Morning Lesson November 07, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences from audio
Part 1:
Baal HaSulam - Shamati 52. A Transgression Does Not Quench a Mitzva
1. Rav’s Introduction: Yes, this is a very special article even among the Shamati articles because it explains many problems that we discover as we advance in the work. How to overcome bad states, how to accept correctly and build correctly good states, how we can go to faith above reason and how we try to imagine how to give contentment to the Creator. What is a Mitzva, a commandment? It’s something I do with the intention of giving contentment generally speaking, until we come to a state when all opportunities, all desires, all thoughts will be only in that direction that I give contentment to the Creator. Because the Creator is a degree that is concealed from us, a higher degree, unattainable really for the time being, so we have to do it in the relationships between us, the friends. Here we are also given our egoistic desire so we cannot come closer to each other easily. This was done intentionally so we would start to relate to each other in a truthful and a good way with only the condition that we aim this at the Creator. Until we come to spirituality even in corporeality, we do not have a relationship that is above our egoistic nature. I am not talking about the mother and the baby, such things that are on the animate degree but on the speaking degree, that is how it is happening. In order to bring us to a state where we try with all our actions to think, to aim them to good, to delight the Creator then we have this principle whereby the transgression does not quench the Mitzva and the Mitzva does not quench the transgression. Let's see what Baal HaSulam says about it we will read it from top to bottom, no rush slowly and then we will try to understand it in depth
Reading Shamati 52 (03:45)
2. R. (12:59) This is the article, a short talk that Baal HaSulam gave and now let’s start reading again and you can ask questions.
Reader continues: (13:37)
3. R. (13:47) Meaning the two are separate and the one does not cover the other. Rather we need many commandments, we need many transgressions, they all accumulate both the transgressions and the commandments. Why do we need both? In truth we need transgressions because this is the coarseness of the Partzuf, the more transgressions, the bigger the will to receive, there is more snakes in it. On the other hand, the person performs many commandments each time he wants to ascend, to think about bestowing contentment to the Creator. It turns out that all the transgressions are pushing him to perform the Mitzvot, the commandments. Meaning each time, I think what I can do from my current state in order to give contentment to the Creator. So many transgressions are separate and the commandments are separate, we might say that there is no commandment unless it is preceded by a transgression.
4. R. (15:35) Meaning the deeds that give contentment to the Creator, to think of Him, to add everything to that, to aim everything for that each and every moment.
5. R. (15:57) The bad was created in such a way inside a person that it resists those things, deviate a person in many directions.
6. R. (16:23) Meaning we can never rid ourselves of our ego or of the bad by not thinking about ourselves, not thinking about our success, our pleasure, all those individual things, never. It will all exist until we have a possibility of adding more, to add something to the Creator, because we cannot create the good attitude to the Creator unless we discover our opposite state first.
7. R. (17:23) Between man and the Creator the Creator and man we find this hate where a person cannot stand to think about someone or something, and all his thoughts are about himself. He is not aware of it, he is not willing to admit it, he cannot avoid doing it. Each time he has to do the work, each and every moment he has to direct himself, what am I doing for the benefit of the Creator, what am I doing in order to give Him contentment? And it is not like the Creator needs this, rather by this a person progresses and approaches the Creator.
8. R. (18:25) It is us with our attitude towards our ego, by thinking about ourselves in different ways. By this we are building it, we are giving it sustenance.
9. R. (19:18) Until a person can feel his evil state and what is that evil? That he constantly thinks of himself, for himself, about himself, around himself all the time. How is it good? That he constantly thinks of the Creator, in His direction, very simple. But the main thing is to try all the time to look for where I am at, where is my heart aimed at.
10. S. (20:03) How is it possible to hate the evil if the evil is my whole nature?
R. Think about this more and more and you will see how you are constantly thinking about yourself, thinking you should feel good. See how you sit, how you walk, how you do things, how you turn around, everything you do. In everything you do just monitor yourself and you’ll see that it’s all the ego guiding you directing you. That is its nature it is not good or bad rather it begins to be good or bad when you assign a direction to it, you when you decide that if you do not relate to your nature then you’re an animal, you simply go according to how nature is leading you, and if you say that if I am thinking in my direction and it is opposite to the Creator's direction, by that you decide what is good and what is bad. Therefore, from this moment on we need to try to arrange our lives in such a way that our thoughts and desires for ourselves are bad and thoughts and desires for the Creator are good, it’s one or the other, there is no more than that. Of course, this is through the group, in going through the various states in our lives, but this is how it is.
