Morning Lesson November 16, 2021, Transcription

Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio

Part 1:

Baal HaSulam - Shamati 59. Concerning the Staff and the Serpent

1. Rav’s Introduction: From all of the Kabalistic writings I would divide them into several groupings. The most important one are those that take us all along the way from the beginning of our work in which we cannot differentiate between states, degrees, relations they are not quite understood yet, like children who don't yet understand to the extent in which adults understand where they are and what they are doing until we come to the states that are much more important and mature. The main thing for us are those rules by which we can advance all along the way and they actually don't change, certainly there is a difference in the way that we use them but the principles are constant principles, especially when it has to do with our times.

Where we need to locate ourselves and find ourselves in the exile that we are in and how we need to organize ourselves between us so it will help us and we will be able to emerge from the exile. From exile from Kedusha (holiness), from in order to bestow, from being in contact with the Creator, from being in contact with love your friend as yourself, from all of those manners that we learn about spirituality. Therefore what happens to us is that we need to see these principles in each and every state that we are in, especially now, because in the state where we don't know exactly where we are we need to find out where we are. We need to find out what belongs to spirituality and what does not, and how we work in a beneficial way in order to go out of corporeality and enter spirituality.

To replace our attitude towards everything we feel, everything that awakens in our vessels, mostly in sight and hearing. It is important for us to sort these discernments and to know how to use them correctly, especially we need to see just like he says from the beginning of the article, that there are no more than two states either Holiness or Klipa. Usually we are in a state that we call between Heaven and Earth, not this and not that. That is not a good state, it is a sign that we are not working correctly, we are negligible in working between us in the connections in the group. We can't draw the upper force, the reforming light, by this, and this is why we waste our time. Days pass and the results are not quite felt.

This is all out of our negligence just like Baal HaSulam writes for us in Love of Friends, that only out of us, with force to be drawn to one another against our desire, we overcome it and are drawn together to connection together, participating together. Then to that extent we invite the reforming light, the Creator each time depicts for us a new state - that we are distant, that we are not connected, besides the fact that He shattered the one vessel of Adam into many pieces. Besides that, He awakens in us the gap between all of the parts, this connection, so that we will nevertheless develop a sensitivity for our state, for the lack of connection and how we can progress towards connection.

Therefore we need to see these states as the matter of the staff and the serpent in how we connect by this rule and to constantly try to see that there is no more other than the Klipa and Kedusha. The fact that we are in the middle and we do not know where we are, this is a sign we don't know where we are, not on the path, not in the connection and not under the upper influence. Let us start to read and we will try to awaken more questions and scrutinies in this article. Just like I said, there are articles that speak about our personal state and points along the way, it is a general article that follows us all along the way. There are only so many of these kinds of articles and therefore it is worthwhile for us to take our time with it and maybe something will remain for our path.

Shamati 59 (08:12) “Concerning the Staff and the Serpent.”

2. R. (13:08) It is clear to us that without the serpent we cannot advance because we need to make sure that we don't fall to the serpent each time, but instead to raise our self to the staff, which is actually the same discernment, only with the difference of how we relate to it, either below in importance or above in importance. If I want importance, I need to always uplift that which is lower in importance in me, in my intellect, and in my feeling. And to move forward with that, to not let it fall each time more and more so that it will be high and respectable in my eyes. That is how I reach a state of faith above reason. And if I don't watch over this but throw myself to corporeal habits, to my intellect, and my corporeal intellect and feeling, then I fall below. Although I don't realize this because there are concealments in these states, I am already in a state of the serpent.

3. S. (14:43) It says Moses says they will not believe me, who are those who will not believe?

R. All the thoughts and desires of a person.

4. S. (15:01) Why does Moses escape from what he sees that the staff becomes the serpent?

R. Moses is afraid of the serpent and where does he run to, but the Creator. Where he hopes to find advice how to run away and how to be saved from the serpent. If you grab the serpent either by the tail or by the head, we will see later what that means, what is the difference. And then we begin to work with it in the right way. But without the serpent we cannot advance. Human beings cannot just be in the quality of bestowal or in the quality of reception. We have to be included in both, and between these two discernments the Klipa and Kedusha, no matter how you call them, then we can see ourselves existing in a manner that we can discern and differentiate, talk and scrutinize, analyze good from bad, forward and backward towards each and everything.

Otherwise we won't be able to move in our development anywhere, that we would remain the drop of semen. But if we want to develop from it the development must be by different forces, this is why always ahead of us there is either the staff or the serpent and not just one of them but one against the other.

S. A few days ago you spoke about the connection that exists between thieves which very much impressed me, that they can reach their goal because they are loyal to each other and that is why they have an accord with the Creator. How is it that we can't even connect like thieves. How can we not suffer disturbances between each other, not even for a moment?

R. I'm sorry but you didn't understand the matter. First of all, like thieves - we can take from them just one principle, which is that they understand that you cannot achieve a goal without a strong connection. Only that, but it is not that the connection between them is in order to bestow and not that their purpose or their goal is a holy one.

When the kabbalist gives us this example, they just want to explain to us a certain side, this connection between the thieves. That they have a certain devotion between each other because they know that otherwise they are lost, they disappear, and they will be caught, they will be killed if they won’t be connected between them in the strongest possible way. This is how we need to see it. We won't reach the goal, we won't succeed because the goal is also attained in the connection between us, where we build this connection.

This is what the Creator is saying, that “you made me.” What is “you made me?” You built the network of connections between you in such a way that I can be revealed there. That is called “you made me” and it cannot be any other way. Just as there is no created being without the Creator, but it is the Creator that is truly the first, and then there is no Creator without the creature. Where the creature builds such a net of connections between the parts, the separated contradicted parts, in which he reveals the Creator in all kinds of qualities and connections between the creatures, positive ones and negative ones, like this and like that, in all kinds of ways until it is revealed that this is the quality of the Creator. This is the Creator. This is called “you made me.”

