Part 2:

Baal HaSulam. "Study of the Ten Sefirot" (TES). Vol. 2. Part 6. Inner Observation. #1

Reading TES , vol. 2, part 6, Inner Observation #1 “We should know that the world of Nekudim is the first..”

1. S. (03:58) What does it mean that the main cause of the coming of the Partzuf is the clash of the surrounding light with the inner light?

R. When there is a screen, inner light, surrounding light, the Guf, the Kli, the coarseness, everything, and then it is possible to make a connection between the upper light and the desire to receive through the restriction, the screen, the reflected light, and to clothe the direct light on the reflected light in the desire and what emerges is a vessel, a desire to receive that will function in the same way as the light. The light gives like the host who gives to the guest the treats, the food, and the guest who gives the host his attitude, his gratitude. This can be done only through the restriction, the screen, and the Zivug de Hakaa, the coupling and striking and this is what he is explaining here.

S. What is this treat that the host shares?

R. There’s the upper light itself which brings us pleasants and filling to the Partzuf and there are in addition many things that we can’t yet talk about because we can’t measure it or weigh it, that upliftment that the vessel receives as it identifies with the Creator. The guest who’s doing a favor to the host begins to feel the extent to which he raises above himself to the degree of the host and the extent in which he by this equalizes with the host and can attain his degree and this way this is what fills him. This is called the adhesion of the created being with the Creator.

S. How in our connection in the ten can you say this is a treat from the Creator?

R. Through His actions and your actions wanting to do good and certainly you are doing this above your desire to receive but rather in the desire to bestow to Him then certainly you’re performing an action that brings Him pleasure.

2. S. (07:14) It says that the matter of the clash of the surrounding light and the inner light is the screen. What does it mean that the clash of the surrounding and inner light, what does it mean clash?

R. That you need to open the Study of the Ten Sefirot in the previous parts and to see there in the Inner Observation or in the questions and answers what the clash between the inner and sound turning lights is, the Bitush. I will tell you in simplicity, the vessel receives something in order to bestow so it makes a calculation how much it can receive in order to bestow, not everything but only part of it, because it does not have the power to overcome and receive one hundred percent of what the Creator gives him in order to bestow, and then he rejects the light that comes to him and then begins to weigh it and only part of the light that wants to enter from the host where the host is constantly pressuring the guest, so the guest decides that he receives this part in order to bestow to the host and not for himself even though it was very pleasant for him to receive and to enjoy in a simple way in the regular vessels.

S. Why am I asking you? It says that the clash between the inner with the surrounding light is actually the screen. Yesterday we learned about it.

R. No, no, this is actually the screen. The Bitush the clash is not the screen.

S. He writes the clash of the surrounding light refines to the screen.

R. What does it mean? This is the clash of the surrounding light with the inner light therefore this is the entire manner of its appearance. What is he saying? He’s saying that this is building the screen? No, that is the work of the screen. Well?

S. It says in the returning light that he raises clothes on the screen. What is the connection to the surrounding light in the clash that raises the returning light, what is the connection? I know there is a connection.

R. The light comes from the host because he wants to fill the guest. The guest performs a restriction upon himself he says I do not want to receive. It’s not that he doesn’t want to enjoy rather he doesn’t want to receive because this will distance from the host and then after he did the restriction upon himself, the rejection, the refusal, now he receives in order to bestow from the host meaning he already measures but not just received but rather how much of the stuff that he receives he can receive not for his own benefit but for the benefit of the host.

The host wants him to receive everything without any calculations but he cannot allow himself to do that because this will distance from the host from one end to the other- he will become the receiver and the host will be the bestower - therefore he makes a calculation how much he can receive in order to delight the host and not himself. He remains actually within himself actually as far as he's concerned empty and begins to receive now according to a calculation of how much do I receive in order to delight the host and receives, makes a calculation and receives in order to bestow to the host.. This is called that he receives from the host light, pleasure, filling, in his own reflected light and in such a way he exists

S. ….. the light that reforms, you said specifically this lesson of the ten Sefirot, we draw the light that reforms. What Tzimtzum, what restriction are you making to draw the light that reforms?

R. I perform a restriction on my vessels to receive in order not to enjoy in them.

S. What does that mean?

R. But rather only to receive in order to bestow to the host.

S. This I understood but I in the lesson itself what is the essence of the action? It says do a restriction, do a Tzimtzum and draw the light that reforms. So what is this action in the lesson itself that now I am studying, what am I restricting?