S. So it turns out as you say you look at how you behave and then you recognize that your whole nature is bad, but what should be opposite to that, thoughts about the Creator, the friends?
R. That above all of your nature you are trying to think only and to do only in the direction of the Creator. You thought that you will feel good, anything, anywhere you turn to. You think that you’ll feel good and everything, wherever you are turning, you think that you are working so that it will be good for the Creator. This is called an intention.
S. This intention should be separate from my nature?
R. It all depends on you how much you are aiming yourselves wherever you turn in life. Try it, let's say start today where you constantly relate yourself so that anything you do gives contentment to the Creator. You heard about it thousands of times for many years, but now you should start doing it.
S. These thoughts and actions today exist for my experience separately from me. I think of the friends, I think of the Creator, just to work this way ignoring the will to receive?
R. It’s not that you are looking down on or disregarding your egoistic desire but they help you these desires and thoughts, they help you so that you will aim yourself through the group to the Creator. This is called love covers all transgressions. It’s a crime that you’re thinking to your own benefit, it’s a lie, it’s not your own benefit, it’s our evil information arranging things for us this way and we wish to invert this and we see that it is inverted in order to bestow.
11. S. (24:36) This work can be done through the group as well so how to give this inspiration to the friends and receive it back from them?
R. However you feel like doing it, I am not making that decision. A person needs to decide how convenient it is for him to think in the direction of the Creator directly, or later he can even realize it in the group. Of course, it is more practical to do this through the group, it is more serious, more practical, more spiritual, more truthful, but at least in thought you should think is it me, or is it the Creator? So at least change that direction, change that vector to be aimed at the Creator.
12. S. (25:52) You said about the commandment that there is no transgression before, it seems it should opposite?
R. Of course the transgression does not quench a commandment and a commandment does not quench a transgression. If you are walking this path then one brings about the other, one pulls and attracts the other. That’s how it works, it will become clear to you.
13. S. (26:35) You said it has to be like in the theatre where we observe what is happening to the ego, where it pulls me. Identify it and then change the direction of my thoughts. The ego and me are always separated, I am observing what is happening.
R. It is correct.
14. S. (27:07) You who love the Lord hate evil, so the evil helps you advance towards the Creator and hastens time because Israel is called those who hasten time.
R. Correct.
15. S. (27:39) How do we express our hatred to the evil?
R. By changing direction. Evil is that which aims us at ourselves, it aims us seemingly towards our benefit, it’s a great lie but we accept it. And we wish to turn it around in the direction of the Creator so everything will be in the direction of the Creator. And then each deed, each thought I am doing I have to change the direction of my thought, the direction of my action. Where am aiming it? For the benefit of the Creator instead of doing it seemingly for the benefit of myself, there is no such thing as personal benefit. It only appears this way to us, but we simply fill the ego that was created deliberately so that we would be able to do the work and aim ourselves as we choose toward the Creator.
16. S. (29:22) If I fell into evil and I do not have hatred against it how can I come out of its rule?
R. We should think about it, we have to think about it. That I am under the dominion of my ego and it is bad and how can I begin to come out of it so that only in this way come to wholeness, eternity, spirituality, it’s only when I forcefully start to think about the Creator in each and every moment and every state. We’ll read about it some more.
17. S. (30:32) If he hates the evil, he leaves the evil and then the evil has no control over the person. How does the hatred towards evil cut off its control over me?
R. This is the meaning of separating from it, that’s how you separate from it. How do we move apart in this world? To the extent that we hate each, we move apart. We may be physically close but in spirituality there is no physical distance only the feeling, I either hate or love, so to this extent we are either close to each other or distant from one another.
