Morning Lesson May 25, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
The Approach to Studying the Wisdom of Kabbalah - Selected Excerpts from the Sources. #30
1.Rav’s Introduction: Yes, so we will start from the intention during the study.
Excerpt 30 (00:35)
2. R. (01:03) Meaning the one primary goal that we should be with all the time, like a flashlight, like light that we have before us, is the importance and greatness of the Creator, that this is what we are going towards, this is what we are discovering, and we are coming closer to that. That I don't need more than that. The most important is that I will obtain more and more with each study and every moment in the study the greatness and the importance of the Creator.
3. S. (01:42) We learned that a person has to grow stronger before the study in faith and here it says greatness and importance. What's the difference between growing stronger in faith and importance and greatness of the Creator?
R. Yes, the student pledges before the study to strengthen his faith in the Creator and his providence for reward and punishment, that is true. This is that if I intend to acquire the greatness of the Creator, the importance of the Creator, then all of the deeds that are performed, all the efforts that I make, I want them to give me that result. That my game my reward will be the greatness of the Creator will be in my eyes above and beyond everything that I have before me. Then of course I will receive from the Creator all kinds of obstructions. I will have to overcome them in the greatness and importance of the Creator will have to be even more than the disturbances this is how we will grow one upon the other.
S. He says to grow stronger and faith in the Creator.
R. That's exactly that, exactly with respect to the disturbances, that's what it means to strengthen in faith, in the Creator, in Providence, reward and punishment the fact that I am studying in order for the Creator, in my eyes, to grow as greater than all the disturbances. This is how we reach a state where we already are worthy of his revelation. His revelation means that in my eyes, the quality of bestowal will be revealed such that I will respect them, and I will gather them within me, and this is how we will come closer to the Creator himself.
4. S. (04:24) Sounds very egoistic, the greatest of the Creator for myself?
R. Of course, how else can it be? I want that the greatness and importance of the Creator will fill me, and I will be able to go forward in bestowal and once I have the force of bestowal then with this force I want to embrace all the created beings and bring them to that same form of the vessel of Adam HaRishon.
S. Why can't I ask for the greatness of the Creator for the friends?
R. You can do that but if I myself do not acknowledge the importance in greatness of the Creator, how can I ask for it for them? Because it's not important for me so let it be important for them. I first of all need to try to reach what seems great in my eyes, when I reach it, that it is great in my eyes, then for sure I acknowledge the greatness of the deed and the topic itself and then I try to bestow it to others. I cannot give to others what I do not have within me. Well there are both kinds, I mean they're your right, there is such a thing that either we do it together and we want to reach the greatness of the goal, but actually we ourselves must always attain and reach it. Later on once I have it, then I share this with others. I can't offer to others what I myself do not taste and do not attain. It's not due to bestowal.
5. S. (06:53) It turns out that I am responsible for this vessel in which there'll be room for the friends, for the Creator and for all those desires I have to correct?
R. Yes, yes, there's nothing else I can say, I'm responsible for the well-being of the world, for peace in the world, all of it because each one is as important as each one, that's how it is in spirituality.
6. S. (07:29) What is the greatness of the Creator, is this a feeling, a state between us?
R. The feeling of the Creator is the feeling of the force of bestowing that fills the person and gives him a feeling that the Creator is with him or inside of him. There are degrees here in the connection between them.
S. How should we enter with this feeling into the lesson?
R. This is what we do in the lesson. Through connection with the friends, I make myself ready for receiving these qualities of bestowal. Otherwise, no.
S. Meaning we have to enter the lesson with the feeling of love of friends?
R. Yes, this is what we want to do to begin with, this is what we study in the article that today we are concluding Matan Torah or the Giving of the Torah then The Mutual Guarantee, the continuation of the Torah. These two articles are necessary, we have to work in order to become incorporated within us and then through them will be able to connect in such a way that we will be worthy of the revelation of the quality of bestowal, the revelation of the Creator within us. Otherwise we don't want the quality of bestowal, otherwise we don't want the Creator as he is. As he's truth, he is the quality of bestowing that dresses this within us but rather we want something else, we depict the Creator as a force of attainment, wisdom, something which is already things that accompany him. The fact that we already connect and from all of us, that now we are all separated, scattered, away from each other and above that we connect with each other, out of that system that we keep we make, we make a system in which we can understand and feel the force of separation opposite force of unity. This is how we create, we build ourselves for the filling of the Creator that we attain the force of separation, that special one that exists in order to obtain the force of unity, that special one, that these two forces must exist inside one, one opposite the other, as it says that God has made one opposite the other and out of that we start to understand and actually to attain what does it mean Creator. What does it mean the force of connection? Because we attain him atop the force of separation, and this is how we advance, and you can't have one without the other. As we learn from the wisdom of Kabbalah that there has to be coarseness and restriction and a screen and then above that we begin to feel the connection refinement. This is why also in our world we see that these two opposite forces are revealed more and more in humanity, in the families, and in nations, and between nations, and in the entire world that these two forces are revealed in the contrast between them. Out of that we feel the connection between them.
