Morning Lesson July 27, 2022, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Part 2:
Baal HaSulam. Introduction to the Book Panim Meirot uMasbirot. #10
1. R. (00:10) Let's continue with that and we will see how he continues and clarifies the whole thing gradually to us, please.
Item #10 (00:26) “Come and see the words of the sage…”
2. R. (00:57) It says that we need to do with our hands and with our speech.
Reading continues: (01:05)
3. R. (01:17) So we don't need to engage with our hands and mouth so much as it seems that it's being required of us but only to correct the heart in bestowal, in connection and getting closer to each other.
Reading continues: (01:37) “It is written to them who are….”
4. R. (02:08) Meaning not to use the ego.
Reading continues: (02:14) “It is the first degree from….”
5. R. (03:00) The force of bestowal that is.
Reading continues: (03:06) “The Creator will open his….”
6. S. (04:11) Fear of the Creator and love of the Creator which are the Commandments of do and not to do, what are the Commandments of not to do?
R. I don't think that that's the case, I think that is reaching the love of the Creator means equivalence of form with him just like he loves the created beings to begin with, so our commandant, what is commanded upon us is love thy Lord to achieve love to him, the force of bestowal, that is the only force that dwells in reality. If I come to a state where I love him too, to that extent I connect with all of reality, reveal all of reality and thus we achieve equivalence of form.
S. It is written here, fear of the Creator, and the fear includes all of the Commandments of not to do in the mouth and heart. What is the…?
R. Because in my egoistic will to receive is where I am and I want to start advancing from that to qualities of bestowal that are opposite, so what works on me is the laws that appear on me in such a way that you shouldn't do this, to be afraid to do this or that. This is how we can advance because I am completely immersed in the will to receive in an egoistic desire but the more we start moving out of the state and start studying and through all the relationship between us, we begin to feel more what is required of us and we see that all these actions, all these laws only work on our will to receive and nothing else.
7. S. (06:48) He writes here that the letters are as corpses, what can help us always to pay attention?
R. Only from the relationship between you and the group. That's it, nothing else, try to get closer, try to connect in your hearts and then you will see how much there is a matter of mutual bestowal here and softening the heart by each other and so forth. Specifically in that softening of the heart that you'll make through your connection, there you will begin to feel the Creator. The Creator doesn't appear in any one, it appears in what's between us and what will be between us, when we discover, say that atoms, there are particles plus and minus and others, many different kinds. But what is it that fills the gaps between them, seemingly it's empty space, it's not air, it's not anything there, nothing can be there inside the atom. So what is that space between them, the same thing we need to find between us, that there's a certain distance, gap, between us that is filled with the higher degree then where we are, a higher dimension and that's where the Creator lies. That is where the Creator resides, detached from all of matter and yet the stains and fills all of matter.
8. S. (09:04) The world of fear contains all of the commandments, so how to remain in the state of constant fear?
R. Continuously we can't do that because we always have to advance and to advance means changing everything, we've got to higher and higher levels and therefore we have to try to further and further reach a state where we’re all advancing so that our fear shifts from fear of punishment. Fear of all kinds of things, that are unpleasant, not good for our will to receive, to fear of bestowal, will I be able to bestow all the time and not fall from it so that it doesn't appear suddenly that I could be in thoughts about myself, calculations about myself, that should be what my fear should be about.
9. S. (10:48) The Commandments of not to do on behalf of our work is just to be in smallness in the ten and receive their bestowal?
R. Yes, all the Commandments both you should do and not, should you have to pass it through the ten and aim it towards the Creator.
10. S. (11:46) He writes here that if he won't understand the Taamim, like the one trying to count the letters and pages, what should I do, what is he telling me here?
R. He's telling you that you need to come to understand the internality of the text and not the externality, there are people who know it by heart, everything that's written in TES or other books of Baal Sulam but the benefit of that, it's the other way around because they think they know what's written and knowledge, knowing is the inner connection to the essence of the text so they have nothing out of that.
S. So what should I do if I'm studying for so many years and I don't understand anything?
R. You don't need to be sorry for not understanding, you need to be sorry that your heart doesn't understand.
S. Right, so what should I do, live in such a way that…?
R. Only to ask, to cry.
S. So many years to cry?
R. Not that many, I don't really remember you crying that much.
S. I cry, you don't see it as much, what should I do in order to not reach states that I'll be like a parrot, just read and read and read, when is that moment when what else could I do so I really start feeling?
R. So let's try right now even one minute, to try to feel in our collective heart that comes together how much we want to begin to feel what we study in it, so that it resides in our common heart not our individual hearts and our common heart.
S. how to do it?
R. So we're beginning.
R. We see that it's not so simple and still we feel ourselves as if we exist in some space, maybe empty space but not a single heart. We have to make more and more of these exercises, we have to do more of these exercises and prepare, prepare ourselves every time throughout the day to such an exercise and thus bit by bit, we'll come to a state where we truly are one man and one heart.
Reading continues: (15:50) “we draw only this from his words….”
11. R. (17:14) Meaning that in this life we need to reach the revelation of the Creator.
Reading continues: (17:21)
12. R. (20:08) What is you want to tell us into words, he wants to tell us this, if we discover ourselves as living in this world we have to understand that all our life here is in order to discover the Creator. The revelation of the Creator is based on equivalence of form with him, based on the laws, the laws of nature and so we need to achieve the form of bestowal and love of thy neighbors is the general law of nature. By that we correct ourselves from hate to love and that's our purpose of our life and that's what we have, everything else is just certainly wrong.
13. S. (21:13) He writes that we have to find tricks to reach our feelings. I want to ask you personally, if you don't mind, do you have all kinds of tricks that maybe we can learn from you?
