Morning Lesson February 11, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to The Book of Zohar. #22
1.Rav’s Introduction: Reading Item 21, Rav remarks: This is what the philosophers think.
Reader continues: “until the absence of the concepts…”
2. S. (04:44) What is this differentiation between the knowledge and the rest of the human desires?
R. Because knowledge is something we can acquire. Desires we get them already in two different ways, how we filled with knowledge and how do we get desires.
S. That's already the beginning of talking about spirituality?
R. He still talks about human development not spirituality yet but about human development, this is not so important for us right now.
Item 22 (5:28)
3. R. (5:58) In each and every person there is a different mixture between those three and also with respect to how much more he will be able to acquire the spiritual desire.
Item 23 (6:18) Twice
4. S. (8:03) He talks here about the clothing of the soul and the body, he is truly relating to the soul like a certain object, like something, what is the meaning here?
R. It means that the desire is filled with a certain portion of the upper light and according to how the light dresses in it starts to operate.
S. What is has he said here about, “after he clothes the body of a person?”
R. The human body is our desire rather what your flesh?
S. When he says that this soul clothes meaning it is the reflected light that then receives direct light is that what he means is this what we're learning? Or is there some other intention here?
R. There are no intentions there is nothing, it is just that the upper light that dresses in the vessels of the person, which is on the condition that the person is able to attain to achieve these vessels then the person start to attain the upper light that dresses in him and accordingly he starts to change. For the time being this is how it is.
5. S. (9:25) We learn the introduction to the Book of Zohar and what experience do we need to take from this reading in order to approach the Zohar?
R. Baal HaSulam wrote introductions to the study of the ten sephirot the introduction to the Book of Zohar such introductions, and in them he expressed his approach to what he discovered. Certainly, it is not his it's what he discovered from the spiritual world, from the spiritual system, therefore those introductions are very important. They, in a concentrated manner, in a nice beautiful correct manner, give us the correct perspective on creation and therefore those introductions, we also learn then with Rabash a little bit, and there is great importance to them. The introduction is more important than what comes after the introduction in the book itself let us say. On the introduction to the Book of Zohar we can learn a lot more than what we can learn now in our state how much we can attain the Book of Zohar itself. Later on when we will rise on the spiritual degrees and we will be able to already be in attainment on the degrees on the book of Zohar that would be something else, but now for us the introduction is truly the entrance coming closer to those spiritual degrees about which The Book of Zohar itself speaks.
6. S. (11:31) How is this process of the study of internalizing different to the process of impregnation Ibur where the embryo sees the world from one end to the other?
R. I do not know because it depends on the person on the one who is studying whether he is in Ibur or not. This is unrelated to the study.
7. S. (12:13) How do we acquire and develop a desire to bring contentment to the Creator to the extent in which all of our thoughts and desires change in a person?
R. Again please?
S. How do we acquire or develop the deficiency to bring contentment to the Creator to the measure in which all of the thoughts and desires start to change in the same direction?
R. If we can change all of our intentions and desires to the same direction in order to attain the Creator and in order to give him contentment so that we don't want to attain him but only in order to give him contentment and first of all to give him contentment and in order to give contentment we also have to be on a certain degree of attainment, then we advance correctly.
Item 24 (13:14)
8. R. (15:36) What is he saying? That there is no relation between everything that we have right now in our bodies in our desires to spiritual discernments, rather the spiritual discernments come to us only when we are rewarded with a will to bestow and then in them we start to see to detect those phenomena, whereas the phenomena that we have right now are in the will to receive, and they are therefore not related at all besides the fact that gradually they do bring us to the intention to bestow, in the feeling of the forces to bestow which is spirituality already.
9. S. (16:38) Is there a bridge between the will to receive and the will to bestow, or they disconnected completely?
R. The will to receive and the will to bestow are the will to receive in the created being and the will to bestow in the Creator, however if the created being will get an intention of in order to bestow which is the opposite of the desire, meaning that he has to restrict desire and not to use it in the form of reception but rather that the Creator or others will be more important for him than himself, then one reaches a state where he can perform his actions with the intention to bestow either to others or to the Creator which is really the same and then in such a way he has equivalence of form with the Creator. As the created being wants to bestow even though he has within him the will to receive but through restriction screen and reflected light he makes himself into one who bestows to others, bestows to what is outside of him to people and through them to the Creator from the love of people to the love of the Creator as we call it and thus in this way, we advance and we enter from corporeality to spirituality that is our desire doesn't hinder us, what hinders us is the intention that resides over the desire.
