Morning Lesson July 8, 2021, Transcription

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

Baal HaSulam - Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #20

1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes in order for all of us to have more or less the same view and understanding the same approach to what we are learning we need to go through this introduction and several others so that we have this as an auxiliary material where general unity and enter into one group because the more we learn the same material it helps us get closer and become more connected together to bring your thoughts closer so it will influence our inner qualities, our desires and in this way eventually it helps us build one spiritual vessel. That's why it's worthwhile for us to continue with the intro to the Zohar. That's where we stopped and will continue from item 20.

Item 20 Zohar (1:34 - 7:26) twice “After all that we have said, we come to the resolution of our first inquiry: What is our essence?”

2. S. (7:45) The source of the corruptions we feel is from the system of holiness and impurity. What is the connection between the shattering of Adam HaRishon and the system of holiness and impurity?

R. Through the breaking the system of impurity was formed and opposite that, you can say that there existed holiness because you don't have one without the other.

3. S. (8:24) Even before the third state, if I have no doubt that I will reach it, and I'm in a state of absolutely no doubt that I come to it automatically?

R. How can we reach anything, if our whole existence is only to know, to recognize it to reveal with our strength so we will have no shame to reach equivalence of form.

S. I didn't understand if you get rid of the doubt?

R. When he says that it opens up to us that it is certain that we will reach the third state, it's because the Creator has enough tools and instruments to awaken us and bring us to the end of correction, so it's certain that we will get there. The question is in what way, how?

S. So get rid of the doubt is only the first state and then the Creator does the rest?

R. No.

S. I can rise another degree and I can do it but if I get rid of this doubt and though I didn't do it yet and no doubt, I can do it?

R. I don't understand what you are saying. We need to do everything we can to connect and to get closer between us and come to a corrected state and where we can't, we need to turn to the Creator to help us and then in this way we will be partners, and we will rise to the degree of correction.

4. S. (10:26) He says we didn't yet reach the third state and yet we lack time everywhere and doesn't hear anything since our third state is obligated by our first state it’s necessitated. What does it say to us that we are in the third state and yet we haven't reached it?

R. We haven't reached the third state, we don't even recognize that we are in the first state, we don't recognize that you are in a corrupted state because all of those states are interdependent and to the extent that you approach correction you discover how corrupt you are.

S. Why does he say that it is necessary to take it by the first state?

R. The end of the act is in the preliminary thought, we already learned it. But the third state actually stands as an example, and the Creator wants to realize this example on us and therefore seemingly because he didn't have a choice he keeps that third state, that perfect state and then we develop.

S. It says something but it does not blemish our essence?

R. Yes because it is certain that we are in the perfect state but what are we lacking in the perfect state is to know the whole process and discover our yearning for the corrected state for adhesion but basically, we're already there.

5. S. (12:31) What does it mean a soul clothed in the body?

R. A desire to bestow clothed in the will to receive, this is called a soul that is dressed in the body, the body is the will to receive and the soul is the desire to bestow.

S. How can they co-exist, it seems like they are from different worlds?

R. Correct very well said but that can be because the will to receive transcends itself and puts a restriction on itself and wants to work above itself in the opposite way to itself, and then it works in order to bestow it gets a force from above that helps it work in order to bestow and therefore according to its intention to bestow that the will to receive receives, by this it becomes and resembles the quality of bestowal of the upper one, of the upper light and that's why they can be together.

S. Can we say that the soul that is clothed in the body is the transition from the 2nd to the 3rd state?

R. Yes.

S. So the third state is complete when the soul clothes in the body 100%?

R. No. If we are saying that the will to receive dresses completely in the will to receive, this is already the final correction, the end of Correction. But we perform these corrections or more accurately, the upper force does it through our request, throughout the second state, second stage of correction throughout the 6000 years. When we discover how much we are not in this we ask and we do achieve it.

S. This quality to bestowal, the desire to bestow comes from above as something external or is the will to receive simply changes into that?

R. The desire to bestow is the Creator. A desire to bestow that can be in us is our will to receive which works as if it wants to bestow. It transcends itself and works in this way. It’s not that we have a desire to bestow. We never receive or feel what the desire to bestow is. It is power from above that dresses in the will to receive and we remain in the same material of the will to receive but it operates in the opposite manner to itself, through that influence of the upper light on it. And if the influence of the upper light on it stops it falls once more into the desire in order to receive.