7. S. (11:45) How can I invite the greatness of the Creator and the friends into my vessel, what is this?
R. It is a deficiency that the Creator awakens in us, and we together in the connection between us we need to awaken it more and serve it to the Creator.
8. S. (12:23) You said that we will receive disturbances from the Creator, we will have to overcome them in order to strengthen the importance and the greatness of the Creator. Every disturbance in life advances us towards the Creator or we have to sort them out?
R. We need to sort them in which degree of importance does it seem to us that this disturbance is close to the goal or far away from the goal.
Excerpt 31 (13:04) Twice
9. R. (14:12) So first we should ask for the vessels, that there will be vessels of bestowal, equivalence of form, the yearning to bestow and later on, out of that we will discover the light, the Creator. Because certainly it is impossible to discover him in any other way if we are not in the quality of bestowal.
Excerpt 31 again (14:45)
10. S. (16:00) When students of Rabbi Shimon wanted to kill one another, is it in an allegory, a demonstration for how to forgive one another, to forget about a friend is to kill him?
R. No, that's not true ,they truly do hate each other so much so, that they don't want to feel they don't want to see, they don't want to see that the other one even exists so much so that they feel the desire of the other, how much it is opposite and against my desire.
S. I also wanted to ask your explanation in one of the lessons are based about revealing a portion and concealing two, meaning you're not telling us anything directly, you leave for us a place for our work for our over, and deeper question?
R. This is always that way this is true it's always that way.
11. S. (17:31) In the excerpt it says we need to acquire vessels of bestowing called equivalence of form by which the restriction and concealment disappear. The vessels of bestowing are above concealment and reception, it's not clear.
R. Of course, vessels of bestowing are the vessels of the Creator and the created being the vessels of bestowal appear when they are not truly vessels of bestowing but rather receiving in order to bestow or bestowing in order to bestow. It's some artificial form of the will to receive. This is how we grow. We ask of the Creator that he will help us to build out of our desires because other than the will to receive we have nothing, so we want to build of our will to receive something that resembles the will to bestow. So that there will be this form of the will to bestow.
12. S. (19:10) The fact that I begin to feel?
R. The fact that I begin to feel that I am bestowing to the Creator and the Creator is enjoying me. There are many degrees in that.
13. S. (19:42) How can we always be in the state of feeling taste in the work of the Creator since life doesn't allow this us for most of the time, how can you get to a state where you feel the taste in the work that you do for the Creator?
R. We discover that in the connection between the friends, when we ask of the Creator that in this connection between us he will give us a good feeling that we will pull ourselves to each one towards the other, and in that way will grow stronger and connect. We will be revealed as one man in one heart and later on inside of that in what we build between us, the Creator will be revealed, this is called from the love of people to reach the love of the Creator.
14. S. (20:44) Vessels of bestowing are the same vessels that inside of me want to bestow to the friends or is it in the friends?
R. Well both, this, and that. I work with my vessels, and I ask that they will be vessels of bestowing and I want to connect with others and be incorporated in their vessels of bestowal. Vessels of bestowing are not the vessels of the created beings, it's when the Creator shines on the will to receive and the will to receive takes on seemingly the will to bestow, the intention to bestow, this is what we called vessels of bestowal. We don't have vessels of bestowal at all, vessels of bestowing that's the Creator. We as much as we try to turn ourselves around you will always be in vessels of reception but to make it so that those vessels of reception will work like vessels of bestowal, this is all of our work of our correction.
S. Is it possible to say that inside of me I'll never have vessels of bestowal?
R. Of course, you'll never have true vessels of bestowal, because that's the Creator, there is no such thing that the created being can be as the Creator well, as the Creator yes, but not truly the Creator, that's a different nature. The fact that you want to receive to begin with according to your nature, well, that's natural and the fact that the Creator is a force of bestowal, and he has nothing other than that that is all so natural. However we want to resemble him therefore our will to receive as much as it will be able to resemble the Creator’s will to bestow that's what we are talking about that is what is called correction.
