restrictions, to hold ourselves back?
R. You can use the hardness, that doesn’t just stop it for no reason or even drives the light away, the light that was in it but now it measured as much as you can receive in order to bestow that is the screen already.
S. You also answered the friend that there is a part of it where he cancels, annuls the restriction and wants to receive in order to bestow. So there is a first part where there's a restriction where I hold myself from not receiving then I cancel the restriction and want to receive through the hardness?
R. Yes we can say it through the hardness of the screen.
10. S. (20:26) So if I understand correctly the shame gives birth to the restriction and afterwards what gives birth to the next stage?
R. Yes, that he is disconnected from the upper one.
S. So sorrow from disconnection gives birth to the process of connection?
R. Yes, everything is according to the example of the guest and the host, yes.
11. S. (21:00) What happens when we do this action for the shame?
R. We do an action for shame or what?
S. We try to receive in order to bestow what happens here for the disregarding and the shame for the whole process?
R. After there's a prohibition to receive in order to receive the created being can make of itself a part that bestows, then it only receives in order to bestow and to that extent instead of shame from reception but he does not receive because he is restricted so instead of that he gets glory or honor and he starts comparing himself to the host, and then they are in equality. And they sit as two friends that are equal.
12. S. (22:12) What does it mean that the returning light turns into the vessel of reception?
R. Returning light becomes the vessel of my reception is that my attitude towards the host, that I only want to receive for his benefit, that becomes the vessel of reception. Meaning he allows me to receive those refreshments and the pleasure from the host.
S. The returning light, means that there's no entrance of the light into the vessel?
R. This is called what I gave back to the host. He wants to give me pleasure, I stop that pleasure and I say I'm willing to receive it only on the condition that I am also giving you this pleasure. And then I calculate, how much does the host wants to give me pleasure? And I calculate my action as much as I want to reject this and give it back to him, this pleasure. And then we are considered having mutual pleasures.
S. And it refines the fourth stage in order to receive?
R. Yes.
13. S (23:43) Through what do we strengthen the forces of rejection and refusal to start the process?
R. By the greatness of the host.
S. How do we know that all the forces of rejection and refusal come to wholeness that I have arrived at the wholeness of the repulsion of their rejection?
R. It all depends on to the extent that I can receive in order to bestow.
S. The forces of rejection that I need to develop right now. How do I need to know that I need to work in it? What are the signs? What are the forces that I need to understand that I need to repulse them?
R. I feel pleasure that comes to me. And I weigh what I need to do with this, either the host is greater than my ego, or is my ego greater than the host? In according to that, I can decide whether I receive in order to receive or not to receive. So later on, I can honor the host.
S. Would it be correct to relate to my entire day other than the external rapper that I am constantly developing myself to reject in order to be able to receive in truth?
R. Try.
14. S. (25:51) From above downwards is clear. What is said that is clear, what is said that there's a restriction on the light that arises. But in our work, how could it be that there's a pleasure or a light that arrives before we bestow, since only in bestowal there is. If I'm already in bestowal why is there a restriction here?
R. I don't understand.
S. The restriction, the pleasure that comes from the Creator, the pleasure can only be received if we are in bestowal.
R. Yes.
S. So if I'm in bestowal, why do I need to have a restriction?
R. You are not in bestowal. But the Creator puts a protection on you that you can't receive in order to receive. And then you feel that you have opportunities before you that you can receive in order bestow.
S. So I feel, meaning a person is inclined to a bestow and he feels the light, but he does not bestow yet? He needs to clarify, scrutinize the light. How can he really bestow? Otherwise how can you feel the light on which he has a restriction?
R. Our relationships in the group, in the ten, that is what we feel. And here I need to see how much I'm receiving from the friends and how much I am not. And by this how much I'm bestowing to the Creator and how much I'm not.
15. S. (27:45) In both of these situations, there's Malchut and the Keter, as the guest and the host. What helps them stabilize and put a screen to begin to work and interact? It's the connection. They know that they are connected. The guest and the host are friends, they are in connection. They have greatness, they have the fuel and they can also put a screen and know, what is the size the measure of bestowal?
R. Okay also with your friends so what is the question?
S. This is the question: where is the fuel in order to do something? You see as if the goal, you try to arrive at the same stature of the host as far as your vessels. We do not have it, we are in concealment?
R. We enter concealment, we are in concealment, we are under the restriction and then we start checking, what can we do in order to relate to the host like the host is relating to us? That is the work. That is the action.
16. S. (29:57) The foundation of the clarification is the state where the guest is before the host, who is before the host? Is it our mutual desire of the ten, the Malchut or who, according to whom this clarification scrutiny is happening?
R. I didn't understand one of the two speak.
S. We read that the guest is before the host and all of the scrutiny's that we are studying are built on that. So the question is, who is in front of the host in regards to whom is this calculation? Is it our ten? Is it our group? Malchut? Who is it?
R. The guest is each and everyone that fills himself that he is standing before the group and before the Creator. And he needs to think how he relates back to the group and to the Creator that is it.
S. And the table that is between us and the Creator?
R. That table that stands between you, that is the connection between Creator and man. It is all of the relationships a person has with the group.
S. How to feel, we spoke about it a lot today, this relationship between us through this table?
R. That is already the relationships between men and the Creator, that he wants to organize them through the group.
S. So from us to the Creator it is clear we are doing actions, we're asking, but from the Creator to us?
R. Also the attitude between us to the Creator. And from us to the group, it is clarified very quickly because we are calculating how can I bestow to the Creator? I'm constantly thinking about that. How can I bestow to the Creator? And then according to that, I can perform actions in the group. There is nothing else for me to do.
17. S. (33:46) Question about the hardness of the screen. It appears that as if you come out, even for a little bit from this state of unity, the hardness disappears as if it never existed. Is that so?
R. The hardness of the screen depends on as much as the guest feels himself as a receiver. And that depends on his degree with the host. That is it, closer or further.
S. The hardness of the screen happens only in the work?
R. It is impossible to strengthen the screen without a group. That is not possible. How can you do it? Through what? Towards who? Clear?
18. S. (35:08) What interferes us? Is it the shame and pride? So how do we cancel the pride and shame so that we can bestow to the host? As you said, for us to sit as two friends?
R. How do we come to a state where we sit as two friends depends on us and our work in the group. And all the rest as well. It is all revealed only in the group.
S. He also wanted to know how to neutralize the shame and pride when you're in front of the host so you can reach a state that you're with them like two friends. So how do we neutralize shame and pride?
R. Through actions of bestowal on my part, what can I give to the host from my end as much as I feel that he gives me I have to do the same actions only from my side. He gives me delicacies. Out of the delicacies, pleasure. I give him through the rejection and refusal, also pleasure. Until we are truly rejoiced from one another. And here we are losing who is the host and who is the guest, who owns the table and delicacies, and who wants to give to the other to take pleasure in what is between us.
Meaning these vessels and these delicacies, they become so mutual so that we don't feel as if it belongs to one of us. Okay? You need to depict these things to yourself and then you won't have questions. And to such a state we can arrive in the group, with the Creator. And then everything will arrange itself. We need nothing else other than. Only raise this relationship between the host and the guest to higher and higher degrees and we will solve all of the problems in creation. This is the simplest example that covers all.