18. S. (31:26) Why did Adam need to eat from The Tree of Knowledge?
R. Otherwise he would have no way of determining himself as Adam. Adam before the sin is not called Adam, he doesn't have personality, he is the product of the Creator, an uncorrected person, but only after the sin when he begins to raise himself in order to bestow similar to the Creator, then he is called Adam, the one who resembles the Creator, Domeh.
19. S. (32:11) The Creator created the evil. How do you hate evil without hating the Creator and even wanting to bring him contentment?
R. We should love the Creator for creating the evil because through the evil we can aim ourselves to the Creator. Without the evil we would not be able to come to the Creator, we would have no foundation or reason for making it to the Creator. The evil...this is why it says that the person should the bless over the bad as over the good. We will feel this along the way, so let's come out of this infantile attitude towards our nature.
20. S. (33:08) Can we only make the Creator happy through the 10?
R. You can rejoice the Creator by aiming all the actions, your thoughts, your desires – how will you do it? Only through certain actions, the only spiritual action in this world, in our corporeal world is when you connect with the friends, with others like you, and you all perform these actions between you, you intend to give contentment to the Creator. Give me another example you could do, any other? There are other such actions you may be thinking about that you are doing and by that you are giving contentment to the Creator but these actions are devoid of power. By that you are not changing nature, not rising above the ego; the whole point is to aim ourselves at the Creator so we would rise above ourselves, above our nature, and come closer to the Creator according to equivalence of form. How else could you do this?
21. S. (35:02) How does the person receive the force to change direction from himself to the Creator?
R. Everything comes from the Creator, the person has nothing to do. He received a small egoistic nature and works only from that nature and this is why in this nature, it doesn’t go up or down, and it does nothing. He lives in it, he just exists but if he wants to change himself and enter spirituality, there is no choice but to be in an environment that runs contrary to him in many things where he with his little ego can’t quite get them together and to connect to them. And then he works against his desire and then he has difficult, different examinations and details. Look how we do something in this world with wood or with iron, with stones. You constantly work on resistance and the pulling force magnetic force, electrostatic forces, many forces that push us they don't let us do anything and in overcoming them, rising above them, we build our lives. So many: oil, gas, electricity, fire, all those things in order to build ourselves correctly. But against these forces of nature, in spirituality, our natural force is the ego, is the thoughts of himself. So as long as a person is in those forces, he is within nature. To rise to the next degree, above nature, for that we have to do something, here. And the entire wisdom of Kabbalah is how to receive the upper world, the spiritual world in place of this corporeal world called the imaginary world.
22. S. (37:52) How to convince the Creator that we are ready to escape the evil?
R. You do not need to convince Him, we have to try more and more to do it for His sake instead of for our own sake. It has to be clear to us in our bones that we are doing this in order to give Him contentment, or His sake in order to bestow, it doesn't matter how you call it if we aim ourselves this way, then within a few actions, we will be able to begin to feel that we are approaching Him more; detecting through our actions what we are moving towards.
Reader continues: (38:56) “We must ask ... “
23. R. (39:30) From here, it speaks of about when the person does something an egoistic thing, he does not see it right away; and he does want to come out of it and immediately he comes out of it or they add additional ego to him more than what he had before because specifically by this he will feel how egoistic was his action how he was thinking only about himself, for his own benefit and it turns out from this that he can only advance like this when he has greater remorse or what was, in order to come out of it. This is how he advances meaning in order to come out of his egoistic thoughts of himself, for the sake of himself, in order to come out of this he needs to enter into a greater ego and to see how much this ego is to his detriment; and, then he comes out of it and he can do something for the sake of the Creator. Meaning he needs to seemingly receive twice as much punishment then he actually deserves. And this is why our falls are much more than the ascents.
Reader re-reads 2x (41:33)
24. R. (43:51) Meaning he needs to receive a punishment more than what he actually deserves according to his deed in order to learn not to do it ever again. To have the Reshimot, a record – the Rosh of an impression such that will cover his transgression. And then he will certainly refrain from doing such a transgression in the future, meaning it is recorded for him as a correction.