S. How does such an action take place where the desire to receive performs some action of restriction and the screen and something that is lack of perfection this mortal thing as he writes it?
R. So again it all depends on the intention that rides over the desire. The intention is actually it makes of the desire something that is opposite. If earlier one was using the desire in order to receive, now he uses the desire in order to bestow. The desire itself is like a vessel or a tool you can use it this way or that way so then it all depends on how one turns that tool.
S. There's the desire to receive and the desire to bestow but there is also the intention. Where does the intention even stem from?
R. We to begin with are born in the desire only to receive for ourselves with the intention which is to our benefit seemingly as much as we understand it is to our benefit and afterwards through the means which are the ten the study, and mostly it is in order to awaken the reforming light, we reach an intention to use ourselves in order to bestow. Which means that we become a tool, or a leverage something by which I can bestow to others. Therefore the nature of our action is measured according to our intention, okay?
S. The intention is something that comes from the Creator?
R. Of course of course it comes from above, from us there is to begin with only the intention to benefit ourselves seemingly, it's to benefit within the framework of what we see, but the more we will receive the will be better for us but you see how the whole world is operating, but when we begin to draw upon ourselves the reforming light, then we begin more and more to understand that in truth the true action is not to draw to ourselves but to resemble the Creator which is the opposite of how we are right now. Therefore it turns out that what we need is to receive from above the upper light, so that it will invert the direction of our thought, the direction of our giving our desire everything so that we will want to live in others and not in ourselves so that whatever we have now, the will to receive, it truly puts us to death, it shuts us in inside of ourselves and we are operating to its benefit, and this is our enemy. And it exists inside of us within us in our heart in our brain, and as much as we through the ten and through our great worldwide group are capable of drawing the reforming light the upper force so that it will come to us and change our mind and emotions, then we will feel how much the true life exists outside of our beast and that we have to rise to truly rise above that beast.
S. I want to be more precise, so you do not get confused. There are three things we are talking about, the desire to receive, the desire to bestow, and my intention in order to bestow let us say and right now we're saying that if I'll be able to live inside the friends I will rise to my next state. Meaning if I try to live inside the friends where are we inside the intention inside a different dimension inside a different desire to bestow?
R. We exist now for the time being in our will to receive however we are organizing ourselves we are becoming organized so as to reach the intention to bestow, the intention, not the will to bestow, the intention to bestow, the will to bestow that's the Creator. We are the will to receive created beings but in order to reach equivalence of form with the Creator I need to acquire an intention to bestow with my will to receive so that I will work with it. This is how it needs to be.
10. S. (24:33) How is the development of science and philosophy in this immense number of theories that grow, how does that happen, how does that influence?
R. Those philosophies because they come out of human intellect, they cannot rise above human intellect above this world they are replaced, those fall and those come, and this is how it happens throughout human history and no benefit comes out of them besides the fact people become confused by them and therefore today we no longer respect philosophy, and we are not drawn to it. That is how it is. Who today takes into consideration someone who engages in philosophy? It's people who have nothing better to do because a person brings all of that out of his own mind so how can he philosophize later with all kinds of thoughts and desires and outcomes that he seemingly extracts out of his own mind, and his mind is not essentially higher than his will to receive he only thinks about how to fulfill himself and therefore the whole of philosophy cannot be any more than this world it doesn't help a person to feel to understand the essence of nature which is above this world. Therefore nowadays we completely, completely throw away philosophy and we cannot take into account the view of the philosophers. This is how it is.
S. Attainment altogether.
R. Philosophy is not a science philosophy is not a science because it has nothing that is concreate real because you cannot research it anything except with your intellect and therefore each one with his intellect builds for himself different philosophies. This is why there is no true research here it is only research inside of man's thoughts whatever he wants this is what he does. We need to think about it so that you will understand that philosophy is a lie because it comes from the desire and the thought in order to receive of the person that he doesn't change in his essence but rather thinks in his head all kinds of things that seem to him as correct this way or correct that way and therefore we engaged in it over hundreds of years and a long time already we're not engaging in it because all of this philosophy nowadays it's already sounds like it's a bad word already philosophy. A philosopher that is what we call a person, meaning that he engages and things that have no reality but rather only on the condition that you are able to realize, to implement what you think, then it is considered science. Therefore the wisdom of Kabbalah is also a wisdom, a science but it is for someone who can acquire its vessels and one who can't and doesn't he doesn't even understand how such a thing can be just like it is for us with you that now we are on the thin line between accepting the wisdom of Kabbalah that it exists, or it doesn't exist.
