Morning Lesson January 25, 2023, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 1:
Zohar for All. "Introduction of The Book of Zohar". On the Night of the Bride. #131
https://kabbalahmedia.info/sources/jnB9Pwgl
1. Rav’s Introduction (00:33) Yes, we learn that all of our work until we discover the Creator is work at night and also when we discover Him on the first degree. So it turns out that the night of the bride is our preparation for coming closer to the Creator to the purpose of creation to unity between us and Him, this is why this article is so central in the Zohar.
Reading Item 131 (01:33): ”Old Rav Hannunah Saba said…”
2. R. (09:05) Yes, this is what the Zohar says.
3. S. (09:15) It says here interestingly that the thought causes one to guard his mouth so he can raise man to all parts of the desire. How to keep away from frivolity so it doesn’t detach you from the Creator?
R. It is best to be connected to good thoughts and good actions. This means to be attached to the Creator, not to fall from there, to constantly keep yourself so you do not fall from that degree. This is what we learn, and this is by the connection with the friends because without engaging in the connection with the friends you do not know where you are in spirituality because the Creator certainly and surely is in the center of the ten. Now is a person drawn to that place, to that quality called the center of the ten? This we can know only if he practices working on connection with all of his friends. This is how each time he gets more and more burdening of the heart in order to direct himself more and more to the center of the ten, more and more internally.
S. This angel Dumah?
R. He is the one that doesn't let him rise, as usual in the opposite manner he raises in us our sensitivity to the state that we are in and whom we choose and so on and then we, through our change with the friends, as much as we connect more we bring ourselves to a higher degree and an even higher degree both in the connection between us and according to that also in feeling the result of the connection where we connect with the Creator.
4. S. (12:04) Is it true that everything depends on man's degree where every thought could be pulling him to hell?
R. Not to the degree of the person but on the connection of the person with the environment, in that we have free choice as Baal HaSulam explains to us in the free choice article the freedom. According to that we can distinguish exactly where we are, what we are drawn to and what we have to do, what we should ask for, pray for.
5. S. (12:53) In item 131 it says and the cause to make the Holy flesh sin where there is the Holy Covenant, what does that mean?
R. It means that this additional vessel that he now wants to sanctify, this desire that he now wants to work over it, in order to bestow, is he capable of that or not? Now it is a time of examination and the doing so it is an additional desire that one should sanctify, connect it to the intention in order to bestow, to the Creator.
6. S. (14:05) It says that to keep the Holy Covenant it is possible even for those that still do good and evil?
R. From the very first state where a person is, from there he should already examine that all of his intention and desires will be aimed towards the Creator, that he is in that and he doesn't fall from that. This is called for the time being to keep the Holy Covenant. Later on we will have additional conditions regarding the adhesion until we reach complete and permanent adhesion, eternal adhesion.
7. S. (14:57) Hell is a necessary part of the degree, is it possible to advance without it?
R. Ah hell okay. Go ahead.
S. In any case if they acquire The Holy Covenant in a way that they don't lose it then the angel Dumah doesn't pull them into hell, but doesn't every degree start from Hell, from the opposite?
R. We need to know the opposite state from the good state in order for that you have to already be strong and advanced because it is one opposite the other. This is how these degrees are revealed to a person. For a small person small problems are revealed which are easy to resolve then he is elevated more and more and more so the problems become greater, also the solutions become greater. It is not from minus to plus but in the minus too, they are standing parallel between the minus and plus on each degree in every state.
S. Isn’t hell some kind of oppositeness? If it is not the beginning of a new state then what is it?
R. It is the same degree but in the opposite form, in disconnection from the Creator. We do not rise from the degrees from the minus to the plus; meaning, at the end but rather in each and every degree you have minus plus, minus plus, minus plus and the number of the degrees only determine the height in which the minus and later the plus are revealed in you in each and every degree.
8. S. (17:35) In the last sentence in the text, he says that Angel Dumah has no permission to pull him into hell: what does it mean?
