Morning Lesson November 24, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 70. With a Mighty Hand and with Fury Poured Out
1.Rav’s Introduction: We see that the correction of man occurs, for the most part, why the person is alive in this world. This correction is an extended correction and it takes a lot of time, as Baal HaSulam writes ten, twenty, even thirty years. Apparently, it is also on the condition that a person invests more and more and keeps on going towards the goal in a way that, according to his situation, he tries as much as he can without any concession on his part. On the side of the Creator, he discovers each time through his inner nature and through the external conditions, he discovers each time disturbances, problems of various kinds, on different levels, in different manners and all of that why? In order for our correction, that is, our connection with the Creator for it to be a correct, good, tight, broad connection, the entire spectrum of our desires, intentions, and our discernments so that we will reach a state of complete adhesion with the Creator. We can reach that only when we prepare the right vessel on our side. The vessel is when we all annul our individual egos and we connect between us. This is why there are a few primary conditions that we have to work on all the time and not to stop taking care of them. It is man's attitude to the plan, the purpose, the purpose of creation. It is one's attitude to the means for it which is the society so that out of that, he will have an increasing desire and an increasing intention between him and the Creator. From him to the Creator. This is how we will advance. From the Creator's side, He has to bring us to a feeling of the true disconnection that exists between Him and us.
Rav lost connection and we went to read the article, workshop, then a recorded lesson.
Reader reads (02:28): article Shamati 70 Twice
2. WSQ: (15:36) What are the forces of rejection and repulsion that a person receives? Why does he get them? How Is it possible to overcome them with the help of the ten?
Recorded lesson from November 19, 2021
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 65. Concerning the Revealed and the Concealed
https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/8SjQLMI2
Return to live lesson (01:15:39):
3. R. (01:16:24) Rav reads: “To understand what is written, “with a mighty hand …and with fury poured out, will I be king over you,” we should understand that there is a rule that there is no coercion in spirituality, as it is written, “You did not call Me, Jacob, for you labored about Me, Israel,” and there is the known interpretation by the Sayer of Duvna. Hence, what does “with a mighty hand …and with fury poured out, will I be King over you” mean.”
The Creator takes care of us entirely in love, all His qualities are qualities of love. We are so close and He is entirely in love. How can it be that he takes care of us with a strong hand? It isn’t like us who, out of a lack of choice, activate punishments on kids to educate them. Why did the Creator choose our path of progress and care for us and relate to us in such a difficult manner, with a mighty hand?
He explains here. Rav reads: “He said that we should know that of those who want to come into the work of the Creator in order to truly adhere to Him and enter the King’s palace…” Meaning all the types of connections to the Creator. Rav reads: “not everyone is admitted…” Seemingly, not everyone is allowed. We have this sensation, some more, some less; not everyone is as Moses or Rabbi Shimon.
Rav reads: “Rather, he is tested: If he has no other desires but only a desire for Dvekut [adhesion], he is admitted…” Meaning that only with a strong desire to be adhered to the Creator. We have learned that to be in adhesion we have to develop and reveal those same qualities in us because adhesion is called equivalence of form between man and the Creator so we can only progress in such a manner. Rav reads: “And how is one tested if he has only one desire?” A person is tested if he has no other desire but only to resemble the Creator all the time, all the way, in every state. Rav reads: “He is given disturbances. This means that he is sent foreign thoughts and foreign messengers to obstruct him so he would leave this path and follow the path of all the people…” Land is desire. In all his desires, man will see that he has problems and he needs to engage in those problems and give them attention in thoughts and forces. A person is tested if he can overcome all of these disturbances and be only in one thought and be adhered to the Creator.
Rav reads: “If one overcomes all the difficulties and breaks all the bars that block him, and little things cannot push him away, the Creator sends him great Klipot [shells/peels] and chariots to deflect one from entering into Dvekut with the Creator alone, and with nothing else.” Just like how we teach the child to walk. We place him before us and we move back, we give him this disturbance and he starts crying and he doesn't know how to take a step forward. Maybe we then slowly move his legs. We give him an opportunity to progress, to understand what is desired of him, in such a manner. In any case, these states are seemingly very unpleasant because it appears to the child as though we're leaving him. It is not a game, it is not good.