S. What I meant is exactly what you said about the thieves.

R. Then we can be together with you in a crew of thieves together.

S. How can we always be in every moment without getting confused in what is written in Shamati 59, how can we do it?

R. We can't, and it's not good if it will happen because between one state to another state there is always a disconnection and specifically thanks to these disconnections, these cessations each time we come to a new state, a new discernment. That’s why it's written, there is no righteous in the land that has done good but hasn’t sinned prior to that because those sins, those stops, those breaks are obligatory.

5. S. (22:14) The staff is working in faith above reason, what exactly is this staff in the work of the 10?

R. From our connection in the group we need to establish it as the vehicle or the ship with which we are traveling toward the goal. We need to take care of the correct connection that is right. And the force of progress just like in a vehicle where our engine runs, where we constantly are working non-stop on the connection between us more and more correctly. Let us put it this way. Kabbalists also explained to us that it is similar in manner to a textile place where they cut these strings and put the strings together, weave them together, and embroider them into one piece of cloth.

Each time we need to combine our work at any given moment as new. Through this we advance as a loom. The wisdom of Kabbalah explains to us there is all kinds of work like squeezing the grapes for wine, or the way we squeeze the olives to make olive oil. And this is how these things that are the only work, the common work in agreement, in understanding, that each is against the other like when you make the cloth in a loom there are strings that go each direction, and there are movements that go every direction. Or when you're squeezing the grapes for wine it is forcefully with pressure, the way that you stomp on them with your feet. There are many things here that are not so easy to accept with our minds, but that we need to see through them and we will advance.

S. So while we're holding the staff in our hand what is the hand in our group, what is holding it?

R. Good question, we need to constantly try to be in a connection in the group that the connection will be our common hand, we are creating this character, this Moses that is going ahead. He doesn't exist but only if we want to move forward. Then, we establish the last character from all of the group. This image and the advancement that we want to advance, this is something that we need to aim the Moses in us that will go forward ahead of us. Why? Because that is what he is meant for as he wasn't born in a regular way like we read in the story from Egypt.

Why does Torah tell us such stories and what is the importance of it, that he was born and found later in the Nile and Pharaoh's daughter called Batya educated him and he came out as the Prince of Egypt, and this is how he grew up. That he came out completely even though he was born from a father and mother that were Jews, Yehudi, Jew, one yearning for unification, seeking the Creator, but he was educated in Pharaoh’s home, meaning his point was in Pharaoh’s home. Despite that his point was in Bina, he himself was educated in Malchut with the King of Egypt, Pharaoh. Then he has the two qualities, and from the beginning of his adulthood, they mature. He was included in these two qualities and could lead anyone who wants to come out of Egypt after him.

S. Is it the purpose in our group to keep on holding this staff? Do we need a force to keep on holding it, and if we do, what does it mean that we keep on holding it all the time? There is also a force that we want to throw it, should we throw it or should we keep holding it?

R. Certainly we must hold on to the staff and each must awaken the force of Moses which is at the head of all of the qualities of people and leads us to the connection in the 10 and in the connection of the 10 we build the image of our common Moses to us all. That each is connected to this and together we build both the individual and the general are equal here, there is such a rule, a lot about the general and the individual being similar and by this each needs to have this picture and all of us together to establish him before us. That we need to establish before us the image of Moses meaning Creator and when we establish him together, stabilize him together we go together otherwise we won't be able to come out of our nature, from the Egypt between us and we won't be able to attain anything.

6. S. (30:50) Can you explain what it means to achieve a middle line in the 10 instead of being between two states?

R. A middle line is the correct combination in our work between the right and the left line. It is where you hold the stick, and each time you make it a staff where you locate what is lower and what is higher in importance. In the group it is simple. If you place the importance of the friends, the importance of the connection between the friends, if you place that before you with your eyes shut, where that is the only thing that is important for you, if you try to do that this is how you can advance and not make mistakes and move forward.

Your work is through the desert. It is an unseeded land with scorpions and snakes there and you go with certainty that you will succeed. Only under the condition that you are going with the staff in the hand where you are holding it up, but you are not throwing it down. Rather you are uplifting it. That you are nullifying all of the “in order to receive” in you, all of the “within reason” and that you go above reason. But it appears to you as lowness, smallness, you raise it up. That is difficult work every given moment that we need to work because every single moment the S. The whole article is written that a person needs to cancel everything he sees and hears. This way he diminishes his reason before faith, before what you see and hear, do you choose what you diminish beforehand?

R. This is called that I try in all of my scrutiny to prefer the force of bestowing over that of reception, or in other words, faith above reason.

are changed in us, and we need to locate and arrange them correctly in our relationship towards them.

S. If there are two opposites in the 10 is it because some of the friends are trying to throw the staff and others are trying to pick it up?

R. Yes, of course. Each of us needs to work on this together, according to what you try to work on together, with one shall help his friend and accordingly you will hold on to the staff. There needs to be the image of the staff, the image of Moses that is before the ten.

7. S. (34:56) You say they are advancing with the staff in their hands and not managing to see many new things in the spiritual world. Do we need to open these senses?

R. Correct. But how do I shut off this sense of Kabbalah, reception, where I don't see anymore; where I have a sense of bestowal to see the spiritual world. Specifically we are told about this that the whole matter is how to receive the revelation of the concealed world that will be revealed, and it is not revealed in our intellect or in our feelings because it is all in an egoistic way but only when we rise above it.

8. S. (36:14) Can you explain why did the Lord have Moses to cast the staff on the ground even though it is Kedusha?

R. The staff is not yet holy. We need to differentiate the two parts, to differentiate the two forms of the staff, that we either throw it down and it becomes the serpent or we raise it up and it becomes the staff that leads to success. Everything depends on the person, as the staff itself has no value or special thing. It just symbolizes for us the attitude of a person to life, to the connection in the group and the goal. That is why if we raise the group and the goal to a place where we are led, to a place that is above us, above our ego, above our animalistic self. Then it becomes the staff. The staff itself we need inside ourselves to stabilize it so the form of our attitude to the connection between us will be called the staff.

