Morning Lesson January 23, 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. #127
1. Rav’s Introduction: (00:36) Yes, this is a very special article. We have a special respect for it. Lets see what Rabbi Shimon and all the Kabbalists who were connected to him, what did they want to pass on to us? Please, what is the night of the bride?
Reading Item 127: (01:12) “Rabbi Shimon started and said,..”
2. R. (01:21) So Rabbi Shimon started or opened means a spiritual attainment.
Reading Item 127: (01:28). The heavens are telling of the glory…"
3. R. (01:57) Meaning that they went through the entire night of the exile when they couldn't see the upper light, the Creator they couldn't feel and did not discover it even though they very much you want for it. Therefore they defined their state as night, the night of the bride, that very much yearns to be connected with the bridegroom and finally now she is reaching it. She is before the revelation of the bridegroom before her.
Reading Item 128. (02:48) “And on the next day several..”
4. S. (05:26) What does it mean that Zeir Anpin connects to the Malchut, to the bride and she sees him?
R. This is the general desire of the created beings. This is considered that ZA signs in Malchut and connects in Malchut and the created beings are Malchut and the Creator is ZA is revealed in them according to their desire according to their preparation.
S. We always talk about how our goal is to connect between us in this common desire of the Malchut. What does that mean that this desire connects to ZA?
R. They both want revelation, they both want adhesion, connection. This is what is happening now on the day of the end of correction.
5. S. (06:43) It says from one end of the world to the other. What does that mean?
R. In all of the desires that are revealed that are ready for correction and desires means Malchut and that they are ready means that they want to be in adhesion with ZA, with the Creator. So It turns out that all of these desires are ready for revelation and connection and now it is becoming revealed. The state of the end of correction, the beginning of the end of correction.
Continuing Reading Item 128. (07:47) “The Heaven is the groom who enters..”
6. R. (11:07) So in order to bestow from the side of the created beings, they build the Huppah,canopy, the reflected light, and according to the equivalence of form between the reflected light from below, below upwards from the created beings to the Creator, the intention of the Creator or the Creator dresses in them from above downwards and then there is a Zivug, a coupling, a connection between the Creator and the created beings.
7. S. (11:38) It turns out there are two stages here. The first stage to enter under the canopy and then..
R. There are many states there, we will learn about it. What do you think, that in the first, single sentence that you should scrutinize everything, try to understand that on your own and later on if you truly don't understand something then go ahead and ask.
S. Entering the Huppah, is delighted in Hassadim?
R. We will read about that, try before you ask to understand precisely if it is in the right place and it is not just because you feel like it.
8. S. (12:44) When Zeir Anpin and Malchut connect together Malchut sees her husband, what does it mean?
R. It means that she enters contact with Zeir Anpin and she becomes capable of starting to receive from him through equivalence of form, meaning through reciprocity. It is called, ‘I to my beloved and my beloved to Me,’ that Malchut gives the possibility to Zeir Anpin to become revealed because Zeir Anpin wants to be revealed in Malchut. So their desires, even though they are opposite, he wants to bestow and she wants to receive but it turns out that through, in terms of their relation to each other they are reciprocal to each other.
9. S. (13:45) Does the reflected light mean the intent to bestow?
R. Yes.
Continuing Reading item 128. (14:10) “For this reason at that time..”
10. R. (16:26) There is nothing to add here besides what do we here? Direct light, reflected light, so actually everything now depends on the reflected light that is raised from below upward from Malchut to Zeir Anpin. How much is the bride ready, willing to receive the bridegroom?
11. S. (16:48) Why is the descent in the bride great..?
R. The Hatan, bridegroom, is called from the word, Nahout, descending, meaning that he lowers himself, he seemingly lowers, loses his importance, by reaching down to the bride by entering the Huppah, the canopy. This is why he is called Hatan, because he descends to her, towards the bride. However we just need to understand the essence of this matter. The Creator comes down, descends to the lower ones actually means that He respects them, that He loves them and that now He wants to show everyone how much He is great and how much He feels He has love towards them and wants to be connected to them. And so Hatan, the bridegroom, is a very respected, highly respected degree even though its inner essence is that he descends to the bride.
