Morning Lesson March 1, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Zohar for All. "Introduction of The Book of Zohar". The Fourteenth Commandment. #247
Reading the 14th commandment item #247 Twice. (00:10) “The fourteenth commandment is to keep the Sabbath day,..”
1. S. (10:05) It says here interestingly, that on the one hand we have to keep the Sabbath and not do any work and the second commandment is to connect that day to holiness. So on the one hand we don't do anything, on the other hand we do have to do something; connecting it to holiness. How to do this commandment of Shabbat correctly?
R. So first of all we're not speaking about a day in our world, we're not talking about actions that we are doing with the human body, but in these very intentions with which we operate this reality.
A second thing, what does it mean, are we doing things, are we acting or not acting in Shabbat? We are discovering the desire to receive with its intention in order to receive and we are bringing it to such actions that it turns in order to bestow, to undergo correction. This is number one.
Number two, that we ourselves cannot perform any action because we don't have any strength to be able to perform anything in nature: nature is the Creator. If we want to do something in nature, then we need to transition parts of the desire to receive to bestowal. And the main thing is the connection between us, between human beings, and in this lies all of our work. Which is why all of the works of the Sabbath and the Shabbat, are as we understand it in daily work, in our work to grow closer, our prayer to the Creator to help us and in such a way we correct.
All in all, just like the rest of the Torah that speaks about connection and corrections and closeness between people and our desires as they connect and correct, at the end we want to get to the system of Adam HaRishon, to be ‘as one man in one heart,’ and in essence this is our work and in Shabbat, in the Sabbath, Shabbat and rest. And that we will stop all the corrections and we don't perform any actions that relate to corrections, we don't perform anything that relates to corrections in action, but that we don't perform any actions that relate to corrections, in this we are correcting the Shabbat, correcting the Sabbath.
The work of the Shabbat, corrections of Shabbat is precisely that we are not performing any actions, any work of correction and in such a way we are correcting it. It is also not simple, we have to learn how to do that, what does it mean to do work on the Sabbath, and what does it mean resting on the Shabbat, and in such a way we will correct everything.
S. What does it mean that we are not making corrections on Sabbath?
R. We are doing corrections by us not doing corrections as we do throughout the week, we are doing corrections in a different way. This is why during Shabbat we don't do anything: we don't cook, we don't clean, we don't organize anything, we don't construct and more and more. There are 39 crafts and types of work we are not allowed to perform on the Sabbath, because by that we aren't correcting the Shabbat, we aren't doing the corrections and only during the Sabbath you are able to correct.
S. If I understand that on my level, this problem maybe doesn't exist but we are connecting with the friends, so on our level what conclusion can we take from this, that we don't do on Shabbat?
R. Do anything just to connect to one another, do everything just to connect to one another. These things are both allowed and blessed on the Shabbat.
2. S. (17:05) What is that level of connection between us that we can call Shabbat?
R. Us not performing any actions of correction, any labor, any work of correction. Rather only work, if you can say work, but only work on the connection between us. It's difficult for now to explain. We don't know what it is, spiritual work and what is, a spiritual transgression, so we will study this.
S. As it says here in item 247, that we have to connect the day until its holiness is worthy. What does it mean to link it, to connect the day with Kedusha?
R. The Sabbath needs to be entirely in bestowal, in Kedusha. Now we don't know what exactly it is in order to receive, in order to bestow, we just want to always rise and to be connected to bestowal; to connection in bestowal, the connection, the day of love, the day of bestowal. And if in the person some desires and intention of reception appear in a person, immediately we run away from them we do not connect with them.
3. S. (19:27) This effort to restrain yourself from working, to refrain from working: can we say that it's not to pay attention to the..
R. Yes because we don't actually correct anything but it's okay and possible to begin with that, it's okay to begin with this.
4. S. (20:00) Is keeping the Sabbath looking for equivalence of form with the Creator, if so how can we realize this Shabbat to attain equivalence of form with the friend and the ten?
R. If we take it upon ourselves to have relations between us which are only of love, of connection, of giving, and we don't want to engage in anything but that, it is considered that we are keeping the Sabbath day.
5. S. (21:00) To keep the Shabbat, we focus on connection and bestowal. What does it mean to say that, through wars and toils we sort out the holy spark, so we have that sorting out, so there's sort of work and toil there, the holy sparks. So what is then, there is a certain work to keep the Shabbat and it is to the Sitra Achra and we shouldn't relate it to the evil inclination, so what is the sorting out of the holy sparks of the Sitra Achra that's considered work: so what is this work?
R. I don't know how to get into this ocean of discussions and these precisions that we have in order to scrutinize such works, where what is allowed and prohibited and what we call keeping the Shabbat as it should be. We just need to know the principle, that just as we have actions of correction in each and every day during the week, so we have another day where it is forbidden for us to perform any corrections, but rather the corrections are specifically in that we don't do anything. If we will sit and do nothing it is considered that you are sanctifying the Sabbath. This is how it is, and we also need to realize that it has nothing to do with our time when we look at the clock, at the 24 hours in which we do not do anything.