25. S. (44:32) What holy mindset must we be in, in the 10, in order to hate evil?
R. What state of holiness do we need to have in the 10 to hate the evil? We need to be connected to the extent that the work against the separation, identify the separation so it will not happen and we look after it to the extent we are in it, we hate the evil, we hate the forces of separation; and the main thing is that we begin to understand that we cannot exist in this way. Rather, we have to go from hate to love. We have to get to love of people, meaning from ‘love of friends’ to the love of the Creator between us in our center. And it works out that in this way we protect ourselves from the evil. Of course, each time more and more of this bad will be revealed until, as it is written in the Zohar, that the friends who wrote the Zohar wanted to kill each other; and the evil is revealed in such an extent but each time, you stand guard and organize yourself more and more so that we do not let ourselves remain under the influence of bad rather each time, we try to connect even more towards the good. This is why each and every moment, a person has to stop himself and check where am I, am I in the good or in the bad, what is happening to me? And each time we need to yearn for the good in the direction of the Creator. Our work has to be on one point: I wish to, now, give Him contentment or I want to give myself, seemingly to myself but it is actually to my ego, either here or there – you cannot be in the middle.
26. S. (57:53) Why is it that investing my strength into the group helps me to come out of the ego and how can I know that loving the friends really means bringing contentment to the Creator?
R. Just to love the friends, by that, you’re not giving contentment to the Creator. There are many such societies, different groups that engage in ‘love.’ But if you change your direction instead of to yourself to the Creator then you understand that in order to sustain that direction, to stay the course, you need a society because otherwise you cannot be in this, even for a single moment; and, the society around you for it to influence the other and when you hold each other up, you will be forced to work on the small ego that exist in each one, on the others and each one, and everybody. When you are fighting against the ego in a circle, in a group, then from that you can give to the Creator this is how we need to work.
27. S. (49:45) In the moment where according to the article we understand that our evil increases more and more, is the ability to conduct the evil inclination, is that a matter of my ability or should I let the group manage my evil?
R. No, each is responsible for managing his personal evil inclination and everyone has to connect in order to be building a certain building, structure, that we construct from hate for the individual evil towards hate for the group evil. By this, we establish a spiritual Partzuf where in its foundation you find the will to receive, egotistical will to receive in each one desire and we connect these desires in order to bestow or at least in restriction between them. And above that, we’re building apart from which we can bestow to the Creator meaning the Sof of the Partzuf and the Toch of the Partzuf and on(ward), the Rosh of the Partzuf.
28. S. (51:28) If I see hatred on the street or even anti-Semitism is this something I need to deal with?
R. It has nothing to do with the topic of the article. We are talking about how we rise above the hate from love for himself to love of the Creator. By this work, we push away all the problems and troubles, all the haters, That’s it. You need to read a lot of material because you lack material.
29. S. (52:29) In the article it says that “the primary work is not in the actual evil but in the measure of love and hate”, I do not understand. What can I add to myself from measurement of evil?
R. In the moment that you begin to aim yourself to the friends and through them to the Creator, you will discover each time, additional evil, additional ego and this is the problem you have to deal with, you have to learn this.
S. But the article says, “the measurement of the hate, the measurement of the evil.” The evil reveals and I have to think about it, I have to measure it. I am asking this because you always tell me, “Don’t get into (your) feelings, separate yourself from your ego and don’t get into the feeling.”
R. You cannot do it you can measure the evil and the good, we do not have a vessel for it. This is later when we have a Partzuf with a certain coarseness of 0,1,2,3,4, 5. And then we will be able to measure where we are in this state compared to the next state. It is not for now, for the time being, we are learning about how to overcome the ego, our evil in order to perform the first spiritual action.
S. So it says, “you shall be like God who knows good and evil: what does it mean?
R. We do come to the degree of the Creator and we do include both the evil and the good, the evil is in the foundation of the spiritual Partzuf; and don't think that ‘the snake’ is just something unnecessary, just like we see here, the evil is not disqualified. It has to be here, it has to participate in every spiritual action or the action cannot be carried out. Both the good and the bad, it says, “and you shall be as God, knowing good and bad.” Meaning “knowing” good and evil does not mean to know with your intellect, it means you have to connect to it, as it says, “Adam knew Eve,” this is connection. Without the evil we cannot do the work, and the coupling and striking, all those things. Think about it and it will become clear.