Reading Item 129. (18:44) “The glory of God is the glory of..”
12. S. (22:04) In the previous item the quote says,’ And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, your God will rejoice over you.’ Can you explain what this means?
It is said that the dance of the bride will bring joy upon you, what does that mean?
R. As much as the groom is happy that he is coming to meet with the bride, so the Creator is happy that the created beings reach the end of correction and reach His revelation.
13. S. (23:00) I understand that the Holy Shechina and unity reveals the connection between us, so how do we build this connection so as to connect to the Zohar and feel the light of the Zohar?
R. Specifically through the connection between us we reach a state where the Creator can be revealed in us because we, all of us, each one of us, is a very small part of the Shechina and when we connect together we build the Shechina, we build Malchut. And as much as we connect ourselves to each other we truly establish, raise the Malchut from the dust, from the exile, from it's shattering, which He fell through during the shattering of the vessels at the time of the sin of the Tree of Knowledge, the sin of Adam HaRishon.
By that, we reach a state where the parts of Malchut can already begin to come together, to become united above the shattering and then all of the coarseness that they have attained through the shattering, through the distancing between them, above that, they can assemble the connection. Then it turns out that the power of the connection is several times greater than the power of connection that they had to begin with, that when the Creator created Malchut and now when they overcome and connect and this entire connection is much greater, much stronger between the parts of Malchut, and accordingly the light enters and fills Malchut, it is revealed in the created beings.
14. S. (25:41) Is the groom us? Those who do the work of the Creator?
R. The groom that's not us, the groom is the Creator. We are the members of the Huppah, the canopy of the bride, the parts of Malchut in each and everyone of us. So when we bring each one closer to each other, we seemingly collect the broken parts of Malchut and we put them together above the shatterings and this is how we reach the connection of Malchut, the correction of Malchut above the broken states. And according to that, the Creator can be revealed in the Malchut, in all of these parts which we put together. So It turns out that the power of the revelation of the Creator is 620 times greater than it was revealed before the shattering.
S. So basically the fact that the groom descends towards the bride, He shows us that, how we have to be and that we have to connect and rise to his level?
R. Yes.
15. S. (27:50) Why is the fear, the condition for the appearance of the day?
R. The fear is the condition because without it we wouldn't discover the upper light. The upper light which we discover is revealed out of the darkness and the darkness comes as a result of the fear of maybe I will not be able to discover the Creator and maybe I will not be able to connect with the others in order to discover the Creator. Perhaps it's not the place and time and my forces etc all of these questions that come to a person and awaken him with fear. Am I able, ready to cause the revelation of the Creator towards me?
S. If we know that after the darkness comes the day, why does he relate the darkness to suffering here?
R. It's not the same torments that we feel in the will to receive. Everything that it says here, in the wisdom of Kabbalah in general, and in the Zohar in particular it speaks of the desire to bestow, when I feel that I am unable to serve the Creator with a vessel ready for His revelation, and I suffer because of that. Meaning, I am suffering because of the sorrow of the Shechina because the Creator, the Shochen, the One who dwells cannot be revealed in the vessel called the Shechina, the dwelling place.
16. S. (30:05) From this excerpt, it's not exactly clear what El or God is. One place it says it's the greatness of the Creator, in other places it relates to Malchut or even Shechina. How does it all come together?
R. El, God, is the name of the Creator. It is very simple for the time being just accept it like that in general.
17. S. (30:39) In the passage it reads, ‘And God is indignant every day, because it is impossible to have a day without the anger of the night.’ Could you please explain what it means by the anger of the night, if it's not fear then why anger of the night?
R. That He very much wants to reach, with the created beings, to reach the end of their correction. He very much wants to be revealed in the corrected vessel of the created beings. This is called that God is indignant.
18. S. (31:37) In general we know that the ritual or the ceremony of the Huppah, and so on has a lot of limitations and commitments built-in to it, so what kind of limitation does the light have to put onto itself in order to make a connection with the created being?
