Part 2
Morning Lesson December 20, 2021, Transcription
Transcription is made from simultaneous translation which leaves a possibility for differences in the audio
Baal HaSulam. The Love of God and the Love of Man (One Mitzva [Commandment])
1. R. (00:22) Let's just keep on going. We're actually always talking about the same thing. There is nothing more in the wisdom of Kabbalah except the connection from the shattering. We can talk about it technically, and let's hope we will soon come to that, like the Preface or The Study of the Ten Sefirot, or in an emotional way which are the articles. Besides that there is nothing.
S. During the song many friends asked why we are not studying the Preface. Why do you think there is no desire for this study?
R. I don't know why; there is a question here. First of all, who are the ones who vote? It's possible that women in Galaxy or others that are there, are technically the only ones that can vote. Maybe the ones that do want to learn the technical part of the wisdom of Kabbalah are somehow disconnected from the ability to vote and then we don't see them. You see that it is about half, about 500 to about 250, and that is a tremendous gap. That’s one thing. Another reason I am not so quickly going into it is because I want to go into the Preface and then The Study of the Ten Sefirot emotionally and not just learn about some forces from above, but about the forces in us. Where is the restriction, reflected light, and the screen? Where are the discernments of the inner light, the Peh and Tabur in me, in my will to receive that is taking on me the form of bestowal? Where in my will to receive do I have these discernments and how do I work with them? This is learning the wisdom of Kabbalah otherwise I'm learning something which is not relevant to me, it doesn't belong to me. We will study the Preface and The Study of the Ten Sefirot, according to the extent of how close and correct we bind such spiritual actions. This is in one or two more months, we are coming closer to it.
S. Until we reach an emotional level?
R. No, I can't wait for that. I don't know, a week or two weeks from now, we will have to continue the Preface but also as we go into the Preface, we will have to scrutinize emotional things as well, and how to relate and belong to them.
S. Another thing is there are many women joining us that maybe don’t want to study that.
R. We need to scrutinize the general desire. Suppose the case is that men want to learn the Preface and the women don't, we will have to have half and half with some days learning the Preface and some days we won't. There is tremendous material that is common to all.
2. R. That we have nothing in our world except keeping one commandment, a commandment is a law or rule, a spiritual rule but we can keep it. It is just that we don't, if we can and we do keep it then we are at the level of this law, there is no coercion in spirituality. If I can and I do then I am in spirituality already, if I don't want or if I do want but I can't keep it then I am not in spirituality. All we have is one law. We know it as in order to bestow, in order to receive is called the law of this world, the nature of this world and the will to bestow is the law of nature of the upper world, the next world.
Reader: (05:48) Love of God and the Love of Man
3. R. (06:20) The rule of the Torah is to love your friend as yourself if you don't observe that then you're not observing the whole of the Torah.
Reader continues: (06:33) It is written when you observe….”
4. R. (07:12) This means the Torah coerces us to love everyone even if they are not part of our nation, that they come from afar, from different nations. Maybe they're not only different but they are slaves. There was a time where there were slaves that were treated like animals but you have to relate to each and every one who has the shape of a human, you have to relate to him with love, not only in a nice way but with love, this is what Torah demands.
Reader continues: (07:59) ” How can one explain….”
5. R. (08:30) This means that if he is willing to accept this life and to yearn to a certain extent for equivalence, connection, love, something then you already have to accept it, except him in your group and in your nation and in this way to advance because ultimately what are we talking about? We are talking about all of us having to advance to a state where we are all like one man with one heart, like Adam HaRishon.
Reader continues: (09:12) “this is the meaning of one Mitzva….”
6. R. (10:30) Baal HaSulam asks here questions that usually what everyone can ask, what is it for, why is it, why is it for Israel and not the rest, must everyone take part in it, must everyone reach love your friend as yourself, and why was Torah given specifically through this small group of people and not others, there are thousands of questions. All of this matter for thousands of years we hear these questions and still it is not clear.
Reader continues: (11:25) “we must understand that our sages spoke only….”
7. R. (13:10) There are many questions here and he wants to prove to us eventually that in the matter of love your friend as yourself all of the laws of the world are included on all of the levels, in all of science, physics, biology, chemistry and philosophy, it doesn't matter what it is, it’s all included only in the matter of love your friend as yourself. After nature was created by the one force and took on one form which is called the soul of Adam Ha Rishon prior to the shattering and after it shattered the law of all of the parts of nature is to move and to reach that same corrected state, either by the force from above which is called the path of suffering which obligates forcefully in the power of the desire to come to connection which includes wars, problems, natural disasters, etc., or by people themselves understanding the need for connection, but good connection and desire and hurry their connection to the form of
Adam Ha Rishon on their own. That is called the good path, the short and good path. This is how we see things.