Rav reads: “And how is one tested if he has only one desire? He is given disturbances. This means that he is sent foreign thoughts and foreign messengers to obstruct him so he would leave this path and follow the path of all the people…” This is about desire, how he will spread himself out of everything. Rav reads: “If one overcomes all the difficulties and breaks all the bars that block him, and little things cannot push him away, the Creator sends him great Klipot [shells/peels] and chariots to deflect one from entering into Dvekut with the Creator alone, and with nothing else…” The main thing is that all of our disturbances are disturbances so that we will not be adhered to the Creator and this comes to us intentionally from the Creator Himself. Nothing else.
Rav reads: “This is considered that the Creator is rejecting him with a mighty hand. If the Creator does not show a mighty hand, it will be hard to push him away since he has a strong desire to adhere only to the Creator and to nothing else…” Since he has a strong desire to adhere only to the Creator, to nothing else. We need to work on this so that we increase our desire and adhere to the Creator and nothing else. Only by the group. We have two things: the Creator and the group. We can’t turn to the Creator directly, we prepare ourselves and turn to Him in the group and demand of Him. The main thing is that a group must influence a person. In this stage, the main thing is that we need to reach a desire to adhere to the Creator and the realization of this desire is possible only on the condition that we are in the group and we build the center of the group where all our thoughts and desires will be connected in such a manner that we are ready only to reveal Him in order to be adhered to Him. Rav reads: “But when the Creator wants to reject one whose desire is not so strong, He pushes him away with a small thing. By giving him a great desire for corporeality, he already leaves the holy work entirely, and there is no need to repel him with a mighty hand…” It isn’t that he just leaves, but he is given even greater disturbances and problems.
Rav reads: “Yet, when one overcomes all the hardships and the disturbances, one is not easily repelled, but with a mighty hand. And if one overcomes even the mighty hand and does not want to move from the place of Kedusha [holiness] whatsoever…” From the Creator, from bestowal, from love, through all the friends in the entire world, ‘from love of the created beings to love of the Creator’, he makes the effort to concentrate on all that he understands and feels and studies that pertains to adhesion with the Creator. Rav reads: “Yet, when one overcomes all the hardships and the disturbances, one is not easily repelled, but with a mighty hand. And if one overcomes even the mighty hand and does not want to move from the place of Kedusha [holiness] whatsoever, but wants to adhere specifically to Him in truth, and sees that he is repelled, then one says that fury is poured out on him. Otherwise, he would be allowed inside. But because fury is poured out on him by the Creator, he is not admitted into the King’s palace to adhere to Him…” A person understands that this fury, this disturbance, comes from the Creator. Rav reads: “He is not admitted into the King’s palace to adhere to Him…” Because this is the Creator’s desire, to give him more disturbances. It is not that the Creator does not want him, rather he wants him to come nearer to him in a higher degree. Rav reads: “It follows that before one wants to move from one’s place, and breaks in and wants to enter, it cannot be said that he feels that fury is poured out on him. Rather, after all the rejections that he is rejected, and he does not move from his place…” Meaning he is persistent and it is urgent that he enters adhesion with the Creator. Rav reads: “meaning when the mighty hand and the fury poured out have already been revealed upon him…” Meaning he lets go of everything. Rav reads: “then “I will be King over you” comes true…” If nothing stops him and he nonetheless advances. This is the border where he enters the King’s palace. Rav reads: “This is so because only through bursting and great efforts does the kingdom of heaven become revealed to him, and he is rewarded with entering the King’s palace.”
4. S. (01:30:38) You once said that we do not search for the Creator but that we need to study His purpose in creation.
R. I meant that we do not search for the Creator in a scientific manner but in an emotional manner. Emotional means according to equivalence of form, that we want to attain qualities of bestowal, love, and connection like the Creator, and in these qualities, we attain the Creator. We're not going like scientists to reveal the Creator through the laws of nature. That will give us nothing.
5. S. (01:31:32) With all the forces that a person invests he nevertheless does move from the place where his only desire is to adhere to the Creator, but he understands that it is the Creator who is doing all of this to him. What is this moment that a person struggles to stand in one place?