R. On the side of the light there is only one law. It's called the law of the equivalence of form. It is able to build the vessel of Malchut, the connection of the created beings only on the condition that the law of equivalence of form will be held. That the quality of the vessel will be as the quality of the light that builds it.
S. And what's the commitment of the created being in this ceremony?
R.It all depends on the created beings. It's not that the created being can make itself similar to the Creator, to be in equivalence of form that means to be similar to the Creator but rather the created being asks of the Creator that He will help him to reach equivalence of form, and then this is how they reach a Zivug, a coupling.
S. And the created being has to commit to keep this form?
R. That too.
19. S. (33:33) Is Huppah a Masach?
R. Yes.
S. And the reflected light that rises by the Malchut is that the Masach?
R. Yes, it's the screen.
S. The question is he writes that the righteous raises MAN and the Malchut raises reflected light. What is the difference?
R. The righteous are those individual souls in Malchut and all in all from them, the general reflected light is formed towards the Creator, towards Zeir Anpin. And then there is a place for coming closer for coupling for the connection between Zeir Anpin and Malchut.
S. Can we say that the righteous are the total efforts we make from Malchut towards Hesed and the Malchut collects all of these overcomings to one incorporation with the quality of bestowal?
R. All of these incorporations build Malchut.
S. I just wanted to add that we love you and are happy to see you.
R. Me too.
20. S. (34:56) We read that there cannot be awakening from below in raising MAN without fear. Why is fear required in order to raise MAN?
R. The created beings cannot do anything more but only to express their yearning, what is it that they want to reach. And this yearning already includes both the prayer and a request and the gratitude and everything that the created being can feel in his ascent towards the Creator.
S.That's clear, but why does that yearning depend on fear? Why do we have to have fear in order to reach a state of having a deficiency, of having a prayer?
R. Because we are made of the will to receive in order to receive and this is what we start from and so our primary quality is therefore fear, will I be able to reach what I want to reach as is in the domain of the desire in order to receive. Later on we will already shift in order to bestow. I will have a different kind of fear: am I capable of bestowing, will I not fall from that and so on. Which means that the fear of losing the state and not rising to the next state in giving oneself to the Creator in an even greater and greater measure, this is the main thing that fills the created being.
S. So what motivates you? The yearning for connection with the Creator, to resemble Him or the fear?
R. The fear is more general, it includes more. The yearning, well at least verbally it seems lower.
S. So in order to produce a prayer: what causes prayer to emerge the fear does?
R. Yes.
S. So the fear also builds a deficiency in you?
R. The fear is the result of the deficiency but we will go through a few more states and we will feel more what builds what and how they become incorporated in each other, all of these states.
21. S. (37:50) You talked about the torments, that the torments are a result that I am not giving the Creator the prepared Kli where He can be revealed. When a person feels that, there is a great pain but he doesn't know what to add: what is missing for the Kli to be complete? What
to do?
R. What else is missing so that the vessel will be complete? We will study and we will see what you are lacking or missing. Besides fear, which actually builds the reflected light from the side of Malchut towards Zeir Anpin, we don't need anything else but includes within it multiple elements.
S. So the fear is really the glue to the Creator?
R. Yes. We read already and we will read more about it here.
S. Yes in item 128, it says Malchut could not see her husband until they all come together and it depends on each other, and it also says that everyone is waiting for each one and the Creator asks for each one that the Shechina waits for each one. What does it mean in our work to take care of each one?
R. How to connect together to be as the corrected bride.
S. I am asking about the upcoming Congress: what does it mean that a group that comes together and wants to advance in that context?
R. As much as we gather together, as much as we connect together, as much as each one wants to complete the other one, he is willing to give himself to the general completion. Accordingly, we build the general vessel of Malchut, then the Creator can be revealed. We don't know the exact measure, we don't have this device that I can look at the dial, that I can see that I have a little bit left until the vessel will be complete, with a complete desire. We don't have that, but rather only as it says here, ‘as one man in one heart,’ without any limit from all of our forces, that from above we are given all of the forces, each moment and we have to use all of them, all of these forces.
22. S. (41:00) As we face this final correction and I have to deal with the great fear in me, and that great indignation in me, how can I prepare for this final state?