S. What does it mean to cast the staff on the ground?

R. That I am not going with it above reason but rather within reason.

9. S. (38:41) You mentioned about the cessation in the work so what is the value of actually working for the friends or doing some type of dissemination or reading? Because it feels that during that time, we have nothing, that we want to do nothing. So what is the benefit of pushing forward to do some type of action in a state like that?
R. The fact that we have no clear sign for how to advance is a good thing and we should be trying to connect between us as much as possible, and in such a way we will find a path. Spirituality is not out there. There is no Creator, there is no spirituality without human beings. There's no Creator without a creature. We establish it and we must not think that if I won't make it and if I won't design it, that it will come to me. It won't come.

What will come is just some different form of stings and troubles, not that we are going to be able to discover anything that exists. If we don't establish and design it then it is not going to happen. In our connection we should envision to ourselves what the spiritual world is. Let us build it and then as we build it, then we feel it, that the Creator is already there, that the Creator becomes revealed. But it is to the extent that we build the spiritual envelope.

10. S. (41:21) Why does Moses hold onto the staff of his brother Aaron?

R. There is a division between them, we will learn it later, it is the degree Bina, that has a lower and upper part of Bina, GAR and ZAT of Bina. We are going to have to learn how and why they work together. The top part of Bina is like Keter, and the lower part is like Hochma. In Bina we have these two parts there for Bina can be the connector, the intermediate part between Keter and Malchut. Therefore there are also two characters here, Moses and Aaron, we will learn about.

11. S. (42:45) As we gather with our 10 before the lesson, what does it mean that we raise the staff before us?

R. You each came to the lesson after sleeping, let's say, all being disorganized internally without having the exact tendency to spirituality right now, that you have to figure out and sort out to awaken from the animal level to the human level. The human level of Adam is similar to the Creator. And so we have to awaken all of the spiritual discernments and arrange them in the 10 so that they get the required intensity here to advance. That is what we need to do before the lesson.

S. You say that we are usually working in some kind of mutual state that is not here or there, and you said that this isn't good. So how do we clearly express we are working in the staff in the 10?

R. This becomes revealed to the extent that you want to bestow to the friends, and then together with all of them to go toward the goal. Only with such a feeling and intention are you truly in a group, and you are going forward with the staff in your hand. First of all, the staff has to put us together in the 10 and then we will see that the 10 is the staff and we will advance.

S. The whole article is written that a person needs to cancel everything he sees and hears. This way he diminishes his reason before faith, before what you see and hear, do you choose what you diminish beforehand?

R. This is called that I try in all of my scrutiny to prefer the force of bestowing over that of reception, or in other words, faith above reason.

S. Am I relating directly to the fact that we are working between us in the 10 and that we have things between us that we notice?

R. If we connect each and every one's bestowal toward each other, then we emerge into a single vessel and we are worthy of rising to a higher degree.

12. S. (46:11) Can you say that the serpent is the recognition of evil in the work between us, and if so how to connect it to the work with the staff to reach “love of friends”?

R. That is correct that the serpent is the recognition of evil between us and there is a great work in detecting it. And to work on it we only need to go against it by connecting to each other in love, understanding, coming closer. Then we grab a hold of it. We don't kill it or destroy it. We just try to grab a hold of it and it actually accompanies us throughout our entire path. It is not one serpent, it is many serpents, like you may have heard in Torah but there are many other meetings with the serpents and Moses made an image of the snake from the copper, there is that and so the serpent is required until the end of the path. At the end of the path it becomes holy because in its role it helped us to reach the goal and it always play that role in front of us as either this serpent or the staff, serpent or the staff and each time on a higher degree.

13. S. (48:45) You said we need to picture ourselves, what the spiritual world is and then all of us together in the 10 to desire this. So that we will have a certain common grasp of this, can you tell us what the spiritual world is so we can specifically yearn for it and not something we each picture on our own?

R. This world is a feeling, our internal feeling that I think something is happening here on the outside from the stars to planet Earth and all of this still, vegetative, animate and human beings, all of this is pictured in my desire to receive. If I were able to disconnect my will to receive, I would not feel myself or what is outside of me and so this is called this world, this picture. Meaning what appears to me in the will to receive created by the Creator without any corrections, just the way it was created without my work on it, but just how it awakens by itself. Each time we feel changes and they are changes in the will to receive itself and so we feel the world is moving. But nothing is really moving, it is just our impression in our will to receive that it is changing, the will to receive itself is actually changing. The alternative is the spiritual world and the spiritual world doesn't mean that I am not feeling an impression, but that I work the same way if this world is a complete result of the upper force. The spiritual world is already a kind of connection between my action and the Creator’s action, and to the extent that I have equivalence with the Creator, I see that level, that measure of equivalence as the spiritual world. Think about it and we will continue on this later.

14. S. (51:54) I understand the importance of working in faith above reason in the connection between us in the 10 but how do I know I'm really working in above reason or is it simply eluding me that I only think I am doing that?

R. If after you have made such efforts and that you gradually begin to discover that through your efforts you are connected to the upper force, then you begin to receive the entrance to that, you just have to continue the efforts and these efforts need to be especially against your ego and in favor of connection to the extent that you nullify to the friends.

15. S. (53:14) The desirable work is on the middle of line and the other hand at the beginning of the lesson you explain that the work between the serpent and the staff is the state between Heaven and Earth a state of wastefulness and not good work so it's still not clear how to work and not waste time.

R. Based on your words I can't see how to or what your impression is but our work is that we always want to awaken and amplify and develop the form of bestowing between us in the ten and that means that we are going forward with the staff. If the connection between us is in a practical way for us, if we want to advance forward correctly, we always have to take care of the connection between us that each one holds everyone else and each one is responsible for everyone else and we all want this general form of bestowing between us to lead and guide us and this is called the staff.