11. S. (29:26) In the end of twenty-four, last few sentences it says that eternity of the soul has nothing to do with what it has acquired, and its essence is, but in its essence, its eternity is in its very essence, and those same discernments it acquired is what it acquired and its reward not it is essence. What discernments does it get and why does it need a reward?
R. The will to receive that is the nature that the Creator created, this is the created being. This created being, if it can receive a force from the Creator the force of bestowal then it starts to work with its will to receive in order to bestow and what he attains in his will to receive in order to bestow, so that the will to receive does not become refined nothing happens to it but rather if the created beings is able to limit it himself and use his will to receive only on the condition that he has the intention to bestow then by that he begins to resemble the Creator be in equivalence of form with the Creator even though in his nature he's opposite the Creator but according to his intentions he is similar to The Creator. Then out of that he can understand and he can feel somewhat like the Creator in his will to receive which is the opposite but with the intention in order to bestow that he is similar and therefore everything depends on the intention this is how we rise from the degree of the created being the will to receive to the degree of the Creator the will to bestow, with the intention, more correctly, the intention to bestow. That is it.
12. S. (32:01) You said that the intention comes from the Creator, what is my part in the intention to serve the friends?
R. Your part is to draw from the Creator a force that will help you to be in the intention to bestow. That is all. This force you can receive it if you do whatever is in your power to do that you should do in connection with the friends and together with them drawing the reforming light. It that force that is called the reforming light brings you power to bestow a desire to bestow and then you work with your will to receive with the intention to bestow. That is it.
13. S. (33:30) Bal HaSulam writes that the body has perceptions of itself and my perception of reality is that I am actually really grasp the reality through my will to receive, that it's different from he's writing, that there's an essence and that comes from perceptions, so what's different to the perception that belongs to the body and that which we will experience when we belong to the soul?
R. I do not understand what you are mumbling, speak clearly.
S. What's the difference between the perception of reality that we have as we are ascribed to the body to the possessions and our belonging to the soul which has possessions of its own?
R. In the body it means in the will to receive we can only receive discernments that are in the will to receive for itself, and in the soul, this is considered that we already receive the intention of in order to bestow and in it we feel the spiritual reality.
S. What's the difference between this reality and that?
R. That this is in order to receive and that is in order to bestow.
14. S. (34:58) What's the connection between the corporeal beastly brain and the knowledge that we feel in it, and the will to receive and the knowledge in it, and the desire to bestow and its intellect or mind? Can you do some kind of order here?
R. There's no problem here, what are you getting all confused with? There is a will to receive that the Creator created, that will to receive can be in the intention to receive, or in the intention to bestow. The will to receive is the created being, it's the substance of the created being and that does not change, it never changes, because this is the created being itself, and it has in it a desire, a will to receive and an intention to receive that's how it is born, this is how it develops, up to 13 years, or up to 20 years, or 70 years, we will study these things soon. This is the will to receive which develops, and the will to receive is called the created being, and with its intention to receive, to enjoy, which is the opposite of the Creator, and there is an opportunity for that will to receive to acquire an intention in order to bestow, and by that he can feel the Creator, by that he can change himself and resemble the Creator. This is why here we are already talking about the creative being that rises from his degree, because he belongs to animate degree, to a degree where he belongs to the speaking degree. It is similar to The Creator, we are talking about this transition how do we shift, and that transition is done by changing the intention from in order to receive for oneself to the intention of to bestow, meaning to others. This is what we want to do.
S. We're talking about desire and intention, it is very clear, here there is no problem that we are talking about that, to explain and it’s being depicted, but when you start to talk about the concept and things that happen within this corporeal concept, and where is all that, where is it felt?
R. It is all according to the intention. It is all according to the intention. As it says here that the slave can be like its master. If you have intentions to bestow to others, then whatever you do with those intentions it is all in order to bestow, it is considered spiritual, and whatever you're doing with your natural intentions in order to receive it's called corporeal.
S. In the intention to receive or that experience that is called corporeal, where is that thing called concepts or opinions?