R. That the person is mistaken that he is under the control of the Angel Dumah this is not enough yet for him to truly fall and remain disconnected from the Creator, which is what hell means.
9. S. (18:45) Maybe my question is a little bit awkward, but I just want to ask you. Right now, I feel total emptiness, not capable of doing anything, just like there is no value of anything in my life. I cannot even give anything to my friends or offer anything to the Creator. It is like He is taking away everything from me, that's my question: is that kind of hell or what state is it? What can I do?
R. This is in order to give you discernments in all kinds of different states so that you will feel ascents and descents, right and left, then you have to go through all kinds of states and try from each and every state to nevertheless, reach the most comfortable, the best state, the highest state, the one that is most connected to the Creator, through the group, as much as you are capable of. And then according to that, you will advance. You will use each and every state so that out of that state, you will rise more to the Creator, become adhered to Him no matter what the state that you're going through is. It could be the worst possible one, as it is written, ‘from the depths I have called upon You, O Lord.’
10. S. (20:41) What role does this angel Dumah have and why does it continue to guard the person from being united with the Creator?
R. Every angel is an upper force, a spiritual force. He has a few different roles over a few different people or souls, and according to the times and therefore, this is how we need to learn it. Through which forces does the Creator influence us in order to shake us so that we will change and reach adhesion with Him.
11. S. (21:36) How do the friends in the ten transform the forces of nature to be supportive of connection?
R. Through connection between them, through the connection. As much as they get closer between them, so they get closer to the Creator, it is one to One.
S. But you said that the angels or the quality of the animate is like pieces of the parts of the body that are like governed and ordered. How do we reach a state where all the forces of the body are for the goal of the connection in the ten?
R. Through our intentions, through our intentions.
12. S. (22:35) He writes that, as long as a person understands that His thoughts are not ours and His ways are not ours, that no thought can grasp Him whatsoever. So how should a person depict the Creator so that the other side will not grab hold of him?
R. Because the great and only force of bestowal that surrounds everything and fills everyone.
13. S. (23:10) The flaw of the Holy Covenant and because of the holy flesh which the Holy Covenant is signed to sin, what does that mean in the Covenant that this flaw is there?
R. That it is possible to become disconnected from the Creator, think of Him in the opposite manner. That I want to gain by this, to fill my vessel instead of feeling the vessels of everyone, the whole of reality and the Creator Himself. Sin means in order to receive.
S Can you write let's say a covenant where you can avoid this flaw in the ten?
R. If you are in adhesion with the friends then you are already keeping the Covenant.
S. Clear, thank you.
14. S. (24:44) What kind of power is the power of Lilith that separates us from the Creator?
R. That is the will to receive, you have no possibility to divide it into male or female, even though it is written in such a way. But even though it is the will to receive inside each and every one, it doesn't matter if it is a man or a woman. The force of Lilith is the force that is opposite adhesion, opposite connection. All of the forces all together are divided into two camps. One camp is the one that works towards separation and the other camp is called the holy camp which works towards connection and that is all. Of course there are different forces in this and as well as in that, but according to this simple distinction we need to be able to differentiate between them and see where we are drawn to and where we are.
15. S. (26:10) What does it mean that a person shouldn't allow his mouth to go out to a foreign thought; the thought comes first?
R. The thought is first yes, but it is important to not say it out loud. When the person says something out loud by this he validates, he confirms that there is strength to his thought, that it can act.
16. S. (27:11) What is the warning that everyone should guard his mouth? What exactly does one need to guard from?
R. Not to lie and not to speak even though you attain, you know, you understand something, anything that may hinder, may disconnect people from their advancement to the Creator; any state which is against adhesion.
S. One always feels that what he says is good or bad or that he could be mistaken?
R. First people should check it and then speak.
17. S. (28:12) What does he mean when he says that it can basically trick you with a woman- born man is similar to the Creator, what does he mean by that?