6. S. (16:17) It says in the excerpt that there is doubt whether one will complete what needs to be completed in time. Do we have the time to reach the third state?

R. We must hurry, on our part. Then by this we can accelerate time and come to the corrected state even much sooner than was determined in the program of creation, in the plan of creation everything depends on us. If we, do it on time or even ahead of time, this is called hastening it. If we don't do it in time, then we suffer blows and pressures, suffering, problems, all kinds of pandemics shattering and that promotes us and moves us forward but we nevertheless are advancing toward correction.

7. S. (17:59) The second paragraph he says there is no time. He says, even though we have not yet reached the third state in actual fact we still need time and at the end of the last sentence it says, and one does not have time it is considered a deficiency why?

R. We feel that we are still behind. The feeling of being behind and being late, the feeling of corruption is a feeling that accompanies us throughout the time of being in an incomplete state. That is the feeling of lacking time or not making time.

8. S. (19:02) What does it mean that one that is about to be burned is considered to be burned and considered that he never existed?

R. That will receive in order to receive doesn't exist, it exists only in order to give us the feeling of our oppositeness from the Creator. But basically, in itself it does not exist, there is no reality of the shells, of the intention to receive, there is nothing that is against or opposite from the Creator but in order for the created beings to exist and attain the Creator. They have to because they are created beings, feel something opposite from the Creator. Because their feeling is built through two opposites and between the two, they feel they see themselves as existing, attaining understanding more or less. In order to give the created beings existence, the evil inclination was created the system of the shells, the worlds, degrees so that within that general system of holiness in the shells and the various forces. The will to receive will exist in it and will be improved and corrected in it and we'll come to a state where it is completely absolutely similar to the Creator. Besides deciding, wanting to be deciding, that we want to be like the Creator, identical to Him and adhere to Him, besides this we need nothing. After we decide this about all the conditions that the Creator reveals to us, that system becomes completely needless and then it disappears, it exists only in our awareness, until we come to the final resolution that in order to bestow adhesion with the Creator is the only thing that can exist.

9. S. (22:01) I understand what Baal HaSulam is saying but what I don't understand is the role of the protein body from the point of view of the soul, the will to receive that clothes in the soul, that clothes in the will to receive but what's the role of the protein body?

R. I don't know for now he hasn't written about it. Does it really exist? Or maybe we are only imagining it. We will sort it out. I am deliberately not going to insert words and definitions here, so as to give you a possibility to walk around with thoughts and to discuss and think individually and together. I think there is room for this here, you see he too doesn't really expound and explain.

Item 21 (23:33)

10. R. (24:16) In other words, to the extent that a person, throughout his life, gets knowledge, information, insight, distinctions, awareness, and views, the smarter he becomes, he becomes a philosopher who thinks that this is his position and with this he passes away.

Reader continues (24:46)

R. (25:01) In other words, this is what we acquire as intellectual luggage, so to speak, throughout life. It doesn't remain eternally because there is nothing in it that changes our essence.

Reader continues (25:23)

R. (25:41) That's all it is, the will to receive, and that desire is very very far from the common consensus as a special intellect that the philosophers imagine.

Reader continues (25:58)

R. (26:14) In other words, the will to receive that we are talking about, and even the desire to bestow that we are talking about, that we seemingly acquire, it is also not a desire to bestow but a form of the will to receive that has an intention to bestow clothed on it.

Reader continues (26:34)

Item 22 (29:01)

Item 23 (29:40)

11. R. (30:28) In other words, the will to receive operates in us in a way that it demands fillings from us, and the will to bestow that we received through the influence of the reforming light, these desires still work in such a way that they push us to receive the appropriate fillings in order to bestow or in order to receive. This is the whole difference between spirituality and corporeality. What is the difference? The difference is that the will to receive, when it is bare, as it is, when it works as it is, it is a will to receive, and from the perspective of spirituality, it is called a Klipot or shell, impurity. The will to bestow is the same will to receive which is closed in reflected light through the influence of the reforming light, and then it operates like a power of bestowal. But in truth, in itself, it is a force of reception. Except through the influence of the upper light it acquires a desire to bestow, an intention to bestow, and operates in this way. Therefore, the whole difference between the shell and holiness, spirituality and corporeality, is only in the intention.

12. S. (32:15) If everything was designed for me to feel the fulfillment but I don't feel it, then how to take it, how to receive it correctly?