S. The intermediate state, it won't be a state between Heaven and Earth that we are damaging or holding onto both the will to receive and the desire to bestow?

R. Between heaven and earth is a state that is not scrutinized, I should always be aiming at the heavens, meaning the quality of bestowing, the quality of Bina.

S. If I have the right intention and I'm not in the state of heaven that means I'm not between Heaven and Earth?

R. I don't know about your calculations, you are trying to put me into your own sentences which I don't want to do. That is not acceptable. You just have to always make an effort that you are going together with the group, disconnected from yourself and then these steps will be correct. Meaning to assimilate into the 10 and see how your participation in the 10 becomes more powerful and more intense.

16. S. (56:18) We learn there is an expression if there is no bread there is no Torah, and our work needs to be opposite if there is no work there is no bread?

R. It depends on what you mean by bread and Torah, this needs more scrutiny.

S. If we don't invest our efforts into connection and to bring the Creator into every state accordingly, we also don't see the world as good that we need to find or discover it in the next state?

R. Yes.

17. S. (57:15) It is written in the fourth paragraph if he doesn't attain it, he is kind of going towards the reason of a person, it's not certain how you differentiate between reason and intellect, is this the reason and intellect of the 10?

R. Daat, reason, is a spiritual discernment and intellect is a corporeal discernment, it is an approximate definition, it can be interpreted differently. Intellect is something that can be in a computer or an animal, something in this world that there is data or calculations based on that data. Reason means that I take my ego and I rise above my ego and I want to work with the quality of the Creator and when I am included in that quality of bestowal then I call that my reason. The more I try to achieve the reason that I say I have mind and reason, my specific calculations to detach from myself to find the friends and integrate with them then I achieve reason. This is something that we learn from the three lines and there are many details in that.

18. S. (59:16) From our scrutiny yesterday in the 10 the matter that is most important for us to understand is what are the measures of reason that we do this examination, this work?

R. The units of measurement that we want to see ourselves holding the staff and rising by it, it is how connected we are between us and the connection can only happen to the extent that each one nullifies himself to the others and so in that we can't yet exactly measure ourselves but we still need to be drawn to it to the extent that we begin to feel some milestones along the way. More or less that we will start to better sort them out until we begin to receive feedback for everything that we are trying to do and as a result we will begin to measure, to sort out within us the levels of coarseness, root 1 2 3 4 and the ability to work with them in one way or another. Like a baby or a little childhood begins to gradually make more distinctions and discernment of what him is around, same with us it is very similar.

S. Sounds like we can't measure ourselves and on the other hand we must measure ourselves?

R. This happens deliberately like that from the descents of the degrees that we will want to measure ourselves and see where we are, on the other hand we have to go where our eyes shut in the form of bestowing in this is how we will advance. These things are things that we should get answers for from the path itself.

19. S. (01:02:09) Yesterday in our scrutiny in the 10 we noticed a discernment about 3 lines, and the middle line being the line of advancement and it seems like from the article that there's a contradiction because we're told that there's no intermediary so what is correct?

R. No, it's not that there is no middle line, the middle line is not what you're talking about as an intermediary state, that there's no holiness Klipa, it is not from between the integration of holiness Klipa. The path of the middle line includes both the holiness and Klipa, where the shell is also a part of the Holiness and from this we advance.

20. S. (01:03:17) We checked in our 10 and a friend that is listening from work wanted to ask how to combine a state of lowliness and a state of joy. This is the real work as we lose our strength, do we feel these two feelings simultaneously?

R. If I know that I should be in the degree of lowliness and the degree of lowness is actually the greatest degree that there can be, call the quality of humility that I subjugate my ego and I don't give it any importance, that is called lowness and there is not higher state, there is just a danger here. Am I in such a state am I being prideful or not because when I wasn't low, I was deserving of some respect and now that I am low, I deserve more respect. Do you understand how everything can be manipulated here?

21. S. (01:05:18) Where will we get the strength to be able to control the serpent when it comes and what are the first actions of a person to be able to control and rise higher?

R. The serpent is the ego that erupts between us, not in each and every one, only between us. Therefore it doesn't appear immediately in the whole story of the Torah only on the condition that they want to exit Egypt, meaning to exit the hatred between us, the rejection, then Moses begins to receive guidance from the Creator. What does Moses say but that they are not going to believe me, they are not going to want to listen that we have to rise above reason to be in bestowal, faith and love just like we don't want to hear, our nature doesn't want to hear. What do we do?

The Creator explains to him that you only have two options, either the serpent or the staff, either you go forward or you go back inside and this will be your burial place if you're not moving forward. That is it, we have to describe it in a tangible way between us. That the egoistic sensation that doesn't allow us to come closer to each other, not with the bodies only with the heart and somewhat our mind that helps us to aim our heart. So the proximity, the gathering of the hearts is what the Creator demands, if we try to do that as one man in one heart then it happens and if we don't, even just a bit more and a bit more if we don't try to do that it is not going to happen. It should be clear to us that we are going into our burial place then.

22. S. (01:07:57) What should our attitude be to the serpent, should we fear or respect, how should we use it without letting him destroy the connection between us?

R. The serpent is the negative force governed by the Creator in order to advance us because we don't understand the good force, we don't want to hear it but the bad force we can detect and use it to advance. Therefore the serpent has a very important role as it pushes us forward. It is like we also learn from the article about the donkey driver that he stimulates the donkeys by stinging them with a sharp stick and it is the same with us, we can't advance without getting a sting each time. Otherwise we immediately fall asleep and go into all kinds of corporeal actions and thoughts, we get nothing and only then will we get a little sting, some question of why I am alive and what is going on, then I begin to wake up. Without the serpent we are not going to be able to advance as the serpent plays the most important role in our progress, without the serpent we are not going to need the Creator.

23. S. (01:10:09) Sometimes it appears like the serpent is working in a very delicate way causing us to believe we are in faith above reason how to have greater sensitivity so it does not confuse us?

