Morning Lesson August 17, 2021 Transcription
Subtitle: The Absolute Good “To avoid tiring the readers with long discussions…”
1. R. (02:20) Only the desire to receive in each and every being obliges it to relate to the other, to each and every one outside of itself in order to benefit, to be rewarded and succeed at the expense of the other.
Reader continues: (02:36) “and if we sometimes find some being that harms another….”
2. R. (03:20) The desire to receive and all of creation obliges us to care seemingly only for ourselves just like they desire to receive decides and nothing outside of that.
3. S. (03:36) He explains to us that the will to receive is not because he wants to directly harm the other but because he wants to complete himself according to his nature?
R. Yes, only because he feels a deficiency inside of himself and from this he relates to others.
S. Why and where does the hate come from, why do we need to hate?
R. We are talking about the desire to receive and if the desire to receive comes to certain degrees in which it begins to feel the other and to feel that the other has something that he doesn't have, he starts to hate the other.
S. According to what you say there is an addition above Baal HaSulam’s explanation?
R. Everything is in the desire to receive. Baal HaSulam cannot bring you the whole explanation of the will to receive but it is the entire nature of Creation, with all of the qualities that we can discover or reveal in all of creation, is only the qualities of the will to receive.
4. S. (05:05) Can we say that the Creator plays no part in the harm that we do to each other?
R. That is a complex question. Are we really causing bad to one another? Who are we causing it to? Is it to the will to receive of the other or to the desire to bestow of the other? This question is unclear. Therefore we will wait with it.
5. S. (05:46) What does it mean that it is clear to us as the first concept?
R. That there is the absolute force of good and according to His nature it is that way and there are no questions about that, there are no questions related to Him. That is considered good and that is what there is in creation. There can be nothing bad from Him and nothing that will ever be bad that emerges from Him, only good. This is what we call the absolute good.
S. What is the expression of the first concept?
R. That is what we receive. If we want to think correctly about all of creation, about nature, about everything that takes place, we need to accept this initial condition, that there is a force that is absolute good and that it exists in nature and from it onwards we measure everything.
S. Is this an axiom?
R. Yes, certainly later we discover why He is good, who He is good to, why this way, and why we think it is good. All of these things will be clarified as we are in attainment.
Reader continues (07:34): Because it is clear to us the Creator is complete….”
6. R. (10:38) It is clear to us that this is deep, but what can we learn from this? The first thing is that the Creator is the absolute good that He created us. We have questions of how He created us in such a way, and so on. We will read about that. He has the desire to bestow only good things to his created beings. The question is whether we see all of creation or part of it or maybe we don't see correctly. The flaw is in us and not in creation itself. The axiom, the thing that we truly accept to start with, is that the Creator is good who does good and He never did, does, or will do anything in any possible way bad to anyone or to any of his created beings in His world, rather all is good that does good. We have many questions about this. Let us see what he wants to explain to us.
7. S. (12:14) Why did Baal HaSulam write that the heart agrees and not the mind?
R. According to our intellect, our mind, we cannot see it this way. According to our mind we see the world filled with suffering and according to our feelings we want it to be so. It's not that we feel that the whole world is good and the Creator is good, no. We don't see it that way but we want it to be that way. Whereas the intellect sees that everything is the opposite, that there is nothing good in the world.
8. S. (13:21) How did he get to the conclusion that whatever the will to receive wants, he finds in harming the other?
R. The desire to receive enjoys what fills itself and also when he sees what he has is more than what the others have, from the smallest possible things to the biggest possible things. This is called the desire to receive and by this he harms others when he himself places others in a way that he is more powerful and makes more, earns more, and is better off than the other. This is all in the will to receive. We feel this in ourselves.
S. Every will to receive is harming the other?
R. Every desire to receive operates this way. We just don't understand or feel this, but even in the smallest particles of the inanimate matter even there are the same tendencies, the same inclinations.