R. How to prepare for the state of the end of correction? This is what we are doing in all of our lessons all in or what we are doing and each time a little bit more and a little bit more, we take one and another small step towards the end of correction.
23. S. (42:09) The fear of not being like the Creator, it awakens us, it pushes us to act. So is this will to receive, is that what causes us to act, is this what moves us towards this process or how to actually reach this fear that it talks about?
R. We awaken out of our nature the will to receive, besides that we have nothing. However, each time when we awaken we have to check it, invert it to be in order to bestow, so that all of this sorrow, this pain that I feel in the lack of my corrections will be because of lack of correction, because I am not corrected. And so I have to think about my correction because only by that we reach a state where we demand from the Creator to give us corrections, then we make Him happy because He corrects this is His joy, this is called the work of the Creator. This is what He wants to do, for Him this is pleasure and this is how we reach the corrected state and are able to receive the revelation of the Creator in us, meaning to reach the coupling of the bride and the groom.
24. S. (44:18) It is clear why the righteous prepare the bride but why in the end they are called the members or friends of the bride, and not the friends of the Creator. So when they are preparing her for the Creator what is the main essence of the correction here? That we want to make the correction for the bride or groom, or is it the same, or do we understand it correctly?
R. The righteous are those desires in the general Malchut that want to justify the Creator that want to justify creation. Therefore they are called Tzaddikim, righteous, where their whole purpose is to justify their appearance and that they now awaken, they rise, they want to reach correction, they are capable of reaching connections with the help of the Creator. This is how they reach a state where they correct the Shechina.
S. So in the end, the main point of our yearning is this nevertheless for the created being or for the Creator?
R. So that the Creator will enjoy. Certainly it has to be for the Creator, absolutely for the Creator, ‘I to my beloved, and my beloved to Me.’ This is called a coupling.
25. S. (46:21) And each one of the 125 degrees, do we have to attain the coupling between the Creator and the bride or does this coupling come only at the end of the end of correction?
R. No, it comes in through the degrees of many corrections
26. S. (46:53) Can we relate fear to love? Can we have fear that we cannot truly love or connect?
R. That too, we need to balance ourselves. Each time we have to awaken ourselves to connection between us and from the connection between us to the Creator, and this is how we reach a state where this connection will be a permanent and intensifying connection, each time it has to be greater.
27. S. (48:02) The fear seemingly consumes or covers one's ego but the person wants to remain calm he doesn't want to move. So is fear what moves a person to attain and to achieve does it push him forward?
R. That is right, exactly here's the quality that influences us and awakens us the most. There are no qualities in us that are good or bad that are not directed towards correction but rather they all influence us, they influence our will to receive and thanks to them we reach the correction.
28. S. (49:15) To double the glory, the glory was doubled, what does that mean to double the glory?
R. Because in terms of the feeling of honor towards the Creator his glory, his eternity, his wholeness, his governance, his complete governess over us and the whole of creation. According to the measure of acknowledgment of the greatness of the Creator we can submit ourselves and the more we can submit ourselves towards Him and elevate Him before us as the greatest, then we come to the correct connection between us and the Creator, that he is the Keter and we are the Malchut. And therefore in all the praises and requests we are drawn to that.
S. To form our Kli, our vessel, to get this double glory, what must we focus on primarily, what is our task to reach double glory? How can we help each other to reach double Glory
R. The main thing is to try to see the governance of the Creator everywhere in both vessels and lights, in our desires and everything there is, and then from that we come to a state where we will see where we will have fear and honor and yearning for adhesion and so forth.
29. S. (51:47) In the Russian language to justify the Creator has no meaning. So I'd like to clarify what exactly does it mean to justify the Creator? Does it mean to justify that the trust that He gave in me when he gave me the point…?
R. I cannot discuss this here because there's so much nuance here, so many subtleties that I don't have the power now to clarify and do this in a way that we all understand. Rather each and everyone, there are many things between the words that we cannot scrutinize because it's just the weakness of language, but bit by bit we come to these emotions and these feelings that awaken from within us, they clarify to us what it's about.