And also what does it mean to do? Maybe what we understand is doing with our heads and our legs, with our mouth and our head and our brain, to all kinds of actions, that is not considered work. What we may think that it's not work and it's actually rest that actually will be work, so what's important is what are the principles in nature? What are the principles of spiritual nature so that if we activate them in a special way, it is considered that we are working with them and this is prohibited, and if we don't do it then it is allowed.
This is a big problem with the study we don't quite need it now, entirely not. But rather we simply learn now that just as we have commandments, necessary things to perform all kinds of actions, like actions of connection etc., so we also have one commandment: which is to keep that state which is called the Sabbath day.
6. S. (25:15) It says that we are to draw the Kedusha by the two commandments of remembering and keeping: how can we use it in our work in the ten?
R. Keep and remember, it is written about how we should relate to the works of the Sabbath. That too is something that we need to learn, what belongs to keep and what belongs to remember. We will learn these things bit by bit and we will touch upon this, there is no problem with that.
7. S. (26:25) Does the Sabbath have anything to do with the ascents and descents and if so, how?
R. Good, good question. There are ups and downs in Shabbat but they are not caused by man's work, rather by an external force but there are actually ups and downs.
8. S. (27:17) He writes when all the sortings are done, they were perfected and reached their purpose and then the Shabbat is sanctified: so what does it mean that they were perfected and reached their end?
R. Shabbat is called the final correction, that we reach a state where we clarify everything we have, everything, and then we reach a state of the final correction and that is called Shabbat. Meaning that we no longer need to correct anything, we go back to the corrected system of Adam HaRishon and that is it. So the end of the corrections, the end of the actions, the end of the work: that is called Shabbat.
S. He also writes that first all these sorts were done by the Emanator Himself, and after the perfection, what changes?
R. That the Creator or the upper force, nature itself, created the system in such a way that everything is organized through six days of corrections and the Shabbat is the seventh and to put everything in a cycle. And we then work accordingly, until the final correction, in the final correction of the six days of work, connect to the Shabbat and everything becomes one Shabbat, a state where nothing needs to be corrected but it is entirely the day of Shabbat: the day of rest for all of nature.
9. S. (29:35) When we say that each degree has a degree of Shabbat in itself,
It seems like on every degree there is Shabbat on its own. What does it mean?
R. In every degree, every six degrees, there is then a 7th degree called Shabbat. It's like the entire week. There are six work days and the seventh day is the day of rest and this is rooted in nature, even though we don't see these things in nature because we don't see how the still, vegetative and animate levels are connected to the work of man, but it is so. We will ultimately discover that all of nature, all of it works according to the cycle: six and then the seventh day.
S. My question is how to separate in a degree the six days and then the Shabbat? So can we say that Shabbat is in the degree of the upper abundance[...]
How can I separate the phase of Shabbat in the first 6 days in a degree. Can we say that Shabbat is the phase, which we feel the upper abundance in a degree, like an end state?
R. You can divide the Shabbat and the six days to the extent that there is light that shines on each and every day and then it gives us the possibility to correct all of the states between us from the state of Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and so forth, until we come to a state where there's nothing more to correct and where we stop and don't correct and put a limit to all of our corrections that is the seventh day, the day of Shabbat.
10. S. (33:10) Why when the light of wisdom is revealed in the vessels it's called the day of rest? A person still has the opportunity to expand his vessels of reception.
R. No, there is no more possibility to bestow more and expand more if we started correcting something then that package will end exactly at the seventh day.
S. But why is it called the day of rest? Why rest, because the light of wisdom is revealed and so there is work here. Why is it called rest?
R. It's rest because it is forbidden for us to scrutinize, our whole work is to scrutinize whether something can be used in order to bestow or not and the seventh day means that we reach a state where it is no longer possible to scrutinize with what else we can bestow and everything already appeared in the six days. When we finished the six days of work that means that we've reached the seventh day. That is how we will see the work that we are doing between us that there is a cycle in the corrections of the world and also in the entire world there are corrections taking place we will see that in the cycles of the Moon and the Sun and all the planets and everything that happens in nature on the still vegetative and animate levels and in the human levels there are all kinds of changes and we feel that we are going back to the same questions or the same states, all of that belongs to the regularity that stems from the sixth work days and the Sabbath. We will talk about that more and we will start discovering where within us there is a replica of the six spiritual days of work and the Sabbath, to the six kinds of work and thoughts and desires and so forth, versus the sabbath.
11. S. (35:58) The Shabbat is like the end of correction, is that how it is?
R. Shabbat is like the final correction of that degree in which we spent the weekdays.
S. And on this day the light of wisdom is revealed and we should connect to holiness? Does it mean here that we don't sort anything but our work is specifically to be above reason and to clothe the light of wisdom on us?
R. That is very correct.
12. S. (37:00) Is the 6th day the state where we reach bestowing in order to bestow?
R. The sixth day we come to it through all of the corrections that we are given based on our degree. Everyone is essentially in a different week and a different 6 days of work and towards the Shabbat we emphasize that it is a conclusion of our work.