R. Special techniques, ploys to attain the Creator.
S. To get what you attained.
R. Look I had a big business, I used to make money and do whatever I wanted even though I didn't really do so much because I wasn't drawn to all those things, but I would go and search for how I could fill my life with whatever is most important. Until I found the wisdom of Kabbalah.
S. You did something special that could help us reach that feeling?
R. I think that you have come to a ready-made state, there's books that didn't exist in my time and a place where you can study, you can also come here and study, come together in different places, different events, different places across the planet. today you participate, I remember when there was no internet and even books, until you would be able to get a book and other things. You couldn't write to each other, and phones were everywhere, it's a different thing. It was very difficult, today you have all the means, each one does, regardless of where a person lives you see we have people from Africa, Asia, America, every place we can all connect and talk to anyone talk to everyone. Accordingly human beings become lazier, why, because more will to receive appears in them and towards the final correction it's becoming heavier and heavier and so even though they are given all kinds of means, they can't, even with those means, they can't rise higher than where they are. It's a problem.
S. if you try to put this all-in-one point what do you think we are lacking the most? That's why we're not succeeding? Because we're not persistent on that point, what are we really lacking according to your opinion?
R. Connection.
S. Only connection?
R. Not my fault but that's how it is because we emerge from the shattering and we have to correct the shattering and there we find the Creator in correcting the shattering that's all, so there's one action, connect and reveal the Creator.
S. So what's disturbing us for so many years, why is it so difficult for me to perform this connection, what is difficult about it?
R. Try to feel in your heart that you're connected with others in your heart. Today you're able to be connected with others so they are truly inside your heart, just like you are in your heart.
S. That's by an annulment?
R. That's what you need to work on.
14. S. (25:48) It's interesting how the text says here the Torah was only given to the man with the heart, on the other hand, says that if you don't understand then the Torah is lost from us, so can it be given to other people or only to the people of the heart?
R. In our times it's for everyone but each and every one as much as possible for him to connect to it. You see how in our times books, internet, anything's possible, it's right next to each and every one. People are connecting from Africa, Australia everywhere you can come and attain. The connection this thread connects man to the correction to the Creator, to spiritual revelation, to the upper reality but people are blocked. As much as the means of connection is being revealed, also the difficulty in man's heart is revealed that he doesn't want to do these actions, that he can't and for that reason we are between Heaven and Earth.
15. S. (27:23) If possible to clarify, you answered about the taste earlier, that it's the soul and in Russians it's the intonation, so what is it about?
R. I don't know how they translate it to you but where do you see it, I don't know where is it?
S. It says here that then he is able to taste the flavors of Torah and it's the inner wisdom and the secrets maybe that's what it means?
R. Okay well let that one go; it will be clear from the other things.
16. S. (28:27) To what extent is it important to the importance of the group and contributing to the group, supporting the group for the friend?
R. It's very important, we need forcefully to connect and adhere to everyone as much as possible and I understand that there are those who are not able to and we're speaking about a soul that could be very exalted, with a strong will to receive that can't absorb the amount of connection and can't suffer, can't stand the connection with the others, can't open his heart to the others. He can't understand how or what they even want from him. Such people usually, later on when they correct themselves, they reach very high degrees but to enter the connection with the friends to lift towards bestowal, that is very difficult, very difficult. To such an extent that they leave or come back and leave and come back again and they're really not able to do it and then they might even come back in different incarnations. Even that their heart wants the Torah they're not able to do it maybe even in one incarnation.
S. Is our difficulty raising the group or when they have a difficulty to raise us to be more than we are?
R. Yes, we need to help such people and then by them being between us they will help us rise higher too. They carry a great will to receive, more than usual of whatever is revealed.
17. S. (30:56) What to do if the whole lesson goes by and nothing comes in?
R. I understand it, it also happened to me, just ask from the Creator, there's no one else to turn to and nothing else to do, connect to the friends as much as possible and turn to the Creator.
18. S. (31:37) The exercises we just did you emphasize to try to feel in our common heart, literally in our shared heart, then you said to him try to really feel your heart, you emphasized that they are there in your heart. So I want to try to understand what is a common heart, what is that feeling, where is it, how to reach it?
R. It's not something you can pass to one another what you feel in your heart, only if you have a mutual heart you will feel, let's say, what I feel. That if we don't have a mutual heart yet so you can't feel in your feelings called your heart, what I feel in my heart.
S. Sometimes I just hear the direction that to try and feel how the friends stand in my heart and how I'm connected with them and so on and other times the direction is to try and feel outside of me in some common heart, that at the moment I don't feel so I'm trying to just be precise and see how to assemble it.
R. It's not a constant state, it comes and goes and changes, that's why we're in all these transitions in such a way. That once we have a mutual heart and we don't, sometimes more sometimes less, by this we scrutinize all our vessels. Just as we do something, like if we eat something ,we cook something in a big pot on the fire, so we cook and cook ourselves until we warm up and incorporate in one another and in this way we will reach our destination.
S. So how did we direct ourselves towards the right feeling?
R. We need the Creators' help. Only with the Creators’ help, by that we will truly reach revelation, redemption.
19. S. (34:20) He writes here that the Creator can really open the eyes of our heart and renew the spirit. I think it's what we all want, that the Creator will give us a new spirit, but he says here that we need to employ some tactics, so I guess the stronger the will to receive the more we need to create tactics, what can we do here?
R. Search how you can realize these words that are written here. Search.
20. S. (35:02) Maybe it's the same question about connection, we are about 5 or 6 hours every day in virtual connection, what can we add between the tens maybe?
R. Nothing, not in ours or anything, only in the efforts in your heart.