R. You restrict your desire to enjoy.

S. In the lesson too?

R. Also in the lesson.

S. I’m sorry that I am asking you, what is the definition that I'm restricting my,... what do I need to restrict in the lesson?

R. You need to block yourself from pleasure.

S. What is the pleasure? That’s what I’m asking. What is the pleasure in the Talmud of the Ten Sefirot?

R. The pleasure is from receiving directly from the Creator. You perform a restriction on Him.

S. Annul before the friends? This is the restriction?

R. Why do you need to add? Because you yourself are going to be confused and I don't want to go with you there.

S. What does it mean to restrict the middle of the lesson? What do I do?

R. First of all, if you shut up a little bit then maybe you'll be able to hear something.

S. Please, please.

R. You need to restrict your desire to receive within which you enjoy and then you make a calculation, how much pleasure can I receive in order to bestow to the host? Imagine to yourself that you are now taking, let’s say that cookie, and you want to enjoy from it such that that pleasure will come to the host and not to you. If you make the correct calculation then there is no problem with you receiving this cookie because you enjoy it not because you want to enjoy but because you want to delight the host. That’s it. And this is how you start to relate to the host as the bestower, so He bestows upon you and you don't want to receive the pleasure but rather you are bestowing to Him. The fact that He wants to give you pleasure that’s already pleasure for you because He wants it for your benefit and the fact that you refuse to receive pleasure and want to bestow in return to Him, that too is giving, so you are already in mutual giving to one another. This is called I for my beloved and my beloved from me.

S. Now I understood, you explained it slowly and now I understand.

R. That’s until tomorrow or maybe even less than that.

3. S. (16:21) The refining of the screen, does it bring you closer to the Creator?

R. The refinement of the screen brings a person closer to the Creator even though it distances him from the act of reception in order to bestow but brings him closer to unification with the Creator because he refuses to receive.

S. The refinement doesn't mean less screen?

R. Less screen and less receiving and therefore comes closer to the Creator.

S. We don't want to have more and more screens, stronger and bigger?

R. Correct but here the refinement of the screen operates out of him not having anything more to do with the screen he had and now he inevitably is coming closer to the Creator through the refinement of the screen.

4. S. (17:47) You spoke about the example of the guest and the host. I want to share that in my feeling lately that the host became the friends, they are the host or the owner of the heart. What I do during the day what I feel as if conceal the Creator. I don't know how to say it right.

R. What host do you mean? The host and the Creator's the same thing.

S. What I'm saying is the friends, at least in my feeling, they started just fulfilling the role of the host.

R. What friend? I don't understand. Are you talking according to the example of Baal HaSulam giving to us of the host and the guest?

S. Yes, there's an example of the host and the guest, I understand that, but in the feeling what I'm saying is in the feeling is that who rules, controls over the progress of the path is the friends. I don’t know how to say it.

R. You'll maybe have to find other words. Certainly the relations and problems with the host we solve between us in the group. But find words.

5. S. (19:20) Until a person is in spirituality there’s different exercises to bring contentment to the Creator and every time you try to do such an exercise you feel a great pleasure and you understand that you cannot clothe it upon the Creator. How do you do the exercises if you know this is impossible?

R. Everything is possible to the Creator. He will give you the vessels and the force and fill every single action.

6. S. (20:21) It seems that the guest and the host is me and the friend, so at what moment do we feel the Creator?

R. We feel the Creator the moment we can delight Him and answer Him on the same wavelength like He is towards us and this is called, my beloved for me and I for my beloved, to the extent that our waves are in equivalence between us then from them we feel our connection with the Creator.

7. S. (21:22) If I understood correctly then when I enjoy for myself for my own benefit then I enjoy that which I received from the host. Then what does it mean to enjoy for the host? Is it when I enjoy who gives it to me and it doesn't matter what I receive or is there other options?

R. You won't be able to feel this because it's happening in other completely different desires in desires to bestow and not in desires to receive. We don't have desires to bestow, we don't have such desires, at the least, we for the time being don't have. Therefore you cannot somehow understand this whole state In which you’re giving to the host and enjoying because for the time being you’re enjoying within yourself.

8. S. (22:41) You said that the host constantly pressures with the light and wants to fulfill completely and when I consciously am active in the process and I don't want the light to enter the receiving Kelim, where do I find this border? Is this universally constant or is it dynamic where it changes?

R. There is constantly some form of and the Creator’s in there.

S. How do I feel this barrier and understand that’s it?

R. Only according to the example with the friends. Alone you will not be able to define or make this. When you will be able to define what’s for me and what’s for the benefit of the others then a feeling, how to divide the feeling to receive and to bestow will be in you.

