Part 2:
Morning Lesson August 28, 2021, Transcription
Baal HaSulam, Preface to the Wisdom of Kabbalah, #20
1.S. (02:15) About relieving yourself about the future that you mentioned before?
R. This is something very important and great and substantive. It has to do with faith above reason, where I am not concerned about the future. I am in a state where I am dedicated to the upper one and I don't care what He does with me as long as I am adhered to Him. Just imagine you’re in the womb and what matters to you is only to be connected to the womb. Why? Because you are receiving the power of bestowal, not that you are growing your will to receive but you are receiving from it the power of bestowal. With your hands and legs in every way that you can, you are in contact with it and you want nothing else, only to receive the power of bestowal and by that grow. From that Reshimot that you had since the breaking of the vessel that the Creator created, when he created and broke Adam HaRishon, you have a record from that. And that record when you had connection with everyone, filling from the upper force, all you want is to expand, grow that Reshimot and everything else besides that you want to confine, to compress, to restrict.
S. How do you invest your entire life to growing these students and children and release that concern about the future? How is that possible?
R. Concern about the future, I don't really need to release it or do something because I am like you, I am with you together in the upper force and He accompanies us and He does everything. But to worry about the future that pertains to us is our development. We want to go on the path of Torah not the path of suffering, meaning to advance by ourselves to the corrected state, and not that life’s experiences or sufferings will push us. Also, to do this not because we are running away from suffering but because we want to please the Creator.
S. But I'm trying to find out, is how is it really possible to make this distinction because we see that you do have a concern about the future of the world, the world, the group?
R. I see in this our message, our obligation to reveal the Creator to the world, the approach to Him, which is through connection with everyone, to bring the whole world to a state where they all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. This is our work.
S. On one hand it developed. It developed enough as there is also concern about the future and the world to push it in the right direction.
R. Especially as we are living through this period.
S. On the other hand, the matter of completely releasing whatever happens in the future is the only way to enter spirituality above reason that’s very difficult?
R. I don't know how to connect those two things together correctly but it turns out that the fact that we go with faith above reason, with the force of bestowal, the force of connection and see in the force of connection the Creator, that He will be revealed and arrange our connections correctly. And He will be revealed in us, and this is really the whole world. I don't know, it has to happen, it must happen, maybe I don't understand your question enough. Anyone who is now listening, go ahead and ask. I am willing to explain. I think that today the whole world is showing us how helpless it is, although people are feeling desperate, they’re feeling pointlessness, no point in living and no one to live for, and why advance. What stops them is that they are afraid of death, but they have no choice so they just carry on in life. On the other hand, they are completely despaired but they are running away from the desperation to all kinds of traveling, shopping, anything, as long as they confuse themselves so they don't think about something serious. They adopt any nonsense just to avoid thinking about the essence of the situation, it’s a transitional period. But humanity will nonetheless discover that it can no longer be in this dream.
Item 20 (09:18) “The five qualities of reception in Behina Dalet are called….” Twice
2. R. (12:50) In other words we had the upper light which created the four phases of direct light and filled them, created them through its power of bestowal until it reached phase 4. Phase 4 revealed itself as a will to receive that it is opposite from the light. Out of the sensation of oppositeness in phase four when it feels that the light bestows in it, it receives, and in phase 4. The oppositeness between the desire and the light was there to begin with. It was so in Phases 1 2 and 3 but when it reaches phase 4 in the will to receive that evolved up to phase 4 now it feels that it is opposite from the upper light, that it totally about receiving and the upper light is totally about bestowal. Therefore phase 4, the will to receive could not stand this situation, this lowliness, baseness, disconnection from the upper light. It could receive it but it was certain that in doing so, it is opposite from the giver and this it cannot stand this is why it performs the restriction. All of those phases or discernments we call them Root 1 2 3 4 and afterwards we use the same names as each and every face reveals the light in a certain specific way. Before the restriction and the screen and the reflected light, that will come later, because we are speaking always from the perspective of the desire, the perspective of the vessel. Everything that happens to us in the vessel in phases of Root 123 and 4, we speak because this is how the desire feels this way and acts this way and reacts this way to the light that fills it.