R. That's what you have in a regular person of this world.
S. When you replace the intention, where are those concepts felt? in some intellect or mind?
R. Some brain? I do not understand what you are getting all confused with.
S. By the connection between these experiences that are called concepts, the corporeal brain. It is felt in the will to receive right?
R. It is felt inside the will to receive, right.
S. In the will to receive there are some functions, some desire, for concepts for knowledge that gave birth to some kind of organ that is called the brain, right?
R. Incorrect
S. That connection if you could?
R. The will to receive, it does give birth to all kinds of means with which to fill itself, but those pertaining to the will to receive. If instead of the will to receive you have that same desire which is now working already in order to bestow, which is already aimed towards bestowing, then it feels itself in a different way, and it gets concepts in a new way. How can I through which actions, through which opportunities, how can I perform acts of bestowal?
S. So, it is also that knowledge that concept, desire working now in order to bestow, it also has a different organ?
R. It works according to the intention.
S. Does it have a kind of spiritual organ, like a spiritual brain?
R. Yes, in what it calculates spiritual actions that is considered as a spiritual brain.
S. Is that a kind of function, some kind of mechanism inside that?
R. Yes, it has Sefirot there, these are already Partzufim and Sefirot and Olamot, worlds, what it builds inside of itself, what it attains.
15. S. (41:10) What essence do I have in fact in the middle, between the will to receive, and on the way from the will to receive to the will to bestow. That is, if I receive in order to bestow that I create some new essence in the middle, in between the two.
R. I am really impressed by your confusion. Where is this coming from? We have the desire, desire, this desire works to start with in order to receive, like every degree animal, just say we look at animals we can say, how they operate, because in them it is all clear. Human beings are confused, because they built for themselves all kinds of systems, as if they were bestowing, as if they are giving, as if they are doing favors to one another, and it's never a benefit, never a favor, it's only incognito reception. So it is all dependent on the intention. That is what the wisdom of Kabbalah tells us that we need to correct our intentions, not the desires, and not the actions. Our desires remain the desire to receive.
The desire to bestow is the Creator. You were created, the desire to receive, only the intention in order to bestow can be in us as we acquire it from the Creator. We receive forces from the Creator and want to install upon our desires which are all to receive, the intention in order to bestow. When we acquire this force, it is called the upper light, and when it comes and clothes us, by that we invert, it's called we crossed the Machsom, the barrier, we invert from in order to receive to in order to bestow. You do not see this on a person on the outside, because we see a lot of people outside of us that are giving, and they are doing favors for one another, but their intention is to receive for themselves.
Otherwise, they would not be able to do anything, and those that can draw the reforming light, and draw it, by that which Rabash writes in his articles, which is by us gathering together as a group, and then evoke the upper force, then we receive from above the desire to bestow. The desire cannot be in us changing and also receiving. In us it is expressed in the intention to bestow, and then we perform a restriction upon our will to receive in using it for ourselves, and we try to work with only in order to bestow, for the benefit of others, which is what happens.
16. S. (45:13) Sounds as though the person himself should operate, meaning, on his intention, is it even possible for him to work on his intention or can he only perform operations and it comes from above?
R. A person can only ask, to ask, to make from himself and be in such a state that the Creator can bestow upon him a little bit of himself that is called something and then by that the intention changes in a person. The actions do not change, he can give and he can receive in the corporeal actions, but in spirituality if we were to see the Masach, the screen, and the true intentions, the true actions, then we would see that a person either does everything for his own benefit or that he does everything or partially, does for the benefit of others. That is actually what we need to do, bestowing the influence of the light of the Creator upon us. For that to happen we need to prepare a place for the Creator, the place is called the desire. When we connect together and ask from Him to give us the force, understanding, mind and everything so that we will be able to bestow upon one another. Through them through the friends bestowed to the Creator.
S. So we should not even make an effort to control our intention but only to perform actions?
R. Not true. We went through our actions to change our intentions. To receive from above such an influence upon us that our intention towards everyone, first of all towards the friends, will change.
17. S. (47:49) If the first state and the third state are completely to bestow, what other rewards can it acquire in the second state?
R. After we receive the desire in order to bestow, we need to realize it, to implement it in order to bestow and in that we already have 125 degrees to do so.
18. S. (48:36) How can I replace the intention in relation to desires that I have no control of? Let us say that I really love sweet stuff, sweet or the way it happens to men, a desire for sex which is above the ordinary, how can I control these desire change them to a will to bestow?