R. A woman-born man, meaning that on the one hand he is only a woman-born man but in the eyes of someone, maybe in the eyes of everyone, he seems like an angel similar to the Creator, that he has truly corrected himself to some extent. We will talk more about this.
18. S. (29:14) It says here that if a person uses a word without knowing its meaning, that he might fall to Lilith. Sometimes we use words that we don't fully understand, where we keep our mouth?
R. What we are talking about it doesn't matter because it is like a baby who just emits all kinds of words or letters from his mouth but that doesn't result in anything, no one takes it into consideration. Everyone understands that this is only because he is learning how to speak. In the future when he will know what each and every letter means and what each and every sound means then we will take him seriously.
19. S. (30:17) Yesterday about what is the foreskin and what is the circumcision and what is the Zohar?
R. The circumcision and foreskin, these are corrections that we need to make over our will to receive. We must cut it off, we must so that it will not be connected to our body. This is called circumcision and it is also separating the foreskin and the blood, other corrections by which we remove the foreskin away from us.
20. S. (31:05) What is the difference between the angel Dumah and the ego?
R. No, these things we are not going to get into them yet. Let us just read them the way that it is written. Bit by bit, we will get to know this entire process and all the forces that are operating in it. In order to answer your question I will now have to explain the entire, full picture and get into it more and that’s not how we should approach this matter but rather gradually and according to the book.
21. S. (32:01) The place of the covenant is the place of the Huppah?
R. [no translation]
22. S. (32:22) What is the force of bestowal, the force of giving? Can it be just a reflection and it's like, me for my Beloved and my Beloved for me?
R. Yes, well let's go.
23. S. (32:43) It says here in the last paragraph, ‘even though they are not completely clean, there is still doing good and evil among them, still if they keep the Holy Covenant in a way that they never question.’ The question is: if it is even possible if there's still good and evil, how can one not ever question?
R. He has a shield against the evil, even though the evil can awaken, he knows where he is, and in what he is, in which force, so that he can cover it. He can cover it, he does not disconnect from the group, from all kinds of actions of connection in order not to give this evil force that wants to disconnect him, an opportunity to do something.
S. And what is the shield and how do we acquire it?
R. You acquire it, it’s the screen.
24. S. (33:46) Why when The Zohar talks about violating the Holy Covenant, it warns from the words of one's mouth?
R. We have a few degrees in the revelation of our internality and the revelation of our heart, but the mouth is actually the very last and most external revelation because then it comes out of the person to others. This is why there is a difference between violating things or going through things silently or speaking to them.
25. S. (34:47) In the second excerpt, he talks about foreign thoughts, that they invite the sin of the Holy Covenant and on the other hand?
R. I don't connect one with the other. I can find a thousand such sentences and if I will start to play with them I will never get out of that. I learn what it says, and this is enough for me right now and I do not need to enter all kinds of my own calculations.
S. Working with the foreign thoughts help us?
R. Yes.
26. S. (35:46) We say that Adam is from the word, Domeh, similar to the Creator, here it says that it brings death to a person. How does a person turn this to be similar to the upper One, to life in the ten.
R. That one can make it bring life by connecting themselves with the others and they all connect in order to resemble the Creator. Anyone who wishes to resemble the Creator in his connection with the friends makes himself similar to the Creator, to some extent, and if we all do it together, then by this each one influences the others and this is how we elevate ourselves to the first degree of the Creator.
27. S. (36:45) A few lessons ago, when we learned a different part of the introduction, there was something about MA and MI, which is the what and who. The questions that always evolve here, he talks about questioning, what does that mean?
R. Well our thoughts or questions means that I have doubts, all kinds of doubts that come to me and I have to scrutinize them or not, should I not engage with them or do I engage with them, in what form do I reach. All of this is called thoughts or questions.
S. How am I supposed to conclude this questioning though?
R. We will read more about it I don't know. I'm not going to go far away and run away like you. You can ask as much as you want. I just write down to myself who is a smart guy here who doesn't follow the book precisely but rather he wants to jump ahead. It is not going to work. We have a few thousand people here and everyone should hear gradually, and bit by bit open up the Book of Zohar.
