Morning Lesson April 2, 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. #15

Reading item #15 (00:15) “Thus new vessels were made..”

1 R. (04:56) I am thinking how to correctly swallow, to absorb correctly this excerpt, this most important verse in the preface. Well, let's first see according to the questions but these questions are private questions? Well, okay.

2. S. (05:29) He writes something we should scrutinize. He says that the forces to employ and the forces of rejection accumulated to a measure of bestowal. What are those forces that the host is pleading for him to receive?

R. These are two contradicted forces opposite one another as he pushes what he wants to the other then slowly, slowly they enter into a certain connection between them. Then they perform the action together even though to begin with it was an opposite action divided into two, one is giving and one is receiving, the other’s receiving the first is giving and so on.

S. These are forces that can bring me from reception to bestowal by convincing me that the food is good, here take and eat. So what actions are we lacking in addition to this?

R . By one of them rejecting he obliges the other to change his behavior.

S. Why should I be ashamed of eating? Why is that my conclusion, that I am in shame of eating even though I have an appetite?

R. Because in every person we have the feeling of shame.

S. What is that shame? Why shouldn’t I eat off the table?

R. It's a result of your ego. Because you don't want to feel yourself as less than your friend.

S. We were born with this shame and we have to get rid of it?

R. Yes, yes, we were born with the shame and the Creator develops for us shame in each of us according to one’s role, according to the manner of his soul.

S. So what am I shown here, that I have to stop being ashamed of eating?

R. No you are not told this way. It’s just that they are opening your appetite up and you decide how you can work with it.

S. Is the result of ‘what is this work’, is it between the friends in the ten, only in that way I can stop being ashamed?

R. Yes, yes.

3. S. (08:38) When Malchut restricts itself it raises reflected light and then it can receive? When Malchut creates through the reflected light a vessel of bestowal it can be filled, so inside her does she receive by that vessel?

R. She receives and bestows is the action or receives or bestows could be the intention. Receiving or bestowing could be the result of its work towards the other, towards the giver. So I don't know exactly what you mean.

S. It's written that Malchut creates a vessel of bestowal and raises reflected light. So Malchut does she receive that same quality that she created with this vessel?

M. I think he means if Malchut also receives the quality of bestowal with the vessel she created.

R. No she cannot receive the quality of bestowal. She can just learn from the bestowing one what to do in order to be in adhesion with Him, and from that she also reaches bestowal.

4. S. (11:00) In the guest and the host example why is the point of equivalence of form shame and not love?

R. The point of equivalence of form brings us to love but not immediately. Because according to one's nature and the Creator’s we’re opposite, according to the nature and the action. Only in the form, meaning in the desire to bestow to one another do we come to connection and then we start to come closer to the extent in which we love one another.

5. S. (12:00) Should we in the ten do an exercise and reject the help of the friends in order to scrutinize my intention before I receive their help?

R. We will scrutinize that but of course we need to.

6. S. (12:33) Throughout this excerpt we feel that the force of shame goes through a change. What is the change that it goes through?

R. The created being goes through a change in which he’s willing to do every action as long as it brings contentment to the Creator.

S. Why does the shame stop it from receiving then it lets him receive?

R. It’s because through the shame he comes to vessels of bestowal and the vessels of bestowal enable him to receive in order to bestow.

S. He feels something new in the giver by insisting he eats?

R. Yes altogether it’s a matter of attitude, the attitude that he changes his intention and as a result of that everything changes.

S. So why is there a change in his intention?

R. He wants to be a bestower and he can't, the creature can only be a receiver. Yes, let's say for example a baby. He can’t do anything, he’s just willing to receive from his mother. He wants, he receives, he doesn't want, he won't receive. But if he puts his desire above himself and decides from now on he wants to receive in order to cause pleasure to his mother then his intention becomes the action, he gives his mother contentment, he gives her fulfillment.