30. S. (56:28) What is the reason that hating the evil is not sufficient in order to love the friends?
R. These are two opposite things: I hate the evil but where is the love? The love has to be opposite from the hate since the hate was given to us so on top of the hatred, above the hate with our own strength, effort, as we come closer to each other against the repulsion, we connect and we build the spiritual Partzuf which is the spiritual Partzuf of love this act of love the hate itself is not enough for us, we have to try to connect against the evil, against the hate and aim ourselves at connection all the way to love and then from love of the created beings, love of people to love of the Creator, only this way .
31. S. (58:27) How to escape from the confusions of good and bad?
R. To work from morning till evening and ask myself for the sake of whom I am doing anything in life, each and everything?
S. How to overcome the fact that it is changing every moment?
R. This is why it is changing every moment so that every moment, we could do the scrutiny and make the decision about what is the direction to which you are working.
32. S. (59:12) Is there not a danger of wanting to please the Creator by hoping for a return for vessels of bestowal? How to avoid acting or correcting an act of bestowal?
R. For the time being we are working this way. You aim yourself at the Creator and you wish to give Him contentment, and you wish to be paid for it, that He will pay you, reward you. And there is nothing to do, here, and for the time being this is our degree. But the fact that you are thinking in the direction of the Creator through the friends, maybe now you understand why there are others here between you and the Creator and this group. If you are working in the group, the group helps you to gradually get rid of your ego so that you belong to them and they belong to you. In this way you gradually come out of yourself and connect with them together. The upper light shines on you, like that, and it changes your nature. But if not for the group and the Creator does this on purpose when he broke the vessel the Creator did not break the vessel, we would not be able, Him and I him and I would never be able to reach equivalence of form. I would always work in order to receive because there is a group along the way I don't like them, I hate them, I reject them, I repel them, I wish to kill them, whatever you want. Everything exists in my negative attitude to them but in order to attain the Creator I need to connect to them positively. It turns out that I must reach and come to them with connection.
This is why it says “from love of the created beings to love of the Creator;” and here we begin to understand why everything was created in this way, in this circle where everything is interconnected. I must be connected to the friends, the friends must be connected to me, all of us together must be connected to the Creator, the Creator is connected to all of us and through all of us to each and everyone. There is no other way otherwise we would have remained in the evil inclination even when we bestow to the Creator, we bestow for our own sake but to begin to bestow to the Creator even from the fact that, subconsciously, it is certain that we are thinking about herself it is still worth it. And then in this way we come, first by coercion, and then by desire. And for the time being, we, nevertheless, draw the surrounding light over us not the inner light but surrounding because we are not an equivalence of form with the light but our actions, at least according to the actions, we make these acts of bestowal although our hearts are full of intentions to receive, to enjoy those things. In this way we come closer and invite not the inner light into our group but the surrounding light into our group because our intentions are still in this way to ourselves but from Lo Lishma we come to Lishma. We are going through very serious states together. It is worthwhile to keep them and be in there.
33. S. (01:04:26) Sometimes the Creator sends evil to the person through the others, and it comes back again and again. And it seems like the others need to be corrected and not me. Is there such a state?
R. We can't quite scrutinize these things, what actions the Creator does, directly, he brings it down on me directly, which things He is bringing down on the friends so that I will also be part of the correction of these virtues, qualities, but it will be clarified during the work.
34. S. (01:05:17) How do you reach a state where the whole ten identifies the evil, together?
R. When you are connected together you will begin to see that you are as ‘one man and one heart,’ in one action to the one Creator who relates to you; and in this way, you will begin to get across yourself towards one focal point and you will discover yourself in this direct attitude to the Creator.
S. How does the 10 responds with hatred toward the phenomena that are against the greatness?
R. The hate must be equal; meaning not just hate, rather we need to understand how and why, to what extent and how did we come to this? Through the scrutiny through the scrutiny, when each time we try to come out from in order to receive and each time we discover that we are in it in order to receive and that a transgression evokes another transgression, and this is how we advance.