28. S. (38:00) Is reading the Zohar both verbal and phonetic or descriptive? Do we need to figure out what state awakens from below by the upper message?
R. Reading the Zohar should open up for us the inner understanding, the inner feeling of how do we connect, and from our connection we begin to discover who is our Creator.
29. S. (38:33) Can we use the mouth to verify the thoughts that help us in the work?
R. Yes.
30. S. (38:46) What is Lilith?
R. That is the Nukva, the female whose desire is to receive in order to receive.
31. S. (39:00) What does it mean a woman-born man?
R. A simple ordinary person, who has nothing more than the fact that he was a man born out of a woman. It’s a low degree in human kind.
32. S. (39:23) Does The Zohar basically tell us that we have to do some differentiation between what we feel when we fall and what we sometimes feel, if at all, that we do manage to hold the unity, the connection?
R. Of course we need to make the separations between all of these states and The Zohar does develop us towards that.
S. And the flavor of feeling that we are not succeeding is only to need the Creator or what is the action in those moments?
R. All of these actions are only to turn to the Creator with a demand, with a request, with a prayer towards correction.
S. Is there a difference when finding in myself from questioning and clarifying like you said, that there are things that we keep quiet on and there are things that we talk about and when does a friend verbalize his question and talk to the others? Do I have work there or is it only towards me?
R. It is hard to say, maybe we hear, we may hear many things that there's still no room for them to be revealed between us. And so we will clarify between that over time, but nevertheless if we do speak, then we speak only according to the topics that The Zohar is describing to us.
Continuing Reading Item 132. (41:25) “King David was afraid when..”
33. S. (42:08) Meaning what about him what about him, right? That if he entered a married woman, that is a bit different from how we can think about it, but nevertheless, if he operated in a connection with a female that is not his, meaning that he did not correct it, is not intended for it, it wasn’t for the purpose of revealing the connection between them in order to bring contentment to the Creator, to prepare a vessel of revelation for the Creator, then seemingly he should be put to death. What happens to him, what is he?
Continuing Reading Item 132. (43:00) “The Creator told..”
34. S. (43:23) This is why we need to discover this desire called Bat Sheba, the female, Nukva. He connected with it and through it he discovered the Creator. Then it turns out that the complaint of the Angel Dumah, his claim was improper.
Continuing Reading Item 132. (43:45) “Even though he did not sin..”
35. S. (47:30) Well, there are many things here that we can talk about, and we will add even more but for the time being let us have questions.
Reading Item 132 again. (47:52)” King David was afraid when..”
36. S. (52:35) Yes but after he made his correction in Yod, Hey, then she was already worthy of being in connection with David and the correction was made.
37. S. (52:52) What is this mitigation that Bat Sheba needed with the GAR? The sweetening?
R. The male compliments the Nukva, so she has a place for birth and how does it happen that from the woman comes a man if she would only give birth to females we would understand this: Females from females, males from males? But here there seems to be some disorder, disruption, intricacy, that from the woman come both males and females how does that happen? We will learn. We will learn that. But that is essentially the issue here, that there are forces that accumulate, particularly in the woman, and there are forces that accumulate in the husband. And what comes out of their Zivug, their coupling, that ultimately remains with the upper force. Not in one and not in the other and not in both but in the upper force. The Creator both organizes the Zivugim, the couplings, and also the results from them.
38. S. (54:40) It is written here that in item 132, that one has adultery with another man's wife shall surely be put to death and he should not have intercourse with his friend's wife so who is your friend here, your neighbor?
R. The man who comes to a woman that is considered to belong to someone. When he comes to her and then it turns out that the Zivug is not in order.
39. S. (55:45) How do we understand that story correctly?
R. You have to understand that it is about how to build the Kli.
S. Well as an example, Uriah, I understand that it is some sort of corrective force, so later why does it seemingly obstruct David?