S. And the mother that she keeps trying to give and give and she wants to and he won't?

R. Because Mommy always wants to give and he needs to develop in him the desire to receive without limitations, just like the desire of his mother to give.

7. S. (14:57) It is written that we should understand this reflected light and how it became a vessel of reception. Can you explain how it became a vessel of reception?

R. If I can only receive, but I'm limited to the extent in which I can receive and I discover that my ability to bestow upon the giver depends only on as much as I receive from the giver, then I start to engage in my vessels of reception like vessels of bestowal. We see that many times a mother after feeding her baby and he was filled from what she gave him, she says to him thank you very much. The Mommy says thank you very much for eating from her. How is that possible? After all he received. No, he didn't receive, she received pleasure from him and that's why she says thank you for eating from me.

It's written about that, ‘that more than the calf wants to suckle, the cow wants to nurse.’ Learn from all these examples that we have in our lives. We are in such vessels it all depends only in our changing of the vessels and all of the struggles that are existing in humanity are only in order to invert our reception to bestowal. All the changes we have in socialism, communism, capitalism, altruism, no matter what, it's all together in order to change the relations between us such that each will see how much he is giving and how much he is receiving and to balance reception with bestowal.

8. S. (17:59) It's written that to the extent that the friend, meaning the Creator insists that he take the pleasure, then the person will eat if he understands that he bestows by that. How to reach such a state because right now we are insisting that the Creator give us connection, let us bestow, so how to reach such a state?

R. We need to stop receiving, to perform a restriction upon ourselves until we are capable of receiving only in order to bestow. If I am certain that from my reception I will bring contentment to the Creator then I start to receive. And if I don't see that some good will come to the Creator from this then I won't receive. That's the matter of the restriction that the creature takes upon himself.

S. That restriction, does it come with some kind of connection with the Creator?

R. Yes we receive forces from the Creator to stand against one's ego in order to receive. The Creator agrees with the creature and helps him not receive and then the created being comes to a desire to bestow. You need to think about this otherwise you will have a confusion and it won't bring forth a good result.

Reading item 16 (20:13) “From the above allegory between two friends,..”

9. S. (23:30) If we do not receive after the restriction and the Masach, is that a punishment for it, meaning [..]?

R. There's no punishment, there’s pressure on the screen and the will to receive about what or why we’re not receiving.

S. What is the attitude of the landlord to us in this case?

R. It's as if the host is not satisfied if he continues to pressure us. He’s imploring us more and more so that we will receive.

10. S. (24:27) On one hand it explains what we don't understand in this world because many things happen but in the ten how do I perform a restriction as a ten because then we might have a chance?

R. I didn't quite understand the question.

S. What is restriction in the ten?

R. Restriction in the ten is where all of us feel our special state, our special desire and don't want to use it and therefore, we restrict it.

S. And then we restrict it, we don't come from our regular direction we come with the intention to connect, I'm not going to say bestow but connect. We understand that we don't really understand because we see in these two excerpts that many things are happening beyond that we don't understand. So then we pray for what?

R. I don't understand what you are depicting for yourself there.

S. I find myself in a state that I see for the first time that what I'm seeing isn't correct so then I have a willingness to move and I know I can't move on my own I have to move with the ten. I understood that there's a restriction that we restrict and here we have to do something or not?

R. Again I am saying I don't understand what you are asking. You are saying half words. I believe that you feel inside something but you can't express it.

S. So I will wait, it will come.

11. S. (26:42) It turns out that this area with this double light becomes a place for the receiver? What is that region with a double cave? I haven't seen such words. We reject from phase four and then the light comes back and clothes and this new place becomes a place for reception.

R. Well let's assume that it is that way, yes.

12. S. (27:31) Can I ask about bestowing in order to bestow?

R. Yes.

S. Supposedly compared to the state we just read about we can grasp something there because I have a corporeal example that I can imagine this state but if I’m in a state like a middle state, to bestow in order to bestow so I reject everything and I am supposedly satisfied. How can that be? Is there an example of bestowing in order to bestow?