35. S. (01:06:59) How to depict to myself the intention to the Creator? What exactly do I depict?
R. That whatever we do, we wish to give contentment to the Creator by that. Or you may ask it differently: with this action that I am now doing do I love the Creator more than myself or not? You have to think about this each time. So, you might lament that you aren't or rejoice that you are, or you correctly measure those states or incorrectly the most important thing is to be in these two directions.
36. S. (01:08:04) We see a couple of times the matter of regret being mentioned here. Is this something that we should engage in or just to aim for the Creator and whatever happens happens?
R. No, regret well, we will talk about it, we'll have to read this article a few more times in the future and we will talk about it then. Regret, we first need to have experience, let’s check where we are in the middle of the day and all kinds of actions towards ourselves or to the Creator to sort these things out and then we will be able to formulate a decision and opinion of everyone and of the group together then we can talk about regret and remorse.
37. S. (01:09:05) I understand according to what we learned, evil is a positive thing?
R. The Creator created nothing other than bad, evil, because He is good and He must have needed the bad, the evil, so they wouldn't recognize Him and benefit from Him, so He needs the bad. This is why the bad does not disappear. It has to be there for each and every foundation for each and every Partzuf, the bad must be the foundation of creation or creation will not be able to exist because creation means it is outside of the degree, we have something other than the Creator and then you will have the Creator otherwise you won't have Creator because the Creator mean, ‘come and see’ when you climb to this feeling from the bad.
S. I’m asking because he writes here, “if he has hatred towards the evil because transgression follows transgression,” so this is part of creation, to achieve the hatred?
R. Yes, we need to hate the bad but we can't erase it, we’re not erasing it, we simply hate it and to that extent we rise above the bad and build a Partzuf above the bad. The bad, the ego, all of those things remain below the Partzuf, the bottom of the Partzuf.
38. S. (01:11:07) To receive for ourselves from the greatness of the Creator between us, is that called evil as well? Should we hate or love that state, and how to direct ourselves forward from here?
R. We must first come to, as I said here today, we must first catch ourselves in which direction are we facing: our own benefit or the benefit of the Creator? Let's check this first, let’s check ourselves during the day as many times as possible, especially when we decide on something, when we make a decision: for whose benefit are we doing it? We heard and read about it so much let's from this moment on, each and every 10 should hold each and every friend in the 10 in this scrutiny, for whose benefit am I doing what I'm doing. From the smallest things to the greatest things. Each one and everyone together.
39. S. (01:12:31) When I think about changing my intention, I am thinking about myself, the Creator or it depends on the intention?
R. Yes it depends on your intention.
40. S. (01:12:57) You said in this work of hating the evil and in the work of the Creator we go through the construction of the Partzuf.
R. No, don't jump ahead, ask a question to where we are right now. You have to walk with everyone.
41. S. (01:13:35) The concept of hatred to the evil, should this be felt like hatred in our world or this is a unique spiritual feeling?
R. We are starting with hate and love as we know it and understand it, we don't need to create a certain fantasy out of it, rather the way we are used to it out of our relationships is how we should work with it.
42. S. (01:14:18) How can the Creator's light be received in us sometimes as good and sometimes as bad if the light is not changing?
R. The light does not change our vessels change, hence in our vessels we discover either good or bad.
43. S. (01:14:39) The hatred to the evil, the will to receive for itself, is this the Masach or the force of resistance?
R. Hate for the evil is neither this nor that but, in the future, it will be restriction, screen and reflected light.
44. S. (01:15:01) How can there be a group evil, is not the whole evil within me?
R. Yes but nevertheless we ascribe it to the person because he doesn't feel the group, so it’s good if he will at least see himself in this way.
