Morning Lesson November 08, 2023
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation, which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 1. Part 1. Inner Observation. Chapter 4. #18
Reading #18 “The Whole of Reality is Contained in Ein Sof..” Twice
1. S. (08:01) A question in the matter of innovation. We know that there's a rule in the Kabbalah that we don't engage in His Essence, in Atzmuto, we don't deal with anything that has to do with Atzmuto.
R. Yes.
S. That's outside of our range, of our field, but these things that we just read right now they're still engaged in the Creator Himself that He has a certain innovation and it's like He created something that didn't exist before it, a quality that isn't in the Creator.
R. Yes,
S. What Innovation is it towards the created beings?
R. It's an innovation towards the created beings, the light that expands from the Creator has an innovation, yes. What isn't is in the Creator himself.
S. Meaning only towards the created beings there's an innovation. As far as the Creator there's nothing new.
R. Right.
2. S. (09:21) Can you explain what's written in the end of this, the last two sentences?
(Reader): He’s asking about ‘her legs descend to death’. “This is the meaning of the verse, her legs descend to death. Her legs indicate the end of something. He says that in the end death cascades from the legs of Malchut, the desire to enjoy that exists in the expansion of His Light to the Sitra Achra to those that feed off her and follow her”.
R. Yes, so?
S. What is this? What is written here?
R. Her legs descend to death means that the will to receive gradually from the height that comes from Ein Sof and cascades until it becomes the will to receive in order to receive and that quality becomes death. Meaning, it turns off the light, it distances itself from the light and in this way she causes death. That is called descent to death. He writes, this is the meaning of the verse her legs descend to death. Her legs indicate the end of something, its Malchut, the desire to enjoy that exists from the expansion of His light to the Sitra Achra and to those that feed off of her and follow her, meaning that whoever is in the Sitra Achra enters death.
3. S. (11:44) Existence from absence is the desire to receive right?
R. Right.
S. In the end of correction is it supposed to be canceled that we come to existence from existence?
R. No, the will to receive remains the will to receive. We're only speaking about its connection to the Creator and the created being, that's the correction. The Creator created the will to receive, the Creator towards us is the will to bestow and He created the will to receive to have an ability to receive from the Creator.
4. S. (12:38) These words that are written, it started being darker than the upper light and then it becomes darkness and finally it becomes the cause for death of the wicked. What is that?
R. It's a gradual distancing of the will to receive from the Creator that first isn't felt almost isn't felt at all, and afterwards more and more and more it gets darker and accumulates forces to be more and more for its own self until it disconnects completely from the Creator, that part, and becomes a place of death.
5. S. (13:32) He writes about the Creator of light and the maker of light. Why does he call the darkness a lack, likewise is called creation?
R. It's darkness because the darkness is the new creation that wasn't there before.
S. If there's light doesn't the dark exist inevitably?
R. In that light there is a foundation, a seed for the future darkness that will be revealed.
S. What is the addition of the Sitra Achra on the feeling of lack of light?
R. The lack of light, the Sitra Achra side actually adds the reason for the darkness being revealed, that it's all after her.
6. S. (14:46) We always say that creation is in the Creator, and creation is also a quality that is differentiated from the Creator. When He created the light he created a quality that was different to Him but we're inside of Him, so why are we saying He didn't change?
R. I don't understand your geometry, what does it mean He doesn't exist inside of Him?
S. The Creator created something on the outside there's the only the Creator and the created being is in the Creator, it's a quality that changed in Him?
R. No, we don't talk that way, you can get confused that way.
S. How to understand that creation can be completely separated from the Creator if there's nothing but the Creator?
R. Because the created beings have the opposite quality, in that quality it's completely differentiated from the Creator.
S. We still are in Him somehow?
R. Stop being a philosopher, you're being given precise definitions. There's no connection between the Creator and the created beings if the created being is a receiver and the Creator is the bestower.
7. S. (16:22) What's the difference between the Klipa and the Sitra Achra?
R. In truth there is no difference.
8. S. (16:40) About the connection between two parts of the lesson, the ascent and the descent, light and darkness. Is it completely parallel to one another?
R. Let's say that, yes.
S. Is there a discernment between Yetzira and Beria, is there a difference in ascending Yetzira and the descent is Beria?
R. No no, you can see why I didn't want to answer because this philosophy is drawing you to all kinds of things that are not realistic.
9. S. (17:38) When we say that we need to hold onto the Creator that means to serve the created beings?
R. Yes.
10. S. (17:56) What does it mean that the Klipa and the Sitra Achra and the wicked cascade and emerge because of it? Why does it emerge because of this cascading because there's already a creation, so the creation is actually the cause of this cascading?
R. Because they have a desire to receive and the root of life is the desire to bestow light, hence they are cut off from the light.
S. Actually creation is the cause of this cascading?
R. Yes, creation is the beginning of the distancing between the created beings and the Creator. That's why it's called Beria, a part from one degree to another.
S. We avoid this cascading or can we use it and how do we use it correctly?
R. No, because this is all done from above there are no created beings yet, this is still the cascading of the roots of creation that is not creation itself on its own, but rather it's just cascading from its upper root downwards.
S. How can we discover this cascading?
R. There's no one there to reveal it yet. It needs to cascade and be revealed in the end and then there will be someone who can reveal how opposite it is from its root.
11. S. (20:41) The initial state where we discovered this cascading from above is that we're fed and drawn after the Sitra Achra from below upward?
R. Yes.
12. S. (21:01) All the definitions we’re learning about here, it all relates to the way that the created being senses reality, Creator, created being, light and dark it's all about reality?