30. S. (53:09) About the light that shines to the dweller in the Shechina, is that a desire to bestow with the right intention, is that the Shechina?
R. Shechina is the collection of all the created beings that are aimed in order to bestow in return to the Creator as they discover his attitude towards them.
31. S. (53:57) Fear is what leads many of our actions in this world so our work in the wisdom of Kabbalah is related to transforming our fear in this world to fear of the Creator?
R. Yes of course that is the main thing. This is the main thing especially for beginners.
32. S. (54:41) Can I ask about the light of Hassadim?
R. Okay ask if it's in the context of the lesson.
S. It says here that the feeling, there are many common things between reflected light and the light of Hassadim, so the light of Hassadim is a correction that comes to us from above, correct?
R. Correct.
S. So the direct light can then dress in the light of Hassadim and reflect light. This seemingly is also the realization of the MAD when we receive correction then we can bring back up?
R. Meaning the reflected light is also awakened in us by the Creator. There is no action from below that we actually do on our own.
S. But is it the same innate quality but it just transitions from below up? The reflected light has the same nature, the same quality of the light of Hassadim?
R. It's not exactly the same nature, we'll talk about it.
33. S. (56:09) It says many times here, it talks about the decorations of the bride, what is this?
R. The decoration of the bride is all of the possession within reflected light that she awakens, that she glitters and indicates to her husband how she's ready to receive from him inner light and have it shine.
S. This text, do we read on Shavuot night, is that why we read it at night, why?
R. Of course.
S. Why do we read it on this night?
R. Because the night is still the exile, darkness, we've read about it.
34. S. (57:13) What does it mean that the ten has prepared itself correctly during the day towards the reading of the Zohar?
R. That they went through once or twice or maybe even more, the excerpt that they read or will have to read. Meaning the previous lesson and the next lesson, and that they are ready internally to connect to that and to approach it.
S. We listen throughout the day to the recorded lesson also?
R. Yes that too.
S. But sometimes we feel that it's hard to get into it. What do you recommend we do?
R. To read as much as possible, to read and reread and again and again until it becomes clear to you what Rabbi Shimon wants to communicate to us.
35. S. (58:27) About working with fear: does it harm us if we try to keep in mind to remember the feelings that the fear causes us or is it good to feel fear all the time? How do we work with fear?
R. According to the measure of fear we discover the right relationship between us and the Creator.
36. S. (59:08) How do we turn the egoistic, animalistic fear that we naturally have into the correct spiritual fear that we need to advance?
R. It's not that we do it, the Creator does it.
S. He's asking how we use the fear correctly to advance.
R. All the positive changes we go through and even the negative ones, they are all made from above. There is no change that happens if not by the upper light.
S. What do we have to do so that we have, so that the Creator will make this change?
R. To pray, there's nothing else, to pray.
Reading continues (01:00:17) “The glory of God refers to the glory of the Bride..”
37. R. (01:04:10) Yes, well how to say it, when the created beings correct themselves by the Creator's help, they basically pronounce or highlight or show everyone how they achieve in their correction they reach from minus to plus, infinity and so forth. And by that they represent the Creator’s work upon them and that's how they represent the power and glory and love and connection and all that there is in the Creator and now they've achieved it on themselves.
38. S. (01:05:01) What is specifically in the Festival of Shavuot so that the bride enters the Huppah?
R. That's the 50th day from the exodus from Egypt and by that, all the corrections are completed when they were in exile in Egypt and took all the vessels from there, as we hear that they came out of Egypt with the great possession, and corrected that for 50 days, these are degrees. And therefore, they've reached complete correction for now of course. That they emerge from the will to receive in order to receive which is what they felt in Egypt and they crossed the Red Sea and all the other degrees to get to know themselves, it’s a great degree. We will talk about it more. Now we are in a more general introduction to it, we are still ahead of Passover and all the other holidays and we will discover and learn what each of them symbolizes.
39. S. (01:06:47) What does it mean that the governance over governance is revealed?
R. It means that there are more degrees there are more and more degrees. And these degrees are called years, that's what he writes and so governance over governance because in 6,000 years she had governance because she was only the governance with only the small light for the night governance and now she was given the governance of the day as well since she has grown like the light of the sun for the governance of the day. Meaning the light of the moon becomes like the light of the sun, and that's the two great lights of the final correction. That's what needs to happen.