9. S. (15:01) I want to ask about this paragraph, ‘Furthermore, it makes perfect sense to us, as the first concept, that He possesses a desire to bestow goodness upon others, meaning to His creatures. This is evidently shown by the great creation that He has created and set before us’.
R. He created everything and gave the force of life, the vital force, to every creature to exist and develop. What happens later with all of the creatures, seemingly has nothing to do with the Creator but rather to the relation between the creatures, for each one wants to live at the expense of others. He will explain this soon.
Subtitle: (16:26) His Guidance is Purposeful Guidance
10. R. (18:22) Eventually when a person goes through all of these stages he goes through stages of development with difficulty, great clashes, and not very good states because the desire to receive that is revealed in him from the shattering, is a big, crude, and cruel desire because it is more shattered than others, and those people are very unpleasant. It is written about the Kabbalists that they do not have a very pleasant character, they are very harsh and difficult people, cruel and nasty. A person who corrects his nature reaches the opposite just like he says here, if the fruit at its beginning of its development is bitter and not good-looking or pretty then he tells it that it points to the fact that at the end of its progression it will be beautiful, soft and tasty.
Reader continues: (19:40) “And so it is with the animate and speaking types: ….”
11. R. (20:29) This is what we see with animals. The moment they come out of their mother they can exist and they don't quite need their mother. They can stand on their own and they can survive.
Reader continues: (20:53) “but a day old infant life seemingly senseless….”
12. R. (22:22) What is he trying to tell us? As we look at the development of the still, vegetative, and animal in nature, we mostly see it in the animal kingdom, where a newborn animal can get up on its feet and start wondering within a few hours. It can suck milk and grow, there are no problems whereas a human baby even a few months later doesn’t know anything, he can't do anything, he can't stand on his own. Everything has to be prepared for him. This is a great difference between the still, vegetative, and animate degrees to the speaking degrees. Why is it? According to the future development it has to come to. Compare a person with an animal. A calf that is born knows how to stand on its own legs and eat the very first day and will remain this way until the end of his days whereas the first few years of a human baby cannot do anything on his own but his intellect and feeling grows and transcends everyone.
We cannot understand or determine what a person will be according to his initial form. We only need to give him the possibility to develop and then we will see how these forms can grow to be completely opposite and vice versa. Don't make any decisions based upon what we see before us in the current state. This is why it says, ‘Who is a wise person? The one who sees the future’. Only under the condition that you see the end of the development of a certain creature can you determine who it is right now and in no other way. As we learned in the wisdom of Kabbalah ‘he was greater than his friend, his inclination is greater’ and so his development is challenging. If he is a great one and he might not even seem all that wise, he doesn't get along that well with the friends or society, with the studies, in general. Gradually and slowly over the course of twenty, thirty, or forty years he comes to a state where suddenly we see what a human came out of him. Don't look at a person and don't judge him according to his state rather according to what will be of him in the end.
13. S. (26:20) Why doesn't a person have the desire to adhere to the sages?
R. If the will to receive is great, a person doesn't quite agree with what he is being told, he is only capable of annulling before the great sages only a little bit and is constantly resisting and rebelling against the teachers and he cannot accept anything easily.
S. Is that proof that I'm in the same state of being unripe?
R. It is so you will subjugate yourself and accept it as you are being told without understanding what is going on. Your ego doesn't let you do this and you have to fight against your ego. They tell you that you can subjugate your ego only if you are in a group, but you don't want to be in a group and so on. Gradually over many years when you participate in the process you receive small portions of light and it brings you to the correct form.
14. S. (28:11) Why are scientists who study nature not bringing us to the Creator faster and nicer?
R. Scientists cannot discover the Creator because they investigate nature only through their intellect and we cannot grasp all of these phenomena in our intellect. See how confused we are in the modern world with everything that has happened to us in the environment, with human society, and nature. We cannot count on science for anything because after all the content of science comes from man's ego.