R. There's no such thing that there is an actual disturbance, any disturbance is also a correction. Everything that we do is a correction; everything is corrections.
40. S. (56:39) If the thoughts are not ours, and the desires come from above, but we are still violating and sinning, how do we sin then?
R. The desires are given from above. The thoughts are not ours, and the actions are not ours. And we are as if responsible for it. That needs to be scrutinized, whether we are responsible for it and in what manner. Is she right?
S. Is the Creator disappointed when these nonsense thoughts deviate us, deflect us from the work?
R. Yes, very much. For every small delay it really lets Him down.
41. S. (57:55) We say that Tzadik, righteous, comes from… to justify. Here it speaks about the slanderer who examines the part of reality and he slanders correctly about man. The Creator sees another part of reality for which He justifies, so what is this additional part of reality that makes it possible to justify?
R. This is because there are things that a person does 100%, quarter, third or something else, and accordingly he is being taught what he did, how he worked, and why that action was incomplete and incorrect. The main thing here is to teach the person.
42. S. (58:50) Any coupling is considered as MAN from the lower one?
R. Each Zivug is not MAN. Zivug is already a connection and the reception of the light into the new vessel. That is why it is called Zivug. MAN is, let's say, the beginning of the coupling or could be but it is not the actual coupling itself.
S. I understood from your words simply that coupling takes place on the lower degree and it invites the participation of the Creator and then the Creator’s participation. But we always want that, so we try to unite in the ten. Why does sometimes happen and sometimes it doesn't happen, and what does it depend on also?
R. Yes, we haven't but we will soon read about it, about the couplings. We will talk about that.
43. S. (01:00:30) What is similar and what is different between Lilith and Bat Sheba?
R. What is similar and dissimilar between Lilith and Bat Sheba? Lilith is the uncorrected Nukva, and Bat Sheba refers to the corrected Nukva. We will read much more about that.
44. S. (01:01:03) So it turns out that you are ah bat so that she will be able to have a son for David. but what does it mean that this desire, that this female belongs to you or doesn't belong to you, what does it mean that she belongs to you?
R. That you come from a single source, a single place and you were together before the shattering and only after the shattering you moved apart and there by the corrections you once again find each other and connect. That's what we can say in the most simple form.
S. So I'm trying to understand it in the spiritual work. Let's say that some parts of my desires I can correct, Other parts of my desires do not belong to me so I cannot correct them I cannot take them.
R. To ask we need to ask for everything without limitation. Whatever happens, happens and this is practical advice.
45. S. (01:02:24) A question about the door to hell: Dumah stands there in the beginning, the opening to hell when David sinned, it is written that he immediately came up to the Creator, Dumah did, and he immediately complained to the Creator. Why do we have all these letters that go up to the Creator and slander, why is that?
R. Because it is all one system we are all interconnected it's not that one is far from the Creator and the other one is close, no, they are really all close to each other.
S. Another question: the sin of David, it brings me the thought that my eyes can mislead me, I can see that my friend is sinning, maybe he is just performing a correction actually?
R. Of course, yes.
46. S. (01:03:38) What determines or how it is related that a desire does not belong to you or that a desire needs to be mitigated?
R. The desire is mitigated, it is corrected, mitigation or sweetening is just one of the stages.
47. S. (01:04:20) A question from the ten about the state of David. How can we discern in the ten that we are actualizing the purpose of creation in difficult states?
R. We will get there. We still don't have difficult states, we don't feel that yet. It's like a baby that if all the parents and adults, the whole world provides him with what he needs so he doesn't feel like life is that difficult. The main thing is just to sustain itself, the more it grows, the more obligations it has so to speak. He has to do this, do that, do things, and take care of himself more and more and as he grows he also has to take care of others so as he grows more and more every day we receive more and more and more burden each time, more discernments each time, more heaviness of the heart and so on.