S. You said that many times we work in such a way that There Is None Else Besides Him, you also said that we need to be in fear and to try to see the Creator both in the lights and in the vessels. Sometimes you can be in a state where you persuade yourself that There Is None Else Besides Him, but how to truly discover this governance so that we are able to justify Him, to see that?
R. We will get there, and then we will see how we actually go through in practice, we will discover that.
40. S. (01:08:40) This weakening, this is the revelation of his deeds towards the Creator?
R. I don't understand.
S. It says there…
R. It is a scrutiny and proximity, that getting closer between the Creator and the created being.
S. So it's when the created being already discovers everything clearly.
R. Yes.
41. S. (01:09:51) The Creator frees the bride from the exile or is it that the bride, when she gives Him all of this greatness then she receives the permission?
R. It's an action that happens simultaneously, that's why it's called Zivug, coupling.
S. And when does this appear between the bride and the groom?
R. When we get there we will be able to talk about it.
42. S. (01:10:28) How does the action of getting closer become emotional if the heart gets harder more and more?
R. It is written, there is no more whole than a broken heart. Meaning that the more we advance, we do begin to realize that the feeling of connection requires depth, requires a great will to receive on the one hand, and only from that we can attain the Creator. The more crude and low and lowly and broken the created being is, then during the corrections he can achieve and attain the degrees of the Creator much more. As it is written, ‘from the depths I have called upon the Creator.’ That's what we go for, through one thing and it's opposite, the light excels from darkness otherwise we wouldn't reveal it.
43. S. (01:12:17) Glory over glory that the bride attains, which she attains on the day and on the night: is that the end of correction or is it the beginning of the spiritual path?
R. It's the spiritual path on the rungs of the ladder, all the degrees until the final correction.
44. S. (01:12:55) Could I say that the pleasure is a gift and conceals the relation of the Giver which is in the gift?
R. It's not the case in spirituality in spirituality it's the opposite, the more the gap between them becomes revealed it works for the feeling of closeness between them because otherwise they have no contact.
45. S. (01:13:58) I heard that the main thing for beginners is to turn the fear from this world to spiritual fear of the Creator?
R. Yes, that's very important.
S. What does that mean and how should it be expressed?
R. This means to rise from the fear of will I succeed and will I reveal, to the fear of will I be able to bestow contentment.
S. And what are the steps towards that inversion?
R. Who will feel the result, who needs to do it and who needs to feel the result, where is the action, where is the reward.
S. How should I develop a feeling that the results will be in Him and not in us?
R. That all depends on man's feeling, how much he works correctly in the group and with the friends he builds the general vessel, and then he sees where they are and where I am and where we are together and how do we turn to the Creator between us and how He turns to us and so forth, he has to try to stabilize all those things in the right way.
S. Why specifically in the friends in the relationships between us we can feel and develop this inversion in fear?
R. From working this way we reach a state of the correct fear.
S. How from working with the friends we reach spiritual fear of the Creator?
R. Out of the work of friends we come to the fear from the Creator. The work itself leads us to that. When we compose with one another a vessel, meaning a means to bestow to the Creator, that we connect in such a way, that out of our connection we can bestow to the Creator, then we build Him. It's called you have made me, and in such a way we advance towards Him, we begin to feel in what actions of ours we reveal, we invite actions in Him.
46. S. (01:17:11) According to the article can we say that we will reveal the mercy in the judgment?
R. We will reveal mercy according to the judgments that we feel, yes of course.
47. S. (01:17:51) It's written that the light of the moon will shine like the light of the sun, what does that mean exactly, that it will be an addition to its degrees?
R. This is what we attain through all of our corrections over 6,000 years, the 6,000 degrees. That we add and add and add our vessels, the yearning the deficiency, to reach the Creator and to reveal Him and to bestow to Him, that in so we reveal in such a way, we reveal the Creator out of our yearning, and this is why we add our yearning to what was before, and by that we arrive at the large illumination.