R. Any change of state can be correct if we try to get closer to each other.

24. S. (01:10:40) How when a person is concentrated on a corporeal action, let's say at work can a person be above reason, how not to waste that time?

R. Each and every moment in life I can try to feel that I do it to come closer to the goal of life, it doesn't matter where I am or what I do, if I am alive and I want to sanctify all of the components of my life, all of the times of my life to the attainment of the same goal.

25. S. (01:11:20) What is holiness for us as we have yet to rise to the first spiritual degree?

R. What is sanctity?

S. How do we identify holiness, Kedusha?

R. Holiness or sanctity is the connection between us to which I feel no attraction.

26. S. (01:11:52) How do I know that I am in Kedusha, sanctity or the Sitra Achra?

R. I can't answer that clearly because you might make mistakes later. There is such an article about how to distinguish whether one is in Kedusha (holiness) or Sitra Achra (the other side) as the scrutiny is either above reason or below reason. That needs to be clarified otherwise people will get confused.

27. S. (01:12:45) How to differentiate between above and below reason?

R. If I want to advance towards reason then I need to better incorporate with the group, basically it's very simple for us, there's a 10, you need to shut your eyes and enter the 10 and as much as you can to embrace them, to be with them, to be among them, to incorporate with them and subjugate to them like it is written in the social articles and then I certainly advance for certain.

28. R. (01:13:37) What the Kabbalists write it's not some poetic words like politicians or some diplomatic lines, what they write are necessary vital things that without carrying them out we are not going to enter spirituality, therefore don't let go and don't dismiss what they write.

29. R. (01:14:15) Rav reading: This is the meaning of anyone who is proud he and I cannot dwell in the same abode, the reason is because as we have said, that he has placed his Shechina on trees and rocks. Meaning things that are unimportant, that are little, that is where the Creator is. Why? Because that is how we see them in our ego. That they are unimportant and not great and so if one throws the discernment of the staff to the ground, meaning lower in importance, meaning that he doesn't want to go above what he feels and discovers to prefer the aspect of bestowal more than what he has and he raises oneself to work with a higher attribute, this is already a serpent. Meaning that he craves greater things, that he is not willing to nullify himself before what the Creator presents to him.

There is no middle as there is either the serpent or Kedusha since all the Torah and work that one had from the discernment of the staff all has now entered the discernment of a serpent because he didn't consider and appreciate what he was receiving and didn't raise it to the degrees of Torah but he just received it in his will to receive.

Without the staff one cannot go forward to the goal, specifically the serpent that we grab ahold of to begin with, it becomes a staff and then with it I advance towards the goal and I achieve the goal of life, of creation. So it is the same serpent but in the opposite form, it's hidden form that leads us and guides us to the purpose of life. Only from making sure that each time we hold it in such a way that it becomes a staff otherwise it immediately becomes a serpent again. Our work in holding our ego correctly we grab a hold of it in the right way and we hold it in the right way, then we see that we can use it to go forward like using a staff and the moment we let go of it, it becomes a serpent and we are wrong in our path. Now the question is, how do we always make certain that we transform the serpent to a staff? This is called working with the help made against me. Which is essentially what we got from the Creator and we have to work with it correctly. So don't say the world is bad, man is bad, we just need to transform everything that we see and how we grow and what we are included with, incorporated with as we need the whole world and ourselves to be transformed into a staff.

WSQ: How do we transform ourselves and the whole world to the staff? Then we rise as a new man, a true Adam and the whole world seems to me as a spiritual world?

30. R. (01:27:10) We have another interesting excerpt here, this is why we have a place to work not only in lowliness and accordingly a person can rain in the Sitra Achra, and then in order to not to remain in the other side, the Creator does a correction that if person leaves the state of the staff then he falls into the state of the serpent and he goes into his intellect and he has no strength and only if he can receive the state of faith the state of lowliness and that is the result and its follows that the failures themselves, they cause one to take upon himself the discernment of the staff once more which is the discernment of the faith above reason. Again that sentence, it follows that the failures themselves cause one to take upon himself the discernment of the staff once more which is the discernment of faith above reason. Meaning every time a person feels that he is seemingly not advancing, not revealing, not attaining that is help from the snake from the serpent. That the serpent is leaving in him such an impression from the work and the more he advances then he feels himself that he has less. Okay?

Reader continues (01:31:00) “It is known that the Sitra Achra has no lights…”

31. S. (01:31:55) After 6000 years, after all the degrees have been corrected of course there will be no difference between the shell and Holiness because they are both working towards the same goal. Also the force is in disturbances they weren't in fact a disturbance they are only showing a person to the extent that he needs to correct himself. In other words there's nothing outside of us that is bad. If we correct ourselves and we see the world as good.

Reader continues (01:32:38) “this is why they want to draw the light to their degree….”

32. R. (01:33:20) In other words you want to seduce a person, what does it mean to seduce, you say okay you shouldn't do this, this to tempt a person, the first you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do that. On the one hand the Klipa is awakening attention to something and what is this attention that builds a deficit for something? On the other end, no no, you shouldn't do it, it is something like some kind of a flirt. On one hand it opens a desire, on the other hand it says that this desire is not really for you, you're not yet prepared for it. You need to improve yourself, you need to be ready to connect to what you're awakening for.

Reader continues (01:34:19) “hence one can I go forward through the dominion…

33. R. (01:34:39) He already knows that there is a higher degree that doesn't need to have it for any to move forward, he needs to have it but he doesn't have anybody. The deficit without a deficiency how will he so where will he get a deficiency for a higher degree from. The Sitra Achra is already awakening in him the sensation that there's something higher but you are not yet ready for it. This is what he tells the person so what does he do?

Reader continues (01:35:13) “in that state he's not able to discern if he is advancing in Holiness or.”