R. This is a measure of the extent of the revelation of the Creator to man. A person begins to feel that everything that occurs to him is the Creator. This is done gradually through the friends, through the group, through the study, and through participation in all sorts of activities and interactions together he begins to perceive all sorts of illuminations of light from the Creator through these types of connections. He begins to feel and understand that all this comes from one source. Years after many falls, descendants, and all sorts of problems that are revealed, he begins to feel this fury being poured out like it is written here, with a mighty hand. A person begins to feel and understand that everything comes to him only from the Creator and There is None Else Besides Him, even the millions of people are around him that seemingly have no connection to the upper force. All the different things occurring to him, all of this comes from the Creator. He does this because he belongs to the group and in the group, he makes the effort to see the entire group as one. Gradually, by the light that reforms that comes to him through the group, he begins to build inside himself an attitude towards all of reality and the infinite phenomenon he identifies, that it all comes from one source. His work in the ten prepares him how to relate to all of creation and reality. The Creator is revealed to him by this. Meaning as much as we make an effort to accept the group as one thing, we accordingly learn and prepare our vessel to receive their reality as one reality. We progress in this way.
6. S. (01:35:55) Why do we use fury?
R. The Creator wants to bring a person truly near to Him, He needs to operate through all the evil inclinations in man. So He gives man all sorts of disturbances in smaller degrees or greater degrees. The more we advance, the disturbances are greater, and thus we advance. There is nothing we can do, this is how He operates. As usual, like in school, or later on in college, university, or in life, the more we advance to greater states, we work stronger, we learn more, we learn more difficult things and so on, it is natural. That is how it is in spiritual degrees.
7. S. (01:37:29) Can a person differentiate between the disturbances that the Creator gives him with a mighty hand, and light - soft ones?
R. In the meantime, we can't exactly sort out the disturbances from the Creator according to degrees of thickness, coarseness, and screen and so on, we can’t, but there will come a time when we will be able to arrange them in such a manner.
S. Usually, we learned that every disturbance that comes from the Creator a person can overcome it, otherwise the disturbance would not come to him. But here, Baal HaSulam writes that the Creator gives disturbances through a yearning for corporeality.
R. This is intentional so you will know how much you can and how much you can’t. Nonetheless, you are in the hands of the Creator, you must overcome this - oppose it. That is how it occurs, it is natural in the study. The entire study comes from this, that you are explained some small article and afterwards, you must over sometimes, even until the end of your corporeal life and your spiritual life, keep this article and process it on higher and higher degrees.
S. Is there at least one disturbance that comes from the Creator that a person is not capable of overcoming?
R. Of course, because they want to make him stumble, make him fall. Or do you think you fell because you did not overcome, because you did not want to or something? That too is done by the Creator, all these things are done by the Creator. But what is important here is how much you participate in it. Ultimately, of course, everything will occur what the Creator decides ahead of time. He does not need to chill us, to confuse us. We need to show here how much we are capable, how much we want to be, despite this, in the intention to bestow.
8. S. (01:40:38) He writes here about him not having another desire but to adhere to the Creator, such a person is given to enter. What is the condition that you have no other desire, but adhesion?
R. I don't understand you. You are not a small child anymore that has a lot of desires and jumps from one desire to another - I want this, I want that, not this and not that. The more a person matures, he is immersed in desires, not many, he doesn't jump from one desire to another - he becomes more stable.
S. How can I depict to myself that there is but one desire towards the Creator? In practice, there are many desires that control me, so how should I build my focus that way?
R. You are still thrown from one desire to another, but ultimately, soon we will come to one desire - only adhesion with the Creator, more than this I do not want. All the rest of the things suddenly become not so important, they walk out on their own, I do not need to pay attention to them. That is how it occurs. Thus, does happens, it will come.
9. S. (01:42:30) Why is it difficult to connect all the disturbances that come with the fact that the Creator is the good that does good? Can it be given only above reason?
R. It is because you are not in the group in a strong manner. Because if you would look at the group, you would see that they are successful. Then, by envy, lust, and honor, you would be very envious of them, and you would also succeed.
10. S. (01:43:57) Which vessels does the Creator use to perform disturbances? How is the strong arm expressed?
R. A mighty hand is not for weak people, rather as much as, as it is written ‘’one who is bigger than his friend his inclination is bigger,’’ does the Creator awaken greater desires, corporeal ones, and whatnot, conditions, corporeal condition, such that we begin to get confused, we begin to sway off the path. I see that I am right and justify that I do not love the friends, that I do not want to be with them, and rightly so, that they are like this, they are like that, that it is not really worth being with them, and so on. In short, the mighty hand is revealed more and more, but in strong people. Meaning, the mighty hand, let's say this, after we have the first connection in the ten, but it is not simple. I don't think our tens are truly in this, but after we reveal the connection between us in the tens. In that same ten that has reached such a correct mutual connection between the friends, what already occurs after this, you can call this - let's say, a mighty hand. Because then, they begin to reveal that they separate from between them by the disturbances. This is called the mighty hand, that the Creator is doing this to them.