R. You need to perform activities that will bring you to a state where you feel what state you are in, in reception or in bestowal? In reception, you know what it means to receive and to fill yourself, to satisfy yourself. Bestowal is still something you need to learn how to come to, and then you will feel what it is, what it means to be in bestowal, what it means to be a giver, and what you are filled with when you bestow. The filling in reception is in the will to receive, the filling in bestowal is when you are filled with what is called the upper light.

S. What is the first step a person needs to take in this direction you mentioned?

R. Only to work in order to bestow through the friends towards the Creator. If we perform all of our actions, as much as we can, then these actions are called Segula, a virtue, merit or power, and they bring us the power of bestowal. Then to the extent that this power of bestowal is established in us, in this way we begin to feel what is spirituality and what it means to bestow.

13. S. (34:24) What is the role of the mind?

R. The mind is like an assistant, it assists us in arranging our vessels, our relationships, but it can’t operate spiritually, only in a corporeal way, on the corporeal level, to arrange things for us, organize them. That’s it. The intellect is only an assistant, a corporeal assistant.

Item 24 (35:20)

14. R. (36:03) Pay attention, those who haven't understood. We’re not talking about the body, the biological body, the animate one, the animals. The body is the will to receive for oneself. This is what we are talking about and this is what we have to correct.

Reader continues (36:36)

R. (37:59) In other words, the will to receive is the will to receive and it remains to the extent that it acquires the intention to bestow. To the extent that it works according to the intention to bestow, our qualities change in it, our feelings change, and it begins to receive, it begins to operate like the desire to bestow and this is why it begins to know what bestowal is, what is the spiritual world, and who is the Creator. It all depends on the intention to bestow we acquire through our operations. The Creator is the will bestow, a desire to bestow and we can only acquire from Him, to receive from Him, the intention to bestow, to become similar to Him in this.

15. S. (39:01) At the end of item 24 it says the concepts it had inquired are its reward and not its essence. Why are concepts the reward and not bestowal?

R. Bestowal? No.

S. He writes the concepts are the reward?

R. Yes, to the extent that we receive, to the extent that we receive the powers, the ability and the qualities in order to bestow, they are all as a clothing over our will to receive which doesn't change. The will to receive remains the will to receive. We remain created beings but what we acquire over ourselves is called reflected light. In that clothing we begin to somehow resemble the Creator, and therefore in that clothing we begin to feel what bestowal means, what is the spiritual world, the higher state. That’s it, only. We remain desires to receive.

S. Then why the concepts? Why does he say that these are the rewards?

R. Where is it written what you are asking about?

S. The end of item 24, the last line, “the concepts it acquires…”

R. No, wait. It turns out that the remaining of the soul does not depend at all on the concepts it acquired, as philosophers say what we acquire intellectually remains with them forever and they think that to the extent that a person is smart by this he acquires his eternity. Rather its eternity is in its very essence only, meaning in the desire to bestow. This desire to bestow this is its essence and the concepts it acquired are its reward not its essence. Is this what you are asking about?

S. Yes, how come the reward is the concepts and not the will to bestow?

R. No, the desire to bestow that's what the soul acquires and that becomes its own. The reward means it is not the intellect that we have, it is not information, knowledge that philosophers acquire. It is the information that Kabbalists acquire, that in the will to bestow which they acquire, in that desire to bestow they already get spiritual discernments and this is their position. They become similar to the Creator. You're asking what's the difference between the essence and the information in the concepts?

S. No, because initially in the beginning of the paragraph it says that it is not what the philosophers think is the reward, it's the concepts and in the end, it says it is the reward, these concepts.

R. It's completely different concepts. The concepts of philosophers, what they think of it is the amount of knowledge that they stuff into themselves but they have nothing besides their philosophizing, whereas the concepts that we acquire is what we receive in the reflected light. To the extent that we become similar to the Creator and then we receive in that reflected light the essence of the Creator. Well, you can't say the essence, how should I put it? Views, thoughts of the Creator and so those are completely different concepts than the ones of the philosophers because we receive them according to the similarity, the equivalence of form with the Creator. Go ahead and ask, let's find words. I, myself, haven't talked about this or explained it.

16. S. (43:49) In the third state, the last one, why the essence of the will to receive doesn’t change?

R. The will to receive doesn’t change, it is the only thing we have. Everything else is positioned on top of it that we acquire to the extent that we want to be similar to the Creator. We only have the will to receive which the Creator created and the will to receive acquires on it, external forms of the desire to bestow, of bestowal. The will to receive itself doesn’t change. It can only be more or less through its four degrees and accordingly the will to bestow those rides over it can be more or less.