34. S. (01:36:37) What is the primordial serpent in the article?

R. The primordial serpent is our will to receive that awakens in the person, that that person has a connection to the purpose of life, the purpose of creation. If he has none, then he has no life. It has to be such a soul, a part of the soul of Adam HaRishon, that is aimed according to its inner qualities, that is aimed towards correction, that is aimed towards the purpose of creation. Then it is advanced accordingly by being awakened, this small individual personal soul. Here a person gets an opportunity. How can he participate in his correction of the soul? This awakening is considered when a person is preparing himself for birth. There is greater work here before he is prepared for it. There needs to be greater participation on the part of the person himself.

35. S. (01:38:35) The staff, the feeling of the staff, is it an individual feeling for each friend or a common feeling for the ten?

R. Both. Both. Also each and everyone needs to build his own staff, and the group itself when it connects it becomes as one man in one heart in one staff.

36. S (01:39:12) It says here that if he casts the staff then there is a failure. Is this spiritual or corporeal failure?

R. We are speaking only of spirituality.

37. S. (01:39:42) It says that the Sitra Achra, the other side, gives strength to work more forcefully, more strongly. The question is do we need to be without any strength in the work?

R. No. We need not to think about it. We need to think about how to be correctly aimed towards the purpose of creation. Then to see if we have or do not have strength. And if we do not, then we should be directed towards that same source that depicts for us the purpose of creation, the source of life, and from that to demand strength. To the extent that we connect more we annul ourselves, that each one turns his serpent into a staff and we all become one man with one hard, in one image. Because a 10 is one person and by that we are rewarded with advancing. By that we are rewarded with the force of Moses awakening in us, that we feel it among us, between us. That takes us forward.

38. S (01:41:21) You said earlier that our advancement is, what is the deficiency that you are speaking of that you cannot advance without?

R. The deficiency means that I'm in deficit, I’m lacking.

S. How do we build it, how does it come to us, do we have it naturally?

R. Not necessarily naturally. Just like in this life when a child is born and grows up. What lacks, what deficiencies does he have? It all depends on the deficiencies of the environment or naturally what awakens from him, from his body. Or it awakens from the environment and from the surroundings. Social environment, that is, from honor and lust.

S. Can the ten build such a deficiency?

R. If the ten is correctly aimed, it can build everything that a person needs to attain the goal, the end of correction.

39. S (01:42:41) What is the meaning that the Creator said that the Divinity is in the trees and rocks?

R. Meaning things that do not have high importance. That is the extent that we appreciate spiritual.

S. What does that mean? It's not clear to me.

R. That for me spirituality is not important?

S. That is why He is placing it on trees and rocks?

R. Yes. That is how it is described for us.

40. S (01:43:25) You explain that without the serpent there is no advancement. This serpent is very important for our advancement. Is there a way that we can tame the serpent so that we can observe it all the time so that we can actually use it correctly? Let's say to keep observing it all the time?

R. Why are you asking, we are talking about this all the time, how to turn the serpent into the staff. This is what we are learning about: how to turn this evil force, the disturbance to the good force, to a beneficial force, one of advancement, right? That is our work. If we know how to do it then we will advance with these two forces. Then bad and good will be for our benefit, for our advancement.

41. S. (01:44:41) They’re the Creator staff and Moses in the writing, are these phases within us?

R. Yes, you can say that too.

42. S. (01:45:04) According to the article it seems like the serpent is what advances us. This is how the creative forces us to advance to have a deficiency. Why can't we advance with this force of the staff?

R. If you turn the serpent into a staff then you will advance correctly. But you first need to do it to transform it from the serpent to the staff. It explains it in the Zohar, in the Donkey Walker. There is such an article in the Zohar called the Donkey Walker, that the donkey can work only to the extent that he is stabbed and that is what we are: Hamor [donkey] is Homer [matter], that’s our egoistic force can only advance, because every motion for him is anti-egoistic. You have seen a donkey, he stands, stands still, that’s it; want him to move, you'll have to prick him with something and then he will move.

S. Where can we find this serpent, you said that we are between heaven and earth? How to turn the serpent into the staff?

R. If you connect to the friends more than normally, you will immediately feel where the serpent is.

43 R. (01:50:44) Rav reading: “In order for a person to not remain…” Meaning his will to receive is low in importance, if he leaves that he immediately falls into the state of the serpent, to the state of failures, like in this world he just flows with everyone and has no power to strengthen; unless he accepts the discernment of faith which is called lowliness, once more. Meaning the more we appreciate our lowliness to the extent that we advance. The person understands that what brings him up that’s his ego, and the more he is willing to fall and to be in a state of lowliness; those are the correct signs actually. “It follows that the failures themselves cause one to take upon himself the discernment of a staff once more, which is the discernment of faith above reason.” This means that there's nothing lower than where I am at, and I appreciate this state as the highest. Because after all my quality, my being, my I, is the ego; therefore the more I can lower myself I can actually be in the state of ascent as a result. “It follows that the failures themselves cause one to take upon himself the discernment of the staff once more, loneliness, which is the discernment of faith above reason.” Meaning each time that I feel that I'm not advancing, I'm not attaining, I'm not feeling; these states in particular are help from above, from the serpent; It appears in this way showing me I have nothing, it actually stimulates me to advance towards the goal. It turns out that we always receive support, either seemingly negative support or positive support. But we always have it, as long as we are aware of the goal but both from the bad side or the good side, thanks to these two we are able to advance. “This is what the meaning of what Moses said, ‘and they will not believe me,’ meaning, they will not want to take upon themselves the path of working in faith above reason. What should I do? Then the Creator tells him: ‘what is in your hand, a staff? Cast in on the ground. And then promptly ‘it became a serpent’”. It’s either this or that. “It Is rather to know if one is in Kedusha [holiness] or in the Sitra Achra [the other side.” But there are no other states. What does it mean there’s no other states? If I am in a state where I'm not scrutinizing if this is sanctity or a shell; meaning I do not even exist.” It turns out in any case they do not have any choice, but to assume the discernment of faith above reason...” to know where I am at, I should also start by accepting the phase of faith above reason. …” called a staff, Matah [low in importance]. And this staff should be in the hand and the staff should not be thrown. This is the meaning of the verse ‘the staff of Aaron budded,’ meaning that all the budding he has in serving the Creator, was based specifically on Aaron's staff. This means that he scrutinizes how much this work is low but for him this is the main thing, and according to how he feels lowly, there he advances, he climbs, because this is all measured according to his ego. “He wanted to give us a sign to know if we are walking on the path of Truth or not. He gave us a sign to know only the basis of the work. Meaning what basis one is working on, is it the basis of the staff, it is holiness. And if his basis is within reason, this is not the way to achieve holiness". Only above reason.