8. S. (15:01) We are reaching adhesion thanks to love, how do you get to love from adhesion?
R. it is the same thing, to connect and love or to love and connect there is no difference between the two and there is no one and then the other. It is simply the same thing, there is the intention and after the intention we check whether we are capable of doing this, we understand that we are not capable meaning where we are trying between each of us and we are understanding that we are not capable of doing so, we address the Creator appealing to Him and use His help.
S. The Creator functions here like the one who is giving us this?
R. If we can awaken the will to receive to help us it is a sign that we have desire but no abilities so the Creator gives us the forces to be able to do it. This is like a little baby that asks and asks from you until you help him.
S. What does He help?
R. The Creator gives us an understanding, a feeling of strength and then we can do or He does it instead of us, there are some actions that He does behind our backs in concealment and some actions He does in the open, some actions we feel that we got the strength and we can perform. To such an extent that we are partners with the Creator both in our request and the questions and also in the way that we carry out.
9. S. (17:30) Can we say that the rule of ‘love your friend as yourself’ is to feel your friends' needs?
R. Yes, the law of ‘love your friend as yourself’ stems from in the beginning of creation the upper light filled the entire reality or as the physics or scientists say that there was one place where all of the strength was focused, all of the material, we can't even imagine what this matter is, and then it blew up in the Big Bang and from that the entire universe was created. All of the worlds, all of the galaxies and everything that you can imagine to yourselves. Where did this Bang come from? It is a short circuit between the will to receive of the created being that the Creator created and the will to bestow which is the Creator's nature and then the will to bestow, touching the will to receive that it created made the will to receive blow up. From that all of the different shapes in the universe were made in the still, vegetative, animate and speaking, and above the speaking the development of the speaking to resemble the Creator, to return all of the matter to resemble the Creator. This is how we learn about cosmology.
10. S. (19:41) This article is one of the articles of Baal HaSulam, is this for general knowledge or to bring a person to the recognition of evil?
R. This is a person, maybe some people have these things that don't touch them at all, they look at it as a researcher learns. There was some Kabbalist one day and that's what he taught, nice, maybe they can have their PHD about it.
11. S. (20:33) It is written that there is no dispute which side it starts, from the general or the collective, what does that mean?
R. It doesn't matter where you start keeping ‘love your friend as yourself’, the main thing is that you keep it and observing that will lead you to advance because here you love your friend as yourself even in your small group by that you try to imagine to yourself like in a laboratory the entire creation as we want to build a connection between the friends in the ten it is a very big and subtle thing. Like in an experiment where we examine what the entire creation is, what laws enact in it, what we can do and what we change the laws of the big creation by examining them in the ten between us. The only problem is we are disregarding our 10 and we don't understand here how much we are touching the most internal, sensitive part of the entire universe, corporeal and spiritual, everything. If we were to understand what is in our hands, we would certainly relate to it differently this is why it is concealed from us. We are like children playing on the floor with little toys not understanding that around them is such a big world with so many things and they don't understand it because their mind is limited by this small toy. We are the same, and if we could understand that ‘love your friend as yourself’ is embedded in the 10 we would go into it and discover the entire spiritual and corporeality as one.
12. S. (23:13) It is written here its last point is to ‘love your friend as yourself’ and the immediate next stage is adhesion, to Dvekut [adhesion], so can you reach Dvekut [adhesion] without loving your friend first, what is adhesion to the Creator all together?
R. Here is an example for us, we learn a lot from him and more correctly we learn about him. A person who maybe has been with us twenty years and after twenty years he is asking, “Can I reach the final correction, the purpose of creation, without relating to others, without loving others?” How many times have you heard it, read it and it is as if you never heard it or read it.
S. I'm asking because he says here…
R. I am grateful to you forgiving us such an example.
S. Can you even get to love your friend all together, if that’s the case and if I can't get to love my friend like you're saying now, how can I reach Dvekut [adhesion] with the Creator?
R. You cannot, sadly. Loving the Creator is something everyone can do, that is not a problem, “I love the Creator.” Can anyone tell me that I don't? Are you crazy, this is a force above you and how can you afford to do such a thing? A friend, what is a friend? A friend is like me, maybe even less than me, what is there to love him, to respect him? No, you have to reach love which means if you have only one pillow, you will give it to him. If all you have is one piece of bread, you give it to him because for you he is the most important in life, not immediately but gradually you come to that.