R. Correct, yes.
13. S. (21:25) If existence from absence comes from the same root but it's not a new creation, so there's light and darkness. How can you understand that it is the one unique and unified?
R. As we appeal to the upper root when we discover the upper root, along the way we need to change according to the upper root and we discover that He is one unique and unified, that all the differences then disappear and everything returns to being the source of the upper light, only.
14. S. (22:42) In this item Baal HaSulam emphasizes that the darkness and all the unpleasant things are not in the light, that He creates the darkness it's existence from absence something that isn't in Him. Why is that important to be so precise that all the darkness and unpleasant things are not in the light but He creates it outside of Him?
R. Because to us light is the source of light, the source of creation and it is completely light and completely good, and we don't want to emphasize that there is some root to darkness.
S. We have a lot of darkness in our life.
R. What are you telling us about life I don't know already. It's truly taking me outwards completely.
S. Where does it come from?
R. Our life does not belong to Ein Sof or to the light of Ein Sof or even to the darkness of Ein Sof, to nothing.
S. When it's written at the end of the cascading what causes that? That it's completely cut off from the root of life? Where are we compared to this?
R. I don't know, it's not written.
S. The death of the Sitra Achra, that's waiting for us above?
R. No, nothing bad awaits us above, so don't confuse me.
Reading item number 19 (24:40) “Because we are branches that extend from Ein Sof...” Twice
15. S. (32:55) There's something I don't understand from the beginning of our studies from number one, that it says that there's nothing in creation that isn't included in the light of Ein Sof meaning everything we feel is in Him on the other hand here we will learn that there are things that completely don't exist in the root so what does that mean?
R. Probably our root is not just like that Ein Sof there are other additions in the definition, we will see it soon.
S. We didn't learn that yet?
R. Not yet.
,
16. S. (33:46) What is our root?
R. Our root is the thought of creation to do good to his creations which created us, this thought, in a manner in which we eventually need to receive a very big will to receive in order to delight from all the filling that the Creator will fill us with, and this will be without any shadow of sorrow.
S. How do we rise to our root every time?
R. That's something we learn in the continuation, here we only have definitions.
17. S. (34:15) What's the importance of the disparity of form between the created being and the Creator and how does it affect creation?
R. The disparity of form is actually good for us because it is how we begin to feel the distance between us and the Creator and creation and between everyone and then when we put forth efforts and forces and advance we acquire the qualities within which we become as one. Then in that we feel what it means that from opposite qualities, similar qualities can be and from distance connection can take place and from the forms of creation that are opposite, we can connect in such a way that we won't have any distance between us, eventually.
18. S. (36:46) There's a metaphor here from the Creator to the created being. Why did he separate us from Him with the will to receive?
R. Why did the Creator separate us?
S. There's a metaphor here, from the Creator to the created being, why did He separate us from Him with the will to receive?
R. To begin with, the Creator created us in the will to receive so that we will feel ourselves differentiated and distanced from Him. That's why I don't quite understand your question and our work, our problem is that we need to come closer against that separation to the Creator until we are incorporated and adhered to Him until we reach the end of our development.
19. S. (38:32) Is the root of each one's soul good?
R. The root of each and everyone's soul is different to one another and it's not good. Rather we need to correct it and reach a state in which we bring them to adhesion to the Creator and between us.
20. S. (39:14) To increase the actions that are in our root does that give Malchut forces?
R. Of course it does, yes.
21. S. (39:49) In the end he mentions the shame, does the shame exist only in the created being?
R. Shame exists only in the created being, in the one that receives.
S. But all created beings receive?
R. No, there are created beings that don't feel that they're receiving, there are created beings that feel and are not ashamed, but those that receive and feel ashamed, they are called created beings.
22. S. (40:33) And the allegory of the rich and the poor, why doesn't the rich teach the poor to be like Him and he won't feel that shame?
R. The rich man thinks that if he will give the poor man what he has, the poor man will be satisfied and the poor man may also thought so, but when he starts to receive from the rich man, all that the rich man gives him he discovers that it doesn't fill him. Because he receives it as a gift as charity, and there is no self-acquisition here, and therefore it does not fulfill him.
S. Does this mean that the rich won't feel that the poor will feel shame, meaning the Creator is bestowing on us and he doesn't see that we will feel shame?
R. We don't talk about the Creator, what He feels or He doesn't feel. We only talk about ourselves.
23. S. (42:08) Why is the force of shame felt the most in the will to receive?
R. Because this hurts his pride his ego, that's why when he feels shame it truly drives him crazy.
S. It's like fire right the feeling of shame?
R. Yes.
S. Sometimes love can cause shame but there are times, let's say I want to have in my biggest desire in life is to have power, I want power. If I'm lacking power I'm also feeling shame, but it's not shame and bestowal, so how to scrutinize the difference?
R. There’s shame for many reasons, but the shame where I just don't have the strength is not the shame that I need to receive and fill myself. It's not the shame that is revealed that I am receiving what I don’t deserve, it's a different shame.
24. S. (43:46) When ascending in spirituality the Creator wants to fill our will to receive, so is there a way to not feel shame?
R. If I do this I do this by receiving in order to bestow. To the extent that I received more in place of shame I feel pride, greatness.
25. S. (44:39) In this world and our reason we don't feel darkness we feel light, but the darkness is what helps us advance in spirituality is that right?
R. That's correct.
S. And faith is what moves us in the darkness to come closer to spirituality even more?
R. Yes.