S. So everything that we change in the third state is the intention?

R. Correct, only the intention. The will to receive can only grow and grow and grow. This is how we grow. Accordingly, we need to put on it more and more of the intention to bestow. But when we work with the will to receive with the intention to bestow, here, we have special kind of work. We have here, an attainment, a feeling, a special reality. We ourselves are a desire to receive, opposite from the Creator and in our clothing to be in order to bestow, we become similar to Him and that oppositeness that exists in us between our nature, the will to receive, in our intention to bestow, these two forms are what gives us and enables us to obtain specifically the Creator because we attain Him through his opposite. We have no way to attain the Creator in any other way but only through its opposite. We need to think more and be more in our desires and thoughts and intentions. I get mixed up in this, make mistakes, forget and go back to it until our intellect also forces us to be more flexible inside and not to be like logs, but more flexible, to try to perhaps think and understand, organize ourselves, who are only a desire to receive so how can we bestow? How can we rise above ourselves? We need to work with ourselves here, yes.

17. S. (47:48) The concept that philosophers call a soul, what is it and in what role does it have in our lives?

R. The soul refers to the will to bestow, let's say, or the ability to bestow that clothes over our will to receive and formats our will to receive so that the will to receive also helps and in the same direction of bestowal that exists in the soul and then both work the will to receive and the intention to bestow they both work together. That's already the action of the soul. Ask more and we will find more words.

18. S. (49:09) In number 23, it says to bestow to the fullest. What does it mean “the fullest”? What is the fullest?

R. The essence of our soul is the will to receive, that's what the Creator created. The will to bestow is the Creator Himself. The will to receive is the creature, the created being. The created being acquires over his will to receive an external form of bestowal and that way he likens himself to the Creator. We are talking about through which actions we can take our will to receive and dress it with the form of bestowal called reflected light. That's the entire study of the wisdom of Kabbalah. To the extent that we have reflected light, the form of bestowal, we become similar to the Creator. To such an extent that we could become cleaved to the Creator and that’s our correction.

S. That's the fullest? That's what that means then?

R. That’s the meaning, yes.

19. S. (51:17) What is the action we do? Every friend? What do we do with the reflected light? How do we build the reflected light?

R. When I try from within my will to receive to bestow in some way to the other, then I begin to see that I am incapable of doing it and this pushes me to pray, to ask for the force of bestowal that I can receive from the Creator. Eventually after working in the group, in prayer, I receive such an opportunity and I begin to come to know the meaning of bestowal above the will to receive.

S. What is this operation that I can do? I have a ten, I see the friends, so some force comes to me during the lesson that gives me the ability to bestow upon them or the Creator?

R. Yes, if you wish to work towards one another in this way and then from you to the Creator, start to concentrate your intentions and in this way, you will reach a state where you discover that you have no other choice, you are not capable and then you will cry out to the Creator to give you such forces to connect you and give you the common strength to bestow. Then you will be as one man in one heart and you will have one force of bestowal and then this one force of bestowal according to its level, power, you will begin to discover the opposite force which is the Creator.

20. S. (53:38) There is this thing that (no audio)

R. A spiritual will to receive means that he wants to bestow. It is a will to receive that is egoistic, that acquired various corrections. What kind of corrections can it acquire? To the extent that the upper light shines on it awakens like the upper light to bestow and then it's considered he wants to bestow. Whether it inverts to the will to bestow, rather that will receive under the influence of the upper light wishes to be like the upper light, meaning wishes to present itself as a bestower. That’s it, that’s called “a clothing”, a garment.

21. S. (55:00) If I have acquired regular concepts, I get smarter. If I acquire the concepts of the wisdom of Kabbalah, I become a different creature. Is that correct?

R. Yes certainly.

S. What do I become? How can you describe it?

R. You have concepts of this world, philosophical concepts as we call them, and you have concepts perhaps from the spiritual world which come from your degree of adhesion in spirituality. By this you can receive only on the condition you have a new vessel, which is a vessel of bestowal. Then you can understand what are acts of bestowal, states of bestowal.

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Clip from TV Program "A New Life No 793"

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Cabalá MediaDerecho de autor 2003-2026 Benei Baruj ‘ Cabalá LaAm

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Derecho de autor 2003-2026 Benei Baruj ‘ Cabalá LaAm