S. What is the work here?
R. Now you turn to the Creator and you tell Him I am asking you, give me this force for me to be able to love the friend, that I want everything I have to give to him, a pillow, a chair, whatever I have.
S. Do you know how many times I asked and He doesn’t give me the possibility to love my friend, what is the secret here that He is not letting me love the friend?
R. The secret is that you're not asking, because by the actions that you have done that shows that you don't want it, that you don't want to reach the wanting of it.
S. What is the bottom line of the actions you are talking about here, how do I do it so I will love my friend this way, what bothers me and stops me from connecting?
R. The only thing that stands in your way is one thing, that is bothering you, the Creator.
S. The Creator is bothering me, but He wants us to connect, why would He be bothering me?
R. Yes, He wants you to connect and is standing in your way, it's like we do with little children, on the one hand we let them play and, on the other hand we make all kinds of difficulties or disturbances so that from these disturbances we will better learn how to bypass us, how to be more important than us and by that we let them grow, advanced them. Pay attention to how you are playing with your children or your grandchildren, you don’t give him what he wants, you want him to do something, some smart thing to reach that, because you want him to grow you don't just fill his will to receive, you educate him. That is your whole work as we are in the process of a spiritual education.
S. That's actually what the Creator is doing now, He is educating us?
R. Of course, all the time, non-stop and in each and every thing this whole evolutionary process that we are going through, the whole process of advancement in the industry, in the culture, is only education. It's just that the education takes a long time, and it comes with pain and problems but it is all education from the Creator as ‘there is none else besides Him.’
S. Who is this whole success based upon, for us to succeed?
R. We may succeed only under the condition that we organize in order to respond to the Creator’s addresses together and correctly, and we will advance fast and good. The whole problem is the only way to solve what the Creator gives us is together, together to succeed and what we want to do is apart, that is why we don't succeed. If you want to advance to the Creator which is called the path of Torah you have to first be connected to others as one man and one heart then you can climb the mountain.
S. Why does it say that when he does one commandment, he tips the whole world to the scale of merit for the whole world?
R. That's something we should do. If we observe this one Mitzva [commandment], ‘love your friend as yourself’ then we judge the whole world on the scale of merit and that is what we will do. If we go through a certain number of corrected parts then we will reach the state of bestowing in order to bestow in the general direction of Adam HaRishon and according to what you said, the whole world, chaos, good, it depends only on us.
S. According to what you say the whole world depends on us, only on me.
R. Yes, only on us and this is what a person needs to say that the world depends on me.
13. S. (31:09) He said the ten is a laboratory to realize ‘love your friend as yourself’, can you describe how these experiments look in the laboratory?
R. When we read the articles and we see them as guidance towards the experiment, towards the attempt and we do it between us.
S. What I am asking about his interpretations, he mentions that Hillel and Nassi don't do to your friend what you hate,’ is this an experiment of loving your friend as yourself?
R. Certainly, it comes first.
S. Do I start gradually from certain friends and then to all of them, how can I advance gradually?
R. In a gradual manner as much as you can do and a little bit more where you're asking for a little bit more for the Creator to help you.
S. To do what, because it sounds abstract, 'love of the friend' if I am told pillow, I understand?
R. Each and everyone in the group and every single group should do for themselves for that day a certain lesson meaning a quantity or a measure of quality of effort that they want to do in order to come close.
S. How do I measure closeness? What is a kilo of love?
R. Try but start to dig in that direction and then it will truly be practical Kabbalah. In doing so we think that it is the focus on the heavens somewhere in all kinds of things that are above nature, it is above nature within the will to receive as we want to invest it in order to bestow, that is called above nature.
14. S. (33:36) We are supposed to connect between ourselves to connect in the 10 and turn to the Creator, the nations of the world they should connect through BB, what does their prayer look like and how does that happen?
R. I don't know what it is called there and I don't care. I, first of all, want to learn on my own and implement this. I am not a philosopher or scientist that I'm trying to do an experiment here on someone. I want to perform this on myself, that is it, and I would recommend for you to think in that direction as well, not outside but within you.
S. Yesterday when you were speaking it came up, how can the rest of the people turn to the Creator, do they do this like us?
R. The nations of the world are our uncorrected desires and there's a point in the heart that draws us to spirituality to the Creator, altogether, and we need through this, this point in the heart to draw all of the desires to in order to bestow which is called ‘to the Creator.’ I don't know what other picture you have in your head, think and correct it.
15. S. (35:30) What does it mean that immediately after the stage of “Love your friend as yourself” comes the stage of adhesion with the Creator?