11. S. (01:46:22) How can the ten help a person resist the Klipot [shells] and these challenges?
R. By this, they hold everyone. The entire ten must be as one man in one heart, and not let anyone run away, and to respect each and every friend, that they have a place in the ten is a very great thing, and everyone loves and respects him, and expects of him to also love everyone. Here, we must take into account that who is larger than his friend, has a larger inclination. Here the disturbances are according to how big the person is, to how big his soul must be in the end, such in the middle of the path, it is heavy in coarseness. So this coarseness, when it will be corrected, will be accordingly against this in contrast and great refinement. The coarseness turns into refinement by the light that reforms. It turns out, all who he is greater than his friend in spiritual attainment, then his inclination is bigger than him, meaning in his evil inclination. But this, he will be able by restriction, reflected light, to turn it to good.
12. S. (01:48:15) What does it mean that a person has both the desire for the Creator and other desires simultaneously?
R. This is what we have, all sorts of desires that pass-through man’s heart, all sorts of thoughts go through his mind. He must sort everything out, first of all, connected to one source, that they come from the Creator - this is the first action. By this action that he ties it to the Creator, even if he doesn't truly feel it, by this action he already promises himself that usually he will solve the problem in the correct manner, because he is already directed to the Creator and directed through the group. Then, as much as he will try after this to scrutinize the problem itself, accordingly he will determine his place in the group and in the Creator. If that not truly in revelation, then at least in progress towards revelation.
13. S. (01:49:40) Day by day, I reveal how much my desire is small and weak, and even in lowly things I can be repulsed from the work. Do I have a chance to enter the King's palace?
R. First of all, each of us has a chance, not just a chance, but in each and every created being there is a place in the King's palace, there is a room for each and every one of us. Even if you want to run from it, you will not be able to. But as much as you do not want, it will be another blow and they will want. This is why we have no choice, we must advance and discover it as soon as possible, our place in the King's palace. Only as a ten we are allowed to enter the King's palace. It's not that it needs to be ten, but the group, not alone. Alone it is prohibited to enter. The King's palace is already called Atzilut, also before that in Beria it already starts to be the matter, but mostly it is in Atzilut. Women usually have two things. On one hand, they have certain persistence nevertheless, because a woman naturally is capable of tolerating more, much more than a man. Therefore, she is more stable on the path, on one hand. On the other hand, nevertheless, as it is written ‘woman’s reason is light’ since they do not want to deepen in the essence of the connection between creatures, and then from the creatures to the Creator. Rather, they let it be with a certain light way of looking at things - I understand these things. For the time being, we need to advance as much as we can, but we need, nevertheless, to feel, to understand that we all belong to one system.
14. S. (01:52:11) Is it up to us to see every disturbance as a unique worry from the Creator towards us? How can we help one another to relate to the mighty hand of the Creator on us?
R. We don't reach the mighty hand yet, that is why I do not want to talk about it. When we get there, then you will see what it is. The main thing is to connect between us. The main thing is to connect between us, and from between us to the Creator. What does it mean from between us to the Creator, why is there this connection from the love of the created beings to the love of the Creator? Because in the connection between us we reveal that condition, that place where we can locate Him, those conditions where the Creator is revealed. If we will not have several people that are willing to give up something for each other, that are willing to connect to one another upon all of the disturbances, after all, the main thing is adhesion to the Creator and what is taking into account is the place for the revelation of the Creator, the center of our connection where we expect Him to be revealed and is revealed. If we work on that place on the center of the ten, then He is revealed. That is, our work needs to be on that - how to connect between us and to create a place for the revelation of the Creator. Then, towards that place we need to try to constantly be, despite the rejection that we will feel with a mighty arm and poured fury, He shall reign over us. Meaning, if you want to discover that the Creator is the king and that He is the one who is in control, then it is in such a way that He rejects and rejects us to the point where you want. When you want, you can enter into Dvekut [adhesion].
15. S. (01:54:41) How must a person put out with corporeal disturbances the Creator gives him?
R. A person needs to solve them with necessity when it comes to corporeal matters. We have no choice, we are living in this world as well. But it is not that he can differentiate between corporeal and spiritual problems, they all come from the same source. Therefore, we need to try both this and that to solve.