S. In this process there's always intention and analysis of how to have it in the feeling.

R. Of course emotional, feeling, only feeling.

S. Between me and my friend there’s this border. Do I find it there between us?

R. Yes.

S. It has to be in the common heart between us.

R. Yes.

S. Where?

R. In our common heart.

S. I don't understand.

R. It's not that you don't understand you don't feel it yet.

S. Yes, yes and I'm constantly searching for this border, it's terrifying, it's a great responsibility because maybe it's been broken and again I'm in reception.

R. Don't worry don’t worry, you're not responsible for everything, you're not responsible for everything, besides you there's also the Creator.

S. I have to entrust myself in Him that he doesn't break the barrier or the border that He's the guarantor.

R. You need to constantly adhere to Him, adhere to Him, this is what it speaks about.

S. I constantly try to adhere to the deficiency of the friend, I don't know what it means to adhere to the Creator but to the deficiency of the friend I try to adhere, but there's so many variety of processes and how do you filter it?

R. Work less with your head, work less with your mind, with your head. Don't think that you will be able to with all your calculations resolve some spiritual matter.

S. It's just that when we study the sources it feels that a person consciously regulates these processes.

R. No, through the feeling.

9. S. (26:11) Through the story of the guest and the host when the guest desires to receive another portion in order to bring contentment to the host there is a new Partzuf?

R. Very correct, a new Partzuf is built.

S. Meaning the ten each time builds a new Partzuf if it wants to bring contentment to the Creator more.

R. Yes, a new process begins.

10. S. (27:02) When we get to this point and we make this restriction and the coarseness in the Guf is refined and now it is in the Rosh, can we use this coarseness to get closer to the host?

R. Yes. We are talking about the coarseness in the Guf, in the body, in the Rosh seemingly there is no coarseness, we will learn how to use it.

11. S. (27:59) Earlier we studied TES and I remember the overcomings that I had to experience because I didn't understand anything, I still don't, but recently there is a feeling that we are working with feelings, with the soul, and this is becoming not as close but more connected, where He's connecting us more and more into some whole. Do we need to study TES with the soul and not with the mind?

R. Yes, of course. All together the whole of the wisdom of Kabbalah works with all our desires, we are building new desires in the wisdom of Kabbalah desires to bestow, at least desires not to receive and so on. Maybe these are all desires, desires of the feeling in them, it's a wisdom that's only built on feeling, on feeling the Creator, feeling all of reality, the universe, feeling yourself your desires, the desires of another, to feel the other like yourself, it's all feelings, only feelings.

12. S. (29:41) In Inner Observation there was only one article meaning that the light clothed only in one vessel called Malchut and the nine before that we are clear of a Kli, a vessel. What does Baal HaSulam come to tell us, it's in the beginning of Inner Observation, he says that:

Reading Inner Observation again

S. What does Baal HaSulam come to tell us that there was no Kli?

R. Yes, certainly there was no vessel, there was no Kli, until the entire expansion from above downwards altogether we cannot say that there was a Kli because a Kli is called a deficiency which is suited to its role and here we have yet to have such a deficiency we haven't had such a Kli yet.

S. Then the first nine Sefirot?

R. That's not a Klil.

S. We’re meant to fill the Kli when it was created?

R. Yes, only in order to pass the upper light to Malchut, to build the Malchut, and bring light to it so it will fill her, under the conditions of the screen, restriction, and reflected light etcetera.

13. S. (32:09) This is the screen and the returning light that he raises and continues to clothe the inner light of the Partzuf. What is the returning light? It continues the inner light. Is there coarseness there that is included in the returning light?

R. Yes, we learned this in the previous parts of the study of TES. The reflected light which comes from Malchut to Keter takes from Malchut the coarseness and with this coarseness it clothes the first nine Sefirot of the vessel and clothes upon those lights with its coarseness and this way we have the reception of the upper light in the Kli.

S. Why does he write that the light of a new Partzuf is only a part of the surrounding light, how to divide surrounding light?

R. It's not dividing it but simply that light that the upper vessel did not receive as internal light departed it through the clash and coupling and enters into a place it's happening and fills it as an inner light now, that's it, that's how the light expands in the vessel wherein each and every degree the light enters into the vessel, fills it, and continues onwards to the next vessel. This is the difference between the inner lights in every single degree and the surrounding light which remains from reception of light outside, and it's then meant to receive the light and its lower vessel.