15. S. (22:52) Why is it divided like that in the head, in order to acquire the quality of bestowal you have you have to overcome the rejection towards the friends in order to reach love?
R. This is called Aviut, our coarseness that we through resistance and conflict, through not wanting it, not needing it, that it's not important for us, we have to reach things that are important and desirable.
S. In that place where it appears, later expanded to the separate work here, on the one hand I have to feed on love of friends and the place is separate.
R. There is a will to receive and there are actions that correct that will to receive. That's it. This is separate and seemingly that is separate. It's the deed itself and this is the reason or the means for it.
Excerpt 32 (24:25)
16. R. (25:21) This means that what's important, what's the most important is what are we studying for? If I were to change myself to come closer to the Creator, to the purpose of creation, to receive the understanding and the feeling of what is it mean the meaning of life the purpose of life, what is a person living for, what are beginning these things for then I know and use the Torah in a way that it is the means to achieve this spice in the Torah. Meaning to feel the forces of bestowal, to get closer to the Creator, to understand him, to feel him, to connect with him. Whereas if I study as it says, you should reflect on him day and night, that I engage in the Torah, I study what it says in order to know what it says and by this to fill up my memory cells, that's something else. So to begin with, immediately, there are two approaches and certainly each one of us wants to know what is written, the question is do I want to know what is written the only or through that I want to reach the essence of the matter. To connect to what is it written about to connect with the Creator?
17. S. (27:03) How to achieve holiness in your ten?
R. Holiness means bestowing it's from the Creator, try to be in mutual bestowing to each other and you will reach Holiness. It's simple.
18. S. (27:30) We try to invert this will to receive and a lot of times the will to receive is bad for receiving and is bad for doing good, how to balance and use the will to receive to do good for the Creator and not to do good to myself or to do good to whatever because it's kind of sometimes hard to balance this will to receive even to do good it is difficult sometimes.
R. To continue all the time, all the time to continue, you should constantly do exercise between you and the friends just like children who begin to talk so he doesn't know what to put in, whatnot, the little child and he looks at us and he doesn't know what we are talking about, but he wants to get in there with his effort to be between us and to seemingly converse with us, with the grown-ups. So try to do the same with the friends and you will see that each one shall help his friend and you will start to understand what does it mean the language of bestowal, the force of bestowing.
19. S. (29:09) Bestowal to the Creator, I want to bestow it to the friends?
R. I suggest for you to remain in this complexity, bewilderment until it will be resolved. The most important is to bestow not you to the friends, the friends to you, you to the Creator, of course, here there will be no solution until it will become clear.
20. S. (29:59) The evil inclination disturbs the friends yearning for the Creator, what will I do to help him to do the work in the heart?
R. To pray, to ask of the Creator that he will help them.
Excerpt 33 (30:28) Twice
21. R. (31:19) Yes, that is to try to check himself each time to what extent he is close to and aiming towards the Creator and if necessary, of course it is necessary, that one should correct it.
22. S. (31:35) How can we scrutinize if I am moving away from the Creator and the ego is hiding it from me?
R. From the friends, according to the friends, to what extent you are coming closer to and moving away from the friends to that extent precisely you're coming closer or moving away from the Creator, that's it.
23. S. (32:10) Where do we find the border between learning the Torah and understanding the essence of the Torah?
R. The boundary exists inside of man's heart ,as much as man wants to study and as much as he wants to be a vessel for the revelation of the Torah. This exists inside of the person, inside of man's heart, as much as he wants his heart to be inverted, to be transformed to a vessel of bestowal. Then it says the heart understands meaning the heart be a desire of bestowal that it will be revealed, and it will grow inside of a person then he will start to understand the actions of bestowing by this you will attain the Creator's actions, he will have the Creator's mind.
S. Is it correct that we need reason in order to reach above reason?
R. What do we need to learn and also this is what we learn, our problem is that overtime besides the study we need to try to implement it between us that's it.
24. S. (33:37) The same about the quality of bestowing, you can ask for it from the right side and also from the left side because I'm not corrected but the middle will be to give contentment to the Creator?
R. The middle means that I and the Creator and all of the friends together are in a single point of connection. This is what it's about, that I do not disconnect the Creator from the friend if I speak of the Creator, he is inside of the friends. Check yourself in the middle of the day and see how much you are disconnected each time you think about the Creator, yes, about the friends, no, or you think about the friends but not exactly about in the same direction as you think about the Creator. You have to bind them together and you will see that then you will be successful.