48. S. (01:05:53) What is the Holy Covenant mentioned in the article? Could you please explain?
R. Covenant is connection. Holy covenant is the covenant with the Creator that he is in complete bestowal and human beings are in complete reception. So the more we can bring the two closer together and have them connect and connect to each other and in the connection begin to complement each other, complete each other than that will be called a covenant between them like becoming a unit, one unit and accordingly we will see how the Creator and the created being actually can't be without each other as it is written that there is no Creator without the created being and vice versa because there is no concept of the Creator without the created being. What was the state of man before he was born? Nothing, nothing. What was the Creator before he created man? He wasn't called the Creator because Creator means that there is someone who discovers Him and that is why it's called Boreh in Hebrew which means Bo come and Reh see so if there is no created being there is no Creator.
49. S. (01:07:57) This quality of Uriah, is the mitigation of the quality of Uriah the result of prayer, does it come following the prayer?
R. Yes, the prayer of David.
S. Is that when the Creator descends, comes down to us?
R. No, no, don't get confused and don't jump ahead we will learn these states.
50. S. (01:09:15) Even though David did not sin he is still slandered by the saboteur so what does it mean to overcome this?
R. Well, you think, if he didn't sin, if he is not to blame then how does it happen that a special force comes called an angel, the angel Dumah and he reveals to the Creator or tells the Creator about what he saw as if the Creator doesn't know. So there is an issue here, there is a deeper matter here that we will soon learn but this action is very broad, and there is a lot written about it both in the Torah and in the Tanach, Pentateuch, too. There is a lot written about it.
S. Can I pray for it?
R. To pray? What for that state of David, angel Dumah and all that? No, it doesn't belong to us. We need to learn a few things from every such piece or part of this introduction. We need to learn something and keep going.
51. S. (01:11:28) We learn that Kabbalists do not write about things that they themselves do not attain. So which degree should the Kabbalist be in order to write about the state of Malchut of David and later he also says what the Creator said, what Dumah said,
R. You are exactly answering your question, that the question remains, and we don't have an answer. I am not on those degrees.
S. It's like there is a ten here that has reached a certain degree and he is looking at the whole system from the outside.
R. Even if you just look at it from the outside, we can't say he will go deeper into the scrutiny and then even more he doesn't conclude it here, so let's continue.
52. S. (01:12:33) The more we are drawn to these qualities in the center of the ten we will have to guard ourselves more from the shells, from the foreign thoughts?
R. Of course one who is greater than his friend, his inclination is greater than himself and that is always the case until the final correction where you have the biggest wars, right?
53. S. (1:13:07) Can we understand from here that a person cannot correct his own desires and only the ten can correct him?
R. This is correct even though I am not extracting it from here, but it is correct, only connection between us all together, the connection corrects each and every one of us.
S. Can we understand from here the Uraiah is like the ten and…
R. No, no, no, I do not want to hear these things. They are children's stories. We are talking about such lofty things here that comparing that to that and this just, no.
Continuing Item 133 (1:14:09): “Dumah said to Him...”
54. S. (1:19:24) So what was the correction of Bat Sheba with Uriah if he didn't have any contact with her?
R. That's a question, that's one of the questions that we need to later scrutinize but nevertheless without this correction she wouldn't have been worthy or suitable for David, unfit.
55. S. (1:20:05) It is written here that there was no sin but there was also the punishment of the Creator and he fasted so was there a sin or wasn't there?
R. Yes, it's a question. Was there a transgression or not? He seemingly was punished for it or not? This we need to scrutinize further. The story is not over yet.
Reading Item 134 (1:20:40): “Dumah said to him...”
56. R. (1:21:25) There are still questions here that we don't understand. We also don't understand their purpose as if David received a command: go and have intercourse with her.
Reading Item 135 (1:21:44) “He told him, he certainly did not know...”
57. R. (1:24:12) I still think that we have nothing to do here. We are approaching a solution. We don't know what exactly is the problem and what exactly is the solution. We will learn about this tomorrow.