3. S. (15:29) In the first part you said when we overcome Aviut Shoresh we rise to the next level. how does this happen in our work can you repeat that?
R. I don't exactly know what it means that we overcome the root’s coarseness. What did I say? I don't remember in what context it was spoken.
S. (16:03) You spoke about in our work if I understood you correctly, that we in the rejection between us we overcome states and as I heard you called it Aviut Shoresh that we rise above it and come to the next level?
R. In other words, to the extent that we can establish connections between us despite the natural rejection between us, by this we get a greater disclosure, revelation of coarseness and we become even more repelled from each other and we work on that as well in order to connect. It is not simple as the disciples of Rabbi Shimon wanted to kill each other. Why did they want to kill each other? Because they learned and understood that they had to connect among them but such coarseness was revealed among them, such hatred, rejection and repulsion because it is a Klipot. It’s the shells that were revealed out of the broken vessel of Adam HaRishon, but they were ready to kill each other. Look at the level of the spiritual degree that they were in and this is how it works every time. He who is greater than his friend, his desire, his inclination is greater than him. The more that a person resists the connection in a group it points to, if he is already in the process, if he has great resistance, it points to his great will to receive meaning to his potential ability to achieve higher degrees. This is what we call a higher soul.
S. The first restriction happens on the state of the receiver is also on the pleasure.
R. The first restriction is the first act, the first operation of the created being who must restrict itself in order to rise above its own desire and then to determine what to do. To be free, to connect to Bina, to be free in our land, this is only done by a restriction.
4. S. (19:03) Why did the fourth discernment when she discovers that she's opposite the Creator, it is a correction but she said that we are opposite so we are parting ways?
R. How long have you been studying the wisdom of Kabbalah? 5 years?
S. 15 years.
R. Okay, I'm not certain where you got this question. Phase 4 feels in the four phases of direct light on the level of infinity, it feels that it is completely operated, built, comprised only by the Creator there is None else Besides Him. That he brings this development to a state where it feels that it cannot keep the light of infinity that fills it because by this the more that it receives and receives from the root in four, one in four, two in four, three in four and four in four, it feels that the more it receives the more it disconnects from the Creator even though he is receiving. It is receiving the filling but it becomes disconnected from the Giver of the filling. Therefore, it decides that it cannot keep going this way. We spoke about this yesterday as well.
S. Yes so, she did it because it's her desire or his desire?
R. From within herself she is still not performing her actions with the screen and the restriction and the reforming light, for now it performs what it receives from within its own desire to receive.
5. S. (21:45) How is it possible to organize the coarseness so it doesn't become so thick or a Klipa?
R. Say thank you that you are given such great coarseness and through this you can rise higher and higher. The coarseness is our whole possession. With it we can want filling, overcome the coarseness itself, rise above it. To the extent I have coarseness I can build a screen, the reflected light and know the Creator. Through the coarseness I build the image of the Creator. Without my coarseness the Creator cannot be revealed, He doesn’t exist. You have made me. With all of the coarseness of the degrees within me I build the image of the Creator in me. I depict him through my own desire and as I depict Him standing in front of me and how he works with my coarseness and how I work with Him, out of this the connection between us is formed, and the revelation of the Creator in the created being. This is why our coarseness is our whole vessel and why he that is greater than his friends his inclination is greater than him.
6. S. (23:39) To get to this state, is this the prayer of many?
R. No it is not a process of a prayer of many, it is just what we are given from above. And on this we have to place our common response, and this is called the prayer of many.
7. S. (24:22) As a 10 to exit to the first degree, we have to have coarseness and opposite conflicts that we can rise above and connect in the 10. There seems to be a complete mutual complementation between us and help, so what are we not doing in our efforts to connect?