44. S (01:57:30) How can we want the serpent if it is not something that is close to us, it causes us fear?

R. We begin to work with a serpent in such a way that we are not afraid of it. This is the ego, this is a desire that exists in each and every one, until we begin to detect that this is the desire that separates us to that extent; separates us between us and the Creator, then we begin to see it is a serpent. If we do not want to connect in the 10 there is no serpent. To the degree that we wish to connect and we feel the disturbance within, the repulsion between one another; this is the gradual revelation of the serpent. And if we take the serpent by the hand and we want to advance through it through the purpose of life, through the purpose of creation then, it turns out the more we wish to connect between us and the more forms of rejection and repulsion we receive as a result, and the more we can overcome it and turn this into help against; the forces of rejection into forces of connection, this is advancement. It turns out that the serpent aims us to the connection between us; that is its entire role, to show us where we are not connected enough and we need to limit ourselves from the ego and increase the connections so the Creator will appear in the center of the connection between us. This is called “coming out of our ego.” With the help of the serpent we can transition from Egypt to the land of Israel, straight to the where desires are completely aimed at the Creator. Only in that way can we advance. It is worthwhile not to stay with those words we are reading the article, but to decipher them and translate them to the connection between us.

45. S (02:00:38) Did Moses have a choice of throwing the staff? Why is there such a contradiction here? Does it depend on us to throw or not to throw the staff?

R. I used to be a wise guy, a philosopher, like you. You can ask that about each and every aspect. You should enter the article and flow with what he is trying to explain to you, and not ask unrelated questions from your intellect. Did Moses have a choice or not have a choice? It will not do you any good. There's a quality called Moses and this is how it works in the Guf, in the body. It will not do me any good if I go to the philosopher if I have a pain in my foot and ask why I have the foot, why should it be this way, or why do I feel this pain. I don't need it, I need to get rid of the pain. I need to tie all these things to the goal and resolve each and every question in this way. Did Moses have a choice or not? Did he exist? Who was he? This won’t help me. I need to know what this quality is in me and us and to work with it in order to attain the goal. You can stay on the path and sit with that question but it isn’t tied to the goal and you will never make it. Start being less wise. This is called being a wise guy. You do not get any light from it. Be practical, business like, according to what Baal HaSulam is scrutinizing in the article. You can ask a thousand questions around it but they will not offer you any advancement. We will learn from it

46. S. (02:03:12) Before the staff appeared, Moses said, ‘they will not believe me’. What does that mean? It is clear we were told to disseminate, to spread their wisdom to the people.

R. Yes, in the group. It is true.

47. S. (02:03:55) What does the starting point of staff or serpent mean? Is that self-concern?

R. Yes, when you wish to use this state for yourself. But the question is whether a person is aware of it. This is where you should check. If you lower all your advancement and if you disconnect from your ego, from the importance then it becomes a serpent. You need to pick up the serpent in such a way that you prefer the things that are typically down below and then it becomes a staff. You constantly go with the things that are less important, in short, that are against the will to receive. Very simply. Then you have no questions.

48. S. (02:05:18) He writes here that he immediately falls into a state of failure and has no power to strengthen unless he accepts the discernment of faith called lowliness. I heard you explain that this means to appreciate my lowliness. What does it mean to appreciate my loneliness? Is this the same thing as annulment?

R. No, annulment is annulment relative to your will to receive. To appreciate the lowliness means that whatever appears lowly in your will to receive, whatever you typically measure and see, you need to appreciate those things that you don't normally appreciate as great. Therefore, pick up that staff, that stick, it is just a stick. and turn it into a staff. What do you do? Things that do not have any importance you raise them and use them to show you the way. This is the meaning of the staff. A staff is what we build by taking things that do not have any importance according to our intellect and feelings and we raise them to be important, which is love and bestowal, above our reason.

S. Are you basically saying that anything that I think is good is not good? Like I appreciate that I do not have importance in my will to receive?

R. Yes. I have importance for it only on the condition that I turn the serpent into a staff. I take things that are on the ground, that are not important, and I raise them to the degree of importance. This speaks of the qualities of bestowal. Bestowal is the lowest quality relative to me if I am entirely in the will to receive, there's no place lower than the ground. They are just thrown on the ground like dust or dirt. If I raise them higher in this way I can advance. It is a sign to me that I am advancing properly. I don't know where to go. Just imagine you are in the desert. Where do you go? If I do not move, I will die in a little while on the spot, I have to move forward, but where? Where is the north, where are my bearings? The direction is simple: we have to take things that are against your intellect, meaning against your nature, and to walk towards the will to bestow as much as possible. You'll eventually come out of the desert towards the Creator. Only this way; this is our state.

49. S. (02:09:43) When Moses says that they will not believe me. it is as if he doesn't understand what to do next.

R. Because a person doesn't know how to go above reason, how to go above the intellect and feeling that I have. How should I go and with what? You tell him to do the opposite, what is considered the cheapest in your eyes. Make that the most important and then you have the direction. Not into the ego but outside of the ego. You may advance in this way.

S. Is he saying to try to do the opposite?

R. No, you have to take everything in your intellect and your feeling and do the opposite of that. Then you will have the right direction. It is the difference between the serpent and the staff.