R. This is so because the Creator is everything, inclusive, all Incorporated and if we come to bestow to others altogether the bestowing to others opens for us the possibility to bestow to the Creator.
16. S. (36:07) Should we reach for a cry from a broken heart when I want to love?
R. I don't know what a pure heart or a broken heart is. I know I have a heart and as much as I work on it, I hope that through that it will improve.
17. S. (36:38) Does the Creator not answer because he sees the lie in my heart?
R. Most certainly.
18. S. (36:37) Can love your friend as yourself also be in a prayer to fill the friend?
R. “Love your friend as yourself” is clarified specifically in a prayer to the friend.
Reader continues: (37:00) “And to adhere to him….”
19. R. (37:41) Why did He create us like that? Why didn't He create us perfect and in adhesion in a way that is final?
Reader continues: (37:55) “ we could explain this with the work….”
20. S. (38:40) The Creator on purpose created creation opposite Him so that through the ascent from our current state to the height of the Creator we can gradually understand and acquire these qualities to be incorporated by them and then be on both levels included above, the level of man and the level of the Creator. Then we truly will understand creation and feel creation and control, if we can say so, certainly in the right and correct way in all of creation.
Reader continues: (39:31) “ The work and Torah and Commandments lifts us….”
21. R. (39:40) Meaning that we correct our desires to receive each and every one from the general egoistic desire to receive we correct it gradually, slowly, first it is broken apart and us and divided into many other desires and also each desire is divided into many degrees and then we can correct them gradually, from the lightest to the heaviest.
Reader continues: (40:14) “ Through it we achieve our Sublimity….”
22. R. (40:24) Meaning that we attain the changes, we attain the understanding and we attain all that we need and it is a matter of our acquisition, something that we do.
Reader continues: (40:41) “ Then we do not feel that the light and pleasure that comes to….”
23. R. (41:16) If we receive, let's say that I go out to the street and I asked, “give me please”, so I am ashamed. If I perform exercises beforehand, I can annul my ego or I do some sort of justification that I am in then I won't be ashamed. Usually a person that needs to ask from the other to receive from the other is ashamed because he feels himself less than the other and we are all in an egoistic desire to receive so to feel myself less than the others already lowers me a degree and I lose myself through this, my essence.
Reader continues: (42:11) “ The branch loves all of the conducts….”
24. R. (42:53) Meaning we see that in the foundation of Creation in the center of reality it is the bestowing force and therefore like it or not and we also come from it although in an opposite way but we truly respect giving, which is great in our eyes and also to the contrary, whoever receives it is not respectable in our eyes. The world arrives in an opposite way, that whoever takes a pistol and demands saying, “I deserve everything” is also respectable for us and that is already as a result of the shattering.
Reader continues: (43:44) “ Now we understand the purpose of adhering….”
25. R. (44:25) This is the law of equivalence of form. To the extent we bestow more we are closer and more similar to the Creator.
Reader continues: (44:34) “ And every being whose ways are….”
26. R. (46:15) That is how we begin our way as creatures in a completely opposite way from the Creator.
Reader continues: (46:24) “ When one grows and is educated….”
27. R. (47:31) He is describing the whole process we have to go through from in order to receive which we need at the beginning of our spiritual path to begin to discover ourselves that way until we come to in order to bestow, to adhesion according to equivalence of form with the Creator at the end of the path. This is actually maybe in a little bit different words but he is explaining to us what we have learned more than once.
28. S. (48:15) What does the creative being do on his own that the Creator could not do?
R. The creature is capable of doing something that the Creator cannot do since he is in his desire to receive in order to receive so he is capable of receiving in order to receive, he is capable of doing all kinds of actions that are opposite the Creator, seemingly for his own benefit, seemingly because it is not for his benefit. Just like the will to receive coerces him to do so and obligates him to do so and that is something that the creator doesn't have but it is in the creature. Therefore, the Creator created something terrible, truly terrible, as He created the created beings in an opposite way and in order to receive opposite next to Himself and these creatures are sad, they are poor things and they have to discover a very quickly that they are opposite to the Creator and they need to exit from in order to receive to in order to bestow. It takes a long time but nevertheless when they rise from their nature, from the desire to receive and come to the desire to bestow that is already a great profit because on one hand they become so in a vessel that is opposite the Creator and attain the vessel that is similar to the Creator, and then it has two states, both to receive and to bestow in a complete manner. This is something that is not in anyone, this is what there isn't, if you can say even in the Creator where the creature is in two worlds completely. I don't have words to talk about this but you can depict it somewhat that from this there is also an answer of why the Creator created specifically a creature in such a way, in a thing and its opposite.