R. To bestow in order to bestow we have many examples, where I enjoy the bestowal, the act of bestowing itself and I bestow. I don't expect in return anything, any reward.

S. But I enjoy in what vessels? My vessels of reception are disconnected.

R. There's no such thing. If you don't have vessels of reception you are not a created being.

13. S. (28:57) The shame, is that like a force of rejection that directs us towards connection and if so what does the shame become afterwards?

R. Shame leads us even to honor, to respect. The thing is that with the help of shame a person starts to feel how much he doesn't want to use his will to receive and this brings him to the feeling of himself, that the Creator created shame in him and he doesn't want to use it.

14. S. (20:02) My action of bestowing towards the friend, that reflects light and the light bestows on the vessel of the friend? And the vessel of bestowal grows in the friend so he can receive in order to bestow?

R. Yes, we need to express it nicer but yes.

15. S. (30:44) How do we change and arrange the opportunity to bestow on our friends while we take it for food, how can we increase our desire?

R. The fact that we eat at someone’s house and the food is tasty and we have no disturbances, we can grow our will to receive by thinking who we’re receiving from, what makes Him the Host, what does He want to do for us, to us? From this we can enjoy each and every, let’s say, spoon that we are eating and in such a way, we advance, that's it; therefore, there’s an ability here to advance specifically to a reception, that's it.

16. S. (32:13) I'm trying to understand, they are saying that “the rejection of the screen becomes a new vessel of the upper light”, so I want to ask you simply: everything is ten Sephirot, so ten friends is ten Sephirot, so now I'm asking you, what is the rejection of the screen between the friends, that you can get a new vessel, what is this work in the tank?

R. The work in the ten is that they don't want to receive anyone from the other but they are willing to receive from the other because the other wants to give, the other wants to give, that's it, and that's what we have to do for Him in order to bring Him contentment.

S. But what does it mean ‘the striking’ in the ten, what, we are striking each other, what does it mean?

R. Yes, yes, yes where each, let’s say, refuses to receive from the other.

S. And that becomes striking on the screen?

R. Yes.

S. So what is the screen?

R. The agreement between them not to receive anything on their own but only to pass everything to the Creator.

S. So a mutual action in the ten?

R. Yes.

17. S. (34:05) A person understands before the abundance doesn’t use his own vessels but the lower ones vessels, the deficiencies of the lower ones but the lower one doesn’t want to bestow he wants no part of it, he only wants to receive and no correction. And the Creator has His own thing in bestowing, He wants the lower one to receive and a person stands in the middle between two, and how does it work, how does He create a state that the lower one can be in order to bestow?

R. Look, I cannot explain to you at the moment, we need to think how to talk about this. You have the possibility where a mother gives something to eat to their child, and he eats that and he’s sustained by this and grows. But he doesn't become wiser from this or more of a man or human, he grows like an animal. Or that she gives him food and he grows and the development happens in him, also the desire to receive which is his body and also the intellectual desire, so there's a difference, you can’t stop one or the other.

18. S. (36:05) A person is in a state where he feels he’s receiving, he’s immersed in the will to receive in Egypt, and the next correct step to develop in is shame?

R. Again?

S. If a person feels that he's in Egypt, he's in his will to receive, he feels that he wants to get out of it, so the next step he needs to feel shame?

R. Yes.

S. Where is that in Egypt, that’s in the story, I cannot find this allegory that is very clear in our world to the story we are learning about in Egypt?

R. That is in our feelings, it's in our feelings, you cannot differentiate these upon those and all the different impressions because eventually you see that this is what stops you and doesn't let you advance. Where you can do what you want to do because something stops you.

S. So the story of Egypt, at one point “the sons of Egypt sighed from the work”, that the ‘sigh’, that’s the shame?

R. No, you can say about a reaction and the people of Israel sighed from the work is that they cannot receive it or to bestow.