R. I do not think that we need to work against the desires themselves but rather against the intention in order to receive. The moment you start to work on the intention, for it not to be for your benefit but for the benefit of others, then also your desires will change and will take on different importance and priorities. Then you will see how to approach them in the correct way. The main thing is to replace the intention to the benefit of who you want it to work.
19. S. (49:59) Rabash says the salvation of the Creator is like the blink of an eye, but it is also said that a person has to complete a Seah, the fulfillment of the effort in quality and quantity. But if it is so, if the Creator can save us like a blink of an eye, why is he demanding a Seah, an effort for us, an additional thing?
R. This Seah, this quotient is considered a complete desire as much as you are capable. Just as we demand from the children from a little child a small desire and a more grown-up child you ask for a bigger desire and so on. That is it. That is how it works.
20. S. (51:04) Is there a connection between the point in the heart and the will to receive and the intention?
R. Of course everything is built upon from the will to receive and the upper light that gives it an intention the upper light connects between the desire and the restriction, the screen, the reflected light, and that which is built above the reflected light as the act of giving back to the Creator
S. The points in the heart, where is that in the will to receive?
R. The point in the heart is a Godly part from above, the desire to bestow from the Creator that is inside of us, in those that awaken to bestow and return to the Creator and express it in bestowing up on friends and through the friends come to the desire to bestow.
S. Which means that reception is through the body and bestowing is through the point in the heart?
R. You could say it that way, yes for the time being, later we will scrutinize these things and be more precise with it.
21. S. (52:39) The questions about the intention, the intention is in relation to me, in relation to the Creator, in relation to the friends? Can you see this as degrees?
R. We need to connect all these intentions to be as one. Through, from me to the others and from the others to the Creator and when we come to a state that I will have no difference between bestowing to a friend and bestowing to the Creator. That is what we want to get to, so the whole world will appear to me so that I am bestowing to it.
S. The intention in relation to me, can you connect that?
R. I do not understand what intentions towards you are, I am talking about intentions from you to what you do to others. I do not know where you are with your questions, I really do not.
S. I mean the intention, to correct myself, that intention?
R. To correct our self's means to the extent I relate with my intention to that which is outside of me that can be those that are closed a little bit further, the friends, humanity, the Creator and so on. It all depends on the extent, which I relate to them. Only in the intention. According to the intention in order to bestow I join to my actions also the desire. In order to implement the intention. If I cannot implement the intention in order to bestow, I do not cooperate, I don’t do, that says I'm under restriction. I first of all think about the intention to bestow and then I measure how much I can join to it the desire to implement the intention in order to bestow, and then as I act, I act by building a Partzuf, a Partzuf of bestowing that is how we operate.
22. S. (55:39) An increasing number of people are changing their intention to bestow will it change the material world to affect others?
R. Certainly like it or not we belong to one mechanism, one system which is called Adam. We are all connected to one another. Not just us, but also the animate and the vegetative world and the inanimate world. Therefore the relations between us defines, bestows, and influences our whole world and all reality including the corporeal world. So as much as we come closer to each other and bestow good things to one another, by that we will be giving very good care to our ecology and the whole world in general.
23. S. (56:56) We constantly talk about the intention changing the intention so intention to bestow is the thought or the feeling?
R. The intention in order to bestow is intention, meaning it is my inner desire that I have yet to implement but I want to implement it.
24. S. (57:33) What exactly changes within me if now the intention to bestow to the Creator appears in me? I did not have it a moment ago and now it appears, what changes?
R. In such a situation we talk about a possibility to work with the desires to bestow to the Creator, that now with our intention to bestow to the Creator you can check with which desires you can implement your intentions and realize them.
25. S. (58:22) Do the intentions in order to bestow, are all built on top of his intentions to receive or in the intention?
R. Yes, yes, it cannot be any other way.
S. To continue on that, or in order to receive only gives us the entrance to in order to bestow and there are additional intentions in order to bestow?
R. There are many intentions in order to bestow from here to the end of correction on all the ladder of degrees, but they all ride on the intention to receive to start. Just as it is written, there is no righteous in the land that has done good and has not sinned on the way. He has to first feel his sin in order to receive upon all the degrees. We see this in the Zohar, how the authors of the Zohar and also Rabbi Shimon before rising to the final degree, he found himself as Shimon from the market, what is Shimon from the market? To the extent when all his thoughts and all his desires are only in order to receive and he has nothing but one thing, he understood that this comes from him in order to rise from here to the highest degree. That is how it is kind of told to us the transitions that we go through.