45. S. (01:15:30) What is my personal ego that needs to be corrected? Can you give me a practical example from our life?
R. Our daily lives is the hatred between us and if not, hatred then lack connection between us or indifference between us, this is the evil we have to correct. If we don't correct it, it is a waste of time sitting here and listening to what we are saying. You have to understand either it works or it doesn't work, either I take it seriously or not. It has to be in me. Write it down in huge bold letters on the wall that I have no choice, I have to come to love others. Love of others for me right now is the love of my friends in the group. You can't get away from it because this is the vessel in which we scrutinize how far or close we are to the Creator. Otherwise, we will veer off, we will be confused in all of those things of hatred and love. Even in our world we are confused by it much less in spirituality.
46. S. (01:17:04) Can we ask the 10 for thoughts to help come out of thoughts for myself or is it my inner work, and if I can ask what would be the answer from the 10?
R. We don't want to stay within ourselves, to poke within ourselves and be confused by all our thoughts and desires of each of us. We have to rise above all of our inner trash and direct ourselves toward the friends and towards our Creator, at least directly towards the Creator. In the meantime, toward the friends is difficult for me, so toward the Creator. For whom am I doing this, for whose sake am I doing this, whatever it is. For my own sake or for the sake of the Creator? This has to be the question of scrutiny every moment before me.
47. S. (01:18:44) Do we first recognize the evil in the friends or in ourselves?
R. To the extent that we see bad in others, by this we have to find the root of this bad in us because there is no other, it's how the Creator presents Himself through thousands of forms so that we will know ourselves, the bad in us, and we will hate this bad. And to the extent we hate the bad in us we will come to love the Creator who is outside of us.
Reader continues: (01:19:44) “Hence a transgression prompts a transgression…”
48. R. (01:20:33) Look what it says, the bad stays and it always stays at the Sium, the end of the Partzuf and you can't get rid of the bad. It is creation, what the Creator did and he did this so that we, above it with our negative relation to the ego, to the bad, with the right relation to it, we will establish the right relation to the Creator. We can't establish any relation to the Creator even if we do something opposite to the bad in us, we need the friends in order through them to establish the relation of each one to the 10 and to the Creator. And in this way each one from the 10 to the Creator, from the 10 to the Creator, and eventually we will be able to connect each one incorporated with everyone else, and all of those Sefirot which are us connect among them into one Partzuf in which we discover that the Creator fills us, that he was the first reason for our existence and now He reveals Himself as the filling that fills us and sustains us. The bad remains, we just have to build above it the correct relation and in this way advance.
Reader continues: (01:22:29) “This extends from yet you have made…”
49. R. (01:23:10) This is our problem that we want to understand everything as in science, to grasp and understand, write and research those things, as in physics or something. This will not work because we don't even have the instruments to study spirituality much less understand what we study, and connect it, compile it into some science, some knowledge. This is why it's written that man's pride will bring him down because by this we don't get to anything. We can only build out of it all kinds of teachings or psychologies, but not the truth.
Reader continues: (01:24:03) “This extends from yet you have made him…”
50. R. (01:24:38) Precisely by this he shows how lowly he is. He thinks that with his mind and his heart and his feelings and intellect that he can research spirituality.
Reader continues: (01:24:51) “It means that one that wants to understand everything…”
51. R. (01:25:35) He does everything he is told even if in his mind it doesn't work out, he doesn't understand or feel it and there is no proof, but he goes for it because he hears what he is told by Kabbalists who already attained it, and in this way, he receives these things, implements them and attains as well.
Reader continues: (01:26:07) “You find that to the extent that one has the demand…”
52. R. (01:27:13) This we still need to reveal to understand.
Reader continues: (01:27:23) “Now we can understand but they interpreted…”
53. WSQ: R. (01:28:50) What is the question we should ask ourselves every moment in life if we want to reach the goal? So, let's do a workshop on that.
Reader continues: (01:37:35) “The writing says about it, that he was…”
54. R. (01:38:22) In other words it didn't have a choice this structure called Adam HaRishon but rather it had to go into the intention to receive and gradually emerge from it according to its effort in faith above reason. Meaning it tries each time to examine itself, where it is and for whose sake is it working, and each time to try to change the direction to the Creator and through the group. Although he doesn't feel it is succeeding, why is he doing this? Because he has to rise to a different level of existence, to exist not according to the egoistic desire but according to the desire to bestow which is called faith.