R. You should start connecting among you in the tens until you discover that you are incapable, that you have all kinds of friction and problems precisely in the connections among everyone in the 10. Seriously, what to do ideologically, you will start scrutinizing it because in a connection among you in the 10 is where the Creator should be revealed. And if there are conflicts between you, you have to bring them into some common place because there are differences in each friend’s perspective. To the extent you create a network of connections above the differences as love covers all crimes, by this you will build the infrastructure for the revelation of the Creator.
S. This is the problem as there is no friction, no such moments that you can't rise above that you can transcend, if there's something it's very transient and momentary?
R. I understand that you haven't even begun to connect correctly with each other. You are staying apart from each other, staying remote from each other. You need to try to connect more tightly, internally, to scrutinize things as much as possible. What is in the heart of each and every one? Then in connecting the heart, specifically the heart, and they are all different, and if you haven't discovered the difference then there is a problem. You will not discover the Creator.
8. S. (27:32) Why is the structure of the fourth discernment not changing after the restriction?
R. It is unrelated, nothing to do with the structure. The structure comes in the four phases of direct light and remains in it constantly. We can only change the screen over all of the discernments but not the structure of all of the discernments. Meaning with whatever will to receive I work in phase four, accordingly I also work with all of the discernments before phase four.
S. So the Restriction is different with regards to each phase?
R. Of course. Also, in each of us, in our world, if I want to restrict myself with respect to everything that I want to satisfy myself with, to fill myself with, to restrict the reception, of course it is a different restriction.
9. S. (28:49) We are taught to see the merits of the friends and that love will cover all crimes. How can we get to the point where we hate each other following this?
R. We don't need to get there God forbid. We don't need to get there. We want to get the connection, but if you start moving toward connection with the friends you will discover along the way that you cannot do it. And if you keep going even though you can't, don't stop midway and be a gentleman, if you keep going you will realize how dissatisfied you are with them. And if you keep going after that you will come to a state where you will hate them. When you return from remoteness to connection, we also have 4 degrees. We're not going to get into it right now and confuse ourselves, but we have to come from indifference to an inclination to love and on the way, we have to come to the revelation of hatred, to the true state between us, that we are all desires to receive and we don't care about anything else besides that.
S. I feel like I won’t know how to do this.
R. Talk about it among yourselves, openly, as much as you can and not in a gentleman like way, very politely, and then you will see where you are. That you haven’t started touching each other, much less connect. Connection has to be to such a point that you're penetrating each other you're becoming integrated in one another.
10. S. (31:09) This hatred you talk about will it turn into love at some point or will there always be such a hatred?
R. In the end the hatred must turn to love but also through the same phases. In every state we want to change or correct, it has four phases to it, in whatever we do.
11. S. (31:50) At the end of phase 3 the vessel feels that it cannot give pleasure to the Creator unless it receives all the abundance. Why is this feeling turned into shame?
R. I don't understand and can you repeat?
R. It doesn't yet feel it at the end of Phase 3, that it wants to give pleasure to the Creator, that’s incorrect. We’re talking about the four phases of direct light where the light does everything from above and changes happen in the will to receive, but the will to receive doesn't awaken towards the Creator in return. Phase 4 receives into itself directly with all the intensity of the will to receive that appears in it coming from the fulfillment that was in it. What appears there is the whole light of Ein Sof, its complete and infinite form, and fulfills the fourth phase to the brim. And only in the end of the fourth phase it begins to feel how opposite she is from the Creator. Before that she didn't feel that discernment whatsoever. But because she has the prior three phases which is the influence of the Creator, and then from Phase 4 where she feels her will to receive and the pleasure she receives and how she enjoys the pleasure in a personal egoistic manner, not wanting anything else, then the difference between the three phases inside the fourth Phase and the fourth Phase herself is what brings her to the point where she can't stand it, this dissonance, the gap between the attitude of the Creator which is aspects of root 1 2 3 inside Phase 4, and the fourth Phase inside Phase 4. And then she restricts the reception of the light. She has to by necessity, and from here on begins a process were the created being starts leading it as opposed to the Creator. The created being performs the restriction, and after the restriction the created being determines in what way it's going to receive, how much and how.