S. Food, sex, family, money, honor, knowledge control these are all the desires of in order to receive or are there others also?
R. No, everything is in that.
26. S. (01:00:11) In Item 23 it speaks about the spiritual souls of people. It seems like we get such a desire that already has an intention of riding it, we get it together already, the desire with the intention to bestow contentment. Can you explain what are the spiritual souls of people or the souls of people that are spiritual?
R. From it he grows, that is all I can say. But soon we will open it up a little more.
27. S. (01:00:57) So in order to reach the intention to bestow, to what extent is this an emotional action or an intellectual action?
R. We need to work with our intellect in order to give us some kind of foundation, but the intellect only operates according to the feeling. Therefore the main thing is to take care of the feeling, where I am what I am impressed by what I am drawn to, I need to constantly check myself and aim myself to connection. That is where we solve all the problems.
S. Where is there?
R. In the connection.
S. What are the proportions between emotion and intellect, do they change from one state to the other?
R. Surely, they change but we cannot talk there's not enough details.
28. S. (01:02:10) I understand before a person receives the intention to bestow, he has to go through restriction, in that state of restriction what is the intention?
R. I do not know what the intention is. It is a restriction. When a person goes through a restriction because he has the state that the world is dark, that is it. Everything is dark and he has no possibility. From that state as he overcomes it somewhat, and beforehand he also did a lot of work, it all accumulates, it is a cumulative process. So he goes through this restriction, through this darkness, and comes to a state where he can actually control it.
S. Can we say that the restriction is the state, that where there is no intention because he is no longer in the state of will to receive?
R. No, there is not completely without intention but for now I think that way, it is okay.
29. S. (01:03:26) A person in whom the point in the heart did not awaken there is no intention in his life, and he passes away, so why is it done, why did he go through his whole life for?
R. We're not talking about such desires that did not awaken, the point in the heart did not awaken to them, they belong to the animal world, because the point in the heart is called the beginning of man and we are talking about the point in the heart.
S. So why did he have to go through all that he went through before he passed away?
R. You're talking about someone else; we are only talking about people that come to us. Other people we can give them as much as we can support so that they will gradually come to a state in which they will be close to the system that brings to them the reforming light as well. Ask about yourself more, that is what I should recommend to you and not about the others. Okay?
30. S. (01:04:40) What does it mean that the departure of the body that is not corrected strengthens the soul?
R. The death of the body is not corrected strengthens the soul; I do not know where they took that.
S. In Item 24 it says that the absence of the form of the corrupted body greatly strengthens it and enables it to enter the Garden of Eden, so what does it mean the departure of the uncorrected body strengthens the soul?
R. Because the death of the body, the will to receive, nullifies itself, wants to be annulled in a corrupted way and therefore certainly the soul which is the desire to bestow which rises upon it is strengthened and grows.
31. S. (01:05:45) Can the created being choose the intention, or did they depend on certain conditions from above?
R. The created being receives the intention from above upon the desire to receive and then he chooses what he wants to do with it and decides.
32. S. (01:06:07) If the intention is hidden from the person is it possible to determine it mechanically before each action?
R. The intention is concealed from a person, and it is given to us so that we will think only about it, only cultivate it. It all depends on the intention, a person is dependent on his intention, what he is drawn to, what he intends and what he wants eventually.
33. S. (01:06:55) Is it possible to determine it mechanically before every action?
R. Mechanically it is possible, we need, we must but then we need to make sure, then we need to be concerned with the extent in which this intention will grow.
33. S. (01:07:27) Does the intellect influence the intention or only the prayer in the heart can influence it?
R. The intellect can barely influence the intention but through the intellect we operate upon, and act and those actions change the intention. The truth is that the intentions come from above, we cannot control the intention. What we can do is to perform all kinds of actions by which we change the intention.
34. S. (01:08:12) Does a person get the intention to bestow from above and if so which actions of his make the Creator give him that intention?
R. As much as one arranges himself to be more connected with his friends because he is preparing a place where he can implement himself there and realize himself there, that is on one hand. On the other hand to the extent which, meaning he is ready, prays and asks, meaning there's preparation and prayer. Where actually everything needs to be as one.
35. S. (01:09:03) They're asking whether the Partzuf is something that is a personal intention, individual intention to bestow to the ten or common to the whole ten?