S. For me to not get too confused?

R. They have to exit from in order to receive, to in order to bestow and they are not capable, they’re not capable and for that work, for that work, for that little seam, for in order to receive or in order to bestow, they have a great work here.

S. And I need to expect the shame to awaken or is the shame something that I shouldn't even deal with?

R. No, no we have to engage in this because this is a necessary component, that you want to come to the Creator this way, this is where the shame needs to awaken in you.

S. So when a person is opposite to the will to receive, he sees he can’t run, so the right step is to ask himself, “how can I be so opposite to the Creator” start being ashamed and have the force to leave?

R. Not instantly but yes, in a way.

19. S. (39:04) I wanted to ask from the side of the giver not of the receiver: if I want to give, why do I have to implore the friends so he will receive my gifts, why can't I just give and bestow directly without convincing him to receive?

R. Why? You cannot convince the Creator to help you?

S. No, no I want to give a gift to my friend, why do I have to convince him so he will receive it so I will be able to bestow to him, why can’t I just give it to him without convincing?

R. No, that isn’t called you have a vessel that you’re filling, you first need to create a deficiency in the friend to what you want to give.

S. What is building in him a deficiency?

R. To awaken a deficiency to what you want to give.

S. Can you give an example of the chocolate, if he wants chocolate how can I evoke this deficiency?

R. It is simply not called giving, he won't feel the gift from you.

20. S. (40:48) It's also connected to this and also Pesach Convention, now that we are before a very powerful week and there are many things that we are going through: where to come to, what to come to, how to come, what to do, what's the real calculation a person needs to do for himself in this coming week?

R. The real calculation is how I prepare myself for the exodus from Egypt, how I connect to the friends, that together, no one alone can escape but together if we connect we will have the forces to convince the Creator to give us the opportunity to come out of Egypt. You also have to feel as much as this time special, we've become even more confused than usual, and in this way we advance, we will come closer to this big change.

21. S. (42:21) In receiving in order to bestow, what do we receive that we will be able to bestow to the Creator?

R. We receive from the Creator everything He wants to give us then in order to bestow, if we have such a reception, it becomes giving, that we supposedly give to the Creator and not that we receive anything from Him.

S. What does it mean ‘giving’?

R. Just as a mother feeds, breastfeeds the baby and he eats and gets full, and she gets so much contentment from him, kisses him and says “thank you so much for eating”, instead of him saying thank you, the mother says thank you.

S. In the example of the food it’s clear but in the spiritual matter what is that reception that we are bestowing later to the Creator, this is what is not clear?

R. It’s the same thing, what does it mean if I receive this or that, I receive what the Creator wants to give me and before that I didn't want to receive, and now because He wants to, so I open my will to receive and receive why? In order to give Him pleasure, in order to cause Him pleasure, so it turns out that instead of receiving I do an action of bestowal here.

22. S. (45:38) You're saying that I have to receive and if I can, also to bestow to the Creator. Is the right way to check that after the action I have to feel pleasure from receiving, from the bestowal I did?

R.  I don't understand, I think you’re confused.

S. Reception in order to bestow, I need to receive only for the sake of the other. Is the examination that I did the right action in the fact that I need to receive pleasure from giving to the Creator?

R. Of course, and even more than that. It’s even a greater pleasure if you were receiving, of course.

S. I mean that besides the pleasure from the Creator I can check also that I did the right action by after the action I have bestowed and not just pleasure?

R. You receive pleasure from the Creator.

23. S. (47:07) I'm struggling. Please can you explain what does the Creator want to give us?

R. The Creator wants to give us infinite pleasure, infinite and limitless life, knowing  life with no limitations.

S. So in the ten I'm a will to receive. I enjoy just coming to the meeting and want everyone to prepare the meeting and I just want to enjoy the meeting. Then suddenly a friend tells me we want to be Shatz and Gabai and now I'm thinking I have to put a restriction on this will to receive to give them pleasure?