12. S. (35:18) How do you release the past because you have a memory of flavors, satisfactions? How do you release it in order to really do the work as you said?
R. I didn't understand.
S. We have memories of the past, certain satisfactions that we received and I can't let them go in order to move on?
R. A person should, like it's written, everyday shall be as new. I have to erase what I had before yesterday and start a new day every day. Otherwise, it's called eating from yesterday's food which is not good. I don't know what happened yesterday. Today I have a new vessel, a new world and I'm going to be inspired by it and re-determine everything, forget everything, just erase it. It's not good to be occupied in the past.
S. In phase 4 after she receives completely, she performs a restriction and there is a screen, now she must receive in giving the pleasure back to the Creator. How do you receive while giving back to the Creator simultaneously?
R. In the intention to bestow to the Creator we begin to receive pleasure in a new way after the first restriction, that's the whole thing. Phase 4, the kli in general can’t do anything but receive, it's a will to receive and that’s it. Only by our intention that we want to install on ourselves, only by the intention we change the qualities, the essence of our action. Why am I receiving? But I can only do one thing, receive or not receive, and so I then determine why do I receive or why do I not receive. That's what I'm able to do, that's all. But on the other hand, if I take this into my own hands meaning I don't want to receive and then I think about by how and for whom, and what for, why do I receive, then I'm like the guest sitting in front of the host. And only by receiving more or less time and again I play with the host and I begin to enter equivalence of form with Him, only by my action of receiving or not receiving with an intention to bestow to the host. Our first action in spirituality is restriction, and above the restriction what I do turns out as reception, with the intention in order to bestow.
13. S. (39:24) Must we reveal our coarseness externally and internally?
R. No we don't need to discover it in any externality, we need to discover in externality our bestowal. It's not Aviut it’s how much we can bestow to others. Bestowal happens by using our coarseness in order to bestow. The more I transcend my coarseness in order to bestow to others, by that I show my spiritual work.
14. S. (40:15) Phase 4 was restricted necessarily because of the shame. For us, for Kabbalah students how can you restrict yourself?
R. You restrict.
S. How?
R. If you work in the group you need to check. What do you receive from? What will you get out of restricting yourself, you make all the calculations.
S. How does a person who can’t even go on a diet maintain the restriction, it’s so difficult?
R. It’s truly difficult, it depends on the importance of the goal. But in truth a person who wants to make a spiritual action needs to be capable of making any action of restriction, corporeal and spiritual. Whatever opportunity he has in order to then, after the restriction start actions of Bestowal.
S. What force keeps me in the restriction and doesn’t let me burst back into the ego?
R. First is the group. Secondly is the goal, the importance of the goal. That each time we have to raise it higher and higher again it depends on the group. A person is incapable. We are in a vessel that is a 10, it's whole. If we want to carry out the goal which is higher, which is spiritual, then I need this Kli. If I fall out of the Kli then who’s going to hold me? Each one shall help his friend. We have to connect and hold each and every one and elevate the goal, raise the goal in the eyes of the friends each time. This is called Arvut.
15. S. (43:10) Are annulment, subjugation and restriction the same action or are they different?
R. No, it’s not the same action, there are differences but bit by bit we will discover them and clarify them.
16.S. (43:47) The state of lowliness we learned about in the first part, does it help us achieve the restriction, how do we do it?
R. Without lowliness we can't reach restriction because only to the extent that I appreciate my lowliness I recognize that what’s up to me to do is only to restrict my desires, and then receive above them greater forces of bestowal. But at least my first action is to stop using my will to receive. This is not about the necessary desires for our corporeal existence because we are animals on the levels of still, vegetative and animate. We call this neither condemned nor praised. I have to receive for my existence. We’re talking about what belongs to bestowing, to the level of the human, Adam in me. All that relates to building the human in me is what I have to restrict and sort out and develop.
S. Basically the lowliness is the point of zero?
R. Right, in any state, and we'll get to it more and more.