15. S. (29:08) What actually is the final form of man and how should we perceive him correctly?
R. One who resembles the Creator Domeh that is why he is called Adam.
S. To our eyes it all seems deceitful so how can I imagine resemblance to the Creator?
R. You don't have to imagine anything, you have to try to do what is written about you. You want to see the future? Only when you want to annul yourself, can you acquire the future forms.
S. How can the wise see what will arrive?
R. He is speaking of scientists, not Kabbalists. You cannot see what is coming. Only when you cancel yourself can you see your future that is becoming your present.
16. S. (30:15) Why is a person born in such a flawed state relative to animals?
R. Incorrect. Accordingly In all of the development in nature, as much as he is weak in his intellect, feelings, and his strength, he can develop quicker and not bigger but more tangibly and realistically, but it is all in order for him to receive its fulfillment. Not from inanimate nature but from his environment which is constantly developing from generation to generation. The calf that was born a hundred years ago and the calf that was born today is the same and will become the same cow as a hundred years ago but a child that was born a hundred years ago and one that is born today will be completely different. Children that will develop differently and reach different degrees. We cannot precisely determine how we will develop from a very young age. On the contrary, the more we advance, the more we will see our children less developed and advanced, possessing the ability to become but it is not like they are coming with the wisdom of the previous generation.
Reader continues (32:44): “It is about such matters that we say there is none so wise….”
17. S. (34:42) He said a person builds himself above others on his own and earlier you answered the question that if we feel we are bringing contentment to the Creator then….
R. I understand what you're saying, go over it again and it will be clear.
18. S. (35:27) There is something very pleasant and a feeling that there is something purposeful and the Creator that is good for He does good. If I go with that sensation, am I in the correct direction to put aside all the doubts and bad that there is around?
R. I don't think you can call me or down but this is a correct assumption.
S. Let's say in order to accept this article I have to go above my intellect and forget about it?
R. You can't forget about it, you have to accept this assumption that the Kabbalists say the purpose of creation is to do good to the creatures and in the end everybody comes to it. This is one thing and the next thing together with that you have to pay attention to your own states that come and change every moment. What does the Creator want you to discover about it, how to learn something from this.
19. S. (36:45) Why is purposeful guidance obliging or committing us to having gradual development?
R. Because you cannot swallow all of creation at once, you cannot. It turns out to what we attain there is only one person, one man in the world. We understand this but what do I need at the end of my development? I need to include the entire world in me, including all of the worlds which is my internal system of understanding and feeling and awareness that I have to do this gradually.
S. What does it mean I include the whole world in me?
R. Of course man is a small world, he includes inside everything, I can’t explain it and take it as a working assumption and gradually begin to know it.
20. S. (37:59) What does it mean that in a state which the heart refuses to accept it as an assumption that the Creator is good?
R. You will continue to learn and to do what the Kabbalists are advising and gradually you will understand what they meant and how it is taking place in you and how it is bringing you improved intellect and feelings, meaning your brain and your heart and you will feel all of creation. Of course, like now, you are like a small child that you can get up and cry, I don't want it, what will come out of this. For you this is good and you need to understand this is what you have on one hand and on the other using your intellect you should understand that there are more changes that have to come to you and then you will think as grown-ups. Just like little kids as compared to grown-ups, so are we. Let us not be quick to cancel creation and dismiss the wisdom of Kabbalah and everything that the Kabbalists are telling us, even though the heart disagrees, the head should help you tolerate and continue until you evolve sufficiently.
21. S. (39:36) If all of creation is moving to its final good state then all what we see around us is purposeful and we should just flow with humanity and not try to correct anything?
R. You are correct we can do nothing and of course we will also reach the goal in this way. There is an accelerated and more pleasant form of development as compared to the development of blows. Let us not develop medications and systems of communication between us, let's not do anything, let's live in caves or under the trees as we used to. Rather your life will obligate you to develop because the desire to receive doesn't want to suffer, so the question is good but there are no choices here. It is better if we add our intellect to our feelings and our feelings to our intellect and see how we can benefit ourselves and move towards a quick and good development.