R. Yes?

S. So when I put this restriction on myself and now I'm doing it with an intention because I would have liked to enjoy it but now I have to take the responsibility and give them, this is the bit where I get stuck. So what happens next? How do I put a screen to advance them to bestowal?

R. Wait, wait, that's something we’ll learn after Passover; how you put a screen, how you manage the lights in order to bestow with the screen, that we continue after Passover.

24. S. (49:04) How to feel what the Creator wants and not my desire?

R. Try and feel what the friends want and through that you will come closer to the feeling that the Creator wants.

25. S. (49:44) I'm wondering if the shame that we feel is that the four phases? And if I can change my intention that in that change we create that new Partzuf of ABYA, we create that new vessel where we can receive in order to bestow?

R. We can say yes to all that but we need to learn how to do it correctly.

26. S. (51:05) I hate the landlord, I hate the food he offers, I hate the way the person eats, how can I please the landlord, I want to host?

R. That's what Kabbalah tells you, that you have to go to a state of in order to bestow where you do think of the host and not of yourself and then you will be able to receive what is good for him and from that you will have pleasure a few times greater than what you can receive from all kinds of food or refreshments that are other than that. If you receive what you want to receive, you only receive a corporeal pleasure. If you receive what the Creator gives you and you need to change yourself and your appetite towards what He's giving you then you reach a state that you enjoy what the Creator is enjoying and you're doing it because of Him and then it turns out that you have a pleasure a few times greater than if you would enjoy in your own vessels. You, by this acquire the vessels to enjoy the Creator and then you start ascending to His degree.

27. S. (53:33) What actions do I need to perform in order to cause a friend to feel his greatness and by that give me an opportunity to bestow?

R. That is something, you have to know the friend, what he wants, what to enjoy, to connect to the Creator to ask of Him, that's the work. It's work just like you can learn that in the ten, we can learn that from the ten.

28. S. (54:26) A question about reception and bestowal in the ten. How when friends try to give something in the form of connection, how to receive it with an open heart, how to cancel my desire before the advice that the friends are giving me in the ten?

R. You need to connect between you and determine that you love this connection, that you want to determine between you more than anyone separately. And constantly think on this form of unity how this is great, special, unique, and it raises you more and more and the more you are connected there, the closer you are to the Creator until you really discover that the Creator is in that connection.

S. And then the way of connection is less important but what is revealed inside is more important?

R. It's going to be the same thing.

29. S. (55:53) [No translation] 

R. Try, ask them and do it.

S. These words, come to Pharaoh, can we translate them as the state of identifying with the suffering of the friends?

R. Yes.

30. S. (57:00) How do you awaken more Hassidim between the friends especially in such a period?

R. If we connect between us as much as each one feels himself, that he's in the friends and the friends are in him somewhat, in like a mix, by this we can come out of Egypt. At least to take one step outside of Egypt, that is the opportunity that is here before us. Let's try and connect, to grab everyone and come out.

S.  I want to come to a state that I will cut my hand before I harm a friend? It’s written, one that stops himself in a time of a fight. I don’t have such qualities?

R.  Yes, but you don't have to think of such things, we have to think of love and a hug.

S. That's what I'm asking: how do I awaken that more?

R. By constantly thinking about it and coming closer to the friends. That's it.

S. I can’t get out?

R. You will come out very soon, don't worry.

S. What’s this? I am really asking?

R. I'm telling you seriously and the fact that you want to come out, that desire itself is also ego.

S.  I feel like I'm hurting the friends like I'm harming them. I prefer to harm myself before I do that. I cannot manage to do that?

R. You don't do anything. Again just study and participate with everybody and you will see how soon you will start ascending. It's happening now too but you still don't feel it.

31. S. (59:40) Coming back to what is the restriction of the light. How by limiting the light so much, does it create the vessel for bestowal?  How does this transition take place from limiting myself from receiving to the fact that I have a vessel that receives in order to bestow?

R. That's by the light that reforms. I gradually start feeling what is in the friend's heart, how to connect with him, how through him to connect to the Creator, how to feel the Creator through the friends and in such a way we mix and reach one desire, one vessel as Adam HaRishon.