R. It is desirable for the intention to be common to the whole ten but along the way it can be both this way and that way.
36. S. (01:09:26) What is the purpose of criticism towards philosophy in Baal HaSulam articles and in this article in particular?
R. That we should not get confused with philosophy but rather the wisdom of Kabbalah is not built on philosophy. That philosophy is what a person thinks that this is how it should be in the world, in reality between the worlds, between the creatures, between the creatures and the Creator. That is philosophy, meaning there is no real thing here other than that which a person imagines inside his brain and because our mind is necessarily operating in order to receive, therefore, to start with all of philosophy is simply not worth anything, it's one big mistake because we are all in order to receive.
37. S. (01:10:36) Does the law of equivalence of form work in the same way between a friend and another friend in the ten as it is between a friend and the Creator, which is when their intention is the same one to give contentment to the Creator then we connect?
R. To the extent that we come closer to identifying with the Creator we are capable of connecting.
Item 25 (01:11:11)
38. S. (01:15:57) Can you tell me please; it is written here about the words of the Sages he will be resurrected with his flaw or something like that?
R. That the whole desire to receive as it was corrupted, it needs to go through all the corruptions and to ask to perform all kinds of actions that are needed in order to correct itself, but he needs to correct himself just like it once was in the corrupted sin of the tree of knowledge in Adam HaRishon. He has to come to the whole revelation of that whole sin, the whole will to receive that is in him and to correct them one by one by one, all the intentions from in order to receive to in order to bestow. That is our entire work throughout our life until the end of correction.
39. S. (01:17:17) Why does he write that the will to bestow has to grow what does it grow upon?
R. The desire to bestow is the intention in order to bestow, the desire to bestow is the Creator. The desire to receive is the creature, the adaptation of the creature to the Creator takes place in the intention in order to bestow where the created being acquires this from the Creator, from the upper light from the influence of the Creator upon him.
Item 25 (01:18:09)
40. S. (01:22:20) What is the exaggerated will to receive?
R. What does it mean by excessive, meaning that it is entirely in order to receive, and it wants to devour everything including the Creator. That is how it is, that is what the will to receive desires, to rule over everything.
41. S. (01:23:08) What happens with the great will to receive as a result of changing the intention, that it gets smaller?
R. I do not think that our will to receive becomes smaller, it becomes more restricted, more compressed in that we want to achieve in order to bestow and so the great desires, scattered in many directions and no longer want to serve them. We do not want to provide all kinds of fulfillment to these desires because they become less important to us, and we are all focused on connection between us and connection with the Creator. Even though it may seem like we are restricting ourselves, but we are actually aiming for the root of all of creation and so it's worthwhile for us to focus on it.
42. S. (01:24:23) Birth in spirituality, is that when the intention completely changes?
R. It means that we begin to feel the will to bestow awakening in us, this is birth in spirituality.
43. S. (01:24:54) What does it mean that the soul cannot completely be purified and what does it mean that the soul has to go to the awakenings of the dead?
R. We need to pass this restriction over our will to receive and after the restriction then also pass through these corrections of the Masach and reflected light. Restriction means we do not use it for our own benefit or our own sake. Screen and reflected light mean we are only doing it for the benefit of others outside of the will to receive and we begin to feel that these things are not in us, they're not in us, so how can we achieve them? Then there is the matter of birth where we are born in the spiritual world, in the world of bestowal and we can begin to relate ourselves to the Creator.
44. S. (01:26:56) It is written that during the six thousand years only the soul will be corrected while the bodies, no. What does that mean that the more the soul will be corrected the more the ego will grow in order to receive pleasure for bestowal?
R. We certainly receive everything within our will to receive but the intention changes the use of our will to receive changes towards in order to bestow and therefore that is how we prepare ourselves until all our reception in the will to receive but in order to bestow. First restriction, then bestowing in order to bestow to the level of Bina and then from the level of Bina to the level of Keter receiving in order to bestow.
45. S. (01:28:12) I would like to understand, does this will to receive have to be totally corrected before I can feel some intention to bestow an action to bestow or can it go hand-in-hand as time goes on?
R. Both this and that we have to try to always work only on one action connection between us and from connection between us, prayer to the Creator, no more. If we only focus on that we will succeed quickly.
46. S. (01:29:05) In the previous items Baal HaSulam speaks about the will to receive which is beastly and human and that there is a soul a spiritual soul which is the will to receive in order to bestow, so where is the excessive will to receive, what does that clothe on?