16. S. (01:56:00) I want to ask about fury. I understand that it is a high degree for us at the moment?
R. All those things are revealed in the connection between a person and the society. It's not that personally the Creator rejects a person. The Creator rejects him from the environment, from the model, from that mold that a person must be in in order to reveal the Creator. If you are just alone, that is not enough. Just understand that here along the way there is a system, and you must incorporate in this system in order to be connected to the Creator. Just like now we are connecting through some certain system, which we call it - no matter what, and through it you are being related to. That is how it is in nature. It comes to us from above that way, from the structure of Adam HaRishon. That is why we are not talking about one person, but rather about the essence of his connection in the society, only by this a person is judged as Rabah writes there, and we need to see ourselves that way.
S. That is clear. I am not asking about myself, but rather what is in the article I'm trying to understand regarding the fury, it seems like anger. Why does a person feel that the Creator is angry at him, what is the anger about?
R. The person is angry at the Creator, the Creator is angry at the person, that is all relative to a person, that is how he feels due to his lack of understanding of the Upper Providence.
17. S. (01:58:02) In the beginning of the article it is written there is no coercion in spirituality. Afterwards, it is written that the Creator operates with a mighty hand and fury is poured out. How to understand?
R. Not a person says, ‘I want.’ He is not brought closer, he is not drawn closer, he is not done anything with. But for him to want, there are all kinds of drills here, because through that he is only in the will to receive. Therefore, he can be operated upon through the will to receive only. It is not considered that a person is left. No, on the contrary. If he is only in the will to receive, through the will to receive the Creator manages him, influences him, bestows upon him. It is not that a person is not cared for. He is cared for in a great way.
18. S. (01:59:18) If we find ourselves in a state of confusion from the great corporal desires that the Creator has given us, how can we best integrate in the ten to use this state for everyone's advancement?
R. We need to search for the ten, Rabash writes about this, to incorporate in it, to examine oneself there. Close your eyes and truly jump all the way to the end, to completely nullify oneself, to try to nullify oneself completely, and to see whether one is capable or not. If you are not, then check why I am capable, why not, yes - no, and so on. All of our preparation towards the revelation of the Creator, towards contact with the Creator, is by us entering the ten and simply disappearing there, dissolving there.
19. S. (02:00:37) Is it correct to say that the fury of the Creator is the revelation of the hate between friends in the ten?
R. That you will reveal on your own, I don't want to explain that to you. If we come to such things, then you will see what it is.
20. S. (02:01:18) Did I understand correctly that all these disturbances, lust for corporeality, are meant for us to reach the mighty hand through some extent of Arvut [mutual guarantee]?
R. Yes, but eventually, of course. Because this mutual connection that we attain by the Arvut points to the vessel that we corrected. Then, in accordance with the equivalence of form to the extent of correction, the Creator is revealed in this correction.
21. S. (02:02:16) If the Kabbalist feels the Creator as only good, and the regular person doesn't feel the Creator at all, then who is this talking to that feels the Creator as angry, as furious?
R. Probably, the one who wrote was conscious of this.
22. R. (02:03:37) All together, what is written here, we talked about in many articles in many ways. This is actually what we are all asking about - why does the Creator reject, why don’t I reveal, what is going on, and so on. It is surrounding one matter that we always have these scrutinies - what is missing in us for the Creator to be revealed, and to accompany us in a revealed manner. So we never come in a revealed egoistic way, rather if we annul ourselves towards one another, and in that place of annulment between us, we discover the willingness to follow the Creator. Then, from that place of annulment, meaning what we call the center of the group, we can be connected to Him and advance that way.
23. S. (02:04:33) If these disturbances work for the Creator, does he check if we are truly working for Him, like we work for Him in connection between us?
R. Again.
S. If dissemination is work for the Creator, does the Creator also check us if we are truly working for Him in dissemination, like in the connection between us?
R. Yes and no. The main thing is the connection between us, and dissemination is the second place. But we can sometimes have different times where the main thing is dissemination, and the connection between us seemingly drops in importance. So I cannot tell what is more or less. Certainly the connection between us is always the most important, but dissemination relative to it can also be something that rises in importance.
24. R. (02:07:00) The main thing is to connect, because everything that is written here, with the strong arm and poured fury, is the Creator giving us a resistance to the connection between us, and then to the connection with Him, and we need to overcome that. We have no other work in our life, in all of our reality, except for this work - to overcome the mighty arm of the Creator that does not let us come close, and we nevertheless do want to come closer.