13. S. (37:56) So on the day of Shabbat a person should delight and bless the Creator. Do I understand correctly that the search itself of where I can receive pleasures and bless the Creator meaning through connection between us, equivalence of form of the Creator, these are the possible actions and the sorting of why I can bless the Creator or receive it is forbidden to do on Shabbat. I just have to delay on equalizing our form through bestowal itself not through scrutinies if it's more or less?
R. Yes, true.
14. S. (38:55) We see in corporality that there are clear cycles according to the calendar and the year. In our inner states can we also see these cycles?
R. Yes and no we don't yet see the whole system so that we can say that we are in it in cycles but it will appear later on.
S. When can we say in the ten that this is a state called Sabbath in the ten?
R. If we get there we will feel it yes.
15. S. (39:44) Didn't we learn that Adam HaRishon before the sin only had NRN, is that correct? Before the shattering we only had NRN?
R. NRN of Beria and NRN of Atzilut, yes.
S. Because here it says that Adam HaRishon also had the light of Haya?
R. Yes.
S. What does it mean? Because then it is unclear why the shattering happened in the first place if he had the light of Haya?
R. But there are many interpretations to this: that he had that as an awakening, as an illumination from above and not what he himself attained.
S. So what's the addition here of what he does attain out of himself what is added here?
R. What is added in the final correction?
S. Yes at the end of correction.
R. In the final correction all of his vessels that he didn't have to begin with are added, it is said Adam HaRishon was born circumcised meaning he didn't have a will to receive in actual practical use therefore he didn't know what is good and bad and therefore couldn't discover the Creator in full and wholeness and his whole work was to undergo the sin from above and the desires to receive connected with it, the intentions in order to receive and so then his entire work was in having to do all the corrections from circumcision and then onwards. All the corrections in order to bestow. That is the work. Without going through all those stages of correction he would not correct his will to receive.
S. It is unclear how is it possible that he had the Mochin of Haya. That's what he said here then Adam HaRishon attains the Mochin of Haya in fullness and this is before the sin of the tree of knowledge, how could he obtain them if he didn't have these vessels?
R. But that depends on how much opens up to him, how much of it opens up because what a person is given that is what he sees and that is what he feels and attains.
S. Question about this: we know that there are 125 degrees from above downwards and we also step up from the degrees on the way up.
R. So let's say so, yes.
S. Here too there's a question that suddenly awakens if it's the same degrees, then what is the addition in the end of correction if we go all the way up if these are the same degrees?
R. Because we do it with our additional labor, we want it, we demand it and it's not that it just happens by itself.
16. S. (44:00) In the article in the commandment section it says that the first Sabbath is the day of rest when all the shells were separated and stuck in the great deep. What is stuck in the great deep?
R. That Sabbath is not just the end of correction it is also the beginning of correction because it is a cycle where you go back to the beginning point and then you start them but on the higher level on a different level you start the corrections again. This is what happens to us to from one Sabbath to another from week to week.
17. S. (45:07) The Sabbath which is the end of correction. How can we live this sabbath at the end of every week for example, do we just have to praise the Creator?
R. Yes, what we need to do on Sabbath is not just to praise the Creator; the Sabbath is also a kind of work where we differentiate between all the vessels that can be corrected in order to bestow and those that cannot be corrected in order to bestow. When we differentiate them throughout the 24 hours of the Sabbath or 25, if we separate between them and maintain these do not touch those, by that we isolate the concept of Sabbath, the correction that becomes the main thing that is most precious to us. And all the rest, we do not engage in that. We as if leave that to the Creator.
That is, it's not up to us. It's not up to us. There could be many other vessels, desires, thoughts, actions, intentions I do not know what. They do not appear and I do not touch them because it is not in my power to make the corrections. So our entire work is how much can we be in order to give in connection between us. We have to do it in the framework called the Sabbath and beyond that, it is not up to us not to do. There are many other forces and who knows what other states in nature that we do not correct and we're not supposed to correct. This is called the Creator will finish the work for me, the Creator will correct us.
18. S (47:56) This is there is a deficiency to pray a prayer to sanctify the Sabbath. Is there a prayer that we can pray to sanctify the sabbath?
R. There are many prayers that we say on Sabbath that Kabbalists composed deliberately because they are most suitable for the states we undergo in the Sabbath. We could read them. Also in Psalms, we see many such Psalms that discuss the Sabbath. A song for the Sabbath and soon and some other Psalms. The Sabbath there is a lot of material about it, because it is a state that concludes all of our corrections.
19. S (49:41) How will we know what are the states that are possible to correct and what are the states that are forbidden to correct?
R. What is given to me to connect to bestow to love? You can do that without any fear, however if you see that these things are difficult and require corrections and overcoming them there is probably more force of ego mingled in it and we do not do that on the Sabbath. Meaning the spiritual state that we call Sabbath, but this is not for us yet. We are only going to get confused with that. In short, in each and every state that we are drawn to connection do it. Each and every state that you have to scrutinize and not sure that you are going to make it or not, don't do it for now.
20. S (51:07) In our daily work in the ten, what is the state of the Sabbath? How do we reach it?
R. We have not reached it. When we decide that what we could do, that what we could have done is done and at the moment we have no more work to do, when it indicates that we have come to some sort of a conclusion then you can say that you came to the end of the week.