S. So what exercises do we need to constantly do in the ten?

R. Yes, of course those exercises have to constantly be only in the ten.

32. S. (01:01:25) Is the act of Maaser actually reflected light? Is the act of Maaser the act of reflected light?

R. In some way, yes.

S. How can Maaser influence the exit from Egypt?

R. A person who takes 10% of his profit and gives it to disseminate in the name of the Creator. Disseminating in Kabbalah, is disseminating the Creator, by that he brings himself and the whole world closer to coming out of Egypt.

33. S. (01:02:36) How does the created being discover that he is the guest with the host?

R. Yes.

S. Is this order that in order to get rid of the shame I need to feel the imploring of the host and how much he wants to feed me? To feel that I need to reject. How to move from shame to rejection?

R. The shame itself forces a person to do it, shame obligates someone to do it. It forces him, makes you work in such a way.

S. Meaning there's this feeling of discomfort and I'm looking for a way to come out of that feeling. Can we compare this whole state to the work in the ten? It's been a long time that I wanted to ask, if we can give an example?

R. Okay, give me an example.

S. For example, in the ten when something happens that evokes rejection in all kinds of silly thoughts that come to me and I see also that I'm ashamed, that I'm not similar to the Creator, that I’m not looking at the world with bestowal and so on and then I reject. Meaning I don't respond negatively to the situation and then I start to learn, to feel how I respond correctly. Can we direct this process compared to this process?

R. So observe it then see what is the best way to understand it.

S. It seems like everyday that I have nothing except for work with these rejections.

R. Okay that's how you start from.

34.  S. (01:05:10) Is the prayer for the friends the reflected light?

R. Reflected light is pleasure that a person feels. It comes from the Creator and he doesn't want to receive this pleasure in order to receive, that's why he rejects it and he measures and learns how to receive it in order to bestow.

S. If he wants that light to be bestowed to the friends it's not reflected light?

R. No, you can’t be a bestower of light to the friends.

35. S. (01:06:03) We want to share an impression and ask two questions. Hundreds of friends are coming to Israel for the period of Passover and I myself already dreamed for 10-15 years to come to Israel during Passover. Although I was here last month for the convention, nevertheless, the friends here are like a magnet, they attract you to buy a ticket, to come here, to fly because there's no better place to be in the world than Bnei Baruch, Petah Tikva. And yesterday when I was in the kitchen, I felt what the Garden of Eden is upon Earth, which is to wash the pots together with the friends.

R. You see, you started Passover already.

S. What drives you here; we were here at Hanukkah together with my wife and friends, sort of family and it drives you and then we were here for the Arava. There are friends who are really motivated and I had to do an operation but I shifted it so I could be at the Arava. And here there’s such a special environment, together with the Holland ten there’s a ten so great, and with the experience you have here it’s enormous. Now the preparation of Pesach, it’s never been so strongly felt, wanting to be in the whole process, to be in the preparation together, being in the process of the feeling of the exile, to be in the process of wanting to come out together with the friends. To go through these emotions, these impressions together, this is really amazing. You have to be here together with their friends, that's why we also came as a family here and the Holland group prepared it so well. I want to ask a question. What makes specifically this Pesach so special compared to what we had before? Why is this felt so strongly to always want to be here together with the friends in this Pesach? Rav please, what’s going on?

R. We are starting to feel more and more what mutual support is from one friend to another and how important it is for us to be together, to feel the friends around us as one man with one heart in one body, just close to one another. I really hope that it will be felt more and more by our friends in quantity and in quality and that we’ll be able to do the correct actions in order to rise above our egos. It’s things that do not come to us in an easy way. Years can go by until a person starts feeling what preparing himself for the upper world is. That even while a person is in this world, in this life we have he starts feeling the upper world. We will reach that, and all the best to you all, I will see you at noon.

https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/9pzbmrMp