22. S. (41:29) I hear you say 100 years ago a calf that was born is the same as one today and a baby that was born a hundred years ago is different from a baby that is born today, and the baby is much more developed today, why is it this way?
R. Because man has to develop and therefore in each and every generation there is a different person, whereas a calf does not need to develop and he practically remains the same and nothing changes about him through generations.
S. Meaning all of the animals, what will happen to all of reality after a man reaches the degree of speaking and everyone will remain the same in the still, vegetative and animal?
R. Yes, why not as only man, because he is connected to the still, vegetative and animal, what influenced them from his corrected degree with all of the good forces and then the wolf will dwell together with the lamb.
S. What is evolution in still, vegetative and animal?
R. These things we don't need to go too deep as we lack the vessels for it, everything is advancing according to the degrees of still, vegetative and animal but the main thing is the speaking degree. What you have on the still, vegetative and animal degrees is not real, it is inconsequential as everything depends upon man, under man's control, they changed because of man's control, they have no control. Their development is only to ensure that man comes out of them.
23. S. (43:51) Love of others is a means to reach the goal, does this mean that we need to take advantage of others to reach the Creator?
R. You cannot bestow to the Creator without the other, to the extent you bestow to the other you bestow to the Creator and this is the secret of the idea that behind the friend stands the Creator.
S. Does this mean I am exploiting the other?
R. You can say that because your goal is the Creator. Reluctantly you have to approach the other and work with him as if he is the Creator.
24. S. (44:56) It seems to me like how much I can cancel myself to the Creator and have faith above reason and that he is a good that does good. There something in my nature that won't let me be 100% surrendered and that is also to my advantage?
R. There is nothing about your nature that you decide on, everything decided on is determined by the Creator from above and it is all determined in order to bring you to the purpose of creation. Your purpose, your correct development, you should learn how to assist this process and reach it quickly and in the best possible way.
25. S. (46:11) The religious people are in their religions, are from enjoying it or from habit, so that is their second habit, so how to explain to them?
R. God forbid we do not touch any religious person, we don't enter any form of religion. I don't want to hear about it. If I see that anyone from Bnei Baruch is going to religious people to convince them of something, I will throw these people out from our system at that very moment, in the most brutal way possible as we have no connection to the religious people. We respect them, we don't want to select them or benefit them, nothing, simply zero. As if they do not exist in our field of vision, I do not understand where you got this thought.
S. Not to convince, simply more of the population of the world are religious people?
R. It doesn't matter, I'm not going to any religious person of any religion to talk to him about the wisdom of Kabbalah, he certainly can remain in his religion as long as it feels good for him, I wish him all the best.
S. How can he reach correction?
R. This is not my problem, you should accept this as a law, we do not touch or approach any religious person regardless of his religion or who or what he is. We publicize the wisdom of Kabbalah, anyone who wants to visit the website can study, but personally we do not approach any religious person and do not forget about that. Extremely important that's why you are destroying your own advancement and your own correction.
26. S. (49:09) What extent do we see our future as the present?
R. I don't know what to tell you as I don't want to see my future, no, why should I as I simply steal from my spiritual work to bestow with my eyes closed and put all of my stock in the Creator and ask for advancement from him and whatever he does this all for the good. That I do not belong to the future, I cover my eyes to not see it at all, it is a lack of faith as I won't be able to advance in spirituality this way. The fascination with the future, what will be in the future, this goes against the wisdom of Kabbalah completely. Here we follow faith and reason, you want knowledge of the future and this won't do any good. You will also reach the end of your life in this way in searching for all of his fortune tellers. I guess we won't be able to continue this article, God willing we will continue tomorrow. try to re-listen to the first half of the lesson, try to understand that there cannot be an ascent without a descent and we need to rejoice about both and to be happy during both to advance in this way and not to forget for a moment that all of our states coming from above and we need to only hold on to one another and to the Creator and in this way we will get through this stormy sea.