50. R. (02:11:30) Rav reading. “However, in the work itself, meaning in the Torah and in the prayer, there is no distinction between one who serves Him and one who does not serve Him. This is because there it is to the contrary: If the basis is within reason, meaning based on knowing and receiving, the body gives fuel for work, and he can pray and study more persistently and more enthusiastically, since it is based on within reason…” That is what we see in our world, how people that are not related to Kabbalah but only to religion, how excited they are. They have no doubts and they are happy. Doesn't matter what they have. Religion is the opiate of the masses, it helps them go through everything and feel whole and happy. Rav reading: “However, when one takes the path of Kedusha, whose basis is bestowal and faith, he needs much preparation so the Kedusha will shine for him. Without preparation, the body does not give one the strength for work, and one must always exert extensively, since man’s root is reception and within reason. Therefore, if his work is based on earthliness, he can always be fine. But if the basis for the work is on the discernment of bestowal and above reason, he needs perpetual efforts so as not to fall into his root of reception and within reason…” This is the difference between the serpent and the staff. Rav reading: “One must not be distracted for a minute…” by walking holding a serpent that becomes a staff. Rav reading: “or he will fall into his root of earthliness, called “dust,” as it is written, “for dust you are, and to dust shall you return.” And that was after the sin of the tree of knowledge…” Meaning there's a possibility here to advance. Rav reading: “Therefore, as one rises from one’s bed daily and washes oneself to purify his body from the filth of the body, so one should wash oneself from the filth of the Klipa, to examine himself if his quality of staff is in completeness. This should be a perpetual examination, and if one is distracted from it, he immediately falls to the authority of the Sitra Achra called “self-reception.” It is good because we can immediately detect our place, return to the place of staff, and raise ourselves from the serpent to the staff ourselves. There's no serpent and staff; we are in the middle. We are either in the form of staff or serpent, there is nothing in between, there is no intermediary. We need to always check what state we are in and be critically aware of it. Rav reading: “Now we can understand the words of our sages, “Be very, very humble.” What is that fuss that it says, “very, very”? It is because one becomes needy of people by having been honored once. At first one receives the honor not because he wanted to enjoy the honor, but for other reasons, such as the glory of the Torah, etc. One is certain of this scrutiny since he knows about himself that he has no desire for honor whatsoever. It follows that it is reasonable to think that he is permitted to receive the honor. However, it is still forbidden to receive since the light makes the Kli…” He writes that about people who are connected to other goals. Rav reading: Hence, after he has received the honor, he becomes needy of the honor, he is already in its dominion, and it is hard to break free from the honor. By this one acquires one’s own reality, and it is now hard to annul before the Creator since through the honor he has become a separate entity, and in order to obtain Dvekut [adhesion] one must annul one’s reality completely, hence the “very, very.” “Very” is that it is forbidden to receive honor for oneself, and the other “very” is that even when one’s intention is not for himself, it is still forbidden to receive.”

51. S. (02:19:10) How do I identify the falls in love of friends and still search for love?

R. We need to advance love to a greater and greater love between us. That is the correct path and is the staff that leads us to the end of correction. Thinking of the next state in the group, I need to imagine how I am pushing the group towards greater connection. That is what I need to do. I am certainly not mistaken if I am in that direction.

52. S. (02:20:05) Do we grab the serpent by the head or by the tail?

R. We have to scrutinize how to catch the snake by the head of the tail a bit more. The snake catchers catch the snake by the head and the Kabbalists say you have to catch him by the tail. That is a topic in and of itself.

53. S (02:20:40) What is the quality of Aaron?

R. This is not for now. This is a question that is off to the side, it's not a main question that helps us to understand the article deeply. It comes from outside wisdom. I'm not answering this question, it doesn't say anything about Aaron here, this is not scrutinizing anything so why we should deal with it.

54. S (02:21:41) What is an entire ten that enters spiritual holding on to the staff?

R. That is a good question. A complete ten that wants, in the connection between everyone, that wants to build the serpent and the serpent is the center of the connection between them. Each one is holding on to the staff and they make sure that everyone else holds on to this staff and by that they produce the quality of Moses. There is GAR of Bina and ZAT of Bina. ZAT of Bina is Aaron and the GAR of Bina is Moses. They connect to the force of bestowal that is connected to the Creator. As everyone is building the staff, accordingly they discover the quality between them which is Moses and connect this way to the Creator. That is, to construct the staff, to hold on to it. They do it by annulling each one's ego and specifically what is opposite the ego, above reason, the quality of bestowal that exists above everything. That means that they're lifting the staff from the ground and they raise it high. That is how they advance. In the end, everything has to take place in the connection between the friends in the ten.

55. S (02:23:59) How can one cancel one's own reality and apply it in the group?

R. Each shall help his friend through envy, lust, and honor. If I look at the friends, I have to awaken envy, lust, and honor according to how great they are, not to cancel them but on the contrary, to try to see them as people who are successful. They are more successful than me, they're ahead of me, above me, and that should awaken me more and more towards disconnecting from the serpent in me and to come to the states of the staff in me. All those things that I did not appreciate, did not value in importance, called low in importance, that is the staff I raised to the top of importance. What kind of things? Bestowal. I had no appreciation for bestowal for anything outside of me but now I have to rise above what is outside of me. This is the way to exit this degree and come to the feeling of the spiritual world.

56. S. (02:25:43) Many people get honor in dissemination. Does this harm advancement? How should we treat this honor?

R. I saw how easily Rabash gave up all his honor. If he had to act as an important person, he forced himself to do it, but in truth, he gave up honor and was as humble as possible. True humility, as Baal HaSulam writes, is learning to subjugate myself relative to the friends in practice. This is what Baal HaSulam writes and, of course, this will advance.

57. S. (02:26:50) Is honor an expression of evil?

R. Honor is the demand of the serpent.

58. S (02:27:01) What is the difference between enjoying receiving honor and the honor of the Torah?

R. I don't want to talk about the honor of the Torah. I don't like such words.

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