R. The excessive will to receive still needs to happen to us, it is not right here. By developing in our desires to bestow we then discover a greater and greater desire to receive one who is greater than his friend his inclination is greater is greater than himself.
S. What does it mean that we bury it in the six thousand years?
R. That is the intention in order to receive we bury it, and we only stay within order to bestow.
S. So we receive the will to receive with an uncorrected intention and then we correct it through six thousand years and that is called it was buried?
R. Yes, which is why he says one does not correct that which is not in him.
47. S. (01:30:44) Is prayer an act that points to an intention?
R. Prayer testifies to the intention in the prayer we need to scrutinize our intention and ask for the correction of intention because other than that we have nothing to do only that. The more we approach the correction of the intention we get to see how basically impossible it is and only at the last moment when we see that it is all impossible and what are we expecting to happen here and then the inversion happens and it is from complete darkness just like in the state of Egypt and then comes the exodus and revelation.
48. S. (01:31:46) If the main thing is to work on our emotional side, why are the scrutinies we do in the lesson intellectual and not emotional work?
R. It is not intellectual work, it's emotional scrutiny, it's all emotional but in order to do emotional actions we need the mind, that's why it's the work of the mind and heart.
49. S. (01:32:26) The end of the body is to die and rot because it did not receive any corrections upon itself. What does it mean to rot compared to the will to receive that does not change or disappear?
R. It is all about the intention. The will to receive, more or less, that is not so important, the importance is about the intention how much is it in order to receive or in order to bestow and how much do we want to replace one with the other.
50. S. (01:33:08) What does it mean that the intention is concealed from us?
R. It is possible that a person does not know exactly in what intention he's in, it depends on what we're talking about here we have to read and see exactly what’s the specifics.
51. S. (01:33:41) Prayer testifies to the intention so in the prayer we have to scrutinize our intention. The question is if we can reach a mutual prayer in the ten before we get to the right intention?
R. Of course you can come to a common prayer, but it can be a wrong prayer with all kinds of intentions in order to receive, we want to activate our prayer in order to receive an intention to bestow which ties us together and aims all of us toward the Creator.
S. The moment we try to reach a mutual prayer we just get further away from one another so what are we lacking?
R. What you are lacking is to have a single intention aimed to the Creator, nothing else.
52. S. (01:34:45) He is speaking about the essence of the soul in the article and Bal HaSulam says that it is an area where we can’t study the essence, so are we studying essence or not?
R. The essence of the soul meaning the intention to bestow. The will to receive exists abundantly. To the extent that we can install an intention to bestow on it, then the will to receive becomes a soul. Why is it called a soul? Because we have the lights of Nefesh, Ruach, Neshama, Haya, Yechida when we receive them from Malchut, Zeir Anpin, Bina, Hochma and Keter so what we receive from Bina is called the light of Neshama and that is the main thing to bestow in order to bestow. It is the complete exit from the will receive meaning from the intentions in order to receive and then we have two more levels of receiving in order to bestow and that's already an addition, a very important addition, that's something we'll talk about later on.
53. S. (01:36:43) It happens a lot that I check myself and I see that there is a desire managing me. How can I know if it is the will to receive or to bestow? I supposedly do something for the friends but in the end of the action I understand that I did it for a reward.
R. That's excellent, that is great, so you are given exactly the work to scrutinize that you cannot be in order to bestow but only in order to receive so immediately start asking, the Creator is showing you your true intention which is in order to receive so ask him to correct it. Why is he doing it?
S. But it brings shame.
R. That's good too, you have a big heart, you have a big soul. Ask him, it is all him doing it, we are just a response. The human is not what he feels, look this is a very important principle, the man is not what he feels but it’s what he responds to what he feels because what we feel is what the Creator lets us feel but how I can respond to what I feel that that's me therefore as much as you feel that you're receiving and it's not okay and so on be happy about it be happy that the Creator is showing you who you are how opposite you are to him because he wants you to ask.
54. S. (01:38:55) So once the Creator shows you your true nature what do we ask for?
R. I did not understand.
S. Once he shows you your intention and your own nature, so you said it is great be happy about it, turn to the Creator and ask, so what am I asking for?
R. Whatever awakens in you, to what extent you can identify with the Creator how much you want to bestow to him in return and how much you want to nullify yourself towards the friends and so forth.