29. S. (50:58) You said that the nations of the world are my ego and desire in me, are others also a desire in me?
R. Certainly, everything that appears as outside of me is actually the “I” that I see reality that way.
30. S. (51:26) How can you be in two worlds at the same time? Is it possible to be in the will to receive and the will to bestow?
R. It depends on what, there are desires that are in this world and desires that are in the upper world and it all changes each time and the person scrutinizes this each time. Also the Kabbalists in their bodies are also in this world and in their desire, they are also in the framework of this world and also in the framework of the upper world. A Kabbalist feels the flavors, let's say when he drinks or eats or something, he feels the flavors in that. Meaning this world is not canceled completely by spiritual attainment. On the contrary, compared to him all the other degrees are measured but we will talk more about that. Nothing disappears oh, nothing disappears. A Kabbalist also feels all of the reality of this world and knows how to appreciate it.
S. He eats, he drinks and he feels the flavors also?
R. Only for that.
S. It turns out it's not a reality that exists differently it coexists?
R. The whole of reality is the desire and, in the desire, there is only a grading of sorts. This world, the Partzufim, the worlds, everything it is all measured inside the desire. Other than the desire we cannot feel reality. Our entire reality is inside our desire.
S. How to reach it when we work in the connection with the friends and we connect in the lesson, how to come to a state where all of the desires and flavors are aimed at adhesion with the Creator?
R. That is what we learn, if you connect with the friends and together you do that work you will see to the extent that you can leap forward each time because you're not each jumping somewhat like 1 mm, but altogether.
31. S. (54:29) You explain to our benefit that we should be in the spiritual world and the corporeal world at the same time but what's the Creator's benefit?
R. In order to bring us to his degree which is perfection and this is what we can understand. That is his purpose in creation. To bring the lowest of all the creatures to the highest possible degree.
32. S. (55:21) Isn't that an egoistic desire?
R. If it is in order to bestow it is not the ego. Try to do something in order to bestow and you will see how opposite it is to your ego.
33. S. (55:38) He writes here that the Creator gave us Torah and Mitzvot (commandments) so we won't have shame but he also writes here that the part of Lo Lishma is education meaning it's not on our account as well?
R. Part of our correction will go through higher up degrees which educate us. Some of our advancement we do by subjugating ourselves and receiving from them and doing it ourselves. It is all connected one to the another. Later we will discover in all of these degrees and vessels and people are all actually one man called Adam HaRishon
S. This part of subjugation is also in Lo Lishma ? You said that there are two parts, the first is subjecting oneself and then in higher degrees.
R. Yes
S. The part that subjugates himself is before Lo Lishma?
R. Yes, of course. We need to forcefully subjugate ourselves to Lishma
34. S. (57:13) You said the Mitzvot were given to correct and the Torah shows how to do this correction, right?
R. Yes, Torah is called wisdom method there is the Torah of music. The Torah is called the study of how we learn how to bestow, that is called Torah.
35. S.(58:03) What is the place of the external expression for love and the realization of the Mitzva?
R. The external expression is where we need to show the friends that we are engaged Mitzva.
36. S. (58:27) Before we attain the Mitzva of love your friend as yourself, we should at least do no harm. How can we reach such a state?
R. I don't think it's worthwhile to do it that way, not to cause damage to others. We need to immediately move to love your friend as yourself. Although it is written don't do to others what you don't want to be done to you it is as if don't harm but actually let us start from wanting to do good to one another instead of taking into consideration how I don't cause damage to the other. That is more practical. How I caused good to the other, we are talking about the friends in the group first of all.
37. S. (59:37) What does it mean in the ten in order to love them I need to annul myself, what do I need to annul in myself?
R. The thoughts about what you get from it. I am giving you short and to-the-point advice. Try to think about them.
R. (01:00:23) Let us first start to think when we will once again renew the wisdom, to the Preface of Kabbalah and other things. I will tell you, I see that some are happy that there will be PTICHA and in there when we learn I will demand for you to be able to commit to rewrite what is written in the text in the language of Kabbalah. You will write it in the language of the internal work. Tzimtzum [restriction], Masach [screen], reflected light, receiving direct light inside, Reshimot [records], everything that we go through, the World of Adam Kadmon, Olam ha Nekudim [the World of Nekudim], the shattering, all those things even though we talk about this while we are learning PTICHA [the preface of Kabbalah] but you to have to take the text that we have in the preface and translate it to the language of feeling, otherwise it's not worth it. Start to do such exercises.