Reader continues: (01:39:32) “It is similar to a person who wants to give….”
55. S. (01:41:35) There are three parts it seems to the article and I don't understand how to connect them. First, he says we need to hate the evil, then he says there is a desire to know and you have to overcome it and, in the end, we have to increase the vessel. Can you connect these three things together?
R. It is really divided into several parts and these parts are connected to each other. The first part says that there has to be a transgression and a commandment and they don't neutralize each other but they actually increase one another, intensify each other. The second part says with the external mind we can't correct ourselves but only with faith above reason, and this is the real lowliness. And the third part is that all of our corrections are gradual and each time we take slices, from smaller ones and weaker ones to thicker and tougher ones. He explains along the way that there was no choice, the Creator had to make all of creation with an egoistic desire and the person has to sin and get into this egoistic desire which is called eating from the Tree of Knowledge. And then through these corrections when he asks himself who am I working for and what am I doing and in order not to have direct contact with the Creator there is the breaking along the way. So, if he reconnects himself to others which is against his ego it is seemingly revealed to him. He feels that he has it in front of him and then he sees if he can or he can't. He sees that he can't just like us in the group that we cannot come to love very simple.
But we have to yearn for it, exert for it, and every time we will fail and every time we will ask the Creator, and every time we will direct ourselves to the Creator even more because if I want to bestow upon the Creator. I can only do it through the group. In a group I can't connect, I can't succeed in the connection, it is not a corporeal group it is a spiritual one. Every time greater and greater disturbances will appear amongst us and we will have no choice but will ask the Creator to correct the connection between us because He created the desire, He broke the desire and we only have to reveal the work of the Creator. In other words, it’s His preparation, His breaking and we need to be here only as a means for a request for correction. When we are in between the broken vessel we are discovering, and the purpose of creation which is the corrected vessel that the Creator fills, we have to be the connectors between the breaking and the correction. That is on us and this is called raising MAN, this is what we need to do. We are the broken Malchut and the Creator is in Bina, we ask of him to help us be connected because otherwise we won't be able to bring Him contentment. That is basically the whole article.
56. S. (01:46:18) I didn't really understand in the text where he says that man can attain more time and then he doesn't need to go through the correction of the transgressions. What is that part where I gain more time?
R. If we discover that we are in the bad that is not enough, we must always reveal the bad to an even greater extent. Only in this way can we ask to correct and advance. This is why there is a question here. With punishments, when we want to punish someone in this world do, we punish them according to what they did, according to the harm that they did, or should it be a little worse than that so he doesn't repeat it. If we want to help a person, we have to see that the correction that we do, and the correction has to be in his ego, that the correction will not let him at least to that extent that he made the transgression, will not return him to be in that transgression anymore. Otherwise, we didn't do anything. This is how it should work. We are not talking about our justice system and what happens in this world, there's no relation because we don't know what harm and from what flaw in his egoistic will to receive a person committed the transgression, we can't measure it. This is why all of our books of laws in this world are unrelated to spirituality.
57. S. (01:49:13) Can we advance not from bad to good but from good to more good?
R. How can I leave the good and go to greater good? So, I don't come out of my ego. Where is the remorse for being in the ego so that I will rise each time to more spiritual level? What will compel me to connect with the friends, and to connect means to accept them within me as parts of my soul, as parts of my desire. I have to connect to each and every one, to the extent he is corrected I want to connect him to me. And I am also willing to connect to everyone else to the extent that they are corrected, and in this way, we connect among us, each one adding to everyone else until in each one there is a ten that is corrected. And in this way, we come to a complete Vessel that can bring contentment to the Creator. By what? By opening ourselves up and being willing to accept everything that comes from the Creator to him.
58. S. (01:51:06) He writes to hate the evil and separate from it, but we also say that the evil is needed otherwise I disappear. So, the question is should I balance between hatred of the evil and...?
R. We need to hate the evil as much as possible, as much as we can, to hate our ego and much as we can to love the power of connection between us, that’s it. Until we discover that they are equal to the extent that I hate the ego, to that extent I also love the connection.
S. No Translation
R. That takes time.